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
taneous resurrection of mankind could ever have been found in this portion of the sacred writings . Having thus briefly explained what view of a very obscure subject appears to us most consistent with all the facts within our reach , ( which view ,
however , we are quite read y to modify or relinquish as soon as fuller evidence shall shew us cause for doing so , ) our judgment of Mr . Carmichael ' s book will be easily anticipated by those of our readers who are already acquainted with it—of as much of it , at least , as relates to the subject we have been considering .
Mr . C being a Member of the Royal Irish Academy , took his turn to prepare a paper , as the custom is , to be read before the Society . The two first sections of the little work before us were prepared for this purpose so long ago as 1817 . The remainder was written long afterwards , when the author had found reason to change his philosophical system very extensively , and to retract much which he- had formerly advanced . From this singular method of putting a book together , it necessarily arises that there is much
inconsistency in the volume , and a vacillation of opinion not a little perplexing to an unpractised inquirer , while no form could perhaps have been better chosen for shewing the true nature of the argument , and for pointing out the direction in which evidence preponderates ; or for enabling the reader to judge , on the author ' s own involuntary shewing , of the progress of the mind of an inquirer , not only from truth to truth , but from strength to strength in the apprehension of truth . Towards the beginning of his book , Mr . C . says ,
" The necessary attributes of Spirit , as distinguished from Matter , are the powers of sensation , perception , judgment , and will . Man is endowed with these powers ; if they cannot reside in the material substance of which he is composed , thev must inhere in an essence similar , however inferior , to the essence of God . There must , therefore , be such an essence , however inferior , in man . That essence is the soul , " &c . —P . 3 . Again ,
" The p hilosopher who shall establish even probable grounds for the common opinion of the souPs immortality will be , of all men , the most deserving of the gratitude of his species . "—P . 20 . Which opinion , however , he , after an interval of years , believes he " may unhesitatingly retract , " having become a materialist , and an advocate for Lawrence on Physiology , and having learned by practice not to set out in an argument with begging the question . The result of the whole of this part of
the work is , that the writer overthrows the ancient superstition ( as we esteem it ) of a separate soul , and not dreaming apparently of any other alternative , adopts with all its difficulties the doctrine of a simultaneous resurrection of the whole human race , excepting of course Christ , Elijah , and probably Moses , and possibly Enoch . As his object is to dwell on the Physical Considerations connected with his various topics , he plunges with his readers into the tossing sea of the ancient metaphysics , where , however some may have found their
" Of youthful sports was on its breast to be Borne , like its bubbles , onward , " they have no right to draw others after them without a prospect of bringing
Untitled Article
224 Physical Considerations connected with Man ' s Ultimate Destination .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1831, page 224, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2596/page/8/
-