The doctor Author:Robert Southey Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE DOCTOR, CHAPTER CCI. QUESTION CONCERNING THE USE OF TONGUES. - THE ATHANASIAN CONFESSORS. - GIBBON'S RELATION OK THE SUPPOSED MIRACLE OF TONGUES. - THE... more » FACTS SHOWN TO BE TRUE, THE MIRACLE IMAGINARY, AND THE HISTORIAN THE DUPE OF HIS OWN UNBELIEF. Psraeveremui, peractis qua rem continebant, acrutari etiam ea qua, ii vis verum connexa iunt, non coharentia; qua quisquis diligenter inspirit, necfacit opera pralium, nee tamrn perdit operam. Seneca. For what use were our tongues given us ? To speak with, to be sure, will be the immediate reply of many a reader. But Master, Mistress, Miss or Master Speaker (whichever you may VOL. VII. B happen to be), I beg leave to observe that this is only one of the uses for which that member was formed, and that for this alone it has deserved to be called an unruly member, it is not its primary, nor by any means its most important use. For what use was it given to thy labourer the ox, thy servant the horse, thy friend,—if thou deservest to have such a friend,—the dog,—thy playfellow the kitten,—and thy cousin the monkey ? In another place I shall answer my own question, which was asked in this place, because it is for my present purpose to make it appear that the tongue although a very convenient instrument of speech, is not necessary for it. It is related in Gibbon's great history, a work which can never be too highly praised for its ability, nor too severely condemned for the false philosophy which pervades it, that the Catholics, inhabitants of Tipasa, a maritime colony of Mauritania, were by command of the Arian King, Hunneric, Genseric's detestableson and successor, assembled on the for u m. and there deprived of then- right hands and their tongues. " But the holy confessors," he proceeds to say, " continued to ...« less