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exceptions $ or , in other words , with the limited exceptions just mentioned , it is a general fact of the Human Mind that we Think In Colours . The thing in questiou amounts in effect to this , — that in a certain and a very important sense * the Whole Universe qf Hitman Thoughts is comprehended tmder the I * aws of our Primary fisual Modifications . "
" The Genera } Fact in question is only One Species of a fact still more general , - ^ namely—th at we think of each and every ( me of those Concrete Masses of At * tributes that are the assumed Prototypes of our Complex Ideas , under Some Sort of Envelo p , or Visor , 'of Sensation 5 or else , uuder Some Envelop , or Visor , or Idea of Sensation , "—Pp . 76 , 84 .
Few readers , we imagine , will feel more apprehension than we do , after reading the above , that the censures which are liberally dealt out in the Preface of the work before us , against Professors Brown and Stewart , will exert any very disastrous influence on the reputation of those philosophers .
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Art . IV . —My Religious Experience , at my Native Home * Boston , U . $ . 1829 . Pp . 36 . In this little tract is offered no exaggerated contrast between the effects of cheerfulness and gloom in early religious impressions . The misery which is caused in the young mind by premature and ex * ceasiye- excitement of the imagination on
religious subjects , and the danger of a pernicious and ofteu fatal reaction of feeiiug , are described with truth , though uot ; , perhaps , with sufficient simplicity qf . language . —/ Hie following brief remarks on the subject of Revivals in religion are valuable :
jr * f Now the secret of the revival , I conceive to foe thia . These associations ( o £ £ &r } y gloom ) , or remembrances are powevfuUy excited , are brought before the mind ' s eye ; with a renewed and starts Ung vividness *
" A preacher addresses an audience on tht > subject of reiigion . He portrays their siufulntfss ijci the darkest colours , and , tlve consequent wrath of an offended God * The / torment * oi hell , are set forth , the danger o ( delay is urged > and , all , in
that peculiarly dolorous tone which has become an established characteristic of religious fanaticism and superstitious fear . No sooner are these topics thus touched upon , than a host of awful images start up in the minds of the hearers . The preacher generally presents
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them himself . To their kindled imaginations , the last trump now Bounds , the end of the world iff come , the dead are raised and assembled before the terrible glory of the Infinitely Just . The guilty are condemned , and cast into the burning lake . " «« Almost aH the inhabitants of Christian lands have their minds filled
with the images and the associations of which 1 have spoken . But very few of these reason much on religious opinions . The majority receive the figurative represeutations of Scripture as the literal truth . No wonder that revival preachers produce such tremendous results , with
all the poetical machinery of the Scriptures , of religious hymns , of creeds and catechisms , of Milton ' s Paradise Lost , and of their own invention besides , to wield in their cause . The same preaching would be in vain among the Heathen .
" As a proof that revivals are pTo duced in the way I have mentioned , I ask the reader to look at the Hindoos of the present time . How little effect has the preaching of missionaries on their minds ! They have preached for years concerning this awful God , and his infinite punishments of the unbelieving and the wicked , to very small purpose . The
fact is , the Hindoos have no associations in their minds , connected with the ngu * rative imagery of Scripture . All is new to them , and foreigu to their usual current of thought and feeling . There is no excitement , no sympathy . It is with them as it would be with us , should they send missionaries here , to convert us to their faith . Should any one attempt to excite
among the Hindoos a more devout attention to their own religion , and should array before their imaginations all the terrors on the one hand , and the delights on the other , of their mythology , no doubt he would produce a Pagan revival , very like , in many of its features , the fanatical tumults which have , from time to time , risen and subsided in many
parts of the Christion world . Now , if these last are produced by the special influence of the Holy Spirit , as is pretended , it would matter not whether the subjects * of this influence were educated in a Pagan or a Christian faith . Did not the apostles make multitudes of converts .
in many nations of various and deeprooted religions—even thousands in a day ? They were truly assisted by the Spirit . But coutd modern Gentiles more resist this same Spirit , than the amcient ? Methinks that it must be most evident to the candid , that the wonder-working power of the great conversions , or revi-
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Critical Notice * . 7 &T
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1829, page 787, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2578/page/43/
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