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ligion , I abused the Catholic religion ; your countryman , sir , was particularly civil . — « You ore a Protestant , I suppose sir / he said . — * No . sir . I um no Protestant . '— You are no Protestant and no
Catholic , are you then a Mahometan or a Jew ?'— No ; I am neither Protestant , Catholic , Mahometan , or Jew . '— Wliat religion are you of then ?• — < Sir , 1 profess the religion of Socrates /— Well , will you believe me V exclaimed my French gentleman , this member of your House of Commons appeared much shocked /"
" now this was said load in a saloon where there were many persons who I happened to know were rigid and strict Catholics , and yet no one seemed in the slightest degree annoyed at this public and unnecessary avowal of deism , on the part ot the person who had been speaking so indecently . * "In Kngland we know that a person using such language would not only have excited the disgust , the just and decent disgust with
which suchanavovval of infidelity in a country—professing itself Christian , ought to be received ; far beyond any disgust of this kind , the feeling excited would have been a sort of blood curdling horror of superstitious abomination , which would have exaggerated into a ghost or vampire , a living mass of murder and impiety , the person who professed himself thus openly a disciple of Plato . It would therefore be very natural for an Englishman to suppose that the persons who listened quietly to Mr . - ' declaration , were in fact of his opinions .
" But Mr . Stuart mentions many cases of a similar kind in the United States of America , where there is certainly as much Christianity and even as much Christian fanaticism as in Great Britain ; yet where no person thinks he has any right to abuse and condemn a fellow citizen for having different convictions from his own , however atrocious he may deem those convictions /*—vol . i , p . 115 .
We much doubt whether even in this country such a declaration as that of Mr . would be followed by all the " just and decent disgust , " the " blood curdling horror , * ' &c , which Mr . Bulwer supposes , at least in the classes analogous to those he observed to bear it so calmly in France . The English are indeed sadly addicted to that fault which has been
aptly termed a " subordination of insincerity , ' but infidelity is too common among the rich and privileged , the Members of Parliament , and men of literature , to admit of much feeling of disgust at hearing a person profess himself a Deist , however they might think it politic or prudent to assume the appearance of it .
From the section of the work headed ' New Philosophies , we select the following * extract . It relates to St . Simon the founder of the celebrated sect , and is interesting , as all things are which evince earnestness and sincerity . ¦* For at fortnight , " says he not long before his death , ' « I have ate nothing but bread , mid drank nothing but water . I am writing in the depth of winter without a fire ; and 1 have just sold my coat in Giren aa tmonlnted from the appendix *
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Butiver ' s France . 108
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M 2
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1836, page 163, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2655/page/35/
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