hypocrisy; the meanest and most odious species of idolatry; for
labouring to destroy which, Atheists are called 'murderers of the human
soul,' 'blasphemers,' and other foolish names, too numerous to mention.

It would be well for all parties, if those who raise against Atheists
the cry of 'blasphemy,' were made to perceive that godless unbelievers
cannot be blasphemers; for, as contended by Lord Brougham in his Life of
Voltaire, blasphemy implies belief, and, therefore, Atheists who do not
believe in God, cannot logically or justly be said to blaspheme him. The
blasphemer, properly so called, is he who imagines Deity, and ascribes
to the idol of his own brain, all manner of folly, contradiction,
inconsistency, and wickedness. Yes, the blasphemer is he who invents a
monster and calls it God; while to reject belief therein, is an act both
reasonable and virtuous.

Superstition is universally abhorred, but no one believes himself
superstitious. There never was a religionist who believed his own
religion mere superstition. All shrink indignantly from the charge of
being superstitious; while all raise temples to, and bow down before,
'thingless names.' The 'masses' of every nation erect 'thingless names'
into substantial realities, and woe to those, who follow not the insane
example. The consequences--the fatal consequences--are everywhere
apparent. In our own country, one consequence is social disunion on the
grandest possible scale. Society is split up into an almost infinite
variety of sects, whose members imagine themselves patented to think
truth, and never to be wrong in the enunciation of it. This if no idle
or frivolous charge, as the Author of this Apology can easily show.

Before him is _Sanders' News Letter and Daily Advertiser_ of Feb. 18,
1845, which, among other curiosities, contains an 'Address of the Dublin