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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.
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guage ! How much utter nonsense is cried up as fine poetry * because dressed in words which awaken pleasant associations as they pass over the ear I How many sonnets are read with delight and committed to memory by young . lovers of poetry which contain absolutely nothing except in the last line ! . This is so frequently the case with English sonnets , that we believe many readers join in the practice which we have long adopted of never venturing
on a sonnet without glancing at the closing rhyme . We are ready to acknowledge that the sense is by no means the only thing to be regarded in ppetry : all that we mean is , that it ought not to be dispensed with . We are i . very fond of the measured diction and studied harmony of our classical poets : but the beautiful versification of Pope would find no favour in our eyes , if it were not for the depth of meaning condensed in his flowing lines .
Wordsworth expresses our ideas exactly in one of his prefaces * where he places in immediate contrast the passage from the Proverbs , "Go to the ant , thpy sluggard , " with its pompous paraphrase by Johnson * The effect is foxjrerous ; yet who knows but that some have admired the paraphrase more thah thf origibal ? f ^! P ^ jp& , ! tHe . ; weakness i of regarding sound rather than sense it arises , that soiae minds are invariably influenced by the last speaker , or even writer . We , have heard some persons lament this in themselves as a-deplorable -wesrknessyiatfcl otherstreat it as a jest . When the point in dispute is a Cohtfoir 0 &where ( as is too often the case ) the differences arechieiSy
yer-JbaJ £ ir ^ ptr l | heargument is interspersed with appeals to the imagination and jlie feelings * such vacillation is not much to be wondered at . Butwhen the argument is grounded on ascertained facts , and when diametrically opposite principles are advocated , it inust be an indolent mind whieh will agtfee ! ' ffit ik eitT ^ i *^ tli ^ ut damnation , and a weak one that will conclude eacndispufapl j ^ - p % ^^ t /^ , -J ( ijs turn * It would be too much to expect every mind to < te to
i ^ ple strip an angry theological discussion of all irrelevant matter ; or : to tafceipatt ' at oticej and decidedly , with Dr . Price or Dr . Priestley in thejf atfcijea M ^ e ^)^ Matter and Spirit : but where the disputje re--^ ^ j ^^ i ^ ^ ojf wel l-ascertained mental facts , the mind of the rearf ^ r ; s ^ pulifj either be prepared " to form an impartial judgment , or should let the matter alone entirel y *
Such are . a few , a very few , of the errors to which the tminstrtiteted ^ re Katye . Uappyitie who does not , in turn , fall into tjienji alj ! , We have ^ been pj ^ liged tppmit all notice of those imperfections which arise ? frpin moral causes ; and yet have found that we have already entered on too wide a fields If we were to point out all the intellectual perversions which arise from preijudtcey all the waste of power which is occasioned by want of s ^ lfi-bbntrbul , all tlie inetital obscurity which succeeds the eclipse of that luminary wfiicli < 3 qd'h ^ s made to shine in the , heart of every man , we should never qave 3 , 0 $$ + ¦ ' ¦ ;<¦ - . ¦ • " - . ¦ . ¦* : ¦ ¦ ¦•;¦ . ¦ ¦ : i . ,- ., ¦ ¦
ft wpuld be unkind to wish that the imperfections which have been defeerii 3 e | r ^ recognized by the experience of our reajfcjjW- ^^^ H ^^ j ^ s"b ^ it may be of use to some to foliow us in ^ rr ^ M jynquijyjiiiftlO y . j ilie means by which our weakness may beiassisted , bm . errQf ^ jrectified , and our love of truth duly cherished and substantially gjratified ; v av . ^ " •¦ ¦ • ..- . -. ¦ , ¦ , ¦ ¦ . ¦ . . . , ¦ ¦¦
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71 ^ Essays on the Art of Thinking .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1829, page 712, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2577/page/40/
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