ORACLE OF REASON;
Vindicated. EGULARY

Or, Philosophy Vindicated.

"FAITH'S EMPIRE IS THE WORLD; ITS MONARCH, GOD; ITS MINISTER ITS SLAVES, THE PEOPLE."

No. 29.]

EDINBURGH

EDITED FOR CHARLES SOUTHWELL, DURING HIS IMPRISONMENT,
BY G. JACOB HOLYOAKE.

THE TRIAL.

Gloucester, July 2.

ESTS

UNION

[PRICE ID.

ham as to threaten the total loss of his sight. On the first day of the sessions, I and a friend had to lead him to his lodgings, so painful THE trial that was to be is all of which I was it to him to endeavour to see his way. can speak. The judges of the sessions have Yet in this state had he to dance attendance postponed it until the assizes of August next. for three days on these lowly and humane So all the expenses, which have been neither servants of the most high. Still more disfew nor small, incurred on this occasion, will tressing was it to see Mrs. Adams, an interhave to be incurred again. By way of com- esting and intelligent woman and most affecpensation, I suppose, £1 93. were extracted tionate mother, parading for hours the cold or extorted, I scarcely know which is proper, aisles of the court, with endeavours to quiet under the head of court-fees for discharging her little infant-until an order was sent performer bail and registering new recognizan-mitting her absence. The man who could ces for my appearance at the assizes. My look upon or hear of a scene like this, and not friends, Messrs. Stevenson and Barnes had to execrate the name of religion, must be lost proceed from Worcester to become my sure to all sense of dignity, humanity, manliness, ties again. The amount now is only £100 and virtue! Is there a woman that can

-half the former.

The work of god goes bravely on, you would say were you here. Poor Mr. ADAMS, though still suffering most painfully from opthalmia, and Mrs. HARRIETT ADAMS, his wife, and infant child, were, dragged over here too for trial. The cause of the lord must be woful indeed, if the miserable shifts had recourse to, and the injustice and harbarity their case evidences, are necessary for its support. Their trials also are postponed to the assizes. Although no one was bound over to prosecute Mrs. Adams, yet was she compelled to appear, and £1 17s. 6d. charged for discharging the bail for her and Mr. Adams and entering new sureties of the same amount as before, for their appearance at the assizes, and the clerk of the sessions threatened in open court to estreat their bail unless they Immediately upon that notice appeared. He was told that they would rather take their trials than endanger the property of the friends who had become sureties for them; then time was allowed to fetch them, Mr. H. Fry and Mr, H. Beckett, from Cheltenham, who again became bail for their appearance. Mr. Adams, and Mrs. Adams, with her infant at her breast, will have another time to leave their home and family and present themselves for torture and punishment at the bar of this Christian inquisition. The affection of the eyes under which Mr. Adams has been for sometime suffering, was so much increased by the cold draughts to which he was subjected during his imprisonment n Chelten

behold an amiable and virtuous mother thus
dragged from her home and family-so bru-
tally exposed and tortured by still prospective
imprisonment with the most degraded of man-
kind-and not tell how infernal is the spirit
of piety, and how revoltingly inhuman the
sacrifices offered up at the shrine of the lord?

The expences entailed upon Mr. Adams
are such already as would quite ruin him
were they not to be defrayed by the subscrip-
tions made for the defence. Thus the ener-
gies of an industrious family would be pros-
trated for ever by this pious prosecution.
How intensely sickening to talk of god being
good to all, and that his tender mercies are
over all, after this! Had it not been for the
subscriptions sent in they must have both in-
evitably gone to gaol until the assizes, for the
court was prepared to award that sentence,
and, as it has been remarked, were even pre-
pared to do it. Had this been done, Mrs.
Adams's family and the pour orphan whom
they have kept, would have been consigned tó
the poor-house, unless funds had been found
for their support; and not knowing whether
this would be done the parents expected this
fate for their poor children when they parted
from them to go to Gloucester. Conjure up,
if you can, the horrors of an English poor-
house to a fond mother's mind as the house
of her children whom she has for years nur-
tured with the tenderest care; see the deso-
lation cast over the domestic hearth-all lone
and forsaken-and fancy, if you can, the
anguish of mind for both mother and father,

and say, if Christian malignity ever gloated upon a more torturing spectacle! Collect all the misery that irreligion, according to the most rabid priest, ever produced, and I deny that, congregated together, it could equal in cold-blooded barbarity this one scene prepared for-and, if the preparers are to be helieved, commanded by-a god of mercy-a kind father! A mother made childless and a widow; children, orphans; and father, mother, and children shut up in so many living tombs to suffer all the indignities a Christian can so well heap upon the helpless in his power, and all the cruelties a priest can inflict how delectable the music of their groans for the ear of god! How sweet the harmony of their sighs for the portals of heaven!! What acceptable offerings their misefies must be at the throne of mercy!!!

-

When will the time arrive for insulted reason and humanity to speak out;

CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Editor of the Oracle of Reason. "Who by searching can find out god; who can find out the almighty to perfection."-JOB. THE above is, perhaps, the only sensible passage upon this subject in the holy book. Much, very much has been said and written on both sides the question, "Is there a god?' And in their speculations upon the visionary and useless, men seem in accordance with the subject to have forgotten all their philo. sophy; they seem to have thrown experience to the winds, and to have built castles in the air to their hearts' delight; men or gods of punch's wife, they are no sooner up than straw have been continually set up, and like

down.

Every possible inconsistency with every personation of folly and abomination has been called by the name, until it has be come such a common-place thing with us to have, or to say we have, a god-that we know not how to speak without him, or her, or it.

The subject of deity is one which has grown into importance from the neglect of the first rule in philosophy; it has no importance in itself, and the speculations and prejudices, we can't call them beliefs, upon the matter, are the result of ignorance or of reason run wild.

name

- god.

When man shall proudly scorn to nurse Religion-earth's most direful curse? And it may be added, earth's most direful mockery too! Give us the gory wheels of Juggernaut to crush us at once out of consciousness and life; Moloch, with his swift and ready sacrifices, or catholicism, with her poisoned bowl, faggot, and rack! They are better than the mode in which the victims of Christ are now sacrificed; for it is done with us under the pretence of promoting virtue and morality, and the glory of god, at a time The proper study of mankind is man; and when people see not and dream not of the if men had attended to the axiom, had fulfilinfernal demonism these pretensions alway's led its dictates, if the recommendation, know cover in the cause of religion. With catho- thyself, had been adopted, we had never been licism we had open undying detestation; we pestered with the thousands of fancies reprehad that glorious hate which hurled the firm-senting no tangible idea and called by the est, subtlest, greatest, most impregnable church the world ever saw, or ever will see, into the dust, and the recollection of her cruelties will ever keep her there, and send every other religion of the same revolting practice to the same long account. Let these Christian men but go on as they have begun, and we shall soon have this scorn, contempt, and detestation of their principles and pretension; let but a small band of men be called out with the nerve of the brave old martyrs; let but a few glorious, courageous, unbending women, like Mrs. Adams (from the spirit in which she has borne her persecution she well merits this character), and the fierce, tyrannical, intolerant, and mind-crushing spirit of christianity will no longer bestride our country like a colossus, and we petty men creep under its bloated legs to find ourselves dishonourable graves! G. J. H.

Suppose the existence of the purest of men's is in a personal form, what is it? And what to us? These questions for their proper solution involve others which every person engaged in the study had better put to himself. What am I? What can I

know? And let us be sure that it is know. ledge we seek, remembering that the meaning of the term is "things known," not believed, supposed, or fancied.

What is all our experience? A series of excitements caused in the mind by passing events, and treasured up in the mind's store. house, memory, to be recalled at pleasure. Can we comprehend aught beyond the capacity of our own mind? The question itself is absurd! We are men, with men's thoughts, men's minds, men's capacities; and if the believers in and preachers about a god would only bestow a few minutes in analyzation of the idea, if they would only ask of what is it composed, they would find that in their highest aspirations and loftiest conceptions, in their noblest and purest ideas, they have just embodied their own conceptions of a

verily, verily, there is no comforts like those of the gospel, for godliness is great gain and profitable for all things, especially for the priests.

It is the fashion of some Christians, when they are told of the wholesale intolerance of their "brethren in the world," to say, oh, I disapprove of that, christianity does not sanction that, and yet they will do nothing to prevent it; they forget that they who allow oppression share the crime, and in fact, they sanction the doctrine of persecution to the fullest extent, by advocating the doctrine, "he that believeth shall be saved, he that believeth not shall be damned." I deny the right of any power, divine, infernal, or human, to punish any one in this world, or "that which is to come," for his opinions; man cannot believe as he likes, he must believe according to the strongest conviction made upon his mind; no power, therefore, has any right to send a man to hell, any more than one man has a right to punish another for his convictions; in fact, the doctrine of damnation for belief is the foundation of all intolerance, and I therefore maintain that christianity is not a tolerant system, that it is not worth what it costs, that it has been proved a failure, if it ever was intended to do good, and that, in consequence, it ought to be destroyed, root and branch; its scraps of morality have been gathered from other sources; its theology nothing but reformed paganism; at best, in short, its place can be supplied very easily, by a much better system, in every respect. If Christians wish it to retain any portion of respect-if they wish it not to be considered the greatest curse that ever afflicted humanity, they must oppose firmly and unitedly, both prosecution and persecution, in principle and detail, otherwise, their wishes will not be gratified.

the following disgraceful and atrocions law, entitled the "Act of Apostacy;" this law is on the statute book at the present hour, and may be enforced at any moment; hence, the necessity of demanding its immediate repeal, let us call on the bible-believers to help us-to test their sincerity.

By the 9th & 10th of William the Third, c. 32, it is enacted that "If any person educated in, or having made profession of, the Christian religion, shall, by writing, printing, teaching, or advised speaking, deny the Caristian religion to be true, or the holy scriptures to be of divine authority, he shall, upon the first offence, be rendered incapable to hold any office or place of trust; and for the second be incapable of bringing any action, being guardian, executor, legatee, or purchaser of lands, and suffer three years' imprisonment, Such disabilities may for ouce be avoided by a public recantation, within four months after."

There, Christians, what think you of that? Infidels, what think you of that law? Surely, the first will be ashamed of his own system; and the second redouble his exertions to destroy it. Oh, religion, what innumerable atrocities have been committed in thy name, what a curse hast thou been in all ages of the world. The Jew-Book sanctions these things; the truth-telling, faithful apostle, Peter, tells us, to "submit to every ordinance of man for the lord's sake," and of course this apostacy law among the number. Rare doctrine this! To be given by divine inspiration. Christianity favourable to Hiberty! Out upon such nonsense-it is scarce worth a refutation. Paul, another of the faithful, says, let every soul be subject to the higher powers; for there is no power but of god, the powers that be, are ordained of god; whosoever, therefore, resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of If we were to inquire of the Prostestant, god; and they that resist shall recieve to what he means by the principles of protes- themselves damnation, so that the penalty of tantism, he would say, the principles of unfet- seeking liberty of speech and action, in this tered thought and speech, and yet, the whole world, is to be, damnation in the next, accordhistory of Protestant christianity, proves that ing to the Jew-Book. Hence, it is evident, Protestant Christians have done their utmost that that which promotes the best interests of to fetter the one by supernatural fears, and humanity in this world, is heresy, infidelity, the other by the strong arm of the law, such blasphemy, atheism; and yet, we have men are the professed principles and real practice declaring in the present day, what Lord of the Protestant world. Professing to discard Bacon ignorantly declared in his, namely, the authority of the church in religious mat- "there never was found in any age of the ters, they have retained it in practice, and world either philosopher, or sect, or law, or thus have they cheated the world into a be- discipline, which did so highly exalt the pub lief that there has been a change for the bet-lic good as the Christian faith." Of the igter; the fact is, that Protestants have been as intolerant as they could, and dared. Catholics have been no more; previous to the revolution of 1688, the churchmen and dissenters were continually engaged in virulent contests with each other; as soon as these quarrels had, in part, subsided, they joined their forces for an Infidel crusade, and passed

norance of Christians, of the contents of their own book, we shall have something more to say in a future article. What is a Christian, measured by the orthodox standard? He must express no doubt of the truth of the extraordinary statements contained in the sacred books, he must implicitly believe the doctrines drawn from those statements by holy ghost

in

will exert themselves individually to bring
about this state of things, I am yours,
the cause,
J. C. F.

[The following letter was received from Mr. CHAS.
SOUTHWELL by a friend of his, and being of opi-
nion that anything emanating from Mr. S. would
be interesting to the readers of the Oracle, he has
kindly forwarded it to the editor.]

Bristol Gaol, Friday, July 1, 1842. MY DEAR SIR,-I am sorry Mr. MACKINTOSH has been affronted; if possible he should have been soothed-not shocked. His excuse for abandoning the contest was paltry; but I presume he thought any excuse was better than none. It is, however, to be regretted that our friends furnished him with the ghost of one. The net was well thrown, but not well lined, so the big bird, the only Social philosopher, contrived to break away from it.

inspired priest; not daring to exercise his reason, thereon, he must attend the "house of god," twice or thrice on the sabbath day, and also during the week, if possible; he must coudemn in strong terms, in others, all attempts to enlighten the mind or to improve the health of the body by exercise and amusement, especially on the sabbath day; he must denounce as blasphemous every thing that has a tendency to thin the temple of the priest; however good it may be in itself, he must pay well to the religious funds, from motives of benevolence, and yet expect for his payments, in the world to come, interest, at the rate of some millious per cent; he must be very devout in appearauce, and though professing to be very humble, he must, if a Calvinist, fancy himself one of the elect, and cannot fall from grace; if a Methodist, he must have the witness of the spirit" that he is a child of god," and consider, when speaking of the divine goodness, that all other sects but his own are more or less damnably in error. He must be sensibly alive to the interests of religion, and neglect the public affairs of this world, by being content in his situation; he must not suppose that science is superior to faith; he must abandon reason when it militates against doctrine; and denounce knowledge when it is opposed to his creed; last, but not least, he must be an avowed hater and denouncer of infidelity, and if he can throw in a little slander and perse-lodging. The war is to be a paper one. I have cution, now and then, so much the better; finally, he must be a physical, mental and moral slave, be a stumbling block in the path of human improvement and human happiness, and then it will be said to him at the great day" well done, good and faithful servant, enter ye into the joy of your lord." Such are the effects of religion on the indivi. dual and general character of the people; it must be removed before the world can be effectually reformed. Cut it down! Why cumbereth it the ground?

Survey the varied globe, and mark the spot
Where superstitious fears and dreams are not.
In every clime, from pole to pole,
Some fancied vengeance terrifies the soul.

I have been visited by one Mr. BAIRSTOW, a crack Chartist leader. The coversation was spirited and miscellaneous. My tongue is growing too large for my mouth from sheer want of exercise; but please don't mean shorten it, but rather gain in length what god, as the folks say, I will reduce it by and by. I

But I have

I intend it should lose in thickness.
not quite done about Mr. Bairstow. He is a Theist,
and has gallantly undertaken to prove in the sight
of all who have intellectual eyes to see, that there
is at least one god. We agreed to have a single
combat, a fair stand up fight, when I am out of the
state's keeping, and am allowed to pay for my own

agreed to allow him equal space, in whatever paper I have to do with. If he can convince me that there is one or many gods, I shall be greatly obliged to him. He will have nothing to do or say for the god of revelation, but undertakes to show a bright and shining god of nature. He is a clever young mantalks to admiration, and, I am told, writes as cleverly as he talks. Success to him! If he combine better for the cause of truth, whether that truth be material or spiritual, polytheistical, pantheistical, theistical, or atheistical. I really long for a dicussion with some one who is competent for the task, and having appealed to reason, dares abide by it; such men are rare, almost as rare as flowers in December. Discussion is, as Tully well observed, the file which best polishes our intellectual weapons; but where are the men who profit by old opinions, however crazy, and are well pleased to wear the tottering, rich and respectable livery of cant; where are there, I say, such men, who dare discuss freely all questions, and hold fast only that which is good? Echo answers, where?

the talents of Demosthenes and Cicero, so much the

The universality of its domains does not prove its impregnability or utility; it must, it shall be destroyed. The utility of fearless examinations, no one can doubt, who has thought upon the subject. Already, inquiry has buried the tomb of oblivion an immense number of those offsprings of human insanity, the religions of the world. May all those that remain soon experience the same fate, and man learn that The 18th of August, I believe, the assizes commence,

he is destined for, and capable of happiness in this state of existence, and that, whether he is happy or miserable does not depend upon the influence or decrees of any supernatural power; but upon his own conduct. Trusting that each and all of your readers

Give love to H., the trial will not, I learn, my come on till the assizes; well, so much the better.

so that our friend will have more than seven clear weeks to prepare his paper pellets, and maufacture some thunder. He should pay Bristol a visit on his way, or out of his way to Gloucester, when, as the advertising people say, he will undoubtedly hear of something to his advantage. The petition from Cheltenham, condemnatory of the conduct of