An Apology for Atheism - Addressed to Religious Investigators of Every Denomination - by One of Its Apostles by Charles Southwell
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page 6 of 129 (04%)
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gardens, and on the produce, as it lies upon the surface, are more
depended on for disinfecting the potatoes than the suggestions of science, which require the application of patient industry.' Daniel O'Connell may continue to boast about Irish morale and Irish intellect--the handsome women, and stalwart men of his 'beloved country;' but no sensible persons will pay the least attention to him. It is, at all events, too late in the day for we 'Saxons' to be either cajoled or amused by such nonsense. An overwhelming majority of the Irish people have been proved indolent beyond all parallel, and not much more provident than those unhappy savages who sell their beds in the morning, not being able to foresee they shall again require them at night. A want of forethought so remarkable, and indolence so abominable, as characterize the peasantry of Ireland, are results of their religious education. Does any one suppose the religion of that peasantry has little, if anything, to do with their political condition; or can it be believed they will be fit for, much less achieve political emancipation, while priests, and priests alone, are their instructors? We may rely upon it, that intellectual freedom is the natural and necessary precursor of political freedom. Education, said Lord Brougham, makes men easy to lead, but difficult to drive; easy to govern, but impossible to enslave. The Irish peasantry clamour for 'Repeal,' never considering that did they get it, no essential change would be made in their social, moral, or to say all in one word, _political_ condition; they would still be the tool of O'Connell and other unprincipled political mountebanks--themselves the tool of priests. Great has been the outcry raised against the 'godless colleges, that Sir Robert Peel had the courageous good sense to _inflict_ on Ireland. Protestant as well as Romanist priests are terribly alarmed lest those |
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