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Untitled Article
sion is the surest possible evidence of design ; and a similar evidence of design , with a correspondent final cause , may be recognized in every method of communication by which truths are let down into the narrow limits of the human mind . Such an evidence is found in the provision by which these truths are destined to enlarge the mind while they expand with it ; by which room is at length made for the reception of yet grander ideas ; by which the attainments already made , though apparently complete , oppose no obstacle
to the acquisition of greater , but rather serve as a preparation for the work . For instance , temporal rewards and punishments were the sanctions of the Mosaic law ; but this species of retribution , by being made national instead of individual , left a way open for the conception of a future state ; and the promises and threats which respected worldly prosperity and adversity alone , contained nothing inconsistent with the notions which might be otherwise generated , of objects of hope and fear less mutable and less transitory . The exercise of reason was here provided for , —first , in finding the avenues to
higher truths which were left unobstructed , and afterwards in tracing ( as we are doing now ) evidences of wisdom in the design by which the attainments of infancy were rendered consistent with , and preparatory to , those of
maturity . Another instance of wise design is found in the means by which the feeble mind was very gradually exercised in the power of spiritual perception . Phrases were employed in the divine messages , which carried a deeper meaning than was at first apparent , or which were sufficiently mysterious to stimulate curiosity and urge to inquiry . A great variety of such phrases was employed in speaking of death , and referring to the dead ; so that the mortal change became a subject of speculation , and the mind was strengthened for the grand conceptions to be afterwards formed . To go the way of all the earth , to be gathered to their fathers , or to their people , were expressions applied to the dying as frequently as the more direct phrase which
would excite less attention . The form in which abstract truths were conveyed affords another instance of the adaptation of the revelation to the minds which were to receive it . The allegorical form is peculiarly suited to expanding minds ; and it was so extensively used in the Jewish Scriptures and traditions that it is impossible
at this time to mark its limits , and to separate what is figuratively , from what is literally , true . The style is as admirably appropriate as the form . We have history , poetry , and parable ; descriptive poetry , hymns of devotion , songs of triumph ; didactic addresses , aphorisms , and allegories ; repetitions of the same truth in various forms , or annunciations of different truths in
similar expressions ; a mixture of simplicity and involution , of plainness and mystery ; and , therefore , a repository of truth , whose contents were peculiarly adapted to engage the interest of inquirers , to enlarge their comprehension , and prepare them for the reception of a purer system of discipline . That the dispensation we have been contemplating was intended as a preparation for a better , is evident from the ill effects which have been apparent in those who refused to be carried beyond it . These ill effects are analogous
to those which arise in children whose minds have been excited to activity , and furnished with the elements of knowledge , but are hindered from making further progress . It may be that more was laid in than was understood at the time ; but in a little while , when the essential truths are grasped , the intellectual activity will , for want of adequate objects , fasten upon trivial accessories as important facts , draw false inferences from figurative embellishments , create arbitrary relations , and by perverting words , force them
Untitled Article
372 The Education of the Human Race .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1830, page 372, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2585/page/12/
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