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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.
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c ^ pbiiEal AStte ; ArfaJ ^ otfirJ tl ^ B ^ ift ^ ^ ^ M'jflb ^ fe is a health / not kliMeWi ^^ ai s ^ ftse o ^ jease and comfort t there is a health y too , which consists in robustness ; and this , assuredly , is far the fl ^ rti ^ UtUi for every gram * aiid extensively useful purpose . The mail wh ^ fesires td btess a large tfiittter of his race , by means of his intel * le ^ uatiaj $ urs , jahotilcf possess a comprehensive soul * which looks much
beyoiid local atid temporary drcumstances > though it does nbt despise them . He should be capable of viewing important subjects and measures in all their bearings , of anticipating and meeting objections ^ and of successfully contending with difficulties , from which ordinary inquirers turn away . This is the privilege of few : it beldngs to thdse ^ alone who sire pre-eminent in strength of mind . It will be proper to take notice of some of the most unequivocal marks and effects of a vigorous intellect
A man characterized by such an intellect , depreciates no branch of science or learning , however foreign to his immediate pursuits or taste , and though the cultivation of it may have been forbidden by the circumstances of his own life . It is the property of a weak and narrow mind to magnify its favourite studies , and to look dawn with contempt on labourers Si other departments of literature and philosophy . These boastings and these censures flow froifl Vanity and undue self-love : they are dictated by the
prejudices of a pedantic bigotry . Johnsofl sajrs of Zachariak Mudge , " He had that general curiosity to which no kind of knowledge is indifferent or superfluous . " If h a vefy honourable attd instructive record , and richly merits attention from those who are solicitous to witness or experience a high ihiprovetrtent of the intellectual powers . To the robustness of those powers isofe than this quality will , I admit , bfc indispensable : yet mental strength , hi its greatest comparative perfection * cannot exist without the ** general curiosity" which Johnson has so well described , 'fhe individual in whom
such etiefgy resides , itfay perhaps be excluded by his situation from opportunities of trailing all or even' many of the paths of truth and knowledge ; while of his ability to explore all with more than ordinary success , no question can , in justice , be entertained . Persons ? wlitf are tfefy emitfent for their mental vigour , do not find it to be oppressed--4 > ut rfctfrer ' atded- ^ by the ample , diversified and curious stores of erudition with which it rriay happen to be accompanied . They
beaf no likeness td edifices in which the weight and position of the superstructure injure the foundation : on the contrary , they resemble those beautiful and well-proportioned buildings , where each part lends support to each and to ( he whole , and every thing affects the eye with admiration and de-Kght * A matt of learning should aitfr at being master of it , instead of surretttferirtg himself to it as its slave , tn the catalogue of scholars and philojSO phers the name of Grotius appears , on this account , with signal lustre . 7
Lord Bdconsf too , attracts our regard for the same reason ; though somewhat less conspicuotwty . Nor ought those of Locke and of Sir William Jones to be ormtted . In all these individuals , surpassing talents and various , extensive ^ trid profound knowledge were most happily combined together . Had some of the early circumstances of the life of a distinguished schoolcompanion and friend of Jones—the late Dr . Parr—been more auspicious , another impressive example might have beeri afforded of strong intellectual powers improved—not injured—by superior literary accumulation ^ . * * By those who knew Dr . Parr his memory will be most respectfully cherished
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£ Wty &fi fnteUeciual Pigifot . 731
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1 w 9 3 f 2
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1828, page 731, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2566/page/3/
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