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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 1
+(of 12), by Robert G. Ingersoll
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 1 (of 12)
+       Dresden Edition--Lectures
+
+Author: Robert G. Ingersoll
+
+Release Date: February 9, 2012 [EBook #38801]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WORKS OF INGERSOLL ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE WORKS OF ROBERT G. INGERSOLL
+
+"The Destroyer Of Weeds, Thistles And Thorns Is A Benefactor, Whether He
+Soweth Grain Or Not."
+
+IN TWELVE VOLUMES, VOLUME I.
+
+LECTURES
+
+1901
+
+THE DRESDEN PUBLISHING CO.
+
+
+TO
+
+EVA A. INGERSOLL,
+
+MY WIFE,
+
+A WOMAN WITHOUT SUPERSTITION,
+
+THIS VOLUME
+
+IS DEDICATED.
+
+FOR THE LOVE OF GOD.
+
+FOR THE USE OF MAN,
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.
+
+THE GODS.
+
+(1872.)
+
+An Honest God is the Noblest Work of Man--Resemblance of Gods to
+their Creators--Manufacture and Characteristics of Deities--Their
+Amours--Deficient in many Departments of Knowledge--Pleased with the
+Butchery of Unbelievers--A Plentiful Supply--Visitations--One God's
+Laws of War--The Book called the Bible--Heresy of Universalism--Faith
+an unhappy mixture of Insanity and Ignorance--Fallen Gods, or
+Devils--Directions concerning Human Slavery--The first Appearance of
+the Devil--The Tree of Knowledge--Give me the Storm and Tempest of
+Thought--Gods and Devils Natural Productions--Personal Appearance
+of Deities--All Man's Ideas suggested by his Surroundings--Phenomena
+Supposed to be Produced by Intelligent Powers--Insanity and Disease
+attributed to Evil Spirits--Origin of the Priesthood--Temptation of
+Christ--Innate Ideas--Divine Interference--Special Providence--The
+Crane and the Fish--Cancer as a proof of Design--Matter and
+Force--Miracle--Passing the Hat for just one Fact--Sir William Hamilton
+on Cause and Effect--The Phenomena of Mind--Necessity and Free Will--The
+Dark Ages--The Originality of Repetition--Of what Use have the Gods been
+to Man?--Paley and Design--Make Good Health Contagious--Periodicity of
+the Universe and the Commencement of Intellectual Freedom--Lesson of
+the ineffectual attempt to rescue the Tomb of Christ from the
+Mohammedans--The Cemetery of the Gods--Taking away Crutches--Imperial
+Reason
+
+
+HUMBOLDT.
+
+(1869.)
+
+The Universe is Governed by Law--The Self-made Man--Poverty generally
+an Advantage--Humboldt's Birth-place--His desire for Travel--On what
+Humboldt's Fame depends--His Companions and Friends--Investigations
+in the New World--A Picture--Subjects of his Addresses--Victory of the
+Church over Philosophy--Influence of the discovery that the World is
+governed by Law--On the term Law--Copernicus--Astronomy--Aryabhatta--
+Descartes--Condition of the World and Man when the morning of Science
+Dawned--Reasons for Honoring Humboldt--The World his Monument
+
+
+THOMAS PAINE.
+
+(1870.)
+
+With his Name left out the History of Liberty cannot be Written--Paine's
+Origin and Condition--His arrival in America with a Letter of
+Introduction by Franklin--Condition of the Colonies--"Common Sense"--A
+new Nation Born--Paine the Best of Political Writers--The "Crisis"--War
+not to the Interest of a trading Nation--Paine's Standing at the Close
+of the Revolution--Close of the Eighteenth Century in France-The
+"Rights of Man"--Paine Prosecuted in England--"The World is my
+Country"--Elected to the French Assembly--Votes against the Death of
+the King--Imprisoned--A look behind the Altar--The "Age of Reason"--His
+Argument against the Bible as a Revelation--Christianity of Paine's
+Day--A Blasphemy Law in Force in Maryland--The Scotch "Kirk"--Hanging
+of Thomas Aikenhead for Denying the Inspiration of the
+Scriptures--"Cathedrals and Domes, and Chimes and Chants"--Science--"He
+Died in the Land his Genius Defended,"
+
+
+INDIVIDUALITY.
+
+(1873.)
+
+"His Soul was like a Star and Dwelt Apart"--Disobedience one of the
+Conditions of Progress.--Magellan--The Monarch and the Hermit-Why
+the Church hates a Thinker--The Argument from Grandeur and
+Prosperity-Travelers and Guide-boards--A Degrading Saying--Theological
+Education--Scotts, Henrys and McKnights--The Church the Great
+Robber--Corrupting the Reason of Children--Monotony of Acquiescence: For
+God's sake, say No--Protestant Intolerance: Luther and Calvin--Assertion
+of Individual Independence a Step toward Infidelity--Salute to
+Jupiter--The Atheistic Bug-Little Religious Liberty in America--God in
+the Constitution, Man Out--Decision of the Supreme Court of Illinois
+that an Unbeliever could not testify in any Court--Dissimulation--Nobody
+in this Bed--The Dignity of a Unit
+
+
+HERETICS AND HERESIES.
+
+(1874.)
+
+Liberty, a Word without which all other Words are Vain--The Church, the
+Bible, and Persecution--Over the wild Waves of War rose and fell
+the Banner of Jesus Christ--Highest Type of the Orthodox
+Christian--Heretics' Tongues and why they should be Removed before
+Burning--The Inquisition Established--Forms of Torture--Act of Henry
+VIII for abolishing Diversity of Opinion--What a Good Christian was
+Obliged to Believe--The Church has Carried the Black Flag--For what Men
+and Women have been Burned--John Calvin's Advent into the
+World--His Infamous Acts--Michael Servetus--Castalio--Spread of
+Presbyterianism--Indictment of a Presbyterian Minister in Illinois for
+Heresy--Specifications--The Real Bible
+
+
+THE GHOSTS.
+
+(1877.)
+
+Dedication to Ebon C. Ingersoll--Preface--Mendacity of the Religious
+Press--"Materialism"--Ways of Pleasing the Ghosts--The Idea of
+Immortality not Born of any Book--Witchcraft and Demon-ology--Witch
+Trial before Sir Matthew Hale--John Wesley a Firm Believer in
+Ghosts--"Witch-spots"--Lycanthropy--Animals Tried and Convicted--The
+Governor of Minnesota and the Grasshoppers--A Papal Bull against
+Witchcraft--Victims of the Delusion--Sir William Blackstone's
+Affirmation--Trials in Belgium--Incubi and Succubi--A Bishop
+Personated by the Devil--The Doctrine that Diseases are caused by
+Ghosts--Treatment--Timothy Dwight against Vaccination--Ghosts as
+Historians--The Language of Eden--Leibnitz, Founder of the Science
+of Language--Cosmas on Astronomy--Vagaries of Kepler and Tycho
+Brahe--Discovery of Printing, Powder, and America--Thanks to the
+Inventors--The Catholic Murderer and the Meat--Let the Ghosts Go
+
+
+THE LIBERTY OF MAN, WOMAN, AND CHILD.
+
+(1877.)
+
+Liberty sustains the same Relation to Mind that Space does to
+Matter--The History of Man a History of Slavery--The Infidel Our
+Fathers in the good old Time--The iron Arguments that Christians
+Used--Instruments of Torture--A Vision of the Inquisition--Models of
+Man's Inventions--Weapons, Armor, Musical Instruments, Paintings,
+Books, Skulls--The Gentleman in the Dug-out--Homage to Genius and
+Intellect--Abraham Lincoln--What I mean by Liberty--The Man who cannot
+afford to Speak his Thought is a Certificate of the Meanness of the
+Community in which he Resides--Liberty of Woman--Marriage and the
+Family--Ornaments the Souvenirs of Bondage-The Story of the Garden of
+Eden--Adami and Heva--Equality of the Sexes-The word "Boss"--The Cross
+Man-The Stingy Man--Wives who are Beggars--How to Spend Money--By
+the Tomb of the Old Napoleon--The Woman you Love will never Grow
+Old--Liberty of Children--When your Child tells a Lie--Disowning
+Children--Beating your own Flesh and Blood--Make Home Pleasant--Sunday
+when I was a Boy--The Laugh of a Child--The doctrine of Eternal
+Punishment--Jonathan Edwards on the Happiness of Believing Husbands
+whose Wives are in Hell--The Liberty of Eating and Sleeping--Water in
+Fever--Soil and Climate necessary to the production of Genius--Against
+Annexing Santo Domingo--Descent of Man--Conclusion
+
+
+ABOUT FARMING IN ILLINOIS.
+
+(1877.)
+
+To Plow is to Pray; to Plant is to Prophesy, and the Harvest Answers and
+Fulfills--The Old Way of Farming--Cooking an Unknown Art-Houses, Fuel,
+and Crops--The Farmer's Boy--What a Farmer should Sell--Beautifying
+the Home--Advantages of Illinois as a Farming State--Advantages of the
+Farmer over the Mechanic--Farm Life too Lonely-On Early Rising--Sleep
+the Best Doctor--Fashion--Patriotism and Boarding Houses--The Farmer and
+the Railroads--Money and Confidence--Demonetization of Silver-Area of
+Illinois--Mortgages and Interest--Kindness to Wives and Children--How
+a Beefsteak should be Cooked--Decorations and Comfort--Let the Children
+Sleep--Old Age
+
+
+WHAT MUST WE DO TO BE SAVED?
+
+(1880.)
+
+Preface--The Synoptic Gospels--Only Mark Knew of the Necessity of
+Belief--Three Christs Described--The Jewish Gentleman and the Piece of
+Bacon--Who Wrote the New Testament?--Why Christ and the Apostles wrote
+Nothing--Infinite Respect for the Man Christ--Different Feeling for
+the Theological Christ--Saved from What?--Chapter on the Gospel of
+Matthew--What this Gospel says we must do to be Saved--Jesus and the
+Children--John Calvin and Jonathan Edwards conceived of as Dimpled
+Darlings--Christ and the Man who inquired what Good Thing he should
+do that he might have Eternal Life--Nothing said about Belief--An
+Interpolation--Chapter on the Gospel of Mark--The Believe or be Damned
+Passage, and why it was written--The last Conversation of Christ with
+his Disciples--The Signs that Follow them that Believe--Chapter on
+the Gospel of Luke--Substantial Agreement with Matthew and Mark--How
+Zaccheus achieved Salvation--The two Thieves on the Cross--Chapter
+on the Gospel of John--The Doctrine of Regeneration, or the New
+Birth--Shall we Love our Enemies while God Damns His?--Chapter on the
+Catholics--Communication with Heaven through Decayed Saints--Nuns and
+Nunneries--Penitentiaries of God should be Investigated--The
+Athanasian Creed expounded--The Trinity and its Members--Chapter on the
+Episcopalians--Origin of the Episcopal Church--Apostolic Succession
+an Imported Article--Episcopal Creed like the Catholic, with a
+few Additional Absurdities--Chapter on the Methodists--Wesley and
+Whitfield--Their Quarrel about Predestination--Much Preaching for Little
+Money--Adapted to New Countries--Chapter on the Presbyterians--John
+Calvin, Murderer--Meeting between Calvin and Knox--The Infamy of
+Calvinism--Division in the Church--The Young Presbyterian's Resignation
+to the Fate of his Mother--A Frightful, Hideous, and Hellish
+Creed--Chapter on the Evangelical Alliance--Jeremy Taylor's Opinion of
+Baptists--Orthodoxy not Dead--Creed of the Alliance--Total Depravity,
+Eternal Damnation--What do You Propose?--The Gospel of Good-fellowship,
+Cheerfulness, Health, Good Living, Justice--No Forgiveness--God's
+Forgiveness Does not Pay my Debt to Smith--Gospel of Liberty, of
+Intelligence, of Humanity--One World at a Time--"Upon that Rock I
+Stand"
+
+
+
+
+PUBLISHER'S PREFACE.
+
+IN presenting to the public this edition of the late Robert G.
+Ingersoll's works, it has been the aim of the publisher to make it
+worthy of the author and a pleasure to his friends and admirers. No one
+can be more conscious than he of the magnitude of the task
+undertaken, or more keenly feel how far short it must fall of adequate
+accomplishment.
+
+When it is remembered that countless utterances of the author were never
+caught from his eloquent lips, it is matter for congratulation that
+so much has been preserved. The authorized addresses, arguments and
+articles that have already appeared in print and passed the review of
+the authors more or less careful inspection, will be readily recognized
+as accurate and complete; but in this latest and fullest compilation
+are many emanations from his heart and brain that have never had his
+scrutiny, were not revised by him, and that yet, by general judgment,
+should not be lost to the world.
+
+These unedited sundries consist of fragments of speeches and incompleted
+articles discovered amongst the authors literary remains and for
+unknown reasons left in more or less unfinished form. It has been the
+publisher's ambition to gather these fugitive pieces and place them in
+this edition by the side of the saved treasures. Whether the work has
+been well or ill done a generous public must decide, while the sole
+responsibility must rest with, as it has been assumed by, the publisher.
+
+In carrying out the design of the present edition, the publisher
+gratefully acknowledges the assistance of Mr. Ingersoll's family,
+who have freely placed at his disposal many papers, inscriptions,
+monographs, memoranda and pages of valuable material.
+
+Recognition is also here made of the kind courtesy of the press and of
+publishers of magazines who have generously permitted the publication of
+articles originally written for them.
+
+Finally, the publisher gives his thanks to all the devoted friends of
+the author who in many ways, by suggestion and unselfish labor,
+have aided in getting out this work. Of these, none have been more
+unremitting in service, and to none is the publisher more indebted, than
+to Mr. I. Newton Baker, Mr. Ingersoll's former private secretary, to Dr.
+Edgar C. Beall, and to Mr. George E. Macdonald for the fine Tables of
+Contents and the very valuable Index to this edition.
+
+C. P. FARRELL.
+
+New York, July, 1900.
+
+
+
+
+THE GODS
+
+An Honest God is the Noblest Work of Man.
+
+EACH nation has created a god, and the god has always resembled his
+creators. He hated and loved what they hated and loved, and he was
+invariably found on the side of those in power. Each god was intensely
+patriotic, and detested all nations but his own. All these gods demanded
+praise, flattery, and worship. Most of them were pleased with sacrifice,
+and the smell of innocent blood has ever been considered a divine
+perfume. All these gods have insisted upon having a vast number of
+priests, and the priests have always insisted upon being supported by
+the people, and the principal business of these priests has been to
+boast about their god, and to insist that he could easily vanquish all
+the other gods put together.
+
+These gods have been manufactured after numberless models, and according
+to the most grotesque fashions. Some have a thousand arms, some a
+hundred heads, some are adorned with necklaces of living snakes, some
+are armed with clubs, some with sword and shield, some with bucklers,
+and some have wings as a cherub; some were invisible, some would show
+themselves entire, and some would only show their backs; some were
+jealous, some were foolish, some turned themselves into men, some into
+swans, some into bulls, some into doves, and some into Holy Ghosts,
+and made love to the beautiful daughters of men. Some were married--all
+ought to have been--and some were considered as old bachelors from all
+eternity. Some had children, and the children were turned into gods and
+worshiped as their fathers had been. Most of these gods were revengeful,
+savage, lustful, and ignorant. As they generally depended upon
+their priests for information, their ignorance can hardly excite our
+astonishment.
+
+These gods did not even know the shape of the worlds they had created,
+but supposed them perfectly flat Some thought the day could be
+lengthened by stopping the sun, that the blowing of horns could throw
+down the walls of a city, and all knew so little of the real nature
+of the people they had created, that they commanded the people to love
+them. Some were so ignorant as to suppose that man could believe just
+as he might desire, or as they might command, and that to be governed
+by observation, reason, and experience was a most foul and damning sin.
+None of these gods could give a true account of the creation of this
+little earth. All were wofully deficient in geology and astronomy. As a
+rule, they were most miserable legislators, and as executives, they were
+far inferior to the average of American presidents.
+
+These deities have demanded the most abject and degrading obedience. In
+order to please them, man must lay his very face in the dust Of course,
+they have always been partial to the people who created them, and have
+generally shown their partiality by assisting those people to rob and
+destroy others, and to ravish their wives and daughters.
+
+Nothing is so pleasing to these gods as the butchery of unbelievers.
+Nothing so enrages them, even now, as to have some one deny their
+existence.
+
+Few nations have been so poor as to have but one god. Gods were made
+so easily, and the raw material cost so little, that generally the god
+market was fairly glutted, and heaven crammed with these phantoms. These
+gods not only attended to the skies, but were supposed to interfere in
+all the affairs of men. They presided over everybody and everything.
+They attended to every department. All was supposed to be under their
+immediate control. Nothing was too small--nothing too large; the falling
+of sparrows and the motions of the planets were alike attended to by
+these industrious and observing deities. From their starry thrones they
+frequently came to the earth for the purpose of imparting information to
+man. It is related of one that he came amid thunderings and lightnings
+in order to tell the people that they should not cook a kid in its
+mother's milk. Some left their shining abodes to tell women that they
+should, or should not, have children, to inform a priest how to cut
+and wear his apron, and to give directions as to the proper manner of
+cleaning the intestines of a bird.
+
+When the people failed to worship one of these gods, or failed to feed
+and clothe his priests, (which was much the same thing,) he generally
+visited them with pestilence and famine. Sometimes he allowed some other
+nation to drag them into slavery--to sell their wives and children; but
+generally he glutted his vengeance by murdering their first-born.
+The priests always did their whole duty, not only in predicting these
+calamities, but in proving, when they did happen, that they were brought
+upon the people because they had not given quite enough to them.
+
+These gods differed just as the nations differed; the greatest and most
+powerful had the most powerful gods, while the weaker ones were obliged
+to content themselves with the very off-scourings of the heavens. Each
+of these gods promised happiness here and hereafter to all his slaves,
+and threatened to eternally punish all who either disbelieved in his
+existence or suspected that some other god might be his superior; but to
+deny the existence of all gods was, and is, the crime of crimes. Redden
+your hands with human blood; blast by slander the fair fame of the
+innocent; strangle the smiling child upon its mother's knees; deceive,
+ruin and desert the beautiful girl who loves and trusts you, and
+your case is not hopeless. For all this, and for all these you may
+be forgiven. For all this, and for all these, that bankrupt court
+established by the gospel, will give you a discharge; but deny the
+existence of these divine ghosts, of these gods, and the sweet and
+tearful face of Mercy becomes livid with eternal hate. Heaven's golden
+gates are shut, and you, with an infinite curse ringing in your
+ears, with the brand of infamy upon your brow, commence your endless
+wanderings in the lurid gloom of hell--an immortal vagrant--an eternal
+outcast--a deathless convict.
+
+One of these gods, and one who demands our love, our admiration and
+our worship, and one who is worshiped, if mere heartless ceremony is
+worship, gave to his chosen people for their guidance, the following
+laws of war: "When thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it,
+_then proclaim peace unto it_. And it shall be if it make thee answer of
+peace, and open unto thee, then it shall be that all the people that is
+found therein shall be tributaries unto thee, and they shall serve thee.
+And if it will make no peace with thee, but will make war against thee,
+then thou shalt besiege it.
+
+"And when the Lord thy God hath delivered it into thy hands, thou shalt
+smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword. But the women and
+the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all
+the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself, and thou shalt eat
+the spoil of thine enemies which the Lord thy God hath given thee. Thus
+shalt thou do unto all the cities which are very far off from thee,
+which are not of the cities of these nations. But of the cities of these
+people which the Lord thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, _thou
+shalt save alive nothing that breatheth_"
+
+Is it possible for man to conceive of anything more perfectly infamous?
+Can you believe that such directions were given by any being except an
+infinite fiend? Remember that the army receiving these instructions
+was one of invasion. Peace was offered upon condition that the people
+submitting should be the slaves of the invader; but if any should have
+the courage to defend their homes, to fight for the love of wife and
+child, then the sword was to spare none--not even the prattling, dimpled
+babe.
+
+And we are called upon to worship such a God; to get upon our knees and
+tell him that he is good, that he is merciful, that he is just, that he
+is love. We are asked to stifle every noble sentiment of the soul, and
+to trample under foot all the sweet charities of the heart. Because we
+refuse to stultify ourselves--refuse to become liars--we are denounced,
+hated, traduced and ostracized here, and this same god threatens to
+torment us in eternal fire the moment death allows him to fiercely
+clutch our naked helpless souls. Let the people hate, let the god
+threaten--we will educate them, and we will despise and defy him.
+
+The book, called the Bible, is filled with passages equally horrible,
+unjust and atrocious. This is the book to be read in schools in order
+to make our children loving, kind and gentle! This is the book to
+be recognized in our Constitution as the source of all authority and
+justice!
+
+Strange! that no one has ever been persecuted by the church for
+believing God bad, while hundreds of millions have been destroyed
+for thinking him good. The orthodox church never will forgive the
+Universalist for saying "God is love." It has always been considered
+as one of the very highest evidences of true and undefiled religion to
+insist that all men, women and children deserve eternal damnation. It
+has always been heresy to say, "God will at last save all."
+
+We are asked to justify these frightful passages, these infamous laws
+of war, because the Bible is the word of God. As a matter of fact, there
+never was, and there never can be, an argument, even tending to prove
+the inspiration of any book whatever. In the absence of positive
+evidence, analogy and experience, argument is simply impossible, and at
+the very best, can amount only to a useless agitation of the air.
+
+The instant we admit that a book is too sacred to be doubted, or even
+reasoned about, we are mental serfs. It is infinitely absurd to suppose
+that a god would address a communication to intelligent beings, and yet
+make it a crime, to be punished in eternal flames, for them to use their
+intelligence for the purpose of understanding his communication. If we
+have the right to use our reason, we certainly have the right to act in
+accordance with it, and no god can have the right to punish us for such
+action.
+
+The doctrine that future happiness depends upon belief is monstrous.
+It is the infamy of infamies. The notion that faith in Christ is to
+be rewarded by an eternity of bliss, while a dependence upon reason,
+observation, and experience merits everlasting pain, is too absurd for
+refutation, and can be relieved only by that unhappy mixture of insanity
+and ignorance, called "faith." What man, who ever thinks, can believe
+that blood can appease God? And yet, our entire system of religion is
+based upon that belief. The Jews pacified Jehovah with the blood of
+animals, and according to the Christian system, the blood of Jesus
+softened the heart of God a little, and rendered possible the salvation
+of a fortunate few. It is hard to conceive how the human mind can give
+assent to such terrible ideas, or how any sane man can read the Bible
+and still believe in the doctrine of inspiration.
+
+Whether the Bible is true or false, is of no consequence in comparison
+with the mental freedom of the race.
+
+Salvation through slavery is worthless. Salvation from slavery is
+inestimable.
+
+As long as man believes the Bible to be infallible, that book is his
+master. The civilization of this century is not the child of faith, but
+of unbelief--the result of free thought.
+
+All that is necessary, as it seems to me, to convince any reasonable
+person that the Bible is simply and purely of human invention--of
+barbarian invention--is to read it Read it as you would any other book;
+think of it as you would of any other; get the bandage of reverence
+from your eyes; drive from your heart the phantom of fear; push from the
+throne of your brain the cowled form of superstition--then read the Holy
+Bible, and you will be amazed that you ever, for one moment, supposed a
+being of infinite wisdom, goodness and purity, to be the author of such
+ignorance and of such atrocity.
+
+Our ancestors not only had their god-factories, but they made devils as
+well. These devils were generally disgraced and fallen gods. Some had
+headed unsuccessful revolts; some had been caught sweetly reclining in
+the shadowy folds of some fleecy cloud, kissing the wife of the god of
+gods. These devils generally sympathized with man. There is in regard
+to them a most wonderful fact: In nearly all the theologies, mythologies
+and religions, the devils have been much more humane and merciful
+than the gods. No devil ever gave one of his generals an order to kill
+children and to rip open the bodies of pregnant women. Such barbarities
+were always ordered by the good gods. The pestilences were sent by the
+most merciful gods. The frightful famine, during which the dying child
+with pallid lips sucked the withered bosom of a dead mother, was sent by
+the loving gods. No devil was ever charged with such fiendish brutality.
+
+One of these gods, according to the account, drowned an entire world,
+with the exception of eight persons. The old, the young, the beautiful
+and the helpless were remorsely devoured by the shoreless sea. This,
+the most fearful tragedy that the imagination of ignorant priests ever
+conceived, was the act, not of a devil, but of a god, so-called, whom
+men ignorantly worship unto this day. What a stain such an act would
+leave upon the character of a devil! One of the prophets of one of these
+gods, having in his power a captured king, hewed him in pieces in the
+sight of all the people. Was ever any imp of any devil guilty of such
+savagery?
+
+One of these gods is reported to have given the following directions
+concerning human slavery: "If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years shall
+he serve, and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. If he
+came in by himself, he shall go out by himself; if he were married, then
+his wife shall go out with him. If his master have given him a wife, and
+she have borne him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be
+her master's, and he shall go out by himself. And if the servant shall
+plainly say, I love my master, my wife and my children; I will not go
+out free. Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also
+bring him unto the door, or unto the door-post; and his master shall
+bore his ear through with an awl; and he shall serve him forever."
+
+According to this, a man was given liberty upon condition that he would
+desert forever his wife and children. Did any devil ever force upon a
+husband, upon a father, so cruel and so heartless an alternative? Who
+can worship such a god? Who can bend the knee to such a monster? Who can
+pray to such a fiend?
+
+All these gods threatened to torment forever the souls of their enemies.
+Did any devil ever make so infamous a threat? The basest thing recorded
+of the devil, is what he did concerning Job and his family, and that
+was done by the express permission of one of these gods, and to decide
+a little difference of opinion between their serene highnesses as to the
+character of "my servant Job." The first account we have of the devil is
+found in that purely scientific book called Genesis, and is as follows:
+"Now the serpent was more subtile than any beast of the field which the
+Lord God had made, and he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye
+shall not eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden? And the woman
+said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the
+garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden
+God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest
+ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die.
+For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall
+be opened and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the
+woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to
+the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the
+fruit thereof and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and
+he did eat.... And the Lord God said, Behold the man is become as one of
+us, to know good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take
+also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever. Therefore the Lord
+God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden to till the ground from which
+he was taken. So he drove out the man, and he placed at the east of the
+Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword, which turned every way to
+keep the way of the tree of life."
+
+According to this account the promise of the devil was fulfilled to
+the very letter. Adam and Eve did not die, and they did become as gods,
+knowing good and evil.
+
+The account shows, however, that the gods dreaded education and
+knowledge then just as they do now. The church still faithfully guards
+the dangerous tree of knowledge, and has exerted in all ages her utmost
+power to keep mankind from eating the fruit thereof. The priests have
+never ceased repeating the old falsehood and the old threat: "Ye shall
+not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die." From every
+pulpit comes the same cry, born of the same fear: "Lest they eat and
+become as gods, knowing good and evil." For this reason, religion
+hates science, faith detests reason, theology is the sworn enemy of
+philosophy, and the church with its flaming sword still guards the hated
+tree, and like its supposed founder, curses to the lowest depths the
+brave thinkers who eat and become as gods.
+
+If the account given in Genesis is really true, ought we not, after all,
+to thank this serpent? He was the first schoolmaster, the first advocate
+of learning, the first enemy of ignorance, the first to whisper in human
+ears the sacred word liberty, the creator of ambition, the author of
+modesty, of inquiry, of doubt, of investigation, of progress and of
+civilization.
+
+Give me the storm and tempest of thought and action, rather than the
+dead calm of ignorance and faith! Banish me from Eden when you will; but
+first let me eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge!
+
+Some nations have borrowed their gods; of this number, we are compelled
+to say, is our own. The Jews having ceased to exist as a nation, and
+having no further use for a god, our ancestors appropriated him and
+adopted their devil at the same time. This borrowed god is still an
+object of some adoration, and this adopted devil still excites the
+apprehensions of our people. He is still supposed to be setting his
+traps and snares for the purpose of catching our unwary souls, and is
+still, with reasonable success, waging the old war against our God.
+
+To me, it seems easy to account for these ideas concerning gods and
+devils. They are a perfectly natural production. Man has created them
+all, and under the same circumstances would create them again. Man has
+not only created all these gods, but he has created them out of the
+materials by which he has been surrounded. Generally he has modeled them
+after himself, and has given them hands, heads, feet, eyes, ears,
+and organs of speech. Each nation made its gods and devils speak its
+language not only, but put in their mouths the same mistakes in history,
+geography, astronomy, and in all matters of fact, generally made by the
+people. No god was ever in advance of the nation that created him. The
+negroes represented their deities with black skins and curly hair. The
+Mongolian gave to his a yellow complexion and dark almond-shaped eyes.
+The Jews were not allowed to paint theirs, or we should have seen
+Jehovah with a full beard, an oval face, and an aquiline nose. Zeus was
+a perfect Greek, and Jove looked as though a member of the Roman senate.
+The gods of Egypt had the patient face and placid look of the loving
+people who made them. The gods of northern countries were represented
+warmly clad in robes of fur; those of the tropics were naked. The gods
+of India were often mounted upon elephants; those of some islanders were
+great swimmers, and the deities of the Arctic zone were passionately
+fond of whale's blubber. Nearly all people have carved or painted
+representations of their gods, and these representations were, by the
+lower classes, generally treated as the real gods, and to these images
+and idols they addressed prayers and offered sacrifice.
+
+In some countries? even at this day, if the people after long praying
+do not obtain their desires, they turn their images off as impotent
+gods, or upbraid them in a most reproachful manner, loading them with
+blows and curses. 'How now, dog of a spirit,' they say, 'we give you
+lodging in a magnificent temple, we gild you with gold, feed you with
+the choicest food, and offer incense to you; yet, after all this care,
+you are so ungrateful as to refuse us what we ask.'
+
+Hereupon they will pull the god down and drag him through the filth
+of the street. If, in the meantime, it happens that they obtain their
+request, then, with a great deal of ceremony, they wash him clean, carry
+him back and place him in his temple again, where they fall down and
+make excuses for what they have done. 'Of a truth,' they say, 'we were
+a little too hasty, and you were a little too long in your grant. Why
+should you bring this beating on yourself. But what is done cannot be
+undone. Let us not think of it any more. If you will forget what is
+past, we will gild you over brighter again than before.
+
+Man has never been at a loss for gods. He has worshiped almost
+everything, including the vilest and most disgusting beasts. He has
+worshiped fire, earth, air, water, light, stars, and for hundreds of
+ages prostrated himself before enormous snakes. Savage tribes often make
+gods of articles they get from civilized people. The Todas worship a
+cow-bell. The Kotas worship two silver plates, which they regard as
+husband and wife, and another tribe manufactured a god out of a king of
+hearts.
+
+Man, having always been the physical superior of woman, accounts for
+the fact that most of the high gods have been males. Had woman been the
+physical superior, the powers supposed to be the rulers of Nature would
+have been women, and instead of being represented in the apparel of
+man, they would have luxuriated in trains, lownecked dresses, laces and
+back-hair.
+
+Nothing can be plainer than that each nation gives to its god its
+peculiar characteristics, and that every individual gives to his god his
+personal peculiarities.
+
+Man has no ideas, and can have none, except those suggested by his
+surroundings. He cannot conceive of anything utterly unlike what he has
+seen or felt. He can exaggerate, diminish, combine, separate, deform,
+beautify, improve, multiply and compare what he sees, what he feels,
+what he hears, and all of which he takes cognizance through the medium
+of the senses; but he cannot create. Having seen exhibitions of power,
+he can say, omnipotent. Having lived, he can say, immortality. Knowing
+something of time, he can say, eternity. Conceiving something of
+intelligence, he can say, God. Having seen exhibitions of malice, he can
+say, devil. A few gleams of happiness having fallen athwart the gloom of
+his life, he can say, heaven. Pain, in its numberless forms, having been
+experienced, he can say, hell. Yet all these ideas have a foundation
+in fact, and only a foundation. The superstructure has been reared
+by exaggerating, diminishing, combining, separating, deforming,
+beautifying, improving or multiplying realities, so that the edifice or
+fabric is but the incongruous grouping of what man has perceived through
+the medium of the senses. It is as though we should give to a lion the
+wings of an eagle, the hoofs of a bison, the tail of a horse, the pouch
+of a kangaroo, and the trunk of an elephant. We have in imagination
+created an impossible monster. And yet the various parts of this monster
+really exist So it is with all the gods that man has made.
+
+Beyond nature man cannot go even in thought--above nature he cannot
+rise--below nature he cannot fall.
+
+Man, in his ignorance, supposed that all phenomena were produced by
+some intelligent powers, and with direct reference to him. To preserve
+friendly relations with these powers was, and still is, the object of
+all religions. Man knelt through fear and to implore assistance, or
+through gratitude for some favor which he supposed had been rendered. He
+endeavored by supplication to appease some being who, for some reason,
+had, as he believed, become enraged. The lightning and thunder terrified
+him. In the presence of the volcano he sank upon his knees. The great
+forests filled with wild and ferocious beasts, the monstrous serpents
+crawling in mysterious depths, the boundless sea, the flaming comets,
+the sinister eclipses, the awful calmness of the stars, and, more than
+all, the perpetual presence of death, convinced him that he was the
+sport and prey of unseen and malignant powers. The strange and frightful
+diseases to which he was subject, the freezings and burnings of fever,
+the contortions of epilepsy, the sudden palsies, the darkness of night,
+and the wild, terrible and fantastic dreams that filled his brain,
+satisfied him that he was haunted and pursued by countless spirits
+of evil. For some reason he supposed that these spirits differed
+in power--that they were not all alike malevolent--that the higher
+controlled the lower, and that his very existence depended upon gaining
+the assistance of the more powerful. For this purpose he resorted to
+prayer, to flattery, to worship and to sacrifice.
+
+These ideas appear to have been almost universal in savage man.
+
+For ages all nations supposed that the sick and insane were possessed by
+evil spirits. For thousands of years the practice of medicine consisted
+in frightening these spirits away. Usually the priests would make the
+loudest and most discordant noises possible. They would blow horns,
+beat upon rude drums, clash cymbals, and in the meantime utter the most
+unearthly yells. If the noise-remedy failed, they would implore the aid
+of some more powerful spirit.
+
+To pacify these spirits was considered of infinite importance. The poor
+barbarian, knowing that men could be softened by gifts, gave to these
+spirits that which to him seemed of the most value. With bursting heart
+he would offer the blood of his dearest child. It was impossible for him
+to conceive of a god utterly unlike himself, and he naturally supposed
+that these powers of the air would be affected a little at the sight of
+so great and so deep a sorrow. It was with the barbarian then as with
+the civilized now--one class lived upon and made merchandise of the
+fears of another. Certain persons took it upon themselves to appease the
+gods, and to instruct the people in their duties to these unseen powers.
+This was the origin of the priesthood. The priest pretended to stand
+between the wrath of the gods and the helplessness of man. He was man's
+attorney at the court of heaven. He carried to the invisible world a
+flag of truce, a protest and a request. He came back with a command,
+with authority and with power. Man fell upon his knees before his own
+servant, and the priest, taking advantage of the awe inspired by his
+supposed influence with the gods, made of his fellow-man a cringing
+hypocrite and slave. Even Christ, the supposed son of God, taught that
+persons were possessed of evil spirits, and frequently, according to
+the account, gave proof of his divine origin and mission by frightening
+droves of devils out of his unfortunate countrymen. Casting out devils
+was his principal employment, and the devils thus banished generally
+took occasion to acknowledge him as the true Messiah; which was not only
+very kind of them, but quite fortunate for him. The religious people
+have always regarded the testimony of these devils as perfectly
+conclusive, and the writers of the New Testament quote the words of
+these imps of darkness with great satisfaction.
+
+The fact that Christ could withstand the temptations of the devil was
+considered as conclusive evidence that he was assisted by some god, or
+at least by some being superior to man. St. Matthew gives an account of
+an attempt made by the devil to tempt the supposed son of God; and it
+has always excited the wonder of Christians that the temptation was
+so nobly and heroically withstood. The account to which I refer is as
+follows:
+
+"Then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted
+of the devil. And when the tempter came to him, he said: 'If thou be the
+son of God, command that these stones be made bread.' But he answered,
+and said: 'It is written: man shall not live by bread alone, but by
+every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.' Then the devil
+taketh him up into the holy city and setteth him upon a pinnacle of
+the temple and saith unto him: 'If thou be the son of God, cast thyself
+down; for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning
+thee, lest at any time thou shalt dash thy foot against a stone,'Jesus
+said unto him: 'It is written again, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy
+God.' Again the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain and
+sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, and
+saith unto him: 'All these will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and
+worship me.'"
+
+The Christians now claim that Jesus was God. If he was God, of course
+the devil knew that fact, and yet, according to this account, the devil
+took 'the omnipotent God and placed him upon a pinnacle of the temple,
+and endeavored to induce him to dash himself against the earth. Failing
+in that, he took the creator, owner and governor of the universe up into
+an exceeding high mountain, and offered him this world--this grain of
+sand--if he, the God of all the worlds, would fall down and worship
+him, a poor devil, without even a tax title to one foot of dirt! Is it
+possible the devil was such an idiot? Should any great credit be given
+to this deity for not being caught with such chaff? Think of it! The
+devil--the prince of sharpers--the king of cunning--the master of
+finesse, trying to bribe God with a grain of sand that belonged to God!
+
+Is there in all the religious literature of the world anything more
+grossly absurd than this?
+
+These devils, according to the Bible, were of various kinds--some could
+speak and hear, others were deaf and dumb. All could not be cast out
+in the same way. The deaf and dumb spirits were quite difficult to deal
+with. St. Mark tells of a gentleman who brought his son to Christ. The
+boy, it seems, was possessed of a dumb spirit, over which the disciples
+had no control. "Jesus said unto the spirit: 'Thou dumb and deaf spirit,
+I charge thee come out of him, and enter no more into him.'" Whereupon,
+the deaf spirit (having heard what was said) cried out (being dumb) and
+immediately vacated the premises. The ease with which Christ controlled
+this deaf and dumb spirit excited the wonder of his disciples, and they
+asked him privately why they could not cast that spirit out. To whom he
+replied: "This kind can come forth by nothing but prayer and fasting." Is
+there a Christian in the whole world who would believe such a story
+if found in any other book? The trouble is, these pious people shut up
+their reason, and then open their Bible.
+
+In the olden times the existence of devils was universally admitted. The
+people had no doubt upon that subject, and from such belief it followed
+as a matter of course, that a person, in order to vanquish these devils,
+had either to be a god, or to be assisted by one. All founders of
+religions have established their claims to divine origin by controlling
+evil spirits and suspending the laws of nature. Casting out devils was
+a certificate of divinity. A prophet, unable to cope with the powers
+of darkness was regarded with contempt The utterance of the highest
+and noblest sentiments, the most blameless and holy life, commanded but
+little respect, unless accompanied by power to work miracles and command
+spirits.
+
+This belief in good and evil powers had its origin in the fact that man
+was surrounded by what he was pleased to call good and evil phenomena.
+Phenomena affecting man pleasantly were ascribed to good spirits, while
+those affecting him unpleasantly or injuriously, were ascribed to evil
+spirits. It being admitted that all phenomena were produced by spirits,
+the spirits were divided according to the phenomena, and the phenomena
+were good or bad as they affected man.
+
+Good spirits were supposed to be the authors of good phenomena, and evil
+spirits of the evil--so that the idea of a devil has been as universal
+as the idea of a god.
+
+Many writers maintain that an idea to become universal must be true;
+that all universal ideas are innate, and that innate ideas cannot be
+false. If the fact that an idea has been universal proves that it
+is innate, and if the fact that an idea is innate proves that it is
+correct, then the believers in innate ideas must admit that the evidence
+of a god superior to nature, and of a devil superior to nature, is
+exactly the same, and that the existence of such a devil must be as
+self-evident as the existence of such a god. The truth is, a god was
+inferred from good, and a devil from bad, phenomena. And it is just as
+natural and logical to suppose that a devil would cause happiness as
+to suppose that a god would produce misery. Consequently, if an
+intelligence, infinite and supreme, is the immediate author of all
+phenomena, it is difficult to determine whether such intelligence is the
+friend or enemy of man. If phenomena were all good, we might say they
+were all produced by a perfectly beneficent being. If they were all bad,
+we might say they were produced by a perfectly malevolent power; but,
+as phenomena are, as they affect man, both good and bad, they must be
+produced by different and antagonistic spirits; by one who is sometimes
+actuated by kindness, and sometimes by malice; or all must be produced
+of necessity, and without reference to their consequences upon man.
+
+The foolish doctrine that all phenomena can be traced to the
+interference of good and evil spirits, has been, and still is, almost
+universal. That most people still believe in some spirit that can change
+the natural order of events, is proven by the fact that nearly all
+resort to prayer. Thousands, at this very moment, are probably imploring
+some supposed power to interfere in their behalf. Some want health
+restored; some ask that the loved and absent be watched over and
+protected, some pray for riches, some for rain, some want diseases
+stayed, some vainly ask for food, some ask for revivals, a few ask for
+more wisdom, and now and then one tells the Lord to do as he may think
+best. Thousands ask to be protected from the devil; some, like David,
+pray for revenge, and some implore even God, not to lead them into
+temptation. All these prayers rest upon, and are produced by, the idea
+that some power not only can, but probably will, change the order of the
+universe. This belief has been among the great majority of tribes
+and nations. All sacred books are filled with the accounts of such
+interferences, and our own Bible is no exception to this rule.
+
+If we believe in a power superior to nature, it is perfectly natural to
+suppose that such power can and will interfere in the affairs of this
+world. If there is no interference, of what practical use can such
+power be? The Scriptures give us the most wonderful accounts of divine
+interference: Animals talk like men; springs gurgle from dry bones; the
+sun and moon stop in the heavens in order that General Joshua may have
+more time to murder; the shadow on a dial goes back ten degrees to
+convince a petty king of a barbarous people that he is not going to die
+of a boil; fire refuses to burn; water positively declines to seek its
+level, but stands up like a wall; grains of sand become lice; common
+walking-sticks, to gratify a mere freak, twist themselves into serpents,
+and then swallow each other by way of exercise; murmuring streams,
+laughing at the attraction of gravitation, run up hill for years,
+following wandering tribes from a pure love of frolic; prophecy becomes
+altogether easier than history; the sons of God become enamored of the
+world's girls; women are changed into salt for the purpose of keeping a
+great event fresh in the minds of men; an excellent article of brimstone
+is imported from heaven free of duty; clothes refuse to wear out for
+forty years; birds keep restaurants and feed wandering prophets free of
+expense; bears tear children in pieces for laughing at old men without
+wigs; muscular development depends upon the length of one's hair; dead
+people come to life, simply to get a joke on their enemies and heirs;
+witches and wizards converse freely with the souls of the departed, and
+God himself becomes a stone-cutter and engraver, after having been a
+tailor and dressmaker.
+
+The veil between heaven and earth was always rent or lifted. The shadows
+of this world, the radiance of heaven, and the glare of hell mixed
+and mingled until man became uncertain as to which country he really
+inhabited. Man dwelt in an unreal world. He mistook his ideas, his
+dreams, for real things. His fears became terrible and malicious
+monsters. He lived in the midst of furies and fairies, nymphs and
+naiads, goblins and ghosts, witches and wizards, sprites and spooks,
+deities and devils. The obscure and gloomy depths were filled with
+claw and wing--with beak and hoof--with leering looks and sneering
+mouths--with the malice of deformity--with the cunning of hatred, and
+with all the slimy forms that fear can draw and paint upon the shadowy
+canvas of the dark.
+
+It is enough to make one almost insane with pity to think what man in
+the long night has suffered; of the tortures he has endured, surrounded,
+as he supposed, by malignant powers and clutched by the fierce phantoms
+of the air. No wonder that he fell upon his trembling knees--that he
+built altars and reddened them even with his own blood. No wonder that
+he implored ignorant priests and impudent magicians for aid. No wonder
+that he crawled groveling in the dust to the temple's door, and there,
+in the insanity of despair, besought the deaf gods to hear his bitter
+cry of agony and fear.
+
+The savage as he emerges from a state of barbarism, gradually loses
+faith in his idols of wood and stone, and in their place puts a
+multitude of spirits. As he advances in knowledge, he generally discards
+the petty spirits, and in their stead believes in one, whom he supposes
+to be infinite and supreme. Supposing this great spirit to be superior
+to nature, he offers worship or flattery in exchange for assistance. At
+last, finding that he obtains no aid from this supposed deity--:
+finding that every search after the absolute must of necessity end in
+failure--finding that man cannot by any possibility conceive of the
+conditionless--he begins to investigate the facts by which he is
+surrounded, and to depend upon himself.
+
+The people are beginning to think, to reason and to investigate. Slowly,
+painfully, but surely, the gods are being driven from the earth. Only
+upon rare occasions are they, even by the most religious, supposed to
+interfere in the affairs of men. In most matters we are at last supposed
+to be free. Since the invention of steamships and railways, so that the
+products of all countries can be easily interchanged, the gods have quit
+the business of producing famine. Now and then they kill a child because
+it is idolized by its parents. As a rule they have given up causing
+accidents on railroads, exploding boilers, and bursting kerosene lamps.
+Cholera, yellow fever, and small-pox are still considered heavenly
+weapons; but measles, itch and ague are now attributed to natural
+causes. As a general thing, the gods have stopped drowning children,
+except as a punishment for violating the Sabbath. They still pay some
+attention to the affairs of kings, men of genius and persons of great
+wealth; but ordinary people are left to shirk for themselves as best
+they may. In wars between great nations, the gods still interfere; but
+in prize fights, the best man with an honest referee, is almost sure to
+win.
+
+The church cannot abandon the idea of special providence. To give up
+that doctrine is to give up all. The church must insist that prayer
+is answered--that some power superior to nature hears and grants the
+request of the sincere and humble Christian, and that this same power in
+some mysterious way provides for all.
+
+A devout clergyman sought every opportunity to impress upon the mind
+of his son the fact, that God takes care of all his creatures; that the
+falling sparrow attracts his attention, and that his loving kindness is
+over all his works. Happening, one day, to see a crane wading in quest
+of food, the good man pointed out to his son the perfect adaptation of
+the crane to get his living in that manner. "See," said he, "how his
+legs are formed for wading! What a long slender bill he has! Observe how
+nicely he folds his feet when putting them in or drawing them out of
+the water! He does not cause the slightest ripple. He is thus enabled
+to approach the fish without giving them any notice of his arrival."
+"My son," said he, "it is impossible to look at that bird without
+recognizing the design, as well as the goodness of God, in thus
+providing the means of subsistence." "Yes," replied the boy, "I think I
+see the goodness of God, at least so far as the crane is concerned; but
+after all, father, don't you think the arrangement a little tough on the
+fish?"
+
+Even the advanced religionist, although disbelieving in any great amount
+of interference by the gods in this age of the world, still thinks,
+that in the beginning, some god made the laws governing the universe.
+He believes that in consequence of these laws a man can lift a greater
+weight with, than without, a lever; that this god so made matter, and so
+established the order of things, that two bodies cannot occupy the same
+space at the same time; so that a body once put in motion will keep
+moving until it is stopped; so that it is a greater distance around,
+than across a circle; so that a perfect square has four equal sides,
+instead of five or seven. He insists that it took a direct interposition
+of Providence to make the whole greater than a part, and that had it not
+been for this power superior to nature, twice one might have been more
+than twice two, and sticks and strings might have had only one end
+apiece. Like the old Scotch divine, he thanks God that Sunday comes at
+the end instead of in the middle of the week, and that death comes at
+the close instead of at the commencement of life, thereby giving us time
+to prepare for that holy day and that most solemn event These religious
+people see nothing but design everywhere, and personal, intelligent
+interference in everything. They insist that the universe has been
+created, and that the adaptation of means to ends is perfectly apparent.
+They point us to the sunshine, to the flowers, to the April rain, and
+to all there is of beauty and of use in the world. Did it ever occur to
+them that a cancer is as beautiful in its development as is the reddest
+rose? That what they are pleased to call the adaptation of means to
+ends, is as apparent in the cancer as in the April rain? How beautiful
+the process of digestion! By what ingenious methods the blood is
+poisoned so that the cancer shall have food! By what wonderful
+contrivances the entire system of man is made to pay tribute to this
+divine and charming cancer! See by what admirable instrumentalities it
+feeds itself from the surrounding quivering, dainty flesh! See how it
+gradually but surely expands and grows! By what marvelous mechanism
+it is supplied with long and slender roots that reach out to the most
+secret nerves of pain for sustenance and life! What beautiful colors
+it presents! Seen through the microscope it is a miracle of order and
+beauty. All the ingenuity of man cannot stop its growth. Think of the
+amount of thought it must have required to invent a way by which the
+life of one man might be given to produce one cancer? Is it possible to
+look upon it and doubt that there is design in the universe, and that
+the inventor of this wonderful cancer must be infinitely powerful,
+ingenious and good?
+
+We are told that the universe was designed and created, and that it is
+absurd to suppose that matter has existed from eternity, but that it is
+perfectly self-evident that a god has.
+
+If a god created the universe, then, there must have been a time when he
+commenced to create. Back of that time there must have been an eternity,
+during which there had existed nothing--absolutely nothing--except this
+supposed god. According to this theory, this god spent an eternity, so
+to speak, in an infinite vacuum, and in perfect idleness.
+
+Admitting that a god did create the universe, the question then arises,
+of what did he create it? It certainly was not made of nothing. Nothing,
+considered in the light of a raw material, is a most decided failure. It
+follows, then, that the god must have made the universe out of himself,
+he being the only existence. The universe is material, and if it was
+made of god, the god must have been material. With this very thought in
+his mind, Anaximander of Miletus said: "Creation is the decomposition of
+the infinite."
+
+It has been demonstrated that the earth would fall to the sun, only for
+the fact, that it is attracted by other worlds, and those worlds must
+be attracted by other worlds still beyond them, and so on, without
+end. This proves the material universe to be infinite. If an infinite
+universe has been made out of an infinite god, how much of the god is
+left?
+
+The idea of a creative deity is gradually being abandoned, and nearly
+all truly scientific minds admit that matter must have existed from
+eternity. It is indestructible, and the indestructible cannot be
+created. It is the crowning glory of our century to have demonstrated
+the indestructibility and the eternal persistence of force. Neither
+matter nor force can be increased nor diminished. Force cannot exist
+apart from matter. Matter exists only in connection with force, and
+consequently, a force apart from matter, and superior to nature, is a
+demonstrated impossibility.
+
+Force, then, must have also existed from eternity, and could not have
+been created. Matter in its countless forms, from dead earth to the
+eyes of those we love, and force, in all its manifestations, from simple
+motion to the grandest thought, deny creation and defy control.
+
+Thought is a form of force. We walk with the same force with which we
+think. Man is an organism, that changes several forms of force into
+thought-force. Man is a machine into which we put what we call food, and
+produce what we call thought. Think of that wonderful chemistry by which
+bread was changed into the divine tragedy of Hamlet!
+
+A god must not only be material, but he must be an organism, capable of
+changing other forms of force into thought-force. This is what we call
+eating. Therefore, if the god thinks, he must eat, that is to say, he
+must of necessity have some means of supplying the force with which to
+think. It is impossible to conceive of a being who can eternally impart
+force to matter, and yet have no means of supplying the force thus
+imparted.
+
+If neither matter nor force were created, what evidence have we, then,
+of the existence of a power superior to nature? The theologian will
+probably reply, "We have law and order, cause and effect, and beside all
+this, matter could not have put itself in motion."
+
+Suppose, for the sake of the argument, that there is no being superior
+to nature, and that matter and force have existed from eternity. Now,
+suppose that two atoms should come together, would there be an effect?
+Yes. Suppose they came in exactly opposite directions with equal force,
+they would be stopped, to say the least. This would be an effect. If
+this is so, then you have matter, force and effect without a being
+superior to nature. Now, suppose that two other atoms, just like the
+first two, should come together under precisely the same circumstances,
+would not the effect be exactly the same? Yes. Like causes, producing
+like effects, is what we mean by law and order. Then we have matter,
+force, effect, law and order without a being superior to nature. Now, we
+know that every effect must also be a cause, and that every cause must
+be an effect. The atoms coming together did produce an effect, and as
+every effect must also be a cause, the effect produced by the collision
+of the atoms, must as to something else have been a cause. Then we have
+matter, force, law, order, cause and effect without a being superior to
+nature. Nothing is left for the supernatural but empty space. His throne
+is a void, and his boasted realm is without matter, without force,
+without law, without cause, and without effect.
+
+But what put all this matter in motion? If matter and force have existed
+from eternity, then matter must have always been in motion. There can
+be no force without motion. Force is forever active, and there is, and
+there can be no cessation. If, therefore, matter and force have existed
+from eternity, so has motion. In the whole universe there is not even
+one atom in a state of rest.
+
+A deity outside of nature exists in nothing, and is nothing. Nature
+embraces with infinite arms all matter and all force. That which is
+beyond her grasp is destitute of both, and can hardly be worth the
+worship and adoration even of a man.
+
+There is but one way to demonstrate the existence of a power independent
+of and superior to nature, and that is by breaking, if only for one
+moment, the continuity of cause and effect Pluck from the endless chain
+of existence one little link; stop for one instant the grand procession,
+and you have shown beyond all contradiction that nature has a master.
+Change the fact, just for one second, that matter attracts matter, and a
+god appears.
+
+The rudest savage has always known this fact, and for that reason always
+demanded the evidence of miracle. The founder of a religion must be able
+to turn water into wine--cure with a word the blind and lame, and
+raise with a simple touch the dead to life. It was necessary for him to
+demonstrate to the satisfaction of his barbarian disciple, that he
+was superior to nature. In times of ignorance this was easy to do. The
+credulity of the savage was almost boundless. To him the marvelous
+was the beautiful, the mysterious was the sublime. Consequently, every
+religion has for its foundation a miracle--that is to say, a violation
+of nature--that is to say, a falsehood.
+
+No one, in the world's whole history, ever attempted to substantiate a
+truth by a miracle. Truth scorns the assistance of miracle. Nothing but
+falsehood ever attested itself by signs and wonders. No miracle ever was
+performed, and no sane man ever thought he had performed one, and until
+one is performed, there can be no evidence of the existence of any power
+superior to and independent of nature.
+
+The church wishes us to believe. Let the church, or one of its
+intellectual saints, perform a miracle, and we will believe. We are told
+that nature has a superior. Let this superior, for one single instant,
+control nature, and we will admit the truth of your assertions.
+
+We have heard talk enough. We have listened to all the drowsy, idealess,
+vapid sermons that we wish to hear. We have read your Bible and the
+works of your best minds. We have heard your prayers, your solemn groans
+and your reverential amens. All these amount to less than nothing. We
+want one fact. We beg at the doors of your churches for just one little
+fact We pass our hats along your pews and under your pulpits and implore
+you for just one fact We know all about your mouldy wonders and your
+stale miracles. We want a this year's fact. We ask only one. Give us one
+fact for charity. Your miracles are too ancient. The witnesses have
+been dead for nearly two thousand years. Their reputation for "truth and
+veracity" in the neighborhood where they resided is wholly unknown to
+us. Give us a new miracle, and substantiate it by witnesses who still
+have the cheerful habit of living in this world. Do not send us to
+Jericho to hear the winding horns, nor put us in the fire with Shadrach,
+Meshech, and Abednego. Do not compel us to navigate the sea with Captain
+Jonah, nor dine with Mr. Ezekiel. There is no sort of use in sending us
+fox-hunting with Samson. We have positively lost all interest in that
+little speech so eloquently delivered by Balaam's inspired donkey. It
+is worse than useless to show us fishes with money in their mouths,
+and call our attention to vast multitudes stuffing themselves with five
+crackers and two sardines. We demand a new miracle, and we demand it
+now. Let the church furnish at least one, or forever after hold her
+peace.
+
+In the olden time, the church, by violating the order of nature, proved
+the existence of her God. At that time miracles were performed with the
+most astonishing ease. They became so common that the church ordered
+her priests to desist. And now this same church--the people having found
+some little sense--admits, not only, that she cannot perform a miracle,
+but insists that the absence of miracle--the steady, unbroken march of
+cause and effect, proves the existence of a power superior to nature.
+The fact is, however, that the indissoluble chain of cause and effect
+proves exactly the contrary.
+
+Sir William Hamilton, one of the pillars of modern theology, in
+discussing this very subject, uses the following language: "The
+phenomena of matter taken by themselves, so far from warranting any
+inference to the existence of a god, would on the contrary ground even
+an argument to his negation. The phenomena of the material world are
+subjected to immutable laws; are produced and reproduced in the same
+invariable succession, and manifest only the blind force of a mechanical
+necessity."
+
+Nature is but an endless series of efficient causes. She cannot create,
+but she eternally transforms. There was no beginning, and there can be
+no end.
+
+The best minds, even in the religious world, admit that in material
+nature there is no evidence of what they are pleased to call a god.
+They find their evidence in the phenomena of intelligence, and very
+innocently assert that intelligence is above, and in fact, opposed to
+nature. They insist that man, at least, is a special creation; that
+he has somewhere in his brain a divine spark, a little portion of the
+"Great First Cause." They say that matter cannot produce thought; but
+that thought can produce matter. They tell us that man has intelligence,
+and therefore there must be an intelligence greater than his. Why not
+say, God has intelligence, therefore there must be an intelligence
+greater than his? So far as we know, there is no intelligence apart
+from matter. We cannot conceive of thought, except as produced within a
+brain.
+
+The science, by means of which they demonstrate the existence of an
+impossible intelligence, and an incomprehensible power is called,
+metaphysics or theology. The theologians admit that the phenomena of
+matter tend, at least, to disprove the existence of any power superior
+to nature, because in such phenomena we see nothing but an endless chain
+of efficient causes--nothing but the force of a mechanical necessity.
+They therefore appeal to what they denominate the phenomena of mind to
+establish this superior power.
+
+The trouble is, that in the phenomena of mind we find the same endless
+chain of efficient causes; the same mechanical necessity. Every thought
+must have had an efficient cause. Every motive, every desire, every
+fear, hope and dream must have been necessarily produced. There is no
+room in the mind of man for providence or chance. The facts and forces
+governing thought are as absolute as those governing the motions of
+the planets. A poem is produced by the forces of nature, and is as
+necessarily and naturally produced as mountains and seas. You will seek
+in vain for a thought in man's brain without its efficient cause.
+Every mental operation is the necessary result of certain facts and
+conditions. Mental phenomena are considered more complicated than those
+of matter, and consequently more mysterious. Being more mysterious, they
+are considered better evidence of the existence of a god. No one infers
+a god from the simple, from the known, from what is understood, but from
+the complex, from the unknown, and, incomprehensible. Our ignorance is
+God; what we know is science.
+
+When we abandon the doctrine that some infinite being created matter
+and force, and enacted a code of laws for their government, the idea
+of interference will be lost. The real priest will then be, not the
+mouth-piece of some pretended deity, but the interpreter of nature. From
+that moment the church ceases to exist. The tapers will die out upon the
+dusty altar; the moths will eat the fading velvet of pulpit and pew;
+the Bible will take its place with the Shastras, Puranas, Vedas, Eddas,
+Sagas and Korans, and the fetters of a degrading faith will fall from
+the minds of men.
+
+"But," says the religionist, "you cannot explain everything; you cannot
+understand everything; and that which you cannot explain, that which you
+do not comprehend, is my God."
+
+We are explaining more every day. We are understanding more every day;
+consequently your God is growing smaller every day.
+
+Nothing daunted, the religionist then insists that nothing can exist
+without a cause, except cause, and that this uncaused cause is God.
+
+To this we again reply: Every cause must produce an effect, because
+until it does produce an effect, it is not a cause. Every effect must
+in its turn become a cause. Therefore, in the nature of things, there
+cannot be a last cause, for the reason that a so-called last cause would
+necessarily produce an effect, and that effect must of necessity becomes
+a cause. The converse of these propositions must be true. Every effect
+must have had a cause, and every cause must have been an effect.
+Therefore there could have been no first cause. A first cause is just as
+impossible as a last effect.
+
+Beyond the universe there is nothing, and within the universe the
+supernatural does not and cannot exist.
+
+The moment these great truths are understood and admitted, a belief in
+general or special providence become impossible. From that instant men
+will cease their vain efforts to please an imaginary being, and will
+give their time and attention to the affairs of this world. They will
+abandon the idea of attaining any object by prayer and supplication.
+The element of uncertainty will, in a great measure, be removed from the
+domain of the future, and man, gathering courage from a succession of
+victories over the obstructions of nature, will attain a serene grandeur
+unknown to the disciples of any superstition. The plans of mankind will
+no longer be interfered with by the finger of a supposed omnipotence,
+and no one will believe that nations or individuals are protected or
+destroyed by any deity whatever. Science, freed from the chains of pious
+custom and evangelical prejudice, will, within her sphere, be supreme.
+The mind will investigate without reverence, and publish its conclusions
+without fear. Agassiz will no longer hesitate to declare the Mosaic
+cosmogony utterly inconsistent with the demonstrated truths of geology,
+and will cease pretending any reverence for the Jewish Scriptures. The
+moment science succeeds in rendering the church powerless for evil, the
+real thinkers will be outspoken. The little flags of truce carried by
+timid philosophers will disappear, and the cowardly parley will give
+place to victory--lasting and universal.
+
+If we admit that some infinite being has controlled the destinies of
+persons and peoples, history becomes a most cruel and bloody farce.
+Age after age, the strong have trampled upon the weak; the crafty
+and heartless have ensnared and enslaved the simple and innocent,
+and nowhere, in all the annals of mankind, has any god succored the
+oppressed.
+
+Man should cease to expect aid from on high. By this time he should know
+that heaven has no ear to hear, and no hand to help. The present is the
+necessary child of all the past. There has been no chance, and there can
+be no interference.
+
+If abuses are destroyed, man must destroy them. If slaves are freed, man
+must free them. If new truths are discovered, man must discover them.
+If the naked are clothed; if the hungry are fed; if justice is done;
+if labor is rewarded; if superstition is driven from the mind; if the
+defenceless are protected and if the right finally triumphs, all must be
+the work of man. The grand victories of the future must be won by man,
+and by man alone.
+
+Nature, so far as we can discern, without passion and without intention,
+forms, transforms, and retransforms forever. She neither weeps nor
+rejoices. She produces man without purpose, and obliterates him without
+regret. She knows no distinction between the beneficial and the hurtful.
+Poison and nutrition, pain and joy, life and death, smiles and tears are
+alike to her. She is neither merciful nor cruel. She cannot be flattered
+by worship nor melted by tears. She does not know even the attitude of
+prayer. She appreciates no difference between poison in the fangs of
+snakes and mercy in the hearts of men. Only through man does nature take
+cognizance of the good, the true, and the beautiful; and, so far as we
+know, man is the highest intelligence.
+
+And yet man continues to believe that there is some power independent
+of and superior to nature, and still endeavors, by form, ceremony,
+supplication, hypocrisy and sacrifice, to obtain its aid. His best
+energies have been wasted in the service of this phantom. The horrors
+of witchcraft were all born of an ignorant belief in the existence of
+a totally depraved being superior to nature, acting in perfect
+independence of her laws; and all religious superstition has had for its
+basis a belief in at least two beings, one good and the other bad, both
+of whom could arbitrarily change the order of the universe. The history
+of religion is simply the story of man's efforts in all ages to avoid
+one of these powers, and to pacify the other. Both powers have inspired
+little else than abject fear. The cold, calculating sneer of the devil,
+and the frown of God, were equally terrible. In any event, man's fate
+was to be arbitrarily fixed forever by an unknown power superior to
+all law, and to all fact. Until this belief is thrown aside, man must
+consider himself the slave of phantom masters--neither of whom promise
+liberty in this world nor in the next.
+
+Man must learn to rely upon himself. Reading bibles will not protect
+him from the blasts of winter, but houses, fires, and clothing will.
+To prevent famine, one plow is worth a million sermons, and even patent
+medicines will cure more diseases than all the prayers uttered since the
+beginning of the world.
+
+Although many eminent men have endeavored to harmonize necessity and
+free will, the existence of evil, and the infinite power and good ness
+of God, they have succeeded only in producing learned and ingenious
+failures. Immense efforts have been made to reconcile ideas utterly
+inconsistent with the facts by which we are surrounded, and all persons
+who have failed to perceive the pretended reconciliation, have been
+denounced as infidels, atheists and scoffers. The whole power of the
+church has been brought to bear against philosophers and scientists
+in order to compel a denial of the authority of demonstration, and to
+induce some Judas to betray Reason, one of the saviors of mankind.
+
+During that frightful period known as the "Dark Ages," Faith reigned,
+with scarcely a rebellious subject. Her temples were "carpeted with
+knees," and the wealth of nations adorned her countless shrines. The
+great painters prostituted their genius to immortalize her vagaries,
+while the poets enshrined them in song. At her bidding, man covered the
+earth with blood. The scales of Justice were turned with her gold, and
+for her use were invented all the cunning instruments of pain. She built
+cathedrals for God, and dungeons for men. She peopled the clouds with
+angels and the earth with slaves. For centuries the world was retracing
+its steps--going steadily back toward barbaric night! A few infidels--a
+few heretics cried, "Halt!" to the great rabble of ignorant devotion,
+and made it possible for the genius of the nineteenth century to
+revolutionize the cruel creeds and superstitions of mankind.
+
+The thoughts of man, in order to be of any real worth, must be free.
+Under the influence of fear the brain is paralyzed, and instead of
+bravely solving a problem for itself, tremblingly adopts the solution
+of another. As long as a majority of men will cringe to the very earth
+before some petty prince or king, what must be the infinite abjectness
+of their little souls in the presence of their supposed creator and God?
+Under such circumstances, what can their thoughts be worth?
+
+The originality of repetition, and the mental vigor of acquiescence, are
+all that we have any right to expect from the Christian world. As long
+as every question is answered by the word "God," scientific inquiry is
+simply impossible. As fast as phenomena are satisfactorily explained the
+domain of the power, supposed to be superior to nature must decrease,
+while the horizon of the known must as constantly continue to enlarge.
+
+It is no longer satisfactory to account for the fall and rise of nations
+by saying, "It is the will of God." Such an explanation puts ignorance
+and education upon an exact equality, and does away with the idea of
+really accounting for anything whatever.
+
+Will the religionist pretend that the real end of science is to
+ascertain how and why God acts? Science, from such a standpoint would
+consist in investigating the law of arbitrary action, and in a grand
+endeavor to ascertain the rules necessarily obeyed by infinite caprice.
+
+From a philosophical point of view, science is knowledge of the laws
+of life; of the conditions of happiness; of the facts by which we are
+surrounded, and the relations we sustain to men and things--by means
+of which, man, so to speak, subjugates nature and bends the elemental
+powers to his will, making blind force the servant of his brain.
+
+A belief in special providence does away with the spirit of
+investigation, and is inconsistent with personal effort. Why should man
+endeavor to thwart the designs of God? Which of you, by taking thought,
+can add one cubit to his stature? Under the influence of this belief,
+man, basking in the sunshine of a delusion, considers the lilies of the
+field and refuses to take any thought for the morrow. Believing himself
+in the power of an infinite being, who can, at any moment, dash him
+to the lowest hell or raise him to the highest heaven, he necessarily
+abandons the idea of accomplishing anything by his own efforts. As
+long as this belief was general, the world was filled with ignorance,
+superstition and misery. The energies of man were wasted in a vain
+effort to obtain the aid of this power, supposed to be superior to
+nature. For countless ages, even men were sacrificed upon the altar of
+this impossible god. To please him, mothers have shed the blood of their
+own babes; martyrs have chanted triumphant songs in the midst of flame;
+priests have gorged themselves with blood; nuns have forsworn the
+ecstasies of love; old men have tremblingly implored; women have sobbed
+and entreated; every pain has been endured, and every horror has been
+perpetrated.
+
+Through the dim long years that have fled, humanity has suffered more
+than can be conceived. Most of the misery has been endured by the weak,
+the loving and the innocent Women have been treated like poisonous
+beasts, and little children trampled upon as though they had been
+vermin. Numberless altars have been reddened, even with the blood of
+babes; beautiful girls have been given to slimy serpents; whole races
+of men doomed to centuries of slavery, and everywhere there has been
+outrage beyond the power of genius to express. During all these years
+the suffering have supplicated; the withered lips of famine have prayed;
+the pale victims have implored, and Heaven has been deaf and blind.
+
+Of what use have the gods been to man?
+
+It is no answer to say that some god created the world, established
+certain laws, and then turned his attention to other matters, leaving
+his children weak, ignorant and unaided, to fight the battle of life
+alone. It is no solution to declare that in some, other world this god
+will render a few, or even all, his subjects happy. What right have we
+to expect that a perfectly wise, good and powerful being will ever
+do better than he has done, and is doing? The world is filled with
+imperfections. If it was made by an infinite being, what reason have we
+for saying that he will render it nearer perfect than it now is? If the
+infinite "Father" allows a majority of his children to live in ignorance
+and wretchedness now, what evidence is there that he will ever improve
+their condition? Will God have more power? Will he become more merciful?
+Will his love for his poor creatures increase? Can the conduct of
+infinite wisdom, power and love ever change? Is the infinite capable of
+any improvement whatever?
+
+We are informed by the clergy that this world is a kind of school; that
+the evils by which we are surrounded are for the purpose of developing
+our souls, and that only by suffering can men become pure, strong,
+virtuous and grand.
+
+Supposing this to be true, what is to become of those who die in
+infancy? The little children, according to this philosophy, can never
+be developed. They were so unfortunate as to escape the ennobling
+influences of pain and misery, and as a consequence, are doomed to
+an eternity of mental inferiority. If the clergy are right on this
+question, none are so unfortunate as the happy, and we should envy only
+the suffering and distressed. If evil is necessary to the development
+of man, in this life, how is it possible for the soul to improve in the
+perfect joy of Paradise?
+
+Since Paley found his watch, the argument of "design" has been relied
+upon as unanswerable. The church teaches that this world, and all that
+it contains, were created substantially as we now see them; that the
+grasses, the flowers, the trees, and all animals, including man, were
+special creations, and that they sustain no necessary relation to each
+other. The most orthodox will admit that some earth has been washed into
+the sea; that the sea has encroached a little upon the land, and that
+some mountains may be a trifle lower than in the morning of creation.
+The theory of gradual development was unknown to our fathers; the idea
+of evolution did not occur to them. Our fathers looked upon the then
+arrangement of things as the primal arrangement. The earth appeared
+to them fresh from the hands of a deity. They knew nothing of the slow
+evolutions of countless years, but supposed that the almost infinite
+variety of vegetable and animal forms had existed from the first.
+
+Suppose that upon some island we should find a man a million years of
+age, and suppose that we should find him in the possession of a most
+beautiful carriage, constructed upon the most perfect model. And
+suppose, further, that he should tell us that it was the result of
+several hundred thousand years of labor and of thought; that for
+fifty thousand years he used as flat a log as he could find, before
+it occurred to him, that by splitting the log, he could have the same
+surface with only half the weight; that it took him many thousand years
+to invent wheels for this log; that the wheels he first used were solid,
+and that fifty thousand years of thought suggested the use of spokes
+and tire; that for many centuries he used the wheels without linch-pins;
+that it took a hundred thousand years more to think of using four
+wheels, instead of two; that for ages he walked behind the carriage,
+when going down hill, in order to hold it back, and that only by a lucky
+chance he invented the tongue; would we conclude that this man, from
+the very first, had been an infinitely ingenious and perfect mechanic?
+Suppose we found him living in an elegant mansion, and he should inform
+us that he lived in that house for five hundred thousand years before
+he thought of putting on a roof, and that he had but recently invented
+windows and doors; would we say that from the beginning he had been an
+infinitely accomplished and scientific architect?
+
+Does not an improvement in the things created, show a corresponding
+improvement in the creator?
+
+Would an infinitely wise, good and powerful God, intending to produce
+man, commence with the lowest possible forms of life; with the simplest
+organism that can be imagined, and during immeasurable periods of time,
+slowly and almost imperceptibly improve upon the rude beginning, until
+man was evolved? Would countless ages thus be wasted in the production
+of awkward forms, afterwards abandoned? Can the intelligence of man
+discover the least wisdom in covering the earth with crawling, creeping
+horrors, that live only upon the agonies and pangs of others? Can we see
+the propriety of so constructing the earth, that only an insignificant
+portion of its surface is capable of producing an intelligent man? Who
+can appreciate the mercy of so making the world that all animals devour
+animals; so that every mouth is a slaughterhouse, and every stomach
+a tomb? Is it possible to discover infinite intelligence and love in
+universal and eternal carnage?
+
+What would we think of a father, who should give a farm to his children,
+and before giving them possession should plant upon it thousands of
+deadly shrubs and vines; should stock it with ferocious beasts, and
+poisonous reptiles; should take pains to put a few swamps in the
+neighborhood to breed malaria; should so arrange matters, that the
+ground would occasionally open and swallow a few of his darlings, and
+besides all this, should establish a few volcanoes in the immediate
+vicinity, that might at any moment overwhelm his children with rivers of
+fire? Suppose that this father neglected to tell his children which of
+the plants were deadly; that the reptiles were poisonous; failed to say
+anything about the earthquakes, and kept the volcano business a profound
+secret; would we pronounce him angel or fiend?
+
+And yet this is exactly what the orthodox God has done.
+
+According to the theologians, God prepared this globe expressly for the
+habitation of his loved children, and yet he filled the forests with
+ferocious beasts; placed serpents in every path; stuffed the world with
+earthquakes, and adorned its surface with mountains of flame.
+
+Notwithstanding all this, we are told that the world is perfect; that
+it was created by a perfect being, and is therefore necessarily perfect.
+The next moment, these same persons will tell us that the world was
+cursed; covered with brambles, thistles and thorns, and that man was
+doomed to disease and death, simply because our poor, dear mother ate an
+apple contrary to the command of an arbitrary God.
+
+A very pious friend of mine, having heard that I had said the world
+was full of imperfections, asked me if the report was true. Upon being
+informed that it was, he expressed great surprise that any one could
+be guilty of such presumption. He said that, in his judgment, it was
+impossible to point out an imperfection. "Be kind enough," said he, "to
+name even one improvement that you could make, if you had the power."
+"Well," said I, "I would make good health catching, instead of disease."
+The truth is, it is impossible to harmonize all the ills, and pains,
+and agonies of this world with the idea that we were created by, and
+are watched over and protected by an infinitely wise, powerful and
+beneficent God, who is superior to and independent of nature.
+
+The clergy, however, balance all the real ills of this life with the
+expected joys of the next. We are assured that all is perfection in
+heaven--there the skies are cloudless--there all is serenity and peace.
+Here empires may be overthrown; dynasties may be extinguished in blood;
+millions of slaves may toil 'neath the fierce rays of the sun, and the
+cruel strokes of the lash; yet all is happiness in heaven. Pestilences
+may strew the earth with corpses of the loved; the survivors may bend
+above them in agony--yet the placid bosom of heaven is unruffled.
+Children may expire vainly asking for bread; babes may be devoured by
+serpents, while the gods sit smiling in the clouds. The innocent may
+languish unto death in the obscurity of dungeons; brave men and heroic
+women may be changed to ashes at the bigot's stake, while heaven is
+filled with song and joy. Out on the wide sea, in darkness and in storm,
+the shipwrecked struggle with the cruel waves while the angels play
+upon their golden harps. The streets of the world are filled with
+the diseased, the deformed and the helpless; the chambers of pain are
+crowded with the pale forms of the suffering, while the angels float
+and fly in the happy realms of day. In heaven they are too happy to have
+sympathy; too busy singing to aid the imploring and distressed. Their
+eyes are blinded; their ears are stopped and their hearts are turned to
+stone by the infinite selfishness of joy. The saved mariner is too happy
+when he touches the shore to give a moment's thought to his drowning
+brothers. With the indifference of happiness, with the contempt of
+bliss, heaven barely glances at the miseries of earth. Cities are
+devoured by the rushing lava; the earth opens and thousands perish;
+women raise their clasped hands towards heaven, but the gods are too
+happy to aid their children. The smiles of the deities are unacquainted
+with the tears of men. The shouts of heaven drown the sobs of earth.
+
+Having shown how man created gods, and how he became the trembling slave
+of his own creation, the questions naturally arise: How did he free
+himself even a little, from these monarchs of the sky, from these
+despots of the clouds, from this aristocracy of the air? How did he,
+even to the extent that he has, outgrow his ignorant, abject terror, and
+throw off the yoke of superstition?
+
+Probably, the first thing that tended to disabuse his mind was the
+discovery of order, of regularity, of periodicity in the universe. From
+this he began to suspect that everything did not happen purely with
+reference to him. He noticed, that whatever he might do, the motions
+of the planets were always the same; that eclipses were periodical,
+and that even comets came at certain intervals. This convinced him that
+eclipses and comets had nothing to do with him, and that his conduct had
+nothing to do with them. He perceived that they were not caused for
+his benefit or injury. He thus learned to regard them with admiration
+instead of fear. He began to suspect that famine was not sent by some
+enraged and revengeful deity, but resuited often from the neglect and
+ignorance of man. He learned that diseases were not produced by evil
+spirits. He found that sickness was occasioned by natural causes,
+and could be cured by natural means. He demonstrated, to his own
+satisfaction at least, that prayer is not a medicine. He found by
+sad experience that his gods were of no practical use, as they never
+assisted him, except when he was perfectly able to help himself. At
+last, he began to discover that his individual action had nothing
+whatever to do with strange appearances in the heavens; that it was
+impossible for him to be bad enough to cause a whirlwind, or good enough
+to stop one. After many centuries of thought, he about half concluded
+that making mouths at a priest would not necessarily cause an
+earthquake. He noticed, and no doubt with considerable astonishment,
+that very good men were occasionally struck by lightning, while very bad
+ones escaped. He was frequently forced to the painful conclusion (and it
+is the most painful to which any human being ever was forced) that the
+right did not always prevail. He noticed that the gods did not interfere
+in behalf of the weak and innocent. He was now and then astonished
+by seeing an unbeliever in the enjoyment of most excellent health. He
+finally ascertained that there could be no possible connection between
+an unusually severe winter and his failure to give a sheep to a priest.
+He began to suspect that the order of the universe was not constantly
+being changed to assist him because he repeated a creed. He observed
+that some children would steal after having been regularly baptized.
+He noticed a vast difference between religion and justice, and that
+the worshipers of the same god, took delight in cutting each other's
+throats. He saw that these religious disputes filled the world with
+hatred and slavery. At last he had the courage to suspect, that no god
+at any time interferes with the order of events. He learned a few
+facts, and these facts positively refused to harmonize with the ignorant
+superstitions of his fathers. Finding his sacred books incorrect and
+false in some particulars, his faith in their authenticity began to be
+shaken; finding his priests ignorant upon some points, he began to
+lose respect for the cloth. This was the commencement of intellectual
+freedom.
+
+The civilization of man has increased just to the same extent that
+religious power has decreased. The intellectual advancement of man
+depends upon how often he can exchange an old superstition for a new
+truth. The church never enabled a human being to make even one of these
+exchanges; on the contrary, all her power has been used to prevent them.
+In spite, however, of the church, man found that some of his religious
+conceptions were wrong. By reading his Bible, he found that the ideas
+of his God were more cruel and brutal than those of the most depraved
+savage. He also discovered that this holy book was filled with
+ignorance, and that it must have been written by persons wholly
+unacquainted with the nature of the phenomena by which we are
+surrounded; and now and then, some man had the goodness and courage to
+speak his honest thoughts. In every age some thinker, some doubter, some
+investigator, some hater of hypocrisy, some despiser of sham, some
+brave lover of the right, has gladly, proudly and heroically braved
+the ignorant fury of superstition for the sake of man and truth. These
+divine men were generally torn in pieces by the worshipers of the
+gods. Socrates was poisoned because he lacked reverence for some of the
+deities. Christ was crucified by a religious rabble for the crime of
+blasphemy. Nothing is more gratifying to a religionist than to destroy
+his enemies at the command of God. Religious persecution springs from a
+due admixture of love towards God and hatred towards man.
+
+The terrible religious wars that inundated the world with blood tended
+at least to bring all religion into disgrace and hatred. Thoughtful
+people began to question the divine origin of a religion that made its
+believers hold the rights of others in absolute contempt. A few began
+to compare Christianity with the religions of heathen people, and were
+forced to admit that the difference was hardly worth dying for. They
+also found that other nations were even happier and more prosperous than
+their own. They began to suspect that their religion, after all, was not
+of much real value.
+
+For three hundred years the Christian world endeavored to rescue from
+the "Infidel" the empty sepulchre of Christ. For three hundred years the
+armies of the cross were baffled and beaten by the victorious hosts
+of an impudent impostor. This immense fact sowed the seeds of distrust
+throughout all Christendom, and millions began to lose confidence in
+a God who had been vanquished by Mohammed. The people also found that
+commerce made friends where religion made enemies, and that religious
+zeal was utterly incompatible with peace between nations or individuals.
+They discovered that those who loved the gods most were apt to love men
+least; that the arrogance of universal forgiveness was amazing; that the
+most malicious had the effrontery to pray for their enemies, and that
+humility and tyranny were the fruit of the same tree.
+
+For ages, a deadly conflict has been waged between a few brave men and
+women of thought and genius upon the one side, and the great ignorant
+religious mass on the other. This is the war between Science and Faith.
+The few have appealed to reason, to honor, to law, to freedom, to the
+known, and to happiness here in this world. The many have appealed
+to prejudice, to fear, to miracle, to slavery, to the unknown, and
+to misery hereafter. The few have said, "Think!" The many have said,
+"Believe!"
+
+The first doubt was the womb and cradle of progress, and from the first
+doubt, man has continued to advance. Men began to investigate, and the
+church began to oppose. The astronomer scanned the heavens, while the
+church branded his grand forehead with the word, "Infidel;" and now,
+not a glittering star in all the vast expanse bears a Christian name.
+In spite of all religion, the geologist penetrated the earth, read her
+history in books of stone, and found, hidden within her bosom, souvenirs
+of all the ages. Old ideas perished in the retort of the chemist, and
+useful truths took their places. One by one religious conceptions have
+been placed in the crucible of science, and thus far, nothing but dross
+has been found. A new world has been discovered by the microscope;
+everywhere has been found the infinite; in every direction man has
+investigated and explored and nowhere, in earth or stars, has been found
+the footstep of any being superior to or independent of nature. Nowhere
+has been discovered the slightest evidence of any interference from
+without.
+
+These are the sublime truths that enabled man to throw off the yoke of
+superstition. These are the splendid facts that snatched the sceptre of
+authority from the hands of priests.
+
+In that vast cemetery, called the past, are most of the religions of
+men, and there, too, are nearly all their gods. The sacred temples of
+India were ruins long ago. Over column and cornice; over the painted and
+pictured walls, cling and creep the trailing vines. Brahma, the golden,
+with four heads and four arms; Vishnu, the sombre, the punisher of the
+wicked, with his three eyes, his crescent, and his necklace of skulls;
+Siva, the destroyer, red with seas of blood; Kali, the goddess;
+Draupadi, the white-armed, and Chrishna, the Christ, all passed away and
+left the thrones of heaven desolate. Along the banks of the sacred
+Nile, Isis no longer wandering weeps, searching for the dead Osiris. The
+shadow of Typhons scowl falls no more upon the waves. The sun rises
+as of yore, and his golden beams still smite the lips of Memnon, but
+Mem-non is as voiceless as the Sphinx. The sacred fanes are lost in
+desert sands; the dusty mummies are still waiting for the resurrection
+promised by their priests, and the old beliefs, wrought in curiously
+sculptured stone, sleep in the mystery of a language lost and dead.
+Odin, the author of life and soul, Vili and Ve, and the mighty giant
+Ymir, strode long ago from the icy halls of the North; and Thor, with
+iron glove and glittering hammer, dashes mountains to the earth no more.
+Broken are the circles and cromlechs of the ancient Druids; fallen upon
+the summits of the hills, and covered with the centuries' moss, are the
+sacred cairns. The divine fires of Persia and of the Aztecs, have died
+out in the ashes of the past, and there is none to rekindle, and none to
+feed the holy flames. The harp of Orpheus is still; the drained cup of
+Bacchus has been thrown aside; Venus lies dead in stone, and her white
+bosom heaves no more with love. The streams still murmur, but no naiads
+bathe; the trees still wave, but in the forest aisles no dryads dance.
+The gods have flown from high Olympus. Not even the beautiful women
+can lure them back, and Danæ lies unnoticed, naked to the stars. Hushed
+forever are the thunders of Sinai; lost are the voices of the prophets,
+and the land once flowing with milk and honey, is but a desert waste.
+One by one, the myths have faded from the clouds: one by one, the
+phantom host has disappeared, and one by one, facts, truths and
+realities have taken their places. The supernatural has almost gone, but
+the natural remains. The gods have fled, but man is here.
+
+Nations, like individuals, have their periods of youth, of manhood and
+decay. Religions are the same. The same inexorable destiny awaits them
+all. The gods created by the nations must perish with their creators.
+They were created by men, and like men, they must pass away. The deities
+of one age are the by-words of the next The religion of our day, and
+country, is no more exempt from the sneer of the future than the others
+have been. When India was supreme, Brahma sat upon the world's throne.
+When the sceptre passed to Egypt, Isis and Osiris received the homage of
+mankind. Greece, with her fierce valor, swept to empire, and Zeus put
+on the purple of authority. The earth trembled with the tread of Rome's
+intrepid sons, and Jove grasped with mailed hand the thunderbolts of
+heaven. Rome fell, and Christians from her territory, with the red sword
+of war, carved out the ruling nations of the world, and now Christ sits
+upon the old throne. Who will be his successor?
+
+Day by day, religious conceptions grow less and less intense. Day by
+day, the old spirit dies out of book and creed. The burning enthusiasm,
+the quenchless zeal of the early church have gone, never, never to
+return. The ceremonies remain, but the ancient faith is fading out
+of the human heart. The worn-out arguments fail to convince, and
+denunciations that once blanched the faces of a race, excite in us
+only derision and disgust. As time rolls on, the miracles grow mean and
+small, and the evidences our fathers thought conclusive utterly fail to
+satisfy us. There is an "irrepressible conflict" between religion and
+science, and they cannot peaceably occupy the same brain nor the same
+world.
+
+While utterly discarding all creeds, and denying the truth of all
+religions, there is neither in my heart nor upon my lips a sneer for the
+hopeful, loving and tender souls who believe that from all this discord
+will result a perfect harmony; that every evil will in some mysterious
+way become a good, and that above and over all there is a being who, in
+some way, will reclaim and glorify every one of the children of men;
+but for those who heartlessly try to prove that salvation is almost
+impossible; that damnation is almost certain; that the highway of the
+universe leads to hell; who fill life with fear and death with horror;
+who curse the cradle and mock the tomb, it is impossible to entertain
+other than feelings of pity, contempt and scorn.
+
+Reason, Observation and Experience--the Holy Trinity of Science--have
+taught us that happiness is the only good; that the time to be happy is
+now, and the way to be happy is to make others so. This is enough for
+us. In this belief we are content to live and die. If by any possibility
+the existence of a power superior to, and independent of, nature shall
+be demonstrated, there will then be time enough to kneel. Until then,
+let us stand erect.
+
+Notwithstanding the fact that infidels in all ages have battled for
+the rights of man, and have at all times been the fearless advocates
+of liberty and justice, we are constantly charged by the church with
+tearing down without building again. The church should by this time know
+that it is utterly impossible to rob men of their opinions. The history
+of religious persecution fully establishes the fact that the mind
+necessarily resists and defies every attempt to control it by violence.
+The mind necessarily clings to old ideas until prepared for the new.
+The moment we comprehend the truth, all erroneous ideas are of necessity
+cast aside.
+
+A surgeon once called upon a poor cripple and kindly offered to render
+him any assistance in his power. The surgeon began to discourse very
+learnedly upon the nature and origin of disease; of the curative
+properties of certain medicines; of the advantages of exercise, air and
+light, and of the various ways in which health and strength could be
+restored. These remarks were so full of good sense, and discovered so
+much profound thought and accurate knowledge, that the cripple, becoming
+thoroughly alarmed, cried out, "Do not, I pray you, take away my
+crutches. They are my only support, and without them I should be
+miserable indeed!" "I am not going," said the surgeon, "to take away
+your crutches. I am going to cure you, and then you will throw the
+crutches away yourself."
+
+For the vagaries of the clouds the infidels propose to substitute the
+realities of earth; for superstition, the splendid demonstrations and
+achievements of science; and for theological tyranny, the chainless
+liberty of thought.
+
+We do not say that we have discovered all; that our doctrines are the
+all in all of truth. We know of no end to the development of man. We
+cannot unravel the infinite complications of matter and force. The
+history of one monad is as unknown as that of the universe; one drop of
+water is as wonderful as all the seas; one leaf, as all the forests; and
+one grain of sand, as all the stars.
+
+We are not endeavoring to chain the future, but to free the present. We
+are not forging fetters for our children, but we are breaking those our
+fathers made for us. We are the advocates of inquiry, of investigation
+and thought This of itself, is an admission that we are not perfectly
+satisfied with all our conclusions. Philosophy has not the egotism of
+faith. While superstition builds walls and creates obstructions,
+science opens all the highways of thought. We do not pretend to have
+circumnavigated everything, and to have solved all difficulties, but we
+do believe that it is better to love men than to fear gods; that it is
+grander and nobler to think and investigate for yourself than to repeat
+a creed. We are satisfied that there can be but little liberty on earth
+while men worship a tyrant in heaven. We do not expect to accomplish
+everything in our day; but we want to do what good we can, and to render
+all the service possible in the holy cause of human progress. We know
+that doing away with gods and supernatural persons and powers is not an
+end. It is a means to an end: the real end being the happiness of man.
+
+Felling forests is not the end of agriculture. Driving pirates from the
+sea is not all there is of commerce.
+
+We are laying the foundations of the grand temple of the future--not the
+temple of all the gods, but of all the people--wherein, with appropriate
+rites, will be celebrated the religion of Humanity. We are doing what
+little we can to hasten the coming of the day when society shall cease
+producing millionaires and mendicants--gorged indolence and famished
+industry--truth in rags, and superstition robed and crowned. We are
+looking for the time when the useful shall be the honorable; and when
+Reason, throned upon the world's brain, shall be the King of Kings, and
+God of Gods.
+
+
+
+
+HUMBOLDT.
+
+The Universe is Governed by Law.
+
+GREAT men seem to be a part of the infinite--brothers of the mountains
+and the seas.
+
+Humboldt was one of these. He was one of those serene men, in some
+respects like our own Franklin, whose names have all the lustre of a
+star. He was one of the few, great enough to rise above the superstition
+and prejudice of his time, and to know that experience, observation, and
+reason are the only basis of knowledge.
+
+He became one of the greatest of men in spite of having been born rich
+and noble--in spite of position. I say in spite of these things,
+because wealth and position are generally the enemies of genius, and the
+destroyers of talent.
+
+It is often said of this or that man, that he is a self-made man--that
+he was born of the poorest and humblest parents, and that with every
+obstacle to overcome he became great. This is a mistake. Poverty is
+generally an advantage. Most of the intellectual giants of the world
+have been nursed at the sad and loving breast of poverty. Most of those
+who have climbed highest on the shining ladder of fame commenced at the
+lowest round. They were reared in the straw-thatched cottages of Europe;
+in the log-houses of America; in the factories of the great cities; in
+the midst of toil; in the smoke and din of labor, and on the verge of
+want. They were rocked by the feet of mothers whose hands, at the same
+time, were busy with the needle or the wheel.
+
+It is hard for the rich to resist the thousand allurements of pleasure,
+and so I say, that Humboldt, in spite of having been born to wealth and
+high social position, became truly and grandly great.
+
+In the antiquated and romantic castle of Tegel, by the side of the pine
+forest, on the shore of the charming lake, near the beautiful city of
+Berlin, the great Humboldt, one hundred years ago to-day, was born, and
+there he was educated after the method suggested by Rousseau,--Campe,
+the philologist and critic, and the intellectual Kunth being his tutors.
+There he received the impressions that determined his career; there the
+great idea that the universe is governed by law, took possession of
+his mind, and there he dedicated his life to the demonstration of this
+sublime truth.
+
+He came to the conclusion that the source of man's unhappiness is his
+ignorance of nature.
+
+After having received the most thorough education at that time possible,
+and having determined to what end he would devote the labors of his
+life, he turned his attention to the sciences of geology, mining,
+mineralogy, botany, the distribution of plants, the distribution
+of animals, and the effect of climate upon man. All grand physical
+phenomena were investigated and explained. From his youth he had felt a
+great desire for travel. He felt, as he says, a violent passion for
+the sea, and longed to look upon nature in her wildest and most rugged
+forms. He longed to give a physical description of the universe--a grand
+picture of nature; to account for all phenomena; to discover the laws
+governing the world; to do away with that splendid delusion called
+special providence, and to establish the fact that the universe is
+governed by law.
+
+To establish this truth was, and is, of infinite importance to mankind.
+That fact is the death-knell of superstition; it gives liberty to every
+soul, annihilates fear, and ushers in the Age of Reason.
+
+The object of this illustrious man was to comprehend the phenomena of
+physical objects in their general connection, and to represent nature as
+one great whole, moved and animated by internal forces.
+
+For this purpose he turned his attention to descriptive botany,
+traversing distant lands and mountain ranges to ascertain with certainty
+the geographical distribution of plants. He investigated the laws
+regulating the differences of temperature and climate, and the changes
+of the atmosphere. He studied the formation of the earth's crust,
+explored the deepest mines, ascended the highest mountains, and wandered
+through the craters of extinct volcanoes.
+
+He became thoroughly acquainted with chemistry, with astronomy, with
+terrestrial magnetism; and as the investigation of one subject leads
+to all others, for the reason that there is a mutual dependence and a
+necessary connection between all facts, so Humboldt became acquainted
+with all the known sciences.
+
+His fame does not depend so much upon his discoveries (although he
+discovered enough to make hundreds of reputations) as upon his vast and
+splendid generalizations.
+
+He was to science what Shakespeare was to the drama.
+
+He found, so to speak, the world full of unconnected facts--all portions
+of a vast system--parts of a great machine; he discovered the connection
+that each bears to all; put them together, and demonstrated beyond all
+contradiction that the earth is governed by law.
+
+He knew that to discover the connection of phenomena is the primary aim
+of all natural investigation. He was infinitely practical.
+
+Origin and destiny were questions with which he had nothing to do.
+
+His surroundings made him what he was.
+
+In accordance with a law not fully comprehended, he was a production of
+his time.
+
+Great men do not live alone; they are surrounded by the great; they are
+the instruments used to accomplish the tendencies of their generation;
+they fulfill the prophecies of their age.
+
+Nearly all of the scientific men of the eighteenth century had the same
+idea entertained by Humboldt, but most of them in a dim and confused
+way. There was, however, a general belief among the intelligent that
+the world is governed by law, and that there really exists a connection
+between all facts, _or that all facts are simply the different aspects
+of a general fact_, and that the task of science is to discover this
+connection; to comprehend this general fact or to announce the laws of
+things.
+
+Germany was full of thought, and her universities swarmed with
+philosophers and grand thinkers in every department of knowledge.
+
+Humboldt was the friend and companion of the greatest poets, historians,
+philologists, artists, statesmen, critics, and logicians of his time.
+
+He was the companion of Schiller, who believed that man would be
+regenerated through the influence of the Beautiful; of Goethe, the grand
+patriarch of German literature; of Weiland, who has been called
+the Voltaire of Germany; of Herder, who wrote the outlines of a
+philosophical history of man; of Kotzebue, who lived in the world of
+romance; of Schleiermacher, the pantheist; of Schlegel, who gave to
+his countrymen the enchanted realm of Shakespeare; of the sublime Kant,
+author of the first work published in Germany on Pure Reason; of Fichte,
+the infinite idealist; of Schopenhauer, the European Buddhist who
+followed the great Gautama to the painless and dreamless Nirwana, and
+of hundreds of others, whose names are familiar to and honored by the
+scientific world.
+
+The German mind had been grandly roused from the long lethargy of the
+dark ages of ignorance, fear, and faith. Guided by the holy light of
+reason, every department of knowledge was investigated, enriched and
+illustrated.
+
+Humboldt breathed the atmosphere of investigation; old ideas were
+abandoned; old creeds, hallowed by centuries, were thrown aside; thought
+became courageous; the athlete, Reason, challenged to mortal combat the
+monsters of superstition.
+
+No wonder that under these influences Humboldt formed the great purpose
+of presenting to the world a picture of Nature, in order that men might,
+for the first time, behold the face of their Mother.
+
+Europe becoming too small for his genius, he visited the tropics in
+the new world, where in the most circumscribed limits he could find the
+greatest number of plants, of animals, and the greatest diversity of
+climate, that he might ascertain the laws governing the production and
+distribution of plants, animals and men, and the effects of climate
+upon them all. He sailed along the gigantic Amazon--the mysterious
+Orinoco--traversed the Pampas--climbed the Andes until he stood upon the
+crags of Chimborazo, more than eighteen thousand feet above the level of
+the sea, and climbed on until blood flowed from his eyes and lips.
+For nearly five years he pursued his investigations in the new world,
+accompanied by the intrepid Bonpland. Nothing escaped his attention. He
+was the best intellectual organ of these new revelations of science. He
+was calm, reflective and eloquent; filled with a sense of the beautiful,
+and the love of truth. His collections were immense, and valuable beyond
+calculation to every science. He endured innumerable hardships, braved
+countless dangers in unknown and savage lands, and exhausted his fortune
+for the advancement of true learning.
+
+Upon his return to Europe he was hailed as the second Columbus; as the
+scientific discoverer of America; as the revealer of a new world; as the
+great demonstrator of the sublime truth, that the universe is governed
+by law.
+
+I have seen a picture of the old man, sitting upon a mountain
+side--above him the eternal snow--below, the smiling valley of the
+tropics, filled with vine and palm; his chin upon his breast, his eyes
+deep, thoughtful and calm--his forehead majestic--grander than the
+mountain upon which he sat--crowned with the snow of his whitened hair,
+he looked the intellectual autocrat of this world.
+
+Not satisfied with his discoveries in America, he crossed the steppes
+of Asia, the wastes of Siberia, the great Ural range, adding to the
+knowledge of mankind at every step. His energy acknowledged no obstacle,
+his life knew no leisure; every day was filled with labor and with
+thought.
+
+He was one of the apostles of science, and he served his divine master
+with a self-sacrificing zeal that knew no abatement; with an ardor that
+constantly increased, and with a devotion unwavering and constant as the
+polar star.
+
+In order that the people at large might have the benefit of his numerous
+discoveries, and his vast knowledge, he delivered at Berlin a course
+of lectures, consisting of sixty-one free addresses, upon the following
+subjects:
+
+Five, upon the nature and limits of physical geography.
+
+Three, were devoted to a history of science.
+
+Two, to inducements to a study of natural science.
+
+Sixteen, on the heavens.
+
+Five, on the form, density, latent heat, and magnetic power of the
+earth, and to the polar light.
+
+Four, were on the nature of the crust of the earth, on hot springs
+earthquakes, and volcanoes.
+
+Two, on mountains and the type of their formation.
+
+Two, on the form of the earth's surface, on the connection of
+continents, and the elevation of soil over ravines.
+
+Three, on the sea as a globular fluid surrounding the earth.
+
+Ten, on the atmosphere as an elastic fluid surrounding the earth, and on
+the distribution of heat.
+
+One, on the geographic distribution of organ ized matter in general.
+
+Three, on the geography of plants.
+
+Three, on the geography of animals, and
+
+Two, on the races of men.
+
+These lectures are what is known as the Cosmos, and present a scientific
+picture of the world--of infinite diversity in unity--of ceaseless
+motion in the eternal grasp of law.
+
+These lectures contain the result of his investigation, observation, and
+experience; they furnish the connection between phenomena; they disclose
+some of the changes through which the earth has passed in the countless
+ages; the history of vegetation, animals and men, the effects of climate
+upon individuals and nations, the relation we sustain to other worlds,
+and demonstrate that all phenomena, whether insignificant or grand,
+exist in accordance with inexorable law.
+
+There are some truths, however, that we never should forget:
+Superstition has always been the relentless enemy of science; faith has
+been a hater of demonstration; hypocrisy has been sincere only in its
+dread of truth, and all religions are inconsistent with mental freedom.
+
+Since the murder of Hypatia in the fifth century, when the polished
+blade of Greek philosophy was broken by the club of ignorant
+Catholicism, until to-day, superstition has detested every effort of
+reason.
+
+It is almost impossible to conceive of the completeness of the victory
+that the church achieved over philosophy. For ages science was utterly
+ignored; thought was a poor slave; an ignorant priest was master of the
+world; faith put out the eyes of the soul; the reason was a trembling
+coward; the imagination was set on fire of hell; every human feeling was
+sought to be suppressed; love was considered infinitely sinful; pleasure
+was the road to eternal fire, and God was supposed to be happy only when
+his children were miserable. The world was governed by an Almighty's
+whim; prayers could change the order of things, halt the grand
+procession of nature, could produce rain, avert pestilence, famine and
+death in all its forms. There was no idea of the certain; all depended
+upon divine pleasure or displeasure rather; heaven was full of
+inconsistent malevolence, and earth of ignorance. Everything was done to
+appease the divine wrath; every public calamity was caused by the
+sins of the people; by a failure to pay tithes, or for having, even in
+secret, felt a disrespect for a priest. To the poor multitude, the earth
+was a kind of enchanted forest, full of demons ready to devour, and
+theological serpents lurking with infinite power to fascinate and
+torture the unhappy and impotent soul. Life to them was a dim and
+mysterious labyrinth, in which they wandered weary, and lost, guided by
+priests as bewildered as themselves, without knowing that at every step
+the Ariadne of reason offered them the long lost clue.
+
+The very heavens were full of death; the lightning was regarded as the
+glittering vengeance of God, and the earth was thick with snares for the
+unwary feet of man. The soul was supposed to be crowded with the wild
+beasts of desire; the heart to be totally corrupt, prompting only to
+crime; virtues were regarded as deadly sins in disguise; there was a
+continual warfare being waged between the Deity and the Devil, for
+the possession of every soul; the latter generally being considered
+victorious. The flood, the tornado, the volcano, were all evidences of
+the displeasure of heaven, and the sinfulness of man. The blight that
+withered, the frost that blackened, the earthquake that devoured, were
+the messengers of the Creator.
+
+The world was governed by Fear.
+
+Against all the evils of nature, there was known only the defence of
+prayer, of fasting, of credulity, and devotion. _Man in his helplessness
+endeavored to soften the heart of God_. The faces of the multitude
+were blanched with fear, and wet with tears; they were the prey of
+hypocrites, kings and priests.
+
+My heart bleeds when I contemplate the sufferings endured by the
+millions now dead; of those who lived when the world appeared to
+be insane; when the heavens were filled with an infinite Horror who
+snatched babes with dimpled hands and rosy cheeks from the white breasts
+of mothers, and dashed them into an abyss of eternal flame.
+
+Slowly, beautifully, like the coming of the dawn, came the grand truth,
+that the universe is governed by law; that disease fastens itself
+upon the good and upon the bad; that the tornado cannot be stopped by
+counting beads; that the rushing lava pauses not for bended knees, the
+lightning for clasped and uplifted hands, nor the cruel waves of the sea
+for prayer; that paying tithes causes, rather than prevents famine; that
+pleasure is not sin; that happiness is the only good; that demons and
+gods exist only in the imagination; that faith is a lullaby sung to put
+the soul to sleep; that devotion is a bribe that fear offers to supposed
+power; that offering rewards in another world for obedience in this, is
+simply buying a soul on credit; that knowledge consists in ascertaining
+the laws of nature, and that wisdom is the science of happiness. Slowly,
+grandly, beautifully, these truths are dawning upon mankind.
+
+From Copernicus we learned that this earth is only a grain of sand on
+the infinite shore of the universe; that everywhere we are surrounded by
+shining worlds vastly greater than our own, all moving and existing in
+accordance with law. True, the earth began to grow small, but man began
+to grow great.
+
+The moment the fact was, established that other worlds are governed
+by law, it was only natural to conclude that our little world was
+also under its dominion. The old theological method of accounting for
+physical phenomena by the pleasure and displeasure of the Deity was,
+by the intellectual, abandoned. They found that disease, death, life,
+thought, heat, cold, the seasons, the winds, the dreams of man, the
+instinct of animals,--in short, that all physical and mental phenomena
+are governed by law, absolute, eternal and inexorable.
+
+Let it be understood that by the term Law is meant the same invariable
+relations of succession and resemblance predicated of all facts
+springing from like conditions. Law is a fact--not a cause. It is a
+fact, that like conditions produce like results: this fact is Law. When
+we say that the universe is governed by law, we mean that this fact,
+called law, is incapable of change; that it is, has been, and forever
+will be, the same inexorable, immutable Fact, inseparable from all
+phenomena. Law, in this sense, was not enacted or made. It could not
+have been otherwise than as it is. That which necessarily exists has no
+creator.
+
+Only a few years ago this earth was considered the real center of
+the universe; all the stars were supposed to revolve around this
+insignificant atom. The German mind, more than any other, has done
+away with this piece of egotism. Purbach and Mullerus, in the fifteenth
+century, contributed most to the advancement of astronomy in their day.
+To the latter, the world is indebted for the introduction of decimal
+fractions, which completed our arithmetical notation, and formed the
+second of the three steps by which, in modern times, the science
+of numbers has been so greatly improved; and yet, both of these men
+believed in the most childish absurdities, at least in enough of them,
+to die without their orthodoxy having ever been suspected.
+
+Next came the great Copernicus, and he stands at the head of the heroic
+thinkers of his time, who had the courage and the mental strength to
+break the chains of prejudice, custom, and authority, and to establish
+truth on the basis of experience, observation and reason. He removed the
+earth, so to speak, from the centre of the universe, and ascribed to it
+a two-fold motion, and demonstrated the true position which it occupies
+in the solar system.
+
+At his bidding the earth began to revolve. At the command of his genius
+it commenced its grand flight mid the eternal constellations round the
+sun.
+
+For fifty years his discoveries were disregarded. All at once, by the
+exertions of Galileo, they were kindled into so grand a conflagration as
+to consume the philosophy of Aristotle, to alarm the hierarchy of
+Rome, and to threaten the existence of every opinion not founded upon
+experience, observation, and reason.
+
+The earth was no longer considered a universe, governed by the caprices
+of some revengeful Deity, who had made the stars out of what he had
+left after completing the world, and had stuck them in the sky simply to
+adorn the night.
+
+I have said this much concerning astronomy because it was the first
+splendid step forward! The first sublime blow that shattered the lance
+and shivered the shield of superstition; the first real help that
+man received from heaven; because it was the first great lever placed
+beneath the altar of a false religion; the first revelation of the
+infinite to man; the first authoritative declaration, that the universe
+is governed by law; the first science that gave the lie direct to the
+cosmogony of barbarism, and because it is the sublimest victory that the
+reason has achieved.
+
+In speaking of astronomy, I have confined myself to the discoveries made
+since the revival of learning. Long ago, on the banks of the Ganges,
+ages before Copernicus lived, Aryabhatta taught that the earth is a
+sphere, and revolves on its own axis. This, however, does not detract
+from the glory of the great German. The discovery of the Hindu had been
+lost in the midnight of Europe--in the age of faith, and Copernicus was
+as much a discoverer as though Aryabhatta had never lived.
+
+In this short address there is no time to speak of other sciences, and
+to point out the particular evidence furnished by each, to establish
+the dominion of law, nor to more than mention the name of Descartes, the
+first who undertook to give an explanation of the celestial motions,
+or who formed the vast and philosophic conception of reducing all the
+phenomena of the universe to the same law; of Montaigne, one of the
+heroes of common sense; of Galvani, whose experiments gave the telegraph
+to the world; of Voltaire, who contributed more than any other of the
+sons of men to the destruction of religious intolerance; of August
+Comte, whose genius erected to itself a monument that still touches the
+stars; of Guttenberg, Watt, Stephenson, Arkwright, all soldiers of
+science, in the grand army of the dead kings.
+
+The glory of science is, that it is freeing the soul--breaking the
+mental manacles--getting the brain out of bondage--giving courage to
+thought--filling the world with mercy, justice, and joy.
+
+Science found agriculture plowing with a stick reaping with a
+sickle--commerce at the mercy of the treacherous waves and the
+inconstant winds--a world without books--without schools man denying
+the authority of reason, employing his ingenuity in the manufacture
+of instruments of torture, in building inquisitions and cathedrals.
+It found the land filled with malicious monks--with persecuting
+Protestants, and the burners of men. It found a world full of fear;
+ignorance upon its knees; credulity the greatest virtue; women treated
+like beasts of burden; cruelty the only means of reformation.
+
+It found the world at the mercy of disease and famine; men trying to
+read their fates in the stars, and to tell their fortunes by signs and
+wonders; generals thinking to conquer their enemies by making the sign
+of the cross, or by telling a rosary. It found all history full of petty
+and ridiculous falsehood, and the Almighty was supposed to spend most
+of his time turning sticks into snakes, drowning boys for swimming on
+Sunday, and killing little children for the purpose of converting their
+parents. It found the earth filled with slaves and tyrants, the people
+in all countries downtrodden, half naked, half starved, without hope,
+and without reason in the world.
+
+Such was the condition of man when the morning of science dawned upon
+his brain, and before he had heard the sublime declaration that the
+universe is governed by law.
+
+For the change that has taken place we are indebted solely to
+science--the only lever capable of raising mankind. Abject faith is
+barbarism; reason is civilization. To obey is slavish; to act from
+a sense of obligation perceived by the reason, is noble. Ignorance
+worships mystery; Reason explains it: the one grovels, the other soars.
+
+No wonder that fable is the enemy of knowledge. A man with a false
+diamond shuns the society of lapidaries, and it is upon this principle
+that superstition abhors science.
+
+In all ages the people have honored those who dishonored them. They have
+worshiped their destroyers; they have canonized the most gigantic liars,
+and buried the great thieves in marble and gold. Under the loftiest
+monuments sleeps the dust of murder.
+
+Imposture has always worn a crown.
+
+The world is beginning to change because the people are beginning
+to think. To think is to advance. Everywhere the great minds are
+investigating the creeds and the superstitions of men--the phenomena
+of nature, and the laws of things. At the head of this great army of
+investigators stood Humboldt--the serene leader of an intellectual
+host--a king by the suffrage of Science, and the divine right of Genius.
+
+And to-day we are not honoring some butcher called a soldier--some
+wily politician called a statesman--some robber called a king, nor
+some malicious metaphysician called a saint We are honoring the grand
+Humboldt, whose victories were all achieved in the arena of thought; who
+destroyed prejudice, ignorance and error--not men; who shed light--not
+blood, and who contributed to the knowledge, the wealth, and the
+happiness of all mankind.
+
+His life was pure, his aims lofty, his learning varied and profound, and
+his achievements vast.
+
+We honor him because he has ennobled our race, because he has
+contributed as much as any man living or dead to the real prosperity of
+the world. We honor him because he honored us--because he labored
+for others--because he was the most learned man of the most learned
+nation--because he left a legacy of glory to every human being. For
+these reasons he is honored throughout the world. Millions are doing
+homage to his genius at this moment, and millions are pronouncing his
+name with reverence and recounting what he accomplished.
+
+We associate the name of Humboldt with oceans, continents, mountains,
+and volcanoes--with the great palms--the wide deserts--the snow-lipped
+craters of the Andes--with primeval forests and European capitals--with
+wildernesses and universities--with savages and savans--with the lonely
+rivers of unpeopled wastes--with peaks and pampas, and steppes, and
+cliffs and crags--with the progress of the world--with every science
+known to man, and with every star glittering in the immensity of space.
+
+Humboldt adopted none of the soul-shrinking creeds of his day; wasted
+none of his time in the stupidities, inanities and contradictions of
+theological metaphysics; he did not endeavor to harmonize the astronomy
+and geology of a barbarous people with the science of the nineteenth
+century. Never, for one moment, did he abandon the sublime standard of
+truth; he investigated, he studied, he thought, he separated the gold
+from the dross in the crucible of his grand brain. He was never found on
+his knees before the altar of superstition. He stood erect by the grand
+tranquil column of Reason. He was an admirer, a lover, an adorer of
+Nature, and at the age of ninety, bowed by the weight of nearly
+a century, covered with the insignia of honor, loved by a nation,
+respected by a world, with kings for his servants, he laid his weary
+head upon her bosom--upon the bosom of the universal Mother--and with
+her loving arms around him, sank into that slumber called Death.
+
+History added another name to the starry scroll of the immortals.
+
+The world is his monument; upon the eternal granite of her hills he
+inscribed his name, and there upon everlasting stone his genius wrote
+this, the sublimest of truths:
+
+"The Universe is Governed by Law!"
+
+
+
+
+THOMAS PAINE
+
+With His Name Left Out, the History of Liberty Cannot be Written.
+
+TO speak the praises of the brave and thoughtful dead, is to me a labor
+of gratitude and love.
+
+Through all the centuries gone, the mind of man has been beleaguered by
+the mailed hosts of superstition. Slowly and painfully has advanced the
+army of deliverance. Hated by those they wished to rescue, despised
+by those they were dying to save, these grand soldiers, these immortal
+deliverers, have fought without thanks, labored without applause,
+suffered without pity, and they have died execrated and abhorred. For
+the good of mankind they accepted isolation, poverty, and calumny. They
+gave up all, sacrificed all, lost all but truth and self-respect.
+
+One of the bravest soldiers in this army was Thomas Paine; and for one,
+I feel indebted to him for the liberty we are enjoying this day. Born
+among the poor, where children are burdens; in a country where real
+liberty was unknown; where the privileges of class were guarded with
+infinite jealousy, and the rights of the individual trampled beneath the
+feet of priests and nobles; where to advocate justice was treason; where
+intellectual freedom was Infidelity, it is wonderful that the idea of
+true liberty ever entered his brain. .
+
+Poverty was his mother--Necessity his master.
+
+He had more brains than books; more sense than education; more courage
+than politeness; more strength than polish. He had no veneration for
+old mistakes--no admiration for ancient lies. He loved the truth for
+the truth's sake, and for man's sake. He saw oppression on every hand;
+injustice everywhere; hypocrisy at the altar, venality on the bench,
+tyranny on the throne; and with a splendid courage he espoused the cause
+of the weak against the strong--of the enslaved many against the titled
+few.
+
+In England he was nothing. He belonged to the lower classes. There was
+no avenue open for him. The people hugged their chains, and the whole
+power of the government was ready to crush any man who endeavored to
+strike a blow for the right.
+
+At the age of thirty-seven, Thomas Paine left England for America,
+with the high hope of being instrumental in the establishment of a free
+government. In his own country he could accomplish nothing. Those two
+vultures--Church and State--were ready to tear in pieces and devour the
+heart of any one who might deny their divine right to enslave the world.
+
+Upon his arrival in this country, he found himself possessed of a letter
+of introduction, signed by another Infidel, the illustrious Franklin.
+This, and his native genius, constituted his entire capital; and he
+needed no more. He found the colonies clamoring for justice; whining
+about their grievances; upon their knees at the foot of the throne,
+imploring that mixture of idiocy and insanity, George the III., by the
+grace of God, for a restoration of their ancient privileges. They were
+not endeavoring to become free men, but were trying to soften the heart
+of their master. They were perfectly willing to make brick if Pharaoh
+would furnish the straw. The colonists wished for, hoped for, and prayed
+for reconciliation They did not dream of independence.
+
+Paine gave to the world his "Common Sense." It was the first argument
+for separation, the first assault upon the British form of government,
+the first blow for a republic, and it aroused our fathers like a
+trumpet's blast.
+
+He was the first to perceive the destiny of the New World.
+
+No other pamphlet ever accomplished such wonderful results. It was
+filled with argument, reason, persuasion, and unanswerable logic. It
+opened a new world. It filled the present with hope and the future
+with honor. Everywhere the people responded, and in a few months the
+Continental Congress declared the colonies free and independent States.
+
+A new nation was born.
+
+It is simple justice to say that Paine did more to cause the Declaration
+of Independence than any other man. Neither should it be forgotten that
+his attacks upon Great Britain were also attacks upon monarchy; and
+while he convinced the people that the colonies ought to separate from
+the mother country, he also proved to them that a free government is the
+best that can be instituted among men.
+
+In my judgment, Thomas Paine was the best political writer that ever
+lived. "What he wrote was pure nature, and his soul and his pen ever
+went together." Ceremony, pageantry, and all the paraphernalia of
+power, had no effect upon him. He examined into the why and wherefore of
+things. He was perfectly radical in his mode of thought. Nothing short
+of the bed-rock satisfied him. His enthusiasm for what he believed to
+be right knew no bounds. During all the dark scenes of the Revolution,
+never for one moment did he despair. Year after year his brave words
+were ringing through the land, and by the bivouac fires the weary
+soldiers read the inspiring words of "Common Sense," filled with ideas
+sharper than their swords, and consecrated themselves anew to the cause
+of Freedom.
+
+Paine was not content with having aroused the spirit of independence,
+but he gave every energy of his soul to keep that spirit alive. He was
+with the army. He shared its defeats, its dangers, and its glory. When
+the situation became desperate, when gloom settled upon all, he gave
+them the "Crisis." It was a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night,
+leading the way to freedom, honor, and glory. He shouted to them, "These
+are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier, and the sunshine
+patriot, will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country;
+but he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and
+woman."
+
+To those who wished to put the war off to some future day, with a lofty
+and touching spirit of self-sacrifice he said: "Every generous parent
+should say, 'If there must be war let it be in my day, that my child
+may have peace.'" To the cry that Americans were rebels, he replied: "He
+that rebels against reason is a real rebel; but he that in defence of
+reason rebels against tyranny, has a better title to 'Defender of the
+Faith' than George the Third."
+
+Some said it was not to the interest of the colonies to be free. Paine
+answered this by saying, "To know whether it be the interest of
+the continent to be independent, we need ask only this simple, easy
+question: 'Is it the interest of a man to be a boy all his life?'" He
+found many who would listen to nothing, and to them he said, "That to
+argue with a man who has renounced his reason is like giving medicine
+to the dead." This sentiment ought to adorn the walls of every orthodox
+church.
+
+There is a world of political wisdom in this: "England lost her liberty
+in a long chain of right reasoning from wrong principles"; and there
+is real discrimination in saying, "The Greeks and Romans were strongly
+possessed of the spirit of liberty, but not the principles, for at
+the time that they were determined not to be slaves themselves, they
+employed their power to enslave the rest of mankind."
+
+In his letter to the British people, in which he tried to convince them
+that war was not to their interest, occurs the following passage brimful
+of common sense: "War never can be the interest of a trading nation any
+more than quarreling can be profitable to a man in business. But to
+make war with those who trade with us is like setting a bull-dog upon a
+customer at the shop-door."
+
+The writings of Paine fairly glitter with simple, compact, logical
+statements, that carry conviction to the dullest and most prejudiced. He
+had the happiest possible way of putting the case; in asking questions
+in such a way that they answer themselves, and in stating his premises
+so clearly that the deduction could not be avoided.
+
+Day and night he labored for America; month after month, year after
+year, he gave himself to the Great Cause, until there was "a government
+of the people and for the people," and until the banner of the stars
+floated over a continent redeemed, and consecrated to the happiness of
+mankind.
+
+At the close of the Revolution, no one stood higher in America than
+Thomas Paine. The best, the wisest, the most patriotic, were his friends
+and admirers; and had he been thinking only of his own good he might
+have rested from his toils and spent the remainder of his life in
+comfort and in ease. He could have been what the world is pleased to
+call "respectable." He could have died surrounded by clergymen, warriors
+and statesmen. At his death there would have been an imposing funeral,
+miles of carriages, civic societies, salvos of artillery, a nation in
+mourning, and, above all, a splendid monument covered with lies.
+
+He chose rather to benefit mankind.
+
+At that time the seeds sown by the great Infidels were beginning to bear
+fruit in France. The people were beginning to think.
+
+The Eighteenth Century was crowning its gray hairs with the wreath of
+Progress.
+
+On every hand Science was bearing testimony against the Church. Voltaire
+had filled Europe with light; D'Holbach was giving to the _élite_
+of Paris the principles contained in his "System of Nature." The
+Encyclopedists had attacked superstition with information for the
+masses. The foundation of things began to be examined. A few had the
+courage to keep their shoes on and let the bush burn. Miracles began to
+get scarce. Everywhere the people began to inquire. America had set an
+example to the world. The word Liberty was in the mouths of men, and
+they began to wipe the dust from their knees.
+
+The dawn of a new day had appeared.
+
+Thomas Paine went to France. Into the new movement he threw all his
+energies. His fame had gone before him, and he was welcomed as a friend
+of the human race, and as a champion of free government.
+
+He had never relinquished his intention of pointing out to his
+countrymen the defects, absurdities and abuses of the English government
+For this purpose he composed and published his greatest political work,
+"The Rights of Man." This work should be read by every man and woman.
+It is concise, accurate, natural, convincing, and unanswerable. It shows
+great thought; an intimate knowledge of the various forms of government;
+deep insight into the very springs of human action, and a courage that
+compels respect and admiration. The most difficult political problems
+are solved in a few sentences. The venerable arguments in favor of
+wrong are refuted with a question--answered with a word. For forcible
+illustration, apt comparison, accuracy and clearness of statement, and
+absolute thoroughness, it has never been excelled.
+
+The fears of the administration were aroused, and Paine was prosecuted
+for libel and found guilty; and yet there is not a sentiment in the
+entire work that will not challenge the admiration of every civilized
+man. It is a magazine of political wisdom, an arsenal of ideas, and an
+honor, not only to Thomas Paine, but to human nature itself. It could
+have been written only by the man who had the generosity, the exalted
+patriotism, the goodness to say, "The world is my country, and to do
+good my religion."
+
+There is in all the utterances of the world no grander, no sublimer
+sentiment. There is no creed that can be compared with it for a moment.
+It should be wrought in gold, adorned with jewels, and impressed
+upon every human heart: "The world is my country, and to do good my
+religion."
+
+In 1792, Paine was elected by the department of Calais as their
+representative in the National Assembly. So great was his popularity in
+France that he was selected about the same time by the people of no less
+than four departments.
+
+Upon taking his place in the Assembly he was appointed as one of a
+committee to draft a constitution for France. Had the French people
+taken the advice of Thomas Paine there would have been no "reign of
+terror." The streets of Paris would not have been filled with blood The
+Revolution would have been the grandest success of the world. The truth
+is that Paine was too conservative to suit the leaders of the French
+Revolution. They, to a great extent, were carried away by hatred, and
+a desire to destroy. They had suffered so long, they had borne so much,
+that it was impossible for them to be moderate in the hour of victory.
+
+Besides all this, the French people had been so robbed by the
+government, so degraded by the church, that they were not fit material
+with which to construct a republic. Many of the leaders longed to
+establish a beneficent and just government, but the people asked for
+revenge.
+
+Paine was filled with a real love for mankind. His philanthropy was
+boundless. He wished to destroy monarchy--not the monarch. He voted for
+the destruction of tyranny, and against the death of the king. He wished
+to establish a government on a new basis; one that would forget the
+past; one that would give privileges to none, and protection to all.
+
+In the Assembly, where nearly all were demanding the execution of the
+king--where to differ from the majority was to be suspected, and, where
+to be suspected was almost certain death Thomas Paine had the courage,
+the goodness and the justice to vote against death. To vote against
+the execution of the king was a vote against his own life. This was
+the sublimity of devotion to principle. For this he was arrested,
+imprisoned, and doomed to death.
+
+Search the records of the world and you will find but few sublimer acts
+than that of Thomas Paine voting against the kings death. He, the hater
+of despotism, the abhorrer of monarchy, the champion of the rights
+of man, the republican, accepting death to save the life of a deposed
+tyrant--of a throneless king. This was the last grand act of his
+political life--the sublime conclusion of his political career.
+
+All his life he had been the disinterested friend of man. He had
+labored--not for money, not for fame, but for the general good. He had
+aspired to no office; had asked no recognition of his services, but had
+ever been content to labor as a common soldier in the army of Progress.
+Confining his efforts to no country, looking upon the world as his field
+of action, filled with a genuine love for the right, he found himself
+imprisoned by the very people he had striven to save.
+
+Had his enemies succeeded in bringing him to the block, he would have
+escaped the calumnies and the hatred of the Christian world. In this
+country, at least, he would have ranked with the proudest names. On the
+anniversary of the Declaration his name would have been upon the lips of
+all the orators, and his memory in the hearts of all the people.
+
+Thomas Paine had not finished his career.
+
+He had spent his life thus far in destroying the power of kings, and
+now he turned his attention to the priests. He knew that every abuse had
+been embalmed in Scripture--that every outrage was in partnership with
+some holy text. He knew that the throne skulked behind the altar, and
+both behind a pretended revelation from God. By this time he had found
+that it was of little use to free the body and leave the mind in
+chains. He had explored the foundations of despotism, and had found them
+infinitely rotten. He had dug under the throne, and it occurred to him
+that he would take a look behind the altar.
+
+The result of his investigations was given to the world in the "Age of
+Reason." From the moment of its publication he became infamous. He was
+calumniated beyond measure. To slander him was to secure the thanks of
+the church. All his services were instantly forgotten, disparaged or
+denied. He was shunned as though he had been a pestilence. Most of his
+old friends forsook him. He was regarded as a moral plague, and at the
+bare mention of his name the bloody hands of the church were raised in
+horror. He was denounced as the most despicable of men.
+
+Not content with following him to his grave, they pursued him after
+death with redoubled fury, and recounted with infinite gusto and
+satisfaction the supposed horrors of his death-bed; gloried in the fact
+that he was forlorn and friendless, and gloated like fiends over what
+they supposed to be the agonizing remorse of his lonely death.
+
+It is wonderful that all his services were thus forgotten. It is amazing
+that one kind word did not fall from some pulpit; that some one did
+not accord to him, at least--honesty. Strange, that in the general
+denunciation some one did not remember his labor for liberty, his
+devotion to principle, his zeal for the rights of his fellow-men. He
+had, by brave and splendid effort, associated his name with the cause
+of Progress. He had made it impossible to write the history of political
+freedom with his name left out He was one of the creators of light; one
+of the heralds of the dawn. He hated tyranny in the name of kings, and
+in the name of God, with every drop of his noble blood. He believed in
+liberty and justice, and in the sacred doctrine of human equality. Under
+these divine banners he fought the battle of his life. In both worlds he
+offered his blood for the good of man. In the wilderness of America, in
+the French Assembly, in the sombre cell waiting for death, he was the
+same unflinching, unwavering friend of his race; the same undaunted
+champion of universal freedom. And for this he has been hated; for this
+the church has violated even his grave.
+
+This is enough to make one believe that nothing is more natural than for
+men to devour their benefactors. The people in all ages have crucified
+and glorified. Whoever lifts his voice against abuses, whoever arraigns
+the past at the bar of the present, whoever asks the king to show his
+commission, or questions the authority of the priest, will be denounced
+as the enemy of man and God. In all ages reason has been regarded as the
+enemy of religion. Nothing has been considered so pleasing to the Deity
+as a total denial of the authority of your own mind. Self-reliance has
+been thought a deadly sin; and the idea of living and dying without the
+aid and consolation of superstition has always horrified the church. By
+some unaccountable infatuation, belief has been and still is considered
+of immense importance. All religions have been based upon the idea that
+God will forever reward the true believer, and eternally damn the man
+who doubts or denies. Belief is regarded as the one essential thing. To
+practice justice, to love mercy, is not enough. You must believe in
+some incomprehensible creed. You must say, "Once one is three, and three
+times one is one." The man who practiced every virtue, but failed to
+believe, was execrated. Nothing so outrages the feelings of the church
+as a moral unbeliever--nothing so horrible as a charitable Atheist.
+
+When Paine was born, the world was religious, the pulpit was the real
+throne, and the churches were making every effort to crush out of the
+brain the idea that it had the right to think.
+
+The splendid saying of Lord Bacon, that "the inquiry of truth, which is
+the love-making or wooing of it, the knowledge of truth, which is the
+presence of it, and the belief of truth, which is the enjoying of it,
+are the sovereign good of human nature," has been, and ever will
+be, rejected by religionists. Intellectual liberty, as a matter of
+necessity, forever destroys the idea that belief is either praise
+or blame-worthy, and is wholly inconsistent with every creed in
+Christendom. Paine recognized this truth. He also saw that as long as
+the Bible was considered inspired, this infamous doctrine of the virtue
+of belief would be believed and preached. He examined the Scriptures for
+himself, and found them filled with cruelty, absurdity and immorality.
+
+He again made up his mind to sacrifice himself for the good of his
+fellow-men.
+
+He commenced with the assertion, "That any system of religion that has
+anything in it that shocks the mind of a child cannot be a true system."
+What a beautiful, what a tender sentiment! No wonder the church began to
+hate him. He believed in one God, and no more. After this life he
+hoped for happiness. He believed that true religion consisted in doing
+justice, loving mercy, in endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures
+happy, and in offering to God the fruit of the heart. He denied the
+inspiration of the Scriptures. This was his crime.
+
+He contended that it is a contradiction in terms to call anything a
+revelation that comes to us second-hand, either verbally or in writing.
+He asserted that revelation is necessarily limited to the first
+communication, and that after that it is only an account of something
+which another person says was a revelation to him. We have only his word
+for it, as it was never made to us. This argument never has been and
+probably never will be answered. He denied the divine origin of Christ,
+and showed conclusively that the pretended prophecies of the Old
+Testament had no reference to him whatever; and yet he believed that
+Christ was a virtuous and amiable man; that the morality he taught and
+practiced was of the most benevolent and elevated character, and that
+it had not been exceeded by any. Upon this point he entertained the
+same sentiments now held by the Unitarians, and in fact by all the most
+enlightened Christians.
+
+In his time the church believed and taught that every word in the Bible
+was absolutely true. Since his day it has been proven false in its
+cosmogony, false in its astronomy, false in its chronology, false in its
+history, and so far as the Old Testament is concerned, false in almost
+everything. There are but few, if any, scientific men who apprehend that
+the Bible is literally true. Who on earth at this day would pretend to
+settle any scientific question by a text from the Bible? The old belief
+is confined to the ignorant and zealous. The church itself will before
+long be driven to occupy the position of Thomas Paine. The best minds of
+the orthodox world, to-day, are endeavoring to prove the existence of
+a personal Deity. All other questions occupy a minor place. You are no
+longer asked to swallow the Bible whole, whale, Jonah and all; you are
+simply required to believe in God, and pay your pew-rent. There is not
+now an enlightened minister in the world who will seriously contend that
+Samson's strength was in his hair, or that the necromancers of Egypt
+could turn water into blood, and pieces of wood into serpents. These
+follies have passed away, and the only reason that the religious world
+can now have for disliking Paine is that they have been forced to adopt
+so many of his opinions.
+
+Paine thought the barbarities of the Old Testament inconsistent with
+what he deemed the real character of God. He believed that murder,
+massacre and indiscriminate slaughter had never been commanded by
+the Deity. He regarded much of the Bible as childish, unimportant and
+foolish The scientific world entertains the same opinion. Paine attacked
+the Bible precisely in the same spirit in which he had attacked the
+pretensions of kings. He used the same weapons. All the pomp in the
+world could not make him cower. His reason knew no "Holy of Holies,"
+except the abode of Truth. The sciences were then in their infancy. The
+attention of the really learned had not been directed to an impartial
+examination of our pretended revelation. It was accepted by most as
+a matter of course. The church was all-powerful, and no one, unless
+thoroughly imbued with the spirit of self-sacrifice, thought for a
+moment of disputing the fundamental doctrines of Christianity. The
+infamous doctrines that salvation depends upon belief--upon a mere
+intellectual conviction--was then believed and preached. To doubt was
+to secure the damnation of your soul. This absurd and devilish doctrine
+shocked the common sense of Thomas Paine, and he denounced it with
+the fervor of honest indignation. This doctrine, although infinitely
+ridiculous, has been nearly universal, and has been as hurtful as
+senseless. For the overthrow of this infamous tenet, Paine exerted all
+his strength. He left few arguments to be used by those who should come
+after him, and he used none that have been refuted. The combined wisdom
+and genius of all mankind cannot possibly conceive of an argument
+against liberty of thought. Neither can they show why any one should
+be punished, either in this world or another, for acting honestly in
+accordance with reason; and yet a doctrine with every possible argument
+against it has been, and still is, believed and defended by the entire
+orthodox world. Can it be possible that we have been endowed with reason
+simply that our souls may be caught in its toils and snares, that we may
+be led by its false and delusive glare out of the narrow path that leads
+to joy into the broad way of everlasting death? Is it possible that
+we have been given reason simply that we may through faith ignore its
+deductions, and avoid its conclusions? Ought the sailor to throw away
+his compass and depend entirely upon the fog? If reason is not to be
+depended upon in matters of religion, that is to say, in respect of our
+duties to the Deity, why should it be relied upon in matters respecting
+the rights of our fellows? Why should we throw away the laws given to
+Moses by God himself and have the audacity to make some of our own? How
+dare we drown the thunders of Sinai by calling the ayes and noes in a
+petty legislature? If reason can determine what is merciful, what is
+just, the duties of man to man, what more do we want either in time or
+eternity?
+
+Down, forever down, with any religion that requires upon its ignorant
+altar the sacrifice of the goddess Reason, that compels her to abdicate
+forever the shining throne of the soul, strips from her form the
+imperial purple, snatches from her hand the sceptre of thought and makes
+her the bond-woman of a senseless faith!
+
+If a man should tell you that he had the most beautiful painting in the
+world, and after taking you where it was should insist upon having your
+eyes shut, you would likely suspect, either that he had no painting or
+that it was some pitiable daub. Should he tell you that he was a most
+excellent performer on the violin, and yet refuse to play unless your
+ears were stopped, you would think, to say the least of it, that he
+had an odd way of convincing you of his musical ability. But would his
+conduct be any more wonderful than that of a religionist who asks that
+before examining his creed you will have the kindness to throw away your
+reason? The first gentleman says, "Keep your eyes shut, my picture
+will bear everything but being seen;" "Keep your ears stopped, my music
+objects to nothing but being heard." The last says, "Away with your
+reason, my religion dreads nothing but being understood."
+
+So far as I am concerned, I most cheerfully admit that most Christians
+are honest, and most ministers sincere. We do not attack them; we
+attack their creed. We accord to them the same rights that we ask for
+ourselves. We believe that their doctrines are hurtful. We believe
+that the frightful text, "He that believes shall be saved and he that
+believeth not shall be damned," has covered the earth with blood. It has
+filled the heart with arrogance, cruelty and murder. It has caused
+the religious wars; bound hundreds of thousands to the stake; founded
+inquisitions; filled dungeons; invented instruments of torture; taught
+the mother to hate her child; imprisoned the mind; filled the world with
+ignorance; persecuted the lovers of wisdom; built the monasteries and
+convents; made happiness a crime, investigation a sin, and self-reliance
+a blasphemy. It has poisoned the springs of learning; misdirected the
+energies of the world; filled all countries with want; housed the people
+in hovels; fed them with famine; and but for the efforts of a few
+brave Infidels it would have taken the world back to the midnight of
+barbarism, and left the heavens without a star.
+
+The maligners of Paine say that he had no right to attack this doctrine,
+because he was unacquainted with the dead languages; and for this
+reason, it was a piece of pure impudence in him to investigate the
+Scriptures.
+
+Is it necessary to understand Hebrew in order to know that cruelty is
+not a virtue, that murder is inconsistent with infinite goodness, and
+that eternal punishment can be inflicted upon man only by an eternal
+fiend? Is it really essential to conjugate the Greek verbs before you
+can make up your mind as to the probability of dead people getting out
+of their graves? Must one be versed in Latin before he is entitled to
+express his opinion as to the genuineness of a pretended revelation
+from God? Common sense belongs exclusively to no tongue. Logic is not
+confined to, nor has it been buried with, the dead languages. Paine
+attacked the Bible as it is translated. If the translation is wrong, let
+its defenders correct it.
+
+The Christianity of Paine's day is not the Christianity of our time.
+There has been a great improvement since then. One hundred and fifty
+years ago the foremost preachers of our time would have perished at
+the stake. A Universalist would have been torn in pieces in England,
+Scotland, and America. Unitarians would have found themselves in the
+stocks, pelted by the rabble with dead cats, after which their ears
+would have been cut off, their tongues bored, and their foreheads
+branded. Less than one hundred and fifty years ago the following law was
+in force in Maryland:
+
+"Be it enacted by the Right Honorable, the Lord Proprietor, by and with
+the advice and consent of his Lordship's governor, and the upper and
+lower houses of the Assembly, and the authority of the same:
+
+"That if any person shall hereafter, within this province, wittingly,
+maliciously, and advisedly, by writing or speaking, blaspheme or curse
+God, or deny our Saviour, Jesus Christ, to be the Son of God, or shall
+deny the Holy Trinity, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, or the Godhead
+of any of the three persons, or the unity of the Godhead, or shall utter
+any profane words concerning the Holy Trinity, or any of the persons
+thereof, and shall thereof be convict by verdict, shall, for the first
+offence, be bored through the tongue, and fined twenty pounds to be
+levied of his body. And for the second offence, the offender shall be
+stigmatized by burning in the forehead with the letter B, and fined
+forty pounds. And that for the third offence the offender shall suffer
+death without the benefit of clergy."
+
+The strange thing about this law is, that it has never been repealed,
+and is still in force in the District of Columbia. Laws like this were
+in force in most of the colonies, and in all countries where the church
+had power.
+
+In the Old Testament, the death penalty is attached to hundreds of
+offences. It has been the same in all Christian countries. To-day, in
+civilized governments, the death penalty is attached only to murder and
+treason; and in some it has been entirely abolished. What a commentary
+upon the divine systems of the world!
+
+In the day of Thomas Paine, the church was ignorant, bloody and
+relentless. In Scotland the "Kirk" was at the summit of its power. It
+was a full sister of the Spanish Inquisition. It waged war upon human
+nature. It was the enemy of happiness, the hater of joy, and the
+despiser of religious liberty. It taught parents to murder their
+children rather than to allow them to propagate error. If the mother
+held opinions of which the infamous "Kirk" disapproved, her children
+were taken from her arms, her babe from her very bosom, and she was
+not allowed to see them, or to write them a word. It would not allow
+shipwrecked sailors to be rescued from drowning on Sunday. It sought to
+annihilate pleasure, to pollute the heart by filling it with religious
+cruelty and gloom, and to change mankind into a vast horde of pious,
+heartless fiends. One of the most famous Scotch divines said: "The Kirk
+holds that religious toleration is not far from blasphemy." And this
+same Scotch Kirk denounced, beyond measure, the man who had the moral
+grandeur to say, "The world is my country, and to do good my religion."
+And this same Kirk abhorred the man who said, "Any system of religion
+that shocks the mind of a child cannot be a true system."
+
+At that time nothing so delighted the church as the beauties of endless
+torment, and listening to the weak wailings of damned infants struggling
+in the slimy coils and poison-folds of the worm that never dies.
+
+About the beginning of the nineteenth century, a boy by the name of
+Thomas Aikenhead, was indicted and tried at Edinburgh for having denied
+the inspiration of the Scriptures, and for having, on several
+occasions, when cold, wished himself in hell that he might get warm.
+Notwithstanding the poor boy recanted and begged for mercy, he was found
+guilty and hanged. His body was thrown in a hole at the foot of the
+scaffold and covered with stones.
+
+Prosecutions and executions like this were common in every Christian
+country, and all of them were based upon the belief that an intellectual
+conviction is a crime.
+
+No wonder the church hated and traduced the author of the "Age of
+Reason."
+
+England was filled with Puritan gloom and Episcopal ceremony. All
+religious conceptions were of the grossest nature. The ideas of crazy
+fanatics and extravagant poets were taken as sober facts. Milton had
+clothed Christianity in the soiled and faded finery of the gods--had
+added to the story of Christ the fables of Mythology. He gave to the
+Protestant Church the most outrageously material ideas of the Deity.
+He turned all the angels into soldiers--made heaven a battlefield, put
+Christ in uniform, and described God as a militia general. His works
+were considered by the Protestants nearly as sacred as the Bible
+itself, and the imagination of the people was thoroughly polluted by the
+horrible imagery, the sublime absurdity of the blind Milton.
+
+Heaven and hell were realities--the judgment-day was expected--books of
+account would be opened. Every man would hear the charges against him
+read. God was supposed to sit on a golden throne, surrounded by the
+tallest angels, with harps in their hands and crowns on their heads. The
+goats would be thrust into eternal fire on the left, while the orthodox
+sheep, on the right, were to gambol on sunny slopes forever and forever.
+
+The nation was profoundly ignorant, and consequently extremely
+religious, so far as belief was concerned.
+
+In Europe, Liberty was lying chained in the Inquisition--her white bosom
+stained with blood. In the New World the Puritans had been hanging
+and burning in the name of God, and selling white Quaker children into
+slavery in the name of Christ, who said, "Suffer little children to come
+unto me."
+
+Under such conditions progress was impossible. Some one had to lead
+the way. The church is, and always has been, incapable of a forward
+movement. Religion always looks back. The church has already reduced
+Spain to a guitar, Italy to a hand-organ, and Ireland to exile.
+
+Some one not connected with the church had to attack the monster that
+was eating out the heart of the world. Some one had to sacrifice himself
+for the good of all. The people were in the most abject slavery; their
+manhood had been taken from them by pomp, by pageantry and power.
+Progress is born of doubt and inquiry.
+
+The church never doubts--never inquires. To doubt is heresy--to inquire
+is to admit that you do not know--the church does neither.
+
+More than a century ago Catholisism, wrapped in robes red with the
+innocent blood of millions, holding in her frantic clutch crowns and
+scepters, honors and gold, the keys of heaven and hell, trampling
+beneath her feet the liberties of nations, in the proud moment of almost
+universal dominion, felt within her heartless breast the deadly dagger
+of Voltaire. From that blow the church never can recover. Livid with
+hatred she launched her eternal anathema at the great destroyer, and
+ignorant Protestants have echoed the curse of Rome.
+
+In our country the church was all-powerful, and although divided into
+many sects, would instantly unite to repel a common foe.
+
+Paine struck the first grand blow.
+
+The "Age of Reason" did more to undermine the power of the Protestant
+Church than all other books then known. It furnished an immense amount
+of food for thought. It was written for the average mind, and is a
+straightforward, honest investigation of the Bible, and of the Christian
+system.
+
+Paine did not falter, from the first page to the last. He gives you his
+candid thought, and candid thoughts are always valuable.
+
+The "Age of Reason" has liberalized us all. It put arguments in the
+mouths of the people; it put the church on the defensive; it enabled
+somebody in every village to corner the parson; it made the world wiser,
+and the church better; it took power from the pulpit and divided it
+among the pews.
+
+Just in proportion that the human race has advanced, the church has lost
+power. There is no exception to this rule.
+
+No nation ever materially advanced that held strictly to the religion of
+its founders.
+
+No nation ever gave itself wholly to the control of the church without
+losing its power, its honor, and existence.
+
+Every church pretends to have found the exact truth. This is the end of
+progress. Why pursue that which you have? Why investigate when you know?
+
+Every creed is a rock in running water: humanity sweeps by it. Every
+creed cries to the universe, "Halt!" A creed is the ignorant Past
+bullying the enlightened Present.
+
+The ignorant are not satisfied with what can be demonstrated. Science is
+too slow for them, and so they invent creeds. They demand completeness.
+A sublime segment, a grand fragment, are of no value to them. They
+demand the complete circle--the entire structure.
+
+In music they want a melody with a recurring accent at measured periods.
+In religion they insist upon immediate answers to the questions of
+creation and destiny. The alpha and omega of all things must be in the
+alphabet of their superstition. A religion that cannot answer every
+question, and guess every conundrum is, in their estimation, worse than
+worthless. They desire a kind of theological dictionary--a religious
+ready reckoner, together with guide-boards at all crossings and turns.
+They mistake impudence for authority, solemnity for wisdom, and bathos
+for inspiration. The beginning and the end are what they demand. The
+grand flight of the eagle is nothing to them. They want the nest in
+which he was hatched, and especially the dry limb upon which he roosts.
+Anything that can be learned is hardly worth knowing. The present is
+considered of no value in itself. Happiness must not be expected this
+side of the clouds, and can only be attained by self-denial and faith;
+not selfdenial for the good of others, but for the salvation of your own
+sweet self.
+
+Paine denied the authority of bibles and creeds; this was his crime, and
+for this the world shut the door in his face, and emptied its slops upon
+him from the windows.
+
+I challenge the world to show that Thomas Paine ever wrote one line,
+one word in favor of tyranny--in favor of immorality; one line, one
+word against what he believed to be for the highest and best interest
+of mankind; one line, one word against justice, charity, or liberty,
+and yet he has been pursued as though he had been a fiend from hell. His
+memory has been execrated as though he had murdered some Uriah for his
+wife; driven some Hagar into the desert to starve with his child upon
+her bosom; defiled his own daughters; ripped open with the sword the
+sweet bodies of loving and innocent women; advised one brother to
+assassinate another; kept a harem with seven hundred wives and three
+hundred concubines, or had persecuted Christians even unto strange
+cities.
+
+The church has pursued Paine to deter others. No effort has been in
+any age of the world spared to crush out opposition. The church used
+painting, music and architecture, simply to degrade mankind. But there
+are men that nothing can awe. There have been at all times brave spirits
+that dared even the gods. Some proud head has always been above the
+waves. In every age some Diogenes has sacrificed to all the gods. True
+genius never cowers, and there is always some Samson feeling for the
+pillars of authority.
+
+Cathedrals and domes, and chimes and chants.--temples frescoed and
+groined and carved, and gilded with gold--altars and tapers, and
+paintings of virgin and babe--censer and chalice--chasuble, paten
+and alb--organs, and anthems and incense rising to the winged and
+blest--maniple, amice and stole--crosses and crosiers, tiaras
+and crowns--mitres and missals and masses--rosaries, relics and
+robes--martyrs and saints, and windows stained as with the blood of
+Christ--never, never for one moment awed the brave, proud spirit of the
+Infidel. He knew that all the pomp and glitter had been purchased with
+Liberty--that priceless jewel of the soul. In looking at the cathedral
+he remembered the dungeon. The music of the organ was not loud enough
+to drown the clank of fetters. He could not forget that the taper had
+lighted the fagot. He knew that the cross adorned the hilt of the sword,
+and so where others worshiped, he wept and scorned.
+
+The doubter, the investigator, the Infidel, have been the saviors
+of liberty. This truth is beginning to be realized, and the truly
+intellectual are honoring the brave thinkers of the past.
+
+But the church is as unforgiving as ever, and still wonders why any
+Infidel should be wicked enough to endeavor to destroy her power.
+
+I will tell the church why.
+
+You have imprisoned the human mind; you have been the enemy of liberty;
+you have burned us at the stake--wasted us upon slow fires--torn
+our flesh with iron; you have covered us with chains--treated us as
+outcasts; you have filled the world with fear; you have taken our wives
+and children from our arms; you have confiscated our property; you have
+denied us the right to testify in courts of justice; you have branded us
+with infamy; you have torn out our tongues; you have refused us burial.
+In the name of your religion, you have robbed us of every right; and
+after having inflicted upon us every evil that can be inflicted in this
+world, you have fallen upon your knees, and with clasped hands implored
+your God to torment us forever.
+
+Can you wonder that we hate your doctrines--that we despise your
+creeds--that we feel proud to know that we are beyond your power--that
+we are free in spite of you--that we can express our honest thought, and
+that the whole world is grandly rising into the blessed light?
+
+Can you wonder that we point with pride to the fact that Infidelity
+has ever been found battling for the rights of man, for the liberty of
+conscience, and for the happiness of all?
+
+Can you wonder that we are proud to know that we have always been
+disciples of Reason, and soldiers of Freedom; that we have denounced
+tyranny and superstition, and have kept our hands unstained with human
+blood?
+
+We deny that religion is the end or object of this life. When it is so
+considered it becomes destructive of happiness--the real end of life.
+It becomes a hydra-headed monster, reaching in terrible coils from the
+heavens, and thrusting its thousand fangs into the bleeding, quivering
+hearts of men. It devours their substance, builds palaces for God, (who
+dwells not in temples made with hands,) and allows his children to
+die in huts and hovels. It fills the earth with mourning, heaven with
+hatred, the present with fear, and all the future with despair.
+
+Virtue is a subordination of the passions to the intellect. It is to
+act in accordance with your highest convictions. It does not consist in
+believing, but in doing. This is the sublime truth that the Infidels in
+all ages have uttered. They have handed the torch from one to the other
+through all the years that have fled. Upon the altar of Reason they have
+kept the sacred fire, and through the long midnight of faith they fed
+the divine flame.
+
+Infidelity is liberty; all religion is slavery. In every creed man is
+the slave of God--woman is the slave of man and the sweet children are
+the slaves of all.
+
+We do not want creeds; we want knowledge--we want happiness.
+
+And yet we are told by the church that we have accomplished nothing;
+that we are simply destroyers; that we tear down without building again.
+
+Is it nothing to free the mind? Is it nothing to civilize mankind? Is it
+nothing to fill the world with light, with discovery, with science?
+Is it nothing to dignify man and exalt the intellect? Is it nothing to
+grope your way into the dreary prisons, the damp and dropping dungeons,
+the dark and silent cells of superstition, where the souls of men are
+chained to floors of stone; to greet them like a ray of light, like the
+song of a bird, the murmur of a stream; to see the dull eyes open and
+grow slowly bright; to feel yourself grasped by the shrunken and unused
+hands, and hear yourself thanked by a strange and hollow voice?
+
+Is it nothing to conduct these souls gradually into the blessed light of
+day--to let them see again the happy fields, the sweet, green earth, and
+hear the everlasting music of the waves? Is it nothing to make men wipe
+the dust from their swollen knees, the tears from their blanched
+and furrowed cheeks? Is it a small thing to reave the heavens of an
+insatiate monster and write upon the eternal dome, glittering with
+stars, the grand word--Freedom?
+
+Is it a small thing to quench the flames of hell with the holy tears of
+pity--to unbind the martyr from the stake--break all the chains--put
+out the fires of civil war--stay the sword of the fanatic, and tear the
+bloody hands of the Church from the white throat of Science?
+
+Is it a small thing to make men truly free--to destroy the dogmas of
+ignorance, prejudice and power--the poisoned fables of superstition, and
+drive from the beautiful face of the earth the fiend of Fear?
+
+It does seem as though the most zealous Christian must at times
+entertain some doubt as to the divine origin of his religion. For
+eighteen hundred years the doctrine has been preached. For more than
+a thousand years the church had, to a great extent, the control of the
+civilized world, and what has been the result? Are the Christian nations
+patterns of charity and forbearance? On the contrary, their principal
+business is to destroy each other. More than five millions of Christians
+are trained, educated, and drilled to murder their fellow-christians.
+Every nation is groaning under a vast debt incurred in carrying on war
+against other Christians, or defending itself from Christian assault.
+The world is covered with forts to protect Christians from Christians,
+and every sea is covered with iron monsters ready to blow Christian
+brains into eternal froth. Millions upon millions are annually expended
+in the effort to construct still more deadly and terrible engines of
+death. Industry is crippled, honest toil is robbed, and even beggary is
+taxed to defray the expenses of Christian warfare. There must be some
+other way to reform this world. We have tried creed, and dogma and
+fable, and they have failed; and they have failed in all the nations
+dead.
+
+The people perish for the lack of knowledge.
+
+Nothing but education--scientific education--can benefit mankind. We
+must find out the laws of nature and conform to them.
+
+We need free bodies and free minds,--free labor and free
+thought,--chainless hands and fetterless brains. Free labor will give us
+wealth. Free thought will give us truth.
+
+We need men with moral courage to speak and write their real thoughts,
+and to stand by their convictions, even to the very death. We need have
+no fear of being too radical. The future will verify all grand and brave
+predictions. Paine was splendidly in advance of his time; but he was
+orthodox compared with the Infidels of to-day.
+
+Science, the great Iconoclast, has been busy since 1809, and by the
+highway of Progress are the broken images of the Past.
+
+On every hand the people advance. The Vicar of God has been pushed from
+the throne of the Caesars, and upon the roofs of the Eternal City falls
+once more the shadow of the Eagle.
+
+All has been accomplished by the heroic few. The men of science have
+explored heaven and earth, and with infinite patience have furnished
+the facts. The brave thinkers have used them. The gloomy caverns of
+superstition have been transformed into temples of thought, and the
+demons of the past are the angels of to-day.
+
+Science took a handful of sand, constructed a telescope, and with it
+explored the starry depths of heaven. Science wrested from the gods
+their thunderbolts; and now, the electric spark, freighted with thought
+and love, flashes under all the waves of the sea. Science took a tear
+from the cheek of unpaid labor, converted it into steam, created a giant
+that turns with tireless arm, the countless wheels of toil.
+
+Thomas Paine was one of the intellectual heroes--one of the men to whom
+we are indebted. His name is associated forever with the Great Republic.
+As long as free government exists he will be remembered, admired and
+honored.
+
+He lived a long, laborious and useful life. The world is better for his
+having lived. For the sake of truth he accepted hatred and reproach for
+his portion. He ate the bitter bread of sorrow. His friends were untrue
+to him because he was true to himself, and true to them. He lost the
+respect of what is called society, but kept his own. His life is what
+the world calls failure and what history calls success.
+
+If to love your fellow-men more than self is goodness, Thomas Paine was
+good.
+
+If to be in advance of your time--to be a pioneer in the direction of
+right--is greatness, Thomas Paine was great.
+
+If to avow your principles and discharge your duty in the presence of
+death is heroic, Thomas Paine was a hero.
+
+At the age of seventy-three, death touched his tired heart. He died
+in the land his genius defended--under the flag he gave to the skies.
+Slander cannot touch him now--hatred cannot reach him more. He sleeps in
+the sanctuary of the tomb, beneath the quiet of the stars.
+
+A few more years--a few more brave men--a few more rays of light, and
+mankind will venerate the memory of him who said:
+
+"ANY SYSTEM OF RELIGION THAT SHOCKS THE MIND OF A CHILD CANNOT BE A TRUE
+SYSTEM;"
+
+"The world is my Country, and to do good my Religion."
+
+
+
+
+INDIVIDUALITY.
+
+"His Soul was like a Star and dwelt apart."
+
+ON every hand are the enemies of individuality and mental freedom.
+Custom meets us at the cradle and leaves us only at the tomb. Our first
+questions are answered by ignorance, and our last by superstition. We
+are pushed and dragged by countless hands along the beaten track, and
+our entire training can be summed up in the word--suppression. Our
+desire to have a thing or to do a thing is considered as conclusive
+evidence that we ought not to have it, and ought not to do it. At every
+turn we run against cherubim and a flaming sword guarding some entrance
+to the Eden of our desire. We are allowed to investigate all subjects in
+which we feel no particular interest, and to express the opinions of the
+majority with the utmost freedom. We are taught that liberty of
+speech should never be carried to the extent of contradicting the dead
+witnesses of a popular superstition. Society offers continual rewards
+for self-betrayal, and they are nearly all earned and claimed, and some
+are paid.
+
+We have all read accounts of Christian gentlemen remarking, when about
+to be hanged, how much better it would have been for them if they had
+only followed a mother's advice. But after all, how fortunate it is for
+the world that the maternal advice has not always been followed. How
+fortunate it is for us all that it is somewhat unnatural for a human
+being to obey. Universal obedience is universal stagnation; disobedience
+is one of the conditions of progress. Select any age of the world and
+tell me what would have been the effect of implicit obedience. Suppose
+the church had had absolute control of the human mind at any time, would
+not the words liberty and progress have been blotted from human speech?
+In defiance of advice, the world has advanced.
+
+Suppose the astronomers had controlled the science of astronomy; suppose
+the doctors had controlled the science of medicine; suppose kings had
+been left to fix the forms of government; suppose our fathers had taken
+the advice of Paul, who said, "be subject to the powers that be, because
+they are ordained of God;" suppose the church could control the world
+to-day, we would go back to chaos and old night. Philosophy would be
+branded as infamous; Science would again press its pale and thoughtful
+face against the prison bars, and round the limbs of liberty would climb
+the bigot's flame.
+
+It is a blessed thing that in every age some one has had individuality
+enough and courage enough to stand by his own convictions,--some one
+who had the grandeur to say his say. I believe it was Magellan who said,
+"The church says the earth is flat; but I have seen its shadow on the
+moon, and I have more confidence even in a shadow than in the church."
+On the prow of his ship were disobedience, defiance, scorn, and success.
+
+The trouble with most people is, they bow to what is called authority;
+they have a certain reverence for the old because it is old. They think
+a man is better for being dead, especially if he has been dead a long
+time. They think the fathers of their nation were the greatest and best
+of all mankind. All these things they implicitly believe because it is
+popular and patriotic, and because they were told so when they were very
+small, and remember distinctly of hearing mother read it out of a book.
+It is hard to over-estimate the influence of early training in the
+direction of superstition. You first teach children that a certain book
+is true--that it was written by God himself--that to question its truth
+is a sin, that to deny it is a crime, and that should they die without
+believing that book they will be forever damned without benefit of
+clergy. The consequence is, that long before they read that book, they
+believe it to be true. When they do read it their minds are wholly
+unfitted to investigate its claims. They accept it as a matter of
+course.
+
+In this way the reason is overcome, the sweet instincts of humanity
+are blotted from the heart, and while reading its infamous pages even
+justice throws aside her scales, shrieking for revenge, and charity,
+with bloody hands, applauds a deed of murder. In this way we are taught
+that the revenge of man is the justice of God; that mercy is not the
+same everywhere. In this way the ideas of our race have been subverted.
+In this way we have made tyrants, bigots, and inquisitors. In this way
+the brain of man has become a kind of palimpsest upon which, and over
+the writings of nature, superstition has scrawled her countless lies.
+One great trouble is that most teachers are dishonest. They teach as
+certainties those things concerning which they entertain doubts. They
+do not say, "we _think_ this is so," but "we _know_ this is so." They do
+not appeal to the reason of the pupil, but they command his faith. They
+keep all doubts to themselves; they do not explain, they assert. All
+this is infamous. In this way you may make Christians, but you cannot
+make men; you cannot make women. You can make followers, but no leaders;
+disciples, but no Christs. You may promise power, honor, and happiness
+to all those who will blindly follow, but you cannot keep your promise.
+
+A monarch said to a hermit, "Come with me and I will give you power."
+
+"I have all the power that I know how to use" replied the hermit.
+
+"Come," said the king, "I will give you wealth."
+
+"I have no wants that money can supply," said the hermit.
+
+"I will give you honor," said the monarch.
+
+"Ah, honor cannot be given, it must be earned," was the hermit's answer.
+
+"Come," said the king, making a last appeal, "and I will give you
+happiness."
+
+"No," said the man of solitude, "there is no happiness without liberty,
+and he who follows cannot be free."
+
+"You shall have liberty too," said the king.
+
+"Then I will stay where I am," said the old man.
+
+And all the king's courtiers thought the hermit a fool.
+
+Now and then somebody examines, and in spite of all keeps his manhood,
+and has the courage to follow where his reason leads. Then the pious
+get together and repeat wise saws, and exchange knowing nods and most
+prophetic winks. The stupidly wise sit owl-like on the dead limbs of the
+tree of knowledge, and solemnly hoot. Wealth sneers, and fashion laughs,
+and respectability passes by on the other side, and scorn points with
+all her skinny fingers, and all the snakes of superstition writhe and
+hiss, and slander lends her tongue, and infamy her brand, and perjury
+her oath, and the law its power, and bigotry tortures, and the church
+kills.
+
+The church hates a thinker precisely for the same reason a robber
+dislikes a sheriff, or a thief despises the prosecuting witness. Tyranny
+likes courtiers, flatterers, followers, fawners, and superstition wants
+believers, disciples, zealots, hypocrites, and subscribers. The church
+demands worship--the very thing that man should give to no being, human
+or divine. To worship another is to degrade yourself. Worship is awe and
+dread and vague fear and blind hope. It is the spirit of worship that
+elevates the one and degrades the many; that builds palaces for robbers,
+erects monuments to crime, and forges manacles even for its own hands.
+The spirit of worship is the spirit of tyranny. The worshiper always
+regrets that he is not the worshiped. We should all remember that the
+intellect has no knees, and that whatever the attitude of the body may
+be, the brave soul is always found erect. Whoever worships, abdicates.
+Whoever believes at the command of power, tramples his own individuality
+beneath his feet, and voluntarily robs himself of all that renders man
+superior to the brute.
+
+The despotism of faith is justified upon the ground that Christian
+countries are the grandest and most prosperous of the world. At one time
+the same thing could have been truly said in India, in Egypt, in Greece,
+in Rome, and in every other country that has, in the history of the
+world, swept to empire. This argument proves too much not only, but
+the assumption upon which it is based is utterly false. Numberless
+circumstances and countless conditions have produced the prosperity
+of the Christian world. The truth is, we have advanced in spite of
+religious zeal, ignorance, and opposition. The church has won
+no victories for the rights of man. Luther labored to reform the
+church--Voltaire, to reform men. Over every fortress of tyranny has
+waved, and still waves, the banner of the church. Wherever brave blood
+has been shed, the sword of the church has been wet. On every chain has
+been the sign of the cross. The altar and throne have leaned against and
+supported each other.
+
+All that is good in our civilization is the result of commerce, climate,
+soil, geographical position, industry, invention, discovery, art, and
+science. The church has been the enemy of progress, for the reason
+that it has endeavored to prevent man thinking for himself. To prevent
+thought is to prevent all advancement except in the direction of faith.
+
+Who can imagine the infinite impudence of a church assuming to think for
+the human race? Who can imagine the infinite impudence of a church
+that pretends to be the mouthpiece of God, and in his name threatens to
+inflict eternal punishment upon those who honestly reject its claims and
+scorn its pretensions? By what right does a man, or an organization
+of men, or a god, claim to hold a brain in bondage? When a fact can be
+demonstrated, force is unnecessary; when it cannot be demonstrated, an
+appeal to force is infamous. In the presence of the unknown all have an
+equal right to think.
+
+Over the vast plain, called life, we are all travelers, and not one
+traveler is perfectly certain that he is going in the right direction.
+True it is that no other plain is so well supplied with guide-boards. At
+every turn and crossing you will find them, and upon each one is written
+the exact direction and distance. One great trouble is, however, that
+these boards are all different, and the result is that most travelers
+are confused in proportion to the number they read. Thousands of people
+are around each of these signs, and each one is doing his best to
+convince the traveler that his particular board is the only one upon
+which the least reliance can be placed, and that if his road is taken
+the reward for so doing will be infinite and eternal, while all the
+other roads are said to lead to hell, and all the makers of the other
+guide-boards are declared to be heretics, hypocrites and liars. "Well,"
+says a traveler, "you may be right in what you say, but allow me at
+least to read some of the other directions and examine a little into
+their claims. I wish to rely a little upon my own judgment in a matter
+of so great importance." "No, sir," shouts the zealot, "that is the
+very thing you are not allowed to do. You must go my way without
+investigation, or you are as good as damned already." "Well," says the
+traveler, "if that is so, I believe I had better go your way." And so
+most of them go along, taking the word of those who know as little as
+themselves. Now and then comes one who, in spite of all threats, calmly
+examines the claims of all, and as calmly rejects them all. These
+travelers take roads of their own, and are denounced by all the others,
+as infidels and atheists.
+
+Around all of these guide-boards, as far as the eye can reach, the
+ground is covered with mountains of human bones, crumbling and
+bleaching in the rain and sun. They are the bones of murdered men and
+women--fathers, mothers and babes.
+
+In my judgment, every human being should take a road of his own. Every
+mind should be true to itself--should think, investigate and conclude
+for itself. This is a duty alike incumbent upon pauper and prince. Every
+soul should repel dictation and tyranny, no matter from what source they
+come--from earth or heaven, from men or gods. Besides, every traveler
+upon this vast plain should give to every other traveler his best idea
+as to the road that should be taken. Each is entitled to the honest
+opinion of all. And there is but one way to get an honest opinion upon
+any subject whatever. The person giving the opinion must be free from
+fear. The merchant must not fear to lose his custom, the doctor his
+practice, nor the preacher his pulpit There can be no advance without
+liberty. Suppression of honest inquiry is retrogression, and must end in
+intellectual night. The tendency of orthodox religion to-day is toward
+mental slavery and barbarism. Not one of the orthodox ministers dare
+preach what he thinks if he knows a majority of his congregation think
+otherwise. He knows that every member of his church stands guard over
+his brain with a creed, like a club, in his hand. He knows that he
+is not expected to search after the truth, but that he is employed to
+defend the creed. Every pulpit is a pillory, in which stands a hired
+culprit, defending the justice of his own imprisonment.
+
+Is it desirable that all should be exactly alike in their religious
+convictions? Is any such thing possible? Do we not know that there are
+no two persons alike in the whole world? No two, trees, no two leaves,
+no two anythings that are alike? Infinite diversity is the law. Religion
+tries to force all minds into one mould. Knowing that all cannot
+believe, the church endeavors to make all say they believe. She longs
+for the unity of hypocrisy, and detests the splendid diversity of
+individuality and freedom.
+
+Nearly all people stand in great horror of annihilation, and yet to
+give up your individuality is to annihilate yourself. Mental slavery is
+mental death, and every man who has given up his intellectual freedom
+is the living coffin of his dead soul. In this sense, every church is a
+cemetery and every creed an epitaph.
+
+We should all remember that to be like other people is to be unlike
+ourselves, and that nothing can be more detestable in character than
+servile imitation. The great trouble with imitation is, that we are apt
+to ape those who are in reality far below us. After all, the poorest
+bargain that a human being can make, is to give his individuality for
+what is called respectability.
+
+There is no saying more degrading than this: "It is better to be the
+tail of a lion than the head of a dog." It is a responsibility to think
+and act for yourself. Most people hate responsibility; therefore they
+join something and become the tail of some lion. They say, "My party
+can act for me--my church can do my thinking. It is enough for me to
+pay taxes and obey the lion to which I belong, without troubling myself
+about the right, the wrong, or the why or the wherefore of anything
+whatever." These people are respectable. They hate reformers, and
+dislike exceedingly to have their minds disturbed. They regard
+convictions as very disagreeable things to have. They love forms, and
+enjoy, beyond everything else, telling what a splendid tail their lion
+has, and what a troublesome dog their neighbor is. Besides this natural
+inclination to avoid personal responsibility, is and always has been,
+the fact, that every religionist has warned men against the presumption
+and wickedness of thinking for themselves. The reason has been denounced
+by all Christendom as the only unsafe guide. The church has left nothing
+undone to prevent man following the logic of his brain. The plainest
+facts have been covered with the mantle of mystery. The grossest
+absurdities have been declared to be self-evident facts. The order of
+nature has been, as it were, reversed, that the hypocritical few might
+govern the honest many. The man who stood by the conclusion of his
+reason was denounced as a scorner and hater of God and his holy church.
+From the organization of the first church until this moment, to think
+your own thoughts has been inconsistent with membership. Every member
+has borne the marks of collar, and chain, and whip. No man ever
+seriously attempted to reform a church without being cast out and hunted
+down by the hounds of hypocrisy. The highest crime against a creed is to
+change it. Reformation is treason.
+
+Thousands of young men are being educated at this moment by the various
+churches. What for? In order that they may be prepared to investigate
+the phenomena by which we are surrounded? No! The object, and the only
+object, is that they may be prepared to defend a creed; that they may
+learn the arguments of their respective churches, and repeat them in
+the dull ears of a thoughtless congregation. If one, after being thus
+trained at the expense of the Methodists, turns Presbyterian or Baptist,
+he is denounced as an ungrateful wretch. Honest investigation is utterly
+impossible within the pale of any church, for the reason, that if you
+think the church is right you will not investigate, and if you think it
+wrong, the church will investigate you. The consequence of this is,
+that most of the theological literature is the result of suppression, of
+fear, tyranny and hypocrisy.
+
+Every orthodox writer necessarily said to himself, "If I write that, my
+wife and children may want for bread. I will be covered with shame and
+branded with infamy; but if I write this, I will gain position, power,
+and honor. My church rewards defenders, and burns reformers."
+
+Under these conditions all your Scotts, Hen-rys, and McKnights have
+written; and weighed in these scales, what are their commentaries worth?
+They are not the ideas and decisions of honest judges, but the sophisms
+of the paid attorneys of superstition. Who can tell what the world has
+lost by this infamous system of suppression? How many grand thinkers
+have died with the mailed hand of superstition upon their lips? How many
+splendid ideas have perished in the cradle of the brain, strangled in
+the poison-coils of that python, the Church!
+
+For thousands of years a thinker was hunted down like an escaped
+convict. To him who had braved the church, every door was shut, every
+knife was open. To shelter him from the wild storm, to give him a crust
+when dying, to put a cup of water to his cracked and bleeding lips;
+these were all crimes, not one of which the church ever did forgive;
+and with the justice taught of her God, his helpless children were
+exterminated as scorpions and vipers.
+
+Who at the present day can imagine the courage, the devotion to
+principle, the intellectual and moral grandeur it once required to be an
+infidel, to brave the church, her racks, her fagots, her dungeons, her
+tongues of fire,--to defy and scorn her heaven and her hell--her devil
+and her God? They were the noblest sons of earth. They were the real
+saviors of our race, the destroyers of superstition and the creators of
+Science. They were the real Titans who bared their grand foreheads to
+all the thunderbolts of all the gods.
+
+The church has been, and still is, the great robber. She has rifled not
+only the pockets but the brains of the world. She is the stone at the
+sepulchre of liberty; the upas tree, in whose shade the intellect of man
+has withered; the Gorgon beneath whose gaze the human heart has turned
+to stone. Under her influence even the Protestant mother expects to be
+happy in heaven, while her brave boy, who fell fighting for the rights
+of man, shall writhe in hell.
+
+It is said that some of the Indian tribes place the heads of their
+children between pieces of bark until the form of the skull is
+permanently changed. To us this seems a most shocking custom; and yet,
+after all, is it as bad as to put the souls of our children in the
+strait-jacket of a creed? to so utterly deform their minds that they
+regard the God of the Bible as a being of infinite mercy, and
+really consider it a virtue to believe a thing just because it seems
+unreasonable? Every child in the Christian world has uttered its
+wondering protest against this outrage. All the machinery of the church
+is constantly employed in corrupting the reason of children. In every
+possible way they are robbed of their own thoughts and forced to accept
+the statements of others. Every Sunday school has for its object the
+crushing out of every germ of individuality. The poor children are
+taught that nothing can be more acceptable to God than unreasoning
+obedience and eyeless faith, and that to believe God did an impossible
+act, is far better than to do a good one yourself. They are told that
+all religions have been simply the John-the-Baptists of ours; that all
+the gods of antiquity have withered and shrunken into the Jehovah of the
+Jews; that all the longings and aspirations of the race are realized in
+the motto of the Evangelical Alliance, "Liberty in non-essentials",
+that all there is, or ever was, of religion can be found in the
+apostles' creed; that there is nothing left to be discovered; that all
+the thinkers are dead, and all the living should simply be believers;
+that we have only to repeat the epitaph found on the grave of wisdom;
+that grave-yards are the best possible universities, and that the
+children must be forever beaten with the bones of the fathers.
+
+It has always seemed absurd to suppose that a god would choose for his
+companions, during all eternity, the dear souls whose highest and only
+ambition is to obey. He certainly would now and then be tempted to make
+the same remark made by an English gentleman to his poor guest. The
+gentleman had invited a man in humble circumstances to dine with him.
+The man was so overcome with the honor that to everything the gentleman
+said he replied "Yes." Tired at last with the monotony of acquiescence,
+the gentleman cried out, "For God's sake, my good man, say 'No,' just
+once, so there will be two of us."
+
+Is it possible that an infinite God created this world simply to be the
+dwelling-place of slaves and serfs? simply for the purpose of raising
+orthodox Christians? That he did a few miracles to astonish them; that
+all the evils of life are simply his punishments, and that he is finally
+going to turn heaven into a kind of religious museum filled with Baptist
+barnacles, petrified Presbyterians and Methodist mummies? I want no
+heaven for which I must give my reason; no happiness in exchange for
+my liberty, and no immortality that demands the surrender of my
+individuality. Better rot in the windowless tomb, to which there is no
+door but the red mouth of the pallid worm, than wear the jeweled collar
+even of a god.
+
+Religion does not, and cannot, contemplate man as free. She accepts only
+the homage of the prostrate, and scorns the offerings of those who stand
+erect. She cannot tolerate the liberty of thought. The wide and sunny
+fields belong not to her domain. The star-lit heights of genius and
+individuality are above and beyond her appreciation and power. Her
+subjects cringe at her feet, covered with the dust of obedience.
+
+They are not athletes standing posed by rich life and brave endeavor
+like antique statues, but shriveled deformities, studying with furtive
+glance the cruel face of power.
+
+No religionist seems capable of comprehending this plain truth. There
+is this difference between thought and action: for our actions we
+are responsible to ourselves and to those injuriously affected; for
+thoughts, there can, in the nature of things, be no responsibility to
+gods or men, here or hereafter. And yet the Protestant has vied with
+the Catholic in denouncing freedom of thought; and while I was taught to
+hate Catholicism with every drop of my blood, it is only justice to
+say, that in all essential particulars it is precisely the same as every
+other religion. Luther denounced mental liberty with all the coarse and
+brutal vigor of his nature; Calvin despised, from the very bottom of his
+petrified heart, anything that even looked like religious toleration,
+and solemnly declared that to advocate it was to crucify Christ afresh.
+All the founders of all the orthodox churches have advocated the
+same infamous tenet. The truth is, that what is called religion is
+necessarily inconsistent with free thought A believer is a bird in a
+cage, a Freethinker is an eagle parting the clouds with tireless wing.
+
+At present, owing to the inroads that have been made by liberals and
+infidels, most of the churches pretend to be in favor of religious
+liberty. Of these churches, we will ask this question: How can a man,
+who conscientiously believes in religious liberty, worship a God who
+does not? They say to us: "We will not imprison you on account of your
+belief, but our God will." "We will not burn you because you throw away
+the sacred Scriptures, but their author will." "We think it an infamous
+crime to persecute our brethren for opinion's sake,--but the God, whom
+we ignorantly worship, will on that account, damn his own children
+forever."
+
+Why is it that these Christians not only detest the infidels, but
+cordially despise each other? Why do they refuse to worship in the
+temples of each other? Why do they care so little for the damnation of
+men, and so much for the baptism of children? Why will they adorn their
+churches with the money of thieves and flatter vice for the sake of
+subscriptions? Why will they attempt to bribe Science to certify to
+the writings of God? Why do they torture the words of the great into an
+acknowledgment of the truth of Christianity? Why do they stand with hat
+in hand before presidents, kings, emperors, and scientists, begging,
+like Lazarus, for a few crumbs of religious comfort? Why are they so
+delighted to find an allusion to Providence in the message of Lincoln?
+Why are they so afraid that some one will find out that Paley wrote an
+essay in favor of the Epicurean philosophy, and that Sir Isaac Newton
+was once an infidel? Why are they so anxious to show that Voltaire
+recanted; that Paine died palsied with fear; that the Emperor Julian
+cried out "Galilean, thou hast conquered"; that Gibbon died a Catholic;
+that Agassiz had a little confidence in Moses; that the old Napoleon
+was once complimentary enough to say that he thought Christ greater
+than himself or Cæsar; that Washington was caught on his knees at Valley
+Forge; that blunt old Ethan Allen told his child to believe the religion
+of her mother; that Franklin said, "Don't unchain the tiger," and that
+Volney got frightened in a storm at sea?
+
+Is it because the foundation of their temple is crumbling, because the
+walls are cracked, the pillars leaning, the great dome swaying to its
+fall, and because Science has written over the high altar its mene,
+mene, tekel, upharsin--the old words, destined to be the epitaph of all
+religions?
+
+Every assertion of individual independence has been a step toward
+infidelity. Luther started toward Humboldt,--Wesley, toward John Stuart
+Mill. To really reform the church is to destroy it. Every new religion
+has a little less superstition than the old, so that the religion of
+Science is but a question of time.
+
+I will not say the church has been an unmitigated evil in all respects.
+Its history is infamous and glorious. It has delighted in the production
+of extremes. It has furnished murderers for its own martyrs. It has
+sometimes fed the body, but has always starved the soul. It has been a
+charitable highwayman--a profligate beggar--a generous pirate. It
+has produced some angels and a multitude of devils. It has built more
+prisons than asylums. It made a hundred orphans while it cared for one.
+In one hand it has carried the alms-dish and in the other a sword.
+It has founded schools and endowed universities for the purpose of
+destroying true learning. It filled the world with hypocrites and
+zealots, and upon the cross of its own Christ it crucified the
+individuality of man. It has sought to destroy the independence of the
+soul and put the world upon its knees. This is its crime. The commission
+of this crime was necessary to its existence. In order to compel
+obedience it declared that it had the truth, and all the truth; that God
+had made it the keeper of his secrets; his agent and his vicegerent. It
+declared that all other religions were false and infamous. It rendered
+all compromise impossible and all thought superfluous. Thought was its
+enemy, obedience was its friend. Investigation was fraught with danger;
+therefore investigation was suppressed. The holy of holies was behind
+the curtain. All this was upon the principle that forgers hate to
+have the signature examined by an expert, and that imposture detests
+curiosity.
+
+"He that hath ears to hear, let him hear," has always been the favorite
+text of the church.
+
+In short, Christianity has always opposed every forward movement of the
+human race. Across the highway of progress it has always been building
+breastworks of Bibles, tracts, commentaries, prayer-books, creeds,
+dogmas and platforms, and at every advance the Christians have gathered
+together behind these heaps of rubbish and shot the poisoned arrows of
+malice at the soldiers of freedom.
+
+And even the liberal Christian of to-day has his holy of holies, and in
+the niche of the temple of his heart has his idol. He still clings to a
+part of the old superstition, and all the pleasant memories of the old
+belief linger in the horizon of his thoughts like a sunset. We associate
+the memory of those we love with the religion of our childhood. It
+seems almost a sacrilege to rudely destroy the idols that our fathers
+worshiped, and turn their sacred and beautiful truths into the fables of
+barbarism. Some throw away the Old Testament and cling to the New, while
+others give up everything except the idea that there is a personal God,
+and that in some wonderful way we are the objects of his care.
+
+Even this, in my opinion, as Science, the great iconoclast, marches
+onward, will have to be abandoned with the rest. The great ghost
+will surely share the fate of the little ones. They fled at the first
+appearance of the dawn, and the other will vanish with the perfect
+day. Until then the independence of man is little more than a dream.
+Overshadowed by an immense personality, in the presence of the
+irresponsible and the infinite, the individuality of man is lost, and
+he falls prostrate in the very dust of fear. Beneath the frown of the
+absolute, man stands a wretched, trembling slave,--beneath his smile he
+is at best only a fortunate serf. Governed by a being whose arbitrary
+will is law, chained to the chariot of power, his destiny rests in the
+pleasure of the unknown. Under these circumstances, what wretched object
+can he have in lengthening out his aimless life?
+
+And yet, in most minds, there is a vague fear of the gods--a shrinking
+from the malice of the skies. Our fathers were slaves, and nearly all
+their children are mental serfs. The enfranchisement of the soul is
+a slow and painful process. Superstition, the mother of those hideous
+twins, Fear and Faith, from her throne of skulls, still rules the world,
+and will until the mind of woman ceases to be the property of priests.
+
+When women reason, and babes sit in the lap of philosophy, the victory
+of reason over the shadowy host of darkness will be complete.
+
+In the minds of many, long after the intellect has thrown aside as
+utterly fabulous the legends of the church, there still remains a
+lingering suspicion, born of the mental habits contracted in childhood,
+that after all there may be a grain of truth in these mountains of
+theological mist, and that possibly the superstitious side is the side
+of safety.
+
+A gentleman, walking among the ruins of Athens, came upon a fallen
+statue of Jupiter; making an exceedingly low bow he said: "O Jupiter!
+I salute thee." He then added: "Should you ever sit upon the throne of
+heaven again, do not, I pray you, forget that I treated you politely
+when you were prostrate."
+
+We have all been taught by the church that nothing is so well calculated
+to excite the ire of the Deity as to express a doubt as to his
+existence, and that to deny it is an unpardonable sin. Numerous
+well-attested instances are referred to of atheists being struck dead
+for denying the existence of God. According to these religious people,
+God is infinitely above us in every respect, infinitely merciful, and
+yet he cannot bear to hear a poor finite man honestly question his
+existence. Knowing, as he does, that his children are groping in
+darkness and struggling with doubt and fear; knowing that he could
+enlighten them if he would, he still holds the expression of a sincere
+doubt as to his existence, the most infamous of crimes. According to
+orthodox logic, God having furnished us with imperfect minds, has a
+right to demand a perfect result.
+
+Suppose Mr. Smith should overhear a couple of small bugs holding a
+discussion as to the existence of Mr. Smith, and suppose one should have
+the temerity to declare, upon the honor of a bug, that he had examined
+the whole question to the best of his ability, including the argument
+based upon design, and had come to the conclusion that no man by the
+name of Smith had ever lived. Think then of Mr. Smith flying into an
+ecstasy of rage, crushing the atheist bug beneath his iron heel, while
+he exclaimed, "I will teach you, blasphemous wretch, that Smith is a
+diabolical fact!" What then can we think of a God who would open the
+artillery of heaven upon one of his own children for simply expressing
+his honest thought? And what man who really thinks can help repeating
+the words of Ennius: "If there are gods they certainly pay no attention
+to the affairs of man."
+
+Think of the millions of men and women who have been destroyed simply
+for loving and worshiping this God. Is it possible that this God, having
+infinite power, saw his loving and heroic children languishing in the
+darkness of dungeons; heard the clank of their chains when they lifted
+their hands to him in the agony of prayer; saw them stretched upon the
+bigot's rack, where death alone had pity; saw the serpents of flame
+crawl hissing round their shrinking forms---saw all this for sixteen
+hundred years, and sat as silent as a stone?
+
+From such a God, why should man expect assistance? Why should he waste
+his days in fruitless prayer? Why should he fall upon his knees and
+implore a phantom--a phantom that is deaf, and dumb, and blind?
+
+Although we live in what is called a free government,--and politically
+we are free,--there is but little religious liberty in America. Society
+demands, either that you belong to some church, or that you suppress
+your opinions. It is contended by many that ours is a Christian
+government, founded upon the Bible, and that all who look upon that book
+as false or foolish are destroying the foundation of our country. The
+truth is, our government is not founded upon the rights of gods, but
+upon the rights of men. Our Constitution was framed, not to declare and
+uphold the deity of Christ, but the sacredness of humanity. Ours is the
+first government made by the people and for the people. It is the only
+nation with which the gods have had nothing to do. And yet there are
+some judges dishonest and cowardly enough to solemnly decide that this
+is a Christian country, and that our free institutions are based upon
+the infamous laws of Jehovah. Such judges are the Jeffries of the
+church. They believe that decisions, made by hirelings at the bidding of
+kings, are binding upon man forever. They regard old law as far superior
+to modern justice. They are what might be called orthodox judges. They
+spend their days in finding out, not what ought to be, but what has
+been. With their backs to the sunrise they worship the night. There is
+only one future event with which they concern themselves, and that is
+their reelection. No honest court ever did, or ever will, decide that
+our Constitution is Christian. The Bible teaches that the powers that
+be, are ordained of God. The Bible teaches that God is the source of all
+authority, and that all kings have obtained their power from him. Every
+tyrant has claimed to be the agent of the Most High. The Inquisition
+was founded, not in the name of man, but in the name of God. All the
+governments of Europe recognize the greatness of God, and the littleness
+of the people. In all ages, hypocrites, called priests, have put crowns
+upon the heads of thieves, called kings.
+
+The Declaration of Independence announces the sublime truth, that all
+power comes from the people. This was a denial, and the first denial of
+a nation, of the infamous dogma that God confers the right upon one man
+to govern others. It was the first grand assertion of the dignity of the
+human race. It declared the governed to be the source of power, and
+in fact denied the authority of any and all gods. Through the ages of
+slavery--through the weary centuries of the lash and chain, God was the
+acknowledged ruler of the world. To enthrone man, was to dethrone him.
+
+To Paine, Jefferson, and Franklin, are we indebted, more than to all
+others, for a human government, and for a Constitution in which no God
+is recognized superior to the legally expressed will of the people.
+
+They knew that to put God in the Constitution was to put man out. They
+knew that the recognition of a Deity would be seized upon by fanatics
+and zealots as a pretext for destroying the liberty of thought. They
+knew the terrible history of the church too well to place in her
+keeping, or in the keeping of her God, the sacred rights of man. They
+intended that all should have the right to worship, or not to worship;
+that our laws should make no distinction on account of creed. They
+intended to found and frame a government for man, and for man alone.
+They wished to preserve the individuality and liberty of all; to prevent
+the few from governing the many, and the many from persecuting and
+destroying the few.
+
+Notwithstanding all this, the spirit of persecution still lingers in our
+laws. In many of the States, only those who believe in the existence of
+some kind of God, are under the protection of the law.
+
+The supreme court of Illinois decided, in the year of grace 1856, that
+an unbeliever in the existence of an intelligent First Cause could not
+be allowed to testify in any court. His wife and children might have
+been murdered before his very face, and yet in the absence of other
+witnesses, the murderer could not have even been indicted. The atheist
+was a legal outcast. To him, Justice was not only blind, but deaf. He
+was liable, like other men, to support the Government, and was forced to
+contribute his share towards paying the salaries of the very judges
+who decided that under no circumstances could his voice be heard in any
+court. This was the law of Illinois, and so remained until the
+adoption of the new Constitution. By such infamous means has the church
+endeavored to chain the human mind, and protect the majesty of her God.
+The fact is, we have no national religion, and no national God; but
+every citizen is allowed to have a religion and a God of his own, or
+to reject all religions and deny the existence of all gods. The church,
+however, never has, and never will understand and appreciate the genius
+of our Government.
+
+Last year, in a convention of Protestant bigots, held in the city of New
+York for the purpose of creating public opinion in favor of a religious
+amendment to the Federal Constitution, a reverend doctor of divinity,
+speaking of atheists, said: "What are the rights of the atheist? I would
+tolerate him as I would tolerate a poor lunatic. I would tolerate him as
+I would tolerate a conspirator. He may live and go free, hold his
+lands and enjoy his home--he may even vote; but for any higher or more
+advanced citizenship, he is, as I hold, utterly disqualified." These are
+the sentiments of the church to-day.
+
+Give the church a place in the Constitution, let her touch once more
+the sword of power, and the priceless fruit of all the ages will turn to
+ashes on the lips of men.
+
+In religious ideas and conceptions there has been for ages a slow and
+steady development At the bottom of the ladder (speaking of modern
+times) is Catholicism, and at the top is Science. The intermediate
+rounds of this ladder are occupied by the various sects, whose name is
+legion.
+
+But whatever may be the truth upon any subject has nothing to do
+with-our right to investigate that subject, and express any opinion
+we may form. All that I ask, is the same right I freely accord to all
+others.
+
+A few years ago a Methodist clergyman took it upon himself to give me a
+piece of friendly advice. "Although you may disbelieve the Bible," said
+he, "you ought not to say so. That, you should keep to yourself."
+
+"Do you believe the Bible," said I.
+
+He replied, "Most assuredly".
+
+To which I retorted, "Your answer conveys no information to me. You may
+be following your own advice. You told me to suppress my opinions. Of
+course a man who will advise others to dissimulate will not always be
+particular about telling the truth himself."
+
+There can be nothing more utterly subversive of all that is really
+valuable than the suppression of honest thought. No man, worthy of the
+form he bears, will at the command of church or state solemnly repeat a
+creed his reason scorns.
+
+It is the duty of each and every one to maintain his individuality.
+"This above all, to thine ownself be true, and it must follow as
+the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man." It is
+a magnificent thing to be the sole proprietor of yourself. It is a
+terrible thing to wake up at night and say, "There is nobody in this
+bed." It is humiliating to know that your ideas are all borrowed; that
+you are indebted to your memory for your principles; that your religion
+is simply one of your habits, and that you would have convictions if
+they were only contagious. It is mortifying to feel that you belong to
+a mental mob and cry "crucify him," because the others do; that you reap
+what the great and brave have sown, and that you can benefit the world
+only by leaving it.
+
+Surely every human being ought to attain to the dignity of the unit.
+Surely it is worth something to be one, and to feel that the census of
+the universe would be incomplete without counting you. Surely there
+is grandeur in knowing that in the realm of thought, at least, you are
+without a chain; that you have the right to explore all heights and all
+depths; that there are no walls nor fences, nor prohibited places, nor
+sacred corners in all the vast expanse of thought; that your intellect
+owes no allegiance to any being, human or divine; that you hold all in
+fee and upon no condition and by no tenure whatever; that in the world
+of mind you are relieved from all personal dictation, and from the
+ignorant tyranny of majorities. Surely it is worth something to feel
+that there are no priests, no popes, no parties, no governments,
+no kings, no gods, to whom your intellect can be compelled to pay
+a reluctant homage. Surely it is a joy to know that all the cruel
+ingenuity of bigotry can devise no prison, no dungeon, no cell in which
+for one instant to confine a thought; that ideas cannot be dislocated
+by racks, nor crushed in iron boots, nor burned with fire. Surely it is
+sublime to think that the brain is a castle, and that within its curious
+bastions and winding halls the soul, in spite of all worlds and all
+beings, is the supreme sovereign of itself.
+
+
+
+
+HERETICS AND HERESIES.
+
+Liberty, a Word without which all other Words are Vain.
+
+WHOEVER has an opinion of his own, and honestly expresses it, will be
+guilty of heresy. Heresy is what the minority believe; it is the name
+given by the powerful to the doctrine of the weak. This word was born of
+the hatred, arrogance and cruelty of those who love their enemies, and
+who, when smitten on one cheek, turn the other. This word was born of
+intellectual slavery in the feudal ages of thought It was an epithet
+used in the place of argument. From the commencement of the Christian
+era, every art has been exhausted and every conceivable punishment
+inflicted to force all people to hold the same religious opinions. This
+effort was born of the idea that a certain belief was necessary to the
+salvation of the soul. Christ taught, and the church still teaches,
+that unbelief is the blackest of crimes. God is supposed to hate with
+an infinite and implacable hatred, every heretic upon the earth, and the
+heretics who have died are supposed at this moment to be suffering the
+agonies of the damned. The church persecutes the living and her God
+burns the dead.
+
+It is claimed that God wrote a book called the Bible, and it is
+generally admitted that this book is somewhat difficult to understand.
+As long as the church had all the copies of this book, and the people
+were not allowed to read it, there was comparatively little heresy in
+the world; but when it was printed and read, people began honestly to
+differ as to its meaning. A few were independent and brave enough to
+give the world their real thoughts, and for the extermination of these
+men the church used all her power. Protestants and Catholics vied with
+each other in the work of enslaving the human mind. For ages they were
+rivals in the infamous effort to rid the earth of honest people. They
+infested every country, every city, town, hamlet and family. They
+appealed to the worst passions of the human heart They sowed the seeds
+of discord and hatred in every land. Brother denounced brother, wives
+informed against their husbands, mothers accused their children,
+dungeons were crowded with the innocent; the flesh of the good and true
+rotted in the clasp of chains; the flames devoured the heroic, and in
+the name of the most merciful God, his children were exterminated with
+famine, sword, and fire. Over the wild waves of battle rose and fell
+the banner of Jesus Christ. For sixteen hundred years the robes of the
+church were red with innocent blood. The ingenuity of Christians was
+exhausted in devising punishment severe enough to be inflicted upon
+other Christians who honestly and sincerely differed with them upon any
+point whatever.
+
+Give any orthodox church the power, and to-day they would punish heresy
+with whip, and chain, and fire. As long as a church deems a certain
+belief essential to salvation, just so long it will kill and burn if it
+has the power. Why should the church pity a man whom her God hates? Why
+should she show mercy to a kind and noble heretic whom her God will burn
+in eternal fire? Why should a Christian be better than his God? It is
+impossible for the imagination to conceive of a greater atrocity than
+has been perpetrated by the church. Every nerve in the human body
+capable of pain has been sought out and touched by the church.
+
+Let it be remembered that all churches have persecuted heretics to the
+extent of their power. Toleration has increased only when and where the
+power of the church has diminished. From Augustine until now the
+spirit of the Christians has remained the same. There has been the same
+intolerance, the same undying hatred of all who think for themselves,
+and the same determination to crush out of the human brain all knowledge
+inconsistent with an ignorant creed.
+
+Every church pretends that it has a revelation from God, and that this
+revelation must be given to the people through the church; that the
+church acts through its priests, and that ordinary mortals must be
+content with a revelation--not from God--but from the church. Had the
+people submitted to this preposterous claim, of course there could have
+been but one church, and that church never could have advanced. It might
+have retrograded, because it is not necessary to think or investigate in
+order to forget. Without heresy there could have been no progress.
+
+The highest type of the orthodox Christian does not forget; neither
+does he learn. He neither advances nor recedes. He is a living fossil
+embedded in that rock called faith. He makes no effort to better his
+condition, because all his strength is exhausted in keeping other people
+from improving theirs. The supreme desire of his heart is to force all
+others to adopt his creed, and in order to accomplish this object he
+denounces free thinking as a crime, and this crime he calls heresy. When
+he had power, heresy was the most terrible and formidable of words. It
+meant confiscation, exile, imprisonment, torture, and death.
+
+In those days the cross and rack were inseparable companions. Across
+the open Bible lay the sword and fagot. Not content with burning such
+heretics as were alive, they even tried the dead, in order that the
+church might rob their wives and children. The property of all heretics
+was confiscated, and on this account they charged the dead with being
+heretical--indicted, as it were, their dust--to the end that the
+church might clutch the bread of orphans. Learned divines discussed
+the propriety of tearing out the tongues of heretics before they were
+burned, and the general opinion was, that this ought to be done so that
+the heretics should not be able, by uttering blasphemies, to shock
+the Christians who were burning them. With a mixture of ferocity and
+Christianity, the priests insisted that heretics ought to be burned at
+a slow fire, giving as a reason that more time was given them for
+repentance.
+
+No wonder that Jesus Christ said, "I came not to bring peace, but a
+sword."
+
+Every priest regarded himself as the agent of God. He answered all
+questions by authority, and to treat him with disrespect was an insult
+offered to God. No one was asked to think, but all were commanded to
+obey.
+
+In 1208 the Inquisition was established. Seven years afterward, the
+fourth council of the Lateran enjoined all kings and rulers to swear
+an oath that they would exterminate heretics from their dominions. The
+sword of the church was unsheathed, and the world was at the mercy of
+ignorant and infuriated priests, whose eyes feasted upon the agonies
+they inflicted. Acting, as they believed, or pretended to believe, under
+the command of God; stimulated by the hope of infinite reward in another
+world--hating heretics with every drop of their bestial blood; savage
+beyond description; merciless beyond conception,--these infamous
+priests, in a kind of frenzied joy, leaped upon the helpless victims of
+their rage. They crushed their bones in iron boots; tore their quivering
+flesh with iron hooks and pincers; cut off their lips and eyelids;
+pulled out their nails, and into the bleeding quick thrust needles; tore
+out their tongues; extinguished their eyes; stretched them upon racks;
+flayed them alive; crucified them with their heads downward; exposed
+them to wild beasts; burned them at the stake; mocked their cries and
+groans; ravished their wives; robbed their children, and then prayed God
+to finish the holy work in hell.
+
+Millions upon millions were sacrificed upon the altars of bigotry. The
+Catholic burned the Lutheran, the Lutheran burned the Catholic, the
+Episcopalian tortured the Presbyterian, the Presbyterian tortured the
+Episcopalian. Every denomination killed all it could of every other; and
+each Christian felt in duty bound to exterminate every other Christian
+who denied the smallest fraction of his creed.
+
+In the reign of Henry VIII.--that pious and moral founder of the
+apostolic Episcopal Church,--there was passed by the parliament of
+England an act entitled "An act for abolishing of diversity of opinion."
+And in this act was set forth what a good Christian was obliged to
+believe: First, That in the sacrament was the real body and blood of
+Jesus Christ.
+
+Second, That the body and blood of Jesus Christ was in the bread, and
+the blood and body of Jesus Christ was in the wine.
+
+Third, That priests should not marry.
+
+Fourth, That vows of chastity were of perpetual obligation.
+
+Fifth, That private masses ought to be continued; and,
+
+Sixth, That auricular confession to a priest must be maintained.
+
+This creed was made by law, in order that all men might know just what
+to believe by simply reading the statute. The church hated to see the
+people wearing out their brains in thinking upon these subjects. It was
+thought far better that a creed should be made by parliament, so that
+whatever might be lacking in evidence might be made up in force. The
+punishment for denying the first article was death by fire. For
+the denial of any other article, imprisonment, and for the second
+offence--death.
+
+Your attention is called to these six articles, established during the
+reign of Henry VIII., and by the Church of England, simply because not
+one of these articles is believed by that church to-day. If the law then
+made by the church could be enforced now, every Episcopalian would be
+burned at the stake.
+
+Similar laws were passed in most Christian countries, as all orthodox
+churches firmly believed that mankind could be legislated into heaven.
+According to the creed of every church, slavery leads to heaven, liberty
+leads to hell. It was claimed that God had founded the church, and that
+to deny the authority of the church was to be a traitor to God, and
+consequently an ally of the devil. To torture and destroy one of the
+soldiers of Satan was a duty no good Christian cared to neglect. Nothing
+can be sweeter than to earn the gratitude of God by killing your own
+enemies. Such a mingling of profit and revenge, of heaven for yourself
+and damnation for those you dislike, is a temptation that your ordinary
+Christian never resists.
+
+According to the theologians, God, the Father of us all, wrote a letter
+to his children. The children have always differed somewhat as to the
+meaning of this letter. In consequence of these honest differences,
+these brothers began to cut out each other's hearts. In every land,
+where this letter from God has been read, the children to whom and for
+whom it was written have been filled with hatred and malice. They have
+imprisoned and murdered each other, and the wives and children of each
+other. In the name of God every possible crime has been committed, every
+conceivable outrage has been perpetrated. Brave men, tender and loving
+women, beautiful girls, and prattling babes have been exterminated in
+the name of Jesus Christ. For more than fifty generations the church
+has carried the black flag. Her vengeance has been measured only by
+her power. During all these years of infamy no heretic has ever been
+forgiven. With the heart of a fiend she has hated; with the clutch of
+avarice she has grasped; with the jaws of a dragon she has devoured;
+pitiless as famine, merciless as fire, with the conscience of a serpent:
+such is the history of the Church of God.
+
+I do not say, and I do not believe, that Christians are as bad as their
+creeds. In spite of church and dogma, there have been millions and
+millions of men and women true to the loftiest and most generous
+promptings of the human heart. They have been true to their convictions,
+and, with a self-denial and fortitude excelled by none, have labored
+and suffered for the salvation of men. Imbued with the spirit of
+self-sacrifice, believing that by personal effort they could rescue at
+least a few souls from the infinite shadow of hell, they have
+cheerfully endured every hardship and scorned every danger. And yet,
+notwithstanding all this, they believed that honest error was a crime.
+They knew that the Bible so declared, and they believed that all
+unbelievers would be eternally lost. They believed that religion was
+of God, and all heresy of the devil. They killed heretics in defence
+of their own souls and the souls of their children. They killed them
+because, according to their idea, they were the enemies of God, and
+because the Bible teaches that the blood of the unbeliever is a most
+acceptable sacrifice to heaven.
+
+Nature never prompted a loving mother to throw her child into the
+Ganges. Nature never prompted men to exterminate each other for a
+difference of opinion concerning the baptism of infants. These crimes
+have been produced by religions filled with all that is illogical,
+cruel and hideous. These religions were produced for the most part by
+ignorance, tyranny and hypocrisy. Under the impression that the infinite
+ruler and creator of the universe had commanded the destruction of
+heretics and infidels, the church perpetrated all these crimes.
+
+Men and women have been burned for thinking there is but one God; that
+there was none; that the Holy Ghost is younger than God; that God was
+somewhat older than his son; for insisting that good works will save a
+man without faith; that faith will do without good works; for declaring
+that a sweet babe will not be burned eternally, because its parents
+failed to have its head wet by a priest; for speaking of God as
+though he had a nose; for denying that Christ was his own father; for
+contending that three persons, rightly added together, make more than
+one; for believing in purgatory; for denying the reality of hell; for
+pretending that priests can forgive sins; for preaching that God is an
+essence; for denying that witches rode through the air on sticks;
+for doubting the total depravity of the human heart; for laughing
+at irresistible grace, predestination and particular redemption; for
+denying that good bread could be made of the body of a dead man; for
+pretending that the pope was not managing this world for God, and in the
+place of God; for disputing the efficacy of a vicarious atonement; for
+thinking the Virgin Mary was born like other people; for thinking that a
+man's rib was hardly sufficient to make a good-sized woman; for denying
+that God used his finger for a pen; for asserting that prayers are not
+answered, that diseases are not sent to punish unbelief; for denying
+the authority of the Bible; for having a Bible in their possession; for
+attending mass, and for refusing to attend; for wearing a surplice; for
+carrying a cross, and for refusing; for being a Catholic, and for being
+a Protestant; for being an Episcopalian, a Presbyterian, a Baptist, and
+for being a Quaker. In short, every virtue has been a crime, and every
+crime a virtue. The church has burned honesty and rewarded hypocrisy.
+And all this, because it was commanded by a book--a book that men had
+been taught implicitly to believe, long, before they knew one word that
+was in it They had been taught that to doubt the truth of this book--to
+examine it, even--was a crime of such enormity that it could not be
+forgiven, either in this world or in the next The Bible was the real
+persecutor. The Bible burned heretics, built dungeons, founded the
+Inquisition, and trampled upon all the liberties of men.
+
+How long, O how long will mankind worship a book? How long will they
+grovel in the dust before the ignorant legends of the barbaric past?
+How long, O how long will they pursue phantoms in a darkness deeper than
+death?
+
+Unfortunately for the world, about the beginning of the sixteenth
+century, a man by the name of Gerard Chauvin was married to Jeanne
+Lefranc, and still more unfortunately for the world, the fruit of this
+marriage was a son, called John Chauvin, who afterwards became famous as
+John Calvin, the founder of the Presbyterian Church.
+
+This man forged five fetters for the brain. These fetters he called
+points. That is to say, predestination, particular redemption, total
+depravity, irresistible grace, and the perseverance of the saints. About
+the neck of each follower he put a collar bristling with these five iron
+points. The presence of all these points on the collar is still the test
+of orthodoxy in the church he founded. This man, when in the flush of
+youth, was elected to the office of preacher in Geneva. He at once,
+in union with Farel, drew up a condensed statement of the Presbyterian
+doctrine, and all the citizens of Geneva, on pain of banishment, were
+compelled to take an oath that they believed this statement. Of this
+proceeding Calvin very innocently remarked that it produced great
+satisfaction. A man named Caroli had the audacity to dispute with
+Calvin. For this outrage he was banished.
+
+To show you what great subjects occupied the attention of Calvin, it is
+only necessary to state that he furiously discussed the question as to
+whether the sacramental bread should be leavened or unleavened. He drew
+up laws regulating the cut of the citizens' clothes, and prescribing
+their diet, and all those whose garments were not in the Calvin fashion
+were refused the sacrament. At last, the people becoming tired of this
+petty theological tyranny, banished Calvin. In a few years, however,
+he was recalled and received with great enthusiasm. After this he was
+supreme, and the will of Calvin became the law of Geneva.
+
+Under his benign administration, James Gruet was beheaded because he had
+written some profane verses. The slightest word against Calvin or his
+absurd doctrines was punished as a crime.
+
+In 1553 a man was tried at Vienne by the Catholic Church for heresy. He
+was convicted and sentenced to death by burning. It was apparently his
+good fortune to escape. Pursued by the sleuth hounds of intolerance he
+fled to Geneva for protection. A dove flying from hawks, sought safety
+in the nest of a vulture. This fugitive from the cruelty of Rome asked
+shelter from John Calvin, who had written a book in favor of religious
+toleration. Servetus had forgotten that this book was written by Calvin
+when in the minority; that it was written in weakness to be forgotten
+in power; that it was produced by fear instead of principle. He did not
+know that Calvin had caused his arrest at Vienne, in France, and had
+sent a copy of his work, which was claimed to be blasphemous, to the
+archbishop. He did not then know that the Protestant Calvin was
+acting as one of the detectives of the Catholic Church, and had been
+instrumental in procuring his conviction for heresy. Ignorant of all
+this unspeakable infamy, he put himself in the power of this very
+Calvin. The maker of the Presbyterian creed caused the fugitive
+Serve-tus to be arrested for blasphemy. He was tried. Calvin was his
+accuser. He was convicted and condemned to death by fire. On the morning
+of the fatal day, Calvin saw him, and Servetus, the victim, asked
+forgiveness of Calvin, the murderer. Servetus was bound to the stake,
+and the fagots were lighted. The wind carried the flames somewhat away
+from his body, so that he slowly roasted for hours. Vainly he implored
+a speedy death. At last the flames climbed round his form; through smoke
+and fire his murderers saw a white heroic face. And there they watched
+until a man became a charred and shriveled mass.
+
+Liberty was banished from Geneva, and nothing but Presbyterianism was
+left. Honor, justice, mercy, reason and charity were all exiled, but
+the five points of predestination, particular redemption, irresistible
+grace, total depravity, and the certain perseverance of the saints
+remained instead.
+
+Calvin founded a little theocracy, modeled after the Old Testament, and
+succeeded in erecting the most detestable government that ever existed,
+except the one from which it was copied.
+
+Against all this intolerance, one man, a minister, raised his voice. The
+name of this man should never be forgotten. It was Castalio. This brave
+man had the goodness and the courage to declare the innocence of honest
+error. He was the first of the so-called reformers to take this noble
+ground. I wish I had the genius to pay a fitting tribute to his memory.
+Perhaps it would be impossible to pay him a grander compliment than to
+say, Castalio was in all things the opposite of Calvin. To plead for the
+right of individual judgment was considered a crime, and Castalio was
+driven from Geneva by John Calvin. By him he was denounced as a child of
+the devil, as a dog of Satan, as a beast from hell, and as one who, by
+this horrid blasphemy of the innocence of honest error, crucified Christ
+afresh, and by him he was pursued until rescued by the hand of death.
+
+Upon the name of Castalio, Calvin heaped every epithet, until his malice
+was nearly satisfied and his imagination entirely exhausted. It is
+impossible to conceive how human nature can become so frightfully
+perverted as to pursue a fellow-man with the malignity of a fiend,
+simply because he is good, just, and generous.
+
+Calvin was of a pallid, bloodless complexion, thin, sickly, irritable,
+gloomy, impatient, egotistic, tyrannical, heartless, and infamous. He
+was a strange compound of revengeful morality, malicious forgiveness,
+ferocious charity, egotistic humility, and a kind of hellish justice.
+In other words, he was as near like the God of the Old Testament as his
+health permitted.
+
+The best thing, however, about the Presbyterians of Geneva was, that
+they denied the power of the Pope, and the best thing about the Pope
+was, that he was not a Presbyterian.
+
+The doctrines of Calvin spread rapidly, and were eagerly accepted by
+multitudes on the continent; but Scotland, in a few years, became the
+real fortress of Presbyterianism. The Scotch succeeded in establishing
+the same kind of theocracy that flourished in Geneva. The clergy took
+possession and control of everybody and everything. It is impossible to
+exaggerate the mental degradation, the abject superstition of the people
+of Scotland during the reign of Presbyterianism. Heretics were hunted
+and devoured as though they had been wild beasts. The gloomy insanity of
+Presbyterianism took possession of a great majority of the people. They
+regarded their ministers as the Jews did Moses and Aaron. They believed
+that they were the especial agents of God, and that whatsoever they
+bound in Scotland would be bound in heaven. There was not one particle
+of intellectual freedom. No man was allowed to differ with the church,
+or to even contradict a priest. Had Presbyterianism maintained its
+ascendency, Scotland would have been peopled by savages to-day.
+
+The revengeful spirit of Calvin took possession of the Puritans, and
+caused them to redden the soil of the New World with the brave blood of
+honest men. Clinging to the five points of Calvin, they too established
+governments in accordance with the teachings of the Old Testament. They
+too attached the penalty of death to the expression of honest thought.
+They too believed their church supreme, and exerted all their power to
+curse this continent with a spiritual despotism as infamous as it was
+absurd. They believed with Luther that universal toleration is universal
+error, and universal error is universal hell. Toleration was denounced
+as a crime.
+
+Fortunately for us, civilization has had a softening effect even upon
+the Presbyterian Church. To the ennobling influence of the arts and
+sciences the savage spirit of Calvinism has, in some slight degree,
+succumbed. True, the old creed remains substantially as it was written,
+but by a kind of tacit understanding it has come to be regarded as a
+relic of the past. The cry of "heresy" has been growing fainter and
+fainter, and, as a consequence, the ministers of that denomination
+have ventured, now and then, to express doubts as to the damnation of
+infants, and the doctrine of total depravity. The fact is, the old ideas
+became a little monotonous to the people. The fall of man, the scheme of
+redemption and irresistible grace, began to have a familiar sound. The
+preachers told the old stories while the congregations slept Some of the
+ministers became tired of these stories themselves. The five points grew
+dull, and they felt that nothing short of irresistible grace could bear
+this endless repetition. The outside world was full of progress, and in
+every direction men advanced, while this church, anchored to a creed,
+idly rotted at the shore. Other denominations, imbued some little with
+the spirit of investigation, were springing up on every side, while the
+old Presbyterian ark rested on the Ararat of the past, filled with the
+theological monsters of another age.
+
+Lured by the splendors of the outer world, tempted by the achievements
+of science, longing to feel the throb and beat of the mighty march of
+the human race, a few of the ministers of this conservative denomination
+were compelled, by irresistible sense, to say a few words in harmony
+with the splendid ideas of to-day.
+
+These utterances have upon several occasions so nearly wakened some of
+the members that, rubbing their eyes, they have feebly inquired whether
+these grand ideas were not somewhat heretical. These ministers found
+that just in the proportion that their orthodoxy decreased, their
+congregations increased. Those who dealt in the pure unadulterated
+article found themselves demonstrating the five points to a less number
+of hearers than they had points. Stung to madness by this bitter truth,
+this galling contrast, this harassing fact, the really orthodox have
+raised the cry of heresy, and expect with this cry to seal the lips
+of honest men. One of the Presbyterian ministers, and one who has been
+enjoying the luxury of a little honest thought, and the real rapture of
+expressing it, has already been indicted, and is about to be tried by
+the Presbytery of Illinois. He is charged--
+
+_First_. With having neglected to preach that most comforting and
+consoling truth, the eternal damnation of the soul.
+
+Surely, that man must be a monster who could wish to blot this blessed
+doctrine out and rob earth's wretched children of this blissful hope!
+
+Who can estimate the misery that has been caused by this most infamous
+doctrine of eternal punishment? Think of the lives it has blighted--of
+the tears it has caused--of the agony it has produced. Think of the
+millions who have been driven to insanity by this most terrible of
+dogmas. This doctrine renders God the basest and most cruel being in
+the universe. Compared with him, the most frightful deities of the most
+barbarous and degraded tribes are miracles of goodness and mercy. There
+is nothing more degrading than to worship such a god. Lower than this
+the soul can never sink. If the doctrine of eternal damnation is true,
+let me share the fate of the unconverted; let me have my portion in
+hell, rather than in heaven with a god infamous enough to inflict
+eternal misery upon any of the sons of men.
+
+_Second_. With having spoken a few kind words of Robert Collyer and John
+Stuart Mill.
+
+I have the honor of a slight acquaintance with Robert Collyer. I have
+read with pleasure some of his exquisite productions. He has a brain
+full of the dawn, the head of a philosopher, the imagination of a poet
+and the sincere heart of a child.
+
+Is a minister to be silenced because he speaks fairly of a noble and
+candid adversary? Is it a crime to compliment a lover of justice, an
+advocate of liberty; one who devotes his life to the elevation of man,
+the discovery of truth, and the promulgation of what he believes to be
+right?
+
+Can that tongue be palsied by a presbytery that praises a self-denying
+and heroic life? Is it a sin to speak a charitable word over the grave
+of John Stuart Mill? Is it heretical to pay a just and graceful tribute
+to departed worth? Must the true Presbyterian violate the sanctity of
+the tomb, dig open the grave and ask his God to curse the silent dust?
+Is Presbyterianism so narrow that it conceives of no excellence, of no
+purity of intention, of no spiritual and moral grandeur outside of its
+barbaric creed? Does it still retain within its stony heart all the
+malice of its founder? Is it still warming its fleshless hands at the
+flames that consumed Servetus? Does it still glory in the damnation of
+infants, and does it still persist in emptying the cradle in order that
+perdition may be filled? Is it still starving the soul and famishing
+the heart? Is it still trembling and shivering, crouching and crawling
+before its ignorant Confession of Faith?
+
+Had such men as Robert Collyer and John Stuart Mill been present at the
+burning of Servetus, they would have extinguished the flames with their
+tears. Had the presbytery of Chicago been there, they would have quietly
+turned their backs, solemnly divided their coat tails, and warmed
+themselves.
+
+_Third_. With having spoken disparagingly of the doctrine of
+predestination.
+
+If there is any dogma that ought to be protected by law, predestination
+is that doctrine. Surely it is a cheerful, joyous thing, to one who is
+laboring, struggling, and suffering in this weary world, to think that
+before he existed; before the earth was; before a star had glittered in
+the heavens; before a ray of light had left the quiver of the sun, his
+destiny had been irrevocably fixed, and that for an eternity before his
+birth he had been doomed to bear eternal pain.
+
+_Fourth._ With failing to preach the efficacy of a "vicarious
+sacrifice."
+
+Suppose a man had been convicted of murder, and was about to be
+hanged--the governor acting as the executioner; and suppose that just
+as the doomed man was about to suffer death some one in the crowd
+should step forward and say, "I am willing to die in the place of that
+murderer. He has a family, and I have none." And suppose further, that
+the governor should reply, "Come forward, young man, your offer is
+accepted. A murder has been committed and somebody must be hung,
+and your death will satisfy the law just as well as the death of the
+murderer." What would you then think of the doctrine of "vicarious
+sacrifice"?
+
+This doctrine is the consummation of two outrages--forgiving one crime
+and committing another.
+
+_Fifth_. With having inculcated a phase of the doctrine commonly known
+as "evolution," or "development".
+
+The church believes and teaches the exact opposite of this doctrine.
+According to the philosophy of theology, man has continued to degenerate
+for six thousand years. To teach that there is that in nature which
+impels to higher forms and grander ends, is heresy, of course. The
+Deity will damn Spencer and his "Evolution," Darwin and his "Origin
+of Species," Bastian and his "Spontaneous Generation," Huxley and his
+"Protoplasm," Tyndall and his "Prayer Gauge," and will save those, and
+those only, who declare that the universe has been cursed, from the
+smallest atom to the grandest star; that everything tends to evil and to
+that only, and that the only perfect thing in nature is the Presbyterian
+Confession of Faith.
+
+_Sixth_. With having intimated that the reception of Socrates and
+Penelope at heaven's gate was, to say the least, a trifle more cordial
+than that of Catharine II.
+
+Penelope, waiting patiently and trustfully for her lord's return,
+delaying her suitors, while sadly weaving and unweaving the shroud of
+Laertes, is the most perfect type of wife and woman produced by the
+civilization of Greece.
+
+Socrates, whose life was above reproach and whose death was beyond all
+praise, stands to-day, in the estimation of every thoughtful man, at
+least the peer of Christ.
+
+Catharine II. assassinated her husband. Stepping upon his corpse, she
+mounted the throne. She was the murderess of Prince Iwan, grand nephew
+of Peter the Great, who was imprisoned for eighteen years, and who
+during all that time saw the sky but once. Taken all in all, Catharine
+was probably one of the most intellectual beasts that ever wore a crown.
+
+Catharine, however, was the head of the Greek Church, Socrates was
+a heretic and Penelope lived and died without having once heard of
+"particular redemption" or of "irresistible grace."
+
+_Seventh_. With repudiating the idea of a "call" to the ministry, and
+pretending that men were "called" to preach as they were to the other
+avocations of life.
+
+If this doctrine is true, God, to say the least of it, is an exceedingly
+poor judge of human nature. It is more than a century since a man of
+true genius has been found in an orthodox pulpit. Every minister is
+heretical just to the extent that intellect is above the average. The
+Lord seems to be satisfied with mediocrity; but the people are not.
+
+An old deacon, wishing to get rid of an unpopular preacher, advised him
+to give up the ministry and turn his attention to something else. The
+preacher replied that he could not conscientiously desert the pulpit, as
+he had had a "call" to the ministry. To which the deacon replied, "That
+may be so, but it's very unfortunate for you, that when God called you
+to preach, he forgot to call anybody to hear you."
+
+There is nothing more stupidly egotistic than the claim of the clergy
+that they are, in some divine sense set apart to the service of the
+Lord; that they have been chosen, and sanctified; that there is an
+infinite difference between them and persons employed in secular
+affairs. They teach us that all other professions must take care of
+themselves; that God allows anybody to be a doctor, a lawyer, statesman,
+soldier, or artist; that the Motts and Coopers--the Mansfields and
+Marshalls--the Wilberforces and Sumners--the Angelos and Raphaels, were
+never honored by a "call." They chose their professions and won their
+laurels without the assistance of the Lord. All these men were left free
+to follow their own inclinations, while God was busily engaged selecting
+and "calling" priests, rectors, elders, ministers and exhorters.
+
+_Eighth_. With having doubted that God was the author of the 109th
+Psalm.
+
+The portion of that psalm which carries with it the clearest and most
+satisfactory evidences of inspiration, and which has afforded almost
+unspeakable consolation to the Presbyterian Church, is as follows:
+
+Set thou a wicked man over him; and let Satan stand at his right hand.
+
+When he shall be judged, let him be condemned; and let his prayer become
+sin.
+
+Let his days be few; and let another take his office.
+
+Let his children be fatherless and his wife a widow.
+
+Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg; let them seek their
+bread also out of their desolate places.
+
+Let the extortioner catch all that he hath; and let the stranger spoil
+his labor.
+
+Let there be none to extend mercy unto him; neither let there be any to
+favor his fatherless children.
+
+Let his posterity be cut off: and in the generation following let their
+name be blotted out.
+
+But do thou for me, O God the Lord, for Thy name's sake; because Thy
+mercy is good, deliver Thou me.... I will greatly praise the Lord with
+my_ mouth_.
+
+Think of a God wicked and malicious enough to inspire this prayer. Think
+of one infamous enough to answer it.
+
+Had this inspired psalm been found in some temple erected for the
+worship of snakes, or in the possession of some cannibal king, written
+with blood upon the dried skins of babes, there would have been a
+perfect harmony between its surroundings and its sentiments.
+
+No wonder that the author of this inspired psalm coldly received
+Socrates and Penelope, and reserved his sweetest smiles for Catharine
+the Second.
+
+_Ninth._ With having said that the battles in which the Israelites
+engaged, with the approval and command of Jehovah, surpassed in cruelty
+those of Julius Cæsar.
+
+Was it Julius Cæsar who said, "And the Lord our God delivered him before
+us; and we smote him, and his sons, and all his people. And we took all
+his cities, and utterly destroyed the men, and the women, and the little
+ones, of every city, we left none to remain"?
+
+Did Julius Cæsar send the following report to the Roman senate? "And we
+took all his cities at that time, there was not a city which we took not
+from them, three-score cities, all the region of Argob, the kingdom of
+Og in Bashan. All these cities were fenced with high walls, gates, and
+bars; beside unwalled towns a great many. And we utterly destroyed
+them, as we did unto Sihon, king of Heshbon, utterly destroying the men,
+women, and children of every city."
+
+Did Cæsar take the city of Jericho "and utterly destroy all that was
+in the city, both men and women, young and old"? Did he smite "all the
+country of the hills, and of the south, and of the vale, and of the
+springs, and all their kings, and leave none remaining that breathed, as
+the Lord God had commanded"?
+
+Search the records of the whole world, find out the history of every
+barbarous tribe, and you can find no crime that touched a lower depth of
+infamy than those the Bible's God commanded and approved. For such a God
+I have no words to express my loathing and contempt, and all the words
+in all the languages of man would scarcely be sufficient. Away with such
+a God! Give me Jupiter rather, with Io and Europa, or even Siva with his
+skulls and snakes.
+
+_Tenth_. With having repudiated the doctrine of "total depravity."
+
+What a precious doctrine is that of the total depravity of the human
+heart! How sweet it is to believe that the lives of all the good and
+great were continual sins and perpetual crimes; that the love a mother
+bears her child is, in the sight of God, a sin; that the gratitude of
+the natural heart is simple meanness; that the tears of pity are impure;
+that for the unconverted to live and labor for others is an offence to
+heaven; that the noblest aspirations of the soul are low and groveling
+in the sight of God; that man should fall upon his knees and ask
+forgiveness, simply for loving his wife and child, and that even the act
+of asking forgiveness is in fact a crime!
+
+Surely it is a kind of bliss to feel that every woman and child in the
+wide world, with the exception of those who believe the five points, or
+some other equally cruel creed, and such children as have been baptized,
+ought at this very moment to be dashed down to the lowest glowing gulf
+of hell.
+
+Take from the Christian the history of his own church--leave that
+entirely out of the question--and he has no argument left with which to
+substantiate the total depravity of man.
+
+_Eleventh_. With having doubted the "perseverance of the saints."
+
+I suppose the real meaning of this doctrine is, that Presbyterians are
+just as sure of going to heaven as all other folks are of going to hell.
+The real idea being, that it all depends upon the will of God, and not
+upon the character of the person to be damned or saved; that God has the
+weakness to send Presbyterians to Paradise, and the justice to doom the
+rest of mankind to eternal fire.
+
+It is admitted that no unconverted brain can see the least particle of
+sense in this doctrine; that it is abhorrent to all who have not been
+the recipients of a "new heart;" that only the perfectly good can
+justify the perfectly infamous.
+
+It is contended that the saints do not persevere of their own free
+will--that they are entitled to no credit for persevering; but that
+God forces them to persevere, while on the other hand, every crime is
+committed in accordance with the secret will of God, who does all things
+for his own glory.
+
+Compared with this doctrine, there is no other idea, that has ever been
+believed by man, that can properly be called absurd.
+
+_Twelfth_. With having spoken and written somewhat lightly of the idea
+of converting the heathen with doctrinal sermons.
+
+Of all the failures of which we have any history or knowledge, the
+missionary effort is the most conspicuous. The whole question has been
+decided here, in our own country, and conclusively settled. We have
+nearly exterminated the Indians, but we have converted none. From the
+days of John Eliot to the execution of the last Modoc, not one Indian
+has been the subject of irresistible grace or particular redemption.
+The few red men who roam the western wilderness have no thought or care
+concerning the five points of Calvin. They are utterly oblivious to
+the great and vital truths contained in the Thirty-nine Articles, the
+Saybrook platform, and the resolutions of the Evangelical Alliance. No
+Indian has ever scalped another on account of his religious belief. This
+of itself shows conclusively that the missionaries have had no effect
+Why should we convert the heathen of China and kill our own? Why should
+we send missionaries across the seas, and soldiers over the plains?
+Why should we send Bibles to the east and muskets to the west? If it
+is impossible to convert Indians who have no religion of their own; no
+prejudice for or against the "eternal procession of the Holy Ghost," how
+can we expect to convert a heathen who has a religion; who has plenty
+of gods and Bibles and prophets and Christs, and who has a religious
+literature far grander than our own? Can we hope with the story of
+Daniel in the lions' den to rival the stupendous miracles of India? Is
+there anything in our Bible as lofty and loving as the prayer of the
+Buddhist? Compare your "Confession of Faith" with the following: "Never
+will I seek nor receive private individual salvation--never enter into
+final peace alone; but forever and everywhere will I live and strive for
+the universal redemption of every creature throughout all worlds. Until
+all are delivered, never will I leave the world of sin, sorrow, and
+struggle, but will remain where I am."
+
+Think of sending an average Presbyterian to convert a man who daily
+offers this tender, this infinitely generous, this incomparable prayer.
+Think of reading the 109th Psalm to a heathen who has a Bible of his own
+in which is found this passage: "Blessed is that man and beloved of all
+the gods, who is afraid of no man, and of whom no man is afraid."
+
+Why should you read even the New Testament to a Hindu, when his own
+Chrishna has said, "If a man strike thee, and in striking drop his
+staff, pick it up and hand it to him again"? Why send a Presbyterian to
+a Sufi, who says, "Better one moment of silent contemplation and inward
+love, than seventy thousand years of outward worship"? "Whoso would
+carelessly tread one worm that crawls on earth, that heartless one is
+darkly alienate from God; but he that, living, embraceth all things
+in his love, to live with him God bursts all bounds above, below." Why
+should we endeavor to thrust our cruel and heartless theology upon one
+who prays this prayer: "O God, show pity toward the wicked; for on
+the good thou hast already bestowed thy mercy by having created them
+virtuous"?
+
+Compare this prayer with the curses and cruelties of the Old
+Testament--with the infamies commanded and approved by the being whom we
+are taught to worship as a God--and with the following tender product
+of Presbyterianism: "It may seem absurd to human wisdom that God should
+harden, blind, and deliver up some men to a reprobate sense; that he
+should first deliver them over to evil, and then condemn them for that
+evil; but the believing spiritual man sees no absurdity in all this,
+knowing that God would be never a whit less good even though he should
+destroy all men."
+
+Of all the religions that have been produced by the egotism, the malice,
+the ignorance and ambition of man, Presbyterianism is the most hideous.
+
+But what shall I say more, for the time would fail me to tell of
+Sabellianism, of a "Modal Trinity," and the "Eternal Procession of the
+Holy Ghost"?
+
+Upon these charges, a minister is to be tried, here in Chicago; in
+this city of pluck and progress--this marvel of energy--this miracle
+of nerve. The cry of "heresy," here, sounds like a wail from the Dark
+Ages--a shriek from the Inquisition, or a groan from the grave of
+Calvin.
+
+Another effort is being made to enslave a man.
+
+It is claimed that every member of the church has solemnly agreed
+never to outgrow the creed; that he has pledged himself to remain an
+intellectual dwarf. Upon this condition the church agrees to save his
+soul, and he hands over his brains to bind the bargain. Should a fact be
+found inconsistent with the creed, he binds himself to deny the fact
+and curse the finder. With scraps of dogmas and crumbs of doctrine, he
+agrees that his soul shall be satisfied forever. What an intellectual
+feast the Confession of Faith must be! It reminds one of the dinner
+described by Sydney Smith, where everything was cold except the water,
+and everything sour except the vinegar.
+
+Every member of a church promises to remain orthodox, that is to
+say--stationary. Growth is heresy. Orthodox ideas are the feathers that
+have been moulted by the eagle of progress. They are the dead leaves
+under the majestic palm, while heresy is the bud and blossom at the top.
+
+Imagine a vine that grows at one end and decays at the other. The
+end that grows is heresy, the end that rots is orthodox The dead are
+orthodox, and your cemetery is the most perfect type of a well regulated
+church. No thought, no progress, no heresy there. Slowly and silently,
+side by side, the satisfied members peacefully decay. There is only this
+difference--the dead do not persecute.
+
+And what does a trial for heresy mean? It means that the church says to
+a heretic, "Believe as I do, or I will withdraw my support. I will not
+employ you. I will pursue you until your garments are rags; until your
+children cry for bread; until your cheeks are furrowed with tears. I
+will hunt you to the very portals of the tomb, and then my God will do
+the rest I will not imprison you. I will not burn you. The law prevents
+my doing that. I helped make the law, not however to protect you, nor
+to deprive me of the right to exterminate you but in order to keep
+other churches from exterminating me." A trial for heresy means that the
+spirit of persecution still lingers in the church; that it still denies
+the right of private judgment; that it still thinks more of creed than
+truth, and that it is still determined to prevent the intellectual
+growth of man. It means that churches are shambles in which are bought
+and sold the souls of men. It means that the church is still guilty of
+the barbarity of opposing thought with force. It means that if it had
+the power, the mental horizon would be bounded by a creed; that it would
+bring again the whips and chains and dungeon keys, the rack and fagot of
+the past.
+
+But let me tell the church it lacks the power. There have been, and
+still are, too many men who own themselves--too much thought, too much
+knowledge for the church to grasp again the sword of power. The church
+must abdicate. For the Eglon of superstition Science has a message from
+Truth.
+
+The heretics have not thought and suffered and died in vain. Every
+heretic has been, and is, a ray of light. Not in vain did Voltaire, that
+great man, point from the foot of the Alps the finger of scorn at every
+hypocrite in Europe. Not in vain were the splendid utterances of the
+infidels, while beyond all price are the discoveries of science.
+
+The church has impeded, but it has not and it cannot stop the onward
+march of the human race. Heresy cannot be burned, nor imprisoned, nor
+starved. It laughs at presbyteries and synods, at ecumenical councils
+and the impotent thunders of Sinai. Heresy is the eternal dawn, the
+morning star, the glittering herald of the day. Heresy is the last and
+best thought. It is the perpetual New World, the unknown sea, toward
+which the brave all sail. It is the eternal horizon of progress.
+
+Heresy extends the hospitalities of the brain to a new thought.
+
+Heresy is a cradle; orthodoxy, a coffin.
+
+Why should man be afraid to think, and why should he fear to express his
+thoughts?
+
+Is it possible that an infinite Deity is unwilling that a man should
+investigate the phenomena by which he is surrounded? Is it possible that
+a god delights in threatening and terrifying men? What glory, what honor
+and renown a god must win on such a field! The ocean raving at a drop; a
+star envious of a candle; the sun jealous of a fire-fly.
+
+Go on, presbyteries and synods, go on! Thrust the heretics out of the
+church--that is to say, throw away your brains,--put out your eyes. The
+infidels will thank you. They are willing to adopt your exiles. Every
+deserter from your camp is a recruit for the army of progress. Cling to
+the ignorant dogmas of the past; read the 109th Psalm; gloat over the
+slaughter of mothers and babes; thank God for total depravity; shower
+your honors upon hypocrites, and silence every minister who is touched
+with that heresy called genius.
+
+Be true to your history. Turn out the astronomers, the geologists, the
+naturalists, the chemists, and all the honest scientists. With a whip of
+scorpions, drive them all out. We want them all. Keep the ignorant,
+the superstitious, the bigoted, and the writers of charges and
+specifications.
+
+Keep them, and keep them all. Repeat your pious platitudes in the drowsy
+ears of the faithful, and read your Bible to heretics, as kings read
+some forgotten riot-act to stop and stay the waves of revolution.
+You are too weak to excite anger. We forgive your efforts as the sun
+forgives a cloud--as the air forgives the breath you waste.
+
+How long, O how long, will man listen to the threats of God, and shut
+his eyes to the splendid possibilities of Nature? How long, O how long
+will man remain the cringing slave of a false and cruel creed?
+
+By this time the whole world should know that the real Bible has not yet
+been written, but is being written, and that it will never be finished
+until the race begins its downward march, or ceases to exist.
+
+The real Bible is not the work of inspired men, nor prophets, nor
+apostles, nor evangelists, nor of Christs. Every man who finds a fact,
+adds, as it were, a word to this great book. It is not attested
+by prophecy, by miracles or signs. It makes no appeal to faith, to
+ignorance, to credulity or fear. It has no punishment for unbelief, and
+no reward for hypocrisy. It appeals to man in the name of demonstration.
+It has nothing to conceal. It has no fear of being read, of being
+contradicted, of being investigated and understood. It does not pretend
+to be holy, or sacred; it simply claims to be true. It challenges the
+scrutiny of all, and implores every reader to verify every line for
+himself. It is incapable of being blasphemed. This book appeals to
+all the surroundings of man. Each thing that exists testifies of its
+perfection. The earth, with its heart of fire and crowns of snow; with
+its forests and plains, its rocks and seas; with its every wave and
+cloud; with its every leaf and bud and flower, confirms its every word,
+and the solemn stars, shining in the infinite abysses, are the eternal
+witnesses of its truth.
+
+
+
+
+THE GHOSTS.
+
+     TO
+     EBON C. INGERSOLL,
+     MY BROTHER,
+     FROM WHOSE LIPS I HEARD THE FIRST APPLAUSE,
+     AND WITH WHOSE NAME I WISH MY OWN
+     ASSOCIATED UNTIL BOTH ARE FORGOTTEN,
+     THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED.
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+These lectures have been so maimed and mutilated by orthodox malice;
+have been made to appear so halt, crutched and decrepit by those who
+mistake the pleasures of calumny for the duties of religion, that in
+simple justice to myself I concluded to publish them.
+
+Most of the clergy are, or seem to be, utterly incapable of discussing
+anything in a fair and catholic spirit. They appeal, not to reason,
+but to prejudice; not to facts, but to passages of Scripture. They can
+conceive of no goodness, of no spiritual exaltation beyond the horizon
+of their creed. Whoever differs with them upon what they are pleased
+to call "fundamental truths," is, in their opinion, a base and infamous
+man. To re-enact the tragedies of the sixteenth century, they lack only
+the power. Bigotry in all ages has been the same. Christianity simply
+transferred the brutality of the Colosseum to the Inquisition. For the
+murderous combat of the gladiators, the saints substituted the _auto de
+fe_. What has been called religion is, after all, but the organization
+of the wild beast in man. The perfumed blossom of arrogance is heaven.
+Hell is the consummation of revenge.
+
+The chief business of the clergy has always been to destroy the joy of
+life, and multiply and magnify the terrors and tortures of death and
+perdition. They have polluted the heart and paralyzed the brain; and
+upon the ignorant altars of the Past and the Dead, they have endeavored
+to sacrifice the Present and the Living.
+
+Nothing can exceed the mendacity of the religious press. I have had some
+little experience with political editors, and am forced to say, that
+until I read the religious papers, I did not know what malicious and
+slimy falsehoods could be constructed from ordinary words. The ingenuity
+with which the real and apparent meaning can be tortured out of
+language, is simply amazing. The average religious editor is intolerant
+and insolent; he knows nothing of affairs; he has the envy of failure,
+the malice of impotence, and always accounts for the brave and generous
+actions of unbelievers, by low, base and unworthy motives.
+
+By this time, even the clergy should know that the intellect of the
+nineteenth century needs no guardian. They should cease to regard
+themselves as shepherds defending flocks of weak, silly and fearful
+sheep from the claws and teeth of ravening wolves. By this time they
+should know that the religion of the ignorant and brutal Past no
+longer satisfies the heart and brain; that the miracles have become
+contemptible; that the "evidences" have ceased to convince; that the
+spirit of investigation cannot be stopped nor stayed; that the church
+is losing her power; that the young are holding in a kind of tender
+contempt the sacred follies of the old; that the pulpit and pews no
+longer represent the culture and morality of the world, and that the
+brand of intellectual inferiority is upon the orthodox brain.
+
+Men should be liberated from the aristocracy of the air. Every chain
+of superstition should be broken. The rights of men and women should
+be equal and sacred--marriage should be a perfect partnership--children
+should be governed by kindness,--every family should be a
+republic--every fireside a democracy.
+
+It seems almost impossible for religious people to really grasp the idea
+of intellectual freedom. They seem to think that man is responsible for
+his honest thoughts; that unbelief is a crime; that investigation is
+sinful; that credulity is a virtue, and that reason is a dangerous
+guide. They cannot divest themselves of the idea that in the realm of
+thought there must be government--authority and obedience--laws and
+penalties--rewards and punishments, and that somewhere in the universe
+there is a penitentiary for the soul.
+
+In the republic of mind, _one_ is a majority. There, all are monarchs,
+and all are equals. The tyranny of a majority even is unknown. Each one
+is crowned, sceptered and throned. Upon every brow is the tiara, and
+around every form is the imperial purple. Only those are good citizens
+who express their honest thoughts, and those who persecute for opinion's
+sake, are the only traitors. There, nothing is considered infamous
+except an appeal to brute force, and nothing sacred but love, liberty,
+and joy. The church contemplates this republic with a sneer. From the
+teeth of hatred she draws back the lips of scorn. She is filled with the
+spite and spleen born of intellectual weakness. Once she was egotistic;
+now she is envious.
+
+Once she wore upon her hollow breast false gems, supposing them to be
+real. They have been shown to be false, but she wears them still. She
+has the malice of the caught, the hatred of the exposed.
+
+We are told to investigate the Bible for ourselves, and at the same time
+informed that if we come to the conclusion that it is not the inspired
+word of God, we will most assuredly be damned. Under such circumstances,
+if we believe this, investigation is impossible. Whoever is held
+responsible for his conclusions cannot weigh the evidence with impartial
+scales. Fear stands at the balance, and gives to falsehood the weight of
+its trembling hand.
+
+I oppose the church because she is the enemy of liberty; because her
+dogmas are infamous and cruel; because she humiliates and degrades
+woman; because she teaches the doctrines of eternal torment and the
+natural depravity of man; because she insists upon the absurd, the
+impossible, and the senseless; because she resorts to falsehood and
+slander; because she is arrogant and revengeful; because she allows men
+to sin on a credit; because she discourages self-reliance, and laughs
+at good works; because she believes in vicarious virtue and vicarious
+vice--vicarious punishment and vicarious reward; because she regards
+repentance of more importance than restitution, and because she
+sacrifices the world we have to one we know not of.
+
+The free and generous, the tender and affectionate, will understand me.
+Those who have escaped from the grated cells of a creed will appreciate
+my motives. The sad and suffering wives, the trembling and loving
+children will thank me: This is enough.
+
+Robert G. Ingersoll.
+
+Washington, D. C.,
+
+April 13, 1878.
+
+
+
+THE GHOSTS,
+
+LET THEM COVER THEIR EYELESS SOCKETS WITH THEIR FLESHLESS HANDS AND FADE
+FOREVER FROM THE IMAGINATION OF MEN.
+
+HERE are three theories by which men account for all phenomena,
+for everything that happens: First, the Supernatural; Second, the
+Supernatural and Natural; Third, the Natural. Between these theories
+there has been, from the dawn of civilization, a continual conflict. In
+this great war, nearly all the soldiers have been in the ranks of the
+supernatural. The believers in the supernatural insist that matter
+is controlled and directed entirely by powers from without; while
+naturalists maintain that Nature acts from within; that Nature is not
+acted upon; that the universe is all there is; that Nature with infinite
+arms embraces everything that exists, and that all supposed powers
+beyond the limits of the material are simply ghosts. You say, "Oh, this
+is materialism!" What is matter? I take in my hand some earth:--in this
+dust put seeds. Let the arrows of light from the quiver of the sun smite
+upon it; let the rain fall upon it. The seeds will grow and a plant will
+bud and blossom. Do you understand this? Can you explain it better than
+you can the production of thought? Have you the slightest conception of
+what it really is? And yet you speak of matter as though acquainted with
+its origin, as though you had torn from the clenched hands of the rocks
+the secrets of material existence. Do you know what force is? Can you
+account for molecular action? Are you really familiar with chemistry,
+and can you account for the loves and hatreds of the atoms? Is there not
+something in matter that forever eludes? After all, can you get beyond,
+above or below appearances? Before you cry "materialism!" had you not
+better ascertain what matter really is? Can you think even of anything
+without a material basis? Is it possible to imagine the annihilation of
+a single atom? Is it possible for you to conceive of the creation of an
+atom? Can you have a thought that was not suggested to you by what you
+call matter?
+
+Our fathers denounced materialism, and accounted for all phenomena by
+the caprice of gods and devils.
+
+For thousands of years it was believed that ghosts, good and bad,
+benevolent and malignant, weak and powerful, in some mysterious way,
+produced all phenomena; that disease and health, happiness and misery,
+fortune and misfortune, peace and war, life and death, success and
+failure, were but arrows from the quivers of these ghosts; that shadowy
+phantoms rewarded and punished mankind; that they were pleased and
+displeased by the actions of men; that they sent and withheld the snow,
+the light, and the rain; that they blessed the earth with harvests or
+cursed it with famine; that they fed or starved the children of men;
+that they crowned and uncrowned kings; that they took sides in war; that
+they controlled the winds; that they gave prosperous voyages, allowing
+the brave mariner to meet his wife and child inside the harbor bar, or
+sent the storms, strewing the sad shores with wrecks of ships and the
+bodies of men.
+
+Formerly, these ghosts were believed to be almost innumerable. Earth,
+air, and water were filled with these phantom hosts. In modern times
+they have greatly decreased in number, because the second theory,--a
+mingling of the supernatural and natural,--has generally been adopted.
+The remaining ghosts, however, are supposed to perform the same offices
+as the hosts of yore.
+
+It has always been believed that these ghosts could in some way be
+appeased; that they could be flattered by sacrifices, by prayer, by
+fasting, by the building of temples and cathedrals, by the blood of
+men and beasts, by forms and ceremonies, by chants, by kneelings and
+prostrations, by flagellations and maimings, by renouncing the joys of
+home, by living alone in the wide desert, by the practice of celibacy,
+by inventing instruments of torture, by destroying men, women and
+children, by covering the earth with dungeons, by burning unbelievers,
+by putting chains upon the thoughts and manacles upon the limbs of
+men, by believing things without evidence and against evidence, by
+disbelieving and denying demonstration, by despising facts, by hating
+reason, by denouncing liberty, by maligning heretics, by slandering
+the dead, by subscribing to senseless and cruel creeds, by discouraging
+investigation, by worshiping a book, by the cultivation of credulity,
+by observing certain times and days, by counting beads, by gazing at
+crosses, by hiring others to repeat verses and prayers, by burning
+candles and ringing bells, by enslaving each other and putting out the
+eyes of the soul. All this has been done to appease and flatter these
+monsters of the air.
+
+In the history of our poor world, no horror has been omitted, no infamy
+has been left undone by the believers in ghosts,--by the worshipers of
+these fleshless phantoms. And yet these shadows were born of cowardice
+and malignity. They were painted by the pencil of fear upon the canvas
+of ignorance by that artist called superstition.
+
+From these ghosts, our fathers received information. They were
+the schoolmasters of our ancestors. They were the scientists and
+philosophers, the geologists, legislators, astronomers, physicians,
+metaphysicians and historians of the past. For ages these ghosts were
+supposed to be the only source of real knowledge. They inspired men to
+write books, and the books were considered sacred. If facts were found
+to be inconsistent with these books, so much the worse for the facts,
+and especially for their discoverers. It was then, and still is,
+believed that these books are the basis of the idea of immortality; that
+to give up these volumes, or rather the idea that they are inspired, is
+to renounce the idea of immortality. This I deny.
+
+The idea of immortality, that like a sea has ebbed and flowed in the
+human heart, with its countless waves of hope and fear, beating against
+the shores and rocks of time and fate, was not born of any book, nor of
+any creed, nor of any religion. It was born of human affection, and it
+will continue to ebb and flow beneath the mists and clouds of doubt
+and darkness as long as love kisses the lips of death. It is the
+rainbow--Hope shining upon the tears of grief.
+
+From the books written by the ghosts we have at last ascertained that
+they knew nothing about the world in which we live. Did they know
+anything about the next? Upon every point where contradiction is
+possible, they have been contradicted.
+
+By these ghosts, by these citizens of the air, the affairs of government
+were administered; all authority to govern came from them. The emperors,
+kings and potentates all had commissions from these phantoms. Man was
+not considered as the source of any power whatever. To rebel against the
+king was to rebel against the ghosts, and nothing less than the blood of
+the offender could appease the invisible phantom or the visible tyrant.
+Kneeling was the proper position to be assumed by the multitude.
+The prostrate were the good. Those who stood erect were infidels and
+traitors. In the name and by the authority of the ghosts, man was
+enslaved, crushed, and plundered. The many toiled wearily in the storm
+and sun that the few favorites of the ghosts might live in idleness.
+The many lived in huts, and caves, and dens, that the few might dwell in
+palaces. The many covered themselves with rags, that the few might
+robe themselves in purple and in gold. The many crept, and cringed, and
+crawled, that the few might tread upon their flesh with iron feet.
+
+From the ghosts men received, not only authority, but information of
+every kind. They told us the form of this earth. They informed us that
+eclipses were caused by the sins of man; that the universe was made
+in six days; that astronomy, and geology were devices of wicked men,
+instigated by wicked ghosts; that gazing at the sky with a telescope
+was a dangerous thing; that digging into the earth was sinful curiosity;
+that trying to be wise above what they had written was born of a
+rebellious and irreverent spirit.
+
+They told us there was no virtue like belief, and no crime like doubt;
+that investigation was pure impudence, and the punishment therefor,
+eternal torment. They not only told us all about this world, but about
+two others; and if their statements about the other worlds are as true
+as about this, no one can estimate the value of their information.
+
+For countless ages the world was governed by ghosts, and they spared no
+pains to change the eagle of the human intellect into a bat of darkness.
+To accomplish this infamous purpose; to drive the love of truth from the
+human heart; to prevent the advancement of mankind; to shut out from
+the world every ray of intellectual light; to pollute every mind with
+superstition, the power of kings, the cunning and cruelty of priests,
+and the wealth of nations were exhausted.
+
+During these years of persecution, ignorance, superstition and slavery,
+nearly all the people, the kings, lawyers, doctors, the learned and the
+unlearned, believed in that frightful production of ignorance, fear, and
+faith, called witchcraft. They believed that man was the sport and prey
+of devils. They really thought that the very air was thick with these
+enemies of man. With few exceptions, this hideous and infamous belief
+was universal. Under these conditions, progress was almost impossible.
+
+Fear paralyzes the brain. Progress is born of courage. Fear
+believes--courage doubts. Fear falls upon the earth and prays--courage
+stands erect and thinks. Fear retreats--courage advances. Fear is
+barbarism--courage is civilization. Fear believes in witchcraft, in
+devils and in ghosts. Fear is religion--courage is science.
+
+The facts, upon which this terrible belief rested, were proved over
+and over again in every court of Europe. Thousands confessed themselves
+guilty--admitted that they had sold themselves to the devil. They gave
+the particulars of the sale; told what they said and what the devil
+replied. They confessed this, when they knew that confession was death;
+knew that their property would be confiscated, and their children left
+to beg their bread. This is one of the miracles of history--one of the
+strangest contradictions of the human mind. Without doubt, they really
+believed themselves guilty. In the first place, they believed in
+witchcraft as a fact, and when charged with it, they probably became
+insane. In their insanity they confessed their guilt. They found
+themselves abhorred and deserted--charged with a crime that they could
+not disprove. Like a man in quicksand, every effort only sunk them
+deeper. Caught in this frightful web, at the mercy of the spiders
+of superstition, hope fled, and nothing remained but the insanity of
+confession. The whole world appeared to be insane.
+
+In the time of James the First, a man was executed for causing a storm
+at sea with the intention of drowning one of the royal family. How could
+he disprove it? How could he show that he did not cause the storm?
+All storms were at that time generally supposed to be caused by
+the devil--the prince of the power of the air--and by those whom he
+assisted.
+
+I implore you to remember that the believers in such impossible things
+were the authors of our creeds and confessions of faith.
+
+A woman was tried and convicted before Sir Matthew Hale, one of the
+great judges and lawyers of England, for having caused children to
+vomit crooked pins. She was also charged with having nursed devils. The
+learned judge charged the intelligent jury that there was no doubt as
+to the existence of witches; that it was established by all history, and
+expressly taught by the Bible.
+
+The woman was hanged and her body burned.
+
+Sir Thomas More declared that to give up witchcraft was to throw away
+the sacred Scriptures. In my judgment, he was right.
+
+John Wesley was a firm believer in ghosts and witches, and insisted upon
+it, years after all laws upon the subject had been repealed in England.
+I beg of you to remember that John Wesley was the founder of the
+Methodist Church.
+
+In New England, a woman was charged with being a witch, and with having
+changed herself into a fox. While in that condition she was attacked and
+bitten by some dogs. A committee of three men, by order of the court,
+examined this woman. They removed her clothing and searched for "witch
+spots." That is to say, spots into which needles could be thrust without
+giving her pain. They reported to the court that such spots were found.
+She denied, however, that she ever had changed herself into a fox. Upon
+the report of the committee she was found guilty and actually executed.
+This was done by our Puritan fathers, by the gentlemen who braved the
+dangers of the deep for the sake of worshiping God and persecuting their
+fellow-men.
+
+In those days people believed in what was known as lycanthropy--that is,
+that persons, with the assistance of the devil, could assume the form
+of wolves. An instance is given where a man was attacked by a wolf. He
+defended himself, and succeeded in cutting off one of the animal's paws.
+The wolf ran away. The man picked up the paw, put it in his pocket and
+carried it home. There he found his wife with one of her hands gone. He
+took the paw from his pocket. It had changed to a human hand. He charged
+his wife with being a witch. She was tried. She confessed her guilt, and
+was burned.
+
+People were burned for causing frosts in summer--for destroying crops
+with hail--for causing storms--for making cows go dry, and even for
+souring beer. There was no impossibility for which some one was not
+tried and convicted. The life of no one was secure. To be charged,
+was to be convicted. Every man was at the mercy of every other. This
+infamous belief was so firmly seated in the minds of the people, that to
+express a doubt as to its truth was to be suspected. Whoever denied the
+existence of witches and devils was denounced as an infidel.
+
+They believed that animals were often taken possession of by devils, and
+that the killing of the animal would destroy the devil. They absolutely
+tried, convicted, and executed dumb beasts.
+
+At Basle, in 1470, a rooster was tried upon the charge of having laid
+an egg. Rooster eggs were used only in making witch ointment,--this
+everybody knew. The rooster was convicted and with all due solemnity was
+burned in the public square. So a hog and six pigs were tried for having
+killed and partially eaten a child. The hog was convicted,--but the
+pigs, on account probably of their extreme youth, were acquitted. As
+late as 1740, a cow was tried and convicted of being possessed by a
+devil.
+
+They used to exorcise rats, locusts, snakes and vermin. They used to go
+through the alleys, streets, and fields, and warn them to leave within
+a certain number of days. In case they disobeyed, they were threatened
+with pains and penalties.
+
+But let us be careful how we laugh at these things. Let us not pride
+ourselves too much on the progress of our age. We must not forget that
+some of our people are yet in the same intelligent business. Only a
+little while ago, the governor of Minnesota appointed a day of fasting
+and prayer, to see if some power could not be induced to kill the
+grasshoppers, or send them into some other state.
+
+About the close of the fifteenth century, so great was the excitement
+with regard to the existence of witchcraft that Pope Innocent VIII.
+issued a bull directing the inquisitors to be vigilant in searching
+out and punishing all guilty of this crime. Forms for the trial
+were regularly laid down in a book or a pamphlet called the "Malleus
+Maleficorum" (Hammer of Witches), which was issued by the Roman See.
+Popes Alexander, Leo, and Adrian, issued like bulls. For two hundred
+and fifty years the church was busy in punishing the impossible crime of
+witchcraft; in burning, hanging and torturing men, women, and children.
+Protestants were as active as Catholics, and in Geneva five hundred
+witches were burned at the stake in a period of three months. About one
+thousand were executed in one year in the diocese of Como. At least one
+hundred thousand victims suffered in Germany alone: the last execution
+(in Wurtzburg) taking place as late as 1749. Witches were burned in
+Switzerland as late as 1780.
+
+In England the same frightful scenes were enacted. Statutes were passed
+from Henry VI. to James I., defining the crime and its punishment. The
+last act passed by the British parliament was when Lord Bacon was a
+member of the House of Commons; and this act was not repealed until
+1736.
+
+Sir William Blackstone, in his Commentaries on the Laws of England,
+says: "To deny the possibility, nay, actual existence of witchcraft
+and sorcery, is at once flatly to contradict the word of God in various
+passages both of the Old and New Testament; and the thing itself is
+a truth to which every nation in the world hath in its turn borne
+testimony, either by examples seemingly well attested, or by prohibitory
+laws, which at least suppose the possibility of a commerce with evil
+spirits."
+
+In Brown's Dictionary of the Bible, published at Edinburg, Scotland, in
+1807, it is said that: "A witch is a woman that has dealings with Satan.
+That such persons are among men is abundantly plain from Scripture, and
+that they ought to be put to death."
+
+This work was re-published in Albany, New York, in 1816. No wonder the
+clergy of that city are ignorant and bigoted even unto this day.
+
+In 1716, Mrs. Hicks and her daughter, nine years of age, were hanged
+for selling their souls to the devil, and raising a storm by pulling off
+their stockings and making a lather of soap.
+
+In England it has been estimated that at least thirty thousand were
+hanged and burned. The last victim executed in Scotland, perished in
+1722. "She was an innocent old woman, who had so little idea of her
+situation as to rejoice at the sight of the fire which was destined
+to consume her. She had a daughter, lame both of hands and of feet--a
+circumstance attributed to the witch having been used to transform her
+daughter into a pony and getting her shod by the devil."
+
+In 1692, nineteen persons were executed and one pressed to death in
+Salem, Massachusetts, for the crime of witchcraft.
+
+It was thought in those days that men and women made compacts with the
+devil, orally and in writing. That they abjured God and Jesus Christ,
+and dedicated themselves wholly to the devil. The contracts were
+confirmed at a general meeting of witches and ghosts, over which the
+devil himself presided; and the persons generally signed the articles of
+agreement with their own blood. These contracts were, in some instances,
+for a few years; in others, for life. General assemblies of the witches
+were held at least once a year, at which they appeared entirely naked,
+besmeared with an ointment made from the bodies of unbaptized infants.
+"To these meetings they rode from great distances on broomsticks,
+pokers, goats, hogs, and dogs. Here they did homage to the prince of
+hell, and offered him sacrifices of young children, and practiced all
+sorts of license until the break of day."
+
+"As late as 1815, Belgium was disgraced by a witch trial; and guilt was
+established by the water ordeal." "In 1836, the populace of Hela, near
+Dantzic, twice plunged into the sea a woman reputed to be a sorceress;
+and as the miserable creature persisted in rising to the surface, she
+was pronounced guilty, and beaten to death."
+
+"It was believed that the bodies of devils are not like those of men and
+animals, cast in an unchangeable mould. It was thought they were like
+clouds, refined and subtle matter, capable of assuming any form and
+penetrating into any orifice. The horrible tortures they endured
+in their place of punishment rendered them extremely sensitive to
+suffering, and they continually sought a temperate and somewhat moist
+warmth in order to allay their pangs. It was for this reason they so
+frequently entered into men and women."
+
+The devil could transport men, at his will, through the air. He could
+beget children; and Martin Luther himself had come in contact with one
+of these children. He recommended the mother to throw the child into the
+river, in order to free their house from the presence of a devil.
+
+It was believed that the devil could transform people into any shape he
+pleased.
+
+Whoever denied these things was denounced as an infidel. All the
+believers in witchcraft confidently appealed to the Bible. Their mouths
+were filled with passages demonstrating the existence of witches and
+their power Over human beings. By the Bible they proved that innumerable
+evil spirits were ranging over the world endeavoring to ruin mankind;
+that these spirits possessed a power and wisdom far transcending the
+limits of human faculties; that they delighted in every misfortune that
+could befall the world; that their malice was superhuman. That they
+caused tempests was proved by the action of the devil toward Job; by the
+passage in the book of Revelation describing the four angels who held
+the four winds, and to whom it was given to afflict the earth. They
+believed the devil could carry persons hundreds of miles, in a few
+seconds, through the air. They believed this, because they knew that
+Christ had been carried by the devil in the same manner and placed on a
+pinnacle of the temple. "The prophet Habakkuk had been transported by a
+spirit from Judea to Babylon; and Philip, the evangelist, had been the
+object of a similar miracle; and in the same way Saint Paul had been
+carried in the body into the third heaven."
+
+"In those pious days, they believed that _Incubi_ and _Succubi_ were
+forever wandering among mankind, alluring, by more than human charms,
+the unwary to their destruction, and laying plots, which were too often
+successful, against the virtue of the saints. Sometimes the witches
+kindled in the monastic priest a more terrestrial fire. People told,
+with bated breath, how, under the spell of a vindictive woman, four
+successive abbots in a German monastery had been wasted away by an
+unholy flame."
+
+An instance is given in which the devil not only assumed the appearance
+of a holy man, in order to pay his addresses to a lady, but when
+discovered, crept under the bed, suffered himself to be dragged out,
+and was impudent enough to declare that he was the veritable bishop. So
+perfectly had he assumed the form and features of the prelate that those
+who knew the bishop best were deceived.
+
+One can hardly imagine the frightful state of the human mind during
+these long centuries of darkness and superstition. To them, these things
+were awful and frightful realities. Hovering above them in the air, in
+their houses, in the bosoms of friends, in their very bodies, in all the
+darkness of night, everywhere, around, above and below, were innumerable
+hosts of unclean and malignant devils.
+
+From the malice of those leering and vindictive vampires of the air,
+the church pretended to defend mankind. Pursued by these phantoms, the
+frightened multitudes fell upon their faces and implored the aid of
+robed hypocrisy and sceptered theft.
+
+Take from the orthodox church of to-day the threat and fear of hell, and
+it becomes an extinct volcano.
+
+Take from the church the miraculous, the supernatural, the
+incomprehensible, the unreasonable, the impossible, the unknowable, and
+the absurd, and nothing but a vacuum remains.
+
+Notwithstanding all the infamous things justly laid to the charge of the
+church, we are told that the civilization of to-day is the child of what
+we are pleased to call the superstition of the past.
+
+Religion has not civilized man--man has civilized religion. God improves
+as man advances.
+
+Let me call your attention to what we have received from the followers
+of the ghosts. Let me give you an outline of the sciences as taught by
+these philosophers of the clouds.
+
+All diseases were produced, either as a punishment by the good ghosts,
+or out of pure malignity by the bad ones. There were, properly speaking,
+no diseases. The sick were possessed by ghosts. The science of medicine
+consisted in knowing how to persuade these ghosts to vacate the
+premises. For thousands of years the diseased were treated with
+incantations, with hideous noises, with drums and gongs. Everything was
+done to make the visit of the ghost as unpleasant as possible, and they
+generally succeeded in making things so disagreeable that if the ghost
+did not leave, the patient did. These ghosts were supposed to be of
+different rank, power and dignity. Now and then a man pretended to have
+won the favor of some powerful ghost, and that gave him power over the
+little ones. Such a man became an eminent physician.
+
+It was found that certain kinds of smoke, such as that produced by
+burning the liver of a fish, the dried skin of a serpent, the eyes of
+a toad, or the tongue of an adder, were exceedingly offensive to the
+nostrils of an ordinary ghost. With this smoke, the sick room would be
+filled until the ghost vanished or the patient died.
+
+It was also believed that certain words,--the names of the most powerful
+ghosts,--when properly pronounced, were very effective weapons. It was
+for a long time thought that Latin words were the best,--Latin being a
+dead language, and known by the clergy. Others thought that two sticks
+laid across each other and held before the wicked ghost would cause it
+instantly to flee in dread away.
+
+For thousands of years, the practice of medicine consisted in driving
+these evil spirits out of the bodies of men.
+
+In some instances, bargains and compromises were made with the ghosts.
+One case is given where a multitude of devils traded a man for a herd
+of swine. In this transaction the devils were the losers, as the swine
+immediately drowned themselves in the sea. This idea of disease appears
+to have been almost universal, and is by no means yet extinct.
+
+The contortions of the epileptic, the strange twitchings of those
+afflicted with chorea, the shakings of palsy, dreams, trances, and the
+numberless frightful phenomena produced by diseases of the nerves, were
+all seized upon as so many proofs that the bodies of men were filled
+with unclean and malignant ghosts.
+
+Whoever endeavored to account for these things by natural causes,
+whoever attempted to cure diseases by natural means, was denounced by
+the church as an infidel. To explain anything was a crime. It was to the
+interest of the priest that all phenomena should be accounted for by the
+will and power of gods and devils. The moment it is admitted that all
+phenomena are within the domain of the natural, the necessity for a
+priest has disappeared. Religion breathes the air of the supernatural.
+Take from the mind of man the idea of the supernatural, and religion
+ceases to exist. For this, reason, the church has always despised the
+man who explained the wonderful. Upon this principle, nothing was
+left undone to stay the science of medicine. As long as plagues and
+pestilences could be stopped by prayer, the priest was useful. The
+moment the physician found a cure, the priest became an extravagance.
+The moment it began to be apparent that prayer could do nothing for the
+body, the priest shifted his ground and began praying for the soul.
+
+Long after the devil idea was substantially abandoned in the practice
+of medicine, and when it was admitted that God had nothing to do with
+ordinary coughs and colds, it was still believed that all the frightful
+diseases were sent by him as punishments for the wickedness of the
+people. It was thought to be a kind of blasphemy to even try, by any
+natural means, to stay the ravages of pestilence. Formerly, during the
+prevalence of plague and epidemics, the arrogance of the priest was
+boundless. He told the people that they had slighted the clergy, that
+they had refused to pay tithes, that they had doubted some of the
+doctrines of the church, and that God was now taking his revenge. The
+people for the most part, believed this infamous tissue of priestcraft.
+They hastened to fall upon their knees; they poured out their wealth
+upon the altars of hypocrisy; they abased and debased themselves; from
+their minds they banished all doubts, and made haste to crawl in the
+very dust of humility.
+
+The church never wanted disease to be under the control of man.
+Timothy Dwight, president of Yale College, preached a sermon against
+vaccination. His idea was, that if God had decreed from all eternity
+that a certain man should die with the small-pox, it was a frightful sin
+to avoid and annul that decree by the trick of vaccination. Small-pox
+being regarded as one of the heaviest guns in the arsenal of heaven,
+to spike it was the height of presumption. Plagues and pestilences were
+instrumentalities in the hands of God with which to gain the love and
+worship of mankind. To find a cure for disease was to take a weapon from
+the church. No one tries to cure the ague with prayer. Quinine has been
+found altogether more reliable. Just as soon as a specific is found
+for a disease, that disease will be left out of the list of prayer. The
+number of diseases with which God from time to time afflicts mankind,
+is continually decreasing. In a few years all of them will be under the
+control of man, the gods will be left unarmed, and the threats of their
+priests will excite only a smile.
+
+The science of medicine has had but one enemy--religion. Man was afraid
+to save his body for fear he might lose his soul.
+
+Is it any wonder that the people in those days believed in and taught
+the infamous doctrine of eternal punishment--a doctrine that makes God a
+heartless monster and man a slimy hypocrite and slave?
+
+The ghosts were historians, and their histories were the grossest
+absurdities. "Tales told by idiots, full of sound and fury, signifying
+nothing." In those days the histories were written by the monks, who, as
+a rule, were almost as superstitious as they were dishonest. They wrote
+as though they had been witnesses of every occurrence they related. They
+wrote the history of every country of importance. They told all the
+past and predicted all the future with an impudence that amounted to
+sublimity. "They traced the order of St. Michael, in France, to the
+archangel himself, and alleged that he was the founder of a chivalric
+order in heaven itself. They said that Tartars originally came from
+hell, and that they were called Tartars because Tartarus was one of
+the names of perdition. They declared that Scotland was so named after
+Scota, a daughter of Pharaoh, who landed in Ireland, invaded Scotland,
+and took it by force of arms. This statement was made in a letter
+addressed to the Pope in the fourteenth century, and was alluded to as
+a well-known fact. The letter was written by some of the highest
+dignitaries, and by the direction of the King himself."
+
+These gentlemen accounted for the red on the breasts of robins, from the
+fact that these birds carried water to unbaptized infants in hell.
+
+Matthew, of Paris, an eminent historian of the fourteenth century, gave
+the world the following piece of information: "It is well known that
+Mohammed was once a cardinal, and became a heretic because he failed in
+his effort to be elected pope;" and that having drank to excess, he fell
+by the roadside, and in this condition was killed by swine. "And for
+that reason, his followers abhor pork even unto this day."
+
+Another eminent historian informs us that Nero was in the habit of
+vomiting frogs. When I read this, I said to myself: Some of the croakers
+of the present day against Progress would be the better for such a
+vomit.
+
+The history of Charlemagne was written by Turpin, of Rheims. He was a
+bishop. He assures us that the walls of a city fell down in answer
+to prayer. That there were giants in those days who could take fifty
+ordinary men under their arms and walk away with them. "With the
+greatest of these, a direct descendant of Goliath, one Orlando had a
+theological discussion, and that in the heat of the debate, when the
+giant was overwhelmed with the argument, Orlando rushed forward and
+inflicted a fatal stab."
+
+The history of Britain, written by the archdeacons of Monmouth and
+Oxford, was wonderfully popular. According to them, Brutus conquered
+England and built the city of London. During his time, it rained pure
+blood for three days. At another time, a monster came from the sea, and,
+after having devoured great multitudes of people, swallowed the king
+and disappeared. They tell us that King Arthur was not born like other
+mortals, but was the result of a magical contrivance; that he had
+great luck in killing giants; that he killed one in France that had
+the cheerful habit of eating some thirty men a day. That this giant had
+clothes woven of the beards of the kings he had devoured. To cap the
+climax, one of the authors of this book was promoted for having written
+the only reliable history of his country.
+
+In all the histories of those days there is hardly a single truth. Facts
+were considered unworthy of preservation. Anything that really happened
+was not of sufficient interest or importance to be recorded. The great
+religious historian, Eusebius, ingenuously remarks that in his history
+he carefully omitted whatever tended to discredit the church, and that
+he piously magnified all that conduced to her glory.
+
+The same glorious principle was scrupulously adhered to by all the
+historians of that time.
+
+They wrote, and the people believed, that the tracks of Pharoah's
+chariots were still visible on the sands of the Red Sea, and that they
+had been miraculously preserved from the winds and waves as perpetual
+witnesses of the great miracle there performed.
+
+It is safe to say that every truth in the histories of those times is
+the result of accident or mistake.
+
+They accounted for everything as the work of good and evil spirits. With
+cause and effect they had nothing to do. Facts were in no way related
+to each other. God, governed by infinite caprice, filled the world with
+miracles and disconnected events. From the quiver of his hatred came the
+arrows of famine, pestilence, and death.
+
+The moment that the idea is abandoned that all is natural; that all
+phenomena are the necessary links in the endless chain of being, the
+conception of history becomes impossible. With the ghosts, the present
+is not the child of the past, nor the mother of the future. In the
+domain of religion all is chance, accident, and caprice.
+
+Do not forget, I pray you, that our creeds were written by the
+cotemporaries of these historians.
+
+The same idea was applied to law. It was believed by our intelligent
+ancestors that all law derived its sacredness and its binding force from
+the fact that it had been communicated to man by the ghosts. Of course
+it was not pretended that the ghosts told everybody the law; but they
+told it to a few, and the few told it to the people, and the people, as
+a rule, paid them exceedingly well for their trouble. It was thousands
+of ages before the people commenced making laws for themselves, and
+strange as it may appear, most of these laws were vastly superior to the
+ghost article. Through the web and woof of human legislation began to
+run and shine and glitter the golden thread of justice.
+
+During these years of darkness it was believed that rather than see an
+act of injustice done; rather than see the innocent suffer; rather than
+see the guilty triumph, some ghost would interfere. This belief, as a
+rule, gave great satisfaction to the victorious party, and as the other
+man was dead, no complaint was heard from him.
+
+This doctrine was the sanctification of brute force and chance. They had
+trials by battle, by fire, by water, and by lot. Persons were made
+to grasp hot iron, and if it burned them their guilt was established.
+Others, with tied hands and feet, were cast into the sea, and if they
+sank, the verdict of guilty was unanimous,--if they did not sink, they
+were in league with devils.
+
+So in England, persons charged with crime could appeal to the corsned.
+The corsned was a piece of the sacramental bread. If the defendant could
+swallow this piece he went acquit. Godwin, Earl of Kent, in the time of
+Edward the Confessor, appealed to the corsned. He failed to swallow it
+and was choked to death.
+
+The ghosts and their followers always took delight in torture, in cruel
+and unusual punishments. For the infraction of most of their laws, death
+was the penalty--death produced by stoning and by fire. Sometimes,
+when man committed only murder, he was allowed to flee to some city of
+refuge. Murder was a crime against man. But for saying certain words, or
+denying certain doctrines, or for picking up sticks on certain days, or
+for worshiping the wrong ghost, or for failing to pray to the right one,
+or for laughing at a priest, or for saying that wine was not blood,
+or that bread was not flesh, or for failing to regard ram's horns as
+artillery, or for insisting that a dry bone was scarcely sufficient to
+take the place of water works, or that a raven, as a rule, made a poor
+landlord:--death, produced by all the ways that the ingenuity of hatred
+could devise, was the penalty.
+
+Law is a growth--it is a science. Right and wrong exist in the nature
+of things. Things are not right because they are commanded, nor wrong
+because they are prohibited. There are real crimes enough without
+creating artificial ones. All progress in legislation has for centuries
+consisted in repealing the laws of the ghosts.
+
+The idea of right and wrong is born of man's capacity to enjoy and
+suffer. If man could not suffer, if he could not inflict injury upon his
+fellow, if he could neither feel nor inflict pain, the idea of right
+and wrong never would have entered his brain. But for this, the word
+conscience never would have passed the lips of man.
+
+There is one good--happiness. There is but one sin--selfishness. All
+law should be for the preservation of the one and the destruction of the
+other.
+
+Under the regime of the ghosts, laws were not supposed to exist in the
+nature of things. They were supposed to be simply the irresponsible
+command of a ghost. These commands were not supposed to rest upon
+reason, they were the product of arbitrary will.
+
+The penalties for the violation of these laws were as cruel as the laws
+were senseless and absurd. Working on the Sabbath and murder were both
+punished with death. The tendency of such laws is to blot from the human
+heart the sense of justice.
+
+To show you how perfectly every department of knowledge, or ignorance
+rather, was saturated with superstition, I will for a moment refer to
+the science of language.
+
+It was thought by our fathers, that Hebrew was the original language;
+that it was taught to Adam in the Garden of Eden by the Almighty, and
+that consequently all languages came from, and could be traced to, the
+Hebrew. Every fact inconsistent with that idea was discarded. According
+to the ghosts, the trouble at the tower of Babel accounted for the fact
+that all people did not speak Hebrew. The Babel business settled all
+questions in the science of language.
+
+After a time, so many facts were found to be inconsistent with the
+Hebrew idea that it began to fall into disrepute, and other languages
+began to compete for the honor of being the original.
+
+Andre Kempe, in 1569, published a work on the language of Paradise,
+in which he maintained that God spoke to Adam in Swedish; that Adam
+answered in Danish; and that the serpent--which appears to me quite
+probable--spoke to Eve in French. Erro, in a work published at Madrid,
+took the ground that Basque was the language spoken in the Garden of
+Eden; but in 1580 Goropius published his celebrated work at Antwerp, in
+which he put the whole matter at rest by showing, beyond all doubt, that
+the language spoken in Paradise was neither more nor less than plain
+Holland Dutch.
+
+The real founder of the science of language was Liebnitz, a cotemporary
+of Sir Isaac Newton. He discarded the idea that all languages could
+be traced to one language. He maintained that language was a natural
+growth. Experience teaches us that this must be so. Words are
+continually dying and continually being born. Words are naturally and
+necessarily produced. Words are the garments of thought, the robes of
+ideas. Some are as rude as the skins of wild beasts, and others glisten
+and glitter like silk and gold. They have been born of hatred and
+revenge; of love and self-sacrifice; of hope and fear, of agony and joy.
+These words are born of the terror and beauty of nature. The stars
+have fashioned them. In them mingle the darkness and the dawn. From
+everything they have taken something. Words are the crystalizations of
+human history, of all that man has enjoyed and suffered--his victories
+and defeats--all that he has lost and won. Words are the shadows of all
+that has been--the mirrors of all that is.
+
+The ghosts also enlightened our fathers in astronomy and geology.
+According to them the earth was made out of nothing, and a little more
+nothing having been taken than was used in the construction of this
+world, the stars were made out of what was left over. Cosmas, in the
+sixth century, taught that the stars were impelled by angels, who either
+carried them on their shoulders, rolled them in front of them, or drew
+them after. He also taught that each angel that pushed a star took great
+pains to observe what the other angels were doing, so that the relative
+distances between the stars might always remain the same. He also gave
+his idea as to the form of the world.
+
+He stated that the world was a vast parallelogram; that on the outside
+was a strip of land, like the frame of a common slate; that then there
+was a strip of water, and in the middle a great piece of land; that
+Adam and Eve lived on the outer strip; that their descendants, with
+the exception of the Noah family, were drowned by a flood on this outer
+strip; that the ark finally rested on the middle piece of land where we
+now are. He accounted for night and day by saying that on the outside
+strip of land there was a high mountain, around which the sun and moon
+revolved, and that when the sun was on the other side of the mountain,
+it was night; and when on this side, it was day.
+
+He also declared that the earth was flat. This he proved by many
+passages from the Bible. Among other reasons for believing the earth
+to be flat, he brought forward the following: We are told in the New
+Testament that Christ shall come again in glory and power, and all the
+world shall see him. Now, if the world is round, how are the people
+on the other side going to see Christ when he comes? That settled the
+question, and the church not only endorsed the book, but declared that
+whoever believed less or more than stated by Cosmas, was a heretic.
+
+In those blessed days, Ignorance was a king and Science an outcast.
+
+They knew the moment this earth ceased to be the centre of the universe,
+and became a mere speck in the starry heaven of existence, that their
+religion would become a childish fable of the past.
+
+In the name and by the authority of the ghosts, men enslaved their
+fellow-men; they trampled upon the rights of women and children. In the
+name and by the authority of ghosts, they bought and sold and destroyed
+each other; they filled heaven with tyrants and earth with slaves, the
+present with despair and the future with horror. In the name and by the
+authority of the ghosts, they imprisoned the human mind, polluted the
+conscience, hardened the heart, subverted justice, crowned robbery,
+sainted hypocrisy, and extinguished for a thousand years the torch of
+reason.
+
+I have endeavored, in some faint degree, to show you what has happened,
+and what always will happen when men are governed by superstition and
+fear; when they desert the sublime standard of reason; when they take
+the words of others and do not investigate for themselves.
+
+Even the great men of those days were nearly as weak in this matter
+as the most ignorant. Kepler, one of the greatest men of the world,
+an astronomer second to none, although he plucked from the stars the
+secrets of the universe, was an astrologer, and really believed that
+he could predict the career of a man by finding what star was in the
+ascendant at his birth. This great man breathed, so to speak, the
+atmosphere of his time. He believed in the music of the spheres, and
+assigned alto, bass, tenor, and treble to certain stars.
+
+Tycho Brahe, another astronomer, kept an idiot, whose disconnected and
+meaningless words he carefully set down, and then put them together in
+such manner as to make prophecies, and then waited patiently to see them
+fulfilled. Luther believed that he had actually seen the devil, and had
+discussed points of theology with him. The human mind was in chains.
+Every idea almost was a monster. Thought was deformed. Facts were looked
+upon as worthless. Only the wonderful was worth preserving. Things that
+actually happened were not considered worth recording;--real occurrences
+were too common. Everybody expected the miraculous.
+
+The ghosts were supposed to be busy; devils were thought to be the
+most industrious things in the universe, and with these imps, every
+occurrence of an unusual character was in some way connected. There was
+no order, no serenity, no certainty in anything. Everything depended
+upon ghosts and phantoms. Man was, for the most part, at the mercy of
+malevolent spirits. He protected himself as best he could with holy
+water and tapers and wafers and cathedrals. He made noises and rung
+bells to frighten the ghosts, and he made music to charm them. He used
+smoke to choke them, and incense to please them. He wore beads and
+crosses. He said prayers, and hired others to say them. He fasted when
+he was hungry, and feasted when he was not. He believed everything that
+seemed unreasonable, just to appease the ghosts. He humbled himself. He
+crawled in the dust. He shut the doors and windows, and excluded every
+ray of light from the temple of the soul. He debauched and polluted
+his own mind, and toiled night and day to repair the walls of his own
+prison. From the garden of his heart he plucked and trampled upon the
+holy flowers of pity.
+
+The priests reveled in horrible descriptions of hell. Concerning
+the wrath of God, they grew eloquent. They denounced man as totally
+depraved. They made reason blasphemy, and pity a crime. Nothing so
+delighted them as painting the torments and sufferings of the lost. Over
+the worm that never dies they grew poetic; and the second death filled
+them with a kind of holy delight. According to them, the smoke and cries
+ascending from hell were the perfume and music of heaven.
+
+At the risk of being tiresome, I have said what I have to show you the
+productions of the human mind, when enslaved; the effects of wide-spread
+ignorance--the results of fear. I want to convince you that every form
+of slavery is a viper, that, sooner or later, will strike its poison
+fangs into the bosoms of men.
+
+The first great step towards progress, is, for man to cease to be the
+slave of man; the second, to cease to be the slave of the monsters of
+his own creation--of the ghosts and phantoms of the air.
+
+For ages the human race was imprisoned.
+
+Through the bars and grates came a few struggling rays of light. Against
+these grates and bars Science pressed its pale and thoughtful face,
+wooed by the holy dawn of human advancement.
+
+Men found that the real was the useful; that what a man knows is better
+than what a ghost says; that an event is more valuable than a prophecy.
+They found that diseases were not produced by spirits, and could not be
+cured by frightening them away. They found that death was as natural as
+life. They began to study the anatomy and chemistry of the human body,
+and found that all was natural and within the domain of law.
+
+The conjurer and sorcerer were discarded, and the physician and surgeon
+employed. They found that the earth was not flat; that the stars were
+not mere specks. They found that being born under a particular planet
+had nothing to do with the fortunes of men.
+
+The astrologer was discharged and the astronomer took his place.
+
+They found that the earth had swept through the constellations for
+millions of ages. They found that good and evil were produced by natural
+causes, and not by ghosts; that man could not be good enough or bad
+enough to stop or cause a rain; that diseases were produced as naturally
+as grass, and were not sent as punishments upon man for failing to
+believe a certain creed. They found that man, through intelligence,
+could take advantage of the forces of nature--that he could make the
+waves, the winds, the flames, and the lightnings of heaven do his
+bidding and minister to his wants. They found that the ghosts
+knew nothing of benefit to man; that they were utterly ignorant
+of geology--of astronomy--of geography;--that they knew nothing of
+history;--that they were poor doctors and worse surgeons;--that they
+knew nothing of law and less of justice; that they were without brains,
+and utterly destitute of hearts; that they knew nothing of the rights
+of men; that they were despisers of women, the haters of progress, the
+enemies of science, and the destroyers of liberty.
+
+The condition of the world during the Dark Ages shows exactly the result
+of enslaving the bodies and souls of men. In those days there was no
+freedom. Labor was despised, and a laborer was considered but little
+above a beast. Ignorance, like a vast cowl, covered the brain of the
+world, and superstition ran riot with the imagination of man. The air
+was filled with angels, with demons and monsters. Credulity sat upon
+the throne of the soul, and Reason was an exiled king. A man to be
+distinguished must be a soldier or a monk. War and theology, that is
+to say, murder and hypocrisy, were the principal employments of man.
+Industry was a slave, theft was commerce; murder was war, hypocrisy was
+religion.
+
+Every Christian country maintained that it was no robbery to take the
+property of Mohammedans by force, and no murder to kill the owners. Lord
+Bacon was the first man of note who maintained that a Christian country
+was bound to keep its plighted faith with an infidel nation. Reading and
+writing were considered dangerous arts. Every layman who could read and
+write was suspected of being a heretic. All thought was discouraged.
+They forged chains of superstition for the minds, and manacles of iron
+for the bodies of men. The earth was ruled by the cowl and sword,--by
+the mitre and scepter,--by the altar and throne,--by Fear and Force,--by
+Ignorance and Faith,--by ghouls and ghosts.
+
+In the fifteenth century the following law was in force in England:
+
+"That whosoever reads the Scriptures in the mother tongue, shall forfeit
+land, cattle, life, and goods from their heirs forever, and so be
+condemned for heretics to God, enemies to the crown, and most arrant
+traitors to the land."
+
+During the first year this law was in force thirty-nine were hanged for
+its violation and their bodies burned.
+
+In the sixteenth century men were burned because they failed to kneel to
+a procession of monks.
+
+The slightest word uttered against the superstition of the time was
+punished with death.
+
+Even the reformers, so-called, of those days, had no idea of
+intellectual liberty--no idea even of toleration. Luther, Knox, Calvin,
+believed in religious liberty only when they were in the minority. The
+moment they were clothed with power they began to exterminate with fire
+and sword.
+
+Castalio was the first minister who advocated the liberty of the soul.
+He was regarded by the reformers as a criminal, and treated as though he
+had committed the crime of crimes.
+
+Bodinus, a lawyer of France, about the same time, wrote a few words
+in favor of the freedom of conscience, but public opinion was
+overwhelmingly against him. The people were ready, anxious, and willing,
+with whip, and chain, and fire, to drive from the mind of man the heresy
+that he had a right to think.
+
+Montaigne, a man blest with so much common sense that he was the most
+uncommon man of his time, was the first to raise a voice against torture
+in France. But what was the voice of one man against the terrible cry of
+ignorant, infatuated, superstitious and malevolent millions? It was the
+cry of a drowning man in the wild roar of the cruel sea.
+
+In spite of the efforts of the brave few the infamous war against the
+freedom of the soul was waged until at least one hundred millions of
+human beings--fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters--with hopes, loves,
+and aspirations like ourselves, were sacrificed upon the cruel altar
+of an ignorant faith. They perished in every way by which death can
+be produced. Every nerve of pain was sought out and touched by the
+believers in ghosts.
+
+For my part I glory in the fact, that here in the New World,--in the
+United States,--liberty of conscience was first guaranteed to man, and
+that the Constitution of the United States was the first great decree
+entered in the high court of human equity forever divorcing church and
+state,--the first injunction granted against the interference of the
+ghosts. This was one of the grandest steps ever taken by the human race
+in the direction of Progress.
+
+You will ask what has caused this wonderful change in three hundred
+years. And I answer--the inventions and discoveries of the few;--the
+brave thoughts, the heroic utterances of the few;--the acquisition of a
+few facts.
+
+Besides, you must remember that every wrong in some way tends to abolish
+itself. It is hard to make a lie stand always. A lie will not fit a
+fact. It will only fit another lie made for the purpose. The life of
+a lie is simply a question of time. Nothing but truth is immortal. The
+nobles and kings quarreled;--the priests began to dispute;--the ideas of
+government began to change.
+
+In 1441 printing was discovered. At that time the past was a vast
+cemetery with hardly an epitaph. The ideas of men had mostly perished
+in the brain that produced them. The lips of the human race had been
+sealed. Printing gave pinions to thought. It preserved ideas. It made it
+possible for man to bequeath to the future the riches of his brain, the
+wealth of his soul. At first, it was used to flood the world with the
+mistakes of the ancients, but since that time it has been flooding the
+world with light.
+
+When people read they begin to reason, and when they reason they
+progress. This was another grand step in the direction of Progress.
+
+The discovery of powder, that put the peasant almost upon a par with
+the prince;--that put an end to the so-called age of chivalry;--that
+released a vast number of men from the armies;--that gave pluck and
+nerve a chance with brute strength.
+
+The discovery of America, whose shores were trod by the restless feet
+of adventure;--that brought people holding every shade of superstition
+together;--that gave the world an opportunity to compare notes, and to
+laugh at the follies of each other. Out of this strange mingling of
+all creeds, and superstitions, and facts, and theories, and countless
+opinions, came the Great Republic.
+
+Every fact has pushed a superstition from the brain and a ghost from the
+clouds. Every mechanic art is an educator. Every loom, every reaper and
+mower, every steamboat, every locomotive, every engine, every press,
+every telegraph, is a missionary of Science and an apostle of Progress.
+Every mill, every furnace, every building with its wheels and levers,
+in which something is made for the convenience, for the use, and for the
+comfort and elevation of man, is a church, and every school-house is a
+temple.
+
+Education is the most radical thing in the world.
+
+To teach the alphabet is to inaugurate a revolution.
+
+To build a schoolhouse is to construct a fort.
+
+Every library is an arsenal filled with the weapons and ammunition of
+Progress, and every fact is a monitor with sides of iron and a turret of
+steel.
+
+I thank the inventors, the discoverers, the thinkers. I thank Columbus
+and Magellan. I thank Galileo, and Copernicus, and Kepler, and
+Descartes, and Newton, and Laplace. I thank Locke, and Hume, and Bacon,
+and Shakespeare, and Kant, and Fichte, and Leibnitz, and Goethe. I thank
+Fulton, and Watts, and Volta, and Galvani, and Franklin, and Morse, who
+made lightning the messenger of man. I thank Humboldt, the Shakespeare
+of science. I thank Crompton and Arkwright, from whose brains leaped the
+looms and spindles that clothe the world. I thank Luther for protesting
+against the abuses of the church, and I denounce him because he was
+the enemy of liberty. I thank Calvin for writing a book in favor of
+religious freedom, and I abhor him because he burned Servetus. I thank
+Knox for resisting Episcopal persecution, and I hate him because he
+persecuted in his turn. I thank the Puritans for saying "Resistance to
+tyrants is obedience to God," and yet I am compelled to say that they
+were tyrants themselves. I thank Thomas Paine because he was a believer
+in liberty, and because he did as much to make my country free as any
+other human being. I thank Voltaire, that great man who, for half a
+century, was the intellectual emperor of Europe, and who, from his
+throne at the foot of the Alps, pointed the finger of scorn at every
+hypocrite in Christendom. I thank Darwin, Haeckel and Büchner, Spencer,
+Tyndall and Huxley, Draper, Lecky and Buckle.
+
+I thank the inventors, the discoverers, the thinkers, the scientists,
+the explorers, I thank the honest millions who have toiled.
+
+I thank the brave men with brave thoughts. They are the Atlases upon
+whose broad and mighty shoulders rests the grand fabric of civilization.
+They are the men who have broken, and are still breaking, the chains of
+Superstition. They are the Titans who carried Olympus by assault, and
+who will soon stand victors upon Sinai's crags.
+
+We are beginning to learn that to exchange a mistake for the truth--a
+superstition for a fact--to ascertain the real--is to progress.
+
+Happiness is the only possible good, and all that tends to the happiness
+of man is right, and is of value. All that tends to develop the bodies
+and minds of men; all that gives us better houses, better clothes,
+better food, better pictures, grander music, better heads, better
+hearts; all that renders us more intellectual and more loving, nearer
+just; that makes us better husbands and wives, better children, better
+citizens--all these things combined produce what I call Progress.
+
+Man advances only as he overcomes the obstructions of Nature, and this
+can be done only by labor and by thought. Labor is the foundation of
+all. Without labor, and without great labor, progress is impossible. The
+progress of the world depends upon the men who walk in the fresh furrows
+and through the rustling corn; upon those who sow and reap; upon those
+whose faces are radiant with the glare of furnace fires; upon the
+delvers in the mines, and the workers in shops; upon those who give to
+the winter air the ringing music of the axe; upon those who battle with
+the boisterous billows of the sea; upon the inventors and discoverers;
+upon the brave thinkers.
+
+From the surplus produced by labor, schools and universities are built
+and fostered. From this surplus the painter is paid for the productions
+of the pencil; the sculptor for chiseling shapeless rock into forms
+divinely beautiful, and the poet for singing the hopes, the loves, the
+memories, and the aspirations of the world. This surplus has given us
+the books in which we converse with the dead and living kings of the
+human race. It has given us all there is of beauty, of elegance, and of
+refined happiness.
+
+I am aware that there is a vast difference of opinion as to what
+progress really is; that many denounce the ideas of to-day as
+destructive of all happiness--of all good, I know that there are many
+worshipers of the past. They venerate the ancient because it is ancient.
+They see no beauty in anything from which they do not blow the dust of
+ages with the breath of praise. They say, no masters like the old; no
+religion, no governments like the ancient; no orators, no poets, no
+statesmen like those who have been dust for two thousand years. Others
+love the modern simply because it is modern.
+
+We should have gratitude enough to acknowledge the obligations we are
+under to the great and heroic of antiquity, and independence enough not
+to believe what they said simply because they said it.
+
+With the idea that labor is the basis of progress goes the truth that
+labor must be free. The laborer must be a free man.
+
+The free man, working for wife and child, gets his head and hands in
+partnership.
+
+To do the greatest amount of work in the shortest space of time, is the
+problem of free labor.
+
+Slavery does the least work in the longest space of time.
+
+Free labor will give us wealth. Free thought will give us truth.
+
+Slowly but surely man is freeing his imagination of these sexless
+phantoms, of these cruel ghosts. Slowly but surely he is rising above
+the superstitions of the past. He is learning to rely upon himself.
+He is beginning to find that labor is the only prayer that ought to be
+answered, and that hoping, toiling, aspiring, suffering men and women
+are of more importance than all the ghosts that ever wandered through
+the fenceless fields of space.
+
+The believers in ghosts claim still, that they are the only wise and
+virtuous people upon the earth; claim still, that there is a difference
+between them and unbelievers so vast, that they will be infinitely
+rewarded, and the others infinitely punished.
+
+I ask you to-night, do the theories and doctrines of the theologians
+satisfy the heart or brain of the nineteenth century?
+
+Have the churches the confidence of mankind?
+
+Does the merchant give credit to a man because he belongs to a church?
+
+Does the banker loan money to a man because he is a Methodist or
+Baptist?
+
+Will a certificate of good standing in any church be taken as collateral
+security for one dollar?
+
+Will you take the word of a church member, or his note, or his oath,
+simply because he is a church member?
+
+Are the clergy, as a class, better, kinder and more generous to their
+families--to their fellow-men--than doctors, lawyers, merchants and
+farmers?
+
+Does a belief in ghosts and unreasonable things necessarily make people
+honest?
+
+When a man loses confidence in Moses, must the people lose confidence in
+him?
+
+Does not the credit system in morals breed extravagance in sin?
+
+Why send missionaries to other lands while every penitentiary in ours is
+filled with criminals?
+
+Is it philosophical to say that they who do right carry a cross?
+
+Is it a source of joy to think that perdition is the destination of
+nearly all of the children of men?
+
+Is it worth while to quarrel about original sin--when there is so much
+copy?
+
+Does it pay to dispute about baptism, and the Trinity, and
+predestination, and apostolic succession and the infallibility of
+churches, of popes and of books? Does all this do any good?
+
+Are the theologians welcomers of new truths? Are they noted for their
+candor? Do they treat an opponent with common fairness? Are they
+investigators? Do they pull forward, or do they hold back?
+
+Is science indebted to the church for a solitary fact?
+
+What church is an asylum for a persecuted truth?
+
+What great reform has been inaugurated by the church?
+
+Did the church abolish slavery?
+
+Has the church raised its voice against war?
+
+I used to think that there was in religion no real restraining force.
+Upon this point my mind has changed. Religion will prevent man from
+committing artificial crimes and offences.
+
+A man committed murder. The evidence was so conclusive that he confessed
+his guilt.
+
+He was asked why he killed his fellow-man.
+
+He replied: "For money."
+
+"Did you get any?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"How much?"
+
+"Fifteen cents."
+
+"What did you do with this money?"
+
+"Spent it."
+
+"What for?"
+
+"Liquor."
+
+"What else did you find upon the dead man?" "He had his dinner in a
+bucket--some meat and bread."
+
+"What did you do with that?"
+
+"I ate the bread."
+
+"What did you do with the meat?"
+
+"I threw it away."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"It was Friday."
+
+Just to the extent that man has freed himself from the dominion of
+ghosts he has advanced. Just to the extent that he has freed himself
+from the tyrants of his own creation he has progressed. Just to the
+extent that he has investigated for himself he has lost confidence in
+superstition.
+
+With knowledge obedience becomes intelligent acquiescence--it is no
+longer degrading. Acquiescence in the understood--in the known--is the
+act of a sovereign, not of a slave. It ennobles, it does not degrade.
+
+Man has found that he must give liberty to others in order to have it
+himself. He has found that a master is also a slave;--that a tyrant
+is himself a serf. He has found that governments should be founded and
+administered by man and for man; that the rights of all are equal; that
+the powers that be are not ordained by God; that woman is at least the
+equal of man; that men existed before books; that religion is one of the
+phases of thought through which the world is passing; that all creeds
+were made by man; that everything is natural; that a miracle is
+an impossibility; that we know nothing of origin and destiny; that
+concerning the unknown we are all equally ignorant; that the pew has
+the right to contradict what the pulpit asserts; that man is responsible
+only to himself and those he injures, and that all have a right to
+think.
+
+True religion must be free. Without perfect liberty of the mind there
+can be no true religion. Without liberty the brain is a dungeon--the
+mind a convict. The slave may bow and cringe and crawl, but he cannot
+adore--he cannot love.
+
+True religion is the perfume of a free and grateful heart. True religion
+is a subordination of the passions to the perceptions of the intellect.
+True religion is not a theory--it is a practice. It is not a creed--it
+is a life.
+
+A theory that is afraid of investigation is undeserving a place in the
+human mind.
+
+I do not pretend to tell what all the truth is. I do not pretend to have
+fathomed the abyss, nor to have floated on outstretched wings level with
+the dim heights of thought. I simply plead for freedom. I denounce the
+cruelties and horrors of slavery. I ask for light and air for the souls
+of men. I say, take off those chains--break those manacles--free those
+limbs--release that brain! I plead for the right to think--to reason--to
+investigate. I ask that the future may be enriched with the honest
+thoughts of men. I implore every human being to be a soldier in the army
+of progress.
+
+I will not invade the rights of others. You have no right to erect your
+toll-gate upon the highways of thought. You have no right to leap from
+the hedges of superstition and strike down the pioneers of the human
+race. You have no right to sacrifice the liberties of man upon the
+altars of ghosts. Believe what you may; preach what you desire; have all
+the forms and ceremonies you please; exercise your liberty in your own
+way but extend to all others the same right.
+
+I will not attack your doctrines nor your creeds if they accord liberty
+to me. If they hold thought to be dangerous--if they aver that doubt is
+a crime, then I attack them one and all, because they enslave the minds
+of men.
+
+I attack the monsters, the phantoms of imagination that have ruled the
+world. I attack slavery. I ask for room--room for the human mind.
+
+Why should we sacrifice a real world that we have, for one we know not
+of? Why should we enslave ourselves? Why should we forge fetters for
+our own hands? Why should we be the slaves of phantoms. The darkness of
+barbarism was the womb of these shadows. In the light of science they
+cannot cloud the sky forever. They have reddened the hands of man with
+innocent blood. They made the cradle a curse, and the grave a place of
+torment.
+
+They blinded the eyes and stopped the ears of the human race. They
+subverted all ideas of justice by promising infinite rewards for finite
+virtues, and threatening infinite punishment for finite offences.
+
+They filled the future with heavens and with hells, with the shining
+peaks of selfish joy and the lurid abysses of flame. For ages they kept
+the world in ignorance and awe, in want and misery, in fear and chains.
+
+I plead for light, for air, for opportunity. I plead for individual
+independence. I plead for the rights of labor and of thought. I plead
+for a chainless future. Let the ghosts go--justice remains. Let them
+disappear--men and women and children are left. Let the monsters fade
+away--the world is here with its hills and seas and plains, with its
+seasons of smiles and frowns, its spring of leaf and bud, its summer of
+shade and flower and murmuring stream; its autumn with the laden boughs,
+when the withered banners of the corn are still, and gathered fields are
+growing strangely wan; while death, poetic death, with hands that color
+what they touch, weaves in the Autumn wood her tapestries of gold and
+brown.
+
+The world remains with its winters and homes and firesides, where grow
+and bloom the virtues of our race. All these are left; and music, with
+its sad and thrilling voice, and all there is of art and song and hope
+and love and aspiration high. All these remain. Let the ghosts go--we
+will worship them no more.
+
+Man is greater than these phantoms. Humanity is grander than all the
+creeds, than all the books. Humanity is the great sea, and these creeds,
+and books, and religions, are but the waves of a day. Humanity is the
+sky, and these religions and dogmas and theories are but the mists and
+clouds changing continually, destined finally to melt away.
+
+That which is founded upon slavery, and fear, and ignorance, cannot
+endure. In the religion of the future there will be men and women and
+children, all the aspirations of the soul, and all the tender humanities
+of the heart.
+
+Let the ghosts go. We will worship them no more. Let them cover their
+eyeless sockets with their fleshless hands and fade forever from the
+imaginations of men.
+
+
+
+
+THE LIBERTY OF MAN, WOMAN, AND CHILD.
+
+Liberty sustains the same Relation to Mind that Space does to Matter.
+
+THERE is no slavery but ignorance. Liberty is the child of intelligence.
+
+The history of man is simply the history of slavery, of injustice and
+brutality, together with the means by which he has, through the dead and
+desolate years, slowly and painfully advanced. He has been the sport
+and prey of priest and king, the food of superstition and cruel might.
+Crowned force has governed ignorance through fear. Hypocrisy and
+tyranny--two vultures--have fed upon the liberties of man. From all
+these there has been, and is, but one means of escape--intellectual
+development. Upon the back of industry has been the whip. Upon the brain
+have been the fetters of superstition. Nothing has been left undone
+by the enemies of freedom. Every art and artifice, every cruelty and
+outrage has been practiced and perpetrated to destroy the rights of man.
+In this great struggle every crime has been rewarded and every virtue
+has been punished. Reading, writing, thinking and investigating have all
+been crimes.
+
+Every science has been an outcast.
+
+All the altars and all the thrones united to arrest the forward march of
+the human race. The king said that mankind must not work for themselves.
+The priest said that mankind must not think for themselves. One forged
+chains for the hands, the other for the soul. Under this infamous
+_regime_ the eagle of the human intellect was for ages a slimy serpent
+of hypocrisy.
+
+The human race was imprisoned. Through some of the prison bars came a
+few struggling rays of light. Against these bars Science pressed its
+pale and thoughtful face, wooed by the holy dawn of human advancement.
+Bar after bar was broken away. A few grand men escaped and devoted their
+lives to the liberation of their fellows.
+
+Only a few years ago there was a great awakening of the human mind. Men
+began to inquire by what right a crowned robber made them work for him?
+The man who asked this question was called a traitor. Others asked by
+what right does a robed hypocrite rule my thought? Such men were called
+infidels. The priest said, and the king said, where is this spirit
+of investigation to stop? They said then and they say now, that it is
+dangerous for man to be free. I deny it. Out on the intellectual sea
+there is room enough for every sail. In the intellectual air there is
+space enough for every wing.
+
+The man who does not do his own thinking is a slave, and is a traitor to
+himself and to his fellow-men.
+
+Every man should stand under the blue and stars, under the infinite flag
+of nature, the peer of every other man.
+
+Standing in the presence of the Unknown, all have the same right to
+think, and all are equally interested in the great questions of origin
+and destiny. All I claim, all I plead for, is liberty of thought and
+expression. That is all. I do not pretend to tell what is absolutely
+true, but what I think is true. I do not pretend to tell all the truth.
+
+I do not claim that I have floated level with the heights of thought, or
+that I have descended to the very depths of things. I simply claim
+that what ideas I have, I have a right to express; and that any man who
+denies that right to me is an intellectual thief and robber. That is
+all.
+
+Take those chains from the human soul. Break those fetters. If I have no
+right to think, why have I a brain? If I have no such right, have three
+or four men, or any number, who may get together, and sign a creed, and
+build a house, and put a steeple upon it, and a bell in it--have they
+the right to think? The good men, the good women are tired of the whip
+and lash in the realm of thought. They remember the chain and fagot
+with a shudder. They are free, and they give liberty to others. Whoever
+claims any right that he is unwilling to accord to his fellow-men is
+dishonest and infamous.
+
+In the good old times, our fathers had the idea that they could make
+people believe to suit them. Our ancestors, in the ages that are gone,
+really believed that by force you could convince a man. You cannot
+change the conclusion of the brain by torture; nor by social ostracism.
+But I will tell you what you can do by these, and what you have done.
+You can make hypocrites by the million. You can make a man say that
+he has changed his mind; but he remains of the same opinion still. Put
+fetters all over him; crush his feet in iron boots; stretch him to the
+last gasp upon the holy rack; burn him, if you please, but his ashes
+will be of the same opinion still.
+
+Our fathers in the good old times--and the best thing I can say about
+them is, that they have passed away--had an idea that they could force
+men to think their way. That idea is still prevalent in many parts, even
+of this country. Even in our day some extremely religious people say,
+"We will not trade with that man; we will not vote for him; we will not
+hire him if he is a lawyer; we will die before we will take his medicine
+if he is a doctor; we will not invite him to dinner; we will socially
+ostracise him; he must come to our church; he must believe our
+doctrines; he must worship our god or we will not in any way contribute
+to his support."
+
+In the old times of which I have spoken, they desired to make all men
+think exactly alike. All the mechanical ingenuity of the world cannot
+make two clocks run exactly alike, and how are you going to make
+hundreds of millions of people, differing in brain and disposition, in
+education and aspiration, in conditions and surroundings, each clad in
+a living robe of passionate flesh--how are you going to make them think
+and feel alike? If there is an infinite god, one who made us, and wishes
+us to think alike, why did he give a spoonful of brains to one, and a
+magnificent intellectual development to another? Why is it that we
+have all degrees of intelligence, from orthodoxy to genius, if it was
+intended that all should think and feel alike?
+
+I used to read in books how our fathers persecuted mankind. But I never
+appreciated it. I read it, but it did not burn itself into my soul. I
+did not really appreciate the infamies that have been committed in the
+name of religion, until I saw the iron arguments that Christians used.
+I saw the Thumbscrew--two little pieces of iron, armed on the inner
+surfaces with protuberances, to prevent their slipping; through each end
+a screw uniting the two pieces. And when some man denied the efficacy of
+baptism, or may be said, "I do not believe that a fish ever swallowed
+a man to keep him from drowning," then they put his thumb between these
+pieces of iron and in the name of love and universal forgiveness, began
+to screw these pieces together. When this was done most men said, "I
+will recant." Probably I should have done the same. Probably I would
+have said: "Stop; I will admit anything that you wish; I will admit that
+there is one god or a million, one hell or a billion; suit yourselves;
+but stop."
+
+But there was now and then a man who would not swerve the breadth of a
+hair. There was now and then some sublime heart, willing to die for
+an intellectual conviction. Had it not been for such men, we would be
+savages to-night. Had it not been for a few brave, heroic souls in every
+age, we would have been cannibals, with pictures of wild beasts tattooed
+upon our flesh, dancing around some dried snake fetich.
+
+Let us thank every good and noble man who stood so grandly, so proudly,
+in spite of opposition, of hatred and death, for what he believed to be
+the truth.
+
+Heroism did not excite the respect of our fathers. The man who would not
+recant was not forgiven. They screwed the thumbscrews down to the last
+pang, and then threw their victim into some dungeon, where, in the
+throbbing silence and darkness, he might suffer the agonies of the
+fabled damned. This was done in the name of love--in the name of
+mercy--in the name of the compassionate Christ.
+
+I saw, too, what they called the Collar of Torture. Imagine a circle
+of iron, and on the inside a hundred points almost as sharp as needles.
+This argument was fastened about the throat of the sufferer. Then he
+could not walk, nor sit down, nor stir without the neck being punctured,
+by these points. In a little while the throat would begin to swell, and
+suffocation would end the agonies of that man. This man, it may be, had
+committed the crime of saying, with tears upon his cheeks, "I do not
+believe that God, the father of us all, will damn to eternal perdition
+any of the children of men."
+
+I saw another instrument, called the Scavenger's Daughter. Think of a
+pair of shears with handles, not only where they now are, but at the
+points as well, and just above the pivot that unites the blades, a
+circle of iron. In the upper handles the hands would be placed; in the
+lower, the feet; and through the iron ring, at the centre, the head of
+the victim would be forced. In this condition, he would be thrown prone
+upon the earth, and the strain upon the muscles produced such agony that
+insanity would in pity end his pain.
+
+This was done by gentlemen who said: "Whosoever smiteth thee upon one
+cheek turn to him the other also."
+
+I saw the Rack. This was a box like the bed of a wagon, with a windlass
+at each end, with levers, and ratchets to prevent slipping; over each
+windlass went chains; some were fastened to the ankles of the sufferer;
+others to his wrists. And then priests, clergymen, divines, saints,
+began turning these windlasses, and kept turning, until the ankles, the
+knees, the hips, the shoulders, the elbows, the wrists of the victim
+were all dislocated, and the sufferer was wet with the sweat of agony.
+And they had standing by a physician to feel his pulse. What for? To
+save his life? Yes. In mercy? No; simply that they might rack him once
+again.
+
+This was done, remember, in the name of civilization; in the name of law
+and order; in the name of mercy; in the name of religion; in the name of
+the most merciful Christ.
+
+Sometimes, when I read and think about these frightful things, it seems
+to me that I have suffered all these horrors myself. It seems sometimes,
+as though I had stood upon the shore of exile and gazed with tearful
+eyes toward home and native land; as though my nails had been torn from
+my hands, and into the bleeding quick needles had been thrust; as though
+my feet had been crushed in iron boots; as though I had been chained in
+the cell of the Inquisition and listened with dying ears for the coming
+footsteps of release; as though I had stood upon the scaffold and had
+seen the glittering axe fall upon me; as though I had been upon the rack
+and had seen, bending above me, the white faces of hypocrite priests;
+as though I had been taken from my fireside, from my wife and children,
+taken to the public square, chained; as though fagots had been piled
+about me; as though the flames had climbed around my limbs and scorched
+my eyes to blindness, and as though my ashes had been scattered to the
+four winds, by all the countless hands of hate. And when I so feel, I
+swear that while I live I will do what little I can to preserve and to
+augment the liberties of man, woman, and child.
+
+It is a question of justice, of mercy, of honesty, of intellectual
+development. If there is a man in the world who is not willing to give
+to every human being every right he claims for himself, he is just so
+much nearer a barbarian than I am. It is a question of honesty. The man
+who is not willing to give to every other the same intellectual rights
+he claims for himself, is dishonest, selfish, and brutal.
+
+It is a question of intellectual development. Whoever holds another man
+responsible for his honest thought, has a deformed and distorted brain.
+It is a question of intellectual development.
+
+A little while ago I saw models of nearly everything that man has made.
+I saw models of all the water craft, from the rude dug-out in which
+floated a naked savage--one of our ancestors--a naked savage, with
+teeth two inches in length, with a spoonful of brains in the back of
+his head--I saw models of all the water craft of the world, from that
+dug-out up to a man-of-war, that carries a hundred guns and miles of
+canvas--from that dug-out to the steamship that turns its brave prow
+from the port of New York, with a compass like a conscience, crossing
+three thousand miles of billows without missing a throb or beat of its
+mighty iron heart.
+
+I saw at the same time the weapons that man has made, from a club, such
+as was grasped by that same savage, when he crawled from his den in
+the ground and hunted a snake for his dinner; from that club to the
+boomerang, to the sword, to the cross-bow, to the blunderbuss, to the
+flint-lock, to the cap-lock, to the needle-gun, up to a cannon cast by
+Krupp, capable of hurling a ball weighing two thousand pounds through
+eighteen inches of solid steel.
+
+I saw, too, the armor from the shell of a turtle, that one of our brave
+ancestors lashed upon his breast when he went to fight for his country;
+the skin of a porcupine, dried with the quills on, which this same
+savage pulled over his orthodox head, up to the shirts of mail, that
+were worn in the Middle Ages, that laughed at the edge of the sword and
+defied the point of the spear; up to a monitor clad in complete steel.
+
+I saw at the same time, their musical instruments, from the
+tom-tom--that is, a hoop with a couple of strings of raw hide drawn
+across it--from that tom-tom, up to the instruments we have to-day, that
+make the common air blossom with melody.
+
+I saw, too, their paintings, from a daub of yellow mud, to the great
+works which now adorn the galleries of the world. I saw also their
+sculpture, from the rude god with four legs, a half dozen arms, several
+noses, and two or three rows of ears, and one little, contemptible,
+brainless head, up to the figures of to-day--to the marbles that genius
+has clad in such a personality that it seems almost impudent to touch
+them without an introduction.
+
+I saw their books--books written upon skins of wild beasts--upon
+shoulder-blades of sheep--books written upon leaves, upon bark, up to
+the splendid volumes that enrich the libraries of our day. When I
+speak of libraries, I think of the remark of Plato: "A house that has a
+library in it has a soul."
+
+I saw their implements of agriculture, from a crooked stick that was
+attached to the horn of an ox by some twisted straw, to the agricultural
+implements of this generation, that make it possible for a man to
+cultivate the soil without being an ignoramus.
+
+While looking upon these things I was forced to say that man advanced
+only as he mingled his thought with his labor,--only as he got into
+partnership with the forces of nature,--only as he learned to take
+advantage of his surroundings--only as he freed himself from the bondage
+of fear,--only as he depended upon himself--only as he lost confidence
+in the gods.
+
+I saw at the same time a row of human skulls, from the lowest skull
+that has been found, the Neanderthal skull--skulls from Central Africa,
+skulls from the Bushmen of Australia--skulls from the farthest isles of
+the Pacific sea--up to the best skulls of the last generation;--and I
+noticed that there was the same difference between those skulls that
+there was between the products of those skulls, and I said to myself,
+"After all, it is a simple question of intellectual development." There
+was the same difference between those skulls, the lowest and highest
+skulls, that there was between the dug-out and the man-of-war and the
+steamship, between the club and the Krupp gun, between the yellow daub
+and the landscape, between the tom-tom and an opera by Verdi.
+
+The first and lowest skull in this row was the den in which crawled the
+base and meaner instincts of mankind, and the last was a temple in which
+dwelt joy, liberty, and love.
+
+It is all a question of brain, of intellectual development.
+
+If we are nearer free than were our fathers, it is because we have
+better heads upon the average, and more brains in them.
+
+Now, I ask you to be honest with me. It makes no difference to you what
+I believe, nor what I wish to prove. I simply ask you to be honest.
+Divest your minds, for a moment at least, of all religious prejudice.
+Act, for a few moments, as though you were men and women.
+
+Suppose the king, if there was one, and the priest, if there was one,
+at the time this gentleman floated in the dug-out, and charmed his ears
+with the music of the tom-tom, had said: "That dug-out is the best boat
+that ever can be built by man; the pattern of that came from on high,
+from the great god of storm and flood, and any man who says that he can
+improve it by putting a mast in it, with a sail upon it, is an infidel,
+and shall be burned at the stake;" what, in your judgment--honor
+bright--would have been the effect upon the circumnavigation of the
+globe?
+
+Suppose the king, if there was one, and the priest, if there was
+one--and I presume there was a priest, because it was a very ignorant
+age--suppose this king and priest had said: "That tom-tom is the most
+beautiful instrument of music of which any man can conceive; that is the
+kind of music they have in heaven; an angel sitting upon the edge of
+a fleecy cloud, golden in the setting sun, playing upon that tom-tom,
+became so enraptured, so entranced with her own music, that in a kind of
+ecstasy she dropped it--that is how we obtained it; and any man who
+says that it can be improved by putting a back and front to it, and
+four strings, and a bridge, and getting a bow of hair with rosin, is a
+blaspheming wretch, and shall die the death,"--I ask you, what effect
+would that have had upon music? If that course had been pursued, would
+the human ears, in your judgment, ever have been enriched with the
+divine symphonies of Beethoven?
+
+Suppose the king, if there was one, and the priest, had said: "That
+crooked stick is the best plow that can be invented: the pattern of that
+plow was given to a pious farmer in a holy dream, and that twisted straw
+is the _ne plus ultra_ of all twisted things, and any man who says he
+can make an improvement upon that plow, is an atheist;" what, in your
+judgment, would have been the effect upon the science of agriculture?
+
+But the people said, and the king and priest said: "We want better
+weapons with which to kill our fellow-Christians; we want better plows,
+better music, better paintings, and whoever will give us better weapons,
+and better music, better houses to live in, better clothes, we will robe
+him in wealth, and crown him with honor." Every incentive was held out
+to every human being to improve these things. That is the reason the
+club has been changed to a cannon, the dug-out to a steamship, the daub
+to a painting; that is the reason that the piece of rough and broken
+stone finally became a glorified statue.
+
+You must not, however, forget that the gentleman in the dug-out,
+the gentleman who was enraptured with the music of the tom-tom, and
+cultivated his land with a crooked stick, had a religion of his own.
+That gentlemen in the dug-out was orthodox. He was never troubled with
+doubts. He lived and died settled in his mind. He believed in hell; and
+he thought he would be far happier in heaven, if he could just lean
+over and see certain people who expressed doubts as to the truth of his
+creed, gently but everlastingly broiled and burned.
+
+It is a very sad and unhappy fact that this man has had a great many
+intellectual descendants. It is also an unhappy fact in nature, that the
+ignorant multiply much faster than the intellectual. This fellow in the
+dug-out believed in a personal devil. His devil had a cloven hoof, a
+long tail, armed with a fiery dart; and his devil breathed brimstone.
+This devil was at least the equal of God; not quite so stout but
+a little shrewder. And do you know there has not been a patentable
+improvement made upon that devil for six thousand years.
+
+This gentleman in the dug-out believed that God was a tyrant; that he
+would eternally damn the man who lived in accordance with his highest
+and grandest ideal. He believed that the earth was flat. He believed in
+a literal, burning, seething hell of fire and sulphur. He had also his
+idea of politics; and his doctrine was, might makes right. And it will
+take thousands of years before the world will reverse this doctrine, and
+believingly say, "Right makes might."
+
+All I ask is the same privilege to improve upon that gentleman's
+theology as upon his musical instrument; the same right to improve upon
+his politics as upon his dug-out. That is all. I ask for the human
+soul the same liberty in every direction. That is the only crime I have
+committed. I say, let us think. Let each one express his thought. Let us
+become investigators, not followers, not cringers and crawlers. If there
+is in heaven an infinite being, he never will be satisfied with the
+worship of cowards and hypocrites. Honest unbelief, honest infidelity,
+honest atheism, will be a perfume in heaven when pious hypocrisy, no
+matter how religious it may be outwardly, will be a stench.
+
+This is my doctrine: Give every other human being every right you claim
+for yourself. Keep your mind open to the influences of nature. Receive
+new thoughts with hospitality. Let us advance.
+
+The religionist of to-day wants the ship of his soul to lie at the wharf
+of orthodoxy and rot in the sun. He delights to hear the sails of old
+opinions flap against the masts of old creeds. He loves to see the
+joints and the sides open and gape in the sun, and it is a kind of bliss
+for him to repeat again and again: "Do not disturb my opinions. Do not
+unsettle my mind; I have it all made up, and I want no infidelity. Let
+me go backward rather than forward."
+
+As far as I am concerned I wish to be out on the high seas. I wish to
+take my chances with wind, and wave, and star. And I had rather go down
+in the glory and grandeur of the storm, than to rot in any orthodox
+harbor whatever.
+
+After all, we are improving from age to age. The most orthodox people in
+this country two hundred years ago would have been burned for the crime
+of heresy. The ministers who denounce me for expressing my thought would
+have been in the Inquisition themselves. Where once burned and blazed
+the bivouac fires of the army of progress, now glow the altars of the
+church. The religionists of our time are occupying about the same ground
+occupied by heretics and infidels of one hundred years ago. The church
+has advanced in spite, as it were, of itself. It has followed the army
+of progress protesting and denouncing, and had to keep within protesting
+and denouncing distance. If the church had not made great progress I
+could not express my thoughts.
+
+Man, however, has advanced just exactly in the proportion with which he
+has mingled his thought with his labor. The sailor, without control
+of the wind and wave, knowing nothing or very little of the mysterious
+currents and pulses of the sea, is superstitious. So also is the
+agriculturist, whose prosperity depends upon something he cannot
+control. But the mechanic, when a wheel refuses to turn, never thinks of
+dropping on his knees and asking the assistance of some divine power.
+He knows there is a reason. He knows that something is too large or too
+small; that there is something wrong with his machine; and he goes to
+work and he makes it larger or smaller, here or there, until the wheel
+will turn. Now, just in proportion as man gets away from being, as it
+were, the slave of his surroundings, the serf of the elements,--of the
+heat, the frost, the snow, and the lightning,--just to the extent that
+he has gotten control of his own destiny, just to the extent that he has
+triumphed over the obstacles of nature, he has advanced physically and
+intellectually. As man develops, he places a greater value upon his own
+rights. Liberty becomes a grander and diviner thing. As he values his
+own rights, he begins to value the rights of others. And when all men
+give to all others all the rights they claim for themselves, this world
+will be civilized.
+
+A few years ago the people were afraid to question the king, afraid to
+question the priest, afraid to investigate a creed, afraid to deny a
+book, afraid to denounce a dogma, afraid to reason, afraid to think.
+Before wealth they bowed to the very earth, and in the presence of
+titles they became abject. All this is slowly but surely changing. We
+no longer bow to men simply because they are rich. Our fathers worshiped
+the golden calf. The worst you can say of an American now is, he
+worships the gold of the calf. Even the calf is beginning to see this
+distinction.
+
+It no longer satisfies the ambition of a great man to be king or
+emperor. The last Napoleon was not satisfied with being the emperor of
+the French. He was not satisfied with having a circlet of gold about his
+head. He wanted some evidence that he had something of value within
+his head. So he wrote the life of Julius Cæsar, that he might become
+a member of the French Academy. The emperors, the kings, the popes,
+no longer tower above their fellows. Compare King William with the
+philosopher Haeckel. The king is one of the anointed by the most high,
+as they claim--one upon whose head has been poured the divine petroleum
+of authority. Compare this king with Haeckel, who towers an intellectual
+colossus above the crowned mediocrity. Compare George Eliot with Queen
+Victoria. The Queen is clothed in garments given her by blind fortune
+and unreasoning chance, while George Eliot wears robes of glory woven in
+the loom of her own genius.
+
+The world is beginning to pay homage to intellect, to genius, to heart.
+
+We have advanced. We have reaped the benefit of every sublime and heroic
+self-sacrifice, of every divine and brave act; and we should endeavor
+to hand the torch to the next generation, having added a little to the
+intensity and glory of the flame.
+
+When I think of how much this world has suffered; when I think of how
+long our fathers were slaves, of how they cringed and crawled at the
+foot of the throne, and in the dust of the altar, of how they abased
+themselves, of how abjectly they stood in the presence of superstition
+robed and crowned, I am amazed.
+
+This world has not been fit for a man to live in fifty years. It was not
+until the year 1808 that Great Britain abolished the slave trade. Up to
+that time her judges, sitting upon the bench in the name of justice,
+her priests, occupying her pulpits, in the name of universal love, owned
+stock in the slave ships, and luxuriated upon the profits of piracy and
+murder. It was not until the same year that the United States of
+America abolished the slave trade between this and other countries, but
+carefully preserved it as between the States. It was not until the 28th
+day of August, 1833, that Great Britain abolished human slavery in
+her colonies; and it was not until the 1st day of January, 1863, that
+Abraham Lincoln, sustained by the sublime and heroic North, rendered our
+flag pure as the sky in which it floats.
+
+Abraham Lincoln was, in my judgment, in many respects, the grandest
+man ever President of the United States. Upon his monument these words
+should be written: "Here sleeps the only man in the history of the
+world, who, having been clothed with almost absolute power, never abused
+it, except upon the side of mercy."
+
+Think how long we clung to the institution of human slavery, how long
+lashes upon the naked back were a legal tender for labor performed.
+Think of it. The pulpit of this country deliberately and willingly, for
+a hundred years, turned the cross of Christ into a whipping post.
+
+With every drop of my blood I hate and execrate every form of tyranny,
+every form of slavery. I hate dictation. I love liberty.
+
+What do I mean by liberty? By physical liberty I mean the right to do
+anything which does not interfere with the happiness of another. By
+intellectual liberty I mean the right to think right and the right to
+think wrong. Thought is the means by which we endeavor to arrive at
+truth. If we know the truth already, we need not think. All that can
+be required is honesty of purpose. You ask my opinion about anything;
+I examine it honestly, and when my mind is made up, what should I tell
+you? Should I tell you my real thought? What should I do? There is a
+book put in my hands. I am told this is the Koran; it was written by
+inspiration. I read it, and when I get through, suppose that I think in
+my heart and in my brain, that it is utterly untrue, and you then ask
+me, what do you think? Now, admitting that I live in Turkey, and have
+no chance to get any office unless I am on the side of the Koran, what
+should I say? Should I make a clean breast and say, that upon my honor
+I do not believe it? What would you think then of my fellow-citizens if
+they said: "That man is dangerous, he is dishonest."
+
+Suppose I read the book called the Bible, and when I get through I make
+up my mind that it was written by men. A minister asks me, "Did you read
+the Bible?" I answer, that I did. "Do you think it divinely inspired?"
+What should I reply? Should I say to myself, "If I deny the inspiration
+of the Scriptures, the people will never clothe me with power." What
+ought I to answer? Ought I not to say like a man: "I have read it; I do
+not believe it." Should I not give the real transcript of my mind? Or
+should I turn hypocrite and pretend what I do not feel, and hate myself
+forever after for being a cringing coward. For my part I would rather
+a man would tell me what he honestly thinks. I would rather he
+would preserve his manhood. I had a thousand times rather be a manly
+unbeliever than an unmanly believer. And if there is a judgment day,
+a time when all will stand before some supreme being, I believe I will
+stand higher, and stand a better chance of getting my case decided in my
+favor, than any man sneaking through life pretending to believe what he
+does not.
+
+I have made up my mind to say my say. I shall do it kindly, distinctly;
+but I am going to do it. I know there are thousands of men who
+substantially agree with me, but who are not in a condition to express
+their thoughts. They are poor; they are in business; and they know that
+should they tell their honest thought, persons will refuse to patronize
+them--to trade with them; they wish to get bread for their little
+children; they wish to take care of their wives; they wish to have homes
+and the comforts of life. Every such person is a certificate of the
+meanness of the community in which he resides. And yet I do not blame
+these people for not expressing their thought. I say to them: "Keep your
+ideas to yourselves; feed and clothe the ones you love; I will do
+your talking for you. The church can not touch, can not crush, can not
+starve, cannot stop or stay me; I will express your thoughts."
+
+As an excuse for tyranny, as a justification of slavery, the church has
+taught that man is totally depraved. Of the truth of that doctrine, the
+church has furnished the only evidence there is. The truth is, we are
+both good and bad. The worst are capable of some good deeds, and the
+best are capable of bad. The lowest can rise, and the highest may fall.
+That mankind can be divided into two great classes, sinners and saints,
+is an utter falsehood. In times of great disaster, called it may be, by
+the despairing voices of women, men, denounced by the church as totally
+depraved, rush to death as to a festival. By such men, deeds are done
+so filled with self-sacrifice and generous daring, that millions pay
+to them the tribute, not only of admiration, but of tears. Above all
+creeds, above all religions, after all, is that divine thing,--Humanity;
+and now and then in shipwreck on the wide, wild sea, or 'mid the rocks
+and breakers of some cruel shore, or where the serpents of flame writhe
+and hiss, some glorious heart, some chivalric soul does a deed
+that glitters like a star, and gives the lie to all the dogmas of
+superstition. All these frightful doctrines have been used to degrade
+and to enslave mankind.
+
+Away, forever away with the creeds and books and forms and laws and
+religions that take from the soul liberty and reason. Down with the idea
+that thought is dangerous! Perish the infamous doctrine that man can
+have property in man. Let us resent with indignation every effort to put
+a chain upon our minds. If there is no God, certainly we should not bow
+and cringe and crawl. If there is a God, there should be no slaves.
+
+
+
+
+LIBERTY OF WOMAN.
+
+Women have been the slaves of slaves; and in my judgment it took
+millions of ages for woman to come from the condition of abject slavery
+up to the institution of marriage. Let me say right here, that I regard
+marriage as the holiest institution among men. Without the fireside
+there is no human advancement; without the family relation there is no
+life worth living. Every good government is made up of good families.
+The unit of good government is the family, and anything that tends to
+destroy the family is perfectly devilish and infamous. I believe in
+marriage, and I hold in utter contempt the opinions of those long-haired
+men and short-haired women who denounce the institution of marriage.
+
+The grandest ambition that any man can possibly have, is to so live, and
+so improve himself in heart and brain, as to be worthy of the love of
+some splendid woman; and the grandest ambition of any girl is to make
+herself worthy of the love and adoration of some magnificent man. That
+is my idea. There is no success in life without love and marriage. You
+had better be the emperor of one loving and tender heart, and she the
+empress of yours, than to be king of the world. The man who has really
+won the love of one good woman in this world, I do not care if he dies
+in the ditch a beggar, his life has been a success.
+
+I say it took millions of years to come from the condition of abject
+slavery up to the condition of marriage. Ladies, the ornaments you
+wear upon your persons to-night are but the souvenirs of your mother's
+bondage. The chains around your necks, and the bracelets clasped upon
+your white arms by the thrilled hand of love, have been changed by the
+wand of civilization from iron to shining, glittering gold.
+
+But nearly every religion has accounted for all the devilment in this
+world by the crime of woman. What a gallant thing that is! And if it
+is true, I had rather live with the woman I love in a world full of
+trouble, than to live in heaven with nobody but men.
+
+I read in a book--and I will say now that I cannot give the exact
+language, as my memory does not retain the words, but I can give the
+substance--I read in a book that the Supreme Being concluded to make a
+world and one man; that he took some nothing and made a world and one
+man, and put this man in a garden. In a little while he noticed that
+the man got lonesome; that he wandered around as if he was waiting for
+a train. There was nothing to interest him; no news; no papers; no
+politics; no policy; and, as the devil had not yet made his appearance,
+there was no chance for reconciliation; not even for civil service
+reform. Well, he wandered about the garden in this condition, until
+finally the Supreme Being made up his mind to make him a companion.
+
+Having used up all the nothing he originally took in making the world
+and one man, he had to take a part of the man to start a woman with. So
+he caused a sleep to fall on this man--now understand me, I do not say
+this story is true. After the sleep fell upon this man, the Supreme
+Being took a rib, or as the French would call it, a cutlet, out of this
+man, and from that he made a woman. And considering the amount of raw
+material used, I look upon it as the most successful job ever performed.
+Well, after he got the woman done, she was brought to the man; not to
+see how she liked him, but to see how he liked her. He liked her, and
+they started housekeeping; and they were told of certain things they
+might do and of one thing they could not do--and of course they did it.
+I would have done it in fifteen minutes, and I know it. There wouldn't
+have been an apple on that tree half an hour from date, and the limbs
+would have been full of clubs. And then they were turned out of the park
+and extra policemen were put on to keep them from getting back.
+
+Devilment commenced. The mumps, and the measles, and the whooping-cough,
+and the scarlet fever started in their race for man. They began to have
+the toothache, roses began to have thorns, snakes began to have poisoned
+teeth, and people began to divide about religion and politics, and the
+world has been full of trouble from that day to this.
+
+Nearly all of the religions of this world account for the existence of
+evil by such a story as that!
+
+I read in another book what appeared to be an account of the same
+transaction. It was written about four thousand years before the other.
+All commentators agree that the one that was written last was the
+original, and that the one that was written first was copied from the
+one that was written last. But I would advise you all not to allow your
+creed to be disturbed by a little matter of four or five thousand years.
+In this other story, Brahma made up his mind to make the world and a man
+and woman. He made the world, and he made the man and then the woman,
+and put them on the island of Ceylon. According to the account it was
+the most beautiful island of which man can conceive. Such birds, such
+songs, such flowers and such verdure! And the branches of the trees
+were so arranged that when the wind swept through them every tree was a
+thousand Æolian harps.
+
+Brahma, when he put them there, said: "Let them have a period of
+courtship, for it is my desire and will that true love should forever
+precede marriage." When I read that, it was so much more beautiful and
+lofty than the other, that I said to myself, "If either one of these
+stories ever turns out to be true, I hope it will be this one."
+
+Then they had their courtship, with the nightingale singing, and the
+stars shining, and the flowers blooming, and they fell in love. Imagine
+that courtship! No prospective fathers or mothers-in-law; no prying and
+gossiping neighbors; nobody to say, "Young man, how do you expect to
+support her?" Nothing of that kind. They were married by the Supreme
+Brahma, and he said to them: "Remain here; you must never leave this
+island." Well, after a little while the man--and his name was Adami, and
+the woman's name was Heva--said to Heva: "I believe I'll look about a
+little." He went to the northern extremity of the island where there was
+a little narrow neck of land connecting it with the mainland, and the
+devil, who is always playing pranks with us, produced a mirage, and when
+he looked over to the mainland, such hills and vales, such dells and
+dales, such mountains crowned with snow, such cataracts clad in bows of
+glory did he see there, that he went back and told Heva: "The country
+over there is a thousand times better than this; let us migrate." She,
+like every other woman that ever lived, said: "Let well enough alone; we
+have all we want; let us stay here." But he said "No, let us go;" so she
+followed him, and when they came to this narrow neck of land, he took
+her on his back like a gentleman, and carried her over. But the moment
+they got over they heard a crash, and looking back, discovered that this
+narrow neck of land had fallen into the sea. The mirage had disappeared,
+and there were naught but rocks and sand; and then the Supreme Brahma
+cursed them both to the lowest hell.
+
+Then it was that the man spoke,--and I have liked him ever since for
+it--"Curse me, but curse not her, it was not her fault, it was mine."
+
+That's the kind of man to start a world with.
+
+The Supreme Brahma said: "I will save her, but not thee." And then she
+spoke out of her fullness of love, out of a heart in which there was
+love enough to make all her daughters rich in holy affection, and said:
+"If thou wilt not spare him, spare neither me; I do not wish to live
+without him; I love him." Then the Supreme Brahma said--and I have liked
+him ever since I read it--"I will spare you both and watch over you and
+your children forever."
+
+Honor bright, is not that the better and grander story?
+
+And from that same book I want to show you what ideas some of these
+miserable heathen had; the heathen we are trying to convert. We send
+missionaries over yonder to convert heathen there, and we send soldiers
+out on the plains to kill heathen here. If we can convert the heathen,
+why not convert those nearest home? Why not convert those we can get at?
+Why not convert those who have the immense advantage of the example of
+the average pioneer? But to show you the men we are trying to convert:
+In this book it says: "Man is strength, woman is beauty; man is courage,
+woman is love. When the one man loves the one woman and the one woman
+loves the one man, the very angels leave heaven and come and sit in that
+house and sing for joy."
+
+They are the men we are converting. Think of it! I tell you, when I read
+these things, I say that love is not of any country; nobility does not
+belong exclusively to any race, and through all the ages, there have
+been a few great and tender souls blossoming in love and pity.
+
+In my judgment, the woman is the equal of the man. She has all the
+rights I have and one more, and that is the right to be protected. That
+is my doctrine. You are married; try and make the woman you love happy.
+Whoever marries simply for himself will make a mistake; but whoever
+loves a woman so well that he says "I will make her happy," makes no
+mistake. And so with the woman who says, "I will make him happy." There
+is only one way to be happy, and that is to make somebody else so, and
+you cannot be happy by going cross lots; you have got to go the regular
+turnpike road.
+
+If there is any man I detest, it is the man who thinks he is the head
+of a family--the man who thinks he is "boss!" The fellow in the dug-out
+used that word "boss;" that was one of his favorite expressions.
+
+Imagine a young man and a young woman courting, walking out in the
+moonlight, and the nightingale singing a song of pain and love, as
+though the thorn touched her heart--imagine them stopping there in the
+moonlight and starlight and song, and saying, "Now, here, let us settle
+who is 'boss!'" I tell you it is an infamous word and an infamous
+feeling--I abhor a man who is "boss," who is going to govern in his
+family, and when he speaks orders all the rest to be still as some
+mighty idea is about to be launched from his mouth. Do you know I
+dislike this man unspeakably?
+
+I hate above all things a cross man. What right has he to murder the
+sunshine of a day? What right has he to assassinate the joy of life?
+
+When you go home you ought to go like a ray of light--so that it will,
+even in the night, bursty out of the doors and windows and illuminate
+the darkness. Some men think their mighty brains have been in a turmoil;
+they have been thinking about who will be alderman from the fifth ward;
+they have been thinking about politics; great and mighty questions have
+been engaging their minds; they have bought calico at five cents or six,
+and want to sell it for seven. Think of the intellectual strain that
+must have been upon that man, and when he gets home everybody else in
+the house must look out for his comfort. A woman who has only taken care
+of five or six children, and one or two of them sick, has been nursing
+them and singing to them, and trying to make one yard of cloth do the
+work of two, she, of course, is fresh and fine and ready to wait upon
+this gentleman--the head of the family--the boss!
+
+Do you know another thing? I despise a stingy man. I do not see how
+it is possible for a man to die worth fifty million of dollars, or ten
+million of dollars, in a city full of want, when he meets almost every
+day the withered hand of beggary and the white lips of famine. How a man
+can withstand all that, and hold in the clutch of his greed twenty or
+thirty million of dollars, is past my comprehension. I do not see how he
+can do it. I should not think he could do it any more than he could keep
+a pile of lumber on the beach, where hundreds and thousands of men were
+drowning in the sea.
+
+Do you know that I have known men who would trust their wives with their
+hearts and their honor but not with their pocketbook; not with a dollar.
+When I see a man of that kind, I always think he knows which of these
+articles is the most valuable. Think of making your wife a beggar! Think
+of her having to ask you every day for a dollar, or for two dollars or
+fifty cents! "What did you do with that dollar I gave you last week?"
+Think of having a wife that is afraid of you! What kind of children do
+you expect to have with a beggar and a coward for their mother? Oh,
+I tell you if you have but a dollar in the world, and you have got to
+spend it, spend it like a king; spend it as though it were a dry leaf
+and you the owner of unbounded forests! That's the way to spend it! I
+had rather be a beggar and spend my last dollar like a king, than be a
+king and spend my money like a beggar! If it has got to go, let it go!
+
+Get the best you can for your family--try to look as well as you can
+yourself. When you used to go courting, how elegantly you looked! Ah,
+your eye was bright, your step was light, and you looked like a prince.
+Do you know that it is insufferable egotism in you to suppose a woman
+is going to love you always looking as slovenly as you can! Think of
+it! Any good woman on earth will be true to you forever when you do your
+level best.
+
+Some people tell me, "Your doctrine about loving, and wives, and all
+that, is splendid for the rich, but it won't do for the poor." I tell
+you to-night there is more love in the homes of the poor than in the
+palaces of the rich. The meanest hut with love in it is a palace fit for
+the gods, and a palace without love is a den only fit for wild beasts.
+That is my doctrine! You cannot be so poor that you cannot help
+somebody. Good nature is the cheapest commodity in the world; and love
+is the only thing that will pay ten per cent, to borrower and lender
+both. Do not tell me that you have got to be rich! We have a false
+standard of greatness in the United States. We think here that a man
+must be great, that he must be notorious; that he must be extremely
+wealthy, or that his name must be upon the putrid lips of rumor. It is
+all a mistake. It is not necessary to be rich or to be great, or to be
+powerful, to be happy. The happy man is the successful man.
+
+Happiness is the legal tender of the soul.
+
+Joy is wealth.
+
+A little while ago, I stood by the grave of the old Napoleon--a
+magnificent tomb of gilt and gold, fit almost for a dead deity--and
+gazed upon the sarcophagus of rare and nameless marble, where rest at
+last the ashes of that restless man. I leaned over the balustrade and
+thought about the career of the greatest soldier of the modern world.
+
+I saw him walking upon the banks of the Seine, contemplating suicide.
+I saw him at Toulon--I saw him putting down the mob in the streets of
+Paris--I saw him at the head of the army of Italy--I saw him crossing
+the bridge of Lodi with the tri-color in his hand--I saw him in Egypt in
+the shadows of the pyramids--I saw him conquer the Alps and mingle the
+eagles of France with the eagles of the crags. I saw him at Marengo--at
+Ulm and Austerlitz. I saw him in Russia, where the infantry of the snow
+and the cavalry of the wild blast scattered his legions like winter's
+withered leaves. I saw him at Leipsic in defeat and disaster--driven by
+a million bayonets back upon Paris--clutched like a wild beast--banished
+to Elba. I saw him escape and retake an empire by the force of his
+genius. I saw him upon the frightful field of Waterloo, where Chance and
+Fate combined to wreck the fortunes of their former king. And I saw him
+at St. Helena, with his hands crossed behind him, gazing out upon the
+sad and solemn sea.
+
+I thought of the orphans and widows he had made--of the tears that
+had been shed for his glory, and of the only woman who ever loved him,
+pushed from his heart by the cold hand of ambition. And I said I would
+rather have been a French peasant and worn wooden shoes. I would rather
+have lived in a hut with a vine growing over the door, and the grapes
+growing purple in the kisses of the autumn sun. I would rather have been
+that poor peasant with my loving wife by my side, knitting as the day
+died out of the sky--with my children upon my knees and their arms about
+me--I would rather have been that man and gone down to the tongueless
+silence of the dreamless dust, than to have been that imperial
+impersonation of force and murder, known as "Napoleon the Great."
+
+It is not necessary to be great to be happy; it is not necessary to
+be rich to be just and generous and to have a heart filled with divine
+affection. No matter whether you are rich or poor, treat your wife as
+though she were a splendid flower, and she will fill your life with
+perfume and with joy.
+
+And do you know, it is a splendid thing to think that the woman you
+really love will never grow old to you. Through the wrinkles of time,
+through the mask of years, if you really love her, you will always see
+the face you loved and won. And a woman who really loves a man does not
+see that he grows old; he is not decrepit to her; he does not tremble;
+he is not old; she always sees the same gallant gentleman who won her
+hand and heart. I like to think of it in that way; I like to think that
+love is eternal. And to love in that way and then go down the hill
+of life together, and as you go down, hear, perhaps, the laughter of
+grandchildren, while the birds of joy and love sing once more in the
+leafless branches of the tree of age.
+
+I believe in the fireside. I believe in the democracy of home. I believe
+in the republicanism of the family. I believe in liberty, equality and
+love.
+
+
+
+
+THE LIBERTY OF CHILDREN.
+
+If women have been slaves, what shall I say of children; of the little
+children in alleys and sub-cellars; the little children who turn pale
+when they hear their fathers' footsteps; little children who run away
+when they only hear their names called by the lips of a mother; little
+children--the children of poverty, the children of crime, the children
+of brutality, wherever they are--flotsam and jetsam upon the wild, mad
+sea of life--my heart goes out to them, one and all.
+
+I tell you the children have the same rights that we have, and we ought
+to treat them as though they were human beings. They should be reared
+with love, with kindness, with tenderness, and not with brutality. That
+is my idea of children.
+
+When your little child tells a lie, do not rush at him as though the
+world were about to go into bankruptcy. Be honest with him. A tyrant
+father will have liars for his children; do you know that?
+
+A lie is born of tyranny upon the one hand and weakness upon the other,
+and when you rush at a poor little boy with a club in your hand, of
+course he lies.
+
+I thank thee, Mother Nature, that thou hast put ingenuity enough in the
+brain of a child, when attacked by a brutal parent, to throw up a little
+breastwork in the shape of a lie.
+
+When one of your children tells a lie, be honest with him; tell him that
+you have told hundreds of them yourself. Tell him it is not the best
+way; that you have tried it. Tell him as the man did in Maine when his
+boy left home: "John, honesty is the best policy; I have tried both." Be
+honest with him. Suppose a man as much larger than you as you are larger
+than a child five years old, should come at you with a liberty pole in
+his hand, and in a voice of thunder shout, "Who broke that plate?" There
+is not a solitary one of you who would not swear you never saw it,
+or that it was cracked when you got it. Why not be honest with these
+children? Just imagine a man who deals in stocks whipping his boy for
+putting false rumors afloat! Think of a lawyer beating his own flesh and
+blood for evading the truth when he makes half of his own living that
+way! Think of a minister punishing his child for not telling all he
+thinks! Just think of it!
+
+When your child commits a wrong, take it in your arms; let it feel your
+heart beat against its heart; let the child know that you really and
+truly and sincerely love it. Yet some Christians, good Christians, when
+a child commits a fault, drive it from the door and say: "Never do you
+darken this house again." Think of that! And then these same people will
+get down on their knees and ask God to take care of the child they
+have driven from home. I will never ask God to take care of my children
+unless I am doing my level best in that same direction.
+
+But I will tell you what I say to my children: "Go where you will;
+commit what crime you may; fall to what depth of degradation you may;
+you can never commit any crime that will shut my door, my arms, or my
+heart to you. As long as I live you shall have one sincere friend."
+
+Do you know that I have seen some people who acted as though they
+thought that when the Savior said "Suffer little children to come unto
+me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven," he had a raw-hide under his
+mande, and made that remark simply to get the children within striking
+distance?
+
+I do not believe in the government of the lash, if any one of you ever
+expects to whip your children again, I want you to have a photograph
+taken of yourself when you are in the act, with your face red with
+vulgar anger, and the face of the little child, with eyes swimming
+in tears and the little chin dimpled with fear, like a piece of water
+struck by a sudden cold wind. Have the picture taken. If that little
+child should die, I cannot think of a sweeter way to spend an autumn
+afternoon than to go out to the cemetery, when the maples are clad
+in tender gold, and little scarlet runners are coming, like poems of
+regret, from the sad heart of the earth--and sit down upon the grave and
+look at that photograph, and think of the flesh now dust that you beat.
+I tell you it is wrong; it is no way to raise children! Make your home
+happy. Be honest with them. Divide fairly with them in everything.
+
+Give them a little liberty and love, and you can not drive them out of
+your house. They will want to stay there. Make home pleasant. Let them
+play any game they wish. Do not be so foolish as to say: "You may roll
+balls on the ground, but you must not roll them on a green cloth. You
+may knock them with a mallet, but you must not push them with a cue.
+You may play with little pieces of paper which have 'authors' written
+on them, but you must not have 'cards.'" Think of it! "You may go to a
+minstrel show where people blacken themselves and imitate humanity below
+them, but you must not go to a theatre and see the characters created
+by immortal genius put upon the stage." Why? Well, I can't think of any
+reason in the world except "minstrel" is a word of two syllables, and
+"theatre" has three.
+
+Let children have some daylight at home if you want to keep them there,
+and do not commence at the cradle and shout "Don't!" "Don't!" "Stop!"
+That is nearly all that is said to a child from the cradle until he is
+twenty-one years old, and when he comes of age other people begin saying
+"Don't!" And the church says "Don't!" and the party he belongs to says
+"Don't!"
+
+I despise that way of going through this world. Let us have
+liberty--just a little. Call me infidel, call me atheist, call me what
+you will, I intend so to treat my children, that they can come to my
+grave and truthfully say: "He who sleeps here never gave us a moment of
+pain. From his lips, now dust, never came to us an unkind word."
+
+People justify all kinds of tyranny toward children upon the ground that
+they are totally depraved. At the bottom of ages of cruelty lies this
+infamous doctrine of total depravity. Religion contemplates a child as a
+living crime--heir to an infinite curse--doomed to eternal fire.
+
+In the olden time, they thought some days were too good for a child to
+enjoy himself. When I was a boy Sunday was considered altogether too
+holy to be happy in. Sunday used to commence then when the sun went down
+on Saturday night. We commenced at that time for the purpose of getting
+a good ready, and when the sun fell below the horizon on Saturday
+evening, there was a darkness fell upon the house ten thousand times
+deeper than that of night. Nobody said a pleasant word; nobody laughed;
+nobody smiled; the child that looked the sickest was regarded as the
+most pious. That night you could not even crack hickory nuts. If you
+were caught chewing gum it was only another evidence of the total
+depravity of the human heart. It was an exceedingly solemn night.
+
+Dyspepsia was in the very air you breathed. Everybody looked sad and
+mournful. I have noticed all my life that many people think they have
+religion when they are troubled with dyspepsia. If there could be found
+an absolute specific for that disease, it would be the hardest blow the
+church has ever received.
+
+On Sunday morning the solemnity had simply increased. Then we went to
+church. The minister was in a pulpit about twenty feet high, with a
+little sounding-board above him, and he commenced at "firstly" and went
+on and on and on to about "twenty-thirdly." Then he made a few remarks
+by way of application; and then took a general view of the subject, and
+in about two hours reached the last chapter in Revelation.
+
+In those days, no matter how cold the weather was, there was no fire in
+the church. It was thought to be a kind of sin to be comfortable while
+you were thanking God. The first church that ever had a stove in it in
+New England, divided on that account. So the first church in which they
+sang by note, was torn in fragments.
+
+After the sermon we had an intermission. Then came the catechism with
+the chief end of man. We went through with that. We sat in a row with
+our feet coming in about six inches of the floor. The minister asked
+us if we knew that we all deserved to go to hell, and we all answered
+"Yes." Then we were asked if we would be willing to go to hell if it was
+God's will, and every little liar shouted "Yes." Then the same sermon
+was preached once more, commencing at the other end and going back.
+After that, we started for home, sad and solemn--overpowered with the
+wisdom displayed in the scheme of the atonement. When we got home, if we
+had been good boys, and the weather was warm, sometimes they would take
+us out to the graveyard to cheer us up a little. It did cheer me. When
+I looked at the sunken tombs and the leaning stones, and read the
+half-effaced inscriptions through the moss of silence and forgetfulness,
+it was a great comfort. The reflection came to my mind that the
+observance of the Sabbath could not last always. Sometimes they would
+sing that beautiful hymn in which occurs these cheerful lines:
+
+     "Where congregations ne'er break up,
+     And Sabbaths never end."
+
+These lines, I think, prejudiced me a little against even heaven. Then
+we had good books that we read on Sundays by way of keeping us happy
+and contented. There were Milners' "History of the Waldenses," Baxter's
+"Call to the Unconverted," Yahn's "Archaeology of the Jews," and
+Jenkyns' "On the Atonement." I used to read Jenkyns' "On the Atonement."
+I have often thought that an atonement would have to be exceedingly
+broad in its provisions to cover the case of a man who would write a
+book like that for a boy.
+
+But at last the Sunday wore away, and the moment the sun went down we
+were free. Between three and four o'clock we would go out to see how the
+sun was coming on. Sometimes it seemed to me that it was stopping from
+pure meanness. But finally it went down. It had to. And when the last
+rim of light sank below the horizon, off would go our caps, and we would
+give three cheers for liberty once more.
+
+Sabbaths used to be prisons. Every Sunday was a Bastile. Every Christian
+was a kind of turnkey, and every child was a prisoner,--a convict. In
+that dungeon, a smile was a crime.
+
+It was thought wrong for a child to laugh upon this holy day. Think of
+that!
+
+A little child would go out into the garden, and there would be a tree
+laden with blossoms, and the little fellow would lean against it, and
+there would be a bird on one of the boughs, singing and swinging, and
+thinking about four little speckled eggs, warmed by the breast of its
+mate,--singing and swinging, and the music in happy waves rippling out
+of its tiny throat, and the flowers blossoming, the air filled with
+perfume and the great white clouds floating in the sky, and the little
+boy would lean up against that tree and think about hell and the worm
+that never dies.
+
+I have heard them preach, when I sat in the pew and my feet did not
+touch the floor, about the final home of the unconverted. In order to
+impress upon the children the length of time they would probably stay if
+they settled in that country, the preacher would frequently give us the
+following illustration: "Suppose that once in a billion years a bird
+should come from some far-distant planet, and carry off in its little
+bill a grain of sand, a time would finally come when the last atom
+composing this earth would be carried away; and when this last atom was
+taken, it would not even be sun up in hell." Think of such an infamous
+doctrine being taught to children!
+
+The laugh of a child will make the holiest day-more sacred still.
+Strike, with hand of fire, O weird musician, thy harp strung with
+Apollo's golden hair; fill the vast cathedral aisles with symphonies
+sweet and dim, deft toucher of the organ keys; blow, bugler, blow, until
+thy silver notes do touch and kiss the moonlit waves, and charm the
+lovers wandering 'mid the vine-clad hills. But know, your sweetest
+strains are discords all, compared with childhood's happy laugh--the
+laugh that fills the eyes with light and every heart with joy. O
+rippling river of laughter, thou art the blessed boundary line between
+the beasts and men; and every wayward wave of thine doth drown some
+fretful fiend of care. O Laughter, rose-lipped daughter of Joy, there
+are dimples enough in thy cheeks to catch and hold and glorify all the
+tears of grief.
+
+And yet the minds of children have been polluted by this infamous
+doctrine of eternal punishment. I denounce it to-day as a doctrine, the
+infamy of which no language is sufficient to express.
+
+Where did that doctrine of eternal punishment for men and women and
+children come from? It came from the low and beastly skull of that
+wretch in the dug-out. Where did he get it? It was a souvenir from the
+animals. The doctrine of eternal punishment was born in the glittering
+eyes of snakes--snakes that hung in fearful coils watching for their
+prey. It was born of the howl and bark and growl of wild beasts. It
+was born of the grin of hyenas and of the depraved chatter of unclean
+baboons. I despise it with every drop of my blood. Tell me there is a
+God in the serene heavens that will damn his children for the expression
+of an honest belief! More men have died in their sins, judged by your
+orthodox creeds, than there are leaves on all the forests in the wide
+world ten thousand times over. Tell me these men are in hell; that these
+men are in torment; that these children are in eternal pain, and that
+they are to be punished forever and forever! I denounce this doctrine as
+the most infamous of lies.
+
+When the great ship containing the hopes and aspirations of the world,
+when the great ship freighted with mankind goes down in the night of
+death, chaos and disaster, I am willing to go down with the ship. I
+will not be guilty of the ineffable meanness of paddling away in some
+orthodox canoe. I will go down with the ship, with those who love me,
+and with those whom I have loved. If there is a God who will damn his
+children forever, I would rather go to hell than to go to heaven and
+keep the society of such an infamous tyrant. I make my choice now. I
+despise that doctrine. It has covered the cheeks of this world with
+tears. It has polluted the hearts of children, and poisoned the
+imaginations of men. It has been a constant pain, a perpetual terror to
+every good man and woman and child. It has filled the good with horror
+and with fear; but it has had no effect upon the infamous and base. It
+has wrung the hearts of the tender; it has furrowed the cheeks of the
+good. This doctrine never should be preached again. What right have you,
+sir, Mr. clergyman, you, minister of the gospel, to stand at the portals
+of the tomb, at the vestibule of eternity, and fill the future with
+horror and with fear? I do not believe this doctrine: neither do you.
+If you did, you could not sleep one moment. Any man who believes it, and
+has within his breast a decent, throbbing heart, will go insane. A man
+who believes that doctrine and does not go insane has the heart of a
+snake and the conscience of a hyena.
+
+Jonathan Edwards, the dear old soul, who, if his doctrine is true, is
+now in heaven rubbing his holy hands with glee, as he hears the cries
+of the damned, preached this doctrine; and he said: "Can the believing
+husband in heaven be happy with his unbelieving wife in hell? Can the
+believing father in heaven be happy with his unbelieving children
+in hell? Can the loving wife in heaven be happy with her unbelieving
+husband in hell?" And he replies: "I tell you, yea. Such will be their
+sense of justice, that it will increase rather than diminish their
+bliss." There is no wild beast in the jungles of Africa whose reputation
+would not be tarnished by the expression of such a doctrine.
+
+These doctrines have been taught in the name of religion, in the name of
+universal forgiveness, in the name of infinite love and charity. Do not,
+I pray you, soil the minds of your children with this dogma. Let them
+read for themselves; let them think for themselves.
+
+Do not treat your children like orthodox posts to be set in a row. Treat
+them like trees that need light and sun and air. Be fair and honest
+with them; give them a chance. Recollect that their rights are equal to
+yours. Do not have it in your mind that you must govern them; that they
+must obey. Throw away forever the idea of master and slave.
+
+In old times they used to make the children go to bed when they were not
+sleepy, and get up when they were sleepy. I say let them go to bed when
+they are sleepy, and get up when they are not sleepy.
+
+But you say, this doctrine will do for the rich but not for the poor.
+Well, if the poor have to waken their children early in the morning it
+is as easy to wake them with a kiss as with a blow. Give your children
+freedom; let them preserve their individuality. Let your children eat
+what they desire, and commence at the end of a dinner they like. That is
+their business and not yours. They know what they wish to eat. If they
+are given their liberty from the first, they know what they want better
+than any doctor in the world can prescribe. Do you know that all the
+improvement that has ever been made in the practice of medicine has
+been made by the recklessness of patients and not by the doctors?
+For thousands and thousands of years the doctors would not let a man
+suffering from fever have a drop of water. Water they looked upon as
+poison. But every now and then some man got reckless and said, "I had
+rather die than not to slake my thirst." Then he would drink two or
+three quarts of water and get well. And when the doctor was told of
+what the patient had done, he expressed great surprise that he was still
+alive, and complimented his constitution upon being able to bear such a
+frightful strain. The reckless men, however, kept on drinking the water,
+and persisted in getting well. And finally the doctors said: "In a
+fever, water is the very best thing you can take." So, I have more
+confidence in the voice of nature about such things than I have in the
+conclusions of the medical schools.
+
+Let your children have freedom and they will fall into your ways; they
+will do substantially as you do; but if you try to make them, there is
+some magnificent, splendid thing in the human heart that refuses to be
+driven. And do you know that it is the luckiest thing that ever happened
+for this world, that people are that way. What would have become of the
+people five hundred years ago if they had followed strictly the advice
+of the doctors? They would have all been dead. What would the people
+have been, if at any age of the world they had followed implicitly
+the direction of the church? They would have all been idiots. It is a
+splendid thing that there is always some grand man who will not mind,
+and who will think for himself.
+
+I believe in allowing the children to think for themselves. I believe
+in the democracy of the family. If in this world there is anything
+splendid, it is a home where all are equals.
+
+You will remember that only a few years ago parents would tell their
+children to "let their victuals stop their mouths." They used to eat as
+though it were a religious ceremony--a very solemn thing. Life should
+not be treated as a solemn matter. I like to see the children at table,
+and hear each one telling of the wonderful things he has seen and heard.
+I like to hear the clatter of knives and forks and spoons mingling with
+their happy voices. I had rather hear it than any opera that was ever
+put upon the boards. Let the children have liberty. Be honest and fair
+with them; be just; be tender, and they will make you rich in love and
+joy.
+
+Men are oaks, women are vines, children are flowers.
+
+The human race has been guilty of almost countless crimes; but I have
+some excuse for mankind. This world, after all, is not very well adapted
+to raising good people. In the first place, nearly all of it is water.
+It is much better adapted to fish culture than to the production of
+folks. Of that portion which is land not one-eighth has suitable soil
+and climate to produce great men and women. You cannot raise men and
+women of genius, without the proper soil and climate, any more than you
+can raise corn and wheat upon the ice fields of the Arctic sea. You must
+have the necessary conditions and surroundings. Man is a product; you
+must have the soil and food. The obstacles presented by nature must
+not be so great that man cannot, by reasonable industry and courage,
+overcome them. There is upon this world only a narrow belt of land,
+circling zigzag the globe, upon which you can produce men and women of
+talent. In the Southern Hemisphere the real climate that man needs falls
+mostly upon the sea, and the result is, that the southern half of our
+world has never produced a man or woman of great genius. In the far
+north there is no genius--it is too cold. In the far south there is no
+genius--it is too warm. There must be winter, and there must be summer.
+In a country where man needs no coverlet but a cloud, revolution is his
+normal condition. Winter is the mother of industry and prudence. Above
+all, it is the mother of the family relation. Winter holds in its icy
+arms the husband and wife and the sweet children. If upon this earth we
+ever have a glimpse of heaven, it is when we pass a home in winter, at
+night, and through the windows, the curtains drawn aside, we see the
+family about the pleasant hearth; the old lady knitting; the cat playing
+with the yarn; the children wishing they had as many dolls or dollars or
+knives or somethings, as there are sparks going out to join the roaring
+blast; the father reading and smoking, and the clouds rising like
+incense from the altar of domestic joy. I never passed such a house
+without feeling that I had received a benediction.
+
+Civilization, liberty, justice, charity, intellectual advancement, are
+all flowers that blossom in the drifted snow.
+
+I do not know that I can better illustrate the great truth that only
+part of the world is adapted to the production of great men and women
+than by calling your attention to the difference between vegetation
+in valleys and upon mountains. In the valley you find the oak and elm
+tossing their branches defiantly to the storm, and as you advance up the
+mountain side the hemlock, the pine, the birch, the spruce, the fir,
+and finally you come to little dwarfed trees, that look like other
+trees seen through a telescope reversed--every limb twisted as though
+in pain--getting a scanty subsistence from the miserly crevices of the
+rocks. You go on and on, until at last the highest crag is freckled with
+a kind of moss, and vegetation ends. You might as well try to raise oaks
+and elms where the mosses grow, as to raise great men and great women
+where their surroundings are unfavorable. You must have the proper
+climate and soil.
+
+A few years ago we were talking about the annexation of Santo Domingo to
+this country. I was in Washington at the time. I was opposed to it I
+was told that it was a most delicious climate; that the soil produced
+everything. But I said: "We do not want it; it is not the right kind
+of country in which to raise American citizens. Such a climate would
+debauch us. You might go there with five thousand Congregational
+preachers, five thousand ruling elders, five thousand professors in
+colleges, five thousand of the solid men of Boston and their wives;
+settle them all in Santo Domingo, and you will see the second generation
+riding upon a mule, bareback, no shoes, a grapevine bridle, hair
+sticking out at the top of their sombreros, with a rooster under each
+arm, going to a cock fight on Sunday." Such is the influence of climate.
+
+Science, however, is gradually widening the area within which men
+of genius can be produced. We are conquering the north with houses,
+clothing, food and fuel. We are in many ways overcoming the heat of the
+south. If we attend to this world instead of another, we may in time
+cover the land with men and women of genius.
+
+I have still another excuse. I believe that man came up from the lower
+animals. I do not say this as a fact. I simply say I believe it to be
+a fact. Upon that question I stand about eight to seven, which, for all
+practical purposes, is very near a certainty. When I first heard of that
+doctrine I did not like it. My heart was filled with sympathy for those
+people who have nothing to be proud of except ancestors. I thought, how
+terrible this will be upon the nobility of the Old World. Think of their
+being forced to trace their ancestry back to the duke Orang Outang, or
+to the princess Chimpanzee. After thinking it all over, I came to the
+conclusion that I liked that doctrine. I became convinced in spite of
+myself. I read about rudimentary bones and muscles. I was told that
+everybody had rudimentary muscles extending from the ear into the cheek.
+I asked "What are they?" I was told: "They are the remains of
+muscles; that they became rudimentary from lack of use; they went into
+bankruptcy. They are the muscles with which your ancestors used to flap
+their ears." I do not now so much wonder that we once had them as that
+we have outgrown them.
+
+After all I had rather belong to a race that started from the skull-less
+vertebrates in the dim Laurentian seas, vertebrates wiggling without
+knowing why they wiggled, swimming without knowing where they were
+going, but that in some way began to develop, and began to get a little
+higher and a little higher in the scale of existence; that came up by
+degrees through millions of ages through all the animal world, through
+all that crawls and swims and floats and climbs and walks, and finally
+produced the gentleman in the dug-out; and then from this man, getting
+a little grander, and each one below calling every one above him a
+heretic, calling every one who had made a little advance an infidel or
+an atheist--for in the history of this world the man who is ahead has
+always been called a heretic--I would rather come from a race that
+started from that skull-less vertebrate, and came up and up and up and
+finally produced Shakespeare, the man who found the human intellect
+dwelling in a hut, touched it with the wand of his genius and it became
+a palace domed and pinnacled; Shakespeare, who harvested all the fields
+of dramatic thought, and from whose day to this, there have been only
+gleaners of straw and chaff--I would rather belong to that race that
+commenced a skull-less vertebrate and produced Shakespeare, a race that
+has before it an infinite future, with the angel of progress leaning
+from the far horizon, beckoning men forward, upward and onward
+forever--I had rather belong to such a race, commencing there, producing
+this, and with that hope, than to have sprung from a perfect pair upon
+which the Lord has lost money every moment from that day to this.
+
+
+CONCLUSION.
+
+I have given you my honest thought. Surely investigation is better than
+unthinking faith. Surely reason is a better guide than fear. This world
+should be controlled by the living, not by the dead. The grave is not a
+throne, and a corpse is not a king. Man should not try to live on ashes.
+
+The theologians dead, knew no more than the theologians now living.
+More than this cannot be said. About this world little is known,--about
+another world, nothing.
+
+Our fathers were intellectual serfs, and their fathers were slaves. The
+makers of our creeds were ignorant and brutal. Every dogma that we have,
+has upon it the mark of whip, the rust of chain, and the ashes of fagot.
+
+Our fathers reasoned with instruments of torture. They believed in the
+logic of fire and sword. They hated reason. They despised thought. They
+abhorred liberty.
+
+Superstition is the child of slavery. Free thought will give us truth.
+When all have the right to think and to express their thoughts, every
+brain will give to all the best it has. The world will then be filled
+with intellectual wealth.
+
+As long as men and women are afraid of the church, as long as a minister
+inspires fear, as long as people reverence a thing simply because
+they do not understand it, as long as it is respectable to lose your
+self-respect, as long as the church has power, as long as mankind
+worship a book, just so long will the world be filled with intellectual
+paupers and vagrants, covered with the soiled and faded rags of
+superstition.
+
+As long as woman regards the Bible as the charter of her rights, she
+will be the slave of man. The Bible was not written by a woman. Within
+its lids there is nothing but humiliation and shame for her. She is
+regarded as the property of man. She is made to ask forgiveness for
+becoming a mother. She is as much below her husband, as her husband is
+below Christ. She is not allowed to speak. The gospel is too pure to be
+spoken by her polluted lips. Woman should learn in silence.
+
+In the Bible will be found no description of a civilized home. The free
+mother surrounded by free and loving children, adored by a free man, her
+husband, was unknown to the inspired writers of the Bible. They did not
+believe in the democracy of home--in the republicanism of the fireside.
+
+These inspired gentlemen knew nothing of the rights of children. They
+were the advocates of brute force--the disciples of the lash. They knew
+nothing of human rights. Their doctrines have brutalized the homes of
+millions, and filled the eyes of infancy with tears.
+
+Let us free ourselves from the tyranny of a book, from the slavery of
+dead ignorance, from the aristocracy of the air.
+
+There has never been upon the earth a generation of free men and
+women. It is not yet time to write a creed. Wait until the chains are
+broken--until dungeons are not regarded as temples. Wait until solemnity
+is not mistaken for wisdom--until mental cowardice ceases to be known
+as reverence. Wait until the living are considered the equals of the
+dead--until the cradle takes precedence of the coffin. Wait until what
+we know can be spoken without regard to what others may believe. Wait
+until teachers take the place of preachers--until followers become
+investigators. Wait until the world is free before you write a creed.
+
+In this creed there will be but one word--Liberty.
+
+Oh Liberty, float not forever in the far horizon--remain not forever in
+the dream of the enthusiast, the philanthropist and poet, but come and
+make thy home among the children of men!
+
+I know not what discoveries, what inventions, what thoughts may leap
+from the brain of the world. I know not what garments of glory may be
+woven by the years to come. I cannot dream of the victories to be won
+upon the fields of thought; but I do know, that coming from the infinite
+sea of the future, there will never touch this "bank and shoal of time"
+a richer gift, a rarer blessing than liberty for man, for woman, and for
+child.
+
+
+
+
+ABOUT FARMING IN ILLINOIS
+
+To Plow is to Pray--to Plant is to Prophesy, and the Harvest Answers and
+Fulfills.
+
+I AM not an old and experienced farmer, nor a tiller of the soil, nor
+one of the hard-handed sons of labor. I imagine, however, that I know
+something about cultivating the soil, and getting happiness out of the
+ground.
+
+I know enough to know that agriculture is the basis of all wealth,
+prosperity and luxury. I know that in a country where the tillers of the
+fields are free, everybody is free and ought to be prosperous. Happy is
+that country where those who cultivate the land own it. Patriotism is
+born in the woods and fields--by lakes and streams--by crags and plains.
+
+The old way of farming was a great mistake. Everything was done the
+wrong way. It was all work and waste, weariness and want. They used
+to fence a hundred and sixty acres of land with a couple of dogs.
+Everything was left to the protection of the blessed trinity of chance,
+accident and mistake.
+
+When I was a farmer they used to haul wheat two hundred miles in wagons
+and sell it for thirty-five cents a bushel. They would bring home about
+three hundred feet of lumber, two bunches of shingles, a barrel of salt,
+and a cook-stove that never would draw and never did bake.
+
+In those blessed days the people lived on corn and bacon. Cooking was
+an unknown art. Eating was a necessity, not a pleasure. It was hard work
+for the cook to keep on good terms even with hunger.
+
+We had poor houses. The rain held the roofs in perfect contempt, and
+the snow drifted joyfully on the floors and beds. They had no barns. The
+horses were kept in rail pens surrounded with straw. Long before spring
+the sides would be eaten away and nothing but roofs would be left. Food
+is fuel. When the cattle were exposed to all the blasts of winter, it
+took all the corn and oats that could be stuffed into them to prevent
+actual starvation.
+
+In those times most farmers thought the best place for the pig-pen was
+immediately in front of the house. There is nothing like sociability.
+
+Women were supposed to know the art of making fires without fuel. The
+wood pile consisted, as a general thing, of one log upon which an axe or
+two had been worn out in vain. There was nothing to kindle a fire with.
+Pickets were pulled from the garden fence, clap-boards taken from the
+house, and every stray plank was seized upon for kindling. Everything
+was done in the hardest way. Everything about the farm was disagreeable.
+Nothing was kept in order. Nothing was preserved. The wagons stood
+in the sun and rain, and the plows rusted in the fields. There was
+no leisure, no feeling that the work was done. It was all labor and
+weariness and vexation of spirit. The crops were destroyed by wandering
+herds, or they were put in too late, or too early, or they were blown
+down, or caught by the frost, or devoured by bugs, or stung by flies,
+or eaten by worms, or carried away by birds, or dug up by gophers, or
+washed away by floods, or dried up by the sun, or rotted in the stack,
+or heated in the crib, or they all run to vines, or tops, or straw, or
+smut, or cobs. And when in spite of all these accidents that lie in wait
+between, the plow and the reaper, they did succeed in raising a good
+crop and a high price was offered, then the roads would be impassable.
+And when the roads got good, then the prices went down. Everything
+worked together for evil.
+
+Nearly every farmer's boy took an oath that he never would cultivate
+the soil. The moment they arrived at the age of twenty-one they left
+the desolate and dreary farms and rushed to the towns and cities. They
+wanted to be bookkeepers, doctors, merchants, railroad men, insurance
+agents, lawyers, even preachers, anything to avoid the drudgery of the
+farm. Nearly every boy acquainted with the three R's--reading, writing,
+and arithmetic--imagined that he had altogether more education than
+ought to be wasted in raising potatoes and corn. They made haste to get
+into some other business. Those who stayed upon the farm envied those
+who went away.
+
+A few years ago the times were prosperous, and the young men went to the
+cities to enjoy the fortunes that were waiting for them. They wanted to
+engage in something that promised quick returns. They built railways,
+established banks and insurance companies. They speculated in stocks
+in Wall Street, and gambled in grain at Chicago. They became rich.
+They lived in palaces. They rode in carriages. They pitied their poor
+brothers on the farms, and the poor brothers envied them.
+
+But time has brought its revenge. The farmers have seen the railroad
+president a bankrupt, and the road in the hands of a receiver. They have
+seen the bank president abscond, and the insurance company a wrecked and
+ruined fraud. The only solvent people, as a class, the only independent
+people, are the tillers of the soil.
+
+Farming must be made more attractive. The comforts of the town must be
+added to the beauty of the fields. The sociability of the city must be
+rendered possible in the country.
+
+Farming has been made repulsive. The farmers have been unsociable and
+their homes have been lonely. They have been wasteful and careless. They
+have not been proud of their business.
+
+In the first place, farming ought to be reasonably profitable. The
+farmers have not attended to their own interests. They have been robbed
+and plundered in a hundred ways.
+
+No farmer can afford to raise corn and oats and hay to sell. He should
+sell horses, not oats; sheep, cattle and pork, not corn. He should make
+every profit possible out of what he produces. So long as the farmers of
+Illinois ship their corn and oats, so long they will be poor,--just so
+long will their farms be mortgaged to the insurance companies and banks
+of the East,--just so long will they do the work and others reap the
+benefit,--just so long will they be poor, and the money lenders grow
+rich,--just so long will cunning avarice grasp and hold the net profits
+of honest toil. When the farmers of the West ship beef and pork instead
+of grain,--when we manufacture here,--when we cease paying tribute to
+others, ours will be the most prosperous country in the world.
+
+Another thing--It is just as cheap to raise a good as a poor breed of
+cattle. Scrubs will eat just as much as thoroughbreds. If you are not
+able to buy Durhams and Alderneys, you can raise the corn breed. By
+"corn breed" I mean the cattle that have, for several generations, had
+enough to eat, and have been treated with kindness. Every farmer who
+will treat his cattle kindly, and feed them all they want, will, in a
+few years, have blooded stock on his farm. All blooded stock has been
+produced in this way. You can raise good cattle just as you can raise
+good people. If you wish to raise a good boy you must give him plenty to
+eat, and treat him with kindness. In this way, and in this way only, can
+good cattle or good people be produced.
+
+Another thing--You must beautify your homes.
+
+When I was a farmer it was not fashionable to set out trees, nor to
+plant vines.
+
+When you visited the farm you were not welcomed by flowers, and greeted
+by trees loaded with fruit. Yellow dogs came bounding over the tumbled
+fence like wild beasts. There is no sense--there is no profit in such a
+life. It is not living. The farmers ought to beautify their homes. There
+should be trees and grass and flowers and running vines. Everything
+should be kept in order--gates should be on their hinges, and about all
+there should be the pleasant air of thrift. In every house there should
+be a bath-room. The bath is a civilizer, a refiner, a beautifier.
+When you come from the fields tired, covered with dust, nothing is so
+refreshing. Above all things, keep clean. It is not necessary to be a
+pig in order to raise one. In the cool of the evening, after a day in
+the field, put on clean clothes, take a seat under the trees, 'mid the
+perfume of flowers, surrounded by your family, and you will know what it
+is to enjoy life like a gentleman.
+
+In no part of the globe will farming pay better than in Illinois. You
+are in the best portion of the earth. From the Atlantic to the Pacific,
+there is no such country as yours. The East is hard and stony; the
+soil is stingy. The far West is a desert parched and barren, dreary and
+desolate as perdition would be with the fires out. It is better to dig
+wheat and corn from the soil than gold. Only a few days ago, I was where
+they wrench the precious metals from the miserly clutch of the rocks.
+When I saw the mountains, treeless, shrub-less, flowerless, without even
+a spire of grass, it seemed to me that gold had the same effect upon
+the country that holds it, as upon the man who lives and labors only for
+that. It affects the land as it does the man. It leaves the heart barren
+without a flower of kindness--without a blossom of pity.
+
+The farmer in Illinois has the best soil--the greatest return for the
+least labor--more leisure--more time for enjoyment than any other
+farmer in the world. His hard work ceases with autumn. He has the long
+winters in which to become acquainted with his family--with his
+neighbors--in which to read and keep abreast with the advanced thought
+of his day. He has the time and means for self-culture. He has more time
+than the mechanic, the merchant or the professional man. If the farmer
+is not well informed it is his own fault. Books are cheap, and every
+farmer can have enough to give him the outline of every science, and an
+idea of all that has been accomplished by man.
+
+In many respects the farmer has the advantage of the mechanic. In our
+time we have plenty of mechanics but no tradesmen. In the sub-division
+of labor we have a thousand men working upon different parts of the same
+thing, each taught in one particular branch, and in only one. We have,
+say, in a shoe factory, hundreds of men, but not one shoemaker. It takes
+them all, assisted by a great number of machines, to make a shoe. Each
+does a particular part, and not one of them knows the entire trade. The
+result is that the moment the factory shuts down these men are out of
+employment. Out of employment means out of bread--out of bread means
+famine and horror. The mechanic of to-day has but little independence.
+His prosperity often depends upon the good will of one man. He is liable
+to be discharged for a look, for a word. He lays by but little for his
+declining years. He is, at the best, the slave of capital.
+
+It is a thousand times better to be a whole farmer than part of a
+mechanic. It is better to till the ground and work for yourself than
+to be hired by corporations. Every man should endeavor to belong to
+himself.
+
+About seven hundred years ago, Khayyam, a Persian, said: "Why should a
+man who possesses a piece of bread securing life for two days, and who
+has a cup of water--why should such a man be commanded by another, and
+why should such a man serve another?"
+
+Young men should not be satisfied with a salary. Do not mortgage the
+possibilities of your future. Have the courage to take life as it comes,
+feast or famine. Think of hunting a gold mine for a dollar a day, and
+think of finding one for another man. How would you feel then?
+
+We are lacking in true courage, when, for fear of the future, we take
+the crusts and scraps and niggardly salaries of the present. I had
+a thousand times rather have a farm and be independent, than to be
+President of the United States without independence, filled with doubt
+and trembling, feeling of the popular pulse, resorting to art and
+artifice, enquiring about the wind of opinion, and succeeding at last in
+losing my self-respect without gaining the respect of others.
+
+Man needs more manliness, more real independence. We must take care of
+ourselves. This we can do by labor, and in this way we can preserve our
+independence. We should try and choose that business or profession the
+pursuit of which will give us the most happiness. Happiness is wealth.
+We can be happy without being rich--without holding office--without
+being famous. I am not sure that we can be happy with wealth, with
+office, or with fame.
+
+There is a quiet about the life of a farmer, and the hope of a
+serene old age, that no other business or profession can promise. A
+professional man is doomed sometime to feel that his powers are waning.
+He is doomed to see younger and stronger men pass him in the race of
+life. He looks forward to an old age of intellectual mediocrity. He will
+be last where once he was the first. But the farmer goes, as it were,
+into partnership with nature--he lives with trees and flowers--he
+breathes the sweet air of the fields. There is no constant and frightful
+strain upon his mind. His nights are filled with sleep and rest. He
+watches his flocks and herds as they feed upon the green and sunny
+slopes. He hears the pleasant rain falling upon the waving corn, and the
+trees he planted in youth rustle above him as he plants others for the
+children yet to be.
+
+Our country is filled with the idle and unemployed, and the great
+question asking for an answer is: What shall be done with these men?
+What shall these men do? To this there is but one answer: They must
+cultivate the soil. Farming must be rendered more attractive. Those who
+work the land must have an honest pride in their business. They must
+educate their children to cultivate the soil. They must make farming
+easier, so that their children will not hate it--so that they will not
+hate it themselves. The boys must not be taught that tilling the ground
+is a curse and almost a disgrace. They must not suppose that education
+is thrown away upon them unless they become ministers, merchants,
+lawyers, doctors, or statesmen. It must be understood that education
+can be used to advantage on a farm. We must get rid of the idea that a
+little learning unfits one for work. There is no real conflict between
+Latin and labor. There are hundreds of graduates of Yale and Harvard
+and other colleges, who are agents of sewing machines, solicitors for
+insurance, clerks, copyists, in short, performing a hundred varieties of
+menial service. They seem willing to do anything that is not regarded as
+work--anything that can be done in a town, in the house, in an office,
+but they avoid farming as they would a leprosy. Nearly every young man
+educated in this way is simply ruined. Such an education ought to be
+called ignorance. It is a thousand times better to have common sense
+without education, than education without the sense. Boys and girls
+should be educated to help themselves. They should be taught that it is
+disgraceful to be idle, and dishonorable to be useless.
+
+I say again, if you want more men and women on the farms, something must
+be done to make farm life pleasant. One great difficulty is that the
+farm is lonely. People write about the pleasures of solitude, but they
+are found only in books. He who lives long alone becomes insane. A
+hermit is a madman. Without friends and wife and child, there is nothing
+left worth living for. The unsocial are the enemies of joy. They are
+filled with egotism and envy, with vanity and hatred. People who live
+much alone become narrow and suspicious. They are apt to be the property
+of one idea. They begin to think there is no use in anything. They look
+upon the happiness of others as a kind of folly. They hate joyous folks,
+because, way down in their hearts, they envy them.
+
+In our country, farm-life is too lonely. The farms are large, and
+neighbors are too far apart. In these days, when the roads are filled
+with "tramps," the wives and children need protection. When the farmer
+leaves home and goes to some distant field to work, a shadow of fear is
+upon his heart all day, and a like shadow rests upon all at home.
+
+In the early settlement of our country the pioneer was forced to take
+his family, his axe, his dog and his gun, and go into the far wild
+forest, and build his cabin miles and miles from any neighbor. He saw
+the smoke from his hearth go up alone in all the wide and lonely sky.
+
+But this necessity has passed away, and now, instead of living so far
+apart upon the lonely farms, you should live in villages. With the
+improved machinery which you have--with your generous soil--with
+your markets and means of transportation, you can now afford to live
+together.
+
+It is not necessary in this age of the world for the farmer to rise in
+the middle of the night and begin his work. This getting up so early in
+the morning is a relic of barbarism. It has made hundreds and thousands
+of young men curse the business. There is no need of getting up at three
+or four o'clock in the winter morning. The farmer who persists in doing
+it and persists in dragging his wife and children from their beds ought
+to be visited by a missionary. It is time enough to rise after the sun
+has set the example. For what purpose do you get up? To feed the cattle?
+Why not feed them more the night before? It is a waste of life. In the
+old times they used to get up about three o'clock in the morning, and go
+to work long before the sun had risen with "healing upon his wings," and
+as a just punishment they all had the ague; and they ought to have it
+now. The man who cannot get a living upon Illinois soil without rising
+before daylight ought to starve. Eight hours a day is enough for any
+farmer to work except in harvest time. When you rise at four and work
+till dark what is life worth? Of what use are all the improvements in
+farming? Of what use is all the improved machinery unless it tends to
+give the farmer a little more leisure? What is harvesting now, compared
+with what it was in the old time? Think of the days of reaping, of
+cradling, of raking and binding and mowing. Think of threshing with
+the flail and winnowing with the wind. And now think of the reapers and
+mowers, the binders and threshing machines, the plows and cultivators,
+upon which the farmer rides protected from the sun. If, with all these
+advantages, you cannot get a living without rising in the middle of the
+night, go into some other business. You should not rob your families of
+sleep. Sleep is the best medicine in the world. It is the best doctor
+upon the earth. There is no such thing as health without plenty of
+sleep. Sleep until you are thoroughly rested and restored. When you
+work, work; and when you get through take a good, long, and refreshing
+rest.
+
+You should live in villages, so that you can have the benefits of social
+life. You can have a reading-room--you can take the best papers and
+magazines--you can have plenty of books, and each one can have the
+benefit of them all. Some of the young men and women can cultivate
+music. You can have social gatherings--you can learn from each
+other--you can discuss all topics of interest, and in this way you can
+make farming a delightful business. You must keep up with the age.
+The way to make farming respectable is for farmers to become really
+intelligent. They must live intelligent and happy lives. They must know
+something of books and something of what is going on in the world.
+They must not be satisfied with knowing something of the affairs of a
+neighborhood and nothing about the rest of the earth. The business must
+be made attractive, and it never can be until the farmer has prosperity,
+intelligence and leisure.
+
+Another thing--I am a believer in fashion. It is the duty of every woman
+to make herself as beautiful and attractive as she possibly can.
+
+"Handsome is as handsome does," but she is much handsomer if well
+dressed. Every man should look his very best. I am a believer in good
+clothes. The time never ought to come in this country when you can tell
+a farmer's wife or daughter simply by the garments she wears. I say to
+every girl and woman, no matter what the material of your dress may be,
+no matter how cheap and coarse it is, cut it and make it in the fashion.
+I believe in jewelry. Some people look upon it as barbaric, but in my
+judgment, wearing jewelry is the first evidence the barbarian gives of
+a wish to be civilized. To adorn ourselves seems to be a part of our
+nature, and this desire seems to be everywhere and in everything. I
+have sometimes thought that the desire for beauty covers the earth with
+flowers. It is this desire that paints the wings of moths, tints the
+chamber of the shell, and gives the bird its plumage and its song. Oh
+daughters and wives, if you would be loved, adorn yourselves--if you
+would be adored, be beautiful!
+
+There is another fault common with the farmers of our country--they want
+too much land. You cannot, at present, when taxes are high, afford to
+own land that you do not cultivate. Sell it and let others make farms
+and homes. In this way what you keep will be enhanced in value. Farmers
+ought to own the land they cultivate, and cultivate what they own.
+Renters can hardly be called farmers. There can be no such thing in the
+highest sense as a home unless you own it. There must be an incentive
+to plant trees, to beautify the grounds, to preserve and improve. It
+elevates a man to own a home. It gives a certain independence, a force
+of character that is obtained in no other way. A man without a home
+feels like a passenger. There is in such a man a little of the vagrant.
+Homes make patriots. He who has sat by his own fireside with wife and
+children will defend it. When he hears the word country pronounced, he
+thinks of his home.
+
+Few men have been patriotic enough to shoulder a musket in defence of a
+boarding house.
+
+The prosperity and glory of our country depend upon the number of our
+people who are the owners of homes. Around the fireside cluster the
+private and the public virtues of our race. Raise your sons to be
+independent through labor--to pursue some business for themselves
+and upon their own account--to be self-reliant--to act upon their own
+responsibility, and to take the consequences like men. Teach them above
+all things to be good, true and tender husbands--winners of love and
+builders of homes.
+
+A great many farmers seem to think that they are the only laborers
+in the world. This is a very foolish thing. Farmers cannot get along
+without the mechanic. You are not independent of the man of genius.
+Your prosperity depends upon the inventor. The world advances by the
+assistance of all laborers; and all labor is under obligations to the
+inventions of genius. The inventor does as much for agriculture as he
+who tills the soil. All laboring men should be brothers. You are in
+partnership with the mechanics who make your reapers, your mowers and
+your plows; and you should take into your granges all the men who make
+their living by honest labor. The laboring people should unite and
+should protect themselves against all idlers. You can divide mankind
+into two classes: the laborers and the idlers, the supporters and the
+supported, the honest and the dishonest. Every man is dishonest who
+lives upon the unpaid labor of others, no matter if he occupies a
+throne. All laborers should be brothers. The laborers should have equal
+rights before the world and before the law. And I want every farmer to
+consider every man who labors either with hand or brain as his brother.
+Until genius and labor formed a partnership there was no such thing
+as prosperity among men. Every reaper and mower, every agricultural
+implement, has elevated the work of the farmer, and his vocation grows
+grander with every invention. In the olden time the agriculturist
+was ignorant; he knew nothing of machinery, he was the slave of
+superstition. He was always trying to appease some imaginary power by
+fasting and prayer. He supposed that some being actuated by malice, sent
+the untimely frost, or swept away with the wild wind his rude abode.
+To him the seasons were mysteries. The thunder told him of an enraged
+god--the barren fields of the vengeance of heaven. The tiller of the
+soil lived in perpetual and abject fear. He knew nothing of mechanics,
+nothing of order, nothing of law, nothing of cause and effect. He was
+a superstitious savage. He invented prayers instead of plows, creeds
+instead of reapers and mowers. He was unable to devote all his time to
+the gods, and so he hired others to assist him, and for their influence
+with the gentlemen supposed to control the weather, he gave one-tenth of
+all he could produce.
+
+The farmer has been elevated through science and he should not forget
+the debt he owes to the mechanic, to the inventor, to the thinker. He
+should remember that all laborers belong to the same grand family--that
+they are the real kings and queens, the only true nobility.
+
+Another idea entertained by most farmers is that they are in some
+mysterious way oppressed by every other kind of business--that they are
+devoured by monopolies, especially by railroads.
+
+Of course, the railroads are indebted to the farmers for their
+prosperity, and the farmers are indebted to the railroads. Without them
+Illinois would be almost worthless.
+
+A few years ago you endeavored to regulate the charges of railroad
+companies. The principal complaint you had was that they charged too
+much for the transportation of corn and other cereals to the East. You
+should remember that all freights are paid by the consumer; and that
+it made little difference to you what the railroad charged for
+transportation to the East, as that transportation had to be paid by
+the consumers of the grain. You were really interested in transportation
+from the East to the West and in local freights. The result is that
+while you have put down through freights you have not succeeded so well
+in local freights. The exact opposite should be the policy of Illinois.
+Put down local freights; put them down, if you can, to the lowest
+possible figure, and let through rates take care of themselves. If all
+the corn raised in Illinois could be transported to New York absolutely
+free, it would enhance but little the price that you would receive.
+What we want is the lowest possible local rate. Instead of this you have
+simply succeeded in helping the East at the expense of the West. The
+railroads are your friends. They are your partners. They can prosper
+only where the country through which they run prospers. All intelligent
+railroad men know this. They know that present robbery is future
+bankruptcy. They know that the interest of the farmer and of the
+railroad is the same. We must have railroads. What can we do without
+them?
+
+When we had no railroads, we drew, as I said before, our grain two
+hundred miles to market.
+
+In those days the farmers did not stop at hotels. They slept under their
+wagons--took with them their food--fried their own bacon, made their
+coffee, and ate their meals in the snow and rain. Those were the days
+when they received ten cents a bushel for corn--when they sold four
+bushels of potatoes for a quarter--thirty-three dozen eggs for a dollar,
+and a hundred pounds of pork for a dollar and a half.
+
+What has made the difference?
+
+The railroads came to your door and they brought with them the markets
+of the world. They brought New York and Liverpool and London into
+Illinois, and the State has been clothed with prosperity as with a
+mantle. It is the interest of the farmer to protect every great interest
+in the State. You should feel proud that Illinois has more railroads
+than any other State in this Union. Her main tracks and side tracks
+would furnish iron enough to belt the globe. In Illinois there are
+ten thousand miles of railways. In these iron highways more than three
+hundred million dollars have been invested--a sum equal to ten times
+the original cost of all the land in the State. To make war upon the
+railroads is a short-sighted and suicidal policy. They should be treated
+fairly and should be taxed by the same standard that farms are taxed,
+and in no other way. If we wish to prosper we must act together, and we
+must see to it that every form of labor is protected.
+
+There has been a long period of depression in all business. The farmers
+have suffered least of all. Your land is just as rich and productive as
+ever. Prices have been reasonable. The towns and cities have suffered.
+Stocks and bonds have shrunk from par to worthless paper. Princes have
+become paupers, and bankers, merchants and millionaires have passed into
+the oblivion of bankruptcy. The period of depression is slowly passing
+away, and we are entering upon better times.
+
+A great many people say that a scarcity of money is our only difficulty.
+In my opinion we have money enough, but we lack confidence in each other
+and in the future.
+
+There has been so much dishonesty, there have been so many failures,
+that the people are afraid to trust anybody. There is plenty of money,
+but there seems to be a scarcity of business. If you were to go to the
+owner of a ferry, and, upon seeing his boat lying high and dry on the
+shore, should say, "There is a superabundance of ferryboat," he would
+probably reply, "No, but there is a scarcity of water." So with us there
+is not a scarcity of money, but there is a scarcity of business. And
+this scarcity springs from lack of confidence in one another. So many
+presidents of savings banks, even those belonging to the Young Men's
+Christian Association, run off with the funds; so many railroad and
+insurance companies are in the hands of receivers; there is so much
+bankruptcy on every hand, that all capital is held in the nervous clutch
+of fear. Slowly, but surely we are coming back to honest methods in
+business. Confidence will return, and then enterprise will unlock the
+safe and money will again circulate as of yore; the dollars will leave
+their hiding places and every one will be seeking investment.
+
+For my part, I do not ask any interference on the part of the Government
+except to undo the wrong it has done. I do not ask that money be made
+out of nothing. I do not ask for the prosperity born of paper. But I do
+ask for the remonetization of silver. Silver was demonetized by fraud.
+It was an imposition upon every solvent man; a fraud upon every honest
+debtor in the United States. It assassinated labor. It was done in the
+interest of avarice and greed, and should be undone by honest men.
+
+The farmers should vote only for such men as are able and willing to
+guard and advance the interests of labor. We should know better than
+to vote for men who will deliberately put a tariff of three dollars
+a thousand upon Canada lumber, when every farmer in Illinois is a
+purchaser of lumber. People who live upon the prairies ought to vote for
+cheap lumber. We should protect ourselves. We ought to have intelligence
+enough to know what we want and how to get it. The real laboring men of
+this country can succeed if they are united. By laboring men, I do not
+mean only the farmers. I mean all who contribute in some way to the
+general welfare. They should forget prejudices and party names, and
+remember only the best interests of the people. Let us see if we cannot,
+in Illinois, protect every department of industry. Let us see if all
+property cannot be protected alike and taxed alike, whether owned by
+individuals or corporations.
+
+Where industry creates and justice protects, prosperity dwells.
+
+Let me tell you something more about Illinois. We have fifty-six
+thousand square miles of land--nearly thirty-six million acres. Upon
+these plains we can raise enough to feed and clothe twenty million
+people. Beneath these prairies were hidden millions of ages ago, by
+that old miser, the sun, thirty-six thousand square miles of coal. The
+aggregate thickness of these veins is at least fifteen feet. Think of a
+column of coal one mile square and one hundred miles high! All this
+came from the sun. What a sunbeam such a column would be! Think of the
+engines and machines this coal will run and turn and whirl! Think of
+all this force, willed and left to us by the dead morning of the world!
+Think of the firesides of the future around which will sit the fathers,
+mothers and children of the years to be! Think of the sweet and happy
+faces, the loving and tender eyes that will glow and gleam in the sacred
+light of all these flames!
+
+We have the best country in the world, and Illinois is the best State
+in that country. Is there any reason that our farmers should not be
+prosperous and happy men? They have every advantage, and within their
+reach are all the comforts and conveniences of life.
+
+Do not get the land fever and think you must buy all that joins you. Get
+out of debt as soon as you possibly can. A mortgage casts a shadow on
+the sunniest field. There is no business under the sun that can pay ten
+per cent.
+
+Ainsworth R. Spofford gives the following facts about interest: "One
+dollar loaned for one hundred years at six per cent., with the interest
+collected annually and added to the principal, will amount to three
+hundred and forty dollars. At eight per cent, it amounts to two thousand
+two hundred and three dollars. At three per cent, it amounts only to
+nineteen dollars and twenty-five cents. At ten per cent, it is thirteen
+thousand eight hundred and nine dollars, or about seven hundred times
+as much. At twelve per cent, it amounts to eighty-four thousand and
+seventy-five dollars, or more than four thousand times as much. At
+eighteen per cent, it amounts to fifteen million one hundred and
+forty-five thousand and seven dollars. At twenty-four per cent, (which
+we sometimes hear talked of) it reaches the enormous sum of two billion
+five hundred and fifty-one million seven hundred and ninety-nine
+thousand four hundred and four dollars."
+
+One dollar at compound interest, at twenty-four per cent., for one
+hundred years, would produce a sum equal to our national debt.
+
+Interest eats night and day, and the more it eats the hungrier it grows.
+The farmer in debt, lying awake at night, can, if he listens, hear it
+gnaw. If he owes nothing, he can hear his corn grow. Get out of debt
+as soon as you possibly can. You have supported idle avarice and lazy
+economy long enough.
+
+Above all let every farmer treat his wife and children with infinite
+kindness. Give your sons and daughters every advantage within your
+power. In the air of kindness they will grow about you like flowers.
+They will fill your homes with sunshine and all your years with joy.
+Do not try to rule by force. A blow from a parent leaves a scar on the
+soul. I should feel ashamed to die surrounded by children I had whipped.
+Think of feeling upon your dying lips the kiss of a child you had
+struck.
+
+See to it that your wife has every convenience. Make her life worth
+living. Never allow her to become a servant. Wives, weary and worn,
+mothers, wrinkled and bent before their time, fill homes with grief
+and shame. If you are not able to hire help for your wives, help them
+yourselves. See that they have the best utensils to work with.
+
+Women cannot create things by magic. Have plenty of wood and coal--good
+cellars and plenty in them. Have cisterns, so that you can have plenty
+of rain water for washing. Do not rely on a barrel and a board. When the
+rain comes the board will be lost or the hoops will be off the barrel.
+
+Farmers should live like princes. Eat the best things you raise and sell
+the rest. Have good things to cook and good things to cook with. Of all
+people in our country, you should live the best. Throw your miserable
+little stoves out of the window. Get ranges, and have them so built that
+your wife need not burn her face off to get you a breakfast. Do not make
+her cook in a kitchen hot as the orthodox perdition. The beef, not the
+cook, should be roasted. It is just as easy to have things convenient
+and right as to have them any other way.
+
+Cooking is one of the fine arts. Give your wives and daughters things to
+cook, and things to cook with, and they will soon become most excellent
+cooks. Good cooking is the basis of civilization. The man whose arteries
+and veins are filled with rich blood made of good and well cooked food,
+has pluck, courage, endurance and and noble impulses. The inventor of
+a good soup did more for his race than the maker of any creed. The
+doctrines of total depravity and endless punishment were born of bad
+cooking and dyspepsia. Remember that your wife should have the things to
+cook with.
+
+In the good old days there would be eleven children in the family and
+only one skillet. Everything was broken or cracked or loaned or lost.
+
+There ought to be a law making it a crime, punishable by imprisonment,
+to fry beefsteak. Broil it; it is just as easy, and when broiled it is
+delicious. Fried beefsteak is not fit for a wild beast. You can broil
+even on a stove. Shut the front damper--open the back one--then take off
+a griddle. There will then be a draft downwards through this opening.
+Put on your steak, using a wire broiler, and not a particle of smoke
+will touch it, for the reason that the smoke goes down. If you try to
+broil it with the front damper open, the smoke will rise. For broiling,
+coal, even soft coal, makes a better fire than wood.
+
+There is no reason why farmers should not have fresh meat all the year
+round. There is certainly no sense in stuffing yourself full of salt
+meat every morning, and making a well or a cistern of your stomach for
+the rest of the day. Every farmer should have an ice house. Upon or near
+every farm is some stream from which plenty of ice can be obtained, and
+the long summer days made delightful. Dr. Draper, one of the world's
+greatest scientists, says that ice water is healthy, and that it has
+done away with many of the low forms of fever in the great cities. Ice
+has become one of the necessaries of civilized life, and without it
+there is very little comfort.
+
+Make your homes pleasant. Have your houses warm and comfortable for the
+winter. Do not build a story-and-a-half house. The half story is simply
+an oven in which, during the summer, you will bake every night, and feel
+in the morning as though only the rind of yourself was left.
+
+Decorate your rooms, even if you do so with cheap engravings. The
+cheapest are far better than none. Have books--have papers, and read
+them. You have more leisure than the dwellers in cities. Beautify your
+grounds with plants and flowers and vines. Have good gardens. Remember
+that everything of beauty tends to the elevation of man. Every little
+morning-glory whose purple bosom is thrilled with the amorous kisses of
+the sun, tends to put a blossom in your heart. Do not judge of the
+value of everything by the market reports. Every flower about a house
+certifies to the refinement of somebody. Every vine climbing and
+blossoming, tells of love and joy.
+
+Make your houses comfortable. Do not huddle together in a little room
+around a red-hot stove, with every window fastened down. Do not live in
+this poisoned atmosphere, and then, when one of your children dies, put
+a piece in the papers commencing with, "Whereas, it has pleased divine
+Providence to remove from our midst--." Have plenty of air, and plenty
+of warmth. Comfort is health. Do not imagine anything is unhealthy
+simply because it is pleasant. That is an old and foolish idea.
+
+Let your children sleep. Do not drag them from their beds in the
+darkness of night. Do not compel them to associate all that is tiresome,
+irksome and dreadful with cultivating the soil. In this way you bring
+farming into hatred and disrepute. Treat your children with infinite
+kindness--treat them as equals. There is no happiness in a home not
+filled with love. Where the husband hates his wife--where the wife hates
+the husband; where children hate their parents and each other--there is
+a hell upon earth.
+
+There is no reason why farmers should not be the kindest and most
+cultivated of men. There is nothing in plowing the fields to make men
+cross, cruel and crabbed. To look upon the sunny slopes covered with
+daisies does not tend to make men unjust. Whoever labors for the
+happiness of those he loves, elevates himself, no matter whether he
+works in the dark and dreary shops, or in the perfumed fields. To work
+for others is, in reality, the only way in which a man can work for
+himself. Selfishness is ignorance. Speculators cannot make unless
+somebody loses. In the realm of speculation, every success has at least
+one victim. The harvest reaped by the farmer benefits all and injures
+none. For him to succeed, it is not necessary that some one should fail.
+The same is true of all producers--of all laborers.
+
+I can imagine no condition that carries with it such a promise of joy as
+that of the farmer in the early winter. He has his cellar filled--he has
+made every preparation for the days of snow and storm--he looks forward
+to three months of ease and rest; to three months of fireside-content;
+three months with wife and children; three months of long, delightful
+evenings; three months of home; three months of solid comfort.
+
+When the life of the farmer is such as I have described, the cities and
+towns will not be filled with want--the streets will not be crowded with
+wrecked rogues, broken bankers, and bankrupt speculators. The fields
+will be tilled, and country villages, almost hidden by trees and vines
+and flowers, filled with industrious and happy people, will nestle in
+every vale and gleam like gems on every plain.
+
+The idea must be done away with that there is something intellectually
+degrading in cultivating the soil. Nothing can be nobler than to be
+useful. Idleness should not be respectable.
+
+If farmers will cultivate well, and without waste; if they will so build
+that their houses will be warm in winter and cool in summer; if they
+will plant trees and beautify their homes; if they will occupy their
+leisure in reading, in thinking, in improving their minds and in
+devising ways and means to make their business profitable and pleasant;
+if they will live nearer together and cultivate sociability; if they
+will come together often; if they will have reading rooms and cultivate
+music; if they will have bath-rooms, ice-houses and good gardens; if
+their wives can have an easy time; if their sons and daughters can have
+an opportunity to keep in line with the thoughts and discoveries of
+the world; if the nights can be taken for sleep and the evenings for
+enjoyment, everybody will be in love with the fields. Happiness should
+be the object of life, and if life on the farm can be made really happy,
+the children will grow up in love with the meadows, the streams, the
+woods and the old home. Around the farm will cling and cluster the happy
+memories of the delighful years.
+
+Remember, I pray you, that you are in partnership with all labor--that
+you should join hands with all the sons and daughters of toil, and that
+all who work belong to the same noble family.
+
+For my part, I envy the man who has lived on the same broad acres from
+his boyhood, who cultivates the fields where in youth he played, and
+lives where his father lived and died.
+
+I can imagine no sweeter way to end one's life
+
+
+
+
+WHAT MUST WE DO TO BE SAVED?
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+If what is known as the Christian Religion is true, nothing can be more
+wonderful than the fact that Matthew, Mark and Luke say nothing about
+"salvation by faith;" that they do not even hint at the doctrine of
+the atonement, and are as silent as empty tombs as to the necessity of
+believing anything to secure happiness in this world or another.
+
+For a good many years it has been claimed that the writers of these
+gospels knew something about the teachings of Christ, and had, at least,
+a general knowledge of the conditions of salvation. It now seems to
+be substantiated that the early Christians did not place implicit
+confidence in the gospels, and did not hesitate to make such changes and
+additions as they thought proper. Such changes and additions are about
+the only passages in the New Testament that the Evangelical Churches
+now consider sacred. That portion of the last chapter of Mark, in which
+unbelievers are so cheerfully and promptly damned, has been shown to be
+an interpolation, and it is asserted that in the revised edition of the
+New Testament, soon to be issued, the infamous passages will not appear.
+With these expunged, there is not one word in Matthew, Mark, or Luke,
+even tending to show that belief in Christ has, or can have, any effect
+upon the destiny of the soul.
+
+The four gospels are the four corner-stones upon which rests the fabric
+of orthodox Christianity. Three of these stones have crumbled, and the
+fourth is not likely to outlast this generation. The gospel of John
+cannot alone uphold the infinite absurdity of vicarious virtue and vice,
+and it cannot, without the aid of "interpolation," sustain the illogical
+and immoral dogma of salvation by faith. These frightful doctrines must
+be abandoned; the miraculous must be given up, the wonderful stories
+must be expunged, and from the creed of noble deeds the forgeries
+of superstition must be blotted out. From the temple of Morality
+and Truth--from the great windows towards the sun--the parasitic and
+poisonous vines of faith and fable must be torn.
+
+The church will be compelled at last to rest its case, not upon the
+wonders Christ is said to have performed, but upon the system of
+morality he taught. All the miracles, including the resurrection and
+ascension, are, when compared with portions of the "Sermon on the
+Mount," but dust and darkness.
+
+The careful reader of the New Testament will find three Christs
+described:--One who wished to preserve Judaism--one who wished to
+reform it, and one who built a system of his own. The apostles and their
+disciples, utterly unable to comprehend a religion that did away with
+sacrifices, churches, priests, and creeds, constructed a Christianity
+for themselves, so that the orthodox churches of to-day rest--first,
+upon what Christ endeavored to destroy--second, upon what he never said,
+and, third, upon a misunderstanding of what he did say.
+
+If a certain belief is necessary to insure the salvation of the soul,
+the church ought to explain, and without any unnecessary delay, why such
+an infinitely important fact was utterly ignored by Matthew, Mark
+and Luke. There are only two explanations possible. Either belief is
+unnecessary, or the writers of these three gospels did not understand
+the Christian system. The "sacredness" of the subject cannot longer hide
+the absurdity of the "scheme of salvation," nor the failure of Matthew,
+Mark and Luke to mention, what is now claimed to have been, the entire
+mission of Christ. The church must take from the New Testament the
+supernatural'; the idea that an intellectual conviction can subject an
+honest man to eternal pain--the awful doctrine that the innocent can
+justly suffer for the guilty, and allow the remainder to be discussed,
+denied or believed without punishment and without reward. No one will
+object to the preaching of kindness, honesty and justice. To preach less
+is a crime, and to practice more is impossible.
+
+There is one thing that ought to be again impressed upon the average
+theologian, and that is the utter futility of trying to answer arguments
+with personal abuse. It should be understood once for all that these
+questions are in no sense personal. If it should turn out that all the
+professed Christians in the world are sinless saints, the question of
+how Matthew, Mark, and Luke, came to say nothing about the atonement and
+the scheme of salvation by faith, would still be asked. And if it should
+then be shown that all the doubters, deists, and atheists, are vile and
+vicious wretches, the question still would wait for a reply.
+
+The origin of all religions, creeds, and sacred books, is substantially
+the same, and the history of one, is, in the main, the history of all.
+Thus far these religions have been the mistaken explanations of our
+surroundings. The appearances of nature have imposed upon the ignorance
+and fear of man. But back of all honest creeds was, and is, the desire
+to know, to understand, and to explain, and that desire will, as I
+most fervently hope and earnestly believe, be gratified at last by
+the discovery of the truth. Until then, let us bear with the theories,
+hopes, dreams, mistakes, and honest thoughts of all.
+
+Robert G. Ingersoll.
+
+Washington, D. C.,
+
+October, 1880.
+
+
+WHAT MUST WE DO TO BE SAVED?
+
+"THE NUREMBERG MAN WAS OPERATED BY A COMBINATION OF PIPES AND LEVERS,
+AND THOUGH HE COULD BREATHE AND DIGEST PERFECTLY, AND EVEN REASON AS
+WELL AS MOST THEOLOGIANS, WAS MADE OF NOTHING BUT WOOD AND LEATHER."
+
+THE whole world has been filled with fear.
+
+Ignorance has been the refuge of the soul. For thousands of years the
+intellectual ocean was ravaged by the buccaneers of reason. Pious souls
+clung to the shore and looked at the lighthouse. The seas were filled
+with monsters and the islands with sirens. The people were driven in the
+middle of a narrow road while priests went before, beating the hedges on
+either side to frighten the robbers from their lairs. The poor followers
+seeing no robbers, thanked their brave leaders with all their hearts.
+
+
+
+
+I. WHAT WE MUST DO TO BE SAVED
+
+Huddled in folds they listened with wide eyes while the shepherds told
+of ravening wolves. With great gladness they exchanged their fleeces for
+security. Shorn and shivering, they had the happiness of seeing their
+protectors comfortable and warm.
+
+Through all the years, those who plowed divided with those who prayed.
+Wicked industry supported pious idleness, the hut gave to the cathedral,
+and frightened poverty gave even its rags to buy a robe for hypocrisy.
+
+Fear is the dungeon of the mind, and superstition is a dagger with which
+hypocrisy assassinates the soul. Courage is liberty. I am in favor of
+absolute freedom of thought. In the realm of mind every one is monarch;
+every one is robed, sceptered, and crowned, and every one wears the
+purple of authority. I belong to the republic of intellectual liberty,
+and only those are good citizens of that republic who depend upon reason
+and upon persuasion, and only those are traitors who resort to brute
+force.
+
+Now, I beg of you all to forget just for a few moments that you are
+Methodists or Baptists or Catholics or Presbyterians, and let us for an
+hour or two remember only that we are men and women. And allow me to
+say "man" and "woman" are the highest titles that can be bestowed upon
+humanity.
+
+Let us, if possible, banish all fear from the mind. Do not imagine that
+there is some being in the infinite expanse who is not willing that
+every man and woman should think for himself and herself. Do not imagine
+that there is any being who would give to his children the holy torch of
+reason, and then damn them for following that sacred light. Let us have
+courage.
+
+Priests have invented a crime called "blasphemy," and behind that
+crime hypocrisy has crouched for thousands of years. There is but one
+blasphemy, and that is injustice. There is but one worship, and that is
+justice!
+
+You need not fear the anger of a god that you cannot injure. Rather
+fear to injure your fellow-men. Do not be afraid of a crime you can not
+commit. Rather be afraid of the one that you may commit. The reason that
+you cannot injure God is that the Infinite is conditionless. You cannot
+increase or diminish the happiness of any being without changing that
+being's condition. If God is conditionless, you can neither injure nor
+benefit him.
+
+There was a Jewish gentleman went into a restaurant to get his dinner,
+and the devil of temptation whispered in his ear: "Eat some bacon."
+He knew if there was anything in the universe calculated to excite the
+wrath of an infinite being, who made every shining star, it was to see
+a gentleman eating bacon. He knew it, and he knew the infinite being was
+looking, that he was the eternal eavesdropper of the universe. But his
+appetite got the better of his conscience, as it often has with us all,
+and he ate that bacon. He knew it was wrong, and his conscience felt
+the blood of shame in its cheek. When he went into that restaurant the
+weather was delightful, the sky was as blue as June, and when he came
+out the sky was covered with angry clouds, the lightning leaping
+from one to the other, and the earth shaking beneath the voice of the
+thunder. He went back into that restaurant with a face as white as milk,
+and he said to one of the keepers:
+
+"My God, did you ever hear such a fuss about a little piece of bacon?"
+
+As long as we harbor such opinions of infinity; as long as we imagine
+the heavens to be filled with such tyranny, just so long the sons of
+men will be cringing, intellectual cowards. Let us think, and let us
+honestly express our thought.
+
+Do not imagine for a moment that I think people who disagree with me
+are bad people. I admit, and I cheerfully admit, that a very large
+proportion of mankind, and a very large majority, a vast number are
+reasonably honest. I believe that most Christians believe what they
+teach; that most ministers are endeavoring to make this world better.
+I do not pretend to be better than they are. It is an intellectual
+question. It is a question, first, of intellectual liberty, and after
+that, a question to be settled at the bar of human reason. I do not
+pretend to be better than they are. Probably I am a good deal worse than
+many of them, but that is not the question. The question is: Bad as
+I am, have I the right to think? And I think I have for two reasons:
+First, I cannot help it. And secondly, I like it. The whole question is
+right at a point. If I have not a right to express my thoughts, who has?
+
+"Oh," they say, "we will allow you to think, we will not burn you."
+
+"All right; why won't you burn me?"
+
+"Because we think a decent man will allow others to think and to express
+his thought."
+
+"Then the reason you do not persecute me for my thought is that you
+believe it would be infamous in you?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And yet you worship a God who will, as you declare, punish me forever?"
+
+Surely an infinite God ought to be as just as man. Surely no God can
+have the right to punish his children for being honest. He should not
+reward hypocrisy with heaven, and punish candor with eternal pain.
+
+The next question then is: Can I commit a sin against God by thinking?
+If God did not intend I should think, why did he give me a thinker? For
+one, I am convinced, not only that I have the right to think, but that
+it is my duty to express my honest thoughts. Whatever the gods may say
+we must be true to ourselves.
+
+We have got what they call the Christian system of religion, and
+thousands of people wonder how I can be wicked enough to attack that
+system.
+
+There are many good things about it, and I shall never attack anything
+that I believe to be good! I shall never fear to attack anything I
+honestly believe to be wrong! We have what they call the Christian
+religion, and I find, just in proportion that nations have been
+religious, just in the proportion they have clung to the religion of
+their founders, they have gone back to barbarism. I find that Spain,
+Portugal, Italy, are the three worst nations in Europe. I find that the
+nation nearest infidel is the most prosperous--France.
+
+And so I say there can be no danger in the exercise of absolute
+intellectual freedom. I find among ourselves the men who think are at
+least as good as those who do not.
+
+We have, I say, a Christian system, and that system is founded upon
+what they are pleased to call the "New Testament." Who wrote the New
+Testament? I do not know. Who does know? Nobody. We have found many
+manuscripts containing portions of the New Testament. Some of these
+manuscripts leave out five or six books--many of them. Others more;
+others less. No two of these manuscripts agree. Nobody knows who wrote
+these manuscripts. They are all written in Greek. The disciples of
+Christ, so far as we know, knew only Hebrew. Nobody ever saw so far as
+we know, one of the original Hebrew manuscripts.
+
+Nobody ever saw anybody who had seen anybody who had heard of anybody
+that had ever seen anybody that had ever seen one of the original Hebrew
+manuscripts. No doubt the clergy of your city have told you these facts
+thousands of times, and they will be obliged to me for having repeated
+them once more. These manuscripts are written in what are called capital
+Greek letters. They are called Uncial manuscripts, and the New Testament
+was not divided into chapters and verses, even, until the year of grace
+1551. In the original the manuscripts and gospels are signed by nobody.
+The epistles are addressed to nobody; and they are signed by the same
+person. All the addresses, all the pretended ear-marks showing to
+whom they were written, and by whom they were written, are simply
+interpolations, and everybody who has studied the subject knows it.
+
+It is further admitted that even these manuscripts have not been
+properly translated, and they have a syndicate now making a new
+translation; and I suppose that I can not tell whether I really believe
+the New Testament or not until I see that new translation.
+
+You must remember, also, one other thing. Christ never wrote a solitary
+word of the New Testament--not one word. There is an account that he
+once stooped and wrote something in the sand, but that has not been
+preserved. He never told anybody to write a word. He never said:
+"Matthew, remember this. Mark, do not forget to put that down. Luke, be
+sure that in your gospel you have this. John, do not forget it." Not one
+word. And it has always seemed to me that a being coming from another
+world, with a message of infinite importance to mankind, should at least
+have verified that message by his own signature. Is it not wonderful
+that not one word was written by Christ? Is it not strange that he
+gave no orders to have his words preserved--words upon which hung the
+salvation of a world?
+
+Why was nothing written? I will tell you. In my judgment they expected
+the end of the world in a few days. That generation was not to pass away
+until the heavens should be rolled up as a scroll, and until the earth
+should melt with fervent heat. That was their belief. They believed that
+the world was to be destroyed, and that there was to be another coming,
+and that the saints were then to govern the earth. And they even went so
+far among the apostles, as we frequently do now before election, as to
+divide out the offices in advance. This Testament, as it now is, was not
+written for hundreds of years after the apostles were dust. Many of the
+pretended facts lived in the open mouth of credulity. They were in the
+wastebaskets of forgetfulness. They depended upon the inaccuracy of
+legend, and for centuries these doctrines and stories were blown about
+by the inconstant winds. And when reduced to writing, some gentleman
+would write by the side of the passage his idea of it, and the next
+copyist would put that in as a part of the text. And, when it was mostly
+written, and the church got into trouble, and wanted a passage to help
+it out, one was interpolated to order. So that now it is among
+the easiest things in the world to pick out at least one hundred
+interpolations in the Testament. And I will pick some of them out before
+I get through.
+
+And let me say here, once for all, that for the man Christ I have
+infinite respect. Let me say, once for all, that the place where man has
+died for man is holy ground. And let me say, once for all, that to that
+great and serene man I gladly pay, I gladly pay, the tribute of my
+admiration and my tears. He was a reformer in his day. He was an infidel
+in his time. He was regarded as a blasphemer, and his life was destroyed
+by hypocrites, who have, in all ages, done what they could to trample
+freedom and manhood out of the human mind. Had I lived at that time I
+would have been his friend, and should he come again he will not find a
+better friend than I will be.
+
+That is for the man. For the theological creation I have a different
+feeling. If he was, in fact, God, he knew there was no such thing as
+death. He knew that what we called death was but the eternal opening of
+the golden gates of everlasting joy; and it took no heroism to face a
+death that was eternal life.
+
+But when a man, when a poor boy sixteen years of age, goes upon the
+field of battle to keep his flag in heaven, not knowing but that death
+ends all; not knowing but that when the shadows creep over him, the
+darkness will be eternal, there is heroism. For the man who, in the
+darkness, said: "My God, why hast thou forsaken me?"--for that man I
+have nothing but respect, admiration, and love. Back of the theological
+shreds, rags, and patches, hiding the real Christ, I see a genuine man.
+
+A while ago I made up my mind to find out what was necessary for me to
+do in order to be saved. If I have got a soul, I want it saved. I do not
+wish to lose anything that is of value.
+
+For thousands of years the world has been asking that question:
+
+"What must we do to be saved?"
+
+Saved from poverty? No. Saved from crime? No. Tyranny? No. But "What
+must we do to be saved from the eternal wrath of the God who made us
+all?"
+
+If God made us, he will not destroy us. Infinite wisdom never made a
+poor investment. Upon all the works of an infinite God, a dividend must
+finally be declared. Why should God make failures? Why should he waste
+material? Why should he not correct his mistakes, instead of damning
+them? The pulpit has cast a shadow over even the cradle. The doctrine
+of endless punishment has covered the cheeks of this world with tears. I
+despise it, and I defy it.
+
+I made up my mind, I say, to see what I had to do in order to save my
+soul according to the Testament, and thereupon I read it. I read the
+gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and found that the church had
+been deceiving me. I found that the clergy did not understand their own
+book; that they had been building upon passages that had been
+interpolated; upon passages that were entirely untrue, and I will tell
+you why I think so.
+
+
+
+
+II. THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW
+
+
+ACCORDING to the church, the first gospel was written by Matthew. As a
+matter of fact he never wrote a word of it--never saw it, never heard of
+it and probably never will. But for the purposes of this lecture I admit
+that he wrote years; that he was his constant companion; that he shared
+his sorrows and his triumphs; that he heard his words by the lonely
+lakes, the barren hills, in synagogue and street, and that he knew his
+heart and became acquainted with his thoughts and aims.
+
+Now let us see what Matthew says we must do in order to be saved. And
+I take it that, if this is true, Matthew is as good authority as any
+minister in the world.
+
+I will admit that he was with Christ for three years.
+
+The first thing I find upon the subject of salvation is in the fifth
+chapter of Matthew, and is embraced in what is commonly known as the
+Sermon on the Mount. It is as follows:
+
+"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
+Good!
+
+"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." Good! Whether
+they belonged to any church or not; whether they believed the Bible or
+not?
+
+"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." Good!
+
+"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the
+peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are
+they which are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the
+kingdom of heaven." Good!
+
+In the same sermon he says: "Think not that I am come to destroy the law
+or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill." And then he
+makes use of this remarkable language, almost as applicable to-day as
+it was then: "For I say unto you that except your righteousness shall
+exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no
+wise enter into the kingdom of heaven." Good!
+
+In the sixth chapter I find the following, and it comes directly after
+the prayer known as the Lord's prayer:
+
+"For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also
+forgive you; but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will
+your father forgive your trespasses."
+
+I accept the condition. There is an offer; I accept it. If you will
+forgive men that trespass against you, God will forgive your trespasses
+against him. I accept the terms, and I never will ask any God to treat
+me better than I treat my fellow-men. There is a square promise. There
+is a contract. If you will forgive others God will forgive you. And it
+does not say you must believe in the Old Testament, or be baptized, or
+join the church, or keep Sunday; that you must count beads, or pray, or
+become a nun, or a priest; that you must preach sermons or hear them,
+build churches or fill them. Not one word is said about eating or
+fasting, denying or believing. It simply says, if you forgive others God
+will forgive you; and it must of necessity be true. No god could afford
+to damn a forgiving man. Suppose God should damn to everlasting fire a
+man so great and good, that he, looking from the abyss of hell, would
+forgive God,--how would a god feel then?
+
+Now let me make myself plain upon one subject, perfectly plain. For
+instance, I hate Presbyterianism, but I know hundreds of splendid
+Presbyterians. Understand me. I hate Methodism, and yet I know hundreds
+of splendid Methodists. I hate Catholicism, and like Catholics. I hate
+insanity but not the insane.
+
+I do not war against men. I do not war against persons. I war against
+certain doctrines that I believe to be wrong. But I give to every other
+human being every right that I claim for myself.
+
+The next thing that I find is in the seventh chapter and the second
+verse: "For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with
+what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again." Good! That
+suits me!
+
+And in the twelfth chapter of Matthew: "For whosoever shall do the will
+of my Father that is in heaven, the same is my brother and sister and
+mother. For the son of man shall come in the glory of his father with
+his angels, and then he shall reward every man according.... To the
+church he belongs to? No. To the manner in which he was baptized? No.
+According to his creed? No. Then he shall reward every man according to
+his works." Good! I subscribe to that doctrine.
+
+And in the eighteenth chapter: "And Jesus called a little child to him
+and stood him in the midst; and said, 'Verily I say unto you, except ye
+be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into
+the kingdom of heaven.'" I do not wonder that in his day, surrounded by
+scribes and Pharisees, he turned lovingly to little children.
+
+And yet, see what children the little children of God have been. What
+an interesting dimpled darling John Calvin was. Think of that
+prattling babe, Jonathan Edwards! Think of the infants that founded the
+Inquisition, that invented instruments of torture to tear human flesh.
+They were the ones who had become as little children. They were the
+children of faith.
+
+So I find in the nineteenth chapter: "And behold, one came and said unto
+him: 'Good master, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal
+life?' And he said unto him, 'Why callest thou me good? There is none
+good but one, that is God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the
+commandments.' He saith unto him, 'which?'"
+
+Now, there is a fair issue. Here is a child of God asking God what is
+necessary for him to do in order to inherit eternal life. And God said
+to him: Keep the commandments. And the child said to the Almighty:
+"Which?" Now, if there ever has been an opportunity given to the
+Almighty to furnish a man of an inquiring mind with the necessary
+information upon that subject, here was the opportunity. "He said unto
+him, which? And Jesus said: Thou shalt do no murder; thou shalt not
+commit adultery; thou shalt not steal; thou shalt not bear false
+witness; honor thy father and mother; and thou shalt love thy neighbor
+as thyself."
+
+He did not say to him: "You must believe in me--that I am the only
+begotten son of the living God." He did not say: "You must be born
+again." He did not say: "You must believe the Bible." He did not say:
+"You must remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." He simply said:
+"Thou shalt do no murder. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt
+not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness. Honor thy father and thy
+mother; and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." And thereupon the
+young man, who I think was mistaken, said unto him: "All these things
+have I kept from my youth up."
+
+What right has the church to add conditions of salvation? Why should we
+suppose that Christ failed to tell the young man all that was necessary
+for him to do? Is it possible that he left out some important thing
+simply to mislead? Will some minister tell us why he thinks that Christ
+kept back the "scheme"?
+
+Now comes an interpolation.
+
+In the old times when the church got a little scarce of money, they
+always put in a passage praising poverty. So they had this young man
+ask: "What lack I yet? And Jesus said unto him: If thou wilt be perfect,
+go and sell that thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have
+treasure in heaven."
+
+The church has always been willing to swap off treasures in heaven for
+cash down. And when the next verse was written the church must have been
+nearly bankrupt. "And again I say unto you, it is easier for a camel
+to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into
+the kingdom of God." Did you ever know a wealthy disciple to unload on
+account of that verse?
+
+And then comes another verse, which I believe is an interpolation: "And
+everyone that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father,
+or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall
+receive an hundred fold, and shall inherit everlasting life."
+
+Christ never said it. Never. "Whosoever shall forsake father and
+mother."
+
+Why, he said to this man that asked him, "What shall I do to inherit
+eternal life?" among other things, he said: "Honor thy father and thy
+mother." And we turn over the page and he says again: "If you will
+desert your father and mother you shall have everlasting life." It will
+not do. If you will desert your wife and your little children, or your
+lands--the idea of putting a house and lot on equality with wife and
+children! Think of that! I do not accept the terms. I will never desert
+the one I love for the promise of any god.
+
+It is far more important to love your wife than to love God, and I will
+tell you why. You cannot help him, but you can help her. You can fill
+her life with the perfume of perpetual joy. It is far more important
+that you love your children than that you love Jesus Christ. And why?
+If he is God you cannot help him, but you can plant a little flower of
+happiness in every footstep of the child, from the cradle until you die
+in that child's arms. Let me tell you to-day it is far more important
+to build a home than to erect a church. The holiest temple beneath the
+stars is a home that love has built. And the holiest altar in all the
+wide world is the fireside around which gather father and mother and the
+sweet babes.
+
+There was a time when people believed the infamy commanded in this
+frightful passage. There was a time when they did desert fathers and
+mothers and wives and children. St. Augustine says to the devotee: Fly
+to the desert, and though your wife put her arms around your neck, tear
+her hands away; she is a temptation of the devil. Though your father and
+mother throw their bodies athwart your threshold, step over them; and
+though your children pursue, and with weeping' eyes beseech you to
+return, listen not. It is the temptation of the evil one. Fly to the
+desert and save your soul. Think of such a soul being worth saving.
+While I live I propose to stand by the ones I love.
+
+There is another condition of salvation. I find it in the twenty-fifth
+chapter: "Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come,
+ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the
+foundation of the world. For I was an hungered and ye gave me meat; I
+was thirsty and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger and ye took me in;
+naked and ye clothed me; I was sick and ye visited me; I was in prison
+and ye came unto me." Good!
+
+I tell you to-night that God will not punish with eternal thirst the man
+who has put the cup of cold water to the lips of his neighbor. God will
+not leave in the eternal nakedness of pain the man who has clothed his
+fellow-men.
+
+For instance, here is a shipwreck, and here is some brave sailor who
+stands aside and allows a woman whom he never saw before to take his
+place in the boat, and he stands there, grand and serene as the wide
+sea, and he goes down. Do you tell me that there is any God who will
+push the lifeboat from the shore of eternal life, when that man wishes
+to step in? Do you tell me that God can be unpitying to the pitiful,
+that he can be unforgiving to the forgiving? I deny it; and from the
+aspersions of the pulpit I seek to rescue the reputation of the Deity.
+
+Now, I have read you substantially everything in Matthew on the subject
+of salvation. That is all there is. Not one word about believing
+anything. It is the gospel of deed, the gospel of charity, the gospel
+of self-denial; and if only that gospel had been preached, persecution
+never would have shed one drop of blood. Not one.
+
+According to the testimony Matthew was well acquainted with Christ.
+According to the testimony, he had been with him, and his companion for
+years, and if it was necessary to believe anything in order to get to
+heaven, Matthew should have told us. But he forgot it, or he did not
+believe it, or he never heard of it. You can take your choice.
+
+In Matthew, we find that heaven is promised, first, to the poor in
+spirit. Second, to the merciful. Third, to the pure in heart. Fourth, to
+the peacemakers. Fifth, to those who are persecuted for righteousness'
+sake. Sixth, to those who keep and teach the commandments. Seventh, to
+those who forgive men that trespass against them. Eighth, that we will
+be judged as we judge others. Ninth, that they who receive prophets and
+righteous men shall receive a prophet's reward. Tenth, to those who do
+the will of God. Eleventh, that every man shall be rewarded according to
+his works. Twelfth, to those who become as little children. Thirteenth,
+to those who forgive the trespasses of others. Fourteenth, to the
+perfect: they who sell all that they have and give to the poor.
+Fifteenth, to them who forsake houses, and brethren, and sisters, and
+father, and mother, and wife, and children, and lands for the sake of
+Christ's name. Sixteenth, to those who feed the hungry, give drink to
+the thirsty, shelter to the stranger, clothes to the naked, comfort to
+the sick, and who visit the prisoner.
+
+Nothing else is said with regard to salvation in the gospel according to
+St. Matthew. Not one word about believing the Old Testament to have been
+inspired; not one word about being baptized or joining a church; not
+one word about believing in any miracle; not even a hint that it was
+necessary to believe that Christ was the son of God, or that he did any
+wonderful or miraculous things, or that he was born of a virgin, or that
+his coming had been foretold by the Jewish prophets. Not one word
+about believing in the Trinity, or in foreordination or predestination.
+Matthew had not understood from Christ that any such things were
+necessary to ensure the salvation of the soul.
+
+According to the testimony, Matthew had been in the company of Christ,
+some say three years and some say one, but at least he had been with him
+long enough to find out some of his ideas upon this great subject. And
+yet Matthew never got the impression that it was necessary to believe
+something in order to get to heaven. He supposed that if a man forgave
+others God would forgive him; he believed that God would show mercy
+to the merciful; that he would not allow those who fed the hungry to
+starve; that he would not put in the flames of hell those who had given
+cold water to the thirsty; that he would not cast into the eternal
+dungeon of his wrath those who had visited the imprisoned; and that he
+would not damn men who forgave others.
+
+Matthew had it in his mind that God would treat us very much as we
+treated other people; and that in the next world he would treat with
+kindness those who had been loving and gentle in their lives. It may be
+the apostle was mistaken; but evidently that was his opinion.
+
+
+
+
+III. THE GOSPEL OF MARK
+
+ET us now see what Mark thought it necessary for a man to do to save his
+soul. In the fourth chapter, after Jesus had given to the multitude by
+the sea the parable of the sower, his disciples, when they were again
+alone, asked him the meaning of the parable. Jesus replied:
+
+"Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but
+unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables:
+
+"That seeing, they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear,
+and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their
+sins should be forgiven them."
+
+It is a little hard to understand why he should have preached to people
+that he did not intend should know his meaning. Neither is it quite
+clear why he objected to their being converted. This, I suppose, is one
+of the mysteries that we should simply believe without endeavoring to
+comprehend.
+
+With the above exception, and one other that I will mention hereafter,
+Mark substantially agrees with Matthew, and says that God will be
+merciful to the merciful, that he will be kind to the kind, that he
+will pity the pitying, and love the loving. Mark upholds the religion
+of Matthew until we come to the fifteenth and sixteenth verses of
+the sixteenth chapter, and then I strike an interpolation put in by
+hypocrisy, put in by priests who longed to grasp with bloody hands
+the sceptre of universal power. Let me read it to you. It is the most
+infamous passage in the Bible. Christ never said it. No sensible man
+ever said it.
+
+"And He said unto them" (that is, unto his disciples), "go ye into all
+the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and
+is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned."
+
+That passage was written so that fear would give alms to hypocrisy. Now,
+I propose to prove to you that this is an interpolation. How will I do
+it? In the first place, not one word is said about belief, in Matthew.
+In the next place, not one word about belief, in Mark, until I come to
+that verse, and where is that said to have been spoken? According to
+Mark, it is a part of the last conversation of Jesus Christ,--just
+before, according to the account, he ascended bodily before their eyes.
+If there ever was any important thing happened in this world that was
+it. If there is any conversation that people would be apt to recollect,
+it would be the last conversation with a god before he rose visibly
+through the air and seated himself upon the throne of the infinite. We
+have in this Testament five accounts of the last conversation happening
+between Jesus Christ and his apostles. Matthew gives it, and yet Matthew
+does not state that in that conversation Christ said: "Whoso believeth
+and is baptized shall be saved, and whoso believeth not shall be
+damned." And if he did say those words they were the most important that
+ever fell from lips. Matthew did not hear it, or did not believe it, or
+forgot it.
+
+Then I turn to Luke, and he gives an account of this same last
+conversation, and not one word does he say upon that subject. Luke does
+not pretend that Christ said that whoso believeth not shall be damned.
+Luke certainly did not hear it. May be he forgot it. Perhaps he did not
+think that it was worth recording. Now, it is the most important thing,
+if Christ said it, that he ever said.
+
+Then I turn to John, and he gives an account of the last conversation,
+but not one solitary word on the subject of belief or unbelief. Not one
+solitary word on the subject of damnation. Not one. John might not have
+been listening.
+
+Then I turn to the first chapter of the Acts, and there I find an
+account of the last conversation; and in that conversation there is not
+one word upon this subject. This is a demonstration that the passage in
+Mark is an interpolation. What other reason have I got? There is not one
+particle of sense in it. Why? No man can control his belief. You hear
+evidence for and against, and the integrity of the soul stands at the
+scales and tells which side rises and which side falls. You can not
+believe as you wish. You must believe as you must. And he might as well
+have said: "Go into the world and preach the gospel, and whosoever has
+red hair shall be saved, and whosoever hath not shall be damned."
+
+I have another reason. I am much obliged to the gentleman who
+interpolated these passages. I am much obliged to him that he put in
+some more--two more. Now hear:
+
+"And these signs shall follow them that believe." Good!
+
+"In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new
+tongues; they shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing
+it shall not hurt them. They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall
+recover."
+
+Bring on your believer! Let him cast out a devil. I do not ask for a
+large one. Just a little one for a cent. Let him take up serpents. "And
+if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them." Let me mix up a
+dose for the believer, and if it does not hurt him I will join a church.
+"Oh! but," they say, "those things only lasted through the Apostolic
+age." Let us see. "Go into all the world and preach the gospel, and
+whosoever believes and is baptized shall be saved, and these signs shall
+follow them that believe."
+
+How long? I think at least until they had gone into all the world.
+Certainly those signs should follow until all the world had been
+visited. And yet if that declaration was in the mouth of Christ, he then
+knew that one-half of the world was unknown, and that he would be dead
+fourteen hundred and fifty-nine years before his disciples would know
+that there was another continent. And yet he said, "Go into all the
+world and preach the gospel," and he knew then that it would be fourteen
+hundred and fifty-nine years before anybody could go. Well, if it was
+worth while to have signs follow believers in the Old World, surely it
+was worth while to have signs follow believers in the New. And the very
+reason that signs should follow would be to convince the unbeliever,
+and there are as many unbelievers now as ever, and the signs are as
+necessary to-day as they ever were. I would like a few myself.
+
+This frightful declaration, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be
+saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned," has filled the world
+with agony and crime. Every letter of this passage has been sword and
+fagot; every word has been dungeon and chain. That passage made the
+sword of persecution drip with innocent blood through centuries of agony
+and crime. That passage made the horizon of a thousand years lurid with
+the fagot's flames. That passage contradicts the Sermon on the Mount;
+travesties the Lord's prayer; turns the splendid religion of deed
+and duty into the superstition of creed and cruelty. I deny it. It is
+infamous! Christ never said it!
+
+
+
+
+IV. THE GOSPEL OF LUKE.
+
+IT is sufficient to say that Luke agrees substantially with Matthew and
+Mark.
+
+"Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful." Good!
+
+"Judge not and ye shall not be judged: condemn not and ye shall not be
+condemned: forgive and ye shall be forgiven." Good!
+
+"Give and it shall be given unto you: good measure, pressed down, and
+shaken together, and running over." Good! I like it.
+
+"For with the same measure that ye mete withal, it shall be measured to
+you again."
+
+He agrees substantially with Mark; he agrees substantially with Matthew;
+and I come at last to the nineteenth chapter.
+
+"And Zaccheus stood and said unto the Lord, 'Behold, Lord, the half of
+my goods I give to the poor, and if I have taken anything from any man
+by false accusation, I restore him four fold.' And Jesus said unto him,
+'this day is salvation come to this house.'"
+
+That is good doctrine. He did not ask Zaccheus what he believed. He did
+not ask him, "Do you believe in the Bible? Do you believe in the five
+points? Have you ever been baptized--sprinkled? Or immersed?" "Half of
+my goods I give to the poor, and if I have taken anything from any man
+by false accusation, I restore him four fold." "And Christ said, this
+day is salvation come to this house." Good!
+
+I read also in Luke that Christ when upon the cross forgave his
+murderers, and that is considered the shining gem in the crown of his
+mercy. He forgave his murderers. He forgave the men who drove the nails
+in his hands, in his feet, that plunged a spear in his side; the soldier
+that in the hour of death offered him in mockery the bitterness to
+drink. He forgave them all freely, and yet, although he would forgive
+them, he will in the nineteenth century, as we are told by the orthodox
+church, damn to eternal fire a noble man for the expression of his
+honest thoughts. That will not do. I find, too, in Luke, an account
+of two thieves that were crucified at the same time. The other gospels
+speak of them. One says they both railed upon him. Another says nothing
+about it. In Luke we are told that one railed upon him, but one of the
+thieves looked and pitied Christ, and Christ said to that thief:
+
+"To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise." Why did he say that? Because
+the thief pitied him. God can not afford to trample beneath the feet
+of his infinite wrath the smallest blossom of pity that ever shed its
+perfume in the human heart!
+
+Who was this thief? To what church did he belong? I do not know. The
+fact that he was a thief throws no light on that question. Who was he?
+What did he believe? I do not know. Did he believe in the Old Testament?
+In the miracles? I do not know. Did he believe that Christ was God? I
+do not know. Why then was the promise made to him that he should meet
+Christ in Paradise? Simply because he pitied suffering innocence upon
+the cross.
+
+God can not afford to damn any man who is capable of pitying anybody.
+
+
+
+
+V. THE GOSPEL OF JOHN
+
+AND now we come to John, and that is where the trouble commences.
+
+The other gospels teach that God will be merciful to the merciful,
+forgiving to the forgiving, kind to the kind, loving to the loving, just
+to the just, merciful to the good.
+
+Now we come to John, and here is another doctrine. And allow me to say
+that John was not written until long after the others. John was mostly
+written by the church.
+
+"Jesus answered and said unto him: Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
+Except a man be born again he can not see the kingdom of God."
+
+Why did he not tell Matthew that? Why did he not tell Luke that? Why did
+he not tell Mark that? They never heard of it, or forgot it, or they did
+not believe it.
+
+"Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he can not enter into
+the kingdom of God." Why?
+
+"That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of
+the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born
+again." "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is
+born of the Spirit is spirit," and he might have added, that which is
+born of water is water.
+
+"Marvel not that I said unto thee, 'ye must be born again.'" And then
+the reason is given, and I admit I did not understand it myself until I
+read the reason, and when you hear the reason, you will understand it
+as well as I do; and here it is: "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and
+thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and
+whither it goeth." So, I find in the book of John the idea of the Real
+Presence.
+
+"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the
+Son of man be lifted up; That whosoever believeth in him should not
+perish, but have eternal life."
+
+"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that
+whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.
+
+"For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that
+the world through him might be saved.
+
+"He that believeth on him is not condemned; but he that believeth not is
+condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only
+begotten Son of God."
+
+"He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that
+believeth not the Son, shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth
+on him." "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and
+believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come
+into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
+
+"Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is, when
+the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear
+shall live."
+
+"And shall come forth; they that have done good unto the resurrection
+of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of
+damnation."-"And this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone
+which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life;
+and I will raise him up at the last day."
+
+"No man can come to me, except the Father, which hath sent me, draw him;
+and I will raise him up at the last day."
+
+"Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath
+everlasting life.
+
+"I am that bread of life.
+
+"Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead.
+
+"This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat
+thereof, and not die.
+
+"I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of
+this bread he shall live forever; and the bread that I will give is my
+flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."
+
+"Then Jesus said unto them, verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye
+eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, ye have no life in
+you.
+
+"Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I
+will raise him up at the last day.
+
+"For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.
+
+"He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I
+in him.
+
+"As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father; so he that
+eateth me, even he shall live by me.
+
+"This is that bread which came down from heaven; not as your fathers
+did eat manna, and are dead; he that eateth of this bread shall live
+forever."
+
+"And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me,
+except it were given unto him of my Father."
+
+"Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life; he that
+believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.
+
+"And whosoever liveth and believeth in me, shall never die."
+
+"He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in
+this world, shall keep it unto life eternal."
+
+So I find in the book of John, that in order to be saved we must not
+only believe in Jesus Christ, but we must eat the flesh and we must
+drink the blood of Jesus Christ. If that gospel is true, the Catholic
+Church is right. But it is not true. I can not believe it, and yet for
+all that, it may be true. But I do not believe it. Neither do I
+believe there is any god in the universe who will damn a man simply for
+expressing his belief.
+
+"Why," they say to me, "suppose all this should turn out to be true, and
+you should come to the day of judgment and find all these things to be
+true. What would you do then?" I would walk up like a man, and say, "I
+was mistaken."
+
+"And suppose God was about to pass judgment upon you, what would you
+say?" I would say to him, "Do unto others as you would that others
+should do unto you." Why not?
+
+I am told that I must render good for evil. I am told that if smitten
+on one cheek I must turn the other. I am told that I must overcome evil
+with good. I am told that I must love my enemies; and will it do for
+this God who tells me to love my enemies to damn his? No, it will not
+do. It will not do.
+
+In the book of John all these doctrines of regeneration--that it is
+necessary to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ; that salvation depends
+upon belief--in this book of John all these doctrines find their
+warrant; nowhere else.
+
+Read Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and then read John, and you will agree
+with me that the three first gospels teach that if we are kind and
+forgiving to our fellows, God will be kind and forgiving to us. In John
+we are told that another man can be good for us, or bad for us, and that
+the only way to get to heaven is to believe something that we know is
+not so.
+
+All these passages about believing in Christ, drinking his blood
+and eating his flesh, are afterthoughts. They were written by the
+theologians, and in a few years they will be considered unworthy of the
+lips of Christ.
+
+
+
+
+VI. THE CATHOLICS
+
+NOW, upon these gospels that I have read the churches rest; and out of
+these things, mistakes and interpolations, they have made their
+creeds. And the first church to make a creed, so far as I know, was the
+Catholic. It was the first church that had any power. That is the church
+that has preserved all these miracles for us. That is the church that
+preserved the manuscripts for us. That is the church whose word we have
+to take. That church is the first witness that Protestantism brought to
+the bar of history to prove miracles that took place eighteen hundred
+years ago; and while the witness is there Protestantism takes pains to
+say: "You cannot believe one word that witness says, _now_."
+
+That church is the only one that keeps up a constant communication with
+heaven through the instrumentality of a large number of decayed saints.
+That church has an agent of God on earth, has a person who stands in
+the place of deity; and that church is infallible. That church has
+persecuted to the exact extent of her power--and always will. In Spain
+that church stands erect, and is arrogant. In the United States that
+church crawls; but the object in both countries is the same--and that is
+the destruction of intellectual liberty. That church teaches us that we
+can make God happy by being miserable ourselves; that a nun is holier in
+the sight of God than a loving mother with her child in her thrilled and
+thrilling arms; that a priest is better than a father; that celibacy is
+better than that passion of love that has made everything of beauty in
+this world. That church tells the girl of sixteen or eighteen years of
+age, with eyes like dew and light; that girl with the red of health in
+the white of her beautiful cheeks--tells that girl, "Put on the veil,
+woven of death and night, kneel upon stones, and you will please God."
+
+I tell you that, by law, no girl should be allowed to take the veil and
+renounce the joys and beauties of this life.
+
+I am opposed to allowing these spider-like priests to weave webs
+to catch the loving maidens of the world. There ought to be a law
+appointing commissioners to visit such places twice a year and release
+every person who expresses a desire to be released. I do not believe in
+keeping the penitentiaries of God. No doubt they are honest about it.
+That is not the question. These ignorant superstitions fill millions of
+lives with weariness and pain, with agony and tears.
+
+This church, after a few centuries of thought, made a creed, and that
+creed is the foundation of the orthodox religion. Let me read it to you:
+
+"Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he
+hold the Catholic faith; which faith except every one do keep entire and
+inviolate, without doubt, he shall everlastingly perish." Now the faith
+is this: "That we worship one God in trinity and trinity in unity."
+
+Of course you understand how that is done, and there is no need of
+my explaining it. "Neither confounding the persons nor dividing the
+substance." You see what a predicament that would leave the deity in if
+you divided the substance.
+
+"For one is the person of the Father, another of the Son, and another
+of the Holy Ghost; but the Godhead of the Father, and of the Son, and of
+the Holy Ghost is all one"--you know what I mean by Godhead. "In glory
+equal, and in majesty coëternal. Such as the Father is, such is the Son,
+such is the Holy Ghost. The Father is uncreated, the Son uncreated,
+the Holy Ghost uncreated. The Father incomprehensible, the Son
+incomprehensible, the Holy Ghost incomprehensible." And that is the
+reason we know so much about the thing. "The Father is eternal, the Son
+eternal, the Holy Ghost eternal, and yet there are not three eternals,
+only one eternal, as also there are not three uncreated, nor three
+incomprehensibles, only one uncreated, one incomprehensible."
+
+"In like manner, the Father is almighty, the Son almighty, the Holy
+Ghost almighty. Yet there are not three almighties, only one Almighty.
+So the Father is God, the Son God, the Holy Ghost God, and yet not three
+Gods; and so, likewise, the Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, the Holy
+Ghost is Lord, yet there are not three Lords, for as we are compelled by
+the Christian truth to acknowledge every person by himself to be God and
+Lord, so we are all forbidden by the Catholic religion to say there are
+three Gods, or three Lords. The Father is made of no one; not created or
+begotten. The Son is from the Father alone, not made, not created, but
+begotten. The Holy Ghost is from the Father and the Son, not made nor
+begotten, but proceeding."
+
+You know what proceeding is.
+
+"So there is one Father, not three Fathers." Why should there be three
+fathers, and only one Son? "One Son, and not three Sons; one Holy Ghost,
+not three Holy Ghosts; and in this Trinity there is nothing before or
+afterward, nothing greater or less, but the whole three persons are
+coëternal with one another and coëqual, so that in all things the unity
+is to be worshiped in Trinity, and the Trinity is to be worshiped
+in unity. Those who will be saved must thus think of the Trinity.
+Furthermore, it is necessary to everlasting salvation that he also
+believe rightly the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now the right
+of this thing is this: That we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus
+Christ, the Son of God, is both God and man. He is God of the substance
+of his Father begotten before the world was."
+
+That was a good while before his mother lived. "And he is man of the
+substance of his mother, born in this world, perfect God and perfect
+man, and the rational soul in human flesh, subsisting equal to the
+Father according to his Godhead, but less than the Father according to
+his manhood, who being both God and man is not two but one, one not
+by conversion of God into flesh, but by the taking of the manhood into
+God." You see that is a great deal easier than the other way would be.
+
+"One altogether, not by a confusion of substance but by unity of person,
+for as the rational soul and the flesh is one man, so God and man is one
+Christ, who suffered for our salvation, descended into hell, rose again
+the third day from the dead, ascended into heaven, and he sitteth at the
+right hand of God, the Father Almighty, and He shall come to judge the
+living and the dead." In order to be saved it is necessary to believe
+this. What a blessing that we do not have to understand it. And in order
+to compel the human intellect to get upon its knees before that infinite
+absurdity, thousands and millions have suffered agonies; thousands and
+thousands have perished in dungeons and in fire; and if all the bones
+of all the victims of the Catholic Church could be gathered together,
+a monument higher than all the pyramids would rise, in the presence of
+which the eyes even of priests would be wet with tears.
+
+That church covered Europe with cathedrals and dungeons, and robbed men
+of the jewel of the soul. That church had ignorance upon its knees. That
+church went in partnership with the tyrants of the throne, and between
+those two vultures, the altar and the throne, the heart of man was
+devoured.
+
+Of course I have met, and cheerfully admit that there are thousands
+of good Catholics; but Catholicism is contrary to human liberty.
+Catholicism bases salvation upon belief. Catholicism teaches man to
+trample his reason under foot. And for that reason it is wrong.
+
+Thousands of volumes could not contain the crimes of the Catholic
+Church. They could not contain even the names of her victims. With sword
+and fire, with rack and chain, with dungeon and whip she endeavored to
+convert the world. In weakness a beggar--in power a highwayman,--alms
+dish or dagger--tramp or tyrant.
+
+
+
+
+VII. THE EPISCOPALIANS
+
+THE next church I wish to speak of is the Episcopalian. That was
+founded by Henry VIII., now in heaven. He cast off Queen Catherine and
+Catholicism together, and he accepted Episcopalianism and Annie Boleyn
+at the same time. That church, if it had a few more ceremonies, would be
+Catholic. If it had a few less, nothing. We have an Episcopalian Church
+in this country, and it has all the imperfections of a poor relation. It
+is always boasting of its rich relative. In England the creed is made
+by law, the same as we pass statutes here. And when a gentleman dies in
+England, in order to determine whether he shall be saved or not, it is
+necessary for the power of heaven to read the acts of Parliament. It
+becomes a question of law, and sometimes a man is damned on a very nice
+point. Lost on demurrer.
+
+A few years ago, a gentleman by the name of Seabury, Samuel Seabury, was
+sent over to England to get some apostolic succession. We had not a drop
+in the house. It was necessary for the bishops of the English Church
+to put their hands upon his head. They refused. There was no act of
+Parliament justifying it. He had then to go to the Scotch bishops; and,
+had the Scotch bishops refused, we never would have had any apostolic
+succession in the New World, and God would have been driven out of half
+the earth, and the true church never could have been founded upon this
+continent. But the Scotch bishops put their hands on his head, and now
+we have an unbroken succession of heads and hands from St. Paul to the
+last bishop.
+
+In this country the Episcopalians have done some good, and I want
+to thank that church. Having on an average less religion than the
+others--on an average you have done more good to mankind. You preserved
+some of the humanities. You did not hate music; you did not absolutely
+despise painting, and you did not altogether abhor architecture, and you
+finally admitted that it was no worse to keep time with your feet than
+with your hands. And some went so far as to say that people could play
+cards, and that God would overlook it, or would look the other way. For
+all these things accept my thanks.
+
+When I was a boy, the other churches looked upon dancing as probably the
+mysterious sin against the Holy Ghost; and they used to teach that when
+four boys got in a hay-mow, playing seven-up, that the eternal God stood
+whetting the sword of his eternal wrath waiting to strike them down to
+the lowest hell. That church has done some good.
+
+The Episcopal creed is substantially like the Catholic, containing a few
+additional absurdities. The Episcopalians teach that it is easier to
+get forgiveness for sin after you have been baptized. They seem to think
+that the moment you are baptized you become a member of the firm, and as
+such are entitled to wickedness at cost. This church is utterly unsuited
+to a free people. Its government is tyrannical, supercilious and absurd.
+Bishops talk as though they were responsible for the souls in their
+charge. They wear vests that button on one side. Nothing is so essential
+to the clergy of this denomination as a good voice. The Episcopalians
+have persecuted just to the extent of their power. Their treatment of
+the Irish has been a crime--a crime lasting for three hundred years.
+That church persecuted the Puritans of England and the Presbyterians of
+Scotland. In England the altar is the mistress of the throne, and this
+mistress has always looked at honest wives with scorn.
+
+
+
+
+VIII. THE METHODISTS
+
+ABOUT a hundred and fifty years ago, two men, John Wesley and George
+Whitfield, said, If everybody is going to hell, somebody ought to
+mention it. The Episcopal clergy said: Keep still; do not tear your
+gown. Wesley and Whitfield said: This frightful truth ought to be
+proclaimed from the housetop of every opportunity, from the highway
+of every occasion. They were good, honest men. They believed their
+doctrine. And they said: If there is a hell, and a Niagara of souls
+pouring over an eternal precipice of ignorance, somebody ought to say
+something. They were right; somebody ought, if such a thing is true.
+Wesley was a believer in the Bible. He believed in the actual presence
+of the Almighty.
+
+God used to do miracles for him; used to put off a rain several days to
+give his meeting a chance; used to cure his horse of lameness; used to
+cure Mr. Wesley's headaches.
+
+And Mr. Wesley also believed in the actual existence of the devil. He
+believed that devils had possession of people. He talked to the devil
+when he was in folks, and the devil told him that he was going to leave;
+and that he was going into another person. That he would be there at a
+certain time; and Wesley went to that other person, and there the devil
+was, prompt to the minute. He regarded every conversion as warfare
+between God and this devil for the possession of that human soul, and
+that in the warfare God had gained the victory. Honest, no doubt. Mr.
+Wesley did not believe in human liberty. Honest, no doubt. Was opposed
+to the liberty of the colonies. Honestly so. Mr. Wesley preached a
+sermon entitled: "The Cause and Cure of Earthquakes," in which he took
+the ground that earthquakes were caused by sin; and the only way to stop
+them was to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. No doubt an honest man.
+
+Wesley and Whitfield fell out on the question of predestination. Wesley
+insisted that God invited everybody to the feast. Whitfield said he did
+not invite those he knew would not come. Wesley said he did. Whitfield
+said: Well, he did not put plates for them, anyway. Wesley said he did.
+So that, when they were in hell he could show them that there was a
+seat left for them. The church that they founded is still active. And
+probably no church in the world has done so much preaching for as little
+money as the Methodists. Whitfield believed in slavery, and advocated
+the slave-trade. And it was of Whitfield that Whittier made the two
+lines:
+
+     "He bade the slave ships speed from coast to coast,
+     Fanned by the wings of the Holy Ghost."
+
+We have lately had a meeting of the Methodists, and I find by their
+statistics that they believe that they have converted 130,000 folks in
+a year. That, in order to do this, they have 26,000 preachers, 226,000
+Sunday school scholars, and about $100,000,000 invested in church
+property. I find, in looking over the history of the world, that there
+are 40,000,000 or 50,000,000 of people born a year, and if they are
+saved at the rate of 130,000 a year, about how long will it take that
+doctrine to save this world? Good, honest people; but they are mistaken.
+
+In old times they were very simple. Churches used to be like barns. They
+used to have them divided--men on that side, and women on this. A little
+barbarous. We have advanced since then, and we now find as a fact,
+demonstrated by experience, that a man sitting by the woman he loves
+can thank God as heartily as though sitting between two men that he has
+never been introduced to.
+
+There is another thing the Methodists should remember, and that is that
+the Episcopalians were the greatest enemies they ever had. And they
+should remember that the Freethinkers have always treated them kindly
+and well.
+
+There is one thing about the Methodist Church in the North that I like.
+But I find that it is not Methodism that does that. I find that the
+Methodist Church in the South is as much opposed to liberty as the
+Methodist Church North is in favor of liberty. So it is not Methodism
+that is in favor of liberty or slavery. They differ a little in their
+creed from the rest. They do not believe that God does everything. They
+believe that he does his part, and that you must do the rest, and that
+getting to heaven is a partnership business. The Methodist Church is
+adapted to new countries--its ministers are generally uncultured, and
+with them zeal takes the place of knowledge. They convert people with
+noise. In the silence that follows most of the converts backslide.
+
+In a little while a struggle will commence between the few who are
+growing and the orthodox many. The few will be driven out, and the
+church will be governed by those who believe without understanding.
+
+
+
+
+IX. THE PRESBYTERIANS
+
+THE next church is the Presbyterian, and in my judgment the worst of
+all, as far as creed is concerned. This church was founded by John
+Calvin, a murderer!
+
+John Calvin, having power in Geneva, inaugurated human torture. Voltaire
+abolished torture in France. The man who abolished torture, if the
+Christian religion be true, God is now torturing in hell, and the man
+who inaugurated torture, is now a glorified angel in heaven. It will not
+do.
+
+John Knox started this doctrine in Scotland, and there is this
+peculiarity about Presbyterianism--it grows best where the soil is
+poorest. I read the other day an account of a meeting between John Knox
+and John Calvin. Imagine a dialogue between a pestilence and a famine!
+Imagine a conversation between a block and an ax! As I read their
+conversation it seemed to me as though John Knox and John Calvin were
+made for each other; that they fitted each other like the upper and
+lower jaws of a wild beast. They believed happiness was a crime; they
+looked upon laughter as blasphemy; and they did all they could to
+destroy every human feeling, and to fill the mind with the infinite
+gloom of predestination and eternal death. They taught the doctrine that
+God had a right to damn us because he made us. That is just the reason
+that he has not a right to damn us. There is some dust. Unconscious
+dust! What right has God to change that unconscious dust into a human
+being, when he knows that human being will sin; when he knows that human
+being will suffer eternal agony? Why not leave him in the unconscious
+dust? What right has an infinite God to add to the sum of human agony?
+Suppose I knew that I could change that piece of furniture into a
+living, sentient human being, and I knew that that being would suffer
+untold agony forever. If I did it, I would be a fiend. I would leave
+that being in the unconscious dust.
+
+And yet we are told that we must believe such a doctrine or we are to be
+eternally damned! It will not do.
+
+In 1839 there was a division in this church, and they had a lawsuit to
+see which was the church of God. And they tried it by a judge and jury,
+and the jury decided that the new school was the church of God, and then
+they got a new trial, and the next jury decided that the old school
+was the church of God, and that settled it. That church teaches that
+infinite innocence was sacrificed for me! I do not want it! I do not
+wish to go to heaven unless I can settle by the books, and go there
+because I ought to go there. I have said, and I say again, I do not wish
+to be a charity angel. I have no ambition to become a winged pauper of
+the skies.
+
+The other day a young gentleman, a Presbyterian who had just been
+converted, came to me and he gave me a tract, and he told me he was
+perfectly happy. Said I, "Do you think a great many people are going to
+hell?" "Oh, yes." "And you are perfectly happy?" Well, he did not know
+as he was, quite. "Would not you be happier if they were all going to
+heaven?" "Oh, yes." "Well, then, you are not perfectly happy?" No,
+he did not think he was. "When you get to heaven, then you will be
+perfectly happy?" "Oh, yes." "Now, when we are only going to hell, you
+are not quite happy; but when we are in hell, and you in heaven, then
+you will be perfectly happy? You will not be as decent when you get to
+be an angel as you are now, will you?" "Well," he said, "that was not
+exactly it." Said I, "Suppose your mother were in hell, would you be
+happy in heaven then?" "Well," he says, "I suppose God would know the
+best place for mother." And I thought to myself, then, if I was a woman,
+I would like to have five or six boys like that.
+
+It will not do. Heaven is where those are we love, and those who love
+us. And I wish to go to no world unless I can be accompanied by those
+who love me here. Talk about the consolations of this infamous doctrine.
+The consolations of a doctrine that makes a father say, "I can be happy
+with my daughter in hell;" that makes a mother say, "I can be happy with
+my generous, brave boy in hell;" that makes a boy say, "I can enjoy the
+glory of heaven with the woman who bore me, the woman _who would have
+died for me_, in eternal agony." And they call that tidings of great
+joy.
+
+No church has done more to fill the world with gloom than the
+Presbyterian. Its creed is frightful, hideous, and hellish. The
+Presbyterian god is the monster of monsters. He is an eternal
+executioner, jailer and turnkey. He will enjoy forever the shrieks
+of the lost,--the wails of the damned. Hell is the festival of the
+Presbyterian god.
+
+
+
+
+X. THE EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE.
+
+I HAVE not time to speak of the Baptists,--that Jeremy Taylor said
+were as much to be rooted out as anything that is the greatest pest and
+nuisance on the earth. He hated the Baptists because they represented,
+in some little degree, the liberty of thought. Nor have I time to speak
+of the Quakers, the best of all, and abused by all.
+
+I cannot forget that John Fox, in the year of grace 1640, was put in
+the pillory and whipped from town to town, scarred, put in a dungeon,
+beaten, trampled upon, and what for? Simply because he preached the
+doctrine: "Thou shalt not resist evil with evil." "Thou shalt love thy
+enemies."
+
+Think of what the church must have been that day to scar the flesh of
+that loving man! Just think of it! I say I have not time to speak of all
+these sects--the varieties of Presbyterians and Campbellites. There are
+hundreds and hundreds of these sects, all founded upon this creed that I
+read, differing simply in degree.
+
+Ah! but they say to me: You are fighting something that is dead. Nobody
+believes this now. The preachers do not believe what they preach in the
+pulpit. The people in the pews do not believe what they hear preached.
+And they say to me: You are fighting something that is dead. This is all
+a form, we do not believe a solitary creed in the world. We sign them
+and swear that we believe them, but we do not. And none of us do. And
+all the ministers, they say in private, admit that they do not believe
+it, not quite. I do not know whether this is so or not. I take it
+that they believe what they preach. I take it that when they meet and
+solemnly agree to a creed, they are honest and really believe in that
+creed. But let us see if I am waging a war against the ideas of the
+dead. Let us see if I am simply storming a cemetery.
+
+The Evangelical Alliance, made up of all orthodox denominations of the
+world, met only a few years ago, and here is their creed: They believe
+in the divine inspiration, authority and sufficiency of the holy
+Scriptures; the right and duty of private judgment in the interpretation
+of the holy Scriptures, but if you interpret wrong you are damned.
+They believe in the unity of the godhead and the Trinity of the persons
+therein. They believe in the utter depravity of human nature. There can
+be no more infamous doctrine than that. They look upon a little child as
+a lump of depravity. I look upon it as a bud of humanity, that will, in
+the air and light of love and joy, blossom into rich and glorious life.
+
+Total depravity of human nature! Here is a woman whose husband has been
+lost at sea; the news comes that he has been drowned by the ever-hungry
+waves, and she waits. There is something in her heart that tells her he
+is alive. And she waits. And years afterward as she looks down toward
+the little gate she sees him; he has been given back by the sea, and she
+rushes to his arms, and covers his face with kisses and with tears. And
+if that infamous doctrine is true every tear is a crime, and every kiss
+a blasphemy. It will not do. According to that doctrine, if a man steals
+and repents, and takes back the property, the repentance and the taking
+back of the property are two other crimes. It is an infamy. What else
+do they believe? "The justification of a sinner by faith alone," without
+works--just faith. Believing something that you do not understand. Of
+course God can not afford to reward a man for believing anything that
+is reasonable. God rewards only for believing something that is
+unreasonable. If you believe something that is improbable and
+unreasonable, you are a Christian; but if you believe something that you
+know is not so, then,--you are a saint.
+
+They believe in the eternal blessedness of the righteous, and in the
+eternal punishment of the wicked.
+
+Tidings of great joy! They are so good that they will not associate with
+Universalists. They will not associate with Unitarians; they will not
+associate with scientists; they will only associate with those who
+believe that God so loved the world that he made up his mind to damn the
+most of us.
+
+The Evangelical Alliance reiterates the absurdities of the Dark
+Ages--repeats the five points of Calvin--replenishes the fires of
+hell--certifies to the mistakes and miracles of the Bible--maligns the
+human race, and kneels to a god who accepted the agony of the innocent
+as an atonement for the guilty.
+
+
+
+
+XI. WHAT DO YOU PROPOSE?
+
+THEN they say to me: "What do you propose? You have torn this down, what
+do you propose to give us in place of it?"
+
+I have not torn the good down. I have only endeavored to trample out the
+ignorant, cruel fires of hell. I do not tear away the passage: "God will
+be merciful to the merciful." I do not destroy the promise; "If you will
+forgive others, God will forgive you." I would not for anything blot out
+the faintest star that shines in the horizon of human despair, nor in
+the sky of human hope; but I will do what I can to get that infinite
+shadow out of the heart of man.
+
+"What do you propose in place of this?"
+
+Well, in the first place, I propose good fellowship--good friends all
+around. No matter what we believe, shake hands and let it go. That is
+your opinion; this is mine: let us be friends. Science makes friends;
+religion, superstition, makes enemies. They say: Belief is important.
+I say: No, actions are important. Judge by deed, not by creed. Good
+fellowship--good friends--sincere men and women--mutual forbearance,
+born of mutual respect. We have had too many of these solemn people.
+Whenever I see an exceedingly solemn man, I know he is an exceedingly
+stupid man. No man of any humor ever founded a religion--never. Humor
+sees both sides. While reason is the holy light, humor carries the
+lantern, and the man with a keen sense of humor is preserved from
+the solemn stupidities of superstition. I like a man who has got good
+feeling for everybody; good fellowship. One man said to another:
+
+"Will you take a glass of wine?"
+
+"I do not drink."
+
+"Will you smoke a cigar?"
+
+"I do not smoke."
+
+"Maybe you will chew something?"
+
+"I do not chew."
+
+"Let us eat some hay."
+
+"I tell you I do not eat hay."
+
+"Well, then, good-by, for you are no company for man or beast."
+
+I believe in the gospel of Cheerfulness, the gospel of Good Nature; the
+gospel of Good Health. Let us pay some attention to our bodies. Take
+care of our bodies, and our souls will take care of themselves. Good
+health! And I believe the time will come when the public thought will be
+so great and grand that it will be looked upon as infamous to perpetuate
+disease. I believe the time will come when man will not fill the future
+with consumption and insanity. I believe the time will come when we will
+study ourselves, and understand the laws of health and then we will say:
+We are under obligation to put the flags of health in the cheeks of our
+children. Even if I got to heaven, and had a harp, I would hate to
+look back upon my children and grandchildren, and see them diseased,
+deformed, crazed--all suffering the penalties of crimes I had committed.
+
+I believe in the gospel of Good Living. You can not make any god happy
+by fasting. Let us have good food, and let us have it well cooked--and
+it is a thousand times better to know how to cook than it is to
+understand any theology in the world.
+
+I believe in the gospel of good clothes; I believe in the gospel of
+good houses; in the gospel of water and soap. I believe in the gospel
+of intelligence; in the gospel of education. The school-house is
+my cathedral. The universe is my Bible. I believe in that gospel of
+justice, that we must reap what we sow.
+
+I do not believe in forgiveness as it is preached by the church. We do
+not need the forgiveness of God, but of each other and of ourselves. If
+I rob Mr. Smith and God forgives me, how does that help Smith? If I, by
+slander, cover some poor girl with the leprosy of some imputed crime,
+and she withers away like a blighted flower and afterward I get the
+forgiveness of God, how does that help her? If there is another world,
+we have got to settle with the people we have wronged in this. No
+bankrupt court there. Every cent must be paid.
+
+The Christians say, that among the ancient Jews, if you committed a
+crime you had to kill a sheep. Now they say "charge it." "Put it on the
+slate." It will not do. For every crime you commit you must answer to
+yourself and to the one you injure. And if you have ever clothed another
+with woe, as with a garment of pain, you will never be quite as happy as
+though you had not done that thing. No forgiveness by the gods. Eternal,
+inexorable, everlasting justice, so far as Nature is concerned. You must
+reap the result of your acts. Even when forgiven by the one you have
+injured, it is not as though the injury had not been done. That is what
+I believe in. And if it goes hard with me, I will stand it, and I will
+cling to my logic, and I will bear it like a man.
+
+And I believe, too, in the gospel of Liberty, in giving to others what
+we claim for ourselves. I believe there is room everywhere for thought,
+and the more liberty you give away, the more you will have. In liberty
+extravagance is economy. Let us be just. Let us be generous to each
+other.
+
+I believe in the gospel of Intelligence. That is the only lever capable
+of raising mankind. Intelligence must be the savior of this world.
+Humanity is the grand religion, and no God can put a man in hell in
+another world, who has made a little heaven in this. God cannot make a
+man miserable if that man has made somebody else happy. God cannot hate
+anybody who is capable of loving anybody. Humanity--that word embraces
+all there is.
+
+So I believe in this great gospel of Humanity.
+
+"Ah! but," they say, "it will not do. You must believe." I say, No. My
+gospel of health will bring life. My gospel of intelligence, my gospel
+of good living, my gospel of good-fellowship will cover the world with
+happy homes. My doctrine will put carpets upon your floors, pictures
+upon your walls. My doctrine will put books upon your shelves, ideas in
+your minds. My doctrine will rid the world of the abnormal monsters born
+of ignorance and superstition. My doctrine will give us health, wealth
+and happiness. That is what I want. That is what I believe in. Give us
+intelligence. In a little while a man will find that he can not steal
+without robbing himself. He will find that he cannot murder without
+assassinating his own joy. He will find that every crime is a mistake.
+He will find that only that man carries the cross who does wrong, and
+that upon the man who does right the cross turns to wings that will bear
+him upward forever. He will find that even intelligent self-love embraces
+within its mighty arms all the human race.
+
+"Oh," but they say to me, "you take away immortality." I do not. If we
+are immortal it is a fact in nature, and we are not indebted to priests
+for it, nor to bibles for it, and it cannot be destroyed by unbelief.
+
+As long as we love we will hope to live, and when the one dies that we
+love we will say: "Oh, that we could meet again," and whether we do or
+not it will not be the work of theology. It will be a fact in nature. I
+would not for my life destroy one star of human hope, but I want it
+so that when a poor woman rocks the cradle and sings a lullaby to the
+dimpled darling, she will not be compelled to believe that ninety-nine
+chances in a hundred she is raising kindling wood for hell.
+
+One world at a time is my doctrine.
+
+It is said in this Testament, "Sufficient unto the day is the evil
+thereof;" and I say: Sufficient unto each world is the evil thereof.
+
+And suppose after all that death does end all. Next to eternal joy, next
+to being forever with those we love and those who have loved us, next to
+that, is to be wrapt in the dreamless drapery of eternal peace. Next to
+eternal life is eternal sleep. Upon the shadowy shore of death the
+sea of trouble casts no wave. Eyes that have been curtained by the
+everlasting dark, will never know again the burning touch of tears. Lips
+touched by eternal silence will never speak again the broken words of
+grief. Hearts of dust do not break. The dead do not weep. Within the
+tomb no veiled and weeping sorrow sits, and in the ray-less gloom is
+crouched no shuddering fear.
+
+I had rather think of those I have loved, and lost, as having returned
+to earth, as having become a part of the elemental wealth of the
+world--I would rather think of them as unconscious dust, I would rather
+dream of them as gurgling in the streams, floating in the clouds,
+bursting in the foam of light upon the shores of worlds, I would rather
+think of them as the lost visions of a forgotten night, than to have
+even the faintest fear that their naked souls have been clutched by an
+orthodox god. I will leave my dead where nature leaves them. Whatever
+flower of hope springs up in my heart I will cherish, I will give it
+breath of sighs and rain of tears. But I can not believe that there
+is any being in this universe who has created a human soul for eternal
+pain. I would rather that every god would destroy himself; I
+would rather that we all should go to eternal chaos, to black and
+starless night, than that just one soul should suffer eternal agony.
+
+I have made up my mind that if there is a God, he will be merciful to
+the merciful.
+
+Upon that rock I stand.--
+
+That he will not torture the forgiving.--
+
+Upon that rock I stand.--
+
+That every man should be true to himself, and that there is no world, no
+star, in which honesty is a crime.
+
+Upon that rock I stand.
+
+The honest man, the good woman, the happy child, have nothing to fear,
+either in this world or the world to come.
+
+Upon that rock I stand.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol.
+1 (of 12), by Robert G. Ingersoll
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