On this page
-
Text (3)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
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
Merciful Providence permit these gloomy shadows to wander over the face of the world ? " When we inquire of natural evil , " What doeth it ? " we are answered that a large preponderance of good is better than a much smaller portion of unmixed enjoyment . Is it thus with error ? Is it better to have three measures of vital religion ^ Al loyed with painful and useless admixture , than one without the burden of foreign ingredients ; and is this the proportion in which it is found ? Are the tenets which strike and corw
found the imagination the best preparation for moving the heart ? Is it necessary that we should be struck blind before we can ask , " What wouldst thou have me to do ? " We can hardly suppose it ; and yet , when we compare the vigilance , the self-denial , the fervent piety , and the unceasing labours of love , of some of those who ask with trembling , " What shall I do to be saved ? " with the coldness , the worldly-mindedness , the indifference , of many of those who profess the purest and brightest opinions , we can say of the former , " They have their reward' * ( their abundant compensation at least ) for the joys they have lacked *
Untitled Article
The great satisfaction which the public derived from the Essays on the Formation and Publication of Opinions , has rendered the works of their author more popular than might have been anticipated from the nature of his subjects . He possesses , however , the happy art of presenting abstruse subjects in a popular form , and of rendering intelligible and interesting to the many , topics which have too long been monopolized by the few . His style
is clear and polished ; his reasoning , in general , sound ; and his views comprehensive . In proportion to our pleasure in awarding this praise to his works , as a whole , is our regret at being obliged to retract or qualify it in regard to particular portions ; and in proportion to the general utility and beauty of the work before us , is the urgency of the call upon us to expose the weakness of some of its reasonings , and counteract the tendency of a portion of its doctrines .
Some of those who regarded the author's former Essays with approbation , expressed a- regret that he had passed too lightly over one very important part of the process of forming opinions ; namely , the conduct of men in the application of their means and faculties to the investigation of truth . It was thought , as we are told in the preface , that he had indicated in too cursory a way the duties of mankind in the collection and examination of that evidence , the effect of which , when once brought before the understanding , is so completely uncontrollable by the will . The result of this observation is the first Essay in the volume before us . We give the introduction :
" In the progress of society remarkable changes inevitably take place in moral sentiment . Actions formerly regarded as of trivial moment grow into importance ; qualities at one time extolled sink into dubious virtues , or even positive vices ; new duties are evolved from the novel situations in which men are placed , and the code of morality is amplified with rules which would have
* Essays on the Pursuit of Truth , the Progress of Knowledge , and on the Fundamental Principle of all Evidence and Expectation . By the Author of Essays oij the Formation and Publication of Opinions * London : Hunter . 1829 .
Untitled Article
Essays on the Pursuit of Truth * 545
Untitled Article
ESSAYS ON THE PURSUIT OF TRUTH . *
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1829, page 545, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2575/page/25/
-