unalterable experience has established these laws, the proof against a
miracle, from the very nature of the fact, is as entire as any argument
from experience can possibly be imagined. Why is it more than probable
that all men must die; that lead cannot, of itself, remain suspended in
the air; that fire consumes wood, and is extinguished by water; unless
it be that these events are found agreeable to the laws of nature,
and there is required a violation of these laws, or, in other words,
a miracle to prevent them? Nothing is esteemed a miracle, if it ever
happen in the common course of nature. It is no miracle that a man,
seemingly in good health, should die on a sudden; because such a kind
of death, though more unusual than any other, has yet been frequently
observed to happen. But it is a miracle that a dead man should come to
life; because that has never been observed in any age or country. There
must, therefore, be an uniform experience against every miraculous
event, otherwise the event would not merit that appellation. And as an
uniform experience amounts to a proof, there is here a direct and
full proof, from the nature of the fact, against the existence of any
miracle; nor can such a proof be destroyed, or the miracle rendered
credible, but by an opposite proof which is superior. The plain
consequence is (and it is a general maxim worthy of our attention,)
'That no testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle, unless the
testimony be of such a kind that its falsehood would be more miraculous
than the fact which it endeavors to establish. And even in that case
there is a mutual destruction of arguments, and the superior only gives
us an assurance suitable to that degree of force which remains after
deducting the inferior.' When any one tells me that he saw a dead man
restored to life, I immediately consider with myself whether it be more
probable that this person should either deceive or be deceived, or that
the fact which he relates should really have happened. I weigh the one
miracle against the other; and according to the superiority which
I discover, I pronounce my decision, and always reject the greater
miracle. If the falsehood of his testimony would be more miraculous than
the event which he relates; then, and not till then, can he pretend
to command my belief or opinion.... There is not to be found, in all
history, any miracle attested by a sufficient number of men, of such
unquestioned good sense, education, and learning, as to secure us
against all delusion in themselves; of such undoubted integrity, as to
place them beyond all suspicion of any design to deceive others; of such
credit and reputation in the eyes of mankind, as to have a great deal to
lose in case of their being detected in any falsehood; and at the same
time attesting facts, performed in such a public manner, and in so
celebrated a part of the world, as to render the detection unavoidable;
all which circumstances are requisite to give us a full assurance of the
testimony of men.... One of the best attested miracles in all profane
history, is that which Tacitus reports of Vespasian, who cured a blind
man in Alexandria by means of his spittle, and a lame man by the mere
touch of his foot; in obedience to a vision of the god Seraphis, who had
enjoined them to have recourse to the emperor for these miraculous
cures. The story may be seen in that fine historian; where every
circumstance seems to add weight to the testimony, and might be
displayed at large with all the force of argument and eloquence, if
any one were now concerned to enforce the evidence of that exploded and
idolatrous superstition. The gravity, solidity, age, and probity of so
great an emperor, who through the whole course of his life, conversed
in a familiar manner, with his friends and courtiers, and never affected
those extraordinary airs of divinity assumed by Alexander and Demetrius.
The historian, a contemporary writer, noted for candor and veracity,
and, withal, the greatest and most, penetrating genius, perhaps of all
antiquity; and so free from any tendency to credulity, that he even lies
under the contrary imputation of Atheism and profaneness. The persons,
from whose authority he related the miracle of established character
for judgment and veracity, as we may-well presume; eye-witnesses of
the fact, and confirming their testimony, after the Flavian family was
despoiled of the empire, and could no longer give any reward as the
price of a lie. _Utrumque, qui interfuere, nunc quoque memorant,
postquam nullum mendacio pretium_. To which, if we add the public nature
of the facts, as related, it will appear that no evidence can well be
supposed stronger for so gross and so palpable a falsehood."
These extracts will give some idea of the grace, and power, and
penetration of Hume. The society he kept, the abilities with which he
was justly credited, the reputation his works deservedly won for him,
made him a man of mark and influence in his day. Read by the learned,
courted by statesmen, he taught gentlemen liberality, and governments
toleration. The influence of Hume, silent and inappreciable to the
multitude, has been of the utmost importance to the nation. His works
have been studied by philosophers, politicians, and prelates. The
writings of no Freethinker, except Voltaire, have maintained their
ground with continually increasing reputation. Oddly enough, none
of Hume's works were popular when they first appeared. In fact, his
"Treatise on Human Nature" he had to reprint in the form of Essays, five
years after its first publication. It then, for the first time, began to
be bought; but not to any great extent. Five years later, he again
made it re-appear, under the form of an "Inquiry Concerning the Human
Understanding." It was not until this third publication that he "began
to perceive symptoms of its coming into notice." The world has since
made up for its negligence, by perpetual comment and solid appreciation.
A king among thinkers, the clergy have in the provinces of politics and
philosophical speculation to acknowledge allegiance to him, however they
may rebel against his theological heresies.
J. W.
DR. THOMAS BURNET
It was only a very narrow accident which prevented Dr. Burnet, an
ultra Freethinker in the Church of England, from becoming Archbishop of
Canterbury at the death of Tillotson. A combination of clergymen were
prepared to immolate themselves providing Burnet could be overthrown.
They succeeded. Thomas Burnet kept the Charter House, in London, and
his conscience--happier, perhaps, in this than if he had enjoyed the
ecclesiastical preferment which King William seemed so anxious to give
him. Amongst the clergy, Dr. Burnet was, with the single exception of
Dean Swift, the greatest Freethinker of whom we can boast, who held an
influential position in the Church. This position is sometimes claimed
for Bishop Berkeley, a man of vast talents, a sincere Christian,
although an innovator in philosophy.
Thomas Burnet was born in the year 1635. At the age of forty-five,
he published the work, in Latin, with which his name is generally
associated, "The Sacred Theory of the Earth: containing an account of
the Original of the Earth, and of all the general changes which it
has already undergone, or is to undergo, till the consummation of all
Things." This book gives us an idea, formed by its author, of the origin
of the world, and is remarkable as one of the first grand prophecies of
geology; although of little value to us, it produced an impression upon
the age by depicting the various strata of the mountainous regions, and
comparing them in different countries, eliminating ideas of the nature
of the vast changes we see in the universe, tracing the rise of most of
the phenomena from the two elements, fire and water. Burnet thought that
at one time the whole of matter was in a fluid state, revolving round
a central sun, until the heavier particles sunk into the middle, and
formed the stony strata which supports the earth, over which the lighter
liquids coalesced until the heat of the sun effectually separated water
from land. This is the foundation of a scheme which is elaborated in
a poetic style, abounding in eloquent descriptions; in fact it is a
philosophic prose poem of almost unalloyed beauty. In it there is some
resemblance to the measured sentences of Shaftesbury, although unequal
to that fine writer in soundness of judgment or practical usefulness. In
1691 an English translation was published.
By far the most interesting work to us of Burnet's (also written in
Latin) is "Archæologia Philosophical or, an account of the Opinion of
the Ancients on various Philosophical Problems." This work created great
opposition by its free remarks on the Mosaic dispensation, although
the writer in this, as in the case of his posthumous works, strongly
protested against their being translated into the English language, as
he was justly afraid of their influence on the minds of the laity, and
from his high official station, with the influence his vast learning and
his connection with Tillotson, and the Court gave him, he was, no
doubt, apprehensive that the really religious champions of the Church of
England would denounce him when exposed to the temptation of High Church
preferment. Fragments of those works were translated by the clergy to
prove to the unlearned what a dangerous character Thomas Burnet was.
Charles Blount, writing to Gildon, says, "I have, according to my
promise, sent you herewith the seventh and eighth chapters, as also the
appendix, of the great and learned Dr. Burnet's book, published this
winter in Latin, and by him dedicated to our most gracious Sovereign,
King William..... As for the piece itself, I think it is one of the
most ingenious I have ever read, and full of the most acute as well
as learned observations. Nor can I find anything worthy an objection
against him, as some of the censorious part of the world pretend; who
would have you believe it a mere burlesque upon Moses, and destructive
to the notion of original sin, wherefore by consequence (say they)
there could be no necessity of a Redemption, which, however, I think no
necessary consequence; but, for my part, either the great veneration
I have for the doctor's extraordinary endowments, or else my own
ignorance, has so far bribed me to his interests that I can, by no
means, allow of any of those unjust reflections the wholesale merchants
of credulity, as well as their unthinking retailers, make against him.
It is true, in the seventh chapter he seems to prove that many parts of
the Mosaic history of the creation appear inconsistent with reason,
and in the eighth chapter the same appears no less inconsistent with
philosophy; wherefore he concludes (as many fathers of the Church have
done before him) that the whole rather seems to have been but a pious
allegory." Dr. Burnet took the meaning of much of the Bible to be but
a "pious allegory," and, as such, he strove to popularize it with the
clergy. We do not believe that he intended to enlighten any but the
clergy. He foresaw the "flood of fierce democracy," and, like other
able men with vested rights in the ignorance of the people, he strove to
temporize, to put off still further the day of Christianity's downfall.
We place him in this biographical niche not because he dashed into the
fray, like bold Hobbes or chivalrous Woolston, and took part in the
battle of priestcraft because he thought it was right, but rather
because he was a Freethinker in disguise, longing for Episcopal honors;
yet, by one false step (the publishing of "Archæologia," ) lost an
archbishopric, and gave the authority of a great name to struggling
opinion. His accession to our ranks was a brilliant accident. He died,
at the age of eighty years, in 1715. After his demise, two works were
translated (and published,) both expressive of his liberal views. The
first, "On Christian Faith and Duties," throwing overboard the whole of
the speculative tenets of the Bible, and giving practical effect to the
morals taught in the New Testament, without striving to refute, or even
apparently to disbelieve, their authority, but advising the clergy to
treat them as a dead letter. The other posthumous treatise was, "On the
State of the Dead and the Reviving," which shadows forth a scheme of
Deism, inasmuch as Burnet here flatly contradicts the usual ideas of
"hell torments" or "hell fire," while asserting the necessity of those
"who have not been as good in this life as they ought to be" undergoing
a probationary purification before they attained supreme happiness, yet,
eventually, every human being would inhabit a heavenly elysium, where
perennial pleasure would reign, and sorrow be forever unknown.
Those sentiments indicate a high degree of liberal culture, although
they do not sufficiently embody our ideal of one of the great
Freethinkers of the past. We should have preferred Burnet if he had
systematically opposed the Church as Toland or Tindal, or if he had
boldly entered the breach like William Whiston, whose singular talents
and faithful honesty separated him alike from the Church, Dissent, and
Deism, and left him shipwrecked on the world an able yet a visionary
reformer. With more ability than Chubb, he resembled him in his weak
policy; he chose to cut his sneers in slices, and served them up for
a scholarly party rather than hazard the indignation of the ignorant
amongst the clergy. We are, however, certain that although Thomas Burnet
was deficient in many points where he might have done effective service,
yet we honor him for the boldness with which he faced the scholars with
his Latin works. He threw an apple of discord amongst their ranks which
has served, in a constantly increasing manner, to divide and distract
their attention. The result has been a constant internecine war in the
Church, by which Freethought has largely profited.
We conclude our sketch of Dr. Burnet by quoting some extracts from the
seventh chapter of the "Archæologia Philosophica," as translated
by Charles Blount in the "Oracles of Reason," concerning Moses's
description of Paradise and the original of things:--
"We have (says Burnet) hitherto made our inquiries into the originals
of things, as well as after a true knowledge of Paradise amongst the
ancients; yet still with reference to sacred writ, where it gave us any
manner of light on the subject, but think it altogether unnecessary
to define the place or situation of Paradise, since in respect to the
theory of the earth, it is much the same thing where you place it,
providing it be not on our modern earth. Now, if you inquire among the
ancient fathers where the situation of it was, either they will have it
to be none at all, or else obscure and remote from our understanding;
some of them, indeed, term it an intelligible Paradise, but confined
to no one particular place; whilst others, at the same time make it a
sensible one, and here it is they first divided about it, etc.... Now,
the history of Paradise, according to Moses, is this:--When God had, in
six days, finished the creation of the world, the seventh day he rested
from all manner of work. And here Moses relates particularly each day's
operations: but for the story of mankind, as well male as female, of
which he makes a particular treatise by himself. Wherefore, omitting the
rest at present, let us consider the Mosaic doctrine upon those three
subjects, viz., Adam, Eve, and the Garden of Eden, together with those
things which are interwoven within them. As to the first man, Adam,
Moses says he was formed not out of stones or dragon's teeth, as other
Cosmists have feigned concerning their men, but out of the dust or
clay of the earth, and when his body was formed, 'God _blew into his
nostrils_ the breath of life, and man was made a living soul.'
"But after another manner, and of another matter, was the woman
built--viz., with one of Adam's small bones, for as Adam lay asleep, God
took away one of his _ribs_, and out of that made Eve. So much for
the forming of the first man and woman by the literal text. Moses has
likewise given us a large account of their first habitation. He says
that God made them in a certain famous garden in the East, and gave it
to them as a farm to cultivate and to inhabit, which garden was a most
delightful place, watered with four several fountains or rivers, planted
with trees of every kind.... Amongst the trees, in the midst of the
garden, stood two more remarkable than the rest; one was called the tree
of life, the other the tree of death, or of the knowledge of good and
evil.... God, upon pain of death, prohibits Adam and Eve from tasting
the fruit of this tree; but it happened that Eve sitting solitary under
this tree, without her husband, there came to her a serpent or adder,
which (though I know not by what means or power) civilly accosted the
woman (if we may judge of the thing by the event) in these words, or to
this purpose:-- *
* We extract this portion not for its merits of buffoonery,
but to show the real state of mind which could actuate a
dignitary of the Church of England in writing it, as the
eighth chapter is by far the most philosophical, but we wish
to show Burnet's real sentiments.
"Serpent.--All hail, most fair one, what are you doing so solitary and
serious under this shade?
"Eve.--I am contemplating the beauty of this tree.
"Serp.--'Tis truly an agreeable sight, but much pleasanter are the
fruits thereof. Have you tasted them, my lady?
"Eve.--I have not, because God has forbidden us to eat of this tree.
"Serp.--What do I hear! What is that God that envies his creatures the
innocent delights of nature? Nothing is sweeter, nothing more wholesome
than this fruit: why, then, should he forbid it, unless in jest?
"Eve.--But he has forbid it us on pain of death.
"Serp.--Undoubtedly you mistake his meaning. This tree has nothing that
would prove fatal to you, but rather something divine, and above the
common order of nature.
"Eve.--I can give you no answer; but will go to my husband, and then do
as he thinks fit.
"Serp.--Why should you trouble your husband over such a trifle! Use your
own judgment.
"Eve.--Let me see--had I best use it or not? What 'can be more
beautiful than this apple? How sweetly it smells! But it may be it
tastes ill.
"Serp.--Believe me, it is a bit worthy to be eaten by the angels
themselves; do but try, and if it tastes ill, throw it away.
"Eve.--Well, I'll try. It has, indeed, a most agreeable flavor. Give me
another that I may carry it to my husband.
"Serp.--Very well thought on; here's another for you: go to your husband
with it. Farewell, happy young woman. In the meantime I'll go my ways;
let her take care of the rest.
"Accordingly, Eve gave the apple to the too uxorious Adam, when
immediately after their eating of it, they became both (I don't know
how) ashamed of their nakedness, and sewing fig leaves together, making
themselves a sort of aprons, etc. After these transactions, God, in the
evening, descended into the garden, upon which our first parents fled
to hide themselves in the thickest of the trees, but in vain, for God
called out, 'Adam, where art thou?' When he, trembling, appeared before
God Almighty, and said, Lord, when I heard thee in this garden, I was
ashamed because of my nakedness, and hid myself amongst the most shady
parts of the thicket. Who told thee, says God, that thou wast naked?
Have you eaten of the forbidden fruit? That woman thou gavest me brought
it; 'twas she that made me eat of it. You have, says God, finely ordered
your business, you and your wife. Here, you woman, what is this that you
have done? Alas! for me, says Adam, thy serpent gave me the apple, and I
did eat of it.
"This apple shall cost you dear, replied God, and not only you, but your
posterity, and the whole race of mankind. Moreover, for this crime, I
will curse and spoil the heavens, the earth, and the whole fabric
of nature. But thou, in the first place, vile beast, shall bear the
punishment of thy craftiness and malice. Hereafter shall thou go
creeping on thy belly, and instead of eating apples, shall lick the dust
of the earth. As for you, Mrs. Curious, who so much love delicacies, in
sorrow-shall you bring forth your children. You shall be subject to
your husband, and shall never depart from his side unless having first
obtained leave. Lastly, as for you, Adam, because you have hearkened
more to your wife than to me, with the sweat of your brow shall you
obtain both food for her and her children. You shall not gather fruits
which, as heretofore, grew of themselves, but shall reap the fruits
of the earth with labor and trouble. May the earth be, for thy sake,
accursed--hereafter grow barren. May she produce thistles, thorns,
tares, with other hurtful and unprofitable herbs, and when thou hast
here led a troublesome, laborious life, dust thou art, to dust shalt
thou return......
"Great is the force of custom and a preconceived opinion over human
minds. Wherefore, these short observations of the first originals of men
or things, which we receive from Moses, are embraced without the least
examination of them. But had we read the same doctrine in a Greek
philosopher, or in a Rabbinical or Mahometan doctor, we should have
stopped at every sentence with our mind full of objections and scruples.
Now, this difference does not arise from the nature of the thing itself,
but from the great opinion we have of the authority of the writer 'as
being divinely inspired.' The author here defines his ideas in reference
to fabulous writings, after which he proceeds in his inquiry. 'But
out of what matter the first of mankind, whether, male or female, was
composed, is not so easily known. If God had a mind to make a woman
start from one of Adam's ribs, it is true it seems to be a matter not
very proper; but, however, out of wood, stone, or any other being God
can make a woman; and here, by the bye, the curious ask whether this rib
was useless to Adam, and beyond the number requisite in a complete
body. If not, when it was taken away, Adam would be a maimed person, and
robbed of a part of himself that was necessary. I say necessary, for
as much, as I suppose, that in the fabric of a human body nothing is
superfluous, and that no one bone can be taken away without endangering
the whole, or rendering it, in some measure, imperfect. But it, on the
other side, you say this rib was really useless to Adam, and might be
spared, so that you make him to have only twelve ribs on one side and
thirteen on the other, they will reply that this is like a monster,
as much as if the first man had been created with three feet, or three
hands, or had had more eyes, or other members, than the use of a human
body requires. But in the beginning we cannot but suppose that all
things were made with all imaginable exactness.
"For my part, I do not pretend to decide this dispute, but what more
perplexes me is, how, out of one rib, the whole mass of a woman's body
could be built? For a rib does not, perhaps, equal the thousandth part
of an entire body. If you answer that the rest of the matter was taken
from elsewhere, certainly, then, Eve might much more truly be said to
have been formed out of that borrowed matter, whatever it was, than out
of Adam's rib. I know that the Rabbinical doctors solve this business
quite another way, for they say the first man had two bodies, the one
male, the other female, who were joined together, and that God having
cloven them asunder, gave one side to Adam for a wife. Plato has, in his
'Symposium,' something very like this story, concerning his first man,
Anoroginus, who was afterwards divided into two parts, male and female.
Lastly, others conjecture that Moses gave out this original of woman to
the end that he might inspire a mutual love between the two sexes, as
parts of one and the same whole, so as more effectually to recommend his
own institution of marriage.... But leaving this subject, I will hasten
to something else.