s to bound our desires within the scope
of their realisation, and to dissipate the fictions of theology. It is
therefore inimical to all professional soul-savers, who chatter about
another world with no understanding of this; and especially to the
lofty teachers of religion who luxuriate in palaces, and fling jibes and
sneers at the toiling soldiers of progress who face hunger, thirst and
death. These rich disciples of the poor Nazarene are horrified when
the scorn is retorted on them and their creed; and Archbishop Thomson
expresses his "disgust" at our ridiculing his Bible and endeavoring to
bring his "convictions" into "contempt." It is, he says, "an offence
against the first principles of mutual sympathy and consideration." Yet
this angry complainant describes other people's convictions as "absurd
and insane." All the sympathy and consideration is to be on one side!
The less said about either the better. There can be no treaty or truce
in a war of principles, and the soldiers of Progress will neither take
quarter nor give it. Christianity must defend itself. It may try to kill
us with the poisoned arrows of persecution; but what defence can it
make against the rifleshot of common-sense, or how stand against the
shattering artillery of science? Every such battle is decided in its
commencement, for every religion begins to succumb the very moment it is
attacked.

A DEFENCE OF THOMAS PAINE.

(February, 1879.)

Fling mud enough and some of it will stick. This noble maxim has been
the favorite of traducers in all ages and climes. They know that the
object of their malignity cannot always be on the alert to cleanse
himself from the filth they fling, especially if cast behind his
back; they know that lies, and especially slanderous lies, are hard to
overtake, and when caught harder to strangle; and therefore they feel
confident as to the ultimate fate of their victim if they can only
persevere long enough in their vile policy of defamation. For human
nature being more prone to believe evil than good of others, it
generally happens that the original traducers are at length joined by a
host of kindred spirits almost as eager and venomous as themselves, "the
long-neck'd geese of the world, who are ever hissing dispraise because
their natures are little;" while a multitude of others, not so
much malignant as foolish and given to scandal, lend their cowardly
assistance, and help to vilify characters far beyond the