is well-founded, I propose, with no ordinary measure of certainty, to demonstrate the fallacy of its application. As the matter now stands, both the doctrine and its application being unrefuted, because the former is sound and because the rottenness of the latter is not perceived, there is no alternative but to admit that Jesus is the only true God, or to deny the authority of the apostolic writings. I thank the Almighty that I am not reduced to this dilemma, because my consolation under the afflictions of this state, the visitations of God and the malignity of men, is the evangelical hope of eternal life, of which I should be de spoiled by the election which would be forced on my mind. aii It is a long while since I intimated, in a note to one of my papers on Acts xx. 28, that Dr. Middleton's, "Doctrine" appeared to be generally true. In my letter, given in your number for November last, it is asserted, that the argument" deduced from that doctrine, "is totally unfounded," and that "I can demonstrate that the new doctrine of the Greek Article fails to prove the Divinity or Deity of Christ." I am at a loss to guess what new facts Dr. Car penter can expect on a question of criticism, or what facts he has adduced to which he requires an addition. The principles on which I rely are not designed as additions to those maintained by former writers, but are independent of them. Without giving an exposition of them, I will repeat, that I admit the chief principles of Dr. Middleton, thinking, however, that "nothing has yet been done with effect against the conclusion which he infers, though I hold it altogether inadmissible. Taylor has higher claims to esteem than those which the profoundest learning alone would furnish, to which neither he nor I presume to urge any pretensions. His genuine simplicity, his modest manners, his diligence of inquiry and love of the truth, add grace and ornament to the clearness of his perception, and to the respectable learning which distinguishes him in his profession. These have contributed their full share towards securing to him the attention and patronage of the most renowned scholars of our times. It is a great satisfaction to me to be able to appeal to him for the originality of the principles on which my argument proceeds, and for the complete conviction which results from them. I may be able to bring forward some collateral considerations to fortify it, that have not presented themselves to his mind; but have no hesitation in saying, that he will fully support my delaration, that "all the learning called to the aid of the argument from the Greek article by Middleton, Wordsworth, &c. is altogether wasted." At the same time, I am compelled to observe, that there is no appearance of any desire among the Unitarians to countenance my efforts on this question. In love of the truth I yield to none: thousands may boast of much greater zeal for the interest of the party, which, like others, is not exempt from weakness, or divested of a partiality towards those who, at least, unite devotedness to the one, with an attachment to the other. Indeed, the utmost indifference to the present subject has been indicated. This might excite no small surprise on a moment's consideration of the humiliating state to which Mr. Yates was reduced in his controversy with Mr. Wardlaw. Haying no other resource, he was under the necessity of transcribing the miserable and evasive gloss of a popular writer, which, to say the least, is any thing but satisfactory, a gloss which may serve as a specimen of polemic dexterity in a case that had no remedy at command, but which is by no means a fair sample of the general ability of its author, who seldom takes Ready to assign "honour to whom honour is due," I have to observe that the ground on which I proceed has been discovered by two independent inquirers, and is probably unknown to all others. I am happy to have this, opportunity of bearing my humble testimony to the perspicuity of one of the most unassuming and best informed friends of the Unitarian cause. It gave me no small pleasure to find, on explaining to Mr. Richard Taylor my view of the irrelevaney of Dr. Middle-in ton's Doctrine to the only question which confers on it the slightest importance, that he also had been impressed with precisely the same idea, an idea equally simple and decisive. hand a subject on which he does not spread all the light yet emitted from the orb of truth. I am, however, content. The refu tation of Dr. Middleton must, as it scenis, eniain uncommunicated except Gleanings. to a few, whom envy may not render incapable of apprehending it, by means of personal explanation. Be it so. As I seek no recompense, I will not, certainly, publish by subscription, which is the mode suggested by Dr. Carpen ter in your magazine, and by an intelligent and learned friend in a private letter, the only persons who have considered my proposal as deserving of notice. I am ready to offer my labour on the altar of the God of truth." But if the truth be not worth countenance, as truth, I withdraw, willing neither to undergo a useless loss, nor to accept of any ungraceful obliga tion. If the truth be lightly esteemed on its own account and unconnected with the exaltation of a favoured indi vidual or of a favoured party, considerations of prudence and feeling must justify me in withholding it. If, however, any person will undertake to procure the necessary subscriptions and to publish my work, the copy shall be at his service, and the profit at the service of any institution that may appear to merit support. I am, &c. CHARLES LLOYD. GLEANINGS; OR, SELECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS MADE IN A COURSE OF GENERAL READING. No. CCLII. Heterodoxy. Heresy. To be of a different persuasion (repos, other, and do, faith), constitutes heterodoxy; to have chosen a faith for oneself (aipeσs, choice), constitutes heresy. Heterodoxy is negative, heresy is positive dissent. The heterodox differs, the heretic separates, Heterodoxy endangers conformity; he resy destroy union. Extensive heterodoxies produce heresy. All distinct sects are heterodox with respect to each other; Jew, Catholic, Calvinist and Socinian. That sect only is heretical which has a newer creed than the party from which it dissents. In Christian countries the Jews are not heretics; but they are. heterodox. In Protestant countries, the Church of Rome is not a heresy; but it is a heterodoxy. Socinianism, while secretly entertained, is but a heterodoxy; when embodied as an Unitarian sect, it is a heresy. Truth may form a heresy, and so may error. Christianity was a Jewish 283 heresy, until it became established by law. Heresy begins in schism, and ends in the sanction of the magis trate. W. Taylor's English Synonyms. No. CCLIII. Religion. Devotion. Piety. Sanctity. Religion is the bond which ties us to the Deity; it is the external contract, the alliance made by others. Devotion is the wish to become obedient to the Deity; it is the internal subjection of man to his God. Piety is that filial sentiment which we feel for the Father of all. Sanctity is the habit of interior coercion, which a constant sense of duty to the Godhead inspires. He is religious who adheres to the ordinances of his country or his sect. He is devout whom this adherence has trained to allegiance. He is pious who regards the Deity as his Father. Sanctity is to piety what devotion is to religion-the state of mind which results from acquiescence in the feeling.. Some men are pious without being religious; and some are religious without being pious. For a worldly person it is sufficient to be religious. Those are devout whose purposes embrace their interests in other worlds. There is a fear of God observable in these times among the Calvinists, that rude familiarity with the Almighwhich is no less hostile to piety, than ty which is observable among Methodists. Yet all these sentiments grow out of religion. Religion is considered as a duty; piety as a merit; devotion and sanctity as equivocal excesses. This arises from the scepticism of the world, which questions the eventual retribution of the industry spent in devotion, or of the privations incurred from sanctity. One may infer a man's creed from his using the words devotion and sanctity with deference or with a sneer. The Same. No. CCLIV. Superstition. Credulity. Bigotry. Enthusiasm. Fanaticism.. Those are called superstitious who are too much attached to ritual observances of religion. Those are credulous who are too easy of belief; those are bigoted who are too obstinate John Fox, the Martyrologist. When the famous John Fox, the martyrologist, was summoned to sub scribe, by the queen's direction, the venerable old man produced his Greek Testament, and said, "To this I will subscribe." And when a subscription to the canons was required, he refused it, saying, "I have nothing in the chutch, save a prebend at Salisbury, and so much good may it do you, you will take it away from me." - Fuller's Ch. Hist. B. ix. p. 76. if No. CCLVII. An eminent Lay Preacher. "After lamenting the dispersion of the scholars on account of the plague, and the low ebb to which learning was reduced in consequence of it, he proceeds thus: Preachers I am sure were so rare, that there were but two in the University that preached on the Lord's day (yet not constantly) to the academians: those were Mr. Thomas Sampson, Dean of Christ Church, and Dr. Lawrence Huinphrey, President of Magdalen College, Nay, Sir Henry Saville hath often reported to certain intelligent persons, that have told me the same, that when he first came to the University, about 1561, there was but one constant preacher in Oxon, and he only a Bachelor of All Soul's College. These, I say, preaching for the most part to the academians, their puritanical doctrine took such deep root among their auditors, that it never could be quite extirpated. When Mr. Sampson left the University, and Dr. Humphrey often absent upon cccasions, and none left, perhaps, to execute the office of preaching rightly, Richard Taverner, of Woodeaton, near Oxford, Esq. did several times preach in Oxford, and when he was High Sheriff of this county (which was a few years after this,) came into St. Mary's church, out of pure charity, with a golden chain about his neck, and a sword, as 'tis said, by his side, (but false, without doubt, for he always preached in a damask gown,) and gave the academians, destitute of evangelical ad vice, a sermon beginning with these words: "Arriving at the Mount of St. Mary's in the stony stage, where I now stond, I have brought you some fyne biskets baked in the oven of charitie, carefully conserved for the chick es of the church, the sparrows of the spirit, and the sweet swallowes of vation, &c.' sal "He was some time of Cardinal College, in Oxford, afterwards Master of Arts and at length Clerk of the ward VI., from the last of whom he Signet to King Henry VIII. and Edobtained Letters (though a mere layman) to preach the word of God in any church of his majesty's dominions, A good scholar he was of his time, but an enemy not only to the Catholic religion, but to the ceremonies of the Church of England now in their infancy." Wood's Annals, 1563, 5, 6 Eliz. vol. ii. quoted in Letters of Eminent Persous, from the Bodleian Library, vol. i. p. 67, 68. Note. ( 285 ) REVIEW. "Still pleased to praise, yet not afraid to blame."---POKE. ART. I.—The Village School Improved; or, the new System of Education practically explained, and adapted to the Case of Country Parishes. The third edition, with additions. To which is added, an Appendix, containing Specimens of Catechetical Exercises; an Account of the Method of teaching Arithmetic in Classes, and by the Agency of the Scholars themselves; Mental Arithmetic on a new and simple Principle, &c. By John Poole, M. A. Late Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, Rector of Enmore and Swainswick, Somerset, and Chaplain to the Right Hon. the Earl of Egmont. Oxford: at the University Press. Sold, in London, by Messrs. Rivington and by J. Hatchard. 1815. 12mo. pp. 188. the large, and, we trust, increasing, body of persons who exert themselves, in various ways, for the success of popular education, we cordially recommend this volume: it is the result of the inquiries of a cultivated mind, accustomed to patient, attentive observation, and instructed by much individual experience; and it constitutes, on the whole, the most valuable and interesting of all the publications on the subject. T ing to introduce into the school some of the recent improvements in education." For a detailed account of the Enmore school, we must refer our readers to the publication before us. In the general plan of this seminary there are two circumstances which deserve more immediately our notice and applause: we mean, "the method of teaching" and the rank of life of some of the children who receive instruction. "The method of teaching is a compound of Dr. Bell's and Mr. Lancaster's systems, with alterations and additions. In what respects it agrees, and in what it differs from each, may be seen at once in the subjoined table." "I. It agrees with both-- "In the division of the school into classes; each under the tuition of one of the scholars. "II. It agrees with Dr. Bell's--"1. In the use of small, cheap books, in preference to cards. "2. In reading word by word, backwards, and sometimes syllabically. "3. In unreiterated spelling. "4. In the reading and ciphering lessons being accompanied with questions. 5. In keeping a register of the business done in each class. "6. In the interrogative mode of communicating religious instruction. 7. In the religious instruction being according to the principles of the Established Church; "III. It agrees with Mr. Lancas ter's-- "1. In all the children being seated at single desks, facing one way. 2. In all the children being taught to write. Enmore, from the parsonage of which the author dates the "Advertisement to the third edition," is a village four miles west from Bridgewater in Somersetshire. Here a day-school had for some time been established, which Mr. Poole was in the practice of occasionally visiting. "It consisted generally of about twenty-five or thirty children of both sexes; all of whom were taught to read; some few to write; and such of the girls as were old enough were instructed in needlework. The schoolmistress was an active, intelligent woman; who appeared desirous of doing all in her power to bring on the children in their learning: but her plan of instruction being that which is followed in most of the old village schools, the progress made by the children, though equal to what additions have been introduced :* is usually made in such schools, was by no means such as satisfied" their kind and intelligent visitor. Hence he" formed the resolution of attempt 3. In all the children being taught to spell, by writing on slates words dictated by the teachers. 4. In all the children, when of a proper age, being taught to cipher in classes. "IV. The Enmore school differs from the greater part of those, both on Dr. "V. The following modifications and * Some farther modifications and additions are described in the notes to this third edition. "1. Writing from dictation connected, in various ways, with every reading lesson. "2. Numerals, punctuation, &c. taught by writing from dictation. 3. Sets of questions and answers provided for many of the reading lessons. 4. Sets of questions and answers provided for the ciphering lessons---and for other things taught in the school. 5. Nothing repeated from memory, until first read, with all the accompanying exercises. 6. Mr. Lancaster's method of teaching arithmetic considerably modified and extended: tables, in some rules, given on a peculiar construction," &c. &c. proficiency of the pupils advanced, by means of not a few very simple and ingenious contrivances: silence, too, is secured, and the necessity of the frequent recurrence of punishment obviated, by well-devised modes of appealing to some of the best feelings of the youthful breast. The teachers quire information from any quarter, and superintendants are eager to acand to adopt every judicious hint or scheme in regard to practical and popular education. On looking into the last report of the British and Foreign School Society, we perceive, with much satisfaction, that in this respect the labours of Mr. Poole have not been useless: in the second of his classes “a which he is instructed, by the teacher skewer is given to each child, with of the class, to form the letters in the synoptical view, moreover, is thus pre-sand-and availing himself of this sented of the respective systems of Dr. intimation, the industrious and skilful Bell and Mr. Lancaster. Many per- master of a school in one of our large sons suppose that the mechanism of the manufacturing towns furnishes "each schools denominated severally after those two individuals, is, in substance, boy" of the second class, "with a style to write the small letters and figures the same. No opinion can be more in sand." We are also sanguine Some of the contrary to the fact. points in regard to which their plans enough to indulge the hope that our differ, are here described: and others present notice of The Village School, &c. may excite in some of our readers will be visible on an inspection of a Madras and of a Lancasterian semi- of it; and may thus assist, in no a desire of studying Mr. P.'s account nary; although the chief of the variations have not been overlooked by children of the poor. small degree, the instruction of the This table is important, as it exhibits the nature and extent of the in struction communicated in the Enmore school, which "now (1815) consists of a hundred children." A Mr. Poole. Of the schools somewhat improperly termed "national," it is a remarkable feature that the method of instruction observed in them is strictly uniform; no deviations being permitted from the rules and order prescribed by Dr. Bell. In the other class of popular schools, on the contrary, all those improvements take place which experience suggests or Local circumstances demand. The Royal Lancasterian institutions, in most large towns of the kingdom, are conducted, it is true, agreeably to the leading principles first exemplified in this nation by the active and benevolent person whose name those seminaries deservedly perpetuate: but the apparatus is not identical with what may have been seen at the Borough school. In the majority of the provincial schools time and labour are saved, and the Nothing more is intended by these remarks than to shew, that the Lancasterian schools may, and do, receive improvements. The Enmore school is divided into eight classes. He who shall make himself acquainted with its general volume, and with the business of each arrangement, as described in this little class (of which Mr. P. likewise gives a distinct account), will find his trouble well rewarded. We shall not undertake an abridgement of the author's without injury to them; and they mechapters: this could not be done rit a repeated and diligent perusal. His Village School, &c. whether it be viewed through the mirror of his publication, or actually visited, cannot but present a most engaging scene to the eve of the benevolent reader or tra veller. It is, no doubt, possible, and even probable, that different persons will pronounce opinions more or less favourable to some of the parts of the plan of instruction which he has detailed. But his zeal, intelligence and kindness, his unaffected candour P. 87. |