He will not say with
Coleridge that only men of good hearts and strong heads can be Atheists,
but he is quite ready to maintain that the generality of Atheists are
men of mild, generous, peaceable studious dispositions, who desire the
overthrow of superstition, or true religion as its devotees call it,
because convinced a superstitious people never can be enlightened,
virtuous, free, or happy. Their love of whatever helps on civilisation
and disgust of war are testified to even by opponents. We may learn from
the writings of Lord Bacon not only his _opinion_ that Atheism leaves
men to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation,
all which, he justly observes, may be guides to an outward moral virtue,
though religion were not; but the _fact_ that 'the times inclined to
Atheism (as the times of Augustus Caesar) were civil times.' Nay, he
expressly declared 'Atheism did never perturb states; for it makes men
wary of themselves as looking no further.' [76:1] Can the same be said
of religion? Will any one have the hardihood to say religion did never
perturb states, or that the times inclined to religion (as the times of
Oliver Cromwell) were civil times, or that it makes man wary of
themselves as looking no further? During times inclined to religion more
than one hundred thousand witches were condemned to die by Christian
tribunals in accordance with the holy text, thou shalt not suffer a
witch to live.
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