The proudest earthly buildings show, Time can all things devour; E'en youth and beauty's ardent glow, And manhood's intellectual brow, Betray the spoiler's power: How soon we sink beneath his sway-- He glances, and our heads turn gray. Though, over all this earthly ball, Time's standard is unfurled, And ruins loud to ruins call Throughout this time-worn world-- Yet from this wreck of earthly things, See how the soul exulting springs. And after the archangel's wand Has wav'd o'er earth and sea, And Time has stopped at his command, The soul will nourish and expand Through all eternity. Religion--lovely, fair, and free-- Holds forth this immortality. By all the glories of the sky, To mortals yet unknown-- And by the worm that ne'er shall die, The fires that always burn-- By all that's awful or sublime, Ye sons of men improve your time.*
* 'Baptist Tract Magazine.' Vol. ii., p. 341.
It was stated by one of the magistrates that my being of no religion was no crime. I may conclude from what I heard this morning that I am not to be punished for not being religious. It was argued in, the _Cheltenham Chronicle_ that my expressing my opinions was no crime, and I was at some loss to know what my crime was. The charge stated I was guilty of _blasphemy_. In the depositions made against me, it is stated that I was brought before the Cheltenham magistrates on a charge of felony. I believe now what I have to answer is the accusation of uttering certain words offensive to the _Cheltenham Chronicle_.
This paper stated that 'three persons were ready to give evidence on the matter.' And yet the witness says he knew nothing of it till the policeman came for him. He says they were 'chaffing' about my remarks in the office--that is, joking upon them. It does not say much for his seriousness--reporting these 'horrid sentiments' at night, and the next morning '_chaffing_' about them. If it was an aggravation of my crime to have chosen an innocent subject, what would the learned counsel have said if I had chosen a guilty one? It has been sworn by the witnesses that I said I did not believe there was such a _thing_ as a God, and an attempt has been made to make you believe that I used the term 'thing' contemptuously, but the witness admits that I did not use it in a contemptuous sense. The same word occurs in some lines by Thomas Moore:--