Imatges de pàgina
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"ment. It is, indeed, the gift of heaven, but

needs to be stirred up, and has been fo long, and "univerfally neglected, that to give it full exer"cife requires more attention and application of "thought, than most people are willing to bestow. "Every smatterer in science takes it for granted "that he is poffeffed of the principles of good fenfe, "but on trial the greatest adepts will hardly admit "them. They are, in truth, fo plain, that to illuftrate and inculcate them is to tire the patience,

and to affront the judgment of the reader; but, "at the fame time, fo diametrically oppofite to "received opinions, and established maxims, that "barely to propose, or even to ftate them with

perfpicuity, without unfolding or inculcating "them with due care, would be to encourage "that fuperficial way of judging, which is the "fource of all our errors."

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He farther fays, p. 18, that in order" to con

vey that full and permanent conviction which " is due to truths of the first rank, the mind must "be allowed to judge of them with impartiality "and coolness, proceeding not upon fentiments "fuddenly raised by striking views of truth, but

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on a deliberate judgment, formed by a familiar "acquaintance with the object: and in order "thereto, the fame truths must be presented again "and again, with no great variation, and with "as little adventitious ornament as poffible."

In this deplorable state of the affairs of common fenfe, one would think that Dr. Oswald might be glad to avail himself of the aid of reafon; but of this he entertains the greatest dread. Even a pro feffed unbeliever is not fo great a bugbear to him as a reafoning chriftian. I fhall present my reader with one of his numerous pathetical complaints on this fubject.

"Not only the chriftian revelation, but the "moral perfections and moral government of God, 66 yea, and the very being of virtue, have been "made a fubject of difpute. Freethinkers are not "afhamed to publifh their doubts concerning

thefe realities; divines and philofophers have "not difdained to establish them by a multitude "of arguments. What is yet more to be regret❝ted, the preachers of the gofpel, forgetting the "dignity of their character, and the defign of their "office, have condefcended to plead the caufe of "religion in much the fame manner as lawyers "maintain a difputed right of property. Inftead "of awakening the natural fentiments of the hu"man heart, and giving them a free direction, "they have entered into reafonings about piety, "juftice, and benevolence, too profound to be

fathomed by the multitude, and too fubtile to "produce any confiderable effect. Instead of fet"ting forth the difplays of divine perfection in

"the

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"the difpenfation of the gospel, so admirably "well fitted to touch, to penetrate, and to fubdue "the human mind, they have entertained their "audiences with long and laboured proofs of a "revelation from God, of which few have any fe❝rious doubt, and which no man can disbelieve "in any confiftency with common fenfe. May "not this be called with great propriety a throw"ing cold water on religion? And ought it not "to be confidered as one of the chief causes of "that infenfibility to all its concerns, of which "we fo frequently complain? The multitude

have been aftonished, wife men have been "afhamed, and good men grieved at this treat"ment of religion, so much beneath its dignity."

I would not be fevere upon Dr. Ofwald, though he obferves no bounds in his cenfures of the most refpectable writers of the laft and prefent age, without distinction; but I cannot help faying, that, in his loose and rhetorical manner, and with such airs of self-sufficiency, and arrogance, is the greatest part of his two volumes written; confifting of mere declamation, the groffeft mifreprefentations of the nature of reasoning, and exaggerations of the abuses of it; imputing to chriftian divines a conduct that they are not chargeable

with, and where argument fails, having recourse to dogmatical affertions, and abuse; at the fame

time that his tautology is inexpreffibly tirefome. I really do not remember that I ever read a work fo large as this of Dr. Ofwald, that contained fo little; I do not mean of truth, but of any thing. That any good should come of this manner of writing is to me incomprehenfible. It may, indeed give pleasure to fome to fee infolence anfwered by infolence, and fophiftry by fophiftry; but, alas! truth is no gainer by fuch a mode of defence as this.

It was not till after the publication of the two preceding parts of this work that I had an opportunity of reading Dr. Ofwald's treatise; for though I had promised the author of the Remarks on my publications, to procure it immediately, upon his recommendation, a variety of pursuits prevented my giving any attention to it. I am forry that my opinion of this performance fhould differ fo much from that of this ingenious writer, and indeed from that of many other perfons whom I much respect.

As to Dr. Reid's Inquiry into the Human Mind on the Principles of Common Senfe, I frankly declare, that, excepting a few incidental things, foreign to his general object, I do not find in it a fingle obfervation that is new, and at the fame time just. The only effect of all the pains that both this ingenious writer, Dr. Beattie, and Dr. Ofwald have

VOL. II.

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taken

taken with the fubject, appears to me to have terminated in nothing, befides beclouding and puzzling a business, which, in the main, Mr. Locke left very clear, and far advanced.

But I am most astonished that any perfon fhould write upon the fubject of the human mind, without taking notice of so capital a performance as that of Dr. Hartley; who, beginning where Mr. Locke left it, has raised a system that is equally amazing for its fimplicity and extent. For my own part, I do not hesitate to rank Hartley's Obfervations on Man among the greatest efforts of human genius; and, confidering the great importance of the object of it, I am clearly of opinion that it is, without exception, the most valuable production of the mind of man.

Time is neceffary to the general understanding of every work of great depth and merit, as was most remarkably the cafe with Newton's Principia. I have no doubt, however, but that the time will certainly come, when the general principles of Hartley, as well as of Locke, will be fully established, and when every contrary hypothefis will be forgotten. If they be remembered at all, it will be with astonishment, that, appearing after fuch a work as Hartley's (which was published so long ago as 1749) the leaft attention fhould have been given to them.

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