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Untitled Article
Vtete iiowhere embodied as a whole at the commencement of His ihquiries ; some of them were not in existence , and the rest wer 6 barely accessible , scattered through many dissimilar writers , — - rathe * - hinted than stated ; and , if deemed worthy of mention for
their curiosity , requiring apology for their profaneness . The collective adoption of the peculiarities constituting modern tJnkarianism tvould then have been unnatural , and their adoption frotn the dictation of others' minds impossible . Throughout the Whole process of theological change which Dr . Priestley ' s opinions Underwent , his transition from low Arianism to Humanitarianism .
which tvas the last important step , is the only one in which the reasonings of a predecessor exerted a perceptible influence ; and this ttas occasioned by the writings of Dr . Lardner , the study of whom is the study of truth , and to be persuaded by whom must be a pure concession to evidence . Throughout every other stage of his conversion , Dr . Priestley was his own commentator 5 his inquiries followed the order of his own doubts ; his evidence was collected and arranged by his own assiduity ; and his conclusions drawn by the absolutely solitary exercise of his own intellect .
He has been accused , and by an authority which gives weight to the accusation , of having imbibed from his age a spirit of innovation . We apprehend that the charge involves a material error with regard both to his character and his times . A more stationary condition of the social mind than that in -which his opinions commenced , matured , and almost completed their progress , could
not perhaps be selected from the last two centuries of English history : the underworkings of the earthquake had doubtless cointnenced in France ; the interior power which was to burst through the crust of institutions , and rock the nations in alarm , was getting up its steam ; ' but of this not the most penetrating had a glimpse ; all was quiet on the surface , not a growl was heard .
n 6 t a vibration felt . Had it even been otherwise , Dr . Priestley could have been little affected , in the early part of his life , by the political occurrences of the Continent , for he was not then in a position either to receive or to impart the influence supposed : he 1 va& not then the admired philosopher , the conspicuous sectary , the * obnoxious subject , —but the poor , secluded , unpopular preacher of a small market-town . The relative chronology of his opinions is curious . Not only were his changes of mind in complete anticipation of the stimulating period which closed the last century , but sotoe of his most startling sentiments were the earliest embfdced : he had maintained the inconclusiveness of St . Paul ' s
reasoning , gone all lengths with the doctrine of necessity , and rejefcted his belief in divine influence , before he had been in the ministry three years . And on the other hanu \ when the time of restless theory came , and all old opinions were loosened , and the whole creed of society , political , social , and religious , was broken up fotf ffefcctastruction , his convictions had been made up ; lie had
Untitled Article
& £ &n tkt Life , Character , and Worte of Dr . Priestley ?
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1833, page 26, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2606/page/26/
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