“The principles of our religion are the best principles of every religion that has existed from the creation of the world,” responded Sophos. “We found every variety of faith could produce something profitable. The worst religion has brought forth good men, good women, and good citizens, and surrounded by the most degrading superstitions, we invariably found some truth worthy of general appreciation. We also found that the most enlightened religions produced bad men, bad women, and bad citizens, and discovered amid the most wholesome truths they endeavoured to inculcate, some pernicious superstition that destroyed the efficacy of their doctrines. This led to a consideration of their separate natures, and upon careful examination we discovered that from the earliest ages, all people had been doing the same thing under different names. They had personified two opposing principles—the principle of good and the principle of evil, which they had worshipped. In many religious systems the machinery was more complicated than in others, but all were easily traced to the same source.”
“Impossible!” exclaimed the professor.
“The names of God and Devil,” continued Sophos, “are so obviously modified from good and evil, and the attributes of each power are so completely the attributes of each principle, that nothing more need be said of their connection. They are the same things: as principles they are the light and shadow of the moral world; as deities, the Alpha and Omega of Christianity and Judaism. Vishnu the Preserver, and Siva the Destroyer, the most important members of the Hindoo Pantheon—the Ahrimanes and Ormuzd of Zoroaster, and the Fire Worshippers of Persia—the Osiris and Typhon of the Egyptians—the Jupiter and Pluto of the Greeks—and the great idols of every form of worship that had at any time of the world existed, are but personifications of the opposing principles good and evil.”
“Not a doubt of it, don’t you see,” remarked Doctor Tourniquet.
“I do not believe anything of the kind,” observed Fortyfolios: “it’s heathenish, abominable, and atheistical.”
“Having made this analysis,” continued the stranger, without attending to the interruptions he had received, “we came to the determination of making these principles our form of faith; that is to say, we made our doctrines those of benevolence. Good was our God—Philanthropy was our religion; and doing good became the way in which we endeavoured to worship the Deity. The good principle is around us at all times while we live, and creates our felicity, and produces the pleasures of those around us; and death is the evil principle, which puts an end to the happiness we were enjoying and creating.”
“What is your form of government?” inquired Oriel.
“Our supreme head is called the Optimus, or the Best,” replied Sophos. “He is addressed by the title of our Benefactor the Optimus, and is elevated to that dignity in consequence of his having distinguished himself above his fellow-citizens by the superior excellence of his wisdom and greatness of his philanthropy. He is assisted in the duties of the government by an assembly of two hundred of the most experienced, the wisest, and the best of his fellow-countrymen, who are called Fathers; and from this assembly the people always choose their Optimus, who reigns as long as his faculties permit him to exercise his judgment for the benefit of the people, and his reign is called his Optimate. Inferior in dignity to the assembly of Fathers, is a parliament of five hundred, who are distinguished by the name of Brothers; and they represent the interests of certain communities or disciples into which our great family is divided. It must not be imagined from these divisions and distinctions that there are any exclusive advantages or separate interests amongst us. Any individual may obtain the highest offices of the legislature by passing through the parliament of Brothers and the assembly of Fathers, for which he must show himself well qualified by knowledge, virtue, and benevolence. He gains neither advantage nor profit—nothing but the esteem of his fellow-citizens; and the people are classed into distinct communities of disciples, merely that the interests of the whole shall receive a proper degree of attention from the legislative.”
“And do you find such a form of government answer the purpose for which it was designed?” inquired Oriel.
“All,” replied Sophos. “The laws are simple and few, and admirably adapted to satisfy the wants of the people. We have no monopolies to protect; we have no exclusive privileges to confer. There is no legislative enactment passed which does not take into consideration the happiness of each and all.”