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which weak and credulous minds are imposed upon by such persons. It is both lamentable and astonishing to think what influence these people hold over females. Many a virtuous female hath been seduced out of her virtue by those pretended prophets. It is but lately that, in the City of Westminster, we found a servant girl, otherwise strictly honest, virtuous, and moral, induced to set fire to her master's house, in consequence of being instigated by one of those wretched strollers; and being threatened with something disastrous if she did not follow the instructions of her instigator. Charmers, Quack Doctors, and others, who prey upon the public health as well as the public weal, are equally pestiferous. Any quack, if he can raise money to take out a patent for a mixture of some trash, is immediately entitled to kill and plunder, by his Majesty's royal authority. Thus are carried on the impositions against the health and industry of the virtuous part of mankind, and all have their common origin in the vices of priestcraft and kingcraft. A well-regulated communnity would soon annihilate charming, and fortune-telling, and every other abuse calculated to make unhappy its several members. But the present rulers of societies being established on similar frauds, and partaking of the profits of them, are quite content to continue and support them, and excuse themselves, with the shameful pretence, that pious frauds are useful and necessary to guide the mass of mankind-they are useful only to those who live in idleness, and prey upon the industrious labourer. I have now said all that is necessary on this subject, and I could wish the reader to take my word for it, that there is no such a being as the devil-that there are no such beings as spirits, or ghosts, or apparitions-that there are no kind of people who have powers, such as have been attributed to witches, to enchanters, to sorcerers, to charmers, or to necromancers, and whether the Bible, or any other book, makes mention of such, they are equally lies. The Bible, particularly, has been justly and rightly called a book of lies, insomuch, as it supports all those lying stories. Whilst there remains a portion of mankind, weak and credulous enough to be imposed on by such means, there will always be others wicked enough to make that imposition.

In the twenty-first chapter we have the following paragraph:

When thou goest forth to war against thine enemies, and the Lord thy God hath delivered them into thine hands, and thou hast taken

them captive, and seest among the captives a beautiful woman, and hast a desire unto her, that thou wouldest have her to thy wife; then thou shalt bring her home to thine house, and she shall shave her head and pare her nails; and she shall put the raiment of her captivity from off her, and shall remain in thine house, and bewail her father and mother a full month: and after that thou shalt go in unto her, and be her husband, and she shall be thy wife. And it shall be, if thon have no delight in her, then thou shalt let her go whither she will; but thou shall not sell her at all for money, thou shalt not make merchandise of her, because thou hast humbled ber.'

I am astonished when I reflect on the state of that mind which admits the existence of an omnipotent and all-merciful deity, and at the same time makes him the author of such trash as we find in the Bible. Almost every paragraph affords matter for objection, and if I were inclined to go into it with that spirit of prolixity which is common to its eulogizing commentators, I might continue to write until I became dim with old age. The above paragraph is an allusion to a custom very common to the East; as beautiful captives will now fetch a high price, and may find an entertainment in the royal seraglio.

As I am writing and printing this commentary by piecemeal, I may occasionally fall into some repetitions, in consequence of the Bible abounding in them, but as I consider this to be a mere sketch which by and by I may find convenient to enlarge upon and make a volume of it, I must trust to the candour of the reader for an occasional repetition. I throw out this observation, as I am not aware whether I have yet noticed the Jewish slave trade or not, as I have no duplicate of copy, and my distance from the press occasions the necessity of my keeping it in advance in London.

It is evident that the Jews, or the authors of the Bible, have made their deity, Jehovah, the author of the slave trade; for we are told by believers that all other nations have copied their customs from this book. It might be wondered what could be the real state of the mind of Mr. Wilberforce, who makes so much cant about this book, and who orders a bible to be brought for every member, at his breakfast table, on a silver waiter, lest the touch of the footmen should profane it: it might be wondered, I say, what could be the state of his mind, in his endeavours to counteract the slave trade, when he found the establishment of it in what he otherwise calls the

word of God. In various parts of this book the practice of slave dealing is inculcated, and a law relative to it laid down; and one would have imagined, that Mr. Wilberforce, at least, would have considered this sacred authority sufficient to satisfy his scruples as to humanity or mere human reason. I by no means ridicule nor condemn the exertions of Mr. Wilberforce on that occasion, I could wish that he had displayed a similar humanity on others equally important. But in this one instance, it is evident, that the gentleman allowed his mere human reason to supersede the authority of the Bible. I hold the practice of slave dealing to be an abominable custom, for I hold the black negro to be the equal of the white European: they are both men of the same faculties and abilities, and of this the present government of Christophe in St. Domingo has given us a practical proof. The English government might take a lesson from the management of some of the departments of the Haytian government. To say that the negro is inferior in capacity to the European is false, and daily contradicted wherever they dwell together.

In the twenty-second chapter we have the following paragraph, which I shall insert with some subsequent ones in the book of Deuteronomy, for no other purpose than to mark them with reprobation, and this would be scarcely worth notice, was it not called the word of God, a holy book, and other false epithets: the first is as follows.

• If any man take a wife, and go in unto her, and hate her; and give occasions of speech against her, and bring up an evil name upon her, and say, I took this woman, and when I came to her, I found her not a maid; then shall the father of the damsel, and her mother, take and bring forth the tokens of the damsel's virginity unto the elders of the city in the gate: and the damsel's father shall say unto the elders, I gave my daughter unto this man to wife, and he hateth her; and lo he hath given occasions of speech against her, saying, I found not thy daughter a.maid; and yet these are the tokens of my daughter's virginity. And they shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city. And the elders of that city shall take that man and chastise him; and they shall amerce him in an hundred shekels of silver, and give them unto the father of the damsel, because he hath brought up an evil name upon a virgin of Iɛrael : and she shall be his wife, he may not put her away all his days. But if this thing be true, and the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel, then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she die: because she hath wrought folly in Israel, to play the

whore in her father's house: so shall thou put evil away from among you.'

Repugnant as this idea must be to an English female, still it is a practice by no means confined to the followers of Jehovah; it is quite common throughout Asia and even Africa. Nay they go further than is here enjoined, for the tokens of virginity are actually exhibited to the guests at the wedding, and it is considered a consummation of the marriage as well as a proof of previous chastity. I have no wish to enlarge on this subject, it does not come within my purpose, but those who have read various travels throughout Asia and Africa, must be acquainted with the particulars. I do not consider the above to be a wise law by any means, and it is evident, that it was the result of ignorance, because it admits no exceptions whilst there are natural exceptions and objections to it.

The next paragraph I'shall introduce is the two first verses of the twenty-third chapter, as follows:

He that is wounded in the stones, or hath his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord. A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord; even to his tenth generation shall he not enter into the congregation of the Lord.'

The first verse is much too bad for comment, and nothing but the gross character of the Jews could have tolerated the sight of such in a book designated holy. The second verse I consider extremely ridiculous, and I here mean to defend what is termed a bastard, from the general and unwarrantable odium which is thrown on him. Common sense seems to dictate to us, that, if there be any thing vicious or disreputable in a child being born to a female not in a state of wedlock the blame should attach to the parent and not to the infant. If there be a blame attached to the circumstance, the infant, at least should not suffer from, it, because, it must be unconscious of wrong, and should not be accountable for that act, of which, although it was the offspring, it could not controul. But as to talking about bastards to the tenth generation, it is perfectly ridiculous, for how many bastards are there born when the parent is in wedlock? I should consider the offspring of an adulterous intercourse to be bastards equally with those born out of wedlock. I have often heard the shrewd answer given in the west of England, when an husband has been asked, whether a boy has been his son or not? that "he was obliged to stand for the father, whether he

was or not:" and this was certainly a cautious if not a prudent answer. Again the laws of England would have considered all the children which Jacob had, except by his first wife, as bastards, and consequently, all the children of Levi who were to officiate as priests were contaminated with bastardy. It must be admitted that it is advantageous to a community to encourage matrimony, and at the same time to make it a legal tie, otherwise there would be no stability or consistency in the right of inheriting property: but whether if a man has a wife and family, and cohabits also with another woman or other women, and has offspring also by them, they should not be entitled to share his property, I shall not pretend to say; but justice dictates to my mind that it should be so, on the ground that those children should not suffer disparagement for an act of which they are in nature innocent; and must naturally have the same claim on their father as those born from a woman in wedlock. As the property of the father is at his own disposal, except it be freehold, and as all his children, whether born in wedlock or not, must stand in the same relation to him as the common father, so also my reason persuades me that he should make an equal provision for them. The law of primogeniture does not come into consideration here, or perhaps I might be induced to descant upon it, and also to point out its evils, not only to individuals, but to the community at large. The case of bastards being now under consideration, to me it seems as clear, that the situation of the mother of the bastard is sufficiently unpleasant, and sufficiently a punishment for her indiscretion; if in fact it be any, of which I have my doubts, and on which head I am very liberal and charitable. Custom is too apt to pervert the plainest dictates of nature, and to stamp them as criminal, whereas the real criminality lies in the opposition to those dictates. It is from the odium which the law attaches to bastardy, that we find so many females prefer the destruction of their offspring rather than make it public; and, without doubt, many children are actually destroyed which otherwise might be bred up as useful members of a community. The welfare of a community has stronger claims upon the preservation of infancy than of decayed old age: for as we must pass an infancy to arrive to manhood, so infancy requires especial protection to fit it for manhood; and the more extensive the manhood of any well regulated community, the more extensive will be the benefit

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