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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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Untitled Article
and the character of Christian ; and their heresy , Christianity . The whole letter , indeed , far from being seditious , is peaceable and charitable ; and far from being heretical , that is , in the usual acceptance of the word , furnishes proofs of that resignation so
worthy of himself . And to be sensible of this , ' tis only necessary that any one , laying aside prejudice , read the letter itself with candour . What , or who , then , is free from the calumniating pen of malice , malice concealed , perhaps , under the specious guise of religion and a love of truth ?
c Religious persecution is the bane of all religion ; and the friends of persecution are the worst enemies religion has . Of all persecutions , that of calumny is the most intolerable . Any other kind of persecution can affect our outward circumstances only , our properties , our lives ; but this may affect our characters for ever \ And this great man has not only had his goods spoiled , his habitation burned , and his life endangered , but is also
calumniated , aspersed with the most malicious reflections , and charged with everything bad , for which a misrepresentation of the truth , « Nihil est ... " * and prejudice , can give the least pretence . And why all this ? To the shame of some one let it be replied , merely on account of particular speculative opinions , and not anything scandalous , i
shameful , or criminal in his moral character . ( When I see /' says the great and admirable Robinson , a spirit of intolerance , I think I see the great devil 1 " And it is certainly the worst of devils . And here I shall conclude , staying only to remind your anti- Priest ley an correspondents , that , when they presume to attack the character of Dr . Priestley , they do not so much
resemble the wren pecking at the eagle , as the owl attempting , by the flap of her wings , to hurl Mount Athos into the ocean ! and that while Dr . Priestley ' s name shall " flourish in immortal youth , " and his memory be respected and revered by posterity , prejudice no longer blinding the understandings of men , theirs will be forgotten in obscurity , or only remembered as the friends of bigotry and persecution , the most odious of all characters . 4
HAIA 20 N . ' From this letter it appears that the onl y champion who entered the field of the ' Shrewsbury Chronicle , ' in opposition to the various correspondents who were the c friends of bigotry and persecution / and who assiduously displayed their base congeniality in one of the most heinous crusades that were ever instituted
against individual wisdom and humanity , ( and against all reason and human rights , looking at the principle , ) was a schoolboy . of thirteen , whom an impassioned love of abstract truth , a strong sense of indignation at the vulgar injustice of attempting to crush all spirit of free inquiry , and a generous sympathy , associated with a feeling of gratitude for intellectual improvement , derived from
* Quotation illegible in the origriaal MS ,
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632 Disquisition on the Genius , Writings ,
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1835, page 632, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2650/page/4/
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