Trial of the Reverend Robert Taylor, A. B. M. R. C. S

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Excerpt from Trial of the Reverend Robert Taylor, A. B. M. R. C. S: Upon a Charge of Blasphemy, With His Defence, as Delivered by Himself, Before the Lord Chief Justice and a Special Jury, on Wednesday, October 24, 1827 Gentlemen, there are countries in the world where men may do things, and that with the greatest propriety, which they cannot do here with impunity. It has been said, very happily and justly, by an tunstrious writer, 'You cannot compare the nakedness of the Indian with that of the prostitute.' The Indian roams nakedly abroad in his wilderness at pleasure, but will you suffer the prostitute to go at large without covering through your streets? Would not that be offending decency and morality? And if the savage Indian were to appear in this country, would it be conformable to our habits to permit him to wander about in his accustomed nakedness? Would this be propriety? Why, Gentlemen, there is a description of habits - call them prejudices if you please - which are interwoven with the being of society - which belong essentially to the constitutions of civilised man, an offence against which deserves to be considered as a nuisance. Gentlemen, I have stated to you the simple principle as it ought to prevail in every rational community, without having made any reference to the sacred sanctions of religion. I do not know, Gentlemen, that I can better impress upon your minds the feeling which I entertain, and ever shall entertain, upon these subjects, than by referring you to the language of one of the most elegant writers - One of the greatest ornaments of English literature - I mean Dr. Paley - a man who united the profoundest erudition, the most acute understanding, the most laborious investigation, to the most candid mind - a man whose perfect freedom from prejudice was capable of conferring upon any opinion he embraced a peculiar degree of authority. Let me, Gentlemen, abow you what the opinions of such a man are. I take them from one of the chapters of his 'Moral Philosophy, ' a work which for eloquence, for high tone of feeling, for thoughts that are just, and for words that are beautiful, may be compared with any production in our language, and in the extracts of which you. Gentlemen, will find far more amusement than in any thing I could offer to your attention. He says, 'In many persons a seriousness and a sense of awe overspread the imagination whenever the idea of the Supreme Being is presented to their thoughts. This effect, which forms a considerable security against vice, is the consequence, not so much of reflection, as of habit, which habit, being generated by the external expressions of reverence which we use ourselves, or observe in others, may be destroyed by causes opposite to these.' Again, Gentlemen, he says, 'Mockery and ridicule, when exercised upon the Scripture, or even upon the places, persons, and forms set apart for the ministration of religion, fall within the mischief of the law which forbids the profanation of God's name, especially as that law is extended by Christ's interpretation. They are, moreover, inconsistent with a religious frame of mind, for, as no one ever either feels himself disposed to pleasantry, or capable of being diverted with the pleasantry of others, upon matters in which he is deeply interested, so a mind intent upon the acquisition of Heaven, rejects with indignation every attempt to entertain it with jests, calculated to degrade or deride subjects which it never recollects but with seriousness and anxiety. Nothing but stupidity, or the most frivolous dissipation of thought, can make even the inconsiderate forget the supreme importance of every thing which relates to the expectation of a future existence. Whilst the infidel mocks at the superstitions of the vulgar, exults over their credulous fears, their childish errors, or fantastic rites, it does not occur to him to observe, that the most preposterou