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    It is with great unwillingness that we have pointed out what we deem these discrepancies , but self-vindication required it at our hands . If a man goes out of his way to assail an adversary , even great talents cannot prevent him from falling into inconsistencies . When he speaks of our lukewarmness , of our want of religious zeal , of the absence of religious meetings among us , except on ^ IKeTSabbath day , there is more truth in what he says ^ and we might gather some useful hints , Fas est et ab koste doceri ;

    but these are not essentially inherent defects in our system , and prove nothing absolutely against it . Hall is not merely a sermonizer ; in fact , his sermons do not make up above two of the volumes out of the six with which we are presented . In the earlier part of his career he was a strenuous defender of civil liberty against the encroachments attempted against it ; and wrote several little works full of noble ardour in behalf of political freedom . They do not equal his later

    compositions either in style or in matter ; but they are in every point of view worthy of attention . Pari-ftg . /^«; latter \ peii ^ ds ' -0 rhfevli-fe he regretted the tone of asperity into which he had fallen , and would not allow them to be reprinted . It has been attempted to prove from this circumstance that the natural tendency of age and serious thought is to" produce Toryism ; but this hope must be abandoned . As he rejoiced in the prospect of-political-reformation , opened out by the French revolution , though he deplored itsiiorrors , to the end of his life he continued attached

    to the cause of liberty . He regretted the restoration of the Bourbons in ] 8 I 4 , as calculated to throw back half a century , upon the continent , the cause of knowledge , science , and pure religion . Age and deep religious feeling abated his youthful impetuosity ; but though we cannot claim him as one of our own religious sect , we may claim him as a fellow-labourer in the great cause of human improvements , which is in fact Unitarianism , though without that distinctive garb with which we would fain see it invested , as more immediately connecting it with ourselves .

    With regard to his religious dogmas , Hall was a Calvinist , though a moderate one . He believed in predestination , whilst by a refined subtilty of distinction he held the salvability of all men . He was natually cheerful , and fond of society ; but towards the close of his life his temper seems to have undergone a great change ? His familiar letters present a dark picture of his state of mind ; they show that his breast was agitated br a seldom # . .. I . 1 . n r \ «_ . N * ' m

    intermitted tumult of fear and alarm . This may perhaps be attributed to the great amount of bodily suffering to which he was exposed , an amount probably beyond what ever fell to the lot ofany other individual . For a great part of his life he laboured under a painful disease in his back , which rendered it impossible for him to remain long in an upright posture . During twenty years he had not been able to pass a whole ni ght in bed ; but after his first

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    264 ' . ' . ON THE CHARACTER AND

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 1, 1833, page 264, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2621/page/8/