The rise and dissolution of the infidel societies in this metropolis : including, the origin of modern deism and atheism; the genius and conduct of those associations; their lecture-rooms, field-meetings, and deputations; from the publication of Paine's Age of reason till the present period / [William Hamilton Reid].

  • William Hamilton Reid
Date:
1800
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The rise and dissolution of the infidel societies in this metropolis : including, the origin of modern deism and atheism; the genius and conduct of those associations; their lecture-rooms, field-meetings, and deputations; from the publication of Paine's Age of reason till the present period / [William Hamilton Reid]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    [ 59 ] accommodated^ in the fame way, with the wade paper of Morgan, Mandeville, Annet, Chubb, and all the fecond race of Infidels, near half a century; by way of a more refined entertainment, the cir¬ culating libraries were fupplied with the Eloifa and Emilius of John James Roufleau, and other tranflations from the French, equally fubverfive of good morals. To the literary abilities, above vulgar ken, we may add, thofe of Gibbon, the hiftorian; The Apology for the Life and Writings of David Hume, and that impertinent parade about his domeftic virtues, fo fmartly replied to by the late Dr. Horne; and, next to thefe, we might reckon the cheap editions of the Philofophical Dictionary, by Voltaire; printed at London and York. Upon the whole, from the recolleCtion of the remote concatenation here adduced,-it may be prefumed, that Infidelity had attained a degree of relative antiquity, and thus impofed upon many, who would have rejected a novelty, as hazardous and queilionable. But, after all, where Infidelity has failed of com¬ plete fuccefs, many upon whom it has operated have been, at leaft, brought under Socinianifm, the Frozen %one of religion, even if it can deferve the name; for, before Dr. Prieftley had attained to his paft celebrity as a divine, this opinion undoubted¬ ly had its effeCts in deadening the human heart. But* when his improvements upon it, were dignified with the name of philofophy, the warm tide of intellectual life immediately ceafed to flow. The character of a materialist was fixed, and all the benignant fources of genuine Chriftianity, which might have been expeCted in this quarter, were hermeticallv fealed. N' It