Mahomet wrought miracles,
Brothers [3] the prophet had _proselytes_, and so would Breslaw [4] the
conjuror, had he lived in the time of Tiberius.
Besides I trust that God is not a _Jew_, but the God of all Mankind; and
as you allow that a virtuous Gentile may be saved, you do away the
necessity of being a Jew or a Christian.
I do not believe in any revealed religion, because no religion is
revealed: and if it pleases the Church to damn me for not allowing a
_nonentity_, I throw myself on the mercy of the "_Great First Cause,
least understood_," who must do what is most proper; though I conceive
He never made anything to be tortured in another life, whatever it may
in this. I will neither read _pro_ nor _con_. God would have made His
will known without books, considering how very few could read them when
Jesus of Nazareth lived, had it been His pleasure to ratify any peculiar
mode of worship. As to your immortality, if people are to live, why die?
And our carcases, which are to rise again, are they worth raising? I
hope, if mine is, that I shall have a better _pair of legs_ than I have
moved on these two-and-twenty years, or I shall be sadly behind in the
squeeze into Paradise. Did you ever read "Malthus on Population"? If he
be right, war and pestilence are our best friends, to save us from being
eaten alive, in this "best of all possible Worlds." [5]
I will write, read, and think no more; indeed, I do not wish to shock
your prejudices by saying all I do think.
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