Ah! now I know the lying spirit of man!  Contemplating the picture which he hath drawn of the Divinity:  No, said I, it is not God who hath made man after the image of God; but man hath made God after the image of man; he hath given him his own mind, clothed him with his own propensities; ascribed to him his own judgments.  And when in this medley he finds the contradiction of his own principles, with hypocritical humility, he imputes weakness to his reason, and names the absurdities of his own mind the mysteries of God.

He hath said, God is immutable, yet he offers prayers to change him; he hath pronounced him incomprehensible, yet he interprets him without ceasing.

Imposters have arisen on the earth who have called themselves the confidants of God; and, erecting themselves into teachers of the people, have opened the ways of falsehood and iniquity; they have ascribed merit to practices indifferent or ridiculous; they have supposed a virtue, in certain postures, in pronouncing certain words, articulating certain names; they have transformed into a crime the eating of certain meats, the drinking of certain liquors, on one day rather than another.  The Jew would rather die than labor on the sabbath; the Persian would endure suffocation, before he would blow the fire with his breath; the Indian places supreme perfection in besmearing himself with cow-dung, and pronouncing mysteriously the word Aum;* the Mussulman believes he has expiated everything in washing his head and arms; and disputes, sword in hand, whether the ablution should commence at the elbow, or finger ends;** the Christian would think himself damned, if he ate flesh instead of milk or butter.  Oh sublime doctrines!  Doctrines truly from heaven!  Oh perfect morals, and worthy of martyrdom or the apostolate!  I will cross the seas to teach these admirable laws to the savage people—­to distant nations; I will say unto them: 

* This word is, in the religion of the Hindoos, a sacred emblem of the Divinity.  It is only to be pronounced in secret, without being heard by any one.  It is formed of three letters, of which the first, a, signifies the principal of all, the creator, Brama; the second, u, the conservator, Vichenou; and the last, m, the destroyer, who puts an end to all, Chiven.  It is pronounced like the monosyllable om, and expresses the unity of those three Gods.  The idea is precisely that of the Alpha and Omega mentioned in the New Testament.

** This is one of the grand points of schism between the partisans of Omar and those of Ali.  Suppose two Mahometans to meet on a journey, and to accost each other with brotherly affection:  the hour of prayer arrives; one begins his ablution at his fingers, the other at the elbow, and instantly they are mortal enemies.  O sublime importance of religious opinions!  O profound philosophy of the authors of them!

Children of nature, how long will you walk in the