attachment of the great body of the people to the Constitu tion has been the only obstacle to the measure. We shall hope to see this abject creature meet his reward, if he makes the least further effort to restore his absolute sway. We consider him as totally unfit and unworthy to be in any office in a free country. The Spaniards appear to be fully alive to his character and intentions, and we shall not be surprised to see another session of the Cortes depose him, and send him out of the country. Such a fellow deserves to be

chained to a rock.

We know but little of the real state of feeling in France, as Frenchmen have lost the Printing Press, and are much more confined in the expression of their sentiments than they were at 'any period of the reign of Louis the Sixteenth. They have a complete mock system of representation, and it appears as if they were waiting the death of that nauseous lump of imbecility, Louis the Eighteenth. Should the Austrian troops receive a check in Italy, it will form a prelude to the emancipation of Europe, for the spirit of the representative system of government has actually travelled to Denmark and Russia!

At home, the persecution of the Queen has been of great assistance to the cause of reform; it has united all classes of reformers, and in the person of the Queen, our liberties seem to be for the moment centered. It has, above all things, shewn us the inadequacy of the present system, and the impropriety of suffering it to continue.

EDITOR,

TO THE EDITOR OF THE REPUBLICAN.

SIR,

ABOUT the time that the "Age of Reason" appeared, two robbers were hung in chains, near Brighton; soon after, a writer in a newspaper expressed it as his opinion, that Tom Paine ought to have been hanged between them, with his book round his neck in answer to which the following lines were written :

G. GEER.

Tom Paine and his book, between Howell and Rook,* You fain would suspend, that the people might stare; So Jesus was hang'd 'twixt a rogue and a thief,

And such rascals as you wagg'd their heads at him there. But Tom when he's passed the Stygian lake,

And safely arrived on Elysium's shore,

Shall plead for his Writings on earth, at that Bar

Where the power of the Despots avails them no more.

Where that doctrine of Mansfield, that Truth is a libel,
From the lips of the Judge shall receive its death-blow,
And the point in dispute between Tom and the Bible,
Shall be this-were the words that he wrote true or no?
Then an awful, just Judge shall the matter decide,
(No counsellors there with their quibbles so nice)
And if Tom's in the right he'll be placed high in glory,
Whilst you are hurled headlong to hell in a trice.

EPIGRAM.

Says Tom to Dick, "the saddest news I hear,
Great Pitt is dead!" says Dick," what is't I hear?
That Pitt is dead! then let the world rejoice;
To illuminate the world I'll give my voice.
Let us carouse, and sing, and banish sorrow,
And pray that Buonaparte may die to-morrow;
For when to vex the world these tyrauts cease,
Mankind will then agree and live in peace.

* The names the two robbers,

TH HEAVENS, OR SKY, ACCORDING TO
THE ANCIENTS.

Å SILK-WORM might as well give the name of heaven, to the little down which surrounds its shell, as the ancients give that appellation to the atmosphere, which, as M. Fontenelle, in his Plurality of Worlds, prettily says, is the down of our shell.

The vapours, which exhale from our seas and land, and form clouds, meteors, and thunder, were, at first, taken for the residence of the gods. Homer always brings down the deities in golden clouds; and thence it is that our painters still represent them seated on a clond: but it being very proper that the master of the gods should live in greater state than the others, he was provided with an eagle to carry him, the eagle flying higher than any other bird.

The ancient Greeks, seeing that princes lived in citadels, built on the top of some mountain, conceived that the gods might likewise have their citadel, and placed it in Thessalia, on mount Olympus, the summit of which is sometimes hid in the clouds, so that their palace was even with their heaven.

Afterwards, the stars and planets, which seemed fixed to the azure arch of our atmosphere, became the mansions of deities, seven of whom had their respective planets, the others taking up with what quarter they could find. The general. council of the gods was held in a large saloon, to which they went by the milky-way; for men, braving council-chambers on earth, the gods to be sure should have one in the heavens. When the Titans, (a kind of creature between the gods and men), declared war, and not without some grounds, against those deities, to recover part of their inheritance, (being, ou the father's side, the sons of Colum and Terra,) they only heaped two or three mountains, one on the other, concluding, that would be full enough for them to reduce the citadel of Olympus, together with the heavens:

Nor were the gods themselves more safe above:
Against beleagur'd heaven the giants move.
Hills piled on hills, on mountains, monutains le:
To make their mad approaches to the sky.

This absurd system of physics was of prodigious antiquity: yet certain it is, that the Chaldeans had as just ideas of

what is called the heavens, as we ourselves. They placed the sun in the centre of our planetary world, and ear au the same distance we have found it to be; and they led the revolution of the earth, and of all the planets round that body. This we are informed of by Aristarchus of Samoș: and it is the true system of the world, since revived by Copernicus. But the philosophers, to be the more respected by sovereigns and people, or rather to avoid being persecuted, kept the secret to themselves.

The language of error is so familiar to men, that we still give the name of heavens to our vapours, and to the space between the earth and moon We say, to go up to heaven, as we say, the sun turns round, though we know it does not; probably, we are the heaven to the moon, and every planet makes the neighbouring planet its heaven. had Homer been asked, to which heaven the soul of Sarpedon went, and where that of Hercules was, the poet would have been a little puzzled, and eluded the question by some harmonious verses.

What certainty was there, that the aerial soul of Hercules would have had a better time of it in Venus, or Saturn, than on our globe? It is not to be supposed, that its residence was appointed in the sun: the place would have been too hot. After all, what did the ancients mean by the heavens? They knew nothing of the matter; they were perpetually bawling, Heaven and earth; which is just as much as to cry, iufiuitude and an atom. Properly speaking, there is no such thing as the heavens: there is a prodigious number of vast globes, rolling in the void expanse, and our globe rolls like the others.

The ancients thought that the way to the heavens was by ascent: no such thing; the celestial globes are sometimes above our horizon, and sometimes below: thus, supposing Venus was returning from Paphos to her planet, alter its setting, the goddess, relatively to our horizon, instead of going up, went down; and, in such a case, we ought to say, to go down to heaven. But the ancients were not so nice; their notions, in every thing relating to natural philosophy, were vague, uncertain, and contradictory. Immense volumes have been written, to know what their opinions were on many such questions; whereas five words would have done-they never thought of it.

Here, however, we must except a few wise men; but they came late: few opened their minds freely, and those who did, the empyrics on earth took care to dispatch to heaven the shortest way.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

C. is informed that none of those morceaus, called Christmas Carols, come to our hands.-Can any friend oblige the Editor with a copy of the Koran? it shall be carefully returned or purchased. A friend, who has an idea that a Petition to the King, signed by some of the Bishops and a numerous body of the Dissenters, for the liberation of the Editor, would be effectual, is respectfully informed that it has not his approbation; or at least, he would not wish his avowed friends to sign it. Personally, he is not yet in a petitioning humour, and doubts whether ever he shall be in that degraded state of mind. If the Christian Clergy think they, cau support their religion without penal laws, it might very well become them to petition the Head of their Church to remove the disgrace of further persecution. But if the Editor's liberation rested upon his personal petition he would prefer remaining a prisoner. Having been informed that a Petition has actually been drawn up, he would intreat his friends not to meddle with it further than to recommend it for signatures to Christian Priests.

Total amount of Subscriptions received towards meeting the fine and expences of Mr. Carlile, one hundred and fifty pounds.

Fifteen complete sets of The REPUBLICAN only remain, which will be sold at One Guinea and a Half per set.

Early next week, will be Published, Price Two-pence, A NEW YEAR'S ADDRESS to the REFORMERS of GREAT BRITAIN, by R. CARLILE.

END OF THE FOURTH VOLUME.

m

Printed by M. A. CARLILE, 55, Fleet Street.