It is truly marvellous to account for the thousands of sectarians periodically moving to their various conventicles of worship on a sabbath-day, to hear a tale a thousand times told-paying their money and wasting their time for what? If there be any truth in Christianity, they have it at home in their Bibles, then why pay for a second-hand article, when they have it at first-hand at home.? If they read it at home and judged for themselves, they would discover its fraud.

The majority of Christians are too indolent to analize their own book; they find it easier to pay the priest to give them just what, and as much of it as he thinks proper; they delight in the "happy delusion," and are elated with its mysticism and romance. Their passions, frames, and feelings, get the better of their understandings, and by avoiding the labour of study and reason, they yield a ready assent to the opinions of those whose interest it is to deceive them and their hearers.

If you attempt to undeceive a Christian, he is astonished at your temerity, he will ask why undermine a system which (if it be a delusion) has proved a happy delusion and a dying comfort to thousands? It is with difficulty that you are allowed to reply, that those comforts would be augmented without Christianity; inasmuch as a sound mind is preferable to a mind in a state of delirium; that religion is purely imaginary, it cannot be demonstrated to be otherwise, and that its present, and only real comforts, are confined to the minority, to those priests and others who profit by it; and that its preponderating evils render it the greatest curse that ever afflicted the human race.

Ist-It is compulsively expensive, by absorbing a tythe of the profit of every man's labour.

2nd-A great proportion of the many millions appropriated to its use, is bestowed on the worthless and profligate.

3rd-It promotes and keeps up public discord, animosity, and revenge, (vide, the Catholic Question, and the innumerable sects).

4th-It disturbs domestic harmony, as described in Luke xiv. 26, by its author (so called) who is also made to say," he that believeth not shall be damned." It has been the cause of bloody wars, cruel persecutions and tortures, and the "parent of bigotry."

5th-Its precepts are in direct opposition.-In the one case proclaiming it the harbinger of" peace on earth, good will to man ;" in another, "I came not to send peace on earth, but a sword." The latter has been proved by facts, the former never. 6th-Salvation to some, implies damnation to others; a principle devoid of benevolence, and all good feeling in man to his fellow-man.

7th-The making salvation or reprobation to depend on an act of faith, or belief of any doctrine or Deity, is a most impudent assumption, an insult to common sense; and the man or men who assume authority to make such declarations do indirectly make gods of themselves, by assuming a knowledge which it is impossible for any man to have.

E. K. D.

PHRENOLOGICAL EXHIBITION OF THE REFORMING OPTIMIST.

First Article, Tuesday, April 21, 1829.

Showing how cautious every rational being should be in the investigation of any truth, and how prudent in the formation of a definitive judgment.

HAVING long ago resolved to devote the fullest extent of all my powers to promote the establishment of a system of education, in this country, founded exclusively upon the knowledge of physical, or material and tangible truths, I felt bound to ascertain first of all, how far the mother or guide of all sciences (phrenology) was founded on truth, and how far it was impregnated with those superstitions, which constantly introduce themselves more or less during the acquisition of every kind of knowledge, and stamp themselves on the human brain, as firmly as the most incontrovertible truths! Accustomed in all my inquiries, to sift a subject to the bottom, and considering, that I could not find a skull, upon which to pass a more competent judgment than upon my own, 1 shaved my head completely, and with the help of Richard Carlile, junior, I took a cast of my said skull, and brought it last Sunday morning, very cunningly, to a celebrated phrenologist, that he might make an elaborate report of its protuberances or propensities.

Yesterday morning I went to take back my cast and found the following report:

REPORT.

This is the cast of an individual very low in the scale of society, both in intellect and the moral sentiments.

Not knowing whether male or female, presents some difficulty in drawing the character, confining it to a few general observations.

Attachment would be manifested, but confined to very few.Those partaking of low actions, cunning, with indifference to the wants of others, would be selected as the companions; but the attachment would last no longer than to suit some particular objects.

It is an organization unfit to be a parent, or to be entrusted with the care of children; callous to their wants or comforts, and if offended, vindictive and cruel in the treatment; scarcely developing a benevolent or kind feeling towards them.

Covetousness and selfishness forms a prominent point in the character, acting with duplicity, cunning, very seldom uttering

the truth, not readily forgiving what the individual considered an injury. If this combination of feelings, (which are the largest in the whole combination) are brought into action, they would act vindictively, summarily, and cruel.

Indifferent to religion or its institutions, with as little moral sentiment as I have ever met with.

Cunning, and pretending to knowledge, finding a great quantity of words, but uttering very little sense or reason.

To sum up, it is an individual that would have very few acquaintances, developing scarcely a noble feeling, or a generous action, being one of the lowest I have met with in 1,600 casts I have from nature.

The cast of the late unfortunate Esther Hibner, hanged for the cruel treatment of the parish children, must be like this, as much as two can resemble each other.

April 20, 1829.

The gentleman was so confident that it was the cast of the late Hibner, that I need not say how much astonished and confounded he remained, when taking off my hat and my wig, I declared that I was the very person of which he had drawn such a horrible picture!!

However, I soon rescued the gentleman from this awkward situation, by shaking affectionately his hand, and assuring him, that, even if every word of his report were perfectly correct, I should give to it the greatest publicity, being now thoroughly a Necessarian, and having greatly at heart the discovery of naked truths; but I observed that the very steps I was just taking, and the universal benevolence, which, for a long period, had pervaded all my actions, must lead every unprejudiced mind to the conclusion, that either phrenology must be founded in error, or the cast he had examined must be exceedingly faulty!

While uttering this last sentence, the gentleman, at the sight of my shaved head, had already exclaimed, "This is not your east! there is so much brain wanting here and there! and such circumstance from a beautiful character in all persons is sufficient to give to such incorrect cast, the most wretched and deplorable appearance!" In fact, I was convinced, that the cast must be defective, by the piece-meal manner in which I acknowledged I had taken it, allowing each part to cool and bend separately.

1

Thinking this explanation was a subterfuge to conceal the ill foundation of phrenology, or that they were intended as a bene

volent gilding of the bitter pill, I went, at full speed, to show. the same cast to some other phrenologist of great repute, before the anecdote could reach their ears; and to the credit of the science, I must say, that, excepting some variances in the details, their judgments were unanimous as to the general character of the cast, and that they all declared it to be defective, as soon as I had played them the trick to take off my wig.

To complete my phrenological trio, I went last night to the meeting of the London Phrenological Society, (Buckingham-st.) where I had a few hours previously sent my cast, and where, after hearing the grave deliberations of the most learned members of that Society, (coinciding almost in toto with the above report) I was engaged by the chairman, to give an account of the said report, and after that lecture, I addressed the company by observing, how degraded and unworthy of credit would be a science necessitated to hide truth, or to compromise with it, under any pretence whatever, and I expressed my undaunted resolution to promote it with all my might, even if I was to be disgraced by it! I declared, as a proof of my sincerity, that I had not the least hesitation, nor felt the least shame, in declaring publicly that the cast so completely stigmatized by them, was my own cast, (taking suddenly off my wig.) !!!

I never beheld a more magic effect produced upon an assembly! Here again, nobody would acknowledge the cast to be a faithful representation of my skull! but I gave strong proofs, that I would have acted precisely the same if the cast had been faithful, and I evinced, during a familiar conversation of full half an hour, such a strong desire to promote the knowledge of TRUTH, in order to spread the love of JUSTICE, that several gentlemen favoured me with their cards and expressed a desire to make a more particular acquaintance with me.

I presented to every person in the room a copy of my "Speech on Dissection," and having been assured, that the society would feel grateful to receive a perfect copy of my full cast, I promised to offer, besides the cast, an outline of the principal actions of my life, (as soon as circumstances will allow) in order to facilitate their scientific researches.

I said also, that I should feel bound in duty to throw my wig aside in a few weeks, and never allow my hair to grow more than one-eighth of an inch, in order that my dispositions and character might be known, before hand, by all those who adopt phrenology as the foundation of their actions; especially in the selection of their friends!

A very genteel young man, who had expressed to myself his utmost horror for the character of the stigmatized cast, (and whispered in my ears that he was confident that it was the cast of HIBNER) was so much struck in discovering the mistake, that he did not know where to hide himself, till I made him laugh at