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Untitled Article
Tiuman comprehension * It will probably be long before the legitimate bounds of human inquiry are generally admitted ; before men will allow that previous to the acknowledgment that any subject is beyond the limit of comprehension , those limits must be ascertained by research and experiment . No philosopher of the present day blames his brethren of the dark ages for
letting down a plummet into the unfathomable abysses where the labours of their fine intellects were swallowed up ; he reserves his censure and p ity for the obstinate and insane perseverance with which they continued their exertions , after it was ascertained that their line was too short , and could never be made long enough . The folly was apparent to all men ; and it has , naturally enough , caused a substitution of cowardice for temerity , an inclination to sit in darkness rather than be dazzled .
The sketch of the views and feelings of a true philosopher which closes the fourth chapter is so fine , that we regret our inability to present it to our readers . It tends powerfully to excite an ardent yet chastened desire to further the interests of truth , and thus to secure a place in the honourable band of benefactors of the human race . A statement follows of the duties of inquirers . These duties are to
dismiss predilections from the mind , and to conduct investigations with diligence and impartiality . We then meet with some remarks on the prevalent notion that it is a man ' s duty to believe certain prescribed doctrines . We cannot withhold the conclusion of this chapter . " The qualities we have enumerated are often as distinctly displayed in a man ' s compositions or conversation as they are in any part of his conduct . Who can mistake the language of sincerity and singleness of purpose , for
that of interestedness and duplicity ? Who the colourings and exaggerations of party pleading for the honest exposition of the inquirer after truth ?"" Some one has sarcastically said , that language was gf iven to man to conceal his thoughts . In vain , however , would he employ it to conceal his moral qualities . " " — " " In any long tissue of sentiment land reasoning , the real proqualities . —In any long tissue of sentiment land reasoning , the real
properties of the mind will manifest themselves . It is as impossible for the mean , hypocritical , servile spirit , to assume through any long investigation the moral carriage of the liberal , the candid , the upright , the noble , as to produce in itself the feelings by which they are animated . The greatest art will not suffice to suppress certain infallible symptoms of what lurks below the surface , while it will be totall y incapable of producing , because utterly unconscious of many other indications , universally attending the qualities which command our esteem and admiration . He who takes up his pen for the
gratification of any unworthy passion , spleen , hatred , revenge , or whatever it may be , may rest assured that the chances are ten thousand to one against a successful concealment of his actuating principles . " Of all the faults which authors and teachers commit in their controversies , perhaps none deserves exposure more than the practice of pronouncing
on a man ' s fairness , good feeling , and integrity , not from the usual indications of those qualities , but from the nature of the conclusions at which he has arrived . Neglecting all the various causes which inevitably generate differences of opinion , ana which fully and satisfactorily account for the widest discrepancies that exist , they can find nothing to which they can ascribe a deviation from their own tenets , but perversity of heart or malignity of purpose , and the sole evidence they look for of these criminal dispositions is that difference of opinion itself / 1 —P . 78 .
Among the institutions and practices of society which exert an unfavourable influence on the pursuit of truth , are pointed out those which bestow emolument on individuals , with a stipulation that they teach certain doctrines definitively prescribed ; the practice of instilling doctrines into the
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1 & 4 " 8 E&scHjs on this Pursuit of Truth *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1829, page 548, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2575/page/28/
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