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Untitled Article
minds of children without teaching them the duty of examination , and connecting the idea of guilt with doubt or departure from the opinions prescribed ; and that of persecution for opinions . This chapter is only too short for the importance of its subjects and the excellence of the mode in
which they are treated . ^ \ The spirit in which we ought to communicate and receive the results of inquiry is admirably described in the last chapter of the Essay . We cannot refrain from making two extracts ; the first respecting the communication , the second , the reception of the results of inquiry .
* ' While he deserves the execration of mankind who knowingly promulgates falsehood , and of course lias the purpose of deceiving , an opposite sentiment is due to the man who , with upright intentions , and after adequate examination , is unfortunate enough to be the unconscious instrument of dis-. seminating error . To such a misfortune all men are liable , and this liability imposes on them the duty of communicating their opinions in a spirit of
candour and liberality . In danger , with the utmost circumspection , of falling into mistakes , it becomes them to evince an entire openness to correction , a willingness to listen to opposite suggestions , a readiness to review their most cautious conclusions , and a perpetual sense of their own fallibility . They should endeavour , too , to separate the consideration of their own reputation from the cause of truth , A man who communicates his views to the world ,
is , or ought to be , an inquirer after truth , and it is of little importance to him in that character , when a mistake has been committed and detected , which part of the process is his . That an error has been cleared up , that a truth has been discovered , should occasion too much pleasure to his mind to permit it to dwell long on the personal consideration of the agency through permit it to dwell long on the personal consideration of the agency through
which it has been accomplished . "—P . 97-" It is equally important that excellencies should be duly appreciated , as that defects should be placed in a true light . In this as in other cases , we can have no better guide than the law of truth . Let every thing be regarded and represented exactly as it is : let vices be seen as vices , and let virtues appear in their true character . If men see clearly they can scarcely fail to
feel correctly . We contend for the commendation of merit , but it requires no exaggerated praise . The simplest statement of what has been accomplished is all to which it needs to aspire , although it is not all which a generous spirit is impatient to bestow . Nobleness of mind springs forward with ardour to meet every indication of a similar nature wherever it appears . There is no surer mark of the absence of the highest moral and intellectual qualities , than a cold reception of excellence . Further , it will not escape thq candid mind , that being ourselves liable to mistake , we may err both in
censure and applause . - Were we infallible , we might , with eaual fearlessness , commit ourselves to a description of both the merits and defects of any production offered to our scrutiny ; but , prone to err , we should recollect that errors of censure are more certainly destructive of happiness than errors of praise , and we therefore ought to be especially vigilant in investigatingthe grounds of pur decision before we pronounce an unfavourable sentence . Were these principles acted upon , every man would have the proper inducement to keep back or to bring forward the fruits of his researches . Knowing that if he produced what was immature , ridiculous , unsound , or fallacious ,
he must undergo the ordeal of ridicule and refutation , he would be cautious of obtruding what would do him no honour . Confident , on the other hand , that his merits would be fairly appreciated , he would feel all that alertness in his labours , which naturall y arises from the conviction that we are making adr vances to a determined point ; and , lastly , assured that the decision of his judges would be right , he would acquijese in it , even if unfavourable , without irritation and without complaint , and with the satisfaction at least , that he . bad made some progress in a knowledge of his own capacities . " - —P . 107-
Untitled Article
Essays on the Pursuit of Trulk \ 549 ,
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1829, page 549, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2575/page/29/
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