room for men to say, "Ye are forgers of lies; ye are all physicians of no value;" to which they sometimes, in very bitterness of spirit, add, when they see religion converted into an engine of despotism, and its teachers the faithful allies of the spoilers, "The tabernacle of robbers prospers: and they that provoke God are secure; into whose hand God bringeth abundantly."

Is it not true, that "a righteous man hateth lying; but a wicked man is loathsome, and cometh to shame?" No orthodox divine will say nay to this; but it must be evident that the man, be he king, priest, or legislator, who teaches, or causes to be taught, that it is good to believe, and bad to examine, is an unrighteous man, for he loveth lying; for what is error but a lie,-which it is only necessary to know as such, when it will receive its death-blow. Error is only supported because men think it good-falsehood always wears the mask of truth; but dabblers in human credulity, who go to market with their cunning, seldom fail to find a purchaser for the wares they carry-for with traffickers in opinion, what matters who buys, so that they sell; or who loses, so that they gain: they know that to make others as cunning as themselves would be to break up their holy and profitable monopoly; and hence it is, that quacks, theological and political, determinedly oppose any inroads upon ancient theology, or ancient kind of government. No, no; they stand upon the ancient ways, and say they have a prescriptive right to torture both body and soul. The theologian loves the good old times, and the good old things-once so well enjoyed, when there was no hubbub about rights of conscience or liberty of speech; but all was smooth, oily, and harmonious; when the glory of the church of Christ blazed forth amid the darkness of the people; when it was duly taught, and duly believed, too, that "the fear of a king is as the roaring of a lion; whoso provoketh him to anger sinneth against his own soul," We need not be surprised that the human heart was essentially corrupt, and all the thoughts of the mind evil continually, when such orthodox dogmas were given forth from our pulpits by holy men-most eloquent divines-whose wits were sharpened by the desire of court favour and good livings in perspective. How could the hearers of such inspired preachers be calm under their exciting influence? Can we wonder that their hearts burned within them when the Scripture was opened to them by men who knew that "the king's wrath is as the roaring of a lion, but his favour is as dew upon the grass!" and seeing

that "wealth maketh many friends; but the poor is separated from his neighbour;" they did, not having the fear of poverty before their eyes, preach to their dupes the excellence of poverty, as that which chasteneth us-turneth our thoughts towards heaven; while they piously did keep the wealth for themselves. Verily, this was the generation "whose teeth were as swords, and their jaw-teeth as knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men."

What but the influence of such godly ravings could have so long bewildered the people, and kept them in the mazes of error, the worse than Cretan labyrinth of Christian mysticism; but alas! the credulity of the people is as a rich mine that each knave thinks he has a right to dig into; and the priests early saw that if they would maintain their power, they must oppose every species of knowledge, except that particular kind of knowledge they wished to give. They supported error, because error supported them; and of this we may be sure, that as long as men profit by error it will not want champions. This is the grand secret; here we have the true cause why the opinions of one generation are adopted as infallible by the next; sacred truths, to doubt which, is sinful and unholy, injurious to public morals, and opposed to the glory of God!" Seneca finely observes," that plurality of voices is still an argument of the wrong; the common people find it easier to believe than to judge, and content themselves with what is usual, never examining whether it be good or no. By the common people is intended the man of title, as well as the clown; for we do not distinguish them by the eye, but by the mind, which is the proper judge of the mind.'

Men wise in crooked policy, who prefer ease to honesty, before they write or speak, feel the pulse of those they profess to teach. Sounding opinion from its lowest note to the top of its compass, and understanding the sharps and flats of discourse, they chime in most harmoniously with the voice of the age, or speak not at all, sheltering themselves under the wise maxim, "He that hath knowledge spareth his words; and a man of understanding is of an excellent spirit;" but there are others, who, not knowing how to write, so as to get readers, or to talk with the slightest prospect of getting ears that will hear, do make a virtue of necessity, and stammer out their opinion-that the world will be best reformed by saying nothing-by preserving a dignified silence. These people should

have been born before the flood. They hold the sage maxim that the mind is better improved by thought and meditation than by talking; besides, our great men of the present day, who are reputed wise for saying nothing, have Solomon to back them, who observes, that "even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise; and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding."

It is much to be lamented, that the human mind should be clogged and fettered by those who are set apart to teach truths, and should teach them; but alas! it is but too true, as said by Fletcher, the celebrated divine, that "there is not a pulpit in the kingdom where more has not been said for sin than against it :" and yet such preachers are orthodox, forsooth,—that is, fall in with the most common, and therefore the most profitable opinions. Oh, how strange, that while aucient philosophers are honoured as something more than men, and permitted to occupy a niche in the temple of fame, their teachings are set at nought. Socrates, though a Pagan, is little less than deified by all but the most bigotted-that is to say, the least instructed Christians; yet Socrates was not satisfied to believe, but taught the necessity of searching and probing into Nature, so as, if possible, to pluck out the heart of her mystery. Yes, Socrates is considered one of the wisest of mortals, though his orthodoxy was of a most questionable and crazy kind; nor were his opinions found to be of the right length, breadth, and thickness, when measured by the foot-rule of bigots. And to his cost he discovered that "a stone is heavy and the sand weighty, but a fool's wrath is heavier than both."

How, in the name of reason, shall we understand the genius of the ancient priests and poets,-how get at the spirit of their works, except by persevering industry, aided and supported by an ardent love of truth. How important, for example, it is that all Christians should know that in former ages, when priests were at once the teachers and the rulers of the people, their guides and their protectors, Nature's phenomena was only observed by them; all learning was then concentrated in the religious temples; the priests were the historians; all books were written by priests-in short, human condition was in former times, entirely prescribed by priests. But what is perhaps of more importance to know, their histories were histories of nature, not histories of men; and in their sacred books their custom was to put in action all the intelligences they sup

posed to be spread throughout the universe,-giving them a cha racter and manners analogous to their supposed nature; making of the Sun, the moon, the stars, the earth, the elements, &c., so many heroes, angels, or deities, each playing his or her part in their poetical fictions, and religious chants; as all know who have read the poems which treat of the works and wonders of Bacchus, of Jason, of Osiris, of Theseus, of Hercules, of Christ.

This custom of the ancient priests to personify natural phenomena, gave birth to idolatry, its absurdities, and cruelties, and the error was so much the more easily credited as the priests relaxed not in their efforts to persuade the people that the gods they adored had really lived and performed the extraordinary feats related of them; that they were bona-fide men, princes, legislators, and the like, who, when on earth, were as Hercules, the terror of the guilty, and the shield of the innocent.

The people in former times, like our friends and neighbours of the present moment, were not in general very solicitous to search into the real merits of such recitals, but were well content to be led, if always fed at the same time; a neglect of the latter condition makes the task of leading rather difficult; and it may be true that the ancient priests, or teachers of mankind, were prompted to act by the best possible motives when they gave currency to pious frauds, and taught that the gods worshipped by their devotees, had formerly resided upon the earth-been examples of virtue, truthfulness, bravery, and honour-thereby worthy of deification-leading the people to admire those virtues, and thus set in motion the springs of imitation; there being a natural tendency in men to aim at achieving those acts which they admire when performed by others; besides, such stories, they probably thought, would have the effect of stimulating the ardour for good deeds, which otherwise would have lain dormant in the breasts of the chiefs and leaders of the people; or it may be, that the priests connived at the cheat, with a view to excite, in the minds of the people, a love of virtue, by teaching them that great actions would ensure great rewards,—not merely on earth, but in heaven,—and ́that it was great and noble deeds which gave their forefathers a claim to wield the sceptre of their country, which was ever the reward of merit-not the patrimony of individuals.

A comparison of the ancient calendar, with the works said to have been performed by Hercules, will throw a strong light upon

this subject. The Phenecians had a tradition that Hercules was the god Sun-that magnificent star which vivifies all nature— which engenders the year, composed of twelve months, figured by the twelve works called the twelve works of Hercules. We are informed by Porphry, that Hercules was a personification of the Sun, and that the fable of the twelve works merely expressed, and did convey, the idea to the learned, of the apparent march of that star through the twelve signs of the zodiac. Hesiod informs us, that the zodiac, in which the Sun achieves his annual course, is the veritable career run through by Hercules in the fable of the twelve works; and that by his marriage with Hebe, goddess of youth, that he espouses after finishing his career, we are to understand, the year which renews itself at the end of each revolution.

The celebrated ancient poet Nonus, gives to Hercules the name of Helios, or Sun, and further says, that he is the same god that divers people adore under a host of different names— -as Belus upon the shores of the Euphrates, Ammon in Lybia, Apis in Memphis, Saturn in Arabia, Jupiter in Assyria, Serapis in Egypt, Helios with the Babylonians, Apollo at Delphi, and Esculapius in all Greece.

A comparison, that we here challenge all readers to make between the said works of Hercules and the works of the Sun during the twelve months, or with the signs and the constellations which mark the division of time during each month of the annual revolution, will set all doubt as to the mythological character of Hercules-for

ever at rest.

If the story told of Hercules be a solar fable, instead of, as is generally supposed, a matter of fact,-if the hero of the twelve works, to whom the Greeks attributed so many marvellous actions, and that they honoured, under the form of a hero invested with the skin of a lion, and armed with an enormous club, is the great god Sun, worshipped by all people, we shall know how to estimate what are called "the historical proofs of his existence." In various countries they prove the existence of Hercules by shewing what they are pleased to call the marks or traces of his footsteps, which plainly indicate, say they, that he must have been a man of colossal stature. The priests attached to his worship have conserved correct likenesses of Hercules, as the Christians have of their god Christ. Dr. Arnott has felt annoyed that the features of Christ had been borrowed from handsome persons of but questionable cele