tion (and there are other innumerable
passages to a similar effect), "To dismember the soul, the very
image of God,--to lop off the most sacred affections,--to call Reason
a liar, Conscience a devil's oracle, and cast Love clean out from
the heart,--this is the last triumph of superstition, but one often
witnessed in all the three forms of Religion, Fetichism, Polytheism,
Monotheism; in all ages before Christ, in all ages after Christ." Far
be it from me to deny it, or the similar horrors which he liberally
shows flow from fanaticism. But then, at other times, that quintessence
of all abstractions which all religions alike contain--the "absolute
religion"--imparts such perfume and appetizing relish to the whole
composition, that, like Dominie Sampson in Meg Merrilies's cuisine,
Mr. P. finds the Devil's cookery-book not despicable. The things he
so fearfully describes are but perversions of what is essentially
good. The "forms," the "accidentals," of different religions become
of little consequence; whether it be Jehovah or Jupiter, the infinite
Creator or a divine cat, a holy and gracious God that is loved, or
an impure demon that is feared,--all this is secondary, provided
the principles of faith, simplicity, and earnestness--that is,
blind credulity and idiotic stupidity--inspire the wretched votary;
as if the perversions he deplores and condemns were not the necessary
consequences of such religions themselves, or, rather, as if they
were aught but the religions! In virtue of the "absolute religion,"
"many a savage smeared with human sacrifice," and the Christian
martyr perishing with a prayer for his persecutors, are hastening
together to the celestial banquet. I hope the "savage" will not
go with "unwashen hands," I trust he may be Pharisee enough for
that; I also hope the two will not sit next one another; otherwise
the savage may be tempted to offer up a second sacrifice, and the
Christian martyr be a martyr a second time. Hear him:--"He that
worships truly, by whatever form,"--that is, who is sincere in his
Fetichism, his idolatry, his sacrifices, though they may be human,
--"worships the only God; he hears the prayer, whether called Brahma,
Pan, or Lord, or called by no name at all. Each people has its
prophets and its saints; and many a swarthy Indian who bowed down
to wood and stone,--many a grim-faced Calmuck, who worshipped the
great God of Storms,--many a Grecian peasant who did homage to
Phoebus Apollo whe