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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.
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circumstances , he felt every year at least equally the expression-of their regard ; he still felt embarrassment in responding to it ; it still operated upon him as a recompense for past , and a stimulus to future 1 exertion
The manner in -which the compliments-were 4 ntrodueed-was-j ) eeul-iarly acceptable to him , because it was not merely personal , because it associated him with great and comprehensive principles ; he was not like Alcibi ades of old ; at least , Alcibiades , as Marmontel represented him , who would not be loved because he was
young and beautiful and witty and eloquent ; because then it was youth and beauty and wit and eloquence which was loved , and not he ; but he would put on the appearance of being without any of ¥ hose advantages , that he might be loved for the caput
mortiium of self , which is left when all qualities whatever had evaporated . He ( Mr , F . ) was of an opposite disposition ; he wished , on the contrary , to be carried out of himself , and identified with the principles in which all their hopes were centred , and by the realization of which both the
social character and the happiness of the human race will arrive at the highest attainable perfection . In whatever sphere he laboureji , whatever exertions he made , he was conscious to himself of an entire singleness of aim . Whether he was preaching in the pulpit , or mixing
in private society , whether engaged with his pen , to meet the public in that way , or in his solitary studies , or in the turmoil of politics in which he sometimes embarked , or in the pleasures of social intercourse as at
that moment—he w < as still striving for the same object . At no time and in none of these spheres of action did he lose sight of a rational , yet glowing theology—a theology which does not demand the sacrifice of
reason at the outset—a faith not resting in vain and empty forms or acting by arbitrary laws , but of which the principle is all-pervading love . In all
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capacities , equally he stood lip for that freedom of thought , and equal freedom of speech , that full and fair investigation on all subjects , which is the first thing a teacher of religion should aim at at present . He hoped
with all the time was going by , and with 4 hem 4 t ~ wasalready ^ g-oniS :, j \ v , ke , ii it was necessary to deny that any opinion whatever is a proof of moral depravity . He had read with delight in the last work of their excellent
friend , Dr . Channing , an eloquent passage , in which he declares that unbelief in what he holds most sacred was no presumption of moral turpitude , and that if unbelief was sometimes the result of vice , belief is
frequently the result of vice also- — -the result of base conformity . It was not the dogmas , but the spirit in which those dogmas were received and investigated which marks the moral character of the man . This
he had ever tried to enforce upon them , because he Held it to be more important than any creed or , doctrine whatever . It was not that lie deemed the doctrines he himself held true to be unimportant . There was to hi $ ' mind one great doctrine which includes all other religious
truthsthe idea of a spirit of love which works in all and pervades all , and leads on all things towards the unlimited improvement of all mankind here and their universal felicity hereafter . * This ( he said ) is my notion of the state of things in which we
live . I could not cherish the hopes I do if , while I saw that the verses of Mr . Campbell must be immortal , I could imagine that he himself could become nothing but dust and less immortal than the emanations of his own mind . Could I imagine this , I should exclaim in his words—«
There , melt , ye elements , that form'd in vain . This troubled pulse , and visionary brain ! Fade , ye wild flowers , memorials of my doom , And sink , ye stars , that light me to the tomb I But I believe that the belief we profess holds out the brighest hopes of advancement for the human race un-
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B 6 UNrTATUAft CJHUONICILE *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 1, 1833, page 86, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2609/page/22/
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