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    among the great majority of moderate and sincere Christians . Iti this view I have not been deceived ; the work has been well received , and , as the importance of its materials increases , will , I doubt not , continue to be so . My first anticipations have been equally realized by the scurrilous attacks aimed at me by the fanatical portions of the press .

    I am fortunately too well engaged to attend to such rhodomontades : in one instance , however , a . show of argument has been made , and as the integrity of the work is basely slandered , I feel it a public duty to expose the fallacy , and with that view would request the insertion of the following letter in your candid pages . J . D . H .

    To the Editor of the Eclectic Review . Sir , Allow me to condole with you ; for , surely , nothing can be more pitiable than for a man to be led , by a blind confidence in others , into a situation where he cannot but feel emotions of shame ! That

    this , Sir , is your case , I am not inclined to question ; for , however involved in the trammels of party , it is hardly possible to imagine that a person of your general reputation was acquainted with the dishonourable nature of the production I am about to notice .

    Having made these preliminary remarks , you will , of course , understand the succeeding observations as referring to the persons who have abused your confidence , by getting you to insert the paper alluded to ; and also to the party principles your publication so evidently betrays . The character of the Eclectic Review

    is properly understood , and its circulation confined to a peculiar portion of what is called the religious world . When , however , a publication claiming the high ^ auction of a religious responsibility becomes the vehicle of wilful misrepresentation , and , with party views , undermines the reputation of a writer whose life was devoted to the benign exteusion of our common Christianity , an error is committed which cannot be too soon

    exposed . The article in question assumes to be a Review of the Two Volumes of the Correspondence and Diary of Dr , Doddridge , recentl y published . To those unacquainted with , the views of the party , it will appear strange that they should select a character so generally esteemed as their victim . Their grudge against this " amiable and learned divine is however of long stauding , as several years

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    ago they threw out unworthy reproaches ( which were ably confuted by the late Dr . Evans ) against his mode of lecturing , a 3 too candid an exposition , of the disputed points of theology . In . the present instauce , the old offence is not only increased by the catholic spirit which breathes forth on every proper occasion ,

    but a new cause of alarm is presented , in the joyous urbanity of mind and endearing tenderness of heart which so delightfully pervade the letters of Dr . Doddridge . That a good man should exult in the social pleasures of existence , rinding amusement in all the little circumstances around him , and yet excel in the solemn duties of a Practical Divine , is a problem they find it inconvenient to solve !

    They were , indeed , in a pitiful plight , and had they expressed their chagrin within the boundaries of decorum , much might have been forgiven . The review commences with an awkward attempt at sarcasm . " This publication , " say these learned Thebans , " was first brought under our notice by the London Literary Gazette , and the manner in which it is there hailed and

    applauded , will best speak for the true character and tendency of the work . " Our dread operators , it will be observed , have now taken the razor in hand , but , like the ape in the fable , are doomed to feel the edge of their own jest . Talking about the Gazette might have done very well , but they venture to quote it also , and quote it against themselves !—viz .,

    in speaking of Dr . Doddridge the Editor of the Gazette says , that he has found " instruction in studying his philosophical views of humau nature , his frankness , his general love of his kind , and his mild and liberal religious tenets . The picture of such a man drawn by his own hand , in his letters on every occasion which could call forth his sentiments , opinions , and

    actions , is to us worth a thousand such lives as Job Orton , or even Dr , Kippis , could write . " Puss is out of the bag at last . And so it was a crime to applaud Dr . Doddridge !—yes , for he was philosophical , frank , and liberalf This is pretty wejl ; but the rope is long enough , and they draw the noose still tighter by quoting their new authority again . " He ( i . e .

    Dr . Doddridge ) was neither guilty of the sourness of ascetic folly , iior of the worse guilt of that too common hypocrisy , so prevalent in his as well as in our times , which cloaks its pride under counterfe it sanctity , and covers its hidden indulgences under gloomy externals and rigid austerities . " They are next in high dudgeon that

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    Miscellaneous Correspondence . 65

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    vol . iv , F

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1830, page 65, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2580/page/65/