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sensibility to pleasure in the exercise of each of his faculties ; and while this pleasurable emotion is held in due subservience , and made the instrument instead of the object of exertion , the health of the mind is preserved . But when the excitement is disproportionate to the strength of the faculties , when one is depressed that another may be exalted , when the affections are neglected , that the imagination may be pampered , the presence of enthusiasm is a sure test of the infirmity of the mind . Thenceforward , in proportion to the heat and activity of the imagination will be the coldness and apathy of the heart .
" When it is said that enthusiasm is the fault of infirm constitutions , an apparent exception must be made in behalf of a few high-tempered spirits , distinguished by their indefatigable energy , and destined to achieve arduous and hazardous enterprises . That such spirits often exhibit the characters of enthusiasm cannot [> e denied ; for the imagination spurns restraint , and rejects all the sober measurements and calculations of reason whenever its chosen object is in view ; and a tin # e , often more than a tinge , of extrava - gance belongs to every word and action . And yet the exception is only
apparent ; for though these giants of human nature greatly surpass other men in force of mind , and courage and activity , still the heroic extravagance , and the irregular and ungovernable power , which enables them to dare and to do so much , is , in fact , nothing more than a partial accumulation of strength , necessary because the utmost energies of human nature are so small , that , if equally distributed through the system , they would be inadequate to arduous
labours . The very same task which the human hero achieves in the fury and fever of a half-mad enthusiasm , would be performed by a seraph in the perfect serenity of reason . . Although , therefore , these vigorous minds are strong when placed in comparison with others , their enthusiasm is in itself a weakness ;—a weakness of the species , if not of the individual . "—Pp . 7 , 8 .
The same causes which originate secular enthusiasm , operate with augmented force when religion is the object . Philosophy , poetry , and other intellectual pursuits , have proved snares to thousands , while religious excitement has destroyed its ten thousands- This devastation is easily accounted for when we recollect , on the one hand , the fitness of the vast objects revealed in the Scriptures to affect the imagination , and , on the other 9 the wide diffusion of religious ideas . "
The dangers of religious enthusiasm are pointed out with distinctness and force ; the perversion of the affections , the induration of the heart , the development of malign passions , the overthrow of integrity , from the neglect of religious principle , and the disregard of prudence , which sometimes serves as a support where principle is absent . The evils of religious enthusiasm are not confined to the individual . Errors which spring up in ardent minds spread their influence far and wide , relaxing the remaining strength of fainting virtue , freezing hearts which are already too cold , and entangling in inextricable mazes minds which had before wandered from the paths of parity and peace .
" Enthusiasm is the child of vivacious temperaments ; but when once produced , it spreads almost as readily through inert as active masses , and shows itself to be altogether separable from the ardour or turbulence whence it sprang . " " To depict the character of those who are enthusiasts hy physical temperament , is then a matter of rnueh less importance than to define the errors which such persons propagate ; for , in the first place , the originators of enthusiasm are few , and the parties infected by it many ; and , in the second ,
Untitled Article
420 Natural History of Enthusiasm .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1829, page 420, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2573/page/52/
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