Mischief VI.—Creating a Particular Class of Persons Incurably Opposed to the Interests of Humanity.

I have endeavoured in the preceding pages to point out all the different modes in which natural religion acts injuriously upon the temporal happiness of society. One species of injury yet remains to be indicated, and that too of incalculable effect and permanence—partly as it is productive of distinct mischief, independently and on its own account—partly as it subsidizes a standing army for the perpetuation of all the rest.

Those who believe in the existence and earthly agency of a superhuman being, view all facts which they are unable to interpret, as special interventions of the celestial hand. Incomprehensible phenomena are ascribed naturally to the incomprehensible person above. They call forth of course the deepest horror and astonishment, as being sudden eruptions of the super-aerial volcano, and reminding the spectator of its unsubdued and inexhaustible terrors. When any such events take place, therefore, his mind is extremely embarrassed and unhinged, and in the highest degree unfit for measuring the correctness of any inferences which immediate fear may suggest.

Now incomprehensible phenomena occur very frequently in the persons of different men—that is, certain men are often seen to act in a manner which the spectator is unable to reconcile with the general principles of human action, so far as they are known to him. Incomprehensible men and incomprehensible modes of behaviour, when they do thus happen, are of course subject to the same construction as other unintelligible events, and are supposed to indicate a signal interference of the Deity. When therefore the actions of any man differ strikingly from the ordinary march of human conduct, we naturally imagine him to be under the peculiar impulse and guidance of the divina finger.

Of incomprehensible behaviour the two extremes, though page 104 of diametrically opposite kinds, are superior wisdom, and extravagant folly. A loftier and better cultivated intelligence attains his ends by means which we cannot fathom—overleaps difficulties which seem to us insurmountable—foresees consequences which we had never dreamt of. His system of action is to us altogether perplexing and inexplicable. There are others again who seem insensible to the ordinary motives of man—whose thoughts, words, and deeds are alike incoherent and inconsequential—whose incapacity disqualifies them for the commonest offices of life. Such is the other species of incomprehensible man, whom we generally term an idiot or a madman, according to circumstances. Both the extremes of intelligence and folly thus exhibit phenomena which we are unable to account for, and are each therefore referred to the immediate influence and inspiration of God.⁵

Amongst early societies, where a very limited number of phenomena have yet been treasured up for comparison, and where the established general principles are built upon so narrow an induction, events are perpetually occurring which seem at variance with them. The sum of principles thus established, is called the course of nature, and the exceptions to them, or supernatural inroads, are extremely frequent. Accordingly, men of unaccountable powers and page 105 behaviour are easy to be found, where the standard of comparison is so imperfectly known; and the belief in particular persons, as inspired by God, is proportionably prevalent in an early stage of society.

Conformably to the foregoing doctrine, we find that rude nations generally consider madmen and idiots as persons under the impulse of unseen spirits, and view them with peculiar awe and reverence. This, however, though a remarkable fact, and signally illustrative of the principle, yet leads to no important consequences, and may be dismissed without farther comment. But the belief of a divine inspiration and concomitancy in persons of superior intelligence, is productive of great and lasting changes in the structure of the social union: and it is most instructive as well as curious to trace the gradual progress of these alterations. A madman is unable to take advantage of any prejudice existing in his favour among mankind, or to push such a feeling into its most profitable result. It terminates, therefore, in those spontaneous effusions of reverence, which do not extend their effects beyond the actual moment and individual.

In order to lead to any lasting consequence, it is necessary that the performer of incomprehensible acts should possess sufficient acuteness to take advantage of the inference which mankind are disposed to draw from them. He need not indeed be a first-rate intellect—but he must be some degrees above a madman or an idiot.

The inferences which an unenlightened mind is in this case inclined to adopt, are indeed most extensive and important. A man is seen, or believed, to produce some given effect, by means which the spectators did not before know to be adequate to that effect: astonished at such an unforeseen result, they think they cannot too highly magnify the extent of his power. It has already surpassed their anticipations very much—therefore there is no knowing by how much more it may surpass them—no possibility of conceiving its limits. He is therefore invested for the time with omnipotence, by the supposed momentary descent and co-operation of the unseen Being above. But if the Almighty has condescended to pay such pointed attention to any individual, this must be owing to some very page 106 peculiar intimacy between them. The individual must possess extraordinary means of recommending himself to the favour of God, in order to attract the distinction of a supernatural visit, and to be honoured with the temporary loan of a fraction of omnipotence. He must stand high in the estimation of the Deity, and must therefore be well acquainted with his disposition, and with the modes of con-ciliating or provoking him.

Such are the long train of inferences which the performance of an unaccountable act suggests to the alarmed beholders. It is important to remark the gigantic strides by which the mind is hurried on it knows not where, beyond all power of stoppage or limit, the moment it quits the guidance of observation, and is induced to harbour extra-experimental belief. A man is seen to do an incomprehensible deed: the utmost consequence which experience would extract from this, would be, that under circumstances not very dissimilar, the same man could repeat the deed. If a king is seen to remove one man's scrofula by the touch, experience might warrant us in conjecturing that he might cure the same disease in another; but it would be as ridiculous to infer from this single fact, that he possessed the power of performing any other feats, as it would be to conclude that, because mercury quickened the action of the liver, you might rely upon it for the alleviation of the gout. Such, I say, would be the conclusion of a rational observer. But the mind, when once disengaged from observation, and initiated into extra-experimental belief, rolls about without measure in her newly-acquired phrenzy, and glances in a moment from earth to heaven and from heaven to earth. To him that hath, more shall be given: pursuant to this maxim, we ascribe to the man who astonishes us by one incomprehensible feat, the ability of astonishing us still more by a great many others. Nay, the power, which we are led to conceive as exerted, seems too vast to be ascribed to him alone. We, therefore, introduce an omnipotent accomplice into the scene, and regard the feat as indicating the intervention of a hand sufficiently mighty to work any imaginable marvel. Such is the prompt and forcible transit whereby the extra-experimental believer is hurried on to swell the power which he beholds into a greater, and that page 107 still farther into the greatest—until at last an act of legerdemain is magnified into an exhibition of omnipotence.

But however unwarranted the inferences thus stated may appear, their effect is not the less important. The wonderworker gains credit for possessing an extent of power to which we can assign no limits; we view him as a privileged being, possessed of a general power of attorney from the Almighty to interpret his feelings, to promulgate his will, and to draw for supernatural recompense and punishments at pleasure. In virtue of this extensive deputation, the principal becomes responsible for everything which his emissary says and does, and is supposed to resign the whole management of earthly affairs in favour of the latter.

A wonder-worker thus, by merely producing an adequate measure of astonishment in the bosoms of mankind, is immediately exalted into a station of supreme necessity and importance. All knowledge of the divine will, all assistance from the divine power, can only be attained through his mediation. The patronage thus ascribed to him is enormous, and is, like all other patronage, readily convertible into every other sort of emolument or desirable object. Every one who seeks the divine favour, will not fail to propitiate the minister by whom his petition must be countersigned—whose blessing or curse determines his future treatment at the hands of the Deity. Knowledge of the divine intentions is another perennial source of influence and lucre to the wonder-worker. Hence he is supposed to foreknow the phenomena of nature, and the ignorant, when in doubt, regulate their behaviour by the results which he prognosticates. His patent too of interpreting the divine decrees, to which no competitor has any access, virtually empowers him to manufacture a decalogue on his own account, and to enforce its mandates by all the terrors of spiritual police and penalties.

Powers of such tremendous magnitude appear amply sufficient to enslave and lay prostrate the whole community. And this they infallibly would do, were the extra-experimental belief steady, equable, and consistent with itself, always applying similar principles on similar occasions; and if it were never over-borne by the more immediate motives and acquisitions of earth. The urgent necessity of page 108 providing for temporal exigencies, which are too pressing to await the result of an application to heaven, impels the minds of men in another direction, and models their associations more and more according to the dictates of experience. Having acquired, by their own exertions, the means of satisfying their wants, they have not so great an occasion for aerial aid, and all successive accumulations of knowledge tend to weaken the influence of the divine deputy over them.

My present purpose, however, is to investigate not so much the extent of this influence, as the direction in which it operates. We design to show, that the performer of prodigies (or this class, if there be more than one) when elevated to the post of interpreter and administrator of the divine will, and exercising an influence built upon these privileges—becomes animated with an interest incurably and in every point hostile to human happiness: That their sway can only be matured and perfected by the entire abasement and dismantling of the human faculties; and that therefore all their energies must be devoted to the accomplishment of this destructive work, by the best means which opportunity presents.

1. They have the strongest interest in the depravation of the human intellect. For the demand for their services as agents for the temporal aid of the Deity, altogether depends upon human ignorance and incapacity, and is exactly proportional to it. Why does a man apply for the divine assistance? Because he does not know how to accomplish his ends without it, or how to procure the requisite ap-paratus for the purpose. If he knew any physical means of attaining it, he would unquestionably prefer them. Every extension therefore of physical methods in the gratification of our wishes, displaces and throws out of employment by so much the labour of the aerial functionaries. No one prays for the removal of a disease by supernatural aid, when he once knows an appropriate surgical remedy. He therefore who lives by the commission which he charges on the disposal of the former, has a manifest interest in checking the advance and introduction of the latter.

Besides, the accumulation of experimental knowledge excludes the supernatural man from another of his most page 109 lucrative employments—that of predicting future events Those who are the most ignorant of physical connections, and therefore the least qualified to form a judgment as to any particular result, are of course the most frequent in their applications for extra-physical guidance, and the most likely to follow it. This is their sole mode of procuring the most indispensable of all acquisitions. Upon them too it is the most easy to palm a vague and oracular response or decree as to the future, capable of applying to almost any result; and they are the most easily imposed upon by shifts and pretences which veil the incapacity of the respondent. When mankind advance a little in knowledge, and become inquisitive, the task of the soothsayer becomes more and more difficult; whereas ignorance and credulity are duped without any great pains. The supernatural agent therefore has a deadly interest against the advance of knowledge, not only as it introduces a better machinery for obtaining acquaintance with the future, and thereby throws him out of employment as a prophet—but also as it enables mankind to detect the hollow, fictitious, and illusory nature of his own predicting establishment.

2. As he is interested in impeding the progress of knowledge, so he is not the less interested in propagating and cherishing extra-experimental belief. Ignorance is his negative ally, cutting off mankind from any other means of satisfying their wants except those which he alone can furnish: Extra-experimental belief is the substratum on which all his influence is built. It is this which furnishes to mankind all their evidence of the being, a power and agency of his invisible principal, and also of the posthumous scenes in preparation for us, where these are to be exhibited on a superior and perfect scale. It is this too which supplies mankind with the credentials of his own missions, and makes them impute to him at once, and without cavilling, all that long stretch of aerial dignity and prerogative, the actual proof of which it would have been difficult for him to have gone through. Both the hopes and fears, therefore, which call for his interference, and the selection of him as the person to remove them, rest upon the maintenance of extra-experimental persuasion in the human breast. Were belief closely and inseparably knit with experience, he would page 110 never obtain credit for the power of doing anything else than what mankind really saw him do. His interest accordingly prompts him to disjoin the two—to disjoin them on every occasion in his power, if he would ensure their disjunction for his own particular case.

Any one therefore whose power and credit with mankind, rests upon the imputation of supernatural ambassadorship, must be impelled by the most irresistible motives to disunite belief from experience in the bosoms of mankind, as much as he possibly can.

3. Take the same person again, in his capacity of licensed interpreter of the divine will and decrees. What edicts will he be likely to promulgate, as emanating from this consecrated source?

The only circumstance which makes the power of the law-interpreter inferior to that of the legislator, is the accessibility of the text which he professes to explain. Where this is open to the whole public as well as to him, his explanation may be controverted, and recourse will then be had to the production of the original. But if either there exist no original at all, or the interpreter possesses the exclusive custody of it, his power is completely equivalent to that of a legislator.

Now in one of these two alternatives stand the divine decrees. Either there never were any original decrees at all—or if there were, they have been deposited in a spot unknown to any one except the authorized interpreters. And therefore the latter become in fact legislators, issuing whatever edicts they choose in the name and on the behalf of their invisible master—and enforcing them ad libitum by any imaginable measure of punishment or reward, drawn from his inexhaustible magazines.

Now what principle will govern the enactments of an interpreter, or licensed class of interpreters, when thus exercising an unfettered power of legislation? The general principles of human nature suffer us not to hesitate a moment in answering this question. It will be a regard to their own separate interest. Like all other monopolists who possess the exclusive privilege of rendering any particular service, like all other possessors of power independent of, and irresponsible to, the community—they will pursue page 111 the natural path of self-preference, and will apply their functions to purposes of aggrandizement and exaction.

Now this separate interest is irreconcileably at variance with that of society. If any man, or any separate class, are permitted to legislate for their own benefit, they are in effect despots; while the rest of the community are degraded to the level of slaves, and will be treated as such by the legislative system so constructed. Conformably to this system the precepts delivered by the supernatural delegate as enacted by his invisible master, will be such as to subjugate the minds of the community, in the highest practicable degree, to himself and to his brethren, and to appropriate for the benefit of the class as much wealth and power as circumstances will permit. This is a mere statement of the dictates of self-preference.

4. To effect this purpose, he will find it essentially necessary to describe the Deity as capricious, irritable, and vindictive, to the highest extent—as regarding with gloom and jealousy the enjoyments of the human worm, and taking delight in his privations or sufferings—pliable indeed without measure, and yielding up instantaneously all his previous sentiments, when technically and professionally solicited—but requiring the perpetual application of emollients to soothe his wrathful propensities. The more implicitly mankind believe in these appalling attributes, the more essential is he who can stand in the gap and avert the threatened pestilence—the more necessary is it to insure his activity by feeing and ennobling him. On whatever occasions he can, in the capacity of interpreter to the divine will, persuade them that they are exposed to supernatural wrath—in all such junctures, he will obtain a fee, as mediator or intercessor, for procuring a reprieve.

The more therefore he can multiply the number of offences against God, the greater does his profit become—because on every such act of guilt, the sinner will find it answer to forestall the execution of the sentence by effecting an amicable compromise with the vicegerent of the Almighty. For rendering so important a service, the latter may make his own terms.

But in order to multiply offences, the most efficacious method is to prohibit those acts which there is the most page 112 frequent and powerful temptation to commit. Now the temptation to perform any act is of course proportional to the magnitude of the pleasurable, and the smallness of the painful, consequences by which it is attended. Those deeds, therefore, which are the most delightful, and the most innoxious, will meet with the severest prohibitions in the religious code, and be represented as the most deeply offensive to the divine majesty. Because such deeds will be most frequently repeated and will accordingly create the amplest demand for the expiatory formula.

Such therefore will be the code constructed by the supernatural delegate in the name of his unearthly sovereign—including the most rigorous denunciations against human pleasure, and interdicting it the more severely in proportion as it is delicious and harmless. He will enjoin the most gratuitous and unrequited privations, and self-imposed sufferings, as the sole method of conciliating the divine mercy,—inasmuch as the neglect of these mandates must be the most common, and all such remissness will incur a penalty which the transgressor must be compelled to redeem.

5. All the purchase which the interpreter of the divine will has upon the human mind, depends upon the extent of its superhuman apprehensions. It is therefore his decided interest that the dread of these unseen visitations should haunt the bosoms of mankind, like a heavy and perpetual incubus, day and night—that they should live under a constant sense of the suspended arm of God—and thus in a state of such conscious insecurity and helplessness, that all possibility of earthly comfort should be altogether blighted and cast out. The more firmly these undefined terrors can be planted in a man's associations, the more urgent is his need of a mediator with the aerial kingdom to which his apprehensions refer, and the more enormous the sacrifices which he will make in order to purchase such intercession.

6. Again, it will be the decided interest of the inspired legislator, to clothe all his enactments in the most imposing epithets of moral approbation—to describe the Being, by whom he is commissioned, in terms which imply the holiest and most beneficent character, though the proceedings and page 113 the system which he attributes to him indicate the very opposite temper—and to make mankind believe that every act of this Being is, and must be, just. By thus perverting their moral sentiments, he tightens and perpetuates the pressure of superhuman apprehensions. There will be less tendency to murmur and revolt at these threats, when men are persuaded that they have justly incurred the anger of an all-beneficent Being.

By this analysis, I think, it appears most demonstratively, that all those whose influence rests on an imputed connection with the Divine Being, cannot fail to be animated by an interest incurably opposed to all human happiness: that the inevitable aim of such persons must be to extend and render irremediable those evils which natural religion would originate without them, viz., ignorance, extra-experimental belief, appalling conceptions of the Deity, intense dread of his visitations, and a perversion of the terms of praise and censure in his behalf. To this identity of result I have traced them both, although by different and perfectly unconnected roads.

Natural religion is thus provided with an array of human force and fraud for the purpose of enforcing her mandates, and realizing her mischievous tendencies. A standing army of ministers is organized in her cause, formed either of men who are themselves believed to be specially gifted from the sky, or of others who pretend not to any immediate inspiration in their own persons, but merely act as the sub-delegates of some heaven-commissioned envoy of aforetime. The interest of both these sorts of persons is precisely identical, nor is it of the smallest importance whether the patent is worked by the original pretender, or by any one else into whose hands it may have subsequently fallen. In either case its fruits are equally deleterious.

In either case, the same conspirators league themselves for the same purposes—that of promulgating and explaining the will of their incomprehensible master, and subjugating to his thraldom the knowledge and the hopes of mankind. And the accession of strength, which religion derives from this special confederation in her favour, is incalculable. They supply many defects, in her means of page 114 conquest and influence, which must otherwise have rendered her dominion comparatively narrow.

First, one grand deficiency in unofficered religion, is the absence of any directive rule. Mankind, from their conceptions of the character of the Deity, will doubtless conjecture what sort of conduct will be agreeable to him, and will also fix upon some particular actions belonging to that course as more agreeable than others. But this unguided and promiscuous selection is not likely to be either uniform, earnest, or circumstantial.

When a body of authorized agents is framed, through whom the designs and temper of the Deity can be learnt, this defect is completely supplied. The ceremonial pleasing to him is then officially declared: the acts offensive to him are enumerated and defined, and their greater or less enormity graduated. Doubt and controversy are precluded, or at least exceedingly narrowed, by an appeal to the recognized organ of infallibility. And thus the superhuman terrors are concentrated and particularized, whereby they are brought to act in the most cogent and effective manner which the nature of the case admits.

2. In analyzing the efficiency of the religious sanctions, we have already seen that their remoteness and uncertainty will not allow of their producing a steady, equable and unvarying impression upon the mind—although at peculiar moments these apprehensions become supreme and overwhelming, even to insanity. For motives thus subject to fluctuation, the constant presence of a standing brotherhood is peculiarly requisite, in order to watch those periods when the mind is most vulnerable to their influence—to multiply and perpetuate, if possible, these temporary liabilities, and to secure the production of some permanent result during the continuance of the fit. The ministers of natural religion, by bringing their most efficient batteries to bear upon the mind at these intervals, frequently succeed in extending the duration of the supernatural fears, and subjugating the whole man for life.

Sickness—mental affliction—approaching death—childhood—all these are periods when the intellect is depressed and feeble, and when the associations are peculiarly liable to the inroads of every species of fear—they are the times page 115 therefore when the officer of the invisible world exercises the most uncontrolled despotism over the soul, and bends it whither he will. Were it not for his dexterity in contriving to render the bias permanent, the sick or the despondent would probably relapse, in no long period, into their habitual state, of comparative insensibility to supernatural terrors.

With regard to the dying man, indeed, no ulterior views can be entertained; but the immediate effect of the presence and ascendancy of a religious minister, on the occasion, is most important. Without his aid, posthumous apprehensions would indeed embitter the hour of death, but this would be productive of no subsequent evil. The minister not only aggravates these terrors to an infinitely higher pitch, but offers to the distracted patient a definite and easy mode by which he may in part alleviate them, and lessen the impending risk. He must make some atonement or satisfaction to God, in return for the offensive acts with which his life has abounded, by transferring a part or the whole of that property which he is at all events about to leave behind. But as he cannot have access in person to the offended principal, this property must be handed over in trust to his accredited agent or minister, for the inaccessible party. By such testamentary donation the sins of the past are in part redeemed.

The religious fears attending upon the hour of death are thus converted into powerful engines for enriching the sacerdotal class, who contrive to extract this lasting profit from an affection of mind which would otherwise have caused nothing beyond momentary pain. The act of mortmain attests the height to which these death-bed commutations have actually been carried: nor is it extravagant to assert, that had there been no change of the public sentiment and no interposition of the legislature, nearly all the land of England would have become the property of the Church.

3. It should by no means be forgotten, that the inefficiency, and the alternation from general indifference to occasional fever, which I have shown to belong to the religious sanction, constitute the leading source of importance and emolument to the priesthood. Suppose mankind to be page 116 perfectly acquainted with all the modifications of the Divine temper, and strictly observant of his commands, the functions of this class would of course become extinct. There would be no necessity for their services either as interpreters, mediators, or intercessors.

It is their decisive interest to multiply offences, as preparations for the lucrative season of repentance, during which their sway is at its zenith, and their most advantageous contracts realized. For each crime a pardon must be obtained through the intercession and agency of the authorized mediator. He must therefore be propitiated by payment both in money and honour, and the profits of the sacerdotal body bear an accurate ratio to the number of offences committed, and of pardons implored.

Thus the nature of the religious sanction, though very ill adapted for the purpose of actually terminating the practices it forbids, is yet calculated in the most precise manner to exalt and enrich the officers busied in enforcing it. This is the end, at which, supposing them like other men, they will be constantly aiming, and they have enjoyed facilities in the attainment of it rarely possessed by mere inter-mediate agents.

For, first, they have found posthumous terror, from its instability and occasional fierceness, an exquisite preparative of the mind for their dominion. And, secondly, they have united two functions which have placed this feeling entirely under their direction—they are, ex-officio, both framers of the divine law and vendors of the divine pardons for infringements of it. They have named the acts which required forgiveness as well as the price at which forgiveness should be purchased. Suppose only the periodical spring-tides of superhuman fear to reach a certain height, and this machinery for subjugation becomes perfect and irresistible.

If in earthly matters, these two functions were united—if the same person were to become framer of the law, and agent for the sale of licences to elude it—it is manifest, that he would make terrestrial laws inconceivably burdensome and exactive, so that there should be no possibility of observing them. The interest of the sacerdotal class has been completely similar, leading them to require, in the page 117 name of the Deity, obedience where obedience is impracticable, and then making men pay for the deficiency. Accordingly they inform us that he is a Being of such an exquisite and irritable temperament—so nicely susceptible, and so vehemently impatient of everything which is not exactly like himself, that we cannot escape his displeasure, except by undergoing a thorough repair and regeneration upon the celestial model. If but the most transient wish for anything unlike to God, or unholy, shoots across the mind, it constitutes criminality and is deeply abhorrent to the divine perfection. To such a state of entire conformity no human being ever yet attained—and thus, by the invention of an impracticable code, mankind are placed in a constant necessity of discharging expiatory fees, and purchasing licences of evasion.

In this respect, the sacerdotal interest is directly at variance, not only with that of the human race, but also with that of the divine Being. He sincerely desires, without doubt, that his edicts should be strictly obeyed, and, therefore, would be willing to facilitate their execution, so far as is consistent with his own sensitive and exquisite purity. But the middlemen who pretend to serve him have unfortunately an interest in their non-performance, and therefore throw every possible obstacle in the way of obedience.

4. In a former part of this work, I endeavoured to show, that the real actuating force which gave birth to religious deeds, though so masked as not to be discernible on a superficial view was public opinion. There cannot be a more effectual spur to this popular sentiment than the formation of a body whose peculiar interest lies in watching its various turns, in kindling it anew, and dexterously diversifying its applications. For this task they possess numerous advantages. The necessity of recurring to their services on many occasions ensures to them a large measure of respect, as well as of wealth, and this re-acts upon the function which they exercise. They labour sedulously to inculcate the deepest reverence in speaking of religious matters, as well as extreme backwardness and timidity of soul in subjecting them to the examination of reason. They diffuse widely among the community those pious misap- page 118 plications of moral epithets, which are inseparably annexed to the natural belief in an omnipotent Being, availing themselves of this confusion of language to stigmatize as iniquitous everything which counteracts their own views, and to extol as virtuous that which favours them.

By thus whipping up and propagating the religious antipathies of mankind, they generally succeed in organizing that tone of public opinion which is most conducive to their interest: that is, a sentiment which rigorously enforces a certain measure of religious observance—while it also recognizes in words, as incumbent and necessary duties of piety, a number of other acts which no one ever performs, and which mankind will allow you to leave undone, provided you do not question the propriety of doing them. A variance is thus introduced between the religious feelings and the reigning practice, and whenever any accident preternaturally kindles the former, such a laxity of conduct will of course appear pregnant with guilt. Hence that ebb and flow of mind, and those periodical spasms of repentant alarm, which can only be charmed away by purchasing comfort at the hands of the spiritual exorcist. And thus the constitution of the public sentiment becomes a preparation and medium for the effectual dominion of this class.

5. The fundamental principle, upon which all the superhuman machinery rests its hold, has been shown to consist in extra-experimental belief. Now in diffusing and strengthening this species of persuasion, the sacerdotal body form most essential auxiliaries. They are the legitimate and acknowledged interpreters of all incomprehensible events, and any inference which they extract from thence is universally adopted. This bestows upon them an unlimited licence of coining and circulating as much extra-experimental matter as they choose, and of distorting the physical links among phenomena by smuggling in an appeal to the divine intentions. By their constant and well-paid activity, also, every casual coincidence is magnified into a prodigy—every prediction accidentally verified, into a proof of their free-right of admission behind the unexpanded scenes of futurity. Besides they are continually at hand to spread abroad those myriads of fictions, which the extra-experimental belief has been shown to engender. Menda- page 119 city itself becomes consecrated, when employed in behalf of religion; and the infinity of pious frauds, which may be cited from the pages of history, sufficiently attest the zeal and effect with which the sacerdotal class has laboured in the diffusion of this unreal currency.

From this successive accumulation of particular instances, a large aggregate of extra-experimental matter is at last amassed, which lays claim to the title and honours of a separate science. The stories upon which it is founded are so thickly and authoritatively spread abroad—apparently so unconnected one with the other, and relying upon numerous separate attestations, that it seems impossible to discredit the whole, and difficult to know where to draw the line. To fulfil so nice a task, writers arise who compare the different stories together, arrange them into a systematic order, extract meanings and inferences from these collations, and reject those particulars which cannot be reconciled with the theories thus elicited. This aerial matter is distributed into a regular and distinct branch of knowledge, partitioned into various subordinate departments, and the sacerdotal class of course monopolizes the guidance and guardianship of this science almost exclusively to themselves. We have only to consult the first book of Cicero, "de Divinatione," in order to observe the minute subdivisions which the imaginary science of augury underwent in those times—the formal array of conclusions which appear to be strictly deduced from its alleged facts, and the various philosophical systems framed to explain and reconcile them.

Accordingly the extra-experimental belief, when sufficiently augmented in volume, becomes possessed of a distinct station among the sciences, and reflects upon its practitioners and professors all that credit which is annexed to superiority in any other department. Realities become divided into two separate classes: First, the world of experience, embracing all which we see, feel, hear, taste, or smell, and the various connections among them. Secondly, the world of which we have no experience, consisting of what are called immaterial entities, or of those things which we neither see, nor feel, nor hear, nor taste, nor smell; but which, nevertheless, we are supposed to know page 120 without any experience at all. The latter science is always the colleague and correlative of the former—frequently, indeed, it is more highly esteemed and more assiduously cultivated.

I have endeavoured to trace some of those modes, in which the brotherhood hired and equipped by natural religion have contrived to promote, in so high a degree, the success of the cause inscribed on their banners—and in so much higher a degree, to aggrandize and enrich themselves. My sketch, indeed, has been exceedingly superficial and incomplete; because the facilities which such a standing corps possesses for compassing its ends, are both innumerable and indescribable. We ought not, however, to forget, that a wealthy and powerful body of this kind not only acts with its own force, but also with that of all who have anything to hope, or to fear, from it. To become a member of the body constitutes a valuable object of ambition, and all, who have any chance of attaining such a post, will of course conspire vehemently in its support. Besides, there arises a long train of connections and dependants, who diffuse themselves everywhere through the community, and contribute most materially to spread and enhance the influence of the class.

In addition to these, however, they have yet another ally, more powerful and efficient than all the rest,—the earthly chief, or governing power of the state. He, as well as they, has an interest incurably at variance with that of the community, and all sinister interests have a natural tendency to combine together and to co-operate, inasmuch as the object of each is thereby most completely and most easily secured. But between the particular interest of a governing aristocracy and a sacerdotal class, there seems a very peculiar affinity and coincidence—each wielding the precise engine which the other wants.

The aristocracy, for instance, possess the disposal of a mass of physical force sufficient to crush any partial resistance, and demand only to be secured against any very general or simultaneous opposition on the part of the community. To make this sure, they are obliged to maintain a strong purchase upon the public mind, and to chain it down to the level of submission—to plant within it feelings which may neutralize all hatred of slavery, and facilitate the page 121 business of spoliation. For this purpose the sacerdotal class is most precisely and most happily cut out. By their influence over the moral sentiments, they place implicit submission among the first of all human duties. They infuse the deepest reverence for temporal power, by considering the existing authorities as established and consecrated by the immaterial Autocrat above, and as identified with his divine majesty. The duty of mankind towards the earthly government becomes thus the same as duty to God—that is, an unvarying "prostration both of the understanding and will." Besides this direct debasement of thè moral faculties for the purpose of assuring non-resistance, the supernatural terrors, and the extra-experimental belief, which the priesthood are so industrious in diffusing, all tend to the very same result. They produce that mistrust, alarm, and insecurity, which disposes a man to bless himself in any little fragment of present enjoyment, while it stifles all aspirations for future improvement and even all ideas of its practicability.

Such is the tacit and surreptitious, though incessant and effectual, operation on the public sentiment, by which the priesthood keep down all disposition on the part of mankind to oppose the inroads of their governors. Their influence is perhaps greater when they preach thus on behalf of the government, than on their own. Because in the former case, the interest which they have in the doctrine is not so obvious, and they appear like impartial counsellors, inculcating a behaviour of which they themselves are first to set the example.

The earthly ruler, on the other hand, amply repays the co-operation which he has thus derived. The mental (or psychological) machinery of the priesthood is very excellent; but they are unhappily deficient in physical force. Hence the protection of the earthly potentate is of most essential utility to a class so defectively provided in this main point. The coercion which he supplies is all sanctified by the holy name of religion, in defence of which it is resorted to; and he is extolled, while thus engaged, as the disinterested servant of the invisible Being. He is therefore permitted to employ, in behalf of religion, an extent and disposition of force which would have provoked indignation and revolt, on any other account.

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The utmost extent of physical force, which circumstances will permit, is in this manner put forward, to smother any symptom of impiety, or even of dissent from the sacerdotal dogmas. Irreligion and heresy become crimes of the deepest dye, and the class are thus secured, in their task of working on the public mind, from all competition or contest. Under the protection of such powerful artillery, this corps of sappers and miners carries on a tranquil, but effectual, progress in the trenches.

Nor is it merely a negative aid which the earthly governor extends to them. He extorts from the people, in their favour, a large compulsory tribute, in order to maintain them in affluence and in worldly credit; thus securing to them an additional purchase upon the public sentiment, and confirming his own safety from resistance. Under no other pretence could he induce the people to pay taxes, specially for the purpose of quartering throughout the country a standing army of advocates to check and counteract all opinions unfavourable to himself. They may be brought to this sacrifice in behalf of a sacerdotal class, whose interest, by the forced provision thus obtained, becomes still more closely identified with that of the earthly ruler.

One of the most noxious properties therefore, in the profession of men to which natural religion gives birth, is its coincidence and league with the sinister interests of earth—a coincidence so entire, as to secure unity of design on the part of both, without any necessity for special confederation, and therefore more mischievously efficient than it would have proved had the deed of partnership been open and proclaimed. Prostration and plunder of the community is indeed the common end of both. The only point upon which there can be any dissension, is about the partition of the spoil—and quarrels of this nature have occasionally taken place, in cases where the passive state of the people has obviated all apprehension of resistance. In general, however, the necessity of strict amity has been too visible to admit of much discord, and the division of the spoil has been carried on tranquilly, though in different ratios, according to the tone of the public mind.