Ethan Allen's Reason the Only Oracle of Man, 1 published in 1784, was perhaps the only production of native origin to which anything like general attention was accorded; and the evident inability of this work to root itself deeply in the thought of the people, despite the prestige due to the author's Revolutionary record, was demonstrated the moment Paine's more serious work began to circulate in this country. The crudeness of Allen's style, coupled with the ferocity of his onslaught on the advocates and absurdly credulous devotees of supernaturalism, as Allen regarded the orthodox party of his day, went far toward determining the attitude of contempt and high-minded scorn with which his work was generally treated, when leaders of conservative thought deigned to notice it at all. 2
- 1 Allen's book of some 477 pages bore the following pretentious and rambling title: Reason the only Oracle of Man, or a Compendius System of Natural Religion. Alternately Adorned with Confutations of a Variety of Doctrines incompatible to it; Deduced from the Most Exalted Ideas which we are able to form of the Divine and Human Characters, and from the Universe in General. By Ethan Allen, Esq. Bennington, State of Vermont. The Preface is dated July 2, 1782. Evans records the fact that the entire edition, except about thirty copies, was destroyed by fire, said to have been caused by lightning, an event which the orthodox construed as a judgment from heaven on account of the nature of the book. Cf. American Bibliography, vol. vi, p. 266. The author's aim has been interpreted as an effort " to build up a system of natural religion on the basis of a deity expressed in the external universe, as interpreted by the reason of man, in which the author includes the moral consciousness." (Moncure D. Conway in Open Court [magazine], January 28, 1892, article: "Ethan Allen's Oracles of Reason," p. 3119.)
- 2 The Literary Diary of Ezra Stiles, vol. iii, p. 345. The comment of Yale's president is fairly representative: "And the 13th Inst died in Vermont the profane & impious Deist Gen lEthan Allen, Author of the Oracles of Reason, a Book replete with scurrilous Reflexions on Revelation. 'And in Hell he lift up his Eyes being in Torments.' " (Ibid.) In 1787, at Litchfield, Connecticut, where Allen's home had once been, there was published an anonymous sermon, from the text: "And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks which the swine did eat." (Luke 15: 16.) The sermon was planned to counteract the effect produced by the "prophane, prayerless, graceless infidel," Allen, through the publication of the book in question. The author, "Common Sense" (apparently Josiah Sherman), adopts for his sermon the caption, "A Sermon to Swine," and explains in the Advertisement the temper of his mood: " By way of apology, I hope Gen. Allen will pardon any reproach that may be supposable, in comparing him to the Prodigal Son, sent by the Citizen into his fields to feed Swine with husks, when he considers, what an infinitely greater reproach he casts upon the holy oracles of God, and upon his Prophets, Apostles and Ministers, and upon the Lord of life and glory himself; at whose tribunal we must all shortly appear; when he represents Him as an impostor and cheat, and all the blessed doctrines of the gospel as falsehood and lies." (A Sermon to Swine: From Luke xv: 16 . . . Containing a concise, but sufficient answer to General Allen's Oracles of Reason. By Common Sense, A. M., Litchfield, 1787.)
An amusing albeit suggestive episode is recorded by William Bentley in his Diary, in connection with certain reflections on the dangers involved in the loaning of books: "Allen's oracles of reason . . . was lent to Col. C. under solemn promise of secrecy, but by him sent to a Mr. Grafton, who was reported to have died a Confirmed Infidel. . . . The book was found at his death in his chamber, examined with horror by his female relations. By them conveyed to a Mr. Williams ... & there examined reported to be mine from the initials W. B., viewed as an awful curiosity by hundreds, connected with a report that I encouraged infidelity in Grafton by my prayers with him in his dying hour, & upon the whole a terrible opposition to me fixed in the minds of the devout & ignorant multitude." (Ibid., vol. i, p. 82.)
The following extract from Timothy Dwight's poem on The Triumph of Infidelity supplies another interesting contemporaneous estimate of Allen's assault upon revelation:
" In vain thro realms of nonsense ran
The great Clodhopping oracle of man.
Yet faithful were his toils: What could he more?
In Satan's cause he bustled, bruised and swore;
And what the due reward, from me shall know,
For gentlemen of equal worth below."
A foot-note explains the point in the last two lines: "In A—n's Journal, the writer observes, he presumes he shall be treated in the future world as well as other gentlemen of equal merit are treated: A sentiment in which all his countrymen will join." (The Triumph of Infidelity: A Poem. [Anonymous], 1788, pp. 23 et seq. The copy referred to is dedicated by the author "To Mons. de Voltaire.")
