The primitive Republican. (Columbus, Miss.) 18??-1852, 1852-06-10
Immortality.

If we wholly perish with the body, what
an imposture is this whole system of laws,
manners and usages on which human socie-
ty is founded If we wholly perish with
the body, these maxims of charity, patience,
justice, honor, gratitude and friendship,
which sages have taught and good men have
practised, what are they but empty words,
possessing no real, binding efficacy? Why
should We heed them, if in this life only we
have hope? Speak not of duty. What can
we owe to the dead, to the living, to our
selves, if all are, or will be, nothing? Who
shall dictate our duty, if not our own plea
sures, if not our own passions? Speak not
of morality. 1t is a mere chimera, bug
bear Of human invention, if retribution ter
inmate with the grave.
If we must wholly perish, what to us are
the sweet ties of kindred? what the tender
names Of parent, child, sister, brother, hus-
band, wife, or friend? The characters Of a
dream are not more Elusive. We have no
ancestors, no descendants-since succession
cannot be predicted of nothingness. Would
we honor the illustrious dead? How alb
surd to honor that which has no existence
Would we take thought for posterity? How
frivolous to concern ourselves for those whose
end, like our own, must soon be annihila-
ton +? Have we made a promise? How
can it bind nothing to nothing? Perjury is
but jest. The last injunctions of the dy.
ing-what sanctity have they, more than the
last sound Of chord that is snapped of an
instrument that is broken?
To sum up all: If we must wholly per
ish, then is obedience to the laws but an in
f sensate servitude; rulers and magistrates arr
S but the phantoms which popular imbecility
7 has raised up; justice is but an unwarranta
c bic infringement upon the liberty of men
an imposition, usurpation; the law of mar
riage is vain scruple; modesty a preju
dice; honor and probity, such stuff as dream
are made of; and incests, murderers, parri
i cides, the most heartless cruelties, and tn
blacklist crimes, are but the legitimate sport
: of mans irresponsible nature; while th
/ harsh epithets attached to them are merel
o such as the policy of legislators has inyen
J. ed and imposed on the credulity of the pei
h pie.
/ Here is the issue to which the vauntc
l. Va AABCA4SNGAo AHuS6f 1HCN4bdUl
lead Here is that social felicity, that swa
of reason, that emancipation of error,
il which they eternally pirate, as the fruit
their doctrines! Accept their maxims, an
the whole world falls back into the mo
a. frightful chaos; and all the relations Of Ii
is are COMPOUNDED; and all ideas of vice an
virtue are reversed and the most inViol
to bic laws of society vanish, and all moral di
u cipline perishes; and the government
y states and nations has no longer any cemel
to uphold it; and all the harmony of Il
body polite becomes diseord; and the h
man race is no more than an. assemblage
reckless barbarians, Shameless, remorseles
IA brutal, denaturalized, with no other che,
than passion, no other bond than irreligio
a. mo other God than self! Such would be t
ne world which impiety would make. Su
4 would be this world, were a belief in. G.
be and immortality to die out Of the hum
We heart Masstlloa.