Scourge themselves and lament. And again, in describing the images of the dead, prepared for the guidance of the embalming process, Herodotus says that the best represents, as he is told, Him whose name he has an objection to utter. And thus he always speaks of Osiris, by reverent allusion, and never by name.-The reason of this peculiar sacredness of Osiris, above all gods but the Supreme, was his office of Judge of the living and the dead. That which made him so universally and eminently adored was his being the representation, or rather the incarnation, of the Goodness of the Supreme. The plurality of deities in Egypt arose from the practice, for popular use, of deifying the attributes of the Supreme God. We have thus seen his creative Spirit or Will embodied in one god; and the creative art,―or Artisan Intellect,-in another: and we shall meet with more. His primary attribute, his Goodness, was embodied in Osiris, who left his place in the presence of the Supreme, took a human form, (though not becoming a human being), went about the world, doing good to men, sank into death in a conflict with the Power of Evil; rose up to spread blessings over the land of Egypt and the world, and was appointed Judge of the Dead, and Lord of the heavenly region, while present with his true worshippers on earth, to do them good. Such were the history and functions of Osiris, as devoutly recorded by the Egyptians of several thousand years ago. And here, in Philo, was his sepulchre, where the faithful came in pilgrimage, from the mighty Pharoah to the despised goat-herd, for a long course of centuries. He was especially adored for other reasons than his benefactions: as being the only manifestation on earth of the Supreme God. This made him superior to the Eight great gods, after whom he ranked on other accounts. How the manifestation was made in a human form without an adoption of human nature, was one of the chief Egyptian mysteries; the ideas of which will now, I fear, never be offered to our apprehension.-Upon his death he passed into the region of the dead,-(borne there, as the sculptures represent, by the four genii of Hades) -and then, having passed through its stages, was raised to the function of Judge. "Among the allusive names of Osiris were those of "Opener of good," "Manifester of grace," and "Revealer of truth" and the description of him was, in the ancient words, "full of grace and truth." He obtained the victory after his death over the Evil Principle which had destroyed him: and it was in his name, which they then assumed, that the virtuous, after judgment, entered into the state of blessedness which they shared with him. The departed, men and women alike, were called Osiris: this spiritual name betokening that they were now in that state where sex was abolished, where no marriage existed, but human beings had become pure as the heaven-born inhabitants. "When it is said that Osiris was the only manifestation of the Supreme upon earth, it must be understood that this means the only manifestation by a native heavenly resident. For all animated beings were supposed to be emanations from the Centre of Life. The great Emanation doctrine which has spread so far over the world was certainly a chief point of faith in Egypt at a very early date; and it is believed that Pythagoras, recognising it in all their observances which were expositions of doctrine, adopted it from them, and thence sent it on through distant countries and future ages. Plutarch ascribes to the belief of this doctrine the peculiar observances with regard to animals in Egypt. The passage is too well known to need citing here: but it is valuable, not only as testifying to this great fact of the Egyptian mind, but as showing that persons comparatively ancient were wiser than too many of ourselves in seeing in their practice of what we call Brute worship something deeper and more serious than we have been taught to look for. Plutarch cites Herodotus as saying that whatever beings have been endowed with life and any measure of reason are to be regarded as effluxes, or portions of the supreme wisdom which governs the universe: so that the Deity is not less strikingly represented in these than in images of any kind made by the hand of man.-Porphyry declares "the Egyptians perceived that the Divinity entered not the human body only, and that the Soul dwelt not, while on earth, in man alone, but passed in a measure through all animals."-Thus Osiris was not the only manifestation of the universal Soul; and so far shared the lot of the humblest worm bred in the mud of the Nile; but he was the only member of the heavenly society, the only one of the sons of the Supreme, who came upon earth to make him known: and he thus took rank above them all. "It is impossible not to perceive that Osiris was to the old Egyptians what the Messiah is to be to the Jews; and what Another has been to the Christians. The nature, character, and offices of Osiris, and the sacred language concerning him are so coincident with those most interesting to Christians as to compel a very careful attention on the part of enquirers into Egyptian antiquities. Various solutions of the extraordinary fact have been offered. Some who hold to the literal historical truth of the book of Genesis suggest, as their conjecture, that Noah may have foreknown everything relating to the coming of Christ, even to the language which should be used concerning him by sacred writers and that his descendants may have communicated all this to the ancient Egyp tians, who made a god out of the prophecy and its adjuncts. Others have endeavoured to make out such personal intercourse between Pythagoras and some of the Hebrew prophets on the one hand, and the Egyptian priests on the other, as might account for the parallelism in question. Others would have us understand it by concluding that the latest Egyptian priests were disciples of Plato, and put their own Platonising interpretations on the character of Osiris, as the Platonising Christians did on that of Christ. Others again, who see that Ideas are the highest subject of human cognisance, the history of Ideas the only true history, and a common holding of Ideas the only real relation of human beings to each other, believe that this great constellation of Ideas is one and the same to all these different peoples; was sacred to them all in turn, and became more noble and more glorious to men's minds as their minds became strengthened by the nourishment and exercise of ages." Notice.-The Purchasers of "Cooper's Journal" Are respectfully informed that with THE NEXT NUMBER OR CAPTAIN COBLER; THE LINCOLNSHIRE INSURRECTION:" An Historical Romance of the Reign of Henry VIII. By THOMAS COOPER, Author of 'The Purgatory of Suicides.' The succeeding Numbers will be published weekly, at ONE PENNY, until the Romance is complete. Each Number will contain Sixteen Pages. JAMES WATSON, 3, Queen's Head Passage, Paternoster Row. WORKS OF THOMAS COOPER, Already Published, to be had of JAMES WATSON, 3, Queen's Head Passage, Paternoster Row. THE PURGATORY OF SUICIDES. A Prison Rhyme. In 10 Books. WISE SAWS AND MODERN INSTANCES. A series of Tales illustrative of Lincolnshire and 8. d. 3 6 5 0 1 6 The Peotry and the Melody by 0 6 1 0 06 THE BARON'S YULE FEAST. A Christmas Rhyme. In 1 volume, sewed,.. SOCIAL AND DEMOCRATIC NEWSPAPER. Now Publishing. The specially addressed to the advanced and growing class of thinkers who, believing the present industrial, as well as political, institutions to be based on Force and Fraud, are seeking to effect a radical social, as well as governmental, change in the existing system of society. The current numbers, besides the news of the day, and leading articles thereon, contain Proudhon's "CONFESSIONS OF A REVOLUTIONIST." Eugene Sue's new Romance of Labour, entitled the "MYSTERIES OF THE PEOPLE." G. Vickers, Holywell-street, Strand. LECTURES BY ROBERT OWEN, THE FOUNDER OF ENGLISH SOCIALISM. ON SUNDAYS, Feb. 17th, and March 3rd, Robert Owen will Lecture at the Literary Institution, John-st., Fitzroy Square: Feb. 17th, "On the Necessity of Union among the Leaders of Progress, and how to obtain it." March 3rd, "On Government, and how to Create a Good One." A selection of Choral Music will be performed by the Apollonic Society, before the commencement and at the close of each Lecture. To commence at 7 o'Clock precisely. Admission to Hall, 2d; Gallery, 3d. London; Printed by WILLIAM SHIRREFS, 190, High Holborn ; and Published by JAMES WATSON, Queen's Head Passage, Paternoster Row. OR, UNFETTERED THINKER AND PLAIN SPEAKER FOR TRUTH, FREEDOM, AND PROGRESS. "AND though all the winds of doctrine were let loose to play upon the earth, so Truth be in the field, we do injuriously to misdoubt her strength. Let her and Falsehood grapple! Who ever knew Truth put to the worse, in a free and open encounter?"-Milton's Areopagitica. No. 9.-Vol. I.] FOR THE WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, MARCH 2, 1850. [Price One Penny. TO THE YOUNG MEN OF THE WORKING CLASSES. LETTER III. NEW SERIES. ""Tis hard to say if greater want of skill But, of the two, less dangerous is th' offence Pope's Essay on Criticism. MEN OF THE FUTURE,-While diligently pursuing plans of study,-reading every book of value which lies within your reach, and thinking over it deeply, to the end that you may not be the mere slaves of other men's opinions, though you carefully gather all the information they can afford you, it now becomes a matter of the highest necessity, that you all join hands and heads to create a literature of your own. Your own prose, your own poetry: you ought to be resolved to create these. I do not mean that every intellectual working man should attempt to write a volume; though where there is genius that will undoubtedly be done. It is to the endeavour to enlarge the list of contributors to the cheap periodicals, and to create new ones, especially of a local character, that I aim to arouse your resolution. The Potteries, Leicester, Nottingham, Leeds, and other localities are setting the example. With a little exertion you may augment the number of local periodicals, largely. This would not only be an outward and visible sign that you were reading and thinking,—and silence the titled and privileged depreciators of your growing intelligence; but would serve many more valuable purposes. It would be a means of self-culture, by calling forth the powers of hundreds of strong-minded working men which now lie hidden: it would put you all more fully in possession of each other's thoughts, and thus give you a higher respect for each other, and a clearer perception of what you can do when united: it would take you from under the influence of some, who either insult you by denying that you desire to see your order elevated in the social scale, or otherwise, for mere selfish and pecuniary ends, corrupt the minds of thousands of the working-classes by the issue of highly-spiced but injurious literature. These, surely, are considerations not to be despised. If I might add another consideration, it would be that the formation of a Progress Union would be better canvassed in local periodicals of your own, than it is ever likely to be in the prints now in weekly existence; and until my humble proposition is more generally canvassed, I do not expect to see it even partially realised. The subjects which would occupy the weekly pages of your local prints, would, in the majority of instances, be dictated by the staple manufacture of the district. Thus, the Nottingham "Framework-knitter," the "Leicester Movement," and the "Working Man's Journal" of the Staffordshire Potteries, each serve the great purpose of exposing the wrongs of toilers in those important districts, and of binding the injured more firmly together for the redress of their grievances. But the continued use of the brain and pen, by writers in these local papers, is sure, eventually, to call forth their essays in a higher range of thought; and already, they unfold the tendency to advancement. None of you, therefore, should object to aid the establishment of new local periodicals, from a belief that they are only likely to be filled with details which are grown vulgar to you by connection with your daily toil: the more advanced your district may be in real taste and intelligence, the more successfully you may make your local prints the vehicles of bringing home, to working men's minds, thoughts which are truly refined and elevating, as well as solidly instructive. On the style of the prose writing, to be cultivated in such periodicals, I may be allowed to say a little, especially as I shall thus be answering many who write to me on this subject. For weekly essays, brevity is not only an indispensable requisite,—a long article in a short pamphlet being so utterly out of character that readers yawn at the very sight of it; but simplicity and clearness of expression should be stamped on every page. No contributor should affect deep thought on shallow subjects; construct unwieldy and fivemile-long sentences-or, rather, leave sentences to construct themselves; nor, above all, seek studiously to express himself in what homely people so significantly term 'hard words.' The practice last-named is so common among working-men who essay to become public writers, that, I must confess, I am not only surprised, but often pained by it. I cannot grieve any working man by publie v pointing to him, expressly, as an exemplar of this error. I rather choose o give an instance of what I mean from a writer of established reputation—the late John Foster-author of, perhaps, the most powerfully written essay in our language-that on "Decision of Character," and which every one of you should read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest,' so soon as you can obtain it. I take a passage, almost at random, from this very able and estimable author's larger work, the " Essay on Popular Ignorance." "And are, then, the higher and privileged portions of the national communities to have, henceforward, just this one grand object of their existence, this chief employment for their knowledge, means, and power, namely, to keep down the lower orders of their fellow-citizens by stress of coercion? Are they resolved and prepared for a rancorous, interminable, hostility in prosecution of such a benign purpose; with a continual exhaustion upon it of the resources which might be applied to diminish that wretchedness of the people, which is the grand inflamer of those principles that have caused an earthquake under the foundations of the old social systems? But interminable' is no proper epithet to be applied to such a course. This policy of a bare uncompromising rigour, exerted to keep the people just where they are, in preference to adjustments formed on a calculation of a material change, and adapted to prepare them for it-how long could it be successful,-not to ask what would be the value or the glory of that success? With the light of recent history to aid the prognostication, by what superstitious mode of estimation the self-preserving, and self-avenging competence of any artificial form of social order, can we believe in its power to throw back the general opinions, determinations, and efforts, of the mass of mankind in endless recoil on themselves? That must be a very firm structure, must be of gigantic mass or most excellent basis and conformation, against which the ocean shall unremittingly wear and foam in vain. And it does not appear what there can be of such impregnable consistence in any particular construction of the social economy which is, by the supposition, resolved to be maintained in sovereign immutability, in permanent frustration of the persevering ever-growing, aim and impulse of the great majority, pressing on to achieve important innovations in their favour; innovations in those systems of institution and usage, under which they will never cease to think they have had far less happiness, or means of happiness, than they ought to have had. We cannot see how this impulse can be so repelled or diverted that it shall not prevail at length, to the effect of either bearing down, or wearing away, a portion of the order of things, which the ascendant classes in every part of Europe would have fondly wished to maintain in perpetuity, without one particle of surrender." The drift and general meaning of this passage almost every reader can comprehend; but the exact meaning of every sentence, and member of a sentence, in it, hundreds of readers could not comprehend without turning several times to a dictionary, and thinking a good deal, besides. Such a mode of writing, be it observed, is infinitely more out of character when attempted by working-men, than when followed by a highly-educated man, like John Foster. Plain, sensible writing-even if it were three-fourths words of one syllable, like much of Dean Swift's writings-would form the most forcible means of reaching the hearts and minds of your own order. Remember Cobbett, and the wondrous power he exercised by the use and repetition of short words! And yet, nothing can be more involved than many of his sentences: it was by the use of plain words that he made himself so widely and deeply felt. Let it not be supposed, however, that I am recommending anything so absurd as the use of one style by all minds. All can guard against the affectation of big words, but every man cannot express himself alike; nor is even a big word to be cast away for a little one, when the big word has a more forcible meaning, or gives a truer grace to the sentence. Who would wish a four-syllabled word to be blotted out of the "Letters of Junius," for instance, or to be exchanged for a monosyllable which had the same meaning? His sounding rhetoric-what vivid delight it adds to his stinging sarcasm,-which we all feel, with a thrill of our very marrow, while reading him,—and which affects poor Brougham with so much envy that he speaks disparagingly of him!-Brougham, who cannot bear the thought that any one should excel him in the power to sting with the pen or tongue. Undoubtedly, you may occasionably employ the Junius vocabulary, with great fitness; but in essays on the wrongs of Labour, the topic on which you are most likely to be frequent writers in the periodicals of which we are speaking, plain, forcible words will seem the most natural language of your earnest minds. A word or two about poetry. It gives one pain to be compelled to reject so many contributions in verse-for, it is ever a sign of the cultivation of the heart, as well of the intellect, when a young man is intent on expres sing his thoughts and affections in poetry. But the prevalence of two defects in nine-tenths of the verse sent for insertion in my own periodical,— and which I must be allowed to say, without the slightest ill-feeling, I see in many other papers,-renders it necessary that a rigid judgment should be observed with regard to such contributions. Inflation of expressionover-swelling words--sound without sense-and exaggerated sentimentalism, (I vary the description of what I mean, to be understood without giving invidious examples) form one great fault with the majority of beginners in poetry. To print their essays would really injure their reputation for sense, with judicious readers; and yet it is a most disagreeable task to be compelled to give them pain, by rejecting their lines. I assure beginners in verse-making that I have burned ten times more verse of my own composition than I ever published; and I see so much imperfection in what I |