haviour of the former, however extraordinary it might appear. In my Remarks on the Truth of the Christian Religion, I have given a brief analysis of this Treatise of Lucian, to which I must refer the reader. It is necessary, however, to produce one or two passages in order to establish the truth of the view which I have of it. The author thus opens the piece : "The wretched Peregrinus or Proteus (for so he always chooses to style himself) has at length met the fate of his name sake in Homer: for after taking a thousand shapes, he is at last turned into fire: such was his insatiable thirst after glory. Yes, my friend, this first and greatest of men is reduced to a cinder, following the example of Empedocles, with this difference only, that he seemed willing to conceal himself from the eyes of men, when he threw himself into the flames, while our most noble hero chose the most public festival, built a magnificent funeral pile, and leaped in before innumerable witnesses, after having harangued the Grecians, and acquainting them with his intentions some days before the ceremony." On this topic the writer enlarges in sections 21, 22: "Peregrinus gave out among the Grecians that he should burn himself in a very short time. For this purpose he began immediately to dig the ditch, bring the wood, and prepare every thing with wonderful fortitude and magnanimity. But true bravery, in my opinion, is shewn by patiently waiting for death, and not flying fron life; or, if he must die, why not depart by some other means, so many thousands as there were, and not by fire, and with all that tragical preparation? If he was so fond of flame, as being more after the manner of Hercules, why could not he have chosen some secret woody mountain, where he might have gone and burnt himself in silence alone, or accompanied only by his Theaganes, by way of a faithful Philoctetes? But he must needs do it at the Olympic games, and in a full assembly roasting himself, as it were, on the stage; not but it is a death, by Hercules, he long since deserved, if parricides and atheists are worthy of it. In this respect he was rather late; he should have been roasted long ago in Phalaris's bull, and not have perished in a moment: for I have often heard this is the shortest

way of dying, as it is only opening the mouth, catching the flame, and expiring immediately; but he has fallen on this expedient, I suppose, because it is grand and magnificent for a man to be burned on a sacred ground, where no corpse can be buried. You all, no doubt, remember him who wanted to be immortal, and could find no other way of becoming so, but by setting fire to the Temple of Diana at Ephesus. This man, such is his love of glory, is ambitious of the same fate."

Now I propose briefly to shew, that this and the rest is but a mock account of the death of Jesus, and that it is applied to Peregrinus as a set-off; and that not a syllable of it has ever been realized in the life of that impostor. There are two arguments which prove the truth of this assertion, and they carry the force of demonstration; for no man, whether in his senses or out of his senses, ever put himself to death in the manner, and from the motives, which Lucian here ascribes to Peregrinus. The narrative is negatived by the known laws of the moral world: nothing parallel is to be found in the history of man; and Lucian himself is obliged to refer for illustration to the death of Hercules and Empedocles, the former of which is known to be fabulous, the other to be false, in fact. The other argument is, that the person which Lucian principally has in view under the name of Peregrinus, and whom it is his object to wound, is Jesus Christ; and all the facts which he imputes to the impostor, are copied, distorted indeed, and disguised, from the New Testament. Thus the description he gives of Peregrinus, is, in its leading points, a description characteristic of Christ; and if we substitute the fire and Olympia for the cross and Calvary, the death of Jesus and the death of Peregrinus are precisely the same. Jesus foretold his death, went up to Jerusalem, he died during a festival, when Jews and others, to an immense multitude, were there collected. The death and resurrection of Christ were predicted by the Prophets; the death of Peregrinus and his re-appearance are predicted by the Sibyl. "Going," says Lucian, some time after this into the assembly, I met a grey-haired old man, whom by his beard and grave appearance one would have taken for a creditable witness,

and who told us how he had seen him after he was burned, in a white garment, crowned with olive, and walking about." § 40.

The object of Jesus in dying was to save mankind; the object of Peregrinus was of a similar nature. § 23. Jesus after his resurrection commissioned his followers to go and baptize all nations; Peregrinus gave a similar commission after his re-appearance from the fire. "They say he has already written epistles to all the principal cities, and certain covenants, exhortations and laws, which he sent them by ambassadors chosen from among his followers, and whom he had dignified with the title of messengers from the dead, or runners to the shades below." § 41. Jesus ascended to heaven, so did Peregrinus. "Wherefore God hath highly exalted him, and given him a name above every other name, that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and those on earth, and under the earth; and every tongue should confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." The oracle of the Sibyl is thus represented as speaking of Peregrinus: "When Proteus, by far the best of the Cynics, after jumping into the flames, and burning himself in the holy place of high Jove, shall ascend to heaven, I command all those who eat the fruits of the earth to worship this night guardian, this greatest of heroes, seated on the same throne with Vulcan and Hercules."

Now, as it appears beyond contradiction, that the history of the death of Peregrinus is but a burlesque of the death of Christ, it follows that no such events as in this treatise are ascribed to that impostor, did ever take place; in other words, the story of Peregrinus burning himself, and the like, was a mere contrivance between that impostor and his colleagues to furnish the enemies of the gospel with a set-off against its founder. Franklin, the translator of Lucian, makes this shrewd remark on Peregrinus disappearing in the flames: "It is not improbable that this arch impostor, for such he undoubtedly was, might after all escape by some secret passage under ground, which he had prepared on the occasion, as we cannot otherwise well account for a scoundrel like Peregrinus carry

ing the jest so far." Fortunately, Lucian himself has given us an incident which developes the whole imposture. "Jesus," we are told, “when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And behold the veil of the temple was rent in twain, from the top to the bottom; and the earth shook, and the rocks rent, and the graves opened, and many bodies of saints, which slept, arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city and appeared unto many," Matt. xxvii. 50. In ridicule of this account, Lucian writes of Peregrinus, "When the pile was lighted, and Proteus had thrown himself upon it, a great noise was heard, the earth shook, and a vulture was seen to rise out of the flame and fly towards heaven, crying with a loud voice, I have left earth, and go to Olympus." § 39. Now Lucian allows that he himself was the author of this tragic story. We are infinitely obliged to him for the acknowledgment; for we may then conclude with the utmost confidence, that as Lucian was an inventor of one part of the story, he or Peregrinus, or some other worthy coadjutor in the same cause, or all of them together, invented the rest. And thus we are able to trace the whole narrative to its proper source. This is but a brief sketch of the treatise. Those who wish to be fully informed on the subject, should with this clue read the original, and they will become sensible that in all the records of antiquity, nothing is to be met with so calculated to establish and illustrate the truth of the Christian religion as this work of Lucian. My next paper shall be on this subject.

J. JONES.

deliberately put to death in the course of ten days! Monstrous! And of these fourteen victims, four of them for forgery and the lesser offence of uttering forged notes! What, Mr. Editor, is become of the “Committee appointed to consider of so much of the Criminal Laws as relates to Capital Punishments for Felonies"? I believe they have recommended the substitution of some other penalty in the place of the ultimum supplicium in cases of forgery, or at least of the uttering of forged notes. If so, why is it not attended to? If our rulers will persist in hanging up, by the dozen and the score, their fellow-creatures, upon their heads let the blood light. The people have no hand in it; they disclaim such an infernal system; they are no less hostile to the Draconian code, that condemns to an equal punishment the stripling who passes a forged bill for 20s., and the midnight assassin who bathes himself in the blood of his victim, than those great and good men of the past and present century, Beccaria, Montesquieu, Blackstone, Johnson, Goldsmith, Romilly, Mackintosh, Buxton, &c. What can induce those in whose hands rests the dread but unenvied power of life and death, thus pertinaciously to adhere to a practice so revolting to the Creator and the creature, and, as is proved by the multiplicity of examples, ineffectual as a preventive of crime-the great, the sole object of punishment? And why is it inefficacious? Why does it fail of its aim? Let us hear what that able writer and distinguished philanthropist above quoted says on this subject: "In proportion as punishments become more cruel, the human mind, which, like fluids, rises to a level with the surrounding objects, becomes hardened; and, the force of the passions still continuing, after a century of cruel punishments, the wheel terrifies no more than formerly did the prison."

I shall give no opinion on the subject of crimes accompanied with violence, though I am disposed to think that offenders of this sort might be prevented from injuring society in future, be made useful to the state, and even eventually reclaimed, if we were as ready to reform as we are to launch them into eternity; my business is, at present, as well with the crimen falsi as with what may be

broadly termed theft. That good man and distinguished moralist, Johnson, in the CXIVth Number of the Rambler, (a paper which I earnestly recommend to the perusal of those who advocate the cause of justice and humanity, but more particularly to the attentive consideration of such persons as, from an erroneous idea of the necessity of sanguinary inflictions, have hitherto opposed all amendment of our criminal code,) thus speaks of the confusion of crime: "The frequency of capital punishments, therefore, rarely hinders the commission of a crime, but naturally and commonly prevents its detection, and is, if we proceed only upon prudential principles, chiefly for that reason to be avoided. Whatever may be urged by casuists or politicians, the greater part of mankind, as they can never think that to pick the pocket and to pierce the heart is equally criminal, will scarcely believe that two malefactors so different in guilt can be justly doomed to the same punishinent; nor is the necessity of submitting the conscience to human laws so plainly evinced, so clearly stated, or so generally allowed, but that the pious, the tender and the just will always scruple to concur with the community in an act which their private judgment cannot approve." When the Dr. wrote the above, the absurdity, the wickedness of the doctrine of equal penalties for unequal offences, was not so generally admitted, nor had the public sympathy for poor wretches, the victims of a code "the reproach of neighbouring states," been so generally excited as it has of late years. It is not so now. Englishmen, Sir, I repeat, renounce a code that is at once an outrage on their feelings and their judgment; a code that condemns to an equal penalty a Maddon and a Nesbitt. If the arguments of those celebrated philosophers and philanthropists before mentioned, and others on this side of the question, are unsound; if either their premises are false or their deductions erroneous, let them be refuted, let the Mighty Mother" in Threadneedle Street, and her mammon-worshiping children, sit down and subvert the reasoning of their opponents, which, indeed, they must do by arguments à priori, since they cannot appeal to experience, in favour

more of him who addressed the thief on the cross, who said to the adulteress, "Go, and sin no more." Let them boldly come forward and avow their unbelief. Let them preach Materialism as well as practise it. By so doing, they will at least diminish the number of their vices by the abstraction of hypocrisy.

SIR,

PHILADELPHOS.

December 12, 1820.

HAVE perused with much interest [Vol. XV. p. 623] the resolutions passed at a meeting of the subscribers to the Fellowship Fund at Liverpool, respecting the re-establishment of an academical institution similar to the one which, a few years ago, existed at Hackney.

That some increased means should be adopted for the purpose of providing a supply of ministers for those congregations which are now vacant, as well as for those whose pastors are far advanced in years, seems to be generally admitted; and, without doubt, it is a subject which should engage the attention of all those individuals, and those associated bodies, who are impressed with a sense of the importance of promoting the spread of those views of Christianity which they believe to be truly evangelical. It is also generally admitted, that the highly respectable college at York cannot be considered as fully providing for the exigencies of the case. That a regular succession of ministers, well versed in biblical criticism and the more abstruse parts of science, and competent to defend the Unitarian faith against the assaults of learned objectors, will be provided by that Institution, is a source of high gratification and confidence. But it is reasonable to suppose, that young men thus educated will be called upon to take the charge of congregations in the large towns, and therefore, in order to provide for the supply of ministers for smaller congregations, the number of which is every year increasing, some additional means should be put into active operation.

While the importance of this subject is generally allowed, there are, in the opinion of many judicious persons, serious objections to the attempt to establish an additional academical institution. Among numerous other obstacles, the expense necessarily at

tendant upon such establishments is thought to form an insuperable one, particularly when it is considered that the funds required for their support must be derived from contributions casual and irregular, and that consequently a scheme well-digested, and for some time successfully carried on, might be suddenly rendered entirely abortive. There are, however, let us hope, other modes by which the important object may be attained; and I beg to suggest to your readers some hints upon the subject.

As it is evident from the increased zeal which is apparent among Unitarians, and from the establishment of Fellowship Funds, that something considerable may be raised towards the furtherance of this object, I would recommend that young men who are desirous of devoting themselves to the ministry, should be encouraged to do so; and that ministers, duly qualified to direct their studies, should be indueed, by adequate remuneration, to undertake that charge; that six or eight students should be placed under the care of one minister; that a committee, consisting partly of ministers and partly of laymen, and residing in some central part of the kingdom, (in and near Birmingham, for instance,) should be appointed to manage the affairs of the institution; to receive and appropriate the funds; to receive and decide upon the applications of preceptors and students, and to arrange the terms to be paid, and the plan of tuition to be adopted, according to the circumstances and qualifications of the respective parties. One advantage to be derived from the adoption of this plan would be, that something might speedily be done, without incurring any serious risk, even if it were not ultimately found to answer. Another is, that as a variety of preceptors would be employed, perhaps greater benefit would result than from an academical institution upon a large scale, where certain notions are apt to prevail on the subjects of doctrine, style and manner, which often produce too great an uniformity among the students. Another is, that by being located in different parts of the kingdom, the young men would have more opportunities afforded for improving themselves in pulpit-exercises, previous to the completion of their studies. Many