THE DEMON OF DESPOTISM.

AN ALLEGORIC HISTORY.

BY RICHARD OTLEY.

(Continued from last number.)

Thus did I fill the air, as if seated upon a throne of light, overshadowing the earth as it were the valley of death, and holding supreme and omnipotent power over the bodies and souls of men. The earth rolled round on

her axis, and moved with unerring velocity in her orbit, giving to man summer and winter, spring and autumn; the sun ripened the blushing fruits, inviting man to the rich and abundant feast; but my power, the supremacy of the spirit of Despotism, seated on the throne of fanaticism and superstition, converted the fertile plains and luxuriant vallies into a wilderness or desert. The sons of men trembled with fear, sickened from want, and died in thousands. From this scene I turned, with that pride which a spirit can only feel and know, for other conquests animated and filled me with an enlarged ambition. Again I passed the wide world of waters, riding on the storm and the whirlwind, when my comprehensive spiritual vision, beheld with renewed extasy another vast continent covered with cities, villages and the growing and ripening fruits of the earth; a people living in contentment, cultivating the peaceful arts and sciences,worshipping no sanguinary, revengeful gods, visible or invisible. They hailed the sun as the creator and progenitor of all things and beings, offering to him, in a few simple rites, frankincense and the first fruits of the earth. A hardy, strong, intellectual race, submitting to equal laws, and holding equal possession, living in prosperous contentment. When I beheld them in the midst of the luxuriance of life, I felt, as a human being feels, when he sickens at the heart from fear, envy, and malice, but inconceivably more intense, and inwardly tormenting and heart-burning. This enterprise appeared to me most difficult of achievement; yet I exclaimed, it must, it shall, be accomplished! In the invisible world of imagination, must be called up from the vast and deep resources of thought, beings to people the earth, the air, and the remotest heavens. Gently must the silken chain be thrown over them, pleasure in anticipation, torments in reserve; individual sanctity, for the assumption of individual power and despotism. The father must be absolute over his children, the master over his slave, the king over those whom he governs, and the priest over all. How this race of men shall fall before my power!

Years passed away, and generations of men, as clouds before the morning sun, to be no more seen for ever, and the work was not yet commenced. Fear with men is the great motive power, and hope the safety-valve; fear creates, and the imagination peoples the other worlds; and anticipation, beyond life, deludes the mind. A race of priests must first spring up: how can I first sow the holy seed? I must touch the mental powers of some devotees, draw them apart from the people; and these the latter must revere and obey. Ambition amongst the holy ones of the earth, will work out my will, enslave the millions, and exalt the Few. This dark race believe they are the first of men: the priests shall make them the most eminent of fools. The idea is noble and dignified: they claim to be the first who adored the gods: this ambition will lead them on to be the meanest of mankind. Their glory must be their ruin. Gods, kings, priests, slaves, are bound together in an eternal unity. Gorgeous rites,

pompous sacrifices, and sacred and solemn assemblies, must awe the mind into dwarfish imbecility. At present they are free, were never subjugated by any other people; but they must fall lower than the most savage and degraded. They now love peace, but must, for the future, be for ever embroiled in war. Ah! the priesthood are already separated from the vulgar. What fantastic dresses have they assumed, now they are devoted to a fictitious purity and a delusive religion,-to the 'divine service! They shave their heads, wear stoles or long gowns, carry in their processions ploughshare sceptres, have high-crowned caps, tufted on the top, ornamented with a wreath of serpents. They are thus fair to the eye, but sting the nation to the heart, and poison it to the soul; dazzle the imaginations of the people, lead men into the quagmires of error, into the cold and dreary regions of superstition and mental death.

Thus the work proceeds gloriously, and I, the Demon of spiritual power, add another laurel to those I have already reaped, and add fresh triumphs to those already achieved.-Alas, for this weak and fallen race of man! persuaded that he is made in the image of God or the gods,-glorious and pure as the stars of heaven; but more polluted and corrupted than the stagnant pools and marshes, filled with reptiles and crawling vermin. Created in the image of God! Why, he is sunk below the reptiles he so much despises. They arrive at the perfection of their nature, fulfil the destinies of their being, recede from the stage of life and are succeeded by other generations equal to themselves. But man, degraded man, there he lies, his noblest powers prostrated, his whole nature blasted, a mere passive slave in body and spirit! How he bows, and trembles, and fears, whilst that mortal passes him!-why? who is he? He is the Ethiopian king elect, selected from amongst the priests, by the revelling god, seizing him as his own by some visible sign; he then becomes high-priest and king, and the multitude kneel down and worship him as a divinity. Thus the authority of a God is united with that of priestly-king. In the name of the Divinity he is surrounded with guards, attendants, and servants who reverence him as a spark of the essence of this Deity. They must live only whilst he lives, die when he dies. If he loses an eye, if he loses an arm if he is maimed of a leg, they must be maimed; each of these must have one amputated; that they may thus manifest their sympathy for the divinely elected, priestly king. This priestly power spread over the land is like the darkness of midnight blotting out the meridian day: Reason and Nature are lost in the unfathomable depths of the troubled ocean of ignorance, cruelty, and vice.

Having succeeded in unseating Reason and dethroning Nature, the work proceeded with a rapidity and certainty that even astonished the priesthood themselves; and diffused an unhallowed pleasure through my victorious soul. Thus the future historian of human events shall have nothing more to record than the fallen, wretched condition of man, and the glittering deceptive greatness of the Few. The Ethiopian race is now in my power, bow to my supre ́macy, and bend to my galling yoke; they are and shall be only "distinguished by their dark colour, flat faces, curled hair, their exceeding fierceness and cruelty, and in their manners they are like beasts, not so much in their natural temper, as in their contrived pieces of wickedness. Their whole bodies are filthy and nasty, and their nails long like wild beasts, and cruel one towards another." So infuriated have they become in their nature that they arm even their women for war, and their ideas are so deformed, that they

hang brass rings to their lips to enhance their beauty. The crisis has already come, Ergamenes, their king resists the command even of their gods, refuses to put himself to death according to custom; enters their golden temple and cuts the throats of the priests. I am victorious even over their gods !

But what are yon vast human monuments towering to the heavens, in the far distance? With the fleetness of thought I passed onwards, when I soon found myself hovering over them, and then settled down on the apex of the highest. On the surrounding country I cast a glance. It was, when the sun, the universal divinity of the people, had attained the solsticial point in the heavens; universal was the rejoicing amongst the simple sons of nature who peopled these regions, when the glorified god appeared to stand in the zenith, in victory over the demon of darkness, and over these monuments erected to his honour, and to aid the pure devotion of the people. Everywhere the harvest teemed with plenty, reaped by a hardy but peaceful race. A few of the first fruits of corn and wine were presented as a grateful offering to this glorious divinity. In the night, an illumination gladdened the hearts of his worshippers, and lit up the land as if by the light of an artificial sun. Priests and priestly kings had however already stolen in amongst them. A sacred language concealed true science from the people, and natural phenomena were soon exalted into direct interpositions of the gods. But the gods must be incarnate, descend to sojourn amongst men. This is the foundation of the gloomy superstructure of all tyrannies and times. They must conquer and subdue nations, teach men to cultivate the earth, to produce corn, the vine and other fruits; from this they have and will have a claim upon their gratitude, which can easily be raised into devotion and adoration. Let men once worship the dead, and they will soon reverence and become servile to the living; dread the phantom and tremble before the reality.

Whilst I thus hovered over the destinies of the Egyptian nation, and beheld their prosperity, their love of peace and of justice, I felt a degree of spiritual sadness or depression, such as dark and fallen spirits may feel. To destroy the felicity of others, to immerge them in an abyss of folly, without a gleam of substantial hope, casts a deeper gloom even over the darkest intellect. Whilst thus meditating, a tear, such as even fallen angels shed, stole from my soul. Yet it passed away, as the dew-drops of morning into the surrounding air. Whilst thus meditating over the past, the present, and the future, even the sad pleasure of melancholy was disturbed by the sounds of sorrow and lamentation. On hearing these, I again felt the energies of my soul renewed. These symbols of grief arose from the mourning of a nation; Egypt was laid under sackcloth and ashes. For what? Had the Nile ceased to flow? Had the salubrious springs of nature become as the scorched desert? Had the fruits of the earth failed? No; but a god has ceased to live! A god die! And what a god-an ox! No; he is not dead, a god cannot die. For what are the priests searching throughout the country? A lost divinity! Where do they search for him? Not amongst the tombs of dead mortals, but amongst herds of living oxen is he found, with a black beetle upon his tongue, and a white star upon his forehead, the infatuated multitude are mad. How they dance, sing, and play music! The priesthood surround the new-born divinity; he is ushered into a splendid temple, glittering with silver and gold and precious stones; senseless grandeur, surrounding a senseless being, fit emblem of priests, people, and their divinities.

The first shade of divine darkness thus fell over the minds of the Egyptian people. To me it was victory, to them it was death; death socially, politi

cally, and mentally. The descent into this valley of death, is like the descent of a ponderous body of the earth; the nearer it approximates, the more rapidly its fall is accelerated. When once men worship an ox, the sooner they will worship an ass, an ape, a cat, or a crocodile, or even a man. Yes; man, with all his vices and follies, exalted into a divinity. The principle of life is believed to be a spark of the divinity, in whatever it is manifested; these sons of men prostrate themselves before it. How wilily have the priests devised their scheme, unanimity and intelligence amongst the people would destroy their power. Divide and govern, or enslave, is their maxim. As the Demon of Despotism I glory in the priesthood in every nation, and in all time. What pleasurable thoughts fill my soul, whilst I behold this; people, great in policy, eminent in science, and distinguished for industrial skill,quarreling and hating each other; one because he has an onion or a cat divinity; another because he has a divine love for a crocodile, or holds a hog in divine reverence; and another hates all the others because he adores a man god.— Generation after generation, this people will decline, until they become more bestial than the brutes they worship, or more feeble or imbecile than their gods. From Egypt I pass onwards to Greece,-to that Greece which will be immortal and from which I have much to fear. These hardy, sons of freedom will resist whilst they obey; they will pray to the divinities, whilst they will repel despotism; they will court the muses whilst they serve Zeus; desire the smiles of Aphrodite, and seek to possess the strength and courage of Hercules; pay their devotions to Minerva, and cultivate philosophy. As the Demon of Despotism, I have most to dread from liberty and philosophy. The spirit that comes over men, that animates a whole people, is that which forms and strengthens, weakens or animates, their physical or mental energies; and these Greeks are enquiring and restless. The power of kings and priests subdues the noblest passions and enervates the mind; under them there are purifying storms, but the deadly, political, and mental calm, which breeds and generates the lordly reptiles that delight in, and feed upon, putrefaction and corruption. Storms in the national mind, as in more material nature, purify and preserve by agitation. But this bold and enterprising race must fall under my power, as others have done before them, and will do after them. must pass through nature to the grosser divinities; her powers or energies, ever active, everywhere present, must be exalted into gods for the vulgar; stones, fountains, rivers, seas, music, eloquence, and poetry, with war demons, storms and thunder, must be adored, propitiated, and worshipped. The senseless stones, wood, or gold, shall become as living divinities. These events achieved, this bold and distinguished race must follow in the beaten path of their more unfortunate and sable brethren.

I

On the top of mount Olympus, the imaginary temple or empyrean seat of the divinities, from which Jupiter hurls his thunder-bolts and darts his forked lightning, I seated myself in proud anticipation of poisoning the pure spring of limpid streams that flowed from its sides; so that the high-minded Greek might drink in the stupefying drug of superstition. Kingly authority will, though slowly, eventually flow from this priestly dominion, as naturally as the tide to and from the ocean, or death from the Upas tree. What is yon image I behold? It is the Palladium; a stone image, a senseless block, descended from heaven. They build a temple to the shapeless mass; and indulge in a fatal security from its fallaciously protective power. If angry with its devotees, fire flashes from

its eyes, or it attempts to leap from earth to heaven. But the light of her eyes equals not the brilliancy of that minute insect, the glow-worm; nor the attempt of the goddess to leap, the efforts of the despised reptile, the frog. Yet the people tremble or rejoice at the mandate of her priests. The shades of dark superstition are now fast falling over the minds of these immortal Greeks! Time flows on apace, and divinities spring up more plentifully than weeds in the spring season. Fire, earth, air, lakes, springs, oceans, stars, moon, and sun,-stone statues, deified men, and visionary ghosts, are exalted into gods, until there are three thousand to lay prostrate the souls of the people, and thus enable priests and kings to divide, govern, and enslave.

Thus the Demon of Despotism triumphed over the destinies of man. But Philosophy, which is the perfection of reason, in the study of nature, had her birth amongst the free sons of Greece. Erratic and feeble in her rise, she is now achieving victories as the hand-maiden of science. The heavens are opened and a new light is shining upon man. Geology is unfolding the leaves of the stone book,' and reading to him the history of the past, and aiding Reason to dispel the dark visions that have overclouded the past and dim the present. Chemistry is analysing, and Physiology delineating, dissecting, and tracing organic cause and effect, of human thought, motive, and action. Man reads man with stronger and more comprehensive vision. The throne of the Demon of Despotism is shaken to its foundations; and Error, with its guardian power, is falling and fading away in the present, and in the future, will be no more!

CRITICAL EXEGESIS OF GOSPEL HISTORY,

ON THE BASIS OF STRAUSS'S 'LEBEN JESU.'

A SERIES OF EIGHT DISCOURSES; DELIVERED AT THE LITERARY INSTITUTION, JOHN STREET, TOTTENHAM COURT ROAD, AND AT THE HALL OF SCIENCE, CITY ROAD, ON SUNDAY EVENINGS, DURING THE WINTERS OF 1848-9, AND 1849–50.

BY THOMAS COOPER,

Author of The Purgatory of Suicides.'

VII. THE RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION.

It was agreed, at the conclusion of the last discourse, that the evangelical accounts of the burial of Jesus should be reserved for consideration. Let us, therefore, dismiss them before we enter on any scrutiny of the account of the Resurrection itself. According either to the Roman or the Jewish custom, Jesus would have had no honourable burial; but the Gospels inform us that a distinguished adherent of Jesus begged his body of Pilate. John adds the name of Nicodemus to that of Joseph of Arimathea, in the matter of Christ's burial; and this new individual-for he is never mentioned by Matthew, Mark, or Luke-is described as bringing 'a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight;' and then, it is said, they took the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.' The surprising quantity of the spices must be passed over. The words were simply written by one who wished his readers to understand that the rich men who buried Jesus had a high veneration for him. But what credit are we to give to this relation, when we are told by Mark and Luke that the women