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    ijif ? etii > g-lupuses in almost every con . -sicfcratrot ipm&i There may be persons ivfco i ' 6 n 4 v | ti < foo * r particular : views , and In fihe ppwe ? of their miude , acompen * sation for . th ^ . comfo rts which they reject by refusing their belief in revelation . We a / e fa ^ tern iiiterfeiing vyith them , only adding that all their philosophical researches taken together , have not yet

    made a aipgle iota of the New Testament superfluous . Whole congregations of male and female philosophers , difliised throughout ^ continent * exhibit , however , too absurd a picture to leave any doubt of their ultimate and eveu early extinction . ThaMhis may be th « case is devoutly to be wished by every friend of society , and by ever * reflecting man . Unitarians

    n > ay do in eastern monarchies where the Sovereign is the Deity , and his will the Jaw- * but to a young and free country , deislscal congregations are a phenomenon , fiom which our hearts and minds must recoil-. Neither Rome , Greece , nor Switzerland knew . anything of them in the days of their splendour * and the wisest of all Greeks forfeited his life by

    poison , for having dared to confess these doctrines . Great Britain holds them in abhorrence . What guarantee can a Christian nation have that Unitarians , chosen for magistrates , will pay respect tp its rights and its laws , which are

    founded on Christian principles ? Assuredly , none . I am well aware that some of tfie very first men in the union were Deists or Unitarians , and yet they were men whose intellectual powers and moral principles Were firm enough to dfcrefct them in t&eir course-of life . But

    they are exceptions , and rdo not invalidate the truth of what has been urged ; and if the g * eat FrafiMin was a Deist , the still gve&foet Washington wws a Christian . Tfeat this p MiosGphteitfg habit of mlud , if it Bhoilid extend far ther ^ must necessarily corrode the constitaflioii of the & $ ate > and be the source of the greatest evils , we . a * e taught to apprehend from tfoe example of a western state , where ufee docWifle of Deism , as being

    the most Convenient , id- geneialfty found to prevail * fat $ * 4 fc leason , the majority < rf ks ctti ^ is-are devoid ^ of hofne » t ? y , the fetote is withowt cpetlit , its laws are ineffectual , and the murderer l ^ es unraoles « ed , r £ ho recent Msftory of Kedtueky is too well known to need arty farther itkiBtrMoto . Gtfoev causes miry have comtrfxred to produce this deplofahit ( m $ tfko % \ , ta # the general Aemorafizatlwi is assurc ^ llv ^ wfrvg to Uhitttrtatt-

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    338 Critical Notices *

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    Akt . VIII . —Series of Moratand Instructive Books for the Young , Westley and Davis . These are remarkably cheap , wellexecuted , and clever little books , and are what the scholars trained in our . schools of mutual instruction , ought by this time to be able not only to read , but to understand . And yet so imperfect a

    thing is that which goes by the name of education , that it is doubtful whether they can be comprehended by more than a very few in every thousand children so instructed . It is with a feeling of sorrow that we say this ; but not , as may perhaps be supposed , because of the evil of children ' s remaining unacquainted with Captain Parry ' s voyages , or with

    astronomical discoveries , for . this is a matter probably of no account to their happiness or usefulness ; but it is because the reasons which are against their comprehending clearly what is here written , operate as strongly , perhaps more so , against their comprehension of things which it is of real importance for them to know . . In opening these books ,

    Edward Wallace , the little astronomer , accidentally presented itself first , and looking at the third page the following sentence met our eye : "A telescope is an instrument used to enable us to discover things at a distance ; and this is done by arranging various lenses or glasses ground to a convex shape tlyus m within a tube . "

    If we were to examine a number of children taken at random from the schools as to their comprehension of the above sentence , there is the strongest probability that the real difficulty would be found to proceed from tlieir total ignorance as to the meaning of the two words u convex' * and u tube ; * ' and it is this species of ignorance respecting the properties an ^ Forms of outward objects , and the signs by which these

    varieties are expressed , that is perpetually coming between the minds we wish to instruct and instruction . Take almost any book , either containing a description of natural outlets , or directions , for performing some sim p le domestic Operntibii , and , examining it page oy page , signs will ; foe found which to tfte minds

    of tj * es « children do not present -the thin £ intended . And yet we are ftir more' anxious' about enabling chUdcen to ready tfh ^ in about preparing their minds to unfterstanilwhajj ; is read . It is also to bewared tliat the worlfl is delud e d by the appearatiw of so raaiijr books , and the wxnhigwess to read theni ; for it is a

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1828, page 338, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2560/page/50/