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Title: Atheism Among the People

Author: Alphonse de Lamartine

Translator: Edward E. Hale
Francis Le Baron

Release Date: May 5, 2008 [EBook #25339]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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LAMARTINE ON ATHEISM.

ATHEISM
AMONG
THE PEOPLE

BY

ALPHONSE DE LAMARTINE.

BOSTON:
PHILLIPS, SAMPSON AND COMPANY,
110 WASHINGTON STREET.
1850.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1850,
BY PHILLIPS, SAMPSON AND COMPANY,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts.

STEREOTYPED BY
CHARLES W. COLTON,
No. 2 Water Street.

ADVERTISEMENT.

Through the past year, M. de Lamartine has published a monthly journal,
called The People's Counsellor, "_Le Conseiller du Peuple_." Each
number of this journal contains an Essay, by him, on some specific
subject, of pressing interest to the French people,--generally, some
political subject.

As a companion to one of these numbers, he published the Essay which
we here translate. We have thought that its interest and merit are by
no means local; but, that it will be read with as much interest in
America, as in France.

EDWARD E. HALE,
FRANCIS LE BARON.

_Worcester, Mass. March 7, 1850._

ATHEISM AMONG THE PEOPLE.

I.

I have often asked myself, "Why am I a Republican?--Why am I the
partizan of equitable Democracy, organized and established as a good
and strong Government?--Why have I a real love of the People--a love
always serious, and sometimes even tender?--What has the People done
for me? I was not born in the ranks of the People. I was born between
the high Aristocracy and what was then call