Freuch Portrait Gallery. No. 1.-MIRABEAU. denly removed by death, he would, doubtless, have checked that outbreak, and thus have delayed the advent of the republic. In private, he was still abandoned to profligacy, but in public, appeared as a virtuous man. Bought and sold to satisfy his lavish expenditure, he retained the incorruptibility of his genius. His own glory was his idol, and the people were the instruments by which he sought to set it up. Had he been as honest, as incorruptible, as one who after him wielded almost equal power, he would have been the great man, as he was the great orator of his age. GREAT and sudden changes generally produce, as suddenly, great men, whose names are linked with momentous events in the pages of history, and pass down to posterity in unison-the men and the cause they espoused or opposed. Such was eminently the case with the first French revolution; such was also the case in 1848: in the former instance, the names of Mirabeau, Danton, Marat, and Robespierre were scarce known before the agitation commenced; in the latter, Lamartine, Louis Blanc, and Ledru Rollin were comparatively obscure prior to the governmental oprosition to the Reform banquet-now all are insepar-destined to see the light until he was in his tomb. ably united in the history of their times. Mirabeau was born of respectable parents, who afterwards became exiles from the land of his birth. In one of the stormy excesses of the Florentine struggle for liberty, they were cast from Florence, and established themselves with their family in Provence. Here many of the scenes of the future statesman's youthful career were performed. Entering the army at an early age he acquired the habits of his companions, intrigue and gaming being the most prominent, and these he indulged to excess. Whilst deeply sunk in the mire, from whence none sought to rescue him, at the instigation of his father, he attempted to form a matrimonial alliance with a wealthy heiress of Provence, and, by dint of stratagem, succeeded. This union was an unfortunate one; and his thoughts were soon turned in another direction:-he fled to Holland with the wife of M. de Monier, where in a few months they were separated; the fugitive lady was confined in a convent, and her lover incarcerated in the dungeon of Vincennes It was in this cell that his character as an orator and statesman was matured. strong passions of his breast were excited in secret; and with a desperate effort he resolved to become known, whatever might be the sacrifice; he was even prepared to sell himself, so that celebrity might be attained. The Being rejected by the nobility at the election of Aix, he cast himself upon the people, and claimed their support. His career as an orator commenced, and he was hailed as another Cicero, thundering forth his eloquence to the populace. In him the spirit of the old orators of Greece and Rome flourished again. He boldly announced himself to the Marseillais, as Tully would have done had he been placed in his position, "When the last of the Gracchi expired," said Mirabeau, “he flung dust towards heaven, and from this dust sprung Marius! Marius, less great for having exterminated the Cimbri than for having prostrated in Rome the aristocracy of the nobility." He entered the National Assembly, and there his power was felt as though he were, in himself, the whole people; the throne appeared but as on a level with himself, the nobility felt themselves subdued by his presence, and the clergy cringed in submission ready to do his bidding—all parties and all persons waited his commands, feeling assured that he could either serve or destroy them. The effect produced on political opponents by his presence gratified his vanity, and he was frequently heard to declare, on being informed of a stormy debate during his absence, that he would restore a calm in the National Assembly by shewing his boar's head to them.* The violent commotions which seemed to forbode the impending storm were in his power, by his own arm he restrained the outbreak of the Revolution, and, had he not been sud All accounts agree that the countenance of Mirabeau, when excited by opposition, was terrible to behold. Mirabeau died whilst at the apex of his popularity; had he lived but a little while longer, he would have been execrated as universally as he was feared or admired. But the evidences of his dishonesty were not a conse. Death, in its approach, brought no terrors: like Cicero, he applauded the judgment of Apollo, who gave death to the suppliant that prayed for the gift which should be best for man; and, as dissolution approached, he said-" sprinkle me with perfumes, crown me with flowers, that I may thus enter upon eternal sleep." Probably the manner of his death was quence of his opinion concerning religions, in reference to which he said, in one of his most remarkable orations, Hitherto we have seen these things through a magic lanthorn, but now the glass is broken. After his death his remains were buried with the obsequies of a monarch in the Pantheon, surrounded by two hundred thousand spectators, whom his fame had attracted to view the ceremony of consigning his ashes to the grave. The king, though he regretted his death, seemed relieved by his absence; and the National Assembly accepted it as a signal for them to arouse themselves. All parties felt themselves in the position of a blind man suddenly restored to sight, or a lame man to the use of his limbs: though capable of seeing or walking the change had come upon them so suddenly that they became transfixed with wonder, incapable of motion until gradually confidence was regained, and the restored powers called into action. THE SHORT TIME MOVEMENT. WHIG politicians have been likened to the Opossum which, naturalists tell us, is a quick climbing animal, though in other respects heavy and helpless. Now, that Whigs are quick climbers cannot be gainsayed, but that they are either heavy or helpless is by no means clear. Incapable statesmen many consider them, but they are lightness itself, especially about the fingers, and not at all helpless in business of mischief. Lord Stanley, by one memorable speech, fully established their claim to be considered the most adroit of thimble-riggers. Their sharp practice towards the factory operatives will add to their ancient reputation. Unable openly to get rid of the Ten Hours' Bill these quick climbing animals are industriously employed in neutralizing its provisions. Their philosophical minds are shocked at the idea of governmental interference between capital and its victims, even though those victims are weak women, or, still more helpless children. Haunted by the ghost of a bankrupt revenue-well remembering, when last in office, their Chancellor of the Exchequer was described as sitting upon the top of an empty chest, by the side of bottomless deficiences, fishing for a budget they think it safer to turn the screw on labour than to educate the labourer. They know well that excessive toil is incompatible with mental improvement. They are fully aware that to reduce the hours of labour is, in fact, to enlarge the powers of intellect; but then the empty chest must be filled at whatever expense of blood or brains. Less toil, more enjoyment, is the cry of the people; more work, less time for enjoyment, and no time at all for thought, seems to be the darling maxim of their rulers. Whig statesmen make fine speeches in favour of education, just as they make fine speeches in favour of Church, and all other kinds of reform; but, practically, they care for none of these things. The most ungrateful of politicians, their affection for the people is very like that bestowed by wolves on lambs, except when needing popular assistance in their quick climbings to power. Happily the operative classes have shrewd suspicions on this head, and are alive to the importance of taking this Ten Hours Bill into their own hands. The illdissembled treachery of false ministers has aroused the slumbering lion; agitation is once more the order of the day. The great meeting recently held in the Manchester Free Trade Hall will be a heavy blow and sore discouragement to our vacillating rulers, who convert free trade into free booty, and, while forward enough to punish crimes against the property of the rich, permit to pass unpunished and unmolested far worse crimes against the property of the poor. The Ten Hours Bill is part and parcel of the law of this land. What, then, is the Whig Home Secretary about while Messrs. Clarke, and others, work their infant victims fifteen hours a day? Perhaps, like the heathen god. he hath fallen asleep, or gone on a journey. Were the working people to break a law for the protection of rich mill-owners, or any other set of rich people, (especially if whiggishly inclined) what they call the majesty of the law would soon be vindicated. old story "Plate sin with gold, It is the And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks; Mr. Samuel Fielden thinks that mill owners and their ministerial allies may be brought to respect for the law and the performance of their duty by the getting up of a good big fund. Now, without doubt, fighting gold with gold is very like diamond cut diamond; but then the gold is almost all on one side. Mill-owners have a monopoly of it; and we venture to predict, that the biggest fund we are likely to get will not answer the purpose; and, moreover, that our thimble-rigging ministry will not dare to enforce the Factory Act, unless alarmed into honest boldness by a good stiff pressure from without. Not a farthing need be subscribed, if the working people act upon their knowledge that whig statesmen are made of squeezeable material. Agitate! agitate! agitate!-for agitation will do the job. Mere noise is mere nonsense. No people ever gained anything by shouting; and our contemporary the Spectator has done the state good service by some remarks on cheering, great cheering, and so forth, at public meetings. We recommend an attentive perusal of the article in which they appear. Not that we object to cheering, great cheering, or even tremendous cheering, upon suitable occasions;-by no means. They are often the outward and, as it were, visible sign of patriotic determination; but if the people would be victorious in their struggle with rich knaves and time-serving, mammon-worshipping politicians, they must do something more than shout. It is lamentable to see enthusiasm evaporate in noise. Let us have less cry and more wool than heretofore. If the friends of this righteous movement are really opposed to all compromise; if they mean what they say, and will act up to what they mean, we promise them complete and speedy success. The political opossums who, having climbed to office, cling so tenaciously to its sweets, will do whatever a resolute majority bids them. At donothing empty-patel shouters they can afford to laugh; and truly meetings of such, whether in country or town, are farces. No, no; a rich and powerful minority never has been known to deal justly with a weak poverty-stricken majority, until frightened by pressure from without. The spirit of oppression is generally in alliance with the spirit of cowardice. Unjust men are seldom valiant; and none are less so than unjust ministers of state. Show a bold front; determine no longer to be juggled out of those rights the law itself allows; be civil, while civilly dealt with, not otherwise; let those who wantonly oppress do so at their own risk and peril. In this mad world the being too harmless is quite possible, and ofteu more injurious to liberty than wickedness itself. We love gentleness of spirit and amiability of disposition; but, alas! they often perpetuate injustice by a too great tenderness towards tyrants. There is a story told, we believe in old Æsop, to the effect that an eel complaiued of the injustice of men, in their treatment of eels, who, quoth he, are skinned most mercilessly, whilst you serpents, so very like us, are seldom ill used. The reason is, said the serpent, no man hurts us with impunity. And really the remark would do no discredit to that wisest of all the beasts of the field; for men in general do not scruple to injure if they can do so with safety. Those are least liable to be trampled upon who, with power to resist, fail not in spirit. The working classes in this country have hitherto allowed themselves to be skinned with impunity, causing no more terror, in those who do the business for them, than eels did to the philosophic old woman, who when remonstrated with for her cruelty to wards them, merely observed they were used to it. Talk as we may about obedience to rulers, the ruling few must be made uneasy or the suffering many will never obtain substantial relief. THE FALLEN STAR; OR THE HISTORY OF A FALSE RELIGION. BY SIR E. L. BULWER. AND the STARS sate, each on his ruby throne, and watched, with sleepless eyes upon the world. It was the night ushering in the new year, a night on which every Star receives from the Archangel that then visits the universal galaxy, its peculiar charge. The destinies of nien and empires are then portioned forth for the coming year, and, unconscious to ourselves, our fates become minioned to the stars. A hushed and solemn night is that in which the dark Gates of Time open to receive the ghost of the Dead Year, and the young and radiant Stranger rushes forth from the clouded chasms of Eternity. On that night, it is said, that there is to the Spirits that we see not a privilege and a power: the dead are troubled in their forgotten graves, and men feast and laugh, while demon and angel are contending for their doom. Eternal It was night in heaven; all was unutterably silent, the music of the spheres had paused, and not a sound came from the angels of the stars; and they who sate upon those shining thrones were three thousand and ten, each resembling each. youth clothed their radiant limbs with celestial beauty, and on their faces was written the dread of calm, that fearful stillness which feels not, sympathises not with the dooms over which it broods. War, tempest, pestilence, the rise of empires, and their fall, they ordain, they compass, unexultant and unconipassionate. The fell and thrilling crimes that stalk abroad when the world sleeps, the parricide with his stealthy step, and horrent brow, and the lifted knife; the unwifed mother that glides out and looks behind, and behind, and shudders, and casts her babe upon the river, and hears the wail, and pities not the splash, and does not tremble, these the starred kings behold-to these they lead the unconscious step; but the guilt blanches not their lustre, neither doth remorse wither their unwrinkled youth. Each Star wore a kingly diadem; round the loins of each was a graven belt, grayen with many and mighty signs; and the foot of each was on a burning ball, and the right arm drooped over the knee as they bent down from their thrones; they moved not a limb or feature, save the finger of the right hand, which ever and anon moved slowly pointing, and regulated the fates of men as the hand of the dial speaks the career of time. One only of three thousand and ten wore not the same aspect as his crowned brethren; a Star, smaller than the rest, and less luminous; the countenance of this Star was not impressed with the awful calmness of the others; but there were sullenness and discontent upon his mighty brow. And this Star said to himself," Behold, I am created less glorious than my fellows, and the Archangel apportions not to me the same lordly destinies. Not for me are the dooms of kings and bards, the rulers of empires, or, yet nobler, the swayers and harmonists of souls, Sluggish are the spirits and base the lot of men I am ordained to lead through a dull life to a fameless grave. And wherefore?-is it mine own fault, or is the fault which is not mine, that I was woven of beams less glorious than my brethren? Lo! when the Archangel comes I will bow not my crowned head to his decrees. I will appear as the ancestral Lucifer before me: he rebelled because of his glory, I because of my obscurity; he from the ambition of pride, and I from its discontent. And while the Star was thus communing with himself, the upward heavens were parted as by a long river of light, and adown that stream swiftly, and without sound, sped the Archangel Visiter of the Stars; his vast limbs floated in the liquid lustre, and his outspread wings, each plume the glory of a sun, bore him noiselessly along; but thick clouds veiled his lustre from the eyes of mortals, and while above all was bathed in the serenity of his splendour, tempest and storm broke below over the children of the earth: "He bowed the heavens and came down, and darkness was under his feet.” And the stillness on the faces of the Stars became yet more still, and the awfulness was bumbled into awe. Right above their thrones paused the course of the Archangel; and his wings stretched from east to west, overshadowing, with the shadow of light, the immensity of space. Then forth, in the shining stillness, rolled the dread music of his voice: and, fulfilling the heraldry of God, to each Star he appointed the duty and the charge, and eacn Star bowed his head yet lower as it received the fiat, while his throne rocked and trembled at the Majesty of the Word. But at last, when each of the Brighter Stars had, in succession, received the mandate, and the viceroyalty over the nations of the earth, the purple and diadems of kingsthe Archangel addressed the lesser Star as he sate apart from his fellows: "Behold," said the Archangel, "the rude tribes of the north, the fishermen of the river that flows beneath, and the hunter of the forests that darken the mountain tops with verdure! these be thy charge, and their destinies thy care. Nor deem thou, O Star of the sullen beams, that thy duties are less glorious than thy brethren; for the peasant is r.ot less to thy master and mine than the monarch; nor doth the doom of empires rest more upon the sovereign than on the herd. The passions and the heart are the dominions of the Stars, a mighty realm:-nor less mighty beneath the hide that garbs the shepherd than the jewelled robes of the eastern kings." Then the Starlifted his pale front from his breast, and answered the Archangel: "Lo!" he said, "ages have past, and each year thou hast appointed me to the same ignoble charge. Release me, I pray And the crowned Star gazed undauntedly on the face of the Archangel, and answered, "Yea!-grant me but one trial." Ere the Archangel could reply, the furthest centre of the heaven was rent as by a thunderbolt; and the Divine herald covered his face with his hands, and a voice low and sweet, and mild with the consciousness of unquestionable power. spoke forth to the repining Star. "The time has arrived when thou mayest have thy wish, Below thee, upon yon solitary plain, sits a mortal, gloomy as thyself, who, born under thy influence, may be moulded to thy will." The voice ceased as the voice of a dream. Silence was over the seas of space, and the Archangel, once more borne aloft, slowly soared away into the farther heaven, to promulgate the divine bidding to the Stars of far distant worlds. But the soul of the discontented Star exulted within itself; and it said. "I will call forth a king from the valley of the herdsman, that shall trample on the kings subject to my fellows, and render the charge of the contemned Star more glorious than the minions of its favoured brethren; thus shall I revenge neglect-thus shall I prove my claim hereafter to the heritage of the great earth" At that time, though the world had rolled on for ages, and the pilgrimage of man had passed through various states of existence, which our dim traditionary knowledge has not preserved, yet the condition of our race in the northern hemisphere. was then what we, in our imperfect lore, have considered to be among the earliest. (To be continued.) MANCHESTER AND ITS BISHOP. The Right Reverend the Lord Bisho of Manchester returns to London, where he will peach a Charity Sermon, to-morrow. Owing to the nerous nature of the Right Reverend Prelate's parliamentary duties,his lordship being now. sitting on several Committees of the House of Peers-it is extremely doubtfu! when he may be able to return to Manchester.-Manchester Guardian, Saturday, June 23rd. WE Confess to having been startled by this announcement. To wonder at nothing may be very wise, but so sublime a height of wisdom we have not yet reached; and great is our surprise that my Lord Bishop of Manchester should desert his post as curer of souls in order to sit on Railway Committees. Doubtless Railway management might be improved, but such matters belong to the pomps and vanities of this wicked world from the contaminating influence of which Bishops should carefully guard themselves. The soul of one sinner is of more importance than all the railways in England. To save souls ought to be the only business of divines, who, though purity itself, cannot touch pitch without being defiled. Serving God and Mammon is a hopeless business, which scripture expressly swayed, and tracked the steps that lead weakness into power; forbids our engaging in; and if the laity are thee, from the duties I scorn; or, if thou wilt that the lowlier race of men be my charge, give unto me the charge not of many, but of one, and suffer me to breathe unto him the desire that spurns the valley of life, and ascends its steeps. If the humble are given to me, let there be amongst them one whom I shall lead on the mission to abase the proud; for, behold, oh Appointer of the Stars, as I have sate for uncounted years upon my solitary throne, brooding over the things beneath, my spirit hath gathered wisdom from the changes that shift below. Looking upon the tribes of the earth, I have seen how the multitude are and fain would I be the ruler of one who, if abased, should aspire to rule." As a sullen cloud over the face of noon was the change on the brow of the Archangel. Proud and melancholy Star," said the Herald, "thy wish would war with the courses of the invisible DESTINY, that, throned far above, sways and harmonises all; the source from which the lesser rivers of fate are eternally gushing through the heart of the universe, of things. Thinkest thou that thy wisdom of itself can lead the peasant to become a king?" apt to forget law in looking after the PROFITS, fit a man if he gain the whole world and lose give in exchange for his soul? These are awful questions that Bishops, who prefer the performance of parliamentary to christian duties, will find difficult to answer. Feed my lambs, said Christ; a saying little regarded by government-appointed shepherds of his flock, who, except in shearing time, leave the sheep to take care of themselves and get into the fold as best they may. Can such things be without our special wonder. Perhaps our consciences are over scrupulous and tender; perhaps we understand not the higher mysteries of salvation; or, perhaps the text which expressly forbids our laying up treasures on earth, and as expressly commands that our thoughts be turned exclusively heavenward, is a fraudulent interpolation. If so, the sooner our bishops enlighten us the better; for they should not preach one doctrine and practise another. Our national religion, it seems to us, had better be given up, if non-resident money-hunting bishops are to be tolerated. They, of all God's creatures, are most bound to keep their hands clear of filthy lucre. Most respectfully, then, we demand of Manchester's Bishop to show cause for an absence we could not have believed in, but for the alarming paragraph we have faithfully copied from that veracious print the Manchester Guardian, which, by the way, we grieve to find has not thought the matter worthy of an article. How strange that the pious conductors of that paper should turn dumb dogs with so fine an opportunity to bark. Such lukewarmness in the cause of Christianity is unaccountable. Are these gentlemen resolved to throw on our young shoulders the entire burthen of exposing non-resident money-hunting bishops, and all other traders in religion, who devour widows' houses and, for a pretence, make long prayers? We hope not; for the labour, though one of pure love, is more than we can well perform single handed. Nevertheless, what man dare we dare; and we are resolved to spare neither pains nor courage in the cause of souls; and if the Bishop of Manchester will not do his duty, we will, at once, proceed to do it for him. duty, we will, at once, proceed to do it for him. It is monstrous that souls should perish and Manchester pine for its Bishop for so paltry an equivalent as throwing out a Jew Bill, or raising the price of railway shares. Have we not Reverend authority for it, that in this benighted town there is a Railway to Hell, with a regular booking office in Camp Field-Then in God's name let our Bishop come back, and by the pious exercise of duties The Rev. W. Gadsby. appertaining to his pastoral office outshoot the devil at his own bow. If so many thousands of souls in Manchester alone are booked for Hell, the overseer of souls in this diocese is inexcusable: he should be here to superintend the opening of a Railway to Heaven, seeing that the ordinary old coach road thither has been deserted for many a day. We say this, not profanely, but in sober earnestness. We grieve to think that, while the Devil's kingdom is made surpassingly attractive, and, thanks to clerical industry, the broad and well-beaten path conducting thereto, may be travelled pleasantly as well as rapidly enough, the narrow path which leadeth to salvation, is all but unpassable. It is as though our spiritual guides desired to make of heaven a great monopoly, which only themselves and a select circle of friends should be permitted the enjoyment of. The ordinary in Jonathan Wild preferred punch to any other kind of beverage, chiefly because he found nothing against it in Scripture. Will the Bishop of Manchester put in a similar plea for non-residence as this pious ordinary did for punch? Will he declare for non-residence rather than residence, on the ground that there is nothing against it in in Scripture? We think not, for wise in his generation he is aware that there is very much against it in Scripture. The Bible emphatically condemns those ministers of God who minister to the Devil by deserting their flocks. Hear Saint Paul-A Bishop must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach, not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous, one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity. Now, the Bishop of Manchester may, for ought we know, be a good sort of man, but we fear that greediness of filthy lucre hinders his ruling well in his own diocese. Far be it from us to insinuate a word against his sobriety or general regard for those of his own house. No, we despise calumny, and freely give his general character the benefit of onr ignor mitre'd front in Parliament, he cannot properly ance. What we assert is, that when raising his What the Sun is to the earth, the Bishop attend to the spiritual concerns of his diocese. should be to his diocese. If his services may be dispensed with, why pay for them at so high a rate; and of what earthly use is a Bishop who has'nt time to overlook our affairs? He may be vigilant, sober, and satisfied with one wife, but what is the use of him? Where is the quid pro quo for our money? Are we to starve, because, immersed in railway or other sublunary speculations, he has not time to feed us- -God forbid.With all our love of Bishops, we love ourselves considerably more, and have a mortal distaste for starvation, whether of body or sonl. We therefore, though at great risk, protest against the conduct of Bishops, Deacons, and others who pocket large salaries for duties unperformed, who neglect the cure of souls at peril of their own souls, and by their rapacity, deceit, pride, ignorance, and impudence, disgust every well constituted mind. We warn these people to set their houses in order; for though the public is a patient animal, its patience may ere long lose itself in indignation. We are greatly mistaken if the Manchester public will much longer submit to be shamefully robbed, even though such robbery be perpetrated for the truest of all established Churches and in the name of Jesus. REVIEW. A DISCOURSE ON MATTERS PERTAINING TO RELIGION, BY THEODORE PARKER.*-Reprinted from the American Edition, No. 1, BARKER. RELIGION is immortal: if by religion we mean a yearning towards, and sense of dependence upon, that invisible and unknown something which we feel is a reality, though unable by reasoning to satisfy our selves of its existence. Religion, thus interpreted, is an instinct of our nature, as much so indeed as hunger or thirst. To none is it wanting. Universally, in some form or o her, men acknowledge the dread mystery of existence, Atheists not excepted. Those whom the vulgar (learned or unlearned) stigmatize as such, are no more atheistic than themselves, It is time to raise the veil behind which this great truth has Deen cunningly concealed. By consulting the admirable Tract whose title stands at the head of this article, the reader will see that men, eminent alike for piety and philosophy, have been called atheists, Thales Anaxagoras, Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Xenophanes, both the Zenos, Cicero, and Seneca, among the ancients; Abelard, Galileo, Kepler, Des Cartes, Leibnitz, Wolf, Locke, Cudworth, amuel Clarke, Jacob Bohine, Kant, Fichte, Schelling, and, Hegel, among the moderns. Even Luther and Melancthon, the great apostles of reformation, lay under the same imputation. But, surely no argument is necessary to prove that these mighty geniuses were not without God in the world, or opposed to religion. It is true that, with a few exceptions, they refused to worship other men's gods, deeming them mere dream begotten phantoms, nor would they suffer ignorant enthusiasts to cajole or frighten them into a belief that interpretations of Nature, having no foundation in Nature, were divine truths. Faith depends on evidence; but the evidence sufficient for fools, may not convince philosophers. Religious faith being instinctive, arising solely, as our author thinks, from a sense of dependence upon the unknown, but, as we think, a thirst to know, as well * An eminent American divine. as sense of dependence upon, the invisible and unknown, there can be no greater tyranny, no more presump. tuous wickedness, than for one man to arbitrarily impose his creed or mode of faith upon another. The frequent attemps to do this, exhibit human nature in its vilest aspect. Religious wars have ever been the most terrible and bloody. Nor is it wonderful that men who imagine themselves commissioned by Omnipotence, to announce his will, and wreak his vengeance should be obstinate, self-willed, pitiless, and implacable. We applaud Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego for refusing to worship the God that Nebuchadnezzer, the king, had set up, yet, many of us, with notable inconsistency, execrate and cast into the burning fiery furnace of inquisitorial fanaticism, all who refuse to pay hypocritical homage before the blood stained shrine of modern Nebuchadnezzars. Every brawling bigot, who calls down fire from heaven, upon the heads of others, whose God is not as his God, whose nobler instinct revolts at the idea of all power, wisdom, and benevolence, in alliance with weakness, folly, and foulest cruelty, have the spirit, though happily not the much wickedness is consequent upon a systematic power of Nebuchadnezzar. They are examples of how perversi n of the religious instinct. We believe that religion, as interpreted by our author, is an essential element of human nature, and consequently of civilization, but with the late Thomas Hood, we can sincerely declare "Our hearts ferment not with the bigot's leaven, Appreciating the sage saying of Hobbes, that names are counters of wise men, but the money of fools, we are neither deceived nor alarmed by such names as Polytheist, Theist, Deist, or Atheist. Let those who will accept them as money, we will accept them as too of the most egotistic and pernicious errors. counters, the merest symbols in the world, symbols They are all of one family, whose parentage is by no means doubtful. But for the overweening conceit of fanaticism, Theism never would have degenerated into idolatry; none would have invented such Gods as wise men were shocked from belief in, nor set up by authority religions so awfully blasphemous that educated human disgust. Polytheism, Theism, and Deism, preceded nature necessarily rejects them with loathing and Atheism. Millions of ignorant worshippers prostrated themselves before idols, called divine, ages before men were to be found enlightened and bold enough to denounce them. Those who first did so, were the first Atheists-Atheism meaning nothing if not opposition author, who says, the conception of God, as men exto the worship of idols, a truth well developed by our pressit in their language, is always imperfect, sometimes self-contradictory, and impossible. Human actions, human thoughts, human feelings, yes, human passions, and all the limitations of mortal man, are collected about the idea of God. Its primitive simplicity and beauty are lost. It becomes self destructive; and the conception of God, as man's mind sets it forth, like that of a Griffin or Centaur, or men whose heads do the notion of a being, who, from the very nature of grow beneath their shoulders, is self-contradictory ; things, could not exist. They, for the most part, have been called Atheists, who denied its inconsistency, and proved that such a being could not be. Kings, aristocrats, tyrants of every description, are slaves in revolt against the sovereign of the earth, which is the human race, and against the legislation of the universe, which is nature.Robespierre's declaration of rights. |