The times., 1899-09-10
SOME MISTAKES OF rALMAeE-
Faisehoods and Fiction Concerning
Distinguished Deathbeds.

There are other faIsehoods and Gctions
in the sermon OF DR.. TaImage besides those
l exposed in The Times Of September > I
quote:
Benjamin franklin wrote TO Thomas
Paine begging him 70 destroy the age q. Rea-
son. in manuscript, and never let Il 20 into
type
Franklin died three years before Paine
wrote the Age of Reason, the first para
graph OF which is as follows
1t has been my intention for several years past
to publish my thoughts upon religion; l am
well aware Of the difscultiss that attend the
subject, and, from that consideration. had re-
served il 70 a more advanced period Of life- I
intended u 10 be the last Offering should make
to my fellow citizens OF all rasions, and that az
a time when the purity OF the motive that IN
duced me 70 it could not adnnit Of a question.
even by those who might disapprovs the work
In the preface to Part II. written after
ten months Imprisonment he tells US that
he wrote the first part hurriedly with
neither Bible nor Testament 20 refer to-
and unable to procure any. He knew his
life was in danger. expected to be arrest
ed, ard had not finished the essay rcre
than six hours before guard eaxe at
o clock in the morning and conveyed him
TO Luxembourg prison.
These facts are a sufficient refutaticn OF
the allegation that Paine submitted the
manuscript to Franklin three years before.
But we have a further disproof by Paine
himself in the following sentence, written
in 1902:
In my publications I follow the rule began
with in Common Sense that IS. 70 consult
nobody, nor to let anybody see what write until
it appears publicly.
The basis OF the falsehood repeated by
Dr. Talmage is a supposed letter Of Frank
I adj II 10
last Of numerous letters printed in Volume
| OF Franklin's works, 1887. The cOE1-
piler does not venture to say il was ad-
dressed to Paine. and | very much doubt
| if Franklin wrote it. Anyhow. il has no
reference 10 such publication as the
Age of Reason The argument Of the
manuscript submitted to the writer cf the
letter IS against particular Providence.
/ This letter has furnished material for a
religious tra~t. entitled Don't Unchaiu
/ the Tiger an expression borrowed from
| the text of the letter
I Franklin was extremely retieent on re-
/ ligiOn, as shown by his letter TO President
Stiles. of Yale College. dated March g. 1880
/ a few weeks before his death. In answer
to DR.. Stiles request TO know something
| OF FranSlin's religion, he says.
| 1t IS the first time l have been questioned upon
1t. But cannot take your curiosity 1miss. and shall
I
/ my creed. / believe in one God. the creator q
! Of the universe That he governs il by His
| providence That he ought 10 be worShiped-
| That the most acceptable service render 20
him is doing good to his other children. That
! the soul OF is immortal and viii be treat
ed with justice in another lie respecting It's
eondCct in this
Franklin further expresses doubt Of the
| divinity of Jesus, and IN postscript adds:
/ confde that you viii not expose me TO eriti-
cisas and eensufgs BY publishing any part of this
communication to You.
Franklia's religious sentiments were in
precise accord with those OF Thomas Paine.
1 quote again from Dr. Talmage:
| Alternont, the notorious inadel-oHe would
think he would have been safe against this de-
lusiOn OF the Christian religion q. no After
talking against Christianity all his days. in his
last hours he cried out: ..0i Thou blasphemed
but mcst indulgent Lord God he'll itself is a
refuge if it hide me from thy frown.'
1 remember reading this passage from thu
English reader when a small boy at school,
and with what gusto l repeated aloud the
words. Lord God, hell itself printed in
large capitals. and more suggestive Of pro-
family than piety. Anyhow. the capitalized
words were all that I could afterward re-
call Of the manifest fiction The fabrication
Of such deathbed horrors has had Its day
or more ago there was a Universalist pastor
in New Orleans named Clapp. who visited
the sick when the yellow fever ragged He
published a statement to this effect: 4
/ have probably seen more people die than
any other man. They have all died peace
fully. save two, who were orthodox Chris
] tians".
/ Another perversion OF the truth By Dr..
Talmaga is in regard to the death Of Vol
/ taire He never renounced his membership
/ Of the Catholic Church \ short tine be-
/ fore his death he made the following con-
fassion written by himself. 10 an aecommo-
dating priest VITO accepted il:
l. the undersigned, declare that, having been
attacked four days ago by a vomiting Of bieod'
at the age CT eighty-f0ur years, and being IN
| able TO get 10 church. the cure Of SaInt-Suipiee
having been willing 70 add to his good 'yorss
that Of sending to me the Able Gaultier, priest.
| | have comics ed 70 him; and declare further
that If God disposes Of me, die in the Catholic
| religion in which WAS horn, hoping from the
divine mercy that he viii dsign TO pardon all my
| faults and that Il have ever scandaiized the
Church / ask pardon OF God and OF II
The prfest offered the sick man the wafer
VoItaire replied; Monsieur Able, observe
that l continually spit blood; l must be-
ware of mingling that OF the bon Dieu with
| mine" The eonfsssor did not reply. but
/ before leaving the penite1t he received from
him twenty-five louis-d oTs' for the poor OF
the parish
voItaire lived nearly three months longer.
but no further confession was made b.
him. When the priest came TO his dying
bedside he motioned him away. saying, Let
me die in peace. The confsssOr retired.
believing. or affecting TO believe, that tha
sick man was deliTious when, in fact, he
was not.
By such finesse Christian burial was Sc
| cured Otherwise his body would have been
dumped into pit On the common. And
such was. indeed. its final disposition, after
thirty-six years repose. first in the vault
OF a church in Champagne for thirteen
years. then in the ancient Church Of Saints
Gerevieve. near the tombs Of Descartss and
Mfrabsau, until the year 1914. when Sc
crstly. BY night the bones OF Voltaire and
Rousseau we're taken out OF their collins OF
lead. tumbled into common sack. carried
in q hackney coach out OF town to p!ece
of waste land. thrown into a pit previously
lug, covered with a seckful Of lime. and
then with earth
The secret Of this transaction was so well
kept that in 1864. when the heart Of Vol
reire. which had been removed from his
body at the embalming and preserved in q
silver vase. became the property of the na-
tion, and If was proposed to place it in the
sarcophagus with the other remains. tbs
Arehbishops Of Paris observed that il might
be well 70 ascertain first whether his re-
mains were there So the sareophagus was
opened, and it was found empty,
Voltaire in his latter years, in ietter-writ-
ing and in speaking. often repeated The
phrase. ''ecrassez Finfame,' crush thS
monster" ". Fl. BURR.
Eson's Ncw college coIors.