... Mrs. Grote seems to like to open her feelings to me, as a
very old friend of hers and her husband's. Did I tell you that
she sent me--to put me in possession of her state--her private
diary, from the first day of her alarm about her husband's health
to the day she sent it? It was more interesting than I can say;
but it brought after it something more striking still. Some
half-century ago, Jeremy Bentham threw upon paper some thoughts
on the operation of natural religion on human welfare, or
_ill-fare_. His MSS. were left to Mrs. Grote (or portions of
them), and those papers were issued by the Grotes under the
title, "_Analysis of the Influence of Natural Religion_, etc.
etc., by Philip Beauchamp." It is a tract of 142 pp. It is the
boldest conceivable effort at fair play; and in this particular
effect, it is most striking. At the outset, all attempts to
divide the "abuses" of religion from other modes of operation are
repudiated at once; and the claim is so evidently sound that the
effect of the exposure is singular. Well! of course the tendency
of the exposition is to show that the absolute darkness of the
Unseen Life supposed must produce a demoralizing effect, and
destroy ease of mind. There is something almost appalling in the
unflinching representation of the mischief of the spirit of fear,
of its torment, and of its damaging effects in creating a habit
of adulation, in perverting the direction of our desires, in
corrupting our estimate of good and evil, in leaving us, in
short, no chance of living a healthy and natural life, but
rather, making cowards, liars, and selfish rascals of us all. I
can't go on, being tired; and you will be thinking, as you read,
that this is only the old story--of the mischiefs and miseries of
superstition. But there is something impressive in the cheerful
simplicity with which Bentham tells us his opinion of the sort of
person recommended to us for a master under the name of God, and
with which he warns us all of the impossibility of our being good
or happy under such a Supreme Being. In looking at the table of
contents, and seeing the catalogue he gives of evil effects of
belief in the barest scheme of Natural Religion, one becomes
aware, as if for the first time, of the atmosphere of falsehood
against which we ought to have recoiled all our lives since
becoming capable of thought.
Dec. 30, '71.