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reality. It must henceforward be incorporated in the history of our enlightened and hitherto confessedly Christian nation.

Let us pause to see how all this will appear from the pen of a faithful historian..

"About this time great excitement was waked up in the country by Miss Fanny Wright, a female of eccentric and masculine habits, and doubtful principles, who, in company with Robert D. Owen, visited the principal towns and cities, lecturing everywhere on the subjects of religion and government. They established also a periodical, through which to propagate their sentiments. The leading principles they advanced, were, that existing governments are oppressive, and averse to the natural rights of man, that the institutions of religion, and the restraints imposed by them, are to be detested as founded in falsehood, and employed to restrict the free indulgence of those passions and inclinations with which we are constitutionally formed for happiness, with all the other cognate tenets of the agrarian school bearing upon these grave questions. To see a female, unprotected, (excepting by a single individual in nowise connected with her, only by a similarity of views and feelings, which, from their character and tendency, naturally cast a shade of suspicion over his guardian pretensions,) laying aside the modesty of her sex, ranging the length and breadth of the land, conflicting with men in stormy debate, and standing up before promiscuous assemblies to instruct statesmen in the maxims of law and government, and inspire the rabble with sentiments of hostility against the civil and religious institutions of the land, was a novel spectacle, and not a little ridiculous. But its novelty, no doubt, contributed to the success which followed. The actors in this scene were tolerated, flattered, and even animated and encouraged by the acclamations of many, whose duty would have been better performed by denouncing them as disturbers of the peace, and enemies of the dear-bought rights of the people. The name of Fanny Wright became identified with the politics of the day. Societies were organized for the express purpose of propagating her opinions. Their tendency was soon witnessed in all the circles brought under their influence. Licentious sentiments and dissolute habits were encouraged rather than restrained. The basest sensuality found apologists among her admirers, and impunity in her creed. Benevolent enterprises were brought under the unchastened ban of the coarse ribaldry of the party. Every effort at reform, the temperance movement not excepted, was made a subject of their incessant vituperations, and all engaged in the work of mercy were brought to feel the keenest strokes of their sarcastic sallies. God and religion were the objects of their peculiar virulence and malignity, and VoL. VIII.—January, 1837.. 9

upon every thing connected with these sacred names they were wont to pour out the pestiferous dregs of their rancorous venom. By harangues and bar-room discussions, made up of scoffing ridicule and witty sarcasms, and passed off under the name of philosophical investigation, the young and inexperienced, ever fond of new things, and pleased with what addresses itself to their undisciplined passions, were allured from the paths of virtue, and ensnared by their wiles. The more corrupt and dissolute were already prepared to fall into their ranks, and perform their venal services in extending and strengthening the power of the combination. Aspirants for office, and men in office, appeared not to be ashamed of being designated as belonging to the 'Fanny Wright party! As such they arrayed themselves against the existing laws and usages favorable to the religion of the Bible, and gave their sanction to others subversive of it, whenever an opportunity offered for them to do so. They were peculiarly adroit in exciting a spirit of malignant hostility against men and institutions whose influence they had most reason to dread. By a false classification of terms they contrived to stigmatize orthodoxy by the odious epithet of sectarianism, and religion by that of bigotry. In their vocabulary every priest was a pope, and every rule of moral discipline an inquisition. With such names, terrible to the ignorant and thoughtless, they were enabled to array a fearful amount of feeling against the best men and the most wholesome moral institutions in the country. Nor were they diffident in their pretensions. The exclusiveness which marked all their measures most evidently betrayed their designs, and served to show that compromise was no part of their political or religious creed. Theirs was an open war of extermination against every vestige of Christianity and moral order. To carry this object they could not trust the co-operation of any half-way men, and therefore made repeated efforts to thrust upon the people, by the aid of the rabble they managed to control, rulers exclusively of their own stamp. And such was the audacity with which they clamored for whatever they chose to favor, and pounced like so many harpies upon the obnoxious objects of their hate, that men of decent habits and correct principles shrunk from conflicting with them, until the remark became general, that there was so much infidelity in the public councils of the country, that nothing favorable to the cause of morality or religion could be carried."

This chapter of history is neither premature nor untrue. It must in faithfulness to posterity be handed down to them, with all its attendant circumstances, as a blot upon the age in which we live. But, however it affects us as citizens, our present business is to notice it in another light. We have seen the results of the feeble

efforts of Palmer and others to scatter the seeds of infidelity, under circumstances calculated to restrain and limit their operations. If such were the consequences of those feeble and circumscribed efforts, what may we not expect from the unrestrained exertions of the Fanny Wright school?

It is believed that if the disastrous occurrences traceable directly to the pernicious principles inculcated by this fraternity, could be drawn forth and placed before the public, the picture would be little less horrid and appalling than the one exhibited above. We are not advocates for inflicting penalties upon men on account of their opinions, however pernicious they may be. The punishment in reserve for them by their righteous Judge is equal and exact. To him this prerogative belongs. But we do think it absurd and censurable in a Christian community to countenance their pretensions, and, with the sovereign power in their own hands, elevate them to places of rule and authority, when they evidently show a determination to employ whatever influence they can command for the purpose of wresting from others their inherited rights, and opening upon community the flood-gates of vice and dissipation. The time is not far distant, we hope, when the public will see and feel their duty in this matter, and perform it with a strong hand. That there is much infidelity in the land is true; but that it is uncontrollable, is not. It is blustering, but not solid. It revels in the stormy elements which howl along our coasts, but is not indigenous in the fertile soil which cherishes the seeds of our liberty. If there is much infidelity, there is much piety too; and to this latter is added, as an important weight in the scale of morality and religion, the entire amount of feeling in the nation which cherishes a love of peace and tranquillity. True, this has been inexcusably dormant and passive while the elements of riot and disorder have been collecting in the midst of us. But the feelings which have reposed during this process will not slumber beyond the first hollow murmurs which announce the approach of the storm. They will resist the fury of the tempest with the firmness of their patriotic and Christian fathers, and say to the flood as it pours forth, "Here let thy waves be stayed!" God, who has so highly favored this country as the asylum of civil and religious freedom, and the refuge of his persecuted saints, will not give it, we are sure, into the hands of the destroyer. A dark cloud may obscure the sun of its prosperity for a season; but that sun will be still ascending as steadily to the glory of its meridian as though no cloud had intervened. And when He who rides upon the storm shall scatter the elements, and break by his lightning the dense cloud into atoms, then shall the glory of our prosperity burst upon us with new splendor. In what we now witness, we have

a most exact fulfilment of the predictions of that revelation in which we trust; and while it operates to try our faith, it contributes also to strengthen it. In these predictions the characters of scoffers and false teachers are drawn with a graphic hand. No one can mistake the picture. They are known and distinguished as "walking after their own lusts," and "denying the Lord that bought them;" and many, it is affirmed, shall be drawn to "follow their pernicious ways, by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of." But their fate is as clearly pointed out by the same unerring inspiration, as is their character and their career: "Whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not." They "bring upon themselves swift destruction." God, who spared not the old world, nor the angels that sinned, nor the filthy inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, will not be mocked forever. He will in due time punish the guilty who despise his offers of mercy and profanely trample upon his goodness;"but chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lusts of uncleanness, and despise government; presumptuous are they and selfwilled; they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities." "As natural brute beasts made to be taken and destroyed, they speak evil of the things that they understand not, and shall utterly perish in their own corruption, and shall receive the reward of unrighteousness as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time." Let these predictions be compared with the history of every infidel club of whom the world have ever had knowledge, and if their inspiration be not ad... mitted, the coincidence of a perfect likeness must at least be accounted extraordinary and inexplicable.

ART. VIII.-GEOLOGY.

THE following article was written a few weeks since, with the intention of forwarding it for your Magazine. But I concluded at first thought, after it was finished, that it was not of sufficient value. A second thought has induced me to forward it, as it may be of some service in calling attention to the subject. It will not, I hope, be objectionable because it first appeared in another periodical. G. F. C.

GEOLOGY, or the science of the structure of the earth, and of the substances which compose it, is at the present time receiving unusual attention. And from the popular lectures of scientific men upon the subject, and some short articles in various periodicals, it has become more or less the topic of conversation and reflection among the great mass of readers. So far as this inquiry may lead us to a knowledge of what the earth is-what are its elements, and what its organization-and of the laws which may be found universally to prevail in controlling its substances-society will evidently be benefited. And in this labor of science we bid every geologist good speed. But there is one branch of the doctrine, which, although it

seems to be pursued with great ardor by men of learning and piety, we are apprehensive will have an unfavorable bearing upon revelation. We refer to the ANTIQUITY assigned by geologists to the earth's origin. We doubt if either the Bible, or analogy, or any correct mode of reasoning, will justify the opinion that the earth received its formation at periods so interminable as are assigned to it by geologists. We have no doubt, indeed, but that such a theory may be reconciled with the first chapter of Genesis; and it is gratifying to find a mind of so august a character as that of Cuvier coming to such a conclusion. We do not think it particularly inconsistent with that short history to believe that the present form of the earth may have been created from pre-existent matter, although one of the first critics of Europe has remarked that the term translated "created" (,) implies formations from nothing. This, too, is the unanimous opinion of the Jewish rabbins. But our objections lie on other grounds. The science itself is too infantile to demand any new interpretations of the Bible. Scientific men have proved themselves to be too great errorists to claim the homage of our belief until their theories have been demonstrated.

Brydone, a celebrated writer, and who was a F. R. S., in his "Tour through Sicily and Malta," attempts to prove from the fact that, in an excavation of some depth, at the base of Mount Etna, he ascertained there were seven distinct beds of lava, most of which were covered with thick beds of rich earth-that the mountain must be at least fourteen thousand years old; because it was then an assumed doctrine, by some, that it required at least two thousand years to form a bed of earth upon one of lava such as was there seen. But the whole of this theory was overthrown in a moment, by a fact that any one may examine at his leisure. Mount Vesuvius, in an eruption, buried the city of Herculaneum in A. Ð. 79. But we are informed by Sir William Hamilton that the matter which covers the ancient town of Herculaneum is not the result of one eruption, but it is covered with six strata of lava, between each of which there are veins of good soil. But according to Brydone's reasoning, Herculaneum has been buried twelve thousand years, instead of seventeen hundred. We give this fact as an evidence of

error among philosophers!

We need only mention the strange theories that have obtained for centuries in astronomy, anatomy, and almost every phenomenon that has occurred on the earth's surface; and this too by learned men. Even as late as Tycho-Brahe and Kepler,—one of whom, if we recollect rightly, supposed that some of the heavenly lights were living animals swimming in ether-and the other adopted the idea that the earth was motionless, and the centre of the universe, we see evidence of most egregious errors; and this too when the science of astronomy had been the great object of inquiry among the learned for ages. We say then to every man, receive not hastily from any geologist a new interpretation of the Bible.What they present as facts receive-but of the theories of the earth's formation, of which no geologist in the world can speak with certainty believe them not at present.

We have another objection to the age of the earth, as given by geologists. While revelation makes the creation of the earth the

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