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Untitled Article
images and impersonations of deformed vice , contrasted with elevation of heart and of soul , I did not consider myself as forgetful of my sacred calling . I feel assured I only kept perhaps too bold a communion with Heaven , in thus gazing in the animated mirror of Promethean poetry and pathetic truth- And ,
moreover , I found an honourable precedent for such studies in the writings of Webster , who held a similar situation in life to my own . I trust that in thus mentioning my name in conjunction with his ; , it must be clearly understood that I do so with sincere diffidence ; for some of his tragedies—with all submission to your lordship ' s more extensive reading , and the means I doubt not
you have employed in acquiring a perfect judgment , added to the leisure requisite for forming a comprehensive and infallible taste—I venture to pronounce as being neglected works of genuine power . If , however , your lordship should consider such occupations unbecoming to our cloth , you will be the more ready to consider my offences in that particular as harmless and
pardonable , when I inform you that no notice whatever was taken of my tragedies by the great London theatres , to which I forwarded the MSS . I did not apply for them to be returned , because of the expense of carriage , so that I have never seen them since , and make no doubt but they are destroyed . In other departments of literature I have made many attempts to obtain a
hearing from the public , but without avail . No publisher would undertake my manuscripts ; no periodical insert my communications , though offered in exchange for the smallest remuneration . But I could not help perceiving occasionally , that a few weeks or months afterwards , articles on similar subjects would appear in the very magazine or paper to which I had applied , many of the
prominent ideas bearing a most singular resemblance to my own . To compare the qualities of my mind with any of those great authors who write in such works would be highly presumptuous and unbecoming , but our manner of treating the same subjects made me think my previous discomfiture very hard , even though it might be quite true , as one of the letters of rejection observed , that * I was deficient in tact . ' So I retired to compose ' A sermon
on the vanity of temporal hope , and our too general and ready assumption of virtue in claiming a right to spiritual hope . ' For heaven , my lord , is not to be taken by storm : we ought not to besiege the throne of mercy , either with our boasted piety or ostensible good works . Both may be false at heart .
Hitherto , my lord , I have confined myself to a sketch of my family affections , and my worldly circumstances . This does not comprise my whole life . It seems to me right , that in excuse of the liberty of this address , and the intrusion on your sacred privacy and devotions , I should also give you some view of the history pf my mind , regarding you in the august , though temporal character of my Father in God .
Untitled Article
to the Bishop of the Diocese . Wb
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1834, page 465, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2635/page/5/
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