On this page

• Text (1)

  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.

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • 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.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    * teliects which have been employed in raising the structure of science . It is no disparagement to the illustrious men of past times , that their errors are pointed out , and that shorter and « asler mefcliods ere found of accomplishing that which it required all their efforts to effect . With intellects far greater , perhaps , than any subsequent labourers it $ he s&me cause , they may be ^ surpassedin ^ extent and accuracy of knowledge at a later period by men &f the most limited capacity . Such is the necessary condition of buinan

    improvement . ^ Airthat an individual can effect is comparatively trivial . His powers of original inference are bounded to a few steps . The works of one must be elevated on those of another . Meanwhile , beauty of style , elegance of illustration , perspicuity of arrangement , and ingenuity of inference , —all that constitutes a book a work of art , —may be imperishable- "—P . 135 . ] The chief advantage which we derive from the study of old authors is * that we are reminded of the fundamental traths of a science which should

    be ever borne in mind , but which are liable to be disregarded amidst the interesting novelties and fanciful adjuncts of modern discoveries and new theories . The observations which we meet with at p > . 152 are such as deserve attention from those who form their conceptions of God from the revelations of the Bible * as well as from those who are satisfied with the discoveries of

    natural religion . The Bible itself cannot sufficiently enlarge our ideas of His perfections , if our notions of human virtue are limited and imperfect : and the Bible itself appears and will continue to appeae to speak a new language , and to impart purer and sublimer ideas of the Divine nature and attributes , the more our affections are exalted , and our moral comprehension * enlarged . We conclude our review of this Essay with a passage which speaks for itself :

    " A . A great part of the slowness witti which discoveries have succeeded each other , may be ascribed to the tardy and limited diffusion of knowledge . N . himself has made the remark , that one discovery must spring from another , that a man of inventive genius must rise from the height to which the labours of his predecessor have carried him . Now for a series of improvements and discoveries of this kind I see no necessity for the intervention of long periods of time . If a man of original talent has the power of rising from the discoveries of his predecessor he may do it , or begin to do it , from the ifroment they are known to him ; and thus one man taking up the

    achievements of another , there may be a series of them even amongst contemporaneous inquirers . The onl y requisite condition seems to be a ready and immediate promulgation of afl . that is accomplished . Formerly ,- indeed , what any one man discovered made its way alowly and laboriously to others engaged in the same pursuit . Perhaps he would pass from the scene before his labours were understood and appreciated , and in such a state of imperfect inter-communication a barren interval must undoubtedly elapse between almost every successive discovery in the same science . This lapse of time , however , was

    required solely to propagate the intelligence amongst those who were likely to make use of it . At present , when the diffusion may be effected with the instantaneousness of lightning ,, when the world has become an immense whis ^ Paring gallery , and the faintest accent of science is heard throughout every civilized country as soon as uttered , the requisite conditions are changed . Long intervals are no longer necessary , and the career of improvement may be indefinitely accelerated . Besides * not Only are discoveries more rapidly communicated to discovering minds , and the intervals of the series reduced almost to nothing , but with the general diffusion of knowledge more of these original intellects start forth , and thus another cause is brought into operation to swell the train and hasten the triumph of science . "—P . 186 . FTo be continued . ]

    Untitled Article

    Essays on the Purshit of Truth . 551

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1829, page 551, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2575/page/31/