I have established a system of economy for the collection of an INFIDEL RENT throughout England, for the avowed purpose of bringing the Christian Religion into disbelief. I am about to engage a large and splendid edifice in which, as by law I may, I shall endeavour myself so to do.

I will achieve INFIDEL EMANCIPATION, I will possess and exercise the right to dissuade men from Christianity, to preach against it, to warn all creatures from it, and to bring it into hatred, disbelief, and universal rejection.

Now, Sir, if you please, upon this knowledge of my plans, prospects, and purposes, do yourself the justice of putting the saddle upon the right horse. Filch not the credit of a virtue which is not yours. You will, I am sure, withdraw the pending prosecutions; neither will you ever attempt any other prosecution of the kind; but the virtue which exactly belongs to you, in so much forbearance, is PRUDENCE.

17 Carey Street, Lincoln's Inn. March 20th, 1829.

I am, Sir,

your obedient servant, ROBERT TAYLOR.

To the Editor of " The Lion."

SIR;-As the following letter is not intended to give offence, but to correct what I conceive to be the expression of wrong feeling, and as the professed object of your publication is to promote just and rational principles, I hope you will not refuse the present attempt to forward that object a place in the Lion. I am, Sir, &c.

To the Rev. Robert Taylor.

A Subscriber.

SIR;-In your remarks on the Pentonville Bible Association meeting, as stated in the twelfth Number of the Lion, there is a display of feeling which I must own I read with much regret; and so strong is my conviction of the injurious effects of indulging such feelings, that I am disposed to take advantage of the present opportunity of stating my disapprobation of it.

The passage to which I allude, is where you describe the most distinguished speaker at that meeting, to be a pock-marked, mole-eyed, bull-shouldered, frog-mouthed, suet-looking, saucy saint." Now, sir, admitting all you have said here to be literally true, is it a subject for ridicule or recrimination? Is such language as the above necessary or likely to serve the cause you profess to promulgate? Is there a shadow of argument in it? Is the individual alluded to accountable for his personal deformities? and are not such remarks a reflection on other individuals who may

labour under similar or other physical deformities, and with whom the present subject has nothing to do? Can any reasonable reflective individual, desirous of discovering truth, believe that such language was dictated purely by a desire to promote truth? I cannot believe that they can; and I am sorry that any individual possessing talents, which if rightly directed, could not fail to assist in breaking the chains of superstition which bind the human race to their present misery, should so far lose sight of that object, as to descend to the use of such weapons, when those which are acknowledged legal, and are sufficient to defeat the enemies of truth, are within his reach. If the weapons of our warfare are to be found in the mighty armory of reason and experience, let it not be told " in the enemy's camp," that we have made use of such as they would be ashamed to wield.

Before I conclude, permit me to remark how opposite are the sentiments expressed in your discourse on the powers of moral suasion (inserted in the 11th number of the Lion) to those which I have been condemning. Of the many passages in that discourse, which I read with great pleasure, I shall select two, which bear directly on the present topic. Page 338, speaking of the powers of moral suasion, you say, "by which alone the free and uncontrollable judgments of men's minds may be legitimately influenced, informed with fresh accessions of knowledge, and strengthened with more prevalent suggestions of virtue." Page 342," But the best way to the heart is through the understanding, and men's understandings are not to be taken by storm, We may have been rich in our own intellectual resources, and our eloquence may set on a whole argosy of reasonings, while one unlucky current blowing across the channel of communication, may scatter all its treasures to the winds."

It is of these unlucky currents that I complain! and I trust sir, that when you next set sail for a religious port, you will make a better use of your powers of navigation, and not suffer your progress to be impeded by running foul of such squalls.

I remain, sir, with best wishes for your success in the cause of rational infidelity,

London, March 26th, 1829.

A RATIONAL Infidel.

THE RELIGION THAT SUITS US THE BEST.

A SONG.

SURE Nature with wonderful kindness design'd
Such various religions, and creeds for mankind,
That every mortal, without hesitation,

Might follow the creed of his own inclination;
Our gratitude be then to nature express'd,
We'll chose the religion that suits us the best.

Let him who is fond of trout, turbot, and cod,
On Fridays' and Saturdays', humour his god,
By eating the fish of the river or ocean-
Saint Peter's successor will second the motion;
So let him turn papist, eat fish and be bless'd,
And chuse the religion that suits him the best.

Friend Quaker; so dismally dress'd as a bat,
Thy coat without buttons, no loop to thy hat;
Some think that thy wisdom exceedeth all measure,
But thy creed has no charms for a pupil of pleasure,
'Tis fit for an oyster, or owl on her nest:
Yet chuse this religion-it suits thee the best.

For myself, to all creeds I the compliment pay,
Of adopting from each what is pleasant and gay ;
On Fridays I feast at a Protestant dinner,
On Sundays I dance with a Catholic sinner;
Let them who hate dancing, who feasting detest,
Chuse other religions, that suit them the best.

That I'm a good Christian should some folks deny,
Can they prove that I ever refused a mince pie;
Or when a hot bun with a cross on't was broken,
That I like a heathen rejected the token.
I taste of them both with an orthodox zest,
The other religions suit others the best.

I would in the east the same system pursue;

I would act like a Bramin, a Turk, or a Jew;
Like a Bramin I'd dance with the nymphs of Benaris,
Like a Turk I would people my harem with fairies;
And would visit the Jew as his passover guest,
And all three religions would suit me the best.

THE GOD-EATER.

PETER, the trusty door-keeper of Heaven,
Who on his post will play at odd and even,
Or at chuck farthing to escape ennui;
Had just engaged some Cherubim to sing
An anthem, loyal as God save the King;

Whilst he kept beating time with his gold key. When lo! he saw a Priest of Rome draw nigh, Puffing and blowing, swelling like a bladder; Climbing from cloud to cloud across the sky,

And sorely wishing for a Jacob's ladder,

'Twas a dead hand at damning sinners tainted,
'Gainst heretics as savage as a tartar;

A Papist true as ever Pope had sainted,

Or bluff King Harry strangled to a martyr.
So Peter rose to ope the wicket wide:

"Mind what you're at," old Martin Luther cried.
Matthew, and Mark, and Luke, and John, and Paul,
This fellow 'd make a mouthfull of you all.
Peter, for Heaven's sake admit him not.

And thou, poor dove, ah! whither wouldst thou fly?
The wretch would put thee in a pigeon pie;
And all the Trinity might go to pot.

Have not we seen the gormandizing glutton

Reel to his Saviour, with grimaces greet him;
Then treat the Lamb of God like common mutton,
And without any qualm of conscience, eat him.
This is a Sacrament we should not love.

So down to Hell the cannibal may go,
He, who of Christ a sandwich ate above,
May make a luncheon of Old Nick below.

INFIDEL RENT.

WE have already, as subscribers to this rent, one of Fifty Pounds a year, with a promise of more if wanted for any useful purpose at any time. A lady at six pounds per year, payable quarterly; six gentlemen at one pound each per quarter; two at five shillings monthly; one at a shilling per week; one at five shillings per quarter. Making as a beginning, ninety pounds a year, besides various donations, which shall be advertised at a proper time, now amounting to seven pounds ten shillings. This is really a beginning, and we have no doubt of its reaching several hundreds, if not several thousand pounds per year; for the proper application of which, there stands the joint responsibility of

ROBERT TAYLOR, and
RICHARD CARLILE

Printed and Published by RICHARD CARLILE, 62, Fleet-street, where all Communications, post-paid, or free of expense, are requested to be left.

The Lion.

No. 14. VOL. 3.] LONDON, Friday, April 3, 1829. [PRICE 6d.

SECRET HISTORY OF ONE OF MR. SHELLEY'S WORKS.

THERE is a book written by Mr. Shelley now and hitherto called "The Revolt of Islam." I lately read this work, as it has appeared before the reading world, and could not see the author's purpose in writing such a book. It appeared to me to be poetry without any other purpose than poetry, subject without sense, or to make the most of it, a discouragement to political virtue, by setting it forth as certain of defeat and destruction.

There is

an imaginary revolt against tyranny; but so far out of all time and locality, so unlike any thing historical or futurely probable, so badly exhibited, so completely subdued by tyranny, and a great deal of superstitious exhibition of future state reward only, to political virtue and constant love, that I could not but feel contempt for the author of Queen Mab.

That contempt is in part removed, since I have learnt the secret history of the book.

Among my first hearings of Mr. Shelley, one was, that he was an advocate for physical love between brother and sister and that a coterie of his friends joined him in such an advocacy. The rumour is, in some measure, if not fully confirmed, by the secret history of the book in question, which was intended to exhibit a hero and heroine, from the same parents, united in love as well as by family ties. The plot or plots by which the story is surrounded, appear to me to have been shaped to suit the insurrectionary spirit of 1817, or the period at which the book was to appear. The only principle advocated in the book is that of physical love between brother and sister.

The original title of the book was "LAON AND CYTHNA," who were brother and sister, and in almost every instance where Cythna is now read, sister was first written and printed. The cancellings are still in existence, and will come before the public in their originality, or as the original work was meant to have appeared.

I have learnt that the objection to publish the work in its

Printed and Published by R. CARLILE, 62, Fleet Street. No. 14.-Vol. 3 2 E