incapacity to see either as far back as a first cause, or as far forward as a last one, I am content to state to you, my fellow creatures, that all my studies, reading, reflection, and observation, have obtained for me no knowledge beyond the sphere of our planet, our earthly interests and our earthly duties; and that I more than doubt whether, should you expend all your time and all your treasure in the search, you will be able to acquire any better information respecting unseen worlds and future events than myself.' The philosophical romance, 'A Few Days in Athens,' though the first of Miss Wright's works, and written when she was very young, displays considerable power and eloquence. It is the most pleasing of all her writings. It is intended to pourtray the doctrines of Epicurus, and gives a picture of the Gargettian, in the Gardens of the Academy,' surrounded by his pupils, calculated to counteract many of the popular and erroneous notions entertained of that philosopher's teachings. The following dialogue between Epicurus and his favourite, Theon, will afford the reader of the previous Half Hour' an opportunity of judging how far Miss Wright has conveyed a truthful idea of Epicurus' ethical philosophy: 'On leaving you, last night,' said Theon, 'I encountered Cleanthes. He came from the perusal of your writings, and brought charges against them which I was unprepared to answer.' 'Let us hear them, my son; perhaps, until you shall have perused them yourself, we may assist your difficulty.' 'First, that they deny the existence of the Gods.' 'I see but one other assertion that could equal that in folly,' said Epicurus. I knew it,' exclaimed Theon, triumphantly; 'I knew it was impossible. But where will not prejudice lead men, when even the upright Cleanthes is capable of slander?" He is utterly incapable of it,' said the Master; and the inaccuracy, in this case, I rather suspect to rest with you than with him. To deny the existence of the gods would indeed be presumption in a philosopher; a presumption equalled only by that of him who should assert their existence.' 'How!' exclaimed the youth, with a countenance in which astonishment seemed to suspend every other expression. 'As I never saw the gods, my son,' calmly continued the Sage, I cannot assert their existence; and, that I never saw them, is no reason for my denying it.' 'But do we believe nothing except that of which we have occular demonstration?' 'Nothing, at least, for which we have not the evidence of one or more of our senses; that is, when we believe on just grounds, which I grant, taking men collectively, is very seldom.' 'But where would this spirit lead us? To impiety!-to Atheism!-to all, against which I felt confidence in defending the character and philosophy of Epicurus!' We will examine presently, my son, into the meaning of the terms you have employed. When you first entered the garden your mind was unfit for the examination of the subject you have now started: it is no longer so; and we will therefore enter upon the inquiry, and pursue it in order.' 'Forgive me if I express-if I acknowledge,' said the youth, slightly recoiling from his instructor, some reluctance to enter on the discussion of truths, whose very discussion would seem to argue a doubt-and' 'And what then?' 'That very doubt were a crime.' 'If the doubt of any truth shall constitute a crime, then the belief of the same truth should constitute a virtue.' 'Perhaps a duty would rather express it?' When you charge the neglect of any duty as crime, or account its fulfilment a virtue, you suppose the existence of a power to neglect or fulfil; and it is the exercise of this power, in the one way or the other, which constitutes the merit or demerit. Is it not so?' Certainly.' Does the human mind possess the power to believe or disbelieve, at pleasure, any truths whatsoever?' 'I am not prepared to answer: but I think it does, since it possesses always the power of investigation.' 'But, possibly, not the will to exercise the power. Take care lest I beat you with your own weapons. I thought this very investigation appeared to you a crime?' Your logic is too subtle,' said the youth, 'for my inexperience,' 'Say rather, my reasoning too close. Did I bear you down with sounding words and weighty authorities, and confound your understanding with hair-drawn distinctions, you would be right to retreat from the battery.' 'I have nothing to object to the fairness of your deductions,' said Theon. But would not the doctrine be dangerous that should establish our inability to help our belief; and might we not stretch the principle, until we asserted our inability to help our actions?' 'We might, and with reason. But we will not now traverse the ethical pons asinorum of necessity-the most simple and evident of moral truths, and the most darkened, tortured, and belaboured by moral teachers. You inquire if the doctrine we have essayed to establish, be not dangerous. I reply—not, if it be true. Nothing is so dangerous as error-nothing so safe as truth. A dangerous truth would be a contradiction in terms, and an anomaly in things.' 'But what is a truth?' said Theon. It is pertinently asked. A truth I consider to be an ascertained fact; which truth would be changed into an error, the moment the fact, on which it rested, was disproved.' 'I see, then, no fixed basis for truth? It surely has the most fixed of all-the nature of things. And it is only an imperfect insight into that nature which occasions all our erroneous conclusions, whether in physics or morals.' 'But where, if we discard the gods and their will, as engraven on our hearts, are our guides in the search after truth?' 'Our senses and our faculties as developed in and by the exercise of our senses, are the only guides with which I am acquainted. And I do not see why, even admitting a belief in the gods, and in a superintending providence, the senses should not be viewed as the guides provided by them, for our direction and instruction. But here is the evil attendant on an ungrounded belief, whatever be its nature. The moment we take one thing for granted, we take other things for granted: we are started in a wrong road, and it is seldom that we gain the right one, until we have trodden back our steps to the starting place. I know but of one thing that a philosopher should take for granted; and that only because he is forced to it by an irresistible impulse of his nature; and because, without doing so, neither truth nor falsehood could exist for him. He must take for granted the evidence of his senses; in other words, he must believe in the existence of things, as they exist to his senses. I know of no other existence, and can therefore believe in no other: although, reasoning from analogy, I may imagine other existences to be. This, for instance, I do as respects the gods. I see around me, in the world I inhabit, an infinite variety in the arrangement of matter-a multitude of sentient beings, possessing different kinds and varying grades of power and intelligence-from the worm that crawls in the dust, to the eagle that soars to the sun, and man who marks to the sun its course. It is possible, it is moreover probable, that, in the worlds which I see not-in the boundless infinitude and eternal duration of matter, beings may exist, of every countless variety, and varying grades of intelligence, inferior and superior to our own, until we descend to a minimum and rise to a maximum, to which the range of our observation affords no parallel, and of which our senses are inadequate to the conception. Thus far, my young friend, I believe in the gods, or in what you will of existences removed from the sphere of my knowledge. That you should believe, with positiveness, in one unseen existence or another, appears to me no crime, although it may appear to me unreasonable: and so, my doubt of the same should appear to you no moral offence, although you might account it erroneous. I fear to fatigue your attention, and will, therefore, dismiss, for the present, these abstruse subjects.' 'But we shall both be amply repaid for their discussion, if this truth remain with you—that an opinion, right or wrong, can never constitute a moral offence, nor be in itself a moral obligation. It may be mistaken; it may involve an absurdity, or a contradiction. It is a truth; or it is an error: it can never be a crime or a virtue.' -Chap. xiv. · Miss Wright was a poetess, as well as a politician and writer on ethics. In her Fourth of July' address, delivered in the New Harmony Hall, in 1828, in commemoration of the American Independence, is the following: 'Is there a thought can fill the human mind More pure, more vast, more generous, more refined Than that which guides the enlightened patriot's toil? Not he whose narrow heart can only shrine Not he who, to set up that land on high, Will make whole nations bleed, whole nations die- J. W. JOHN WATTS, PRINTER, 147, FLEET STREET. WITH THE FREETHINKERS. EDITED BY 'ICONOCLAST,' ANTHONY COLLINS, & JOHN WATTS. No. 18.] Monday, June 15, 1857. JOHN TOLAND. [Price 1d. In the Augustan age of Freethought, no British writer achieved more renown, or performed greater services to Biblical criticism, than John Toland. His life would fill a volume, while his works would stock a library. True to his convictions, he spoke like a man, and died as a hero. His books are so strewn with classical illustrations, and deal so with abstract (and to us) uninteresting arguments, that we shall simply give a brief sketch of the life of this extraordinary man. He gave his thoughts to the scholars at the same time that Woolston addressed the people; conjointly they revolutionised opinion in our favour. Toland was born on November 30, 1670, at Londonderry, in Ireland. It is said his registered name was James Junius,' another account says Julius Cæsar; but we have been unable to find any authentic data for either supposition, and whatever his name was registered, we have indisputable evidence that he was always called John Toland. We have less proof as to his parentage; some writers allege that he was the natural son of a Catholic priest; while others contend that he was born of a family once affluent, but at the time of his birth in very reduced circumstances. Whether this was the case or the reverse, young Toland received a liberal education. He was early taught the classics, studied in the Glasgow College; and on leaving Glasgow he was presented with letters of credit from the city magistrates, highly flattering to him as a man and a scholar. He received the diploma of M.A. at Edinburgh, the day previous to the Battle of the Boyne. He finished his studies at the University of Leyden. The first work of importance which Toland published, was a 'Life of John Milton, containing besides the History of his Works, several extraordinary Characters of Men and Books, Sects, Parties, and Opinions.' This work being violently opposed, was speedily followed by 'Amyntor,' or a defence of Milton's life. Containing-1. A general apology for all writings of that kind. 2. A catalogue of books, attributed in the primitive times to Jesus Christ, his apostles, and other eminent persons, with several important remarks relating to the canon of Scripture. 3. A complete history of the Book, entitled Icon Basilike, proving Dr. Gauden, and not King Charles I., to be the author of it, etc.' Those works established the fame of Toland, as well as formed the groundwork for persecution, which hunted him even on his death bed. In the year 1699 Toland collected, edited, and published, from the original MSS., the whole of the works of James Harrington, prefixed by a memoir of this extraordinary theorist. In his preface he says that he composed this work in his beloved retirement at Cannon, near Bansted, in Surrey.' From this, along with other excerpts [Published Fortnightly.] 6 scattered through his works, we cannot but infer that at the outset of his career he possessed a moderate competence of worldly wealth and social position. He says his idea was to transmit to posterity the worthy memory of James Harrington, a bright ornament to useful learning, a hearty lover of his native country, and a generous benefactor to the whole world; a person who obscured the false lustre of our modern politicians, and equalled (if not exceeded) all the ancient legislators.' This to us is an interesting fact, for it shows the early unanimity which existed between the earlier reformers in politics and those of theology. The supervision of the Oceana' by Toland, bears the same inferential analogy, as if Mr. Holyoake were the biographer and publisher of the New Moral World' and its author. In 1700, he published Anglia Libera; or, the Limitation and Succession of the Crown of England, Explained and Asserted, etc.' This book is concluded by the following apophthegm, assuring the people 'that no king can ever be so good as one of their own making, as there is no title equal to their approbation, which is the only divine right of all magistracy, for the voice of the people is the voice of God.' In 1702, Toland spent some time in Germany, publishing a series of Letters to a friend in Holland, entitled Some Remarks on the King of Prussia's Country, on his Government, his Court, and his numerous Palaces.' About this time appeared The Art of Governing by Parties;' this was always a favourite subject of the old Freethinkers, and is still further elucidated by Bolingbroke. . 6 In 1707 he published a large treatise in English and Latin, as 'A Phillipic Oration, to incite the English against the French,' a work I have never seen. We now return to an earlier date, and shall trace the use of his theological works. The first of note (1696) was Christianity not Mysterious showing that there is nothing in the gospel contrary to reason, nor above it; and that no Christian doctrine can be properly called a mystery. As soon as this book was issued from the press, it was attacked with unmanly virulence. One man (Peter Brown) who was more disgustingly opposed to Toland than the rest, was made a bishop; and by far the greatest majority amongst the Anglican clergy, who attacked him, were rewarded by honours and preferment. The author was accused of making himself a new Heresiarch; that there was a tradition amongst the Irish that he was to be a second Cromwell, and that Toland himself boasted that before he was forty years old, he would be governor over a greater country than Cromwell; and that he would be the head over a new religion before he was thirty. One of his opponents publicly stigmatises him as saying that he (Toland) himself designed to be as great an impostor as Mahomet, and more powerful than the Pope; while the Puritans denounced him as a disguised Jesuit, and the Papists as a rancorous Nonconformist. To complete the comedy, the Irish Parliament condemned his book to be publicly burnt, some ecclesiastics loudly murmuring that the author should be burned with it; others, more moderate, were anxious that Toland should burn it himself, while at last they came to an unanimous resolution to burn it in front of the threshold of his door, so that when the author appeared, he would be obliged to step over the ashes of his own book, which was accordingly done amid the brutal cheers of an ignorant and infuriated populace. As a proof of the high esteem in which Toland was held by the few able and liberal men of the day, we extract the following account from the correspondence of John Locke and Mr. Molyneux.* The latter gentleman, * Locke's posthumous works. Edited by Die Maizeaus. |