In all such matters it is better to go at once to the
fountain head; if the reader is curious on the subject, as doubtless
he must be, he is referred to one octavo and five duodecimo
volumes, with fifty pamphlets which have left little to say on the
point. Let it not be supposed, however, for an instant, that the
writer of this article is himself undecided in his opinion on this
question. By no means; and he hastens to repel the unjust
suspicion, by declaring himself one of the warmest Otwaysians. It is
true that he has some private grounds for believing that a
dispassionate inquiry might lead one to doubt whether Otway or
Butler ever saw the Lumley autograph; but what of that, who has
time or inclination for dispassionate investigation in these stirring
days! In the present age of universal enlightenment, we don't
trouble ourselves to make up our opinions--we take and give them,
we beg, borrow, and steal them. True, there are controversies
involving matters so important in their consequences, so serious in
their nature, that one might conceive either indifference or
fanaticism equally inexcusable with regard to them; but there are
also a thousand other subjects of discussion, at the present day, of
that peculiar character which can only thrive when supported by
passion and prejudice, and falling in with a dispute of this nature, it
is absolutely necessary to jump at once into fanaticism.
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