An examination of The age of reason, : or, An investigation of true and fabulous theology,

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AGE OF REASON.

i i X-

THE

AGE OF REASON..

BEING AN

INVESTIGATION *

OF

TRUE AND OF FABULOUS

THEOLOGY.

By THOMAS PAINE,

Author of Works entitled " Common Senfe, Rights of
Man.'" &c. ... . .., , ,

Printed by T. and J. Swords, for J. Fellows,
Nc. 13 1,. Water-Street* '

-

*6L27+0
.-A J

17 94*

Dtftria of New- York, f.

E it remembered, that on the feventeentfr
day of June, in the eighteenth year of the Inde-
pendence of the United States of America, John
Fellows, jun. hath depofited in this OfHce, the
tide of a Book, the right whereof he claims as
proprietor, in the words following, to wit: " The
u Jlge cf Reafotif being an Invefligation of True and
44 cf Fabulous Theology. By Thomas Paine, An-
other of works entitled, Common Senfe, Rights
" of Man, &c,"

In conformity to the act of the Congrefs of the
United States, entitled, " An Aft for the encou-
'* ragement of learning, by fecuring the copies of
<< Maps, Char,t?rarid cBooksr to \hft , Authors and
'-.'Prdprl^or.i pt :"uch copies, riiiri/ig tl-e times
|{ therein mentioned."

lllt'i T 'ROBERT TROUP,
Clerk of the Diftria.

TO MY

FELLOW CITIZENS

OF THE

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

PUT the following work under your pro-
tection. It contains my opinion upon Reli-
gion. Tou will do me the juftice to remember ,
that I have always ftrenuoufly fupported the
Right of every Man to his own opinion^
however different that opinion might be to
mine. He who denies to. another this rights
makes a Jlave of himfelf to his frefent opi-
nion^ becaufe he precludes himfelf the right
of changing it .

A 3 • The

( vi )

The imft formidable weapon againfi errors
of every kind is Reafon. I have never ufed
any other , and I trufi I never jhall.

Your affectionate friend and fellow citizen -9

THOMAS PAINE.

Luxembourg^ (Paris) 8th Pulviofe^
Second year of the French Republic , one and indiviJiMe^
January 2JyO.S. 1794.

THE

THE.

AGE OF REASON.

IT has been my intention, for feveral
years pad, to publifh my thoughts upon
Religion. I am well aware of the diffi-
culties that attend the fuhje&y and, from
that confideration, had refer ved it to a
more advanced period of life. I intended
it to be the laft offering I mould make to
my fellow citizens of all nations -3 and that
at a time* when the purity of the motive
that induced me to it could not admit of a
question, even by thofe who might difap-
prove the work.

The circumftance that has now taken
place in France, of the total abolition of

thQ

( -8 )

the whole national order of priefthood, and
of every thing appertaining to compulfive
fyftems of religion, and compulfive articles
of faith, has not only precipitated my in-
tention, but rendered a work of this kind
exceedingly neceflary ; left, in the general
wreck of fuperftition, of falfe fyftems of
government, and falfe theology, we lo&
fight of morality, of humanity, and of the
theology that is true.

As feveral of my colleagues, and others
of my fellow citizens of France, have given
me the example of making their voluntary
and individual profefiion of faith, I alfo
will make mine; and I do this with all
that fincerity and franknefs with which, the
mind of man communicates with itfeif.

I believe in one God, and no more; and
I hope for happinefs beyond this- life.

I believe the equality of man, and I be-
lieve that religious duties ccnfift in doing

juftice,

C 9 )

juftice, loving mercy, and endeavouring to
make our fellow creatures happy.

But left it iliould be fuppofed that I
believe many other things in addition to
thefe, I fhall^ in the progrefs of this work,
declare the things I do not believe, and my
reafons for not believing them.

I do not believe in the creed proferTed by
th^ Jew ifh church, by the Roman church,
by the Greek church, by th^ Turkifh
church, by the Proteftant church, nor by
any church that I know of. My own
mind is my own church, s

All national infections ^of churches,
whether Jew ifh, ChrifHan, or Turkifh,
appear to me no other than human inven-
tions fet up to terrify and enflave mankind,
and monopolize power and profit.

I do not mean by this declaration to
condemn thofe who believe otherwife.
They have the fame right to their belief

as

( io )

as I have to mine. But it is neceflary to
the happinefs of man, that he be mentally
faithful to himfelf. Infidelity does not
eontift in believing, or in difbelieving : it
confiils in profefiing to believe what he
does not believe.

It is impofilble to calculate the moraF
mifchief, if I may fo exprefs it, that mental
lying has produced in fociety. When a
man has fo far corrupted and proilituted
the chaflity of his mind, as to fubfcribe his
profeffional belief to things he does not
believe, he has prepared" himfelf for the
commifiion of every other crime. He
takes up the trade of a prieft for the fake
of gain, and in order to qualify himfelf for
that trade, he begins with perjury. Can
we conceive any thing more deftruclive to
morality than this ?

Soon after I had publifhed the pamphlet,
Common Sense, in America, I faw the

exceeding

( II )

exceeding probability that a Revolution in
the Syftem of Government would be fol-
lowed by a Revolution in the Syftem of
Religion. The adulterous connection of
church and ftate, wherever it had taken
place, whether Jewifh, Christian, or Turk-
im, had fo effectually prohibited, by pains
and penalties, every difcuflion upon efta-
bliiried creeds, and upon firft principles of
religion, that until the fyftem of govern-
ment mould be changed, thofe fubjects
could not be brought fairly and openly
before the world : but that whenever this
mould be done, a revolution in the fyftem
of religion would follow. Human inven-
tions and prieft-craft would be detected;
and man would return to the pure, unmix-
ed, and unadulterated belief of one God,
and no more.'

Every national church or religion has
eftablimed itfelf by pretending feme fpecial

million

( *2 )

miflion from God communicated to certain
individuals. The Jews have their Mofes ;
the Chriftians their Jefus Chrift, their
apoftles and faints ; and the Turks their
Mahomet; as if the way to God was not
open to every man alike.

Each of thofe churches mow certain
books which they call revelation, or the
word of God. The Jews fay, that their
word of God was given by God to Moles
face to face ; the Chriftians fay, that their
word of God came by divine infpiration ;
and the Turks-fay, that their word of God
(the Koran) was brought by an angel from
heaven. Each of thofe churches accufes
the other of unbelief; and, for my own
part, I difbelieve them all.

As it is necefiary to affix right ideas to
words, I will, before I proceed further into
the fubj eel, offer fome observations on the
word revelation. Revelation, when ap-
plied

( 13 )

plied to religion, means fomething com-
municated immediately from God to man.

No one will deny or difpute the power
of the Almighty to make fuch a commu-
nication if he pleafes. But admitting, for
the fake of a cafe, that fomething has been
revealed to a certain perfon, and not re-
vealed to any other perfon, it is revelation
to that perfon only. When he tells it to a
fecond perfon, a fecond to a third, a third
to a fourth, and fo on, it ceafes to be a re-
velation to all thofe perfons. It is revela-
tion to the firfl perfon only, and hearfay to
every other; and confequently, they are
not obliged to believe it.

It is a contradiction in terms and ideas to
call any thing a revelation that comes to us
at fecond hand, either verbally or in writ-
ing. Revelation is neceffarily limited to
the firft communication. After this, it is
only an account of fomething which that
B perfon

I 14 )

per fon fays was a revelation made to him;
and though he may find himfelf obliged to
believe it, it cannot be incumbent upon me
to believe it in the fame manner, for it was
not a revelation made to me, and I have only
his word for it that it was made to him.

When Mofes told the children of Ifrael
that he received the two tables of the com-
mandments from the hand of God, they
were not obliged to believe him, becaufe
they had no other authority for it than his
telling them fo •, and Ihave no- other autho-
rity for it than fome hiilorian telling me fo.
The commandments carry no internal evi-
dence of divinity with them. They con-
tain fome good moral precepts, fuch as any
man qualified to be a law- giver or a legis-
lator could produce himfelf, without hav-
ing recourfe to fupernatural intervention.*

When

* It is, however, neceiTary to except the decla-
ration which fays, that God vijits the Jim of the fa-

C 15 )

When I am told that the Koran was
written in heaven, and brought to Maho-
met by an angel, the account comes to near
the fame kind* of hearfay evidence, and ~fe-
cond hand authority, as the former. I did
not fee the angel my felf, and therefore i
have a right not to believe it.

When alfo I am told that a woman, cal-
led the Virgin Mary, faid, or gave out,
that me was with child without any coha-
bitation with a man, and that her betrothed
hufband, Jofeph, faid, that an angel told
him fo, I have a right to believe them or
not: fuch a circumftance required a much
ftronger evidence than their bare word for
it : but we have not even this ; for neither
Jofeph nor Mary wrote any fuch matter
themfelves. It is only reported by others
that they faid fo. It is hearfay upon hear-
B 2 fay,

thers upon the children. It is contrary to every prin-
ciple of moral juftice.

( i6 )

fay, and I do not chufe to reft my belief
upon fuch evidence.

It is, however, not difficult to account
for the credit that was given to the ftory
of Jefus Chrift being the Son of God. He
was bom at a time when the heathen my-
thology had frill fome fafhion and repute
in the world, and that mythology had pre-
pared the people for the belief of fuch a
(lory. AJmoft all the extraordinary men
that lived under the heathen 'mythology
were reouted to be the fons of fome of
their gods. It was not a new thing at
that time to believe a man to have been
eelefHally begotten : the intercourfe of gods
with women was then a matter of familiar
opinion. Their Jupiter, according to their
accounts, had cohabited with" hundreds :
the ftory, therefore, had nothing in-it either
new, wonderful, or obfcene: it was con-
formable to the opinions that then prevailed

among

( i7 )

among the people called Gentiles, or my-
thologifts, and it was thofe people only
that believed it. The Jews who had kept
ftrictly to the belief of one God, and no
more, and who had always rejected the
heathen mythology, never credited the
ftory.

It is curious to observe how the theory
of what is called the Chriftian church,
fprung out of the tail of the heathen mytho-
logy. A direct incorporation took place
in the'firfr. inftance, by making the reputed
founder to be celeftially begotten,. The
trinity of gods that then followed was no
other than a reduction of the former plu-
rality, which was about twenty or thirty
thoufand. The flattie of Mary fucceeded
the itatue of Diana of Ephefus. The dei-
fication of heroes changed into the can-
nonization of faints. The mythologies
had gods for every thing 5 the Chriftian
B 3 mytho-

( I* )

mythologies had faints for every thing.
The church became as . crouded with the
one as the pantheon -had been with the
other j and Rome was the place of both.
The Chriftian theory is little elfe than the
idolatry of the ancient mythologies, ac-
commodated to the purpofes of power and
revenue ; and it yet remains to reafon and
philofophy to aboliih the amphibious fraud.
< Nothing that is here faid can apply,
even with the moil diftant difrefpect* to
the real character of Jefus Chrift. He
was a virtuous and an amiable man. The
morality that he preached and practifed
was of the moil benevolent kind; and
though fimilar fyitems of morality had
bQtn preached by Confucius, and by fome
cf the Greek "philofophers, many years
before, by the Quakers iince, and by
many good men in all ages, it has not
been exceeded by any,

Jefus

( 19 )

Jefus Chrift wrote no account of him?
fel-f, of his birth, parentage, or any thing
elfe. Not a line of what is called the
New Testament is of his writing. The
hiftory of him is altogether the work of
other people *, and as to the account given
cf his refurreclion and , afcenfion, it was
the necerTary counterpart to the ftory of
his birth. His historians having brought
him into the world in a Supernatural man-
ner,- were obliged to take him out again
in the fame manner, or the firit part of the
dory muft have fallen to the ground.

The wretched contrivance with which
this latter part is told, exceeds every thing
that went before, it. The firft part, that
of the miraculous conception, was not a
thing that admitted of publicity; and
therefore the tellers of this part of the
fory had this advantage, that though
they might not be credited, they could

not

C 20 )

not be detected. They could not be ex-
pected to prove it, becaufe it was not
one of thofe things that admitted of proof,
and it was impoflible that the perfon of
whom it was told could prove it himfelf.

But the refurrection of a dead perfon
from the grave, and his afcenfion through
the air, is a thing very different as to the
evidence it admits of, to the invifible con-
ception of a child in the womb. The re-
furrection and afcenfion, fuppofing them
to have taken place, admitted of public
and occular demonftration, like that of
the afcenfion of a balloon, or the fun at
neon day, to all Jerufalem at leaft. A.
ihing which every body is required to be-
lieve, requires that the proof and evidence
of it mould be equal to all, and univerfal;
and as the public visibility of this laft re-
lated act was the only evidence that could
give fanction to the former part, the whole

of

( 2* )

of it falls- to the ground, becaufe the ev£
dence never was given. Inftead of this,
a fmall number of perfons, not more than
eight or nine, are introduced as proxies for
the whole world, to fay, they fazv it, and all
the reft of the world are called upon to be-
lieve it. But it appears that Thomas did
not believe the refurreclion ; and, as they
fay, would not believe, without having
oecukr and manuel demonftration himfelf.
So neither will I\ and the reafon is equally
as good" for me and for every other perfbn,
as for Thomas.

It is in vain to attempt to palliate or
difguife this matter. The ftory, fo far as
relates to the fupernatural part, has every
mark of fraud and imposition ftamped
upon the face of it. Who were the au-
thors of it is as impoflible for us now to
know, as it is for us to be affured, that
the books in. which the account is related,

were

( 22 )

were written by the perfons whofe names
they bear. The beft Surviving evidence
we now have refpecling this affair is the
Jews. They are regularly defcended from
the people who lived in the times this re-
furrection and afcenilon is faid to have hap-
pened, and they fay, it is not true. It has
long appeared to me a ftrange inconfiftency
to. cite the Jews as a proof of the truth of
the {lory. It is juft the fame as if a man
were to fay. I will prove the truth of what
I have told you, by producing the people
who fay it is falfe.

That fuch a per/on as Jefus Chrift ex-
ifted, and that he was crucified, which was
the mode of execution at that day, are his-
torical relations ftrictly within the limits
of probability. He preached moll: excel-
lent morality, and the equality of man ;■
but he preached alfo againft the corrup-
tions and avarice of the Jewim priefts ; and

this

1 *3 )

^this "brought upon him the hatred and ven-
geance of the whole order of prieft-hood.
The accufation which thofe priefts brought
againrt him, was that of fedition and con-
fpiracy againft the Roman government, to
which the Jews were then fubject and tri-
butary, and it is not improbable that the
Roman government might have fome fe-
cret apprehension of the effects of his
doctrine as well as the Jewifh priefts ; nei-
ther is it improbable that Jefus Chrift had
in contemplation the delivery of the. Jewifh
nation from the bondage of the Romans.
Between the two, however, this virtuous
reformer and revolutionise loft his life.

It is upon this plain narrative of facts,
together with another cafe I am going to
mention, that the Chriftian mythologies,
calling themfe!ves~the Chriftian church,
have erected their fable, which, for abfur-
dity and extravagance, is not exceeded by

any

( *4 )

any thing that is to be found in the mytho-
logy of the ancients.

The ancient mythologies tell that the
race of Giants made war againft Jupiter,
and that one of them threw an hundred
rocks againft him at one throw -, that Ju-
piter defeated him with thunder, and con-
fined him afterwards under Mount Etna ;
and that every time the Giant turns him-
felf, Mount Etna belches fire. It is here
eafy to fee that the circumftance of the
mountain, that of its being a vulcano,
fuggefted the idea of the fable; and that
the fable is made to fit and wind itfelf up
with that circumftance.

The Chriftian my thologifts tell that their
Satan made war againft the Almighty,
who defeated him, and confined him af-
terwards, not under a mountain, but in a
pit. It is here eafy to fee that the firft
fable fuggefted the idea of the fecond ; for

the

( H )

the fable of Jupiter and the Giants was
told many hundred years before that of
Satan.

Thus far the ancient and the Chriftian
mythologies differ very little from each
other. But the latter have contrived to
carry the matter much farther. They
have contrived to connect the fabulous
part of the ftory of Jefus Chrift, with
the fable originating from Mount Etna :
and in order to make all the parts of the
ftory tye together, they have taken to
their aid the traditions of the Jews; for
the Chriftian mythology is made up partly
from the ancient mythology, and partly
from the Jewifh traditions.

The Chriftian mythologies, after hav-
ing confined Satan in a pit, were obliged
to let him out again, to bring on the fe-
quel of the fable. He is then introduced
into the garden of Eden in the fhape of a
C make,

( #6 )

fnake, or a ferpent, and in that fhape he
enters into familiar converfation with Eve,
who is no ways furprifed to hear a fnake
talk •, and the iffue of this tete-a-tete is,
that he perfuades her to eat an apple, and
tht eating of that apple damns all mankind.
After giving Satan this triumph over
the whole creation, one would have fup-
pofed that the church mythologies would
have been kind enough to fend him back
again to the pit ; or, if they had not done
this, that they would have put a mountain
upon him, (for they fay that their faith
can remove a mountain) or have put him
under a mountain, as the former mytholo-
gies had done, to prevent his getting again
among the women, and doing more mif-
chief. But inftead of this, they leave him
at large, without even obliging him to give
his parole. The fecret of which is, that
they, could not do without him; and after

being

( 27 )

Being at the trouble of making him, they
bribed him to flay. They promifed him
all the Jews, all the Turks by anticipa-
tion, nine-tenths of the world befide, and
Mahomet into the bargain. After this,
who can doubt the bountifulnefs of the
Ghriftian mythology ?

Having thus made an infurreetion and
a battle in heaven, in which none of the
combatants could be either killed or
wounded — put Satan into the pit—let him
out again— given him a triumph over the
whole creation — damned all mankind by
the eating of an apple, thefe Chriiiian mv-
thologifts bring the two ends of their fable
together. They reprefent this virtuous
and amiable man, Jefus (Thrift, to be at
once both God and man, and alfo tht Son
of God, celeitially begotten, on purpofe to
be facrificed, becaufe, they fay, that Evfc
in her longing had eaten an apple.

C 2 Putting

( 28 )

Putting afide every thing that might
excite laughter by its abfurdity, or detef-
tation by its prophanenefs, and confining
ourfelves merely to an examination of the
parts, it is impofHble to conceive a fiery
more derogatory to the Almighty, more
inconfiftent with his wiiBom, more con-
tradictory to his power, than this flory is.

In order to make for it a foundation to
rife upon, the inventors were under the ne-
ceflky of giving to the being, whom they
call Satan, a power equally as great, if
;iot greater, than they attribute to the Al-
mighty. They have not only given him
the power of liberating himfelf from the
pit, after what they call his fall, but they
have made that power increafe afterwards
to infinity. Before this fall, they reprefent
him only as an angel of limited exiftence,
as they reprefent the reft. After his fall,
he becomes, by their account, omniprefent.

He.

i 29 )

He exifts every where, and at the fame
time. He occupies the whole immenfity
of ipace.

Not content with this deification of Sa-
tan, they reprefent him as defeating by
fbatagem, in the fhape of an animal of the
creation, all the power and wifdom of the
Almighty. They reprefent him as having
compelled the Almighty to the direft ne-
ceffiiy either of furrendering the- whole of
the creation to the government and fove-
reignty of this Satan, or of capitulating
for its redemption, by coming down upon
earth, and exhibiting himfelf upon a crofs
in the fhape of a man.

Had the inventors of this ftory told it
the contrary way, that is, had they repre-
fented the Almighty as compelling Satan
to exhibit himfelf on a crofs in the fhape
of a make, as a punifhment for his new
tranigreffion, the ftory would have been
C 3 lefs

( 30 )

Iefs abfurd, lefs contradictory. But inftead
of this, they make the tranfgreflbr tri-
umph, and the Almighty fall.

That many good men have believed
this ftrange fable and lived very good lives
under that belief (for credulity is not a
crime) is what I have no doubt of. In the
firffc place, they were educated to believe
it, and they would have believed any thing
tKe in the fame manner. There are alfo
many who have been fo enthufiaftically
enraptured by what they conceived to be
the infinite love of God to man, in making
a facrifice of himfelf, that the vehemence
of the idea has forbidden and deterred them
from examining into the abfurdity and
prophanenefs of the ftory. The more
unnatural any thing is, the more is k ca-
pable of becoming the object of difmal
admiration*

But

( m )

But if objefb for gratitude and admi-
ration are our defire, do they not prefent
themfelves every hour to our eyes? Do
we not fee a fair creation prepared to re-
ceive us the inflant we were born — a world,
furni/hed to our hands that cofi us no-
thing? Is it we that light up the fun^
that pour down the rain ; and fill the earth
with abundance? Whether we fleep or
wake, the vail machinery of the univerfe
ftill goes on. Are thefe things, and the
hlefiings they indicate in future, nothing
to us ? Can our grofs feelings be excited
by no other fubjeds than tragedy and
fuicide? Or is the gloomy pride of man
become fo intolerable, that nothing cari
flatter it but a facrifice of the Creator ?

I know that this bold inveftigation will
alarm many, but it would be paying too
great a compliment to their credulity to
forbear it upon that account. The times

and

( 32 )

and the fubjecl: demand it to be done. The
fufpicion that the theory of what is called
the Chriftian church is fabulous, is becom-
ing very extenfive in all countries : and it
will be a confolation to men ftaggering
under that fufpicion, and doubting what
to believe and what to difbelieve, to fee
the fubjecl: freely investigated. I therefore
pafs on to an examination of the books cal-
led the Old and the New Teftament.

Thefe books, beginning with Genefis
and ending with Revelations (which, by
the bye, is a book of riddles that requires
a Revelation to explain it) are, we are told,
the word of God. It is therefore proper
for us to know who told us fb, that we
may know what credit to give to the re-
port. The anfwer to this queilion is, that
nobody can tell, except that we tell one
another fo. The cafe, however, hiftori-
cally appears to be as follows:

When

( m )

When the church- mythologies efta-
blifhed their fyftem, they collected all the
writings they could find, and managed
them as they pleafed. It is a matter alto-
gether of uncertainty to us, whether fuch
ef the writings as now appear, under the
name of the Old and the New Teftament,
are In the fame ftate in which thofe collec-
tors fay they found them -, or whether they
added, altered, abridged, or drefTed them
up.

Be this as it may, they decided by vote^
which of the books, out of the collection
they had made, mould be the word of
god, and which mould not. They re-
jected feveraH they voted others to be
doubtful, fuch as the books called the Apo-
craphy •, and thofe books which had a ma-
jority of votes, were voted to be the word
of God.* Had they voted other wife, all

the

* The book of Luke was carried by a majority
of one only.

( n )

the people, fince calling themfelves 'Chris-
tians,- had believed otherwife ; for the be-
lief of the one comes from the vote of the
other. Who the people were that did all
thiSj, we know nothing of; they call them-
felves by the general name of the church 5
and this is all we know of the matter.

As we have no other external evidence
or authority for believing thofe books to be
the word of God than what I have men-
tioned, which is no evidence or authority
at all, Icome, in the next place, to examine
the internal evidence contained it the books-
themfelves.

IN the former part of this eilay I have
/poken of revelation. I now proceed fur-
ther, with that Subject, for the purpofe of
applying it to the books in queftioa.

Revelation-

( 35 )

Revelation is a communication of fome-
thing, which the perfon to whom that thing
is revealed, did not know before. For if
I have done a thing, or £qqi\ it done, it
needs no revelation to tell me I have done
it, or {ten it, nor to enable me to tell it,
or to write it.

■ Revelation, therefore, cannot be applied
to any thing done upon earth of which man
is himfelf the adlor or the witnefs ; and con-
fequently all the hiPcorical and anecdotal
part of the Bible, w7hich is'almoft the whole
of it, is not within the meaning and com-
pafs of the wordj revelation, and; therefore
is not the word of God.

When Samfon ran off with the gate-
pofts of Gaza, if he ever did fo, (and whe-
ther he did or not is nothing to us) or when
he vifited his Delilah, or caught his foxes,
or did any thing elfe, what has revelation to
do with thefe things P If they were facls,

he

( 36 )

lie could tell tliem himfelf -, or his fecretary,
if he kept one, could write them, if they
were worth either telling or writing -> and
if they v/ere fictions, revelation could not
make them true ; and whether true or not,
we are neither the better nor the wifer for
knowing them. — When we contemplate
the immenfity of that Being, who directs
and governs the incomprehensible whole,
of which the utmoft ken of human fight
can difcover but a part, we ought to feel
fhame at calling fuch paltry {lories the word
of God.

As to the account of the creation, with
which the book of Genefis opens, it has
all the appearance of being a tradition which
the Ifraelites had among them before they
came into Egypt; and after their departure
from that country, they put it at the head of
their hiftory, without telling, as it is moft
probable they did not know, how they

came

( 37 )

came by it. The manner in which the ac-
count opens, fhews it to be traditionary,
It begins abruptly. It is nobody that
fpeaks. It is nobody that hears-. It is
addrefTed to nobody. It has neither firft,
Second, nor third perfon. It has every
criterion of being a tradition. It has no
voucher. Mofes does not take it upon
himfelf by introducing it with the forma-
lity that he ufes on other occasions, fuch
as that of faying, " The Lord /pake unto
<c Mofes, faying"

"Why it has been called the Mofaic ac-
count of the creation, I am at a lofs to
conceive. Mofes, I believe* was too good
a judge of fuch fubjects to put his name to
that account. He had been educated
among the Egyptians, who were a people
as well flailed in fcience, and particularly
in aftronomy, as any people of their day ;
and the filence and caution that Mofes ob-
D fervesj

< 3« )

ferves, in not authenticating the account,-.
is a good negative evidence that he neither
told it, nor believed it. — The cafe is, that
every nation of people has been world-
makers, and the Ifraelites had as much
right to fet up the trade of world- making
as any of the reft; and as Mofes was not
an Ifraelite, he might not chufe to contra-
dict the tradition. The account, however,
is harmless •, and this is more than can be
faid of many other parts of the Bible.

When we read the obfcene ftories, the
voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and
torturous executions, the unrelenting yin-
dictivenefs, with which more than half
the Bible is filled, it would be more con-
iiffcent that we called it the word of a de-
mon, than the word of God. It is a hit.
tory of wickednefs, that has ferved to
corrupt and brutalize mankind, and, for

mv

'( S9 )

my own part, I Sincerely act-tO: it, as. I
deteSl every thing that is cruel;

We fcarcely meet with any thing, a few
phrafes excepted, but Tvvhat deferves either
our abhorrence, or our contempt, till we
come to the miscellaneous parts of the
Bible. In th^ anonymous publications,
the Pfalms and the Book of Job, more
particularly in the latter, we rind a great
deal, of elevated Sentiment reverentially ex-
preSTed of the power and benignity of the
Almighty; but they ftand- on no higher
rank than many other compositions on
Similar Subjects, as well before that time
as Since,

• The proverbs, which are faid to be So-
lomon's, though moft probably a collec-
tion, (becaufe they difcover a knowledge
of life, which his fituation excluded him
from knowing) are an inftruclive table of
ethics. They are inferior in keennefs to
D 2 the

( 40 }

the proverbs of the Spaniards, and not
more wife and ©economical than thofe of
the American Franklin.

All the remaining parts of the Bible,
generally known by the name of the pro-
phets, are the works of the Jewifh poets
and itinerant preachers, who mixed poetry,,
anecdote, and devotion together; and thofe
works ftill retain the air and ftile of poetry,
though in translation.*3

There

* As there are many readers who do not fet
that a composition is poetry unlefs it be in rhyme,
it is for their information that I add this note.

Poetry confifts principally in two things: Ima-
gery and compofition. The compofition of poe-
trv'differs from that of prole in the manner of
mixing long and fhort fyllables together. Take a
long fyilable out of a line of poetry, and put a
fnort one in the room of it, or put a long fy liable-
where a fhort one mould be, and that line will
iofe its poetical harmony. It will have an effect
upon the line like that of mifplacing a note in
a long.

The imagery in thofe books called the Pro-
phets, appertains altogether to poetry. It is ficU-

( 4i :•)

There is not, throughout the whole
book called the Bible, any word that de-
scribes to us what we call a poet, nor any
word -that defcribes what we call poetry.
D-3 The

tious and often extravagant, and not admimble in
any other kind of writing than poetry.

To fhew that thefe writings are ccnipofed in
poetical numbers, I will take ten fyllables as they
fland in the book, and make a line of the fame
number of fyllables, (heroic, meafure) that (hail
rhyme with the laft word. It will then be feen,
that the competition of thofe books is poetical
•meafure. The inftance I mall firft. produce is
from Ifaiah. -

•

44 Hear, D'ye heavens, ana7 give ear, & earth."

'Tis God himfelf that calls attention forth.

Another inftance I mall quote is from the
mournful Jeremiah, to which I mall' add two
other lines, for the purpofe of carrying out the
figure, and mewing the intention of the poet.

44 G ! that mine head zvere waters, and mine eyes' }-
Were fountains, flowing like the liquid fkies 5
Then would I .give the mighty flood releafe,- '
And weep a deluge for the human race,

( 42 f

The -cafe is, that the word prophet, to
which later times have affixed a new idea,
was the Bible word for poet, and the word
prophefying meant the art of making poe-
try. It alio meant the art of playing poe-
try to a tune upon any inftrument of muflc.

We read of prophefying with pipes,
taborets, and horns -, of prophefying with
harps, with pfalteries, with cymbals, and'
with every other inftrument of muiic then
in fafhion. Were we now to fpeak of
prophefying with a fiddle, or with a pipe
and tabor, the exprerlion would have no
meaning, or would appear ridiculous, and
to fome people contemptuous, becaufe we
have changed the meaning of the word.

We are told of Saul being among the
prophets, andalfo that he propheiied; but
we are not told what they prophejted, nor
what he prophefied. The cafe is, there was
nothing to tell -3 for thefe prophets were a-

company

. C 43 )

company of muflcians and poets ; and Saul'
joined in the concert; and this was called:
prophefying,

The account given of this affair in the
-Book called Samuel, is, that Saul met a-
company of prophets-; a whole company of
them ! corning down with a pfaltery, a ta-
boret, a pipe, and a harp*, and that they
propheiled, and that he prophefied with
them. But it appears afterwards, that Saul
propheiled badly; that is, he performed.
his part badly ; for it is faid, that " an evil-
" fpirit from God* came upon Saul, and
" he propheiled.59

Now, were there no other paflage irr
the book called the Bible than this, to de-

monftrate

* As thofe men, who call themielves divines
Sha commentators, ( are very fond of puzzling one
mother, I leave them to content the meaning of
the ftrft part of the phrafe, that of an evil fpirif
j-rom God, I keep to my text. I keep to thg
~: c^aing of the word prophefy,.

( 44 )

monftrate to us that we have loft the origi-
nal, meaning of the word prophefy^ and fub-
ftituted another meaning in its place, this
alone would be fufficient ;- for it is imperii -
ble to ufe and apply the word prophefy in
thQ place it is here ufed and applied, if we
give to it the fenfe which later times have
affixed to it. The manner in which it is
here ufed ftrips it of all religious meaning*
and mews that a man might then be a
prophet \ or might propbejy, asjie may now
be a poet or a muiician, without any regard
to the morality or the immorality of his
character. The word was originally a
term of fcience, promifcuoufly applied to
poetry and to muiic, and not reftrided to.
any fubjecl: upon which poetry and muiic.
might be exercifed.

Deborah and. Barak are called prophets*
not becaufe they predicted any thing, but
becaufe they compofed the poem or.fong

that

( 45 )

that bears their name in celebration of an
act already done. David is ranked among
the prophets, for he was a muftcian; and
was alio- reputed to be (though: perhaps
very erroneously) the- author of thepfalms,
But Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob, are not
called prophets. It does not appear from
any accounts we have that they could either
fing, play'muiic, or make poetry.

We are told of the greater and lefler
prophets. They might as well tell us of
the greater and the lefTer God •, for there
cannot be degrees in prophefying confid-
ently with its modern kn(Q. But there are
degrees in poetry, and therefore the phrafe
is reconcilable to the caie, when we under^
Rand by it the greater and the leffer poets.

It is altogether unneceffary, after this,
to offer any observations upon what thofe
men, iiiled prophets, have written. The
axe goes at once to tLe root, by mewing

that

C 46 )

that the original meaning of the word has
been miftaken, and confequently all the in-
ferences that have been drawn from thofe
books, the devotional refpect that has been
paid to them, and the laboured commen-
taries that have been written upon them,
underthat miftaken meaning, are not worth
difputing about. . In many things, how-
ever, the writings of the Jewifh poets
deferve a better fate than that of being
bound up, as they now are, with the tram
that accompanies them, under the abufed
name of the word of God.

If we permit ourfelves to conceive right
ideas of things, we muff, necefiarily affix
tht idea, not only of unchangeableneis,
but of the utter impoiTibility of any change
taking place, by any means or accident
whatever, in that which we would honour
with the name of the word of God; and

therefore

( 47 )

therefore the word of God cannot exirl: in
any written or human language.

The continually progrelli ve change to
which the meaning of words is fubjecl:, the
want of an univerfal language which ren-
ders tranflations necefTary, the errors to
which tranflations are again fubjecl:, the mis-
takes of copyifts and printers, together
with the poflihility of wilful alteration, are,
of themfelves evidences, that human lan-
guage, whether in fpeech or in print, can-
not be the vehicle of th.Q word of God.—
The word of God exifls in Something elfe.

Did the book called the Bible, excel,
in purity oS ideas and expreflion, all the
books that are now extant in the world, I
would not take it for my rule of faith, as
being the word of Godj becaufe the pof-.
Sibility would neverthelefs exirl: of my being
impofed upon. But when I See through-
out the greater! part of this book, icarcely

any

( 4§ )

any thing but a hlftory of the grofTeft vices,
and a collection of the mod paltry and con-
temptible tales, I cannot dishonour my
Creator by calling it by his name.

THUS much for the Bible. I now go
on to the book called the New Teftament.
The new Teftament! that is, the new
Will, as if there could be two wills of the
Creator.

Had it been the object or the intention
of Jefus Chrift to eftablifh a new religion,
he would undoubtedly have written the
fyftem himfelf, or procured it to be written
in his life time. But there is no publication
extant authenticated with his name. All
the books called the New Teftament were
writtefi after his death. He was a Jew by
birth and by profeilion -> and he was the

Son

( 49 )

Son of God in like manner that every other
perfoais-, for the Creator is the Father of
All.

The firft four books, called Matthew,
Mark, Luke, and John, do not give a
hiftoryofthelifeof Jefus Chrift, but only
detached anecdotes of him. It appears
from thefe books, that the whole time of
his being a preacher was not more than
eighteen months ; and it was only during
this ihort time, that thofe men became
acquainted with him. They make men-
tion of him, at the age of twelve years,
fitting, they fay, among the Jewifh
doctors, aiking and anfwering them que A
tions. As this was feveral years before
their acquaintance with him began, it is
moil probable they had this anecdote from
his parents. From this time there is no
account of him for about lixteen years.
Where he lived, or how he employed
E himfclf

( 50 )

himfelf during this interval, is not known.
Moft probably he was working at his fa-
ther's trade, which was that of a carpenter.
It does not appear that he had any fchool
education, and the probability is that he
could not write, for his parents were ex-
tremely poor, as appears from their not
being able to pay for a bed when he was
born.

It is fomewhat curious that the three
perfons, whofe names are the mofl univer-
fally recorded, were of very obfcure pa-
rentage. Mofes was a foundling, Jefus
Chrift was born in a flable, and Mahomet
was a mule-driver. The iirft and the laft
of thefe men, were founders of different
fyftems of religion; but Jefus Chrift
founded no new fyftem. He called men
to the practice of moral virtues, and the
belief of one God. The great trait in his
character is philanthropy.

The

( 5* )

The manner in which he was appre-
hended, fliews that he was not much known
at that time; and it mews alfo that the
meetings he then held with his followers
were in fecret : and that he had given over,
or fufpended, preaching publicly. Judas
could no otherwife betray him than by
giving information where he was, and
pointing him out to the officers that went
to arreft. him ; and the reafon for employ-
ing and paying Judas to do this, could
arife only from the caufes already men-
tioned, that of his not being much known,
and living concealed.

The idea of his concealment not only
agrees very ill with his reputed divinity,
but afibciates with it fomething of pufilla-
nimity; and his being betrayed, or in
other words, his being apprehended, on
the information of one of his followers,
fliews that he did not intend to be appre-
E 2 hended,

( 52 )

hended, and consequently that he did not
intend to be crucified.

The Chriftian mythologies tell us that
Chrift died for the fins of the world, and
that he came on purpofe to die. Would it
not then have been the fame if he had died
of a fever, or of the fmall-pox, of old
age, or of any thing dft ?

The declaratory fentence which, they
fay, was palled upon Adam in cafe he ate
of the apple, was not, that thou Jhalt fur ety
be crucified, but thou Jhalt fur ely die. The
fentence was death, and not the manner of
dying. Crucifixion, therefore, or any other
particular manner of dying, made no part
of the fentence that Adam was to fufrer,
and confequently, even upon their own
ta&ic, it could make no part of the fen-
tence that Chrift was to fuffer in the room
of Adam. A fever would have done as

well

( 53 )

' well as a crofs, if there was any occafion
for either.

This fentence of death, which, they tell
us, was thus pafTed upon Adam, muft ei-
ther have meant dying naturally; that is,
ceafing to live ; or have meant what thefe
mythologies call damnation ; and confe-
quently, the act of dying on the part of
Jefus Chrift muft, according to their fyf-
tem, apply as a prevention to one or other
of thefe two things happening to Adam
and to us.

That it does not prevent our dying is
evident, becaufe we all die -y and if their
accounts of longevity be true, mtn die
fafter fince the crucifixion than before:
and with refpect to the fecond explanation,
(including with it the natural death of Je-
fus Chrift as a fubftitute for the eternal
death or damnation of all mankind) it is
impertinently reprefenting the Creator as
E 3 . coming

( 54 I

coming off, or revoking the fentence, by a
pun or a quibble upon the word death.
That manufacturer of quibbles, St. Paul,
if he wrote the books that bear his name,
has helped this quibble on, by making
another quibble upon the word Adam.
According to him, there are two Adams ;
the one v/ho fins in fact, and fuffers by
proxy \ the other who fins by proxy, and
fuffers in fad. A religion thus interlarded
with quibble, fubterfuge and pun, has a
tendency to inftruct its profeffors in the
practice of thefe arts. They acquire the
habit without being aware of the caufe.

If Jefus Chrift was the Being which
thofe mythologies tell us he was, and that
he came into this world to fuffer^ which is
a word they fbmetimes ufe inftead of to diey
the only real fuffering he could have en-
dured would have been to live. His exist-
ence here was a Sate of exilement or trans-
portation

( S3 5

portation from heaven, and the way back
to his original country was to die. — In
fine, every thing in this ftrange fyftem is
the reverfe of what it pretends to be. It
is the reverfe of truth, and I become Co tired
with examining into its inconfiilencies and
abfurdities, that I haften to the conclusion
of it, in order to proceed to fomething
better.

How much, or what parts of the books
called the New Teftament, were written by
the perfons whofe names they bear, is what
we can know nothing of, neither are we
certain in what language they were origi-
nally written. The matters they now con-
tain may be clarTed under two heads ; anec-
dote, and epiftolary correfpondence.

The four books already mentioned, Mat-
thew, Mark, Luke, and John, are altoge-
ther anecdotal. They relate events after
they had taken place. They tell what

Jefus

( «6 )

Jefus Chrifl did and faid, and what others
did and faid to him; and in feveral . in-
stances they relate the fame event differ-
ently. Revelation is neceffarily out of the
queftion with refpect to thofe books ; not
only becaufe of the difagreement of the
writers, but becaufe revelation cannot be
applied to the relating of facts by the per-
fons who faw them done, nor to the re-
lating or recording of any difcourfe or
converfation by thofe who heard it. The
book called the Acts of the Apoftles, an
anonymous work, belongs alfo to the anec-
dotal part.

All the other parts of the New Testa-
ment, except the book of enigmas, called
the Revelations, are a collection of letters
under the name of Epiftles ; and the for-
gery of letters has been fuch a common
practice in the world, that the probabi-
lity is, at leaft, equals whether they are

genuine

( SI )

genuine or forged. One thing, however,
is much lefs equivocal, which is, that out
of the matters contained in thofe books,
together with the afMance of iome old
flories, the church has fct up a fyftem of
religion very contradictory to the charac-
ter of the perfon whofe name it bears. It
has fet up a religion of pomp and of reve-
nue in the pretended imitation of a perfon
whofe life was humility and poverty.

The invention of a purgatory, and of
the releasing of fouls therefrom, by pray-
ers, bought of the church with money;
the felling of pardons, difpenfations, and
indigencies, are revenue laws, without
bearing that name or carrying that appear-
ance. But the cafe neverthelefs is, that
thofe things derive their origin from the
proxyfm of the crucifixion, and the theory
deduced therefrom, v/hich was, that one
perfon could ftand in the- place of ano-
ther*

( 58 5

ther, and could perform meritorious fer-
vices for him. The probability therefore
is, that the whole theory or doctrine of
what is called the redemption (which is
laid to have been accomplifhed by the acl:
of one perfon in the room of another) was
originally fabricated on purpofe to bring
forward and build all thofe fecondary and
pecuniary redemptions upon \ and that the
paflages in the books upon which the idea
or theory of redemption is built, have
bcQti manufactured and fabricated for that
purpofe. Why are we to give this church
credit, when fhe tells us that thofe books
are genuine in every part, any more than
we give her credit for every thing elfe fhe
has told us, or for the miracles fhe fays
fhe has performed. That fhe could fa-
bricate writings is certain, becaufe fhe could
write ; and the compofition of the writings
in queftion, is of that kind that any body

might

( 59 )

might do it -, and that flie did fabricate them
is not more inconfiftent with probability,
than that fhe fhould tell us, as fhe has
done, that fhe could and did work mi-
racles.

Since then no external evidence can, at
this long diftance of time, be produced to
prove, whether the church fabricated the
doctrine called redemption or not, (for ruch
evidence, whether for or againft, would be
fubjecl: to the fame fufpicion of being fa-
bricated) the cafe can only be referred to
the internal evidence which the thing car-
ries of itfelf ; and this affords a very ftrong
prefumption of its being a fabrication.
For the internal evidence is, that the theo-
ry or doctrine of redemption has for its
bafis, an idea of pecuniary juftiee, and not
that of moral juftice.

If I owe a perfon money and cannot
pay him, and he threatens to put me in

prifon,

( Co )

prifon, another perfon can take the debt
upon himfelf, and pay it for me. But if I
have committed a crime, every circum-
ftance of the cafe is changed. Moral jus-
tice cannot take the innocent for the guilty,
even if the innocent would offer itfel£ To
fuppofe juflice to do this, is to deflroy the
principle of its exigence, which is the thing
itfelf. It is then no longer juftice. It is
indifcriminate revenge.

This fingle reflection will mew that the
doctrine of redemption is founded on a
mere pecuniary idea, correfponding to that
of a debt which another perfon might pay >
and as this pecuniary idea correfponds
again with the fyftem of fecond redemp-
tions, obtained through the means of mo-
ney given to the church, for pardons, the
probability is, that the fame perfons fabri-
cated both the one and the other of thofe
theories; and that, in truth, there is no fuch

thing

( «I )

»

thing as redemption; that it Is faBulous;
and that man {lands in the fame relative
condition with his Maker he ever did ftand
iince man exifted ; and that it is his greater!;
confolation to think ib.

Let him believe this, and he will live
more confidently and morally than by any
'Other fyftem. It is by his being taught to
contemplate himfelf as an out-law, as an
out-caft, as a beggar, as a mumper, as one
thrown, as it were, on a dung-hill, at an
immenfe diftance from his Creator, and
who muft, make his approaches by creep-
ing and cringing to intermediate beings,
that he conceives either a contemptuous dis-
regard for every thing under the name of
religion, or becomes indifferent, or turns,
what he calls, devout. In the latter cafe,
he confumes his life in grief, or the affec-
tation of it. His prayers are reproaches.
His humility is4n gratitude. He calls him-
F felf

i 62 )

ielf a worm, and the fertile earth a -dung-
hill; and all the bleilings of life by the
thanklefs name of vanities. He defpifes
the choicer!: gift of God to man, the gift
of reason; and having endeavoured to
force upon himfelf the belief of a fyftem
againft. which reafon revolts, he ungrate-
fully calls it human reafon^ as if man could
give reafon to himfelf.

Yet with all this .-ftrange appearance of
humility,, and this contempt for human rea-
fon, he ventures Into the bolderl: prefump-
tions. He finds fault with every thing. His

felfiihnefs is never fadsfied; his ingratitude
is never at an end. .He takes - on himfelf
to direct the Almighty what to do, even in
the go vernmentrof the univerfe. He prays
didlatorially. When it is fun-mine, he
prays for rain, and when it is rain, he prays
for fun-fhine. He follows the fame. idea in
every thing that he p*ays for ; /or what is

the

c m )

the amount of all his prayers, but an at-
tempt to make the Almighty change his
mind, and acl: otherwife than he does. It
is as if he were to fay — thou, kno weft not
fo well as L.

BUT fome perhaps will fay, Are we to"
liave no word of God — No revelation ! £
anfwer yes. There is a word of God^
there is a revelation.

The word of god is the creation we
sehold: And it is in this wordy which no
human invention can counterfeit or alter,
that God fpeaketh univerfally to man.

Human language is local and changeable,
and is therefore incapable of being ufed as
the means of unchangeable and univerfal in-
formation. The^dea that God £ent Jefus
Ghrift to publifh, as they fay, the glad
tidings to. all nations, from one end of the
F 2. earth,

( <H )

earth unto the other, is confident only
with the ignorance of thofe who knew
nothing of the extent of the world, and
who believed, as thofe world- fa viours be-
lieved, and continued to believe, for Several
centuries, (and that in contradiction to the
difcoveries of phiiofophers, and the expe-
rience of navigators) that the earth was
flat like a trencher; and that a man might
walk to the end of it.

But how was Jems Chrift to make any
thinp* known to all nations? He could
fpeak but one language, which v/as He-
brew ; and there are in the world feveral
hundred languages. Scarcely any two na-
tions fpeak the fame language, or under-
ftahd each other -, and as to tranflations,..
every man who knows any thing of lan-
guages, knows that it is imporlible to tranf-
late from one language into another, not
only without lofxng a great part of the ori-
ginal,.

( <% )

glnal, but frequently of miftaking tKe
fenfe : and befides all this, the art of print-
ing was wholly unknown at thQ time Chrift,
lived.

It is always neceflary that the means that
are to accomplifh any end, be equal to the
* accomplifhment of that Qnd, or the tnd
cannot be accomplifhed. It is in this that
the difference between finite and infinite
power and wifdom difcovers itfelf, Man
frequently fails- in accompli filing his end^
from a natural inability; of power to the
purpofe, and frequently from the want of
wifdom to apply power properly. But it
is impoflible for infinite power and wifdom
to fail as man faileth . The means it ufeth
are always equal to the end : but human
language, more efpecially as there is not
an univerfal language, is incapable of being
ufed as an univerfal means of unchangeable
and uniform information -} and therefore it

F'3- is

( 66 )

is not the means that God ufeth in mani~
fefHng himfelf univerfally to man.

It is only in the creation that all our
ideas and conceptions of a word of God can
unite. The creation fpeaketh an univerfal
language, independently of human fpeech
or human language, multiplied and various,
as they be. It is an ever-exifting original,
which every man can read. It cannot be
forged ; it cannot be counterfeited \ it can-
not be loit ; it cannot be altered \ it cannot
be fupprefied. It does not depend upon
the will of man whether it mall be publifhed
or not ; it publifhes itfelf from one end of
the earth to the other. It preaches to all
nations and to all worlds; and this word
of God reveals to man all that is neceflary
for man to know of God.

Do we want to contemplate his power ?
We fee it in the immennty of the creation,
Do we want to contemplate his wifdom?

We

C 67 )

We fee it in the unchangeable order by
which the incomprehenfible Whole is go-
verned. Do we want to contemplate his
munificence ?' We fee it in the abundance
with which he fills the earth. Do we want
to contemplate his mercy ? We fee it in his
not withholding that abundance even from
the unthankful. In &!&> do we want to
know what God is ? Search not the book
called the Scripture, which any human-
hand might make, but the fcripture called
the Creation.

The only idea man can affix to the name
©f God, is that of a firjh caufey the caufe
of all things. And incomprehenfibly dif-
ficult as it is for man to conceive what a
firfi: caufe is, he arrives at the belief of liy
from the ten-fold greater difficulty of dis-
believing it. It is difficult beyond defcrip-
tion to conceive that fpace can have no end ;
but it is more difficult to. conceive an end.

It

C 68 >

It is difficult beyond the power of man ts
conceive an eternal duration of what we call'
time •, but it is more impoiTible to conceive
a time when there fhall be no time. In
like manner of reafoning, every thing we
behold carries in itfelf the internal evidence
that it did not make itfelf Every man is;
an- evidence to himfelf, that he did not
make himfelf; neither could his father
make himfelf, nor his grandfather, nor
any of his race; neither could any tree,
plant, or animal, make itfelf: and it is the-
conviction arifing from this evidence, that:
carries us on, as it were, by necem* ty, to*
the belief of a firfl caufe eternally exiting,
of a nature totally different to any material
exigence we know of, and by the power
of which all things- exift, and this iirft caufe
man calls God.

It is only by tht exercife of reafon, that
man can difcover God. Take away that

reafon.

( % )

reaion, and he would be incapable of un-
demanding any thing; and, in this cafe,
it would be juft as confident to read even:
the book called the Bible, to a horfe as to
a man, How then is it that thofe people
pretend to reject reafon ?

Almoft the only parts in the book
called the Bible, that convey to us any
idea of God, are fome chapters in Job,.
and the 19th pfalm. I recollect no other.
Thofe parts are true deiftical compositions %.
for they treat of the Deity through his
works. ' They take the book of Creation
as the word of God;- they refer to no other-
book ; and all the inferences they make are
drawn from that volume.

I infert, in this place, the 19th pfalm,,
as paraphrafed into Englim verfe, by Ad-
difon. I recollect not the profe, and
where I write this I have not the oppor-
tunity of feeing it-

The

( 7o )

TheXpacious firmament on high, .
With all the blue etherial Iky,
And fpangled heavens, a mining framer.
Their great original proclaim.
The unwearied fun, from day to day,:
Does his Creator's power difplay,
And publiih.es to every land,
The work of an Almighty, hand.
Soon as the evening, fnades: prevail,
The moon takes up the wond'rous tale,
And nightly to the lift'ning earths
Repeats the ftory of her birth. .
Wnilf! all the ftars that round her burn.
And all the planets in their turn,
Confirm the tidings as they roll,
And fpread the truth from pole to pole,
What tho' in folemn iilence, all
Move round this dark tcrreftrial ball,
What tho' no real voice, nor found, .
Amidft their radiant orbs be found,
In reafon's ear they all rejoice,
And utter forth a glorious voice ;
For- ever finging as they fhine,

The HAND THAT MADE US IS DIVINE.

What more does man want to know
than that the hand, or power that made
thefe things is divine, is. omnipotent. Let

him

{ 7* )

Tiim believe this, with the force it is im~
poffible to repel if he permits his reafon
to act, and his rule of moral life willibl-
low of courfe.

The allufions in Job have all of them
the fame tendency with this pfalm; that
of deducing or proving a truth, that would
be otherwife unknown, from truths al«
ready known.

I recoiled not enough of thepaflages in
Job to infert them correctly : but there is
one that occurs to me that is applicable to
the fubjecl: I ,am,fpeaking upon. " Canfi
u thou by fearching find out God -, canft
" thou find out the Almighty to perfec-
-" tion."

I know not how the printers have
pointed this paffage, for I keep no Bible:
but it contains two diftind queftions that
admit of diftincl anfwers.

Firft,

t 7* )

Firrt, Canfl thou by fearching find out
God ? Yes. Becaufe, in the fir ft place, I
know I did not make myfelf, and yet I
have exiftence ; and by fearching into the
nature of other things, I find that no other
thing could make itfelf -, and yet millions
of other things exifl: ; therefore it is, that
I know, by pofitive conclusion, refulting
from this fearch, that there is a power fu-
perior to all thofe things, and that power
is God.

Secondly, Canfl: thou find out the Al-
mighty to perfection? No. Not only be-
caufe the power and wifdom he has ma-
nifefted in the ftructure of the creation
that I behold, is to me incomprehenfible ;
but becaufe even this manifestation, great
as it is, is probably but a fmall difplay of
that immenfity of power and wifdom, by
which millions of other worlds, to me

Invifible

.( 73 )

•Invisible by their diftance, were created ancf
continue to exift.

It is evident that both thefe queftions
were put to the reafon of the perfon to
whom they are fuppofed to have been ad-
drefled; and it is only by admitting the
firft queftion to be anfwered affirmatively,
that the fecond could follow, It would
have been unneceflary, and even abfurd,
to have put a fecond queftion more difficult
than the firft, if the firft queftion had
been anfwered negatively. The two quef-
tions have different objects, the firft refers
to the exiftence of God, the fecond to his
attributes. Reafon can difcover the one,
but it falls infinitely fhort in difcovering the
whole of the other.

I recoiled not a fingle pafiage in all the

writings afcribed to the men called apof-

ties, that conveys any idea of what God is.

Thofe writings are chiefly controverfial ;

G mid

( 74 )

and the gloominefs of the fubjecT: they
dwell upon, that of a man dying in agony
on a crofss is better fuited to the gloomy
genius of a monk in a cell, by whom it is
not impoflible they were written, than to
any man breathing the open air of the crea-
\ tion. The only paflage that occurs to me,
that has any reference to the works of God,
by which only his power and wifdom can
be known, is related to have been fpoken
by Jefus Chrift, as a -remedy againft dif-
truftful care. ^ Behold the lillies of the
•field, they toil not, neither do they fpin.'3
This, however, is far inferior to the allu-
fions in Job, and in the nineteenth .pfalm,;
but it is fimilar in idea, and the modefty of
the imagery is correfpondent to the mo-.
deily of the. man.

As to the chriflkn fyftem of faith, h
•appears to' me as a fpecies of atheifm ; a
fort of religious denial of God. It pro-

fefies

( IS )

ferTes to believe in a man rather than in
God. It is a compound made up chiefly
of manifm with but little deifin, and is as
near to atheifm as twilight is to darknefs.
It introduces between man and his maker
an opaque body which it calls a redeemer v
as the moon introduces her opaque felf be-
tween the earth and the fun, and it pro-
duces by this means a religious or an irre-
ligious eclipfe of light. It has put the
whole orb of reafon into ihade.

The eiTecl: of this: obfcurity has been
that of turning every thing upfide down,
and r eprefenting it . in reverfe ; and among
the revolutions it has thus magically pro-
duced, it has made a revolution in theo-
logy..

That which is now called natural philo-

fophy, embracing the whole circle of fci-

ence, of which aftronomy occupies the chief

place, is the ftudy of the works of God

G z and

( >6 )

and of the power and wifdom of God in
his works, and is the true theology.

As the theology that is now ftudied in its
place, it is the ftudy of human opinions and
of human fancies concerning God. It is not
the ftudy of God himfelf in the works that
he has made, but in the works or writings
that man has made** and it is not among
the leaft of the mifchiefs that the christian
fyftem has done to the world, that it has
abandoned the original and beautiful fyftem
of theology, like a beautiful innocent to
diftrefs and reproach, to make room for
the hag of fuperftition*

The book of Job, and the 19th plafm,
which even the church admits to be more
ancient than the chronological order in
which they (land in the book called the
Bible, are theological orations conformable
to the original fyftem of theology. The
internal evidence of thofe orations proves

tQ

( 77 )

to a demonftration, that the ftudy and con-
templation of the works of creation, and
of the power and wifdom of God revealed
and manifefted in thofe works, made a
great part of the religious devotion of the
times in which they were written -, and it
was this devotional ftudy and contempla-
tion that led to the difcovery of the prin-
ciples upon which what are now called
Sciences are eftablifhed ; and it is to the
difcovery of thefe principles that almoft all
the Arts that contribute to the convenience
of human life owe their exigence. Every
principal art has fome fcience for its pa-
rent, though the perfon who mechanically
performs the work does not always, and
but very feldorn, perceive the connection,

IT is a fraud of the chriftian fyftem to

call the fciences human inventions $ -it is only

G 3 the

( 7§ )

the application of them that is human;
Every fcience has for its bafis a fyftem of
principles as fixed and unalterable as thofe
by which the univerfe is regulated and go-
verned. Man cannot make principles ; he
can only difcover them :

For example. Every perfon who looks
at an almanack fees an account when an
eclipfe will take place, and he fees alfo
that it never fails to take place according to
the account there given. This fhews that
man is acquainted with the laws by which
the heavenly bodies move. But it would
be fomething worfe than ignorance,, were
any church on earth to fay, that thofe
laws are an human invention.

It would alfo be ignorance, or fomething
worfe, to fay, that the fcientirlc principles
by the aid of which man is enabled to cal-
culate and fore-know when an eclipfe will
take place, are an human invention. Man

cannot:

( 79 )

cannot invent any thing that is eternal' and
immutable •, and the fcientific principles he
employs for this purpofe, muft, and are*
of neceflity, as eternal and immutable as
the laws by which the heavenly bodies
move, or they could not be ufed as they
are, to afcertain the time when, and the
manner how an eclipfe will take place.

The fcientific principles that man em-
ploys to obtain the fore-knowledge of an
eclipfe, or of any thing elfe relating to the
motion of the heavenly bodies, are contain-
ed chiefly in that part of fcience that is
called trigonometry, or the properties of a
triangle, which, when applied totheftudy
of the heavenly bodies, is called aftronomy;
when applied to direcl the courfe of a fhip
on the ocean, it is called navigation •, when
applied to the conftruclion of figures drawn
by a rule and compafs, it is called geome-
try^ when applied to the confcruclion of

plans

( 8o I

plans of edifices, it is called architecture \
when applied to the meafurement of any
portion of the furface of the earth, it is
called land-furveying. In fine, it is the
foul of fcience. It is an eternal truth : it
contains the mathematical demonftration of
which man fpeaks, and the extent of its-
ufes are unknown.

It may be faid, that man can make or
draw a triangle, and therefore a triangle is
an human invention.

But the triangle, when drawn, is no
other than the image of the principle : it is
a delineation to the eye, and from thence
to the mind, of a principle that would
otherwife be imperceptible. The triangle
does not make the principle, any more
than a candle taken into a room that was
dark, makes the chairs and tables that be-
fore were invifible. All the properties of
a triangle exift independently of the figure,.

and

( »I )

and exifted before any triangle was drawn
or thought of by man. Man had no more
to do in the formation of thofe properties,.
or principles, than he had to do in mak-
ing the laws by which the heavenly bodies
move; and therefore the one mud have-
the fame divine origin as the other.

In the fame manner as it may be faid,
that man can make a triangle, fo alfo-
it may be faid, he can make the mechani-
cal inftrument, called a lever. But the
principle by which the lever a6fcs, is a thing
diftinct from the instrument, and would
exift if the inftrument did not : it attaches
itfelf to the inftrument after it is made;-
the inftrument therefore can act no other-
wife than it does act; neither can all the
effort of human invention make it act:
otherwife. That which, in all fuch cafes,
man calls the effeff, is no other than the
principle itfelf rendered perceptible to the-
■ibnfesa. Since.

( §2 )

Since then, man cannot make princi-
ples, from whence did he gain a know-
ledge of them, fa as to- be able to apply
thtm, not only to things on earth, but to.
afcertain the motion of bodies fo immenfe-
If diftant from him as all the heavenly bo-
dies are? From whence, I afk, could he
gain that knowledge, but from the ftudy
of the true theology ?

It is the uxucture of the univerfe that
has taught this knowledge to man. That:
ftructure is an ever exifiing. exhibition of
every principle upon which every part of
mathematical fcience is founded. The orT-
fpring of this fcience is mechanics -, for
mechanics is no other than the principles
of fcience applied practically. The man
who proportions the feveral parts of a mill,
ufes the fame fcientific principles, as if he
had the power of conducting an univerfe :
but as he cannot give to matter that invifible

agency*

( §3 J

Agency, by which all the component parts
of the immenfe machine of ih^ univerfe
have influence upon each other, and act in
.motional unifon together without any ap-
parent contact, and to which man has given
the name of attraction, gravitation, and re-
pulfion, he fupplies the place of that agency
by the humble imitation -of teeth and cogs.
All the parts of man's microcofm muft
virlbly touch. But could he gain a know-
ledge of that agency, fo as to be able to
apply it in practice, we might then fay,
that another canonical book of the word of
God had been difcovered.

If man could alter the properties of the
■lever, fo alfo could he alter the properties
of the triangle: for a lever (taking that
fort of lever which Is -called a fteel-yard
;for the fake of explanation) forms, when
in motion, a triangle; The line it defcends
tfrom, (one point of that line being in the

fulcrum)

1 *4 )

fulcrum) the line it defcends to, and the
chord of the arc, which the ^nd of the le-
ver defcribes in the air, are the three fides
of a triangle. The other arm of the lever
defcribes alfo a triangle •, and the corref-
ponding fides of thofe two triangles, cal-
culated fcientifically-or meafured geometri-
cally; and alfo the fines, tangents, and fe-
cants generated from the angles, and geo-
metrically meafured, have the fame propor-
tions to each other, as the different weights
have that will balance each other on the
lever, leaving the weight of the lever out
of the cafe.

It may alfo be faid that man can- make a
^vheel and axis, that he can put wheels of
different magnitudes together, and produce
a mill. Still the cafe comes back to the
fame point, which is, that he did not make
the principle that gives the wheels thofe
powers. That principle is as unalterable

as

C 85 )

as in the former cafes, or rather it is the
fame principle under a different appear-
ance to the eye.

The power that two wheels, of differ*'
ent magnitudes, haye upon each other, is in
the fame proportion as if the Semi-diame-
ter of the two wheels were joined together
and made into that kind of lever I have
defcribed, fufpended at the part where the
fe mi- diameters join; for the two wheels,
fcientincally considered, are no other than
the two circles generated by the motion of
the compound lever...

It is from the Study of the true theo-
logy, that all our knowledge of fcience is
derived, and it is from that knowledge
that all the arts have originated.

The Almighty lecturer, by .displaying

the principles of fcience in the; Structure of

the univerfe, has invited man, to Study and

to imitation. It is as. if he had faid to' the

H inhabitants

( So )

inhabitants of this globe that we call ours,
" I have made an. earth foreman to dwell
"upon, and I have rendered the {tarry
"heavens vifible, to teach him fcience and
" the arts. He can now provide for his
^ own comfort, Am) learn from my

" MUNIFICENCE TO ALL, TO BE "KIND TO
*c EACH OTHER."

Of what ufe is it, uhlefs it be to teach
man fomething, ; that his eye is endued
with the power of beholding, to ;an in-
comprchenfible ; diftance, an immenfity of
worlds revolving in the .ocean of fpace?
Or of what life is at that this immenfity
of worlds is vifible to man? What has
man to do with the Pleiades, with Orion,
with Sirius, with the flar he calls the
north ftar, with the moving orbs he has
named Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, and
Mercury, if no ufes are to follow from
their being vifible? Alefspower of virion

would

I 87 )

would have been fufficient for man, if tftfc
immenfity he now pofleffes were given
only to wade itfelf, as it were, on an
immenfe deferfc of fpace glittering with
fliows.

It is only by contemplating what he
calls the ftarry heavens, as the book and
fchool of fcience, that he difcovers any
ufe in their being vifible to him, or any ad-
vantage refulting from his immenfity of
virion. But when he contemplates the {ab-
ject in this light, he fees- an additional mo-
tive for faying that nothing was made in
vain : ' for in vain would be this power of
virion if it taught man nothing.

As the chriftian fyftem of faith has made
a revolution in theology, fo alfo has if
made a revolution in the flate of learning,,
That which is now called learning, was not
learning originally. - Learning does noe
ccnfiil, as the fchool s now make it to con-
H 2 lift,

the knowledge of languages, but m
t&g knowledge of things to which language
gives names.

The Greeks were a learned people % but
learning with them did not conM in
fpeaking Greek any more than in a Ro-
man's {peaking Latin, or a Frenchman's
fpeaking French, or an Engliihman's
ipeakmg Englifh. From what we know
of the Greeks, it does not appear that they
knew or fludred any language but their
own ; and this was one caufe of their be-
coming fo learned -, it afforded them more
time to apply themielves to better ftudies.
The fchoois of the Greeks were fchools of
Fcience and philofophy, and not of lan-
guages; and it is in the knowledge of the
things that fcience and philofophy teach,
that learning connits.*

Putting

* Almoft all the fcientific learning that now
e-xifb, came to ns fromrthe- Greeks, or the people

\

(' H )

Putting afide, as matter of -difthA con-
ilderation, the outrage offered co the moral.
H 3 juftice

who fpoke the Greek language. It therefore be-
came necefTary to the people of other nations^
who fpoke a different language, that fome among
them mould learn the. Greek language, in order
that the learning the Greeks had, might be made
known in thofe nations, by tranflating the Greek,
books of fcience and philofophy into the mother-
tongue of each nation.

The ftudy therefore of the Greek language, (and
in the fame manner for the Latin) was no other
than the drudgery buflnefs of a linguifi; and
the language thus obtained, was no other than the
means, or as it were, the tools employed to obtain
the learning the Greeks had. . It made no part of
the learning itfelf; and was fo diftindt. from it, as
to make it exceedingly probable that the perfons
who had ftudied Greek fufficiently to tranflate
thofe works, fuch, for inftance, as Euclid's Ele-
ments, did not underltand any of the learning the
works contained*

As there is now nothing new to be learned from
the dead languages, all the ufeful books being, al-
ready translated, the languages are become ufelefs,
and the time expended in teaching and learning
them is wafted. So far as the ftudy of languages
may contribute to the progrek and ccmmunka-

( 9o )

jaftice of God, by fuppoiing him to make
the innocent fuller for the guilty, and alfo

the

t'ion of knowledge (for it has nothing to do with
the creation of knowledge) it is only in the living
languages that new knowledge is to be found: and
certain it is, that, in general, a youth will learn
more of a living language in one year, than -of a
dead language in feven; and it is but feldom that
i\iQ teac her knows much of it himfelf. The dif-
ficulty of learning the dead languages does not
arife from any fuperior abftrufenefs in the lan-
guages themfelves, but in their being dead, and the
pronunciation entirely loft. It would be the fame
with any other language when it becomes dead.
The bell Greek linguift, that now exifls, does not
imderitand Greek fo well as a Grecian plowman
did, or a Grecian milkmaid; and the lame for the
Latin, compared with a plowman or a milkmaid
of the Romans. It would therefore be advanta-
geous to the ftate of learning, to abolifh the ftudy
of the dead languages, and to make learning con-
■fift,_ as it originally did, in fcicntific knowledge.

The apology that is fometimes made for con-
tinuing to teach the dead languages is, that they
are taught at a time when a child is not capable of
exerting any ether mental faculty than that of me-
mory. But this is altogether erroneous. The hu-
man mind has a natural difpofition to fcieatific

C 9* )

the loofe morality and low contrivance of
fuppofing Him to change himfelf into the
fhape of a. man, in order to make an ex-
cafe to himfelf for not executing his fup-
pofed fentence upon Adam; putting, I

fay.,

knowledge, and to the things connected with it.
The firft and favourite amufement of a child.,
even before it -begins to play, is that of imitating
the works of man. It builds houfes with cards or
fticks; it navigates the little ocean of a bowl of
water with a paper boat, or dams the ftream of a
gutter, and contrives fomething which it calls a
mill j and it interests itfelf in the fate of its works
with a care that refembles affection. It afterwards
goes to fchool, where its genius is killed by the
barren ftudy of a dead language, and the philofo-
pher is loft in the linguift.

But the apology that is now made for continu-
ing to teach the dead languages, could not be the
caufe at firft of cutting down learning to the nar-
row and humble fphere of linguiftry; the caufe,
therefore, muft be fought for elfewhere. In all
refearches of this kind, the beft evidence that can
be produced, is the internal evidence the thing
carries with itfelf, and the evidence of circumftan-
ces that unites with it; both of which, in this cafe,
are not difficult to be difcovered.

( 9* )

fay, thofe things afide, as matter of diftinS:
confideration, it is certain, that what is
called the chriftian fyftem of faith, inclu-
ding in it the whimfical account of the cre-
ation •, . the ftrange. fiory of Eve, the fnake,
and the. apple y the amphibious idea of a
man-god'v. the corporeal idea of the death
of a god-; the mythological idea of a fa-
mily of gods j and the. chriftian fyflem of
arithmetic, that three are one, and one
is three, are all irreconcileable, not only
to the divine gift of reafon that God has
given to man, but to the knowledge that
man gains of the power and wifdom
of God, by the aid of the fciences, and
by ft.udying the ftruclure of the univerfe
that God has made. .

The fetters up, therefore, and the ad-
vocates of the chriitian fyftem of fairly
could not but forefee that the continually
progreilive knowledge that man would gain

by

( 93 )

by the aid of fcience, of the power and
wifdom of God, manifefled M the ftruc-
ture of the univerfe, and in all the works
of creation, would militate againrt, and
call into queition, the truth of their fyrtem
of faith •, and therefore it became necefFary
to their purpofe to cut learning down to a
iize lefs dangerous to their project, and
this they erTedted by reftri&ing the idea of
learning to the dead ftudy of- dead lan-
guages.

They not only rejected the ftudy of fci-
ence out of the chriftian fchools, but they
perfecuted itj and it is only within about
the laft two centuries that the ftudy has
been revived. So late as 1610, Galileo*
■a Florentine, difcovered and introduced
the ufe of teiefcopes, and by applying
them to obferve the motions and appear-
ances of the heavenly bodies, afforded ad-
ditional means for afcertaining the true

ftructure

( 94 ,v

ffructare of the univerfe. Inftead of be-
ing efteemed for thefe difcoveries, he was
fentenced to renounce them, or the opi-
nions refulting from them, as a damnable
hereiy. And prior to that time. Vigilius
was condemned to be burned for afferting
the antipodes \ or, in other words* that the
earth was a globe, and habitable in every
part where there was land-, yet the truth
of this is now too well known even to be
told.

If: the belief of errors not morally bad
did no mifchief, it would make no part of
the moral d'dty of man to oppofe and re-
move them* There was no moral ill in-
believing the earth was flat like a trencher,
any more than there was moral virtue in
believing it was round like a globe ; nei-
ther was there any moral ill in believing
that the Creator made no other world than
this, any more than there was moral vir-
tue

( 95 ')

*tuem believing that he made millions, and:
that the infinity of fpaee is filled with
worlds. But when a fyftem of religion is
made to grow out of a fuppofed fyftem of
creation that is not true, and to unite itfelf
therewith in a manner almoft infeparable
therefrom, the cafe affumes an entirely
different ground. It is then that errors,
not morally bad, become fraught with the
fame mifchiefs as if they were. It is then
that the truth, though otherwife indiffer-
ent in itfelf, becomes an efTential, by be-
coming the criterion, that either confirms
by correfponding evidence, or denies by
contradictory evidence, the reality of the
religion itfelf. In this view of the cafe,
it is the moral duty of man to obtain every
poffible evidence that the flru&ure of the
heavens, or any other part of creation af-
fords, with refpect to fyftems of religion.
But this, the fupporters or partizans of

the

( 9<S )

the chriftan fyftem, as if dreading the re-
fult, incerTantly oppofed, and not only re-
jected the fcienees, but perfecuted the pro-
ferTors, Had Newton or Defeartes lived
three or four hundred years ago, and pur-
fued their {Indies as they did, it is moil
probable they would not have lived to
finifh thern -, and had Franklin drawn
lightning from the clouds at the fame time,
it would have been at the hazard of ex-
piring for it in flames.

Later times have laid all the blame
upon the Goths and Vandals-, but, how-
ever unwilling the partizans of the chrifti-
an fyftem may be to believe or to acknow-
ledge ity it is neverthelefs true, that the
age of ignorance commenced with the
chriftian fyftem. There was more know-
ledge in the world before that period than
for many centuries afterwards-, and as to
religious knowledge, the chriftiair fyftem,

as

( 97 )

as already faid, was only another fpecles
of mythology, and the mythology to
which it fucceeded was a corruption of an
ancient fyftem of theifm.*

I It

f* It is impoflible for us now to know at what
time the heathen m ythology. began ; but it is cer-
tain^ from the internal evidence that it carries, that
it did not begin in the fame ftate or condition ia
which it ended. All the gods of that mythology,
except Saturn, were of modern invention. The
fuppofed reign of Saturn was prior to that which
is called the heathen mythology, and was fo far a
fpecies of theifm that it admitted the belief of only
one God. Saturn is fuppofed to have abdicate^
the government in favour of his three fens and
one daughter, Jupiter, Pluto, Neptune, and Juno ;.
after this, thoufands of other gods and demi-gods
were imaginably created, and the calendar of gods
increafed as faft as the calendar of faints and the
calendar of courts have increafed fince.

All the corruptions that have taken place in the-
ology, and in religion, have been produced by
admitting of what man calls revealed religion. The
mythologies pretended to more revealed religion
than the chriilians do. They had their oracles
and their priefts, who were fuppofed to receive

( 98 )

It is owing to this long interregnum of
fcience, and to no other caufey that we have
now to look back through a vaft chafm of
many hundred years to the refpectable
characters we call the ancients. Had the
progrefiion of knowledge gone on propor-
tionally with the flock that before exifted,
that chafm would have been filled up with
characters rifing fuperior in knowledge to
each other -3 and thofe ancients, we now fb

much

and deliver the word of God verbally on almoft
all occasions.

Since then, all corruptions, down from Moloch
to modern predeftinarianifm, and from the hu-
man facrifices of the heathens to the chriftian fa-
crifice of the Creator, have been produced by ad-
mitting what is called revealed religion. The mofl
effectual means to prevent allfuch evils and impo-
fitions is not to admit of any other revelation
than that which is manifefted inthebook. of Crea-
tion; and to contemplate the Creation as the on-
ly true and real word of God that ever did or ever
will exift, and that every thing elfe, called the
word of God, is fable and impofition.

( 99 )

much admire, would have appeared res-
pectably in the back ground of the fcene.
But the chriftian fyftem laid all wafte; and
if we take our fraud about the beginning of
the fixteenth century, we look back through
that long; chafm, to the times of the anci-
cnts, as over a vaft fandy defert, in which
not a fhrub appears to intercept the virion
to the fertile hills beyond.

It is an inconfiftency, fcarcely poffible
to be credited, that any thing fhould exift
under the name of a religion* that held it
to be irreligious to ftudy and contemplate
the ftructure of the univerfe that God had
made. But the fact is tGo well eflablifhed
to be denied. The event that ferved more
than any other to break the fir ft link in
this long chain of defpotic ignorance, is
that known by the name of the reformation
by Luther. From that time, though it
dees not appear to have made any part of
I 2 the'

( IOO }

the intention of Luther, or of thcfe who
are called reformers, the Sciences began
to revive, and Liberality, their natural
afibciate, began to appear. This was the
only public good the reformation did; for
with refpecl: to religious good, it might as
well not have taken place. The mytholo-
gy frill continued the fame ; and a multi-
plicity of national popes grew out of the
downfal of the Pope of Chriftendom.

HAVING thus fhewn, from the inter-
nal evidence of things, the caufe that pro-
duced a change in the ftate of learnings
and the motive for fubftituting the ftudy
of the dead languages in the place of the
Sciences, I proceed, in addition to the fe-
veral obfervations already made in the for-
mer part of this work, to compare, or
rather to confront, the evidence that the

ftructure

{ m J

hlmfelf afterwards. Every perfon of learn-
ing is finally his own teacher •, the reafon
of which is, that principles, being of a dif-
tinct quality to circumflances, cannot be
impreffed upon the memory. Their place
of mental reiidence is the underftanding,
and they .are never Co lading as when they
begin by conception. Thus much for the
introductory part.

From the time I was capable of conceiv-
ing an idea, and acting upon it by reflection,
I either doubted the truth of the chriftian
fyitem, or thought it to be a Grange affair;
I icarcely know which it was : but I well
remember, when about feven or eight years
of age, hearing a fermon read by a relation
of mine, who was a great devotee of the
church, upon the fubject of what is called
Redemption by the Death of the Son of God.
After the fermon was ended I went into
the garden, and as I was going down the

garden

( io6 )

garden fteps (for I perfe&ly recoiled the
fpot) I revolted at the recollection of what
I had heard, and thought to myfelf that it
was making God Almighty act like a paf-
iionate man that killed his fon when he
could not revenge himfelf any other way,
and as I was fare a man would be hanged
that did fuch a thing, I could not fee for
what purpofe they preached fuch fermons.
This was not one of thofe kind of thoughts
that had anything in it of childifh levity,
it was to me a ferious reflection, arifing
from the idea I had, that God was too good
to do fuch an action, and aifo too Almighty
to be under any neceiHty of doing it. I
believe in the fame manner to this moment -,
and 1 moreover believe, that any fyflem of
religion that has any thing in it that mocks
the mind of a child cannot be a true fyftem.
It feems as if parents, of the christian
profeflion, were afhamed to tell their chil-
dren

( io7 )

dren any thing about the principles of their,
religion. They fometimes inftrucft them-
in morals, and talk to them of the goodnefs
of what they call Providence; for the
chriftian mythology has five deities : there
is God the Father, God the Son, God the>
Holy Ghoft, the God Providence,«and the
Goddefs Nature. But the chriitian ftory
of God the Father putting his fon to death,
or employing people to do it (for that is
the plain language of the ftary,) cannot be
told by a parent to a child s and to tell him
that it was done to make mankind happier
and better, is making the ftory ftill worfe,
as if mankind could be improved by the
example of murder ; and to tell him that
all this is a myftery, is only making an
excufe for the incredibility of it.

How different is this to the pure and
mrrple profeiTion of Deifm ! The true deiil
has but one Deity -, and his religion con-
firms

C 108 )

Ms in contemplating the power, wifdom,
and benignity cf the Deity in his works,
and in endeavouring to imitate him in every
thing moral, fcientifical, and mechanical.

The religion that approaches the nearer!:
of all others to true deitm, in the moral
and benign part thereof, is that profeffedby
the quakers, but they have contracted them-
felves too much by leaving the works of
God out of their fyftem. Though I reve-
rence their philanthropy, I cannot help
fmiling at the conceit, that if the tafte of a
quaker could have been confulted at the
creation, what a flier, t and drab -coloured
creation it would have been ! Not a flower
would have bloflbmed its gaities, nor a
bird been permitted to ling.

QUITTING thefe reflections, I pro-
ceed to other matters. After I had made

myfelf

t 109 )

myfelf mafter of the ufe of the globes and
of the orrery,* and conceived an idea of
the infinity of fpace, and of the eternal di-
visibility of matter, and obtained, at leaft,
a general knowledge of what is called na-
tural philofophy, I began to compare, or,
as I have before faid, to confront the in-
ternal evidence thofe things afford with
the chriftian fyftem of faith.

Though it is not a dired article of the
K chriftian

* As this book may fall into the hands of per-
sons who do not know what an orrery is, it is for
their information I add this note, as the name
gives no idea of the ufes of the thing. The or-
rery has its name from the perfon who invented it.
It is a machinery of clock-work reprefenting the
univerfe in miniature ; and in which the revolu-
tion of the earth round itfelf and round the fun,
the revolution of the moon round the earth, the
revolution of the planets round the fun, their re-
lative diftances from the fun as the center of the
whole fyftem, their relative diflances from each
other, and their different magnitudes, are repre-
fented as they really exifl in what we call the
heavens.

( no )

chrirrian fyftem that this world that we in-
habit is the whole of the habitable creation,
yet it is fo worked up therewith, from what
is called the Mofaic account of the creation,
the {lory of Eve and the apple, and the
counterpart of that ftory, the death of the
Son of God, that to believe otherwife -, that
is, to believe that God created a plurality
of worlds at lead as numerous as what we
call ftars, renders the chriftian fyftem of
faith at once little and ridiculous, and (bat-
ters it in the mind like feathers in the air.
The two beliefs cannot be held together in
the fame mind; and he who thinks that
he believes both, has thought but little of
cither.

Though the belief of a plurality of
worlds was familiar to the ancients, it is
only within the la ft. three centuries that the
extent and dimenfions of this globe that
we inhabit have been afcertained. Several

veflels,

( I" )

veffels, following the tract of the ocean-,
have failed entirely round the world, as a
man may march m a circle, and come
round by the contrary fide of the circle to
the fpot he fet out from; The circulai-
dimenfions of our world in the wideft part,
as a man would meafure the wideft round
of an apple or a ball, is only twenty- five
thoufand and twenty Englifh miles, reckon-
ing fixty-nine miles and an half to an equa-
torial degree, and may be failed round in
ihQ fpace of about three years**

A world of this extent may, at fir ft
thought, appear to us to be great \ but if
we compare it with the immenfity of fpace
in which it is fufpendecl, like a bubble or
a balloon in the air, it is infinitely lefs in
K 2 proportion

* Allowing a fliip to fail, on an average, three
miles in an hour, fhe would fail entirely round the
world in lefs than one year, if fhe could fail in a
direct circle; but file is obliged to follow the ccurfe
of the ocean.

( 112 )

proportion than the fmallefr. grain of fand
is to the fize of the world, or the fineft par-
ticle of dew to the whoJe ocean, and is
therefore but fmall; and, as will be here-
after fhewn, is only one of a fyftem of
worlds, of which the univerfal creation is
compofed.

It is not difficult to gain fome faint idea
of the immenfity of fpace in which this
and all the other worlds are fufpended, if
we follow a progreffion of ideas. When
we think of the fize or dimenfions of a
room, our ideas limit themfelves to the
walls, and there they flop. But when our
eye, or our imagination, darts into fpace ;.
that is, when it looks upward into what
we call the open air, we cannot conceive
any walls or boundaries it can have ; and
if for the fake of reiting our ideas, we fup-
pofe a boundary,' the queftion immediately
renews itfelf, and afks, what is beyond that

boundary ?

( m )

boundary ? and in the fame manner, what
is beyond the next boundary ? and fo on,
till the fatigued imagination . returns and
fays, there is no end. Certainly, then, the
Creator was not pent for room when he
made this world no larger than it is; and
we have to feek iliQ reafon in fomething
elfe.

If we take a farvey of our own world,
or rather of this,- of which the Creator
has given us the ufe, as our portion in the
immenfe fyitem of creation, we find every
part of it, the earth, the waters, and -the
air that furround it, filled, and, as it were,
crouded with life, down from the larger!
animals that we know of, to the fmallehV
infects the naked eye can behold, and from
thence to others itill fmalkr, and totally
invifible without the aiiiltance of the mi-
crofcope. Every tree, qvqtj plant, every
leaf, ierves not only asan habitation, but as a
K 3 world

( "4 )

world to Tome numerous race^ till animal
exiftence becomes fo exceedingly refined,
that the effluvia of a blade of grafs would
be food for thoufands.

Since then no part of our earth is left
unoccupied, why i$ it to be fuppofed, that
the immenfity of fpaceis a naked void, ly-
ing in eternal wafte ? There is room for
millions of worlds as large or larger than
ours, and each of them millions of miles
apart from each other.

Having now arrived at this point, if we
carry our ideas only one thought further,
we fhali fee, perhaps, the true reafon, at
leaft a very good reafon for our happinefs,
why the Creator, inftead of making one
immenfe world, extending over an immenfe
quantity of fpace, has preferred dividing
that quantity of matter into feveral diftincl
and feparate worlds, which we call planets,
of which our earth is one. But before I

explain

( "5 )

explain* my ideas upon this fubjedl, it is
neceffary (not for the fake of thofe that al-
ready know, but for thofe who do not)
to ihew what the fyftem of the univerfe is.

That part of the univerfe, that is called
the folar fyftem (meaning the fyftem of
worlds to which our earth belongs, and of
which Sol, or in Englifh language the Sun,
is the center) confifts, befldes the Sun, of
fix diilincl orbs, or planets, or worlds, be-
fides the fecondary bodies, called fatellites,
or moons, of which our earth has one that
attends her in her annual revolution round
the Sun, m like manner as the other fatel-
lites, or moons, attend the planets, or
-worlds, to which they feverally belong, as
may be feen by the afliftance of the tele-
fcope.

The Sun is the center, round which
thofe fix worlds, or planets, revolve at dif-
ferent diftances therefrom, and in circles

concentric

concentric to each other. Each world
keeps conftantly in nearly the fame tracl:
round the Sun, and continues, at the fame
time, turning round itfelf, in nearly an up-
right pofition, as a top turns round itfelf
when it is fpinning on the ground, and
leans a little fideways.

It is this leaning of the earth (23 1-2
degrees) that occaiions fummer and winter,
and the different length of days and nights.
If the earth turned round itfelf in a pofi-
tion perpendicular to the plane or level of
the circle it moves in round the Sun, as a
top turns round when it ftands erecl: on the
ground, the days and nights would be al-
ways of the fame length, twelve hours day,
and twelve hours night, and the feafon
would be uniformly the fame throughout
the year.

Every time that a planet (our earth for
example) turns round itfelf, it makes what

we:

( "7 ')

we call day and night; and every time it
goes entirely round the Sun, it makes what
we call a year, confequently our world
turns three . hundred and toy-rive times
round itfelf, in going once round the Sun.* "
The names that the ancients gave to
thofe fix worlds, and which are ftill called
by the fame names, are Mercury, Venus,
this world that we call ours, Mars, Jupiter,
and Saturn. They appear larger to the
eye than the ftars, being many million
miles nearer to our earth than any of the
ftars are. The planet Venus is that which
is called: the evening ftar, and fometimes
the morning rlar, as me happens to fet
after, or rife before, . the Sun, which, in
either cafe, is never more than three hours.

The:

* Thofe who fuppofed that the Sun went round
the earth every 24 hours, made the fame miftake
in idea, that a cook would do in fa&, that fhould
make the fire go round the meat, inftead of the
meat turning round itfelf towards the fire.

( II* )

The Sun, as before faid, being the cen-
ter, the planet, or world, nearer!: the Sun,
is Mercury j his diftance from the Sun is
thirty-four million miles, and he moves
round in a circle always at that diftance
from the Sun, as a top may be fuppofed
to fpin round in the tract in which a horfe
goes in a mill. The fecond world is Ve-
nus; fhe is fifty-feven million miles dif-
tant from the Sun, and confequently moves
round in a circle much greater than that of
Mercury. The third world is this that
we inhabit, and which is ninety-five mil-
lion miles diftant from the Sun, and con-
fequently moves round in a circle greater
than that of Venus. The fourth world
is Mars; he is diftant from the Sun one
hundred and thirty-four million miles, and
confequently moves round in a circle greater
than that of our earth. The fifth is Jupiter ;
he is diftant from the Sun five hundred and

fifty-

( "9 )

fifty-feven million miles, and confequently
moves round in a circle greater than that of
Mars. The iixth world is Saturn ; he is dif-
tant from the Sun fcvtn hundred and fixty-
three million miles, and confequently moves
round in a circle that furrounis the circles
or orbits of all the other worlds or planets.*
The fpace, therefore, in the air, or in
the immenfity of fpace, that our folar fyf-
tem takes up for the feveral worlds to per-
form their revolutions in round the Sun,
is of the extent in a ftrait line of the whole
diameter of the orbit or circle in which
Saturn moves round the Sun, which being
double his diftance from the Sun, is fifteen
hundred and twenty-fix million miles ; and
its circular extent is nearly five thoufand

million,

* Mr. Paine has made no mention of the planet
Kerfchel, which was firft difcovered by the per-
fon whofe name it bears, in 1781. It is at a
greater diftance from the Sim than either of the
other planets, and confequently occupies a greater
length of time in performing its revolutions.

( ISO )

•million, and its globical content is almoft
three thoufand five hundred million times
three thoufand five hundred million fquare

miles.*

But

* If it mould be afked, how can man know
thefe things? I have one plain anfwer to give,
which is, that man knows how to calculate an
eclipfe, and alfo how to calculate, to £ minute of
time, when the planet Venus, in making her
revolutions round the fun, will come in a ftrait
line between our earth and the Sun, and will ap-
pear to us about the fize of a large pea paffing a-
crofs the face of the Sun. This happens but twice
in about an hundred years, at the diHance of about
eight years from each other, and has happened
twice in our time, both of which were foreknown
by calculation. It can alfo be known when they
will happen again for a thoufand years to come,
or to any other portion of time. As, therefore,
man could not be able to do thofe things if he did
not understand the folar fyftem, and the manner
in which the revolutions of the feveral planets or
worlds are performed, the fact of calculating an
eclipfe or a tranfit of Venus, is a proof in point
that the knowledge exifts ; and as to a few thou-
fand, or even a few million miles more or lefs, it
makes fcarcely any fenfible difference in fuch im-
menfe diftances.

( I« )

But this, Immenfe as it is, is only one
fyftem of worlds. Beyond this, at a vaft
diftance into fpace, far beyond all power
of calculation, are the ftars called the fixed
ftars. They are called fixed, becaufe they
have no revolutionary motion as the fv£
worlds or planets have that I have been
defcribing. Thofe fixed ftars continue al-
ways at the fame diftance from each other,
and always in the fame place, as the Sun
does in the center of our fyftem. The
probability therefore is, that each of thofe
fixed ftars is aha a Sun, round which an-
other fyftem of worlds or planets, though
too remote for us to difcover, performs its
revolutions,, as our fyftem of worlds does
round our central Sun,

By this eafy progreffion of ideas, the

irnmenfity of fpace will appear to us to be

filled with fyftems of worlds ; and that no

part of fpace lies wafte, any more than any

L part

( "2 )

part of our globe of earth and water is
left unoccupied.

HAVING thus endeavoured to con-
vey, in a familiar and eafy manner, fome
idea of the ftruclure of the univerfe, I re-
turn to explain what I before alluded to,
namely, the great benefits arifing to man
in confequence of the Creator having made
a plurality of worlds, fuch as our fyftem
is, confirming of a central Sun and fix worlds,
befides fatellites, in preference to that of
creating one world only of a vaft extent.

It is an idea I have never loft fight of,
that all our knowledge of fcience is derived
from the revolutions (exhibited to our eye,
and from thence to our underftanding)
which thofe feveral planets, or worlds, of
which our fyftem is compofed, make in
their circuit round the Sun.

Had

( m ))

Had then the quantity of matter which
thefe fix worlds contain been blended into
one folitary globe, the confequence to us
Would have been, that either no revolu-
tionary motion would have exifted, or not
a fufficiency of it to give us the ideas and
the knowledge of fcience we now have ;
and it is from the fciences that all the me-
chanical arts that contribute fo much to
our earthly felicity and comfort are derived.

As therefore the Creator made nothing
in vain, fo alfo muft it be believed that he
organized the ftru&ure of the univerfe in the
moil advantageous manner for the benefit
of man : and as we fee, and from experience
iqgI the benefits we derive from the ftrudhire
of the univerfe, formed as it is, which bene-
fits we mould not have had the opportuni-
ty of enjoying, if the ftructure, fo'far as
relates to our fyftem, had been a folitary
globe, we can difcover, at leaft, one rea-
L 2 fon

( 124 )

ion why a plurality of worlds has been
made, and that reafon calls forth the devo-
tional gratitude of man, as well as his ad-
miration.

But it is not to us, the inhabitants of
this globe, only, that the benefits arifing
from a plurality of worlds are limited.
The inhabitants of each of the worlds, of
which our fyftem is compofed, enjoy the
fame opportunities of knowledge as we do.
They behold the revolutionary motions of
our earth, as we behold theirs. All the
planets revolve in fight of each other ; and
therefore the fame univerfal fchool of fei-
mcQ presents itfelf to all.

Neither does the knowledge flop here.
The fyftem of worlds, next to us, exhibits
in its revolution the fame principles an4
fchool of fcience to the inhabitants of their
fyftem, as our fyftem does to us, and in
like manner throughout the iramenfity of
fpace. Our

( 125 )

Our ideas, not only of the Almighty-
nefs of the Creator, but of his wifdom and
his beneficence, become enlarged in pro-
portion as we contemplate the extent and
the ftructure of the univerfe. The folitary
idea of a folitary world rolling, or at reft,
in the immenfe ocean of fpace, gives place
to the cheerful idea of a fociety of worlds,
fo happily contrived, as to admini&er, even
by their motion, infraction to man. We
fee our own earth filled with abundance;
but we forget to confider how much of that
abundance is owing to the fcientiflc know-
ledge the vail machinery of the univerfe
has unfolded.

But, in the midrt of thofe reflections,
what are we to think of the chriftian. fyf-
tem of faith that forms itfelf upon tht idea
of only one world, and that" of no greater
extent, as is before ihewn, thaii twenty- five
thoufand miles ? An extent, which a man
L 3 walking

( 126 )

walking at the rate of three miles an hour,
for twelve hours in a day, eould he keep
on in a circular direction, would walk en-
tirely round in lefs than two years. Alas I
what is this to the mighty ocean of fpace,
and the Almighty power of the Creator !

From whence then could arife the folita-
ry and flrange conceit that the Almighty,,
who had millions of worlds equally depen-
dent on his protection, mould quit the care
of all the reft, and come to die in our world,
becaufe, they fay, one man and one wo-
man had eaten an apple ? And, on the
other hand, are we to fuppcfe that every
world, in the boundlefs creation, had an
Eve, and apple, a ferpent, and a redeemer ?
In this cafe, the perfon who is irreverently*
called the Son of God, and fometimes God
himfelf, would have nothing elie to do than;
to travel from world to world, in an end-
lefs fucceffion of death with fcarcely a mo-
mentary interval of life, It

( i27 )

It has been, by rejecting the evidence^
that the word, or works of God in the
creation, affords to our fenfes, and the ac-
tion of our reafon upon that evidence, that
£o many wild and whimfical fy items of
faith, and of religion, have, been fabricated
and fet up. There may be many fyftems
of religion, that, fo far from being morally
bad, are in many refpecls morally good:
but there can be but one that is true; and
that one neceffarify muft, as it ever will,
be in all things confident with the ever ex-
iffing word of God that we behold in his
works. But fuch is the ftrange construc-
tion of the Chriftian fyftem of faith, that:
every evidence the heavens afford to man,
either directly contradicts it, or renders it
abfurd.

It is poflible to believe, and I always-
feel pleafure in encouraging myfelf to be-
lieve it, that there have been men in the

world

( 128 )

world who perfuaded themfelves that what
is called a pious fraud, might, at leaft under
particular circumftances, be productive of
fome good. But the fraud being once es-
tablished, could not afterwards be explain-
ed \ for it is with a pious fraud, as with a
bad action, it begets a calamitous neceftity
of going on.

The perfons who firft preached the chrii-
tian fy ft em of faith, and in fome meafure
combined with it the morality preached by
Jems Chrift, might- perfuade themfelves
that it was better than the heathen mytho-
logy that then prevailed. From the firft
preachers, the fraud went on to the fecond,
and to the third, till thQ idea of its being a
pious fraud became loft in the belief of its
being true-, and that belief came again en-
couraged by the intereft of thofe who made
a livelihood by preaching it.

But

;( **9 )

But though fuch a belief might, by fuch
means, be rendered almoft general among
the laity, it is next to impoffible to account
for the continual perfecution carried on by
the church, for feveral hundred years,
againrr. the fciences and again-ft the profef-
fors of fcience, if the church had not fome
record or fome tradition that k was ori-
ginally no other than a pious fraud, or did
not forefee that it could not be maintain-
ed againft the evidence that the ftructure of
the univerfe afford ed.

HAVING thus fhewn the irreconcile-
able inconfiftencies between the real word
of God exifting in the univerfe, and that
which is called the word of God, as fhewn
to us in a printed book that any man
might make, I proceed to fpeak of the
three principal means that have been em-
ployed

( m> )

ployed in all ages, and perhaps in all coun-
tries, to impofe upon mankind.

Thofe three means are, Myftery, Mira-
cle, and Prophecy. The two fir ft are in-
compatible with true religion, and the-
third ought always to be fufpe&ed.

With refpect to myftery, every thing we'
behold is, in one fenfe, a myftery to us.
Our own exiftence is a myftery : the whole
vegetable world is a myftery. We cannot
account how it is that an acorn, when put
into the ground, is made to develope itfelf,
and become an oak. We know not how
it is that the feed we fow unfolds and mul-
tiplies itfelf, and returns to us fuch an abun-
dant intereft for fo fmall a capital.

The fact, however, as diftincl from the-
operating caufe, is not a myftery becaufe
we fee it; and we know alfo the means we
are to ufe, which is no other than putting
the feed into the ground. We know there-
fore

( IJI )

fore. as much as is neceflary for us to know;
and that part of the operation that we do
not know, and which if we did, we could
not perform, the Creator takes upon him-
felf and performs it for us. We are there-
fore better off than if we had been let into
the fecret, and left to do it for ourfelves.

But though every created thing is in this
fenfe a myftery, the word myftery -cannot
be applied to moral truths any more than
obfcurity can be applied to light. The
God in whom we believe is a God of. moral
truth, and not a God of myftery or obfcu-
rity. Myftery is the antagonift of. truth.
It is a fog of human invention, that ob-
jures truth and reprefents it in diftortion.
Truth never invelopes it felf in. myftery ;
and the. myftery in which it is at any time
inveloped, is the work of its antagonift,
and never of itfelf.

Religion,

( 132 >

Religion, therefore, being the belief of a
God, and the practice of moral truth, can-
not have connection with myftery. The
belief of a God, fo far from having any-
thing of myftery in ft, is of all beliefs the
moft eafy, becaufe it arifes to us, as is be-
fore obferved, out of necefiity. And the
practice of moral truth, or in other words,
a practical imitation of the moral goodnefs
of God, is no other than our acting towards
each other as he ads benignly towards all.
We cannot ferve God in the manner we
ferve thofe who cannot do without fuch
fervice -, and, therefore, the only idea we
can have of ferving God, is that of contri-
buting to the happinefs of the living crea-
tion that God has made. This cannot be
done by retiring ourfelves from the fociety
of the world, and fpending a reclufe life in
felflm devotion.

The

( |33 )

The very nature and deiign of religion,
If I may fo exprefs it, prove even to de-
monstration, that it muft be free from
every thing of myftery, and unincumbered
with every thing that is myfterious. Re-
ligion, confidered as a duty, is incumbent
upon every living foul alike, and therefore
muft be on a level to the underftanding
and comprehenfion of all. Man does not
learn religion as he learns the fecrets and
myfteries of a trade. He learns the the-
ory of religion by reflection. It arifes
out of the action of his own mind upon
the things which he fees, or upon what he
may happen to hear or to read, and the
practice joins itfelf thereto.

When, men, whether from policy or
pious fraud, {ct up fyftems of religion in-
compatible with the word or works of
God in the creation, and not only above,
but repugnant to human comprehen/ion,
M they

( 134 )

they were under the neceflity of inventing,
or adopting, a word that mould ferve as a
bar to all queftions, inquiries, and Specula-
tions. The word myftery anfwered this
purpofe ; and thus it has happened, that
religion, which, in itfelf, is without myf-
tery, has been corrupted into a fog of
myfteries.

As myftery anfwered all general purpo-
fes, miracle followed as an occasional auxi-
liary. The former fe'rved to bewilder the
mind, the latter to puzzle the fehfes. The
one was the lingo, the other the leger-
demain.

But before going farther into this fub-
jedf., it will be proper to inquire what is
to be under flood by a miracle.

In the fame fenfe that every thing may
be faid to be a myftery, fo alfo may it be
laid, that every thing is a miracle, and that
no one thing is a greater miracle than

another-

( 135 )

another. The elephant, though larger, is
not a greater miracle than a mite •, nor a
mountain a greater miracle than an atonx,
To an Almighty power, it is no more dif-
ficult to make the one than the other, and
no more difficult to make a million of
worlds than to make one. Every thing
therefore is a miracle in one fenfe; whilftj,
in the other fenfe, there is no fuch thing as
a miracle. It is a miracle when compared
to our power,, and to our compreheniion,
It is not a miracle compared to the power
that performs it. But as nothing in this
defcription conveys the idea that is affixed
to the word miracle, it is necefTary to
carry the inquiry further.

Mankind have conceived to themfelves
certain laws, by which, what they call na-
ture is fuppofed to act ; and that a mi-
racle is fomething contrary to the opera-
tion and effect of thofe laws. But unlefs
M 2 we

( 136 )

we know the whole extent of thofe laws,
and of what are commonly called the
powers of nature, we are not able to judge
whether any thing that may appear to us
wonderful or miraculous, be within, or be
beyond, or be contrary to, her natural
power of acting.

The afcenfion of a man feveral miles high
into the air would have every thing in it
that conflitutes the idea of a miracle, if it
were not known that a fpecies of air can be
generated feveral times lighter than the
common atmofpheric air, and yet pofTefs
elafticity enough to prevent the balloon in
which that light air is inclofed, from being
comprefled into as many times lefs bulk,
by the common air that furrounds it. In
like manner, extracting flames or fparks of
fire from the human body, as vifibly as
from a fteel ftruck with a flint, and caufing
iron or fteel to move without any viiible

agent,

( m ).

agent, would alfo give the idea of a miracle,
if we were not acquainted with electricity
and magnetifm : fo alfo would many other
experiments in natural phiiofophy, to thofe
who are not acquainted with the fubje<$h
The reitoring perfons to life, who are to
appearance dead, as is praclifed upon
drowned perfons, would alfo he a miracle,
if it were not known that animation is ca-
pable of being impended without being
extinft.

Befides thck^ there are performances by
flight of hand, and by perfons acting in
concert, that have a miraculous appear-
ance, which, when known, are thought
nothing of, And befides thefe, there. arc
mechanical and optical deceptions. There
is now an exhibition in Paris of ghorb or
fpeclres^ which, though it is not impofed
upon the fpectators as a fact, has an alio-
milling appearance. As therefore we know
M 3 not

( '38 )

not the extent to which either nature or
art can go, there is no poiitive criterion to
determine what a miracle is; and man-
kind, in giving credit to appearances, un-
der the idea of their being miracles, are
fubjecl to be continually impofed upon.

Since then appearances are fo capable of
deceiving, and things not real have a ftrong
refemblance to things that are, nothing can
be more inconfiftent than to fuppofe that
the Almighty would make ufe of means,
Tuch as are called miracles, that would fub-
ject the perfon who performed them to the
fufpicion of being an impoftor, and the
perfons who related them to be fufpected
of lying, and the doctrine intended to be
fupported thereby, to be fufpected as a fa-
bulous invention.

Of all the modes of evidence that ever
were invented to obtain belief to any fyf-
t em or opinion, to which the name of re-
ligion

( 139 )

ligion has been given, that- of 'miracle,
however fuccefsful the impoiitkm may
have been, is the moft inconfiftent. For,
in the firft place, whenever recourfe is had
to fhow, for the purpofe of procuring that
belief, (for a- miracle, under any idea of
the word, is a. fhow) 'it! implies a lame-
nefs or weaknefs in the doctrine that is
preached. And, in the feeond place, it is
degrading the Almighty into the character
of a fhow-man, playing tricks to amufe
and make the people ftare and wonder. It
is alfo the moft equivocal fort of evidence
that can be fet up; for the belief is not to,
depend upon the thing called a miracle,
but upon the credit of the reporter, who
fays that he faw- it •, and therefore the
thing, were it true, would have no better
chance of being believed than if it were a
lie.

Suppofe

( *40 )

Suppofe I were to fay, that when I fat
down to write this book, a hand prefented
itfelf in the air, took up the pen, and wrote
every word that is herein written; would
any body believe me ? certainly they would
not. Would they believe me a whit the
more if the thing had been a fact ? certainly
fhey would not. Since then, a real mi-
racle, were it to happen, would be fub-
jecl: to the fame fate as the falfhood, the
inconfiftency becomes the greater, of fup-
poiing the Almighty would make ufe of
means that would not anlwer the purpofe
for w7hich they were intended, even if it
were real.

If we were to fuppofe a miracle to ber
ibmething fo entirely out of the courfe of
what is called nature, that me muffc go
out of that courfe to accomplifh it ; and
we fee an account given of fueh miracle
by the perfon who faid he faw it, it raifes

a queflion

( m )

a queftion in the mind very eafily decided 5
which is, Is it. more probable that nature
mould go out of her courfe, or that a man
mould tell a lie ? We have never {qqb, in
our time, nature go out of her courfe, but
we have good reafon to believe that mil-
lions of lies have been told in the fame
time; it is therefore at leaft millions to
one, that the reporter of a miracle tells a
lie.

The ftory of the whale fwallowing
Jonah, though a whale is large enough
to do it, borders greatly on the marvel-
lous ; but it would have approached near-
er to the idea of a miracle, if Jonah had
fwallowed the whale. In this cafe, which
may ferve for all cafes of miracles, the
matter would decide itfelf as before dated,
namely, Is it jsore probable that a man
mould have fwallowed a whale, or told a
lie?

But

( 142 )

But fuppofing that Jonah had really
fallowed the whale, and gone with it in
his belly to Nineveh, and to convince the
people that it was true, have can: it up in
their fight of the full length and iize of a
whale, would they not have believed him
to have been the devil inftead of a pro-
phet ? or, it the whale had carried Jonah
to Nineveh, and caft him up in the fame
public manner, would they not have be-
lieved the whale to have bQQn the devil3
and Jonah one of his imps ?

The- maft extraordinary of all the things
called miracles, related in the New Tef-
tament, is that of the devil flying away
with Jefus Chrift, and carrying him to the
top of a high mountain •, and to the top of
the higher!: pinnacle of the temple, and mow-
ing him, and promifing^to him all the
kingdoms of the world. How happened
It that he did not difcover America ? or is

it

( 143 )

it only with kingdoms that his footy high-
nefs has any in-tereft?

I have too much refped for the moral
character of Chrift, to believe that he told
this whale of a miracle himfelf ; neither is
it eafy to account for what purpofe it could
have been fabricated, unlefs it were to im-
pofe upon the connoiffeurs of miracles, as
is fometimes praclifed upon the connoif-
feurs of Queen Anne's farthings, and col .
lectors of relics and antiquities; or to ren-
der the belief of miracles ridiculous, by
outdoing miracle, as Don Quixote outdid
chivalry-, or to ernbarrafs the belief of
miracles by making it doubtful by what
power, whether of God, or of the devil,
any thing called a miracle was performed.
It requires, however, a great deal of faith
in the devil to believe this miracle.

In every point of view, in which thofe
things called miracles can be placed and

con-

( *44 )

eonfidered, the reality of them is impro-
bable, and their exigence unnecefTary.
They would not, as before obferved, an-
fwer any ufeful purpofe, even if they were
true; for it is more difficult to obtain belief
to a miracle, than to a principle evidently
moral, without any miracle. Moral prin-
ciple fpeaks univerfally for itfelf. Mi-
racle could be but a thing of the moment,
and (QQn but by a few ■-, after .this, it re-
quires a transfer of faith, from God to
man, to believe a miracle upon man's re-
port. Inftead therefore of admitting the
recitals of miracles, as evidence of any
fyrtem of religion being true, they ought
to be confidered as fymptoms of its being
fabulous. It is neceiTary to the full and
upright character of truth, that it rejects
the crutch-, and it is confident with the
character of fable, to feek the aid that truth

rejects.

( H5 )

rejects. Thus much formyftery and mi-
racle.

As myftery and miracle took charge of
the paffc and the prefent, prophecy took
charge of the future, and rounded the
tenfes of faith. It was not fufHcient to
know what had been done, but what would
be done. The fuppofed prophet was tht
fuppofed hiftorian of times to come; and
if he happened, in mooting with a long
bow of a thoufand years, to ftrike within
a thoufand miles of a mark, the ingenuity
of pofterity could make it point blank;
and if he happened to be directly wrong,
it was only to fuppofe, as in the cafe of
Jonah and Nineveh, that God had repent-
ed himfelf, and changed his mind. What
a fool do fabulous fyilems of religion make
of man !

N IT

( i4« )

IT has been fhewn in a former part of
this work, that the original meaning of
the words prophet and prophefying has
been changed, 'and that a prophet, in the
fenfe the word is now ufed, is a creature
of modern invention ; -and it is owing to
this change in the meaning of the words,
that the flights and metaphors of the Jew-
ish poets, and phrafes and exprefiions now
rendered obfcure by our not being aquaint-
ed with the local - circumftances to which
they applied at the time they were ufed,
have been erected into prophefies, and
made 'to "bend' to explanations at the will
and whimfical conceits of feclaries, ex-
pounders, and commentators. Every thing
unintelligible was prophetical, and every
thing iniigniiicant was typical A blunder
would have ferved for a prophecy j and -a
dim-clout for a type.

if

( i4-7 ;)

f f by a prophet we are to fuppofe a man
to whom the Almighty communicated
fbme event that would take place in fu-
ture, : either there were fuch men, or there
were not. If there were, it is confiftent
to believe that the event, fo communicat-
ed, would be told in terms that could be
linderftood, and not related in fuch a loofe
and obfcure manner as to be out of the
comprehension of thofe that heard it, and
fo equivocal as to fit almofl any circum-
ftance that might happen afterwards. It
is conceiving very irreverently of the Al-
mighty to fuppofe he would deal in this
jetting manner with mankind : yet all the
things called prophecies, in the book called
the Bible, come under this defcription.

But it is with prophecy, as it is with mi-
racle. It could not anfwer the purpofe even
if it were real. Thofe to whom a prophe-
cy mould be told, could not tell whether
N 2 the

( U8 )

the man prophe/ied or lied, or whether it
had been revealed to him, or whether he
conceited it : and if the thing that he pro-
phesied, or pretended to prophecy, mould
happen, or fomething like it among the
multitude of things that are daily happen-
ing, nobody could again know whether
he foreknew it, or guefled at it, or whe-
ther it was accidental. A prophet, there-
fore, is a character ufelefs and unnecefiary \
and tliQ^ft fide of the cafe is, to guard
againfc being impofed upon by not giving
credit to fuch relations.

Upon the whole, myftery, miracle, and
prophecy, are appendages that belong to
fabulous, and not to true religion. They
are the means by which fo many Lo heres !
and Lo theres ! have been fpread about the
v/orld, and religion been made into a trade.
The fuccefs of one impoftor gave encou-
ragement to another, and the quieting fal-

vo

( m )

vo'of doing fome good by keeping up a
pious frauds protected them from remorfe.
Having now extended the fubject to a
greater length than I firft intended, I mall
bring it to a clofe by abftra&ing a fummary
from the whole.

Firft, . That the idea or belief of a word
of God exifting in print, or in writing, or
in fpeech, is inconfiftent in itfelf for the
reafons already aiTigned. Thefe reafons,
among many others, are the want of an
imiverfal language -, the mutability of lan-
guage ; the errors to which tranflations are
fubjedt; the porlibility of totally fuppref-
img fuch a word; the probability of al-
tering it, or of fabricating the whole, and
irnpofing it upon the world.

Secondly, That the creation we behold,
is the real, and ever- exifting word of Godb
in which we cannot be deceived. It pro-
claimed! his power, it demonil rates his
N-3 wifdom,.

( ISO )

wifdom, it manifefts his goodness and be-
neficence.

Thirdly, That the moral duty of man
confifts in. imitating the moral goodnefs and
beneficence of God manifefted in the cre-
ation towards all his creatures. That fee-
ing, as we daily do, the goodnefs of God
to all men, it is an example, calling upon
all men to practife the fame towards each
other; and confequently that every thing
of perfecution and revenge between man
and man, and every thing of cruelty to
animals, is a violation of moral duty.

I trouble not myfelf about the manner
of future exigence. I content myfelf with
believing, even to pofitive conviction, that
the power that gave me exiftence is able
to continue it, in any form and manner he
pleafes, either with or without this body \
and it appears more probable to me, that I
{hall continue to exifl: hereafter, than that

I mould

( *5* )

I mould have had exigence, as I now have*,.
before that exiftence began,

It is certain that, in one point, all na-
tions of the earth and all religions agree.
All believe in a God. The things in
which they difagree, are the redundancies
annexed to that belief; and therefore, if
ever an univerfal religion fliould prevail,
it will not be believing any thing new, but
in getting rid of redundancies, and believ-
ing as men believed at firfb Adam, if
ever there were fuch a man, was created a
Deift; but in the mean time let every man-
follow, as he has a right to do3 the reli-
gion and the worfliip-he prefers,

END OF THE AGE OF REASON, CptJ

EPITOME

OF

LEQUINIO's
PREJUDICES DESTROYED,

The Publifher of the American Edition of Mr.

Paine's ' Age of Reafon' having juft received
an abftract of a book lately printed in Pa-
ris, entitled Prejudices DefryeJ, by J, M. Le-
quinio, Member of the National Convention of
France, and Citizen of the Globe, which isfuppofed
to have been very inftrumental in producing
that fcepticifm fo prevalent at this time in
France, he prefumes the following Epitome of
this curious performance will be acceptable.

PREJUDICES DESTROYED,

Mi

R. Lequinio has always, diftinguifned
himfelf by a fervid attachment to the caufe
of liberty. He was a patriot previous to
the revolution of 1789, and a republican
before the 10th of Auguft, 1792, when
France ceafed to be governed by a king.
But he has .rendered himfelf no lefs re-
markable by his fcepticifm^ than by his ha-
tred

( 156 )

ftred of tyranny; for he is one of the phi-
lofophers to whom Dr. Prieftley exprefsly
addrefies his late publication.*

Mr. L. dedicates this extraordinary
work not to any particular nation, but to
the whole univerfe: a future race may
blefs him for affkiling the prejudices of the
prefent ; yet he aims not to procure their
applaufe, but to afcertain their happinefs
and their liberty. After inviting the prieft-
hood, ' who among all nations are proud,
hypocritical, avaricious, and the fupporters
of that defpotifm which receives new
, ftrength .from their efforts,'-)- to read this

production,

* " Letters to the Philofophers of France, on
the fiibjeft of religion."

•f To moil of the readers of this work it would
be unnecefTary to obferve, that thefe reflections on
the clergy can be applicable only in thofe countries
where there are religious eftablifhments fanCtion-
ed by law. In the United States there is happily
no alliance of church and ftate.

American PubUJJier.

( *57 ;

production, as it would afford them food
for new calumny, and for frefh anathemas,
he concludes by exclaiming, c Men, dare
to think ! nations, arife ! tyrants, dis-
appear !

Of Prejudices. Prejudices are defined
to be c general errors, to which men in-
cline without reflection, becaufe they ima-
gine them to be truths.5 Among thefe are
reckoned a belief in aftrology, a fcience
which reigned unrivalled for whole ages ;
In ghofts, which fome ftupid people frill
confide in, &c. c Prejudices arife out of
ignorance and the want of reflection -, thefe
are the bafis on which the fyftem of def-
potifm is erected, and it is the mafter-
piece of art in a tyrant, to perpetuate the
Cupidity of a nation, in order to perpetu-
ate its flavery and his own dominion. If
the multitude knew how to think, would
they be dupes to phantoms, ghofts, hob-
O goblins,

goblins, fpirits, &c. as they have been at
all times, and in all nations ? What is no-
bility, for example, to a man who thinks ?
What are all thofe abftracT: beings, children
of an exalted imagination, which have no
exiftence but in vulgar credulity, and who
ceafe to have being as foon as we ceafe to
believe in them ?

' Mohammed, who was arrogant enough
to command carnage in the name of hea-
ven, has made ignorance an exprefs article
of religion, and the greater!: difficulty,
which virtuous men, who may wijh to
reftore the Mohammedans to liberty > have
to encounter, will be to make them violate
that principle which prohibits inltruclion.
The PrufTian foldiers, thofe military ma-
chines, who are fo powerfully fubfervient
to the defpotifm of Frederick, have no com-
munication whatever with the citizens;
this circumftance engenders a fhameful

prejudice,

( H9 )

prejudice, which renders them at one and
the fame time, the (laves of the defpot,
and defpots thernfelves.' The greater!:,
the moft abfurd, and the mod foolim of
all prejudices, is here dated to he that very
prejudice which induces men to believe
that they are neceflary for their happinefs5
and for the very exigence of fociety. The
author is determined to hunt down errors
of every kind, and he advifes thofe who
have not courage to hear him, ' to plunge
into the miry ocean of ancient abfurdities,
and from^able to fable afcend to the reve-
lations of Mofes and Mohammed, to the
thirty incarnations of the god Wifnou, to
the creation of matter extracted cut of
nothing, to the reiurreclion of the body,
and to all the monftrous abfurdities, which
until this day have degraded man, by
{mothering his intellectual power, and fet-
tering his reafon,5

O 2 Of

( i6o )

Of Truth, A fage has obferyed, that
truth lies concealed at the bottom of a
well, and to this idea our author thinks
every one will accede, who reflects how
much it is ft ill covered with dirt, by what
a deluge of error it is overwhelmed, by
how many prejudices it is walled in, and
how very unlike it is to itfelf. Its moil
ardent admirers have hitherto veiled it
from the eyes of the multitude ; Jefus has
had recourfe to parables, Efop and Fon-
taine to fables, Voltaire to tales, and Rouf-
feau to romances. c Come then, fublime
truth ! haften thy fteps, for thou art dt(-
tined to produce the falvation of mankind,
and to crive the mortal blow to fanaticifm
and to tyranny ! Iftue from my mouth
with all the force of Simplicity; appear
without any ornaments, the better to be
perceived in thy flight, and viiit the whole
univerfe, deftroy fuperftition $ overturn

its

( i6i )

its idols •, break the rod of the oppreffor %
chafe away defpotifin *, annihilate flavery %
and gladden the hearts of nations!5

Of Glory. A paffion for glory is ftated
to have been the deffcruction of all the vir-
tues, -the germ of all the vices, and, dur-
ing every age, the fcourge of human na-
ture. ' Anathema to all thofe who feek
any other glory than the pleafure of doing
good, and any other applaufe than the
teftimony of their own confcience !-

Of Honour. Cuftom makes that an ho-
nour in one country which is deemed a
difgrace in another. A Laplander will
offer his wife or his daughter to a ftranger,
and consider it as a point of poiitenefs \ a
Parifian is indifferent about the virtue of
his frail moiety; a citizen born in the pro-
vinces is miferable at the idea of her ceafing
to be chaile. In the capital of England,
a Lord ends a quarrel with his fijis ; in
O 2 the

( ^2 )

the capital of France, a point of honour
obliges one man to run another through
the body. It was always deemed to be
a difgrace to be hanged, but there was no
difhonour in having the head cut off! To
become a mother without the intervention
of marriage is rtill held in horror in a
thoufand places ; in others it is confidered
as an honour. To fleep with a ilave in
America is very common, but to eat with
her would be a reproach ! Before the re-
volution, to be the fervant cf a iimple ci-
tizen,, was looked upon as a very humili-
ating iituation ^ but to be the valet or lacquey
of a prince, was an honour which was
purchafed with large fums of money, and
with a life of mifery and difcontent. In
fhort, the point of honour is not only, dif-
ferent in different countries, but it is al-
ways varying, always changing with cir-
cumftances, and is hardly worth the atten-
tion.

( *6-3 )

tion of a man, who can be a good father*
a good hufband, and a good citizen, with-
out wilhing to obtain any reward for his
virtues.

Of Eloquence. c What is eloquence? the -
art of deceiving men, by making them
fond of error ready made ; an art by
which the factious may obtain fuccefs-5
and a certain fcourge to liberty. The pa-
triotic focieties form the beft and moft pro-
per innutritions for creating and- propagat-
ing public fpirit, for fhedding light upon
a nation, and annihilating the reign of ty-
ranny ; but they, and even the National,
ArTenibly itfelf, are fubjecled by a parti-
cular kind of defpotifm, that of the ora^
tors, and thence may remit great and in-r
numerable evils. What fignifies it to me*
whether the defpot, who fubjugates me,
be king, prieit, or demagogue I I will
not fubmit to any of them. The attach-
ment

( 1 6+ )

ment of the audience fornetimes approaches
towards idolatry ; the liberty of opinion is
invoked m vain •, and, if you do not offer
up incenfe to the. idol of the day, you are
termed a bad citizen, an ariftocrat, a vil-
lain!' Mr. L. gives a receipt, by follow-
ing which any public fpeaker may obtain
applaufe. c Begin,' fays he, c by flatter-
ing your hearers; fay every thing that
may tend to pleafe •, make ufe of all your
art on purpofe to deceive them'; let your
difcourfe abound with a vait multitude of
words, in order to prevent them from
forming any juft idea of things ; your vo-
l'ubity mufc be fuch, that one idea fhall-
drive away that which preceded it, and
that your audience may be rendered inca-
pable of either judgment or reflection; call
out pompous pbrafes, fonorous words,
regular periods, and conclude by fome fen-
timent calculated to affect the heart and

to

( *<*5 )

to overwhelm the reafon. You will have
no fooner ended, than the repeated Itravos,
the clapping of hands, the movement of
the feet, and plaudits of every poffible kind,
will enfure you a complete triumph, and
woe to him who dares utter a fingle word
agarnft you !' Such, we are told, will ever
be the effect of eloquence in a numerous
affembly j it is never ferviceable but in
books, for it may be ufed there without
any great danger, becaufe the reader can
paufe and take time for reflection. It is
neceflary that enflaved nations fhould be
led by quack orators, and by defpots who
deceive, and who fubjugate them : but a
free people want only a philofopher, who
will point out the road to truth, and allow-
them to purfue it.

Of Miracles. As to c the pretended mi-
racles' which have been worked by the au-
thors of all religions, he accounts for them

in

( i66 )

in the blindnefs of the multitude, and the
arts of their leaders, whom he reprefents
as the Mefmers and Caglioftros of former
ages. Mr. L. pays many compliments to
the genius of John Guttemberg, a native
of St^afbpurg, and a citizen of Mentz,
who invented the art of printing, and thus
enabled philofophy to difFufe truth and de-
tect error.

Of Kings. We are here told, that kings
have, ever been tyrants, more or lefs des-
potic, more or lefs cruel, more or lefs un-
jufl, but equally fmitten with a love of
power, intoxicated by the fpirit of domi-
nation, forgetful that they were men,
anxious to place themfelves on a level with
gods, and averfe to recollect that all their
power and authority was derived from the
very nations whom they opprefied.

c It may eamy be perceived, that by the
word tyrant $ I do not mean folely thofe

monilers

( 167 3
jiionfters of the human race, fuch as .Nero,
Caligula, Charles IX. &c. my definition
-extends to almoft all kings, pail and pre-
lentj I do not even except that king of
France fo often vaunted as the $ good
Henry;3* although lefs cruel than moftof
his predeceffors, he was afTuredly no lefs
defpotic, and thought no lefs than they,
that all France was deftined for his pleafure
and his glory ; if an innovator during his
reign had dared to have recalled the me-
mory of their unalienable rights to the
minds of the people, he would have been
crufhed under the weight of the royal
authority, -j-

* What

* Henry IV.

f ' Let any one recoiled the game laws enacted
by this monarch, and then afk himfelf if he were
really a good king. By an article of his ordonance
on this fubjecl, it was decreed, that every peafant,
found with a gun in his hand, near a thicket,
mould be flripped naked, and beaten with rods
around it until the blood came. It was thus that

( i68 )

c What mould a king be, if he were as
he ought ? A man covered with a paper
jacket, on which is written, (De par la
nation & la lot) " By order of the people
and the law ;" the herald of the nation, the
proclaimer of its orders, and nothing more.
It is ridiculous enough to fee royalty
propagated from father to fon, like the
king's evil ; it is ftill more ridiculous to fee
nations fo deceived by being accuftomed
to flavery, as to become the fervile idola-
ters of that power by which they are op-
prefTed, without once recollecting that it
is their own.5

Of

the life of man was facri'ficed to the repoiie and the
exigence of hares and partridges, deftined for the
pleafures of a prince, more culpable, perhaps, in
refped to this barbarous Iazv, than .any of his pre-
deceiTors, becaufe, educated among the indigent
and unfortunate, he ought never to have permitted
any other fentiments than thofe of gentlenefs and
humanity to penetrate into his mind.'

( i69 )

Of' Equality. It is but juflice to the
French nation, to obferve here, that, while
the malice of their enemies has accufed
them with a want to equalize property, an
^qual partition of rights has been alone in-
culcated by their philofophers and politici-
ans ; this principle, with a few exceptions,
has been adopted in our own conftittition.

Of Dome/lies. This chapter recommends
the practice of humanity and beneficence
towards fervants : the former imlils the
love of morals.

Of the labouring Clafs. We are here told,
that ignorance leads tombjection and mi -
fery; education to happinefs and liberty.

Of Women. Our author laments, that
throughout all Alia, Africa, and mod parts
of Europe, it is {till the cuftorn to fhut up
the fair fex, and make them prifoners from
their earlieft youth. He adviies them to
renounce their parlion for trinkets and
P baubles,

( iyo )

iaubles, which leads to their fubjection i
to abandon their errors and their preju-
dices; to conquer their love of dominion \
to renounce a life of frivolity; to deteft
vanity; -and to figh no longer after ob-
jects, the attainment of which can confer
no real pleafure. He conjures them to
free themfelves from the yoke of religious
prejudices, and above all things to learn
to think and to make ufe of their reafon, as
fuperftition and weaknefs alone can enfure
the dominion of the other fex over them.

Of Baftards. By the ancient laws of
France, a woman's fortune palled away,
from her illegitimate fan, -and went to the
collateral branches of her family ; this is
affirmed to -have been a great hardfhip.
The injuftice of that fcorn, with which
children begotten out of the pale of mar-
riage are treated, is here very forcibly in-
culcated.

Of

( m Y

Of Slaves. Mr. L. like all other liberal
and enlightened men, uninterefted, and
un warped by the traffic of -human flefh,
loudly declaims againft the favage, barba*
rous and inhuman cuftom of flavery.

Of Mourning. The author cannot dlf-
cern the connexion between grief and the
colour of a coat or gown.-

The Punifhment of Death, and Suicide.
The idea of legitimating a crime, by en-
acting a law in favour of homicide, is here
held in defer ved abhorrence. The prin-
cipal end of fociety is the prefervation of
the co-afTociates, and the defence of their
lives againft all who may wifh to attack
or to abridge them ; the intemperance of
the feafons, the voracity of animals, the
perfecution of one man againft his fellow-
man; in fhort, mankind have united againft
every thing that may endanger exiftence,
and it is an evident confequence of this
P 2 principle.

( *Jf* )

principle, that a nation cannot take away
the life of an individual. Mr. L. thinks
it would be far more conducive to mora-
lity, to public education, and to the edifi-
cation of poflerity, that culprits fhould fur-
vive their crimes •, and he would rather fee
Louis XVI. chained as a galley flaye, and
tugging at an oar, and his wife working
during twenty or thirty years at the Salpe-
triere^ than behold their heads (truck off
•at the CarroufeL In fhort, he wiihes for
the fuppreiTion of capital punifhments, and
this circumftance, inftead of conferring im-
punity upon crimes, would, according to
him, produce infinitely more terror, as the
offender would be fubje&ed to a lefs bar-
barous, but an infinitely more long and
fevere puniftiment.*

All

* The American Fubiifher thinks the import-
ance of the fubjeft a fufficient apology for infer*-
ing this note,

( *73 )

All the laws againfl filicide are ftated to

be abiblutely ridiculous, ineffectual, and

P 3 unjuftj

"'There is a manifeft difference between punlfli-
ment and correction; the latter, among rational
beings, may alwaysbe^ performed by inftruction;
or at moft by fome gentle fpecies of reftraint. But
punimment, on the part of the public, arifes from
nG other fource but a jealoufy of power. It is a
confeflion of the inability of fociety, to protect it-
felf againfl an ignorant or refractory member.
When there are factions in a ftate, contending for
the fupreme command, the pains inflicted by each
party are fummary ; they often precede the crime;
and the factions wreak then** -vengeance on each
other, as a prevention of expected injuries. Some-
thing very fimilar to this is what perpetually takes
place in every nation,, in what is called a flate of
tranquillity and, order:, for government has usu-
ally been nothing -more than a regulated faction.
The party- which governs, and the party which
reluctantly: fubmits to be governed, maintain a
continual conflict p and out of that conflict pro-
ceed-the crimes and the, punimments, or, more
properly fpeaking, the punimments and the crimes.
When we fee. the power of the nation feizing an
individual, dragging him to=a tribunal, pronounc-
ing him worthy cf death, and then going through
the folenin formalities of execution, it is natural to

( i?4 )

unjuft; the only way to prevent a man
from taking away his life is, to declare

that

afk, what is the meaning of all this? It certainly
means, that the nation is in a flate of civil war;
and even in that barbarous ftage of war, when it
is thought necefTary to put all prifoners to death.
In deciding the queftion, whether a particular cri-
minal mould be put to death, I never would aik
.what is the nature of his offence: it has nothing to
do with the queilion; I would limply inquire,
what is the condition of the fociety. If it be in a
fbte of internal peace, I would fay it was wicked,
and abfurd to think of inflicting fuch pimifli-
ment. To plead that there is a neceffity for that
defperate remedy, proves a want of energy in the
government, or of wifdom in the nation.

" When. men are in a ftate cf war, with the
enemy's bayonets pointed at their breafls, or when
they are in the heat of a revolution, encompalTed
1 by treafon, and tormented by corruption, there is
an apology for human daughter ; but when yon
have efrabiifhed a wife and manly government,
founded on the moral; -fenfe, and invigorated by
the enlightened reafon of the people, let it not be
fullied by that timid vengeance, which belongs
only to tyrants and ufurpers. I could wifli that
your conftitution might declare, notmerely what
it has already declared, that the penal co^e mall be

( 175 )

that he has a right to do itr if hefhoi?Idbe
{b difpofed.

Of Oaths. Mankind muft have been
well convinced, that they were naturally
difhoneft, when they invented oaths as the
teft of truth: thefe do not bind rogues,
and good men have no manner of occafiom
for them.

Of Intolerance. While there are reli-
gions, we are told there will be fanaticifm9
miracles, civil wars, knaves, and dupes.
There are penitents, fanatics, and hypo-
crites,, in China and in Turkey, as well as

in

reformed, but that, within a certain period after
the return of peace, the punijfiment of death JJiall be
aboliflted. It ought likewife to enjoin it on the le-
gislative body, to foften the rigour of punifhments
in general, until they fhall amount to little more
than a tender paternal correction. Whoever wilt
look into the human heart, and examine the order
©f nature in fociety, .muft be convinced, that this
is the mod likely method of preventing the com-
million of crimes."

Barlow's Letter to the Convention, p. £_$.

( 176 )

in France ; but there is not any religion,
perhaps, in which there exifts fuch a fpirit
of intolerance, as in that profefTed by the
chriftian priefls, the author of which
preached up. toleration. by his example, as
well as by his precepts.

Of JVar. Who is that perverfe, and
ever execrable man, who firft invented the
murderous art -of - war, and -that famous
fcience of tactics, which confifts in the ben:
means of maffacreing .whole nations ? One
creature may atfaflinate another in a mo-
ment of paiTion, and, however barbarous
this act really is, and however much it may
be repugnant to the fenfibility of a good
man, yet he can conceive it: but for two
men, in cool blood, to think" of afTaflmating
one another, or thoufands of men of af-
fafllnating other thoufands, with whom
they are utterly unconnected, and can have

no

C m )

no quarrel or even difference with \ of this-
he can form no idea.

O fhame to the human fpecies ! Na-
tions, blind, and afleep, will you never
awake? What!, mall not an individual
whom you have placed upon the throne,
and whom- you have overwhelmed with
your bounties, be fatisfied with confuming
the fruit of your fweat and of your toils,
in the bofom of indolence and voluptuouf-
nefs, and with laying your induftry and
your fortune under contribution ! And
fliall he wifh to difpofe of your very ex-
igence ? mini: you be the inftruments of
his anger and his vengeance, of his ambi-
tion and his mad defires I

He wifhes to conquer a province, that
is to fay, to ufurp the dominion over a
country, and pillage the inhabitants; and
It is to affift this audacious robbery, of
which you will enjoy no lucrative portion,

that

( i7«- )

that :you. are about to defolate the territo*
ries of a people who never offended you,
to burn their villages, and to fpread.
death and defolation over their fields;
while in this attempt you expofeyourfelves
to exceffive fatigues, . to continual priva^
tions, and even to death itleif ; or, what
is frill worfe, to wounds, which but pro-
long a miferable exigence \

Of Hiftory. It is allowed to be highly
probable, that- an Alexander and a Caefar,
thofe two great plunderers of the earth,
and perfecutors -of nations, have really ex-
ited ; it would indeed be unreafonable to
doubt it; but when it is confidered in how-
many different manners the tranfaclions of
the prefent day -are reprefented, it is with
fome degree of hesitation that a wife man
will give credit to the narratives faid to be
written twenty or thirty centuries ago, and
long previous to the art of printing,

Of

( m )

<0f the Creation and -Antiquity -of-ihv
\ World. Whoever is impelled by the defire
of believing, and yet neverthelefs knows
how to reflect, will be induced to think
the creation of the world, as laid down,
and its novelty, as maintained in our holy
hooks i exceedingly ftrange ; for, letting afide
the incbmprehenfiblenefs of ' "the work of
feven days,' it will appear amazing, how-
nations, in the fhort fpace of fix thoufand
years, could have been fo polifhed and in-
telligent £n refpectrto the arts and feien-
oes, as y/e fee them at this very day, when
we mirfelves behold fo little progrefs dur-
ing a whole age .

Of Politics and -Intrigue. 'The one of
thefe is ufually denominated the fcience of
government-, the other, the mode of ac-
quiring fortune and credit; but they -are
both termed here the arts of deceiving.

Of Jefus Qhrift. He always difplayed

virtue -9

( i8o .);

virtue ; he always fpoke according to the
dictates of reafon ; he always preached up
-wifdom; he flncerely loved all men, and
wifhed to do good, even to his execution-
ers; he developed all the principles of
moral equality, and of the pureft patriot-
ifm ; he met danger undifmayed^ he mowed
himfelf averfe to the great, who in all* ages
have made a bad ufe of their power; he
defcribed the hard-heartednefs of the rich ;
he attacked the pride of -kings ; he dared
to refift, even in the face of tyrants; he
defpifed glory and fortune; he was faber;
he folaced the indigent ; he taught the un-
fortunate how to fuffer ; he fuflained weak-
nefs ; he fortified decay ; he confoled mif-
fortune, and knew how to med tears with
them that wept; he taught men to fubjugate
their parTions, to think, to reflect, to love
one another, and to live happily together ;
he was hated by the powerful men whom

he

( i8i )

he offended, and persecuted by the wicked
whom he unmafked : he died under the
indignation of that blind and deceived mul-
titude, for whom he had always lived.'
Such is the amiable character of Jems
Chrift, as drawn by the pen of a man
who feems to inculcate virtue, although
fte differs with the chriftian world in re-
fpecl to certain opinions, which he does
not imagine to be effential to happinefs.

Of the Grave. We highly approve of
what the author fays relative to the pom-
pous tombs and lying infcriptbns erected
to the memory of the dead : thefe maufo-
ieums' are fo many tributes to the pride and
the vanity of the living.

Of Impiety. I am an impious man,
my dear reader j and I tell the truth to
every man, which is perhaps fti.ll worfe.
Four years are fcarcely elapfed, iince the
follies of the Sorbonne, and the furies of
Q^ defpotifm,

( i32 )

ilefpotifm, might have railed a ftorm,
•which would have burft upon my head -,
they would have fmitten me, like a de-
ftruclive monfter, an afTaflin of the human
race, a perturbator, a traitor ! Each of
thefe coloftal phantoms has difappeared
before the eye of reafon, and the auguft
image of liberty, however, an infinite
number of prejudices, perfonal intereft,
and hypocricy, all of them no lefs the
tyrants, .and the enemies of knowledge,
ftill dwell among us.

There ftill remains at the bottom of
thy heart, at the bottom of thy own -heart,
-the prejudices of thy infancy, -the lerTons
of thy riiirfe, and the opinions of thy flrft
inftruclors, which are -the effects of that
renunciation of thought which thou haft
pradtifed all the days of thy life, from the
cradle upwards ! In addition to*. this, it is
the intereft of every one to keep thee in

total

c m )

total blindnefs. The rich and powerful
man dreads left- thou fhouldft open thy
eyes, and perceive that his ftrength and
grandeur proceed from thy ignorance and;
fiibmiflion. The vain man, with equality
in his mouth, but not in his heart, fears left
thou ihbuldft difcover the abfurdity of
his pretentions to fuperiority; the hypo-
crite, who terms himfelf the reprefentative
of the divinity, and the meiTcnger of hea-
ven, trembles left thou fhouldft begin to
reflect, for, from that moment his credit
and his authority are at an end. He eats
and drinks at his leifure ; he fleeps without
care ; he walks about in order to procure
an appetite ■; he enjoys the price of thy la-
bours in peace -, thou payeft for his plea-
fures, his fubfiftence, and even for his fieep.
But, wert thou to begin to reafon, thou
wouldft . foon perceive thy error; thou
wouldft touch the phantom, and it would
Q^2 inftantly

( i84 )

inftantly vaiqim , thou wouldrr. difcover that-
he is an ufelefs parafite, and that all his
authority repofes on thy foolifh credulity,
thy weaknefs, thy chimerical fears, and the
ridiculous hopes which he has taken care
to infpire thee with, ever fince thou
earner}, out of thy mother's womb. Per-
haps thy very wife is interested to. deceive
thee, on purpofe to conceal her diforders,
and to fanelify her connexions with the re-
prefentative of the divinity, who renoun-
ces the holy laws of nature, becaufe he
fpares himfelf, at one and the fame time,
the uneaflnefs' and the duties of paternity!
Thefe will excite thy paiiions, arm thy
heart, and call up thy hatred again ft my
leiTons and my doctrine ; for I am an im-
pious being, who neither believe in faints
nor in miracles •, I am an impious being,
who would drink wine in the midfl: of
Turks at Conftantinople, who would eat

pork

( i&5 )

pork with the Jews, and the flefh of a
tender lamb or a fat pullet among the Chris-
tians on a Friday, even within the palace
of a Pope, or beneath the roof of the Va-
tican, I am an impious man, for I firm-
ly believe that three are more than one \
that the whole is greater than one of its
parts ; that a body cannot exiit in a thou-
fand places at one and the fame moment,
and be entire in a.thoufand- detached -por-
tions- of itSelf; '

I am an impious man, for I' never be-
lieve on the -word of another whatever
contradicts my. own reafon •, and if a thou-
fand doctors of the law mould tell me, that
they had {qcii a -Sparrow- devour am ox in
a quarter of an hour, or take the carcafe la
its bill, and carry it to its ned in order to
feed its young, were they even to Swear by
theinSurplices, their iioles, or their Square
bonnets, they would -ft ill find me incredu-
lous! Q^3 I am

( 1 86 )

I am an impious man, for I do not believe-
that anointing the tips of the fingers with,
oil, wearing the ecclefiaflical tonfiire^ or
cutting the hair, that the being cloathed
in a black caifock, or a violet robe, and
carrying a mitre on the head, and a crofs in
the hand, can render an ignorant fellow (in-
capableof conducting that ploughwhich he-
has but juft quitted) able to work miracles.
In ihort, my brother, I mull; be an im-
pious man, fince my conduct has no other
regulator than my confcience -, fince I my-
felf have no other principle, than the de-
fire of public happinefs, and no other di-
vinity than virtue. Thou mufr, necefTarily
hate me, for it is a great crime to think and
to believe otherwife than thy felf !

But have I committed murder or car-
nage, theft, rapine, evil fpeaking, calum-
ny ? have I taught the art of deceiving
men ? have I infmuated a fpir.it of ven-
geance i

( i«7 )

geance ? have I preached up fornication or
adultery ? have I inculcated defpotifm oh
the part of the great, and flavery on that
of the humble?

No — on the contrary, I have pointed-
out the road to truth \ I have proved tc^
thee, that thy happinefs confifts in virtue ;
I have proved to thee, that thou hail hi-
therto been the dupe of thofe who fatten
upon thy fubftance, and bathe themfelves*
m thy fweat, and that all thy unhappinefs
arifes from thy credulity, thy habitual ha-
tred to refieclion, and thy purlllanimity..
Are thefe crimes I I am not guilty of any
other.

Whoever thou art, thy friendship is
precious to me-, whether thou be Chriftian*
Mohammedan, Jew, Indian, Perfian, Tar-
tar, or Chinefe, art thou not a man, and
am not I thy brother ? Believe in future^
in that fpecies of happinefs which may-
give

( i88 )

give thee delight; believe for the prefent,
in thofe myfteries which pleafe and enter-
tain thee; place thy god in the fun, or in
the moon, in light, or in darknefs ; make
him refide on the earth, or in the heavens i
place him in a water, or in the pulfe in
thy garden, or in the birds of thy court-
yard, what does it concern me ? O my
friend ! I place mine in virtue, and my
fupreme happinefs confifts in doing thee
good; I mall partake thy pleafures, and
thy pains, and when thy heart is fatisfled,
mine mall be at reft ! Tolerate, therefore,
an impious man, who has never laboured
but for the good of others, and who now
labours for thine, at the very moment when
thou wifheft to perfecute him*

The,

The following Catechifm> which feems now to be
the orthodox creed of the French,, is agreeable
to the fentiments contained in the preceding
work, and may with great propriety be annexed
to it. The moral duties it inculcates, thofe
which refpect the temporal circumftances of
France excepted, are well worthy the attention--
of all civilized nations.

TWENTY-FIVE PRECEPTS OF
REASON.

Do not do to me lohat thou ivouldj} not that I Jhuld do
unto thee.

7- /ILL nature announces to thee a creator;
itdore him. He is every where; every where he
will hear thee.

i. The wonders which furround thee are his
minifters: know no others; thefe will always fpeak
truth to thee.

3. To thy confcience only thou malt confefs thy
faults: me alone fpeaks frankly; me alone can
abfolve thee.

4. To miracles, to witch-craft, give no faith;
miftrufi the perndious carefles of all falfe priefls, of
the heretofore great \ the enemies of the republic :

if

( 19° }

if they ftill exift, thefe are the jugglers who deceive
thee, who lie, and wifh thy deftruction.

5. Obferve, in every particular, the law of thy
country, and thou wilt never err.

6. After thy creator, love thy country above all
things: (lie alone ought to fix thy thoughts and di--
reel: thy actions; thy life is her's.

7. After thy country, thou malt love and cherifh,
as thyfelf, thy father and thy mother : thou oweit
them refpe<£t and fubniifiion, if they are repub-
licans: before thyfelf, thou cweft them the necef-
faries of life, and comfort in their old age; honour
them, and heaven will blefs thee.

8. Liberty. This is the device of the good citi-
tizen; me is the recompeufe or the civic virtues.

9. Equality. This is thy inheritance.

10. Eternal hate, a war of death, to tyrants and
vile defpots.

11. To traitors, to perjurors, to the enemies of
the country, give no afylum, if tbou wouldlt. not
be guilty of their crimes,

12. When thy county is in lo not bafe-
ly conceal thyfelf: be the frrft to mow .en-
ly; in combating for her, thou ccmbateit

felf; here is thy duty.

13. Asa true Republican, watch the enemies of
liberty; unravel feditious plots, denounce conibi-
rators, coir: . - Cy feize -patricides^ and deliver
them to th* : u (rice of the k1-

14. Openly protect oppreiTed innocence^ lend

an-

( *9.i )

an ear neither to hatred, refentment, nor paffions ;
pardon eafily, if thou wouldft be pardoned; hold
fcandal in horror, and remember that a calumnia-
tor is the greater! of criminals.

15. Every Republican mortal is thy brother?
always extend to him the helping hand; with can-
dour explain to him his errors, carefully conceal
his failings; draw him from his evil path; and al-
ways fay to thyfelf, / am a man, noihong which in~
terejis humanity is foreign to me.

16. JFly envy, jealoufy, ambition and intrigue,
if thou wouldft. not commit bafenefs.

17. Be not wicked; love thy neighbour as thy-
felf; render him fervice, and be beneficent; do not
to another what thou would!! not that he mould do
unto thee ; and in the practice of thefe virtues thou
wilt find thy recompense.

18. Be referved in thy words; be reflected; de-
left a lie; love truth; fly from violence and anger;

let thy heart dictate thy oaths, if thou would efcape
evil confequences.

19. Be frank, difinterefied; avoid diffimulation,
and thy actions will be pure and without reproach.

20. Remember that ufury, mononpolizing and
felhthnefs are capital crimes.

21. Defpife riches, they are the portion of fools ;
content with thy lot, envy not that of another, nor
the fortune of thy neighbour; do not borrow if
thou canft. not return; what belongs to another is
not thine; deteft avarice, ufury and idlenefs, if
thou wouldir. not be defpifed and live in fhame.

22. Be

( i92 )

22. Be charitable; comfort fuffering humanity:
let the widow and orphan find in thee a defender:
protect women and children, and regard with vene-
ration every aged perfon.

23. Do thou, old man, teach and inftruet. the
youth; and thou matron, remain in thy family;
watch over thy children — they belong to the coun-
try.

24. Sans Culotte Republican, to all thy brethren
thou oweft a good example; what they advance
treat with kindnefs; cherifh conftantly thy wife,
thy children, and thy family; with mildnefs in-
fpire the facial and republican virtues; be a good
father, a good huiband, a good fon: thou wilt be
worthy of being free, and thy country will love thee.

25. Remember, laftly, that the Mountain, the
center of virtues, is the rallying point of each good
citizen; thou oweft it homage, veneration, and
fidelity; it alone has willed thy happinefs, alone has
eftablimed it; to the Mountain, and the brave de-
fenders of the country, thou art indebted for thy
libertv.

By J. GRASET St. SAUVEUR.
The Reprefentatives of the People, in their
fitting at Bourdeaux, order the impreffi-
on of thefe precepts.

PEYREND D. HERVAL,
Secretary of the Commifiion-

FINIS.

I is* 3

THE French have been reprefented by
their enemies as a nation of Atheiils,
as having abolifhed all religion, belie veing
neither in a God, nor a future existence, but
that death was an everlafting fleep. That
among 27,000,000 of people there fhould be
two or three fpecnlative philofbphers of this
opinion is not hard to conceive, but that a
whole nation fhould all fudden-ly become Athe-
ifis is unaccountable, and deferves not the leafl:
credit. This idea, which has been fo induftri-
oufly circulated, and which is one of the often-
fible reafons for the righteous king of England's
joining the holy crufade, arole from a hafty
expreflion of Mr. Dupont, a member of the
Convention, who in a frenzy of paffion, ex-
claimed " I am an Atheift" ! a great number of
members cry out "whatisthat to us, fo you are an
honeft man." It is true fome inconfiderate
people in the galleries, applauded this fpeech.

But hafty plaudits in a popular aflembly are
by no means the criterion of public opinion.
And in the prefent inftance mav probably with
more propriety be confidered a compliment
paid to the manner and independent fpirit of
the orator, than an acquiefcence of principle.

The following Decree will mow at lead; that
the Frence nation are not all Atheifb, and
will give fome idea of the mode of worfhip
which they are about to inftitute.

A

L *9.2 ]

FRANC E.

NATIONAL CONVENTION.
1 8th Floreal.— (8 Muy 1793.)

Robertspiere, m the name of the commit-
■tee of Public fafety, made a very lengthy re-
port on the inftiturion of National Feftivals •
at the concluiion of which, he propoied the
following decree, which was unanimoufly
adopted.

Art. 1. The French people acknowledge
the exigence of a Supreme Being, and the im-
mortality of the foul.

Art. 2. They acknowledge that a worfhip
Ivor thy the Supreme Being is to practife the
duties of men, and they clals among thefe du-
ties, the deteftation of treachery and tyranny — .
the punifhment of tyrants and traitors — the
Succouring of the unfortunate — refpect for the
weaknefs of men — the defending the opprefTed ;
the doing to others all the good we are capable
of, and injuring no one.

Art. 3. They will inftitute FefKvals to recal
men to the remembrance of the Divinity, and
to the dignity of their Being.

Art. 4. The names of the feftivals (hall be
taken from events the moft glorious in our re.
volution, from virtues the molt cherifhed and
the moft ufeful to man, and which have produ-
ced the greateft benefits to nature.

Art.

[ 193 ]

Art. 5. The French Republic will celebrate
every year, the Feftivals of the 14 July 1789*
iothof Auguit 1792,1 21ft January 1793,$
and 31ft of May t 793*§

Art. 6. They will celebrate on the days of
Decadi, the Feftivals which follow :

To the Supreme Being, and to Nature*
To the Human Race. To the Benefactors of
Mankind. To the Martyrs of Liberty. To
Liberty and Equality. To the Republic. To
the Liberty of the World. To the love of our
Country. To the hatred of Tyrants and trai-
tors. To Truth. To Juftice. To Charity-
To Glory and Immortality. To Friendfhip-
To Frugality. To Courage. To Fidelity-
To Hercifm. To Difmtereilednefs. ToSto-
icifm. To Conjugal Faith. To Paternal
Love. To Maternal Tendernefs. To Filial
Piety. To Infancy. To Youth. To Man-
hood. To Old Age. To Misfortune. To
Agriculture. To Indufhy. To our Fathers.
To Poilerity.

Art. 7. The Committees of Safety and In-
ilruction, are charged to prefent a plan for the
organization of theie feftivals.

Arc*

* Taking of the Baftile.
+ Execution of the Swifs- guards.
J Execution of Louis XVI.

\ Firft meetiug of the Nations! Convention, and De->
cree for the eternal abolition of Monarchy in France, j^

C 194 3

Art. 8. The National Convention invite
thofe who have talents worthy to ferve the
caufe of humanity, to the honor ot concurring
in this eftablifhment, by hymns and civic fongs,
and by all the means which fhall contribute te
its ^mbellifhment and utility.

I w 3

BOOKS,

Lately Publifhed,

And for fale by J. FELLOfTS ;

Joel Barlows Political IFritingSy

Containing,

I ft. Advice to the Privileged orders in the fe-
veral ftates of Europe, refulting from the
neceflity and propriety of a general revoluti-
on in the principles of government. In two
parts.

2d. A Letter to the National Convention of
France, on the defects of the Constitution,
and the extent of the amendments which
ought to be applied. To which is added,
the Confpiracy of Kings, a Poem.

The whole may be had bound together or in
feparate Pamphlets. Prices advice ift. pt.

3s. 2d pt. 2s. Letter and Poem 2s. the

whole boundtogether 8/6.

REMARKS.
Thefe publications make a confpicuoiif

figure among the moft celebrated perform-
A a ances

[ '0 ]

ances of the prefent or perhaps any other age*

They exhibit that generous glow of fenfibihty

towards the human race which rnuft warm and

invigorate the feelings of every reader who has

any pretenfions to a fufceptible heart. With

refpeet to the beauties of thefe works, they

ftrike the eye forcibly at every turn. Their

defects, ihould there be any, almoft elude difco-

very ; becaufe like the fpots on the fun, they

are overwhelmed by the effulgence with which

they are furrounded.

Viewed as philolbphic treatifes thefe works-
embrace thofe ideas which the moft perfect rea-
foil mult approve.. They elevate the mind
above thofe prejudices which are the effect of a
faife education ; and illuftrate an importantant
truth that the vices and miferies, which over
fpread the earth are not to be afcribed to the
inherent propenfities of human nature fo much
as to faults and defects in thofe artificial inftkuti-
ons, which have exifted under an unnatural
and perverfe date of fociety- Reftore man to
the proper deitiny of his nature, and it will an-
nihilate the fources from which have flowed
thofe crimes and misfortunes which hitherto
have been deemed infeperable from human be-
ings. Nature has been perverted in moft of
the fociettes that were ever formed. Whene-
ver we behold an individual or a nation corn-
committing

[ J97 3

mitting evil, andprefled by adverfity, we fhould
look for the caufe among the faults of education
or government. Thefe objects are fully illuf-
trated in the writings under contemplation.

In examining thefe works as pieces of fine
compofition, we find an energy and elegance
that cannot be furpaffed, nor too much admir-
ed. The {file, it miift be confefTed, is bold and
figurative • but the imagery is lo natural and
well chofen, that we are charmed in every in-
stance, where the expreffion rifes above fiai-
plicity. In fhort we here find the ardor of
eloquence united with the precifion of philofo-
phy. This forms a blend that makes the per-
formances at once fafcinating and inftructive.

Sketches of the Principles of Govern-
ment,
By Nathaniel Chipman. ~>

Judge of the Court of the United States, for
the diftrict of Vermont.

In which the author has, with great ingenu-
ity and deep difcernment, unfolded the genuine
principles of our free reprefentative- conftituti-
ons of government. Price 6s.

Rabaufs Hijlory of the French Revo-
lution-.

This

[ >9* 3

This work contains 3 46 i2mo. pages, is orna-
iiiented withjtwo elegant copper- plate prints, and
fold at One Dollar. A continuation of this hif-
tory is in the prefs, and will be out by the
middle of Auguit next. It will make a vol-
ume rather larger than the one now published,
and will alfo be ornamated with two prints, and
fold at a moderate price. This volume brings
the hiftory of this important revolution down
to the execution of the Geronde, or Briflotine
party, which took place the ift. Dec. 1793*
That part of the hiftory which relates particu-
larly to the conipiracy of the BrifTotine party,
including the intrigues of the Briti/h and other
European courts in attempting to effect a coun-
ter-revolution in France, the American publish-
ers have tranilated immediately from the French,
which they have juft received from Paris, and
is not in any Englifh edition. They are forry
to obferve that the author of the Rights of Man
is enrolled in the number of the accufed, they
tru(l he has been calumniated, and hope for a
fpeedy iiTue to his prefent fufferings.

The following Remarks on this hiftory have
appeared in the American Minerva.

Rabaut's Hiftory of the Revolution in France
lately published by Meifrs. Greenleaf and Fel-
lows of this city, recommends itfelf to the curi-
ous enquirer after truth, by its brevity, precilion

and

[ *99 I

and candid naration of facts. The firft volume
only is before the -American public ; but wg
arepromifed the fecond in a fhort time. The
firft volume opens with fome general account
of the civil fhte of France at the commence-
ment of the Revolution, and of the accumulati-
on of caufes which concurred to produce that
event. Among thefe the author enumerates
the fevere burthens of unequal taxes, the capri-
cious tyranny of the kings and miniflers of
France, the writings of Locke, Clarke, New-
ton, Leibnitz, Cordillac, Montefquieu, Voltaire,
Rouflfeau, and the Encyclopedia. Reruns over
the adminiflration of Maurepas, Turgor, Clug-
ny, Neckar, Joly de Fleury, d'Ormeifon, and
Calonne under whofc miniitry, the diftrefles of
the nation arifmg from demands on an exhauft-
ed treafury, had arrived to a moil ferious cri-
fis. Under his fucceflbr M. de Brienne, the
parliament of Paris demanding a convocation of
the itates general.

The author then proceeds to narrate the
principal events from the afTembling of the
iiates general to the kings acceptance of the
conftitution of 179 1. The hiitory appears to
be impartial, and, as the writer was a member
of the national aflembly, it has the faireft claim
to the character of authenticity. The ftile is
eafy, elegant and perfpicuous, and wholly free

frois

[ 200 ]

from thatfalfe brilliancy which throws a glare
over many of the late French publications.

The firft volume defcribes the proceedings of
the conftituent aflemWy, moft of whole mea-
sures were as remarkable for their wifdom and
unanimity as the firft legiilators of France were
for their talents. We wait with impatience to
fee the 2d volume, in which we may expect to
find a candid ftatement of the origin and caufes
of thofe factions which have diftracled t he con-
vention and excited a civil-war in the nation*

LETTERS, I

To the Philofophers and Politicians of
France,, on the fubje <ft of Religion.
Price is.

LcfTons for Children,

By the celebrated Mrs. Barbauld. This lia
tie book is particularly recommended to La-
dies' fchools, and families where children are
taught at home. The LelTons are particularly
calculated infenfibly to draw the attention of
children who may be difgufted with formal talks
at fchool. Price 2s. fingle ; 1 8s. per doz. ; or
in 2 volumes ititched in marble at is. a volume,
which are ibid feperate.

QUEEN of FRANCE.

Juft Published, and for (ale by John Harrifon,
Peck-flip ; James Harrifon, 108 Maiden-
lane : J. Fellows, 131 Water-Street; A.
Brower, 37 NalFau corner of John- Street ;
and P. A. Mefier, corner of Pearl- Street
and Old -flip— -Price 6s. Sewed on marble
paper 5 s.

MEM O I R S3

of the celebrated

MARIA A NTO N I ETT E,
ci-devant Queen of France.

CONTAINING a great variety of curious
original anecdotes, private intrigues, &o
never before published. Alfo fome account of
the principal characters belonging to the court
of Louis XVI. tranflated from the French of
Rabaut de St. Etienne, and others — ornament-
ed with fix elegant copper-plate prints of the
Queen, Count d'Artois, Cardinal de Rohan,
Marquis La Fayette, &c — -To which is added
an authentic account of the trial of the Queen ;
and fome obfervations upon the guillotine.

" II n'y rien qui pouffe tant a la vertu, que
Phorreur et Pabhorrement du vice."

1 he Female Jockey Club,
Is in the Prefs, and will foon be publifhed. It
is written by the author of the Jockey Club.
Price 6 s. .

[ 202 ]

THOUGHTS

ON THE

DIVINE GOODNESS,

RELATIVE TO THE

Government of Moral Agents,

PARTICULARLY DISPLAYED IN

FUTURE REWARDS and PUNISHMENTS.

as*

God our Saviour will have all mm to b? fayed, and to come unt$
the knowledge of the truth, l Tim. ii. 4.

Tranflated from the French of

FERDINAND OLIVER PETITPIERRE,

Formerly Mhitfter r Chaux-de-Fond.

THE Tranilator of 1 e~ibllc wing pages hav-
ing witnefTed the approb rhey met with
abroad, the ardor with v : : ] m ; were fought,
and the difficulty with which they were obtained
thinks it may be rendering fer.vice to the caufe
of religion, and contributing to the happinefs of
mankind to make them eafy of accefs, in a nation
diftinguilhed by its lite . id which in the-
ology and philofophy has produced to many lu-
minaries.

pf