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    Untitled Article

    on the Sufferings of Truth . 3 B 1

    Untitled Article

    the known ; Could we but have a few such comprehensive minds as Bacon ' s , possessing also the same splendid bias , we should then probably attairi this , for the whole scope

    and tendency of his works v / vi the attainment of this logicd perfection . But alas ! thb craving for the unknowabbj prevents the few , while thh many follow in their wake *

    PART II .

    On the Causes operating against Truth .

    "Truth is as impossible to be soiled by any outward touch as the sunbeam ; though this iilhap wait on her nativity , that she never comes into the world but like a bastard , to the ignominy of him that brought her forth ; till time , the midwife , rather than the

    mother of Truth , have washed and salted the infant , declared her legitimate , and churched the father of this young Minerva from the needless causes of his purgation . " — Milton . The inquiry is of deep interest and importance , How it has ever been the lot of truth to be so abused on its first

    promulgation ? and some acute thinker might find his powers well employed on it . Till that be done , I continue my hints , such as they are , fragmentary arid 6 rude , 'tis true , —but I have not time to remodel or polish them . In a review of the follies and extravaganceswhich have ,

    from all ages , been pertinav ciously adhered to and dewfended , and that too , frequently , by men of splendid ] intellects , the delusion may seem strange , and yet , on at slight insight into human nature , the strangeness gives ;

    place to the feeling of its perfect compatibility with the human mind , and with tbe impulses it receives . Of all convictions none are so strong as our opinions , and it is not until we have entirely changed them , that we become sensible of their folly ; for how can a man be sensible of the absurdity of that opinion which he believes to be true ? For he

    must believe his opinions-to be true , or they would no longer be his opinions ; and when he is told that he will some day see the folly of what he now holds , and will renounce them , we may forgive the sneer which curls his sceptical lip ; nor can I hel p remarking here , . y . , - . .:, ¦ : ¦ i !¦/

    ¦ r- * ' ¦ i , '* t * - is that truth itself can never be productive of harm , and that the inffuemjOen hava 4 rcaded from its promulgation , ought to have been turned . to tftjb * mM * ( M promulgation . "

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 1, 1837, page 331, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1837/page/21/