,,men1 ,,women1 ,,and ,,gods1 ,,and ,,other ,,lectures4 ,by ,helen ,h4 ,gardener4 ,with ,an ,introduction ,by ,robert ,g4 ,ingersoll4 ,twelfth ,edition4 ,new ,york3 ,the ,truth ,seeker ,company1 #bh ,lafayette ,place4 ,copyright1 ,by ,helen ,h4 ,gardener1 #ahhe4 ,,this ,,little ,,volume is ,,respectfully ,,dedicated ,,with ,,the ,,love ,,of ,,the ,,author1 ,,to ,,mrs4 ,,eva ,,ingersoll1 ,,the ,,brave1 ,,happy ,,wife ,,of ,,america',s ,,greatest ,,orator1 ,,and ,,woman',s ,,truest ,,friend4 ,,in ,,her ,,beautiful ,,home-,,life ,,superstition ,,and ,,fear ,,have ,,never ,,entered2 ,,human ,,equality ,,and ,,freedom ,,have ,,their ,,highest ,,illustration2 ,,and ,,time ,,has ,,deepened ,,youthful ,,love ,,into ,a ,,diviner ,,worship ,,than ,,angels ,,offer ,,or ,,than ,,gods ,,inspire4 ,,contents4 ,,introduction4 ,,men1 ,,women1 ,,and ,,gods4 ,,accident ,,insurance4 ,,chiefly ,,women4 ,,why ,,women ,,support ,,it4 ,,what ,,it ,,teaches4 ,,the ,,fruit ,,of ,,the ,,tree ,,of ,,knowledge4 ,,knowledge ,,not ,a ,,crime4 ,,as ,,much ,,inspired ,,as ,,any ,,of ,,it4 ,,vicarious ,,atonement4 ,,fear4 ,,beginning ,,to ,,think4 ,,creeds4 ,,self-,,control ,,what ,,we ,,need4 ,,vicarious ,,atonement ,,not ,a ,,christian ,,invention4 ,,twin ,,monsters ,,inherited ,,from ,,intellectual ,,pigmies4 ,,geographical ,,religion4 ,,revelation4 ,,evidence ,,of ,,faith4 ,,did ,,he ,,talk8 ,,what ,,you ,,may ,,think4 ,,intellectual ,,gag-,,law4 ,,the ,,vicarious ,,theory ,,the ,,cause ,,of ,,crime4 ,,revision4 ,,the ,,church',s ,,money-,,box4 ,,shall ,,progress ,,stop8 ,,historical ,,facts ,,and ,,theological ,,fictions4 ,,church ,,fictions4 ,,historical ,,facts4 ,,civilization4 ,,comparative ,,status4 ,,women ,,as ,,persons4 ,,education4 ,,as ,,wives4 ,,not ,,woman',s ,,friend4 ,,morals4 ,,appendix ,appendix ,a4 ,appendix ,b4 ,appendix ,c4 ,appendix ,d4 ,appendix ,e4 ,appendix ,f4 ,appendix ,g4 ,appendix ,h4 ,appendix ,i4 ,appendix ,j4 ,appendix ,k ,appendix ,l4 ,appendix ,m4 ,appendix ,n4 ,appendix ,o4 ,appendix ,p4 ,appendix ,q4 ,appendix ,r4 ,appendix ,s4 ,appendix ,t4 ,appendix ,u4 ,appendix ,v4 ,,address ,,to ,,the ,,clergy ,,and ,,others4 ,,letter ,,to ,,the ,,cleveland ,,congress ,,of ,,freethinkers1 ,,october1 #ahhe4 ,,introduction4 ,nothing gives me more pleasure1 nothing gives greater promise for the future1 than the fact that woman is achieving intellectual and physical liberty4 ,it is refreshing to know that here1 in our country1 there are thousands of women who think and express their own thoughts--who are thoroughly free and thoroughly conscientious--who have neither been narrowed nor corrupted by a heartless creed--who do not worship a being in heaven whom they would shudderingly loathe on earth4 ,women who do not stand before the altar of a cruel faith with downcast eyes of timid acquiescence1 and pay to impudent authority the tribute of a thoughtless yes4 ,they are no longer satisfied with being told4 ,they examine for themselves4 ,they have ceased to be the prisoners of society--the satisfied serfs of husbands or the echoes of priests4 ,they demand the rights that naturally belong to intelligent human beings4 ,if wives1 they wish to be the equals of husbands--if mothers1 they wish to rear their children in the atmosphere of love1 liberty and philosophy4 ,they believe that woman can discharge all her duties without the aid of superstition1 and preserve all that is true1 pure and tender without sacrificing in the temple of absurdity the convictions of the soul4 ,woman is not the intellectual inferior of man4 ,she has lacked--not mind--but opportunity4 ,in the long night of barbarism physical strength1 and the cruelty to use it1 were the badges of superiority4 ,muscle was more than mind4 ,in the ignorant age of ,faith the loving nature of woman was abused1 her conscience was rendered morbid and diseased4 ,it might almost be said that she was betrayed by her own virtues4 ,at best1 she secured1 not opportunity1 but flattery1 the preface to degradation4 ,she was deprived of liberty and without that nothing is worth the having4 ,she was taught to obey without question1 and to believe without thought4 ,there were universities for men before the alphabet had been taught to woman4 ,at the intellectual feast there were no places for wives and mothers4 ,even now they sit at the second table and eat the crusts and crumbs4 ,the schools for women1 at the present time1 are just far enough behind those for men to fall heirs to the discarded4 ,on the same principle1 when a doctrine becomes too absurd for the pulpit1 it is given to the ,sunday ,school4 ,the ages of muscle and miracle--of fists and faith--are passing away4 ,minerva occupies at last a higher niche than ,hercules4 ,now1 a word is stronger than a blow4 ,at last we see women who depend upon themselves--who stand self poised the shocks of this sad world without leaning for support against a church--who do not go to the literature of barbarism for consolation1 nor use the falsehoods and mistakes of the past for the foundation of their hope--women brave enough and tender enough to meet and bear the facts and fortunes of this world4 ,the men who declare that woman is the intellectual inferior of man1 do not1 and cannot1 by offering themselves in evidence1 substantiate their declaration4 ,yet1 ,i must admit that there are thousands of wives who still have faith in the saving power of superstition--who still insist on attending church while husbands prefer the shores1 the woods1 or the fields4 ,in this way families are divided4 ,parents grow apart1 and unconsciously the pearl of greatest price is thrown away4 ,the wife ceases to be the intellectual companion of the husband4 ,she reads the ,christian ,register1 sermons in the ,monday papers1 and a little gossip about folks and fashions1 while he studies the works of ,darwin1 ,haeckel and ,humboldt4 ,their sympathies become estranged4 ,they are no longer mental friends4 ,the husband smiles at the follies of the wife and she weeps for the supposed sins of the husband4 ,such wives should read this book4 ,they should not be satisfied to remain forever in the cradle of thought1 amused with the toys of superstition4 ,the parasite of woman is the priest4 ,it must also be admitted that there are thousands of men who believe that superstition is good for women and children--who regard falsehood as the fortress of virtue1 and feel indebted to ignorance for the purity of daughters and the fidelity of wives4 ,these men think of priests as detectives in disguise1 and regard ,god as a policeman who prevents elopements4 ,their opinions about religion are as correct as their estimate of woman4 ,the church furnishes but little food for the mind4 ,people of intelligence are growing tired of the platitudes of the pulpit--the iterations of the itinerants4 ,the average sermon is as tedious as a twice-told tale vexing the ears of a drowsy man4 ,one ,sunday a gentleman who is a great inventor called at my house4 ,only a few words had passed between us1 when he arose1 saying that he must go as it was time for church4 ,wondering that a man of his mental wealth could enjoy the intellectual poverty of the pulpit1 ,i asked for an explanation1 and he gave me the following3 ,you know that ,i am an inventor4 ,well1 the moment my mind becomes absorbed in some difficult problem1 ,i am afraid that something may happen to distract my attention4 ,now1 ,i know that ,i can sit in church for an hour without the slightest danger of having the current of my thought disturbed4 ,most women cling to the ,bible because they have been taught that to give up that book is to give up all hope of another life--of ever meeting again the loved and lost4 ,they have also been taught that the ,bible is their friend1 their defender1 and the real civilizer of man4 ,now if they will only read this book--these three lectures1 without fear1 and then read the ,bible1 they will see that the truth or falsity of the dogma of inspiration has nothing to do with the question of immortality4 ,certainly the ,old ,testament does not teach us that there is another life1 and upon that question1 even the ,new is obscure and vague4 ,the hunger of the heart finds only a few small and scattered crumbs4 ,there is nothing definite1 solid1 and satisfying4 ,united with the idea of immortality we find the absurdity of the resurrection4 ,a prophecy that depends for its fulfillment upon an impossibility1 cannot satisfy the brain or heart4 ,there are but few who do not long for a dawn beyond the night4 ,and this longing is born of1 and nourished by1 the heart4 ,love wrapped in shadow--bending with tear-filled eyes above its dead1 convulsively clasps the outstretched hand of hope4 ,i had the pleasure of introducing ,helen ,h4 ,gardener to her first audience1 and in that introduction said a few words that ,i will repeat1 ,we do not know1 we can not say whether death is a wall or a door1 the beginning or end of a day1 the spreading of pinions to soar1 or the folding forever of wings4 ,the rise or the set of a sun1 of an endless life that brings rapture and love to every one4 ,under the seven-hued arch of hope let the dead sleep4 ,they will also discover1 as they read the ,sacred ,volume1 that it is not the friend of woman4 ,they will find that the writers of that book1 for the most part1 speak of woman as a poor beast of burden--a serf1 a drudge1 a kind of necessary evil--as mere property4 ,surely a book that upholds polygamy is not the friend of wife and mother4 ,even ,christ did not place woman on an equality with man4 ,he said not one word about the sacredness of home1 the duties of the husband to the wife--nothing calculated to lighten the hearts of those who bear the saddest burdens of this life4 ,they will also find that the ,bible has not civilized mankind4 ,a book that establishes and defends slavery and wanton war is not calculated to soften the hearts of those who believe implicitly that it is the work of ,god4 ,a book that not only permits1 but commands religious persecution1 has not in my judgment developed the affectional nature of man4 ,its influence has been bad and bad only4 ,it has filled the world with bitterness1 revenge1 and crime1 and retarded in countless ways the progress of our race4 ,the writer of this little volume has read the ,bible with open eyes4 ,the mist of sentimentality has not clouded her vision4 ,she has had the courage to tell the result of her investigations4 ,she has been quick to discover contradictions4 ,she appreciates the humorous side of the stupidly solemn4 ,her heart protests against the cruel1 and her brain rejects the childish1 the unnatural1 and absurd4 ,there is no misunderstanding between her head and heart4 ,she says what she thinks1 and feels what she says4 ,no human being can answer her arguments4 ,there is no answer4 ,all the priests in the world cannot explain away her objections4 ,there is no explanation4 ,they should remain dumb1 unless they can show that the impossible is the probable--that slavery is better than freedom--that polygamy is the friend of woman--that the innocent can justly suffer for the guilty1 and that to persecute for opinion's sake is an act of love and worship4 ,wives who cease to learn--who simply forget and believe1 will fill the evening of their lives with barren sighs and bitter tears4 ,the mind should outlast youth4 ,if1 when beauty fades1 ,thought1 the deft and unseen sculptor1 hath not left his subtle lines upon the face1 then all is lost4 ,no charm is left4 ,the light is out4 ,there is no flame within to glorify the wrinkled clay4 ,,robert ,g4 ,,ingersoll4 ,hoffman ,house1 ,new ,york1 ,july #bb1 #ahhe4 ,,men1 ,,women1 ,,and ,,gods4 ,,it is thought strange and particularly shocking by some persons for a woman to question the absolute correctness of the ,bible4 ,she is supposed to be able to go through this world with her eyes shut1 and her mouth open wide enough to swallow ,jonah and the ,garden of ,eden without making a wry face4 ,it is usually recounted as one of her most beautiful traits of character that she has faith sufficient to float the ,ark without inspecting the animals4 ,so it is thought strange that a woman should object to any of the teachings of the ,patriarchs4 ,i claim1 however1 that if she honestly thinks there is anything wrong about them1 she has a right to say so4 ,i claim that ,i have a right to offer my objections to the ,bible from the standpoint of a woman4 ,i think that it is fair1 at least1 to put the case before you as it looks to me1 using the ,bible itself as my chief witness4 ,that ,book ,i think degrades and belittles women1 and ,i claim the right to say why ,i think so4 ,the opposite opinion has been stated by hundreds of people1 hundreds of times1 for hundreds of years1 so that it is only fair that ,i be allowed to bring in a minority report4 ,women have for a long time been asking for the right to an education1 for the right to live on an equal footing with their brothers1 and for the right to earn money honestly2 while at the same time they have supported a book and a religion which hold them as the inferiors of their sons and as objects of contempt and degradation with ,jehovah4 ,they have sustained a so-called revelation which holds them as inferior and unclean things4 ,now it has always seemed to me that these women are trying to stand on both sides of the fence at the same time--and that neither foot touches4 ,i think they are making a mistake4 ,i think they are making a mistake to sustain any religion which is based upon faith4 ,even though a religion claim a superhuman origin--and ,i believe they all claim that--it must be tested by human reason1 and if our highest moral sentiments revolt at any of its dictates1 its dictates must go4 ,for the only good thing about any religion is its morality1 and morality has nothing to do with faith4 ,the one has to do with right actions in this world2 the other with unknown quantities in the next4 ,the one is a necessity of ,time2 the other a dream of ,eternity4 ,morality depends upon universal evolution2 ,faith upon special revelation2 and no woman can afford to accept any revelation that has yet been offered to this world4 ,that ,moses or ,confucius1 ,mohammed or ,paul1 ,abraham or ,brigham ,young asserts that his particular dogma came directly from ,god1 and that it was a personal communication to either or all of these favored individuals1 is a fact that can have no power over us unless their teachings are in harmony with our highest thought1 our noblest purpose1 and our purest conception of life4 ,which of them can bear the test8 ,not one revelation known to man to-day can look in the face of the nineteenth century and say1 ,i am parallel with your richest development2 ,i still lead your highest thought2 none of my teachings shock your sense of justice4 ,not one4 ,it is faith in revelation that makes a mother tear from her arms a tender1 helpless child and throw it in the ,ganges--to appease the gods6 ,it is a religion of faith that teaches the despicable principle of caste--and that religion was invented by those who profited by caste4 ,it was our religion of faith that sustained the institution of slavery--and it had for its originators dealers in human flesh4 ,it is the ,mormon's religion of faith1 his belief in the ,bible and in the wisdom of ,solomon and ,david1 that enables the monster of polygamy to flaunt its power and its filth in the face of the morality of the nineteenth century1 which has outgrown the ,jehovah of the ,jews4 ,every religion must be tried at the bar of human justice1 and stand or fall by the verdict there4 ,it has no right to crouch behind the theory of inspiration and demand immunity from criticism2 and yet that is just what every one of them does4 ,they all claim that we have no right to use our reason on their inventions4 ,but evil cannot be made good by revelation1 and good cannot be made evil by persecution4 ,a revelation that teaches us to trample on purity1 or bids us despise beauty--that gives power to vice or crushes the weak--is an evil4 ,the dogma that leads us to ignore our humanity1 that asks us to throw away our pleasures1 that tells us to be miserable here in order that we may be happy hereafter1 is a doctrine built upon a false philosophy1 cruel in its premises and false in its promises4 ,and the religion that teaches us that believing ,vice is holier than unbelieving ,virtue is a grievous wrong4 ,credulity is not a substitute for morality4 ,belief is not a question of right or wrong1 it is a question of mental organization4 ,man cannot believe what he will1 he must believe what he must4 ,if his brain tells him one thing and his catechism tells him another1 his brain ought to win4 ,you don't leave your umbrella at home during a storm1 simply because the almanac calls for a clear day4 ,a religion that teaches a mother that she can be happy in heaven1 with her children in hell--in everlasting torment--strikes at the very roots of family affection4 ,it makes the human heart a stone4 ,love that means no more than that1 is not love at all4 ,no heart that has ever loved can see the object of its affection in pain and itself be happy4 ,the thing is impossible4 ,any religion that can make that possible is more to be dreaded than war or famine or pestilence or death4 ,it would eat out all that is great and beautiful and good in this life4 ,it would make life a mockery and love a curse4 ,i once knew a case myself1 where an eldest son who was an unbeliever died4 ,he had been a kind son and a good man4 ,he had shielded his widowed mother from every hardship4 ,he had tried to lighten her pain and relieve her loneliness4 ,he had worked early and late to keep her comfortable and happy4 ,when he died she was heartbroken4 ,it seemed to her more than she could bear4 ,as she sat and gazed at his dear face in a transport of grief1 the door opened and her preacher came in to bring her the comfort of religion4 ,he talked with her of her loss1 and finally he said1 ,but it would not be so hard for you to bear if he had been a ,christian4 ,if he had accepted what was freely offered him you would one day see him again4 ,but he chose his path1 he denied his ,lord1 and he is lost4 ,and now1 dear madam1 place your affections on your living son1 who is1 thank ,god1 saved4 ,that was the comfort he brought her4 ,that was the consolation of his religion4 ,i am telling you of an actual occurrence4 ,this is all a fact4 ,well1 a few years later that dear old lady died in her son's house1 where she had gone on a visit4 ,he broke her will--this son who was saved--and brought in a bill against her estate for her board and nursing while she was ill6 ,which one of those boys do you think would be the best company for her in the next world8 ,it has always seemed to me that ,i would rather go to hell with a good son than to heaven with a good ,christian4 ,i may be wrong1 but with my present light that is the way it looks to me2 and for the sake of humanity ,i am glad that it looks that way4 ,,accident ,,insurance4 ,a church member said to me some time ago that even though the ,bible were not the word of ,god1 even though it were not necessary to believe in the creed in order to go to heaven1 it could not do any harm to believe it2 and he thought it was best to be on the safe side1 for1 said he1 suppose after all it should happen to be true6 ,so he carries a church-membership as a sort of accident insurance policy4 ,i do not believe we have a right to work upon that basis4 ,it is not honest4 ,i do not believe that any suppose it should be gives us the right to teach ,i know that it is4 ,i do not believe in the honesty and right of any cause that has to prop up its backbone with faith1 and splinter its legs with ignorance4 ,i do not believe in the harmlessness of any teaching that is not based upon reason1 justice1 and truth4 ,i do not believe that it is harmless to uphold any religion that is not noble and elevating in itself4 ,i do not believe that it is just as well to spread any dogma that stultifies reason and ignores common-sense4 ,i do not believe that it is ever well to compromise with dishonesty and pretence4 ,and ,i cannot admit that it can do no harm to teach a belief in the goodness of a ,god who sends an ,emerson or a ,darwin to hell because ,eve was fond of fruit1 and who offers a reserved seat in heaven to ,christine ,cox because a mob murdered ,jesus ,christ4 ,it does not seem to me good morals1 and it is certainly poor logic4 ,and speaking of logic1 ,i heard a funny story the other day about one of those absurdly literal little girls who1 when she heard people say they wanted to be an angel1 did not know it was a joke44 ,she thought it was all honor-bright4 ,she was standing by the window killing flies1 and her mother called her and said1 ,my child1 don't you know that is very wicked8 ,don't you know that ,god made those dear little flies1 and that he loves them8 7,just imagine an infinite ,god in love with a blue-bottle fly67 ,well1 the little girl thought that was queer taste1 but she was sorry1 and said that she would not do it any more4 ,by and by1 however1 a great lazy fly was too tempting1 and her plump little finger began to follow him around slowly on the glass1 and she said1 ,oh you nice big fly1 did dod made you8 ,and does dod love you8 ,and does you love dod8 7,down came the finger47 ,well1 you shall see him4 ,yet we all know ,christians who love ,god better than anything else--with all their hearts and soul and strength--who prefer to postpone seeing him till the very last minute4 ,they say it is because they have not fulfilled their allotted time4 ,why not be honest and say it is because they like to live8 ,they long to put on immortality2 but their sleep is sounder if they live next door to a good doctor4 ,people say that men are infidels because it is easier--to rid themselves of responsibility4 ,but it seems to me that anyone who advances the doctrine of morality and works instead of that of repentance and faith1 on the ground that it is easier1 is laboring under a mistake4 ,i don't see how any one could ask for an easier way of getting rid of his sins than the plan that simply unloads them on to another man4 ,i fail to see anything hard about that--except for the man who catches the load2 and ,i am unable to see anything commendable about it either4 ,but it is not always easy for a man to be brave enough to be responsible for his own mistakes or faults4 ,it is not always easy for a man to say ,i did it1 and ,i will suffer the penalty4 ,that is not always easy1 but it is always just4 ,no one but a coward or a knave needs to shift his personal responsibility on to the shoulders of the dead4 ,honest men and women do not need to put ,providence up between themselves and their own motives4 ,a short time ago the wife of a very devout man apparently died1 but her body remained so lifelike and her color so natural that her relatives decided that she could not be dead1 and they summoned a physician4 ,the husband1 however1 refused to have him administer any restoratives4 ,he said that if the ,lord had permitted her to go into a trance and was anxious to bring her out alive he would do it4 ,meanwhile he did not intend to meddle with ,providence4 ,his maxim was1 ,whatever else you do1 don't interfere with ,providence4 ,give ,providence a good chance and if it doesn't come round all right for ,betsy1 ,i think ,i can bear it--and she will have to4 ,if we take care of our motives toward each other1 ,providence will take care of itself4 ,did you ever know a pious man do a real mean thing--that succeeded--who did not claim that ,providence had a finger in it8 ,the smaller the trick1 the bigger the finger4 ,he is perfectly honest in his belief too4 ,he is the sort of man that never has a doubt about hell--and that most people go there4 ,thinks they all deserve it4 ,has entire confidence that ,god is responsible for every word in the ,bible1 and that all other ,bibles and all other religions are the direct work of the devil4 ,probably prays for people who don't believe that way4 ,he is perfectly honest in it4 ,that is simply his size1 and he usually pities anybody who wears a larger hat4 ,,chiefly ,,women4 ,but they say this is not a matter of reason4 ,this is outside of reason1 it is all a matter of faith4 ,but whenever a superstition claims to be so holy that you must not use your reason about it1 there is something wrong some place4 ,truth is not afraid of reason1 nor reason of truth4 ,i am going to say something to-night about why ,i do not believe in a religion of faith4 ,i am going to tell you some of the reasons why ,i do not believe that the ,bible is inspired2 why ,i1 as a woman1 don't want to think it is the word of ,god2 why ,i think that women1 above all others1 should not believe that it is4 ,and since women are the bulwarks of the churches to-day1 it seems to me they have the right1 and that it is a part of their duty1 to ask themselves why4 ,since about seven-tenths of all church-members are women1 surely the churches should not deny them the right to use their reason 7or whatever serves them in that capacity7 in regard to their own work4 ,i saw some ladies begging the other day for money to pay off the debt of a #bjj1jjj church1 on the corner-stone of which were cut the words1 ,my kingdom is not of this world2 and ,i wondered at the time what the property would have been like if the kingdom had been of this world4 ,it seemed to me that a few hundred such untaxed houses would be a pretty fair property almost anywhere4 ,one of our prominent bishops1 when speaking recently of church-membership1 said1 ,the ,church must recruit her ranks hereafter almost entirely with children2 and he added1 the time has passed when she can recruit her ranks with grown men4 ,good6 ,and the ,new ,york ,evangelist 7one of the strongest church papers7 says1 ,four-fifths of the earnest young men of this country are sceptics1 distrust the clergy1 and are disgusted with evangelical ,christianity4 ,good again4 ,the ,congregational ,club of ,boston has recently been discussing the question how to win young men to ,christianity4 ,the ,rev4 ,r4 ,r4 ,meredith said3 ,the churches to-day do not get the best and sharpest young men4 ,they get the goody-goody ones easily enough2 but those who do the thinking are not brought into the church in great numbers4 ,you cannot reach them by the ,bible4 ,how many did ,moody touch in this city during his revival days8 ,you can count them on your fingers4 ,the man who wants them cannot get them with the ,bible under his arm4 ,he must be like them1 sharp4 ,they cannot be gathered by sentimentality4 ,if you say to them1 ',come to ,jesus1' very likely they will reply1 '',go to thunder4' ,in ,boston6 ,the thing to be done with such a man is to first get into his heart1 and then lead him into salvation before he knows it4 ,i don't know how good this recipe is1 but ,i should infer that it is a double-back-action affair of some sort that could get into a man's heart and lead him into salvation before he knew it1 and that if the ,church can just get a patent on that she is all right2 otherwise ,i suspect that the goody-goody ones are likely to be about all she will get in large numbers4 ,do ,i need any stronger1 plainer evidence than this to show that the thought of the world is against it1 and that it is time for women to ask themselves whether a faith that can hold its own only by its grasp upon the ignorance and credulity of children1 a faith that has made four-fifths of the earnest men sceptics1 a faith that has this deplorable effect upon ,boston manners1 is one that does honor to the intellect and judgment of the women of to-day8 ,we hear women express indignation that the law classes them with idiots and children2 but from these orthodox statements it would seem that in the ,church they voluntarily accept about this classification themselves4 ,if only these church-people go to heaven1 what a queer kindergarten it will be1 to be sure1 with only a few male voices to join in the choruses--and most of those tenor4 ,this religion and the ,bible require of woman everything1 and give her nothing4 ,they ask her support and her love1 and repay her with contempt and oppression4 ,no wonder that four-fifths of the earnest men are against it1 for it is not manly and it is not just2 and such men are willing to free women from the ecclesiastical bondage that makes her responsible for all the ills of life1 for all the pains of deed and creed1 while it allows her no choice in their formation1 no property in their fruition4 ,such men are outgrowing the petty jealousies and musty superstitions of narrow-minded dogmatists sufficiently to look upon the question not as one of personal preference1 but as one of human justice4 ,they do not ask1 ,would ,i like to see woman do thus or thus8 but1 ,have ,i a right to dictate the limit of her efforts or her energy8--not1 ,am ,i benefited by her ecclesiastical bondage and credulity8 ,does it give me unlimited power over her8 but1 ,have ,i a right to keep in ignorance1 have ,i a right to degrade1 any human intellect8 ,and they have answered with equal dignity and impersonal judgment that it is the birthright of no human being to dominate or enslave another2 that it is the just lot of no human being to be born subject to the arbitrary will or dictates of any living soul2 and that it is1 after all1 as great an injustice to a man to make him a tyrant as it is to make him a slave4 ,whenever a man rises high enough to leave his own personality out of the question1 he has gone beyond the stage of silly platitudes4 ,his own dignity is too secure1 his title to respect too far beyond question1 for him to need such little subterfuges to guard his position1 either as husband1 as household-king1 or as public benefactor4 ,his home life is not founded upon compulsory obedience2 but is filled with the perfume of perfect trust1 the fragrance of loving admiration and respect4 ,it is the domestic tyrant1 the egotistic mediocre1 and the superstitious ,church that are afraid for women to think1 that fear to lose her as worshipper and serf4 ,you need go only a very little way back in history to learn that the ,church decided that a woman who learned the alphabet overstepped all bounds of propriety1 and that she would be wholly lost to shame who should so far forget her modesty as to become acquainted with the multiplication table4 ,and to-day1 if she offers her opinion and her logic for what they are worth1 the clergy preach doleful sermons about her losing her beautiful home character1 about her innocence being gone1 about their idea of her glorious exaltation as wife and mother being destroyed4 ,then they grow florid and exclaim that man is after all subject to her1 that he is born for the rugged path and she for the couch of flowers699 99 ,a pertinacious adversary1 pushed to extremities1 may say that husbands indeed are willing to be reasonable1 and to make fair concessions to their partners without being compelled to it1 but that wives are not2 that if allowed any rights of their own1 they will acknowledge no rights at all in any one else1 and never will yield in anything1 unless they can be compelled1 by the man's mere authority1 to yield in everything4 ,this would have been said by many persons some generations ago1 when satires on women were in vogue1 and men thought it a clever thing to insult women for being what men made them4 ,but it will be said by no one now who is worth replying to4 ,it is not the doctrine of the present day that women are less susceptible of good feeling and consideration for those with whom they are united by the strongest ties1 than men are4 ,on the contrary1 we are perpetually told that women are better than men by those who are totally opposed to treating them as if they were as good2 so that the saying has passed into a piece of tiresome cant1 intended to put a complimentary face upon an injury4 --,john ,stuart ,mill4 ,you recognize it all1 ,i see4 ,you seem to have heard it somewhere before4 ,i recall one occasion when ,i heard it from a country clergyman1 who knew so much about heaven and hell that he hardly had time to know enough about this world to enable him to keep out of the fire unless he was tied to a chair4 ,it was in the summer of #ahgf1 and ,i remember the conversation began by his asking a lady in the room about the ,centennial display1 from which she had just returned4 ,he asked her if she would advise him to take his daughter4 ,she said she thought it would be a very nice thing for the girl1 and she added1 ,it will be good for you4 ,you will see so much that is new and wonderful4 ,it will be of use to you in your work1 ,i am sure4 ,he said1 ,well1 ,i don't know about that4 ,there won't be anything much that is new to me4 ,i've seen it all4 ,i was in ,philadelphia in #ahdj4 ,then he gave us quite a talk on woman's sphere4 ,he could tell you in five minutes just what it was2 and the amount of information that man possessed about the next world was simply astonishing4 ,he knew pretty nearly everything4 ,i think he could tell you1 within a fraction or two1 just how much material it took to make wings for ,john the ,baptist1 and whether ,paul sings bass or tenor4 ,his presbytery says he is a most remarkable theologian--and ,i don't doubt it4 ,according to the law of compensation1 however1 what he does not know about this world would make a very comprehensive encyclopedia4 ,but seriously1 did it ever occur to you to ask any of these divine oracles why1 if all these recent compliments are true about the superior beauty and virtue and truth and power resting with women--why it is that they always desire as heirs sons rather than daughters8 ,you would think their whole desire would be for girls1 and that1 like ,oliver ,twist1 their chief regret would be that they hadn't more4 ,but the ,bible 7and the clergy1 until quite recently7 pronounces it twice as great a crime to be the mother of a girl as to be the mother of a boy4 ,a crime to be the mother of a little child--a double crime if the child should be a girl499 99 ,see ,appendix ,k4 ,it is often urged that women are better off under the ,christian than under any other religion2 that our ,bible is more just to her than other ,bibles are4 ,for the time we will grant this1 and respectfully inquire--what does it prove8 ,if it proves anything it is this--that all divine revelations are an indignity to women1 and that they had better stick to nature4 ,nature may be exacting1 but she is not partial4 ,if it proves anything1 it is that all religions have been made by men for men and through men4 ,i do not contend for the superiority of other ,bibles1 ,i simply protest against the wrong in ours4 ,one wrong cannot excuse another4 ,that murder is worse than arson does not make a hero of the rascal who fires our homes4 ,if ,allah were more cruel than ,jehovah1 that would be no palliation of the awful crimes of the ,old ,testament4 ,that slaves have better clothes than savages cannot make noble traffic in human blood4 ,a choice of evils is often necessary1 but it does not make either of them a good4 ,but there is no book which tells of a more infamous monster than the ,old ,testament1 with its ,jehovah of murder and cruelty and revenge1 unless it be the ,new ,testament1 which arms its ,god with hell1 and extends his outrages throughout all eternity6 ,,why ,,women ,,support ,,it4 ,another argument is that if orthodox ,christianity were not good for women they would not support and cling to it2 if it did not comfort them they would discard it4 ,in reply to that ,i need only recall to you the fact that it is the same in all religions4 ,women have ever been the stanchest defenders of the faith1 the most bitter haters of an infidel1 the most certain that their form of faith is the only truth499 ,yet ,i do not hear this fact advanced to prove the divinity of the ,koran or the book of ,mormon4 ,if it is a valid argument in the one case it is valid in the others4 ,the trouble with it is it proves too much4 ,it takes in the whole field4 ,it does not leave a weed1 from the first incantation of the first aborigine to the last shout of the last convert to ,mormonism1 out of its range2 and it does1 and always has done1 just as good service for any one of the other religions as it does for ours4 ,it is a free-for-all1 go-as-you-please argument2 but it is the sort of chaff they feed theological students on--and they sift it over for women4 ,it is pretty light diet when it gets to them--but it is filling4 99 ,see ,appendix ,g4 ,recently ,i heard a clergyman give the following as his reason for opposing medical1 or scientific training of any sort1 for women3 ,now her whole energy and force of action 7outside of the family7 must be expended upon religion4 ,if she were allowed other fields of action or thought1 her energy1 like that of man1 would be withdrawn from and fatally cripple the ,church4 ,to me1 however1 it seems that any organization that finds it necessary to cripple its adherents in order to keep them has a screw loose somewhere4 ,and it also seems to me that it is time for women to try to find out where the trouble is4 ,they will not want for aid from the men who think--the men who hold self vastly inferior to principle and justice--the rare noblemen of nature1 honorable1 fair1 just1 tender1 and thoughtful men--men who love to see the weakest share with them the benefits of freedom--men who know that they are not the less men because they are tender1 that women are not the less women because they are strong2 and no land under the sky holds so many such as ours4 ,,what ,,it ,,teaches4 ,it seemed to me that the time had come when women should know for themselves what the ,bible teaches for them and what the pulpit has upheld2 so ,i have looked it up a little1 and although ,i cannot soil my lips nor your ears with much of it1 there is enough1 ,i think1 that ,i may use to make any self-respecting1 pure woman blush that she has sustained it by word or act4 ,the ,bible teaches that a father may sell his daughter for a slave199 that he may sacrifice her purity to a mob19999 and that he may murder her1 and still be a good father and a holy man4 ,it teaches that a man may have any number of wives2 that he may sell them1 give them away1 or change them around1 and still be a perfect gentleman1 a good husband1 a righteous man1 and one of ,god's most intimate friends2 and that is a pretty good position for a beginning4 ,it teaches almost every infamy under the heavens for woman1 and it does not recognize her as a self-directing1 free human being4 ,it classes her as property1 just as it does a sheep3 and it forbids her to think1 talk1 act1 or exist1 except under conditions and limits defined by some priest4 99 ,ex4 xxi4 #g4 9999 ,judges xix4 #bd2 ,gen4 xix4 #h ,if the ,bible were strictly followed1 women and negroes would still be publicly bought and sold in ,america4 ,if it were believed in as it once was1 if the ,church had the power she once had1 ,i should never see the light of another day1 and your lives would be made a hell for sitting here to-night4 ,the iron grasp of superstition would hold you and your children forever over the bottomless pit of religious persecution1 and cover your fair fame with infamous slander1 because you dared to sit here and hear me strike a blow at infinite injustice4 ,every injustice that has ever been fastened upon women in a ,christian country has been authorized by the ,bible and riveted and perpetuated by the pulpit4 ,that seems strong language1 no doubt2 but ,i shall give you an opportunity to decide as to its truth4 ,i will now bring my witnesses4 ,they are from the inspired word itself1 and therefore must be all that could be desired4 ,i will read you a short passage from ,exodus xx4 #bb2 xxi4 #g-h3 #bb ,and the ,lord said unto ,moses1 ,thus thou shalt say unto the children of ,israel1 ,ye have seen that ,i talked with you from heaven4 9999999999999999 #g ,and if a man sell his daughter to be a maid-servant1 she shall not go out as the men-servants do4 #h ,if she please not her master1 who hath betrothed her to himself1 then shall he let her be redeemed3 to sell her unto a strange nation he shall have no power1 seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her4 ,the ,lord doesn't object to a man selling his daughter1 but if any one thing makes him angrier than another it is to have her go about as the men-servants do after she is sold4 ,on a little point like that he is absolutely fastidious4 ,you may here notice that ,god took the trouble to come down from heaven to tell the girl what not to do after she was sold4 ,he forgot to suggest to her father that it might be as well not to sell her at all4 ,he forgot that4 ,but in an important conversation one often overlooks little details4 ,the next is ,joshua xv4 #af-ag3 #af ,and ,caleb said1 ,he that smiteth ,kirjath-sepher1 and taketh it to him will ,i give ,achsah my daughter to wife4 #ag ,and ,othniel the brother of ,caleb and consequently the girl's uncle took it3 and he gave him ,achsah his daughter to wife4 ,please to remember that the said ,caleb was one of ,god's intimates--a favorite with the ,almighty4 ,the girl was not consulted2 the father paid off his warriors in female scrip4 ,the next is ,gen4 xix4 #e-h3 #e ,and they called unto ,lot1 and said unto him1 ,where are the men which came in to thee this night8 bring them out unto us that we may know them1 #f ,and ,lot went out at the door unto them1 and shut the door after him1 #g ,and said1 ,i pray you1 brethren1 do not so wickedly4 #h ,behold now1 ,i have two daughters 99 99 99 99 99 let me1 ,i pray you1 bring them out unto you1 and do ye to them as is good in your eyes2 only unto these men do nothing2 for therefore came they under the shadow of my root ,these men had come under the shadow of ,lot's roof for protection1 it seems1 and ,lot felt that his honor demanded that he should shield them even at the cost of the purity and safety of his own daughters6 ,do you know ,i have always had a mild curiosity to know what his daughters were under the shadow of his roof for4 ,it could not have been for protection1 ,i judge1 since ,lot was one of ,god's best friends4 ,he was on all sorts of intimate terms with the ,deity--knew things were going to happen before they came--was the only man good enough to save from a doomed city--the only one whose acts pleased ,god2 and this act seems to have been particularly satisfactory4 ,these men were angels of ,god who required this infamy for their protection6 ,if it takes all the honor out of a man when he gets to be an angel1 they may use my wings for a feather-duster4 ,now here is a little property law4 ,num4 xxvii43 #f ,and the ,lord spake unto ,moses1 saying1 #h ,and thou shalt speak unto the children of ,israel1 saying1 ,if a man die1 and have no son1 then ye shall cause his inheritance to pass unto his daughter4 ,and our law works a little that way yet2 being the result of ecclesiastical law it naturally would499 99 ,see ,appendix ,n4 #e and ,p4 #e4 ,next we have ,num4 xxxvi43 #h ,and every daughter that possesseth an inheritance in any tribe of the children of ,israel1 shall be wife unto one of the family of the tribe of her father1 that the children of ,israel may enjoy every man the inheritance of his fathers4 #i ,neither shall the inheritance remove from one tribe to another tribe2 but every one of the tribes of the children of ,israel shall keep himself to his own inheritance4 #aj ,even as the ,lord commanded ,moses1 so did the daughters of ,zelophehad4 ,that is all the women were for--articles of conveyance for property4 ,save the land1 no matter about the girls4 ,now these silly women actually believed that ,god told ,moses whom they had to marry just because ,moses said so6 ,i tell you1 ladies and gentlemen1 it is not safe to take heavenly communications at second-hand4 ,second-hand articles are likely to be varnished over1 and have to be taken at a discount4 ,and it seems to me that1 if the ,lord is at all particular as to whom a girl should marry1 she is the one for him to discuss the matter with4 ,moses didn't have to live with the sons of ,zelophehad1 and consequently wasn't the one to talk the matter over with4 ,but1 you see1 it won't do to question what ,moses said ,god told him1 because upon his veracity the whole structure is built4 ,he had more personal interviews with the ,deity than any other man--he and ,solomon--and hence they are the best authority4 ,i have here the #cast chapter of ,numbers1 but it is unfit to read4 ,it tells a story of shame and crime unequalled in atrocity4 ,it tells that ,god commanded ,moses and ,eleazar1 the priest1 to produce vice and perpetrate crime on an unparalleled scale4 ,it tells us that they obeyed the order1 and that #af1jjj helpless girls were dragged in the mire of infamy and divided amongst the victorious soldiers4 ,they were made dissolute by force1 and by direct command of ,god6 ,this one chapter stamps as false1 forever1 the claim of inspiration for the ,bible4 ,that one chapter would settle it for me4 ,do you believe that ,god told ,moses that8 ,do you believe there is a ,god who is a thief1 a murderer1 and a defiler of innocent girls8 ,do you believe it8 ,yet this religion is built upon ,moses' word1 and woman's position was established by him4 ,it seems to me time for women to retire ,moses from active life4 ,coax him to resign on account of his health4 ,return him to his constituency4 ,he has been on the supreme bench long enough4 ,don't let your children believe in such a ,god4 ,better let them believe in annihilation4 ,better let them think that the sleep of death is the end of all6 ,better1 much better1 let them believe that the tender kiss at parting is the last of all consciousness for them1 and after that eternal rest6 ,don't let their hearts be seared1 their lives clouded1 their intellects dwarfed by the cruel dread of the ,god of ,moses6 ,better1 thrice better1 let the cold earth close over the loved and loving dust forever1 than that it should enter the portals of infinite tyranny4 ,next we will take ,deut4 xx4 #aj-af3 #aj ,when thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it1 then proclaim peace unto it4 ,good scheme6 #aa ,and it shall be1 if it make thee answer of peace1 and open unto thee1 then it shall be1 that all the people that is found therein shall be tributaries unto thee1 and they shall serve thee4 #ab ,and if it will make no peace with thee1 but will make war against thee1 then thou shalt besiege it3 #ac ,and when the ,lord thy ,god hath delivered it into thy hands1 thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword3 #ad ,but the women1 and the little ones1 and the cattle1 and all that is in the city1 even all the spoil thereof1 shalt thou take unto thyself2 and thou shalt eat the spoil of thy enemies1 which the ,lord thy ,god hath given thee4 #ae ,thus shalt thou do unto all the cities which are very far off from thee1 which are not of the cities of these nations4 #af ,but of the cities of these people1 which the ,lord thy ,god doth give thee for an inheritance1 thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth4 ,the injunction to proclaim peace unto a city about to be attacked and plundered strikes me as a particularly brilliant idea4 ,when you go to rob and murder a man1 just tell him to keep cool and behave like a gentleman and you won't do a thing to him but steal all his property and cut his throat and retire in good order1 ,god always seemed to fight on the side of the man who would murder most of his fellow-men and degrade the greatest number of women4 ,he seemed1 in fact1 to rather insist on this point if he was particular about nothing else4 ,and1 by the way1 if you had happened to live in one of those cities1 what opinion do you think you would have had of ,jehovah8 ,would he have impressed you as a loving ,father8 ,here we have #b ,samuel v4 #aj1 #ab-ac3 #aj ,and ,david went on1 and grew great1 and the ,lord ,god of hosts was with him4 #ab ,and ,david perceived that the ,lord had established him king over ,israel1 and that he had exalted his kingdom for his people ,israel's sake4 #ac ,and ,david took him more concubines and wives out of ,jerusalem1 after he was come from ,hebron3 and there were yet sons and daughters born to ,david4 ,the nearer he got to ,god--the more ,god was with him1 the more wives he wanted4 ,next we have #b ,samuel xx4 #c3 #c ,and ,david came to his house at ,jerusalem1 and the king took the ten women1 his concubines1 whom he had left to keep the house1 and put them in ward1 and fed them 99 99 99 99 99 ,so they were shut up unto the day of their death1 living in widowhood4 ,now what did ,david do that for8 ,i don't know4 ,it was such a trifling little matter that it was not thought necessary to give any reason4 ,perhaps he had eaten too much pie and felt cross2 and what else were those women for but to be made stand around on such occasions8 ,weren't they his property8 ,didn't those ten women belong to ,david8 ,hadn't he a perfect right to shut them up and feed them if he wanted to8 ,don't you think it was kind of him to feed them8 ,i wonder if he sang any of his psalms to them through the key-hole4 ,his son ,absalom had just been killed1 and he felt miserable about that4 ,he had just delivered himself of that touching apostrophe we often hear repeated from the pulpit to-day1 to awaken sympathy for ,god's afflicted prophet3 ,o my son ,absalom1 my son1 my son ,absalom6 would ,god ,i had died for thee1 ,o ,absalom1 my son1 my son6 ,and ,i haven't a doubt that there were at least ten women who echoed that wish most heartily4 ,it must have been carried in the family without a dissenting vote4 ,to this ,god of the ,bible a woman may not go unless her father or husband consents4 ,she can't even promise to be good without asking permission4 ,this ,god holds no communication with women unless their male relations approve4 ,he wants to be on the safe side1 ,i suppose4 ,i'll read you about that4 ,it is in one of the chapters that are not commonly cited as evidence that ,god is no respecter of persons1 and that the ,bible holds woman as man's equal2 nevertheless it is as worthy of belief as any of the rest of it1 and its ,thus saith the ,lord and as the ,lord commanded ,moses are frequent and painful and free1 as ,mr4 ,bret ,harte might say4 ,the chapter is ,numbers xxx43 ,and ,moses spake unto the heads of the tribes concerning the children of ,israel1 saying1 ,this is the thing which the ,lord hath commanded4 #b ,if a man vow a vow unto the ,lord1 or swear an oath to bind his soul with a bond2 he shall not break his word1 he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth4 #c ,if a woman also vow a vow unto the ,lord1 and bind herself by a bond1 being in her father's house in her youth2 #d ,and her father hear her vow1 and her bond wherewith she hath2 bound her soul1 and her father shall hold his peace at her2 then all her vows shall stand1 and every bond wherewith she hath bound her soul shall stand4 #e ,but if her father disallow her in the day that he heareth2 not any of her vows1 or of her bonds wherewith she hath bound her soul1 shall stand3 and the ,lord shall forgive her1 because her father disallowed her4 #f ,and if she had at all an husband1 when she vowed1 or uttered aught out of her lips1 wherewith she bound her soul2 #g ,and her husband heard it1 and held his peace at her in the day that he heard it2 then her vows shall stand1 and her bonds wherewith she bound her soul shall stand4 #h ,but if her husband disallowed her on the day that he heard it2 then he shall make her vow which she vowed1 and that which she uttered with her lips1 wherewith she bound her soul1 of none effect3 and the ,lord shall forgive her4 #i ,but every vow of a widow1 and of her that is divorced1 wherewith they have bound their souls1 shall stand against her4 #aj ,and if she vowed in her husband's house1 or bound her soul by a bond with an oath2 #aa ,and her husband heard it1 and held his peace at her1 and disallowed her not2 then all her vows shall stand1 and every bond wherewith she hound her soul shall stand4 #ab ,but if her husband hath utterly made them void on the day he heard them2 then whatsoever proceeded out of her lips concerning her vows1 or concerning the bond of her soul1 shall not stand3 her husband hath made them void2 and the ,lord shall forgive her4 #ac ,every vow1 and every binding oath to afflict the soul1 her husband may establish it1 or her husband may make it void4 #ad ,but if the husband altogether hold his peace at her from day to day2 then he establisheth all her vows1 or all her bonds1 which are upon her3 he confirmeth them1 because he held his peace at her in the day that he heard them4 #ae ,but if he shall any ways make them void after that he hath heard them2 then he shall bear her iniquity4 #af ,these are the statutes1 which the ,lord commanded ,moses1 between a man and his wife1 between the father and his daughter1 being yet in her youth in her father's house4 ,between man and his ,god they tell us there is no one but a ,redeemer2 but between woman and man's ,god there seems to be all her male relations1 which1 ,i should think1 would prevent any very close intimacy4 ,and by the time the divine commands to woman were filtered through the entire male population1 from ,moses to the last gentleman who1 in the confusion natural to the occasion1 misquotes with all thy worldly goods ,i me endow1 ,i should think it not impossible that some slight errors may have crept in1 and the ,church should not feel offended if ,i were to aid her in their detection4 ,here we have two or three passages that are said to be the words of ,jesus4 ,i hope that is not true4 ,but ,i1 believing him to have been a man1 can understand how they might have been the words of even a very good man in that age and with his surroundings2 but the words of a perfect being--never6 ,of course ,i know that we have no positive knowledge of any of the words of ,jesus1 since no one pretends that they were ever written down until long after his death2 but ,i am dealing now with the theological creation upon the theologian's own grounds4 ,my own idea of ,jesus places him far above the myth that bears his name4 #c ,and when they wanted wine1 the mother of ,jesus saith unto him1 ,they have no wine4 #d ,jesus saith unto her1 ,woman1 what have ,i to do with thee8 --,john ii1 #c-d4 ,i hope that ,christ did not say that--for his manhood ,i hope so4 ,i would rather believe that this is the mistake of some uninspired writer than think that one who in much had so gentle and tender a nature1 was unkind and brutal to his mother4 ,no one would attempt1 in this age1 to apologize for such a reply to so simple a remark made by a mother to her son4 ,but they say he was divine4 ,they also tell us he was a perfect example2 but with this evidence before me1 ,i am glad our men are human4 ,still ,i cannot pretend to say that this is not divine--never having made any divine acquaintances4 ,i can only say1 humanity is better4 ,then again he is reported to have said a most cruel thing to the broken-hearted mother of a dying child1 and ,i would rather believe the ,bible uninspired and keep my respect for ,jesus1 the man4 ,it will be better for this world to believe in ,jesus1 the brave1 earnest man1 than in ,jesus1 the cruel ,god4 #ba ,then ,jesus went thence1 and departed into the coasts of ,tyre and ,sidon4 #bb ,and behold1 a woman of ,canaan came out of the same coasts1 and cried unto him1 saying1 ,have mercy on me1 ,o ,lord1 thou ,son of ,david2 my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil4 #bc ,but he answered her not a word4 #be ,then came she and worshiped him1 saying1 ,lord1 help me4 #bf ,but he answered and said1 ,it is not meet to take the children's bread1 and to cast it to dogs4 #bg ,and she said1 ,truth1 ,lord3 yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table4 --,matt4 xv4 ,do you think that was kind8 ,do you think it was godlike8 ,what would you think of a physician1 if a woman came to him distressed and said1 ,doctor1 come to my daughter2 she is very ill4 ,she has lost her reason1 and she is all ,i have6 ,what would you think of the doctor who would not reply at all at first1 and then1 when she fell at his feet and worshiped him1 answered that he did not spend his time doctoring dogs8 ,would you like him as a family physician8 ,do you think that1 even if he were to cure the child then1 he would have done a noble thing8 ,is it evidence of a perfect character to accompany a service with an insult8 ,do you think a man who could offer such an indignity to a sorrowing mother has a perfect character1 is an ideal ,god8 ,i do not4 ,and ,i hope that ,jesus never said it4 ,i prefer to believe that that story is a libel4 ,it won't do4 ,we have either to give up the inspiration theory of the ,bible1 and acknowledge that it is the work of men of a crude and brutal age1 and like any other book of legend and myth of any other people2 or else to give up the claim that ,god is any better than the rest of us4 ,you can take your choice4 ,whenever a theologian undertakes to explain matters so as to keep the ,bible and the divine character both intact1 ,i am always reminded of the story of the ,irishman who was given a bed in the second story of a lodging-house the first night he spent in ,new ,york4 ,in the night the fire-engines ran past with their frightful noise4 ,aroused from a deep sleep and utterly terrified1 ,mike's first thought was to get out of the house4 ,he hastily jerked on the most important part of his costume1 unfortunately wrong side before1 and jumped out of the window4 ,his friend ran to the window and exclaimed1 ,are ye kilt1 ,mike8 ,picking himself up and looking himself over by the light of the street lamp1 he replied1 ,no1 not kilt1 ,pat1 but ,i fear ,i am fatally twishted4 ,next we have ,god's opinion 7on ,bible authority7 as to the use of wives4 ,they were to be forcibly changed around as a punishment to their husbands and for offences committed by the latter4 #aa ,thus saith the ,lord1 ,behold1 ,i will raise up evil against thee out of thy own house1 and ,i will take thy wives before thy eyes and give them unto thy neighbor4 --#b ,sam4 xii4 ,the latter part of the verse is omitted as being unfit to read4 ,don't understand that ,i think any of it is exactly choice literature2 but that cover has been used to silence objection long enough4 ,if it is fit to teach as the word and will of ,god for women1 it ought to be fit to read in a theatre--but it is not4 ,what do you think of a religion that upholds such morals and such justice as that just quoted8 ,what do you think of women supporting the ,bible in the face of that as the will of ,god8 ,of all human beings a woman should spurn the ,bible first4 ,she1 above all others1 should try to destroy its influence2 and ,i mean to do what little ,i can in that direction4 ,the morals of the nineteenth century have outgrown the ,bible4 ,jehovah stands condemned before the bar of every noble soul4 ,what ,moses and ,david and ,samuel taught as the word and will of ,god1 we1 who are fortunate enough to live in the same age with ,charles ,darwin1 know to be the expression of a low social condition untempered by the light of science4 ,their thus saith the ,lord1 read in the light of to-day1 is thus saith ignorance and fear--no more1 no less4 ,if you will read the #abth chapter of ,leviticus1 which is unfit to read here1 you will see that the ,bible esteems it twice as great a crime to be the mother of a girl as to be the mother of a boy2 so highly esteemed was woman by the priesthood2 so great a favorite was she of ,jehovah499 99 ,see ,appendix ,k4 ,and do you know there is a law in the ,bible99 which the ,lord spake unto ,moses that says if a man is jealous of his wife1 whether he have cause or not1 he is to take her to a priest1 and take a little barley meal 7if you ever want to try it1 remember it must be barley meal2 ,i don't suppose the priest could tell whether she was guilty or not if you were to take corn meal or hominy grits7 and put it in the wife's hands4 ,and the priest is to take some holy water and scrape up the dirt off the floor of the ,tabernacle1 and put the dirt in the water and make the wife drink it4 ,now just imagine an infinite ,god getting up a scheme like that6 ,then the priest curses her and says if she is guilty she shall rot4444 and she shall say ,amen4 ,that is her defence6 ,then the priest takes the stuff she has in her hands--this barley-meal jealousy offering--and waves it before the ,lord4 7,i suppose you all know what that part is done for4 ,if you don't1 ask some theological student with a number six hat-band2 he'll tell you47 ,and then he burns a pinch of it 7that is probably for luck71 and at this point it is time to make the woman drink some more of the filthy water 7which he does with great alacrity71 and if she be guilty the water will turn bitter within her1444 and she shall be accursed among her people4 7,you doubtless perceive that her defence has been most elaborate throughout47 ,do you think that water would be bitter to the priest8 99,see ,numbers v4 #aa-ca4 ,but if she does not complain that the water is bitter1 and if her ,amen is perfectly satisfactory all round1 and she be pronounced innocent1 what then8 ,is the husband in any way reproved for his brutality8 ,did the ,lord reveal to ,moses that he should drink the rest of that holy water and dirt8 ,no6 ,that wasn't in ,moses' line4 ,neither he nor the husband drink the rest of that water--priest doesn't either2 they don't even take a pinch of the barley4 ,but after she is subjected to this1 and the show is over1 if she be innocent1 then shall she go free6 ,oh1 ye gods6 what magnificent generosity6 ,i should have thought they would have hanged her then for being innocent4 ,and then shall the man be guiltless of iniquity1 and the woman shall bear her iniquity4 ,if she is innocent she shall bear her iniquity4 ,you all see how that is done ,i suppose4 ,if you don't1 ask your little number six theological student1 and he will tell you all about it1 and he will also prove to you1 without being asked1 that he and ,god are capable of regulating the entire universe without the aid of ,general ,butler4 ,but ,i am told that ,i ought to respect and love the ,bible2 that all women ought to take an active part in teaching it to the heathen1 to show them how good ,jehovah is to his daughters4 ,but if he is1 he has been unusually unfortunate in his choice of executors4 ,nor is it only in the ,old ,testament that such morals and such justice are taught4 ,the clergy put that part off by saying--,oh1 that was a different dispensation1 and ,god1 the ,unchangeable1 has changed his mind4 ,that is the sole excuse they give for all the holy men1 who used to talk personally with ,god1 practicing polygamy and all the other immoralities4 ,they maintain that it was ,god's best man who upheld polygamy then1 and that it is the ,devil's best man who does it now4 ,odd idea1 isn't it8 ,simply a question of time and place2 and as ,col4 ,ingersoll says1 you have got to look on a map to see whether you are damned or not4 ,but it does seem to me that a ,god that did not always know better than that1 is not a safe chief magistrate4 ,he might take to those views again1 ,they say history is likely to repeat itself4 ,anyhow1 ,i would rather be on the safe side and just fix the laws so that he couldn't4 ,it would be just as well4 ,but now we have come to ,st4 ,paul and his ideas on the woman question4 ,he worked the whole problem by simple proportion and found that man stands in the same relation to woman as ,god stands to man4 ,that is1 man is to woman as ,god is to man--and only a slight remainder4 ,i'm not going to misrepresent this gifted saint4 ,i shall let him speak for himself4 ,he does it pretty well for a saint1 and much more plainly than they usually do4 #cc ,wives1 submit yourselves unto your own husbands1 as unto the ,lord1 #cc ,for the husband is the head of the wife1 even as ,christ is the head of the church3 and he is the saviour of the body4 --,ephesians v4 ,the husband is the saviour of the wife6 ,pretty slim hold on heaven for most women1 isn't it8 ,and then suppose she hasn't any husband8 ,her case is fatal4 #cd ,therefore as the church is subject unto ,christ1 so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything4 --,ephesians v4 ,paul was a modest person in his requirements4 #i ,in like manner also1 that women adorn themselves in modest apparel1 with shamefacedness and sobriety2 not with braided hair1 or gold1 or pearls1 or costly array4 --#a ,timothy ii4 ,it does seem as if anybody would know that braided hair was wicked2 and as to gold and pearls and costly array1 all you have to do to prove the infallibility of ,paul--and what absolute faith ,christians have in it6--is to go into any fashionable church and observe the absence of all such sinfulness3 #aj ,but 7which becometh women professing godliness7 with good works4 #aa ,let the woman learn in silence with all subjection4 #ab ,but ,i suffer not a woman to teach1 nor to usurp authority over the man1 but to be in silence4 #ac ,for ,adam was first formed1 then ,eve4 #ad ,and ,adam was not deceived1 but the woman being deceived was in the transgression4 --#a ,timothy ii4 ,according to the reasoning of verse #ac man should be subject to all the lower animals1 because they were first formed1 and then ,adam4 ,verse #ad tells us that ,adam sinned knowingly2 ,eve was deceived1 so she deserves punishment4 ,now ,i like that4 ,if you commit a crime understandingly it is all right4 ,if you are deceived into doing it you ought to be damned4 ,the law says1 ,the criminality of an act resides in the intent2 but more than likely ,st4 ,paul was not up in ,blackstone and did not use ,coke4 ,this next is ,st4 ,peter1 and ,i believe this is one of the few topics upon which the infallible ,peter and the equally infallible ,paul did not disagree3 ,likewise1 ye wives1 be in subjection to your own husbands2 that1 if any obey not the word1 they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives2 #b ,while they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear4 --#a ,peter iii4 ,i should think that would be a winning card4 ,if the conversation of a wife1 coupled with a good deal of fear1 would not convert a man1 he is a hopeless case4 ,but here is ,paul again1 in all his mathematical glory1 and mortally afraid that women won't do themselves honor4 #c ,but ,i would have you know1 that the head of every man is ,christ2 and the head of the woman is the man2 and the head of ,christ is ,god4 #d ,every man praying or prophesying1 having his head covered1 dishonoreth his head4 #e ,but every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered1 dishonoreth her head2 for that is even all one as if she were shaven4 #f ,for if the woman be not covered1 let her also be shorn3 but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven1 let her be covered4 #g ,for a man indeed ought not to cover his head1 forasmuch as he is the image and glory of ,god3 but the woman is the glory of the man3 #h ,for the man is not of the woman1 but the woman of the man4 #i ,neither was the man created for the woman1 but the woman for the man4 --#a ,cor4 xi4 ,and that settles it1 ,i suppose4 ,but what on earth was man created for8 ,i should not think it could have been just for fun4 #cd ,let your women keep silence in the churches2 for it is not permitted unto them to speak2 but they are commanded to be under obedience1 as also saith the law4 #ce ,and if they will learn anything1 let them ask their husbands at home3 for it is a shame for women to speak in the church4 --#a ,cor4 xiv4 ,that is a principle that should entitle ,st4 ,paul to the profound admiration of women4 ,and yet1 when ,i come to think of it1 ,i don't know which one gets the worst of that either4 ,whenever you want to know anything1 ask your husband1 at home6 ,no wonder most husbands don't have time to stay at home much4 ,no wonder they have to see a man so often4 ,it would unseat any man's reason if he lived in constant fear that he might1 any minute1 be required to explain to a woman of sense1 how death could have been brought into this world by ,eve1 when every one knows that long before man could have lived upon this earth animals lived and died4 ,it would make any man remember that he had to catch a car if he were asked suddenly to explain the doctrine of the ,trinity4 ,i would not blame the most sturdy theologian for remembering that it was club night1 if his wife were to ask him1 unexpectedly1 how ,nebuchadnezzar1 with his inexperience1 could digest grass with only one stomach1 when it takes four for the oxen that are used to it4 ,that may account1 however1 for his hair turning to feathers4 ,i don't believe ,st4 ,paul could have realized what a diabolical position he was placing husbands in1 when he told wives to ask them every time they wanted to know anything--unless he wanted to make marriage unpopular4 ,there is one thing certain1 he was careful not to try it himself1 which looks much as if he had some realizing sense of what he had cut out for husbands to do1 and felt that there were some men who would rather be drafted--and then send a substitute4 ,but why are his commands not followed to-day8 ,why are not the words1 sister1 mother1 daughter1 wife1 only names for degradation ,and dishonor8 ,because men have grown more honorable than their religion1 and the strong arm of the law1 supported by the stronger arm of public sentiment1 demands greater justice than ,st4 ,paul ever dreamed of4 ,because men are growing grand enough to recognize the fact that right is not masculine only1 and that justice knows no sex4 ,and because the ,church no longer makes the laws4 ,saints have been retired from the legal profession4 ,i can't recall the name of a single one who is practicing law now4 ,have any of you ever met a saint at the bar8 ,women are indebted to-day for their emancipation from a position of hopeless degradation1 not to their religion nor to ,jehovah1 but to the justice and honor of the men who have defied his commands4 ,that she does not crouch to-day where ,saint ,paul tried to bind her1 she owes to the men who are grand and brave enough to ignore ,st4 ,paul1 and rise superior to his ,god4 ,and remember that ,i have not read you the worst stories of the ,bible4 ,the greater number of those which refer to women are wholly unfit to read here4 ,are you willing to think they are the word of ,god8 ,i am not4 ,believe in a ,god if you will1 but do not degrade him by accepting an interpretation of him that would do injustice to ,mephistopheles6 ,have a religion if you desire1 but demand that it be free from impurity and lies1 and that it be just4 ,exercise faith if you must1 but temper it wisely with reason4 ,do not allow ministers to tell you stories that are sillier than fairy tales1 more brutal than barbaric warfare1 and too unclean to be read1 and then assure you that they are the word of ,god4 ,use your reason2 and when you are told that ,god came down and talked to ,moses behind a bush1 and told him to murder several thousand innocent people2 when you are told that he created a vast universe and filled it with people upon all of whom he placed a never-ending curse because of a trivial disobedience of one2 give him the benefit of a reasonable doubt and save your reputation for slander4 ,now just stop and think about it4 ,don't you think that if a ,god had come down and talked to ,moses he would have had something more important to discuss than the arrangement of window curtains and the cooking of a sheep8 ,since ,moses was the leader of ,god's people1 their lawgiver1 the guardian of their morals1 don't you think that the few minutes of conversation could have been better spent in calling attention to some of the little moral delinquencies of ,moses himself8 ,don't you think it would have been more natural for an infinite and just ruler to have mentioned the impropriety of murdering so many men1 and degrading so many young girls to a life worse than that of the vilest quarter of any infamous dive1 than to have occupied the time in trivial details about a trumpery jewel-box8 ,since ,god elected such a man as ,moses to guide and govern his people1 does it not seem natural that he would have given more thought to the moral worth and practices of his representative on earth1 than to the particular age at which to kill a calf8 ,if he were going to take the trouble to say anything1 would it not seem more natural that he should say something important8 ,in his numerous chats with ,solomon1 don't you think he could have added somewhat to that gentleman's phenomenal wisdom by just hinting to him that he had a few more wives than were absolutely necessary8 ,he had a thousand we are told1 which leaves ,brigham ,young away behind4 ,yet there are ,christians to-day who teach their children that ,solomon was the wisest man who ever lived1 and that ,brigham ,young was very close to the biggest fool4 ,it is not strange that some of these children infer that the trouble with ,brigham was that he had not wives enough1 and that if he had only married the whole state of ,massachusetts he and ,solomon would now occupy adjoining seats on the other shore1 and use the same jew's-harp8 ,do you believe for one moment that a ,god ever talked with any man and told him to murder a whole nation of men1 to steal their property1 to butcher in cold blood the mothers1 and to give the young girls to a camp of brutal soldiers--and that he helped to do it8 ,do you believe any ,god ever told a man to give so many of those girls to one tribe1 so many to another1 and to burn so many as an offering to himself8 ,do you believe it8 ,i don't4 ,would you worship him if he had8 ,i would not4 ,and yet it is true that he did help in such work1 or else the word of ,moses is not worth a nickel4 ,god did this1 or else our religion is founded upon a fraud4 ,he did it1 or orthodoxy is a mistake4 ,he did it1 or the ,bible is an imposition4 ,if it is true1 no woman should submit to such a fiend for an hour2 if it is false1 let her unclasp the clutches of the superstition which is built upon her dishonor and nourished by her hand4 ,they say it is a shame for a woman to attack the ,bible4 ,i say she is the one who should do it4 ,it is she who has everything to gain by its overthrow4 ,it is she who has everything to lose by its support4 ,they tell me it is the word and will of ,god4 ,i do not1 ,i cannot1 believe it6 ,and it does seem to me that nothing but lack of moral perception or mental capacity could enable any human being who was honest 7and not scared7 to either respect or believe in such a ,god4 ,as a collection of ingenious stories1 as a record of folly and wickedness1 as a curious and valuable old literary work1 keep the ,bible in the library4 ,but put it on the top shelf--or just behind it1 and don't let the children see it until they are old enough to read it with discrimination4 ,as a mythological work it is no worse than several others4 ,as a divine revelation it is simply monstrous4 ,among your other tales you might tell the children some from it4 ,you might tell them that at one time a man got mad at another man1 and caught three hundred foxes1 and set fire to their tails 7they standing still the while71 and then turned them loose into the other man's corn1 and burned it all up4 ,if they don't know much about foxes1 and have never experimented in burning live hair1 they may think it is a pretty good story4 ,but ,i would not tell them that the man who got up that torch-light procession was a good man4 ,i would not tell them that he was one of ,god's most intimate friends2 because even if they think he had a right to burn his enemy's crops1 ,i don't believe that any right-minded child would think it was fair to the foxes4 ,,the ,,fruit ,,of ,,the ,,tree ,,of ,,knowledge4 ,some time ago ,i went to hear a noted minister1 who preached a sermon about the fruit of the tree of knowledge to a congregation composed1 as most congregations are1 chiefly of women4 ,yet his sermon was a monument of insult1 bigotry1 and dogmatic intolerance that would have done honor to a witch-hunter several centuries ago4 ,that women will subject themselves to such insults week after week1 and that there are still men who will condescend to offer them1 is a sad commentary upon their self-respect as well as upon the degrading influence of their religion4 ,why will they listen to such nonsense8 ,perhaps woman was made of a rib and so should be held as flesh and blood only1 devoid of intellect4 ,but ,i don't know that she was2 ,i was not there to see1 and1 in fact1 none of my family were2 and since they tell us that the only gentleman present upon that interesting occasion was asleep1 ,i don't know who could have told the story in the first place4 ,it is always a surprise to me that women will sit1 year after year1 and be told that1 because of a story as silly and childish as it is unjust1 she is responsible for all the ills of life2 that because1 forsooth1 some thousands of years ago a woman was so horribly wicked as to eat an apple1 she must and should occupy a humble and penitent position1 and remain forever subject to the dictates of ecclesiastical pretenders4 ,it is so silly1 so childish1 that for people of sense to accept it seems almost incredible4 ,according to the story1 she was deceived4 ,according to the story1 she believed that she was doing a thing which would give greater knowledge and a broader life1 and she had the courage to try for it4 ,according to the story1 she first evinced the desire to be more and wiser than a mere brute1 and incidentally gave her husband an opportunity to invent the first human lie 7a privilege still dear to the heart71 a field which up to that time had been exclusively worked by the reptiles4 ,but they never got a chance at it again4 ,from the time that ,adam entered the lists1 competition was too lively for any of the lower animals to stand a ghost of a chance at it1 and that may account for the fact that1 from that time to this1 nobody has ever heard a snake tell a lie or volunteer information to a woman4 ,the ,church has had a monopoly of these profitable perquisites ever since4 ,the serpent never tried it again4 ,he turned woman over to the clergy1 and from that time to this they have been the instructors who have told her which apple to bite1 and how big a bite to take4 ,she has never had a chance since to change her diet4 ,from that day to this she has had apple pie1 stewed apple1 dried apple1 baked apple1 apple-jack1 and cider2 and this clergyman that ,i heard1 started out fresh on apple-sauce4 ,he seemed to think--anything for a change4 ,you would have thought1 to hear him1 that the very worst thing that ever happened to this world was the birth of the desire for knowledge1 and that such desire in woman had been the curse of all mankind4 ,but it seems to me that if in this day of intelligence a minister preaches or acts upon such dogmas1 women should scorn him both as a teacher and as a man4 ,if a creed or ,church upholds such doctrines they should shun it as they would a pest-house4 ,if any system or any book of religion teaches such principles they should exert every effort to utterly destroy its influence4 ,i want to do what ,i can to show women that the mercury of self-respect must fall several degrees at the church door1 and that the light of reason must go out4 ,in this sermon that ,i speak of1 we were warned not to be wise above that which is written4 ,as if a man should bind his thoughts and knowledge down to what was known1 believed1 or written in ages past6 ,as though a man should fear and tremble1 should hesitate to reach out after1 to labor to know1 all that his intellect and energy can compass4 ,as though to be good he must accept situations1 sentiments1 ideas ready-made1 and dwarf his intellect and bind his mental ability by the capacity of somebody else4 ,he that hath ears to hear1 let him hear4 ,he that hath eyes to see1 let him see4 ,and he that hath a brain to think1 let him think4 ,what is his intellect for8 ,why is his mind one vast interrogation point8 ,why should not ,eve have grasped with eagerness the fruit of the tree of knowledge8 ,a taste of the fruit of the tree of knowledge does drive man from the paradise of ignorance1 does send him forth a laborer in the vast fields of speculation and thought1 where there is no rest1 and no possibility of the cessation of labor so long as his energies and his love of truth remain to impel him to the conquest of the infinite domain that lies unexplored beyond4 ,but would any man sell what is gained in liberty1 in strength1 in breadth1 in conscious superiority1 for the delights which every brute has left him in his stagnant paradise of ignorance and rest8 ,what man in this nineteenth century can unblushingly say he would not choose the labor with all its pain1 the effort with all its failure1 the struggle with all its exhaustion8 ,why try to bind the human mind by the silly theory that a ,god requires man to crush out or subject the intellect he has given him8 ,whatever religion may have gained by such a course1 think what morality and progress have lost by it6 ,what has not woman lost by that silly fable which made her responsible for transgression8 ,honor her for it6 ,honor her the more if it was she who first dared the struggle rather than lose her freedom or crush her reason4 ,if she learned first that the price of ignorance and slavery was too great to pay for the luxury of idleness--honor her for it4 ,the acceptance of such contemptible stories1 as told by the clergy in all ages and in all religions as the word of ,god1 has done more to enslave and injure women's intellects1 and to brutalize men1 than has been done by any other influence2 and our boasted superior civilization is not the result of the ,christian religion1 but has been won step by step in despite of it499 ,for the ,church has fought progress with a vindictive bitterness and power found in no other antagonist--from the time1 long ago1 when it crushed ,galileo for daring to know more than its inspired leaders could ever learn1 down to yesterday1 when it raised a wild howl against ,prof4 ,tyndall for making a simple statement1 in itself absolutely incontrovertible4 99 ,see ,lecture #c1 ,theological ,fictions4 ,it had to yield to ,galileo as the people grew beyond its power to blind them to his truth4 ,it is yielding every hour to-day to ,tyndall from the same dire necessity2 while its nimble devotees vie with each other in proclaiming that they thought that way all the time2 had neglected to say so 7through an oversight72 but that it was one of their very strongest holds from the beginning4 ,they have recently told us that modern scientific doctrines 7evolution included7 are plainly indicated in the ,bible1 and that ,science has at last worked up towards the comprehension of scriptural truths4 ,it used to be the fashion to burn the man who got up a new theory or discovered a new law of nature that interfered with the revelation theory2 but the style now is to go into the mental gymnastic business and reconcile the old dogma with the new truth4 ,the only kind of reconciling the ,church ever thought of in the days of her power1 was to become reconciled to the death of the scientist or thinker4 ,to-day she can take evolution and revelation1 shake them up in a theological bag1 and then bring them forth so marvellously alike in appearance that their own father would not know them apart4 ,and the rest of us can't recognize them at all4 ,to-morrow1 when she has to yield her whole field to science1 she will hasten to assure us that it was only a few mistaken souls who ever objected to ,col4 ,ingersoll's style of theology2 and that if we would only interpret the ,bible aright 7and understood ,hebrew7 we should at once discover that ,col4 ,ingersoll was the biggest card they had had yet4 ,you may not live until that to-morrow2 ,i may not live until that to-morrow2 but it is as sure to come as it is certain that the old tenets have yielded one by one before the irresistible march of an age of intelligence and freedom1 in which a priest or a ,church can no longer be judge1 jury1 and counsel4 ,not long ago ,i heard two gentlemen--one a very devout ,christian--talking about what use the ,church could make of ,col4 ,ingersoll's teachings4 ,one said he was such a moral man1 and always insisted so strongly upon right action in this world1 that it was a pity he did not have more faith4 ,he said1 ,what a power he would be in the ,church6 ,what a preacher he would make6 ,he would be a second ,st4 ,paul--,i have been praying for years for his conversion4 ,well1 said the other1 you needn't waste your time any longer2 softening of the brain doesn't run in ,robert's family4 ,,knowledge ,,not ,a ,,crime4 ,let man rid himself of the pernicious idea that knowledge is a crime1 and then let only the man who is afraid to enter the world of thought go back to his native paradise of ignorance and rest4 ,let him cling to his old ideas4 ,humanity can do better without such a man1 and humanity will be better without him4 ,the time is past when his type is needed1 and let us hope that it is nearly past when it can be found4 ,he may have been abreast of the time in #ahdj1 but his grave was dug1 his epitaph written1 in #ahda4 ,science did not wait for him1 and the world forgot his name6 ,do you think the world has any farther use for the man who can gravely tell those stories about ,samson1 for instance1 as truth--as the word of ,god8 ,do you think they do honor to the most attenuated intellect8 ,now just stop and think of it4 ,just think of one thousand able-bodied men 7#a1jjj is a good many men7 quietly standing around waiting for ,sampson to knock them on the head with a bone6 ,and how does the durability of that bone strike you8 ,if prowess with arms were estimated1 ,i should say that was about the most effective piece of generalship on record4 ,if the gentleman who conducted that neat little skirmish were living to-day there would not be a question as to his eligibility for a third term1 unit rule or no unit rule4 ,if we could provide our generals with a bone like that1 we might reduce the standing army sufficiently to reassure the most timid congressman of the whole lot4 ,it would not take more than four or five generals and a captain to guard the whole frontier4 ,then we might keep a private to keep the peace at the polls1 and that would give us sufficient force to readily murder several thousand people any morning before breakfast1 and ,i don't see how you could ask for anything better than that4 ,two live men and one dead mule could raise a siege in a quarter of an hour4 ,now1 if there is anybody who wants to start a brilliant foreign policy1 here is his chance4 ,he could at the same time make a record for economy1 for it would be an enormous saving to this country in arms and ammunition alone4 ,for durability1 cheapness1 and certainty not to miss fire there is simply no comparison at all4 ,it may be objected that our soldiers are not so strong as ,samson2 but ,i am told by those who are intimately acquainted with mules1 that they have not deteriorated4 ,they have simply transferred their superior strength and durability from their jaw-bones to their heels--and they engineer them themselves4 ,so if our men can stand his voice and aim him right1 they won't have to wear long hair4 ,but seriously1 if it is necessary to believe such stories as that in order to go to heaven1 don't you think the admission fee is a trifle high8 ,it is entirely beyond my means1 and that is not one of the big stories either4 ,the one that comes right after it is just as absurd4 ,it is the second scene of the same performance1 and ,samson only went out between acts for a drink1 and then he playfully walked off with a building about the size of the capitol at ,washington4 ,they say we must believe these tales or be damned2 and that a woman has not even a right to say1 ,i object4 ,but it always did seem to me that anybody who could believe them would not have brains enough to know whether he was damned or not4 ,they say we must not laugh at such very solemn things as that4 ,they also say that even if we don't believe them ourselves we should show respect for those who do4 ,that is a very good theory1 but ,i should like to know how any human being with a sense of humor could sit and look solemn1 and feel very respectful1 with that sort of chaff rattling down his back4 ,it can't be done unless he is scared4 ,fear will convince a man the quickest of anything on earth4 ,even a shadow is provocative of solemnity if the night is dark enough and the man is sufficiently scared4 ,ignorance and ,fear made the ,garden of ,eden1 they created ,jehovah1 gave ,samson his wonderful strength1 and ,solomon his wisdom2 they divided the ,red ,sea1 and raised ,lazarus from the dead4 ,it is not strange1 therefore1 that they have compelled women to cling to the ,church1 and slaves to cling to slavery4 ,there were many black men in the ,south who voluntarily went back and offered to remain in bondage4 ,and that is one of the strongest arguments against the institution of slavery--that it can so far degrade its victims that they lose even the ambition to be free699 99 ,it was quite an ordinary fact in ,greece and ,rome for slaves to submit to death by torture rather than betray their masters4 ,yet we know how cruelly many ,romans treated their slaves4 ,but in truth these intense individual feelings nowhere rise to such a luxuriant height as under the most atrocious institutions4 ,it is part of the irony of life1 that the strongest feelings of devoted gratitude of which human nature seems susceptible1 are called forth in human beings toward those who1 having the power entirely to crush their earthly existence1 voluntarily refrain from using that power4 ,how great a place in most men this sentiment fills1 even in religious devotion1 it would be cruel to inquire4 ,we daily see how much their gratitude to ,heaven appears to be stimulated by the contemplation of fellow-creatures to whom ,god has not been so merciful as he has to themselves4 --,mill4 ,the time is not far distant when a bondage of the intellect to the ,church will receive no more respectful consideration than a bondage of the body to a master4 ,this nineteenth century cannot much longer be bound by the ignorance and intolerance of an age when might was the highest law and force the only appeal4 ,we need to recognize that the broadest possible liberty is the greatest possible good2 and that the liberty to think is the highest good of all4 ,so don't let people make you afraid to think1 or to laugh at nonsense wherever you see it4 ,solomon saying it cannot make a silly thing wise1 nor ,moses doing it a cruel thing kind4 ,david cannot make brutality gentle1 nor ,paul injustice just2 and that the ,bible sustains a wrong can never make it right4 ,don't you know that if the leading men of the ,old ,testament were living to-day1 they would be known as liars1 thieves1 and murderers--some indeed as monsters to whom even these terms would be base flattery4 ,despoilers of those who had not injured them2 infamous liars in the name of ,god2 murderers of men2 butchers of children2 debauchers of women2 if they were living in the nineteenth century they would be unanimously elected to the gallows--that is if they escaped ,judge ,lynch long enough4 ,and yet they are held up to us1 who have outgrown their morals1 as authorities on the subject of ,god's will to man1 as ,prophets1 ,saints1 ,mediators6 ,do you want your children taught to believe in the purity and honor of such men8 ,do you want your children taught to worship a ,god who sanctioned1 commanded1 and gloried 7and usually participated7 in their worst crimes8 ,do you want them to believe that at any time1 in any age1 a ,god was the director in the most heinous crimes1 in the vilest plots1 in the most cruel1 vulgar1 cowardly acts of vice that were ever recorded8 ,either he was or else ,moses' word is not worth a copper1 and theology is the invention of ignorance4 ,he did these hideous things or the ,bible is mistaken about it4 ,there is to-day that kind of a ,god somewhere in space waiting around to pounce on anybody who doesn't admire him1 or else the ,church is founded upon the ignorance and fear of its dupes1 and teaches them what is not true4 ,they say it is wicked to inquire into the facts4 ,i say it is wrong not to4 ,it seems to me that in a matter like this the most important thing is to be honest all round1 and that if the claims of the ,church are true no inquiry can injure them4 ,they say1 ,oh1 well1 drop all the bad part1 and only take the good4 ,there is a great deal of good in it too4 ,but if ,i don't know what is good myself ,i won't go to ,moses and that class of men to find out4 ,i'll go to somebody who has got a clean record4 ,i won't go to men who robbed and murdered in the name of ,god2 ,i won't go to men who bought and sold their fellow-men2 ,i won't go to men who gave their own daughters over to the hate and lust of others1 even bargaining for them with sons and brothers4 ,such men cannot tell me what is good4 ,such men cannot make a religion for me to live by1 or a ,god that ,i can accept4 ,i am sometimes told that intelligent ministers nowadays do not believe in the inspiration of the ,bible1 and do not teach it4 ,yet every minister who1 like the ,rev4 ,r4 ,heber ,newton1 dares to suggest mildly that even the apple story is a fable1 is silenced by his bishop or hounded down for heresy4 ,and still they go right on telling little children that it is the word of ,god and the only guide of life4 ,for truth1 better give them ,a,esop's ,fables or the ,arabian ,nights2 for purity the ,decameron or ,don ,juan2 for examples of justice the story of ,blue-,beard or the life of ,henry the ,eighth4 ,i wish you would read the ,bible carefully just as you would any other book1 and see what you think of its morals4 ,i am debarred from touching the parts of it that are the greatest insult to purity and the most infamous travesties of justice4 ,i can only say to you1 read it1 and if you are lovers of purity you will find that it teaches respect for a ,god who taught the most degrading impurity and defended those who forced it upon others4 ,if you believe in the sacredness of human life1 he gave the largest license to murder4 ,it does not matter that ,moses said he told him to tell somebody else ,thou shalt not kill299 for the same gentleman remarked upon several other occasions that ,god told him not only to kill1 but to steal1 to lie1 to commit arson1 to break pretty much all the other commandments--and to be a professional tramp besides4 7,i am told that he followed this latter occupation for forty years1 which ,i should think would give him the belt47 ,so you see we have the same gentleman's word for all of it2 and at times1 ,i must confess1 it does not seem to me absolutely reliable authority4 ,there is one thing certain1 if the returns are correct1 and that is that ,moses did not take his own medicine in the little matter of keeping the commandments4 ,they were for his enemies and his slaves4 99 ,see ,lecture #c1 ,theological ,fictions4 ,if you love liberty remember that the ,bible teaches slavery in every form1 not only the buying of slaves1 but the stealing them into bondage4 ,how any man or woman who censured slavery in our ,southern ,states can permit their children to be taught that the ,bible is a book of authority1 and think they are consistent1 ,i cannot understand4 ,every slave-whip had for its lash the ,bible4 ,every slave-holder had its teachings for his guide4 ,every slave-driver found his authority there4 ,when the sword of the ,north severed the thongs of the black man1 it destroyed the absolute control of the ,bible in ,america2 and gave a fatal blow to ,jehovah the ,god of oppression4 ,only in the ,south is it that the ,bible still holds its own4 ,freedom has outgrown it2 and the young ,south is reading it1 for the first time1 with an eraser6 ,if you respect your mother1 if you wish your children to respect theirs1 you will find that the ,bible teaches not only disrespect for her1 but abject slavery and the most oppressive degradation4 ,if you love your young sister1 your beautiful pure daughter1 remember that ,jehovah taught that1 whenever men could do so1 they were to abuse1 ruin1 degrade them2 and remember1 further1 that his prophets--the men who made our religion--did these things and gloried in the work4 ,it is for this reason that ,i say it is right and peculiarly fitting that women should object to his teaching4 ,after you have read the #cast ch4 of ,numbers1 with its thus saith the ,lord1 think then if you want to follow such teachings4 ,decide then whether or not the words1 the acts1 the commands1 or the religion of such men is good enough for you4 ,think then whether or not you want your daughters1 your sons1 to believe that the ,bible has one grain of authority1 or is in any sense a revelation of the divine will4 ,don't allow ministers to palm off platitudes on you for revelation2 and don't let them make you believe that anything that ,moses or ,david or ,solomon said was the command of ,god to women4 ,neither one of those men was fit to speak of a respectable woman4 ,with the superior morals of our time neither one of them would be considered fit to live outside of a brothel4 ,and don't let them tell you what ,saint ,paul said either4 ,what did he know about women anyway8 ,he was a brilliant but erratic old bachelor who fought on whichever side he happened to find himself on4 ,he could accommodate himself to circumstances and accept the situation almost as gracefully as that other biblical gentleman who quietly went to housekeeping inside of a whale1 and held the fort for three days4 ,,as ,,much ,,inspired ,,as ,,any ,,of ,,it4 ,did it ever occur to you that those absurd tales have as much claim to be called the word of ,god as any of the rest of it8 ,how can people say they believe such nonsense8 ,and how can they think it is evidence of goodness to believe it8 ,they say it takes a horribly wicked man to doubt one of those yarns2 and to come right out and say honestly1 ,i don't believe it1 will elect you1 on the first ballot1 to a permanent seat in the lower house4 ,mr4 ,talmage says four out of five ,christians try to explain away these tales by giving them another meaning1 and he urges them not to do it4 ,he says1 stick to the original story in all its literal bearings4 ,the advice is certainly honest1 but it would take a brave man to follow it4 ,and four out of five of even professed ,christians is a pretty heavy balance on the side of intellectual integrity2 and even ,mr4 ,tal-mage's mammoth credulity fails to tip the scale4 ,they simply can't believe these biblical stones1 so they try to explain the marvellous part entirely away4 ,it has about come to this1 in this day of thought and intelligence1 that when a thinking man claims to believe these tales1 and says it is an evidence of righteousness to believe them1 there are just two things to examine1 his intellect and his integrity4 ,if one is all right the other is pretty sure to be out of repair4 ,defective intellect or doubtful integrity is what he suffers from4 ,he has got one of them sure1 and he may have both4 ,now ,i should just like to ask you one honest question4 ,why should any book bind us to sentiments that we would not tolerate if they came from any other source8 ,and why tolerate them coming from it8 ,do you know who compiled the ,bible8 ,do you know it was settled by vote which manuscripts ,god did and which he did not write8 ,the ballot is a very good thing to have2 but ,i decline to have it extend its power into eternity1 and bind my brain by the capacity of a ballot-box held by caste and saturated with blood4 ,there can be but slow progress while we are weighted down by the superstitions of ages past4 ,the brain of the nineteenth century should not be bound down to the capacity of the third1 nor its moral sentiment dwarfed to fit ,jehovah4 ,but so long as the theories of revelation and vicarious atonement are taught1 we shall not need to be surprised that every murderer who is hanged to-day says that he is going1 with bloody hands1 directly into companionship with the deity of revelation4 ,he has had ample time in prison to re-read in the ,bible 7what he had previously been taught in ,sunday school71 of many worse crimes than his which his spiritual adviser assures him 7to the edification and encouragement of all his kind outside7 were not only forgiven1 but were actually ordered and participated in1 by the ,god he is going to4 ,that is what orthodoxy tells him6 ,just think of it6 ,do you think that is a safe doctrine to teach to the criminal classes8 ,aside from its being dishonest1 is it safe8 ,does it not put a premium on crime8 ,i maintain that it is always a dangerous religion where faith in a given dogma1 and not continuous uprightness of life1 is the standard of excellence4 ,it is a cruel religion where force is king and immorality ,god4 ,it is an unjust religion which seeks to make women serfs and men tyrants4 ,it is an unreasonable religion where credulity usurps the place of intellect and judgment4 ,it is an immoral religion where vice is deified and virtue strangled4 ,it is a cowardly religion where an innocent man1 who was murdered #a1hjj years ago1 is asked to bear the burden of your wrong acts to-day4 ,aside from its impossibility that is cowardly4 ,man should be taught that for every wrong he does1 he must himself be responsible--not that some one else stands between him and absolute personal responsibility--not that ,eve caused him to sin1 nor that ,christ stands between him and full accountability for his every act4 ,and he should be taught that for every noble deed1 for every act of justice or mercy1 he deserves the credit himself2 that ,christ does not need it2 that ,christ cannot want it2 and that ,christ does not deserve it4 ,and you will not want to wash your hands in the blood of ,christ1 nor to shed that of any other innocent man1 if your motives are pure and your lives clean4 9999999999 ,,vicarious ,,atonement4 ,,in an art collection in ,boston there is a god--a redeemer--the best illustration ,i have ever seen of the vicarious atonement theory4 ,it is a perfect representation of the agony endured by a helpless and innocent being in order to relieve the guilty of their guilt4 ,this god was captured in ,central ,africa before his mission was complete1 and there is still suffering-space upon his body unused4 ,it is a wooden image of some frightful beast1 and it is represented as suffering the most intense physical agony4 ,nails are driven into its head1 body1 legs1 and feet4 ,each wrongdoer who wanted to relieve himself of his own guilt drove a nail1 a tack1 a brad1 or a spike into the flesh of his god4 ,the god suffered the pain2 the man escaped the punishment4 ,he cast his burdens on his god1 and went on his way rejoicing4 ,here is vicarious atonement in all its pristine glory4 ,the god is writhing and distorted with pain2 the criminal has relieved himself of further responsibility1 and his faith has made him whole4 ,his sins are forgiven1 and his god will assume his load4 ,it is curious to examine the various illustrations of human nature as represented by the size and shape of the nails4 ,a sensitive man had committed a trifling offence1 and he drove a great spike into the head of the god4 ,a thick-skinned criminal inserted a small tack where it would do the least harm--in the hoof4 ,an honest1 or an egotistic penitent drove his nail in where it stands out prominently2 while the secretive devotee placed his among a mass of others of long standing and inconspicuous location4 ,one day ,i stood with a friend looking at this god4 ,my friend1 who was a devout believer in the vicarious theory of justification and punishment as explained away by the ethical divines of ,boston1 was unable to see anything but the most horrible brutality and willingness to inflict pain on the part of these ,african devotees1 and was equally unable to recognize the same principle when applied to orthodoxy4 ,she said1 ,is it not horrible1 the ignorance and superstition of these poor people8 ,what a vast field of labor our missionaries have4 ,to her the idea of justification by faith in a suffering god meant only superstition and brutality when plainly illustrated in somebody else's religion2 but the same idea1 the same morality1 the same justice1 she thought beautiful when applied to ,christianity4 ,i said1 ,there is the whole vicarious theory in wood and iron4 ,that is exactly the same as the ,christian idea2 and the same human characteristics are plainly traceable in the size and location of these nails4 ,a ,presbyterian or a ,methodist drives his nail in the most conspicuous spot1 where the flesh is tender and the suffering plainly visible4 ,the ,episcopalian or ,catholic uses a small tack1 and drives it as much out of sight as possible1 covering it over with stained glass1 and distracting the attention with music2 but the bald1 cruel1 unjust1 immoral1 degrading1 and dishonest principle is there just the same4 ,faith in blind acts of devotion2 the suffering of innocence for guilt2 transferring of crime2 comfort and safety purchased for self by the infliction of pain and unmerited torture upon another2 premiums offered for ignorance and credulity2 punishments guaranteed for honest doubt and earnest protest--all these beautiful provisions of the vicarious theory are as essential to our missionary's belief as to that of his ,african converts2 and it seems to me simply a choice between thumbs up and thumbs down4 ,while we were talking my friend's pastor joined us1 and she told him what ,i had said1 and asked him what was the difference between the ,christian and the heathen idea of a suffering god4 ,he said he could explain it in five minutes some morning when he had time4 ,he said that the one was the true and living faith1 and the other was blind superstition4 ,he also said that he could easily make us see which was which4 ,then he gracefully withdrew with the air of one who says3 ,in six days ,god made the heavens and the earth1 and on the seventh day he and ,i rested4 ,he has not called since to explain4 ,while he stayed1 however1 his manner was deeply1 solemnly1 awfully impressive2 and of course ,i resigned on the spot4 ,the theory of vicarious atonement is the child of cowardice and fear4 ,it arranges for a man to be a criminal and to escape the consequences of his crime4 ,it destroys personal responsibility1 the most essential element of moral character4 ,it is contrary to every moral principle4 ,the ,church never has been and never will be able to explain why a god should be forced to resort to such injustice to rectify a mistake of his own4 ,to earnest questions and honest thoughts it has always replied with threats4 ,it has always silenced inquiry and persecuted thought4 ,past authority is its god1 present investigation its devil4 ,with it brains are below par1 and ignorance is at a premium4 ,it has never learned that the most valuable capital in this world is the brain of a scholar4 ,,fear4 ,every earnest thought1 like every earnest thinker1 adds something to the wealth of the world4 ,blind belief in the thought of another produces only hopeless mediocrity4 ,individual effort1 not mere acceptance1 marks the growth of the mind4 ,the most fatal blow to progress is slavery of the intellect4 ,the most sacred right of humanity is the right to think1 and next to the right to think is the right to express that thought without fear4 ,fear is the nearest approach to the ball and chain that this age will permit1 and it should be the glorious aim of the thinkers of to-day that so refined and cruel a form of tyranny shall not be left for those who come after us4 ,we owe physical freedom to the intellectual giants of the past2 let us leave mental freedom to the intellectual children of the future4 ,fear scatters the blossoms of genius to the winds1 and superstition buries truth beneath the incrustation of inherited mediocrity4 ,fear puts the fetters of religious stagnation on every child of the brain4 ,it covers the form of purity and truth with the contagion of contumely and distrust4 ,it warps and dwarfs every character that it touches4 ,it is the father1 mother1 and nurse of hypocrisy4 ,it is the one great disgrace of our day1 the one incalculable curse of our time2 and its nurse and hot-bed is the ,church4 ,because ,i1 a woman1 have dared to speak publicly against the dictatorship of the ,church1 the ,church1 with its usual force and honor1 answers argument with personal abuse4 ,one reply it gives4 ,it is this4 ,if a woman did not find comfort and happiness in the ,church1 she would not cling to it4 ,if it were not good for her1 she in her purity and truth would not uphold it in the face of the undeniable fact that the present generation of thinking men have left it utterly4 ,you will find1 however1 that in every land1 under every form of faith1 in each phase of credulity1 it is the woman who clings closest and longest to the religion she has been taught2 yet no ,christian will maintain that this fact establishes the truth of any other belief499 99 ,exactly the same thing may be said of the women in the harem of an ,oriental ,they do not complain4444 ,they think our women insufferably unfeminine4 --,mill4 ,they will not argue from this that women know more of and have a clearer insight into the divine will6 ,if she knows more about it1 if she understands it all better than men1 why does she not occupy the pulpit8 ,why does she not hold the official positions in the ,churches8 ,why has she not received even recognition in our system of religion8 ,who ever heard of a minister being surprised that ,god did not reveal any of the forms of belief through a woman8 ,if she knows and does the will of ,god so much better than man1 why did he not reveal himself to her and place his earthly kingdom in her hands8 ,that argument won't do6 ,as long as creed and ,church held absolute power there was no question but that woman was a curse1 that she was an inferior being1 an after-thought4 ,no ,church but the ,roman ,catholic has the decency to recognize even the so-called mother of ,god6 ,the ,church has never offered women equality or justice4 ,its test of excellence is force4 ,the closer a ,church or creed clings to its spirit1 the more surely does it assume to dictate to and control woman and to degrade her4 ,the more liberal the creed the nearer does it come to offering individual justice and liberty4 ,the testimony of our own missionaries1 as well as that of many others1 assures us that it is not the ,turk but his wives who hold fastest to their faith4 ,the women of the harem1 whom we pity because of the injustice of their religious training1 are the last to relinquish their god1 the most bitter opponents of the infidel or sceptic in their ,church1 the most devout and constant believers of the faith1 and the most content with its requirements4 ,they are the ones who cling to the form even when the substance has departed--and it is so with us6 ,among the heathen it is the women who are most shocked and offended by the attacks made upon their superstitions by the missionaries whom we pay to go to them and blaspheme their gods and destroy their idols4 ,go where you will1 read history as you may1 and you will find that it is the men who invented religion1 and the women who believed in it4 ,they are the last to give it up4 ,the physically weak dread change4 ,inexperience fears the unknown4 ,ignorance shuns thought or development4 ,the dependent cannot be brave4 ,we are all prepared to admit1 ,i think1 that1 with but few marked exceptions here and there1 the women of most countries are physically and mentally undeveloped4 ,they have had fear and dependence1 the dread enemies of progress and growth1 constantly to retard them4 ,fear of physical harm1 fear of social ostracism1 fear of eternal damnation4 ,with rare exceptions a child with a weak body1 or any other dependent1 will do as he is told2 and women have believed to order4 ,they have done so not only in ,christianity but in ,buddhism1 ,mohammedanism1 ,mormonism1 and ,fetichism--in each and all of them4 ,each and all of these religions being matter of faith1 religion was the one subject in which every ,church alike claimed ignorance as a virtue2 and the women understood that the men understood it as little as they did4 ,it was a field where credulity and a solemn countenance placed all on an intellectual level--and the altitude of the level was immaterial4 ,women have never been expected to understand anything2 hence jargon about the testimony of the spirit1 the three in one absurdity1 the horns of the altar1 or the widow's oil miracle was not more empty or unmeaning to her than a conversation about ,bonds and ,stocks1 ,political ,economy1 or ,medical ,science4 ,she swallowed her religion just as she did her pills1 because the doctor told her to1 and said there was something wrong with her head--and usually there was4 ,,beginning ,,to ,,think4 ,the past education of woman gave her an outlook which simply embraced a husband or nothing at all1 which was often only a choice between two of a kind4 ,there are a great many women to-day who think that orthodoxy is as great nonsense as ,i do1 but who are afraid to say so4 ,they whisper it to each other4 ,they are afraid of the slander of the ,church4 ,i want to help make it so that they will dare to speak4 ,i want to do what ,i can to make it so that a mother won't have to evade the questions of her children about the ,bible4 ,,creeds4 ,i am sometimes asked1 ,what do you propose to give in place of this comforting faith8 ,it makes people so happy4 ,you take away all this blessing and you give no other in its place4 ,what is your creed8 ,it has never seemed to me that a creed was the staff of life4 ,man cannot live by creeds alone4 ,i should not object1 however1 to one that should read something like this3 ,i believe in honesty4 ,i believe that a ,church has no right to teach what it does not know4 ,i believe that a clean life and a tender heart are worth more to this world than all the faith and all the gods of ,time4 ,i believe that this world needs all our best efforts and earnest endeavors twenty-four hours every day4 ,i believe that if our labors were needed in another world we should be in another world2 so long as we are in this one ,i believe in making the best and the most of the materials we have on hand4 ,i believe that fear of a god cripples men's intellects more than any other influence4 ,i believe that ,humanity needs and should have all our time1 efforts1 love1 worship1 and tenderness4 ,i believe that one world is all we can deal with at a time4 ,i believe that1 if there is a future life1 the best possible preparation for it is to do the very best we can here and now4 ,i believe that love for our fellow-men is infinitely nobler1 better1 and more necessary than love for ,god4 ,i believe that men1 women1 and children need our best thoughts1 our tenderest consideration1 and our earnest sympathy4 ,i believe that ,god can get on just as well without any of these as with them4 ,if he wants anything he can get it without our assistance4 ,it is people with limitations1 not gods without limitations1 who need and should have our aid4 ,i believe that it is better to build one happy home here than to invest in a thousand churches which deal with a hereafter4 ,if a life that embraces this line of action does not fit a man for heaven1 and if faith in vicarious atonement will1 then such a heaven is not worth going to1 and its god would be unworthy to make a good man's acquaintance4 ,but suppose that faith in a myth is destroyed and another mysticism be not set up in its place1 what then8 ,if a mother takes her child away from the fire1 which it finds beautiful1 and believes to be a nice toy1 is it necessary for her to give it a kerosene lamp in its place8 ,she destroys a pleasant delusion--a faith and a delightful hope and confidence--because she knows its danger and recognizes its false foundation4 ,it is surely not necessary that she should give to the child another delusion equally dangerous and false4 ,she gives it something she knows to be safe2 something she understands will not burn2 something which1 though not so bright and attractive to the child at first1 gives pleasure without pain1 occupation without disaster4 ,is she cruel or only sensible8 ,if ,i were to pretend to a knowledge of a divine creed1 a superhuman system1 ,i should be guilty of the same dishonesty1 the same deception of which ,i complain in the ,church4 ,i do not know of any divine commands4 ,i do know of most important human ones4 ,i do not know the needs of a god or of another world4 ,i do not know anything about a land that is fairer than day4 ,i do know that women make shirts for seventy cents a dozen in this one4 ,i do know that the needs of humanity and this world are infinite1 unending1 constant1 and immediate4 ,they will take all our time1 our strength1 our love1 and our thoughts2 and our work here will be only then begun4 ,why not1 if you believe in a ,god at all1 give him credit for placing you where he wanted you8 ,why not give him credit for giving you brains and sympathies1 as well as the courage to use them4 ,even if ,eve did eat that apple1 why should we insist upon having the colic8 ,,self-,,control ,,what ,,we ,,need4 ,i want to see the time come when mothers won't have to explain to their children that ,god has changed his mind about goodness and right since he used to incite murder2 that eighteen hundred years ago he was a criminal with bloody hands and vile1 polluted breath2 that less than three hundred years ago his greatest pleasure was derived from witnessing the agony of pure young girls burning alive1 whose only crime was beauty of face or honesty of thought499 99 ,see ,gage1 ,history of ,woman ,suffrage1 p4 #gff4 ,i want it so that she won't allow her children to hear and believe such a statement as ,bishop ,fallows made not long ago4 ,he said1 in effect1 that sins of omission are as heinous as those of commission3 that ,saul committed two sins in his life1 and that one of them was a refusal to commit a coldblooded murder6 ,he spared the life of a conquered enemy6 ,out of a whole nation he saved one life--and that was a crime1 a sin6 ,bishop ,fallows said that ,god expressly commanded ,saul to utterly exterminate that whole nation1 and not only the nation but its flocks2 and that ,god took ,saul's kingdom from him because he saved the life of one fallen enemy4 ,that story1 ,i think1 is a libel2 and ,i believe that if there is a ,god he was never such a fiend6 ,and ,i want it so that no mother will allow her child to hear such an infamous travesty of the character of a ,deity who is called good1 ,i want it so that all the lessons of the week1 all the careful training of a wise father or a good mother1 will not be antagonized on ,sunday by such a statement as the ,rev4 ,mr4 ,williamson made at a large church convention recently4 ,speaking of prayer1 he said3 ,we should offer to ,god1 by prayer1 our virtue1 our purity1 and our pious aspirations 7so far ,i do not object1 for if it means anything ,i fail to grasp it71 for by not doing so we claim self-control1 which is displeasing to ,god6 ,i object6 ,the lesson of self-control is precisely what we need4 ,and when we control ourselves and regulate our lives on principles of right and truth1 instead of allowing a ,church to regulate them through a fear of hell1 we shall be a better people1 and character will have a chance to grow4 ,then this same gentleman added3 ,we should also give him our vices1 our worry1 our temper1 and our passions1 so that he may dispose of them4 ,dispose of them yourselves6 ,don't try to shift your responsibilities on to somebody else4 ,don't drive your tack into the brain of justice1 expecting to save your own soft skull4 ,don't enervate your strength to do light by accepting the fatal doctrine of vicarious atonement4 ,it weakens every character that it touches4 ,,vicarious ,,atonement ,,not ,a ,,christian ,,invention4 ,the doctrine of vicarious atonement is found in some form in most religions1 and it is the body and soul of ours4 ,the idea is not a ,christian invention4 ,it caused the ,carthaginians to put to death their handsomest prisoners if a battle were won1 the most promising children of their own nobility if it were lost4 ,they were offerings to appease the gods4 ,in old times there were peoples who believed that if a chief was guilty of a misdemeanor it was just to punish or enslave any one of his tribe4 ,that was their idea of liberty and justice4 ,if a father committed a crime it could be expiated by the murder of his son4 ,that was the doctrine of vicarious atonement in all its pristine glory4 ,so they adopted that style of justice in our religion1 and condemned the whole lot of us to the eternal wrath of ,god on account of that little indiscretion attributed to ,eve4 ,it seems a very little thing for anybody to get so angry at us all about and stay angry so long6 ,it doesn't seem to me that if one of you were to eat every apple ,i had in my orchard1 ,i should want to murder and eternally damn all the folks that live in ,asia ,minor4 ,do you think you would8 ,in the #aath verse of the #abth chapter of the second book of ,samuel it is claimed that ,god said he was going to be revenged for the crimes of some men by a vile punishment of their wives4 ,only a short time ago a man tried that same style of justice in one of our ,western towns4 ,he claimed that ,smith had alienated the affections of his wife1 so he went over to ,smith's house and whipped ,mrs4 ,smith6 ,and do you know that the judge who tried that case 7not being a good ,bible student7 actually sent that good1 pious man to the house of correction --that man who not only believed in his ,bible1 but lived by it6 ,and just as likely as not that judge will be elected again4 ,truly we have fallen on degenerate times6 ,legal minds outgrew the idea of vicarious punishment long ago4 ,physical liberty came to have a new meaning1 and punishment was awarded more nearly where it was due4 ,but the religious mind never outgrows anything4 ,it is born as big as it ever gets4 ,development is its terror4 ,it abhors a change4 ,it forces you to sin by proxy1 to be redeemed by proxy2 and the only thing it does permit you to receive at first hand is ,hell4 ,that is the only one thing you can't delegate to somebody else4 ,if you commit no sin1 you are responsible for the sins of other people --dead people1 too1 that you can't look after4 ,if you are good and true and noble--even if you are a ,christian--you don't get any credit for it4 ,if there is any one thing above another that ,god detests it is to have a man try to be grand and noble and true1 and then get the credit of it4 ,to ,christ belongs all the honor1 the praise1 and the glory--world without end1 ,amen4 ,but when it comes to the punishment1 the vicarious notion doesn't seem to work4 ,there is the one point where you are welcome to your own1 and no discount allowed to heavy takers4 ,hell is always at par and no bail permitted4 ,even ignorance of the requirements is no excuse4 ,if you did not know any better1 somebody else did1 and you've got to pay for it4 ,now if the vicarious principle is not big enough to go clear round1 ,i'll leave my share off at the other end4 ,if the ,church wants to take my hell 7vicariously7 it is welcome to it4 ,i will let it go cheap4 ,awhile ago a man stayed some time at a hotel in ,new ,york1 and when the time came for him to pay his bill he hadn't the money4 ,well1 the proprietor felt sorry for him and said1 ,i tell you what ,i'll do about that bill1 ,i'll throw off half4 ,his guest was overwhelmed by this liberality1 and with tears of gratitude said1 ,i cannot permit you to outdo me in generosity2 ,i'll throw off the other half and we'll call it square4 ,so if the ,church desires all the credit1 it is also welcome to all the blame4 ,i cannot permit it to outdo me in generosity4 ,but ,i'd rather be responsible for just my own sins1 and then ,i can regulate them better1 and ,i can take care of my own reward when ,i get it4 ,i shall not want to deposit it with the clergy4 ,a profit and loss system that is chiefly loss will not pay me4 ,the doctrines of vicarious atonement and original or inherited sin are the most infamously unjust dogmas that ever clouded the brain of man4 ,,twin ,,monsters ,,inherited ,,from ,,intellectual ,,pigmies4 ,they are twin monsters inherited from intellectual pigmies4 ,let me read you a little prayer based upon this idea of right4 ,i heard it offered as a thanksgiving tribute4 ,oh1 ,god1 we do thank thee that thou didst give thy only son to die for us6 ,we thank thee that the innocent has suffered for the guilty1 and that through the suffering and death of thy most holy son our sins are blotted out6 ,monstrous6 ,how would that work in a court of justice8 ,what would you think of a person who coolly thanked a judge who had knowingly allowed the wrong man to be hung8 ,what do you think of a code of morals that offers as one of its beautiful provisions the murder of the innocent instead of the punishment of the guilty8 ,people ask what good ,i expect to come of an attack on ,christianity4 ,they ask me if ,i think ,christianity does any direct harm4 ,yes6 ,it makes a man unjust to believe in unjust doctrines4 ,any man who honestly believes in the righteousness of a system of vicarious rewards and punishments is ripe for any form of tyranny4 ,and the more honestly he believes in it the less will he be a good man from principle4 ,i want men and women to be good and true because it is right towards each other1 and not because they are afraid of ,hell4 ,honor towards people in this world1 not fear of a fiend in the next--that is my doctrine4 ,that is the way to make men and women strong and brave and noble4 ,stop telling them they can't be good themselves2 teach them that they must do right themselves4 ,make them self-dependent4 ,teach them to stand alone4 ,honor towards others1 kindness1 and love--these are what make a man a good husband1 a noble father--king in his household4 ,fear never made any man a gentleman4 ,fear never made any woman a true wife or a good mother4 ,fear never covered the pitfalls of vice with anything stronger than the gloss of hypocrisy4 ,when ,reason's torch burned low1 ,faith led her victims by chains of ignorance into the land of hopeless superstition1 and built her temple there4 ,,geographical ,,religion4 ,a religion of faith is simply a question in geography4 ,keep your locality in mind and you are all right4 ,on the banks of the ,red ,sea murder and slavery were a religious duty4 ,on the ,ganges infanticide is a virtue4 ,in ,rome you may steal or lie2 you may deceive an innocent young girl and blast her life forever2 you may stab your friend in the dark1 and you are all right3 but if you eat a piece of fried pork on ,friday you are a lost man6 ,china arranges her prayers in a machine1 and turns her obligations to ,deity off with a crank4 ,there is usually more or less intimate relationship between prayer and a crank4 ,our ,god loved human sacrifice in ,galilee1 and rewarded ,abraham for it4 ,he abhors it in ,pocasset1 ,america1 and his followers threaten to hang the only consistent follower of ,jehovah who has come amongst them4 ,if you live in ,utah1 or had lived in ,jerusalem1 your most certain hope of salvation would have been the possession of numerous wives4 ,in ,england or ,new ,york more than one is sure damnation4 ,lose your bearings and you are a lost man6 ,make a mistake in your county and your soul is not worth a copper4 ,a traveler is not safe five minutes1 and ,i doubt if an accident policy would cover his case4 ,god and the ,devil have been held accountable for about every crime that ever has been committed1 and it has been very largely a geographical question which of the two was responsible4 ,if it was longitude #ce #ad' east it was the ,lord6 ,if you shifted to longitude #gj #eh' west it was the devil4 ,when locality becomes the all-important question1 we do not wonder at the old lady who felt relieved when the new survey threw her house just across the state line into ,ohio1 after she had been under the impression that she lived in ,indiana4 ,well1 said she1 ,i am glad we don't live in ,indiana2 ,i always did say it was a very unhealthy state4 ,now1 our doctor's bills won't be so high4 ,pocasset1 ,mass41 is in the devil's country1 and murder is not safe2 it is a crime4 ,abraham and ,saul lived in a healthier climate--in ,god's congressional district1 where murder was above par and decency was out of fashion4 ,take it all in all1 and the devil seems to make the best governor4 ,now it seems to me that ,sunday-schools should teach nothing so much as geography1 so that a man may not be in doubt as to who is his ,secretary of ,state1 and when an order comes from head-quarters he may fairly be expected to know whether it is safe to obey--whether obedience means glorification on earth and a home in heaven1 or a sprained neck and a bright fire4 ,it seems now that ,pocasset is over the line and out of the ,lord's clearing4 ,,revelation4 ,now this ,god either did or he did not believe in and command murder and rapine in the days when he used to sit around evenings and chat with ,abraham and ,moses and the rest of them4 ,his especial plans and desires were revealed or they were not4 ,the ideas of justice and right were higher in those days than they are now1 or else we are wiser and better than ,god1 or else the ,bible is not his revealed will4 ,you can take your choice4 ,my choice is to keep my respect for divine justice and honor1 and let the ,bible bear the burden of its own mistakes4 ,if religion is a revelation1 then it is not a growth1 and it would have been most perfect in design and plan when it was nearest its birth4 ,now accepting the ,bible theory of ,jehovah1 we find that when the communications of ,god were immediate and personal there could have been no mistake as to his will4 ,to deal with it as a growth or evolution toward better things is to abandon the whole tenet of a revealed law of ,god4 ,but to deal with it as a revelation is to make ,god a being too repulsive and brutal to contemplate for one moment with respect4 ,he either did or did not tell those men those things4 ,which will you accept8 ,he divided men into two classes4 ,of one he made tyrants and butchers2 of the other1 victims4 ,he made woman weak in order that she might be the more easily overcome by vice2 helpless1 in order that she might the more easily be made the victim of brutal lust6 ,he made children to be the beasts of burden1 the human sacrifices1 the defenceless property of criminals and fiends4 ,he did these things1 or the prophets romanced about it1 or some one else romanced about them4 ,which8 ,if ,i accept the former alternative4 ,i can have nothing but loathing and contempt for the ,diety and his followers4 ,if the latter1 it clouds the character of no one4 ,it simply places the ignorance of the past on the same plane with the ignorance of the present4 ,it rescues the reputation of the ,infinite at the trifling expense of a few musty fables4 ,i choose the latter6 ,i prefer to believe either that a few men were themselves deceived1 or that they tried to deceive others--it does not much matter which4 ,i prefer to adopt this belief1 and so keep the character of even a supposititious ,god above reproach4 ,if we accept a ,god at all let us accept an honest one4 ,,evidence ,,of ,,faith4 ,we are asked to be as fair toward the evidence of ,bible witnesses as we are toward other evidence4 ,we are told that we believe a great deal that we have never seen1 and that we accept it on the word of others2 that we have never seen a man hung1 but that we believe that men have been hung2 we never saw ,napoleon's great feats of generalship1 but we believe in them because history records them4 ,why not believe in the ,bible as well as in other history8 ,why not1 on the testimony of witnesses1 believe that ,christ turned water into wine1 as readily as that a man was hung8 ,why not accept the miracle of the loaves and fishes on evidence1 as readily as the victories of ,napoleon8 ,now that line of argument1 although it is the one used by and for theological students1 is entirely illogical4 ,it will not work with people who think4 ,the cases are not parallel4 ,we believe the facts of history and the occurrences of to-day not solely on the testimony of others1 but because they are in accord with common-sense and experience and judgment2 because they fall within the range of possibility1 and do not antagonize the laws of nature4 ,we know a man can be hung4 ,we know one general may defeat another4 ,we are asked to believe nothing outside of reasonable bounds4 ,here then the only thing to examine is the credibility of the witnesses4 ,if1 however1 our witnesses told us that whenever ,napoleon wanted to know the strength of an enemy he flew up over their camp and counted their men2 or that when he found too many he prayed down fire from heaven and burned them up1 we should dismiss their testimony at once as unworthy of farther notice4 ,we should know that they were deceived1 or that they were trying to deceive us4 ,we should know that ,napoleon's real means of estimating the strength of his enemy were of a different nature1 and that he did not resort to the upper air and flit about at will4 ,we should know that no fire was prayed down1 and that although soldiers might be told to put their trust in ,god1 the little addition--and keep your powder dry--would be the really important part of the command4 ,so when we are told that wine was made out of water1 and bread and fish out of nothing in large quantities1 we know that we are listening to statements that simply go out of the field of credible testimony into the realm of supreme credulity4 ,such assertions require you to believe not only what you have not seen1 but what all experience and reason tell you you never can see4 ,they ask you not only to believe in a past event1 but in a past event outside of all reason1 beyond all experience1 incapable of demonstration1 unsupported by nature1 opposed to all natural laws--beneath the realm of reason1 out of the light of experience1 under the shadow of superstition6 ,the great electric light of the intellect is turned off at the church door4 ,on one day out of every seven the human lamps enter in utter darkness a field of superstition4 ,during six days the light is turned full on the world of commerce1 science1 art1 and literature1 and these glow and grow and are examined by its rays4 ,when1 however1 the signal tolls from the steeple on the seventh day1 the light is turned off for that day1 and for that topic alone2 and then there is brought out once more the old tallow candle of ignorance that hides in shadow the cobwebs of undeveloped thought6 ,use your noblest powers of thought freely in the bank2 strain and develop your ability to improve and control in the engine-room2 train and exert your judgment in literature and art2 push and brighten and sharpen your reason in science or political economy4 ,in the practical affairs of life faith will not help you4 ,it is childish and insecure4 ,it will not honor your cheque2 it will not prevent the broken engine from hurling its human companion into eternity4 ,it will not prove the rotundity of the earth1 nor establish a sound financial basis for a nation4 ,in all such matters it leads to nothing but ignorance and disaster4 ,in theology it is the one element of light4 ,as a test and an aid in this world1 it is puerile and trifling2 but the depths of the ,great ,beyond it fathoms to a nicety4 ,it gives no grasp upon the truths of ,time2 but it is the all-sufficient hold on ,eternity4 ,it leads to the discovery of no important principle here2 but it holds the keys to the secret chambers of divinity6 ,it is an attribute of childish development now4 ,it is to indicate infinite mental superiority hereafter6 ,it is a strange philosophy which asserts that a faculty which is a hindrance to superiority in this world is the one thing needful for the soul of man6 ,give me the brain that dares to think6 ,give me the mind that grasps with herculean power the rocks that crush the treasures of intellectual growth1 and tears them from their foundation6 ,give me the mind that dares to step from the fallen stones1 that leaps from rock to rock past the dark rift torn in the superstitions of ages past1 and that1 standing on the farthest crag1 waits and watches for the breaking light6 ,he can trust his future whose present scorns stagnation6 ,,did ,,he ,,talk8 ,in olden times--in the times of the ,bible--men believed that animals sometimes used human language1 and that beasts were wiser than their masters4 ,i'm not now going to question that belief1 but still ,i don't think that nowadays one-half of us would take the word of a horse on any important subject4 ,you must remember1 however1 that it took an ass to know an angel at first sight in ,balaam's time4 ,balaam never suspected that there was an angel in his path until that ass told him6 ,in those days1 on a little matter like that1 the word of any beast seemed to be taken as good evidence4 ,but let a mule jam his rider's foot against a wall1 nowadays1 and then lie down under him1 and there is not one man in ten who would associate that fact in his mind with the presence of an angel4 ,i suppose1 however1 there wasn't as much known about mules then as there is now2 and most asses were of a more pious turn of mind4 ,i don't suppose there is one intelligent man in this city who believes that story1 and yet he is not a good ,christian if he questions it4 ,show me a locality where actual belief--where old time orthodoxy--is looked upon as a requisite of good citizenship and standing in society1 and you will show me a place where intellectual development and rapid progress have died or gone to sleep6 ,the most ignorant and backward parts of this great country1 the localities where ,congress is asking for better and more secular schools to be established as a means of safety to the state1 are situated in the very ,states where orthodoxy holds absolute sway4 ,in those states a man is looked upon as a very dangerous character if he questions the accuracy of that story about those three hot-house plants1 ,shadrach1 ,meshach1 and ,abednego4 ,yes1 the people of that pious region would be afraid of a man who was wicked enough to laugh at that yarn2 and yet do you believe there is a man in this city who could make you believe it8 ,and you don't look dangerous either2 and ,i don't think that ,i do4 ,it seems that when they used to run ashore for big scare-stories1 they just poked up the fire and went into the blastfurnace business--here and hereafter4 ,but--seeing that a furnace--a real one--heated seven times hotter than it takes to melt iron1 did not injure those three tropical innocents--did not even singe their eye-brows--it does look a little as if we should stand a pretty fair show with the spiritual fuel they now promise us hereafter4 ,still ,i must say ,i don't believe ,i should like the climate4 ,speaking of ,bible arguments1 ,i must tell you of a new one ,i heard recently4 ,a gentleman acquaintance of mine asked a colored woman1 who had applied to him for money to help build a colored people's church1 whether she thought ,god was black or white4 ,she replied that the ,bible implied that he was black--that it said1 ,and ,his wool shall be whiter than snow2 and that white men don't have wool6 ,,what ,,you ,,may ,,think4 ,show me a grade of society that buckles its little belt of belief and faith around its members1 and you will show me a collection of hopeless mediocres4 ,the thinkers move out or die out4 ,they object to being fossilized4 ,they decline to go down to history as physical members of the nineteenth century1 and mental members of the third4 ,i would rather have the right to put on my monument1 ,she was abreast of her time1 than have all the sounding texts and all the feathered tribes chiseled upon it4 ,i would prefer that it be said of me1 ,she was a good woman because she had a pure heart1 than to have this record3 ,she was a ,christian4 ,she was afraid of hell4 ,she cast her burdens on the ,lord1 and went to heaven4 ,you have been told1 ,blessed are they who die in the ,lord4 ,rather let us say1 ,blessed are they who live clean lives4 ,but the ,church does not allow you to regulate your lives by what you believe to be right4 ,it always did and it always will hate a thinker4 ,it proposes to do the mental labor for great minds by means of brains large enough to hold nothing but ,faith4 ,it says1 ,i cannot1 and you shall not outgrow the past4 ,the measure of my capacity shall be the limit of your attainment4 ,the laws of a nation presume to regulate only what you may do4 ,the ,church is kind enough to say what you may think4 ,it proposes to control the mental condition of every man and woman for time and eternity1 and its first command is that we shall not grow4 ,it seems to me rather a queer admission to make1 but the ,church says that a child or a fool knows quite enough for its purpose--and it does not seem to be my place to question that fact4 ,now that may be all very well for the child and the fool1 but it is rather binding on the rest of us4 ,once in a while a minister outgrows the doctrines that were big enough for him in his youth2 but that minister1 though his life be as pure and his character as sweet as a flower1 would be safer to be cast into the sea than that this instrument of torture1 this court of injustice1 should discover that he had laid aside the outfit of his undeveloped years4 ,his mind may have grown to be a giant in strength1 but it must be compressed into the nut-shell of superstition--dwarfed to the capacity of intellectual pigmies4 ,christ was a thinker1 a man of progress1 an infidel1 a man who outgrew the ,church of his time2 and the ,church of his time crucified him4 ,those who oppose the spirit of religious stagnation to-day meet the same spirit in the ,church that ,christ met1 and receive the same treatment so far as the law will permit4 ,it is a sentiment as true as it is beautiful that asks us to reverence the great men1 the thinkers of the past2 but it is no mark of respect to them to rest forever over their graves4 ,we show our respect and our appreciation better by a spirit of research that reaches beyond them1 than by a simple admiration which takes their gifts and dies4 ,the lessons they left were not alone lessons of memory and acceptance1 but examples of effort and progress4 ,a pupil who stops content with his teacher's last words is no great credit either to himself or to his master4 ,if he has learned only to accept1 his lesson is only begun2 and until he knows that he must investigate1 his education is that of a child1 his development that of a clown4 ,it is no compliment to ,christ1 the man of progress #ahjj years ago1 that his followers clip the wings of thought4 ,he struck for freedom from ecclesiastical bondage4 ,he added a new link to the chain of intellectual growth1 and his followers have riveted it back to the immovable rock of superstition4 ,he offered a key to open the door of individual liberty4 ,they have wrapped it in the folds of ignorance and laid it in the closet of fear4 ,he said in effect1 ,when you have outgrown the ,church1 leave it and bless the world4 ,they say1 ,leave it and be damned4 ,for what is a ,christian to-day without his hell8 ,the chief objection ,i hear offered to the last arrangements made for us by the revisers is that they left out some of the hell1 and gave the part they kept a poetical name4 ,,intellectual ,,gag-,,law4 ,when the day comes when offences against the intellect are deemed as great crimes as offences against the person1 intellectual gag-law will meet with no more respect than lynch-law does to-day1 and will be recognized as the expression of an undeveloped moral and social condition4 ,choking an opinion into or out of a man's mind is no more respectable than the same argument applied to his body4 ,any form of faith1 any religion1 that has the vicarious element in it1 is an insult to the intellect4 ,it is based upon the idea of a ,god of revenge1 a ruler infamously unjust4 ,it is a system utterly ineffectual without the wanton sacrifice of helpless innocence under fangs of beastly cruelty--a revenge that has no thought of the redress of wrong by its punishment--a revenge that simply requires a victim--and blood6 ,even with those two elements of the plan it is still impotent until it has appealed to the basest element in every human breast--the willingness to accept happiness that is bought by the agony of another6 ,it is too abjectly selfish and groveling to command the least respect from a noble character or a great1 tender soul4 ,it severs the ties of affection without compunction4 ,it destroys all loyalty4 ,it says1 ,no matter what becomes of my loved ones--those who would die to help me--,i must save my soul4 ,without the use of the microscope1 however1 such a soul would never know whether it was saved or not4 ,what sort of a soul would it be that could have a heaven apart from those it loved8 ,it would not be big enough to save1 and its heaven would not be good enough to have4 ,i prefer the philosophy1 the dignified loyalty and love for the dead of the old ,goth1 the captive warrior whom the ,christians persuaded to be baptized4 ,as he stood by the font he asked the bishop1 ,where are the souls of my heathen ancestors8 ,the bishop1 with great alacrity1 replied1 ,in hell4 ,the brave old warrior1 the loyal ,goth1 drew his skins about him and said1 ,i would prefer1 if you do not object1 to go to my people2 and he left unbaptized4 ,that was heathen philosophy2 but ,i think ,i prefer it to the ,christianity of a devout man1 a ,sunday-school superintendent1 whom ,i know4 ,he is a great light in a ,christian church today4 ,he worships the beautiful provisions of vicarious atonement4 ,he refused his mother her dying wish1 and on the following ,sunday atoned for the inhuman act by singing with unusual unction1 ,how gentle ,god's commands1 and reading with devout fervor1 ,the ,lord is my shepherd1 ,i shall not want4 ,his mother1 who had the same shepherd1 had wanted for much4 ,she even wanted for a stone to mark her grave1 because the money she had left for that purpose her holy son thought best to use1 vicariously1 upon himself4 ,that man believes in the ,bible absolutely4 ,he is a good ,christian1 and he abhors an infidel6 ,he knows he is going to heaven because he has faith in ,christ1 and ,christ had an extra stab on his account4 ,he is willing to take his heavenly home through the blood of ,christ1 and his earthly one out of the pockets of a dead mother4 ,the blood of the murdered ,nazarene obliterates the infamy of his acts over her dishonored grave4 ,and this is perfectly consistent6 ,a religion of faith1 a religion that gets its good vicariously and shifts its sins and responsibilities on to the past1 is a religion that can never elevate character2 it simply makes a man more intensely what he was before4 ,it is all self1 self1 self4 ,think of the infinitesimal smallness1 the irredeemable worthlessness1 the unutterable meanness of a soul that could forsake those it had loved1 and be happy believing that they were suffering and eternally lost6 ,yet who does not know men who go tramping about the country1 living on the charity of their dupes1 and declaring that the ,lord is their ,shepherd1 they shall not want1 whose families want for almost every comfort of life8 ,and this is true orthodox doctrine4 ,ye shall forsake father1 mother1 wife1 and children1 for what8--to follow me6 ,think of the infamy of it6 ,if that is the kind of souls that go to heaven1 ,i shall do all ,i can to keep mine amongst more respectable spirits4 ,i will go with the ,goth4 ,i could suffer in hell 7if there were such a place7 with those ,i love1 and keep my self-respect4 ,if ,i believed ,i could be happy in heaven with my loved ones in agony below--if ,i believed it of myself--there is no vile1 slime-covered reptile on earth that ,i would so loathe6 ,forsake father1 mother1 husband1 children to save my soul6 ,never6 ,i will go with my people6 ,,the ,,vicarious ,,theory ,,the ,,cause ,,of ,,crime4 ,this idea of vicarious atonement has encouraged injustice and crime of every kind4 ,out of eighty-four men who have been hanged recently1 seventy-one have gone directly to heaven4 ,they asked the assembled spectators to be as good as they conveniently could1 and meet them on the other shore4 ,their spiritual advisers administered the holy sacrament1 and assured them that they were lambs of the fold1 and that a robe and a harp awaited them at the right hand of ,god4 ,just imagine a lamb in a robe1 playing on a harp6 ,a lamb with wings1 a harp1 a long white robe1 and golden slippers seems to me an object to arouse the sympathy of a demon4 ,poor lamb6 ,he would wish himself a goat every hour of the day4 ,there is an implied crime in the very word vicarious4 ,if it means anything it means the suffering of innocence to atone for guilt4 ,it means that one crime is condoned by the commission of another--a deliberate one4 ,it means that truth must die in order that dishonor may live4 ,it substitutes vengeance for justice4 ,it does not seek to protect society by checking villany2 it seeks the safety of the criminal by a shifting of responsibility4 ,if the framers of human laws were no wiser that the revealers of divine law1 no nation could live1 no family would be secure1 no justice possible4 ,see ,appendix ,s4 ,not long ago the ,new ,york ,independent contained an article against ,sarah ,bernhart1 calling her a lewd woman1 and against her play because it did not contain good morals4 ,the same paper contained an article against ,george ,eliot's works1 and said that the ,mormon ,congressman is a disgrace to all ,america because he is a polygamist4 ,all these things by a man who swallows ,david and ,lot whole1 and has ,solomon pose as the summit of all wisdom6 ,all this by a man who builds his life on the word of ,moses1 and denies to others the right to object to his code of morals or his version of heavenly wisdom and divine direction6 ,i should like a little consistency4 ,the ,christian who rails against polygamy1 and at the same time poses in morals with a bible in his hand1 is a man who saws his own legs from under him1 and still expects us to believe that he has legs1 which we might possibly do if only our sight were aided by faith4 ,as long as my eyes hold out1 ,i'll stick to unaided vision2 after that1 spectacles or faith according to circumstances4 ,when goodness and virtue are measured1 not by a book1 but by our own acts toward each other2 when a man's character is judged by the amount of joy he gives to his household2 when a happy laugh from his children and a bright smile from his wife greet him as often as he comes home2 when these are taken as the evidence of a good man1 deacons will go out of fashion4 ,meek1 tired1 persecuted-looking wives will not listen to a canting husband and believe that he is a holy man1 when they know that he is a bad husband and a tyrannical father4 ,there is not any way that ,i know of to make a home happy vicariously4 ,no confession of faith can take pain out of a mother's heart4 ,no testimony of the spirit can make love and beauty in a home where the heathen hold the first place1 and foreign missions get tangled up in the children's hair4 ,no man accustomed to a high intellectual temperature can keep warm by theological fires4 ,no man whose brain is king can ever again recognize the authority of this mere undisciplined sentiment4 ,,revision4 ,as a system ,christianity has had its day4 ,long ago it may have served a good purpose1 but after eighteen hundred years it is worn threadbare and useless4 ,if some of its milder tenets still cling to and fit our vast mediocrity1 it is equally certain that the intellectual giants have moulted it as the birds moult their plumage in a dying year1 and have taken on the bright new garments of higher thought1 the spring plumage of intellectual liberty4 ,when ,i heard that the ,bible was going to be revised ,i felt very glad1 because ,i thought there was a wide field of usefulness open to somebody right there2 and ,i concluded to do all ,i could to help it along4 ,i understood that they wanted the substance retained as it was1 with the language made more as we use language now4 ,so ,i began my revision in this way3 ,good morning1 ,moses1 ,i hear that you have some gods in this country4 ,do you know anything about it8 ,oh1 yes1 ,i'm the head god's head man4 ,you are8 ,yes1 ,i had a talk with the head god--the top one of the three 7we are down to three here now71 and he told me to tell people what a good god he is1 and that they must all praise him up for it4 ,he did6 ,well is that all he said8 ,oh1 no1 he told me to tell them that he is the only ,god1 and is the kind father of all1 and loves all alike1 and that they must all just trust in him and he will take good care of them4 ,i thought you said a while ago that there were three of these gods2 now this one says he is the only one4 ,is there trouble in the cabinet8 ,no1 there are three1 but there is one4 ,see8 ,well1 no1 ,i can't say that ,i do4 ,but no matter1 the rest of that about the father business was pretty good4 ,that was the best ,i ever heard4 ,but do you know that the very last man ,i talked with said that this god was partial to some folks and treated some others pretty shabbily4 ,oh1 that is not so2 my god is no respecter of persons2 that's his very strongest hold4 ,he treats rich and poor just alike1 only if anything he leans a little toward the poor4 ,that is pretty clever4 ,but what else did he tell you in that talk8 ,well1 he told me to tell the people1 ',thou shalt not kill2' and afterwards1 at another time1 he told me to take a lot of my men1 and go over there to that town just across1 and kill all the men and boys ,i could find1 and if they fought hard for their homes1 and ,i seemed to be getting the worst of it for a little while1 not to be afraid1 he'd be with me1 and he'd see that ,i came out all right4 ,oh1 he's the gayest old god you ever saw to help in a fight4 ,well1 yes1 that was pretty clever to you2 but isn't he the god of that village too6 ,oh1 yes2 but you see one of the men that lives over there went and worshipped another god one day1 and this one didn't like it4 ,i see2 but if he treats them all that way1 don't you think it is rather natural that they should go and hunt up another god to admire8 ,well1 while ,i was waiting for ,moses to answer this question1 ,i heard another man say that only a day or two previously this very fellow had burned up their homes1 and murdered a good many people who had never injured him2 and that he had dashed out the brains of the innocent children1 and had actually sold the sweet1 pure young girls to his brutal soldiers4 ,since ,i heard that1 my mind has been so occupied with some other little matters that my revision has not gone any farther1 and somebody else has got one out2 so ,i don't know that ,i shall ever finish mine4 ,it does not seem to be very encouraging work any way2 and ,i am afraid that people would find fault with its scholarship if it should be finished4 ,theological scholarship and common-sense always did disagree4 ,a man who is well vaccinated with either will never catch the other4 ,,the ,,church',s ,,money-,,box4 ,the ,church used to keep a box about four feet long and two feet wide which it called the sacred ark of ,god4 ,it was certain death for any man not a priest to touch that box4 ,it is supposed that they kept in it gold and jewels which they extorted from their dupes1 and that for fear of robbery they made superstition their banker4 ,well1 they had to move that jewelry-box once for some reason1 and it is not said that anything happened to the men who put it on the cart2 but as the man who drove the oxen--in one place it says that they were oxen1 in another that they were cows with young calves1 and you will be damned if you don't believe both--anyhow1 as the driver walked along in horrid fear lest something should happen to that ark of ,god1 the oxen shied1 and the ark toppled1 and instinctively the driver put out his hand to steady the sacred thing4 ,well1 you would think that any sane man1 any reasonable being1 would have commended him for it2 but no6 ,jehovah struck him dead for his pains4 ,why8 ,because that box was so supremely sacred4 ,supreme nonsense6 ,suppose he had not touched it and it had fallen8 ,what then8 ,most likely ,jehovah would then have struck him dead for not touching it4 ,it strikes me that the only reasonable1 sensible being connected with that whole story was the driver1 the man they abuse1 the man the priests murdered1 ,i suspect because he discovered what was in that ark1 and threatened to expose the humbug4 ,whenever any man uses judgment and common-sense the ,church calls him wicked and dangerous4 ,they say he touches with unholy hands holy things2 and when he dies1 whether his death was expedited or otherwise1 they say ,god killed him4 ,now1 if ,god did kill that man for touching the ark to save it from falling1 what do you think of him--as a ,god8 ,i can tell you what you would think of him as a man4 ,you would think he was a ruffian and a murderer--that is what you would think of him as a man4 ,truly gods are made of poor stuff4 ,if ,i can't have a god that is nobler and better and truer and kinder than the very best man ,i ever saw1 then ,i don't want any god at all4 ,and candor forbids me to state that ,i ever saw1 heard1 or read of any such a god4 ,all the gods ,i ever read or heard of have fallen infinitely below a few men ,i know4 ,jehovah1 it seems to me1 is hardly an average god1 even as gods go4 ,he believed in polygamy4 ,he believed in slavery4 ,he was a murderer--killed #eb1jjj people once because somebody looked into that four-by-two box that he thought so much of4 ,human life was not worth a copper in his neighborhood4 ,he was always in a rage about something1 and you never knew when he would get the drop on you because somebody else had ruffled his temper4 ,any man was liable1 as the ,irishman said1 to wake up any morning and find himself burned to ashes in his bed1 because one of his neighbors had been wicked enough to lend a five-dollar greenback to one of the ,philistines1 or had eaten a gum-drop in the dark of the moon1 or committed some other awful crime like-that4 ,,shall ,,progress ,,stop8 ,in its day the ,bible was all very well1 no doubt4 ,it was the expression of the best that the ,jewish people then knew in morals4 ,in his time ,christ was a great reformer and a brave man4 ,his philosophy was then an onward spring1 and he detested the shams of the ,church4 ,but with the knowledge we have to-day we should call that man a lunatic who tried to bind medical science by the teachings of that age1 and maintained that when a man was sick he had a devil1 and that if he got worse he had a whole flock of them4 ,yet ,christ thought that4 ,we should call the man utterly insane who insisted that ,joshua gave us the last light that is ever to be thrown on astronomy4 ,we should simply look with pity on one who should try to convince us that the legal profession ought to be bound by the laws of ,moses2 and we know that any nation that attempted to act under his guidance would be soon convinced by the unerring voice of foreign cannon that somebody had made a mistake4 ,science has grown4 ,philosophy has developed4 ,international law has sprung up4 ,in religion alone we are asked to accept the standard of morality and honor of ages that are dead--to take as the last word of wisdom the reformer's code of eighteen hundred years ago4 ,we may grow in all else2 in this we must stand still4 ,we may use a text-book on ,nature1 ,medicine1 ,law1 or ,mechanics1 until by its aid we pass beyond its knowledge to a higher2 but in morals and religion the book that was a light to the ages of ignorance and superstition1 and the production of its brain1 must still be the sole illuminator of a world made wise and critical and thoughtful by science and deep experience4 ,the fisherman's lantern1 although useful in its day1 cannot guide us while we stand in the glare of electricity4 ,why stand persistently with our faces westward1 and gaze at the declining light1 crying out impotently and hopelessly as we see it grow dim and vanish8 ,our wise men have kept steadily onward1 guided by the light of the breaking dawn2 and with their faces to the ,east their star has never set4 ,the fishermen's light has sunk below the horizon1 leaving behind it the glow of honest labor and earnest effort to keep their memory bright4 ,the scientist's star has risen1 and with no claim that it is even yet the highest light--the final promise1 it throws its rays of knowledge1 its beams of hope1 far into the future1 and bids us follow1 leaving the cold embers of the dead past for the warmth and light of the living future4 ,the hope of the past is the despair of the future4 ,stagnation is death4 ,in movement and thought alone is progress4 ,the wealth of the world is the brain of the scholar4 ,the past is dead2 peace to its ashes4 ,the future is ours to form on new models2 models deformed by past superstitions1 or models though faulty1 instinct with true freedom4 ,you are the jury1 what is the verdict8 9999999999 ,,historical ,,facts ,,and ,,theological ,,fictions4 ,,church ,,fictions4 ,,it is one of the glittering fictions of the ,church that to her civilization is due199 and that it is to her benign influence and direction alone that woman has been advanced to her present position in the social scale2 that without the ,bible and the ,church the status of woman in ,christian countries would be lower and her lot harder4 99 ,see ,appendix ,t1 #ast4 ,to prove this claim she directs attention to the status of woman in several non-,christian countries1 and compares the degradation and hardship she there endures to the position of woman to-day in ,america1 ,england1 and ,france4 #b;d4 ,the ,church claims the credit of originating and sustaining the various steps of progress by which woman has been elevated4 ,she claims to have originated and to sustain the idea that woman is man's equal1 and to recognize her as such in the ,church4 #c;d4 ,she points with pride to the superior education and intelligence of the women of ,christian countries1 and contrasts this intellectual altitude with that of women elsewhere4 ,she says that women owe their superior opportunities of education and advancement to their religion4 #dth4 ,but above all the clergy attempt to silence those who ask questions1 by calling attention to the superior legal status of woman in ,christian countries1 and asserting that the ,church secured this1 and that it made marriage honorable and home a possibility4 #eth4 ,the clergy claim that the ,bible is woman's best friend and staunchest defender1 and that it is the originator of morality4 ,,historical ,,facts4 ,the moment there is fixation1 petrification and death ensue4 ,profound sincerity is the only basis of character4 --,emerson4 ,,civilization4 ,we are told that our superior civilization and high moral tone are due to ,christianity4 ,i think that this is not true4 ,the whole1 or at least much the larger and foundation part of the question of civilization--where it shall grow and where only live1 where it shall drag and where scarcely exist--seems to me to be decided primarily by environment1 the basis of which is climate and soil4 ,where the climate and soil are most favorable to the highest development2 where the environment is neither too hard nor too indulgent2 where man is neither enervated by heat and the absence of necessity to labor1 nor stunted by cold and hardship and the ever-present necessity to search or labor for food and warmth2 there will be the highest types and forms of civilization499 99 ,see ,appendix ,a99 ,if the ,buddhist religion had chanced to be the one that in the process of events took root in the climate and soil where the ,hebrew ,bible and the ,christian belief hold sway2 and if1 on the other hand1 the ,hebrew and ,christian religions had been the ones developed in ,india or ,china1 the civilization of the various countries would still1 in the main1 be what they are to-day4 ,if our superior civilization were the result of our religion1 then the most civilized countries would be the most intensely ,christian countries4 ,we all know that this is not the case4 ,compare the intense ,christianity of ,spain or ,russia1 and their backward civilization1 with the easy-going religious or irreligious condition of ,france or ,america1 and their recognition of ,liberty and ,humanity1 equalled nowhere else on earth4 ,i admit unreservedly that a religion2 by its inelasticity1 may do much to retard progress1 or by its greater elasticity may permit a more rapid development than a more nearly petrified or incoherent system would allow2 but what ,i hold is this1 that the primary and controlling causes of the various stages of civilization are climate and soil4 ,there are1 of course1 many other things which modify the social development or civilization in any country1 as its religion1 its laws1 and what we may call accidents of international or civil contest1 such as the religious or other wars--our own war in which the blacks were freed1 arbitration1 and immigration4 ,all of these1 and many others1 are modifying influences2 but no one of them can claim the primary place4 ,soil1 climate1 and location determine the occupation of a nation1 as whether it shall be militant1 commercial1 or agricultural4 ,in turn occupation determines what the character of a people and their laws shall be1 whether they shall be warlike or peaceful1 inventive or receptive1 stationary or roving2 and these1 in turn1 are the matters which determine the civil scale to which a people shall rise4 ,true1 the religion of a people will make itself felt strongly2 but whenever a nation has found it expedient or desirable to accomplish a feat which was in opposition to its religion1 it has invariably modified the religion to fit the case1 or waived it in favor of that particular movement499 99 ,the popular religion in this1 as in other cases1 was made to bend to the new vice4--,lecky's ,history of ,european ,morals1 vol4 il1 page #caa4 ,in keeping with this fact it is found that in those countries where the greatest changes and modifications of government and occupation have occurred1 there have the religions undergone the greatest modification to fit the new order of things4 ,if it were the religion that determined the matter1 civilization and morals would be immovable1 and legislation would revolve around1 the guidance of the ,church4 ,according to the very theory of ,divine revelation a religion would be most perfect at its beginning4 ,it would be without flaw when born4 ,it would be incapable of improvement or growth4 ,in a word it would be immovable4 ,it would possess the fixation of which ,emerson speaks4 ,it would not have to readjust itself to the changed and improved conditions of man1 and its word would be always a higher light on every movement of progress4 ,it would be to the ,church and not to the ,state that the great principles of progress1 of liberty1 and of justice would look for the highest guidance and the last light4 ,how far this is from the real state of things in any country or in any religion all readers of history know499 99 ,see ,appendix ,b4 ,it is the ,state or ,science which has proposed and made the steps of progress1 and the ,church has 7often after the most bitter fight and denunciation7 readjusted her creed to the new code1 and then claimed that she had that light and knew that principle before1 although neither she nor any one else had ever suspected it4 ,this has been the case with almost every important discovery that ,science has ever made4 ,the ,church has retarded the acceptance of the new light1 and has set her seal of divine disapproval and damnation on the brow of the thinkers who strove to bless mankind4 ,it has been the rule in ,state reforms as well4 ,it was so in the struggle to separate ,church and ,state4 ,it is so in the effort to sustain the belief in the divine right of kings4 ,the ,church fought individual liberty and representative government1 and she still contests the questions of individual conscience and universal equality and independence499 99 ,see reports of the last ,general ,conference of the ,methodist ,church held in ,philadelphia1 where1 during a heated debate1 one member said that he was in favor of using common-sense and the principle of justice in deciding questions of right and wrong and of liberty of conscience2 whereupon a large majority voted him a dangerous man1 and decided that common-sense and justice had nothing to do with religion4 ,one member naively remarked that the whole career and life of a good preacher fully disproved that any such heretical doctrines obtained in the ,church as that the use of common-sense was admissible2 and since the majority voted with him it does not seem to be my place to question that fact4 ,in these matters the ,church has invariably been on the side that ultimately had to go to the wall1 and she has become a party to the progress only after the principle has become an established fact4 ,now it is the efforts of ,science and ,law towards the elevation of man and the bettering of his condition in this world--the procuring for him of greater personal advantages1 dignity1 and liberty--that have marked the progress of civilization4 ,the climate and soil decided man's occupation2 his occupation determined what his higher needs should be2 and his higher needs and the gained results of his occupations enabled him to strive for the bettering of his condition and surroundings4 ,the man who lived in a climate favorable to mental and physical activity1 and in a country with a rich and varied soil1 was enabled to accomplish his ends as his less fortunate brother-lacking such support and stimulus and motive--has been unable to do4 ,if such a thing had been possible1 thirty years ago1 as that all knowledge of our religion had been utterly wiped out of ,america1 and a thorough knowledge of ,buddhism or ,mohammedanism instilled into every ,yankee brain in its stead1 the ,yankee brain would have simply adjusted its religion to its surroundings and not its surroundings to its religion2 and ,america would have gone right on in the front rank of liberty and toleration and progress4 ,there would have been social and political and religious contests over caste or harems or ,tripitaka1 instead of over slavery as a divine institution1 the right of a mother to her own offspring1 or the inspiration of the ,bible4 ,the wheels of progress would have been blocked some days by devotees who preached damnation for those who believed in the ,trinity instead of for those who did not4 ,hell would have been as freely promised to the man who suggested that ,newton knew more than ,mohammed1 as it is to-day to any one who makes the same odious comparison between ,darwin and ,moses4 ,the timid would have been terrified by sermons to prove the lost condition of a man who touched one of lower rank1 in place of the edification our clergy offer in the shape of eternal damnation for unbaptized infants4 ,and there would have been so little difference between the arguments for the divinity of the ,tripitaka and the ,bible1 and for the miracles of each1 that if any devout ,presbyterian had by accident left his barrel of sermons on the latter subject behind him1 his ,buddhist brother could have utilized them without the change of an argument4 ,but the wheel would turn and the devotee would either go down or change his creed1 and it would depend chiefly upon his age and consequent flexibility which course he would adopt4 ,no known religion could transfer the conditions of civilization in ,china to ,america or ,england or ,france1 and no amount of christianizing 7if such a thing were possible7 could transform ,china into a like condition with us1 so long as her climate1 her soil1 and her population remain what they are to-day4 ,you may make the ,arab or the ,jap digest the whole ,westminster catechism1 but he will1 he must1 be an ,arab or a ,jap still--if he lives through it all4 ,if his constitution is good1 and he gets over it1 his condition and grade of civilization will continue to conform to his environment2 and the trifling difference involved between turning-off prayers on a wheel and counting them off on beads will be simply the difference between tweedledee and tweedledum4 ,notwithstanding this as a primary fact1 the religion of a country has a modifying influence on the rapidity of its progress1 and the more fixed a religion--the more certainly it claims perfection1 the greater claim it lays to holding the final word2 and the more fully this claim is accepted by the people1 the greater influence will it have1 the greater check will it be to the development of any new thought1 discovery1 invention1 or principle that arises in the process of evolution toward a freer atmosphere and a broader understanding of individual liberty and dignity and life4 ,william ,kingdon ,clifford1 ,f4 ,r4 ,s41 in his delightful book on the ,scientific ,basis of ,morals1 says3 ,it is sometimes said that moral questions have been authoritatively settled by other methods2 that we ought to accept this decision1 and not to question it by any method of scientific inquiry2 and that reason should give way to revelation on such matters4 ,i hope before ,i have done to show just cause why we should pronounce on such teaching as this no light sentence of moral condemnation3 first1 because it is our duty to form those beliefs which are to guide our actions by the two scientific modes of inference1 and by these alone2 and1 secondly1 because the proposed mode of settling ethical questions by authority is contrary to the very nature of right and wrong4 ,the worship of a deity who is represented as unfair or unfriendly to any portion of the community is a wrong thing1 however great may be the threats and promises by which it is commended4 ,and still worse1 the reference of right and wrong to his arbitrary will as a standard1 the diversion of the allegiance of the moral sense from the community to him1 is the most insidious and fatal of social diseases4 ,the first principle of natural ethics is the sole and supreme allegiance of conscience to the community4 ,secondly1 veracity to the community depends upon faith in man4 ,surely ,i ought to be talking platitudes when ,i say that it is not ,english to tell a man a lie1 or to suggest a lie by your silence or your actions1 because you are afraid that he is not prepared for the truth1 because you don't quite know what he will do when he knows it1 because perhaps after all this lie is a better thing for him than the truth would be1 this same man being all the time an honest fellow-citizen whom you have every reason to trust4 ,surely ,i have heard that this craven crookedness is the object of our national detestation4 ,and yet it is constantly whispered that it would be dangerous to divulge certain truths to the masses4 ',i know the whole thing is untrue3 but then it is so useful for the people2 you don't know what harm you might do by shaking their faith in it4' ,crooked ways are none the less crooked because they are meant to deceive great masses of people instead of individuals4 ,if a thing is true1 let us all believe it1 rich and poor1 men1 women1 and children4 ,if a thing is untrue1 let us all disbelieve it1 rich and poor1 men1 women1 and children4 ,truth is a thing to be shouted from the housetops1 not to be whispered over rose-water after dinner when the ladies are gone away4 ,even in those whom ,i would most reverence1 who would shrink with horror from such actual deception as ,i have just mentioned1 ,i find traces of a want of faith in man4 ,even that noble thinker1 to whom we of this generation owe more than ,i can tell1 seemed to say in one of his posthumous essays that in regard to questions of great public importance we might encourage a hope in excess of the evidence 7which would infallibly grow into a belief and defy evidence7 if we found that life was made easier by it4 ,as if we should not lose infinitely more by nourishing a tendency to falsehood than we could gain by the delusion of a pleasing fancy4 ,life must first of all be made straight and true2 it may get easier through the help this brings to the commonwealth4 ,and ,lange1 the great historian of materialism1 says that the amount of false belief necessary to morality in a given society is a matter of taste4 ,i cannot believe that any falsehood whatever is necessary to morality4 ,it cannot be true of my race and yours that to keep ourselves from becoming scoundrels we must needs believe a lie4 ,the sense of right grew up among healthy men and was fixed by the practice of comradeship4 ,it has never had help from phantoms and falsehoods1 and it never can want any4 ,by faith in man and piety toward men we have taught each other the right hitherto2 with faith in man and piety toward men we shall never more depart from it4 ,if religion decided and produced the civilization of a people1 what sort of civilization would exist to-day among the ,jews8 ,all ,jews would be bigamists1 and murder would be their pastime4 ,no people would be free from their rapine1 no woman safe from their lust4 ,but fortunately they have followed their scientific and political leaders instead of their ,prophets1 and the consequence is that they are so far above and superior to their religion and their ,bible1 that only in its trivial and immaterial dictates is it their guide and law to-day4 ,and we1 building upon the same foundation1 with an added story to our edifice1 modify1 to suit legislation and a higher public sentiment and a broader conception of justice1 both the foundation and the roof whenever a new principle is born or some great soul floods the world with light4 ,and so the world moves on1 those nations in advance that possess the climate to stimulate and the soil to support to the best advantage their citizens--philosophers and scientists who grope towards perfection and stumble on the way over real and imaginary obstacles1 but still bring each generation nearer the goal1 and freer to brush aside the cobwebs of superstition and ignorance1 and to look fairly out on the light that breaks in the ,east4 ,there is another feature of the subject that will bear looking at4 ,christians are the last to give credit to other religions for the development and advance of civilization in the countries possessing them4 ,what ,christian will admit that it is the religion of the ,chinese that makes them the most orderly1 law-abiding1 mob-avoiding people on the globe8 ,will any ,christian admit that it is the inferior moral tone of ,christ and his teachings which enables the followers of ,confucius and ,buddha to offer this superior showing8 ,is he prepared to say that ,mohammedanism is superior to ,christianity because its followers outdo the ,christians in honesty899 ,is it owing to the superior blessings of the ,mormon faith that its followers are more thrifty1 and that paupers are few or unknown among them8 99 ,travelers tell us that a native can leave an order together with a bag of uncounted gold at the shop of a dealer1 and upon the return of the buyer his order will be exactly filled1 his gold properly and honestly divided1 and all where he had left them1 even though the shop be open to the street and unattended and unguarded4 ,is it because their religion is superior to ours that the ,lapp women are better treated2 that their comparative status is higher1 and their family life purer than with ourselves899 99 ,though ,norway with ,ladies4 ,by ,w4 ,mattieu ,williams4 ,f4,r4,a4,s41 ,f4,c4,s4 ,the claim that superiority of civilization is due to ,christianity1 and that to it we owe the good things of the nations where it is the prevailing religion1 proves too much4 ,it will work just as well for any other religion as for our own4 ,its reach is too extended1 its conclusion too comprehensive for its purpose4 ,christianity could not be made its sole terminus4 ,it reminds one of the story of the brakeman who was persuaded to go to church4 ,when he came out his friend asked him how he liked the preacher4 ,he said1 ,very well1 on the main line4 ,he had good wheels1 his track was straight and level1 and he carried a good head of steam1 but he seemed to lack terminal facilities4 ,horace ,seaver recently wrote the following3 ,,all ,,owing ,,to ,,the ,,bible4 ,it is a very common argument with ,christians1 that only those nations which have had the ,bible were refined1 civilized1 and learned4 ,a ,christian paper1 now before us1 exultingly says3 ',take the map of the world1 draw a line around those countries that have enjoyed the highest degree of refinement1 and you will encircle just those nations that have received the ,bible as their authority in religion4' ,from this language the plain inference is1 that those nations have been indebted to the influence of the ,bible for the positions to which they have attained4 ,let us follow out a little this line of argument and see where it will lead4 ,the ancient ,egyptians stood as far in advance of their contemporaries as do the nations of ,christendom at the present day1 as the remains of ,egyptian cities and temples fully attest4 ,and if the argument is good1 they were indebted for that superiority to their worship of cats1 crocodiles1 and onions6 ,the ancient ,greek might have exclaimed1 as he beheld the proud position to which ,greece had attained--',see what we owe to a belief in our glorious mythology2 we have reached the highest point of enlightenment the world has ever witnessed2 we stand unequalled in power1 wealth1 the cultivation of the arts1 and all that makes a nation refined1 polished1 and great6' ,,comparative ,,status4 ,it is a fact that in some ,christian countries the actual status of woman is higher than it is to-day in any other country2 but it is also true that her comparative status is often lower499 99 ,see ,appendix ,c1 #a-f4 ,if we compare the actual status of woman in ,russia or ,spain 7the two most intensely ,christian countries to-day7 with that of the ,chinese or ,hindoo woman1 the showing may be somewhat in favor of the former2 but on the other hand1 her comparative position 7when taken with that of the men of her country7 does not gain but loses by the contrast4 ,how immeasurably would his faith in the elevating tendency of his religion have been increased1 could he have looked with prophetic eye into the distant ages of the future1 and beheld the enlightened and ,christianized nations of the nineteenth century adopting the remains of ,grecian architecture1 sculpture1 painting1 oratory1 music1 and literature as their models6 ,pagan ,rome1 too1 once mistress of the world and arbitress of nations--the home of philosophers and sages--the land in which the title1 ',i am a ,roman citizen1' was the proudest that a mortal could wear--,rome1 by the above ,christian argument1 should have ascribed all her honor1 praise1 and glory to her mythology4 ,the ,turk and the ,saracen1 likewise1 have had their day of power and renown4 ,bagdad was the seat of science and learning at a time when the nations of ,europe were sunk in darkness and superstition4 ,the ,turk and ,saracen should have pointed to the ,koran as the source of their refinement4 ,thus we see that the ,christian argument we are noticing1 if it proves anything1 proves too much4 ,if the nations of ,christendom are indebted to the ,bible for their enlightenment1 likewise were the ,egyptians indebted to their cat and crocodile and onion worship1 the ,greeks and ,romans to their mythology1 and the ,turks and ,saracens to their ,koran4 ,it is a significant fact that of all the ,christian countries1 in those where the ,church stands highest and has most power women rank lowest and have fewest rights accorded them1 whether of personal liberty or proprietary interest4 ,in the countries named above1 and in other countries where the ,church still has a strong grip upon the throat of the ,state1 woman's position is degraded indeed2 while in the three so-called ,christian countries where the ,church has least power1 where law is not wholly or in so large part canonical1 woman's position is more free1 more independent1 and less degraded1 when compared with the position of the men of those countries4 ,that tells the whole story4 ,if it were to the ,church or to her religion that she owed her advancement1 it would be in the most strictly ,christian countries that her elevation and advantages would be greatest4 ,under the canon law her status would be higher than under the common law4 ,on the contrary1 however1 it is under the least religious1 freest1 and most purely secular forms of government that she has attained most full recognition and secured the greatest advancement4 ,compare the position of woman in ,christian ,spain with her position in ,infidel ,france4 ,compare her condition in ,russia1 with the flag of the ,church and the seal of the ,cross for her protection1 with that of her sister under the stars and stripes of ,america1 with a constitution written by the infidels ,jefferson and ,paine4 ,compare them and decide whether it is to the ,church and the ,cross1 with their wars and persecutions1 or to ,liberty and ,scepticism that women owe their loyal love and their earnest support4 ,compare them and determine then whether it is to ,christianity or to ,science that she should fly for protection1 and where it is that she will be most certain of justice4 ,compare them and answer whether it is to the ,fathers of the ,church or to the ,founders of ,republics that women should be most grateful4 ,compare them1 and be thankful1 oh women of ,america1 that the ,church never had her hand on the throat of the ,constitution of the ,united ,states1 and that she is losing her grip on the ,supreme ,bench6 99 ,in our pride of race we forget that it is less than three hundred short years since ,christianity by both legal and spiritual power enforced the most degrading and vile conditions upon woman1 compelling her to live solely by the sale of her virtue49999 ,only within the past three hundred years of growing scepticism and loss of power by the ,church has either purity or dignity become possible for women2 and it is well for us to remember that for over #aejj years of ,christianity1 when the ,church had almost absolute power1 it never dreamed of elevating woman1 or recognizing her as other than an inferior being created solely to minister to the lowest nature of man1 and possessing neither a right to her own person nor a voice in her own defence4 ,i wish that every woman who upholds the ,church to-day might read the array of facts on this subject so ably presented by ,matilda ,joslyn ,gage in her work on ,woman1 ,church1 and ,state1 a digest of which is printed in the last chapter of vol4 #a4 of the ,history of ,woman ,suffrage1 of which she is one of the editors4 ,it is so ably written1 and the facts collected are so damning1 that ,i need add no word of mine to such passages as ,i can give from it1 in the accompanying appendix to this work4 999999 99 ,on the status of women there is much of interest in ,mr4 ,herbert ,spencer's ,principles of ,sociology1 vol #a4 ,mr4 ,spencer deals with the subject1 in the main1 from a different point of view from the one taken in this article2 but that his position 7in regard to the causes of woman's advancement being due to the ,church7 is not wholly unlike my own1 will1 ,i think1 be readily seen4 ,he places more stress on the results of war than ,i have done 7and in this the corroborating evidence furnished by the ,holy wars would sustain the position of both71 ,i having included this phase of action under the term occupation1 since ,i have dealt almost wholly with nations more advanced and freer from the fortunes of the ,militant type than ,mr4 ,spencer has done4 9999 ,see ,appendix ,d4 999999 ,see ,appendix ,e4 ,,women ,,as ,,persons4 ,blackstone enumerates three absolute rights of persons4 ,first1 ,the right of personal security1 in the legal enjoyment of life1 limb1 body1 health1 and reputation4 ,second1 ,the right of personal liberty--free power of locomotion without legal restraint4 ,third1 ,the right of private property--the free use and disposal of his own lawful acquisitions4 ,none of these three primary and essential rights of persons were conceded to women1 and ,church law did not rank her as a person deprived of these rights1 but held that she was not a person at all1 but only a function2 therefore she possessed no rights of person in this world and no hope of safety in the next4 ,as to the first of these absolute rights of persons1 any one of her male relations1 or her husband after she passed from one to the other1 had absolute power over her1 even to the extent of bodily injury199 bargain and sale of her person1 and death4 ,nor did even this limit the number of her masters4 ,by both ,church and ,common ,law the ,lords temporal 7barons and other peers7 and the ,lords spiritual 7,archbishops1 ,bishops1 and ,abbots7 possessed and exercised the right to dispose of her purity1 either for a money consideration or as a bribe or present as they saw fit49999 99 ,although ,england was christianized in the fourth century1 it was not until the tenth that a daughter had a right to reject a husband selected for her by her father2 and it was not until the same century that a ,christian wife of a ,christian husband acquired the right of eating at the table with him4 ,for many hundred years the law bound out to servile labor all unmarried women between the ages of eleven and forty4--,m4 ,j4 ,gage4 ,wives in ,england were bought from the fifth to the eleventh century ,the dates are significant2 let the ,church respond4--,herbert ,spencer4 ,in ,england1 as late as the seventeenth century1 husbands of decent station were not ashamed to beat their wives4 ,gentlemen arranged parties of pleasure for the purpose of seeing wretched women whipped at ,bridewell4 ,it was not until #ahag that the public whipping of women was abolished in ,england4--,spencer4 9999 ,see ,appendix ,e4 ,thus was the forced degradation of woman made a source of revenue to the ,church1 and a means of crushing her self-respect and destroying her sense of personal responsibility as to her own acts in the matter of chastity1 the legitimate outcome of which is to be found in the vast army of women who are named only to be reviled4 ,in them the ,church can look on her own work4 ,the fruit is the natural outcome of the training woman received that taught and compelled her always to submit to the dictates of some man1 no matter what her own judgment1 modesty1 or desires might be4 ,she was not supposed to have an opinion or to know right from wrong2 and from ,paul's injunction1 ,if you want to know anything ask your husband at home1 down to the decisions of the last ,general ,conference of the ,methodist ,church1 the teaching that woman must subordinate her own sense of right and her own judgment to the dictates of someone else--any one else of the opposite sex--from first to last has been as ingenious a method as could have been devised to fill the world with libertines and their victims499 ,it is time for the followers of ,st4 ,paul to nice the results of their own work4 99 ,see ,appendix ,f1 #b4 ,under the provisions of the law which held that all persons could recover damages for injury--have legal redress for a wrong inflicted upon them--woman again was held as not a 'person4 ,if she were assaulted and beaten1 or if she were subjected to the greatest indignity that it is possible to inflict upon her1 she had no redress4 ,she could not complain4 ,the law gave her no protection whatever4 ,her father or husband could1 if he saw fit1 bring suit to recover damages for the loss of her services as a servant and wholly upon the ground that it was an injury to him and to his feelings4 ,she was no more recognized as a person in the matter1 nor was she more highly considered than if she were an inmate of a zoological garden to which some mischievous visitor had fed too many bonbons4 ,the owner was damaged because the brute might die or be injured in the sight of the patrons1 but aside from that view of the case no harm was done and no account taken of so trivial a matter4 ,no matter what the injury she sustained1 whether it crippled her physically or blighted her mentally and made life to her the worst curse that could be inflicted1 she had no appeal4 ,the wounded feelings of one of her male relations received due consideration1 and he could recover the money-value he might set upon the injury to his lacerated mind4 ,this is still the letter and the practice of the law in many places1 even in ,america4 ,if she had no male relations1 the injury did not count1 and no person being injured everything was lovely1 and prayers went right on to the ,god who1 being no respecter of persons 7provided they were free1 white1 adult males71 enjoyed the incense from altars whereon burning witches writhed in agony and helpless young girls plead for mercy under the loathed and loathsome touch of the ,st4 ,augustines99 and ,st4 ,pelayos19999 whose praises are chanted and whose divine goodness is recounted by ,christendom to-day4 99 ,to ,augustine1 whose early life was spent in company with the most degraded of womankind1 is ,christianity indebted for the full development of the doctrine of ,original sin4 --,gage4 ,all or at least the greater part of the fathers of the ,greek ,church before ,augustine1 denied any real original sin4--,emerson4 ,the doctrine had a gradual growth1 and was fully developed by ,augustine4 --,waite4 9999 ,the abbot elect of ,st4 ,augustine1 at ,canterbury1 in #aaga1 was found on investigation to have seventeen illegitimate children in a single village4 ,an abbot of ,st4 ,pelayo in ,spain1 in #aahj1 was proved to have kept no less than seventy mistresses4 ,henry ,,iii1 ,bishop of ,liege1 was deposed in #abgd for having sixty-five illegitimate children4 --,leeky1 ,hist1 of ,european ,morals4 ,this same bishop boasted1 at a public banquet1 that in twenty-two months fourteen children had been born to him4 ,a license to the clergy to keep concubines was during several centuries levied by princes4--,ibid4 ,it was openly attested that #ajj1jjj women in ,england alone were made dissolute by the clergy4 --,draper1 ,intellectual ,development of ,europe4 ,such was the elevation and civilization offered by the ,church to woman4 ,these are among her debts to the ,church1 and the men who fought and contended against the incorporation of such infamy into the common law were branded as infidels4 ,it was said they denied their ,lord4 ,they were pronounced most dangerous1 and the clergy held up their hands in holy horror and whispered that such men as much as denied the ,bible1 blasphemed their ,god1 and sold their souls to the ,devil4 ,and the women1 poor dupes1 believed it4 ,one method the ,church took to benefit woman and show its respect for her was this3 any married man was prohibited from being a priest4 ,women were so unholy1 so unclean1 and so inferior1 that to have one as a wife degraded a man to such an extent that he was unfit to be a minister or to touch holy things4 ,the ,catholic ,church still prohibits either party who is so unholy as to marry from profaning its pulpit'2 but the ,protestant ,churches divide up1 giving women the disabilities and mon the offices4 ,the unselfishness of such a course is quite touching4 ,it says to women3 ,you support us and we will damn you2 there is nothing mean or niggardly about us4 ,as to ,blackstone's second count--the right to personal liberty--,i can perhaps do no better than give a few bald facts4 ,under ,pagan rule the personal liberty of woman had become very considerable1 as well as her proprietary liberty2 but ,christianity began her degradation at once4 ,christianity was introduced into ,england in the fourth century1 and the sale of women began in the fifth2 and it was not until the eleventh that a girl could refuse to marry any suitor her father chose for her4 ,in a word1 she always had a guardian2 she had no personal liberty whatever2 she could neither buy nor own property as her brothers could2 she could not marry when and whom she preferred1 live where she wished1 eat1 drink1 or wear what she liked1 or refuse any of these provisions when they were offered by her male relatives4 ,if they decided that she had too many back teeth they simply pulled them out1 and she had nothing to say on the subject4 ,she could be sold outright by her father1 or leased or bound out as he preferred4 ,she never got so old but that her earnings belonged to him1 and a mother never arrived at an age sufficiently advanced to be entitled to the earnings of her children4 ,sharswood says1 ,a father is entitled to the benefits of his children's labor4 ,an infant any one not of age owes reverence and respect to his mother2 but she has no right to his services499 99 ,blackstone4 ,sharswood4 ,this is upon the theory1 doubtless1 that starvation is wholesome for a widowed mother1 but that it does not agree with a father's digestion at any time4 ,sir ,henry ,maine in his ,ancient ,law4 says1 that from the ,pagan laws all this inequality and oppressiveness of guardianship and restriction of the personal liberty of women had disappeared1 and he adds3 ,the consequence was that the situation of the ,roman female1 whether married or unmarried1 became one of great personal and proprietary independence4 ,but ,christianity tended somewhat from the very first to narrow this remarkable liberty4444 ,the great jurisconsult himself ,gaius scouts the popular ,christian apology offered for it in the mental inferiority of the female sex4444 ,led by their theory of ,natural ,law1 the ,roman ,pagan jurisconsults had evidently at this time assumed the equality of the sexes as a principle of their code of equity4 ,of the ,christians1 led by their theory of a revealed divine law which treated women as inferior beings and useful only as prey1 ,lecky says 7,european ,morals1 vol4 #a1 page #ceh73 ,but in the whole feudal ,christian and chiefly ,canon legislation women were placed in a much lower legal position than in the ,pagan empire4 ,the complete inferiority of the sex was continually maintained by the law2 and that generous public opinion which in ,pagan ,rome had frequently revolted against the injustice done to girls1 in depriving them of the greater part of the inheritance of their fathers1 totally disappeared4 ,wherever the canon law has been the basis of legislation1 we find laws of succession sacrificing the ,merest of daughters and of wives1 and a state of public opinion which has been formed and regulated by these laws2 nor was any serious attempt made to abolish them till the close of the last century4 ,the ,french revolutionists1 though rejecting the proposal of ,sieyes and ,condorcet both infidels to accord political emancipation to women1 established at least an equal succession of sons and daughters1 and thus initiated a great reformation of both law and opinion which sooner or later must traverse the world4 ,how soon or how late this will happen will depend very greatly upon the amount of power retained by the ,church4 ,pagans1 ,infidels1 and ,scientists have fought for1 and the ,church has fought against1 the dignity1 honor1 and welfare of women for centuries2 and because fear1 organization1 wealth1 selfishness1 and power have been on the side of the ,church1 and she has kept women too ignorant to understand the situation1 she has succeeded for many generations in retarding the progress and shutting out the light that slowly came in despite of her4 ,no society which preserves any tincture of ,christian institutions is ever likely to restore to married women the personal liberty conferred on them by the middle ,roman law2 but the proprietary disabilities of married females stand on quite a different basis from their personal incapacities1 and it is by keeping alive and consolidating the former that the canon law has so deeply injured civilization4 ,there are many vestiges of a struggle between the secular and ecclesiastical principles2 but the canon law nearly everywhere prevailed499 99 ,maine's ,ancient ,law1 #aeh4 ,it has always been uphill work fighting the ,church4 ,so long as it had sword and fagot at its command1 and the will to use them2 so long as it pretended to have1 and people believed that it had1 power to mete out damnation to its opposers2 just so long were science1 justice1 and thought fatally crippled4 ,but when ,voltaire1 ,diderot1 ,condorcet and the great encyclopedist circle of ,france got their hands on the throat of the ,church1 and dipped their pens in the fire of eloquence1 wit1 ridicule1 reason1 and justice1 then1 and not till then1 began to dawn a day of honor toward women1 of humanity and justice and truth4 ,they drew back the curtain1 the world saw1 the cloud lifted1 and life began on a new plane4 ,under ,pagan rule woman had begun1 as we have seen1 to receive recognition apart from sex4 ,she was a human being4 ,a general law of persons applied to and shielded her4 ,but from the first the ,christian ,church refused to consider her apart from her capacity for reproduction2 and this one ground of consideration it pronounced a curse1 a crime1 and a shame to her4 ,her only claim to recognition at all was a curse4 ,she was not a person1 she was only a function499 99 ,see ,lea's ,sacerdotal ,celibacy4 ,man it pronounced a person first1 with rights1 privileges1 and protection as such4 ,incidentally he might also be a husband1 a father1 or a son4 ,his welfare1 duties1 and rights as a person1 as a human being1 were apart from and superior to those that were special and incidental4 ,he received consideration always as a person4 ,he might be dealt with as husband or father4 ,but ignoring all her mental life and denying that she had any1 and ignoring all her physical possibilities1 ambitions1 desires1 and capabilities as a person1 the ,church narrowed woman's life and restricted her energies into a compass where its power over her became absolute and her subjection certain4 ,nor has the loss been wholly to woman1 for any influence which cripples the mother's capacity of endowment takes cruel revenge on the race499 99 ,it is not impossible but that a more correct understanding of the laws of life and heredity may establish the fact that because of the subjection of woman1 the entire race has been mentally dwarfed and physically weakened4 --,gamble4 ,from this outlook the debt of civilization to the ,church is heavy indeed4 ,is it a debt of gratitude8 ,under this head there is space for but one point farther1 out of the great store at hand4 ,the clergy were licensed to commit crime4 ,they got up a neat little scheme called benefit of clergy by which they were secure from the punishment meted out to other criminals4 ,the relief offered did sometimes reach other men1 but as learning was largely confined to the clergy they were the chief beneficiaries1 as the name implies and as was the intent of the law4 ,any man who could read was allowed benefit of clergy2 in other words1 his punishment was lightened or entirely omitted4 ,but a woman1 though she were a perfect mine of wisdom and could read in any number of languages1 could receive no such benefit1 because she could not take holy orders4 ,they first enacted that she should not take orders1 and then they denied to her the relief which only that ability could give4 ,so great a favorite was woman with the ,church6 ,the ordinary male criminal received the ordinary punishment1 the clergy received none2 and in order that the requisite gross amount of suffering for crime should be inflicted on somebody1 the clergy enacted that woman should receive their share vicariously in addition to her own1 and then to this they added such interest as would make the twenty-per-cent-a-month men of ,wall street ashamed of their stupid financiering4 ,thus the ,church arrogated to itself the exclusive right to commit crime with impunity1 and also claimed and exercised the right to prevent women from learning to read4 ,if she still persisted it could then punish her doubly1 because she had no right to learn4 ,for offenses for which ordinary men were hanged1 women were burned alive1 and priests were glorified4 ,for larceny a man was branded in the hand or imprisoned for a few months2 while for a first offence of the kind a woman was kindly permitted to be hanged or beheaded without benefit of clergy2 and the clergy went scot free499 ,the ,church did then as it does now1 it claimed all the benefits of citizenship and paid none of the penalties and bore none of the burdens49999 99 ,blackstone4 ,christian4 9999 ,it still claims exemption from taxation1 thus throwing its burden on others2 and it also claims immunity from the very gambling laws which it so rigidly enforces against other institutions4 ,the ,church did then just as it does now1 in principle1 in setting up certain great benefits which only priests might hope to obtain1 and then enacting that certain persons were forever ineligible to the priesthood2 and the same or quite as good reasons were given for denying women such relief from the penalties of the law as was freely extended to men1 as are given to-day for refusing her the liberty1 emoluments1 and benefits that are freely accorded to the most imbecile little theological student who is educated by the needle of a sister and supported by money wrung from the fears of shop or factory girls1 to whom he paints the terrors of hell1 and freely threatens the same to those who disobey him4 ,salvation comes high1 but no preacher ever gets so poor that he cannot distribute hell free of charge to the multitude without the least diminution of his stock-in-trade4 ,i should think that an orthodox pulpit would be about the last place a self-respecting woman would wish to fill2 but ,i am glad1 since there are some who do so wish1 that the issue has again been forced upon the ,church1 and that in #ahhd1 true to her history1 she was again compelled to acknowledge herself a respecter of persons1 a degrader of women1 and a clog to progress and individual liberty1 equality1 and conscience4 ,i am glad that women have recently forced the ,methodist and ,presbyterian ,churches to declare their principles of class preference and partial legislation4 ,i am glad that in #ahhd these ,churches were compelled to say in effect to women1 so that the world could hear3 ,you are not and you never can be our equals4 ,we are holy4 ,you are unclean4 ,we will hold you back and down to the ancient level we made for you just as long as the life is in us2 and if you ever receive recognition as a human being1 it must be at the hands of those who defy the ,church and hate creeds that are not big enough to go all round4 ,our creeds are only large enough to give each sex half4 ,but we won't be stingy1 we only want our share4 ,you are entirely welcome to all the degradation here and all the damnation hereafter2 and any man who attempts to deprive you of these blessings is a heretic and a sinner4 ,let us pray4 ,,education4 ,in dealing with this point the humor of the situation is too plain to require comment1 and ,i need only cite a few facts in order to place the beautiful little fiction where it belongs499 99 ,see ,appendix ,t4 ,as to general education it is well known that the ,church has fought investigation and persecuted science4 ,from the third century to ,bruno1 and from ,bruno to ,darwin and ,tyndall there is an unbroken chain of evidence as to her position in these matters and her opposition to the diffusion of knowledge4 ,when1 however1 it became impossible for her to resist the demand of the people for education2 when she could no longer retard liberty and prevent the recognition of individual rights2 then she modestly demanded the right to do the teaching herself and to control its extent and scope499 ,with a brain stultified by faith9999 she proposed to regulate investigations in which the habit of faith would necessarily prove fatal to the discovery of truth4999999 ,she proposed to teach nothing but the dead languages and theology1 and to confine knowledge to these fields1 and she succeeded for many generations in so doing4 ,every time she found a man who had discovered something1 or who had a theory he was trying to test by some little scientific investigations1 she cried heretic and suppressed that man4 ,she stuck to the dead languages1 and the only thing she is not afraid of to-day is something dead4 ,any other kind of knowledge is a dangerous acquaintance for her to make4 99999999 ,if you meet a clergyman to-day who has devoted his time to the dead languages you need not be afraid that he is a heretic2 but if he is studying the sciences1 arts1 literature1 and history of the living world in earnest you can get your fagot ready4 ,his orthodoxy is a dead doxy4 ,it is only a question of time and bravery when he will swear off49999999999 99 ,see ,appendix ,g1 #a-d4 9999 ,see ,appendix ,u4 999999 ,see ,clifford's ,scientific ,basis of ,morals1 p4 #be 99999999 ,see ,morley's ,diderot1 p4 #aij4 9999999999 ,see ,ibid1 p4 #abf4 ,in the ,church schools and universities to-day it is quite pathetic to hear the professors wrestle with geology and ,genesis1 and cut their astronomy to fit ,joshua4 ,if in one of these institutions for the petrifaction of the human mind there is a teacher who is either not nimble enough to escape the conclusions of a bright pupil or too honest to try1 he is at once found to be incompetent as an instructor1 and is dropped from the faculty4 ,i know one case where it took twenty years to discover that a professor was not able to teach geology--and it took a heresy-hunter with a ,bible to do it then4 ,but it is the claim of the ,church in regard to the education of women with which ,i have to do here4 ,women in ,greece and ,rome under ,pagan rule had become learned and influential to an unparalleled degree499 ,the early ,fathers of the ,church found women thirsty for knowledge and eager for opportunities to learn4 ,they thereupon set about making it disreputable for a woman to know anything19999 and in order to clinch their prohibition the ,church asserted that woman was unable to learn1 had not the mental capacity1999999 was created without mental power and for purely physical purposes4 99 ,see ,lecky1 ,milman1 ,diderot1 ,morley1 ,christian1 and others4 9999 ,in the fourth century we find that holy men in council gravely argued the question1 and that too with abundant confidence in their ability and power to decide the whole matter3 ',ought women to be called human beings8' ,a wise and pious father in the ,church1 after deliberating solemnly and long on the vexed question of women1 finally concluded3 ',the female sex is not a fault in itself1 but a fact in nature for which women themselves are not to blame2' but he graciously cherished the opinion that women will be permitted to rise as men1 at the resurrection4 ,a few centuries later the masculine mind underwent great agitation over the question3 ',would it be consistent with the duties and uses of women for them to learn the alphabet8' ,and in ,america1 after ,bridget ,gaffort had donated the first plot of ground for a public school1 girls were still denied the advantages of such schools4 ,the questions--',shall women be allowed to enter colleges8' and ',shall they be admitted into the professions8' have been as hotly contested as has been the question of their humanity4 --,gamble4 999999 ,there existed at the same time in this celebrated city a class of women1 the glory of whose intellectual brilliancy still survives2 and when ,alcibiades drew around him the first philosophers and statesmen of ,greece1 'it was a virtue to applaud ,aspasia2' of whom it has been said that she lectured publicly on rhetoric and philosophy with such ability that ,socrates and ,alcibiades gathered wisdom from her lips1 and so marked was her genius for statesmanship that ,pericles afterward married her and allowed her to govern ,athens1 then at the height of its glory and power4 ,numerous examples might be cited in which ,athenian women rendered material aid to the state4 --,gamble4 ,it was maintained that her sphere was clearly defined1 and that it was purely and solely an animal one2 and worst of all it was stoutly asserted that her greatest crime had always been a desire for wisdom1 and that it was this desire which brought the penalty of labor and death into this world499 ,with such a belief it is hardly strange that the education of girls was looked upon as a crime2 and with such a record it is almost incredible effrontery that enables the ,church to-day to claim credit for the education of women19999 ,if she were to educate every woman living1 free of charge1 in every branch of known knowledge1 she could not repay woman for what she has deprived her of in the past1 or efface the indignity she has already offered4999999 99 ,see ,morley's ,diderot1 p4 #gf2 ,lea's ,sacerdotal ,celibacy2 ,lecky's ,european ,morals4 9999 ,see ,appendix ,h1 #a to #d4 999999 ,lecky1 ,european ,morals1 p4 #caj4 ,a prominent clergyman of the ,church of ,england1 who was recently much honored in this country1 lately said1 in a sermon to women3 ,there are those who think a woman can be taught logic4 ,this is a mistake4 ,men are logical1 women are not4 ,he was too modest to give his proofs4 ,it seemed to me strange that he did not mention the doctrines of the trinity and vicarious atonement1 or a few of the miracles1 as the result of logic in the masculine mind4 ,and ,i could not help thinking at the time that a man whose mental furniture was chiefly composed of the thirty-nine articles and the ,westminster ,catechism would naturally be a profound authority on logic4 ,an orthodox preacher talking about logic is a sight to arouse the compassion of a demon4 ,next to the natural sciences1 logic can give the ,church the colic quicker than any other kind of a green apple4 ,and so it is not strange that the clergy should be afraid that it would disagree with the more delicate constitution of a woman4 ,they always did maintain that any diet that was a trifle too heavy for them couldn't be digested by anybody else2 and they would be perfectly right in their supposition if intellectual dyspepsia or softening of the brain were contagious4 ,the sphere of no other creature is wholly determined and bounded by one physical characteristic or capacity4 ,to every other creature is conceded without question the right to use more than one talent4 ,but the ,fathers decided in holy and solemn council that it would be unbecoming for a woman to learn the alphabet1 and that she could have no possible use for such information4 ,they said that she would be a better mother without distracting her dear little brain with the a1 b1 c's1 and that therefore she should not learn them4 ,they also decided that she who was so far lost to modesty as to become acquainted with the multiplication table was an unfit associate for our wives and mothers4 ,there was something wrong with such a woman4 ,she was either a witch or else she was married to the devil4 ,that is the way the ,church encouraged education for women4 ,this was done1 the holy ,fathers said1 to protect women from the awful temptations of life to which the ,lord in his infinite wisdom had subjected man4 ,they had too much respect for their wives and mothers to permit them to come in contact with the wickedness of long division or cube root1 and they hoped while life lasted that no man would be so negligent of duty as to allow his sister to soil her pure mind with conic sections4 ,well1 in time there were a few women brave enough1 and a few men honorable and moral enough1 to set aside the letter of this prohibition2 but much of its spirit still blossoms in all its splendor in ,columbia1 ,harvard1 ,yale1 and various other institutions of learning1 where women are either not permitted to enter at all or are required to learn and accomplish unaided that which it takes a large faculty of instructors and every known or obtainable educational device 7together with future business stimulus7 to enable the young men to do the same thing6 ,the ,fathers said1 in effect1 ,it was through woman wanting to know something that sin came into this world2 therefore let her hereafter want to know nothing4 ,they taught that a desire for knowledge on the part of woman was the greatest crime ever committed on this earth1 and that it so enraged ,god that he punished it by death and by every curse known to man4 ,when it was pointed out that animals had lived and died on this earth long before man could have lived1 they said that ,god knew ,adam was going to live and ,eve was going to sin1 so he made death retroactive because ,adam would represent all animals when he should be created6 ,all this was thought and done and taught in order to agree with the silly story of the fall of man in the ,garden of ,eden1 which every one acquainted with the simple rudiments of science or the history of the races knows to be a childish legend of an undeveloped people4 ,instead of a fall from perfect beginnings1 there has been and is a constant rise in the moral as well as in the mental and physical conditions of man4 ,the type is higher1 the race nobler and nearer perfection than it ever was before2 and the stories of our ,bible are the same as those of all other ,bibles1 simply the effort of ignorant or imaginative men to account for the origin and destiny of things of which they had no accurate knowledge499 99 ,one of the simplest and most interesting explanations of this latter point will be found in ,the ,childhood of ,religions1 by ,edward ,clodd1 ,f4,r4,a4,s41 where the ,christian reader may be surprised to find that the ten-commandment idea 7with a number of them which apply to general morals1 as ,thou shalt not kill1 etc47 is not confined to our ,bible1 but is found also in the ,buddhist ,bible in the same form2 that the golden rule was given by ,confucius #ejj years before ,christ2 and that ,christianity1 when taken as it should be with the other great religions and examined in the same way1 presents no problem1 no claim1 and no proofs which are not found in equal strength in one or more of the other forms of faith4 ,in the matters of morality1 miracles1 and power to attract and comfort multitudes of people1 it ranks neither first nor last4 ,it is simply one of several1 and in no essential matter is it different from them4 ,st4 ,paul said1 ,if they women will learn anything1 let them ask their husbands at home2 and the colossal ignorance of most women would seem to indicate that they have obeyed the command to the letter4 ,but fortunately for women the civilization of freedom has outgrown ,st4 ,paul as it has the dictates of the ,church1 and one by one the doors of information1 and hence the doors to honest labor1 have been opened1 and the possibility of living with dignity and honor has replaced the forced degradation of the days when the power of the ,church enabled it to reduce women to the animal existence it so long forced upon her4 ,so long as the ,church allowed woman but one avenue of support1 so long did it force her to use that single means of livelihood4 ,so long as it made her believe that she could bring to this world nothing of value but her capacity to minister to the lower animal wants of man1 so long did it force upon her that single alternative--or starvation4 ,so long as it is able to make multitudes of women believe themselves of value for but one purpose1 just that long will it continue to insure the degradation of many of those women who are helpless1 or weak1 or loving1 or ignorant of the motives of those in whose power they are4 ,so long as it teaches woman that she can repay her debt to the world in but one way1 so long will it promote commerce in vice and revenue in shame4 ,every man is taught that he can repay his debt to this world in many ways4 ,he has open to him many avenues of happiness1 many paths to honorable employment4 ,if he fails in one there is still hope4 ,if he misses supreme happiness in marriage he has still left ambition1 labor1 study1 fame2 if the one failure overtakes him1 no matter how sad1 he still can turn aside and find1 if not joy1 at least occupation and rest4 ,but the ,church has always taught woman that there is but one sphere1 one hope1 one occupation1 one life for her4 ,if she fails in that1 what wonder that with broken hope comes broken virtue or despair8 ,every woman who has fallen or lost her way has been previously taught by the ,church that she had and has but one resource2 that there is open to her in life but one path2 that whether that path be legally crooked or straight1 she was created for but one purpose2 that man is to decide for her what that purpose is2 and that she must under no circumstances set her own judgment up against his4 ,the legitimate fruits of such an education are too horribly apparent to need explanation4 ,every fallen woman is a perpetual monument to the infamy of a religion and a social custom that narrow her life to the possibilities of but one function1 and provide her no escape--a system that trains her to depend wholly on one physical characteristic of her being1 and to neglect all else4 ,that system teaches her that her mind is to be of but slight use to her2 that her hands may not learn the cunning of a trade nor her brain the bearings of a profession2 that mentally she is nothing2 and that physically she is worse than nothing only in so far as she may minister to one appetite4 ,i hold that the most legitimate outcome of such an education is to be found in the class that makes merchandise of all that woman is taught that she possesses that is of worth to herself or to this world4 ,no system could be more perfectly devised to accomplish this purpose499 99 ,see ,lea's ,sacerdotal ,celibacy4 ,,as ,,wives4 ,we are told that women owe honorable marriage to ,christianity299 that the more beautiful and tender relations of husband and wife find their root there2 that ,christianity protects and elevates the mother as no other law or religion ever has4 ,let us see4 99 ,see ,appendix ,i1 #a-b4 ,on this subject ,i find in ,maine's ,ancient ,law these facts3 ,although women had been objects of barter and sale1 according to barbaric usages1 between their male relatives1 the later ,roman ,pagan law having assumed1 on the theory of ,natural ,law1 the equality of the sexes1 control of the person of women was quite obsolete when ,christianity was born4 ,her situation had become one of great personal liberty and proprietary independence1 even when married1 and the arbitrary power over her of her male relations1 or her guardian1 was reduced to a nullity1 while the form of marriage conferred on the husband no superiority4 ,thus as a daughter and as a wife had she grown to be honored and recognized as an equal under ,pagan rule4 ,but ,christianity tended from the first to narrow this remarkable liberty4444 ,the latest ,roman ,pagan law1 so far as touched by the constitutions of the ,christian emperors1 bears marks of reaction against these great liberal doctrines4 --,maine4 ,and again began the sale of women4 ,christianity held her as unclean and in all respects inferior2 and during the era which begins modern history the women of dominant races are seen everywhere under various forms of archaic guardianship1 and the husband pays a money price to her male relations for her4 ,the prevalent state of religious sentiment may explain why it is that modern jurisprudence has absorbed among its rudiments much more than usual of those rules archaic concerning the position of women which belong peculiarly to an imperfect civilization4 --,ibid4 ,thus it will be seen that from the first1 and extending down to the present1 the ,church did all she could to cast woman back into the night of the race from which in a great measure she had been rescued through the ages when ,natural ,law and not revelation was the guide of man4 ,the laws which the ,church found liberal and just toward women it discarded1 and it searched back in the ages of night for such as it saw fit to re-enact for her4 ,of this ,maine says3 ,the husband now draws to himself the power which formerly belonged to his wife's male relatives1 the only difference being that he no longer pays anything for the privilege4 ,as ,christians grew economical wives came cheaper than formerly1 and it became a dogma that wives were not worth much anyhow1 and then1 too1 it enabled persons of limited means to have more of them4 ,of a somewhat later date ,maine says3 ,at this point heavy disabilities begin to be imposed upon wives4 ,that was to make marriage honorable and attractive1 no doubt1 and1 says ,maine3 ,it was very long before the subordination entailed on women by marriage was sensibly diminished4 ,and what diminution it received came from men who fought against ,church law499 99,see ,lecky1 ,maine1 ,lea1 ,milman1 ,christian1 ,blackstone1 ,morley1 and others for ample proof of this fact ,it was only the crumbs of liberty1 honor1 and justice extorted by men who fought the ,church on behalf of wives1 that lightened their most oppressive burdens4 ,it was true then1 and it is true to-day1 that women owe what justice and freedom and power they possess to the fact that the best and clearest-headed men are more honorable than our religion1 and that they have invited ,moses and ,st4 ,paul to take a back seat ,moses has complied1 and ,st4 ,paul is half-way down the aisle4 ,some of the clergy now explain that although ,paul may have written certain things inimical to women1 he did not mean them1 so it is all right4 ,such passages as #a ,cor4 xi4 #c-i2 xiv4 #cd-ce2 and ,eph4 v4 #bb-bd1 are now explained to be intended in a purely ,pickwickian sense2 and a ,rev4 ,mr4 ,boyd1 of ,st4 ,louis1 has even gone so far as to produce the doughty apostle before a woman-suffrage society1 as on their side of that argument4 ,this second conversion of ,st4 ,paul impresses one as even more remarkable than his first4 ,it took an angel of ,god to show him the error of his ways in ,ephesus1 but one little ,baptist preacher did it this time--all by himself4 ,truly ,st4 ,paul is getting easier to deal with than he used to be4 ,but to resume1 ,maine1 in tracing the amalgamation of the later ,roman 7,pagan7 law with the archaic laws of a lower civilization 7the result of which was ,christian law71 shows that the ,church1 while it chose the ,roman laws1 which had arrived at so high a state1 for others1 retained for women1 and particularly for wives1 the least favorable of the ,roman1 eked out with the archaic ,patria ,potestas and the more degrading provisions of the earlier civilizations4 ,maine reluctantly says that the jurisconsults of the day contended for better laws for wives1 but that the ,church prevailed in most instances1 and established the more oppressive ones4 ,with certain of these laws--the worst ones--,i cannot deal here for obvious reasons2 but a few of them ,i may be permitted to give without offence to the modesty of any one4 ,blackstone says3 ,by marriage the husband and wife are one person in law2 that is1 the very being or legal existence of the woman is suspended during the marriage1 or at least is incorporated and consolidated into that of the husband4 ,the husband becomes her baron or lord--she his servant4 ,upon this principle of the union of person in husband and wife depend almost all the legal rights1 duties1 and disabilities they acquire by marriage4 ,that is to say the husband acquires all the rights1 and the wife all the disabilities2 and the ,church wishing to be fair has made the latter as many as possible4 ,and therefore1 continues ,blackstone1 it is also generally true1 that all compacts made between husband and wife1 when single1 are voided by the intermarriage4 ,the working of this principle has been so often illustrated as to render comment unnecessary4 ,a wife retains no rights which her husband is bound to respect1 no matter how solemn the compact before marriage1 nor what her belief in its strength might have been4 ,fortunately for women1 happily for wives1 men are more decent than their religion2 and the law of custom and public opinion has largely outgrown this enactment of the ,church1 made when she had the power to thus degrade women and brutalize men4 ,if the wife be injured in her person or her property she can bring no action for redress without her husband's concurrence and in his name1 and on the basis of loss of her services to him as a servant4 ,but in criminal prosecutions1 it is true1 the wife may be indicted and punished separately4 99 99 ,blackstone4 ,in the case of punishment the ,church was entirely willing to give the devil his due4 ,it had no ambition to deprive women of any indictments and punishments that were to be had4 ,in this case1 although the husband and wife were one1 she was that one4 ,where privileges or property-rights were to be considered1 he was the one4 ,such grand reversible doctrines were always on tap with the clergy1 and their barrel was always full4 ,truly1 wives do owe much to the ,church4 ,some of the provisions of these laws have1 of late years1 been modified by the efforts of men who were pronounced infidels1 destroyers of the ,bible1 the home1 and the dignity of women1 aided by women whom the orthodox deride as strong--minded1 ill-balanced1 coarse1 impious1 etc41 etc41 ad infinitum1 ad nauseam4 ,a strong mind1 whether in man or woman1 has always been to the clergy as a red rag to a bull4 ,a woman may make a will1 with the assent of her husband1 by way of appointment of her personal property4 ,she cannot even with his consent devise lands4444 ,although our law in general considers a man and wife as one person1 yet there are some instances where she is considered separately as his inferior1 and for that trip only4 ,as ,i remarked before when it comes to penalties she is welcome to the whole lot4 ,she may not make a deed4 ,a man may administer moderate correction to his wife4 ,these are the chief legal effects of marriage4 ,even the disabilities of the wife1 ,blackstone naively remarks1 are for the most part intended for her protection2 so great a favorite is the female sex of the laws of ,england6 ,i should think that if this latter point were not quite clear to a woman1 moderate correction might convince her that she was quite an unreasonable favorite--beyond her most eager desires4 ,where the ,pagan law recognized her as the equal of her husband1 the ,church discarded that law1 and based the ,canon ,law upon an archaic invention4 ,where ,maine speaks of the later growth of ,pagan law and of ,christian influence upon it1 he says3 ,but the chapter of law relating to married women was for the most part read by the light1 not of ,roman or ,pagan but of ,canon or ,church ,law1 which in no one particular departs so widely from the improved spirit of the secular jurisprudence as in the view it takes of the relations created by marriage4 ,this was in part inevitable1 since no society which possesses any tincture of ,christian institutions is likely to restore to married women the personal liberty conferred on them by the middle ,roman law4 ,women who support the clergy with one hand1 and hold out the other for the ballot2 who one day express indignation at the refusal to them of human recognition1 and the next day intone the creeds1 will have to learn that there is nothing which has so successfully stood1 and still so powerfully stands1 in the way of the individual liberty1 human rights1 and dignity of wives1 as the ,church which they support4 ,blackstone says3 ,in times of popery a great variety of impediments to marriage were made1 which impediments might1 however1 be bought off with money4 ,you could1 for instance1 buy a more distant relationship to your future wife for so much cash down to the ,church4 ,if your inamorata were your first cousin1 you could remove her several degrees with five hundred dollars1 and make her no relation at all for a little more4 ,such little sleight-of-hand performances are as nothing to a well-trained clergyman4 ,slip a check into one hand1 and a request to marry your aunt into the other1 let a clergyman shake them up in the coffers of the ,church1 and when one comes out gold1 the other will appear as a blushing bride not even related to her own father1 and not more than third cousin to herself4 ,of the claim made by the early ,christian ,fathers1 that it was because of the mental inferiority and incapacity of women that the more unjust and binding laws were enacted for them1 thus doing all they could to create and intensify by law the incapacity which they asserted was imposed by ,god1 ,maine says3 ,but the proprietary disabilities of married females stand on quite a different basis from personal incapacity1 and it is by the tendency of their doctrines to keep alive and consolidate the former1 that the expositors of the ,canon ,law have deeply injured civilization4 ,he adds that there are many evidences of a struggle between secular principles in favor of justice for wives1 and ecclesiastical principles against it1 but the ,canon ,law nearly everywhere prevailed4 ,the systems which are least indulgent to married women are invariably those which have followed the ,canon ,law exclusively4444 ,it enforced the complete legal subjection of wives4 ,lecky says3 ,fierce invectives against the sex form a conspicuous and grotesque portion of the writings of the ,fathers4 ,woman was represented as the door of hell1 as the mother of all human ills4 ,she should be ashamed at the very thought that she is a woman4444 ,women were even forbidden1 in the sixth century1 on account of their impurity1 to receive the ,eucharist into their naked hands4 ,their essentially subordinate position was continually maintained4 ,this teaching in part determined the principles of legislation concerning the sex499 ,the ,pagan laws during the empire had been continually repealing the old disabilities of women1 and the legislative movement in their favor continued with unabated force from ,constantine to ,justinian1 and appeared also in some of the early laws of the barbarians4 ,but in the whole feudal ,christian legislation women were placed in a much lower legal position than in the ,pagan empire4 99 ,see ,appendix ,j4 ,and he adds that the ,french revolutionists 7the infidel party7 established better laws for women1 and initiated a great reformation of both law and opinion1 which sooner or later must traverse the world4 ,and these reformations1 being in ,christendom1 will be calmly claimed in the future1 as in the present1 as due to the beneficent influence of the ,church4 ,the ,church always belongs to the conservative party1 but after a good thing is established in despite of her1 she says3 ,just see what ,i have done6 ',see what a good boy am ,i6' ,not many years ago a few great-souled men who were heretics got a glimpse of a principle which has electrified the world4 ,they said that individual liberty is a universal right2 they maintained that humanity is a unit1 with interests and aims indivisible1 and that liberty to use to the utmost advantage all natural abilities cannot be denied one-half of the race without crippling both4 ,a few even went so far as to suggest that the assumption of the inferiority of women1 and the imposition of disabilities upon them1 under the claim of divine authority1 is the greatest crime in the great calendar of crime for which the ,church has yet to render a reckoning to humanity4 ,to one who reads the history of ,canon ,law1 it is not strange that ,christian ,judges still decide that women are incompetent to practice law1 and that they should not be allowed to study it4 ,a woman well versed in the history of ancient and modern law might easily be an uncomfortable advocate for such a judge to face4 ,he would probably feel the need of an umbrella4 ,it is not strange that ,columbia ,college1 with its corps of clergymen1 fails to see the propriety of opening its doors to women4 ,the few clergymen who have for some little time past taken the side of fair-play in this and like matters have simply deserted their colors and come over to the side they are worldly-wise enough to see is to be the side of the future4 ,when it comes to diplomacy the ,church is always on deck in time to gather in the spoils2 but she stays safely below during the engagement1 and simply holds back and anchors firm until she sees which way it is likely to end4 ,the moment there is an understanding on the part of women of what they owe to ,church ,law1 that moment will educational clerical monopolists1 such as the champion anchor of ,columbia1 be compelled to earn an honest living in some honest business pertaining to this world4 ,it will be a great day for women when they refuse to longer support these pretenders to divine knowledge1 who are willing1 at so much a head1 to tell what they do not know at the expense of the pale1 tired needlewoman1 who is in want of almost every comfort that money can buy in this world1 together with the surplus gold of the fashionable devotees who minister to the vanity of the clergy1 and give to the coffers of the ,church that which would save thousands of young girls from degradation and crime1 and put the roses of health on the cheek of innocence4 ,every dollar that is paid to support the ,church is paid to degrade a woman4 ,every collection that is made to spread revelation is used to suppress enlightenment and retard civilization4 ,every dollar that is invested in another world is a dollar diverted from useful purposes in this4 ,every hour that is spent mooning about heaven is that much time taken from needed labor here4 ,if our energies were wanted in another world we should most likely be in another world4 ,since we are in this one it is a pretty strong hint that we are expected to attend to business right here4 ,we can't do justice to two worlds at the same time2 and since we are assured that we shall have the whole of eternity to arrange matters in the next one1 it leaves very little time by comparison to devote to our duties in this4 ,there we are to have nothing to do but sing and be happy--twang a harp and smile4 ,here we have pain to alleviate1 ignorance to dispel1 innocence to protect1 disease to master1 and crime to restrain and prevent4 ,here we have the helpless to shield and guard and protect4 ,here we have homes to make happy1 the hearts of husbands and wives to make glad1 the light of love and trust to kindle in the eyes of children4 ,here is old age to cheer and console4 ,here are orphans to educate and protect1 widows to comfort1 and oppression to uproot4 ,there--nothing to do but look after yourself and manage your harp2 nobody to help--all will be perfect2 nothing to learn--all will be wise2 no hearts to cheer--all will be happy4 ,all that a mother will have to do if she gets a little tired practicing on her lyre and feels gloomy will be to just take a good look over the wall1 and photograph on her eyes the picture of her husband and children freshly dipped in oil and put on the griddle1 and she will come back to business perfectly satisfied1 take up her song where she left off1 and praise the ,lamb for his infinite mercy4 ,all eternity to learn how to fly round in a robe and keep time with the orchestra6 ,why a deaf man could learn to do that in fifty or sixty years1 and then have all the rest of the time to spare4 ,we are here such a little while1 there is so much to learn1 there is so much to do1 there is so much to undo1 that no man can afford to waste his time on an infinite future of time1 space1 and leisure4 ,men cannot afford to lose your best energies4 ,god can get on very well without them4 ,time is short1 and needs are pressing2 and this thing you know--you can keep busy doing good right here4 ,if there is a hereafter1 could there be a better preparation for it than that8 ,,not ,,woman',s ,,friend4 ,after all that has preceded this page ,i need hardly do more with this count of the last claim of ,theological ,fiction than simply say1 if the ,bible is woman's best friend1 then the clergy1 without authority and in violation of the precepts of their own guide1 have been her worst enemy1 either through malice or ignorance2 in either of which cases they are and have always been unfit to dictate1 to lead opinion1 or to receive a following as reliable guides for this world or the next4 ,if they have been so ignorant or so malicious for nearly nineteen hundred years as to thus systematically misconstrue their own authority--their own revelation--to the constant disadvantage of women 7and the consequent enfeeblement of the race71 surely they can claim no respect for their opinions and no confidence in their divine calling499 ,in trying to shield the ,bible the clergy simply convict themselves49999 99 ,see ,appendix ,k4 9999 ,see ,appendix ,l4 ,but ,i incline to the opinion that in the main this view of the case is unfair to the clergy1 and that they have followed1 in spirit if not literally1 the dictates of the ,bible as a whole4 ,it is undoubtedly true that the ,bible throughout holds woman as an inferior in both mental and moral characteristics2 and upon this understanding of it the ,fathers built the ,church and crystallized the laws4 ,the ,fathers of the ,church were as a rule a bad lot themselves4 ,all contemporaneous history and all internal evidence prove this fact3 and when we remember that the ,prophets were almost to a man polygamists2 that their belief and practices in this regard were of the order and type of ,mormondom to-day1 and for the same reasons2 that they were slave-holders and slave-stealers2 that they believed in a ,god of infinite cruelty and revenge--of arbitrary will and reasonless barbarity2 and that they were licentious and brutal beyond description2 it will be easy to understand the position which such men--with these beliefs1 practices1 mentality1 and moral degradation--would accord to women4 ,every ,bible of every people2 every history of every race showing like civilization1 will show you like results499 99,see ,appendix ,m4 ,in the ,new ,testament we find an effort to readjust old clothes to a new body1 some of whose members had grown better and some worse in dogma and belief4 ,where women are especially dealt with we find them commanded to be under obedience1 and always to subject their wills to the ways and wills of men2 while the general tone and treatment are always based upon the assumption that she is an inferior1 a secondary creation1 and a subject class499 ,that this is the understanding of the ,bible always recognized by the ,church 7and to-day questioned by only a very small minority who are shrewd enough to see the necessity of revamping it to fit the new public morality and civilization71 all history attests2 but the vehemence with which the doctrine has been asserted the foregoing pages can only faintly indicate4 9999 ,but certainly1 if for thousands of years the clergy have1 as a body1 misconstrued or misunderstood the spirit of their own book 7to which they have always claimed to possess the only key71 they should not blame those who to-day take issue with them upon their information1 their dictates1 their basis of morality1 or their interpretations of the rights of humanity4 ,if1 as they claim to-day1 the ,bible is the friend of women and no respecter of persons1 a conclusion which it took them hundreds of years to reach1 it has taken them too long to discover the fact for their guidance to be either a desirable or a safe one for humanity2 and the millions of women they have degraded and oppressed in the past are certainly not an argument in favor of their infallibility now4 999999 99 ,see ,appendix ,n4 9999 ,see ,appendix ,o4 999999 ,see ,appendix ,p4 ,let them give way to men who1 claiming no right to divine authority or superhuman wisdom1 speak in the interest of all humanity the best they know 7always acknowledged to be subject to revision for the better72 who are not bound back and retarded by the outgrown toggery of the ,jewish civilization of ,david and his time or the ,christian dictatorship of ,paul499 ,acknowledging themselves as false and oppressive interpreters of divine law for centuries past is but a poor recommendation of their ability or integrity for the future4 99 ,see ,appendix ,q4 ,whichever horn of the dilemma they accept1 there is but one honorable course for the clergy to pursue1 and that is to resign in favor of those who have all along been on the right track1 without a pretence of divine guidance2 who in despite of faith and fagot have made progress possible4 ,,morals499 99 ,see ,appendices ,t and ,v4 ,after my lecture on ,men1 ,women1 and ,gods1 in ,chicago1 ,i was asked how it would be possible to train children to be good without a belief in the divinity of the ,bible2 how they could be made to know it is wrong to be and steal and kill4 ,the belief that the ,bible is the originator of these and like moral ideas1 or that ,christ was their first teacher1 is far from the truth2 and it is only another evidence of the duplicity or ignorance of the ,church that such a belief obtains or that such a falsehood is systematically taught4 ,it is too easily forgotten that morals are universal1 that ,christianity is local4 ,practical moral ideas grow up very early1 and develop with the development of a race4 ,they are the response to the needs of a people1 and when formulated have in several cases taken the shape of commandments from some unseen power4 ,these necessary practical laws are by degrees attached to those of imaginary value1 and all alike are held in esteem as of equal moral worth4 ,by this means a ficticious standard of right and wrong becomes established1 and a weakening of confidence in the valueless part results in damage to that portion which was originally the result of wise and necessary legislation499 ,when children 7of whatever age7 do this or that because ,god said so1 the precepts taught on this basis1 even though they are good1 will have no hold upon the man who discovers that their origin was purely human4 ,it is a dangerous experiment1 and depends wholly upon ignorance for its success4 ,a firm basis of reason in this world is the only solid foundation of moral training4 ,my ,chicago questioner proceeded upon the hypothesis that what of valuable morals are contained in the ,bible were a revelation to one people1 and that their value was dependent upon this origin4 ,for the benefit of those who have been similarly9999 imposed upon1 ,i will cite a few facts in as short space as possible4 99 ,durable morality had been associated with a transitory religious faith4 ,the faith fell into intellectual discredit1 and sexual morality shared its decline for a short season4 ,this must always be the natural consequence of building sound ethics on the shifting sands and rotting foundations of theology4 ,it is one of those enormous drawbacks that people seldom take into account when they are enumerating the blessings of superstition4 --,morley's ,diderot1 p4 #ga4 9999 ,professor ,max ,muller says that the consciousness of sin is a leading feature in the religion of the ,veda1 so is likewise the belief that the gods are able to take away from man the heavy burden of his sins4 ,brahmanism1 with its two hundred millions of believers1 and its ,rig-,veda 7,bible7 composed two thousand four hundred years before ,christ1 has its rigid code of morals2 its theory of creation2 its teachings about sin2 its revelations2 its belief in the ability of the gods to forgive29999 its belief that its bible came from ,god2 and its devotees who believe that an infinite ,god is pleased with the toys of worship1 praise1 and adulation of man4 ,it has its prayers and hymns1 its offerings and sacrifices4 ,corresponding with our ,trinity idea the ,brahmin has his three great gods2 and in place of our angels he has his infinite number of little ones499 ,next1 ,zoroastrianism1 certainly twelve hundred years older than ,christ1 has its legends 7quite as authentic as our own7 of miracles performed by its founder and his followers2 its ,zend-,avesta 7,bible72 its ,supreme ,spirit2 its belief in gods and demons who interfere with affairs in this world and who are ever at war with each other2 its sacred fires2 its ,lord2 its praise2 and its pretence to direct communication in the past with spirits and with gods who gave their ,prophet commandments49999 ,it lacks none of the paraphernalia of a divine institution ready for business1 and we are unable to discount it in either loaves or fishes4 ,it also has its heaven and hell2999999 its ,messiah or ,prophet2 its arch fiend or devil2 its rites and ceremonies4 99 ,see ,edward ,clodd1 ,f4,r4,a4,s41 ,childhood of ,religions4 9999 ,in the ,gathas or oldest part of the ,zend-,avesta1 which contains the leading doctrines of ,zoroaster1 he asks ,ormuzd ,god for truth and guidance1 and desires to know what he shall do4 ,he is told to be pure in thought1 word1 and deed2 to be temperate1 chaste1 and truthful2 to offer prayer to ,ormuzd and the powers that fight with him2 to destroy all hurtful things2 and to do all that will increase the well- being of mankind4 ,men were not to cringe before the powers of darkness as slaves crouch before a tyrant1 they were to meet them upstanding1 and confound them by unending opposition and the power of a holy life4 ',oh men1 if you cling to these commandments which ,mazda has given1 which are a torment to the wicked and a blessing to the righteous1 then there will be victory through them4' --,max ,muller4 999999 ,in this old faith there was a belief in two abodes for the departed3 heaven1 the 'house of the angels' hymns1' and hell1 where the wicked were sent4 ,between the two there was a bridge4 --,ibid4 ,professor ,max ,muller remarks3 ,there were periods in the history of the world when the worship of ,ormuzd threatened to rise triumphant on the ruins of the temples of all other gods4 ,if the battles of ,marathon and ,salamis had been lost and ,greece had succumbed to ,persia1 the state religion of the empire of ,cyrus1 which was the worship of ,ormuzd1 might have become the religion of the whole civilized world4 ,in which case my ,chicago friend would have asked1 ,if you destroy a belief in ,ormuzd1 and that he gave the only supernatural moral law to ,zoroaster1 how will children ever be taught what is right and what is wrong1 and how can they ever know that it is not right to lie and kill and steal8 ,their creed is of the simplest kind2 it is to fear ,god1 to live a life of pure thoughts1 pure words1 pure deeds1 and to die in the hope of a world to come4 ,it is the creed of those who have lived nearest to ,god and served him faithfullest in every age1 and wherever they dwell who accept it and practice it1 they bear witness to that which makes them children of ,god and brethren of the prophets1 among whom ,zoroaster was not the least4 ,the ,jews were carried away as captives to ,babylon some #fjj years before ,christ1 and during the seventy years of their exile there1 they came into contact with the ,persian religion and derived from it ideas about the immortality of the soul1 which their own religion did not contain4 ,they also borrowed from it their belief in a multitude of angels1 and in ,satan as the ruler over evil spirits4 ,so you see that even our devil is a borrowed one1 and it now seems to be about time to return him with thanks4 ,the ease with which man believes in unearthly powers working for his hurt prepares a people to admit into its creed the doctrine of evil spirits1 and although it is certain that the ,jews had no belief in such spirits before their captivity in ,babylon1 they spoke of ,satan 7which means an adversary7 as a messenger sent from ,god to watch the deeds of men and accuse them to ,him for their wrong-doing4 ,satan thus becoming by degrees an object of dread1 upon whom all the evil which befell man was charged1 the minds of the ,jews were ripe for accepting the ,persian doctrine of ,ahriman with his legions of devils4 ,ahriman became the ,jewish ,satan1 a belief in whom formed part of early ,christian doctrine1 and is now but slowly dying out4 ,what fearful ills it has caused1 history has many a page to tell4 ,the doctrine that ,satan1 once an angel of light1 had been cast from heaven for rebellion against ,god1 and had ever since played havoc among mankind1 gave rise to the belief that he and his demons could possess the souls of men and animals at pleasure4 ,hence grew the belief in wizards and witches1 under which millions of creatures1 both young and old1 were cruelly tortured and put to death4 ,we turn over the smeared pages of this history in haste1 thankful that from such a nightmare the world has wakened4 99 ,the world has awakened1 but the ,church still snores on1 confident and happy in the belief that she has a devil all her own1 and that he is attending strictly to business4 ,next we have ,buddhism1 which numbers more followers than any other faith4 ,it is five hundred years older than ,christianity4 ,it has its prophet or ,messiah who was exposed to a tempter19999 and overcame all evil2 its fastings and prayers2 its miracles and its visions4 ,of ,buddha's teachings ,prof4 ,max ,muller tells us that he used to say1 ,nothing on earth is stable1 nothing is real4 ,life is as transitory as a spark of fire1 or the sound of a lyre4 ,there must be some supreme intelligence where we could find rest4 ,if ,i attained it ,i could bring light to men4 ,if ,i were free myself ,i could deliver the world4 99,clodd1 ,f4,r4,a4,s4 9999 ,afterward the tempter sent his three daughters1 one a winning girl1 one a blooming virgin1 and one a middle-aged beauty1 to allure him1 but they could not4 ,buddha was proof against all the demon's arts1 and his only trouble was whether it were well or not to preach his doctrines to men4 ,feeling how hard to gain was that which he had gained1 and how enslaved men were by their passions so that they might neither listen to him nor understand him1 he had well-nigh resolved to be silent1 but1 at the last1 deep compassion for all beings made him resolve to tell his secret to mankind1 that they too might be free1 and he thus became the founder of the most popular religion of ancient or modern times4 ,the spot where ,buddha obtained his knowledge became one of the most sacred places in ,india4 --,clodd4 ,buddha1 like ,christ1 wrote nothing1 and the doctrines of the new religion were fixed and written by his disciples after his death4 ,councils were held afterwards to correct errors and send out missionaries4 ,you will see1 therefore1 that even revisions are not a product of ,christianity1 and that revelations have always been subject to reform to fit the times499 99 ,two other councils were afterward held for the correction of errors that had crept into the faith1 and for sending missionaries into other lands4 ,the last of these councils is said to have been held #bea years before ,christ1 so that long before ,christianity was founded we have this great religion with its sacred traditions of ,buddha's words1 its councils and its missions1 besides1 as we shall presently see1 many things strangely like the rites of the ,roman ,catholic ,church4--,clodd4 ,i will here give a few of the wise or kind or moral commands of ,buddha4 ,if the first were followed in ,christian countries we should be a more moral and a less superstitious people than we are to-day4 ,buddha said3 ',the succoring of mother and father1 the cherishing of child and wife1 and the following of a lawful calling1 this is the greatest blessing4' ',the giving alms1 a religious life1 aid rendered to relations1 blameless acts1 this1 is the greatest blessing4' ',the abstaining from sins and the avoiding them1 the eschewing of intoxicating drink1 diligence in good deeds1 reverence and humility1 contentment and gratefulness1 this is the greatest blessing4' ',those who having done these things1 become invincible on all sides1 attain happiness on all sides4 ,this is the greatest blessing4' ',he who lives a hundred years1 vicious and unrestrained1 a life of one day is better if a man is virtuous and reflecting4' ',let no man think lightly of evil1 saying in his heart1 it will not come near unto me4 ,even by the falling of water-drops a water-pot is filled2 the fool becomes full of evil if he gathers it little by little4' ',not to commit any sin1 to do good1 and to purify one's mind1 that is the teaching of the ,awakened4' 7,this is one of the most solemn verses among the ,buddhists74 ',let us live happily then1 not hating those who hate us6 ,let us dwell free from hatred among men who hate6' ,after these doctrines there follow ten commandments1 of which the first five apply to all people1 and the rest chiefly to such as set themselves apart for a religious life4 ,they are3 not to kill2 not to steal2 not to commit adultery2 not to lie2 not to get drunk2 to abstain from late meals2 from public amusements2 from expensive dress2 from large beds2 and to accept neither gold nor silver4 99 ,keep in mind that ,buddha lived more than #ejj years before ,christ4 ,the success of ,buddhism was in this3 ,it was a protest against the powers of the priests2 it to a large degree broke down caste by declaring that all men are equal1 and by allowing any one desiring to live a holy life to become a priest4 ,it abolished sacrifices2 made it the duty of all men to honor their parents and care for their children1 to be kind to the sick and poor and sorrowing1 and to forgive their enemies and return good for evil2 it spread a spirit of charity abroad which encompassed the lowest life as well as the highest4 9999 99 ,clodd4 9999 ,ibid4 ,with these before him will a ,christian suppose that morals are dependent upon our ,bible8 ,of ,confucianism1 believed by millions to be essential to their salvation1 and one of the three state religions of ,china1 ,clodd says3 ,on the soil of this great country there is crowded nearly half the human race1 the most orderly people on the globe4 ,this man 7,confucius71 who was reviled in life1 but whose influence sways the hundreds of millions of ,china1 was born #eea years before ,christ4 ,his nature was so beautifully simple and sincere that he would not pretend to knowledge of that which he felt was beyond human reach and thought4 ,what an earthquake there would be if our clergymen where only to become inoculated with that sort of simple sincerity ,i ,his disciples and followers did that for him as has been done in most other cases4 ,the sacred books of ,china are called the ,kings1 and are five in number1 containing treatises on morals1 books of rites1 poems1 and history4 ,they are of great age1 perhaps as old as the earliest hymns of the ,rig-,veda1 and are free from any impure thoughts4 ,which is much more than can be said of our own sacred books1 which are not so old4 ,in the ,book of ,poetry are three hundred pieces1 but the design of them all may be embraced in that one sentence1 ',have no depraved thoughts4' ,at the time when ,confucius lived1 ,china was divided into a number of petty kingdoms whose rulers were ever quarrelling1 and although he became engaged in various public situations of trust1 the disorder of the ,state at last caused him to resign them1 and he retired to another part of the country4 ,he then continued the life of a public teacher1 instructing men in the simple moral truths by which he sought to govern his own life4 ,the purity of that life1 and the example of veneration for the old laws which he set1 gathered round him many grave and thoughtful men1 who worked with him for the common good4 ,confucius said among other wise and moral things3 ,coarse rice for food1 water to drink1 the bended arm for a pillow--happiness may be enjoyed even with these2 but without virtue1 both riches and honor seem to me like the passing cloud4444 ,our passions shut up the door of our souls against ,god4 ,what we are pleased to call the golden rule1 and to look upon as purely ,christian1 he gave in these words #ejj years before ,christ was born3 ,tsze-kung said1 ',what ,i do not wish men to do to me1 ,i also wish not to do to men4' ,the ,master said1 ',you have not attained to that4' ,such is the power of words1 that those uttered by this intensely earnest man1 whose work was ended only by death1 have kept alive throughout the vast empire of ,china a reverence for the past and a sense of duty to the present which have made the ,chinese the most orderly and moral people in the world4 ,so much for the great religions that are older than our own and could not have borrowed from us4 ,so much for the moral sentiments of the peoples who developed them1 and who live and die happy with them to-day4 ,it leaves only a small part of this globe and a comparatively small number of its inhabitants who believe in and are guided by the ,bible1 or by the morality which has grown side-by-side with it4 ,but there is one other great religion which is of interest to us3 99 99 ,see ,appendix ,r4 ,and the value of ,islam1 the youngest of the great religions1 is that we are able to see how its first simple form became overlaid with legend and foolish superstition1 and thus learn how1 in like manner1 myth and fable have grown around more ancient religions and around our own4 ,for example2 although ,mohammed came into the world like other children1 wonderful things are said to have taken place at his birth4 ,he never claimed to be a perfect man2 he did not pretend to foretell events or to work miracles4 ,in spite of all this1 his followers said of him1 while he was yet living1 that he worked wonders1 and they believed the golden vision1 hinted at in ,koran1 to have been a real event1 although ,mohammed said over and over again that it was but a dream4 ,this religion is the guide in life and the support in death of one hundred and fifty millions of our fellow creatures2 like ,christianity1 it has its missionaries scattered over the globe1 and offers itself as a faith needed by all men4 ,the success of ,islam was great4 ,not one hundred years after the death of the prophet1 it had converted half the then known world1 and its green flag waved from ,china to ,spain4 ,christianity gave way before it1 and has never regained some of the ground then lost1 while at this day we see ,islam making marked progress in ,africa and elsewhere4 ,travelers tell us that the gain is great when a tribe casts away its idols and embraces ,islam4 ,filth and drunkenness flee away1 and the state of the people is bettered in a high degree4 ,muslims have not treated ,christ as we have treated ,mohammed1 for the devout among them never utter his name without adding the touching words1 'on whom be peace4' ,mohammed counseled men to live a good life1 and to strive after the mercy of ,god by fasting1 charity1 and prayer1 which he called 'the key of paradise4' ,he abolished the frightful practice of killing female children1 and made the family tie more respected4 ,he said3 ,a man's true wealth hereafter is the good he has done in this world to his fellow-men4 ,when he dies1 people will ask1 ,what property has he left behind him8 ,but the angels will ask1 ,what good deeds has he sent before him8 ,which is a doctrine wholesome and just1 so for as it applies to this world1 and inculcates the right sort of morals4 ,mohammed commanded his followers to make no image of any living thing1 to show mercy to the weak and orphaned1 and kindness to brutes2 to abstain from gambling1 and the use of strong drink4 ,the great truth which he strove to make real to them was that ,god is one1 that1 as the ,koran says1 'they surely are infidels who say that ,god is the third of three1 for there is no ,god but one ,god4' ,he was the great original ,unitarian4 ,i should add that the wars of ,islam did not leave waste and ruin in their path1 but that the ,arabs1 when they came to ,europe1 alone held aloft the light of learning1 and in the once famous schools of ,spain1 taught 'philosophy1 medicine1 astronomy1 and the golden art of song4' ,we cannot speak so well of the holy wars of ,christianity4 ,in speaking of the men who wrote our ,bible1 ,clodd says3 ,nor is it easy to find in what they have said truths which1 in one form or another1 have not been stated by the writers of some of the sacred books into which we have dipped4 ,i have quoted more fully than had been my intention simply to show the egotistic ignorance of the ,christian's claim to possess a religion or a ,bible which differs1 in any material regard1 from several others which are older1 and to indicate that moral ideas1 precepts1 and practices are the property of no special people1 but are the inevitable result of continued life itself1 and the evolution of civilizations however different in outward form and expression4 ,they are the necessary results of human companionship and necessities1 and not the fruits of any religion or the revelation from on high to any people4 ,as ,william ,kingdon ,clifford1 ,f4 ,r4 ,s41 in his work on the ,scientific ,basis of ,morals1 very justly says3 ,there is more than one moral sense1 and what ,i feel to be right another man may feel to be wrong4 ,in just the same way our question about the best conscience will resolve itself into a question about the purpose or function of the conscience--why we have got it1 and what it is good for4 ,now to my mind the simplest and clearest and most profound philosophy that was ever written upon this subject is to be found in the #b;d and #c;d chapters of ,mr4 ,darwin's ',descent of ,man4' ,in these chapters it appears that just as most physical characteristics of organisms have been evolved and preserved because they were useful to the individual in the struggle for existence against other individuals and other species1 so this particular feeling has been evolved and preserved because it is useful to the tribe or community in the struggle for existence against other tribes1 and against the environment as a whole4 ,the function of conscience is the preservation of the tribe as a tribe4 ,and we shall rightly train our consciences if we learn to approve these actions which tend to the advantage of the community4 ,the virtue of purity1 for example1 attains in this way a fairly exact definition3 purity in a man is that course of conduct which makes him to be a good husband and father1 in a woman that which makes her to be a good wife and mother1 or which helps other people so to prepare and keep themselves4 ,it is easy to see how many false ideas and pernicious precepts are swept away by even so simple a definition as that4 ,in urging the necessity of a more substantial basis of morals than one built upon a theory of arbitrary dictation1 he says3 ,the worship of a deity who is represented as unfair or unfriendly to any portion of the community is a wrong thing1 however great may be the threats and promises by which it is commended4 ,and still worse1 the reference of right and wrong to his arbitrary will as a standard1 the diversion of the allegiance of the moral sense from the community to him1 is the most insidious and fatal of social diseases4444 ,if ,i let myself believe anything on insufficient evidence1 there may be no great harm done by the mere belief2 it may be true after all1 or ,i may never have occasion to exhibit it in outward acts4 ,but ,i cannot help doing this great wrong toward ,man1 that ,i make myself credulous4 ,the danger to society is not merely that it should believe wrong things1 though that is great enough2 but that it should become credulous1 and lose the habit of testing things and inquiring into them2 for then it must sink back into savagery4 ,the harm which is done by credulity in a man is not confined to the fostering of a credulous character in others1 and consequent support of false beliefs4 ,habitual want of care about what ,i believe leads to habitual want of care in others about the truth of what is told to me4 ,men speak the truth to one another when each reveres the truth in his own mind and in the other's mind2 but how shall my friend revere the truth in my mind when ,i myself am careless about it1 when ,i believe things because ,i want to believe them1 and because they are comforting and pleasant8 ,will he not learn to cry1 ',peace1' to me1 when there is no peace8 ,by such a course ,i shall surround myself with a thick atmosphere of falsehood and fraud1 and in that ,i must live4 ,it may matter little to me1 in my cloud-castle of sweet illusions and darling lies2 but it matters much to ,man that ,i have made my neighbors ready to deceive4 ,the credulous man is father to the liar4444 ,we all suffer severely enough from the maintenance and support of false beliefs and the fatally wrong actions which they lead to2 and the evil born when one such belief is entertained is great and wide4 ,but a greater and wider evil arises when the credulous character is maintained and supported1 when a habit of believing for unworthy reasons is fostered and made permanent4444 ,the fact that believers have found joy and peace in believing gives us the right to say that the doctrine is a comfortable doctrine1 and pleasant to the soul2 but it does not give us the right to say that it is true4444 ,and the question which our conscience is always asking about that which we are tempted to believe is not1 ',is it comfortable and pleasant8' but1 ',is it true8' ,the sooner moral actions and the necessity of clean1 helpful1 and charitable living are put upon a basis more solid and permanent than theology the better will it be for civilization2 and if this chapter shall1 by its light style1 attract the attention of those who are too busy1 or are disinclined for any reason whatsoever1 to collect from more profound works the facts here given1 ,i shall be satisfied with the result1 because ,i shall have done something toward the triumph of fact over fiction4 ,we cannot repeat too often nor emphasize too strongly this one simple fact1 that we need all our energy and time to make this world fit to live in2 to make homes where mothers are happy and children are glad--homes where fathers hasten when their work is done1 and are welcomed with a shout of joy4 ,the toilers who wend up the hillside1 ,the toilers below in the mill ,alike are the victims of priestcraft1 ,they do but the ,master's will4 ,the ,master's will6 ah the cunning1 ,the bitterly cruel device1 ,to wring from the lowly and burdened ,submission at any price6 ,submission to tyrants in ,russia-- ,submission to tyrants in ,rome2 ,the throne and the altar have ever ,combined to despoil the home1 ,but the home is the heaven to live for1 ,and ,love is the ,god sublime ,who paints in tints of glory1 ,upon the wings of ,time ,this legend1 grand and simple1 ,and true as eternal ,right-- ,no ,justice e'er came from ,jury1 ,whose verdict was based on might6 ,as high above earth as is heaven2 ,as high as the stars above ,the ,church1 the chapel1 the altar2 ,is the home whose ,god is ,love4 9999999999 ,,appendix ,appendix ,a4 #a4 ,for a species increases or decreases in numbers1 widens or contracts its habitat1 migrates or remains stationary1 continues an old mode of life or falls into a new one1 under the combined influence of its intrinsic nature and the environing actions1 inorganic and organic4 ,beginning with the extrinsic factors1 we see that from the outset several kinds of them are variously operative4 ,they need but barely ennumerating4 ,we have climate1 hot1 cold1 or temperate1 moist or dry1 constant or variable4 ,we have surface1 much or little of which is available1 and the available part of which is fertile in greater or less degree2 and we have configuration of surface1 as uniform or multiform4444 ,on these sets of conditions1 inorganic and organic1 characterizing the environment1 primarily depends the possibility of social evolution4--,spencer1 ,principles of ,sociology1 vol4 #a1 p4 #aj4 #b4 ,these considerations clearly prove that of the two primary causes of civilization1 the fertility of the soil is the one which in the ancient world exercised most influence4 ,but in ,european civilization1 the other great cause1 that is to say1 climate1 has been the most powerful4 ,owing to circumstances which ,i shall presently state1 the only progress which is really effective depends1 not upon the bounty of nature1 but upon the energy of man4 ,therefore it is1 that the civilization of ,europe1 which1 in its earliest stage1 was governed by climate1 has shown a capacity of development unknown to those civilizations which were originated by soil4--,buckle1 ,history of ,civilization1 vol4 #a1 p4 #cf--cg499 99 ,i wish to state here that ,i had never read the above from ,buckle1 nor had ,i seen anywhere a statement so like my own1 at the time mine was written4 ,i read this for the first time while reading the proofs of this chapter4 ,so much for what may appear plagiarism4--,h4 ,h4 ,q1 ,appendix ,b4 #a4 ,napoleon himself was indifferent to ,christianity1 but he saw that the clergy were friends of despotism4--,buckle4 #b4 ,thus it is that a careful survey of history will prove that the ,reformation made the most progress not in those countries where the people were most enlightened1 but in those countries where1 from political causes1 the clergy were least able to withstand the people4--,buckle4 #c4 ,christian civilization in the twentieth century of its existence1 degrades its women to labor fit only for beasts of the field2 harnessing them with dogs to do the most menial labors2 it drags them below even this1 holding their womanhood up to sale1 putting both ,church and ,state sanction upon their moral death2 which1 in some places1 as in the city of ,berlin1 so far recognizes the sale of women's bodies for the vilest purposes as part of the ,christian religion1 that license for this life is refused until they have partaken of the ,sacrament2 and demands of the '#aj1jjj licensed women of the town' of the city of ,hamburg1 certificates showing that they regularly attend church and also partake of the sacrament4--,gage4 ,even a lower depth than this is reached in ,england1 ,france1 ,italy1 ,switzerland1 and ,germany1 and nearly every country of ,europe1 says the same writer1 a system of morality which declares 'the necessity' of woman's degradation1 and annually sends tens of thousands down to a death from which society grants no resurrection4--,gage4 ,appendix ,c4 #a4 ,sappho flourished b4 c4 #fjj1 and a little later2 and so highly did ,plato value her intellectual1 as well as her imaginative endowments1 that he assigned her the honors of sage as well as poet2 and familiarly entitled her the 'tenth muse'--,buckle1 #b4 ,wilkinson says among no ancient people had women such influence and liberty as among the ancient ,egyptians4--,buckle4 #c4 ,the ,americans have in the treatment of women fallen below1 not only their own democratic principles1 but the practice of some parts of the ,old ,world4--,harriet ,martineau4 #d4 ,mr4 ,f4 ,newman denies that ,christianity has improved the position of women2 and he observes that1 'with ,paul1 the sole reason for marriage is1 that a man may1 without sin1 vent his sensual desires4 ,he teaches that1 but for this object1 it would be better not to marry2' and he takes no notice of the social pleasures of marriage4 ,newman says3 ',in short1 only in countries where ,germanic sentiment has taken root do we see marks of any elevation of the female sex superior to that of ,pagan antiquity4'--,buckle4 #e4 ,female voices are never heard in the ,russian churches2 their place is supplied by boys2 women do not yet stand high enough in the estimation of the churches4444 to be permitted to sing the praises of ,god in the presence of men4--,kohl4 #f4 ,christianity diminished the influence of women4--,neander1 ,hist1 of the ,church4 ,appendix ,d4 ,within the reign of the present sovereign ,mrs4 ,gage tells us of a young girl being ordered by the ,petty ,sessions ,bench back to the service of a landlord1 from whom she had run away because such service meant the sacrifice of her honor4 ,she refused to go and was put in jail4 ,appendix ,e4 #a4 ,women were taught by the ,church and ,state alike1 that the ,feudal ,lord or ,seigneur had a right to them1 not only against themselves1 but as against any claim of husband or father4 ,the law known as ,marchetta1 or ,marquette1 compelled newly-married women to a most dishonorable servitude4 ,they were regarded as the rightful prey of the ,feudal ,lord from one to three days after their marriage1 and from this custom1 the oldest son of the serf was held as the son of the lord1 'as perchance it was he who begat him4' ,from this nefarious degradation of woman1 the custom of ,borough-,english arose1 in which the youngest son became the heir4444 ,france1 ,germany1 ,prussia1 ,england1 ,scotland1 and all ,christian countries where feudalism existed1 held to the enforcement of ,marquette4 ,the lord deemed this right as fully his as he did the claim to half the crops of the land1 or to half the wool of the sheep4 ,more than one reign of terror arose in ,france from the enforcement of this law1 and the uprisings of the peasantry over ,europe during the twelfth century1 and the fierce ,jacquerie1 or ,peasant ,wars1 of the fourteenth century in ,france owed their origin1 among other causes1 to the enforcement of these claims by the lords upon the newly-married wife4 ,the edicts of ,marly transplanted that claim to ,america when ,canada was under the control of ,france4 ,to persons not conversant with the history of feudalism1 and of the ,church for the first fifteen hundred years of its existence1 it will seem impossible that such foulness could ever have been part of ,christian civilization4 ,that the crimes they have been trained to consider the worst forms of heathendom could have existed in ,christian ,europe1 upheld by both ,church and ,state for more than a thousand five hundred years1 will strike most people with incredulity4 ,such1 however1 is the truth2 we can but admit well-attested facts of history1 how severe a blow soever they strike our preconceived beliefs4 ,marquette was claimed by the ,lords ,spiritual199 as well as by the ,lords ,temporal4 ,the ,church indeed1 was the bulwark of this base feudal claim4 ,with the power of penance and excommunication in its grasp1 this demand could neither have originated nor been sustained unless sanctioned by the ,church4444 ,these customs of feudalism were the customs of ,christianity during many centuries4 7,one of the ,earls of ,crawford1 known as the ',earl ,brant1' in the sixteenth century1 was probably among the last who openly claimed by right the literal translation of droit de ,jambage47 ,these infamous outrages upon woman were enforced under ,christian law by both ,church and ,state4 99 ,in days to come people will be slow to believe that the law among ,christian nations went beyond anything decreed concerning the olden slavery2 that it wrote down as an actual right the most grievous outrage that could ever wound man's heart4 ,the ,lords ,spiritual 7clergy7 had this right no less than the ,lords ,temporal4 ,the parson1 being a lord1 expressly claimed the first fruits of the bride1 but was willing to sell his right to the husband4 ,the ,courts of ,berne openly maintain that this right grew up naturally4-- ,michelet1 ,la ,sorcerie1 p4#fb ,the degradation of the husband at this infringement of the lord spiritual and temporal upon his marital right1 has been pictured by many writers1 but history has been quite silent upon the despair and shame of the wife4 ,no hope appeared for woman anywhere4 ,the ,church4444 dragged her to the lowest depths1 through the vileness of its priestly customs4444 ,we who talk of the burning of wives upon the funeral pyres of husbands in ,india1 may well turn our eyes to the records of ,christian countries4--,matilda ,joslyn ,gage in ,woman1 ,church1 and ,state4 #b4 ,from this point ,mrs4 ,gage calls attention to the various efforts to throw off this degrading custom4 ,the women held meetings at night1 and among other things travestied the celebration of ,mass and other ,church customs2 but the end and aim of these meetings being a protest and rebellion against ,marquette1 the clergy called those who took part in them witches299 and then and there began the persecution which the ,church carried on against women under this disguise 7under ,catholic and ,protestant rule alike71 which extended down to the latter part of the last century1 with its list of horrors and indignities extending over all ,christian countries and blossoming in all their vigor in our own eastern ,states1 upheld by ,luther1 ,john ,wesley1 and ,baxter1 who unfortunately had not at that time entered into the everlasting rest of the ,saints4 ,and1 true to these noble and wise leaders1 the ,churches which they founded are to-day expressing the same sentiments 7in principle7 in regard to the honor and dignity and position of woman4 ,the arguments of the ,rev4 ,dr4 ,craven1 the prosecutor in the famous ,presbyterian trial of #ahgf1 which are given by ,mrs4 ,gage1 together with numerous other similar ones1 fully establish the fact that woman is to the ,church what she always was--so far as secular law will permit4 ,and numerous instances 7such as the ,buckley exhibition at the last ,methodist ,conference1 in which he was sustained by the ,conference7 prove that they have learned nothing since #ahgf4 99 ,there are few superstitions which have been so universal as a belief in witchcraft4 ,the severe theology of paganism despised the wretched superstition1 which has been greedily believed by millions of ,christians4--,buckle4 #c4 ,i wish ,i might copy here the sermon to women which the ,rev4 ,knox-,little1 the well-known ,high-,church clergyman of ,england1 preached when in this country in #ahhj1 in which he said1 ,there is no crime which a man can commit which justifies his wife in leaving him4 ,it is her duty to subject herself to him always1 and no crime that he can commit can justify her lack of obedience4 ,although a little balder in statement than are most utterances of orthodox clergymen in this age1 yet in sentiment and in the reason given for it the echo of ,amen comes from every pulpit where a believer in original sin1 vicarious atonement1 or the inspiration of the ,bible has a representative and a voice4 ,if self-respect or honor is ever to be the lot of woman1 it will not be until her foot is on the neck of orthodoxy1 and when the ,bible ranks where it belongs in the field of literature4 ,appendix ,f4 #a4 ,the ,french government1 about the middle of the eighteenth century1 seems to have reached the maturity of its wickedness1 allowing if not instigating religious persecutions of so infamous a nature that they would not be believed if they were not attested by documents of the courts in which the sentences were passed4--,buckle4 #b4 ,of ,louis ,,xv41 the eminently ,christian king of ,france1 ,buckle says3 ,his harem cost more than #ajj1jjj1jjj francs1 and was composed of little girls4 ,he was constantly drunk1 and turned out his own illegitimate children to prostitute themselves4 #c4 ,it will hardly be believed that1 when sulphuric ether was first used to lessen the pains of childbirth1 it was objected to as 'a profane attempt to abrogate the primeval curse pronounced upon woman4444' ,the injury which the theological principle has done to the world is immense4 ,it has prevented men from studying the laws of nature4--,buckle4 ,appendix ,g4 #a4 ,the narrow range of their sympathies the clergy's1 and the intellectual servitude they have accepted1 render them peculiarly unfitted for the office of educating the young1 which they so persistently claim1 and which1 to the great misfortune of the world1 they were long permitted to monopolize4444 ,the almost complete omission from female education of those studies which most discipline and strengthen the intellect1 increases the difference1 while at the same time it has been usually made a main object to imbue them with a passionate faith in traditional opinions1 and to preserve them from all contact with opposing views4 ,but contracted knowledge and imperfect sympathy are not the sole fruits of this education4 ,it has always been the peculiarity of a certain kind of theological teaching1 that it -inverts all the normal principles of judgment and absolutely destroys intellectual diffidence4 ,on other subjects we find if not a respect for honest conviction1 at least some sense of the amount of knowledge that is requisite to entitle men to express an opinion on grave controversies4 ,a complete ignorance of the subject-matter of a dispute restrains the confidence of dogmatism2 and an ignorant person who is aware that1 by much reading and thinking in spheres of which he has himself no knowledge1 his educated neighbor has modified or rejected opinions which that ignorant person had been taught1 will1 at least if he is a man of sense or modesty1 abstain from compassionating the benighted condition of his more instructed friend4 ,but on theological questions this has never been so4 ,unfaltering belief being taught as the first of duties1 and all doubt being usually stigmatized as criminal or damnable1 a state of mind is formed to which we find no parallel in other fields4 ,many men and most women1 though completely ignorant of the very rudiments of biblical criticism1 historical research1 or scientific discoveries1 though they have never read a single page1 or ,understood a single proposition of the writings of those whom they condemn1 and have absolutely no rational knowledge either of the arguments by which their faith is defended1 or of those by which it has been impugned1 will nevertheless adjudicate with the utmost confidence upon every polemical question1 denounce1 hate1 pity1 or pray for the conversion of all who dissent from what they have been taught1 assume1 as a matter beyond the faintest possibility of doubt1 that the opinions they have received without inquiry must be true1 and that the opinions which others have arrived at by inquiry must be false1 and make it a main object of their lives to assail what they call heresy in every way in their power1 except by examining the grounds on which it rests4 ,it is possible that the great majority of voices that swell the clamor against every book which is regarded as heretical1 are the voices of those who would deem it criminal even to open that book1 or to enter into any real1 searching1 and impartial investigation of the subject to which it relates4 ,innumerable pulpits support this tone of thought1 and represent1 with a fervid rhetoric well fitted to excite the nerves and imaginations of women1 the deplorable condition of all who deviate from a certain type of opinions or emotions2 a blind propagandism or a secret wretchedness penetrates into countless households1 poisoning the peace of families1 chilling the mental confidence of husband and wife1 adding immeasurably to the difficulties which every searcher into truth has to encounter1 and diffusing far and wide intellectual timidity1 disingenuousness1 and hypocrisy4--,lecky4 #b4 ,the clergy1 with a few honorable exceptions1 have in all modern countries been the avowed enemies of the diffusion of knowledge1 the danger of which to their own profession they1 by a certain instinct1 seem always to have perceived4--,buckle4 #c4 ,in the fourth century there arose monachism1 and in1 the sixth century the ,christians succeeded in cutting off the last ray of knowledge1 and shutting up the schools of ,greece4 ,then followed a long period of theology1 ignorance1 and vice4--,puckle4 #d4 ,contempt for human sciences was one of the first features of ,christianity4 ,it had to avenge itself of the outrages of philosophy2 it feared that spirit of investigation and doubt1 that confidence of man in his own reason1 the pest alike of all religious creeds4 ,the light of the natural sciences was ever odious to it1 and was ever regarded with a suspicious eye1 as being a dangerous enemy to the success of miracles2 and there is no religion that does not oblige its sectaries to follow some physical absurdities4 ,the triumph of ,christianity was thus the final signal of the entire decline both of the sciences and of philosophy4--,progress of the ,human ,mind1 ,condorcet4 ,accordingly it ought not to astonish us that ,christianity1 though unable in the sequel to prevent their reappearance in splendor after the invention of printing1 was at this period sufficiently powerful to accomplish their ruin4--,ibid4 ,in the disastrous epoch at which we are now arrived1 we shall see the human mind rapidly descending from the height to which it had raised itself444 ,everywhere was corruption1 cruelty1 and perfidy4444 ,theological reveries1 superstitions1 delusions1 are become the sole genius of man1 religious intolerance his only morality2 and ,europe1 crushed between sacerdotal tyranny and military despotism1 awaits in blood and in tears the moment when the revival of light shall restore it to liberty1 to humanity1 and to virtue4444 ,the priests held human learning in contempt4444 ,fanatic armies laid waste the provinces4 ,executioners1 under the guidance of legates and priests1 put to death those whom the soldiers had spared4 ,a tribunal of monks was established1 with power of condemning to the stake whoever should be suspected of making use of his reason4444 ,all sects1 all governments1 every species of authority1 inimical as they were to each other in every point else1 seemed to be of accord in granting no quarter to the exercise of reason4444 ,meanwhile education1 being everywhere subjected to the clergy1 had corrupted everywhere the general understanding1 by clogging the reason of children with the weight of the religious prejudices of their country444 ,in the eighth century an ignorant pope had persecuted a deacon for contending that the earth was round1 in opposition to the opinion of the rhetorical ,saint ,austin4 ,in the fifteenth1 the ignorance of another pope1 much more inexcusable1 delivered ,galileo into the hands of the inquisition1 accused of having proved the diurnal and annual motion of the earth4 ,the greatest genius that modern ,italy has given to the sciences1 overwhelmed with age and infirmities1 was obliged to purchase his release from punishment and from prison1 by asking pardon of ,god for having taught men better to understand his works4--,ibid4 ,appendix ,h4 #a4 ,fenelon1 a celebrated ,french clergyman and writer of the seventeenth century1 discouraged the acquisition of knowledge by women4--,see ,hallam's ,lit4 of ,europe4 #b4 ,perhaps it is to the spirit of ,puritanism that we owe the little influence of women1 and the consequent inferiority of their education4--,buckle4 #c4 ,in ,england 7#ahdj7 a distrust and contempt for reason prevails amongst religious circles to a wide extent2 many ,christians think it almost a matter of duty to decry the human faculties as poor1 mean1 and almost worthless2 and thus seek to exalt piety at the expense of intelligence4--,morell's ,hist4 of ,speculative ,phil4 #d4 ,that women are more deductive than men1 because they think quicker than men1 is a proposition which some people will not relish1 and yet it may be proved in a variety of ways4 ,indeed nothing could prevent its being universally admitted except the fact that the remarkable rapidity with which women think is obscured by that miserable1 that contemptible1 that preposterous system1 called their education1 in which valuable things are carefully kept from them1 and trifling things carefully taught to them1 until their fine and nimble minds are too often irretrievably injured4--,buckle4 ,appendix ,i4 #a4 ,the ,roman ,pagan religion was essentially domestic1 and it was a main object of the legislator to surround marriage with every circumstance of dignity and solemnity4 ,monogamy was1 from the earliest times1 strictly enjoined1 and it was one of the great benefits that have resulted from the expansion of ,roman power1 that it made this type dominant in ,europe4 ,in the legends of early ,rome we have ample evidence both of the high moral estimate of women1 and of their prominence in ,roman life4 ,the tragedies of ,lucretia and of ,virginia display a delicacy of honor1 a sense of the supreme excellence of unsullied purity1 which no ,christian nation could surpass4--,lecky1 ,european ,morals1 ,vol4 #a1 p4 #caf4 #b4 ,marriage under ,christian rule was viewed in its coarsest and most degraded form4 ,the notion of its impurity took many forms1 and exercised for some centuries an extremely wide influence over the ,church4--,ibid41 p4 #cdc4 ,appendix ,j4 #a4 ,we are continually told that civilization and ,christianity have restored to the woman her just rights4 ,meanwhile the wife is the actual bond-servant of her husband2 no less so1 as far as legal obligation goes1 than slaves commonly so called4 ,she vows a lifelong obedience to him at the altar1 and is held to it all through her life by law4 ,casuists may say that the obligation of obedience stops short of participation in crime1 but it certainly extends to everything else4 ,she can do no act whatever but by his permission1 at least tacit4 ,she can acquire no property but for him2 the instant it becomes hers1 even if by inheritance1 it becomes ipso facto his4 ,in this respect the wife's position under the common law of ,england is worse than that of slaves in the laws of many countries2 by the ,roman law1 for example1 a slave might have peculium1 which1 to a certain extent1 the law guaranteed him for his exclusive use4--,mill4 #b4 ,speaking of self-worship which leads to brutality toward others1 ,mill says3 ,christianity will never practically teach it 7the equality of human beings7 while it sanctions institutions grounded on an arbitrary preference for one human being over another4 ,the morality of the first ages rested on the obligation to submit to power2 that of the ages next following1 on the right of the weak to the forbearance and protection of the strong4 ,how much longer is one form of society and life to content itself with the morality made for another8 ,we have had the morality of submission1 and the morality of chivalry and generosity2 the time is now come for the morality of justice4 --,ibid4 ,institutions1 books1 education1 society all go on training human beings for the old1 long after the new has come2 much more when it is only coming4--,ibid4 ,there have been abundance of people1 in all ages of ,christianity1 who tried444 to convert us into a sort of ,christian ,mussulmans1 with the ,bible for a ,koran1 prohibiting all improvement2 and great has been their power1 and many have had to sacrifice their lives in resisting them4 ,but they have been resisted1 and the resistance has made us what we are1 and will yet make us what we are to be4--,ibid4 ,appendix ,k ,in this tendency to depreciate extremely the character and position of women we may detect in part the influence of the earlier ,jewish writings1 in which it is probable that most impartial observers will detect evident traces of the common oriental depreciation of women4 ,the custom of money-purchase to the father of the bride was admitted4 ,polygamy was authorized1 and practised by the wisest men on an enormous scale4 ,a woman was regarded as the origin of human ills4 ,a period of purification was appointed after the birth of every child2 but1 by a very significant provision1 it was twice as long in the case of a female as of a male child 7,levit4 xii4 #a-e74 ,the badness of men1 a ,jewish writer emphatically declared1 is better than the goodness of women 7,ecclesiasticus xlii4 #ad74 ,the types of female excellence exhibited in the early period of ,jewish history are in general of a low order1 and certainly far inferior to those of ,roman history or ,greek poetry2 and the warmest eulogy of a woman in the ,old ,testament is probably that which was bestowed upon her who1 with circumstances of the most exaggerated treachery1 had murdered the sleeping fugitive who had taken refuge under her roof1--,lecky1 ,european ,morals1 vol #a1 p4 #ceg4 ,appendix ,l4 #a4 ,mr4 ,f4 ,newman1 who looks on toleration as the result of intellectual progress1 says3 ',nevertheless1 not only does the ,old ,testament justify bloody persecution1 but the ,new teaches that ,god will visit men with fiery vengeance for holding an erroneous creed4--,buckle4 #b4 ,the first great consequence of the decline of priestly influence was the rise of toleration4444 ,i suspect that the impolicy of persecution was perceived before its wickedness4 --,ibid4 #c4 ,while a multitude of scientific discoveries1 critical and historical researches1 and educational reforms have brought thinking men face to face with religious problems of extreme importance1 women have been almost absolutely excluded from their influence4--,lechy4 #d4 ,the domestic unhappiness arising from difference of belief was probably almost or altogether unknown in the world before the introduction of ,christianity4444 ,the deep1 and widening chasm between the religious opinions of most highly educated men1 and of the immense majority of women is painfully apparent4 ,whenever any strong religious fervor fell upon a husband or a wife1 its first effect was to make a happy union impossible4--,ibid4 #e4 ,the combined influence of the ,jewish writings ,old ,testament and of that ascetic feeling which treated woman as the chief source of temptation to man1 caused her degradation4444 ,in the writings of the ,fathers1 woman was represented as the door of hell1 as the mother of all human ills4 ,she should be ashamed at the very thought that she is a woman4 ,she should live in continual penance1 on account of the curse she has brought into the world4 ,she should be ashamed of her dress1 and especially ashamed of her beauty4--,ibid4 ,appendix ,m4 #a4 ,the writers of the ,middle ,ages are full of accounts of nunneries that were like brothels4444 ,the inveterate prevalence of incest among the clergy rendered it necessary again and again to issue the most stringent enactments that priests should not be permitted to live with their mothers or sisters4444 ,an ,italian bishop of the tenth century enigmatically described the morals of his time1 when he declared1 that if he were to enforce the canons against unchaste people administering ecclesiastical rites1 no one would be left in the ,church except the boys4--,lecky4 #b4 ,in the middle of the sixteenth century ''the majority of the clergy were nearly illiterate1 and many of them addicted to drunkenness and low vices4--,hallam1 ,const4 ,hist1 of ,eng4 #c4 ,the clergy have ruined ,italy4--,brougham1 ,pol4 ,phil4 #d4 ,it was a significant prudence of many of the lay ,catholics1 who were accustomed to insist that their priests should take a concubine for the protection of the families of the parishioners4444 ,it can hardly be questioned that the extreme frequency of illicit connections among the clergy tended during many centuries most actively to lower the moral tone of the laity4444 ,an impure chastity was fostered1 which continually looked upon marriage in its coarsest light4444 ,another injurious consequence1 resulting1 in a great measure1 from asceticism1 was a tendency to depreciate extremely the character and the position of woman4--,lecky4 ,appendix ,n4 #a4 ,the great and main duty which a wife1 as a wife1 ought to learn1 and so learn as to practise it1 is to be subject to her own husband4444 ,there is not any husband to whom this honor of submission is not due2 no personal infirmity1 frowardness of nature2 no1 not even on the point of religion1 doth deprive him of it4--,fergusson on the ,epistles4 #b4 ,the sum of a wife's duty unto her husband is subjection4 --,abernethy4 #c4 ,we shall be told1 perhaps1 that religion imposes the duty of obedience upon wives2 as every established fact which is too bad to admit of any other defense1 is always presented to us as an injunction of religion4 ,the ,church1 it is true1 enjoins it in her formularies4--,mill4 ,the principle of the modern movement in morals and in politics1 is that conduct1 and conduct alone1 entitles to respect3 that not what men are1 but what they do constitutes their claim to deference2 that1 above all1 merit and not birth is the only rightful claim to power and authority4--,ibid4 ,taking the care of people's lives out of their own hands1 and relieving them from the consequences of their own acts1 saps the very foundation of the self-respect and self-control which are the essential conditions both of individual prosperity and of social virtue4--,ibid4 ,inferior classes of men always1 at heart1 feel disrespect toward those who are subject to their power4--,ibid4 #d4 ,among those causes of human improvement that are of most importance to the general welfare1 must be included the total annihilation of the prejudices which have established between the sexes an inequality of right1 fatal even to the party which it favors4 ,in vain might we seek for motives to justify the principle1 in difference of physical organization1 of intellect1 or of moral sensibility4 ,it had at first no other origin but abuse of strength1 and all the attempts which have since been made to support it are idle sophisms4--,progress of the ,human ,mind1 ,condorcet4 #e4 ,notwithstanding the work of such men as the ,encyclopedists of ,france and other liberal thinkers for the proper recognition of women1 the ,church had held her grip so tight that upon the passage of the bill1 as late as #ahdh1 giving to married women the right to own their own property1 the most doleful prophesies went up as to the just retribution that would fall upon women for their wicked insubordination1 and upon the men who had defied divine commands so far as to pass such a law4 ,a recent writer tells us that ,wm4 ,a4 ,stokes1 in talking to a lady whom he blamed for its passage1 said3 ,we hold you responsible for that law1 and ,i tell you now you will live to rue the day when you opened such a ,pandora's box in your native ,state1 and cast such an apple of discord into every family of the ,state4 ,and the sermons that were preached against it--the prophecies of deacon and preacher--were so numerous1 so denunciatory1 and so violent that they form a queer and interesting chapter in the history of the attitude of the ,church toward women1 and illustrate1 in our own time1 how persistent it has been in its efforts to prevent woman from sharing in the benefits of the higher civilization of the nineteenth century4 ,but fortunately for women1 ,infidels are more numerous than they ever were before1 and the power of the ,church is dying of dry rot1 or as ,col4 ,ingersoll wittily says1 of the combined influence of softening of the brain and ossification of the heart4 ,appendix ,o4 ,st4 ,gregory the ,great describes the virtue of a priest1 who through motives of piety had discarded his wife444 ,their wives1 in immense numbers1 were driven forth with hatred and with scorn444 ,pope ,urban ,,ii4 gave license to the nobles to reduce to slavery the wives of priests who refused to abandon them4--,lecky4 ,appendix ,p4 #a4 ,hallam denies that respect for women is due to ,christianity4 --,buckle4 #b4 ,in ,england1 wives are still occasionally led to the market by a halter around the neck to be sold by the husband to the highest bidder4--,ibid4 ,the sale of a wife with a halter around her neck is still a legal transaction in ,england4 ,the sale must be made in the cattle market1 as if she were a mare1 all women being considered as mares by old ,english law1 and indeed called 'mares' in certain counties where genuine old ,english law is still preserved4--,borrow4 #c4 ,contempt for woman1 the result of clerical teaching1 is shown in myriad forms4--,gage4 #d4 ,the legal subordination of one sex to another is wrong in itself1 and is now one of the chief hindrances to human improvement4--,john ,stuart ,mill4 #e4 ,i have no relish for a community of goods resting on the doctrine1 that what is mine is yours1 but what is yours is not mine2 and ,i should prefer to decline entering into such a compact with anyone1 though ,i were myself the person to profit by it4--,ibid4 ,it will take a long time for that sort of morality to filter into the skull of the ,church1 and when it does the skull will burst4 #f4 ,certain beliefs have been inculcated1 certain crimes invented1 in order to intimidate the masses4 ,hence the ,church made free thought the worst of sins1 and the spirit of inquiry the worst of blasphemies4444 ,as late as the time of ,bunyan the chief doctrine inculcated from the pulpit was obedience to the temporal power4444 ,all these influences fell with crushing weight on woman4--,matilda ,joslyn ,gage in ,hist4 ,woman ,suffrage4 #g4 ,taught that education for her was indelicate and irreligious1 she has been kept in such gross ignorance as to fall a prey to superstition1 and to glory in her own degradation444 ,such was the prejudice against a liberal education for woman1 that the first public examination of a girl in geometry 7#ahbi7 created as bitter a storm of ridicule as has since assailed women who have entered the law1 the pulpit1 or the medical profession4--,ibid4 ,appendix ,q4 #a4 ,the five writers to whose genius we owe the first attempt at comprehensive views of history were ,bolingbroke1 ,montesquieu1 ,voltaire1 ,hume1 and ,gibbon4 ,of these the second was but a cold believer in ,christianity1 if1 indeed1 he believed in it at all2 and the other four were avowed and notorious infidels4--,buckle4 #b ,here1 then1 we have the starting-point of progress--scepticism4444 ,all1 therefore1 that men want is no hindrance from their political and religious rulers4444 ,until common minds doubt respecting religion they can never receive any new scientific conclusion at variance with it--as ,joshua and ,copernicus4--,ibid4 #c4 ,the immortal work of ,gibbon1 of which the sagacity is1 if possible1 equal to the learning1 did find readers1 but the illustrious author was so cruelly reviled by men who called themselves ,christians1 that it seemed doubtful if1 after such an example1 subsequent writers would hazard their comfort and happiness by attempting to write philosophic history4 ,middleton wrote in #agej4444 ,as long as the theological spirit was alive nothing could be effected4--,ibid4 #d4 ,the questions which presented themselves to the acuter minds of a hundred years ago were present to the acuter minds who lived hundreds of years before that4444 ,but the ,church had known how to deal with intellectual insurgents1 from ,abelard in the twelfth century down to ,bruno and ,vanini in the seventeenth4 ,they were isolated1 and for the most part submissive2 and if they were not1 the arm of the ,church was very long and her grasp mortal4444 ,they the thinkers could have taught ,europe earlier than the ,church allowed it to learn1 that the sun does not go round the earth1 and that it is the earth which goes round the sun4444 ,after the middle of the last century the insurrection against the pretensions of the ,church and against the doctrines of ,christianity was marked in one of its most important phases by a new1 and most significant1 feature4444 ,it was an advance both in knowledge and in moral motive4444 ,the philosophical movement was represented by ,diderot leading the ,encyclopaedist circle4444 ,broadly stated the great central moral of it was this3 that human nature is good1 that the world is capable of being made a desirable abiding-place1 and that the evil of the world is the fruit of bad education and bad institutions4 ,this cheerful doctrine now strikes on the ear as a commonplace and a truism4 ,a hundred years ago in ,france it was a wonderful gospel1 and the beginning of a new dispensation4444 ,into what fresh and unwelcome sunlight it brought the articles of the old theology444 ,every social improvement since has been the outcome of that new doctrine in one form or another4444 ,the teaching of the ,church paints men as fallen and depraved4 ,the deadly chagrin with which churchmen saw the new fabric rising was very natural4444 ,the new secular knowledge clashed at a thousand points1 alike in letter and spirit1 with the old sacred lore4444 ,a hundred years ago this perception was vague and indefinite1 but there was an unmistakable apprehension that the ,catholic ideal of womanhood was no more adequate to the facts of life1 than ,catholic views about science1 or popery1 or labor1 or political order and authority4--,morley4 ,and it took the rising infidels to discover the fact4 ,see ,morley1 ,diderot1 p4 #gf4 ,the greatest fact in the intellectual history of the eighteenth century is the decisive revolution that overtook the sustaining conviction of the ,church4 ,the central conception1 that the universe was called into existence only to further its ,creator's purpose toward man1 became incredible 7by the light of the new thought74 ,what seems to careless observers a mere metaphysical dispute was in truth1 and still is1 the decisive quarter of the great battle between theology and a philosophy reconcilable with science4--,morley4 ,the man who ventured to use his mind ,diderot was thrown into the dungeon at ,vincennes4--,ibid4 #e4 ,those thinkers ,voltaire1 ,rousseau1 and ,diderot taught men to reason2 reasoning well leads to acting well2 justness in the mind becomes justice in the heart4 ,those toilers for progress labored usefully4444 ,the ,french ,revolution was their soul4 ,it was their radiant manifestation4 ,it came from them2 we find them everywhere in that blest and superb catastrophe1 which formed the conclusion of the past and the opening of the future4444 ,the new society1 the desire for equality and concession1 and that beginning of fraternity which called itself tolerance1 reciprocal good-will1 the just accord of men and rights1 reason recognized as the supreme law1 the annihilation of prejudices and fixed opinions1 the serenity of souls1 the spirit of indulgence and of pardon1 harmony1 peace--behold what has come from them6--,victor ,hugo1 ,oration on ,voltaire4 ,appendix ,r4 ,he ,mohammed promulgated a mass of fables1 which he pretended to have received from heaven4444 ,after enjoying for twenty years a power without bounds1 and of which there exists no other example1 he announced publicly1 that1 if he had committed any act of injustice1 he was ready to make reparation4 ,all were silent4444 ,he died2 and the enthusiasm which he communicated to his people will be seen to change the face of three-quarters of the globe4444 ,i shall add that the religion of ,mohammed is the most simple in its dogmas1 the least absurd in its practices1 above all others tolerant in its principles4--,condorcet4 ,appendix ,s4 ,the claim is so often and so boldly made that ,infidelity produces crime1 and that ,christianity1 or belief1 or faith1 makes people good1 that the following statistics usually produce a rather chilly sensation in the believer when presented in the midst of an argument based upon the above mentioned claim4 ,i have used it with effect4 ,the person upon whom it is used will never offer that argument to you again4 ,the following statistics were taken from the ,british ,parliamentary reports1 made on the instance of ,sir ,john ,trelawney1 in #ahgc3 ,,england ,,and ,,wales4 ,criminals in ,england and ,wales in #ahgc44444444444444444444 #adf1adf ,,sectarian ,,and ,,infidel ,,population ,,of ,,the ,,same4 ,church of ,england44444444444444444444444444444444 444444444444444 #f1icc1ice ,dissenters44444444444444444444444444444 4444444444444444444444444444444 #g1bce1aeh ,catholics444444444444444444444444444444 44444444444444444444444444444444 #a1ejj1jjj ,jews44444444444444444444444444444444444 444444444444444444444444444444444 #eg1jjj ,infidels4444444444444444444444444444444 444444444444444444444444444444444 #g1jjj1jjj ,,religious ,,persuasions ,,of ,,criminals ,,of ,,the ,,same4 ,church of ,england44444444444444444444444444444444 44444444444444 #if1jig ,catholics444444444444444444444444444444 44444444444444444444444444444444 #ce1eha ,dissenters44444444444444444444444444444 4444444444444444444444444444444 #aj1fdh ,jews44444444444444444444444444444444444 44444444444444444444444444444444 #bef ,infidels4444444444444444444444444444444 444444444444444444444444444444444 #bif ,,criminals ,,to #ajj1jjj ,,population4 ,catholics444444444444444444444444444444 44444444444444444444444444444444 #b1ejj ,church of ,england44444444444444444444444444444444 444444444444444 #a1djj ,dissenters44444444444444444444444444444 4444444444444444444444444444444 #aej ,infidels4444444444444444444444444444444 444444444444444444444444444444444 #e ,these statistics are taken from the report of the ,british ,parliament1 which1 for learning and intelligence1 as a deliberative body1 has not its superior1 if it has its equal1 in the world1 and it is surely a sufficiently ,christian body to be accepted as authority in this matter1 since a large number of its members are clergymen4 ,these statistics hardly sustain the allegation that ,infidelity is coupled with impurity4 ,we are willing to stand upon our record4 ,but1 lest it be claimed that this is a ,british peculiarity1 allow me to defer to the patriotic sentiment of my readers by one other little set of tables which1 while not complete1 is equally as suggestive4 ,in sixty-six different prisons1 jails1 reformatories1 refuges1 penitentiaries1 and lock-ups there were1 for the years given in reports1 #da1cce men and boys1 women and girls1 of the following religious sects3 ,catholics444444444444444444444444444444 444444444444444444444444444444444444 #af1dca ,church of ,england44444444444444444444444444444444 44444444444444444444 #i1ige ,eighteen other ,protestant denominations44444444444444444444 #ad1haa ,universalists44444444444444444444444444 44444444444444444444444444444444444 #e ,jews1 ,chinese1 and ,mormons44444444444444444444444444444444 44444 #aaj ,infidels 7two so-called1 one avowed74444444444444444444444444444 #c ,these included the prisons of ,iowa1 ,michigan1 ,tennessee1 ,new ,york1 ,pennsylvania1 ,connecticut1 ,indiana1 ,illinois1 and ,canada4 ,present these two tables to those who assure you that crime follows in the wake of ,infidelity1 and you will have time to take a comfortable nap before your ,christian friend returns to the attack or braces up after the shock sustained by his sentiments and inflicted by these two small but truly suggestive tables4 ,one cold fact like this will inoculate one of the faithful with more modesty than an hour of usual argument based upon the assumptions of the clergy and the ignorance of his hearers4 ,infidels are not perfect4 ,many of them need reconstruction sadly1 but the above data seem to indicate that they compare rather favorably with their fellow-men in the matter of good citizenship4 ,appendix ,t4 ,moreover1 as ,goethe has already shown1 the celebrated ,mosaic moral precepts1 the so-called ,ten ,commandments1 were not upon the tables upon which ,moses wrote the laws of the covenant which ,god made with his people4 ,even the extraordinary diversity of the many religions diffused over the surface of the earth suffices to show that they can stand in no necessary connection with morals1 as it is well known that wherever tolerably well-ordered political and social conditions exist1 the moral precepts in their essential principles are the same1 whilst when such conditions are wanting1 a wild and irregular confusion1 or even an entire deficiency of moral notions is met with499 ,history also shows incontrovertibly that religion and morality have by no means gone hand in hand in strength and development1 but that even contrariwise the most religious times and countries have produced the greatest number of crimes and sins against the laws of morality1 and indeed1 as daily experience teaches1 still produce them4 ,the history of nearly all religions is filled with such horrible abominations1 massacres1 and boundless wickednesses of every kind that at the mere recollection of them the heart of a philanthropist seems to stand still1 and we turn with disgust and horror from a mental aberration which could produce such deeds4 ,if it is urged in vindication of religion that it has advanced and elevated human civilization1 even this merit appears very doubtful in presence of the facts of history1 and at least as very rarely or isolatedly the case4 ,in general1 however1 it cannot be denied that most systems of religion have proved rather inimical than friendly to civilization4 ,for religion1 as already stated1 tolerates no doubt1 no discussion1 no contradiction1 no investigations1 those eternal pioneers of the future of science and intellect6 ,even the simple circumstance that our present state of culture has already long since left far behind it all and even the highest intellectual ideals established and elaborated by former religions may show how little intellectual progress is influenced by religion4 ,mankind is perpetually being thrown to and fro between science1 and religion1 but it advances moro intellectually1 morally and physically in proportion as it turns away from religion and to science4 99 ,in ,china1 where people are1 as is well-known1 very indifferent or tolerant in religious matters1 this fine proverb is current3 ,religions are various1 but reason is one1 and we are all brothers4' ,it is therefore clear that for our present age and for the future a foundation must be sought and found for culture and morality1 different from that which can be furnished to us by religion4 ,it is not the fear of ,god that acts amelioratingly or ennoblingly upon manners1 of which the middle ages furnish us with a striking proof2 but the ennobling of the conception of the world in general which goes hand in hand with the advance of civilization4 ,let us then give up making a show of the profession of hypocritical words of faith1 the only purpose of which seems to be that they may be continually shown to be lies by the actions and deeds of their professors6 ,the man of the future will feel far more happy and contented when he has not to contend at every step of his intellectual forward development with those tormenting contradictions between knowledge and faith which plague his youth1 and occupy his mature age unnecessarily with the slow renunciation of the notions which he imbibed in his youth4 ,what we sacrifice to ,god1 we take away from mankind1 and absorb a great part of his best intellectual powers in the pursuit of an unattainable goal4 ,at any rate1 the least that we can expect in this respect from the state and society of the future is a complete separation between ecclesiastical and worldly affairs1 or an absolute emancipation of the state and the school from every ecclesiastical influence4 ,education must be founded upon knowledge1 not upon faith2 and religion itself should be taught in the public schools only as religious history and as an objective or scientific exposition of the different religious systems prevailing among mankind4 ,any one who1 after such an education1 still experiences the need of a definite law or rule of faith may then attach himself to any religious sect that may seem good to him1 but cannot claim that the community should bear the cost of this special fancy6 ,as regards ,christianity1 or the ,paulinism which is falsely called ,christianity1 it stands1 by its dogmatic portion or contents1 in such striking and irreconcilable1 nay absolutely absurd contradiction with all the acquisitions and principles of modern science that its future tragical fate can only be a question of time4 ,but even its ethical contents or its moral principles are in no way essentially distinguished above those of other peoples1 and were equally well and in part better known to mankind even before its appearance4 ,not only in this respect1 but also in its supposed character as the world-religion1 it is excelled by the much older and probably most widely diffused religious system in the world1 the celebrated ,buddhism1 which recognizes neither the idea of a personal ,god1 nor that of a personal duration1 and nevertheless teaches an extremely pure1 amiable1 and even ascetic morality4 ,the doctrine of ,zoroaster or ,zarathrustra also1 #ahjj years ,b4 ,c1 taught the principles of humanity and toleration for those of different modes of thinking in a manner and purity which were unknown to the ,semitic religions and especially to ,christianity4 ,christianity originated and spread1 as is well-known1 at a time of general decline of manners1 and of very great moral and national corruption2 and its extraordinary success must be partly explained by the prevalence of a sort of intellectual and moral disease which had overpowered the spirits of men after the fall of the ancient civilization and under the demoralizing influence of the gradual collapse of the great ,roman empire4 ,but even at that time those who stood intellectually high and looked deeply into things recognized the whole danger of this new turn of mind1 and it is very remarkable that the best and most benevolent of the ,roman emperors1 such as ,marcus ,aurelius1 ,julian1 etc41 were the most zealous persecutors of ,christianity1 whilst it was tolerated by the bad ones1 such as ,commodus1 ,heliogabalus1 etc4 ,when it had gradually attained the superiority1 one of its first sins against intellectual progress consisted in the destruction by ,christian fanaticism of the celebrated ,library of ,alexandria1 which contained all the intellectual treasures of antiquity--an incalculable loss to science1 which can never be replaced4 ,it is usually asserted in praise of ,christianity that in the middle ages the ,christian monasteries were the preservers of science and literature1 but even this is correct only in a very limited sense1 since boundless ignorance and rudeness generally prevailed in the monasteries1 and innumerable ecclesiastics could not even read4 ,valuable literary treasures on parchment contained in the libraries of the monasteries were destroyed1 the monks when they wanted money selling the books as parchment1 or tearing out the leaves and writing psalms upon them4 ,frequently they entirely effaced the ancient classics1 to make room for their foolish legends and homilies2 nay1 the reading of the classics1 such as ,aristotle for example1 was directly forbidden by papal decrees4 ,in ,new ,spain ,christian fanaticism immediately destroyed whatever of arts and civilization existed among the natives1 and that this was not inconsiderable is shown by the numerous monuments now in ruins which place beyond a doubt the former existence of a tolerably high degree of culture4 ,but in the place of this not a trace of ,christian civilization is now to be observed among the existing ,indians1 and the resident ,catholic clergy keep the ,indians purposely in a state of the greatest ignorance and stupidity 7see ,richthofen1 ,die ,zustande der ,republic ,mexico1 ,berlin1 #ahed74 ,thus ,christianity has always acted consistently in accordance with the principles of one of the fathers of the ,church1 ,tertullian1 who says3 ',desire of knowledge is no longer necessary since ,jesus ,christ1 nor is investigation necessary since the ,gospel4' ,if the civilization of the ,european and especially of ,christian ,nations has notwithstanding made such enormous progress in the course of centuries1 an unprejudiced consideration of history can only tell us that this has taken place not by means of ,christianity1 but in spite of it4 ,and this is a sufficient indication to what an extent this civilization must still be capable of development when once it shall be completely freed from the narrow bounds of old superstitious and religious embarrassments6 ,we must therefore endeavor to form convictions which are not to stand once and for all1 as philosophers and theologians usually do1 but such as may change and become improved with the advance of knowledge4 ,whoever does not recognize this and gives himself up once for all to a belief which he regards as final truth1 whether it be of a theological or philosophical kind1 is of course incapable of accepting a conviction supported upon scientific grounds4 ,unfortunately our whole education is founded upon an early systematic curbing and fettering of the intellect in the direction of dogmatic 7philosophical or theological7 doctrines of faith1 and only a comparatively small number of strong minds succeed in after years in freeing themselves by their own powers from these fetters1 whilst the majority remain captive in the accustomed bonds and form their judgment in accordance with the celebrated saying of ,bishop ,berkeley3 ',few men think2 but all will have opinions4'--,buchner1 ,man in the ,past1 ,present1 and ,future4 ,appendix ,u4 ,and here it may be remarked1 once for all1 that no man who has subscribed to creeds and formulas1 whether in theology or philosophy1 can be an unbiased investigator of the truth or an unprejudiced judge of the opinions of others4 ,his sworn preconceptions warping his discernment1 adherence to his sect or party engenders intolerance to the honest convictions of other inquirer8 ,beliefs we may and must have1 but a belief to be changed with new and advancing knowledge impedes no progress1 while a creed subscribed to as ultimate truth1 and sworn to be defended1 not only puts a bar to further research1 but as a consequence throws the odium of distrust on all that may seem to oppose it4 ,even when such odium cannot deter1 it annoys and irritates2 hence the frequent unwillingness of men of science to come prominently forward with the avowal of their beliefs4 ,it is time this delicacy were thrown aside1 and such theologians plainly told that the skepticism and ,infidelity--if skepticism and ,infidelity there be--lies all on their own side4 ,there is no skepticism so offensive as that which doubts the facts of honest and careful observation2 no ,infidelity so gross as that which disbelieves the deductions of competent and unbiased judgments4--,david ,page1 ,man1 etc41 ,edinburgh1 #ahfg4 ,appendix ,v4 ,since ,i have recorded this incident of my lecture in ,chicago1 it is peculiarly fitting and pleasant to be able to give the following extract from the review of the first edition of this book printed in the ,chicago ,times4 ,no great daily paper would have dared to print such a comment a few years ago4 ,to-day it is stated as a matter quite beyond controversy3 ,she takes considerable pains to show what one would think need scarcely be insisted upon in our day1 that the morals of civilization--morals in general1 indeed--are not at all based in or dependent upon religion1 certainly not on ,christianity1 since the so-called 'golden rule' the highest principle of morality1 antedates ,christianity a thousand years4 ,,address ,,to ,,the ,,clergy ,,and ,,others4 ,up to the present time ,i have tried to reply personally to each one who has favored me with a letter of thanks1 criticism1 or praise of the little book1 ,men1 ,women1 and ,gods1 and ,other ,lectures1 just published1 but ,i find that if ,i continue to do this ,i shall have but little time for anything else4 ,the very unexpected welcome which the book has received prompts me to take this plan and means of replying to many who have honored me by writing me personal letters4 ,first1 permit me to thank those who have written letters of praise and gratitude1 and to say that1 although ,i may be unable to reply in a private letter1 ,i am not indifferent to these evidences of your interest1 and am greatly helped in my work by your sympathy and encouragement4 ,i have also received most courteous letters from various clergymen who1 disagreeing with me1 desire to convert me either by mail or personal 7private7 interviews4 ,it is wholly impossible for me to grant these requests1 since my time and strength are demanded in other work1 but ,i wish to say here what ,i have written to several of my clerical correspondents1 and desire to say to them all4 ,although ,i cannot enter into private correspondence with1 nor grant personal interviews to1 such a number of your body1 ,i am entirely willing to respond in a public way to any replies to my arguments which come under the following conditions3 #a4 ,on page fourteen of the introduction to my book ,col4 ,ingersoll says3 ,no human being can answer her arguments4 ,there is no answer4 ,all the priests in the world cannot explain away her objections4 ,there is no explanation4 ,they should remain dumb unless they can show that the impossible is the probable1 that slavery is better than freedom1 that polygamy is the friend of woman1 that the innocent can justly suffer for the guilty1 and that to persecute for opinion's sake is an act of love and worship4 ,now1 whenever any one of these gentlemen who wish to convert me will show that the ,colonel is wrong in this brief paragraph2 whenever they will1 in print or in public1 refute the arguments to which he refers1 and to which they object1 ,i shall not be slow to respond4 #b4 ,it must be argument1 not personal abuse1 and it must be conducted in a courteous manner and tone4 #c4 ,it must proceed upon the basis that ,i am as honest1 as earnest1 and as virtuous in my motives and intentions as they are in theirs4 ,now1 surely these gentlemen cannot object to these simple requirements2 and since some of them are men whose names are preceded by a title and followed by several capital letters 7ranging from ,d4,d4 to ,o4,s4,f4----which last ,i1 in my ignorance1 guess at as meaning ,order of ,st4 ,francis1 but shall like to be corrected if ,i am wrong7 they must believe that to answer the arguments themselves is both simple and easy4 ,if they do not so believe they surely have no right to occupy the positions which they do occupy4 ,if they do so believe it will do much more good to answer them publicly1 since they have been made publicly1 and are already in the hands of several thousand people1 who could not be reached by any amount of eloquence poured out on ray devoted head in the privacy of my own parlor 7or writing-desk74 ,therefore1 gentlemen1 permit me to say to you all that which ,i have already written to several of you personally--that ,col4 ,ingersoll's paragraph1 quoted above1 expresses my own views and those of a great many other people1 and will continue so to do so long as your efforts to show that he is wrong are only whispered to me behind a fan1 or in the strict seclusion of a letter marked private and personal4 ,the arguments ,i have given against the prevailing ,christian dogmas and usages1 which you uphold1 are neither private nor personal1 nor shall ,i allow them to take that phase4 ,life is too short for me to spend hours day after day in sustaining1 in private1 a public argument which has never been 7and1 in my opinion1 never will be71 refuted4 ,and it would do no good to the thousands whom you are pleased to say you fear will be led astray by my position4 ,you have a magnificent opportunity to lead them back again by honest public letters1 or lectures1 or sermons1 not by an afternoon's chat with me4 ,and1 while ,i recognize the courtesy of your pressing requests 7made1 without exception1 in the most gentlemanly terms7 to permit you to meet me personally and refute my arguments1 ,i feel compelled to say that1 unless you are willing to show the courage of your convictions1 and the quality of your defense1 to the public1 ,i fear they would have no weight with me1 and ,i should have wasted your precious time as well as my own1 which ,i should feel ,i had no right to do1 nor to allow you to do1 without this frank statement of the case4 ,now1 do not suppose that ,i have the slightest objection to meeting the clergy personally and socially4 ,upon the contrary1 many of my friends are clergymen--even bishops--but candor compels me to state that up to the present time not one of them has 7either privately or otherwise7 been able to answer either of the first two lectures in that little book1 and as to the third one1 no one of them1 in my opinion1 will ever try to answer it4 ,time will show whether ,i am right in this4 ,in the mean time accept my thanks for your interest1 and believe me1 ,sincerely1 ,helen ,h4 ,gardener4 ,,letter ,,to ,,the ,,cleveland ,,congress ,,of ,,freethinkers1 ,,october1 #ahhe4 ,i send my greetings to the ,congress of ,freethinkers assembled at ,cleveland1 and regret1 more than ,i can express1 that ,i am unable to be there and hear all the good things you will hear1 and see all the earnest workers you will see4 ,the ,freethinkers of ,america ought to be a very proud and enthusiastic body1 when they have in their presidential chair the ablest orator of modern times1 and the broadest1 bravest1 and most comprehensive intellect that has ever been called ,mr4 ,president in this land of bravery and presidents4 ,washington was a patriot of whom we are all justly proud4 ,he was liberal in his religion and progressive in his views of personal rights4 ,and yet he had his limitations4 ,to him liberty and personal rights were modified by the words1 free1 white1 adult1 males4 ,he got no farther4 ,he who fought for freedom upheld slavery6 ,and yet we are all proud and glad to pay honor and respect to the memory of ,washington4 ,abraham ,lincoln we place still higher on the roll of honor2 for1 added to his still more liberal religious views1 in his conceptions of freedom and justice he had at least two fewer limitations than had the patriot of #aggf4 ,he struck both free and white from his mental black list1 and gave once more an impulse to liberty that thrilled a nation and gave fresh dignity to the human race4 ,but what shall we say of our president--,ingersoll8 ,a man who in ten short years has carried mental liberty into every household in ,america--who is without limitations in religion1 and modifies justice by no prefix4 ,a man who1 with unequaled oratory1 champions ,freedom--not the free1 white1 adult1 male freedom of ,washington4 ,a man who has breasted a whirlwind of detraction and abuse for ,justice--not the male1 adult justice of ,lincoln1 but the freedom and justice1 without limitation1 for man1 woman1 and child4 ,with such a leader1 what should not be achieved8 ,with such a champion1 what cause could fail8 ,if the people ever place such a man in the ,white ,house1 the nations of this earth will know1 for the first time1 the real meaning of a free government under secular administration4 ,a government of the people1 for the people1 by the people1 will be more than simply a high-sounding phrase1 which1 read by the light of the past1 was only a bitter mockery to a race in chains2 and1 read by the light of the present1 is a choice bit of grim humor to half of a nation in petticoats4 ,but so long as the taste of the voter is such that he prefers to place in the executive chair a type of man so eminently fitted for private life that when you want to find him you have to shake the chair to see if he is in it1 just so long will there be no danger that the lightning will strike so as to deprive the ,freethinkers of one man in ,america who could fill the national executive chair full1 and strain the back and sides a little getting in4 ,once more ,i send greetings to the ,convention1 with the hope that you may have as grand a time as you ought to have1 and that ,free thought will receive a new impulse from the harmony and enthusiasm of this meeting4 ,sincerely1 ,helen ,h4 ,gardener4