The clergy vindicated from the charge of hostility to the diffusion of science : being an answer to the pamphlet of Mr. H.G. Wright / by a phrenologist.

  • Phrenologist.
Date:
1836
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The clergy vindicated from the charge of hostility to the diffusion of science : being an answer to the pamphlet of Mr. H.G. Wright / by a phrenologist. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    sisting between these and the external world. “ In vain,” says the eloquent and philosophic Hall, “ in vain will they 4 (the teachers of mere morality),1 expatiate on the tranquillity and pleasure attendant on a virtuous course ; for though you may remind the offender that in disregarding 4 the dictates of con¬ science,1 he has violated his nature, and that a conduct consistent with them is productive of much internal satisfaction ; yet, if he reply that his taste is of a different sort, that there are other gra¬ tifications which he values more, and that every man must choose his own pleasures, the argument is at an end.11 But of this more hereafter. Mr H. G. Wright expresses great surprise at finding the name of the Rev. Dr Chalmers in the list of those who cordially approved of the design of the 44 Christian Herald but his astonishment has no effect in making him hesitate before class¬ ing that eminent individual among the enemies of secular know¬ ledge. He is, however, singularly unfortunate in never being able to adduce evidence in support of his charges, without sup¬ plying at the same time the materials of their refutation. He states as the chief ground of his surprise at finding Dr Chal¬ mers's name where he thinks it ought not to be, that this very writer had on former occasions 44 deprecated that 4 narrow, ex¬ clusive, and monopolising spirit1 which he feared was too cha¬ racteristic of the more declared professors of the truth as it is in Jesus,1 and had subsequently borne testimony to the beneficial effects flowing from the rapid progress of education.11 Yet Mr H. G. Wright, nothing daunted, eagerly darts at the conclusion that Dr Chalmers 44 views the diffusion of intellectual and moral knowledge as bordering upon hostility to the Gospel.11 What! Dr Chalmers an enemy to intellectual and moral knowledge ? And who has made the dire discovery ? A Mr H. G. Wright. No sooner, however, has Mr H. G. Wright announced his astounding discovery, than he begins to have some misgivings as to its reality, and suggests, that when such views are enter¬ tained by such men there must be 44 some strange misappre¬ hension as to the nature and tendencies of the knowledge al¬ luded to.11 He then makes a number of very witty and learn¬ ed conjectures as to what this 44 strange misapprehension can be,11 and asks with a naivete peculiarly his own, 44 are the lec-