Sinossi
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1852. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER X. ROME, THE GREAT INCORPORATED ENEMY OF MAN. In Polybius's time, the greatest distinction between Greek and Roman was their respective reverence for an oath. "Ten adjurations, ten bonds, and ten witnesses to prove them, would not make a Greek keep faithwhile, if a Roman swore in secret, or openly, in his private or public capacity, you might rest in peace. But sesthetic Greece spread fast, and far and wide, the atmosphere of her corruption; and we know from Cicero that, in his time, Rome rivalled Athens. So, in our own day, and country, and religion, the contagious ruin makes its beginning at the core; and many a noble tree is rotten long before the brightness of its leaf is faded. He who justifies a non-natural use of oaths, or even words, is already a votary of that Liguori whom Epicurus would have spued out of his throat. I have no wish to join in the general bitterness against Tractarians. It seems to me that many of those who sneer at their mummery and medievalism, take a strangely inconsistent liberty. "Quis stolatum, Permittit meretricibus pudorem?" Who fathers the new Houses of Parliament, that vast pile of histrionic architecture? Whose fault it was not built of pasteboard, with the heaps of rags upon the spot? To be in earnest in religious error merits a certain regard. But here was no fanaticism to excuse the folly. Tractarianism, moreover, is not all folly; and perhaps, as large a share of blame lies on the heads of those who led Tractarians, as their predecessors drove the Wesleyans, to seek abroad,--what was mocked in palaces episcopal at home,--sympathy in enthusiastic though ostensive piety, in love of the poor, and in self-sacrifice. As for their system, it is impossible for me to respect it, even as I do Popery. It is neither sy...
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