,,arrows ,,of ,,freethought4 ,by ,g4 ,w4 ,foote ,editor of ,the ,freethinker4 ,,london3 ,h4 ,a4 ,,kemp1 #bh ,,stonecutter ,,street1 ,,farringdon ,,street1 ,e4,c4 #ahhb4 ,,contents3 ,,preface ,,religion ,,and ,,progress4 ,a ,,defence ,,of ,,thomas ,,paine4 ,,the ,,gospel ,,of ,,freethought4 ,,freethought ,,in ,,current ,,literature4 ,,dean ,,stanley',s ,,latest4 ,,god ,,and ,,the ,,queen4 ,,cardinal ,,newman ,,on ,,infidelity4 ,,sunday ,,tyranny4 ,,who ,,are ,,the ,,blasphemers8 ,,the ,,birth ,,of ,,christ4 ,,the ,,reign ,,of ,,christ4 ,,the ,,primate ,,on ,,modern ,,infidelity4 ,,baiting ,a ,,bishop4 ,,professor ,,flint ,,on ,,atheism4 ,a ,,hidden ,,god4 ,,general ,,joshua4 ,,going ,,to ,,hell4 ,,christmas ,,eve ,,in ,,heaven4 ,,professor ,,blackie ,,on ,,atheism4 ,,salvationism4 ,a ,,pious ,,showman4 ,,preface ,i republish in this little volume a few of my numerous articles that have appeared in the ,secularist1 the ,liberal1 the ,national ,reformer1 and the ,freethinker1 during the last five or six years4 ,i have included nothing 7,i hope7 of merely ephemeral interest4 ,every article in this collection was at least written carefully1 and with an eye to more than the exigencies of the moment4 ,in disentombing them from the cemeteries of periodical literature1 where so many of their companions lie buried1 ,i trust ,i have not allowed parental love to outrun discretion4 ,i have not thought it necessary to indicate1 in each case1 the journal in which the reprinted articles were first published4 ,should anyone object to the freedom of my style1 or the asperity of my criticism1 ,i would ask him to remember that ,christianity still persecutes to the full extent of its power1 and that a ,creed which answers argument with prosecution cannot expect tender treatment in return2 and ,i would also ask him1 in the words of ,ruskin1 to consider how much less harm is done in the world by ungraceful boldness than by untimely fear4 ,london1 ,november #aeth1 #ahhb4 ,,religion ,,and ,,progress4 7,november1 #ahhb47 ,the ,archbishop of ,york is peculiarly qualified to speak on religion and progress4 ,his form of thanksgiving to the ,god of ,battles for our victory in ,egypt marks him as a man of extraordinary intellect and character1 such as common people may admire without hoping to emulate2 while his position1 in ,archbishop ,tait's necessitated absence from the scene1 makes him the active head of the ,english ,church4 ,let us listen to the great man4 ,archbishop ,thomson recently addressed a working-men's meeting in the ,drill ,hall1 ,sheffield4 ,it was densely crowded by six or seven thousand people1 and this fact was cited by the ,archbishop as a proof that the working classes of ,england have not yet lost interest in the ,christian faith4 ,but we should very much like to know how it was ascertained that all1 or even the major portion1 of the vast audience were working-men4 ,it is easy enough to give any meeting a name4 ,we often hear of a ,conservative ,working-men's banquet1 with tickets at something like a guinea each1 a duke at the top of the table and a row' of lords down each side4 ,and our experience leads us to believe that nearly all religious meetings of working-men are attended chiefly by the lower middle classes who go regularly to church or chapel every ,sunday of their lives4 ,even1 however1 if the whole six or seven thousand were working-men1 the fact would prove little2 for ,sheffield contains a population of three hundred thousand1 and it was not difficult for the clergy who thronged the platform to get up a big ticket meeting1 at which a popular ,archbishop was the principal speaker1 and the eloquence was all to be had for nothing4 ,the ,archbishop's lecture1 or sermon1 or whatever it was1 contained nothing new1 nor was any old idea presented in a new light4 ,it was simply a summary of the vulgar declamations against the carnal mind with which we are all so familiar4 ,progress1 said his ,grace1 was of two kinds1 intellectual and moral4 ,of the former sort we had plenty1 but of the latter not so much4 ,he repudiated the notion that moral progress would naturally keep pace with intellectual progress1 and he denied that righteousness could ever prevail without some sanction from above4 ,this was the sum and substance of his discourse1 and we have no doubt that our readers have heard the same thing1 in various forms of language1 some hundreds of times4 ,like the rest of his tribe1 ,archbishop ,thomson went abroad for all his frightful warnings1 and especially to ,france4 ,he severely condemned the ,french pride in progress1 which led to the ,revolution4 ,his ,grace has certainly a most original conception of history4 ,ordinary historians tell us that the ,revolution was caused by hunger1 bad government1 and the rigidity of old institutions that could not accommodate themselves to new ideas4 ,but whatever were the causes1 look at the results4 ,compare the state of ,france before the ,revolution with its condition now4 ,the despotic monarchy is gone2 the luxurious and privileged aristocracy has disappeared2 and the incredibly wealthy and tyrannous ,church is reduced to humbleness and poverty4 ,but the starving masses have become the most prosperous on the face of the earth2 the ignorant multitudes are well educated2 the platform and the press are free2 a career is open to every citizen2 science1 art1 and literature have made immense strides2 and although ,paris1 like every great capital1 may still1 as ,mr4 ,arnold says1 lack morality1 there is no such flagrant vileness within her walls as the corruptions of the ancien rgime2 no such impudent affronting of the decencies of life as made the parc aux cerfs for ever infamous1 and his ,christian ,majesty1 ,louis the ,fifteenth1 a worthy compeer of ,tiberius2 no such shameless wickedness as made the orgies of the ,duke of ,orleans and the ,abb ,dubois match the worst saturnalia of ,nero4 ,his ,grace felt obliged to advert also to the ,paris ,commune1 about which his information seems to be equal to his knowledge of the ,revolution4 ,he has the ignorance or audacity to declare that the ,commune destroyed a city and ravaged the land2 when1 as a matter of fact1 the struggle was absolutely confined to ,paris1 and the few buildings injured were in the line of fire4 ,this worthy prelate thinks destruction of buildings a crime on the part of ,communalists1 but a virtue on the part of a ,christian power2 and while denouncing the partial wreck of ,paris1 he blesses the wholesale ruin of ,alexandria4 ,his ,grace ventures also to call the leading men of the ,commune drunken dissolute villains4 ,the beaten party is always wicked1 and perhaps ,dr4 ,thomson will remember that ,jesus ,christ himself was accused of consorting with publicans and sinners4 ,drunken dissolute villains do not risk their lives for an idea4 ,the men of the ,commune may have been mistaken1 but their motives were lofty2 and ,millire1 falling dead on the ,church steps before the ,versailles bullets1 with the cry of ,vive l',humanit on his lips1 was as noble a hero as any crucified ,galilean who questioned why his ,god had forsaken him4 ,that intellectual and moral progress naturally go together1 the ,archbishop calls an absurd and insane doctrine1 and he couples with these epithets the honored names of ,buckle and ,spencer4 ,now it will be well to have a clear understanding on this point4 ,are intellectual causes dominant or subordinate8 ,even so intensely religious a man as ,lamennais unhesitatingly answers that they are dominant4 ,he affirms1 in his ,du ,pass et de l',avenir du1 ,peuple1 that intellectual development has produced all other developments1 and he adds3-- ,it is represented that evil1 as it appears in history1 springs entirely from the passions4 ,this is quite false4 ,the passions disturb the existing order1 whatever it may be1 but they do not constitute it4 ,they have not that power4 ,it is the necessary result of the received ideas and beliefs4 ,thus the passions show themselves the same in all epochs1 and yet1 in different epochs1 the established order changes1 and sometimes fundamentally4 ,the truth is that the great moral conceptions are securely established1 and the only possible improvement in them must come from the increased fineness and subtlety of our mental powers4 ,civilisation and progress are1 according to ,archbishop ,thomson1 nothing but cobwebs and terms4 ,he besought the working men of ,sheffield not to go for information to a big book written in some garret in ,london4 ,his ,grace1 who lives in a palace at other people's expense1 has a very natural dislike of any man of genius who may live in a garret at his own4 ,what has the place in which a book is written to do with its value8 ,don ,quixote and the ,pilgrim's ,progress were written in gaol2 and for all ,archbishop ,thomson knows to the contrary every gospel and epistle of the ,new ,testament may have been written in an attic or a cellar4 ,the ,archbishop seems to hate the very idea of ,progress4 ,what has it done1 he asks1 to abolish drunkenness and gambling8 ,to which we reply by asking what ,christianity has done4 ,those vices are unmistakably here1 and on the face of it any objection they may furnish against ,progress must equally apply to ,christianity4 ,nay more2 for ,christianity has had an unlimited opportunity to reform the world1 while ,progress has been hindered at every turn by the insolent usurpation of its rival4 ,dr4 ,thomson admits that he cannot find a text in the ,bible against gambling1 and assuredly he cannot find one in favor of teetotalism4 ,on the contrary he will find plenty of texts which recommend the wine that cheereth the heart of ,god and man2 and he knows that his master1 ,jesus ,christ1 once played the part of an amateur publican at a marriage feast1 and turned a large quantity of water into wine in order to keep the spree going when it had once begun4 ,we repeat that all the ,archbishop's objections to ,progress1 based on the moral defects of men1 apply with tenfold force against ,religion1 which has practically had the whole field to itself4 ,and we assert that he is grievously mistaken if he imagines that supernatural beliefs can ennoble knaves or give wisdom to fools4 ,when he talks about ,christ's blood shed to purchase our souls1 and specifies the first message of his creed as ,come and be forgiven1 he is appealing to our basest motives1 and turning the temple into a huckster's shop4 ,let him and all his tribe listen to these words of ,ruskin's3-- ,your honesty is not to be based either on religion or policy4 ,both your religion and policy must be based on it4 ,your honesty must be based1 as the sun is1 in vacant heaven2 poised1 as the lights in the firmament1 which have rule over the day and over the night ,if you ask why you are to be honest--you are1 in the question itself1 dishonored ',because you are a man1' is the only answer2 and therefore ,i said in a former letter that to make your children capable of honesty is the beginning of education4 ,make them men first and religious men afterwards1 and all will be sound2 but a knave's religion is always the rottenest thing about him4--,time and ,tide1 p4 #cg4 ,these are the words of a real spiritual teacher4 ,archbishop ,thomson will never get within a million miles of their meaning2 nor will anybody be deceived1 by the unctuous ,oh that with which he concludes his discourse1 like a mental rolling of the whites of his eyes4 ,as we approach the end of his address1 we begin to understand his ,grace's hatred of ,progress4 ,he complains that intellectual progress never makes a man conceive eternal hopes1 never makes a man conceive that he has an eternal friend in heaven1 even the ,son of ,god4 ,quite true4 ,intellectual progress tends to bound our desires within the scope of their realisation1 and to dissipate the fictions of theology4 ,it is therefore inimical to all professional soul-savers1 who chatter about another world with no understanding of this2 and especially to the lofty teachers of religion who luxuriate in palaces1 and fling jibes and sneers at the toiling soldiers of progress who face hunger1 thirst and death4 ,these rich disciples of the poor ,nazarene are horrified when the scorn is retorted on them and their creed2 and ,archbishop ,thomson expresses his disgust at our ridiculing his ,bible and endeavoring to bring his convictions into contempt4 ,it is1 he says1 an offence against the first principles of mutual sympathy and consideration4 ,yet this angry complainant describes other people's convictions as absurd and insane4 ,all the sympathy and consideration is to be on one side6 ,the less said about either the better4 ,there can be no treaty or truce in a war of principles1 and the soldiers of ,progress will neither take quarter nor give it4 ,christianity must defend itself4 ,it may try to kill us with the poisoned arrows of persecution2 but what defence can it make against the rifleshot of common-sense1 or how stand against the shattering artillery of science8 ,every such battle is decided in its commencement1 for every religion begins to succumb the very moment it is attacked4 ,a ,,defence ,,of ,,thomas ,,paine4 7,february1 #ahgi47 ,fling mud enough and some of it will stick4 ,this noble maxim has been the favorite of traducers in all ages and climes4 ,they know that the object of their malignity cannot always be on the alert to cleanse himself from the filth they fling1 especially if cast behind his back2 they know that lies1 and especially slanderous lies1 are hard to overtake1 and when caught harder to strangle2 and therefore they feel confident as to the ultimate fate of their victim if they can only persevere long enough in their vile policy of defamation4 ,for human nature being more prone to believe evil than good of others1 it generally happens that the original traducers are at length joined by a host of kindred spirits almost as eager and venomous as themselves1 the long-neck'd geese of the world1 who are ever hissing dispraise because their natures are little2 while a multitude of others1 not so much malignant as foolish and given to scandal1 lend their cowardly assistance1 and help to vilify characters far beyond the reach of their emulation4 ,and should such characters be those of men who champion unpopular causes1 there is no lie too black for belief concerning them1 no accusation of secret theft or hateful meanness or loathsome lust1 that will not readily gain credence4 ,mr4 ,tennyson speaks of-- ,that fierce light which beats upon a throne1 ,and blackens every blot but what is that to the far fiercer and keener light which beats upon the lives of the great heroes of progress8 ,with all due deference to the ,poet ,laureate1 we conceive that kings and their kind have usually extended to them a charity which covers a multitude of their sins4 ,the late king of ,italy1 for instance1 was said to have had the language of a guardroom1 the manners of a trooper1 and the morals of a he-goat1 yet at his death how tenderly his faults were dealt with by the loyal press1 and how strongly were all his merits brought into relief4 ,our own royal ,sardanapalus1 ,george the ,fourth1 although ,leigh ,hunt had the courage to describe him aright and went to the gaol for so doing1 was styled by ,society the first gentleman in ,europe4 ,yet ,mazzini1 ,vittor ,emmanuel's great contemporary1 whose aims were high and noble as his life was pure1 got little else than abuse from this same loyal press2 and the ,society which adored ,george the ,fourth charged ,shelley himself with unspeakable vices equalled only by the native turpitude of his soul4 ,perhaps no man has suffered more from calumny than ,thomas ,paine4 ,during his lifetime1 indeed1 his traducers scarcely ever dared to vent their malice in public1 doubtless through fear of receiving a castigation from his vigorous and trenchant pen4 ,but after his death they rioted in safety1 and gave free play to the ingenuity of their malevolence4 ,gradually their libels became current2 thousands of people who knew almost nothing of his life and less of his writings were persuaded that ,thomas ,paine1 the ,infidel1 was a monster of iniquity1 in comparison with whom ,judas appeared a saint1 and the ,devil himself nearly white2 and this estimate finally became a tradition1 which the editors of illustrated religious papers and the writers of fraudulent ,death-,bed ,scenes did their best to perpetuate4 ,in such hands the labor of posthumous vilification might have remained without greatly troubling those who feel an interest in ,thomas ,paine's honor through gratitude for his work4 ,the lowest scavengers of literature1 who purvey religious offal to the dregs of orthodoxy1 were better employed thus than in a reverse way1 since their praise is so very much more dishonorable and appalling than their blame4 ,but when other literary workmen of loftier repute descend to the level of these1 and help them in their villainous task1 it becomes advisable that some one who honors the memory of the man thus aspersed should interpose1 and attempt that vindication which he can no longer make for himself4 ,in reviewing ,mr4 ,edward ,smith's ,life of ,cobbett1 our principal literary paper1 the ,athenum1 in its number for ,january #aath1 went out of its way to defame ,paine's character4 ,this is what it said3-- ,a more despicable man than ,tom ,paine cannot easily be found among the ready writers of the eighteenth century4 ,he sold himself to the highest bidder1 and he could be bought at a very low price4 ,he wrote well2 sometimes he wrote as pointedly as ,junius or ,cobbett4 ,neither excelled him in coining telling and mischievous phrases2 neither surpassed him in popularity-hunting4 ,he had the art1 which was almost equal to genius1 of giving happy titles to his productions4 ,when he denounced the ,british ,government in the name of ',common ,sense' he found willing readers in the rebellious ,american colonists1 and a rich reward from their grateful representatives4 ,when he wrote on behalf of the ',rights of ,man1' and in furtherance of the ',age of ,reason1' he convinced thousands by his title-pages who were incapable of perceiving the inconclusiveness of his arguments4 ,his speculations have long since gone the way of all shams2 and his charlatanism as a writer was not redeemed by his character as a man4 ,nothing could be worse than his private life2 he was addicted to the most degrading of vices4 ,he was no hypocrite1 however1 and he cannot be charged with showing that regard for appearances which constitutes the homage paid by vice to virtue4 ,such a man was well qualified for earning notoriety by insulting ,washington4 ,only a thorough-paced rascal could have had the assurance to charge ,washington with being unprincipled and unpatriotic4 ,certainly ,mr4 ,smith has either much to learn1 or else he has forgotten much1 otherwise he could not venture to suggest the erection of a monument 'recording the wisdom and political virtues of ,thomas ,paine4' ,now we have in this tirade all the old charges1 with a new one which the critic has either furnished himself or derived from an obscure source--namely1 that ,paine sold himself to the highest bidder4 ,let us examine the last charge first4 ,the critic curiously contradicts himself4 ,paine1 he admits1 could sometimes write as pointedly as ,junius or ,cobbett1 whose works sold enormously1 and he had the art of devising happy titles for his productions2 yet1 although he sold himself to the highest bidder1 he could be bought at a very low price6 ,the fact is1 ,paine was never bought at all4 ,his was not a hireling pen4 ,whatever he wrote he put his name to1 and he never parted with the copyright of any of his works1 lest the ,government or some friend of despotism should procure their suppression4 ,he also published his writings at a ridiculously low price1 so low indeed that he lost by them instead of gaining4 ,of his ,common ,sense1 that fine pamphlet which stirred the ,american colonists to battle against their oppressors1 not less than a hundred thousand copies were sold2 yet he found himself finally indebted to his printer #bi #abs4 #a;d4 ,fifteen years later the ,english ,government tried through the publisher to get the copyright of the ,rights of ,man2 but though a large sum was offered1 ,paine refused on principle to let it pass out of his own hands4 ,the first part of this work was published at a price which precluded any chance of profit2 the publication of the second part caused him to be tried and condemned for treason1 the penalty of the law being escaped only by flight4 ,all publication of his works1 whether political or religious1 was afterwards illegal4 ,thousands of copies were circulated surreptitiously1 or openly by men like ,richard ,carlile1 who spent nine years in prison for his sale of prohibited books4 ,but clearly ,paine could derive no profit from this traffic in his works1 for he never set foot in ,england again4 ,thomas ,paine wrote in order to spread his political and religious views1 and for no other purpose4 ,he was not a professional author1 nor a professional critic1 and never needed payment for his literary work4 ,and assuredly he got none4 ,let the ,athenum critic inform the world to whom ,paine sold himself1 or who ever paid him a penny for his writings4 ,until he does so we shall believe that the author of ,common ,sense1 the ,rights of ,man1 and the ,age of ,reason1 was honest in saying3 ,in a great affair1 where the good of mankind is at stake1 ,i love to work for nothing2 and so fully am ,i under the influence of this principle1 that ,i should lose the spirit1 the pride1 and the pleasure of it1 were ,i conscious that ,i looked for reward4 ,popularity-hunting1 to use the critic's graceless phrase1 was ,paine's next fault2 but as1 according to the same authority1 he was guilty in this respect only in the same sense as ,junius was1 the burden of his iniquity cannot be very great4 ,addiction to the most degrading of vices1 is a charge difficult to confute until we know specifically what vice is meant4 ,paine has been accused of drunkenness2 but by whom8 ,not by his intimate acquaintances1 who would have detected his guilt1 but by his enemies who were never in his society1 and therefore could know nothing of his habits4 ,cheetham1 who first disseminated this accusation1 was a notorious libeller1 and was more than once compelled to make a public apology for his lies2 but he was a shameless creature1 and actually in his ,life of ,paine resuscitated and amplified falsehoods for which he had tendered abject apologies while his victim was alive4 ,even1 however1 if ,paine had yielded to the seductions of strong drink1 he should be judged by the custom of his own age1 and not that of ours4 ,mr4 ,leslie ,stephen does not rail against ,boswell for his drinking powers2 ,burns is not outlawed for his devotion to ,john ,barlycorn2 ,byron and ,sheridan are not beyond pardon because they often went drunk to bed2 and some of the greatest statesmen of last century and this1 including ,pitt and ,fox1 are not considered the basest of men because they exercised that right which ,major ,o',gorman claims for all ,irishmen--to drink as much as they can carry4 ,but no such plea is necessary1 for ,paine was not addicted to drink1 but remarkably abstemious4 ,mr4 ,fellows1 with whom he lived for more than six months1 said that he never saw him the worse for drink4 ,dr4 ,manley said1 while ,i attended him he never was inebriated4 ,colonel ,burr said1 he was decidedly temperate4 ,and even ,mr4 ,jarvis1 whom ,cheetham cited as his authority for charging ,paine with drunkenness1 authorised ,mr4 ,vale1 of ,new ,york1 editor of the ,beacon1 to say that ,cheetham lied4 ,amongst the public men who knew ,paine personally were ,burke1 ,home ,tooke1 ,priestley1 ,lord ,edward ,fitzgerald1 ,dr4 ,moore1 ,jefferson1 ,washington1 ,volney and ,condorcet3 but none of these ever hinted at his love of drink4 ,the charge of drunkeness is a posthumous libel1 circulated by a man who had publicly quarrelled with ,paine1 who had been obliged to apologise for former aspersions1 and who after ,paine's death was prosecuted and condemned for libelling a lady whom he had accused of undue familiarity with the principal object of his malice4 ,finding the charge of drunkenness unequivocally rebutted1 ,paine's traducers advance that of licentiousness4 ,but this is equally unsuccessful4 ,the authority relied on is still ,cheetham1 who in turn borrowed from a no less disreputable source4 ,a man named ,carver had quarrelled with ,paine over money matters2 in fact1 he had been obliged with a loan which he forgot to pay1 and like all base natures he showed his gratitude to his benefactor1 when no more favors could be expected1 by hating and maligning him4 ,a scurrilous letter written by this fellow fell into the hands of ,cheetham1 who elaborated it in his ,life4 ,it broadly hinted that ,madame ,bonneville1 the by no means youthful wife of a ,paris bookseller who had sheltered ,paine when he was threatened with danger in that city1 was his paramour2 for no other reason than that he had in turn sheltered her when she repaired with her children to ,america1 after her home had been broken up by ,buonaparte's persecution of her husband4 ,this lady prosecuted ,cheetham for libel1 and a jury of ,american citizens gave her a verdict and damages4 ,here the matter might rest1 but we are inclined to urge another consideration4 ,no one of his many enemies ever accused ,paine of licentiousness in his virile manhood2 and can we believe that he began a career of licentiousness in his old age1 when1 besides the infirmities natural to his time of life1 he suffered dreadful tortures from an internal abscess brought on by his confinement in the reeking dungeons of the ,luxembourg1 which made life a terror and death a boon8 ,only lunatics or worse would credit such a preposterous story4 ,the ,athenoum critic alleges that ,paine insulted ,washington1 and was therefore a thorough-paced rascal4 ,but he did nothing of the kind4 ,he very properly remonstrated with ,washington for coolly allowing him to rot in a ,french dungeon for no crime except that he was a foreigner1 when a word from the ,president of the ,united ,states1 of which he was a citizen1 would have effected his release4 ,washington was aware of ,paine's miserable plight1 yet he forgot the obligations of friendship2 and notwithstanding frequent letters from ,munro1 the ,american ambassador at ,paris1 he supinely suffered the man he had once delighted to honor to languish in wretchedness1 filth1 and disease4 ,george ,washington did much for ,american ,independence1 but ,thomas ,paine did perhaps more1 for his writings animated the oppressed ,colonists with an enthusiasm for liberty without which the respectable generalship of ,washington might have been exerted in vain4 ,the first ,president of the ,united ,states was1 as ,carlyle grimly says1 no immeasurable man1 and we conceive that ,paine had earned the right to criticise even him and his policy4 ,every person is of course free to hold what opinion he pleases of ,paine's writings4 ,the ,athenoum critic thinks they have gone the way of all shams4 ,he is wrong in fact1 for they circulate very extensively still4 ,and he may also be wrong in his literary judgment4 ,william ,hazlitt1 whose opinion on any subject connected with literature is at least as valuable as an ,athenoum critic's1 ranked ,paine very high as a political writer1 and affirmed of his ,rights of ,man that it was a powerful and explicit reply to ,burke4 ,but ,hazlitt had read ,paine1 which we suspect many glib critics of to-day have not2 for we well remember how puzzled some of them were to explain whence ,shelley took the motto ,we pity the ,plumage1 but ,forget the ,dying ,bird prefixed to his ,address to the ,people on the death of the ,princess ,charlotte4 ,it was taken1 as they should have known1 from one of the finest passages of the ,rights of ,man4 ,critics1 it is well known1 sometimes write as ,artemus ,ward proposed to lecture on science1 with an imagination untrammeled by the least knowledge of the subject4 ,let us close this vindication of ,paine by citing the estimate of him formed by ,walt ,whitman1 an authority not to be sneered at now even by ,athenoum critics4 ,in #ahgg the ,liberal ,league of ,philadelphia celebrated the #adjth birthday of ,thomas ,paine1 and a large audience was gathered by the announcement that ,whitman would speak4 ,the great poet1 according to the ,index report1 after telling how he had become intimate with some of ,paine's friends thirty-five years before1 went on to say3-- ,i dare not say how much of what our ,union is owning and enjoying to-day1 its independence1 its ardent belief in1 and substantial practice of1 ,radical human rights1 and the severance of its ,government from all ecclesiastical and superstitious dominion--,i dare not say how much of all this is owing to ,thomas ,paine2 but ,i am inclined to think a good portion of it decidedly is4 ,of the foul and foolish fictions yet told about the circumstances of his decease1 the absolute fact is that1 as he lived a good life after its kind1 he died calmly1 philosophically1 as became him4 ,he served the embryo ,union with the most precious service1 a service that every man1 woman1 and child in the thirty-eight ,states is to some extent receiving the benefit of to-day1 and ,i for one here cheerfully and reverently throw one pebble on the cairn of his memory4 ,we are content to let the reader decide between ,whitman and the ,athenoum critic in their respective estimates of him who wrote1 and as we think acted up to it--,all the world is my country1 and to do good my religion4 ,,the ,,gospel ,,of ,,freethought4 7,august1 #ahhb47 ,christians are perpetually crying that we destroy and never build up4 ,nothing could be more false1 for all negation has a positive side1 and we cannot deny error without affirming truth4 ,but even if it were true1 it would not lessen the value of our work4 ,you must clear the ground before you can build1 and plough before you sow4 ,splendor gives no strength to an edifice whose foundations are treacherous1 nor can a harvest be reaped from fields unprepared for the seed4 ,freethought is1 in this respect1 like a skilful physician1 whose function it is to expel disease and leave the patient sound and well4 ,no sick man claims that the doctor shall supply him with something in place of his malady4 ,it is enough that the enemy of his health is driven out4 ,he is then in a position to act for himself4 ,he has legs to walk with1 a brain to devise1 and hands to execute his will4 ,what more does he need8 ,what more can he ask without declaring himself a weakling or a fool8 ,so it is with superstition1 the deadliest disease of the mind4 ,free-thought casts it out1 with its blindness and its terrors1 and leaves the mind clear and free4 ,all nature is then before us to study and enjoy4 ,truth shines on us with celestial light1 ,goodness smiles on our best endeavors1 and ,beauty thrills our senses and kindles our imagination with the subtle magic of her charms4 ,what a boon it is to think freely1 to let the intellect dart out in quest of truth at every point of the compass1 to feel the delight of the chase and the gladness of capture6 ,what a noble privilege to pour treasures of knowledge into the crucible of the brain1 and separate gold from the dross6 ,the ,freethinker takes nothing on trust1 if he can help it2 he dissects1 analyses1 and proves everything4 ,does this make him a barren sceptic8 ,not so4 ,what he discards he knows to be worthless1 and he also knows the value of what he prizes4 ,if one sweet vision turns out a mirage1 how does it lessen our enjoyment at the true oasis1 or shake our certitude of water and shade under the palm trees by the well8 ,the masses of men do not think freely4 ,they scarcely think at all out of their round of business4 ,they are trained not to think4 ,from the cradle to the grave orthodoxy has them in its clutches4 ,their religion is settled by priests1 and their political and social institutions by custom4 ,they look askance at the man who dares to question what is established2 not reflecting that all orthodoxies were once heterodox1 that without innovation there could never have been any progress1 and that if inquisitive fellows had not gone prying about in forbidden quarters ages ago1 the world would still be peopled by savages dressed in nakedness1 war-paint1 and feathers4 ,the mental stultification which begins in youth reaches ossification as men grow older4 ,lack of thought ends in incapacity to think4 ,real ,freethought is impossible without education4 ,the mind cannot operate without means or construct without materials4 ,theology opposes education3 ,freethought supports it4 ,the poor as well as the rich should share in its blessings4 ,education is a social capital which should be supplied to all4 ,it enriches and expands4 ,it not only furnishes the mind1 but strengthens its faculties4 ,knowledge is power4 ,a race of giants could not level the ,alps2 but ordinary men1 equipped with science1 bore through their base1 and made easy channels for the intercourse of divided nations4 ,growth comes with use1 and power with exercise4 ,education makes both possible4 ,it puts the means of salvation at the service of all1 and1 prevents the faculties from moving about in vacuo1 and finally standing still from sheer hopelessness4 ,the educated man has a whole magazine of appliances at his command1 and his intellect is trained in using them1 while the uneducated man has nothing but his strength1 and his training is limited to its use4 ,freethought demands education for all4 ,it claims a mental inheritance for every child born into the world4 ,superstition demands ignorance1 stupidity1 and degradation4 ,wherever the schoolmaster is busy1 ,freethought prospers2 where he is not found1 superstition reigns supreme and levels the people in the dust4 ,free speech and ,freethought go together4 ,if one is hampered the other languishes4 ,what is the use of thinking if ,i may not express my thought8 ,we claim equal liberty for all4 ,the priest shall say what he believes and so shall the sceptic4 ,no law shall protect the one and disfranchise the other4 ,if any man disapproves what ,i say1 he need not hear me a second time4 ,what more does he require8 ,let him listen to what he likes1 and leave others to do the same4 ,let us have justice and fair play all round4 ,freethought is not only useful but laudable4 ,it involves labor and trouble4 ,ours is not a gospel for those who love the soft pillow of faith4 ,the ,freethinker does not let his ship rot away in harbor2 he spreads his canvas and sails the seas of thought4 ,what though tempests beat and billows roar8 ,he is undaunted1 and leaves the avoidance of danger to the sluggard and the slave4 ,he will not pay their price for ease and safety4 ,away he sails with ,vigilance at the prow and ,wisdom at the helm4 ,he not only traverses the ocean highways1 but skirts unmapped coasts and ventures on uncharted seas4 ,he gathers spoils in every zone1 and returns with a rich freight that compensates for all hazards4 ,some day or other1 you say1 he will be shipwrecked and lost4 ,perhaps4 ,all things end somehow4 ,but if he goes down he will die like a man and not like a coward1 and have for his requiem the psalm of the tempest and the anthem of the waves4 ,doubt is the beginning of wisdom4 ,it means caution1 independence1 honesty and veracity4 ,faith means negligence1 serfdom1 insincerity and deception4 ,the man who never doubts never thinks4 ,he is like a straw in the wind or a waif on the sea4 ,he is one of the helpless1 docile1 unquestioning millions1 who keep the world in a state of stagnation1 and serve as a fulcrum for the lever of despotism4 ,the stupidity of the people1 says ,whitman1 is always inviting the insolence of power4 ,buckle has well said that scepticism is the necessary antecedent of all progress4 ,without it we should still be groping in the night of the ,dark ,ages4 ,the very foundations of modern science and philosophy were laid on ground which was wrested from the ,church1 and every stone was cemented with the blood of martyrs4 ,as the edifice arose the sharpshooters of faith attacked the builders at every point1 and they still continue their old practice1 although their missiles can hardly reach the towering heights where their enemies are now at work4 ,astronomy was opposed by the ,church because it unsettled old notions of the earth being the centre of the universe1 and the sun1 moon1 and stars mere lights stuck in the solid firmament1 and worked to and fro like sliding panels4 ,did not the ,bible say that ,general ,joshua commanded the sun to stand still1 and how could this have happened unless it moved round the earth8 ,and was not the earth certainly flat1 as millions of flats believed it to be8 ,the ,catholic ,inquisition forced ,galileo to recant1 and ,protestant ,luther called ,copernicus an old fool4 ,chemistry was opposed as an impious prying into the secrets of ,god4 ,it was put in the same class with sorcery and witchcraft1 and punished in the same way4 ,the early chemists were considered as agents of the ,devil1 and their successors are still regarded as uncanny in the more ignorant parts of ,christendom4 ,roger ,bacon was persecuted by his brother monks2 his testing fire was thought to have come from the pit1 and the explosion of his gunpowder was the ,devil vanishing in smoke and smell4 ,even at the end of last century1 the clergy-led mob of ,birmingham who wrecked ,priestley's house and destroyed his apparatus1 no doubt felt that there was a close connexion between chemistry and infidelity4 ,physiology and ,medicine were opposed on similar grounds4 ,we were all fearfully and wonderfully made1 and the less the mystery was looked into the better4 ,disease was sent by ,god for his own wise ends1 and to resist it was as bad as blasphemy4 ,every discovery and every reform was decried as impious4 ,men now living can remember how the champions of faith denounced the use of anaesthetics in painful labor as an interference with ,god's curse on the daughters of ,eve4 ,geology was opposed because it discredited ,moses1 as though that famous old ,jew had watched the deposit of every stratum of the earth's crust4 ,it was even said that fossils had been put underground by ,god to puzzle the wiseacres1 and that the ,devil had carried shells to the hilltops for the purpose of deluding men to infidelity and perdition4 ,geologists were anathematised from the pulpits and railed at by tub-thumpers4 ,they were obliged to feel their way and go slowly4 ,sir ,charles ,lyell had to keep back his strongest conclusions for at least a quarter of a century1 and could not say all he thought until his head was whitened by old age and he looked into the face of ,death4 ,biology was opposed tooth and nail as the worst of all infidelity4 ,it exposed ,genesis and put ,moses out of court4 ,it destroyed all special creation1 showed man's kinship with other forms of life1 reduced ,adam and ,eve to myths1 and exploded the doctrine of the ,fall4 ,darwin was for years treated as ,antichrist1 and ,huxley as the great beast4 ,all that is being changed1 thanks to the sceptical spirit4 ,darwin's corpse is buried in ,westminster ,abbey1 but his ideas are undermining all the churches and crumbling them into dust4 ,the gospel of ,freethought brands persecution as the worst crime against humanity4 ,it stifles the spirit of progress and strangles its pioneers4 ,it eliminates the brave1 the adventurous and the aspiring1 and leaves only the timid1 the sluggish and the grovelling4 ,it removes the lofty and spares the low4 ,it levels all the hills of thought and makes an intellectual flatness4 ,it drenches all the paths of freedom with blood and tears1 and makes earth the vestibule of hell4 ,persecution is the right arm of priestcraft4 ,the black militia of theology are the sworn foes of ,freethought4 ,they represent it as the sin against the ,holy ,ghost1 for which there is no forgiveness in this world or the next4 ,when they speak of the ,holy ,ghost they mean themselves4 ,freethought is a crime against them4 ,it strips off the mystery that invests their craft1 and shows them as they really are1 a horde of bandits who levy black mail on honest industry1 and preach a despot in heaven in order to main-tain their own tyranny on earth4 ,the gospel of ,freethought would destroy all priesthoods4 ,every man should be his own priest4 ,if a professional soul-doctor gives you wrong advice and leads you to ruin1 he will not be damned for you ,he will see you so first4 ,we must take all responsibility1 and we should also take the power4 ,instead of putting our thinking out1 as we put our washing1 let us do it at home4 ,no man can do another's thinking for him4 ,what is thought in the originator is only acquiescence in the man who takes it at secondhand4 ,if we do our own thinking in religion we shall do it in everything else4 ,we reject authority and act for ourselves4 ,spiritual and temporal power are brought under the same rule4 ,they must justify themselves or go4 ,the ,freethinker is thus a politician and a social reformer4 ,what a ,christian may be he must be4 ,freethinkers are naturally ,radicals4 ,they are almost to a man on the side of justice freedom and progress4 ,the ,tories know this1 and hence they seek to suppress us by the violence of unjust law4 ,they see that we are a growing danger to every kind of privilege1 a menace to all the idle classes who live in luxury on the sweat and labor of others--the devouring drones who live on the working bees4 ,the gospel of ,freethought teaches us to distinguish between the knowable and the unknowable4 ,we cannot fathom the infinite mystery of the universe with our finite plummet1 nor see aught behind the veil of death4 ,here is our appointed province3 ,this world which is the world ,of all of us1 and where in the end ,we find our happiness or not at all4 ,let us make the best of this world and take our chance of any other4 ,if there is a heaven1 we dare say it will hold all honest men4 ,if it will not1 those who go elsewhere will at least be in good company4 ,our salvation is here and now4 ,it is certain and not contingent4 ,we need not die before we realise it4 ,ours is a gospel1 and the only gospel1 for this side of the grave4 ,the promises of theology cannot be made good till after death2 ours are all redeemable in this life4 ,we ask men to acknowledge realities and dismiss fictions4 ,when you have sifted all the learned sermons ever preached1 you will find very little good grain4 ,theology deals with dreams and phantasies1 and gives no guidance to practical men4 ,the whole truth of life may be summed up in a few words4 ,happiness is the only good1 suffering the only evil1 and selfishness the only sin4 ,and the whole duty of man may be expressed in one sentence1 slightly altered from ,voltaire--,learn what is true in order to do what is right4 ,if a man can tell you anything about these matters1 listen to him2 if not1 turn a deaf ear1 and let him preach to the wind4 ,the only noble things in this world are great hearts and great brains1 ,there is no virtue in a starveling piety which turns all beauty into ugliness and shrivels up every natural affection4 ,let the heart beat high with courage and enterprise1 and throb with warm passion4 ,let the brain be an active engine of thought1 imagination and will4 ,the gospel of sorrow has had its day1 and the time has come for the gospel of gladness4 ,let us live out our lives to the full1 radiating joy on all in our own circle1 and diffusing happiness through the grander circle of humanity1 until at last we retire from the banquet of life1 as others have done before us1 and sink in eternal repose4 ,,freethought ,,in ,,current ,,literature4 ,a ,paper read at the ,annual ,conference of the ,national ,secular ,society1 in the ,co-operative ,hall1 ,bury1 ,june #eth1 #ahha4 ,when ,i was invited to read a paper at this ,conference1 ,i thought that1 as editor of the ,freethinker1 ,i ought to say something about ,freethonght4 ,and as the deliberations of this ,conference are mostly on practical matters1 it occurred to me that ,i had better select a subject of less immediate though not of insignificant interest4 ,so ,i resolved to address you on ,freethonght in ,current ,literature4 ,i have said that this subject1 if not practical and urgent1 is assuredly not unimportant4 ,the power of literature over men's minds cannot be estimated too highly4 ,science is a tremendous force1 but its greatest influence is exercised over the human mind when it quits the merely practical task of ministering to our material desires1 and seeks to mould our moral and spiritual conceptions of our position and destiny in the universe4 ,to do this it must address us through the medium of literature4 ,art also is a great force1 more especially in countries which have not been subjected1 like ours1 to the bondage of ,puritanism4 ,but art has hitherto appealed to a restricted circle1 although that circle is rapidly widening in our own age4 ,the greatest1 most permanent1 and most universal force is literature4 ,raphael and ,michael ,angelo have not influenced the world so profoundly as ,shakespeare and ,dante2 while so many artistic achievements of antiquity are lost or half decayed1 its literary masterpieces still survive with undiminished freshness and charm2 and while the most eminent works even of contemporary artists are seen only occasionally by a few1 the most eminent writings of the world's master minds may and do become a household possession to thousands who move in the humblest spheres of life4 ,in these cosmopolitan days the ,freethinker and ,humanitarian naturally looks beyond his own country into the great world1 which is at present divided by national and other barriers1 but which will in time become the home of one all-embracing family4 ,and ,i confess that ,i was strongly tempted to trace the workings of the spirit of ,freethought as far as ,i could in the general literature of ,europe4 ,but ,i soon recognised the necessity of limiting myself to the manifestations of that subtle and pervasive spirit in the current literature of our ,english tongue4 ,when the present century commenced ,europe was stirred to the utter depths by that great ,french ,revolution which marked a new epoch in the world's history4 ,the revolutionary wave surged across the western world1 and passed over ,england as well as other countries4 ,some thought the huge eclipse of social order which accompanied it the herald of approaching night1 and others thought it the dawn of a new day2 but none were indifferent4 ,there was an intense excitement of radical passions and desires1 a quickening of all the springs of life4 ,this produced a blossoming of our literature such as had not been witnessed since the great ,elizabethan age1 and then1 as before1 ,free-thought mixed with the vital sap4 ,of the long array of post-revolutionary names ,i select three--,thomas ,paine1 who represented the keen and restless common-sense of ,freethought2 ,william ,godwin1 who represented its calmer philosophy2 and ,shelley1 who represented its lofty hopes and soaring aspirations4 ,godwin has almost faded into a name2 ,paine's great work is nearly done1 for a deeper and more scientific scepticism has possessed itself of the field in which he labored2 but ,shelley has a message for generations yet unborn4 ,he emerges as the supreme figure destined to immortality of fame4 ,all great and noble and beautiful qualities cohere in him1 the poet of poets and purest of men4 ,and he is ours4 ,byron1 with all his splendid energy and terrible scorn1 quailed before the supreme problems of life2 but ,shelley faced them with a courage all the greater because it was unconscious1 and casting aside all superstitious dreams and illusory hopes1 yearned prophetically towards the ,future1 when freedom1 truth and love shall supersede all other trinities1 and realise here on earth that ,paradise which theologians have only promised in a world to come4 ,a ,shelley cultus has grown up during recent years1 and many of our most gifted writers reverently bow themselves before him4 ,i have only to mention such names as ,browning1 ,swinburne1 and ,rossetti to show the intellectual rank of his worshippers4 ,their number increases every year1 and it is touching to witness the avidity with which they seize on all new facts relating to him1 whether the record of some episode in his life1 a reported conversation1 or a scrap of writing from his hand4 ,from the ,shelley and ,byron period to the fresh revolutionary outburst of #ahdh there was a lull in ,england as well as elsewhere4 ,several great political reforms were achieved in the interval4 ,a ,reform ,bill was carried4 ,catholics and ,jews were emancipated1 and freedom and cheapness of the press were won by the untameable courage of men like ,carlile1 ,hetherington1 ,lovett1 and ,watson4 ,but quietude reigned in the higher spheres of literature4 ,the age was eminently respectable1 and it acclaimed the highly respectable ,wordsworth as1 the prophet divinely inspired to teach men how to rest and be thankful4 ,but during that interval of apathy and respectability1 ,science was slowly gathering strength and making conquests1 in preparation for the time when she might plant her feet firmly on the solid ground she had won1 and challenge ,theology to mortal combat4 ,geology and ,biology1 in especial1 were getting themselves ready to overthrow the fables of ,genesis and destroy its doctrines of special creation4 ,and one is glad to admit that they have completely succeeded at last4 ,professor ,huxley declares that he is not acquainted with any man of science or properly instructed person who believes that ,adam and ,eve were the first parents of mankind1 or that we have all descended from the eight persons who superintended that wonderful floating menagerie which survived a universal deluge less than five thousand years ago4 ,and all the clergy can say in reply is that ,professor ,huxley is not endowed with that theological faculty which enables them to perceive in the language of ,scripture a meaning which is quite undiscernible to the eyes of common sense4 ,another influence was at work during that interval4 ,mainly through ,carlyle1 the treasures of ,german literature were opened up to ,english readers4 ,the greatest ,german writers1 from ,leasing1 ,gethe1 and ,schiller to ,fichte1 ,richter1 and ,heine1 were outrageous ,freethinkers compared with our own respectable and orthodox writers1 and their influence soon made itself evident in the tolerance and courage with which ,english authors began to treat the great problems of morality and religion4 ,german scholarship1 too1 slowly crept among us4 ,its ,biblical criticism showed us the utter inadequacy of evidential works like ,paley's1 and made us see that the ,christian ,scriptures would have to be viewed in a very different light and studied in a very different spirit4 ,to estimate the extent of this change1 we have only to place ,paley's ,evidences of ,christianity beside such a work as ,supernatural ,religion4 ,the gulf between these works is enormous2 and it is notable that the more scientific and rigorous is the criticism of the ,new ,testament books1 the more heterodox are the conclusions reached4 ,even ,scotland has been invaded by this ,german influence1 and it now affords us the laughable spectacle of a number of grave ministers pursuing as a damnable heretic a man like ,dr4 ,robertson ,smith1 whose only crime is having stated about the ,bible nothing new1 but what every scholar in ,europe knows to be admitted and indisputable4 ,these solemn ministers of the old creed are determined to keep the deluge of what they call ,german infidelity from flooding the valleys and mounting the hillsides of ,scotland2 but their heresy-hunts are just as efficacious against what they so piously dread as ,mrs4 ,partington's mop against the mighty onrush of ,atlantic rollers4 ,with the revolutionary movement of '#dh came a fresh impulse from ,france4 ,the great evangel of '#hi had not perished2 it was only in abeyance2 and again it burst upon ,europe with its words of fire4 ,we all know how the ,republic which was then established was soon suppressed in blood by the gang of adventurers presided over by ,napoleon the ,little4 ,but the day of retribution came1 and the empire went the way of all tyrannies4 ,on its ruins the ,republic has been established anew1 and now it reckons in its service and among its champions the best intellects and the noblest characters in ,france2 while the masses of the people1 taught by the bitter lessons of adversity1 are also content to enjoy the benefits of ordered liberty and peaceful progress under its benign sway4 ,now ,french progress has always been a question of ideas no less than of material advantage4 ,the great democratic leaders in ,france have nearly all been avowed ,freethinkers4 ,they have separated themselves alike from the blood on the hands of the king and the lie at the lips of the priest1 being perfectly assured that outward freedom in politics is in the long run impossible without inward freedom of thought4 ,the chief statesman in ,france1 ,m4 ,gambetta1 has publicly declared himself a disciple of ,voltaire1 and neither at the marriages nor at the funerals of his friends does he ever enter the doors of a church4 ,he stays outside and quietly allows those who desire it to go in and listen to the mumbling of the priest4 ,my purpose1 however1 being literary and not political1 ,i must recur to my remark that a fresh impulse came to us from ,france after the revolution of '#dh4 ,lamartine at first exercised considerable influence here1 but gradually ,victor ,hugo's star ascended1 and from the moment it reached the zenith until now1 he has been accounted the supreme poet of ,france1 and the greatest contemporary evangelist of the ideas of '#hi4 ,he is a ,freethinker as well as a ,republican2 and it was inevitable that the younger school of writers in ,england1 who acknowledge him as a lofty master1 should drink from his inexhaustible spring the living waters of ,democracy and ,freethought4 ,french influence on our very recent literature is evident in such works as ,mr4 ,john ,morley's ,studies on ,voltaire1 ,rousseau1 ,diderot1 and ,condorcet2 ,mr4 ,christie's monumental ,life of ,etienne ,dolet1 the ,freethought martyr2 and ,mr4 ,parton's new ,life of ,voltaire2 all of which demand and will amply requite our attention4 ,such are the influences which have conspired to shape the literary activities of the generation in which we live4 ,now ,freethought1 like a subtle essence1 penetrates everywhere4 ,every book betrays its presence1 and even the periodical literature of our age is affected by it4 ,the ,archbishop of ,canterbury laments that ,christian men cannot introduce the most respectable magazines into their homes without the risk of poisoning the minds of their families with heretical ideas4 ,one of the signs that ,freethought had begun to leaven the educated classes was the publication of the famous ,essays and ,reviews4 ,the heresy of that book was exceedingly small1 but it roused a great storm in the religious world and led to more than one clerical prosecution4 ,another sign was the publication of ,colenso's learned work on the ,pentateuch4 ,this hard-working ,colonial ,bishop was denounced as a heretic by the idler home ,bishops1 and ,ruskin has said that they would have liked to burn ,colenso alive1 and make ,ludgate ,hill easier for the omnibuses with the cinders of him4 ,an antagonist very different from the ,bishops was ,mr4 ,matthew ,arnold1 who severely censured ,colenso's whole method of criticism1 as a handling of religious questions in an irreligious spirit4 ,mr4 ,w4 ,r4 ,greg admirably defended the ,bishop1 and the controversy ended in a drawn battle4 ,but what has happened since8 ,the same ,matthew ,arnold who censured ,colenso has himself published two remarkable works on ,literature and ,dogma and ,god and the ,bible1 written it is true on a different plan from ,colenso's1 but containing a hundred times more heresy than the ,bishop crammed into all his big volumes4 ,for ,mr4 ,arnold deprecates the idea of a personal god1 likens the ,christian ,trinity to three ,lord ,shaftesburys1 and says that the ,bible miracles must all be given up without reservation4 ,all the positive religion he leaves us is the belief in ,an eternal not ourselves that makes for righteousness1 which is about as nebulous a creed as ever was preached4 ,now ,mr4 ,arnold is not an insignificant person4 ,he is recognised as a past-master of ,english letters1 a ripe scholar1 a fine poet1 and an exquisite critic4 ,when such a man carries destructive criticism to its utmost limits1 we may well congratulate ourselves on a signal triumph of ,freethought4 ,and we may also find comfort in the fact that nobody thinks of flinging a stone at ,mr4 ,arnold for his heresy4 ,by-and-by the censors of religion in the press will cease to throw stones at the ,freethought teachers among the masses of the people1 who only put into homlier ,english and publish in a cheaper form the sentiments and ideas which ,mr4 ,arnold expresses for the educated classes at a higher price and in a loftier style4 ,during the winter a gap was made in the front rank of ,english literature by the deaths of ,carlyle and ,george ,eliot4 ,neither of these great writers was orthodox4 ,carlyle was a ,freethinker to the extent of discarding ,christian supernaturalism4 ,very early in his life he told ,edward ,irving that he did not1 nor was it likely he ever would1 regard ,christianity as he did4 ,we all remember1 too1 his scornful references to ,hebrew ,old ,clothes1 and his fierce diatribes against the clergy who1 he said1 went about with strange gear on their heads1 and underneath it such a theory of the universe as he1 for one1 was thankful to have no concern with4 ,in the ,latter-,day ,pamphlets he likened ,christianity to a great tree1 sprung from the seed of ,nazareth1 and since fed by the opulences of fifty generations2 which now is perishing at the root1 and sways to and fro ever farther and farther from the perpendicular2 and which in the end must come down1 and leave to those who found shelter beneath it and thought it infinite1 a wholesome view of the upper eternal lights4 ,and his contempt for controversial or dogmatic theology may be gauged by his reply to one who asked him whether he was a ,pantheist4 ,no1 said ,carlyle1 never was2 nor a ,pot-,theist either4 ,george ,eliot was notoriously a ,freethinker4 ,early in her literary career she translated ,strauss and ,feuerback into ,english1 and through all her novels there runs a profound ,secular spirit4 ,among her friends she was well known to be a ,positivist2 and though her creed held forth no promise of personal life beyond the grave1 she found inspiration and comfort in the thought that ,humanity would advance after she was gone1 that though she died the race was practically immortal4 ,her mind was thoroughly imbued with the scientific spirit1 and her writings give some conception of the way in which the ,evolution theory affected a mind1 fortified by culture and abundant common sense against the crudities of enthusiasm4 ,the doctrine of ,evolution did not fill her with despair2 on the contrary1 it justified and strengthened her ardent hopes for the future of mankind4 ,many other novelists betray a strong spirit of ,freethought4 ,it pervades all ,george ,meredith's later writings1 and is still more conspicuous in ,mrs4 ,lynn ,linton's ,true ,history of ,joshua ,davidson and her powerful ,under which ,lord8 the hero-husband of that story being an ,agnostic gentleman who founds a workmen's institute and delivers ,freethought lectures in it4 ,almost all the young school of poets are ,freethinkers4 ,browning1 our greatest1 and ,tennyson1 our most popular1 belong to a generation that is past4 ,mr4 ,swinburne is at the head of the new school1 and he is a notorious heretic4 ,he never sings more loftily1 or with stronger passion1 or with finer thought1 than when he arraigns and denounces priestcraft and its superstitions before the bar of humanity and truth4 ,the reception of ,mr4 ,thomsons poems and essays affords another sign of the progress of ,freethought4 ,this gentleman for many years contributed to secular journals under the initials of ,b4 ,v4 ,he is a pronounced ,atheist1 and makes no concealment of it in his poems4 ,yet1 while a few critics have expressed horror at his heresy1 the majority have treated it as extremely natural in an educated thoughtful man1 and confined themselves to the task of estimating the genius he has put into his work4 ,i must now draw to a close4 ,freethought1 ,i hold1 is an omnipresent active force in the ,english literature of to-day4 ,it appears alike in the greatest works of scholarship1 in the writings of men of science1 in the songs of poets1 in the productions of novelists1 in the most respectable magazines1 and in the multitudinous daily press4 ,it is urgent and aggressive1 and tolerates no restraint4 ,it indicates the progress we have made towards that time when the mind of man shall play freely on every subject1 when no question shall be thought too sacred to be investigated1 when reason shall be the sovereign arbiter of all disputes1 when priestly authority shall have perished1 when every man's thought shall decide his own belief1 and his conscience determine the way in which he shall walk4 ,,dean ,,stanley',s ,,latest4 7,august1 #ahhj47 ,at one of ,charles ,lamb's delightful ,wednesday evenings ,coleridge had1 as usual1 consumed more than his fair share of time in talking of some regenerated orthodoxy4 ,leigh ,hunt1 who was one of the listeners1 manifested his surprise at the prodigality and intensity of the poet's religious expressions1 and especially at his always speaking of ,jesus as our ,savior4 ,whereupon ,lamb1 slightly exhilarated by a glass of gooseberry cordial1 stammered out1 ,ne--ne--never mind what ,coleridge says2 he's full of fun4 ,this jocular and irreverent criticism is perhaps1 after all1 the most pertinent that can be passed on the utterances of this school of regenerated orthodoxy4 ,coleridge1 who had unbounded genius1 and was intellectually capable of transforming ,british philosophy1 went on year after year maundering about his sumject and omject1 mysteriously alluding to his great projected work on the ,logos1 and assuring everybody that he knew a way of bringing all ascertained truth within the dogmas of the ,church of ,england4 ,his pupil1 ,maurice1 wasted a noble intellect 7as ,mill says1 few of his contemporaries had so much intellect to waste7 in the endeavor to demonstrate that the ,thirty-,nine ,articles really anticipated all the extremest conclusions of modern thought2 afflicting himself perpetually1 as has been well said1 with those forty stripes save one4 ,and now we have ,dean ,stanley1 certainly a much smaller man than ,maurice1 and infinitely smaller than ,coleridge1 continuing the traditions of the school1 of which let us hope he will be the last teacher4 ,what his theology precisely is no mortal can determine4 ,he subscribes the doctrines of the ,church of ,england1 but then he interprets them in an esoteric sense2 that is1 of course1 in a ,stanleyan sense2 for when the letter of doctrine is left for its occult meaning every man runs a private interpretation of his own4 ,the ,nineteenth ,century for ,august contains a characteristic specimen of his exegesis4 ,it is entitled ,the ,creed of the ,early ,christians1 but is really a sermon on the ,trinity1 which doubtless has been preached at ,westminster4 ,we shall examine its peculiarities and try to reach its meaning2 a task by no means easy1 and one which we could pardon anyone for putting aside with ,lamb's remark1 ,it's only his fun4 ,dean ,stanley has a new theory of the ,trinity1 partly deduced from other mystics1 and partly constructed on the plan of the negro who explained that his wooden doll was made all by myself1 out of my own head4 ,god the ,father1 in this as in other theories1 comes first3 not that he is older or greater than the other persons1 for they are all three coequal and coternal2 but because you must have a first for the sake of enumeration1 or else the most blessed ,trinity would be like the ,irishman's little pig who ran about so that there was no counting him4 ,there is also another reason4 ,god the ,father corresponds to ,natural ,religion1 which of course has priority in the religious development of mankind2 coming before ,revealed ,religion1 to which ,god the ,son corresponds1 and still more before ,spiritual ,religion to which corresponds the ,holy ,ghost4 ,we look round the physical world2 we see indications of order1 design1 and good will towards the living creatures which animate it4 ,often1 it is true1 we cannot trace any such design2 but1 whenever we can1 the impression upon us is the sense of a ,single1 ,wise1 ,beneficent ,mind1 the same now that it was ages before the appearance of man--the same in other parts of the ,universe as it is in our own4 ,and in our own hearts and consciences we feel an instinct corresponding to this--a voice1 a faculty1 that seems to refer us to a higher power than ourselves1 and to point to some ,invisible ,sovereign ,will1 like to that which we see impressed on the natural world4 ,and further1 the more we think of the ,supreme1 the more we try to imagine what his feelings are towards us1 the more our idea of him becomes fixed as in the one simple1 all-embracing word that he is ,our ,father4 ,the words we have italicised say that design cannot always be traced in nature4 ,we should like to know where it can ever be4 ,evolution shows that the design argument puts the cart before the horse4 ,natural ,selection1 as ,dr4 ,schmidt appositely remarks1 accounts for adaptation as a result without requiring the supposition of design as a cause4 ,and if you cannot deduce ,god from the animate world1 you are not likely to deduce him from the inanimate4 ,dean ,stanley himself quotes some remarkable words from ,dr4 ,newman's ,apologia--,the being of a god is as certain to me as the certainty of my own existence4 ,yet when ,i look out of myself into the world of men1 ,i see a sight which fills me with unspeakable distress4 ,the world of men seems simply to give the lie to that great truth of which my whole being is so full4 ,if ,i looked into a mirror and did not see my face1 ,i should experience the same sort of difficulty that actually comes upon me when ,i look into this living busy world and see no reflection of its ,creator4 ,how1 asks the ,dean1 is this difficulty to be met8 ,oh1 he replies1 we must turn to ,god the ,son in the person of ,jesus ,christ1 and his utterances will supplement and correct the uncertain sounds of nature2 and then there is the ,holy ,ghost to finally supply all omissions1 and clear up all difficulties4 ,now to our mind this is simply intellectual thimble-rigging4 ,or rather does it not suggest the three-card trick8 ,one card is useless1 two cards are unsafe1 but with three cards to shuffle you are almost sure to win4 ,dr4 ,newman gets his ,god through intuition2 he maintains that the existence of ,god is a primary fact of consciousness1 and entirely declines the impossible task of proving it from the phnomena of nature4 ,dean ,stanley should do the same4 ,it is not honest to employ an argument and then shirk all the difficulties it raises by resorting to the theological three-card trick1 which confounds instead of satisfying the spectator1 while emptying his mental pockets of the good cash of common sense4 ,the ,dean's treatment of ,god the ,son is amusing4 ,he writes of ,jesus ,christ as though he were a principle instead of a person4 ,the ,mahometan1 he says1 rightly objects to the introduction of the paternal and filial relations into the idea of ,god1 when they are interpreted in the gross and literal sense4 ,but in the moral spiritual sense it is true that the kindness1 tenderness and wisdom we find in ,jesus ,christ is the reflection of the same kindness1 tenderness and wisdom which we recognise in the governance of the universe4 ,this may be called mysticism1 but we think it moonshine4 ,gross and literal sense1 forsooth6 ,why1 was not ,jesus ,christ a man1 a most literal fact1 gross as a mountain1 open1 palpable8 ,dean ,stanley approves the ,mahometan's objection1 and yet he knows full well that it contravenes a fundamental dogma of the ,christian ,church1 and is accounted a most damnable heresy4 ,why this paltering with us in a double sense8 ,to our mind downright blatant orthodoxy1 which is at least honest if not subtle1 is preferable to this hybrid theology which attempts to reconcile contradictions in order to show respect to truth while sticking to the flesh-pots of error1 and evades all difficulties by a patent and patently dishonest method of interpretation4 ,quoting ,goethe's ,wilhelm ,meister1 ,dean ,stanley tells us that one great benefit traceable to ,god the ,son is the recognition of humility and poverty1 mockery and despising1 wretchedness and suffering1 as divine4 ,well1 if these things are divine1 the sooner we all become devilish the better4 ,nobody thinks them divine when they happen to himself2 on the contrary1 he cries out lustily against them4 ,but it is a different matter when they happen to others4 ,then the good ,christian considers them divine4 ,how easily1 says a ,french wit1 we bear other people's troubles6 ,undistracted by personal care1 pious souls contemplate with serene resignation the suffering of their neighbors1 and acknowledge in them the chastening hand of a ,divine ,father4 ,god the ,holy ,ghost represents ,spiritual religion3 the ,father represents ,god in ,nature1 the ,son represents ,god in ,history1 and the ,holy ,ghost represents to us ,god in our own hearts and spirits and consciences4 ,here be truths6 ,an illustration is given4 ,theodore ,parker1 when a boy1 took up a stone to throw at a tortoise in a pond1 but felt himself restrained by something within him2 and that something1 as his mother told him1 was the voice of ,god1 or in other words the ,holy ,ghost4 ,now if the ,holy ,ghost is required to account for every kind impulse of boys and men1 there is required also an ,unholy ,ghost to account for all our unkind impulses4 ,that is1 a place in theology must be found for the ,devil4 ,the equilateral triangle of theology must be turned into a square1 with ,old ,nick for the fourth side4 ,but ,dean ,stanley does not like the ,devil2 he deems him not quite respectable enough for polite society4 ,let him1 then1 give up the ,holy ,ghost too1 for the one is the correlative of the other4 ,it may be1 says the ,dean1 after interpreting the ,trinity1 that the ,biblical words in some respects fall short of this high signification4 ,what1 ,god's own language inferior to that of the ,dean of ,westminster8 ,surely this is strange arrogance1 unless after all it's only his fun4 ,perhaps that is how we should take it4 ,referring to some sacred pictures in the old churches of the ,east on ,mount ,athos1 intended to represent the doctrine of the ,trinity1 the ,dean says that standing on one side the spectator sees only ,christ on the ,cross1 standing on the other he sees only the ,holy ,dove1 while standing in front he sees only the ,eternal ,father4 ,very admirable1 no doubt4 ,but there is a more admirable picture described by ,mr4 ,herbert ,spencer in his ,study of ,sociology1 which graphically represents the doctrine of the ,trinity in the guise of three persons trying to stand in one pair of boots6 ,goethe is cited as a ,christian1 a believer in the ,trinity4 ,doubtless the ,dean forgets his bitter epigram to the effect that he found four things too hard to put up with1 and as hateful as poison and serpents2 namely1 tobacco1 garlic1 bugs1 and the ,cross4 ,heine also is pressed into service1 and an excellent prose translation of one of his poems is given1 wherein he celebrates the ,holy ,ghost1 the ,spirit of ,god4 ,but ,dean ,stanley has read his ,heine to little purpose if he imagines that this radiant and splendid soldier of progress meant by the ,spirit of ,god the third person of the ,christian ,trinity4 ,heine was no ,christian1 and the very opposite of a theologian4 ,we might translate passages of scathing irony on the ascetic creed of the ,cross from the ,de ,l',allemagne1 but space does not admit4 ,a few of ,heine's last words must do instead4 ,to ,adolph ,stahr he said3 ,for the man in good health ,christianity is an unserviceable religion1 with its resignation and one-sided precepts4 ,for the sick man1 however1 ,i assure you it is a very good religion4 ,to ,alfred ,meissner3 ,when health is used up1 money used up1 and sound human sense used up1 ,christianity begins4 ,once1 while lying on his mattress-grave1 he said with a sigh3 ,if ,i could even get out on crutches1 do you know whither ,i would go8 ,straight to church4 ,and when his hearer looked incredulous1 he added3 ,most decidedly to church4 ,where else should one go with crutches8 ,such exquisite and mordant irony is strange indeed in a defender of the holy and blessed ,trinity4 ,dean ,stanley's peroration runs thus3--,wherever we are taught to know and understand the real nature of the world in which our lot is cast1 there is a testimony1 however humble1 to the name of the ,father2 wherever we are taught to know and admire the highest and best of human excellence1 there is a testimony to the name of the ,son3 wherever there is implanted in us a presence of freedom1 purity and love1 there is a testimony to the name of the ,holy ,ghost4 ,very fine1 no doubt2 also very soporific4 ,one is inclined to mutter a sleepy ,amen4 ,if this passage means anything at all it implies that all who know truth1 admire excellence1 and have any share in freedom and virtue1 are testators to the names of ,father1 ,son and ,holy ,ghost2 so that many ,atheists are ,trinitarians without knowing it4 ,in ,christianity1 says the ,dean1 no thing is of real concern except that which makes us wiser and better4 ,that is precisely what the sceptic says1 yet for that coroners reject his service on juries1 and rowdy ,christians try to keep him out of ,parliament when he has a legal right to enter4 ,but the ,dean adds3 ,everything which does make us wiser and better is the very thing which ,christianity intends4 ,that is1 ,christianity means just what you like to find in it4 ,how can a man of ,dean ,stanley's eminence and ability write such dishonest trash8 ,must we charitably1 though with a touch of sarcasm1 repeat ,lamb's words of ,coleridge--,never mind2 it's only his fun8 ,,god ,,and ,,the ,,queen4 7,march1 #ahhb47 ,the ,queen is now safely lodged at ,mentone4 ,although-the political outlook is not very bright1 there is pretty sure to be a good solid majority to vote a dowry for ,prince ,leopold's bride2 and so long as royalty is safe it does not much matter what becomes of the people4 ,that dreadful ,bradlaugh is gagged2 he cannot open his mouth in the ,house of ,commons against perpetual pensions or royal grants4 ,the interests of monarchy are in no immediate peril1 and so the ,queen is off to ,mentone4 ,now she is gone1 and the loyal hubbub has subsided1 it is just the time to consider her late providential escape from the bullet which was never fired at her4 ,what is the meaning of providential8 ,god does all or nothing4 ,there is a special providence in the fall of a sparrow1 as well as in the fall of empires4 ,in that case everything is providential4 ,but this is not the ordinary view4 ,when a railway accident occurs those who do not come to grief ascribe their preservation to ,providence4 ,who then is responsible for the fate of those who perish8 ,centuries ago ,christians would have answered1 the ,devil4 ,now they give no answer at all1 but treat the question as frivolous or profane4 ,thomas ,cooper1 in his ,autobiography1 says that the perfecting touch was given to his conversion by an interposition of ,god4 ,during a collision1 the carriage in which he sat was lifted clean on to another line of rails1 and thus escaped the fate of the other carriages1 which were broken to pieces4 ,pious ,thomas recognised at once the finger of ,god1 and he there and then fell on his knees and offered up a thanksgiving4 ,he was too vain to carry his argument out to its logical end4 ,why did the ,lord protect him1 and not his fellow-travellers8 ,was he of more importance than any of the others8 ,and why1 if it was right to thank ,god for saving ,thomas ,cooper1 would it be wrong to curse him for smashing all the rest8 ,this superstition of ,providence is dying out4 ,common people are gradually being left to the laws of ,nature4 ,if a workhouse were to catch on fire1 no one would speak of those who escaped the flames as providentially saved4 ,god does not look after the welfare of paupers2 nor is it likely that he would pluck a charwoman's brat out of the fire if it tumbled in during her absence4 ,such interpositions are absurd4 ,but with kings1 queens1 princes1 princesses1 and big nobs in general1 the case is different4 ,god looks after the quality4 ,he stretches forth his hand to save them from danger1 from the pestilence that walketh by day and the terror that walketh by night4 ,and his worshippers take just the same view of the swells4 ,when the ,queen came to ,london1 a few weeks ago1 one of her mounted attendants was thrown and badly hurt2 and the next day one of the loyal ,tory papers reported that her ,majesty had completely recovered from the accident to her outrider6 ,but if the ,lord overlooks the great ones of the earth1 why is he not impartial8 ,he did not turn aside ,guiteau's bullet1 nor did he answer the prayers of a whole nation on its knees4 ,president ,garfield was allowed to die after a long agony4 ,poor ,mrs4 ,garfield believed up to the very last minute that ,god would interpose and save her husband4 ,but he never did4 ,why was he so indifferent in this case8 ,was it because ,garfield was a ,president instead of a ,king1 the elected leader of free men instead of the hereditary ruler of political slaves8 ,informer ,newdegate would say so4 ,in his opinion ,god ,almighty hates ,republicans4 ,yet the ,bible clearly shows that the ,lord is opposed to monarchy4 ,he gave his chosen people a king as a punishment1 after plainly telling them what an evil they had sought2 and there is perhaps a covert irony in the story of ,saul1 the son of ,kish1 who went to seek his father's asses and found instead a nation of subjects--two-legged asses1 who begged him to mount them and ride4 ,take another case4 ,why did ,god permit the ,nihilists to assassinate the late ,czar of ,russia8 ,all their previous plots had failed4 ,why was the last plot allowed to succeed8 ,there is only one answer4 ,god had nothing to do with any of them1 and the last succeeded because it was better devised and more carefully executed4 ,if ,god protected the ,czar against their former attempts1 they were too many for him in the end2 that is1 they defeated ,omnipotence--an absurdity too flagrant for any sane man to believe4 ,why should ,god care for princes more than for peasants1 for queens more than for washerwomen8 ,there is no difference in their compositions2 they are all made of the same flesh and blood4 ,the very book these loyal gushers call the ,word of ,god declares that he is no respecter of persons4 ,what are the distinctions of rank and wealth8 ,mere nothings4 ,look down from an altitude of a thousand feet1 and an emperor and his subjects shall appear equally small2 and what are even a thousand feet in the infinite universe8 ,nay1 strip them of all their fictions of dress2 reduce them to the same condition of featherless bipeds2 and you shall find the forms of strength or beauty1 and the power of brain1 impartially distributed by ,nature1 who is the truest democrat1 who raises her ,shakespeares from the lowest strata of society1 and laughs to scorn the pride of palaces and thrones4 ,providence is an absurdity1 a superstitious relic of the ignorant past4 ,sensible men disbelieve it1 and scientists laugh it to scorn4 ,our very moral sense revolts against it4 ,why should ,god help a few of his children and neglect all the others8 ,explosions happen in mines1 and scores of honest industrious men1 doing the rough work of the world and winning bread for wife and child1 are blown to atoms or hurled into shapeless death4 ,god does not help them1 and tears moisten the dry bread of half-starved widows and orphans4 ,sailors on the mighty deep go down with uplifted hands1 or slowly gaze their life away on the merciless heavens4 ,the mother bends over her dying child1 the first flower of her wedded love1 the sweetest hope of her life4 ,she is rigid with despair1 and in her hot tearless eyes there dwells a dumb misery that would touch a heart of stone4 ,but ,god does not help1 the death-curtain falls1 and darkness reigns where all was light4 ,who has the audacity to say that the ,god who will not aid a mother in the death-chamber shelters the ,queen upon her throne8 ,it is an insult to reason and a ghastly mockery of justice4 ,the impartiality of ,nature is better than the mercy of such a ,god4 ,,cardinal ,,newman ,,on ,,infidelity4 7,april1 #ahhb47 ,cardinal ,newman is perhaps the only ,catholic in ,england worth listening to4 ,he has immured his intellect in the catacombs of the ,romish ,church1 but he has not been able to quench it1 and even there it radiates a splendor through the gloom4 ,his saintly character is as indubitable as the subtlety of his mind1 and no vicissitude has impaired the charm of his style1 which is pure and perfect as an exquisite and flawless diamond2 serene and chaste in its usual mood1 but scintillating gloriously in the light of his imagination4 ,on ,sunday last ,cardinal ,newman preached a sermon at the ,oratory in ,birmingham on ,modern ,infidelity4 ,unfortunately we have not a full report1 from which we might be able to extract some notable passages1 but only a newspaper summary4 ,even this1 however1 shows some points of interest4 ,cardinal ,newman told his hearers that a great storm of infidelity and irreligion was at hand1 and that some dreadful spiritual catastrophe was coming upon them4 ,we quite agree with the great preacher2 but every storm is not an evil1 and every catastrophe is not a disaster4 ,the revolutionary storm in ,france cleared the air of much pestilence4 ,it dissipated as by enchantment the horrible cloud of tyranny1 persecution and want1 which had for centuries hovered over the land4 ,and certainly1 to go back a stage farther in history1 the ,reformation was not a misfortune1 although it looked like a spiritual catastrophe to a great many amiable people4 ,the truth is1 ,revolutions must occur in this world1 both in thought and in action4 ,they may happen slowly1 so that we may accommodate ourselves to them2 or rapidly1 and so disturb and injure whole generations4 ,but come they must1 and no power can hinder them2 not even that once mighty ,church which has always striven to bind ,humanity to the past with adamantine chains of dogma4 ,in ,cardinal ,newman's own words1 from perhaps his greatest and most characteristic book1--here below to live is to change1 and to be perfect is to have changed often4 ,we cannot say that ,cardinal ,newman indicates how humanity will suffer from the coming storm of infidelity and irreligion4 ,he does1 indeed1 refer to the awful state of a people forsaken by ,god1 but in our humble opinion this is somewhat ludicrous4 ,we can hardly understand how ,god can forsake his own creatures4 ,why all this pother if he really exists8 ,in that case our scepticism cannot affect him1 any more than a man's blindness obscures the sun4 ,and surely1 if ,omnipotence desired us all to believe the truth1 the means are ready to hand4 ,the ,god who said1 ,let there be light1 and there was light1 could as easily say1 ,let all men be ,christians1 and they would be ,christians4 ,if ,god had spoken the universe would be convinced2 and the fact that it is not convinced proves1 either that he does not exist1 or that he purposely keeps silent1 and desires that we should mind our own business4 ,the only tangible evil ,cardinal ,newman ventures to indicate is the indignity which at this moment has come over the ,holy ,father at ,rome4 ,he declares1 as to the ,pope1 that there hardly seems a place in the whole of ,europe where he could put his foot4 ,the ,catholics are carrying this pretence of a captive ,pope a trifle too far4 ,his ,holiness must have a tremendous foot if he cannot put it fairly down on the floor of the ,vatican4 ,he and his ,cardinals really wail over their loss of temporal power4 ,it would be wiser and nobler to reconcile themselves to the inevitable1 and to end the nefarious diplomacy by which they are continually striving to recover what is for ever lost4 ,the whole world is aware of the scandalous misrule and the flagrant immorality which1 under the government of the ,papacy1 made the ,eternal ,city a byword and a reproach4 ,under the secular government1 ,rome has made wonderful progress4 ,it has better streets1 cleaner inhabitants1 less fever and filth1 and a much smaller army of priests1 beggars1 and prostitutes4 ,catholics may rest assured that the bad old times will never return4 ,they may1 of course1 promise a reformation of manners if the ,holy ,father's dominion is restored1 but the world will not believe them4 ,reforming the ,papacy1 as ,carlyle grimly said1 is like tinkering a rusty old kettle4 ,if you stop up the holes of it with temporary putty1 it may hang together for awhile2 but begin to hammer at it1 solder it1 to what you call mend and rectify it1--it will fall to shreds1 as sure as rust is rust2 go all into nameless dissolution1--and the fat in the fire will be a thing worth looking at1 poor ,pope6 ,as a sincere ,christian 7a very rare thing1 by the way1 in these days71 ,cardinal ,newman is bound to lament the spread of infidelity4 ,he is a keen observer1 and his word may be taken for the fact4 ,a stormy time is undoubtedly coming4 ,old creeds and institutions will have to give an account of themselves1 and nothing that cannot stand the test will live4 ,but truth will not suffer4 ,criticise the multiplication table as much as you please1 and twice two will still be four4 ,in the storm and stress of controversy what is true and solid will survive2 only the hollow shams of authority and superstition will collapse4 ,humanity has nothing to fear1 however the ,churches may groan4 ,,sunday ,,tyranny4 7,may1 #ahhb47 ,last ,sunday the myriads of ,paris turned out to the ,chantilly races4 ,the sun shone brilliantly1 and all went merry as a marriage bell4 ,yet there was no drunkenness or disorder2 on the contrary1 the multitude behaved with such decorum1 that one ,english correspondent said it would not have appeared strange if a bishop had stepped forward in full canonicals to give them his benediction4 ,why cannot ,englishmen enjoy their ,sunday's leisure like the ,french8 ,because we are still under the bondage of ,puritanism2 because our religious dress is nothing but ,hebrew ,old ,clothes2 because we follow ,moses instead of ,jesus2 because we believe that man was made for the ,sabbath1 instead of the ,sabbath for man2 because1 in short1 there are in ,england a lot of sour ,christians who play the dog in the manger1 and will neither enjoy themselves on ,sunday nor let anyone else4 ,they often prate about liberty1 but they understand it as the ,yankee did1 who defined it as the right to do as he pleased and the right to make everybody else do so too4 ,let us all be unhappy on ,sunday1 is the burden of their song4 ,now1 we have no objection to their being miserable1 if they desire it1 on that or any other day4 ,this is supposed to be a free country2 you decide to be wretched and you select your own time for the treat4 ,but you have no right to interfere with your neighbors4 ,this1 however1 is what the ,christians1 with their customary cheek1 will insist on doing4 ,they like going to the church and the public-house on ,sunday1 and those establishments are permitted to open2 they have no wish to go elsewhere1 and so they keep all other establishments closed4 ,this is mere impudence4 ,let them go where they choose1 and allow the same freedom to other people4 ,those who advocate a free ,sunday ask for no favor2 they demand justice4 ,they do not propose to compel any ,christian to enter a museum1 a library1 or an art gallery2 they simply claim the right to go in themselves4 ,the denial of that right is a violation of liberty1 which every free man is bound to resent4 ,this country is said to be civilised4 ,to a certain extent it is1 but all our civilisation has been won against ,christianity and its brutal laws4 ,our toiling masses1 in factory1 mine1 shop1 and counting-house1 have one day of leisure in the week4 ,rightly considered it is of infinite value4 ,it is a splendid breathing-time4 ,we cast off the storm and stress of life1 fling aside the fierce passion of gain1 and let the spirit of humanity throb in our pulses and stream from our eyes4 ,our fellow man is no longer a rival1 but a brother4 ,his gain is not our loss4 ,we enrich each other by the noble give-and-take of fellowship1 and feel what it really is to live4 ,yet our ,christian legislature tries its utmost to spoil the boon4 ,it cannot prevent us from visiting each other1 or walking as far as our legs will carry us2 but almost everything else is tabooed4 ,go to church1 it says4 ,millions answer1 ,we are sick of going2 we have heard the same old story until it is unspeakably stale1 and many of the sermons have been so frequently repeated that we suspect they were bought by the dozen4 ,then it says1 ,go to the public-house4 ,but a huge multitude answer1 ,we don't want to go there either1 except for a minute to quench our thirst2 we have no wish for spirituous any more than spiritual intoxication2 we desire some other alternative than gospel or gin4 ,then our ,christian legislature answers1 ,you are discontented fools4 ,it crushes down their better aspirations1 and condemns them to a wearisome inactivity4 ,go through ,london1 the metropolis of the world1 as we call it1 on a ,sunday4 ,how utterly dreary it is6 ,the shutters are all up before the gay shop-windows4 ,you pace mile after mile of streets1 with sombre houses on either hand as though tenanted by the dead4 ,you stand in front of the ,british ,museum1 and it looks as if it had been closed since the date of the mummies inside4 ,you yearn to walk through its galleries1 to gaze on the relics of antiquity1 to inspect the memorials of the dead1 to feel the subtle links that bind together the past and the present and make one great family of countless generations of men4 ,but you must wander away disappointed and dejected4 ,you repair to the ,national ,gallery4 ,you long to behold the masterpieces of art1 to have your imagination quickened and thrilled by the glories of form and color1 to look once more on some favorite picture which touches your nature to its finest issues4 ,but again you are foiled4 ,you desire to visit a library1 full of books you cannot buy1 and there commune with the great minds who have left their thoughts to posterity4 ,but you are frustrated again4 ,you are cheated out of your natural right1 and treated less like a man than a dog4 ,this ,christian legislature has much to answer for4 ,drunkenness is our great national vice4 ,and how is it to be overcome8 ,preaching will not do it4 ,give ,englishmen a chance1 furnish them with counter attractions1 and they will abjure intoxication like their continental neighbors4 ,elevate their tastes1 and they will feel superior to the vulgar temptation of drink4 ,every other method has been tried and has failed2 this is the only method that promises success4 ,fortunately the ,sunday question is growing4 ,christian tyranny is evidently doomed4 ,mr4 ,howard's motion for the opening of public museums and art galleries1 although defeated1 received the support of eighty-five members of ,parliament4 ,that minority will increase again next year1 and in time it will become a majority4 ,mr4 ,broadhurst1 for some peculiar reason1 voted against it1 but we imagine he will some day repent of his action4 ,the working-classes are fools if they listen to the idle talk about ,sunday labor1 with which the ,tories and bigots try to bamboozle them4 ,the opening of public institutions on ,sunday would not necessitate a hundredth part of the labor already employed in keeping open places of worship1 and driving rich people to and fro4 ,all the nonsense about the thin end of the wedge is simply dust thrown into their eyes4 ,the very people who vote against ,sunday freedom under a pretence of opposing ,sunday labor1 keep their own servants at work and visit the ,zoo in the afternoon1 where they doubtless chuckle over the credulity of the lower orders4 ,christian tyranny unites with ,tory oppression to debase and enslave the people4 ,it is time that both were imperiously stopped4 ,the upper classes wish to keep us ignorant1 and parsons naturally want everybody else's shutters up when they open shop4 ,we ought to see through the swindle4 ,let us check their impudence1 laugh at their hypocrisy1 and rescue our ,sunday from their hands4 ,,who ,,are ,,the ,,blasphemers8 7,june1 #ahhb47 ,atheists are often charged with blasphemy1 but it is a crime they cannot commit4 ,god is to them merely a word1 expressing all sorts of ideas1 and not a person4 ,it is1 properly speaking1 a general term1 which includes all that there is in common among the various deities of the world4 ,the idea of the supernatural embodies itself in a thousand ways4 ,truth is always simple and the same1 but error is infinitely diverse4 ,jupiter1 ,jehovah and ,mumbo-,jumbo are alike creations of human fancy1 the products of ignorance and wonder4 ,which is the ,god is not yet settled4 ,when the sects have decided this point1 the question may take a fresh turn2 but until then god must be considered as a generic term1 like tree or horse or men2 with just this difference1 however1 that while the words tree1 horse and man express the general qualities of visible objects1 the word god expresses only the imagined qualities of something that nobody has ever seen4 ,when the ,atheist examines1 denounces1 or satirises the gods1 he is not dealing with persons but with ideas4 ,he is incapable of insulting ,god1 for he does not admit the existence of any such being4 ,ideas of god may be good or bad1 beautiful or ugly2 and according as he finds them the ,atheist treats them4 ,if we lived in ,turkey we should deal with the god of the ,koran1 but as we live in ,england we deal with the god of the ,bible4 ,we speak of that god as a being1 just for convenience sake1 and not from conviction4 ,at bottom1 we admit nothing but the mass of contradictory notions between ,genesis and ,revelation4 ,we attack not a person but a belief1 not a being but an idea1 not a fact but a fancy4 ,lord ,brougham long ago pointed out1 in his ,life of ,voltaire1 that the great ,french heretic was not guilty of blasphemy1 as his enemies alleged2 since he had no belief in the actual existence of the god he dissected1 analysed and laughed at4 ,mr4 ,ruskin very eloquently defends ,byron from the same charge4 ,in ,cain1 and elsewhere1 the great poet does not impeach ,god2 he merely impeaches the orthodox creed4 ,we may sum up the whole matter briefly4 ,no man satirises the god he believes in1 and no man believes in the god he satirises4 ,we shall not1 therefore1 be deterred by the cry of blasphemy1 which is exactly what the ,jewish priests shouted against ,jesus ,christ4 ,if there is a ,god1 he cannot be half so stupid and malignant as the ,bible declares4 ,in destroying the counterfeit we do not harm the reality4 ,and as it is better1 in the words of ,plutarch1 to have no notion of the gods than to have notions which dishonor them1 we are satisfied that the ,lord 7if he exist7 will never burn us in hell for denying a few lies told in his name4 ,the real blasphemers are those who believe in ,god and blacken his character2 who credit him with less knowledge than a child1 and less intelligence than an idiot2 who make him quibble1 deceive1 and lie2 who represent him as indecent1 cruel1 and revengeful2 who give him the heart of a savage and the brain of a fool4 ,these are the blasphemers4 ,when the priest steps between husband and wife1 with the name of ,god on his lips1 he blasphemes4 ,when1 in the name of ,god1 he resists education and science1 he blasphemes4 ,when1 in the name of ,god1 he opposes freedom of thought and liberty of conscience1 he blasphemes4 ,when1 in the name of ,god1 he robs1 tortures1 and kills those who differ from him1 he blasphemes4 ,when1 in the name of ,god1 he opposes the equal rights of all1 he blasphemes4 ,when1 in the name of ,god1 he preaches content to the poor and oppressed1 flatters the rich and powerful1 and makes religious tyranny the handmaiden of political privilege1 he blasphemes4 ,and when he takes the ,bible in his hand1 and says it was written by the inspiration of ,god1 he blasphemes almost beyond forgiveness4 ,who are the blasphemers8 ,not we who preach freedom and progress for all men2 but those who try to bind the world with chains of dogma1 and to burden it1 in ,god's name1 with all the foul superstitions of its ignorant past4 ,,the ,,birth ,,of ,,christ4 7,december1 #ahhj47 ,the time draws near1 the birth of ,christ1 as ,tennyson sings in ,in ,memoriam1 and the pious followers of the ,nazarene will celebrate it with wonted orgies of pleasure4 ,the ,incarnation will be pondered to the accompaniment of roast beef1 and the ,atonement will play lambently around the solid richness of plum-pudding4 ,and thus will be illustrated the biological truth that the stomach is the basis of everything1 including religion4 ,but while ,christians comport themselves thus in presence of the subtlest mysteries of faith1 the ,sceptic cannot be without his peculiar reflections4 ,he1 of course1 knows that the festal observance of this season is far more ancient than ,christianity2 but he naturally wonders how people1 who imagine it to be a unique feature of their sublimely spiritual creed1 remain contented with its extremely sensual character4 ,they profess to believe that the fate of the whole human race was decided by the advent of the ,man of ,sorrows2 yet they commemorate that event by an unhealthy consumption of the meat which perisheth1 and a wild indulgence in the frivolous pleasures of that carnal mind which is at enmity with ,god4 ,astonished at such conduct1 the ,sceptic muses on the inconsistency of mankind4 ,he may also once more consider the circumstances of the birth of ,christ and its relation to the history of the modern world4 ,jesus1 called the ,christ1 is popularly supposed to have been of the seed of ,david1 from which it was promised that the ,messiah should come4 ,it is1 however1 perfectly clear that he was in no-wise related to the man after ,god's own heart ,his putative father1 ,joseph1 admittedly had no share in bringing him into the world2 for he disdained the assistance of a father1 although he was unable to dispense with that of a mother4 ,but ,joseph1 and not ,mary1 according to the genealogies of ,matthew and ,luke1 was the distant blood relation of ,david2 and therefore ,jesus was not of the seed of the royal house1 but a bastard slip grafted on the ancient family-tree by the ,holy ,ghost4 ,it is a great pity that newspaper correspondents did not exist in those days4 ,had ,joseph been skilfully interviewed1 it is highly probable that the world would have been initiated into his domestic secrets1 and enlightened as to the paternity of ,mary's eldest son4 ,the ,holy ,ghost is rather too shadowy a personage to be the father of a lusty boy1 and no young lady would be credited in this age if she ascribed to him the authorship of a child born out of wedlock4 ,most assuredly no magistrate would make an order against him for its maintenance4 ,even a father of the ,spiritualist persuasion1 who believed in what is grandly called the materialisation of spirit forms1 would probably be more than dubious if his daughter were to present him with a grandson whose father lived on the other side of death and resided in a mansion not made with hands4 ,it is1 we repeat1 to be for ever regretted that poor ,joseph has not left his version of the affair4 ,the ,immaculate ,conception might perhaps have been cleared up1 and theology relieved of a half-obscene mystery1 which has unfortunately perverted not a few minds4 ,the birth of ,jesus was announced to wise men from the ,east by the appearance of a singular star4 ,is not this a relic of astrology8 ,well does ,byron sing-- ,ye stars6 which are the poetry of heaven1 ,if in your bright beams we would read the fate ,of men and empires1 'tis to be forgiven1 ,that in our aspirations to be great ,our destinies o'erleap their mortal state1 ,and claim a kindred with you2 for ye are ,a beauty and a mystery1 and create ,in us such love and reverence from afar ,that fortune1 fame1 power1 life1 ,have named themselves a star4 ,but this star was the most wonderful on record4 ,it went before the wise men1 and stood over where the young child was4 ,such an absurdity could be related and credited only by people who conceived of the sky as a solid vault1 not far distant1 wherein all the heavenly bodies were stuck4 ,the present writer once asked an exceedingly ignorant and simple man where he thought he would alight if he dropped from the comet then in the sky4 ,oh1 said he1 naming the open space nearest his own residence1 somewhere about ,finsbury ,circus4 ,that man's astronomical notions were very imperfect1 but they were quite as good as those of the person who seriously wrote1 and of the persons who seriously believe1 this fairy tale of the star which heralded the birth of ,christ4 ,luke's version of the episode differs widely from ,matthew's4 ,he makes no reference to wise men from the ,east1 but simply says that certain shepherds of the same country1 who kept watch over their flock by night1 were visited by the angel of the ,lord1 and told that they would find the ,savior1 ,christ the ,lord1 just born at ,bethlehem1 the ,city of ,david1 wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger4 ,luke does not1 as is generally supposed1 represent ,mary as confined in a stable because ,joseph was too poor to pay for decent accommodation1 but because there was no room for them in the inn4 ,it is perfectly consistent with all the ,gospel references to ,joseph's status to assume that he carried on a flourishing business1 and ,jesus himself in later years might doubtless have earned a good living in the concern if he had not deliberately preferred to lead the life of a mendicant preacher4 ,this1 however1 is by the way4 ,our point is that ,luke says nothing about the star or the wise men from the ,east1 who had an important interview with ,herod himself2 while ,matthew says nothing about the manger or the shepherds and their angelic visitors4 ,surely these discrepancies on points so important1 and as to which there could be little mistake1 are enough to throw discredit on the whole story4 ,it is further noticeable that ,luke is absolutely silent about ,herod's massacre of the innocents4 ,what can we think of his reticence on such a subject8 ,had the massacre occurred1 it would have been widely known1 and the memory of so horrible a deed would have been vivid for generations4 ,matthew1 or whoever wrote the ,gospel which bears his name1 is open to suspicion4 ,his mind was distorted by an intense belief in prophecy1 a subject which1 as old ,bishop ,south said1 either finds a man cracked or leaves him so4 ,after narrating the story of ,herod's massacre1 he adds3 ,then was fulfilled that which was spoken by ,jeremy1 the prophet1 saying1 etc4 ,now1 he makes similar reference to prophecy no less than five times in the first two chapters1 and in each case we find that the prophetical utterance referred to has not the faintest connexion with the incident related4 ,besides1 a man who writes history with one eye on his own period1 and the other on a period centuries anterior is not likely to be veracious1 however earnestly he may intend to4 ,there is an early tradition1 which is as strong as any statement about the history of the ,primitive ,church1 that ,matthew's ,gospel was originally written in ,hebrew2 and it has been supposed that the writer gratuitously threw in these references to ,jeremy and others1 in order to please the ,jews1 who were extremely fond of prophecy4 ,but this supposition is equally fatal to his credibility as an historian4 ,in any case1 the ,evangelists differ so widely on matters of such interest and importance that we are constrained to discredit their story4 ,it is evidently1 as scholarship reveals1 a fairy tale1 which slowly gathered round the memory of ,jesus after his death4 ,some of its elements were creations of his disciples' fancy1 but others were borrowed from the mythology of more ancient creeds4 ,yet this fairy tale is accepted by hundreds of millions of men as veritable history4 ,it is incorporated into the foundation of ,christianity1 and every year at this season its incidents are joyously commemorated4 ,how slowly the world of intelligence moves6 ,but let us not despair4 ,science and scholarship have already done much to sap belief in this supernatural religion1 and we may trust them to do still more4 ,they will ultimately destroy its authority by refuting its pretensions1 and compel it to take its place among the general multitude of historic faiths4 ,if ,jesus was the ,christ1 the ,messiah1 the ,deliverer1 why is the world still so full of sin and misery8 ,the ,redeemer has come1 say the ,christians4 ,yes1 we reply1 but when will come the redemption8 ,apostrophising ,jesus in his lines ,before a ,crucifix1 ,mr4 ,swinburne reminds him that the nineteenth wave of the ages rolls now usward since thy birth began1 and then inquires3-- ,hast thou fed full men's starved-out souls1 ,or are there less oppressions done ,in this wide world under the sun8 ,only a negative answer can be given4 ,christ has in no wise redeemed the world4 ,he was no god of power1 but a weak fallible man like ourselves2 and his cry of despair on the cross might now be repeated with tenfold force4 ,the older myth of ,prometheus is truer and more inspiring than the myth of ,christ4 ,if there be gods1 they have never yielded man aught of their grace4 ,all his possessions have been cunningly1 patiently1 and valorously extorted from the powers that be1 even as ,prometheus filched the fire from heaven4 ,in that realm of mythology1 whereto all religions will eventually be consigned1 ,jesus will dwindle beneath ,prometheus4 ,one is feminine1 and typifies resigned submission to a supernatural will2 the other is masculine1 and typifies that insurgent audacity of heart and head1 which has wrested a kingdom of science from the vast empire of nescience1 and strewed the world with the wrecks of theological power4 ,,the ,,reign ,,of ,,christ4 7,january1 #ahhj47 ,christmas and ,easter are fruitful in panegyrics on ,jesus and the religion which fraudulently bears his name4 ,on these occasions1 not only the religious but even the secular newspapers give the rein to their rhetoric and imagination1 and indulge in much fervid eloquence on the birth or the crucifixion of the ,nazarene4 ,time-honored platitudes are brought out from their resting-places and dexterously moved to a well-known tune2 and fallacies which have been refuted ad nauseam are paraded afresh as though their logical purity were still beyond suspicion4 ,papers that differ on all other occasions and on all other subjects concur then1 and when they do agree their unanimity is wonderful4 ,while the more sober and orthodox discourse in tones befitting their dignity and repute1 the more profane riotously join in the chorus2 and not to be behind the rest1 the notoriously misbelieving ,greatest ,circulator orders from the profanest member of its staff a rousing article on the ,crucifixion1 or on the birth of ,jesus1 as the case may be4 ,all this1 however1 is of small account1 except as an indication of the slavery of our independent journals to ,bumble and his prejudices1 before whom they are obliged to masquerade when he ordains a celebration of his social or religious rites4 ,but here and there a more serious voice is heard through the din1 with an accent of earnest veracity1 and not that of an actor playing a part4 ,such a voice may be worth listening to1 and certainly no other can be4 ,let us hear the ,rev4 ,j4 ,baldwin ,brown on ,the ,reign of ,christ4 ,he is1 ,i believe1 honorably distinguished among ,dissenters2 his sermons often bear marks of originality2 and the goodness of his heart1 whatever may be thought of the strength of his head1 is sufficiently attested by his emphatic revolt against the doctrine of ,eternal ,torture in ,hell4 ,before criticising ,mr4 ,brown's sermon in detail ,i cannot help remarking that it is far too rhetorical and far too empty of argument4 ,sentimentality is the bane of religion in our day2 subservience to popularity degrades the pulpit as it degrades the press4 ,if we desire to find the language of reason in theology1 we must seek it in the writings of such men as ,newman1 who contemplate the ignorant and passionate multitude with mingled pity and disdain4 ,the advanced school of theologians1 from ,dean ,stanley to the humblest reconciler of reason and faith1 are sentimentalists almost to a man2 the reason being1 ,i take it1 that although their emotional tendencies are very admirable1 they lack the intellectual consistency and rigor which impel others to stand on definite first principles1 as a sure basis of operation and an impregnable citadel against attack4 ,mr4 ,brown belongs to this advanced school1 and has a liberal share of its failings4 ,he is full of eloquent passages that lead to nothing1 and he excites expectations which are seldom if ever satisfied4 ,he faces stupendous obstacles raised by reason against his creed1 and just as we look to see him valiantly surmount them1 we find that he veils them from base to summit with a dense cloud of words1 out of which his voice is heard asking us to believe him on the other side4 ,yet of all men professional students of the ,bible should be freest from such a fault1 seeing what a magnificent masterpiece it is of terse and vigorous simplicity4 ,mr4 ,brown and his advanced friends would do well to ponder that quaint and pregnant aphorism of old ,bishop ,andrewes--,waste words addle questions4 ,when ,i first read it ,i was thrown into convulsions of laughter1 and even now it tickles my risibility2 but despite its irresistible quaint-ness ,i cannot but regard it as one of the wisest and pithiest sentences in our literature4 ,dr4 ,newman has splendidly amplified it in a passage of his ,university ,sermons1 which ,i gratuitously present to ,mr4 ,brown and every reader who can make use of it3--,half the controversies in the world are verbal ones2 and could they be brought to a plain issue1 they would be brought to a prompt termination4 ,parties engaged in them would then perceive1 either that in substance they agreed together1 or that their difference was one of first principles4 ,this is the great object to be aimed at in the present age1 though confessedly a very arduous one4 ,we need not dispute1 we need not prove1--we need but define4 ,at all events1 let us1 if we can1 do this first of all2 and then see who are left for us to dispute with1 and what is left for us to prove4 ,mr4 ,brown's sermon on ,the ,reign of ,christ is preached from a verse of ,st4 ,paul's first ,epistle to ,timothy1 wherein ,jesus is styled ,the blessed and only ,potentate4 ,from this inspired statement he derives infinite consolation4 ,this1 he admits1 is far from being the best of all possible worlds1 for it is full of strife and cruelty1 the wail of anguish and the clamor of frenzy2 but as ,christ is the blessed and only ,potentate1 moral order will finally be evolved from the chaos and good be triumphant over evil4 ,now the question arises3 ,who made the chaos and who is responsible for the evil8 ,not ,christ1 of course3 ,mr4 ,brown will not allow that4 ,is it the ,devil then8 ,oh no6 ,to say that would be blasphemy against ,god4 ,he admits1 however1 that the notion has largely prevailed1 and has even been formulated into religious creeds1 that a malignant spirit1 a spirit who loves cursing as ,god loves blessing1 has a large and independent share in the government of the world4 ,but1 he adds1 in ,christendom men dare not say that they believe it1 with the throne of the crucified and risen ,christ revealed in the ,apocalypse to their gaze4 ,ordinary people will rub their eyes in sheer amazement at this cool assertion4 ,is it not plain that ,christians in all ages have believed in the power and subtlety of the ,devil as ,god's sleepless antagonist8 ,have they not held1 and do they not still hold1 that he caused the ,fall of ,adam and ,eve1 and thus introduced original sin1 which was certain to infect the whole human race ever afterwards until the end of time8 ,was not ,john ,milton a ,christian1 and did he not in his ,paradise ,lost develope all the phases of that portentous competition between the celestial and infernal powers for the virtual possession of this world and lordship over the destinies of our race8 ,if we accept ,mr4 ,brown's statements we shall have to reverse history and belie the evidence of our senses4 ,but who is responsible for the moral chaos and the existence of evil8 ,that is the question4 ,if to say ,christ is absurd1 and to say the ,devil blasphemy1 what alternative is left8 ,the usual answer is3 ,man's freewill4 ,christ as the blessed and only ,potentate leaves us liberty of action1 and our own evil passions cause all the misery of our lives4 ,but who gave us our evil passions8 ,to this question no answer is vouchsafed1 and so we are left exactly at the point from which we started4 ,yet ,mr4 ,brown has a very decided opinion as to the part these evil passions play in the history cf mankind4 ,he refers to them as the ,devil's brood of lust and lies1 and wrongs and hates1 and murderous passion and insolent power1 which through all the ages of earth's sad history have made it liker hell than heaven4 ,no ,atheist could use stronger language4 ,mr4 ,brown even believes that our insurgent lusts and passions are predetermining causes of heresy1 so that in respect both to faith and to works they achieve our damnation4 ,how then did we come by them8 ,the ,evolutionist frankly answers the question without fear of blasphemy on the one hand or of moral despair on the other4 ,mr4 ,brown is bound to give his answer after raising the question so vividly4 ,but he will not4 ,he urges that it presents points of tremendous difficulty1 although we shall unravel the mystery1 we shall solve the problems in ,god's good time4 ,thus the solution of the problem is to be postponed until we are dead1 when it will no longer interest us4 ,however convenient this may be for the teachers of mystery1 it is most unsatisfactory to rationalists4 ,mr4 ,brown must also be reminded that the tremendous difficulties he alludes to are all of his own creation4 ,there is no difficulty about any fact except in relation to some theory4 ,it is ,mr4 ,brown's theory of the universe which creates the difficulties4 ,it does not account for all the facts of existence--nay1 it is logically contravened by the most conspicuous and persistent of them4 ,instead of modifying or transforming his theory into accordance with the facts1 he rushes off with it into the cloud-land of faith4 ,there let him remain as he has a perfect right to4 ,our objection is neither to reason nor to faith1 but to a mischievous playing fast and loose with both4 ,mr4 ,brown opines that ,christ will reign until all his enemies are under his feet4 ,and who are these enemies8 ,not the souls of men1 says ,mr4 ,brown1 for ,christ loves them with an infinite tenderness4 ,this infinite tenderness is clearly not allied to infinite power or the world's anguish would long since have been appeased and extinguished1 or never have been permitted to exist at all4 ,the real enemies of ,christ are not the souls of men1 but the hates and passions which torment them4 ,oh those hates and passions6 ,they are the dialectical balls with which ,mr4 ,brown goes through his performance in that circle of petitio principii so hated by all logicians1 the middle sphere of intellects too light for the solid earth of fact and too gross for the aerial heaven of imagination4 ,it will be a fitting conclusion to present to ,mr4 ,brown a very serious matter which he has overlooked4 ,christ1 the blessed and only ,potentate1 came on earth and originated the universal religion nearly two thousand years ago4 ,up to the present time three-fourths of the world's inhabitants are outside its pale1 and more than half of them have never heard it preached4 ,amongst the quarter which nominally professes ,christianity disbelief is spreading more rapidly than the missionaries succeed in converting the heathen2 so that the reign of ,christ is being restricted instead of increased4 ,to ask us1 despite this1 to believe that he is ,god1 and possessed of infinite power1 is to ask us to believe a marvel compared with which the wildest fables are credible1 and the most extravagant miracles but as dust in the balance4 ,,the ,,primate ,,on ,,modern ,,infidelity4 7,september1 #ahhj47 ,a bishop once twitted a curate with preaching indifferent orthodoxy4 ,well1 answered the latter1 ,i don't see how you can expect me to be as orthodox as yourself4 ,i believe at the rate of a hundred a year1 and you at the rate of ten thousand4 ,in the spirit of this anecdote we should expect an archbishop to be as orthodox as the frailty of human nature will allow4 ,a man who faithfully believes at the rate of fifteen thousand a year should be able to swallow most things and stick at very little4 ,and there can be no doubt that the canny ,scotchman who has climbed or wriggled up to the ,archbishopric of ,canterbury is prepared to go any lengths his salary may require4 ,we suspect that he regards the doctrines of the ,church very much as did that irreverent youth mentioned by ,sidney ,smith1 who1 on being asked to sign the ,thirty-nine ,articles1 replied ,oh yes1 forty if you like4 ,the clean linen of his theology is immaculately pure4 ,never has he fallen under a suspicion of entertaining dangerous or questionable opinions1 and he has in a remarkable degree that faculty praised by ,saint ,paul of being all things to all men1 or at least as many men as make a lumping majority4 ,what else could be expected from a ,scotchman who has mounted to the spiritual ,primacy of ,england8 ,his ,grace has recently been visiting the clergy and churchwardens of his diocese and delivering what are called ,charges to them4 ,the third of these was on the momentous subject of ,modern ,infidelity1 which seems to have greatly exercised his mind4 ,this horrid influence is found to be very prevalent1 much to the disconcertion of his ,grace1 who felt constrained to begin his ,charge with expressions of despondency1 and only recovered his spirits towards the end1 where he confidently relies on the gracious promise of ,christ never to forsake his darling church4 ,some of the admissions he makes are worth recording-- ,i can1 he says1 have no doubt that the aspect of ,christian society in the present day is somewhat troubled1 that the ,church of ,christ and the faith of ,christ are passing through a great trial in all regions of the civilised world1 and not least among ourselves4 ,there are dark clouds on the horizon already breaking1 which may speedily burst into a violent storm4444 ,it is well to note in history how these two evils--superstition and infidelity--act and react in strengthening each other4 ,still1 ,i cannot doubt that the most 8 more formidable of the two for us at present is infidelity4444 ,it is indeed a frightful thought that numbers of our intelligent mechanics seem to be alienated from all religious ordinances1 that our ,secularist halls are well filled1 that there is an active propagandism at work for shaking belief in all creeds4 ,these facts are of course patent1 but it is something to get an ,archbishop to acknowledge them1 ,his ,grace also finds from above1 in the regions of literature and art1 efforts to degrade mankind by denying our high original3 the high original being1 we presume1 a certain simple pair called ,adam and ,eve1 who damned themselves and nearly the whole of their posterity by eating an apple six thousand years ago4 ,the degradation of a denial of this theory is hardly perceptible to untheological eyes4 ,most candid minds would prefer to believe in ,darwin rather than in ,moses even if the latter had1 which he has not1 a single leg to stand on4 ,for the theory of our ,simian origin at least involves progression in the past and perhaps salvation in the future of our race1 while the high original theory involved our retrogression and perdition4 ,his grace wonders how these persons can confine their hopes and aspirations to a life which is so irresistibly hastening to its speedy conclusion4 ,but surely he is aware that they do so for the very simple reason that they know nothing of any other life to hope about or aspire to4 ,one bird in the hand is worth twenty in the bush when the bush itself remains obstinately invisible1 and if properly cooked is worth all the dishes in the world filled only with expectations4 ,his grace likewise refers to the unequal distribution of worldly goods1 to the poverty and misery which exist notwithstanding all attempts to regenerate society by specious schemes of socialistic reorganisation4 ,it is1 of course1 very natural that an archbishop in the enjoyment of a vast income should stigmatise these specious schemes for distributing more equitably the good things of this world2 but the words blessed be ye poor go ill to the tune of fifteen thousand a year1 and there is a grim irony in the fact that palaces are tenanted by men who profess to represent and preach the gospel of him who had not where to lay his head4 ,modern ,christianity has been called a civilised heathenism2 with no less justice it might be called an organised hypocrisy4 ,after a dolorous complaint as to the magazines lying everywhere for the use of our sons and daughters1 in which the doctrines both of natural and of revealed religion are assailed1 the ,archbishop proceeds to deal with the first great form of infidelity1 namely ,agnosticism4 ,with a feeble attempt at wit he remarks that the name itself implies a confession of ignorance1 which he marvels to find unaccompanied by the logical result of a philosophical humility4 ,a fair account of the ,agnostic position is then given1 after which it is severely observed that the better feelings of man contradict these sophisms4 ,in proof of this1 his ,grace cites the fact that in ,paris1 the stronghold of ,atheistical philosophy1 the number of burials that take place without religious rites is a scarcely appreciable percentage4 ,we suspect the accuracy of this statement1 but having no statistics on the subject by us1 we are not prepared to dispute it4 ,we will assume its truth2 but the important question then arises--,what kind of persons are those who dispense with the rites of religion8 ,notoriously they are men of the highest intellect and character1 whose quality far outweighs the quantity of the other side4 ,they are the leaders of action and thought1 and what they think and do to-day will be thought and done by the masses to-morrow4 ,when a man like ,gambetta1 occupying such a high position and wielding such immense influence1 invariably declines to enter a church1 whether he attends the marriage or the funeral of his friends1 we are entitled to say that his example on our side is infinitely more important than the practice of millions who are creatures of habit and for the most part blind followers of tradition4 ,the ,archbishop's argument tells against his own position1 and the fact he cites1 when closely examined1 proves more for our side than he thought it proved for his own4 ,atheism is disrelished by his ,grace even more than ,agnosticism4 ,his favorite epithet for it is dogmatic4 ,surely1 he cries1 the boasted enlightenment of this century will never tolerate the gross ignorance and arrogant self-conceit which presumes to dogmatise as to things confessedly beyond its ken4 ,quite so2 but that is what the theologians are perpetually doing4 ,to use ,matthew ,arnold's happy expression1 they talk familiarly about ,god as though he were a man living in the next street4 ,the ,atheist and the ,agnostic confess their inability to fathom the universe and profess doubts as to the ability of others4 ,yet they are called dogmatic1 arrogant1 and self-conceited4 ,on the other hand1 the theologians claim the power of seeing through nature up to nature's ,god4 ,yet they1 forsooth1 must be accounted modest1 humble1 and retiring4 ,o wad some pow'r the giftie gie us ,to see oursels as ithers see us6 ,these abominable ,atheists are by no means scarce1 for1 says his ,grace1 practical ,atheists we have everywhere1 if ,atheism be the denial of ,god4 ,just so2 that is precisely what we infidels have been saying for years4 ,christianity is utterly alien to the life of modern society1 and in flagrant contradiction to the spirit of our secular progress4 ,it stands outside all the institutions of our material civilisation4 ,its churches still echo the old strains of music and the old dogmatic tones from the pulpit1 but the worshippers themselves feel the anomaly of its doctrines and rites when they return to their secular avocations4 ,the ,sunday does nothing but break the continuity of their lives1 steeping them in sentiments and ideas which have no relation to their experience during the rest of the week4 ,the profession of ,christendom is one thing1 its practice is another4 ,god is simply acknowledged with the lips on ,sunday1 and on every other day profoundly disregarded in all the pursuits of life whether of business or of pleasure4 ,even in our national legislature1 although the practice of prayer is still retained1 any man would be sneered at as a fool who made the least appeal to the sanctions of theology4 ,an allusion to the ,sermon on the ,mount would provoke a smile1 and a citation of one of the ,thirty-nine ,articles be instantly ruled as irrelevant4 ,nothing from the top to the bottom of our political and social life is done with any reference to those theological doctrines which the nation professes to believe1 and to the maintenance of which it devotes annually so many millions of its wealth4 ,in order to pose any member of the two great divisions of infidelity1 the ,archbishop advises his clergy to ask the following rather comical questions3-- ,do you believe nothing which is not capable of being tested by the ordinary rules which govern experience in things natural8 ,how then do you know that you yourself exist8 ,how do you know that the perceptions of your senses are not mere delusions1 and that there is anything outside you answering to what your mind conceives8 ,have you a mind8 and if you have not1 what is it that enables you to think and reason1 and fear1 and hope8 ,are these conditions of your being the mere results of your material organism1 like the headache which springs from indigestion1 or the high spirits engendered by too much wine8 ,are you something better than a vegetable highly cultivated1 or than your brothers of the lower animals8 and1 if so1 what is it that differentiates your superiority8 ,why do things outside you obey your will8 ,who gave you a will8 and1 if so1 what is it8 ,i think you must allow that intellect is a thing almost divine1 if there be anything divine2 and ,i think also you must allow that it is not a thing to be propagated as we propagate well-made and high-bred cattle4 ,whence came ,alexander the ,great8 ,whence ,charlemagne8 ,and whence the ,first ,napoleon8 ,was it through a mere process of spontaneous generation that they sprang up to alter by their genius and overwhelming will the destinies of the world8 ,whence came ,homer1 ,shakespeare1 ,bacon8 ,whence came all the great historians8 ,whence came ,plato and all the bright lights of divine philosophy1 of divinity1 of poetry8 ,their influence1 after all1 you must allow to be quite as wide and enduring as any produced by the masters of those positive material sciences which you worship4 ,do you think that all these great minds--for they are minds1 and their work was not the product of a merely highly organised material frame--were the outcome of some system of material generation1 which your so-called science can subject to rule1 and teach men how to produce by growth1 as they grow vegetables8 ,the ,archbishop is not a very skilful physician4 ,his prescription shows that he has not diagnosed the disease4 ,these strange questions might strike the infidel all of a heap1 as the expressive vernacular has it1 but although they might dumbfounder him1 they would assuredly not convince4 ,if the ,archbishop of ,canterbury were not so exalted a personage we should venture to remark that to ask a man how he knows that he exists betrays a marvellous depth of ignorance or folly4 ,ultimate facts of consciousness are not subjects of proof or disproof2 they are their own warranty and cannot be transcended4 ,there is1 besides1 something extraordinary in an archbishop of the church to which ,berkeley belonged supposing that extreme idealism follows only the rejection of deity4 ,whether the senses are after all delusory does not matter to the ,atheist a straw2 they are real enough to him1 they make his world in which he lives and moves1 and it is of no practical consequence whether they mirror an outer world or not4 ,what differentiates you from the lower animals8 asks his ,grace4 ,the answer is simple--a higher development of nervous structure4 ,who gave you a will8 is just as sensible a question as ,who gave you a nose8 ,we have every reason to believe that both can be accounted for on natural grounds without introducing a supernatural donor4 ,the question whether ,alexander1 ,napoleon1 ,homer1 ,bacon and ,shakespeare came through a process of spontaneous generation is excruciatingly ludicrous4 ,that process could only produce the very lowest form of organism1 and not a wonderfully complex being like man who is the product of an incalculable evolution4 ,but the ,archbishop did not perhaps intend this2 it may be that in his haste to silence the infidel he stumbled over his own meaning4 ,lastly1 there is a remarkable navet in the aside of the final question--for they are minds4 ,he should have added you know1 and then the episode would have been delightfully complete4 ,the assumption of the whole point at issue in an innocent parenthesis is perhaps to be expected from a pulpiteer1 but it is not likely that the infidel will be caught by such a simple stratagem4 ,all these questions are so irrelevant and absurd that we doubt whether his ,grace would have the courage to put one of them to any sceptic across a table1 or indeed from any place in the world except the pulpit1 which is beyond all risk of attack1 and whence a man may ask any number of questions without the least fear of hearing one of them answered4 ,the invitation given by his grace1 to descend to the harder ground of strictest logical argumentation1 is very appropriate4 ,whether the movement be ascending or descending1 there is undoubtedly a vast distance between logical argumentation and anything he has yet advanced4 ,but even on the harder ground the ,archbishop treads no more firmly4 ,he demands to know how the original protoplasm became endowed with life1 and if that question cannot be answered he calls upon us to admit his theory of divine agency1 as though that made the subject more intelligible4 ,supernatural hypotheses are but refuges of ignorance4 ,earl ,beaconsfield1 in his impish way1 once remarked that where knowledge ended religion began1 and the ,archbishop of ,canterbury seems to share that opinion4 ,his ,grace also avers that no one has ever yet been able to refute the argument necessitating a great ,first ,cause4 ,it is very easy to assert this1 but rather difficult to maintain it4 ,one assertion is as good as another1 and we shall therefore content ourselves with saying that in our opinion the argument for a great ,first ,cause was 7to mention only one name7 completely demolished by ,john ,stuart ,mill1 who showed it to be based on a total misconception of the nature of cause and effect1 which apply only to phnomenal changes and not to the apparently unchangeable matter and force of which the universe is composed4 ,but the overwhelming last argument is that man has something in him which speaks of ,god1 of something above this fleeting world1 and rules of right and wrong have their foundation elsewhere than in man's opinion4444 that there is an immutable1 eternal distinction between right and wrong--that there is a ,god who is on the side of right4 ,again we must complain of unbounded assertion4 ,every point of this rhetorical flourish is disputed by infidels who are not likely to yield to anything short of proof4 ,if ,god is on the side of right he is singularly incapable of maintaining it2 for1 in this world at least1 according to some penetrating minds1 the devil has hitherto had it pretty much his own way1 and good men have had to struggle very hard to make things even as equitable as we find them4 ,but after all1 says his ,grace1 the supreme defence of the ,church against the assaults of infidelity is ,christ himself4 ,weak in argument1 the clergy must throw themselves behind his shield and trust in him4 ,before his brightness the mists which rise from a gross materialistic ,atheism evaporate1 and are scattered like the clouds of night before the dawn4 ,it is useless to oppose reason to such preaching as this4 ,we shall therefore simply retort the ,archbishop's epithets4 ,gross and materialistic are just the terms to describe a religion which traffics in blood and declares that without the shedding of it there is no remission of sin2 whose ascetic doctrines malign our purest affections and defile the sweetest fountains of our spiritual health2 whose heaven is nothing but an exaggerated jeweller's shop1 and its hell a den of torture in which ,god punishes his children for the consequences of his own ignorance1 incapacity or crime4 ,,baiting ,a ,,bishop4 7,february1 #ahhj47 ,bishops should speak as men having authority1 and not as the ,scribes and ,pharisees4 ,even the smallest of them should be a great man4 ,an archbishop1 with fifteen thousand a year1 ought to possess a transcendent intellect1 almost beyond comprehension2 while the worst paid of all the reverend fathers of the ,church1 with less than a fifth of that salary1 ought to possess no common powers of mind4 ,the ,bishop of ,carlisle is not rich as bishops go1 but he enjoys a yearly income of #d1ejj1 besides the patronage of forty-nine livings4 ,now this quite equals the salary of the ,prime ,minister of the greatest empire in the world1 and the ,bishop of ,carlisle should therefore be a truly great man4 ,we regret however1 to say that he is very much the reverse1 if we may judge from a newspaper report which has reached us of his lecture on ,man's ,place in ,nature1 recently delivered before the ,keswick ,scientific and ,literary ,society4 ,newspaper reports1 we know1 are often misleading in consequence of their summary character2 nevertheless two columns of small type must give some idea of a discourse1 however abstruse or profound2 here and there1 if such occured1 a fine thought or a shrewd observation would shine through the densest veil4 ,yet1 unless our vision be exceptionally obtuse1 nothing of the kind is apparent in this report of the ,bishop's lecture4 ,being1 as his lordship confessed1 the development of a sermon delivered to the men at the ,royal ,agricultural ,society's ,show last summer1 the lecture was perhaps1 like the sermon1 adapted to the bucolic mind1 and thus does meagre justice to the genius of its author4 ,his lordship1 however1 chose to read it before a society with some pretentions to culture1 and therefore such a plea cannot avail4 ,as the case stands1 we are constrained to accuse the bishop of having delivered a lecture on a question of supreme importance1 which would do little credit to the president of a ,young ,men's ,christian ,association2 and when we reflect that a parson occupied the chair at the meeting1 and that the vote of thanks to the episcopal lecturer was moved by a canon1 who coupled with it some highly complimentary remarks1 we are obliged to think the ,church more short of brains than even we had previously believed1 and that ,mene1 ,mene1 ,tekel1 ,upharsin has already been written on its temple walls by the finger of doom4 ,very early in his lecture the ,bishop observed that the ,scriptures are built on the hypothesis of the supreme and unique position of man4 ,well1 there is nothing novel in this statement4 ,what we want is some proof of the hypothesis4 ,his lordship's way of supplying this need is1 to say the least1 peculiar4 ,after saying that he would rather trust the poet as an exponent of man than he would a student of natural history1 he proceeds to quote from ,shakespeare1 ,pope and ,plato1 and ends that part of his argument with a rhetorical flourish1 as though he had thus really settled the whole case of ,darwin versus ,moses4 ,our reverence of great poets is probably as deep and sincere as the ,bishop's1 but we never thought of treating them as scientific authorities1 or as witnesses to events that happened hundreds of thousands of years before their birth4 ,poets deal with subjective facts of consciousness1 or with objective facts as related to these4 ,the dry light of the intellect1 radiated from the cloudless sun of truth1 is not their proper element1 but belongs exclusively to the man of science4 ,they move in a softer element suffused with emotion1 whose varied clouds are by the sun of imagination touched to all forms of beauty and splendor4 ,the scientific man's description of a lion1 for instance1 would be very different from a poet's2 because the one would describe the lion as it is in itself1 and the other as it affects us1 a living whole1 through our organs of sight and sound4 ,both are true1 because each is faithful to its purpose and expresses a fact2 yet neither can stand for the other1 because they express different facts and are faithful to different purposes4 ,shakespeare poetically speaks of the ruddy drops that visit this sad heart1 but the scientific truth of the circulation of the blood had to await its ,harvey4 ,in like manner1 it was not ,milton but ,newton who expounded the ,cosmos2 the great poet1 like ,dante before him1 wove pre-existent cosmical ideas into the texture of his sublime epic1 while the great scientist wove all the truth of them into the texture of his sublime theory4 ,let each receive his meed of reverent praise1 but do not let us appeal to ,newton on poetry or to ,milton on physics4 ,and when a ,bishop of ,carlisle1 or other diocese1 complains that the views advanced by scientific men tend painfully to degrade the views of poets and philosophers1 let us reply that in almost every case the great truths of science have been found to transcend infinitely the marvels of theology1 and that the magnificence of song persists through all fluctuations of knowledge1 because its real cause lies less in the subject than in the native grandeur of the poet's mind4 ,man's place in nature is1 indeed1 a great question1 and it can be settled only by a wide appeal to past and present facts4 ,and those facts1 besides being objective realities1 must be treated in a purely scientific1 and not in a poetic or didactic spirit4 ,let the poet sing the beauty of a consummate flower2 and1 if such things are required1 let the moralist preach its lessons4 ,but neither should arrogate the prerogative of the botanist1 whose special function it is to inform us of its genesis and development1 and its true relations to other forms of vegetable life4 ,so with man4 ,the poet may celebrate his passions and aspirations1 his joys and sorrows1 his laughter and tears1 and ever body forth anew the shapes of things unseen2 the moralist may employ every fact of his life to illustrate its laws or to enforce its duties2 but they must leave it to the biologist to explain his position in the animal economy1 and the stages by which it has been reached4 ,with regard to that1 ,darwin is authoritative1 while ,moses is not even entitled to a hearing4 ,although the ,bishop is very ready to quote from the poets1 he is not always ready to use them fairly4 ,for instance1 he cites the splendid and famous passage in ,hamlet3--,what a piece of work is man6 ,how noble in reason6 ,how infinite in faculties6 in form and moving1 how express and admirable6 in action1 how like an angel6 in apprehension1 how like a god6 the beauty of the world6 the paragon of animals6 ,there his lordship stops1 and then exclaims1 ,shakespeare knew nothing of the evolution of man from inferior forms4 ,but why did he not continue the quotation8 ,hamlet goes on to say1 ,and yet1 what to me is this quintessence of dust8 ,how now1 your lordship8 ,we have you on the hip6 ,quintessence of dust comes perilously near to evolution4 ,does not your lordship remember1 too1 ,hamlet's pursuing the dust of ,csar to the ignominious bunghole8 ,and have you never reflected how the prescient mind of ,shakespeare created an entirely new and wonderful figure in literature1 the half-human1 half-bestial ,caliban1 with his god ,setebos--a truly marvellous resuscitation of primitive man1 that in our day has inspired ,mr4 ,browning's ,caliban on ,setebos1 which contains the entire essence of all that ,tylor and other investigators in the same field have since written on the subject of ,animism8 ,it seems that the ,lord ,bishop of ,carlisle reads even the poets to small purpose4 ,haughtily waving the biologists aside1 his lordship proceeds to remark that man's superiority is not the same that a dog would claim over a lobster1 or an eagle over a worm2 the difference between man and other animals being not one of degree1 but of kind4 ,such a statement1 without the least evidence being adduced to support it1 places the ,bishop almost outside the pale of civil discussion4 ,when will these lordly ecclesiastics learn that the time for dogmatic assertion is past1 and that the intellectual temper of the present age can be satisfied only by proof8 ,we defy the ,bishop of ,carlisle to indicate a single phase of man's nature which has no parallel in the lower animals4 ,man's physical structure is notoriously akin to theirs1 and even his brain does not imply a distinction of kind1 for every convolution of the brain of man is reproduced in the brain of the higher apes4 ,his lordship draws a distinction between instinct and reason1 which is purely fanciful and evinces great ignorance of the subject4 ,that1 however1 is a question we have at present no room to discuss2 nor1 indeed1 is there any necessity to do so1 since his lordship presently admits that the lower animals share our reason to some extent1 just as to a much larger extent we share their instinct1 and thus evacuates the logical fortress he took such pains to construct4 ,quitting that ground1 which proves too slippery for his feet1 the ,bishop goes on to notice the moral and aesthetic difference between man and the lower animals4 ,no animal1 says his lordship1 shows anything approaching to a love of art4 ,now we are quite aware that no animal except man ever painted a picture or chiselled a statue1 for these things involve a very high development of the artistic faculty4 ,but the appreciation of form and color1 which is the foundation of all fine art1 is certainly manifested by the lower animals1 and by some fathem to an extreme degree4 ,if his lordship doubts this1 let him study the ways of animals for himself2 or1 if he cannot do that1 let him read the chapters in ,mr4 ,darwin's ,descent of ,man on sexual selection among birds4 ,if he retains any doubt after that1 we must conclude that his head is too hard or too soft to be influenced1 in either of which cases he is much to be pitied4 ,his lordship thinks that the moral sense is entirely absent in the lower animals4 ,this1 however1 is absurdly untrue2 so much so1 indeed1 that we shall not trouble to refute it ,good and noble1 he avers1 are epithets inapplicable to animals1 even to the horse or dog4 ,what vain creatures men are to talk thus6 ,does his lordship remember ,byron's epitaph on his ,newfoundland dog1 and the very uncomplimentary distinction drawn therein between dogs and men8 ,look at that big pet with the lordly yet tender eye6 ,how he submits to the boisterous caresses of children1 because he knows their weakness and shares their spirit of play6 ,let their elders do the same1 and he will at once show resentment4 ,see him peril his life ungrudgingly for those he loves1 or even for comparative strangers6 ,and shall we deny him the epithet of noble or good8 ,whatever theologians may say1 the sound heart of common men and women will answer ,no6 ,lastly1 we are told that the religious sentiment is characteristically and supremely human4 ,but here again we must complain of his lordship's mental confusion4 ,the religious sentiment is not a simple but a highly complex emotion4 ,resolve it into its elemental feelings1 and it will be found that all these are possessed in some degree by lower animals4 ,the feeling of a dog who bays the moon is probably very similar to that of the savage who cowers and moans beneath an eclipse2 and if the savage has superstitious ideas as well as awesome feelings1 it is only because he possesses a higher development of thought and imagination4 ,canon ,battersby1 who moved the vote of thanks to the ,bishop1 ridiculed the biologists1 and likened them to ,topsy who accounted for her existence by saying ,specs ,i growed4 ,just so4 ,that is precisely how we all did come into existence4 ,growth and not making is the law for man as well as for every other form of life4 ,moses stands for manufacture and ,darwin stands for growth4 ,and if the great biologist finds himself in the company of ,topsy1 he will not mind4 ,perhaps1 indeed1 as he is said to enjoy a joke and to be able to crack one1 might he jocularly observe to tremendous personages like the ,bishop of ,carlisle1 that this is not the first instance of truths being hidden from the wise and revealed unto babes4 ,,professor ,,flint ,,on ,,atheism4 7,january1 #ahgg47 ,professor ,flint delivered last week the first of the present year's course of ,baird lectures to a numerous audience in ,blythswood ,church1 ,glasgow1 taking for his subject ,the ,theories opposed to ,theism4 ,anti-,theism1 he said1 is more general now than ,atheism1 and includes all systems opposed to ,theism4 ,atheism he defined as the system which teaches that there is no ,god1 and that it is impossible for man to know that there is a ,god4 ,at least this is how ,professor ,flint is reported in the newspapers1 although we hope he was not guilty of so idiotic a jumble4 ,where are the ,atheists who say there is no ,god8 ,what are their names8 ,having mingled much with thoroughgoing sceptics1 and read many volumes of heretical literature1 we can confidently defy ,professor ,flint to produce the names of half a dozen dogmatic ,atheists1 and we will give him the whole world's literature to select from4 ,does he think that the brains of an ,atheist are addled8 ,if not1 why does he make the ,atheist first affirm that there is no ,god1 and then affirm the impossibility of man's ever knowing whether there is a ,god or not8 ,how could a man who holds his judgment in suspense1 or who thinks the universal mystery insoluble to us1 dogmatise upon the question of ,god's existence8 ,if ,professor ,flint will carefully and candidly study sceptical literature1 he will find that the dogmatic ,atheist is as rare a the phoenix1 and that those who consider the extant evidences of ,theism inadequate1 do not go on to affirm an universal negative1 but content themselves with expressing their ignorance of ,nature's why4 ,for the most part they endorse ,thomas ,cooper's words1 ,i do not say there is no ,god1 but this ,i say1 ,i know not ,of course this modesty of affirmation may seem impiously immodest to one who has been trained and steeped in ,theism so long that the infinite universe has become quite explicable to him2 but to the sceptic it seems more wise and modest to confess one's ignorance1 than to make false pretensions of knowledge4 ,professor ,flint characterised the objections which ,atheism urges against the existence of ,god as extremely feeble4 ,against the existence of what ,god8 ,there be ,gods many and ,lords many2 which of the long theological list is to be selected as the ,god8 ,a ,god1 like everything else from the heights to the depths1 can be known only by his attributes2 and what the ,atheist does is not to argue against the existence of any ,god1 which would be sheer lunacy1 but to take the attributes affirmed by ,theism as composing its ,deity and inquire whether they are compatible with each other and with the facts of life4 ,finding that they are not1 the ,atheist simply sets ,theism aside as not proven1 and goes on his way without further afflicting himself with such abstruse questions4 ,the ,atheist must be a very dreary creature1 thinks ,professor ,flint4 ,but why8 ,does he know any ,atheists1 and has he found them one half as dreary as ,scotch ,calvinists8 ,it may seem hard to the immoderately selfish that some ,infinite ,spirit is not looking after their little interests1 but it is assuredly a thousandfold harder to think that this ,infinite ,spirit has a yawning hell ready to engulph the vast majority of the world's miserable sinners4 ,if the ,atheist has no heaven1 he has also no hell1 which is a most merciful relief4 ,far better were universal annihilation than that even the meanest life should writhe for ever in hell1 gnawed by the worm which never dieth1 and burnt in the fire which is never quenched4 ,even ,nature1 thinks ,professor ,flint1 cannot be contemplated by the ,atheist as the ,theist contemplates it2 for while the latter views it as ,god's vesture wherewith he hides from us his intolerable glory1 the latter views it as the mere embodiment of force1 senseless1 aimless1 pitiless1 an enormous mechanism grinding on of itself from age to age1 but towards no ,god and for no good4 ,here we must observe that the lecturer trespasses beyond the truth4 ,the ,atheist does not affirm that ,nature drives on to no ,god and no good2 he simply says he knows not whither she is driving4 ,and how many ,theists are there who think of ,god in the presence of ,nature1 who see ,god's smile in the sunshine1 or hear his wrath in the storm8 ,very few1 we opine1 in this practical sceptical age4 ,to the ,atheist as to the ,theist1 indeed to all blessed with vision1 ,nature is an ever new wonder of majesty and beauty6 ,sun1 moon1 and stars1 earth1 air1 and sky1 endure while the generations of men pass and perish2 but every new generation is warmed1 lighted1 nurtured and gladdened by them with most sovereign and perfect impartiality4 ,the loveliness and infinite majesty of ,nature speak to all men1 of all ages1 climes and creeds4 ,not in her inanimate beauty do we find fatal objections to the doctrine of a wise and bountiful power which overrules her1 but rather in the multiplied horrors1 woes1 and pangs of sentient life4 ,when all actual and recorded misery is effaced1 when no intolerable grief corrodes and no immedicable despair poisons life1 when the tears of anguish are assuaged1 when crime and vice are unknown and unremembered1 and evil lusts are consumed in the fire of holiness2 then1 and then only1 could we admit that a wise and righteous omnipotence rules the universal destinies4 ,until then we cannot recognise the fatherhood of ,god1 but must find shelter and comfort in the more efficacious doctrine of the brotherhood of ,man4 ,professor ,flint concluded his lecture1 according to the newspaper report1 thus3--,history bears witness that the declension of religion has ever been the decline of nations1 because it has ever brought the decay of their moral life2 and people have achieved noble things only when strongly animated by religious faith4 ,all this is very poor stuff indeed to come from a learned professor4 ,what nation has declined because of a relapse from religious belief8 ,surely not ,assyria1 ,egypt1 ,greece1 or ,carthage8 ,in the case of ,rome1 the decline of the empire was coincident with the rise of ,christianity and the decline of ,paganism2 but the ,roman ,empire fell abroad mainly from political1 and not from religious causes1 as every student of history well knows4 ,christianity1 that is the religion of the ,bible1 has been dying for nearly three centuries2 and during that period1 instead of witnessing a general degradation of mankind we have witnessed a marvellous elevation4 ,the civilisation of to-day1 compared with that which existed before ,secular ,science began her great battle with a tyrannous and obscurantist ,church1 is as a summer morn to a star-lit winter night4 ,again1 it is not true that men have achieved noble things only when strongly animated by religious faith2 unless by religious faith be meant some vital idea or fervent enthusiasm4 ,the three hundred ,spartans who met certain death at ,thermopylae died for a religious idea1 but not for a theological idea1 which is a very different thing4 ,they perished to preserve the integrity of the state to which they belonged4 ,the greatest ,athenians were certainly not religious in ,professor ,flint's sense of the word1 and the grand old ,roman patriots had scarcely a scintillation of such a religious faith as he speaks of4 ,their religion was simply patriotism1 but it was quite as operant and effective as ,christian piety has ever been4 ,was it religious faith or patriotism which banded ,frenchmen together in defiance of all ,europe1 and made them march to death as a bridegroom hastens to his bride8 ,and in our own history have not our greatest achievers of noble things been very indifferent to theological dogmas8 ,nay1 in all ages1 have not the noblest laborers for human welfare been impelled by an urgent enthusiasm of humanity rather than by any supernatural faith8 ,professor ,flint may rest assured that even though all the old faiths ruin and rend1 the human heart will still burn1 and virtue and beauty still gladden the earth1 although divorced from the creeds which held them in the thraldom of an enforced marriage4 ,a ,,hidden ,,god4 7,october1 #ahgi47 ,the ,christian ,world is distinguished among religious journals by a certain breadth and vigor4 ,on all social and political subjects it is remarkably advanced and outspoken1 and its treatment of theological questions is far more liberal and intelligent than sceptics would expect4 ,of late years it has opened its columns to correspondence on many topics1 some of a watery character1 like the reality of ,noah's flood1 and others of a burning kind1 like the doctrine of eternal punishment1 on all of which great freedom of expression has been allowed4 ,the editor himself1 who is1 we suspect1 far more sceptical than most of his readers1 has had his say on the question of ,hell1 and it is to be inferred from his somewhat guarded utterance that he has little belief in any such place4 ,this1 however1 we state with considerable hesitation1 for the majority of ,christians still regard the doctrine of everlasting torture as indubitable and sacred1 and we have no desire to lower him in the estimation of the ,christian world in which he labors1 or to cast a doubt on the orthodoxy of his creed4 ,but the editor will not take it amiss if we insist that his paper is liberal in its ,christianity1 and unusually tolerant of unbelief4 ,yet1 while entitled to praise on his ground1 the ,christian ,world deserves something else than praise on another4 ,it has recently published a series of articles for the purpose of stimulating faith and allaying doubt4 ,if undertaken by a competent writer1 able and willing to face the mighty difference between ,christianity and the scientific spirit of our age1 such a series of articles might be well worth reading4 ,we might then admire if we could not agree1 and derive benefit from friendly contact with an antagonist mind4 ,but the writer selected for the task appears to possess neither of these qualifications4 ,instead of thinking he gushes2 instead of reason he supplies us with unlimited sentiment4 ,we expect to tread solid ground1 or at least to find it not perilously soft2 and lo6 the soil is moist1 and now and then we find ourselves up to the knees in unctuous mud4 ,how difficult it is nowadays to discover a really argumentative ,christian6 ,the eminent favorites of orthodoxy write sentimental romances and call them ,lives of ,christ1 and preach sermons with no conceivable relation to the human intellect2 while the apologists of faith imitate the tactics of the cuttle-fish1 and when pursued cast out their opaque fluid of sentimentality to conceal their position4 ,they mostly dabble in the shallows of scepticism1 never daring to venture in the deeps2 and what they take pride in as flashes of spiritual light resembles neither the royal gleaming of the sun nor the milder radiance of the moon1 but rather the phosphorescence of corruption4 ,in the last article of the series referred to1 entitled ,thou art a ,god that ,hidest ,thyself1 there is an abundance of fictitious emotion and spurious rhetoric4 ,from beginning to end there is a painful strain that never relaxes1 reminding us of singers who pitch their voices too high and have to render all the upper notes in falsetto4 ,an attempt is made to employ poetical imagery1 but it ludicrously fails4 ,the heaven of the ,book of ,revelation1 with its gold and silver and precious stones1 is nothing but a magnified jeweller's shop1 and a study of it has influenced the style of later writers4 ,at present ,christian gushers have descended still lower1 dealing not even in gold and jewels1 but in ,brummagem and paste4 ,the word gem is greatly in vogue4 ,talmage uses it about twenty times in every lecture1 ,parker delights in it1 and it often figures on the pages of serious books4 ,in the article before us it is made to do frequent service4 ,a promise of redemption is represented as shining gem-like on the brow of ,revelation1 ,elims gem the dark bosom of the universal desert1 and the morning gleams on the dew-gemmed earth4 ,perhaps a good recipe for this kind of composition would be an hour's gloat on the flaming window of a jeweller's shop in the ,west ,end4 ,but let us deal with the purport and purpose of the article4 ,it aims at showing that ,god hides himself1 and why he does so4 ,the fact which it is attempted to explain none will deny4 ,moses ascended ,mount ,sinai to see ,god and converse with him1 ,abraham and ,god walked and talked together1 and according to ,st4 ,paul the ,almighty is not far from any one of us4 ,but the modern mind is not prone to believe these things4 ,the empire of reason has been enlarged at the expense of faith1 whose provinces have one after another been annexed until only a small territory is left her1 and that she finds it difficult to keep4 ,coincidently1 ,god has become less and less a reality and more and more a dream4 ,the reign of law is perceived everywhere1 and all classes of phenomena may be explained without recourse to supernatural power4 ,when ,napoleon objected to ,laplace that divine design was omitted from his mechanical theory of the universe1 the ,french philosopher characteristically replied3 ,i had no need of that hypothesis4 ,and the same disposition prevails in other departments of science4 ,darwin1 for instance1 undertakes to explain the origin and development of man1 physical1 intellectual and moral1 without assuming any cause other than those which obtain wherever life exists4 ,god is being slowly but surely driven from the domain of intermediate causes1 and transformed into an ultimate cause1 a mere figment of the imagination4 ,he is being banished from nature into that poetical region inhabited by the gods of ,polytheism1 to keep company there with ,jupiter and ,apollo and ,neptune and ,juno and ,venus1 and all the rest of that glorious ,pantheon4 ,he no longer rules the actual life and struggle of the world1 but lives at peace with his old rivals in-- ,the lucid interspace of world and world1 ,where never creeps a cloud or moves a wind1 ,nor ever falls the least white star of snow1 ,nor ever lowest roll of thunder moans2 ,nor sound of human sorrow mounts1 to mar ,their sacred everlasting calm4 99 99 ,tennyson3 ,lucretius4 ,the essence of all this is admitted by the writer in the ,christian ,world2 he admits the facts1 but denies the inference4 ,they show us one of ,god's ways of hiding himself4 ,order prevails1 but it is the expression of ,god's will1 and not a mere result of the working of material forces4 ,he operates by method1 not by caprice1 and hence the unchanging stability of things4 ,while doing nothing in particular1 he does everything in general4 ,and this idea must be extended to human history4 ,god endows man with powers1 and allows him freedom to employ them as he will4 ,but1 strangely enough1 ,god has a way of ruling our freedom1 and always there is a restraining and restoring hand4 ,how man's will can be free and yet overruled passes our merely carnal understanding1 although it may be intelligible enough to minds steeped in the mysteries of theology4 ,according to this writer1 ,god's government of mankind is a constitutional kingdom4 ,quite so4 ,it was once arbitrary and despotic2 now it is far milder and less exacting1 having dwindled into the constitutional stage1 wherein the ,king reigns but does not govern4 ,will the law of human growth and divine decay stop here8 ,we think not4 ,as the despotism has changed to a constitutional monarchy1 so that will change to a republic1 and the empty throne be preserved among other curious relics of the past4 ,god also hides himself in history4 ,although unapparent on the surface of events1 his spirit is potent within them4 ,what1 the writer asks1 is history--with all its dark passages of horror1 its stormy revolutions1 its ceaseless conflict1 its tears1 its groans1 its blood--but the chronicle of an ever-widening realm of light1 of order1 of intelligence1 wisdom1 truth1 and charity8 ,but if we admit the progress1 we need not explain it as the work of ,god4 ,bunsen wrote a book on ,god in ,history1 which a profane wag said should have been called ,bunsen in ,history2 yet his attempt to justify the ways of ,god to men was not very successful4 ,it is simply a mockery to ask us to believe that the slow progress of humanity must be attributed to omniscient omnipotence4 ,a ,god who can evolve virtue and happiness only out of infinite evil and misery1 and elevate us only through the agency of perpetual blood and tears1 is scarcely a being to be loved and worshipped1 unless we assume that his power and wisdom are exceedingly limited4 ,are we to suppose that ,god has woven himself a garment of violence1 evil1 and deceit1 in order that we might not see too clearly his righteousness1 goodness1 and truth8 ,it must further be observed that ,christian ,theists cannot be permitted to ascribe all the good in the world to ,god1 and all the evil to man1 or else leave it absolutely unexplained4 ,in the name of humanity we protest against this indignity to our race4 ,let ,god be responsible for good and evil both1 or for neither2 and if man is to consider himself chargeable with all the world's wrong1 he should at least be allowed credit for all the compensating good4 ,the theory of evolution is being patronised by ,theists rather too fulsomely4 ,not long ago they treated it with obloquy and contempt1 but now they endeavor to use it as an argument for their faith1 and in doing so they distort language as only theological controversialists can4 ,changing survival of the fittest into survival of the best1 they transform a physical fact into a moral law2 and thus1 as they think1 take a new north-west passage to the old harbor of whatever is is right4 ,but while-evolution may be construed as progress1 which some would contest1 it cannot be construed as the invariable survival of the best2 nor1 if it were1 could the process by which this result is achieved be justified4 ,for evolution works through a universal struggle for existence1 in which the life and well-being of some can be secured only through the suffering and final extinction of others2 and even in its higher stages1 cunning and unscrupulous strength frequently overcomes humane wisdom fettered by weakness4 ,nature1 red in tooth and claw1 with ravin shrieks against the creed of the ,theist4 ,if ,god is working through evolution1 we must admit that he has marvellously hidden himself1 and agree with the poet that he does move in a mysterious way his wonders to perform4 ,the writer in the ,christian ,world borrows an image from the puling scepticism of ,in ,memoriam1 which describes man as ,an infant crying in the night1 ,and with no language but a cry4 ,this image of the infant is put to strange use4 ,the writer says that ,god is necessarily hidden from us because we can grasp his inscrutable nature and methods only as an infant can grasp the thought and purpose of a man4 ,similes are dangerous things4 ,when it is demanded that they shall run upon all fours1 they often turn against their masters4 ,this one does so4 ,the infant grows into a man in due course1 and then he can not only grasp the thought and purpose of his father1 but also1 it may be1 comprehend still greater things4 ,will the infant mind of man1 when it reaches maturity1 be thus related to ,god's8 ,if not1 the analogy is fallacious4 ,man is quite mature enough already1 and has been so for thousands of years1 to understand something of ,god's thought and purpose if he had only chosen to reveal them4 ,this1 however1 if there be a ,god1 he has not condescended to do4 ,an appeal to the various pretended revelations of the world serves to convince us that all are the words of fallible men4 ,their very discord discredits them4 ,as ,d',holbach said1 if ,god had spoken1 the universe would surely be convinced1 and the same conviction would fill every breast4 ,the reason given for ,god's hiding himself is very curious4 ,if1 says the writer1 the way of ,god were not in large measure hidden1 it would mean that we could survey all things from the height and the depth of ,god4 ,truly an awful contemplation6 ,may it not be that ,god is hidden from us because there is none to be revealed1 that all the oracles are dumb or cheat because they have no secret to express8 ,but1 says the writer in the ,christian ,world1 there is one revelation of ,god that can never be gainsaid2 while the ,cross stands as earth's most sacred symbol1 there can be no utter hiding of his love4 ,this1 however1 we venture to dispute4 ,that ,cross which was laid upon the back of ,jesus poor mankind has been compelled to carry ever since1 with no ,simon to ease it of the load4 ,jesus was crucified on ,calvary1 and in his name man has suffered centuries of crucifixion4 ,the immolation of ,jesus can be no revelation of ,god's love4 ,if the ,nazarene was ,god1 his crucifixion involves a complicated arrangement for murder2 the ,jews who demanded his death were divinely instigated1 and ,judas ,iscariot was pre-ordained to betray his master2 in which case his treachery was a necessary element of the drama1 entitling him not to vituperation but to gratitude1 even perhaps to the monument which ,benjamin ,disraeli suggested as his proper reward4 ,looking also at the history of ,christianity1 and seeing how the ,cross has sheltered oppressors of mind and body1 sanctioned immeasurable shedding of blood1 and frightened peoples from freedom1 while even now it symbolises all that is reactionary and accursed in ,europe1 we are constrained to say that the love it reveals is as noxious as the vilest hate4 ,,general ,,joshua4 7,april1 #ahhb47 ,mountebank ,talmage has just preached a funeral sermon on ,general ,joshua4 ,it is rather behind date1 as the old warrior has been dead above three thousand years4 ,but better late than never4 ,talmage tells us many things about ,joshua which are not in the ,bible1 and some sceptics will say that his panegyric is a sheer invention4 ,they may1 however1 be mistaken4 ,the oracle of the ,brooklyn ,jabbernacle is known to be inspired4 ,god holds converse with him1 and he is thus enabled to supply us with fresh facts about ,jehovah's fighting-cock from the lost books of ,jasher and the ,wars of the ,lord4 ,joshua1 says ,talmage1 was a magnificent fighter4 ,we say1 he was a magnificent butcher4 ,jehovah did the fighting4 ,he was the virtual commander of the ,jewish hosts2 he won all their victories2 and ,joshua only did the slaughter4 ,he excelled in that line of business4 ,he delighted in the dying groans of women and children1 and loved to dabble his feet and hands in the warm blood of the slain4 ,no ,chamber of ,horrors contains the effigy of any wretch half so bloodthirsty and cruel4 ,according to ,talmage1 ,joshua always fought on the right side4 ,wars of conquest are never right4 ,thieving other people's lands is an abominable crime4 ,the ,jews had absolutely no claim to the territory they took possession of1 and which they manured with the blood of its rightful owners4 ,we know they said that ,god told them to requisition that fine little landed estate of ,canaan4 ,half the thieves in history have said the same thing4 ,we don't believe them4 ,god never told any man to rob his neighbor1 and whoever says so lies4 ,the thief's statement does not suffice4 ,let him produce better evidence4 ,a rascal who steals and murders cannot be believed on his oath1 and 'tis more likely that he is a liar than that ,god is a scoundrel4 ,talmage celebrates five great victories of ,joshua4 ,he omits two mighty achievements4 ,general ,joshua circumcised a million and a half ,jews in a single day4 ,his greatest battle never equalled that wonderful feat4 ,the amputations were done at the rate of over a thousand a minute4 ,samson's jaw-bone was nothing to ,joshua's knife4 ,this surprising old ,jew was as great in oratory as in surgery4 ,on one occasion he addressed an audience of three millions1 and everyone heard him4 ,his voice must have reached two or three miles4 ,no wonder the walls of ,jericho fell down when ,joshua joined in the shout4 ,we dare say the ,jews wore ear-preservers to guard their tympanums against the dreadful artillery of his speech4 ,joshua's first victory1 says ,tahnage1 was conquering the spring freshet of ,jordan4 ,as a matter of fact1 ,jehovah transacted that little affair4 ,see1 says ,talmage1 one mile ahead go two priests carrying a glittering box four feet long and two feet wide4 ,it is the ,ark of the ,covenant4 ,he forgets to add that the ,jew ,god was supposed to be inside it4 ,jack in the box is nothing to ,god in a box4 ,what would have happened if the ,ark had been buried with ,jehovah safely fastened in8 ,would his godship have mouldered to dust8 ,in that case he would never have seduced a carpenter's wife1 and there would have been no ,god the ,son as the fruit of his adultery4 ,talmage credits ,general ,joshua with the capture of ,jericho4 ,the ,bible says that ,jehovah overcame it4 ,seven priests went blowing rams' horns round the city for seven days4 ,on the seventh day they went round it seven times4 ,it must have been tiresome work1 for ,jericho was a large city several miles in circumference4 ,but priests are always good ,walkers4 ,after the last blowing of horns all the ,jews shouted ,down ,jericho1 down ,jericho6 ,this is ,talmage's inspired account4 ,the ,bible states nothing of the kind4 ,just as the ,islamites cry ,allah1 ,il ,allah1 it is probable that the ,jews cried ,jahveh1 ,jahveh4 ,but ,talmage and the ,bible both agree that when their shout rent the air the walls of ,jericho fell flat--as flat as the fools who believe it4 ,then1 says ,talmage1 the huzza of the victorious ,israelites and the groan of the conquered ,canaanites commingle6 ,ah1 that groan6 ,its sound still curses the ,bible ,god4 ,men1 women and children1 were murdered4 ,the very cattle1 sheep and asses1 were killed with the sword4 ,only one woman's house was spared1 and she was a harlot4 ,it is as if the ,german army took ,paris1 and killed every inhabitant except ,cora ,pearl4 ,this is inspired war1 and ,talmage glories in it4 ,he would consider it an honor to be bottle-washer to such a pious hero as ,general ,joshua4 ,when ,ai was taken1 all its people were slaughtered1 without any regard to age or sex4 ,talmage grins with delight1 and cries ,bravo1 ,joshua6 ,the ,king of ,ai was reserved for sport4 ,they hung him on a tree and enjoyed the fun4 ,talmage approves this too4 ,everything ,joshua did was right4 ,talmage is ready to stake his own poor little soul on that4 ,joshua's victory over the five kings calls forth a burst of supernatural eloquence4 ,talmage pictures the catapults of the sky pouring a volley of hailstones on the flying ,amorites1 and words almost fail him to describe the glorious miracle of the lengthening of the day in order that ,jehovah's prize-fighters might go on killing4 ,one passage is almost sublime4 ,it is only one step off4 ,what1 asks ,talmage1 is the matter with ,joshua8 ,has he fallen in an apoplectic fit8 ,no4 ,he is in prayer4 ,our profanity would not have gone to that length4 ,but we take ,talmage's word for it that prayer and apoplexy are very much alike4 ,the five kings were decapitated4 ,ah1 says ,talmage1 ,i want five more kings beheaded to-day1 ,king ,alcohol1 ,king ,fraud1 ,king ,lust1 ,king ,superstition1 and ,king ,infidelity4 ,soft1 you priestly calumniator6 ,what right have you to associate ,infidelity with fraud and lust8 ,that ,freethought1 which you call infidelity1 is more faithful to truth and justice than your creed has ever been4 ,and it will not be disposed of so easily as you think4 ,you will never behead us1 but we shall strangle you4 ,we are crushing the life out of your wretched faith1 and your spasmodic sermons are only the groans of its despair4 ,talmage's boldest step on the line which separates the ludicrous from the sublime occurs in his peroration4 ,he makes ,general ,joshua conquer ,death by lying down and giving up the ghost1 and then asks for a headstone and a foot-stone for the holy corpse4 ,i imagine1 he says1 that for the head it shall be the sun that stood still upon ,gibeon1 and for the foot the moon that stood still in the valley of ,ajalon4 ,this is about the finest piece of ,yankee buncombe extant4 ,if the sun and moon keep watch over ,general ,joshua's grave1 what are we to do8 ,when we get to the ,new ,jerusalem we shall want neither of these luminaries1 for the glory of the ,lord will shine upon us4 ,but until then we cannot dispense with them1 and we decidedly object to their being retained as perpetual mourners over ,joshua's grave4 ,if1 however1 one of them must do service1 we humbly beg that it may be the moon4 ,let the sun illumine us by day1 so that we may see to transact our affairs4 ,and if ever we should long to behold pale ,dians beams again1 we might take ,talmage as our guide to the unknown grave of ,general ,joshua1 and while they played softly over the miraculous two yards of turf we should see his fitting epitaph--,moonshine4 ,,going ,,to ,,hell4 7,june1 #ahhb47 ,editing a ,freethought paper is a dreadful business4 ,it brings one into contact with many half-baked people who have little patent recipes for hastening the millennium2 with ambitious versifiers who think it a disgrace to journalism that their productions are not instantly inserted2 with discontented ladies and gentlemen who fancy that a heterodox paper is the proper vehicle for every species of complaint2 and with a multitude of other bores too numerous to mention and too various to classify4 ,but the worst of all are the anonymous bores1 who send their insults1 advice1 or warnings1 through the post for the benefit of the ,queen's revenue4 ,we generally pitch their puerile missives into the waste-paper basket2 but occasionally we find one diverting enough to be introduced to our readers4 ,a few days ago we received the following lugubrious epistle1 ostensibly from a parson in ,worcestershire1 as the envelope bore the postmark of ,tything4 ,the fool hath said in his heart 'there is no ,god'--,i have seen one of your blasphemous papers2 and ,i say solemnly1 as a clergyman of the ,church of ,england1 that ,i believe you are doing the work of the ,devil1 and are on the road to hell1 and will spend eternity with the ,devil1 unless ,god1 in his mercy1 lead you1 by the ,holy ,spirit1 to repentance4 ,nothing is impossible1 with him4 ,a ,dean in the ,church of ,england says1 ',be wise1 and laugh not through a speck of time1 and then wail through an immeasurable eternity4' ,except you change your views you will most certainly hear ,christ say1 at the ,judgment ,day1 ',depart ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the ,devil and his angels4' 7,matt1 xxv47 ,this is a tolerably warm1 though not very elegant effusion1 and it is really a pity that so grave a counsellor should conceal his name2 for if it should lead to our conversion1 we should not know whom to thank for having turned us out of the primrose path to the everlasting bonfire4 ,our mentor assures us that with ,god nothing is impossible4 ,we are sorry to learn this2 for we must conclude that he does not take sufficient trouble with parsons to endow them with the courage of their convictions1 or to make them observe the common decencies of epistolary intercourse4 ,this anonymous parson1 who acts like an ,irish ,moonlighter1 and masks his identity while venting his spleen1 presumes to anticipate the ,day of ,judgment1 and tells exactly what ,jesus ,christ will say to us on that occasion4 ,we are obliged to him for the information1 but we wonder how he obtained it4 ,the twenty-fifth of ,matthew1 to which he refers us1 contains not a word about unbelievers4 ,it simply states that certain persons1 who have treated the ,son of ,man very shabbily in his distress1 shall be sent to keep company with ,old ,nick and his imps4 ,now1 we have never shown the ,son of ,man any incivility1 much less any inhumanity1 and we therefore repudiate this odious insinuation4 ,whenever ,jesus ,christ sends us a message that he is sick1 we will pay him a visit2 if he is hungry1 we will find him a dinner2 if he is thirsty1 we will stand whatever he likes to drink2 if he is naked1 we will hunt him up a clean shirt and an old suit2 and if he is in prison1 we will1 according as he is innocent or guilty1 try to procure his release1 or leave him to serve out his term4 ,we should be much surprised if any parson in the three kingdoms would do any more ,some of them1 we believe1 would see him condemned 7new version7 before they would lift a finger or spend sixpence to-help him4 ,we are charged with doing the work of the ,devil4 ,this is indeed news4 ,we never knew the ,devil required any assistance4 ,he was always very active and enterprising1 and quite able to manage his own business4 ,and although his rival1 ,jehovah1 is so dotingly senile as to yield up everything to his mistress and her son1 no one has ever whispered the least hint of the ,devil's decline into the same abject position4 ,but if his ,satanic ,majesty needed our aid we should not be loth to give it1 for after carefully reading the ,bible many times from beginning to end1 we have come to the conclusion that he is about the only gentleman in it4 ,we are on the road to hell4 ,well1 if we must go somewhere1 that is just the place we should choose4 ,the temperature is high1 and it would no doubt at first be incommodious4 ,but1 as old ,sir ,thomas ,browne says1 afflictions induce callosities1 and in time we should get used to anything4 ,when once we grew accustomed to the heat1 how thankful we should be at having escaped the dreary insipidity of heaven1 with its perpetual psalms1 its dolorous trumpets1 its gruesome elders1 and its elderly beasts6 ,how thankful at having missed an eternity with ,abraham1 ,isaac1 ,jacob1 ,david1 and all the many blackguards and scoundrels of the ,bible6 ,how thankful at having joined for ever the society of ,rabelais1 ,bruno1 ,spinoza1 ,voltaire1 ,thomas ,paine1 ,john ,stuart ,mill1 and all the great poets1 sages and wits1 who possess so much of that carnal wisdom which is at enmity with the pious folly of babes and sucklings6 ,on the whole1 we think it best to keep on our present course4 ,let the bigots rave and the parsons wail4 ,they are deeply interested in the doctrine of heaven and hell beyond the grave4 ,we believe in heaven and hell on this side of it2 a hell of ignorance1 crime1 and misery2 a heaven of wisdom1 virtue1 and happiness4 ,our duty is to promote the one and combat the other4 ,if there be a just ,god1 the fulfilment of that duty will suffice2 if ,god be unjust1 all honest men will be in the same boat1 and have the courage to despise and defy him4 ,,christmas ,,eve ,,in ,,heaven4 7,december1 #ahha47 ,christmas ,eve had come and almost gone4 ,it was drawing nigh midnight1 and ,i sat solitary in my room1 immersed in memory1 dreaming of old days and their buried secrets4 ,the fire1 before which ,i mused1 was burning clear without flame1 and its intense glow1 which alone lighted my apartment1 cast a red tint on the furniture and walls4 ,outside the streets were muffled deep with snow1 in which no footstep was audible4 ,all was quiet as death1 silent as the grave1 save for the faint murmur of my own breathing4 ,time and space seemed annihilated beyond those four narrow walls1 and ,i was as a coffined living centre of an else lifeless infinity4 ,my reverie was rudely broken by the staggering step of a fellow-lodger1 whose devotion to ,bacchus was the one symptom of reverence in his nature4 ,he reeled up stair after stair1 and as he passed my door he lurched against it so violently that ,i feared he would come through4 ,but he slowly recovered himself after some profane mutterings1 reeled up the next flight of stairs1 and finally deposited his well-soaked clay on the bed in his own room immediately over mine4 ,after this interruption my thoughts changed most fancifully4 ,why ,i know not1 but ,i began to brood on the strange statement of ,saint ,paul concerning the man who was lifted up into the seventh heaven1 and there beheld things not lawful to reveal4 ,while pondering this story ,i was presently aware of an astonishing change4 ,the walls of my room slowly expanded1 growing ever thinner and thinner1 until they became the filmiest transparent veil which at last dissolved utterly away4 ,then 7whether in the spirit or the flesh ,i know not7 ,i was hurried along through space1 past galaxy after galaxy of suns and stars1 separate systems yet all mysteriously related4 ,swifter than light we travelled1 ,i and my unseen guide1 through the infinite ocean of ether1 until our flight was arrested by a denser medium1 which ,i recognised as an atmosphere like that of our earth4 ,i had scarcely recovered from this new surprise when 7marvel of marvels67 ,i found myself before a huge gate of wondrous art and dazzling splendor4 ,at a word from my still unseen guide it swung open1 and ,i was urged within4 ,beneath my feet was a solid pavement of gold4 ,gorgeous mansions1 interspersed with palaces1 rose around me1 and above them all towered the airy pinnacles of a matchless temple1 whose points quivered in the rich light like tongues of golden fire4 ,the walls glittered with countless rubies1 diamonds1 pearls1 amethysts1 emeralds1 and other precious stones2 and lovely presences1 arrayed in shining garments1 moved noiselessly from place to place4 ,where am ,i8 ,i ejaculated1 half faint with wonder4 ,and my hitherto unseen guide1 who now revealed himself1 softly answered1 ,in ,heaven4 ,thereupon my whole frame was agitated with inward laughter4 ,i in ,heaven1 whose fiery doom had been prophesied so often by the saints on earth6 ,i1 the sceptic1 the blasphemer1 the scoffer at all things sacred1 who had laughed at the legends and dogmas of ,christianism as though they were incredible and effete as the myths of ,olympus6 ,and ,i thought to myself1 ,better ,i had gone straight to ,hell1 for here in the ,new ,jerusalem they will no doubt punish me worse than there4 ,but my angelic guide1 who read my thought1 smiled benignly and said1 ,fear not1 no harm shall happen to you4 ,i have exacted a promise of safety for you1 and here no promise can be broken4 ,but why1 ,i asked1 have you brought me hither1 and how did you obtain my guarantee of safety8 ,and my guide answered1 ,it is our privilege each year to demand one favor which may not be refused2 ,i requested that ,i might bring you here2 but ,i did not mention your name1 and if you do nothing outrageous you will not be noticed1 for no one here meddles with another's business1 and our rulers are too much occupied with foreign affairs to trouble about our domestic concerns4 ,yet1 ,i rejoined1 ,i shall surely be detected1 for ,i wear no heavenly robe4 ,then my guide produced one from a little packet1 and having donned it1 ,i felt safe from the fate of him who was expelled because he had not on a wedding-garment at the marriage feast4 ,as we moved along1 ,i inquired of my guide why he took such interest in me2 and he replied1 looking sadly1 ,i was a sceptic on earth centuries ago1 but ,i stood alone1 and at last on my death-bed1 weakened by sickness1 ,i again embraced the creed of my youth and died in the ,christian faith4 ,hence my presence in ,heaven4 ,but gladly would ,i renounce ,paradise even for ,hell1 for those figures so lovely without are not all lovely within1 and ,i would rather consort with the choicer spirits who abide with ,satan and hold high revel of heart and head in his court4 ,yet wishes are fruitless2 as the tree falls it lies1 and my lot is cast for ever4 ,whereupon ,i laid my hand in his1 being speechless with grief6 ,we soon approached the magnificent temple1 and entering it we mixed with the mighty crowd of angels who were witnessing the rites of worship performed by the elders and beasts before the great white throne4 ,all happened exactly as ,saint ,john describes4 ,the angels rent the air with their acclamations1 after the inner circle had concluded1 and then the throne was deserted by its occupants4 ,my dear guide then led me through some narrow passages until we emerged into a spacious hall1 at one end of which hung a curtain4 ,advancing towards this with silent tread1 we were able to look through a slight aperture1 where the curtain fell away from the pillar1 into the room beyond4 ,it was small and cosy1 and a fire burned in the grate1 before which sat poor dear ,god the ,father in a big arm-chair4 ,divested of his godly paraphernalia1 he looked old and thin1 though an evil fire still gleamed from his cavernous eyes4 ,on a table beside him stood some phials1 one of which had seemingly just been used4 ,god the ,son stood near1 looking much younger and fresher1 but time was beginning to tell on him also4 ,the ,ghost flitted about in the form of a dove1 now perching on the ,father's shoulder and now on the head of the ,son4 ,presently the massive bony frame of the ,father was convulsed with a fit of coughing2 ,jesus promptly applied a restorative from the phial1 and after a terrible struggle the cough was subdued4 ,during this scene the ,dove fluttered violently from wall to wall4 ,when the patient was thoroughly restored the following conversation ensued3-- ,jesus4--,are you well now1 my ,father8 ,jehovah4--,yes1 yes1 well enough4 ,alack1 how my strength wanes6 ,where is the pith that filled these arms when ,i fought for my chosen people8 ,where the fiery vigor that filled my veins when ,i courted your mother8 7,here the ,dove fluttered and looked queer47 ,jesus4--,ah1 sire1 do not speak thus4 ,you will regain your old strength4 ,jehovah4--,nay1 nay1 and you know it4 ,you do not even wish me to recover1 for in my weakness you exercise sovereign power and rule as you please4 ,jesus4--,o sire1 sire6 ,jehovah4--,come now1 none of these demure looks4 ,we know each other too well4 ,practise before the saints if you like1 but don't waste your acting on me4 ,jesus4--,my dear ,father1 pray curb your temper4 ,that is the very thing the people on earth so much complain of4 ,jehovah4--,my dearly beloved ,son1 in whom ,i am not at all well pleased1 desist from this hypocrisy4 ,your temper is as bad as mine4 ,you've shed blood enough in your time1 and need not rail at me4 ,jesus4--,ah1 sire1 only the blood of heretics4 ,jehovah4--,heretics1 forsooth6 ,they were very worthy people for the most part1 and their only crime was that they neglected you4 ,but why should we wrangle8 ,we stand or fall together1 and ,i am falling4 ,satan draws most souls from earth to his place1 including all the best workers and thinkers1 who are needed to sustain our drooping power2 and we receive nothing but the refuse2 weak1 slavish1 flabby souls1 hardly worth saving or damning2 gushing preachers1 pious editors1 crazy enthusiasts1 and half-baked old ladies of both sexes4 ,why didn't you preach a different ,gospel while you were about it8 ,you had the chance once and let it slip3 we shall never have another4 ,jesus4--,my dear ,father1 ,i am reforming my ,gospel to make it suit the altered taste of the times4 ,jehovah4--,stuff and nonsense6 ,it can't be done2 thinking people see through it2 the divine is immutable4 ,the only remedy is to start afresh4 ,could ,i beget a new son all might be rectified2 but ,i cannot1 ,i am too old4 ,our dominion is melting away like that of all our predecessors4 ,you cannot outlast me1 for ,i am the fountain of your life2 and all the multitude of immortal angels who throng our court1 live only while ,i uphold them1 and with me they will vanish into eternal limbo4 ,here followed another fit of coughing worse than before4 ,jesus resorted again to the phial1 but the cordial seemed powerless against this sharp attack4 ,just then the ,dove fluttered against the curtain1 and my guide hurried me swiftly away4 ,in a corridor of the temple we met ,michael and ,raphael4 ,the latter scrutinised me so closely that my blood ran cold2 but just when my dread was deepest his countenance cleared1 and he turned towards his companion4 ,walking behind the great archangels we were able to hear their conversation4 ,raphael had just returned from a visit to the earth1 and he was reporting to ,michael a most alarming defection from the ,christian faith4 ,people1 he said1 were leaving in shoals1 and unless fresh miracles were worked he trembled for the prospects of the dynasty4 ,but what most alarmed him was the spread of profanity4 ,while in ,england he had seen copies of a blasphemous paper which horrified the elect by ridiculing the ,bible in what a bishop had justly called a heartless and cruel way4 ,but1 my dear ,michael1 continued ,raphael1 that is not all1 nor even the worst4 ,this scurrilous paper1 which would be quickly suppressed if we retained our old influence1 actually caricatures our supreme ,lord and his heavenly host in woodcuts1 and thousands of people enjoy this wicked profanity4 ,i dare say our turn will soon come1 and we shall be held up to ridicule like the rest4 ,impossible6 cried ,michael2 ,surely there is some mistake4 ,what is the name of this abominable print8 ,with a grave look1 ,raphael replied3 ,no1 ,michael1 there is no mistake4 ,the name of this imp of blasphemy is--,i hesitate to say it--the ,free---------- 99 99 ,was it the ,freethinker8 ,but at this moment my guide again hurried me along4 ,we reached the splendid gate once more1 which slowly opened and let us through4 ,again we flew through the billowy ether1 sweeping past system after system with intoxicating speed1 until at last1 dazed and almost unconscious1 ,i regained this earthly shore4 ,then ,i sank into a stupor4 ,when ,i awoke the fire had burnt down to the last cinder1 all was dark and cold1 and ,i shivered as ,i tried to stretch my half-cramped limbs4 ,was it all a dream8 ,who can say8 ,whether in the spirit or the flesh ,i know not1 said ,saint ,paul1 and ,i am compelled to echo his words4 ,sceptics may shrug their shoulders1 smile1 or laugh2 but there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in their philosophy4 ,,professor ,,blackie ,,on ,,atheism4 7,january1 #ahgi47 ,professor ,blackie is a man with whom we cannot be angry1 however greatly his utterances are calculated to arouse that feeling4 ,he is so impulsive1 frank1 and essentially good-natured1 that even his most provoking words call forth rather a smile of compassion than a frown of resentment4 ,those who know his character and position will yield him the widest allowance4 ,his fiery nature prompts him to energetic speech on all occasions4 ,but when his temper has been fretted1 as it frequently is1 by the boisterous whims of his ,greek students in that most boisterous of universities1 it is not surprising if his expressions become splenetic even to rashness4 ,the ingenuous ,professor is quite impartial in his denunciations4 ,he strikes out right and left against various objects of his dislike4 ,everything he dissents from receives one and the same kind of treatment1 so that no opinion he assails has any special reason to complain2 and every blow he deals is accompanied with such a jolly smile1 sometimes verging into a hearty laugh1 that no opponent can well refuse to shake hands with him when all is over4 ,this temper1 however1 is somewhat inconsistent with the scientific purpose indicated in the title of ,professor ,blackie's book4 ,a zoologist who had such a particular and unconquerable aversion to one species of animals that the bare mention of its name made his gorge rise1 would naturally give us a very inadequate and unsatisfactory account of it4 ,so1 in this case1 instead of getting a true natural history of ,atheism1 which would be of immense service to every thinker1 we get only an emphatic statement of the authors' hatred of it under different aspects4 ,atheism is styled a hollow absurdity1 that culmination of all speculative absurdities1 a disease of the speculative faculty1 a monstrous disease of the reasoning faculty1 and so on4 ,the chapter on ,its ,specific ,varieties and ,general ,root is significantly headed with that hackneyed declaration of the ,psalmist1 ,the fool hath said in his heart1 ,there is no ,god1 as though impertinence were better from a ,jew than from a ,christian1 or more respectable for being three thousand years old4 ,perhaps ,professor ,blackie has never heard of the sceptical critic who exonerated the ,psalmist on the ground that he was speaking jocosely1 and really meant that the man who said in his heart only ,there is no ,god1 without saying so openly1 was the fool4 ,but this interpretation is as profane as the other is impertinent2 and in fact does a great injustice to the ,atheist1 who has never been accustomed to say ,there is no ,god1 an assertion which involves the arrogance of infinite knowledge1 since nothing less than that is requisite to prove an universal negative3 but simply ,i know not of such an existence1 which is a modest statement intellectually and morally1 and quite unlike the presumption of certain theologians who1 as ,mr4 ,arnold says1 speak familiarly of ,god as though he were a man living in the next street4 ,for his own sake ,professor ,blackie should a little curb his proneness to the use of uncomplimentary epithets4 ,he does himself injustice when he condescends to describe ,david ,hume's theory of causation as wretched cavil4 ,carlyle is more just to this great representative of an antagonistic school of thought4 ,he exempts him from the sweeping condemnation of his contemporaries in ,scottish prose literature1 and admits that he was too rich a man to borrow from ,france or elsewhere4 ,and surely ,hume was no less honest than rich in thought4 ,jest and captiousness were entirely foreign to his mind4 ,wincing under his inexorable logic1 the ontologist may try to console himself with the thought that the great sceptic was playing with arguments like a mere dialectician of wondrous skill2 but in reality ,hume was quite in earnest1 and always meant what he said4 ,we may also observe that it is ,professor ,blackie and not ,darwin who suffers from the asking of such questions as these3--,what monkey ever wrote an epic poem1 or composed a tragedy or a comedy1 or even a sonnet8 ,what monkey professed his belief in any thirty-nine articles1 or well-compacted ,calvinistic confession1 or gave in his adhesion to any ,church1 established or disestablished8 ,if ,mr4 ,darwin heard these questions he might answer with a good humored smile1 ,my dear sir1 you quite mistake my theories1 and your questions travesty them4 ,i would further observe that while the composition of poems would unquestionably be creditable to monkeys1 ,i1 who have some regard for them as relatives1 however distant1 am heartily glad they have never done any of the other things you mention1 which ,i deem a negative proof that their reason1 though limited1 is fortunately sane4 ,professor ,blackie's opening chapter on ,presumptions fully justifies its title4 ,the general consent of mankind in favor of ,theism is assumed to have established its validity1 and to have put ,atheists altogether out of court2 and a long list of illustrious ,theists1 from ,solomon to ,hegel1 is contrasted with a meagre catalogue of ,atheists1 comprising only the names of ,david ,hume1 ,jeremy ,bentham1 and ,john ,stuart ,mill4 99 ,confucius and ,buddha are classed apart1 as lying outside of our ,western ,european ,culture altogether1 but with a promise that in so far as they seem to have taught a morality without religion1 or a religion without ,god1 we shall say a word or two about them by-and-by4 ,so far as ,buddha is concerned this promise is kept2 but in relation to ,confucius it is broken4 ,probably the ,chinese sage was found too tough and embarrassing a subject1 and so it was thought expedient to ignore him for the more tractable prophet of ,india1 whose doctrine of ,transmigration might with a little sophistry be made to resemble the ,christian doctrine of ,immortality1 and his ,nirvana the ,kingdom of ,heaven4 99 ,professor ,blackie is singularly silent as to ,james ,mill1 the father of the celebrated ,utilitarian philosopher1 far more robust in intellect and character than his son4 ,he is the dominant figure of ,mill's ,autobiography1 and has about him a more august air than his son ever wore4 ,what does the general consent of mankind prove in regard to beliefs like ,theism8 ,simply nothing4 ,professor ,blackie himself sees that on some subjects it is worthless1 particularly when special knowledge or special faculty is required4 ,but there are questions1 he contends1 which public opinion rightly decides1 even though opposed to the conclusions of subtle thinkers4 ,perhaps1 he says1 we shall hit the mark here if we say broadly that1 as nature is always right1 the general and normal sentiment of the majority must always be right1 in so far as it is rooted in the universal and abiding instincts of humanity2 and public opinion1 as the opinion of the majority1 will be right also in all matters which belong to the general conduct of life among all classes1 and with respect to which the mind of the majority has been allowed a perfectly free1 natural1 and healthy exercise4 ,now1 in the first place1 we must reiterate our opinion that the general consent of mankind on a subject like ,theism proves absolutely nothing4 ,it is perfectly valid on questions of ordinary taste and feeling1 but loses all logical efficacy in relation to questions which cannot be determined by a direct appeal to experience4 ,and undeniably ,theism is one of those questions1 unless we admit with the transcendentalist what is contrary to evident fact1 that men have an intuitive perception of ,god4 ,in the next place1 the minor premise of this argument is assumed4 ,there is no general consent of mankind in favor of ,theism1 but only a very extensive consent4 ,mr4 ,gladstone1 not long since1 in the ,nineteenth ,century1 went so far as to claim the general consent of mankind in favor of ,christianity1 by simply excluding all heathen nations from a right to be heard4 ,professor ,blackie does not go to this length1 but his logical process is no different4 ,lastly1 our author's concluding proviso vitiates his whole case2 for if there be one question on which the mind of the majority has not been allowed a perfectly free1 natural1 and healthy exercise1 it is that of the existence of ,god4 ,we are all prepossessed hi its favor by early training1 custom1 and authority4 ,our minds have never been permitted to play freely upon it4 ,a century ago ,atheists stood in danger of death2 only recently have penal and invidious statutes against them been cancelled or mitigated2 and even now bigotry against honest disbelief in ,theism is so strong that a man often incurs greater odium in publicly avowing it than in constantly violating all the decalogue save the commandment against murder4 ,murderers and thieves1 though punished here1 are either forgotten or compassionated after death2 but not even the grave effectually shields the ,atheist from the malignity of pious zeal4 ,fortunately1 however1 a wise and humane tolerance is growing in the world1 and extending towards the most flagrant heresies4 ,perhaps we shall ultimately admit with sage old ,felltham1 that we fill the world with cruel brawls in the obstinate defence of that whereof we might with more honor confess ourselves to be ignorant1 and that it is no shame for man not to know that which is not in his possibility4 ,the causes of ,atheism are1 according to ,professor ,blackie1 very numerous4 ,he finds seven or eight distinct ones4 ,the lowest class of ,atheists are ,atheists of imbecility1 persons of stunted intellect1 incapable of comprehending the idea of ,god4 ,these1 however1 he will not waste his time with1 nor will we4 ,he then passes to the second class of reprobates1 whose ,atheism springs not from defect of intellect1 but from moral disorder1 and who delight to conceive the universe as resembling their own chaos4 ,these we shall dismiss1 with a passing remark that if moral disorder naturally induces ,atheism1 some very eminent ,christians have been marvellous hypocrites4 ,lack of reverence is the next cause of ,atheism1 and is indeed its natural soil4 ,but as ,professor ,blackie thinks this may be congenital1 like a lack of taste for music1 or an incapacity of understanding a mathematical problem1 we are obliged to consider this third class of ,atheists as hopeless as the first4 ,having admitted that their malady may be congenital1 our author inflicts upon these unfortunates a great deal of superfluous abuse1 apparently forgetting that they are less to blame than their omnipotent maker4 ,the fourth cause of ,atheism is pride or self-will4 ,but this seems very erratic in its operations1 since the only two instances cited--namely1 ,napoleon the ,great and ,napoleon the ,little1 were certainly ,theists4 ,next comes democracy1 between which and irreverence there is a natural connexion1 and from which1 as from a hotbed1 ,atheism in its rankest stage naturally shoots up4 ,professor ,blackie1 as may be surmised1 tilts madly against this horrible foe4 ,but it will not thus be subdued4 ,democracy is here and daily extending itself1 overwhelming slowly but surely all impediments to its supremacy4 ,if ,theism is incompatible with it1 then the days of ,theism are numbered4 ,professor ,blackie's peculiar ,natural ,history of atheism is more likely to please the opposite ranks than his own1 who may naturally cry out1 with a sense of being sold1 call you that backing of your friends8 ,pride of intellect is the next cause of ,atheism4 ,don ,juan sells himself to perdition for a liberal share of pleasure1 but ,faust hankers only after forbidden knowledge4 ,this is of various kinds2 but of all kinds1 that which has long had the most evil reputation of begetting ,atheism is ,physical ,science4 ,again does the fervid ,professor set lance in rest1 and dash against this new foe to ,theism1 much as ,don ,quixote charged the famous windmill4 ,but science1 like the windmill1 is too big and strong to suffer from such assaults4 ,the father of this sort of nonsense1 in modern times was ,david ,hume1 who1 we are elegantly informed1 was a very clever fellow1 a very agreeable1 gentlemanly fellow too4 ,his nonsense about causation is to be traced to a want of reverence in his character4 ,indeed1 it seems that all persons who adhere to a philosophy alien to ,professor ,blackie's have something radically wrong with them4 ,let this ,edinburgh ,professor rail as he may1 ,david ,hume's theory of causation will suffer no harm1 and his contrast of human architecture1 which is mechanism1 with natural architecture1 which is growth1 will still form an insuperable obstacle to that natural theology which1 as ,garth ,wilkinson says with grim humor1 seeks to elicit1 or rather construct1 a scientific abstraction answering to the concrete figure of the ,vulcan of the ,greeks--that is to say a universal ,smith6 ,eventually ,professor ,blackie gets so sick of philosophers1 that he turns from them to poets1 who may more safely be trusted in matters of healthy human sentiment4 ,but here fresh difficulties arise4 ,although a poet is naturally a religious animal1 we find that the greatest of ,roman poets ,lucretius1 was an ,atheist1 while even some of our most brilliant notorieties in the modern world of song are not the most notable for piety4 ,but our versatile ,professor easily accounts for this by assuming that there may be an idolatry of the imaginative1 as well as of the knowing faculty4 ,never did natural historian so jauntily provide for every fact contravening his theories4 ,professor ,blackie will never understand ,atheism1 or write profitably upon it1 while he pursues this course4 ,let him restrain his discursive propensities1 and deal scientifically with this one fact1 which explodes his whole theory of ,atheism4 ,the supreme glory of our modern poetry is ,shelley1 and if ever a man combined splendor of imagination with keen intelligence and saintly character it was he4 ,raphael incarnate he seems1 yet he stands outside all the creeds1 and to his prophetic vision1 in the sunlight of the world's great age begun anew1 the-- ,faiths and empires gleam ,like wrecks of a dissolving dream4 ,in his treatment of ,buddhism ,professor ,blackie is candid and impartial1 until he comes to consider its ,atheistic character4 ,then his reason seems almost entirely to forsake him4 ,after saying that what ,buddha preached was a gospel of pure human ethics1 divorced not only from ,brahma and the ,brahminic ,trinity1 but even from the existence of ,god2 and describing ,buddha himself as a rare1 exceptional1 and altogether transcendental incarnation of moral perfection2 he first tries to show that ,nirvana is the same as the ,christian eternal life1 and transmigration of souls a faithful counterpart of the ,christian doctrine of future reward and punishment4 ,feeling1 perhaps1 how miserably he has failed in this attempt1 he turns with exasperation on ,buddhism1 and affirms that it can in no wise be looked upon as anything but an abnormal manifestation of the religious life of man4 ,we believe that ,professor ,blackie himself must have already perceived the futility and absurdity of this4 ,the last chapter of ,professor ,blackie's book is entitled ,the ,atheism of ,reaction4 ,in it he strikes characteristically at the five points of ,calvinism1 at ,original ,guilt1 ,eternal ,punishment1 ,creation out of ,nothing1 and ,special ,providence2 which he charges with largely contributing to the spread of ,atheism4 ,while welcoming these assaults on superstition1 we are constrained to observe that the ,christian dogmas which ,professor ,blackie impugns and denounces are not specific causes of ,atheism4 ,again he is on the wrong scent4 ,the revolt against ,theism at the present time is indeed mainly moral1 but the preparation for it has been an intellectual one4 ,modern ,science has demonstrated1 for all practical purposes1 the inexorable reign of law4 ,the ,god of miracles1 answering prayer and intimately related to his children of men1 is an idea exploded and henceforth impossible4 ,the only idea of ,god at all possible1 is that of a supreme universal intelligence1 governing nature by fixed laws1 and apparently quite heedless whether their operation brings us joy or pain4 ,this idea is intellectually permissible1 but it is beyond all proof1 and can be entertained only as a speculation4 ,now1 the development of knowledge which makes this the only permissible idea of ,god1 also changes ,immortality from a religious certitude to an unverifiable supposition4 ,the rectification of the evils of this life cannot1 therefore1 be reasonably expected in another2 so that man stands alone1 fighting a terrible battle1 with no aid save from his own strength and skill4 ,to believe that ,omnipotence is the passive spectator of this fearful strife1 is for many minds altogether too hard4 ,they prefer to believe that the woes and pangs of sentient life were not designed2 that madness1 anguish1 and despair1 result from the interplay of unconscious forces4 ,they thus set ,theism aside1 and unable to recognise the fatherhood of ,god1 they cling more closely to the brotherhood of ,man4 ,,salvationism4 7,april1 #ahhb47 ,there is no new thing under the sun1 said the wise king ,many a surprising novelty is only an old thing in a new dress4 ,and this is especially true in respect to religion4 ,ever since the feast of ,pentecost1 when the ,apostles all jabbered like madmen1 ,christianity has been marked by periodical fits of insanity4 ,it would occupy too much space to enumerate these outbursts1 which have occurred in every part of ,christendom1 but we may mention a few that have happened in our own country4 ,during the ,commonwealth1 some of the numerous sects went to the most ludicrous extremes2 preaching rousing sermons1 praying through the nose1 assuming ,biblical names1 and prophesying the immediate reign of the saints4 ,there was a reaction against the excesses of ,puritanism after the death of ,cromwell2 and until the time of ,whitfield and ,wesley religion continued to be a sober and respectable influence1 chiefly useful to the sovereign and the magistrate4 ,but these two powerful preachers rekindled the fire of religious enthusiasm in the hearts of the common people1 and ,methodism was founded among those whom the ,church had scarcely touched4 ,not many years ago the ,hallelujah ,band spread itself far and wide1 and then went out like a straw fire4 ,and now we have ,salvationism1 doing just the same kind of work1 and employing just the same kind of means4 ,will this new movement die away like so many others8 ,it is difficult to say4 ,salvationism may be only a flash in the pan2 but1 on the other hand1 it may provide the only sort of ,christianity possible in an age of science and freethought4 ,the educated classes and the intelligent artisans will more and more desert the ,christian creed1 and there will probably be left nothing but the dregs and the scum1 for whom ,salvationism is exactly suited4 ,christianity began among the poor1 ignorant1 and depraved2 and it may possibly end its existence among the very same classes4 ,in all these movements we see a striking illustration of what the biologists call the law of ,atavism4 ,there is a constant tendency to return to the primitive type4 ,we can form some idea of what early ,christianity was by reading the ,acts of the ,apostles4 ,the true believers went about preaching in season and out of season2 they cried and prayed with a loud voice2 they caused tumult in the streets1 and gave plenty of trouble to the civil authorities4 ,all this is true of ,salvationism to-day2 and we have no doubt that the early ,church1 under the guidance of ,peter1 was just a counterpart of the ,salvation ,army under ,general ,booth--to the ,jews1 or men of the world1 a stumbling-block1 and to the ,greeks1 or educated thinkers1 a folly4 ,early ,christians were full of the ,holy ,ghost1 that is of wild enthusiasm4 ,scoffers said they were drunk1 and they acted like madmen4 ,leap across seventeen centuries1 and we shall find ,methodists acting in the same way4 ,wesley states in his ,journal 7#agci7 of his hearers at ,wapping1 that some were torn with a kind of convulsive motion in every part of their bodies1 and that so violently that often four or five persons could not hold one of them4 ,and ,lecky tells us1 in his ,history of the ,eighteenth ,century1 that religious madness1 which from the nature of its hallucinations1 is usually the most miserable of all the forms of insanity1 was in this1 as in many later revivals1 of no unfrequent occurrence4 ,now ,salvationism produces the very same effects4 ,it drives many people mad2 and it is a common thing for men and women at its meetings to shout1 dance1 jump1 and finally fall on the floor in a pious ecstacy4 ,while they are in this condition1 the ,holy ,ghost is entering them and the ,devil is being driven out4 ,poor creatures6 ,they take us back in thought to the days of demoniacal possession1 and the strange old world that saw the devil-plagued swine of ,gadara drowned in the sea4 ,the free and easy mingling of the sexes at these pious assemblies1 is another noticeable feature4 ,love-feasts were a flagrant scandal in the early ,church1 and women who returned from them virtuous must have been miracles of chastity4 ,methodism was not quite so bad1 but it tolerated some very strange pranks4 ,the ,rev4 ,richard ,polwhele1 in his ,anecdotes of ,methodism 7a very rare book71 says that ,at ,st4 ,agnes1 the ,society stay up the whole night1 when girls of twelve and fourteen years of age1 run about the streets1 calling out that they are possessed4 ,he goes on to relate that at ,probus the preacher at a late hour of the night1 after all but the higher classes left the room1 would order the candles to be put out1 and the saints fall down and kneel on their naked knees2 when he would go round and thrust his hand under every knee to feel if it were bare4 ,salvationism does not at present go to this length1 but it has still time enough to imitate all the freaks of its predecessor4 ,there was an ,all-,night meeting in ,whitechapel a few months ago1 which threatened to develope into a thoroughgoing love-feast4 ,the light was rather dim1 voices grew low1 cheeks came perilously near1 and hands met caressingly4 ,of course it was nothing but the love of ,god that moved them1 yet it looked like something else2 and the uninitiated spectator of the mystery of godliness found it easy to understand how ,american camp-meetings tend to increase the population1 and why a ,magistrate in the ,south-west of ,england observed that one result of revivals in his district was a number of fatherless weans4 ,in one respect ,salvationism excels all previous revivals4 ,it is unparalleled in its vulgarity4 ,the imbecile coarseness of its language makes one ashamed of human nature4 ,had it existed in ,swift's time1 he might have added a fresh clause to his terrible indictment of mankind4 ,its metaphors are borrowed from the slaughter-house1 its songs are frequently coarser than those of the lowest music-hall1 and the general style of its preaching is worthy of a congregation of drunken pugilists4 ,the very names assumed by its officers are enough to turn one's stomach4 ,christianity has fallen low indeed when its champions boast such titles as the ,hallelujah ,fishmonger1 the ,blood-washed ,miner1 the ,devil ,dodger1 the ,devil ,walloper1 and ,gipsy ,sal4 ,the constitution of the ,salvation ,army is a pure despotism4 ,general ,booth commands it absolutely4 ,there is a ,council of ,war1 consisting of his own family4 ,all the funds flow into his exchequer1 and he spends them as he likes4 ,no questions are allowed1 no accounts are rendered1 and everything is under his unqualified control4 ,the ,general may be a perfectly honest man1 but we are quite sure that none but pious lunatics would trust him with such irresponsible power4 ,we understand that the officials are all paid1 and some of them extremely well4 ,they lead a very pleasant life1 full of agreeable excitement2 they wear uniform1 and are dubbed captain1 major1 or some other title4 ,add to all this1 that they suppose themselves 7when honest7 to be particular favorites of ,god2 and it will be easy to understand how so many of them prefer a career of singing and praying to earning an honest living by hard work1 ,the ,hallelujah lads and lasses could not1 for the most part1 get decent wages in any other occupation4 ,all they require for this work is a good stomach and good lungs2 and if they can only boast of having been the greatest drunkard in the district1 the worst thief1 or the most brutal character1 they are on the high road to fortune1 and may count on living in clover for the rest of their sojourn in this vale of tears4 ,a ,,pious ,,showman4 7,october1 #ahhb47 ,we all remember how that clever showman1 ,barnum1 managed to fan the ,jumbo fever4 ,when the enterprising ,yankee writes his true autobiography we shall doubtless find some extraordinary revelations4 ,yet ,barnum1 after all1 makes no pretence of morality or religion4 ,he merely goes in for making a handsome fortune out of the curiosity and credulity of the public4 ,if he were questioned as to his principles1 he would probably reply like ,artemus ,ward--,princerpuls8 ,i've nare a one4 ,i'm in the show bizniz4 ,general ,booth is quite as much a showman as ,barnum1 but he is a pious showman4 ,he is a perfect master of the vulgar art of attracting fools4 ,every day brings a fresh change in his ,walk up1 ,walk up4 ,tambourine girls1 hallelujah lasses1 converted clowns and fiddlers1 sham ,italian organ grinders1 bands in which every man plays his own tune1 officers in uniform1 ,davidic dances1 and music-hall tunes1 are all served up with a plentiful supply of blood and fire4 ,the ,general evidently means to stick at nothing that will draw2 and we quite believe that if a pair of ,ezekiel's cherubim were available1 he would worry ,god ,almighty into sending them down for exhibition at the ,city ,road show4 ,booth's latest dodge is to say the least peculiar4 ,most fathers would shrink from trafficking in a son's marriage1 but ,booth is above such nice scruples4 ,the worst deeds are sanctified by love of ,god1 and religion condones every indecency4 ,mr4 ,bramwell ,booth1 whom the ,general has singled out as his apostolic successor1 and heir to all the ,army's property1 got married last week2 and the pious showman actually exhibited the bridegroom and bride to the public at a shilling a head4 ,about three hundred pounds were taken at the doors1 and a big collection was made inside4 ,booth's anxiety for the cash was very strongly illustrated4 ,commissioner ,bailton1 who has had a very eccentric career1 was enjoying his long deferred opportunity of making a speech1 when many of the crowd began to press towards the door4 ,stop1 cried ,booth1 don't go yet1 there's going to be a collection4 ,but the audience melted faster than ever4 ,whereupon ,booth jumped up again1 stopped poor ,railton unceremoniously1 and shouted ,hold on1 we'll make the collection now4 ,this little manouvre was quite in keeping with the showman's instruction to his subalterns1 to have plenty of good strong collecting boxes and pass them round often4 ,booth's facetious remarks during his son's marriage according to the ,army forms were well adapted to tickle the ears of his groundlings4 ,the whole thing was a roaring farce1 and well sustained the reputation of the show4 ,there was also the usual spice of blasphemy4 ,before ,bramwell ,booth marched on to the platform a board was held up bearing the inscription ,behold the bridegroom cometh4 ,these mountebanks have no reverence even for what they call sacred4 ,they make everything dance to their tune4 ,they prostitute ,god's ,word1 caricature ,jesus ,christ1 and burlesque all the watchwords and symbols of their creed4 ,one of ,booth's remarks after the splicing was finished is full of suggestion4 ,he said that his enemies might cavil1 but he had found out a road to fortune in this world and the next4 ,well1 the ,lord only knows how he will fare in the next world1 but in this world the pious showman has certainly gained a big success4 ,he can neither write nor preach1 and as for singing1 a half a dozen notes from his brazen throat would empty the place as easily as a cry of ,fire4 ,but he is a dexterous manager2 he knows how to work the oracle2 he understands catering for the mob2 in short1 he is a very clever showman1 who deals in religion just as other showmen deal in wild animals1 giants1 dwarfs1 two-headed sheep1 fat women1 and ,siamese twins4 ,fortune has brought to our hands a copy of a private circular issued by ,commissioner ,railton1 soliciting wedding presents for ,mr4 ,bramwell ,booth4 ,with the exception of ,reuben ,may's begging letters1 it is the finest cadging document we ever saw4 ,booth was evidently ashamed to sign it himself1 so it bears the name of ,railton4 ,but the pious showman cannot disown the responsibility for it4 ,he will not allow the officers of the ,army to marry without his sanction2 he forbids them to accept any private present2 he keeps a sharp eye on every detail of the organisation4 ,surely1 then1 he will not have the face to say that he knew nothing of ,railton's circular4 ,he has face enough for almost anything1 but hardly for this4 ,there is one damning fact which he cannot shirk4 ,bailton asks that all contributions shall be made payable to ,william ,booth1 as usual4 ,bailton spreads the butter pretty freely on ,booth and his family4 ,he says that their devotion to the ,army has loaded them with care1 and often made them suffer weakness and pain4 ,as to ,mr4 ,bramwell ,booth1 in particular1 we are informed that he has worked so hard behind the scenes1 as ,chief of the ,staff1 that many of his hairs are grey at twenty-seven4 ,poor ,bramwell6 ,the ,army should present him with a dozen bottles of hair restorer4 ,perhaps his young wife will renew his raven head by imitating the lady in the fable1 and pulling out all the grey hairs4 ,in order to compensate this noble family in some degree for their marvellous devotion to the great cause1 ,bailton proposes that wedding presents in the shape of cash should be made to ,mr4 ,bramwell ,booth on the day of his marriage4 ,whatever money is received will go1 not to the young gentleman personally1 but to reducing the ,army debt of #aa1jjj4 ,but as the ,army property is all in ,booth's hands1 and ,mr4 ,bramwell is his heir and successor1 it is obvious that any reduction of the debt will be so much clear gain to the firm4 ,the ,general evidently saw that the case was a delicate one2 so ,bailton sends out a private circular1 which he excuses on the ground that any public appeal would not be at all agreeable to ,mr4 ,bramwell's own feelings4 ,of course not4 ,but we dare say the wedding presents will be agreeable enough4 ,as this is a strong point with the firm1 ,bailton repeats it later on4 ,i do not wish1 he says1 to make any public announcement of this4 ,the reason of this secrecy is doubtless the same as that which prompts the ,general to exclude reporters and interlopers from his all-night meetings4 ,only the initiated are allowed in1 and they of course may be safely trusted4 ,with the circular ,bailton sent out envelopes in which the pious dupes were to forward their contributions2 and printed slips1 headed ,wedding ,presents to ,mr4 ,bramwell ,booth1 on which they were asked to specify the amount of their gift and the sin from which the ,salvation ,army had rescued them4 ,this printed slip contains a list of sins1 which would do credit to a ,jesuit confessor4 ,booth has we think missed his vocation4 ,he might have achieved real distinction in the army of ,ignatius ,loyola4 ,the circular is a wonderful mixture of piety and business4 ,nearly every sentence contains a little of both4 ,the cash will not only gladden the hearts of the ,booths1 but make the devil tremble1 and give earth and hell another shock4 ,this last bit of extravagance is rather puzzling4 ,that hell should receive another shock is very proper1 but why is there to be an earthquake at the same time8 ,we have said enough to show the true character of this cadging trick4 ,it throws a strong light on the business methods of this pious showman4 ,booth is playing a very astute game4 ,by reducing the ,army to military discipline1 and constituting himself its ,general1 he retains an absolute command over its resources1 and is able to crush out all opposition and silence all criticism4 ,he wields a more than ,papal despotism4 ,all the higher posts are held by members of his own family4 ,his eldest son is appointed as his successor4 ,the property thus remains in the family1 and the ,booth dynasty is established on a solid foundation4 ,such an impudent imposture would scarcely be credible if it were not patent that there is still amongst us a vast multitude of two-legged sheep1 who are ready to follow any plausible shepherd1 and to yield up their fleeces to his shears4