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body, and join it again, or is it immediately punished or rewarded?

5th. Are the disunited particles which constituted the bodies of Nero and Caligula to be collected together and united again, and will they appear in proprüs personibus before the throne of Justice when the trumpet sounds?

6th. Is there any distinction respecting future punishment, and have you any authority for believing that it is awarded according to the degrees of crime committed, taking into consideration the identity and locality of the individuals?

7th. Do you believe that He who believes not shall be damned, although his whole life shall have been spent in the practice of pure morality?

And 8th. Do you believe that it is compatible with the attributes of a just and merciful God to damn mankind even in a graduated scale of punishment eternally for finite crimes?

It has been said that man is a free agent, good and bad are set before him, and that he is warned of the consequences of his choice; yet the choice he makes may depend upon circumstances over which he has no controul, for although a peculiar orginization and happy train of agencies acting upon you have made you saints, but reversed, may make other men sinners. When good and evil are placed before man for his choice, then must be a reason for his making, the selection, and that reason is to be found in natural causes and effects. There can be no doubt but that the arrangement and qualities of the solids and fluids of your bodies, acted upon by external agencies, tegether with a fortuitous concourse of atoms blended in such exact proportions as to constitute an harmonious whole, not only made you saints, but, I trust, good men.

On the foregoing questions, the infidel is opposed to Bible authority; for he cannot believe that God will punish the soul for acts committed by the body, and over which the soul has no controul.

and

It may be contended that the soul and body act in conjunction and reciprocity, that the will and deed of one is the will and deed of the other, that it is immateriality, acting upon materiality and although the modus operandi is beyond the comprehension of man, it is nevertheless the fact. It must be admitted, that the soul on first animating the body is pure incorrupt, and, therefore, if it becomes corrupt, it must be from being combined with corruptible matter, consequently the soul not having the power of choosing its residence, its future acts must depend upon and be governed by the body, and external agencies acting upon that body; and that the soul is under the influence and controul of the body the following facts most satisfactorily demonstrate. Prevent the admission of air into the lungs for a few seconds and the soul loses all command over the

body and in a few minutes it will be extinguished. Press a certain part of the spinal marrow, and the legs will refuse obedience; press another part, and the arms will refuse; press another part, and the soul is extinguished. Admit into the

stomach certain liquids, and the soul will become furious; admit others, and it will be depressed, and may be made unconscious of existence. In suspended animation, the soul is extinguished resume animation by setting the machinery of the body into action again, and the soul is reproduced. The infidel, taking nature for his guide, naturally infers, that the soul is produced by the body, lives with it, and dies with it; that it is under the government of the body, facts prove to demonstration.

The soul, or more properly speaking the mind, may be changed for a new one in a day, nay even in an hour. Suppose for instance, an infidel enters one of your chapels, and from the preaching of the minister, an impression is made on his organs of hearing and seeing, capable of convincing him of his error in having adopted infidel principles, his soul is changed for another, and may become next day the soul of a Wesleyan Methodist; then reverse the picture, and suppose a methodist to enter the temple of free discussion, may not his soul, or mind, on the same grounds, be changed into a new one, and the ensuing day be an Infidel's soul?

It may be said that the soul which first animated the body must continue through life identically the same; because of its consciousness of past events; but this is no proof, for the body is capable of receiving impressions through the medium of the organs of sight, feeling, and hearing, and registering them, so that the new or reproduced soul invariably finds ready furnished lodgings. It is said that God made man after his own image, that is, the immaterial part of man. Now, if this be really the case, all men must be included in this expression, and all being made by the same power, it is a fair presumption to conclude, that all must be alike; therefore, if the material part, and all the external agencies that act upon it, were precisely the same, every one would think and act alike.

From these premises, it must be admitted, that the soul is influenced and controlled by the body, and the body abstractedly is influenced by its organization, and that organization by climate, temperature, meat, drink, exercise, education, habit, and a casual concourse of atoms; and that body not having made itself, and not having the choice of selecting its residence, nor yet the agencies that act upon it; does it seem to you compatible with the attributes of a just and merciful God, to doom to everlasting punishment either the soul or the body?

The organization of the body, and the agencies that act upon it, make either a philosopher or a fool, a wicked or a good man; and upon this grand principle, you, Gentlemen, became learned

theologians, Napoleon Buonapate the greatest Captain of this or any age, Mr. Brougham a most powerful orator and advocate, Thomas Paine a great deistical and political writer, and Richard Carlile the most powerful and convincing materialist the world has ever produced.

On these and other grounds, which may be the subject of another letter, to the infidel, it does appear cruel, and unjust, and inconsistent in omnipotence to punish unfortunate creatures eternally because they have not been favoured like yourselves; besides the utility cannot be discovered of punishment for crimes, which, after death, can never be repeated, either by president or example. God cannot be injured by man-man can only injure man-the fear of future punishment may in some instances lessen or prevent crime, absolute punishment never.

It is probable, that some furious bigot, pampered with the good things arising from uncontaminated orthodoxy, whose zeal in defence of church and state is in an exact ratio with the proceeds arising from his personal or hired services, will cry out, stamping with rage. What does this mean? Destroy the devil, our best ally! God forbid! What would become of us should that ever be the case? Perhaps another may exclaim, what! Is the doctrine of fatality intended to be the order of the day? Is it because men are villains from necessity they are not to be punished? What is to become of Society if such doctrines gain belief? What! is it because bad organs and bad agents make knaves, those knaves are to rob us with impunity? Stay, stay, good Mr. Orthodox, this doctrine only has reference to punishments after death. In every stage and state of Society laws for the preservation of persons and property are indispensibly necessary, and proportionate pains and penalties must unavoidably be inflicted on all who break those laws: now here is necessity, absolute necessity, without which, it would be impossible for society to exist.

The naturally good man has little merit in being good; it is the naturally vicious man that is entitled to praise for virtuous actions. A well conducted government, good laws, impartial justice, encouragement to the industrious, rendering them able from their industry to obtain a sufficiency of the comforts of life, a proper education teaching them useful knowledge, and, when punishment is needful, duly inflicting it, would do more to restrain vice and promote the general welfare of mankind than the sermons of ten hundred thousand preachers, each gifted with the dazzling eloquence of a Cicero or Demosthenes.

To conclude, long may you live in the anticipation of that happiness which your pious lives lead you to expect you will enjoy hereafter-of which happiness should the infidel not partake, he can at least with the calmness of a philosopher say, that, whilst

he practices the moral duties which civilized society require of him, he fears not punishment either present or to come. WILLIAM MILBURN.

Stockton-on-Tees,
June 27, 1825.

Noteby R. C. In any kind of reasoning about the words soul, spirit, ghosts, god, devil, heaven, or hell, we admit too much, if we step beyond the question of what is meant by the word. They who use a word, if challenged, are morally bound to define what they mean by the word, and to shew that it has a relation to something or principle. Take either of the above words, ask a Theologian what he means, how he defines it, and your question is your certain triumph and his confusion. Once admit a meaning, you put yourself on a level with him, and may carry on a spiritual discussion through life, without touching a point of truth or matter of fact.

GHOSTS.

In a letter to a friend in the country.

He who will not reason is a bigot: He who cannot is a fool; and he who does not is a slave. NOTES TO CHILDE HAROLD.

Tollington Park, July 25, 1825. . It appears by your last letter, that in spite of all I have said in my former letters, on the subject of ghosts, you still retain the impressions you received in the nursery, and that education under religion have matured them into fixed prejudices. You say, that there are many persons who endeavour to persuade themselves, and are delighted to be pursuaded by other, that there is no future existence; because the badness of their lives, make them, tremble with the apprehension of future punishment. This in some instances, may be true; there are good and bad men in all professions.

But, before we proceed further, it will be necessary to premise two things; first, that belief whether it be that of good or bad men, has nothing at all to do with the question: And, secondly, that no evidence short of demonstration shall have any weight in the present discussion.

Now then, let us once more exert our mental powers; let us endeavour to burst, by the force of argument, the chain of hereditary ignorance, which has been handed down to us from our

fore fathers through the perverted medium of education. Let us endeavour to dispel the mist which superstition has cast before our eyes, that we may discover the enchanted well where truth has so long lain bound in the magical spells of hereditary priestcraft; Truth and falsehood like substance and shadow, have always been inseparable Companions, and mankind have hitherto swallowed down the one with the other as the fish swallows the hook with the bait. Nay some people, like the dog in the fable, grasps at the shadow and lose the substance altogether. And were you, my good friend, to summon every proposition to the bar of truth, and examine it by the light of reason, you would cease to mount your hobby horse to fly through mud and mire after ghosts and goblins that mock your pursuit.

But a truce to jesting. The subject is certainly a very serious one, ond ought to be discussed as soberly as possible; for if the impossibility of the existence of ghosts can be satisfactorily proved, the most important question that ever inspired the hopes, or excited the fears of mankind will be decided.

Now, as Ghosts are considered, by those who believe in their existence, to be supernatural beings, it is not very likely, unless we were inspired by some supernatural power. that we shall ever discover of what they are composed. I therefore, who do not feel any such inspiration, must content myself with proving, as far as I am able, what they are not composed of.

That ghosts are not composed of flesh, and bones, we have the evidence of holy writ, That they are not composed of hydrogen, gas seems pretty certain, or they would never run about church yards and old houses to frighten old women, and children with lighted candles flaring in their hands; for if they are half as wise as those who write stories about Ghosts make them, they would know, that every time they thus amused themselvss, they would be in the most iminent danger of annihilation by explosion!

Neither can ghosts be composed of atmospheric air, for that can be confined for years in any vessel, even in a bladder. But you say, if a living man were to be soldered up in a gold Coffin, as thick as the globe on which we dwell, the soul, or spirit would escape the moment the body become lifeless: and according to the authors of ghost stories, bring with it organical as well as intellectual powers, as those dreaming authors, who are generally priests, often make their ghosts return answers to questions put to them on different subjects.

Well, having soldered up a live man in a gold Coffin, who, of course, ere this, is dead by suffocation, I now leave it to you my friend to conduct the soul, or spirit through the solid metal. You must admit, I think that you cannot bring it forth in an organized state, and this involves a most important question, How is this spirit which must be a thousand times more subtle than the air

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