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Untitled Article
impossible to attempt in so slight a sketch as this—that he will delineate the state of Unitarianism in this country at the time of Mr . Belsham ' s conversion ; compare , or rather contrast , with that , its condition at the termination of his public life ; and estimate the influence of his mind , character , and labours , in bringing about the extensive and felicitous change
thus presented to the view . In closing our own . humble , but grateful , endeavour to estimate the extent of his services to our cause , we have only now to mention those which he may be considered as having Tendered involuntarily , and perhaps unconsciously ; those which we owe not so much to what he did or intended , as to what he was ; those ? which arose from the providential combination of his peculiar character ^ with the peculiar circumstances of the period through which he lived and acted .
Mr . Belsham ' s mind offered many indications to the attentive observer of having been raised by assiduous cultivation to the rank it occupied . It had no marks of native superiority . He was not one of those very happy , or very unhappy , individuals on whom some peculiarity of organization , or of early association , confers a patent of mental nobility , with ail its heavy
responsibilities and its countless perns . The application of the term Genius to his intellect would be manifestly absurd . He had little originality ; he had less imagination ; but he had unfailing diligence . There was no science which he might not have mastered ; nor any , perhaps , the boundaries of which he would ever have extended . He had no invention . He could
appropriate thought , but not originate it . His mind was as a garden , which he kept clear of weeds , and rich in its soil ; the seed which was sown therein sprung up , and the trees which had been transplanted there struck root and flourished ; but the eye met nothing of spontaneous growth ; nothing of the exuberance and magnificence of an American forest , where wild nature puts forth , and luxuriates in , her own beauty , wealth , and glory .
But how untiring must have beep the labour with which he possessed himself of whatever the learned had collected , or the wise had thought , on the topics which interested him ! His mind migbt not be above the need of toil , but it never shrunk from any toil for which there was occasion . And he was provided , either by nature in the harmonious construction of his faculties , or by his own strong and active sense of its necessity , with , the storehouse of a capacious and retentive memory , where his multifarious
acquisitions were safely lodged , well arranged , and ever ready for useful employment . His judgment was eminently clear and sound . He stood high amongst those who , " by reason of use , have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil . " He was never encumbered or bewildered by his acquirements , as so many mere men of learning are . He was not a man to be convinced by the last or the loudest speaker . He would never , like an orthodox divine whom we knew , and who once ventured to break a lance
with him , have twice rea , d over , alternately , the conflicting Treatises of Fell and Farmer on Demoniacs , each time becoming of the author ' s opinion before he had finished the volume . He u weighed all things in the balances of the sanctuary ; " and he kept them always adjusted for that purpose .
- His consciousness of the accuracy with which his intellect was accustomed to decide , gave him that sense of power which is so evident in his mode of treating the objections and arguments of adversaries . He could afford to do ample justice , and more than justice , to the pleadings of an opponent . He could afford , to eke out antagonist weakness with some of bis own strength ;
Untitled Article
248 On the Character and Writings of the , lie u * 7 \ Belshum .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1830, page 248, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2583/page/32/
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