rity, but Time. Bacon abhorred superstition.
He denounced it as the 'confusion of many states,' and for a 'religious
philosopher' wrote most liberally of Atheism. No one who has read his
Essay on Superstition can doubt that he thought it a far greater evil
than Atheism. Any man who should now write as favourably of Godlessness
would be suspected of a latitudinarianism quite inimical to the genius
and spirit of 'true religion.' The orthodox much prefer false piety to
no piety at all. Mere honesty does not satisfy them. They insist on
faith in their chimerical doctrines and systems, as 'the basis of all
excellence.' To please them we must sacrifice truth as it is in Nature,
at the shrine of truth as it is in Jesus, and believe what derives no
sanction from experience. Bacon taught us to 'interpret nature,' and
that 'aiming at the divine through the human breeds only an odd mixture
of imaginations;' but these hair-brained fanatics who would have us
believe him _one of them_, care little for natural knowledge, and affect
contempt for all that concerns most intimately our 'earthly
tabernacles.' Bacon taught us to _consider as suspicious every relation,
which depends in any degree upon religion_, [93:1] but wiser than that
'wisest of mankind,' our _real_ Christians execrate such teaching, and
will have nothing _good_ to do with those who walk in the light and
honestly act in the spirit of it. How dare they then pretend to
sympathise with the opinions of Bacon? It is true he announced himself
willing to swallow all the fables of the Talmud or the Koran, rather
than believe this Almighty frame without a Mind; but who is now prepared
to determine the precise sense in which our illustrious philosopher used
the words 'without a mind.' We believe his own interpretation altogether
unchristian. 'To palter in a double sense' has ever been the practice of
philosophers who, like Bacon, knew more than they found it discreet to
utter. But with all their discretion, Locke, Milton, and even Newton did
not succeed in establishing an orthodox reputation. The passages from
Locke given in this Apology do at least warrant our opinion that it may
fairly be doubted whether he was either a Christian or a Theist. Had he
been disposed to avow Atheistical sentiments, he could not have done so,
except at the imminent hazard of his life. Speculative philosophers do
not usually covet the crown of martyrdom, and are seldom unwilling to
fling down a few reli