ON ATHEISM.
BIRTON.--You must not expect such success, sir, on the subject of
goodness, as you have had on ingenuity and power. First, I shall touch
on the misconstructions of our globe, in many instances opposed to the
cleverness so much boasted of; then I intend to dwell on the perpetual
crimes and misfortunes of the inhabitants; and you will judge of the
great ruler's paternal affection for them.
I shall begin by telling you that in Gloucestershire, my county, when we
breed horses, we rear them with care, in fine pasturage and good
stables, with hay and oats. Pray, what shelter and food had these poor
Americans, when we discovered their continent? They were obliged to
scour over thirty or forty miles for food. All the northern coast of the
old world is exposed to the same cruel necessity; and from Swedish
Laponia to the Sea of Japan, a hundred tribes spend a life as short as
it is wretched, in the most complete want, amidst eternal snows.
Fine climates are continually exposed to destructive scourges. There we
walk over burning precipices, covered by fertile plains, which prove but
deadly snares. There is no hell but this, doubtless; and it opens a
hundred times beneath our feet.
They tell us of an universal deluge, an event physically impossible, and
at which all sensible people laugh. But they console us by saying it
only lasted ten months. I wonder it did not put out the fires which have
since destroyed so many flourishing towns. Your St. Augustin tells us of
a hundred cities burnt or swallowed up in Lydia, by an earthquake.
Volcanoes have several times devastated lovely Italy. As a crowning
misfortune, the inhabitants of the Arctic Circle are not exempt from
these subterranean fires. The Icelander, always in alarm, has hunger
staring him in the face, and a hundred feet of flame or ice to the right
or left, under their Mount Hecla; for the great volcanoes are always
found among terrible mountains.
It is in vain to say that mountains of two thousand toises in elevation
are nothing on a globe nine thousand miles in diameter, or like the
irregularities of an orange compared with the bulk of that fruit--that
it is scarcely one foot to every three thousand feet. Alas! What then
are we, if high mountains are but as figures one foot high for every
three thousand feet, or four inches for every nine thousand inches? We
are then animals absolutely imperceptible; yet we are liable to be
crushed by all that surrounds us, though our infinite littleness, so
closely bordering on nothing, might seem to secure us from all
accidents. Besides the countless cities, destroyed and re-destroyed like
as many ant-hills, what shall we say to the seas of sand that cross the
centre of Africa, and whose burning waves, raised by the wind, have
buried entire armies? What is the use of the vast deserts on the borders
of Syria,--deserts so horrible that the ferocious animals, called Jews,
imagined they had reached Paradise when they passed from these scenes of
horror into a little corner of land where they could cultivate a few
acres? It is not enough that man (the noble creature) should be so ill
lodged, clothed, and fed, for so many ages. He comes into the world to
live for a few days, perplexed by deceitful hopes and real vexations.
His body, contrived with useless art, is a prey to all the ills
resulting from that very art. He lives between the dangers of poison and
plague. No one can remember the list of ills we are subject to; and the
modest doctors of Switzerland pretend they can cure them all.
* * * * *
While Birton said this, the company listened with attention and even
emotion. Parouba said "Let us see how the doctor will get over this."
Even John said in a low tone: "On my word, he is right. I was a fool to
be so soon touched by my father's conversation."
Mr. Freind waited till their imaginations were a little recovered from
the assault, and then resumed the discussion.
* * * * *
FREIND.--A young theologian would answer these sad truths by sophisms,
backed with quotations from St. Basil and St. Cyril. For my part, I
shall admit that there are many physical evils in the world. I will not
even lessen the number, though Mr. Birton has seen fit to exaggerate. I
ask you, my dear Parouba, is not your climate made for you? It cannot
be injurious, since neither you nor your companions wish to leave it.
Esquimaux, Icelanders, Laplanders, Asiatics, and Indians, never think of
leaving theirs. The reindeer, which God has sent to clothe and feed
them, die when transported to another zone. Laplanders themselves die in
southern climates. The south of Siberia is too warm for them; here they
would be burnt. It is evident that God made every kind of animal and
vegetable for the clime in which it thrives. Negroes, a race of men so
different to ours, are so thoroughly formed for their country, that
thousands of them have preferred death to slavery elsewhere. The camel
and ostrich are quite at home in the sands of Africa. The bull abounds
in fertile countries, where the grass is ever fresh for his nourishment.
Cinnamon and spice only grow in India. Barley is only useful in those
countries where God has appointed it to grow. From one end of America to
the other, you have different kinds of food. The vine cannot be brought
to perfection in England, nor in Sweden and Canada. This is the reason
that in some countries the elements of religious rites consist in bread
and wine; and they do well to thank God for the food and beverage his
goodness has provided; and Americans would do well to thank him for
their Indian corn and arrow-root. Throughout the world God has suited
all animals, from the snail to man, to the countries in which he has
placed them. Let us not reproach Providence when we owe him praises.
But to consider scourges, such as inundations, volcanoes, earthquakes.
If you confine your attention to the accidents which sometimes happen to
the wheels of the eternal machine, you may well consider God as a
tyrant; but observe his ceaseless benefits, and he becomes a
compassionate father. You have quoted Augustin and his account of the
destruction of a hundred cities; but remember the African rhetorician
often contradicts himself and was prodigal of exaggerations in his
writings. He wrote of earthquakes as he did of the efficacy of grace,
and the damnation of children dying without baptism. Has he not said in
his thirty-seventh sermon, that he had seen people at Ethiopia with one
eye in the middle of the forehead like the Cyclops, and a whole race
without heads?
We, who are not fathers of the church, ought not to go beyond nor to
stop short of truth; and the truth is, that of the houses destroyed, we
cannot reckon that more than one out of every hundred thousand, is
destroyed by the fires necessary to the due performance of the
operations of the world.
So essential to the nature of the universe is fire, that but for it
there would be no sun nor stars, no animals, vegetables, or minerals.
The fire, placed under the earth, is subject to fixed natural laws. Some
disasters may nevertheless occur. You cannot say a man is a poor artisan
when an immense machine, formed by him, lasts unimpaired for years. If a
man invented a hydraulic engine to water a province, would you disparage
his work because it destroys some insects?
I have shown you that the machine of the world is the work of an
intelligent and powerful being; you, who are intelligent, ought to
admire him,--you, who are laden with his gifts, ought to adore him.
But how, you inquire, can the wretches who are condemned to languish
under incurable evils--how can they admire and love? I must tell you,
that such ills are generally brought on ourselves, or come to us from
our fathers, who abused their bodies, and not from the great fabricator.
No disease but decrepitude was known in America till we introduced
strong liquors, the source of all evils.
Let us remember that in Milton's Poem, the simple Adam is made to
inquire if he will live long. Yes, is the reply, if you take nothing to
excess. Observe this rule, my friends. Can you require that God should
let you live for ages, as the reward of your gluttony, your drunkenness,
your incontinence, and your indulgence in infamous passions, which
corrupt the blood and necessarily shorten life?
* * * * *
I approved of this reply. Parouba liked it; but Birton was not moved. I
read in John's eyes that he was still doubtful. Birton rejoined in these
terms:
BIRTON.--Since you have made use of common arguments, with a few novel
remarks, I may be allowed to follow your plan. If so good and powerful a
God existed, surely he would not have suffered evil to enter the world,
nor have devoted his creatures to grief and crime. If he cannot prevent
evil, he is not almighty; if he will not, he is cruel.
The annals of the Brahmins only extend back 8,000 years; those of the
Chinese only 5,000. Our knowledge is but of yesterday; but, in that
brief space, all is horror. Murder has been the practice from one end of
the earth to the other; and men have been weak enough to give to those
men who slew the greatest number of their fellow creatures, the titles
of heroes, demi-gods, and even gods.
In America there were left two great nations, beginning to enjoy the
sweets of peace and civilization, when the Spaniards came there to slay
eleven millions. They hunted men down with dogs; and King Ferdinand of
Castile gave those dogs pensions for their services.
The heroes who subdued the New World, massacred innocent and helpless
babes, murdered peaceable and defenceless Indians, and committed the
most inhuman barbarities! They roasted King Guatimozin, in Mexico, on a
gridiron. They hastened to Peru to convert the Inca, Atahualpa. A
priest, named Almagro, son of a priest condemned to be hanged in Spain
for highway robbery, went there with one Pizarro, to inform the Emperor
of the Peruvians, by the voice of another priest, that a third priest,
named Alexander IV., polluted by incest, assassination, and homicide,
had given, with his full consent (_proprio motu_) and with full power,
not only Peru, but one half of the New World, to the King of Spain; and
that Atahualpa ought instantly to submit, under pain of suffering the
indignation of the apostles Peter and Paul. But as this king knew as
little of Latin as the priest who read the papal bull, he was instantly
declared heretical and incredulous.
They burned Atahualpa, as they had burned Guatimozin. They slew his
people; and all to gain that hard and yellow earth which has only served
to depopulate and impoverish Spain; for it has made her neglect the
cultivation of the earth, which really nourishes man.
Now, my dear Mr. Freind, if the fantastic and ridiculous being men call
the devil, had wished to make men in his image, would he have made them
otherwise? Do not, then, attribute such an abominable work to God.
* * * * *
This speech brought the party round again to Birton's views. I saw John
rejoice in himself; even young Parouba heard with horror of the priest
Almagro--of the priest who read the Latin bull--of the priest Alexander
IV.---of all Christians who committed, under pretence of devotion, such
crimes to obtain gold. I confess, I trembled for Freind. I despaired of
his cause. He replied, however, without embarrassment.
FREIND.--Remember, my friends, there is a God. This I proved to you, you
agreed to it, and after being driven to admit that he exists, you strive
to find out his imperfections, vices, and wickedness.
I am far from asserting, with some reasoners, that private ills form the
general good. This is too ridiculous a sentiment. I admit, with grief,
that the world contains much moral and physical evil: but, since it is
certain that God exists, it is also certain that all these evils cannot
prevent God's existence. He cannot be cruel. What interest could make
him so? There are horrible evils in the world, my friends. Let us not
swell their number. It is impossible that God can be other than good;
but men are perverse, and make a detestable use of the liberty that God
has given and ought to have given,--that is, the power of exercising
their wills, without which they would be simple machines, formed by a
wicked being, to be broken at his caprice.
All enlightened Spaniards agree that a small number of their ancestors
abused this liberty so far as to commit crimes that make human nature
shudder. The second Don Carlos did what he could to repair the
atrocities committed by the Spaniards under Ferdinand and Charles V.
If there be crime in the world, my friends, there is virtue as well.
BIRTON.--Ah! ha! virtue! A good joke! I should like to see this virtue.
Where is she to be found?
At these words I could not contain myself.
"You may find her," said I, "in the worthy Mr. Freind, in Parouba, even
in yourself when your heart is cleansed of its vices."
He blushed; and John also. The latter looked down and seemed to feel
remorse. His father surveyed him with compassion and resumed.
FREIND.--Yes, dear friends. If there have always been crimes; there have
always been virtues too. Athens had such men as Socrates, as well as
such as Anitus. Rome had Catos, as well as Syllas. Nero frightened the
world by his atrocities, but Titus, Trajan, and the Antonines, consoled
it by their benevolence, My friend will explain to Parouba who these
great men were. Fortunately, I have Epictetus in my pocket. Epictetus
was a slave, but the equal of Marcus Aurelius in mind. Listen; and may
all who pretend to teach men hear what Epictetus says to himself,--"God
made me; I feel this; and shall I dare to dishonor him by infamous
thoughts, criminal actions, and base desires?" His mind agreed with his
conversation. Marcus Aurelius, on the throne of Europe and two parts of
our hemisphere, did not think otherwise than the slave Epictetus. The
one was never humiliated by meanness, nor the other dazzled by
greatness; and when they wrote their thoughts it was for the use of
their disciples, and not to be extolled in the papers. Pray, in your
opinion, were not Locke, Newton, Tillotson, Penn, Clarke, the good man
called "The Man of Ross," and many others, in and beyond your island,
models of virtue?
You have alluded to the cruel and unjust wars of which so many nations
have been guilty. You have described the abominations of Christians in
Mexico and Peru; you might add the St. Bartholomew of France and the
Irish massacre. But are there not people who have always held in
abhorrence the shedding of blood? Have not the Brahmins in all ages
given this example to the world? and, even in this country, have we not
near us, in Pennsylvania, our Philadelphians, whom they attempt in vain
to ridicule by the name of Quakers, and who have always hated war?
Have we not the Carolinas, where the great Locke dictated laws? In these
two lands of virtue, all citizens are equal; all consciences are free;
all religions good; provided they worship God. There all men are
brethren. You have seen, Mr. Birton, the inhabitants of the Blue
Mountains lay down their arms before a descendant of Penn. They felt the
force of virtue. You persist in disavowing it. Because the earth
produces poisons as well as wholesome plants, will you prefer the
poisons?
BIRTON.--Oh, sir, your poisons are not to the point. If God made them,
they are his work. He is master, and does all. His hand directs
Cromwell's, when he signs the death warrant of Charles I. His arm
conducts the headsman's, who severs his head from the body. No, I cannot
admit that God is a homicide.
FREIND.--Nor I. Pray, hear me. You will admit that God governs by
general laws. According to these laws, Cromwell, a monster of fanaticism
and envy, determines to sacrifice Charles I. to his own interest, which,
no doubt, all men seek to promote, though they do not understand it
alike. According to the laws of motion established by God, the
executioner cuts off his head. But assuredly it is not God who commits
the assassination by a particular act of his will. God was not Cromwell,
nor Ravaillac, nor Balthazar Gerard, nor the preaching friar, James
Clement. God does not permit, nor command, nor authorize crime. But he
has made man; he has established laws of motion; and these eternal laws
are equally executed by the good man who stretches out his hand to the
poor, and by the hand of a villain who assassinates his brother. In the
same way that God did not extinguish the sun, or swallow up Spain, to
punish Cortez, Almagro, and Pizarro, so, also, he does not send a
company of angels to London, nor make a hundred thousand pipes of
Burgundy to descend from heaven to delight the hearts of his dear
Englishmen, when they do good. His general providence would become
ridiculous, if thus made manifest to every individual; and this is so
striking, that God never punishes a criminal immediately, by a decided
stroke of his power. He lets the sun shine on the evil and the good. If
some wretches expire in their crimes, it is by the general laws that
govern the world. I have read in a great book, by a Frenchman called
Mézeray, that God caused our Henry V. to suffer a painful death, because
he dared to sit on the throne of a Christian king.
The physical part of a bad action is the effect of the primary laws
given to matter by the hand of God. All moral evil is the effect of the
liberty which man abuses.
In a word, without plunging into the fogs of metaphysics, let us
remember that the existence of God is proved. We have no longer to argue
on that point. Take God from the world, and does the assassination of
Charles I. become more lawful? Do you feel less aversion toward his
executioner? God exists. Enough. If he exists, he is just. Be, then,
just also.
BIRTON.--Your argument has strength and force, though it does not
altogether exonerate God from being the author of physical and moral
evil. I see your way of justifying him makes an impression on the
assembly; but might it not be contrived that these laws should not
involve such particular misfortunes? You have proved to me a powerful
and eternal God, and I was almost on the point of believing. But I have
some terrible objections to make. Come, John, courage; let us not be
cast down.