,,the ,,works ,,of ,,robert ,g4 ,,ingersoll ,the ,destroyer ,of ,weeds1 ,thistles ,and ,thorns ,is ,a ,benefactor1 ,whether ,he ,soweth ,grain ,or ,not4 ,,in ,,twelve ,,volumes1 ,,volume ,i4 ,,lectures #aija ,,the ,,dresden ,,publishing ,,co4 ,,to ,,eva ,a4 ,,ingersoll1 ,,my ,,wife1 ,a ,,woman ,,without ,,superstition1 ,,this ,,volume ,,is ,,dedicated4 ,,for ,,the ,,love ,,of ,,god4 ,,for ,,the ,,use ,,of ,,man1 ,,contents ,,of ,,volume ,i4 ,,the ,,gods4 7#ahgb47 ,an ,honest ,god is the ,noblest ,work of ,man--,resemblance of ,gods to their ,creators--,manufacture and ,characteristics of ,deities--,their ,amours--,deficient in many ,departments of ,knowledge--,pleased with the ,butchery of ,unbelievers--,a ,plentiful ,supply--,visitations--,one ,god's ,laws of ,war--,the ,book called the ,bible--,heresy of ,universalism--,faith an unhappy mixture of ,insanity and ,ignorance--,fallen ,gods1 or ,devils--,directions concerning ,human ,slavery--,the first ,appearance of the ,devil--,the ,tree of ,knowledge--,give me the ,storm and ,tempest of ,thought--,gods and ,devils ,natural ,productions--,personal ,appearance of ,deities--,all ,man's ,ideas suggested by his ,surroundings--,phenomena ,supposed to be ,produced by ,intelligent ,powers--,insanity and ,disease attributed to ,evil ,spirits--,origin of the ,priesthood--,temptation of ,christ--,innate ,ideas--,divine ,interference--,special ,providence--,the ,crane and the ,fish--,cancer as a proof of ,design--,matter and ,force--,miracle--,passing the ,hat for just one ,fact--,sir ,william ,hamilton on ,cause and ,effect--,the ,phenomena of ,mind--,necessity and ,free ,will--,the ,dark ,ages--,the ,originality of ,repetition--,of what ,use have the ,gods been to ,man8--,paley and ,design--,make ,good ,health ,contagious--,periodicity of the ,universe and the ,commencement of ,intellectual ,freedom--,lesson of the ineffectual attempt to rescue the ,tomb of ,christ from the ,mohammedans--,the ,cemetery of the ,gods--,taking away ,crutches--,imperial ,reason ,,humboldt4 7#ahfi47 ,the ,universe is ,governed by ,law--,the ,self-made ,man--,poverty generally an ,advantage--,humboldt's ,birth-place--,his desire for ,travel--,on what ,humboldt's ,fame depends--,his ,companions and ,friends--,investigations in the ,new ,world--,a ,picture--,subjects of his ,addresses--,victory of the ,church over ,philosophy--,influence of the discovery that the ,world is governed by ,law--,on the term ,law--,copernicus--,astronomy--,aryabhat ta-- ,descartes--,condition of the ,world and ,man when the morning of ,science ,dawned--,reasons for ,honoring ,humboldt--,the ,world his ,monument ,,thomas ,,paine4 7#ahgj47 ,with his ,name left out the ,history of ,liberty cannot be ,written--,paine's ,origin and ,condition--,his arrival in ,america with a ,letter of ,introduction by ,franklin--,condition of the ,colonies--,common ,sense--,a new ,nation ,born--,paine the ,best of ,political ,writers--,the ,crisis--,war not to the ,interest of a trading ,nation--,paine's ,standing at the ,close of the ,revolution--,close of the ,eighteenth ,century in ,france-,the ,rights of ,man--,paine ,prosecuted in ,england--,the ,world is my ,country--,elected to the ,french ,assembly--,votes against the ,death of the ,king--,imprisoned--,a look behind the ,altar--,the ,age of ,reason--,his ,argument against the ,bible as a ,revelation--,christianity of ,paine's ,day--,a ,blasphemy ,law in ,force in ,maryland--,the ,scotch ,kirk--,hanging of ,thomas ,aikenhead for ,denying the ,inspiration of the ,scriptures--,cathedrals and ,domes1 and ,chimes and ,chants--,science--,he ,died in the ,land his ,genius ,defended1 ,,individuality4 7#ahgc47 ,his ,soul was like a ,star and ,dwelt ,apart--,disobedience one of the ,conditions of ,progress4--,magellan--,the ,monarch and the ,hermit-,why the ,church hates a ,thinker--,the ,argument from ,grandeur and ,prosperity-,travelers and ,guide-boards--,a ,degrading ,saying--,theological ,education--,scotts1 ,henrys and ,mc,knights--,the ,church the ,great ,robber--,corrupting the ,reason of ,children--,monotony of ,acquiescence3 ,for ,god's sake1 say ,no--,protestant ,intolerance3 ,luther and ,calvin--,assertion of ,individual ,independence a ,step toward ,infidelity--,salute to ,jupiter--,the ,atheistic ,bug-,little ,religious ,liberty in ,america--,god in the ,constitution1 ,man ,out--,decision of the ,supreme ,court of ,illinois that an ,unbeliever could not testify in any ,court--,dissimulation--,nobody in this ,bed--,the ,dignity of a ,unit ,,heretics ,,and ,,heresies4 7#ahgd47 ,liberty1 a ,word without which all other ,words are ,vain--,the ,church1 the ,bible1 and ,persecution--,over the wild ,waves of ,war rose and fell the ,banner of ,jesus ,christ--,highest ,type of the ,orthodox ,christian--,heretics' ,tongues and why they should be ,removed before ,burning--,the ,inquisition ,established--,forms of ,torture--,act of ,henry ,,viii for abolishing ,diversity of ,opinion--,what a ,good ,christian was ,obliged to ,believe--,the ,church has ,carried the ,black ,flag--,for what ,men and ,women have been ,burned--,john ,calvin's ,advent into the ,world--,his ,infamous ,acts--,michael ,servetus--,castalio--,spread of ,presbyterianism--,indictment of a ,presbyterian ,minister in ,illinois for ,heresy--,specifications--,the ,real ,bible ,,the ,,ghosts4 7#ahgg47 ,dedication to ,ebon ,c4 ,ingersoll--,preface--,mendacity of the ,religious ,press--,materialism--,ways of ,pleasing the ,ghosts--,the ,idea of ,immortality not ,born of any ,book--,witchcraft and ,demon-ology--,witch ,trial before ,sir ,matthew ,hale--,john ,wesley a ,firm ,believer in ,ghosts--,witch-spots--,lycanthropy--,an imals ,tried and ,convicted--,the ,governor of ,minnesota and the ,grasshoppers--,a ,papal ,bull against ,witchcraft--,victims of the ,delusion--,sir ,william ,blackstone's ,affirmation--,trials in ,belgium--,incubi and ,succubi--,a ,bishop ,personated by the ,devil--,the ,doctrine that ,diseases are caused by ,ghosts--,treatment--,timothy ,dwight against ,vaccination--,ghosts as ,historians--,the ,language of ,eden--,leibnitz1 ,founder of the ,science of ,language--,cosmas on ,astronomy--,vagaries of ,kepler and ,tycho ,brahe--,discovery of ,printing1 ,powder1 and ,america--,thanks to the ,inventors--,the ,catholic ,murderer and the ,meat--,let the ,ghosts ,go ,,the ,,liberty ,,of ,,man1 ,,woman1 ,,and ,,child4 7#ahgg47 ,liberty sustains the same ,relation to ,mind that ,space does to ,matter--,the ,history of ,man a ,history of ,slavery--,the ,infidel ,our ,fathers in the good old ,time--,the iron ,arguments that ,christians ,used--,instruments of ,torture--,a ,vision of the ,inquisition--,models of ,man's ,inventions--,weapons1 ,armor1 ,musical ,instruments1 ,paintings1 ,books1 ,skulls--,the ,gentleman in the ,dug-out--,homage to ,genius and ,intellect--,abraham ,lincoln--,what ,i mean by ,liberty--,the ,man who cannot afford to ,speak his ,thought is a ,certificate of the ,meanness of the ,community in which he ,resides--,liberty of ,woman--,marriage and the ,family--,ornaments the ,souvenirs of ,bondage-,the ,story of the ,garden of ,eden--,adami and ,heva--,equality of the ,sexes-,the word ,boss--,the ,cross ,man-,the ,stingy ,man--,wives who are ,beggars--,how to ,spend ,money--,by the ,tomb of the ,old ,napoleon--,the ,woman you ,love will never ,grow ,old--,liberty of ,children--,when your ,child tells a ,lie--,disowning ,children--,beating your own ,flesh and ,blood--,make ,home ,pleasant--,sunday when ,i was a ,boy--,the ,laugh of a ,child--,the doctrine of ,eternal ,punishment--,jonathan ,edwards on the ,happiness of ,believing ,husbands whose ,wives are in ,hell--,the ,liberty of ,eating and ,sleeping--,water in ,fever--,soil and ,climate necessary to the production of ,genius--,against ,annexing ,santo ,domingo--,descent of ,man--,conclusion ,,about ,,farming ,,in ,,illinois4 7#ahgg47 ,to ,plow is to ,pray2 to ,plant is to ,prophesy1 and the ,harvest ,answers and ,fulfills--,the ,old ,way of ,farming--,cooking an ,unknown ,art-,houses1 ,fuel1 and ,crops--,the ,farmer's ,boy--,what a ,farmer should ,sell--,beautifying the ,home--,advantages of ,illinois as a ,farming ,state--,advantages of the ,farmer over the ,mechanic--,farm ,life too ,lonely-,on ,early ,rising--,sleep the ,best ,doctor--,fashion--,patriotism and ,boarding ,houses--,the ,farmer and the ,railroads--,money and ,confidence--,demonetization of ,silver-,area of ,illinois--,mortgages and ,interest--,kindness to ,wives and ,children--,how a ,beefsteak should be ,cooked--,decorations and ,comfort--,let the ,children ,sleep--,old ,age ,,what ,,must ,,we ,,do ,,to ,,be ,,saved8 7#ahhj47 ,preface--,the ,synoptic ,gospels--,only ,mark ,knew of the ,necessity of ,belief--,three ,christs ,described--,the ,jewish ,gentleman and the ,piece of ,bacon--,who ,wrote the ,new ,testament8--,why ,christ and the ,apostles wrote ,nothing--,infinite ,respect for the ,man ,christ--,different ,feeling for the ,theological ,christ--,saved from ,what8--,chapter on the ,gospel of ,matthew--,what this ,gospel says we must do to be ,saved--,jesus and the ,children--,john ,calvin and ,jonathan ,edwards conceived of as ,dimpled ,darlings--,christ and the ,man who inquired what ,good ,thing he should do that he might have ,eternal ,life--,nothing said about ,belief--,an ,interpolation--,chapter on the ,gospel of ,mark--,the ,believe or be ,damned ,passage1 and why it was written--,the last ,conversation of ,christ with his ,disciples--,the ,signs that ,follow them that ,believe--,chapter on the ,gospel of ,luke--,substantial ,agreement with ,matthew and ,mark--,how ,zaccheus achieved ,salvation--,the two ,thieves on the ,cross--,chapter on the ,gospel of ,john--,the ,doctrine of ,regeneration1 or the ,new ,birth--,shall we ,love our ,enemies while ,god ,damns ,his8--,chapter on the ,catholics--,communication with ,heaven through ,decayed ,saints--,nuns and ,nunneries--,penitentiaries of ,god should be ,investigated--,the ,athanasian ,creed expounded--,the ,trinity and its ,members--,chapter on the ,episcopalians--,origin of the ,episcopal ,church--,apostolic ,succession an ,imported ,article--,episcopal ,creed like the ,catholic1 with a few ,additional ,absurdities--,chapter on the ,methodists--,wesley and ,whitfield--,their ,quarrel about ,predestination--,much ,preaching for ,little ,money--,adapted to ,new ,countries--,chapter on the ,presbyterians--,john ,calvin1 ,murderer--,meeting between ,calvin and ,knox--,the ,infamy of ,calvinism--,division in the ,church--,the ,young ,presbyterian's ,resignation to the ,fate of his ,mother--,a ,frightful1 ,hideous1 and ,hellish ,creed--,chapter on the ,evangelical ,alliance--,jeremy ,taylor's ,opinion of ,baptists--,orthodoxy not ,dead--,creed of the ,alliance--,total ,depravity1 ,eternal ,damnation--,what do ,you ,propose8--,the ,gospel of ,good-fellowship1 ,cheerfulness1 ,health1 ,good ,living1 ,justice--,no ,forgiveness--,god's ,forgiveness ,does not ,pay my ,debt to ,smith--,gospel of ,liberty1 of ,intelligence1 of ,humanity--,one ,world at a ,time--,upon that ,rock ,i ,stand ,,publisher',s ,,preface4 ,,in presenting to the public this edition of the late ,robert ,g4 ,ingersoll's works1 it has been the aim of the publisher to make it worthy of the author and a pleasure to his friends and admirers4 ,no one can be more conscious than he of the magnitude of the task undertaken1 or more keenly feel how far short it must fall of adequate accomplishment4 ,when it is remembered that countless utterances of the author were never caught from his eloquent lips1 it is matter for congratulation that so much has been preserved4 ,the authorized addresses1 arguments and articles that have already appeared in print and passed the review of the authors more or less careful inspection1 will be readily recognized as accurate and complete2 but in this latest and fullest compilation are many emanations from his heart and brain that have never had his scrutiny1 were not revised by him1 and that yet1 by general judgment1 should not be lost to the world4 ,these unedited sundries consist of fragments of speeches and incompleted articles discovered amongst the authors literary remains and for unknown reasons left in more or less unfinished form4 ,it has been the publisher's ambition to gather these fugitive pieces and place them in this edition by the side of the saved treasures4 ,whether the work has been well or ill done a generous public must decide1 while the sole responsibility must rest with1 as it has been assumed by1 the publisher4 ,in carrying out the design of the present edition1 the publisher gratefully acknowledges the assistance of ,mr4 ,ingersoll's family1 who have freely placed at his disposal many papers1 inscriptions1 monographs1 memoranda and pages of valuable material4 ,recognition is also here made of the kind courtesy of the press and of publishers of magazines who have generously permitted the publication of articles originally written for them4 ,finally1 the publisher gives his thanks to all the devoted friends of the author who in many ways1 by suggestion and unselfish labor1 have aided in getting out this work4 ,of these1 none have been more unremitting in service1 and to none is the publisher more indebted1 than to ,mr4 ,i4 ,newton ,baker1 ,mr4 ,ingersoll's former private secretary1 to ,dr4 ,edgar ,c4 ,beall1 and to ,mr4 ,george ,e4 ,macdonald for the fine ,tables of ,contents and the very valuable ,index to this edition4 ,c4 ,p4 ,,farrell4 ,new ,york1 ,july1 #aijj4 ,,the ,,gods ,an ,honest ,god is the ,noblest ,work of ,man4 ,,each nation has created a god1 and the god has always resembled his creators4 ,he hated and loved what they hated and loved1 and he was invariably found on the side of those in power4 ,each god was intensely patriotic1 and detested all nations but his own4 ,all these gods demanded praise1 flattery1 and worship4 ,most of them were pleased with sacrifice1 and the smell of innocent blood has ever been considered a divine perfume4 ,all these gods have insisted upon having a vast number of priests1 and the priests have always insisted upon being supported by the people1 and the principal business of these priests has been to boast about their god1 and to insist that he could easily vanquish all the other gods put together4 ,these gods have been manufactured after numberless models1 and according to the most grotesque fashions4 ,some have a thousand arms1 some a hundred heads1 some are adorned with necklaces of living snakes1 some are armed with clubs1 some with sword and shield1 some with bucklers1 and some have wings as a cherub2 some were invisible1 some would show themselves entire1 and some would only show their backs2 some were jealous1 some were foolish1 some turned themselves into men1 some into swans1 some into bulls1 some into doves1 and some into ,holy ,ghosts1 and made love to the beautiful daughters of men4 ,some were married--all ought to have been--and some were considered as old bachelors from all eternity4 ,some had children1 and the children were turned into gods and worshiped as their fathers had been4 ,most of these gods were revengeful1 savage1 lustful1 and ignorant4 ,as they generally depended upon their priests for information1 their ignorance can hardly excite our astonishment4 ,these gods did not even know the shape of the worlds they had created1 but supposed them perfectly flat ,some thought the day could be lengthened by stopping the sun1 that the blowing of horns could throw down the walls of a city1 and all knew so little of the real nature of the people they had created1 that they commanded the people to love them4 ,some were so ignorant as to suppose that man could believe just as he might desire1 or as they might command1 and that to be governed by observation1 reason1 and experience was a most foul and damning sin4 ,none of these gods could give a true account of the creation of this little earth4 ,all were wofully deficient in geology and astronomy4 ,as a rule1 they were most miserable legislators1 and as executives1 they were far inferior to the average of ,american presidents4 ,these deities have demanded the most abject and degrading obedience4 ,in order to please them1 man must lay his very face in the dust ,of course1 they have always been partial to the people who created them1 and have generally shown their partiality by assisting those people to rob and destroy others1 and to ravish their wives and daughters4 ,nothing is so pleasing to these gods as the butchery of unbelievers4 ,nothing so enrages them1 even now1 as to have some one deny their existence4 ,few nations have been so poor as to have but one god4 ,gods were made so easily1 and the raw material cost so little1 that generally the god market was fairly glutted1 and heaven crammed with these phantoms4 ,these gods not only attended to the skies1 but were supposed to interfere in all the affairs of men4 ,they presided over everybody and everything4 ,they attended to every department4 ,all was supposed to be under their immediate control4 ,nothing was too small--nothing too large2 the falling of sparrows and the motions of the planets were alike attended to by these industrious and observing deities4 ,from their starry thrones they frequently came to the earth for the purpose of imparting information to man4 ,it is related of one that he came amid thunderings and lightnings in order to tell the people that they should not cook a kid in its mother's milk4 ,some left their shining abodes to tell women that they should1 or should not1 have children1 to inform a priest how to cut and wear his apron1 and to give directions as to the proper manner of cleaning the intestines of a bird4 ,when the people failed to worship one of these gods1 or failed to feed and clothe his priests1 7which was much the same thing17 he generally visited them with pestilence and famine4 ,sometimes he allowed some other nation to drag them into slavery--to sell their wives and children2 but generally he glutted his vengeance by murdering their first-born4 ,the priests always did their whole duty1 not only in predicting these calamities1 but in proving1 when they did happen1 that they were brought upon the people because they had not given quite enough to them4 ,these gods differed just as the nations differed2 the greatest and most powerful had the most powerful gods1 while the weaker ones were obliged to content themselves with the very off-scourings of the heavens4 ,each of these gods promised happiness here and hereafter to all his slaves1 and threatened to eternally punish all who either disbelieved in his existence or suspected that some other god might be his superior2 but to deny the existence of all gods was1 and is1 the crime of crimes4 ,redden your hands with human blood2 blast by slander the fair fame of the innocent2 strangle the smiling child upon its mother's knees2 deceive1 ruin and desert the beautiful girl who loves and trusts you1 and your case is not hopeless4 ,for all this1 and for all these you may be forgiven4 ,for all this1 and for all these1 that bankrupt court established by the gospel1 will give you a discharge2 but deny the existence of these divine ghosts1 of these gods1 and the sweet and tearful face of ,mercy becomes livid with eternal hate4 ,heaven's golden gates are shut1 and you1 with an infinite curse ringing in your ears1 with the brand of infamy upon your brow1 commence your endless wanderings in the lurid gloom of hell--an immortal vagrant--an eternal outcast--a deathless convict4 ,one of these gods1 and one who demands our love1 our admiration and our worship1 and one who is worshiped1 if mere heartless ceremony is worship1 gave to his chosen people for their guidance1 the following laws of war3 ,when thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it1 then proclaim peace unto it4 ,and it shall be if it make thee answer of peace1 and open unto thee1 then it shall be that all the people that is found therein shall be tributaries unto thee1 and they shall serve thee4 ,and if it will make no peace with thee1 but will make war against thee1 then thou shalt besiege it4 ,and when the ,lord thy ,god hath delivered it into thy hands1 thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword4 ,but the women and the little ones1 and the cattle1 and all that is in the city1 even all the spoil thereof1 shalt thou take unto thyself1 and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies which the ,lord thy ,god hath given thee4 ,thus shalt thou do unto all the cities which are very far off from thee1 which are not of the cities of these nations4 ,but of the cities of these people which the ,lord thy ,god doth give thee for an inheritance1 thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth ,is it possible for man to conceive of anything more perfectly infamous8 ,can you believe that such directions were given by any being except an infinite fiend8 ,remember that the army receiving these instructions was one of invasion4 ,peace was offered upon condition that the people submitting should be the slaves of the invader2 but if any should have the courage to defend their homes1 to fight for the love of wife and child1 then the sword was to spare none--not even the prattling1 dimpled babe4 ,and we are called upon to worship such a ,god2 to get upon our knees and tell him that he is good1 that he is merciful1 that he is just1 that he is love4 ,we are asked to stifle every noble sentiment of the soul1 and to trample under foot all the sweet charities of the heart4 ,because we refuse to stultify ourselves--refuse to become liars--we are denounced1 hated1 traduced and ostracized here1 and this same god threatens to torment us in eternal fire the moment death allows him to fiercely clutch our naked helpless souls4 ,let the people hate1 let the god threaten--we will educate them1 and we will despise and defy him4 ,the book1 called the ,bible1 is filled with passages equally horrible1 unjust and atrocious4 ,this is the book to be read in schools in order to make our children loving1 kind and gentle6 ,this is the book to be recognized in our ,constitution as the source of all authority and justice6 ,strange6 that no one has ever been persecuted by the church for believing ,god bad1 while hundreds of millions have been destroyed for thinking him good4 ,the orthodox church never will forgive the ,universalist for saying ,god is love4 ,it has always been considered as one of the very highest evidences of true and undefiled religion to insist that all men1 women and children deserve eternal damnation4 ,it has always been heresy to say1 ,god will at last save all4 ,we are asked to justify these frightful passages1 these infamous laws of war1 because the ,bible is the word of ,god4 ,as a matter of fact1 there never was1 and there never can be1 an argument1 even tending to prove the inspiration of any book whatever4 ,in the absence of positive evidence1 analogy and experience1 argument is simply impossible1 and at the very best1 can amount only to a useless agitation of the air4 ,the instant we admit that a book is too sacred to be doubted1 or even reasoned about1 we are mental serfs4 ,it is infinitely absurd to suppose that a god would address a communication to intelligent beings1 and yet make it a crime1 to be punished in eternal flames1 for them to use their intelligence for the purpose of understanding his communication4 ,if we have the right to use our reason1 we certainly have the right to act in accordance with it1 and no god can have the right to punish us for such action4 ,the doctrine that future happiness depends upon belief is monstrous4 ,it is the infamy of infamies4 ,the notion that faith in ,christ is to be rewarded by an eternity of bliss1 while a dependence upon reason1 observation1 and experience merits everlasting pain1 is too absurd for refutation1 and can be relieved only by that unhappy mixture of insanity and ignorance1 called faith4 ,what man1 who ever thinks1 can believe that blood can appease ,god8 ,and yet1 our entire system of religion is based upon that belief4 ,the ,jews pacified ,jehovah with the blood of animals1 and according to the ,christian system1 the blood of ,jesus softened the heart of ,god a little1 and rendered possible the salvation of a fortunate few4 ,it is hard to conceive how the human mind can give assent to such terrible ideas1 or how any sane man can read the ,bible and still believe in the doctrine of inspiration4 ,whether the ,bible is true or false1 is of no consequence in comparison with the mental freedom of the race4 ,salvation through slavery is worthless4 ,salvation from slavery is inestimable4 ,as long as man believes the ,bible to be infallible1 that book is his master4 ,the civilization of this century is not the child of faith1 but of unbelief--the result of free thought4 ,all that is necessary1 as it seems to me1 to convince any reasonable person that the ,bible is simply and purely of human invention--of barbarian invention--is to read it ,read it as you would any other book2 think of it as you would of any other2 get the bandage of reverence from your eyes2 drive from your heart the phantom of fear2 push from the throne of your brain the cowled form of superstition--then read the ,holy ,bible1 and you will be amazed that you ever1 for one moment1 supposed a being of infinite wisdom1 goodness and purity1 to be the author of such ignorance and of such atrocity4 ,our ancestors not only had their god-factories1 but they made devils as well4 ,these devils were generally disgraced and fallen gods4 ,some had headed unsuccessful revolts2 some had been caught sweetly reclining in the shadowy folds of some fleecy cloud1 kissing the wife of the god of gods4 ,these devils generally sympathized with man4 ,there is in regard to them a most wonderful fact3 ,in nearly all the theologies1 mythologies and religions1 the devils have been much more humane and merciful than the gods4 ,no devil ever gave one of his generals an order to kill children and to rip open the bodies of pregnant women4 ,such barbarities were always ordered by the good gods4 ,the pestilences were sent by the most merciful gods4 ,the frightful famine1 during which the dying child with pallid lips sucked the withered bosom of a dead mother1 was sent by the loving gods4 ,no devil was ever charged with such fiendish brutality4 ,one of these gods1 according to the account1 drowned an entire world1 with the exception of eight persons4 ,the old1 the young1 the beautiful and the helpless were remorsely devoured by the shoreless sea4 ,this1 the most fearful tragedy that the imagination of ignorant priests ever conceived1 was the act1 not of a devil1 but of a god1 so-called1 whom men ignorantly worship unto this day4 ,what a stain such an act would leave upon the character of a devil6 ,one of the prophets of one of these gods1 having in his power a captured king1 hewed him in pieces in the sight of all the people4 ,was ever any imp of any devil guilty of such savagery8 ,one of these gods is reported to have given the following directions concerning human slavery3 ,if thou buy a ,hebrew servant1 six years shall he serve1 and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing4 ,if he came in by himself1 he shall go out by himself2 if he were married1 then his wife shall go out with him4 ,if his master have given him a wife1 and she have borne him sons or daughters1 the wife and her children shall be her master's1 and he shall go out by himself4 ,and if the servant shall plainly say1 ,i love my master1 my wife and my children2 ,i will not go out free4 ,then his master shall bring him unto the judges2 he shall also bring him unto the door1 or unto the door-post2 and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl2 and he shall serve him forever4 ,according to this1 a man was given liberty upon condition that he would desert forever his wife and children4 ,did any devil ever force upon a husband1 upon a father1 so cruel and so heartless an alternative8 ,who can worship such a god8 ,who can bend the knee to such a monster8 ,who can pray to such a fiend8 ,all these gods threatened to torment forever the souls of their enemies4 ,did any devil ever make so infamous a threat8 ,the basest thing recorded of the devil1 is what he did concerning ,job and his family1 and that was done by the express permission of one of these gods1 and to decide a little difference of opinion between their serene highnesses as to the character of my servant ,job4 ,the first account we have of the devil is found in that purely scientific book called ,genesis1 and is as follows3 ,now the serpent was more subtile than any beast of the field which the ,lord ,god had made1 and he said unto the woman1 ,yea1 hath ,god said1 ,ye shall not eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden8 ,and the woman said unto the serpent1 ,we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden2 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden ,god hath said1 ,ye shall not eat of it1 neither shall ye touch it1 lest ye die4 ,and the serpent said unto the woman1 ,ye shall not surely die4 ,for ,god doth know that in the day ye eat thereof1 then your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as gods1 knowing good and evil4 ,and when the woman saw that the tree was good for food1 and that it was pleasant to the eyes1 and a tree to be desired to make one wise1 she took of the fruit thereof and did eat1 and gave also unto her husband with her1 and he did eat4444 ,and the ,lord ,god said1 ,behold the man is become as one of us1 to know good and evil2 and now1 lest he put forth his hand1 and take also of the tree of life and eat1 and live forever4 ,therefore the ,lord ,god sent him forth from the ,garden of ,eden to till the ground from which he was taken4 ,so he drove out the man1 and he placed at the east of the ,garden of ,eden cherubim and a flaming sword1 which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life4 ,according to this account the promise of the devil was fulfilled to the very letter4 ,adam and ,eve did not die1 and they did become as gods1 knowing good and evil4 ,the account shows1 however1 that the gods dreaded education and knowledge then just as they do now4 ,the church still faithfully guards the dangerous tree of knowledge1 and has exerted in all ages her utmost power to keep mankind from eating the fruit thereof4 ,the priests have never ceased repeating the old falsehood and the old threat3 ,ye shall not eat of it1 neither shall ye touch it1 lest ye die4 ,from every pulpit comes the same cry1 born of the same fear3 ,lest they eat and become as gods1 knowing good and evil4 ,for this reason1 religion hates science1 faith detests reason1 theology is the sworn enemy of philosophy1 and the church with its flaming sword still guards the hated tree1 and like its supposed founder1 curses to the lowest depths the brave thinkers who eat and become as gods4 ,if the account given in ,genesis is really true1 ought we not1 after all1 to thank this serpent8 ,he was the first schoolmaster1 the first advocate of learning1 the first enemy of ignorance1 the first to whisper in human ears the sacred word liberty1 the creator of ambition1 the author of modesty1 of inquiry1 of doubt1 of investigation1 of progress and of civilization4 ,give me the storm and tempest of thought and action1 rather than the dead calm of ignorance and faith6 ,banish me from ,eden when you will2 but first let me eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge6 ,some nations have borrowed their gods2 of this number1 we are compelled to say1 is our own4 ,the ,jews having ceased to exist as a nation1 and having no further use for a god1 our ancestors appropriated him and adopted their devil at the same time4 ,this borrowed god is still an object of some adoration1 and this adopted devil still excites the apprehensions of our people4 ,he is still supposed to be setting his traps and snares for the purpose of catching our unwary souls1 and is still1 with reasonable success1 waging the old war against our ,god4 ,to me1 it seems easy to account for these ideas concerning gods and devils4 ,they are a perfectly natural production4 ,man has created them all1 and under the same circumstances would create them again4 ,man has not only created all these gods1 but he has created them out of the materials by which he has been surrounded4 ,generally he has modeled them after himself1 and has given them hands1 heads1 feet1 eyes1 ears1 and organs of speech4 ,each nation made its gods and devils speak its language not only1 but put in their mouths the same mistakes in history1 geography1 astronomy1 and in all matters of fact1 generally made by the people4 ,no god was ever in advance of the nation that created him4 ,the negroes represented their deities with black skins and curly hair4 ,the ,mongolian gave to his a yellow complexion and dark almond-shaped eyes4 ,the ,jews were not allowed to paint theirs1 or we should have seen ,jehovah with a full beard1 an oval face1 and an aquiline nose4 ,zeus was a perfect ,greek1 and ,jove looked as though a member of the ,roman senate4 ,the gods of ,egypt had the patient face and placid look of the loving people who made them4 ,the gods of northern countries were represented warmly clad in robes of fur2 those of the tropics were naked4 ,the gods of ,india were often mounted upon elephants2 those of some islanders were great swimmers1 and the deities of the ,arctic zone were passionately fond of whale's blubber4 ,nearly all people have carved or painted representations of their gods1 and these representations were1 by the lower classes1 generally treated as the real gods1 and to these images and idols they addressed prayers and offered sacrifice4 ,in some countries8 even at this day1 if the people after long praying do not obtain their desires1 they turn their images off as impotent gods1 or upbraid them in a most reproachful manner1 loading them with blows and curses4 ',how now1 dog of a spirit1' they say1 'we give you lodging in a magnificent temple1 we gild you with gold1 feed you with the choicest food1 and offer incense to you2 yet1 after all this care1 you are so ungrateful as to refuse us what we ask4' ,hereupon they will pull the god down and drag him through the filth of the street4 ,if1 in the meantime1 it happens that they obtain their request1 then1 with a great deal of ceremony1 they wash him clean1 carry him back and place him in his temple again1 where they fall down and make excuses for what they have done4 ',of a truth1' they say1 'we were a little too hasty1 and you were a little too long in your grant4 ,why should you bring this beating on yourself4 ,but what is done cannot be undone4 ,let us not think of it any more4 ,if you will forget what is past1 we will gild you over brighter again than before4 ,man has never been at a loss for gods4 ,he has worshiped almost everything1 including the vilest and most disgusting beasts4 ,he has worshiped fire1 earth1 air1 water1 light1 stars1 and for hundreds of ages prostrated himself before enormous snakes4 ,savage tribes often make gods of articles they get from civilized people4 ,the ,todas worship a cow-bell4 ,the ,kotas worship two silver plates1 which they regard as husband and wife1 and another tribe manufactured a god out of a king of hearts4 ,man1 having always been the physical superior of woman1 accounts for the fact that most of the high gods have been males4 ,had woman been the physical superior1 the powers supposed to be the rulers of ,nature would have been women1 and instead of being represented in the apparel of man1 they would have luxuriated in trains1 lownecked dresses1 laces and back-hair4 ,nothing can be plainer than that each nation gives to its god its peculiar characteristics1 and that every individual gives to his god his personal peculiarities4 ,man has no ideas1 and can have none1 except those suggested by his surroundings4 ,he cannot conceive of anything utterly unlike what he has seen or felt4 ,he can exaggerate1 diminish1 combine1 separate1 deform1 beautify1 improve1 multiply and compare what he sees1 what he feels1 what he hears1 and all of which he takes cognizance through the medium of the senses2 but he cannot create4 ,having seen exhibitions of power1 he can say1 omnipotent4 ,having lived1 he can say1 immortality4 ,knowing something of time1 he can say1 eternity4 ,conceiving something of intelligence1 he can say1 ,god4 ,having seen exhibitions of malice1 he can say1 devil4 ,a few gleams of happiness having fallen athwart the gloom of his life1 he can say1 heaven4 ,pain1 in its numberless forms1 having been experienced1 he can say1 hell4 ,yet all these ideas have a foundation in fact1 and only a foundation4 ,the superstructure has been reared by exaggerating1 diminishing1 combining1 separating1 deforming1 beautifying1 improving or multiplying realities1 so that the edifice or fabric is but the incongruous grouping of what man has perceived through the medium of the senses4 ,it is as though we should give to a lion the wings of an eagle1 the hoofs of a bison1 the tail of a horse1 the pouch of a kangaroo1 and the trunk of an elephant4 ,we have in imagination created an impossible monster4 ,and yet the various parts of this monster really exist ,so it is with all the gods that man has made4 ,beyond nature man cannot go even in thought--above nature he cannot rise--below nature he cannot fall4 ,man1 in his ignorance1 supposed that all phenomena were produced by some intelligent powers1 and with direct reference to him4 ,to preserve friendly relations with these powers was1 and still is1 the object of all religions4 ,man knelt through fear and to implore assistance1 or through gratitude for some favor which he supposed had been rendered4 ,he endeavored by supplication to appease some being who1 for some reason1 had1 as he believed1 become enraged4 ,the lightning and thunder terrified him4 ,in the presence of the volcano he sank upon his knees4 ,the great forests filled with wild and ferocious beasts1 the monstrous serpents crawling in mysterious depths1 the boundless sea1 the flaming comets1 the sinister eclipses1 the awful calmness of the stars1 and1 more than all1 the perpetual presence of death1 convinced him that he was the sport and prey of unseen and malignant powers4 ,the strange and frightful diseases to which he was subject1 the freezings and burnings of fever1 the contortions of epilepsy1 the sudden palsies1 the darkness of night1 and the wild1 terrible and fantastic dreams that filled his brain1 satisfied him that he was haunted and pursued by countless spirits of evil4 ,for some reason he supposed that these spirits differed in power--that they were not all alike malevolent--that the higher controlled the lower1 and that his very existence depended upon gaining the assistance of the more powerful4 ,for this purpose he resorted to prayer1 to flattery1 to worship and to sacrifice4 ,these ideas appear to have been almost universal in savage man4 ,for ages all nations supposed that the sick and insane were possessed by evil spirits4 ,for thousands of years the practice of medicine consisted in frightening these spirits away4 ,usually the priests would make the loudest and most discordant noises possible4 ,they would blow horns1 beat upon rude drums1 clash cymbals1 and in the meantime utter the most unearthly yells4 ,if the noise-remedy failed1 they would implore the aid of some more powerful spirit4 ,to pacify these spirits was considered of infinite importance4 ,the poor barbarian1 knowing that men could be softened by gifts1 gave to these spirits that which to him seemed of the most value4 ,with bursting heart he would offer the blood of his dearest child4 ,it was impossible for him to conceive of a god utterly unlike himself1 and he naturally supposed that these powers of the air would be affected a little at the sight of so great and so deep a sorrow4 ,it was with the barbarian then as with the civilized now--one class lived upon and made merchandise of the fears of another4 ,certain persons took it upon themselves to appease the gods1 and to instruct the people in their duties to these unseen powers4 ,this was the origin of the priesthood4 ,the priest pretended to stand between the wrath of the gods and the helplessness of man4 ,he was man's attorney at the court of heaven4 ,he carried to the invisible world a flag of truce1 a protest and a request4 ,he came back with a command1 with authority and with power4 ,man fell upon his knees before his own servant1 and the priest1 taking advantage of the awe inspired by his supposed influence with the gods1 made of his fellow-man a cringing hypocrite and slave4 ,even ,christ1 the supposed son of ,god1 taught that persons were possessed of evil spirits1 and frequently1 according to the account1 gave proof of his divine origin and mission by frightening droves of devils out of his unfortunate countrymen4 ,casting out devils was his principal employment1 and the devils thus banished generally took occasion to acknowledge him as the true ,messiah2 which was not only very kind of them1 but quite fortunate for him4 ,the religious people have always regarded the testimony of these devils as perfectly conclusive1 and the writers of the ,new ,testament quote the words of these imps of darkness with great satisfaction4 ,the fact that ,christ could withstand the temptations of the devil was considered as conclusive evidence that he was assisted by some god1 or at least by some being superior to man4 ,st4 ,matthew gives an account of an attempt made by the devil to tempt the supposed son of ,god2 and it has always excited the wonder of ,christians that the temptation was so nobly and heroically withstood4 ,the account to which ,i refer is as follows3 ,then was ,jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil4 ,and when the tempter came to him1 he said3 ',if thou be the son of ,god1 command that these stones be made bread4' ,but he answered1 and said3 ',it is written3 man shall not live by bread alone1 but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of ,god4' ,then the devil taketh him up into the holy city and setteth him upon a pinnacle of the temple and saith unto him3 ',if thou be the son of ,god1 cast thyself down2 for it is written1 ,he shall give his angels charge concerning thee1 lest at any time thou shalt dash thy foot against a stone1',jesus said unto him3 ',it is written again1 thou shalt not tempt the ,lord thy ,god4' ,again the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them1 and saith unto him3 ',all these will ,i give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me4' ,the ,christians now claim that ,jesus was ,god4 ,if he was ,god1 of course the devil knew that fact1 and yet1 according to this account1 the devil took 'the omnipotent ,god and placed him upon a pinnacle of the temple1 and endeavored to induce him to dash himself against the earth4 ,failing in that1 he took the creator1 owner and governor of the universe up into an exceeding high mountain1 and offered him this world--this grain of sand--if he1 the ,god of all the worlds1 would fall down and worship him1 a poor devil1 without even a tax title to one foot of dirt6 ,is it possible the devil was such an idiot8 ,should any great credit be given to this deity for not being caught with such chaff8 ,think of it6 ,the devil--the prince of sharpers--the king of cunning--the master of finesse1 trying to bribe ,god with a grain of sand that belonged to ,god6 ,is there in all the religious literature of the world anything more grossly absurd than this8 ,these devils1 according to the ,bible1 were of various kinds--some could speak and hear1 others were deaf and dumb4 ,all could not be cast out in the same way4 ,the deaf and dumb spirits were quite difficult to deal with4 ,st4 ,mark tells of a gentleman who brought his son to ,christ4 ,the boy1 it seems1 was possessed of a dumb spirit1 over which the disciples had no control4 ,jesus said unto the spirit3 ',thou dumb and deaf spirit1 ,i charge thee come out of him1 and enter no more into him4' ,whereupon1 the deaf spirit 7having heard what was said7 cried out 7being dumb7 and immediately vacated the premises4 ,the ease with which ,christ controlled this deaf and dumb spirit excited the wonder of his disciples1 and they asked him privately why they could not cast that spirit out4 ,to whom he replied3 ,this kind can come forth by nothing but prayer and fasting4 ,is there a ,christian in the whole world who would believe such a story if found in any other book8 ,the trouble is1 these pious people shut up their reason1 and then open their ,bible4 ,in the olden times the existence of devils was universally admitted4 ,the people had no doubt upon that subject1 and from such belief it followed as a matter of course1 that a person1 in order to vanquish these devils1 had either to be a god1 or to be assisted by one4 ,all founders of religions have established their claims to divine origin by controlling evil spirits and suspending the laws of nature4 ,casting out devils was a certificate of divinity4 ,a prophet1 unable to cope with the powers of darkness was regarded with contempt ,the utterance of the highest and noblest sentiments1 the most blameless and holy life1 commanded but little respect1 unless accompanied by power to work miracles and command spirits4 ,this belief in good and evil powers had its origin in the fact that man was surrounded by what he was pleased to call good and evil phenomena4 ,phenomena affecting man pleasantly were ascribed to good spirits1 while those affecting him unpleasantly or injuriously1 were ascribed to evil spirits4 ,it being admitted that all phenomena were produced by spirits1 the spirits were divided according to the phenomena1 and the phenomena were good or bad as they affected man4 ,good spirits were supposed to be the authors of good phenomena1 and evil spirits of the evil--so that the idea of a devil has been as universal as the idea of a god4 ,many writers maintain that an idea to become universal must be true2 that all universal ideas are innate1 and that innate ideas cannot be false4 ,if the fact that an idea has been universal proves that it is innate1 and if the fact that an idea is innate proves that it is correct1 then the believers in innate ideas must admit that the evidence of a god superior to nature1 and of a devil superior to nature1 is exactly the same1 and that the existence of such a devil must be as self-evident as the existence of such a god4 ,the truth is1 a god was inferred from good1 and a devil from bad1 phenomena4 ,and it is just as natural and logical to suppose that a devil would cause happiness as to suppose that a god would produce misery4 ,consequently1 if an intelligence1 infinite and supreme1 is the immediate author of all phenomena1 it is difficult to determine whether such intelligence is the friend or enemy of man4 ,if phenomena were all good1 we might say they were all produced by a perfectly beneficent being4 ,if they were all bad1 we might say they were produced by a perfectly malevolent power2 but1 as phenomena are1 as they affect man1 both good and bad1 they must be produced by different and antagonistic spirits2 by one who is sometimes actuated by kindness1 and sometimes by malice2 or all must be produced of necessity1 and without reference to their consequences upon man4 ,the foolish doctrine that all phenomena can be traced to the interference of good and evil spirits1 has been1 and still is1 almost universal4 ,that most people still believe in some spirit that can change the natural order of events1 is proven by the fact that nearly all resort to prayer4 ,thousands1 at this very moment1 are probably imploring some supposed power to interfere in their behalf4 ,some want health restored2 some ask that the loved and absent be watched over and protected1 some pray for riches1 some for rain1 some want diseases stayed1 some vainly ask for food1 some ask for revivals1 a few ask for more wisdom1 and now and then one tells the ,lord to do as he may think best4 ,thousands ask to be protected from the devil2 some1 like ,david1 pray for revenge1 and some implore even ,god1 not to lead them into temptation4 ,all these prayers rest upon1 and are produced by1 the idea that some power not only can1 but probably will1 change the order of the universe4 ,this belief has been among the great majority of tribes and nations4 ,all sacred books are filled with the accounts of such interferences1 and our own ,bible is no exception to this rule4 ,if we believe in a power superior to nature1 it is perfectly natural to suppose that such power can and will interfere in the affairs of this world4 ,if there is no interference1 of what practical use can such power be8 ,the ,scriptures give us the most wonderful accounts of divine interference3 ,animals talk like men2 springs gurgle from dry bones2 the sun and moon stop in the heavens in order that ,general ,joshua may have more time to murder2 the shadow on a dial goes back ten degrees to convince a petty king of a barbarous people that he is not going to die of a boil2 fire refuses to burn2 water positively declines to seek its level1 but stands up like a wall2 grains of sand become lice2 common walking-sticks1 to gratify a mere freak1 twist themselves into serpents1 and then swallow each other by way of exercise2 murmuring streams1 laughing at the attraction of gravitation1 run up hill for years1 following wandering tribes from a pure love of frolic2 prophecy becomes altogether easier than history2 the sons of ,god become enamored of the world's girls2 women are changed into salt for the purpose of keeping a great event fresh in the minds of men2 an excellent article of brimstone is imported from heaven free of duty2 clothes refuse to wear out for forty years2 birds keep restaurants and feed wandering prophets free of expense2 bears tear children in pieces for laughing at old men without wigs2 muscular development depends upon the length of one's hair2 dead people come to life1 simply to get a joke on their enemies and heirs2 witches and wizards converse freely with the souls of the departed1 and ,god himself becomes a stone-cutter and engraver1 after having been a tailor and dressmaker4 ,the veil between heaven and earth was always rent or lifted4 ,the shadows of this world1 the radiance of heaven1 and the glare of hell mixed and mingled until man became uncertain as to which country he really inhabited4 ,man dwelt in an unreal world4 ,he mistook his ideas1 his dreams1 for real things4 ,his fears became terrible and malicious monsters4 ,he lived in the midst of furies and fairies1 nymphs and naiads1 goblins and ghosts1 witches and wizards1 sprites and spooks1 deities and devils4 ,the obscure and gloomy depths were filled with claw and wing--with beak and hoof--with leering looks and sneering mouths--with the malice of deformity--with the cunning of hatred1 and with all the slimy forms that fear can draw and paint upon the shadowy canvas of the dark4 ,it is enough to make one almost insane with pity to think what man in the long night has suffered2 of the tortures he has endured1 surrounded1 as he supposed1 by malignant powers and clutched by the fierce phantoms of the air4 ,no wonder that he fell upon his trembling knees--that he built altars and reddened them even with his own blood4 ,no wonder that he implored ignorant priests and impudent magicians for aid4 ,no wonder that he crawled groveling in the dust to the temple's door1 and there1 in the insanity of despair1 besought the deaf gods to hear his bitter cry of agony and fear4 ,the savage as he emerges from a state of barbarism1 gradually loses faith in his idols of wood and stone1 and in their place puts a multitude of spirits4 ,as he advances in knowledge1 he generally discards the petty spirits1 and in their stead believes in one1 whom he supposes to be infinite and supreme4 ,supposing this great spirit to be superior to nature1 he offers worship or flattery in exchange for assistance4 ,at last1 finding that he obtains no aid from this supposed deity--3 finding that every search after the absolute must of necessity end in failure--finding that man cannot by any possibility conceive of the conditionless--he begins to investigate the facts by which he is surrounded1 and to depend upon himself4 ,the people are beginning to think1 to reason and to investigate4 ,slowly1 painfully1 but surely1 the gods are being driven from the earth4 ,only upon rare occasions are they1 even by the most religious1 supposed to interfere in the affairs of men4 ,in most matters we are at last supposed to be free4 ,since the invention of steamships and railways1 so that the products of all countries can be easily interchanged1 the gods have quit the business of producing famine4 ,now and then they kill a child because it is idolized by its parents4 ,as a rule they have given up causing accidents on railroads1 exploding boilers1 and bursting kerosene lamps4 ,cholera1 yellow fever1 and small-pox are still considered heavenly weapons2 but measles1 itch and ague are now attributed to natural causes4 ,as a general thing1 the gods have stopped drowning children1 except as a punishment for violating the ,sabbath4 ,they still pay some attention to the affairs of kings1 men of genius and persons of great wealth2 but ordinary people are left to shirk for themselves as best they may4 ,in wars between great nations1 the gods still interfere2 but in prize fights1 the best man with an honest referee1 is almost sure to win4 ,the church cannot abandon the idea of special providence4 ,to give up that doctrine is to give up all4 ,the church must insist that prayer is answered--that some power superior to nature hears and grants the request of the sincere and humble ,christian1 and that this same power in some mysterious way provides for all4 ,a devout clergyman sought every opportunity to impress upon the mind of his son the fact1 that ,god takes care of all his creatures2 that the falling sparrow attracts his attention1 and that his loving kindness is over all his works4 ,happening1 one day1 to see a crane wading in quest of food1 the good man pointed out to his son the perfect adaptation of the crane to get his living in that manner4 ,see1 said he1 how his legs are formed for wading6 ,what a long slender bill he has6 ,observe how nicely he folds his feet when putting them in or drawing them out of the water6 ,he does not cause the slightest ripple4 ,he is thus enabled to approach the fish without giving them any notice of his arrival4 ,my son1 said he1 it is impossible to look at that bird without recognizing the design1 as well as the goodness of ,god1 in thus providing the means of subsistence4 ,yes1 replied the boy1 ,i think ,i see the goodness of ,god1 at least so far as the crane is concerned2 but after all1 father1 don't you think the arrangement a little tough on the fish8 ,even the advanced religionist1 although disbelieving in any great amount of interference by the gods in this age of the world1 still thinks1 that in the beginning1 some god made the laws governing the universe4 ,he believes that in consequence of these laws a man can lift a greater weight with1 than without1 a lever2 that this god so made matter1 and so established the order of things1 that two bodies cannot occupy the same space at the same time2 so that a body once put in motion will keep moving until it is stopped2 so that it is a greater distance around1 than across a circle2 so that a perfect square has four equal sides1 instead of five or seven4 ,he insists that it took a direct interposition of ,providence to make the whole greater than a part1 and that had it not been for this power superior to nature1 twice one might have been more than twice two1 and sticks and strings might have had only one end apiece4 ,like the old ,scotch divine1 he thanks ,god that ,sunday comes at the end instead of in the middle of the week1 and that death comes at the close instead of at the commencement of life1 thereby giving us time to prepare for that holy day and that most solemn event ,these religious people see nothing but design everywhere1 and personal1 intelligent interference in everything4 ,they insist that the universe has been created1 and that the adaptation of means to ends is perfectly apparent4 ,they point us to the sunshine1 to the flowers1 to the ,april rain1 and to all there is of beauty and of use in the world4 ,did it ever occur to them that a cancer is as beautiful in its development as is the reddest rose8 ,that what they are pleased to call the adaptation of means to ends1 is as apparent in the cancer as in the ,april rain8 ,how beautiful the process of digestion6 ,by what ingenious methods the blood is poisoned so that the cancer shall have food6 ,by what wonderful contrivances the entire system of man is made to pay tribute to this divine and charming cancer6 ,see by what admirable instrumentalities it feeds itself from the surrounding quivering1 dainty flesh6 ,see how it gradually but surely expands and grows6 ,by what marvelous mechanism it is supplied with long and slender roots that reach out to the most secret nerves of pain for sustenance and life6 ,what beautiful colors it presents6 ,seen through the microscope it is a miracle of order and beauty4 ,all the ingenuity of man cannot stop its growth4 ,think of the amount of thought it must have required to invent a way by which the life of one man might be given to produce one cancer8 ,is it possible to look upon it and doubt that there is design in the universe1 and that the inventor of this wonderful cancer must be infinitely powerful1 ingenious and good8 ,we are told that the universe was designed and created1 and that it is absurd to suppose that matter has existed from eternity1 but that it is perfectly self-evident that a god has4 ,if a god created the universe1 then1 there must have been a time when he commenced to create4 ,back of that time there must have been an eternity1 during which there had existed nothing--absolutely nothing--except this supposed god4 ,according to this theory1 this god spent an eternity1 so to speak1 in an infinite vacuum1 and in perfect idleness4 ,admitting that a god did create the universe1 the question then arises1 of what did he create it8 ,it certainly was not made of nothing4 ,nothing1 considered in the light of a raw material1 is a most decided failure4 ,it follows1 then1 that the god must have made the universe out of himself1 he being the only existence4 ,the universe is material1 and if it was made of god1 the god must have been material4 ,with this very thought in his mind1 ,anaximander of ,miletus said3 ,creation is the decomposition of the infinite4 ,it has been demonstrated that the earth would fall to the sun1 only for the fact1 that it is attracted by other worlds1 and those worlds must be attracted by other worlds still beyond them1 and so on1 without end4 ,this proves the material universe to be infinite4 ,if an infinite universe has been made out of an infinite god1 how much of the god is left8 ,the idea of a creative deity is gradually being abandoned1 and nearly all truly scientific minds admit that matter must have existed from eternity4 ,it is indestructible1 and the indestructible cannot be created4 ,it is the crowning glory of our century to have demonstrated the indestructibility and the eternal persistence of force4 ,neither matter nor force can be increased nor diminished4 ,force cannot exist apart from matter4 ,matter exists only in connection with force1 and consequently1 a force apart from matter1 and superior to nature1 is a demonstrated impossibility4 ,force1 then1 must have also existed from eternity1 and could not have been created4 ,matter in its countless forms1 from dead earth to the eyes of those we love1 and force1 in all its manifestations1 from simple motion to the grandest thought1 deny creation and defy control4 ,thought is a form of force4 ,we walk with the same force with which we think4 ,man is an organism1 that changes several forms of force into thought-force4 ,man is a machine into which we put what we call food1 and produce what we call thought4 ,think of that wonderful chemistry by which bread was changed into the divine tragedy of ,hamlet6 ,a god must not only be material1 but he must be an organism1 capable of changing other forms of force into thought-force4 ,this is what we call eating4 ,therefore1 if the god thinks1 he must eat1 that is to say1 he must of necessity have some means of supplying the force with which to think4 ,it is impossible to conceive of a being who can eternally impart force to matter1 and yet have no means of supplying the force thus imparted4 ,if neither matter nor force were created1 what evidence have we1 then1 of the existence of a power superior to nature8 ,the theologian will probably reply1 ,we have law and order1 cause and effect1 and beside all this1 matter could not have put itself in motion4 ,suppose1 for the sake of the argument1 that there is no being superior to nature1 and that matter and force have existed from eternity4 ,now1 suppose that two atoms should come together1 would there be an effect8 ,yes4 ,suppose they came in exactly opposite directions with equal force1 they would be stopped1 to say the least4 ,this would be an effect4 ,if this is so1 then you have matter1 force and effect without a being superior to nature4 ,now1 suppose that two other atoms1 just like the first two1 should come together under precisely the same circumstances1 would not the effect be exactly the same8 ,yes4 ,like causes1 producing like effects1 is what we mean by law and order4 ,then we have matter1 force1 effect1 law and order without a being superior to nature4 ,now1 we know that every effect must also be a cause1 and that every cause must be an effect4 ,the atoms coming together did produce an effect1 and as every effect must also be a cause1 the effect produced by the collision of the atoms1 must as to something else have been a cause4 ,then we have matter1 force1 law1 order1 cause and effect without a being superior to nature4 ,nothing is left for the supernatural but empty space4 ,his throne is a void1 and his boasted realm is without matter1 without force1 without law1 without cause1 and without effect4 ,but what put all this matter in motion8 ,if matter and force have existed from eternity1 then matter must have always been in motion4 ,there can be no force without motion4 ,force is forever active1 and there is1 and there can be no cessation4 ,if1 therefore1 matter and force have existed from eternity1 so has motion4 ,in the whole universe there is not even one atom in a state of rest4 ,a deity outside of nature exists in nothing1 and is nothing4 ,nature embraces with infinite arms all matter and all force4 ,that which is beyond her grasp is destitute of both1 and can hardly be worth the worship and adoration even of a man4 ,there is but one way to demonstrate the existence of a power independent of and superior to nature1 and that is by breaking1 if only for one moment1 the continuity of cause and effect ,pluck from the endless chain of existence one little link2 stop for one instant the grand procession1 and you have shown beyond all contradiction that nature has a master4 ,change the fact1 just for one second1 that matter attracts matter1 and a god appears4 ,the rudest savage has always known this fact1 and for that reason always demanded the evidence of miracle4 ,the founder of a religion must be able to turn water into wine--cure with a word the blind and lame1 and raise with a simple touch the dead to life4 ,it was necessary for him to demonstrate to the satisfaction of his barbarian disciple1 that he was superior to nature4 ,in times of ignorance this was easy to do4 ,the credulity of the savage was almost boundless4 ,to him the marvelous was the beautiful1 the mysterious was the sublime4 ,consequently1 every religion has for its foundation a miracle--that is to say1 a violation of nature--that is to say1 a falsehood4 ,no one1 in the world's whole history1 ever attempted to substantiate a truth by a miracle4 ,truth scorns the assistance of miracle4 ,nothing but falsehood ever attested itself by signs and wonders4 ,no miracle ever was performed1 and no sane man ever thought he had performed one1 and until one is performed1 there can be no evidence of the existence of any power superior to and independent of nature4 ,the church wishes us to believe4 ,let the church1 or one of its intellectual saints1 perform a miracle1 and we will believe4 ,we are told that nature has a superior4 ,let this superior1 for one single instant1 control nature1 and we will admit the truth of your assertions4 ,we have heard talk enough4 ,we have listened to all the drowsy1 idealess1 vapid sermons that we wish to hear4 ,we have read your ,bible and the works of your best minds4 ,we have heard your prayers1 your solemn groans and your reverential amens4 ,all these amount to less than nothing4 ,we want one fact4 ,we beg at the doors of your churches for just one little fact ,we pass our hats along your pews and under your pulpits and implore you for just one fact ,we know all about your mouldy wonders and your stale miracles4 ,we want a this year's fact4 ,we ask only one4 ,give us one fact for charity4 ,your miracles are too ancient4 ,the witnesses have been dead for nearly two thousand years4 ,their reputation for truth and veracity in the neighborhood where they resided is wholly unknown to us4 ,give us a new miracle1 and substantiate it by witnesses who still have the cheerful habit of living in this world4 ,do not send us to ,jericho to hear the winding horns1 nor put us in the fire with ,shadrach1 ,meshech1 and ,abednego4 ,do not compel us to navigate the sea with ,captain ,jonah1 nor dine with ,mr4 ,ezekiel4 ,there is no sort of use in sending us fox-hunting with ,samson4 ,we have positively lost all interest in that little speech so eloquently delivered by ,balaam's inspired donkey4 ,it is worse than useless to show us fishes with money in their mouths1 and call our attention to vast multitudes stuffing themselves with five crackers and two sardines4 ,we demand a new miracle1 and we demand it now4 ,let the church furnish at least one1 or forever after hold her peace4 ,in the olden time1 the church1 by violating the order of nature1 proved the existence of her ,god4 ,at that time miracles were performed with the most astonishing ease4 ,they became so common that the church ordered her priests to desist4 ,and now this same church--the people having found some little sense--admits1 not only1 that she cannot perform a miracle1 but insists that the absence of miracle--the steady1 unbroken march of cause and effect1 proves the existence of a power superior to nature4 ,the fact is1 however1 that the indissoluble chain of cause and effect proves exactly the contrary4 ,sir ,william ,hamilton1 one of the pillars of modern theology1 in discussing this very subject1 uses the following language3 ,the phenomena of matter taken by themselves1 so far from warranting any inference to the existence of a god1 would on the contrary ground even an argument to his negation4 ,the phenomena of the material world are subjected to immutable laws2 are produced and reproduced in the same invariable succession1 and manifest only the blind force of a mechanical necessity4 ,nature is but an endless series of efficient causes4 ,she cannot create1 but she eternally transforms4 ,there was no beginning1 and there can be no end4 ,the best minds1 even in the religious world1 admit that in material nature there is no evidence of what they are pleased to call a god4 ,they find their evidence in the phenomena of intelligence1 and very innocently assert that intelligence is above1 and in fact1 opposed to nature4 ,they insist that man1 at least1 is a special creation2 that he has somewhere in his brain a divine spark1 a little portion of the ,great ,first ,cause4 ,they say that matter cannot produce thought2 but that thought can produce matter4 ,they tell us that man has intelligence1 and therefore there must be an intelligence greater than his4 ,why not say1 ,god has intelligence1 therefore there must be an intelligence greater than his8 ,so far as we know1 there is no intelligence apart from matter4 ,we cannot conceive of thought1 except as produced within a brain4 ,the science1 by means of which they demonstrate the existence of an impossible intelligence1 and an incomprehensible power is called1 metaphysics or theology4 ,the theologians admit that the phenomena of matter tend1 at least1 to disprove the existence of any power superior to nature1 because in such phenomena we see nothing but an endless chain of efficient causes--nothing but the force of a mechanical necessity4 ,they therefore appeal to what they denominate the phenomena of mind to establish this superior power4 ,the trouble is1 that in the phenomena of mind we find the same endless chain of efficient causes2 the same mechanical necessity4 ,every thought must have had an efficient cause4 ,every motive1 every desire1 every fear1 hope and dream must have been necessarily produced4 ,there is no room in the mind of man for providence or chance4 ,the facts and forces governing thought are as absolute as those governing the motions of the planets4 ,a poem is produced by the forces of nature1 and is as necessarily and naturally produced as mountains and seas4 ,you will seek in vain for a thought in man's brain without its efficient cause4 ,every mental operation is the necessary result of certain facts and conditions4 ,mental phenomena are considered more complicated than those of matter1 and consequently more mysterious4 ,being more mysterious1 they are considered better evidence of the existence of a god4 ,no one infers a god from the simple1 from the known1 from what is understood1 but from the complex1 from the unknown1 and1 incomprehensible4 ,our ignorance is ,god2 what we know is science4 ,when we abandon the doctrine that some infinite being created matter and force1 and enacted a code of laws for their government1 the idea of interference will be lost4 ,the real priest will then be1 not the mouth-piece of some pretended deity1 but the interpreter of nature4 ,from that moment the church ceases to exist4 ,the tapers will die out upon the dusty altar2 the moths will eat the fading velvet of pulpit and pew2 the ,bible will take its place with the ,shastras1 ,puranas1 ,vedas1 ,eddas1 ,sagas and ,korans1 and the fetters of a degrading faith will fall from the minds of men4 ,but1 says the religionist1 you cannot explain everything2 you cannot understand everything2 and that which you cannot explain1 that which you do not comprehend1 is my ,god4 ,we are explaining more every day4 ,we are understanding more every day2 consequently your ,god is growing smaller every day4 ,nothing daunted1 the religionist then insists that nothing can exist without a cause1 except cause1 and that this uncaused cause is ,god4 ,to this we again reply3 ,every cause must produce an effect1 because until it does produce an effect1 it is not a cause4 ,every effect must in its turn become a cause4 ,therefore1 in the nature of things1 there cannot be a last cause1 for the reason that a so-called last cause would necessarily produce an effect1 and that effect must of necessity becomes a cause4 ,the converse of these propositions must be true4 ,every effect must have had a cause1 and every cause must have been an effect4 ,therefore there could have been no first cause4 ,a first cause is just as impossible as a last effect4 ,beyond the universe there is nothing1 and within the universe the supernatural does not and cannot exist4 ,the moment these great truths are understood and admitted1 a belief in general or special providence become impossible4 ,from that instant men will cease their vain efforts to please an imaginary being1 and will give their time and attention to the affairs of this world4 ,they will abandon the idea of attaining any object by prayer and supplication4 ,the element of uncertainty will1 in a great measure1 be removed from the domain of the future1 and man1 gathering courage from a succession of victories over the obstructions of nature1 will attain a serene grandeur unknown to the disciples of any superstition4 ,the plans of mankind will no longer be interfered with by the finger of a supposed omnipotence1 and no one will believe that nations or individuals are protected or destroyed by any deity whatever4 ,science1 freed from the chains of pious custom and evangelical prejudice1 will1 within her sphere1 be supreme4 ,the mind will investigate without reverence1 and publish its conclusions without fear4 ,agassiz will no longer hesitate to declare the ,mosaic cosmogony utterly inconsistent with the demonstrated truths of geology1 and will cease pretending any reverence for the ,jewish ,scriptures4 ,the moment science succeeds in rendering the church powerless for evil1 the real thinkers will be outspoken4 ,the little flags of truce carried by timid philosophers will disappear1 and the cowardly parley will give place to victory--lasting and universal4 ,if we admit that some infinite being has controlled the destinies of persons and peoples1 history becomes a most cruel and bloody farce4 ,age after age1 the strong have trampled upon the weak2 the crafty and heartless have ensnared and enslaved the simple and innocent1 and nowhere1 in all the annals of mankind1 has any god succored the oppressed4 ,man should cease to expect aid from on high4 ,by this time he should know that heaven has no ear to hear1 and no hand to help4 ,the present is the necessary child of all the past4 ,there has been no chance1 and there can be no interference4 ,if abuses are destroyed1 man must destroy them4 ,if slaves are freed1 man must free them4 ,if new truths are discovered1 man must discover them4 ,if the naked are clothed2 if the hungry are fed2 if justice is done2 if labor is rewarded2 if superstition is driven from the mind2 if the defenceless are protected and if the right finally triumphs1 all must be the work of man4 ,the grand victories of the future must be won by man1 and by man alone4 ,nature1 so far as we can discern1 without passion and without intention1 forms1 transforms1 and retransforms forever4 ,she neither weeps nor rejoices4 ,she produces man without purpose1 and obliterates him without regret4 ,she knows no distinction between the beneficial and the hurtful4 ,poison and nutrition1 pain and joy1 life and death1 smiles and tears are alike to her4 ,she is neither merciful nor cruel4 ,she cannot be flattered by worship nor melted by tears4 ,she does not know even the attitude of prayer4 ,she appreciates no difference between poison in the fangs of snakes and mercy in the hearts of men4 ,only through man does nature take cognizance of the good1 the true1 and the beautiful2 and1 so far as we know1 man is the highest intelligence4 ,and yet man continues to believe that there is some power independent of and superior to nature1 and still endeavors1 by form1 ceremony1 supplication1 hypocrisy and sacrifice1 to obtain its aid4 ,his best energies have been wasted in the service of this phantom4 ,the horrors of witchcraft were all born of an ignorant belief in the existence of a totally depraved being superior to nature1 acting in perfect independence of her laws2 and all religious superstition has had for its basis a belief in at least two beings1 one good and the other bad1 both of whom could arbitrarily change the order of the universe4 ,the history of religion is simply the story of man's efforts in all ages to avoid one of these powers1 and to pacify the other4 ,both powers have inspired little else than abject fear4 ,the cold1 calculating sneer of the devil1 and the frown of ,god1 were equally terrible4 ,in any event1 man's fate was to be arbitrarily fixed forever by an unknown power superior to all law1 and to all fact4 ,until this belief is thrown aside1 man must consider himself the slave of phantom masters--neither of whom promise liberty in this world nor in the next4 ,man must learn to rely upon himself4 ,reading bibles will not protect him from the blasts of winter1 but houses1 fires1 and clothing will4 ,to prevent famine1 one plow is worth a million sermons1 and even patent medicines will cure more diseases than all the prayers uttered since the beginning of the world4 ,although many eminent men have endeavored to harmonize necessity and free will1 the existence of evil1 and the infinite power and good ness of ,god1 they have succeeded only in producing learned and ingenious failures4 ,immense efforts have been made to reconcile ideas utterly inconsistent with the facts by which we are surrounded1 and all persons who have failed to perceive the pretended reconciliation1 have been denounced as infidels1 atheists and scoffers4 ,the whole power of the church has been brought to bear against philosophers and scientists in order to compel a denial of the authority of demonstration1 and to induce some ,judas to betray ,reason1 one of the saviors of mankind4 ,during that frightful period known as the ,dark ,ages1 ,faith reigned1 with scarcely a rebellious subject4 ,her temples were carpeted with knees1 and the wealth of nations adorned her countless shrines4 ,the great painters prostituted their genius to immortalize her vagaries1 while the poets enshrined them in song4 ,at her bidding1 man covered the earth with blood4 ,the scales of ,justice were turned with her gold1 and for her use were invented all the cunning instruments of pain4 ,she built cathedrals for ,god1 and dungeons for men4 ,she peopled the clouds with angels and the earth with slaves4 ,for centuries the world was retracing its steps--going steadily back toward barbaric night6 ,a few infidels--a few heretics cried1 ,halt6 to the great rabble of ignorant devotion1 and made it possible for the genius of the nineteenth century to revolutionize the cruel creeds and superstitions of mankind4 ,the thoughts of man1 in order to be of any real worth1 must be free4 ,under the influence of fear the brain is paralyzed1 and instead of bravely solving a problem for itself1 tremblingly adopts the solution of another4 ,as long as a majority of men will cringe to the very earth before some petty prince or king1 what must be the infinite abjectness of their little souls in the presence of their supposed creator and ,god8 ,under such circumstances1 what can their thoughts be worth8 ,the originality of repetition1 and the mental vigor of acquiescence1 are all that we have any right to expect from the ,christian world4 ,as long as every question is answered by the word ,god1 scientific inquiry is simply impossible4 ,as fast as phenomena are satisfactorily explained the domain of the power1 supposed to be superior to nature must decrease1 while the horizon of the known must as constantly continue to enlarge4 ,it is no longer satisfactory to account for the fall and rise of nations by saying1 ,it is the will of ,god4 ,such an explanation puts ignorance and education upon an exact equality1 and does away with the idea of really accounting for anything whatever4 ,will the religionist pretend that the real end of science is to ascertain how and why ,god acts8 ,science1 from such a standpoint would consist in investigating the law of arbitrary action1 and in a grand endeavor to ascertain the rules necessarily obeyed by infinite caprice4 ,from a philosophical point of view1 science is knowledge of the laws of life2 of the conditions of happiness2 of the facts by which we are surrounded1 and the relations we sustain to men and things--by means of which1 man1 so to speak1 subjugates nature and bends the elemental powers to his will1 making blind force the servant of his brain4 ,a belief in special providence does away with the spirit of investigation1 and is inconsistent with personal effort4 ,why should man endeavor to thwart the designs of ,god8 ,which of you1 by taking thought1 can add one cubit to his stature8 ,under the influence of this belief1 man1 basking in the sunshine of a delusion1 considers the lilies of the field and refuses to take any thought for the morrow4 ,believing himself in the power of an infinite being1 who can1 at any moment1 dash him to the lowest hell or raise him to the highest heaven1 he necessarily abandons the idea of accomplishing anything by his own efforts4 ,as long as this belief was general1 the world was filled with ignorance1 superstition and misery4 ,the energies of man were wasted in a vain effort to obtain the aid of this power1 supposed to be superior to nature4 ,for countless ages1 even men were sacrificed upon the altar of this impossible god4 ,to please him1 mothers have shed the blood of their own babes2 martyrs have chanted triumphant songs in the midst of flame2 priests have gorged themselves with blood2 nuns have forsworn the ecstasies of love2 old men have tremblingly implored2 women have sobbed and entreated2 every pain has been endured1 and every horror has been perpetrated4 ,through the dim long years that have fled1 humanity has suffered more than can be conceived4 ,most of the misery has been endured by the weak1 the loving and the innocent ,women have been treated like poisonous beasts1 and little children trampled upon as though they had been vermin4 ,numberless altars have been reddened1 even with the blood of babes2 beautiful girls have been given to slimy serpents2 whole races of men doomed to centuries of slavery1 and everywhere there has been outrage beyond the power of genius to express4 ,during all these years the suffering have supplicated2 the withered lips of famine have prayed2 the pale victims have implored1 and ,heaven has been deaf and blind4 ,of what use have the gods been to man8 ,it is no answer to say that some god created the world1 established certain laws1 and then turned his attention to other matters1 leaving his children weak1 ignorant and unaided1 to fight the battle of life alone4 ,it is no solution to declare that in some1 other world this god will render a few1 or even all1 his subjects happy4 ,what right have we to expect that a perfectly wise1 good and powerful being will ever do better than he has done1 and is doing8 ,the world is filled with imperfections4 ,if it was made by an infinite being1 what reason have we for saying that he will render it nearer perfect than it now is8 ,if the infinite ,father allows a majority of his children to live in ignorance and wretchedness now1 what evidence is there that he will ever improve their condition8 ,will ,god have more power8 ,will he become more merciful8 ,will his love for his poor creatures increase8 ,can the conduct of infinite wisdom1 power and love ever change8 ,is the infinite capable of any improvement whatever8 ,we are informed by the clergy that this world is a kind of school2 that the evils by which we are surrounded are for the purpose of developing our souls1 and that only by suffering can men become pure1 strong1 virtuous and grand4 ,supposing this to be true1 what is to become of those who die in infancy8 ,the little children1 according to this philosophy1 can never be developed4 ,they were so unfortunate as to escape the ennobling influences of pain and misery1 and as a consequence1 are doomed to an eternity of mental inferiority4 ,if the clergy are right on this question1 none are so unfortunate as the happy1 and we should envy only the suffering and distressed4 ,if evil is necessary to the development of man1 in this life1 how is it possible for the soul to improve in the perfect joy of ,paradise8 ,since ,paley found his watch1 the argument of design has been relied upon as unanswerable4 ,the church teaches that this world1 and all that it contains1 were created substantially as we now see them2 that the grasses1 the flowers1 the trees1 and all animals1 including man1 were special creations1 and that they sustain no necessary relation to each other4 ,the most orthodox will admit that some earth has been washed into the sea2 that the sea has encroached a little upon the land1 and that some mountains may be a trifle lower than in the morning of creation4 ,the theory of gradual development was unknown to our fathers2 the idea of evolution did not occur to them4 ,our fathers looked upon the then arrangement of things as the primal arrangement4 ,the earth appeared to them fresh from the hands of a deity4 ,they knew nothing of the slow evolutions of countless years1 but supposed that the almost infinite variety of vegetable and animal forms had existed from the first4 ,suppose that upon some island we should find a man a million years of age1 and suppose that we should find him in the possession of a most beautiful carriage1 constructed upon the most perfect model4 ,and suppose1 further1 that he should tell us that it was the result of several hundred thousand years of labor and of thought2 that for fifty thousand years he used as flat a log as he could find1 before it occurred to him1 that by splitting the log1 he could have the same surface with only half the weight2 that it took him many thousand years to invent wheels for this log2 that the wheels he first used were solid1 and that fifty thousand years of thought suggested the use of spokes and tire2 that for many centuries he used the wheels without linch-pins2 that it took a hundred thousand years more to think of using four wheels1 instead of two2 that for ages he walked behind the carriage1 when going down hill1 in order to hold it back1 and that only by a lucky chance he invented the tongue2 would we conclude that this man1 from the very first1 had been an infinitely ingenious and perfect mechanic8 ,suppose we found him living in an elegant mansion1 and he should inform us that he lived in that house for five hundred thousand years before he thought of putting on a roof1 and that he had but recently invented windows and doors2 would we say that from the beginning he had been an infinitely accomplished and scientific architect8 ,does not an improvement in the things created1 show a corresponding improvement in the creator8 ,would an infinitely wise1 good and powerful ,god1 intending to produce man1 commence with the lowest possible forms of life2 with the simplest organism that can be imagined1 and during immeasurable periods of time1 slowly and almost imperceptibly improve upon the rude beginning1 until man was evolved8 ,would countless ages thus be wasted in the production of awkward forms1 afterwards abandoned8 ,can the intelligence of man discover the least wisdom in covering the earth with crawling1 creeping horrors1 that live only upon the agonies and pangs of others8 ,can we see the propriety of so constructing the earth1 that only an insignificant portion of its surface is capable of producing an intelligent man8 ,who can appreciate the mercy of so making the world that all animals devour animals2 so that every mouth is a slaughterhouse1 and every stomach a tomb8 ,is it possible to discover infinite intelligence and love in universal and eternal carnage8 ,what would we think of a father1 who should give a farm to his children1 and before giving them possession should plant upon it thousands of deadly shrubs and vines2 should stock it with ferocious beasts1 and poisonous reptiles2 should take pains to put a few swamps in the neighborhood to breed malaria2 should so arrange matters1 that the ground would occasionally open and swallow a few of his darlings1 and besides all this1 should establish a few volcanoes in the immediate vicinity1 that might at any moment overwhelm his children with rivers of fire8 ,suppose that this father neglected to tell his children which of the plants were deadly2 that the reptiles were poisonous2 failed to say anything about the earthquakes1 and kept the volcano business a profound secret2 would we pronounce him angel or fiend8 ,and yet this is exactly what the orthodox ,god has done4 ,according to the theologians1 ,god prepared this globe expressly for the habitation of his loved children1 and yet he filled the forests with ferocious beasts2 placed serpents in every path2 stuffed the world with earthquakes1 and adorned its surface with mountains of flame4 ,notwithstanding all this1 we are told that the world is perfect2 that it was created by a perfect being1 and is therefore necessarily perfect4 ,the next moment1 these same persons will tell us that the world was cursed2 covered with brambles1 thistles and thorns1 and that man was doomed to disease and death1 simply because our poor1 dear mother ate an apple contrary to the command of an arbitrary ,god4 ,a very pious friend of mine1 having heard that ,i had said the world was full of imperfections1 asked me if the report was true4 ,upon being informed that it was1 he expressed great surprise that any one could be guilty of such presumption4 ,he said that1 in his judgment1 it was impossible to point out an imperfection4 ,be kind enough1 said he1 to name even one improvement that you could make1 if you had the power4 ,well1 said ,i1 ,i would make good health catching1 instead of disease4 ,the truth is1 it is impossible to harmonize all the ills1 and pains1 and agonies of this world with the idea that we were created by1 and are watched over and protected by an infinitely wise1 powerful and beneficent ,god1 who is superior to and independent of nature4 ,the clergy1 however1 balance all the real ills of this life with the expected joys of the next4 ,we are assured that all is perfection in heaven--there the skies are cloudless--there all is serenity and peace4 ,here empires may be overthrown2 dynasties may be extinguished in blood2 millions of slaves may toil 'neath the fierce rays of the sun1 and the cruel strokes of the lash2 yet all is happiness in heaven4 ,pestilences may strew the earth with corpses of the loved2 the survivors may bend above them in agony--yet the placid bosom of heaven is unruffled4 ,children may expire vainly asking for bread2 babes may be devoured by serpents1 while the gods sit smiling in the clouds4 ,the innocent may languish unto death in the obscurity of dungeons2 brave men and heroic women may be changed to ashes at the bigot's stake1 while heaven is filled with song and joy4 ,out on the wide sea1 in darkness and in storm1 the shipwrecked struggle with the cruel waves while the angels play upon their golden harps4 ,the streets of the world are filled with the diseased1 the deformed and the helpless2 the chambers of pain are crowded with the pale forms of the suffering1 while the angels float and fly in the happy realms of day4 ,in heaven they are too happy to have sympathy2 too busy singing to aid the imploring and distressed4 ,their eyes are blinded2 their ears are stopped and their hearts are turned to stone by the infinite selfishness of joy4 ,the saved mariner is too happy when he touches the shore to give a moment's thought to his drowning brothers4 ,with the indifference of happiness1 with the contempt of bliss1 heaven barely glances at the miseries of earth4 ,cities are devoured by the rushing lava2 the earth opens and thousands perish2 women raise their clasped hands towards heaven1 but the gods are too happy to aid their children4 ,the smiles of the deities are unacquainted with the tears of men4 ,the shouts of heaven drown the sobs of earth4 ,having shown how man created gods1 and how he became the trembling slave of his own creation1 the questions naturally arise3 ,how did he free himself even a little1 from these monarchs of the sky1 from these despots of the clouds1 from this aristocracy of the air8 ,how did he1 even to the extent that he has1 outgrow his ignorant1 abject terror1 and throw off the yoke of superstition8 ,probably1 the first thing that tended to disabuse his mind was the discovery of order1 of regularity1 of periodicity in the universe4 ,from this he began to suspect that everything did not happen purely with reference to him4 ,he noticed1 that whatever he might do1 the motions of the planets were always the same2 that eclipses were periodical1 and that even comets came at certain intervals4 ,this convinced him that eclipses and comets had nothing to do with him1 and that his conduct had nothing to do with them4 ,he perceived that they were not caused for his benefit or injury4 ,he thus learned to regard them with admiration instead of fear4 ,he began to suspect that famine was not sent by some enraged and revengeful deity1 but resuited often from the neglect and ignorance of man4 ,he learned that diseases were not produced by evil spirits4 ,he found that sickness was occasioned by natural causes1 and could be cured by natural means4 ,he demonstrated1 to his own satisfaction at least1 that prayer is not a medicine4 ,he found by sad experience that his gods were of no practical use1 as they never assisted him1 except when he was perfectly able to help himself4 ,at last1 he began to discover that his individual action had nothing whatever to do with strange appearances in the heavens2 that it was impossible for him to be bad enough to cause a whirlwind1 or good enough to stop one4 ,after many centuries of thought1 he about half concluded that making mouths at a priest would not necessarily cause an earthquake4 ,he noticed1 and no doubt with considerable astonishment1 that very good men were occasionally struck by lightning1 while very bad ones escaped4 ,he was frequently forced to the painful conclusion 7and it is the most painful to which any human being ever was forced7 that the right did not always prevail4 ,he noticed that the gods did not interfere in behalf of the weak and innocent4 ,he was now and then astonished by seeing an unbeliever in the enjoyment of most excellent health4 ,he finally ascertained that there could be no possible connection between an unusually severe winter and his failure to give a sheep to a priest4 ,he began to suspect that the order of the universe was not constantly being changed to assist him because he repeated a creed4 ,he observed that some children would steal after having been regularly baptized4 ,he noticed a vast difference between religion and justice1 and that the worshipers of the same god1 took delight in cutting each other's throats4 ,he saw that these religious disputes filled the world with hatred and slavery4 ,at last he had the courage to suspect1 that no god at any time interferes with the order of events4 ,he learned a few facts1 and these facts positively refused to harmonize with the ignorant superstitions of his fathers4 ,finding his sacred books incorrect and false in some particulars1 his faith in their authenticity began to be shaken2 finding his priests ignorant upon some points1 he began to lose respect for the cloth4 ,this was the commencement of intellectual freedom4 ,the civilization of man has increased just to the same extent that religious power has decreased4 ,the intellectual advancement of man depends upon how often he can exchange an old superstition for a new truth4 ,the church never enabled a human being to make even one of these exchanges2 on the contrary1 all her power has been used to prevent them4 ,in spite1 however1 of the church1 man found that some of his religious conceptions were wrong4 ,by reading his ,bible1 he found that the ideas of his ,god were more cruel and brutal than those of the most depraved savage4 ,he also discovered that this holy book was filled with ignorance1 and that it must have been written by persons wholly unacquainted with the nature of the phenomena by which we are surrounded2 and now and then1 some man had the goodness and courage to speak his honest thoughts4 ,in every age some thinker1 some doubter1 some investigator1 some hater of hypocrisy1 some despiser of sham1 some brave lover of the right1 has gladly1 proudly and heroically braved the ignorant fury of superstition for the sake of man and truth4 ,these divine men were generally torn in pieces by the worshipers of the gods4 ,socrates was poisoned because he lacked reverence for some of the deities4 ,christ was crucified by a religious rabble for the crime of blasphemy4 ,nothing is more gratifying to a religionist than to destroy his enemies at the command of ,god4 ,religious persecution springs from a due admixture of love towards ,god and hatred towards man4 ,the terrible religious wars that inundated the world with blood tended at least to bring all religion into disgrace and hatred4 ,thoughtful people began to question the divine origin of a religion that made its believers hold the rights of others in absolute contempt4 ,a few began to compare ,christianity with the religions of heathen people1 and were forced to admit that the difference was hardly worth dying for4 ,they also found that other nations were even happier and more prosperous than their own4 ,they began to suspect that their religion1 after all1 was not of much real value4 ,for three hundred years the ,christian world endeavored to rescue from the ,infidel the empty sepulchre of ,christ4 ,for three hundred years the armies of the cross were baffled and beaten by the victorious hosts of an impudent impostor4 ,this immense fact sowed the seeds of distrust throughout all ,christendom1 and millions began to lose confidence in a ,god who had been vanquished by ,mohammed4 ,the people also found that commerce made friends where religion made enemies1 and that religious zeal was utterly incompatible with peace between nations or individuals4 ,they discovered that those who loved the gods most were apt to love men least2 that the arrogance of universal forgiveness was amazing2 that the most malicious had the effrontery to pray for their enemies1 and that humility and tyranny were the fruit of the same tree4 ,for ages1 a deadly conflict has been waged between a few brave men and women of thought and genius upon the one side1 and the great ignorant religious mass on the other4 ,this is the war between ,science and ,faith4 ,the few have appealed to reason1 to honor1 to law1 to freedom1 to the known1 and to happiness here in this world4 ,the many have appealed to prejudice1 to fear1 to miracle1 to slavery1 to the unknown1 and to misery hereafter4 ,the few have said1 ,think6 ,the many have said1 ,believe6 ,the first doubt was the womb and cradle of progress1 and from the first doubt1 man has continued to advance4 ,men began to investigate1 and the church began to oppose4 ,the astronomer scanned the heavens1 while the church branded his grand forehead with the word1 ,infidel2 and now1 not a glittering star in all the vast expanse bears a ,christian name4 ,in spite of all religion1 the geologist penetrated the earth1 read her history in books of stone1 and found1 hidden within her bosom1 souvenirs of all the ages4 ,old ideas perished in the retort of the chemist1 and useful truths took their places4 ,one by one religious conceptions have been placed in the crucible of science1 and thus far1 nothing but dross has been found4 ,a new world has been discovered by the microscope2 everywhere has been found the infinite2 in every direction man has investigated and explored and nowhere1 in earth or stars1 has been found the footstep of any being superior to or independent of nature4 ,nowhere has been discovered the slightest evidence of any interference from without4 ,these are the sublime truths that enabled man to throw off the yoke of superstition4 ,these are the splendid facts that snatched the sceptre of authority from the hands of priests4 ,in that vast cemetery1 called the past1 are most of the religions of men1 and there1 too1 are nearly all their gods4 ,the sacred temples of ,india were ruins long ago4 ,over column and cornice2 over the painted and pictured walls1 cling and creep the trailing vines4 ,brahma1 the golden1 with four heads and four arms2 ,vishnu1 the sombre1 the punisher of the wicked1 with his three eyes1 his crescent1 and his necklace of skulls2 ,siva1 the destroyer1 red with seas of blood2 ,kali1 the goddess2 ,draupadi1 the white-armed1 and ,chrishna1 the ,christ1 all passed away and left the thrones of heaven desolate4 ,along the banks of the sacred ,nile1 ,isis no longer wandering weeps1 searching for the dead ,osiris4 ,the shadow of ,typhons scowl falls no more upon the waves4 ,the sun rises as of yore1 and his golden beams still smite the lips of ,memnon1 but ,mem-non is as voiceless as the ,sphinx4 ,the sacred fanes are lost in desert sands2 the dusty mummies are still waiting for the resurrection promised by their priests1 and the old beliefs1 wrought in curiously sculptured stone1 sleep in the mystery of a language lost and dead4 ,odin1 the author of life and soul1 ,vili and ,ve1 and the mighty giant ,ymir1 strode long ago from the icy halls of the ,north2 and ,thor1 with iron glove and glittering hammer1 dashes mountains to the earth no more4 ,broken are the circles and cromlechs of the ancient ,druids2 fallen upon the summits of the hills1 and covered with the centuries' moss1 are the sacred cairns4 ,the divine fires of ,persia and of the ,aztecs1 have died out in the ashes of the past1 and there is none to rekindle1 and none to feed the holy flames4 ,the harp of ,orpheus is still2 the drained cup of ,bacchus has been thrown aside2 ,venus lies dead in stone1 and her white bosom heaves no more with love4 ,the streams still murmur1 but no naiads bathe2 the trees still wave1 but in the forest aisles no dryads dance4 ,the gods have flown from high ,olympus4 ,not even the beautiful women can lure them back1 and ,danae lies unnoticed1 naked to the stars4 ,hushed forever are the thunders of ,sinai2 lost are the voices of the prophets1 and the land once flowing with milk and honey1 is but a desert waste4 ,one by one1 the myths have faded from the clouds3 one by one1 the phantom host has disappeared1 and one by one1 facts1 truths and realities have taken their places4 ,the supernatural has almost gone1 but the natural remains4 ,the gods have fled1 but man is here4 ,nations1 like individuals1 have their periods of youth1 of manhood and decay4 ,religions are the same4 ,the same inexorable destiny awaits them all4 ,the gods created by the nations must perish with their creators4 ,they were created by men1 and like men1 they must pass away4 ,the deities of one age are the by-words of the next ,the religion of our day1 and country1 is no more exempt from the sneer of the future than the others have been4 ,when ,india was supreme1 ,brahma sat upon the world's throne4 ,when the sceptre passed to ,egypt1 ,isis and ,osiris received the homage of mankind4 ,greece1 with her fierce valor1 swept to empire1 and ,zeus put on the purple of authority4 ,the earth trembled with the tread of ,rome's intrepid sons1 and ,jove grasped with mailed hand the thunderbolts of heaven4 ,rome fell1 and ,christians from her territory1 with the red sword of war1 carved out the ruling nations of the world1 and now ,christ sits upon the old throne4 ,who will be his successor8 ,day by day1 religious conceptions grow less and less intense4 ,day by day1 the old spirit dies out of book and creed4 ,the burning enthusiasm1 the quenchless zeal of the early church have gone1 never1 never to return4 ,the ceremonies remain1 but the ancient faith is fading out of the human heart4 ,the worn-out arguments fail to convince1 and denunciations that once blanched the faces of a race1 excite in us only derision and disgust4 ,as time rolls on1 the miracles grow mean and small1 and the evidences our fathers thought conclusive utterly fail to satisfy us4 ,there is an irrepressible conflict between religion and science1 and they cannot peaceably occupy the same brain nor the same world4 ,while utterly discarding all creeds1 and denying the truth of all religions1 there is neither in my heart nor upon my lips a sneer for the hopeful1 loving and tender souls who believe that from all this discord will result a perfect harmony2 that every evil will in some mysterious way become a good1 and that above and over all there is a being who1 in some way1 will reclaim and glorify every one of the children of men2 but for those who heartlessly try to prove that salvation is almost impossible2 that damnation is almost certain2 that the highway of the universe leads to hell2 who fill life with fear and death with horror2 who curse the cradle and mock the tomb1 it is impossible to entertain other than feelings of pity1 contempt and scorn4 ,reason1 ,observation and ,experience--the ,holy ,trinity of ,science--have taught us that happiness is the only good2 that the time to be happy is now1 and the way to be happy is to make others so4 ,this is enough for us4 ,in this belief we are content to live and die4 ,if by any possibility the existence of a power superior to1 and independent of1 nature shall be demonstrated1 there will then be time enough to kneel4 ,until then1 let us stand erect4 ,notwithstanding the fact that infidels in all ages have battled for the rights of man1 and have at all times been the fearless advocates of liberty and justice1 we are constantly charged by the church with tearing down without building again4 ,the church should by this time know that it is utterly impossible to rob men of their opinions4 ,the history of religious persecution fully establishes the fact that the mind necessarily resists and defies every attempt to control it by violence4 ,the mind necessarily clings to old ideas until prepared for the new4 ,the moment we comprehend the truth1 all erroneous ideas are of necessity cast aside4 ,a surgeon once called upon a poor cripple and kindly offered to render him any assistance in his power4 ,the surgeon began to discourse very learnedly upon the nature and origin of disease2 of the curative properties of certain medicines2 of the advantages of exercise1 air and light1 and of the various ways in which health and strength could be restored4 ,these remarks were so full of good sense1 and discovered so much profound thought and accurate knowledge1 that the cripple1 becoming thoroughly alarmed1 cried out1 ,do not1 ,i pray you1 take away my crutches4 ,they are my only support1 and without them ,i should be miserable indeed6 ,i am not going1 said the surgeon1 to take away your crutches4 ,i am going to cure you1 and then you will throw the crutches away yourself4 ,for the vagaries of the clouds the infidels propose to substitute the realities of earth2 for superstition1 the splendid demonstrations and achievements of science2 and for theological tyranny1 the chainless liberty of thought4 ,we do not say that we have discovered all2 that our doctrines are the all in all of truth4 ,we know of no end to the development of man4 ,we cannot unravel the infinite complications of matter and force4 ,the history of one monad is as unknown as that of the universe2 one drop of water is as wonderful as all the seas2 one leaf1 as all the forests2 and one grain of sand1 as all the stars4 ,we are not endeavoring to chain the future1 but to free the present4 ,we are not forging fetters for our children1 but we are breaking those our fathers made for us4 ,we are the advocates of inquiry1 of investigation and thought ,this of itself1 is an admission that we are not perfectly satisfied with all our conclusions4 ,philosophy has not the egotism of faith4 ,while superstition builds walls and creates obstructions1 science opens all the highways of thought4 ,we do not pretend to have circumnavigated everything1 and to have solved all difficulties1 but we do believe that it is better to love men than to fear gods2 that it is grander and nobler to think and investigate for yourself than to repeat a creed4 ,we are satisfied that there can be but little liberty on earth while men worship a tyrant in heaven4 ,we do not expect to accomplish everything in our day2 but we want to do what good we can1 and to render all the service possible in the holy cause of human progress4 ,we know that doing away with gods and supernatural persons and powers is not an end4 ,it is a means to an end3 the real end being the happiness of man4 ,felling forests is not the end of agriculture4 ,driving pirates from the sea is not all there is of commerce4 ,we are laying the foundations of the grand temple of the future--not the temple of all the gods1 but of all the people--wherein1 with appropriate rites1 will be celebrated the religion of ,humanity4 ,we are doing what little we can to hasten the coming of the day when society shall cease producing millionaires and mendicants--gorged indolence and famished industry--truth in rags1 and superstition robed and crowned4 ,we are looking for the time when the useful shall be the honorable2 and when ,reason1 throned upon the world's brain1 shall be the ,king of ,kings1 and ,god of ,gods4 ,,humboldt4 ,the ,universe is ,governed by ,law4 ,,great men seem to be a part of the infinite--brothers of the mountains and the seas4 ,humboldt was one of these4 ,he was one of those serene men1 in some respects like our own ,franklin1 whose names have all the lustre of a star4 ,he was one of the few1 great enough to rise above the superstition and prejudice of his time1 and to know that experience1 observation1 and reason are the only basis of knowledge4 ,he became one of the greatest of men in spite of having been born rich and noble--in spite of position4 ,i say in spite of these things1 because wealth and position are generally the enemies of genius1 and the destroyers of talent4 ,it is often said of this or that man1 that he is a self-made man--that he was born of the poorest and humblest parents1 and that with every obstacle to overcome he became great4 ,this is a mistake4 ,poverty is generally an advantage4 ,most of the intellectual giants of the world have been nursed at the sad and loving breast of poverty4 ,most of those who have climbed highest on the shining ladder of fame commenced at the lowest round4 ,they were reared in the straw-thatched cottages of ,europe2 in the log-houses of ,america2 in the factories of the great cities2 in the midst of toil2 in the smoke and din of labor1 and on the verge of want4 ,they were rocked by the feet of mothers whose hands1 at the same time1 were busy with the needle or the wheel4 ,it is hard for the rich to resist the thousand allurements of pleasure1 and so ,i say1 that ,humboldt1 in spite of having been born to wealth and high social position1 became truly and grandly great4 ,in the antiquated and romantic castle of ,tegel1 by the side of the pine forest1 on the shore of the charming lake1 near the beautiful city of ,berlin1 the great ,humboldt1 one hundred years ago to-day1 was born1 and there he was educated after the method suggested by ,rousseau1--,campe1 the philologist and critic1 and the intellectual ,kunth being his tutors4 ,there he received the impressions that determined his career2 there the great idea that the universe is governed by law1 took possession of his mind1 and there he dedicated his life to the demonstration of this sublime truth4 ,he came to the conclusion that the source of man's unhappiness is his ignorance of nature4 ,after having received the most thorough education at that time possible1 and having determined to what end he would devote the labors of his life1 he turned his attention to the sciences of geology1 mining1 mineralogy1 botany1 the distribution of plants1 the distribution of animals1 and the effect of climate upon man4 ,all grand physical phenomena were investigated and explained4 ,from his youth he had felt a great desire for travel4 ,he felt1 as he says1 a violent passion for the sea1 and longed to look upon nature in her wildest and most rugged forms4 ,he longed to give a physical description of the universe--a grand picture of nature2 to account for all phenomena2 to discover the laws governing the world2 to do away with that splendid delusion called special providence1 and to establish the fact that the universe is governed by law4 ,to establish this truth was1 and is1 of infinite importance to mankind4 ,that fact is the death-knell of superstition2 it gives liberty to every soul1 annihilates fear1 and ushers in the ,age of ,reason4 ,the object of this illustrious man was to comprehend the phenomena of physical objects in their general connection1 and to represent nature as one great whole1 moved and animated by internal forces4 ,for this purpose he turned his attention to descriptive botany1 traversing distant lands and mountain ranges to ascertain with certainty the geographical distribution of plants4 ,he investigated the laws regulating the differences of temperature and climate1 and the changes of the atmosphere4 ,he studied the formation of the earth's crust1 explored the deepest mines1 ascended the highest mountains1 and wandered through the craters of extinct volcanoes4 ,he became thoroughly acquainted with chemistry1 with astronomy1 with terrestrial magnetism2 and as the investigation of one subject leads to all others1 for the reason that there is a mutual dependence and a necessary connection between all facts1 so ,humboldt became acquainted with all the known sciences4 ,his fame does not depend so much upon his discoveries 7although he discovered enough to make hundreds of reputations7 as upon his vast and splendid generalizations4 ,he was to science what ,shakespeare was to the drama4 ,he found1 so to speak1 the world full of unconnected facts--all portions of a vast system--parts of a great machine2 he discovered the connection that each bears to all2 put them together1 and demonstrated beyond all contradiction that the earth is governed by law4 ,he knew that to discover the connection of phenomena is the primary aim of all natural investigation4 ,he was infinitely practical4 ,origin and destiny were questions with which he had nothing to do4 ,his surroundings made him what he was4 ,in accordance with a law not fully comprehended1 he was a production of his time4 ,great men do not live alone2 they are surrounded by the great2 they are the instruments used to accomplish the tendencies of their generation2 they fulfill the prophecies of their age4 ,nearly all of the scientific men of the eighteenth century had the same idea entertained by ,humboldt1 but most of them in a dim and confused way4 ,there was1 however1 a general belief among the intelligent that the world is governed by law1 and that there really exists a connection between all facts1 or that all facts are simply the different aspects of a general fact1 and that the task of science is to discover this connection2 to comprehend this general fact or to announce the laws of things4 ,germany was full of thought1 and her universities swarmed with philosophers and grand thinkers in every department of knowledge4 ,humboldt was the friend and companion of the greatest poets1 historians1 philologists1 artists1 statesmen1 critics1 and logicians of his time4 ,he was the companion of ,schiller1 who believed that man would be regenerated through the influence of the ,beautiful2 of ,goethe1 the grand patriarch of ,german literature2 of ,weiland1 who has been called the ,voltaire of ,germany2 of ,herder1 who wrote the outlines of a philosophical history of man2 of ,kotzebue1 who lived in the world of romance2 of ,schleiermacher1 the pantheist2 of ,schlegel1 who gave to his countrymen the enchanted realm of ,shakespeare2 of the sublime ,kant1 author of the first work published in ,germany on ,pure ,reason2 of ,fichte1 the infinite idealist2 of ,schopenhauer1 the ,european ,buddhist who followed the great ,gautama to the painless and dreamless ,nirwana1 and of hundreds of others1 whose names are familiar to and honored by the scientific world4 ,the ,german mind had been grandly roused from the long lethargy of the dark ages of ignorance1 fear1 and faith4 ,guided by the holy light of reason1 every department of knowledge was investigated1 enriched and illustrated4 ,humboldt breathed the atmosphere of investigation2 old ideas were abandoned2 old creeds1 hallowed by centuries1 were thrown aside2 thought became courageous2 the athlete1 ,reason1 challenged to mortal combat the monsters of superstition4 ,no wonder that under these influences ,humboldt formed the great purpose of presenting to the world a picture of ,nature1 in order that men might1 for the first time1 behold the face of their ,mother4 ,europe becoming too small for his genius1 he visited the tropics in the new world1 where in the most circumscribed limits he could find the greatest number of plants1 of animals1 and the greatest diversity of climate1 that he might ascertain the laws governing the production and distribution of plants1 animals and men1 and the effects of climate upon them all4 ,he sailed along the gigantic ,amazon--the mysterious ,orinoco--traversed the ,pampas--climbed the ,andes until he stood upon the crags of ,chimborazo1 more than eighteen thousand feet above the level of the sea1 and climbed on until blood flowed from his eyes and lips4 ,for nearly five years he pursued his investigations in the new world1 accompanied by the intrepid ,bonpland4 ,nothing escaped his attention4 ,he was the best intellectual organ of these new revelations of science4 ,he was calm1 reflective and eloquent2 filled with a sense of the beautiful1 and the love of truth4 ,his collections were immense1 and valuable beyond calculation to every science4 ,he endured innumerable hardships1 braved countless dangers in unknown and savage lands1 and exhausted his fortune for the advancement of true learning4 ,upon his return to ,europe he was hailed as the second ,columbus2 as the scientific discoverer of ,america2 as the revealer of a new world2 as the great demonstrator of the sublime truth1 that the universe is governed by law4 ,i have seen a picture of the old man1 sitting upon a mountain side--above him the eternal snow--below1 the smiling valley of the tropics1 filled with vine and palm2 his chin upon his breast1 his eyes deep1 thoughtful and calm--his forehead majestic--grander than the mountain upon which he sat--crowned with the snow of his whitened hair1 he looked the intellectual autocrat of this world4 ,not satisfied with his discoveries in ,america1 he crossed the steppes of ,asia1 the wastes of ,siberia1 the great ,ural range1 adding to the knowledge of mankind at every step4 ,his energy acknowledged no obstacle1 his life knew no leisure2 every day was filled with labor and with thought4 ,he was one of the apostles of science1 and he served his divine master with a self-sacrificing zeal that knew no abatement2 with an ardor that constantly increased1 and with a devotion unwavering and constant as the polar star4 ,in order that the people at large might have the benefit of his numerous discoveries1 and his vast knowledge1 he delivered at ,berlin a course of lectures1 consisting of sixty-one free addresses1 upon the following subjects3 ,five1 upon the nature and limits of physical geography4 ,three1 were devoted to a history of science4 ,two1 to inducements to a study of natural science4 ,sixteen1 on the heavens4 ,five1 on the form1 density1 latent heat1 and magnetic power of the earth1 and to the polar light4 ,four1 were on the nature of the crust of the earth1 on hot springs earthquakes1 and volcanoes4 ,two1 on mountains and the type of their formation4 ,two1 on the form of the earth's surface1 on the connection of continents1 and the elevation of soil over ravines4 ,three1 on the sea as a globular fluid surrounding the earth4 ,ten1 on the atmosphere as an elastic fluid surrounding the earth1 and on the distribution of heat4 ,one1 on the geographic distribution of organ ized matter in general4 ,three1 on the geography of plants4 ,three1 on the geography of animals1 and ,two1 on the races of men4 ,these lectures are what is known as the ,cosmos1 and present a scientific picture of the world--of infinite diversity in unity--of ceaseless motion in the eternal grasp of law4 ,these lectures contain the result of his investigation1 observation1 and experience2 they furnish the connection between phenomena2 they disclose some of the changes through which the earth has passed in the countless ages2 the history of vegetation1 animals and men1 the effects of climate upon individuals and nations1 the relation we sustain to other worlds1 and demonstrate that all phenomena1 whether insignificant or grand1 exist in accordance with inexorable law4 ,there are some truths1 however1 that we never should forget3 ,superstition has always been the relentless enemy of science2 faith has been a hater of demonstration2 hypocrisy has been sincere only in its dread of truth1 and all religions are inconsistent with mental freedom4 ,since the murder of ,hypatia in the fifth century1 when the polished blade of ,greek philosophy was broken by the club of ignorant ,catholicism1 until to-day1 superstition has detested every effort of reason4 ,it is almost impossible to conceive of the completeness of the victory that the church achieved over philosophy4 ,for ages science was utterly ignored2 thought was a poor slave2 an ignorant priest was master of the world2 faith put out the eyes of the soul2 the reason was a trembling coward2 the imagination was set on fire of hell2 every human feeling was sought to be suppressed2 love was considered infinitely sinful2 pleasure was the road to eternal fire1 and ,god was supposed to be happy only when his children were miserable4 ,the world was governed by an ,almighty's whim2 prayers could change the order of things1 halt the grand procession of nature1 could produce rain1 avert pestilence1 famine and death in all its forms4 ,there was no idea of the certain2 all depended upon divine pleasure or displeasure rather2 heaven was full of inconsistent malevolence1 and earth of ignorance4 ,everything was done to appease the divine wrath2 every public calamity was caused by the sins of the people2 by a failure to pay tithes1 or for having1 even in secret1 felt a disrespect for a priest4 ,to the poor multitude1 the earth was a kind of enchanted forest1 full of demons ready to devour1 and theological serpents lurking with infinite power to fascinate and torture the unhappy and impotent soul4 ,life to them was a dim and mysterious labyrinth1 in which they wandered weary1 and lost1 guided by priests as bewildered as themselves1 without knowing that at every step the ,ariadne of reason offered them the long lost clue4 ,the very heavens were full of death2 the lightning was regarded as the glittering vengeance of ,god1 and the earth was thick with snares for the unwary feet of man4 ,the soul was supposed to be crowded with the wild beasts of desire2 the heart to be totally corrupt1 prompting only to crime2 virtues were regarded as deadly sins in disguise2 there was a continual warfare being waged between the ,deity and the ,devil1 for the possession of every soul2 the latter generally being considered victorious4 ,the flood1 the tornado1 the volcano1 were all evidences of the displeasure of heaven1 and the sinfulness of man4 ,the blight that withered1 the frost that blackened1 the earthquake that devoured1 were the messengers of the ,creator4 ,the world was governed by ,fear4 ,against all the evils of nature1 there was known only the defence of prayer1 of fasting1 of credulity1 and devotion4 ,man in his helplessness endeavored to soften the heart of ,god4 ,the faces of the multitude were blanched with fear1 and wet with tears2 they were the prey of hypocrites1 kings and priests4 ,my heart bleeds when ,i contemplate the sufferings endured by the millions now dead2 of those who lived when the world appeared to be insane2 when the heavens were filled with an infinite ,horror who snatched babes with dimpled hands and rosy cheeks from the white breasts of mothers1 and dashed them into an abyss of eternal flame4 ,slowly1 beautifully1 like the coming of the dawn1 came the grand truth1 that the universe is governed by law2 that disease fastens itself upon the good and upon the bad2 that the tornado cannot be stopped by counting beads2 that the rushing lava pauses not for bended knees1 the lightning for clasped and uplifted hands1 nor the cruel waves of the sea for prayer2 that paying tithes causes1 rather than prevents famine2 that pleasure is not sin2 that happiness is the only good2 that demons and gods exist only in the imagination2 that faith is a lullaby sung to put the soul to sleep2 that devotion is a bribe that fear offers to supposed power2 that offering rewards in another world for obedience in this1 is simply buying a soul on credit2 that knowledge consists in ascertaining the laws of nature1 and that wisdom is the science of happiness4 ,slowly1 grandly1 beautifully1 these truths are dawning upon mankind4 ,from ,copernicus we learned that this earth is only a grain of sand on the infinite shore of the universe2 that everywhere we are surrounded by shining worlds vastly greater than our own1 all moving and existing in accordance with law4 ,true1 the earth began to grow small1 but man began to grow great4 ,the moment the fact was1 established that other worlds are governed by law1 it was only natural to conclude that our little world was also under its dominion4 ,the old theological method of accounting for physical phenomena by the pleasure and displeasure of the ,deity was1 by the intellectual1 abandoned4 ,they found that disease1 death1 life1 thought1 heat1 cold1 the seasons1 the winds1 the dreams of man1 the instinct of animals1--in short1 that all physical and mental phenomena are governed by law1 absolute1 eternal and inexorable4 ,let it be understood that by the term ,law is meant the same invariable relations of succession and resemblance predicated of all facts springing from like conditions4 ,law is a fact--not a cause4 ,it is a fact1 that like conditions produce like results3 this fact is ,law4 ,when we say that the universe is governed by law1 we mean that this fact1 called law1 is incapable of change2 that it is1 has been1 and forever will be1 the same inexorable1 immutable ,fact1 inseparable from all phenomena4 ,law1 in this sense1 was not enacted or made4 ,it could not have been otherwise than as it is4 ,that which necessarily exists has no creator4 ,only a few years ago this earth was considered the real center of the universe2 all the stars were supposed to revolve around this insignificant atom4 ,the ,german mind1 more than any other1 has done away with this piece of egotism4 ,purbach and ,mullerus1 in the fifteenth century1 contributed most to the advancement of astronomy in their day4 ,to the latter1 the world is indebted for the introduction of decimal fractions1 which completed our arithmetical notation1 and formed the second of the three steps by which1 in modern times1 the science of numbers has been so greatly improved2 and yet1 both of these men believed in the most childish absurdities1 at least in enough of them1 to die without their orthodoxy having ever been suspected4 ,next came the great ,copernicus1 and he stands at the head of the heroic thinkers of his time1 who had the courage and the mental strength to break the chains of prejudice1 custom1 and authority1 and to establish truth on the basis of experience1 observation and reason4 ,he removed the earth1 so to speak1 from the centre of the universe1 and ascribed to it a two-fold motion1 and demonstrated the true position which it occupies in the solar system4 ,at his bidding the earth began to revolve4 ,at the command of his genius it commenced its grand flight mid the eternal constellations round the sun4 ,for fifty years his discoveries were disregarded4 ,all at once1 by the exertions of ,galileo1 they were kindled into so grand a conflagration as to consume the philosophy of ,aristotle1 to alarm the hierarchy of ,rome1 and to threaten the existence of every opinion not founded upon experience1 observation1 and reason4 ,the earth was no longer considered a universe1 governed by the caprices of some revengeful ,deity1 who had made the stars out of what he had left after completing the world1 and had stuck them in the sky simply to adorn the night4 ,i have said this much concerning astronomy because it was the first splendid step forward6 ,the first sublime blow that shattered the lance and shivered the shield of superstition2 the first real help that man received from heaven2 because it was the first great lever placed beneath the altar of a false religion2 the first revelation of the infinite to man2 the first authoritative declaration1 that the universe is governed by law2 the first science that gave the lie direct to the cosmogony of barbarism1 and because it is the sublimest victory that the reason has achieved4 ,in speaking of astronomy1 ,i have confined myself to the discoveries made since the revival of learning4 ,long ago1 on the banks of the ,ganges1 ages before ,copernicus lived1 ,aryabhatta taught that the earth is a sphere1 and revolves on its own axis4 ,this1 however1 does not detract from the glory of the great ,german4 ,the discovery of the ,hindu had been lost in the midnight of ,europe--in the age of faith1 and ,copernicus was as much a discoverer as though ,aryabhatta had never lived4 ,in this short address there is no time to speak of other sciences1 and to point out the particular evidence furnished by each1 to establish the dominion of law1 nor to more than mention the name of ,descartes1 the first who undertook to give an explanation of the celestial motions1 or who formed the vast and philosophic conception of reducing all the phenomena of the universe to the same law2 of ,montaigne1 one of the heroes of common sense2 of ,galvani1 whose experiments gave the telegraph to the world2 of ,voltaire1 who contributed more than any other of the sons of men to the destruction of religious intolerance2 of ,august ,comte1 whose genius erected to itself a monument that still touches the stars2 of ,guttenberg1 ,watt1 ,stephenson1 ,arkwright1 all soldiers of science1 in the grand army of the dead kings4 ,the glory of science is1 that it is freeing the soul--breaking the mental manacles--getting the brain out of bondage--giving courage to thought--filling the world with mercy1 justice1 and joy4 ,science found agriculture plowing with a stick reaping with a sickle--commerce at the mercy of the treacherous waves and the inconstant winds--a world without books--without schools man denying the authority of reason1 employing his ingenuity in the manufacture of instruments of torture1 in building inquisitions and cathedrals4 ,it found the land filled with malicious monks--with persecuting ,protestants1 and the burners of men4 ,it found a world full of fear2 ignorance upon its knees2 credulity the greatest virtue2 women treated like beasts of burden2 cruelty the only means of reformation4 ,it found the world at the mercy of disease and famine2 men trying to read their fates in the stars1 and to tell their fortunes by signs and wonders2 generals thinking to conquer their enemies by making the sign of the cross1 or by telling a rosary4 ,it found all history full of petty and ridiculous falsehood1 and the ,almighty was supposed to spend most of his time turning sticks into snakes1 drowning boys for swimming on ,sunday1 and killing little children for the purpose of converting their parents4 ,it found the earth filled with slaves and tyrants1 the people in all countries downtrodden1 half naked1 half starved1 without hope1 and without reason in the world4 ,such was the condition of man when the morning of science dawned upon his brain1 and before he had heard the sublime declaration that the universe is governed by law4 ,for the change that has taken place we are indebted solely to science--the only lever capable of raising mankind4 ,abject faith is barbarism2 reason is civilization4 ,to obey is slavish2 to act from a sense of obligation perceived by the reason1 is noble4 ,ignorance worships mystery2 ,reason explains it3 the one grovels1 the other soars4 ,no wonder that fable is the enemy of knowledge4 ,a man with a false diamond shuns the society of lapidaries1 and it is upon this principle that superstition abhors science4 ,in all ages the people have honored those who dishonored them4 ,they have worshiped their destroyers2 they have canonized the most gigantic liars1 and buried the great thieves in marble and gold4 ,under the loftiest monuments sleeps the dust of murder4 ,imposture has always worn a crown4 ,the world is beginning to change because the people are beginning to think4 ,to think is to advance4 ,everywhere the great minds are investigating the creeds and the superstitions of men--the phenomena of nature1 and the laws of things4 ,at the head of this great army of investigators stood ,humboldt--the serene leader of an intellectual host--a king by the suffrage of ,science1 and the divine right of ,genius4 ,and to-day we are not honoring some butcher called a soldier--some wily politician called a statesman--some robber called a king1 nor some malicious metaphysician called a saint ,we are honoring the grand ,humboldt1 whose victories were all achieved in the arena of thought2 who destroyed prejudice1 ignorance and error--not men2 who shed light--not blood1 and who contributed to the knowledge1 the wealth1 and the happiness of all mankind4 ,his life was pure1 his aims lofty1 his learning varied and profound1 and his achievements vast4 ,we honor him because he has ennobled our race1 because he has contributed as much as any man living or dead to the real prosperity of the world4 ,we honor him because he honored us--because he labored for others--because he was the most learned man of the most learned nation--because he left a legacy of glory to every human being4 ,for these reasons he is honored throughout the world4 ,millions are doing homage to his genius at this moment1 and millions are pronouncing his name with reverence and recounting what he accomplished4 ,we associate the name of ,humboldt with oceans1 continents1 mountains1 and volcanoes--with the great palms--the wide deserts--the snow-lipped craters of the ,andes--with primeval forests and ,european capitals--with wildernesses and universities--with savages and savans--with the lonely rivers of unpeopled wastes--with peaks and pampas1 and steppes1 and cliffs and crags--with the progress of the world--with every science known to man1 and with every star glittering in the immensity of space4 ,humboldt adopted none of the soul-shrinking creeds of his day2 wasted none of his time in the stupidities1 inanities and contradictions of theological metaphysics2 he did not endeavor to harmonize the astronomy and geology of a barbarous people with the science of the nineteenth century4 ,never1 for one moment1 did he abandon the sublime standard of truth2 he investigated1 he studied1 he thought1 he separated the gold from the dross in the crucible of his grand brain4 ,he was never found on his knees before the altar of superstition4 ,he stood erect by the grand tranquil column of ,reason4 ,he was an admirer1 a lover1 an adorer of ,nature1 and at the age of ninety1 bowed by the weight of nearly a century1 covered with the insignia of honor1 loved by a nation1 respected by a world1 with kings for his servants1 he laid his weary head upon her bosom--upon the bosom of the universal ,mother--and with her loving arms around him1 sank into that slumber called ,death4 ,history added another name to the starry scroll of the immortals4 ,the world is his monument2 upon the eternal granite of her hills he inscribed his name1 and there upon everlasting stone his genius wrote this1 the sublimest of truths3 ,the ,universe is ,governed by ,law6 ,,thomas ,,paine ,with ,his ,name ,left ,out1 the ,history of ,liberty ,cannot be ,written4 ,,to speak the praises of the brave and thoughtful dead1 is to me a labor of gratitude and love4 ,through all the centuries gone1 the mind of man has been beleaguered by the mailed hosts of superstition4 ,slowly and painfully has advanced the army of deliverance4 ,hated by those they wished to rescue1 despised by those they were dying to save1 these grand soldiers1 these immortal deliverers1 have fought without thanks1 labored without applause1 suffered without pity1 and they have died execrated and abhorred4 ,for the good of mankind they accepted isolation1 poverty1 and calumny4 ,they gave up all1 sacrificed all1 lost all but truth and self-respect4 ,one of the bravest soldiers in this army was ,thomas ,paine2 and for one1 ,i feel indebted to him for the liberty we are enjoying this day4 ,born among the poor1 where children are burdens2 in a country where real liberty was unknown2 where the privileges of class were guarded with infinite jealousy1 and the rights of the individual trampled beneath the feet of priests and nobles2 where to advocate justice was treason2 where intellectual freedom was ,infidelity1 it is wonderful that the idea of true liberty ever entered his brain4 4 ,poverty was his mother--,necessity his master4 ,he had more brains than books2 more sense than education2 more courage than politeness2 more strength than polish4 ,he had no veneration for old mistakes--no admiration for ancient lies4 ,he loved the truth for the truth's sake1 and for man's sake4 ,he saw oppression on every hand2 injustice everywhere2 hypocrisy at the altar1 venality on the bench1 tyranny on the throne2 and with a splendid courage he espoused the cause of the weak against the strong--of the enslaved many against the titled few4 ,in ,england he was nothing4 ,he belonged to the lower classes4 ,there was no avenue open for him4 ,the people hugged their chains1 and the whole power of the government was ready to crush any man who endeavored to strike a blow for the right4 ,at the age of thirty-seven1 ,thomas ,paine left ,england for ,america1 with the high hope of being instrumental in the establishment of a free government4 ,in his own country he could accomplish nothing4 ,those two vultures--,church and ,state--were ready to tear in pieces and devour the heart of any one who might deny their divine right to enslave the world4 ,upon his arrival in this country1 he found himself possessed of a letter of introduction1 signed by another ,infidel1 the illustrious ,franklin4 ,this1 and his native genius1 constituted his entire capital2 and he needed no more4 ,he found the colonies clamoring for justice2 whining about their grievances2 upon their knees at the foot of the throne1 imploring that mixture of idiocy and insanity1 ,george the ,,iii41 by the grace of ,god1 for a restoration of their ancient privileges4 ,they were not endeavoring to become free men1 but were trying to soften the heart of their master4 ,they were perfectly willing to make brick if ,pharaoh would furnish the straw4 ,the colonists wished for1 hoped for1 and prayed for reconciliation ,they did not dream of independence4 ,paine gave to the world his ,common ,sense4 ,it was the first argument for separation1 the first assault upon the ,british form of government1 the first blow for a republic1 and it aroused our fathers like a trumpet's blast4 ,he was the first to perceive the destiny of the ,new ,world4 ,no other pamphlet ever accomplished such wonderful results4 ,it was filled with argument1 reason1 persuasion1 and unanswerable logic4 ,it opened a new world4 ,it filled the present with hope and the future with honor4 ,everywhere the people responded1 and in a few months the ,continental ,congress declared the colonies free and independent ,states4 ,a new nation was born4 ,it is simple justice to say that ,paine did more to cause the ,declaration of ,independence than any other man4 ,neither should it be forgotten that his attacks upon ,great ,britain were also attacks upon monarchy2 and while he convinced the people that the colonies ought to separate from the mother country1 he also proved to them that a free government is the best that can be instituted among men4 ,in my judgment1 ,thomas ,paine was the best political writer that ever lived4 ,what he wrote was pure nature1 and his soul and his pen ever went together4 ,ceremony1 pageantry1 and all the paraphernalia of power1 had no effect upon him4 ,he examined into the why and wherefore of things4 ,he was perfectly radical in his mode of thought4 ,nothing short of the bed-rock satisfied him4 ,his enthusiasm for what he believed to be right knew no bounds4 ,during all the dark scenes of the ,revolution1 never for one moment did he despair4 ,year after year his brave words were ringing through the land1 and by the bivouac fires the weary soldiers read the inspiring words of ,common ,sense1 filled with ideas sharper than their swords1 and consecrated themselves anew to the cause of ,freedom4 ,paine was not content with having aroused the spirit of independence1 but he gave every energy of his soul to keep that spirit alive4 ,he was with the army4 ,he shared its defeats1 its dangers1 and its glory4 ,when the situation became desperate1 when gloom settled upon all1 he gave them the ,crisis4 ,it was a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night1 leading the way to freedom1 honor1 and glory4 ,he shouted to them1 ,these are the times that try men's souls4 ,the summer soldier1 and the sunshine patriot1 will1 in this crisis1 shrink from the service of his country2 but he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman4 ,to those who wished to put the war off to some future day1 with a lofty and touching spirit of self-sacrifice he said3 ,every generous parent should say1 ',if there must be war let it be in my day1 that my child may have peace4' ,to the cry that ,americans were rebels1 he replied3 ,he that rebels against reason is a real rebel2 but he that in defence of reason rebels against tyranny1 has a better title to ',defender of the ,faith' than ,george the ,third4 ,some said it was not to the interest of the colonies to be free4 ,paine answered this by saying1 ,to know whether it be the interest of the continent to be independent1 we need ask only this simple1 easy question3 ',is it the interest of a man to be a boy all his life8' ,he found many who would listen to nothing1 and to them he said1 ,that to argue with a man who has renounced his reason is like giving medicine to the dead4 ,this sentiment ought to adorn the walls of every orthodox church4 ,there is a world of political wisdom in this3 ,england lost her liberty in a long chain of right reasoning from wrong principles2 and there is real discrimination in saying1 ,the ,greeks and ,romans were strongly possessed of the spirit of liberty1 but not the principles1 for at the time that they were determined not to be slaves themselves1 they employed their power to enslave the rest of mankind4 ,in his letter to the ,british people1 in which he tried to convince them that war was not to their interest1 occurs the following passage brimful of common sense3 ,war never can be the interest of a trading nation any more than quarreling can be profitable to a man in business4 ,but to make war with those who trade with us is like setting a bull-dog upon a customer at the shop-door4 ,the writings of ,paine fairly glitter with simple1 compact1 logical statements1 that carry conviction to the dullest and most prejudiced4 ,he had the happiest possible way of putting the case2 in asking questions in such a way that they answer themselves1 and in stating his premises so clearly that the deduction could not be avoided4 ,day and night he labored for ,america2 month after month1 year after year1 he gave himself to the ,great ,cause1 until there was a government of the people and for the people1 and until the banner of the stars floated over a continent redeemed1 and consecrated to the happiness of mankind4 ,at the close of the ,revolution1 no one stood higher in ,america than ,thomas ,paine4 ,the best1 the wisest1 the most patriotic1 were his friends and admirers2 and had he been thinking only of his own good he might have rested from his toils and spent the remainder of his life in comfort and in ease4 ,he could have been what the world is pleased to call respectable4 ,he could have died surrounded by clergymen1 warriors and statesmen4 ,at his death there would have been an imposing funeral1 miles of carriages1 civic societies1 salvos of artillery1 a nation in mourning1 and1 above all1 a splendid monument covered with lies4 ,he chose rather to benefit mankind4 ,at that time the seeds sown by the great ,infidels were beginning to bear fruit in ,france4 ,the people were beginning to think4 ,the ,eighteenth ,century was crowning its gray hairs with the wreath of ,progress4 ,on every hand ,science was bearing testimony against the ,church4 ,voltaire had filled ,europe with light2 ,d',holbach was giving to the elite of ,paris the principles contained in his ,system of ,nature4 ,the ,encyclopedists had attacked superstition with information for the masses4 ,the foundation of things began to be examined4 ,a few had the courage to keep their shoes on and let the bush burn4 ,miracles began to get scarce4 ,everywhere the people began to inquire4 ,america had set an example to the world4 ,the word ,liberty was in the mouths of men1 and they began to wipe the dust from their knees4 ,the dawn of a new day had appeared4 ,thomas ,paine went to ,france4 ,into the new movement he threw all his energies4 ,his fame had gone before him1 and he was welcomed as a friend of the human race1 and as a champion of free government4 ,he had never relinquished his intention of pointing out to his countrymen the defects1 absurdities and abuses of the ,english government ,for this purpose he composed and published his greatest political work1 ,the ,rights of ,man4 ,this work should be read by every man and woman4 ,it is concise1 accurate1 natural1 convincing1 and unanswerable4 ,it shows great thought2 an intimate knowledge of the various forms of government2 deep insight into the very springs of human action1 and a courage that compels respect and admiration4 ,the most difficult political problems are solved in a few sentences4 ,the venerable arguments in favor of wrong are refuted with a question--answered with a word4 ,for forcible illustration1 apt comparison1 accuracy and clearness of statement1 and absolute thoroughness1 it has never been excelled4 ,the fears of the administration were aroused1 and ,paine was prosecuted for libel and found guilty2 and yet there is not a sentiment in the entire work that will not challenge the admiration of every civilized man4 ,it is a magazine of political wisdom1 an arsenal of ideas1 and an honor1 not only to ,thomas ,paine1 but to human nature itself4 ,it could have been written only by the man who had the generosity1 the exalted patriotism1 the goodness to say1 ,the world is my country1 and to do good my religion4 ,there is in all the utterances of the world no grander1 no sublimer sentiment4 ,there is no creed that can be compared with it for a moment4 ,it should be wrought in gold1 adorned with jewels1 and impressed upon every human heart3 ,the world is my country1 and to do good my religion4 ,in #agib1 ,paine was elected by the department of ,calais as their representative in the ,national ,assembly4 ,so great was his popularity in ,france that he was selected about the same time by the people of no less than four departments4 ,upon taking his place in the ,assembly he was appointed as one of a committee to draft a constitution for ,france4 ,had the ,french people taken the advice of ,thomas ,paine there would have been no reign of terror4 ,the streets of ,paris would not have been filled with blood ,the ,revolution would have been the grandest success of the world4 ,the truth is that ,paine was too conservative to suit the leaders of the ,french ,revolution4 ,they1 to a great extent1 were carried away by hatred1 and a desire to destroy4 ,they had suffered so long1 they had borne so much1 that it was impossible for them to be moderate in the hour of victory4 ,besides all this1 the ,french people had been so robbed by the government1 so degraded by the church1 that they were not fit material with which to construct a republic4 ,many of the leaders longed to establish a beneficent and just government1 but the people asked for revenge4 ,paine was filled with a real love for mankind4 ,his philanthropy was boundless4 ,he wished to destroy monarchy--not the monarch4 ,he voted for the destruction of tyranny1 and against the death of the king4 ,he wished to establish a government on a new basis2 one that would forget the past2 one that would give privileges to none1 and protection to all4 ,in the ,assembly1 where nearly all were demanding the execution of the king--where to differ from the majority was to be suspected1 and1 where to be suspected was almost certain death ,thomas ,paine had the courage1 the goodness and the justice to vote against death4 ,to vote against the execution of the king was a vote against his own life4 ,this was the sublimity of devotion to principle4 ,for this he was arrested1 imprisoned1 and doomed to death4 ,search the records of the world and you will find but few sublimer acts than that of ,thomas ,paine voting against the kings death4 ,he1 the hater of despotism1 the abhorrer of monarchy1 the champion of the rights of man1 the republican1 accepting death to save the life of a deposed tyrant--of a throneless king4 ,this was the last grand act of his political life--the sublime conclusion of his political career4 ,all his life he had been the disinterested friend of man4 ,he had labored--not for money1 not for fame1 but for the general good4 ,he had aspired to no office2 had asked no recognition of his services1 but had ever been content to labor as a common soldier in the army of ,progress4 ,confining his efforts to no country1 looking upon the world as his field of action1 filled with a genuine love for the right1 he found himself imprisoned by the very people he had striven to save4 ,had his enemies succeeded in bringing him to the block1 he would have escaped the calumnies and the hatred of the ,christian world4 ,in this country1 at least1 he would have ranked with the proudest names4 ,on the anniversary of the ,declaration his name would have been upon the lips of all the orators1 and his memory in the hearts of all the people4 ,thomas ,paine had not finished his career4 ,he had spent his life thus far in destroying the power of kings1 and now he turned his attention to the priests4 ,he knew that every abuse had been embalmed in ,scripture--that every outrage was in partnership with some holy text4 ,he knew that the throne skulked behind the altar1 and both behind a pretended revelation from ,god4 ,by this time he had found that it was of little use to free the body and leave the mind in chains4 ,he had explored the foundations of despotism1 and had found them infinitely rotten4 ,he had dug under the throne1 and it occurred to him that he would take a look behind the altar4 ,the result of his investigations was given to the world in the ,age of ,reason4 ,from the moment of its publication he became infamous4 ,he was calumniated beyond measure4 ,to slander him was to secure the thanks of the church4 ,all his services were instantly forgotten1 disparaged or denied4 ,he was shunned as though he had been a pestilence4 ,most of his old friends forsook him4 ,he was regarded as a moral plague1 and at the bare mention of his name the bloody hands of the church were raised in horror4 ,he was denounced as the most despicable of men4 ,not content with following him to his grave1 they pursued him after death with redoubled fury1 and recounted with infinite gusto and satisfaction the supposed horrors of his death-bed2 gloried in the fact that he was forlorn and friendless1 and gloated like fiends over what they supposed to be the agonizing remorse of his lonely death4 ,it is wonderful that all his services were thus forgotten4 ,it is amazing that one kind word did not fall from some pulpit2 that some one did not accord to him1 at least--honesty4 ,strange1 that in the general denunciation some one did not remember his labor for liberty1 his devotion to principle1 his zeal for the rights of his fellow-men4 ,he had1 by brave and splendid effort1 associated his name with the cause of ,progress4 ,he had made it impossible to write the history of political freedom with his name left out ,he was one of the creators of light2 one of the heralds of the dawn4 ,he hated tyranny in the name of kings1 and in the name of ,god1 with every drop of his noble blood4 ,he believed in liberty and justice1 and in the sacred doctrine of human equality4 ,under these divine banners he fought the battle of his life4 ,in both worlds he offered his blood for the good of man4 ,in the wilderness of ,america1 in the ,french ,assembly1 in the sombre cell waiting for death1 he was the same unflinching1 unwavering friend of his race2 the same undaunted champion of universal freedom4 ,and for this he has been hated2 for this the church has violated even his grave4 ,this is enough to make one believe that nothing is more natural than for men to devour their benefactors4 ,the people in all ages have crucified and glorified4 ,whoever lifts his voice against abuses1 whoever arraigns the past at the bar of the present1 whoever asks the king to show his commission1 or questions the authority of the priest1 will be denounced as the enemy of man and ,god4 ,in all ages reason has been regarded as the enemy of religion4 ,nothing has been considered so pleasing to the ,deity as a total denial of the authority of your own mind4 ,self-reliance has been thought a deadly sin2 and the idea of living and dying without the aid and consolation of superstition has always horrified the church4 ,by some unaccountable infatuation1 belief has been and still is considered of immense importance4 ,all religions have been based upon the idea that ,god will forever reward the true believer1 and eternally damn the man who doubts or denies4 ,belief is regarded as the one essential thing4 ,to practice justice1 to love mercy1 is not enough4 ,you must believe in some incomprehensible creed4 ,you must say1 ,once one is three1 and three times one is one4 ,the man who practiced every virtue1 but failed to believe1 was execrated4 ,nothing so outrages the feelings of the church as a moral unbeliever--nothing so horrible as a charitable ,atheist4 ,when ,paine was born1 the world was religious1 the pulpit was the real throne1 and the churches were making every effort to crush out of the brain the idea that it had the right to think4 ,the splendid saying of ,lord ,bacon1 that the inquiry of truth1 which is the love-making or wooing of it1 the knowledge of truth1 which is the presence of it1 and the belief of truth1 which is the enjoying of it1 are the sovereign good of human nature1 has been1 and ever will be1 rejected by religionists4 ,intellectual liberty1 as a matter of necessity1 forever destroys the idea that belief is either praise or blame-worthy1 and is wholly inconsistent with every creed in ,christendom4 ,paine recognized this truth4 ,he also saw that as long as the ,bible was considered inspired1 this infamous doctrine of the virtue of belief would be believed and preached4 ,he examined the ,scriptures for himself1 and found them filled with cruelty1 absurdity and immorality4 ,he again made up his mind to sacrifice himself for the good of his fellow-men4 ,he commenced with the assertion1 ,that any system of religion that has anything in it that shocks the mind of a child cannot be a true system4 ,what a beautiful1 what a tender sentiment6 ,no wonder the church began to hate him4 ,he believed in one ,god1 and no more4 ,after this life he hoped for happiness4 ,he believed that true religion consisted in doing justice1 loving mercy1 in endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy1 and in offering to ,god the fruit of the heart4 ,he denied the inspiration of the ,scriptures4 ,this was his crime4 ,he contended that it is a contradiction in terms to call anything a revelation that comes to us second-hand1 either verbally or in writing4 ,he asserted that revelation is necessarily limited to the first communication1 and that after that it is only an account of something which another person says was a revelation to him4 ,we have only his word for it1 as it was never made to us4 ,this argument never has been and probably never will be answered4 ,he denied the divine origin of ,christ1 and showed conclusively that the pretended prophecies of the ,old ,testament had no reference to him whatever2 and yet he believed that ,christ was a virtuous and amiable man2 that the morality he taught and practiced was of the most benevolent and elevated character1 and that it had not been exceeded by any4 ,upon this point he entertained the same sentiments now held by the ,unitarians1 and in fact by all the most enlightened ,christians4 ,in his time the church believed and taught that every word in the ,bible was absolutely true4 ,since his day it has been proven false in its cosmogony1 false in its astronomy1 false in its chronology1 false in its history1 and so far as the ,old ,testament is concerned1 false in almost everything4 ,there are but few1 if any1 scientific men who apprehend that the ,bible is literally true4 ,who on earth at this day would pretend to settle any scientific question by a text from the ,bible8 ,the old belief is confined to the ignorant and zealous4 ,the church itself will before long be driven to occupy the position of ,thomas ,paine4 ,the best minds of the orthodox world1 to-day1 are endeavoring to prove the existence of a personal ,deity4 ,all other questions occupy a minor place4 ,you are no longer asked to swallow the ,bible whole1 whale1 ,jonah and all2 you are simply required to believe in ,god1 and pay your pew-rent4 ,there is not now an enlightened minister in the world who will seriously contend that ,samson's strength was in his hair1 or that the necromancers of ,egypt could turn water into blood1 and pieces of wood into serpents4 ,these follies have passed away1 and the only reason that the religious world can now have for disliking ,paine is that they have been forced to adopt so many of his opinions4 ,paine thought the barbarities of the ,old ,testament inconsistent with what he deemed the real character of ,god4 ,he believed that murder1 massacre and indiscriminate slaughter had never been commanded by the ,deity4 ,he regarded much of the ,bible as childish1 unimportant and foolish ,the scientific world entertains the same opinion4 ,paine attacked the ,bible precisely in the same spirit in which he had attacked the pretensions of kings4 ,he used the same weapons4 ,all the pomp in the world could not make him cower4 ,his reason knew no ,holy of ,holies1 except the abode of ,truth4 ,the sciences were then in their infancy4 ,the attention of the really learned had not been directed to an impartial examination of our pretended revelation4 ,it was accepted by most as a matter of course4 ,the church was all-powerful1 and no one1 unless thoroughly imbued with the spirit of self-sacrifice1 thought for a moment of disputing the fundamental doctrines of ,christianity4 ,the infamous doctrines that salvation depends upon belief--upon a mere intellectual conviction--was then believed and preached4 ,to doubt was to secure the damnation of your soul4 ,this absurd and devilish doctrine shocked the common sense of ,thomas ,paine1 and he denounced it with the fervor of honest indignation4 ,this doctrine1 although infinitely ridiculous1 has been nearly universal1 and has been as hurtful as senseless4 ,for the overthrow of this infamous tenet1 ,paine exerted all his strength4 ,he left few arguments to be used by those who should come after him1 and he used none that have been refuted4 ,the combined wisdom and genius of all mankind cannot possibly conceive of an argument against liberty of thought4 ,neither can they show why any one should be punished1 either in this world or another1 for acting honestly in accordance with reason2 and yet a doctrine with every possible argument against it has been1 and still is1 believed and defended by the entire orthodox world4 ,can it be possible that we have been endowed with reason simply that our souls may be caught in its toils and snares1 that we may be led by its false and delusive glare out of the narrow path that leads to joy into the broad way of everlasting death8 ,is it possible that we have been given reason simply that we may through faith ignore its deductions1 and avoid its conclusions8 ,ought the sailor to throw away his compass and depend entirely upon the fog8 ,if reason is not to be depended upon in matters of religion1 that is to say1 in respect of our duties to the ,deity1 why should it be relied upon in matters respecting the rights of our fellows8 ,why should we throw away the laws given to ,moses by ,god himself and have the audacity to make some of our own8 ,how dare we drown the thunders of ,sinai by calling the ayes and noes in a petty legislature8 ,if reason can determine what is merciful1 what is just1 the duties of man to man1 what more do we want either in time or eternity8 ,down1 forever down1 with any religion that requires upon its ignorant altar the sacrifice of the goddess ,reason1 that compels her to abdicate forever the shining throne of the soul1 strips from her form the imperial purple1 snatches from her hand the sceptre of thought and makes her the bond-woman of a senseless faith6 ,if a man should tell you that he had the most beautiful painting in the world1 and after taking you where it was should insist upon having your eyes shut1 you would likely suspect1 either that he had no painting or that it was some pitiable daub4 ,should he tell you that he was a most excellent performer on the violin1 and yet refuse to play unless your ears were stopped1 you would think1 to say the least of it1 that he had an odd way of convincing you of his musical ability4 ,but would his conduct be any more wonderful than that of a religionist who asks that before examining his creed you will have the kindness to throw away your reason8 ,the first gentleman says1 ,keep your eyes shut1 my picture will bear everything but being seen2 ,keep your ears stopped1 my music objects to nothing but being heard4 ,the last says1 ,away with your reason1 my religion dreads nothing but being understood4 ,so far as ,i am concerned1 ,i most cheerfully admit that most ,christians are honest1 and most ministers sincere4 ,we do not attack them2 we attack their creed4 ,we accord to them the same rights that we ask for ourselves4 ,we believe that their doctrines are hurtful4 ,we believe that the frightful text1 ,he that believes shall be saved and he that believeth not shall be damned1 has covered the earth with blood4 ,it has filled the heart with arrogance1 cruelty and murder4 ,it has caused the religious wars2 bound hundreds of thousands to the stake2 founded inquisitions2 filled dungeons2 invented instruments of torture2 taught the mother to hate her child2 imprisoned the mind2 filled the world with ignorance2 persecuted the lovers of wisdom2 built the monasteries and convents2 made happiness a crime1 investigation a sin1 and self-reliance a blasphemy4 ,it has poisoned the springs of learning2 misdirected the energies of the world2 filled all countries with want2 housed the people in hovels2 fed them with famine2 and but for the efforts of a few brave ,infidels it would have taken the world back to the midnight of barbarism1 and left the heavens without a star4 ,the maligners of ,paine say that he had no right to attack this doctrine1 because he was unacquainted with the dead languages2 and for this reason1 it was a piece of pure impudence in him to investigate the ,scriptures4 ,is it necessary to understand ,hebrew in order to know that cruelty is not a virtue1 that murder is inconsistent with infinite goodness1 and that eternal punishment can be inflicted upon man only by an eternal fiend8 ,is it really essential to conjugate the ,greek verbs before you can make up your mind as to the probability of dead people getting out of their graves8 ,must one be versed in ,latin before he is entitled to express his opinion as to the genuineness of a pretended revelation from ,god8 ,common sense belongs exclusively to no tongue4 ,logic is not confined to1 nor has it been buried with1 the dead languages4 ,paine attacked the ,bible as it is translated4 ,if the translation is wrong1 let its defenders correct it4 ,the ,christianity of ,paine's day is not the ,christianity of our time4 ,there has been a great improvement since then4 ,one hundred and fifty years ago the foremost preachers of our time would have perished at the stake4 ,a ,universalist would have been torn in pieces in ,england1 ,scotland1 and ,america4 ,unitarians would have found themselves in the stocks1 pelted by the rabble with dead cats1 after which their ears would have been cut off1 their tongues bored1 and their foreheads branded4 ,less than one hundred and fifty years ago the following law was in force in ,maryland3 ,be it enacted by the ,right ,honorable1 the ,lord ,proprietor1 by and with the advice and consent of his ,lordship's governor1 and the upper and lower houses of the ,assembly1 and the authority of the same3 ,that if any person shall hereafter1 within this province1 wittingly1 maliciously1 and advisedly1 by writing or speaking1 blaspheme or curse ,god1 or deny our ,saviour1 ,jesus ,christ1 to be the ,son of ,god1 or shall deny the ,holy ,trinity1 the ,father1 ,son1 and ,holy ,ghost1 or the ,godhead of any of the three persons1 or the unity of the ,godhead1 or shall utter any profane words concerning the ,holy ,trinity1 or any of the persons thereof1 and shall thereof be convict by verdict1 shall1 for the first offence1 be bored through the tongue1 and fined twenty pounds to be levied of his body4 ,and for the second offence1 the offender shall be stigmatized by burning in the forehead with the letter ,b1 and fined forty pounds4 ,and that for the third offence the offender shall suffer death without the benefit of clergy4 ,the strange thing about this law is1 that it has never been repealed1 and is still in force in the ,district of ,columbia4 ,laws like this were in force in most of the colonies1 and in all countries where the church had power4 ,in the ,old ,testament1 the death penalty is attached to hundreds of offences4 ,it has been the same in all ,christian countries4 ,to-day1 in civilized governments1 the death penalty is attached only to murder and treason2 and in some it has been entirely abolished4 ,what a commentary upon the divine systems of the world6 ,in the day of ,thomas ,paine1 the church was ignorant1 bloody and relentless4 ,in ,scotland the ,kirk was at the summit of its power4 ,it was a full sister of the ,spanish ,inquisition4 ,it waged war upon human nature4 ,it was the enemy of happiness1 the hater of joy1 and the despiser of religious liberty4 ,it taught parents to murder their children rather than to allow them to propagate error4 ,if the mother held opinions of which the infamous ,kirk disapproved1 her children were taken from her arms1 her babe from her very bosom1 and she was not allowed to see them1 or to write them a word4 ,it would not allow shipwrecked sailors to be rescued from drowning on ,sunday4 ,it sought to annihilate pleasure1 to pollute the heart by filling it with religious cruelty and gloom1 and to change mankind into a vast horde of pious1 heartless fiends4 ,one of the most famous ,scotch divines said3 ,the ,kirk holds that religious toleration is not far from blasphemy4 ,and this same ,scotch ,kirk denounced1 beyond measure1 the man who had the moral grandeur to say1 ,the world is my country1 and to do good my religion4 ,and this same ,kirk abhorred the man who said1 ,any system of religion that shocks the mind of a child cannot be a true system4 ,at that time nothing so delighted the church as the beauties of endless torment1 and listening to the weak wailings of damned infants struggling in the slimy coils and poison-folds of the worm that never dies4 ,about the beginning of the nineteenth century1 a boy by the name of ,thomas ,aikenhead1 was indicted and tried at ,edinburgh for having denied the inspiration of the ,scriptures1 and for having1 on several occasions1 when cold1 wished himself in hell that he might get warm4 ,notwithstanding the poor boy recanted and begged for mercy1 he was found guilty and hanged4 ,his body was thrown in a hole at the foot of the scaffold and covered with stones4 ,prosecutions and executions like this were common in every ,christian country1 and all of them were based upon the belief that an intellectual conviction is a crime4 ,no wonder the church hated and traduced the author of the ,age of ,reason4 ,england was filled with ,puritan gloom and ,episcopal ceremony4 ,all religious conceptions were of the grossest nature4 ,the ideas of crazy fanatics and extravagant poets were taken as sober facts4 ,milton had clothed ,christianity in the soiled and faded finery of the gods--had added to the story of ,christ the fables of ,mythology4 ,he gave to the ,protestant ,church the most outrageously material ideas of the ,deity4 ,he turned all the angels into soldiers--made heaven a battlefield1 put ,christ in uniform1 and described ,god as a militia general4 ,his works were considered by the ,protestants nearly as sacred as the ,bible itself1 and the imagination of the people was thoroughly polluted by the horrible imagery1 the sublime absurdity of the blind ,milton4 ,heaven and hell were realities--the judgment-day was expected--books of account would be opened4 ,every man would hear the charges against him read4 ,god was supposed to sit on a golden throne1 surrounded by the tallest angels1 with harps in their hands and crowns on their heads4 ,the goats would be thrust into eternal fire on the left1 while the orthodox sheep1 on the right1 were to gambol on sunny slopes forever and forever4 ,the nation was profoundly ignorant1 and consequently extremely religious1 so far as belief was concerned4 ,in ,europe1 ,liberty was lying chained in the ,inquisition--her white bosom stained with blood4 ,in the ,new ,world the ,puritans had been hanging and burning in the name of ,god1 and selling white ,quaker children into slavery in the name of ,christ1 who said1 ,suffer little children to come unto me4 ,under such conditions progress was impossible4 ,some one had to lead the way4 ,the church is1 and always has been1 incapable of a forward movement4 ,religion always looks back4 ,the church has already reduced ,spain to a guitar1 ,italy to a hand-organ1 and ,ireland to exile4 ,some one not connected with the church had to attack the monster that was eating out the heart of the world4 ,some one had to sacrifice himself for the good of all4 ,the people were in the most abject slavery2 their manhood had been taken from them by pomp1 by pageantry and power4 ,progress is born of doubt and inquiry4 ,the church never doubts--never inquires4 ,to doubt is heresy--to inquire is to admit that you do not know--the church does neither4 ,more than a century ago ,catholisism1 wrapped in robes red with the innocent blood of millions1 holding in her frantic clutch crowns and scepters1 honors and gold1 the keys of heaven and hell1 trampling beneath her feet the liberties of nations1 in the proud moment of almost universal dominion1 felt within her heartless breast the deadly dagger of ,voltaire4 ,from that blow the church never can recover4 ,livid with hatred she launched her eternal anathema at the great destroyer1 and ignorant ,protestants have echoed the curse of ,rome4 ,in our country the church was all-powerful1 and although divided into many sects1 would instantly unite to repel a common foe4 ,paine struck the first grand blow4 ,the ,age of ,reason did more to undermine the power of the ,protestant ,church than all other books then known4 ,it furnished an immense amount of food for thought4 ,it was written for the average mind1 and is a straightforward1 honest investigation of the ,bible1 and of the ,christian system4 ,paine did not falter1 from the first page to the last4 ,he gives you his candid thought1 and candid thoughts are always valuable4 ,the ,age of ,reason has liberalized us all4 ,it put arguments in the mouths of the people2 it put the church on the defensive2 it enabled somebody in every village to corner the parson2 it made the world wiser1 and the church better2 it took power from the pulpit and divided it among the pews4 ,just in proportion that the human race has advanced1 the church has lost power4 ,there is no exception to this rule4 ,no nation ever materially advanced that held strictly to the religion of its founders4 ,no nation ever gave itself wholly to the control of the church without losing its power1 its honor1 and existence4 ,every church pretends to have found the exact truth4 ,this is the end of progress4 ,why pursue that which you have8 ,why investigate when you know8 ,every creed is a rock in running water3 humanity sweeps by it4 ,every creed cries to the universe1 ,halt6 ,a creed is the ignorant ,past bullying the enlightened ,present4 ,the ignorant are not satisfied with what can be demonstrated4 ,science is too slow for them1 and so they invent creeds4 ,they demand completeness4 ,a sublime segment1 a grand fragment1 are of no value to them4 ,they demand the complete circle--the entire structure4 ,in music they want a melody with a recurring accent at measured periods4 ,in religion they insist upon immediate answers to the questions of creation and destiny4 ,the alpha and omega of all things must be in the alphabet of their superstition4 ,a religion that cannot answer every question1 and guess every conundrum is1 in their estimation1 worse than worthless4 ,they desire a kind of theological dictionary--a religious ready reckoner1 together with guide-boards at all crossings and turns4 ,they mistake impudence for authority1 solemnity for wisdom1 and bathos for inspiration4 ,the beginning and the end are what they demand4 ,the grand flight of the eagle is nothing to them4 ,they want the nest in which he was hatched1 and especially the dry limb upon which he roosts4 ,anything that can be learned is hardly worth knowing4 ,the present is considered of no value in itself4 ,happiness must not be expected this side of the clouds1 and can only be attained by self-denial and faith2 not selfdenial for the good of others1 but for the salvation of your own sweet self4 ,paine denied the authority of bibles and creeds2 this was his crime1 and for this the world shut the door in his face1 and emptied its slops upon him from the windows4 ,i challenge the world to show that ,thomas ,paine ever wrote one line1 one word in favor of tyranny--in favor of immorality2 one line1 one word against what he believed to be for the highest and best interest of mankind2 one line1 one word against justice1 charity1 or liberty1 and yet he has been pursued as though he had been a fiend from hell4 ,his memory has been execrated as though he had murdered some ,uriah for his wife2 driven some ,hagar into the desert to starve with his child upon her bosom2 defiled his own daughters2 ripped open with the sword the sweet bodies of loving and innocent women2 advised one brother to assassinate another2 kept a harem with seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines1 or had persecuted ,christians even unto strange cities4 ,the church has pursued ,paine to deter others4 ,no effort has been in any age of the world spared to crush out opposition4 ,the church used painting1 music and architecture1 simply to degrade mankind4 ,but there are men that nothing can awe4 ,there have been at all times brave spirits that dared even the gods4 ,some proud head has always been above the waves4 ,in every age some ,diogenes has sacrificed to all the gods4 ,true genius never cowers1 and there is always some ,samson feeling for the pillars of authority4 ,cathedrals and domes1 and chimes and chants4--temples frescoed and groined and carved1 and gilded with gold--altars and tapers1 and paintings of virgin and babe--censer and chalice--chasuble1 paten and alb--organs1 and anthems and incense rising to the winged and blest--maniple1 amice and stole--crosses and crosiers1 tiaras and crowns--mitres and missals and masses--rosaries1 relics and robes--martyrs and saints1 and windows stained as with the blood of ,christ--never1 never for one moment awed the brave1 proud spirit of the ,infidel4 ,he knew that all the pomp and glitter had been purchased with ,liberty--that priceless jewel of the soul4 ,in looking at the cathedral he remembered the dungeon4 ,the music of the organ was not loud enough to drown the clank of fetters4 ,he could not forget that the taper had lighted the fagot4 ,he knew that the cross adorned the hilt of the sword1 and so where others worshiped1 he wept and scorned4 ,the doubter1 the investigator1 the ,infidel1 have been the saviors of liberty4 ,this truth is beginning to be realized1 and the truly intellectual are honoring the brave thinkers of the past4 ,but the church is as unforgiving as ever1 and still wonders why any ,infidel should be wicked enough to endeavor to destroy her power4 ,i will tell the church why4 ,you have imprisoned the human mind2 you have been the enemy of liberty2 you have burned us at the stake--wasted us upon slow fires--torn our flesh with iron2 you have covered us with chains--treated us as outcasts2 you have filled the world with fear2 you have taken our wives and children from our arms2 you have confiscated our property2 you have denied us the right to testify in courts of justice2 you have branded us with infamy2 you have torn out our tongues2 you have refused us burial4 ,in the name of your religion1 you have robbed us of every right2 and after having inflicted upon us every evil that can be inflicted in this world1 you have fallen upon your knees1 and with clasped hands implored your ,god to torment us forever4 ,can you wonder that we hate your doctrines--that we despise your creeds--that we feel proud to know that we are beyond your power--that we are free in spite of you--that we can express our honest thought1 and that the whole world is grandly rising into the blessed light8 ,can you wonder that we point with pride to the fact that ,infidelity has ever been found battling for the rights of man1 for the liberty of conscience1 and for the happiness of all8 ,can you wonder that we are proud to know that we have always been disciples of ,reason1 and soldiers of ,freedom2 that we have denounced tyranny and superstition1 and have kept our hands unstained with human blood8 ,we deny that religion is the end or object of this life4 ,when it is so considered it becomes destructive of happiness--the real end of life4 ,it becomes a hydra-headed monster1 reaching in terrible coils from the heavens1 and thrusting its thousand fangs into the bleeding1 quivering hearts of men4 ,it devours their substance1 builds palaces for ,god1 7who dwells not in temples made with hands17 and allows his children to die in huts and hovels4 ,it fills the earth with mourning1 heaven with hatred1 the present with fear1 and all the future with despair4 ,virtue is a subordination of the passions to the intellect4 ,it is to act in accordance with your highest convictions4 ,it does not consist in believing1 but in doing4 ,this is the sublime truth that the ,infidels in all ages have uttered4 ,they have handed the torch from one to the other through all the years that have fled4 ,upon the altar of ,reason they have kept the sacred fire1 and through the long midnight of faith they fed the divine flame4 ,infidelity is liberty2 all religion is slavery4 ,in every creed man is the slave of ,god--woman is the slave of man and the sweet children are the slaves of all4 ,we do not want creeds2 we want knowledge--we want happiness4 ,and yet we are told by the church that we have accomplished nothing2 that we are simply destroyers2 that we tear down without building again4 ,is it nothing to free the mind8 ,is it nothing to civilize mankind8 ,is it nothing to fill the world with light1 with discovery1 with science8 ,is it nothing to dignify man and exalt the intellect8 ,is it nothing to grope your way into the dreary prisons1 the damp and dropping dungeons1 the dark and silent cells of superstition1 where the souls of men are chained to floors of stone2 to greet them like a ray of light1 like the song of a bird1 the murmur of a stream2 to see the dull eyes open and grow slowly bright2 to feel yourself grasped by the shrunken and unused hands1 and hear yourself thanked by a strange and hollow voice8 ,is it nothing to conduct these souls gradually into the blessed light of day--to let them see again the happy fields1 the sweet1 green earth1 and hear the everlasting music of the waves8 ,is it nothing to make men wipe the dust from their swollen knees1 the tears from their blanched and furrowed cheeks8 ,is it a small thing to reave the heavens of an insatiate monster and write upon the eternal dome1 glittering with stars1 the grand word--,freedom8 ,is it a small thing to quench the flames of hell with the holy tears of pity--to unbind the martyr from the stake--break all the chains--put out the fires of civil war--stay the sword of the fanatic1 and tear the bloody hands of the ,church from the white throat of ,science8 ,is it a small thing to make men truly free--to destroy the dogmas of ignorance1 prejudice and power--the poisoned fables of superstition1 and drive from the beautiful face of the earth the fiend of ,fear8 ,it does seem as though the most zealous ,christian must at times entertain some doubt as to the divine origin of his religion4 ,for eighteen hundred years the doctrine has been preached4 ,for more than a thousand years the church had1 to a great extent1 the control of the civilized world1 and what has been the result8 ,are the ,christian nations patterns of charity and forbearance8 ,on the contrary1 their principal business is to destroy each other4 ,more than five millions of ,christians are trained1 educated1 and drilled to murder their fellow-christians4 ,every nation is groaning under a vast debt incurred in carrying on war against other ,christians1 or defending itself from ,christian assault4 ,the world is covered with forts to protect ,christians from ,christians1 and every sea is covered with iron monsters ready to blow ,christian brains into eternal froth4 ,millions upon millions are annually expended in the effort to construct still more deadly and terrible engines of death4 ,industry is crippled1 honest toil is robbed1 and even beggary is taxed to defray the expenses of ,christian warfare4 ,there must be some other way to reform this world4 ,we have tried creed1 and dogma and fable1 and they have failed2 and they have failed in all the nations dead4 ,the people perish for the lack of knowledge4 ,nothing but education--scientific education--can benefit mankind4 ,we must find out the laws of nature and conform to them4 ,we need free bodies and free minds1--free labor and free thought1--chainless hands and fetterless brains4 ,free labor will give us wealth4 ,free thought will give us truth4 ,we need men with moral courage to speak and write their real thoughts1 and to stand by their convictions1 even to the very death4 ,we need have no fear of being too radical4 ,the future will verify all grand and brave predictions4 ,paine was splendidly in advance of his time2 but he was orthodox compared with the ,infidels of to-day4 ,science1 the great ,iconoclast1 has been busy since #ahji1 and by the highway of ,progress are the broken images of the ,past4 ,on every hand the people advance4 ,the ,vicar of ,god has been pushed from the throne of the ,caesars1 and upon the roofs of the ,eternal ,city falls once more the shadow of the ,eagle4 ,all has been accomplished by the heroic few4 ,the men of science have explored heaven and earth1 and with infinite patience have furnished the facts4 ,the brave thinkers have used them4 ,the gloomy caverns of superstition have been transformed into temples of thought1 and the demons of the past are the angels of to-day4 ,science took a handful of sand1 constructed a telescope1 and with it explored the starry depths of heaven4 ,science wrested from the gods their thunderbolts2 and now1 the electric spark1 freighted with thought and love1 flashes under all the waves of the sea4 ,science took a tear from the cheek of unpaid labor1 converted it into steam1 created a giant that turns with tireless arm1 the countless wheels of toil4 ,thomas ,paine was one of the intellectual heroes--one of the men to whom we are indebted4 ,his name is associated forever with the ,great ,republic4 ,as long as free government exists he will be remembered1 admired and honored4 ,he lived a long1 laborious and useful life4 ,the world is better for his having lived4 ,for the sake of truth he accepted hatred and reproach for his portion4 ,he ate the bitter bread of sorrow4 ,his friends were untrue to him because he was true to himself1 and true to them4 ,he lost the respect of what is called society1 but kept his own4 ,his life is what the world calls failure and what history calls success4 ,if to love your fellow-men more than self is goodness1 ,thomas ,paine was good4 ,if to be in advance of your time--to be a pioneer in the direction of right--is greatness1 ,thomas ,paine was great4 ,if to avow your principles and discharge your duty in the presence of death is heroic1 ,thomas ,paine was a hero4 ,at the age of seventy-three1 death touched his tired heart4 ,he died in the land his genius defended--under the flag he gave to the skies4 ,slander cannot touch him now--hatred cannot reach him more4 ,he sleeps in the sanctuary of the tomb1 beneath the quiet of the stars4 ,a few more years--a few more brave men--a few more rays of light1 and mankind will venerate the memory of him who said3 ,,any ,,system ,,of ,,religion ,,that ,,shocks ,,the ,,mind ,,of ,a ,,child ,,cannot ,,be ,a ,,true ,,system2 ,the world is my ,country1 and to do good my ,religion4 ,,individuality4 ,his ,soul was like a ,star and dwelt apart4 ,,on every hand are the enemies of individuality and mental freedom4 ,custom meets us at the cradle and leaves us only at the tomb4 ,our first questions are answered by ignorance1 and our last by superstition4 ,we are pushed and dragged by countless hands along the beaten track1 and our entire training can be summed up in the word--suppression4 ,our desire to have a thing or to do a thing is considered as conclusive evidence that we ought not to have it1 and ought not to do it4 ,at every turn we run against cherubim and a flaming sword guarding some entrance to the ,eden of our desire4 ,we are allowed to investigate all subjects in which we feel no particular interest1 and to express the opinions of the majority with the utmost freedom4 ,we are taught that liberty of speech should never be carried to the extent of contradicting the dead witnesses of a popular superstition4 ,society offers continual rewards for self-betrayal1 and they are nearly all earned and claimed1 and some are paid4 ,we have all read accounts of ,christian gentlemen remarking1 when about to be hanged1 how much better it would have been for them if they had only followed a mother's advice4 ,but after all1 how fortunate it is for the world that the maternal advice has not always been followed4 ,how fortunate it is for us all that it is somewhat unnatural for a human being to obey4 ,universal obedience is universal stagnation2 disobedience is one of the conditions of progress4 ,select any age of the world and tell me what would have been the effect of implicit obedience4 ,suppose the church had had absolute control of the human mind at any time1 would not the words liberty and progress have been blotted from human speech8 ,in defiance of advice1 the world has advanced4 ,suppose the astronomers had controlled the science of astronomy2 suppose the doctors had controlled the science of medicine2 suppose kings had been left to fix the forms of government2 suppose our fathers had taken the advice of ,paul1 who said1 be subject to the powers that be1 because they are ordained of ,god2 suppose the church could control the world to-day1 we would go back to chaos and old night4 ,philosophy would be branded as infamous2 ,science would again press its pale and thoughtful face against the prison bars1 and round the limbs of liberty would climb the bigot's flame4 ,it is a blessed thing that in every age some one has had individuality enough and courage enough to stand by his own convictions1--some one who had the grandeur to say his say4 ,i believe it was ,magellan who said1 ,the church says the earth is flat2 but ,i have seen its shadow on the moon1 and ,i have more confidence even in a shadow than in the church4 ,on the prow of his ship were disobedience1 defiance1 scorn1 and success4 ,the trouble with most people is1 they bow to what is called authority2 they have a certain reverence for the old because it is old4 ,they think a man is better for being dead1 especially if he has been dead a long time4 ,they think the fathers of their nation were the greatest and best of all mankind4 ,all these things they implicitly believe because it is popular and patriotic1 and because they were told so when they were very small1 and remember distinctly of hearing mother read it out of a book4 ,it is hard to over-estimate the influence of early training in the direction of superstition4 ,you first teach children that a certain book is true--that it was written by ,god himself--that to question its truth is a sin1 that to deny it is a crime1 and that should they die without believing that book they will be forever damned without benefit of clergy4 ,the consequence is1 that long before they read that book1 they believe it to be true4 ,when they do read it their minds are wholly unfitted to investigate its claims4 ,they accept it as a matter of course4 ,in this way the reason is overcome1 the sweet instincts of humanity are blotted from the heart1 and while reading its infamous pages even justice throws aside her scales1 shrieking for revenge1 and charity1 with bloody hands1 applauds a deed of murder4 ,in this way we are taught that the revenge of man is the justice of ,god2 that mercy is not the same everywhere4 ,in this way the ideas of our race have been subverted4 ,in this way we have made tyrants1 bigots1 and inquisitors4 ,in this way the brain of man has become a kind of palimpsest upon which1 and over the writings of nature1 superstition has scrawled her countless lies4 ,one great trouble is that most teachers are dishonest4 ,they teach as certainties those things concerning which they entertain doubts4 ,they do not say1 we think this is so1 but we know this is so4 ,they do not appeal to the reason of the pupil1 but they command his faith4 ,they keep all doubts to themselves2 they do not explain1 they assert4 ,all this is infamous4 ,in this way you may make ,christians1 but you cannot make men2 you cannot make women4 ,you can make followers1 but no leaders2 disciples1 but no ,christs4 ,you may promise power1 honor1 and happiness to all those who will blindly follow1 but you cannot keep your promise4 ,a monarch said to a hermit1 ,come with me and ,i will give you power4 ,i have all the power that ,i know how to use replied the hermit4 ,come1 said the king1 ,i will give you wealth4 ,i have no wants that money can supply1 said the hermit4 ,i will give you honor1 said the monarch4 ,ah1 honor cannot be given1 it must be earned1 was the hermit's answer4 ,come1 said the king1 making a last appeal1 and ,i will give you happiness4 ,no1 said the man of solitude1 there is no happiness without liberty1 and he who follows cannot be free4 ,you shall have liberty too1 said the king4 ,then ,i will stay where ,i am1 said the old man4 ,and all the king's courtiers thought the hermit a fool4 ,now and then somebody examines1 and in spite of all keeps his manhood1 and has the courage to follow where his reason leads4 ,then the pious get together and repeat wise saws1 and exchange knowing nods and most prophetic winks4 ,the stupidly wise sit owl-like on the dead limbs of the tree of knowledge1 and solemnly hoot4 ,wealth sneers1 and fashion laughs1 and respectability passes by on the other side1 and scorn points with all her skinny fingers1 and all the snakes of superstition writhe and hiss1 and slander lends her tongue1 and infamy her brand1 and perjury her oath1 and the law its power1 and bigotry tortures1 and the church kills4 ,the church hates a thinker precisely for the same reason a robber dislikes a sheriff1 or a thief despises the prosecuting witness4 ,tyranny likes courtiers1 flatterers1 followers1 fawners1 and superstition wants believers1 disciples1 zealots1 hypocrites1 and subscribers4 ,the church demands worship--the very thing that man should give to no being1 human or divine4 ,to worship another is to degrade yourself4 ,worship is awe and dread and vague fear and blind hope4 ,it is the spirit of worship that elevates the one and degrades the many2 that builds palaces for robbers1 erects monuments to crime1 and forges manacles even for its own hands4 ,the spirit of worship is the spirit of tyranny4 ,the worshiper always regrets that he is not the worshiped4 ,we should all remember that the intellect has no knees1 and that whatever the attitude of the body may be1 the brave soul is always found erect4 ,whoever worships1 abdicates4 ,whoever believes at the command of power1 tramples his own individuality beneath his feet1 and voluntarily robs himself of all that renders man superior to the brute4 ,the despotism of faith is justified upon the ground that ,christian countries are the grandest and most prosperous of the world4 ,at one time the same thing could have been truly said in ,india1 in ,egypt1 in ,greece1 in ,rome1 and in every other country that has1 in the history of the world1 swept to empire4 ,this argument proves too much not only1 but the assumption upon which it is based is utterly false4 ,numberless circumstances and countless conditions have produced the prosperity of the ,christian world4 ,the truth is1 we have advanced in spite of religious zeal1 ignorance1 and opposition4 ,the church has won no victories for the rights of man4 ,luther labored to reform the church--,voltaire1 to reform men4 ,over every fortress of tyranny has waved1 and still waves1 the banner of the church4 ,wherever brave blood has been shed1 the sword of the church has been wet4 ,on every chain has been the sign of the cross4 ,the altar and throne have leaned against and supported each other4 ,all that is good in our civilization is the result of commerce1 climate1 soil1 geographical position1 industry1 invention1 discovery1 art1 and science4 ,the church has been the enemy of progress1 for the reason that it has endeavored to prevent man thinking for himself4 ,to prevent thought is to prevent all advancement except in the direction of faith4 ,who can imagine the infinite impudence of a church assuming to think for the human race8 ,who can imagine the infinite impudence of a church that pretends to be the mouthpiece of ,god1 and in his name threatens to inflict eternal punishment upon those who honestly reject its claims and scorn its pretensions8 ,by what right does a man1 or an organization of men1 or a god1 claim to hold a brain in bondage8 ,when a fact can be demonstrated1 force is unnecessary2 when it cannot be demonstrated1 an appeal to force is infamous4 ,in the presence of the unknown all have an equal right to think4 ,over the vast plain1 called life1 we are all travelers1 and not one traveler is perfectly certain that he is going in the right direction4 ,true it is that no other plain is so well supplied with guide-boards4 ,at every turn and crossing you will find them1 and upon each one is written the exact direction and distance4 ,one great trouble is1 however1 that these boards are all different1 and the result is that most travelers are confused in proportion to the number they read4 ,thousands of people are around each of these signs1 and each one is doing his best to convince the traveler that his particular board is the only one upon which the least reliance can be placed1 and that if his road is taken the reward for so doing will be infinite and eternal1 while all the other roads are said to lead to hell1 and all the makers of the other guide-boards are declared to be heretics1 hypocrites and liars4 ,well1 says a traveler1 you may be right in what you say1 but allow me at least to read some of the other directions and examine a little into their claims4 ,i wish to rely a little upon my own judgment in a matter of so great importance4 ,no1 sir1 shouts the zealot1 that is the very thing you are not allowed to do4 ,you must go my way without investigation1 or you are as good as damned already4 ,well1 says the traveler1 if that is so1 ,i believe ,i had better go your way4 ,and so most of them go along1 taking the word of those who know as little as themselves4 ,now and then comes one who1 in spite of all threats1 calmly examines the claims of all1 and as calmly rejects them all4 ,these travelers take roads of their own1 and are denounced by all the others1 as infidels and atheists4 ,around all of these guide-boards1 as far as the eye can reach1 the ground is covered with mountains of human bones1 crumbling and bleaching in the rain and sun4 ,they are the bones of murdered men and women--fathers1 mothers and babes4 ,in my judgment1 every human being should take a road of his own4 ,every mind should be true to itself--should think1 investigate and conclude for itself4 ,this is a duty alike incumbent upon pauper and prince4 ,every soul should repel dictation and tyranny1 no matter from what source they come--from earth or heaven1 from men or gods4 ,besides1 every traveler upon this vast plain should give to every other traveler his best idea as to the road that should be taken4 ,each is entitled to the honest opinion of all4 ,and there is but one way to get an honest opinion upon any subject whatever4 ,the person giving the opinion must be free from fear4 ,the merchant must not fear to lose his custom1 the doctor his practice1 nor the preacher his pulpit ,there can be no advance without liberty4 ,suppression of honest inquiry is retrogression1 and must end in intellectual night4 ,the tendency of orthodox religion to-day is toward mental slavery and barbarism4 ,not one of the orthodox ministers dare preach what he thinks if he knows a majority of his congregation think otherwise4 ,he knows that every member of his church stands guard over his brain with a creed1 like a club1 in his hand4 ,he knows that he is not expected to search after the truth1 but that he is employed to defend the creed4 ,every pulpit is a pillory1 in which stands a hired culprit1 defending the justice of his own imprisonment4 ,is it desirable that all should be exactly alike in their religious convictions8 ,is any such thing possible8 ,do we not know that there are no two persons alike in the whole world8 ,no two1 trees1 no two leaves1 no two anythings that are alike8 ,infinite diversity is the law4 ,religion tries to force all minds into one mould4 ,knowing that all cannot believe1 the church endeavors to make all say they believe4 ,she longs for the unity of hypocrisy1 and detests the splendid diversity of individuality and freedom4 ,nearly all people stand in great horror of annihilation1 and yet to give up your individuality is to annihilate yourself4 ,mental slavery is mental death1 and every man who has given up his intellectual freedom is the living coffin of his dead soul4 ,in this sense1 every church is a cemetery and every creed an epitaph4 ,we should all remember that to be like other people is to be unlike ourselves1 and that nothing can be more detestable in character than servile imitation4 ,the great trouble with imitation is1 that we are apt to ape those who are in reality far below us4 ,after all1 the poorest bargain that a human being can make1 is to give his individuality for what is called respectability4 ,there is no saying more degrading than this3 ,it is better to be the tail of a lion than the head of a dog4 ,it is a responsibility to think and act for yourself4 ,most people hate responsibility2 therefore they join something and become the tail of some lion4 ,they say1 ,my party can act for me--my church can do my thinking4 ,it is enough for me to pay taxes and obey the lion to which ,i belong1 without troubling myself about the right1 the wrong1 or the why or the wherefore of anything whatever4 ,these people are respectable4 ,they hate reformers1 and dislike exceedingly to have their minds disturbed4 ,they regard convictions as very disagreeable things to have4 ,they love forms1 and enjoy1 beyond everything else1 telling what a splendid tail their lion has1 and what a troublesome dog their neighbor is4 ,besides this natural inclination to avoid personal responsibility1 is and always has been1 the fact1 that every religionist has warned men against the presumption and wickedness of thinking for themselves4 ,the reason has been denounced by all ,christendom as the only unsafe guide4 ,the church has left nothing undone to prevent man following the logic of his brain4 ,the plainest facts have been covered with the mantle of mystery4 ,the grossest absurdities have been declared to be self-evident facts4 ,the order of nature has been1 as it were1 reversed1 that the hypocritical few might govern the honest many4 ,the man who stood by the conclusion of his reason was denounced as a scorner and hater of ,god and his holy church4 ,from the organization of the first church until this moment1 to think your own thoughts has been inconsistent with membership4 ,every member has borne the marks of collar1 and chain1 and whip4 ,no man ever seriously attempted to reform a church without being cast out and hunted down by the hounds of hypocrisy4 ,the highest crime against a creed is to change it4 ,reformation is treason4 ,thousands of young men are being educated at this moment by the various churches4 ,what for8 ,in order that they may be prepared to investigate the phenomena by which we are surrounded8 ,no6 ,the object1 and the only object1 is that they may be prepared to defend a creed2 that they may learn the arguments of their respective churches1 and repeat them in the dull ears of a thoughtless congregation4 ,if one1 after being thus trained at the expense of the ,methodists1 turns ,presbyterian or ,baptist1 he is denounced as an ungrateful wretch4 ,honest investigation is utterly impossible within the pale of any church1 for the reason1 that if you think the church is right you will not investigate1 and if you think it wrong1 the church will investigate you4 ,the consequence of this is1 that most of the theological literature is the result of suppression1 of fear1 tyranny and hypocrisy4 ,every orthodox writer necessarily said to himself1 ,if ,i write that1 my wife and children may want for bread4 ,i will be covered with shame and branded with infamy2 but if ,i write this1 ,i will gain position1 power1 and honor4 ,my church rewards defenders1 and burns reformers4 ,under these conditions all your ,scotts1 ,hen-rys1 and ,mc,knights have written2 and weighed in these scales1 what are their commentaries worth8 ,they are not the ideas and decisions of honest judges1 but the sophisms of the paid attorneys of superstition4 ,who can tell what the world has lost by this infamous system of suppression8 ,how many grand thinkers have died with the mailed hand of superstition upon their lips8 ,how many splendid ideas have perished in the cradle of the brain1 strangled in the poison-coils of that python1 the ,church6 ,for thousands of years a thinker was hunted down like an escaped convict4 ,to him who had braved the church1 every door was shut1 every knife was open4 ,to shelter him from the wild storm1 to give him a crust when dying1 to put a cup of water to his cracked and bleeding lips2 these were all crimes1 not one of which the church ever did forgive2 and with the justice taught of her ,god1 his helpless children were exterminated as scorpions and vipers4 ,who at the present day can imagine the courage1 the devotion to principle1 the intellectual and moral grandeur it once required to be an infidel1 to brave the church1 her racks1 her fagots1 her dungeons1 her tongues of fire1--to defy and scorn her heaven and her hell--her devil and her ,god8 ,they were the noblest sons of earth4 ,they were the real saviors of our race1 the destroyers of superstition and the creators of ,science4 ,they were the real ,titans who bared their grand foreheads to all the thunderbolts of all the gods4 ,the church has been1 and still is1 the great robber4 ,she has rifled not only the pockets but the brains of the world4 ,she is the stone at the sepulchre of liberty2 the upas tree1 in whose shade the intellect of man has withered2 the ,gorgon beneath whose gaze the human heart has turned to stone4 ,under her influence even the ,protestant mother expects to be happy in heaven1 while her brave boy1 who fell fighting for the rights of man1 shall writhe in hell4 ,it is said that some of the ,indian tribes place the heads of their children between pieces of bark until the form of the skull is permanently changed4 ,to us this seems a most shocking custom2 and yet1 after all1 is it as bad as to put the souls of our children in the strait-jacket of a creed8 to so utterly deform their minds that they regard the ,god of the ,bible as a being of infinite mercy1 and really consider it a virtue to believe a thing just because it seems unreasonable8 ,every child in the ,christian world has uttered its wondering protest against this outrage4 ,all the machinery of the church is constantly employed in corrupting the reason of children4 ,in every possible way they are robbed of their own thoughts and forced to accept the statements of others4 ,every ,sunday school has for its object the crushing out of every germ of individuality4 ,the poor children are taught that nothing can be more acceptable to ,god than unreasoning obedience and eyeless faith1 and that to believe ,god did an impossible act1 is far better than to do a good one yourself4 ,they are told that all religions have been simply the ,john-the-,baptists of ours2 that all the gods of antiquity have withered and shrunken into the ,jehovah of the ,jews2 that all the longings and aspirations of the race are realized in the motto of the ,evangelical ,alliance1 ,liberty in non-essentials1 that all there is1 or ever was1 of religion can be found in the apostles' creed2 that there is nothing left to be discovered2 that all the thinkers are dead1 and all the living should simply be believers2 that we have only to repeat the epitaph found on the grave of wisdom2 that grave-yards are the best possible universities1 and that the children must be forever beaten with the bones of the fathers4 ,it has always seemed absurd to suppose that a god would choose for his companions1 during all eternity1 the dear souls whose highest and only ambition is to obey4 ,he certainly would now and then be tempted to make the same remark made by an ,english gentleman to his poor guest4 ,the gentleman had invited a man in humble circumstances to dine with him4 ,the man was so overcome with the honor that to everything the gentleman said he replied ,yes4 ,tired at last with the monotony of acquiescence1 the gentleman cried out1 ,for ,god's sake1 my good man1 say ',no1' just once1 so there will be two of us4 ,is it possible that an infinite ,god created this world simply to be the dwelling-place of slaves and serfs8 simply for the purpose of raising orthodox ,christians8 ,that he did a few miracles to astonish them2 that all the evils of life are simply his punishments1 and that he is finally going to turn heaven into a kind of religious museum filled with ,baptist barnacles1 petrified ,presbyterians and ,methodist mummies8 ,i want no heaven for which ,i must give my reason2 no happiness in exchange for my liberty1 and no immortality that demands the surrender of my individuality4 ,better rot in the windowless tomb1 to which there is no door but the red mouth of the pallid worm1 than wear the jeweled collar even of a god4 ,religion does not1 and cannot1 contemplate man as free4 ,she accepts only the homage of the prostrate1 and scorns the offerings of those who stand erect4 ,she cannot tolerate the liberty of thought4 ,the wide and sunny fields belong not to her domain4 ,the star-lit heights of genius and individuality are above and beyond her appreciation and power4 ,her subjects cringe at her feet1 covered with the dust of obedience4 ,they are not athletes standing posed by rich life and brave endeavor like antique statues1 but shriveled deformities1 studying with furtive glance the cruel face of power4 ,no religionist seems capable of comprehending this plain truth4 ,there is this difference between thought and action3 for our actions we are responsible to ourselves and to those injuriously affected2 for thoughts1 there can1 in the nature of things1 be no responsibility to gods or men1 here or hereafter4 ,and yet the ,protestant has vied with the ,catholic in denouncing freedom of thought2 and while ,i was taught to hate ,catholicism with every drop of my blood1 it is only justice to say1 that in all essential particulars it is precisely the same as every other religion4 ,luther denounced mental liberty with all the coarse and brutal vigor of his nature2 ,calvin despised1 from the very bottom of his petrified heart1 anything that even looked like religious toleration1 and solemnly declared that to advocate it was to crucify ,christ afresh4 ,all the founders of all the orthodox churches have advocated the same infamous tenet4 ,the truth is1 that what is called religion is necessarily inconsistent with free thought ,a believer is a bird in a cage1 a ,freethinker is an eagle parting the clouds with tireless wing4 ,at present1 owing to the inroads that have been made by liberals and infidels1 most of the churches pretend to be in favor of religious liberty4 ,of these churches1 we will ask this question3 ,how can a man1 who conscientiously believes in religious liberty1 worship a ,god who does not8 ,they say to us3 ,we will not imprison you on account of your belief1 but our ,god will4 ,we will not burn you because you throw away the sacred ,scriptures1 but their author will4 ,we think it an infamous crime to persecute our brethren for opinion's sake1--but the ,god1 whom we ignorantly worship1 will on that account1 damn his own children forever4 ,why is it that these ,christians not only detest the infidels1 but cordially despise each other8 ,why do they refuse to worship in the temples of each other8 ,why do they care so little for the damnation of men1 and so much for the baptism of children8 ,why will they adorn their churches with the money of thieves and flatter vice for the sake of subscriptions8 ,why will they attempt to bribe ,science to certify to the writings of ,god8 ,why do they torture the words of the great into an acknowledgment of the truth of ,christianity8 ,why do they stand with hat in hand before presidents1 kings1 emperors1 and scientists1 begging1 like ,lazarus1 for a few crumbs of religious comfort8 ,why are they so delighted to find an allusion to ,providence in the message of ,lincoln8 ,why are they so afraid that some one will find out that ,paley wrote an essay in favor of the ,epicurean philosophy1 and that ,sir ,isaac ,newton was once an infidel8 ,why are they so anxious to show that ,voltaire recanted2 that ,paine died palsied with fear2 that the ,emperor ,julian cried out ,galilean1 thou hast conquered2 that ,gibbon died a ,catholic2 that ,agassiz had a little confidence in ,moses2 that the old ,napoleon was once complimentary enough to say that he thought ,christ greater than himself or ,caesar2 that ,washington was caught on his knees at ,valley ,forge2 that blunt old ,ethan ,allen told his child to believe the religion of her mother2 that ,franklin said1 ,don't unchain the tiger1 and that ,volney got frightened in a storm at sea8 ,is it because the foundation of their temple is crumbling1 because the walls are cracked1 the pillars leaning1 the great dome swaying to its fall1 and because ,science has written over the high altar its mene1 mene1 tekel1 upharsin--the old words1 destined to be the epitaph of all religions8 ,every assertion of individual independence has been a step toward infidelity4 ,luther started toward ,humboldt1--,wesley1 toward ,john ,stuart ,mill4 ,to really reform the church is to destroy it4 ,every new religion has a little less superstition than the old1 so that the religion of ,science is but a question of time4 ,i will not say the church has been an unmitigated evil in all respects4 ,its history is infamous and glorious4 ,it has delighted in the production of extremes4 ,it has furnished murderers for its own martyrs4 ,it has sometimes fed the body1 but has always starved the soul4 ,it has been a charitable highwayman--a profligate beggar--a generous pirate4 ,it has produced some angels and a multitude of devils4 ,it has built more prisons than asylums4 ,it made a hundred orphans while it cared for one4 ,in one hand it has carried the alms-dish and in the other a sword4 ,it has founded schools and endowed universities for the purpose of destroying true learning4 ,it filled the world with hypocrites and zealots1 and upon the cross of its own ,christ it crucified the individuality of man4 ,it has sought to destroy the independence of the soul and put the world upon its knees4 ,this is its crime4 ,the commission of this crime was necessary to its existence4 ,in order to compel obedience it declared that it had the truth1 and all the truth2 that ,god had made it the keeper of his secrets2 his agent and his vicegerent4 ,it declared that all other religions were false and infamous4 ,it rendered all compromise impossible and all thought superfluous4 ,thought was its enemy1 obedience was its friend4 ,investigation was fraught with danger2 therefore investigation was suppressed4 ,the holy of holies was behind the curtain4 ,all this was upon the principle that forgers hate to have the signature examined by an expert1 and that imposture detests curiosity4 ,he that hath ears to hear1 let him hear1 has always been the favorite text of the church4 ,in short1 ,christianity has always opposed every forward movement of the human race4 ,across the highway of progress it has always been building breastworks of ,bibles1 tracts1 commentaries1 prayer-books1 creeds1 dogmas and platforms1 and at every advance the ,christians have gathered together behind these heaps of rubbish and shot the poisoned arrows of malice at the soldiers of freedom4 ,and even the liberal ,christian of to-day has his holy of holies1 and in the niche of the temple of his heart has his idol4 ,he still clings to a part of the old superstition1 and all the pleasant memories of the old belief linger in the horizon of his thoughts like a sunset4 ,we associate the memory of those we love with the religion of our childhood4 ,it seems almost a sacrilege to rudely destroy the idols that our fathers worshiped1 and turn their sacred and beautiful truths into the fables of barbarism4 ,some throw away the ,old ,testament and cling to the ,new1 while others give up everything except the idea that there is a personal ,god1 and that in some wonderful way we are the objects of his care4 ,even this1 in my opinion1 as ,science1 the great iconoclast1 marches onward1 will have to be abandoned with the rest4 ,the great ghost will surely share the fate of the little ones4 ,they fled at the first appearance of the dawn1 and the other will vanish with the perfect day4 ,until then the independence of man is little more than a dream4 ,overshadowed by an immense personality1 in the presence of the irresponsible and the infinite1 the individuality of man is lost1 and he falls prostrate in the very dust of fear4 ,beneath the frown of the absolute1 man stands a wretched1 trembling slave1--beneath his smile he is at best only a fortunate serf4 ,governed by a being whose arbitrary will is law1 chained to the chariot of power1 his destiny rests in the pleasure of the unknown4 ,under these circumstances1 what wretched object can he have in lengthening out his aimless life8 ,and yet1 in most minds1 there is a vague fear of the gods--a shrinking from the malice of the skies4 ,our fathers were slaves1 and nearly all their children are mental serfs4 ,the enfranchisement of the soul is a slow and painful process4 ,superstition1 the mother of those hideous twins1 ,fear and ,faith1 from her throne of skulls1 still rules the world1 and will until the mind of woman ceases to be the property of priests4 ,when women reason1 and babes sit in the lap of philosophy1 the victory of reason over the shadowy host of darkness will be complete4 ,in the minds of many1 long after the intellect has thrown aside as utterly fabulous the legends of the church1 there still remains a lingering suspicion1 born of the mental habits contracted in childhood1 that after all there may be a grain of truth in these mountains of theological mist1 and that possibly the superstitious side is the side of safety4 ,a gentleman1 walking among the ruins of ,athens1 came upon a fallen statue of ,jupiter2 making an exceedingly low bow he said3 ,o ,jupiter6 ,i salute thee4 ,he then added3 ,should you ever sit upon the throne of heaven again1 do not1 ,i pray you1 forget that ,i treated you politely when you were prostrate4 ,we have all been taught by the church that nothing is so well calculated to excite the ire of the ,deity as to express a doubt as to his existence1 and that to deny it is an unpardonable sin4 ,numerous well-attested instances are referred to of atheists being struck dead for denying the existence of ,god4 ,according to these religious people1 ,god is infinitely above us in every respect1 infinitely merciful1 and yet he cannot bear to hear a poor finite man honestly question his existence4 ,knowing1 as he does1 that his children are groping in darkness and struggling with doubt and fear2 knowing that he could enlighten them if he would1 he still holds the expression of a sincere doubt as to his existence1 the most infamous of crimes4 ,according to orthodox logic1 ,god having furnished us with imperfect minds1 has a right to demand a perfect result4 ,suppose ,mr4 ,smith should overhear a couple of small bugs holding a discussion as to the existence of ,mr4 ,smith1 and suppose one should have the temerity to declare1 upon the honor of a bug1 that he had examined the whole question to the best of his ability1 including the argument based upon design1 and had come to the conclusion that no man by the name of ,smith had ever lived4 ,think then of ,mr4 ,smith flying into an ecstasy of rage1 crushing the atheist bug beneath his iron heel1 while he exclaimed1 ,i will teach you1 blasphemous wretch1 that ,smith is a diabolical fact6 ,what then can we think of a ,god who would open the artillery of heaven upon one of his own children for simply expressing his honest thought8 ,and what man who really thinks can help repeating the words of ,ennius3 ,if there are gods they certainly pay no attention to the affairs of man4 ,think of the millions of men and women who have been destroyed simply for loving and worshiping this ,god4 ,is it possible that this ,god1 having infinite power1 saw his loving and heroic children languishing in the darkness of dungeons2 heard the clank of their chains when they lifted their hands to him in the agony of prayer2 saw them stretched upon the bigot's rack1 where death alone had pity2 saw the serpents of flame crawl hissing round their shrinking forms---saw all this for sixteen hundred years1 and sat as silent as a stone8 ,from such a ,god1 why should man expect assistance8 ,why should he waste his days in fruitless prayer8 ,why should he fall upon his knees and implore a phantom--a phantom that is deaf1 and dumb1 and blind8 ,although we live in what is called a free government1--and politically we are free1--there is but little religious liberty in ,america4 ,society demands1 either that you belong to some church1 or that you suppress your opinions4 ,it is contended by many that ours is a ,christian government1 founded upon the ,bible1 and that all who look upon that book as false or foolish are destroying the foundation of our country4 ,the truth is1 our government is not founded upon the rights of gods1 but upon the rights of men4 ,our ,constitution was framed1 not to declare and uphold the deity of ,christ1 but the sacredness of humanity4 ,ours is the first government made by the people and for the people4 ,it is the only nation with which the gods have had nothing to do4 ,and yet there are some judges dishonest and cowardly enough to solemnly decide that this is a ,christian country1 and that our free institutions are based upon the infamous laws of ,jehovah4 ,such judges are the ,jeffries of the church4 ,they believe that decisions1 made by hirelings at the bidding of kings1 are binding upon man forever4 ,they regard old law as far superior to modern justice4 ,they are what might be called orthodox judges4 ,they spend their days in finding out1 not what ought to be1 but what has been4 ,with their backs to the sunrise they worship the night4 ,there is only one future event with which they concern themselves1 and that is their reelection4 ,no honest court ever did1 or ever will1 decide that our ,constitution is ,christian4 ,the ,bible teaches that the powers that be1 are ordained of ,god4 ,the ,bible teaches that ,god is the source of all authority1 and that all kings have obtained their power from him4 ,every tyrant has claimed to be the agent of the ,most ,high4 ,the ,inquisition was founded1 not in the name of man1 but in the name of ,god4 ,all the governments of ,europe recognize the greatness of ,god1 and the littleness of the people4 ,in all ages1 hypocrites1 called priests1 have put crowns upon the heads of thieves1 called kings4 ,the ,declaration of ,independence announces the sublime truth1 that all power comes from the people4 ,this was a denial1 and the first denial of a nation1 of the infamous dogma that ,god confers the right upon one man to govern others4 ,it was the first grand assertion of the dignity of the human race4 ,it declared the governed to be the source of power1 and in fact denied the authority of any and all gods4 ,through the ages of slavery--through the weary centuries of the lash and chain1 ,god was the acknowledged ruler of the world4 ,to enthrone man1 was to dethrone him4 ,to ,paine1 ,jefferson1 and ,franklin1 are we indebted1 more than to all others1 for a human government1 and for a ,constitution in which no ,god is recognized superior to the legally expressed will of the people4 ,they knew that to put ,god in the ,constitution was to put man out4 ,they knew that the recognition of a ,deity would be seized upon by fanatics and zealots as a pretext for destroying the liberty of thought4 ,they knew the terrible history of the church too well to place in her keeping1 or in the keeping of her ,god1 the sacred rights of man4 ,they intended that all should have the right to worship1 or not to worship2 that our laws should make no distinction on account of creed4 ,they intended to found and frame a government for man1 and for man alone4 ,they wished to preserve the individuality and liberty of all2 to prevent the few from governing the many1 and the many from persecuting and destroying the few4 ,notwithstanding all this1 the spirit of persecution still lingers in our laws4 ,in many of the ,states1 only those who believe in the existence of some kind of ,god1 are under the protection of the law4 ,the supreme court of ,illinois decided1 in the year of grace #ahef1 that an unbeliever in the existence of an intelligent ,first ,cause could not be allowed to testify in any court4 ,his wife and children might have been murdered before his very face1 and yet in the absence of other witnesses1 the murderer could not have even been indicted4 ,the atheist was a legal outcast4 ,to him1 ,justice was not only blind1 but deaf4 ,he was liable1 like other men1 to support the ,government1 and was forced to contribute his share towards paying the salaries of the very judges who decided that under no circumstances could his voice be heard in any court4 ,this was the law of ,illinois1 and so remained until the adoption of the new ,constitution4 ,by such infamous means has the church endeavored to chain the human mind1 and protect the majesty of her ,god4 ,the fact is1 we have no national religion1 and no national ,god2 but every citizen is allowed to have a religion and a ,god of his own1 or to reject all religions and deny the existence of all gods4 ,the church1 however1 never has1 and never will understand and appreciate the genius of our ,government4 ,last year1 in a convention of ,protestant bigots1 held in the city of ,new ,york for the purpose of creating public opinion in favor of a religious amendment to the ,federal ,constitution1 a reverend doctor of divinity1 speaking of atheists1 said3 ,what are the rights of the atheist8 ,i would tolerate him as ,i would tolerate a poor lunatic4 ,i would tolerate him as ,i would tolerate a conspirator4 ,he may live and go free1 hold his lands and enjoy his home--he may even vote2 but for any higher or more advanced citizenship1 he is1 as ,i hold1 utterly disqualified4 ,these are the sentiments of the church to-day4 ,give the church a place in the ,constitution1 let her touch once more the sword of power1 and the priceless fruit of all the ages will turn to ashes on the lips of men4 ,in religious ideas and conceptions there has been for ages a slow and steady development ,at the bottom of the ladder 7speaking of modern times7 is ,catholicism1 and at the top is ,science4 ,the intermediate rounds of this ladder are occupied by the various sects1 whose name is legion4 ,but whatever may be the truth upon any subject has nothing to do with-our right to investigate that subject1 and express any opinion we may form4 ,all that ,i ask1 is the same right ,i freely accord to all others4 ,a few years ago a ,methodist clergyman took it upon himself to give me a piece of friendly advice4 ,although you may disbelieve the ,bible1 said he1 you ought not to say so4 ,that1 you should keep to yourself4 ,do you believe the ,bible1 said ,i4 ,he replied1 ,most assuredly4 ,to which ,i retorted1 ,your answer conveys no information to me4 ,you may be following your own advice4 ,you told me to suppress my opinions4 ,of course a man who will advise others to dissimulate will not always be particular about telling the truth himself4 ,there can be nothing more utterly subversive of all that is really valuable than the suppression of honest thought4 ,no man1 worthy of the form he bears1 will at the command of church or state solemnly repeat a creed his reason scorns4 ,it is the duty of each and every one to maintain his individuality4 ,this above all1 to thine ownself be true1 and it must follow as the night the day1 thou canst not then be false to any man4 ,it is a magnificent thing to be the sole proprietor of yourself4 ,it is a terrible thing to wake up at night and say1 ,there is nobody in this bed4 ,it is humiliating to know that your ideas are all borrowed2 that you are indebted to your memory for your principles2 that your religion is simply one of your habits1 and that you would have convictions if they were only contagious4 ,it is mortifying to feel that you belong to a mental mob and cry crucify him1 because the others do2 that you reap what the great and brave have sown1 and that you can benefit the world only by leaving it4 ,surely every human being ought to attain to the dignity of the unit4 ,surely it is worth something to be one1 and to feel that the census of the universe would be incomplete without counting you4 ,surely there is grandeur in knowing that in the realm of thought1 at least1 you are without a chain2 that you have the right to explore all heights and all depths2 that there are no walls nor fences1 nor prohibited places1 nor sacred corners in all the vast expanse of thought2 that your intellect owes no allegiance to any being1 human or divine2 that you hold all in fee and upon no condition and by no tenure whatever2 that in the world of mind you are relieved from all personal dictation1 and from the ignorant tyranny of majorities4 ,surely it is worth something to feel that there are no priests1 no popes1 no parties1 no governments1 no kings1 no gods1 to whom your intellect can be compelled to pay a reluctant homage4 ,surely it is a joy to know that all the cruel ingenuity of bigotry can devise no prison1 no dungeon1 no cell in which for one instant to confine a thought2 that ideas cannot be dislocated by racks1 nor crushed in iron boots1 nor burned with fire4 ,surely it is sublime to think that the brain is a castle1 and that within its curious bastions and winding halls the soul1 in spite of all worlds and all beings1 is the supreme sovereign of itself4 ,,heretics ,,and ,,heresies4 ,liberty1 a ,word without which all other ,words are ,vain4 ,,whoever has an opinion of his own1 and honestly expresses it1 will be guilty of heresy4 ,heresy is what the minority believe2 it is the name given by the powerful to the doctrine of the weak4 ,this word was born of the hatred1 arrogance and cruelty of those who love their enemies1 and who1 when smitten on one cheek1 turn the other4 ,this word was born of intellectual slavery in the feudal ages of thought ,it was an epithet used in the place of argument4 ,from the commencement of the ,christian era1 every art has been exhausted and every conceivable punishment inflicted to force all people to hold the same religious opinions4 ,this effort was born of the idea that a certain belief was necessary to the salvation of the soul4 ,christ taught1 and the church still teaches1 that unbelief is the blackest of crimes4 ,god is supposed to hate with an infinite and implacable hatred1 every heretic upon the earth1 and the heretics who have died are supposed at this moment to be suffering the agonies of the damned4 ,the church persecutes the living and her ,god burns the dead4 ,it is claimed that ,god wrote a book called the ,bible1 and it is generally admitted that this book is somewhat difficult to understand4 ,as long as the church had all the copies of this book1 and the people were not allowed to read it1 there was comparatively little heresy in the world2 but when it was printed and read1 people began honestly to differ as to its meaning4 ,a few were independent and brave enough to give the world their real thoughts1 and for the extermination of these men the church used all her power4 ,protestants and ,catholics vied with each other in the work of enslaving the human mind4 ,for ages they were rivals in the infamous effort to rid the earth of honest people4 ,they infested every country1 every city1 town1 hamlet and family4 ,they appealed to the worst passions of the human heart ,they sowed the seeds of discord and hatred in every land4 ,brother denounced brother1 wives informed against their husbands1 mothers accused their children1 dungeons were crowded with the innocent2 the flesh of the good and true rotted in the clasp of chains2 the flames devoured the heroic1 and in the name of the most merciful ,god1 his children were exterminated with famine1 sword1 and fire4 ,over the wild waves of battle rose and fell the banner of ,jesus ,christ4 ,for sixteen hundred years the robes of the church were red with innocent blood4 ,the ingenuity of ,christians was exhausted in devising punishment severe enough to be inflicted upon other ,christians who honestly and sincerely differed with them upon any point whatever4 ,give any orthodox church the power1 and to-day they would punish heresy with whip1 and chain1 and fire4 ,as long as a church deems a certain belief essential to salvation1 just so long it will kill and burn if it has the power4 ,why should the church pity a man whom her ,god hates8 ,why should she show mercy to a kind and noble heretic whom her ,god will burn in eternal fire8 ,why should a ,christian be better than his ,god8 ,it is impossible for the imagination to conceive of a greater atrocity than has been perpetrated by the church4 ,every nerve in the human body capable of pain has been sought out and touched by the church4 ,let it be remembered that all churches have persecuted heretics to the extent of their power4 ,toleration has increased only when and where the power of the church has diminished4 ,from ,augustine until now the spirit of the ,christians has remained the same4 ,there has been the same intolerance1 the same undying hatred of all who think for themselves1 and the same determination to crush out of the human brain all knowledge inconsistent with an ignorant creed4 ,every church pretends that it has a revelation from ,god1 and that this revelation must be given to the people through the church2 that the church acts through its priests1 and that ordinary mortals must be content with a revelation--not from ,god--but from the church4 ,had the people submitted to this preposterous claim1 of course there could have been but one church1 and that church never could have advanced4 ,it might have retrograded1 because it is not necessary to think or investigate in order to forget4 ,without heresy there could have been no progress4 ,the highest type of the orthodox ,christian does not forget2 neither does he learn4 ,he neither advances nor recedes4 ,he is a living fossil embedded in that rock called faith4 ,he makes no effort to better his condition1 because all his strength is exhausted in keeping other people from improving theirs4 ,the supreme desire of his heart is to force all others to adopt his creed1 and in order to accomplish this object he denounces free thinking as a crime1 and this crime he calls heresy4 ,when he had power1 heresy was the most terrible and formidable of words4 ,it meant confiscation1 exile1 imprisonment1 torture1 and death4 ,in those days the cross and rack were inseparable companions4 ,across the open ,bible lay the sword and fagot4 ,not content with burning such heretics as were alive1 they even tried the dead1 in order that the church might rob their wives and children4 ,the property of all heretics was confiscated1 and on this account they charged the dead with being heretical--indicted1 as it were1 their dust--to the end that the church might clutch the bread of orphans4 ,learned divines discussed the propriety of tearing out the tongues of heretics before they were burned1 and the general opinion was1 that this ought to be done so that the heretics should not be able1 by uttering blasphemies1 to shock the ,christians who were burning them4 ,with a mixture of ferocity and ,christianity1 the priests insisted that heretics ought to be burned at a slow fire1 giving as a reason that more time was given them for repentance4 ,no wonder that ,jesus ,christ said1 ,i came not to bring peace1 but a sword4 ,every priest regarded himself as the agent of ,god4 ,he answered all questions by authority1 and to treat him with disrespect was an insult offered to ,god4 ,no one was asked to think1 but all were commanded to obey4 ,in #abjh the ,inquisition was established4 ,seven years afterward1 the fourth council of the ,lateran enjoined all kings and rulers to swear an oath that they would exterminate heretics from their dominions4 ,the sword of the church was unsheathed1 and the world was at the mercy of ignorant and infuriated priests1 whose eyes feasted upon the agonies they inflicted4 ,acting1 as they believed1 or pretended to believe1 under the command of ,god2 stimulated by the hope of infinite reward in another world--hating heretics with every drop of their bestial blood2 savage beyond description2 merciless beyond conception1--these infamous priests1 in a kind of frenzied joy1 leaped upon the helpless victims of their rage4 ,they crushed their bones in iron boots2 tore their quivering flesh with iron hooks and pincers2 cut off their lips and eyelids2 pulled out their nails1 and into the bleeding quick thrust needles2 tore out their tongues2 extinguished their eyes2 stretched them upon racks2 flayed them alive2 crucified them with their heads downward2 exposed them to wild beasts2 burned them at the stake2 mocked their cries and groans2 ravished their wives2 robbed their children1 and then prayed ,god to finish the holy work in hell4 ,millions upon millions were sacrificed upon the altars of bigotry4 ,the ,catholic burned the ,lutheran1 the ,lutheran burned the ,catholic1 the ,episcopalian tortured the ,presbyterian1 the ,presbyterian tortured the ,episcopalian4 ,every denomination killed all it could of every other2 and each ,christian felt in duty bound to exterminate every other ,christian who denied the smallest fraction of his creed4 ,in the reign of ,henry ,,viii4--that pious and moral founder of the apostolic ,episcopal ,church1--there was passed by the parliament of ,england an act entitled ,an act for abolishing of diversity of opinion4 ,and in this act was set forth what a good ,christian was obliged to believe3 ,first1 ,that in the sacrament was the real body and blood of ,jesus ,christ4 ,second1 ,that the body and blood of ,jesus ,christ was in the bread1 and the blood and body of ,jesus ,christ was in the wine4 ,third1 ,that priests should not marry4 ,fourth1 ,that vows of chastity were of perpetual obligation4 ,fifth1 ,that private masses ought to be continued2 and1 ,sixth1 ,that auricular confession to a priest must be maintained4 ,this creed was made by law1 in order that all men might know just what to believe by simply reading the statute4 ,the church hated to see the people wearing out their brains in thinking upon these subjects4 ,it was thought far better that a creed should be made by parliament1 so that whatever might be lacking in evidence might be made up in force4 ,the punishment for denying the first article was death by fire4 ,for the denial of any other article1 imprisonment1 and for the second offence--death4 ,your attention is called to these six articles1 established during the reign of ,henry ,,viii41 and by the ,church of ,england1 simply because not one of these articles is believed by that church to-day4 ,if the law then made by the church could be enforced now1 every ,episcopalian would be burned at the stake4 ,similar laws were passed in most ,christian countries1 as all orthodox churches firmly believed that mankind could be legislated into heaven4 ,according to the creed of every church1 slavery leads to heaven1 liberty leads to hell4 ,it was claimed that ,god had founded the church1 and that to deny the authority of the church was to be a traitor to ,god1 and consequently an ally of the devil4 ,to torture and destroy one of the soldiers of ,satan was a duty no good ,christian cared to neglect4 ,nothing can be sweeter than to earn the gratitude of ,god by killing your own enemies4 ,such a mingling of profit and revenge1 of heaven for yourself and damnation for those you dislike1 is a temptation that your ordinary ,christian never resists4 ,according to the theologians1 ,god1 the ,father of us all1 wrote a letter to his children4 ,the children have always differed somewhat as to the meaning of this letter4 ,in consequence of these honest differences1 these brothers began to cut out each other's hearts4 ,in every land1 where this letter from ,god has been read1 the children to whom and for whom it was written have been filled with hatred and malice4 ,they have imprisoned and murdered each other1 and the wives and children of each other4 ,in the name of ,god every possible crime has been committed1 every conceivable outrage has been perpetrated4 ,brave men1 tender and loving women1 beautiful girls1 and prattling babes have been exterminated in the name of ,jesus ,christ4 ,for more than fifty generations the church has carried the black flag4 ,her vengeance has been measured only by her power4 ,during all these years of infamy no heretic has ever been forgiven4 ,with the heart of a fiend she has hated2 with the clutch of avarice she has grasped2 with the jaws of a dragon she has devoured2 pitiless as famine1 merciless as fire1 with the conscience of a serpent3 such is the history of the ,church of ,god4 ,i do not say1 and ,i do not believe1 that ,christians are as bad as their creeds4 ,in spite of church and dogma1 there have been millions and millions of men and women true to the loftiest and most generous promptings of the human heart4 ,they have been true to their convictions1 and1 with a self-denial and fortitude excelled by none1 have labored and suffered for the salvation of men4 ,imbued with the spirit of self-sacrifice1 believing that by personal effort they could rescue at least a few souls from the infinite shadow of hell1 they have cheerfully endured every hardship and scorned every danger4 ,and yet1 notwithstanding all this1 they believed that honest error was a crime4 ,they knew that the ,bible so declared1 and they believed that all unbelievers would be eternally lost4 ,they believed that religion was of ,god1 and all heresy of the devil4 ,they killed heretics in defence of their own souls and the souls of their children4 ,they killed them because1 according to their idea1 they were the enemies of ,god1 and because the ,bible teaches that the blood of the unbeliever is a most acceptable sacrifice to heaven4 ,nature never prompted a loving mother to throw her child into the ,ganges4 ,nature never prompted men to exterminate each other for a difference of opinion concerning the baptism of infants4 ,these crimes have been produced by religions filled with all that is illogical1 cruel and hideous4 ,these religions were produced for the most part by ignorance1 tyranny and hypocrisy4 ,under the impression that the infinite ruler and creator of the universe had commanded the destruction of heretics and infidels1 the church perpetrated all these crimes4 ,men and women have been burned for thinking there is but one ,god2 that there was none2 that the ,holy ,ghost is younger than ,god2 that ,god was somewhat older than his son2 for insisting that good works will save a man without faith2 that faith will do without good works2 for declaring that a sweet babe will not be burned eternally1 because its parents failed to have its head wet by a priest2 for speaking of ,god as though he had a nose2 for denying that ,christ was his own father2 for contending that three persons1 rightly added together1 make more than one2 for believing in purgatory2 for denying the reality of hell2 for pretending that priests can forgive sins2 for preaching that ,god is an essence2 for denying that witches rode through the air on sticks2 for doubting the total depravity of the human heart2 for laughing at irresistible grace1 predestination and particular redemption2 for denying that good bread could be made of the body of a dead man2 for pretending that the pope was not managing this world for ,god1 and in the place of ,god2 for disputing the efficacy of a vicarious atonement2 for thinking the ,virgin ,mary was born like other people2 for thinking that a man's rib was hardly sufficient to make a good-sized woman2 for denying that ,god used his finger for a pen2 for asserting that prayers are not answered1 that diseases are not sent to punish unbelief2 for denying the authority of the ,bible2 for having a ,bible in their possession2 for attending mass1 and for refusing to attend2 for wearing a surplice2 for carrying a cross1 and for refusing2 for being a ,catholic1 and for being a ,protestant2 for being an ,episcopalian1 a ,presbyterian1 a ,baptist1 and for being a ,quaker4 ,in short1 every virtue has been a crime1 and every crime a virtue4 ,the church has burned honesty and rewarded hypocrisy4 ,and all this1 because it was commanded by a book--a book that men had been taught implicitly to believe1 long1 before they knew one word that was in it ,they had been taught that to doubt the truth of this book--to examine it1 even--was a crime of such enormity that it could not be forgiven1 either in this world or in the next ,the ,bible was the real persecutor4 ,the ,bible burned heretics1 built dungeons1 founded the ,inquisition1 and trampled upon all the liberties of men4 ,how long1 ,o how long will mankind worship a book8 ,how long will they grovel in the dust before the ignorant legends of the barbaric past8 ,how long1 ,o how long will they pursue phantoms in a darkness deeper than death8 ,unfortunately for the world1 about the beginning of the sixteenth century1 a man by the name of ,gerard ,chauvin was married to ,jeanne ,lefranc1 and still more unfortunately for the world1 the fruit of this marriage was a son1 called ,john ,chauvin1 who afterwards became famous as ,john ,calvin1 the founder of the ,presbyterian ,church4 ,this man forged five fetters for the brain4 ,these fetters he called points4 ,that is to say1 predestination1 particular redemption1 total depravity1 irresistible grace1 and the perseverance of the saints4 ,about the neck of each follower he put a collar bristling with these five iron points4 ,the presence of all these points on the collar is still the test of orthodoxy in the church he founded4 ,this man1 when in the flush of youth1 was elected to the office of preacher in ,geneva4 ,he at once1 in union with ,farel1 drew up a condensed statement of the ,presbyterian doctrine1 and all the citizens of ,geneva1 on pain of banishment1 were compelled to take an oath that they believed this statement4 ,of this proceeding ,calvin very innocently remarked that it produced great satisfaction4 ,a man named ,caroli had the audacity to dispute with ,calvin4 ,for this outrage he was banished4 ,to show you what great subjects occupied the attention of ,calvin1 it is only necessary to state that he furiously discussed the question as to whether the sacramental bread should be leavened or unleavened4 ,he drew up laws regulating the cut of the citizens' clothes1 and prescribing their diet1 and all those whose garments were not in the ,calvin fashion were refused the sacrament4 ,at last1 the people becoming tired of this petty theological tyranny1 banished ,calvin4 ,in a few years1 however1 he was recalled and received with great enthusiasm4 ,after this he was supreme1 and the will of ,calvin became the law of ,geneva4 ,under his benign administration1 ,james ,gruet was beheaded because he had written some profane verses4 ,the slightest word against ,calvin or his absurd doctrines was punished as a crime4 ,in #aeec a man was tried at ,vienne by the ,catholic ,church for heresy4 ,he was convicted and sentenced to death by burning4 ,it was apparently his good fortune to escape4 ,pursued by the sleuth hounds of intolerance he fled to ,geneva for protection4 ,a dove flying from hawks1 sought safety in the nest of a vulture4 ,this fugitive from the cruelty of ,rome asked shelter from ,john ,calvin1 who had written a book in favor of religious toleration4 ,servetus had forgotten that this book was written by ,calvin when in the minority2 that it was written in weakness to be forgotten in power2 that it was produced by fear instead of principle4 ,he did not know that ,calvin had caused his arrest at ,vienne1 in ,france1 and had sent a copy of his work1 which was claimed to be blasphemous1 to the archbishop4 ,he did not then know that the ,protestant ,calvin was acting as one of the detectives of the ,catholic ,church1 and had been instrumental in procuring his conviction for heresy4 ,ignorant of all this unspeakable infamy1 he put himself in the power of this very ,calvin4 ,the maker of the ,presbyterian creed caused the fugitive ,serve-tus to be arrested for blasphemy4 ,he was tried4 ,calvin was his accuser4 ,he was convicted and condemned to death by fire4 ,on the morning of the fatal day1 ,calvin saw him1 and ,servetus1 the victim1 asked forgiveness of ,calvin1 the murderer4 ,servetus was bound to the stake1 and the fagots were lighted4 ,the wind carried the flames somewhat away from his body1 so that he slowly roasted for hours4 ,vainly he implored a speedy death4 ,at last the flames climbed round his form2 through smoke and fire his murderers saw a white heroic face4 ,and there they watched until a man became a charred and shriveled mass4 ,liberty was banished from ,geneva1 and nothing but ,presbyterianism was left4 ,honor1 justice1 mercy1 reason and charity were all exiled1 but the five points of predestination1 particular redemption1 irresistible grace1 total depravity1 and the certain perseverance of the saints remained instead4 ,calvin founded a little theocracy1 modeled after the ,old ,testament1 and succeeded in erecting the most detestable government that ever existed1 except the one from which it was copied4 ,against all this intolerance1 one man1 a minister1 raised his voice4 ,the name of this man should never be forgotten4 ,it was ,castalio4 ,this brave man had the goodness and the courage to declare the innocence of honest error4 ,he was the first of the so-called reformers to take this noble ground4 ,i wish ,i had the genius to pay a fitting tribute to his memory4 ,perhaps it would be impossible to pay him a grander compliment than to say1 ,castalio was in all things the opposite of ,calvin4 ,to plead for the right of individual judgment was considered a crime1 and ,castalio was driven from ,geneva by ,john ,calvin4 ,by him he was denounced as a child of the devil1 as a dog of ,satan1 as a beast from hell1 and as one who1 by this horrid blasphemy of the innocence of honest error1 crucified ,christ afresh1 and by him he was pursued until rescued by the hand of death4 ,upon the name of ,castalio1 ,calvin heaped every epithet1 until his malice was nearly satisfied and his imagination entirely exhausted4 ,it is impossible to conceive how human nature can become so frightfully perverted as to pursue a fellow-man with the malignity of a fiend1 simply because he is good1 just1 and generous4 ,calvin was of a pallid1 bloodless complexion1 thin1 sickly1 irritable1 gloomy1 impatient1 egotistic1 tyrannical1 heartless1 and infamous4 ,he was a strange compound of revengeful morality1 malicious forgiveness1 ferocious charity1 egotistic humility1 and a kind of hellish justice4 ,in other words1 he was as near like the ,god of the ,old ,testament as his health permitted4 ,the best thing1 however1 about the ,presbyterians of ,geneva was1 that they denied the power of the ,pope1 and the best thing about the ,pope was1 that he was not a ,presbyterian4 ,the doctrines of ,calvin spread rapidly1 and were eagerly accepted by multitudes on the continent2 but ,scotland1 in a few years1 became the real fortress of ,presbyterianism4 ,the ,scotch succeeded in establishing the same kind of theocracy that flourished in ,geneva4 ,the clergy took possession and control of everybody and everything4 ,it is impossible to exaggerate the mental degradation1 the abject superstition of the people of ,scotland during the reign of ,presbyterianism4 ,heretics were hunted and devoured as though they had been wild beasts4 ,the gloomy insanity of ,presbyterianism took possession of a great majority of the people4 ,they regarded their ministers as the ,jews did ,moses and ,aaron4 ,they believed that they were the especial agents of ,god1 and that whatsoever they bound in ,scotland would be bound in heaven4 ,there was not one particle of intellectual freedom4 ,no man was allowed to differ with the church1 or to even contradict a priest4 ,had ,presbyterianism maintained its ascendency1 ,scotland would have been peopled by savages to-day4 ,the revengeful spirit of ,calvin took possession of the ,puritans1 and caused them to redden the soil of the ,new ,world with the brave blood of honest men4 ,clinging to the five points of ,calvin1 they too established governments in accordance with the teachings of the ,old ,testament4 ,they too attached the penalty of death to the expression of honest thought4 ,they too believed their church supreme1 and exerted all their power to curse this continent with a spiritual despotism as infamous as it was absurd4 ,they believed with ,luther that universal toleration is universal error1 and universal error is universal hell4 ,toleration was denounced as a crime4 ,fortunately for us1 civilization has had a softening effect even upon the ,presbyterian ,church4 ,to the ennobling influence of the arts and sciences the savage spirit of ,calvinism has1 in some slight degree1 succumbed4 ,true1 the old creed remains substantially as it was written1 but by a kind of tacit understanding it has come to be regarded as a relic of the past4 ,the cry of heresy has been growing fainter and fainter1 and1 as a consequence1 the ministers of that denomination have ventured1 now and then1 to express doubts as to the damnation of infants1 and the doctrine of total depravity4 ,the fact is1 the old ideas became a little monotonous to the people4 ,the fall of man1 the scheme of redemption and irresistible grace1 began to have a familiar sound4 ,the preachers told the old stories while the congregations slept ,some of the ministers became tired of these stories themselves4 ,the five points grew dull1 and they felt that nothing short of irresistible grace could bear this endless repetition4 ,the outside world was full of progress1 and in every direction men advanced1 while this church1 anchored to a creed1 idly rotted at the shore4 ,other denominations1 imbued some little with the spirit of investigation1 were springing up on every side1 while the old ,presbyterian ark rested on the ,ararat of the past1 filled with the theological monsters of another age4 ,lured by the splendors of the outer world1 tempted by the achievements of science1 longing to feel the throb and beat of the mighty march of the human race1 a few of the ministers of this conservative denomination were compelled1 by irresistible sense1 to say a few words in harmony with the splendid ideas of to-day4 ,these utterances have upon several occasions so nearly wakened some of the members that1 rubbing their eyes1 they have feebly inquired whether these grand ideas were not somewhat heretical4 ,these ministers found that just in the proportion that their orthodoxy decreased1 their congregations increased4 ,those who dealt in the pure unadulterated article found themselves demonstrating the five points to a less number of hearers than they had points4 ,stung to madness by this bitter truth1 this galling contrast1 this harassing fact1 the really orthodox have raised the cry of heresy1 and expect with this cry to seal the lips of honest men4 ,one of the ,presbyterian ministers1 and one who has been enjoying the luxury of a little honest thought1 and the real rapture of expressing it1 has already been indicted1 and is about to be tried by the ,presbytery of ,illinois4 ,he is charged-- ,first4 ,with having neglected to preach that most comforting and consoling truth1 the eternal damnation of the soul4 ,surely1 that man must be a monster who could wish to blot this blessed doctrine out and rob earth's wretched children of this blissful hope6 ,who can estimate the misery that has been caused by this most infamous doctrine of eternal punishment8 ,think of the lives it has blighted--of the tears it has caused--of the agony it has produced4 ,think of the millions who have been driven to insanity by this most terrible of dogmas4 ,this doctrine renders ,god the basest and most cruel being in the universe4 ,compared with him1 the most frightful deities of the most barbarous and degraded tribes are miracles of goodness and mercy4 ,there is nothing more degrading than to worship such a god4 ,lower than this the soul can never sink4 ,if the doctrine of eternal damnation is true1 let me share the fate of the unconverted2 let me have my portion in hell1 rather than in heaven with a god infamous enough to inflict eternal misery upon any of the sons of men4 ,second4 ,with having spoken a few kind words of ,robert ,collyer and ,john ,stuart ,mill4 ,i have the honor of a slight acquaintance with ,robert ,collyer4 ,i have read with pleasure some of his exquisite productions4 ,he has a brain full of the dawn1 the head of a philosopher1 the imagination of a poet and the sincere heart of a child4 ,is a minister to be silenced because he speaks fairly of a noble and candid adversary8 ,is it a crime to compliment a lover of justice1 an advocate of liberty2 one who devotes his life to the elevation of man1 the discovery of truth1 and the promulgation of what he believes to be right8 ,can that tongue be palsied by a presbytery that praises a self-denying and heroic life8 ,is it a sin to speak a charitable word over the grave of ,john ,stuart ,mill8 ,is it heretical to pay a just and graceful tribute to departed worth8 ,must the true ,presbyterian violate the sanctity of the tomb1 dig open the grave and ask his ,god to curse the silent dust8 ,is ,presbyterianism so narrow that it conceives of no excellence1 of no purity of intention1 of no spiritual and moral grandeur outside of its barbaric creed8 ,does it still retain within its stony heart all the malice of its founder8 ,is it still warming its fleshless hands at the flames that consumed ,servetus8 ,does it still glory in the damnation of infants1 and does it still persist in emptying the cradle in order that perdition may be filled8 ,is it still starving the soul and famishing the heart8 ,is it still trembling and shivering1 crouching and crawling before its ignorant ,confession of ,faith8 ,had such men as ,robert ,collyer and ,john ,stuart ,mill been present at the burning of ,servetus1 they would have extinguished the flames with their tears4 ,had the presbytery of ,chicago been there1 they would have quietly turned their backs1 solemnly divided their coat tails1 and warmed themselves4 ,third4 ,with having spoken disparagingly of the doctrine of predestination4 ,if there is any dogma that ought to be protected by law1 predestination is that doctrine4 ,surely it is a cheerful1 joyous thing1 to one who is laboring1 struggling1 and suffering in this weary world1 to think that before he existed2 before the earth was2 before a star had glittered in the heavens2 before a ray of light had left the quiver of the sun1 his destiny had been irrevocably fixed1 and that for an eternity before his birth he had been doomed to bear eternal pain4 ,fourth4 ,with failing to preach the efficacy of a vicarious sacrifice4 ,suppose a man had been convicted of murder1 and was about to be hanged--the governor acting as the executioner2 and suppose that just as the doomed man was about to suffer death some one in the crowd should step forward and say1 ,i am willing to die in the place of that murderer4 ,he has a family1 and ,i have none4 ,and suppose further1 that the governor should reply1 ,come forward1 young man1 your offer is accepted4 ,a murder has been committed and somebody must be hung1 and your death will satisfy the law just as well as the death of the murderer4 ,what would you then think of the doctrine of vicarious sacrifice8 ,this doctrine is the consummation of two outrages--forgiving one crime and committing another4 ,fifth4 ,with having inculcated a phase of the doctrine commonly known as evolution1 or development4 ,the church believes and teaches the exact opposite of this doctrine4 ,according to the philosophy of theology1 man has continued to degenerate for six thousand years4 ,to teach that there is that in nature which impels to higher forms and grander ends1 is heresy1 of course4 ,the ,deity will damn ,spencer and his ,evolution1 ,darwin and his ,origin of ,species1 ,bastian and his ,spontaneous ,generation1 ,huxley and his ,protoplasm1 ,tyndall and his ,prayer ,gauge1 and will save those1 and those only1 who declare that the universe has been cursed1 from the smallest atom to the grandest star2 that everything tends to evil and to that only1 and that the only perfect thing in nature is the ,presbyterian ,confession of ,faith4 ,sixth4 ,with having intimated that the reception of ,socrates and ,penelope at heaven's gate was1 to say the least1 a trifle more cordial than that of ,catharine ,,ii4 ,penelope1 waiting patiently and trustfully for her lord's return1 delaying her suitors1 while sadly weaving and unweaving the shroud of ,laertes1 is the most perfect type of wife and woman produced by the civilization of ,greece4 ,socrates1 whose life was above reproach and whose death was beyond all praise1 stands to-day1 in the estimation of every thoughtful man1 at least the peer of ,christ4 ,catharine ,,ii4 assassinated her husband4 ,stepping upon his corpse1 she mounted the throne4 ,she was the murderess of ,prince ,iwan1 grand nephew of ,peter the ,great1 who was imprisoned for eighteen years1 and who during all that time saw the sky but once4 ,taken all in all1 ,catharine was probably one of the most intellectual beasts that ever wore a crown4 ,catharine1 however1 was the head of the ,greek ,church1 ,socrates was a heretic and ,penelope lived and died without having once heard of particular redemption or of irresistible grace4 ,seventh4 ,with repudiating the idea of a call to the ministry1 and pretending that men were called to preach as they were to the other avocations of life4 ,if this doctrine is true1 ,god1 to say the least of it1 is an exceedingly poor judge of human nature4 ,it is more than a century since a man of true genius has been found in an orthodox pulpit4 ,every minister is heretical just to the extent that intellect is above the average4 ,the ,lord seems to be satisfied with mediocrity2 but the people are not4 ,an old deacon1 wishing to get rid of an unpopular preacher1 advised him to give up the ministry and turn his attention to something else4 ,the preacher replied that he could not conscientiously desert the pulpit1 as he had had a call to the ministry4 ,to which the deacon replied1 ,that may be so1 but it's very unfortunate for you1 that when ,god called you to preach1 he forgot to call anybody to hear you4 ,there is nothing more stupidly egotistic than the claim of the clergy that they are1 in some divine sense set apart to the service of the ,lord2 that they have been chosen1 and sanctified2 that there is an infinite difference between them and persons employed in secular affairs4 ,they teach us that all other professions must take care of themselves2 that ,god allows anybody to be a doctor1 a lawyer1 statesman1 soldier1 or artist2 that the ,motts and ,coopers--the ,mansfields and ,marshalls--the ,wilberforces and ,sumners--the ,angelos and ,raphaels1 were never honored by a call4 ,they chose their professions and won their laurels without the assistance of the ,lord4 ,all these men were left free to follow their own inclinations1 while ,god was busily engaged selecting and calling priests1 rectors1 elders1 ministers and exhorters4 ,eighth4 ,with having doubted that ,god was the author of the #ajith ,psalm4 ,the portion of that psalm which carries with it the clearest and most satisfactory evidences of inspiration1 and which has afforded almost unspeakable consolation to the ,presbyterian ,church1 is as follows3 ,set thou a wicked man over him2 and let ,satan stand at his right hand4 ,when he shall be judged1 let him be condemned2 and let his prayer become sin4 ,let his days be few2 and let another take his office4 ,let his children be fatherless and his wife a widow4 ,let his children be continually vagabonds1 and beg2 let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places4 ,let the extortioner catch all that he hath2 and let the stranger spoil his labor4 ,let there be none to extend mercy unto him2 neither let there be any to favor his fatherless children4 ,let his posterity be cut off3 and in the generation following let their name be blotted out4 ,but do thou for me1 ,o ,god the ,lord1 for ,thy name's sake2 because ,thy mercy is good1 deliver ,thou me4444 ,i will greatly praise the ,lord with my mouth4 ,think of a ,god wicked and malicious enough to inspire this prayer4 ,think of one infamous enough to answer it4 ,had this inspired psalm been found in some temple erected for the worship of snakes1 or in the possession of some cannibal king1 written with blood upon the dried skins of babes1 there would have been a perfect harmony between its surroundings and its sentiments4 ,no wonder that the author of this inspired psalm coldly received ,socrates and ,penelope1 and reserved his sweetest smiles for ,catharine the ,second4 ,ninth4 ,with having said that the battles in which the ,israelites engaged1 with the approval and command of ,jehovah1 surpassed in cruelty those of ,julius ,caesar4 ,was it ,julius ,caesar who said1 ,and the ,lord our ,god delivered him before us2 and we smote him1 and his sons1 and all his people4 ,and we took all his cities1 and utterly destroyed the men1 and the women1 and the little ones1 of every city1 we left none to remain8 ,did ,julius ,caesar send the following report to the ,roman senate8 ,and we took all his cities at that time1 there was not a city which we took not from them1 three-score cities1 all the region of ,argob1 the kingdom of ,og in ,bashan4 ,all these cities were fenced with high walls1 gates1 and bars2 beside unwalled towns a great many4 ,and we utterly destroyed them1 as we did unto ,sihon1 king of ,heshbon1 utterly destroying the men1 women1 and children of every city4 ,did ,caesar take the city of ,jericho and utterly destroy all that was in the city1 both men and women1 young and old8 ,did he smite all the country of the hills1 and of the south1 and of the vale1 and of the springs1 and all their kings1 and leave none remaining that breathed1 as the ,lord ,god had commanded8 ,search the records of the whole world1 find out the history of every barbarous tribe1 and you can find no crime that touched a lower depth of infamy than those the ,bible's ,god commanded and approved4 ,for such a ,god ,i have no words to express my loathing and contempt1 and all the words in all the languages of man would scarcely be sufficient4 ,away with such a ,god6 ,give me ,jupiter rather1 with ,io and ,europa1 or even ,siva with his skulls and snakes4 ,tenth4 ,with having repudiated the doctrine of total depravity4 ,what a precious doctrine is that of the total depravity of the human heart6 ,how sweet it is to believe that the lives of all the good and great were continual sins and perpetual crimes2 that the love a mother bears her child is1 in the sight of ,god1 a sin2 that the gratitude of the natural heart is simple meanness2 that the tears of pity are impure2 that for the unconverted to live and labor for others is an offence to heaven2 that the noblest aspirations of the soul are low and groveling in the sight of ,god2 that man should fall upon his knees and ask forgiveness1 simply for loving his wife and child1 and that even the act of asking forgiveness is in fact a crime6 ,surely it is a kind of bliss to feel that every woman and child in the wide world1 with the exception of those who believe the five points1 or some other equally cruel creed1 and such children as have been baptized1 ought at this very moment to be dashed down to the lowest glowing gulf of hell4 ,take from the ,christian the history of his own church--leave that entirely out of the question--and he has no argument left with which to substantiate the total depravity of man4 ,eleventh4 ,with having doubted the perseverance of the saints4 ,i suppose the real meaning of this doctrine is1 that ,presbyterians are just as sure of going to heaven as all other folks are of going to hell4 ,the real idea being1 that it all depends upon the will of ,god1 and not upon the character of the person to be damned or saved2 that ,god has the weakness to send ,presbyterians to ,paradise1 and the justice to doom the rest of mankind to eternal fire4 ,it is admitted that no unconverted brain can see the least particle of sense in this doctrine2 that it is abhorrent to all who have not been the recipients of a new heart2 that only the perfectly good can justify the perfectly infamous4 ,it is contended that the saints do not persevere of their own free will--that they are entitled to no credit for persevering2 but that ,god forces them to persevere1 while on the other hand1 every crime is committed in accordance with the secret will of ,god1 who does all things for his own glory4 ,compared with this doctrine1 there is no other idea1 that has ever been believed by man1 that can properly be called absurd4 ,twelfth4 ,with having spoken and written somewhat lightly of the idea of converting the heathen with doctrinal sermons4 ,of all the failures of which we have any history or knowledge1 the missionary effort is the most conspicuous4 ,the whole question has been decided here1 in our own country1 and conclusively settled4 ,we have nearly exterminated the ,indians1 but we have converted none4 ,from the days of ,john ,eliot to the execution of the last ,modoc1 not one ,indian has been the subject of irresistible grace or particular redemption4 ,the few red men who roam the western wilderness have no thought or care concerning the five points of ,calvin4 ,they are utterly oblivious to the great and vital truths contained in the ,thirty-nine ,articles1 the ,saybrook platform1 and the resolutions of the ,evangelical ,alliance4 ,no ,indian has ever scalped another on account of his religious belief4 ,this of itself shows conclusively that the missionaries have had no effect ,why should we convert the heathen of ,china and kill our own8 ,why should we send missionaries across the seas1 and soldiers over the plains8 ,why should we send ,bibles to the east and muskets to the west8 ,if it is impossible to convert ,indians who have no religion of their own2 no prejudice for or against the eternal procession of the ,holy ,ghost1 how can we expect to convert a heathen who has a religion2 who has plenty of gods and ,bibles and prophets and ,christs1 and who has a religious literature far grander than our own8 ,can we hope with the story of ,daniel in the lions' den to rival the stupendous miracles of ,india8 ,is there anything in our ,bible as lofty and loving as the prayer of the ,buddhist8 ,compare your ,confession of ,faith with the following3 ,never will ,i seek nor receive private individual salvation--never enter into final peace alone2 but forever and everywhere will ,i live and strive for the universal redemption of every creature throughout all worlds4 ,until all are delivered1 never will ,i leave the world of sin1 sorrow1 and struggle1 but will remain where ,i am4 ,think of sending an average ,presbyterian to convert a man who daily offers this tender1 this infinitely generous1 this incomparable prayer4 ,think of reading the #ajith ,psalm to a heathen who has a ,bible of his own in which is found this passage3 ,blessed is that man and beloved of all the gods1 who is afraid of no man1 and of whom no man is afraid4 ,why should you read even the ,new ,testament to a ,hindu1 when his own ,chrishna has said1 ,if a man strike thee1 and in striking drop his staff1 pick it up and hand it to him again8 ,why send a ,presbyterian to a ,sufi1 who says1 ,better one moment of silent contemplation and inward love1 than seventy thousand years of outward worship8 ,whoso would carelessly tread one worm that crawls on earth1 that heartless one is darkly alienate from ,god2 but he that1 living1 embraceth all things in his love1 to live with him ,god bursts all bounds above1 below4 ,why should we endeavor to thrust our cruel and heartless theology upon one who prays this prayer3 ,o ,god1 show pity toward the wicked2 for on the good thou hast already bestowed thy mercy by having created them virtuous8 ,compare this prayer with the curses and cruelties of the ,old ,testament--with the infamies commanded and approved by the being whom we are taught to worship as a ,god--and with the following tender product of ,presbyterianism3 ,it may seem absurd to human wisdom that ,god should harden1 blind1 and deliver up some men to a reprobate sense2 that he should first deliver them over to evil1 and then condemn them for that evil2 but the believing spiritual man sees no absurdity in all this1 knowing that ,god would be never a whit less good even though he should destroy all men4 ,of all the religions that have been produced by the egotism1 the malice1 the ignorance and ambition of man1 ,presbyterianism is the most hideous4 ,but what shall ,i say more1 for the time would fail me to tell of ,sabellianism1 of a ,modal ,trinity1 and the ,eternal ,procession of the ,holy ,ghost8 ,upon these charges1 a minister is to be tried1 here in ,chicago2 in this city of pluck and progress--this marvel of energy--this miracle of nerve4 ,the cry of heresy1 here1 sounds like a wail from the ,dark ,ages--a shriek from the ,inquisition1 or a groan from the grave of ,calvin4 ,another effort is being made to enslave a man4 ,it is claimed that every member of the church has solemnly agreed never to outgrow the creed2 that he has pledged himself to remain an intellectual dwarf4 ,upon this condition the church agrees to save his soul1 and he hands over his brains to bind the bargain4 ,should a fact be found inconsistent with the creed1 he binds himself to deny the fact and curse the finder4 ,with scraps of dogmas and crumbs of doctrine1 he agrees that his soul shall be satisfied forever4 ,what an intellectual feast the ,confession of ,faith must be6 ,it reminds one of the dinner described by ,sydney ,smith1 where everything was cold except the water1 and everything sour except the vinegar4 ,every member of a church promises to remain orthodox1 that is to say--stationary4 ,growth is heresy4 ,orthodox ideas are the feathers that have been moulted by the eagle of progress4 ,they are the dead leaves under the majestic palm1 while heresy is the bud and blossom at the top4 ,imagine a vine that grows at one end and decays at the other4 ,the end that grows is heresy1 the end that rots is orthodox ,the dead are orthodox1 and your cemetery is the most perfect type of a well regulated church4 ,no thought1 no progress1 no heresy there4 ,slowly and silently1 side by side1 the satisfied members peacefully decay4 ,there is only this difference--the dead do not persecute4 ,and what does a trial for heresy mean8 ,it means that the church says to a heretic1 ,believe as ,i do1 or ,i will withdraw my support4 ,i will not employ you4 ,i will pursue you until your garments are rags2 until your children cry for bread2 until your cheeks are furrowed with tears4 ,i will hunt you to the very portals of the tomb1 and then my ,god will do the rest ,i will not imprison you4 ,i will not burn you4 ,the law prevents my doing that4 ,i helped make the law1 not however to protect you1 nor to deprive me of the right to exterminate you but in order to keep other churches from exterminating me4 ,a trial for heresy means that the spirit of persecution still lingers in the church2 that it still denies the right of private judgment2 that it still thinks more of creed than truth1 and that it is still determined to prevent the intellectual growth of man4 ,it means that churches are shambles in which are bought and sold the souls of men4 ,it means that the church is still guilty of the barbarity of opposing thought with force4 ,it means that if it had the power1 the mental horizon would be bounded by a creed2 that it would bring again the whips and chains and dungeon keys1 the rack and fagot of the past4 ,but let me tell the church it lacks the power4 ,there have been1 and still are1 too many men who own themselves--too much thought1 too much knowledge for the church to grasp again the sword of power4 ,the church must abdicate4 ,for the ,eglon of superstition ,science has a message from ,truth4 ,the heretics have not thought and suffered and died in vain4 ,every heretic has been1 and is1 a ray of light4 ,not in vain did ,voltaire1 that great man1 point from the foot of the ,alps the finger of scorn at every hypocrite in ,europe4 ,not in vain were the splendid utterances of the infidels1 while beyond all price are the discoveries of science4 ,the church has impeded1 but it has not and it cannot stop the onward march of the human race4 ,heresy cannot be burned1 nor imprisoned1 nor starved4 ,it laughs at presbyteries and synods1 at ecumenical councils and the impotent thunders of ,sinai4 ,heresy is the eternal dawn1 the morning star1 the glittering herald of the day4 ,heresy is the last and best thought4 ,it is the perpetual ,new ,world1 the unknown sea1 toward which the brave all sail4 ,it is the eternal horizon of progress4 ,heresy extends the hospitalities of the brain to a new thought4 ,heresy is a cradle2 orthodoxy1 a coffin4 ,why should man be afraid to think1 and why should he fear to express his thoughts8 ,is it possible that an infinite ,deity is unwilling that a man should investigate the phenomena by which he is surrounded8 ,is it possible that a god delights in threatening and terrifying men8 ,what glory1 what honor and renown a god must win on such a field6 ,the ocean raving at a drop2 a star envious of a candle2 the sun jealous of a fire-fly4 ,go on1 presbyteries and synods1 go on6 ,thrust the heretics out of the church--that is to say1 throw away your brains1--put out your eyes4 ,the infidels will thank you4 ,they are willing to adopt your exiles4 ,every deserter from your camp is a recruit for the army of progress4 ,cling to the ignorant dogmas of the past2 read the #ajith ,psalm2 gloat over the slaughter of mothers and babes2 thank ,god for total depravity2 shower your honors upon hypocrites1 and silence every minister who is touched with that heresy called genius4 ,be true to your history4 ,turn out the astronomers1 the geologists1 the naturalists1 the chemists1 and all the honest scientists4 ,with a whip of scorpions1 drive them all out4 ,we want them all4 ,keep the ignorant1 the superstitious1 the bigoted1 and the writers of charges and specifications4 ,keep them1 and keep them all4 ,repeat your pious platitudes in the drowsy ears of the faithful1 and read your ,bible to heretics1 as kings read some forgotten riot-act to stop and stay the waves of revolution4 ,you are too weak to excite anger4 ,we forgive your efforts as the sun forgives a cloud--as the air forgives the breath you waste4 ,how long1 ,o how long1 will man listen to the threats of ,god1 and shut his eyes to the splendid possibilities of ,nature8 ,how long1 ,o how long will man remain the cringing slave of a false and cruel creed8 ,by this time the whole world should know that the real ,bible has not yet been written1 but is being written1 and that it will never be finished until the race begins its downward march1 or ceases to exist4 ,the real ,bible is not the work of inspired men1 nor prophets1 nor apostles1 nor evangelists1 nor of ,christs4 ,every man who finds a fact1 adds1 as it were1 a word to this great book4 ,it is not attested by prophecy1 by miracles or signs4 ,it makes no appeal to faith1 to ignorance1 to credulity or fear4 ,it has no punishment for unbelief1 and no reward for hypocrisy4 ,it appeals to man in the name of demonstration4 ,it has nothing to conceal4 ,it has no fear of being read1 of being contradicted1 of being investigated and understood4 ,it does not pretend to be holy1 or sacred2 it simply claims to be true4 ,it challenges the scrutiny of all1 and implores every reader to verify every line for himself4 ,it is incapable of being blasphemed4 ,this book appeals to all the surroundings of man4 ,each thing that exists testifies of its perfection4 ,the earth1 with its heart of fire and crowns of snow2 with its forests and plains1 its rocks and seas2 with its every wave and cloud2 with its every leaf and bud and flower1 confirms its every word1 and the solemn stars1 shining in the infinite abysses1 are the eternal witnesses of its truth4 ,,the ,,ghosts4 ,,to ,,ebon ,c4 ,,ingersoll1 ,,my ,,brother1 ,,from ,,whose ,,lips ,i ,,heard ,,the ,,first ,,applause1 ,,and ,,with ,,whose ,,name ,i ,,wish ,,my ,,own ,,associated ,,until ,,both ,,are ,,forgotten1 ,,this ,,volume ,,is ,,dedicated4 ,,preface ,these lectures have been so maimed and mutilated by orthodox malice2 have been made to appear so halt1 crutched and decrepit by those who mistake the pleasures of calumny for the duties of religion1 that in simple justice to myself ,i concluded to publish them4 ,most of the clergy are1 or seem to be1 utterly incapable of discussing anything in a fair and catholic spirit4 ,they appeal1 not to reason1 but to prejudice2 not to facts1 but to passages of ,scripture4 ,they can conceive of no goodness1 of no spiritual exaltation beyond the horizon of their creed4 ,whoever differs with them upon what they are pleased to call fundamental truths1 is1 in their opinion1 a base and infamous man4 ,to re-enact the tragedies of the sixteenth century1 they lack only the power4 ,bigotry in all ages has been the same4 ,christianity simply transferred the brutality of the ,colosseum to the ,inquisition4 ,for the murderous combat of the gladiators1 the saints substituted the auto de fe4 ,what has been called religion is1 after all1 but the organization of the wild beast in man4 ,the perfumed blossom of arrogance is heaven4 ,hell is the consummation of revenge4 ,the chief business of the clergy has always been to destroy the joy of life1 and multiply and magnify the terrors and tortures of death and perdition4 ,they have polluted the heart and paralyzed the brain2 and upon the ignorant altars of the ,past and the ,dead1 they have endeavored to sacrifice the ,present and the ,living4 ,nothing can exceed the mendacity of the religious press4 ,i have had some little experience with political editors1 and am forced to say1 that until ,i read the religious papers1 ,i did not know what malicious and slimy falsehoods could be constructed from ordinary words4 ,the ingenuity with which the real and apparent meaning can be tortured out of language1 is simply amazing4 ,the average religious editor is intolerant and insolent2 he knows nothing of affairs2 he has the envy of failure1 the malice of impotence1 and always accounts for the brave and generous actions of unbelievers1 by low1 base and unworthy motives4 ,by this time1 even the clergy should know that the intellect of the nineteenth century needs no guardian4 ,they should cease to regard themselves as shepherds defending flocks of weak1 silly and fearful sheep from the claws and teeth of ravening wolves4 ,by this time they should know that the religion of the ignorant and brutal ,past no longer satisfies the heart and brain2 that the miracles have become contemptible2 that the evidences have ceased to convince2 that the spirit of investigation cannot be stopped nor stayed2 that the church is losing her power2 that the young are holding in a kind of tender contempt the sacred follies of the old2 that the pulpit and pews no longer represent the culture and morality of the world1 and that the brand of intellectual inferiority is upon the orthodox brain4 ,men should be liberated from the aristocracy of the air4 ,every chain of superstition should be broken4 ,the rights of men and women should be equal and sacred--marriage should be a perfect partnership--children should be governed by kindness1--every family should be a republic--every fireside a democracy4 ,it seems almost impossible for religious people to really grasp the idea of intellectual freedom4 ,they seem to think that man is responsible for his honest thoughts2 that unbelief is a crime2 that investigation is sinful2 that credulity is a virtue1 and that reason is a dangerous guide4 ,they cannot divest themselves of the idea that in the realm of thought there must be government--authority and obedience--laws and penalties--rewards and punishments1 and that somewhere in the universe there is a penitentiary for the soul4 ,in the republic of mind1 one is a majority4 ,there1 all are monarchs1 and all are equals4 ,the tyranny of a majority even is unknown4 ,each one is crowned1 sceptered and throned4 ,upon every brow is the tiara1 and around every form is the imperial purple4 ,only those are good citizens who express their honest thoughts1 and those who persecute for opinion's sake1 are the only traitors4 ,there1 nothing is considered infamous except an appeal to brute force1 and nothing sacred but love1 liberty1 and joy4 ,the church contemplates this republic with a sneer4 ,from the teeth of hatred she draws back the lips of scorn4 ,she is filled with the spite and spleen born of intellectual weakness4 ,once she was egotistic2 now she is envious4 ,once she wore upon her hollow breast false gems1 supposing them to be real4 ,they have been shown to be false1 but she wears them still4 ,she has the malice of the caught1 the hatred of the exposed4 ,we are told to investigate the ,bible for ourselves1 and at the same time informed that if we come to the conclusion that it is not the inspired word of ,god1 we will most assuredly be damned4 ,under such circumstances1 if we believe this1 investigation is impossible4 ,whoever is held responsible for his conclusions cannot weigh the evidence with impartial scales4 ,fear stands at the balance1 and gives to falsehood the weight of its trembling hand4 ,i oppose the church because she is the enemy of liberty2 because her dogmas are infamous and cruel2 because she humiliates and degrades woman2 because she teaches the doctrines of eternal torment and the natural depravity of man2 because she insists upon the absurd1 the impossible1 and the senseless2 because she resorts to falsehood and slander2 because she is arrogant and revengeful2 because she allows men to sin on a credit2 because she discourages self-reliance1 and laughs at good works2 because she believes in vicarious virtue and vicarious vice--vicarious punishment and vicarious reward2 because she regards repentance of more importance than restitution1 and because she sacrifices the world we have to one we know not of4 ,the free and generous1 the tender and affectionate1 will understand me4 ,those who have escaped from the grated cells of a creed will appreciate my motives4 ,the sad and suffering wives1 the trembling and loving children will thank me3 ,this is enough4 ,robert ,g4 ,ingersoll4 ,washington1 ,d4 ,c41 ,april #ac1 #ahgh4 ,,the ,,ghosts1 ,,let ,,them ,,cover ,,their ,,eyeless ,,sockets ,,with ,,their ,,fleshless ,,hands ,,and ,,fade ,,forever ,,from ,,the ,,imagination ,,of ,,men4 ,,here are three theories by which men account for all phenomena1 for everything that happens3 ,first1 the ,supernatural2 ,second1 the ,supernatural and ,natural2 ,third1 the ,natural4 ,between these theories there has been1 from the dawn of civilization1 a continual conflict4 ,in this great war1 nearly all the soldiers have been in the ranks of the supernatural4 ,the believers in the supernatural insist that matter is controlled and directed entirely by powers from without2 while naturalists maintain that ,nature acts from within2 that ,nature is not acted upon2 that the universe is all there is2 that ,nature with infinite arms embraces everything that exists1 and that all supposed powers beyond the limits of the material are simply ghosts4 ,you say1 ,oh1 this is materialism6 ,what is matter8 ,i take in my hand some earth3--in this dust put seeds4 ,let the arrows of light from the quiver of the sun smite upon it2 let the rain fall upon it4 ,the seeds will grow and a plant will bud and blossom4 ,do you understand this8 ,can you explain it better than you can the production of thought8 ,have you the slightest conception of what it really is8 ,and yet you speak of matter as though acquainted with its origin1 as though you had torn from the clenched hands of the rocks the secrets of material existence4 ,do you know what force is8 ,can you account for molecular action8 ,are you really familiar with chemistry1 and can you account for the loves and hatreds of the atoms8 ,is there not something in matter that forever eludes8 ,after all1 can you get beyond1 above or below appearances8 ,before you cry materialism6 had you not better ascertain what matter really is8 ,can you think even of anything without a material basis8 ,is it possible to imagine the annihilation of a single atom8 ,is it possible for you to conceive of the creation of an atom8 ,can you have a thought that was not suggested to you by what you call matter8 ,our fathers denounced materialism1 and accounted for all phenomena by the caprice of gods and devils4 ,for thousands of years it was believed that ghosts1 good and bad1 benevolent and malignant1 weak and powerful1 in some mysterious way1 produced all phenomena2 that disease and health1 happiness and misery1 fortune and misfortune1 peace and war1 life and death1 success and failure1 were but arrows from the quivers of these ghosts2 that shadowy phantoms rewarded and punished mankind2 that they were pleased and displeased by the actions of men2 that they sent and withheld the snow1 the light1 and the rain2 that they blessed the earth with harvests or cursed it with famine2 that they fed or starved the children of men2 that they crowned and uncrowned kings2 that they took sides in war2 that they controlled the winds2 that they gave prosperous voyages1 allowing the brave mariner to meet his wife and child inside the harbor bar1 or sent the storms1 strewing the sad shores with wrecks of ships and the bodies of men4 ,formerly1 these ghosts were believed to be almost innumerable4 ,earth1 air1 and water were filled with these phantom hosts4 ,in modern times they have greatly decreased in number1 because the second theory1--a mingling of the supernatural and natural1--has generally been adopted4 ,the remaining ghosts1 however1 are supposed to perform the same offices as the hosts of yore4 ,it has always been believed that these ghosts could in some way be appeased2 that they could be flattered by sacrifices1 by prayer1 by fasting1 by the building of temples and cathedrals1 by the blood of men and beasts1 by forms and ceremonies1 by chants1 by kneelings and prostrations1 by flagellations and maimings1 by renouncing the joys of home1 by living alone in the wide desert1 by the practice of celibacy1 by inventing instruments of torture1 by destroying men1 women and children1 by covering the earth with dungeons1 by burning unbelievers1 by putting chains upon the thoughts and manacles upon the limbs of men1 by believing things without evidence and against evidence1 by disbelieving and denying demonstration1 by despising facts1 by hating reason1 by denouncing liberty1 by maligning heretics1 by slandering the dead1 by subscribing to senseless and cruel creeds1 by discouraging investigation1 by worshiping a book1 by the cultivation of credulity1 by observing certain times and days1 by counting beads1 by gazing at crosses1 by hiring others to repeat verses and prayers1 by burning candles and ringing bells1 by enslaving each other and putting out the eyes of the soul4 ,all this has been done to appease and flatter these monsters of the air4 ,in the history of our poor world1 no horror has been omitted1 no infamy has been left undone by the believers in ghosts1--by the worshipers of these fleshless phantoms4 ,and yet these shadows were born of cowardice and malignity4 ,they were painted by the pencil of fear upon the canvas of ignorance by that artist called superstition4 ,from these ghosts1 our fathers received information4 ,they were the schoolmasters of our ancestors4 ,they were the scientists and philosophers1 the geologists1 legislators1 astronomers1 physicians1 metaphysicians and historians of the past4 ,for ages these ghosts were supposed to be the only source of real knowledge4 ,they inspired men to write books1 and the books were considered sacred4 ,if facts were found to be inconsistent with these books1 so much the worse for the facts1 and especially for their discoverers4 ,it was then1 and still is1 believed that these books are the basis of the idea of immortality2 that to give up these volumes1 or rather the idea that they are inspired1 is to renounce the idea of immortality4 ,this ,i deny4 ,the idea of immortality1 that like a sea has ebbed and flowed in the human heart1 with its countless waves of hope and fear1 beating against the shores and rocks of time and fate1 was not born of any book1 nor of any creed1 nor of any religion4 ,it was born of human affection1 and it will continue to ebb and flow beneath the mists and clouds of doubt and darkness as long as love kisses the lips of death4 ,it is the rainbow--,hope shining upon the tears of grief4 ,from the books written by the ghosts we have at last ascertained that they knew nothing about the world in which we live4 ,did they know anything about the next8 ,upon every point where contradiction is possible1 they have been contradicted4 ,by these ghosts1 by these citizens of the air1 the affairs of government were administered2 all authority to govern came from them4 ,the emperors1 kings and potentates all had commissions from these phantoms4 ,man was not considered as the source of any power whatever4 ,to rebel against the king was to rebel against the ghosts1 and nothing less than the blood of the offender could appease the invisible phantom or the visible tyrant4 ,kneeling was the proper position to be assumed by the multitude4 ,the prostrate were the good4 ,those who stood erect were infidels and traitors4 ,in the name and by the authority of the ghosts1 man was enslaved1 crushed1 and plundered4 ,the many toiled wearily in the storm and sun that the few favorites of the ghosts might live in idleness4 ,the many lived in huts1 and caves1 and dens1 that the few might dwell in palaces4 ,the many covered themselves with rags1 that the few might robe themselves in purple and in gold4 ,the many crept1 and cringed1 and crawled1 that the few might tread upon their flesh with iron feet4 ,from the ghosts men received1 not only authority1 but information of every kind4 ,they told us the form of this earth4 ,they informed us that eclipses were caused by the sins of man2 that the universe was made in six days2 that astronomy1 and geology were devices of wicked men1 instigated by wicked ghosts2 that gazing at the sky with a telescope was a dangerous thing2 that digging into the earth was sinful curiosity2 that trying to be wise above what they had written was born of a rebellious and irreverent spirit4 ,they told us there was no virtue like belief1 and no crime like doubt2 that investigation was pure impudence1 and the punishment therefor1 eternal torment4 ,they not only told us all about this world1 but about two others2 and if their statements about the other worlds are as true as about this1 no one can estimate the value of their information4 ,for countless ages the world was governed by ghosts1 and they spared no pains to change the eagle of the human intellect into a bat of darkness4 ,to accomplish this infamous purpose2 to drive the love of truth from the human heart2 to prevent the advancement of mankind2 to shut out from the world every ray of intellectual light2 to pollute every mind with superstition1 the power of kings1 the cunning and cruelty of priests1 and the wealth of nations were exhausted4 ,during these years of persecution1 ignorance1 superstition and slavery1 nearly all the people1 the kings1 lawyers1 doctors1 the learned and the unlearned1 believed in that frightful production of ignorance1 fear1 and faith1 called witchcraft4 ,they believed that man was the sport and prey of devils4 ,they really thought that the very air was thick with these enemies of man4 ,with few exceptions1 this hideous and infamous belief was universal4 ,under these conditions1 progress was almost impossible4 ,fear paralyzes the brain4 ,progress is born of courage4 ,fear believes--courage doubts4 ,fear falls upon the earth and prays--courage stands erect and thinks4 ,fear retreats--courage advances4 ,fear is barbarism--courage is civilization4 ,fear believes in witchcraft1 in devils and in ghosts4 ,fear is religion--courage is science4 ,the facts1 upon which this terrible belief rested1 were proved over and over again in every court of ,europe4 ,thousands confessed themselves guilty--admitted that they had sold themselves to the devil4 ,they gave the particulars of the sale2 told what they said and what the devil replied4 ,they confessed this1 when they knew that confession was death2 knew that their property would be confiscated1 and their children left to beg their bread4 ,this is one of the miracles of history--one of the strangest contradictions of the human mind4 ,without doubt1 they really believed themselves guilty4 ,in the first place1 they believed in witchcraft as a fact1 and when charged with it1 they probably became insane4 ,in their insanity they confessed their guilt4 ,they found themselves abhorred and deserted--charged with a crime that they could not disprove4 ,like a man in quicksand1 every effort only sunk them deeper4 ,caught in this frightful web1 at the mercy of the spiders of superstition1 hope fled1 and nothing remained but the insanity of confession4 ,the whole world appeared to be insane4 ,in the time of ,james the ,first1 a man was executed for causing a storm at sea with the intention of drowning one of the royal family4 ,how could he disprove it8 ,how could he show that he did not cause the storm8 ,all storms were at that time generally supposed to be caused by the devil--the prince of the power of the air--and by those whom he assisted4 ,i implore you to remember that the believers in such impossible things were the authors of our creeds and confessions of faith4 ,a woman was tried and convicted before ,sir ,matthew ,hale1 one of the great judges and lawyers of ,england1 for having caused children to vomit crooked pins4 ,she was also charged with having nursed devils4 ,the learned judge charged the intelligent jury that there was no doubt as to the existence of witches2 that it was established by all history1 and expressly taught by the ,bible4 ,the woman was hanged and her body burned4 ,sir ,thomas ,more declared that to give up witchcraft was to throw away the sacred ,scriptures4 ,in my judgment1 he was right4 ,john ,wesley was a firm believer in ghosts and witches1 and insisted upon it1 years after all laws upon the subject had been repealed in ,england4 ,i beg of you to remember that ,john ,wesley was the founder of the ,methodist ,church4 ,in ,new ,england1 a woman was charged with being a witch1 and with having changed herself into a fox4 ,while in that condition she was attacked and bitten by some dogs4 ,a committee of three men1 by order of the court1 examined this woman4 ,they removed her clothing and searched for witch spots4 ,that is to say1 spots into which needles could be thrust without giving her pain4 ,they reported to the court that such spots were found4 ,she denied1 however1 that she ever had changed herself into a fox4 ,upon the report of the committee she was found guilty and actually executed4 ,this was done by our ,puritan fathers1 by the gentlemen who braved the dangers of the deep for the sake of worshiping ,god and persecuting their fellow-men4 ,in those days people believed in what was known as lycanthropy--that is1 that persons1 with the assistance of the devil1 could assume the form of wolves4 ,an instance is given where a man was attacked by a wolf4 ,he defended himself1 and succeeded in cutting off one of the animal's paws4 ,the wolf ran away4 ,the man picked up the paw1 put it in his pocket and carried it home4 ,there he found his wife with one of her hands gone4 ,he took the paw from his pocket4 ,it had changed to a human hand4 ,he charged his wife with being a witch4 ,she was tried4 ,she confessed her guilt1 and was burned4 ,people were burned for causing frosts in summer--for destroying crops with hail--for causing storms--for making cows go dry1 and even for souring beer4 ,there was no impossibility for which some one was not tried and convicted4 ,the life of no one was secure4 ,to be charged1 was to be convicted4 ,every man was at the mercy of every other4 ,this infamous belief was so firmly seated in the minds of the people1 that to express a doubt as to its truth was to be suspected4 ,whoever denied the existence of witches and devils was denounced as an infidel4 ,they believed that animals were often taken possession of by devils1 and that the killing of the animal would destroy the devil4 ,they absolutely tried1 convicted1 and executed dumb beasts4 ,at ,basle1 in #adgj1 a rooster was tried upon the charge of having laid an egg4 ,rooster eggs were used only in making witch ointment1--this everybody knew4 ,the rooster was convicted and with all due solemnity was burned in the public square4 ,so a hog and six pigs were tried for having killed and partially eaten a child4 ,the hog was convicted1--but the pigs1 on account probably of their extreme youth1 were acquitted4 ,as late as #agdj1 a cow was tried and convicted of being possessed by a devil4 ,they used to exorcise rats1 locusts1 snakes and vermin4 ,they used to go through the alleys1 streets1 and fields1 and warn them to leave within a certain number of days4 ,in case they disobeyed1 they were threatened with pains and penalties4 ,but let us be careful how we laugh at these things4 ,let us not pride ourselves too much on the progress of our age4 ,we must not forget that some of our people are yet in the same intelligent business4 ,only a little while ago1 the governor of ,minnesota appointed a day of fasting and prayer1 to see if some power could not be induced to kill the grasshoppers1 or send them into some other state4 ,about the close of the fifteenth century1 so great was the excitement with regard to the existence of witchcraft that ,pope ,innocent ,,viii4 issued a bull directing the inquisitors to be vigilant in searching out and punishing all guilty of this crime4 ,forms for the trial were regularly laid down in a book or a pamphlet called the ,malleus ,maleficorum 7,hammer of ,witches71 which was issued by the ,roman ,see4 ,popes ,alexander1 ,leo1 and ,adrian1 issued like bulls4 ,for two hundred and fifty years the church was busy in punishing the impossible crime of witchcraft2 in burning1 hanging and torturing men1 women1 and children4 ,protestants were as active as ,catholics1 and in ,geneva five hundred witches were burned at the stake in a period of three months4 ,about one thousand were executed in one year in the diocese of ,como4 ,at least one hundred thousand victims suffered in ,germany alone3 the last execution 7in ,wurtzburg7 taking place as late as #agdi4 ,witches were burned in ,switzerland as late as #aghj4 ,in ,england the same frightful scenes were enacted4 ,statutes were passed from ,henry ,,vi4 to ,james ,i41 defining the crime and its punishment4 ,the last act passed by the ,british parliament was when ,lord ,bacon was a member of the ,house of ,commons2 and this act was not repealed until #agcf4 ,sir ,william ,blackstone1 in his ,commentaries on the ,laws of ,england1 says3 ,to deny the possibility1 nay1 actual existence of witchcraft and sorcery1 is at once flatly to contradict the word of ,god in various passages both of the ,old and ,new ,testament2 and the thing itself is a truth to which every nation in the world hath in its turn borne testimony1 either by examples seemingly well attested1 or by prohibitory laws1 which at least suppose the possibility of a commerce with evil spirits4 ,in ,brown's ,dictionary of the ,bible1 published at ,edinburg1 ,scotland1 in #ahjg1 it is said that3 ,a witch is a woman that has dealings with ,satan4 ,that such persons are among men is abundantly plain from ,scripture1 and that they ought to be put to death4 ,this work was re-published in ,albany1 ,new ,york1 in #ahaf4 ,no wonder the clergy of that city are ignorant and bigoted even unto this day4 ,in #agaf1 ,mrs4 ,hicks and her daughter1 nine years of age1 were hanged for selling their souls to the devil1 and raising a storm by pulling off their stockings and making a lather of soap4 ,in ,england it has been estimated that at least thirty thousand were hanged and burned4 ,the last victim executed in ,scotland1 perished in #agbb4 ,she was an innocent old woman1 who had so little idea of her situation as to rejoice at the sight of the fire which was destined to consume her4 ,she had a daughter1 lame both of hands and of feet--a circumstance attributed to the witch having been used to transform her daughter into a pony and getting her shod by the devil4 ,in #afib1 nineteen persons were executed and one pressed to death in ,salem1 ,massachusetts1 for the crime of witchcraft4 ,it was thought in those days that men and women made compacts with the devil1 orally and in writing4 ,that they abjured ,god and ,jesus ,christ1 and dedicated themselves wholly to the devil4 ,the contracts were confirmed at a general meeting of witches and ghosts1 over which the devil himself presided2 and the persons generally signed the articles of agreement with their own blood4 ,these contracts were1 in some instances1 for a few years2 in others1 for life4 ,general assemblies of the witches were held at least once a year1 at which they appeared entirely naked1 besmeared with an ointment made from the bodies of unbaptized infants4 ,to these meetings they rode from great distances on broomsticks1 pokers1 goats1 hogs1 and dogs4 ,here they did homage to the prince of hell1 and offered him sacrifices of young children1 and practiced all sorts of license until the break of day4 ,as late as #ahae1 ,belgium was disgraced by a witch trial2 and guilt was established by the water ordeal4 ,in #ahcf1 the populace of ,hela1 near ,dantzic1 twice plunged into the sea a woman reputed to be a sorceress2 and as the miserable creature persisted in rising to the surface1 she was pronounced guilty1 and beaten to death4 ,it was believed that the bodies of devils are not like those of men and animals1 cast in an unchangeable mould4 ,it was thought they were like clouds1 refined and subtle matter1 capable of assuming any form and penetrating into any orifice4 ,the horrible tortures they endured in their place of punishment rendered them extremely sensitive to suffering1 and they continually sought a temperate and somewhat moist warmth in order to allay their pangs4 ,it was for this reason they so frequently entered into men and women4 ,the devil could transport men1 at his will1 through the air4 ,he could beget children2 and ,martin ,luther himself had come in contact with one of these children4 ,he recommended the mother to throw the child into the river1 in order to free their house from the presence of a devil4 ,it was believed that the devil could transform people into any shape he pleased4 ,whoever denied these things was denounced as an infidel4 ,all the believers in witchcraft confidently appealed to the ,bible4 ,their mouths were filled with passages demonstrating the existence of witches and their power ,over human beings4 ,by the ,bible they proved that innumerable evil spirits were ranging over the world endeavoring to ruin mankind2 that these spirits possessed a power and wisdom far transcending the limits of human faculties2 that they delighted in every misfortune that could befall the world2 that their malice was superhuman4 ,that they caused tempests was proved by the action of the devil toward ,job2 by the passage in the book of ,revelation describing the four angels who held the four winds1 and to whom it was given to afflict the earth4 ,they believed the devil could carry persons hundreds of miles1 in a few seconds1 through the air4 ,they believed this1 because they knew that ,christ had been carried by the devil in the same manner and placed on a pinnacle of the temple4 ,the prophet ,habakkuk had been transported by a spirit from ,judea to ,babylon2 and ,philip1 the evangelist1 had been the object of a similar miracle2 and in the same way ,saint ,paul had been carried in the body into the third heaven4 ,in those pious days1 they believed that ,incubi and ,succubi were forever wandering among mankind1 alluring1 by more than human charms1 the unwary to their destruction1 and laying plots1 which were too often successful1 against the virtue of the saints4 ,sometimes the witches kindled in the monastic priest a more terrestrial fire4 ,people told1 with bated breath1 how1 under the spell of a vindictive woman1 four successive abbots in a ,german monastery had been wasted away by an unholy flame4 ,an instance is given in which the devil not only assumed the appearance of a holy man1 in order to pay his addresses to a lady1 but when discovered1 crept under the bed1 suffered himself to be dragged out1 and was impudent enough to declare that he was the veritable bishop4 ,so perfectly had he assumed the form and features of the prelate that those who knew the bishop best were deceived4 ,one can hardly imagine the frightful state of the human mind during these long centuries of darkness and superstition4 ,to them1 these things were awful and frightful realities4 ,hovering above them in the air1 in their houses1 in the bosoms of friends1 in their very bodies1 in all the darkness of night1 everywhere1 around1 above and below1 were innumerable hosts of unclean and malignant devils4 ,from the malice of those leering and vindictive vampires of the air1 the church pretended to defend mankind4 ,pursued by these phantoms1 the frightened multitudes fell upon their faces and implored the aid of robed hypocrisy and sceptered theft4 ,take from the orthodox church of to-day the threat and fear of hell1 and it becomes an extinct volcano4 ,take from the church the miraculous1 the supernatural1 the incomprehensible1 the unreasonable1 the impossible1 the unknowable1 and the absurd1 and nothing but a vacuum remains4 ,notwithstanding all the infamous things justly laid to the charge of the church1 we are told that the civilization of to-day is the child of what we are pleased to call the superstition of the past4 ,religion has not civilized man--man has civilized religion4 ,god improves as man advances4 ,let me call your attention to what we have received from the followers of the ghosts4 ,let me give you an outline of the sciences as taught by these philosophers of the clouds4 ,all diseases were produced1 either as a punishment by the good ghosts1 or out of pure malignity by the bad ones4 ,there were1 properly speaking1 no diseases4 ,the sick were possessed by ghosts4 ,the science of medicine consisted in knowing how to persuade these ghosts to vacate the premises4 ,for thousands of years the diseased were treated with incantations1 with hideous noises1 with drums and gongs4 ,everything was done to make the visit of the ghost as unpleasant as possible1 and they generally succeeded in making things so disagreeable that if the ghost did not leave1 the patient did4 ,these ghosts were supposed to be of different rank1 power and dignity4 ,now and then a man pretended to have won the favor of some powerful ghost1 and that gave him power over the little ones4 ,such a man became an eminent physician4 ,it was found that certain kinds of smoke1 such as that produced by burning the liver of a fish1 the dried skin of a serpent1 the eyes of a toad1 or the tongue of an adder1 were exceedingly offensive to the nostrils of an ordinary ghost4 ,with this smoke1 the sick room would be filled until the ghost vanished or the patient died4 ,it was also believed that certain words1--the names of the most powerful ghosts1--when properly pronounced1 were very effective weapons4 ,it was for a long time thought that ,latin words were the best1--,latin being a dead language1 and known by the clergy4 ,others thought that two sticks laid across each other and held before the wicked ghost would cause it instantly to flee in dread away4 ,for thousands of years1 the practice of medicine consisted in driving these evil spirits out of the bodies of men4 ,in some instances1 bargains and compromises were made with the ghosts4 ,one case is given where a multitude of devils traded a man for a herd of swine4 ,in this transaction the devils were the losers1 as the swine immediately drowned themselves in the sea4 ,this idea of disease appears to have been almost universal1 and is by no means yet extinct4 ,the contortions of the epileptic1 the strange twitchings of those afflicted with chorea1 the shakings of palsy1 dreams1 trances1 and the numberless frightful phenomena produced by diseases of the nerves1 were all seized upon as so many proofs that the bodies of men were filled with unclean and malignant ghosts4 ,whoever endeavored to account for these things by natural causes1 whoever attempted to cure diseases by natural means1 was denounced by the church as an infidel4 ,to explain anything was a crime4 ,it was to the interest of the priest that all phenomena should be accounted for by the will and power of gods and devils4 ,the moment it is admitted that all phenomena are within the domain of the natural1 the necessity for a priest has disappeared4 ,religion breathes the air of the supernatural4 ,take from the mind of man the idea of the supernatural1 and religion ceases to exist4 ,for this1 reason1 the church has always despised the man who explained the wonderful4 ,upon this principle1 nothing was left undone to stay the science of medicine4 ,as long as plagues and pestilences could be stopped by prayer1 the priest was useful4 ,the moment the physician found a cure1 the priest became an extravagance4 ,the moment it began to be apparent that prayer could do nothing for the body1 the priest shifted his ground and began praying for the soul4 ,long after the devil idea was substantially abandoned in the practice of medicine1 and when it was admitted that ,god had nothing to do with ordinary coughs and colds1 it was still believed that all the frightful diseases were sent by him as punishments for the wickedness of the people4 ,it was thought to be a kind of blasphemy to even try1 by any natural means1 to stay the ravages of pestilence4 ,formerly1 during the prevalence of plague and epidemics1 the arrogance of the priest was boundless4 ,he told the people that they had slighted the clergy1 that they had refused to pay tithes1 that they had doubted some of the doctrines of the church1 and that ,god was now taking his revenge4 ,the people for the most part1 believed this infamous tissue of priestcraft4 ,they hastened to fall upon their knees2 they poured out their wealth upon the altars of hypocrisy2 they abased and debased themselves2 from their minds they banished all doubts1 and made haste to crawl in the very dust of humility4 ,the church never wanted disease to be under the control of man4 ,timothy ,dwight1 president of ,yale ,college1 preached a sermon against vaccination4 ,his idea was1 that if ,god had decreed from all eternity that a certain man should die with the small-pox1 it was a frightful sin to avoid and annul that decree by the trick of vaccination4 ,small-pox being regarded as one of the heaviest guns in the arsenal of heaven1 to spike it was the height of presumption4 ,plagues and pestilences were instrumentalities in the hands of ,god with which to gain the love and worship of mankind4 ,to find a cure for disease was to take a weapon from the church4 ,no one tries to cure the ague with prayer4 ,quinine has been found altogether more reliable4 ,just as soon as a specific is found for a disease1 that disease will be left out of the list of prayer4 ,the number of diseases with which ,god from time to time afflicts mankind1 is continually decreasing4 ,in a few years all of them will be under the control of man1 the gods will be left unarmed1 and the threats of their priests will excite only a smile4 ,the science of medicine has had but one enemy--religion4 ,man was afraid to save his body for fear he might lose his soul4 ,is it any wonder that the people in those days believed in and taught the infamous doctrine of eternal punishment--a doctrine that makes ,god a heartless monster and man a slimy hypocrite and slave8 ,the ghosts were historians1 and their histories were the grossest absurdities4 ,tales told by idiots1 full of sound and fury1 signifying nothing4 ,in those days the histories were written by the monks1 who1 as a rule1 were almost as superstitious as they were dishonest4 ,they wrote as though they had been witnesses of every occurrence they related4 ,they wrote the history of every country of importance4 ,they told all the past and predicted all the future with an impudence that amounted to sublimity4 ,they traced the order of ,st4 ,michael1 in ,france1 to the archangel himself1 and alleged that he was the founder of a chivalric order in heaven itself4 ,they said that ,tartars originally came from hell1 and that they were called ,tartars because ,tartarus was one of the names of perdition4 ,they declared that ,scotland was so named after ,scota1 a daughter of ,pharaoh1 who landed in ,ireland1 invaded ,scotland1 and took it by force of arms4 ,this statement was made in a letter addressed to the ,pope in the fourteenth century1 and was alluded to as a well-known fact4 ,the letter was written by some of the highest dignitaries1 and by the direction of the ,king himself4 ,these gentlemen accounted for the red on the breasts of robins1 from the fact that these birds carried water to unbaptized infants in hell4 ,matthew1 of ,paris1 an eminent historian of the fourteenth century1 gave the world the following piece of information3 ,it is well known that ,mohammed was once a cardinal1 and became a heretic because he failed in his effort to be elected pope2 and that having drank to excess1 he fell by the roadside1 and in this condition was killed by swine4 ,and for that reason1 his followers abhor pork even unto this day4 ,another eminent historian informs us that ,nero was in the habit of vomiting frogs4 ,when ,i read this1 ,i said to myself3 ,some of the croakers of the present day against ,progress would be the better for such a vomit4 ,the history of ,charlemagne was written by ,turpin1 of ,rheims4 ,he was a bishop4 ,he assures us that the walls of a city fell down in answer to prayer4 ,that there were giants in those days who could take fifty ordinary men under their arms and walk away with them4 ,with the greatest of these1 a direct descendant of ,goliath1 one ,orlando had a theological discussion1 and that in the heat of the debate1 when the giant was overwhelmed with the argument1 ,orlando rushed forward and inflicted a fatal stab4 ,the history of ,britain1 written by the archdeacons of ,monmouth and ,oxford1 was wonderfully popular4 ,according to them1 ,brutus conquered ,england and built the city of ,london4 ,during his time1 it rained pure blood for three days4 ,at another time1 a monster came from the sea1 and1 after having devoured great multitudes of people1 swallowed the king and disappeared4 ,they tell us that ,king ,arthur was not born like other mortals1 but was the result of a magical contrivance2 that he had great luck in killing giants2 that he killed one in ,france that had the cheerful habit of eating some thirty men a day4 ,that this giant had clothes woven of the beards of the kings he had devoured4 ,to cap the climax1 one of the authors of this book was promoted for having written the only reliable history of his country4 ,in all the histories of those days there is hardly a single truth4 ,facts were considered unworthy of preservation4 ,anything that really happened was not of sufficient interest or importance to be recorded4 ,the great religious historian1 ,eusebius1 ingenuously remarks that in his history he carefully omitted whatever tended to discredit the church1 and that he piously magnified all that conduced to her glory4 ,the same glorious principle was scrupulously adhered to by all the historians of that time4 ,they wrote1 and the people believed1 that the tracks of ,pharoah's chariots were still visible on the sands of the ,red ,sea1 and that they had been miraculously preserved from the winds and waves as perpetual witnesses of the great miracle there performed4 ,it is safe to say that every truth in the histories of those times is the result of accident or mistake4 ,they accounted for everything as the work of good and evil spirits4 ,with cause and effect they had nothing to do4 ,facts were in no way related to each other4 ,god1 governed by infinite caprice1 filled the world with miracles and disconnected events4 ,from the quiver of his hatred came the arrows of famine1 pestilence1 and death4 ,the moment that the idea is abandoned that all is natural2 that all phenomena are the necessary links in the endless chain of being1 the conception of history becomes impossible4 ,with the ghosts1 the present is not the child of the past1 nor the mother of the future4 ,in the domain of religion all is chance1 accident1 and caprice4 ,do not forget1 ,i pray you1 that our creeds were written by the cotemporaries of these historians4 ,the same idea was applied to law4 ,it was believed by our intelligent ancestors that all law derived its sacredness and its binding force from the fact that it had been communicated to man by the ghosts4 ,of course it was not pretended that the ghosts told everybody the law2 but they told it to a few1 and the few told it to the people1 and the people1 as a rule1 paid them exceedingly well for their trouble4 ,it was thousands of ages before the people commenced making laws for themselves1 and strange as it may appear1 most of these laws were vastly superior to the ghost article4 ,through the web and woof of human legislation began to run and shine and glitter the golden thread of justice4 ,during these years of darkness it was believed that rather than see an act of injustice done2 rather than see the innocent suffer2 rather than see the guilty triumph1 some ghost would interfere4 ,this belief1 as a rule1 gave great satisfaction to the victorious party1 and as the other man was dead1 no complaint was heard from him4 ,this doctrine was the sanctification of brute force and chance4 ,they had trials by battle1 by fire1 by water1 and by lot4 ,persons were made to grasp hot iron1 and if it burned them their guilt was established4 ,others1 with tied hands and feet1 were cast into the sea1 and if they sank1 the verdict of guilty was unanimous1--if they did not sink1 they were in league with devils4 ,so in ,england1 persons charged with crime could appeal to the corsned4 ,the corsned was a piece of the sacramental bread4 ,if the defendant could swallow this piece he went acquit4 ,godwin1 ,earl of ,kent1 in the time of ,edward the ,confessor1 appealed to the corsned4 ,he failed to swallow it and was choked to death4 ,the ghosts and their followers always took delight in torture1 in cruel and unusual punishments4 ,for the infraction of most of their laws1 death was the penalty--death produced by stoning and by fire4 ,sometimes1 when man committed only murder1 he was allowed to flee to some city of refuge4 ,murder was a crime against man4 ,but for saying certain words1 or denying certain doctrines1 or for picking up sticks on certain days1 or for worshiping the wrong ghost1 or for failing to pray to the right one1 or for laughing at a priest1 or for saying that wine was not blood1 or that bread was not flesh1 or for failing to regard ram's horns as artillery1 or for insisting that a dry bone was scarcely sufficient to take the place of water works1 or that a raven1 as a rule1 made a poor landlord3--death1 produced by all the ways that the ingenuity of hatred could devise1 was the penalty4 ,law is a growth--it is a science4 ,right and wrong exist in the nature of things4 ,things are not right because they are commanded1 nor wrong because they are prohibited4 ,there are real crimes enough without creating artificial ones4 ,all progress in legislation has for centuries consisted in repealing the laws of the ghosts4 ,the idea of right and wrong is born of man's capacity to enjoy and suffer4 ,if man could not suffer1 if he could not inflict injury upon his fellow1 if he could neither feel nor inflict pain1 the idea of right and wrong never would have entered his brain4 ,but for this1 the word conscience never would have passed the lips of man4 ,there is one good--happiness4 ,there is but one sin--selfishness4 ,all law should be for the preservation of the one and the destruction of the other4 ,under the regime of the ghosts1 laws were not supposed to exist in the nature of things4 ,they were supposed to be simply the irresponsible command of a ghost4 ,these commands were not supposed to rest upon reason1 they were the product of arbitrary will4 ,the penalties for the violation of these laws were as cruel as the laws were senseless and absurd4 ,working on the ,sabbath and murder were both punished with death4 ,the tendency of such laws is to blot from the human heart the sense of justice4 ,to show you how perfectly every department of knowledge1 or ignorance rather1 was saturated with superstition1 ,i will for a moment refer to the science of language4 ,it was thought by our fathers1 that ,hebrew was the original language2 that it was taught to ,adam in the ,garden of ,eden by the ,almighty1 and that consequently all languages came from1 and could be traced to1 the ,hebrew4 ,every fact inconsistent with that idea was discarded4 ,according to the ghosts1 the trouble at the tower of ,babel accounted for the fact that all people did not speak ,hebrew4 ,the ,babel business settled all questions in the science of language4 ,after a time1 so many facts were found to be inconsistent with the ,hebrew idea that it began to fall into disrepute1 and other languages began to compete for the honor of being the original4 ,andre ,kempe1 in #aefi1 published a work on the language of ,paradise1 in which he maintained that ,god spoke to ,adam in ,swedish2 that ,adam answered in ,danish2 and that the serpent--which appears to me quite probable--spoke to ,eve in ,french4 ,erro1 in a work published at ,madrid1 took the ground that ,basque was the language spoken in the ,garden of ,eden2 but in #aehj ,goropius published his celebrated work at ,antwerp1 in which he put the whole matter at rest by showing1 beyond all doubt1 that the language spoken in ,paradise was neither more nor less than plain ,holland ,dutch4 ,the real founder of the science of language was ,liebnitz1 a cotemporary of ,sir ,isaac ,newton4 ,he discarded the idea that all languages could be traced to one language4 ,he maintained that language was a natural growth4 ,experience teaches us that this must be so4 ,words are continually dying and continually being born4 ,words are naturally and necessarily produced4 ,words are the garments of thought1 the robes of ideas4 ,some are as rude as the skins of wild beasts1 and others glisten and glitter like silk and gold4 ,they have been born of hatred and revenge2 of love and self-sacrifice2 of hope and fear1 of agony and joy4 ,these words are born of the terror and beauty of nature4 ,the stars have fashioned them4 ,in them mingle the darkness and the dawn4 ,from everything they have taken something4 ,words are the crystalizations of human history1 of all that man has enjoyed and suffered--his victories and defeats--all that he has lost and won4 ,words are the shadows of all that has been--the mirrors of all that is4 ,the ghosts also enlightened our fathers in astronomy and geology4 ,according to them the earth was made out of nothing1 and a little more nothing having been taken than was used in the construction of this world1 the stars were made out of what was left over4 ,cosmas1 in the sixth century1 taught that the stars were impelled by angels1 who either carried them on their shoulders1 rolled them in front of them1 or drew them after4 ,he also taught that each angel that pushed a star took great pains to observe what the other angels were doing1 so that the relative distances between the stars might always remain the same4 ,he also gave his idea as to the form of the world4 ,he stated that the world was a vast parallelogram2 that on the outside was a strip of land1 like the frame of a common slate2 that then there was a strip of water1 and in the middle a great piece of land2 that ,adam and ,eve lived on the outer strip2 that their descendants1 with the exception of the ,noah family1 were drowned by a flood on this outer strip2 that the ark finally rested on the middle piece of land where we now are4 ,he accounted for night and day by saying that on the outside strip of land there was a high mountain1 around which the sun and moon revolved1 and that when the sun was on the other side of the mountain1 it was night2 and when on this side1 it was day4 ,he also declared that the earth was flat4 ,this he proved by many passages from the ,bible4 ,among other reasons for believing the earth to be flat1 he brought forward the following3 ,we are told in the ,new ,testament that ,christ shall come again in glory and power1 and all the world shall see him4 ,now1 if the world is round1 how are the people on the other side going to see ,christ when he comes8 ,that settled the question1 and the church not only endorsed the book1 but declared that whoever believed less or more than stated by ,cosmas1 was a heretic4 ,in those blessed days1 ,ignorance was a king and ,science an outcast4 ,they knew the moment this earth ceased to be the centre of the universe1 and became a mere speck in the starry heaven of existence1 that their religion would become a childish fable of the past4 ,in the name and by the authority of the ghosts1 men enslaved their fellow-men2 they trampled upon the rights of women and children4 ,in the name and by the authority of ghosts1 they bought and sold and destroyed each other2 they filled heaven with tyrants and earth with slaves1 the present with despair and the future with horror4 ,in the name and by the authority of the ghosts1 they imprisoned the human mind1 polluted the conscience1 hardened the heart1 subverted justice1 crowned robbery1 sainted hypocrisy1 and extinguished for a thousand years the torch of reason4 ,i have endeavored1 in some faint degree1 to show you what has happened1 and what always will happen when men are governed by superstition and fear2 when they desert the sublime standard of reason2 when they take the words of others and do not investigate for themselves4 ,even the great men of those days were nearly as weak in this matter as the most ignorant4 ,kepler1 one of the greatest men of the world1 an astronomer second to none1 although he plucked from the stars the secrets of the universe1 was an astrologer1 and really believed that he could predict the career of a man by finding what star was in the ascendant at his birth4 ,this great man breathed1 so to speak1 the atmosphere of his time4 ,he believed in the music of the spheres1 and assigned alto1 bass1 tenor1 and treble to certain stars4 ,tycho ,brahe1 another astronomer1 kept an idiot1 whose disconnected and meaningless words he carefully set down1 and then put them together in such manner as to make prophecies1 and then waited patiently to see them fulfilled4 ,luther believed that he had actually seen the devil1 and had discussed points of theology with him4 ,the human mind was in chains4 ,every idea almost was a monster4 ,thought was deformed4 ,facts were looked upon as worthless4 ,only the wonderful was worth preserving4 ,things that actually happened were not considered worth recording2--real occurrences were too common4 ,everybody expected the miraculous4 ,the ghosts were supposed to be busy2 devils were thought to be the most industrious things in the universe1 and with these imps1 every occurrence of an unusual character was in some way connected4 ,there was no order1 no serenity1 no certainty in anything4 ,everything depended upon ghosts and phantoms4 ,man was1 for the most part1 at the mercy of malevolent spirits4 ,he protected himself as best he could with holy water and tapers and wafers and cathedrals4 ,he made noises and rung bells to frighten the ghosts1 and he made music to charm them4 ,he used smoke to choke them1 and incense to please them4 ,he wore beads and crosses4 ,he said prayers1 and hired others to say them4 ,he fasted when he was hungry1 and feasted when he was not4 ,he believed everything that seemed unreasonable1 just to appease the ghosts4 ,he humbled himself4 ,he crawled in the dust4 ,he shut the doors and windows1 and excluded every ray of light from the temple of the soul4 ,he debauched and polluted his own mind1 and toiled night and day to repair the walls of his own prison4 ,from the garden of his heart he plucked and trampled upon the holy flowers of pity4 ,the priests reveled in horrible descriptions of hell4 ,concerning the wrath of ,god1 they grew eloquent4 ,they denounced man as totally depraved4 ,they made reason blasphemy1 and pity a crime4 ,nothing so delighted them as painting the torments and sufferings of the lost4 ,over the worm that never dies they grew poetic2 and the second death filled them with a kind of holy delight4 ,according to them1 the smoke and cries ascending from hell were the perfume and music of heaven4 ,at the risk of being tiresome1 ,i have said what ,i have to show you the productions of the human mind1 when enslaved2 the effects of wide-spread ignorance--the results of fear4 ,i want to convince you that every form of slavery is a viper1 that1 sooner or later1 will strike its poison fangs into the bosoms of men4 ,the first great step towards progress1 is1 for man to cease to be the slave of man2 the second1 to cease to be the slave of the monsters of his own creation--of the ghosts and phantoms of the air4 ,for ages the human race was imprisoned4 ,through the bars and grates came a few struggling rays of light4 ,against these grates and bars ,science pressed its pale and thoughtful face1 wooed by the holy dawn of human advancement4 ,men found that the real was the useful2 that what a man knows is better than what a ghost says2 that an event is more valuable than a prophecy4 ,they found that diseases were not produced by spirits1 and could not be cured by frightening them away4 ,they found that death was as natural as life4 ,they began to study the anatomy and chemistry of the human body1 and found that all was natural and within the domain of law4 ,the conjurer and sorcerer were discarded1 and the physician and surgeon employed4 ,they found that the earth was not flat2 that the stars were not mere specks4 ,they found that being born under a particular planet had nothing to do with the fortunes of men4 ,the astrologer was discharged and the astronomer took his place4 ,they found that the earth had swept through the constellations for millions of ages4 ,they found that good and evil were produced by natural causes1 and not by ghosts2 that man could not be good enough or bad enough to stop or cause a rain2 that diseases were produced as naturally as grass1 and were not sent as punishments upon man for failing to believe a certain creed4 ,they found that man1 through intelligence1 could take advantage of the forces of nature--that he could make the waves1 the winds1 the flames1 and the lightnings of heaven do his bidding and minister to his wants4 ,they found that the ghosts knew nothing of benefit to man2 that they were utterly ignorant of geology--of astronomy--of geography2--that they knew nothing of history2--that they were poor doctors and worse surgeons2--that they knew nothing of law and less of justice2 that they were without brains1 and utterly destitute of hearts2 that they knew nothing of the rights of men2 that they were despisers of women1 the haters of progress1 the enemies of science1 and the destroyers of liberty4 ,the condition of the world during the ,dark ,ages shows exactly the result of enslaving the bodies and souls of men4 ,in those days there was no freedom4 ,labor was despised1 and a laborer was considered but little above a beast4 ,ignorance1 like a vast cowl1 covered the brain of the world1 and superstition ran riot with the imagination of man4 ,the air was filled with angels1 with demons and monsters4 ,credulity sat upon the throne of the soul1 and ,reason was an exiled king4 ,a man to be distinguished must be a soldier or a monk4 ,war and theology1 that is to say1 murder and hypocrisy1 were the principal employments of man4 ,industry was a slave1 theft was commerce2 murder was war1 hypocrisy was religion4 ,every ,christian country maintained that it was no robbery to take the property of ,mohammedans by force1 and no murder to kill the owners4 ,lord ,bacon was the first man of note who maintained that a ,christian country was bound to keep its plighted faith with an infidel nation4 ,reading and writing were considered dangerous arts4 ,every layman who could read and write was suspected of being a heretic4 ,all thought was discouraged4 ,they forged chains of superstition for the minds1 and manacles of iron for the bodies of men4 ,the earth was ruled by the cowl and sword1--by the mitre and scepter1--by the altar and throne1--by ,fear and ,force1--by ,ignorance and ,faith1--by ghouls and ghosts4 ,in the fifteenth century the following law was in force in ,england3 ,that whosoever reads the ,scriptures in the mother tongue1 shall forfeit land1 cattle1 life1 and goods from their heirs forever1 and so be condemned for heretics to ,god1 enemies to the crown1 and most arrant traitors to the land4 ,during the first year this law was in force thirty-nine were hanged for its violation and their bodies burned4 ,in the sixteenth century men were burned because they failed to kneel to a procession of monks4 ,the slightest word uttered against the superstition of the time was punished with death4 ,even the reformers1 so-called1 of those days1 had no idea of intellectual liberty--no idea even of toleration4 ,luther1 ,knox1 ,calvin1 believed in religious liberty only when they were in the minority4 ,the moment they were clothed with power they began to exterminate with fire and sword4 ,castalio was the first minister who advocated the liberty of the soul4 ,he was regarded by the reformers as a criminal1 and treated as though he had committed the crime of crimes4 ,bodinus1 a lawyer of ,france1 about the same time1 wrote a few words in favor of the freedom of conscience1 but public opinion was overwhelmingly against him4 ,the people were ready1 anxious1 and willing1 with whip1 and chain1 and fire1 to drive from the mind of man the heresy that he had a right to think4 ,montaigne1 a man blest with so much common sense that he was the most uncommon man of his time1 was the first to raise a voice against torture in ,france4 ,but what was the voice of one man against the terrible cry of ignorant1 infatuated1 superstitious and malevolent millions8 ,it was the cry of a drowning man in the wild roar of the cruel sea4 ,in spite of the efforts of the brave few the infamous war against the freedom of the soul was waged until at least one hundred millions of human beings--fathers1 mothers1 brothers1 sisters--with hopes1 loves1 and aspirations like ourselves1 were sacrificed upon the cruel altar of an ignorant faith4 ,they perished in every way by which death can be produced4 ,every nerve of pain was sought out and touched by the believers in ghosts4 ,for my part ,i glory in the fact1 that here in the ,new ,world1--in the ,united ,states1--liberty of conscience was first guaranteed to man1 and that the ,constitution of the ,united ,states was the first great decree entered in the high court of human equity forever divorcing church and state1--the first injunction granted against the interference of the ghosts4 ,this was one of the grandest steps ever taken by the human race in the direction of ,progress4 ,you will ask what has caused this wonderful change in three hundred years4 ,and ,i answer--the inventions and discoveries of the few2--the brave thoughts1 the heroic utterances of the few2--the acquisition of a few facts4 ,besides1 you must remember that every wrong in some way tends to abolish itself4 ,it is hard to make a lie stand always4 ,a lie will not fit a fact4 ,it will only fit another lie made for the purpose4 ,the life of a lie is simply a question of time4 ,nothing but truth is immortal4 ,the nobles and kings quarreled2--the priests began to dispute2--the ideas of government began to change4 ,in #adda printing was discovered4 ,at that time the past was a vast cemetery with hardly an epitaph4 ,the ideas of men had mostly perished in the brain that produced them4 ,the lips of the human race had been sealed4 ,printing gave pinions to thought4 ,it preserved ideas4 ,it made it possible for man to bequeath to the future the riches of his brain1 the wealth of his soul4 ,at first1 it was used to flood the world with the mistakes of the ancients1 but since that time it has been flooding the world with light4 ,when people read they begin to reason1 and when they reason they progress4 ,this was another grand step in the direction of ,progress4 ,the discovery of powder1 that put the peasant almost upon a par with the prince2--that put an end to the so-called age of chivalry2--that released a vast number of men from the armies2--that gave pluck and nerve a chance with brute strength4 ,the discovery of ,america1 whose shores were trod by the restless feet of adventure2--that brought people holding every shade of superstition together2--that gave the world an opportunity to compare notes1 and to laugh at the follies of each other4 ,out of this strange mingling of all creeds1 and superstitions1 and facts1 and theories1 and countless opinions1 came the ,great ,republic4 ,every fact has pushed a superstition from the brain and a ghost from the clouds4 ,every mechanic art is an educator4 ,every loom1 every reaper and mower1 every steamboat1 every locomotive1 every engine1 every press1 every telegraph1 is a missionary of ,science and an apostle of ,progress4 ,every mill1 every furnace1 every building with its wheels and levers1 in which something is made for the convenience1 for the use1 and for the comfort and elevation of man1 is a church1 and every school-house is a temple4 ,education is the most radical thing in the world4 ,to teach the alphabet is to inaugurate a revolution4 ,to build a schoolhouse is to construct a fort4 ,every library is an arsenal filled with the weapons and ammunition of ,progress1 and every fact is a monitor with sides of iron and a turret of steel4 ,i thank the inventors1 the discoverers1 the thinkers4 ,i thank ,columbus and ,magellan4 ,i thank ,galileo1 and ,copernicus1 and ,kepler1 and ,descartes1 and ,newton1 and ,laplace4 ,i thank ,locke1 and ,hume1 and ,bacon1 and ,shakespeare1 and ,kant1 and ,fichte1 and ,leibnitz1 and ,goethe4 ,i thank ,fulton1 and ,watts1 and ,volta1 and ,galvani1 and ,franklin1 and ,morse1 who made lightning the messenger of man4 ,i thank ,humboldt1 the ,shakespeare of science4 ,i thank ,crompton and ,arkwright1 from whose brains leaped the looms and spindles that clothe the world4 ,i thank ,luther for protesting against the abuses of the church1 and ,i denounce him because he was the enemy of liberty4 ,i thank ,calvin for writing a book in favor of religious freedom1 and ,i abhor him because he burned ,servetus4 ,i thank ,knox for resisting ,episcopal persecution1 and ,i hate him because he persecuted in his turn4 ,i thank the ,puritans for saying ,resistance to tyrants is obedience to ,god1 and yet ,i am compelled to say that they were tyrants themselves4 ,i thank ,thomas ,paine because he was a believer in liberty1 and because he did as much to make my country free as any other human being4 ,i thank ,voltaire1 that great man who1 for half a century1 was the intellectual emperor of ,europe1 and who1 from his throne at the foot of the ,alps1 pointed the finger of scorn at every hypocrite in ,christendom4 ,i thank ,darwin1 ,haeckel and ,buechner1 ,spencer1 ,tyndall and ,huxley1 ,draper1 ,lecky and ,buckle4 ,i thank the inventors1 the discoverers1 the thinkers1 the scientists1 the explorers1 ,i thank the honest millions who have toiled4 ,i thank the brave men with brave thoughts4 ,they are the ,atlases upon whose broad and mighty shoulders rests the grand fabric of civilization4 ,they are the men who have broken1 and are still breaking1 the chains of ,superstition4 ,they are the ,titans who carried ,olympus by assault1 and who will soon stand victors upon ,sinai's crags4 ,we are beginning to learn that to exchange a mistake for the truth--a superstition for a fact--to ascertain the real--is to progress4 ,happiness is the only possible good1 and all that tends to the happiness of man is right1 and is of value4 ,all that tends to develop the bodies and minds of men2 all that gives us better houses1 better clothes1 better food1 better pictures1 grander music1 better heads1 better hearts2 all that renders us more intellectual and more loving1 nearer just2 that makes us better husbands and wives1 better children1 better citizens--all these things combined produce what ,i call ,progress4 ,man advances only as he overcomes the obstructions of ,nature1 and this can be done only by labor and by thought4 ,labor is the foundation of all4 ,without labor1 and without great labor1 progress is impossible4 ,the progress of the world depends upon the men who walk in the fresh furrows and through the rustling corn2 upon those who sow and reap2 upon those whose faces are radiant with the glare of furnace fires2 upon the delvers in the mines1 and the workers in shops2 upon those who give to the winter air the ringing music of the axe2 upon those who battle with the boisterous billows of the sea2 upon the inventors and discoverers2 upon the brave thinkers4 ,from the surplus produced by labor1 schools and universities are built and fostered4 ,from this surplus the painter is paid for the productions of the pencil2 the sculptor for chiseling shapeless rock into forms divinely beautiful1 and the poet for singing the hopes1 the loves1 the memories1 and the aspirations of the world4 ,this surplus has given us the books in which we converse with the dead and living kings of the human race4 ,it has given us all there is of beauty1 of elegance1 and of refined happiness4 ,i am aware that there is a vast difference of opinion as to what progress really is2 that many denounce the ideas of to-day as destructive of all happiness--of all good1 ,i know that there are many worshipers of the past4 ,they venerate the ancient because it is ancient4 ,they see no beauty in anything from which they do not blow the dust of ages with the breath of praise4 ,they say1 no masters like the old2 no religion1 no governments like the ancient2 no orators1 no poets1 no statesmen like those who have been dust for two thousand years4 ,others love the modern simply because it is modern4 ,we should have gratitude enough to acknowledge the obligations we are under to the great and heroic of antiquity1 and independence enough not to believe what they said simply because they said it4 ,with the idea that labor is the basis of progress goes the truth that labor must be free4 ,the laborer must be a free man4 ,the free man1 working for wife and child1 gets his head and hands in partnership4 ,to do the greatest amount of work in the shortest space of time1 is the problem of free labor4 ,slavery does the least work in the longest space of time4 ,free labor will give us wealth4 ,free thought will give us truth4 ,slowly but surely man is freeing his imagination of these sexless phantoms1 of these cruel ghosts4 ,slowly but surely he is rising above the superstitions of the past4 ,he is learning to rely upon himself4 ,he is beginning to find that labor is the only prayer that ought to be answered1 and that hoping1 toiling1 aspiring1 suffering men and women are of more importance than all the ghosts that ever wandered through the fenceless fields of space4 ,the believers in ghosts claim still1 that they are the only wise and virtuous people upon the earth2 claim still1 that there is a difference between them and unbelievers so vast1 that they will be infinitely rewarded1 and the others infinitely punished4 ,i ask you to-night1 do the theories and doctrines of the theologians satisfy the heart or brain of the nineteenth century8 ,have the churches the confidence of mankind8 ,does the merchant give credit to a man because he belongs to a church8 ,does the banker loan money to a man because he is a ,methodist or ,baptist8 ,will a certificate of good standing in any church be taken as collateral security for one dollar8 ,will you take the word of a church member1 or his note1 or his oath1 simply because he is a church member8 ,are the clergy1 as a class1 better1 kinder and more generous to their families--to their fellow-men--than doctors1 lawyers1 merchants and farmers8 ,does a belief in ghosts and unreasonable things necessarily make people honest8 ,when a man loses confidence in ,moses1 must the people lose confidence in him8 ,does not the credit system in morals breed extravagance in sin8 ,why send missionaries to other lands while every penitentiary in ours is filled with criminals8 ,is it philosophical to say that they who do right carry a cross8 ,is it a source of joy to think that perdition is the destination of nearly all of the children of men8 ,is it worth while to quarrel about original sin--when there is so much copy8 ,does it pay to dispute about baptism1 and the ,trinity1 and predestination1 and apostolic succession and the infallibility of churches1 of popes and of books8 ,does all this do any good8 ,are the theologians welcomers of new truths8 ,are they noted for their candor8 ,do they treat an opponent with common fairness8 ,are they investigators8 ,do they pull forward1 or do they hold back8 ,is science indebted to the church for a solitary fact8 ,what church is an asylum for a persecuted truth8 ,what great reform has been inaugurated by the church8 ,did the church abolish slavery8 ,has the church raised its voice against war8 ,i used to think that there was in religion no real restraining force4 ,upon this point my mind has changed4 ,religion will prevent man from committing artificial crimes and offences4 ,a man committed murder4 ,the evidence was so conclusive that he confessed his guilt4 ,he was asked why he killed his fellow-man4 ,he replied3 ,for money4 ,did you get any8 ,yes4 ,how much8 ,fifteen cents4 ,what did you do with this money8 ,spent it4 ,what for8 ,liquor4 ,what else did you find upon the dead man8 ,he had his dinner in a bucket--some meat and bread4 ,what did you do with that8 ,i ate the bread4 ,what did you do with the meat8 ,i threw it away4 ,why8 ,it was ,friday4 ,just to the extent that man has freed himself from the dominion of ghosts he has advanced4 ,just to the extent that he has freed himself from the tyrants of his own creation he has progressed4 ,just to the extent that he has investigated for himself he has lost confidence in superstition4 ,with knowledge obedience becomes intelligent acquiescence--it is no longer degrading4 ,acquiescence in the understood--in the known--is the act of a sovereign1 not of a slave4 ,it ennobles1 it does not degrade4 ,man has found that he must give liberty to others in order to have it himself4 ,he has found that a master is also a slave2--that a tyrant is himself a serf4 ,he has found that governments should be founded and administered by man and for man2 that the rights of all are equal2 that the powers that be are not ordained by ,god2 that woman is at least the equal of man2 that men existed before books2 that religion is one of the phases of thought through which the world is passing2 that all creeds were made by man2 that everything is natural2 that a miracle is an impossibility2 that we know nothing of origin and destiny2 that concerning the unknown we are all equally ignorant2 that the pew has the right to contradict what the pulpit asserts2 that man is responsible only to himself and those he injures1 and that all have a right to think4 ,true religion must be free4 ,without perfect liberty of the mind there can be no true religion4 ,without liberty the brain is a dungeon--the mind a convict4 ,the slave may bow and cringe and crawl1 but he cannot adore--he cannot love4 ,true religion is the perfume of a free and grateful heart4 ,true religion is a subordination of the passions to the perceptions of the intellect4 ,true religion is not a theory--it is a practice4 ,it is not a creed--it is a life4 ,a theory that is afraid of investigation is undeserving a place in the human mind4 ,i do not pretend to tell what all the truth is4 ,i do not pretend to have fathomed the abyss1 nor to have floated on outstretched wings level with the dim heights of thought4 ,i simply plead for freedom4 ,i denounce the cruelties and horrors of slavery4 ,i ask for light and air for the souls of men4 ,i say1 take off those chains--break those manacles--free those limbs--release that brain6 ,i plead for the right to think--to reason--to investigate4 ,i ask that the future may be enriched with the honest thoughts of men4 ,i implore every human being to be a soldier in the army of progress4 ,i will not invade the rights of others4 ,you have no right to erect your toll-gate upon the highways of thought4 ,you have no right to leap from the hedges of superstition and strike down the pioneers of the human race4 ,you have no right to sacrifice the liberties of man upon the altars of ghosts4 ,believe what you may2 preach what you desire2 have all the forms and ceremonies you please2 exercise your liberty in your own way but extend to all others the same right4 ,i will not attack your doctrines nor your creeds if they accord liberty to me4 ,if they hold thought to be dangerous--if they aver that doubt is a crime1 then ,i attack them one and all1 because they enslave the minds of men4 ,i attack the monsters1 the phantoms of imagination that have ruled the world4 ,i attack slavery4 ,i ask for room--room for the human mind4 ,why should we sacrifice a real world that we have1 for one we know not of8 ,why should we enslave ourselves8 ,why should we forge fetters for our own hands8 ,why should we be the slaves of phantoms4 ,the darkness of barbarism was the womb of these shadows4 ,in the light of science they cannot cloud the sky forever4 ,they have reddened the hands of man with innocent blood4 ,they made the cradle a curse1 and the grave a place of torment4 ,they blinded the eyes and stopped the ears of the human race4 ,they subverted all ideas of justice by promising infinite rewards for finite virtues1 and threatening infinite punishment for finite offences4 ,they filled the future with heavens and with hells1 with the shining peaks of selfish joy and the lurid abysses of flame4 ,for ages they kept the world in ignorance and awe1 in want and misery1 in fear and chains4 ,i plead for light1 for air1 for opportunity4 ,i plead for individual independence4 ,i plead for the rights of labor and of thought4 ,i plead for a chainless future4 ,let the ghosts go--justice remains4 ,let them disappear--men and women and children are left4 ,let the monsters fade away--the world is here with its hills and seas and plains1 with its seasons of smiles and frowns1 its spring of leaf and bud1 its summer of shade and flower and murmuring stream2 its autumn with the laden boughs1 when the withered banners of the corn are still1 and gathered fields are growing strangely wan2 while death1 poetic death1 with hands that color what they touch1 weaves in the ,autumn wood her tapestries of gold and brown4 ,the world remains with its winters and homes and firesides1 where grow and bloom the virtues of our race4 ,all these are left2 and music1 with its sad and thrilling voice1 and all there is of art and song and hope and love and aspiration high4 ,all these remain4 ,let the ghosts go--we will worship them no more4 ,man is greater than these phantoms4 ,humanity is grander than all the creeds1 than all the books4 ,humanity is the great sea1 and these creeds1 and books1 and religions1 are but the waves of a day4 ,humanity is the sky1 and these religions and dogmas and theories are but the mists and clouds changing continually1 destined finally to melt away4 ,that which is founded upon slavery1 and fear1 and ignorance1 cannot endure4 ,in the religion of the future there will be men and women and children1 all the aspirations of the soul1 and all the tender humanities of the heart4 ,let the ghosts go4 ,we will worship them no more4 ,let them cover their eyeless sockets with their fleshless hands and fade forever from the imaginations of men4 ,,the ,,liberty ,,of ,,man1 ,,woman1 ,,and ,,child4 ,liberty sustains the same ,relation to ,mind that ,space does to ,matter4 ,,there is no slavery but ignorance4 ,liberty is the child of intelligence4 ,the history of man is simply the history of slavery1 of injustice and brutality1 together with the means by which he has1 through the dead and desolate years1 slowly and painfully advanced4 ,he has been the sport and prey of priest and king1 the food of superstition and cruel might4 ,crowned force has governed ignorance through fear4 ,hypocrisy and tyranny--two vultures--have fed upon the liberties of man4 ,from all these there has been1 and is1 but one means of escape--intellectual development4 ,upon the back of industry has been the whip4 ,upon the brain have been the fetters of superstition4 ,nothing has been left undone by the enemies of freedom4 ,every art and artifice1 every cruelty and outrage has been practiced and perpetrated to destroy the rights of man4 ,in this great struggle every crime has been rewarded and every virtue has been punished4 ,reading1 writing1 thinking and investigating have all been crimes4 ,every science has been an outcast4 ,all the altars and all the thrones united to arrest the forward march of the human race4 ,the king said that mankind must not work for themselves4 ,the priest said that mankind must not think for themselves4 ,one forged chains for the hands1 the other for the soul4 ,under this infamous regime the eagle of the human intellect was for ages a slimy serpent of hypocrisy4 ,the human race was imprisoned4 ,through some of the prison bars came a few struggling rays of light4 ,against these bars ,science pressed its pale and thoughtful face1 wooed by the holy dawn of human advancement4 ,bar after bar was broken away4 ,a few grand men escaped and devoted their lives to the liberation of their fellows4 ,only a few years ago there was a great awakening of the human mind4 ,men began to inquire by what right a crowned robber made them work for him8 ,the man who asked this question was called a traitor4 ,others asked by what right does a robed hypocrite rule my thought8 ,such men were called infidels4 ,the priest said1 and the king said1 where is this spirit of investigation to stop8 ,they said then and they say now1 that it is dangerous for man to be free4 ,i deny it4 ,out on the intellectual sea there is room enough for every sail4 ,in the intellectual air there is space enough for every wing4 ,the man who does not do his own thinking is a slave1 and is a traitor to himself and to his fellow-men4 ,every man should stand under the blue and stars1 under the infinite flag of nature1 the peer of every other man4 ,standing in the presence of the ,unknown1 all have the same right to think1 and all are equally interested in the great questions of origin and destiny4 ,all ,i claim1 all ,i plead for1 is liberty of thought and expression4 ,that is all4 ,i do not pretend to tell what is absolutely true1 but what ,i think is true4 ,i do not pretend to tell all the truth4 ,i do not claim that ,i have floated level with the heights of thought1 or that ,i have descended to the very depths of things4 ,i simply claim that what ideas ,i have1 ,i have a right to express2 and that any man who denies that right to me is an intellectual thief and robber4 ,that is all4 ,take those chains from the human soul4 ,break those fetters4 ,if ,i have no right to think1 why have ,i a brain8 ,if ,i have no such right1 have three or four men1 or any number1 who may get together1 and sign a creed1 and build a house1 and put a steeple upon it1 and a bell in it--have they the right to think8 ,the good men1 the good women are tired of the whip and lash in the realm of thought4 ,they remember the chain and fagot with a shudder4 ,they are free1 and they give liberty to others4 ,whoever claims any right that he is unwilling to accord to his fellow-men is dishonest and infamous4 ,in the good old times1 our fathers had the idea that they could make people believe to suit them4 ,our ancestors1 in the ages that are gone1 really believed that by force you could convince a man4 ,you cannot change the conclusion of the brain by torture2 nor by social ostracism4 ,but ,i will tell you what you can do by these1 and what you have done4 ,you can make hypocrites by the million4 ,you can make a man say that he has changed his mind2 but he remains of the same opinion still4 ,put fetters all over him2 crush his feet in iron boots2 stretch him to the last gasp upon the holy rack2 burn him1 if you please1 but his ashes will be of the same opinion still4 ,our fathers in the good old times--and the best thing ,i can say about them is1 that they have passed away--had an idea that they could force men to think their way4 ,that idea is still prevalent in many parts1 even of this country4 ,even in our day some extremely religious people say1 ,we will not trade with that man2 we will not vote for him2 we will not hire him if he is a lawyer2 we will die before we will take his medicine if he is a doctor2 we will not invite him to dinner2 we will socially ostracise him2 he must come to our church2 he must believe our doctrines2 he must worship our god or we will not in any way contribute to his support4 ,in the old times of which ,i have spoken1 they desired to make all men think exactly alike4 ,all the mechanical ingenuity of the world cannot make two clocks run exactly alike1 and how are you going to make hundreds of millions of people1 differing in brain and disposition1 in education and aspiration1 in conditions and surroundings1 each clad in a living robe of passionate flesh--how are you going to make them think and feel alike8 ,if there is an infinite god1 one who made us1 and wishes us to think alike1 why did he give a spoonful of brains to one1 and a magnificent intellectual development to another8 ,why is it that we have all degrees of intelligence1 from orthodoxy to genius1 if it was intended that all should think and feel alike8 ,i used to read in books how our fathers persecuted mankind4 ,but ,i never appreciated it4 ,i read it1 but it did not burn itself into my soul4 ,i did not really appreciate the infamies that have been committed in the name of religion1 until ,i saw the iron arguments that ,christians used4 ,i saw the ,thumbscrew--two little pieces of iron1 armed on the inner surfaces with protuberances1 to prevent their slipping2 through each end a screw uniting the two pieces4 ,and when some man denied the efficacy of baptism1 or may be said1 ,i do not believe that a fish ever swallowed a man to keep him from drowning1 then they put his thumb between these pieces of iron and in the name of love and universal forgiveness1 began to screw these pieces together4 ,when this was done most men said1 ,i will recant4 ,probably ,i should have done the same4 ,probably ,i would have said3 ,stop2 ,i will admit anything that you wish2 ,i will admit that there is one god or a million1 one hell or a billion2 suit yourselves2 but stop4 ,but there was now and then a man who would not swerve the breadth of a hair4 ,there was now and then some sublime heart1 willing to die for an intellectual conviction4 ,had it not been for such men1 we would be savages to-night4 ,had it not been for a few brave1 heroic souls in every age1 we would have been cannibals1 with pictures of wild beasts tattooed upon our flesh1 dancing around some dried snake fetich4 ,let us thank every good and noble man who stood so grandly1 so proudly1 in spite of opposition1 of hatred and death1 for what he believed to be the truth4 ,heroism did not excite the respect of our fathers4 ,the man who would not recant was not forgiven4 ,they screwed the thumbscrews down to the last pang1 and then threw their victim into some dungeon1 where1 in the throbbing silence and darkness1 he might suffer the agonies of the fabled damned4 ,this was done in the name of love--in the name of mercy--in the name of the compassionate ,christ4 ,i saw1 too1 what they called the ,collar of ,torture4 ,imagine a circle of iron1 and on the inside a hundred points almost as sharp as needles4 ,this argument was fastened about the throat of the sufferer4 ,then he could not walk1 nor sit down1 nor stir without the neck being punctured1 by these points4 ,in a little while the throat would begin to swell1 and suffocation would end the agonies of that man4 ,this man1 it may be1 had committed the crime of saying1 with tears upon his cheeks1 ,i do not believe that ,god1 the father of us all1 will damn to eternal perdition any of the children of men4 ,i saw another instrument1 called the ,scavenger's ,daughter4 ,think of a pair of shears with handles1 not only where they now are1 but at the points as well1 and just above the pivot that unites the blades1 a circle of iron4 ,in the upper handles the hands would be placed2 in the lower1 the feet2 and through the iron ring1 at the centre1 the head of the victim would be forced4 ,in this condition1 he would be thrown prone upon the earth1 and the strain upon the muscles produced such agony that insanity would in pity end his pain4 ,this was done by gentlemen who said3 ,whosoever smiteth thee upon one cheek turn to him the other also4 ,i saw the ,rack4 ,this was a box like the bed of a wagon1 with a windlass at each end1 with levers1 and ratchets to prevent slipping2 over each windlass went chains2 some were fastened to the ankles of the sufferer2 others to his wrists4 ,and then priests1 clergymen1 divines1 saints1 began turning these windlasses1 and kept turning1 until the ankles1 the knees1 the hips1 the shoulders1 the elbows1 the wrists of the victim were all dislocated1 and the sufferer was wet with the sweat of agony4 ,and they had standing by a physician to feel his pulse4 ,what for8 ,to save his life8 ,yes4 ,in mercy8 ,no2 simply that they might rack him once again4 ,this was done1 remember1 in the name of civilization2 in the name of law and order2 in the name of mercy2 in the name of religion2 in the name of the most merciful ,christ4 ,sometimes1 when ,i read and think about these frightful things1 it seems to me that ,i have suffered all these horrors myself4 ,it seems sometimes1 as though ,i had stood upon the shore of exile and gazed with tearful eyes toward home and native land2 as though my nails had been torn from my hands1 and into the bleeding quick needles had been thrust2 as though my feet had been crushed in iron boots2 as though ,i had been chained in the cell of the ,inquisition and listened with dying ears for the coming footsteps of release2 as though ,i had stood upon the scaffold and had seen the glittering axe fall upon me2 as though ,i had been upon the rack and had seen1 bending above me1 the white faces of hypocrite priests2 as though ,i had been taken from my fireside1 from my wife and children1 taken to the public square1 chained2 as though fagots had been piled about me2 as though the flames had climbed around my limbs and scorched my eyes to blindness1 and as though my ashes had been scattered to the four winds1 by all the countless hands of hate4 ,and when ,i so feel1 ,i swear that while ,i live ,i will do what little ,i can to preserve and to augment the liberties of man1 woman1 and child4 ,it is a question of justice1 of mercy1 of honesty1 of intellectual development4 ,if there is a man in the world who is not willing to give to every human being every right he claims for himself1 he is just so much nearer a barbarian than ,i am4 ,it is a question of honesty4 ,the man who is not willing to give to every other the same intellectual rights he claims for himself1 is dishonest1 selfish1 and brutal4 ,it is a question of intellectual development4 ,whoever holds another man responsible for his honest thought1 has a deformed and distorted brain4 ,it is a question of intellectual development4 ,a little while ago ,i saw models of nearly everything that man has made4 ,i saw models of all the water craft1 from the rude dug-out in which floated a naked savage--one of our ancestors--a naked savage1 with teeth two inches in length1 with a spoonful of brains in the back of his head--,i saw models of all the water craft of the world1 from that dug-out up to a man-of-war1 that carries a hundred guns and miles of canvas--from that dug-out to the steamship that turns its brave prow from the port of ,new ,york1 with a compass like a conscience1 crossing three thousand miles of billows without missing a throb or beat of its mighty iron heart4 ,i saw at the same time the weapons that man has made1 from a club1 such as was grasped by that same savage1 when he crawled from his den in the ground and hunted a snake for his dinner2 from that club to the boomerang1 to the sword1 to the cross-bow1 to the blunderbuss1 to the flint-lock1 to the cap-lock1 to the needle-gun1 up to a cannon cast by ,krupp1 capable of hurling a ball weighing two thousand pounds through eighteen inches of solid steel4 ,i saw1 too1 the armor from the shell of a turtle1 that one of our brave ancestors lashed upon his breast when he went to fight for his country2 the skin of a porcupine1 dried with the quills on1 which this same savage pulled over his orthodox head1 up to the shirts of mail1 that were worn in the ,middle ,ages1 that laughed at the edge of the sword and defied the point of the spear2 up to a monitor clad in complete steel4 ,i saw at the same time1 their musical instruments1 from the tom-tom--that is1 a hoop with a couple of strings of raw hide drawn across it--from that tom-tom1 up to the instruments we have to-day1 that make the common air blossom with melody4 ,i saw1 too1 their paintings1 from a daub of yellow mud1 to the great works which now adorn the galleries of the world4 ,i saw also their sculpture1 from the rude god with four legs1 a half dozen arms1 several noses1 and two or three rows of ears1 and one little1 contemptible1 brainless head1 up to the figures of to-day--to the marbles that genius has clad in such a personality that it seems almost impudent to touch them without an introduction4 ,i saw their books--books written upon skins of wild beasts--upon shoulder-blades of sheep--books written upon leaves1 upon bark1 up to the splendid volumes that enrich the libraries of our day4 ,when ,i speak of libraries1 ,i think of the remark of ,plato3 ,a house that has a library in it has a soul4 ,i saw their implements of agriculture1 from a crooked stick that was attached to the horn of an ox by some twisted straw1 to the agricultural implements of this generation1 that make it possible for a man to cultivate the soil without being an ignoramus4 ,while looking upon these things ,i was forced to say that man advanced only as he mingled his thought with his labor1--only as he got into partnership with the forces of nature1--only as he learned to take advantage of his surroundings--only as he freed himself from the bondage of fear1--only as he depended upon himself--only as he lost confidence in the gods4 ,i saw at the same time a row of human skulls1 from the lowest skull that has been found1 the ,neanderthal skull--skulls from ,central ,africa1 skulls from the ,bushmen of ,australia--skulls from the farthest isles of the ,pacific sea--up to the best skulls of the last generation2--and ,i noticed that there was the same difference between those skulls that there was between the products of those skulls1 and ,i said to myself1 ,after all1 it is a simple question of intellectual development4 ,there was the same difference between those skulls1 the lowest and highest skulls1 that there was between the dug-out and the man-of-war and the steamship1 between the club and the ,krupp gun1 between the yellow daub and the landscape1 between the tom-tom and an opera by ,verdi4 ,the first and lowest skull in this row was the den in which crawled the base and meaner instincts of mankind1 and the last was a temple in which dwelt joy1 liberty1 and love4 ,it is all a question of brain1 of intellectual development4 ,if we are nearer free than were our fathers1 it is because we have better heads upon the average1 and more brains in them4 ,now1 ,i ask you to be honest with me4 ,it makes no difference to you what ,i believe1 nor what ,i wish to prove4 ,i simply ask you to be honest4 ,divest your minds1 for a moment at least1 of all religious prejudice4 ,act1 for a few moments1 as though you were men and women4 ,suppose the king1 if there was one1 and the priest1 if there was one1 at the time this gentleman floated in the dug-out1 and charmed his ears with the music of the tom-tom1 had said3 ,that dug-out is the best boat that ever can be built by man2 the pattern of that came from on high1 from the great god of storm and flood1 and any man who says that he can improve it by putting a mast in it1 with a sail upon it1 is an infidel1 and shall be burned at the stake2 what1 in your judgment--honor bright--would have been the effect upon the circumnavigation of the globe8 ,suppose the king1 if there was one1 and the priest1 if there was one--and ,i presume there was a priest1 because it was a very ignorant age--suppose this king and priest had said3 ,that tom-tom is the most beautiful instrument of music of which any man can conceive2 that is the kind of music they have in heaven2 an angel sitting upon the edge of a fleecy cloud1 golden in the setting sun1 playing upon that tom-tom1 became so enraptured1 so entranced with her own music1 that in a kind of ecstasy she dropped it--that is how we obtained it2 and any man who says that it can be improved by putting a back and front to it1 and four strings1 and a bridge1 and getting a bow of hair with rosin1 is a blaspheming wretch1 and shall die the death1--,i ask you1 what effect would that have had upon music8 ,if that course had been pursued1 would the human ears1 in your judgment1 ever have been enriched with the divine symphonies of ,beethoven8 ,suppose the king1 if there was one1 and the priest1 had said3 ,that crooked stick is the best plow that can be invented3 the pattern of that plow was given to a pious farmer in a holy dream1 and that twisted straw is the ne plus ultra of all twisted things1 and any man who says he can make an improvement upon that plow1 is an atheist2 what1 in your judgment1 would have been the effect upon the science of agriculture8 ,but the people said1 and the king and priest said3 ,we want better weapons with which to kill our fellow-,christians2 we want better plows1 better music1 better paintings1 and whoever will give us better weapons1 and better music1 better houses to live in1 better clothes1 we will robe him in wealth1 and crown him with honor4 ,every incentive was held out to every human being to improve these things4 ,that is the reason the club has been changed to a cannon1 the dug-out to a steamship1 the daub to a painting2 that is the reason that the piece of rough and broken stone finally became a glorified statue4 ,you must not1 however1 forget that the gentleman in the dug-out1 the gentleman who was enraptured with the music of the tom-tom1 and cultivated his land with a crooked stick1 had a religion of his own4 ,that gentlemen in the dug-out was orthodox4 ,he was never troubled with doubts4 ,he lived and died settled in his mind4 ,he believed in hell2 and he thought he would be far happier in heaven1 if he could just lean over and see certain people who expressed doubts as to the truth of his creed1 gently but everlastingly broiled and burned4 ,it is a very sad and unhappy fact that this man has had a great many intellectual descendants4 ,it is also an unhappy fact in nature1 that the ignorant multiply much faster than the intellectual4 ,this fellow in the dug-out believed in a personal devil4 ,his devil had a cloven hoof1 a long tail1 armed with a fiery dart2 and his devil breathed brimstone4 ,this devil was at least the equal of ,god2 not quite so stout but a little shrewder4 ,and do you know there has not been a patentable improvement made upon that devil for six thousand years4 ,this gentleman in the dug-out believed that ,god was a tyrant2 that he would eternally damn the man who lived in accordance with his highest and grandest ideal4 ,he believed that the earth was flat4 ,he believed in a literal1 burning1 seething hell of fire and sulphur4 ,he had also his idea of politics2 and his doctrine was1 might makes right4 ,and it will take thousands of years before the world will reverse this doctrine1 and believingly say1 ,right makes might4 ,all ,i ask is the same privilege to improve upon that gentleman's theology as upon his musical instrument2 the same right to improve upon his politics as upon his dug-out4 ,that is all4 ,i ask for the human soul the same liberty in every direction4 ,that is the only crime ,i have committed4 ,i say1 let us think4 ,let each one express his thought4 ,let us become investigators1 not followers1 not cringers and crawlers4 ,if there is in heaven an infinite being1 he never will be satisfied with the worship of cowards and hypocrites4 ,honest unbelief1 honest infidelity1 honest atheism1 will be a perfume in heaven when pious hypocrisy1 no matter how religious it may be outwardly1 will be a stench4 ,this is my doctrine3 ,give every other human being every right you claim for yourself4 ,keep your mind open to the influences of nature4 ,receive new thoughts with hospitality4 ,let us advance4 ,the religionist of to-day wants the ship of his soul to lie at the wharf of orthodoxy and rot in the sun4 ,he delights to hear the sails of old opinions flap against the masts of old creeds4 ,he loves to see the joints and the sides open and gape in the sun1 and it is a kind of bliss for him to repeat again and again3 ,do not disturb my opinions4 ,do not unsettle my mind2 ,i have it all made up1 and ,i want no infidelity4 ,let me go backward rather than forward4 ,as far as ,i am concerned ,i wish to be out on the high seas4 ,i wish to take my chances with wind1 and wave1 and star4 ,and ,i had rather go down in the glory and grandeur of the storm1 than to rot in any orthodox harbor whatever4 ,after all1 we are improving from age to age4 ,the most orthodox people in this country two hundred years ago would have been burned for the crime of heresy4 ,the ministers who denounce me for expressing my thought would have been in the ,inquisition themselves4 ,where once burned and blazed the bivouac fires of the army of progress1 now glow the altars of the church4 ,the religionists of our time are occupying about the same ground occupied by heretics and infidels of one hundred years ago4 ,the church has advanced in spite1 as it were1 of itself4 ,it has followed the army of progress protesting and denouncing1 and had to keep within protesting and denouncing distance4 ,if the church had not made great progress ,i could not express my thoughts4 ,man1 however1 has advanced just exactly in the proportion with which he has mingled his thought with his labor4 ,the sailor1 without control of the wind and wave1 knowing nothing or very little of the mysterious currents and pulses of the sea1 is superstitious4 ,so also is the agriculturist1 whose prosperity depends upon something he cannot control4 ,but the mechanic1 when a wheel refuses to turn1 never thinks of dropping on his knees and asking the assistance of some divine power4 ,he knows there is a reason4 ,he knows that something is too large or too small2 that there is something wrong with his machine2 and he goes to work and he makes it larger or smaller1 here or there1 until the wheel will turn4 ,now1 just in proportion as man gets away from being1 as it were1 the slave of his surroundings1 the serf of the elements1--of the heat1 the frost1 the snow1 and the lightning1--just to the extent that he has gotten control of his own destiny1 just to the extent that he has triumphed over the obstacles of nature1 he has advanced physically and intellectually4 ,as man develops1 he places a greater value upon his own rights4 ,liberty becomes a grander and diviner thing4 ,as he values his own rights1 he begins to value the rights of others4 ,and when all men give to all others all the rights they claim for themselves1 this world will be civilized4 ,a few years ago the people were afraid to question the king1 afraid to question the priest1 afraid to investigate a creed1 afraid to deny a book1 afraid to denounce a dogma1 afraid to reason1 afraid to think4 ,before wealth they bowed to the very earth1 and in the presence of titles they became abject4 ,all this is slowly but surely changing4 ,we no longer bow to men simply because they are rich4 ,our fathers worshiped the golden calf4 ,the worst you can say of an ,american now is1 he worships the gold of the calf4 ,even the calf is beginning to see this distinction4 ,it no longer satisfies the ambition of a great man to be king or emperor4 ,the last ,napoleon was not satisfied with being the emperor of the ,french4 ,he was not satisfied with having a circlet of gold about his head4 ,he wanted some evidence that he had something of value within his head4 ,so he wrote the life of ,julius ,caesar1 that he might become a member of the ,french ,academy4 ,the emperors1 the kings1 the popes1 no longer tower above their fellows4 ,compare ,king ,william with the philosopher ,haeckel4 ,the king is one of the anointed by the most high1 as they claim--one upon whose head has been poured the divine petroleum of authority4 ,compare this king with ,haeckel1 who towers an intellectual colossus above the crowned mediocrity4 ,compare ,george ,eliot with ,queen ,victoria4 ,the ,queen is clothed in garments given her by blind fortune and unreasoning chance1 while ,george ,eliot wears robes of glory woven in the loom of her own genius4 ,the world is beginning to pay homage to intellect1 to genius1 to heart4 ,we have advanced4 ,we have reaped the benefit of every sublime and heroic self-sacrifice1 of every divine and brave act2 and we should endeavor to hand the torch to the next generation1 having added a little to the intensity and glory of the flame4 ,when ,i think of how much this world has suffered2 when ,i think of how long our fathers were slaves1 of how they cringed and crawled at the foot of the throne1 and in the dust of the altar1 of how they abased themselves1 of how abjectly they stood in the presence of superstition robed and crowned1 ,i am amazed4 ,this world has not been fit for a man to live in fifty years4 ,it was not until the year #ahjh that ,great ,britain abolished the slave trade4 ,up to that time her judges1 sitting upon the bench in the name of justice1 her priests1 occupying her pulpits1 in the name of universal love1 owned stock in the slave ships1 and luxuriated upon the profits of piracy and murder4 ,it was not until the same year that the ,united ,states of ,america abolished the slave trade between this and other countries1 but carefully preserved it as between the ,states4 ,it was not until the #bhth day of ,august1 #ahcc1 that ,great ,britain abolished human slavery in her colonies2 and it was not until the #ast day of ,january1 #ahfc1 that ,abraham ,lincoln1 sustained by the sublime and heroic ,north1 rendered our flag pure as the sky in which it floats4 ,abraham ,lincoln was1 in my judgment1 in many respects1 the grandest man ever ,president of the ,united ,states4 ,upon his monument these words should be written3 ,here sleeps the only man in the history of the world1 who1 having been clothed with almost absolute power1 never abused it1 except upon the side of mercy4 ,think how long we clung to the institution of human slavery1 how long lashes upon the naked back were a legal tender for labor performed4 ,think of it4 ,the pulpit of this country deliberately and willingly1 for a hundred years1 turned the cross of ,christ into a whipping post4 ,with every drop of my blood ,i hate and execrate every form of tyranny1 every form of slavery4 ,i hate dictation4 ,i love liberty4 ,what do ,i mean by liberty8 ,by physical liberty ,i mean the right to do anything which does not interfere with the happiness of another4 ,by intellectual liberty ,i mean the right to think right and the right to think wrong4 ,thought is the means by which we endeavor to arrive at truth4 ,if we know the truth already1 we need not think4 ,all that can be required is honesty of purpose4 ,you ask my opinion about anything2 ,i examine it honestly1 and when my mind is made up1 what should ,i tell you8 ,should ,i tell you my real thought8 ,what should ,i do8 ,there is a book put in my hands4 ,i am told this is the ,koran2 it was written by inspiration4 ,i read it1 and when ,i get through1 suppose that ,i think in my heart and in my brain1 that it is utterly untrue1 and you then ask me1 what do you think8 ,now1 admitting that ,i live in ,turkey1 and have no chance to get any office unless ,i am on the side of the ,koran1 what should ,i say8 ,should ,i make a clean breast and say1 that upon my honor ,i do not believe it8 ,what would you think then of my fellow-citizens if they said3 ,that man is dangerous1 he is dishonest4 ,suppose ,i read the book called the ,bible1 and when ,i get through ,i make up my mind that it was written by men4 ,a minister asks me1 ,did you read the ,bible8 ,i answer1 that ,i did4 ,do you think it divinely inspired8 ,what should ,i reply8 ,should ,i say to myself1 ,if ,i deny the inspiration of the ,scriptures1 the people will never clothe me with power4 ,what ought ,i to answer8 ,ought ,i not to say like a man3 ,i have read it2 ,i do not believe it4 ,should ,i not give the real transcript of my mind8 ,or should ,i turn hypocrite and pretend what ,i do not feel1 and hate myself forever after for being a cringing coward4 ,for my part ,i would rather a man would tell me what he honestly thinks4 ,i would rather he would preserve his manhood4 ,i had a thousand times rather be a manly unbeliever than an unmanly believer4 ,and if there is a judgment day1 a time when all will stand before some supreme being1 ,i believe ,i will stand higher1 and stand a better chance of getting my case decided in my favor1 than any man sneaking through life pretending to believe what he does not4 ,i have made up my mind to say my say4 ,i shall do it kindly1 distinctly2 but ,i am going to do it4 ,i know there are thousands of men who substantially agree with me1 but who are not in a condition to express their thoughts4 ,they are poor2 they are in business2 and they know that should they tell their honest thought1 persons will refuse to patronize them--to trade with them2 they wish to get bread for their little children2 they wish to take care of their wives2 they wish to have homes and the comforts of life4 ,every such person is a certificate of the meanness of the community in which he resides4 ,and yet ,i do not blame these people for not expressing their thought4 ,i say to them3 ,keep your ideas to yourselves2 feed and clothe the ones you love2 ,i will do your talking for you4 ,the church can not touch1 can not crush1 can not starve1 cannot stop or stay me2 ,i will express your thoughts4 ,as an excuse for tyranny1 as a justification of slavery1 the church has taught that man is totally depraved4 ,of the truth of that doctrine1 the church has furnished the only evidence there is4 ,the truth is1 we are both good and bad4 ,the worst are capable of some good deeds1 and the best are capable of bad4 ,the lowest can rise1 and the highest may fall4 ,that mankind can be divided into two great classes1 sinners and saints1 is an utter falsehood4 ,in times of great disaster1 called it may be1 by the despairing voices of women1 men1 denounced by the church as totally depraved1 rush to death as to a festival4 ,by such men1 deeds are done so filled with self-sacrifice and generous daring1 that millions pay to them the tribute1 not only of admiration1 but of tears4 ,above all creeds1 above all religions1 after all1 is that divine thing1--,humanity2 and now and then in shipwreck on the wide1 wild sea1 or 'mid the rocks and breakers of some cruel shore1 or where the serpents of flame writhe and hiss1 some glorious heart1 some chivalric soul does a deed that glitters like a star1 and gives the lie to all the dogmas of superstition4 ,all these frightful doctrines have been used to degrade and to enslave mankind4 ,away1 forever away with the creeds and books and forms and laws and religions that take from the soul liberty and reason4 ,down with the idea that thought is dangerous6 ,perish the infamous doctrine that man can have property in man4 ,let us resent with indignation every effort to put a chain upon our minds4 ,if there is no ,god1 certainly we should not bow and cringe and crawl4 ,if there is a ,god1 there should be no slaves4 ,,liberty ,,of ,,woman4 ,women have been the slaves of slaves2 and in my judgment it took millions of ages for woman to come from the condition of abject slavery up to the institution of marriage4 ,let me say right here1 that ,i regard marriage as the holiest institution among men4 ,without the fireside there is no human advancement2 without the family relation there is no life worth living4 ,every good government is made up of good families4 ,the unit of good government is the family1 and anything that tends to destroy the family is perfectly devilish and infamous4 ,i believe in marriage1 and ,i hold in utter contempt the opinions of those long-haired men and short-haired women who denounce the institution of marriage4 ,the grandest ambition that any man can possibly have1 is to so live1 and so improve himself in heart and brain1 as to be worthy of the love of some splendid woman2 and the grandest ambition of any girl is to make herself worthy of the love and adoration of some magnificent man4 ,that is my idea4 ,there is no success in life without love and marriage4 ,you had better be the emperor of one loving and tender heart1 and she the empress of yours1 than to be king of the world4 ,the man who has really won the love of one good woman in this world1 ,i do not care if he dies in the ditch a beggar1 his life has been a success4 ,i say it took millions of years to come from the condition of abject slavery up to the condition of marriage4 ,ladies1 the ornaments you wear upon your persons to-night are but the souvenirs of your mother's bondage4 ,the chains around your necks1 and the bracelets clasped upon your white arms by the thrilled hand of love1 have been changed by the wand of civilization from iron to shining1 glittering gold4 ,but nearly every religion has accounted for all the devilment in this world by the crime of woman4 ,what a gallant thing that is6 ,and if it is true1 ,i had rather live with the woman ,i love in a world full of trouble1 than to live in heaven with nobody but men4 ,i read in a book--and ,i will say now that ,i cannot give the exact language1 as my memory does not retain the words1 but ,i can give the substance--,i read in a book that the ,supreme ,being concluded to make a world and one man2 that he took some nothing and made a world and one man1 and put this man in a garden4 ,in a little while he noticed that the man got lonesome2 that he wandered around as if he was waiting for a train4 ,there was nothing to interest him2 no news2 no papers2 no politics2 no policy2 and1 as the devil had not yet made his appearance1 there was no chance for reconciliation2 not even for civil service reform4 ,well1 he wandered about the garden in this condition1 until finally the ,supreme ,being made up his mind to make him a companion4 ,having used up all the nothing he originally took in making the world and one man1 he had to take a part of the man to start a woman with4 ,so he caused a sleep to fall on this man--now understand me1 ,i do not say this story is true4 ,after the sleep fell upon this man1 the ,supreme ,being took a rib1 or as the ,french would call it1 a cutlet1 out of this man1 and from that he made a woman4 ,and considering the amount of raw material used1 ,i look upon it as the most successful job ever performed4 ,well1 after he got the woman done1 she was brought to the man2 not to see how she liked him1 but to see how he liked her4 ,he liked her1 and they started housekeeping2 and they were told of certain things they might do and of one thing they could not do--and of course they did it4 ,i would have done it in fifteen minutes1 and ,i know it4 ,there wouldn't have been an apple on that tree half an hour from date1 and the limbs would have been full of clubs4 ,and then they were turned out of the park and extra policemen were put on to keep them from getting back4 ,devilment commenced4 ,the mumps1 and the measles1 and the whooping-cough1 and the scarlet fever started in their race for man4 ,they began to have the toothache1 roses began to have thorns1 snakes began to have poisoned teeth1 and people began to divide about religion and politics1 and the world has been full of trouble from that day to this4 ,nearly all of the religions of this world account for the existence of evil by such a story as that6 ,i read in another book what appeared to be an account of the same transaction4 ,it was written about four thousand years before the other4 ,all commentators agree that the one that was written last was the original1 and that the one that was written first was copied from the one that was written last4 ,but ,i would advise you all not to allow your creed to be disturbed by a little matter of four or five thousand years4 ,in this other story1 ,brahma made up his mind to make the world and a man and woman4 ,he made the world1 and he made the man and then the woman1 and put them on the island of ,ceylon4 ,according to the account it was the most beautiful island of which man can conceive4 ,such birds1 such songs1 such flowers and such verdure6 ,and the branches of the trees were so arranged that when the wind swept through them every tree was a thousand ,a,eolian harps4 ,brahma1 when he put them there1 said3 ,let them have a period of courtship1 for it is my desire and will that true love should forever precede marriage4 ,when ,i read that1 it was so much more beautiful and lofty than the other1 that ,i said to myself1 ,if either one of these stories ever turns out to be true1 ,i hope it will be this one4 ,then they had their courtship1 with the nightingale singing1 and the stars shining1 and the flowers blooming1 and they fell in love4 ,imagine that courtship6 ,no prospective fathers or mothers-in-law2 no prying and gossiping neighbors2 nobody to say1 ,young man1 how do you expect to support her8 ,nothing of that kind4 ,they were married by the ,supreme ,brahma1 and he said to them3 ,remain here2 you must never leave this island4 ,well1 after a little while the man--and his name was ,adami1 and the woman's name was ,heva--said to ,heva3 ,i believe ,i'll look about a little4 ,he went to the northern extremity of the island where there was a little narrow neck of land connecting it with the mainland1 and the devil1 who is always playing pranks with us1 produced a mirage1 and when he looked over to the mainland1 such hills and vales1 such dells and dales1 such mountains crowned with snow1 such cataracts clad in bows of glory did he see there1 that he went back and told ,heva3 ,the country over there is a thousand times better than this2 let us migrate4 ,she1 like every other woman that ever lived1 said3 ,let well enough alone2 we have all we want2 let us stay here4 ,but he said ,no1 let us go2 so she followed him1 and when they came to this narrow neck of land1 he took her on his back like a gentleman1 and carried her over4 ,but the moment they got over they heard a crash1 and looking back1 discovered that this narrow neck of land had fallen into the sea4 ,the mirage had disappeared1 and there were naught but rocks and sand2 and then the ,supreme ,brahma cursed them both to the lowest hell4 ,then it was that the man spoke1--and ,i have liked him ever since for it--,curse me1 but curse not her1 it was not her fault1 it was mine4 ,that's the kind of man to start a world with4 ,the ,supreme ,brahma said3 ,i will save her1 but not thee4 ,and then she spoke out of her fullness of love1 out of a heart in which there was love enough to make all her daughters rich in holy affection1 and said3 ,if thou wilt not spare him1 spare neither me2 ,i do not wish to live without him2 ,i love him4 ,then the ,supreme ,brahma said--and ,i have liked him ever since ,i read it--,i will spare you both and watch over you and your children forever4 ,honor bright1 is not that the better and grander story8 ,and from that same book ,i want to show you what ideas some of these miserable heathen had2 the heathen we are trying to convert4 ,we send missionaries over yonder to convert heathen there1 and we send soldiers out on the plains to kill heathen here4 ,if we can convert the heathen1 why not convert those nearest home8 ,why not convert those we can get at8 ,why not convert those who have the immense advantage of the example of the average pioneer8 ,but to show you the men we are trying to convert3 ,in this book it says3 ,man is strength1 woman is beauty2 man is courage1 woman is love4 ,when the one man loves the one woman and the one woman loves the one man1 the very angels leave heaven and come and sit in that house and sing for joy4 ,they are the men we are converting4 ,think of it6 ,i tell you1 when ,i read these things1 ,i say that love is not of any country2 nobility does not belong exclusively to any race1 and through all the ages1 there have been a few great and tender souls blossoming in love and pity4 ,in my judgment1 the woman is the equal of the man4 ,she has all the rights ,i have and one more1 and that is the right to be protected4 ,that is my doctrine4 ,you are married2 try and make the woman you love happy4 ,whoever marries simply for himself will make a mistake2 but whoever loves a woman so well that he says ,i will make her happy1 makes no mistake4 ,and so with the woman who says1 ,i will make him happy4 ,there is only one way to be happy1 and that is to make somebody else so1 and you cannot be happy by going cross lots2 you have got to go the regular turnpike road4 ,if there is any man ,i detest1 it is the man who thinks he is the head of a family--the man who thinks he is boss6 ,the fellow in the dug-out used that word boss2 that was one of his favorite expressions4 ,imagine a young man and a young woman courting1 walking out in the moonlight1 and the nightingale singing a song of pain and love1 as though the thorn touched her heart--imagine them stopping there in the moonlight and starlight and song1 and saying1 ,now1 here1 let us settle who is 'boss6' ,i tell you it is an infamous word and an infamous feeling--,i abhor a man who is boss1 who is going to govern in his family1 and when he speaks orders all the rest to be still as some mighty idea is about to be launched from his mouth4 ,do you know ,i dislike this man unspeakably8 ,i hate above all things a cross man4 ,what right has he to murder the sunshine of a day8 ,what right has he to assassinate the joy of life8 ,when you go home you ought to go like a ray of light--so that it will1 even in the night1 bursty out of the doors and windows and illuminate the darkness4 ,some men think their mighty brains have been in a turmoil2 they have been thinking about who will be alderman from the fifth ward2 they have been thinking about politics2 great and mighty questions have been engaging their minds2 they have bought calico at five cents or six1 and want to sell it for seven4 ,think of the intellectual strain that must have been upon that man1 and when he gets home everybody else in the house must look out for his comfort4 ,a woman who has only taken care of five or six children1 and one or two of them sick1 has been nursing them and singing to them1 and trying to make one yard of cloth do the work of two1 she1 of course1 is fresh and fine and ready to wait upon this gentleman--the head of the family--the boss6 ,do you know another thing8 ,i despise a stingy man4 ,i do not see how it is possible for a man to die worth fifty million of dollars1 or ten million of dollars1 in a city full of want1 when he meets almost every day the withered hand of beggary and the white lips of famine4 ,how a man can withstand all that1 and hold in the clutch of his greed twenty or thirty million of dollars1 is past my comprehension4 ,i do not see how he can do it4 ,i should not think he could do it any more than he could keep a pile of lumber on the beach1 where hundreds and thousands of men were drowning in the sea4 ,do you know that ,i have known men who would trust their wives with their hearts and their honor but not with their pocketbook2 not with a dollar4 ,when ,i see a man of that kind1 ,i always think he knows which of these articles is the most valuable4 ,think of making your wife a beggar6 ,think of her having to ask you every day for a dollar1 or for two dollars or fifty cents6 ,what did you do with that dollar ,i gave you last week8 ,think of having a wife that is afraid of you6 ,what kind of children do you expect to have with a beggar and a coward for their mother8 ,oh1 ,i tell you if you have but a dollar in the world1 and you have got to spend it1 spend it like a king2 spend it as though it were a dry leaf and you the owner of unbounded forests6 ,that's the way to spend it6 ,i had rather be a beggar and spend my last dollar like a king1 than be a king and spend my money like a beggar6 ,if it has got to go1 let it go6 ,get the best you can for your family--try to look as well as you can yourself4 ,when you used to go courting1 how elegantly you looked6 ,ah1 your eye was bright1 your step was light1 and you looked like a prince4 ,do you know that it is insufferable egotism in you to suppose a woman is going to love you always looking as slovenly as you can6 ,think of it6 ,any good woman on earth will be true to you forever when you do your level best4 ,some people tell me1 ,your doctrine about loving1 and wives1 and all that1 is splendid for the rich1 but it won't do for the poor4 ,i tell you to-night there is more love in the homes of the poor than in the palaces of the rich4 ,the meanest hut with love in it is a palace fit for the gods1 and a palace without love is a den only fit for wild beasts4 ,that is my doctrine6 ,you cannot be so poor that you cannot help somebody4 ,good nature is the cheapest commodity in the world2 and love is the only thing that will pay ten per cent1 to borrower and lender both4 ,do not tell me that you have got to be rich6 ,we have a false standard of greatness in the ,united ,states4 ,we think here that a man must be great1 that he must be notorious2 that he must be extremely wealthy1 or that his name must be upon the putrid lips of rumor4 ,it is all a mistake4 ,it is not necessary to be rich or to be great1 or to be powerful1 to be happy4 ,the happy man is the successful man4 ,happiness is the legal tender of the soul4 ,joy is wealth4 ,a little while ago1 ,i stood by the grave of the old ,napoleon--a magnificent tomb of gilt and gold1 fit almost for a dead deity--and gazed upon the sarcophagus of rare and nameless marble1 where rest at last the ashes of that restless man4 ,i leaned over the balustrade and thought about the career of the greatest soldier of the modern world4 ,i saw him walking upon the banks of the ,seine1 contemplating suicide4 ,i saw him at ,toulon--,i saw him putting down the mob in the streets of ,paris--,i saw him at the head of the army of ,italy--,i saw him crossing the bridge of ,lodi with the tri-color in his hand--,i saw him in ,egypt in the shadows of the pyramids--,i saw him conquer the ,alps and mingle the eagles of ,france with the eagles of the crags4 ,i saw him at ,marengo--at ,ulm and ,austerlitz4 ,i saw him in ,russia1 where the infantry of the snow and the cavalry of the wild blast scattered his legions like winter's withered leaves4 ,i saw him at ,leipsic in defeat and disaster--driven by a million bayonets back upon ,paris--clutched like a wild beast--banished to ,elba4 ,i saw him escape and retake an empire by the force of his genius4 ,i saw him upon the frightful field of ,waterloo1 where ,chance and ,fate combined to wreck the fortunes of their former king4 ,and ,i saw him at ,st4 ,helena1 with his hands crossed behind him1 gazing out upon the sad and solemn sea4 ,i thought of the orphans and widows he had made--of the tears that had been shed for his glory1 and of the only woman who ever loved him1 pushed from his heart by the cold hand of ambition4 ,and ,i said ,i would rather have been a ,french peasant and worn wooden shoes4 ,i would rather have lived in a hut with a vine growing over the door1 and the grapes growing purple in the kisses of the autumn sun4 ,i would rather have been that poor peasant with my loving wife by my side1 knitting as the day died out of the sky--with my children upon my knees and their arms about me--,i would rather have been that man and gone down to the tongueless silence of the dreamless dust1 than to have been that imperial impersonation of force and murder1 known as ,napoleon the ,great4 ,it is not necessary to be great to be happy2 it is not necessary to be rich to be just and generous and to have a heart filled with divine affection4 ,no matter whether you are rich or poor1 treat your wife as though she were a splendid flower1 and she will fill your life with perfume and with joy4 ,and do you know1 it is a splendid thing to think that the woman you really love will never grow old to you4 ,through the wrinkles of time1 through the mask of years1 if you really love her1 you will always see the face you loved and won4 ,and a woman who really loves a man does not see that he grows old2 he is not decrepit to her2 he does not tremble2 he is not old2 she always sees the same gallant gentleman who won her hand and heart4 ,i like to think of it in that way2 ,i like to think that love is eternal4 ,and to love in that way and then go down the hill of life together1 and as you go down1 hear1 perhaps1 the laughter of grandchildren1 while the birds of joy and love sing once more in the leafless branches of the tree of age4 ,i believe in the fireside4 ,i believe in the democracy of home4 ,i believe in the republicanism of the family4 ,i believe in liberty1 equality and love4 ,,the ,,liberty ,,of ,,children4 ,if women have been slaves1 what shall ,i say of children2 of the little children in alleys and sub-cellars2 the little children who turn pale when they hear their fathers' footsteps2 little children who run away when they only hear their names called by the lips of a mother2 little children--the children of poverty1 the children of crime1 the children of brutality1 wherever they are--flotsam and jetsam upon the wild1 mad sea of life--my heart goes out to them1 one and all4 ,i tell you the children have the same rights that we have1 and we ought to treat them as though they were human beings4 ,they should be reared with love1 with kindness1 with tenderness1 and not with brutality4 ,that is my idea of children4 ,when your little child tells a lie1 do not rush at him as though the world were about to go into bankruptcy4 ,be honest with him4 ,a tyrant father will have liars for his children2 do you know that8 ,a lie is born of tyranny upon the one hand and weakness upon the other1 and when you rush at a poor little boy with a club in your hand1 of course he lies4 ,i thank thee1 ,mother ,nature1 that thou hast put ingenuity enough in the brain of a child1 when attacked by a brutal parent1 to throw up a little breastwork in the shape of a lie4 ,when one of your children tells a lie1 be honest with him2 tell him that you have told hundreds of them yourself4 ,tell him it is not the best way2 that you have tried it4 ,tell him as the man did in ,maine when his boy left home3 ,john1 honesty is the best policy2 ,i have tried both4 ,be honest with him4 ,suppose a man as much larger than you as you are larger than a child five years old1 should come at you with a liberty pole in his hand1 and in a voice of thunder shout1 ,who broke that plate8 ,there is not a solitary one of you who would not swear you never saw it1 or that it was cracked when you got it4 ,why not be honest with these children8 ,just imagine a man who deals in stocks whipping his boy for putting false rumors afloat6 ,think of a lawyer beating his own flesh and blood for evading the truth when he makes half of his own living that way6 ,think of a minister punishing his child for not telling all he thinks6 ,just think of it6 ,when your child commits a wrong1 take it in your arms2 let it feel your heart beat against its heart2 let the child know that you really and truly and sincerely love it4 ,yet some ,christians1 good ,christians1 when a child commits a fault1 drive it from the door and say3 ,never do you darken this house again4 ,think of that6 ,and then these same people will get down on their knees and ask ,god to take care of the child they have driven from home4 ,i will never ask ,god to take care of my children unless ,i am doing my level best in that same direction4 ,but ,i will tell you what ,i say to my children3 ,go where you will2 commit what crime you may2 fall to what depth of degradation you may2 you can never commit any crime that will shut my door1 my arms1 or my heart to you4 ,as long as ,i live you shall have one sincere friend4 ,do you know that ,i have seen some people who acted as though they thought that when the ,savior said ,suffer little children to come unto me1 for of such is the kingdom of heaven1 he had a raw-hide under his mande1 and made that remark simply to get the children within striking distance8 ,i do not believe in the government of the lash1 if any one of you ever expects to whip your children again1 ,i want you to have a photograph taken of yourself when you are in the act1 with your face red with vulgar anger1 and the face of the little child1 with eyes swimming in tears and the little chin dimpled with fear1 like a piece of water struck by a sudden cold wind4 ,have the picture taken4 ,if that little child should die1 ,i cannot think of a sweeter way to spend an autumn afternoon than to go out to the cemetery1 when the maples are clad in tender gold1 and little scarlet runners are coming1 like poems of regret1 from the sad heart of the earth--and sit down upon the grave and look at that photograph1 and think of the flesh now dust that you beat4 ,i tell you it is wrong2 it is no way to raise children6 ,make your home happy4 ,be honest with them4 ,divide fairly with them in everything4 ,give them a little liberty and love1 and you can not drive them out of your house4 ,they will want to stay there4 ,make home pleasant4 ,let them play any game they wish4 ,do not be so foolish as to say3 ,you may roll balls on the ground1 but you must not roll them on a green cloth4 ,you may knock them with a mallet1 but you must not push them with a cue4 ,you may play with little pieces of paper which have 'authors' written on them1 but you must not have 'cards4' ,think of it6 ,you may go to a minstrel show where people blacken themselves and imitate humanity below them1 but you must not go to a theatre and see the characters created by immortal genius put upon the stage4 ,why8 ,well1 ,i can't think of any reason in the world except minstrel is a word of two syllables1 and theatre has three4 ,let children have some daylight at home if you want to keep them there1 and do not commence at the cradle and shout ,don't6 ,don't6 ,stop6 ,that is nearly all that is said to a child from the cradle until he is twenty-one years old1 and when he comes of age other people begin saying ,don't6 ,and the church says ,don't6 and the party he belongs to says ,don't6 ,i despise that way of going through this world4 ,let us have liberty--just a little4 ,call me infidel1 call me atheist1 call me what you will1 ,i intend so to treat my children1 that they can come to my grave and truthfully say3 ,he who sleeps here never gave us a moment of pain4 ,from his lips1 now dust1 never came to us an unkind word4 ,people justify all kinds of tyranny toward children upon the ground that they are totally depraved4 ,at the bottom of ages of cruelty lies this infamous doctrine of total depravity4 ,religion contemplates a child as a living crime--heir to an infinite curse--doomed to eternal fire4 ,in the olden time1 they thought some days were too good for a child to enjoy himself4 ,when ,i was a boy ,sunday was considered altogether too holy to be happy in4 ,sunday used to commence then when the sun went down on ,saturday night4 ,we commenced at that time for the purpose of getting a good ready1 and when the sun fell below the horizon on ,saturday evening1 there was a darkness fell upon the house ten thousand times deeper than that of night4 ,nobody said a pleasant word2 nobody laughed2 nobody smiled2 the child that looked the sickest was regarded as the most pious4 ,that night you could not even crack hickory nuts4 ,if you were caught chewing gum it was only another evidence of the total depravity of the human heart4 ,it was an exceedingly solemn night4 ,dyspepsia was in the very air you breathed4 ,everybody looked sad and mournful4 ,i have noticed all my life that many people think they have religion when they are troubled with dyspepsia4 ,if there could be found an absolute specific for that disease1 it would be the hardest blow the church has ever received4 ,on ,sunday morning the solemnity had simply increased4 ,then we went to church4 ,the minister was in a pulpit about twenty feet high1 with a little sounding-board above him1 and he commenced at firstly and went on and on and on to about twenty-thirdly4 ,then he made a few remarks by way of application2 and then took a general view of the subject1 and in about two hours reached the last chapter in ,revelation4 ,in those days1 no matter how cold the weather was1 there was no fire in the church4 ,it was thought to be a kind of sin to be comfortable while you were thanking ,god4 ,the first church that ever had a stove in it in ,new ,england1 divided on that account4 ,so the first church in which they sang by note1 was torn in fragments4 ,after the sermon we had an intermission4 ,then came the catechism with the chief end of man4 ,we went through with that4 ,we sat in a row with our feet coming in about six inches of the floor4 ,the minister asked us if we knew that we all deserved to go to hell1 and we all answered ,yes4 ,then we were asked if we would be willing to go to hell if it was ,god's will1 and every little liar shouted ,yes4 ,then the same sermon was preached once more1 commencing at the other end and going back4 ,after that1 we started for home1 sad and solemn--overpowered with the wisdom displayed in the scheme of the atonement4 ,when we got home1 if we had been good boys1 and the weather was warm1 sometimes they would take us out to the graveyard to cheer us up a little4 ,it did cheer me4 ,when ,i looked at the sunken tombs and the leaning stones1 and read the half-effaced inscriptions through the moss of silence and forgetfulness1 it was a great comfort4 ,the reflection came to my mind that the observance of the ,sabbath could not last always4 ,sometimes they would sing that beautiful hymn in which occurs these cheerful lines3 ,where congregations ne'er break up1 ,and ,sabbaths never end4 ,these lines1 ,i think1 prejudiced me a little against even heaven4 ,then we had good books that we read on ,sundays by way of keeping us happy and contented4 ,there were ,milners' ,history of the ,waldenses1 ,baxter's ,call to the ,unconverted1 ,yahn's ,archaeology of the ,jews1 and ,jenkyns' ,on the ,atonement4 ,i used to read ,jenkyns' ,on the ,atonement4 ,i have often thought that an atonement would have to be exceedingly broad in its provisions to cover the case of a man who would write a book like that for a boy4 ,but at last the ,sunday wore away1 and the moment the sun went down we were free4 ,between three and four o'clock we would go out to see how the sun was coming on4 ,sometimes it seemed to me that it was stopping from pure meanness4 ,but finally it went down4 ,it had to4 ,and when the last rim of light sank below the horizon1 off would go our caps1 and we would give three cheers for liberty once more4 ,sabbaths used to be prisons4 ,every ,sunday was a ,bastile4 ,every ,christian was a kind of turnkey1 and every child was a prisoner1--a convict4 ,in that dungeon1 a smile was a crime4 ,it was thought wrong for a child to laugh upon this holy day4 ,think of that6 ,a little child would go out into the garden1 and there would be a tree laden with blossoms1 and the little fellow would lean against it1 and there would be a bird on one of the boughs1 singing and swinging1 and thinking about four little speckled eggs1 warmed by the breast of its mate1--singing and swinging1 and the music in happy waves rippling out of its tiny throat1 and the flowers blossoming1 the air filled with perfume and the great white clouds floating in the sky1 and the little boy would lean up against that tree and think about hell and the worm that never dies4 ,i have heard them preach1 when ,i sat in the pew and my feet did not touch the floor1 about the final home of the unconverted4 ,in order to impress upon the children the length of time they would probably stay if they settled in that country1 the preacher would frequently give us the following illustration3 ,suppose that once in a billion years a bird should come from some far-distant planet1 and carry off in its little bill a grain of sand1 a time would finally come when the last atom composing this earth would be carried away2 and when this last atom was taken1 it would not even be sun up in hell4 ,think of such an infamous doctrine being taught to children6 ,the laugh of a child will make the holiest day-more sacred still4 ,strike1 with hand of fire1 ,o weird musician1 thy harp strung with ,apollo's golden hair2 fill the vast cathedral aisles with symphonies sweet and dim1 deft toucher of the organ keys2 blow1 bugler1 blow1 until thy silver notes do touch and kiss the moonlit waves1 and charm the lovers wandering 'mid the vine-clad hills4 ,but know1 your sweetest strains are discords all1 compared with childhood's happy laugh--the laugh that fills the eyes with light and every heart with joy4 ,o rippling river of laughter1 thou art the blessed boundary line between the beasts and men2 and every wayward wave of thine doth drown some fretful fiend of care4 ,o ,laughter1 rose-lipped daughter of ,joy1 there are dimples enough in thy cheeks to catch and hold and glorify all the tears of grief4 ,and yet the minds of children have been polluted by this infamous doctrine of eternal punishment4 ,i denounce it to-day as a doctrine1 the infamy of which no language is sufficient to express4 ,where did that doctrine of eternal punishment for men and women and children come from8 ,it came from the low and beastly skull of that wretch in the dug-out4 ,where did he get it8 ,it was a souvenir from the animals4 ,the doctrine of eternal punishment was born in the glittering eyes of snakes--snakes that hung in fearful coils watching for their prey4 ,it was born of the howl and bark and growl of wild beasts4 ,it was born of the grin of hyenas and of the depraved chatter of unclean baboons4 ,i despise it with every drop of my blood4 ,tell me there is a ,god in the serene heavens that will damn his children for the expression of an honest belief6 ,more men have died in their sins1 judged by your orthodox creeds1 than there are leaves on all the forests in the wide world ten thousand times over4 ,tell me these men are in hell2 that these men are in torment2 that these children are in eternal pain1 and that they are to be punished forever and forever6 ,i denounce this doctrine as the most infamous of lies4 ,when the great ship containing the hopes and aspirations of the world1 when the great ship freighted with mankind goes down in the night of death1 chaos and disaster1 ,i am willing to go down with the ship4 ,i will not be guilty of the ineffable meanness of paddling away in some orthodox canoe4 ,i will go down with the ship1 with those who love me1 and with those whom ,i have loved4 ,if there is a ,god who will damn his children forever1 ,i would rather go to hell than to go to heaven and keep the society of such an infamous tyrant4 ,i make my choice now4 ,i despise that doctrine4 ,it has covered the cheeks of this world with tears4 ,it has polluted the hearts of children1 and poisoned the imaginations of men4 ,it has been a constant pain1 a perpetual terror to every good man and woman and child4 ,it has filled the good with horror and with fear2 but it has had no effect upon the infamous and base4 ,it has wrung the hearts of the tender2 it has furrowed the cheeks of the good4 ,this doctrine never should be preached again4 ,what right have you1 sir1 ,mr4 clergyman1 you1 minister of the gospel1 to stand at the portals of the tomb1 at the vestibule of eternity1 and fill the future with horror and with fear8 ,i do not believe this doctrine3 neither do you4 ,if you did1 you could not sleep one moment4 ,any man who believes it1 and has within his breast a decent1 throbbing heart1 will go insane4 ,a man who believes that doctrine and does not go insane has the heart of a snake and the conscience of a hyena4 ,jonathan ,edwards1 the dear old soul1 who1 if his doctrine is true1 is now in heaven rubbing his holy hands with glee1 as he hears the cries of the damned1 preached this doctrine2 and he said3 ,can the believing husband in heaven be happy with his unbelieving wife in hell8 ,can the believing father in heaven be happy with his unbelieving children in hell8 ,can the loving wife in heaven be happy with her unbelieving husband in hell8 ,and he replies3 ,i tell you1 yea4 ,such will be their sense of justice1 that it will increase rather than diminish their bliss4 ,there is no wild beast in the jungles of ,africa whose reputation would not be tarnished by the expression of such a doctrine4 ,these doctrines have been taught in the name of religion1 in the name of universal forgiveness1 in the name of infinite love and charity4 ,do not1 ,i pray you1 soil the minds of your children with this dogma4 ,let them read for themselves2 let them think for themselves4 ,do not treat your children like orthodox posts to be set in a row4 ,treat them like trees that need light and sun and air4 ,be fair and honest with them2 give them a chance4 ,recollect that their rights are equal to yours4 ,do not have it in your mind that you must govern them2 that they must obey4 ,throw away forever the idea of master and slave4 ,in old times they used to make the children go to bed when they were not sleepy1 and get up when they were sleepy4 ,i say let them go to bed when they are sleepy1 and get up when they are not sleepy4 ,but you say1 this doctrine will do for the rich but not for the poor4 ,well1 if the poor have to waken their children early in the morning it is as easy to wake them with a kiss as with a blow4 ,give your children freedom2 let them preserve their individuality4 ,let your children eat what they desire1 and commence at the end of a dinner they like4 ,that is their business and not yours4 ,they know what they wish to eat4 ,if they are given their liberty from the first1 they know what they want better than any doctor in the world can prescribe4 ,do you know that all the improvement that has ever been made in the practice of medicine has been made by the recklessness of patients and not by the doctors8 ,for thousands and thousands of years the doctors would not let a man suffering from fever have a drop of water4 ,water they looked upon as poison4 ,but every now and then some man got reckless and said1 ,i had rather die than not to slake my thirst4 ,then he would drink two or three quarts of water and get well4 ,and when the doctor was told of what the patient had done1 he expressed great surprise that he was still alive1 and complimented his constitution upon being able to bear such a frightful strain4 ,the reckless men1 however1 kept on drinking the water1 and persisted in getting well4 ,and finally the doctors said3 ,in a fever1 water is the very best thing you can take4 ,so1 ,i have more confidence in the voice of nature about such things than ,i have in the conclusions of the medical schools4 ,let your children have freedom and they will fall into your ways2 they will do substantially as you do2 but if you try to make them1 there is some magnificent1 splendid thing in the human heart that refuses to be driven4 ,and do you know that it is the luckiest thing that ever happened for this world1 that people are that way4 ,what would have become of the people five hundred years ago if they had followed strictly the advice of the doctors8 ,they would have all been dead4 ,what would the people have been1 if at any age of the world they had followed implicitly the direction of the church8 ,they would have all been idiots4 ,it is a splendid thing that there is always some grand man who will not mind1 and who will think for himself4 ,i believe in allowing the children to think for themselves4 ,i believe in the democracy of the family4 ,if in this world there is anything splendid1 it is a home where all are equals4 ,you will remember that only a few years ago parents would tell their children to let their victuals stop their mouths4 ,they used to eat as though it were a religious ceremony--a very solemn thing4 ,life should not be treated as a solemn matter4 ,i like to see the children at table1 and hear each one telling of the wonderful things he has seen and heard4 ,i like to hear the clatter of knives and forks and spoons mingling with their happy voices4 ,i had rather hear it than any opera that was ever put upon the boards4 ,let the children have liberty4 ,be honest and fair with them2 be just2 be tender1 and they will make you rich in love and joy4 ,men are oaks1 women are vines1 children are flowers4 ,the human race has been guilty of almost countless crimes2 but ,i have some excuse for mankind4 ,this world1 after all1 is not very well adapted to raising good people4 ,in the first place1 nearly all of it is water4 ,it is much better adapted to fish culture than to the production of folks4 ,of that portion which is land not one-eighth has suitable soil and climate to produce great men and women4 ,you cannot raise men and women of genius1 without the proper soil and climate1 any more than you can raise corn and wheat upon the ice fields of the ,arctic sea4 ,you must have the necessary conditions and surroundings4 ,man is a product2 you must have the soil and food4 ,the obstacles presented by nature must not be so great that man cannot1 by reasonable industry and courage1 overcome them4 ,there is upon this world only a narrow belt of land1 circling zigzag the globe1 upon which you can produce men and women of talent4 ,in the ,southern ,hemisphere the real climate that man needs falls mostly upon the sea1 and the result is1 that the southern half of our world has never produced a man or woman of great genius4 ,in the far north there is no genius--it is too cold4 ,in the far south there is no genius--it is too warm4 ,there must be winter1 and there must be summer4 ,in a country where man needs no coverlet but a cloud1 revolution is his normal condition4 ,winter is the mother of industry and prudence4 ,above all1 it is the mother of the family relation4 ,winter holds in its icy arms the husband and wife and the sweet children4 ,if upon this earth we ever have a glimpse of heaven1 it is when we pass a home in winter1 at night1 and through the windows1 the curtains drawn aside1 we see the family about the pleasant hearth2 the old lady knitting2 the cat playing with the yarn2 the children wishing they had as many dolls or dollars or knives or somethings1 as there are sparks going out to join the roaring blast2 the father reading and smoking1 and the clouds rising like incense from the altar of domestic joy4 ,i never passed such a house without feeling that ,i had received a benediction4 ,civilization1 liberty1 justice1 charity1 intellectual advancement1 are all flowers that blossom in the drifted snow4 ,i do not know that ,i can better illustrate the great truth that only part of the world is adapted to the production of great men and women than by calling your attention to the difference between vegetation in valleys and upon mountains4 ,in the valley you find the oak and elm tossing their branches defiantly to the storm1 and as you advance up the mountain side the hemlock1 the pine1 the birch1 the spruce1 the fir1 and finally you come to little dwarfed trees1 that look like other trees seen through a telescope reversed--every limb twisted as though in pain--getting a scanty subsistence from the miserly crevices of the rocks4 ,you go on and on1 until at last the highest crag is freckled with a kind of moss1 and vegetation ends4 ,you might as well try to raise oaks and elms where the mosses grow1 as to raise great men and great women where their surroundings are unfavorable4 ,you must have the proper climate and soil4 ,a few years ago we were talking about the annexation of ,santo ,domingo to this country4 ,i was in ,washington at the time4 ,i was opposed to it ,i was told that it was a most delicious climate2 that the soil produced everything4 ,but ,i said3 ,we do not want it2 it is not the right kind of country in which to raise ,american citizens4 ,such a climate would debauch us4 ,you might go there with five thousand ,congregational preachers1 five thousand ruling elders1 five thousand professors in colleges1 five thousand of the solid men of ,boston and their wives2 settle them all in ,santo ,domingo1 and you will see the second generation riding upon a mule1 bareback1 no shoes1 a grapevine bridle1 hair sticking out at the top of their sombreros1 with a rooster under each arm1 going to a cock fight on ,sunday4 ,such is the influence of climate4 ,science1 however1 is gradually widening the area within which men of genius can be produced4 ,we are conquering the north with houses1 clothing1 food and fuel4 ,we are in many ways overcoming the heat of the south4 ,if we attend to this world instead of another1 we may in time cover the land with men and women of genius4 ,i have still another excuse4 ,i believe that man came up from the lower animals4 ,i do not say this as a fact4 ,i simply say ,i believe it to be a fact4 ,upon that question ,i stand about eight to seven1 which1 for all practical purposes1 is very near a certainty4 ,when ,i first heard of that doctrine ,i did not like it4 ,my heart was filled with sympathy for those people who have nothing to be proud of except ancestors4 ,i thought1 how terrible this will be upon the nobility of the ,old ,world4 ,think of their being forced to trace their ancestry back to the duke ,orang ,outang1 or to the princess ,chimpanzee4 ,after thinking it all over1 ,i came to the conclusion that ,i liked that doctrine4 ,i became convinced in spite of myself4 ,i read about rudimentary bones and muscles4 ,i was told that everybody had rudimentary muscles extending from the ear into the cheek4 ,i asked ,what are they8 ,i was told3 ,they are the remains of muscles2 that they became rudimentary from lack of use2 they went into bankruptcy4 ,they are the muscles with which your ancestors used to flap their ears4 ,i do not now so much wonder that we once had them as that we have outgrown them4 ,after all ,i had rather belong to a race that started from the skull-less vertebrates in the dim ,laurentian seas1 vertebrates wiggling without knowing why they wiggled1 swimming without knowing where they were going1 but that in some way began to develop1 and began to get a little higher and a little higher in the scale of existence2 that came up by degrees through millions of ages through all the animal world1 through all that crawls and swims and floats and climbs and walks1 and finally produced the gentleman in the dug-out2 and then from this man1 getting a little grander1 and each one below calling every one above him a heretic1 calling every one who had made a little advance an infidel or an atheist--for in the history of this world the man who is ahead has always been called a heretic--,i would rather come from a race that started from that skull-less vertebrate1 and came up and up and up and finally produced ,shakespeare1 the man who found the human intellect dwelling in a hut1 touched it with the wand of his genius and it became a palace domed and pinnacled2 ,shakespeare1 who harvested all the fields of dramatic thought1 and from whose day to this1 there have been only gleaners of straw and chaff--,i would rather belong to that race that commenced a skull-less vertebrate and produced ,shakespeare1 a race that has before it an infinite future1 with the angel of progress leaning from the far horizon1 beckoning men forward1 upward and onward forever--,i had rather belong to such a race1 commencing there1 producing this1 and with that hope1 than to have sprung from a perfect pair upon which the ,lord has lost money every moment from that day to this4 ,,conclusion4 ,i have given you my honest thought4 ,surely investigation is better than unthinking faith4 ,surely reason is a better guide than fear4 ,this world should be controlled by the living1 not by the dead4 ,the grave is not a throne1 and a corpse is not a king4 ,man should not try to live on ashes4 ,the theologians dead1 knew no more than the theologians now living4 ,more than this cannot be said4 ,about this world little is known1--about another world1 nothing4 ,our fathers were intellectual serfs1 and their fathers were slaves4 ,the makers of our creeds were ignorant and brutal4 ,every dogma that we have1 has upon it the mark of whip1 the rust of chain1 and the ashes of fagot4 ,our fathers reasoned with instruments of torture4 ,they believed in the logic of fire and sword4 ,they hated reason4 ,they despised thought4 ,they abhorred liberty4 ,superstition is the child of slavery4 ,free thought will give us truth4 ,when all have the right to think and to express their thoughts1 every brain will give to all the best it has4 ,the world will then be filled with intellectual wealth4 ,as long as men and women are afraid of the church1 as long as a minister inspires fear1 as long as people reverence a thing simply because they do not understand it1 as long as it is respectable to lose your self-respect1 as long as the church has power1 as long as mankind worship a book1 just so long will the world be filled with intellectual paupers and vagrants1 covered with the soiled and faded rags of superstition4 ,as long as woman regards the ,bible as the charter of her rights1 she will be the slave of man4 ,the ,bible was not written by a woman4 ,within its lids there is nothing but humiliation and shame for her4 ,she is regarded as the property of man4 ,she is made to ask forgiveness for becoming a mother4 ,she is as much below her husband1 as her husband is below ,christ4 ,she is not allowed to speak4 ,the gospel is too pure to be spoken by her polluted lips4 ,woman should learn in silence4 ,in the ,bible will be found no description of a civilized home4 ,the free mother surrounded by free and loving children1 adored by a free man1 her husband1 was unknown to the inspired writers of the ,bible4 ,they did not believe in the democracy of home--in the republicanism of the fireside4 ,these inspired gentlemen knew nothing of the rights of children4 ,they were the advocates of brute force--the disciples of the lash4 ,they knew nothing of human rights4 ,their doctrines have brutalized the homes of millions1 and filled the eyes of infancy with tears4 ,let us free ourselves from the tyranny of a book1 from the slavery of dead ignorance1 from the aristocracy of the air4 ,there has never been upon the earth a generation of free men and women4 ,it is not yet time to write a creed4 ,wait until the chains are broken--until dungeons are not regarded as temples4 ,wait until solemnity is not mistaken for wisdom--until mental cowardice ceases to be known as reverence4 ,wait until the living are considered the equals of the dead--until the cradle takes precedence of the coffin4 ,wait until what we know can be spoken without regard to what others may believe4 ,wait until teachers take the place of preachers--until followers become investigators4 ,wait until the world is free before you write a creed4 ,in this creed there will be but one word--,liberty4 ,oh ,liberty1 float not forever in the far horizon--remain not forever in the dream of the enthusiast1 the philanthropist and poet1 but come and make thy home among the children of men6 ,i know not what discoveries1 what inventions1 what thoughts may leap from the brain of the world4 ,i know not what garments of glory may be woven by the years to come4 ,i cannot dream of the victories to be won upon the fields of thought2 but ,i do know1 that coming from the infinite sea of the future1 there will never touch this bank and shoal of time a richer gift1 a rarer blessing than liberty for man1 for woman1 and for child4 ,,about ,,farming ,,in ,,illinois ,to ,plow is to ,pray--to ,plant is to ,prophesy1 and the ,harvest ,answers and ,fulfills4 ,i ,,am not an old and experienced farmer1 nor a tiller of the soil1 nor one of the hard-handed sons of labor4 ,i imagine1 however1 that ,i know something about cultivating the soil1 and getting happiness out of the ground4 ,i know enough to know that agriculture is the basis of all wealth1 prosperity and luxury4 ,i know that in a country where the tillers of the fields are free1 everybody is free and ought to be prosperous4 ,happy is that country where those who cultivate the land own it4 ,patriotism is born in the woods and fields--by lakes and streams--by crags and plains4 ,the old way of farming was a great mistake4 ,everything was done the wrong way4 ,it was all work and waste1 weariness and want4 ,they used to fence a hundred and sixty acres of land with a couple of dogs4 ,everything was left to the protection of the blessed trinity of chance1 accident and mistake4 ,when ,i was a farmer they used to haul wheat two hundred miles in wagons and sell it for thirty-five cents a bushel4 ,they would bring home about three hundred feet of lumber1 two bunches of shingles1 a barrel of salt1 and a cook-stove that never would draw and never did bake4 ,in those blessed days the people lived on corn and bacon4 ,cooking was an unknown art4 ,eating was a necessity1 not a pleasure4 ,it was hard work for the cook to keep on good terms even with hunger4 ,we had poor houses4 ,the rain held the roofs in perfect contempt1 and the snow drifted joyfully on the floors and beds4 ,they had no barns4 ,the horses were kept in rail pens surrounded with straw4 ,long before spring the sides would be eaten away and nothing but roofs would be left4 ,food is fuel4 ,when the cattle were exposed to all the blasts of winter1 it took all the corn and oats that could be stuffed into them to prevent actual starvation4 ,in those times most farmers thought the best place for the pig-pen was immediately in front of the house4 ,there is nothing like sociability4 ,women were supposed to know the art of making fires without fuel4 ,the wood pile consisted1 as a general thing1 of one log upon which an axe or two had been worn out in vain4 ,there was nothing to kindle a fire with4 ,pickets were pulled from the garden fence1 clap-boards taken from the house1 and every stray plank was seized upon for kindling4 ,everything was done in the hardest way4 ,everything about the farm was disagreeable4 ,nothing was kept in order4 ,nothing was preserved4 ,the wagons stood in the sun and rain1 and the plows rusted in the fields4 ,there was no leisure1 no feeling that the work was done4 ,it was all labor and weariness and vexation of spirit4 ,the crops were destroyed by wandering herds1 or they were put in too late1 or too early1 or they were blown down1 or caught by the frost1 or devoured by bugs1 or stung by flies1 or eaten by worms1 or carried away by birds1 or dug up by gophers1 or washed away by floods1 or dried up by the sun1 or rotted in the stack1 or heated in the crib1 or they all run to vines1 or tops1 or straw1 or smut1 or cobs4 ,and when in spite of all these accidents that lie in wait between1 the plow and the reaper1 they did succeed in raising a good crop and a high price was offered1 then the roads would be impassable4 ,and when the roads got good1 then the prices went down4 ,everything worked together for evil4 ,nearly every farmer's boy took an oath that he never would cultivate the soil4 ,the moment they arrived at the age of twenty-one they left the desolate and dreary farms and rushed to the towns and cities4 ,they wanted to be bookkeepers1 doctors1 merchants1 railroad men1 insurance agents1 lawyers1 even preachers1 anything to avoid the drudgery of the farm4 ,nearly every boy acquainted with the three ,r's--reading1 writing1 and arithmetic--imagined that he had altogether more education than ought to be wasted in raising potatoes and corn4 ,they made haste to get into some other business4 ,those who stayed upon the farm envied those who went away4 ,a few years ago the times were prosperous1 and the young men went to the cities to enjoy the fortunes that were waiting for them4 ,they wanted to engage in something that promised quick returns4 ,they built railways1 established banks and insurance companies4 ,they speculated in stocks in ,wall ,street1 and gambled in grain at ,chicago4 ,they became rich4 ,they lived in palaces4 ,they rode in carriages4 ,they pitied their poor brothers on the farms1 and the poor brothers envied them4 ,but time has brought its revenge4 ,the farmers have seen the railroad president a bankrupt1 and the road in the hands of a receiver4 ,they have seen the bank president abscond1 and the insurance company a wrecked and ruined fraud4 ,the only solvent people1 as a class1 the only independent people1 are the tillers of the soil4 ,farming must be made more attractive4 ,the comforts of the town must be added to the beauty of the fields4 ,the sociability of the city must be rendered possible in the country4 ,farming has been made repulsive4 ,the farmers have been unsociable and their homes have been lonely4 ,they have been wasteful and careless4 ,they have not been proud of their business4 ,in the first place1 farming ought to be reasonably profitable4 ,the farmers have not attended to their own interests4 ,they have been robbed and plundered in a hundred ways4 ,no farmer can afford to raise corn and oats and hay to sell4 ,he should sell horses1 not oats2 sheep1 cattle and pork1 not corn4 ,he should make every profit possible out of what he produces4 ,so long as the farmers of ,illinois ship their corn and oats1 so long they will be poor1--just so long will their farms be mortgaged to the insurance companies and banks of the ,east1--just so long will they do the work and others reap the benefit1--just so long will they be poor1 and the money lenders grow rich1--just so long will cunning avarice grasp and hold the net profits of honest toil4 ,when the farmers of the ,west ship beef and pork instead of grain1--when we manufacture here1--when we cease paying tribute to others1 ours will be the most prosperous country in the world4 ,another thing--,it is just as cheap to raise a good as a poor breed of cattle4 ,scrubs will eat just as much as thoroughbreds4 ,if you are not able to buy ,durhams and ,alderneys1 you can raise the corn breed4 ,by corn breed ,i mean the cattle that have1 for several generations1 had enough to eat1 and have been treated with kindness4 ,every farmer who will treat his cattle kindly1 and feed them all they want1 will1 in a few years1 have blooded stock on his farm4 ,all blooded stock has been produced in this way4 ,you can raise good cattle just as you can raise good people4 ,if you wish to raise a good boy you must give him plenty to eat1 and treat him with kindness4 ,in this way1 and in this way only1 can good cattle or good people be produced4 ,another thing--,you must beautify your homes4 ,when ,i was a farmer it was not fashionable to set out trees1 nor to plant vines4 ,when you visited the farm you were not welcomed by flowers1 and greeted by trees loaded with fruit4 ,yellow dogs came bounding over the tumbled fence like wild beasts4 ,there is no sense--there is no profit in such a life4 ,it is not living4 ,the farmers ought to beautify their homes4 ,there should be trees and grass and flowers and running vines4 ,everything should be kept in order--gates should be on their hinges1 and about all there should be the pleasant air of thrift4 ,in every house there should be a bath-room4 ,the bath is a civilizer1 a refiner1 a beautifier4 ,when you come from the fields tired1 covered with dust1 nothing is so refreshing4 ,above all things1 keep clean4 ,it is not necessary to be a pig in order to raise one4 ,in the cool of the evening1 after a day in the field1 put on clean clothes1 take a seat under the trees1 'mid the perfume of flowers1 surrounded by your family1 and you will know what it is to enjoy life like a gentleman4 ,in no part of the globe will farming pay better than in ,illinois4 ,you are in the best portion of the earth4 ,from the ,atlantic to the ,pacific1 there is no such country as yours4 ,the ,east is hard and stony2 the soil is stingy4 ,the far ,west is a desert parched and barren1 dreary and desolate as perdition would be with the fires out4 ,it is better to dig wheat and corn from the soil than gold4 ,only a few days ago1 ,i was where they wrench the precious metals from the miserly clutch of the rocks4 ,when ,i saw the mountains1 treeless1 shrub-less1 flowerless1 without even a spire of grass1 it seemed to me that gold had the same effect upon the country that holds it1 as upon the man who lives and labors only for that4 ,it affects the land as it does the man4 ,it leaves the heart barren without a flower of kindness--without a blossom of pity4 ,the farmer in ,illinois has the best soil--the greatest return for the least labor--more leisure--more time for enjoyment than any other farmer in the world4 ,his hard work ceases with autumn4 ,he has the long winters in which to become acquainted with his family--with his neighbors--in which to read and keep abreast with the advanced thought of his day4 ,he has the time and means for self-culture4 ,he has more time than the mechanic1 the merchant or the professional man4 ,if the farmer is not well informed it is his own fault4 ,books are cheap1 and every farmer can have enough to give him the outline of every science1 and an idea of all that has been accomplished by man4 ,in many respects the farmer has the advantage of the mechanic4 ,in our time we have plenty of mechanics but no tradesmen4 ,in the sub-division of labor we have a thousand men working upon different parts of the same thing1 each taught in one particular branch1 and in only one4 ,we have1 say1 in a shoe factory1 hundreds of men1 but not one shoemaker4 ,it takes them all1 assisted by a great number of machines1 to make a shoe4 ,each does a particular part1 and not one of them knows the entire trade4 ,the result is that the moment the factory shuts down these men are out of employment4 ,out of employment means out of bread--out of bread means famine and horror4 ,the mechanic of to-day has but little independence4 ,his prosperity often depends upon the good will of one man4 ,he is liable to be discharged for a look1 for a word4 ,he lays by but little for his declining years4 ,he is1 at the best1 the slave of capital4 ,it is a thousand times better to be a whole farmer than part of a mechanic4 ,it is better to till the ground and work for yourself than to be hired by corporations4 ,every man should endeavor to belong to himself4 ,about seven hundred years ago1 ,khayyam1 a ,persian1 said3 ,why should a man who possesses a piece of bread securing life for two days1 and who has a cup of water--why should such a man be commanded by another1 and why should such a man serve another8 ,young men should not be satisfied with a salary4 ,do not mortgage the possibilities of your future4 ,have the courage to take life as it comes1 feast or famine4 ,think of hunting a gold mine for a dollar a day1 and think of finding one for another man4 ,how would you feel then8 ,we are lacking in true courage1 when1 for fear of the future1 we take the crusts and scraps and niggardly salaries of the present4 ,i had a thousand times rather have a farm and be independent1 than to be ,president of the ,united ,states without independence1 filled with doubt and trembling1 feeling of the popular pulse1 resorting to art and artifice1 enquiring about the wind of opinion1 and succeeding at last in losing my self-respect without gaining the respect of others4 ,man needs more manliness1 more real independence4 ,we must take care of ourselves4 ,this we can do by labor1 and in this way we can preserve our independence4 ,we should try and choose that business or profession the pursuit of which will give us the most happiness4 ,happiness is wealth4 ,we can be happy without being rich--without holding office--without being famous4 ,i am not sure that we can be happy with wealth1 with office1 or with fame4 ,there is a quiet about the life of a farmer1 and the hope of a serene old age1 that no other business or profession can promise4 ,a professional man is doomed sometime to feel that his powers are waning4 ,he is doomed to see younger and stronger men pass him in the race of life4 ,he looks forward to an old age of intellectual mediocrity4 ,he will be last where once he was the first4 ,but the farmer goes1 as it were1 into partnership with nature--he lives with trees and flowers--he breathes the sweet air of the fields4 ,there is no constant and frightful strain upon his mind4 ,his nights are filled with sleep and rest4 ,he watches his flocks and herds as they feed upon the green and sunny slopes4 ,he hears the pleasant rain falling upon the waving corn1 and the trees he planted in youth rustle above him as he plants others for the children yet to be4 ,our country is filled with the idle and unemployed1 and the great question asking for an answer is3 ,what shall be done with these men8 ,what shall these men do8 ,to this there is but one answer3 ,they must cultivate the soil4 ,farming must be rendered more attractive4 ,those who work the land must have an honest pride in their business4 ,they must educate their children to cultivate the soil4 ,they must make farming easier1 so that their children will not hate it--so that they will not hate it themselves4 ,the boys must not be taught that tilling the ground is a curse and almost a disgrace4 ,they must not suppose that education is thrown away upon them unless they become ministers1 merchants1 lawyers1 doctors1 or statesmen4 ,it must be understood that education can be used to advantage on a farm4 ,we must get rid of the idea that a little learning unfits one for work4 ,there is no real conflict between ,latin and labor4 ,there are hundreds of graduates of ,yale and ,harvard and other colleges1 who are agents of sewing machines1 solicitors for insurance1 clerks1 copyists1 in short1 performing a hundred varieties of menial service4 ,they seem willing to do anything that is not regarded as work--anything that can be done in a town1 in the house1 in an office1 but they avoid farming as they would a leprosy4 ,nearly every young man educated in this way is simply ruined4 ,such an education ought to be called ignorance4 ,it is a thousand times better to have common sense without education1 than education without the sense4 ,boys and girls should be educated to help themselves4 ,they should be taught that it is disgraceful to be idle1 and dishonorable to be useless4 ,i say again1 if you want more men and women on the farms1 something must be done to make farm life pleasant4 ,one great difficulty is that the farm is lonely4 ,people write about the pleasures of solitude1 but they are found only in books4 ,he who lives long alone becomes insane4 ,a hermit is a madman4 ,without friends and wife and child1 there is nothing left worth living for4 ,the unsocial are the enemies of joy4 ,they are filled with egotism and envy1 with vanity and hatred4 ,people who live much alone become narrow and suspicious4 ,they are apt to be the property of one idea4 ,they begin to think there is no use in anything4 ,they look upon the happiness of others as a kind of folly4 ,they hate joyous folks1 because1 way down in their hearts1 they envy them4 ,in our country1 farm-life is too lonely4 ,the farms are large1 and neighbors are too far apart4 ,in these days1 when the roads are filled with tramps1 the wives and children need protection4 ,when the farmer leaves home and goes to some distant field to work1 a shadow of fear is upon his heart all day1 and a like shadow rests upon all at home4 ,in the early settlement of our country the pioneer was forced to take his family1 his axe1 his dog and his gun1 and go into the far wild forest1 and build his cabin miles and miles from any neighbor4 ,he saw the smoke from his hearth go up alone in all the wide and lonely sky4 ,but this necessity has passed away1 and now1 instead of living so far apart upon the lonely farms1 you should live in villages4 ,with the improved machinery which you have--with your generous soil--with your markets and means of transportation1 you can now afford to live together4 ,it is not necessary in this age of the world for the farmer to rise in the middle of the night and begin his work4 ,this getting up so early in the morning is a relic of barbarism4 ,it has made hundreds and thousands of young men curse the business4 ,there is no need of getting up at three or four o'clock in the winter morning4 ,the farmer who persists in doing it and persists in dragging his wife and children from their beds ought to be visited by a missionary4 ,it is time enough to rise after the sun has set the example4 ,for what purpose do you get up8 ,to feed the cattle8 ,why not feed them more the night before8 ,it is a waste of life4 ,in the old times they used to get up about three o'clock in the morning1 and go to work long before the sun had risen with healing upon his wings1 and as a just punishment they all had the ague2 and they ought to have it now4 ,the man who cannot get a living upon ,illinois soil without rising before daylight ought to starve4 ,eight hours a day is enough for any farmer to work except in harvest time4 ,when you rise at four and work till dark what is life worth8 ,of what use are all the improvements in farming8 ,of what use is all the improved machinery unless it tends to give the farmer a little more leisure8 ,what is harvesting now1 compared with what it was in the old time8 ,think of the days of reaping1 of cradling1 of raking and binding and mowing4 ,think of threshing with the flail and winnowing with the wind4 ,and now think of the reapers and mowers1 the binders and threshing machines1 the plows and cultivators1 upon which the farmer rides protected from the sun4 ,if1 with all these advantages1 you cannot get a living without rising in the middle of the night1 go into some other business4 ,you should not rob your families of sleep4 ,sleep is the best medicine in the world4 ,it is the best doctor upon the earth4 ,there is no such thing as health without plenty of sleep4 ,sleep until you are thoroughly rested and restored4 ,when you work1 work2 and when you get through take a good1 long1 and refreshing rest4 ,you should live in villages1 so that you can have the benefits of social life4 ,you can have a reading-room--you can take the best papers and magazines--you can have plenty of books1 and each one can have the benefit of them all4 ,some of the young men and women can cultivate music4 ,you can have social gatherings--you can learn from each other--you can discuss all topics of interest1 and in this way you can make farming a delightful business4 ,you must keep up with the age4 ,the way to make farming respectable is for farmers to become really intelligent4 ,they must live intelligent and happy lives4 ,they must know something of books and something of what is going on in the world4 ,they must not be satisfied with knowing something of the affairs of a neighborhood and nothing about the rest of the earth4 ,the business must be made attractive1 and it never can be until the farmer has prosperity1 intelligence and leisure4 ,another thing--,i am a believer in fashion4 ,it is the duty of every woman to make herself as beautiful and attractive as she possibly can4 ,handsome is as handsome does1 but she is much handsomer if well dressed4 ,every man should look his very best4 ,i am a believer in good clothes4 ,the time never ought to come in this country when you can tell a farmer's wife or daughter simply by the garments she wears4 ,i say to every girl and woman1 no matter what the material of your dress may be1 no matter how cheap and coarse it is1 cut it and make it in the fashion4 ,i believe in jewelry4 ,some people look upon it as barbaric1 but in my judgment1 wearing jewelry is the first evidence the barbarian gives of a wish to be civilized4 ,to adorn ourselves seems to be a part of our nature1 and this desire seems to be everywhere and in everything4 ,i have sometimes thought that the desire for beauty covers the earth with flowers4 ,it is this desire that paints the wings of moths1 tints the chamber of the shell1 and gives the bird its plumage and its song4 ,oh daughters and wives1 if you would be loved1 adorn yourselves--if you would be adored1 be beautiful6 ,there is another fault common with the farmers of our country--they want too much land4 ,you cannot1 at present1 when taxes are high1 afford to own land that you do not cultivate4 ,sell it and let others make farms and homes4 ,in this way what you keep will be enhanced in value4 ,farmers ought to own the land they cultivate1 and cultivate what they own4 ,renters can hardly be called farmers4 ,there can be no such thing in the highest sense as a home unless you own it4 ,there must be an incentive to plant trees1 to beautify the grounds1 to preserve and improve4 ,it elevates a man to own a home4 ,it gives a certain independence1 a force of character that is obtained in no other way4 ,a man without a home feels like a passenger4 ,there is in such a man a little of the vagrant4 ,homes make patriots4 ,he who has sat by his own fireside with wife and children will defend it4 ,when he hears the word country pronounced1 he thinks of his home4 ,few men have been patriotic enough to shoulder a musket in defence of a boarding house4 ,the prosperity and glory of our country depend upon the number of our people who are the owners of homes4 ,around the fireside cluster the private and the public virtues of our race4 ,raise your sons to be independent through labor--to pursue some business for themselves and upon their own account--to be self-reliant--to act upon their own responsibility1 and to take the consequences like men4 ,teach them above all things to be good1 true and tender husbands--winners of love and builders of homes4 ,a great many farmers seem to think that they are the only laborers in the world4 ,this is a very foolish thing4 ,farmers cannot get along without the mechanic4 ,you are not independent of the man of genius4 ,your prosperity depends upon the inventor4 ,the world advances by the assistance of all laborers2 and all labor is under obligations to the inventions of genius4 ,the inventor does as much for agriculture as he who tills the soil4 ,all laboring men should be brothers4 ,you are in partnership with the mechanics who make your reapers1 your mowers and your plows2 and you should take into your granges all the men who make their living by honest labor4 ,the laboring people should unite and should protect themselves against all idlers4 ,you can divide mankind into two classes3 the laborers and the idlers1 the supporters and the supported1 the honest and the dishonest4 ,every man is dishonest who lives upon the unpaid labor of others1 no matter if he occupies a throne4 ,all laborers should be brothers4 ,the laborers should have equal rights before the world and before the law4 ,and ,i want every farmer to consider every man who labors either with hand or brain as his brother4 ,until genius and labor formed a partnership there was no such thing as prosperity among men4 ,every reaper and mower1 every agricultural implement1 has elevated the work of the farmer1 and his vocation grows grander with every invention4 ,in the olden time the agriculturist was ignorant2 he knew nothing of machinery1 he was the slave of superstition4 ,he was always trying to appease some imaginary power by fasting and prayer4 ,he supposed that some being actuated by malice1 sent the untimely frost1 or swept away with the wild wind his rude abode4 ,to him the seasons were mysteries4 ,the thunder told him of an enraged god--the barren fields of the vengeance of heaven4 ,the tiller of the soil lived in perpetual and abject fear4 ,he knew nothing of mechanics1 nothing of order1 nothing of law1 nothing of cause and effect4 ,he was a superstitious savage4 ,he invented prayers instead of plows1 creeds instead of reapers and mowers4 ,he was unable to devote all his time to the gods1 and so he hired others to assist him1 and for their influence with the gentlemen supposed to control the weather1 he gave one-tenth of all he could produce4 ,the farmer has been elevated through science and he should not forget the debt he owes to the mechanic1 to the inventor1 to the thinker4 ,he should remember that all laborers belong to the same grand family--that they are the real kings and queens1 the only true nobility4 ,another idea entertained by most farmers is that they are in some mysterious way oppressed by every other kind of business--that they are devoured by monopolies1 especially by railroads4 ,of course1 the railroads are indebted to the farmers for their prosperity1 and the farmers are indebted to the railroads4 ,without them ,illinois would be almost worthless4 ,a few years ago you endeavored to regulate the charges of railroad companies4 ,the principal complaint you had was that they charged too much for the transportation of corn and other cereals to the ,east4 ,you should remember that all freights are paid by the consumer2 and that it made little difference to you what the railroad charged for transportation to the ,east1 as that transportation had to be paid by the consumers of the grain4 ,you were really interested in transportation from the ,east to the ,west and in local freights4 ,the result is that while you have put down through freights you have not succeeded so well in local freights4 ,the exact opposite should be the policy of ,illinois4 ,put down local freights2 put them down1 if you can1 to the lowest possible figure1 and let through rates take care of themselves4 ,if all the corn raised in ,illinois could be transported to ,new ,york absolutely free1 it would enhance but little the price that you would receive4 ,what we want is the lowest possible local rate4 ,instead of this you have simply succeeded in helping the ,east at the expense of the ,west4 ,the railroads are your friends4 ,they are your partners4 ,they can prosper only where the country through which they run prospers4 ,all intelligent railroad men know this4 ,they know that present robbery is future bankruptcy4 ,they know that the interest of the farmer and of the railroad is the same4 ,we must have railroads4 ,what can we do without them8 ,when we had no railroads1 we drew1 as ,i said before1 our grain two hundred miles to market4 ,in those days the farmers did not stop at hotels4 ,they slept under their wagons--took with them their food--fried their own bacon1 made their coffee1 and ate their meals in the snow and rain4 ,those were the days when they received ten cents a bushel for corn--when they sold four bushels of potatoes for a quarter--thirty-three dozen eggs for a dollar1 and a hundred pounds of pork for a dollar and a half4 ,what has made the difference8 ,the railroads came to your door and they brought with them the markets of the world4 ,they brought ,new ,york and ,liverpool and ,london into ,illinois1 and the ,state has been clothed with prosperity as with a mantle4 ,it is the interest of the farmer to protect every great interest in the ,state4 ,you should feel proud that ,illinois has more railroads than any other ,state in this ,union4 ,her main tracks and side tracks would furnish iron enough to belt the globe4 ,in ,illinois there are ten thousand miles of railways4 ,in these iron highways more than three hundred million dollars have been invested--a sum equal to ten times the original cost of all the land in the ,state4 ,to make war upon the railroads is a short-sighted and suicidal policy4 ,they should be treated fairly and should be taxed by the same standard that farms are taxed1 and in no other way4 ,if we wish to prosper we must act together1 and we must see to it that every form of labor is protected4 ,there has been a long period of depression in all business4 ,the farmers have suffered least of all4 ,your land is just as rich and productive as ever4 ,prices have been reasonable4 ,the towns and cities have suffered4 ,stocks and bonds have shrunk from par to worthless paper4 ,princes have become paupers1 and bankers1 merchants and millionaires have passed into the oblivion of bankruptcy4 ,the period of depression is slowly passing away1 and we are entering upon better times4 ,a great many people say that a scarcity of money is our only difficulty4 ,in my opinion we have money enough1 but we lack confidence in each other and in the future4 ,there has been so much dishonesty1 there have been so many failures1 that the people are afraid to trust anybody4 ,there is plenty of money1 but there seems to be a scarcity of business4 ,if you were to go to the owner of a ferry1 and1 upon seeing his boat lying high and dry on the shore1 should say1 ,there is a superabundance of ferryboat1 he would probably reply1 ,no1 but there is a scarcity of water4 ,so with us there is not a scarcity of money1 but there is a scarcity of business4 ,and this scarcity springs from lack of confidence in one another4 ,so many presidents of savings banks1 even those belonging to the ,young ,men's ,christian ,association1 run off with the funds2 so many railroad and insurance companies are in the hands of receivers2 there is so much bankruptcy on every hand1 that all capital is held in the nervous clutch of fear4 ,slowly1 but surely we are coming back to honest methods in business4 ,confidence will return1 and then enterprise will unlock the safe and money will again circulate as of yore2 the dollars will leave their hiding places and every one will be seeking investment4 ,for my part1 ,i do not ask any interference on the part of the ,government except to undo the wrong it has done4 ,i do not ask that money be made out of nothing4 ,i do not ask for the prosperity born of paper4 ,but ,i do ask for the remonetization of silver4 ,silver was demonetized by fraud4 ,it was an imposition upon every solvent man2 a fraud upon every honest debtor in the ,united ,states4 ,it assassinated labor4 ,it was done in the interest of avarice and greed1 and should be undone by honest men4 ,the farmers should vote only for such men as are able and willing to guard and advance the interests of labor4 ,we should know better than to vote for men who will deliberately put a tariff of three dollars a thousand upon ,canada lumber1 when every farmer in ,illinois is a purchaser of lumber4 ,people who live upon the prairies ought to vote for cheap lumber4 ,we should protect ourselves4 ,we ought to have intelligence enough to know what we want and how to get it4 ,the real laboring men of this country can succeed if they are united4 ,by laboring men1 ,i do not mean only the farmers4 ,i mean all who contribute in some way to the general welfare4 ,they should forget prejudices and party names1 and remember only the best interests of the people4 ,let us see if we cannot1 in ,illinois1 protect every department of industry4 ,let us see if all property cannot be protected alike and taxed alike1 whether owned by individuals or corporations4 ,where industry creates and justice protects1 prosperity dwells4 ,let me tell you something more about ,illinois4 ,we have fifty-six thousand square miles of land--nearly thirty-six million acres4 ,upon these plains we can raise enough to feed and clothe twenty million people4 ,beneath these prairies were hidden millions of ages ago1 by that old miser1 the sun1 thirty-six thousand square miles of coal4 ,the aggregate thickness of these veins is at least fifteen feet4 ,think of a column of coal one mile square and one hundred miles high6 ,all this came from the sun4 ,what a sunbeam such a column would be6 ,think of the engines and machines this coal will run and turn and whirl6 ,think of all this force1 willed and left to us by the dead morning of the world6 ,think of the firesides of the future around which will sit the fathers1 mothers and children of the years to be6 ,think of the sweet and happy faces1 the loving and tender eyes that will glow and gleam in the sacred light of all these flames6 ,we have the best country in the world1 and ,illinois is the best ,state in that country4 ,is there any reason that our farmers should not be prosperous and happy men8 ,they have every advantage1 and within their reach are all the comforts and conveniences of life4 ,do not get the land fever and think you must buy all that joins you4 ,get out of debt as soon as you possibly can4 ,a mortgage casts a shadow on the sunniest field4 ,there is no business under the sun that can pay ten per cent4 ,ainsworth ,r4 ,spofford gives the following facts about interest3 ,one dollar loaned for one hundred years at six per cent41 with the interest collected annually and added to the principal1 will amount to three hundred and forty dollars4 ,at eight per cent1 it amounts to two thousand two hundred and three dollars4 ,at three per cent1 it amounts only to nineteen dollars and twenty-five cents4 ,at ten per cent1 it is thirteen thousand eight hundred and nine dollars1 or about seven hundred times as much4 ,at twelve per cent1 it amounts to eighty-four thousand and seventy-five dollars1 or more than four thousand times as much4 ,at eighteen per cent1 it amounts to fifteen million one hundred and forty-five thousand and seven dollars4 ,at twenty-four per cent1 7which we sometimes hear talked of7 it reaches the enormous sum of two billion five hundred and fifty-one million seven hundred and ninety-nine thousand four hundred and four dollars4 ,one dollar at compound interest1 at twenty-four per cent41 for one hundred years1 would produce a sum equal to our national debt4 ,interest eats night and day1 and the more it eats the hungrier it grows4 ,the farmer in debt1 lying awake at night1 can1 if he listens1 hear it gnaw4 ,if he owes nothing1 he can hear his corn grow4 ,get out of debt as soon as you possibly can4 ,you have supported idle avarice and lazy economy long enough4 ,above all let every farmer treat his wife and children with infinite kindness4 ,give your sons and daughters every advantage within your power4 ,in the air of kindness they will grow about you like flowers4 ,they will fill your homes with sunshine and all your years with joy4 ,do not try to rule by force4 ,a blow from a parent leaves a scar on the soul4 ,i should feel ashamed to die surrounded by children ,i had whipped4 ,think of feeling upon your dying lips the kiss of a child you had struck4 ,see to it that your wife has every convenience4 ,make her life worth living4 ,never allow her to become a servant4 ,wives1 weary and worn1 mothers1 wrinkled and bent before their time1 fill homes with grief and shame4 ,if you are not able to hire help for your wives1 help them yourselves4 ,see that they have the best utensils to work with4 ,women cannot create things by magic4 ,have plenty of wood and coal--good cellars and plenty in them4 ,have cisterns1 so that you can have plenty of rain water for washing4 ,do not rely on a barrel and a board4 ,when the rain comes the board will be lost or the hoops will be off the barrel4 ,farmers should live like princes4 ,eat the best things you raise and sell the rest4 ,have good things to cook and good things to cook with4 ,of all people in our country1 you should live the best4 ,throw your miserable little stoves out of the window4 ,get ranges1 and have them so built that your wife need not burn her face off to get you a breakfast4 ,do not make her cook in a kitchen hot as the orthodox perdition4 ,the beef1 not the cook1 should be roasted4 ,it is just as easy to have things convenient and right as to have them any other way4 ,cooking is one of the fine arts4 ,give your wives and daughters things to cook1 and things to cook with1 and they will soon become most excellent cooks4 ,good cooking is the basis of civilization4 ,the man whose arteries and veins are filled with rich blood made of good and well cooked food1 has pluck1 courage1 endurance and and noble impulses4 ,the inventor of a good soup did more for his race than the maker of any creed4 ,the doctrines of total depravity and endless punishment were born of bad cooking and dyspepsia4 ,remember that your wife should have the things to cook with4 ,in the good old days there would be eleven children in the family and only one skillet4 ,everything was broken or cracked or loaned or lost4 ,there ought to be a law making it a crime1 punishable by imprisonment1 to fry beefsteak4 ,broil it2 it is just as easy1 and when broiled it is delicious4 ,fried beefsteak is not fit for a wild beast4 ,you can broil even on a stove4 ,shut the front damper--open the back one--then take off a griddle4 ,there will then be a draft downwards through this opening4 ,put on your steak1 using a wire broiler1 and not a particle of smoke will touch it1 for the reason that the smoke goes down4 ,if you try to broil it with the front damper open1 the smoke will rise4 ,for broiling1 coal1 even soft coal1 makes a better fire than wood4 ,there is no reason why farmers should not have fresh meat all the year round4 ,there is certainly no sense in stuffing yourself full of salt meat every morning1 and making a well or a cistern of your stomach for the rest of the day4 ,every farmer should have an ice house4 ,upon or near every farm is some stream from which plenty of ice can be obtained1 and the long summer days made delightful4 ,dr4 ,draper1 one of the world's greatest scientists1 says that ice water is healthy1 and that it has done away with many of the low forms of fever in the great cities4 ,ice has become one of the necessaries of civilized life1 and without it there is very little comfort4 ,make your homes pleasant4 ,have your houses warm and comfortable for the winter4 ,do not build a story-and-a-half house4 ,the half story is simply an oven in which1 during the summer1 you will bake every night1 and feel in the morning as though only the rind of yourself was left4 ,decorate your rooms1 even if you do so with cheap engravings4 ,the cheapest are far better than none4 ,have books--have papers1 and read them4 ,you have more leisure than the dwellers in cities4 ,beautify your grounds with plants and flowers and vines4 ,have good gardens4 ,remember that everything of beauty tends to the elevation of man4 ,every little morning-glory whose purple bosom is thrilled with the amorous kisses of the sun1 tends to put a blossom in your heart4 ,do not judge of the value of everything by the market reports4 ,every flower about a house certifies to the refinement of somebody4 ,every vine climbing and blossoming1 tells of love and joy4 ,make your houses comfortable4 ,do not huddle together in a little room around a red-hot stove1 with every window fastened down4 ,do not live in this poisoned atmosphere1 and then1 when one of your children dies1 put a piece in the papers commencing with1 ,whereas1 it has pleased divine ,providence to remove from our midst--4 ,have plenty of air1 and plenty of warmth4 ,comfort is health4 ,do not imagine anything is unhealthy simply because it is pleasant4 ,that is an old and foolish idea4 ,let your children sleep4 ,do not drag them from their beds in the darkness of night4 ,do not compel them to associate all that is tiresome1 irksome and dreadful with cultivating the soil4 ,in this way you bring farming into hatred and disrepute4 ,treat your children with infinite kindness--treat them as equals4 ,there is no happiness in a home not filled with love4 ,where the husband hates his wife--where the wife hates the husband2 where children hate their parents and each other--there is a hell upon earth4 ,there is no reason why farmers should not be the kindest and most cultivated of men4 ,there is nothing in plowing the fields to make men cross1 cruel and crabbed4 ,to look upon the sunny slopes covered with daisies does not tend to make men unjust4 ,whoever labors for the happiness of those he loves1 elevates himself1 no matter whether he works in the dark and dreary shops1 or in the perfumed fields4 ,to work for others is1 in reality1 the only way in which a man can work for himself4 ,selfishness is ignorance4 ,speculators cannot make unless somebody loses4 ,in the realm of speculation1 every success has at least one victim4 ,the harvest reaped by the farmer benefits all and injures none4 ,for him to succeed1 it is not necessary that some one should fail4 ,the same is true of all producers--of all laborers4 ,i can imagine no condition that carries with it such a promise of joy as that of the farmer in the early winter4 ,he has his cellar filled--he has made every preparation for the days of snow and storm--he looks forward to three months of ease and rest2 to three months of fireside-content2 three months with wife and children2 three months of long1 delightful evenings2 three months of home2 three months of solid comfort4 ,when the life of the farmer is such as ,i have described1 the cities and towns will not be filled with want--the streets will not be crowded with wrecked rogues1 broken bankers1 and bankrupt speculators4 ,the fields will be tilled1 and country villages1 almost hidden by trees and vines and flowers1 filled with industrious and happy people1 will nestle in every vale and gleam like gems on every plain4 ,the idea must be done away with that there is something intellectually degrading in cultivating the soil4 ,nothing can be nobler than to be useful4 ,idleness should not be respectable4 ,if farmers will cultivate well1 and without waste2 if they will so build that their houses will be warm in winter and cool in summer2 if they will plant trees and beautify their homes2 if they will occupy their leisure in reading1 in thinking1 in improving their minds and in devising ways and means to make their business profitable and pleasant2 if they will live nearer together and cultivate sociability2 if they will come together often2 if they will have reading rooms and cultivate music2 if they will have bath-rooms1 ice-houses and good gardens2 if their wives can have an easy time2 if their sons and daughters can have an opportunity to keep in line with the thoughts and discoveries of the world2 if the nights can be taken for sleep and the evenings for enjoyment1 everybody will be in love with the fields4 ,happiness should be the object of life1 and if life on the farm can be made really happy1 the children will grow up in love with the meadows1 the streams1 the woods and the old home4 ,around the farm will cling and cluster the happy memories of the delighful years4 ,remember1 ,i pray you1 that you are in partnership with all labor--that you should join hands with all the sons and daughters of toil1 and that all who work belong to the same noble family4 ,for my part1 ,i envy the man who has lived on the same broad acres from his boyhood1 who cultivates the fields where in youth he played1 and lives where his father lived and died4 ,i can imagine no sweeter way to end one's life ,,what ,,must ,,we ,,do ,,to ,,be ,,saved8 ,,preface ,if what is known as the ,christian ,religion is true1 nothing can be more wonderful than the fact that ,matthew1 ,mark and ,luke say nothing about salvation by faith2 that they do not even hint at the doctrine of the atonement1 and are as silent as empty tombs as to the necessity of believing anything to secure happiness in this world or another4 ,for a good many years it has been claimed that the writers of these gospels knew something about the teachings of ,christ1 and had1 at least1 a general knowledge of the conditions of salvation4 ,it now seems to be substantiated that the early ,christians did not place implicit confidence in the gospels1 and did not hesitate to make such changes and additions as they thought proper4 ,such changes and additions are about the only passages in the ,new ,testament that the ,evangelical ,churches now consider sacred4 ,that portion of the last chapter of ,mark1 in which unbelievers are so cheerfully and promptly damned1 has been shown to be an interpolation1 and it is asserted that in the revised edition of the ,new ,testament1 soon to be issued1 the infamous passages will not appear4 ,with these expunged1 there is not one word in ,matthew1 ,mark1 or ,luke1 even tending to show that belief in ,christ has1 or can have1 any effect upon the destiny of the soul4 ,the four gospels are the four corner-stones upon which rests the fabric of orthodox ,christianity4 ,three of these stones have crumbled1 and the fourth is not likely to outlast this generation4 ,the gospel of ,john cannot alone uphold the infinite absurdity of vicarious virtue and vice1 and it cannot1 without the aid of interpolation1 sustain the illogical and immoral dogma of salvation by faith4 ,these frightful doctrines must be abandoned2 the miraculous must be given up1 the wonderful stories must be expunged1 and from the creed of noble deeds the forgeries of superstition must be blotted out4 ,from the temple of ,morality and ,truth--from the great windows towards the sun--the parasitic and poisonous vines of faith and fable must be torn4 ,the church will be compelled at last to rest its case1 not upon the wonders ,christ is said to have performed1 but upon the system of morality he taught4 ,all the miracles1 including the resurrection and ascension1 are1 when compared with portions of the ,sermon on the ,mount1 but dust and darkness4 ,the careful reader of the ,new ,testament will find three ,christs described3--,one who wished to preserve ,judaism--one who wished to reform it1 and one who built a system of his own4 ,the apostles and their disciples1 utterly unable to comprehend a religion that did away with sacrifices1 churches1 priests1 and creeds1 constructed a ,christianity for themselves1 so that the orthodox churches of to-day rest--first1 upon what ,christ endeavored to destroy--second1 upon what he never said1 and1 third1 upon a misunderstanding of what he did say4 ,if a certain belief is necessary to insure the salvation of the soul1 the church ought to explain1 and without any unnecessary delay1 why such an infinitely important fact was utterly ignored by ,matthew1 ,mark and ,luke4 ,there are only two explanations possible4 ,either belief is unnecessary1 or the writers of these three gospels did not understand the ,christian system4 ,the sacredness of the subject cannot longer hide the absurdity of the scheme of salvation1 nor the failure of ,matthew1 ,mark and ,luke to mention1 what is now claimed to have been1 the entire mission of ,christ4 ,the church must take from the ,new ,testament the supernatural'2 the idea that an intellectual conviction can subject an honest man to eternal pain--the awful doctrine that the innocent can justly suffer for the guilty1 and allow the remainder to be discussed1 denied or believed without punishment and without reward4 ,no one will object to the preaching of kindness1 honesty and justice4 ,to preach less is a crime1 and to practice more is impossible4 ,there is one thing that ought to be again impressed upon the average theologian1 and that is the utter futility of trying to answer arguments with personal abuse4 ,it should be understood once for all that these questions are in no sense personal4 ,if it should turn out that all the professed ,christians in the world are sinless saints1 the question of how ,matthew1 ,mark1 and ,luke1 came to say nothing about the atonement and the scheme of salvation by faith1 would still be asked4 ,and if it should then be shown that all the doubters1 deists1 and atheists1 are vile and vicious wretches1 the question still would wait for a reply4 ,the origin of all religions1 creeds1 and sacred books1 is substantially the same1 and the history of one1 is1 in the main1 the history of all4 ,thus far these religions have been the mistaken explanations of our surroundings4 ,the appearances of nature have imposed upon the ignorance and fear of man4 ,but back of all honest creeds was1 and is1 the desire to know1 to understand1 and to explain1 and that desire will1 as ,i most fervently hope and earnestly believe1 be gratified at last by the discovery of the truth4 ,until then1 let us bear with the theories1 hopes1 dreams1 mistakes1 and honest thoughts of all4 ,robert ,g4 ,ingersoll4 ,washington1 ,d4 ,c41 ,october1 #ahhj4 ,,what ,,must ,,we ,,do ,,to ,,be ,,saved8 ,,the ,,nuremberg ,,man ,,was ,,operated ,,by ,a ,,combination ,,of ,,pipes ,,and ,,levers1 ,,and ,,though ,,he ,,could ,,breathe ,,and ,,digest ,,perfectly1 ,,and ,,even ,,reason ,,as ,,well ,,as ,,most ,,theologians1 ,,was ,,made ,,of ,,nothing ,,but ,,wood ,,and ,,leather4 ,,the whole world has been filled with fear4 ,ignorance has been the refuge of the soul4 ,for thousands of years the intellectual ocean was ravaged by the buccaneers of reason4 ,pious souls clung to the shore and looked at the lighthouse4 ,the seas were filled with monsters and the islands with sirens4 ,the people were driven in the middle of a narrow road while priests went before1 beating the hedges on either side to frighten the robbers from their lairs4 ,the poor followers seeing no robbers1 thanked their brave leaders with all their hearts4 ,i4 ,,what ,,we ,,must ,,do ,,to ,,be ,,saved ,huddled in folds they listened with wide eyes while the shepherds told of ravening wolves4 ,with great gladness they exchanged their fleeces for security4 ,shorn and shivering1 they had the happiness of seeing their protectors comfortable and warm4 ,through all the years1 those who plowed divided with those who prayed4 ,wicked industry supported pious idleness1 the hut gave to the cathedral1 and frightened poverty gave even its rags to buy a robe for hypocrisy4 ,fear is the dungeon of the mind1 and superstition is a dagger with which hypocrisy assassinates the soul4 ,courage is liberty4 ,i am in favor of absolute freedom of thought4 ,in the realm of mind every one is monarch2 every one is robed1 sceptered1 and crowned1 and every one wears the purple of authority4 ,i belong to the republic of intellectual liberty1 and only those are good citizens of that republic who depend upon reason and upon persuasion1 and only those are traitors who resort to brute force4 ,now1 ,i beg of you all to forget just for a few moments that you are ,methodists or ,baptists or ,catholics or ,presbyterians1 and let us for an hour or two remember only that we are men and women4 ,and allow me to say man and woman are the highest titles that can be bestowed upon humanity4 ,let us1 if possible1 banish all fear from the mind4 ,do not imagine that there is some being in the infinite expanse who is not willing that every man and woman should think for himself and herself4 ,do not imagine that there is any being who would give to his children the holy torch of reason1 and then damn them for following that sacred light4 ,let us have courage4 ,priests have invented a crime called blasphemy1 and behind that crime hypocrisy has crouched for thousands of years4 ,there is but one blasphemy1 and that is injustice4 ,there is but one worship1 and that is justice6 ,you need not fear the anger of a god that you cannot injure4 ,rather fear to injure your fellow-men4 ,do not be afraid of a crime you can not commit4 ,rather be afraid of the one that you may commit4 ,the reason that you cannot injure ,god is that the ,infinite is conditionless4 ,you cannot increase or diminish the happiness of any being without changing that being's condition4 ,if ,god is conditionless1 you can neither injure nor benefit him4 ,there was a ,jewish gentleman went into a restaurant to get his dinner1 and the devil of temptation whispered in his ear3 ,eat some bacon4 ,he knew if there was anything in the universe calculated to excite the wrath of an infinite being1 who made every shining star1 it was to see a gentleman eating bacon4 ,he knew it1 and he knew the infinite being was looking1 that he was the eternal eavesdropper of the universe4 ,but his appetite got the better of his conscience1 as it often has with us all1 and he ate that bacon4 ,he knew it was wrong1 and his conscience felt the blood of shame in its cheek4 ,when he went into that restaurant the weather was delightful1 the sky was as blue as ,june1 and when he came out the sky was covered with angry clouds1 the lightning leaping from one to the other1 and the earth shaking beneath the voice of the thunder4 ,he went back into that restaurant with a face as white as milk1 and he said to one of the keepers3 ,my ,god1 did you ever hear such a fuss about a little piece of bacon8 ,as long as we harbor such opinions of infinity2 as long as we imagine the heavens to be filled with such tyranny1 just so long the sons of men will be cringing1 intellectual cowards4 ,let us think1 and let us honestly express our thought4 ,do not imagine for a moment that ,i think people who disagree with me are bad people4 ,i admit1 and ,i cheerfully admit1 that a very large proportion of mankind1 and a very large majority1 a vast number are reasonably honest4 ,i believe that most ,christians believe what they teach2 that most ministers are endeavoring to make this world better4 ,i do not pretend to be better than they are4 ,it is an intellectual question4 ,it is a question1 first1 of intellectual liberty1 and after that1 a question to be settled at the bar of human reason4 ,i do not pretend to be better than they are4 ,probably ,i am a good deal worse than many of them1 but that is not the question4 ,the question is3 ,bad as ,i am1 have ,i the right to think8 ,and ,i think ,i have for two reasons3 ,first1 ,i cannot help it4 ,and secondly1 ,i like it4 ,the whole question is right at a point4 ,if ,i have not a right to express my thoughts1 who has8 ,oh1 they say1 we will allow you to think1 we will not burn you4 ,all right2 why won't you burn me8 ,because we think a decent man will allow others to think and to express his thought4 ,then the reason you do not persecute me for my thought is that you believe it would be infamous in you8 ,yes4 ,and yet you worship a ,god who will1 as you declare1 punish me forever8 ,surely an infinite ,god ought to be as just as man4 ,surely no ,god can have the right to punish his children for being honest4 ,he should not reward hypocrisy with heaven1 and punish candor with eternal pain4 ,the next question then is3 ,can ,i commit a sin against ,god by thinking8 ,if ,god did not intend ,i should think1 why did he give me a thinker8 ,for one1 ,i am convinced1 not only that ,i have the right to think1 but that it is my duty to express my honest thoughts4 ,whatever the gods may say we must be true to ourselves4 ,we have got what they call the ,christian system of religion1 and thousands of people wonder how ,i can be wicked enough to attack that system4 ,there are many good things about it1 and ,i shall never attack anything that ,i believe to be good6 ,i shall never fear to attack anything ,i honestly believe to be wrong6 ,we have what they call the ,christian religion1 and ,i find1 just in proportion that nations have been religious1 just in the proportion they have clung to the religion of their founders1 they have gone back to barbarism4 ,i find that ,spain1 ,portugal1 ,italy1 are the three worst nations in ,europe4 ,i find that the nation nearest infidel is the most prosperous--,france4 ,and so ,i say there can be no danger in the exercise of absolute intellectual freedom4 ,i find among ourselves the men who think are at least as good as those who do not4 ,we have1 ,i say1 a ,christian system1 and that system is founded upon what they are pleased to call the ,new ,testament4 ,who wrote the ,new ,testament8 ,i do not know4 ,who does know8 ,nobody4 ,we have found many manuscripts containing portions of the ,new ,testament4 ,some of these manuscripts leave out five or six books--many of them4 ,others more2 others less4 ,no two of these manuscripts agree4 ,nobody knows who wrote these manuscripts4 ,they are all written in ,greek4 ,the disciples of ,christ1 so far as we know1 knew only ,hebrew4 ,nobody ever saw so far as we know1 one of the original ,hebrew manuscripts4 ,nobody ever saw anybody who had seen anybody who had heard of anybody that had ever seen anybody that had ever seen one of the original ,hebrew manuscripts4 ,no doubt the clergy of your city have told you these facts thousands of times1 and they will be obliged to me for having repeated them once more4 ,these manuscripts are written in what are called capital ,greek letters4 ,they are called ,uncial manuscripts1 and the ,new ,testament was not divided into chapters and verses1 even1 until the year of grace #aeea4 ,in the original the manuscripts and gospels are signed by nobody4 ,the epistles are addressed to nobody2 and they are signed by the same person4 ,all the addresses1 all the pretended ear-marks showing to whom they were written1 and by whom they were written1 are simply interpolations1 and everybody who has studied the subject knows it4 ,it is further admitted that even these manuscripts have not been properly translated1 and they have a syndicate now making a new translation2 and ,i suppose that ,i can not tell whether ,i really believe the ,new ,testament or not until ,i see that new translation4 ,you must remember1 also1 one other thing4 ,christ never wrote a solitary word of the ,new ,testament--not one word4 ,there is an account that he once stooped and wrote something in the sand1 but that has not been preserved4 ,he never told anybody to write a word4 ,he never said3 ,matthew1 remember this4 ,mark1 do not forget to put that down4 ,luke1 be sure that in your gospel you have this4 ,john1 do not forget it4 ,not one word4 ,and it has always seemed to me that a being coming from another world1 with a message of infinite importance to mankind1 should at least have verified that message by his own signature4 ,is it not wonderful that not one word was written by ,christ8 ,is it not strange that he gave no orders to have his words preserved--words upon which hung the salvation of a world8 ,why was nothing written8 ,i will tell you4 ,in my judgment they expected the end of the world in a few days4 ,that generation was not to pass away until the heavens should be rolled up as a scroll1 and until the earth should melt with fervent heat4 ,that was their belief4 ,they believed that the world was to be destroyed1 and that there was to be another coming1 and that the saints were then to govern the earth4 ,and they even went so far among the apostles1 as we frequently do now before election1 as to divide out the offices in advance4 ,this ,testament1 as it now is1 was not written for hundreds of years after the apostles were dust4 ,many of the pretended facts lived in the open mouth of credulity4 ,they were in the wastebaskets of forgetfulness4 ,they depended upon the inaccuracy of legend1 and for centuries these doctrines and stories were blown about by the inconstant winds4 ,and when reduced to writing1 some gentleman would write by the side of the passage his idea of it1 and the next copyist would put that in as a part of the text4 ,and1 when it was mostly written1 and the church got into trouble1 and wanted a passage to help it out1 one was interpolated to order4 ,so that now it is among the easiest things in the world to pick out at least one hundred interpolations in the ,testament4 ,and ,i will pick some of them out before ,i get through4 ,and let me say here1 once for all1 that for the man ,christ ,i have infinite respect4 ,let me say1 once for all1 that the place where man has died for man is holy ground4 ,and let me say1 once for all1 that to that great and serene man ,i gladly pay1 ,i gladly pay1 the tribute of my admiration and my tears4 ,he was a reformer in his day4 ,he was an infidel in his time4 ,he was regarded as a blasphemer1 and his life was destroyed by hypocrites1 who have1 in all ages1 done what they could to trample freedom and manhood out of the human mind4 ,had ,i lived at that time ,i would have been his friend1 and should he come again he will not find a better friend than ,i will be4 ,that is for the man4 ,for the theological creation ,i have a different feeling4 ,if he was1 in fact1 ,god1 he knew there was no such thing as death4 ,he knew that what we called death was but the eternal opening of the golden gates of everlasting joy2 and it took no heroism to face a death that was eternal life4 ,but when a man1 when a poor boy sixteen years of age1 goes upon the field of battle to keep his flag in heaven1 not knowing but that death ends all2 not knowing but that when the shadows creep over him1 the darkness will be eternal1 there is heroism4 ,for the man who1 in the darkness1 said3 ,my ,god1 why hast thou forsaken me8--for that man ,i have nothing but respect1 admiration1 and love4 ,back of the theological shreds1 rags1 and patches1 hiding the real ,christ1 ,i see a genuine man4 ,a while ago ,i made up my mind to find out what was necessary for me to do in order to be saved4 ,if ,i have got a soul1 ,i want it saved4 ,i do not wish to lose anything that is of value4 ,for thousands of years the world has been asking that question3 ,what must we do to be saved8 ,saved from poverty8 ,no4 ,saved from crime8 ,no4 ,tyranny8 ,no4 ,but ,what must we do to be saved from the eternal wrath of the ,god who made us all8 ,if ,god made us1 he will not destroy us4 ,infinite wisdom never made a poor investment4 ,upon all the works of an infinite ,god1 a dividend must finally be declared4 ,why should ,god make failures8 ,why should he waste material8 ,why should he not correct his mistakes1 instead of damning them8 ,the pulpit has cast a shadow over even the cradle4 ,the doctrine of endless punishment has covered the cheeks of this world with tears4 ,i despise it1 and ,i defy it4 ,i made up my mind1 ,i say1 to see what ,i had to do in order to save my soul according to the ,testament1 and thereupon ,i read it4 ,i read the gospels1 ,matthew1 ,mark1 ,luke1 and ,john1 and found that the church had been deceiving me4 ,i found that the clergy did not understand their own book2 that they had been building upon passages that had been interpolated2 upon passages that were entirely untrue1 and ,i will tell you why ,i think so4 ,,ii4 ,,the ,,gospel ,,of ,,matthew ,,according to the church1 the first gospel was written by ,matthew4 ,as a matter of fact he never wrote a word of it--never saw it1 never heard of it and probably never will4 ,but for the purposes of this lecture ,i admit that he wrote years2 that he was his constant companion2 that he shared his sorrows and his triumphs2 that he heard his words by the lonely lakes1 the barren hills1 in synagogue and street1 and that he knew his heart and became acquainted with his thoughts and aims4 ,now let us see what ,matthew says we must do in order to be saved4 ,and ,i take it that1 if this is true1 ,matthew is as good authority as any minister in the world4 ,i will admit that he was with ,christ for three years4 ,the first thing ,i find upon the subject of salvation is in the fifth chapter of ,matthew1 and is embraced in what is commonly known as the ,sermon on the ,mount4 ,it is as follows3 ,blessed are the poor in spirit1 for theirs is the kingdom of heaven4 ,good6 ,blessed are the merciful1 for they shall obtain mercy4 ,good6 ,whether they belonged to any church or not2 whether they believed the ,bible or not8 ,blessed are the merciful1 for they shall obtain mercy4 ,good6 ,blessed are the pure in heart1 for they shall see ,god4 ,blessed are the peacemakers1 for they shall be called the children of ,god4 ,blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake1 for theirs is the kingdom of heaven4 ,good6 ,in the same sermon he says3 ,think not that ,i am come to destroy the law or the prophets4 ,i am not come to destroy1 but to fulfill4 ,and then he makes use of this remarkable language1 almost as applicable to-day as it was then3 ,for ,i say unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and ,pharisees ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven4 ,good6 ,in the sixth chapter ,i find the following1 and it comes directly after the prayer known as the ,lord's prayer3 ,for if ye forgive men their trespasses1 your ,heavenly ,father will also forgive you2 but if ye forgive not men their trespasses1 neither will your father forgive your trespasses4 ,i accept the condition4 ,there is an offer2 ,i accept it4 ,if you will forgive men that trespass against you1 ,god will forgive your trespasses against him4 ,i accept the terms1 and ,i never will ask any ,god to treat me better than ,i treat my fellow-men4 ,there is a square promise4 ,there is a contract4 ,if you will forgive others ,god will forgive you4 ,and it does not say you must believe in the ,old ,testament1 or be baptized1 or join the church1 or keep ,sunday2 that you must count beads1 or pray1 or become a nun1 or a priest2 that you must preach sermons or hear them1 build churches or fill them4 ,not one word is said about eating or fasting1 denying or believing4 ,it simply says1 if you forgive others ,god will forgive you2 and it must of necessity be true4 ,no god could afford to damn a forgiving man4 ,suppose ,god should damn to everlasting fire a man so great and good1 that he1 looking from the abyss of hell1 would forgive ,god1--how would a god feel then8 ,now let me make myself plain upon one subject1 perfectly plain4 ,for instance1 ,i hate ,presbyterianism1 but ,i know hundreds of splendid ,presbyterians4 ,understand me4 ,i hate ,methodism1 and yet ,i know hundreds of splendid ,methodists4 ,i hate ,catholicism1 and like ,catholics4 ,i hate insanity but not the insane4 ,i do not war against men4 ,i do not war against persons4 ,i war against certain doctrines that ,i believe to be wrong4 ,but ,i give to every other human being every right that ,i claim for myself4 ,the next thing that ,i find is in the seventh chapter and the second verse3 ,for with what judgment ye judge1 ye shall be judged2 and with what measure ye mete1 it shall be measured to you again4 ,good6 ,that suits me6 ,and in the twelfth chapter of ,matthew3 ,for whosoever shall do the will of my ,father that is in heaven1 the same is my brother and sister and mother4 ,for the son of man shall come in the glory of his father with his angels1 and then he shall reward every man according4444 ,to the church he belongs to8 ,no4 ,to the manner in which he was baptized8 ,no4 ,according to his creed8 ,no4 ,then he shall reward every man according to his works4 ,good6 ,i subscribe to that doctrine4 ,and in the eighteenth chapter3 ,and ,jesus called a little child to him and stood him in the midst2 and said1 ',verily ,i say unto you1 except ye be converted and become as little children1 ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven4' ,i do not wonder that in his day1 surrounded by scribes and ,pharisees1 he turned lovingly to little children4 ,and yet1 see what children the little children of ,god have been4 ,what an interesting dimpled darling ,john ,calvin was4 ,think of that prattling babe1 ,jonathan ,edwards6 ,think of the infants that founded the ,inquisition1 that invented instruments of torture to tear human flesh4 ,they were the ones who had become as little children4 ,they were the children of faith4 ,so ,i find in the nineteenth chapter3 ,and behold1 one came and said unto him3 ',good master1 what good thing shall ,i do that ,i may have eternal life8' ,and he said unto him1 ',why callest thou me good8 ,there is none good but one1 that is ,god3 but if thou wilt enter into life1 keep the commandments4' ,he saith unto him1 'which8' ,now1 there is a fair issue4 ,here is a child of ,god asking ,god what is necessary for him to do in order to inherit eternal life4 ,and ,god said to him3 ,keep the commandments4 ,and the child said to the ,almighty3 ,which8 ,now1 if there ever has been an opportunity given to the ,almighty to furnish a man of an inquiring mind with the necessary information upon that subject1 here was the opportunity4 ,he said unto him1 which8 ,and ,jesus said3 ,thou shalt do no murder2 thou shalt not commit adultery2 thou shalt not steal2 thou shalt not bear false witness2 honor thy father and mother2 and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself4 ,he did not say to him3 ,you must believe in me--that ,i am the only begotten son of the living ,god4 ,he did not say3 ,you must be born again4 ,he did not say3 ,you must believe the ,bible4 ,he did not say3 ,you must remember the ,sabbath day1 to keep it holy4 ,he simply said3 ,thou shalt do no murder4 ,thou shalt not commit adultery4 ,thou shalt not steal4 ,thou shalt not bear false witness4 ,honor thy father and thy mother2 and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself4 ,and thereupon the young man1 who ,i think was mistaken1 said unto him3 ,all these things have ,i kept from my youth up4 ,what right has the church to add conditions of salvation8 ,why should we suppose that ,christ failed to tell the young man all that was necessary for him to do8 ,is it possible that he left out some important thing simply to mislead8 ,will some minister tell us why he thinks that ,christ kept back the scheme8 ,now comes an interpolation4 ,in the old times when the church got a little scarce of money1 they always put in a passage praising poverty4 ,so they had this young man ask3 ,what lack ,i yet8 ,and ,jesus said unto him3 ,if thou wilt be perfect1 go and sell that thou hast and give to the poor1 and thou shalt have treasure in heaven4 ,the church has always been willing to swap off treasures in heaven for cash down4 ,and when the next verse was written the church must have been nearly bankrupt4 ,and again ,i say unto you1 it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of ,god4 ,did you ever know a wealthy disciple to unload on account of that verse8 ,and then comes another verse1 which ,i believe is an interpolation3 ,and everyone that hath forsaken houses1 or brethren1 or sisters1 or father1 or mother1 or wife1 or children1 or lands1 for my name's sake1 shall receive an hundred fold1 and shall inherit everlasting life4 ,christ never said it4 ,never4 ,whosoever shall forsake father and mother4 ,why1 he said to this man that asked him1 ,what shall ,i do to inherit eternal life8 among other things1 he said3 ,honor thy father and thy mother4 ,and we turn over the page and he says again3 ,if you will desert your father and mother you shall have everlasting life4 ,it will not do4 ,if you will desert your wife and your little children1 or your lands--the idea of putting a house and lot on equality with wife and children6 ,think of that6 ,i do not accept the terms4 ,i will never desert the one ,i love for the promise of any god4 ,it is far more important to love your wife than to love ,god1 and ,i will tell you why4 ,you cannot help him1 but you can help her4 ,you can fill her life with the perfume of perpetual joy4 ,it is far more important that you love your children than that you love ,jesus ,christ4 ,and why8 ,if he is ,god you cannot help him1 but you can plant a little flower of happiness in every footstep of the child1 from the cradle until you die in that child's arms4 ,let me tell you to-day it is far more important to build a home than to erect a church4 ,the holiest temple beneath the stars is a home that love has built4 ,and the holiest altar in all the wide world is the fireside around which gather father and mother and the sweet babes4 ,there was a time when people believed the infamy commanded in this frightful passage4 ,there was a time when they did desert fathers and mothers and wives and children4 ,st4 ,augustine says to the devotee3 ,fly to the desert1 and though your wife put her arms around your neck1 tear her hands away2 she is a temptation of the devil4 ,though your father and mother throw their bodies athwart your threshold1 step over them2 and though your children pursue1 and with weeping' eyes beseech you to return1 listen not4 ,it is the temptation of the evil one4 ,fly to the desert and save your soul4 ,think of such a soul being worth saving4 ,while ,i live ,i propose to stand by the ones ,i love4 ,there is another condition of salvation4 ,i find it in the twenty-fifth chapter3 ,then shall the ,king say unto them on his right hand1 ,come1 ye blessed of ,my ,father1 inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world4 ,for ,i was an hungered and ye gave me meat2 ,i was thirsty and ye gave me drink2 ,i was a stranger and ye took me in2 naked and ye clothed me2 ,i was sick and ye visited me2 ,i was in prison and ye came unto me4 ,good6 ,i tell you to-night that ,god will not punish with eternal thirst the man who has put the cup of cold water to the lips of his neighbor4 ,god will not leave in the eternal nakedness of pain the man who has clothed his fellow-men4 ,for instance1 here is a shipwreck1 and here is some brave sailor who stands aside and allows a woman whom he never saw before to take his place in the boat1 and he stands there1 grand and serene as the wide sea1 and he goes down4 ,do you tell me that there is any ,god who will push the lifeboat from the shore of eternal life1 when that man wishes to step in8 ,do you tell me that ,god can be unpitying to the pitiful1 that he can be unforgiving to the forgiving8 ,i deny it2 and from the aspersions of the pulpit ,i seek to rescue the reputation of the ,deity4 ,now1 ,i have read you substantially everything in ,matthew on the subject of salvation4 ,that is all there is4 ,not one word about believing anything4 ,it is the gospel of deed1 the gospel of charity1 the gospel of self-denial2 and if only that gospel had been preached1 persecution never would have shed one drop of blood4 ,not one4 ,according to the testimony ,matthew was well acquainted with ,christ4 ,according to the testimony1 he had been with him1 and his companion for years1 and if it was necessary to believe anything in order to get to heaven1 ,matthew should have told us4 ,but he forgot it1 or he did not believe it1 or he never heard of it4 ,you can take your choice4 ,in ,matthew1 we find that heaven is promised1 first1 to the poor in spirit4 ,second1 to the merciful4 ,third1 to the pure in heart4 ,fourth1 to the peacemakers4 ,fifth1 to those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake4 ,sixth1 to those who keep and teach the commandments4 ,seventh1 to those who forgive men that trespass against them4 ,eighth1 that we will be judged as we judge others4 ,ninth1 that they who receive prophets and righteous men shall receive a prophet's reward4 ,tenth1 to those who do the will of ,god4 ,eleventh1 that every man shall be rewarded according to his works4 ,twelfth1 to those who become as little children4 ,thirteenth1 to those who forgive the trespasses of others4 ,fourteenth1 to the perfect3 they who sell all that they have and give to the poor4 ,fifteenth1 to them who forsake houses1 and brethren1 and sisters1 and father1 and mother1 and wife1 and children1 and lands for the sake of ,christ's name4 ,sixteenth1 to those who feed the hungry1 give drink to the thirsty1 shelter to the stranger1 clothes to the naked1 comfort to the sick1 and who visit the prisoner4 ,nothing else is said with regard to salvation in the gospel according to ,st4 ,matthew4 ,not one word about believing the ,old ,testament to have been inspired2 not one word about being baptized or joining a church2 not one word about believing in any miracle2 not even a hint that it was necessary to believe that ,christ was the son of ,god1 or that he did any wonderful or miraculous things1 or that he was born of a virgin1 or that his coming had been foretold by the ,jewish prophets4 ,not one word about believing in the ,trinity1 or in foreordination or predestination4 ,matthew had not understood from ,christ that any such things were necessary to ensure the salvation of the soul4 ,according to the testimony1 ,matthew had been in the company of ,christ1 some say three years and some say one1 but at least he had been with him long enough to find out some of his ideas upon this great subject4 ,and yet ,matthew never got the impression that it was necessary to believe something in order to get to heaven4 ,he supposed that if a man forgave others ,god would forgive him2 he believed that ,god would show mercy to the merciful2 that he would not allow those who fed the hungry to starve2 that he would not put in the flames of hell those who had given cold water to the thirsty2 that he would not cast into the eternal dungeon of his wrath those who had visited the imprisoned2 and that he would not damn men who forgave others4 ,matthew had it in his mind that ,god would treat us very much as we treated other people2 and that in the next world he would treat with kindness those who had been loving and gentle in their lives4 ,it may be the apostle was mistaken2 but evidently that was his opinion4 ,,iii4 ,,the ,,gospel ,,of ,,mark ,,et us now see what ,mark thought it necessary for a man to do to save his soul4 ,in the fourth chapter1 after ,jesus had given to the multitude by the sea the parable of the sower1 his disciples1 when they were again alone1 asked him the meaning of the parable4 ,jesus replied3 ,unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of ,god3 but unto them that are without1 all these things are done in parables3 ,that seeing1 they may see1 and not perceive2 and hearing they may hear1 and not understand2 lest at any time they should be converted1 and their sins should be forgiven them4 ,it is a little hard to understand why he should have preached to people that he did not intend should know his meaning4 ,neither is it quite clear why he objected to their being converted4 ,this1 ,i suppose1 is one of the mysteries that we should simply believe without endeavoring to comprehend4 ,with the above exception1 and one other that ,i will mention hereafter1 ,mark substantially agrees with ,matthew1 and says that ,god will be merciful to the merciful1 that he will be kind to the kind1 that he will pity the pitying1 and love the loving4 ,mark upholds the religion of ,matthew until we come to the fifteenth and sixteenth verses of the sixteenth chapter1 and then ,i strike an interpolation put in by hypocrisy1 put in by priests who longed to grasp with bloody hands the sceptre of universal power4 ,let me read it to you4 ,it is the most infamous passage in the ,bible4 ,christ never said it4 ,no sensible man ever said it4 ,and ,he said unto them 7that is1 unto his disciples71 go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature4 ,he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved2 but he that believeth not shall be damned4 ,that passage was written so that fear would give alms to hypocrisy4 ,now1 ,i propose to prove to you that this is an interpolation4 ,how will ,i do it8 ,in the first place1 not one word is said about belief1 in ,matthew4 ,in the next place1 not one word about belief1 in ,mark1 until ,i come to that verse1 and where is that said to have been spoken8 ,according to ,mark1 it is a part of the last conversation of ,jesus ,christ1--just before1 according to the account1 he ascended bodily before their eyes4 ,if there ever was any important thing happened in this world that was it4 ,if there is any conversation that people would be apt to recollect1 it would be the last conversation with a god before he rose visibly through the air and seated himself upon the throne of the infinite4 ,we have in this ,testament five accounts of the last conversation happening between ,jesus ,christ and his apostles4 ,matthew gives it1 and yet ,matthew does not state that in that conversation ,christ said3 ,whoso believeth and is baptized shall be saved1 and whoso believeth not shall be damned4 ,and if he did say those words they were the most important that ever fell from lips4 ,matthew did not hear it1 or did not believe it1 or forgot it4 ,then ,i turn to ,luke1 and he gives an account of this same last conversation1 and not one word does he say upon that subject4 ,luke does not pretend that ,christ said that whoso believeth not shall be damned4 ,luke certainly did not hear it4 ,may be he forgot it4 ,perhaps he did not think that it was worth recording4 ,now1 it is the most important thing1 if ,christ said it1 that he ever said4 ,then ,i turn to ,john1 and he gives an account of the last conversation1 but not one solitary word on the subject of belief or unbelief4 ,not one solitary word on the subject of damnation4 ,not one4 ,john might not have been listening4 ,then ,i turn to the first chapter of the ,acts1 and there ,i find an account of the last conversation2 and in that conversation there is not one word upon this subject4 ,this is a demonstration that the passage in ,mark is an interpolation4 ,what other reason have ,i got8 ,there is not one particle of sense in it4 ,why8 ,no man can control his belief4 ,you hear evidence for and against1 and the integrity of the soul stands at the scales and tells which side rises and which side falls4 ,you can not believe as you wish4 ,you must believe as you must4 ,and he might as well have said3 ,go into the world and preach the gospel1 and whosoever has red hair shall be saved1 and whosoever hath not shall be damned4 ,i have another reason4 ,i am much obliged to the gentleman who interpolated these passages4 ,i am much obliged to him that he put in some more--two more4 ,now hear3 ,and these signs shall follow them that believe4 ,good6 ,in my name shall they cast out devils2 they shall speak with new tongues2 they shall take up serpents1 and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them4 ,they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover4 ,bring on your believer6 ,let him cast out a devil4 ,i do not ask for a large one4 ,just a little one for a cent4 ,let him take up serpents4 ,and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them4 ,let me mix up a dose for the believer1 and if it does not hurt him ,i will join a church4 ,oh6 but1 they say1 those things only lasted through the ,apostolic age4 ,let us see4 ,go into all the world and preach the gospel1 and whosoever believes and is baptized shall be saved1 and these signs shall follow them that believe4 ,how long8 ,i think at least until they had gone into all the world4 ,certainly those signs should follow until all the world had been visited4 ,and yet if that declaration was in the mouth of ,christ1 he then knew that one-half of the world was unknown1 and that he would be dead fourteen hundred and fifty-nine years before his disciples would know that there was another continent4 ,and yet he said1 ,go into all the world and preach the gospel1 and he knew then that it would be fourteen hundred and fifty-nine years before anybody could go4 ,well1 if it was worth while to have signs follow believers in the ,old ,world1 surely it was worth while to have signs follow believers in the ,new4 ,and the very reason that signs should follow would be to convince the unbeliever1 and there are as many unbelievers now as ever1 and the signs are as necessary to-day as they ever were4 ,i would like a few myself4 ,this frightful declaration1 ,he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved1 but he that believeth not shall be damned1 has filled the world with agony and crime4 ,every letter of this passage has been sword and fagot2 every word has been dungeon and chain4 ,that passage made the sword of persecution drip with innocent blood through centuries of agony and crime4 ,that passage made the horizon of a thousand years lurid with the fagot's flames4 ,that passage contradicts the ,sermon on the ,mount2 travesties the ,lord's prayer2 turns the splendid religion of deed and duty into the superstition of creed and cruelty4 ,i deny it4 ,it is infamous6 ,christ never said it6 ,,iv4 ,,the ,,gospel ,,of ,,luke4 ,,it is sufficient to say that ,luke agrees substantially with ,matthew and ,mark4 ,be ye therefore merciful1 as your ,father also is merciful4 ,good6 ,judge not and ye shall not be judged3 condemn not and ye shall not be condemned3 forgive and ye shall be forgiven4 ,good6 ,give and it shall be given unto you3 good measure1 pressed down1 and shaken together1 and running over4 ,good6 ,i like it4 ,for with the same measure that ye mete withal1 it shall be measured to you again4 ,he agrees substantially with ,mark2 he agrees substantially with ,matthew2 and ,i come at last to the nineteenth chapter4 ,and ,zaccheus stood and said unto the ,lord1 ',behold1 ,lord1 the half of my goods ,i give to the poor1 and if ,i have taken anything from any man by false accusation1 ,i restore him four fold4' ,and ,jesus said unto him1 'this day is salvation come to this house4' ,that is good doctrine4 ,he did not ask ,zaccheus what he believed4 ,he did not ask him1 ,do you believe in the ,bible8 ,do you believe in the five points8 ,have you ever been baptized--sprinkled8 ,or immersed8 ,half of my goods ,i give to the poor1 and if ,i have taken anything from any man by false accusation1 ,i restore him four fold4 ,and ,christ said1 this day is salvation come to this house4 ,good6 ,i read also in ,luke that ,christ when upon the cross forgave his murderers1 and that is considered the shining gem in the crown of his mercy4 ,he forgave his murderers4 ,he forgave the men who drove the nails in his hands1 in his feet1 that plunged a spear in his side2 the soldier that in the hour of death offered him in mockery the bitterness to drink4 ,he forgave them all freely1 and yet1 although he would forgive them1 he will in the nineteenth century1 as we are told by the orthodox church1 damn to eternal fire a noble man for the expression of his honest thoughts4 ,that will not do4 ,i find1 too1 in ,luke1 an account of two thieves that were crucified at the same time4 ,the other gospels speak of them4 ,one says they both railed upon him4 ,another says nothing about it4 ,in ,luke we are told that one railed upon him1 but one of the thieves looked and pitied ,christ1 and ,christ said to that thief3 ,to-day shalt thou be with me in ,paradise4 ,why did he say that8 ,because the thief pitied him4 ,god can not afford to trample beneath the feet of his infinite wrath the smallest blossom of pity that ever shed its perfume in the human heart6 ,who was this thief8 ,to what church did he belong8 ,i do not know4 ,the fact that he was a thief throws no light on that question4 ,who was he8 ,what did he believe8 ,i do not know4 ,did he believe in the ,old ,testament8 ,in the miracles8 ,i do not know4 ,did he believe that ,christ was ,god8 ,i do not know4 ,why then was the promise made to him that he should meet ,christ in ,paradise8 ,simply because he pitied suffering innocence upon the cross4 ,god can not afford to damn any man who is capable of pitying anybody4 ,v4 ,,the ,,gospel ,,of ,,john ,,and now we come to ,john1 and that is where the trouble commences4 ,the other gospels teach that ,god will be merciful to the merciful1 forgiving to the forgiving1 kind to the kind1 loving to the loving1 just to the just1 merciful to the good4 ,now we come to ,john1 and here is another doctrine4 ,and allow me to say that ,john was not written until long after the others4 ,john was mostly written by the church4 ,jesus answered and said unto him3 ,verily1 verily1 ,i say unto thee1 ,except a man be born again he can not see the kingdom of ,god4 ,why did he not tell ,matthew that8 ,why did he not tell ,luke that8 ,why did he not tell ,mark that8 ,they never heard of it1 or forgot it1 or they did not believe it4 ,except a man be born of water and of the ,spirit1 he can not enter into the kingdom of ,god4 ,why8 ,that which is born of the flesh is flesh1 and that which is born of the ,spirit is spirit4 ,marvel not that ,i said unto thee1 ,ye must be born again4 ,that which is born of the flesh is flesh1 and that which is born of the ,spirit is spirit1 and he might have added1 that which is born of water is water4 ,marvel not that ,i said unto thee1 'ye must be born again4' ,and then the reason is given1 and ,i admit ,i did not understand it myself until ,i read the reason1 and when you hear the reason1 you will understand it as well as ,i do2 and here it is3 ,the wind bloweth where it listeth1 and thou hearest the sound thereof1 but canst not tell whence it cometh1 and whither it goeth4 ,so1 ,i find in the book of ,john the idea of the ,real ,presence4 ,and as ,moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness1 even so must the ,son of man be lifted up2 ,that whosoever believeth in him should not perish1 but have eternal life4 ,for ,god so loved the world that he gave his only begotten ,son1 that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life4 ,for ,god sent not his ,son into the world to condemn the world1 but that the world through him might be saved4 ,he that believeth on him is not condemned2 but he that believeth not is condemned already1 because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten ,son of ,god4 ,he that believeth on the ,son hath everlasting life3 and he that believeth not the ,son1 shall not see life2 but the wrath of ,god abideth on him4 ,verily1 verily1 ,i say unto you1 ,he that heareth my word1 and believeth on him that sent me1 hath everlasting life1 and shall not come into condemnation2 but is passed from death unto life4 ,verily1 verily1 ,i say unto you1 the hour is coming1 and now is1 when the dead shall hear the voice of the ,son of ,god2 and they that hear shall live4 ,and shall come forth2 they that have done good unto the resurrection of life2 and they that have done evil1 unto the resurrection of damnation4-,and this is the will of him that sent me1 that everyone which seeth the ,son1 and believeth on him1 may have everlasting life2 and ,i will raise him up at the last day4 ,no man can come to me1 except the ,father1 which hath sent me1 draw him2 and ,i will raise him up at the last day4 ,verily1 verily1 ,i say unto you1 he that believeth on me hath everlasting life4 ,i am that bread of life4 ,your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness1 and are dead4 ,this is the bread which cometh down from heaven1 that a man may eat thereof1 and not die4 ,i am the living bread which came down from heaven4 ,if any man eat of this bread he shall live forever2 and the bread that ,i will give is my flesh1 which ,i will give for the life of the world4 ,then ,jesus said unto them1 verily1 verily1 ,i say unto you1 except ye eat the flesh of the ,son of man and drink his blood1 ye have no life in you4 ,whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood1 hath eternal life2 and ,i will raise him up at the last day4 ,for my flesh is meat indeed1 and my blood is drink indeed4 ,he that eateth my flesh1 and drinketh my blood1 dwelleth in me1 and ,i in him4 ,as the living ,father hath sent me1 and ,i live by the ,father2 so he that eateth me1 even he shall live by me4 ,this is that bread which came down from heaven2 not as your fathers did eat manna1 and are dead2 he that eateth of this bread shall live forever4 ,and he said1 ,therefore said ,i unto you1 that no man can come unto me1 except it were given unto him of my ,father4 ,jesus said unto her1 ,i am the resurrection and the life2 he that believeth in me1 though he were dead1 yet shall he live4 ,and whosoever liveth and believeth in me1 shall never die4 ,he that loveth his life shall lose it2 and he that hateth his life in this world1 shall keep it unto life eternal4 ,so ,i find in the book of ,john1 that in order to be saved we must not only believe in ,jesus ,christ1 but we must eat the flesh and we must drink the blood of ,jesus ,christ4 ,if that gospel is true1 the ,catholic ,church is right4 ,but it is not true4 ,i can not believe it1 and yet for all that1 it may be true4 ,but ,i do not believe it4 ,neither do ,i believe there is any god in the universe who will damn a man simply for expressing his belief4 ,why1 they say to me1 suppose all this should turn out to be true1 and you should come to the day of judgment and find all these things to be true4 ,what would you do then8 ,i would walk up like a man1 and say1 ,i was mistaken4 ,and suppose ,god was about to pass judgment upon you1 what would you say8 ,i would say to him1 ,do unto others as you would that others should do unto you4 ,why not8 ,i am told that ,i must render good for evil4 ,i am told that if smitten on one cheek ,i must turn the other4 ,i am told that ,i must overcome evil with good4 ,i am told that ,i must love my enemies2 and will it do for this ,god who tells me to love my enemies to damn his8 ,no1 it will not do4 ,it will not do4 ,in the book of ,john all these doctrines of regeneration--that it is necessary to believe in the ,lord ,jesus ,christ2 that salvation depends upon belief--in this book of ,john all these doctrines find their warrant2 nowhere else4 ,read ,matthew1 ,mark1 and ,luke1 and then read ,john1 and you will agree with me that the three first gospels teach that if we are kind and forgiving to our fellows1 ,god will be kind and forgiving to us4 ,in ,john we are told that another man can be good for us1 or bad for us1 and that the only way to get to heaven is to believe something that we know is not so4 ,all these passages about believing in ,christ1 drinking his blood and eating his flesh1 are afterthoughts4 ,they were written by the theologians1 and in a few years they will be considered unworthy of the lips of ,christ4 ,,vi4 ,,the ,,catholics ,,now1 upon these gospels that ,i have read the churches rest2 and out of these things1 mistakes and interpolations1 they have made their creeds4 ,and the first church to make a creed1 so far as ,i know1 was the ,catholic4 ,it was the first church that had any power4 ,that is the church that has preserved all these miracles for us4 ,that is the church that preserved the manuscripts for us4 ,that is the church whose word we have to take4 ,that church is the first witness that ,protestantism brought to the bar of history to prove miracles that took place eighteen hundred years ago2 and while the witness is there ,protestantism takes pains to say3 ,you cannot believe one word that witness says1 now4 ,that church is the only one that keeps up a constant communication with heaven through the instrumentality of a large number of decayed saints4 ,that church has an agent of ,god on earth1 has a person who stands in the place of deity2 and that church is infallible4 ,that church has persecuted to the exact extent of her power--and always will4 ,in ,spain that church stands erect1 and is arrogant4 ,in the ,united ,states that church crawls2 but the object in both countries is the same--and that is the destruction of intellectual liberty4 ,that church teaches us that we can make ,god happy by being miserable ourselves2 that a nun is holier in the sight of ,god than a loving mother with her child in her thrilled and thrilling arms2 that a priest is better than a father2 that celibacy is better than that passion of love that has made everything of beauty in this world4 ,that church tells the girl of sixteen or eighteen years of age1 with eyes like dew and light2 that girl with the red of health in the white of her beautiful cheeks--tells that girl1 ,put on the veil1 woven of death and night1 kneel upon stones1 and you will please ,god4 ,i tell you that1 by law1 no girl should be allowed to take the veil and renounce the joys and beauties of this life4 ,i am opposed to allowing these spider-like priests to weave webs to catch the loving maidens of the world4 ,there ought to be a law appointing commissioners to visit such places twice a year and release every person who expresses a desire to be released4 ,i do not believe in keeping the penitentiaries of ,god4 ,no doubt they are honest about it4 ,that is not the question4 ,these ignorant superstitions fill millions of lives with weariness and pain1 with agony and tears4 ,this church1 after a few centuries of thought1 made a creed1 and that creed is the foundation of the orthodox religion4 ,let me read it to you3 ,whosoever will be saved1 before all things it is necessary that he hold the ,catholic faith2 which faith except every one do keep entire and inviolate1 without doubt1 he shall everlastingly perish4 ,now the faith is this3 ,that we worship one ,god in trinity and trinity in unity4 ,of course you understand how that is done1 and there is no need of my explaining it4 ,neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance4 ,you see what a predicament that would leave the deity in if you divided the substance4 ,for one is the person of the ,father1 another of the ,son1 and another of the ,holy ,ghost2 but the ,godhead of the ,father1 and of the ,son1 and of the ,holy ,ghost is all one--you know what ,i mean by ,godhead4 ,in glory equal1 and in majesty coeternal4 ,such as the ,father is1 such is the ,son1 such is the ,holy ,ghost4 ,the ,father is uncreated1 the ,son uncreated1 the ,holy ,ghost uncreated4 ,the ,father incomprehensible1 the ,son incomprehensible1 the ,holy ,ghost incomprehensible4 ,and that is the reason we know so much about the thing4 ,the ,father is eternal1 the ,son eternal1 the ,holy ,ghost eternal1 and yet there are not three eternals1 only one eternal1 as also there are not three uncreated1 nor three incomprehensibles1 only one uncreated1 one incomprehensible4 ,in like manner1 the ,father is almighty1 the ,son almighty1 the ,holy ,ghost almighty4 ,yet there are not three almighties1 only one ,almighty4 ,so the ,father is ,god1 the ,son ,god1 the ,holy ,ghost ,god1 and yet not three ,gods2 and so1 likewise1 the ,father is ,lord1 the ,son is ,lord1 the ,holy ,ghost is ,lord1 yet there are not three ,lords1 for as we are compelled by the ,christian truth to acknowledge every person by himself to be ,god and ,lord1 so we are all forbidden by the ,catholic religion to say there are three ,gods1 or three ,lords4 ,the ,father is made of no one2 not created or begotten4 ,the ,son is from the ,father alone1 not made1 not created1 but begotten4 ,the ,holy ,ghost is from the ,father and the ,son1 not made nor begotten1 but proceeding4 ,you know what proceeding is4 ,so there is one ,father1 not three ,fathers4 ,why should there be three fathers1 and only one ,son8 ,one ,son1 and not three ,sons2 one ,holy ,ghost1 not three ,holy ,ghosts2 and in this ,trinity there is nothing before or afterward1 nothing greater or less1 but the whole three persons are coeternal with one another and coequal1 so that in all things the unity is to be worshiped in ,trinity1 and the ,trinity is to be worshiped in unity4 ,those who will be saved must thus think of the ,trinity4 ,furthermore1 it is necessary to everlasting salvation that he also believe rightly the incarnation of our ,lord ,jesus ,christ4 ,now the right of this thing is this3 ,that we believe and confess that our ,lord ,jesus ,christ1 the ,son of ,god1 is both ,god and man4 ,he is ,god of the substance of his ,father begotten before the world was4 ,that was a good while before his mother lived4 ,and he is man of the substance of his mother1 born in this world1 perfect ,god and perfect man1 and the rational soul in human flesh1 subsisting equal to the ,father according to his ,godhead1 but less than the ,father according to his manhood1 who being both ,god and man is not two but one1 one not by conversion of ,god into flesh1 but by the taking of the manhood into ,god4 ,you see that is a great deal easier than the other way would be4 ,one altogether1 not by a confusion of substance but by unity of person1 for as the rational soul and the flesh is one man1 so ,god and man is one ,christ1 who suffered for our salvation1 descended into hell1 rose again the third day from the dead1 ascended into heaven1 and he sitteth at the right hand of ,god1 the ,father ,almighty1 and ,he shall come to judge the living and the dead4 ,in order to be saved it is necessary to believe this4 ,what a blessing that we do not have to understand it4 ,and in order to compel the human intellect to get upon its knees before that infinite absurdity1 thousands and millions have suffered agonies2 thousands and thousands have perished in dungeons and in fire2 and if all the bones of all the victims of the ,catholic ,church could be gathered together1 a monument higher than all the pyramids would rise1 in the presence of which the eyes even of priests would be wet with tears4 ,that church covered ,europe with cathedrals and dungeons1 and robbed men of the jewel of the soul4 ,that church had ignorance upon its knees4 ,that church went in partnership with the tyrants of the throne1 and between those two vultures1 the altar and the throne1 the heart of man was devoured4 ,of course ,i have met1 and cheerfully admit that there are thousands of good ,catholics2 but ,catholicism is contrary to human liberty4 ,catholicism bases salvation upon belief4 ,catholicism teaches man to trample his reason under foot4 ,and for that reason it is wrong4 ,thousands of volumes could not contain the crimes of the ,catholic ,church4 ,they could not contain even the names of her victims4 ,with sword and fire1 with rack and chain1 with dungeon and whip she endeavored to convert the world4 ,in weakness a beggar--in power a highwayman1--alms dish or dagger--tramp or tyrant4 ,,vii4 ,,the ,,episcopalians ,,the next church ,i wish to speak of is the ,episcopalian4 ,that was founded by ,henry ,,viii41 now in heaven4 ,he cast off ,queen ,catherine and ,catholicism together1 and he accepted ,episcopalianism and ,annie ,boleyn at the same time4 ,that church1 if it had a few more ceremonies1 would be ,catholic4 ,if it had a few less1 nothing4 ,we have an ,episcopalian ,church in this country1 and it has all the imperfections of a poor relation4 ,it is always boasting of its rich relative4 ,in ,england the creed is made by law1 the same as we pass statutes here4 ,and when a gentleman dies in ,england1 in order to determine whether he shall be saved or not1 it is necessary for the power of heaven to read the acts of ,parliament4 ,it becomes a question of law1 and sometimes a man is damned on a very nice point4 ,lost on demurrer4 ,a few years ago1 a gentleman by the name of ,seabury1 ,samuel ,seabury1 was sent over to ,england to get some apostolic succession4 ,we had not a drop in the house4 ,it was necessary for the bishops of the ,english ,church to put their hands upon his head4 ,they refused4 ,there was no act of ,parliament justifying it4 ,he had then to go to the ,scotch bishops2 and1 had the ,scotch bishops refused1 we never would have had any apostolic succession in the ,new ,world1 and ,god would have been driven out of half the earth1 and the true church never could have been founded upon this continent4 ,but the ,scotch bishops put their hands on his head1 and now we have an unbroken succession of heads and hands from ,st4 ,paul to the last bishop4 ,in this country the ,episcopalians have done some good1 and ,i want to thank that church4 ,having on an average less religion than the others--on an average you have done more good to mankind4 ,you preserved some of the humanities4 ,you did not hate music2 you did not absolutely despise painting1 and you did not altogether abhor architecture1 and you finally admitted that it was no worse to keep time with your feet than with your hands4 ,and some went so far as to say that people could play cards1 and that ,god would overlook it1 or would look the other way4 ,for all these things accept my thanks4 ,when ,i was a boy1 the other churches looked upon dancing as probably the mysterious sin against the ,holy ,ghost2 and they used to teach that when four boys got in a hay-mow1 playing seven-up1 that the eternal ,god stood whetting the sword of his eternal wrath waiting to strike them down to the lowest hell4 ,that church has done some good4 ,the ,episcopal creed is substantially like the ,catholic1 containing a few additional absurdities4 ,the ,episcopalians teach that it is easier to get forgiveness for sin after you have been baptized4 ,they seem to think that the moment you are baptized you become a member of the firm1 and as such are entitled to wickedness at cost4 ,this church is utterly unsuited to a free people4 ,its government is tyrannical1 supercilious and absurd4 ,bishops talk as though they were responsible for the souls in their charge4 ,they wear vests that button on one side4 ,nothing is so essential to the clergy of this denomination as a good voice4 ,the ,episcopalians have persecuted just to the extent of their power4 ,their treatment of the ,irish has been a crime--a crime lasting for three hundred years4 ,that church persecuted the ,puritans of ,england and the ,presbyterians of ,scotland4 ,in ,england the altar is the mistress of the throne1 and this mistress has always looked at honest wives with scorn4 ,,viii4 ,,the ,,methodists ,,about a hundred and fifty years ago1 two men1 ,john ,wesley and ,george ,whitfield1 said1 ,if everybody is going to hell1 somebody ought to mention it4 ,the ,episcopal clergy said3 ,keep still2 do not tear your gown4 ,wesley and ,whitfield said3 ,this frightful truth ought to be proclaimed from the housetop of every opportunity1 from the highway of every occasion4 ,they were good1 honest men4 ,they believed their doctrine4 ,and they said3 ,if there is a hell1 and a ,niagara of souls pouring over an eternal precipice of ignorance1 somebody ought to say something4 ,they were right2 somebody ought1 if such a thing is true4 ,wesley was a believer in the ,bible4 ,he believed in the actual presence of the ,almighty4 ,god used to do miracles for him2 used to put off a rain several days to give his meeting a chance2 used to cure his horse of lameness2 used to cure ,mr4 ,wesley's headaches4 ,and ,mr4 ,wesley also believed in the actual existence of the devil4 ,he believed that devils had possession of people4 ,he talked to the devil when he was in folks1 and the devil told him that he was going to leave2 and that he was going into another person4 ,that he would be there at a certain time2 and ,wesley went to that other person1 and there the devil was1 prompt to the minute4 ,he regarded every conversion as warfare between ,god and this devil for the possession of that human soul1 and that in the warfare ,god had gained the victory4 ,honest1 no doubt4 ,mr4 ,wesley did not believe in human liberty4 ,honest1 no doubt4 ,was opposed to the liberty of the colonies4 ,honestly so4 ,mr4 ,wesley preached a sermon entitled3 ,the ,cause and ,cure of ,earthquakes1 in which he took the ground that earthquakes were caused by sin2 and the only way to stop them was to believe in the ,lord ,jesus ,christ4 ,no doubt an honest man4 ,wesley and ,whitfield fell out on the question of predestination4 ,wesley insisted that ,god invited everybody to the feast4 ,whitfield said he did not invite those he knew would not come4 ,wesley said he did4 ,whitfield said3 ,well1 he did not put plates for them1 anyway4 ,wesley said he did4 ,so that1 when they were in hell he could show them that there was a seat left for them4 ,the church that they founded is still active4 ,and probably no church in the world has done so much preaching for as little money as the ,methodists4 ,whitfield believed in slavery1 and advocated the slave-trade4 ,and it was of ,whitfield that ,whittier made the two lines3 ,he bade the slave ships speed from coast to coast1 ,fanned by the wings of the ,holy ,ghost4 ,we have lately had a meeting of the ,methodists1 and ,i find by their statistics that they believe that they have converted #acj1jjj folks in a year4 ,that1 in order to do this1 they have #bf1jjj preachers1 #bbf1jjj ,sunday school scholars1 and about #ajj1jjj1jjj invested in church property4 ,i find1 in looking over the history of the world1 that there are #dj1jjj1jjj or #ej1jjj1jjj of people born a year1 and if they are saved at the rate of #acj1jjj a year1 about how long will it take that doctrine to save this world8 ,good1 honest people2 but they are mistaken4 ,in old times they were very simple4 ,churches used to be like barns4 ,they used to have them divided--men on that side1 and women on this4 ,a little barbarous4 ,we have advanced since then1 and we now find as a fact1 demonstrated by experience1 that a man sitting by the woman he loves can thank ,god as heartily as though sitting between two men that he has never been introduced to4 ,there is another thing the ,methodists should remember1 and that is that the ,episcopalians were the greatest enemies they ever had4 ,and they should remember that the ,freethinkers have always treated them kindly and well4 ,there is one thing about the ,methodist ,church in the ,north that ,i like4 ,but ,i find that it is not ,methodism that does that4 ,i find that the ,methodist ,church in the ,south is as much opposed to liberty as the ,methodist ,church ,north is in favor of liberty4 ,so it is not ,methodism that is in favor of liberty or slavery4 ,they differ a little in their creed from the rest4 ,they do not believe that ,god does everything4 ,they believe that he does his part1 and that you must do the rest1 and that getting to heaven is a partnership business4 ,the ,methodist ,church is adapted to new countries--its ministers are generally uncultured1 and with them zeal takes the place of knowledge4 ,they convert people with noise4 ,in the silence that follows most of the converts backslide4 ,in a little while a struggle will commence between the few who are growing and the orthodox many4 ,the few will be driven out1 and the church will be governed by those who believe without understanding4 ,,ix4 ,,the ,,presbyterians ,,the next church is the ,presbyterian1 and in my judgment the worst of all1 as far as creed is concerned4 ,this church was founded by ,john ,calvin1 a murderer6 ,john ,calvin1 having power in ,geneva1 inaugurated human torture4 ,voltaire abolished torture in ,france4 ,the man who abolished torture1 if the ,christian religion be true1 ,god is now torturing in hell1 and the man who inaugurated torture1 is now a glorified angel in heaven4 ,it will not do4 ,john ,knox started this doctrine in ,scotland1 and there is this peculiarity about ,presbyterianism--it grows best where the soil is poorest4 ,i read the other day an account of a meeting between ,john ,knox and ,john ,calvin4 ,imagine a dialogue between a pestilence and a famine6 ,imagine a conversation between a block and an ax6 ,as ,i read their conversation it seemed to me as though ,john ,knox and ,john ,calvin were made for each other2 that they fitted each other like the upper and lower jaws of a wild beast4 ,they believed happiness was a crime2 they looked upon laughter as blasphemy2 and they did all they could to destroy every human feeling1 and to fill the mind with the infinite gloom of predestination and eternal death4 ,they taught the doctrine that ,god had a right to damn us because he made us4 ,that is just the reason that he has not a right to damn us4 ,there is some dust4 ,unconscious dust6 ,what right has ,god to change that unconscious dust into a human being1 when he knows that human being will sin2 when he knows that human being will suffer eternal agony8 ,why not leave him in the unconscious dust8 ,what right has an infinite ,god to add to the sum of human agony8 ,suppose ,i knew that ,i could change that piece of furniture into a living1 sentient human being1 and ,i knew that that being would suffer untold agony forever4 ,if ,i did it1 ,i would be a fiend4 ,i would leave that being in the unconscious dust4 ,and yet we are told that we must believe such a doctrine or we are to be eternally damned6 ,it will not do4 ,in #ahci there was a division in this church1 and they had a lawsuit to see which was the church of ,god4 ,and they tried it by a judge and jury1 and the jury decided that the new school was the church of ,god1 and then they got a new trial1 and the next jury decided that the old school was the church of ,god1 and that settled it4 ,that church teaches that infinite innocence was sacrificed for me6 ,i do not want it6 ,i do not wish to go to heaven unless ,i can settle by the books1 and go there because ,i ought to go there4 ,i have said1 and ,i say again1 ,i do not wish to be a charity angel4 ,i have no ambition to become a winged pauper of the skies4 ,the other day a young gentleman1 a ,presbyterian who had just been converted1 came to me and he gave me a tract1 and he told me he was perfectly happy4 ,said ,i1 ,do you think a great many people are going to hell8 ,oh1 yes4 ,and you are perfectly happy8 ,well1 he did not know as he was1 quite4 ,would not you be happier if they were all going to heaven8 ,oh1 yes4 ,well1 then1 you are not perfectly happy8 ,no1 he did not think he was4 ,when you get to heaven1 then you will be perfectly happy8 ,oh1 yes4 ,now1 when we are only going to hell1 you are not quite happy2 but when we are in hell1 and you in heaven1 then you will be perfectly happy8 ,you will not be as decent when you get to be an angel as you are now1 will you8 ,well1 he said1 that was not exactly it4 ,said ,i1 ,suppose your mother were in hell1 would you be happy in heaven then8 ,well1 he says1 ,i suppose ,god would know the best place for mother4 ,and ,i thought to myself1 then1 if ,i was a woman1 ,i would like to have five or six boys like that4 ,it will not do4 ,heaven is where those are we love1 and those who love us4 ,and ,i wish to go to no world unless ,i can be accompanied by those who love me here4 ,talk about the consolations of this infamous doctrine4 ,the consolations of a doctrine that makes a father say1 ,i can be happy with my daughter in hell2 that makes a mother say1 ,i can be happy with my generous1 brave boy in hell2 that makes a boy say1 ,i can enjoy the glory of heaven with the woman who bore me1 the woman who would have died for me1 in eternal agony4 ,and they call that tidings of great joy4 ,no church has done more to fill the world with gloom than the ,presbyterian4 ,its creed is frightful1 hideous1 and hellish4 ,the ,presbyterian god is the monster of monsters4 ,he is an eternal executioner1 jailer and turnkey4 ,he will enjoy forever the shrieks of the lost1--the wails of the damned4 ,hell is the festival of the ,presbyterian god4 ,x4 ,,the ,,evangelical ,,alliance4 ,i ,,have not time to speak of the ,baptists1--that ,jeremy ,taylor said were as much to be rooted out as anything that is the greatest pest and nuisance on the earth4 ,he hated the ,baptists because they represented1 in some little degree1 the liberty of thought4 ,nor have ,i time to speak of the ,quakers1 the best of all1 and abused by all4 ,i cannot forget that ,john ,fox1 in the year of grace #afdj1 was put in the pillory and whipped from town to town1 scarred1 put in a dungeon1 beaten1 trampled upon1 and what for8 ,simply because he preached the doctrine3 ,thou shalt not resist evil with evil4 ,thou shalt love thy enemies4 ,think of what the church must have been that day to scar the flesh of that loving man6 ,just think of it6 ,i say ,i have not time to speak of all these sects--the varieties of ,presbyterians and ,campbellites4 ,there are hundreds and hundreds of these sects1 all founded upon this creed that ,i read1 differing simply in degree4 ,ah6 but they say to me3 ,you are fighting something that is dead4 ,nobody believes this now4 ,the preachers do not believe what they preach in the pulpit4 ,the people in the pews do not believe what they hear preached4 ,and they say to me3 ,you are fighting something that is dead4 ,this is all a form1 we do not believe a solitary creed in the world4 ,we sign them and swear that we believe them1 but we do not4 ,and none of us do4 ,and all the ministers1 they say in private1 admit that they do not believe it1 not quite4 ,i do not know whether this is so or not4 ,i take it that they believe what they preach4 ,i take it that when they meet and solemnly agree to a creed1 they are honest and really believe in that creed4 ,but let us see if ,i am waging a war against the ideas of the dead4 ,let us see if ,i am simply storming a cemetery4 ,the ,evangelical ,alliance1 made up of all orthodox denominations of the world1 met only a few years ago1 and here is their creed3 ,they believe in the divine inspiration1 authority and sufficiency of the holy ,scriptures2 the right and duty of private judgment in the interpretation of the holy ,scriptures1 but if you interpret wrong you are damned4 ,they believe in the unity of the godhead and the ,trinity of the persons therein4 ,they believe in the utter depravity of human nature4 ,there can be no more infamous doctrine than that4 ,they look upon a little child as a lump of depravity4 ,i look upon it as a bud of humanity1 that will1 in the air and light of love and joy1 blossom into rich and glorious life4 ,total depravity of human nature6 ,here is a woman whose husband has been lost at sea2 the news comes that he has been drowned by the ever-hungry waves1 and she waits4 ,there is something in her heart that tells her he is alive4 ,and she waits4 ,and years afterward as she looks down toward the little gate she sees him2 he has been given back by the sea1 and she rushes to his arms1 and covers his face with kisses and with tears4 ,and if that infamous doctrine is true every tear is a crime1 and every kiss a blasphemy4 ,it will not do4 ,according to that doctrine1 if a man steals and repents1 and takes back the property1 the repentance and the taking back of the property are two other crimes4 ,it is an infamy4 ,what else do they believe8 ,the justification of a sinner by faith alone1 without works--just faith4 ,believing something that you do not understand4 ,of course ,god can not afford to reward a man for believing anything that is reasonable4 ,god rewards only for believing something that is unreasonable4 ,if you believe something that is improbable and unreasonable1 you are a ,christian2 but if you believe something that you know is not so1 then1--you are a saint4 ,they believe in the eternal blessedness of the righteous1 and in the eternal punishment of the wicked4 ,tidings of great joy6 ,they are so good that they will not associate with ,universalists4 ,they will not associate with ,unitarians2 they will not associate with scientists2 they will only associate with those who believe that ,god so loved the world that he made up his mind to damn the most of us4 ,the ,evangelical ,alliance reiterates the absurdities of the ,dark ,ages--repeats the five points of ,calvin--replenishes the fires of hell--certifies to the mistakes and miracles of the ,bible--maligns the human race1 and kneels to a god who accepted the agony of the innocent as an atonement for the guilty4 ,,xi4 ,,what ,,do ,,you ,,propose8 ,,then they say to me3 ,what do you propose8 ,you have torn this down1 what do you propose to give us in place of it8 ,i have not torn the good down4 ,i have only endeavored to trample out the ignorant1 cruel fires of hell4 ,i do not tear away the passage3 ,god will be merciful to the merciful4 ,i do not destroy the promise2 ,if you will forgive others1 ,god will forgive you4 ,i would not for anything blot out the faintest star that shines in the horizon of human despair1 nor in the sky of human hope2 but ,i will do what ,i can to get that infinite shadow out of the heart of man4 ,what do you propose in place of this8 ,well1 in the first place1 ,i propose good fellowship--good friends all around4 ,no matter what we believe1 shake hands and let it go4 ,that is your opinion2 this is mine3 let us be friends4 ,science makes friends2 religion1 superstition1 makes enemies4 ,they say3 ,belief is important4 ,i say3 ,no1 actions are important4 ,judge by deed1 not by creed4 ,good fellowship--good friends--sincere men and women--mutual forbearance1 born of mutual respect4 ,we have had too many of these solemn people4 ,whenever ,i see an exceedingly solemn man1 ,i know he is an exceedingly stupid man4 ,no man of any humor ever founded a religion--never4 ,humor sees both sides4 ,while reason is the holy light1 humor carries the lantern1 and the man with a keen sense of humor is preserved from the solemn stupidities of superstition4 ,i like a man who has got good feeling for everybody2 good fellowship4 ,one man said to another3 ,will you take a glass of wine8 ,i do not drink4 ,will you smoke a cigar8 ,i do not smoke4 ,maybe you will chew something8 ,i do not chew4 ,let us eat some hay4 ,i tell you ,i do not eat hay4 ,well1 then1 good-by1 for you are no company for man or beast4 ,i believe in the gospel of ,cheerfulness1 the gospel of ,good ,nature2 the gospel of ,good ,health4 ,let us pay some attention to our bodies4 ,take care of our bodies1 and our souls will take care of themselves4 ,good health6 ,and ,i believe the time will come when the public thought will be so great and grand that it will be looked upon as infamous to perpetuate disease4 ,i believe the time will come when man will not fill the future with consumption and insanity4 ,i believe the time will come when we will study ourselves1 and understand the laws of health and then we will say3 ,we are under obligation to put the flags of health in the cheeks of our children4 ,even if ,i got to heaven1 and had a harp1 ,i would hate to look back upon my children and grandchildren1 and see them diseased1 deformed1 crazed--all suffering the penalties of crimes ,i had committed4 ,i believe in the gospel of ,good ,living4 ,you can not make any god happy by fasting4 ,let us have good food1 and let us have it well cooked--and it is a thousand times better to know how to cook than it is to understand any theology in the world4 ,i believe in the gospel of good clothes2 ,i believe in the gospel of good houses2 in the gospel of water and soap4 ,i believe in the gospel of intelligence2 in the gospel of education4 ,the school-house is my cathedral4 ,the universe is my ,bible4 ,i believe in that gospel of justice1 that we must reap what we sow4 ,i do not believe in forgiveness as it is preached by the church4 ,we do not need the forgiveness of ,god1 but of each other and of ourselves4 ,if ,i rob ,mr4 ,smith and ,god forgives me1 how does that help ,smith8 ,if ,i1 by slander1 cover some poor girl with the leprosy of some imputed crime1 and she withers away like a blighted flower and afterward ,i get the forgiveness of ,god1 how does that help her8 ,if there is another world1 we have got to settle with the people we have wronged in this4 ,no bankrupt court there4 ,every cent must be paid4 ,the ,christians say1 that among the ancient ,jews1 if you committed a crime you had to kill a sheep4 ,now they say charge it4 ,put it on the slate4 ,it will not do4 ,for every crime you commit you must answer to yourself and to the one you injure4 ,and if you have ever clothed another with woe1 as with a garment of pain1 you will never be quite as happy as though you had not done that thing4 ,no forgiveness by the gods4 ,eternal1 inexorable1 everlasting justice1 so far as ,nature is concerned4 ,you must reap the result of your acts4 ,even when forgiven by the one you have injured1 it is not as though the injury had not been done4 ,that is what ,i believe in4 ,and if it goes hard with me1 ,i will stand it1 and ,i will cling to my logic1 and ,i will bear it like a man4 ,and ,i believe1 too1 in the gospel of ,liberty1 in giving to others what we claim for ourselves4 ,i believe there is room everywhere for thought1 and the more liberty you give away1 the more you will have4 ,in liberty extravagance is economy4 ,let us be just4 ,let us be generous to each other4 ,i believe in the gospel of ,intelligence4 ,that is the only lever capable of raising mankind4 ,intelligence must be the savior of this world4 ,humanity is the grand religion1 and no ,god can put a man in hell in another world1 who has made a little heaven in this4 ,god cannot make a man miserable if that man has made somebody else happy4 ,god cannot hate anybody who is capable of loving anybody4 ,humanity--that word embraces all there is4 ,so ,i believe in this great gospel of ,humanity4 ,ah6 but1 they say1 it will not do4 ,you must believe4 ,i say1 ,no4 ,my gospel of health will bring life4 ,my gospel of intelligence1 my gospel of good living1 my gospel of good-fellowship will cover the world with happy homes4 ,my doctrine will put carpets upon your floors1 pictures upon your walls4 ,my doctrine will put books upon your shelves1 ideas in your minds4 ,my doctrine will rid the world of the abnormal monsters born of ignorance and superstition4 ,my doctrine will give us health1 wealth and happiness4 ,that is what ,i want4 ,that is what ,i believe in4 ,give us intelligence4 ,in a little while a man will find that he can not steal without robbing himself4 ,he will find that he cannot murder without assassinating his own joy4 ,he will find that every crime is a mistake4 ,he will find that only that man carries the cross who does wrong1 and that upon the man who does right the cross turns to wings that will bear him upward forever4 ,he will find that even intelligent self-love embraces within its mighty arms all the human race4 ,oh1 but they say to me1 you take away immortality4 ,i do not4 ,if we are immortal it is a fact in nature1 and we are not indebted to priests for it1 nor to bibles for it1 and it cannot be destroyed by unbelief4 ,as long as we love we will hope to live1 and when the one dies that we love we will say3 ,oh1 that we could meet again1 and whether we do or not it will not be the work of theology4 ,it will be a fact in nature4 ,i would not for my life destroy one star of human hope1 but ,i want it so that when a poor woman rocks the cradle and sings a lullaby to the dimpled darling1 she will not be compelled to believe that ninety-nine chances in a hundred she is raising kindling wood for hell4 ,one world at a time is my doctrine4 ,it is said in this ,testament1 ,sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof2 and ,i say3 ,sufficient unto each world is the evil thereof4 ,and suppose after all that death does end all4 ,next to eternal joy1 next to being forever with those we love and those who have loved us1 next to that1 is to be wrapt in the dreamless drapery of eternal peace4 ,next to eternal life is eternal sleep4 ,upon the shadowy shore of death the sea of trouble casts no wave4 ,eyes that have been curtained by the everlasting dark1 will never know again the burning touch of tears4 ,lips touched by eternal silence will never speak again the broken words of grief4 ,hearts of dust do not break4 ,the dead do not weep4 ,within the tomb no veiled and weeping sorrow sits1 and in the ray-less gloom is crouched no shuddering fear4 ,i had rather think of those ,i have loved1 and lost1 as having returned to earth1 as having become a part of the elemental wealth of the world--,i would rather think of them as unconscious dust1 ,i would rather dream of them as gurgling in the streams1 floating in the clouds1 bursting in the foam of light upon the shores of worlds1 ,i would rather think of them as the lost visions of a forgotten night1 than to have even the faintest fear that their naked souls have been clutched by an orthodox god4 ,i will leave my dead where nature leaves them4 ,whatever flower of hope springs up in my heart ,i will cherish1 ,i will give it breath of sighs and rain of tears4 ,but ,i can not believe that there is any being in this universe who has created a human soul for eternal pain4 ,i would rather that every god would destroy himself2 ,i would rather that we all should go to eternal chaos1 to black and starless night1 than that just one soul should suffer eternal agony4 ,i have made up my mind that if there is a ,god1 he will be merciful to the merciful4 ,upon that rock ,i stand4-- ,that he will not torture the forgiving4-- ,upon that rock ,i stand4-- ,that every man should be true to himself1 and that there is no world1 no star1 in which honesty is a crime4 ,upon that rock ,i stand4 ,the honest man1 the good woman1 the happy child1 have nothing to fear1 either in this world or the world to come4 ,upon that rock ,i stand4