the hills, laughs at the rattling of the chains, and despises the bridle and the plough.

"Do you not suppose, O ye inhabitants of cities, that our pursuits and employments are well calculated to sharpen the faculties and exercise the understanding? Where the mind is accustomed to turn itself to a variety of vocations, and accommodate itself to a multitude of circumstances, must it not become infinitely superior to that sluggish existence whose ideas are continually occupied with the mill-horse round of domestic drudgery? "Not only the memory, but every faculty that man possesses, is improved by exercise: how, then, can his mind be enlightened who is the mere creature of habit, unaccustomed to thought and reflection? Can he, whose business merely leads him from his house to the street, from the street to his shop, from his shop to the street, and from the street to his house again, possess an elevated understanding? Can he, whose most distant excursions extend not beyond the limits of the town, have a mind enriched with a multitude of ideas? The things called zoophytes can know very little more than a leaf of plantain, or a sprig of hoarhound; and those animals that remain, during the whole period of their existence, on the same bank or hillock, are scarcely superior, in their intellectual powers, to a polypus or zoophytic fungus. What knowledge of the world was possessed by the toad, which was shut up for five thousand years in the solid body of a rock? Men, who vegetate in one spot, and have their minds wholly taken up by one perpetual round of occupation, must be limited in their ideas, and narrow in their understanding. Such are thy blessings, O civilization such are the consequences of thy refinement!"

It may, perhaps, be observed, that the above views of society are very far from being consolatory to that mind which may have cherished the idea that man must eventually realize a state of felicity, as they would seem to imply that all our efforts with respect to the improvement of our condition, do not, in fact, subtract from the amount, but only change the nature, of our toilsome exertions; which being the case, our hopes of ever reaching a state of happiness, as things are here constituted by nature, must be perfectly delusive; for, if the word happiness has attached to it any meaning, it certainly must imply a state of tranquil repose, or, at least, one from which all painful or involuntary exertion shall be excluded.

Contemplating man, then, in this point of view, (I mean that portion only of the "two-legged unfledged animals" who are worthy of being included in that dignified class,) and taking into consideration all the pains, penalties, and misfortunes that pursue him through life, till his final exit in the "silent tomb;" such as his necessary but laborious exertions, his conflicts with famine and disease, his fear of want and perpetual anxiety for the future, his often frustrated hopes, his frequent denials of justiceand, last, though not least, his superstitious fears, and dread of terininating his existence: taking, I say, all this into consideration, and remembering that death, as it is contended, will finally blot him from the universe, surely the most severe or fastidious philosophy may allow us to exclaim, "Alas! poor human nature!"

January 5, 1829.

D. D.

SCHOOL OF FREE DISCUSSION.

IS A BELIEF IN, A WORSHIP OF, OR AN ADMISSION OF THE EXISTENCE OF A DESIGNING AND DIRECTING GOD, OR OF ANY KIND OF GOD, SOCIALLY USEFUL TO MANKIND?

Such is the first grand question appointed for discussion in the Sunday School of Free Discussion, at 62, Fleet Street, for the present year. Mr. Carlile will open the question in an oration that shall maintain the negative side, on Sunday evening next, at seven o'clock; and every thing uttered in the shape of argument on the subject, pro and con, will be reported in The Lion.'

All sorts of infidel books, and some of the newspapers of the day, will be provided for those who may like to attend this school in the morning. Admission for the day, One Shilling; for the evening, Sixpence. Quarterly subscriptions payable in advance, 5s. per quarter to the school; 10s. to the school and library.

N. B.-In discussing the above question, it is not proposed to call in question the existence or non-existence of any particular kind of deity, further than the points may be essential to the elucidation of its social relations; but granting that to which all assent, that deity is incomprehensible, the enquiry follows, can that incomprehensibility be reduced to any useful social applications. Can a pretended belief, a pretended worship, or any kind of admission about it, bear usefully upon the social relations of mankind. A poet has wisely said—

"The proper study for mankind is mau."

Taking this as an axiom, and it may be so taken in its fullest sense, it follows, that the study of God is not proper for mankind. This will be the line of argument taken by Mr. Carlile, and be hereby challenges all comers to say any thing argumentatively and rationally upon the social relations of their varied doctrines of deity.

Printed and Published by RICHARD CARLILE, 62, Fleet-street, where all Communications, post-paid, or free of expense, are requested to be left.

The Lion.

No.3. VOL.3.] LONDON, Friday, January 16, 1829. [PRICE 6d.

LETTER AND LESSON THE THIRD.

MY LORD DUKE-I am emboldened to continue my addresses; because I know not a reason between us why I should not; and I really do it with a conciliatory spirit, because I see most clearly, that nothing but infidelity can allay the sectarian clamours of the day. I have the whole thing within my mind's grasp, and I shall pity the man or men who shall attempt or think to accomplish a civil peace among the religious sects, on any other basis than that of infidelizing them. It is not now what it was in the sixteenth century, a case of change from one sect or church to another, but a case of contention among various powerful sects, whose hostility is only to be allayed by being brought in contact with some principle distinct from each of theirs, and which shall exhibit superiority over all that they can advance: that principle is infidelity.

A Session of Parliament approaches, in which I do not say that something must be done; but that something ought to be done, and that something will be attempted to be done: and if your Grace will only meet the subject as you met that of the Corporation and Test Acts in the last session, the name of Canning will lose the last shred of its popularity, and that of the Duke of Wellington supersede all the names that now occupy public attention.

I ask no favour for my principles-Infidelity will never again cease to assert superiority over, and to command respect from, all persons and principles. It is not a thing that wants legislation; all that it does want is, free discussion, which it now has, and it would further require, that no barbarous laws shall

Printed and Published by R. CARLILE, 62, Fleet Street.

No. 3.-Vol. 3.

exclude its advocates from civil equality. Remove the oaths, of which infidelity is ashamed, but which are no conscientious obstacles to its civil equality, and we will never ask you to legislate, nor to use one word in a statute, about infidelity. We want no laws to protect its pretensions-it shall fall if it cannot stand without laws made for its support, and I, when I find such to be the case, will be the first to attack it. Therefore, my Lord Duke, I do not propose that you shall, in removing the practice of oath-making, do an act that will be painful to any sect. To me, it appears to be a great conciliatory project, degrading to no sect; but very likely to be most agreeable to all, and equal to all the civil equality that is now asked. You will then minister the affairs to a nation of citizens, among whom there is no exclusion, who are alike eligible to employment in the State, and who will neither claim nor recognize any political privileges, but those among the Royal Family and Peers.

Are you afraid of the Roman Catholics? If I had a million lives, and a million of acres of land, I would stake all as a responsibility for the entire harmlessness of Roman Catholicism in this country and in Ireland henceforth and for ever. Infidelity is the master of that church.

Had Napoleon Buonaparte ruled in the spirit of infidelity, he would have put the Roman Catholic church out of existence, and have been a splendid reigning monarch or chief magistrate of a nation, if not of the united nations of the continent of Europe, to this day. It was within the scope of his physical power, and he only wanted the understanding or moral power to do it. The Saracens had at one time nearly extirpated that church. But, I predict, that its final accomplishment is reserved for infidelity. That church will henceforth be perfectly harmless and unequal to any political agitation or interference with any nation. Such is its present state, and the less it be persecuted, the weaker it will become, to the extinction of its last taper. If I could but transfer to you but a little of my spirit and discernment, I would make the Duke of Wellington a greater hero, physical and moral, for posterity, than Napoleon Buonaparte, or than any public man that has preceded him.

If you be a man of the world, my Lord Duke, if you have mixed much with intelligent society, with sound and well-informed politicians, with thinking, calculating, and foreseeing men, you must have seen that there is not only a desire, but a pride, exhibited in the contemplation of throwing off those superstitious usages which our ancestors have bequeathed to us, and which have no other claim to our respect than witchcraft or fairy tale, because they were the false imaginings of our aneestors. I revere the name of my mother, but I cannot respect the superstition which she cherished, and so I would deal with all the errors that have been handed down from father to son.

It is the peculiar glory of this infidel age, that no new superstitions or errors can obtain enough of countenance and support, so as to be perpetuated, In Europe, there never will be a new religion, and this makes it a matter of greater importance, that we should rid ourselves of that which is up. If the alternative were a change of superstitions, I would say, retain the old and reject the new one. But as every pretence to establish a new religion or system, from that of Johanna Southcote to that of Robert Owen, is now tried in vain, we may congratulate ourselves, that the age of error is gone, as far as new errors come to be considered. The Christian religion, with its age of seventeen or eighteen hundred years, cannot now hold up its head and defy opposition, and were the origination of another such a system to be now attempted in England, it would be treated as the errors of Johanna Southcote were treated. The Virgin Mother would die of a dropsy, and Shiloh's cradle or manger be exhibited to be laughed at.

Let me repeat, my Lord Duke, that I am not insensible to your peculiar situation. I can see the Bishops gather round you, and say, "Give us this day our daily bread ;" and I understand very well, that you cannot yet answer, "Go and work for it." But there is a middle course to be pursued. You may say to the Bishops: "your opinions, on which you find your religion established, are impugned, in every relation which they possess, as to morals, as to history, or as to physics. How do you intent to meet those impugnings; for it is impossible, that you can maintain your ground, without succesfully meeting them? Will you refer it to public discussion, and shall I put up a second pulpit in your churches, in which you may fairly and honourably meet your opponent?" Your Grace may also gently hint the great benefit to the financial difficulties of the state, that would accrue from no further use of a religious establishment and its accumulated property to support it. It is only to put a stop to the creation of parsons, to ordain legislatively, that there shall be no more episcopal ordinations after the passing of an act, and the half of the thing is settled.

I have a passion for doing great things and for seeing them done by others. The only thing worthy of a life, or that makes life worth having, is to do some extraordinary act for the advancement of human happiness. The aggregate of human life, as it is now found, is not worth the possession; but it is improveable, and he, who improves it, lives deservedly. With these sentiments, Duke, I would gladly inspire you to do something morally great; because, you are better situated, than I am, for that purpose. My propositions are all great; and this is a reason why they are shunned or feared by lesser minded or interested persons. They are new, and they alarm those who have not weighed them; but I and others can see, and I wish you, my Lord Duke to see, that