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Untitled Article
Lord King has given copious extracts from the journals of Locke ' s travels * They are interspersed with essays on particular subjects , written apparently as the author had leisure or as occasion dictated . There is one excellent article on ' Study , " which is , however , too long for our purpose . In mentioning , during the course of the argument , the pursuit of truth , he observes ,
" It is a duty we owe to God as the fountain and author of all truth , who is truth itself ; and it is a duty also we owe our ownselves , if we deal candidly and sincerely with our own souls , to have our own minds constantly disposed to entertain and receive truth wheresoever we meet with it , or under whatsoever appearance of plain or ordinary , strange , new , or perhaps displeasing , it may come in our way- Truth is tfce proper object , the proper riches and furniture of the mind , and according af fiis stock of this i $ , so is the difference and value of one man above another . He that fills his head with vain notions
and false opinions , may have his mind perhaps puffed up and seemingly much enlarged , but in truth it is narrow and eni ^ ty ; for all that it comprehends , all that it contains , amounts-to nothing" , or less than nothing ; for falsehood is below Ignorance , and a lie worse than nothing . " Our first and great duty then is , to bring' to our studies and to our inquiries after knowledge a mind covetous of truth ; that seeks after nothing etere , ai * d after that impartially , and embraces it , how poor , how contemptible , hoiw unfashionable soever it may seem . This is that which all studious men
profess tor do , and yet it is that where I think very many rtfiscarry . Who is there almost that has not opinions planted in him by education time out of mind ; which by that means come to be as the municipal laws of the country ^ which must not be questioned , but are then looked on with reverence as the standards of right and wrong , truth , and falsehood ; when perhaps these so sacred opinions were but the oracles of the nursery , or the traditional grave talk of those who pretend to inform our childhood ; who received them from
hand to hand without ever examining them . "—Pp . 99 , 100 . At the date of " Sunday , Sept . IStfa , 1681 , " he makes the following observations on reason in matters of religion : " Religion being that homage and obedience which man pays immediately to God , it supposes that man is capable of knowing that there is a God , and what is required by , and is acceptable to Him , thereby to avoid h | s anger and procure his favour . That there is a God , and what 1 that ( Jod is , nothing can discover to us , nor judge in us , feufc natural reason we
For w ^ ateycr discovery receiv e any other way , must come originally from inspiration , which is an opinion or persuasion in the mind whereof a man knows not the rise nor reason , but is received there as a truth , coming from aji unknown , and therefore a supernatural cause , and not founded upon those principles nor observations u * the way of reasoning which makes the understanding admit other things for truths . But no such
Sttspmitj , on ^ concerning Gka | jU or his worship , can be admitted for truthby him tbat : thinks Wmself Ifai ^ a inspired , nweh less -by any other whom he would perBumteiotetteyfihJtti in $ j > ired , any farther than it Is conformable to reason ; toot o ^ ly b ^ cauae where reaaoti is not / 1 jadge it is ito ^ isible far a man }® fkM ) £ W diatingw ^ h ; be * wi * t inspiration and fancy , triith and er # or ; but also it ie impossible to Utm ; euch a notion of < jt > d , t ^ to believe that he should make a creature to whoiw , the knowledge of himself A ^ s we ^ e ^ sary , and yet n <> t U > b ^ dwcwer ^ 1 by that wpy ^ Iu 6 ] i discovers every tiling eLse that concems ue , but was to fewftp iato the naih < JU > of men only i > y sudh a way by tob&fy all manner < of Errors come in , and is inore lil ^ ety tt ) let jii falsehoods than UiuthB , isiiice ? wobody mn doykt , from dw c <^ ii 2 radiction and strangeness Ojf opinions c ^ ccermttg- Ood md x&lgioii ia this world , tllftt m « n arc likel y to have more frenzies than inspirations . Inspiration ih&ti , barely in itself ,
Untitled Article
642 Life of John Locke .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1829, page 642, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2576/page/42/
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