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Or the Question stated of Reason , the Bible and the Church . By-James Martineau , WTiittaker . 1835 . The object of this work , in reference to theology , is similar to that , with relation to ethical science , contemplated by Dr Hampden in his admirable ' Lectures introductory to the study of
Moral Philosophy / In both cases the student is directed , not to a system , but to the best mode of forming his own conclusions , and arriving satisfactorily at principles . And the two works have other qualities in common . Both are remarkable for clearness of expression , elegance of composition , evident fullness of
information in connexion with the subject ( although neither of the authors burdens his book with quotations or appeals to authority ); and a happy ingenuity of thought . Mr Martineau has one advantage , in a frequent richness of poetical and pictorial description , which those who only read extracts from his work may suspect to be inappropriate , but which , in the perusal
of the volume itself , will be found to contribute materially to its luminousness and its logic , as well as to its beauty . In Dr Hampden we cannot regard the absence of this quality as a fault ; but in Mr Martineau we must feel it to be an excellence .
We should observe also that the lectures of the former were delivered to University students ; those of the latter to a popular auditory . The introduction of Mr Martineau ' s first lecture is one of several passages , which the foregoing remarks must bring to the recollection of those who are already acquainted with the work . AVe give it at length , because it is not only very beautiful in itself , but so constructed as vividly to present the great question
to be discussed . " Near the eastern margin of the gigantic empire of Home lay a small strip of coast , which had been added to its dominion by Pompey the Great . The accession had excited little notice , eclipsed and forgotten amid the crowd of greater acquisitions , and in itself too insignificant to excite even the ready vanity of * conquest . The district had
nothing in it to draw towards it the attention of a people dazzled by the magnitude and splendour of their own power . Remote from the existing centres of opulent and cultivated society , with a language unknown to educated men , destitute of any literature to excite curiosity , or specimens of art to awaken wonder , it would have lain in exile from the great human community , had not the circulation of commerce embraced
it , and self-interest secured for it a surly and contemptuous regard . It lay between the fallen kingdoms of Egypt and Assyr ia , but derived no distinction from its position ; it seemed covered with the dust , without sharing the glories of their ruined magnificence . Its inhabitants were the most unpopular of nations ;—a people out of date , relics of a ruder period of
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5 S 4 - The Rationale *> f Religious Enquiry .
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THE RATIONALE OF RELIGIOUS ENQUIRY .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1836, page 554, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2661/page/30/
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