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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Sir , March 27 , 1324 . WHEN I last wrote to you ( p . 15 ) , I fancied myself seated , not 5 ' on a liili £ pfut , ' . but £ t the social board with Mr . UUton and other choice spirits who have so ably and freely discussed some of the Academical
Question $ —r * (**¦ Of good and evil much they argued then , Of happiness and final misery / 1 ) inquiries to which the human mind ever has recurred , and ever will recur until the day arrives when we shall " know even as we are known . " ' The
few suggestions which I offered were thrown out with colloquial freedom , under the persuasion tfyat the persons to whom they were immediately addressed could neither be offended nor staggered at them , but were both able and willing to sound the depth of any moral or theological question which 1 could propose .
I little suspected that I should have alarmed the piety of the ladies , of whose existence , much as I love them , I had , just at that moment , lost all recollection . leaving , however , been summoned to the tea-table , 1 am most
willing to apologize to my fair castigatrix , Mary Hughes , ( p . 97 , ) for having incautiously used any expression which could lead her to suppose that I intended to treat with levity the authority of Scripture . I beg to assure her that I am a firm believer in the
truth of Christianity , not merely from the influence of education , but because , having , for a series of years , examined all the strongest arguments which have been urged against it , I can say with Paley , that ** if any thing is true , Christianity is true , " tfnd that its value is beyond all price-• See Sir William Drumraoncl ' s book so entitled .
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If I Tiad any of the pnde of authorship , I mjght perhaps have felt a little sore at the terms in which it has pleased Mrs . Hughes to speak of my ill-fated communication ; but being more of a reader than a writer , I can and do heartily forgive her , and , which is
more difficult , I will candidly acknowledge that , in point of composition , my paper deserved from " its insignificance , " if not from its " absurdity / 1 to be * ' consigned to the oblivion into which such productions naturally fell /* There are , indeed , some matters which
fools begin , and . wise men can never end but by silence . It , however , ge * nerally happens that anger confounds the judgment : and although , perhaps , Mrs . Hughes " did well to be angry , " and her anger becomes her well ,
certain it is that she has , in some measure , indulged it at the expense of justice ; for it so happens , that the very proposition which she says could only be entertained by an Infidel , was extracted from the writings of Dr . Priestley , * than whom our holy faith never hau a
more courageous or more strenuous advocate . To him , pre-eminently , I owe some of the views which have served to strengthen , to stablish , and to settle me ; and it is from the veneration with which I regard this traduced Christian sage , that I was
induced to bring forward an obscure passage , pregnant with important meaning , in the hope that some one who had caught his mantle , might be enabled to explain it . For my own part , I freely confess , that , in the present state of my information , I cannot reconcile the opinion expressed in that
passage , with numerous plain and positive declarations of Scripture . And yet it appears that Dr . Hartley concurred with Dr . Priestley in thinking " that the pains of this life may suffice for the whole of our future existence , we having * now" ( says he ) * ' resources
* Mr . Ruitt , to whom the public are indebted for a complete Edition of Dr . Priestley ' s Works , which were put of priut , has expressed his regret , that , owing to the destruction of the Doctor's
library and manuscripts by the Birmingham mob , we have been deprived of his arguments in support of the opinion-contained in the passage alluded to . I , for one , heartily partake of that feeling of regret .
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Phitadelphuss Vlndticatidn of his Inquiry . 283
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by a series at pilifcrs wBach run down the centre of tlieihuildijig , and give a degree of dignity to the time-hallowed spot . Seen from the south of the town , this structure has a noble
appearance , being considerably elevated above the buildings in its front , and its strong and antique walls well contrasting with the small modern buildings in its vicinity . The northern side is hid by mean and obscure dwellings .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1824, page 283, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2524/page/27/
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