The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-11-30 00:00:00

they may give a tertaitt far the venvertnee of
the mails, and the other cervices that may be performed for
the government, and in that vase there will be no difficulty
in forming a company with bufficient capital to execute the
whole plan.

LORD ABINGER'S ALLEGORY.

(From the Book of Beauty for 1839.)
At the base of an extensive chain of mountains, whose sum
mits touched the skies, once dwelt a people celebrated for
wisdom, piety, and valour. Time, which destroys all things,
has obliterated their original name. Divided from the rest
of mankind, on the one side by inaccessible mountains, and
on all other sides by the ocean, it was upon that element only
that they- held any commerce with-. other nations. Theis-
geographical position, fortified by naval defences, secured
them from foreign invasion. Whilst other countries were
ravaged by hostile armies, and by famine and pestilence,
which follow in their track, this happy people read of the ca-
lamities of war only in their gazettes. The song of triumph
was often sung at their festivals, but the shout of victory was
never heard in their holds. In these were seen only the
traces of agriculture and abundance, whilst their cities re-
sounded with the busy hum of industry, or the cheerful tones
of amusement Their institutions, founded in. great anti-
quity, had been prudently accommodated to.the change of
circumstances, and improved gradually by time, and a con-
stant attention to preserve their true spirit and practical ad-
vantages. In the true spirit of patriotism, they loved their
laws and institutions not only for their intrinsic value, but
because they had inherited them from their fathers, had been
imbued with them from their infancy, and found them
moulded up with, and grafted into, their language, their man-
ners, and their habits. Ideal forms of government they
treated as the amusement of conversation, not as the practi-
cal business of life. They considered them as the statesmen
of Home considered the various systems of philosophy taught
by the Greeks, worthy of being studied "clisputandi causd,
non ita vivendi." They acknowledged nothing abstract, either
in virtue, or liberty, orlaw. Habit, practice, and experience,
they looked upon as the true sources of attachment, and the
surest foundations of knowledge. They were not less remark-
able for devotion to their religion. Before revelation had
shed its light amongst men, the constellations of the heavens
were the most natural objects of wonder and veneration.
This people worshipped the sun and the moon. To the first
they ascribed the powers of life and fertility. To his influ-
ence they acknowledged their obligations for their blessings
of corn, and wine, and nil, and all the fruits of the earth by
which man is nourished, and all the flowers of the.field by
which his senses are delighted.. Their hearts swelled with
gratitude, and their lips sounded with praise. when they bent
towards his rising orb as the author of these inestimable gifts.
But when, ascended above the horizon, he darted his beams
through the misty clouds of morning,. and melted them front
before him, they found his face too bright to be looked at ;
they averted their eyes from a radiance they could no longer
endure, and sought. refuge iri the temples dedicated to his
worship, where they adored, in silent awe, the surpassing
..splendour of his meridian glory. A sense of unbounded power
was mingled with their devotion ; they felt conscious of an
influence that could destroy as well as preserve; and they were
filled with reverence and fear when they sought to propitiate a
god at once incomprehensible and unapproachable. Not
with less reverence, but with less fear, they worshipped the
moon. In her they contemplated chiefly the attribute of be-
nevolence, which spread a mild lustre over her countenance,
and adorned it with ineffable grace. As she rose from behind
their lofty mountains, she became a signal for the cessation
of labour, and the approach of pleasure. Those nights of
the month, when she shone in her fullest beauty, were dedi-
cated to social amusement, mixed with religious rites. Songs
of praise and the harmony of musical instruments expressed
and elevated their gratitude. The wide expanse of the hea-
vens formed the temple of the goddess, illuminated only by
the chaste and silvery flood of light which she poured upon
her votaries. These nights were passed in processions, in
festivity, in dancing. Devotion was mingled with their
amusement, and piety was a portion of their joy. They had
a religious establishment which enjoined these rites, and cul-
tivated these feelings. The rules of morality were inculcated
by their preachers, and corroborated by the sanctions of reli-
gion; and the habits of the youth were formed to a love of
peace, order, and virtue. But neither the power nor the
happiness of a nation can endure for ever. After many ages
of unexampled prosperity—the admiration, and envy of the
world—the harmony of this people began to be disturbed by
a sect of dissenters from the worship of the sun. At the first,
these were but few in number, and had only declared a pre-
ference for the moon, as the purest object of adoration. The
unmixed delight which she gave, the habitual pleasure and
gaiety that accompanied her periodical splendour, were the
first allurements of these her votaries towards their new he-
resy. At length, by the incessant practice of extolling her
superior claims, and directing their devotions to her, the
religious admiration and fervour which she excited.began to
be extravagant and exclusive. Her beauty, her charms. her
power, her virtues, were their constant themes of celebration
and praise, till, like the blessed Virgin amongst the Papists,
she began to rob the true deity of his worship, and her parti-
sans ventured openly to deny the divinity of the sun. Whilst
their numbers were inconsiderable, they gave no alarm to the
government or the church, and were allowed to preach their
new doctrine without molestation or controversy. But as
this new doctrine was founded on the mixture of pleasure
with devotion, and appealed for its truth to the senses, it
possessed a charm for the multitude, which engrossed their
passions and inflamed their zeal. The proselytes increased,
and their numbers encouraged the boldness of the preachers.
It was in vain that the regular clergy endeavoured to call the
people back from their phrenzy by appealing to the past, by
reminding them of the blessings they had enjoyed for so many
years under the united worship of the sun and mown); .by ad-
monishing them that the theories of their new instructors,
however specious, were not founded on experience, nor capa-
ble of proof. The arguments of the church served but to
kindle new zeal in her opponents. They treated her defenders
as actuated by a sense of personal interest, or as governed by
antiquated prejudices: they ridiculed experience as the
test of reasoning; and treated the wisdom of past ages as a
mere topic to delude the present, to throw a mist of prejudice
over the eye of reason, and to fetter the freedom of inquiry.
They resented the aid which the government afforded to the
national worship as an unjust interference with the rights of
man; and they denounced as intollerance the support of one
farm of worship and the encouragement of one system of re-
ligious opinions. They published pamphlets, without num-
ber, to prove that all mildness, charity, and benevolence,
flowed from the moon; that the sun was Lather an object of
terror; that his influence was malignant; that his burning
rays would dry up and consume the earth, but for the kindly
rain and refreshing dews, which they ascribed to the labours
of the moon. They taught that between these two luminaries
there was a constant struggle, in which the moon prevailed;
that she was engaged, during her recess, in throwing darkness
over the night, to counteract the effect of the excessive light
with which he dazzled the eyes of men in the day ; but when
she uppeared in the firmament with him, it was to mitigate
the fervour of his rays; and when she beamed in her soft
glories—the sovereign of the night—it was to give to the
world a foretaste of the undying rapture which would attend
her sole dominion. From these premises they deduced, by
plain reasoning, that the safety, as well as the happiness of
men, depended on the moon ; and a corresponding duty on
their part to worship her alone, and by sacrifice cud prayer
to propitiate her and to encourage her to shine the brighter
and the longer for their benefit. They gained many prose-
lytes by their reasoning, but more by their eloquence in
preaching. 'This they practised, chiefly during the full of
the moon, to vast congregations assembled under the canopy
of the heavens, made resplendent by the orb which the preach-
ers invoked; to which the eyes of all the audience were
turned, and from which they imbibed at once an impression
of the truth and of the delight of their religion. Then the
preachers triumphantly declaimed against the, bigotry of the
Sunuites, who persevered in their infatuated worship even
at the very moment when they were driven by the fury of
their god to hide their faces from his view in temples and in
caverns, where his scorching beams could not penetrate.
Lastly, they denounced the government, in unmeasured
language, for giving countenance to the established worship,
and for allowing any worship whatever to be established. So
great was the enthusiasm excited by these means, and so vast
the multitude which shared it, that, fur three or four nights
in every month, the authorities of the state were in danger;
and it became a question whether a sudden and immense re-
volution would not be effected by the popular fury. When
the leaders of the new sect had advanced thus far, they
thought it better to aim at the power they sought by
.more
constitutional means. They gradually established their in-
fluence in the primary assemblies of the people; and finally
obtained a small majority in the council of the nation.
When they had accomplished this, they no longer disguised
their intention of destroying all religion and all literature,
but their own. They prohibited, by law, any worship but that
of the moon; they destroyed the temples erected to the sun,
and made it penal to offer any homage to him, or to profess
any respect for hint. Those who still adhered to the ancient
religion, could no longer testify their creed by their conduct;
the greater part were obliged to conform to the established
discipline; some ,were banished by public authority; and
others sought freedom in voluntary exile, and became the
founders of religion in other countries, where they taught the
worship of the sun. No sooner had the followers of the moon
thus gained the power of the state, than they in their own
turn were disturbed by anew sect which improved upon their
doctrines. This new sect was founded upon the admitted
basis of the first,—that all true felicity was derived from the
moon. But they deduced from this, as a necessary conse-
quence, that it was the duty and the interest of all true be-
lievers to come as near to the moon as possible, and to dwell
in her perpetual light. They pointed out that, notwith-
standing the happy change which had recently taken place
in the banishment of a false worship, and the establishment
of exclusive power. in the true believers, yet the moon had
neither shone more brightly, nor increased the number of
nights in the month when she blazed in the fulness of her
majesty; that the nation was in no respect happier, nor
wiser, nor richer, than before; on the contrary, they had lost
certain temporal advantages in the absence of many wealthy
citizens, who, preferring exile to the abandonment of the
worship of their ancestors, had transferred themselves and
their substance to foreign countries. It was manifest there-
fore, that something yet remained to be done for the attain-
ment of true happiness, and to carry out the principles of the
late revolution. They showed to the people that, when the
moon rose front behind the mountain, she always touched it;
that, when she was at the full, she rested for several moments
upon the summit. before she ascended into the heavens;
and that, during such time, her orb was dilated with appa-
rent satisfaction, if nut with reluctance to quit the moun-
tain. From these signs, and 'from the principles already
established, they deduced, as a natural consequence, the
duty of the people to sacrifice every other pursuit in life to
the grand object of approaching and touching the moon.
It was true that the mountain, beyond a certain height, had
beeinedvery possibly resolve
but nothing could resist enthusiasm,
aided by the divine influence ; that when the whole nation
should arrive at the summit of the mountain, the moon might
resolve to remain there, and dwell with them
for ever: but at all events, those who desired it would enjoy
the inestimable privilege of touching her, and be gainers of
immortal life and felicity, whether they became absorbed
into her substance, or were allowed, retaining their present
forms, to accompany her eternal course in the paradise of
her beams. It is incredible with what rapidity this new sect
gained credit with the people. Their old attachments once
broken, they yielded the more readily to the last novelty.
The acknowledged disappointment of their late hope com-
bined, with the desire of consistency, to make them adopt
the new theory. The leaders of the late revolution, in order
to retain their power, were conspelled to place themselves at
the head of the new movement, and to increase the impetu-
osity with which the popular tide overwhelmed all judgment
and prudence. The resolution, suggested by the new preach-
ers, was at length adopted, after much debate and various
expedients of delay. By a solemn convention and decree,
the whole nation was hound to desert their dwellings and
their occupations, and to assemble at the foot of the moun-
tain at a period appointed for the purpose, being the night
before the full of the moon; thence they were to proceed, in
a mass, to ascend by all practicable means. An inconceiva-
ble multitude—some furnished with musical instruments,
some with scaling ladders, some with sacks and baskets of
provisions—assembled accordingly, and began their march.
Many, worn out and exhausted by theirlabour, died in their
progress; many perished by falling between the clefts of the
mountain; many, disappointed and disgusted, would have
turned back, but were pushed forward by the multitude
moving from below. Repentance came too late to save
them. Their footsteps could not be traced: they were borne
upwards, till in their turn they ceased to exist. Thus this
great and famous nation perished by its own frenzy. The
small number which, by incredible exertion and fanaticism,
reached the summit of the mountain, were mortified and dis-
gusted beyond expression to find that they were no nearer to
the moon than before. They cast themselves down, and wept
in despair. .Those who recovered wandered away from each
other, andbecame dispersed amongst the nations of the earth,
withoutsthe name which distinguished them as a people.
They appeared to have lost their powers of reason and of Just
perception; and gave birth to a tradition which long pre.