PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY
AS A
PHILOSOPHER AND REFORMER.
BY
CHARLES SOTHERAN.
INCLUDING AN ORIGINAL SONNET
BY
PHARLES IT*. f''PEDEICICKSON,
TOGETHER WITH
A PORTRAIT OF SHELLEY AND A VIEW  OF HIS TOMB.
" Let us see the Truth, whatever that'may be.'-Shelley, 1822.
NE W  YORK:
CHARLES P.' SOMERBY, 139 EIGHTH  STREET.
1876.




Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1876, by
CHARLES SOTHERAN,
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
EDWARD 0. JENKINS,
PRINTER AND STEREOTYPER,
20 North William Street, N. Y




TO
CHARLES WILLIAM FREDERICKSON,
OF NEW YORK.
DEAR FRIEND:
As in ancient times, none were allowed participation in the
Higher, Mysteries, without having proved their fitness for the
reception of esoteric truth, so in these' days only those seem to
be permitted to breathe the hidden essence in Shelley, who have
realized the acute phases of spiritality. Among the few who have
enjoyed these bi-fold gifts, none have had more fortuitous experience than yourself, to whom I now take the liberty of dedicating
this volume.
Yours fraternally,
CHARLES SOTHERAN.
Dea3mber, 1875.




VIEW  OF SHELLEY'S TOMB, IN THE PROTESTANT CEMETERY, AT ROME.
FROM A SKETCH BY A. J. STRUTT.
"To see the sun shining on its bright grass, and hear the whispering of thte wind among
the leaves of the trees, which have overgrown the tomb of Cestins, and the soil which is
stirring in the sun-warm earth, and to mark the tombs, mostly of women and young
children, who, buried there, we might, if we were to die, desire a sleep they seem to
sleep."-SHELLEY.




oT e    10m
PERCY BYSSHE.SHELLEY,
BY
CHARLES W. FREDERICKSON.
Amid the ruins of majestic Rome,
That told the story of its countless years,
I stood, and wondered by the silent dust
Of the "Eternal Child."  Oh, Shelley!
To me it was not given to know thy face,
Save through the mirrored pages of thy works;
Those whisper'd words of wood and wave, are to mine ears,
Sweet as the music of ocean's roar, that breaks on sheltered shores.
Thy sterner words of Justice, Love and Truth,
Will to the struggling soul a beacon prove,
And barrier against the waves of tyranny and craft.
Then rest, " Cor Cordiumn," and though thy life
Was brief in point of years, its memory will outlive
The column'd monuments around thy tomb.
NEW YORK, Nov. 25, 1875.
MY DEAR SOTHERAN:The copy of the lines on our BelovedPoet, which you requested, are entirely
at your service-make what use of them you please.
Yours, sincerely,
C. W. FREDERICKSON.








PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY, AS A PHILOSOPHER AND
REFORMER.
A PAPER READ BEFORE THE NEW YORK LIBERAL CLUB,
ON FRIDAY, AUGUST 6TH, 1875.
"Let us see the Truth, whatever that may be."-SHELLEY, I822.
Mr. Vice-President and Members of the Liberal Club:
"The Blood of the Martyr is the Seed of the Church."  Persecution ever fails in accomplishing its desired ends, and as a rule
lays the foundations broad and deep for the triumph of the objects of and principles inculcated. by the persecuted.
Driven from their homes by fanatical tyranny, not permitted
to worship as they thought fit, a band of noble and earnest, yet
on some points mistaken men, were, a little over two hundred and
fifty years ago, landed on this continent from the good ship
" Mayflower."  The "Pilgrim  Fathers" were, in their native
land, refused liberty of conscience and freedom of discussion;
their apparent loss was our gain, for if it had not been for that
despotism, and the corresponding re-action, which made those
stern old zealots give to others many of the inalienable rights of
liberty denied to themselves, you and I could not to-night perhaps be allowed to meet face to face, without fear, to discuss
metaphysical and social questions in their broadest aspects, without the civil or theological powers intervening to close our
mouths.
"Fragile in health and frame; of the purest habits in morals;
full of devoted generosity and universal kindness; glowing
with ardor to attain wisdom; resolved at every personal sacrifice
to do right; burning with a desire for affection and sympathy,"
a boy-under-graduate of Oxford, described as of tall, delicate,
and fragile figure, with large and lively eyes, with expressive,
beautiful and feminine features, with head covered with long,
brown hair, of gracefulness and simplicity of manner, the heir to




2                  PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY.
a title and the representation of one of the most ancient English
families, which numbered Sir Philip Sidney on its roll of illustrious names, just sixt4-f0ur years ago, and in this nineteenth
century, for no licentiousness, violence, or dishonor, but, for his refusal to criminate himself or inculpate friends, was, without trial,
expelled by learned divines from his university for writing an
argumentative thesis, which, if it had been the work of some G'reek
philosopher, would have been hailed by his judges as a fine
specimen of profound analytical abstruseness —for that expulsion
are we the debtors to theological charity and tolerance for
"Queen Mab."
Excommunicated by a mercenary and abject priesthood, cast off
by a savage father, the admirer of that gloomy theology founded
by the murderer of Michael Servetus, and charged by his jealous brother writers as one of the founders of a Satanic School,
for neither immorality of life nor breach of the parental relation, but for heterodoxy to an expiring system of dogmatism,
and for acting on and  asserting the right of man to think
and  judge for himself, a father was to have  two children
torn from him, in the sacred name of law and justice, by the
principal adviser of a dying madman, " Defender of the Faith,
by Law Established," and by us despised as the self-willed
tyrant, who lost America and poured out'human blood like water
to gratify his lust of power. By that Lord Chancellor whose
cold, impassive statue has a place in Westminster Abbey, where
Byron's was refused admittance, and whose memory, when that
stone has crumbled into dust, will live as one who furnished an
example for execrable tyranny over the parental tie, and that
Lord Eldon whom  an outraged father curses in imperishable
verse:
"By thy most impious hell, and all its terrors;
By all the grief, the madness and the guilt
Of thine impostures, which must be their errors,
That sand on which thy crumbling power is built;
~*                  ~  ~      *, *
By all the hate which checks a father's love;
By all the scorn which kills a father's care;
By those most impious hands that dared remove
Nature's high bounds-by thee, and by despair.
"Yes, the despair which bids a father groan,
And cry,'my children are no longer mine.




PERCY BYSSIHE SHELLEY.                      3
The blood within those veins may be mine own,
But, tyrant, their polluted souls are thine.'
"I curse thee, though I hate thee not. 0 slave!
If thou could'st quench the earth consuming hell
Of which thou art a demon, on thy grave
This curse should be a blessing. Fare thee well."
Sad as it is to contemplate any human being in his agony making use of such language to another; and however much we may
sympathize with the poet, yet we cannot but have inwardly a
feeling of rejoicing; for, if it had not been for this unheard of
villainy, we should probably never have had the other magnificent poetry and prose of Percy Bysshe Shelley composed during his self-imposed ostracism, and which furnish such glorious
thoughts for the philosopher, and keen trenchant weapons for
the reformer.
ltave any of my hearers ever stood, in the calm of a summer
evening, in Shelley's native land, listening to the lovely warble
of the nightingale, making earth joyful with its unpremeditated
strains, and the woods re-echo with its melody.  Or gazed upwards with anxious ken towards the skylark careering in the
"blue ether," far above this sublunary sphere of gross, sensual
earth, there straining after immortality, and
"Like a poet hidden,
In the light of thought,
Singing hymns'unbidden,
Till the world is wrought
To sympathy with hopes and fears, it heeded not,"
pouring out such bursts of song as to make one almost worship
arid credit the fables, taught in childhood at our mothers' knees, of
the angelic symphonies of heavenly choirs. Such was the poetry
of Shelley; and as the music of the nightingale or the skylark
is far exceeding in excellence that of the other members of the
feathered kingdom, so does Shelley rank as a poet far above all
other poets, making even the poet of nature, the great Wordsworth himself, confess that Shelley was indeed the master
of harmonious verse in our modern literature. It is broadly laid
down  in  the Marvinian theory  that all poets are insane.
I would much like to break a lance with the learned Professor
of Psychology and Medical Jurisprudence; but as the overthrow
of this dogma does not come within the scope of my essay, I
would suggest to those who may have been influenced by that




4                       PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY.
paper to  read  Shelley's  "Defence of Poetry."   I shall quote
two extracts therefrom, each pertinent to my subject. The first
describes the function of the poet:
"But poets, or those who imagine and express this indestructible order, are not only
the authors of language and of music, of the dance, and architecture, and statuary, and
painting; they are the institutors of lawsand the founders of civil society, and the inventors
of the arts of life, and the teachers, who draw into a certain propinquity with the beautiful and the true, that partial apprehension of the agencies of the invisible world, which is
called religion."
The other is in extension of the same idea, and  concludes the
essay:
"Poets are the hierophants of an unapprehended inspiration; the mirrors of the gigantic shadows which futurity casts upon the present; the words which express what they
understand not; the trumpets which sing to battle and feel not what they inspire; the influence which is moved not, but moves. Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the
world."
I have no hesitation  in  saying  that for treating  Shelley as a
philosopher, I shall be attacked with great "positivism" by the
disciples* of manufacturers of bran-new Brummagen philosophies
dug out of Aristotelian and other depths to which are added
new thoughts, not their own. The reason which David Masson
offers in his  "Recent British  Philosophy"  for placing Alfred
Tennyson among the same class is equally applicable now:
" To those who are too strongly possessed with our common
habit of classifying writers into kinds, as historians, poets, scientific and speculative writers, and so on, it may seem strange to
include Mr. Tennyson in this list. But as I have advisedly referred to Wordsworth as one of the representatives and powers
of British philosophy in the age immediately past, so I advisedly
* If Diogenes or Socrates, leaving High Olympus and sweet converse with the immortals, were to condescend to visit New York some Friday evening, I am sadly afraid they
would be astounded at many of their would-be brothers in philosophy. On seeing the
travestie of ancient academies and groves where the schools used to congregate, the dialogues consisting of bald atheism under sheep's clothing to trap the unwary, and termed
"The Religion of Humanity," of abuse and personality in lieu of argument, of buffoonery
called wit, of airing pet hobbies alien to the subject instead ofdisputating, of shouting vulgar
claptrap instead of rhetoric, etc. - I sadly fear these stout old Greeks, having power for the
nonce, would, throwing philosophy to the dogs in a moment of paroxysmal indignation,
despite physiognomies trained to resemble their own, have these fellows casked up in tubs
without lanterns, but with the appropriate "snuffers," fit emblems of their faiths, and dropped far outside Sandy Hook.  A proper finale to the vapid utterance made by one of
these gentry that all " Reformers should be annihilated." Imagine Plato or Epicurus
offeling such a suggestion. O tempora! O mores!




PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY.                 5
named Tennyson as succeeding him in the sane character.
Though it is not power of speculative reason alone that constitutes a poet, is it not felt that the worth of a poet essentially is
measured by the depth and amount of his speculative reason   Even popularly, do we not speak of every great poet
as the exponent of the spirit of his age? What else can this
mean than that the philosophy of his age, its spirit and heart in
relation to all the great elemental problems, find expression in
his verse? Hence I ought to include other poets in this list,
and more particularly Mr. Browning and Mrs. Browning, and the
late Mr. Clough. But let the mention of Mr. Tennyson suggest
such other names, and stand as a sufficient protest against our
absurd habit of omitting such in a connection like the present. As
if, forsooth, when a writer passed into verse, he were to be abandoned as utterly out of calculable relationship to all on this
side of the boundary, and no account were to be taken of his
thoughts and doings, except in a kind of curious appendix at the
end of the general register? What if philosophy, at a certain
extreme range, and of a certain kind, tends of necessity to pass
into poesy, and can hardly help being passionate and metrical 
If so, might not the omission of poets, purely as being such,
from a conspectus of the speculative writers of any time, lead
to erroneous conclusions, by giving an undue prominence in the
estimate of all such philosophizing as could most easily, by its
nature, refrain from passionate or. poetic expression? Thus,
would philosophy, or one kind of philosophy in comparison
with another, have seemed to had been in such a diminished
condition in Britain about the year 1830, if critics had been in
the habit of counting Wordsworth in the philosophic list as well
as Coleridge, Mackintosh, Bentham, and James Mill  Was there
not more of what you might call Spinozaism in Wordsworth than
even in Coleridge, who spoke more of Spinoza? But that hardly
needs all this justification, so far as Mr. Tennyson is concerned,
of our reckoning him in the present list. He that would exclude
In "Memoriam" (1850) and "Maud" (1855) from the conspectus of
the philosophical literature of our time, has yet to learn what philosophy is. Whatever else "In Memoriam" may be, it is a manual
for many of the latest hints and questions in British Metaphysics."
The soi disant philosophers and classifiers of the sciences and




6                   PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY.
arts who will not permit such poets as Shelley and. Tennyson to
be put in the category of philosophers, remind one very forcibly
of the passage in Macbeth: "The earth has bubbles, as the water
has, and these are of them!"
As a poet and not as a poet, as an acknowledged legislator for
the race, as a philosopher, (a searcher after, or lover of wisdom)
and as a political and social reformer, it is my intention to treat
Shelley  this evening, and  having  finished  my prefatory  remarks, will now regard him in those attributes which peculiarly
should enshrine him in your hearts and mine.
The philosophical theories of advanced thinkers are always
tinged with the reflex of that which called them  forth, or impeded them in their development, consequently social bondage
and the "anarch custom " being always present to Shelley, the
great idea ever uppermost to him was that true happiness is
only attainable in perfect freedom: the atrocious system of fagging, now almost extinct in the English Public Schools and the
tyrannical venality of ushers, deeply impressed themselves on
the mind of Shelley, and he tells us, in the beautiful lines to his
wife, of the remembrance of his endeavors to overthrow these
abominations having failed, of flying from   "the  harsh  and
grating strife of tyrants and of foes " and of the high and noble
resolves which inspired him:
"And then I clasp'd my hands, and look'd around;
But none were near to mock my streaming eyes,
Which pour'd their warm drops on the sunny ground.
So, without shame, I spake:' I will be wise,
And just, and free, and mild, if in me lies
Such power; for I grow weary to behold
The selfish and the strong still tyrannize
Without reproach or check.' I then controll'd
My tears; my heart grew calm; and I was meek and bold.
"And from that hour did I, with earnest thought,
Heap knowledge from forbidden mines of lore;
Yet nothing that my tyrants knew or taught,
I cared to learn; but from that secret store
Wrought linked armor for my soul, before
It might walk forth, to war among mankind.
Thus, power and hope were strengthen'd more and more
Within me, till there came upon my m:nd
A sense of loneliness, a thirst with which I pined."
The fruits born of this seed are discernible in every line of




PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY.                        7
his works. While having all reverence for his college companions,
Aristotle, ZEschylus, and Demosthenes, his mind instinctively
turns towards the deemed heretical works of the later French
philosophers, D'Holbach, Condillac, La Place, Rousseau, the encyclopedcists, and other members of that school.  His intellect
he furbishes with stores of logic and of chemistry, in which his
greatest love was to experimentalize; of botany and astronomy,
in which he was more than a mere adept; from Hume, too, whose
essay on "Miracles," wrong as it is in the main on many important points, was one of the alphas of his creed-and with deep
draughts from  his great instructor, Plato, of whom he always
spoke with the greatest adoration, as, for instance, in the preface
to the Symposium:
"Plato is eminently the greatest among the Greek philosophers; and from, or rather
perhaps through him and his master, Socrates, have proceeded those emanations of moral and
metaphysical knowledge, on which a long series and an incalculable variety of popular
superstitions have sheltered their absurdities from the slow contempt of mankind."
It is desirable to call attention to the great minds from whom
the student of the early part of this century could only cull his
knowledge-he had no Spencer and no Mill, at whose feet to
sit-he had in science none of the conclusions of Darwin, of
Huxley, of Tyndall, of Murchison, of Lyell, to refer to, and
yet I think, that the careful reader will, like myself, find prefigured in Shelley's works much of that of which the world is
in full possession to-day, and which the mystical Occultists,
Rosicrucians, and Cabalists have now, and have ever had, conjoined to a mysterious command over the active hidden material
and spiritual powers in the infinite domain of nature.
The idea of the Supreme Power or God, as emanating from
Shelley, is one of -the most sublime to be found in the pages of
metaphysical learning at the command of ordinary mortals. By
many it may be considered only a vague pantheism; yet, rightly
regarded in a reconciliative spirit, it is of such an universal character as to harmonize with not only Deism, Theism  and Polytheism, but even Atheistical Materialism.  Listen to the following, which I select out of numerous examples, as a finger-post
for others who seek the living springs of undefiled truth, as
in Shelley:
"Whosoever is free from the contamination of luxury and license may go forth to the
fields and to the woods, inhaling joyous renovation from the breath of Spring, and catch



8                      PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY.
ing from the odors and sounds of autumn some diviner mood of sweetest sadness, which
improves the softened heart. Whosoever is no deceiver and destroyer of his fellow-menno liar, no flatterer, no murderer-may walk among his species, deriving, from
the communion with all which they contain of beautiful or majestic, some intercourse
with the Universal God. Whosoever has maintained with his own heart the strictest
correspondence of confidence, who dares to examine and to estimate every imagination
which suggests itself to his mind-whosoever is that which he designs to become, and only
aspires to that which the divinity of his own nature shall consider and approve-he has
already seen God."
Can any one cavil with these beautiful expressions, this outpouring of genius. If such there be, his heart and understanding  must be sadly  warped, any  appeal would be in vain, for
him  the Veil of Isis could never be  lifted.   After a careful
study of Shelley's works I can find nothing to warrant the execration formerly levelled at his head, not even in the " Refutation of Deism," that remarkable argument in the Socratic style
between Eusebes and Theosophus in which, as in  all his prose
works, is displayed keen discernment, logical acuteness, and
close. analytical reasoning not surpassed by the greatest philosophers-most certainly his notions of God were  not in unison
with the current theological ideas, and it was this daring rebellion against the popular faith, the chief support of custom
which caused all the  trouble.  If ever he  attempted  to show
the non-existence of Deity, his negation was solely directed
against the gross human notions of a creative power, and ergo
a  succession  of  finite  creative  powers  ad  infinitum,  or a
Personal God who has only been acknowledged in the popular
teachings as an autocratic tyrant, and as Shelley puts it in his
own language:
"A venerable old man, seated on a throne of clouds, his breast the theatre of various
passions, analogous to those of humanity, his will changeable and uncertain as that of an
earthly king."
Not to be compared with the far different eternal and infinite.
"Spirit of Nature! all sufficing power,
Necessity! thou mother of the world!
Unlike the God of human error, thou
Requirest no prayers or praises, the caprice
Of man's weak will belongs no more to thee
Than do the changeful passions of his breast
To thy unvarying harmony."
And  by  this doctrine  of necessity  here  apostrophised  our
philosopher instructs us in a lengthy  statement of great clearness:




PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY.                                  9
"We are taught that there is neither good nor evil in the universe, otherwise than as
the events to which we apply these epithets have relation to our own peculiar mode of being.
Still less than with the hypothesis of a personal God, will the doctrine of necessity accord
with the belief of a future state of punishment,  God made man such as he is, and then
damned him for being so; for to say that God was the author of all good, and man the
author of all evil, is to say that one man made a straight line and a crooked one, and another man made the incongruity."
For you  to  better understand  the  exact position  in  which
Shelley placed himself, it is elsewhere thus admirably expressed:
"The thoughts which the word'God' suggest to the human mind are susceptible of
as many variations as human minds themselves. The Stoic, the Platonist, and the Epicurean, the Polytheist, the Dualist, and the Trinitarian, differ entirely in their conceptions
of its meaning. They agree only in considering it the most awful and most venerable of
names, as a common term to express all of mystery, or majesty, or power, which the invisible world contains. And not only has every sect distinct conceptions of the application of this name, but scarcely two individuals of the same sect, which exercise in any
degree the freedom of their judgment, or yield themselves with any candor of feeling to
the influences of the visible world, find perfect coincidence of opinion to exist between
them.... God is neither the Jupiter who sends rain upon the earth; nor the
Venus through whom all living things are produced; nor the Vulcan who presides over
the terrestrial element of fire; nor the Vesta that preserves the light which is enshrined
in the sun, the moon, and the stars. He is neither the Proteus nor the Pan of the material
world. But the word' God' unites all the attributes which these denominations contain
and is the (inter-point) and over-ruling spirit of all the energy and wisdom included within the circle of existing things."
Of these attributes generally supposed to appertain to Deity,
he writes:
"There is no attribute of God which is not either borrowed from the passions and
powers of the human mind, or which is not a negation. Omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, infinity, immutability, incomprehensibility, and immateriality, are 11 words
which designate properties and powers peculiar to organized beings, with the addition of
negations, by which the idea of limitation is excluded."
There is no other writer, I think, who seems to grasp so clearly
as Shelley the everlasting and immutable laws of Naturismus, or
who believed so fully in the divine mission of man, and the religion of humanity. Ever soaring into the ideal, philosophizing by
the aid of his emotional impulses, Shelley possessed, like all true
Hermetists and Theosophists imbued with mysticism, a wonderful
power of continued abstraction  in the contemplation of the Supreme Power.  His mentality, described by one of his critics as
essentially  Greek, "simple, not complex, imaginative  rather
than fanciful, abstract not concrete, intellectual not emotional,"
contributed its share to his belief in a pantheistic philosophy,
making him find Supreme Intelligence permeated through the,




10               PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY.
whole of infinite and interminable Nature. Regarding the universe as an abstract whole, he endorsed the fundamental metaphysics of Plato, and believed that "passing phenomena are
types of eternal archetypes, embodiments of eternal realities."
Even if despite of my assertions to the contrary, there be those
who still insist on the atheism of Shelley, they had better restudy the elementary axioms and learn to think-to those who
imagine that there is but little difference between atheism and
pantheism to the discredit of either, I would remind them that
Bacon in his "Moral Essays," lays down as a principle that:"Atheism leaves to man reason, philosophy, nature, piety,
laws, reputation and everything that can serve to conduct him to
virtue; but superstition destroys all these, and erects itself into a
tyranny over the understandings of men; hence atheism never disturbs the government, but renders man more clear-sighted, since
he sees nothing beyond the boundaries of the present life."
In making use of this quotation do not let it be presumed that I
wish to endorse Materialism; my desire is to add the authority
of a great mind like that of the Elizabethan philosopher, to the
fact that superstition is so hateful that even blank, bald atheism
is preferable thereto. I should state that Bacon in extension of
the extract I have quoted, speaking of this soul-destroying incubus on humanity observes that:-" A little philosophy inclineth men's minds to atheism; but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds to religion."
No amount of mere reasoning, or argument a priori or a
posteriori, can prove the existence of the Most High or destroy
the same; in every breast is implanted an innate belief in
Deity, the inner consciousness of the race, by the  "Vox
Dei" speaking within, has throughout all time, the past and
the present revelled in this sublimity, and will continue to do so
in the future, notwithstanding the insane ard insensate efforts
of pseudo scientists or iconoclastic materialists-the brain and
the heart must act in harmony to consolidate a pure philosophy,
for mere intellect alone is an untrustworthy guide..By logic
Whately proved apparently indisputably the non-existence of
Napoleon Bonaparte, at the time when there was no doubt in
any reasonable mind that he was actually living in the flesh, by
the same means one can disprove one's own being, and so by this
unsafe method have I frequently heard the God idea very learn



PERCY BYSSHE  SHELLEY.                           11
edly overthrown.   On  such occasion  I have simply taken the
words of the logicians for what all'their idle wind is worthZERO.
The Immortality of the Soul has ever been a subject of primary
importance to all philosophers-the last dying efforts of Socrates, noblest of Greece's sons, as Plato has shown us in tho
Phado, were expended in a discussion on the pros and cons of
an argument in favor of a future life. Many of the highest intelligences since his day have been  endeavoring  to  prove this
satisfactorily without the aid of theological revelation. All
mankind, from  sage to peasant, from  the most learned Brahmin
on the banks of the Ganges to the untutored red Indian beside
the Mississippi, has the question, "is there an existence after
death," been approached with the most earnest hopes to solve as
one of the greatest mysteries. Shelley devoted a'vast amount
of energy to the elucidation of this occult, yet overt, truth; and
in one place remarks:
"The desire to be forever as we are; the reluctance to a violent and unexperienced
change, which is common to all; the animate and inanimate combinations of the universe,
is, indeed, the secret persuasion which has (among other reasons) given birth to a belief
in a future state."
Full well he knew, that independent of matter, there was a
power, which has been denominated by some, Spirit; by others,
simply mind, force, or intelligence; and by metaphysical philosophers, soul.  If he approached  the subject logically, as in his
essay, "On a Future State," the ignis fatuus seems to escape
him  and  be lost; if poetically, with  the innate  voice which
speaks within us all, ever present.
After close reasoning in the essay I have referred to, he arrived at the conclusion that even
"if it be proved that the world is ruled by a divine power, no inference can necessarily
be drawn from that circumstance in favor of a future state,"
and that
"if a future state be clearly proved, does it follow that it will be a state of punishment or
reward?"
Then in extension of the same argument he urges:
"Sleep suspends many of the faculties of the vital and intellectual principle-drunkenness and disease will either temporarily or permanently derange them. Madness, or
idiotcy, may utterly extinguish the most excellent and delicate of these powers. In old
age the mind gradually withers; and as it grew and strengthened with the body, so does
it with the body sink into decrepitude."




12                    PERCY BYSSIIE SHELLEY.
He also considered that:
"It is probable that what we call thought is not an actual being, but no more than the
relation between certain parts of that infinitely varied mass, of which the rest of the universe is composed, and which ceases to exist so soon as those parts change their position
with regard to each other. Thus color, and sound, and taste, and odor, exist only relatively."
Even granted that mind or thought be a part of, or in fact,
the soul, then he asks in what manner it could be made a proof
of its imperishability, as all that we see or know perishes and is
changed.
Here then comes the query, "Have we existed before birth?"
A difficult possibility to conceive of individual intelligence and
if unprovable against the theory of existence after death.
He then winds up the whole by thinking that it is impossible
that, 
"we should continue to eNist after death in some mode totally inconceivable to us at
present."
and  that  only  those  who desire to be persuaded are persuaded.
This is but a rough outline of some of the principal features
of his considerations on soul immortality from  a logical basis,
and which, after all, only constitute an argument, to which, and
the thoughts presented therein, he did not necessarily bind himself.  There can be little doubt, independently of what I have
quoted, that he did not believe in a future state as popularly accepted. Trelawney asked him on one occasion: " Do you believe
in the immortality of the spirit'"   "Shelley's answer was unmistakable, "Certainly not; how can I. We know  nothing;
we have no evidence." l
When we take Shelley from  a poetical standpoint, or with
the divine truism implanted by the Ain-soph clamoring within to
his intelligence for expression, how confident he appears of a
hereafter, as in  the "Adonais,"  or in the following  extract
from an unpublished letter to his father-in-law, William  Godwin, the property  of my friend C. W. Frederickson, of New
York, one of the most enthusiastic admirers of Shelley, and
* Those who desire to fully investigate Shelley's ideas on the immortality of the
soul, and the existence, or rnature, of Deity, will be amply repaid by reading W. M. Rossetti's admirable memoir of the poet, appended to the last two-volume London edition
of his works.




PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY.                            13
who has been often known to pay more than the weight in gold
for Shelleyana:
"With how many garlands we can beautify the tomb. If we begin betimes, we can
learn to make the prospect of the grave the most seductive of human visions. By little
and little we hive therein all the most pleasing of our dreams. Surely, if any spot in the
world be sacred, it is that in which grief ceases, and for which, if the voice within our
hearts mocks us not with an everlasting lie, we spring upon the untiring wings of a pangless and seraphic life-those whom we love around us-our nature, universal intelligence,
our atmosphere, eternal love."
How exquisite these remarks and his description of a disembodied spirit:
"it stood
All beautiful in naked purity,
The perfect semblance of its bodily frame,
Instinct with inexpressible beauty and grace,
Each stain of earthliness
Had passed away, it re-assumed
Its native dignity, and stood
Immortal amid ruin."
It must appear impossible to any rational mind, that, with the
full evidence before their eyes, materialists can attempt to claim
Shelley as endorsing  their doctrines, for even in the "Queen
Mab," which has been considered by those not understanding
it as a most atheistical poem, he speaks of"the remembrance
With which the happy spirit contemplates
Its well-spent pilgrimage on earth."
Positive dogmatists are tyrannically endeavoring to crush the
belief in a soul, that All which makes the present life happy
on earth, the hope of our heritage in a future state. To them
the fact that the race from the dawn of history, and through
the ages has knelt down in abnegation before this inscrutable
truth is nothing.  This glorious belief evolved from  the primreval Cabala, taught in ancient Egypt, found contemporaneously
in India, enunciated by scholarly Rabbis, ever present before
the Chaldaean and Assyrian Magi, and laid  down as axioms in
the philosophical schools of Greece and Rome, not only to be
discovered a fundamental-in the Egyptian, the Hebraisti6, the
Brahminical, the  Buddhistic, the Vedic, but also  in  all the
sacred books of every nation, and handed down and perpetuated
to these days as a sacred legacy from the past, by both Mohammed
and Christ. This, the great co-mystery of all the ancient mys



14                   PERCY BYSSIIE SHELLEY.
teries, shall remain ever present through all futurity like  "the
existing order of the Universe, or rather, of thepart of it known
to us," to use the phraseology of John  Stuart Mill.  Nations
may rise and fall, theologies may flourish and decay, but this
glorious and divine inheritance shall never pass away.  Let
pseudo-scientists avail themselves of stale and exploded arguments, and urge that there is no invisible world, and therefore no
immortality for man, but honest scientists, like Professors Tait and
Stewart, in the "Unseen Universe," will agree with the Illuminati: "in the position assumed by Swedenborg, and by the Spiritualists, according to which they look upon the invisible world
not as something absolutely distinct from the visible universe,
and absolutely unconnected with it, as is frequently  thought
to be the case, but rather as a universe that has some bond of
union with the present;" and like Tyndall, will be obliged in
abject humility to acknowledge, unlike the initiated occultist, that:
"When we endeavor to pass from  the phenomena of physics
to those of thought, we meet a problem which transcends any
conceivable expansion  of the powers we now  possess.  We
may think over the subject again and again-it eludes all intellectual presentation-we stand at length face to face with the
incomprehensible."
Shelley was ever calling attention to the fact that either from
ignorance or the casuistical sophistries of mal-interested teachers
who have distorted the divine pristine truths for their own base
ends, emanated superstition, the taint of all it looked upon; and
with no unsparing hand he flagellated the professors of the numerous false faiths, bastardized from their original purity, which
have in their decay, darkened the earth, and with all the force of
his powerful pen, mightier than any sword, he ridiculed these
gross theologies existant among men, as in the following:
"Barbarous and uncivilized nations have uniformly adored, under various names, a
God of which themselves were the model: revengeful, blood-thirsty, groveling and capricious. The idol of a savage is a demon that delights in carnage. The steam of slaughter, the dissonance of groans, the flames of a desolated land, are the offerings which he
deems acceptable, and his innumerable votaries throughout the world have made it a
point of duty to worship him to his taste. The Phcenicians, the Druids and the Mexicans have immolated hundreds at the shrines of their divinity, and the high and holy name
of God has been in all ages the watchword of the most unsparing massacres, the sanction
of the most atrocious perfdies.'
Of the treatment Judaism, the foster mother of Christianity,




PERCY  BYSSHE SHELLEY.                              15
received  at the poet's hands, I will now  recite two examples.
To Moses, the Jehovah of the Hebrews is thus made to speak:
"From an eternity of idleness
I, God, awoke; in seven days' toil made earth
From nothing; rested, and created man;
I placed him in a paradise, and there
Planted the tree of evil, so that he
Might eat and perish, and my soul procure
Wherewith to sate its malice, and to turn
Evenlike a heartless conqueror of the earth,
All misery to my fame. The race of men
Chosen to my honor, with impunity
May sate the lusts Iplanted in their hearts.
Here I command thee hence to lead them on,
Until, with harden'd feet, their conquering troops
Wade on the promised soil through woman's blood,
And make my name be dreaded through the land,
Yet ever-burning flame and ceaseless woe
Shall be the doom of their eternal souls,
With every soul on this ungrateful earth,
Virtuous or vicious, weak or strong-even all
Shall perish to fulfill the blind revenge
(Which you to men call justice) of their God."
In another place  Shelley is equally descriptive of the early
stages of Jewish history, and makes the  following  observations
on the building of the Temple  of Jerusalem, which rearing high
its thousand golden  domes to heaven, exposed its glory to the,
face of day:
" Oh! many a widow, many an orphan cursed
The building of that fane; and many a father,
Worn out with toil and slavery, implored
The poor man's God to sweep it from the earth,
And spare his children the detested task
Of piling stone on stone, and poisoning
The choicest days of life,
To soothe a dotard's vanity.
There an inhuman and uncultured race
Howl'd hideous praises to their demon-God;
They rushed to war, tore from the mother's womb
The unborn child-old age and infancy
Promiscuous perished; their victorious arms
Left not a soul to breathe. Oh! they were fiends,
And what was he who taught them that the God
Of nature and benevolence had given
A special sanction to the trade of blood?
His name and theirs are fading, and the tales
Of this barbarian nation, which imposture
Recites till terror credits, are pursuing
Itself into forgetfulness."




16              PERCY BYSSIE SHELLEY.
With the enlightenment of the present century in every department of knowledge, so has a corresponding degree of advancement been thrown on the science of history, which Shelley only
partially apprehended. An enormous amount of new information is now to be gleaned from the writings of Ewald, Fergusson,
Binsen, Deutsch, Max Miller, Baring-Gould, Stanley, and
other scholars of Orientation, which shows that the Hebrews,
like every other nation, passed through the various phases of
Nomadism and Pastoralism, to that of offensive and defensive
war. The same as other races, they came through the usual
steps in religious progress-Fetishism, Astrolatry, Polytheism
and Mionotheism. During phases in their history they participated in the various forms of tree and serpent, Phallic, or fireworship. They had, as the Talmud, Targums, and the Old Testament show, a knowledge of the Egyptian or Chaldaic account of
the creation and fall, the latter still to be seen on the walls of the
temple of Osiris at Philae. They had much knowledge of the
Cabala, through their great prophet Moses, who was "learned
in all the wisdom of the Egyptians," and, like Pythagoras, had
been initiated into their mysteries, and who both imparted.the
knowledge in part to their compatriots, on which they both
founded systems.
A great traveler, and most learned modern writer on Occultism, who claims, on good grounds, to have been received into
the ancient branch of the Rosie Cross in the far East, Madame
Helena P. de Blavatsky, imparts the following particulars:
"The first Cabala in which a mortal man ever dared to explain the
greatest mysteries of the universe, and show the keys to those
masked doors in'the ramparts of Nature, through which no
mortal can ever pass without rousing dread sentries never seen
upon this side her wall, was compiled by a certain Simeon Ben
Jochai, who lived at the time of the second temple's destruction.
Only about thirty years after the death of this renowned Cabalist, his MSS. and written explanations, which had till then remained in his possession as a most precious secret, were used by
ris son, Rabbi Elizzar, and other learned men. Making a compilation of the whole, they so produced the famous work called
Zohar (God's splendor). This book proved an inexhaustible
mine for all the subsequent Cabalists, their source of information and knowledge, and all more recent and genuine Cabalas




PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY.                  17
were all more or less carefully copied from the former. Before
that, all the mysterious doctrines had come down in an unbroken
line of merely oral tradition as far back as man could trace himself on earth. They were scrupulously and jealously guarded
by the wise men of Chaldea, India, Persia and Egypt, and
passed from one initiate to another, in the same purity of form
as when handed down to the first man by the angels, students
of God's great Theosophic seminary."
Many Free Thinkers, in their anxiety to crush everything belonging to Christianity, often forget that, in throwing aside the
Hebrew records as utterly worthless, they are getting rid of one
of the most ancient literatures in the world. They also do not
remember the history of a peculiar nation, strangely preserved
amid the fluctuations of time, the purity and excellence of the
Book of Job, the Psalms, and others which I could name. They
cast unmerited contempt on these compilations, when, at the
same time, they will throw themselves, with almost Fetish
reverence, and apparently rapt adoration, before the Institutes of
Menu, the Bhagvat-Geeta, the morals of Chaoung-Fou-Tszee,
the Zend-Avesta, the Rig-Veda, the Oracles of Zoroaster, the
Book of the Dead, the Puranas, the Shastras, and the like.
Well may the Sons of Israel be proud of their ancient descent.
They suffered through Christian persecutions uncomplaininglythe torture, the rack, the auto-da-fe-and yet they bowed their
heads in submission to the will of Adonai. To-day they stand
upright and united, as in olden times. They have gained the
victory over the false disciples of the Nazarene, who, in days gone
by, forgot their erudition, their medical knowledge, their commercial activity, and general culture. Pre-eminent in wealth and
learning, they are found on the lecture-platform, in the fields of
literature and science, in the councils of rulers, on the exchange,
in the legislature-everywhere. When Greece and Rome were
in their infancy, this extraordinary people was in middle age;
and when our Saxon forefathers were in the lowest stage of
barbarism, they were in a state of high civilization; and to-day,
although scattered, they show a compact front, firmly knit in
the bonds of brotherly love, a model for Christians. The great
reform movement now agitating Judaism, as well as every other
species of political and metaphysical thought, will eventually
aid to consolidate all the races into one race-Humanity.




18                PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY.
In order to make Christians prejudge Shelley it has been the
wont of theologians, as usual in fighting their antagonists, to
cry up a false issue, and to make their followers believe that he
was rather more than a mere hater of Jesus Christ, and of the
teachings of that religious and social reformer, in fact, that he
was an infidel of infidels.  To have no misconceptions-for it has
been stated that Shelley changed his views on Christ, which after
ten years' careful study of his writings, I utterly deny, it should
be thoroughly understood that he regarded this pious Israelite in
a duismal aspect-as Christ the Man, and as Christ the God.  I
must not, while here, forget that many advanced metaphysicians
agree that they cannot satisfactorily prove the historical existence of Christ, and that they have to winnow through a vast
amount of chaff to get at his presumed philosophy, and the facts
in his life, which like that of Buddha is wrapped up in traditional fable.
For the Man Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, the carpenter's carnate
son, the mystical Essene and occultist, Shelley exceeded in love
and reverence many of the most earnest Christians, and in no
theological writings can there be discovered such beautiful sentiments concerning the "The Regenerator of the World," and
the' Meek Reformer," of whom he speaks as contemplating that
-er4otsriupncipecallecalled-od, the fundamental of all good,
and the source of all happiness, as every true poet and philosopher must have done. It is impossible to turn to any page of
his works, where, in speaking of Christ, he fails in this-he expatiates with as great fervor as Renan, Seeley, or Strauss, on
Christ's exposing with earnest eloquence, like all true members
of the brotherhood of Illuminati, to which he belonged, the panic
fears and hateful superstitions which have enslaved mankind
for ages, and extols
"His extraordinary genius, the wide and rapid effects of his unexampled doctrines.
his invincible gentleness and benignity, (and) the devoted love borne to him by his
adherents."
For the God Christ, as depicted by the Sacerdotal order, he
had the greatest contempt. It was impossible for a mind constituted like his to tamely rest contented with the incredible
story forced  on mankind's intelligence, that the Supreme
Power could or would for any wise purpose be transformed into a dove, and re-enact the mythical part of Jupiter with a




PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY.                                 19
Christian Leda, the Jew  carpenter's wife, Mary, under the  disguise of a bird.   Such a story and the theory on which  it rests
Shelley summarised as follows:
"According to this book, God created Satan, who, instigated by the impulses of his
nature, contended with the Omnipotent for the throne of Heaven. After a contest for
the empire, in which God was victorious, Satan was thrust into a pit of burning sulphur.
On man's creation, God placed within his reach a tree whose fruit he forbade him to taste,
on pain of death; permitting Satan, at the same time, to employ all his artifice to persuade this innocent and wondering creature to transgress the fatal prohibition.
" The first man yielded to this temptation; and, to satisfy Divine Justice the whole
of his posterity must have been eternally burned in hell, if God had not sent his only Son
on earth, to save those few whose salvation had been foreseen and determined before the
creation of the world."
The hero of this fabulous episode, beneath which a great truth
lies hidden, the Christian Ahrimanes or Typhon, the  Devil, as
painted by Milton, he considered a moral being, far superior to
the God depicted by the same author, and who, under the form
of the second person of the Christian Trinity, Shelley tells us of
coming humbly,
"Veiling his horrible God-head in the shape
Of man, scorn'd by the world, his name unheard,
Save by the rabble of his native town,
Even as a parish demagogue. He led
The crowd; he taught them justice, truth, and peace,
In semblance; but he lit within their souls
The quenchless flame of zeal, and blest the sword
He brought on earth to satiate with the blood
Of truth and freedom his malignant soul."
Elsewhere, in extension of the same, he puts the accompanying
words in the mouth of Godthe Father, to illustrate the doctrine
of Christian Atonement:
" I will beget a son, and he shall bear
The sins of all the world; he shall arise
In an unnoticed corner of the earth,
And he shall die upon a cross, and purge
The universal crime; so that the few
On whom my grace descends, those who are marked
As vessels to the honor of their God,
May credit this strange sacrifice, and save
Their souls alive. Millions shall live and die,
Who ne'er shall call upon their Saviour's name,
But unredeem'd go to the gaping grave;
Thousands shall deem it an old woman's tale,
Such as the nurses frighten babes withal;
These, in a gulf of anguish an 1 of flame,




20                     rPERCY  BYSSHE  SHELLEY.
Shall curse their reprobation endlessly,
Yet tenfold pangs shall force them to avow,
Even on their beds of torment, where they howl,
My honor and the justice of their doom.
What then avail their virtuous deeds, their thoughts
Of purity, with radiant genius bright,
Or lit with human reason's earthly ray?
Many are call'd but few will I elect."
The popular faith of Europe and America, which experience
demonstrates to this age has, even as a means of reforming humanity, been a complete failure, Shelley correctly believed, had
the same human foundation and origin as that of other'revealed
theologies-he sums up the proofs on which Christianity rests,
miracles, prophecies, and  martyrdoms, with  great clearness;
proves the absurdity of the doctrine of miracles, as taught by
Christian writers, shows the falseness of the so-called prophecies,
even   granting   the  utmost  warping   of  the  real  meaning
of  the  Old  Testament  texts  for Christian  purposes, which
he asserted were to be compared unfavorably with the oracles of
Delphos, and points out that the Mohammedan dying for his
prophet, or the IHindoo  immolating himself under the wheels
of Juggernaut could be cited equally as a proof of the divine origin
of their faiths, as the reputed martyrdoms of Christians could
of theirs.
The development of Christianity, which was really founded by
Paul, was a subject to which Shelley devoted much attentionhe tells us that
"The same means that have supported every other belief, have supported Christianity.
War, imprisonment, assassination, and falsehood; deeds of unexampled and incomparable
atrocity, have made it what it is. The blood shed by the votaries of the God of mercy
and peace, since the establishment of his religion, would probably suffice to drown all other
sectaries now on the habitable globe. We derive from our ancestors a faith thus fostered
and supported; we quarrel, persecute, and hate, for its maintenance.  Even under a
government which, while it infringes the very right of thought and speech, boasts of permitting the liberty of the press, a man is pilloried and imprisoned because he is a deist,
and no one raises his voice in the indignation of outraged humanity."
The numerical majority of Christians-the Greek and Roman
Catholic-are as much  pagans as their ancestors) the ancient
Greeks and Romans were exoterically. And why? Simply
because on the break-up of the Roman empire-like Mohammedanism afterwards, which was the natural reformation and
revolution  from   Christian  image-worship-Christianity, in  a




PERCY  BYSSHE  SHELLEY.                             21
natural succession, and by fortuitous circumstances, took possession  of the  executive, and  placed  on  the  seat of power a
Christian  Byzantine  emperor in  lieu  of  a  pagan.  Basilicas,
dedicated to Jupiter, Mercury, Adonis, Venus and the deities
of High Olympus, were re-dedicated to God the Father, God the
Son, God the Holy Ghost, the Virgin Mary, and the other saints
(or gods) of the Christian  Pantheon.  Statues therein were rechristened, and the sacrificial altars were simply transferred for
the use of the eucharistical sacrifice.  The vestal virgins became
nuns of the church; the Sacerdotes, her priests; the mysteries
of Isis, her Agapae. Her incense, her pictures, her image-worship, her holy water, her processions, and her prodigies, too, all
came from  the same source.  Thus were the socialistic and communistic  teachings, based  on  the Philoic-Essenism   of the Reformer of Nazareth, paganized, prostituted,'and  entirely  misrepresented. His life and labors were transformed from  the natural into what was considered by the vulgar the supernatural, and
all those  who  dared-like Hypatia, with  thousands of other
pious and noble ancients-to deny his divinity, were sacrificed to
this new Moloch, set up by parricide Constantines, or adulterers
of the Theodosius caste.  Thus through  the ages, has the race
suffered under such murder, rapine, and lust, as never disgraced
tolerant ancient heathendom in the interests of paganism, even as
recently happened in Central America,* and would happen every* I refer to the abominable outrages perpetrated a few  months ago at San,
Miguel, Panama, where popular preachers were forced by the ecclesiastical powers to
foment rebellion by violently denouncing the State authorities, who had refused to
allow a pastoral of the Christian Bishop of San Salvador, hostile to the laws, to be read in
the churches. Having been put into a state of frenzy by one Palacios, a canon of the
cathedral, a fanatic mob revolted, liberated prisoners, murdered generals in command,
massacred numbers of the best citizens, set fire to the city with kerosene, and destroyed
over one million dollars' worth of property. After this theological revolt had been put down,
passports, couched in the following terms, and sealed with the seal of the bishopric, were
found on the bodies of some of these holy murderers:
"PETER.-Open to the bearer the gates of heaven, who has died for religion.
(Signed), GEORGE, Bishop of San Salvador."
Similar attempts were made by the Christian hierarchy in Brazil against the Masonic
body; but, fortunately, the emperor, a liberal and an enlightened savant, crushed the
attempt under foot, and unmistakably proved, to the satisfaction of humanity, that he
was not to be transformed into a nineteenth century Charles the Ninth or Philip the Second,
and act the cat's paw for Pio Nono, ex-carbonari and recusant mason, to wreak his vengeance on the brethren whom he had betrayed.




22                      PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY.
where else, if priestcraft had the power to act without restraint.
so that, as Shelley says,
"Earth groans beneath religion's iron age,
And priests dare babble of a God of PeaceEven whilst their hands are red with guiltless blood,
Murdering the while, uprooting every germ
Of truth, exterminating, spoiling all,
Making the earth a slaughter-house."
To those who will look  down  the ages, I would  ask, is this
picture overdrawn? and further, to remember that in  Shelley's
own words:
"Eleven millions of men, women and children have been killed in battle, butchered
in their sleep, burned to death at public festivals of sacrifice, poisoned, tortured, assassinated and pillaged in the spirit of the religion of peace, and for the glory of the most
merciful God."
Is it amazing  that he should  have written  such  a  "highly
wrought and  admirably  sustained"  tragedy  as the "Cenci,"
founded on facts, and which has been deemed by competent
critics the first since Shakspeare-that he  should  have brought
forward, with  vivid  delineation,  the  crimes  of the   priesthood-and that he should have made us remember the terrors of
the bloody wars on heretics and heathen, in words such as these:
"Yes! I have seen God's worshippers unsheathe
The sword of His revenge, when grace descended,
Confirming all unnatural impulses,
To sanctify their desolating deeds;
And frantic priests wave the ill-omen'd cross
O'er the unhappy earth; then shone the sun
On showers of gore from the upflashing steel
Of safe assassination, and all crime
Made stingless by the spirits of the Lord.
And blood-red rainbows canopied the land.
Spirit! no year of my eventful being
Has pass'd unstain'd by crime and misery,
Which flows from God's own faith. I've marked his slaves
With tongues whose lies are venomous, beguile
The insensate mob, and whilst one hand was red
With murder, feign to stretch the other out
For brotherhood and peace; and that they now
Babble of love and mercy, whilst their deeds
Are marked with. all the narrowness and crime
That freedom's young arm dare not yet chastise?"
Protestant Christians may urge that all this is not Christianity; if it be not-for it is the record of the Church-I would
ask, what is? and where shall we find the history of Christiani



PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY.                 23
ty for the fifteen centuries before Luther's time? and where, today 8 Their predecessors plucked the plumage from the dying
bird of mythology, as they, themselves, have robbed the liberal
orchard of all its choicest fruits and palmed them off as of their
own growth. Protestants would not, I dare say, now countenance the persecutions of the past, but yet, I would tell them
that their Protestantism has been a great mistake; and that,
at this moment, there is no unity among the opposers of Catholicism, who are split into a thousand sects, wrangling for
superiority, like wolves over offal; and that their churches
are gradually converging toward Rationalism  on the one
hand, and Catholic Sacerdotalism on the other; in regard to
which last, the Historical Roman Church-the only Christian
body which presents a solid phalanx-one must not be too iconoclastic, remembering that, in the monastic houses and great
ecclesiastical libraries we have had conserved for us, although,
perchance by accident, the records of all the philosophy, all
the jurisprudence, all the polity, all the literature, and all the
civilization of ancient Greece and Rome, that remained from
the Alexandrian library and pre-Christian times-the mediaeval
clerics were the great conservators of knowledge, which we inherit directly from  Europe; and we should be, therefore,
grateful  to  them   equally  with  Mohammedanism, from
which we received, through the Crusaders and the Moors, the
basis' of nearly all science and luxury, from Asia. There were,
undoubtedly, many bad popes, men as bad as the incestuous,
and, according to the recent dogma, the infallible Alexander
Borgia; priests who are not all vile, butsmany nobler than their
system, acknowledge this with regret, and among whom there
are some whom I can reverence, such as John Henry Newman, for
instance, whose life would favorably compare with that of
Shelley, or any liberal. There have been popes, also, whose
lives have been as pure, as disinterested, and as virtuous as that
of any stoic or epicurean. We owe much to Sixtus the Fifth,
founder of the Vatican Library, and would-be regenerator of
order in his temporal dominions; to Leo the Great, whose patronage of the arts has sent us down the wondrous statuary, painting, arid works of genius, which are the admiration of the world;
and to Hildebrand, who brought together, in one harmonious
whole, the struggling elements of European society. It is well




24                    PERCY  BYSSHE  SHELLEY.
to note, too, in order that I may not be misunderstood, that
Catholicism   is  better  than  savage  Fetishism,' and  Rationalism in degree superior to either; and, further, that Liberalism
should only war with evil principles, and not with men whom
they are generally the exponents of ignorantly, and to the best
of their knowledge.   Comtism   -acknowledges the fact that
Christianity was not simply a mere advance on, but where we
shall only find the civilization of Europe as it was during mediaeval
times, and recognizes this most strongly, by placing over fifty
of these great geniuses and  luminaries, popes, bishops, and
saints of the Catholic Church, in  the Comtist Calendar, under
the sixth and seventh months dedicated to St. Paul or Catholicism, and Charlemagne or Feudal Civilization respectively.  We
should thank the followers of Comte for thus bringing to our
notice what we might be liable to occasionally forget in our
bigotry and frequent over-anxiety.
In popularizing terms wrongly, lies much mischief. If the
misapplied term Christianity, signify the current notion, zeal
for-truth, the good of mankind, and active virtue or Christism,
the reputed precepts of Christ, then Shelley taught that ethical
system, and the so-called Christian world which persecuted him,
the opposite.
No one believed, better than Shelley, in the necessity of continuity, and that all theological systems are a portion of the development of Humanity.
It should likewise be remembered, that even in the grossest
superstition, as in the highest belief, the underlying aspiration,
veiled perhaps, under some beautiful myth, is a straining after
the pure and the good, and, as Shelley puts it:
"All original religions are allegorical, or susceptible of allegory, and, lile Janus,
have a double face of false and true."
It should also be considered, that it is better not to interfere
with the faith of the ignorant, but let them remain in an exoteric
* Comtism, or Positivism is that casuistical system of modern Atheism, founded by
Auguste Comte, the Ignatius Loyola of Materialism, and which that learned pantarchical
madman strung together in Esquirol's lunatic asylum. It is an insidious philosophy, full
of Jesuistry, and teaches a soi-disant Religion which is Ir-religion, a pseudo-God, which
has no conceivable existence, and an impossible immortality of the soul, ignoring a
future state. The present crusade of Comtism in our midst, with false colors flying can
be justly compared to that of St. Francois Xavier in Hindostan.




PERCY  BYSSHE  SHELLEY.                          25
condition, until they are properly developed by sufficient'education and consequent intelligence.  It is just as much the duty
of advanced thinkers not to tamper with the beliefs of men who
are in an early stage of progress, as it is not to put a flaming
torch in the possession of a lunatic, or a razor in the hands of
a child.
Shelley, in his philosophy, accepted all this, with the full
consciousness that in the end truth would prevail-he yearned
for the time when priest-led slaves would
"Cease to proclaim that man
Inherits vice and misery, when force
And falsehood hang even o'er the cradled babe,
Stifling with rudest grasp all natural good,"
and for that epoch when "the Mohammedan, the Jew, the Christian, the Deist, and the Atheist will live together in one community, equally sharing the benefits which arise from  its associations, and united in the bonds of  charity  and  brotherly
love."
With Shelley we can turn with delight to the gospels of the
future, as of the ancient past; and the ramifications of the
Trinity of a truly Rational Religion, Nature, Science, and Art,
where  we have, instead  of idle prayers, addressed  to gross
material idols, or the impossible entities hitherto depicted in
theological systems, a feeling of real satisfaction in learning how
to live rather than to die, and in practicing virtue and benevolence for their own sakes, than for improbable rewards in the unsatisfactory hereafter, enunciated from the theological platform.
Like a true religionist, Shelley tells us that aspirations to
"Madre Natura," like the following, should be poured out in
silent, grateful communion with Omnipresence, and not in temples made by hands:
Spirit of Nature! here!
In this interminable wilderness
Of worlds, at whose immensity
Even soaring fancy staggers,
Here is thy fitting temple.
Yet not the slightest leaf
That quivers to the passing breeze
Is less instinct with thee;
Yet not the meanest worm
That lurks in graves, and fattens on the dead
Less shares thy eternal breath.




26                PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY.
Spirit of Nature! thou!
Imperishable as this scene,
Here is thy fitting temple.
From such a soul-inspiring altar should praises like these be
raised, and with what sacred feeling would the pu e worshipper
revel "where spirits live and dream-where all that is sweet in
sound, or pure in vision floats on the air, or passes dimly before
the sight," for as the late Professor J. G. Hoyt, in his essay on
Shelley beautifully points out-" To him everything was God,
and God was everything. Every place was peopled with forms
of beauty and animated with living intelligences. Hills and valleys, forests and fountains, were each thronged with presiding
deities-bright effluences from the Divinity that stirred within,
and shone above the whole."
In leaving the first portion of my paper, I will make the following quotation from a remarkable article on Shelley in the
pages of the National Mlagazine, which all minds unshackled,
and free from prejudice, must acknowledge to be correct in the
main, and which admirably sums up his efforts in metaphysical
philosophy. Our attention is called to the fact that we discover in all Shelley's writings "a freer and purer development
of what is best and noblest in ourselves. We are taught in it
to love all living and lifeless things, with which in the material
and moral universe we are surrounded-we are taught to love
the wisdom and goodness and majesty of the Almighty, for we
are taught to love the universe, his symbol and visible exponent.
God has given two books for the study and instruction of mankind; the book of revelation and the book of nature. In one
at least of these was Shelley deeply versed, and in this one he has
given admirable lessons to his fellow-men. Throughout his
writings, every thought and every feeling is subdued and
chastened by a spirit of unutterable and boundless love. The
poet meets us on the common ground of a disinterested
humanity, and he, teaches us to hold an earnest faith in the
worth and the intrinsic Godliness of the soul. He tells us-he
makes us feel that there is nothing higher than human hope,
nothing deeper than the human heart; he exhorts us to labor
devotedly in the great and good work of the advancement of
human virtue and happiness, and stimulates us' To love and bear-to hope till hope creates
From its own wreck the thing it contemplates.'"




PERCY  BYSSHE  SHELLEY.                              27
It is observed by Shelley that
"The exertions of Locke, Hume, Gibbon, Voltaire, Rousseau, and their disciples in
favor of oppressed and deluded humanity, are entitled to the gratitude of mankind. Yet
it is easy to calculate the degree of moral and intellectual improvement which the
world would have exhibited, had they never lived. A little more nonsense would have
been talked for a century or two; and perhaps a few more men, women and children
burnt as heretics. We might not at this moment have been congratulating each other on
the abolition of the Inquisition in Spain."
The vast impetus, which these extraordinary geniuses gave to
freedom  in  metaphysical strongholds, led to  a corresponding
degree of liberty in the political and social relations.
Shelley was not one who
"beheld the woe
In which mankind was bound, and deem'd that fate
Which made them abject, would preserve them so."
but on the contrary was aware of the progressive character of
the race, and threw  himself with all his heart and soul into the
cause of Republicanism, and never slackened in  his efforts till
death  took  him   from  his work.  His noblest endeavors were
directed toward the cause of suffering humanity, crushed under
the weight of despotism; and his tuneful lyre was ever struck
in behalf of the Goddess of Freedom, to whom, in that soul inspiring "Ode to Liberty," he offers chaplets of the most glorious
verse to rouse the nations from their apathy.  He has given us his
reflections on the English Revolution, when Cromwell crushed
royalty  unde1  his feet in  the  person  of the  tyrant Charles
Stuart, and which, notwithstanding, rose again to befoul, in the
profligacy  and  debauchery  of the  second  Carolian  epoch; on
the French Revolution, when an intelligent people drove out a
brood of vampires, who had drained the blood of France too long,
to  be replaced  by atrocious demagogues, hateful priest-ridden
Bourbons and  a Napoleon Bonaparte, the wholesale Jaffa poisoner, on  whose death Shelley wrote lines pregnant with republican feelings:
"I hated thee, fallen tyrant! I did groan
To think that a most ambitious slave,
Like thou, shouldst dance and revel on the grave
Of Liberty. Thou mightst have built thy throne
Where it had stood even now; thou didst prefer
A frail and bloody pomp, which time has swept
In fragments towards oblivion. Massacre,
For this I pray'd would on thy sleep have crept,
Treason and Slavery, Rapine, Fear and Lust,




28                  PERCY  BYSSHE SHELLEY.
And stifled thee, their minister. I know
Too late, since thou and France are in the dust,
That virtue owns a more eternal foe
Than force or fraud; old custom, legal crime,
And bloody Faith, the foulest birth of time."
With full knowledge of all this, he hopefully looked with loving
eyes toward this side of the Atlantic, to your magnificent constitution and model Republic, built on the consolidated masonic
bases of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity, as did also the mass
of my compatriots, who, suffering under a more intolerant despotism, and unable t6 help themselves, had no hand or voice in
the attempted tyranny, from  which your forefathers properly
rebelled one hundred years age..
In "Hiellas' we find Shelley advocating the cause of Greece, and
it is believed, that that poem assisted his friend Byron in the
determination to wield his sword in the cause of Grecian Liberty.
"The Revolt of Islam," his most mystical work, next to his early
effort, "St. Irvyne, or the Rosicrucian," is full of the most
majestic and sympathetic thoughts, and underlying its weirdness
we have all those elements "which essentially compose a poem
in the cause of a liberal and comprehensive morality, and with
the view  of kindling in the bosom  of his readers a virtuous
enthusiasm for those doctrines of liberty and justice, that faith
and hope in something good, which neither violence, nor misrepresentation, nor prejudice, nor the continual presence and
pressure of evil, can ever totally extinguish among mankind."
Can we wonder that Shelley could be else than Republican
when he regarded what Thackeray afterward summed up with
biting irony, the record of the reigning house of Great Britain,
the mad Guelph Defenders of tlhe C7Gristian Faith (?), the results
of whose labors have been corroborated by Greville and recent
writers?
To what a line of monarchs, was Shelley called upon to give
allegiance and prostrate himself before, and can we be astonished
that he thus describes the state these abominable Hanoverians
had "England in 1819:"
"An old, mad, blind, despised and dying king,Princes the dregs of their dull race who flow
Through public scorn, mud from a-muddy spring,Rulers who neither see, nor feel, nor know,
But leech-like to their fainting country cling,
Till they drop blind in blood without a blow,



PERCY  BYSSHE  SHELLEY.                              29
A people starved and stabbed in untilled field,An army which liberticide and prey
Make as a two-edged sword to all who wield,Golden and sanguine laws which tempt and slayReligion Christless, Godless, a book sealed,A Senate-time's worst statute unrepealed,Are graves from which a glorious phantom may
Burst to illumine our tempestuous day?"
To aid Republicanism, -he threw himself with fervor into the
cause of the unhappy Caroline of Brunswick; and  on  her account he wrote  "God  Save the Queen,"  in  imitation  of the
British national anthem, and the satirical piece entitled " Swellfoot, the Tyrant."   In  the  following  words he  attacked  the
prime minister, Lord Castleragh, whose reactionary counsels were
transforming England into a state analogous to that of Russia
to-day:
"Then trample and dance, thou oppressor,
For thy victim is no redressor!
Thou art sole lord and possessor
Of her corpses, and clods and abortions-they pave
Thy path to a grave.
For the Lord Chancellor, Eldon, his hatred was intense; for, in
addition to the crime of robbing him of his children, this occupant
of the wool-sack, had made the seat of justice an appanage for
his lust of wealth and power.  I have already quoted some verses on this renowned lawyer, and will now present you with two
others bearing on the same subject:
"Next came Fraud, and he had on,
Like Lord Eldo#, an ermine gown;
His big tears (for he wept well)
Turned to mill stones as they fell;
"And the little children, who
Round his feet played to and fro,
Thinking every tear a gem,
Had their brains knocked out by them."
In Queen Mab, Shelley has presented us with an unmistakable
portraiture  of the "First Gentleman  in Europe;" and in the
following  lines, which  I have taken  from   this poem, I have
chosen  two  extracts,  descriptive  of  the  origin  of  political
despotism, and the reason of its continuance:
"Whence, thinkest thou, kings and parasites arose?
Whence that unnatural line of drones, who heap
Toil and unvanquishable penury




30                      PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY.
On those who build their palaces, and bring
Their daily bread? From vice, black, loathsome vice,
From rapine, madness, treachery and wrong;
From all that genders misery, and makes
Of earth this thorny wilderness; from lust,
Revenge and murder."
*      *      *       *      *
"Nature rejects the monarch, not the man;
The subject, not the citizen; for kings
And subjects, mutual foes, forever play
A losing game into each other's hands,
Whose stakes are vice and misery. The man
Of virtuous soul commands not nor obeys.
Power, like a desolating pestilence,
Pollutes whate'er it touches; and obedience,
Bane of all genius, virtue, freedom, truth,
Makes slaves of men, and of the human frame
A mechanized automaton."
Shelley believed in reformation, not revolution; and in the'Revolt of Islam" and his Irish pamphlets, we find Aim  advocating a bloodless revolution, except where force was used, and
then force for force, if compromise were hopless.  His idea was
ever the foundation of political systems founded on that of this
country, or on the ancient Greek Republic.   He says:
"The study of modern history is the study of kings, financiers, statesmen, and
priests.  The history of ancient Greece is the study of legislators, philosophers, and
poets; it is the history of men compared with the history of titles. What the Greeks
were was a reality, not a promise. And what we are and hope to be is derived, as it
were, from the influence of these glorious generations."
Hoping almost against hope for the regeneration of his country, he submitted to the people Kf England a proposal for
putting to the vote the great reform  question, which was filling the
public mind; but he was conscious that in the then unprepared
state of public knowledge and feeling, universal suffrage was
fraught with peril, and remarks that although
"A pure republic may be shown, by inferences the most obvious and irresistible, to
be that system of social order the fittest to produce the happiness and promote the genuine eminence of man. Yet nothing can less consist with reason, or afford smaller hopes of
any beneficial issue, than the plan which should abolish the regal and the aristocratical
branches of our constitution, before the public mind, through many gradations of improvement, shall have arrived at the maturity which shall disregard these symbols of its childhood."
An essay has.come down to us (unhappily unfinished), in
which  he  argues in  favor of "Government by  Juries."   It is
but a fragment, and yet it shows us that his mind was ever in




PERCY BYSSHE  SHELLEY.                         31
search of the right solution of the question of proper legislation
for the masses. William Pitt, with enemies on every side, publicly acknowledged the extraordinary genius which impelled the
American revolution, and admired the constitution of this country, as well as the masterly character of the "Declaration of
Independence."  In unstinted praise does he speak of the learning and remarkable public spirit of the signers.  With equal
praise, I am confident, everyone must eulogize the "Declaration
of Rights," compiled by Shelley, which he put before his countrymen sixty-three years ago.  Therein he has given the whole
of his conception of the correct theory of government, and it
cannot fail to  be read by  advanced  minds with  feelings of
genuine pleasure.
The race has suffered through its long martyrdom with the
horrors of war.   One tyrant after another, to aid his accursed.
ambition or revenge his spite upon  a brother monarch, has
cursed the unhappy earth and humanity with the terrors of
long-continued  devastation  and  bloodshed.   With  burning
pen has Shelley depicted war in its most hideous aspects, and by
most beautiful comparisons has he shown us the sublimity of
peace.  He points out, that
" War is the statesman's game, the priest's delight,
The lawyer's jest, the hired assassin's trade."
He repudiates the notion that man, if left free, would wantonly heap ruin, vice, or slavery, or curse his species with the
withering blight of war; and he shows us how
"Kings, priests, and statesmen blast the human flower,
Even in its tender bud; their influence darts
Like subtle poison through the bloodless veins
Of desolate society. The child,
Ere he can lisphis mother's sacred name,
Swells with the unnatural pride of crime, and lifts
IIis baby sword even in a hero's mood.
This infant arm becomes the bloodiest scourge
Of devastated earth: whilst specious names,
Learnt in soft childhood's unsuspecting. hour,
Serve as the sophisms with which manhood dims
Bright reason's ray, and sanctifies the sword
Upraised to shed a brother's innocent blood."
In other places he seems to prophetically point out what this
generation appears to comprehend —the judiciousness of arbitration-which  in the future will be the true panacea for this
frightful affliction of humanity.




32                  PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY.
To the current Irish questions Shelley devoted much of his
time, and took up his residence in Dublin, to aid the independence of Ireland, which might, under proper treatment, have
been made one of the brightest spots in the British Dominions;
but the inhabitants of which, owing to centuries of English misrule and oppression, had, in certain parts, fallen into a condition not much superior to that of those of Central Africa.
When we contemplate what Ireland was before the Norman and
Saxon had set their feet there, the most prejudiced antagonist
of the Celtic race cannot but be astonished at the picture presented to us after their usurpation. When Saxondom was in a
state of barbarism, this branch  of the Celts was civilized.
Aldfred, king of the Northumbrian Saxons, has given us the
experiences of a Saxon in Ireland over a thousand years ago.
In a poem  of his own composing, he tells us that he found
"noble, prosperous sages," "learning, wisdom, welcome, and
protection," "kings, queens, and royal bards, in every species
of poetry well skilled. Happiness, comfort, and pleasure," the
people "famed for justice, hospitality, lasting vigor, fame,"
and "long blooming beauty, hereditary vigor"- and the monarch concludes his really curious account by saying:
"I found in the fair, surfaced Leinster,
From Dublin to Slewmargy,
Long-living men, health, prosperity,
Bravery, hardihood and traffic.
I found from Ara to Gle,
In the rich country of Ossory,
Sweet fruit, strict jurisdiction,
Men of truth, chess-playing.
I found in the great fortress of Meath,
Valor, hospitality, and truth,
Bravery, purity, and mirth —
The protection of all Ireland.
I found the aged of strict morals,
The historians recording truthEach good, each benefit that I have sung,
In Ireland I have seen."
Such is the statement of King Aldfred, and the Venerable
Bede informs us that in Ireland, Saxons and other foreigners




PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY.                  33
were "hospitably received, entertained and educated, furnished
with books," etc., all gratuitously.
Up to the middle of the sixteenth century, I find, after careful
study in the Leabhar-Gabhala, the Annals of the Four Masters, of
Clonmacnoise, of Loch Ce, and otler historical records, the
same continued apparent prosperity, but after the English took
possession of the larger portion of the country, only the records
of anarchy, despotism, and misery. Before the Reformation, or
so long as the English settlers remained within the pale, Ireland
had been as happy as Ultramontanism would allow, but fiom
the accession of Elizabeth and the consequent attempted enforcement of a new theology, against the' wishes of the people, a
fearful succession of despotism is revealed. To force Protestantism on the Irish, Catholicism was put down by the most stringent laws-the torture chamber never empty, the scaffold rarely
free from executions, the seaports closed, and manufactures
forbidden to be exported; "black laws" of a most iniquitous
character, exceeding in ingenuity jhe devices of Tilly or Torquemada, placed on the statute book. The punishment for
being a recusant Catholic, or Papist, was death, and it is a
known fact that one Protestant commander, Sir William Cole,
of Fermanagh, made his soldiers massacre in a short period
" seven thousand of the vulgar sort," as Borlase informs us.
Elsewhere the English behaved in the same manner, and on the
authority of Bishop Moran it is asserted that the Puritans of
the North shot down Catholics as wild beasts, and made it their
business "to imbrue their swords in the hearts' blood of the
male children." Mr. and Mrs. S. C. Hall, in their valuable work
on Ireland, state that the possessors of the whole province of
Ulster were driven out under pain of mortal punishment from
their homes and lands, without roof over their heads, to be pent
up in the most barren portion of Connaught, where to pass a
certain boundary line was instant death without trial, and
where it was commonly said, "There is not wood enough to
hang a man, water enough to drown him, nor earth enough to
bury him."  One hundred thousand Catholics were sold as
slaves to the West Indian and North American planters by the
public authority of the Cromwellian government. Such was
the way these Christians showed their love for their fellow
Christians, and can it be wondered that ever since then there




34              PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY.
has been one continual succession of uprisings in that most unhappy country.  As the sinew of Ireland's people in this country
were driven by necessity, fleeing from the terrors of starvation
and insufficient existence at home, so were the best of' the race
in the two previous centuries necessitated to fly to the European
continent, where we find them enrolled, for instance, in the
service of the King of France, and having revenge on their oppressors on the field of Fontenoy. Elsewhere in every country
of Europe do we discover them or their descendants in the front
ranks, and at the helm of affairs-in Spain, O'Donnell and
Prim; in France, Mac Mahon and Lally Tollendal; in Austria,
O' Taafe and Maguire.
When Shelley arrived in Dublin in 1812, he soon found himself joined.to the body of the Repeal party, which was endeavoring to obtain back the parliament which had been stolen from
them by British gold, less than a quarter of a century before,
and to have the Catholic Emancipation Bill made law.  He
published two remarkable. political pamphlets, in those days
the only mode by which a statesman could appeal to the people,
in which it may be noticed how well he could write in a popular style, to effectually serve a purpose. They also prove
his enthusiasm for the liberty of discussion, and how, although
he was always willing to treat on politics alone, he was preoccupied with metaphysical questions which continually crop
out.
In the first, which he called An Address to the Irish People,
and wrote during the first week of his residence in Ireland,
he commences by eulogizing the Irish, explains to them that
all religions are good which make men good, and shows that,
being neither Protestant nor Catholic, he can offer the olive
branch to each. He then points out the weak spots in each
other's conduct in the past, the necessity of toleration, and the
crime of persecution-how different this was to what Christ
taught!
He endeavors to prove that arms should not be used-that
the French Revolution, although undertaken with the best intentions, ended badly because force' was employed. He recommends sobriety, regularity and thought; for the Irish not to
appeal to bloodshed, but to agitate determinedly for Catholic
emancipation and repeal, which should be ensured through the




PERCY  BYSSH'E  SHELLEY.                              35
use of moral persuasion.  And  concluding  with  an  appeal to
Catholic and Protestant to bear with each other, using mildness
and benevolence, and to mutually organize a society which
"Shall serve as a bond to its members for the purpose of virtue, happiness, liberty and
wisdom by the means of intellectual opposition to grievances,"
he winds up by saying:
" Adieu, my friends! May every sun that shines on your green island see the annihilation of an abuse, and the birth of an embryon of melioration! Your own heartsmay they become the shrines of purity and freedom, and never may smoke to the
Mammon of Unrighteousness ascend from the polluted altar of their devotion."
In a postscript to this pamphlet, he urges
"A plan of amendment and regeneration in the moral and political state of society,
on a comprehensive and systematic philanthropy which shall be sure, though slow in its
projects; and as it is without the rapidity and danger of revolution, so will it be devoid
of the time-servingness of temporizing reform;"
and quotes Lafayette:
"A name endeared by its peerless bearer to every lover of the human race,'For a
nation to love liberty, it is sufficient that she knows it to be free; it is sufficient that she
wills it.'"
His other Dublin pamphlet, A Proposal for an Association
of Philanthropists, consists of remarks of the same character
as the former, but he gives a summary of the French Revolution, which he endeavors to clear from  the slurs which had been
cast thereon.   The information  has come down  to us through
one of Shelley's biographers, that he spoke at several meetings
in Dublin.  At the one in which he made his first appearance in
public he aroused a large assembly to enthusiasm  by his fervid
eloquence, and yet, notwithstanding all his efforts, his toleration
unfortunately became the great stumbling-block in his attempts
on behalf of Ireland, for we learn that at another meeting of
patriots:
"So much ill-will against the Protestants was shown, that Shelley was provoked to
remark that the Protestants were fellow-Christians and fellow-subjects, and were therefore
entitled to equal rights and equal toleration with the Papists. Of course, he was forthwith interrupted by savage yells. A fierce uproar ensued, and the denouncer of bigotry
was compelled to be silent. At the same meeting, and afterward, he was even threatened
with personal violence, and the police suggested to him  the propriety of quitting the
country."
By many it has been said that Shelley was unsuccessful in
his self-imposed task, but he was simply before his time, and no




.836              PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY.
wonder, when we remember the condition of Ireland at the time
of his visit.
We know to-day that much of what he demanded has been
conceded to Ireland by liberal English governments.  An alien
Church has been disestablished; public education, Catholic
emancipation, and a good deal more, has been given. In the
late repeal movement, the young Ireland party, the Fenian
organization, and the present Home Rule agitation, we find, as
Shelley wished, Catholic and Protestant working arm in arm, their
colors being an admixture of orange and green-a healthy sign.
Those who dislike this noble people —for the name is legion
of those who are fond of shouting "No Irish need apply"- I
would recommend to think calmly over Irish history, to remember the frightful outrages put upon this generous, warm-hearted,
and impulsive race for centuries, and read up Froude, Mitchell,
Goldwin-Smith, McGee, MorAn, and other Irish historians.
We know what the Irish are capable of, and that in Ireland,
as here, after a generation or two of education, the old theological belief becomes by a gradual process less and less strong.
On September 6th, 1819, a red letter day was added to the
English calendar, through the slaughter by cavalry of a number
of unarmed men, who were agitating, peaceably, for the rights
of Iabor. This is known to posterity as the "Peterloo Massacre," and happened in Manchester, on the site of the present
superb Free Trade Hall, erected by the Free Traders to commemorate the ultimate triumph of their cause over the capitalists, who, in the manufacturing districts, were, until a few years
back, always aided by the military in putting down strikes or
demands for increase of wages.
At the time of this outrage Shelley was in Italy; in consequence of it his attention was concentrated more than previously
on the labor question, and he immediately composed half a
dozen inspiriting poems, full of the fire of genius; in one of
which he calls, with a voice of thunder, to the
I.
"Men of England! wherefore plough
For the lords who lay ye low?
Wherefore weave, with toil and care,
The rich robes your tyrants wear?




PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY.                                 37
II.
Wherefore feed and clothe and save,
From the cradle to the grave,
Those -ungrateful drones who would
Drain your sweat-nay, drink your blood?
III.
Wherefore, bees of England, forge
Many a weapon, chain, and scourge,
That these stingless drones may spoil
The forced produce of your toil?
IV.
Have ye leisure, comfort, calm,
Shelter, food, love's gentle balm?
Or what is't ye buy so dear
With your pain, and with your fear?
V.
The seed ye sow, another reaps;
The wealth ye find another keeps;
The robes ye weave, another wears;
The arms ye forge, another bears.
VI.
Sow seed-but let no tyrant reap;
Find wealth-let no impostor heap;
Weave robes-let not the idle wear;
Forge arms-in your defence to bear.
VII.
Shrink to your cellars, holes, and cells;
In halls ye deck, another dwells.
Why shake the chains ye wrought? Ye see
The steel ye tempered, glance on ye!
VIII.
With plough and spade, and hoe and loom,'Trace your grave, and build your tomb,
And weave your winding sheet, till fair
England be your sepulchre!"
By far the finest composition  brought out by this  occasion
was the' Masque of Anarchy," a magnificent poem of ninetyone  verses.   "Anarchy"  he  describes as riding "on a white
horse,,. in alliance with theology and statecraft, and whose admirers were "lawyers and priests."
* This doubtless alludes to the House of Hanover, the principal charge on whose
armorial bearings is a white horse.




38                   PERCY BYSSHE  SHELLEY.
After a series of powerful delineations, he describes slavery
and freedom, justice, wisdom, peace and love, in exquisite
terms.  Then  he turns to  their lamps-science, poetry, and
thought, which make secure "the lot of the dwellers in the cot.'
He advises —That, on some spot of English ground, should
be convened a great assembly  of the fearless and the.free,
who shall come from   the bounds of the English coast, and
from every hut, village, and town, where, for other's misery
and their own, they live, suffer, and moan. Also,
" From the workhouse and the prison,
Where, pale as corpses newly risen,
Women, children, young and old,
Groan for pain, and weep for cold;
" From the haunts of daily life,
Where is waged the daily strife
With common wants and common cares,
Which sow the human heart with tares."
When face to  face with their oppressors, no  force should
be used, but instead
"strong and simple words,
Keen to wound as sharpened swords,
And wide as targes let them be,
With their shade to cover ye."
The description of the Peterloo massacre which follows, is one
of the finest pieces of composition in the language, and the poem
concludes by calling the "Men of England, Heirs of Glory, Heroes of Unwritten Story," to
"Rise like lions after slumber
In unvanquishable NUMBER!
Shake your chains to earth, like dew
Which in sleep had fall'n on you;'YE ARE MANY-THEY ARE FEW.'"
In a pamphlet, written ostensibly on the death of the Princess
Charlotte, he calls attention to the fact that three men had been
executed in the interests of the  "big-hearted and generous
capitalists," of whom we now-a-days hear so much from their
interested  admirers, but whose wings are  now  fortunately
clipped.
Shelley considered that there was no real wealth but man's
labor, and that speculators pandering to selfishness, the twin



PERCY BYSSHE  SHELLEY.                             39
sister of debased theology, took a pride in the production of
useless articles of luxury and ostentation. Imbued with this
spirit, a man of wealth imagines himself a patriot when employing laborers on the erection of a mansion, or a woman of fashion
indulging in luxurious dress, fancies she is aiding the laboring
poor.  He observes of such instances as these:
"Who does not see that this is a remedy which aggravates, whilst it palliates the
countless diseases of society? The poor are set to labor-for what?  Not the food for
which they famish; not the blankets for want of which their babes are frozen by the cold
of their miserable hovels; not those comforts of civilization without which civilized man
is far more miserable than the meanest savage, oppressed as he is by all its insidious evils,
within the daily and taunting prospect of its innumerable benefits assiduously exhibited
before him; no, for the pride of power, for the miserable isolation of pride, for the
false pleasures of the hundredth part of society."
Labor is required for physical, and leisure for moral improvement.  What is wanted, he considered, is a state to combine
the advantages of both and have the evils of neither. In fact,
any unnecessary labor which deprives the race of intellectual
gain, and all times not required for the manufacture of commodities which are necessary for the subsistence of humanity,
should be occupied only in mental or physical culture.
Shelley lays down as a principle that commerce is the venal
interchange of what human art or nature yields, and which
should not be purchased  by  wealth, but demanded  by  want.
Labor and commerce, when badly regulated, scatter withering
curses and open
"The doors to premature and violent death,
To penury, famine, and full-fed disease."
Wealth was a  living God, who rules in  scorn, and  whom
peasants, nobles, priests, and kings blindly  reverence, and  by
whom  everything is sold —the light of heaven, earth's produce,
the peace of outraged conscience, the most despicable things,
every object of life, and even life itself.
In a proper condition of society, which should be strictly cooperative, there would necessarily be no pauperism, and
"No meditative signs of selfishness,
No jealous intercourse of wretched gain,
* No balancings of prudence, cold and long;
In just and equal measure all is weighed;
One scale contains the sum of human weal,
And one the good man's!heart."




40               PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY.
The fruits of Shelley's enunciations on the labor and capital
questions, and the school of political economists to which he
belonged, have made wondrous progress. The world is beginning to see that labor has the unrestricted right of coalition, that
there should be only a standard day's work, according to the
wants of society, with prohibition of labor for at least one day
in the week; that legislation is required for the protection of
the life and health of the working man, and that mines, factories,
and workshops should be strictly controlled by sanitary officers
selected'by labor; that no children's work should be permitted,
or women's, which may be considered unhealthy; that prison
work should be regulated, and that laborers' co-operative and
benevolent societies should be administered independently of
the State.
Liberals must learn from their enemies, must organize and let
the ramifications of unshackled thought spread through the lands,
and must, above all, conserve the control of education. Whereever there is a church or chapel, let there be beside it a hall or
club, in which shall be inculcated the simple doctrines of a pure,
integralised religion.
On the statute book of England there yet remains a law directed against the freedom of the press and discussion; to even
discuss the question of the divinity of Christ was considered
blasphemy, and the person so offending was punished most severely by the criminal laws. At the present time this wretched
remnant of the dark ages is practically a dead letter. The
friends of Shelley suffered from this most intolerant spirit.
Keats, it is believed by many, was wounded unto death for daring to speak on behalf of freedom, and we are given glimpses
in the Adonais of his feelings on the subject; Leigh Hunt
and his brother were imprisoned and fined for the same; the
publisher of the pirated edition of Shelley's Queen Mab was
cast into Newgate; Eaton, a London bookseller, had been sentenced by Lord Ellenborough to a lengthened incarceration, for
publishing Paine's Age of Reason, and hundreds of others suffered similarly. The abominable circumstance of Eaton's conviction caused great uproar; the Marquis of Wellesley, in the
House of Lords, stated it was " contrary to the mild spirit of the
Christian religion; for no sanction can be found under that dispensation which will warrant a government to impose disabilities




PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY.                     41
and penalties upon any man on account of his religious opinions."  Shelley, who was then only nineteen years of age, and
had himself suffered from bigotry at Oxford, threw himself publicly into the controversy with great vehemence, with "a composition of great eloquence and logical exactness of reasoning,
and the truths which it contains on the subject of universal toleration are now generally admitted." Lady Shelley, from whom
I have just quoted, says that her husband's father, "from  his
earliest boyhood to his latest years, whatever varieties of opinion
may have marked his intellectual course, never for a moment
swerved from the noble doctrine of unbounded liberty of thought
and speech.  To him the rights of intellect were sacred; and all
kings, teachers, or priests who sought to circumscribe the activity of discussion, and to check by force the full development of
the reasoning powers, he regarded as enemies to the independence of man, who did their utmost to destroy the spiritual
essence of our being."
To Shelley's able advocacy, and to his appeals against the
stamping out of political and social truths opposed to custom,
particularly the celebrated letter to Lord Ellenborough, it cannot be denied that the toleration now enjoyed in Great Britain
owes much.
Shelley was one of those who most earnestly deprecated punishment by death.  In his early years, if a man stole a sheep,
or shot a hare, committed forgery or larceny, was a recusant
catholic or a wizard, there was, on his conviction, but one penalty  meted out-death.  To Shelley's sensitive nature, this
painted and tinged everything aroupd him  with an aspect of
blood.  In one of his political pamphlets, summoning all his
energies, he depicts in fearful colors, the depraved example of
an execution-how it brutalized the race, and how it was the duty
of man not to commit murder on his fellow-man, in the name
of the laws. The abolition of the first of these, he stated that
reformers should propose on the eve of a great political change.
He considered that the punishment by death harbored revenge and
retaliation, which legislation should be the means of eradicating, and he urged that
"Governments which derive their institutions from the existence of circumstances of barbarism and violence, with sowpe rare exceptions, perhaps, are bloody in proportion as they
are despotic, and form the manners of their subjects to a sympathy with their own spirit."




42                  PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY.
In England, as in many other countries, capital punishment is
now only employed on conviction of murder or high treason.
In Spain and Italy it was totally abolished, on the foundation
of their young republics.  Thus have the labors of Shelley, and
other reformers for the good of humanity, aided to extinguish
crime made law.
Cruelty to animals was another reform agitated by Shelley.
His love for the animal kingdom and hatred of blood-shedding,
was so great, that he personally carried the passion to such an
extent as to become a vegetarian, and endeavored to induce
others to be the same, in an admirable argument of some length
in the notes to " Queen Mab."
The subject of the Rights of Women is approached and expatiated on, perhaps learnedly, by individuals utterly incompetent
to deal with the question. Such persons, frequently armed with
Sunday-school platitudes, believing in the inferiority of women,
consequent on the supposed fall, and doubtless with heads paved
with good intentions, as a certain place is said to be, do more
harm than good to the cause. This is not wanted, and is worse
than useless. To found a real republic on a solid basis, it can
be legislated for only by removing the ancient landmarks by a
gradual process, and coming face to face with a new  order of
things, without bias or prejudice borrowed from the past.  Thus
that noble woman, Mary Wolstonecraft, as well as John Stuart
Mill, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and numerous others, have treated
this all-important question, which cannot be shirked by the race.
True reformers ask:  What was the condition of the sex in the
past  Look down the revolving cycles and note.  In ancient
Egypt, woman in the upper classes was almost the equal of man,
and although, like Cleopatra, she could wield the sceptre, yet in
the lower her condition was wretched; in Asia, a mere slave and
object of Zenana lust; in savagedom, a beast of burthen.  In
Rome and Greece, Shelley shall tell the story:
"Among the ancient Greeks the male sex, one half of the hurman race, received the
highest cultivation and refinement; whilst the other, so far as intellect is concerned, were
educated as slaves, and were raised but few degrees in all that related to moral or intellectual excellenc'e above the condition of savages. * * *  The Roman women held
a higher consideration in society, and were esteemed almost as the equal partners with their
husbands in the regulation of domestic economy and the education o' their children."
Regard the incidents of a Jewish wooing, in which the woman




PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY.                  43
had no voice, and of the marriage, the infernal punishments for
adultery, and the accounts of the seraglios of the Hebrew kings
equalled only by Turkish harems, and some of the passages in
the inspired Book of Numbers, for instance, in which the horrible truth is frequently too evident, and only equalled by the fact
that after lust had played out its passion, unfortunate women,
taken in captivity, could, by divine command, be turned adrift
to rot or starve. In Christian Feudalism we find nothing much
better. If I have read history correctly, and I may be wrongthe upper-grade women in mediaeval Europe, who were adored,
not with love, but with lascivious and sensual worship, by Christian knights and troubadours, and who, like criminals to the
halter, were forced, rarely with their own consent, into the arms
of men they disliked or had never seen, or were placed in conventual houses against their wills. Of the lower-grade women, I
need only offer one example-and that is sufficient to show
their awful degradation; the French and German feudal lord
had the right of cuissage, or, in plain English, the embraces of
his serf-retainer's bride on the marriage night.
Shelley considered that in consequence of all this, men had
forgotten their duties to the other sex, and that even at the
time at which he lived woman was still in great social bondage,
improperly educated, tied down by restrictions, and refused
participation in the higher positions of labor. He called not in
vain, against the inequality of the sexes, and asserted that woman's position must and should be altered by forgetting the
tyranny of the past, and, be determined, for the good of the
future.
We should berejoiced that eloquent exponents of the abominations of former ages, the evils of the present, and the proper
position of the future, are now hard at work. The " Women's
Rights" party is up teaching men their duties on every continent; in distant India, the Brahmo Somaj is battling, not vainly, against the horrors of the Zenana, and in conservative England, which has been stormed, and the forlorn hope is now
taking possession of the citadel; everywhere it is the same.
Yes, woman, thanks to Shelley and the reformers, is about to be
emancipated and free; free to earn her living, how, where, and
when she likes; the equal of man, who shall no longer play such
fantastic tricks as he did in the past, in proof of his dignity and




44                 PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY.
superiority.  The fourth of July is not long past and gone; I
trust that in the dim vista of the future, our descendants will
keep a national holiday, or a day to be set apart on which shall
be celebrated the "Declaration of the Independence of Women,"
and then, perhaps, Shelley's description of woman in the "Episychidion" will be more apparent:
"Seraph of heaven! too gentle to be human,
Veiling beneath the radiant form of woman
All that is unsupportable in thee,
Of light, and love, and immortality."
I now approach a very delicate portion of my essay: the question of the marriage relation. By many it is scouted with much
virtuous indignation, but I conceive that the liberal, who, like
too many, dare not discuss this matter in its broadest and widest
aspects, should be stigmatized as unworthy of the name. Christ
is reported to have urged the admirers of his ethical system to
take up their cross and follow him, leaving father, mother, wife,
children, and all they may have-thus Shelley. acted, and it bears
as equally pregnant lessons to free thinkers as it did to those
Syrian fishermen.  Oh, that liberals had as much "faith" in
the truth, in the efficacy of their cause, as the first Christians are
said to have had in the teachings of that Christ whom they regarded not as a Divinity, but as a son of God, as we to-day are
sons of God, of the most high! Oh, that we could carry that
"faith" into our beliefs, and the determination to be stopped
at no obstacle which may bar the progress of truth,' which must
conquer in the end!
The favorite theme in the writings of Shelley is "Eros," love
of the individual, of the race, of nature, and in this he follows
Christ, in whose system of Philosophy, Love is ever the predominating idea which permeates mankind with its beneficial
effects, and will, when the bastard tinsel with which the truths of
the Nazarene are hidden, be replaced by that pure gold which it
is impossible to trace in the enunciations of any previous philosopher. This subject is always present to Shelley, and he thus
appeals in one of his poems to the
"Great Spirit, deepest Love!
Which rulest and dost move
All things which live, and are."




PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY.                      45
In another place he inquiresjWhat is love? Ask him who lives, what is life? Ask him who adores, what is God?"
And in the same essay he describes love as
"The bond and sanction which connects man with man, and with everything which
exists."
Elsewhere he points out that the attainment of love
"urges forth the power of man to arrest the faintest shadow of that without the possession
of which there is no rest nor respite to the heart over which it rules, (and that) so soon
as this want or power is dead, man becomes the living sepulchre of himself, and what yet
survives is the mere husk of what once he was."
Of such was Shelley's philosophy of love, and I would ask if
it be conceivable that the abominable calumny prompted by
theological virus, that he kept a seraglio, as his friend Leigh
Hunt informs us was reported, had any real existence. Shelley
was too pure for any such idea as that of promiscuous sexual
intercourse to be acted on by himself; his life, which lies open
before us, refutes the diabolical invention. The fact was, that at
the early age of nineteen he married Harriet Westbrook, the
daughter of a retired tavern keeper, a woman without soul and
that congeniality of disposition which a man overflowing with the
pulses of genius should have chosen. After a wretched existence without intellectual sympathy, and on the advice of her
father, who did not agree with his ideas on religion, they parted
by mutual consent, never to meet again.  Shelley about this period met his second wife, a woman of the highest -powers of mind
and charm of body, Mary Wolstonecraft Godwin, the authoress
of Frankenstein and other works, daughter of William Godwin, the novelist, and author of Political Justice and Mary
Wolstonecraft, the gifted writer of The Rights of Women. 7We
are told by Lady Shelley that, "To her, as they met one eventful day in St. Pancras churchyard, by her mother's grave, Bysshe, in burning words, poured forth the tale of his wild past,
how he had suffered, how he had been misled, and how, if supported by her love, he hoped, in future years, to enroll his name
with the wise and good, who had done battle for their fellowmen and been true through all adverse storms to the cause of
humanity.  Unhesitatingly she placed her hand in his, and
linked her fortune with his own."
After the death of his first wife, on the solicitation of God



46                       PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY.
win, who was anxions for the landed interests of his grandchildren, a legal union was performed.   After looking  on this episode, in the most charitable manner, I am confident the sternest moralist cannot but "acknowledge that the passionate love
of a boy should not be held a serious blemish, in a man whose
subsequent life was exceptional in virtue and beneficence."
Believing,' as I have explained, in the divinity of love, Shelley
regarded everything in the relation of the sexes with the most
intense horror, which was not consistent with "freedom;" and
by which he most certainly did not signify the license attributed
by many. When he looked around and saw the withering blast
of forced marriages, conjugal hatred and prostitution, can we be
astonished at his passionately exclaiming:
"Even love is sold; the solace of all woe
Is turned to deadliest agony, old age
Shivers in selfish beauty's loathing arms,
And youth's corrupted impulses prepare
A life of horror from the blighting bane
Of commerce, whilst the pestilence that springs
From unenjoying sensualism, has filled
All human life with hydra-headed woes?"
In a most important essay bearing on this passage, which
should be widely studied, he observes:
"Love is inevitably consequent upon the perception of loveliness. Love withers
under constraint; its very essence is liberty; it is compatible neither with obedience,
jealousy, nor fear; it is then most pure, perfect, and unlimited, where its votaries live in
confidence, equality, and unreserve."
He then urges:
"A husband and wife ought to continue so long united as they love each other. Any
law which should bind them to cohabitation for one moment after the decay of their affection, would be a most intolerable tyranny, and the most unworthy of toleration-; and there
is nothing immoral in this separation, for love is free. To promise forever. to love the
same woman, is not less absurd than to promise to believe the same creed."
Hie states categorically that
" The present system of constraint does no more, in the majority of instances, than
make hypocrites or open enemies. Persons of delicacy and virtue, unhappily united to
those whom they find it impossible to love, spend the loveliest season of their lives in unproductive efforts to appear otherwise than they are, for the sake of the feelings of their
partners or the welfare of their mutual offspring; and that the early education of their children
takes its color from the squabbles of the parents. They are nursed in a systematic school
of ill-humor, violence, and falsehood, and the conviction that wedlock is indissoluble
holds out the strongest of all temptations to the perverse. They indulge without restraint
in acrimony and all the little tyrannies of domestic life, when they know that their victim




PERCY BYSSHE SHiLLEY.                         47is without appeal. If this connection were put on a rational basis, each would be assured
that habitual ill-temper would terminate in separation, and would check this vicious and
dangerous propensity."
He conceived from the re-arrangement of the marriage relation
by greater facility of divorce than was to be had sixty years
ago,
"A fit and natural arrangement would result."
Shelley by no means asserts that the intercourse would be
promiscuous, but on the contrary believed that from the relation
of parent to  child  a union is generally of longer duration,
placed on such a footing, and marked above all others with
generosity and self-devotion.
We are on the eve of great religious changes, which must consequently disturb all the social relations. Historical Christianity still holds to her old text, of marriage being a sacrament,
and therefore indissoluble.  The founder of Comtism  developing this dogma, urges that after the death of either husband or
wife the duty  of the  survivor is not to  re-marry.  Great
Britain and many of the American States have conceded greater
freedom in divorce, so as to carry out in a large measure the arguments of Shelley, while the theory of what is termed the' sovereignty of the individual" is propounded by the leaders of
the free love party, as a cure for the present and former difficulties.
Whatever may be the outcome of the present widespread discussions I know not, but I have belief in the supreme intelligence and in humanity, and am certain that neither the home nor
the race will suffer, but that out of all this agitation will come
more refined sentiment and truer morality.
I must now conclude.  It has been said that there are two
things in which the professors of all theologies have agreed-' To persecute all other sects, and plunder their own." Shelley, who subscribed to no theology, was persecuted by them
during his entire life, but he ever forgave his persecutors, who
he was confident acted through ignorance of his reals motives,
and he tells us:
* It should be remembered that in Shelley's day divorce was obtainable by the most
wealthy only, at an enormous cost and by a lengthy process, precluding the slightest opportunity for the middle and poorer classes to avail themselves thereof.




48                  PERCYi BYSSHE SHELLEY.
"I have thought to appeal to something in common and unburden my inmost soul to
them. I have found my language misunderstood, like one in a distant and savage land.
The more opportunities they have afforded me for experience, the wider has appeared the
interval between us, and to a greater distance have the points of sympathy been withdrawn. With a spirit ill-fitted to sustain such proof, trembling and feeble through its
tenderness, I have everywhere sought sympathy, and have found only repulse and disappointment."
Do we misunderstand him. I think not, and William Howitt,
a representative of the people, shall answer for them:   For
liberty of every kind he was ready  to die.  For knowledge,
and truth, and kindness, he desired  only to live.  He was
a rare instance of the union of the finest moral nature and the
finest genius. If he erred, the world took ample revenge upon
him for it, while he conferred in return his amplest blessing on
the world.  It was long a species of heresy to mention his name
in society; that is passing fast away.  It was next said that he
never could become popular, and therefore the mischief he could
do was limited. He has become popular, and the good he is likely to do will be unlimited. The people read him, though we may
wo.Uder at it, and they comprehend him."
This estimate is not overrated, for, having confidence in his
mission to humanity, he was fortified by the belief of his existing as an indestructible portion of interminable nature and the
universal mind, which in all high intelligences lives through the
ages, not only in the individual consciousness of the spirit, but in
that immortality of soul or mind, which lives in the race.
He hated the superstitions of Christian Fetishism and tyranny over the intellect, but loved Christ and the other philosophers with a genuine affection; he loved humanity, and was ever
fond of examining its highest phases, as, for instance, through
the doctrines of perfect equality in the sexes-yet he recognised
that sudden changes were prejudicial before sufficient progress
had been accomplished. "To destroy, youmust replace."  Justice he considered the sole guide, reason and duty the only law.
His morality was not that of pharasaical tartuffes, nor of prudish knickerbockers, who with wide phylacteries, sit in the high
places to be seen of men. He only combatted evil principles and
fought hard in favor of good.
He has been quoted as being too transcendental; he may be to
dullards with imperfect reasoning faculties, or theologians, who
only see through fanatical and green-monsterish spectacles, but




PERCY BYSSHE  SHELLEY.                          49
to men who have a live philosophy equally adapted to modern as
well as ancient thought, he is as clear as the noon-day sun. All that
is required to comprehend Percy Bysshe Shelley, is integralism
of that high order which has ever believed in the ultimate per,
fectibility of human nature, and looked  "forward to a period,
when a new golden age would return to earth, when all the different creeds and systems of the world would be; amalgamatedt
into one, crime disappear, and man, freed from shackles,: civil and
religious, bowbefore the throne' of his own awless soul,' or' of the
power unknown,' " whose veil it is the ambition of theosophy to
raise for humanity, and remain the   inscrutable" no longer.
I have completed my task, and with humility I make the
statement, knowing that before me are many who could have
performed  it  as  completely  as  I  have  crudely.    I  look
upon my essay, in which I have treated my subject popularly,
with intention, as a beacon, whence a little light may be shed
dimly, hoping that others, better qualified, will bring you face
to face with the full rays.
I have shown you Shelley in his writings, his life and poetry,
only where they trench on his philosophical and reform ideasI could have related to you much about his inflexibly moral,
generous, and unselfishly benevolent character-his pure, gentle
and loveable existence-his utter abnegation of self, learnt from
the hemetic  hilos ophy, and elsii's^tpisalto tra'nsitory legislative honors-how  ie, the heir to thousands of dollars annually,
and a baronetage, threw aside pecuniary considerations for love
of the truth and benevolence, * and  how, therefrom, he was
often nearly dying of hunger in the streets.  I could have
treated him simply as a poet, full of experienced impetuosity,
subtlety  of expression, and  precision  of verse, but I have
aimed to exhibit one side of his immortality to you, which lives
in and by the race, for humanity.
* "In his heart there was nothing depraved or unsound; those who had opportunities of knowing him best, tell us that his life was spent in the contemplation of nature.
in arduous study, or in acts of kindness and affection. A man of learning, who shared
the poverty so often attached to it, enjoyed from him at one period a pension of a hundred
pounds sterling a year, and continued to enjoy it till fortune rendered it superfluous
To another man of letters, in similar circumstances, he presented fourteen hundred
pounds; and many other acts like these are on record to his immortal honor. Himself a
frugal and abstemious ascetic, by saving and economising, he was able to assist the industrious poor-and they had frequent cause to bless his name."-Nationabl Magaziuse.




50                  PPERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY.
Cut short in the youth of manhood, who can tell What Percy
Bysshe Shelley might not have become, living for us even perhaps at this moment?  What need we care, though, for does not
the "Empire of the dead increase of the living from age to age V"
Shelley's terrestrial body may have been cast up by the waves
on the lonely Italian  shore, in sweet companionship with the
souls of Keats and Sophocles.  His mundane elements, purified
through the fire, may have returned to their kindred elements,
and been
"made one with Nature, where is heard
His voice in all her music, from the moan
Of thunder to the song of night's sweet bird;
He is a presence to be felt and known,
In.darkness and in light, from herb and stone,
Spreading itself where'er that Power move,
Which has withdrawn his being to its own;
Which wields the world with never-wearied love,
Sustains it from beneath, and kindles it above."
His cinereal ashes may lie beneath the cypresses, near the dust
of the "Adonais " of his muse, under Roman sod, and where he
said:
"To see the sun shining on its bright grass, and hear the whispering of the wind
among the leaves of the trees, which have overgrown the tomb of Cestius, and the soil
which is stirring in the sun-warm earth, and to mark the tombs, mostly of women and
young children, who, buried there, we might, if we were to die, desire a sleep they seem to
sleep."
All this may have happened, but why need we repine, for as
eternal as the sea, as infinite as Nature, and as the phoenix, he
revivifying lives, transmigrated and transfused into humanity,
for with certainty we know that
"He lives, he wakes-'tis Death is dead, not he."
Immortal amid immortals, his spirit in communion with the
Most High, fully conscious in its individuality-immortal.amid
mortals, his place need never be refilled, for he stands.betwixt
the old and the new-immortal amid the sons of song, do poets
still breathe his divine afflatus-immortal amid  philosophers
and the regenerators of the race, with Buddha, with Moses, with
Socrates, with Mahomet, with Christ-immortal amid the noble,
the virtuous, the good, the wise-immortal as when living here, for
from spirit-spheres we hear him bidding us repeat:




PERCY BYSSHE  SHELLEY.                             61
" Nor let us weep that our delight is fled
Far from these carrion-kites that scream below;
He wakes or sleeps with the enduring dead;
Thou canst not soar where he is sitting now.
Dust to the dust! but the pure spirit shall flow
Back to the burning fountain whence it came,
A portion of the Eternal, which must glow
Through time and change, unquenchably the same,"
"Peace! peace! he is not dead, he doth not sleepHe hath awaken'd from the dream of life-'Tis we, who, lost in stormy visions, keep
With phantoms an unprofitable strife;
And in mad trance, strike with our spirits' knife,
Invulnerable nothings!"
FINIS CORONAT OPUS.








To be published by SUBSCRIPTION, in three volumes octavo, of about
250 pages each, cloth, with Portraits and Illustrations.  Price, $2.50 per
volume.
LIBERAL ESSAYS.
CHARLES SOTHERAN.
As a wish has been expressed by many of Mr. Sotheran's friends and
others, to have a complete collection of his miscellaneous writings published, it has been determined, after careful consideration, to issue a
REVISED edition of his Essays under the above title, in three volumes.
Each volume will consist of about 250 pages, printed in good readable
type, and will be illustrated with Portraits and Wood-cuts.
LIST OF CONTENTS.
i. Secret Societies; Their Uses and I2. Spiritism amongthe Greeks, Romans,
Abuses.                               Druids, Jews, Early Christians,
2. The Jesuits.                             and Mahometans.
3. Christism.                        I3. Mediaeval Spiritism.
4. Irish History and Grievances.     I4. Spiritism in the last Three Centuries.
5. Mirabeau.                           5. The Seal of the Theosophical Society.
6. Joseph Mazzini.                   16. Percy Bysshe Shelley as a Philoso7. Woman's Martyrdom.                       pher and Reformer.
8. The Anglo-Saxon in Hindostan.     17. The Sizes of Printed Books (Re9. The Present Spiritistic Crisis.          printed from' The Stationers'
io. Theosophic Spiritism.                    Hand-Book.')
II. Spiritism  among the Ancients of 18. Alessandro di Cagliostro: Impostor
Egypt, India, Chaldea, Persia,        or Martyr?
and China.                     19. American Genealogy.
ETC., ETC., ETC.
The names of those desirous of subscribing to the above work, will, it
is hoped, be forwarded at as early a date as possible to
CHARLES P. SOMERBY, Publisher, 139 Eighth Street, New
York City.
Or to the author,
CHARLES SOTHERAN, Office of the'American Bibliopolist,'
84 Nassau Street, New York City.
a




b
BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
GENEALOGICAL MEMORANDA Relating to the Family of Sotheron, of the counties Durham, Northumberland, York, etc., and to the Septs of MacManus.
By  Charles  Sotheran.    Including  many  pedigrees  and  other  documents,
specially certified by Sir John Bernard Burke, C.B., LL.D., Ulster King of
Arms, and G. H. Rogers- Harrison, Esq., Windsor Herald. Illustrated with
upwards of 50 Wood Engravings of Arms, Heraldic Seals, and Fac-simile
Signatures. Large paper, demy 4to. 9i pages. Limited impression of Ioo
copies, privately printed.   London, I8I1-3.   (New  York: J. Sabin &  Sons,
84 Nassau St. Price, $6, boards, or $9 half morocco extra.)
From   the  " Reliquay, Quarterly Archaological Journal and Review," edited by
Llewellynn Jewitt, F.S.A.   Vol. xv. (I874), No. 57, pp  55 and 56 
The name of Sotheran, or Sotheron,* is one of  whose s6, Sir Robert le Southern, inherited  the
considerable antiquity, dating back in the county of  Lordship of Mitton from  theDe Mittons, of whom
York to the time of Henry the Third.  The family,  a good pedigree, including the de Bayleys and Sothenot improbably, come  through  the  de Mittons,  rons, is now  in the press.  In 1316, we find by
Lords of Mitton, at the Conquest, at which time we  Whittaker's  Craven, the  Nomina Villarum, and
find recorded by Whittaker, the County Historian,  the  Parliamentary Writs, that Thomas Sotheron,
one Ralph de Mitton. From this Mitton the descent  vel le Southern, was found Lord of Mitton conjointly
of the Sotherons may probably be traced: Ralph, with the heirs of Sir Henry de Percy.  Thomas
above-named, was father of another Ralph, who had  Sotheron, last named, was the son of Sir Robert le
four sons, Stephen, Orme, Jordan, and Sir Everard;  Southern, and the father of Sir John Sotheron, Lord
of these, Sir Everard de Mitton was ancestor of the  of Mitton; by his wife, Johanna, daughter of Sir
well-known family of the Mittons, of Mitton and  Simon Cusack, who was summoned to Parliament
Halston, co. Salop.  His brother, Jordan de Mitton,  48 Edward III., as Baron of Colmolyn, and was a
was Lord of Mitton, co. York, and by Wimaca,  grandson of Sir Simon de Geynville, Baron Colmodaughter of Ralph de Eland, appears to have had  lyn (descended  from  the  Gennevilles, Princes of
issue Oto de Bayley, Lord of Bayley, from whom  the  Joinville, Counts Joigny, Seneschals of Champagne,
Sherburnes, of Stonyhurst, paternally descended, and  etc.) Sir John Sotheran had a daughter, Isabella, to
Hugo de Mitton, Lord of Mitton, who by his wife, a  whom he gave eighty marks portion on her marriage
daughter and co-heiress of Robert de Gosnargh, had  with  Walter  Hawksworth, of Hawksworth, co.
with another a son, Sir Roger de Mitton, donor of  York, Esq., ancestor of the Hawksworths, Baronets;
the advowson of the church  of Mitton  to God,  and a son, Chrisopher Sotheron, Lord of Mitton,
St. Mary, and the Abbey of Cockersand.  From   who was the father of John Sotheron, who in 1419
Sir Roger, the line proceeds through his son, Sir  resigned the living of Upton-cum Chalvey, co. Bucks.,
John  le Southern, of Mitton, Steward  or Bailiff  and of Robert Sotheron, of whose son, Sir Robert
to Queen Eleanor, and the father of Hugh le Southern,  Sotheron, of New  Elvet, Durham, many records re*The origin of the name is thus explained in "Our..  
English Surnames; Their Sources and Signification.  By  who had with other issue Sir William  Sotheran, and
Charles Wareing Bardsley, M.A." London, I874, pp. 122-3:  Capt. Lewis Sotheran, of H. M. Ship " Elizabeth of....Apart from this, too. the term'Le Noreys,'  Newcastle," whose son Christopher was father, by
was ever applied in early times- to the Norwegians, and towhose sn                         r          f   
this sense mainly it is that we owe the use of the name.  his wife Isabel Smythe (granddaughter of Anthony
And yet it has another origin. It was used in the mere  Smythe, Esq., and his wife, Margaret Belasyse, second
sense of'northern,' one from the north country. Thus in  cousin of Sir Henry Belasyse, ancestor of the Earls of
the Hundred Rolls we meet with the two names of'Thomas
le Noreys' and'Geoffrey le Northern,' and there is no  Fauconberg), with other Issue, of Stephen Sotheron,
reason why they should both not have the same rise. A   Sheriff of Newcastle-on-Tyne in I56I, and of Wilproof in favor of this view lies in the fact that we have their  liam  Sotheron  merchant adventurer of that place
counterparts in such entries as'Thomas le Surreys' and'Thomas. le Southern,' the latter now found in the other  This William Sotheran married Katherine, daughter
forms of'Sothern' and'Sotheran.' Nor are the other  of Ralph Willy, of Haughton-le-side, of a family
points of the compass wanting. A'Richard le Westrys'  described by the late Mr. Surtees, in his History oy
and a'Richard Estrys' both occur in the regists                                        and, witers of  issue
thirteenth century, but neither I believe now exist.."   Durham, as " yeomen-gentry," and, with other issue,




)y her had two sons, Robert Sotheran, of Ample-  logical research he had before him when he comorth, in the county of York, and William, who was  menced his task, and how  immensely it has been
he ancestor of the Sotherons of Darrington, the last  augmented by his alliance with that of Mac Manus,
nale descendant of which family was the late Ad-  in whose veins runs the blood of the ancient kings
niral Frank Sotheron, of Darrington. Robert Sothe-  of   Connaught'-a  title  which, within the past
an had a son of the same name who survived him,  few weeks, has been made a Royal one in the per-.nd who in his turn was succeeded by his son John,  son of Prince Arthur-from Achaius Moighmeodhin,
vho had issue: his grandson, Thomas Sotheran,* of who died in A.D. 365, downwards.
ampleforth Outhouses, was baptized in 1700, and         " The volume before us, which is the result of
lied in 1767, when he was succeeded by his son  much patient labor and of deep research, contains
Thomas, who was born in 1730 and died in I807.  pedigrees, tabulated  and otherwise, of Sotheron of
[he eldest son of the last Thomas was also named  Darrington, Ampleforth, York, Surrey, Durham,'homas Sotheran, and was of Lewisham, in Kent,  Newcastle-on-Tyne, Holme-in-Spaldingmore, Hook,
ie was born in 1782, died in I866, and married  Howden, and elsewhere; Sotherne from the London
laria, daughter of Charles Price, of Newport, and  Visitation of 1633-4; Sotheron of Cloonderigmoyle;
If Somerset House, Esq., and granddaughter of Wil-  Belasyse; Earl of Fauconberg; Braddyll of Conishead;
iam  Phillips, Esq., of Witston, High Sheriff of co.  Phillips of Witston; Roberts of Coeddu, etc.  DeVonmouth; he was succeeded by his eldest surviving  scent of the Septs of Mac Manus, of Bally-Macon, Charles Sotheran, Gent., of Trinity  Square, Manus and Tir-Tuathail, from  the ancient Kings.ewington, co. Surrey, who died in 1851, and mar- of Ireland.  Genealogies of Mac Manus of Roscomied Fanny-Elize, daughter of Henry John Hirst,  mon, Leitrim, Fermanagh, Antrim, Maynooth, etc.;,sq., of Howarth Grange, and Clough House, Roth-  Maguire, Prince of Fermanagh; Maguire, of Tempo;:rham, of whose ancient descent a full account will and Maguire, Baron Maguire, ofEnniskillen. Notitia
)e found in Mr. Foster's West Riding Yorkshire  Sothernia. Grants of armorial bearings to the Sothe-?edigrees, under Sherd, Hirst, Westby and Laugh-  rons of Yorkshire, Sothernes of Shropshire and Lonon, by whom  he had issue two sons (one of whom, don, Mac Manuses of Antrim, etc.  Monumental!Ienry, died young), and a daughter, Fanny-Elize,  Inscriptions of Sotheron, Thompson, Price, etc. Invho became the wife of Stanley Leigh, Esq., B.C.L.,  ventories of Sotherons in the i6th and 17th cenW.A.  He was succeeded by his eldest and only  turies.  Inq. post mort. of Robert Sotheran, of
urviving son, Charles Sotheran, Esq., to whom  the  Ampleforth, i619o   Contemporary  biographies of
vorld is indebted for the excellent account of the  Admiral Frank Sotheron, Archdeacon Cathal Mac
amily now before us, and who, by his Marriage in  Manus, Author of the "Annals of Ulster," and
[869 with Mary Eva Mac Manus, second daughter  others.  Historical notices of the Sotherons aud Mac
)f John Mac Manus, of Drumbroughas, Gent., by  Manuses, from  published and original unpublished
iis wife Elizabeth, daughter of Phillip Mac Dermot,  sources.  Notes relative to the families of Hodgson,
)f Curlough, unites the Sotheran family with that  Dealtry, Thompson, Dunch, Gascoigne, Hanson,
)f Mac Manus and a long and illustrious line of Irish   Proctor, Smythe, Ridel, Forster, Savile, Estcourt,
cings.                                                Easterby, Irvine, Leigh, Hirst, Mac Dermot, O'Flan" We have thus briefly' skeletonised' the gene-  agan, O'Mullally, Newsome, Barker, Oliver, Calllogy of the Sotherans for the purpose of showing to  verly, Sandford, Gale, Jackson, Grey, Willey, and
vhat an important line the present representative of  numerous others.
he family belongs, and what a fine field of genea-        It is illustrated by many engravings of armorial
bearings, fac-simile autographs; seals, etc.  One of
XThis Thomas Sotheran, by Frances his wife, had a  these we will notice.  It is the arms of Sotheran:
ounger son, Henry, who was articled at York, to a physi-  Argent, a chevron between three branches of Southian in order to acquire a knowledge of surgery and medicine,
ernwood, ert; impaling Mac Manus,.vert, a griffin
)ut preferring literature to physic, he about 1760 entered ino partnership with a well-known bibliopolist at York, rampant, or, in chief three crescents, argent.  The.nd his descendants in that city have continued in the pro- crest of Mac Manus, it should be added, is a dexter
ession ever since. His nephew Thomas Sotheran of Lew-               holding
sham, was the founder of the present publishing firm of                     a Calvary cross with a triangle
ienry Sotheran & Co., London.                         at base, or.
"Mr. Sotheron-Estcourt presents his compliments to Mr. Charles Sotheran, and thanks
him for his enclosure respecting the Sotheron Family. Mr. Estcourt procured a copy
of the very interesting account in Quarto of the Family some months ago, and has
read it with much pleasure."-The Right Honorable T. H. S. Sotheron-Estcour t, 7uly 6,
1874.
"Please accept my very grateful acknowledgments for your exceeding thoughtfulness and
courtesy in presenting me with last evening's package of genealogical lore. I hope
to show you that I, as an Irish-American, fully appreciate the very unusual interest which
you have manifested in the history of my dear native land, particularly in that of the'old  stock' as represented by the MacManus sept."-M. Hennessy, Esq., Commercial
Editor of (N. Y.) Times, Oct. 19, I875.
C




BY THE SAM E AUTHOR.
ALESSANDRO  DI CAGLIOSTRO: Impostor or Martyr?  A  Paper read before
the New York Liberal Club, May 28, 1875. By Charles Sotheran, 32.~.
Memphis, 94.'. Mizraim, K. R. s+, K. Kadosh, M. M. I04  and  1,052
Eng, etc.  i6mo. 50 pp.  Sewed.  New York: D. M. Bennett, 335
Broadway, I875. Price, io cents.
"Having received numerous applications for copies of the erudite lecture on Count di Cagliostro,
delivered by Mr. Charles Sotheran, I have consented to reprint, with a few additions, the report
published in' The Truth-Seeker.' In justice to the lecturer, I should state that my abridgment in that periodical, and even the present pamphlet, gives but a general idea of the actual
merits of the paper, which took nearly two hours in delivery, was crowded with thesis and antithesis, with considerable information relating to the developments of Masonry, Spiritualism,
and Rosicrucianism, and with extracts from numerous contemporary writers and historical
documents, and which, owing to space, I was, and am even now, obliged, much loath, to greatly
condense and in certain instances to leave out altogether.
" As Mr. Sotheran has only been resident in America a few months, and, therefore, may be unknown
to many of my readers, I reproduce a leading article from the' Spiritual Scientist' of June
Io, I875, which refers not only to the essayist s capabilities as a literary man, but also to the
fact that the Spiritualists have accepted Cagliostro as a former martyr to their cause:
"' We welcome to our columns a new and most acceptable writer-Mr. Charles Sotheran, an English author of repute, and now the editor of the American Bibliopolist. Mr. Sotheran is a
gentleman of extensive reading and ripe culture, who is well-known abroad as the author of
several works upon the genealogies and antiquities of the English counties. He has also paid
great attention to the literature of the occult sciences, and the article from his pen which
appears in this week's " Scientist," is a brief summary of a most valuable historical paper which
he read before the New York Liberal Club, the week before last.
"'The story of Cagliostro's life, as row given, affords us a glimpse at a personage whose deeds
and learning were the wonder of his contemporaries-a man of pure life, active benevolence,
and, especially, of the strangest psychological powers. He could not only read the lives of
those with whom he came in contact, but prophesy their future, heal their diseases, no matter
how desperate they might seem, and call up at his pleasure the shades of whomsoever in the
spirit-world any person desired to see.
"' He was a philosopher of the highest rank, a friend of human progress, and a most determined
enemy of the Papal establishment. It is not surprising that, having once put himself within
the jurisdiction of such a merciless government as the latter, it should adopt the flimsiest pretext to arrest and condemn him to punishment; nor even that it should seek to blacken his
memory by circulating falsehoods about him, which should make his name synonymous with
charlatanism and dishonesty.
"' Thanks to the labors of Mr. Sotheran, among the archives of the French government, the real
character of this prodigy of the last century is now, apparently, displayed for our wonder and
instruction.'
" Mr. Sotheran ranks high as an historical critic. In evidence of this I should mention that, in
addition to his published works, numerous articles from his trenchant pen have appeared in
the pages of'The Antiquary,''Notes and Queries,' Howard's'Miscellanea Genealogica et
Heraldica,' and other English magazines. He was also one of the principal contributors to the
important historical work compiled by Mr. Joseph Foster,'Pedigrees of the Leading County
Families of England and Wales,' and traces of his handiwork are to be found in Cansick's' Collection of Curious and Interesting Epitaphs,' Sheardown's' History of the Yorkshire Yeomanry Cavalry,' and Bailey's'Life of Thomas Fuller,' to which works, and others, he has given
valuable assistance.
" In conclusion, I hope my readers will be deeply interested in Mr. Sotheran's present valuable
contribution to Biography, and I further wish that he will have that success he so justly merits
in this country, his new and adopted home."-Proem to Pamphlet by D. M. Bennett, Editor
of " The Truth-Seeker."
Many thanks for the copy of your interesting Essay on Count Cagliostro. I have read it with
much interest, and think you have treated the subject in a masterly manner."-A. B. Mott,
M.D., Grand Master of the Ancient and Primitive Rite of Masonry, August 24, 1875.
"If he had read history carefully, he would have discovered, with your learned correspondent,
Charles Sotheran, that'Joseph Balsamo,' the charlatan and swindler, never existed except in
the imagination of his infernal Romanist biographers, while half the sovereigns and courts of
Europe recognized him as a philosopher, philanthropist, and one of the wisest and purest men
of his day."-From an Essay on "Occultism and its Critics," by Col. Henry S. Olcott, author
oj "People from the Other World," and several works on Genealogy, Agriculture, and
Insurance.
"Mr. Charles Sotheran, a nephew of the well-known London publisher, who has been, since his
arrival in America, in the employ of the Messrs. Sabins and Leavitts (as a Bibliographer),
recently delivered a lecture before the New York Liberal Club, which has since been issued by
D. M. Bennett, of 335 Broadway, in a ten-cent pamphlet, under the title of'Alessandro di
Cagliostro: Impostor or Martyr? Mr. Sotheran, while in England, edited several genealogical
and statistical publications which called forth praise, and he has in contemplation the publication of his essays on Irish History and Grievances, Shelley, William Godwin, American Genealogy, etc. —The (N. Y.) Publishers' Weekly,  uly I7, 1875.
d




"The works of the Hermetic Philosophers were never intended for the masses, as Mr. Charles
Sotheran, one of the most learned members of the Society' Rose Crucis,' in a late essay, thus
observes:' Gabriel Rosetti in his Disquisitions on the A nti-Papcal SpAirit, which produced
the Refornmation, shows that the art of speaking and writing in a language which bears a double
interpretation, is of very great antiquity; that it was in practice among the priests of Egypt,
brought from thence by the Manichees, whence it passed to the Templars and Albigenses,
spread over Europe, and brought about the P. 2formation. "-From article in the " Spiritual
Scientist," by Madame Helena P. Blavatsk-,  Corresponding Secretary of the Theosophical
Society.
" Charles Sotheran, an English writer of some repute, but at present editor of the' American Bibliopolist,' gave a lecture before the Liberal Club in May, on Alessandro di Cagliostro, which
has been published in a i6mo pamphlet of fifty pages by D. M. Bennett. It is a strange and
intensely interesting story, though the lecture is neither so fascinating nor so eloquent as the
editor seems to imagine. Mr. Sotheran thinks the philanthropy of Cagliostro should entitle him to a pedestal beside John Howard or Wilberforce; and he says:'This man whose
benevolence filled hospitals of his own creation, where his great medical knowledge was given
without stint to those who needed it, and who, when cured, were sent away not empty-handed.
His acquaintance with geology and the learned and abstruse sciences, should place him in the
ranks of the eighteenth-century pioneers of nineteenth century discoveries, notwithstanding
the fact that his disciples in their unhesitating reverence, yet ignorance, attributed miraculous
cures and effects, to-day quite explicable, but then exaggerated to lengths as absurd as the
miracles we read of in Buddhist and Christian hagiologies. The assistance he gave to free
thought and his aid towards political regeneration, his hatred of the two co-eval evil principles,
kingcraft and priestcraft, testified in the dissemination of the principles of " Libert6, Egalitd,
Fraternitd," should receive our gratitude equally with those other patriots to whom the people
of America and Europe owe the blessings enjoyed to-day.' "-The (2A. Y.) Golden Age,
A ugust 7, I875.
"Mr. Sotheran is a young Englishman, a devourer of books and ancient authorities, a man in his
ten-minute orations always ensconcing himself behind an array of formidable names.-Huxley,
Darwin, Mill, Herbert Spencer, and Tyndall! No American need apply. His tutelar genius
is Cagliostro."-From satirical article on the New York Liberal Club, entitled " A Home of
Hobbies," in The (N. Y.) Sun, December 12, I875.
" The twenty-eighth issue of the' Truth-Seeker Tracts' (New York: D. M. Bennett) is A lessandro di Cagliostro. Ihmostor or Martyr? By Charles Sotheran. The tract consists of a lecture delivered by Mr. Sotheran before the Liberal Club of this city, and in it he seeks to remove
from Di Cagliostro's name the odium which he asserts has been heaped upon it, in a great measure, by the authorities of the Roman Catholic Church. Di Cagliostro has now been accepted
by the Spiritualists, or by some of them, as a martyr of their cause. Some of Mr. Sotheran's
titles on his title-page are somewhat inexplicable to the average reader, and rather suggest the
Reverend Homer Wilbur, A. M. One of them is' K. Kadosh,' and another is'M. M. I04 and
I052 Eng.' "-The (N. Y.) Independent, A ugust 19, 1875.
"At a regular meeting of the New York Liberal Club held in Plimpton Hall last evening, a paper
entitled'Alessandro Di Cagliostro: Impostor or Martyr?' was read by Charles Sotheran, editor
of the'American Bibliopolist.' According to Mr. Sotheran, Cagliostro was a philanthropist,
scientist, republican, and philosopher."-Thze (N. L.) World, May 29, 1875.
" For want of room, we are compelled to greatly abbreviate Mr. Sotheran's lecture, and give merely
the leading incidents in the life of Cagliostro, thus depriving our readers of very many of his grand
passages and interesting recitals.... The paper, which took nearly two hours in reading,
was one of the most learned and eloquent the members of the Club have ever had the pleasure
of listening to. The lecturer was warmly applauded during its progress, and at the conclusion
he received long and continued applause."-The (N. Y.) Truth-Seeker, yune I5, 1875.
" THE OTHER SIDE.-Brother Charles Sotheran, of England, in his lecture on Alessandro di Cagliostro, put a very different complexion upon the life and workings of this celebrated impostor
or martyr. A pamphlet published by D. M. Bennett, of 335 Broadway, is before us, containing
a reproduction of Bro. Sotheran's lecture on Di Cagliostro, and would repay our brethren's
perusal."-The Corner-Stone (Masonic), Yuly 31, 1875.'The lecture of Mr. Charles Sotheran, of the' American Bibliopolist,' upon Cagliostro, before
the New York Liberal Club, which was recently briefed in this paper, has been printed by D.
M. Bennett, 335 Broadway, New York, of whom it may be had at ten cents per copy. This is
something that every Spiritualist should have, as justice has, for the first time, been done to
the character and psychological gifts of one of the most remarkable men and mediums who
ever lived."-The Spfiritual Scientist (Boston), fuzly s5, I875.
BY THE SAME AUTHOR.,
ANCIENT  THEOSOPHY;  or, Spiritism   in  the  Past.   A  Lecture  delivered
before  the  Society  of Progressive  Spiritualists, New  York, November
2I, 1875, and before the Theosophical Society, Mott Memorial Hall,
New York, December i, 1875. By Charles Sotheran, Honorary Librarian and Member of the Council of the Theosophical Society.  IN THE
PRESS.
"The Society of Progressive Spiritualists held their usual Sunday evening meeting last night at
Republican Hall, West Thirty-third street, and a paper was read by Charles Sotheran, one of
the founders of the Theosophical Society, on' Ancient Theosophy, or Spiritism in the Past,'
mainly directed to the explanation of Theosophy."-The (N. Y.) World, Nov. 22, 1875.




EDITED BY THE SAME.
CHURCH CALENDAR AND GENERAL ALMANACK, for the Diocese of Manchester, for the  year of our Lord  1873.   Edited  by Charles Sotheran.
Containing:-A Calendar with the Daily Lessons; Information relating
to the Church, the Universities, and the State; A  Complete List of the
Parishes and Clergy in the Diocese; Colleges, Grammar Schools, Educational Foundations, and  School Boards; Diocesan Societies and Charitable Institutions; Lancashire Members of Parliament and Public Officers; the County and City Magistracy, and other General Information.
8vo.   Sewed.   Pp. viii., 183.  Manchester, Eng.:  W. Hale, 52  Cross
Street.   London:  James Parker &  Co., 377  Strand, and Whittaker &
Co., Ave Maria Lane. Price, 40 cents.
The same, for I874. Edited by Charles Sotheran. Pp. viii., 208.
Price, 40 cents.
"Of the same general character as the Lichfield and other Calendars, is that of the diocese of
Manchester, now for the first time before us. But though, as we have said, of the same general character, it is far beyond, and before, them in usefulness, in excellence of arrangement, in
extent of information, and in value as a work of reference, both in and out of the diocese. Its
editor, Mr. Charles Sotheran, is eminently qualified for the task, and seems intuitively to know
just what is wanted in a book of the kind, and how to arrange it in the most handy, convenient, and useful manner. We have not space to go through the contents in this notice, and
must content ourselves by saying it is the best of its kind, and that it deserves, and has a right,
to be extensively patronized by persons of every class throughout the diocese." —The Reliquary (Eng.), yuly, 1874.
"This Calendar, which is edited by Mr. Charles Sotheran, and published by Mr. William Hale, of
Cross Street, is too well-known to require notice at our hands; but we are glad to call attention to some important additions and modifications which appeared first in last year's edition,
and which have been continued and increased in the present number. Much technical and
irrelevant matter has been omitted, while more space has been given to matters of general
interest. There is, moreover, much useful information on school boards and educational matters, the columns devoted to the latter being remodelled from information supplied by the Rev.
P. J. Wodehouse, M.A., Diocesan Inspection of Schools."-The (Manchester) Critic, yanuary 24, 1874"We have to hand the Manchester Diocesan Church Calendar and General 4 lmanac, for the
year 1874. This most useful compendium of all kinds of information concerning the Diocese no
person interested in Church and County matters should be without. It contains, in addition to
much other matter, a Calendar with the daily lessons; copious information relating to the
Church, the Universities, and the State; a complete list of the Parishes and Clergy of the Diocese; Colleges; Grammar Schools; Educational Foundations and School Boards; Diocesan
Societies and Charitable Institutions; Lancashire Members of Parliament, and Public Officers;
the County and City Magistracy, etc., etc. The present year is the fifteenth of its appearance,
and the Editor, Mr. Charles Sotheran, seems determined that each successive year the Church
Calendar shall be more copious and more correct. For a work of reference as to everything on
which it professes to give information, it is not easy to conceive a more useful volume than this.
It is published in Manchester, by W. Hale, 52 Cross Street; and in London, by Parker and Co.,
and Whittaker and Co.; the price being one shilling."- The (Manchester) Free Lance, 7anuary
x6, I874.'The Manchester Diocesan Church Calendar.-The fifteenth annual edition of the Manchester
Diocesan Church Calendar is replete with valuable official information. The comprehensive
volume is inscribed to the Lord Bishop of Manchester, to whom the Editor (Mr. Charles Sotheran) tenders his thanks for' the sanction and assistance he has accorded to this work.' In this
year's Calendar several important modifications have been made, and in lieu of technical and
irrelevant matter, matters of general interest have been substituted. The Church Calendar is a
perfect compendium of useful information, and, as a book of reference on subjects appertaining
to Church affairs, it is. invaluable. The arrangement is complete and reference is' easy, the
columns devoted to education in the alphabetical list of parishes have been remodelled. The
almanac is printed in clear type, and is altogether a most useful production."- The (Manches.
ter) Evening News, February 18, 1874.




"The Diocesan Calendar makes its appearance under the editorship of Mr. Sotheran, and with
very considerable enlargements and improvements. As in I873 certain small omissions will be
noticed, but they are usually of irrelevant and not very useful matter, while in their place the
editor has been able to give a quantity of information of general interest with especial regard to
educational questions. The work nuw contains the usual Calendar with the holidays marked,
the table of lessons according to the new lectionary, and the usual necessary information for the
clergy. Following this we have elaborately compiled statistics of the Church in England, Ireland, Scotland, the Colonies, India, and America, full particulars of the Universities and theological Colleges, Educational, Missionary, and Benevolent Societies, the Houses of Lords and
Commons, and all the usual general information which is looked for in a work of this kind. The
second half of the book relates to the diocese of Manchester, and is most carefully compiled, the
information being, by means of a supplementary page, brought down to the end of I873. Even
the names of the Oldham School Board are given in this page, though they were elected only
on the 2gth of December last. For the rest the information appears to us exceedingly full and
clear. The account of Church work in the diocese is of special interest, showing as it does that
Lancashire Churchmen are by no means standing still. The diocese was formed in I848 and
Bishop Lee consecrated one hundred and thirty churches during his episcopate. Dr. Fraser
was consecrated on the Feast of the Annunciation, 1870, and on the 23d of'April in that year consecrated his first Church-the Calderbrook. Between that time and August last he consecrated
no fewer than thirty-three churches, besides six cemeteries and additions to churchyards last
year; eleven new ecclesiastical districts were formed in I873; four churches enlarged or restored: and there are now five Churches built, but not ready for consecration; four in course of
rebuilding; three being enlarged or restored; ten building and twenty-six proposed-a statement
of work which few will contemplate without a sense of satisfaction, though possibly it may be
thought in some quarters that more ought to be done by so wealthy a community as that of the
Lancashire cotton district." —The (Manchester) Courier, yanuary 23, I874.
" Some important changes have been made in the compiling of the new issue of this Calendar, and
the modifications are all of a character to make it more generally useful and popular. It has
lost none of the features which made it acceptable as a Church Calendar, but the withdrawal of
much technical and irrelevant matter, in place of which appears information on subjects of more
general interest, such as the names and addresses of the magistrates, members of Parliament,
etc., will increase its use as a popular almanac."-The (Manchester) Examiner and Times,
January 17,1 873"The'Manchester Diocesan Church Calendar'-published by Mr. W. Hale, Cross Street-is this
year distinguished by the variety and accuracy of its information on all subjects connected with
ecclesiastical and educational affairs in the diocese of Manchester. It includes, in addition to a
calendar with the daily lessons, a complete list of the parishes and clergy, colleges, grammar
schools, educational foundations, school boards, charitable institutions, and of everything else
therewith connected. Several important modifications have been made in the body of the work
this year, with the object of ridding it of merely technical and irrelevant matter, and giving instead more particulars of general interest, such as the names and addresses of the county and
city magistracy, members of Parliament, school boards, and so forth. The information is condensed, yet full, and so arranged as to be handily got at." —The (Manchester) Evening News,
February Io, 1873.
"The'Manchester Diocesan Calendar' makes its appearance somewhat later than usual, but will
be none the less welcome to our clerical readers. The present issue differs slightly from previous ones, inasmuch as a considerable amount of technical and irrelevant matter has been got
rid of and its place is supplied with matters of more general interest, such as the names and addresses of the county and city magistrates, of the local members of Parliament, and of the
school boards. In addition to the ordinary diocesan information of the Calendar there is an
immense number of details relating to the Church of England generally in England, Ireland,
Scotland, the Colonies, and America, the latter of which is worthy of attentive study. We notice, however, one omission. In former editions of the Calendar it has been usual to give the number of free sittings in each church in the diocese: this year the information is omitted. For the
time it may not be a serious matter; but in view of the attacks which our' dear Dissenting
brethren' are incessantly making on the Church of England we cannot but regret that valuable
information of this kind should be left to be sought for elsewhere. Otherwise, the information is
most complete, and three items which we cite will give a fair idea of the real strength of the
Church in this district, and of its rapid growth since Dr. Fraser was consecrated to the see. In
the year i872 the bishop held 54 confirmations, at which were presented 8,578 candidates-3,29I
males and 5,287 females. Since the Bishop came amongst us in the spring of 1870 he has consecrated 24 new churches-at the rate, that is to say, of about one in every six weeks. Lastly, between the formation of the diocese in i848 and the death of Bishop Lee 163 new district parishes
and ecclesiastical districts were formed and sittings for 87,42I persons were provided. For the
future the prospect is cheering. There are, we learn, six churches in the diocese built but not
ready for consecration; four rebuilding; four in course of enlargement or restoration; nine in
course of building, and twenty-five proposed. If figures like these indicate weakness on the
part of the Church of England, and a decline of her influence in the' centres of intelligence,' it
would be pleasant to learn what are the signs of strength. Possibly if the Nonconformist
would make a little more use of such compilations as the present, the world would hear less
about the failure of the Church of England to accomplish the work which is set before her."The Manchester Courier, yanuary 9, I873.
g




BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY, as a Philosopher and Reformer. By Charles
Sotheran.   Illustrations.   8vo, pp. vi., 5I.   New  York: C. P. Somerby,
I39 Eighth St., I875.   (Price $I.25.)
" This was the subject of a paper read at the Liberal Club, August 6, by Mr. Charles Sotheran,
of the'Bibliopolist.'... The paper is a fine one, and is to be published.
"Without a division into numbered parts, which would have greatly aided its apprehension, the
lecture considered Shelley's love of freedom; anticipation of the theory of evolution; scientific scholarship; real belief in a Supreme Intelligence; Pantheism; faith in the true, though
not the theological, Jesus; disbelief in miracles and the Biblical account of creation; appreciation of the allegorical truth hidden in all religions; hesitancy about a future state; love of
virtue; sympathy with Ireland under oppression; advocacy of Queen Caroline; desire to see
Protestant and Catholic parties united in humane efforts; defence of labor's rights; hatred of
capital and commerce; devotion to free speech and rights of woman; interest in dumb animals; and love for the United States."-The (N. Y.) Liberal Christian, August 21, 1875.
" Mr. Charles Sotheran, of the' Bibliopolist,' has written a book on the poet Shelley as a philosopher and reformer, which is to be published in a few weeks by Chas. P. Somerby. Although
much has been written of Shelley as a poet, his life has never before been presented as that of
a thinker and a worker for the benefit of humanity. The little volume now being printed will
contain a sonnet on Shelley, by C. W. Frederickson, the well-known collector of Shelleyana, and
will be embellished by a portrait and a view of his tomb at Rome."-The American Booksellers' Guide, December, I875.
" On the evening of August 6th, Mr. Charles Sotheran read an elaborate and interesting paper
on Percy Bysshe Shelley, as Philosopher, Statesman, and Reformer."-The (N. Y.) TruthSeeker, Sept. I, 1875.
" We have reprinted the above extract from the current October number of the' New Era,' containing the first portion of the essay on' Percy Bysshe Shelley, as a Philosopher and Reformer,'
by our learned correspondent Mr. Charles Sotheran. This essay, which has demanded a good
deal of attention on account of the bold tone therein, and, as our readers know, usual with the
writer, will be published in a separate volume."-The Spiritual Scientist (Boston), October
14, 1875.
" Mr. Sotheran's interesting paper on Shelley."-The (N. Y.) Liberal Christian, Oct. 9, 1875.
" Admirers of the poet Shelley will doubtless be interested to learn that C. P. Somerby has nearly
ready for issue' Percy Bysshe Shelley as a Philosopher and Reformer,' by Charles Sotheran.
-The Publishers' Weekly, December 4, 1875.
BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
AMERICAN GENEALOGY. A Paper prepared for the "American Bibliopolist," and read by desire before the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, at the  Mott Memorial Hall, New  York, January  13,
I875, by Charles Sotheran. (A few copies of the number of the " Bibliopolist " containing the above essay, are still to be had from J. Sabin
& Sons, 84 Nassau Street, New York. Price, 25 cents.)
"The Genealogical and Biographical Society held its annual meeting last evening in the Mott
Memorial Library. A paper was read by Charles Sotheran on the History of American Genealogy. The following officers were elected for the ensuing year: President, Edward F. De
Lancey; First Vice-President, Dr. E. B. O'Callaghan; Second Vice-President, Gen. George
S. Greene; Corresponding Secretary, Charles B. Moore; Recording Secretary, Martin H. Stafford; Treasurer, Dr. Samuel S. Purple; Librarian, Joseph S. Brown; Registrar of Pedigrees,
the Rev. Beverley R. Betts; Trustees, David P. Holton, John J. Latting, and Charles B.
Moore."-The (N. Y.) Tribune, yanuary 14, 1875.
"  The American Bibliopolist' for February contains a paper on'American Genealogy,' by Charles
Sotheran." —The (Philadelphia) Evening Telegraph, March x5, 1875.
"There is also an admirable article by Charles Sotheran, on' American Genealogy,' a subject he
seems fully competent to handle. This article was originally read before the members of the
American Genealogical and Biographical Society; and in it he playfully alludes to'Boss
Tweed'-assuming, as he had the impertinence to do during his short-lived eminence of
iniquity, the armorial bearings of the Marquis of Tweedale-and Jay Gould, disporting the
ancient cognizance of Jason, to wit, a'Golden Fleece Proper.' Several other noteworthy
articles are included which we have not space to specialize, reflecting the highest.credit on
the' Bibliopolist,' which we wish' long and continued success.' "-The (N. Y.) South,.Ari2
io, I875.
"Mr. C. C. Dawson has published a 6oo-page genealogy of that name, and the magazine approves
such research, if only to prevent men like Boss Tiled assuming armorial bearings, as he did
those pf the Marquis of Tweedale, or as Jay Gould the cognizance of J ison,"-The North
A mnerican and United States Gazette (Philadelphia), March I6, 1875.
h




TO  ADVERTISEIS'AND  PUBLISIERSo
THE AMERICAN BIBLIOPOLIST,
A Literary Register and Repository of Notes and Queries, Shakespeariana, etc.
NNXUAL  SUBSCRIPTION, $1.25, INCLUSIVE  OF PRE-PAID  POSTAGE.  SINGLE  NUMBERS 25
CENTS  EACH.
Published Bi-Monthly during the months of February, Afril. June, A ugust, October and December.
AN ADMIRABLE ADVERTISING MEDIUM.
Advertisements are solicited for the " AMERICAN BIBLIOPOLIST."  This magazine, which has a circula-,ion of some two or three thousand, is the only one in the United States which has SUCCESSFULLY occupied, during the last six years, the place of NOTES AND QUERIES and other British Periodicals of the same genus, and
offers ESPECIAL INDUCEMENTS as an advertising medium, not only on account of its coming into the HANDS OF
THE BOOK-BUYER, but of its diffusion among LIBRARIES, READING ROOMS, etc., and READERS OF THE INTELLECTUAL CLASS GENERALLY.
Attention is particularly called to the criticisms of the press, which speak well as to the position occupied by the AMERICAN BIBLIOPOLIST.  It cannot be characterized as of a mere ephemeral nature, for it is used
as a continual book of REFERENCE during the period of publication; and at the end of the year the separate
numbers are bound up in volumes, in which the advertisements are carefully preserved. Complete sets of the
AMERICAN BIBLIOPOLIST are now worth THREE TIMES the original published price. The volume for I875,
will make the seventh.
The price of advertising is as follows:
Page,       -       -       -       -                                  6.oo
Half page,      -       -       -       --.o00
Quarter page,        -       -      -                                  5.00
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Special arrangements are made for the insertion of separate slip pages and continuous advertisements
CRITIQUES OF THE PRESS.
The AMERICAN BIBLIOPOLIST, in its present improved form, every man with a literary taste will thoroughly enjoy.
It is well edited, and has always a rich collection of bibliomaniacal items.-Louisvslle Courter-Journal, Dec. 26-27,'74.
The July and August number of the AMERICAN BsiLIOPOLIST is out, and contains the fourth installment of the' Handy
Book about Books," with much antiquarian lore and literary gossip, such as an account of the origin of the names of
States, etc.-Publishers' Weekly, 1874.
The AMERICAN BIBLIOPOLIST is invaluable to those who wish to be kept acquainted with events of permanent interest
in the library world, and particularly to those who are interested in the curiosities of literature.-N. Y. Methodist.
The BIBLIOPOLIST is admirably edited, I suppose by "our senior," learned in bibliography. Thank you for all that
you sent me.-S. Austin Alllbone.
The AMERICAN BIBLIOPOLIST, in addition to a great variety of interesting literary announcements, abounds with bibliographical and antiquarian details, which cannot fail to gratify the curiosity of the patient book worm.-N. Y. Tribune.
J. Sabin & Sons have brought their AMERICAN BIBLIOPOLIST to a point of great interest, as a "Repository of Notes
and Queries"; and every lover of curious inquiries into the origin of words, customs, etc.-in short all antiquities
of a literary character or bearing-ought to possess this ingenious and useful magazine.- Christian Union.
This publication, though nominally addressed to book-buyers, furnishes a large amount of curious and entertaining
information for all lovers of literature. It is not the mouthpiece of any set, and its criticisms of catalogues and books
are refreshingly independent and piquant.-Nation.
A Register of the Progress of Literature, which enjoys a wide popularity for the spice and vinegar which season its
pages.-Evening Telegram.
The AMERICAN BIBLIOPOLIST is the only real " Literary Register" issued in this country. In addition to its valuable
listsof rare old books, and its catalogues of new ones, the BIBLIOPOLIST contains monthly correspondence on all sorts of
literary subjects, and from all quarters. A most interesting and important feature of this work is in its department of
"Notes and Queries,' in which curious words, old traditions, ancient customs, and other subjects in which antiquaries
delight, are discussed by correspondents among themselves.-School Journal.
The Department entitled " Notes and Queries," of the AMERICAN BIBLIOPOLIST is a repository for all sorts of out of the
way, and at the same time interesting literary information.- College Courant.
To a man or woman engaged in literary pursuits, such a work. as this is simply invaluable, combining. as it does, the
features of the London " Notes and Queries," with a complete catalogue of the works issued from the British and American Press during the month. It is printed on fine toned paper, and is just the work to gladden the heart of the booklover.-Brooklyn Times.
No.Bibliopole should neglect to subscribe to this publication; its interest and value to him is almost inestimable.
It gives notice of some of the most noticeable new books, literary gossip, some curious " notes and queries," interesting
corresponlence on a variety of topics, and some valuable articles on subjects relating to literature.-Phladelphza Inquirer.
The BIBLIOPOLIST is undoubtedly the most interesting and worth preserving literary record within our knowledge.
— Boston Pilot.
Sabin's BIBLTOPOLIST contains its usu.l literary feast of notes and queries, and some interesting correspondence,
-Jewish Messenger.
J. SABIN & SONS, Publishers, 84 Nassau St., New York
14 York St., Covent Garden, London, W. C.








LIST OF RADICAL ANDD REFORM WORKS
Published by CHARLES P. SOBERBY, 139 Eighth St., New York,
~  /,: (A few doors east of Broadway), 
The Martyrdomr of Man.
By WIrN WOOD READE.
12no10  Clothi 543 pp* Postpaid) $3.
CONTENTS:                       Paine Cotton, Neck and Neck, W. L. Garriso.,
Under the head of " War," we have: Egypt   Rebellion of the North, The Lost Canse, Future
The Water Harvest, The Sources of the Nile'  of Africa, Future of the Earth, Origin of Man,
Philosophy of Leisure,  Agricultpral Monog-  Tailed Minds.
aomyo Inequality of Men,  mine       other    In the consideration of "Intellect" he introof AstronoTmy, Cruelty the Nurse of Civiliza-  duces: The Children of the Sun, Origin of Life.
tol, Trial of the Dead the Painted Tomb   History of the Cell Dawn of Reason, Origin of
Children of the Desert, The Horse of War, The  Love, The Ghost Religion, Origin of Priests,
Terrible Sahara, Pharaoh Triumphant, Egyp-  Invention of Hell, Musical Conversation, The
tian Country House, The Luxury Question, the-  Why, The Utility of the Affections, Breedinr
ology Stops the Way, Empire of Ethiopia, The  Law  Death of Sin, Origof Chastity, Roe
India Trade, The Persian Shepherds, The King's d  hina, The  uddhists The Age of the  oary, War in the Future, The Expt  o te-'Haren, Origin of Greek Genius, Their Religion,
The City of the Violet Crown, The University of  liglon, Fallacies of theCommune, American
Egypt, Seraglio Intrigue, Retreat of the Ten  Prosperty, Inventions of the Future, Theory of
Atlantic, Introduction of the "A, B, C t, The  V eue Sources of Morality,
Colonies of Carthage, The Gardens o the Hes-  Spurous Virtues of Theology, The True Religperides, Home Rule of Rome, The House of   on, The Last Sacrifice."
Baal, Silver Spain, The Poor Hated Old Od Man,
Roman Baden Baden, Cato's Little Farm, A               PRESS  NOTICES:
Dissolute Prig, Africa's Place in History, Civ-    It is really a remarkable book, in which uniilizing War.                                 versal history is " boiled down " with surprising
Under the head of "Reliion ": Ghost Wor-  skill..   The boldest, and, so far as historship, Divine Hybrids, Idolatry and Dollatry,  ical argument goes, ne of the ablest, assaults
Who Made God? Nature in the Nude, The Sheik  ever made upon Christianity.-[Literary World.
Abraham, Moses in Exile, The Delphi of the Helbrews Pope Samuel, A God-intoxicated Man,    His history has a continuity, a rush, a carryA Pious Brigand, By the Waters of Babylon,  mg poweriwhich remind us strikingly of GibCharacter of Jehovah, Character Improves,  bon.-[New Haven Palladium.
Origin of the Devil, A  Monopolized Deity,    The sketch of early Egyptian history, in the
Bright Side of the Character of Jesus, Dark  first chapter, is a masterpiece of historical wriSide, The Miracle Doctor, The Ghetto, Rome-  ting. He has a style that reminds us of MacauSleeping, Heavenly Illusions, Episcopal Saliva,  lay.-[Penn Monthly.
The Wonderful Well, The Truce of God,Achieve-    You tln over his pages with a fascination
ments of Mahomet, Negro States, The African  similar to that experienced in reading Washing
Hut, Dance Ordeal, School, Philosophy of Salt,  ton Irving.-[Inter Ocean.
Bagdad of the West, Negroes in Mecca, The
Black Prophet, Turks in Africa.                To readers who are attracted by the DarwinUnder the consideration of "Liberty," he  ian literature, this book, with its quaint declarashows us: The Ancient Germans, The Castle an   ton that Life is bottled sunshine,"may also
Academy, The Serfs, The Mons, The Crusaes,  bes recommneuded.-[Pittsburgh Eve. Chronicle.
Venice, Arab Spain, The Hill of Tears, Ortho-    Whoever would be jostled into attention. and
dox Geography, India, Prester John, Lisbon  led into unwonted channels of thought, will find
Rejoices, Majestic Crime, Slavery in London,  this volume full of interest and often of delight.
The Methodists, Giants and Pigmies, Thomas  -[New Covenant.
1>A.IVTEj[-IMjE VT OJF  S4CIEiNCE.
Tyndall's Belfast Inaugural Address,
AND THE
Famous Articles of Prof. Tyndall and Sir Henry Thompson
ON PRAYER.
WITH PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF PROF. TYNDALL. AND OPINIONS OF HIS SERVICES BY THE EMINENT SCIENTIST PROF. H. HELHOLTZ.
Postpaid, Paper, 50 ots.; Cloth, $1. Inaugural and Portrait, Paper, 25 cts.
"Prof. Tyndall has inaugurated a  the President of the most important
new  era in  scientific  development,  convention of scientific men in the
and has drawn the sword in a battle   world.  Every  line  of it breathes
whose clash of arms will presently  thought, power, eloquence....It is
resound through the civilized world,  in many respects one of the most exPROF. TYNDALL CROSSES THE Ru-  traordinary utterances of our time.BICON.-It is the opening address of  N. Y..Tribune.
ANCIENT FAITHS EMBODIED IN ANCIENT NAMES;
OR AN ATTEMPT TO TRACE THE
RELIGIOUS BELIEF, SACRED RITES, AND HOLY EMBLEMS
of Certain Nations, by an interpretation of the Names given to Children by Priestly Authority, or
Assumed by Prophets, Kings, or Hierarchs. By THOMAS INMAN, M.D., late President of the
Liverpool Literary and Philosophical Society, etc. Two vols., 1914 pp., Svo. Several hundred
Illustrations. Sent by express (expressage unpaid), $20.00.
"To those who thirst after knowledge, and are not deterrefrom seeking it by the fear of
imaginary dangers, hi- volume's inscribed, with great respect, by the author."




Radical and Reform  Pnlicationsi byC. P. Somerby, 139 81hSt, N. Y.
NATHANIEL VAUGHAN:
Priest and Man.
A NOVEL,
By RDERIZA. AGCDONALD,
Author of the "Iliad of the East," etc., etc.
3 vols. in 1, Ex. Clo., Black and Gold Side Stamp. 12mo, 404 pp. Postpaid, $1.50..... An original work of absorb-  not marred by the grace and humor
ing interest, of cultured Rationalism,  with which its lighter passages are
and high-toned morality. It is abook  told....  A more vigorous presentment
for the heart as well as the intellect;  of the mischievous nature of modern
it is an oasis in the desert of common  Christianity, in its most honest and
religious literature.-SARA A.UNDER-  consistent form, need not be desired.
WOOD, in Boston Investigator.... It is a really artistic composition,
"It is the work of one who has con-  with a sound moral expressed, though
sidered well the false and destructive  not obtruded, on the canvas.- Westinfluence of the "other-world" view   minster Review.
of human life, and the mnischief    "Let nothing human be indifferent
which fanatical priests are doing in  to you. Live in the world as of it;
society-who has learned that the  do not aspire beyond, but for and
service of men in this world is more  through and by it. Carry men on in
rational and helpful than any zeal for  your manhood nearer to truth, to
saving their souls in another world."  justice, to nobility, and the joy which
An independent and respectable  is their fruit. Repress no faculty,
studyof character in the law of cir-  withhold no gift —spend ally, your
cumstance such as even George Eliot  treasure. Share thus in creation;
might not have been ashamed to own.  and in the impulse you shall have giv-...A very bold and trenchant attack  en toward more fulland perfect life
on Orthodoxy, and the earnestness  be content to see your immortalwith which it is made throughout is  ity."-Extract.
THE SAFEST CREED,
And Twelve Other Recent Discourses of Reason.
By 0...?0 orJfIIIJGfAY.1.
Second Ed., 12mo, Cloth, Beveled, Black Side Stamp, 238 pp. Postpaid, 1.50.
CONTENTS.-Safest Creed, Radical Belief, Radical's Root, Joy of a Free Faith, Living Faith
Gospel of To-Day, Gospel of Character, Scientific Aspect of Prayer, Naked Truth, Dyilg and
Living God, Infernal and Celestial Love, Immortalities of Man, Victory Over Death.
"The publisher has done a good  The whole appearance of the book
thing to bring them together in this  deserves the warmest approbation.
more permanent form. All the work'To cherish no illusion' might be
is entirely new and very handsome.  the text of every one of them."
THE ANTIQUITY OF CHRISTIANITY.
By JoHN ALBERGER. Postpaid, Paper, 35 cts.; Cloth, 75 cts.
"If the fathers of the Primitive  born in their vicinity, spoke their
Church were unable accurately to de- language, visited the schools which
fine Christianity, what modern genius  they had  planted, conversed with
can attempt the same task without  those with whom they had conversed,
presumption? If the earliest histori- and had access to archives, records
ans, the ablest orators, rhetoricians,  and libraries which have since pertheologians, controversialists  and  ished-were incompetent to establish
writers that ornament the Primitive  an authoritative definition of ChrisChurch could distinguish no essen- tianity, to what credit are entitled
tial difference between Christianity  the attempts of modern ecclesiastics,
and Paganism, how vain are the at-  deprived of these advantages, to furtempts of modern theologians, com-  nish a more accurate  definition?
mentators and Biblical critics to  Surely, in showing that those from
show the contrary! In fine, if those  whom they received their creed were
who lived so near the age of the  dupes of error, they invalidate the
Apostles as almost to have heard  authority, if they do not disprove
their retiring footsteps-who were  the truth of Christianity itself. "-Ext.
THE CHRIST OF PAUL; or, The Enigmas of Christianity. St. John never
in Asia Minor. Irenaeus the Author of the Fourth Gospel. The Frauds of
the Churchmen of the Second Century Exposed. By GEORGE REBER. 12mo,
Cloth, 400 pp. Postpaid, $2.




Radical and Reform  Publications  by C, P.I SIerb, 139 8th:t., N,  Y,
A FEW WORD  ABOUT- THE DEVIL,
And Other Biographical  Sketches and Essays.
3y C~ xi/,':S             ~ )3Dl. UGH.
Portrait, 2d Ed., 12mo. Ex. OCloth, Gold Side Stamp, 260 pp. Postpaid, $1.50.
PRESS NOTICES.              thoughts which can not fail to be of
In a handsome volume before us  use ih their professional studies.Charles Bradlaugh  has  "A  Few   New Haven Palladiu7nm.
Words" to say "About the Devil."    Displays much learning  and  reMr. Bradlaugh  has a right to his  search.- The Democrat.:
Few Words, and the Devil will, we                   EXTRACTS.
presume, at no very distant day, have    "Give up blind adhesion to creeds
a "few words to say to Mr. Brad-  and priests; strive to think, and follaugh, and will doubtless get the best  low out in action the result of your
-of the argument.-Chicago Interior.    thoughts.  Each mental struggle is
His atheism is, after all, very much  an enlargement of your mind, an ad-akin to the views put forth by Hux-  dition to your brain-power, an inley and Tyndall and by Prof. John  crease of your soul-the only soul
W. Draper.-Daily Graphic.              you have."
His position herein is Refined and    "It is said by many a pious tongue
defended in a spirit of reverence for  that God helps the poor; the wretch-'the truth.-Chicago Eve. Jotrncd.      edness of some of their hovel houses,
We should insist, were we in any  found, alas, too often, in the suburbs
way connected with the government  of our wealthiest cities, grimy, black,
of Theological schools, on the pe- squalid and miserable; the threadrusal of this work bythe youth fit- bare raggedness of their garments;
ting under our charge for the duties  the unwholesomeness of the food they
and responsibilities of the pulpit.  eat; the poisoned air they breathe in'They will find Mr. Bradlaugh no  their narrow wynds and filthy alleys
common man, and they will be in- -all these tell how much God helps
troduced  by him  to persons and  the poor!"
The Essence of Religion. God the   WALT W TTMATA^     BO^OM
Image of Man. Man's Dependence uponNa-    ^ WA T -    ^ W' T _ANS _ O_,
ture the Last and only Source of Religion. By
L. FEUERBACH, author of "Essence of Christ-  Leaves of  Grass. Old Ed., $2. Comianity." 12mo. Post-paid, Cloth, 75cts.  plete, including "Passage to India" and
"The spirit of the time is show,    Dum Sa, 04ppi   on $           inions
As a Strong  Bird  on  Pinions
not substance. Our politics, our eth-   Free, 75 cts.
ics, our religion, our science, is a  Democratic Vistas. Political. Prose, 75c.
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Radieal aand  Reform   Pllbcations bY. P. So      rby, 139  Ith  St  N.Y.
ISSUES OF THEI AGE;
Or, Consequences Involved in:Modern Thought.
By  NENRY.  PEDEI.
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The author of this volume has evi-             Mr. Pedder is not one of those raddently kept company with  many of  icals who rail atthe Christian religthe finer spirits of the age, until.his  ion.   Indeed,. his  rationalism   has
mind  has become imbued with the   throughout  a.sweet. "reasonablefragrance of their thought.  He:has  ness," and is not the  fierce  dogma-l
excellent tendencies, elevated tastes,   tism of'those  positive'souls who
and. sound  aspirations.-New   York   would, with:Voltairean  directness,
Tribune.                                      " crush.the infamous one. "-Christian
He has brought the fruits of a large   Register (Boston).
culture and extensive reading:, and a            A truly able discussion of the submind unusually.calm  and thoughtful,  jects which most vitally concern the
to bear upon the questions which are   higher nature and larger life of man.
agitating the hour.-....World.            — Chicago Evening Journal.
IRON-CLAD AND MANNA SERIES.
IRON-CLAD  SERIES.                      No.                                      Cts.
No.                                     Cts.  31 Has Man a Soul? Charles Bradlaugh,    5
1 Atonement. Charles Bradlaugh,           5  38 Is there a God? Charles Bradlaugh,       5
2 Secular Responsibility.- G. J..Holyoake,  5  39 Labor's Prayer. Charles Bradlaugh,     5
3 Christianity and Materialism Contrasted.    40 Poverty: Its Cause and Cure. M. G. H., 10
Underwood,                           15  41 Misceilaneous Sermons. Frothingham,  10
4 Influence of Christianity on Civilization.  42 Science and Bible Antagonistic.' Watts, 10
Underwood,';n         25  43 Christian Scheme of"Redemption. Watts,  5
5 Gleanings from  Parker?. Frothinghaml,       44 Logic of Death; or, Why Should the Atheist
Voysey, and others. Winans,         10         Fear to Die. George' J. Holyoake,    10
6 Miscellaneous "Index" Tracts,          10  45 Character of Christ.' Charles Watts,     5
7T BuddhistNihilism. Prof. Max Mueller, 10  46 Atheism and the Gloucester Execution.
8 Religion of Inhumanity. F. Harrison,   20        Charles Watts,                        5
9 Relation of Witchcraft to Religion. Lyall, 15  47 Poverty: Its effects on the Political Con10 Epidemic Delusions. Marvin. Cloth, -50           dition of the People. Bradlaugh,      5
11 Philosophy of Spiritualism. Marvin,' 50
12 Tyndall's Belfast Inaugural, and Portrait, 25         MANN A  S ERIES.
13 Essay on Miracles. David Hume,         10   1 Original Manna for " God's chosen,"      5
14 Land Question. Charles Bradlaugh,       5   2 B.  Underwood's Prayer, per dozen,    10
15 Were Adam and Eve our First Parents?       3 New Life of David. Chas. Bradlaugh,   5
Charles Bradlaugh,                   5   4 Why I was Excommupicated. Barnard, 20
16 Why do Men Starve?  Chas. Bradlaugh   5   5 200 Questions Without Answers,            5
17 Logic of Life, Deduced from the Principle of   6 Dialogue between a Christian Missionary
Freethought. George J. Holyoake,   10          and a Chinese Mandarin,              10
18 A Plea for Atheism. Chas. Bradlaugh,  10   7 Queries Submitted to the Bench of Bish19 Large or Small Families? A. Holyoake,  5        ops by a Weak but Zealous Christian. 10
20 Superstition Displayed, with a Letter of     8 Search AfterHeaven and Hell. A. Holyoake, 5
Wi. Pitt. Austin Holyoake,           5   9 New Life of Jonah. Chas. Bradlaugh,   5
21 Defense of Secular Principles. C. Watts,  5  10 A Few Words about the Devil, "         5
22 Is the Bible Reliable? Charles Watts,    5  11 New Life of Jacob,            "         5
23 The Christian Deity. Charles Watts,     5  12 Daniel, the Dreamer. Austin Holyoake, 10
24 Moral Value of the Bible. Chas. Watts,  5  13 Specimen of the Bible: Esther,  "       10
25 Free Thought and Mod. Progress. Watts, 5  14 Acts of the Apostles: A Farce,  "        10
26 Christianity: Its Nature, and Influence on  15 Ludicrous Aspects of Christianity, "   10
Civilization. Charles Watts,         5  16 Twelve Apostles. Charles Bradlaugh,    5
27 Essays Before Free Relig. Ass'n. 1873,  35  17 Who Was Jesus Christ?       "          5
28 Thoughts on Atheism. Austin Holyoake,  5  18 What Did Jesus Teach?         "          5
29 Is there a Moral Governor of the Uni-      19 New Life of Abraham,         "           5
verse?  Austin Holyoake,             5  20 New Life of Moses.            "          5
30 Philosophy of Secularism. Chas. Watts,  5  21 A Secular Prayer. A. Holyoake. Per doz. 10
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