LOYALTY AND PIETY. 17 5 



good. They are dressed in white robes, and adorned 

 with golden crowns : they dwell eternally in the Royal 

 Presence, gazing upon his lustrous countenance, and 

 singing his praises in chorus round the throne. 



To the active European mind, such a prospect is not 

 by any means inviting ; but Heaven was invented in 

 the East ; and in the East to be a courtier has always 

 been regarded as the supreme felicity. The feelings of 

 men towards their god, in the period to which we have 

 now arrived, are precisely those of an Eastern subject 

 towards his king. The oriental king is the Lord of 

 all the land : his subjects are his children and his 

 slaves. The man who is doomed to death kisses the 

 fatal firman, and submits with reverence to his fate. 

 The man who is robbed by the king of all that he has 

 earned, will fold his hands and say, " The king gave, 

 and the king taketh away. Blessed be the name of 

 the king !" The man who lives in a distant province, 

 who knows the king only by means of the taxes which 

 are collected in his name, will snatch up his arms if he 

 hears that his sacred person is in danger, and will 

 defend him as he defends his children and his home. 

 He will sacrifice his life for one whom he has never 

 seen, and who has never done him anything but 

 harm. 



This kind of devotion is called loyalty when exhibited 

 towards a king : piety when exhibited towards a god. 

 But in either case the sentiment is precisely the same. 

 It cannot be too often repeated that god is only a 

 special name for king; that religion is a form of 

 government, its precepts a code of laws ; that priests 

 are gatherers of divine taxes, officers of divine police ; 

 that men resort to churches to fall on their knees and 

 to sing hymns, from the same servile propensity which 



