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is positive ; it decides without argument . The extraordinary mission of a teacher of a positive religion can be established only by extraordinary facts . Were the history of miracles in the Scriptures strrpt of the supernatural by a violent and arbitrary exposition , with llie design to gain credit to the Bible , exactly the contrary would be accomplished , for it would thus be changed
into a book full of inconsistency . " The Rationalist considers all the truths of religion not only as consonant " with human reason , but as a natural revelation of God , issuing from the heart of man , and developed and constructed by the exercise of his
understanding . This , he says , is the sole divine inspiration , and it bears in itself its divine authority . In one confession all on both sides are united , that the ground o ? religion is laid deep in the nature of man , that it is his greatest want , his highest perfection , the proper distinction of bis intellectual being , the link that binds him to the moral creation , the voice of God within him , and the earnest of his immortality . J . M .
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No . I . H koci ovsiponroXov ( xaj yoc § t * ovap ex A < o < wtjv ) . II . a 63 . Stati st not , gentle reader—but—but—art thou free of the corporation of shadows ? Hast thou seen the things that are not ? Is thy sleeping brain creative ? Is thy pia mater prolific in slumber ? To be brief , most courteous—dost thou dream ?
Thou dost ? Well , we tender thee the right hand of fellowship . Thou knowest us not—but we are the Grand Master of the Order . We were born a visionary . Our palace is an air-castle—our kingdom lieth in cloud land ( disputed by that Papist pretender , S . T . Coleridge )—and our diadem , when we list to wear it , is a twisted rainbow . But be not alarmed , gentle friend , at this announcement of our royalty . Our rank and power are as unsubstantial as our kingdom . Moreover , our condescension to common mortals
like thyself can only be equalled by that of the Emperor of Morocco , who , when he is disposed to be particularly gracious , cutteth off the heads of his servants with his own royal scimitar . Wherefore approach and perpend . We would have some conversation with thee , touching some points of philosophy . Thou art a " learned Theban "—but we shall not question thee on ** the cause of thunder . " We only mean to take thee to task respecting thy experiences as a dreamer of dreams—or rather to enlighten thy outer
darkness with some electric flashes from our own pericranium . " Our Jife is two-fold—Sleep hath its own world . " So said Byron , and so will say all who have ever thought about the matter . Life is indeed divided , more or less equally in different individuals , between the thoughts of wakefulness and those of repose . Shade of Berkeley , tell us whether of the twain are the more " high-fantastical" ? We get up in the morning , ( I do so , now and then , but I never relished much to " snuff the morning air , " though there is ghostly authority for the practice , ) and a multitude of ideas , like the waves of a river " Which runs , and as it runs , for ever shall run on , "
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178 The Dreamer .
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THE DREAMER .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1831, page 178, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2595/page/34/
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