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Life Of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet

Creator: Edward Miner Gallaudet (author)
Date: 1888
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company, New York
Source: Available at selected libraries
Figures From This Artifact: Figure 2

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The following letters, selected from among a great number, must serve as illustrations of the correspondence which grew out of Mr. Gallaudet's stay in Great Britain.

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Letter from Rev. Thomas Chalmers, D. D.

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GLASGOW, March 2, 1817.

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MY DEAR SIR: -- I beg leave to transmit for your acceptance a volume of sermons published by me within these few days. I received all the pamphlets about the Peace Society, and also your volume of sermons. I am compelled to say that I have, as yet, been able to look very little into either of them. I am glad to understand that your volume has been very favorably noticed in the Observer. But really for myself, I am so excessively engrossed, and I am so miserably in arrears, both with unread books, and unanswered letters, that I must for some time store it unread. I have been sadly pressed to take an active part in the business of a Peace Society established here. This I can not do, and all that I can possibly afford in behalf of this object, is my testimony in its favor.

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I had, not many weeks ago, an application from Mr. Farquhar Gordon, of Edinburgh, for your sermon and report on the subject of the deaf and dumb. He had not seen them at that time. And I have, since I sent them, had another letter in which he fully exculpates you. I have learned that he was the author of the article against you in the Instructor, though I do not think that it is at all in harmony with the temper and principles of the man.

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I cordially acquiesce in all you say about the dangers of conformity. I at one time thought that much would be done to conciliate the support of worldly men to the good cause, could its accommodation to the interests of civil society be cunningly held out to them. I am now far less sanguine of any good from their co-operation, and am veering toward the opinion, that the more broadly the aspect of peculiarity and separation is flashed upon the public eye, so much the better. Let us not partition this matter, or give countenance to the doctrine that there is any compatibility between the spirit of the Gospel and the spirit of natural and unconverted men. At the same time I rejoice in the belief, that Christianity is making progress; -- that evangelical statements are more tolerated by the public at large, and are entering with demonstration and power into a great number of individual hearts; that the national impulse at present is on the side of religious education; and that amid the conflict and operation of all the elements of darkness, there is an element of grace, working and growing and making such progress, as will at length subordinate and, like the rod of Aaron, swallow up all the others.

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It is my earnest prayer, in your behalf, that as you have experienced the fulfillment of the one saying, 'In the world ye shall have tribulation,' so you may experience the fulfillment of the other, 'that in Christ ye shall have peace.' May this peace rest in your heart, and the world will not take it away. Do, my dear sir, pray for the entire simplification of your aim. 'Let your eye be single, and your whole body shall be full of light.' Oh, at what a distance do I feel from the principle of doing all things for the glory of God, and in the name of Jesus.

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Your observations respecting the philosophy of mind, as illustrable by the phenomena of education in your seminary, are highly striking and just. And this suggests to me the mention of a work just now published by Thomas Brown, professor of moral philosophy, Edinburgh, on "Cause and Effect." I used to admire his former pamphlet on this subject, and I am prepared to expect a very profound and accurate exposition of this subtle and interesting argument. I have just begun to read it, and I think you will like it, not merely as a characteristic of, but highly creditable to the Scottish metaphysical school.

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I am, very dear sir, yours most truly,
THOMAS CHALMERS.

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Letter From Mistress Hannah More.

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BARLEY WOOD, NEAR BRISTOL,
28th April, 1818.

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REV. AND DEAR SIR: -- I would not return you my thanks for your kind letter and very valuable volume, till I had nearly finished your admirable sermons. You are not one of that numerous class of authors whom it is prudent and safe to thank for their books before one has looked into them, as the only way of preserving both one's veracity and good breeding. I declare my judgment is not bribed by your too flattering and most undeserved dedication, when I assure you I think "The Discourses" are of a very superior cast. Though deeply serious they are perfectly uninfected with any tincture of the errors of a certain new school in theology. Your style and manner are in thorough good taste, a garb in which I delight to see sound divinity arrayed. By the blessing of God, I trust they will do much good. The circumstances, too, under which they were delivered, as well as the place, make them still more interesting to the reader. I was going to point out to you the sermons with which I was particularly pleased; but I found the recapitulation would be almost universal. I would not except any. I was charmed and deeply affected with the sweet letter of my dear little dumb correspondent. -Alice Cogswell.- What heart-felt joy, dear sir, must it afford you to have been the honored instrument of rescuing this, and so many other forlorn little creatures, from a state of almost nonentity! "Inasmuch, as ye have done it to one of the least of these, ye have done it unto me," says our divine Master.

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