of the men of Gibeah, Benjamites, the descendants of the chosen son of Jacob: Judges, chap. xix., ver 22.

I ought not, perhaps, to stop here. I ought perhaps to ask my opponent whether he, or any other decent man, would read aloud to his sister or his daughter passages so gratuitously and outrageously obscene as are to be met with throughout the Old Testament. I ought perchance, to quote as others have done, a dozen such passages as Ezekiel, chap. iv., ver. 12; or chap. xvi., ver. 1 to 63; or Hosea, chap. i., ver. 1 to 6; chap. iii., ver. 1 to5, &c., And I ought to ask my opponent whether, in the course of his life, he ever saw greater indecencies in print; and whether a young woman in whose hands should be detected any book (not labelled the " Holy Bible,") and containing only a tenth part of the sullying and unseemly imaginations that are scattered throughout the Scriptures, would not lose her reputation for ever. This, it may be, is the course of argument I ought to pursue. But it repugns me to enter into the disgusting details: and I therefore, for the present, here rest my reply to the argument, that such a revelation as this is necessary to lead men to kindness, to purity, and to happiness.

ROBERT DALE OWEN.

P.S. The length to which this reply has extended compels me to defer all allusion to the French Revolution till my next.

TO ROBERT DALE OWEN.

LETTER III,

New-York, July 9, 1831.

SIR,

To say that "no faith nor any want of faith can destroy the influence of the light within," is saying in other words, that religious faith is not "incompatible with human happiness and virtue." But as this position, after having been strenuously insisted on by my opponent, to screen his scepticism from the charge of being of a demoralizing tendency, is at length by him abandoned, in his equally strenuous attempt to stigmatize religion with a similar charge, no argument will be necessary on my part to show, that it is of great importance that a man's views in relation to religious subjects be correct. Let us there. fore hear no more of the non-importance of a man's creed.

The parade of blood and slaughter made by my opponent in his last reply to me, was a mere appeal to the passions, without the least regard to the circumstances of the case. It is too obvious to need any argument to prove, that the great arbiter of

life and death can with as much propriety employ the sword to accomplish the destruction of a people as the earthquake, or famine, or pestilence, or any other means. The only question is, whether he did so employ it in the cases recorded in the Old Testament. Most assuredly, the agonies of death are no greater when the dagger gives the fatal blow, than when the earth engulphs and crushes her inhabitants with her mighty convulsions. Death is a debt due to nature by all the living: 'tis a dread and an awful scene, appear as it may. But so far is the sword from being its most dreaded instrument, that it is mercy itself compared with some of its natural ones. Witness the cancer, consuming its victim by atoms; the varioloid, putrifying him alive; and numerous other diseases, from which the sword would be a relief. I say then, again, that all the flourish of trumpets," all the display of "raw head and bloody bones," in my opponent's last letter, touching the case of the Jewish wars, was a mere appeal to the passions, and might just as well have been played off against the God of nature. As well might he have brought into view the warrings of the elements, as an argument against the existence of any God whatever, not excepting the finite one of Plato, as to pursue the course he did in relation to the God of the Jews. Yes, even against the existence of the finite God of Plato, whose being he has not ventured to deny ; for 'tis idle to admit a God of sufficient power to superintend and regulate in any manner whatever this vast universe, and yet unable to divert the course of the earthquake, or the torrent of liquid fire pouring forth from the crater of the volcano. Pointing his readers to immured Pompeii and the engulphed Lisbon, he might have exclaimed: In the book of nature, the tyrant seeks and finds his defence, the inquisitor his credentials. Where, in all the records of heathen barbarity, is there aught to match this? Cities annihilated! Imagine the sweeping deluge overwhelming one of those ill-fated cities. It invades every house, destroying men, women, and children, regardless of their heart-rending prayers, stifling the sick in their beds, and bringing down the hoary locks of age in blood to their graves. The morning breaks on a pile of smoking ruins!

Even as the Lord commanded the elements.

Ye talk of the burning of heretics, and of gladiatorial combats. Spare your pity, your execration, for the auto-da-fe of Mount Vesuvius, and the murderous quakings of the earth.

Such, I say, might have been the language of my opponent, as well as that which he did adopt. Such is the language of the avowed atheist; and most efficiently too does he ply it against those who reject the Bible on account of the Jewish wars, and who nevertheless do not reject the God of nature. And well indeed may he so ply it for who are ye that do not deny the God of the hurricane and the earthquake, of famine and pestilence, of fire and flood, of the miseries of life and the agonies of death; and yet reject the God of Israel? Nature

and revelation reveal a similar God; and this very objection urged by my opponent, is an evidence in our favour. Admitted, that without the command of God, the exterminating wars of the Israelites would have been murder. So would be the devastation caused by the elements, if wielded by man, uncommanded by infinite wisdom. But when the omniscient utters the decree -when he lets loose the raging winds, and kindles up volcanoes, and heaves the ocean, and darts the lightning, and rends the earth, and bids the avenging steel leap from the scabbard, to lay some sinful nation in the dust; where crawls the wretch audacious that dares say to him, What doest thou? Come forth, ye puny race, and try your strength with the eternal. Encase yourselves in armour impervious to his fiercest thunderbolts! Array yourselves with the elements of nature, hurl your fierce thunderbolts abroad, and hold the world in awe! Who, who are ye that set your mouths against the heavens, and arraign the Almighty at your bar! Have ye an arm like God? or can ye thunder in a voice like him ?" Cease then the unequal conflict, "lest he tear you in pieces like a lion, and there be none to deliver."

66

It was not till the iniquities of the Canaanites were full, that God awoke to judgment. Their gross idolatry, their brutal sensuality, their vile abominations, their horrid and impious rites, rendered them so loathsome and abhorrent, that the earth could no longer endure them. Then went forth the high behest, O sword! go through the land!-It went, and cleansed that land from its pollutions with the blood of its inhabitants. Their high places of idolatry were destroyed, their altars overthrown, their pillars broken down, their groves burnt with fire, their graven images hewn in pieces, and the land which had been besotted with the most stupid rites, and defiled with the grossest abominations, and crimsoned with human sacrifices, became at once the glory of the earth. There, where had clanged the gongs of the fiery God, and smoked the carcasses of human victims, and resounded the shrieks of tortured innocents, now rang the highsounding cymbal, and ascended the incense of devotion, and pealed hallelujahs to the Lord. And it was there alone, in that land once so polluted, that the knowledge and worship of God were preserved from century to century, while all the world besides were groping in the thick darkness of spiritual midnight. There were the people enjoying the benefits of a religion sublime and glorious beyond human conception, while those nations that were infinitely their superiors in science, philosophy, and almost every thing besides which the powers of man can compass, were immeasurably distanced in this most important subject of all, How was this? How, but that this religion was from heaven? And shall we be told that such a religion is not compatible with human happiness? Yea, shall it be said that this religion was unnecessary? Then was it incompatible with human happiness, then was it unnecessary, to quench, the flames that consumed

the human race, and to dry up the fountain of moral pollution that forced the land to disgorge its inhabitants. True, those who succeeded to their places were not angels. They were frail human beings; and when they transgressed, God punished them. But, compared with what it had been, Canaan was a heaven. When therefore we view this subject in the light shed by the mighty operations of divine providence on a general scale, we can but be struck with the resemblance, and admire the wisdom therein displayed. But, as I have already said, so now say I again, that God's special command to the Israelites to exterminate certain nations by him designated, could be no warrant to them, much less to others, to exterminate other nations; wherefore, "the tyrant, the inquisitor, the conqueror, and the slaveholder,' can find no authority in the Bible for their course. Nor does it in the least impeach the justice of God, that he should have hardened the hearts of those to rush upon their own destruction, who so oft had, with nerves full braced, sent their offspring shrieking to theirs. The saving of the women children, is no proof of "lust" in the Israelites. Whether they were saved for servants or for wives, does not appear. In either case, there was nothing like lust. And as to the reputed obscenities of the Old Testament, whatever the fastidious may say, a man that publicly denounces marriage, and recommends placements, and writes "Moral Physiologies," may as well waive that subject. Still if he "ought" to have quoted what he denominates obscene passages of scripture, and yet forebore thus to do on account of their contents, duty sits very loosely on him. A few words more on the subject of the necessity of revelation, will bring this branch of the discussion to a conclusion.

In my last, I presented a brief view of the heathen world. I will now select from the mass, some of their best and wisest men, and see what even they were without revelation. At the head of these perhaps stands Socrates. Him we find involved in painful perplexity relative to the most important truths. He doubted whether a holy God could forgive sin. He said it was necessary to wait for some person to come and teach us how to behave ourselves toward God and man; that we know not how to pray, and therefore that it would be better not to pray at all; and that the chief good consists in knowledge. Notwithstanding his theory, he complied in practice with the idolatrous worship of his own country. He made use of profane language, was guilty of impure amours, and prostituted his wife for gain. So much for this prince of heathen philosophers. Plato ranks next. He agreed with Socrates, as to our ignorance of duty to God and man. He made the chief good consist in being like Godwhich conformity to God, however, he taught to be, "a good habit of genius;" which habit was to be attained by music, arithmetic, astronomy, and geometry, together with gymnastic exercises!!! He tells us, (and Pythagoras agrees with him,) that the principle of good is unity, finity, quiescent, straight,

uneven number, square, right, and splendid; the principle of evil, binary, infinite, crooked, even, long of one side, unequal, left, obscure! He taught, that he may lie who knows how to do it in a fit season; and he made a distinction between lying with the lips, and in the mind. Seneca agreed with Socrates and other philosophers with regard to man's ignorance of duty. He says there is something in which a wise man excels God; that a man should be an admirer of himself alone; and that God cannot help human calamities. He made use of profane language, and was immoral in other respects, notwithstanding all his morals in his writings,-and he likewise advocated suicide. Cicero said he could more easily tell what he did not think, than what he did think, concerning the nature of God. He commended revenge as a duty. He said that there was no reward for virtue but honour, and that nobody was indebted to God for virtue. He too advocated suicide. And many other of the heathen philosophers advocated it, and carried about with them the means of committing it, and did commit it, rather than fall into the hands of their enemies; as, for example, Demosthenes, Cato, Brutus, Cassius, and others. Lycurgus allowed adultery in the wife in certain cases, and Plutarch commends him therefore. Calicratides, the Pythagorean, tells the woman, that she must bear with the husband's irregularities, since the law allows this to the man, and not to the woman. Aristippus taught, that a wise man may steal, and commit adultery and sacrilege, when opportunity offers. Whoredom and its kindred vices were sanctioned both in opinion and practice by lawgivers, statesmen, philosophers, and moralists, and are characteristics of heathen countries to this day. Theft was tolerated in Egypt and Sparta ; and in the latter country, and even at Athens, the seat of heathen refinement, it was a law, that infants weak or deformed should be killed or exposed; and the Athenians were permitted to invade and enslave any people whom they deemed fit to be made slaves. Revenge was inculcated by almost all the heathen philosophers. Pride and love of applause were by them accounted virtues. Suicide was considered the strongest evidence of heroism. While humility, patience, meekness, and forgiveness, were regarded as marks of meanness and want of spirit. Their ideas of God, and of their duty to him, of the origin of things, of the future state and its retributions, and of the highest good of man, were confused, contradictory, and painfully unsettled. On the last subject, viz., man's chief good, Varro, as I have already observed, reckons up two hundred and eighty-eight different opinions among them. Some say there were upward of three hundred.

In the foregoing summary, we behold what the wisest of men are without revelation. We find them all afloat, without rudder, sail, or compass, unable to direct themselves, much less others. Many of their doctrines and maxims were absolutely evil, which, being in accordance with the depraved human heart, would find