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    are to reprove , rebuke ^ and exhort with aW long-suffering * . The proper punishment of -it low , mean , indecent , scurrilous way of writing seems to be neglect , contempt , scorn and indignation / These latter expressions

    seem prophetical @f the fate otPame ' s attack on the Bible . It is a pity that any prosecution should revive a work falling into oblivion ] Let us have more regard for the mild and tolerant genius of our coiamon ^ Cferistianity . * JOHN EVANS .

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    lies hid in a well ; and , as though misled by this adage , we sometimes overlook it when before our eyes , and then take vast pains to draw it from its deep retirement . And when we have fatigued ourselves with a tedious and fruitless search , we either reward our

    labour by embracing a shadow for the substance , or charge our own blindness on the supposed obscurity of the thing pursued . In fact , it is not so much profundity of thought which is necessary for the discovery of truth , as a quickness of perception to see

    what kind and degree of evidence are required ; and a comprehension of mind which can balance arguments against objections , and ascertain on which side the scale preponderates . But to return to Dr . Priestley . Dr . Priestley , then , was a man in whom acute&ess

    and comprehension of intellect were combined in a pre-eminent degree . la the grasp of his understanding and the extent of his views , he far indeed surpassed every contemporary writer of whom I have any knowled ge * Aiid in accordance at once with the greatness of hi 3 Conceptions and the singleness

    of his soul , he writes with a simplicity which has seldom been paralleled and never surpassed . Bent on some great object , he never stops to set biff a single idea to the best advantage , but as though secure as to the general validity of his reasonings , he leaves the naked truth to make its own

    impression . From a magnanimity of thought peculiarly his own , he overlooks inferior objections whidi might be brought against the views which he defends or those which he attacks , and never descends to those subtleties which have secured a more general admiration to writers whose talents

    have borne no comparison to his . In one respect , I confess , Dr . Priestley was not a profound thinker \ — he thought without effort , and enables his reader , for the titne being , to think without effort also . He often seizes

    his point at once , and gams by a glance resembling intuition what others would have endeavoured to establish by the formalities of a long and elaborate proof . He is never obscure , and therefore never leaves us to wonder at the

    depth of that knowledge which we find ourselves unable to comprehend . But Dr . Priestley sometimes errs in his judgment . And who does not ?

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    Mr . C 0 &wMBr . Chanmng ? s Sermon >^ Cnaracter ^ 7

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    Sm ^ HAVE read Dr . Channing's la ^ t I sermon witii gr $ at pl&asure and interest ^ A glowing fervour of feeling , coafer ; ouled by a vigorous understanding , breathes in every page . ® ut

    I am sorry that lie should have thought it necessary to cast certain reflections upon the English Unitarian $ > and upon that eminently great and good man Dr . Priestley . To these reflections I should pr ) bably have replied , had not this been already done by abler hands . But there is one observation relative

    to Dr . P . on which I cannot forbear to make a remark . Dr . Priestley is represented as ^* distinguished mor ^ fpr rapidity than . for profoundness of thought . " To this I reply , without

    hesitation , that if to think justly is to think profoundly ; that if in every matter of controversy to see where the question hinges , and to separate that which is extraneous from that which

    is essential ; that if to penetrate into the abstruser mysteries of metaphysical science , and to make that clear to many which before perplexed the few $ that if to dive into the recesses of the human mind , and thence to draw forth negative reasonings to

    array against what had passed tor positive proofs ; that if all this indicates profoundness of thought , Dr . Priestley was the profoundest thinker of his age . But what is it , after all , that not unfrequently passes for profoundness of thought ? Laborious research , which promises much , and

    accomplishes nothing . Instances might be produced of writers who have been thought profound , who have seldom arrived at a just conclusion , who have only lost themselves in the depth , of their own conceptions , and bewildered those who have admired their profundityt It is said , indeed , that truth

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1825, page 7, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2532/page/7/