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great way towards engendering an almost radical diversity of views , and which will not allow the most gifted and the most candid to agree on those points which they have equally at heart .
Non Di , non homines , non concessere columns . It would be little short of a miracle , indeed , if Professor Paul us and Mr , Bowring could have come to an exact understanding on the question at issue . We shall be told , that there is not one in ten thousand Englishmen who stands so clear of national prejudice as John Bowring . We know it ; and we rejoice in it for his sake and the few who are like him ; though we are sorry for the many . We also know that he has broached the principle of generalsutility , not that grovelling principle which belongs to a mind
" centred all in self , " but that most comprehensive and unalterable rule of action which , under ail circumstances , points solely to the real interests of mankind . In conformity with this , he would level those barriers which inordinate ambition and uncontrolled power have raised among men ; he would sweep away the vile work of oppression and priestcraft ; he would equalize the conditions , under which labour shall be rewarded and talent
appreciated ; he would throw open the avenues which lead to honourable independence , that every one might take his station in society according to the measure of his abilities and intelligence , and worship his God after his own heart . Having laid down the principle of utility as the basis of the system of the Commonwealth , he would have the vessel of the state " navigated through the broad ocean of liberty , not through the tortuous canal of political expediency . "
In the political tenets of Mr . Bowring we think we may recognize the same characteristics by which he stands distinguished as a poet ; a facility of the imagination to realize pleasing conceptions , and , what we value much higher , a truth and affluence and universality of feeling . To thesQ qualities be owes that superiority as a translator of national poetry , by which he ranks next to our own admirable Herder . The graceful touch of Talvj , and the naivete of Chamisso ; the dashing rhythm of Burger , and the
heart-stirring enthusiasm of Wilhelm Miiller , have conspired to render John Bowring the genuine interpreter of those fleeting sounds , which in different countries of Europe one century has transmitted to the other , varied according to the tone of national feeling and character . Add to which , that sincere and heart-fe { t devotion which his religious poetry breathes in every line . With a mind thus nobly gifted , with that affluent vein of sympathy , need we say , that we acquit him at once of the charge of Sectarianism , though he may choose to call himself a Utilitarian in politics , and a Unitarian in theology ?—But in his character as a reasoned , we are not surprised if he is tempted in the discussion of important questions to disregard certain scruples in limine as jejune and cold * and to slight a certain caution as illiberal and ungenerous . We question whether the illustrious patriarch of his political sect , if he bad the same opportunities of appreciating the views of German reasoners , would have treated them with the same non ~ chafance . If we are not much mistaken , Jeremy Bentham would be prepared to pause and examine with Professor Paulus , much rather than to soar with Mr . Bowring .
We repeat , that Mr . Bowring must have completely mistaken Professor Paulus on the grounds of his opposition to the principle of the Catholic claims . Has Mr . Bowring been able to identify himself with that strictness of logical argument , with that rigid adherence to fundamental prin-
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Opintomof Continental Protestants on the Catholic Question . 603
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1828, page 603, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2564/page/19/
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