New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1872-11-30
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wrongs he made his own.
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PAINE NALL.
We observe that q renewed effort Ia to be
made TO erect building in Boston which
shall be q memorial of Thomas Paine. This
is to be also suitable for stores and business
offices. and is to contain a Hall for Free Dis
cussion, Lectures, and Amusements. We think
that the political services of Paine during
orr Revolution have been Overestimated. lie
had small, sharp mind, and was clever
enough in the region of the lesser dialectics;
but, upon the other hand, he was extremely
deficient in general culture, and quite incapa-
bic Of taking large views of political or Of
any other science. He was of naturally
coarse nature; his personal habits were abOut
as bad as they have been represented to be
by his theological opponents; and he was
Spectator in religious matters of very
small and unsatisfactory type. He was the
founder Of q school of directors to Christian
ity as narrow-minded and bigoted in their
way as were the fiercest zealOts upon whom
they waged their war; and we think we do
him no injustice when we say that
his theological writings are of no
value whatever. When, therefore, those
who profess to be his followers in
theological matters propose to erect
monument to him rs o theologian, we feel,
while cheerfully admitting their perfect right
to do as they please, that tho cause of sound
and even of free thinking, in the best sense
of the word, will hardly be promoted by their
proposed action. When we say this, we feel
also how easy it will DC to misunderstood us;
and we do not wish to be misunderstood.
We do not object to the severest criticism of
the Christian scheme. We are willing to have
it tested philosophically, historically, and in
every great way; but wo do object to the dis
- 4-r:- -: q" a.,"i ono Wo
have no patience with the Sharpness which
searches the Scriptures for the bake of detect
ing petty chronological errors or slight verbal
inconsistencies, and which reduces the whole
Investigation TO an clio of sneeTs and merely
captions objections.
Of such discussion of Christianity we are
sure that the world has had enough. Nor do
we think that the world is likely to have
much more Of il. We have outgrown the
mechanical and material methods of Yoltaire
and the other French philosophers; and even
in the most confirmed skepticism of the pres
ent time there is a liberal element, and an
earnestness of purpose which scorn to resort
to bubble and to sneer3 in behalf of what is
called intellectual freedom. Take for instance
the absurd style in which it was formerly the
fashion to attack the Sabbath We have
heard Of man who, selecting field of his
farm, prepared the soil and planted it on
Sunday, gathered from it in due time fine
crop of corn, and put forward the result as a
proof that the Sabbath was not of Divine in
sttuton. 1t is by this time pretty well under
stood that this dry and technical method of
debating religious matters is itself of al
thoroughly superstitous nature. There is but
thin partition between credulity and in
credulity, and their philosophical alliance is
closer than those who are arrOgantly boastful
of their belief or of their unbelief usually
suppose. There is an iDfdelity, or, rather, we
should say skepticism, which doubts with a
singular kind of reverence, which is neither
boastful nor loud-tongued nor obtrusive
which looks upon what it deems to be error
with pitiful sadness, and which does not
gratuitously seek to disturb the cherished
faith Of any felOw-creature. There is another
kind of skepticism which is bOistcrOus and
blatant, insolent and aggressive which uses the
weapons of ridcule with remOrseless relish
which, when o saint has gone into his closet
to pray, bowls at him through the key-hOle, and
keeps up running and ridiculous commentary
upon his devotions. Now, the kindly tolera-
ton with which we should regard the belief of
any man, considered merely as a matter of
good manners, is what every gentleman, be his
religious belief what it may be, will always cul
tivate and practice. Especially should it be
observed by those who, while attacking the
creeds of others, have none of their own to
offer, except lenten feast of the dry husks of
negaton. More than any other form of belief
Christianity has been exposed to this irritating
kind of frivolous and petty assault. 1t isl
time that it ceased, and il is time that writers
who have specially employed it were for
gotten.
Paine of all spectators Of his kind, has
received good deal of sympathy, partly be-
cause he has been the object of so much un-
generous and uncalled-fo attack. 1t is hardly
necessary to say, that intellectually and phys
ically he was of gross and unrelined nature, /
or that he lacked almost every quality which |
should mark IN investigator of religious
truth He came to his work with absurd no.
tons of what really constitutes religious and
mental liberty; and he fought against what
he declared to be error with truculept icon
oclasm infinitely removed from anything like
reyerent inquiry. Those who admire his /
methods can. undoubtedly build a hall in Bos-
ton, and call it after him, and by so doing
they may offend the feelings of large class
of religionists; but though Paine Hall were
bigger and moro resplendent than was the