On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
an IMtsnaft is entitled to the appellation—and where are these scruples t > r dogmatic authorities to end ? It appears hardly possible for a reflecting * wind to avoid drawing tlie cqhchisitm from observation and experience , that the moral improvement
of the world does not keep pace with the weans with which it is possessed , and that while we boast of the light of revelation , the knowledge communicated by the press , and the consequent developement of our reasoning faculties , there still remains 3 muss of evil in the civil and reliffious instil
tntions of society and in the ordinary eoncerns of private life , which seem almost to preclude any fair ground of hope for an effective and permanent reform . The grand obstacle may be
said to originate in the imperfection of our station , and from the necessary conflicting passions with which we are endued , and which by impelling us to action must inevitably
sometimes lead us astray ; but ought we to rest satisfied with this apology for ^ rror and crime , or rather should we not strive to render these passions subservient to virtue , and never lose sight of our object ? The most powerful passion implanted in the human breast is self-love , and wisely was it
thus appointed , as without its controuling influence society could not exist . Every person living is in his own estimation the most important object in the universe , and his existence and happiness are to a certain degree committed to his own disposal . The whole course of his life is a
connected series of circumstances depending on this principle which he c&nnot abandon , and whether he pursues good or bad means to accomplish his intentions , still he is acting from
impulses generally conducive to the public good . There is no state of society so low in moral feeling as not to supply some rule of conduct suited to the wants and comforts of its
agents or dependants . The rudest and most uncivilized hordes of human beings have some principle L ) y which they are Jicld together , some innate ideas by which they enjoy the common intercourses of life with some
degree of security ; and , to the hitter reproach' of refinement , the social affections are semetimcB found in bet-Cer cultivation amongst the wild and
Untitled Article
untutored tribes of the forest 01 fa sen than in our receptacles of tasu * of spFemlour , of knowledge , and of civilization . Captain Cocluane ia his rambles into the imrneasurabk wilds of Kanischatca and Siberia says , that
the farther he wandered from the abodes of refinement the more civility and kindness he experienced and the more disinterestedness he ob ' served in the general character . Parke and Lidyard hear ample testimony to the saxne sentiment , however
humiliating it may appear to our vanity or pride ; and the interesting narrative of John Hunter developed the native character of the Aborigines of North America in a point of view generally gratifying to the heart desirous of
vindicating * that Providence which created mankind for social enjoyment , whatever may be their degree of refinement . The possession and riglit of property is so closely connected with
the innate feeling of self-love aa to appear equally incontrovertible * If in the first stages of society a man may have run down an animal to supply himself with food , no reasoning or law can increase his conviction that
it is become his own , and that of course no otfe else has any claim upon him for the whole or any part of it without his consent . He is attacked and he defends himself even to the destruction , if necessary , of his antagonist ; and the same consciousness of justice which animated him to resistance , must even in this barbarous
state also suggest to him that , in similar circumstances , he himself would have no right to invade the property of another . Hence , however imperfectly the sentiment might be felt or defined we here gain the first impression of the maxim . " to do to others
as we would be done by , " and wherever a family , a village , or a community may be found to exist , they must have some such tic for their intercourse and subsistence , or mutual destruction would soon exterminate them all . One can form no idea of a
human being in any state of society so ignorant , brutal , or depravejl , as to have no glimmerings of equity or virtue in his breast ; and no doubt the shades of merit and demerit are intermingled in all as the lineaments of the face arc infinitely diversifies
Untitled Article
386 &n the MoYal Principle *
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1826, page 386, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2550/page/6/
-