by its friends and supporters. But we believe that no one can determine in whom or in what this infallibility resides.

The expression "infallible' means privileged from error, incapable of mistake, not to be misled or deceived, certain; and it is used both of persons and things." Such is the definition of the word as given by the great lexicographer of the Anglo-Saxon language, and such is the nature of the mental and moral capacity attributed to the human being in whose person is invested the Roman episcopal, political, and military power. It is quite manifest that the quality and power, as described, if really possessed by any being on earth, would constitute the possessor superhuman and a partaker of the attributes of Deity. A person exempted from error, incapable of mistake, and of being misled or deceived, and who is always certain, must be divine. Any human creature who claims such attributes is a blasphemer of God, inasmuch as he assumes the powers and prerogatives of God; and in this usurpation of the divine qualities, "he showing himself that he is God."+ Were this blasphemous pretension confined merely to the individual who thus indulges himself in the dreams of this species of insanity, the mental aberration would be ranked among the anomalous peculiarities of the human mind, and would pass quickly into oblivion.

But when it is considered that the masses of men and women as objective creatures are imposed on, and led by audacious pretensions masked in sacerdotal garments, and trumpeted by subservient priests, they are at last enslaved by strong delusions and they believe a lie.

* Johnson's Dictionary, first edition.

† 2 Thess. ii. 4.

This infallibility, claimed by the bishops of Rome, or by their conclaves of cardinals, or by the councils of the Roman church, is of a different character, and of a more extensive and durable nature than that of the oracular responses or decrees delivered by the priestesses of Delphos, or the priests of the temple of Ammon in the Lybian desert. The oracle was silent until it was questioned, and it did not pretend, like the high priest of the Vatican, to exercise an active and a permanent influence over society, but it gave its answers to the special inquiries put to it in obscure and enigmatical language, which might bear, according to the wishes of the inquirer, an explanation favourable to them.

This claim to infallibility will demand an analytical investigation by the lay members of the Roman church, as on it rests a system which claims an absolute freedom from error, incapacity of mistakes, and a judgment which cannot be deceived in reasoning or misled in action. This pretender to infallibility claims to be the only teacher of true religion, and the only instructor of the faithful. He also claims to be the only representative of God on the earth, to guide men in this world, and to decide their lot in the world to come.

In unmasking the false pretensions of the bishops of Rome as emblazoned on the cross-keyed banner, we in our imagination put ourselves in the position of addressing our observations to the standard-bearers and the chivalrous soldiers of the papal army; and we strained ourselves in the argument put to brave men, to consider the disgrace of serving under a standard which neither conveys ecclesiastical truth nor carries military honour.

In our statements to establish the " FALLIBILITY of the Roman bishops we shall adduce historical facts,

and apply them in a manner peculiar to this argument, and we will address ourselves to another order of mento scientific navigators and hardy mariners, and we will endeavour to engage their attention by an appeal to arguments drawn from geographical discoveries and astronomical calculations.

CHAPTER II.

Where is the relative position in the Universe of the Solar System? The Effect on the Mind of the contemplation of the Astral Universe.-Particular Stars, and groups of Stars, have in all Ages been regarded with peculiar interest by Man. The appearance of the Astral CROSS of the Southern Hemisphere.-Description of it.-It stands in the South as the Ursa Major stands in the North in relation to the Pole.—Remarkable facts connected with the Southern Cross.-Wonderful accuracy in the Geometrical Calculations afforded by the Stars.-Notice of the puerile Speculations on Fire Mist as the Seeds of Stars in the Book called the “Vestiges of Creation."

THE globe inhabited by man moves in a part of space which affords him an uninterrupted prospect of the universe in all its magnificence and vastness; but, in order to have a full view of the stellar scenery, a person must voyage from northern Europe to the high southern ocean, from the bosom of which he may contemplate that portion of the universe which was hid from him by the rotundity of the earth while he lived in the northern hemisphere. Astronomers have not yet been able to determine the relative position of the solar system in space occupied by the innumerable worlds which are spread on all sides around the sun and his planets, but it will be sufficient for the purpose of our illustration to state that, to the human eye, the earth appears to be in the centre as it turns in its diurnal rotation.

The sight of the starry heavens in a dark clear night is so familiar to a man that he gazes at them as common-place objects; and generally thinks more of the dust on which he treads than of the luminaries above him. A reflective contemplation of the stars of the northern hemisphere is, however, calculated to awaken a solemn train of thought, for, although the familiarity of the sight diminishes the effect, it may be affirmed that every human being, at some time of his life, while under serious emotions, has looked up to those bright worlds, which as stars illuminate the vast expanse of heaven, and by a strong effort of imagination throws himself into the mysterious region beyond. This may be presumed to be the state of every individual of the race who has lived to the age of thought and reflection, and will include man in all stages of his progress, civilised, barbarous, and savage. Young and old, men and women, all ranks and conditions, philosophers, traders, tillers of the ground, shepherds and navigators, priests, kings, and soldiers, have strained their eyesight into space, and have had their intellects stimulated, and their thought expanded, by the contemplation of the starry heavens. We thus find that man in his physical prospects and intellectual contemplations feels himself part of the universe, and penetrates through nature up to Nature's God. The very mind recoils from the conception of a starless universe, and the sun, and moon, and planets by themselves in the immensity of space would have been "without any order, and where the light is as darkness." *

It is the nature of the mind to regard with much interest places and objects which have been visited or cared for by the great and good men of past ages; and in the starry heavens we have before us, during any

*Job x. 22.