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Untitled Article
the priests are conspicuous and influential members of euctv institutions ; and clerical influence upon society mil presently be briefly adverted to . Prejudices being , as we have seen , thus early implanted in the mind , and some of them so intimately associated with its , best affections and dearest remembrances , it cannot be woiif
dered at that philosophers should be uncommon—that few should " break loose from all the shackles that in their youth had been imposed upon them , and say to Truth , ' Go on ; whithersoever thou leadest I am prepared to follow ; * —that the great majority of mankind should be content to plod th . Q
beaten highway , regardless of the verdant meads on either side tempting them from their dull career . With days and ? ears the growth of old prejudices in a being of mental indoence increases , until their gnarled and fibrous roots have entangled themselves inextricably in his system ; and the soil of his mind becomes more and more sterile . Even if by chance
" a good seed" should sluggishly shoot into vegetation it 13 quickly choked by the tares and weeds pre-occupying the soil , or grafted upon the old stock of prejudices , in which its character becomes merged and lost . These remarks , it is obvious enough , do not apply to the cultivated and philosophic Baind—» to the man whose wisdom teaches him that the education of
an intelligent being is never complete , but that each man may add something to his store of knowledge , or correct an error of his judgment . Such an one as this it is gladsome to behold , such an one adds grace and dignity to manhood , and venerable *
ness to age ; from such a fount we rejoice to quaff the pure stream of wisdom and knowledge , the Lethe of pernicious prejudice . But to the imitator , the mental idler , who is contented in manhood to retain with obstinacy the impressions of youth , and passively imbibe others suited to his sectarian or party connexions , the foregoing observations will justly be
applicable . The sentiments of such a man on abstract pomts are mere egotism , and the reflection of impressions . He is infatuated with his own dogmatism , drunk in the conceit of his own understanding , and nurses himself iuto the consolatory hallucination that his prejudices are genuine opinions , the ottspring of his reason ; whilst they are the spurious issue of
memory and self-love . Loyalty to the king , attachment to a monarchical form of government ( should such be his creed ) , if self-love , the imprese of education neither erased nor continued by reason . In proportion as he has not examined a » uhjeet , and does not understand it , he is more obstinately positive ; on the same principle that a sciolist is jealous of his reputation for learning , whilst the scholar will not hesitate to confess iguoranee of any matter which , through inattention or forgetfulneae ,
• Godwin . —Thoughts on Man .-. " Of belief / 1
Untitled Article
Cursory Hemark * oh PejudUt . 31 ft
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1836, page 319, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2657/page/55/
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