OATHS.
A contradiction between the laws and the natural feelings of mankind
arises from the oaths which are required of an accused, to the effect
that he will be a truthful man when it is his greatest interest to
be false; as if a man could really swear to contribute to his own
destruction, or as if religion would not be silent with most men when
their interest spoke on the other side. The experience of all ages has
shown that men have abused religion more than any other of the precious
gifts of heaven; and for what reason should criminals respect it, when
men esteemed as the wisest have often violated it? Too weak, because too
far removed from the senses, are for the mass of people the motives
which religion opposes to the tumult of fear and the love of life.
The affairs of heaven are conducted by laws absolutely different from
those which govern human affairs; so why compromise those by these?
Why place men in the terrible dilemma of either sinning against God or
concurring in their own ruin? The law, in fact, which enforces such an
oath commands a man either to be a bad Christian or to be a martyr. The
oath becomes gradually a mere formality, thus destroying the force of
religious feelings, which for the majority of men are the only pledge of
their honesty. How useless oaths are has been shown by experience, for
every judge will bear me out when I say that no oath has ever yet made
any criminal speak the truth; and the same thing is shown by reason,
which declares all laws to be useless, and consequently injurious, which
are opposed to the natural sentiments of man. Such laws incur the same
fate as dams placed directly in the main stream of a river: either they
are immediately thrown down and overwhelmed, or a whirlpool formed by
themselves corrodes and undermines them imperceptibly.