thy of the Divinity. And the superstition of our own day and country has not been without dying witnesses to the influences of a living delusion, of fallacious hopes and fears. Of these influences, the most remarkable examples are given by Professor Mallet, quoted by Volney in his excellent and eloquent "Lectures on History," It appears from what Mallet records, that Harold, king of Denmark, who reigned about the middle of the tenth century, founded a town on the coast of Pomerania, called Julin or Jomsburgh. The colonists were prohibited from mentioning the word fear, even in the most imminent dangers. False fears make men slaves politically and mentally; they are the manacles that bind down their bodies and souls to human power and usurpations. This legislator, however, hushed this servile passion into silence, for some of the Jomsburghers made an irruption into the territory of Hacco, a Norwegian chieftain, and were vanquished, notwithstanding the obstinacy of their resistance. A number of the most distinguished of the party having been made prisoners, were, agreeably to the custom of the times, condemned to death. This sentence, instead of affecting them, inspired them with joy. The first contented himself with saying, without changing his countenance, or testifying the least mark of alarm-"Why should not the same thing happen to me that happened to my father? he died, and I must die also." The second said, that he knew the laws of Julin too well to pronounce any word that indicated fear. The third died with the same fortitude. The fourth returned a longer, a more remarkable answer:-"I suffer willingly," said he, "and this moment affords me the greatest satisfaction. I only beg that my head may be cut off as quickly as possible. It has frequently been disputed at Julin, whether we retain any of our senses after decapitation; I shall therefore hold this knife in one hand, and if, after I am beheaded, I lift it up against you, that will prove I am not entirely deprived of understanding; if I let it fall, that will prove the contrary. Hasten, then, and decide the question!" Trochil, the executioner, cut the head off at one blow, and the knife fell to the ground. Three others died with the same tranquillity and immoveable firmness. But some persons will demand, have not those men who have discarded the dogmas of the priesthood, feared to die? If they have, who have implanted this fear in the infant mind, and cherished it in its growth for their own selfish and impious purposes? For that must be impious, which is in opposition to the universality of human happiness; and goodness, and benevolence, and purity, in the next state of existence, must be preceded by purity, benevolence, and goodness in this. Falsehood, forgeries, and impostures can only be in requisition to support errors and earthly power, employed to degrade and brutalize the human species. Death is the scare-crow to terrify poor mortals from partaking of the fruits of the earth, as it is employed to frighten the irrational fowls of heaven. The fables of the miserable deaths of those who have nobly determined to think independently for themselves, are miserable forgeries, invented to alarm and terrify the weak and the timid. None are, however, exempt from the same fate, for as Homer sings:Men bear resemblance unto Autumn leaves, Which of their verdure every blast bereaves: The little beauties are discoloured found, And the wind scatters them upon the ground; But in the Spring a new succession's made, Which in the woods, do cast a gloomy shade: So one part of mankind doth always die, The other lives that frailty to supply."-(Old Translation.) It is thus that every organised being comes into succession and fals! decay. If death be so natural and inevitable, why should it be so much feared Is it because man's faith is not according to a particular standard? Whe is the right, infallible faith to be found? Man's life is too brief and lim to find it; the trumpet gives an uncertain sound; yet each faith gives s promise of a peaceful end. Alas! how the poor souls will be undecira when it is too late-when there is no redemption. The Mahomedan's pas ful end, say the Christians, will be an eternal death; the Pagan's hope a Heaven will be rewarded with endless torments; the Catholic's expectatio of interminable happiness will, say the Protestants, be met with unutteral woe and darkness; and the Catholic laments over the souls which have bee doomed to Hell since the Reformation. O ye, who sleep in faith, be deceived. God is not mocked by the false teachings of men. Either thes who profess those faiths cannot go to heaven; or, if they can, then th holding of any particular faith, or the not holding of it, is of no avail; 15. he who has no faith is on equal grounds with the most credulous and confiding And if there be no hope, with or without faith, then all must perish together which is too monstrous and absurd a conclusion, but naturally flows from th teachings and incongruities of faith. But those who have no faith must die without the consolations of religi So do the greatest portion of the human race, for we must bear in mind the grand distinction between what each man calls his genuine religion, and grovelling and degrading superstitions; and as the numerous superstitions clothe the human family as with an infected garment, from these no consolations can be derived, worthy of the name; or a false and delusive religion furnishes an antidote to the fear of death equally efficacious with that which claims to be true. The man who has attained to a correct knowledge of the system of the universe, and of the existences or natures that surround him, has nothing however to fear in death. That eminent and illustrious man, Washington-a free-thinker in his private notions and opinions-when be came to die, solicited none of the consolations of the priesthood or religion, but requested his friends to retire from the room, and expired alone. A death truly worthy of a great man-a warrior who fought for the rights and liberties of a rising nation-he solicited not, nor needed the poisoned chalice of priestly condolence and consolation. Mirabeau, in the last aspirations of life, desired to be placed near a window, so that he could look from it on those beautiful creations of nature which perfume the air and delight the eye and heart; he thus, to quote the language of the Hebrew writing, fell asleep with his forefathers. And the heathen, semi-Christian, Plato, says (in the Timæus) that "the death caused by wounds and disease is painful and violent -while that which follows old age, as the end agreeable to nature, is of all deaths the least irksome, and attended rather by pleasure than pain.' From the great body of the priesthood, who are spread over the face of the earth, men can have no rational hope of succour or consolation in that hour which closes the busy scenes of life; they are physicians without skill, and their medicines are delusions and impostures. They have either neglected their duties, or are wilfully ignorant, or what is much more wicked, are deceivers in the name of the Divinity. If therefore any of the human race should fear to die, it is those who have consummated offences of the deepest criminality, or of the darkest and most vicious designs. To enslave men's This ninds by false and servile fears is the gravest and greatest of all sins. nust be done, either wilfully or through ignorance; if wilfully, then the leed must be what we have described it,-if through ignorance, then they are not qualified to instruct their followers or devotees, and should at once be liscarded. If any priesthood, the Mahomedan or Pagan, be ignorant that their doctrines are false and delusive,-fables imposed upon the easy credulity of mankind (which they undoubtedly are),-then other priests may be equally so, and they are together blind leaders of the blind. If they impose upon mankind knowingly, then their offence is greater against heaven and man, than any other of which human nature can be guilty. There have been very wicked men amongst even the Christian priesthood, yet we have no accounts of their miserable deaths; nay, one who had experience amongst them bears witness, not only of their beastly intercourse amongst themselves, but relates that when they approach the confines of life, which should be their peaceful end, they take large draughts of laudanum to sooth and silence their painful qualms of conscience. Why have we not the awful deaths of the wicked priests? Or why are these things hushed up in sealed silence? Why is this system persevered in,-held in such high esteem? Is it not that fear is the great instrument of human oppression and degradation? Language addressed to the imagination, glowing and ardent,-visible representations, most horrifying and terrific,-stories written under the influence of the most malignant and selfish inspiration, are brought to play upon the feelings and instincts of poor, humiliated, grovelling humanity. And yet, with all this unhallowed machinery at work, human nature will burst, and is now rending asunder the bonds of this soul-slavery-will elevate itself above this bruising and crushing of the brightest, the noblest production of the Divine Being, the unchanging and eternal energy of the universe. It is acting in unison and harmony with this universal energy or being, that gives to man liberty, political, social and mental,-prosperity, such as he cannot at present even conceive,-and a happiness so lasting and comprehensive, that there is nothing resembling it in the records of his race. Poverty and toil are not for ever to be the doom of man. Suffering does not, cannot, merit or qualify for future rewards. He who seeks and values truths in realities,—dares to avow and publish them, and thus refines and elevates the human soul, his physical and mental being, most resembles and approximates to that all-energising power that upholds and preserves universal nature. In this resemblance and union, he can have nothing to fear and everything to hope. The future will be to him as the present. The universality of benevolence, disentangled from narrow, selfish, soul-destroying creeds, may become more comprehensive, pure, and enlightened; but it will neither damn or be condemned. The love of truth is the love of universal being, and that universal being will never inflict unnecessary pain upon its own likeness, nor upon itself either in time or eternity. Why then should man fear to die? He neither gave nor assumed to himself his own being; he comes into existence by an absolute decree, an incontrollable fate;-the material and mode of his being, the elements of which he is compounded, his propensities, passions and feelings, whatever he is or may be, were and are given, to him, independent of himself. The institutions, manners, customs, ideas, and notions of society,-the dogmas of the priesthood, -the imaginings of philosophers,-have flowed in upon him like the first rays of light, or have clothed him in darkness, as in an impenetrable mantle. What he is, he must be, and what he must be, he is not, cannot be respe sible for. Society, from man's necessities, demands laws, but society is c merciless and unjust; creates crimes and then punishes the criminal;-cras a God out of this frail, fallible mode of society; dresses him in its erring attributes, and reciprocally models society after his image; thus wa dering in the dark mazes of error, like a world beyond the bounds of th universe, beyond either the laws of light, of gravitation, or of order. Why then should man fear to die? Is it not that he is like a dil! grovelling and groping in the dark? Egyptian darkness, a darkness, unfertunately for mankind, which may be felt; a superstitious, priestly dark, that chills and benumbs the soul,-annihilates its noblest aspiration. its highest attributes. And when man is thus prostrated befor imaginary beings, he is trampled upon, despised, cast out of society made to believe that he is unworthy of earth, heaven, or hell.-Alas! por human nature, didst thou but know thyself, how thou wouldst cast off the spiritual yoke, with a burning but just indignation, and claim thy brother. hood with every thing or being that exists in the universe. Thou art a p ticle, a spark of this glorious universe-whatever is, or moves, or thirk concerns thee. Thou art the creature of this infinite womb, that conceive. brings forth, and encircles all; which has neither height nor depth, nor length, nor breadth. In this infinitude of being, thou actest and art acted upor. not a single pulse of universal nature beats, but vibrates through thy being And when sensation shall cease, thou wilt still be within that infinite womb that gave thee birth. Millions of human beings have preceded thee; million more will succeed thee. As a part of this great whole know thyself; be uni versal in thy love of mankind; be free in soul, and thou wilt be truly a fre man; thou wilt neither condemn nor be condemned. Endeavour to restore man to the harmony of nature, and to harmony with himself, and when thy sentient being shall cease, thou wilt lay thee down in peace, for harmony and peace constitute the immutable order, the eternal law of the universe. WORKS OF THOMAS COOPER, To be had of JAMES WATSON, 3, Queen's Head Passage, Paternoster Row. In 10 Books... (To be had also in 18 uumbers, at 2d. each; or in 6 parts at 6d.) THE PURGATORY OF SUICIDES. A Prison Rhyme. 31 WISE SAWS AND MODERN INSTANCES. A series of Tales illustrative of Lincolnshire and THE BARON'S YULE FEAST. A Christmas Rhyme. In 1 volume sewed,. THE MINSTREL'S SONG AND THE WOODMAN'S SONG. The Poetry and the Melody by 06 (Collected from Two Crations against taking away Human Life under any circumstances,. the Plain Speaker,').... PARTS 4,5, & 6 of " COOPER'S JOURNAL," containing 4 Numbers each, in a Wrapper, Price 44d., each, are now ready. Also, Parts 1 and 2, containing 4 Numbers each, Price 44d. each; and Part 3, containing 5 Numbers, Price 51d, Parts 1, 2, and 3, Price 6d. each, (each containing 6 Numbers,) are now CAPTAIN COBLER; OR ready, of LINCOLNSHIRE INSURRECTION:" An Historical Romance of the Reign of Henry VIII. Also, now Publishing in Weekly Numbers, at One Penny. Nineteen numbers are now ready. London: Printed and Published by JAMES WATSON, 3, Queen's Head Passage, Paternoster Row. મન્ચ i 1. ad 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 ve do injuriously to misdoubt her strength. Let her and Falsehood grapple! Who ever knew Truth put o the worse, in a free and open encounter?"-Milton's Areopagitica. IT has been said that the ancient Egyptians paid no religious worship to any animals except those from which they derived some peculiar benefit, and that their superstitious veneration for cats and crocodiles was founded upon this principle of gratitude for favours received. Perhaps this might have been the case, and if so, there was more reason in Egyptian piety, than there is in that modern political religion which glories in the adoration of effete aristocracies. The incense offered up at the present day before the shrine of Hereditary Rank, and the homage done to Hereditary Wisdom, can find no apology in the utility of the one or in the truthfulness of the other. In ages past, when titles of nobility always went together with offices of importance and responsibility-when the bearers of high-sounding names had work to do in virtue of those names, there was a fair plea for their existence, but, now a-days, dukes, and marquises, and viscounts, hold no offices as the consequence of their dignity, and the titles are merely empty words. They flatter the vanity of the possessor, exalt him in his own eyes and in the eyes of the ignorant above his true level, adding nothing to the wisdom of the wise, while they only make folly the more conspicuously foolish. This is the historical, moral, and philosophical medium through which we should view the artificial rank of the titled class. It will then appear in its naked reality, stripped of its tinseled glitter and its ermined delusions. We shall then see how little solid worth there is in a factitious nobility, and learn to value it accordingly. We shall then see the absurdity of admitting men to a seat in the legislature of a nation, for no other reason than that their fathers had grand nick-names, and that they themselves enjoy a similar privilege. And having regarded Aristocracy in this light, we may very naturally begin to reflect on the political importance of the British peerage, and the constitutional advantages of an Upper House of Parliament. And we shall, then, perhaps, ask ourselves the simple question. 'What's the use of a House of Lords?' The answer to this is clear as the cloudless sun, when we consider who, and what the Lords' are, how small a portion of intelligence they infuse into legislative acts, and that their |