the basis of their Mataphysics. It was by the art of the Platonists, that this Yahouh was split into three persons; and if the Christicoles had not amalgamated with the visionary sectaries of the Athesian Philosopher, the Legend of Christ would barely have rivalled that of Adonis or Atys. Next observe the Romans my second family! Were Camilfus, Cicero, Epictetus, and the Antonini inferior to any of the worshippers of Yahouh? My Empire indeed was never so widely extended as my Rival's is at present: but I ruled by custom, by reason, and by tolerance; while he hath never tolerated other Gods, hath always dumbfounded reason, and wisheth to prevail over the custom of foreigners. Moreover, for a good thousand years he was pent up in a miserable little stony country, where he was constantly subject to his Rivals, and where his slaves were always rebelling against him. Thinkest thou, Signor Don Tsour-ShediAdooni-Yahoub-Aleim, that thou shouldest be compared to the great IVPITER OPTIMVS MAXIMVS? Was thy little fortress-like temple at Hershalaïm to be compared to mine at Olympia?

Jeh. Thou hadst nothing that could be compared to Saint Peter's at Rome.

Jup. If the Temple is Saint Peter's, it is clearly not thine. Moreover it is my statue which is there adored as the image of the Saint.

Jeb. At any rate I excel thee in painting; and almost as much incense is still burnt in my honour as formerly was in thine. But if thou comest to riches and sacrifices, recollect the glorious days of great king Shelmeh

(Jup. Alias Solomon, alias Soleimân.)

Jeh. Why he had more gold and silver than would pay the whole Parliamentary debt of these Englishmen.

Jup. Yea, more gold and silver than there is in the whole world. Thou sayest well, Oh Yahouh.

Jeh. Shelmeh gave me as a sacrifice of peace-offerings 22,000 oxen, and 120,000 sheep.

Jup. A peace-offering? Why a field of battle would have been nothing to it. 142,000 carcases!!! Admirable oh Yahoub! When thou liest, lie vastly. A meagre lie is not worth swallowing.

Jeh. Nevertheless it is perfectly true, for thou wilt find it in the 3rd of Kings and the 1st of Paralipomena.

Jon. I'm tired of hearing all this trash. Don't talk to me about thy Kings and thy Paralipomena. I only wish the

Kings were ПAPAAЕIПOMENA, for we should be much better without them.

Jup. I am glad to see thou art a Republican, Jonathan, my best subjects were Republicans. But I was going to say, Master Tsour-Shedi, that I confess my priests never lied so boldly as thine. Doubtless Esculapius and Serapis worked thousands of miracles; but I did not send four Grub Street Writers to draw np a pretended official aocount of this "Good News," and the wonderful victories obtained over the enemy, and all the contradictory nonsense about crucifying, &c. &c. Thou knowest, Yahoub, as well as I do, that a miracle is nothing more or less than a physical impossibility.

Jon. What is the use of your Godship's mutually disclosing one another's nakedness? Ye had better make up a common purse with Juggernaut, the Grand Lama, and the Vice Society, or ye will be rooted out like the heads of the Hydra. Richard Carlile is a devil of a Hercules.

Jeh. I hate Richard Carlile.

Jup. I suppose he is a sort of Theodorus or Diagorasis'nt he?

Jeh. I don't know who they were; but this fellow is a Moralist, and Moralism spreadeth like wild-fire.

Jup. Verily then, Brother God, we had better look about us. Only, dear Monster, don't persecute the Moralists. Persecution always recoileth on the Persecutors.

Jon. True! that is the reason why the Protestants and all other Dissenters flourish, who, by the bye, Signor Yahoub, have pared thy nails pretty closely. Now shake hands with Jupiter, and make it up.

Jeh. See him d—d first, an uncircumcised dog! It is for this, that the Pope, and the Cardinals, the Grand Inquisitor and the Archbishop of Toledo, and the Cameronians, and the Cranmerians, and the Ranters, and the Dunkers, and the Jumpers, and the Shakers, and the new connection Methodists, and the old connection, have been working, tooth and nail, to patch up my small-cloths, and shall I at last be obliged to share them, with this fate-obeying, goat-suckled Adulterer?

Jup. Nay, do not talk of adultery, Signor Tsour-ShediAdooni. It is not nineteen centuries ago, since, as thou ownest, thou hadst an amour with a Carpenter's Wife in Galilea. Had I been Joseph, and caught thee overshadowing my spouse, I would have stoned thee to death, according to thine own law. But I'm surprised at the lowness of

thy taste. I always chose Princesses. Thou art however but a dirty soul of a God.-Who ordered his Soothsayer to bake bread with human fœces? Who inspired the account of Aholah and Aholibah? Who was worshipped in the infamous mysteries of the Gnostics? Who consecrated the incestuous Pope Alexander the VI. and the Cynodical Bishop of Clogher. If I were one of those featherless, self-killing bipeds called men, I would sooner adore the Phallus. As it is, thy Christicoles worship the Dove, and the Cross or the Thau Phallisé, i. e. the emblems of the male and female Principles. They worship the Triangle too, which is the emblem of the passive organ of generation.

Jeh. Thou liest, Thunderbolter, the Triangle is an emblem of my three persons.

Jon. Order! Gentlemen, order!

Jeh. I'll tell the what, Jonathan! This fellow Youpiter hath heretofore changed himself into a Bull, a Ram, a Swan, and even into a shower of gold.

Jup. Better be changed into a shower of gold to gain access to a Lady, than into a hundred thousand bits of bread to be swallowed alive by one's worshippers. I'd sooner be a cannibal and eat my enemy, than a Christicole and eat my But don't talk about transmogrifications. I am ignorant indeed what thy shape was, when thou wert shut up in the little box of shittim-wood; but doubtless thou wert a man, when thou didst wrestle with Jacob, and couldst only overcome him by foul play. Oh! if my Olympic games are ever re-established, (as I hope they soon will be) I'll give thee a pretty throw! But art thou aware, Jonathan, that Master Triple-personaged was once a Barber?

Jeh. A Barber?

For

Jup. Aye, a Barber! and one of the lowest sort too. unless Esaias lied (which however is not unlikely considering he was a prophet) thou didst first of all hire a Razor (what a stingy God! as if thou couldst not have bought one!) and thou didst not only shave some fellow's beard, but also other of his hairs which modesty forbiddeth me to mention. Jeh. I'll tell thee what, Jonathan. This fellow Youpiter couspired against his poor daddy and enchained him, in order to get possession of his kingdom.

Jup. And this fellow Yahouh, thro' the medium of those blood-thirsty fanatics the Jews, whipped and killed his only son; and that merely to appease his own ill humour. Jon. Obe! jam satis est. I am tired to death with this trash.

Its quite useless to detail all the absurdities and ob

scenities of your Yahouhonism and Youpiterianism. My children will never read such improper books, as the nursery stories of Ezra and Paul, on the Metamorphoses of Ovidius Naso. With regard to your Godships, I think ye are both equally contemptible; or if there be a difference, the persecutions I have received from one of you oblige a man of honour like myself, to forbear deciding. I regret Yahouh's intolerance. It is a species of madness that requirieth bleeding and blistering. Low diet will be very useful: but while priests continue to fatten him up with whole dish-fulls of flattery and palaver, I am afraid he will continue very unwell. But let me recommend your Godships to shear off as quick as possible, for Mr. Hassell is mauifestly awaking.

Jeh. What! Richard Hassell! Is he here? a wretch! why he would flead us alive! A cherub! a cherub! my Godhead for a cherub!

MOST NOBLE OF NATURE, Halifax, June 27, 1824. PERMIT me to present you with this small sum of £3., being the amount of a subscription made by your friends, in this town, as a token of the high value we set on your truly benevolent and philanthropic services, in accomplishing that most illustrious work, the redemption of mankind from despotism and delusion. You have done more for the emancipation of mankind than all who ever went before you.. You have attacked the enemy in his strongest holds: we know you can atchieve any thing but impossibilities: you have defeated your enemies at every point: victory is your own!

Is there any thing so monstrous as persecution for matters of opinion; and in the name of religion, to deprive an individual man of the exercise of his mental faculties? A man might as well be prosecuted for being in existence. Your oppressors have abandoned the hope of coping with you by fair and reasonable argument: they cannot even conquer you by injustice, nor by prosecution; you have given them lessons enough of that sort; you have not been intimidated by their punishments: you have nobly and truly fought the good fight, with your noble warriors, and it is our duty not to forget you, nor them.

Can any length of establishment make despotism legal? Is not liberty an undeniable right that belongs to all mankind? To pre

a

vent its free exercise shocks every principle of morality and humanity. Such abominable proceedings draw down the indignation of every reflecting mind. The power of habit has made thousands insensible to the torture they suffer. Most of the lower orders of thinking people are compelled to show sad complacency under the insolence of tyranny. Men have hitherto been disqualified to study their own happiness. The gloomy dogmas of superstition have in a very great measure chained down the mind and made us more than obedient tame spaniels. We have paid homage peaceably to a doubledealing set of marauders for ages. They have been instilling their cajolery and sophistry into the ears of their inoffensive and well disposed victims, and have had great success against the spread of knowledge. They have rendered life in millions a miserable burthen, sinking them in despondency as their chains became heavier and heavier. From what they have done we may infer what they would do. But you, Sir, have broken the charm! you have dispelled the mist! you have shewn us the whole crew of jugglers in their clear colours. Nothing can equal their servile designs. Look at the thousands of tracts that are yearly disposed of in this small vicarage by the Methodists alone! The cheat, is so clear, that it must fill with disgust any, who for one moment reflect on their cunning. Every step the vermin take is a movement against our vital interests.

Those holy worthies know well how the thing is to be done; so they do all they can to work the tractable people into a delusion and an apathy. They know well that if these things cannot be settled that way, they must be settled in the Manchester way, or they are lost. We have had trying sessions of this sort in plenty, and to instruct and be instructed is our duty. We shall thus profit by our experience.

The motive of our enemies is to keep up a legitimate deity. The result for the deluded will be rags and wretchedness, insult upon insult, and constantly getting accused of being disloyal. To be on a good footing with the church and king heroes, we must all be very quiet with little loaves. Truth ought not to fear any thing from error; but we must think little and say less; if we do not, a cry of blasphemy will be raised against us.

Religious tract-makers, tract-deliverers, and the priests, are necessary to each other, and cannot exist asunder. The soul-saver and his tracts, work wonders on the minds of the slaves to passive obedience and non-resistance. By the terrors of hell they manage to purchase their large estates, build their magnificent mansions, and load their tables with all the luxuries that money can purchase. But what have the unfortunate, half-naked, nearlystarved-to-death slaves? Children from six to seven years old are torn out of bed by five o'clock in a morning, and work hard