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not common for words by a certain inflexion of meaning to be Applied to cases to which in their primitive sense they were inapplicable ? And do not the preterites of certain verbs differ materially in signification from the present tenses of these verbs ? Every scholar knows that kt&g-Sioli is to ac *
quire , and that K £ UT ^< r 9 * ctt is to possess This is not extraordinary . But x « t-Tf \( T ^ sai is sometimes so used as to exclude the sense of acquisition . Vide Euripidis Orest ., v . 1202 . Analogy , then , would lead us to conclude that
if Eyzvopr )}/ was once used for fui , its original meaning would in some instances be lost sight of altogether , I will r > ow endeavour to point out the ratio of the fact for which I have been
contending . When we speak of that which was or has been , we evidently do not speak of a permanent and necessary existence , but of something which must have begun to be , of something , which in some way or other must have become what it has
been or was . The verb « va * , therefore , may not improperly borrow its preterites from a word which comprehends the significations of nasci , orzri , fieri . Certain it is that neither ewai nor esse have preterites of their own .
And the reason of this , perhaps , may be , that they denote existence simply ; and hence they are applicable to that which exists necessarily and permanently . But even though my metaphysics should be false , the fact will remain the same .
, While writing this last sentence , I was struck with the use of the term existence in our language . To exist , if we consult the derivation of the word , is to come into being-, and yet who hesitates to speak of the existence of God ? This may teach us not to
reason too confidently from the primary meaning of a word as to what may be its ultimate use . But here a wide field of inquiry opens itself , into which I will not enter . I will only add , ^ that some critics have said , that existo in Latin is sometimes equivalent to sum . E . COGAN .
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Homer ton . Sm , Dec . 3 , 1825 . WITH extreme reluctance I again -request a pluce in your
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pages . It is no pleasant task to encounter an oppo ^ nt so reg ardless of argumentative fairness as Mr , Bakewell shews himself . I would take no notice of contempt and reproach thrown at myself personally . Bufe his deplorable prejudices have led him
to assail a cause which is dearer to me ' than life , and doctrines which , notwithstanding his gross lyiisapprehensions ^ of them , I believe and know to be "doctrines according to godliness . "
Had Mr . B . been governed by the spirit of candour and equity * he might have stated that it was in consequence of injurious reports and newspaper paragraphs , that Mr . Malan deemed it right to publish what he assures us is a faithful narrative of the
conversations and exhortations in which he bore the chief part , at the house of a respectable family at Rolle . I have to-day read the pamphlet through again , and I do not find that air of vanity with which Mr . B . charges it ; nor any thing to justify the taun ^ iqgs ,
"how condescendingly he spoke to one , how graciously he smiled upon a second . " I should be happy to put the pamphlet into your hands , or into those of any gentleman who may ask me , and submit the question whether it is at all deserving of the offensive character which he has drawn of it .
If the brief remarks which I before was allowed to insert in the Repository on the doctrine of the Perseverance of Real Christians in the ways of Holiness , be not sufficient to protect that doctrine from the horrid imputations that have been cast upon it , nothing in my power to say or to protest can avail to that effect .
To you , Sir , I need not say that if we do not , in controversy * take the honest pains to understand those whom we animadvert upon , , we are disqualified for our undertaking . This rule of candour is never mope wanted than in our judging of the phraseology of religious writers . AU ages and countries , as well as different sects ,
have their peculiarities : and u Ave condemn , without fairly estimating the evident design of the expressions which we disapprove , we are likely to be guiUy of no little injustice . Mr . MaUui has some modes of expressio n and perhaps of thinking ; , w l ^ h . I pannot accord with him iia approving-
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730 Dr . J . P . Smith in Reply to Mr . Bakewell
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1825, page 730, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2543/page/26/
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