Part 70 (1/2)
13. I believe, with a firm and perfect faith, the Resurrection of the Dead shall happen when G.o.d shall think fit. Blessed, and glorified eternally, be the name of the Creator! Amen.
THE UNBELIEVER'S CREED.
”I believe that there is no G.o.d, but that matter is G.o.d, and G.o.d is matter, and that it is no matter whether there is any G.o.d or not. I believe, also, that the world was not made; that the world made itself; that it had no beginning; that it will last for ever, world without end.
”I believe that a man is a beast, that the soul is the body, and the body is the soul; and that after death there is neither body nor soul.
”I believe there is no religion; that natural religion is the only religion; and that all religion is unnatural. I believe not in Moses; I believe in the first philosophy; I believe not in the Evangelists; I believe in Chubb, Collins, Toland, Tindal, Morgan, Mandeville, Woolston, Hobbes, and Shaftsbury; I believe in lord Bolingbroke; I believe not in St. Paul.
”I believe not in revelation; I believe in tradition; I believe in the Talmud; I believe in the Alcoran; I believe not in the Bible; I believe in Socrates; I believe in Confucius; I believe in Sanchoneathon; I believe in Mahomet; I believe not in Christ.
”Lastly, I believe in all unbelief.”
EXPLANATION OF THE TERMS ”WHIG” AND ”TORY.”--Burnet, who was contemporary with the introduction of these terms, gives the following account of the former:--
”The south-west counties of Scotland have seldom corn enough to serve them through the year; and the northern parts producing more than they need, those in the west come in the summer to buy at Leith, the stores that come from the north; and from a word (whiggam) used in driving their horses, all that drove were called Whiggamors, and, shorter, the Whigs. Now in that year, before the news came down of the duke of Hamilton's defeat, the ministers animated the people to rise and march to Edinburgh; and they came up, marching at the head of their parishes with an unheard-of fury, praying and preaching all the way as they came. This was called the Whiggamor's inroad; and ever after, all that opposed the court came in contempt to be called Whigs.”
Dr. Johnson, in his Dictionary, quotes this pa.s.sage; yet by placing against the term Whig, the Saxon word _Whoeg_, synonymous to whey, or sour milk, he seems not to reject another derivation, which has been a.s.signed to it by some writers.
Echard says--”Great animosities were created by these pet.i.tioners and abhorrers, and they occasioned many feuds and quarrels in private conversations; and about the same time, 1680, and from the same cause, arose the pernicious terms and distinctions of Whig and Tory, both exotic names, which the parties invidiously bestowed upon each other. All that adhered to the interest of the crown and lineal succession, were by the contrary branded with the t.i.tle given to the Irish robbers; and they, in return, gave the others the appellation of Whig, or sour milk, formerly appropriated to the Scotch presbyterians and rigid covenanters.”--p. 988.
Tindal, in his introduction to the Continuation of Rapin's History, notices the distinction between the principles of the parties, but does not inquire into the etymology of the terms.--Vol. i. p. 15.
Toland, in his State Anatomy, considers the words as mere terms of reproach, first applied to each party by its enemies, and then adopted by each as a distinction.
”The words themselves are but late nicknames, given by each party to the other in King Charles the Second's reign: Tories in Ireland, and Whigs in Scotland, being what we in England call highwaymen; and you, public robbers.”--Part I.
Hume, the historian, says--
”This year, 1680, is remarkable for being the epoch of the well-known epithets Whig and Tory, by which, and sometimes without any material difference, this island has been so long divided. The court party reproached their antagonists with their affinity to the fanatical conventiclers, who were known by the name of Whigs; and the country party found a resemblance between the courtiers and the Popish banditti in Ireland, who were known by the name of Tories.”--Vol. VIII. p. 125.
These are the princ.i.p.al writers in which the origin of the terms is noticed.
CHAP. Lx.x.xIII.
MISCELLANEOUS CURIOSITIES.
_Monster--Individuation--Reproduction--Peruke--Centaurs and Lapithae._
MONSTER.--A birth or production of a living being, degenerating from the proper and usual disposition of parts in the species to which it belongs; as, when there are too many members, or too few; or some of them are extravagantly out of proportion, either on the side of defect or excess,--is generally denominated a monster.
F. Malebranche accounts for the production of monsters in the animal world in the following manner:--”The Creator has established such a communication between the several parts of his creation, that we are naturally led to imitate one another, i. e. to have a disposition to do the same things, and a.s.sume the same manners, with those about which we converse; we have also certain natural dispositions, which incline us to compa.s.sion as well as imitation. Of these things most men are sensible, and therefore they need not be proved. The animal spirits, then, are not only naturally carried into the respective parts of the body to perform the same actions and the same motions which we see others do, but also to receive in some manner their wounds, and take part in their sufferings.
”Experience tells us, that when we look attentively on any person severely beaten, or that has a large wound, ulcer, or the like, the spirits immediately flow into those parts of our bodies which answer to those we see suffer in the other; unless their course be stopped from some other principle. This flux of spirits is very sensible in persons of delicate const.i.tutions, who frequently shudder, and find a kind of trembling in the body on these occasions; and this sympathy in bodies produces compa.s.sion in the mind.
”Now it must be observed, that the view of a wound, &c. affects the person who views it the more strongly and sensibly, as the person is more weak and delicate; the spirits making a stronger impression on the fibres of a delicate body, than in those of a robust one. Thus, strong and vigorous men, &c. see an execution without much concern, while women, &c. are struck with pity and horror. As to children that are unborn, the fibres of their flesh being incomparably finer than those in women, the course of the animal spirits must necessarily produce much greater alterations.
”These things being laid down, monsters are easily accounted for. Suppose, for instance, a child to be born a fool, and also with its legs and arms broken in the same manner as those are of criminals executed; the phenomena may be accounted for thus: Every stroke given to the poor man struck forcibly the imagination of the mother, and, by a kind of counter-stroke, the tender and delicate brain of the child. Now, though the fibres of the woman's brain were strongly shaken by the violent flux of animal spirits on this occasion, yet they had strength and consistence enough to prevent an entire disorder; whereas the fibres of the child's brain, being unable to bear the shock of those spirits, were quite ruined, and the ravage was great enough to deprive him of reason all his lifetime.