Page:Sunbeams extracted from cucumbers.djvu/28

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But they have opened prisons and bastiles, given freedom to the miserable captive, broken down the images of idolatry, and driven error and superstition from the earth. That they have unloosed bands, is not denied—that they have destroyed the strongest ligaments by which individuals and societies were connected, is not denied, but that the cause of genuine liberty is promoted, I do deny. Is there a single country in Europe, in which their arms have triumphed, less oppressed, or less wretched now than ten years ago?

That they have driven men from one species of error and superstition to another, is agreed. But what consolation is it to the wretched worshippers of stones to forget these Gods, and adore reason, fortitude and virtue?

If they found in Egypt those who were bowing down to onions and leeks, have they rendered them any essential service, by telling them henceforth to believe in the liberty and equality of man—in the perfectability of human nature, and in the eternal sleep of death. Paul, whose character they so heartily despise, acted a much more civil and kind, (not to say christian) part. He found an altar among the Athenians, inscribed to the "Unknown God;" and beholding their devotions, cried, "Whom therefore, ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you." Let the advocates for the reformation, in religion, which this nation are effecting, compare the plain and unadorned account of Paul's God, with the address of the French Apostle, Buonaparte, to the ignorant Egyptians. "There is no God but God. He has no son or associate in his kingdom."

But 'tis said, these mighty events, which now astonish the world, are in exact conformity to the will of Heaven. What do the asserters of this pro-