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of finally subduing it. From the Supreme God on the one hand, and matter on the other, succeeding philosophers produced various fanciful genealogies of superior intelligences, under the name of Æons-a Greek word, signifying properly, periods; thus representing these divinities themselves by a name expressive of the time and order of their generation, much as in our current language the terms reign, or government, are frequently put for the king or ministers governing. The Demiurgus who formed the world out of matter, appears to have been an Æon derived from the evil principle. He was also the God of the Old Testament, who was considered by the Gnostics to be an object of aversion to the One Supreme God, to counteract whose machinations the Eon Christ was sent into the world. This is the earlier and simpler system, which is attributed to Simon Magus; the number of the Eons was fancifully multiplied in latter times, and an extravagant theory of morals founded upon the system. The object of this principally was, as may be supposed, to depreciate the honour due to the body, as being a part of matter, and to elevate the thinking faculty, or at least, to remove it from all consideration of worldly things. The Gnostics imagined that by assiduous practice of certain mental and bodily austerities, they could obtain an intuition of the divine nature, and dwell in communion with it; and this part of their system is adopted to a considerable extent by Clemens Alexandrinus, whose opinions, as expressed in the Pædagogus, are very similar to those of a Pietist of more modern times.

The Gnostics split in process of time into various sects, distinguished rather by the different cosmogonies they invented, than by any variation in principle. Of these, the principal were founded by Carpocrates, Basilides, Tatian, and Valentinus. The system did not survive the 4th century. The Christians seem sometimes to have adopted the general designation of Gnostics.

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CHAPTER XVI.

ST SIMONIANS-HUMANITARIANS-MOMIERS.

SAINT SIMONIANS.

CLAUDE Henri, Count de S. Simon, of the ancient family of that name, born in 1760, was engaged during the greater part of his life in a series of unsuccessful commercial enterprises, a traveller, and in the early portion of his life a soldier in America; but having dissipated a considerable fortune, and been unable to draw the attention of the public to a variety of schemes, political and social, which he was constantly publishing, he attempted suicide in 1820; he lived, however, a few years longer, and died in 1825, leaving his papers and projects to Olinde Rodriguez. St. Simon's views of society and the destiny of mankind are contained in a variety of works, and especially in a short treatise entitled the Nouveau Christianisme, published after his death by Rodriguez. This book does not contain any scheme for the foundation of a new religion, such as his disciples afterwards invented. It is a diatribe against both the Catholic and Protestant sects for their neglect of the main principle of Christianity, the elevation of the lower classes of society; and inveighs against "l'exploitation de l'homme par l'homme," the existing system of individual industry, under which capitalist and labourer have opposite interests and no common object.

The principle of association, and just division of the fruits of common labour between the members of society, he imagined to be the true remedy for its present evils. After his death these ideas were caught up by a number of disciples, and formed into something resembling a system. The new association, or St. Simonian family, was

chiefly framed by Rodriguez, Bazar, Thierry, Chevalier, and other men of talent. After the revolution of July, 1830, it rose rapidly into notoriety, from the sympathy between the notions which it promulgated and those entertained by many of the republican party. In 1831 the society had about 3,000 members, a newspaper (the Globe), and large funds.

The views of the St. Simonian family were all directed to the abolition of rank and property in society, and the establishment of associations (such as the followers of Mr. Owen in this country have denominated co-operative), of which all the members should work in common and divide the fruits of their labour. But with these notions, common to many other social reformers, they united the doctrine, that the division of the goods of the community should be in due proportion to the merits or capacity of the recipient. Society was to be governed by a hierarchy, consisting of a supreme pontiff, apostles, disciples of the first, second, and third order.

It was not until about this period (1830) that they began to invest these opinions with the form and character of a religion; but shortly after having done so they went into great extravagances. There was a disunion among them as to the fittest person to preside in the society; and consequently Messrs. Bazar and Enfantin divided, for some time, the duties and dignity of the "Supreme Father," as he was termed. But on the 19th of November, 1831, Bazar and many others left the society, of which Enfantin remained the supreme father. Their doctrines and proceedings now became licentious and immoral to the last degree. On the 22d of January, 1832, the family was dispersed by the government. Enfantin and Rodriguez were tried on various charges, and imprisoned for a year. The former afterwards collected again a part of the society at Menilmontant; but it broke up for want of funds. Some former members of the St. Simonian association are now in places of rank and consideration : some of the most extravagant have gone to the East; but Enfantin, we believe, has no followers.

HUMANITARIANS.

This term has been applied to those who deny the divinity of Christ, and assert him to have been mere man. This, however, is more than the word exactly signifies, and the term Psilanthropist, or mere Humanitarian, has been suggested as conveying the idea more precisely.

One of the ablest of modern Humanitarians is the Rev. Theodore Parker, minister of a Unitarian church in Roxbury, Mass. The following extracts from one of his discourses will convey some idea of his views:

"Alas, what men call Christianity, and adore as the best thing they see, has been degraded; so that if men should be all that the pulpit commonly demands of them, they would by no means be Christians. To such a pass have matters reached, that if Paul should come upon the earth now, as of old, it is quite doubtful that he could be admitted to the Christian church; for though Felix thought much knowledge had made the Apostle mad, yet Paul ventured no opinion on points respecting the nature of God, and the history of Christ, where our pulpits utter dogmatic and arbitrary decisions, condemning as infidels and accursed all such as disagree therewith, be their life never so godly. These things are notorious. Still more, it may be set down as quite certain, that if Jesus could return from the other world, and bring to New England that same boldness of inquiry which he brought to Judea; that same love of living truth, and scorn of dead letters; could he speak as he then spoke, and live again as he lived before, he also would be called an infidel by the church; be abused in our newspapers, for such is our wont, and only not stoned in the streets, because that is not our way of treating such men as tell us the truth.

"Such is the Christianity of the church in our times. It does not look forward but backward. It does not ask truth at first hand from God; seeks not to lead men directly to Him, through the divine life, but only to make them walk in the old paths trodden by some good, pious

Jews, who, were they to come back to earth, could as little understand our circumstances as we theirs. The church expresses more concern that men should walk in these peculiar paths, than that they should reach the goal. Thus the means are made the end. It enslaves men to the Bible; makes it the soul's master, not its servant; forgetting that the Bible, like the Sabbath, was made for man, not man for the Bible. It makes man the less and the Bible the greater. The Saviour said, search the Scriptures; the Apostle recommended them as profitable reading; the church says, Believe the Scriptures, if not with the consent of reason and conscience, why without that consent or against it. It rejects all attempts to humanize the Bible, and separate its fictions from its facts; and would fain wash its hands in the heart's blood of those who strip the robe of human art, ignorance, or folly, from the celestial form of divine truth. It trusts the imperfect Scripture of the Word, more than the Word itself, writ by God's finger on the living heart.

"The church itself worships not God, who is all in all, but Jesus, a man born of woman. Grave teachers, in defiance of his injunction, bid us pray to Christ. It supposes the Soul of our souls cannot hear, or will not accept a prayer, unless offered formally, in the church's phrase, forgetting that we also are men, and God takes care of oxen and sparrows, and hears the young ravens when they cry, though they pray not in any form or phrase. Still, called by whatever name, called by an idol's name, the true God hears the living prayer. And yet perhaps the best feature of Christianity, as it is now preached, is its idolatrous worship of Christ. Jesus was the brother of all. He had more in common with all men, than they have with one another. But he, the brother of all, has been made to appear as the master of all; to speak with an authority greater than that of Reason, Conscience, and Faith ;-an office his sublime and Godlike spirit would revolt at. But yet, since he lived divine on the earth, and was a hero of the soul, and the noblest and largest hero the world has ever seen, perhaps

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