don, and founded the Christian Evidence Society.

Many of the discourses delivered by him were printed in "The Lion."
which was first published in 1828. In 1827 Mr. Taylor was tried at
Guildhall for blasphemy, and was sentenced to imprisonment in Oakham
gaol for one year. In Oakham he wrote "The Diegesis" and "Syntagma."
After his release from prison in 1829, he, together with Richard
Carlile, made a tour through England on an Infidel mission, commencing
with a challenge to the Cambridge University. In 1830 and 1831 he
delivered a series of discourses, which are printed together under the
title of "The Devil's Pulpit." On the 4th July, 1831, he was again
tried for blasphemy and sentenced to two years' imprisonment In 1833
he delivered a number of discourses, which were printed in the
"Philalethean." He was the friend and companion of Richard Carlile for
several years. It is difficult to quote from Robert Taylor's works,
unless at the risk of doing him great injustice, and we must therefore
refer our readers to the works we have named. The following is from
"The Devil's Pulpit:"--

"The gentlemen who distribute religious tracts, the general body of
dissenting preachers, and almost all persons engaged in the trade
of religion, imagine themselves to have a mighty advantage against
Infidels, upon the strength of that last and reckless argument--that
whether the Christian religion be true or false, there can be no harm in
believing; and that belief is, at any rate, the safe side. Now, to say
nothing of this old Popish argument, which a sensible man must see
is the very essence of Popery, and would oblige us to believe all the
absurdities and nonsense in the world: inasmuch as if there be no harm
in believing, and there be some harm and danger in not believing, the
more we believe the better: and all the argument necessary for any
religion whatever would be, that it should frighten us out of our wits:
the more terrible, the more true: and it would be our duty to become
the converts of that religion whatever it might be, whose priests could
swear the loudest, and damn and curse the fiercest. But I am here to
grapple with this Popery in disguise, this wolfish argument in sheepish
clothing, upon Scriptural ground, and on Scriptural ground only; taking
the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, for this argument's sake,
to be divine authority. The question proposed is, 'Whether is the
believer or the unbeliever the more likely