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city of manners , neglect of riches , absence of worldly ambition and honours , with an eloquence and persuasiveness which have not been surpassed . These could not be inventions of the grovelling authors who relate them . They are far beyond the powers of their feeble minds . They shew that there teas a character , the subject of their history 9 whose splendid
conceptions were above all suspicion of being interpolations from their hands . — " That Jesus did not mean to impose himself on mankind as the Son of God , physically speaking , I have been convinced by the writings of men more learned than myself in that lore . " ( Alluding , probably , to Dr . Priestley's History of the Corruptions of the Christian Church , which
Mr . Jefferson elsewhere praises highly . ) " But that he might conscientiously believe himself inspired from above , is very possible . "— " Elevated by the enthusiasm of a warm and pure heart , conscious of the high strains of an eloquence that had not been taught him , he might readily mistake the corrnscations of his own fine genius for inspirations of a higher order . "—Vol . IV . p . 336 .
The solution is obviously inapplicable to any thing but the mere words of Christ , ( as reported by the Evangelists , ) and leaves the facts of his own miracles and resurrection , and the lives and deaths of his apostles , unexplained ; but the workings of such a mind as Mr . Jefferson ' s
cannot be uninteresting or uninstructive , and his conviction of the originality and beauty of the character of Jesus ( bearing down , as it does , on his system , every thing Tike truth and reason before it ) is extremely impressive and striking . Of nominal Christianity , ( or Platonism , as he calls it , ) Mr . Jefferson expresses his
opinion on every occasion , in a most un ceremonious manner : it is " a hocus
pocus phantasm , " " a counter-religion made up of the deliria of crazy imaginations , as foreign from Christianity as is that of Mahomet . " " I trust , ' * says he , in a letter to Dr . Waterhouse , " that there is not a young man now living in the United States who will not die an
Unitarian . " To a friend , who had sent him some Unitarian pamphlets , he expresses himself as follows : " The pure and simple unity of the Creator of the universe , is now all but ascendant in the Eastern states ; it is dawning in the West , and advancing towards the South ; and 1 confidently expect that the present generation will see Unitarianism become the general religion of the United States / 1 Nothing can be more amiable , or more characteristic of real elevation of mind .
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than the advances which we find Mr . Jefferson making towards his old friend and political opponent , John Adams ; the care with which he excuses to himself and his friends any little harshness or irritation into which the eagerness of party feeling may have betrayed his antagonist ; and the cordiality with which he reminds him of the days when they fought side
by side , and accomplished the great work together * When all intercourse between them was suspended , and Mrs . Adams , in condoling with Mr . Jefferson on the death of his daughter , to whom she had been greatly attached , thought proper to subscribe herself as " one who had once been his friend , " we find him labouring , through the intervention of a
common friend , to bring about a reconciliation . " With a man possessing so many estimable qualities , " says he to Dr . Hush , " why should we be dissocialized by mere differences of opinion in politics , in religion , in . philosophy , or any thing else ? His opinions are as honestly formed as my own . Our different views
of the same subject are tlie result of a difference in our organization and experience . 1 never withdrew from the society of any man on this account , although many have done it from me ; much less should I do it from one with whom I had gone through , with hand and heart , so many trying scenes . "—Vol . IV . p . 171 .
The personal accusation which was unsparingly invented and repeated by the respective factions , he nobly set out of the questiou . " Mr . Adams never said so , " was the spirit of his reply to those who informed him of the calumnies of
the opposite party ; " if we were both to die to-morrow , they would set up two other names , and carry on the same system . " Amongst Mr . Jefferson's correspondents , we particularly noticed the great and good General Gates , who did what we caunot but wish that
Washington had done—manumitted his slaves during his life-time . There is also an interesting letter to Mr . Jared Sparks on the subject of African colonization .
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Art . VII . —Letters and Journals of Lord Bvvon , with Notices of his Life . By Thomas Moore . 2 vols . Vol . I . 4 to . pp . 6 / 0 . Our present notice of this volume must be confined to telling those of our readers whom it may not yet have reached what they may expect to find in it . And truly it is a noble bill of fare , though , after all , nothing can thoroughly reconcile us to the destruction of that
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124 Critical Notices . — Miscellaneous .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1830, page 124, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2581/page/52/
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