On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
The following passage appears to be grounded on a misapprehension of the philosophy of those who dispute the instinctive nature of moral sentiments : " But , if all our moral sentiments were resolvable into education , it would follow that man is wholly a factitious being- ; and that all actions , not affecting '
ourselves , would be equall y indifferent to us ; that we should hear the moanings of pain , the shriek of sorrow , and the laugh of joy , with equal unconcern ; that we should behold a fellow-creature writhing in agony , and another relieved from suffering" , with one and the same , or with no emotion ; and that benevolence and malignity , love and hatred , might be equally gratifying , or interchange their pleasures and pains , as early impressions might happen to have directed / ' &c . —Vol . II . p . 495 .
No one attempts to deny that man is endowed from birth wnth a capacity of pleasure and pain , and with a principle of association ; and that , under influences which are universal in their operation , natural principles are formed , which are also universal . No human agency can suspend the thousand influences which create a love of virtue and of happiness , and a hatred of vice and misery in almost every mind ; but while instances may be
pointed out , ( and such exist , though happily they are rare , ) of utter indifference to the suffering of others , of entire ignorance of the distinction between virtue and vice , it is clear that moral sentiments are not instinctive . —In p . 347 of Vol . L , we find the proposition , " All men are mortal , " adduced as an example of an intuitive truth . This is an oversight , which onlv needs to be noticed to be corrected .
It would be much less easy to point out the numerous excellences of the work before us than it has been to notice its few apparent defects . It contains a valuable body of facts applied to the establishment of a doctrine of the utmost importance . Its reasonings are , for the most part , clear , though encumbered by occasional repetitions , for which , in his preface , the author begs his readers excuse , on the plea of an earnest desire to produce a due impression .
The time will arrive , we are persuaded , when inquiries of the nature of those before us will become more popular than they have ever been . The notion of their being surrounded by peculiar mystery , and attended by peculiar danger , is wearing out . The authority of Milton has , in this case , as in some others , been regarded with too much deference ; and while orthodoxy and piety have been maintained in conjunction in the cottage , because Paradise Lost and the Bible lay together on the shelf , many wise heads have been shaken in the drawing-room , the library , and the college , at the mention of
" Providence , foreknowledge , will and fate , ^ Fixed fate , free will , foreknowledge absolute ;" and many an allusion to the diabolic nature of such inquiries has alarmed and perplexed the young reasoner . A little further research proves , however , that it is only through indolence , impatience , or some peculiar infirmity , that either devils or men can " find no end , in wandering mazes lost . "
It may , perhaps , be at length allowed , that it is as unreasonable to deny the existence of eleven planets because Milton speaks of " five other wandering fires * ' besides the moon , as to conclude that any objects of discussion are forbidden because any man suggests by implication that they are so , even if that man be Milton . Every good is liable to abuse ; and the most valuable instruments are precisely those which may effect the most injury , if improperly handled ; tut if presented for our use , our part is to apply them care-
Untitled Article
Crombie ' 8 Natural Theology . 229
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1830, page 229, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2583/page/13/
-