surdities; but to gratify an opponent, with a hope of improving him, I will afflict the readers of THE LION with his errors. R. C. To Mr. R. Carlile. Sir,-As you court investigation, and offer your columns to the use of those whose doctrines you condemn, will you permit me to offer my remarks on the great discovery you have made, in finding a family whose conduct corresponds, as you say, with the principles you have taught. You have found a family of infidels, a family without religion, without prayers, without Psalm-singing, without a religious pastor. Good God! I exclaimed, on being shown your assertion, in the Lion-can this be true? Does such a family exist without the thunder of Heaven being hurled at their heads? Can Bristol, where Christianity in all its forms, holds such an ascendancy, and where the sun of righteousness shines with such splendour, contain such a nest of infidels. It cannot be! it is an infidel's boast of falsehood. With this impression on my mind, I made enquiry where you resided while here, and have learnt the character of the family, which enables me (thank my God) to refute your assertion, "that they are a family, where superstition (by which you mean religion) has never put its baleful stamp mark, and where there is no mental disease." On enquiry, I find, that the ancestors of the family were Catholics, and the head of the house, himself, was bred a Catholic and your own assertion proves the truth of my information, as you say "I am now enjoying the hospitality of an emancipated Catholic." As I cannot contradict your assertion of the moral character of the parties, because my religion teaches me to condemn no man without proof; and having heard nothing to the contrary, I take it for granted, they may be moral; but where, let me ask you, did they get their morality from: and where those "sweet affections which make a harmony of human nature :" where, but from that very religion which you condemn :—where did this emancipated Catholic collect his moral precepts and social virtues, but from those ancestors whose whole lives were truly Christian, and who impressed upon his early mind the true principles of a Redeeming Christ ?—If in an evil hour, he forsook his God and became an apostate and a rebel son of the church, does it follow, that he with his apostacy, forsook the moral obligations of man, or forgot the precepts of the religion of his fathers? No! no!-Those, like the habits of his boyhood, like the language of his country, were interwoven with his very existence, and all that is good belonging to him is truly christian. But let me ask you, since you produce this man as an example of your theoretical doctrine; how long has he left the church of his fathers; or at what infidel institution are his children taught the social virtues? Answer candidly those questions, and I am much deceived, but we shall find every proof of my assertion; that all the good belonging to them are of Christian growth. But admitting the possibility of the existence of this infidel family, what has the emancipated catholic to answer for, what account will he be * 1 found many such families in Bristol.-R. C. A righteous place! as witness all who know Bristol.-R. C, able to give to his God, who has blessed him with children, for being the cause of their disbelief, of this estrangement from their God and his Church? Will they not have to curse the author of their existence for being the cause of their future woe, except, which God in his goodness grant, that they become emancipated infidels. I think I have proved the truth of my positions, unless you can refute my arguments, by proving this family of infidels have not derived their morals from Christianity, I think you will be compelled to admit you were mistaken in the party, deceived by appearance, that your doctrine is still theoretical, and that it ever may remain so, is the prayer of Bristol, July 22, 1828. CHRISTIAN. GEOLOGY. (From the New York Correspondent.) MR. EDITOR. Various are the causes assigned for the gradual decrease of the waters from the surface of the earth. Modern geologists are of opinion that the water has been several hundred feet higher in the ocean than it now is; and the appearances of the mountains justify that idea. This, however, applies alone to the northern latitudes, as no person of science has given us any account of the appearances in the southern latitudes. Some impute the decrease of the water to evaporation; some to the great use of distilled spirits; some to the growth of animals, vegetables, and minerals; some to the wearing away of the beds of the ocean, and Mr. Symmes to its running into the centre of the earth. "I will undertake to account for it in a different way, viz., that the quantity of liquids in our world are at all times the same; and that they only change place. When Columbus proposed sailing west in search of a new continent, he was of opinion that there must be land west of Europe and east of Asia, to keep a balance between land and water; which turned out according to his calculations. If there is an equatorial balance always maintained, why not also a polar balance? At present, the sun is eight days longer north of the equator than south of it in each year, and it is a well known fact that the air is vastly colder at the south than at the north pole. On examining the various maps of the earth, I find at least three times the quantity of land north of the equator to what there is south of it. South America and Africa are about equally balanced, which leaves New Holland to sustain the balance of Asia, Europe, and North America. Consequently, a gradual increase of weight at the south pole must solve this question, caused by a constant congelation of all the rains or snows carried there by winds, which lie on land and effect this balance, and which will not melt until the sun performs its opposite circle. A few years since, I had a fine view of a partial lunar eclipse by the southern link of the earth. The shadow of the earth at the middle of the • I can answer for him, that he can and will plead his own cause well, and that he has no fear as to the consequence. He is right, right not as a Catholic, not as a Christian, but as a good man emancipated from the errors, the vices, the slavery of religion. Our point, Mr. Christian, is, that a man may learn morality without learning religion, be moral without being religious, and be the better for not being a religious man.-R. C. 106 eclipse was very circular, which shows that the present state of the south pole is very different from the north. The eternal changes of matter may be accounted for in a more rational manner than by Noah's flood or Symmes's hole. ARBOREUM. A WORD OR TWO TO CHRISTIANS. Why dost thou tremble Christian-why And crush the scorners of his word? Is it because thy Babel tow'r Is crumbling in its shade sublime? It hath some dungeons, cages, chains, Some spikes, saws, halters, racks, and stakes, Some human hearts have shook therein, The mantrap! now unteeth its snare. Christian, a word with thee! 'tis not We know that death's ungentle thrall It is a spot not free from sin, Not wholly free from fraud and guile, All this we know, and still as men, We Ask of thy reason, which is best, The man who seeks some doubtful sphere, Thro' ev'ry blind and bloody test! Or he who lives in mercy here? I. W. IMRAY. ROBERT OWEN. (From the Morning Herald of Thursday, July 24.) WE yesterday received New York Papers to the 3d of July. The following are extracts: Robert Owen, with such of his friends as are "conscientiously opposed to all religion," invite the ministers of different persuasions in the western country, to select champions to discuss the following questions : 1. Whether all religions are or are not opposed to facts? 2. Whether all religions do or do not virtually destroy all charity, except for one sect, in thought, word, and action? 3. Whether religion does not render it necessary that the great mass of mankind, in all countries, should be kept in ignorance and poverty? 4. Whether all religions do or do not require that infants should be taught to think that there is merit in believing that the doctrines of their own religion are true, and that all other religions are false; and that there is demerit in believing otherwise? 5. Whether all religions do or do not teach that there is merit and demerit in loving and hating, liking and disliking according to their doctrines, whether in unison with man's natural feelings, or in opposition to them? 6. Whether almost all bad passions, vices, and moral evils do or do not emanate from the instructions given in infancy and childhood, that there is merit and demerit in belief or in liking and disliking? 7. And lastly, whether mankind can be trained to become more happy, more intelligent, independent, charitable and kind to each other with or with out religion? The Rev. Alexander Campbell, of Virginia, has taken up the glove, and in the last number of his Christian Baptist, makes the following pro position: : Now, be it known to Mr. Owen, and all whom it may concern, that I, relying on the AUTHOR, the reasonableness, and the excellency of the Christian religion, will engage to meet Mr. Owen at any time within one year from this date, at any place equi-distant from New Harmony and Bethany, such as Cincinnati, Ohio, or Lexington, Ky.; and will then and there undertake to show that Mr. Owen is utterly incompetent to prove the positions he has assumed, in a public debate before all who may please to attend, to be moderated or controlled by a proper tribunal, and to be conducted in perfect good order from day to day, until the parties, or the mode. rators, or the congregations, or a majority of them, are satisfied, as may afterwards be agreed upon. I propose, moreover, that a competent stenographer, perfectly disinterested, shall be employed to take down the speeches on the occasion, that for his trouble he shall have the exclusive right of printing and distributing said debate throughout the United States-and thus give all who feel desirous to hear or read, whether Mr. Owen, with all his arguments, benevolence and sincerity, is able to do what he has proposed. After stating the prominent items, I leave every thing else open to negociation or private arrangement. To the Editor of "The Lion." SIR-In reading the Memoirs of Madame Roland, I was much struck with a passage in which she describes the circumstances which led her to relinquish the Christian religion. Thinking that it may be instructive to some of your readers, I have been induced to translate it, and send it to you for insertion in "THE LION." Madame Roland, as you no doubt know, was the wife of Roland, one of the most upright statesmen, perhaps, that ever existed. He was appointed minister of the interior in France during the Revolution, but was obliged to sacrifice both his office and his life, because he could not consent to act in opposition to what he considered his duty. Madame Roland became an infidel before her marriage; and although religionists pretend that persons destitute of religion are necessarily destitute of morality also, and unfortunately have but too well succeeded in inculcating this mischievous notion, she has added one to the many examples which may be found elsewhere of the utter falsehood of their dogma. She was an examplary wife, an excellent mother, and a good citizen. She suffered death at the hands of a public executioner with the greatest fortitude and resignation, and cheered her fellow sufferers to an exertion of similar self controul. But I will not so much dwell upon this, her last act, for villains and fanatics may be found who have done as much. We may turn to more peculiar events of her life. We may observe this most amiable woman, self-instructed, raised from a humble station in life, to an elevated rank, bearing her honours with modesty, and endeavouring to use her influence for the benefit of her country. We may follow her to the solitude and privations of a prison, and see her, without repining, apply her last hours to the instruction of posterity, the welfare of her child, and the consolation of her afflicted friends. "The first thing that disgusted me in the religion that I professed, (and which I did profess with the seriousness of a solid and steady mind) was the universal damnation of all those who were either ignorant of it, or who did not comprehend it. After having studied history, and contemplated the extent of the world, the succession of ages, the march of empires, the public virtues and the errors of so many nations, it appeared to me base, ridiculous, and atrocious, to imagine a creator delivering over to eternal torments, such an immense multitude of individuals, the imperfect work of his hands, cast upon the earth in the midst of so many perils, and enveloped in a cloud of ignorance, from which they had already suffered so much. I said, it is evident that I have been deceived upon this point, may I not also be deceived upon another? Let me examine. The instant that any Catholic reasons thus, the church may regard him as lost to her. I understand perfectly why the priests wish a blind submission, and preach so earnestly the religious faith, which adopts without examination, and adores without murmuring, it is the basis of their empire, which is destroyed as soon as reasoning begins. After the cruelty of the damnation, the absurdity of the doctrine of infallibility struck me most, and I rejected it with as little hesitation as I had done the first. How much of what remains, then, is true? This question became an object of continual research, which I pursued for many years, with an activity, and sometimes an anxiety of mind difficult to describe. Works on criticism, on philosophy, on morals, on metaphysics, were now my favourite reading. I was in search of some one who could make them |