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    made up of parts so good in themselves , it scarcely needs that they should be more artfully put together . Our author is a most minute observer , both of things and men ; the extent of his miscellaneous information is truly surprising : and most of it has evidently been acquired by himself , not derived

    from books . He appears to be well versed in experimental physics , and familiar with the processes of very many branches of practical industry . His sagacity and ingenuity display themselves here also in numerous contrivances , and a still greater number of prophecies of contrivances , which will probably some time or other be fulfilled . But these belong neither to the works we are reviewing , nor to the general scope of this article .

    One of the most delightful qualities of this author , his lively admiration and keen enjoyment of the beautiful in all its kinds , both spiritual and physical , has been nowhere more exemplified than in his contributions to our work ; and our readers doT ' not require from us any assurance of it . ^ Besides the value of th is quality in itself , it has saved him from an error which many , and > they not the most narrow-minded of our social reformers , habitually

    fall into ; the error of expecting that the regeneration of mankind , if practicable at all , is to be brought about exclusively by the cultivation of what they somewhat loosely term the reasoning faculty ; forgetting that reasoning must be supplied with premises , complete as well as correct , if it is to arrive at any conclusions , and that it cannot furnish any test of the principles or facts from which it sets out ; forgetting too that , even supposing perfect knowledge to be

    attained , no good will come of it , unless the ends , to which the means have been pointed out , are first desired . But of this , perhaps , on another occasion , and at greater length ^ Our object in introducing the topic was to observe , that this error demonstrates of those who hold it either a deficiency in themselves , of all mental faculties , except the calculating understanding , or else that the other powers are so uncultivated ^ or so ill-cultivated , as to be at habitual variance with that faculty . It is otherwise with Junius

    Redivivus : his sensibility to beauty has contributed largely to quicken his intellect and expand his views ; and in nothing more so than in opening his eyes to the importance of poetry and art , as instruments of human improvement on the largest scale . Where the sense of beauty is wanting , or but faint , the understanding must be contracted : there is so much which a person , unfurnished with that sense , will never have observed , to which he

    will never have had his attention awakened : there is so much , of the value of which to the human mind he will be an incompetent and will be apt to be a prejudiced judge ; so many of the most important means of human culture which he will not know the use of , which he is almost sure to undervalue , and of which he is at least unable to avail himself in his own efforts , whether for his own good or for that of the world . It is true of this as of all the other sensibilities , that without intellect they run wild ; but with-

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    Writings of Junius Redicivus . 269

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1833, page 269, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2612/page/53/