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Title: An Address to Men of Science
Calling Upon Them to Stand Forward and Vindicate the Truth....
Author: Richard Carlile
Release Date: December 22, 2011 [EBook #38379]
Last Updated: January 25, 2013
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN ADDRESS TO MEN OF SCIENCE ***
Produced by David Widger
* The latter part of this sentence might appear preposterous
when addressed to the Chemist, or to the Man of Science, but
it is probable that this Address might be read by some
individual who might not comprehend the assertion that
matter is imperishable and indestructible; therefore the
writer has taken the liberty to introduce this slight
explanation. He confesses that but two years since he
startled himself at the assertion, and asked the assertor
whether fire did not destroy matter.
We know that the planetary system of the universe has existed to all
eternity as to the past, and must exist to all eternity as to the future.
For, although, that solar system of which our habitation is a part, or
other solar systems, might go through great changes, yet its effect is but
as the falling of a hair from our heads, and cannot be said to disturb the
great whole.
Instead of viewing ourselves as the particular and partial objects of the
care of a great Deity, or of receiving those dogmas of the priest which
teach us that every thing has been made for the convenience and use of
man, and that man has been made in the express image of the Deity, we
should consider ourselves but as atoms of organized matter, whose pleasure
or whose pain, whose existence in a state of organization, or whose
non-existence in that state, is a matter of no importance in the laws and
operations of Nature; we should view ourselves with the same feelings, as
we view the leaf which rises in the spring, and falls in the autumn, and
then serves no further purpose but to fertilize the earth for a fresh
production; we should view ourselves but as the blossoms of May, which
exhibit but a momentary splendour and beauty, and often within that moment
are cut off prematurely by a blast. We are of no more importance in the
scale of Nature than those myriads of animalcules whose natural life is
but for the space of an hour, or but a moment. We come and pass like a
cloud—like a shower—those of us who possess a brilliancy
superior to others, are but as the rainbow, the objects of a momentary
admiration, and a momentary recollection. Man has been most aptly compared
to the seasons of the year, in our own climate, the spring, is his
infancy; the summer, the time af his ardent manhood; the autumn, his
decline of life; and the winter, his old age and death—he passes,
and another series comes. He is produced by, and produces his like, and so
passes away one generation after another, from, and to all eternity. How
ridiculous then is the idea about divine revelations, about prophesies,
and about miracles, to procure proselytes to such notions! To what
generation do they apply, or if they apply to all future generations, why
were not the same revelations, prophesies, and miracles, necessary to all
the past generations? What avail the dogmas of the priest about an end to
the world, about a resurrection, about a day of judgment, about a Heaven
and Hell, or about rewards and punishments after this life, when we assert
that matter is imperishable and indestructible—that it always was
what it now is, and that it will always continue the same. Answer this, ye
Priests. Come forward, ye Men of Science, and support these plain truths,
which are as familiar to your mind, as the simplest demonstration in
mathematics is to the experienced and accomplished mathematician.
Future rewards and punishments are cried up as a necessary doctrine
wherewith to impress the minds of men, and to restrain them from vice: but
how much more impressive and comprehensible would be the plain and simple
truth, that, in this life, virtue produces happiness, and vice nothing but
certain misery.
Away then with the ridiculous idea, and the priestly dogma of immortality.
Away with the contemptible notion that our bones, our muscles, and our
flesh shall be gathered together after they are rotted and evaporated for
a resurrection to eternal life. Away with the idea that we have a sensible
soul which lives distinct from and after the dissolution of the body. It
is all a bugbear, all a priestly imposture. The Chemist can analyse the
body of man, and send it into its primitive gaseous state in a few
minutes. His crucible and fire, or his galvanic battery, will cause it to
evaporate so as not to leave a particle of substance or solid matter, and
this chemical process is but an anticipation, or a hastening, of the
workings of Nature; for the whole universe might be aptly termed a great
chemical apparatus, in which a chemical analysis, and a chemical
composition is continually and constantly going on. The same might be said
of every organized body, however large, or however minute; its motions
produce a constant chemical analysis and composition, a continual change;
so that the smallest particle of matter is guided by the same laws, and
performs the same duties, as the great whole. Here is an harmony indeed!
Man alone seems to form an exception by his vicious conduct and
demoralizing character. By assuming to himself a character or a
consequence to which he is not entitled, and by making a pretension to the
possession of supernatural powers, he plays such fantastic tricks as to
disturb every thing within his influence, and carries on a perpetual war
with Nature and her laws.
After those few observations upon the properties of matter either
organized or inert, (to which I know every Chemist in the country, whose
science has conquered the bigotry of his education, will give his assent)
I would call upon them all and every one to stand forward and teach
mankind those important, those plain truths, which are so clear and so
familiar to their own minds. It is the Man of Science who is alone capable
of making war upon the Priest, so as to silence him effectually. It is the
duty of the Man of Science to make war upon all error and imposture, or
why does he study? Why does he analyse the habits, the customs, the
manners, and the ideas of mankind, but to separate truth from falsehood,
but to give force to the former, and to extinguish the latter? Why does he
search into Nature and her laws, but to benefit himself and his fellow man
by his discoveries, by the explosion of erroneous ideas, and by the
establishment of correct principles? Science must be no longer studied
altogether as an amusement or a pastime, which has been too much the case
hitherto; it must be brought forward to combat the superstitions, the
vices, and the too long established depravities among mankind, whence all
their present and past miseries have emanated, and unless the former can
be destroyed, the latter will still ensue, as a regular cause and effect.
It is evident that Men of Science have hitherto too much crouched to the
established tyrannies of Kingcraft and Priestcraft. Speaking generally
they have adopted some of the aristocratical distinctions of the day, and
have supported the frauds upon mankind, which it was their peculiar duty
to expose. This has given room to the advocates of superstitiop, to put
forward as an authority-for their dogmas, the names of Bacon, of Newton,
of Locke, and many others. They say that it is no disgrace even to err
with such men, and thus, for the want of a more decided and determined
character in the advocates of Science and Philosophy, the enemy has built
a strong hold within our lines, and has taken an important advantage of
our irresolution. I will not believe that Bacon, or Newton, or Locke, in
the latter part of their life, had any other ideas of the Christian
religion, or any other religion, than I have. In their days, the faggots
had scarcely been extinguished, nor was the fuel which supplied them
exhausted. They might therefore deem it prudent to equivocate as a matter
of safety. Besides, the two former were in the employ of a court, and
consequently under the trammels of Kingcraft, which ever has, and ever
will find its interest in the support of Superstition and Priestcraft.
I would appeal to any man who calls himself a conscientious Christian, and
ask him whether he thinks such a man as himself could write the following
paragraph:
﹃Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws,
to reputation: all which may be guides to an outward moral virtue, though
religion were not; but superstition dismounts all these, and createth an
absolute monarchy in the minds of men: therefore Atheism did never perturb
states; for it makes men wary of themselves, as looking no farther, and we
see the times inclined to Atheism (as the time of Augustus Cæsar) were
civil times: but superstition hath been the confusion of many states, and
bringeth in a new primum mobile, that ravisheth all the spheres of
government.﹄This is Lord Bacon's apology for Atheism, and, in my humble
opinion, he wrote it feelingly, conscientiously, and upon principle, as an
Atheist, which word has no other meaning than a seceder from all
mythologies, although the ignorant and interested make so much ridiculous
clamour and fuss about it.
To shew that Newton was thoroughly ignorant of the chemical properties of
matter, I will quote again a paragraph, which I quoted in page 341, Vol.
II. of "The Republican," in the answer to the Rev. Thomas Hartwell Home's
pamphlet, entitled "Deism Refuted," &c. It is thus: "All things
considered, it appears probable to me, that God in the beginning created
matter in solid, hard, impenetrable particles; of such sizes and figures,
and with such other properties, as most conduced to the end for which he
formed them, and that these primitive particles, being solids, are
incomparably harder than any of the sensible porous bodies compounded of
them; even so hard as never to wear, or break in pieces: no other power
being able to divide what God made in the first creation. While these
corpuscles remain entire, they may compose bodies of one and the same
nature and texture in all ages; but should they wear away or break in
pieces, the nature of things depending on them would be changed: water and
earth, composed of old worn particles, or fragments of particles, would
not be of the same nature and texture now, with water and earth composed
of entire particles at the beginning; and, therefore, that nature may be
lasting, the changes of corporeal things are to be placed only in the
various separations, and new associations of these permanent corpuscles."
The Chemists of the present day must smile at this notion of Sir Isaac
Newton, about what God did in the beginning: it is evident, that he knew
but little about chemical analysis and composition; or, rather, that his
ideas upon the subject were quite erroneous and hypothetical, when he
might have obtained a demonstration quite conclusive, if he had studied
Chemistry with other parts of his philosophy. Such, in my opinion, is the
importance of the science of Chemistry in the pursuit of truth and in the
investigation of Nature and her laws, that the first proper step towards
philosophical studies must be an acquaintance with its elements and
powers.
We need nothing further to convince us of the struggle which existed
between science and superstition in the mind of Sir Isaac Newton than the
following creed, which I have met with quite a propos, or in the
midst of writing this address, in a weekly provincial paper, and which, I
imagine, has been put forth at this moment as one of those little
anxieties to prop the declining superstition of the age. It is thus
headed, Sir Isaac Newton's Creed:﹃The Supreme Being governs all
things, not as soul of the world, but as Lord of the Universe; and upon
account of his dominion, he is stiled the Lord God, Supreme over all. The
Supreme God is an eternal, infinite, absolutely perfect being; but a
being, how perfect soever, without dominion, is not Lord God. The term
God, very frequently signifies Lord; but every Lord is not God. The
dominion of a spiritual being constitutes him God; true dominion, true
God; supreme dominion, supreme God; imaginary dominion, imaginary God. He
is not eternity and infinity, but eternal and infinite. He is not duration
and space, but his duration of existence is present, and by existing
always and every where, he constitutes duration and space—eternity
and infinity. Since every part of space, and every indivisible moment of
duration, is every where; certainly the Maker and Lord of all things,
cannot be said to be in no time, and no place. He is omnipresent, not by
his power only, but in his very substance; for power cannot subsist
without substance. God is not at all affected by the motions of bodies,
neither do they find any resistance from the omnipresence of God. He
necessarily exists, and by the same necessity he exists always and every
where. Whence also it follows, that he is all similar, all eye, all ear,
all brain, all arm, all sensation, all understanding, all active power;
but this, not in a human, or corporeal form, but in a manner wholly
unknown to us, therefore not to be worshipped under a corporeal
representation.﹄Here is the creed of Sir Isaac Newton! and who can read
this, and for a moment believe that he was a Christian when he wrote it? I
am not about to approve all this jargon and contradiction; I despise it; I
pity the Man of Science that could write such nonsense; and rather than I
would be called the author of it, I would relinquish as much fame as Sir
Isaac Newton obtained in other respects. The foregoing ideas of Sir Isaac
Newton on the properties of matter are equally unintelligible,
contradictory, and ridiculous. Lord Bacon's definition of Christianity, or
the essentials of the Christian religion, which I have seen printed as a
religious tract, but which I have not at hand for reference or quotation,
is just of the same stamp, and rather than be called the author of such
trash, I would consent to be considered an idiot. Yet Lord Bacon as a
natural philosopher, and Sir Isaac Newton as a mathematician and
astronomer, were eminent in the highest degree, when the age in which they
lived is considered. The conduct of both evinces the mischievous effect of
superstition on the human mind, particularly where that mind is
brilliantly adapted for making a progress in science and scientific
discoveries.
It is impossible to analyze the creed of Sir Isaac Newton relative to
Deity, or found any one idea upon it. It is a string of words that have no
application, and independent of their contradiction, all that can be said
of them is, that they describe nothing. The writer of such a creed must
have been an Atheist in disguise, or perhaps unknown even to himself. Its
total amount implies that there is no God such as priests teach, and
bigots and fools imagine and believe. Mirabaud, in his System of Nature,
has brought forward several quotations from Newton's writings, and has
commented on them to shew that he was what is vulgarly called an Atheist:
that he was what every Man of Science must be, a seceder from the
idolatry of the ignorant. Such I believe he was in his latter days,
and in his private opinion, but he had not the honesty to avow himself
such. It is unquestionable that Newton in his youth possessed much
superstition, and it is equally unquestionable that the progress he had
made in science in his advanced age, had entirely conquered that
superstition and banished it from his mind, although, I am sorry to say,
that he was not honest enough to make a full and conscientious confession
of the change to which his theological opinions had been subjected.
Perhaps I cannot make a deeper impression on the mind of the reader as to
the real character of Newton, than by quoting an anecdote from William
Whiston's Memoirs written by himself.
"Sir Hans Sloane, Edmund Halley, and myself, were once together at Child's
Coffee-house, in St. Paul's Church-yard, and Dr. Halley asked me, Why I
was not a member of the Royal Society? I answered, because they durst not
choose an heretic. Upon which Dr. Halley said to Sir Hans Sloane, that if
he would propose me, he would second it: which was done accordingly. When
Sir Isaac Newton, the President, heard this, he was greatly concerned;
and, by what I then learned, closeted some of the members, in order to get
clear of me; and told them, that if I was chosen a member, he would not be
president. Whereupon, by a pretence of deficiency in the form of
proceeding, the proposal was dropped, I not insisting upon it. Nay, as
soon as I was informed of Sir Isaac's uneasiness, I told his bosom friend,
Dr. Clarke, that had I known his mind, I would have done nothing that
might bring that great man's 'grey hairs with sorrow to the grave:' Nor
has that Society ever refused to let me come, and lay any of my papers or
instruments before them, whenever I desired it; without my being an actual
member: which, considering my small ability to pay the usual sums for
admission, and annual dues, was almost as agreeable to me, as being a
constant member. Now if the reader desire to know the reason of Sir Isaac
Newton's unwillingness to have me a member, he must take notice, that as
his making me first his deputy, and giving me the full profits of the
place, brought me to be a candidate, as his recommendation of me to the
heads of colleges in Cambridge, made me his successor; so did I enjoy a
large portion of his favour for twenty years together. But he then
perceiving that I could not do as his other darling friends did, that is,
learn of him, without contradicting him, when I differed in opinion from
him, he could not, in his old age, bear such contradiction; and so he was
afraid of me the last thirteen years of his life. See my Authentic
Records, page 1070, 1071. He was of the most fearful, cautious, and
suspicious temper, that I ever knew: and had he been alive when I wrote
against his Chronology, and so thoroughly confuted it, that nobody has
ever ventured to vindicate it, that I know of, since my confutation was
published, I should not have thought proper to publish it during his
life-time: because I knew his temper so well, that I should have expected
it would have killed him. As Dr. Bentley, Bishop Stillingfleet's chaplain,
told me, that he believed Mr. Locke's thorough confutation of the Bishop's
Metaphysics about the Trinity, hastened his end also."
Whiston was the early friend of Newton and succeeded him at Cambridge in
the professor's chair in the science of the Mathematics. Newton when young
was a firm adherent to the ridiculous doctrine of the Christian Trinity,
and so useful as figures were to him in his mathematical and astronomical
discoveries, and to such an extent, beyond all predecessors, could he
carry them, yet superstition could persuade him, that three could be
explained to be but one; and one to comprise three! The science of Whiston
in the Mathematics was almost equal to that of Newton, though I believe
the former had not so fertile a genius as the latter, and was obliged to
acquire by labour what to the other was natural. Yet Whiston, although he
had superstition enough to make him a honest and conscientious Christian,
knew the proper use of arithmetic, and would not allow three to be one,
nor one to be three: he rejected the doctrine of the Trinity in the
Godhead. Whiston honestly and openly combated this impossibility, and
avowed himself an Arian, and contended under much persecution throughout
his lifetime that such were the sentiments of the early Christians, and
that the doctrine of the Trinity was but a corruption of the church after
it had been long established. Such tenets were then called blasphemous,
and Whiston was expelled from his professor's chair, and from the
university of Cambridge altogether, and had to endure more clamour about
blasphemy than ever I had, or have any reason to fear in future. This
circumstance connected with a rivalry in the Mathematics occasioned the
breach between Whiston and Newton, but ridiculous as even Whiston's
superstition appears to me, I think him a much more honest man than ever
was Newton, and as a member of society much more useful to the age in
which they lived. Newton courted distinction and popularity by servilely
succumbing to all the despotisms of the day: Whiston was a man of
principle, and lived and died poor for the satisfaction of writing and
speaking what he thought and believed. The one has been too much flattered
and applauded; the other too much vilified and degraded, and the clamour
by which both circumstances have been effected has been equally disgusting
and disgraceful to the country.
I have contrasted the conduct of Whiston and Newton, and have made my
observations on the latter to shew that even his name carries no weight
with it in the support of superstition, I trust I have sufficiently shown
that superstition and science can never amalgamate, which also justifies
the inference that, morality and religion never can amalgamate.
Superstition corrupts and deteriorates all the human passions: science
alone is qualified to amend and moralize them. The Man of Science who
knows his duty, and what is conducive to the interest of mankind, will
ever boldly and openly set himself in opposition to the priest. This has
not been sufficiently done hitherto, and I hope that even my appeal will
not be altogether useless, but that, it will rouse some latent spirit
among the Men of Science in this island to assert their own dignity and
importance; and silence the foul, the wicked, and the mischievous clamour
of Priestcraft.
It is beyond doubt that Locke was hostile to the system of Government,
both in Church and State, and the odium which he incurred from a certain
quarter, was quite equal to that which has fallen upon Thomas Paine, or
those who, since the American and French revolutions, have travelled so
much farther in their opposition. Opposition to ill-founded
establishments, possessing power, must necessarily be progressive. Locke
was thought to have gone to an extreme in his time, but I now consider his
writings to be scarcely-worth reading, as far as they apply to toleration
in matters of opinion, or to political economy and political government.
The sentiments which I have put upon paper would have been called high
treason a century ago, and the author hung, beheaded, embowelled, and
quartered, with the general approbation of the people; and a person of the
name of Thomas, Matthews was actually hung for writing and printing what
was called a treasonable libel, in the reign of George the First; which
libel, or a similar one, would not now bethought seditious by the Attorney
General himself. Such is the effect of general instruction among the
people—such is the progressive power of the printing press, that, I
feel a moral conviction that the sentiments which I have avowed will
became general in another generation. The circumstance is as sure as that
no one will now condemn the political opinions of John Locke, as going too
far, but rather as weak and insipid, and not going far enough in honest
principle.
Then come forward, ye Men of Science, it is reserved for you to give the
death blow, or the last blow to superstition and idolatry. Now is the time—you
are safe even from momentary persecution, if you stand forward numerously
and boldly. You will have a people, an all mighty people, with you, a
circumstance which no philosopher could ever heretofore calculate upon.
You have nothing to fear, and nothing to lose, but every thing to gain,
even that which is most dear to you, the kind reception of your
instructions, the adoption of your principles, founded in truth and the
nature of things.
Kings and Priests have, in some cases, made partial pretensions to
patronize the Arts and Sciences, as a cloak for their enmity towards them.
They ever were, and ever will be, in reality, their direst foes. An
advanced state of Science cannot benefit them. Their present distinctions,
and misery-begetting splendour, could not be tolerated, when mankind shall
so far be illuminated as to know the real cause and object of
animal-existence. Common sense teaches us that good government requires
none of those idle distinctions; for why should the servants, or the
administrators of the laws of society, be distinguished above those whence
those laws should emanate? It is the duty of the Man of Science to attack
those distinctions, to combat all the established follies of the day, and
endeavour to restore society to its natural state; to that state which
first principles will point out; the mutual support, the comfort, the
happiness, and the protection of each other. At present we are but as so
many beasts of prey, each strengthening himself by the destruction of his
weaker fellow. The many unnatural distinctions which Kingcraft and
Priestcraft have brought into society, have totally undermined the first
object of the social state. In addition to this universal evil, those two
crafts have set themselves up as a bar to all useful improvement. They
countenance no change but that which swells the amount of their
depredations, (for the manner in which their incomes are extorted deserves
no other appellation.) Societies can obtain no real or lasting strength
under the sway of those two crafts, for every improvement that has been
made in their several conditions, has been evidently from the force of
natural and scientific knowledge, and in an exact ratio with the
diminution of kingly and priestly influence. This assertion is evident if
we examine the decay of their influence for the last three centuries, in
this or any other country. The printing press has come like a true Messiah
to emancipate the great family of mankind from this double yoke. This
Messiah is immortal, and its saving powers must be universal and
perpetual. By this, and by no other Messiah, can man be saved from
ignorance and misery; the only hell that he has to fear. It will prove the
true Messiah of the Jew, of the Christian, of the Mahometan, and of the
Pagan. It is a Messiah for all, and it will go on to unite under the name
and title of Man and Citizen the whole human race, or all those animals
who have the gift of speech, and its consequent, reason. I hope to see the
day, or I fear not but it will arrive, when every man of property shall
consider a printing-press, a necessary piece of furniture in his house;
and prize it more than our present aristocrats prize their hounds and
horses.
In support of my assertion, that Men of Science have hitherto crouched too
much to the established impostures of the day, I have merely to remark,
that I am not aware of any one instance in which any Chemist of this
country has made a public attack upon them, or called them in question in
any public manner. Another proof of my assertion might be found in the
Medical and Surgical professions. From the best information, I have
learnt, that, with a very few exceptions, the whole body of those
gentlemen in the Metropolis, have discarded from their minds all the
superstitious dogmas which Priestcraft hath invented, and that they have
adopted those principles which have a visible foundation in Nature, and
beyond what is visible and comprehensible, their credence does not extend.
Yet, when that spirited young man, Mr. Lawrence, having obtained a
professor's gown in the College of Surgeons, shew a disposition in his
public lectures to discountenance and attack those established impostures
and superstitions of Priestcraft, the whole profession displayed that same
cowardly and dastardly conduct, which hath stamped with infamy the present
generation of Neapolitans, and suffered the professor's gown to be
stripped from this ornament of his profession and his country, and every
employment to be taken from him, without even a public remonstrance, or
scarcely an audible murmur!
It is conduct such as this which gives courage and permanence to the
despots who strive to enslave both our bodies and our minds. It is this
base disposition of making truth crouch before established and antique
error, which has hitherto characterized the searchers after and lovers of
the former, that has given force and longevity to the latter. It is the
bounden duty of every man openly to avow whatever his mind conceives to be
the truth. If he shrinks from this he is a coward—a slave to the
opinions, of other men. Shall the enemies of mankind boldly tell us that
they perceive truth in their mysterious and incomprehensible dogmas, and
shall we shrink from the publication and support of those truths which we
perceive to have an evident foundation in Nature! Shall we shrink from the
avowal of truths because despotism and ignorance have granted stipends to
the propagators of falsehood, and because those stipends might be
endangered? Forbid it, Nature! Let every lover of truth and the peace and
happiness of the human race forbid it.
I may be told that the Man of Science had much better pursue his studies
and experiments in silence and private, and not expose himself to the
persecution of bigots. The idea is slavish—disgraceful. Science has
made sufficient progress in this country, and has a sufficient number of
followers and admirers, to enable them by a single breath to dissipate all
the bigotry in the country, or, at least, to silence all the idle clamour
of the bigoted and interested about blasphemy and atheism, or any of their
nonsense. Is the progress of Science to be submitted to an Excise, and are
all discoveries to be treated like contraband goods, lest the trade and
the tithes of the priest be injured? Shame on that man who can tacitly
submit to such a system. And yet this is just what we are called upon to
submit to, and threatened with punishment, and even banishment, if we
murmur. I, as an humble individual, have resolved to break through those
trammels, to violate all those degrading and disgraceful laws, and shall
the Man of Science be silent, and see all that he values most dear,
persecuted in my person, just because he will not proclaim that I am
right, and that my enemies, and his enemies, are wrong? Now is the time
for him to speak out—now is the time when he can do it effectually.
My humble efforts have alarmed the whole of Corruption and Falsehood's
hosts, and half frightened them to death, let but a few eminent and
distinguished Men of Science stand forward and support me, and I have no
fear of finishing well, what I have endeavoured well to begin. I aspire to
nothing more than to become the humble instrument of sounding and
resounding their sentiments. I am anxious to sound a loud blast in the
cause of Truth, of Reason, of Nature and her laws. I will give every Man
of Science an opportunity of publishing his sentiments without any direct
danger to himself: I will fill the gap of persecution for him, if a victim
be still necessary to satisfy the revenge of dying Priestcraft.
This is an age of revolutions, and where those revolutions have not yet
displayed themselves, it is not for want of the mind having been
sufficiently revolutionized, but because it is kept down by a superior
acting force in the shape of fixed bayonets and despotic laws. Throughout
Europe the mind of the people has been long revolutionized from its wonted
ignorance, and wherever it finds an opportunity, it displays itself. This
march of the mind will be progressive, and it is evident that it has
already begun to spread itself among the very instruments of those despots
called Kings, by which they vainly hoped to have checked its course. Every
march of the Russian troops into the south of Europe will but tend to
enlighten them, and by and bye they will become wise enough to return and
revolutionize their own country; by adopting the Representative System of
Government, and by making their present Emperor what he is so well adapted
for—a regimental tailor.
The horror which was so lately expressed by the Emperor of Austria at the
progress of Science, and at the revolution which Sir Humphry Davy had made
in the science of Chemistry, is a specimen of that feeling which pervades
all such men. This imbecile idiot quivered at an observation of his own
physician about the state of his own constitution, and forbade him ever to
use the word in his presence again! Yet it is by such men as this, that
the inhabitants of Europe are held in a state of bondage and degradation!
Will ye, Men of Science, continue to truckle before such animals? Will ye
any longer bend the knee to such Baals—to such Golden Calves as
these? Will ye bend your aspiring minds to prop the thrones of such
contemptible, such ignorant, such brutish despots? Shame on you, if you
can so far debase yourselves! Up, and play the man, boldly avow what your
minds comprehend as natural truths; and all the venom of all the Despots
and Priests on the face of the earth, shall fly before you as chaff before
the wind.
The science of Chemistry has so far explored the properties of matter in
all its variety, and has so far ascertained all its powers, purposes, and
combinations, as to banish the idea of its having been formed from any
chaotic state into its present form and fashion. The Chemist would smile
at such a notion in the present day, even if he feared to encounter the
Priest and his dogmas about the world having been created out of nothing.
Creation is an improper word when applied to matter. Matter never was
created—matter never can be destroyed. It is eternal both as to the
past and future. It is subject to a continual chemical analysis, and as
continual a new composition. For a full comprehension of these assertions,
it is necessary to have a knowledge of the elements of Chemistry:
therefore, if any other person, but those to whom this letter is
addressed, should read it, let him not hastily reject without a full
consideration and enquiry. Mr. Parke's Chemical Catechism, or Dr. Ure's
Chemical Dictionary, will explain all my assertions on the properties of
matter. The elements of Chemistry have been published by a variety of
other Chemists, to any of whom I would refer the reader, as it will not
answer the purport of my address to enter into a fuller explanation on
this important head, or to fill these pages with an elemental description
of Chemistry.
I address myself to Men of Science, not as one of them, but as an
individual who has obtained a sufficient insight into the various
departments of Science, through the medium of books, to convince him that
all the dogmas of the Priest, and of Holy Books, are false and wicked
impostures upon mankind. He therefore calls upon Men of Science to stand
forward and unfold their mind upon this important subject. He offers
himself as a medium through which they might escape the fangs of the
Attorney General, or the Society for propagating Vice, and pledges himself
that there is no truth that any Man of Science will write, but what he
will print and publish. He has a thorough contempt and indifference for
all existing laws and combinations to punish him upon this score, and will
set them all at defiance, whilst they attempt to restrain any particular
opinions. He will go on to show to the people of this island, what one
individual, and he a very obscure and bumble one, can do in the cause of
propagating the truth, in opposition to falsehood and imposture.
I have now gone through the first part of my first head, and I should have
been happy if I could have made an exception in the general conduct of the
Chemists of this island. I am not aware that any one of them has ever made
himself the public advocate of truth, of scientific philosophical truth,
in opposition to the false and stupifying dogmas of Priestcraft or Holy
Books. In the Medical and Surgical professions I have found one exception,
and but one, although I almost feel myself justified in calling on many by
name to come forward, and among them my namesake stands most conspicuous,
in that cause which is nearest their hearts.
I have introduced the names of Bacon, Newton, and Locke, under this part
of my address, not as practical Chemists, which I believe they were not,
or if they knew any thing of the elements of Chemistry, that knowledge is
not now worthy of mention, but because they are now claimed as the patrons
of Superstition. Newton certainly deserves to be called a great
astronomer, but as he endeavoured to make even his knowledge in Astronomy
subservient to his bigotry, I have thought proper to treat him as a
wavering and dishonest fanatic, rather than as a Man of Science. The
theological and metaphysical writings of Bacon and Locke, are completely
ambiguous, and form no key to the mind of the writer, or to any abstract
and particular opinions. As I have said before, they equivocated as a
matter of safety; whatever others might think of them, I feel no pride in
saying they were Englishmen. Thomas Paine is of more value by his
writings, than Bacon, Newton, and Locke together.
In calling upon the Astronomer to stand forward and avow his knowledge,
that all the astronomical dogmas of Holy Books are founded in error and
ignorance of the laws...
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...properly be termed a species of madness. Whatever opinions prevail in
the minds of men which have no foundation in Nature, or natural laws, they
can merit no other designation than insanity. Insanity, or madness,
consists in unnatural or incoherent thoughts and actions, therefore, as no
species of religious notions have any alliance with nature, it is but a
just inference to say, that they individually or collectively comprise the
term madness. In mild dispositions it may be but a harmless
melancholy aberration; in the more violent it becomes a raging delirium,
which destroys every thing that comes in its way, and for which it has
sufficient strength. It destroys all moral and natural good which comes
within its influence, and madly proclaims itself the summum bonum
for mankind! As yet there is scarcely sufficient reason among mankind to
restrain this madness. It has so mixed itself up with all political
institutions that there is no separating the one without revolutionizing
the other. This is the chief cause of the frequent convulsions in society,
as this madness cannot possibly engender any thing but mischief, and it is
well known, that, in madness, there is no rest; it is always in a state of
motion, unless there be a sufficient power at hand to curb and restrain
it. Reason, or a knowledge of nature, is the only specific for it, and he
who can throw the greatest quantity into the social system will prove the
best physician. Several quacks have made pretensions to give society
relief from this madness but they have only tortured the patient without
checking the disease. Thomas Paine, and a few American and French
physicians, have been the only ones to treat it in an effectual manner,
and by the use of their recipes, and the assistance of Men of Science, I
hope at least effectually to destroy the contagious part of the disease.
Mathematics, magic, and witchcraft, were formerly denounced by
superstition as synonymous terms, and the mathematical student has been
often punished as a conjuror! Astronomy and Astrology were also considered
one and the same thing. Such were the fantasies and delusions which
superstition could raise in the minds of men, and such has been the
wickedness of priests, who could always perceive and even acknowledge that
human reason was inimical to their views, and whoever possessed or
practised it ought to be destroyed as the enemy not only of themselves but
of their God too! As Philosophy has left us no doubt that their interest
was and still is their God, they have so far acted consistently, but it is
now high time that Philosophy should triumph over Priestcraft. It is now
evident that Philosophy has sufficient strength on her side for that
purpose, as her supporters are now more numerous than the supporters of
Priestcraft. Let Men of Science stand forward and shew the remaining dupes
of Priestcraft, that the Mathematics are nothing more than a simple but
important science, and that Astronomy has no affinity to that bugbear
called Astrology.
The Priests and Judges of the present day are men of the same disposition
as the Priests and Judges of the seventeenth century, who imprisoned
Galileo for asserting the sphericity of the earth, and its revolution
round the sun, contrary to the tenets of the Holy Bible, and who burnt old
women as witches because they might have had the misfortune to be old,
ugly, or deformed. Such is the power and progress of truth, that those
very men are brought to confess that Galileo asserted nothing more than an
important philosophical fact. On this point I will briefly notice the
misgivings of one of our living judges. Mr. Justice Best in his judicial
circuit through the northern district, at the late Lent assizes for
Cumberland, on a trial for libel, made the following assertion, after
attempting to contrast the state of freedom in this country at this time,
with what existed at Rome when Galileo was imprisoned in the Inquisition,
for stating "a great philosophical truth," his Judgeship observed: "now in
this country any philosophical truth, or opinion, might be stated and
supported without its being considered libellous."
This is a most glaring and a most abominable falsehood, when the quarter
from which it came is considered.
Mr. Justice Best in the month of November 1819, sat as a judge in the
Court of King's Bench, and advised the sending me to the gaol of
Dorchester for three years and the imposing a fine upon me of fifteen
hundred pounds for stating and supporting a great philosophical truth. Not
content with the imposition of this enormous fine and tremendous
imprisonment, he also immediately sanctioned the issuing of a writ of levari
facias, on the very same day, by which my business and my property was
destroyed, and by which: cause I am at present deprived of all visible
means of making up that fine. Yet, Mr. Justice Best, had the effrontery to
say from the bench, which should ever be sacred to truth and justice, that
no philosophical truth stated and supported in this country, would be
considered libelous! I do aver, and I challenge any Man of Science to
contradict me publicly, if he dares, that the two volumes, for the
publication of which I am now suffering imprisonment, and for which I have
been so excessively fined and robbed, contain nothing more than
philosophical truths, as plain, as, simple and as important, as those for
which Galileo was imprisoned by the Christian Inquisition, about two
hundred years since. I appeal to Mr. Justice Best himself—he knows
the truth of what I now write—yet he has had the effrontery, in
contempt of the good sense and discernment of the whole country, to put
forth this vile falsehood—still more vile, because he himself
partook in the order for my punishment, Galileo was told in the
seventeenth century by the Magnificent Inquisitor General that, his
astronomical ideas were not in unison with the Holy Scriptures, and that
he must not promulgate them. Mr Justice Best told me in November 1819,
that he would not sit on the bench as a judge and hear a particle of the
Bible called in question. Then where is the difference in the conduct of
those two Magnificent Inquisitors General, and between my case and that of
Galileo? The Judges who condemned Galileo were quite mild and humane when
compared with mine, they did not rob him of all his property and fix a
fine with a hope that he would never be able to pay it: they merely, in
addition to his imprisonment, ordered him to repeat, aloud the seven
penitential psalms once a week! Canst thou Mr. Justice Best read this
statement and these observations, and again take thy seat as a judge in a
Court of law or what ought to be a Court of Justice? Blush! Best! blush!
Every Man of Science—every lover of great philosophical truths, will
proclaim thee a liar for thy assertion on the bench at Carlisle in
Cumberland. The very name of the place might have reminded thee of the
grossness of that assertion!
Neither will it become me here to lay down the elements of Astronomy, my
appeal is to the Astronomer, and I have merely to remind him, that, if he
supports the dogmas of the Priest, or the astronomical blunders of any
holy book, he is a corrupt and wicked hypocrite, and a disgrace to the
science which he studies, practises, or teaches. Science and truth ought
to be synonymous terms, and neither the one or the other ought, upon any
consideration whatever, to pay the least respect or deference to
established error. To those same persons whom I have given a reference for
the elements of Chemistry, I would also refer to other works for the
elements of Astronomy. They are now published in a variety of shapes and
forms, and I am much pleased to see that a number of gentlemen are giving
lectures on Astronomy in all our towns and cities of any note. Such men
are worthy of support in preference to the Priest, and although they may
jointly, from fear, or other motives, attempt to mix up religious dogmas
with their scientific lectures, I know that it must tend to a due
enlightenment of the public mind. An Eidouranion or Orrery to have been
displayed a few centuries ago would have gathered a pile of faggots for
the lecturer, and he would have been burnt as a daring blasphemer, and his
machine with him, as the devil's workmanship. Such is the rapid progress
of natural knowledge, that I almost doubt whether the person, that shall
now stand forward and publish Thomas Paine's Age of Reason, and Elihu
Palmer's Principles of Nature, in the same open and determined manner as I
published them, would find even imprisonment for it, let him do it openly
and I will commend him, and be almost answerable for him in point of loss
or suffering.
It is not a sufficient excuse for Men of Science to plead established
institutions, or to say that Priestcraft is powerful because six millions
of money is wrung from the people in the shape of direct taxes to support
it, and about as much more levied in the shape of voluntary contributions
upon that class of people called Dissenters. Shew the people that they are
imposed upon, and they will no longer be robbed and laughed at, they will
soon perceive that the money which this Priestcraft takes from their
pockets would be sufficient for a splendid execution and administration of
the laws and government of the country. Abolish Priestcraft, and the
expense which now attends it will cover all the other necessary expences
of the state. This twelve millions of money is spent for the very worst of
purposes, for it does not civilize society, but rather brutalizes it, by
setting its members one against the other, upon different points of
belief, all of which are proved to be erroneous and to have no foundation
in Nature.
The Man of Science ought not to look at, or respect, any thing but the
discovery and propagation of truth. Instead of respecting mischievous and
erroneous establishments, he, of all men, is bound, by every honourable
tie, to make an exposure of them, and to teach the people right from
wrong. His knowledge and discoveries should be like the benefits of Nature
dispensed alike to all without price or reward. He ought to be the patron
of truth, and the enemy of error, in whatever shape it might appear, or
whatever effect it might produce. Like Nature herself, he should be no
respecter of persons or of things individually but collectively.
I have now gone through the first head of this Address, and I trust that I
have performed what I promised under it. I have shewn that Men of Science,
either from having their minds tinged with superstition, or from the fear
of offending those who might labour under that malady, have deprived
society of many of those benefits which it was their bounden duty to have
conferred upon it. They have withheld from the public the most important
discoveries, because, as the Christian Inquisition said to Galileo, such
discoveries, or such doctrines, were contrary to those of the Holy Bible.
Shame upon such dastardly principles, say I—they are a disgrace to
mankind, which assumes a superiority over all other animals. We had better
never have possessed the gift of speech, and its consequent reason, if we
are only to use it for the propagation of falsehood, and the production of
misery, to the majority of the species. I have broken through the trammels
of Priestcraft publicly, I bid defiance to all the persecution it can
inflict upon me, and I now call upon the Men of Science in this island to
stand forward and support me. However it might affect the momentary
interest of individuals, ought not to be a question, it is certain that
superstition would not linger another year, if the Philosophers of the
country would stand forward and make war upon it: they would then find
that the extortions of the Priesthood would be willingly given for the
erection of Temples of Science, and the support of competent professors in
the Arts and Sciences; and that a mutual instruction in every thing that
can benefit a society would be the first and last object in view, both
individually and generally.
I come now to the second head of my address, in which I have undertaken to
shew, that, all existing systems of education are imperfect and improper,
and further, to give a sketch of a system that shall be more proper. In
the first place I would remark that, in all the schools of this country,
or with scarce an exception worthy of mention, the youth are subjected to
a certain system of religious study and exercise. They have to attend
certain ceremonies called public worship or prayers—they have to get
those prayers by heart, and also a catechism of religious belief, or I
should rather say religious dogmas, as there can be no real belief where
there is no comprehension of the object in contemplation or discussion;
however, altogether, about these religious ceremonies, one half of the
time of youth is wasted; for the lessons in reading, lessons in grammar,
copies for writing, and even those lessons in which foreign languages are
taught, have their subject matter founded upon religious dogmas, either
ancient or modern. Here and there a moral precept is thrown in, but the
dogmas of religion have a decided preponderance, and more than half of the
time of youth is wasted upon them. It is evident that these religious
dogmas make not the least impression upon the minds of youth, further than
to stupify them by so dull and so constant a repetition, and the reason of
this is, that these religious dogmas have no foundation whatever in
Nature. They neither instruct, amuse, interest, or delight, because the
youthful mind has no comprehension of their object, and can perceive no
real utility arising from them. They are viewed but as a matter of school
discipline, and the youth returns to them with a loathing. Still they are
continually pressed upon him as long as he remains under parent or tutor,
and he grows up with a mind soured by an habitual distaste of that which
he is told to venerate. If you were to instruct a child in the elements of
Chemistry, you would find that it would be constantly amusing itself with
such simple chemical experiments as its childhood could practise and
comprehend: it would feel an interest in all the little experiments it
could make, and that interest would lead on to a self-importance, to
industry, to a knowledge and due comprehension of the value of time, about
which children think so little, or rather think nothing at all, under the
present system of education. They are exhorted to set a value on their
time by written precepts, but they have no inducements to that object,
owing to their system of education being one dreary monotony. No part of
it is calculated to kindle the fire of genius, or to cherish the aspiring
spirit of youth. It is from such a system of education that true genius
has become so very scarce, and is so seldom seen: it blunts and stupifies
the mind, and obscures that radiance to which the system I now propose
would have given energy and opportunity to display itself. Many of
Nature's Nobles have passed through life unknown and unheeded entirely
from the influence of a superstitious and genius-destroying education!
From the evident disposition of children to imitate all the actions of
grown persons, from their little scientific propensities to produce in
miniature what they see in magnitude, from the delight which they feel,
and the deep interest which they take in all their little works and
playful amusements, it is certain that nothing more is required to put
them in the channel of correct ideas than to give them such instruction,
and to bend their minds to such objects as shall at once employ, amuse,
and delight, and at the same time form a playful and healthful exercise
for them; whilst it is calculated to expand their minds in the knowledge
and comprehension of those objects which are above all things conducive to
the interests of society, and which relate to the progressive improvement
and advancing state of the Arts and Sciences.
The objects to which I allude, are chemical experiments, and experiments
in every other branch of Natural Philosophy: and a study of Natural
History by observation and examination of natural subjects. I need not
enumerate the various branches of Natural History, suffice it to say, that
I would have a system of education that should embrace the whole
successively; and here a wide field would be open for the conversion of
priests to professors in the various departments of this science; and this
science alone is so far infinite as to make the life of man a continual
system of education and research. Independent of the foregoing sciences
there are Geography, Astronomy, Mechanics, and all the lesser branches
which are commonly and necessarily taught to youth in the present system
of education. This I consider would be a natural and proper system for the
education of youth, and this system has all the degrees which are as well
adapted to the comprehension of infants or children of three and four
years old, as to the most mature age and knowledge.
The beauty of scientific pursuits is, that there is always a novelty in
them—that discoveries in them will ever be infinite, and that the
further you proceed the more you see before you, and the more ardour you
feel in those pursuits. It is the best of all amusement and pastime,
because, it produces universal advantage and universal satisfaction,
whilst it neither fatigues the follower nor injures his neighbour. Other
amusements and pastimes are apt to occasion individual injury and even
misery, but this cannot. The sportsmen cannot hunt or shoot, without
damaging the cultivated property of others, and whilst in the pursuit of
his game his mind allows no obstacles to be just. With the Man of Science
the case is different, his amusements and experiments are made within a
narrow sphere, and the result is calculated to benefit all without injury
to any.
Chemistry I deem to be the foundation of all other science, and in a
manner pf speaking to comprise all other branches of science. As matter
and motion comprise everything we can behold or conceive, and as Chemistry
is an investigation of the properties of matter, with the causes and
effects of its various combinations, it is evidently the most important
part of science, or rather, the first and last part of it. The cultivation
of the earth—the cookery of our food—its quantity and quality,
and every thing connected with feeding the body—the preservation of
our health, and the very preparation of our clothing, may be said to be
comprised in the terms chemical analysis and composition. There is no one
part of the Arts and Sciences, but to which Chemistry has relation, and
even the most important relation. In all manufactures, whether wood or
metal—clay or stone—wax or glass—paper or cloth, or what
not, the knowledge of Chemistry is essential. It is to the science of
Chemistry that we owe all our artificial productions, it is to the science
of Chemistry that we owe all our knowledge and comprehension of natural
productions, and their adaption to our several uses. It is therefore of
the first consequence that we should commence our studies in this all
important science, even in our infancy. As the Science of Chemistry
embraces so extensive a variety of objects, it is not without a class
simple enough for the comprehension of children. The burning of a candle
is a chemical experiment for the production of light—the burning of
the fuel which keeps up our fires, is but a chemical experiment for the
production of heat; to which a thousand might be added equally simple, a
definition of which could not fail to be of the greatest importance in the
education of children. And why might not even the first lessons of
children be comprised of these and similar simple chemical experiments,
which beyond every other subject must instruct and amuse, attract the
child's particular attention, and expand its mind by filling it with
correct ideas?
I would banish from our school-books every word about God or Devil—Heaven
or Hell, as hypocritical and unmeaning words, mere words of sound, and
confine the attention of children and youth to such subjects, as an every
day's experience shall evince to them to have a foundation in Nature.
Moral precepts might, be necessary and useful but even morality might, in
my opinion, be taught much better by example than by precept. Therefore, I
would say, that the books of children had better be filled with scientific
subjects than with moral precepts, as the former are infinite and cannot
be too early entered upon, or too closely studied, whilst the latter might
be comprised in a few expressions, and taught better, and with more
impression by colloquy and example, than in lessons for reading and
writing. However, lessons on moral virtue might be most appropriately
mixed up with lessons on scientific subjects. They lead to one common end—the
happiness and welfare of the human race in society.
Let no one imagine that I hold moral virtue in light esteem, or that I
deem it a secondary object, No, the possession of moral virtue with the
grossest ignorance on every other subject, is preferable to the most
extensive knowledge connected with an immoral and vicious character. Moral
virtue should form the foundation of every motive, and every action in
life. It is from the conviction that scientific pursuits, or a scientific
education, must naturally lead to the extension of moral virtue, that I
have been induced to submit this sketch to Men of Science. Moral virtue is
with me a primum mobile in all things. It forms the beginning and
the end of all my views, and, according to my conceptions, of all the
principles I advocate and teach. But I would most strenuously exhort the
reader to abandon the idea, if he does hold it, that morality is dependent
on religion, or that the former cannot exist without the latter. I
solemnly and deliberately assert, that religion is rather the bane than
the nurse of morality. I have imbibed this impression from the deepest
reflection and the closest observation of mankind. To those who think Lord
Bacon an authority worth notice, for what I assert, I would refer them to
a quotation from his writings on a former page. However, I want no written
authority, nor no name, to convince me of the truth of my assertion; we
have but to look around us with an impartial eye, and we might read it in
the every day actions of the majority of mankind.
I would also banish from our schools Homer, Hesiod, Horace, Ovid, and
Virgil, and every volume that makes the least allusion to the mythologies
of Greece or Rome, or any-other part of what have been called the Pagan
mythologies. If such books are amusing or instructive in ancient history,
it will be time enough to read them after having gone through a scholastic
education. They should make, no part of the school routine. I do not here
mean to dispute the propriety of children been taught the dead languages,
although I must confess, that I consider them no farther useful than to
teach the etymology of our own language. Paine, Franklin, and Cobbett, are
powerful instances that they are by no means essential to an enlarged
mind. However, if the dead languages continue to be taught in our schools,
I could wish them to be taught through a different medium than at present.
Those languages might be taught on other subjects than wars, famines, and
massacres, immoral mythologies and the history of base and vicious
characters. It has been the common misfortune of historians to take
especial notice of base and vicious characters. Hitherto profligacy has
been the chief passport to immortality, and the virtuous few have passed
through life unheeded before or after death with but very few exceptions.
The very books which are called holy and divine are filled with
descriptions of human monsters, and scarce any set off or contrast to
exhibit the benefits and beauties of moral virtue among mankind.
I am sensible that at present no books exist, such as I point out for the
use of schools, embracing the elements of the Arts and Sciences, and free
from allusion to all kinds of mythology and superstition, among which I
wish to be understood as including the mythology and superstition of the
Christians, but no task can be more simple than for a few Men of Science
to compile them. Of late some brief and partial descriptions of the Arts
and Sciences have been introduced into school-books, but it has been
mingled with so much trash about religion and superstition, as to render
it of no avail, and but as a secondary or useless object. It is high time
that the subject was taken in hand by Men of Science, and that such books,
in the various departments of science, should be compiled, as to be
adapted for all the different stages of education. None but he who is
skilled in any particular science can be equal to the task of compilation.
He alone can judge of the best method of introducing that particular
science to the youthful mind. It will not be necessary that I should here
draw out any specific plan for this system of education; I submit the
outline to the judgment of Men of Science. My meaning is too clearly
stated to be misunderstood or cavilled with. The subject is a proper one
to attract the attention of any legislature that emanates from, and
legislates for, the benefit of the people, and he that shall move it as an
amendment to Mr. Brougham's proposed system, which has no other object
than to become a new prop for decaying superstition, will at least deserve
well of his country and every lover of science and real liberty, whether
he succeeds or not. It is a subject that no honest man need be ashamed of.
It is by no means a theoretical subject; if it be a novel one, its
practicability, and its importance, must reach every mind that has the
least idea about Science, and its utility. I break in upon the present
system of education no further than that I would change the medium through
which the lessons for reading, exercises in grammar, copies for writing,
and that in which the dead, or even living foreign languages are taught:
the medium which I would substitute, should treat exclusively of
scientific subjects, so as to leave the mind in a continual state of
exercise upon the subject of Science, and that alone. Unlike religion,
Science can never weary the mind: the dreary monotony of the former is a
perfect contrast to the life-inspiring power of the latter. Every step you
take in Science, stimulates you to further pursuit. The vast volume of
nature, that book of books, that only revelation worthy the attention of
man, is always open to the Man of Science; and in this book the child can
find a language that shall be intelligible, and adapted to his youthful
capacity. He can read here without stupifying his senses, and gain useful
information without corrupting his manners.
I would even exclude all historical subjects from our schools, as very
little of what is left us can be relied on as true, and such as is true,
is of very little consequence to a rising generation. However far it might
be useful in the shape of example, or amusing and instructive to grown
persons, it forms but a waste of time with children at school. General
History is but ill adapted to correct the bad or stimulate the better
passions of mankind. It displays scarce any thing but the ignorance and
brutality, the massacres and superstitions, which have been so common to
mankind hitherto. It is rare indeed to find a sketch of a virtuous
character. I am of opinion that we could not do better than draw a veil as
close as possible over the past, and endeavour to start upon a system that
our posterity shall not blush to read when impartially stated. Who can
read the history of the past, without blushing and pitying the madness of
that animal man, for making so bad a use of his gift of speech and its
consequent reason? I must confess that I cannot.
In teaching Geography it is by no means necessary to describe the ancient
division of the earth into Empires, Kingdoms, Principalities, &c, or
the customs of their former several inhabitants, as they have been subject
to a continual change, to trace which, serves but to distract the mind
without filling it with any useful information: it would be sufficient for
all purposes in studying this science, to become acquainted with the
present divisions of the earth, and the present customs, manners, and
distinctions of its inhabitants. The same rule applies to Astronomy, it is
by no means necessary, but as a matter of curiosity, to trace and study
its history: it is sufficient to acquire all the present information that
can be obtained in that science, and to stand prepared to make further
discoveries or to receive the discoveries of others. By cutting off all
that part of the present system of education which forms but a waste of
time, you will gain so much the more time for making fresh advances in the
various Arts and Sciences. Of course, I do not expect that under my
proposed system, one individual can become an adept in all the various
branches of all the sciences—no—it would be still necessary
that some individuals should confine themselves to one particular science,
and some to another, as their peculiar abilities and dispositions might
suggest, as the best means for a further and a quicker improvement and
advance in the whole. It is sufficient that they all begin right, and
waste no time about unmeaning and useless trash; but, by an assiduous
application to their several branches, make the farthest possible
progress.
That infinity of experiments which Chemistry opens to our view, and that
infinity of subjects for examination in Natural History, makes it
necessary to begin at those two sciences as early as possible. The
elements of Chemistry, a knowledge of which is so essential in all the
relations of life, might be simplified for an adaption to the meanest
capacity, and even to that of children beginning to read, of which I have
before pointed out two familiar instances, upon which a more enlarged
explanation might be made, and to which a thousand others equally simple
and instructive might be added. In Natural History what a vast field is
open? wherein
"To teach the young idea how to shoot."
Here every thing both in the animal and vegetable world, which comes under
the every day observation of the child, or even the grown person, might be
familiarly described and explained in our school-books by a regular
classification and arrangement. By such a system of education as this, the
youth would instinctly and involuntarily read a useful lesson in every
object that came within his view; his mind would be incessantly led to a
contemplation of Nature, a knowledge of which can alone lead a man to true
and substantial happiness. No part of matter would then escape the
scrutinizing disposition of man, he would explore the ocean and the
rivers, the mountain and the valley, the forest and the plain, the bowels
of the earth and its atmosphere, and even the surface and atmosphere of
other orbs to gratify his scientific and laudably insatiate curiosity. The
blade of grass, the leaf, the tree, its fruit, the flower-bed with all its
vivid tints and animating effluvia, with all the infinite variety both in
the vegetable and animal world, would alike form matter for his scientific
research, and objects for him to explore. Here in contemplating the
stupenduous organization which constitutes animal and vegetable life in
Nature's infinite variety, all varying, yet all connected by one common
link, operating by one common cause, and to one common end, a successive
production and decay, decay and production, the human mind might find an
exercise as infinite, and have ideas stirred up equally stupendous. I
cannot help exclaiming: This is the path of Nature: tread here, O Man! and
be happy.
The works of Nature though infinite are strictly analogous, and human
reason is produced by the same laws as every other natural product. The
culture of the mind, by which human reason is produced, bears a strict
analogy to the culture of the soil, by which we subsist In each Nature
will produce to a certain degree, but the aid of art is necessary to
produce a sufficiency, and to reach refinement and perfection. It is
therefore of the utmost importance that we begin right, that all the ideas
of our infancy and youth be founded in Nature, and that the poisonous
effusions of Priestcraft be carefully weeded, and kept from our minds. We
should guard our minds against those destructive enemies of human reason,
the priests, as we would our fields and gardens against the destructive
powers of the locusts, or similarly destructive insects and animals. Our
interest and happiness is as much at stake in the one instance as the
other, for the Priest is not content with destroying our happiness, but he
must be also fed by our labour. He takes on an average an eighth of all
our produce.
The children or the man might here learn that the organization of the
vegetable is not less stupendous than that of the animal—that the
life and the death of the vegetable is as near alike the life and the
death of the animal as that the life and the death of any two animals of a
different species are alike each other—that there are
animal-vegetables and vegetable-animals, or living substances, in life and
vegetation, that partake both of the properties of animals, and vegetables—that
this is an evident link between animals and vegetables which unites them
in the great chain of nature—that they exist by the same cause, for
the same purpose, and to the same effect, He might also learn, that the
organization of the smallest insect and animalcule is equally stupendous
with the organization of man himself; that it is alone from a peculiar
organization that the different animals have the power of uttering so many
different sounds, and that man is indebted to the power of uttering a
greater variety of sounds for his gift of speech, and for a greater degree
of reason, than any other animal possesses, as its consequent. Let the
child, or the man even, be taught to reason in this manner, and he will
soon feel himself humbled down into his proper sphere in the scale of
Nature. He will leave off all the mad tricks which now daily and hourly
occupy his time, he will occupy his time by a self and social improvement,
and will perceive that a study of Science can alone lead him to true
happiness.
Why might not the Linuean system of classification, arrangement, and
description, both of animals and vegetables, with all the improvement
which has already been made, or which might be made in future, upon that
system, be taught in our schools to children? What can be more simple,
more amusing, or more useful, and more instructive? What other system of
education can be so well calculated for a proper expansion of the juvenile
mind? How much more advantageous to society would such a system of
education be, connected with a knowledge of Chemistry, Astronomy,
Geography, Geometry, and the Mathematics, than all that lying and
stupifying lore about religion and its offspring; for the support of which
mankind are so excessively robbed? If religion be a word that has any
substantial definition, or if it be a proper word, and can be made
applicable to Nature in its meaning, or the action it indicates, I have no
hesitation to say, that the System of Education which I now propose forms
the basis of the only true, the only rational religion. The word religion
implying a fixed faith or belief, and having its etymology in the Latin
verb religo, to bind fast, there can be no true, no just, no
rational religion, but that which applies to something we can comprehend,
and which has its foundation in Nature and her laws. We cannot strictly
speaking fix our faith on a phantom, unless we admit faith itself to be
but a phantom of the mind, yet such is the pretence of all those who make
so much clamour about the word religion. A study of Nature and her laws,
alone forms any substantial faith or religion. This study I would make the
basis of all education, to the exclusion, or explosion, of all the
remaining mythological nonsense of the day.
Arithmetic, Geometry, and the Mathematics, being taught in figures, admit
no change in the system of teaching, or at least in the medium: the same
might be said of Algebra, which has the simplicity of the alphabet for its
medium for instruction and practice. This forms the only part of education
that the priests have not corrupted, and the reason is because they could
not; and these figures being above their reach to corrupt or destroy will
prove their overthrow. The science of the Mathematics has given a fatal
blow to Priestcraft, and this science, connected with Astronomy, was the
first which, began to undermine the dogmas of all priests. The science of
Chemistry has come to its aid, by proving that matter is indestructible
and imperishable, and must have existed as it now is, to all eternity as
to the past, and will exist as it now is, to all eternity as to the
future. The sciences of Physiology and Zoology have convinced us that the
organization of the animal called man, is not more wonderful than that of
every other animal and vegetable, nor is he of more importance in the
scale of Nature. All that can be said of him is, that he is superior in
mental strength to any other animal, and his superiority over the lion,
the tiger, or the elephant, is not more than the superiority of those
animals over the lesser beasts of the forest. Man only possesses the
highest degree in the rank of animals. It is high time to teach man what
he really is in the scale of Nature, and no longer allow him to play such
fantastic tricks as he does play, by pretending to be something beyond
other animals, and to possess supernatural and immortal powers of
existence. Man has nothing but the dogmas of superstition in support of
his future sensible existence—these dogmas are false and wicked
impostures. No appeal can be made to Nature in support of them. Man, as a
part of a whole, or as an atom of matter, is immortal, but with whatever
he might amalgamate after his frame has passed its dissolution, and has
evaporated like a dunghill, or a bed of rotten vegetables, that atom can
retain no sense of a former existence. The system of Pythagoras would have
been strictly true and rational, if he or his disciples had not imagined a
sense of former existence, or that an animal under one shape could retain
a sense of his existence under a former shape, although the two might form
two distinct animals of a different species. Pythagoras, and his
followers, have erred only on this point. I would bring the whole race of
mankind back to a conviction that they exist to no other purpose, and by
no other cause than every other animal and vegetable. Let mankind be once
sensible of this important fact, and they will cease to persecute, to
harass, to rob, and to destroy each other. They would then make the best
use of their time, and view their animal existence but as a moment in the
space of eternity. They would sedulously endeavour to increase the sum of
human happiness, and lessen the sum of human misery, and this alone would
form the first and the last object of their wish and existence Let our
youth be educated upon this basis, and let even grown persons, re-educate
themselves in the same manner, and we shall soon see mankind in its proper
character. That character will be the opposite of what it is at present.
The representative system of government will be found to be the only
necessary government amongst them, and the chief part of legislation will
consist in an advancement of the Arts and Sciences.
I have now completed the task which I set out by promising, and whatever
reception my address might find among Men of Science, I feel assured that
I have misstated nothing, and that nothing which it contains can bear
contradiction. I neither fear the critic or the caviller upon the
ground-work of my address. I have performed a task which I have many
months had in view, and the more I have considered the subject, the more I
have felt its importance. I submit the whole, not to the prejudices of the
bigot or the priest, but to the clear impartial judgment of Men of
Science. I have kept much within bounds in noticing the advanced state of
Science, and I feel assured that what I have recommended can be easily and
immediately reduced to practice. The breath of Philosophy is now
sufficiently strong to puff out the glimmering superstition of
Priestcraft. The Philosopher should no longer bend the knee to this or any
other corrupt power. There is a keen public appetite for philosophical
truths. I feel satisfied that I have the daily thanks of thousands for
rescuing their minds from the horrible dogmas of Superstition and
Priestcraft. I have so strong an assurance of the rapid decay of
superstition, and the powerful effect of the books and pamphlets which I
have thrown into the social system, that no persecution, no punishment, no
fines, shall deter me from proceeding to the utmost of my power and
abilities. I am happy to see others following in the same path, as I
rather court assistance and emulation than dread it. I am ever pleased at
the extensive circulation of those publications to which mine are exposed,
as it is of the first consequence to stimulate mankind to read, to
examine, and to discuss the pretensions of all principles. The Bible
Society might circulate its millions of books, and not a member of that
society shall feel more pleasure at the circumstance than myself. I do not
wish that any of my publications should fall into the hands of any
individual, but he who can read the Bible, and who is fully acquainted
with its contents, and all the dogmas which the priests of this country
teach. It is on this ground that I wish to try the force of those
principles which I advocate and no other. I feel assured that no impartial
and disinterested man ever read a copy of
Thomas Paine's Age of Reason without having his faith shaken in the
Christian religion, and if ever he has read Mirabaud's System of Nature he
will find his faith shaken on the subject of all religion. He will see
that the whole has arisen from one common fault—the ignorance and
credulity of mankind.
For instance, when the use of the telescope and the advanced state of the
science of Astronomy has given us ocular and mathematical demonstration,
that every orb we see revolving in the wide and infinite expanse of space,
and that each of that infinite number of orbs, which something more than
hypothesis convinces us do revolve in space, corresponds with a portion of
that solar system, of which our parent earth is a part, that they are
guided by the same laws and composed of the same species of matter, by
which we infer that they bear the same productions, does not the query
arise in our minds, which must inevitably strike down the fabric of the
Christian religion, that if it was essential for a Jesus Christ, the only
begotten son of God, as old as his father, to pass through the virgin-womb
of a woman, to be buffeted, scourged, and put to an ignominious death by a
sect of superstitious bigots, who have constantly for the space of
eighteen hundred years denied all knowledge of such a person, for the
purpose of procuring the future happiness of those animals on this orb
whom we call human, and their salvation from the eternal torments which he
and his father had prepared for those who should reject them; was it not
also essential, that this same Jesus Christ, this only begotten son of
God, as old his father, should have submitted to a similar incarnation in
a virgin-womb, and have been buffeted, scourged, and executed, as a
criminal malefactor, according to the respective customs of treating such
characters on the several orbs, or the peculiar part of them on which he
might chance or choose to inhabit; was it not essential that he should
have performed a similar mission for the similar salvation and future
happiness of the several inhabitants or animals denominated human on each
and every one of those orbs? Can any priest answer this question? The Man
of Science I know will smile at it, and pity the credulity and ignorance
of all who have believed, who do believe, or who may believe, such
ridiculous nonsense. Then let him come forward and preach up his
scientific knowledge, and silence the dogmas of the priest. It is reserved
for the Man of Science to rid mankind of this horrid ignorance and
credulity, and to impress upon their minds the all-important subject of
scientific knowledge. Man does not naturally delight in ignorance and
credulity, but he naturally strives to free himself from those vices.
There is no truth that you can impress upon the mind of man, but what he
will rejoice at feeling it to be truth, and himself undeceived as to
former error. It is the interested hypocrite alone, that is alarmed at the
progress and power of truth, he whose very trade is the known propagation
of falsehood and delusion, the tyrants tool and scourge. All tyranny,
oppression, and delusion, have been founded upon the ignorance and
credulity of mankind. Knowledge, scientific knowledge, is the power that
must be opposed to those evils, and be made to destroy them. Come forward,
ye Men of Science, ye must no longer remain in the back ground as
trembling cowards, ye must no longer crave protection from, and creep at
the pleasure of, your direst foes; grasp at tyranny, at oppression, at
delusion, at ignorance, and at credulity, and you shall find yourselves
sufficiently powerful to destroy the whole, and emancipate both the mind
and the body of man from the slavery of his joint oppressors.
The latter of the before-mentioned works is a most important one, and has
hitherto passed through several editions without molestation by the
Attorney General, or the Society for propagating Vice. Whatever they may
attempt, it will defy the malice of either. Many other very important
publications are now in full sale, and from the appetite which I find
still exists for them, I have been induced to make this bold appeal to Men
of Science, calling upon them to stand forward and vindicate the truth,
from the foul grasp and persecution of Superstition; and obtain for the
island of Great Britain, the noble appellation of the focus of truth;
whence mankind shall be illuminated, and the black and pestiferous clouds
of persecution and superstition be banished from the face of the earth; as
the only sure prelude to universal peace and harmony among the human race.
DORCHESTER GAOL, MAY 1821.
Eighteenth Month of the Author's Imprisonment, and the Fourth Month of the
Imprisonment of his Wife.
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