y of
Eve and the serpent, and of Noah and his ark, drops to a level with the
Arabian Tales, without the merit of being entertaining, and the account
of men living to eight and nine hundred years becomes as fabulous as the
immortality of the giants of the Mythology.

Besides, the character of Moses, as stated in the Bible, is the most
horrid that can be imagined. If those accounts be true, he was the
wretch that first began and carried on wars on the score or on the
pretence of religion; and under that mask, or that infatuation,
committed the most unexampled atrocities that are to be found in the
history of any nation. Of which I will state only one instance:

When the Jewish army returned from one of their plundering and murdering
excursions, the account goes on as follows (Numbers xxxi. 13): "And
Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and all the princes of the congregation,
went forth to meet them without the camp; and Moses was wroth with the
officers of the host, with the captains over thousands, and captains
over hundreds, which came from the battle; and Moses said unto them,
'Have ye saved all the women alive?' behold, these caused the children
of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against
the Lord in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the
congregation of the Lord. Now therefore, 'kill every male among the
little ones, and kill every woman that hath known a man by lying with
him; but all the women-children that have not known a man by lying with
him, keep alive for Yourselves.'"

Among the detestable villains that in any period of the world have
disgraced the name of man, it is impossible to find a greater than
Moses, if this account be true. Here is an order to butcher the boys, to
massacre the mothers, and debauch the daughters.

Let any mother put herself in the situation of those mothers, one child
murdered, another destined to violation, and herself in the hands of
an executioner: let any daughter put herself in the situation of
those daughters, destined as a prey to the murderers of a mother and a
brother, and what will be their feelings? It is in vain that we attempt
to impose upon nature, for nature will have her course, and the religion
that tortures all her social ties is a false religion.

After this detestable order, follows an account of the plunder taken,
and the manner of dividing it; and here it is that the profaneings of
priestly hypocrisy increases the catalogue