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Untitled Article
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CRITICAL NOTICES.
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Untitled Article
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Untitled Article
A Dissertation , Practical and Conciliatory . By Daniel Chapman . London : Hamilton , Adams , and Co . ; J . Y . Knight , Leeds . 1836 .
If it be a pity that some people should ever have been born , it would have been an equal blessing if some authors had never printed . The intention of the " Daniel" of this work is announced to be as follows : — "To define , illustrate , and reconcile with each other , the following : three classes of objects :
1 . Philosophy and Theology . 2 . Politics and Religion . 3 . Private Opinion and Ecclesiastical Communion . " His mode of accomplishing- his intention may also be divided into three classes . 1 . A series of axioms which may generally be characterized as mere truisms . 2 . Assertions boldly made , but always questionable , and frequently false . 3 . Principles dogmatically announced ; sometimes true , sometimes doubtful , often pernicious , but never original .
When we read , for instance , that " all virtue is beneficial , all vice injurious , " ( p . 60 ) ; that " truth is truth eternally and unalterably , " ( p . 181 ); that " the grand essentials of human excellence are these : to do every thing that ought to be done , and to do it at its proper time and in its proper manner , " ( p . 162 ) ; we can only say , very true ; but we think we knew all that before . When , however , we are told that " evils have all originated in the depravity of human nature , " ( p . 66 ); and that " the formation of our private opinions is subject to our own control , " ( p . 165 ); we begin to question and to differ . But when we find it boldly asserted , that " atheism stigmatizes virtue as a species of contemptible weakness , designates vice the noblest assertion of natural freedom , " ( p . 9 ); that " infidelity sacrifices at the shrine of human reason , the infallibility , the
veracity of Deity himself / ' ( p . 1 IJ ); it might be just as easy to show that these declarations are false . However incomprehensible to us may be the philosophy of atheism , we never heard of any atheist who , in theory , stigmatized virtue , or extolled vice ; and however faulty may be the deductions of infidelity , it does not sacrifice the infallibility and the veracity of Deity at the shrine of reason , but seeks to discover what is
infallible and what is true , by the exercise of reason . In any case , it is anti-christian to vituperate those who differ with us in religious opinions , however erring we may deem them . Of the principles announced by Mr . Chapman , there are many which , like his axioms , are so very true and evident , that no
Critical Notices.
CRITICAL NOTICES .
Untitled Article
Crilicdl tfolives . " 885-
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1836, page 385, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2658/page/57/
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