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 .-^7 C* 1?~A r^
 
 THE ALPHA.
 
 THE ALPHA, 
 
 FIRST PRINCIPLE OF THE HUMAN MINI) ; 
 
 AS REVEALED TO 
 
 RAM US RANDOLPH 
 
 A RKVKKIK, AND VERIFIED TO HIS SATISFACTION IN A DREAM": 
 
 gi |Iriioso|l]ital 
 INTO THE CONSTITUTION OF HUMAN HAPPINESS 
 
 AND 
 
 THE NATURE OF TRUTH. 
 
 BY 
 
 EDWARD N. DENNYS. 
 
 "Certainly it is licaven upon e.'uth to have a man'.? mind move in charity, rest in Providence, and 
 turn upon the poles of Truth." LOUD BACOS. 
 
 sccoutj Ctlmicn. 
 
 LONDON : 
 CLARKE AND BEETON, 148, FLEET STREET.
 
 LONDON : 
 
 THOMAS 1IA1IBILD, 1E1NTER, SILVKK STKJiET,
 
 n 
 
 REVEREND THEODORE PARKER, 
 
 OF BOSTON, U.S. 
 
 Sin, 
 
 Mathematical Science has its basis in an 
 intelligible starting-point of Truth. Mechanical 
 Science has a starting-point of Truth. All the Phy- 
 sical Sciences have a starting-point of Truth. These 
 starting-points arc so many Principles which govern 
 every subsequent fact in these respective Inquiries ; by 
 the aid of which all problems are solved ; and through 
 which every conclusion, logically arrived at, is known 
 to be true. In like manner Mental Science has a start- 
 ing-point of Truth, by the aid of which all questions of 
 Right and Wrong in Religion, Philosophy, Ethics, 
 Politics, and Social Arrangements are (or may be) 
 infallibly determined. 
 
 The Truth, or Principle, which forms the starting- 
 point in Mental Science is not the starting-point of 
 Mathematics, or of Mechanics, or of any of the Phy- 
 sical Sciences ; each of these truths being distinct 
 from all the others. 
 
 To discover, determine, and fix, the Truth which 
 forms the basis of Mental Science is the aim and 
 object of the following pages. All deeply-reflective 
 
 117H077
 
 VI DEDICATION. 
 
 minds have ever looked upon the attainment of this 
 object as a desideratum ; but few, if any, have believed 
 its attainment possible ; and thousands in both He- 
 mispheres will laugh at the attempt, and ridicule the 
 Attempter. Be it so. The work, with a new Preface, 
 is now in the press, and awaits only this Dedication. 
 Your " Ten Sermons of Religion " has just fallen into 
 my hands. Its first forty pages determined me to 
 dedicate to you the humble labours I had until then 
 purposed to dedicate to another to a "Learned Lord," 
 who is, moreover, an Educationist, a Philosopher. But 
 when a Minister of Religion, in manly antagonism to 
 worn-out creeds and formularies of falsehood, takes for 
 his fundamental idea MAN is BY NATURE TRUTHFUL, 
 BY NATURE RELIGIOUS, though that Minister be the 
 son of another soil, the inhabitant of another region, 
 I gladly stretch my hand across the Atlantic to greet 
 him as a brother, and to say God speed to his noble, 
 world-regenerating labours ! 
 
 I wish, Sir, my very imperfect Book were worthier 
 of your notice and acceptance ; but, such as it is, I 
 take the liberty of Dedicating it to you in admiration 
 of your sentiments, your talents, and your teaching, 
 and as a very trivial token of the respect of, 
 
 Sir, your mcst obedient Servant, 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
 LONDON, December 31st, 1851.
 
 PKHEACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 To the man of Wealth, the man of Business, the man 
 of Pleasure, the man of Fashion, to those who are 
 these things only the things " pure and simple" of 
 Fashion, Pleasure, Business, Wealth, we do not ad- 
 dress ourselves : the " Alpha" is no concern of theirs. 
 What is Truth, what are the higher verities of the 
 Intellect and the Understanding the nobler aspira- 
 tions of the Soul to them ? Neither to the Religious 
 man do we address ourselves, the man who has a 
 Creed on which he rests with simpleness of mind and 
 child-like confidence : he is happy whoever else is 
 sad : his name is on the golden roll of blissful im- 
 mortality : he needs no help of ours : our thoughts 
 are not for him. But there are those amongst us 
 millions, may be who do not believe in Wealth, in 
 Commerce, in Pleasure, in Fashion, nor in any Creed 
 with an undivided confidence absorbing their whole 
 souls ; and, consequently, who have moments of rest- 
 lessness, hours of doubt, days and nights of sorrow ; 
 it is to these we fain would whisper, There is Balm in 
 Giload there is a verity deeper, purer, truer, holier 
 than all these for you. Unhappiness is provocative of 
 thought ; but thought which only leads to Scepticism 
 ends where it began. At present there is no Religion i 
 for him who has no Faith. Wanting this, he is re- 
 pudiated and cast out. Neither has the world at 
 present any system of Philosophy which does not 
 launch the Inquirer, rudderless and compassless, on 
 an ocean of Doubt. Philosophy has no recognised
 
 V11I PKEFACK. 
 
 foundation. Religion has no love. Numerous are the 
 Inquirers who need both ; a Religion which benefi- 
 cently embraces all Earth's children, and a Philosophy 
 which has certitude for its base. It is to these 
 Inquirers more especially that the following pages 
 are addressed. We believe that such a Philosophy 
 and such a Religion are possible. Our object is to 
 supply the basis and enunciate the principles on which 
 either must be reared. We believe that the principles 
 which are the basis of one are the basis of both : 
 hence, we . affirm that Philosophy and Religion are 
 one, and that, in the abstract, Knowledge and Good- 
 ness are synonymous terms. By the term Knowledge 
 we mean Truth ; and we hold that all Truth knowable 
 to Man, or conceivable by him, derives its certitude 
 from the First Principle of his being and the Laws 
 which govern it for ever and ever. To establish these 
 propositions, to render this First Principle and these 
 Laws comprehensible to our readers, and thence to 
 arrive at conclusions which logically determine our 
 Rights and Duties religious, moral, social, and 
 political is the sole purpose of the "Alpha." The 
 Athenaeum describes our work as a " New Gospel." 
 Accepting this description by the critic as sincere, 
 though of course intended to be satirical, let us rather 
 describe it as the Soul of the Old Gospel its gross 
 and carnal Body conceived of as defunct. As a book 
 eminently religious, eminently Christian, we offer it to 
 the world ; but we must guard the reader against the 
 notion that in it he will find much resemblance to 
 any creed with which he is previously acquainted. Its 
 Religion resembles that which all truly Christian 
 persons feel in their intercourse with their fellow-men 
 at those moments when their religion has been reduced 
 to action, and when the articles of their faith, and the 
 formularies of their worship, have, for the time, been 
 laid aside or forgotten. It is a religion, not of pro-
 
 PREFACE. IX 
 
 fession but of action ; and, although many will 
 denounce it as deistical and dangerous, it is due to 
 ourselves to say that it can be so denounced only 
 because its author entertains a higher notion of the 
 Creator, and a purer notion of Religion, than creeds 
 enunciate, or Christians of any denomination dare 
 openly profess. 
 
 It is because our opinions, so far as they meddle 
 with religion, are heretical that we have presumed to 
 select our readers. We desire not to unsettle any 
 man's convictions, especially when these convictions 
 are the basis of his happiness or his hopes. It is to 
 those who have no convictions, and to the Sceptics 
 and Atheists who have everything to gain and nothing 
 to lose by a free inquiry, that we address ourselves in 
 chief. Amongst these we expect to find our critics, 
 men who, anxious for Truth, will test our propositions, 
 and convict us of error if they can. Churches, 
 Corporations, Governments, well-to-do Common-sense 
 men, never argue : they can afford to be silent ; they 
 can pay the highest price for the most magnificently 
 sophistical sneer ; or, if need be, they can, in dignified 
 anger, anathematize and denounce. It was but the 
 other day when a Minister of State presumed to be 
 philosophical in the company of clowns. In defiance 
 of the doctrine of "original Sin," but in the spirit 
 of the first chapter of Genesis, where God himself 
 declares that all he has created is " very good" he 
 told these clowns that " the mind and heart of man 
 are naturally good," that " their children are born 
 good," and that evil comes to their souls from with- 
 out, from pernicious education and example, and 
 the evil influences of society, against which he 
 warned them to protect the souls of their little ones. 
 What was the consequence ? Why, within twenty - 
 four hours of the utterance of this heresy against 
 Churches, Corporations, and Common-sense, albeit 
 
 b
 
 X PREFACE. 
 
 this same utterance was in homage of God, that great 
 mouth-piece of orthodox respectability, The Times, 
 vomited forth a fifty-thousand-power sneer, composed 
 of the most exquisite raillery, with the most plausible 
 of sophistry for its base, against the man who dared 
 to side with his Maker by a mild denunciation of one 
 of the most blasphemous doctrines of orthodox and 
 " respectable" men. The noble Minister was snubbed 
 and silenced : his heresy was rendered harmless : 
 offended Society was appeased. Here are reasons 
 enough for our wish to steer clear of readers whom 
 we should be certain to offend ; amongst whom we 
 should be liable to do harm instead of good ; and 
 from whom the only mercy we could hope is dignified 
 indifference and contempt. We do not fear criticism. 
 Neither do we fear raillery and denunciation, come 
 whence they might. We desire and court the former 
 because our object is Truth ; but the latter we have 
 no wish wantonly and needlessly to provoke ; hence 
 the care we have taken to particularise the mental 
 leanings of the readers for whom our work is 
 meant. 
 
 Men may be divided into two classes, those who 
 regard a lifetime as the limit of Man's conscious exist- 
 ence ; and those who believe in an eternity of exist- 
 ence. The latter class stands in need of Religion ; 
 and both stand in need of Philosophy. The object of 
 Philosophy as regards the first must be to render life 
 as long and as happy as possible. The object of 
 Philosophy in reference to the second must be to 
 render existence eternally happy. HAPPINESS must 
 be the aim and object of each individual, in either 
 case ; because, whatever may be supposed to constitute 
 it, or however sought, happiness must be the constant 
 aim of all men. Nature having rendered the pursuit 
 of happiness a necessity, it follows that as much as he 
 can fairly obtain of it is every man's inalienable right.
 
 PREFACE. XI 
 
 SUPPOSE HUMAN EXISTENCE TO BE FOR THE BRIEF AND 
 
 TERMINABLE PERIOD ONLY, it is dear that it should be 
 the business of every individual of the species to 
 place himself in such a relationship with other indi- 
 viduals that his own proper share of happiness be 
 secured to him as effectually as possible. A fair 
 share is his right ; and of this right the natural 
 guardian is himself. Hence arises the question 
 What personal qualification will afford him the best 
 security for the maintenance of this right? All 
 experience answers that, if he live in a state of 
 nature, bodily prowess a strong arm, a stubborn 
 will, and a bold heart, are the first requisites ; an 
 acute and crafty intellect the second. Courage 
 and strength of limb he must have, whilst quickness 
 of intellect and cunning would serve as adjuncts to 
 the others : but, if he agree to make one in a 
 community of men, he must rely less on his personal 
 prowess than on the higher qualities of his intellect, 
 because the latter will best enable him to take care 
 that the laws and regulations of the Community be 
 just and equitable,- 1 at any rate, that they be not 
 wftjust to him. In either case, the greater his Intel- 
 ligence, the greater will be his security against any 
 unfair practices on the part of others by which his 
 own fair share of happiness, or his means of pursuing 
 it, might be abridged. But now, on the other hand, 
 
 IF MORTAL LIFE BE ONLY THE BEGINNING OF AN EXIST- 
 ENCE WHICH is NEVER TO END Happiness being still 
 the object of that existence the question still arises, 
 What personal qualification will afford the best security 
 to every individual that his fair chance of procuring 
 the desired happiness (once he knows what it is) shall 
 not be unjustly abridged by others who are engaged 
 in the same pursuit? Before this question can be 
 fully answered, it is, of course, necessary to determine 
 what is the nature of that Happiness which such a 
 
 62
 
 Xll PREFACE. 
 
 man, having such a faith, should seek? This is the 
 great question the question to which the "Alpha" 
 purports to be a full and satisfying reply. But, this 
 question apart, it is clear he has a natural right to 
 pursue this Happiness (if not incompatible with the 
 rights of others), be it what it might; and the 
 question now proposed is What personal qualifica- 
 tions will afford him the best chance of a fair and 
 equitable enjoyment of this right ? As in the former 
 case, so in this : his best security will be found in 
 Intelligence, just in proportion to the advance which 
 has been effected, from the barbarous to a civilized 
 condition, by the community to which he is attached ; 
 the only difference being this, he would have need 
 to cultivate higher and nobler qualities of intellect 
 than would be either profitable or necessary to the 
 denier of a God. 
 
 Intelligence in both cases being the best security 
 against the cupidity of others, it follows that 
 Philosophy which means systemized Intelligence 
 directed to some special end is the proper and 
 natural refuge of mankind against injustice of every 
 description, even if this Philosophy be not itself 
 the sum total of that very Happiness of which every 
 Soul amongst us is continually in search. Our Phi- 
 losophy, then, has this advantage it is a philosophy 
 for MEN : it is the SAFEST SYSTEM FOR ATHEISTS : IT 
 IS THE ONLY SYSTEM FOR LtfMORTALISTS, AND THE 
 BELIEVERS IN A GOD. 
 
 Now, of two things, one. Man is an immortal 
 being, or he is not. If not, then he has no Soul, and 
 death terminates his existence. In this case, it is 
 evident that, unless, inconsistently with his principles, 
 it afford him any happiness to be devout, he need 
 not concern himself at all about Religion. His 
 business is to crowd as much enjoyment into his life 
 as possible, whether this enjoyment be sensual, or
 
 PREFACE. X1I1 
 
 intellectual, or, to vary and economise it both. He 
 has the choice of all, and a limited ability to pursue 
 all, and thence might pursue all, or pursue either. 
 Further, he might be just or unjust grasping and 
 selfish, or unselfishly benign. It is clear, however, 
 that he can have no moral or religious motive for 
 being just; and any accession of power which his 
 intellect affords him will only increase his predilections 
 towards injustice in proportion as it administers to his 
 own enjoyment. If roguery favour his plans he will 
 be a rogue as far as he can consistently w r ith his 
 personal security. If he believes honesty to be the 
 best policy, he will be honest ; if not, he will be the 
 converse of this, and only use the semblance, of honesty 
 as a make-believe and a mask. If canting Hypocrisy 
 favour his purpose he will be a canting hypocrite : in 
 short, he will assume that character which he can best 
 support, or most profitably employ for his own advan- 
 tage ; a community of such men will present all the 
 worst phases of social life ; and all the lowest and 
 basest characteristics of humanity (however disguised 
 by a show of refinement) would be, in the case sup- 
 posed, the natural and leading characteristics of 
 human Society. But, be it observed, General Educa- 
 tion would, even then, afford the best security to 
 every individual against any great preponderance of 
 the power of roguery and hypocrisy in others operating 
 to his individual detriment and disadvantage. Hence, 
 if under such a system, knowledge means knavery, a 
 man's best security must consist in obtaining know- 
 ledge enough to be, with impunity, a knave. Yet, 
 even with the best Education possible under such cir- 
 cumstances, what a low and degrading end would even 
 this best Education subserve ! This is a, fancy picture 
 of a nation of Atheists. How far it resembles the 
 features of any real nation purporting to be Deists 
 and Immortalists, those who best know what Society
 
 XIV PREFACE. 
 
 everywhere is can best judge. " Do men gather 
 grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles ? By their fruits 
 ye shall know them." 
 
 Let us now take the other hypothesis, and suppose 
 a nation of Deists all Religionists are Deists be- 
 lieving in the immortality of the soul. If Man is an 
 immortal being, he has a Soul, and this soul must 
 exist for ever ; consequently, it is into the nature of 
 the Soul, and into the nature of the Soul's proper 
 happiness, which it behoves him to inquire ; and, 
 having inquired, to follow out the convictions which 
 ensue, in all their consequences, as the only real object 
 of his existence. His business, therefore, is Philosophy, 
 and his philosophy necessarily takes the form of Reli- 
 gion. Philosophy consists in Knowledge : Religion 
 consists in action. One results from the other ; and it 
 is obvious which must be, in point of time, the first. 
 Philosophy shows him that to pursue physical enjoy- 
 ment as a means of Happiness is to pursue that which 
 cannot continue long which must terminate at death ; 
 and as enjoyment must be either physical or mental 
 the first as limited in its amount as it is limited in its 
 duration, the second as unlimited in amount as it is un- 
 limited in its duration- there can be no difficulty in 
 deciding which of the twain an intelligent and consistent 
 believer in the Soul's immortality must pursue. Now, 
 to say nothing about the proofs or the probabilities of 
 the truth of this latter hypothesis, but confining our- 
 selves merely to the desirableness to be inferred from 
 the practical results of the two Systems, we would 
 ask the reader this plain question, namely, Whether 
 the Happiness he necessarily seeks is not likely to be 
 better secured to him under a Social System which 
 recognises the Soul's immortality and the overruling 
 providence of a beneficent God, than under a System 
 of Atheism, which, freeing Man from all moral and 
 religious restraint, affords him no exemplar greater
 
 PREFACE. XV 
 
 than himself ; offers no motive to the practice of self- 
 denial ; renders needless, if not superfluous, the culti- 
 vation of all the nobler qualities of the soul ; leaves 
 him at full liberty to be as base-minded as he pleases ; 
 and, instead of repressing those sensual cravings to 
 which he is animally prone, rather offers, in the 
 unreasoning ease by which they can be gratified, a 
 daily and hourly premium for their indulgence ? The 
 answer is obvious. No man who regards himself as 
 a being in any way superior to the brutes could give 
 a preference to the latter System, even were it a mere 
 matter of election as to which of the two would afford 
 him the best chance of obtaining, under them, his own 
 proper share of happiness or enjoyment. Of course we | 
 speak of real Deism and of real Deists, namely, Reli- 1 
 gionists, not of pious Shams ; for it is notorious that ' 
 they who are Deists only in name, are the most unscru- 
 pulous of Atheists in reality ; arid it would be highly | 
 inconsistent and irrational in any HYBRID ATHEIST to } 
 respect the wants and rights of others, or to love any- 
 thing but himself. AN AVOWED ATHEIST one who is j 
 an Atheist, not for profit and convenience, and behind J 
 a mask, but from conviction and principle may be a 
 man eminently considerate of the rights of others, 
 and thence, in his dealings with them, just. Many are 
 so : and therefore it may be pleaded that Atheism 
 does not necessarily imply such a system as we have 
 just described; and we might be very properly re- 
 minded that the ancient Epicureans their teachings, 
 lives, and virtues, are historical evidences of the con- 
 trary. Rather let us say that a System like theirs, 
 which avowedly had Pleasure for its object, and yet 
 resulted in the practice of self-denial and the noblest 
 virtue, only proves that there is so much of the God 
 in man, and so great an earnest of immortality in his 
 nature, that even Atheists, when philosophers, practi- 
 cally abnegate the very basis of their unbelief by the
 
 XVI PREFACE. 
 
 natural grandeur of their sentiments and acts. " The 
 Garden" of Epicurus, though dedicated to Pleasure, 
 was by philosophy converted into an empyrean-roofed 
 Temple, where the sternest Virtue was enforced as well 
 as taught ; but when the Epicurean principle Plea- 
 sure, was adopted by mere ignorant sensualists, low 
 libidinousness and degrading immorality ensued, and 
 obtained for the " Garden" the undeserved sobri- 
 quet of " The Sty." Educate all men ; make philo- 
 sophers of them, and Atheists must disown their 
 title, and prove the celestial parentage of the Soul 
 and the innate nobility of its nature, BY THEIR ACTS. 
 Ignorant Atheism, like Atheism masked, leads directly 
 to sensuality ; and, on a large scale, would indeed 
 transform the beautiful Garden of the World into a 
 symposium of Saturnalians into a Sensual Sty. But 
 intelligent Atheism would naturally result in Deism : 
 and a belief in the being and providence of a benefi- 
 cent God would necessarily present the highest ideal 
 for our humble imitation. Such an imitation would 
 infallibly result in an intellectual Philosophy based 
 on the noblest principles of man's nature : and as 
 Religion would be a necessity, and as it could not 
 have a surer or nobler basis than philosophy, the basis 
 of the latter would be the basis of the former, and 
 thus Religion and Philosophy would be one. Such a 
 Philosophy is sketched, proposed, and advocated in 
 the "Alpha"; and the questions which next present 
 themselves to the mind of the intelligent reader are 
 Is such a philosophy possible ? practicable ? Is its 
 basis stable? Is its First principle proveable and 
 true ? Candour obliges us to inform the querist that 
 our Critics have answered these questions with a dog- 
 matic No. We shall avail ourselves of our opportunity 
 and our right to reply to them in a separate Section, 
 and, after a few words strictly prefatory, conclude the 
 present Section, under the impression that the reader
 
 PREFACE. XV11 
 
 might prefer to peruse the work itself before giving his 
 attention to a controversy for which he may not feel 
 either inclined or prepared. 
 
 The " Alpha" is not a dry, scientific treatise, rendered 
 repulsive by an attempt at logical severity. It is an 
 Essay intended as introductory to a more systematic 
 and laborious work. Our first object was to make it 
 a readable book ; and our Critics, one and all, have 
 done us the honour to admit that our effort in this 
 direction has not been entirely destitute of success. 
 
 The first four chapters of the work, as far as they 
 meddle with philosophy, are purposely dogmatic ; the 
 next three attempt, by a greater attention to logical 
 precision, to prove the principles we aim to establish ; 
 whilst the eight chapters which form the second part 
 of the work are intended chiefly to show the applica- 
 tion of our principles to the every-day affair's of life. 
 In the execution of our work we consulted no 
 authority ; we sought no help, nor received any ; but 
 trusted to the resources of our own newly-awakened 
 intelligence to work out an accidentally-acquired 
 thought. We mention this as much to enhearten the 
 reader to self-reliance, as to appropriate to ourselves 
 any credit which may be due to the work, or to excuse 
 ourselves from too great blame for its errors. But for 
 self-introspection and self-reliance, the thought which 
 suggested the "Alpha" might never have occurred to 
 us. Whether we should, intellectually, have been losers 
 thereby depends entirely on the truth or falsehood of 
 this originating thought. But to return. Had it 
 been our purpose to write a philosophical Treatise we 
 should have eschewed the dogmatism : and had we 
 been worldly-wise we should most assuredly have 
 avoided the APPLICATION. Our only regret is that 
 our task has been so imperfectly accomplished, and 
 that Truth should look less lovely than it is through 
 lack of genius in its advocate.
 
 XV111 PREFACE. 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 To SAY that Critics are sometimes careless about 
 their facts, dull of apprehension, or dishonest by 
 design, is only saying that they are men like the rest 
 of us, worthy or unworthy in proportion as they 
 are wiser or less wise than other men, or as they are 
 more or less superior to the prejudices and other 
 circumstances which influence human acts. Whether 
 our Censors have misunderstood our principles, or 
 purposely misstated, for the pleasure of condemning 
 them, a word or two in self-defence is our right. 
 
 We certainly ought to be grateful and grateful 
 we are for the very flattering commendations re- 
 garding our " style," and the " general literary treat- 
 ment of the theme," with which their condemnation 
 of our philosophy is so generously interlarded. To 
 The Critic : London Literary Journal we have to 
 acknowledge our obligations for a most fair and 
 liberal notice of our work ; from which we might 
 have extracted a preface for the present edition, in 
 many respects more suitable as conveying a general 
 notion of the contents of our volume than any we 
 could hope to write ourselves, were it not much too 
 complimentary of our labours for even our modesty 
 (described by one of our Critics as "an unknown 
 quantity ") to adopt. 
 
 First let us say that it is not true, as has been 
 suggested by The Athenceum, that we pilfered our 
 principles from the Buddhists, from Socrates, from 
 Plato, from Origen, from Spinoza, from Bacon, from 
 the Mystics, from the German Philosophers, from the 
 Quakers, from Bailey's " Festus," from Robert Owen, 
 and from we know not how many other worthies of 
 lesser note, who are said " to have preached the
 
 PREFACE. XIX 
 
 abolition of all Governments, Magistrates, and Laws." 
 It is not true that we have availed ourselves of any 
 hints from any of these sources ; and we are the 
 more impelled to give these suggestions an unqualified 
 contradiction, inasmuch as it furnishes some proof of 
 the strength of our position and the truth of our 
 principles that they are countenanced by thinkers of 
 the Ancient and Modern world so eminent as this 
 galaxy of genius, whose works we are supposed to 
 have rifled, but no portion of which, save perhaps, 
 now and then, a stray sentence, and that ill under- 
 stood, had we ever read. The truth is, and if these 
 suggestions of the Reviewer told against our work, 
 the opposing fact must tell quite as forcibly in its 
 favour, about two years before the " Alpha" was pub- 
 lished, that is, about seven years ago, we had under- 
 taken to prepare a series of Papers on Beauty and 
 Taste for the Decorative Art Society. We commenced 
 our task with a determination to make a sturdy 
 attempt to think out the subject for ourselves. Our 
 process was analytical ; but instead of arriving at the 
 First Principle of Beauty, we found the term 
 "Beauty" to be the name of an abstraction and 
 this was a discovery to us ; we then applied the same 
 process to Virtue, Morality, Justice, Conscience, Re- 
 ligion, and the rest of this family of terms, which, 
 since our first acquaintance with Lindley Murray, we 
 had allowed ourselves to think of as the names of 
 things or impersonal existences, and not as the names, 
 of nonentities, or mere abstractions ; so " innocent" 
 were we then of all acquaintance with mental philo- 
 sophy and the jargon of the metaphysicians. We 
 perceived that the whole of these terms represent 
 merely modes of our Intelligence ; hence the idea 
 out of which grew the " Alpha," and the honour which 
 has been awarded us by our Reviewers. 
 
 It is, however, but justice to say that we know
 
 XX PREFACE. 
 
 enough of some of these works now to relieve us of 
 any suspicion that the charge was wantonly preferred ; 
 and at the same time to make us cautious how we 
 charge others with plagiarism, knowing as we do how 
 the laws of thought necessarily lead divers minds, 
 when engaged in the same inquiries, to the same 
 conclusions ; whilst the Laws of Language have a 
 similar tendency to clothe thoughts that are identical, 
 even in the same form of words ; and all this the more 
 certainly, when the mind, instead of roaming at large 
 in the limitless world of Poetry, is confined to that nar- 
 row circle of self wherein the philosopher, delving for 
 first principles, is constrained to prosecute his search. 
 To avoid writing a book under the designation of 
 a Preface, we will pass over many of the misstate- 
 ments of our Reviewers, and allow their harmless 
 pleasantries (though perpetrated at our expense) to 
 stand as an atonement for their dogmatism, false 
 logic, self-contradictions, and mistakes ; and so pass 
 at once to the criticisms of a Critic who not only 
 misrepresents, and laughs, and dogmatises, and re- 
 prehends, but who most obligingly condescends to 
 argue, and thus affords us a better opportunity of 
 defence than fifty pages of protestations against un- 
 fair treatment could supply. Thus he opens his 
 ruthless attack on our philosophy : 
 
 " The author of this strange volume comes 
 before the world with lofty pretensions. He is 
 not a truth-seeker, but a truth-propound er ; he 
 brings a revelation, not an inquiry. He pro- 
 nounces all that has gone before all that philo- 
 sophies and religions have offered in the shape 
 of a solution, to be sterile and false. He brings 
 with him that ' Truth which is the exponent of 
 all Truth/ and which sweeps away Philosophy, 
 Religion, Morality, to place in its stead one lumi- 
 nous principle which shall enlighten the world."
 
 PREFACE. XXI 
 
 Before we quote the rebuke which follows this 
 statement, we must take the liberty to say that we 
 are not dogmatic " proponnders " of Truth, but zea- 
 lous inquirers, as is shown by the three chapters 
 devoted to the proof of the truths we aim to establish, 
 as well as by our frequent declaration, in the Preface 
 and throughout the work itself, that, IF our First 
 Principles be true and our reasonings therefrom 
 logical, then is our philosophy true, and all other 
 systems false. But it has pleased the Reviewer to 
 assume the contrary, and thereupon thus to admonish 
 us for our supposed presumption : 
 
 " Now, it is always a matter of legitimate sus- 
 picion when a man sets himself in antagonism to 
 the whole past ; and this suspicion will operate 
 so injuriously to the author that, instead of listen- 
 ing to his arguments, men will shrug their 
 shoulders and pass on. As a philosopher, there- 
 fore, he has been guilty at the outset of a most 
 unphilosophical disdain for his own race." 
 We have before us a very recent acquisition, and 
 one we prize Mr. G. H. Lewes's " Biographical 
 History of Philosophy," in four volumes, beginning 
 with Thales and ending with Auguste Compte. He 
 there shows us, with the full force of his skill and 
 acuteness, that, of all the Philosophers who have ever 
 lived, and transmitted their labours to us, not one 
 of all of them, nor all of them together, have ever 
 furnished us with a guide to Truth ; and that the 
 only use of studying their exploded systems is to 
 teach us to put no trust in any of them. We believe, 
 in the main, that he is right in his conclusions. Our 
 own experience coincides with the result of his learned 
 labours ; for, although until lately we have been 
 ignorant of these philosophies, we have always felt 
 assured that if any of them contained, what all 
 educated and thoughtful men are ever desirous of
 
 XX11 PREFACE. 
 
 obtaining unerring guides to a knowledge of human 
 rights and duties their principles would necessarily 
 have been as current in the world, and as generally 
 understood, as are the physical principles discovered 
 by Newton, or the Law of the association of ideas 
 propounded by Locke. We agree, therefore, with 
 the Historian of Philosophy, and confidently appeal 
 to HIM against the censure of the Reviewer, more 
 especially as the Reviewer presently echoes the His- 
 torian as to this very fact, and proves that, of all men, 
 lie ought not to have been our accuser. With this, 
 we " shrug our shoulders and pass on " to declare 
 that we really are not guilty of a " disdain for our 
 own race." Our work breathes love to all men ; we 
 war with systems, not with individuals ; with error 
 and falsehood, not with men. " As a philosopher," 
 too, we humbly submit that it was not only no error 
 in us to take our stand on an acknowledged fact, but, 
 this very fact proving the propriety of our endea- 
 vours, it would have been most unphilosophical in 
 us to have overlooked it. If a guide to Truth be still 
 a desideratum a fact established by the Historian 
 of Philosophy nay, by the Reviewer himself it 
 was surely a laudable proceeding on our part to make 
 an effort to discover one. If we have not found it 
 so much the worse for us all. It is a matter, not for 
 exultation, but for sorrow. The Reviewer proceeds : 
 " Setting aside the claims of this writer to 
 a possession of God's truth on the highest of all 
 subjects, let us calmly ask whether he is in the 
 possession of man's truth on the subject or 
 whether even he has a plausible and truthful- 
 looking scheme to propose ? We are bound to 
 answer both questions with an emphatic ' No.' 
 The fault may be in our long training in the old 
 philosophies in a leaven of the world-old igno- 
 rance which may have so dulled our vision,
 
 PREFACE. XX111 
 
 that we cannot recognise the pure white of 
 truth." 
 
 Of course, the Reader need not be told that the 
 last portion of the paragraph just quoted is cleverly 
 ironical ; but he may not be aware that the old philo- 
 sophers for whom the Reviewer professes so much 
 reverence were all of them Metaphysicians : bearing 
 this in mind, let us see what all this pretended reve- 
 rence amounts to, when it pleases the writer to assume 
 that " all the ideas " in our volume belong of right to 
 these philosophers, and not to us. 
 
 " Vice, we are constantly told, is only Igno- 
 rance, and there would be no Virtue were it 
 not for Vice. The author is strangely mistaken 
 in supposing this is a discovery of his own. It 
 is as old as Socrates. Indeed we may say, in 
 passing, that the ideas in this book, so far from 
 being novel, will be recognised by every meta- 
 physical reader as having frequently been pro- 
 mulgated, and as having passed through his, the 
 reader's, mind; but as having passed through 
 it rejected as crude and false." 
 Here, then, we see that the veneration of the 
 Reviewer has suddenly altered into undisguised con- 
 tempt. Here, like the Historian of Philosophy and 
 ourselves, he " sets himself in antagonism to the whole 
 past " with as much, nonchalance as though he had 
 never rebuked us for the like presumption ! We 
 shall presently have occasion to return to the passage 
 last quoted, having introduced it here to show the 
 reader how little of consistency is needed in the com- 
 position of a slashing review. 
 
 After declaring that "the author is radically un- 
 philosophical in his methods," etc. etc., the Reviewer 
 goes on to say, that 
 
 " Much demonstration is employed to prove 
 that Intelligence is the Principle of all things,
 
 XXIV PREFACE. 
 
 that God is Intelligence, that Man is a lesser 
 Intelligence, that Intelligence is happiness and 
 perfection, while unhappiness and imperfection 
 result from Ignorance only. If we were all 
 intelligent we should all be virtuous, because 
 ' right convictions compel right sentiments and 
 right actions.' 
 
 " We believe we have done the author no 
 injustice in this statement, and we fear no con- 
 tradiction from scientific thinkers when we say 
 that such a statement implies a profound disre- 
 gard for philosophic method, and a profound 
 misconception of human nature. We will show 
 this presently ; meanwhile let us simply demur 
 to the gratuitous assumption with which he 
 starts, viz., that Intelligence is the First Prin- 
 ciple of all things." 
 
 We must ask here, if " much demonstration has 
 been employed to prove" that Intelligence is the First 
 Principle of all things, as is thus admitted by the 
 Reviewer himself, is it not absurd to say, as he has just 
 done, that our proposition is a " gratuitous assump- 
 tion ? " Surely a philosopher so well versed in 
 " scientific methods " ought to be consistent. Surely 
 a gentleman who boasts of his " long training in the 
 old philosophies " ought to be just. That certainly 
 is not an " assumption " which has cost its propounder 
 much demonstration to prove. And what is the "me- 
 thod" taken by the Reviewer to prove that our pro- 
 position is false ? He simply combats it with the 
 ever-ready weapon of Pyrrhonism, " How do you 
 know that ? What do you know of the First Prin- 
 ciple of things ? and what of Intelligence ? " satisfied, 
 apparently, that all Philosophy must crumble into 
 ruins at the first touch of these truth-assaying inter- 
 rogations. But, however this mode of confutation 
 may have answered its purpose when applied to the
 
 PREFACE. XXV 
 
 First Principles of other systems, we think it can be 
 shown to be a proof instead of a confutation of the 
 truth of ours. If Intelligence be not the First 
 Principle of all things, certainly, if it be not " The 
 First Principle of the Human Mind," and if it be 
 not in the very nature of Intelligence to compel its 
 possessor (all irrational influences apart) to act in 
 strict conformity with its dictates, then is our work 
 false and worthless, and the sooner it is forgotten the 
 better : but, on the other hand, if these positions are 
 proved by the very means selected by this acute Re- 
 viewer to demolish them, it is a fair inference that 
 they are true ; and then only has Criticism to do with 
 our ulterior conclusions. 
 
 The first question, " How do you know that ?" 
 (i. e., that Intelligence is the First Principle of all 
 things) must be taken clearly to admit the only point 
 of real importance for which we contend, namely, the 
 all-importance to Humanity of Intelligence or Know- 
 ledge, because it implies this statement " if you know 
 this, there is an end of the argument ; you are right." 
 It is true our opponent might reply "yes, but you 
 do not know it." We shall see presently that we do 
 know it as completely as we can know anything ; and, 
 moreover, that this also will be presently admitted, in 
 the amplest and most unequivocal manner, by the 
 Reviewer himself. But first let us get both these 
 admissions from the Reviewer's prototypes the 
 Pyrrhonists or ancient Sceptics, who, like himself, 
 settled everything to their own satisfaction by a " How 
 do you know that?" The Sceptics denied the pos- 
 sibility of all Philosophy because men cannot know 
 things per se ; consequently, they must have held the 
 converse of this, namely, that could men know 
 things per se they would know everything ; they 
 would be (and solely by means of this knowledge) 
 not mere men, but gods. Pyrrhonism is a denial of
 
 XXVI PREFACE. 
 
 everything but this : but of this of the oneness, the 
 all- perfection of knowledge Pyrrhonism is the proof ; 
 for, on this first fact was the Scepticism based which 
 demolished everything except its base: in the very 
 nature of things it could not demolish that. To deny 
 what it affirmed the all-in-all importance of Intelli- 
 gence, would have been, not merely absurd ; it would 
 have been also an abnegation of itself. If absolute 
 Intelligence would raise men into gods, it follows 
 that it is tlis Intelligence which constitutes the god: 
 for, suppose the Intelligence totally absent in either 
 case, all potence is gone, and what remains (if a re- 
 mainder can be conceived of) is felt to be a substance 
 or essence as empty and impotent as the veriest 
 negation. Thus, then, when we have explained, as 
 we shall do presently, what we mean by the term 
 ' ; First Principle," it will be seen, according to the 
 implied admissions of the acutest minds that ever 
 existed amongst men, that " Intelligence is the First 
 Principle of the Human Mind," and "the First 
 Principle of all things :" proof will have been given 
 that we do know this as completely as we can know 
 anything : the " How do you know that " of the 
 Reviewer will have been answered : and the two other 
 questions which accompany it, " What&o you know 
 of the First Principle of things?" and "What do 
 you know of Intelligence ? " will be seen to be far 
 more idle than it were to ask What do you know 
 concerning TIME ? of the man who has obligingly told 
 us what o'clock it is. Let us emphasize another 
 word of this question, a word which the Reviewer 
 does not emphasize ; and let us suppose him to insist 
 on an answer to this form of the question also 
 *' How do you know that ?" We ^eply we know 
 it in the only way Man can know anything ; that is, 
 by means of that Law of his intellectual nature which 
 compels him to believe and acknowledge that the
 
 PREFACE. XXV11 
 
 whole of anything is greater than a part from the 
 sheer impossibility of denying it. On the Law which 
 compels this assent which compels submission to the 
 evidences supplied by the senses, or the less contro- 
 vertible evidence supplied by the understanding, all 
 Philosophy, all Science, all determinations concern- 
 ing Truth and Falsehood, Right and Wrong, must 
 necessarily be based : and he who can affirm that 
 this LAW is illusory or false, is more or less than 
 Man. Will the Reviewer select either horn of this 
 dilemma ? 
 
 So far, then, we submit, that the "statement" on 
 which the Reviewer joined issue with us does not 
 " imply a profound disregard for philosophic method," 
 nor " a profound misconception of Human Nature :" 
 and if further proof be wanted of this, further proof 
 will be given as we proceed. 
 
 We will now explain what we mean by the term 
 " First Principle," by way of answer to another 
 question of the Reviewer : 
 
 " How can Intelligence be the First Principle of a 
 thing?" What we really mean by the term might 
 be easily gathered from what we have already said ; 
 but to avoid any chance of misconception on the 
 point we will further explain that, by the term First 
 Principle, we mean I lie essential nature of a lliiny ; 
 its motive power ; its sole source of intelligent action. 
 We have, in various portions of our work, and with 
 more regard to scientific precision than in the passage 
 cited by the Reviewer, described " the Human Soul" 
 as " an Intelligent Principle," meaning thereby, the 
 spiritual man the " substance " or reality which has 
 an inherent aptitude for intelligent action, but which, 
 in its incipiency, has to acquire the means of intel- 
 ligent action. It cannot be denied that these means 
 are facts, knowledge, Intelligence : nor will it be 
 denied that Intelligence may be, for all practical 
 
 c'2
 
 XXV111 PREFACE. 
 
 purposes, if not with scientific exactness, considered 
 and spoken of as the motive power of this " sub- 
 stance ;" its beginning, or source of action. Mean- 
 ing this, we have described Intelligence as the First 
 Principle of the Human Mind ; and, looking upwards 
 to find a cause of these human conditions, we perceive, 
 through the same process of reasoning, that Intelli- 
 gence (absolute and infinite of course) is the First 
 Principle of all things. This will explain our mean- 
 ing, and, we trust, will be found to be a satisfactory 
 answer to the question propounded by the Reviewer. 
 We know that all intelligent action is the result of 
 Intelligence in the actor. It is a truism. And as 
 Intelligence is, not the intelligent substance, but the 
 motive power of that substance, and as our notion of 
 principle implies action, the term First Principle 
 applied to Intelligence, if not strictly scientific, is not 
 very censurably wrong. We have said that Philo- 
 sophy and Religion are convertible terms, and we 
 find from Mr. Lewes's History that the reverend 
 Scholiasts of the middle ages entertained the same 
 notion. Scotus Erigena said " True Philosophy is 
 true Religion, and true Religion is true Philosophy." 
 Of course a Religion presupposes a God : conse- 
 cmently, our Philosophy, or, if the Reader prefers it, 
 our Religion, is based on the faith (we would fain call 
 it the proof] of the existence of a Supreme Ruler of 
 the Universe, to whom we must necessarily bear a 
 certain relationship (however distant) in spiritual 
 nature or essence ; for otherwise he could not be an 
 object of" adoration to us. Our opponent seems to 
 censure this weakness ; and the following paragraph 
 from his article on our volume will appear a little 
 inconsistent when compared with his apparent reve- 
 rence for the "religions" as well as the "philo- 
 sophies " of which he professed himself the indignant 
 champion in the opening paragraph of his Review. 
 He says :
 
 PREFACE. XXIX 
 
 " Upon this assumption that Intelligence is 
 the Principle, Aim, and End of every created 
 thing, the author bases his system. So long as he 
 remains with the Deity and Creation lie has it all 
 his own way. No man can disprove Cosmology ; 
 for the simple reason that no man can prove it. 
 The author, therefore, may sport as he pleases 
 amidst the chaos of unformed worlds, and tell 
 us ' all about ' them. With First Principles we 
 profess no acquaintance ; as the sailor said of 
 ghosts, ' we don't understand their tackle ;' but 
 when he descends upon earth and speaks of hu- 
 man beings, we begin to feel more confident." 
 Having ventured on the assumption which pro- 
 voked this flash of profane pleasantry in our Censor, 
 we must defend our notion of the Deity by affirming 
 that we but follow the common practice of mankind 
 in describing Him as the very perfection of Men's own 
 ideal of themselves. Savage men, of necessity, 
 imagine a savage God. We bow to the same natural 
 necessity when, deeming Intelligence the glory of 
 humanity, we conceive the same Attribute, in its 
 absoluteness, to be the glory, the power, the perfec- 
 tion of God. With this protest against unfairness, 
 and what has some resemblance to cant, we willingly 
 descend to earth to discuss matters more immediately 
 appertaining to humanity. 
 
 Instead of " sporting " in the " uncreated worlds " 
 of the Reviewer's imagination, and unphilosophically 
 forgetting that men are only men, the Header wilt find 
 that the direct opposite of this disingenuous sugges- 
 tion is the truth. Of Man W3 write, and of Man's 
 higher nature, and of the Laws of that higher nature, 
 by which his lower nature ought to be (and, in the 
 instance of our Censor, is, no doubt) controlled. To 
 this end we make an effort to prove that knowledge 
 in its very nature is synonymous with our abstract 
 notion of virtue ; hence we conclude that, " Right
 
 XXX PREFACE. 
 
 convictions have a constant tendency to compel right 
 sentiments and right actions." To these propositions 
 the Reviewer objects. He says : 
 
 "Vice, we are told, is only Ignorance, and 
 there would be no Virtue were it not for Vice. 
 The author is strangely mistaken in supposing 
 this is a discovery of his own. It is as old as 
 Socrates." 
 
 To this we reply that, if it is proper to designate 
 these propositions of ours " a discovery," IT is AN 
 ADMISSION THAT THEY ARE TRUE : and whether the 
 honour of the discovery belongs to Socrates, or to our- 
 selves, or to both, or to neither, does not in the slightest 
 degree invalidate the facts themselves, or diminish 
 their importance. Often, quite unawares, the truth 
 we seek to hide slips out ; and this fact will be seen 
 to be again and again verified in the article now under 
 review'. But to proceed. The Reviewer says : 
 
 " The peculiar error to which we now direct 
 attention, viz., that Vice is Ignorance, and that 
 Knowledge compels right actions could only 
 be entertained by one unaccustomed to scientific 
 method." 
 
 One word here on the subject of " Method," to 
 which the Reviewer attaches so much to our think- 
 ing needless importance. If the " scientific " or 
 other Methods relied on by all previous philosophers 
 have failed to lead to the discovery of a fundamental 
 Truth why so pertinaciously insist on every new 
 aspirant to philosophic honours pursuing one or other 
 of these beaten tracks which experience proves have 
 hitherto led to nothing ? The Reviewer tells us that 
 " The error lies in eliminating from human 
 nature all the conditions except intelligence, and 
 theorizing as to how man would act if they were 
 so constituted. But Nature is not to be coerced 
 by our Philosophy ; on the contrary, she insists
 
 PREFACE. XXXI 
 
 upon our Philosophy taking its shape from her : 
 
 and this command the ' Alpha ' violates in every 
 
 chapter." 
 
 This is a grave charge, bnt it is not true. We do 
 not, however, see that there is any more necessity for 
 the metaphysician, when analysing Mind, to confuse 
 his demonstrations with a dissertation on Physics, 
 than for the Anatomist, in a discourse on the bodily 
 functions, to obscure his demonstrations by inter- 
 mingling them with discussions on the nature of 
 Mind. To know the essential nature of a thing we 
 must consider it in the abstract, entirely separated 
 from everything else : and thus far only are we 
 chargeable with this so-called error of elimination. 
 But that, in our theory of human progression, we have 
 overlooked the conditions which belong to our phy- 
 sical nature, or, knowingly, slighted the claims to 
 consideration of any natural instinct for the more 
 extensive gratification of which the Reviewer may 
 have, either on public or private grounds, an especial 
 wish, by his influence and advocacy, to foster and 
 protect we beg, distinctly, yet respectfully, to deny. 
 Neither are we chargeable if our Principles are true, 
 and they have not yet been shown to be false with 
 any unphilosophical attempt to "coerce Nature"; 
 unless to coerce Nature means and we do not see 
 that it can mean anything else restraining the licen- 
 tiousness of the animal appetites to the moderate 
 gratification of them which satisfies the brute. With 
 this exception if exception it can be called, and of 
 which we see no reason to be ashamed w ? e aitirm 
 that our Philosophy docs " take its form from 
 Nature"; and, consequently, that we do not " violate 
 her commands " at all, much less " in every chapter." 
 Again the Reviewer asks, 
 
 " But who does not see the vicious reasoning 
 
 which employs such an IF ?"
 
 XXX11 PREFACE. 
 
 Let us ask the Querist in return, what but for the 
 state of tilings indicated by this " if" were the use 
 to humanity of his learned labours? What is the 
 meaning of all that is being done (whether little or 
 much) under the name of Philosophy, Religion, 
 Morality, Science, Art, Poetry, and Literature in 
 general, to say nothing of Laws, and Magistrates, 
 and Legislators, if it be not, first, that the state of 
 things is confessedly bad ; secondly, that it is possible 
 to improve it ; and, finally, that by these various 
 labours some improvement is both desired and in- 
 tended ? And if all these thinkers and intellectual 
 labourers recognise the work implied in our "if" as 
 work needful to be done, and are sincere in their 
 desire to do it, why should the reasoning of the 
 " Alpha " be denounced as " vicious " for recognising 
 so notorious and palpable a fact ? If the Fact had no 
 existence, all teaching would be needless ; but that it 
 does exist makes evident the only reason that is pos- 
 sible for the existence of a curative philosophy. It 
 is the knowledge of what Man is compared with 
 what he our/lit to be that affords a locus stand i to phi- 
 losophy at all : and it is the business of Philosophy 
 to discover and apply those Laws, by which Nature 
 has ordained that wrong shall be corrected, and 
 " Evil " be converted into good. Then how eminently 
 absurd the objection ! We are next reminded that 
 "Men, as at present constituted, are intelli- 
 gent, but they are also instinctive and emotive 
 beings." 
 
 The Reviewer knows that we no more doubt or 
 deny all this than he does. But does this form any 
 reason why the ignorant multitude who are, many 
 of them even amongst ourselves, scarcely anything 
 but instinctive and emotive beings should not be 
 educated into intellectual beings also? We believe 
 that they arc poor, and filthy, and ragged, and
 
 PREFACE. XX Xlll 
 
 wretched mainly because they are ignorant. We 
 perceive that the Instincts and Emotions have a tend- 
 ency to make beasts of men, and we aim to correct 
 this tendency in Nature's own way, the only way 
 namely, by universal education. 
 
 "Intelligence," says the Reviewer, "is one 
 mode of action by which an organization mani- 
 fests itself; but it is only one mode, and is con- 
 trolled by other modes." 
 
 We contend that when the " other modes " con- 
 trol the Intelligence the tendency is downwards. We 
 think that the Intelligence should control the Passions, 
 and not become their minister and slave. The Re- 
 viewer goes on : 
 
 " Instincts, Desires, Passions are not less 
 integral portions of the human soul, and they 
 mislead men into vicious actions more than Igno- 
 rance misleads them." 
 
 But if Instincts, Desires, and Passions " mislead " 
 men as they undoubtedly do the greater the ne- 
 cessity, say we, that Intelligence should modify, limit, 
 and control their action. The Reviewer proceeds : 
 " No greater mistake can be committed than 
 to place all our actions under the impulse of 
 the Intellect, and to suppose that our knowledge 
 of what is right will compel us to do right : 
 
 ' Video meliora proboque 
 Detcriora sequor ! ' 
 
 ' I know and testify to the good, yet I follow 
 
 the bad." 
 
 We have never assumed or said that, against im- 
 pediments such as social influences arid mere animal 
 appetite, knowledge is absolutely resistless : we are 
 too well aware of the contrary. What we do say is 
 that (apart from all irrational influences) knowledge 
 is resistless. But this we maintain also that there 
 is no power under Heaven but Knowledge (or Belief
 
 XXXIV PREFACE. 
 
 which has the force of Knowledge), by which what- 
 ever is irrational can be eradicated or reformed. The 
 Reviewer denies this : he says : 
 
 " Social experience has educated social feel- 
 ings : the Intellect has, of course, guided this 
 education it has thrown its light upon the 
 objects but it has not been its motive force." 
 This is a strange passage. What is " social expe- 
 rience " but an accumulation of social knowledge 
 reduced to action, and teaching by personal influence 
 and example ? But he tells us that the Intellect has, 
 4 ' of course, guided this education"; and it of course 
 how could anything else have been the " motive 
 force " ? Or, supposing a motive force other than 
 Intelligence what is it ? 
 
 There is a remarkable, a sort of paternal, tender- 
 ness in the claims to respect put forward by the 
 Reviewer for the Instincts, Desires, and Passions ; 
 which, like so many mischievous Pucks and Jack-o'- 
 lanterns, mislead men into moral quagmires even more 
 than Ignorance misleads them. We have had a classic 
 illustration of this charming weakness in the confes- 
 sion of the Roman Poet ; we are to have another 
 example, almost as pleasantly respectable, in the 
 person of the Reviewer will tell us whom : 
 
 " In the face of this universal experience, how 
 can a man assert that Vice is the same as Igno- 
 rance, and that we do wrong because we are 
 unenlightened, when it is clear that, in most 
 cases, the wrong we do is owing to our instincts 
 and passions disregarding the Intelligence and 
 acting in defiance of it. Take a familiar illustra- 
 tion. Jones is fond of port ; a pint does him no 
 apparent injury ; a bottle makes him quarrel- 
 some, reckless, and profligate. He knows well 
 enough that, if he drink a bottle of port, he will 
 thump his wife, destroy the furniture, pass the
 
 PREFACE. XXXV 
 
 night in a round-house, and suffer terrible head- 
 ache on the morrow. He knows this as well as 
 he knows most things ; he foresees the conse- 
 quences, and drinks the bottle." 
 A man always affirms or denies the converse of 
 what he denies or affirms. Now let us see what the 
 Reviewer affirms in this very choice and " familiar 
 illustration" : why, that, Be a man what he may, he 
 is what he ought to be ! and, consequently, that all 
 progress is impossible, and all education folly. Is THIS 
 the result of " our long training in the old philo- 
 sophies " ! Of course, everybody must sympathise 
 \\ith Jones. It is clear, moreover, that, but for this, 
 not unainiable, indeed, somewhat interesting, pos- 
 sibly even, solitary trait in his character, we should 
 care nothing about Jones. Still, we must take the 
 liberty to say that, apart from its want of pertinence 
 as an illustration of any defect chargeable on the 
 ' Alpha," this specious mode of argument exhibits 
 only a most unphilosophical pandering to Common 
 Sense, which we will take the liberty of describing as 
 The plain, honest reasoning, of plain, honest people, 
 on data which these plain, honest people seldom con- 
 descend to examine, and which are far more frequently 
 based on fundamental falsehood than on fundamental 
 truth. But, in our case, Common Sense is the 
 Culprit ; and, if you make the Culprit the Judge, no 
 marvel, gentlemen Reviewers, should you obtain a 
 verdict against us ; and, once for all, we protest 
 against its arbitrary and superficial decisions. Con- 
 scious, apparently, that his " familiar illustration " is 
 less pertinent than witty, and that it is susceptible of 
 an answer, the Reviewer, with a most laudable can- 
 dour, proceeds to give it : 
 
 " Now it is quite clear that our opponent 
 might say, Jones only partially foresaw the con- 
 sequences his conviction was not absolute he
 
 XXXVI PREFACE. 
 
 suffered his desires to sophisticate with him he 
 listened to the sneaking suggestion that this time, 
 perhaps, he should not become intoxicated, and 
 so on ; whereas, if he clearly and unmistakably 
 saw his action in its true light saw the inevi- 
 table consequences, and recognised them as 
 inevitable, then he would not drink the bottle. 
 Some such reservation as this must be in the 
 minds of those who talk about Vice being Igno- 
 rance." 
 
 Must be in the minds of those who talk about Vice 
 being Ignorance ! Why, is it not many times 
 written in the book, on the merits of which this clap- 
 trap is put forth as criticism ? This " reservation " 
 is always made by us. One instance is as good as 
 fifty. Of the ten propositions which are the base of 
 all our arguments and conclusions, each proposition 
 rendered as distinct as typography can make it, and 
 in page 73 of our volume, the second proposition 
 stands thus : " THAT, APART FROM THE INFLUENCES 
 
 TO WHICH HE MAY BE EITHER AN1MALLY OR CONVEN- 
 TIONALLY SUBJECT, HIS ERRORS ARE ALWAYS IN THE 
 EXACT RATIO OF HIS IGNORANCE." Can there be any 
 excuse for the Ignorance of the Reviewer ? And if 
 not, what then ? The Reviewer might have stopped 
 here ; but, in his simplicity, or in his wilfulness, he 
 proceeds to record an admission which mars all, and 
 which, strangely enough, he prints in italics as though 
 unconscious of the triumph he obtains over himself. 
 These are his words : 
 
 " Give a man the omniscience of an Anyel and 
 he will act like an Any el" 
 
 Precisely so : and the more of this omniscience 
 (i. e., Knowledge) you give him, the further you will 
 remove him from the natural condition of the mere 
 Brute. All we have been contending for is granted. 
 All our opponent has been arguing for is given up.
 
 PREFACE. XXXV11 
 
 The Reviewer's admission, thus stated, affords the 
 following logical results. Give a man the knowledge 
 of an Angel, and he will, intellectually, be an Angel : 
 ergo, KNOWLEDGE CONSTITUTES THE ANGEL. Again. 
 Give a man the knowledge of an Angel, and he must 
 act like an Angel : ergo, KNOWLEDGE is THE ARBITER 
 OF HIS ACTS. It seems somewhat extraordinary that 
 so acute a logician, skilled, too, in methods scientific, 
 should have ventured to draw his crowning conclusion 
 from ANGELS after having so recently confessed that 
 he " didn't understand their tackle." But the fact 
 is, there are few things more difficult when a man 
 will talk than to falsify the convictions which, 
 whether he knows it or not, are a part and parcel of 
 his very nature the Alpha and Omega of his inmost 
 soul. Man is, intellectually, truthful and truth-loving 
 by nature, the gloomy and impious doctrine of 
 " original sin " notwithstanding ; and this is only 
 one of the thousands of proofs which are every day 
 occurring of the fact. 
 
 The Journal in which the review we have been re- 
 viewing appeared is not remarkable for its orthodoxy. 
 It prides itself, moreover, on its philosophical acumen, 
 on its fairness, on its love of Truth for its own sake, 
 and on its liberality in opening its columns to all 
 opinions from' the super-orthodoxy of his Holiness 
 the Pope to the atheistical heresies of Miss Martineau : 
 why, therefore, our opinions should have been mis- 
 represented therein, if deemed worthy of notice at all, 
 \vc know not : but it is a little singular that, in pur- 
 posely falsifying our proposition so as to bring it 
 within the limited range of a bad joke containing the 
 most execrable philosophy, the Reviewer should have 
 affirmed, by a gratuitous admission, the two funda- 
 mental principles of our work both of which it was 
 the main object of his entire article to confute ! The 
 moral we draw from his misadventure is this : The
 
 XXXV111 PREFACE. 
 
 man who merely argues for Victory should never 
 make admissions. Our other Censors were too wary 
 even to argue. They jested, fibbed, sneered, dogma- 
 tised and won. Now, of all these modes of confuta- 
 tion, the Fib, though an ungentlemanly weapon, is the 
 most effective, because, as we have seen, it begets 
 occasion for the others. Take a specimen of this 
 mode of warfare from another review. We are said 
 to have done wholesale injustice to THE ARTISTS by 
 asserting that " All Art is false Art :" whereas this 
 monstrous Aphorism has been culled out of the 
 following sentence from page 345 of the " Alpha" : 
 e: Our Arts and our Literature should not have a 
 tendency to degrade, to caricature, or to depress 
 Human Nature, but to elevate and ennoble it : All 
 Art is false Art false in its object which has this 
 degrading tendency." Thus, our white has been 
 converted into black; and where is the remedy? 
 Verily, there is an art in everything ; but the art of 
 fabricating evil out of o;ood is a vicious art ; and a 
 
 O O * 
 
 profitable one, no doubt, or it would not be so fre- 
 quently practised by Reviewers. We have just said 
 that Men are, intellectually, truthful and truth-loving 
 by nature. We may add that they are time-serving 
 from necessity. We do not mean what is called phi- 
 losophical necessity, but the necessity arising out of 
 conventional circumstances which are alterable by 
 humanity, and wrong because they incline all but 
 the sternest minds to disregard the higher promptings 
 of our better nature, and that greatly to the detri- 
 ment of all. Before we return to the Reviewer on 
 whom we have bestowed so much attention, let us 
 take this opportunity of remarking that, if we rightly 
 understand the fundamental principle of Robert 
 Owen's philosophy (from which it has been said we 
 have borrowed some of our own notions on Social 
 matters) it is that, " Man is the Creature of Circum-
 
 PREFACE. XXXI 
 
 stances." Now, it will be seen that our position is 
 the direct converse of his ; for we maintain that Man 
 has the power to control circumstances, and does 
 control them : and Robert Owen falsifies his own 
 principle, and (unconsciously we presume) relies on 
 ours, when he seeks to alter Man's social condition, 
 which, on his own principle, must be incapable of 
 alteration. 
 
 Concerning the identity of Knowledge and Virtue, 
 and the intellectual Law which is the arbiter of our 
 rational acts, the positions maintained by us, and 
 denied by the Reviewer our argument, briefly 
 stated, is as follows : If (as we maintain) an inade- 
 quacy of Knowledge is Vice namely, the cause of 
 it, it follows that a sufficiency of Knowledge is Virtue. 
 Again. Tf (as we maintain) a sufficiency of Know- 
 ledge is Virtue namely, the cause of it, it follows 
 that the cause must be, in all cases, competent to the 
 effect predicable therefrom just to the extent that 
 all irrational impediments to the natural operation of 
 this Law the intellectual arbiter of our acts have 
 been removed : and certainly nothing but Knowledge 
 can remove them. This is a simple statement of the , 
 Law for which we argue : but that it is a Law, in 
 the sense that it is universal and unvarying, is the 
 fact the Reviewer denies. He contends that, although 
 knowing two and two to be equal to four, he can act 
 if he pleases, as though he believed the multiple of 
 these numbers to be seven or six. We answer, As 
 a frnc man you cannot ; as a knavv you might : and 
 every one (the Reviewer exceptcd) nvust admit that a 
 man ought not to be a knave. And, if he ought not, 
 then the fewer temptations to knavery that Society 
 puts before him the better; and all the hinderances 
 which operate against his natural reliance on the truth 
 which he knows to be truth, ought, with all practi- 
 cable promptitude, to be for ever removed. But for
 
 X PREFACE. 
 
 a man to say, as is said in a roundabout manner by 
 this Reviewer, that the wish to effect the work of this 
 removal is "idle " because the labour is so " immense," 
 is absurd indeed ; and could only be consistently 
 maintained by a consistent believer in Robert Owen's 
 principle, which abnegates a hereafter, assumes pro- 
 gress to be impossible, and renders Knowledge not 
 worth the sacrifice of a month's animal enjoyment to 
 obtain. 
 
 We are, however, no enemies, saintly or ascetic, to 
 animal enjoyment ; nor ungrateful that the per- 
 formance of all our animal necessities have been 
 beneficently made instrumental to this enjoyment : 
 but we cannot shut our eyes to a fact which arises 
 out of the circumstances just mentioned, namely, 
 that, contrary to what we observe in the natural 
 economy of the brutes beneath us, Man has converted 
 these means of enjoyment into an institution, culti- 
 vated his animal appetites into a daily-recurring 
 passion, which must be gratified, if possible, at any 
 cost : and, indeed, at what a cost ! What an enor- 
 mous amount of needless misery is entailed by Society 
 on Mankind at large as the inevitable consequence of 
 these natural, but surely not necessary, indulgences ! 
 Simpletons of every class and there are some in all 
 and probably the crowd of Common-sense Men 
 also, will laugh outright at our complaints and lamenta- 
 tions ; but we entreat the Reader to reflect on this 
 matter, and realize the magnitude of its moral for 
 himself. He will be a wiser, perhaps a sadder, but 
 certainly a better man for the meditation, the intro- 
 spection, and the knowledge. 
 
 In another brief Section we shall apply, to the 
 purposes of our Preface, the arguments we have used 
 in this and the preceding Sections. Here, with some 
 reluctance, but with much respect, we take leave 
 of our unknown antagonist the Reviewer.
 
 PREFACE. xli 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 A BOOK which cannot be refuted, except by misrepre- 
 sentation, is, of course, irrefutable. We are not so 
 infatuated as to believe that the "Alpha" cannot be 
 refuted : but the fact that only the species of refuta- 
 tion just mentioned has been hitherto employed by 
 our Censors, leaves us at full liberty to indulge in the 
 assumption. However, that we do not think ourselves 
 infallible, nor our principles beyond the reach of 
 logical discomfiture, will be inferred from our present 
 attempt to strengthen our position against future 
 attacks : and, that we have never exhibited more con- 
 fidence in our principles than every sincere man feels 
 concerning the work which has been to him a labour 
 of love, our volume itself is a sufficient proof. 
 
 Like the Author of a book just published, having a 
 similar aim with our own, and entitled " Institutes of 
 Metaphysics ; the Theory of Knowing and Being," by 
 James F. Ferrier, A.B., we claim for ourselves this 
 merit at least, that our Philosophy has " a starting- 
 point, a fundamental position," on the truth or false- 
 hood of which every subsequent proposition depends. 
 If this fundamental position cannot be refuted if the 
 Soul be an " Intelligent Principle," and if " Intelli- 
 gence be the First (active) Principle of the Human 
 Mind," it is clear that the System logically based 
 thereon is true ; and not only true, but unassailable 
 when it shall have been cemented in all its parts by a 
 logical synthesis which human reason cannot contro- 
 vert, nor, without being guilty of self-confuting absur- 
 dity deny. We know that an inveterate Scepticism 
 is capable of the latter attempt : and if we can show 
 that Scepticism is based on a self-confuting absurdity, 
 and that it has no base but this which is no base 
 
 d
 
 Xlii PREFACE. 
 
 we shall disarm Criticism of that weapon, and compel 
 it to reason, and depend on the conclusions of reason, 
 or be silent : for it is monstrous to assume, as Scep- 
 ticism does, that your reason needs a CRITERIUM but 
 mine does not. We shall be told perhaps that the 
 Sceptic does not reason ; that he only doubts. We 
 ask, by way of answer, Of what importance is the 
 doubt of a mere mental Automaton ? But the fact 
 is, all great Sceptics, Pyrrho and Plume for example, 
 were great reasoners, and reasoned themselves into a 
 belief that Reason is not to be relied on : hence their" 
 inquiry, How do you know that Reason is not decep- 
 tive ? Where is your Criterium of Truth ? A Doubter 
 does not stop at doubting ; he denies : nor does he stop 
 at denial ; he affirms. On the plea that there is no 
 Criterium of Reason, he denies that Reason can be 
 relied on ; and thence affirms that all Philosophy is 
 impossible. This is the Sceptic's difficulty. Is it real ? 
 He has a reason for his doubt, and a reason for his 
 affirmation or denial : and here is the absurdity he 
 denies what he affirms, and affirms what he denies. 
 We are obliged by the very constitution of our cog- 
 nitive faculty to rely on Reason, which yet assures us 
 that Reason ought not to be relied on ! Is there any 
 way out of this difficulty ? We think there is. At 
 any rate, a brief colloquy in humble imitation of the 
 manner of Plato, will assist us somewhat in per- 
 ceiving what the difficulty is. 
 
 Can the same affirmation be both absolutely true 
 and absolutely false ? 
 
 Certainly not. 
 
 Then, the Conclusions of Reason cannot be at once 
 both true and false ? 
 
 They cannot. 
 
 They must be one or the other ? 
 
 Clearly. 
 
 W T hen your Reason tells you that without a Crite-
 
 PREFACE. xliil 
 
 rium of reason, reason cannot be trusted, do you 
 believe your Reason ? 
 
 I do. 
 
 Have you any Criterium of the truth of the reason 
 which induces you to conclude that reason without a 
 Criterium might be fallacious ? 
 
 I have not. 
 
 And yet you rely on it ? 
 
 I do. 
 
 Do you think it absurd to say, with other men, 
 that grass is green, and the sky blue ? 
 
 I do not. 
 
 Is there any absurdity in affirming that two parallel 
 lines, though infinitely produced, can never meet ? 
 
 None. 
 
 Why? 
 
 Because I am compelled to admit that their meeting 
 is impossible. 
 
 What is your Criterium here ? 
 
 My Reason certainly. 
 
 Do you feel, in this case, that your Criterium, not 
 being supported by another Criterium, is thence in 
 any way fallacious ? 
 
 I do not. 
 
 Do you think the axioms on which the Mathe- 
 matical Sciences are based are either doubtful or 
 erroneous ? 
 
 Certainly not. 
 
 Nor, when logically ascertained, that their Conclu- 
 sions are false ? 
 
 No. 
 
 Then you do not require any further Criterium 
 than you have at present in proof that a Circle is not 
 a Triangle, that two parallel lines can never meet, 
 that the whole of anything is greater than a part, and 
 that two and two are equal to four ? 
 
 I do not. 
 
 d 2
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 Why? 
 
 They are too self-evident to be disputed : it is im- 
 possible not to be satisfied that they are true. 
 
 You have said, have you not, that you need no other 
 Criterium than you have at present in proof that your 
 reason does not deceive you as to the necessity for a 
 Criterium of reason, and of a Criterium of that Crite- 
 rium, ad injinitum ? 
 
 If I have not already said so I say so now. 
 
 Does not this admission involve an absurdity ? 
 
 It appears so, certainly. 
 
 Is it not clear that Human Reason can be trusted 
 in many cases ? 
 
 It is. 
 
 And why not in all ? 
 
 Because in all cases the Truth is not self-evident. 
 
 Are not self-evident truths necessary truths ? 
 
 They are. 
 
 Are not all truths Necessary whether self-evident 
 to us or not ? 
 
 Undoubtedly. 
 
 When self-evident, our present Criterium, that is, 
 our Reason, is sufficient to convince us of their truth ? 
 
 It is. 
 
 And when not self-evident we want a further 
 Criterium ? 
 
 Yes. 
 
 Then, if all truths were self-evident no Criterium 
 would be needed? 
 
 None. 
 
 Is not Reason that faculty of the Soul by which a 
 Being to whom some truths are self-evident and some 
 are not, or to whom some facts are known and others 
 unknown taking self-evident truths, or known facts, 
 as his Criteria arrives at the knowledge of other 
 truths which are more latent and involved ? 
 
 Such is the process of Reasoning, certainly.
 
 PREFACE. xv 
 
 Then, Reason is Perception ? 
 
 It would seem so. 
 
 You have said that if all truths were self-evident no 
 Criterium would be needed ? 
 
 I have. 
 
 Meaning thereby that what is known to be true as 
 soon as perceived could not be rendered more evident, 
 or more certain, by any conceivable Criterium ? 
 
 Yes. 
 
 In the solution of any complicated problem, is not 
 every fact in the series through which we arrive at 
 the solution a self-evident proposition ? that is 
 self-evident, or nearly so, to him who solves the 
 problem ? 
 
 Certainly. 
 
 Could any conceivable Criterium render them more 
 evident ? 
 
 No. 
 
 And is not the problem when solved perceived by 
 him who solves it to be as certainly true as any fact 
 in the series by which he arrived at his conclusion ? 
 
 Undoubtedly. 
 
 Could any possible Criterium add one iota to our 
 certitude of its truth? 
 
 Clearly not. 
 
 Then, if the simplest truths are self-evident, or 
 nearly so, and if the truth contained in the most com- 
 plex proposition is capable of being reduced to self- 
 evident elements, is it not clear that a Criterium of 
 Reason is needless ? 
 
 It appears so, certainly. 
 
 And can you form any conception of that which 
 has no conceivable use ? 
 
 I cannot. 
 
 A Criterium of Reason is, then, both needless and 
 inconceivable ? 
 
 It must be so admitted.
 
 Xlvi PREFACE. 
 
 And is it not absurd to desire that which is neither 
 desirable nor possible ? 
 
 Unless against all reason I deny that Reason can- 
 not be relied on, this also must be admitted. 
 
 Then our difficulty has vanished : and we may con- 
 tinue to assure ourselves that every proposition which 
 is inconsistent in itself and involves a contradiction, 
 is untenable, absurd, and false. It is not a Criterium 
 of Reason which Man needs to open to his Soul the 
 floodgates of all Truth ; but a PERCEPTION more 
 acute keen as an Angel's ken as all-embracing as 
 a god's as comprehensive as our Ambition as infi- 
 nite as our Hope : and to HIM who gave us this 
 Ambition and this Hope to cheer us onward towards 
 their consummation, be all praise, and glory, and 
 reverence, and honour, for the endowment ! Just to 
 the extent that we truly PERCEIVE, we truly know. 
 We conceive of Being, but PERCEIVE not what Being 
 is. We exist, but perceive not how we exist. We 
 think, but perceive not how we think. We are, but 
 perceive not, WITH THE CLEARNESS OF A GOD'S PER- 
 CEPTION, what we are. The idea of a CRITERIUM is 
 absurd, because no conceivable criterium could render 
 us more wise ; but a more acute, a more enlarged 
 PERCEPTION is what we need to make us what ? 
 not reasoning Men, but all-perceiving gods who have 
 no need of reason. We are Men, not gods. This, 
 and not the want of an impossible Criterium is the 
 Sceptic's difficulty. But the great forerunner of 
 Reason, half-perceiving Hope, tells us, and Reason 
 which halts so far behind our Hope admits it might 
 be true that we are INCIPIENT gods, although not 
 gods full-grown : and whilst the enheartening concep- 
 tion of this glorious Hope whispers that the Soul is 
 but as a caged bird beating its strong wings against 
 the bars which imprison it, impatient for the joy of 
 boundless liberty in the blue and starry infinite
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 beyond, is it not absurd to magnify into a difficulty 
 the necessary fact that Men are merely men, not 
 gods ! as Sceptics do ? Is it one iota less absurd 
 (pardon the incongruity !) than for the seedling oak, 
 reared in a flower-pot, to repine that it is not yet 
 deep-rooted in the forest a giant tree, majestic 
 in its massive bole, its mighty limbs, its myriad 
 leaves, and wide-expanding branches ? that the 
 germ of yesterday is not the instant growth of thrice 
 three hundred years ! But a greater absurdity yet 
 has to be named and answered. We have not, say 
 the Sceptics, the Perception, the Knowledge, of the 
 full-grown god; ergo, Men have no basis for Philo- 
 sophy : Philosophy is impossible. So said the Pyr- 
 rhonists of old : so say their Echoes now. Let us 
 endeavour to dissipate this delusion. What is Philo- 
 sophy ? Assuredly, that Science which charges itself 
 with the discovery of hidden truth. What is its 
 basis ? A limited Perception of Self-evident and 
 necessary truth, which is indissolubly linked to the 
 infinite series of hidden truths beyond it. And what 
 is its process? Logical analysis, synthesis, and in- 
 duction. Were we gods full-grown all truth would 
 be self-evident, and Philosophy would be both need- 
 less and impossible : but as Men are only men sus- 
 ceptible of knowledge needing knowledge from 
 the first dawn of the intellect desiring knowledge 
 having means beyond all other creatures known to us 
 adapted to its attainment endowed with an innate 
 love of Truth, and a criterium within us by which to 
 test its certitude ; Truth being thus a Happiness, a 
 Necessity, a Possibility, and its constant accumula- 
 tion a Progress, which, from the very circumstance 
 of there being an infinity of Truth beyond our mortal 
 ken and grasp, may be and all men hope it will 
 be a Progress capable of continuing to be a Possi- 
 bility, a Necessity, and a Happiness to all of us for
 
 xlviii PREFACE. 
 
 ever, how absurd to say that Philosophy is for 
 Gods who need it not, but that for Men it is an 
 impossibility ! Yet this is Scepticism ! Let us now 
 examine the acknowledged basis on which this Scep- 
 ticism rests. 
 
 We are told by Mr. G. H. Lewes, in his " Biogra- 
 phical History of Philosophy," that 
 
 " The stronghold of Scepticism is impregnable. It 
 is this : There is no Criterium of Truth. Plato 
 magnificently developed his Ideal Theory, which 
 Aristotle crushed by proving it to be purely sub- 
 jective. But then the theory of Demonstration, 
 which Aristotle placed in its -stead, was not that 
 equally subjective ? What was this boasted Logic 
 but the systematic arrangement of Ideas obtained 
 originally through Sense ? Aristotle's knowledge 
 could only be a knowledge of phenomena, although 
 he wished to make out a science of Causes. And 
 what are Phenomena ? Phenomena are the Appear- 
 ances of things. But where exists the Criterium of 
 the truth of these Appearances ? How are we to 
 ascertain the exactitude of the accordance of these 
 Appearances with the Things of which they are the 
 Appearances ? We know full well that Things 
 appear differently to us at different times ; appear 
 differently to different individuals ; appear differently 
 to different Animals. Are any of these Appearances 
 true? If so, which are? And how do you know 
 which are ? Moreover, reflect on this : We have 
 five senses', each of which reveals to us a different 
 quality in the object. Thus an Apple is presented to 
 us : we see it, smell it, feel it, taste it, hear it bitten ; 
 and the sight, smell, feeling, taste, and sound, are five 
 different Appearances five different Aspects in which 
 we perceive the Thing. If we had three Senses 
 more, the Thing would have three qualities more ; it 
 would present three more Appearances : if we had
 
 PREFACE. xlix 
 
 three Senses less, the Thing would have but two 
 qualities. Now, are these qualities wholly and entirely 
 dependent upon our Senses, or do they really appertain 
 to the Thing? And do they all appertain to it, or 
 only some of them ? The differences of impressions 
 made on different people, would seem to show that 
 the qualities of things were dependent on the Senses. 
 These differences, at any rate, show that Things do 
 not present one uniform series of Appearances. All 
 we can say with any truth is that Things appear to 
 us in such and such a manner. That we have Sensa- 
 tions is true ; but we cannot say that our Sensations 
 are the true images of the Things. That the Apple we 
 have is brilliant, round, odorous, and sweet, may be 
 very true, if we mean that it appears such to our 
 senses ; but, to keener or duller vision, scent, tact, 
 and taste, it may be dull, rugged, offensive, and 
 insipid. Amidst this confusion of sensuous impres- 
 sions, Philosophers pretend to distinguish the true 
 from the false : they assert that Reason is the Cri- 
 terium of Truth : Reason distinguishes. Plato and 
 Aristotle are herein agreed. Very well, reply the 
 Sceptics, Reason is your Criterium. But what proof 
 have you that this Criterium itself distinguishes 
 truly ? You must not return to Sense : that has been 
 already given up : you must rely upon Reason : and 
 we ask you what proof have you that your Reason 
 never errs, what proof have you that it is ever correct ? 
 A Criterium is wanted for your Criterium, and so on 
 ad infmitum. This argument we hold to be wholly 
 irreversible as far as regards Metaphysical know- 
 ledge." 
 
 The Historian of Philosophy identifies himself with 
 these dicta of the ancient Sceptics. He commences 
 by affirming that " The Stronghold of Scepticism is 
 impregnable," and ends by telling us that he holds 
 their argument to be " wholly irreversible." We
 
 1 PREFACE. 
 
 have quoted this 'passage for various purposes, the 
 
 most important of which is to test the strength of 
 
 this Stronghold of the Sceptics. We shall fight them 
 
 with their own weapon. 
 
 It is affirmed with all the confidence of absolute 
 
 conviction, 
 
 First, That SENSE-KNOWLEDGE is delusive, and 
 
 cannot be relied on. 
 
 Secondly, That REASON cannot be relied on ; and, 
 
 thence, 
 
 Thirdly, That There is no Criterium of Truth. 
 The two last propositions we think we have already 
 confuted. The first we have no intention to confute, 
 believing it to be true ; but we desire to know what 
 " Criterium " the Historian of Philosophy had recourse 
 to in confirmation of its truth. Sense-knowledge, you 
 say, is delusive. How do you know that ? You must 
 not return to Reason ; for Reason, you say, is not 
 to be relied on : and you cannot possibly return to 
 Sense, which you have just taken such pains to prove 
 unworthy of belief. Then, how have you arrived at 
 the knowledge which, with so much confidence, you 
 affirm to be TRUE ? And how do you know that it 
 is true ? We do not deny your fact : we agree with 
 it : and we know that you, like ourselves, must have 
 arrived at the knowledge of this fact, either through 
 the medium of SENSE, or through the medium of 
 REASON. All we want to ascertain is, w/iic/t ? You 
 are thoroughly convinced that the fact you affirm is 
 true, so true that no " Criterium of Truth" other 
 than you have had recourse to, and have so confidently 
 relied on, could render it more believable, or in any 
 way add strength or consistency to your conviction : 
 but since you MUST have relied either on Sense or on 
 Reason, we will vary our question, and ask Whether 
 the Idea which first led to this discovery had its origin 
 WITHIN the Mind, or whether it was derived through
 
 PREFACE. li 
 
 Sense-knowledge obtained from WITHOUT? If from 
 without, your fact originated in Sense, and you have 
 no proof that it is true. If from within, you have an 
 internal CONCEPTION which generates ideas inde- 
 pendently of Sense, and an internal PERCEPTION of 
 congruity, with respect to Ideas, which is your Crite- 
 rium of Truth. Either, then, Sensuous Appearances 
 are NOT delusive, or Reason is our Criterium of Truth. 
 But, as you deny the certitude of BOTH, and must 
 admit the certitude of ONE, or take a third alternative, 
 
 AND NEVER AGAIN ADMIT OR DENY ANYTHING, W6 
 
 leave you to select your horn of this triple dilemma, 
 perceiving that, if true to your principles, you must 
 choose the last, It will perhaps be urged by the 
 Historian of Philosophy that we have done him an 
 injustice here, that his concluding affirmation, fully 
 stated, is, That he holds the Sceptics' Argument " to 
 be wholly irreversible as far as regards METAPHY- 
 SICAL knowledge." It is true we have purposely kept 
 these qualifying words out of view in our comment 
 on the " Argument," because we deemed them to be 
 both impertinent and absurd. Having given us an 
 elaborate proof of the incertitude of Physical know- 
 ledge ; ergo, says our logician, Metaphysical know- 
 ledge has no certitude for its base ! Instead of 
 making an exception in favour of the latter, as (if this 
 be the whole argument) he ought to have done, he 
 makes the exception in favour of the former in 
 defiance of all consistency and truth ! The whole 
 object of his work is less to historize Philosophy 
 than to prove its baselessness and impossibility ; and 
 this is the unassailable " Stronghold" of his proof ! 
 The Reader will now judge whether the " Stronghold" 
 of Scepticism be ''impregnable " or not. We honour 
 Scepticism as long as it has Reason on its side : but 
 the Doubter who doubts all things is irrational ; and
 
 lii 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 whenever he presumes to dogmatize is certain to be 
 absurd. 
 
 That we do not know, and probably, as Men, never 
 shall know Things in their Essences, or, as the 
 Learned say, per se, is at once granted without abate- 
 ment or reservation ; but to what does the admitted 
 fact amount ? To this that Men are not gods ; and 
 therefore, are progressive beings, needing a Philosophy 
 to wean them from error, to render progress delight- 
 ful, and to make radiant and certain every step of the 
 way. All honour to the Men who discovered the 
 1 Untrustworthiness of Sense ! For twenty centuries 
 it has perplexed deep Thinkers, but it is Truth ! 
 They were but Critics it is true these Sceptics. 
 They discovered the weak points of the ennobling 
 Philosophy of their large-souled precursors and con- 
 temporaries, but they did not substitute anything in 
 its stead. How could they ? They were but Critics, 
 though acute ones, and, like their brethren every- 
 where they neglected to criticise themselves. Their 
 Facts were true ; but of the three negative proposi- 
 tions founded on them, two, we have seen, are false. 
 By the acuteness of their Perception which is 
 Reason, they proved the worth of Reason : and the 
 truth of the Facts they discovered proves the certitude 
 of the " Criterium" they employed. 
 
 Unless we have egregiously deceived ourselves, Scep- 
 ticism is disarmed; and, consequently, that sceptical 
 arguments, which aim at the subversion of all Philo- 
 sophy, cannot deprive us of the basis of ours. Having, 
 then, disposed of the deniers of Philosophy, let us, in 
 the brief space which remains at our disposal, see 
 whether the arguments which prove the untrust- 
 worthiness of Sense, and throw doubts on the reality 
 of Matter, cannot be converted into a proof of the real 
 existence of the Soul ; and thus disarm Atheism of its
 
 PREFACE. Hii 
 
 chief argument against the existence of a God. If we 
 accomplish this, it is clear that the basis of the "Alpha" 
 cannot be assailed by an universal Negation, nor the 
 ennobling end it aims at be deemed a mere chimera 
 even by the deniers of a God : For if the Soul be an 
 absolute entity, what is to deprive it of being ? 
 
 The Sceptists' argument is this. Whether Matter 
 really exists we know not ; cannot know ; because 
 all we know of Things external to ourselves is their 
 Sensible Appearances. They ask, Have Form, 
 Colour, Extension, Solidity, Weight (the qualities 
 of what we call Matter) any substantial base, any 
 real, knowable Substratum? The answer is, we 
 know not : cannot know. Could we really know this 
 Substratum we should be certain of the existence of 
 Matter of the reality of an external world : we 
 should know what Matter really is : but this is 
 hopeless ; ergo, We know nothing of Matter : not 
 even that it exists. 
 
 Now let us adopt the same searching mode of 
 inquiry as to the existence of a Substratum of the 
 intellectual qualities or attributes of Man ; because, 
 according to the acutest thinkers, and according to 
 the Law which determines the convictions of our in- 
 tellectual Nature, all qualities or attributes must have 
 a Substratum, whether we, can arrive at a knowledge 
 of its existence and nature or not. Now, take any 
 three or four of these qualities Thought, Judgment, 
 Memory, Imagination they must inhere to Some- 
 thing. It is possible, barely possible, to suppose 
 and Bishop Berkeley maintained the theory that the 
 external world has no Substratum, no absolute ex- 
 istence, and that, Form, Colour, Extension, Solidity, 
 Weight, are not attributes, but appearances only. 
 And this must be so if Matter has no basis no 
 absolute existence ; for it is impossible to conceive 
 that Nothing can have an attribute. The very state-
 
 v PREFACE. 
 
 ment seems too absurdly self-evident to write. But, 
 of the intellectual qualities or attributes in Man, we 
 know there is a Substratum. We know that these 
 attributes are nothing in themselves that they are 
 all reducible to Intelligence. Now, remove, by the 
 power of abstraction, this Intelligence of which the 
 attributes are merely modes, there is still the Sub- 
 stratum of this Intelligence, the SOMETHING which 
 performs this operation of abstraction, and without 
 which this operation could not be performed. This 
 Something we denominate THE SOUL. 
 
 We have demonstrated that the Human Soul is a 
 Real Existence ; that Religio-Philosophy is its guide ; 
 that Reason is the all-sufficient Criterium of its 
 Knowledge ; that Knowledge is its great Need, its 
 constant Desire, its sole Principle of Action, the 
 Source of its Power, the only Means of that Pro- 
 gress which is its Happiness for ever. We have 
 shown that this Substratum or Soul is, by the Law of 
 its being, compelled to accept as true whatever it 
 cannot conceive to be otherwise than true; and, 
 thence, that all propositions consistent with or de- 
 pendent on this fundamental or necessary fact, we 
 are, in like manner, compelled to accept as true. For 
 example : We are compelled to believe that the 
 multiple of two and two is four, because we cannot 
 conceive the possibility, in this case, of any other 
 multiple. This fact determined, we are equally con- 
 strained to believe that the multiple of four times four 
 is sixteen ; and thence, all the other truths of Abstract 
 Mathematics. We might be deceived about Concrete 
 Appearances, and about propositions based upon them; 
 but about Things in the abstract, we need not be de- 
 ceived if true to our nature, and obedient to the Law 
 which regulates that nature ; which Law it were idle 
 to suppose deceptive, illusory, or false. THIS is THE 
 
 LAW WHICH DETERMINES THE TRUTH FOR MAN. It
 
 PREFACE. Iv 
 
 supplies us with a First Truth which we are forced to 
 accept as Truth, and is thence the basis on which 
 every abstract Truth, knowable to Man, is reared : 
 nor is it possible for Man to conceive that this same 
 Truth is not His Truth who ordained the Law, and 
 who subjected our Souls to its irresistible operations. 
 We have shown that Conviction follows irresistibly 
 our perception of every fact the truth of which we are 
 compelled by the Laws of our Understanding to admit, 
 and that this CONVICTION is THE INEXORABLE LAW 
 OF ACTION. 
 
 Now, this Law leads to the conclusion a conclu- 
 which no sane man will attempt to gainsay That, 
 whatever Circumstances or Influences, personal, moral, 
 social, or religious, which seduce or coerce any man 
 into Untrathfulness, whether of word or deed, are 
 pernicious, corrupt, and degrading ; and, hence, that 
 it is desirable, with all convenient expedition, to sub- 
 vert these irrational influences to the end that Truth 
 might have no impediment ; that Justice might reign 
 in the world; that Love, Harmony, Security, and 
 Peace might dwell amongst us ; that Progress 
 towards perfection might proceed uninterruptedly ; 
 and that Happiness namely, the consciousness of 
 this Progress, might be ours for ever. 
 
 Friend Reader ! what these influences are, we 
 have endeavoured partly to demonstrate, and partly 
 only to suggest, in the pages which await thy perusal. 
 Permit us one word of advice at parting. It is the 
 illustrious Bacon's, not ours : " Read not to con- 
 tradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, 
 nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and 
 consider." 
 
 And so farewell. 
 
 LONDON, November 22nd, 1854.
 
 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 
 
 IT has frequently been said that there exists a 
 necessity for a New Faith. This volume is intended 
 to supply the want : FAITH IN THE PERFECTIBILITY 
 OF HUMAN NATURE. It is also affirmed that men are 
 yearning for a New Truth. It has been the object of 
 the Author to supply the desideratum : THAT TRUTH 
 
 WHICH IS THE EXPONENT OF ALL TRUTH. How far 
 
 he has succeeded in either of these objects will be best 
 ascertained by an attentive and unprejudiced perusal 
 of the following pages. 
 
 The serious, Truth-seeking Reader will wish the 
 lighter portions of the work away : whilst he who 
 reads chiefly for amusement will perhaps regret that 
 it has not been rendered less serious and more 
 amusing. But for this difference in tastes a smaller 
 book would have sufficed, and the object aimed at 
 would have been more directly, perhaps more success- 
 fully, attained. As it is, however, a perusal of the 
 whole is necessary : and it is hoped that the task will 
 not be found either uninteresting or oppressively 
 laborious. 
 
 The subject would admit of much greater diffused- 
 ness and elaboration ; but it has been the wish of the 
 Author to be as concise as was consistent with clear- 
 ness ; to suggest the whole subject rather than very 
 minutely to develope it. It has also been his aim, 
 however unsuccessful the attempt, to evolve his 
 thoughts in the fewest words : and this has led him. 
 in the more important portions of the work, to have 
 recourse to Typographical aids for the accomplishment
 
 PREFACE. Ivli 
 
 of his purpose. Some will set down this deviation 
 from what is, usual as a species of Pedantry or 
 Conceit. Others will deem it dogmatical in its 
 character, and a proof of bad Taste. If, however, the 
 peculiarity in question is useful in the attainment of 
 any of the purposes for which especial attention to 
 particular passages might properly be called, it 
 matters but little to what other motive his deviation 
 from the usual practice may be ascribed. 
 
 The Author is also aware that in his comments on 
 men and things ; on the great Luminaries of the 
 world, and on the Institutions their genius has helped 
 to raise around us he will very frequently seem 
 obnoxious to the charge of Egotism, want of Modesty, 
 and, possibly, to something more heinous than either. 
 But, it should be borne in mind that in all such cases 
 he is not uttering Opinions, nor speaking in his own 
 person or on his own behalf ; but in the sacred name 
 of Truth ; that what he utters (if he has not mis- 
 taken Falsehood for Truth) is not his own, but God's. 
 Whenever what is called Modesty is not the result of 
 Doubt, it is the result of Affectation. Absolute con- 
 viction knows nothing of Modesty ; nor can it be 
 influenced by conventional Taste. It has its work 
 to do, and does it, without intending offence or 
 fearing to inflict it ; without asking itself what 
 the " world" will say and think, or calculating on 
 the consequences. He is, however, fully sensible 
 that what has been attempted in the present work 
 has been but imperfectly accomplished. This is a 
 matter of his own ; and for the inadequacy of the 
 attempt he alone is answerable. Whithersoever 
 Truth has marshalled him he has been obliged to go. 
 
 O O 
 
 Whatsoever it has commanded him to utter he has 
 uttered. Whatsoever it has bid him do, to the best 
 of his ability he has done. The mode of utterance 
 he has chosen, and the means he has resorted to for
 
 Iviil PREFACE. 
 
 the accomplishment of his task, are alone the things 
 for which he is responsible : and, in these, he is 
 sufficiently aware of his deficiencies to know that he 
 stands in need of the reader's benevolent forbearance. 
 He has, however, no right to expect immunity from 
 censure ; nor does he seek it. Good intentions are 
 not of themselves sufficient to exonerate misguided 
 Folly from reproach. 
 
 The volume has been written in haste and amid 
 the pressure of other than literary avocations. If, 
 however, it meets with favour from the Public its 
 Author might find time to improve it : if otherwise, 
 the thought and labour it has cost him will have 
 been a sufficient sacrifice for the oblivion that awaits 
 his lucubrations. 
 
 It was the Author's intention to publish the work 
 under the fictitious name of the narrator of the expe- 
 riences the book is meant to memorize, but regard 
 to truthfulness has admonished him to abandon the 
 intention. It might be said that the same love of 
 truthfulness ought to have induced him to supply 
 the blank in the title-page by the insertion of his 
 own. If, however, the positions assumed in the 
 " Alpha" are true, a name cannot do anything in the 
 way of enforcing them on the attention of the 
 thinking portion of mankind : and if not true, they 
 will not need the leaden weight of an unknown name 
 to sink them in the stream on which he has had the 
 hardihood to launch them. 
 
 LONDON, 
 November Uh, 1850.
 
 CONTENTS, 
 
 PAET THE FIKST. 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 PAET THE SECOND. 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 CONCLUDING CHAPTER 
 
 1 
 
 19 
 31 
 46 
 59 
 76 
 97 
 
 123 
 150 
 184 
 220 
 249 
 279 
 305 
 351
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 Page 133, line 16 from top, for " shape the Evil," read, shape of the Evil. 
 
 ,, 153, line 10 from bottom, for "with own,'' read, with his own. 
 
 ,, 174, line 11 from top, for " placed me" read placed it. 
 
 189, line 7 from top, for "Eeligious," read Religions. 
 
 ,, 193, line 3 from bottom, for "their attainment," read its attainment. 
 
 ,, 200, line 12 from bottom, for " as this one," read oythis one. 
 
 224, line G from top, after " effect," insert to that. 
 
 253, line 7 from bottom, for " records," read record. 
 
 360, line 17 from bottom, for " the Man," read, tkee Man
 
 THE ALPHA. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 IT has long been the fashion amongst travellers to 
 historize their wanderings over the world for the 
 benefit of the stay-at-homes of their native country ; 
 and it must be confessed that many wonderful things 
 have been seen and described by these vagrant 
 gentlemen, and ladies errant, who have so cou- 
 rageously encountered dangers by sea and land for 
 the edification and amazement of their wonder-loving 
 readers. 
 
 For my own part I have been no great reader of 
 travels ; probably from the accidental circumstance 
 of an early acquaintance with the most veritable, the 
 most entertaining, and, withal, the most instructive 
 specimens of this species of writing that our nation, 
 rich in this literature, affords ; I mean Robinson 
 Crusoe, Peter Wilkins, and Gulliver. After these 
 masterpieces, I confess that the tales of modern 
 travellers have but little charm for me : they are 
 tedious, insipid, and improbable. 
 
 Every one, however, to his taste : I have mine ; 
 and my reason for intruding it on thy attention, friend 
 reader, is thus early to apprise thee, that though I 
 am myself a traveller, and have seen the greater part 
 of the world's wonders, and have had my share of
 
 2 THE ALPHA. [PAKT I. 
 
 cockney ecstacy in beholding a sunrise from Mount 
 Blanc, and of seeing the going down of the great 
 luminary with a splendour almost equal to Turner's 
 delineation of that every-day phenomenon, yet I have 
 no intention to describe these raptures under the 
 impression that thou, my dear reader, wouldst care 
 to feast on such delights by proxy. The great 
 Niagara has dashed over my head : I have spent 
 months amongst the Trappers in the bush; I have 
 had my share in perils of all sorts : I have smoked 
 the pipe of peace with the Austral savages in the 
 prairies, and with the polished Arabs on the plains 
 of Palestine. I have fought with the Savages, and 
 discoursed with the High Priest of Mecca. I have 
 seen tempests on the Pacific, and tornadoes on the 
 Plain : I have done battle with the Tiger and the 
 Wild-Boar, and could show scars in proof that I have 
 not escaped scatheless, though I have come off con- 
 queror, in these dare-devil contests. But it is not 
 to the relation of such experiences that I would ask 
 thee to accompany me in these pages. There can be 
 but few who have circumnavigated the globe without 
 some difficulty and danger: and none but the most 
 insensible of mortals could pass over the ruins of 
 ancient kingdoms, or wander for weeks over solitudes 
 where the foot of man had never previously penetrated, 
 without feeling some emotion, and deriving some im- 
 provement. These, however, are all personal matters, 
 and can be of no real interest or importance to others, 
 except in so far as the advantages obtained are com- 
 municable. The result of our experiences arc alone 
 valuable : 
 
 " The rest is only leather and prunella." 
 
 As I am not about to write my travels ; and as 
 Men, and their modes of thinking and acting, were 
 the objects of my investigation in these peregrinations,
 
 CHAP. I.] THE ALPHA. 3 
 
 I will here briefly state the result of my inquiries 
 and observations. In every part of the globe I found 
 the " Many " degraded and miserable ; and the 
 " Few " miserable and luxurious. On the one hand 
 ignorance and servility; on the other, cunning, rapacity, 
 and power. I nowhere found more intelligence than 
 at home ; nor, on the whole, more freedom of action 
 and contentment. I had a great object in my 
 wanderings, but I did not attain that object, or only 
 in part. I travelled to consult mankind at the Anti- 
 podes about that which is always best sought after 
 nearer home. I probed other minds for that which 
 can only be found, if ever found, by sounding the 
 depths and shallows of our own. 
 
 Some men have spent the best portion of a life- 
 time in exploring the sources of a river : others in 
 digging up the ruins of a city, or penetrating into 
 the hidden mysteries of a pyramid or a people. 
 Curiosity and a love of enterprise have been the chief 
 stimulants to their labours ; and the empty applause 
 of a wonder-loving world, their half-despised, half- 
 coveted reward. But, when the sources of the Nile 
 shall have been found; when the hieroglyphics of 
 Egypt shall have been deciphered ; when Herculaneum 
 shall have been disentombed ; when all the sculptured 
 fragments of ^Egaea and Greece shall have been 
 collected and arranged, will the living world of 
 humanity be either the wiser, the better, or the 
 happier for these labours ? Say the circle had been 
 squared ; perpetual motion found ; the philosopher's 
 stone discovered ; the elixir vitse compounded, and 
 each of us in possession of the immortalizing draught, 
 again, I ask, would mankind be better, wiser, happier, 
 than at present ? In every case I believe the answer 
 must be not a whit ; and probably for the gold and 
 the elixir, far more miserable than ever. That which 
 made a traveller of me, dear reader, and for many 
 
 B 2
 
 4 THE ALPHA. IPART I. 
 
 years made every inn or hospitable hut my home, is 
 none of these things ; but I anticipate a smile of 
 pity when I inform thee, as I am about to do, what 
 my object was. Undaunted by the ill-success of 
 the princely Abyssinian, I wandered, dear reader, 
 in quest of happiness. Instead of searching for the 
 sources of the Nile, I have diligently sought for 
 the source of Evil, and the ultimatum of human 
 Good ! Whither I have wandered, what I have 
 seen, what I have felt, are of no consequence : the 
 mode of my operations, and the result of my re- 
 searches, are the things which can alone interest 
 thee. That I have discovered the source of all Evil, 
 and that I have found the happiness I sought, is, 
 however, of consequence as much to thee as to 
 myself ; for if the happiness were not communicable, 
 a good the world at large might share in, it would 
 have been none to me, and, like Rasselas, I should 
 have had my toil in vain ; but, unlike him, I 
 would not have recorded my discomfiture. Having 
 said thus much as to my object, let me proceed to give 
 
 SOME ACCOUNT OF MYSELF. 
 
 My name (as the title-page will have informed 
 thee), is Ramus Randolph. I was christened Rarnus 
 after the celebrated French philosopher of the six- 
 teenth century, from whose family I am a collateral 
 descendant ; a Randolph having married a niece of 
 the philosopher in the time of Mary Stuart. Indeed, 
 she was a domestic of the princess and accompanied 
 her to Scotland. Had it not been for the celebrity of 
 Ramus as a scholar, and a martyr to his creed (for 
 he was one of the victims of the massacre of Saint 
 Bartholomew), the Randolphs would never have ac- 
 knowledged a consanguinity to a poor shepherd-boy of 
 Picardy ; for the Randolphs are a proud family, and 
 boast of a descent from I know not what Chieftain
 
 CHAP. M THE ALPHA. 
 
 before Scotland had a king. My father had a literary 
 taste, and was, moreover, somewhat of a connoisseur 
 in Art. Probably these tastes induced my father to 
 bestow on me a literary patronymic, and on an elder 
 brother (respecting whom I shall say a word or two 
 presently) an artistic one : he was christened Raphael. 
 We had a sister whose name was Mary, who died 
 soon after she reached womanhood. Peace to the 
 memory of my sister ! A massive tomb covers her 
 remains : far fitter that those sweet emblems of her 
 spotless mind, the wild- flowers which she loved, had 
 been permitted to shed their dew-tears morning and 
 evening over her too early grave ! Raphael conceived 
 a taste for the Fine Arts ; probably from the circum- 
 stance that he bore a name sacred to one of them. 
 He desired to follow Painting as a profession, and had 
 secretly made some progress in the study. This was 
 needless as regarded his means and prospects, for our 
 family was rich as well as proud, and he its eldest 
 representative. It may be that he had some hidden 
 motive for this desire ; it was, however, opposed vio- 
 lently by my mother, and ultimately abandoned by 
 Raphael. He was a boy of singularly studious habits, 
 and fond of solitude. I know not how it was, but 
 my mother was never fond of him, although his na- 
 ture was most inoffensive and affectionate. I have 
 heard it said that he came into the world a little earlier 
 than he was generally expected, and that the shame 
 of an early imprudence had somehow strangely 
 ripened into a dislike of the object which brought it to 
 her remembrance. I am unskilled in such philosophy, 
 and will leave the matter to those who pretend to a 
 nearer acquaintance with feminine sympathies than I 
 can lay the slightest claim to. Certain it is, however, 
 that he was no favourite with my mother, who be- 
 stowed on me nearly all her care and affection. This 
 my brother's extreme sensitiveness could not bear,
 
 THE ALPHA. [PART I. 
 
 and solitude and study became a passion with him, 
 and a resource. My father had been dead some years, 
 and the management of the family property should 
 have devolved on Raphael, who was of an age to un- 
 dertake it, and possessed discretion and talent enough 
 to have had this confidence reposed in him. He was, 
 however, still a minor, and my mother had the legal 
 disposal of everything until my brother should come 
 of age. Home now became unendurable, and one day 
 Raphael absented himself, leaving a letter addressed to 
 my mother, taking leave of her for ever, and renouncing 
 all claim to his legal rights, which, without his mother's 
 love, he declared to be valueless. He preferred, he 
 said, to lay aside his name, forget his lineage, re- 
 nounce his wealth, and rely on his talents and his 
 virtues to supply their place ; or, if he should fail in 
 this, to meet poverty, and want, and death amongst 
 strangers, rather than submit to unkindness in his 
 paternal home, where he had deserved nothing but 
 respect and love. Another letter was addressed to 
 my sister, of whom he was very fond, taking an affec- 
 tionate farewell of her, "perhaps," he said, "for 
 ever !" and so it proved. Year after year rolled on, 
 but Raphael Randolph was never heard of: not the 
 slightest trace of him could be discovered. I was 
 his junior by eight years, and too young, and too 
 proud of the favouritism I enjoyed, to regard his loss 
 as a circumstance to be much regretted, but he had 
 an advocate in Mary, who taught me afterwards how 
 worthy he was of all my regard and affection. 
 
 There are but two things in the world which have 
 the power to render a human being utterly selfish : 
 what they are will be seen in the sequel. I was 
 swayed by one of these temptations, but an angel 
 whispered me, and I did not fall. 
 
 My brother's abandonment of his home, and name, 
 and property ; and my mother's and sister's death,
 
 CHAP. I.] THE ALPHA. 7 
 
 which occurred some twelve years after his departure ; 
 left me a large revenue at my disposal, but happiness 
 formed no portion of my patrimony. I believe this 
 avowal will be scarcely intelligible to the majority of 
 my readers : young, educated, handsome ; the grand 
 old hall of the Randolphs in the centre of the finest 
 circle of estates in Northumberland for my residence ; 
 friends of my own rank in life ; political prospects 
 before me ; servants, horses, health, and withal un- 
 happy ! I do not mean uneasy, unsettled, undecided ; 
 but objectless, and mentally unhappy. All men are 
 said to be constantly in pursuit of happiness. Gene- 
 rally, however, their aims are definable; they can 
 name their wants wealth, power, pleasure, ease, a 
 wife, or perhaps, a mistress : my aim was undefi- 
 nable : I had no name for it but the vague one, 
 Happiness. It was a soul-yearning after a spiritual 
 good ; the great good, to have which is to have all 
 things ; to want which, though having all besides, is 
 to be destitute ; and feeling the want, to be most 
 wretched. Such was my unenviable lot : but, in 
 looking back to my coming into possession of the 
 temporal advantages just enumerated, I do not regret 
 that I lacked the power to enjoy them after the fashion 
 of the world : indeed; I should now despise myself 
 had it been otherwise. 
 
 My old steward, Abel Sykes, who had been many 
 years my father's gardener, used to tell me that I was 
 like no one else he had ever met with, and, when a 
 boy, was always unlike other boys. He did not, he 
 said, dislike my odd ways, on the contrary, they 
 rather endeared me to him ; but he could not under- 
 stand why I should avoid my friends, and refuse to 
 mingle in their sports and festivities. Perhaps one 
 of my singularities consisted in this, I never could 
 treat my domestics as menials, and I never had any 
 that did not deserve to be considered friends. One
 
 8 THE ALPHA. [PAKT I. 
 
 day I remember when Abel had been kindly remon- 
 strating with me about my " odd ways," I let him 
 a little into the cause of my disquietude by remarking 
 that perhaps the real owner of Randolph Hall was 
 toiling for his daily bread. A light broke in on Abel, 
 and he said, as a tear trickled down his furrowed 
 face, " Ay, ay, I had forgot ; though I never forget 
 him in my prayers : but He who feeds the ravens, my 
 dear master, will never forsake Raphael Randolph ; 
 nor will he ever forsake you :" and, turning away to 
 suppress, or more probably to hide, and at the same 
 time to indulge his sorrow, he left me to my reflec- 
 tions. I am not going to recount them : such details 
 are not the purpose of these pages. They were, how- 
 ever, not ungentle, nor confined to my brother and 
 Abel Sykes : they were extended to the entire human 
 family. At that moment my soul signed, as it were, 
 a bond of brotherhood with every creature that can 
 sympathise with another's sorrow. I am not about 
 to hold myself up as a pattern of virtue. I am quite 
 certain that T am no saint. Every man who thinks 
 acts, as far as circumstances will permit him, in con- 
 formity with his convictions. A new conviction had 
 taken possession of my mind ; a conviction which 
 diminished my inquietude, and ultimately gave an 
 object to my being, a reality to my existence. It 
 were to be wished that the wealthy could find time 
 for reflection, and that some such incident as I have 
 been describing could occasionally generate in their 
 minds a new conviction. But of all men, those who 
 are born to idleness have the least leisure, and were 
 they not the most unthinking of mortals, they would 
 certainly be the most unhappy. 
 
 I have acknowledged that I am no candidate for 
 canonization. To extreme piety, in the world's ac- 
 ceptation of the word, I could never advance the 
 slightest claim : nay, I even deem lightly of that re-
 
 CHAP. I.] THE ALPHA. 9 
 
 ligion which would make the world a charnel-house, 
 and transform the " human face divine" into the 
 custom-made visage of an undertaker. The happi- 
 ness for which 1 have sighed and sought has no re- 
 ference to "a call :" nor could the most perfect cer- 
 tainty of my being one of the " elect" afford me the 
 slightest consolation. I would not for the world be- 
 lieve that nine- tenths of the human beings I meet are 
 ivithout the pale of salvation, myself the while snugly 
 ensconced within. In such a case I should certainly 
 endeavour to scramble back again, and take my 
 chance with the greatest number. 
 
 Tf in these particulars, friend reader, we chance to 
 differ, there will, most likely, be no necessity for me 
 to advise thee to shut the book, or, shouldst thou 
 chance to be a "reviewer" of books, to assure thee 
 that thou mayest proceed to damn mine and me with- 
 out further ceremony, and without sympathy or stint. 
 But if thou art an unprejudiced seeker after Truth 
 thou wilt bear with my plain-speaking, and my fa- 
 miliarity, and my egotism, to the end. Were I pro- 
 pounding opinions, it were meet that I should err on 
 the side of modesty rather than of confidence ; but 
 as I write from conviction, and shall be able to give a 
 reason for the faith that is in me, I hope I may, for a 
 brief space, dogmatise without offence. 
 
 From my childhood I have been addicted to a sort 
 of philosophic seriousness; and on examining the 
 nature of my feelings after Abel had touched the 
 string on which they slept in an uneasy slumber, I 
 perceived that they had more reference to others than 
 concernment for myself; and the discovery was not 
 without a solid and a lasting satisfaction. Years 
 before the occurrence of the incident just referred 
 to, I had indulged in most of the dissipations, in- 
 dulgences, and frivolous pleasures which make up 
 the business of a young man of property and fashion ;
 
 10 THE ALPHA. [PAKT I. 
 
 and, but for an unspeakable void which even the 
 most innocent of these enjoyments left in my mind, I 
 should have become as selfish and besotted a sen- 
 sualist as any lord or lady in the land. And this is 
 saying a good deal : it is, in fact, the whole of Rous- 
 seau's long-winded " Confessions," and a little more, 
 simmered down to a sentence. It is, indeed, pro- 
 bable, that this volume, as far as it refers to myself, 
 will be viewed by many in the light of " confessions;" 
 for, if Abel Sykes was right in considering my man- 
 ners and modes of thinking totally unlike those of 
 other people, it is to be expected that the results will 
 prove sufficiently unorthodox to be numbered with 
 my sins : but if so, I hope my confessions will pro- 
 cure for me the absolution in such cases made and 
 provided. To begin, I am no sportsman. Even the 
 " gentle Izaac" could never have initiated me into the 
 cruel mystery of baiting hooks, or " playing" with 
 the craftily ensnared denizen of the waters. I should 
 have loved his songs, and tales, and gossiping philo- 
 sophy; but not his unfeeling amusement. The 
 " manly" sport of hunting to the death the timid 
 hare; of "bagging" partridges by the hundred; of 
 butchering deer after the modern " battue" fashion, 
 by wholesale, and for the mere pleasure of the need- 
 less slaughter, though I disgrace and shock the 
 manes of my fierce-minded ancestors, I must confess 
 that I never could perceive the sport, or discover the 
 manliness of such unmitigated savagery. If such is 
 the sport of educated men, of " gentlemen," let us 
 not blame the more innocent and rational amusement 
 of the skittle-ground and ninepins of the hard- worked 
 artisan. Gambling in all its phases I abhor. Steeple- 
 chasing I detest for its brutality. Yet these amuse- 
 ments are the chief components of the " happiness" 
 of men who passed their studious youth in the classic
 
 CHAP. I.] THE ALPHA. 11 
 
 solitudes of a college ! Again, I confess, such 
 thoughts distressed and disgusted me. 
 
 I turned my attention to politics : I mixed much 
 with the leading politicians and parliamentary orators 
 of the day. I penetrated into its mysteries, and 
 shrunk from its polluting contact. The happiness I 
 sought did not lie in that direction. At last, dear 
 reader, but this I assure thee was purely an acci- 
 dental circumstance, not a premeditated one I fell 
 in love ! With a young and beautiful "right honour- 
 able" maiden ? No, dear reader. With some dow- 
 ager Countess? No. With the rich widow of a 
 city banker ? No : nor was it with a Dryad, nor a 
 streamlet nymph, nor a sylph, nor a sentimental shep- 
 herdess ; but a glorious woman : a virgin Eve ! a 
 form and stature that would have left Praxiteles no- 
 thing to imagine of feminine perfection had he de- 
 sired a breathing prototype for a Pallas or a Juno. 
 She might have forced Phidias himself to become a 
 copyist, and the Athenians to build another temple 
 to enshrine his peerless labour. Making due allow- 
 ance for the exuberance of love mellowed by time 
 into poetic rapture, such was Ellen Raymond. I 
 have seen eyes as large as Ellen Raymond's : I have 
 seen a mouth as finely modelled : but eyes so full of 
 soul, and lips with such unspeakable expression, 
 never ! 
 
 Ellen Raymond and this is another of my con- 
 fessions was a cheesemonger's daughter of Cripple- 
 gate, and a niece of Farmer Clutterbuck, the tenant of 
 a little farm belonging to the Randolph estates, about 
 three miles distant from the Hall. When I first saw 
 her she was teaching a libertine honeysuckle to climb, 
 more gracefully than had been its wont, over the en- 
 trance of an arbour in her uncle's garden. Clutter- 
 buck's daughter, a handsome girl of sixteen, was
 
 12 THE ALPHA. U'AKTI. 
 
 standing near her-watching the operation. Ellen was 
 lightly, but neatly clad : a pale blue ribbon encircled 
 her waist, to which it held prisoner a half-blown rose. 
 A handkerchief of some gossamer-like material had 
 been tied carelessly round her head, apparently to 
 restrain the freedom of her luxuriant hair, which was 
 of the darkest auburn and fell chiefly on one side ; 
 whilst playful zephyrs with a vagrant freedom, wan- 
 toned amongst its wavy entanglements, ever and 
 anon fruitlessly essaying to make pillage of a strag- 
 gling lock. I have named the feeling which then 
 possessed me, Love : it was more like Idolatry : it was 
 Worship, for it carried my thoughts heavenward to 
 the Author of that glorious being ; and I said to my- 
 self, " Can such a creature have been formed for the 
 empty conventionalities of earth ? The soul of the 
 universe might inhabit that fair temple ! no spot or 
 taint of sin should ever touch it !" To have known 
 that she had ever tasted sorrow, would, at that mo- 
 ment, have been the bitterest draught of my existence. 
 I hastened from the spot for fear of profaning it with 
 a sigh. 
 
 I met Clutterbuck returning from his labours, and 
 inquired of him with as little confusion as I could, 
 the name and history of his fair visitor. These he 
 gave me in a few words, adding that she was the only 
 child of his sister ; had had a good education ; was 
 a very amiable and affectionate girl ; and, finally, was 
 on the eve of marriage with a London clergyman. 
 His daughter Lucy was, he said, to return with her 
 in a few days, and perform the part of bridesmaid 
 at the forthcoming ceremony. 
 
 Eive-and-twenty years previously Ellen Clutterbuck 
 had been waiting-woman to rny mother; and now 
 she was the wife of a London cheesemonger, and 
 the mother of the noblest creature my eyes had ever 
 looked upon, or my fancy pictured. I did not love
 
 flHAp. Li THE ALPHA. 13 
 
 the old hall the less on account of these reflections ; 
 but Ellen Raymond could never be its mistress ! and 
 I felt that another void had been created in my mind, 
 since (as I thought) Fate had interposed another 
 barrier betwixt me and happiness. I rode down to 
 Clutterbuck's the next evening, having promised that 
 I would do so, or I should never again have seen the 
 bride-elect of the nameless London clergyman. I 
 partook with them of the evening repast, and con- 
 versed with Ellen much as I might have done with 
 an angel ; that is, I gave occasion to her conversa- 
 tion rather than took part in it : and, although she 
 conversed on ordinary subjects, and in an ordinary 
 manner, but with much good sense and propriety, I 
 felt myself to be of too mortal and gross a nature to 
 do more than make brief replies to her remarks when 
 addressed to me, and ask frivolous questions in return. 
 Once during but, no ! I have forsworn all needless 
 details ; and of all topics, this is the one on which it 
 would be most unseemly to indulge in them. There 
 are some things too holy to be unbosomed even to a 
 most dear friend, much less to be blazoned before the 
 world in printer's ink : one of them is the soul's 
 silent syllablings with its God ; another, the secret 
 aspirations of its earthly love. As long as the world 
 continues ignorant, what is called " worship " will 
 continue to be performed in public ; and men will as 
 publicly, and indelicately, babble about their loves or 
 lusts : but as knowledge increases these improprieties 
 will cease ; realities will be substituted for pretences, 
 and men will be too conscious of the indelicacy of these 
 practices to indulge systematically in either of them. 
 The one savours strongly of cant ; the other of 
 libidinousness. Sincerity and purity revolt at both. 
 The mass of mankind are at present too animally- 
 given to comprehend the sacredness of feelings which 
 to utter would be profanation ; and which can only
 
 14 THE ALPHA. [PART I. 
 
 be truly communicated from soul to soul by means 
 of that mysterious power, that wordless spirit-lan- 
 guage, Sympathy. 
 
 I have, however, an object in this narrative of my 
 love, or it would have remained untold for ever. I 
 stayed till near midnight, and then remounted my 
 horse and rode towards the hall of the Randolphs, 
 lighted on my solitary way by the waning moon. 
 Three evenings afterwards I again visited the Cowslip 
 Leasowes, as Clutterbuck's little farm was called, and 
 was a listener rather than a talker on this occasion 
 also. The next day Ellen Raymond and her cousin 
 left Northumberland, and I took them in the old 
 family carriage to the neighbouring town, whence 
 they were to proceed by the mail to the metropolis. 
 
 On parting with Ellen I said to her, " Should I 
 ever hear of you again in the great world, Miss Ray- 
 mond, by what name shall I know you ?" She replied 
 with ineffable modesty and frankness, that she hoped 
 to live and die Ellen Lackland. We parted. The 
 horses flew along the dusty road like demons, and 
 cloud separated me from all of heaven I had ever 
 seen on earth. 
 
 Time heals wounds, but it never effaces the re- 
 membrance of their anguish : it also mellows the 
 passions into philosophic calmness, but it never ob- 
 literates first love. The impure animal portion 
 perishes : the spiritual lives for ever. Love is un- 
 selfish, changeless, and eternal. Mine was too 
 etherial, and too intense not to have consumed its 
 possessor had it not been capable of diffusion. 
 
 My unbreathed devotion for Ellen Raymond was 
 perhaps of too spiritual a nature for creatures subject 
 to all the " skyey influences," and to the cares and 
 vicissitudes of earth : and I have lived long enough 
 to perceive that had my passion been less hopeless, 
 my life had been less happy. The pure angelic being
 
 CHAP. I.] THE ALPHA. 15 
 
 my soul has ever idolized, may have been, to a certain 
 extent, imaginary ; but not being liable to change, 
 my affection has suffered no abatement. This living 
 image of womanly perfection has been my guardian 
 angel through life : in the thronged city, in the 
 desert, on the trackless deep, it has accompanied me : 
 whithersoever I have wandered, the spirit of my love 
 was there ! I had seen, I had talked to an angel : 
 I had loved that angel with an unuttered, an unutter- 
 able love : no matter that it was an unsyllabled 
 secret : no matter that I had never been loved again ! 
 I have often thought that the rule of the Catholic 
 Church is a wise one which forbids its ministers to 
 marry. He cannot think well for the many who 
 must prudently think first for himself. As society is 
 constituted a married man must be, to a certain ex- 
 tent, a selfish man : and no selfish man was ever 
 thoroughly happy. 
 
 It was when time had begun to pour its healing 
 balm on my silent anguish, that the conversation 
 with Abel Sykes which has been previously related, 
 led me to perceive that the love I cherished for a 
 single object was capable of diffusion over the entire 
 family of men : that soul is of no sex ; and that 
 wherever there is soul there is something to care for, 
 something to cherish, something to sympathise with 
 and love. It was then I felt that there must be 
 something radically wrong in human society that 
 could in any case restrain this love within the narrow 
 limits of a man's hearth and home. From this 
 moment my life had an object : dim, shadowy, and 
 indefinite it was ; but it was based on a conviction 
 that this beautiful world, and the inner life of 
 humanity have a purpose in them holier than those 
 we apply them to, and capable of all we can conceive 
 of happiness could we but find it out. I determined 
 to attempt this discovery though the attempt should
 
 16 THE ALPHA. 
 
 cost me my fortune, and only terminate with my 
 mortal life. That I should have succeeded is doubt- 
 ful, had it not been for a circumstance which will be 
 fully described and commented on in its proper 
 place. It will have been perceived that love, and 
 loving service to the human family, was the panacea 
 I relied on as the cure for all evil, arid the source of 
 all happiness : in other words, that riches, both in- 
 tellectual and physical, are given to some and with- 
 held from others, for the common good of all ; that 
 the rich man's happiness grows out of his benevo- 
 lence, whilst the happiness of the poor man springs 
 from the consciousness that he is continually cared 
 for by his more happily-circumstanced and com- 
 passionate brother. It will be seen hereafter that my 
 reasonings were superficial, and my conclusions false : 
 that my theorizings and philosophizings, and the 
 labours they led to, would have been as useless as 
 those of the crowd of philosophers that have from 
 time to time appeared in the world to steal its 
 applause, and have then vanished in the mists they 
 have raised around them, had not a fortuitous light 
 gleamed upon me at the very moment I was about 
 to abandon my well-intentioned labours in despair. 
 For nearly twenty years I was strong in hope : and 
 this hope, which was the spur to my activity, was 
 the nearest approach I could make to happiness. I 
 employed my fortune on every project that promised 
 benefit to humanity. I used my influence to induce 
 others to follow my example. Poverty is an evil : I 
 almost dissipated my revenue to relieve it. Ignorance 
 is an evil : I laboured hard in the work of its removal. 
 Partial laws, tyrannical governments, excessive taxes, 
 are evils : I joined associations to get rid of them. 
 War is an evil : I aided in the agitation for universal 
 peace. Slavery is an evil : I combined with the 
 philanthropists heart and purse to crush it. Re-
 
 CHAP. 1.] THE ALPHA. 17 
 
 stricter! trade is an evil : I leagued with the leaguers 
 to set it free. And all this while I dreamed that 
 the practice of Benevolence is happiness to the in- 
 dividual dispenser thereof, and a benefit to the human 
 race. Alas ! Benevolence does little more than foster 
 the misery it would eradicate ; Legislation is merely a 
 choice between two evils ; and our highest Moral 
 Philosophy, but Folly Avith a specious name ! What 
 is Evil ? What is Good ? Is Poverty all evil ? Are 
 Riches nothing but a good ? Is Slavery all evil ? Is 
 Freedom unmixed Good ? Until Good and Evil can 
 be distinguished and defined, it is impossible to de- 
 termine what condition is the most desirable ; and 
 equally impossible to be happy. Our virtues must 
 tend to Good, or how can they be virtues ? And if 
 we know not what Good is, how is it possible to be 
 virtuous ? Is there such a thing as Virtue ? Can 
 there be such a thing as Vice ? or is everything con- 
 ventional? Does Providence or Chance direct the 
 world? That which thwarts our schemes we call 
 Evil : that which promotes them, we denominate 
 Good ; but, generally, that which is good in my case, 
 is evil to another ; and any advantage I gain is 
 usually procured at another's cost. Thus I pondered 
 in bewilderment the most distressing. After twenty 
 years of ceaseless activity at home and in distant 
 lands, what had I discovered? What progress had 
 I made towards the attainment of that good for 
 myself, which, with love in my soul towards every- 
 thing capable of affection, is still no good to me, if 
 it cannot be participated in by all men ? Absolutely 
 none ! I shut myself up in a retired nook near 
 London : I surrounded myself with books and works 
 of art : I led the life of a recluse : I studied the 
 writings of the sages, and philosophers and divines 
 of almost every age and country : I sought to know 
 what constitutes the greatness of the earth's greatest
 
 18 THE ALPHA. [PARTI. 
 
 men ? Wherein were they wiser than others ? The 
 Greeks ! what do I learn, what did they intend I 
 should learn, from their Arts, from their Lives, from 
 their Philosophy ? From Italian Art, and from modern 
 Philosophy can I obtain a clue to unexceptionable 
 morality, to positive virtue, to real happiness ? From 
 the labours of the most pious and learned divines, is 
 it possible to pick my way to heaven ? Such were 
 my thoughts. 1 endeavoured to generalize what are 
 usually held to be the best thoughts of the best men, 
 and thus obtain a principle ; but, alas ! the more I 
 probed into the meaning of the lauded geniuses of 
 the earth, the less certain I became that they had 
 any meaning to impart. All concurred in asserting 
 that Virtue is the groundwork of happiness, but none 
 could prove to me what Virtue is. To burn a heretic 
 says one : to be a heretic says another. Those only 
 who have experienced my perplexities can form an 
 adequate idea of my misery. It had, however, ulti- 
 mately a termination. A gentle hand withdrew the 
 film from my eyes. I saw clearly. How this de- 
 sideratum was accomplished will be shown in the 
 succeeding chapters.
 
 CHAP a.; THE ALPHA. 19 
 
 CHAP T E R II. 
 
 A REVELATION. 
 
 I HAVE meditated much on the evils that afflict 
 humanity ; on the good of which Man is capable ; 
 on the grovelling servility of his animal nature ; on 
 the high destiny of his mentality ; on the happiness 
 of which he is ever in search ; on the miseries which 
 dog him whithersoever he goes, and attend his 
 motions constant as his shadow. I have searched for 
 the principle of Evil, finding it not. I have sought 
 daily for the Good which strives against this Evil, but 
 it has eluded my search. I have read THE BOOK, and 
 have caught glimpses of the angel, but whether this 
 angel has a home on earth I have not been able to 
 find out. My whole being ; the beautiful universe 
 of which I form a part, assure me that God is the 
 author of all Good; but surely not of Evil. Are 
 there, then, two principles in nature each warring 
 with the other, and, like two opposite and equal 
 forces meeting, end in nothing? Peace, peace, un- 
 quiet spirit ! Three hundred generations of men 
 have come and gone, and of this mystery have 
 nothing known. Live out thy time as they have 
 done : drain thou thy cup of bitterness when it is 
 presented to thee : enjoy the good within thy reach : 
 and when thy term of life shall have waned within 
 thee, sleep soundly with the flowers thou lovest, and 
 be a part of them. Haply the rose shall smell 
 more sweetly whose roots have battened in thy 
 clav ! 
 
 u 
 
 On one of those fine afternoons in August which 
 c 2
 
 20 THE ALPHA. [PAHT I. 
 
 occasionally remind the traveller of sunny Italy with 
 its canopy of deep blue, such were my reflections, as 
 I rambled from my suburban hermitage which 
 occupies a nook in a populous neighbourhood west- 
 ward of the Great City. I was alone. Without any 
 purpose but to meditate on the subjects which have 
 ever entwined themselves so strangely about my 
 being, I took my way towards the adjacent common, 
 where the breath of heaven is very sweet, but where 
 many a dark deed has been done at midnight that 
 morning has stood aghast to look upon. Summer 
 zephyrs fanned my face as I moved quietly along. I 
 was on the common a solitary wanderer, half-uncon- 
 sciously threading my way amongst the tufts of 
 golden gorse that gleamed in the slanting sunbeams. 
 The air was odorous. The mossy turf yielded to my 
 tread. "The blind mole could not have heard my 
 footfalls." I now and then stooped to examine the 
 delicate heather, which, in places, grew in such plen- 
 tiful luxuriance, that I feared to tread lest I should 
 crush it, and rob it of an hour's beauty. I had 
 wandered to the highest part of the common, and, 
 seating myself on the gently-sloping side of one of 
 its mountain-like eminences, I occupied myself in the 
 minute examination of a single plant of heather 
 growing alone, that had, perhaps from its loneliness, 
 particularly attracted my attention. As I gazed in 
 admiration on its feathery foliage and tiny, bell-like 
 blossoms, I said to myself, " Is not this little flower 
 as beautiful as any of the gaudier nurslings of the 
 garden ? Certainly it is very beautiful : beautiful 
 also is the many-petalled rose. Small, indeed, is 
 the resemblance between them, yet assuredly both 
 are beautiful : then in what consists their beauty ? 
 Ay, what is Beauty ? Good, Evil, Virtue, Vice ; 
 to define these I have often tried in vain. O, what
 
 C HAP- I'.] THE ALPHA. 21 
 
 is Beauty ? " Full of emotion I gazed towards the 
 blue heavens. I arose ; and with feelings not easily 
 reduced to words, I surveyed the whole wide scene 
 around me. Everything was calm, odorous, delight- 
 ful. Not a living thing was near me. Not a sound 
 was audible save the shrill voice of the lark trilling 
 his blithe song far above me in the still, blue air : 
 but so high was the winged twitterer that he seemed 
 motionless : a speck, scarcely distinguishable from the 
 eternity of etherial blue into which he would momen- 
 tarily melt, then dimly be seen again. But his 
 shrill, clear notes pierced my ear as distinctly as 
 though he had been singing a bondage-song, caged 
 by some thoughtless cottager, in a neighbouring 
 window. I felt to be alone with this sweet sound, 
 with it and heaven : and I exclaimed in a voice 
 scarcely audible to myself, Oh ! what is Beauty ? " 
 A low-toned, sweetly-modulated voice answered as 
 though in reply to mine, " Ranms Randolph ! " 
 I turned, and lo, a stranger stood beside me ! 
 Whence he came I know not ; nor from emotion and 
 surprise had I the power to ask. He was a man of 
 full height, dressed in a garb more Oriental than 
 European ; sombrous, loose, and flowing. His neck 
 was bare; his hair black and waving. Neither old 
 nor vouner he seemed : his countenance was grave, 
 
 i/ O O 
 
 noble, careworn, and commanding ; yet full withal, 
 of sweetness and urbanity. I had never seen such a 
 nobly-benign expression in a creature of earth, but 
 occasionally something resembling it in the spirit- 
 world of dreams. His presence inspired a confi- 
 dence free from all suspicion. I had no fear. I 
 probably felt more awe than pleasure ; but his 
 benignity insensibly dispelled the former feeling, 
 lie gently touched my arm, and again said, 
 "Ramus! you marvel that I know you?" I
 
 22 THE ALPHA. tP* I- 
 
 motioned an assent. "You marvel also whence 
 I came, and how?" I again replied in the affir- 
 mative by a movement of unrestrained respect. 
 " Do you know," said he, " how long you have been 
 listening to that sky-chorister?" "Only a few 
 seconds," I replied. He rejoined, whilst a faint but 
 expressive smile played on his noble features, 
 " Time flies us quickly in our ecstacies : we do 
 sometimes live a century in a single day, and cram 
 a lifetime 'twixt two tickings of the clock. Space 
 is like time. A thought is swifter than the lightning. 
 To an Intelligence, the remotest YONDER is ever 
 HERE. To the Deity, the countless centuries, past 
 and future, are an always-present Now." Taking 
 me by the hand, he continued : " Ramus Randolph, 
 do you remember me now ?" For an instant I saw, 
 or fancied I saw, the features of a schoolfellow, 
 whom since I was twelve years old I had never 
 seen ; and I said so. The impression was but 
 momentary, nor could I then recall it, or bring 
 to mind the name of the youth whom in that 
 instant I fancied my questioner resembled. He re- 
 marked : " Knowledge might slumber in the memory, 
 but it never dies. It is like the dormouse in the 
 ivied tower, that sleeps whilst winter lasts, but wakes 
 with the warm breath of spring : it is like the life- 
 germ in the seed : it is like the sweet music of the 
 harp-strings, that waits but the master's touch to 
 wake it into utterance. Yes, Ramus, we have pored 
 on the same page together. Let us sit down : and I 
 who was once thy fellow-pupil will be thy Mentor 
 now. It lacks an hour of sunset." We sat upon the 
 soft turf, which yielded to our pressure like an Oriental 
 couch. Again taking me by the hand, he said : 
 " Ramus, that question of thine ' What is Beauty ? ' 
 is not an idle one. Listen, and I will unravel some- 
 thing of the mystery, as well as disentangle thy per-
 
 CHAP II.] THE ALPHA. 23 
 
 plexities concerning Good and Evil." I fixed my 
 eyes inquiringly on his, and he began 
 
 A REVELATION. 
 
 " I am not going to preach to thee, Ramus 
 Randolph. Thou hast thought too deeply and too 
 well to listen long to words of dubious meaning and 
 mere sound. Beauty is a name importing nothing. 
 There is no such quality in nature. What men mean 
 by it, and why they have preferences, I will by and 
 by inform thee. Conceive of it for the present as 
 one of those offshoots of Ignorance which stand in 
 the way of human improvement and social happiness. 
 It belongs to the same category as Justice, Mercy, 
 Benevolence, Morality ; terms of human invention, 
 to express human qualities, but which beyond the 
 sphere of Ignorance and Error, have no existence. 
 Good and Evil are of the same family. To disem- 
 bodied Mind they are mere terms, nonentities, ne- 
 gations." 
 
 He paused : probably from observing a faint smile 
 of incredulity overpass my countenance. With much 
 gravity of manner, mingled, as I thought, with some 
 severity, he resumed by remarking : " We learn 
 much in our youth which we must unlearn as men : 
 Were there no IGNORANCE there could be no ERROR. 
 Were there no INJUSTICE there could be no CRIME. 
 Were there neither Error nor Crime there could be 
 no unhappiness, and the Moralities and the Virtues 
 could have no existence. Ignorance and Error are 
 the cause of Selfishness. Selfishness is the cause of 
 Misery. These all pertain to earth and to humanity. 
 Love pertains to Heaven, and to the fulness of In- 
 telligence. Perfect Intelligence results in perfect 
 Love. By Love I mean that kindly consideration 
 for others which is implied in the Christian precept 
 ' Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.' It is
 
 24 THE ALPHA. [PART I. 
 
 the direct contrary of Selfishness. There is no virtue 
 which is not included in this Love ; whilst Love itself is 
 included in Intelligence. Perfect Intelligence, viewed 
 passively, implies the quality of knowing all things, 
 and the power of doing all things : viewed actively, 
 it is Love : thus ; every act of perfect Intelligence 
 is Good because it is errorless, because it is Right ; 
 hence Active Intelligence is Love. INTELLIGENCE is 
 
 THE FIRST PRINCIPLE OF ALL THINGS : it absorbs 
 
 everything in its own being. It is more than Justice, 
 more than Mercy, more than Benevolence, more than 
 Morality, more than Religion ; inasmuch as what is 
 meant by these all that is good in them, is included 
 in the ever-living, all directing, all-absorbing, sole- 
 existing principle, Intelligence. Intelligence is, there- 
 fore, the Great First Cause, or Deity ; and every act 
 of Deity, which is of necessity errorless, is Love : 
 and, Ramus, this all-embracing Love, is Happiness !" 
 
 As he pronounced these words his large, clear, 
 soul-fraught eyes intently fixed on mine he seemed 
 to grow in stature as he rose in energy, intense, but 
 passionless ; and from Man to something too majesti- 
 cally superhuman for description : and as he spoke, 
 his measured and melodious words were lights to my 
 awakened soul ; Reader ! may they be lights to 
 thine ; and those brief, happy moments seemed an 
 eternity. Not only my whole past life was crowded 
 in that space, but all past things, and all the glorious 
 future ! I trembled and almost fainted with excess 
 of pleasure. As if to calm my struggling spirit, and 
 call it back to mortal consciousness, he touched the 
 heath-plant I had been admiring, and said, in a tone 
 of the most plaintive sweetness, " Henceforth, Ramus, 
 when thou see'st this simple flower, all lonely and 
 neglected, think of DIONYSIUS : both I and it have 
 thriven best in solitude." 
 
 My attention was awakened ; and again, for an
 
 <IIAP.II.-J THE ALPHA. 25 
 
 instant, I recognised the features of a youthful friend. 
 His words had evidently reference to some remem- 
 bered sorrow. It was contagious. I was again all 
 human, and I wept. In the same grave, passionless 
 tone he proceeded : 
 
 " The Universe is not an accident. These mosses, 
 this blooming heather, yon lark, still carolling above 
 us, and Man, more wondrous than them all, are not 
 the workmanship of Chance, the uncaused conse- 
 quents of nothing." 
 
 I acquiesced in silence, and he went on. 
 " There are men miscalled philosophers, and almost 
 miscalled men, to whom nothing exists they cannot 
 see and handle : some of them have even doubted of 
 their own existence. I am not recommending Faith ; 
 for faith amounts to nothing : by Knowledge only can 
 the soul increase in stature ; but Scepticism so irra- 
 tional as this almost degrades humanity to the level 
 of the brute. The only real existence is Spirit, which 
 preceded matter, willed its being, and shall re-resolve 
 it into its native nothingness. Transitory and illusive 
 is the thing perceived : changeless and eternal, the 
 percipient Mind. Baseless is the world's philosophy : 
 false are all its aims : degrading is the scepticism 
 which clings to matter, but denies or doubts the 
 being of the impalpable and viewless soul. From 
 such misgivings thou hast not been free : but from 
 the slough of Atheism, and the comfortless depths of 
 settled doubt, thy reason hath preserved thee. Thou 
 hast reflected too deeply, and reasoned far too well, to 
 dream of consequences without a cause, or of design 
 without a purpose. Though inarticulate, though 
 voiceless, insentient nature has a tongue, a language, 
 which only minds accustomed to reflection, and 
 guided by perceptions more subtle than those of 
 sense, can comprehend. Even from thy boyhood thou 
 hast felt less lonely amongst the groves, arid hills, and
 
 26 THE ALPHA. [PART!. 
 
 quiet lakes, and foaming waterfalls, than in the so- 
 ciety of men. Thou perceivest I am no stranger to 
 thy soul. But if thou hast shunned mankind thou 
 hast ever borne in mind their miseries, and diligently 
 and hopefully hast thou looked around thee for a cure. 
 In the world's Religion, in its Morals, in its Litera- 
 ture, in its Philosophy, in its Government and Laws 
 thou hast looked in vain : nay, thou hast wellnigh 
 despaired ; and in dark moments thy sorrowing spirit 
 has almost doubted of the controlling providence of 
 God. Thou hast seen that the blind faith inculcated 
 by Religion is no real barrier against vice and crime. 
 Thou hast seen that Morals are more conventional 
 than real : that Virtue is more productive of evil than 
 of good ; that Law is only legalized licentiousness ; 
 that Learning is little else than showy ignorance : and 
 that the most sacred offices would go unfilled, but for 
 the loadstone that moves everything the pay. No 
 wonder thou shouldst falter in thy faith. This can 
 never be again. The light of truth, which nothing 
 can extinguish, beams on thy soul, and doubt, and 
 gloom, and misery shall be thine no more for ever ! It 
 is the Happiness thou hast ever yearned for ; for it is 
 communicable : it is the more thine own, because, 
 without abstracting from thy store of it thou canst 
 divide it, ad infinitum, amongst mankind. There is 
 no mystery greater than this : and this thou per- 
 ceivest is not a mystery. Knowing the cause of all 
 the evils with which mankind is struggling, thou not 
 only perceivest that the entire system of things is 
 wrong, wrong, false and hollow from its very base, 
 but thou also perceivest the remedy. Of this know- 
 ledge, neither infirmity, nor age, nor fraud, nor force, 
 nor men, nor Angels can deprive thee. It is the First 
 Truth, the germ of all truth : it shall grow, and 
 ramify within thee, and be thy glory and thy happi- 
 ness for ever. Intelligence is the soul's true wealth :
 
 CHJIP. II.] THE ALPHA. 27 
 
 its only wealth. It is the only possession thou canst 
 disseminate infinitely, yet still retain entire. 
 
 " But darest thou, for there is danger in it, darest 
 thou, Ramus Randolph, disseminate this truth? 
 Darest thou attempt to teach an ignorant, reckless, 
 priest-deluded, mammon-serving world this only way 
 to Happiness and Heaven ? I conjure thee to accept 
 the mission. Why, thou wilt know hereafter. Tell 
 mankind that the prolific parent of all Evil is Igno- 
 rance : that Knowledge is the only Good : that the 
 happiness of Heaven is unattainable save through the 
 Intellect ; and that to pursue any other means for its 
 attainment is but mockery and delusion. But assure 
 thyself that Bigotry will have its sacrifice : Power, 
 its revenge ; for Ignorance, which is necessarily igno- 
 rant of its ignorance, and believes itself to be wise, 
 is blind : it is also cruel and vindictive. The Church 
 shall anathematize thee : the lynx-eyed Law shall set 
 its myrmidons to dog thee : Scribblers shall traduce 
 thee ; and that satire on Civilization, the brute- 
 visaged crowd, shall spit upon thy garments in the 
 public thoroughfares. Thou shalt be denounced as 
 heathen, blasphemer, heretic. In the midst of this 
 opprobrium thou shalt die. But ages hence, like the 
 fabled Phoenix, thy spirit shall arise from out thy 
 ashes, and millions of kindred minds shall bless thee 
 as a martyr of the greatest Truth that ever was proved 
 and promulgated to the world. Thou shalt sow the 
 seeds of a world- wide reformation ; and, Ramus, they 
 shall grow ! Art thou content ? Shall I go on ?" 
 
 I silently assented. I was all beatitude. I felt the 
 whole of the momentous truth. The minutely-painted 
 danger connected with its dissemination had no ter- 
 rors. My blessedness was too great for words. As 
 if moved by the same involuntary impulse we rose 
 together, and with noiseless tread walked to arid fro 
 amongst the heather. The agitation of my spirits
 
 28 THE ALPHA. [PART!. 
 
 gradually subsided, and I experienced an unspeakable 
 calm. Then all the long-departed freshness and buoy- 
 ancy of my youth came over me ; and my busy, 
 thoughtful, anxious life appeared to pass before me 
 like a feverish dream. I reviewed it. There was but 
 one phase of it that did not chill me : 1 had erred in 
 everything but love. This was the rainbow of my 
 life, spanning my whole existence : it seemed made 
 of tears ! My companion was similarly engaged 
 during the time occupied by my reverie, and similarly 
 affected by the retrospect. We did not speak. We 
 had no need of words, or looks, or signs. We read 
 each other's thoughts by sympathy. We were like 
 two happy children whom care had never crossed, 
 whom evil thoughts had never entered, whom sin had 
 never tainted, all simplicity, all hope, all gladness 
 but with this difference WE KNEW THAT WE WERE 
 HAPPY. We felt the beneficent purpose of the painful 
 turmoil to which humanity is subject. We felt that 
 erring man might be hereafter happier than the Angels 
 who (perhaps) have never erred, and never tasted 
 sorrow : for just as little children are happy, and 
 know it not, so might the Angels be : but he who has 
 known care, must of necessity be conscious of his 
 after-life felicity. Who can doubt but that the Angels 
 have been, aforetime, creatures of earth, and have 
 erred and known sorrow, for otherwise they know 
 not their beatitude ; and that which they know not is 
 to them as nothing. Without this consciousness, this 
 knowledge, what were existence? what were happi- 
 ness ? Whilst to toil for it, suffer for it, die for it, 
 and to reach it in its fulness by this suffering and toil, 
 who can speak, who can imagine the sum of its frui- 
 tion ? God, who knows all things, whose Intelligence 
 is as boundless as His power, knew from the be- 
 ginning, that by contrast only can his creatures know 
 felicity ; and, hence, to people his universal heaven
 
 CHAP, n.i THE ALPHA. 29 
 
 with Intelligences who should be conscious of their 
 
 O 
 
 blissfulness, He created them ignorant, and subjected 
 them to the cares which spring from error, that as 
 they grew intelligent enough to be happy, the very 
 knowledge of previous misery might enhance their 
 fruition. Can there be a higher, can there be a more 
 beneficent purpose in the sublunary probation of 
 mankind than this ? Reader ! can there be another ? 
 Such were the thoughts that occupied me whilst 
 the mysterious stranger and myself walked up and 
 down beneath the slanting sunrays. At length I 
 said : 
 
 " But, my dear Mentor, what has become of the 
 many millions of souls, or sparks of Divinity, which 
 in the baby-turmoil of the world have added nothing 
 to their being?" 
 
 He replied : 
 
 " As their material bodies returned to the earth, so 
 these rays of Divinity, thus rendered incapable of an 
 independent existence, have been absorbed into the 
 Infinite from which they first proceeded ; parting with 
 their individuality, just as drops of rain lose their 
 identity in the ocean. That which knows nothing has 
 nothing to remember, and is as it were not. To thee, 
 thy physical body were as nothing w r ert thou un- 
 conscious of its existence : and without a similar 
 knowledge of thy spiritual being, to thee it were 
 non-existent. To comprehend the nature of Deity, 
 and of our separate selves, is to create a knowledge 
 of our own identity : and the knowledge which en- 
 sures that identity, is that which shows us what we 
 are, and teaches us the purpose of our being. 
 Without this knowledge the identity would be im- 
 possible, and our souls would be as though they were 
 not. To exist, absolutely, is to be conscious of our 
 existence ; and to maintain and enjoy existence, we 
 must obtain that knowledge which is the germ and
 
 30 THE ALPHA. [PAiiTl. 
 
 test of all knowledge. Well might the old prophet 
 exclaim in the name of the Deity : 
 
 " My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge." 
 
 But time flies : listen I pray thee, and answer not : 
 I must away at sun- down." 
 
 We were again seated, Dionysius and myself, 
 and the same calm, passionless expression that cha- 
 racterised his countenance at first, again solicited and 
 compelled attention. What he said will be related in 
 the following chapter.
 
 CHAP. III.] THE ALPHA. 31 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 THE REVELATION CONTINUED. 
 
 " WHAT has been accomplished in the science of 
 Mind ? absolutely nothing ! The dreamy labours of 
 the metaphysician have been worse than useless. The 
 mental philosopher has never penetrated to the root 
 of his subject. Observing only the superficies, he has 
 amused himself with subtleties, and plunged both his 
 reader and himself into deeper darkness. And what 
 is the consequence ? Why, that one-half the world 
 believes that a man is so much animated dirt pro- 
 duced by chance, whilst the other half clings to the 
 opposite belief by a tiny tether of hope so frail and 
 full of fear that men shudder when they think of it, 
 and take refuge in any occupation that brings oblivi- 
 ousness : and thus a race of Immortals steal abjectly 
 through the world with less of dignity than the brutes 
 that browse upon the mountains ! I know how much 
 these melancholy facts have weighed upon thy spirit 
 and chilled the life-blood in thy heart : but be of 
 good cheer : from this hour thou at least shalt be 
 happy, and thy all-loving spirit dare to look abroad 
 around creation, and hold converse with the Unseen. 
 " There are not two Principles in nature each 
 warring with the other : there is but one, and that 
 is infinitely Good. What men call Evil is not Evil : 
 it is the inconvenience caused by Ignorance, warning 
 them to be wise, and has within it the seeds of its 
 own destruction. It is not Good which causes Evil ; 
 but blind Ignorance, and purblind Error only. It is 
 not Good that Audacity grasps at through its crimes ;
 
 32 THE ALPHA. [PART I. 
 
 but something which Ignorance has misnamed a Good, 
 and cherishes as a Good : the owner and the thief 
 are both mistaken. Evil has no potency except 
 against itself. The conflict thou perceivest around 
 thee is that of Evil fighting against Evil : the greater 
 evil warring with the less : now this is uppermost, 
 now that, in endless round. Against positive Good, 
 Evil is impotent. Until it can pluck a planet from 
 the sky ; or stay the earth's fertility ; or hush the 
 voice of nature, which in every blade of grass pro- 
 claims the Deity, it cannot conquer Good. 
 
 " What an immense mass of this evil of man's own 
 making exists, and ramifies through the ever-entan- 
 gling medley of interests, and expedients, and anta- 
 gonisms misnamed Society ! But Socialism is not 
 antagonism. Selfishness, the principle of Barbarism, 
 cannot be the basis of civilized society. In a state 
 of nature SELF is everything, and FORCE is law. 
 Christianism, stripped of its mysteries, is the true 
 principle of the social system. The civilization that 
 men boast of is only barbarism reduced to a system. 
 Men, at present, are tamed savages : the powerful 
 kept tame by what they have ; the feeble, by what 
 they want. The powerful are said to commit crimes 
 when they overpass the boundaries of Law to gratify 
 their savage rapacity : the weak, when they overleap 
 the barriers to make reprisals, or to take revenge. 
 Before Man can shake off" the savage, he must subdue 
 the animal : not alone by quitting the woods to live 
 in palaces ; by cultivating the soil, by making laws, 
 and by acquainting himself with sciences and arts to 
 pamper his animalism more conveniently and effec- 
 tually ; but by subduing his lower instincts, cultiva- 
 ting his God-like Intellect, and erecting society and 
 civilization on the broad and ever-enlarging basis of 
 his spiritual nature. 
 
 " Man is an embryo Intelligence ; the Angel and
 
 CFIAP. III.] THE ALPHA. 33 
 
 the Animal conjoined. What he adds to his physical 
 stature he obtains from the material earth and air ; 
 and back to these every particle of his bulk returns. 
 But the Mind's nutriment, Knowledge, is as imma- 
 terial as itself, and both are eternal of necessity. 
 The fair temple that enshrined the Soul of thy soul's 
 idol, by change and subdivision shall perish utterly : 
 but the IDEA which represents her in thy memory 
 shall remain entire when suns and systems shall be 
 wrecks. Man is related to Deity by Soul ; and towards 
 deific perfection he advances as he acquires Intelli- 
 gence. His Virtues and his Religion (as certain acts 
 and certain ceremonies are termed), cannot advance 
 him a step ; but, like his Vices and his Crimes, they 
 will retard him in the exact ratio of his Ignorance. 
 All Good is, therefore, resolvable into Intelligence, 
 and all which bears the name of Evil, into Ignorance. 
 Intelligence is an entity, the first Principle, the great 
 First Cause of all things, or Deity. Ignorance is a 
 negation ; and, hence, all the abstractions which have 
 their ideal existence in the circumstances supposed to 
 be produced by the negation, are negations also. 
 Let Knowledge progress on Earth, and in the other 
 stages of the soul's existence, until perfect Intelli- 
 gence is attained ; and the virtues and moralities 
 cease to exist so much as in idea, or are absorbed and 
 swallowed up in the Intelligence, which is perfection 
 the Alpha which knows no end. Man has no moral 
 nature : no immoral nature. His Soul is one and 
 indivisible : it has no qualities or attributes whether 
 good or evil. It is an intelligent Principle, emana- 
 ting from Deity, capable of Intelligence, and needing 
 it ; nor is there aught else to need or to acquire but 
 Intelligence ; which to have in its entiety, is to have 
 everything. All terms made use of to denote qualities 
 in Ethics, Metaphysics, and Religion, are terms only : 
 search for the Qualities they are supposed to repre- 
 
 D
 
 34 THE ALPHA. [I'AHT I. 
 
 sent, and you find them to be unrealities, notions, 
 nothing. A human soul in a human body, may be 
 more or less intelligent ; which is synonymous with 
 more or less Perfect, more or less Happy; but it 
 cannot be essentially better or holier than another. 
 What the Metaphysicians denominate qualities of 
 mind are only phases or modes of the Soul's intelli- 
 gence : thus, Judgment is the seeking after knowledge 
 through the process of comparison ; Imagination, by 
 the swifter, but less certain, process of assumption. 
 They are modes of intelligent action, not separate 
 qualities or attributes. All Morality, all Virtue, is 
 conventional. The Virtues and the Moralities exist 
 by reason of their contraries ; and these chiefly by 
 reason of human usages and laws, which result from 
 human ignorance. Metaphysicians and Philosophers 
 know this, or they do not know it. If they know it, 
 their teachings are dishonest frauds : if they do not 
 know it, they are laborious blunders : in either case 
 they are false, and worse than useless. Thus, on a 
 basis of sand is built the world's Philosophy, and its 
 wisest men are but much-reasoning fools ; its best, 
 but well-intentioned ones. 
 
 " There is more Quixotism in the world than the 
 world in general is aware of. Assaulting windmills, 
 warring with puppets, and with flocks of sheep, are 
 not the only phases of the quixotic malady. To tilt 
 with a windmill is not more insane, than to rush 
 armed with mail and lance against a shadow. What 
 crusades have been undertaken against 'Sin !' Arid 
 what desperate battles are still fought with its reputed 
 Father ! How many ponderous volumes have been 
 indited to prove the justice of the justice which damns 
 without redemption impossible belief! on Mercy, 
 which can be purchased by a death-bed prayer ! and 
 on ' Grace,' which indeed, ' passeth all understand- 
 ing ! ' Oh, Rarnus ! to what shifts will fraud and
 
 CHAP. III.] THE ALPHA. 35 
 
 ignorance resort ! and to what profanity ! What 
 superhuman efforts have been made, by well-inten- 
 tioned men, to give perpetuity to virtue and morality 
 which should not be, and which cannot be without 
 giving eternal duration to their opposites ! This is 
 but engrafting flowers on the stems of weeds ; nay, 
 rearing and nurturing the noxious nightshade because 
 it bears a flower ! 
 
 " Did men but know how ignorant they are ; how 
 vapoury all their < Learning ; ' how profane their 
 fancied piety ; it would be the first step to real 
 knowledge. I charge thee, Ramus, teach them ! 
 Lead them to what is true by showing them what is 
 false. Grey-haired experience in the things which 
 pass for wisdom, is full of sage precepts to the young. 
 ' This path,' it tells them, ' is safe and pleasant, that, 
 slippery, and full of pitfalls.' But youth seldom 
 believes, and never knows, the value of these precepts 
 until it has actually experienced the evils it is coun- 
 selled to avoid. As long as there is doubt there is 
 liability to error : and as long as the system of things 
 is false, and wrong is ' profitable,' the wisest precepts 
 will be thrown away. Not precepts do men want 
 but knowledge : not counsel, but enlightenment. 
 
 " The Virtues and the Moralities exist by reason of 
 their opposites. But for Vice, the product of Igno- 
 rance, Virtue could not be conceived of. But for their 
 ill-favoured opposites, Justice, Mercy, Goodness, Truth 
 could have no conceivable existence. They are human 
 all : they belong to the atmosphere of Error : there 
 is nothing Divine about them ; and beyond the con- 
 fines of Ignorance they cannot be. The more need 
 there is of Benevolence, the more Misery must exist 
 for Benevolence to alleviate : the greater necessity 
 there is for the exercise of the Virtues, the more 
 must Vice abound. If the Deity could find pleasure 
 in human Virtue, Vice would be pleasing too ! The 
 
 D 2
 
 30 THE ALPHA. [PART I. 
 
 whole are human, Ramus ; and the existence of the 
 one gives existence to the others, and Ignorance is the 
 parent of them all. To suppose Virtue to be Happi- 
 ness or the ultimatum of man's attainable perfection, 
 were to suppose a necessity for Vice, and induce the 
 belief that one portion of mankind must be sacrificed 
 that the other portion might be saved ! a human 
 thought, and very blasphemous ! I charge thee, blot 
 it out ! Let the world cherish its Virtues as long as 
 its Ignorance generates its crimes : but let it strive 
 manfully to rid itself of all ; for all are evidences of 
 its Ignorance, and marks of its dishonour. Laws 
 will never repress a tithe of the crimes they foster 
 and originate : but until Laws grow equitable, let the 
 Moralities be encouraged ; let the Virtues minister 
 to the defrauded multitude ; let mercy look gently 
 on their crimes, and Benevolence pour balm upon 
 their miseries. Thousands of men made miserable, 
 systematically made miserable, that a few units 
 amongst them might be happy ! The tiniest moss that 
 vegetates beside thee, Ramus, and drinks its needful 
 portion of the dews and rain, protests against such 
 impious profanation ! 
 
 "When humanity shall take its stand upon its 
 spiritual nature ; when men shall use their privilege 
 of knowing, and their power of doing, in the construc- 
 tion of their social institutions, and, on the plan of 
 nature, use the most perfect means attainable by their 
 reason, to rational and righteous ends, Crime shall 
 cease and Evil be extinguished ; Heaven shall be on 
 Earth ; and God and Angels dwell with man : and 
 all this, without a mystery ; for Intelligence shall 
 convert Earth into a Paradise, as Ignorance has here- 
 tofore transformed it to a Hell. Without a miracle, 
 without a mystery, shall all this be accomplished. 
 
 " Wherever there is Mystery there is Ignorance or 
 Fraud. Ubiquity, Omnipotence, Omniscience, Eter-
 
 CHAP, ill.] THE ALPHA. 37 
 
 nity ; these are not mysteries, no more than the whole 
 being greater than a part is a mystery. The only mys- 
 tery thy flesh-encumbered mind will never fathom, is 
 how Mind created Matter, and by an act of Will linked 
 it to laws unvarying and eternal. But to infinite 
 Intelligence this is not a mystery. Whatever is, and 
 how it came to be, is known to the Deity that willed 
 its being. How Intelligence multiplies itself without 
 sensible addition, and subdivides itself without the 
 smallest loss, thou hast seen : but how it first created 
 itself, or whence proceeded ; and how out of an im- 
 ponderable Idea it created ponderable Matter, is 
 knowledge for another state of thy existence, a hap- 
 piness to come. 
 
 " To foreknow all things absolutely, that is, prior to 
 their existence, is to be Omniscient, omnipotent, om- 
 nipresent, and eternal. Such, of necessity, is Deity ; 
 therefore Deity is PRESCIENT INTELLIGENCE, which 
 necessarily includes Conscious Intelligence, or the 
 knowledge of things already in existence, and the 
 results of causes already in operation. In this latter 
 mode of Intelligence Man is permitted to participate, 
 to the extent of his ability to see and comprehend the 
 created objects around him, and to discover and com- 
 prehend the causes which produce mutation in the 
 modes of their existence : in other words, the human 
 soul is an Intelligent Principle, capable of Conscious 
 Intelligence. To create everything is first to fore- 
 know everything : arid to know all created things, 
 and the Laws which regulate and modify their ex- 
 istence, is to be with and in all things eternally. This 
 is omnipresence, this is omniscience. Thus, with 
 Deity, the Past and the Future are included in the 
 Present, and Eternity is concentrated in a point ! 
 These hitherto mysterious terms are mysteries no 
 longer. No longer is Man a mystery to himself: no 
 longer is Deity a mystery to Man. To perceive this,
 
 38 THE ALPHA. [PART I. 
 
 Ramus, is Intelligence identical with the Conscious 
 Intelligence of the Deity : and this is thy Happiness 
 now : and, in the language of the Oriental Job, thou 
 inay'st truly say : ' Though worms shall destroy this 
 body, in my flesh shall I see God ! ' for knowing what 
 thou knowest, even now thou beholdest Deity ! with 
 thy awakened soul, with that deific part of thee thy 
 conscious Intelligence, thou already perceivest Him 
 in whose spiritual likeness thou wert made ! 
 
 " A law once promulgated by Intelligence which 
 cannot err, is immutable, and subject to no after- 
 regulation, because needing none. Whatever its 
 results, they are foreknown and right. 
 
 " Creative, or Prescient, Intelligence is necessarily 
 infinite ; infinite in duration, and infinite in power : 
 with it, TO WILL is synonymous with TO DO. 
 
 "It is impossible that anything but Intelligence 
 can have, or exercise, a WILL. Absolute Will is 
 synonymous with Deity : in the human soul, from 
 the paucity of its knowledge, Will is synonymous 
 with Desire. Man has some intelligence : he has, 
 consequently, an independent will, limited in its 
 capability of action to the amount of his acquired 
 knowledge, and the necessities of his present existence. 
 His will is, consequently, of the nature of Desire, 
 capable of action proportionate to his limited know- 
 ledge, to his human condition, and to his sublunary 
 wants. His will has a wide circle for its operations : 
 it has the entire Earth for its dominion. It is, of 
 course, restrained in its activity by the immutable 
 laws, to which, as an animal, he is subject. He is 
 featherless, and cannot fly : he is finless, and cannot 
 inhabit the waters : he is vulnerable, and may be 
 wounded : he is mortal, and must die. But the laws 
 which limit him as an animal, can scarcely be said to 
 set any bounds to the activity of his intellect. Within 
 the limits of the laws which circumscribe the will ac-
 
 C"<">. I"-] THE ALPHA. 39 
 
 corded to his double nature, he is absolute. He is, 
 however, but an embryo Intelligence, and his Will, 
 regulated by his Reason, in other words, by his im- 
 perfect knowledge, is liable to Error; consequently 
 he has erred; and this fabric of Good and Evil, 
 Virtue and Vice, Justice and Injustice, mystic Re- 
 ligion with its punishments and rewards, Poverty, 
 Animalism, Misery, and Crime, are the natural and 
 necessary consequences. 
 
 " His original error sprung from an incorrect no- 
 tion of the Deity, which still continues ; and an 
 almost total ignorance, which also still continues of 
 himself. This ignorance led him to adopt a social 
 basis consonant with his animal nature, but altogether 
 inconsistent with his intellectual nature and wants, 
 and his immortality. Man the Animal, having animal 
 necessities, capable of physical power, and physical 
 enjoyment, but ignorant of his spiritual relationship 
 and destiny, naturally adopted brute force as the basis 
 of his social institutions. With the Strong, Might 
 became Right. With the Weak, Obedience became a 
 Virtue, and all resistance to Power was denominated 
 Crime. BUT, WERE THERE NO IGNORANCE THERE 
 
 COULD BE NO ERROR : WERE SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS 
 RATIONAL AND JUST THERE COULD BE NO CRIME. 
 
 " Man, however, need not be all-wise to be just ; 
 nor need he be errorless to be happy. But before he 
 can be either just or happy, he must rid himself of all 
 Selfishness ; he must know what he is ; and compre- 
 hend the object of his being. To know that God is 
 infinite Intelligence ; that He is all we can conceive 
 of perfection because He is all-intelligent ; to know 
 that Man himself is an embryo Intelligence, inca- 
 pable of any acquisition on earth but knowledge; 
 to know that to increase in knowledge is to make 
 progress towards perfection and happiness, is know- 
 ledge sufficient in itself, when universally recognised,
 
 40 THE ALPHA. [PARTI. 
 
 to correct his social error, to banish crime, to anni- 
 hilate evil, and to regenerate mankind. Whatever 
 knowledge is based on the fundamental principle in- 
 volved in the proposition just enunciated, is know- 
 ledge, positive, progressive, and abiding. Whatever 
 of men's knowings want this basis, is transitory, 
 retrograde, and false. 
 
 " The world is arriving at adolescence, and must 
 begin to unlearn the errors of its youth. The helpless- 
 ness of its infancy, the frowardness of its childhood, 
 the lawless petulancy of its youth, have passed away : 
 it is time to settle down to serious studies, and make 
 some use of the ill-understood lessons it has so long 
 been conning over in the school of adversity. The 
 animal has been developed : its prowess, its courage, 
 its capability of endurance have been tried : let it 
 begin to rely on its Intellect; let it cultivate the 
 Angel portion of its nature, and depress the over- 
 grown grossness of the brute : let the tall pile of its 
 recorded indiscretions be to it as a beacon on a 
 sunken rock: let Reason sit on the prow of the weather- 
 beaten bark, and Love direct the helm ; then, and 
 not till then, shall the haven of peace, and the longed- 
 for land of promised Happiness be reached. Then 
 shall come, not the sensual joys of the Mussulman's 
 heaven, nor the misanthropic gloom of the Quietists, 
 nor the dismal paradise of the Latter-day Saints, nor 
 the exclusive Eden of self-righteous bigots of any 
 sect or creed ; but the happiness-producing reign of 
 Intellect, the true Millennium of Mind, the spiritual 
 sovereignty of Christian Love. 
 
 " To get rid of the ever-increasing mass of igno- 
 rance-created evil, which, like a dense cloud over- 
 spans the entire earth from this to the Antipodes, 
 from the Antipodes onward again to this hindering 
 the genial rays of Truth from smiling on the family 
 of men, you must banish Ignorance, let light upon
 
 CHAP. HI.l THE ALPHA. 41 
 
 the ' masses,' drop mysticism, and be rational. It is 
 worse than useless to have recourse to nostrums, 
 conjurations, charms : the only Exorcist is Knowledge. 
 The hair-splitting quiddities of the Logicians and 
 Philosophers ; the solemn profundities of Hypocrisy 
 and Cant, must cease. These are the blights and 
 mildews which prevent the Amaranth from bursting 
 into bloom. The time has come to sweep away the 
 pestilence. It is the proper advent of a new Truth, 
 of that Truth which alone has power to dispel the 
 circumambient, blighting, desolating darkness. I 
 charge thee, Ramus, give it wings ! My voice is but 
 an echo ! As our shadows lengthen our existence 
 wanes : be thou my voice when 1 am shadowless, and 
 propagate the Truth I came to teach thee ! Thousands 
 of thinking men have, at this very time, some dim 
 foreshadowings of this Truth. There is a craving 
 for it in the disturbed and restless minds of multi- 
 tudes. The time has come when it might be pro- 
 pounded. It might take ages to work its way to the 
 depths of abjectness, and to the heights of power, 
 but this is its proper advent. Evil is at its acme ; 
 Crime has reached its climax : Mind is at work : the 
 time is pregnant with change : the period of mum- 
 mery is passing by : the hollowness of forms and 
 ceremonies is felt : Religion is about to drop its 
 mysteries and be rational : to be practical, instead of 
 shrouding its few and simple precepts in dark 
 enigmas, and the cabalistic language of imposture. 
 Be fearless. Tell robed and ermined Power, sur- 
 rounded though it be by guards, and fawned on by 
 Obsequiousness, that its Justice is injustice, tainted 
 at its very base. Tell solemn Sapience that it is not 
 wise. Tell Virtue that it subsists on Vice. Tell 
 Piety that it is Self-deception. Tell Moralists to go 
 to school. Tell the deluded multitude to know 
 themselves if they would terminate their miseries.
 
 42 THE ALPHA. [PABT I. 
 
 " Not idly didst thou ask thyself whilst bending 
 o'er this solitary heather, ' What is Beauty ?' Not 
 idly, nor in vain. If Beauty dwell in this little 
 flower, what is it? If its beauty consist not in 
 the perfect adaptation of means to the end sought 
 to be attained by its existence, it has no beauty : 
 and if it does consist in this, still it has none ; for 
 it is the work of God ; and to acknowledge its 
 paternity is to admit its perfection. Perfection 
 excludes all notion of ugliness, and has no need of 
 any contradistinguishing appellation to describe it. 
 The term Beauty is, therefore, conventional, and 
 Man arrives at a notion of it through its opposite ; 
 and of this, through the imperfection or paucity of 
 his knowledge. Perfection is only another name for 
 the handiwork of God ; and Beauty, for Perfection. 
 It is only when we have no appreciation of the ex- 
 quisite adaptation of an object to the end it serves 
 in the magnificent scheme of Creation, that we 
 pronounce it ugly. Whenever we perceive de- 
 formity in a natural object, or anything mean, 
 or loathsome, or impure, we are but viewing, 
 as in a glass, the reflex of our own Ignorance. 
 Our preferences and dislikes have their origin in 
 our ability or inability to recognise perfection ; 
 and in those circumstances in objects which more 
 readily enable us to gratify our inherent desire to 
 know. This last is the true but hitherto un- 
 recognised basis of all conventional beauty. Meta- 
 physicians finding no definable beauty in the 
 works of Nature, explain that certain circum- 
 stances in objects produce in the mind, after an 
 unsettled and lawless manner, an arbitrary bias, 
 an accidental preference : this preference or bias, 
 they say, is an emotion, a pleasure-giving feeling; 
 and this feeling, they tell us, is Beauty. Here 
 they stop. They do not tell us to what circumstance
 
 CHAP. III.] THE ALPHA. 43 
 
 or to what combination of circumstances in objects 
 this feeling is to be referred; and, not affording 
 this information, they afford none. Precisely 
 of the same value is all their teaching. To 
 have gone further they must have touched the 
 First Principle, and we should have had philosophy 
 instead of the cobweb tissue of which even modern 
 metaphysics is composed. 
 
 " There is nothing purposeless in nature, and, 
 hence, no natural bias of the mind is purposeless. 
 In the FORMS of things the mind has a bias towards 
 CURVES. But why? There are many reasons. 
 I will mention one. Man cannot comprehend 
 infinity : nor can he derive pleasure from what 
 he cannot comprehend. A straight line has in it 
 the principle of infinitude : unbroken it is infinite. 
 The mind strives to grasp it, and is repulsed. 
 There is more of awe than pleasure in this repulse. 
 From its interminable vastness we cannot take 
 in the thought : we are doomed to joyless ignorance. 
 The emotion we experience is Sublimity. Whatever 
 awakens the feeling, or impresses us with the idea, 
 of undefined, or defineless, immensity is sublime. 
 Of this the straight line is suggestive ; hence, it 
 affords the mind less satisfaction than the curve ; 
 and for this reason, the mind can comprehend 
 the circle. No matter how immense it be, the 
 mind can travel round it. The process is easy. 
 There is something cut out from space ; something 
 we can comprehend and KNOW. This is the source 
 and purpose of the bias. Every natural bias of the 
 mind has the same tendency : it yearns TO 
 KNOW. 
 
 " In the colours of things, unbroken uniformity 
 would be flatness, sameness, suggestive of infinity. 
 The difficulty of isolating objects, and thus, of 
 knowing them, would be immense. Colours obviate
 
 44 THE ALPHA. [PART I. 
 
 this difficulty ; and those most distinguished by their 
 brilliancy give a natural bias to the mind in their 
 favour. This is the beneficent purpose of the bias. 
 
 " Sounds and Odours answer similar ends. As 
 they tend to gratify the natural cravings of the 
 soul for knowledge, and as they simplify the process, 
 they are pleasure-giving. Link them by sameness to 
 infinity, and they inspire awe. 
 
 " Wonder and Awe are the progeny of Ignorance. 
 Mental pleasure is the invariable result of Know- 
 ledge. The emotion we call Sublimity originates in 
 Ignorance. The emotion which we have any rational 
 authority to name Beauty, originates in those 
 circumstances in all natural objects, which serve 
 as means to the growth of our Intelligence. 
 
 " All Nature woos mankind to KNOW IT, and thus 
 to ascend to a closer communion with its Almighty 
 Author. The flowers are not odorous, nor their 
 forms and colours manifold, to delight the senses 
 merely : the senses, as well as that innate feeling 
 which directs our preferences, are the appointed 
 inlets of our knowledge ; and these various circum- 
 stances, the wooing aids to our perceptions. To 
 convert the pleasure-giving means of knowledge into 
 finalities is unmitigated sensualism ; an error to 
 which even brute natures do not stoop. There is 
 not, Ramus, a blade of grass that points to Heaven 
 but bids thee be intelligent and happy. 
 
 " Knowledge amongst men may be positive or 
 negative : thou hast the key to both. Positive 
 Knowledge spiritualizes, ennobles, elevates, refines. 
 Negative Knowledge sensualizes and degrades. 
 Evil will no longer be a mystery to thee, nor 
 Good elude thy search : nor shall the idea of two 
 contending Principles in the world ever again 
 throw gloom upon thy spirit, or shake thy trust 
 in God.
 
 CHAP in.] THE ALPHA. 45 
 
 " The sun is sinking : let us arise. As from this 
 eminence thou viewest the varied landscape, so, from 
 an altitude of knowledge unreached till now, shalt 
 thou cast thy mental eye over the outspread page 
 of History, and by the steady light of Truth see 
 clearly whence ruin came on empires ; see from 
 what single cause all the spurious systems of 
 Civilization the world has known have crumbled 
 into nothing. Thou shalt perceive in thy survey 
 that wherever there is mystery there is fraud : 
 wherever there is ignorance there is evil. Thou 
 shalt see the emptiness of book-men's learning, and 
 how intellect weds itself to error. Thou shalt find 
 that Law, the breath of Power, is based on selfish- 
 ness ; and Government, the sinews of that Power, 
 on wrong. Thou shalt perceive that all the systems 
 of Philosophy yet known to men are reared on false- 
 hood : thou shalt supply a solid base of Truth. 
 Thou shalt see in thy survey infinite perplexity, ever- 
 involving involution : thou shalt restore simplicity. 
 Out of this chaos of Ignorance and Evil shall proceed 
 a universe of Intellect and Happiness. 'Let there 
 be light ;' and mysticism shall vanish, and Intelli- 
 gence, like yon sun, cheer with its equitable radiance 
 the entire family of men. Gaze on that glorious 
 object, my dear Ramus, that its last ray may rest on 
 thee, as now do my injunctions !" 
 
 He ceased. A cloud of deepest crimson, edged 
 with gold, rose from the horizon o'er the half-sunk 
 orb, and twilight took the place of day. I turned. 
 My monitor had gone ! I was again alone ! Reader ! 
 was all this ecstacy? or was it real? It has been 
 said : 
 
 " Such bodiless creation, ecstacy 
 Is very cunning in."
 
 46 THE ALPHA. [PARTI. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 IT was on the evening of the feast of St. Bartho- 
 lomew that the mysterious communication narrated 
 in the two preceding chapters was made to me. 
 When the Revelation had ended and the sun had 
 set, I found myself alone on the common amid the 
 deepening twilight. I was in no haste to quit the 
 spot sanctified by these revealings until the gathering 
 darkness admonished to do so. In about a 
 quarter of an hour I gained a footpath across the 
 common which conducted to the public road. 
 Quietly I pursued my way for several miles without 
 meeting, as far as I remember, a living thing. The 
 whole time I was entirely absorbed in my re- 
 flections. 
 
 Whether wonder at the strangeness of the events 
 I had experienced, or the happiness they had pro- 
 duced in me, was the predominant feeling, I know 
 not ; but just as I was entering a village through 
 which I had to pass on my way home, the current 
 of my thoughts was interrupted by the ringing out 
 of the passing-bell which told of some world-weary 
 brother having gone to his appointed rest ; and I 
 thought of the words of the mysterious Dionysius, 
 " My voice is but an echo : as our shadows 
 lengthen our existence wanes : be thou my voice 
 when I am shadowless !" He had uttered these 
 words while his shadow slept beside my own on the 
 mossy greensward. Could it be his knell I was 
 listening to ? 
 
 It was late when I arrived at my quiet home. I 
 was occupied until far beyond midnight recording
 
 CHAP. IV.] THE ALPHA. 47 
 
 in my journal the strange incidents of the evening ; 
 and then, without taking any refreshment, I retired 
 to rest and enjoyed a deep and refreshing sleep, un- 
 broken even by a dream, until far into the following 
 day. I awoke to the enjoyment of a new existence. 
 To me the world was no longer the same world : at 
 any rate I saw it through another medium. But 
 though it seemed to me more miserable than 
 formerly, I knew the cause of its miseries, and felt 
 myself to be the repository of the secret of their 
 cure. 
 
 It was an awful happiness ; too great to bear alone ; 
 and I sighed for a friend to whom I could impart a 
 portion of my responsibility. Such an one, out 
 of a large circle of neglected acquaintances, I felt I 
 had not ; and I bore my secret about me with a 
 fulness of enjoyment, that had but to pass the 
 boundary on which it trembled to become suffering 
 and pain. 
 
 My feet still rested on the earth ; but my head 
 was in the clear sunshine far above the clouds. Below 
 me were the tempests, and the murky atmosphere of 
 error-encircled Man : above, and around me were the 
 peaceful glories of an intellectual heaven ; and my 
 busy spirit seemed to enjoy a blessed intercommunion 
 with souls made perfect by Intelligence. I was in the 
 world of humanity, but not of it. I seemed to have 
 parted with the calculating turmoils of time, and to 
 dwell already in the smooth current of ever-enlarging 
 felicity, caused by ever-increasing knowledge. I 
 occasionally cast my thoughts towards the earth, and 
 sympathised with the victims of its thick-coming 
 miseries ; and, with the old leaven of superstitious 
 earthliness about me, I sighed for the power to work 
 a miracle for their enlightenment. I desired to 
 breathe my spirit on the world, and convince it of 
 its errors by an act of inspiration : and, for a brief
 
 48 THE ALPHA. [PARTI. 
 
 space, I thought the thought of a calumniated writer, 
 long since dead ; Oh, that the Deity had written his 
 high behests on the face of the sun, that all men 
 might know his will ! But has he not, thought I, 
 done more than this? Has he not implanted an 
 inextinguishable desire for the one thing needful 
 deep in the soul of every human being ? Has he not 
 adopted the more gratifying mode of communicating 
 his will ? not in a material form by writing on the 
 sun, or arranging the stars into a luminous decalogue ; 
 not as man, the animal, communes with man, his 
 brother animal, but as spirit communes with spirit ? 
 Does it not say as loud as yearning soul can speak, 
 and in an universal language which none who think 
 can misinterpret : Know thyself : Know God : be 
 intelligent, and be happy ? 
 
 I reflected that although the Virtues and the 
 Moralities, abstractedly, are nothing, that Happiness 
 is a reality co-existent with Intelligence ; and that 
 Intelligence must exist eternally, even though Matter, 
 at the fiat of the Almighty, were again resolved into 
 its single element; though it were again floating 
 through space, imponderous, and without form ; subtle 
 as electricity, which probably it is ; for Matter must 
 be One, and Infinite Intelligence, its soul. How 
 either came to be, is of no consequence : enough for 
 us, they are. Whether Matter, in its state of ultimate 
 subdivision, thinks ; or whether in this subtle state it 
 be but the assimilated agent of Infinite Intelligence, 
 is of no real importance to us now : yet still we would, 
 all human as we are, push our investigations further 
 if we could, nor leave even this stupendous truth 
 unknown. How active, then, thought I, is that ever- 
 living principle within us which prompts us to this 
 discovery ! and how besotted are mankind, how 
 dulled their intellect by -erroneous training and 
 disuse, to need any other proof of what we are, of
 
 CHAP. IV.] THE ALPHA. 49 
 
 what our business is on earth, and what is the end 
 and purpose of our being ! Still, alas ! these facts 
 are unperceived. Not one in a million has proved 
 them to himself; or, in himself, where only it can be 
 found, has he ever dreamed of searching for the 
 evidence. Long and anxiously I pondered on these 
 things. How, thought I, may these all-important 
 truths be shown? how proved to the millions who 
 have neither the desire (for it is dead), nor the 
 aptitude, for the knowledge ; who are only animally 
 cognizant of things, but, mentally, are blind ? How 
 shall one mind illuminate millions who are uncon- 
 sciously enamoured with their darkness ? Spiritualize 
 those who are proud of their animalism? elevate 
 those who are satisfied with their degradation ? In 
 what form of words can this newly-acquired knowledge 
 be made to permeate all mankind ? The responsibility 
 seemed awful : the task too great to be attempted. 
 An invisible power urged me onward : a growing 
 sense of the difficulty restrained me. Should I 
 abandon the task ? or, relying on the innate power of 
 Truth, attempt it ? Thus I argued : The blooming 
 plant was once a tiny seed ; the giant oak, an acorn : 
 a grain of sand, the nucleus of a world : the greatest 
 thing had a beginning. Had not my mentor, Diony- 
 sius, likened the truth he set before me to a seed ? 
 " Thou shall plant it," said he, " and, Ramus, it shall 
 grow." I determined to attempt it ; but, by what 
 means I knew not. Whom, methought, am I ? 
 Almost a stranger amongst my Species : a voluntary 
 outcast of society, living apart even from my kindred 
 and acquaintances, and perhaps, for experience had 
 not tested the fact perhaps without a single friend ! 
 There was sadness in the thought, but it was a 
 momentary sadness. Like a cloudlet hurrying across 
 the moon, this transient sadness overpassed my soul. 
 I reflected that it might have been otherwise had I
 
 50 THE ALPHA. [PARTI. 
 
 married. Marriage has its consequences ; and these 
 consequences are sometimes evil. I have known the 
 very nature of a good man changed by marriage, that 
 is, seemingly changed ; but the truth lies deeper : his 
 nature struggled for a development which marriage 
 checked. So gentle was the nature of poor Catholicus, 
 that no sentient creature could suffer pain, nor any 
 soul feel misery, but a sympathetic chord in his own 
 soul was touched. Alas ! to wish only a good wish 
 for any other being than his wife was treason in her 
 eyes : but Catholicus was a man, and though a kind 
 one, he grew tyrannous in defence of his humanity. 
 His life was infelicitous : his character was misunder- 
 stood : he died mad : and Ignorance wrote his epitaph. 
 How many of the inmates of Bedlam, past and 
 present, have become demented from feelings and 
 experiences akin to those of poor Catholicus ! I have 
 sympathy with these madmen. Were the world's 
 ways wiser than they are, these unfortunates had not 
 gone mad. It is chiefly the most thoughtful and best- 
 intentioned men amongst us that now become 
 demented : men who think till they know not what 
 to think, then, soul-sick, mope, or rave, or smile on 
 vacancy till death enlightens them ! A chaos is theirs 
 of glory and misery ; particles of the ineffable light 
 of Divinity glittering here and there amidst an ocean 
 of gloom ! the light supplied by nature interfused 
 with the darkness supplied by authority, and called 
 light. No marvel they are mad ! They are, however, 
 wiser than the sane ; for they have seen that Evil is 
 paramount on earth, and have had some luminous 
 glimpses of a bright hereafter and to both these 
 experiences most of the sane are strangers. Sanity 
 signifies an inordinate love of self. The wife of poor 
 Catholicus w r as eminently sane, and as eminently 
 short-sighted : she would have been more loved had 
 her husband been permitted to bestow some of his
 
 CHAP, iv.i THE ALPHA. 51 
 
 affection on his daughter or his dog. Touched with 
 the fate of poor Catholicus, I rejoiced that I had not 
 been married : I was happy in reflecting that probably 
 I had no friend. If I had friends, thought I, if I had 
 a particular predilection for a few amongst my species, 
 I should of necessity have less active sympathy for the 
 many : if I loved some in particular, the aggregate T 
 could not love at all. It is assuredly better as it is. If 
 I had preferences I must respect those preferences. 
 If I were swayed by individual friendships, I should 
 have no power even to do right in opposition to their 
 insidious influence. The greater duty would succumb 
 to the lesser, and Wrong would have all the charms of 
 Right. In sentiment it is an amiable, perhaps a 
 natural weakness ; but in action it is a pernicious 
 thing. Let no man ACT through friendship, or through 
 friendship, be debarred from action, if he would do 
 the work assigned to him on earth ! Every act of 
 partial munificence, every act of personal regard, is a 
 wrong felt and suffered somewhere. It is better, far 
 better that I should have no friend, than that out of 
 respect to my friend I should betray humanity. I 
 was happy that I had no friend. I was penetrated 
 with an unspeakable, a deeply reverential thankfulness 
 to the great Author of my being, that my love had a 
 larger scope ; that my affections embraced the universe. 
 Night and day, every moment of my existence, this 
 thought of my duty, with its accompanying homage 
 to Him who had endowed me with thought, was 
 present with me ; and was to me, and still is, the 
 most sublime religion. Go where I would this un- 
 utterable happiness attended me ; and all I said and 
 did, or desired to say and do, had reference to the 
 one end I now so clearly saw before me. I felt to be 
 above the reach of misfortune, and that Evil was 
 powerless to harm me ; and I thought, how blessed 
 the time when there shall be no evil ! 
 
 E 2
 
 52 THE ALPHA. I^RT I. 
 
 Days and weeks flew noiseless by ; moons waxed 
 and waned; but my momentous secret still slept 
 untold. Prudence, not selfish fear, restrained its 
 utterance. What is ill-done were better undone. If 
 my felicity had a dash of misery in it, it proceeded 
 from a growing sense of my inability to grapple with 
 an evil which taints, and intertwines itself with every- 
 thing, and has a power, torpedo-like, to paralyse the 
 arm of him, who, with a hostile purpose, ventures 
 but to touch it. 
 
 For months I resolved on commencing my hopeless 
 task, yet still did nothing. In order to fix and con- 
 centrate my thoughts, I sometimes attempted to read : 
 but reading had lost its relish. Books were full of 
 absurdities ; more ignorant, most of them, than the 
 illiterate beings whom the selfish policy of society 
 shuts out from their perusal. Newspapers were but 
 the heartless records of iniquity ; the glass in which 
 an ignorant w ? orld might view the reflex of its igno- 
 rance. Whether the records of the Police Court, or 
 the records of the Imperial Parliament, were the more 
 sickening I know not ; but the motives of all the 
 actors in the drama of life, from the pickpocket to 
 the prime minister, seemed to me to be equally false. 
 Wherever I directed my attention the result was the 
 same. All the labours of men had taken the wrong 
 direction : they were either purposeless, or their 
 purpose wrong. I mixed more with mankind, and 
 calmly observed whatever was passing around me. 
 Everywhere there was intense activity, ceaseless aspir- 
 ings, but all to a wrong end. If, thought I, the 
 whole mass were inert or sluggish, " a little leaven 
 might leaven the entire lump : " but, in full activity, 
 who shall attempt to turn it in its course, check its 
 headlong wilfulness, and guide it to its good ? 
 
 About a month after the event which produced the 
 state of mind I have been describing, I became ac-
 
 C " AP - IV -1 THE ALPHA. 53 
 
 quainted, how it matters not with the following cir- 
 cumstances. 
 
 At sunset, on the day of the feast of Saint Bar- 
 tholomew, at his residence in Eulham, died the Re- 
 verend Dionysius Lackland ; a man whose life had 
 been consumed in study, and whose one object in 
 living Avas to do good. He would probably have 
 lived longer had his object been really attainable, and 
 his labours less perplexing. But ever scrutinizing 
 his own actions, noting their origin and following 
 them into their more distant consequences, he per- 
 ceived that his best actions sometimes originated in 
 weakness, and frequently resulted in evil ; whilst evil, 
 whether intentional or otherwise, he observed, not 
 less frequently conduced to some more ultimate good : 
 in short, that the actions of men, in the abstract, are 
 neither good nor bad : but that they are an unbroken 
 chain of consequences and causes with which human 
 misery is most mysteriously connected. To lessen 
 the sum of this suffering was his aim ; but every act 
 was manifold, not single in its consequences : here it 
 was the remedy of an evil ; there its cause : and 
 where would its influence, either for good or evil, 
 cease to operate ? Would happiness or misery pre- 
 ponderate in the endless progress of its consequences ? 
 How, said he, should any act of a human being be 
 uniformly beneficent, when the very rain of Heaven 
 which fertilizes my fields, deluges my neighbour's 
 pastures and drowns his flock? Ar<e Good and Evil 
 names alone, and not realities ? Could we have a 
 sense of either if we were wise? During the latter 
 years of his life he had devoted himself entirely to 
 study with the view to disentangle these perplexities, 
 and discover the source of these, to him, humiliating 
 contradictions : and from this reason, as well as from 
 certain conscientious motives, he had for several years 
 relinquished his clerical ministrations. To be a
 
 54 THE ALPHA. U'AI-T I. 
 
 useful servant of God, he felt he ought to know 
 something of the laws of God ; to assume to be His 
 ordained Minister, he conceived that he ought to be 
 more deeply initiated than other men in the latent 
 mysteries of his will : to be a Shepherd, that he 
 should know something of the true nature and ne- 
 cessities of his flock. He was a " Learned" man ; 
 but with all his learning, he felt himself to be as in- 
 capable of distinguishing between Good and Evil as 
 the most ignorant over whom he was exercising a 
 teachership. He examined his credentials, and doubt- 
 ing of their genuineness, he was constrained to lay 
 aside the arrogant title of " One of God's vicegerents 
 here on earth." He had seen much, travelled much, 
 read much, conversed much, and deeply had he me- 
 ditated on all : indeed, few men were more conversant 
 with all the surface-matters which make up the showy 
 sum of human knowledge than Dionysius Lackland ; 
 but, that Good and Evil should be so inextricably 
 interwoven, perplexed him greatly; his health failed 
 him, he became a recluse, and was seldom seen 
 beyond the somewhat narrow limits of his own house 
 and grounds. His only daughter, Ellen, was his sole 
 companion ; and through her agency nearly all his 
 communications with the outward world were made. 
 She was the instrument of his charities, the reposi- 
 tory of his thoughts, the manager of his household, 
 and the entertainer of his casual guests. Sometimes, 
 his amanuensis ; sometimes she was to him what the 
 youthful David was to Saul, the exorcist of his me- 
 lancholy, and would charm away his sadness on the 
 harp. 
 
 It was the opinion of Dionysius Lackland that he 
 who prevents human suffering, by removing the causes 
 of misery, is a greater benefactor to his race than he 
 who spends his fortune to relieve it, and hopes by his 
 charity to diminish its amount. He was himself a
 
 CHAP, iv.i THE ALPHA. 55 
 
 Howard ; but his aim was to do away with all need 
 of philanthropy. He held that Benevolence is as dis- 
 graceful to society as Crime, and that both are equal 
 evidences of a woiid-spanning injustice. It was to 
 demonstrate these somewhat startling positions, and 
 to establish them on the solid basis of an all-embracing 
 Truth, that the labour of the latter portion of his 
 life had been devoted. His health, which had always 
 been delicate, gave way, and he died, leaving the 
 accomplishment of the task, as well as the guardian- 
 ship of his daughter, to me. The task is before 
 me, and the maiden at this moment by my side. 
 
 For form's sake I will now acquaint thee, friend 
 reader, with a circumstance which thou hast anti- 
 cipated already, notwithstanding that I have feebly 
 affected the craft of the novelist with a view to a 
 surprise : but as the events of my life have been 
 few, and none of them very romantic, I expect thy 
 forgiveness that I have attempted to make the most 
 of this. Ellen Lackland is my niece ; Dionysius, 
 my long-lost brother ; and the long-ago deceased 
 mother of Ellen, the Ellen Raymond of my early years, 
 whose ideal I had so long cherished as my soul's 
 secret idol, and who more than lives again in Ellen 
 Randolph. Ellen is a girl in years, but more than a 
 woman in intelligence and unselfish catholicity of 
 mind. She has been nursed and instructed in a 
 purer knowledge than falls to the lot of the generality 
 of the daughters of men, and inherits a nature worthy 
 of the teaching she has received. 
 
 Her father, Raphael Randolph, (or if the reader 
 pleases, Dionysius Lackland,) had conceived the idea 
 of a new Philosophy for mankind ; and if not of a new 
 Religion, such a purification of the old as would ren- 
 der its practice new, whatever may be the antiquity 
 or origin of its leading precepts. A mass of notes 
 without order or arrangement, the occasional jot-
 
 56 THE ALPHA. [TART I. 
 
 tings down of ideas for the illustration of a system yet 
 in embryo in his own mind, is all the assistance 
 derivable from his papers. These are now in my pos- 
 session, and the key to them the mysterious com- 
 munication made to me on the evening of the feast of 
 Saint Bartholomew, the day of my brother's death. 
 
 The mode of this communication, whether it was 
 what is called " second sight" that I experienced ; 
 or a trance, or a reverie, or a dream, or a ghostly 
 visitation, I must leave to the sagacity of others to 
 determine. The believers in apparitions and the 
 supernatural visits by the dying to their absent friends, 
 so often recorded, and so credibly attested, will most 
 likely incline to this latter suggestion, when I shall 
 have related the additional circumstances which in- 
 vests this opinion with an air of probability ; for, 
 certainly, the power of long-pent-up affection, a strong 
 will, and the accomplishment of a dearly-cherished 
 object, are more than the usual superinducing causes 
 generally urged by way of accounting for such out-of- 
 nature occurrences. 
 
 He had said in the morning that he should die at 
 sunset ; and as the evening approached, he was, by 
 his own wish, placed in his chair at the open window 
 of his apartment, that, as he said, he might, for the 
 last time, see the sun go down, and feel its warm rays 
 play about him. His daughter sat beside him in the 
 sunbeams. He now and then conversed with her on 
 the subject of his translation until he fell into a sleep, 
 calm as the slumbers of an infant when the Angels 
 are whispering spirit-stories to its soul. At sunset he 
 awoke, smiled an affectionate farewell to Ellen, and 
 his other attendants, then slept the sleep of the blessed. 
 
 Agitated by feelings which it were useless to de- 
 scribe, and absorbed by reflections which have been 
 faintly indicated, and, I fear, too tediously dwelt on 
 already, I one night retired to rest somewhat earlier
 
 CHAP, iv.j THE ALPHA. 57 
 
 than usual. I had taken a narcotic to promote sleep, 
 to which I had lately been almost a stranger ; and rny 
 health was suffering from its loss. I soon fell into a 
 delightful slumber, and in a long-continued vision, 
 the particulars of which it will be the business of the 
 three following chapters to relate I saw the object of 
 my wishes realized ; my delegated task accomplished. 
 More vivid than reality were the scenes and circum- 
 stances of that dream ; and the impression they made 
 on me, more distinct and indelible than almost any 
 occurrence of my waking life. 
 
 The description and details of this extraordinary 
 vision-dream will conclude the first part of this little 
 work, to which, indeed, the portion we are now con- 
 cluding is merely the introduction ; and, if I have 
 been thus far successful in convincing thee, my dear 
 reader, that the world is neither as happy nor as wise 
 as it might be, I am of opinion that thou wilt nerve 
 thyself to the task of a deliberate and unprejudiced 
 perusal of the ALPHA we are about commencing. 
 Its object is to show the way the only one by 
 which this world-wide desideratum THE GREATEST 
 
 ATTAINABLE HAPPINESS OF THE ENTIRE FAMILY OF 
 
 MEN can by any possibility be accomplished. And 
 although thou wilt find the relation of these dream- 
 experiences less fantastic than the Arabian tales, and 
 far less diverting than Don Quixote, I promise thee 
 that thou shalt extract germs of wisdom therefrom, 
 which it shall be the chief business of thy after-life to 
 tend and nurture, that their growth within thee may 
 ensure thy happiness here, and thy felicity in the 
 never-ending hereafter which will come, whether it 
 find thee watching or asleep ; which will come, whether 
 thy soul, incapable of anything but knowledge, have 
 added to its store, or neglected the acquisition. 
 
 Virtue is nothing : morality is nothing : holiness is 
 nothing : religion is nothing : for true knowledge in-
 
 58 THE ALPHA. [PAUI I. 
 
 eludes them all, and is at once virtue, morality, holi- 
 ness, philosophy, and religion. The only difference 
 between thee and other men is a difference in know- 
 ledge : the only difference between men and angels is 
 a difference in knowledge : and probably the only 
 difference between Angels and the Deity, however 
 immense it may be, is a difference in knowledge. 
 The soul is immaterial, and incapable of blot or stain : 
 it can neither suffer pollution, nor add to its purity : 
 it can neither perish, nor part with its consciousness, 
 nor be deprived of its intelligence ; for intelligence 
 and soul are indivisible, are one. All this the Alpha- 
 vision will prove to thee ; will make a part of thee ; 
 for thou wilt not believe alone, but know ; and its 
 Philosophy will be thy religion : a religion differing 
 from all others in this, that it cannot be put on and 
 off at pleasure, but must be ever-active, forming 
 an essential portion of every act, and every thought ; 
 needing no minister, no guide, and demanding 
 of its votaries that they be MEN INDEED ; men 
 who have their own welfare in their own keeping ; 
 not self- sold slaves, who by an act of unspeakable 
 idiotcy, consign body and soul to the charge of crea- 
 tures, in everything but cunning, exactly similar to 
 themselves. If thou wouldst be wiser than these, 
 listen to the Spirit-teacher that solicits thy attention 
 in my Dream !
 
 CHAP. V.] THE ALPHA. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE VISION. 
 
 I COULD not have been long asleep when ray vision 
 commenced. At first it was confused : familiar 
 objects had parted with their old appearance ; and 
 new things seemed familiar. I was in my own 
 house ; in my own library, yet nothing in it seemed 
 to be my own. My books were not in their ac- 
 customed bindings. A few old portraits in oaken 
 frames had changed to landscapes, and other subjects, 
 scriptural and profane, in golden ones. Anon the 
 apartment had parted with its semi-modern, neat 
 appearance, and became a spacious gothic hall, filled 
 with a crowd of anxious-looking persons. In the 
 next moment it had shaped itself into that portion of 
 Westminster Abbey known as Poet's Corner. A few 
 of the assembled crowd were examining the monu- 
 ments. Now the busts and statues were no longer 
 monuments, but living men who mingled with the 
 assemblage, every individual of which seemed to be 
 anxiously awaiting some interesting event ; a circum- 
 stance rendered evident to me by the excitement, 
 and uneasy look of impatient expectation observable 
 on their intelligent countenances. Suddenly 1 was 
 seized vv 7 ith a similar feeling, and, without speaking to 
 any one, I seemed to know that all were awaiting the 
 arrival of DIONYSIUS to propound his new Philosophy. 
 In the next moment, there he stood, " the observed 
 of all observers," just as I had seen him on the 
 common. 
 
 The place was now no longer Poet's Corner, but the
 
 60 THE ALPHA. [PART I. 
 
 beautiful chapel of Henry the Seventh, with its stalls, 
 and banners, its " dim religious light," its pendent 
 ceiling of geometric tracery, and its quaint carvings of 
 exquisite design and wondrous workmanship. Its 
 dimensions had, however, expanded with the occasion, 
 and thousands were congregated within its nave. 
 How strange that in our dreams we have no con- 
 sciousness of incongruity with respect to time ! 
 Conspicuous in the stalls were Shakspere, Ben Jonson, 
 Spenser, Chaucer, Drayton, Dryden, Marlowe, Mas- 
 singer, Milton, Butler, Byron, in short, the Parnassus 
 of England ; and had the great Father of poetry, old 
 Homer himself, been amongst them, I should have 
 viewed him, as I did the others, without the slightest 
 sense of the anachronism. It must be that, in the 
 spiritual world, with which we seem to have an easy 
 commerce in our dreams, WHATEVER HAS BEEN, is. 
 Methought Shakspere occupied the place of honour, 
 and was, as by common consent, or prior arrangement, 
 the President or Moderator of the assembly. 
 
 Dionysius stood on the dais in front of the tomb 
 of Henry and his queen : and near him, dressed in a 
 robe of dazzling whiteness, stood the beautiful and 
 intelligent Ellen. I was oblivious as to any con- 
 sanguinity with either. The one was simply Ellen 
 Randolph ; the other the mysterious Dionysius with 
 whom I had conversed on the common. And now, 
 proceeding from the adjoining choir, a strain of music 
 of the most unearthly sweetness, mingled (for so it 
 seemed) with spirit-voices, filled the whole arena. It 
 ceased ; and Echo took up the strain. A thrill of 
 the most exquisite pleasure passed through the whole 
 assembly, which now seemed countless, and was corn- 
 posed of men and women of all grades and conditions. 
 Even the roof and carvings were peopled with human 
 faces, and every eye was bent on Dionysius. By in- 
 sensible degrees he had become endued with more
 
 CH^P. v.] THE ALPHA. 61 
 
 than human beauty ; whilst Ellen's figure had so 
 blended into his, that, to my heated imagination, the 
 twain seemed one. 
 
 He advanced to the extremity of the platform, and, 
 with an emphasis of which all understood the meaning, 
 said : 
 
 " Life is not a jest :" Here Goldsmith looked 
 
 at Gay "It is a glorious reality." Here Milton 
 
 and Byron exchanged significant glances " Igno- 
 rance is not the ' curse of God,' but the cause of 
 evil : ' Knowledge is the wing on which men soar to 
 Heaven.' " 
 
 Methought Shakspere blushed, whilst to do him 
 honour, the assembled thousands, moved by one im- 
 pulse, rose ! Dionysius continued. 
 
 " The world has erred ; still errs, and is unhappy. 
 The rich are unhappy notwithstanding their posses- 
 sions. The poor are unhappy by reason of their 
 numerous necessities. The wisdom of the wisest 
 ends in disappointment ; and to be ignorant is as 
 safe as to be wise ; for, of both conditions, misery is 
 the inevitable lot. Vice riots in luxury, whilst Virtue 
 pines in want. Audacious Impudence has everything 
 but happiness, whilst Modesty lacks even bread. 
 Dulness fares sumptuously, whilst Genius starves. 
 Thus it has ever been, even from the beginning. 
 Still, life is not a jest, but a great reality. The 
 world has erred, still errs, and is unhappy. 
 
 " Much can be advanced in vindication of the 
 worst things : and much also may be urged in dis-
 
 02 THE ALPHA. H'AUT I. 
 
 paragement of the best. Every question in Politics, 
 Ethics, and Religion has two sides, and each side its 
 zealous defenders. They may be as opposite as light 
 to darkness both in their nature and results, yet the 
 partizans of each maintain that THEIR position is true 
 and right, and denounce the position of their oppo- 
 nents as false, and wrong, and fraught with evil. 
 Thus, Good and Evil, Right and Wrong, Falsehood 
 and Truth, are inextricably interwoven and con- 
 founded. What is the inference? Either that the 
 Deity delights to mock his creatures ; or, that his 
 creatures, being ignorant, mock and cajole them- 
 selves. One or the other of these it must be. It is 
 the least indecorous to believe that the latter suppo- 
 sition is the true one. Let us, then, suspect our- 
 selves, rather than entertain so unhallowed a thought 
 as that the Deity made men in sport ; sent them in 
 pursuit of a happiness which is beyond their reach ; 
 and embroils them in feuds the most atrocious for 
 the attainment of a visionary good. 
 
 " Now, in order that we should know how to dis- 
 tinguish Evil from Good, Wrong from Right, Ealse- 
 hood from Truth, it is necessary that we should have 
 an unerring guide. IT is THE BUSINESS OF PHILO- 
 SOPHY TO FURNISH SUCH A GUIDE. Mankind have 
 never yet had such a Philosophy. We must discover 
 such an one, or continue to endure the evils resulting 
 from the want. IT MUST BE A PURE PHILOSOPHY, 
 
 COMPREHENSIBLE BY ALL, CAPABLE OF BEING PRAC- 
 TISED BY ALL, AND EMBRACING THE HIGHEST IN-
 
 CHAP v.] THE ALPHA. 63 
 
 TERESTS OF ALL ; A PHILOSOPHY AT ONCE SIMPLE, 
 INTELLIGIBLE, AND SUFFICIENT. To do this W6 HlUSt 
 
 discover the fundamental Truth, which is the ex- 
 ponent of all truth. We must have an unerring 
 principle as the basis of our Philosophy; and to 
 supply this principle is the task to which I pledge 
 myself in the face of this assembly. 
 
 " In this important matter we must proceed care- 
 fully, and step by step. We must be certain that 
 every previous step is safe before the subsequent one 
 be taken. As Reason must decide whether each 
 proposition advanced be false or true; and as no 
 truth can be truth to us until our Reason perceives it 
 to be truth, I earnestly entreat that no proposition 
 be allowed to pass so long as a reason can be urged 
 against it." 
 
 Here two Philosophers, ERNEST STRONG-I'-THE- 
 FAITH, and DIOGENES DULL, with whose persons and 
 opinions I seemed to have been previously acquainted, 
 rose together, and in one voice denied that Reason 
 could be relied on in a matter so important : and, 
 after the right of priority had with some difficulty 
 been decided, each of them proceeded to give his 
 reasons for his dissent. Dionysius thus disposed of 
 their objections : 
 
 " The very act of these Objectors proves the fallacy 
 of their objection. They, professedly, support by 
 reason their objection against reason. They admit 
 what they deny, and deny what they admit; and 
 another word need not be wasted on the subject.
 
 64 THE ALPHA. [PART I. 
 
 That Reason often errs is because it does not make 
 sure of its facts. SIMPLE PERCEPTION is the con- 
 sciousness of individual Facts which exist within 
 ourselves, or externally to ourselves. REASON is 
 COMPLEX PERCEPTION : it is a consciousness of sundry 
 single facts combined with a consciousness of another 
 series of facts which can only be perceived by com- 
 paring single facts with each other : for example, I 
 perceive a stone : T next perceive a stream of running 
 water. I find that the stone is ponderous and solid : 
 I perceive that the water is ponderous and fluid. I 
 next perceive that there is a coincidence between 
 them ; and a difference. Both have ponderosity ; 
 that is a fact : but both are not fluid ; that is another 
 fact. The stone is at rest : the water is in motion. 
 Observing these additional facts, I am led to perceive 
 other facts arising out of these; namely, that the 
 ponderosity and solidity of the stone are a cause of 
 its being at rest; and that the ponderosity and 
 fluidity of the water are a cause of its being in 
 motion. Here we have arrived at COMPLEX PER- 
 CEPTION ; AND THIS is REASON ; differing only from 
 SIMPLE PERCEPTION in this ; that by comparing 
 single facts we become conscious of the various cir- 
 cumstances in which they differ and agree, as well as 
 of the more latent facts of Cause and Effect. There 
 is, then, nothing more mysterious about Reason 
 than there is about Consciousness, the existence of 
 which, I presume, neither of these Objectors will 
 deny."
 
 CHAP, v.) THE ALPHA. 65 
 
 STRONG - 1' - THE - FAITH nodded acquiescence : but 
 DULL denied that the existence of consciousness is an 
 established fact : hence, he contended, that there is 
 no certain evidence of external things ; all which, the 
 greatest Philosophers have held to be mere fancies ; 
 and that, therefore, a man has no positive proof even 
 of his own existence. He, therefore, denied the 
 infallibility of what is called Consciousness, until its 
 truthfulness could be established as an incontro- 
 vertible fact. To this argument DIONYSIUS replied 
 thus : 
 
 " If the Objector is nothing, then the objection is 
 nothing ; and Nothing can be the author of an objec- 
 tion, which is an absurdity. Perhaps the best proof 
 that can be given that every human being really 
 exists, is that every human being who really thinks 
 on the subject is firmly persuaded of the fact. IT is 
 
 AN INNATE CONVICTION AS IRRESISTIBLE AS IT IS 
 
 UNIVERSAL. Even those who pretend to doubt it 
 only prove themselves to be pretenders : for how is it 
 possible to believe in a proof furnished by reasoning 
 on assumed premises, if they cannot believe a self- 
 evident proposition too obvious to need a proof, and 
 too simple to be established by a syllogism ? Again : 
 how could these doubters believe in the result of a 
 syllogism, without first believing in the existence of 
 the entity which at once originates the syllogism, and 
 is the subject of the doubt ? A BELIEF IN THE 
 
 POTENCY OF THEIR OWN REASON, IS A BELIEF IN 
 
 THEIR OWN EXISTENCE. We are conscious of the fact, 
 
 F
 
 66 THE ALPHA. [PARTI. 
 
 and this Consciousness is knowledge ; the Mind, or 
 Soul, KNOWS that it exists. Just now this same 
 Objector denied the trustworthiness of Reason ; yet 
 he has again had recourse to something, which, were 
 I to designate by any other name than Reason, 
 would be a discourtesy which I am desirous to 
 avoid." 
 
 DULL bowed his acknowledgments ; and, after a 
 brief pause, DIONYSIUS proceeded with his discourse. 
 He said : 
 
 " We have now established two preliminaries : 
 
 First, that there is such a thing as SIMPLE PER- 
 CEPTION, by which we ascertain the positive existence 
 of individual facts : and, 
 
 Secondly, that there is such a thing as COMPLEX 
 PERCEPTION, or REASON, by which we can compare 
 individual facts, and thence arrive at the knowledge 
 of an endless series of truths beyond them. 
 
 " I will now explain what I mean by Philosophy, 
 which, it will be seen, is the basis of Religion. 
 
 " Truth is the basis of Philosophy ; because false 
 convictions induce erroneous sentiments and acts, 
 which necessarily result in Evil. 
 
 " PHILOSOPHY is, therefore, a systemized body of 
 true facts, which, producing right inferential convic- 
 tions or sentiments, and right actions, results in 
 mental elevation and real happiness. 
 
 " RELIGION consists in right sentiments towards 
 the Deity, and in right actions : therefore Truth, 
 which is Philosophy, is the basis of Religion. The
 
 f'HAp. v.i THE ALPHA. 07 
 
 relation between Philosophy and Religion is that of 
 Cause and Effect : thus, 
 
 PHILOSOPHY is SYSTEMIZED TRUTH : 
 
 RELIGION, THE SENTIMENTS AND ACTIONS THENCE 
 RESULTING. 
 
 " The next step in our inquiry is to find an uner- 
 ring guide to Truth. Let us ask ourselves, therefore* 
 
 " WHAT IS TRUTH ? 
 
 " It is evident that Truth may have reference to 
 the works of the Deity, or to the labours of Man. 
 The false facts which result from erroneous reasoning 
 are inimical to Philosophy, and are the source of all 
 Evil. Those which, whether directly or indirectly, 
 are traceable to the will and nature of the Deity, can 
 alone appertain to Philosophy. As a starting-point, 
 therefore, let us take as axioms the following pro- 
 positions : 
 
 " First, THAT WHICH IS POSSIBLE IS TRUE. 
 
 " Secondly, THAT WHICH is IMPOSSIBLE is UNTRUE. 
 
 " Now, as, with the Deity, much more is possible 
 than is impossible, let us endeavour to arrive at 
 what is true by ascertaining what is false. It is clear 
 that, 
 
 " WHATEVER is INCONSISTENT WITH THE TRUE 
 NATURE OF DEITY, (which we shall presently per- 
 ceive to be INFINITE, PRESCIENT, ERRORLESS 
 INTELLIGENCE,) is MANIFESTLY IMPOSSIBLE, 
 
 AND, THEREFORE, MANIFESTLY UNTRUE. 
 
 " Eirst, then, IT is IMPOSSIBLE THAT THE ALL-PRE- 
 
 r 2
 
 68 THE ALPHA. [PAHTI. 
 
 SCIENT DETTY SHOULD EVER CHANGE HIS INTENTIONS, 
 OR ALTER OR SUSPEND HIS LAWS FOR THE ACCOM- 
 PLISHMENT OF ANY NEW PLAN OR PURPOSE, BECAUSE 
 IT IS IMPOSSIBLE THAT ANYTHING SHOULD HAVE BEEN 
 
 UNFORESEEN, OR LEFT UNPROVIDED FOR. Any aSSUIUp- 
 
 tion, therefore, which presupposes such change of 
 will, or alteration or suspension of his Laws, implies 
 FALLIBILITY in a Being who is infallible, IMPERFEC- 
 TION in a Being who is necessarily perfect, and a 
 WANT OF FORESIGHT in a Being who is necessarily pre- 
 scient : ALL WHICH IS IMPOSSIBLE, AND HENCE UNTRUE. 
 
 " Secondly, IT is IMPOSSIBLE THAT THE DEITY 
 
 CAN BE PARTIAL, OR UNJUST, OR CRUEL, OR REVENGE- 
 FUL. Any assumption which presupposes partiality, 
 injustice, cruelty, revenge, or any other quality, dis- 
 position, or power that is derogatory in its nature, 
 implies IMPERFECTION in the Deity ; WHICH BECAUSE 
 
 IT IS IMPOSSIBLE, IS MANIFESTLY UNTRUE. 
 
 Thirdly, IT is IMPOSSIBLE THAT ANY WORK OR 
 
 CLASS OF WORKS OF THE DEITY SHOULD BE EITHER 
 
 PURPOSELESS OR IMPERFECT ; because the assumption 
 presupposes LEVITY AND INCAPACITY in their author, 
 
 WHICH IS IMPOSSIBLE ; THEREFORE, ANY ACT, INFER- 
 ENCE, OR OPINION, BASED ON SUCH AN ASSUMPTION, 
 IS ERRONEOUS AND UNTRUE. 
 
 " Lastly, IT is IMPOSSIBLE THAT ANY WORK OR 
 
 CLASS OF WORKS OF THE DEITY SHOULD NOT CONTAIN 
 WITHIN ITSELF A PRINCIPLE BY WHICH, IN ALL 
 THE INDIVIDUALS COMPOSING IT, THE TRUE PURPOSE 
 OF ITS EXISTENCE CAN BE FULLY ACCOMPLISHED ;
 
 CH.AP. V.] THE ALPHA. C9 
 
 because, without such a principle, the work would be 
 imperfect, and the purpose unattained. THIS is 
 
 MANIFESTLY IMPOSSIBLE ; HENCE, ANY THOUGHT, SEN- 
 TIMENT, OR INFERENCE, DRAWN FROM SUCH ASSUMP- 
 TION, IS FALSE; AND EVERY ACTION THENCE ENSUING, 
 IS ERRONEOUS, AND PROLIFIC OF EviL. 
 
 " It follows, then, that IN MAN HIMSELF must we 
 seek for the PRINCIPLE of his being ; THAT PRINCIPLE 
 
 WHICH ENSURES, OR WHICH HAS THE INHERENT ABILITY 
 TO ENSURE, THE PERFECTIBILITY OF THE PURPOSE FOR 
 WHICH HE WAS CREATED. 
 
 " If we succeed in discovering this principle, we 
 shall perceive, indubitably, first, 
 " WHAT MAN is ; 
 " And, secondly, 
 
 " THE END TOWARDS WHICH ALL HIS ENERGIES 
 SHOULD BE DIRECTED. 
 
 " WHAT is GOOD, AND WHAT is EVIL, WHAT is 
 RIGHT, AND WHAT is WRONG, WHAT WE OUGHT TO 
 
 KNOW, AND WHAT WE OUGHT TO DO, WILL BE REVEALED 
 TO US AT A GLANCE. 
 
 " Knowing the Principle which governs our being, 
 to predicate with certainty concerning all the latent 
 truths beyond it will be within the reach of our 
 Reason also. The Deity has thus frequently revealed 
 himself to men. INDEED, EVERY CREATED SOUL is 
 ITSELF A REVELATION. Some flashes of these inspired 
 rcvealings have been recorded; and GOD HAS SPOKEN, 
 whilst Sages, and Poets, and Prophets, have held the 
 pen.
 
 70 THE ALPHA. t pART ' 
 
 " By the living light of the principle we are in 
 search of, we shall be able to separate these flashes 
 of Truth, wheresoever we may find them, from the 
 erroneous ravings and falsehood by which they are 
 surrounded. To know what Man is, is to be in pos- 
 session of the most comprehensive system of Truth ; 
 AND THIS is PHILOSOPHY, THIS is REVELATION. 
 
 " Man is, therefore, the author, the Object, and, 
 to a great extent, the Subject, of all Philosophy. 
 
 " Almost the only great Maxim we have derived 
 from the recorded philosophy of the world, and to 
 which the Principle we are in search of is the key, is 
 the all-important one, ' KNOW THYSELF.' The 
 attainment of this knowledge is as easy as it is mo- 
 mentous : a single sentence will solve this hitherto 
 unsolved enigma. 
 
 " Truth may have reference to all existences, ma- 
 terial or immaterial : take, for example, the proposi- 
 tion, ' I AM CONSCIOUS OF MY EXISTENCE.' This is 
 
 a double truth. It means, I am conscious of the 
 existence of my body ; and I am conscious of the 
 existence of my consciousness. I perceive also that 
 my consciousness is an INTELLIGENT consciousness ; 
 for, if I abstract Intelligence therefrom, nothing re- 
 mains. CONSCIOUSNESS is, THEREFORE, INTELLI- 
 GENCE ; AND INTELLIGENCE is THE FIRST PRINCIPLE 
 OF SOUL, OR THE SOUL ITSELF : for, abstract the 
 entity, Intelligence, from your idea of Soul, and ALL 
 
 HAS BEEN ABSTRACTED : NOTHING REMAINS. 
 
 " My body is resolvable into parts or elements ; in
 
 CHAP. V.] THE ALPHA. 71 
 
 other words, it is material ; but my Consciousness, 
 my Intelligence, my Soul, is incapable of subdivision, 
 or decay, or change, or loss ; in other words, it is 
 immaterial, or spiritual. By the term Intelligence I 
 do not here mean knowledge ; but the entity which 
 is its recipient the INTELLIGENT PRINCIPLE. It is, 
 therefore, true that, in my present state of existence, 
 I am endued with two natures ; one of which is 
 subject to the change we call death ; the other, in- 
 capable of any structural change ; but capable of 
 adding to itself by its inherent power to comprehend 
 the nature, qualities, and capabilities of all created 
 things ; which comprehension signifies, in effect, THE 
 
 HE-CONVERSION OF ALL MATERIAL EXISTENCES INTO 
 
 TRUE IDEAS ; and these ideas being immaterial, all 
 material things so converted, really and truly become 
 an indivisible portion of the immaterial Conscious- 
 ness; a permanent addition to the First Principle, 
 and the only means by which the soul can make 
 progress towards perfection. 
 
 " THIS FIRST PRINCIPLE is INTELLIGENCE. IT IS 
 THE FIRST PRINCIPLE OF ALL THINGS. 
 Without Intelligence there could be no Universe, no 
 Creature, no Creator. Without Intelligence there 
 could be no Will : without Will there could be no 
 Cause : without Cause there could be no Effect : 
 without Effect there could be no MATERIAL ENTITY : 
 hence, every material entity is spiritual in its origin ; 
 the result of a prior Intelligence. Therefore, the 
 universe, which is a material entity, is the effect of a
 
 72 THE ALPHA. [^T I. 
 
 prior Cause ; the Cause, of a prior Will ; and the 
 Will, of a prior Intelligence; and, out of a prior 
 Idea Divine Intelligence willed the Universe : and 
 Man, the embryo Intelligence, has to resolve it back 
 again into an IDEA before he can arrive at the per- 
 fection of Conscious Intelligence, and begin to com- 
 prehend the greater power of Infinite, Prescient, 
 Intelligence, which is DEITY. 
 
 " Man, at the commencement of his conscious 
 existence, is at once an embryo Intelligence, and an 
 Animal. As an Animal he is endowed with animal 
 instincts ; which, as instincts, CANNOT ERR. As an 
 embryo Intelligence he is endued with a capability 
 of acquiring knowledge ; that is, of converting material 
 things into truthful, permanent, immaterial IDEAS. 
 He has no moral nature : no immoral nature : it is 
 simply intellectual ; for, apart from the influence of 
 his animal instincts (which, if inordinately indulged, 
 is a pernicious influence), and, apart also from all 
 erroneous conventional influences of society, his acts, 
 at any period of his existence, will be, of necessity, 
 the exact reflex of his acquired knowledge : hence, 
 because of this necessity, HIS ACTIONS, THOUGH THEY 
 
 MAY BE ERRONEOUS FROM A PAUCITY OF KNOWLEDGE, 
 
 CAN NEVER BE CRIMINAL. His soul, or spiritual por- 
 tion, is an Intelligent Principle, therefore, neither 
 moral nor immoral in its nature ; but purely and 
 simply intellectual. He may err through Ignorance ; 
 and if he errs he suffers ; but his sufferings are not 
 in the nature of penalties inflicted as for a crime ; but
 
 CHAP, v.] THE ALPHA. 73 
 
 kindly warnings that his course is wrong and needs 
 amendment, and that he is too ignorant to be happy. 
 
 " To guard against any error in our reasonings, 
 and that we may the more thoroughly comprehend 
 this important subject, it will be useful to take a retro- 
 spective survey of the positions we have assumed, and 
 in part established. We have seen 
 
 " THAT A HUMAN BEING is, MENTALLY, AN EMBRYO 
 INTELLIGENCE, INCAPABLE OF CRIME, BUT LIABLE TO 
 ERROR : 
 
 " THAT, APART FROM THE INFLUENCES TO WHICH HE 
 MAY BE EITHER ANIMALLY OR CONVENTIONALLY SUB- 
 JECT, HIS ERRORS ARE ALWAYS IN THE EXACT RATIO 
 OF HIS IGNORANCE : 
 
 " THAT HIS BUSINESS AS AN INTELLECTUAL CREATURE 
 IS TO ACQUIRE KNOWLEDGE, THE ROOT OF WHICH IS 
 SELF-KNOWLEDGE : 
 
 " THAT KNOWLEDGE CONSISTS OF TRUE FACTS AND 
 JUST INFERENCES DERIVED AND DERIVABLE FROM ALL 
 THE WORKS OF THE DEITY : 
 
 " THAT, OF THE TRUTH OF THESE FACTS, FIRST DIS- 
 CARDING AS UNTRUTH WHATEVER IS IMPOSSIBLE, OR 
 
 INCONSISTENT WITH THE INHERENT NATURE OF THE 
 DEITY, AND THE IMMUTABILITY OF HIS LAWS REASON 
 IS THE SOLE ARBITER AND JUDGE : 
 
 " THAT REASON is COMPLEX PERCEPTION : 
 " THAT SIMPLE PERCEPTION is CONSCIOUSNESS : 
 " THAT CONSCIOUSNESS is AN INTELLIGENT PRIN- 
 CIPLE, OR SOUL : 
 
 " THAT THE INTELLIGENT PRINCIPLE is THE FIRST
 
 74 THE ALPHA. [PAET I. 
 
 PRINCIPLE OF WHAT is CALLED THE HUMAN MIND: 
 and 
 
 " THAT THE SOUL OF THE WORLD is PRESCIENT, OR 
 CREATIVE INTELLIGENCE, WHICH is THE FIRST PRIN- 
 CIPLE OF ALL THINGS ; THE GREAT FlRST CAUSE ; THE 
 SPIRITUAL, ERRORLESS, INFINITE, UNIVERSAL GOD ; IN 
 
 ONE WORD, THE DEITY. 
 
 " Let these propositions stand as Axioms to be 
 more fully proved as we proceed. 
 
 " IF THEY ARE TRUE, the two First Principles to 
 which they have conducted us are also true ; and 
 being true (inasmuch as that every Effect must be 
 consistent with its Cause), they will reconcile all 
 anomalies, and explain everything : for IF THEY SHOULD 
 
 BE FOUND TO BE INCAPABLE OF THIS, THEY ARE NOT 
 TRUE. 
 
 " A severer test of their truth cannot be applied to 
 them ; and with a test less severe we ought not to 
 be satisfied. 
 
 " Assuming them to be true, we have a clear con- 
 ception of the First Principle of all things. Not only 
 do we know that this First Principle is Deity ; but 
 we perceive that Deity is Intelligence, Prescient, In- 
 finite, and Eternal; because (as we shall see here- 
 after) all power is reducible into it, and beyond it 
 there is nothing : thus the very nature of the Deity 
 is rendered comprehensible. Through the known we 
 arrive at the unknown. FROM THE NATURE OF 
 THE ALMIGHTY CREATOR OF ALL THINGS WE PREDI-
 
 CHAP v.i THE ALPHA. 75 
 
 CATE HIS WILL, AND THENCE ARRIVE AT A GENERAL 
 COMPREHENSION OF HIS PURPOSES. 
 
 " We have also a clear conception of the First 
 Principle of Mind : we have seen that it is Perci- 
 pient, or Conscious Intelligence : THUS, WE KNOW 
 
 WHAT MAN IS ; AND FROM HIS NATURE WE TRACE HIS 
 RELATIONSHIP TO DEITY, AND PREDICATE THE PUR- 
 POSE OF HIS BEING." 
 
 Here, methought, the sitting of the Assembly 
 closed, and that the reverberation of the last words 
 of the speaker crept lingeringly along the vaulted 
 aisles until it changed into the most thrilling music. 
 Mysteriously it grew in power until it filled the whole 
 arena. The assembled thousands breathed vocal air 
 and fed on melody, into which all but myself insen- 
 sibly dissolved, and Music reigned there alone. But, 
 anon, velvet-footed Silence drank up the melody ; 
 and then, delirious with the intoxicating draught, 
 lay down and slept. How absolute is the Soul in 
 dreams ! Unwilling to awake the slumberer, I slept 
 too, and dreamed an interdream ; from which when 
 I awoke, all, as it had been, was again ; the speaker, 
 and the auditory, and the place ; and thus, methought 
 the discourse of Dionysius was continued.
 
 76 THE ALPHA. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE VISION CONTINUED. 
 
 " IT did not appear to have been remarked, at any 
 rate it was not objected to, at our last sitting, that I 
 contended for, and in part proved, the existence of 
 Two FIRST PRINCIPLES. This is contrary to the 
 received opinion of A FIRST CAUSE, OR ONLY GOD, 
 and contrary also to the absolute fact ; but still true 
 in a sense which I will now proceed to explain to 
 you. 
 
 " THE DEITY, or to reduce what to many is a com- 
 plex term into a simple idea or element, INFINITE 
 INTELLIGENCE, is the First Principle, or Great First 
 Cause of all things, including, of course, Man, and 
 the soul of Man, 
 
 " Whenever we conceive of an act we are obliged 
 to conceive of a prior intention or Will in the Actor. 
 It is impossible for anything but Intelligence to have 
 or to exercise a will. Whether we conceive of Will 
 as a Quality of Intelligence, or simply as a Mode, or 
 State of being, is of no consequence. Intelligence 
 has a will, and nothing but Intelligence can have a 
 will. 
 
 " By the simple exercise of Will (of course prior 
 to the act and prescient of all its consequences)
 
 CHAP vi.] THE ALPHA. 77 
 
 Infinite Intelligence willed the existence of all things, 
 gave them their distinctive characters and nature, 
 and enacted the laws by which all are for ever 
 regulated. 
 
 " To Man, however, He added an Intelligent Prin- 
 ciple, or Soul. Of the Intelligent Principle thus 
 bestowed, Will is a necessary consequence -. in other 
 words, it is a Mode or Quality which is part of its 
 nature, and inheres to it of necessity, just as form 
 inheres or pertains to substance. This Will, which 
 is one with the principle, could not have been be- 
 stowed for any other purpose than to be exercised, 
 and exercised, too, for the ultimate perfection of the 
 being to whom it was freely given. If it had not 
 been intended to be used it could not have been 
 given. To suppose otherwise is to attribute levity 
 to Deity, which is impossible. It follows, therefore, 
 that, having been bestowed, it was bestowed for a 
 purpose, and its recipient has necessarily free liberty 
 to use it. He has, besides, intuitive yearnings for 
 things unattainable except through the activity of the 
 principle to which this Will inheres. We perceive, 
 therefore, that Man having been endowed with the 
 Intelligent Principle, has of necessity a Will ; and 
 from the first dawn of this principle in infancy to the 
 termination of his mortal life, Man, the individual, 
 and Man the species, is continually exercising his 
 Will either for Evil or for Good. 
 
 "The influence of the human Will is limited to 
 the Earth, and is further circumscribed by the Laws
 
 78 THE ALPHA. [I'ART I. 
 
 to which as an animal Man is subject. WITHIN THIS 
 
 CIRCLE HE IS ABSOLUTE : HE IS NOT TO SPEAK IT 
 
 IRREVERENTLY, A LITTLE DEITY. 
 
 " Thus we have THE FIRST PRINCIPLE, Infinite, 
 or Prescient Intelligence, whose Will is limitless, or 
 limited only by impossibility ; and A FIRST PRIN- 
 CIPLE, which is finite, Percipient Intelligence, whose 
 Will is circumscribed by its finite power, and by the 
 Laws to which the will of the Deity has rendered it 
 subject. 
 
 "THE FIRST PRINCIPLE is, BY THE EXERCISE OF 
 ITS WILL, THE GREAT FIRST CAUSE OF ALL THINGS ; 
 WHILST THE INTELLIGENT PRINCIPLE ACCORDED TO 
 MAN, IS, BY THE EXERCISE OF ITS WlLL, THE FlRST 
 CAUSE OF ALL THE FINITE CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH 
 INFLUENCE HIS CONDITION ON THE EARTH. 
 
 Thus, therefore, notwithstanding that the Intelli- 
 gent Principle in Man, in common with every other 
 existence in the universe, owes its existence to THE 
 GREAT FIRST CAUSE, or DEITY ; within the circle 
 accorded to Human influence, Man, by means of his 
 Intelligence, is permitted to be the cause or creator of 
 his own Institutions (moral, civil, religious, and poli- 
 tical} ; to have the care of his oivn existence ; the 
 cultivation or abandonment of his own Intellect ; and 
 the working out of his own perfectibility and happiness: 
 but, compared with what his Intelligence is capable 
 of accomplishing, what has he done ! 
 
 " IT IS WITHIN THIS CIRCLE THAT GOOD AND EviL 
 
 HAVE THEIR BEING. Man is the author of the Evil ;
 
 CHAP. VT.i THE ALPHA. 79 
 
 and the existence of the Evil causes the recognition 
 of the Good. Not that all is Evil which he denomi- 
 nates Evil, or that all is Good which he denominates 
 Good ; but here, and by his own acts, those circum- 
 stances have their origin to which he ignorantly 
 attaches these hitherto undefinable appellations. Here, 
 too, all Vice is created; hence the Virtues and the 
 Moralities. Here wickedness has its natural home ; 
 hence Religion, and Civil Government, and Law : and 
 Man is the Author of them all : and all of them are 
 Evils ! 
 
 " To bemoan these Evils is no part of the business 
 of Philosophy ; nor to think it has touched the very 
 summit of human wisdom, by persuading men to 
 bear them. If Philosophy is to be of any greater 
 value to the world than ' swords in dead men's hands, 
 or lamps in sepulchres,' it must teach mankind the 
 way of their avoidance. 
 
 " Whether, then, the Intelligent Principle in Man 
 be viewed as a Eirst Principle, or as a secondary one 
 (which it is), the results, as regards our inquiry, are 
 the same. THE WILL WHICH INHERES TO OUR IN- 
 TELLIGENCE is EREE. The objects of our happiness, 
 and the means for its attainment, are left to our own 
 free choice, but we have erred in the selection. NOT, 
 
 THEN, BY THE PARTIALITY OF HEAVEN, BUT BY THE 
 SELF-IGNORANCE AND FOLLY OF MAN IS SUPERIORITY 
 AND DOMINION, AND POWER CONFERRED ON A FEW. 
 
 It is because we have chosen as our Chief Good the 
 things which physical prowess can have by fighting for,
 
 SO THE ALPHA. H'AUTI. 
 
 and hold by means of force, that there is strife and 
 contention amongst us that there are Victors and 
 Vanquished, Masters, Servants, Sovereigns, Subjects, 
 Slaves, WHEN THE WEAK GROW WISE THEY WILL 
 CHANGE THEIR TACTICS, SHIFT THEIR BATTLE-GROUND, 
 AND FIX ON A PRIZE TO STRUGGLE FOR, WHICH HAS 
 HEAVEN'S OWN SANCTION FOR THE WINNING, AND 
 WHICH ALL MAY WIN ! 
 
 " All our miseries are of our own making. All real 
 Evils are our own handiwork. But natural difficulties 
 are not evils ; nor, in the abstract, is Ignorance an 
 evil, but a good. It is the natural and necessary 
 difficulty which must be surmounted before we can be 
 happy. The first and chief difficulty is self-know- 
 ledge : for so long as we are ignorant of ourselves we 
 but grope our way without an object, and vainly wage 
 war with difficulties in the dark. THE WORK OF ' RE- 
 DEMPTION ' MUST BE OUR OWN WORK : NO MAN CAN 
 SHIFT THIS LABOUR ON ANOTHER. HEAVEN WILL 
 NOT VOUCHSAFE ANY MIRACULOUS INTERPOSITION TO 
 HELP US, NOR DO WE NEED THE AID. Deem not 
 
 that there is any irreverence in this : Intelligence is 
 capable of its appointed work. God gave the Intelli- 
 gence to do the work. ' Shall not the " Judge" of all 
 the earth do right ?' Its work is the acquisition of 
 knowledge, which is its Happiness, its Heaven. But 
 the highest heaven of its felicity is only to be reached 
 through self-knowledge, which shoAvs us what we are, 
 and all we might be : then selfishness ceases, and 
 knowledge terminates in Love.
 
 CHAP. VI.] THE ALPHA. 81 
 
 CC WE PERCEIVE, THEREFORE, THAT INTELLIGENCE, 
 NAMELY, THE INTELLIGENT PRINCIPLE, IS THE FlRST 
 
 PRINCIPLE OF THE HUMAN MIND. ALL THAT THIS 
 PRINCIPLE IS CAPABLE OF IS KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 "Through the sensorimn, or physical organs of 
 sense, it becomes conscious of Facts. IT CAN KNOW 
 THEM. By comparing individual facts with each other, 
 by observing the relation one fact bears to another, 
 and deducing inferences therefrom which is to Rea- 
 son it becomes conscious of other Facts. THESE 
 NEW FACTS THE INTELLIGENT PRINCIPLE 
 CAN KNOW. 
 
 " From things seen it can predicate of things not 
 'seen : and if it reason correctly, and on true facts, 
 again it becomes conscious of a further series of facts : 
 and these facts IT CAN KNOW. They are facts 
 which the physical eye cannot see, but which the In- 
 telligence, or Soul, CAN SEE, CAN COMPRE- 
 HEND, CAN KNOW. Hence, ALL THAT THE 
 SOUL IS CAPABLE OF IS KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 " Out of this knowledge comes the physical capa- 
 bility to DO all that dual-natured Man can do. BUT, 
 
 WHATEVER IT ENABLES HIM TO WISH FOR, TO ASPIRE 
 TO, OR TO DO, HIS KNOWLEDGE IS STILL KNOW- 
 LEDGE AND NOTHING ELSE. It is not Morality : it is 
 not Virtue ; it is not Religion : though, if his acts be 
 such as are conventionally deemed Moral, Virtuous, or 
 Religious, they are the natural results of his know- 
 ledge ; or of habit, or of convictions, whether wrong or 
 right, which stand him in the stead of knowledge.
 
 82 THE ALPHA. [PAET I. 
 
 Without the knowledge they are nonentities : with the 
 knowledge they are only names which designate re- 
 sults. They are mere conventional terms, neither 
 more nor less ; but the actions or feelings they repre- 
 sent are the results of knowledge, or of educational 
 habits and convictions, which, as they are believed to 
 be right, have all the force of knowledge. Say the act 
 called virtuous springs from REAL KNOWLEDGE, in 
 other words, from a right conviction ; the act is 
 necessarily good, VIRTUOUS IF YOU WILL ; BUT 
 THE VIRTUE IS THE KNOWLEDGE. The 
 name is a mere conventional designation of the act. 
 Call the same act vicious, if you please : no matter : 
 
 IT IS THE RESULT OF A RIGHT CONVICTION : IT 
 IS NOT CAUSED BY ANY VIRTUOUS OR VICIOUS EMOTION, 
 
 OR QUALITY OF MIND : it is simply the result of 
 knowledge. 
 
 " MAN IS NOT, THEREFORE, A MORAL BEING ; NOR 
 
 is HE A RELIGIOUS BEING : HE IS SIMPLY AN IN- 
 TELLIGENT, OR INTELLECTUAL BEING. 
 
 " If his knowledge enable him to comprehend his 
 relationship to the Deity, his Creator, a reverential 
 feeling of pious homage is the necessary result of the 
 conviction. Call this Religion, or give this act of 
 homage any other name ; no matter : it is the neces- 
 sary result of his knowledge. Without the Intelligence 
 or intellectual principle, there could have been no per- 
 ception, no act, no homage, no Religion : hence Man 
 is not a Religious being, neither is he a Moral being : 
 he is simply and solely an Intellectual being.
 
 CHAP. VI.] THE ALPHA. 83 
 
 " This is what Man is SPIRITUALLY ; and let Meta- 
 physicians and Moralists say what they will, SPIRITU- 
 ALLY HE IS NOTHING ELSE ; AND GREATER HE 
 NEED NOT BE. 
 
 " But as a dual-natured creature, during the period 
 of his physical life, he is also a gregarious or Social 
 being, and has to provide for his physical, as well as 
 for his spiritual wants : and if he had knowledge enough 
 to live consonantly with his higher nature, even in his 
 social relations his acts could not be either virtuous or 
 moral : they would be the natural and unavoidable 
 results of his knowledge. THE REAL MAN is THE 
 
 SPIRITUAL MAN, THE INTELLIGENT PRINCIPLE; AND 
 ALL IT CAN ADD TO ITSELF IS KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 " Having now a clear conception of the Intelligent 
 Principle in Man, the nature of which determines 
 the purpose of its being, let us proceed to examine 
 the nature and attributes of Deity. 
 
 " It is admitted, because it is impossible to deny, 
 that the Essence we denominate DEITY is the Primary 
 Principle of all things, or the great First Cause. 
 
 "Every act implies Intelligent Intention in the actor : 
 hence, that which we call Deity is Intelligent. It 
 must have existed prior to creation : hence, that which 
 we call Deity is Prescient. It must be as limitless in 
 its activity as the universe : hence, that which we call 
 Deity is Infinite : infinite in its power ; infinite in its 
 prescience ; infinite in its Intelligence or knowledge. 
 Therefore THE DEITY is INFINITE PRESCIENT INTEL- 
 LIGENCE ; OR, AN INTELLIGENT PRINCIPLE HAVING 
 
 G2
 
 84 THE ALPHA. [PART]. 
 
 INFINITE FORE-KNOWLEDGE. But as every act of 
 Intelligence implies prescience of the result, as well 
 as Power to produce it, our idea of Deity may be 
 further simplified by describing it as an Essence, or 
 Intelligent Principle, having Infinite Knowledge : or, 
 as an Essence whose Nature, Power, and Perfection, 
 consists in ite Knowledge. But as the Knowledge is 
 necessarily co-existent with the Essence, if not prior to 
 it, and superior to the Essence, because without the 
 knowledge the Essence were as nothing, we will take 
 the NATURE of Deity FOR the Deity, and describe the 
 Essence, which is one and indivisible with the Know- 
 ledge, by a term which comprehends all knowledge ; 
 that term is INFINITE INTELLIGENCE. 
 
 " The Primary cause, or Eirst Principle, of all things 
 is Intelligence. Whence it came, and how, is know- 
 ledge for another state : A KNOWLEDGE WHICH WE 
 SHALL ATTAIN TO, or the DESIRE to attain it had 
 
 not been implanted in our nature. Enough for us 
 
 now that we are conscious of its existence. We 
 
 know all that it is essential for us to know. We 
 
 have as thorough a comprehension of what the Deity is 
 
 as of what Man, is, or the Soul of Man. We know 
 
 as much of Spirit as we know of Matter. The 
 
 Essence of either is alike incomprehensible. 
 
 "By the aid of our physical senses we know that 
 Eorm and Ponderosity are essential qualities of Matter : 
 and by the aid of a Spiritual Sense, which is analo- 
 gous to intuition, we know that Knowledge is an 
 essential quality of the Intelligent Principle whether
 
 CHAP. IV.] THE ALPHA. OD 
 
 in Deity or in Man. We are as certain of the exist- 
 ence of this principle as we are of the existence of 
 the globe on which we live, or of the colour and 
 fragrance of the rose. 
 
 " Are Colours nothing ? is Fragrance nothing ? 
 To a man born blind and destitute of the sense of 
 smell they are as nothing : nor would it be possible 
 to convey to HIM the smallest notion of either, or to 
 afford him the slightest proof of their existence. But 
 without sensuous organs by which to perceive it, all 
 men are more or less conscious of the existence of 
 the intangible, inaudible, imponderous, odourless, and 
 viewless Soul. Whether it has any qualities analogous 
 to colour, ponderosity, and form, we know not ; and 
 yet we are certain of its existence : certain that it 
 thinks ; certain that it remembers ; certain that it has 
 a sense of happiness and misery ; and certain that it 
 gathers strength for immortality by feeding on Know- 
 ledge, which is as imponderous, as impalpable, as 
 shapeless, as immaterial as itself ! 
 
 " We attach no notion of Form, or of Colour, or 
 of Fragrance to the Ideas which represent Happiness, 
 and Hope ; yet, without any such aids, we no more 
 doubt of the existence of these mental Images, or of 
 their importance, or of their indestructibility, than we 
 doubt of the existence of the Birds that sing, we 
 know not why, above us ; or of the Flowers that 
 bloom, we know not how, beneath our feet. But the 
 Ideas of things that have colours, and forms, and 
 fragrance on the Earth, shall retain them, always to
 
 86 THE ALPHA. [PAST I. 
 
 the appreciation of our mental sense, and be our 
 blooming amaranths in Heaven. So also the beloved 
 forms of our acquaintances and friends, rendered 
 appreciable by the force and fulness of our know- 
 ledge, will necessarily remain with us for ever ! 
 
 " And although we do not now clearly comprehend 
 the essential form or Likeness of the Spiritual God ? 
 we yet can clearly comprehend its Soul or Nature, 
 which is Intelligence ; for its Attributes, as we shall pre- 
 sently see, add nothing to the Idea, because, in their 
 totality and perfection, the Attributes and the Entity 
 are One. 
 
 " Thinking men know this. Even Metaphysicians 
 have an inkling of the matter ; but Moralists have the 
 fact to learn. 
 
 "From PRESCIENCE, by which we mean infinite 
 fore-knowledge, if we abstract Intelligence, what re- 
 mains ? Assuredly Nothing ! 
 
 " Therefore PRESCIENCE is INFINITE INTELLIGENCE. 
 
 " From OMNIPOTENCE, by which we express all we 
 can conceive of Power, if we abstract Intelligence, 
 what remains ? Nothing ! 
 
 "Therefore OMNIPOTENCE is INFINITE INTELLIGENCE. 
 
 "By UBIQUITY we mean the faculty of being 
 present everywhere at the same time, the possibility 
 of which may be perceived by considering that to 
 know all things so intimately as to have created them, 
 is necessarily to be with and in all things by a simple 
 act of thought : if from Ubiquity we abstract Intel- 
 ligence what remains ? Again, Nothing !
 
 CHAP. VI.] THE ALPHA. 87 
 
 " Therefore UBIQUITY is INFINITE INTELLIGENCE. 
 
 " OMNISCIENCE is infinite Wisdom. Without the 
 Intelligence there could be no wisdom : 
 
 " Therefore OMNISCIENCE is INFINITE INTELLIGENCE. 
 
 "We will next suppose PERFECT JUSTICE, which 
 means neither more nor less than thinking correctly 
 on all subjects, and, (which is an inevitable conse- 
 quence,) doing right in all cases ; the Being, then, 
 that is perfectly Just must be Infinitely Intelligent ; 
 AND JUSTICE is ONLY ANOTHER NAME FOR INFINITE 
 INTELLIGENCE, OR DEITY. 
 
 " Suppose again PERFECT GOODNESS. A moment's 
 reflection shows us that this is only another name for 
 PERFECT JUSTICE, and consequently that IT is DEITY 
 OR DIVINE INTELLIGENCE. 
 
 " All Attributes of Deity are but Synonymes of 
 Deity, because ah 1 are resolvable into Infinite In- 
 telligence. 
 
 " To Prescience, Omniscience, Omnipotence, and 
 Ubiquity, Man docs not presume to put forward any 
 pretensions. We shall see that he has just as little 
 right to lay claim to the others. 
 
 " Take Justice, Goodness, Benevolence, Mercy, 
 Truth : add the OMNI which alone can make them 
 applicable to Deity, and the identity of each is lost in 
 the Infinite Intelligence which renders them absolute ; 
 and which, by rendering them absolute, deprives 
 them of existence : for we have but to suppose them 
 to be perfect to perceive that, as attributes, they arc 
 nothing.
 
 88 THE ALPHA. [PARTI. 
 
 " Reduced to their primaries, therefore : 
 
 " PRESCIENCE is not Prescience, but Infinite Intel- 
 ligence. 
 
 " OMNISCIENCE is not Omniscience, but Infinite 
 Intelligence. 
 
 " UBIQUITY is not Ubiquity, but Infinite Intelli- 
 gence. 
 
 " OMNIPOTENCE is not Omnipotence, but Infinite 
 Intelligence. 
 
 " So, JUSTICE, BENEVOLENCE, GOODNESS, MERCY, 
 TRUTH, are not Justice, Benevolence, Goodness, 
 Mercy, Truth, but each, and all of them, are Infinite 
 Intelligence ; and as Intelligence is nothing but In- 
 telligence, these Attributes, as attributes, are nothing. 
 
 We perceive also that RELATIVE OR IMPERFECT 
 JUSTICE is not Justice ; and that RELATIVE OR IM- 
 PERFECT GOODNESS is not Goodness ; and so of the 
 others : it follows, therefore, that, either way, the 
 whole of these terms are the representatives of no- 
 thing. They are misnomers when applied to the 
 manifestations of imperfect knowledge, and super- 
 fluous when applied to Deity : hence Man who 
 necessarily lacks the perfection of knowledge, cannot 
 be Just or Good any more than he can be ubiquitous 
 or omnipotent. He can however be relatively In- 
 telligent : and, considering relative Intelligence to be 
 relative Justice, or Goodness, he can be relatively 
 Just, or Good. 
 
 " To the extent of his knowledge, he can also think 
 correctly, and do right : and to the extent of his
 
 CHAP. VI.] THE ALPHA. 89 
 
 ability to do right will he attain the object of his 
 existence, and be happy. 
 
 " Nor is it possible to conceive how the Creator 
 could have bestowed Happiness on the Creature but 
 by creating him ignorant, that through the unhappi- 
 ness which flows from Ignorance, he might, by the 
 contrast, be able to appreciate the felicity which 
 Knowledge alone can give. 
 
 " It will be seen that in our list of Attributes we 
 have included MERCY. Mercy is, however, altogether 
 human. We are obliged to suppose the existence of 
 ' SIN' and CRIME before Mercy has any conceivable 
 function. Sin (which in the language of what is 
 called Religion is crime committed against God), is 
 an impossibility : for Ignorance does not sin ; and 
 Knowledge cannot sin. Ignorance does not sin, and 
 cannot sin, just as Darkness, which must always be 
 darkness, cannot have the illuminating properties of 
 Light : and Knowledge cannot sin, just as Light 
 cannot subsist without the quality of illumination. 
 Ignorance ERRS and SUFFERS ; but Error, in the 
 sight of Him who knows that Ignorance must err, is 
 not punishable Sin. Nor, on the contrary, is the 
 natural consequence of Knowledge rewardable Virtue. 
 I mean that Error is not punished as obduracy against 
 God ; nor right actions rewarded as acts of obedience 
 and homage towards the Deity : for to suppose either, 
 is to entertain a multitude of absurdities, which only 
 the most besotted Ignorance CAN enter lain, in reference 
 to the DEITY.
 
 90 THE ALPHA. [PAUX I. 
 
 " In A SENSE, however, and that a most benefi- 
 cent one, Error is punished; and Virtue (I mean 
 the natural result of knowledge) is rewarded. Error 
 is made to suffer on its own account, and, for its own 
 advantage ; namely, that it might get Knowledge, 
 avoid the consequences of error, and be happy : and 
 Knowledge is ' its own exceeding great reward :' it 
 does right ; in other words, it knows, and thence 
 enjoys. Thus much, therefore, for what mistaken 
 zealots call ' Sin ;' and in their Justice damn without 
 redemption ! 
 
 " Crime is sin committed against Society ; but 
 were Society Just there could be no crime : and 
 where there is neither Sin nor Crime there cannot be 
 either Vengeance or Mercy. 
 
 "Mercy is not, therefore, an Attribute of the 
 Deity ; but only one of those Virtues which Human 
 Ignorance has made necessary on Earth, and which, 
 progress in Knowledge alone, can ever enable us to 
 dispense with. 
 
 " TRUTH, as the faithful expression, or utterance, 
 of a conviction between man and man, is only another 
 name for Honesty, and is, therefore, one of the 
 Virtues ; and, like the others, will cease to be re- 
 garded as a virtue when men grow wise enough to 
 remove the artificial inducements to falsehood which 
 at present disgrace Society. 
 
 " The faithful utterance of a conviction, though it 
 chance to be an erroneous one, is Honesty ; but A 
 
 RIGHT CONVICTION, IS KNOWLEDGE.
 
 CHAP, vi.] THE ALPHA. 91 
 
 " In the first, or adjective sense, it is a non-entity, 
 an abstraction, which Falsehood, the product of 
 Ignorance, enables us to appreciate as a virtue. In 
 the other case it is an Entity, it is Knowledge ; 
 which when incorporated with the Intelligent Prin- 
 ciple in Man, adds, as it were, to its stature, secures 
 its individuality, becomes its happiness, and is the 
 only object of all true Philosophy. 
 
 " In either sense, to regard Truth as an Attribute 
 of the Deity is, at best, superfluous : for, as the 
 Deity cannot lie, to speak of his probity is needless ; 
 and to make Knowledge an Attribute of Knowledge, 
 though not more erroneous than to deem Omnipo- 
 tence an Attribute, will perhaps be regarded by 
 some minds as a clearer evidence of the absurdity. 
 
 " However homage-giving, and thence, however 
 right, it is in Man to add, in a reverential spirit, any 
 of these designations to the sacred name of his 
 Creator, in reality, the Deity has no Attributes. 
 Neither has Man. 
 
 " It follows as a corollary, that all the Qualities of 
 Mind which Metaphysicians anatomize and expound 
 with so much minuteness and appearance of wisdom, 
 are all mere modes of thought and action ; or the 
 simple manifestations of the Intelligent Principle, 
 under the pressure of the artificial circumstances 
 induced by Ignorance and Error. Such, and naught 
 else, are Justice, Benevolence, Probity, Mercy, Truth. 
 
 " The Passions have the same dark origin. Genius, 
 Fancy, Imagination, are also (in their integrity, not
 
 92 THE ALPHA. [PART I. 
 
 in their misdirection for worldly gain), the simple 
 manifestations of Intellect in quest of Knowledge. 
 
 "Again, Judgment is resolvable into Reason, and 
 Reason, into Perception ; whilst Perception is only 
 another name for Consciousness, and Consciousness, 
 another name for the Intelligent Principle, or Soul. 
 
 " We might, therefore, safely leave Metaphysics to 
 the Metaphysicians ; and their subtleties to the 
 Mystics (if such there be) to whom habit has rendered 
 darkness a source of satisfaction and dreamy joy. 
 Enough for us that we know that Deity is Intelli- 
 gence ; that the Intelligent Principle in Man is one 
 and indivisible; having one nature, which is Intel- 
 lectual; one object, which is Knowledge; and that 
 knowledge is its only real Happiness. 
 
 " For the greater satisfaction of those whose educa- 
 tion has been so neglected that they find it difficult 
 to perceive all the logical deductions which the 
 recognition of the First Principle opens up to minds 
 more disciplined and reflective, I purpose to avail 
 myself of any opportunity which may occur in these 
 discourses, to multiply proofs of the soul's immor- 
 tality : for, strange to say, the Immortality of the 
 Soul is as little believed in now as though a priest- 
 hood had never existed ! 
 
 " As one of these opportunities just now presents 
 itself I will detain you a brief space longer whilst I 
 point out some of the affinities which are perceptible 
 between the nature of Divine Intelligence,, and the 
 Intelligent Principle in Man. Both are real exist-
 
 CHAP. VI.] THE ALPHA. 93 
 
 ences ; both are Spiritual ; both are Intelligent ; 
 therefore, from a parity of reasoning, BOTH ARE 
 
 ETERNAL. 
 
 " Intelligence is an Entity without which the mate- 
 rial universe could not have been, or being, were as 
 nothing. It is impossible, therefore, that Intelligence 
 can perish. The human soul can comprehend these 
 truths. What, then, is the human soul ? Even the 
 most besotted Atheist must answer, ' Intelligence !' 
 Certain, therefore, of the identity of their nature, let 
 us see if there be not as striking a parity in their 
 manifestations. FROM A PRIOR IDEA GOD CREATED 
 THE UNIVERSE. FROM A PRIOR IDEA MILTON CRE- 
 ATED HIS COMUS ; ANGELO, HIS LAST JUDGMENT ; 
 SHAKSPERE, HIS HAMLET ; CERVANTES, HIS QUIX- 
 OTE ; PRAXITELES, HIS VENUS ; and MARSHALL, HIS 
 STATUE OF EVE. Humble as are these comparisons 
 they afford the most gratifying evidence of the 
 exalted parentage of the soul. 
 
 " Again, Divine Intelligence knows all the Past, 
 and fore-knows all the Future. So the Human Mind, 
 as far as it truly comprehends the Principle of Gravi- 
 tation, knows all the Past operations of the Law, and 
 fore-knows all the Future. A perfect fore-knowledge 
 of the results of any act appertains of necessity to 
 Infinite Intelligence, because, as THE POWER is coinci- 
 dent with THE WILL, the RESULTS must be coincident 
 with the INTENTION. 
 
 " In like manner, to the extent of its power over 
 the circumstances by which its intention is to be
 
 94 THE ALPHA. [PARTI. 
 
 accomplished, a similar fore-knowledge appertains to 
 the Intelligent Principle in Man. There is nothing 
 then, mysterious or incomprehensible in Prescience. 
 
 " EVEN IN THE MATTER OF UBIQUITY THERE IS 
 
 THE SAME RESEMBLANCE. God constructed every- 
 thing, and hence, knows everything however mighty 
 it is, or however inconceivably minute, and by an act 
 of thought is present with all at once. In like man- 
 ner, say, a Man has reared one handiwork of his own 
 contrivance on this spot ; others at the Antipodes : 
 were he afterwards an inhabitant of the Dog Star, by 
 a simple act of thought his Soul would instantly be 
 with them all ! and this the more completely, the 
 more thorough might be his intimacy with the details 
 of his work. These are puny comparisons, but they 
 prove the identity in nature between Deity and the 
 Human Soul. AND AS THE DEITY is NECESSARILY 
 ETERNAL, IT FOLLOWS THAT THE HUMAN SOUL is 
 NECESSARILY ETERNAL TOO. Our relationship with 
 Heaven is clear, and the purpose of our being, manifest. 
 " The Deity is Omni-Cognoscence, or, adjectively, 
 Omni-Cognoscent : the Human Soul is Mini-Cognos- 
 cence, or, adjectively, Mini-Cognoscent. The one has 
 ALL KNOWLEDGE, with a still unsatisfied DESIRE to 
 have an infinitude of Sharers in its knowledge. The 
 other has SOME KNOWLEDGE, with a still-increasing 
 DESIRE to work out the purpose of its existence, by 
 increasing its amount. Between the OMNI and the 
 MINI lies all the unspeakable difference. To di- 
 minish this difference is the only conceivable, nay, the
 
 CHAP. VI.] THE ALPHA. 95 
 
 only possible purpose of our being : and to obey the 
 promptings of the SOUL'S DESIRE, is the certain, and 
 withal, the only means, of its attainment. 
 
 " We have hitherto mistaken the object of this 
 Desire. It is not for the Gold which 'thieves may 
 steal and the moth corrupt,' that we have ceaseless 
 longings ; but for that Wealth, which, to have, entails 
 no poverty on our fellows, and, which to distribute, 
 however prodigally, amongst them, serves only to add 
 to our own possession. 
 
 " We have seen that ERROR is THE PROLIFIC 
 PARENT OF ALL EVIL, AND THE CAUSE OF THE 
 MANY HINDRANCES WE MEET WITH IN OUR PRO- 
 GRESS TOWARDS PERFECTION AND HAPPINESS. At 
 our next Sitting WE WILL TRACE ERROR TO ITS 
 
 SOURCE ; DISCOVER THE ORIGIN OF EVIL ; AND TAKE 
 THE FIRST SAFE STEP TOWARDS THE EXTERMI- 
 NATION OF HUMAN MISERY FROM THE WORLD FOR 
 EVER." 
 
 Dionysius ceased. Not so my Dream. The scene 
 had changed in an instant to the Spirit-world where, 
 in idea, all that had been, was. There methought the 
 Souls of Men were working out the problems that had 
 baffled them on Earth. Some were slowly finding out 
 how grasses grew ; others, discovering what Com- 
 bustion is, and Space, and Light, and Life, and, 
 Motion. What joy marked progress here ! Ear, far 
 from these methought I saw a group of tiny Souls that 
 had been Kings, and Queens, and Popes, and Em- 
 perors, puzzled to discover ' the difference between a
 
 96 THE ALPHA. [PABT I. 
 
 Sovereign and a Subject' : but no sign of joy gave 
 evidence of their progress ! not long enough seemed, 
 all eternity to solve this problem to their satisfaction. 
 I pitied them, and passed to a larger group beyond, 
 whose labours seemed as hopeless as the last. Their 
 problem was ' the difference between ignoble and 
 noble blood !' Near these were another knot, poring 
 over a problem of their own propounding, ' One is three, 
 and three are One.' Methought that after centuries 
 on centuries of hopeless labour, enlightenment began 
 to dawn upon these groups of self-deceivers ; and that 
 thenceforth Ignorance grew less a Hell ! Insensibly, 
 and after what seemed to be the lapse of many cen- 
 turies, this vision of the Spirit-world grew indistinct, 
 and faded. A consciousness of most delicious music 
 took its place : and as my Spirit yielded to its influ- 
 ence, the former phasis of my dream came back. 
 Again there was the same thronged Chapel, the same 
 countenances, the same mute attention ; and thus 
 the mysterious Dionysius again proceeded with his 
 discourse.
 
 CHAP. VII.] THE ALPHA. 97 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 THE VISION CONCLUDED. 
 
 " OUR last discourse was somewhat desultory. Let 
 us collect its purport. 
 
 " That we might know HOW to live it was neces- 
 sary to know WHY we live. This we discovered by 
 deducing the Purpose of the Deity from the Nature 
 of Deity ; and the Nature, from the evidences of 
 Design and Power exemplified in its works. 
 
 " To comprehend a work perfectly we must know 
 the Purpose for which it was designed or created. The 
 purpose for which the granite or the marble rock was 
 made, is not so perceptible as the purpose of the 
 Human Soul. If in the creation of the universe the 
 Deity had a PRIMARY PURPOSE, and if that purpose 
 was effected by the operations of A GENERAL LAW, it 
 is certain that some things exist from sheer necessity, 
 being the inevitable results of the Principle or Law 
 which had for its object some existence in particular. 
 Marble rocks, and thousands of other things, may, 
 and probably do exist as the consequences of such 
 necessity. 
 
 " Let me give you an example. A sculptor pro- 
 duces a statue out of a marble block. The statue is 
 the special object he has in view as the result of his 
 
 11
 
 98 THE ALPHA. [PAT I. 
 
 labours ; but chips and fragments which he did NOT 
 purpose by his labours exist from sheer necessity. 
 Nor are these fragments altogether useless ; for, 
 although he would not have reduced a block of 
 Parian marble into fragments to make a walk in his 
 garden, he converts them to this purpose because 
 they happen to be so convertible, and because when 
 so converted they have a use. So in Nature, myriads 
 of things might have an existence from sheer neces- 
 sity. They are accidents, but not useless accidents. 
 The universe would not have been created on their 
 account; but as they are necessary results, and, 
 withal, not useless ones, of the Law or principle which 
 had to be called into activity for the production of a 
 special object, they necessarily coexist with the 
 object whose existence was the special purpose of 
 the Law. 
 
 " If, then, we do not always discover from a na- 
 tural object (whether animate or inanimate,) a pur- 
 pose, capable of satisfying us that for such purpose it 
 was specially designed, we are safe in considering, 
 (besides making allowances for our ignorance,) that 
 it might be one of those things which exist of 
 necessity ; an accident which has its being out of 
 the circumstances by which another object has its 
 existence. 
 
 " Thus the Purpose of a granite rock, or the Upas 
 tree, or the Rattle-snake, or of myriads of creatures 
 that cover every inch of matter, if not of space, with 
 life, are not so easily comprehended as is the purpose
 
 CHAP. VIl.j THE ALPHA. 99 
 
 of the Soul of Man : and the whole of them may be 
 the necessary consequences of those general conditions 
 by which dual-natured humanity has its being. Man 
 has animal life ; and the conditions by which his ani- 
 mal life is secured to him, might be the reason, and 
 probably is the reason, that all other forms of animal 
 life have their existence. It is of no moment that some 
 of the lower animals preceded him in the order of time. 
 The existence of the lower animals, therefore, is pos- 
 sibly, an accident which the all-wise Architect of the 
 world has converted into secondary purposes that are 
 at once useful and beneficent. Of this we are 
 certain, that there is A PURPOSE, whether it be a 
 primary purpose, or only a minor one, IN THE EXIST- 
 ENCE OF ALL CREATED THINGS. 
 
 " Man is pre-eminently distinguished above every 
 other existence of which we have any knowledge or 
 conception. A Single Human Soul, inasmuch as it 
 thinks, and is endued with a nature analogous with 
 the nature of Deity itself, is a greater work than this 
 unconscious ball, the Earth, on which it came into 
 existence. Why, then, may not the existence of 
 countless Myriads of such Souls have been the Pri- 
 mary Purpose of the Deity in the creation of this 
 Earth ; nay, even in the creation of the Universe ? 
 But, be this as it may ; by having ascertained from 
 the Nature of the Deity, the Purpose of the Deity in 
 respect to Man ; and from the Nature of the Human 
 Soul, the only purpose its existence can possibly 
 subserve, we have discovered infallibly, first, what
 
 100 THE ALPHA. [PARTI. 
 
 Man is, secondly, why he is, and, thirdly, why he is 
 what he is ; and from this knowledge we have no 
 difficulty in discovering HOW HE OUGHT TO LIVE, so 
 as to become what he was meant to become, and 
 has had the free choice of means given to him of 
 becoming. 
 
 " We have seen that Man is, spiritually, an Intel- 
 lectual Being conjoined to an organized material body, 
 and so conjoined, that he might, through toil and 
 difficulty, acquire the rudiments of knowledge ; 
 which knowledge, and the difficulties attendant on 
 its acquisition, we have seen to be the appointed 
 means through which alone his Happiness is attain- 
 able. As the Purposes of his Creator are necessarily 
 beneficent ; and as the Human Soul is incapable of 
 any other acquisition than Knowledge and its attend- 
 ant felicity, the ultimate attainment of this Happiness 
 is perceived to be the only possible purpose of the 
 Deity in the creation of the Human Family. 
 
 " Innumerable evils have marked the track of 
 Humanity hitherto : they have transformed the Earth 
 into the abiding-place of misery ; and degraded God- 
 like creatures into fiends. And why ? Because, 
 ignorant of their true nature, the most enlightened 
 speculations of mankind have been raised on guesses, 
 and propagated with a ferocity proportioned to their 
 falsehood : and because, ignorant of the true pur- 
 pose of human existence, the efforts, even of the 
 most conscientious of our teachers, have been one 
 long, disheartening tissue of mistakes. OUR BLIND
 
 CHAP. VII.) THE ALPHA. 101 
 
 FAITH IN BLIND LEADERS who feeling something 
 
 of the God within them, have assumed the God 
 
 HAVE EGREGIOUSLY DECEIVED us. But when each man 
 knows himself, he will have confidence in himself, and 
 trust no other leader. 
 
 "We have seen that a human being does not ' Sin.' 
 We have seen that Crime is law-made or conventional, 
 and, therefore, not necessarily wrong. We have seen 
 that whatever is Right, whether in sentiment or 
 action, is the result of a right conviction ; and that 
 whatever is Wrong is the result of an erroneous, or 
 a wrong conviction : and from these most important 
 facts we have deduced the following axiom ; namely, 
 that THE ERRORS OF MANKIND ARE ALWAYS IN THE 
 
 EXACT RATIO OF THEIR IGNORANCE. 
 
 " Error is the primary cause of all the Evil that is 
 done, and of nearly all the Evil that is suffered, by 
 humanity : but it will be perceived that, philoso- 
 phically, Ignorance, which is a pure Negation, is not 
 the cause of Error. ERROR is THE RESULT OF A 
 
 WRONG CONVICTION : AND EviL IS THE RESULT OF 
 
 ERROR. It does not result from what we know, nor 
 from what we do not know, but from what we believe 
 on false reasoning, or on false or imperfect testi- 
 mony : in other words, it results from a wrong 
 conviction. 
 
 " It has been previously asserted that Evil is alto- 
 gether the work of humanity, the natural consequence 
 of that free will which inheres to the human soul; 
 and that beyond the sphere of human influence Evil
 
 102 THE ALPHA. [PART I. 
 
 has no existence. This fact will be proved to demon- 
 stration by tracing Error, which is the parent of Evil, 
 to its source. 
 
 " We have already proved that all which concerns 
 us as spiritual beings, all that it is possible for the 
 Mind to acquire on "Earth is Knowledge. It is 
 clear, therefore, that Error must have reference to its 
 attainment. Our DESIRE TO KNOW, which is the 
 ever-active principle of our existence, must ever pre- 
 cede our ATTEMPT TO KNOW : and, in the absence of 
 all conventional influences, our CONVICTIONS must 
 always precede our ACTS. But our Convictions, in- 
 asmuch as they are frequently arrived at through 
 greatly-involved comparison, are sometimes wrong. 
 It is then that we entertain a wrong conviction, 
 which, as we are unconscious of its being wrong, 
 stands us in the stead of Real Knowledge, or a Right 
 Conviction ; and the act which results from it is an 
 Erroneous act. Clearly, then, Error is the result of a 
 wrong conviction. 
 
 " This argument may be more briefly stated : 
 thus : 
 
 " It is NECESSARY that we should get Knowledge, 
 hence we have a DESIRE to get Knowledge ; but, as 
 the attainment of all the facts which are not immedi- 
 ately perceptible through our external senses is the 
 result of laborious and involved comparison, we are 
 liable to Error. 
 
 "It is, however, clear that we should not be liable 
 to Error if we knew all things, because the act of
 
 CHAP. VII.] THE ALPHA. 103 
 
 reasoning would be unnecessary. We are safe, there- 
 fore, in asserting that, 
 
 " THE DEITY, WHO is OMNI-!NTELLIGENT, AND DOES 
 NOT REASON, CANNOT ERR. We are also equally safe 
 in asserting that, 
 
 " POSITIVE IGNORANCE, WHICH is A NEGATION, 
 
 AND DOES NOT REASON, CANNOT ERR. We also 866 
 
 that, 
 
 "THE DEITY is AN ENTITY; 
 And that, 
 
 " POSITIVE IGNORANCE is A NONENTITY. 
 Error, therefore, must pertain to an Entity; but not 
 to an Entity which knows all things. It must also 
 pertain to an Entity which has consciousness, in other 
 words, which has some knowledge. A Stone exists, 
 but is not conscious of its existence ; it is entirely 
 destitute of knowledge, and therefore cannot err. 
 The state of Omni-knowledge is above Error : the 
 state of Positive Ignorance, or utter unconsciousness, 
 is below it : the state to which Error pertains is the 
 state between. It follows, therefore, that an Erring 
 Entity must be a conscious Entity : and that the 
 Entity which is liable to Error, whilst falling short of 
 the Maximum of knowledge that has no need of 
 reason, must have the Minimum of knowledge before 
 it is in a condition to reason : that is, it must be 
 conscious of its own existence, and of the existence of 
 tilings external to itself, before it can begin to per- 
 ceive in what particulars things differ and agree. 
 Hence, all Error has some Truth in it, as well as
 
 104 THE ALPHA. [PARTI. 
 
 some Falsehood : and we shall not be far wrong in 
 
 calling a Wrong Conviction PSEUDO-KNOWLEDGE ; 
 
 and the state of being to which it appertains THE 
 
 PSEUDO-KNOWLEDGE STATE. 
 
 "It is important, then, that we should discover 
 
 what class or order of creatures belongs to this state ; 
 
 because herein Evil and Misery have their origin, and 
 
 Degradation, and Falsehood, and Injustice have their 
 
 existence, and their home. 
 
 " A Stone which neither lives, feels, nor thinks 
 
 cannot err. 
 
 " A Plant which grows and lives, but neither feels 
 
 nor thinks cannot err. 
 
 " An Insect which grows, lives, feels, and, perhaps, 
 
 thinks can it err ? If it thinks, and if its thought 
 amount to that complex perception which would 
 enable it to select means to an end it reasons, and 
 may err. It will be seen that Dogs, Horses, Ele- 
 phants, and all the lower animals are in the same 
 predicament ; they grow, live, feel, perceive, and per- 
 haps reason. If their perception extends to the 
 selection of means, that is, to a consciousness of the 
 relation between cause and effect, they reason and 
 may err. 
 
 " But have the lower animals this consciousness ? 
 Do they really select means ? or is that which looks 
 like Reason in them but the result of a law inherent 
 in their nature, inseparable from animal life, and 
 which we name blind Instinct a power bestowed on 
 them because of the accident of their existence ? As
 
 CHAP. VII.] THE ALPHA. 105 
 
 we proceed we shall see reasons for inclining us to 
 this latter opinion ; because this power, whether it be 
 instinct or reason, is always uniform and unvarying 
 in the individual and in the species. If, however, 
 they do reason they are liable to error : for if they 
 never err, it is clear they do not reason. It is also 
 manifest that, if they have the faculty of reason to 
 the extent of selecting means to an end, the power is 
 limited to their animal wants and necessities, and 
 extends no further. The Hog and the Ox are not 
 one whit more capable now than they were before the 
 building of the Pyramids. 
 
 " Man lives, feels, thinks, and reasons : thinks and 
 reasons, too, on things material and spiritual, far, far 
 beyond HIS animal wants and necessities. Nor have 
 we the slightest knowledge of any other creature in 
 the universe which comes within the category in- 
 cluded in this description. 
 
 " These are the circumstances which constitute the 
 state of Fallibility, and False Knowledge ; out of 
 which comes our knowledge of Good and Evil ; out 
 of which the Vices and the Virtues spring, and all 
 the multitude of Evils and Miseries which have led 
 millions to the false conclusion that there is no God. 
 HERE WE HAVE THE HUMAN SOUL WITH ITS APTI- 
 TUDE TOR KNOWLEDGE, ITS NECESSITY FOR KNOW- 
 LEDGE, AND ITS BOUNDLESS DESIRE TO KNOW. Here 
 
 we have the MEANS of administering to the NECES- 
 SITY, and of gratifying the DESIRE. And, in order 
 that HAPPINESS might be the result of our acquisi-
 
 106 THE ALPHA. [PABT I. 
 
 tions, here is the LIABILITY TO ERROR ; and here are 
 the EVILS which serve as STIMULANTS TO THE DESIRE, 
 AND AS CONTRASTS TO THE HAPPINESS : for, as with- 
 out a sense of fatigue we could form no conception 
 of rest, so without its converse we should be unable 
 to appreciate Happiness. So all-important is Know- 
 ledge, that we could not by any possibility taste of 
 Happiness but by KNOWING that we are Happy ; nor 
 could we know that we are happy, but by the actual 
 experience of its opposite. 
 
 " There is, then, a necessity for Ignorance, hence 
 we are born ignorant : for we could not feel the 
 happiness of Knowledge but through the want of it ; 
 and as the experience cannot be dispensed with, every 
 Soul begins its being with the smallest quantity of 
 knowledge namely, the consciousness of its own 
 existence ; to which is inseparably conjoined, A SENSE 
 OF THE NECESSITY OF KNOWING, AND AN INSATIABLE 
 DESIRE TO KNOW. 
 
 " There is, however, no necessity for Error ; but 
 only a Liability thereto. Man is the only creature 
 prone to this Liability, and the circumstances which 
 induce this Liability constitute the state of PSEUDO- 
 KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 " The Errors he commits in his reasonings are the 
 natural results, the purposed results, and no doubt, 
 on the whole, the beneficent results, of that free choice 
 of means to an end of which it is the privilege of 
 Man in his imperfect, or pseudo-knowledge state, to 
 avail himself.
 
 CHAP. VII.] THE ALPHA. 107 
 
 " How erroneous his selection lias been will be 
 seen hereafter. Our present business has been to 
 discover the source of Error ; and we find it origi- 
 nating with Man. We shall subsequently see that 
 the results of this error are as extended as the Earth 
 the circle wherein, by Divine permission, Man's 
 error-directed will is Law. 
 
 " Man is an Erring Being : and from this circum- 
 stance has arisen the notion that he is a ' fallen' 
 creature, naturally sinful, and more shocking still 
 cursed by his Creator from the beginning, and inca- 
 
 / O O ' 
 
 pable of salvation except through a crucified Redeemer ! 
 Man is an Erring Being there is no possibility of 
 escaping the conviction : he is liable to Error ; but 
 instead of this being a humiliating circumstance, it is 
 
 most ennobling and consolatory. He is the only 
 
 creature on Earth endued, like his Creator, with an 
 independent Will. He alone is capable of intel- 
 lectual progress. He is an embryo, incarnate God, 
 
 -The more we investigate his nature and capa- 
 bilities, the less possibility will there be of escaping 
 this most elevating conviction. 
 
 " Presuming, for the sake of argument, that the 
 lower animals think and reason in the manner of 
 humanity, let us see what constitutes the difference 
 between mankind and them. 
 
 " I have already remarked that Man thinks and 
 reasons on a greater variety of subjects, and takes a 
 much wider range of observation and rational deduc- 
 tion than the brute. That which looks like reason
 
 108 THE ALPHA. [PAKT I. 
 
 in the lower animals seems to be confined in its ope- 
 rations to a few material objects that come within 
 I will not say the range of their observation, for their 
 means of observation are much larger than they seem 
 to use but that come within the range of their animal 
 necessities. 
 
 " It is true, Man, as an animal, has a wider range 
 of necessities, real, artificial, or imaginary, than the 
 brute, the bird, or the insect has ; and this sufficiently 
 explains why his observation should be more active 
 and extended. 
 
 "But Man's reasonings and researches are not 
 confined to material things, nor limited to his animal 
 wants. On the contrary, he is as conscious of the 
 existence of spiritual things, though viewless and 
 impalpable, as he is of material things which he can 
 see and handle ; and in all ages the spirit-world has 
 been the world of his speculations, and of his hopes 
 and fears. He loves, and has ever loved, to revel in 
 Metaphysics, and, although this ennobling science has 
 been hitherto a mystery, his love of the study has 
 been his distinguishing characteristic. Notwith- 
 standing that his erroneous reasonings have misled 
 and bewildered him, he has never ceased to push for- 
 ward his investigations. What he cannot prove to 
 the satisfaction of his reason, he yet believes on the 
 evidence of probability, and the indistinct promptings 
 of his spirit. He glories, and has ever gloried, in 
 sublime conceptions, and in fantastic and beautiful
 
 THAP. VII.] THE ALPHA. 109 
 
 imaginings. He has missed his way in the pursuit 
 of Truth ; but all beautiful and mysterious unrealities 
 have been snatched at to supply its place, and gratify 
 his intellectual cravings. Look at the Literature he 
 has called into existence : how full of gorgeous imagery, 
 and of noble thoughts, and of incipient creation ! Even 
 out of Error, unrealities, and falsehood, he has created 
 an ideal world of which the worst that can be said 
 of it is that the beings which people it bear too 
 much resemblance to his own erroneous ideal of 
 himself. 
 
 " And why all this ? What is the inevitable infer- 
 ence to be drawn from these positions ? Why, that, 
 not to administer merely to his wants as an animal 
 was this desire after spiritual truth implanted in his 
 nature ; but to stock his soul with knowledge. And 
 to what end ? Why, that he might fit himself for the 
 immortality, the eternity of existence, for which every 
 fact of his nature proves that he is destined. 
 
 " He observes effects in Nature, and, with the same 
 ardour as he pursues spiritual investigations, he 
 strives to discover their causes : and much as there 
 is to do, how much has he already accomplished ! 
 Now, whenever he perceives an effect in Nature, and 
 succeeds in discovering the cause, he has added to 
 his soul's intelligence ; he is one step nearer to the 
 Angels ; he has enlarged and strengthened his rela- 
 tionship to his God. 
 
 " ' Well but/ say you, ' does not the Beaver in
 
 110 THE ALPHA. [PART!. 
 
 damming up the stream, observe effects, discover 
 causes, and apply the results of its knowledge to its 
 purposes and wants ? ' 
 
 " Probably not. Most likely the Beaver does its 
 work under the influence of blind instinct, the law 
 impressed on its nature that it may accomplish pur- 
 poses necessary to its wants ; and that without the 
 slightest inkling of Cause and Effect, or the least idea 
 of there being the slightest connection between them. 
 Bat again I urge the distinction if there be reason, 
 it extends only to the limits of its necessities, and not 
 one whit beyond. 
 
 " Man, however, does know the connection between 
 cause and effect, and applies causes to produce effects 
 which he does not find in Nature, effects altogether 
 new in their application ; some useful, some only par- 
 tially useful, and some having no use in the economy 
 of life save the pleasure he feels in availing himself of 
 the powers of Nature, and the employment of his 
 faculties and knowledge in constructive creation. 
 
 " Consider what he has achieved in this way ! He 
 has invented for himself a Language oral and written, 
 the means of multiplying his thoughts indefinitely, 
 and, through a material medium, of almost eternalizing 
 Mind. Look at his machinery : his labours in the 
 Arts : his discoveries in Science ! He has dissected 
 the Sunbeam : he has scaled the Heavens : he has 
 weighed the Stars : he has tracked the Comets through 
 infinitude : he has almost packed the Universe within 
 the narrow limits of his little brain ! The Planets are
 
 CHA P- VII.] THE ALPHA. Ill 
 
 his familiar friends : he roams amongst the Constella- 
 tions ; and predicates, prior to its absolute discovery, 
 the existence and the whereabouts of an almost in- 
 finitely distant Star! He has abstorted the Light- 
 ning from the clouds : he has chained it to the earth : 
 he has made this most subtle agent of Deity his Slave : 
 by its aid he has conveyed his thoughts from one cor- 
 ner of a vast continent to another with almost the 
 speed of Light ! And why the power to accomplish 
 these things, all of which are so inconceivably beyond 
 his wants as an animal, but to furnish his soul with 
 knowledge and fit it for immortality ? He loves to 
 know : he seeks out causation for the pleasure, or 
 rather, for the Happiness it affords him ; for when he 
 succeeds in discovering a new truth he feels that he is 
 participating in knowledge which was once possessed 
 by the Deity alone. 
 
 " The great difference, then, between Man and the 
 Lower Animals, (great as has been this stumbling- 
 block to some delvers after Truth) consists in this : 
 the little knowledge which is acquired by the thinking 
 principle in the Brute, Bird, and Insect, is that which 
 is derived exclusively from material things ; non- 
 spiritual, non-speculative, non-imaginative ; but simply 
 necessary for their animal purposes and wants : whilst 
 Man's reason grapples with subjects the most compli- 
 cated and involved ; whether material or immaterial ; 
 speculative or real ; near or afar off ; perceptible to 
 his senses, or only cognizable by his understanding : 
 whether only necessary to his animal wants, or a con-
 
 112 THE ALPHA. [PAm* I. 
 
 solation to his imprisoned Spirit that embryo angel 
 of eternity his knowledge-needing Soul. 
 
 " Man naturally loves knowledge for its own sake, 
 and would love it more if he lived in a social con- 
 dition consonant with his desires, and adapted to his 
 intellectual, as well as to his animal development and 
 wants. Even as it is, he instinctively loves knowledge. 
 A thinking, intellectual man, naturally, and, as it 
 were, instinctively, seeks the companionship of think- 
 ing, intellectual men : and, in proportion to his own 
 mental acquisitions, he shuns and dislikes the society 
 of the mere animal amongst his fellows. And why is 
 this feeling interwoven in his nature, growing with 
 his intellectual growth, and strengthening with its 
 strength? There is no other reason than the one 
 already assigned the desire of the awakened soul for 
 more and more intelligence. And why ? but that it 
 will enjoy a separate and independent existence in its 
 disembodied state for ever ? If we did not know that 
 Intelligence, and its recipient, the soul, are incapable 
 of destruction, these considerations alone would de- 
 monstrate the fact. Scepticism, then, world-spanning 
 as it is, has no peg left on which to hang a doubt. 
 
 " What a help to his progress in knowledge is that 
 physical instrument of Man, his Hand ! In considering 
 its construction and capabilities we are almost tempted 
 to exclaim ' the most beautiful piece of mechanism 
 in the world !' But perfect as it is, it is only perfect 
 as a means to an end. It would not digest our food : 
 for that purpose the stomach is more perfect than the
 
 CHAP. vii. j THE ALPHA. 113 
 
 hand. The truth is, no one work of God is more or 
 less perfect, more or less beautiful than another, and 
 all comparisons between them are absurd. But why 
 has this instrument with all its astonishing capabilities 
 been bestowed on Man ? As an animal he might per- 
 form nearly all his animal requirements without it : 
 nay, if thought, perception, reflection, and reason were, 
 as some have supposed, accidents ; or, if not accidents, 
 gifts which were to lead to nothing, he could think, 
 perceive, reflect, and reason as well, though not so ex- 
 tendedly, without this instrument as with it. For 
 what purpose was it, then, bestowed ? Some fallacious 
 reasoners, who have laboured to persuade the world 
 that men are merely animals, have said, that the 
 Monkey and the Beaver have hands only a little 
 less perfectly developed than those of Man. This as- 
 sertion is false ; but let us suppose it to be true. Say 
 they have hands similar to the human hand. This, 
 instead of linking the lower animals to humanity, 
 (continuing the chain of being, as these pseudo-phi- 
 losophers have affirmed, from an oyster up to a 
 Franklin or a Shakspere), is the best proof of the most 
 decided, the most complete division ; a barrier which 
 is insurmountable. It proves this, that neither the 
 Monkey nor the Beaver really reasons : for if these 
 creatures were endued with the reasoning faculty, that 
 is, with a knowledge-needing Soul, this instrument 
 would have done, long ago, as much for them as it 
 has done for the family of Man. Without it, Man 
 would be a helpless brute despite of his reason ; whilst, 
 
 i
 
 114 THE ALPHA. [PARTI. 
 
 wanting reason, the Chimpanzee remains a brute, 
 despite of his human hand. Why, then, was this in- 
 strument bestowed on reasoning Man ? Simply as a 
 physical help to his mental acquisitions. This hand 
 has been of a thousand times greater aid to his intel- 
 lectual progress than to his physical wants. Clearly, 
 then, as an intellectual aid was this physical instru- 
 ment bestowed on all humanity. Again, why should 
 it so pre-eminently minister to the Soul's necessities, 
 if the Soul be not immortal ? Even more than the 
 Ear and Eye, why this Hand ? why Reason ? why that 
 Soul-sense which outstrips Reason in the race for 
 Knowledge, which whispers of things that the phy- 
 sical senses could never reach, of Realities to which 
 Reason could never soar ? Why, in addition to these, 
 the insatiable DESIRE TO KNOW, if the knowledge- 
 loving Soul were not immortal? 
 
 " We perceive, then, that the only existence on the 
 earth which lives, feels, thinks, and reasons, and 
 which occupies its thought and reason on matters ex- 
 traneous to itself, and beyond the sphere of its 
 animal necessities and wants, is Man. Can he err? 
 Yes. Where there is Reason which might mistake 
 its facts ; or, knowing only a part, and reasoning 
 thereon as though it were the whole ; where there is 
 a choice of means to an end, there must be liability to 
 error. Were it not so Reason would be only another 
 name for Infinite Intelligence, which has no need of 
 Reason ; or it would be blind Instinct, which has no 
 choice. Hence, Error belongs exclusively to Humanity.
 
 HAP. vn.i THE ALPHA. 115 
 
 Infinite Intelligence cannot err. Instinct cannot err. 
 Man, occupying a middle state can err, 
 
 and does. 
 
 Linked to Infinite Intelligence by a reasoning soul 
 a chain which cannot break ; to the Brute beasts by 
 his brute wants and instincts, a chain which death 
 dissevers ; a new Condition was introduced into the 
 world at his creation ; and a new Principle adapted 
 to this new condition was the necessary consequence. 
 The new Principle is the Intelligent Principle, with 
 its attendant Will, governing its minor principle of 
 action the Desire to Know ; and its operations are 
 confined to the Earth by the Laws to which the 
 entire universe is subject. The new Condition is the 
 Liability to Error. On this Earth where Man's 
 Will is absolute (that is, as absolute as his power), 
 Error creates Evil; and from Evil results all the 
 confusion which distracts humanity. Here we pam- 
 per the vices by fostering the virtues. Here distinc- 
 tions are created which being false cannot be eternal ; 
 and Miseries, which only a total reformation can 
 subvert. 
 
 " Within this circle of Error, subject only to the 
 Laws of his Creator which circumscribe his being, 
 Man is a little Deity ; and just as Ignorance pre- 
 dominates within this circle, he will be prone to 
 Error; and, as his knowledge increases, his liability 
 to Error, and the evils thence arising, will decrease 
 from sheer necessity. 
 
 " Now, in the beginning, Error led this little, self-
 
 11G THE ALPHA. [PARTI. 
 
 willed deity of Earth, to forget, or lay aside his god- 
 ship. The most fatal shall I call it ? No ! for it was 
 
 no less necessary than it was inevitable ; but, 
 
 one of his Earliest Errors was the adoption of the 
 brute force principle, ' MIGHT is RIGHT/ as the basis 
 of his social system : CRIME was the inevitable con- 
 sequence ! Then came Legislation ; and Law ; and 
 Justice ; and Mystic Religion ; and the Virtues ; and 
 the Moralities : and Legislators to make the Law ; 
 and Lawyers to expound it ; and Judges to dispense 
 it : and Priests to explain the Religion ; and Philoso- 
 phers to explain the Moralities ; and Metaphysicians 
 to explain the mental confusion thence arising. Yet, 
 no one is the wiser for the Metaphysics : no one is 
 the better for the Morality : no one is the holier for 
 the Religion. Justice is not Justice ; but a sham. 
 Law is brutality reduced to a system. Legislation is 
 a disgrace to our humanity. And what wonder, 
 since the whole of these contrivances are based on 
 Error, and beyond the circle in which the human will 
 is Law none of them have an existence ! 
 
 " Yet, within this circle of Error and Evil there is 
 such a thing as TRUTH. Truth and Knowledge are 
 synonymous. Every real existence ; every cause ; 
 every effect ; every action is a EACT. Every fact 
 is referable to the Eirst Eact, God. The human Soul 
 is a fact. The Universe is a fact. Every individual 
 portion of the Universe is a separate fact ; that is, 
 each entire portion might be contemplated as a sepa- 
 rate fact. Every phasis of the human soul, influenced
 
 CHAP. Vll.] THE ALPHA. 
 
 117 
 
 as it is by the circumstances which environ it, may, 
 in like manner, be viewed as a separate fact. The 
 nature, and the purpose of all material things ; their 
 relationship to each other ; and the relationship of 
 every part to the whole, are so many Pacts. The 
 nature of the human Soul ; and the purpose for which 
 it Avas created, are Facts. Whatever we really know 
 concerning these Tacts is Truth. We are now in 
 possession of the KEY to this Knowledge. To know ; 
 to collate ; and systemize these individual Facts ; 
 and to discover the principles which test their truth, 
 and thus convince ourselves of their value and im- 
 portance, is PHILOSOPHY : and to live in obedience 
 to the Laws which govern them and us ; to conform 
 and shape our desires, and direct our animal, as well 
 as our intellectual instincts towards the true end and 
 object of our being, is RELIGION. Love God ; love 
 one another, is the Religion of the ' Redeemer.' 
 Our principles conduct to this Religion. To love 
 God we must know God ; and this knowledge is the 
 basis of our Philosophy. To love one another we 
 must know one another ; and the basis of this know- 
 ledge is to know ourselves. There is no mystery, 
 then, in the Philosophy we would teach the world : 
 no exclusiveness in the Religion. The Religion is 
 the Religion of Christ : the Philosophy is a simple, 
 an intelligible guide to the happiness and well-doing 
 of the entire family of Men. They are this, or they 
 arc nothing. 
 
 " Under the present false and artificial system,
 
 118 THE ALPHA. [PAW l. 
 
 Virtue is not distinguishable from Vice ; Good from 
 Evil ; Right from Wrong ; Innocence from Crime. 
 Where one begins and the other ends it is impos- 
 sible to discover : and what Religion is, and what is 
 Irreligion, it is equally difficult to determine. As 
 for Innocence and Crime they were Law-made in the 
 beginning, and are Law-made still. That which is 
 innocent to-day, Legislators might declare to be 
 criminal to-morrow : whilst, by the same wonder- 
 working alchemy, the crime of yesterday is pure, 
 unspotted innocence to-day ! Presto ! and Wrong is 
 Right ! Presto ! and Right is Wrong again ! This 
 is the Drama of Errors which men have been acting 
 these six thousand years. The similarity between 
 Right and Wrong the Dromios of the play creates 
 the perplexing interest of every scene ; some of which 
 are tragical, others comical, whilst some are down- 
 right farce : and, however it may seem to answer the 
 purpose of the ' Stars' and First-class Actors, who 
 put on and off their mimic dignity with their dresses 
 (as Saints on Sunday nights doff their religion,) and 
 who fancy themselves when dressed to be the falsely- 
 august things they personate ; however it may gratify 
 their vanity, and satisfy their brute lust for power, 
 to the throng of subordinates and supernumeraries it 
 is a dreadful business. Life is to them a loathsome 
 burden. The Sons and Daughters of the Deity are 
 degraded below the level of the brute. To whatever 
 uses you apply the Brute, it never loses its brute - 
 dignity. Not so with Men, The Earth is converted
 
 CHAP vil.] THE ALPHA. 119 
 
 into a stage where there is nothing real but the 
 miseries. The actors are Buffoons, or Apes, or 
 Thralls. ' Here Man, vain Man, dressed in a little, 
 brief authority, plays such fantastic tricks before high 
 Heaven that make the Angels weep. 5 When decked 
 in our day-disguises we are mountebanks ; rnerry- 
 andrews ; robed, ermined, wigged, coroneted, and 
 crowned, Pretenders. We are only Men and Women 
 when we sleep ; and then, sometimes, do Angels 
 deign to visit us. 
 
 " The whole of this false grandeur, and the train 
 of monstrous miseries of which it is the centre and 
 the immediate cause, are the natural and inevitable 
 results of Error. Error, however, is not eternal. It, 
 and its Miseries will cease when men perceive the 
 Truth. Till then they must be borne with. There 
 is no ' happy medium' between Truth and Error ; 
 and when the Truth is seen the world will not be 
 wanting in loving, Christian Spirits to help it forward, 
 and advance the Millennium of Intellect, and intellec- 
 tual Love. 
 
 " Erroneous, on the whole, as have been the labours 
 of Philosophy hitherto ; little as Plato, Zeno, Aris- 
 totle, Socrates, and Bacon have really accomplished 
 for the world, it would be unjust indeed not to own 
 that these deep-reasoning, earnest men ever struggled 
 hard in the CAUSE of Truth ; and because of this, 
 whilst there is a man to reverence genius on the Earth 
 their names will be affectionately remembered. 
 
 " But perhaps of all the pioneers of Truth, the
 
 120 THE ALPHA. U'AKT I. 
 
 Poets have accomplished most : and, amongst these, 
 I believe our own SHAKSPERE had the keenest sense 
 of Truth, and the largest and most catholic soul. 
 
 " But, to reform the original, wide-spread Error of 
 mankind ; to show the true social basis, and the way 
 to happiness and an intellectual Heaven, came one 
 diviner than them all : a Man all soul : without a 
 particle of selfishness or animalism in his nature : he 
 whose life was all humility, and gentleness, and love ; 
 a love which encircled all men : he who when 
 reviled reviled not again : he who died for the realities 
 he came to teach, one God, the immortality of the 
 soul, and love as the social basis : he who, dying, 
 blessed those who cursed him, and prayed his last 
 prayer for those who nailed him to the cross ; 
 ' Father, forgive them ! they know not what they 
 do ! ' 
 
 " When men shall understand HIS mission, injus- 
 tice shall cease, and all mankind be happy." 
 
 Dionysius ceased. The vast assembly, as though 
 spell-bound by the earnest eloquence of the speaker, 
 remained mute and immovable as death. Not a 
 muscle stirred : not a breath disturbed the air. The 
 entire auditory, methought, had hardened into marble. 
 They were statues, and not living men. I seemed to 
 have grown into marble myself. 1 tried to rise but 
 could not ; to raise my arm ; it was too pon- 
 derous for my strength. I attempted to speak, but, 
 was unable to articulate a word. I looked for DIONY- 
 SIUS, but he had gone. Again, music floated through
 
 CHAP. VII.] THE ALPHA. 121 
 
 the arena, and so thrilled iny whole frame, marble as 
 I seemed to be, that life was almost insupportable. 
 In an agony of pleasure I awoke. The music con- 
 tinued ; but it was no longer the music of my dream. 
 I soon recollected the occasion of it. It was Christ- 
 mas morning. The Waits were performing a selection 
 from Handel, " Now unto us a child is given," beneath 
 my window, in the clear, cold moonlight. I slept 
 again from sheer exhaustion : and the same scene in 
 the Abbey ; a huge auditory of statues their marble 
 features fixed in the similitude of deep attention 
 was the one stereotyped idea which haunted my 
 fancy during my restless slumber. It was one dead, 
 motionless monotony. The feeling became almost 
 terrible. What must be that of a Murderer, in the 
 world of spirits, with the ever-present idea of the 
 guilt of a brother's blood haunting him through all 
 eternity ? It is a mercy that there is no such hell : 
 that Society is responsible for our crimes !
 
 PART THE SECOND. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 RANDOLPH. CIVILIS. 
 
 I HAD been one evening relating, to a familiar ac- 
 quaintance whom I will call Civilis, the foregoing 
 particulars of the Alpha-vision, when the following 
 conversation, touching the truth, practicability, and 
 value of the Philosophy enunciated therein, occurred 
 between us. 
 
 CIVILIS. It is impossible, my dear Randolph, not 
 to feel deeply interested in the singular revelation 
 you have just made to me, whether it be regarded as 
 the product of a dream, or as an incipient system of 
 Philosophy of your own invention : nor can there be 
 any difficulty in conceding to it the praise which is 
 always due to originality. Much has been said and 
 sung, in all periods of the world's history, in praise 
 of Knowledge ; but, until now, none have exalted it 
 above Religion. Many a shaft has been hurled at 
 Vice and Crime; but, until now, Philosophy has 
 never seriously assailed the Virtues. We have had 
 apologists for Sin arid Crime : but none to deny the
 
 124 THE ALPHA. U'AET II. 
 
 abstract possibility of their existence. We have had 
 thousands of zealous men enunciating schemes to 
 mend the Civil and Religious polity of the world; 
 but none who have proposed to demolish the entire 
 structure. We have had denier s of this or that 
 system of Religion or form of Government ; but none 
 who have denounced, and would uproot them all. 
 I almost tremble to recount your merits : yet there 
 you sit, Randolph, calm as the moonbeams on the 
 waves that have just swallowed an Armada. 
 
 RANDOLPH. You must consider my tranquillity, 
 Civilis, to be the consequence of my knowledge. I 
 know my critic is a friendly one, notwithstanding this 
 " thundering in the index." 
 
 CIVILIS. Seriously, my dear Randolph, this dream 
 has made a deep impression on my mind; and, 
 although there is something so startling in your 
 Philosophy for I must call it yours I am more 
 than half persuaded of its entire truth. If it be 
 really true it must be both practical, and pre- 
 eminently important. But, in this case, what a mass 
 of untruth have mankind to unbelieve as a conse- 
 quence of its adoption ! It is this astounding thought 
 concerning the old system, rather than any lack of 
 evidence I have yet discovered in favour of the new, 
 that counsels me to pause before I discard, as totally 
 erroneous in principle, all the time-honoured institu- 
 tions which I have been accustomed to reverence no 
 less for their apparent worth than for their antiquity. 
 You know I am a Lawyer, and therefore accustomed
 
 CRAP I.] THE ALPHA. 125 
 
 to deal with evidence ; and that, on sufficient evi- 
 dence, I can believe anything. You know also (not- 
 withstanding my profession, Randolph), that I have 
 some title to the character of a religious man ; and, 
 as such, am naturally an admirer, and, I hope, to 
 some extent a practiser, of the Moralities and the 
 Virtues which, according to your system, are hence- 
 forward to be regarded as blots on our social 
 system. 
 
 RANDOLPH. No, Civilis ; not exactly as blots, but 
 rather, excrescences, which the blots called Vice and 
 Crime make beautiful by comparison. 
 
 CIVILIS. I stand corrected as beautiful excres- 
 cences that under a really rational system could have 
 no existence. You will not wonder, therefore, that 1 
 feel some reluctance to embrace a system which pro- 
 poses at the first convenient opportunity to dispense 
 with them. I confess that there is much in our 
 present social system that needs reformation, as well 
 as some doctrines inculcated by our Christian creed 
 which are weak, if not absolutely indefensible : but I 
 think you will allow that this is not a sufficient reason 
 for abjuring them for others which may look more 
 perfect in theory (but which it may be impossible to 
 reduce to practice), except on the clearest and most 
 conclusive evidence. Am I right in my obduracy in 
 favour of my old faith ? 
 
 RANDOLPH. Perfectly, Civilis : and the more so, 
 inasmuch as our new philosophy repudiates Faith 
 altogether, and asks for no assent but that which
 
 126 THE ALPHA. [PART II. 
 
 springs from a full conviction. By Faith I do not 
 mean Belief. Let me illustrate my meaning by 
 examples. On the banks of the Tigris, about two 
 hundred miles above the junction of that river with 
 the Euphrates, stands a city called Bagdad. I know 
 this City. I have lived there. The fact of its exist- 
 ence is not with me a matter of Faith, neither is it 
 Belief. The fact does not rest on testimony, but on 
 positive knowledge. By Faith, therefore, I do not 
 mean Knowledge. Again, I am told that the poet 
 Byron swam across the Hellespont at a place where 
 this channel is three miles wide. I have myself swum 
 a mile. My informant as to the greater feat is a man 
 of probity : he has no interest in deceiving me. I 
 reflect that if one man can swim a mile (a fact within 
 my own cognizance), it is within the limits of possi- 
 bility that another might swim three miles. I do 
 not KNOW that it is true ; but the thing being pos- 
 sible, and authenticated to my satisfaction, I adopt it 
 as a true fact ; in other words, I BELIEVE IT. This 
 is not knowledge obtained, as in the former case, 
 entirely through the evidence of my own senses ; but 
 knowledge which rests partly on testimony, and 
 partly on a corroborative fact which I know to be 
 true. My adoption of the fact as truth is not Faith, 
 but Belief. Again. Another person tells me that 
 the poet did not swim across the Hellespont, but 
 walked across on the surface of the water, just as he 
 might have walked across a field. In this case my 
 knowledge of the properties of water renders it im-
 
 CHAP. I.] THE ALPHA. 127 
 
 possible for me to adopt this fact as truth. Belief 
 demands some corroborative knowledge derived 
 through the testimony of my own senses ; some 
 proof of its possibility. If I consent to adopt this 
 fact as truth (I am here supposing what I cannot 
 imagine to be possible, a conscientious assent, not a 
 feigned one] ; this is not Belief, but a total abandon- 
 ment of self to the adoption as truth of a rationally 
 impossible fact. This is what I understand by Faith. 
 We can BELIEVE in the extraordinary and the im- 
 probable. The miraculous and the impossible de- 
 mand FAITH. There can be no Belief (by which I 
 mean a rational and conscientious conviction), without 
 some actual, corroborative knowledge of our own 
 with respect to the fact believed. Whenever, there- 
 fore, the term Faith is used as a synonyme of Belief, 
 it must be in reference to facts that are believable ; 
 and which are believable because we know them to 
 be possible. But this excludes all facts such as the 
 birth of the once-expected Shiloh without the agency 
 of a human father. People are sometimes wont to 
 escape this dilemma by averring that with God all 
 things are possible. This, however, is a fallacy ; 
 for the act of Belief is impossible to God. To con- 
 stitute an act of belief two things are necessary, nay 
 three ; first, prior ignorance of the fact to be com- 
 municated ; secondly, a Communicator who knows 
 something which the Recipient does not know ; and, 
 thirdly, corroborative knowledge by which the Reci- 
 pient can test the probability of its truth : all which,
 
 128 THE ALPHA. [PART II. 
 
 with God, are clearly impossible; yet possible with 
 Man. 
 
 CIVILIS. But is it impossible that, God so willing 
 it, Shiloh might have been conceived of Johanna 
 Southcott without the agency of a human father ? 
 in other words, is a miracle impossible ? 
 
 RANDOLPH. There can be no doubt of God's 
 ability to perform this act; for, to us, every act of 
 creation is a miracle. But since God himself has 
 so constituted the human mind that we cannot 
 believe in any fact without testimony, conjoined to 
 some knowledge of our own by which to estimate 
 the probability of its truth, it is impossible that 
 God could make our Faith in a miracle, a sine qua 
 non of our salvation. IT is IMPOSSIBLE, THERE- 
 FORE, THAT THERE CAN BE ANY EFFICACY IN 
 
 FAITH. 
 
 CIVILIS. I should like to hear your definition of 
 a miracle. 
 
 RANDOLPH. By a miracle I mean any occurrence 
 out of the ordinary course of nature, and in violation 
 of the Laws of nature : as if a stone should hang 
 suspended in the air without any visible or con- 
 ceivable support ; or a tree uproot itself and walk 
 about. There is no MERIT in believing a thing 
 which is believable : nor is there any DEMERIT in 
 disbelieving; anv circumstance which in the nature 
 
 O / 
 
 of things we feel to be impossible. I believe in 
 God's ability to suspend Saint Paul's Cathedral in 
 the air, but where is the merit of my belief, seeing
 
 CHAP. II.] THE ALPHA. 129 
 
 that it is based on the mightier evidences of his 
 Power within and around me? But I disbelieve 
 that God does so suspend such ponderous bodies, 
 because I never saw an evidence or exemplification 
 of the fact ; and in what consists the demerit of my 
 unbelief ? I may assert that I believe it : but without 
 some circumstance-compelling influence acting on me 
 from without, even this, Civilis, would be impossible. 
 CIVILIS. I perceive it : I am satisfied : you have 
 convinced me of the inefficacy and uselessness of 
 Faith. But a thought occurs to me. You said just 
 now that every act of creation is a miracle. In this 
 case, the creation of the first pair of the human 
 species was a miracle. They could not have had 
 any natural progenitors : the act which gave them 
 being was contrary to the Law, or altogether in- 
 dependent of it, by which all things reproduce 
 their like, and must have been the result of a special 
 intervention. Whether our First Parents proceeded 
 from the Earth, the Sea, the Air, or from one of the 
 inferior Animals, the fact remains the same; their 
 production was the result of a special ordination. 
 And the same must be true of every distinct class of 
 creatures, and even of every distinct form of vege- 
 table life : each must be a distinct act of creation, 
 special, or extra-judicial, in its nature. How, then ? 
 do you reconcile this fact with what, if I mis- 
 take not, you assert in the Alpha-vision, to the 
 effect that the lower animals, notwithstanding their 
 priority on the Earth, are the accidental results of 
 
 K
 
 130 THE ALPHA. [PART II. 
 
 a general Law which had for its primary object the 
 bestowal of animal life on the human species ? 
 
 RANDOLPH. A Creature when once produced, is 
 immediately rendered subject to the Law which regu- 
 lates its reproduction or continuance. Hut there is 
 a Principle prior to this Law, the operations of which 
 principle are as inscrutable as those of the Law just 
 mentioned. This principle is a Law impressed on 
 Matter by means of which Life is bestowed, and 
 new Creatures produced out of new Circumstances ; 
 which circumstances are pre-ordained to arise for 
 the very purpose of their production. I suppose 
 that the Primary purpose of all Creation was the 
 production of Man, and that the material world 
 was formed for his development. The Life-bestowing 
 Principle was necessary in the Matter, or material 
 globe on which he was to have his existence; and 
 many other forms of life, both vegetable and 
 animal, were necessary also that the purpose of his 
 existence might be accomplished. That he might 
 have a probationary existence under circumstances 
 necessary to his full development and ultimate 
 happiness, the Life-giving principle conferred on 
 Matter, produced, prior to his own advent, such 
 vegetables and animals as were preparatory to his 
 existence ; and, contemporaneously with his appearance, 
 such as were essential to his wants. Thus, all 
 other existences and forms of life had reference to 
 HIM : they the ACCIDENTS, and he the OBJECT of 
 the Law which gave both him and them their being.
 
 CHAP. I.] THE ALPHA. 131 
 
 Not as separate acts of Creation, therefore, but as 
 foreknown results of this Principle, was every 
 distinct form of existence, each at its proper time, 
 produced. This subject is theoretical, and is so 
 treated in the Alpha-vision ; and the discussion of it, 
 though interesting, is a deviation from the subject in 
 hand ; namely, the truth of the DionysianPhilosophy ; 
 but I hope the explanation I have given to your 
 question is a satisfactory solution of your difficulty. 
 
 CIVILIS. Perfectly so, as well as altogether con- 
 sistent with the nature, and what we call the attributes 
 of the Deity, out of which you deduce the Principle 
 which is the basis of your Philosophy. To convince 
 myself thoroughly of the truth of this principle must 
 be my own work ; and I promise to devote thereto the 
 time and study necessary to its accomplishment. 
 But to aid me in this task, I must request you to re- 
 capitulate, with what brevity you please, the leading 
 facts of your argument, and the particular results to 
 which they tend. 
 
 RANDOLPH. This I will do right willingly, Civilis ; 
 but, suffer me first to show you how the conviction we 
 have just arrived at dissipates that bugbear on which 
 so much charlatanry and delusion rests the doctrine of 
 Sin and Crime, and Future Punishment. If, Civilis, 
 what is proved to a man's full conviction he must believe, 
 there can be no MERIT in his belief: and if whatever 
 lacks a satisfying proof it is impossible that he can 
 believe, there can be no DEMERIT in his unbelief : and, 
 since there can be no intelligent and voluntary act that
 
 132 THE ALPHA. [rARTl1 ' 
 
 is not impelled by a conviction, either rational or erro- 
 neous ; or by some social influence, whether right or 
 w rong, which is as arbitrary as conviction, it is clear 
 that a man does only what he must do : and as there is 
 neither merit nor demerit in the conviction, there can 
 be neither merit nor demerit in the resultant act : 
 therefore, there is neither Sin, nor Crime, nor future 
 Punishment with respect to them. 
 
 CIVILIS. I admit the conclusiveness of your logic, 
 Randolph, with regard to SIN. Sin is an impossibility, 
 and Satan a chimera : I have a more exalted notion 
 of the Deity ; and I am a thousand times happier for 
 the knowledge. But my conviction is not so clear in 
 respect to CRIME. Crime, I perceive, is an act having 
 reference to man alone, and to Society. It is the con- 
 travention of a Law between man and man : and to 
 contravene a just law must certainly be a Crime. 
 
 RANDOLPH. A JUST Law ! yes, Civilis : but were 
 Laws JUST a thing within the limits of possibility 
 there could be no Motive for their infraction. A JUST 
 LAW must be based on Man's true nature, physical 
 and intellectual, and have especial reference to the 
 purpose of his being : it must be EQUALLY BENEFICIAL 
 AND NECESSARY TO ALL MEN. A man, convinced 
 of its justice, could not break it : a man too ignorant 
 to feel this conviction, might contravene it, and pro- 
 bably would. But the infraction would be the natural 
 consequence of an erroneous conviction : and this, in 
 the eye of Reason, is not a Crime ; and Enlightenment, 
 not Punishment, is the remedy.
 
 CHAP. 1.1 THE ALPHA. 133 
 
 CIVILIS. I perceive it, my dear Randolph ; you are 
 right. Rewards and Punishments are not resorted to 
 by the Deity ; and ought not to be resorted to by 
 men. Alas ! what are the cumbrous labours of a life- 
 time, if they are based on error ! You are making a 
 Man of me ; but the Lawyer's occupation's gone ! 
 What a pile of goodly, calf-cased Law-tomes, full of 
 Statutes, Precedents, Pleadings, Interpleadings, Cases, 
 Quirks, and Quiddities, you have converted into 
 waste-paper by a Syllogism ! Shades of Blackstone, 
 Bentham, Littleton, and Coke ! no wonder I should 
 have been so frequently perplexed by your profundity ! 
 My dear Randolph, I see it all. There is no Hell : 
 no after-retribution. Truth is its own rewarder ; its 
 own reward : and Error brings its own retribution in 
 the shape^the evil it produces. Every instant we are 
 judged: and there is no " recording angel" noting 
 down the backslidings of each of us preparatory to the 
 grand account ! I do confess, Randolph, that I have 
 often thought this mode of keeping Ledger accounts 
 against us made Heaven too much like a City 
 Counting-house, and the Angels too like Clerks to 
 whom a SABBATH could rarely or never come ! 
 seriously ; it is a subject I never dared to dwell 
 upon ; and even now, when I see the absurdity 
 of it the humanism of the contrivance, I feel shocked 
 at the irreverence of the parallel my fancy had begun 
 to draw. How like their worser selves have Men 
 made Deity ! I perceive the error, and all its de- 
 grading consequences. It has been down, down*
 
 134 THE ALPHA. [PART II. 
 
 down, making a multitude of false distinctions between 
 men proportioned to the depth of their degradation, 
 until, at the bottom of the scale, the spiritual image 
 of the Deity is drudge to a man who is something less 
 of a drudge to another man, who waits behind the 
 c hair of some sycophant, who is sycophant to some- 
 one else that deems himself honoured if he might 
 meekly kneel to Royalty, or kiss the reeking toe of his 
 Holiness the Pope ! 
 
 RANDOLPH. We have seen, Civilis, that Sin and 
 Crime are impossibilities ; and that were Laws really 
 Just, it would be the INTEREST of all men, and, in 
 proportion to their enlightenment, their DESIRE also 
 to observe them. Such Laws must be adapted to 
 Man's true nature, the purpose of his being, and his 
 real wants. What these are our Philosophy plainly, 
 and unmistakably sets forth. " But your philosophy 
 is not true," will be said by whole legions of preju- 
 diced detractors. They will say, because on erroneous 
 reasoning they believe it, " Man's nature is sinful : 
 he is a creature of vile passions, prone to all sorts of 
 villany and mischief ; and that Laws must be made 
 stringent, and punishments severe, to restrain his 
 natural propensities to crime and evil-doing." This 
 has ever been the cry against poor human nature. 
 And taking this libellous description on trust, or 
 reasoning on Man as they find him writhing under 
 the operation of Laws which (the results of Igno- 
 rance) HAVE RENDERED HIM ALL THIS, Poets, Histo 
 
 rians, Novelists, Satirists, Painters, Moralists, and
 
 ( ; "4P-1.J THE ALPHA. 135 
 
 Philosophers of every calibre and kind, have amused 
 their learned leisure, and displayed their penetration 
 and their wit, by so depicting him : and ages must 
 roll away before the simple truth, that the soul is 
 incapable of blot or stain, will find its way to men's 
 convictions. Yes, Civilis, we shall go on caricaturing 
 one another, each for the other's amusement and his 
 own gain, until the corroding lie shall have eaten 
 itself out. The great bulk of the untruth which we 
 treasure up as Knowledge consists of these pernicious 
 calumnies. We shall have other opportunities of 
 examining this fallacious knowledge a little more in 
 detail. I will avail myself of the present occasion to 
 recapitulate the Facts, in the order of their succession, 
 Avhich establish the Principle by which this pseudo- 
 knowledge must be tested. 
 
 CIVILIS. Do so, my dear Randolph; for I have 
 too much of the Lawyer yet left within me, to pass by 
 Precedents as nothing, and yield, without a struggle, 
 to evidence which has such an overwhelming weight 
 of authority, as you have just alluded to, against it. 
 What ! Poets, Philosophers, Moralists, Metaphy- 
 sicians, and Divines, all wrong? 
 
 RANDOLPH. Ay, Civilis, every soul of them ; 
 all MAD, save in their lucid intervals ; and these have 
 seldom come to any but the Poets ; and to them, 
 only in, what other men have denominated, their 
 maddest moods. 
 
 CIVILIS. Your Philosophy is strangely beautiful, 
 Randolph ; 1 long to be convinced that it is wholly true.
 
 136 THE ALPHA. [PARTII. 
 
 RANDOLPH. There is nothing beautiful that is not 
 true. There is nothing true that is not beautiful. 
 It was in searching for Beauty that I discovered 
 Truth. Its temple stands in the centre of an artificial 
 labyrinth composed of the most complicated windings, 
 in which many lose themselves ; whilst millions are 
 deluded by the specious Falsehoods met with on the 
 way, and over- written " This is the Truth, and he 
 who doubts is doomed." But, Civilis, he who would 
 reach the temple round which this wildering maze 
 of thorns and briars is planted, must overleap these 
 artificial fences, or hew his way right onward, instinct- 
 led, having an unwavering confidence in God and his 
 own Soul. God is Truth, Civilis ; and every natural 
 instinct of the soul guides us to God. There are as 
 many Revelations as there are souls to need them : 
 each is a revelation in itself, to itself, for itself; 
 which is a greater marvel than any of the spurious 
 marvels out of which a periodical, soul-less worship 
 has proceeded. 
 
 CIVILIS. What is this Instinct of the Soul of 
 which you speak? 
 
 RANDOLPH. The Desire for that one thing in 
 which all others are included, Civilis, Knowledge ; 
 and, conjoined thereto, a mysterious perception of 
 hidden truth a kind of Sympathy or Presentiment, 
 by which this desire is frequently responded to, if 
 not anticipated ; and this, without any immediate aid 
 from Reason or the senses. This is true ; involving 
 no contradiction ; and is consistent with the power
 
 CHAP. I.] THE ALPHA. 137 
 
 and nature of the Deity, and the evident purpose for 
 which the soul has its existence : what need, there, 
 fore, of a marvel in the nature of a Miracle, which 
 does involve a contradiction ; which proclaims itself 
 as untrue, because unnatural ; which has no intelli- 
 gible purpose ; and which, in consequence, degrades 
 the Deity even in the estimation of his creatures ? 
 
 CIVILIS. I perceive your aim, and agree with 
 your conclusion. To work a miracle is inconsistent 
 with the nature, and beneath the dignity of God. 
 Pardon the interruption. You were about to show 
 me how Beauty leads to Truth, and the source of 
 Truth the Deity. 
 
 RANDOLPH. That which men call Beauty, Civilis, 
 is the result produced in the Mind by certain plea- 
 sure-giving Principles in nature, which are more or 
 less vividly felt and appreciated through our Soul- 
 instincts, but which are only fully recognised and 
 understood by the aid of our Reason, and by reflec- 
 tion. We say that the Horse is a beautiful animal : 
 we ask ourselves why ? we compare it with other 
 creatures, and other things ; as the Human Form, the 
 Antelope, the Greyhound, a Vase, a Leaf, a Flower : 
 we perceive that there is one circumstance peculiar to 
 them all ; the outline (as we call the extremities of 
 things) is composed of curves. All motion is curvi- 
 linear : all the heavenly bodies are circular : the 
 Earth is a circle : the Sea forms a portion of this 
 circle. Water, therefore, which we are apt to say 
 seeks a level, is not level, but even in a teacup,
 
 138 THE ALPHA. LI-ART II. 
 
 partakes of the great circle of the Earth. Cut a 
 canal ten miles in length, and make it a true mathe- 
 matical level ; it is impossible to fill it with water. 
 The circle in some of its thousand varieties of curve, 
 enters more or less into nearly all natural forms. 
 We perceive, that, modified by another principle 
 which is peculiar to the straight line, all curvilinear 
 forms are pleasure-giving, and are thence deemed 
 beautiful. But why ? The straight line runs into 
 infinitude : it has not in itself the property of encom- 
 passing anything : a cube of an inch might be but a 
 portion of a cube of infinite dimensions : it has not 
 the quality of completeness : two straight lines run- 
 ning parallel for ever could not enclose anything. 
 The curve, on the contrary, has this property of com- 
 pleteness in its very nature. A circle of an inch 
 diameter is a thing complete in itself : it is not, it 
 cannot be, a portion of a larger circle. The mind 
 cannot contemplate infinitude : the thought is beyond 
 its grasp : the idea is never perfect : we cannot com- 
 prehend and know it. The feeling is sublime : there 
 is awe but not pleasure in it. Not so with the circle : 
 no matter how immense it be, the mind can travel 
 round it, and this instantly and without an effort : 
 there is something distinct from all other things : 
 something it can contemplate, comprehend, and 
 know. This we perceive is the reason why curvi- 
 linear forms afford us pleasure. We want Know- 
 ledge. To exist, and to be conscious of our existence, 
 and to be shut out from further knowledge, we feel
 
 CHAP. I.] THE ALPHA. 139 
 
 would be no more to us than a living death : we 
 need Knowledge, therefore, we desire to obtain it : 
 we have an instinctive love of it, as well as of those 
 circumstances in things which render its attainment 
 possible or easy. By whom was this Soul-instinct 
 implanted within us ? By the Deity whom our souls 
 instinctively acknowledge to be the author of our 
 being. Then, what is Deity? Do you follow me, 
 Civilis ? 
 
 CIVILIS. Ay, Randolph ; I think I entirely com- 
 prehend you. There is no such thing as Beauty ; 
 but there are eternal Principles in the nature or con- 
 stitution of all created things, each in harmony with 
 the other, and that in tracing them to their source 
 we arrive at the First Principle, which is Deity. 
 
 RANDOLPH. Truly, Civilis : and what is Deity in 
 whom the sentient Soul beholds its parentage ? 
 Hands did not make the wonders of creation ; nor 
 fabricate the spiritual soul ; nor construct the subtle 
 principles which move and influence both Mind and 
 Matter. It is obvious that a POWER greater than 
 these willed their existence. A SPIRITUAL POWER ; 
 for the material cannot fabricate the immaterial. An 
 INTELLIGENT POWER; for that which THINKS NOT 
 cannot, first, purpose the existence, and then cause 
 the existence of that which THINKS. What, then, is 
 Power ? Power is INTELLIGENCE. We call Intelli- 
 gence Power when we reflect on its results : but, 
 whether in action or repose, the motive-principle of 
 all Power is Intelligence. What, then, is Intelli-
 
 140 THE ALPHA. [PART II. 
 
 gence ? Think of it through all eternity, Civilis, and 
 you will not resolve it into elements. It is itself the 
 Element, the moving, conscious cause of all things ; 
 the FIRST PRINCIPLE ; the DEITY. The very Per- 
 fection of the Godhead is Intelligence. It will be 
 necessary to make sure of this first Fact, Civilis, before 
 you deduce therefrom the subsequent Facts of the 
 series which form the System. Are you satisfied 
 that the Nature and Perfection of Deity is In- 
 telligence ? 
 
 CIVILTS. I am satisfied that there cannot be any 
 Power which is not traceable to Intelligence. I am 
 satisfied also that there is not a Virtue or an Attribute 
 that it is possible to ascribe to Deity which is not 
 also reducible to Intelligence : so that whatever be 
 the Essence to which this Quality inheres, its motive 
 principle must be Intelligence. My reason for 
 giving you a circuitous, instead of a direct answer 
 to your question is this : If the Creator of the uni- 
 verse be nothing but Intelligence, it is apparent that 
 the knowledge of the Deity (if I may so express 
 myself), is limited to the results of His own Laws. 
 For, as nothing could have existed prior to Deity, so 
 the Deity has nothing to know but what is sub- 
 sequent to itself, and caused by its own will : and as 
 the attainment of Knowledge is a Happiness, and I 
 believe, the only Happiness of which the human 
 Soul is capable, it follows that God has no beatitude, 
 save in the contemplation of His own Works, which 
 would seem to be a less happy condition than His
 
 CHAP. I.] THE ALPHA. 141 
 
 Beneficence has made possible for his Creatures, 
 inasmuch as their Happiness is the result of their 
 prior Ignorance. 
 
 RANDOLPH. Truly, Civilis : but this, instead of 
 being a difficulty, suggests the highest and most 
 God-like MOTIVE for the creation, by the Deity, of 
 Man, and probably of other forms of intelligent crea- 
 tures in the other globes which are poised in Space 
 Creatures who begin their conscious existence in 
 Ignorance, that, through misery, they might ultimately 
 attain to a Happiness greater than that which results 
 from Conscious Power in the Deity ; but inferior to 
 that resulting from the exercise of His Love. As no 
 higher motive is conceivable for the creation of the 
 insentient, material universe than the production of 
 sentient, immaterial Beings, who, through Ignorance 
 and Error might attain to Knowledge and Beatitude, 
 we have an intelligible and most gratifying reason for 
 the creation of Man. And as the sole Perfection of 
 Deity is Intelligence, it is not possible for the Human 
 Soul to have a higher aim than Knowledge, or to arrive 
 at its Perfection by any other means. And further- 
 Civilis ; as Deific Intelligence results in Love, which 
 is the felicity of Distribution, added to that which 
 belongs to the consciousness of Possession ; so, as a 
 motive for the Equal Distribution of Knowledge 
 amongst Men, the Love which prompts this distri- 
 bution, is beneficently made an addition to the felicity 
 which attends its Possession and attainment. From 
 these rationally-ascertained Pacts, Civilis, we arrive at
 
 142 THE ALPHA. [P*BT II. 
 
 these conclusions : First, that the only means by which 
 the attainment of Perfection and Happiness is possible, 
 is Knowledge : secondly, that to get Knowledge is the 
 one great Purpose of human existence : and, thirdly, 
 that to disseminate our knowledge amongst all our 
 brethren is, not a duty only, but the highest con- 
 ceivable privilege with which the Deity could endue 
 humanity, 
 
 CIVILIS. It is impossible to dispute either your 
 premises, or your conclusions, my dear Randolph. I 
 am satisfied that Deity is Intelligence, and that all 
 possible perfection is included in the term. I am also 
 satisfied that the Human Soul is an intelligent Prin- 
 ciple, capable of Knowledge, and incapable of Perfec- 
 tion, or of any permanent Happiness, save through the 
 means of Knowledge. I admit that to get Knowledge 
 is the end for which the Spiritual Soul has its exist- 
 ence. I perceive that what we call Consciousness 
 (which is more an instinct than a self-made acqui- 
 sition) is the first knowledge of the Human Soul. I 
 perceive also that perception is only another name for 
 Consciousness ; that Reason is Complex Perception ; 
 and that Reason and those Soul-instincts which out- 
 strip Reason in the pursuit of Knowledge, are the 
 means appointed for its acquisition. I perceive that 
 Knowledge signifies an acquaintance with Truth. I 
 perceive, moreover, that every Truth is not of equal 
 value as an addition to the Soul's stock of Knowledge : 
 for example : the knowledge which acquaints me 
 with the true purpose of my existence is manifestly
 
 UHAP- LI THE ALPHA. 143 
 
 more important than the knowledge conveyed to me in 
 Mrs. Fitzhog's gilt-edged epistle of yesterday to the 
 effect that her myrtle is about to blossom, and that 
 her dear husband is a brute. What I next want to 
 arrive at is (seeing that we may err in our reasoning), 
 how we are to know always what is Truth : and next 
 how we may arrive at a correct estimate of its value. 
 
 RANDOLPH. You admit, Civilis, that every work of 
 a Being of Infinite Intelligence must be perfect as a 
 means to an end? 
 
 CIVILIS. Certainly. 
 
 RANDOLPH. The Author of the Universe is the 
 Creator of Man. There must have been a purpose in 
 his creation, as well as a self-acting principle in the 
 Creature capable of the accomplishment of the purpose ? 
 
 CIVILIS. Clearly, my dear Randolph : for, other- 
 wise, the means to an end would be defective, which 
 with God is impossible. 
 
 RANDOLPH. It is clear that the Purpose of his ex- 
 istence is the attainment of knowledge, and that the 
 Intelligent Principle or Soul (with its inherent per- 
 ception, its power of abstraction, and its intuitive love 
 of truth), is that self-acting Principle which has the 
 capability of discovering Truth. If there were many 
 sources of Truth, there might be many sorts of Truth, 
 differing in nature according to the difference in 
 nature of their several authors : but as there can be 
 but ONE AUTHOR, all Truth must be consistent in its 
 nature with the nature of its author, and resolvable 
 into it. Having ascertained beyond the possibility of
 
 414 THE ALPHA. [PAT II. 
 
 doubt or cavil what Deity in its nature is, we have 
 THE FIRST TRUTH, which is of necessity the test of all 
 other truth. It is impossible that anything can be 
 true with regard to the Deity that is inconsistent with 
 the perfection of its Intelligence. We have ascertained, 
 beyond the possibility of doubt or cavil, what the 
 Human Soul is, and what is the Purpose of its exist- 
 ence. It is impossible that anything can be true with 
 regard to the Human Soul that is inconsistent with the 
 nature of the Human Soul, or with the Purpose for 
 which it was created. This, Civilis, is an answer to 
 your question, " How is Truth always to be known?" 
 And now as to the mode of estimating its value. All 
 truth is valuable, which, based on the First Truth, 
 conduces to the end for which the Soul was created ; 
 namely, to make constant approaches to the Deity 
 through a knowledge of His purposes and works ; and 
 the Laws by which the former are accomplished, and 
 the latter regulated. This is the standard by which 
 to measure the spiritual value of all Truth. Meted 
 thereby, it is clear that Mrs. Fitzhog's very believable 
 testimony as to the blossoming of her myrtle is but of 
 small value, perhaps none : whilst that which repre- 
 sents her husband to be a brute (though perhaps quite 
 as believable as the other), is valuable only as a proof 
 of the evil which results from Ignorance : for Mr. Fitz- 
 hog could not indulge in practices which level him 
 with the brute creation, if he knew positively that he 
 is a Man, having the privilege to become a God. 
 You see, therefore, Civilis, that Reason and the Soul-
 
 C WAP 1.1 THE ALPHA. 145 
 
 instincts of Men, are part of their nature, and the all- 
 sufficient Means appointed through which they may 
 arrive at Perfection and Happiness. Every Soul is, 
 therefore, a revelation in itself, to itself, for itself ; but 
 as, in its very nature Knowledge is Love, and its exer- 
 cise the very highest phase of conceivable happiness, 
 so we are admonished by our Reason and our Soul- 
 instincts to live for others as well as for ourselves : 
 thus, our social duties are clearly pointed out to us ; 
 and thus also, the right direction of all our labours, 
 and of all our Laws, are indicated beyond the pos- 
 sibility of mistake. Man has a double nature ; that 
 is the only difficulty : he is an animal, in which an 
 Angel is enshrined. He might live for either. Could 
 we show the entire world this one Fact, Civilis, the 
 difficulty would vanish : mankind would make their 
 selection ; and their selection would necessarily be 
 right. 
 
 CIVILIS. Prove to me this last inference of yours, 
 my dear Randolph ; show me (all irrational impedi- 
 ments thereto apart) that a man must act in obedience 
 to his convictions, and I am thenceforth your disciple 
 in Philosophy, and a convert to your Religion, 
 
 RANDOLPH. Why a CONVERT, Civilis? 
 
 CIVILIS. Simply, because I shall not have a doubt 
 remaining of its Truth : for if this Fact be true, the 
 rest are true ; and every other system is necessarily 
 false. 
 
 RANDOLPH. But will this conviction necessarily 
 make a convert of you, Civilis ? 
 
 i.
 
 140 THE ALPHA. [PAKT II. 
 
 CIVILIS. I see the tendency of your question, 
 Randolph. It will. And this is an answer to my 
 scepticism. 
 
 RANDOLPH. Credulity, Civilis, is a far less com- 
 mendable quality than Doubt. He who is a Sceptic 
 through lack of evidence, renders as high an homage 
 to the majesty of Truth by his unbelief, as he does to 
 whom the evidence brings full conviction. 
 
 CIVILIS. How true is this ! And yet it is the 
 fashion to decry Scepticism as a scandal to humanity. 
 But my eyes are opened ; and I begin to think with 
 David that " all men are liars." Civilization is a lie. 
 Society is a lie. No man dares to be honest even to 
 himself. If the Knowledge with which our libraries 
 are stored be as spurious as ourselves, what an Augean 
 stable has to be cleansed of its abominations before 
 Truth shall find a fit abiding-place amongst us ! 
 
 RANDOLPH. The task is, indeed, a Herculean one : 
 but Truth is omnipotent. We have only to let in 
 Light on the plants that thrive in darkness, and they 
 wither. To punish a man for his opinions is only to 
 confirm him in them. Give him a new Truth which 
 shall alter his convictions, and he is a new man. 
 You may dragoon men into submission, but not into 
 belief. You may preach " Love one another" through 
 another cycle of eighteen centuries, but you will 
 accomplish nothing, except the change of an honest 
 denial of your doctrine into hypocrisy and cant, until 
 you can teach Men Why, and How. Not doctrines 
 do we propagate, but a Principle. Test everything
 
 CHAP, l.j THE ALPHA. 147 
 
 by that, and all will be accomplished. THE ONE 
 TRUTH WHICH CHRIST DID NOT TEACH us, is SUP- 
 PLIED BY OUR PHILOSOPHY. His followers felt this 
 truth, but failed in establishing it by fastening it on 
 a lie. We have PROVED, Civilis, WHAT MAN is, AND 
 
 THE NON-NECESSITY, NOT TO SAY THE IMPOSSIBILITY, 
 
 OF A PHYSICAL RESURRECTION. We know what 
 Human Nature is, as God made it. We shall find 
 that the sentimentality which passes current in the 
 world for Knowledge, is, for the most port, as false 
 as that False human nature which Error and Injustice 
 have generated amongst us, and which the very acme 
 of the world's wisdom only teaches us to deplore. 
 The Chinese have a method of dwarfing forest-trees 
 to dimensions suited to a flower-pot. But this is not 
 God's work. Neither is that FUNGUS NATURE which 
 Folly has engrafted on humanity, HUMAN NATURE, 
 
 AS GOD MADE IT, GRAND, SIMPLE, AND CON- 
 SISTENT : but a mean, complicated tissue of absurdi- 
 ties and contradictions, on which the Philosophers, 
 whose work it is, have falsely bestowed this sacred 
 appellation. Books are, for the most part, filled with 
 the nutriment on which this fungus feeds. Men 
 dwarf men, as the Chinese dwarf their cedars, by 
 introducing poison into the sap ; and then tell us 
 that the diminutive falsehood is HUMAN NATURE ! 
 The aggregate of these artificial diminutives consti- 
 tutes that impersonal abstraction we call Society. 
 This Hydra dooms Man to ignorance, shrivels him 
 into a brute : then tells us that Men are brutes by 
 
 L 2
 
 148 THE ALPHA. [PART II. 
 
 nature. It starves him, and he steals : and, of 
 course, Men are thieves by nature. It feeds him 
 with falsehood in his pap : all men are naturally 
 liars. It compels him to be selfish, and then im- 
 pudently puts down his selfishness to the account of 
 human nature. It tasks and tortures him ; it breaks 
 down his imprisoned spirit, and bows his very soul, 
 by the vilest servitude and oppression, into the dust ; 
 and then attempts to fasten his servility on his 
 nature ! Having thus humbled its victim, it does 
 with him whatever else it pleases. It has taught 
 him that all the miseries he suffers are inevitable ; 
 that his nature is grovelling, wicked, and detestable ; 
 that God is a God of vengeance and will punish him 
 with unspeakable torments everlastingly; and then 
 bids him go and worship that God ! Perhaps his 
 real nature revolts at such a worship. Perhaps he 
 believes what Society has told him of the meanness 
 of his nature, and the misery of his lot. Then he 
 girds up his loins for endurance, and says within 
 himself, " I must toil and suffer : why should I wor- 
 ship ? whom should I worship ? I am the creature of 
 necessity : I am the child of Chance. There is no 
 God!" Society now tempts him with its tinsel 
 splendours: he grows ambitious: ergo, human nature 
 is ambitious. It humbles its impersonal self before 
 the thing it has created ; natters it, lauds it, till it 
 grows proud ; and then charges this Pride itself has 
 caused and fostered to the account of human nature ! 
 Thus is nobility created. I see you are weary,
 
 CHAP. I.] THE ALPHA. 149 
 
 Civilis : but stop whilst I tell you how Society manu- 
 factures its Philosophers. It takes one of the afore- 
 said atomies of its own making ; lures him with 
 luxuries, and he becomes a sensualist. It tells him 
 that Pleasure is Happiness : and there is no meanness 
 to which he will not stoop, no danger he will not 
 dare, to grasp it : He does grasp it, and finds it an 
 illusion, a cheat : he falls to moralizing ; writes 
 blasphemies about Nature and the Human species ; 
 dies ; and his falsehoods become the food of future 
 
 generations ! At our next meeting, Civilis, we 
 
 will call this imperious, self-willed delinquent, Society, 
 to a more strict account, and examine the wares it 
 vends, even to its favourites, and palms on us for 
 Knowledge. Civilis promised to come the next 
 evening, and the Reader, if not tired of our Philo- 
 sophy, is invited to make one of the party.
 
 150 THE ALPHA. [PART IT. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 RANDOLPH. CIVILIS. 
 
 CIVILIS. I have already experienced the correctness 
 of one of your axioms, Randolph. " Give a man a 
 new Truth which shall alter his old convictions, and 
 he is a new man." I have been born anew, and 
 my new birth is " of the Spirit." Since yesterday I 
 seem to have lived an age : to have grown old ; to 
 have outlived, not only my opinions, but my occupa- 
 tions, my acquaintances, nay, even my very home ; 
 for not a nook within it seems to own me for its 
 master. Not a Book, nor a Picture and you know 
 I have been a little tainted with the Fine-art mania 
 has solicited me to bestow a single kindly thought 
 upon it. I see everything through a new medium. 
 It is astonishing how much more clearly I see into 
 things, or, as the phrase is, " through them," than I 
 did formerly. My mind has been in a whirl of ex- 
 citement. I cannot call the feelings which have 
 possessed me Happiness : and yet I have never 
 experienced a happiness for which I would willingly 
 exchange them. Although naturally taciturn, I have 
 done nothing but talk all day ; and I fear at times, 
 not very coherently : for poor old Cognovit, my 
 clerk, gave many uneasy indications, whilst I was at
 
 CHAP. II.] THE ALPHA. 151 
 
 chambers this morning, that he thought me mad. I 
 have since been endeavouring to connect in my mind 
 the several parts of your shall I call it Philosophy 
 or Religion, Randolph ? into one systemized whole; 
 but have not been able to concentrate my thoughts 
 sufficiently to do so. In this endeavour a thought 
 or two occurred to me which seem to require some 
 elucidation. 
 
 RANDOLPH. I am glad, Civilis, you have been 
 bestowing so much thought on the subject as to have 
 started a difficulty, Your imagination is, however, 
 a little heated : let us adjourn to the lawn, and seat 
 ourselves beneath the sycamore. The evening is 
 sultry, and its refreshing shade looks especially in- 
 viting. To a tyro, Civilis, the unadorned nakedness 
 of our Philosophy is a little startling. 
 
 CIVILIS. It is : but in any guise how beautiful is 
 Truth ! One view of the subject has afforded me 
 especial consolation. To know that our very errors, 
 and the discomfort they occasion us, are necessary to 
 our after-life felicity, is in every way a happiness ; 
 but in none so much as to feel that our sorrows are 
 ordained by a beneficent, not by an angry God, and 
 that men have only to be wise in order to avoid them. 
 The fact is clear enough when once suggested ; for, 
 certainly, could the soul know all things intuitively 
 and at once, without the step by step progress which 
 it makes from its first conjunction with the body, and 
 without the infelicity which attends its devious 
 wanderings from the onward pathway to perfection,
 
 152 THE ALPHA. U'ART II 
 
 we should be happy without knowing it, and Felicity 
 would be impossible. How long might we have 
 waited for Doctors in Divinity to tell us this ! 
 
 RANDOLPH. Ay, Civilis, they are but blind teachers, 
 with all their sanctified pretensions. The beneficent 
 scheme of Providence which Philosophy reveals to us 
 seems not to have been so much as dreamed of by 
 prosing Moralists, whether Lay or Clerical. Yet it 
 is certain that to any other being than the Deity, 
 felicity is impossible except through infelicity. And 
 how simple the means compared with the magnificence 
 of the end ! for we perceive that the felicity of the 
 Creature is secured, and even that of the Creator en- 
 hanced, by a single act : that of the Creature by 
 the only means possible for its bestowal ; and that 
 of the Creator by the eternally-increasing greatness 
 of the gift. The only idea these teachers seem to 
 have of Providence amounts to this : that God is 
 ever busied watching over, and superintending his 
 universal work, and constantly changing his purposes, 
 and interfering with the operations of his Laws : 
 Laws, Civilis, which were made by a Being of in- 
 finite Intelligence, foresight, and perfection, and 
 which were promulgated in the beginning for all 
 eternity : I mean, of course, if it be the purpose of 
 the Deity that they shall continue for ever. But it 
 may be and in this case, Civilis, mark the endless- 
 ness of the fruition in store for man ! it may be, 
 that after the period when the countless myriads of 
 created Minds, (created TO KNOW this universe of
 
 CHAP. II.] THE ALPHA. 153 
 
 wonders,) shall have acquired the knowledge of the 
 whole ; and that thus the Universe shall exist in 
 myriads of Minds by means of myriads of imperish- 
 able IDEAS OF THIS UNIVERSE, just as, prior to its 
 actual existence, it existed in the Mind of the Deity 
 himself; then, it may be, that the fiat shall go 
 forth that ALL WHICH is shall be no longer ; and 
 that another Universe more wonderful still shall take 
 its place to supply fresh Knowledge and higher 
 Happiness to all the created Sharers of his infinite 
 beatitude : and thus may change follow change, and 
 fruition succeed to fruition, through all eternity. 
 
 CIVILIS. This is, indeed, a glorious prospect, 
 Randolph, and forces one to think that we might 
 tire of Hallelujahs, the highest felicity to which 
 even our Bishops have ventured to give a name ! 
 The thought I just now adverted to, and which 
 has somewhat perplexed me, is this. If a man can 
 neither believe nor disbelieve at will, but only as 
 he is convinced, or not convinced by evidence 
 
 riAd 
 
 which coincides with own knowledge of the nature 
 of things, it follows that his belief, or disbelief, is 
 a matter of necessity, and not of mere caprice or 
 choice. Again : if a man, exempt from all external 
 influences, must act conformably with his convictions, 
 and, under any circumstances, must bend to controlling 
 influences, it follows also, that his actions, as well as 
 his convictions, are the result of an INEVITABLE 
 NECESSITY ; where then is his FREE WILL ? and in 
 what does your system differ from the doctrine of
 
 154 THE ALPHA. [PART II. 
 
 the Fatalists, and the less loveable one of the Predes- 
 tinarians ? for, as his thoughts and actions, together 
 with the circumstances which determine them, are 
 necessarily foreknown to the Deity, is not his course 
 marked out for him from the beginning, and his 
 after-fate PREDESTINED ? 
 
 RANDOLPH. Your question is a very comprehensive 
 one. That all the circumstances of a man's life are 
 foreknown to the Deity is admitted. But, Civilis, 
 to foreknow a thing is not necessarily to predeter- 
 mine it. When God willed the existence of the 
 material universe ; every portion thereof was sub- 
 jected to certain Laws which the inert mass is 
 compelled to obey from an imperious necessity. In 
 this case, not only was its course foreknown, but it 
 was pre-ordained or predestinated. The case is, 
 however, altogether different with respect to Man. 
 The Human Soul is an Intelligent Principle ; and in 
 the same sense that God has Free Will, Man has Free 
 Will ; as well as in another, and truer, sense, which 
 I will mention presently. The Deity has not a Free 
 Will to do wrong, but only to do right. The Deity 
 can neither think evil, nor do an evil act ; because 
 having Infinite Knowledge He cannot have an erro- 
 neous conviction. To the extent of a Man's know- 
 ledge he is, mentally, in the same condition. Free 
 Will, in this sense, is only another name for Intelli- 
 gence. The inert mass of the material universe, 
 having no Intelligence, has no Will ; therefore, to 
 promulgate Laws for the regulation of its movements,
 
 CHAP. II.] THE ALPHA. 155 
 
 was to pre-ordain those movements. But, mark me ! 
 the NECESSITY which even inert Matter obeys, is a 
 Foreseeing, All-knowing, Intelligence ; not the Neces- 
 sity of the Fatalists, which is unintelligent and blind. 
 The Necessity to which Man is subject is twofold ; 
 First, the Necessity we are considering, which in- 
 fluences his rational acts ; and, secondly, that which 
 circumscribes his animal nature, and determines his 
 birth, his growth, his perfection, the reproduction of 
 his species, and his decay. BUT HIS MIND is NECES- 
 SARILY FREE, that by its exercise it might make 
 progress towards the perfection of which it is capable. 
 In consequence of the primitive Ignorance which is 
 essential to this perfection, Free Will pertains to Man 
 in a sense to which it does not pertain to his Creator. 
 Man is an ANIMAL as well as an Embryo Intelligence. 
 HE HAS ANIMAL INSTINCTS which are necessary to 
 his animal development. The needful gratification 
 of every sense (the seats of these Instincts, as well 
 as the inlets to his knowledge) is pleasure-giving : it 
 is, indeed, the Pleasure which induces their exercise. 
 
 HE HAS ALSO SOUL-INSTINCTS, the Desire for 
 
 Knowledge, Presentiment of Truth, and a sym- 
 pathy with spiritual things. These Instincts are 
 also pleasure-giving. It is the Pleasure (perhaps I 
 ought to say the Happiness,) which invites the 
 exercise of these Instincts also. MAN'S FREE WILL 
 
 CONSISTS IN HIS FREEDOM OF CHOICE BETWEEN THE 
 GRATIFICATION OF THESE TWO SETS OF INSTINCTS. 
 
 From the erroneous choice he has hitherto made has
 
 156 THE ALPHA. [PART II. 
 
 arisen nearly all the Evils he has so needlessly 
 suffered. This I will prove to you in its proper 
 place. Ignorance, therefore, not Intelligence, is the 
 parent of Free Will. As our Knowledge increases 
 our Free Will is circumscribed, and this, for the 
 beneficent purpose of our progress towards perfec- 
 tion and happiness. In our exercise of Free Will we 
 may restrain our animal Instincts within rational 
 limits, or yield ourselves entirely to their influence. 
 
 W T e may follow the benign direction of the 
 
 Soul-instincts, or, neglecting their solicitations, we 
 may suffer them to perish within us. We might 
 use them to the noblest end, or misdirect them to 
 the mere purposes of sensuality. As long as these 
 Instincts are ONLY INSTINCTS they may give a BIAS 
 to the Mind, BUT HAVE NO ABSOLUTE POWER TO 
 DIRECT IT. But, convert a Soul-instinct into a con- 
 viction ; and nothing but the influence exerted over 
 the individual who has attained the conviction, by 
 the mass of minds to whom the conviction has not 
 yet come, can prevent the resultant act from being 
 in strict conformity with the conviction, and termi- 
 nating in good. Man is not, therefore, a mere 
 material machine, the minutest movements of which 
 are predetermined as well as foreknown ; but an 
 Intelligent creature, having free liberty of choice 
 between the nature and gratifications peculiar to the 
 brute, and the nature and gratifications of his angel- 
 Intellect. As he inclines to the former he is sub- 
 jected to the Laws to which mere brutes are subject ;
 
 CHAP. II.l 
 
 THE ALPHA. 157 
 
 and as lie inclines to the latter, he is subjected to the 
 Law, which (operating as an imperious, and at the 
 same time, a beneficent necessity,) compels him to 
 believe that only which is believable, to reject that 
 which is unbelievable, and to act in obedience to 
 his convictions. It is on this very law, Civilis, that 
 we must rest our hopes of the extinction of Evil, and 
 the regeneration of the human race. Have I, so far, 
 made myself understood ? Do you see that this 
 necessity to which the Human Soul is subject, is not 
 the chimerical necessity of the Fatalists, but the 
 ordination of an All-intellectual God who purposes 
 thereby the Happiness of the Human Race ? 
 
 CIVILIS. I think I clearly perceive your meaning, 
 my dear Randolph. Certainly, this necessity is not 
 the necessity of the Fatalists with which I was con- 
 founding it; but is, as you have described it, A 
 
 BENEFICENT NECESSITY, CAPABLE ONLY OF GOOD. 
 
 You have also reconciled to my entire satisfaction, 
 what appeared to me to be an anomaly, namely, the 
 existence of this Necessity with the existence of Free 
 Will. If there be any portion of your explanation I 
 do not fully comprehend, it is the distinction (looking 
 to their results], between Foreknowledge and Predesti- 
 nation. I perceive that to Foreknow, is not neces- 
 sarily to Predestinate. But, my dear Randolph, 
 seeing that there are millions of human beings whom 
 erroneous influences have kept ignorant, and whom, 
 the circumstances they were unable to control or 
 surmount have degraded into the condition of brutes,
 
 158 THE ALPHA. [PAUT II. 
 
 I am led to perceive also, that, in consequence of 
 these influences, these millions may never attain to 
 that state of Perfection and Happiness of which their 
 nature is capable ; I would, therefore, ask, how do 
 you reconcile GOD'S FOREKNOWLEDGE AND PERMIS- 
 SION of these adverse circumstances, first, with his 
 ability to do all he purposes to do, and next, with his 
 Justice ? 
 
 RANDOLPH. Whether we can reconcile these seem- 
 ing anomalies with God's Justice or not, it is certain 
 that whatever Infinite Intelligence wills to do cannot 
 be the work either of incapacity or injustice. We 
 have already seen that some things are not possible 
 even with God. Incapacity and Injustice are of the 
 number. To give the human race a sense of Happi- 
 ness without acquainting them with sorrow, is another 
 of these impossibilities. There is, therefore, a NECES- 
 SITY for the condition in which Humanity finds itself ; 
 I mean, for its primitive ignorance, for its dual 
 nature, and for those Instincts I have adverted to 
 which tend to the development of both natures. 
 Were it not for the existence of the Instincts Man 
 could not have Free Will : and without the Free Will 
 he could have no choice : he must be governed by a 
 special Providence, not by general Laws : his pro- 
 gress in Knowledge would then be errorless, and he 
 would have no more sense of his happiness than has 
 a statue of its form, or the rose of its fragrance. 
 There would be no need of the endless variety we 
 now find in the material universe. As aids to our
 
 CHAP. II.i THE ALPHA. 159 
 
 senses, the forms, colours, and characteristics of things 
 would be unnecessary ; for we should not need the 
 senses, nor, of course, have any. In short, Civilis, 
 the Deity must have made, or might as well have 
 made, his Intellectual creatures complete Intelligences 
 at once ; witnesses of his Power, but not sharers in 
 his beatitude. So that, taking the Happiness of his 
 creatures as the object of such a creation, the latter 
 would have been a blunder : the means would have 
 been inadequate to the end. Power would have 
 been exemplified, but not Beneficence. Free Will is, 
 therefore, a Necessity. Now, if a created soul cannot 
 attain Perfection and Happiness without the Free Will, 
 the two Natures, the Instincts, the Sorrow, and the 
 Ignorance, it is clear that the General Laws by which 
 the Special Purpose of human existence is on the 
 whole secured, must be subject to the accidents caused 
 by the errors to which Free Will is liable. The failure 
 of millions of Souls from the circumstances you have 
 alluded to, is an accident ; foreknown I admit, and 
 permitted, but inevitable. But that these accidents 
 can result in injustice, I totally deny. All the Laws 
 of the Deity are general, not special. Observe a re- 
 sult of one of them in the Vegetable Kingdom. You 
 know the balloon-like apparatus appended to the seeds 
 of the thistle. The winds are not put in motion for 
 the purpose of scattering these seeds and securing the 
 reproduction of this particular vegetable. But you 
 have seen them borne about on the wings of the 
 evening breezes, and know that many of them ulti-
 
 160 THE ALPHA. [PAST II. 
 
 mately find a resting-place where they vegetate and 
 become thistles. Millions of these seeds, from a 
 thousand accidents, fail. Yet there is no lack of 
 thistles. BUT WHAT BECOMES OF THOSE WHICH FAIL? 
 In some shape or other they become a part of the un- 
 organized matter from which they first derived their 
 being. Neither, in the Spiritual Heaven, will there 
 be any lack of Intelligences. But what becomes of 
 those Souls whom not accident altogether, but their 
 own blind folly shall have wrecked ? They will be 
 again amalgamated with the Soul of the Universe from 
 which they first derived their being. And where is 
 the injustice ? They chose the brute's gratifications, 
 and find the brute's destiny. Creatures of sense, they 
 enjoy the pleasures of sense, and when these pleasures 
 pall, they die. They did not know that they were Angels 
 in nature, and capable of an Angel's immortality and 
 happiness or they must have fitted themselves for an 
 Angel's destiny : and as they did not know that which 
 each of them, in spite of external influences, might 
 have known, namely, what they were, and why they 
 were created knowledge which would have ensured 
 the purposed end against all obstructions it is ob- 
 vious that, to them, the loss of individual existence 
 hereafter can be no injustice. 
 
 CIVILIS. I am convinced, Randolph; perfectly con- 
 vinced. I could not now re-embody or re- word your 
 argument. I am too much excited to do so : but I 
 am sure it is logical and conclusive. I followed it
 
 CHAP II.] THE ALPHA. 161 
 
 carefully, anxiously, fearfully I am satisfied that it is 
 
 true. Pardon my emotion, Randolph. 
 
 RANDOLPH. I perceive you are unusually moved, 
 Civilis ; and will defer until our next meeting, the 
 inquiry on which we were to have entered this even- 
 ing. Let us join Ellen : and over our coffee I will 
 relate to you a dream I have always been a dreamer, 
 Civilis, that I dreamed some months ago ; which, 
 though fantastic in its character, will not be an un- 
 suitable preface to the practical portion of the subject 
 
 we have yet to discuss. 
 
 ****** 
 
 CIVILIS. There is something very inexplicable in 
 dreams. They seem to be, for the most part, but dis- 
 jointed reminiscences of our past experience ; yet 
 occasionally they appear to be the dim foreshadowings 
 of the future. I once dreamed that I saw my mother, 
 who had been standing beside me, ascend to Heaven, 
 when she became one amongst a crowd of Angels 
 around the throne of God. Forms and colours there 
 were none. The throng was innumerable. It was 
 something of the nature of EXPRESSION by which each 
 was distinguishable from the others, and my mother 
 from them all; SOMETHING FELT BUT NOT SEEN. 
 Never shall I forget the I know not what to call it 
 NOT THE LOOK, which my mother cast towards me as 
 unwonderingly, I gazed on the glory she had become. 
 It seemed to say " Come too ;" and instantly T floated 
 upwards, light as ether, towards her in the Heavens. 
 
 M
 
 162 THE ALPHA. [P^T II. 
 
 Then thought I an earthly, unholy thought and fell. 
 I essayed to rise again, but could not. A cloud of 
 darkness overspread the radiance. I awoke in agony. 
 I was then a child ; but this dream has held a mys- 
 terious influence over me ever since. I have ever 
 vainly wished to dream this dream again. But there 
 is one dream, which, with but little variation, I dream 
 frequently. It is a sort of confession : give me leave 
 to tell it you. It commences by the most delightful 
 of sensations I ever experienced that of floating 
 through space ; not flying, but, by the mere power of 
 volition, careering over the surface of the earth and 
 sea; descending whithersoever I desire to descend, 
 and visiting whom and what I please. An accident in 
 my infancy, Miss Randolph, maimed me, and rendered 
 me the unprepossessing object you see me now. My 
 soul has ever gazed worshippingly on Beauty : but 
 Beauty has never beamed back a sympathetic look on 
 me. In my dreams in the spiritual world there is 
 ever one Fair Form of which I have no waking 
 memory, but the same always. 
 
 Her I invariably visit in these aerial dream-career- 
 ings. Her I worship, conscious the while, that the 
 soul of this ideal Pair One sympathises wholly with 
 mine own. This dream, though frequent, is occasional. 
 I am then always another self, having no memory of 
 my waking self no consciousness of my deformity, 
 it now occurs to me, Randolph, that I may be one of 
 those wrecked souls of a former generation, not lost, 
 but re-embodied; and that my former ego and
 
 CHAP. II.] THE ALPHA. 163 
 
 my present self, are two embryo existences, which, 
 per se, await but a link in the chain of memory to 
 unite them into one. One Ego with two memories 
 pertaining to two states of being ! May not this be 
 so ? Often when a new truth comes to me, I seem, 
 dimly and indistinctly to have seen that truth be- 
 fore. I have met with many who have experienced 
 the same momentary feeling, amounting almost to 
 a conviction. Is it not so, Randolph ? or am I 
 dreaming now ? 
 
 RANDOLPH. The dream I am about to relate to 
 you, Civilis, will almost confirm you in your in- 
 genious fancy. That which is philosophically curious 
 in it is, that from the beginning to the end I was 
 the astonished listener to a long story which could 
 have been no other than the coinage of my own 
 brain. This story, but for its incompleteness, might 
 be designated the Autobiography of a Pin, but as I 
 awoke before the whole history had been related, I 
 will entitle it 
 
 THE REMINISCENCES OF A PIN. 
 
 One evening during the early part of last summer, 
 after having dined sparingly and alone, Ellen was 
 was not with me then, and my house was a hermitage 
 I had my coffee brought to me in the library. 
 Although summer, it was cold, and a fire threw 
 a warm glow of cheerfulness over the apartment. 
 Coffee was brought in. My reading-lamp was 
 
 M 2
 
 164 THE ALPHA. [PAKT IT. 
 
 placed on the table. The remaining daylight was 
 shut out. I seated myself in this easy-chair. My 
 only care the only real sorrow which at such mo- 
 ments impresses itself upon me was the thought 
 that the absence of such comforts amongst millions 
 of my fellow-creatures converted these comforts into 
 luxuries which it was almost criminal to enjoy, and 
 especially, to enjoy alone. In this melancholy, and 
 half-thankless mood, I was about to help myself to a 
 cup of this pleasant beverage, when I observed a 
 Pin shining at the bottom of my coffee-cup. I 
 removed it to the tray before me that I might not 
 forget kindly to admonish my maid for her care- 
 lessness. I declined my cofiee; for I have an 
 instinctive aversion to pins. Musing on this trifling 
 circumstance, I thought to myself, " Could a Pin 
 relate its history we should sometimes listen to 
 very curious recitals." Absorbed by this idea I 
 fell asleep ; when gradually the Pin raised itself 
 until it rested on its point, and began to perform a 
 sort of pirouette before me. During this performance 
 my fancy metamorphosed it into the form and dimen- 
 sions of a young girl, except that the head (with 
 the hair twisted round it after the manner of a 
 turban) and the lower extremity (which terminated 
 in a point), still retained the characteristics of a Pin. 
 Having finished its gyrations, which appeared to have 
 been performed much to its own satisfaction, me- 
 thought it began to relate its history by echoing my 
 own whimsical surmise. " Yes, Mr. Randolph, a
 
 CHAP. II.] THE ALPHA. 165 
 
 Pin could relate very curious tales if it chose to do 
 so. The pirouette you have been admiring I first 
 performed above the end of the stem of a tobacco- 
 pipe. Thrust through the centre of a green pea, I 
 have danced in the air with a grace and buoyancy 
 that a Grisi or a Taglioni might have envied, a 
 mischievous urchin such as you were half a century 
 ago, Mr, Randolph, with cheeks swollen like a 
 trumpeter's, blowing the pipe the while by way of 
 accompaniment, and wondering, as well he might, at 
 my dexterity. I was then but a learner. Practice 
 makes perfect ; and I can now, as you perceive, do 
 without the pea, as boys in time learn to swim 
 without the corks. And let me ask you, Mr. Gravity, 
 whether there is not as much to admire in my 
 dancing, as much to interest and delight the proud 
 intellect of the elite of a nation, as in that of any 
 of the lewdly-graceful performances of the most 
 favoured pets of the Opera? I have seen these 
 orgies, sir ; for, although I have had my ups and 
 downs, I have been in good society in my time. Yes, 
 I have peeped from beneath a diamond, sir, on 
 these Opera-shows, and have almost unwound the con- 
 volutions of my head in amazement, not at their 
 agility, Mr. Randolph, for I have often beat them 
 out and out on my tobacco-pipe but to think that 
 men and women could be found ready to turn them- 
 selves into machines, and make grimaces, and play 
 antics, for the amusement of other men and women 
 not one whit wiser or nobler than themselves. But
 
 166 THE ALPHA. [PABT II. 
 
 I will give you my history : it is a strange one I 
 promise you : So listen. 
 
 " I was not born, nor, correctly speaking, created ; 
 but proceeding from a previously-prepared wire the 
 parent of many thousands of my species, was cut 
 by the shears of the pin-fabricating Fates into an 
 individual existence, which for a brief space I en- 
 dured with but little consciousness of the fact, 
 having been tumbled into a heap of similar embryos 
 waiting certain very important additions, namely, my 
 head, my uncorrosive vesture, and my polish. I 
 had already passed through the grinding process of 
 my lower extremity (which might be called my rudi- 
 mental education), under the hands of a master 
 famous for his points. It chanced that I had an 
 excellent head, and well put on, and I naturally be- 
 came a very sharp pin. I cannot too much expatiate 
 on the inestimable advantage of a head, an ad- 
 vantage which I take some pride in remembering 
 does not fall to the lot of all pins. With a good 
 head, a pin of the right material, that is, of a good 
 temper, and not too soft might be made to go 
 through almost anything. I have gone through a 
 great deal in my time. Yes, sir, with a good head, 
 a strong constitution, and superior powers of pene- 
 tration, I know of no woollen nor even hempen 
 difficulty which it might not readily overcome ; that 
 is, barring accidents, such as falling into a cess- 
 pool, or getting into the fumbling fingers of a 
 man.
 
 CHAP. II.] THE ALPHA. 167 
 
 " A slop-pail I always looked upon with abhorrence ; 
 and never shall I forget the terror I experienced early 
 in life, trembling as I did over this very utensil for 
 several seconds, dangling from the front of Betty 
 Bedquilt's morning gown. There I was, head down- 
 wards, and the gravity of my head, for once, nearly 
 ruined me. But, luckily, Betty's hollow tooth gave a 
 twinge at the very moment I had given myself over 
 as lost, and I was saved from the exterminating pol- 
 lution of the cesspool by being made the instrument 
 of alleviation to Betty's surcharged tooth ; a filthy 
 business for a pin of my pretensions ; but I forgave 
 the degradation, as it saved me from a worse : besides 
 I felt that I had performed an office of real charity : 
 and to reflect on the good we do is no slight happi- 
 ness in this world. 
 
 " Well, as I was saying, and with good reason, a 
 slop-pail is my aversion ; and the thing, most de- 
 testable next to this is to fall into the hands of a 
 masculine biped who happens of a morning to be 
 minus a button to his shirt. These creatures have 
 digits with only sensitiveness enough to manage a 
 button, or to tie hard knots with a yard or two of 
 twopenny tape : but, for a Pin ! the Fates save us 
 delicate existences from their paws. We are made 
 for the fair sex. Their modest charms are intrusted 
 to our keeping. We are the guardians of their deli- 
 cacy and honour. And many a time have I balked 
 the unseemly advances of libertinism by a blood-letting 
 scratch or a venomous puncture, when unguarded
 
 168 THE ALPHA. [PART II. 
 
 thoughtlessness and opportunity have concurred to 
 expose some charm, intrusted to my especial keeping, 
 to danger and assault. Oh, these men ! I almost 
 loathe the sight of them. I was once in terrible danger 
 of being bent double by one of these uncouth wretches : 
 but I was too sharp for him ; for, penetrating into 
 his awkwardness, I penetrated at the same instant 
 into the quick under his thumb-nail. By this exploit 
 I escaped his clutches ; for, with a very wicked wish, 
 away he flung me, and I fell into a seam in the carpet, 
 and thence wriggled through into a chink in the 
 chamber floor. 
 
 " Here I lay inactive and neglected during several 
 weeks. How I wished I could convert that varlet 
 into a living pincushion ! I was inexperienced then, 
 and naturally fell into the lax way of thinking so 
 current amongst mankind. I really thought there 
 was a difference, nay, an immeasurable difference, be- 
 tween a milkmaid and a marchioness : so I looked 
 with contempt on the one, and entertained a sort of 
 servile reverence for the other. All my anxiety was 
 to raise myself in the world, at least as high as the 
 waist of a real Baroness ; and here I lay exuding 
 verdigris out of sheer vexation for near a month. 
 Oh, these men ! I did nothing but invent schemes 
 of revenge on the whole fraternity whenever I should 
 effect my liberation. 
 
 " One mischief, however, my internal furnings did 
 myself. I began gradually to lose my polish, and 
 was thus parting with my best chance of redemption ;
 
 C"AP. HI THE ALPHA. 169 
 
 for glitter is a great attraction, and external appear- 
 ance no slight recommendation in the eyes of the 
 world even to a Pin. I, however, still possessed my 
 powers of penetration, which was no slight point in 
 my favour ; and was, moreover, still as straight as 
 any young lady after her new corset has been properly 
 laced. But let me drop similes, lest my fancy should 
 hurry me into imprudences. I have seen much 
 which is not to be mentioned, and have lived long 
 enough in what is called good society not to have 
 learned discretion. Indeed, the only difference I 
 could ever perceive between the fashionable portion 
 of society and the vulgar consists in a discreet 
 government of the tongue. The former utters its 
 best thoughts and suppresses its worst : the latter 
 gives an honest utterance to all. So now, having 
 resolved on circumspection, let me proceed with my 
 story. 
 
 " Nearly a month after my accident, I had the good 
 fortune to be rescued from my obscurity by the 
 chambermaid, who, having exhausted her mistress's 
 pincushion, one day when the carpet was up, had 
 recourse to the crevices of the floor to supply her 
 necessities. No sooner did she espy me than she 
 drew me forth, and, according to her custom, placed 
 me in her mouth, covered as I was with the excretion 
 already mentioned. 
 
 " Having been thus unwittingly restored to my 
 pristine brightness by the thoughtless Susan, I was 
 transferred to her habit-shirt. It chanced that Susan's
 
 170 THE ALPHA. [PAKT II. 
 
 lip had that morning received a slight incision from 
 an indiscreet use of a knife whilst feeding, and the 
 poisonous matter that had dulled my brilliancy was 
 duly transferred to the wound. A poisoned lip was 
 the consequence. The wound was cured after some 
 weeks of disfigurement and pain : but as Susan was 
 ignorant of the cause of her mishap oh, how much 
 evil is caused by ignorance, Mr. Randolph ! she 
 continues to deposit stray pins in her pretty mouth 
 as usual, to the jeopardy of her own as well as their 
 existence. 
 
 " I was begged of Susan by the lady's maid j 
 and the very same day I was employed in a way 
 which I thought a little derogatory, for my duty was 
 to hold together some whity-brown paper placed 
 around a bonnet which had to be returned to the 
 milliner for alterations. Pins, however, should not 
 be particular, nor judge too hastily. Every accident 
 is not a misfortune, though at first sight it might 
 look like one. It is impossible to foresee what good 
 fortune disagreeable circumstances might be leading 
 us to. We neither know what we escape nor what 
 we are approaching. This was my case. And as for 
 the degradation ; I was cured of the prejudice, as 
 far as regards myself, by observing to what uses one 
 set of human beings converts the rest of the species. 
 It was here I began to grow philosophical. Pins, 
 thought I, do not work for pins. The animals do 
 not labour for each other, save only (and this out of 
 love) for their little ones ; but each creature labours
 
 CHAP. II.] THE ALPHA. 171 
 
 for itself alone : whilst men and women, I perceived, 
 not only enslave the animals beneath them, but 
 enslave each other. I never could comprehend the 
 meaning of this, nor see the necessity for so much 
 work. I was first led into these reflections by the 
 following circumstance. A delicate young creature 
 named Jenny Blanchard, a worker in this establish- 
 ment, took me one Sunday evening, in the bow of 
 her bonnet, to church. It was the first time I had 
 ever been there. It was a novelty, and I paid great 
 attention to all I heard. I perceived that people 
 came to church to be instructed by some one far 
 greater than themselves, as to their duties. I well 
 remember these words being read from a great 
 book. 
 
 ' Take heed, and beware of covetousness : for a 
 man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the 
 things which he possesseth. 
 
 ' Consider the ravens : for they neither sow nor 
 reap ; which neither have storehouse nor barn ; and 
 God feedeth them : How much more are ye better 
 than the fowls ? 
 
 1 And which of you taking thought, can add to his 
 stature one cubit ? 
 
 ' If ye then be not able to do that thing which is 
 least, why take ye thought for the rest ? 
 
 ' Consider the lilies how they grow : they toil 
 not : they spin not : and yet I say unto you that 
 Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of 
 these.
 
 172 THE ALPHA. [PART II. 
 
 ' If then God clothe the grass which is to-day in 
 the field, and to-morrow is cast into the oven : how 
 much more will he clothe you, O, ye of little faith ? 
 
 ' And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye 
 shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. 
 
 ' For all these things do the nations of the world 
 seek after : and your Father knoweth that ye have 
 need of these things. 
 
 ' But rather seek ye the kingdom of God, and all 
 these things shall be added unto you. 
 
 ' Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good 
 pleasure to give you the kingdom. 
 
 ' Sell that ye have, and give alms : provide your- 
 selves bags which wax not old : a treasure in the 
 heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, 
 nor moth corrupteth. 
 
 ' For where your treasure is, there will your heart 
 be also.' 
 
 " Just as I was rejoicing within myself that all 
 the overworked maidens, whose toils I had been 
 witnessing for more than a week, will work no more, 
 but live in health, and be arrayed in beauty as the 
 lilies are, the preacher a man you may be sure, Mr. 
 Randolph, explained that all these beautiful words 
 meant the very reverse of what they seemed to mean : 
 that the poor should be always with us ; and that 
 the poor must work in this world for fear of being 
 damned in the next. Poor Jenny Blanchard fainted, 
 and was carried back to the place whence she had
 
 CHAP II.i THE ALPHA. 173 
 
 come, I cannot call it her home and in three days, 
 sir, she was dead ! 
 
 " I saw much in this ' Maison des Modes' of too 
 painful a nature to remember willingly, but which is 
 too deeply engraven on my memory to forget. I 
 became the casual property of Miss Lydia Brierley : 
 and thousands of times have I been transferred from 
 her palpitating bosom to her work, and from her 
 work back again to her bosom. For many weeks 
 together, from six o'clock in the morning till the 
 noon of night, have her delicate fingers employed me 
 to aid her in her almost ceaseless avocations. Poor 
 young lady ! so gentle ! so spotless-minded ! so truly 
 good ! Why was she doomed to everlasting work, 
 whilst the ladies in the house I had come from were 
 so utterly exempt therefrom as to be almost dying of 
 idleness and ill-nature? Amongst us Pins there is 
 a difference. A great, unwieldy corking-pin is made 
 purposely for coarse employments, in which none but a 
 biped of the masculine gender would ever think of 
 employing a delicate ' Medium' like myself. But 
 why this difference amongst the Pair Angels of the 
 Earth ? And what are you breeched and bearded 
 1 lords of the creation' about that you permit it ? I 
 am pretty sharp ; have a tolerable share of natural 
 penetration, but I never could understand this. Why 
 loll you there, sir, in luxurious ease I will, how- 
 ever, eschew heroics as I am just now in the melting 
 mood ; and I thank my stars that I am made of a
 
 174 THE ALPHA. [PART II. 
 
 melting material : so let me proceed with my 
 story. 
 
 " The last time I was employed by Lydia Brierley 
 was on her death-bed. Poor child ! She had become 
 the victim of consumption. Work, work, work ; to- 
 gether with a sensitive, loving, gentle heart, had 
 utterly consumed her. The last office in which she 
 employed me was to secure a five-pound note in her 
 last letter to her mother, who had no means of escaping 
 the workhouse but by poor, gentle Lydia's life-con- 
 suming toil. I remember she placed ****' rover her 
 name ; and as she feebly pressed me through the 
 papers, a tear feU upon me ! I can never forget that 
 tear ! one of the last poor Lydia shed ; for she was in 
 heaven before I quitted her emaciated hand ! How 
 often have I said to myself, * Oh, that poor Lydia 
 Brierley had been a Pin !' At that moment I would 
 willingly have held her grave-clothes about her, and 
 have gone with her to oblivious corruption in the quiet 
 ground ! but it chanced otherwise. 
 
 "What I heard and witnessed in this millinery 
 establishment, it would almost dissolve me to relate. 
 Most of these millinery maidens died in their ' teens.' 
 Some, however, I saw there who had passed the com- 
 mon meridian of life, proof, apparently, against in- 
 cessant toil. These were shrivelled up into automatons. 
 They had skins of parchment, and tempers like but 
 I have abjured similes, and will not say like what. 
 For months after I shuddered at my recollections of 
 this Temple of Fashion the type, sir, of hundreds
 
 CHAP. II.] THE ALPHA. 175 
 
 on whose altars, hung round with shrouds, hecatombs 
 of maidens are yearly sacrificed! Shame, shame on 
 the men who have neither the sympathy, nor the 
 courage, nor the wit, sir, to prevent it." 
 
 Here some slight noise awoke me, and interrupted 
 a recital in which I had begun to take a peculiar in- 
 terest. But for the interruption, I know not to what 
 other scenes and circumstances, of which I have no 
 waking knowledge, I may have been introduced by my 
 loquacious persecutor : and herein consists its strange- 
 ness. Until I had (as it were) heard the narrative, I 
 was ignorant of it ; and am still ignorant of what 
 remains untold. 
 
 I am not one of those who draw out-of-the-way 
 inferences from dreams ; nor do they often make any 
 rememberable impression on my mind. The dream 
 just related is one of the exceptions. The strange 
 phenomenon it exemplifies arrested my attention ; 
 whilst the social bearings of the very common-place 
 circumstances which passed in review before me, 
 afforded me matter for much serious reflection, and 
 led me, moreover, into certain grave inquiries, which, 
 if they tended little to my immediate happiness, pre- 
 pared my mind for the reception of those new and 
 startling convictions that ultimately led to its attain- 
 ment. I had often witnessed scenes of real misery, 
 and had, not unfrequently, relieved them. From 
 single cases of severe privation, I had been led to 
 contemplate the physical and mental misery of whole 
 classes of my fellow-creatures ; and for many years I
 
 176 THE ALPHA. [PxrtT II. 
 
 had been pretty actively engaged, lessening, as I 
 vainly hoped, the sum of these miseries ; and that 
 on a scale bearing some proportion to their magnitude. 
 But the fancy-painted fate of poor Lydia Brierley 
 affected me more than the realities had ever done: 
 and the words of my fantastic relater of her history, 
 " Oh, that poor Lydia Brierley had been a Pin !" 
 absolutely haunted me for weeks. 
 
 To render human beings more equal in Happiness 
 by relieving the miseries of the miserable, has ever 
 been the object of all Philanthropy : but hitherto, 
 Civilis, Philanthropy has been a mistake. It is 
 admitted that, to do good ; to mitigate the misfor- 
 tunes of the unfortunate ; to relieve the miseries of 
 the miserable ; to reclaim the criminal ; to encourage 
 the virtuously-disposed; to feed the hungry; to clothe 
 the naked ; to heal the sick ; to administer consola- 
 tion to the dying; in fine to lessen the sum of 
 human evil in all its recognised forms and varieties, 
 has ever been the object of the nobly-generous and 
 sincerely philanthropic Few. They have ever done 
 their best, as far as social influences would permit 
 them, to follow in the footsteps of their great 
 Exemplar, who died to convince an unbelieving 
 world unbelieving, because unconvinced, that Love 
 alone is Happiness. But, had these Howards known 
 that, for the most part, the good they did on one 
 hand was the prolific cause of misery on the other ; 
 had they reflected that, as society is constituted, 
 to raise one portion of their brethren from abjectness,
 
 CIIAP ii.] THE ALPHA. 177 
 
 is to plunge another, and perhaps, a more " de- 
 serving" portion into it; even these Christ-like 
 philanthropists could not have been happy men. 
 
 CIVILIS. But is this necessarily so, Randolph ? Is 
 our best, our most disinterested Benevolence reduced 
 to this sad strait ? 
 
 RANDOLPH. I will suppose a case or two by way of 
 illustration, and you shall judge. The wide-spread 
 prostitution of the beautiful daughters of Poverty and 
 Misfortune is a dreadful evil. If you build and en- 
 dow "Magdalens" to reclaim them, and make these 
 Magdalens permanent and happy homes for the 
 reformed sisterhood, you do no more than offer pre- 
 miums for the prostitution you deplore. These 
 refuges for " Sin" will soon be peopled from the 
 streets : yet these will still be full of the frail can- 
 didates for a home, who, to be eligible, must Sin. 
 Such homes, if permanent, would indeed be noble 
 evidences of Philanthropy that is, noble in inten- 
 tion, and an unconscious homage would be thereby 
 paid to the principle of Christian Love. But it is 
 easy to see that the Benevolence would be less incon- 
 sistent with itself, and far more just, if these homes 
 were made the asylums of Innocence instead of Crime. 
 And why is it not so ? Because this would be an open 
 and avowed acknowledgment of the natural Right of 
 all to share in the blessings which the beneficent God 
 of Nature sends so abundantly for all ; it would be a 
 gratuitous declaration by the wealthy of the rottenness 
 and injustice of the present system. This has never 
 
 N
 
 178 THE ALPHA. [I'AKTII. 
 
 been ; or only to a very small extent. But it is clear 
 that unless Charitable Asylums, and Penitentiaries for 
 the reformation of Criminals be made permanent and 
 comfortable homes for offenders against the criminal 
 and moral Law, they are not, in reality, philanthropic ; 
 nor do they assist, except to a very small extent, in 
 the subjugation of Evil, and the diminution of human 
 suffering ; as an example or two will prove. Say a 
 thousand of the female Unfortunates just alluded to 
 be annually reclaimed, for a time only provided for, 
 and then returned into Society, competitors for 
 employment : if they obtain the employment, a 
 thousand of the previously-innocent are annually 
 turned into the street, and the last resource of modesty 
 is forced upon them. It is true, Civilis, that this 
 system of purblind Benevolence makes work for well- 
 meaning kindness to do : but it is also true that such 
 charity serves only to perpetuate the evils it attempts 
 to cure, and does not, I fear, diminish it one jot. 
 Could the really benevolent see how small a modicum 
 of good they actually do, their generous minds would 
 turn away from the Sisyphus-labour in despair, if not 
 in bewilderment and disgust. Take another example. 
 Say, by way of guess, for I am not very conversant 
 with statistics, that the number of criminals in the 
 United Kingdom, I mean, those persons who live by 
 despoiling " honest" men of the fruits of their own, or 
 somebody else's labour, is half a million : take the 
 number of Beggars, probationary Thieves, and those 
 persons who exist between roguery and insufficient
 
 CHAP, ir.] TIIK ALPHA. 179 
 
 labour, outcasts of Society all ! at half a million 
 more ; and we have a million of human beings amongst 
 us in the most abject and pitiable condition in which 
 it is possible for human beings to be placed. Suppose 
 that by a philanthropic wish we could convert all these 
 people into honest, high-minded men and women, each 
 with a handicraft by which to earn a subsistence, and 
 each determined to rely on it for this most commend- 
 able purpose : suppose them further, by our wish, 
 earning their subsistence by the labour of their hands? 
 what have we accomplished ? We have transformed 
 a million Thieves and Beggars into a million Workers : 
 but we have also dispossessed a million workers of the 
 means of living, and converted them into candidates 
 for the Workhouse and the Jail. Is this well done ? 
 And yet our intention was benevolent in the extreme. 
 
 CIVILIS. I fear your position is but too true, 
 Randolph : the only way I see out of it is, in such a 
 case, to provide more labour by which to employ this 
 million whom we have supposed rescued by a wish 
 from idleness and crime. 
 
 RANDOLPH. But according to the system on which 
 Society is at present established, Civilis, Employment 
 will not be found unless it be " remunerative" to the 
 Capitalist or Employer. And that this cannot be, is 
 proved by the half million of Paupers, many thousands 
 of them " able-bodied," who almost constantly exist 
 in our Union Workhouses. We have, therefore, by 
 our wish, but converted a million of persons, who 
 were previously earning a subsistence by the labour
 
 180 THE ALPHA. [PART II. 
 
 of their hands, into a million wretches, whom, if 
 Selfishness dared to be consistent, we should pnt to 
 instant death. But, as Selfishness does not dare to 
 be consistent, we can only do by them the thing next 
 most consistent with our principles, namely, keep 
 them in a parish prison on the smallest pittance pos- 
 sible, and thus shorten their existence by sorrow, and 
 imprisonment, and lingering starvation. This, Civilis, 
 is precisely what we are doing now; except that 
 competition, and an occasional extra demand for 
 labour, come to the relief of the victims for a time, or 
 possibly produce a change of sufferers. A child 
 might see that there is no philanthropy in this. To 
 heal the sick, to clothe the naked, to feed the hungry, 
 is pure benevolence as far as it goes, because all this 
 can be accomplished without much depressing other 
 members of the indigent classes. If, however, tJiese 
 methods of relieving indigence have the effect of raising 
 the object of your bounty into a competitor with others 
 in the " Labour-market" (though a windfall for the 
 Free-traders), it is clear, that, (all else remaining 
 equal) HIS elevation is the depression of another some- 
 where. As long, therefore, as there is not remunera- 
 tive work for all who are willing to work, the labour 
 of Benevolence, under the present system (and which, 
 whether little or much, is a condemnation of the 
 system), is but little more than labour in vain. The 
 truly consistent men (whatever we may think of their 
 Draco-like Philosophy), are those who denounce the 
 necessary results of an inhuman system as " SCOUN-
 
 CHAP.II.J THE ALPHA. 181 
 
 DRELISM," and, with the whip and gallows would 
 attempt its extermination. No, Civilis : we must do 
 one of two things, pension Indigence for life on the 
 wealthier classes, and, by thus making a comfortable 
 provision for Idleness, do a monstrous injustice to 
 Industry; or (which in principle is the same thing), 
 feed it on the water-gruel of Pauperism in a Parish 
 Poorhouse. THE FORMER MODE OF PROVIDING FOR 
 INDIGENCE, AND OF PREVENTING CRIME, is THE GRA- 
 TUITOUS, WHILST THE LATTER IS THE FORCED, HOMAGE, 
 THAT EVEN SELFISHNESS IS COMPELLED TO PAY TO 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLE, WHICH is LOVE. This, 
 Civilis, is the result of my investigations investiga- 
 tions which the dream I have just related suggested 
 to me on the philosophy of Benevolence. Its sug- 
 gestions were equally useful in directing my attention 
 to the philosophy of Work. It has lately become the 
 fashion, as you well know, to attach an undue dignity 
 to Work. England rejoices in a writer whose style 
 is admirably suited to the impenetrability of his ideas: 
 ideas which, when we can come at the meaning of 
 them, are seen to be nothing more than the merest 
 common-places, artfully rendered imposing by the 
 darkness of the diction in which they are shrouded 
 rather than evolved. There is a great mystery in 
 book-making : and the writer in question is at the 
 very head of his craft. One idea which we gather 
 from his writings, and I am not sure that we are 
 indebted to him for any other notion equally distinct, 
 is, that Work dignifies the Worker. Musing on the
 
 182 THE ALPHA. irill. 
 
 fate of poor Lydia Brierley, I arrived at a very different 
 conclusion. The building of bonnets ; the fashioning 
 of furbelows and flounces, may be necessary, in the 
 present state of society, as a means of obtaining bread 
 not otherwise obtainable ; but to the worker in what 
 consists its dignity ! Either mankind are by nature 
 equal, or they are not. If equal, then working to 
 produce superfluities for others in order that the 
 worker might obtain the commonest necessaries for 
 himself, can be no other than injustice ; and the work 
 a galling evidence of his degradation. If they are 
 not equal, then work only serves to force on the 
 worker the humiliating conviction of his inferiority 
 In either case work, instead of dignifying, degrades 
 the worker. It is a very different thing where every 
 man works for himself, and no man arrogantly claims 
 a right to share in another man's labour; or where, 
 out of pure love, a man works voluntarily for another. 
 There is perhaps no greater proof of the truth of these 
 positions than that it is the great effort of all men to 
 avoid the condition which makes hireling work a 
 necessity ; and that every man feels that work is not 
 degrading just in the proportion that it is self-imposed. 
 It is false, then, that mere physical labour, or, in 
 fact, any labour which, performed for pay, recognises 
 a class of professed idlers in society, can confer 
 dignity on any man, however it might suit the pur- 
 poses of a butterfly class, and its paid apologists, to 
 propagate the fallacy. 
 
 Equally false. Civilis, is every usage of Society, in
 
 CHAP, il.] THE ALPHA. 183 
 
 every portion of the globe. The Religion, Morals, 
 Customs, Manners, Laws of the entire Earth are 
 false. Even Philanthropy is false in practice, and 
 only true in aim. It would dispense benefits to all 
 mankind ; but after the lapse of six thousand years, 
 it has yet to be instructed how. Not by almsgiving ; 
 not by preaching reformation ; not by abrogating 
 Laws, or remodelling Institutions ; but, by helping 
 Men to know that they are Men. If by a wish, 
 Civilis, I could exchange all that is false in the Laws 
 and usages of Men for what is just and true, I would 
 not wish that wish. It would accomplish nothing. 
 But if I could draw aside the veil which hides men 
 from themselves, I would draw that veil aside ; and 
 all would be accomplished. 
 
 After arranging on a meeting for the morrow, 
 Civilis left me. What transpired at that meeting 
 will be detailed in the following chapter.
 
 184 THE ALPHA. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 RANDOLPH. CIVILIS. 
 
 RANDOLPH. We have satisfied ourselves, Civilis, 
 what Man is, spiritually. We have seen that his Soul 
 is an Intelligent Principle, needing Knowledge, and 
 designed and constituted by an all-intelligent Creator, 
 solely for its attainment. We have seen that Know- 
 ledge is Truth, or Right Convictions. We have seen 
 that Truth is Philosophy, and its results Religion. We 
 have seen that every individual Soul has within itself the 
 capability of ascertaining and testing Truth ; that it 
 neither needs assistance fvom without, nor can avail 
 itself of such assistance, except by means of the evi- 
 dence which brings conviction. We have seen for 
 what beneficent purpose the Spiritual Soul is conjoined 
 to a material body. We know that the conjunction 
 of the Spirit with the Matter constitutes Man : that 
 the matter is composed of organized parts : that the 
 organization of the Matter is the LIFE of the Matter ; 
 that is that Life is the result of organization, or 
 organization the result of Life. We know that Life 
 is not conscious. We know also that the Soul is 
 neither organized nor divisible : that it has not Life ; 
 but that it is inherently conscious, intelligent, self- 
 existent, and eternal ; a Thought, or Conception of 
 the Deity, an Embryo Intelligence. We know that
 
 CIIAI-. III.] THE ALPHA. 185 
 
 its first knowledge is instinctive ; that it is the innate 
 consciousness of its own individuality, and of its own 
 existence : that it is the germ of all future know- 
 ledge ; and that its added knowledge constitutes its 
 Happiness. All these facts we have proved : we 
 know them to be true. We know that the require- 
 ments of the body are as nothing compared with the 
 requirements of the Soul. We know that the purpose 
 of the Soul's existence is the attainment of know- 
 ledge ; and that to suppose it to have been created 
 for any other purpose, or to be capable of any other, 
 is to entertain an erroneous notion, which necessarily 
 leads to unhappiness and Evil. We know that 
 Error proceeds from wrong convictions; and that 
 convictions whether wrong or right are absolute in 
 their influence ; hence, that Men are not " Sinners," 
 because Error cannot " Sin." We know, therefore, 
 that any assertion to the effect that Men are fallen, 
 sinful, lost, and naturally degraded creatures, is false, 
 and full of mischief. We know that the Soul has no 
 attributes or qualities ; and hence, that the Science 
 called Metaphysics, which reasons on these supposed 
 attributes as though they were real existences, is a 
 false science, and its teachings vain. We know that 
 the Soul has no moral nature : hence we know that 
 the science of Morals is a false and deceptive science, 
 adapted only to a false and artificial state of Society. 
 We know that whatever teachings though called 
 knowledge which are based on the false assumptions 
 of these pseudo-sciences, is not knowledge ; but
 
 186 THE ALPHA. [PAST II. 
 
 baneful, soul-defrauding Error. We know that 
 nearly all which passes in the world for Religion, is 
 not Religion ; but well-meant, though erroneous, 
 Piety, degenerated into Fraud, We know that Juris- 
 prudence, that Government, that the tenure of Pro- 
 perty, that the principles of Commerce, that nearly 
 all Education, that the greater portion of our Lite- 
 ture, our Fine Arts, and all our Social Usages, 
 Institutions, and Laws, are based on an equally false 
 foundation, and hence that the knowledge supposed 
 to be derivable from each of these sources, and from 
 all of them, is, for the most part, false, and fraught 
 with wide-spread calamity to the human race. I do 
 not say, Civilis, that much Good has not been 
 extracted out of these Evils, for this is the intention 
 of Evil : I do not say that this state of things has 
 not been necessary and inevitable ; for through 
 ignorance and discomfort must Man attain to know- 
 ledge and happiness : but, in the abstract all is either 
 absolutely false, or the little that is true will be 
 found to be only guesses at Truth, which, because 
 untested by a principle, have never had the force of 
 Truth. 
 
 Paul in his letter to the Corinthians has well and 
 truly said : 
 
 " If the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who 
 shall prepare himself to the battle ? " Thus it is that 
 men have struggled on under the doubtful guidance 
 of their Soul-instincts, rather than by the illumination 
 of certain Truth. Knowing the Principle by which
 
 CHAP. III.] THE ALPHA. 187 
 
 all Truth is ascertained and tested, you know, Civilis, 
 that all these positions are true. Some of them we 
 have proved by unanswerable argument : others 
 await this proof. I am pledged to supply what proofs 
 are wanting : and you to watch and scrutinize the 
 process : for we must " Prove all things, and hold 
 fast to that which is good." 
 
 The first cause of all things is Intelligence. This 
 Principle shall henceforward govern mankind for 
 ever. Men shall be Angels on the Earth ; and the 
 Earth shall be a teeming Paradise. " For as many 
 as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the Sons of 
 God." So said Paul to the wisdom-loving Greeks. 
 Had Paul KNOWN the truth instead of guessing at it ; 
 
 HAD HE PREACHED KNOWLEDGE INSTEAD OF FAITH, 
 
 there had been no need of the Alpha. But Paul was 
 a noble fellow notwithstanding. In him the truth 
 struggled hard for an utterance : but the time for 
 its utterance had not then come. How manfully he 
 strives against the Animalism of the world ! How 
 grandly he pleads for Spiritualism ; persuaded of an 
 inherent immortality, even whilst he half asserts, and 
 half denies, the resurrection ! 
 
 THE GREAT FIRST PRINCIPLE OF LIFE OF LIFE, 
 Civilis, not of the inherently-existing Soul, BUT OF 
 ANIMAL LIFE, IS SELFISHNESS. Two Plants grow- 
 ing side by side, each heedless of the other, absorbs 
 from the EARTH all the nourishment it needeth ; or, 
 if there be too little for both, then, all it can. 
 Animals do the same inslinctivclv. IT is THE GREAT
 
 188 THE ALPHA. [FAUX II. 
 
 LAW OF LIFE. Whatever lives, blindly and un- 
 knowingly, seeks to prolong its Life, until the pur- 
 poses of its life are accomplished. It then dies. 
 Nor, to unconscious Life, is death an Evil. Man 
 the Animal is naturally Selfish not the conscious 
 Soul (the true Man), but the conventional man of 
 Flesh. THE MAN THAT LIVES AND DIES is IN- 
 STINCTIVELY SELFISH. With him, as with the un- 
 reasoning brutes, and the insentient herbs and grass, 
 Selfishness is the great Law of Life. Wherever 
 there is a reasoning Soul, be it in the Dog, this law 
 is modified. But for the TRUE MAN, the inherently 
 conscious Soul, which for a time inhabits the living 
 tenement of flesh, this Selfishness could not possibly 
 work evil. But since the Body lives exclusively for 
 the Soul's experience and education, SELFISHNESS 
 DOES WORK EVIL. All the real Evils we complain 
 of are caused by Selfishness ; mere inconvenience 
 is not an Evil and by Selfishness they are per- 
 petuated. THE SOUL, THE TRUE MAN, is NATURALLY 
 UNSELFISH ; and from, the beginning until now its 
 Instincts have warred against the principle this 
 Selfishness which is the Law of Life. Out of this 
 strife have grown all those modifying circumstances 
 which have been invented to restrain the instinctive 
 Selfishness of the Animal within rational and en- 
 durable bounds ; I mean mystic Religion, Morals, 
 Arts, Sciences, Literature, and Laws. By means of 
 these, the Soul has endeavoured to assert its 
 sovereignty, and to turn the Life of the outer man to
 
 CHAP, ill.] THE ALPHA. 189 
 
 its own immortal purposes. The struggle has been 
 long ; and sometimes fierce and terrible : but Mind 
 is at length obtaining the mastery, and will have it. 
 The modifying circumstances I have spoken of, 
 deeply tainted as they are with the Selfishness which 
 created them, or, for its own ends permitted their 
 creation, these Religions, Morals, Sciences, Arts, 
 Literatures, and Laws have accomplished nearly all 
 they are capable of accomplishing ; and, in some 
 places, more than they were intended to accomplish. 
 They are the barriers by which Selfishness here 
 restrains Selfishness yonder. Compromises, not 
 Cures. They were never intended to exterminate 
 Selfishness, (nor have they the Power); but rather to 
 foster and perpetuate its existence by systemizing its 
 action : for without such helps, the unrestrained 
 Evil would be constantly preying on itself, and pro- 
 curing its own destruction ; thus, hindering for ever 
 the progress of the Soul, and nullifying the purposes 
 of its creation. Mind is proud of what it has ac- 
 complished : and properly so. But it must accomplish 
 more : it must acccomplish all. And to this end it 
 must test the value of what it has done ; and see what 
 remains to do. It boasts great stores of Knowledge : 
 it must see if it be Knowledge. It vaunts of its 
 Morality : it must ascertain what its Morality is worth. 
 It prides itself on its Religion : it must inquire what 
 portion of it is true. It brags of its Justice : it 
 must ascertain if it be anything more than a name. 
 It rejoices in its Government and Laws : it must
 
 190 THE ALPHA. [PART II. 
 
 determine whether they be not better suited to 
 mere brute natures than to Men. It talks osten- 
 tatiously of what it could do in the matter of General 
 Education : but the Millions who are perishing for 
 want of it, must see whether they cannot educate 
 themselves. Be it our business, Civilis, to help them. 
 And with this purpose in view, let us apply the 
 touchstone of our First Principle to the several 
 branches of our knowledge, and see whether there be 
 not a better and more certain mode of educating the 
 "Millions " (were we generously agreed to do it) than 
 even by throwing open our Schools and our Litera- 
 ture ungrudgingly to all. In the progress of this 
 investigation we shall not only prove the existence 
 and universality of the Selfish Principle, and show 
 the banefulness of its influence on the destinies of 
 Men ; but by seeing, as we shall do, that our Re- 
 ligion, Morals, Literature, and Laws, are, (as I have 
 just asserted) but modifications of this principle, we 
 shall see the desirableness, and possibility, and I 
 believe also, the appointed means, of its subversion. 
 Placing the two Principles and their consequences 
 in juxtaposition, we shall see which is the more 
 suitable for the happiness, and the wants and pur- 
 poses of humanity : and having done this, we will 
 leave Mankind to decide between them : " For where 
 our treasure is, there will the heart be also." Truth 
 needs not the Priest, nor the Orator, nor the Faggot, 
 nor the Sword, to propagate it. It requires but to 
 be unveiled that it might be seen of men, to become
 
 <^Ar. in. i THE ALPHA. 191 
 
 the Law of their Souls, and to be established amongst 
 them for ever. 
 
 CIVILIS. I shall be a most willing listener, my dear 
 Randolph : for though I know enough of the great 
 Truth, to subscribe generally to the many important 
 propositions you have just enunciated, I am still too 
 much a Lawyer to dispense with the evidence by which 
 you will, I am sure, substantiate your sweeping charges 
 against the present knowings and doings of Society. 
 Some minds, from habit, are incapable of grasping a 
 great principle in its entiety, until, by means of 
 evidence, they have mastered its leading facts : their 
 genius is synthetical, not inductive. Mine is one of 
 these. Hence I delight in evidence. Although I 
 never really doubted the fact of my Soul's existence ; 
 your logical demonstration of this fact in the begin- 
 ning of the Alpha-vision has converted the feeling 
 into a mathematical certainty, and the pleasure-afford- 
 ing faith into an enduring happiness. In like manner, 
 I have ever been persuaded of the Soul's immortality; 
 but had I been sceptical, your proofs in the Alpha- 
 vision would have convinced me. I have never 
 needed, I have never desired, an additional proof: and 
 yet you have just given me one which is so logically 
 conclusive, so obvious, so simple, so all-sufficient in 
 itself, that I have no words to express the happiness 
 your demonstration has afforded me. BECAUSE THE 
 
 SOUL DOES NOT LIVE, IT CANNOT DIE ! why I WOllld 
 
 not, if I could, unknow this demonstration, to be 
 absolute Emperor of the earth. For, say, LIFE is the
 
 192 THE ALPHA. [PART It. 
 
 Soul : it matters not. Life is then a thing apart from 
 Matter, and not a mere condition of Matter : an 
 Essence which THINKS independently of Matter: a 
 thing which does not live, and therefore cannot die. 
 So happiness-giving is, to me, a logical demonstration, 
 that I could affect ignorance for the pleasure of being 
 taught. 
 
 RANDOLPH. Beware of the common error, Civilis. 
 Let self-reliance be the rule, and reliance on others 
 the rare exception. What another mind can do, yours 
 can do. But discussion is a spur to intellectual per- 
 ception. Our minds are differently constituted ; 
 partly from physical differences, but chiefly from a 
 difference in education, habit of thought, and the 
 accidental disparity in our knowledge. It is these 
 latter differences which cause the physical differences ; 
 and hence the folly and uselessness of the labours of 
 those pseudo-philosophers who call themselves Phreno- 
 logists. Mental differences exist between us from the 
 circumstances I have mentioned. We shall therefore 
 regard Facts from different points of view, and thus 
 be the means of conferring on each other a mutual 
 advantage. Not, therefore, because I can teach you 
 anything you could not discover for yourself, do I ask 
 your attention : but because my reasons for believing 
 a fact might be different to yours. 
 
 CIVILIS. It is because I conceive that they will not 
 only be different to mine, but better, that I am anxious 
 to hear them. But I have another reason, and a
 
 CHAP. HI] THE ALPHA. 193 
 
 more important one. It is this. Although your 
 First Principle is a major proof of the truth of things, 
 which proof renders all minor proofs superfluous (be- 
 cause it necessarily includes all others in itself) ; still, 
 to prove the Minor facts separately, is to prove anew 
 the truth of the Major Fact ; and thus to make 
 assurance doubly sure : a great desideratum, Ran- 
 dolph, in so great a matter. Therefore, to test its 
 truth, that, if it stand the test, we might place it on 
 high as a beacon-light to the entire world, and for all 
 ages, I will scrutinize your facts and reasonings as 
 though I were ignorant of the great Principle, or 
 sceptical as to its truth. 
 
 RANDOLPH. You will find this a difficulty, Civilis : 
 but the love of Truth which prompts the attempt 
 makes me proud of my disciple. It is not, however, 
 my intention to try your powers of simulation, or to 
 tax your patience, overmuch ; although to some 
 extent this is necessary to a thorough comprehension 
 of the Animal Principle (which at present governs all 
 societies of Men), as well as more completely to test 
 the Intellectual Principle which will ultimately sub- 
 vert and supersede it. The modus operandi of the 
 change may be expressed in a word, EDUCATION : an 
 Education having one aim THE INTELLECTUAL PER- 
 FECTION AND HAPPINESS OF THE ENTIRE SPECIES ; and 
 
 one Specific for ikw attainment, TRUTH. Our first 
 business, therefore, is to ascertain how far the pre- 
 sent mode of education is really conducive to INTEL-
 
 194 THE ALPHA. IP*" II. 
 
 LECTUAL PERFECTION AND HAPPINESS ; and llOW much 
 
 of the Knowledge we are so chary of is, in reality, 
 SOUL-ENLARGING TRUTH. 
 
 j 
 
 The plan of examination I propose to adopt is this. 
 Amongst the papers of my late brother, whom I will 
 continue to designate by his adopted name of DIONY- 
 sius, are a mass of scattered Memoranda under a 
 variety of heads, made by him evidently with a view 
 to the systemized work he had been meditating for 
 several years. These isolated Notes I have arranged 
 with as much attention to order as their incomplete- 
 ness would admit of; having interpolated an occa- 
 sional sentence where such an addition was necessary 
 to produce continuity of the subject-matter, and a 
 connection of the several parts. These Memoranda I 
 propose to read to you in the order of their present 
 arrangement. The first division of these Notes refers 
 to Metaphysics, Morality, and the Virtues. If the 
 reasonings or assertions concerning these appear to 
 us inconclusive, insufficient, or erroneous, the interval 
 that will elapse before reading the Notes which com- 
 prise the next division, I propose to devote to com- 
 ment or discussion ; and so of the others. This plan 
 of proceeding will bring the entire subject we have to 
 discuss systematically before us. I have no appre- 
 hension as to the result. 
 
 Civilis assented, and I proceeded to read the 
 following
 
 CHAP. ill. j THE ALPHA. 195 
 
 EXTRACT FROM THE PAPERS OF DIONYSIUS ON 
 METAPHYSICS, MORALITY, AND THE VIRTUES. 
 
 " The Human Soul being, like its Parent Deity, an 
 Intelligent Principle, it follows that the Knowledge 
 it can acquire is its Happiness, which, confined to 
 itself, is the Happiness of Possession : but as Know- 
 ledge is Love, the highest Happiness attainable by the 
 Human Soul, is, like the highest it is possible to 
 assign to the Deity, the Happiness of Distribution. 
 
 " It follows, therefore, that if Men lived up to the 
 Standard of their spiritual nature, they would seek 
 knowledge that they might attain Happiness ; and 
 they would distribute it without stint amongst their 
 fellow-men, and this out of pure Love, and thus ob- 
 tain for themselves the more exquisite happiness of 
 Distribution. 
 
 " HERE, THEN, WE HAVE A PRINCIPLE WHICH 
 CLEARLY DETERMINES WHAT MEN OUGHT TO KNOW ; 
 
 NAMELY, ALL TRUTH; AND WHAT THEY OUGHT 
 TO DO ; NAMELY, ALL THE GOOD IN THEIR POWER, 
 IF THEY WOULD FULFIL THE HIGH PURPOSES OF THEIR 
 BEING, BE MEN, AND ESCHEW THE MERE GRATI- 
 FICATIONS AND CONDITION OF THE BRUTE. 
 
 " It is manifest, then, that if we were to live 
 up to the Standard of our Spiritual Nature, our desire 
 for Possession, and all our intellectual energies, 
 would be directed towards the attainment of Mental 
 wealth, which we could distribute without the dread 
 
 o 2
 
 190 THE ALPHA. [PART II. 
 
 of impoverishing ourselves ; and as Knowledge is 
 naturally sympathetic, we should no more seize upon 
 and hoard material wealth, or material comforts and 
 possessions, than we should be greedy in the matter 
 of Knowledge. The former of these hypotheses de- 
 scribes the present condition of the human family, 
 and explains the origin of all the miseries known 
 amongst us : whilst the other shows clearly the con- 
 dition to which it must attain before happiness can 
 be universal ; before Evil can be banished from 
 amongst us ; and before we can make any con- 
 siderable progress, individually or collectively, towards 
 that Intellectual Perfection which it is our high 
 privilege to strive for, and within the reach of our 
 capacity to attain. To be convinced of these things, 
 as I am, is a happiness indeed ! 
 
 " Clearly, then, if Men had not chosen Animal 
 gratifications as their chief good, their privilege of 
 doing good would never have been enjoined on them 
 as a duty ; and that purely deific maxim, ' Thou shalt 
 Love thy neighbour as thyself,' would never have 
 been propounded. But, as a duty it must now be 
 enforced on humanity, until the pursuit of know- 
 ledge as our chief good enables us to practise it as 
 our most glorious and God-like privilege. 
 
 "We need knowledge, which is an acquaintance 
 with Truth : and we have a certain test for dis- 
 covering Truth, and distinguishing it from 
 Falsehood. Some of the ancient Philosophers nearly 
 reached it. Plato, Socrates, Zeno, and others.
 
 CHAP. III.] THE ALPHA. 197 
 
 They were lovers of Knowledge : Philosophers in 
 that sense : but not so in any other. They had a 
 clearer conception of Deity than many of us moderns : 
 perhaps clearer than most of us, notwithstanding 
 that we pretend to a more familiar a much too 
 familiar, acquaintance ; but they had not conceived 
 of the true nature of the Human Soul. Their 
 Knowledge ascended only to the point of Pride : it 
 never touched that altitude which converts it into 
 Love. Socrates nearly reached it : perhaps touched it : 
 but Persecution sent him to an untimely death. The 
 Greek Philosophers erred in thinking the mass of 
 men inferior to themselves in nature. They did not 
 rise above the conception of Law as a restraint to 
 the licentiousness of Ignorance ; and statues, and 
 civic crowns, as rewards and incitements to virtue. 
 But for these impediments, their Pride of Intellect, 
 which made them dictators, and their reverence for 
 Virtue, or rather for the Virtues, as Justice, Probity, 
 Fortitude, Valour, Love of Country, and the rest, 
 they would inevitably have reached the First Truth. 
 Plato's " Republic" held the practice of the virtues 
 to be the chief good the utmost limit of attainable 
 perfection. It was a nullity : a dream : it could not 
 work. And, why ? Because the Virtues are chimeras, 
 nonentities ; Justice is a name, not a reality. Friend- 
 ship (reduced to action), a wrong done somewhere; 
 and Patriotism, mere national Selfishness. Nothing 
 can be good, or right, or true, or have any real 
 existence, which pertains, exclusively, to an individual
 
 THE ALPHA. U'ABT II. 
 
 man, or to a class of men, or to a nation. Make it 
 universal, and its very universality deprives it of ex- 
 istence. In this consists the simple grandeur of real 
 Christianity. The catholicity it teaches swallows up 
 Morality, and extinguishes the Virtues. The con- 
 ception is grand, and makes the Pride, and the 
 theorizings of "Philosophy" ridiculous. CHRIST 
 
 TAUGHT LOVE : BUT HE SHOULD HAVE PREACHED 
 
 KNOWLEDGE, WHICH, IN ITS UNIVERSALITY, is LOVE. 
 He taught that the Soul is immortal : but his 
 Metaphysics were at fault, and he could not demon- 
 strate the fact : he left this doubtful : and his grand 
 but simple system could not work. Volumes might 
 be written on the non-necessity, and undesirableness 
 of the Moralities and the Virtues ; but by the aid of 
 the First Principle, a single sentence logically dis- 
 poses of them. 
 
 " Vice and Immorality ought not to exist amongst 
 us. Now if these had no existence, neither could the 
 Moralities and the Virtues exist. As the latter can- 
 not exist without the former; and as the former 
 ought not to exist at all ; it follows that the Virtues 
 and the Moralities ought, as soon as possible, to be 
 dispensed with. What then shall we say of the 
 Literature that enjoins on mankind the practice of 
 these undesirable qualities ? Why, that the authors 
 of this Literature do not know what they are recom- 
 mending. We might test their efficacy and useful- 
 ness in another way. 
 
 " If Virtue is a good, and I possess the means of
 
 CHAP. III.] THE ALPHA. 199 
 
 being virtuous, it is my privilege under the Mental 
 system, or my duty under the Animal one, to extend 
 the means of being virtuous as widely as possible 
 amongst my brethren : and if this is MY duty, it is 
 the duty of all men : and if all men did their duty ; 
 and all men availed themselves of the means which 
 it will be admitted is desirable, then all men would 
 be virtuous ; but as there could be no appreciation 
 of the virtue in the absence of Vice, Virtue, in effect, 
 would have no existence. And this is what all good 
 men, all catholic-minded men, must earnestly desire. 
 Christ's catholicity reached this point : but out of it 
 grew a creed : and Faith was enjoined on men 
 instead of Knowledge ; hence its failure. 
 
 " Now, what is the cause of Vice ? In the lan- 
 guage of the world it is Injustice : in the language of 
 true Philosophy, it is Ignorance, or False Convictions. 
 What cherishes it ? These same False Convictions. 
 What stands, like a bulwark, in the way of its 
 repression ? Again, Ignorance ; of which the Selfish 
 Principle is at once the parent and the nurse. 
 
 " Benevolence is one of the most beautiful of the 
 virtues. What a wilderness of misery would our 
 ill -governed world be without it ! Yet, the more 
 need there is of Benevolence, the more Misery must 
 exist for Benevolence to alleviate. But the wretched- 
 ness with which it co-exists is a dreadful Evil. The 
 former cannot exist without the latter. Seeing this 
 sad fact, how many have doubted even the existence 
 of a God ; or, believing in his existence, have
 
 200 THE ALPHA. U'ART II 
 
 arraigned his Government ! When, alas ! we wil- 
 fully shut our eyes to the general Laws by which 
 he governs ; make Laws of our own ; and, in our 
 besotted ignorance, fit them for Animals, not for 
 dual-natured Men. In these, our Laws, we shall 
 find that the Vices and the Virtues have their birth. 
 Both are human : neither is divine. 
 
 " What, I ask again, shall we say of the Literature 
 which represents the Moralities and the Virtues as 
 the greatest good attainable by Man, and a passport 
 to that happiness in Heaven which we fail to get 
 even a glimpse of on Earth ? Why, simply that it 
 values them at more than they are worth ; and that, 
 however necessary they may be whilst Ignorance 
 fosters Evil, the sooner the world can do without 
 them, the better. They are human contrivances, 
 and commingled with misery; and the Literature which 
 would perpetuate them, though locked up from the 
 millions, is not of half the value 6& this one sentence 
 of Truth : 
 
 " FELLOW-MORTALS ! DEGRADED AND MISERABLE 
 THOUGH MILLIONS AMONGST YOU ARE, YOUR ELEVA- 
 TION MUST COME THROUGH THE CULTIVATION OF YOUR 
 INTELLECT, AND YOUR REGENERATION MUST BE THE 
 WORK OF YOURSELVES. 
 
 " But, the Metaphysicians ? what are they about ? 
 Helping the Moralists ! So much, then, for the labours 
 of the Moral Philosopher and the Metaphysician ! 
 To what shifts have not the former been put to 
 define his Morality ; or to tell us, in any case, where
 
 CHAP. III.] THE ALPHA. 201 
 
 Morality ceases, and Immorality begins ! And to 
 the Metaphysician we are about equally indebted. 
 What do we learn from either that it behoves us to 
 know ? As to Metaphysics, our course is clear : we 
 know enough for all useful purposes by knowing the 
 beginning, -which Metaphysics do not teach : and to 
 the professors of this occult science we may safely 
 leave all the subtle distinctions and incomprehensible 
 quiddities by which they delight to exhibit their 
 profundities, perplex their readers, and deceive them- 
 selves. The different phases of Mind are merely 
 different phases or degrees of Knowledge. Our 
 Wonder is the outward and visible sign of our Igno- 
 rance. Hope and Fear, Joy and Grief, are phases 
 of Ignorance. All our violent Passions are the result 
 of social wrong, which is, again, the result of Igno- 
 rance. Our Judgment is complex Reason, and our 
 Reason is complex Perception. We judge wrongly 
 when we judge in ignorance ; and rightly when our 
 perception has made sure of its facts. Our Imagi- 
 nation is a Soul-instinct, in its impatience for Know- 
 ledge, assuming facts on which to build some possible 
 or impossible fabric of events as a solace to the ever- 
 inquiring Soul. These assumptions are always legi- 
 timate, and, in their consequences, always good, 
 when they are regarded as assumptions, and not as 
 I rue Facts ; or, when they lead to the investigation 
 which proves whether they belong to the category of 
 Falsehood or of Truth. They (these assumptions) are 
 Evil in their consequences, when, unproved, they are
 
 202 THE ALPHA. [PART II. 
 
 negligently or ignorantly viewed by the ignorant as 
 proved verities. And, alas ! there is much of this 
 evil in the world: and none greater or more mis- 
 chievous than has arisen from regarding the specula- 
 tions of Poetry as genuine Prophecy; which never 
 did exist, and never will. And this, which no Meta- 
 physician has told us, is the whole mystery of 
 Metaphysics ! 
 
 " Our pleasures are chiefly animal and selfish 
 even those which arise from our Mentality ; which 
 happens thus : we ignorantly convert the pleasures 
 of Sense (which are pleasure-giving means for the 
 acquisition of knowledge) into the end and object of 
 our existence. Nearly all our Fine Arts are thus 
 desecrated and misemployed. Our selfish love of 
 these animalisms (which Metaphysicians and Moralists 
 approve of because they are natural, and, in their 
 subservient ignorance, defend,) would become rapa- 
 cious and intolerable were they not subjected to some 
 restraint : hence, in order to set limits to the chaos 
 of evil induced by these irrational indulgences ; we 
 contrive Laws, and manufacture Morals, and set up 
 tribunals, and invent punishments, and concoct vir- 
 tues, and imagine grotesque systems of pains and 
 penalties in the world to come ; and thus perpetuate 
 them, irrational as they are, and, as far as in us lies, 
 entail them on the world for ever. 
 
 " To the dreamy labours of the Metaphysician and 
 the Moral Philosopher is intrusted the task of ex- 
 plaining these Passions and ill-directed Desires, and
 
 CUAP. Hi.] THE ALPHA. 203 
 
 of determining how far they can go innocently, and, 
 (as if such a thing were possible), where Innocence 
 inspissates into crime ! Of course, without a First 
 Principle, the whole of this pretended ingenuity is but 
 guess-work and mere dicta, of less value than yester- 
 day's " Times," or " Moore's Prophetic Almanack" of 
 last year. 
 
 " Seriously, however, I do not censure these 
 Morality-meters ; for were it not for the restraints 
 which their labours impose on a portion of mankind, 
 there would be nothing but licentiousness and un- 
 mitigated misery in the world. As it is, we have 
 Virtues and Moralities as the counterpoise of Evil ; 
 and we have the externals of decorum, and the sem- 
 blance of knowledge, in place of the more rational 
 realities. No, we will not seriously blame them for 
 laying hold of Virtue because they could not reach In- 
 telligence. Let us rather honour them for their 
 benevolent efforts to make the best substitute within 
 their reach do the work of the true operator beyond it. 
 But praise cannot be given them except for their 
 ingenuity and good intentions. To speak of them as 
 men of Genius, or as intrepid pioneers hewing out a 
 way for the progress of mankind towards the perfection 
 attainable by their nature, would be to satirise, rather 
 than to commend them. 
 
 " Thus even our Ethics and Metaphysics, which, 
 next to our Religion, profess the most ; and \vhich are, 
 at last, the very pith and marrow of all our educational 
 Literature, excepting only the purely Scientific
 
 204 THE ALPHA. [PAST II. 
 
 contain little or nothing of that knowledge which the 
 Intelligent Principle within us prompts us, by its 
 yearning after rational happiness, to know." 
 
 RANDOLPH. Here ends, Civilis, the cursory, but 
 argumentative Memoranda of Dionysius on these 
 hitherto-lauded branches of our educational knowledge. 
 They are again referred to in his similarly-searching 
 essay on our imaginative and didactic Literature. 
 Their HISTORY is traced in his essay on Government 
 and Laws. But, in the essay I have just read, his 
 argument, as to the abstract inutility and undesirable- 
 ness of Morality and the Virtues as aids to human 
 perfectibility, is, I think of itself, unanswerable and 
 conclusive. No one will be bold enough to affirm that 
 Vice and Crime ought to be cherished amongst men, 
 in order that Virtue and Morality should have a being. 
 At least, there are none who would assent to the 
 naked proposition. But if we view the subject a little 
 more in detail, we shall see that there are tens of 
 thousands of persons in all communities, by courtesy 
 called Civilized, who have a direct interest in the con- 
 tinuance of Vice and Crime that leads directly to 
 their fosterage. And these very persous are, more- 
 over, everywhere the sinews of the national Power, 
 and the chief exponents of the national intelligence. 
 Alas ! Civilis, is THIS CIVILIZATION ? You perceive 
 that, not only do Vice and Crime give activity to 
 the Moralities and the Virtues, keeping their practisers 
 and propagators busy in what has the external
 
 CHAP. III.] THE ALPHA. 205 
 
 resemblance of Good; but they give dignified, per- 
 haps "honest," employment to Law-makers; to 
 salaried Judges ; to stipendiary Magistrates ; to paid 
 Advocates and Lawyers ; to Jailors ; to Turnkeys ; to 
 Hangmen ; to Police Commissioners, and all their 
 salaried subordinates down to the thief-catching con- 
 stable ; to Military and Naval Commanders, their 
 Subalterns, and men. All these, it must, I suppose, 
 be confessed, procure "honest" livings, and, no doubt, 
 live themselves most virtuously, by the simple con- 
 tinuance of Wickedness and Crime. Nor in this 
 catalogue have I included the clergy of all denomina- 
 tions who thrive on immorality and irreligion. I 
 just now assumed that no one would be bold enough 
 to contend that Vice and Crime ought to be cherished, 
 even to keep the white-robed Virtues amongst us. 
 Yet, with such an array of good places, and good 
 things, that would be lost to their present possessors 
 and future expectants, for ever, I feel constrained to 
 withdraw the assumption ; and that from sheer lack 
 of faith in the potency 'of Virtue and "Religion." 
 Of course, such a sacrifice of Interests can never be 
 required ; because the change, if it ever come, must 
 be too gradual to need it: and the reformation, more- 
 over, is too distant to cause the present race of pos- 
 sessors or expectants the slightest alarm. I have 
 merely put the case to show you the anomalous state 
 of things that inheres to the system in which the 
 Moralities and the Virtues have their being : FOR 
 
 CERTAINLY, NO EVENT COULD BE MORE CALAMITOUS
 
 206 THE ALPHA. [PART II. 
 
 TO THE LIGHTS AND LEADERS OF THE WORLD, THAN 
 THE SUDDEN CESSATION OF IMMORALITY AND CRIME ! 
 
 CIVILIS. You warned me beforehand, that my 
 office of Scrutator on the part of Society, would be a 
 difficult one. So far, I find the task I have under- 
 taken an impossible one. Certain it is that the 
 Selfish System thrives on Vice, and battens on human 
 degradation and misery. It is equally certain, that 
 Morality and Virtue must be superseded by the 
 element of a new System, Intelligence. But when 
 " the white-robed Virtues" have gone, Mankind shall 
 build a monument to their memory ; and many an 
 old-world name shall be inscribed upon it ! And 
 yet, the greatest names shall not be there : for 
 Poverty keeps no record of its generous sacrifices. 
 I doubt, Randolph, if Intelligence will ever rear such 
 sterling worth, such large-souled Men, as, in loving 
 Faith, have daily sacrificed to Virtue ? 
 
 RANDOLPH. Give ALL MEN Virtue, which is Love, 
 which is Intelligence, and it will find new modes of 
 action. Not individuals will it raise from wretched- 
 ness ; but, with a larger aim, every new act of Love 
 shall confer happiness on a world. 
 
 CIVILIS. I admit your plea of Catholicity, and 
 yield. But I have a word to say on Metaphysics. 
 The reasoning of Dionysius dwarfs this science into 
 nothingness. He, however, omits to tell us what is 
 MEMORY. I appeal to you. How should the Soul 
 which knoweth what it knows, forget what it knoweth,
 
 CHAP TIL] THE ALPHA. 207 
 
 and thus have need of that something we call 
 Memory ? What is Forgetfulness ? What is Memory? 
 If there be that partial oblivion which we call Forget- 
 fulness, then there is Memory, Recollection, or a 
 recalling what is a part of the Mind into the presence 
 of itself, to be scanned again, and again to be for- 
 gotten : for if the Mind does not always remember 
 what it knows, it certainly forgets what it knows : 
 and that it does not always remember, or keep clearly 
 before itself, facts which are completely its own, is 
 evident by this : I sometimes think of myself, then, 
 forgetting myself, I think of facts external to myself ; 
 as of this rose, and its colour, odour, form ; or I 
 reflect on facts which are a part of myself; as, two 
 and two make four. The relation of myself to myself 
 is so close that there never can be a gap between 
 them ; and yet, in thinking of this rose I forget my- 
 self : in thinking of my hand, I forget my spiritual 
 self. I know that I exist : I know also that my 
 existence is not your existence : but I do not always 
 think of these facts. They are remembered, and then 
 forgotten ; forgotten, and again remembered ; and 
 never is my knowledge remembered all at once. 
 And sometimes when it is important to me that I 
 should remember a well-known fact, I do not remem- 
 ber it until the occasion has passed for its use. There 
 is, then, such a thing as Obliviousness, and such a 
 thing as Memory. Will your Principle, which should 
 explain all mental phenomena, enable you to explain
 
 208 THE ALPHA. [PART It. 
 
 these? Dionysius either did not perceive the diffi- 
 culty, or he availed himself of the very shabbiest of 
 the Virtues, and avoided it. 
 
 RANDOLPH. The true spirit of purchasable, either- 
 side-advocacy seems to have descended upon you, 
 Civilis : and your last remark is worthy of the inspi- 
 ration. When " the right hand shall forget its cun- 
 ning," the habitual Advocate shall forget his art. 
 
 No ! do not apologize : a professional sarcasm is 
 never very damaging. The wit is had recourse to 
 when the cause is lost, and is thrown in by way of a 
 quid pro quo to the client for his costs. Barring the 
 banter, there is something in your remarks on Memory; 
 but not much. Dionysius explains the NATURE OF 
 IMAGINATION : and you have described, or nearly so, 
 the NATURE OF MEMORY. What either is (except 
 that they are circumstances, and not things) is as 
 little capable of being described in words, as what 
 the essence is we call the Soul. " We know enough" 
 as Dionysius expresses it "for all useful pur- 
 poses," by knowing the true nature of the Soul : 
 which knowledge is the whole of Metaphysics ; and 
 is, moreover, the only metaphysical knowledge the 
 Metaphysicians have failed to afford us. 
 
 It is assumed in our philosophy that whatever fact 
 Consciousness, or the Soul, once perceives, it always 
 retains. This innate and necessary power of reten- 
 tion and which is part of the Soul's nature, is what 
 we mean by Memory. It has also the power of ab- 
 straction, in which is included what we mean by
 
 CI*P- in.] THE ALPHA. 209 
 
 Forgetful ness. Without this necessary and inherent 
 power of abstraction, we could not analyse a complex 
 idea, nor, from particulars, ascend to generals. Some 
 sceptics have assumed that because the Thinking 
 Principle does not always think, it might sometime 
 cease to think; and ceasing to think, be nothing. 
 And one of your remarks seems to glance at this con- 
 clusion. But this partial obliviousness is as necessary 
 to the Soul's progress in knowledge as the power we 
 call Reason : and since the purpose of this power is 
 progression, the existence of the purpose proves the 
 very converse of the sceptic's conclusion : for why 
 should there be progression at all, or thought at all, if 
 it lead to nothing ? These innate powers of the Soul 
 prove a purpose ; and the purpose proves the immor- 
 tality. But, to return. What the Soul once per- 
 ceives and knows it always retains : it is a new con- 
 sciousness added to the First Consciousness ; in other 
 words it is the Thinking Principle, expanding itself 
 into a new perception of collateral facts. But, sup- 
 pose, Civilis, that, in the perception of new facts, the 
 Soul does not perceive the relation these new facts 
 bear to itself, or to each other, then, the new facts 
 arc isolated : they do not form part of a series which 
 make up one entire whole, and this, for want of a 
 perception of the intermediate facts which would 
 complete the chain. Being isolated, until the soul 
 makes an effort to remember them, or some accidental 
 circumstance recalls them they are forgotten. This 
 new perception (or re-perception) of forgotten facts
 
 210 THE ALPHA. [PART II. 
 
 constitutes the act of Memory : and the cause of the 
 forgetfulness (where, for the purposes of abstraction 
 they have not been purposely laid aside), is the want 
 of the connecting fact or facts which would have ren- 
 dered the whole series one entire body of facts, or a 
 concentrated Soul. Where this connection exists 
 that is, where every fact which the Intelligent Prin- 
 ciple has once perceived, is seen to have the same 
 relation to itself as effects have to their causes, and 
 as all minor causes have to the major, or first cause ; 
 the circumstance called Memory has no positive exist- 
 ence, because there is no gap to produce Forgetful- 
 ness. The cause of Forgetfulness is, therefore, the 
 non-perception of the principle which shows the rela- 
 tion of all truth to the First Truth : for all things are 
 One : and all being resolvable into this One, if we 
 had a clear perception of every separate fact, including, 
 of course, the fact which connects them into unity, 
 we should be perfect Intelligences ; and the circum- 
 stance, or phenomenon, we call Memory, would cease. 
 So also would Reason ; so also would Imagination, 
 and the rest. 
 
 The Soul, then, is a Real Existence : a thing which 
 is, and is CONSCIOUS that it is. Forgetfulness is a 
 non-self-conscious Circumstance : a condition caused 
 by our partial Ignorance, but necessary to our progress 
 in knowledge : and because of its necessity, we have 
 the power to produce it by concentrating the Thinking 
 Principle on any particular idea or fact with a view to 
 a complete examination of such idea or fact. This
 
 CHAP. III.] THE ALPHA. 211 
 
 Power we call Abstraction. The Facts or Knowledge 
 which are thus purposely laid aside or forgotten, are 
 however, still retained in the Mind. This retentive 
 circumstance is Memory : and the power of recalling 
 forgotten facts at will, is Remembrance or Recollection. 
 They are, however, constantly being recalled by acci- 
 dental circumstances. A flower loved in childhood re- 
 calls all the circumstances of our childhood with which 
 that flower is associated. Thus, ideas are conveniently 
 associated in CHAINS that they might be laid aside 
 without being absolutely forgotten. But Principles 
 are the strongest, because the simplest, and most 
 systematic cemcnters of our facts. We are thus ad- 
 monished to get Principles, because a Principle 
 contains within itself all the separate facts which exist 
 in connection with it. To have, and to comprehend, 
 the principle, is to possess the facts ; and what is 
 more, to know their nature, value, and use. To 
 
 ARRIVE AT THE PERFECTION OF KNOWLEDGE, ALL 
 ISOLATED FACTS, OR ISOLATED CHAINS OF FACTS, 
 SHOULD BE UNITED INTO ONE SERIES OR CHAIN. 
 THE UNITING LINKS MUST BE PRINCIPLES. Secure 
 
 a Principle, and not only all known facts, but all 
 the unknown facts, connected by natural relationship 
 with the Principle, are within the grasp of the Mind. 
 So that, having the Principle, which by its relation- 
 ship to the facts, secures these facts, the Mind might 
 relieve itself of the labour of retention, and throw the 
 records of its facts away. The Mind is then at greater 
 liberty to pursue new chains of thought, and thus
 
 212 THE ALPHA. LPAET II. 
 
 arrive at new principles; and with the like result. Then, 
 viewing the Principles thus attained as separate Facts ; 
 
 IF WE CAN UNITE THESE FACTS BY ONE PRINCIPLE WHICH 
 GOVERNS AND DETERMINES THEIR RELATIONSHIP ; THE 
 WHOLE MASS OF SEPARATE FACTS ARE CONNECTED AND 
 ARRANGED INTO ONE ENTIRE SERIES OR CHAIN OF 
 FACTS ; AND, IN EFFECT, ALL OUR KNOWLEDGE IS RE- 
 MEMBERED AT ONCE. THE MIND ACTS AS A WHOLE : 
 
 AND, THAT, CONSISTENTLY. ALL OUR THOUGHTS ARE 
 DIRECTED TO ONE END : ALL OUR ACTIONS HAVE ONE 
 PURPOSE : EACH ONE IS CONSISTENT WITH ALL THE 
 OTHERS ; AND THE SOUL MAKES PROGRESS IN IN- 
 TELLIGENCE WITH ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY. ALL KNOW- 
 LEDGE IS WITHIN OUR REACH : AND PERFECTION IS 
 
 SEEN TO BE ATTAINABLE. This all-uniting Principle 
 is ours : and the partial Forgetfulriess which the 
 Metaphysicians have not explained, and which have 
 been a stumbling-block to Sceptics, is seen to be a 
 necessary and most important aid to the Soul in its 
 progress towards its purposed Perfection. 
 
 CIVILIS. Thank you, my dear Randolph. You 
 have given me food for thought during the inter- 
 val that will elapse before our next meeting. You 
 have shed a new light on the nature and office of 
 Memory. You have, moreover, rescued Forgetfulness 
 from being any longer regarded as a natural defect 
 of the human mind, or as a proof of Man's inherent 
 imperfection. To a mind that has been taught from 
 the earliest dawn of its intelligence to regard itself 
 as necessarily imperfect and helplessly dependent, I
 
 CHAP. III.] THE ALPHA. 213 
 
 cannot imagine anything to be more consoling. It 
 makes one blush, Randolph, to think that with all our 
 pretensions to Religion, and all our fancied reverence 
 towards the Deity, we have been every moment dis- 
 honouring that Being by our Ignorance ! How true 
 it is that Ignorance, disguise it as you will with 
 Mitre, Cowl, and Vestments sacerdotal, cannot be 
 either reverential or religious ! But, my dear Ran- 
 dolph ; as the FIRST TRUTH contains all other Truth, 
 making its Possessor almost a perfect MEMORY, I 
 foresee that the art of Printing, hitherto of such 
 vast importance to mankind, will, in the process of 
 time, be nearly superseded by the dissemination of 
 the First Principle. For all controversy, and specu- 
 lation, and opinion regarding Right and Wrong, 
 and all Didactic teaching the chief employment of 
 the Printing Press at present will be no longer 
 needed when, by referring to an eternal Standard 
 of Truth existing in their own minds, men can 
 determine the truth of all such matters for them- 
 selves ! MARANATHA ! MARANATHA ! Verily, the Lord 
 cometh ! The Lord is come ! In the dim distance I 
 see the world of Humanity united by the power of 
 a Single Truth ! There is one Fold ; and one 
 Shepherd : and the God of all Truth dwells amongst 
 his intellectual creatures : and the Nations of the 
 Earth are one Nation ; and all mankind are happy I 
 Poets, and Patriarchs, and Prophets have seen it 1 
 Not a dream of the PAST was the Golden Age of 
 the Poet : but a truthful foresight of his Soul gazing
 
 214 THE ALPHA. [PART II. 
 
 onwards through the haze of forty centuries into 
 the FUTURE ; the possible Future ! which now I 
 see more clearly than the most truthful records could 
 
 picture to my mind the Past ! How ! Randolph ! 
 
 We were talking of Memory. 1 have felt what 
 
 Inspiration is ! My soul has foreseen the Future ! 
 but the ecstacy is past. The habit of my Mind for- 
 bids that I should see this stupendous subject in its 
 entiety, and long retain it. Doubtless this is well. 
 But tell me, how happens this ? I perceive the 
 whole as in a phantasmagoria : then all again is dark ! 
 
 RANDOLPH. A mind disciplined to Falsehood and 
 Error needs some discipline to accustom it to Truth. 
 You must see every phase of the subject : study it : 
 dissect it. You must also see Falsehood in all its forms : 
 study, and dissect it too ; strip from its face the 
 mask it wears, and contemplate the Impostor in all 
 its nude deformity. This is the discipline you need. 
 Be patient! and I who have passed through all the 
 mazes of Doubt and Difficulty, will lead you through 
 the labyrinth. I know your present state of mind. 
 You get occasional glimpses of the entire Truth ; but 
 not having tested every part, and thus systemized it in 
 your mind, it escapes you. By the time we get to the 
 end of our survey this idiosyncrasy will cease. The 
 light will be a mild and steady light. At present, it 
 is like the concentrated rays of a mighty lens, too 
 ardent, and too dazzling to be gazed upon. You 
 look full at the Sun and its brilliancy but blinds you. 
 
 CIVILIS. I am, however, deeply grateful for these
 
 CHAP. III.] THE ALPHA. 215 
 
 momentary gleams of Happiness. When my pro- 
 phetic fit was on me, Randolph, you must have 
 thought me a little crazed. Certainly, to sober- 
 minded Sensualists, my rhapsody would have looked 
 like Madness. By the way, Randolph; what is 
 Madness, Lunacy, Derangement? Ts IT POSSIBLE 
 
 THAT THE MlND CAN BE DISEASED ? 
 
 RANDOLPH. Deranged, Civilis ; but certainly not 
 diseased. The physical organs, through which the 
 Mind perceives external objects, may, from many 
 causes, become diseased : false impressions are thereby 
 produced ; and these produce erroneous convictions : 
 but the Soul is neither diseased nor mad. All Error 
 may be said to be insanity, no matter how produced ; 
 whether by reasoning rightly on false premises, or 
 by making false deductions from true ones. The 
 cure for all such madness is the Truth. This, how- 
 ever, is not Madness as men at present understand 
 it. And, yet, there is no other lunacy than this. 
 John Dalton's visual organs conveyed to his sen- 
 sorium impressions of colours different to those of 
 other men : but John Dalton was not mad. Idiots, 
 whose physical organs are deficient, or defective, are 
 not mad. They have Souls as sane as those of other 
 men ; but Knowledge cannot reach them. These 
 Idiots are physical malformations : accidents of a 
 general Law : or the result of physical disease in 
 their parents. Men may overwork an organ until it 
 grow diseased and produce wrong impressions ; which 
 will necessarily result in wrong convictions, and
 
 216 THE ALPHA. U'A" II. 
 
 erroneous sentiments and acts. The visual organs 
 of Milton (it is said) were overwrought: he went 
 blind, not mad. He wrote a grandly poetical history 
 of the " Fall of Man." This work, judging from its 
 absurdity, is more like a manifestation of what men 
 denominate Madness : but, though wrong in all its 
 facts and reasonings, it was the result of a strong 
 conviction, and not of " a mind diseased." Mental 
 Derangement is nothing more than a confusion or 
 derangement of ideas : a multitude of disconnected 
 facts, which, after two .thirds of a laborious lifetime 
 spent in their collection, the Possessor perceives to 
 be valueless : hence, they but confound his reason. 
 They have cost him a lifetime, yet amount to 
 nothing ! He lacks the First Principle by which 
 alone they can be arranged and systemized into soul- 
 satisfying knowledge. The energies of his defrauded 
 Soul droop under the disappointment : Memory 
 becomes a burthen, and Obliviousness a blessing. 
 This state of mind occurs only to those who have 
 A GREAT OBJECT in their researches. The mass of 
 collectors of old-world facts, and antiquated philo- 
 sophy, are satisfied by THE LABOUR ; and are pleased 
 with being the known repositories of a dead, profit- 
 less mass of useless trifles. They look as com- 
 placently and solemnly grand (and the grandeur of 
 the look with them is everything,) as looks our 
 GRAND MUSEUM : a Temple enshrining fragments 
 from which the soul has fled : a monument of ab- 
 surdity and affectation : and yet, withal, a splendid
 
 CHAP. III.] THE ALPHA. 217 
 
 evidence of what men ought to be, and wish to be, 
 but are not. Now and then, from amongst this 
 crowd of solemn triflers, starts an earnest man whose 
 aim is the discovery of a living, soul-exalting Truth. 
 To him, disappointment often brings what men call 
 madness ungovernable irritability of temper, or a 
 total prostration of the Intellect. It is said that a 
 justly celebrated, deeply-thinking man of our own 
 day, after long and laborious researches into the 
 wrecks of an antediluvian world, is himself a wreck. 
 And, probably, the overwork of particular organs, 
 and a chaos of ideas incident to the want of the First 
 Principle, form the lamentable cause of his calamity. 
 Here, then, is mental DERANGEMENT, and perhaps 
 physical disease. The Physician should cure the 
 one, and the Metaphysician, the other. All that is 
 required to restore equilibrium and a rational activity 
 of mind, is that he should be kindly and gently 
 conversed with ; the truth of the First Principle 
 carefully insinuated, and the facts of the physical 
 science he has for years been gathering, be presented 
 to him in their true light. In a short time he would 
 be, not only the man he was ; but a greater man. 
 He has been delving after the Truth ; but, failing to 
 reconcile a multitude of anomalies (which a com- 
 parison of true facts with false ones ever must pro- 
 duce,) Derangement followed : and this is Lunacy ; 
 for where " Madness" is not the result of physical 
 disease, it is nothing more than mere bewilderment, 
 which THE TRUTH can cure. Disease cannot touch
 
 218 THE ALPHA. LPAST II. 
 
 the immaterial Mind. Show him the Truth for 
 which he has been vainly striving ; and his vigour of 
 mind, namely, his Memory, will return to him in all 
 its pristine strength; and his Knowledge, useless 
 in its derangement will shape itself into one easily- 
 remembered, happiness -giving whole. 
 
 CIVILIS. Then Shakspere's interrogation 
 
 " CANST THOU NOT MINISTER TO A MIND DISEASED ; 
 " PLUCK FROM THE MEMORY A ROOTED SORROW ; 
 " RAZE OUT THE WRITTEN TROUBLES OF THE BRAIN ; 
 " AND WITH SOME SWEET OBLIVIOUS ANTIDOTE, 
 " CLEANSE THE STUFF'D BOSOM OF THAT PERILOUS 
 
 STUFF 
 " WHICH WEIGHS UPON THE HEART," 
 
 THE FALSEHOOD THAT OPPRESSES IT, might be an- 
 swered in the affirmative ? 
 
 RANDOLPH. Ay, Civilis : not, however, forgetting 
 his answer to whom the question was addressed : 
 
 " THEREIN THE PATIENT MUST MINISTER TO 
 
 HIMSELF :" 
 
 For, although he who knows more than another, 
 has, to some extent the happiness -affording power to 
 help another by unveiling the hidden truth, the other 
 must take the trouble to perceive it for himself. I 
 am firmly persuaded that in the case of this celebrated 
 man, as well as in all cases similar to his, our " sweet 
 oblivious antidote," the Truth, would reach the 
 malady. You now see, Civilis, why " doting Age"
 
 CHAP, in.] THE ALPHA. 219 
 
 grows childish; and why Memory (which is the 
 Mind) breaks down and deserts its owner. Oh, 
 Civilis, the Memory would not fade ; there wonld be 
 no " decay" of the immortal Mind ; no " second 
 childishness and mere oblivion," were THE ONE 
 TRUTH universally known to which all other verities 
 
 tend ; AND WHICH, UNITED, MAKES THE MlND OF 
 
 MAN ONE WITH HIS IMMORTAL SOUL, AN EVER- 
 LIVING MEMORY. You were right in what you just 
 now said about the Printing Press. In the coming 
 Future its progress-helping capabilities will scarce 
 be needed. But as things are, that which should 
 form the living memories of men exists, (in the form 
 of dead opinions,) in books of other men's inditing ; 
 and the most studious amongst us read, read, read, 
 
 IN THE VAIN HOPE OF SECURING FOR OURSELVES AN 
 
 INDIVIDUALITY. But, OPINIONS cannot make an 
 individuality. TRUTH ALONE CAN ACCOMPLISH THIS. 
 When Truth is universal, then, but not till then, 
 might we dispense with Printing. As LONG AS MEN 
 LACK CERTAINTY, AND REPOSE UPON OPINION, Life 
 will be, as Shakspcre has described it : 
 
 " A WALKING SHADOW ; A POOR PLAYER, 
 
 " THAT STRUTS AND FRETS HIS HOUR UPON THE 
 
 STAGE, 
 
 " AND THEN IS HEARD NO MORE : A TALE 
 
 " TOLD BY AN IDIOT, FULL OF SOUND AND FURY, 
 " SIGNIFYING NOTHING."
 
 220 THE ALPHA. 
 
 II. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 RANDOLPH. CIVILIS. 
 
 CIVILIS. I feel that I made so much progress in 
 Knowledge yesternight, in my assumed character of 
 Scrutator on the part of Society, that I may fairly 
 drop the assumption, and become a listener and 
 Scrutator in reality, and on my own account : for I 
 find that my long habit of viewing all subjects 
 separately, as though each subject had a beginning, a 
 middle, and an end of its own, instead of being, as 
 they are, parts of one great whole, has such a tendency 
 to incapacitate me from seeing, immediately and at 
 one view, the relation between apparently distinct 
 facts, that this inquiry of yours into the value of 
 the present Knowings and Doings of Society, will 
 afford me the greatest help towards the mastery of 
 the magnificent subject we are discussing. I will 
 give you a proof of the necessity for the continuance 
 of my discipleship. This afternoon, on my way 
 from Westminster Hall, I met with Doctor Fitzelliot, 
 who is a great Phrenologist ; and, but for your 
 having demonstrated to me on the previous evening, 
 that Morality is a human contrivance, and not an 
 ordination of God, I should have been vanquished 
 by one of those very Philosophers whose pretensions 
 to usefulness you yesterday disposed of in a single 
 sentence. The doctor insisted that Man is a Moral
 
 CHAP. IV.] THE ALPHA. 221 
 
 being, on the plea that he finds a provision made 
 for his Morality in the human head. There is, he 
 said, a large region appropriated to the moral feelings 
 in the very summit and centre of the brain ; a 
 portion which is always largely developed in the 
 heads of all highly moral and conscientious men ; 
 but invariably small, or entirely wanting, in the skulls 
 of the habitually vicious and immoral. I inquired 
 whether the feelings produced the development, or 
 the development the feelings. He replied, that 
 where the development is large in infancy the de- 
 velopment produced the feelings ; but where the 
 development is small in infancy the feelings, if im- 
 planted by education, would produce the develop- 
 ment. Then, said I, the Feelings are the original 
 cause of the development. He admitted that they 
 were ; because bad developments usually trans- 
 mitted worse to their posterity, whilst good ones 
 generally transmitted better : . therefore, said he, 
 Morality, as the highest perfection of man, ought 
 to be taught ; and the more so, because in every 
 head the provision for it is actually made, or room 
 left for it, as the result of Education. Hence, he con- 
 tended that Morality being an ordination of Heaven, 
 could never be dispensed with. But if, said I, the 
 development in what you call the moral region of the 
 head, is producible by education, and is the result 
 of the feelings, still the question remains : is THE 
 EDUCATION PROPER? ARE THE FEELINGS RIGHT? 
 Admitting, therefore, that our Peelings and Senti-
 
 222 THE ALPHA. [PART II. 
 
 ments are registered on the brain, and indiced on 
 the countenance, is this any proof of the Feelings 
 and the Sentiments being right? If you teach 
 brutality, brutality will somewhere produce the record 
 of the feeling : but is brutality to be encouraged 
 because it produces its brutal bump on the human 
 head? If following the Moral Law produce moral 
 bumps, and it be thence inferred that Morality is an 
 ordination of God; in like manner, if following 
 brutal practices produce brutal bumps, it must also 
 be inferred that brutality and vice are the ordinations 
 of the Deity also. The Doctor was dumbfoundered, 
 and admitted that the moral development of the brain 
 is no proof of the Moral Nature of man, or of the 
 abstract desirableness of Morality. 
 
 RANDOLPH. The Soul is the Prince of the palace 
 it dwells in, and has, to some extent, the power to 
 shape the tenement into what fashion it pleases. 
 A Soul might inherit a noble cranium, or be the 
 heir of a mean one ; but if Selfishness misdirect 
 the Sentiments of its inhabitant, knavery and licen- 
 tiousness will convert it into a nursery of loath- 
 someness and crime. Implant right sentiments in 
 the infant mind; teach the child to seek happiness 
 through Intelligence, and not through Sensuality, 
 and there will be no malformation in the cranium, nor 
 on the countenance will there be any sinister expres- 
 sion, any ugliness, or silliness, or deceit. This point 
 settled, let us see what Dionysius has to say on the 
 subject of the Belles Lettres.
 
 CHAP. IV.] THE ALPHA. 223 
 
 EXTRACT FROM THE PAPERS OF DIONYSIUS. 
 DIDACTIC AND IMAGINATIVE LITERATURE. 
 
 " It is very generally observed, and the fact is un- 
 ceasingly urged on our attention by the opponents of 
 popular Education, that Knowledge fails to make 
 men happier beings, or better citizens : in other words, 
 that it does not render them more moral, more virtu- 
 ous, or more religious ; neither better servants, more 
 loyal subjects, nor happier men. Unfortunately, every 
 day's experience compels us to admit that there is but 
 too much truth in this seemingly ungenerous objec- 
 tion. Innumerable are the instances in which we find 
 that the knowledge men have acquired at school or 
 elsewhere, has served only to render them more 
 thorough, because more accomplished and ingenious 
 knaves. This has always been a most humiliating con- 
 viction in the minds even of those who have laboured 
 the most zealously in the cause of popular Education. 
 These lovers of their species, having faith in the 
 potency of Knowledge for Good : notwithstanding these 
 numerous facts which lead to a contrary conclusion, 
 have been wont to argue, that although every Good in 
 this world has its attendant Evil, we must derive our 
 conviction of the general benefit of Knowledge from 
 the opposing fact, that the balance is found on the 
 whole to be greatly in favour of Good. Thus en- 
 couraged, these friends of the human race have ever 
 advocated a more general diffusion of Knowledge as
 
 224 THE ALPHA. [PATIT II. 
 
 the only means of bringing about the political and 
 moral regeneration of the world. 
 
 " On the other side, the opponents of progress have 
 
 clung fast to the discouraging fact, which all are 
 
 obliged to confess, that in numberless instances the 
 
 spread of knowledge has had the very opposite effect 
 
 - predicated for it by its friends. 
 
 " That it makes good men better, and has a strong 
 natural tendency to improve the bad, is the case of 
 the Educationists. 
 
 " That it makes bad men worse, is the whole case 
 of their opponents. 
 
 " Thus we have had to fight for advancement 
 against adversaries to whom it was but natural (even 
 as a matter of conscientious conviction) that they 
 should range themselves against us. The necessary 
 consequence has been, hitherto, that the spread of 
 secular knowledge has been slow, and its influence, 
 whether for Good or Evil, has been scarcely felt on 
 that portion of the people who form the great bulk and 
 base of our Social System. 
 
 " Here, then, a question suggests itself, and im- 
 peratively demands an answer ; namely : Is KNOW- 
 LEDGE REALLY PRODUCTIVE OF EVIL AS WELL AS 
 
 GOOD ? Most assuredly not if there be a God in the 
 Universe ! I shall assume that there is a God, and 
 thus incur the responsibility of proving the negative 
 I have made to depend on the assumption. 
 
 " First of all we must bear in mind that there are 
 influences at work throughout the entire framework
 
 CHAP l\M THE ALPHA. 225 
 
 of Society, which constantly compel men in some cases, 
 and offer very powerful inducements to them in others, 
 to act contrary to their inborn convictions. These in- 
 fluences are the result of erroneous Social institutions, 
 all the complex workings of which we shall unravel 
 Avhen we come to consider the great subject of Civil 
 Government and Laws. Under this head I SHALL 
 
 PROVE THAT MANKIND HAVE THE POWER TO RID 
 
 THEMSELVES OF THESE INFLUENCES. Let us, there- 
 fore, for the present, suppose them gone. Let us 
 suppose that a state of society exists in which a 
 rational conviction in any man may be acted upon 
 without coercion or constraint, 
 
 " In the first place I must prove, that, ALL PER- 
 NICIOUS INFLUENCES APART, A MAN MUST ACT CON- 
 FORMABLY WITH HIS CONVICTIONS : THAT HIS AIMS 
 AND ACTS MUST BE THE REFLEX OF HIS KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 " To be cognizant of a true Fact, and to know with- 
 out doubt that it is a true fact, is to possess Knowledge. 
 For example : two and two are equal to four. This 
 is a true fact. No one doubts it : we all know that it 
 is true. Hence this fact is positive Knowledge. Nor 
 is there any power which can alter the fact in our 
 minds. We may be compelled, or, by an influence 
 acting upon us, we may be induced to act as though 
 we believed two and two to be equal to six. We can- 
 not, however, unknow our knowledge ; and, notwith- 
 standing the influence, the true fact is registered in 
 our Souls, unalterable and eternal. The same is of 
 necessity true of every other fact which is indisputably
 
 226 THE ALPHA. [PART H. 
 
 our own. There are, however, some facts less easy of 
 proof than the one just used to exemplify the assumed 
 position. It is, of course, possible that another per- 
 son may possess Knowledge, which, because I have 
 not proved it to myself, is not my knowledge. Until 
 it be my own by absolute conviction, it cannot in- 
 fluence my acts with certainty. If I merely believe it, 
 / might act as though I knew it. But, being a doubt- 
 ful matter with me, my Fancy, or my Convenience 
 might determine the act I have to perform in reference 
 to it. But once it is a settled conviction with me I 
 have no choice : I must act conformably with my con- 
 viction. 
 
 " Suppose, for example, that I believe it possible to 
 compound the Elixir Vitse, and thus arm myself 
 against the possibility of physical death. If some 
 sentiment or hope to this effect no matter how 
 attained urge me to make the attempt; this sen- 
 timent operating on my mind, is, for the time, a 
 Conviction ; I, consequently make the attempt, and 
 might waste my life in the pursuit of this chimera. 
 But, on the contrary, if I positively know, or through 
 believable evidence, entertain a firm Conviction, that 
 all which lives must die ; it is utterly impossible that 
 i can either attempt or hope to compound the Elixir 
 Vitae ; just because it is not possible to believe a thing, 
 and, at the same time, not believe it ; or to know a 
 thing, and, at the same time, not know it. As long 
 as I feel an uncertainty about the matter, either way, 
 I may make the attempt, or neglect to make it : but
 
 C H*P I v.i THE ALPHA. 227 
 
 once a settled conviction on the subject takes pos- 
 session of my mind, I am compelled to obey that 
 Conviction. 
 
 I am, however, liable to be operated upon by an 
 external influence ; thus : Another person believes or 
 hopes that I have the power to compound this medi- 
 cine, and allures me by a settled salary to devote a 
 portion of my life to the attempt. Needing the pay, 
 as a thing necessary to my comfort, or perhaps, to 
 my existence, although I know the thing to be im- 
 possible of accomplishment, I simulate a feeling con- 
 trary to my conviction ; and undertake to devote my 
 life, if need be, to the labour ; not because I hope 
 for success, but for the sake of the pay. The pay, 
 therefore, is the motive ; my necessities are the influ- 
 ence ; and my employer (influenced by a false con- 
 viction) the immediate author of my act. You may 
 say that the act on my part is immoral. Without 
 admitting or denying this, I reply that I was tempted 
 to the act by an influence which could have no exist- 
 ence except in a false and foolish condition of Society. 
 This influence tempts, or, perhaps, in conjunction 
 with other influences, compels me to be a knave ; 
 and confirms my employer in his folly. Thus is 
 Society deprived of two good men, because one has a 
 superfluity of the necessaries of life (which I mean 
 his life being still pleasant he would perpetuate) ; 
 whilst the other is in danger of perishing for want of 
 them. Clearly, then, the " immorality" of my act 
 must be put down to the account of Society, which, 
 
 Q.2
 
 228 THE ALPHA. IVai II. 
 
 by an irrational usage, is the remote cause of it ; and, 
 as I will subsequently prove, is the real author of all 
 immorality. This illustration is a little out of place, 
 but has been admitted here as an exemplification of 
 what I mean by the pernicious influences which I will 
 ultimately show you we have the power to remove. 
 Apart from all such influences, it has already been 
 proved by two simple examples, that a human being 
 is compelled to act conformably with his convictions. 
 If, therefore, the conviction be right, the resultant act 
 is right ; but, strictly speaking, NOT VIRTUOUS : if the 
 conviction be erroneous, the resultant act will be erro- 
 neous but, certainly, NOT CRIMINAL. 
 
 " Let us take, as another example, a case which is 
 a little more complicated. The result will be similar 
 of necessity. 
 
 " I know that a falling rock would crush me. If, 
 therefore, I perceive a rock about to fall, it is not 
 possible that I should place myself beneath it, at the 
 same time believing that it would descend harmlessly 
 on my head. But I desire to put a period to my life, 
 and therefore I expose myself to the certain destruc- 
 tion. Here, it might be said, I should be acting in 
 opposition to the dictates of my conviction ; namely, 
 that knowing the rock would crush me, my absolute 
 conviction of the fact, ought, according to my own 
 principle, to compel me to avoid the danger. But 
 that is not my position, because it is but one half of 
 a complex proposition. My first conviction is that 
 the rock will crush me. I am miserable, and want
 
 CHAP. IV.] THE ALPHA. 229 
 
 to terminate my existence : hence I have a second 
 conviction : namely, that by terminating my exist- 
 ence, I shall terminate my miseries. In exposing 
 myself to the falling rock, I act conformably with 
 both my convictions. The latter, or major conviction, 
 governs the former, or minor one, arid is the compel- 
 ling cause of the suicidal act. 
 
 " Every man, then, acts, and is always obliged to 
 act, in strict conformity with his convictions : and 
 this fact establishes the truth of the four following 
 propositions ; 
 
 " FIRST. THAT A HUMAN BEING, THOUGH HE MAY 
 ERR IN JUDGMENT, CANNOT COMMIT SlN. v . . . . 
 
 " SECONDLY. THAT AS FAR AS A HUMAN BEING TRULY 
 KNOWS, HE CANNOT ERR. 
 
 " THIRDLY. THAT IN ORDER TO PRODUCE RIGHT CON- 
 VICTIONS AMONGST MANKIND, THE DIFFUSION OF REAL 
 
 KNOWLEDGE SHOULD BE UNIVERSAL. 
 
 "FOURTHLY. THAT HENCEFORWARD ALL INFLU- 
 ENCES, WHETHER LAWS, CUSTOMS, OR CREEDS, WHICH 
 HAVE A TENDENCY TO INDUCE OR COMPEL MEN TO ACT 
 IN OPPOSITION TO THEIR CONVICTIONS, SHOULD BE 
 REMOVED; AND SUCH ARRANGEMENTS SUBSTITUTED 
 AS MIGHT BE FOUND MOST CONDUCIVE TO THE SPI- 
 RITUAL PERFECTION AND HAPPINESS OF THE HUMAN 
 RACE. 
 
 " This, then, settles the question as to the potency 
 of all positive Knowledge for undivided Good. The 
 Wrong and the Evil arise from EXTERNAL INFLU- 
 ENCES, or from the UNCERTAINTY as to the Know-
 
 230 THE ALPHA. [PABTII. 
 
 ledge we possess being Knowledge, or from ERRO- 
 NEOUS CONVICTIONS, which, for the time, have all the 
 force and potency of Truth or positive Knowledge. 
 Wherever there is a doubt about a fact, the resultant 
 action will be either erroneous or right accordingly as 
 the actor happens to lean to this or that opinion con- 
 cerning its truth. The doubt will, therefore, always 
 produce uncertainty, and leave the doubter free to 
 act according to his fancy, or his momentary con- 
 venience. 
 
 " This brings us to the questions, How MUCH OF 
 
 THE STORED-UP KNOWLEDGE OF THE WORLD IS KNOW- 
 LEDGE ? AND HOW MUCH OF THAT WHICH IS REALLY 
 
 KNOWLEDGE HAS BEEN PROVED TO BE so, TO THE 
 
 ENTIRE CONVICTION OF THE INDIVIDUALS WHO POS- 
 SESS IT? 
 
 " We shall presently see reasons for concluding 
 that the amount of positive Knowledge possessed at 
 present by any individual, when separated from the 
 mass of Pacts, Fancies, Opinions, Speculations, and 
 Dicta, which pass current for Knowledge, is neces- 
 sarily very small. 
 
 " The Literature of a nation or community is the 
 ostensible repository of its Knowledge. Keeping 
 before us, as we proceed, the convictions just arrived 
 at ; and testing the value of the Literature we are 
 about to describe (rather than minutely to examine), 
 by the only test which can discover its truth ; let us 
 proceed to inquire what is about the amount, and 
 what the real nature and value, of the Knowledge
 
 CHAP. IV.] THE ALPHA. 231 
 
 from which so much Good is by some so erroneously 
 expected ; but which is, nevertheless, a sealed book 
 to the great mass of the people of all communities. 
 
 " What we want is the power to proceed with 
 CERTAINTY in all our strivings after Truth. And 
 this is only to be had by the aid of a First Principle 
 by which to test all Truth. The want of a First 
 Principle has hitherto produced uncertainty in all 
 mental investigations ; and the uncertainty, the con- 
 fusion and non-conformity of opinion and action which 
 have been, hitherto, so inextricably interwoven with 
 all subjects. 
 
 " The nearest approach we have had to a First 
 Principle, and which has, to some extent, supplied 
 the want of one, is that INNATE FEELING OF THE 
 TRUTH OF THINGS, which strong, cultivated, and 
 meditative minds have always had, and have always 
 chiefly relied upon. This feeling is, in fact, a Sixth 
 Sense, a Soul Sense, that SPIRITUAL INSTINCT, which, 
 for want of a more definite name, we might venture 
 to denominate SYMPATHY. 
 
 " In all true Poets, and true Men, this sense is 
 strong ; strong, because it has been cultivated and 
 encouraged : and from this source arises nearly all 
 the unproved, and, therefore, Speculative Knowledge 
 which we possess ; and which that portion of us 
 which is taught at all, is taught to rely on and 
 believe. Nor is this reliance, where more positive 
 knowledge is unattainable, to be despised or discom- 
 mended. On the contrary, it should have been
 
 232 THE ALPHA. [PABT II. 
 
 always placed within the reach of all men. But, 
 since only strong and cultivated Intellects can ori- 
 ginate such Knowledge ; or, are likely, under the 
 present state of things, fully to appreciate it when 
 presented to them ; it follows, that the UNCERTAINTY 
 connected with it in the general mind, is, and ever 
 has been, a great bar to its potency for Good, even 
 amongst that portion of mankind that have lived 
 within the pale of its influence. No marvel, then, 
 that its consequences are less satisfactory than the 
 promoters of its extension have been wont to antici- 
 pate. With these considerations and convictions 
 clearly before us, let us proceed to determine for 
 ourselves the true value of our Didactic and Imagina- 
 tive Literature as an agent of Civilization, even when 
 viewed apart from the social influences which are 
 constantly acting on the public mind to render it 
 inoperative for Good. 
 
 " To Men and Manners that portion of the Litera- 
 ture we are about to consider, is chiefly devoted. 
 It is, for ths most part, imaginative ; and the pur- 
 poses it generally professes to serve, are the encou- 
 ragement of high and generous feelings, and the 
 inculcation of Virtue, Morality, and Religion. The 
 portrayal of what is called, but falsely called, Human 
 Nature, is another of its aims. The whole of this, 
 but the latter more especially is, however, only 
 surface-work : a recognition of only half a truth ; but 
 which is falsely, and ignorantly represented as the 
 whole truth. Because an unwise, semi-barbarous
 
 CHAP. IV.] THE ALPHA. 233 
 
 Social System has drilled, tortured, and moulded 
 men into selfish, mean, servile, ignorant, cruel, cre- 
 dulous, bigoted, vicious, and rascally representatives 
 of humanity j because these, and fifty other infamous 
 qualities, and intermediate shades of qualities, are 
 thence found to be strangely blended with a Religion 
 into which Man has been terrified : mingled also 
 with the not-quite-extinguished feelings of his ne- 
 glected better nature, which feelings ooze out in 
 the modified forms of Morality and the Virtues ; 
 because Society forces human beings into such incon- 
 sistent counterfeits of men, it has become a trade, 
 and not an unprofitable one, to unweave, disentangle, 
 anatomize, and explain these queer idiosyncrasies ; 
 and thence, it has grown into a custom to call such 
 descriptions, portrayals of human nature ; and to 
 laud the libellous exploit as a marvellous result of 
 deep insight into that supposed mysterious compound 
 of inconsistencies, yclept Humanity ! To draw these 
 caricatures ; and to utter, in the sacred name of 
 Truth, these libels on Men and Deity, have been the 
 dignified amusement of some writers, and the serious 
 labour of others, ever since Literature has found a 
 market amongst men. Innumerable are the fanciful 
 tales, imaginary histories, and wonder-moving fables, 
 which Genius has invented as vehicles for these 
 apocryphal portrayals. They have been, for the most 
 part, enriched with much refined sentiment; sa- 
 voured with much wit, pleasantry, and satire ; and 
 garnished with an abundance of moral precepts, as
 
 234 THE ALPHA. [PART II. 
 
 honourable to the writers, as they have been useful 
 to the world. Such has been the staple of polite 
 Literature amongst all modern nations : and such 
 it was in all the most intellectual nations of an- 
 tiquity. 
 
 " But the Generous feelings inculcated with so 
 much zeal in this Literature, requires, as every one 
 is aware, no great stretch of Generosity to keep pace 
 with them. Of course, when Generosity is recom- 
 mended, it is always with a due regard to the prior 
 claims of an elder virtue. Be charitable; but let 
 your charity begin, as well as end at home. That 
 which is meant by Generosity is, therefore, left en- 
 tirely to the taste and worldly wisdom of the reader. 
 If we are too unselfish, too kind, we shall violate the 
 ordinances of that other virtue which is necessarily 
 a great favourite amongst us PRUDENCE ITSELF! 
 It is easy to see that a virtue with such limitations 
 is no virtue at all; but A MERE SENTIMENT, which, 
 to feel, will cost us nothing. And, which of the 
 Virtues, which of the Moralities, is not in the same 
 predicament ? a sentiment, rather than a rule of life 
 which men under the present social arrangements 
 can afford to reduce to practice? 
 
 "The most valuable and truth-telling, or rather, 
 truth-suggesting portion of our Belles Lettres is 
 devoted to POETRY AND THE DRAMA : and, in these 
 the " divine inflatus" often speaks out, and thunders 
 in our ears verities which in prose compositions, 
 would be scarcely tolerated by ' ears polite.'
 
 CHAP IV.] THE ALPHA. 235 
 
 " In our Poetry there is much allusion to Nature 
 and natural objects. Much there is, certainly, which 
 is false ; much that is purposeless ; much that is 
 fanciful ; but also, much that is true, at least in 
 Feeling, and something that is true in fact. All 
 true Poetry is eminently sympathetic. In the works 
 of our elder Dramatists, but in those of Shakspere 
 more especially, the FEELING inculcated is almost 
 invariably truthful, sympathetic, noble. This branch 
 of our Literature has, too, the advantage of ad- 
 dressing itself through the media of the Stage and the 
 Actor, to all the people capable of affording the luxury 
 of a seat in the Theatre : and by these means the 
 noblest sentiments have found their way to the un- 
 derstandings, or the sympathies, even of the most 
 illiterate ; and from this circumstance, its influence, 
 as a civilizing agent, has been more truly valuable 
 than all the other branches of our imaginative litera- 
 ture put together ; notwithstanding that, in common 
 with the others, it has fallen into the error of attri- 
 buting to poor Human Nature, the Vices that belong 
 to a Social System which is Selfish to its very core. 
 
 Yet, beyond proving to us the propriety of being 
 as virtuous as the circumstances we chance to be 
 placed in will admit of ; and beyond that still holier 
 influence which it possesses of awakening in our 
 minds that sympathy with latent Truth, a power 
 which so pre-eminently distinguishes the teach- 
 ings of Poetry from all other modes of instruction 
 within the reach of humanity aforetime ; beyond
 
 236 THE ALPHA. [PART n. 
 
 these very uncertain, because indistinct, and merely 
 suggestive teachings, what POSITIVE KNOWLEDGE 
 have we derived even from Poetry and the Drama ? 
 Without a First Principle to guide us to the snatches 
 of Truth which, by the help of one, we find scat- 
 tered throughout these inspired compositions, what 
 are men really the wiser for the indistinctly-taught 
 verities shadowed forth in these performances? 
 Were we to answer * Nothing !' I fear that it would be 
 difficult to convict us of misrepresentation or mistake. 
 
 "As in the case of the Tale and Romance writers, 
 and the professed Moralists, we are indebted to the 
 Poets and Dramatists for but a small modicum of 
 real Knowledge. All the remainder, at the very best, 
 and taking no account of their misrepresentations of 
 the true nature of humanity, amounts to little more 
 than SENTIMENT, which we might carry about with 
 us by way of ornament ; but which, we should be 
 set down as romantic madmen, were we so imbecile 
 as to use ; for the world knows no surer proof of 
 lunacy than that of giving way to the noblest feelings 
 of our nature, and acting up to the impulses of an 
 unselfish Generosity. 
 
 "But as long as truth is confined to Sentiment, 
 few men will be any wiser for the knowledge. Even 
 those who seek Truth the most zealously cannot be 
 satisfied with a Poet's dicta; so that small indeed 
 is the value of the verities which are embodied even 
 in the Poet's far-seeing, yet random inspirations. 
 
 " We have taken the highest view of the best
 
 CHAP. IV.] THE ALPHA. 237 
 
 portion of the Belles Lettres : we might save our- 
 selves the labour of examining the worst. Amuse- 
 ment is the first object the books in this division 
 are intended to serve, amusement, often of a very 
 equivocal description ; and Instruction problematical 
 as it generally is in the whole of them, the very 
 last. Therefore, to the ' unwashed' artificers and 
 labourers who have never learned to read, great as 
 is their loss, it is not all loss. It would be wonderful 
 if it were so. It would be wonderful indeed, if, of 
 Man, the most peculiar and highly endued work 
 of the Deity of which we have any knowledge, every 
 individual man had not within himself the germ of 
 his own perfection ; the all-sufficient means of that 
 elevation for which the entire Species is so pre- 
 eminently fitted, and so obviously designed. Strange 
 it would be, if anything but the evil exercise of 
 Power on the one hand, and voluntary blindness on 
 the other, could render one man's cogitations ne- 
 cessary to another man's temporal and eternal welfare. 
 Strange it would be if Books were the only means 
 of progress towards that errorless perfection which 
 is Heaven ; and stranger still, if by an ordination of 
 tho Deity, Man must humbly sue his fellow-man 
 for permission to peruse them. Much, therefore, as 
 the illiterate at present lose in not being acquainted 
 with Books the passport hitherto to a free intercourse 
 of mind with mind it is not all loss ; nor is the loss 
 irreparable for the future. The proof, and the only 
 proof of all Truth is in the Human Soul. The true
 
 238 THE ALPHA. [PABT II. 
 
 nature of the true Man is there. Let the ' un- 
 washed/ untaught, degraded, toiling Millions read 
 this Deity -indited volume ; con over and study this 
 true, authorized, unmistakable Revelation from God 
 to Man : a Revelation which is the same to-day, 
 to-morrow, and for ever : the same to the Indian 
 Savage as to the civilized Celt: the same in every 
 climate, and in every tongue. No man can hide 
 it from his fellow; none can misinterpret it. Let 
 the degraded millions everywhere but know them- 
 selves, and from this elevation look around them, and 
 read that other Revelation external to themselves, the 
 pictorial volume of Nature, and thus advance them- 
 selves to a closer communion with the God of Nature. 
 Let them do this ; and thenceforth slavery and 
 oppression cease of necessity, and the world is 
 changed." 
 
 CIVILIS. The positions argued in this Essay are of 
 immense importance. It is clear that the Knowledge 
 contained in our Didactic and Imaginative Literature 
 is insignificant in amount, and very questionable in 
 its character. Its great defect is indistinctness; for 
 opinions, however rational, are only opinions, not 
 settled facts; and are thence uncertain guides to 
 human action. 
 
 RANDOLPH. It is therefore a misnomer to call it 
 Knowledge, even that part of it which is the most 
 rational ; because, in effect, nothing is true which is 
 not proved to be true : therefore, whatever lacks the
 
 CHAP. IV.] THE ALPHA. 239 
 
 proof, lacks the distinguishing quality of know- 
 ledge, its controlling influence for unadulterated 
 Good. 
 
 CIVILIS. Most true, my dear Randolph; most 
 true ! This point has been fully demonstrated in the 
 Essay. Wrong Convictions, which are equally omni- 
 potent with Truth itself, inevitably lead to Evil ; 
 whilst Right Convictions invariably result in Good. 
 But is there not something anomalous, not to say 
 unjust, in this ? I mean, that wrong convictions 
 should be as imperious in their influence as right 
 convictions ? Error as omnipotent as Truth ? 
 
 RANDOLPH. This is certainly the fact : but it is 
 neither anomalous nor unjust ; as a moment's reflec- 
 tion will convince you. In the nature of things, it is 
 impossible that a Conviction, whether wrong or right, 
 should not have equal potency over the mind that 
 entertains it. The fact would be anomalous if oppo- 
 site convictions produced similar results. But one 
 series produces Evil, which our true nature shrinks 
 from : the other Good, for which our nature yearns. 
 You are forgetting that Error is not Sin ; and that 
 the Inconveniences produced by Error are not Punish- 
 ments. You are forgetting also that Inconvenience, 
 and Suffering, and Sorrow are necessary to our appre- 
 ciation of Happiness ; and that, but for this necessity, 
 the Deity might have made us instantly cognizant of 
 all knowledge perfect Intelligences, without linking 
 us to life and matter, or placing us amongst material 
 things, at all.
 
 240 THE ALPHA. [PART II. 
 
 CIVILIS. I stand corrected. I had forgotten these. 
 How powerful is habit in me ! And no wonder, 
 when all my previous Convictions are erroneous ; 
 imbibed, too, as they have been, through an erroneous 
 education, begun in infancy and continued until now ! 
 For, hitherto, all Literature, all education, has been 
 
 erroneous. To think of all this Error of all the 
 
 falsehood I have entertained as truth, is most be- 
 wildering. What a complicated web of contradic- 
 tions has grown out of admitting Sin and its Punish- 
 ments ; Faith, and its Rewards ! And how consistent 
 and simply beautiful that System, the Alpha and 
 
 Omega of which is Knowledge ! They are but 
 
 momentary glances I get of it : I mean of the Truth 
 
 in its entiety. Splendid visions, too felicitous to 
 
 last. If I could unknow my errors all at once, and 
 at a single view look steadfastly at the whole truth, I 
 
 doubt if I could survive the happiness. Who shall 
 
 suddenly look on the glory of the Omnipotent, and 
 live ! And what is Deific glory but all-effulgent 
 Truth! that one Truth which is the essence and 
 concentrated centre of all other Truth ! I fear, 
 Randolph, you will think me fitter to be an enthusiast 
 of a new Faith, than a disciple of a new Philosophy 
 so simple as yours, yet so sublime in its simplicity. 
 The indefinite is sublime from the circumstance of 
 its indefiniteness : but, to a mind accustomed to seek 
 truth amongst entanglements and contradictions, the 
 definite becomes sublime from its scarcely-to-be- 
 grasped definiteness and simplicity.
 
 CHAP. IV.] THE ALPHA. 241 
 
 RANDOLPH. True, Civilis : whatever seems complex 
 in the operations of a Principle is the complexity 
 with which it comes into antagonism. Through the 
 simple and the consistent, we are made aware of the 
 involved and the contradictory : and it is easy to 
 mistake the Light which enables us to distinguish 
 confusion, for the Cause of the confusion. But we 
 are forgetting the Essay. Are all its positions 
 proved? It assumes that Education as it exists at 
 present, is nearly as potent for Evil as for Good. It 
 next examines the Imaginative and Didactic Litera- 
 ture which forms a part of this education, and decides 
 that the cause of its failure is the indistinctness, or 
 absolute falsehood of the facts and opinions it dis- 
 penses for Knowledge. The great majority of these 
 facts and opinions the Essay assumes to be false ; 
 and none more false, or more pernicious than those 
 which represent Crime, Immorality, and the Evil 
 Passions, to be the genuine offspring of Human 
 Nature. Our business is to criticise the reasonings 
 ofDionysius, and determine for ourselves whether the 
 positions he advances be false or true. You have 
 just admitted the collusiveness of his arguments 
 touching the inutility of this Literature as a guide to 
 human conduct ; and this, chiefly on the ground that 
 its facts and assumptions are false ; or that they lack 
 the proof which is necessary to give them the force 
 and efficacy of positive knowledge. Are you satisfied 
 for this is a highly important part of the inquiry 
 that the Crimes, Passions, Contradictions, and Idio- 
 
 11
 
 242 THE ALPHA. [PAKT II. 
 
 syncrasies which at present characterise men's actions, 
 are not what this Literature represents them to be ; 
 but the products of a false and artificial Social System 
 misnamed Civilization? Remember, Civilis, that, at 
 present, I neither affirm nor deny this proposition. 
 I put the question, because it is highly important 
 that we should come to a right conclusion with respect 
 to it. 
 
 CIVILIS. I confess, Randolph, that, looking to facts 
 of every-day occurrence, I am not prepared to reply 
 to your question in the affirmative. I will cite a case 
 which seems to me to militate against the proposition, 
 and which will put the question fairly before us. A 
 boy, ten years old, wilfully drowns his little brother 
 (an infant twenty months old), because, as the delin- 
 quent owns, the child annoyed him by crying. Is 
 this fratricidal act to be fathered on Society ; or to 
 be laid to the account of the innate wickedness of 
 Human Nature ? A mother destroys her infant ; but 
 many motives might be imagined, all of which may 
 be, and I believe are, chargeable on Society. But 
 how is the motive of this boy traceable to Society 
 in such a way as to exonerate the boy, and relieve 
 Human Nature from the odium which, if the act 
 be natural, fairly, and undeniably, attaches to it ? 
 
 RANDOLPH. The case you have cited is such an one 
 as I expected from your professional sagacity. Now, 
 WHAT is HUMAN NATURE? Certainly, not Brute 
 Nature. There is, perhaps, some ambiguity in the re- 
 marks of Dionysius; but there is Truth in his
 
 ''HAP. iv.i THE ALPHA. 243 
 
 conclusion. The animus of his argument is this : 
 Society, by its present social arrangements, obliges 
 even the more thoughtful and educated of its members 
 to act from selfish motives ; in other words, to make 
 the principle of animal life its first consideration in all 
 matters, if not its chief guide ; but that, by with, 
 holding the best education at its disposal from the 
 great mass of mankind, it leaves them in the condition 
 of mere animals ; and in addition to this, subjects 
 them to the want of even physical necessities ; 
 enjoins selfishness, under the name of Prudence, as 
 their principle of action ; prescribes impossible Morality 
 as their guide ; and then disingenuously denominates 
 the anomalous results of their conduct, the genuine 
 product of Humanity : when it must be evident that 
 the distinguishing characteristic of Human Nature 
 Mentality, has been forcibly annihilated, instead of 
 having been generously and carefully evolved. Even 
 if you suppose the pressure of want, and the influence 
 of the selfish principle away ; to do right in defiance of 
 such mental blindness is sufficiently difficult, if not 
 impossible : but, under the accumulated pressure of all 
 these injurious influences, the wonder is, not that there 
 is much crime and immorality amongst us, but that 
 the world is not one vast theatre of horrors. And, 
 that this, Civilis, is not the case affords the amplest evi- 
 dence of the Angel-like perfection to which Humanity 
 will grow under the dispensation and guidance of 
 the Mental Principle. 
 
 CIVILIS. I think your interpretation of the strictures
 
 244 THE ALPHA. [PA*T H. 
 
 urged by Dionysius against Society for its false esti- 
 mate of Human Nature, is most lucid and convincing ; 
 and I admit their justness without the slightest 
 hesitation : but your explanation does not meet the 
 difficulty, the boy's motive, and his knowledge of 
 the heinousness of the supposed offence. If under 
 the circumstances here glanced at such an act could be 
 committed, it is clear that the dominance of the Mental 
 Principle would be no guarantee against it ; and that 
 the highest attainable intelligence admits of the com- 
 mission of the most heinous crimes : in other words, 
 that it does not annihilate Brute Passion ; although, 
 and this I cheerfully grant you it materially lessens 
 the chances of its criminal activity. Even this boy, 
 however brutal might neglect have rendered his nature, 
 must have had a mental conviction that his act was 
 wrong. His avowed motive was to rid himself of a 
 little, a very little, annoyance. The question, then, 
 resolves itself into this : Had the boy, (a thing 
 scarcely possible at ten years old,) been fully cognizant 
 of all the facts which prove his Soul's relationship to 
 his Creator, would this knowledge necessarily have 
 prevented his rash act ? And is Human Nature, or 
 is Society to be held responsible ? 
 
 RANDOLPH. Against sudden Passion and you 
 might have imagined causes of sudden passion in an 
 adult more powerful than mere irritation of temper in 
 a child against sudden Passion, I do not think that 
 Right Convictions are in all cases safeguards against 
 wrong-doing. It is probable that all general Laws are
 
 C "AP. iv.] THE ALPHA. 245 
 
 subject to accident ; and that Human Nature neces- 
 sarily linked as it is to Brute Nature, must always be 
 liable to error. In the case supposed, if the act were 
 the result of sudden passion, it must be placed to the 
 account of Brute Nature ; but if it were a deliberate 
 act, it was the result of an erroneous conviction. 
 Society is responsible for those acts only which are 
 committed through the ignorance which Social arrange, 
 ments foster, or under the influence of the motives 
 they induce. You must admit, Civilis, that the 
 number of those crimes which are committed in pure 
 despite of right convictions are very insignificant in 
 their amount, and always must be, compared with 
 those which are clearly traceable to the evil influences 
 of Society. You must admit also that, whilst a right 
 conviction may not in all cases hinder the wrong act, 
 Brute Nature, and not Human Nature, is the 
 influencing cause. 
 
 CIVILIS. All this I most willingly admit. But, 
 admitting, as I do, that in all cases where a Man has a 
 right conviction, he must act conformably with that 
 conviction whenever the act be a deliberate one, and 
 where his reason is appealed to as to the propriety of 
 its performance; it is still manifest that Brute 
 Passion might hurry him into criminality whatever be 
 the amount of his Intelligence : and that even acts of 
 homicide are within the range of the wrong-doings 
 which even an educated Man, in his human condition, 
 is liable to commit. 
 
 RANDOLPH. You are overlooking one very im-
 
 246 THE ALPHA. [PART II. 
 
 portant consideration, Civilis. In obedience to the 
 Laws impressed by the Deity on all his works, all 
 things reproduce their like. It is certain that Men's 
 sentiments influence their own organization during 
 life ; and that intelligent parents usually, if not 
 invariably, transmit an organization to their posterity 
 more favourable to high mentality and intelligence 
 than their own. If this be true ; and if Mentality 
 be fostered and encouraged by Social arrangements, 
 instead of mere animalism, as is the case at present, 
 it is impossible to prescribe limits even to organic 
 improvement ; so that the Animal passions which 
 seem to stand in the way of human perfectibility, 
 will probably be so much modified in their activity 
 by *a more perfect organization, that they will be 
 entirely under the control of the human will; and 
 the objection you have raised against the possibility 
 not of Human progress, but of Human perfectibility, 
 (for it amounts to no more than this), may be capable 
 of entire removal. We are arguing an abstract 
 question ; and the possibility of arriving at absolute 
 perfection in our sublunary state is not the real point 
 at issue ; but the possibility of human progression 
 towards a state of comparative perfection : so, 
 that practically, if not absolutely, your objection 
 amounts to nothing. 
 
 CIVILIS. I cannot deny the validity of your argu- 
 ment, nor the conclusion to which it leads. I have, 
 however, one more objection : and, I confess, it is an 
 objection which I foresee others will make, and not
 
 CHAP. IV.] THE ALPHA. 247 
 
 one to which I attach any considerable importance 
 myself. Do you not think that Ignorance, with the 
 fear of future Punishment now so generally supposed 
 to attach to Crime, is a more powerful guarantee for 
 Innocence amongst the great mass of mankind, than 
 will be the conviction sought to be established amongst 
 them by your Principle, that, in the abstract, there 
 is neither Sin, nor Punishment with respect to it in 
 a future state ? 
 
 RANDOLPH. The fear of Punishment, or the hope of 
 reward, is no guarantee for Innocence, Civilis, what- 
 ever either of them might be as a restraint against 
 evil-doing. Criminality consists in the Intention ; 
 and the mere abstainmenfc therefrom, through motives 
 of hope or fear, is not Innocence ; but Prudence ; that 
 quasi Virtue, which abstracts nearly all virtue from 
 the more genuine Virtues ; and does its best to 
 convert Justice, Magnanimity, and Benevolence, into 
 something as mean and selfish as itself. Innocence 
 is not your meaning ; but this prudent abstinence 
 from evil-doing. But, taking your question in the 
 sense you intended it, you are supposing an im- 
 possible case : namely, the present restraints re- 
 moved, and the present motives and incentives to 
 evil-doing remaining. But, Civilis, before the Mental, 
 can take the place of the Selfish Principle, men must 
 be universally intelligent : and Intelligence, in the 
 absence of the present premium-inducing motives 
 to vice, will be, of necessity, an unspeakably stronger 
 guarantee to Right conduct than the distant fear of
 
 248 THE ALPHA. I^BT II. 
 
 an after-retribution (even were Hell a certainty), with 
 the present incentives to vice egging on feeble 
 Ignorance to the commission of Crime, and whispering 
 that a death-bed repentance is sufficient to avert 
 the Retribution. 
 
 CIVILIS. I am answered. 
 
 RANDOLPH. We have proved, then, that the Litera- 
 ture we have been examining is, for the most part, 
 false in its aim ; and, even when its aim is right, 
 that in the absence of a Principle by which to test 
 its truth, its very inspirations those flashes of Truth 
 which proceed from the genuine promptings of the 
 highest intellects are in the nature of guesses only ; 
 and, because of their uncertainty, impotent and 
 valueless as guides to human happiness. To-morrow 
 we will take another branch of our so-much-lauded 
 Literature, the which, on examination, will prove 
 equally worthless until read by the Light that is 
 able to convert it into Knowledge. It may, how- 
 ever, seem strange to say that the very Light which so 
 converts it, will show it to be needless ; and thence, 
 as valueless as the rest. This is the Enigma to be 
 solved to-morrow. 
 
 The air is sultry and oppressive. There is a 
 tempest gathering. You will be at home before it 
 reaches us. Good night !
 
 CHAP. V.] THE ALPHA. 249 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 RANDOLPH. CIVILIS. 
 
 CIVILIS. The storm last night was awful. A house 
 near mine was struck by the lightning, and the 
 father of a poor family was killed in an instant. The 
 circumstance had so great an effect on my mind that 
 I scarcely slept during the night. I now seek to 
 solve all difficulties by the help of our Truth-eluci- 
 dating Principle ; and I lay considering how the 
 sad occurrence of the evening could be reconciled 
 with the Beneficence of the Deity, by the operations 
 of whose Laws this melancholy catastrophe was occa- 
 sioned. Docs a beneficent God, said I, thus Will 
 the sudden destruction of his creatures, and plunge 
 a whole family into misery ? and, if so, why ? He 
 gives life to his creatures, and implants a love of life 
 in all that lives : and, although to intellectual Man, 
 death is not an Evil, but a necessary Good, does it 
 not seem contradictory that the Giver of life should 
 prematurely destroy it? I remembered that the 
 storm was necessary to produce an equilibrium in 
 the atmosphere, without which, to say nothing of 
 trillions of the lower animals, millions of human 
 beings would prematurely die ; nay, perhaps the 
 whole human population be swept away ; or, pos-
 
 250 THE ALPHA. [PART II. 
 
 sibly, that an universal stagnation would take place, 
 and all living things perish on the face of the earth. 
 And, if so, how beneficent are these awful visitations ! 
 But, still, the man is dead ; and his children are 
 orphans ; and his wife a widow ; and starvation 
 stares them in the face ; or a workhouse, more abhor- 
 rent still, is the fate awaiting them. I remembered 
 that starvation or the workhouse to the surviving 
 family is man's own work : and that, hence, this 
 misery is not purposed by the Deity whose lightnings 
 struck the husband and the father dead. The Evil, 
 then, to be accounted for, and reconciled with Divine 
 beneficence is only the taking of a single life. And, 
 to him thus cut off in the prime and pride of his 
 animal existence, what matters it whether now, or in 
 decrepit age ? His fellows will protect his widow, 
 and give his orphans bread, and instruct them in all 
 knowledge. Alas ! they will not ; but they ought. 
 He who is dead had lived long enough for all the 
 purposes for which life was given him. Did he 
 KNOW those purposes ? Probably not : no more 
 might he have known them in his age. Why did he 
 not know them ? He chose the beast's portion, life, 
 and the pleasures of living, but neglected to know 
 himself; to know God; to know Good from Evil, 
 Right from Wrong; to know the purposes of his 
 existence, and to fulfil them. Within himself were 
 all the means : he needed no external aid : had he 
 sought he would have found : had he knocked, it 
 would have been opened unto him. Clearly, then,
 
 CHAP. V.l THE ALPHA. 251 
 
 if he were not prepared to part with life the fault 
 was his : but, if he were prepared, as, following the 
 promptings of his spirit, he might have been, then 
 was the sudden translation a sudden glory : and the 
 Tempest was a wide-spread Good, unmixed with 
 evil. 
 
 RANDOLPH. I heard this morning of the accident, 
 Civilis, and have seen the desolation ; but a good 
 Samaritan had been there before me, a circum- 
 stance your modesty omitted. And it is well. But, 
 Civilis, the fruits of the newly-awakened Truth within 
 you is a fitter subject for congratulation. You will 
 find ample need of your felicitous mode of applying 
 our Principle to the solution of these apparent con- 
 tradictions ; contradictions which Ignorance every- 
 where takes hold of to fasten the authorship of Evil 
 on Him who is the author of nothing that is not 
 Good. Prejudice is rampant because Selfishness 
 bears undivided sway amongst us : and few there 
 are who will not cling to falsehood rather than jeo- 
 pardize their rent-roll, their profits, or their pay. 
 You will find, that, of all men, the Clergy have the 
 most sensitive dread of Truth. They are thoughtful 
 men, and, for the most part, good logicians : none 
 know better than they the value to an opponent of 
 an honest admission. Only a few days since I met 
 with a singular instance of this most sensitive dread 
 of Truth in a Clergyman. I had said something 
 which awakened his suspicions as to my orthodoxy. 
 It was curious to see the snail betake himself to
 
 252 THE ALPHA. 
 
 his shell the instant his horns were touched. When 
 safely ensconced in his slime-made citadel, I pro- 
 pounded a question which I had purposely led 
 him. to believe was but the precursor of others. 
 Are you satisfied, said I, that one and one are equal to 
 two ? we were not alone, and he would not make the 
 admission : neither taunts, nor entreaties, nor the 
 varying of the question, nor the stripping it of the 
 dress of language by reducing the proposition to an 
 idea which all minds must entertain from sheer 
 necessity, though they had no notion of sounds or 
 signs by which to express it ; none of these could 
 induce him to hazard an advantage by recording his 
 admission. It had been easier to tempt a mad dog to 
 swim across the Ribble or the Thames. Here is a 
 veritable fact which seems to militate against the 
 action-compelling influence of Truth. We are in 
 search of an antagonistic influence. A very brief 
 statement of a true fact will explain the contradiction 
 alluded to, and give this antagonistic influence a 
 name. Mark the explanation, Civilis. This truth- 
 abhorring Clergyman had just received an appointment 
 which quadrupled his income, and multiplied his love 
 of the selfish Principle by four ! To all such men, 
 Civilis, a truism is, of all the isms under which men 
 range themselves, the ism which is most obnoxious. 
 This brings me to the Essay I am to read to you this 
 evening, where you will see the baneful effects of the 
 selfish principle exhibited on a large scale. We are 
 subsequently, you know, to trace it to its source, and
 
 <-'"*' v.j THE ALPHA. 253 
 
 see how Literature, and Laws, and Morals, and Mystic 
 Tleligion grew out of it ; and how these, the refined 
 Children of a barbarous Sire, partake of the nature of 
 their parent, and are compelled to allegiance whilst 
 their nonage lasts : a nonage now, happily, near its 
 end. Dionysius, in the present Essay, examines 
 History with the same object in view as that which led 
 him to the examination of the several branches of the 
 Literature already disposed of. 
 
 EXTRACT FROM THE PAPERS OF DIONYSIUS. 
 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 " Some one has said that ' History is Philosophy 
 teaching by examples.' How far this definition is a 
 true one will be seen as we proceed, 
 
 "A historical fact is Knowledge as far as it goes : 
 Knowledge in a certain sense : it is a human record of 
 a human act. There is always some uncertainty as 
 to the truthfulness of the record. But, supposing it 
 to be an exact epitome of the historized event, is 
 
 THE RECORD VALUABLE? This UlUSt depend OH Cir- 
 
 cumstances. As long as it be necessary to store up 
 facts with the view to the discovery of Principles, or 
 guides to human conduct, there is value in the record!. 
 If not the object, this has been more or less the effect 
 of our records hitherto. But it can scarcely be said 
 that any fixed principles have yet been educed from our 
 laborious gatherings. As far as the principles of 
 Religion and Morality have been agreed upon, these 
 principles have been the tests of the good or bad quality
 
 254 THE ALPHA. [PART II. 
 
 of the facts recorded : and thus, a kind of pseudo-phi- 
 losophy, uncertain in its nature, is deducible from our 
 recorded facts. This Philosophy, such as it is, is 
 Knowledge, such as it is ; that is, it is false or true in 
 its character and aim, just as the tests which are used 
 to determine these circumstances happen to be false or 
 true. These tests, however, have no certain standard 
 in any given locality of the world ; but vary as opinions 
 vary concerning the true nature of Morality and Re- 
 ligion. The Philosophy extractable from History is, con- 
 sequently, very equivocal in its character : but, being 
 the best attainable under the circumstances, we will 
 not quarrel with the definition which forms the start- 
 ing-point in this inquiry. But, the fact is, whatever 
 philosophy there may be in the examples, there is no 
 real value in the record. Natural facts are necessarily 
 right, because they are the results of errorless Intelli- 
 gence. But the Knowledge of the facts is less 
 important than the Knowledge of the Laws or Prin- 
 ciples which govern and produce them. We need 
 not, for instance, make record of a shower of rain. 
 But our Knowledge of the Principles on which this 
 fact, and all similar facts, depend, should be recorded, 
 lest the knowledge should be lost. Were it not for 
 the Principle of gravitation, we should not have the 
 showers, nor their beneficent results. Such Know- 
 ledge is all-important. We are thereby made cogni- 
 zant of second causes, leading us to the First Cause, 
 God. But with Human facts, that is, facts caused 
 by Human agency, the case is different. These facts
 
 CHAP, v.] THE ALPHA. 255 
 
 do not proceed from errorless Intelligence, but from 
 the fallible operations of the Human Will ; and are 
 therefore Right or Wrong just as they are rational or 
 the reverse. To know what, under any circumstances, 
 we ought to do, is Knowledge ; is, indeed, Philosophy; 
 positive in its character, and unvarying in its opera- 
 tions. The act done, is an event that cannot be 
 recalled. If Right, its results are right. If right 
 because dictated by an unerring principle, all such 
 acts will be always right, and the record of them will 
 be needless. Nor will the record be of any real 
 value if the act be wrong. Test it by the Principle, 
 and prove it to be wrong, needless and valueless is 
 the record still. Thus, then, Philosophy is a thing 
 apart from History, which is (or should be), a true 
 record of occurrences, whether the occurrences be 
 Right or Wrong : and, having the Philosophy, we 
 might dispense with the History, and thus save our- 
 selves much profitless drudgery ; because the Know- 
 ledge which shows us whether an act already done be 
 Wrong or Right, shows us, at the same time, what it 
 is Right or Wrong to do. 
 
 " What an immense labour it were to acquaint 
 ourselves with all the (humanly speaking) interesting 
 facts of the world's history ! If last year's facts are 
 interesting or useful to us, so are those which occurred 
 before the Flood. But, as has just been shown, 
 however interesting historical facts may be to us, they 
 are of no real value beyond the gratification they 
 afford to our sympathies with the Past. We learn
 
 256 THE ALPHA. IPAET II. 
 
 that King so and so did so and so. Some will assert 
 that his doings were unwise and tyrannical. Others 
 from the same facts will arrive at the very opposite 
 conclusion. And this must always be the case as 
 long as what is called Religion, and Public and 
 Private Morals, are the tests by which we come to a 
 decision ; because these tests, modified as they are by 
 contending interests and conflicting opinions, differ 
 so widely in their appreciation of Right and Wrong, 
 that Right and Wrong are everywhere confounded. 
 Who, then, shall decide between them? And yet 
 we must decide before we can extract Philosophy 
 from the example. 
 
 " The peculiar excellence of a first Principle con- 
 sists in this : it enables us to dispense altogether with 
 precedents and examples. If, then, our Principle be 
 the true one, we might spare ourselves the labour of 
 reading History for the benefit of its examples; 
 however we might do so for our amusement, or to 
 gratify our sympathies with the Past. 
 
 " In what does the history of all the nations of the 
 earth consist ? In one long struggle between a little 
 spurious knowledge, and a huge mass of ignorance. 
 This little knowledge gave POWER to its possessors; 
 and the want of it, amongst the great mass of the 
 people, produced servile obedience to the authority of 
 the few who wielded the power and jealously con- 
 served the Knowledge. In Egypt, how much this 
 Power did, not for its happiness, but for its transitory 
 and unreal grandeur, and its fame ! For ages it went
 
 CHAP. V.] THE ALPHA. 257 
 
 on rearing stupendous records of its selfishness and 
 folly. Yes, they are these : but they are something 
 more. The Pyramids, these old-world structures, are 
 an expression of the God in man : they are the stu- 
 pendous utterances of ancient Egypt's yearning after 
 immortality. But, at length, the dark tide of Igno- 
 rance (blindly and purposely encouraged amongst the 
 ' masses') broke down the mystic barriers which for 
 centuries had restrained it : its desolating flood spread 
 ruin everywhere; and Egypt's civilization passed away. 
 'Barbarians skulked, beast-like amongst its palaces,' and 
 its Temples became the dwelling-places of loathsome- 
 ness, and vice, and abject misery. Here was an early 
 trial of false knowledge and exclusiveness : it failed. 
 
 " The civilization of Babylonia, Assyria, Media, 
 Tyrus, and the other great Kingdoms of antiquity, 
 being of the same selfish and exclusive character, led 
 to the same result. A little knowledge in the be- 
 ginning did wonders : but the Ignorance cherished 
 by exclusiveness, soon became too potent for its 
 taskmasters. It arose in its Savage might : the 
 monuments of human pride lay prostrate in the 
 dust ; and much of the Knowledge that reared these 
 splendours lay buried beneath the ruins, and was lost 
 to the world for ever. 
 
 " Greece ultimately emerged from barbarism, and 
 a civilization, the best and most perfect the world 
 had seen (save that of the Jews who had arrived at 
 the conception of ONE GOD) took root amongst its 
 rocks and islands. The Sciences made considerable
 
 258 THE ALPHA. 
 
 progress; and the Arts arrived at a pitch of greatness 
 and perfection which leaves no hope of rivalry. As 
 a reason for all this, Knowledge was less exclusive : 
 there was a oneness of Spirit animating the nation. 
 Its wisest men imparted their highest wisdom to the 
 populace from the porticoes of their beautiful temples. 
 These Temples were public possessions, that is, 
 they were raised in honour of the false Deities the 
 whole nation served : their Statues, in like manner, 
 were public property : their public men lived for the 
 people : there was some approach to a Commonwealth 
 of Mind. The highest aim of this nation was 
 public and private Virtue ; and it did its best to 
 inculcate the practice of it amongst all its citizens. 
 
 " But the attainment of Knowledge as the ultimate 
 purpose of existence ; the distribution of Knowledge 
 to all, as the common birthright of all ; and the 
 recognition of the fact that the possession of a First 
 Principle includes all Goodness ; supersedes the 
 Virtues ; contains all the Happiness the mind can 
 make its own : and that to have it is to have every- 
 thing, this Knowledge was not theirs ; and their 
 baseless fabric fell. Their Religion was Idolatry : 
 and yet their idolatry was in the right direction. 
 It was the embodiment of what they knew, or thought 
 they knew, of Nature ; the materialized ideal of 
 Power and Beauty. Their Arts, which formed 
 the symbolic portion of their religion grew up 
 into an imaginary but false perfection. And 
 now, nothing remains of their shadowy creed but
 
 CHAP. V.] THE ALPHA. 259 
 
 the beautiful symbols which imparted to the shadow 
 the semblance of reality. They reposed on Error. 
 Evil grew out of Error. They did not perceive 
 the hollowness of their virtues, although they failed 
 to find happiness the result of them. Listlessness 
 succeeded : ignorance increased : ruin followed : 
 and the civilization of polished Greece, like that of 
 the earlier nations, passed away. 
 
 " Rome, the rough imitator of Greece, relied on 
 its barbaric Virtue, its martial prowess, and its 
 wealth and conquests. It fought its ruthless way 
 to the empire of half the world. Power, which 
 coexists with Abjectness, was Rome's god. This 
 Nation grew great by its activity ; then, ' sheathing 
 its sword for lack of argument/ fell into luxuriousness 
 and lascivious ease ; fed on its former victories ; 
 gloated on its spoils ; grew apoplectic, and expired. 
 Peace to its ashes ; for it sowed the seeds of a purer 
 civilization than its own ! 
 
 " Christianity now, with its angel-teachings, 
 descended on the earth. Its pure Spirit still dwells 
 amongst us ; but men are loath to trust to its be- 
 nignant guidance. And, why ? Because we are 
 ignorant : because the old leaven of exclusiveness, 
 and the love of power, will not let the religion of 
 Love take root : and because the new creed has been 
 interwoven with the myths and mysticisms of the old. 
 Modern History, therefore, presents all the features 
 of that of antiquity ; and its Civilization contains the 
 same elements of decay. 
 
 s 2
 
 260 THE ALPHA. [PART IT. 
 
 " Let us cast our eyes about us, and what do we 
 see ? The first strongly-marked characteristic of 
 modern Civilization is the Ignorance, deep and dark, 
 of the masses, accompanied by its animalism, its 
 misery, its almost hopeless degradation, and its crime. 
 As long as you can set this mass of ignorance to 
 work, and pay it a trifle for its labour, it is a docile 
 sort of monster enough. It obeys the rein ; moves 
 systematically ; and this Caliban is said to be 
 civilized. Prospero, who reigns, and who has some 
 Knowledge, much cabalistic lore, dabbles in the dark 
 arts, and holds communion with spirit-ministers of 
 his power, says ' go/ and it goeth ' Come/ and it 
 cometh ; ' Do this/ and it doeth it. It sometimes, 
 however, grows impatient of restraint; and beards 
 the Prospero it owns for king after this fashion : 
 
 ' This island's mine. 
 
 ' When thou earnest first, 
 ' Thou strok'dst me, and made much of me, 
 
 would' st give me 
 ' Water with berries in't, AND TEACH ME HOW 
 
 ' TO NAME THE BIGGER LIGHT, AND HOW THE LESS 
 
 ' THAT BURN BY DAY AND NIGHT : AND THEN I 
 
 LOV'D THEE, 
 
 ' And show'd thee all the qualities of the isle ; 
 
 ' The fresh springs, brine-pits, barren place, 
 
 and fertile : 
 
 ' Cursed be I that did so ! 
 ' That first was my own king.'
 
 CHAP. V.] THE ALPHA. 261 
 
 " And History tells of greater lengths to which 
 this Caliban has gone beyond this blunt, Jack-Cade 
 remonstrance. IT HAS BEEN KNOWN TO THROW ITS 
 EYE AMIDST ITS MISERIES, ON SOME HALF-WITTED 
 TRINCULO TO CHOOSE FOR KING, IN PLACE OF PROS- 
 PERO. BELIEVING THAT THE SWAGGERING BRAGGA- 
 DOCIO, WHOM IT HAS MET WITH 'HALF-SEAS-OVER,' 
 TO BE A WORTHY SUCCESSOR OF PROSPERO WHOSE 
 REIGN IT HAS RENOUNCED, THE ELATED MONSTER 
 HAS BEEN KNOWN TO ADDRESS THIS TRINCULO TO 
 THIS EFFECT : 
 
 ' I'll show thee every fertile inch o' the island, 
 
 ' And kiss thy foot. I prithee be my god ! 
 
 ' I'll show thee the best springs : I'll pluck thee 
 
 berries : 
 
 ' I'll fish for thee, and get thee wood enough. 
 ' A plague upon the tyrant that I serve ! 
 ' I'll bear him no more sticks, but follow thee 
 ' Thou wondrous man ! ' 
 
 " And so he changes masters ; but is a slave the 
 same. And thus it is with this many-headed Mon- 
 ster, Ignorance, to the end of the chapter. A TRIN- 
 CULO MIGHT BRING A CHANGE OF MISERIES, BUT NEVER 
 A CESSATION. 
 
 " 111 every modern nation, this is one side of the 
 picture : Ignorance, Animalism, Misery, and Crime ! 
 Can this be Civilization ! To the degraded beings who 
 compose this mass, could primeval barbarism, with its 
 woods and wilds, and health, and liberty, be worse ?
 
 262 THE ALPHA. [PART II. 
 
 " But let us turn to the other compartment of the 
 picture. At the first glance it looks beautiful in 
 contrast with the one we have just been contem- 
 plating. The chief abatement to our pleasure, and 
 the first, is, that, in extent and magnitude, it bears 
 no comparison to the other side. Nothing, even if 
 everything be as delightful as it looks to be, abso- 
 lutely nothing to compensate for the dark and 
 wretched outline just presented, but whose horrid 
 details even Fancy must forbear to paint. 
 
 " Here, however, we have Pomp, Courts, Magni- 
 ficence, Armies, Navies, Senates, Time-honoured 
 Ceremonies, and Crowd -honoured Men; Kings, 
 Queens, Ministers of State, Judges, Ecclesiastics, 
 Universities, Nobles, Learned Men ; Commerce, and 
 its Ships, and Docks, and Marts ; and its Merchant- 
 Princes, with their Mansions, and their Lackies, 
 and their Sumptuous Feasts ! All this looks dazzling, 
 gorgeous, grand : But is it real ? It looks like 
 happiness : but is it so ? Or is it but the gaudy 
 mantle which Disappointment flings around itself to 
 hide the incubus it took for Pleasure ? Is it Happi- 
 ness ; or Misery with a mask on ? Is it the offspring 
 of Knowledge ; or should it call Folly father ? This 
 is what History could tell if it would. But it has 
 ever suppressed the half. Placing the Magnificence 
 in the foreground, it has artfully thrown the Misery 
 into the shadowy, dim, receding distance. It has 
 told but half the truth. Yet what is the Philosophy 
 hitherto deduced from these one-sided representa-
 
 CH AP. V.] THE ALPHA. 263 
 
 tions ? How is the failure of system after system 
 accounted for ? Why, that all human contrivances 
 are necessarily imperfect and evanescent ; and as to 
 RIGHT, that there is no right. A conclusion which 
 every other order of being in the universe contradicts 
 and falsifies every instant. 
 
 " If, however, to get positive Knowledge be our 
 great vocation on the earth ; and if in this vocation 
 be comprised a happiness so great, and lasting, and 
 complete, and godlike, that there is no greater pos- 
 sible save that which comes from using our knowledge 
 for a world-wide benefit, and communicating to all 
 our fellows the ennobling means of the happiness 
 we ourselves enjoy all which our Principle teaches 
 us then have we abundant proofs in the pages of 
 history, that Selfishness, which owns Ignorance for 
 its sire, has ever been the cause of all the vicissitudes 
 and failures which have hindered human progression, 
 retarded the growth of intellect, wrecked every social 
 system, and chequered the world with every variety 
 of Evil through all preceding times. 
 
 "If it can be shown that our Principle be not the true 
 one, then are our deductions false : then are all our 
 theorizings as vapoury and unreal as the Systems that 
 have crumbled and are crumbling into the nothing- 
 ness from which they sprung. But, if true, we have 
 no need of History either as a warning or an example. 
 We have only to follow our guiding-star of TRUTH to 
 bring about that Millennium of intellect which some 
 of the most thoughtful minds that have aderned
 
 264 THE ALPHA. [FAIT II. 
 
 humanity have prophetically promised to our race : 
 that period ' when there shall be but one fold and one 
 shepherd; when men shall beat their swords into 
 ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks ; 
 when nation shall not lift up sword against nation ; 
 neither shall they learn war any more.' 
 
 BIOGRAPHY 
 
 may be considered to be a portion of History. But 
 if we read it without testing it by the principle here 
 enunciated, we shall fail to extract much Philosophy 
 therefrom. Without this test, Biography, like 
 General History, out of the multitude of its examples 
 affords no unerring rule for our individual guidance. 
 
 " If we would pursue the acquisition of Wealth as 
 the means of happiness, we shall certainly find that to 
 make a friend of that niggard Virtue, Prudence, will 
 be to procure an alliance that will aid us every step 
 of the way. 
 
 " If the attainment of Honours be aimed at as the 
 ultimate Good, we shall find examples in abundance 
 of the methods which have been successfully pur- 
 sued. 
 
 " If Fame be the ultimatum of our hopes, we shall 
 find incentives in great profusion, and of every kind, 
 to madden our ambition, and lead us astray : for 
 great Fame comes of great Genius : and Genius, like 
 the traveller across the sands, leaves no footprints 
 behind it by which a follower might dog it to the 
 Temple. Only this is to be gathered that the
 
 CHAP. V.] THE ALPHA. 265 
 
 most famous Geniuses the world has known, have 
 generally been the least selfish, and most catholic- 
 minded of men. 
 
 " But if we ask Biography to tell us which object 
 we should pursue for the attainment of Happiness ? 
 which object be the Right one ? or if any of them be 
 right ? Biography cannot inform us. Our oracle is 
 dumb. 
 
 " Having an unerring Principle for our guide, we, 
 however, cannot have any difficulty in deciding these 
 questions for ourselves. We have all one object to 
 accomplish ; one pathway to pursue : the object is 
 the discovery of Truth : the road to it through the 
 Intellect alone. Let those who would lead us by any 
 other route exhibit their credentials : we have the 
 hand and seal of Heaven itself to ours. 
 
 " From this view of the subject it requires but a 
 moment's consideration to perceive, that, for any 
 positive, soul-enlarging Knowledge derivable from 
 Biography, it might be altogether dispensed with 
 without much loss : and, but for the gratification it 
 affords to the best sympathies of our nature ; and the 
 proofs it yields us of what difficulties may be sur- 
 mounted by unyielding perseverance, it might be 
 relinquished without regret." 
 
 CIVILIS. The object of Dionysius in this Essay, is, 
 I perceive, precisely similar to that in the preceding 
 ones. His positions prove a most important fact in 
 the economy of Education, and consequently, in the
 
 266 THE ALPHA. IPABT II. 
 
 economy of time and labour. To know the Principle 
 which determines the value of all human actions, and 
 shows us which of them are Right and which are 
 Wrong, renders the collection and collation of the 
 recorded facts contained in Biography and History a 
 needless labour. Aoid as all the Literature which has 
 reference to human affairs, whether speculative or 
 historical, forms at present a considerable portion of 
 the education of the educated, we perceive that their 
 fancied wisdom is little else than folly, and the toil of 
 its attainment nearly so much labour lost : whilst, by 
 the help of the First Principle, we perceive that, 
 without the ability to read a book, it is possible for 
 the most illiterate workman, whose mind has been a 
 little disciplined by thought, to become wiser than 
 the wisest statesman or the most erudite scholar 
 amongst us. This is a stupendous fact, and as true 
 as it is stupendous. 
 
 RANDOLPH. Yes, Civilis, real Knowledge, true 
 Wisdom, consists in knowing what to do, and doing 
 it; in knowing what to know, and struggling to 
 obtain the knowledge ; not in knowing (however 
 truly) what, aforetime, others have known and done. 
 This is Knowledge which the most knowing have 
 not ; Wisdom which the wisest want. Not the least 
 gratifying view of the fact enforced on our attention 
 in this Essay, is the possibility of teaching the 
 neglected millions all this Knowledge, and of placing 
 the rest within their reach, without waiting for the 
 decision of the Saints as to how far a working-man
 
 CHAP V.] THE ALPHA. 267 
 
 would jeopardize his soul by his acquaintance with 
 that heathen contrivance the Christ-cross-row ! This 
 shows us, notwitstanding the grave authority just 
 referred to, that as a grain of wheat contains the germ 
 of its own perfection, so does the Soul of Man ; and 
 that no man needs, through any natural necessity, to 
 sue his fellow-man for permission to fulfil the purposes 
 of his existence. To know himself is to know other 
 men ; and this is the certain key to all the knowledge 
 which relates to the Will and Nature of the Deity, to 
 his own nature, to the purposes of his being, and to 
 the means of working out those purposes. Conse- 
 quently, all that is professed to be taught (but which, 
 after all, is not taught), by Religion, Ethics, Meta- 
 physics, the Belles Lettres, and History, is really and 
 amply taught in the simple Truth that the Soul is an 
 Intelligent Principle incapable of any other acquisi- 
 tion than the knowledge placed purposely within its 
 reach ; and that an immortality of Happiness is the 
 inalienable birthright of all who will avail themselves 
 of this proffered largess of a beneficent Creator. 
 
 CIVILIS. This verity of verities (only in a far higher 
 sense,) my dear Randolph, is the Lever that Archimedes 
 sighed for. 
 
 RANDOLPH. It is : and, trust me, Civilis, with it we 
 will raise the world. But, could the world overhear 
 our vaunting, certes it would laugh at us. 
 
 CIVILIS. Apropos to that ; what is the cause of 
 Laughter ? why do we laugh ? I ask the question, 
 because last night, when I perceived the climax of my
 
 268 THE ALPHA. [PART II. 
 
 reasoning which proved the beneficence of the Deity 
 even in the tempest that destroyed my neighbour, my 
 happiness was too great to enable me to articulate my 
 thankfulness : but I laughed involuntarily. Why did 
 I laugh? 
 
 RANDOLPH. You were pursuing your argument in 
 doubt, and consequently, in ignorance of the result ; 
 and your Laughter was caused by the sudden joy of a 
 new and ennobling conviction. The violence of the 
 emotion caused by the greatness of the suddenly-per- 
 ceived Truth communicated itself to the physical 
 frame, and the effect was Laughter. The Brutes never 
 laugh : a proof that Knowledge is not a happiness to 
 them, nor received as we receive it. To suppose the 
 Deity from a similar cause to experience the emotion 
 of Laughter is so impossible, and, at the same time, so 
 incongruous an idea, that one almost laughs even at 
 the deliberate perception of its irreverence and incon- 
 gruity. Having nothing to learn, no new idea can 
 suddenly enter the Divine Mind. A state of com- 
 parative Ignorance, is, in all cases, necessary to 
 Laughter. The Brutes do not laugh, because they are 
 probably too ignorant to perceive an incongruity ; 
 hence it seems fair to infer that their Knowledge is not 
 in the nature of soul-perceived Intelligence ; and that 
 they do not derive any happiness from its acquisition. 
 WE laugh at the sudden perception of an incongruity. 
 We laugh in our most serious moments (as you did) 
 when a new thought or conviction rushes suddenly, 
 or unexpectedly, into our minds. We laugh at what
 
 CHAP. V.i THE ALPHA. 269 
 
 seems to be incongruous, or absurdly false. It is not 
 at the mere absurdity of another's folly, mistake, or 
 extravagant falshood, that we laugh : the emotion is 
 the happiness we naturally derive from the exercise of 
 our perception ; but it is the unexpectedness of the 
 incongruity that causes the physical convulsion. A 
 thing is not necessarily incongruous, or absurdly false, 
 because it produces laughter in another : it is enough 
 that it seems to be one of these to him. It is not a 
 deliberate feeling of triumph or ridicule at another's 
 folly or ignorance ; but an involuntary self-gratulation 
 at our own capability to perceive the absurdity, 
 whether it be a real or a supposed one. Prove 
 suddenly to the Laugher that the supposed absurdity 
 is not an absurdity, and he will laugh again. The 
 world is sufficiently intelligent to perceive the apparent 
 extravagance of some of our propositions, were they 
 presented without the proofs ; and sufficiently ignorant 
 to be involuntarily affected by the circumstance : but 
 acquaint them with our reasons for entertaining our 
 convictions, and they would no more laugh than we 
 do ; provided always that the knowledge came not too 
 suddenly upon them : otherwise, in consequence of the 
 delicate physical sensitiveness of some, it would 
 occasion either Laughter or tears ; in others it would 
 produce speechless astonishment ; but in all, Homage 
 (expressed in some form of Happiness,) to the Bestower 
 of the faculty that enables us to comprehend these 
 everlasting verities. 
 
 CIVILIS. Then our Laughter is not necessarily
 
 270 THE ALPHA. [r ART n. 
 
 malevolent even when resulting from any absurdity 
 we perceive in another ? 
 
 RANDOLPH. All genuine Laughter is involuntary ; 
 but Envy, and other selfish passions, frequently avail 
 themselves of the natural circumstance, and convert 
 the emotion into an instrument of offence ; and some- 
 times we encourage the paroxysm, or simulate the 
 feeling, for the express purpose of derision and 
 annoyance. 
 
 CIVILIS. The more I examine and consider this all- 
 explaining Principle of yours, Randolph, the more I 
 wonder at its elucidating power. 
 
 RANDOLPH. Wonder is not the most apposite term 
 for one to use who has really satisfied himself that a 
 First Principle must necessarily possess this power. 
 Wonder, like Laughter, is the bantling of Ignorance. 
 The difference is this : we do not LAUGH until we have 
 obtained the enlightenment, or until we think that we 
 have obtained it ; but when we WONDER we are still in 
 the dark. Although I have availed myself of a 
 Mentor's privilege to criticise your language, Civilis 
 I sometimes share in your astonishment. It is, in 
 comparison with anything previouly known, a mar- 
 vellous power : for it is the only one ; and capable of 
 the work it has to accomplish. What the Newtonian 
 principle is to the material universe, the Dionysian is 
 to the universe of Mind and a great deal more. 
 The former is a Second Cause, obeying an Infinite, 
 errorless Intelligence, which is the First. Over the 
 Universe of Created Mind the Dionysian Principle is a
 
 CHAP. V. THE ALPHA. 271 
 
 First Cause, and being of the nature of the Great 
 First Cause, is-intelligent ; not a will -less Law, or 
 Second Cause ; but an Intelligent First Cause, 
 operating within the limited Sphere assigned to it by 
 its all-causing, all Intelligent Creator. Consequently, 
 whilst the Newtonian Principle regulates, and is ca- 
 pable of explaining all the phenomena observable in 
 material things, however contradictory they appear ; 
 the Dionysian Principle regulates and explains all the 
 phenomena of Mind ; having the power to remove all 
 obscurity, and to reconcile all apparent contradictions. 
 
 CIVILIS. Thank you, my dear Randolph, for re- 
 minding me of the nature and office of the First 
 Principle. I feel myself, even yet, but a tyro in the 
 study, and cannot so completely disengage my mind 
 from my old modes of thinking, and old associations, 
 as to avoid Wonder at the power you are teaching me 
 to wield. I am so interested in these applications of 
 the Principle that I should never tire of listening to 
 your elucidations. Tell me, are not the Causes of 
 Wit identical with those which produce Laughter ? 
 
 RANDOLPH. Allied to one of the immediate causes 
 of Laughter is the talent we call Wit, which consists 
 in a habit (constitutional or acquired) of perceiving 
 incongruities, and comparing absurdly dissimilar 
 ideas ; and is one of the incentives to Knowledge ; 
 one of the aids thereto, though not the one most 
 legitimate and direct. To perceive wherein things 
 differ is a circuitous way (as used, however, by the 
 mere Jester,) to the perception of the particulars in
 
 272 THE ALPHA. [PART II. 
 
 which they agree ; which latter is the direct method 
 of arriving at principles, and thence, at a first Prin- 
 ciple. Suddenly to give pointed utterance to these 
 incongruous ideas in a humorous or satirical form, 
 produces, as we have seen, genuine Laughter. A 
 talent the reverse of this is generated by the habit of 
 perceiving SIMILITUDES (more or less remote) between 
 ideas which are not commonly perceived to resemble 
 each other. This habit is Poetical. When such 
 similitudes are made pointedly or gracefully apparent 
 in beautifully appropriate language, and in some 
 systemized and measured form, the result is Poetry. 
 The aptitude to perceive these remote, or usually- 
 overlooked resemblances and analogies in things, 
 constitutes, therefore, the poetical character. To 
 clothe them in appositely-beautiful and metrical lan- 
 guage (together with an aptitude in the construction 
 of the fable these similes are to adorn) constitutes 
 the Art of Poetry. And in the application of these 
 talents to the production and promulgation of great 
 verities, or civilizing and noble sentiments, consists the 
 true value of Poetry, namely, its Philosophy. And in 
 Poetry, as we have already seen, we have the nearest 
 approach to abstract Philosophy that has been yet 
 attained by man and promulgated amongst us. The 
 reasons for this we already know. An intimate 
 acquaintance with the analogies of Nature leads to 
 extended sympathies, to generalized views, and to 
 philosophical deduction. 
 
 CIVILIS. What an unspeakable happiness there is
 
 CHAP. V.] THE ALPHA. 273 
 
 in Knowledge ! To me this elucidation regarding 
 the real nature and cause of Laughter is especially 
 interesting. Probably there are but few persons 
 who have ever reflected that Laughter might be 
 homage-giving ; and yet the conclusion is inevitable 
 when the feeling is analysed. I now wonder how I 
 missed attaining to this knowledge long ago. But, 
 alas ! how insignificant must be the amount of all 
 we can know of ourselves as long as we are ignorant 
 of the Principle which enables us to explain all 
 mental phenomena, and as long as we entertain the 
 erroneous notion that to know ourselves is an impos- 
 sible acquisition. I have ever been subject to invo- 
 luntary laughter in the midst of the most serious 
 investigations ; and often have I chid myself for 
 Levity, deeming my tendency to risibility a natural 
 but pitiable weakness. I remember once (when a 
 student of the Inner Temple) laughing aloud in the 
 midst of a most instructive and impressive Lecture 
 on " Evidence." To an auditory as mute as death 
 the Lecturer was detailing the circumstances which 
 led to the discovery of Eugene Aram's guilty know- 
 ledge of the murder of Clark. " Taking up one of 
 the bones," said the Lecturer, " which were supposed 
 to be those of the murdered man, Aram incautiously 
 remarked ; ' These are no more Clark's bones than 
 they are my bones.' To which a bystander instantly 
 replied : ' If you know that these bones are not 
 Clark's bones, you must know where Clark's bones 
 are.' ' The circumstances of this singular case were 
 
 T
 
 274 THE ALPHA. [PART II. 
 
 new to me ; and the unlooked-for and most ingenious 
 inference of the bystander, added to the solemnly- 
 emphatic delivery by the Lecturer of these accusing 
 words, let such a flood of light into my mind on the 
 subject of evidence, and the mode of eliciting truth, 
 that, as I have told you, I laughed aloud. I would 
 have given the world to escape the momentary indig- 
 nation which rebuked me for the unseemly inter- 
 ruption. I felt that my emotion was an homage to 
 Truth ; and an homage also to the Speaker ; but I 
 should have been totally unable then to make the 
 fact comprehensible to another. 
 
 RANDOLPH. Many earnest, truth-seeking minds 
 must occasionally experience similar sensations : but 
 do you perceive, Civilis, from this truth-elucidating 
 fact through which Eugene Aram's guilty knowledge 
 discovered itself, how difficult it is to act in contraven- 
 tion of our knowledge ? The strongest motives to 
 falsehood were operating on Aram's mind, and yet 
 the Truth slipped out ! On the strength of the 
 Principle involved in this fact must be based, as I 
 have frequently told you, our hopes of the subjugation 
 of Evil, and the reformation of the world. Let the 
 world rid itself of all motives to Falsehood, and the 
 Soul will no sooner perceive a Truth than it will 
 render due homage to the God of Truth by acting 
 conformably with its perception. This is Religion, 
 Civilis : and Religion is a Necessity. The Soul does 
 not "worship" Truth: but, perceiving it, obedience 
 to its dictates follows of necessity. Happiness cannot
 
 CHAP. T.i THE ALPHA. 275 
 
 but be grateful to the Bestower of it : and this is the 
 highest form of worship, save alone the Acts that 
 grow out of it which have for their object the bestowal 
 of Happiness on others. This is " The whole duty 
 of Man." When Jesus of Nazareth was questioned 
 on this subject ; reducing the ten commandments of 
 the Jews to two, he replied in these words : " Thou 
 shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy soul, and 
 with all thy strength : This is the first and great 
 commandment : And the second is like unto it : 
 Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." He does 
 not, Civilis, enjoin on men " lip-worship :" he even 
 reprehends " long prayers :" but, both by precept 
 and example he enjoins acts of self-denial in material 
 things ; and in spiritual things, unceasing acts of 
 Love. THE KNOWLEDGE WE WOULD TEACH MANKIND, 
 Civilis, not only enjoins these duties, but enforces 
 them. This form of expression might sound ego- 
 tistical and presumptuous : but it is not so : it is an 
 explanation, not a vain-glorious boast. No one is 
 more grateful for the god-like beneficence of Christ's 
 teaching than myself ; nor more humbly grateful for 
 the Knowledge which has the capability of enforcing 
 the practice of his happiness-affording Code of Love. 
 
 CIVILIS. Suppose all men possessed of this know- 
 ledge, my dear Randolph ; would intervals of time be 
 set apart for public Prayer and Worship, as at pre- 
 sent? And if so, what would be the nature of the 
 forms and ceremonies used on such occasions ? 
 
 RANDOLPH. In Religious observances, as in Social 
 
 T2
 
 276 THE ALPHA. [PART II. 
 
 and Legislative arrangements, the doings of the 
 Future will be determined by the general amount of 
 Intelligence which may at any time exist in any given 
 community. But when men arrive, universally, at a 
 just conception of the nature of Deity, Prayer and 
 Worship will not be the sole, perhaps not the osten- 
 sible object of the frequent gatherings of the people. 
 These periodical meetings will be more for the dis- 
 semination of knowledge than for the purposes of 
 Prayer : for spiritual communion with God, and of 
 Soul with Soul, than for laudatory worship. It will 
 be felt that to do Right is the vitality of Religion : 
 and knowing what is Right to teach it to the young 
 will be the dignified, happiness-affording duty of 
 the old. The Temple of the Deity will be conse- 
 crated to Truth ; and ALL Truth will be taught in 
 the Temple. There will be no absurd distinction 
 between Becular truth and religious truth ; because 
 there is no such distinction in reality. I shall, per- 
 haps, better explain my meaning by reading to you 
 the termination of a letter written by Dionysius to 
 one who had applied to him for instruction on these 
 subjects ; but chiefly as to the efficacy and propriety 
 of Prayer. After commenting on the universality 
 of the Prayer which Christ bequeathed to us, he 
 says : 
 
 " No prayer is good that is selfish. No prayer is 
 good that is not in its nature universal. That which 
 is desirable for us is desirable for all men. But as 
 the Deity, our spiritual Father needs not to alter or
 
 CHAP. V.] THE ALPHA. 277 
 
 suspend his Laws to accomplish the purposes he 
 seeth good to be accomplished, and will not do so 
 at our presumptuous promptings and ignorant en- 
 treaties, why, though knowing how to pray, should 
 we pray at all ? Because every rational act of oral 
 or mental prayer is a closer intercommunion of our 
 Spirit with the Divine Spirit : every such act, there- 
 fore, will hallow and strengthen thy Spirit ; and thy 
 prayer, if rational, and the end thou seekest be in 
 consonance with the divine purposes of the Deity in 
 the government of his Universe, will, peradventure, 
 be answered by a spiritual light and power that may 
 enable thee to realize thy hopes, and accomplish the 
 good work thou desirest to do. Thus much as to 
 the propriety and efficacy of Prayer. But, my dear 
 young friend, remember this : Every good wish ; 
 every right act, is prayer also; and Praise, and 
 Homage too. To be a Spiritualist thou must, by the 
 unselfish excellence of thy thoughts and acts, PRAY 
 ALWAYS : and this is assuredly the highest homage 
 thou canst render Him who desireth no ignorantly- 
 servile submission ; and cannot be gratified, after the 
 manner of men, by mere lip -worship and laudations. 
 To do right : to love thy fellow-creatures as thy 
 heavenly Father lovcth thee : to get Knowledge, and 
 to live up to the full standard of thy spiritual 
 nature : to subdue the animal, and evolve the god, 
 is assuredly the most acceptable homage thou canst 
 pay to Deity. But pray sometimes in thy closet. 
 Abstract thyself from sense ; and ask for strength
 
 278 THE ALPHA. [PART II. 
 
 and light : but chiefly that thou mayest be both 
 strength and light to those who, wallowing in the 
 slough of animalism, need thy help, thy strength, and 
 thy enlightenment. Thus it was that he who had 
 no selfishness taught Selfishness to pray." 
 
 Here our conversation was postponed until the 
 morrow. What occurred at that meeting will be 
 recorded in the following chapter.
 
 CHAP, vi.] THE ALPHA. 279 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 RANDOLPH. CIVILIS. 
 
 CIVILIS. I held a brief to-day in a case tried at 
 Westminster, arising out of an injury done to the 
 Plaintiff by one of those professional impostors known 
 as Quacks. The action was sustained, and heavy 
 damages awarded ; and (speaking as a Lawyer) I think 
 justly so. But it is not to interest you in this case 
 that I have mentioned it : for I know that, as far as the 
 justice of the decision is concerned, you will say that, in 
 the present irrational state of Society, the decision may 
 have been Right ; but that under a rational System 
 the offence could not have been committed ; and 
 that Judicial Right is Social Wrong, felt or suffered 
 somewhere. And, as a Dionysian, though not as a 
 Lawyer, I perfectly agree with you. I have alluded 
 to the case because it led me to ponder on a question 
 which probably does not come within the province of 
 our First Principle to decide, for I could not fully 
 satisfy myself on the subject. As Quacks, like 
 Lawyers, are to be dispensed with under the In- 
 tellectual System, I asked myself whether the 
 " Regular Practitioner" ought not to be dispensed 
 with too ? Tell me, my dear Randolph, how this 
 question will have to be decided in the Court of
 
 280 THE ALPHA. IPABT II. 
 
 Reason a court from which there is no appeal? 
 If the " Faculty" are to exist, Evils must exist : 
 for Diseases are Evils. My question, therefore, re- 
 solves itself into this : Is Ignorance the sole cause of 
 disease ? 
 
 RANDOLPH. There can be no doubt of it, Civilis. 
 Ignorance is the cause of all Evil, and, therefore, the 
 cause of Disease. Amongst the instinct-guarded 
 Brutes that range the fields and forests in their natural 
 state of liberty, it has been said though I know not 
 with what truth that there is no disease. Man is 
 Reason-guarded ; and in this, as in all other matters, 
 his Free Will, undirected by his neglected Reason, 
 has plunged him into Error ; and Error, into every 
 description of Evil ; and into this amongst the rest. 
 The Health of the Lichen that luxuriates in the shade 
 of yonder wall, is necessarily Purposed and Provided 
 for by the Author of its being. And think you, 
 Civilis, that the Health of the Human Species, the 
 most favoured and peculiar work of the Deity, is not, 
 also Purposed and Provided for ? The provision for 
 Man's Health is in his Reason. In all things his 
 necessities admonish him to THINK. He is to have no 
 Happiness, no Independent existence, if he neglects to 
 think : a providential provision, Civilis, for urging 
 him to become Intelligent. It is, moreover, one of 
 many collateral proofs of the high purpose of his being; 
 his God-like nature ; and his self-deciding destiny. 
 Without Perception (which is only another name for 
 Reason) Man could not obtain Food to nourish him,
 
 CHAP. VI.] THE ALPHA. 281 
 
 or Raiment to cover him, or Shelter to protect him 
 from the inclement blast. And, if through his per- 
 ception he obtains these ; through the same means, 
 why not Health? And if Health, why not all he 
 desires and needs? His DESIRE AND HIS NEED 
 PRECEDE HIS EFFORT. He needs and desires Food : 
 his perception enables him to find it. He needs and 
 desires Health, and shall not his perception enable him 
 to secure it also ? He desires Happiness ; but with- 
 out the means to obtain it, his desire would be a 
 mockery. We have seen that his Reason, which pro- 
 cures him all his other blessings, also procures him 
 this. He desires (how greatly he desires !) Im- 
 mortality : and why does he desire it, if within him- 
 self, he has not the means of securing the object of 
 his desire ? Nothing is given him but through the 
 exercise of his Reason : and, if not his Food, why his 
 Health ? If not his Health, why his Immortality ? 
 If we cannot know that twelve times twelve are equal 
 to a hundred and forty-four without the aid of our 
 Reason ; how, without it, should we know that the 
 Soul is immortal ? Bat, if Reason enables us to know 
 the fact of least value to us, and towards which we 
 feel no instinctive desire ; why should it not also 
 enable us to know the other, which is all-important, 
 and towards which we are impelled by the most irre- 
 sistible desire ? But the Desire to obtain Food must 
 be followed by a rational Effort, or food is denied to 
 us. The desire to procure Health, or Happiness, or 
 Immortality must, in like manner, be followed by a
 
 282 THE ALPHA. [PAET II. 
 
 rational Effort, or these also are unattainable. But as 
 Food and Raiment are NOT denied us when thus striven 
 for ; neither is Immortality, nor Happiness, nor 
 Health. No, Civilis ; we should not need and 
 desire Health, if the exercise of our Reason did not 
 enable us to obtain it. " Death, a necessary End, will 
 come when it will come ;" but were we wise enough 
 to live conformably to the dictates of our Reason, we 
 should all attain old age, and die a painless death, 
 and experience a calm translation from the physical 
 to the spiritual world. In a rational state of so- 
 ciety, and when the Diseases resulting from the folly 
 of our progenitors shall have worn themselves out, 
 there will be no disease which our Intelligence 
 will not enable us to prevent ; or, if it come, to cure. 
 Even now, there is much good sense, not to say phi- 
 losophy, in the well-known maxim, that " a man 
 of forty is either a fool or his own physician." 
 This would be beyond all question true, were men 
 wise enough to live according to the obvious require- 
 ments of nature, and had they the necessary leisure 
 to study a science in which every human being is 
 so largely interested. But as things are at present 
 ordered, to live according to nature is next to impos- 
 sible. Food in some places is too plentiful : in 
 others too scarce : in other places there is none. In 
 the first case, all methods are tried to tempt the 
 cloyed appetite ; and feasting and riot is the one 
 great business of human life : in the second case
 
 CHAP. VI.] THE ALPHA. 283 
 
 the food is frequently unwholesome, as well as scant, 
 whilst the one, all-engrossing idea of the class thus 
 circumstanced, is to ensure a supply of it. In the 
 third case, thousands are always on the verge of 
 starvation, depending on the chance of the day, or 
 the daily dole, for the daily meal. With the sump- 
 tuous fare there is little healthful exercise : with the 
 scanty fare, there is incessant labour : with the 
 beggar, rags, and every variety of wretchedness. 
 The consequence, in every case, is Disease ; and, in 
 the latter cases, maladies so fatally contagious, that 
 in the plenitude of our queer piety, we father them 
 on Heaven ! No, Civilis ! we must have our incon- 
 veniences and our sorrows here ; and these are pro- 
 vided for by our ignorance in infancy, and our 
 liability to error through the whole of our pilgrimage 
 on earth : but all physical evils might be avoided 
 without perilling our after-life felicity ; and to get rid 
 of the Physician might possibly help us to avoid 
 disease. 
 
 CIVILIS. Thank you, my dear Randolph, for this 
 very lucid answer to my question, which I perceive 
 relates more to physical than to mental philosophy. 
 Another thought occurred to me when you were 
 speaking of old age of all men living to be old. 
 From numberless causes that produce disease, it is 
 probable that, annually, hundreds of thousands pre- 
 maturely die. If the restraints imposed by Poverty 
 be removed, will not more be born ? and if born in
 
 284 THE ALPHA. [PART II. 
 
 health, and if disease be banished from amongst us, 
 would not the over-population so much dreaded 
 by some, be more to be apprehended ? 
 
 RANDOLPH, He who made the Earth, made it 
 spacious enough for its inhabitants. But, Civilis, 
 when men live up to the standard of their mental 
 nature, and spiritualize themselves by knowledge, it 
 is presumable that they will no longer propagate like 
 hares and rabbits ; but that births will be relatively 
 rare in proportion to the certainty that every birth 
 is the nativity of an Intelligence, the advent of a 
 future god. I do not mean that the forethought of 
 men will altogether, if at all, produce this state of 
 things ; but that, as our intellectual nature, predomi- 
 nates within us, our physical nature, and probably our 
 sensual appetites, will be greatly changed. 
 
 CIVILIS. I am satisfied. Pardon my occasional 
 incredulity, Randolph ; but, having so recently relin- 
 quished all dependence on my old faith, I feel doubly 
 interested in every circumstance which enables me to 
 contemplate the Deity in the character of a beneficent 
 Father, rather than in that of an inscrutable and an 
 angry Judge. And such assurances as you have just 
 afforded me that we are not sent here to suffer a 
 multitude of Evils, the very existence of which seems 
 to derogate from his beneficence (urged too as you 
 have urged them,) afford me the most solid and 
 enduring happiness. 
 
 RANDOLPH. A creed that forbids inquiry needs 
 votaries of an easy faith : but Truth rejoices in the
 
 CHAP. Tr.i THE ALPHA. 285 
 
 scepticism that will be satisfied. I know your ex- 
 treme anxiety, Civilis ; and have frequently remarked 
 the delicate care with which you have sought to hide 
 it from me. I am, however, sufficiently acquainted 
 with my own mind to comprehend the struggle that 
 is going on in yours. A mind that from the cradle 
 has deemed Faith to be the best part of its religion is 
 easily satisfied with the evidence on which that reli- 
 gion rests. But your mind has been liberated from 
 this pleasing thraldom : and having thus far ventured 
 to think for yourself, Civilis, you will still doubt of 
 your ability to be your own saviour until your new 
 religion exists in your mind as an easily-compre- 
 hended whole; and until the scheme of Providence 
 with regard to man is perceived to be, in Beneficence, 
 co-ordinate with the Creator's Power. Let me help 
 you to master these difficulties by an interlocutory 
 process in which I must be both catechist and 
 respondent. 
 
 Q. Man is a dual-natured being ; his immaterial 
 soul is conjoined to a material body: why is 
 this ? 
 
 A. Because no other plan so effectual as this could 
 have been had recourse to by the Deity to make 
 his Knowledge gradual, and his Happiness ulti- 
 mately perfect ; and at the same time to provide 
 for the production of endless millions of souls 
 through the operation of a general Law. 
 Q. Why could no other plan have been so effectual ? 
 A. Because, in the first place, no work of God can be
 
 286 THE ALPHA. [PTll. 
 
 imperfect as a means to an end; and, without 
 conjoining Spirit to Matter, the Soul from its 
 very nature must have been omni-Intelligent, 
 incapable of Error, insensible of Ignorance, in- 
 sensible of Sorrow, and consequently, insensible 
 of Happiness. Secondly, because it is presum- 
 able that the Soul could not by any other means 
 have been rendered sensible of its separate exist- 
 ence and Individuality. Thirdly, because by 
 conjoining it to Matter all these beneficent pur- 
 poses are fully accomplished, and, lastly, because 
 by subjecting Matter to a general Law tending 
 to these purposes, the Spiritual Universe could 
 be peopled with Intelligences without end by a 
 single act, instead of each being made the sub- 
 ject of a separate or special creation. 
 
 Q. Why is the Human Soul made capable of Intelli- 
 gence ? 
 
 A. Because Happiness is the purpose of its existence, 
 and Intelligence is the means of Happiness. 
 
 Q. But the Soul is created Ignorant ; that is, igno- 
 rant in the beginning of everything save a 
 consciousness of its own existence : Why is 
 this? 
 
 A. That it might feel the inconvenience of Ignorance, 
 and through the unhappiness thence arising 
 arrive at a consciousness of Felicity ; and that 
 it might perceive the value of Knowledge which 
 is the cause of Felicity. 
 
 Q. Being ignorant (or nearly so) in the beginning,
 
 CHAP. VI.] THE ALPHA. 287 
 
 how is the impulse communicated which tends 
 to Knowledge and Happiness ? 
 
 A. By means of an Instinct or Desire prompting 
 thereto, and a sense of Happiness whenever the 
 desire is gratified. 
 
 Q. Has not this Instinct or Desire many objects, and 
 some of them not Intellectual, but Sensual ? 
 
 A. It has apparently several objects, but in reality 
 only one, namely, Endlessly-abiding Happiness. 
 All minor objects, when rationally directed, sub- 
 serve to this, the major one : thus ; it desires 
 Food, and Raiment, and Health, without which 
 Life could not be supported long enough for the 
 attainment of the Knowledge and experience of 
 the sorrows and inconveniences necessary to the 
 attainment of the major object, Happiness : it 
 also has desires which lead to the continuance of 
 the species, without which the general Law which 
 provides for this continuation would be inopera- 
 tive, and the Happiness of numbers would be 
 unattainable except by constant special acts of 
 creation. 
 
 Q. When the desire which leads to the accomplish- 
 ment of all minor objects is rationally directed, 
 it subserves to the major object, Happiness : 
 when not rationally directed what ensues ? 
 
 A. Evil and Misery. 
 
 Q. But Happiness being purposed as the end of 
 human existence, why is there a liability to Error, 
 from which Evil and Misery must ensue ?
 
 288 THE ALPHA. [PART II. 
 
 A. Because an experience of discomfort, or sorrow 
 and misery is absolutely necessary to the appre- 
 ciation of perfect Happiness, and, consequently 
 to the capability of its enjoyment. 
 
 Q. Then the experience of discomfort or misery serves 
 a plurality of purposes ? 
 
 A. It does. First, it serves to show that the act 
 which produces misery or discomfort is irrational, 
 thereby prompting us to a more rational effort 
 for the attainment of the Happiness which is the 
 ultimate object of the act : secondly, it affords us 
 an experience of the discomfort without which 
 the Soul could not be sensible of Happiness. 
 
 Q. But is not every act, whether erroneous or rational, 
 the result of an innate, impulsive Desire ? 
 
 A. It is : consequently an erroneous act is not a sin- 
 ful act, but simply an act which, because it is 
 irrational, is unhappy in its consequences : nor is 
 a rational act a righteous, or rewardable act, 
 but simply an act which, because it is rational, 
 is happy in its consequences. Both acts are the 
 necessary results of a predominating conviction 
 which leads to the effort prompted by the Desire. 
 The erroneous act fails in its object (which is 
 some transitory or abiding Good,) and the Evil 
 that ensues is the natural penalty. The rational 
 act succeeds in its object, and the resultant Hap- 
 piness is the sole, yet all-sufficient recompense. 
 
 Q. Every act being necessary ; is Man a Free Agent ? 
 
 A. He is : because, although prompted thereto by in-
 
 CHAP VI.] THE ALPHA.. 289 
 
 stinct, he is not compelled to act until his reason 
 is convinced ; first, as to the propriety of indulg- 
 ing the instinct, and, secondly, as to the means 
 he will employ for this purpose. His Soul being 
 an Intelligent Principle, Free Will inheres to it of 
 necessity. Without Freedom of choice, there 
 could be no Error ; without Error, no discomfort ; 
 without discomfort or Misery there could be no 
 appreciable Happiness. The Desire or Instinct 
 only gives a bias, which in some cases might be 
 altogether neglected ; but in no case can the 
 object of the Desire be accomplished without an 
 effort of the Intelligent Will. 
 
 Q. In what does his Freedom of choice consist? 
 
 A. In the Selection of the Means by which his desires 
 are gratified ; which means will be wrong or 
 right in proportion to the accuracy of his per- 
 ception of the relation between cause and effect : 
 And in the selection of the particular gratifications 
 he might fix upon as the means of abiding 
 Happiness : which selection will be wrong or 
 right in proportion as he has attained to a just 
 perception of his own nature, both physical and 
 mental ; of the purpose of his existence ; and of 
 the true nature of the Happiness for which his 
 Spirit yearns. 
 
 Q. How is he to obtain this Knowledge ? 
 
 A. Just as he obtains all other Knowledge by the 
 exercise of his Perception : by perceiving that he 
 has two natures : by perceiving why he has two 
 u
 
 290 THE ALPHA. [PAST II. 
 
 natures : by perceiving that the Soul is Spiritual, 
 Immortal, Intelligent, and incapable of anything 
 but Knowledge : by perceiving that all qualities 
 are reducible to Knowledge : by perceiving that 
 the body is organized matter, subject to death : 
 by perceiving that the Instincts implanted in 
 both natures are consonant with the requirements 
 and necessities of both natures : by perceiving 
 that to depend for his abiding Happiness on the 
 gratification of those Instincts which subserve to 
 the temporary continuation of Life, or the per- 
 manent continuation of the Species, is to fix on 
 gratifications which cease when life ceases : by 
 perceiving, thence, that the Happiness which will 
 abide with him for ever must be consonant in its 
 nature with his Spiritual Soul, and, like his soul, 
 be incapable of destruction : by perceiving that 
 the Happiness residting from Knowledge pos- 
 sesses this consonance in nature, and this inde- 
 structibility : by perceiving that there is no 
 Happiness (save this alone), which is real, 
 spiritual, and abiding: by perceiving that the 
 relationship which Knowledge bears to the Soul 
 is identical with the relationship which exists 
 between the Soul and Deity : by perceiving that 
 Deity, like the Soul, is what it is, is all it is, by 
 reason of its Intelligence : by perceiving that every 
 Instinct given to either nature, is given that it 
 might be rationally gratified, not irrationally in- 
 dulged : by perceiving that on his own Free
 
 CHAP. VI.] THE ALPHA. 291 
 
 choice depends whether he will irrationally pam- 
 per his Brutal appetites, choose the Brute's 
 gratifications, live for them, abuse them, (which 
 the unreasoning Brute does not) ; or whether he 
 will select, more rationally, the Knowledge- 
 craving Instincts of the intelligent Soul as his 
 guides to Happiness, live that he might become 
 a terrestrial Intelligence, and die that he might 
 become a God : by perceiving that every act 
 necessary to be done, every object he has to accom- 
 plish, is preceded by a Desire instinctively tending 
 to the act ; by perceiving that to accomplish 
 the Desire demands a rational Effort : by per- 
 ceiving that if he fail on his part (namely, in the 
 effort,) whether the Desire be the minor one of 
 Food, or the major one of Endless Happiness, the 
 object of the desire will be unaccomplished : by 
 perceiving that it were just as absurd to suppose 
 that the Happiness can be obtained without the 
 effort, as without the effort he could obtain the 
 Food ; and just as insane to accuse the Deity of 
 Injustice in one case as in the other : finally, by 
 perceiving, (as a reason for this) that could he 
 obtain Food without a conscious Effort, as his 
 Lungs obtain air, and as his Heart obtains motion, 
 to eat or drink would be no enjoyment ; and, in 
 like manner, if without thought, without per- 
 ception, without rational Effort, he could attain to 
 an immortality of conscious existence, that on 
 such conditions, to exist eternally, could not pos- 
 u2
 
 292 THE ALPHA. [I >ART n - 
 
 sibly be a Happiness. He must perceive that 
 on one condition only is Happiness possible ; 
 namely, that he will take the trouble to secure it ; 
 that it must be his own act and deed ; and if he 
 fail on his part, not only is the forfeiture of his 
 privilege inevitable; but, even to human com- 
 prehension, it is just. 
 
 This, Civilis, is the Sum and Substance of all 
 Philosophy : the Alpha and Omega of all Religion. 
 Ours is not a Creed demanding Faith ; but a system 
 of incontrovertible verities demanding that we know 
 them. Every fact herein promulgated has been 
 demonstrated beyond the possibility of refutal ; and, 
 when once seen, beyond the possibility, even of a 
 doubt. Our nature, and our purposed destiny have 
 been brought within the limits of our perception. 
 The beautifully-beneficent scheme of the Deity has 
 been rendered comprehensible. We have " justified 
 the ways of God to Man." 
 
 CIVILIS. There can be no need to tell you I am 
 satisfied. What is the system of Salvation on which 
 I have been blindly content to lean, to this ! The 
 system of Original Sin, and Reward, and Punishment, 
 and Faith, and Repentance, and inexorable Justice, 
 and infinite Mercy, and Sacrifice, and Reconciliation, 
 and Election, and Grace, and " He will have Mercy 
 on whom, he will have mercy," rank, blasphemies, 
 which yet men strangely reconcile with Reason ! I 
 but enumerate them, Randolph, to say I have re- 
 nounced them all. Till now 1 never had a Conscience :
 
 CHAP. VI.] THE ALPHA. 293 
 
 for a Conscience cannot come of Opinion, Dictum, 
 Faith ; but of Knowledge only. Now I have the 
 Conscientia ; the Knowledge of Good and Evil, Truth 
 and Falsehood, Right and Wrong : and my Know- 
 ledge must henceforth be my guide, my sole reliance, 
 my Religion, rny all-in-all. What I am I know : 
 What is the purpose of my double nature, and the 
 beneficent object of my being, I also know : and, in 
 part, I know why all the magnificent Universe 
 around me was created, and why Man was placed 
 in the midst of it. I need not tell you, my dear 
 Mentor, that I am grateful; that I am supremely 
 Happy. 
 
 RANDOLPH. Enough of this. We have yet busi- 
 ness beneath the stars. From abstract Religion we 
 must stoop to Social Politics. You have rightly 
 described Conscience ; which is knowledge, not 
 opinion. But as Hooker has aptly said (and Society 
 cunningly acts upon the maxim !) : " The reason 
 why the simpler sort are moved with authority, is 
 the conscience of their own Ignorance." That is, 
 they know that they arc ignorant: but they do not 
 know, Civilis, that " Authority" is nearly as ignorant 
 as themselves. And ice must know it, by continuing 
 our investigations, before we shall be competent to 
 enlighten them. I had an object in removing your 
 lingering doubts on the subject of Self-salvation : it 
 was that we might be the better able to confine our 
 attention to the philosophic unwinding by Dionysius 
 of the tangled web of anomalies and contradictions
 
 294 THE ALPHA. IPART II. 
 
 of which human Society is composed, so that this 
 portion of our subject might also be viewed as an 
 easily-comprehended whole. We have yet, you 
 know, to see what it is that sets the complicated 
 machinery of Society in motion. I have previously 
 told you that it is Selfishness, which would long ago 
 have whirled itself into fragments but for the coun- 
 teracting drags with which we regulate its mis- 
 chievous velocity ; and that these drags are Morals, 
 Mystic Religion, Literature, and Laws. We have 
 yet to trace these to their origin, see what amount 
 of divinity there is in them, and value them at what 
 we find them to be worth. To this end let us accom- 
 pany Dionysius in his investigations. 
 
 EXTRACT TROM THE PAPERS OF DIONYSIUS. 
 
 " Brief, and merely suggestive, as has been our 
 examination of the stores of our accumulated literary 
 Knowledge, of course, I mean the Historic, 
 Didactic, Imaginative and Speculative portion of it 
 it would have been altogether a needless labour to 
 enter more extendedly on the ungracious task. But 
 as the Principle we have taken for our guide decides 
 most unmistakably that the only valuable addition 
 the human Soul can make to itself is Truth, it be- 
 came a matter of the first consequence to determine, 
 generally, the real value of the Literature we regard 
 with so much affection, and from which we have 
 been wont to expect so much advantage. 
 
 " We have seen that our Literature is almost alto-
 
 CHAP. VI.] THE ALPHA. 295 
 
 gethcr impotent as an agent of real civilization. Far 
 be it from us, however, to decry unnecessarily, or to 
 speak slightingly, from any but the highest motives, 
 of the Literature of the world, or in the slightest 
 degree to undervalue the many blessings it has scat- 
 tered amongst a portion of mankind. Ear be it from 
 us to say that the Virtues it has cherished, or the 
 Moralities it has inculcated, or the Religion it has 
 taught has been altogether vain and valueless. Ear 
 be it from us to assert that it has not enunciated, 
 more or less distinctly, great and numerous verities. 
 But these have been scattered at random amongst 
 mankind without even their authors knowing their 
 real value. We have, therefore, books in abundance, 
 but not an unerring guide amongst them. Can any 
 man lay his finger on a single sentence save this 
 alone, ' Do unto others as you would that others 
 should do unto you,' which contains an universal 
 rule of Right? or a principle which discovers or 
 determines what is Right ? Taking the whole mass 
 of Literature, modern and antique, was such a prin- 
 ciple ever deduced from it ? or is such a deduction 
 possible ? If it has been found ; where is it ? what 
 is it ? If it has not been found, and if it cannot be 
 found, of what use is Literature, of what use is 
 ' Learning/ except to build thereon mere empty 
 pretensions to erudition and wisdom, and to impose 
 on the illiterate with a sham ? 
 
 "Buying and selling Consols, Lands, Houses; 
 buying and selling the products of the earth ; buying
 
 296 THE ALPHA. [PART II. 
 
 and selling Law ; buying and selling Men ; buying 
 and selling Souls ; (and, in the same commercial 
 spirit, driving bargains with Heaven itself, for our 
 very Religion is based on a quid pro quo!} form, at 
 present, the great and all-engrossing business of 
 humanity. Of course most of our Literature has 
 been produced for pay. No marvel that it is the 
 slave of wealth. No marvel that the " Knowledge" 
 it dispenses should fail to make either its dispensers 
 or its recipients Religious, Moral, Virtuous, Wise. 
 No marvel that Knowledge so empty and unreal 
 should have failed to make men Happy. 
 
 " As Society is at present constituted this pseudo- 
 Knowledge has its value and its uses. Prostituted 
 though it is to unworthy purposes to the pampering 
 of our animalism, and to a species of intellectual sen- 
 suality scarcely more commendable than sensualism 
 itself that it is capable of better things, and that it 
 has accomplished better things, is gratefully and un- 
 hesitatingly admitted : and were it distributed amongst 
 the entire people, much good, probably the greatest 
 good, would be the necessary consequence. Hollow 
 as much of it is, it is because it is not the common 
 property of mankind that its present use can be made 
 of it by its present possessors. And this is not only 
 well-known to all who know the current value of 
 information and knowledge, but is the real cause of 
 the continuance of the monopoly. There is Power 
 amongst men only because there is Impotence and 
 Imbecility ; and this Knowledge (valueless as much
 
 CHAP. VI.] THE ALPHA. 297 
 
 of it is) is Power. There is surface Urbanity and 
 Politeness, only because there is Boorishness; and 
 this Knowledge is the Urbanity and Politeness. 
 There is Polish only because there is Coarseness ; 
 and this Knowledge is the Polish. It is nothing in 
 itself: and if all possessed it, its nothingness would 
 be apparent, and its present value gone. As it is, 
 the possessors of Book-knowledge ; and, of course, 
 all the conventionally-educated aristocracy of all 
 nations, do really feel themselves to be superior 
 animals, and naturally look down with peacock com- 
 placency and contempt on all below them who lack 
 the showy externals in which they so exclusively 
 rejoice. And it must be confessed that some of them 
 are refined and elegant savages enough ; most fasci- 
 nating in their manners ; knowing exactly when to 
 stoop, and how. It is quite a luxury to see with 
 what easy dignity all real Lords and Ladies can 
 sustain an artificial character, and how gracefully 
 they can demean themselves on all occasions. These 
 people whose ability to do better things is so appa- 
 rent luxuriate in a kind of sublimated Cannibalism. 
 It is, however, much more refined and far-seeing than 
 the cannibalism that goes naked, and lives in huts, 
 and feeds on the physical fat and muscles of their 
 fellows : no : it is far more delicate, far more provi- 
 dent, to feed upon the products of their labour, than 
 to pick their bones ; to house their victims in huts, 
 and live themselves in Palaces; to reduce their 
 victims to svstcmized submission, and amuse them-
 
 298 THE ALPHA. [lA*lL 
 
 selves by invisible control ; to keep their victims in 
 barbarous ignorance, the better to seem themselves 
 like gods, and to make their reign perpetual, 
 
 " Below these majestic creatures, there is a class of 
 semi-refined savages that apes the learning of the 
 Learned, and the grandeur of the Great : a class, 
 moreover, far less delicate and refined ; but more 
 lofty, more cruel, and if anything, more cannibally- 
 given, than the lordly Anthropophagi it strives to 
 imitate. But, be it known to all men that it is the 
 more or less limited acquaintance with the Literature 
 we have been examining that makes all the difference 
 between the Anthropophagi of Birth, and the Anthro- 
 pophagi of newly-acquired distinction and wealth ; as 
 well as between really well-read men and superficial 
 pretenders. Be it also known that there is no other 
 difference between these and the Artisans, and the 
 Hodmen, and the Thieves, and the Beggars at the 
 bottom of this so beautifully graduated scale of 
 "orders" into which the Sons and Daughters of 
 the Deity are divided on this, His blessing-bearing 
 Earth. 
 
 " It will be seen that there is more Knowledge 
 contained in our First Principle, than in all our 
 Didactic, Historic, and Imaginative Literature put 
 together. It contains, in fact, all the yet unthought- 
 of Knowledge which can in any way appertain to 
 Mentality : so that with it, the most illiterate might 
 be far wiser than are the most learned without it : 
 hence, no man need despair of being the peer of any
 
 CHAP, vi.j THE ALPHA. 299 
 
 other man, whatever his Learning, in all matters of 
 philosophy which has not reference to Physics. 
 In physical philosophy, he who is master of the 
 greatest number of facts, and who reasons most 
 wisely concerning them, will always possess an ad- 
 vantage over him who has fewer facts, and who 
 reasons worse. I mean, of course, as long as a 
 Selfish System robs the larger possessor of the un- 
 bought happiness of imparting them. Not so, how- 
 ever, in Mental Philosophy. To know the First 
 Principle makes all men peers in Knowledge : and 
 when this parity of Knowledge has been once attained 
 universally in any Nation or separate community of 
 Men, all else that is desirable follows of necessity. 
 To be equal by nature, and to be thoroughly conscious 
 of this equality, is to be equal Socially : and then, 
 whatever arrangements might be agreed upon for the 
 general convenience, will necessarily be based on the 
 general Happiness. This is not, however, the Re- 
 publicanism, nor the Socialism, nor the Communism 
 which is everywhere clamouring for a recognised 
 existence. The Millennium which benighted enthu- 
 siasts yearn for will never come until Ignorance no 
 more dreams that Socialism consists in Idleness and 
 Sensuality reduced to a system. No ! Socialism is 
 ever-active Spiritualism, limiting the animal to its 
 smallest dimensions, and lifting the Intellect to the 
 summit of its capabilities. The ameliorations of the 
 Social Evils to which such large masses of men are 
 now directing their aspirations, and giving form to by
 
 300 THE ALPHA. [PART II. 
 
 combinations so variously denominated, are still afar 
 off in the dim distance which Mind cannot penetrate 
 without the optic-glass of an all-enlightening Principle. 
 Such a Principle is now our own ; and, by its aid, 
 the possibility of the wished-for Millennium is dis- 
 tinctly seen. But the work of regeneration must be 
 the work of the Intellect working in the multitude. 
 They must educate themselves. This work must 
 be begun in earnest, and pursued with a steadiness 
 of aim, and a self-reliance which it might take ages 
 to acquire : but acquire it they must, or continue 
 thralls. 
 
 " Perhaps the most important maxim we have 
 derived from classic antiquity is, ' Know thyself : ' 
 but the author of the aphorism did not supply us 
 with the key to the Knowledge he commended, with 
 such truly Doric simplicity, to our attention. Without 
 the key, the injunction, Do riylit^ were not more an 
 enigma. 
 
 " If we take it for granted that the subject of self 
 is inscrutable, we naturally make no effort to know 
 ourselves : and the aphorism is useless. 
 
 " If we believe each individual self to be a mere 
 transitory existence, and that our species only is 
 immortal, we necessarily decline the study altogether ; 
 and here again the aphorism is usless, for it leads to 
 no result. 
 
 " If we believe in our immortality, but, at the 
 same time assure ourselves that we are by nature
 
 CHAP. VI.] THE ALPHA. 301 
 
 deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, 
 the maxim is realized in the belief; but so unsatis- 
 factory is the knowledge that * Know thyself ' sinks 
 into a sarcasm, and we look upon its author as an 
 oracular cheat. 
 
 " If, however, self-knowledge is the key to all 
 knowledge, and if the Happiness for which we are 
 designed depends on the acquisition, then ' Know 
 thyself ' has a meaning worthy of its antiquity: for 
 it is the touchstone of all Truth ; it is the foundation 
 of all Religion ; it is the basis of that superstructure 
 of Intelligence that every man must rear for himself : 
 a work in which, whilst another's aid might ease 
 our labour, another's tyranny can neither hinder nor 
 repress. 
 
 " Wherever the Deity has placed a brute animal 
 there he has placed its appropriate food, and every- 
 thing necessary for the gratification of its instincts, 
 and the development of its peculiar nature. Wher- 
 ever he has placed a flower, or a lichen, or a blade of 
 grass, there is its appropriate soil ; there it nourishes 
 and arrives at its perfection. Thus, seeing the most 
 perfect adaptation of means to an end in every other 
 work of the Deity, we might, with certainty, have 
 predicated, without waiting for the proof, that the 
 Literature which one portion of mankind has the 
 power to produce, as well as to lock up from the 
 other portion, could not contain anything really 
 essential to the wants and welfare of the entire
 
 302 THE ALPHA. (PAET II. 
 
 species : and our examination of these so-much- 
 estimated treasures has demonstrated the fact. 
 Therefore : 
 
 " Fellow-labourers, Hodmen, Husbandmen, Me- 
 chanics, Artisans, Soldiers, Sailors, Serving-men, and 
 Serving-women, ye upon whom the ' primal curse' 
 has been adroitly shifted, wherever ye are on this 
 globe, and whatever your callings and condition, 
 Know yourselves. Your bodies are of the same 
 materials, your souls of the same pure essence, your 
 capabilities the same, your destinies, the same as 
 those for whom ye labour, whom ye serve, and whom 
 ye have been falsely taught to believe were created 
 to be your superiors in station and intelligence. Be 
 true to yourselves : know yourselves : live up to the 
 standard of your spiritual nature, and no power on 
 earth can keep ye thralls." 
 
 RANDOLPH. This last sentence, Civilis, is an in- 
 terpolation. In the general justice of the verdict 
 passed by Dionysius on the Literature which so largely 
 enters into the education of the educated, I think 
 you will agree ? 
 
 CIVILIS. I believe, Randolph, there is no possibility 
 of coming to any other conclusion with respect to it. 
 Thus, Metaphysics, Moral Philosophy, Mystic Re- 
 ligion, and Literature, have been either absolutely 
 demolished, or proved to be almost futile as aids to 
 rational Civilization. However un-Dionysian the ex- 
 pression, Randolph, the thing is wonderful. Here we
 
 CHAP. VI.] THE ALPHA. 303 
 
 have ONE TRUTH in lieu of a jumble of fancies 
 which constitute our Metaphysics ; for all mental 
 qualities are necessarily included in the FIRST, which 
 is Intelligence ; and the nature of the ONE explains 
 the nature, and determines the action, of all. This 
 same TRUTH absorbs into its own being the 
 Moralities, and the Virtues, and the veritable portion 
 of Religion. They have no separate, no positive 
 existence. They and it are ONE. Do RIGHT is the 
 grand total of all Religion. The Knowledge of what 
 is Right obliges us to DO Right : and to know what 
 we are includes this Knowledge, and enforces its ob- 
 servance. Do Right is again the sum and substance 
 of Morality. Morality is lost in Knowledge. And 
 with the Moralities away go the Virtues, all save Love : 
 and what is Love if we abstract Intelligence ! It is 
 easy to foresee what Dionysius will make of Social 
 Politics. Selfishness is necessarily based on the 
 Animal Instincts, not on the Intellectual. Pleasure is 
 mistaken for Happiness Unmitigated Selfishness 
 would desolate the Earth hence restraints, Mystic 
 Religion, Morals, the Virtues. Selfishness admitted 
 as the basis of Society, the Do RIGHT of the Moralists 
 means only this, Be as unselfish as you can ; in other 
 words, Be Prudent, but be Generous. But if un- 
 selfishness is Right, Selfishness is Wrong : ergo, the 
 very basis of all Social Action is Wrong. Remove the 
 original Wrong, and Morality has no existence. 
 Remove Morality, and the Virtues fade. It follows 
 that the unreal things called the Moralities and the
 
 304 THE ALPHA. [PAKT II. 
 
 Virtues cannot make part of the Reality called 
 
 Religion. Religion has reference to the Deity. 
 
 I perceive it all, my dear Randolph. But I will come 
 to the next reading : shall it be to-morrow ? Monday 
 I start on Circuit, for the last time, Randolph, for I 
 am cured of Law : I am out of love with Justice. 
 I am both a better Lawyer and a worse, than before I 
 became your pupil I see through and through men : 
 not a motive is hidden from me. I see the convictions 
 on which men act Wrong ? Right ? no matter 
 which, they compel the acts of the disputants, 
 Justice ! My business is henceforth to teach my 
 fellow-creatures. Shall we have the next Essay to- 
 morrow, Randolph ? I shall be all ear. I will not 
 interrupt you by a word. 
 
 I assented : and, commending my excited friend to 
 calmness, we parted for the night.
 
 CHAP. VIT.] THE ALPHA. 305 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 RANDOLPH. CIVILIS. 
 
 RANDOLPH. The Notes I have arranged into the 
 form of an Essay for this evening, Civilis, are 
 somewhat more extended than on the previous oc- 
 casions : but as you are leaving town to-morrow, I 
 have been anxious that you should have an entire 
 view of the whole subject fixed systematically in your 
 mind previously to your departure. What Society is, 
 we shall see in this Essay, as in a Mirror. What 
 it ought to be, we have already seen with tolerable 
 distinctness. 
 
 CIVILIS. I am infinitely indebted to you, my dear 
 Randolph. I hope you purpose to confer a similar 
 obligation on the world. You will publish these 
 papers, will you not ? 
 
 RANDOLPH. It is my intention to do so, Civilis. 
 
 CIVILIS. Your book will meet with many Objectors, 
 and some who will not deal very fairly with it : for 
 Self-interest is stronger than conviction : besides 
 which, this feeling this Self-interest absolutely 
 blinds men, and will not let them see a disagreeable 
 truth. 
 
 RANDOLPH. We must expect opposition, Civilis. 
 Men are fallible ; and WE may be in Error : but 
 
 x
 
 306 THE ALPHA. [PABT n. 
 
 this, Time and Discussion will show. Madmen do 
 
 not know that they are mad. Fools are not aware of 
 
 their folly. We may, you know, be Madmen or 
 
 Fools. There are those who would think that we are 
 
 desecrating the Sabbath by talking of these things 
 
 to-day. We hold a very different opinion. Our 
 
 Principle is either true or false ; and if we are 
 
 labouring under a delusion, we shall be among the 
 
 first to hail the demonstration that can set us right. 
 
 No man is aware of the extent of his own Ignorance. 
 
 That which he believes to be Truth is Truth to him 
 
 until he has become convinced of its falsehood. No 
 
 man can positively KNOW that another man is wiser 
 
 than himself: for the very instant he is conscious 
 
 of the fact he is a new man : the demonstration has 
 
 dissipated the difference. Thus it is with us, Civilis : 
 
 thus it must be with all men. If our assumed First 
 
 Principle be not the fundamental Truth, one of two 
 
 things ensues : either there is no such Truth (which 
 
 amounts to this there can be no God) ; or there is 
 
 such a Truth, but it differs from ours. In either case 
 
 the Objector must demonstrate his position before 
 
 we can abandon ours. But, in this case, our object 
 
 will be attained : we shall get the Truth : we shall 
 
 make a step in Intelligence : we shall be no longer 
 
 his inferiors in this particular. He has but to 
 
 prove the disparity between himself and us ; and 
 
 that disparity will have ceased to exist. Truth has 
 
 this advantage over Falsehood, all men are really 
 
 interested in it : and, in the present case, for one
 
 <^AI>. vir.j THE ALPHA. 307 
 
 whom Falsehood seems to benefit, there are a hundred 
 whom it hurts ; and as Knowledge is power, Error 
 will ultimately go to the wall. Were Tame my 
 object, I would not publish these papers. If I ex- 
 pected profit, I would not publish them. Nor would 
 I publish them if I feared to awaken ridicule, envy, 
 hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness. But as I 
 hold it to be the duty of every man to do right re- 
 gardless of personal consequences, I shall certainly 
 give the world an opportunity of forming a judgment 
 concerning them. If they are founded on a fallacy 
 they will be soon forgotten ; if on the fundamental 
 Truth, they will slowly and noiselessly influence, 
 towards a healthier action, the mind of the entire 
 world. The way is long ; but (unless I greatly err), 
 it is a safe way, and the only one. Whoever sup- 
 poses that I consider myself a Magician, having but 
 to wave my wand over the broad ocean of Error, as 
 Moses is said to have waved his over the Red Sea, 
 and that instantly a way to the promised land will 
 be opened through its waters, he, and not Ramus 
 Randolph, is a dreamer and an enthusiast. England 
 was never (in the common acceptation of the word) 
 greater than it is now ; and never farther from the 
 path of real Civilization, save only that Knowledge 
 is spreading, and a dreamy sense of some impending 
 change is experienced by many thousands of its more 
 intelligent and liberal citizens. But the governing 
 powers are as infatuated as ever with its physical and 
 commercial greatness, which they calmly dream will 
 
 x 2
 
 308 THE ALPHA. [PABT II. 
 
 be perpetual. And probably this very circumstance 
 will be the greatest impediment to its reformation. 
 No nation on earth will have a harder struggle to rise 
 superior to the influences by which it is so thoroughly 
 enmeshed. Not even Italy with its Atheism ; nor 
 France with its Sensualism, its sentimentality, and 
 its fondness for display. But these are not reasons 
 why the Truth should not now be told ; why the 
 seeds should not now be sown, which, if they have 
 the ever-living germ of Divinity within them, will 
 spring up, if not in this, in a more congenial soil, 
 and produce a rich harvest of happiness for the 
 world. Listen now to Dionysius. 
 
 EXTRACT FROM THE PAPERS OF DIONYSIUS. 
 
 ORIGIN OF GOVERNMENTS, LAWS, MORALITY, THE 
 
 VIRTUES, AND MYSTIC RELIGION. SOCIETY AS 
 
 IT is. 
 
 " To live luxuriously, or, by acquiring Wealth, to 
 have the means of living luxuriously, is confessedly 
 the great temporal object of mankind at present ; but 
 more especially of that portion of the human family 
 which claims to be considered Civilized. By Wealth 
 I mean high wages, large profits, and inordinate 
 accumulations. 
 
 "It is true that in every nation, the great bulk of 
 the people are below the hope of attaining this object 
 in any considerable degree. But, not to notice indi- 
 vidual exceptions, this is the desire of all : and so
 
 CHAP. VII.] THE ALPHA. 309 
 
 strong and general is this desire that it might be said 
 to operate almost as an instinct. It is, in fact, 
 instinctive. The true character of this Instinct is 
 not, however, the acquisition of Wealth, but the 
 attainment of Happiness. 
 
 " The desire to get luxurious indulgences is, then, 
 a natural Instinct of the Soul, seeking, through minor 
 physical instincts, the Happiness which these instincts 
 (given for other purposes), have not in their power to 
 bestow. Wealth can buy luxurious indulgences : 
 these indulgences are supposed to be capable of 
 affording the Happiness of which every one is in 
 search : hence (except amongst those and their 
 name is legion, whose daily drudgery limits their 
 ambition to the acquirement of their daily bread), 
 all our aspirations tend to the acquisition of Wealth. 
 
 " This craving is the mainspring of all the move- 
 ments of Social life : and, as at present regulated, is 
 the cause of nearly all the Social miseries to which 
 semi-civilized Man is subject. The feeling is neces- 
 sarily Selfish. And if our Laws were so framed that 
 the Selfishness of every individual of a Community 
 should be restrained from gratifying its cravings at 
 the expense of others, it is clear that the folly of 
 expecting Happiness from Wealth must long ago 
 have ceased ; because its emptiness would have been 
 felt, and all inordinate accumulations would have 
 been prevented. 
 
 " Laws, however, instead of repressing, or setting 
 rational limits to the activity of this Selfish desire,
 
 310 THE ALPHA. U'AKT II. 
 
 have been framed to sanction and encourage it. 
 In fact, the origin of Laws was the protection of 
 inordinate accumulations, as we shall presently see. 
 
 " We have only to do with what is. How what 
 is came to be, is but of little consequence. We will, 
 nevertheless, advance a theory which may help us to 
 understand the past, and remove the impediments 
 which surround the future. 
 
 " If all History did not attest the fact, Common- 
 sense must perceive that the origin of Property was 
 the Law or Principle of Brute Force. No other 
 origin is probable : and, certainly, no other Law 
 could ratify the right. Man, as an animal, requires 
 sustenance. Nature in its vegetable and animal 
 products affords this sustenance. A strong man 
 marks out a certain portion of land which supplies 
 the food and other comforts and conveniences of 
 which he stands in need. He calls it ' Mine, 5 and, 
 if necessary, defends it by his physical strength and 
 prowess. Others do the same. In the process of 
 time, all the land of a district, or natural nation, is 
 thus marked out and appropriated. It may be that 
 some men have failed to acquire a portion. No 
 matter. MIGHT is RIGHT; and he who is not 
 strong enough, or sufficiently adroit to secure a por- 
 tion, must look for one in some unappropriated part 
 of the world to which he can hew himself out a way, 
 or otherwise obtain access. He must do this or 
 starve, or steal, or live on alms, or become the slave 
 and menial drudge of one more fortunate or more
 
 CHAP. VII.] THE ALPHA. 311 
 
 ferocious than himself. After a time it is found that 
 the spontaneous products of any thus- appropriated 
 district are not sufficient to support its accumulated 
 population. It is further found that the natural 
 fertility of the soil might be increased by culture. 
 The serfs and their progeny are employed on this 
 labour. They obtain permission to live on condition 
 of the performance of this servile drudgery. The 
 Lord has the power of life and death over his slave. 
 He has acquired a property in his fellow-man; a 
 Right in the strength and life-blood of his brother. 
 The latter must be obedient to the former in all 
 things. The Possessor of the soil has now Leisure as 
 well as Power. This leisure is spent in the animal 
 indulgences now at his command. He employs his 
 serfs to build him a stronghold for a dwelling : to 
 fence around his possessions ; and to serve him in 
 any way that may best administer to his growing 
 luxuriousness, and make the distance between the 
 Lord and his Serf more impassable and complete. 
 Lord ! a name by which we distinguish Deity. It 
 is needless to remark on the modesty of this epithet 
 when applied to men, and to such men ! This 
 Chief or Lord has still a craving for something he 
 has not. In the midst of his sensualism he is still a 
 Man. He wants Happiness. He conceives that 
 more wealth will supply the want. He tries to 
 gratify this craving by dispossessing a weaker neigh- 
 bour of his possessions and adding them to his 
 own. His menials are compelled to lend their as-
 
 312 THE ALPHA. [PART II. 
 
 sistance ; and he perceives the acquisitive and aggres- 
 sive uses that can be made of menials. He succeeds 
 in his aggressions, but is still unsatisfied. Greater 
 possessions have given him greater power ; and with 
 his power increases his rapacity. He is not singular 
 in all this : many others are practising the same 
 policy. No sooner is a province apportioned than 
 the Possessors thereof make Laws ; or without any 
 fixed or written Laws, determine amongst themselves 
 that any attempts by the Non-possessors to relieve 
 themselves from this possessionless condition, or to 
 make reprisals, shall be denominated Crimes, and be 
 punished accordingly. 
 
 " If ' Might' were rationally as well as brutally 
 ' Right,' these Laws or regulations would be also 
 right. But this not being the case, Might is Wrong ; 
 or rather it was wrong; and the original assump- 
 tion of Property in the soil, the real Crime : and 
 the crime so called, not crime, but a justifiable 
 attempt to obtain the restitution of a natural right. 
 Many have been the efforts for this restitution. 
 Numerous have been the attempts at reprisal. But 
 they have never, to any extent, succeeded : and 
 where they have succeeded it has been only a change 
 of the oppressed into Oppressors; and vice versa. 
 Every successful effort (where reprisal has been 
 attempted), as well as every failure, has, therefore, 
 only added strength and consistency to the maxim 
 MIGHT is RIGHT, AND ALL OPPOSITION THERETO is 
 CRIME.
 
 CHAP. VII.] THE ALPHA. 313 
 
 ' The idea of JUSTICE was necessarily very simple. 
 The powerful Possessor could apportion what degree 
 of punishment on the refractory, possessionless menial 
 he might choose, and call it retributive Justice. Of 
 course this Justice, based on an abstract wrong, is 
 conventional. It is, in fact, INJUSTICE CONVEN- 
 TIONALLY ELEVATED INTO A VlRTUE. Growing Out 
 
 of the same wrong come the virtues of a more amiable 
 character, namely MERCY, and Forbearance, and others 
 of the same family. 
 
 " The craving for more Power amongst the power- 
 ful, led them, as we have seen, to prey on each other. 
 This was an evil that came home even to them. In 
 process of time it was therefore found expedient to 
 agree upon some principle of action amongst themselves. 
 It became necessary to make Laws to restrain this 
 growing licentiousness, and make one Proprietor re- 
 spect the property and rights of his neighbour. A man 
 might barter, sell, or give away his property ; but 
 even the wealthiest must not be permitted to take by 
 violence the property of the poorest. HENCE THE 
 
 LAWS SANCTIONING, AND MAINTAINING THE ' IN- 
 ALIENABLE RIGHTS' OF PROPERTY, AND PROTECTING 
 
 THE POSSESSOR AGAINST THE UNRESTRAINED RAPACITY 
 OF HIS RICHER AND MORE POWERFUL NEIGHBOUR. 
 
 Thus the original wrong, which Brute force had con- 
 verted into Right, became also a LEGAL RIGHT : and the 
 class of Serfs, were, as a class, cut off from their natural 
 rights for ever ; whilst limits were set to rapaciousness 
 when directed by one proprietor against another.
 
 314 THE ALPHA. [PART II. 
 
 " After it had been thus arranged that disputes re- 
 lating to property should no longer be decided by 
 Brute force or War, a tribunal, or a Judge ! would be 
 appointed to decide between litigants : and probably 
 the first Judge had been the most active depredator ; 
 selected as Judge, and perhaps as Chief of the district, 
 province, or nation, on account of his possessions and 
 the number of his dependents or serfs, as helps to the 
 enforcement of his decisions. 
 
 " This, then would be the beginning of Civilization, 
 which, even now, means little, if anything more than 
 the establishment of Order by means of the ' Pains 
 and Penalties' attached to the infractions of Civil 
 authority and Law. All Laws, or Social regulations, 
 would be based on this (rationally speaking) unjust 
 foundation. Thus reared on abstract wrong all Laws 
 would naturally and necessarily recognise the Right 
 founded on Might. Deeper than this for a basis they 
 did not, and under the circumstances, deeper they 
 could not go. And deeper than this the interpreters of 
 Law the Blackstones, and the De Lolmes, have never 
 gone: because deeper they have not dared to go. 
 And if any length of time can convert Wrong into 
 Right, six or eight thousand years is a powerful argu- 
 ment against opposition and cavil. I am inclined to 
 think that it is a conclusive one, and for this reason 
 amongst others : the contest was purely an animal 
 contest : the weaker succumbed to the stronger ; and 
 if the former had chanced to out-general their
 
 CUAP. VII.] THE ALPHA. 315 
 
 oppressors, they would have been the Oppressors, and 
 their victims the Oppressed. 
 
 " We shall now see another reason. In the process 
 of time, the Serfs, or subjugated portion of mankind, 
 demand and obtain a recognition of their claim to a 
 Right of Property in their Labour, and in all proceeds 
 thence arising. And wherever this Right has been 
 recognised, and is, by usage or Law, maintained, 
 Civilization is said to exist ; because Slavery, in name 
 at least, has been extinguished. Man has relinquished 
 his property in Man, retaining only a property in the 
 surplusage of his labour. Admitting, or overlooking 
 the original wrong, the class of Serfs thus became 
 identified with the Selfish or Brute-force Principle : 
 and Selfishness became the universal Law and sole 
 principle of action amongst mankind. 
 
 " Hence arose all the Interests, as well as all the 
 confusion and complication of Rights which we find 
 amongst us at the present day, and which it is the 
 all-absorbing business of the world to balance and ad- 
 just so as to prevent the fabric of Error thus raised 
 from falling into pieces, and re-resolving itself into its 
 simple element, Brute-force, or the Right of the 
 Strongest. To this it is ever tending : and to this it 
 must tend always. Hence also the denominations 
 of property, ' Real' or Landed ; and ' Personal,' or 
 Money, Merchandize, Goods, Chattels, &c. Hence 
 also the origin of Classes as we find them at present : 
 the Higher Class who possess the Land and the chief
 
 316 THE ALPHA. [PABT IT. 
 
 governing power: the Middle Class who have enriched, 
 or are endeavouring to enrich themselves, by their 
 profits on the Labourer's Labour, and by their own 
 earnings and savings ; all which have obtained for 
 them a share of political power : and the Lower or 
 Labouring Class who have no property but the 
 modicum arising out of their labour, and are thence 
 destitute of all political power. 
 
 " This, then, is the natural (but for MEN, th e 
 irrational,) though, under the circumstances, the 
 desirable COMPROMISE by which all men in ' civilized' 
 communities have bound themselves to the Selfish, 
 or Brute-force Principle. All recognise it : all par- 
 ticipate in it to the utmost of their power : all who 
 can in any way profit by it (that is, live by it,) 
 protect and cherish it : each man subscribes himself 
 Slave to the Selfish Principle : each is compelled in 
 self-defence to accumulate and to keep : DISTRIBUTION 
 
 IS THE ACCIDENT OF THE SYSTEM, WHILST ACQUISI- 
 TIVENESS IS THE LAW. 
 
 " The only Love that was evinced in the struggle 
 which brought about this state of things, was Animal 
 Love (of course, more or less modified in its Selfish- 
 ness in proportion as the Intellect obtained enlighten- 
 ment and strength :) hence, what more natural than 
 that the propertied classes should secure their Pro- 
 perty against future aggression to their ' heirs for 
 ever' ? To accomplish this, Laws were made and 
 promulgated. To enforce obedience to these and 
 all other property-produced Laws, Governments were
 
 CHAP. VII.] THE ALPHA. 317 
 
 established. It matters not what were their form ; 
 this was their object. What we have especially to 
 notice is this ; that THE ACQUISITION AND RECOGNI- 
 TION OF PROPERTY CREATED ALL CRIME WHICH HAS 
 REFERENCE TO PROPERTY, WHETHER THIS REFERENCE 
 
 OR RELATIONSHIP BE IMMEDIATE OR REMOTE. Out of 
 
 this same institution of Property sprung the idea 
 (such as it is) of Justice ; and, as we shall subse- 
 quently see, of the other Virtues, and the Moralities, 
 and Mystic Religion. 
 
 " The Right founded on Might has its advantages : 
 and these advantages are to a certain extent secured 
 by Government and Laws. But, being an evil re- 
 sulting from Ignorance and Error, it has also its 
 disadvantages : and this is one of them ; Crime, of 
 which it is the parent, dogs it as its shadow : and 
 as long as this spurious Right lasts, dog it it will, 
 even were it through eternity. Property, and its 
 attendant, Power, might change hands to-morrow : 
 no matter : Crime would be prowling in its rear. 
 
 " Do not let us any longer profanely attribute 
 these evils of our own contrivance to the Deity who 
 has beneficently made even our mistakes of use to us, 
 and who has amply provided us with the means of 
 avoiding them. ' Original Sin' was and is the original 
 mistake of adopting Brute-force as Right, and 
 living according to the dictates of our Animal In- 
 stincts, instead of following the dictates of our 
 Intellectual nature and seeking Happiness in Know- 
 ledge.
 
 318 THE ALPHA. [PART II. 
 
 " We have seen how the institution of Property 
 gave birth to Crime a conventional name for acts 
 which could not have had an existence but for the 
 Brute-force which originally converted an abstract 
 Wrong into a Legal Right. We have seen how the 
 existence of Crime gave an ideal existence to Retri- 
 butive Justice ; and this Justice, to the Virtues 
 Mercy and Forbearance . We have yet to see how 
 it generated the other Virtues, and the Moralities, 
 and Mystic Religion. Crimes were punished by 
 pains and penalties under the sanction of that con- 
 ventional Justice now denominated Law. But Laws 
 could not reach every description of delinquency ; 
 as Hatred, Malice, Mendacity, Evil thoughts, and 
 Malevolent intentions ; all which passions and feelings 
 were generated by the accumulative principle that 
 first brought unnatural want, and abjectness, and 
 misery amongst men. As Civil Laws could not 
 reach these passions and evil feelings, it became neces- 
 sary to invent a MORAL CODE : in other words, to 
 propound a CONSCIENCE for the disaffected and dis- 
 obedient members of the Community. Yes, Authority 
 had to forge a Conscience for mankind to enable it 
 to rule them. The thing was easy. Successful men 
 are clever men. Riches can buy the Genius that 
 Poverty is glad to sell. It is well that it is so : 
 for here was the advent of Literature, and Science, 
 and the Arts : the barbaric nursery of Soul. 
 The malignant Passions mentioned above were
 
 CHAP. VII.] THE ALPHA. 319 
 
 denounced as Wrong, Wicked, a breach of the 
 Moral Law. To obtain covertly by Mendacity, 
 Fraud, or Cunning, any portion of the property 
 of another, was also (and, under the circum- 
 stances, properly so) denounced as an infraction 
 of the Moral Code. Even to harbour a malicious 
 thought against another, was pronounced to be 
 equally wicked and immoral. But how could this 
 species of Crime be punished ? Genius lends its 
 aid, and the thing is done ! BY DENOUNCING IT 
 
 AS DISOBEDIENCE TO THE GODS ! that is, when 
 
 every aspect and phase of Nature was a god ; and 
 afterwards BY HERALDING IT AS SIN AGAINST THE 
 AUTHOR OF ALL GOODNESS, THE GOD OF ALL 
 JUSTICE, THE ALL-SEEING ONE. Hence the Future 
 Punishments for the morally Bad, and the Future 
 Rewards for the morally Good the Hell-fire, and 
 the Happiness, which were to be eternal. Great 
 aids all these, to Governments. HENCE, MORAL 
 GOODNESS, ALLIED TO THE PERFORMANCE OF CERTAIN 
 RITES, AND THE SUBSCRIPTION TO CERTAIN CREEDS, 
 
 CAME TO BE DENOMINATED RELIGION. Hence also, 
 
 Men clothed the gods, even the ONE GOD whom 
 they thus invoked, with the very attributes they had 
 manufactured for themselves ! The great unseen God 
 was, to all sinners, a God of inexorable Justice, a God 
 of Vengeance, visiting the consequences of Sin on the 
 children of Sinners even unto the third and fourth 
 generations : but a God of Mercy and Loving-kind-
 
 320 THE ALPHA. 
 
 ness unto the believers in the mysteries of Religion, 
 and the sinless observers of the Moral Law. 
 
 " But, as a System of unmitigated Selfishness 
 could not work and be perpetuated without some 
 ameliorations, the opulent were compelled (as well 
 from natural feeling as from policy), somewhat 
 to relax its rigours : they were constrained to 
 be Benevolent to the miserable victims of the 
 System ; and to become Good Samaritans amongst 
 the way-side unfortunates, who, hungry had none 
 to feed them; who, sick and homeless, had 
 none to help them in their abjectness. All such 
 Virtues were lauded as duties of Religion, and as good 
 and acceptable services to God : to that God, mark 
 you, who has sent an abundance for all, which if 
 unselfishly distributed to all, these Virtues (godlike 
 
 as they are) could have no existence ! The 
 
 ENDURANCES of the Poor were also elevated into 
 Virtues ! Patience, Probity, Long-suffering, For- 
 titude, and Charity if not of Alms of thought 
 and speech : all these were likewise made a part of 
 Religion ; the Good Works which were to be part-se- 
 curity (the other part being Faith) for the reception of 
 the virtuous the obedient observers of the Moral Law 
 into glory and blessedness hereafter. In vain has 
 a purer Code of Morals been propounded to the world. 
 In vain that simpler help to the formation of a 
 Conscience which Jesus of Nazareth came to teach 
 mankind. 'Do unto others that which ye would 
 others should do unto you,' is a receipt to make a
 
 CHAP. VII.] THE ALPHA. 321 
 
 Conscience worthy of its meek and gentle Author. 
 This recipe to make Morality, goes to the very root 
 of the Selfishness which is the Key-stone of the 
 present System. Shrouded with all the mysticism 
 that Selfishness first invented for the purposes we 
 have been unmasking, this moral maxim is nearly 
 lost sight of; and whenever Religionists condescend 
 to speak of it, it is only to explain away its integrity 
 
 and usefulness. Thus came Mystic Religion, the 
 
 Virtues and the Moralities. And out of all these 
 unrealities came the Literature, which, at the 
 bidding of its selfish paymaster, took all these un- 
 realities under its especial protection. Is it any 
 wonder that our Literature is what we have found 
 it to be, next to useless as a guide to Truth? 
 But our Science, which, to produce our Luxuries, 
 had the same beginning, is a thing of far greater 
 consequence. 
 
 " Within this circle of Error we have been re- 
 viewing, that which we call Good is not Good, but 
 Evil modified. If we would obtain unmixed Good, 
 we must abandon the Error that produces the Evil : 
 for as long as we adhere to the Error, all our con- 
 trivances, such as Property-protecting Law, Property- 
 produced Morality, and Property-venerating Religion, 
 will never be able to convert Evil into Good, or 
 Wrong into Right : but we shall go on vexing our- 
 selves by the useless struggle, and irreverently ac- 
 cusing our beneficent Creator of being the Author 
 of the Evils we ignorantly produce for ourselves, and 
 
 Y
 
 322 THE ALPHA. [PART II. 
 
 as ignorantly take all possible pains to entail on our 
 posterity for ever. 
 
 " Some writers on the origin of Governments have 
 supposed a Social Compact. The nature of this 
 Compact will now be clearly perceived. In the first 
 place, one portion of the Human family enjoyed by 
 conquest all Rights. The other portion by reason of 
 their weakness, had no Rights, but Duties only ; 
 which Duties were imposed on them by their con- 
 querors. But as weakness is ever disposed to regain 
 its lost position, if not by force, by Tact and Cun- 
 ning, this state of Society is a state of War. The 
 supposed Compact would be, therefore, a yielding by 
 the Powerful of a Right of Property in their Labour 
 to the Serfs, for the sake of peace and order ; whilst 
 the acceptance of these concessions by the Serfs, 
 served in some degree to ameliorate the rigour of the 
 Brute-Force Principle on themselves ; and at the 
 same time to make them parties to, and participators 
 in, the Selfishness which, to the present hour, is the 
 principle of action of all Communities by courtesy 
 called Civilized. And out of this Compact, such as 
 it is, have grown all the Interests ; all the Trade, ' 
 Commerce, Bargainings, Employments, Distinctions, 
 Expedients, and organized turmoil (to say nothing 
 of Religion and Law) which make up the all-absorb- 
 ing business of Human life from the cradle to the 
 grave. THE MOTIVE-POWER OF ALL is SELFISHNESS 
 
 AMELIORATED BY RESTRICTIONS. Yet SO dovetailed
 
 1 '"*" vii.i THE ALPHA. 323 
 
 is this Selfishness with everything, that it is the very 
 mainspring of these ameliorations too. 
 
 " In England at the present time Property is 
 sacred : there is nothing more so. Hence, the Brute- 
 Eorce principle is as dominant as ever. The life- 
 germ of all Commerce was the Compact just alluded 
 to, which secured to Serfdom a right of Property in 
 the proceeds of its Labour. It cemented the Selfish 
 Principle by giving every man an interest in it : it 
 was the tub thrown out to the whale. Commerce 
 has now, however, its Millionaires ; and can reckon 
 here in England its merchant Princes by thousands. It 
 has grown into a Power almost equal to the Aristocracy 
 of the Land ; and is even at this time contending 
 with it for a supremacy in Selfishness. But look at 
 the toil-stricken, want-stricken, crime-stricken millions 
 who have almost ceased to have an interest in the 
 struggle ! All, however, cling blindly to Selfishness : 
 and this will probably make the barbaric system 
 popular yes, even popular, here in England, until 
 England's false greatness shall have reached its 
 summit ; peradventure even to her fall ! Yea, till 
 'her Selfishness shall have ended in her desolation : 
 till her Beggary shall have eaten up her resources : 
 till her Commerce shall be a by-word : till her 
 Nobles shall have licked the dust : till gaunt Famine 
 shall have decimated her population : till Misery 
 shall have overtaken the remainder ; and till this 
 last mock-heroic Drama of barbaric Civilization shall 
 
 Y2
 
 324 
 
 THE ALPHA. 
 
 have been acted out, as another lesson for humanity ; 
 as another example for the instruction of an ignorant 
 world. 
 
 "Here, then, we have the incipiency of Crime; 
 the origin of our idea of Justice ; the origin of the 
 Moralities ; the origin of Mystic Religion ; the origin 
 of the Virtues ; the origin of Laws, both Criminal 
 and Civil ; the origin of Governments, Jurisprudence, 
 Literature, the Sciences, and the Arts ; the origin of 
 Commerce ; the origin of the malevolent passions and 
 feelings that poison existence, and disgrace humanity; 
 and the origin of all the Manners and Customs which 
 distinguish Civilized from Savage life. We have 
 seen that the whole of them are of human invention : 
 that they are without any special sanction of the 
 Deity : that they arose out of Ignorance and Error : 
 and that the whole of this immense superstructure of 
 complicated antagonisms is false and unstable because 
 it is based on the Animal Principle ; and is conse- 
 quently productive of that ' mingled web of Good and 
 Evil,' or rather, of Evil mitigated by restrictions, 
 which inheres to every portion of our Doings as 
 naturally as Form inheres to Substance, or Motion* 
 to the Earth. 
 
 " Here, too, is the origin of all those social 
 Influences which pamper and encourage our Animal, 
 and depress our Intellectual, Instincts : which compel 
 men to do wrong systematically, and to bow doAvn 
 their Intellect before Legal Right which is based 
 on abstract Wrong. Yes, on the very ugliest of
 
 CHAP. VII.] THE ALPHA. 325 
 
 our Animal Instincts, Selfishness, is the false but 
 showy superstructure of all Social Institutions 
 raised ! 
 
 " Morality, like Law, is also based on abstract 
 Wrong ! And what is it at best ? It is an effort 
 which the Oppressed Man is required to make to 
 love and respect his Oppressor. And when attained 
 (if not the result of Ignorance, as it often is), what a 
 noble, what a godlike conquest over his lower nature ! 
 But how unspeakably mean is that man who can de- 
 mand such a life-long sacrifice at the hands of his 
 brother ! 
 
 "The Virtues, like Morality and Law, are the 
 progeny of Wrong ! Those of endurance fall to the 
 Poor man's share, Patience, Long-suffering, Forti- 
 tude : and how unspeakably grand they are Avhen 
 practised by the Oppressed (as they constantly are) 
 in lamb-like submission to the Oppressor ! Those of 
 Action, the most beautiful of which are Benevolence 
 and Mercy, are Luxuries which fall chiefly to the 
 share of the Rich. And what are they ? Nothing 
 more than, for the most part, a forced but pitiful 
 return, by the opulent, to those at whose expense the 
 luxury, or the pride of being Benevolent and Merciful 
 is obtained ! 
 
 " But to show how anomalous in their very nature 
 these Moralities and Virtues are, as well as how 
 omnipotent is the Selfishness on which Society is 
 based, we need only to remember that a man dare 
 not, in a multitude of cases, be as Virtuous, or as
 
 326 THE ALPHA. U'ART II. 
 
 Moral at he would wish to be : for if, in obedience to 
 the Angel-dictates of his better nature he squander 
 his worldly possessions in being Merciful or Benevo- 
 lent, or in Doing unto others, as he would they 
 should, in similar circumstances, do unto him ; or if 
 he neglect the opportunity to get rich, and thus 
 beggar himself; either Bedlam, or a Workhouse, or 
 a Jail, together with the contempt of the Well-to-do, 
 and the Prudent, and the Proud ; and the revilings 
 of the Multitude, is the reward he has to expect for 
 acting up to the standard of his noblest convictions. 
 Supposing, then, that Morality and the Virtues were 
 indeed what most people fancy them to be, the 
 beautiful children of Heaven, instead of what they 
 are, the clumsy contrivances of men, and the progeny 
 of their Errors, is it any wonder that they are fre- 
 quently at a discount ? Did we not now know the 
 reason, the wonder would be that they exist at all. 
 They are the main props of the System which gene- 
 rated them : seeing which, our wonder ends. But, 
 with all our souls we repugn, we repudiate the sys- 
 tem. Let Adversity come ; let but our Trade and 
 Commerce fail; and these props on which we lean so 
 hopefully will bow before the blood-stained desolation 
 of our hearths and homes, like reeds before the 
 tempest. 
 
 " Why, even now such is the strength of our 
 Morality a man will take the lives of a whole family 
 to gain a shilling ! A woman will destroy a husband 
 and half a dozen sons for the sake of what she can
 
 CHAP. VII.] THE ALPHA. 327 
 
 save out of the pittance allowed by their club to bury 
 them ! a mere child, a female child, will calmly murder 
 her mistress to procure the price of a new mantle in 
 which to ape ' gentility !' Even Genius itself, under 
 the pressure of these influences, what will it not 
 undertake for pay ? Is Religion, even amongst the 
 Saints, the least barrier to dishonesty where anything 
 worth the forfeiture of the Saintly seeming is to be 
 got by the dereliction ? Will a Lawyer refuse a bad 
 cause if a fee is to be fingered by espousing it ? From 
 the highest to the lowest, has not Religion, has not 
 Virtue, has not Honour, its price ? And why are all 
 these things ? Because where Honour, where Virtue, 
 where Religion begins or ends, no one knows ; AND 
 
 BECAUSE EVERY MAN'S OPINION-MADE CONSCIENCE 
 HAS TO DRAW THE LINE OF DEMARCATION FOR IT- 
 SELF. Is it any wonder that imperious Selfishness 
 should draw this line to its own pecuniary advantage ? 
 I do not blame the Men so much as I blame the Sys- 
 tem. They but yield to motives that are too strong 
 for Consciences which are composed of mere opinion. 
 Do I blame the Lawyer for advocating every cause 
 that comes? Assuredly not. I only blame the 
 System which binds him to such advocacy. He must 
 live : nor is it his business to prejudge cases even were 
 it his interest to do so, which it manifestly is not. 
 The Right or Wrong of a case is a very nice point to 
 determine even according to our conventional mode of 
 judging it. Well might he who is in the Wrong 
 think that he is Right : for even in our Tribunals
 
 328 THE ALPHA. [PART II. 
 
 where the quaint-looking representative of our man- 
 made Justice sits so gravely, the decision is a lottery. 
 Take a case of the most flagrant crime. A man is 
 charged with the murder of his wife. There is no 
 direct evidence to convict him. The wife was poisoned. 
 No one saw the poison administered ; but the woman 
 dies. A number of concurring circumstances tend to 
 fix the criminality on the husband. He was known 
 to have had poison in his possession. He had been 
 heard to utter obscure threats against his wife. But, 
 then the Law says there must be a reasonable Motive 
 proved, without which it holds that a man cannot 
 commit a crime. Motives are proved. The woman 
 was a virago : the man's home a hell ; his life a misery. 
 They often quarrelled : sometimes fought. It is further 
 proved that the man lived on terms of peculiar inti- 
 macy with a young woman in the neighbourhood ; 
 and that soon after his wife's death the guilty para- 
 mours became man and wife. With this array of 
 circumstantial evidence against him, is the man guilty ? 
 The Jury who try him take all these circumstances into 
 their consideration. They convict the accused : and 
 the man is hanged. Why did the Jury convict him, 
 and the Law doom him to an ignominious death? 
 Because a reasonable motive, a very strong motive, had 
 been proved to exist in conjirmation of his guilt : THE 
 
 MEANING OF WHICH IS, THAT THE DOZEN JURORS 
 AGREE, THAT, IN SUCH A CASE, WITH SUCH MOTIVES 
 OPERATING UPON EITHER OF THEMSELVES, EITHER OF 
 THEMSELVES MUST HAVE COMMITTED THE ACT ; THAT
 
 CHAP. VII] THE ALPHA. 329 
 
 HUMAN NATURE MUST YIELD TO SUCH A PRESSURE OF 
 INCITING MOTIVES. So, because a reasonable, a very 
 strong, an irresistible motive had pressed him into 
 Crime, they condemn him. And the Law hangs him for 
 the same reason. It is still possible that, with all these 
 circumstances against him, the man might have been 
 altogether innocent. Such things have been. But what 
 does this reliance on Motives mean ? WHY, THAT EVERY 
 
 ACT MUST BE PRECEDED BY A MOTIVE ; AND THAT IF THE 
 MOTIVE BE BUT IMPERIOUS ENOUGH, IT IS NOT IN 
 
 HUMAN NATURE TO WITHSTAND IT. Then where is 
 the Guilt ? And in what consists the Justice which 
 dooms the circumstance-made Criminal to irrevocable 
 death ? Of such anomalies Society is altogether com- 
 posed. And what wonder, when its very basis is 
 wrong ? When Conscience is opinion-made ; and 
 when Justice is a sham ? 
 
 " Not only is this Animal, or Brute-Force Principle, 
 the cause of Crime ; but in its operation it becomes 
 the interest of the powerful classes of the Community 
 not to exterminate it if they could ; but partially only 
 to repress, and partially to encourage it. Think of 
 the army of 'respectability' which battens upon 
 Crime ! Nor are the real Evils which exist amongst 
 us, and the real Vices of mankind, enough to satisfy 
 the candidates for place and power without conjuring 
 up A PRINCIPLE OF EVIL, which they represent as 
 making constant war on ' fallen' humanity ! But for 
 the crimes and evil-doings which exist under this 
 fosterage, our heroes of the ' Church Militant' could
 
 330 THE ALPHA. [PABT!!. 
 
 have no plea for carrying on their phantom war against 
 ' Original Sin' ; and might be either disbanded as 
 conquerors of the ' Arch Enemy/ or, at least retire 
 from the Service on half-pay. Men cannot afford this 
 if they would : so that real Evils must be encouraged, 
 at least to a certain extent, that these phantom evils 
 might be pleaded, and the full pay procured ; and that 
 all the other Crime-profiting Professions might flourish 
 and abound amongst us. What are the whole of 
 them but the damning evidences of our Criminality 
 and Ignorance? 
 
 " Let us imagine a purely intellectual being from 
 the abode of Spirits made perfect by Intelligence 
 visiting our Earth. What would be his wonder, (pre- 
 suming the fact to be new to him,) to hear our 
 nation boast of the immensity of talent constantly 
 supported by us in affluence, not as the representative 
 of our wisdom and worth, but as an evidence of our 
 Ignorance and our Crimes? Would he not think 
 us monstrously wicked, and as monstrously imper- 
 vious to shame? Would it lessen his wonder to 
 learn, that, with the exception of a few Poets (who 
 have always been the pioneers of intellectual progress), 
 and a few Philosophers (some of them not over wise), 
 this is nearly all the proof we have of our progress 
 in Knowledge and Civilization after an experience 
 of six thousand years ! Yet these evidences of a 
 nation's delinquencies are ever the boast of its people, 
 and the props and ornaments of its court. 
 
 " We have seen how men of Intellect ; men largely
 
 CHA*- vii.] THE ALPHA. 3<3 L 
 
 endowed (as many of them are) with universal sym- 
 pathy, but limited in their views by the superficial 
 knowledge current amongst the educated, become 
 animalized and shaped to selfishness by the dominant 
 Principle. What, then, are the bulk of mankind, 
 who either despise Intellect as something mechanical 
 something by which the nobodies have to earn their 
 bread ; or who are so barbarously ignorant that a 
 clever fellow like Dickens is to them a god? By 
 the way, Dickens is a man who can pick out the 
 Quilps from the Cherribles of society ; but he knows 
 not how either the Quilps or the Cherribles are 
 formed.- Well, how does the selfish system operate 
 on those who fancy themselves to be above the con- 
 dition of thinking men, and on those who are so 
 much below it ? It converts them into mere animals 
 who prey on each other. Our System not only 
 permits, but enjoins it. We are animals with Intel- 
 lects which cannot reach beyond the mysteries of 
 money-getting ; and therefore sensual enjoyment is 
 the Alpha and Omega of all. We, indeed, profess 
 to be Immortals, and we profess to be Religious ; 
 but our Religion is material, and our faith herein is 
 encouraged by the inducement of Reward. Yes, so 
 much are we the creatures of this degrading principle, 
 that we hold ourselves to be incapable of allegiance 
 to Heaven without a Bible-proclaimed promise of 
 reward ! But as the reward is distant, and the 
 nature of it so little appreciable by our lucre-loving 
 minds, it naturally follows that we should represent
 
 332 THE ALPHA. [PABT II. 
 
 it to ourselves as attainable on very easy terms. 
 Faith, and a few occasional Ceremonies and Obser- 
 vances, and the prize is ours. And should it chance 
 to turn out something less comfortable than a Judge- 
 ship or a Bishopric, no matter : IT WILL NOT HAVE 
 COST us MUCH, and we have the satisfaction of 
 knowing that our enjoyment here has been but little 
 abridged to obtain it ; and that, under the circum- 
 stances, we have made the best bargain we could. 
 Hence, we place but a light value on our Religion, 
 and turn it, as we do our Virtues and our Morality, 
 into worldly profit or sensual enjoyment, or as far as 
 possible into both. On the same commercial prin- 
 ciple we use the best labours of the Intellect for 
 precisely the same end. Our reading is, for the most 
 part, debased into Sensualism, present or prospective. 
 Our Arts are sensual. Our Theatres, our Opera- 
 houses, our Concert-halls, our Churches, our Meeting- 
 houses are used and attended chiefly for sensual 
 excitement and personal display by the majority of 
 those who frequent them. Our Palaces, our Houses, 
 our Equipages, our Dress, are merely so many phases 
 of our Sensualism. 1 am ashamed to think that a 
 multitude of our fellow-men are degraded into liveried 
 symbols of our Sensualism also. But so it is. Every 
 luxury that is paraded before the public eye, or in- 
 dulged in in private, is unmitigated Sensuality ; and 
 the uneducated Poor are excited to crime, and as far 
 as possible, converted into Sensualists, as much by 
 the force of this degrading example as by the brutal
 
 CHAP, vii.] THE ALPHA. 333 
 
 ignorance they are bred in. It is no answer to say 
 that if the Rich were not Sensual the Poor must 
 starve. This is only preferring Sensuality to Libe- 
 rality : Wrong to Right : inordinate accumulations, 
 and the animalisms they engender, to a recognition 
 of the true grandeur of the spiritual man, and the 
 practice of Christian Love. But then, a LIBERAL 
 distribution of the blessings and bounties of nature 
 amongst all men would break up the system ; and 
 hence we make mountebanks of ourselves to preserve 
 it ! Where are the Father Matthews of Upper-class 
 Intemperance ? Or is dram-drinking once a week 
 more pernicious to Society than the eternal round of 
 Sensualism indulged in by the Titled, and the Rich ; 
 and aped, even to the fashion of it, by the c respect- 
 able, and the ' genteel' ? Such, alas ! is Civilized 
 Society. Such is Civilization amongst men who call 
 themselves Christians eighteen centuries after the 
 crucifixion of its Founder : that true Son of 
 the Eternal One, whose true Manhood preserved 
 his ' respectability' without the aid of an ' esta- 
 blishment.' 
 
 " MIGHT, we have seen, is RIGHT ; made so by 
 submission in the first place ; and by general consent 
 and participation afterwards. It is therefore, uni- 
 versal in its influence and operation. And so it 
 always has been during every period subsequent to 
 the commencement of our written history, if not from 
 the very first appearance of mankind on the theatre 
 of the world. And operate it must, and its evils be
 
 334 THE ALPHA. [PABT II. 
 
 borne with, until the general Intellect of nation after 
 nation can be so formed and educated that the prin- 
 ciple of Intelligence shall sap its foundations, conquer, 
 and supersede it. By these means only can the 
 Rich descend, and the Poor rise, to the level of 
 Men. By these means only can the reign of Injus- 
 tice be brought to an end, and universal Peace and 
 Happiness become the earthly inheritance, as they 
 are the heavenly birthright for God himself has willed 
 it so of Man. 
 
 " All I can say is, that Mankind have the exchange 
 in their power. And if the degraded masses who 
 toil, and grumble at their condition, or starve, and 
 impotently curse the supposed authors of their 
 misery, will not take the trouble to awaken their 
 Intellect, and rely on it; they must toil on and 
 grumble, starve on and impotently curse, and 
 transmit the same dark patrimony to their children." 
 
 Here endeth the Extracts from the Papers of my 
 deceased brother, Dionysius Lackland. Peace to 
 his ashes ! May his spirit illuminate the world ! 
 
 It was a beautiful night. Civilis proposed an 
 adjournment to the garden. Suppose us on the 
 greensward, pacing to and fro amid the moonbeams ; 
 the stars 
 
 " STILL QUIRING TO THE YOUNG-EYED CHERUBIMS." 
 
 ******* 
 
 CIVILIS. I can easily conceive, Randolph, what
 
 CHAP. Vll.] THE ALPHA. 335 
 
 delightful visions most frequently have flitted across 
 the mind of Dionysius just as those pale cloudlets 
 swim across the moon when he anticipated the 
 distant Future which is to realize his hopes. He had 
 not, however, any vivid hopes for England. I have 
 enough of nationality yet left to wish that she may be 
 found in the van of the progress-march which shall 
 subvert the old barbaric principle of Force, and erect 
 the principle of Mentality on its ruins. 
 
 RANDOLPH . I could wish so, too, Civilis. And 
 although Commerce has become everything to Eng- 
 land; although money-making has become a Science; 
 although this same Science falsely asserts that the 
 Selfishness, which is its principle, is not Selfishness, 
 but Distribution ; although these Adam Smith- 
 fallacies are believed in ; and although the specious 
 falsehood has been Cobdenized into the semblance of 
 Truth, I have yet hopes for England. One of the 
 most gratifying circumstances connected with the 
 social results of the Animal Principle is the progress 
 Mind has made in England especially in spite of 
 the disadvantages it has had to encounter with a state 
 of things that in the beginning scarcely recognised 
 its existence. Notwithstanding, therefore, that Men- 
 tality is still cherishing the Animal Principle, work- 
 ing for Wealth ; doing its bidding; adding to its 
 Selfish enjoyments ; pandering to its Luxuriousness ; 
 and upholding its pretensions to possession and 
 power, it is still, by this very labour, acquiring 
 strength for higher purposes ; and whilst it seems
 
 336 THE ALPHA. [P*" 1 " 
 
 to be most busy fastening its own chains, it is, in 
 reality, effecting its liberation and asserting its right 
 to the undisputed sovereignty of the world. 
 
 CIVILIS. This is, indeed, a hopeful view to take of 
 our prospects, my dear Randolph : but, Commerce, 
 on which England's present greatness chiefly de- 
 pends, is the great fosterer of a Middle-class, happy- 
 medium, condition, which, according to our Moral 
 Philosophers, is the very climax of all sublunary 
 perfection. Despising alike, or affecting to despise, 
 the grandeur they cannot reach, and the degradation 
 at which their delicacy revolts, these our Moral 
 Philosophers, preach up, and devoutly hug the " happy 
 medium." This for it is almost universally re- 
 iterated will be a great hindrance to the re- 
 formation, 
 
 RANDOLPH. Yes, Civilis ; but Truth is mightier 
 than Moral Philosophy. 
 
 " A SUBSTITUTE SHINES BRIGHTLY AS A KING, 
 " UNTIL A KING BE BY ; AND THEN HIS STATE 
 " EMPTIES ITSELF, AS DOTH AN INLAND BROOK 
 " INTO THE MAIN OF WATERS." 
 
 Shakspere. 
 
 Between Truth and Falsehood, and between Right 
 and Wrong, there is no medium. How came " divine 
 Philosophy" to miss this fact? Between two Evils 
 there may be a medium ; and it would seem to be 
 the very acme of human wisdom to get midway from 
 them both ! No, Civilis : when the bright Day-star
 
 CHAP. VII.] THE ALPHA. 337 
 
 of Intelligence shall ascend from the horizon, the little 
 Starlets will go out : but whilst Star-light is a blessing 
 we will walk thankfully by its light. It might be 
 ages yet before Star-light can be dispensed with. 
 Nathless, I foresee the day. The deepest darkness 
 immediately precedes the dawn. And if a conflict of 
 opinions be darkness ; in England, in all Europe, it is 
 dark. Our Sun, if it be a Sun, Civilis, will be long 
 regarded as a Parelium : no matter : it will drink 
 up this circumambient darkness : then will the mists 
 through which our cumbrous Error looks magnificent, 
 
 dissolve, and like but the simile is hackneyed, and, 
 
 perchance, a note or two too high. 
 
 CIVILIS. It has been less appropriately used ere 
 now. 
 
 RANDOLPH. Probably so. But I conceive that 
 Metaphor has done as much to blind as to enlighten 
 men. It has stopped many a gap in argument which 
 a Reason would have better occupied. I was about 
 to say that the People must be educated : THAT THEY 
 MUST EDUCATE THEMSELVES. There is no royal road, 
 no democratic road, to the end I was glancing at, but 
 this. We have seen that Self-education is a much 
 more simple matter than men think it. The First 
 Truth, which shows the end and object of all Educa- 
 tion, is soon learned. This step taken, the thing is 
 done : for, awakened to the knowledge of what he is, 
 and what he needs, even the poor miner who dwells a 
 thousand feet below the sunbeams, will find time to 
 think ; and will think his way to Knowledge. " The 
 
 z
 
 338 THE ALPHA. [PART II. 
 
 People's Charter," rightly interpreted, is Knowledge. 
 Let Chartists petition for Education. But in the 
 mean time, and above all things, let them link hand 
 to hand and heart to heart in one strong brotherhood 
 of love greybeards and boys and mutually instruct 
 each other. The " New Harmonies," and the 
 " Socialism," and the " Communism" of well-mean- 
 ing enthusiasts must merge into Education, before 
 any general progress can be made towards the 
 SPIRITUALISM WHICH MUST BE THE SOCIALISM 
 or THE FUTURE. The principle of CO-OPERATION 
 which is now beginning to be talked about, is right : 
 but the people must be taught to what END it is to 
 lead before co-operation can be made to do anything 
 more than benefit one portion of the working-classes 
 at the expense of the rest. THIS MUST BE THE 
 
 RESULT OF ALL ASSOCIATION, IP IT BE NOT 
 
 UNIVERSAL. Make it Universal ; and either all is 
 accomplished, or nothing is accomplished. Without 
 the co-operation of the Employers, the co-operation of 
 the Workmen, however general, would end in no- 
 thing : if not universal, it must result in positive 
 Evil somewhere. SUPPOSE THE UNIVERSAL CO- 
 OPERATION OF THE EMPLOYERS AND EMPLOYED, the 
 result is COMMUNISM ; but ALL is not accomplished : 
 
 FOR WITH OUR PRESENT DESIRES, AND OUR PRE- 
 SENT MODICUM OF KNOWLEDGE, COMMUNISM 
 WOULD BE STAGNATION. IT WOULD EITHER 
 
 SINK INTO PRIMITIVE BARBARISM, OR AGAIN RE- 
 SULT IN MIGHT BEING THE ARBITER OF RIGHT.
 
 CHAP. VIT.i THE ALPHA. 389 
 
 No : without an infinitely higher motive than either 
 our Knowledge or our Religion supplies us with at 
 present, Communism would be found to be, like the 
 golden age of the Poets, a fable ; or, like their Poly- 
 phemus, a huge monstrosity. LET US, HOW- 
 EVER, CO-OPERATE FOR THE ATTAINMENT 
 OF INTELLIGENCE. Let us be SPIRITUALISTS 
 through Knowledge : not through Affectation, or 
 Ifojjc, or Fear, BUT THROUGH KNOWLEDGE, and all 
 else that is desirable will come. 
 
 I am far from thinking that Governments will 
 attend to my suggestions ; and the more especially if 
 they perceive that the results I predicate therefrom 
 would follow their adoption. But, no matter. The 
 duty of all Governments is to see that all the people 
 get a Secular Education, a Religious one when 
 Secular Education is seen to be synonymous with 
 Religion. Never heed the classics. Leave these to 
 the dreamers who think that poring over the pages of 
 those who lived and thought for past ages, is the 
 best way to live and think for our own. Never heed 
 Latin and Greek ; leave them to be the tests of 
 candidateship for students in " Divinity." Never 
 heed modern languages (except as a means of inter- 
 national amity) until contemporaneous nations are 
 wiser than ourselves. If, however, Genius should in- 
 vent an universal Language, teach them this. At 
 any rate, teach them their own language. Teach 
 them the elements of the Sciences. Teach them to 
 think. Teach them but in a nobler sense than that
 
 340 THE ALPHA. [PART II. 
 
 in which the poet uses the expression " TEACH THEM 
 THEY ARE MEN." Such an Education will enable 
 them to distinguish Truth from Falsehood ; Right 
 from Wrong ; and to pick their way to real Know- 
 ledge through that mass of Literature, which, without 
 such aid will confuse rather than enlighten their 
 understandings. Thus to Educate the People is the 
 first duty of a State. What I mean by this is, that 
 the State should secure to the people the time, the 
 opportunity, and the means, to get this Education ; 
 and, at first, to go, if necessary, into the " highways 
 and hedges," and compel the young Calibans to come 
 in. THE ACT OF EDUCATION MUST BE THE PEOPLE'S 
 OWN. All Education is Self-education, although those 
 who have acquired splendid nothings at College will 
 not have it so. Before the mind can acquire any 
 truth, it must take the trouble to think, and to per- 
 ceive it to be truth : for thus only can the truth 
 become its own. If Governments will do this, not 
 neglecting at the same time to get the same Educa- 
 tion for themselves, all will have been accomplished. 
 " Out of the multitude of Counsellors cometh wisdom." 
 
 AND THE WISDOM THUS GENERATED WILL SEE THE 
 WAY TO REMODEL OUR SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS ON A 
 
 RATIONAL PLAN. What those Institutions will be it 
 is needless to discuss. It is quite certain they will 
 be very different from the present. The Principle 
 will be changed. Might will be Right no longer. 
 If Property should still be recognised, the laws 
 affecting it will not be Cumulative, but Distributive.
 
 CHAP. Vll.] THE ALPHA. 341 
 
 There will be but little luxurious Superfluity ; and 
 no Want. No ostentatious Benevolence ; and no 
 abandonment of Self-respect. There will be neither 
 Alms-givers, nor Beggars. Few will be slothful, and 
 none will be overtasked. " Call no man master" will 
 then be understood without a Commentary ; and 
 Christian kindness will be an Instinct rather than a 
 Law. 
 
 CIVILIS. May that blessed time come quickly, 
 Randolph ! But what will the Sneerers, and the 
 habitual Jesters of Society, say to all this ? 
 
 RANDOLPH. These latter geniuses will do what 
 Jesters are constantly doing, Civilis, they will per- 
 petrate a bad joke, at a wrong time, and to no 
 purpose. 
 
 CIVILIS. The Sneerers in "high places," will say 
 that the adoption of universal Education on such a 
 plan would inevitably end in that form of Com- 
 munism you have been repudiating. 
 
 RANDOLPH. No matter, Civilis. Error is not 
 eternal : and Prejudices will die out. ENOUGH FOR 
 
 US TO KNOW THAT IP ANYTHING CAN RID THE WORLD 
 OF EVIL, IT IS THE DESTRUCTION OF THE IGNORANCE 
 THAT GENERATED IT; AND THE SYSTEM THAT EN- 
 COURAGES ITS GROWTH. But a nation's Intelligence, 
 especially against such obstacles as under the most 
 favourable circumstances will have to be overcome, 
 will be of slow development ; and the fine ladies 
 and gentlemen whose delicate sensitiveness would 
 be shocked at the bare idea of equality and promiscuous
 
 342 THE ALPHA. U'AKTII. 
 
 intercommunion with their fellows, will have slept per- 
 haps many ages in their monument-covered graves 
 before such a state of things is likely to come to pass. 
 But, for their present satisfaction, as regards their 
 descendants, let them remember that Education will 
 do for " plebeians" all that it has done for them : and 
 perhaps more. Let them bear in mind that their 
 own Ancestors were boors, and plebeians, and rough 
 diamonds : -very rough diamonds indeed, some of 
 them ! Let them be assured that any change which 
 may be produced by Education, will be an elevation 
 in manners, intelligence, and external condition, of 
 those who are degraded in all things now. Even in 
 the matter of personal Beauty -for Beauty, rightly 
 understood, is that phasis or form of matter through 
 which, in all things, we perceive Intelligence even, 
 then, in the circumstance of personal Beauty, a great 
 change for the better will inevitably take place. Not 
 that the labouring classes are at present more de- 
 ficient in all that passes for beauty than their more 
 aristocratic brothers and sisters. But when their fine 
 frames shall not be deformed by over-toil ; and when 
 their fine faces shall beam with the Soul's Intelligence, 
 it will be a great change from the stupid idiotcy, and 
 crime-distorted countenances which so frequently 
 make one's heart ache now. Let them remember 
 these things : and, although, under a rational system, 
 their posterity will have fewer superfluities than are 
 indulged in at present, they will need fewer: for 
 Sensuality will be out of fashion ; and the perfumed
 
 CHAP, vn.i THE ALPHA. 343 
 
 prejudices which now exist will have been put off 
 with the Ignorance that bred, and the Pride that 
 nurtured them. If the lower classes have much to 
 learn, the upper classes have much to unlearn; and 
 all will be the better, and the happier for the 
 change. 
 
 CIVILIS. This is no impossible, physical Utopia, 
 my dear Randolph ; but an Intellectual Eden as 
 attainable as it is desirable and delightful. Listening 
 to your voice in the calm stillness of this pleasant 
 night, whilst the quiet stars and the motionless and 
 odorous air seem to have been listening too, how have 
 I wished that the men whose chance of entering 
 Heaven was once likened to a camel's impossible 
 passage through a needle's eye, had but been here 
 to hear you ! Methinks, the injunction, " Sell all 
 that thou hast, and give it to the Poor, and follow 
 me," would not have been addressed in vain to all of 
 them. 
 
 RANDOLPH. I hope it would not : but your Mind, 
 Civilis, is very susceptible of poetical impressions, and 
 the peculiar fitness of the time and place has pre- 
 disposed it to receive them. THERE is MUCH IN 
 FITNESS. You know what Portia says : 
 
 " THE CROW DOTH SING AS SWEETLY AS THE LARK, 
 
 " WHEN NEITHER is ATTENDED ; AND I THINK 
 
 " THE NIGHTINGALE, IF SHE SHOULD SING BY DAY, 
 
 "WHEN EVERY GOOSE is CACKLING, WOULD BE THOUGHT 
 
 "No BETTER A MUSICIAN THAN THE WREN." 
 
 Fitness, Civilis, that is, everything Right, well-timed,
 
 344 THE ALPHA. [PAETII. 
 
 and rightly placed, is THE VERY PERFECTION OF ALL 
 ART. In the present case the fitness was an accident. 
 
 CIVILIS. This reminds me of what you just now 
 said of Beauty ; that rightly understood, it is that 
 phasis or form of matter, through which, in all things, 
 we perceive Intelligence. Applied to the Human 
 Countenance the definition struck me as being ex- 
 cellent : for whilst there is a great diversity of opinion 
 regarding Form, all own the magic influence of an In- 
 telligent Expression : but how does it apply to the 
 lower Animals, and things inanimate which have no 
 Intelligence ? 
 
 RANDOLPH. I meant, Civilis, a form, or phasis, or 
 if you prefer it, an expression, which is, in all things, 
 the RESULT of Intelligence ; IN MAN, the in-dwelling 
 Soul, which is Intelligence : IN THINGS INANIMATE, 
 the in-dwelling evidence of Design, which also is In- 
 telligence. In all the works of Deity Man of course 
 included, we recognise the Intelligence of their 
 Almighty Author. The more we know of them, the 
 more we perceive the perfect adaptation of means to 
 an end exemplified in their formation. Hence Beauty, 
 rightly understood, is only a fonder, or more familiar 
 name for the perfection of Design in things ; which 
 Design is, of course, the result of Intelligence. The 
 peculiar phasis or form of a thing, in other words, its 
 peculiar expression is its peculiar beauty. In the 
 Human Countenance, through the expression of the 
 external form, and in the eye, we perceive the Intelli- 
 gence of the in-dwelling Soul : and of this expression,
 
 CHAP. VII.] THE ALPHA. 345 
 
 Man himself the individual man in whom we per- 
 ceive it may be truly said to be the Author ; and all 
 rightly-perceiving minds esteem and honour it ac- 
 cordingly. IT IS THE EVIDENCE OF POWER OVER MEANS 
 BY WHICH HUMANITY CAN DO ALL IT HAS TO DO. 
 
 Hence, the Beauty of any of its doings must consist 
 in the most perfect adaptation of the means at its dis- 
 posal, to great and worthy ends. Every work Hu- 
 manity undertakes to do ought to be in aid of the 
 great work of its existence ; namely, the perfection of 
 the Soul's Intelligence. Thus, our Arts, and our Lite- 
 rature, should not have a tendency to degrade, to cari- 
 cature, or to depress Human Nature ; BUT TO ELEVATE 
 AND ENNOBLE IT. All Art is false Art false as to its 
 object, which has this degrading tendency. IN LIKE 
 MANNER, ALL OUR SOCIAL ARRANGEMENTS, OUR LAWS, 
 AND GOVERNMENTS, SHOULD BE THE MOST PERFECT 
 ADAPTATION OF THE MEANS AT OUR DISPOSAL, TO THE 
 ATTAINMENT OF THAT HAPPINESS FOR ALL, WITHOUT 
 FAVOUR OR EXCEPTION, WHICH IS THE END AND PUR- 
 POSE OF HUMAN EXISTENCE. That on Earth, Mankind 
 will ever attain to a full perfection of that Intelligence 
 which confers anything like perfect Happiness, is, no 
 doubt impossible ; BUT THIS is THE END TO AIM AT : 
 and, to aim at it with any chance of success, we must 
 get rid of our brute-force principle in Governments, 
 and model our Social Institutions on that plan, 
 whatever it might prove to be, that shall be found 
 most conducive to the true wants, mental and physical, 
 of all its members. We have seen that the end
 
 346 THE ALPHA. [PART II. 
 
 which is at present aimed at is everywhere the enjoy- 
 ment by a few of that happiness which wealth is sup- 
 posed to give ; and the selfish or brute-force principle 
 is a fit and proper means for its attainment. If the mul- 
 titude were not ignorant, so ignorant as to have fixed 
 on the same animal enjoyments for themselves ; and 
 that, without much chance of obtaining them, this 
 principle must have exploded long ago. Wealth will 
 be always a lottery with a hundred, perchance a 
 thousand blanks to one prize : and as long as all 
 press eagerly and selfishly for the prizes, every one 
 who obtains a blank deserves the disappointment he 
 experiences : whilst those who get the prizes are not 
 to be pitied if they find, as they always do, that even 
 the empty enjoyment of possession has been antici- 
 pated in the fervour of pursuit. Selfishness is the 
 mainspring of the present System : Christian Love of 
 that which should supersede it. The first is costly, 
 cruel, and inefficient. The second is cheap, benig- 
 nant, and effective. That is suited to men degene- 
 rated into brutishness. This, to men who would 
 depress the brute portion of their nature, and develope 
 the angelic. The one is stationary. The other is 
 progressive. The selfish System is a system of expe- 
 dients and makeshifts, leading to all that is hateful 
 and unholy. The Christian, or rational System, is 
 the realization of all that is desirable, of all that is 
 attainable on Earth. Let mankind make their 
 election. 
 
 CIVILIS. Set the whole Truth before mankind, my
 
 CHAP. VII.] THE ALPHA. 347 
 
 dear Randolph, as convincingly as you have set it 
 before me ; and they WILL make their election ; 
 that is, THE MILLIONS WILL ; and that soon ; and 
 their election will be right. Let " Redemption So- 
 cieties" look to it. Let " Working-men's Associa- 
 tions" look to it. Let " Land Societies" look to it. 
 Let Chartists, and Communists, and Socialists look 
 to it. Let Poverty and Slavery, whether black or 
 white, here and elsewhere, comprehend the Truth 
 AND REFORMATION WILL BE RATHER A NECESSITY 
 THAN A CHOICE. It is easy now to perceive how 
 the National Debt will be liquidated, and no man be 
 a loser. 
 
 RANDOLPH. Ay, Civilis ; and how England might 
 give back to neighbouring nations, and with in- 
 terest, too the unfledged Liberty she helped to 
 crush when she wantonly incurred this debt. What 
 you say about Societies and Associations of Working- 
 men possessing themselves of this Truth is important, 
 and means must be taken to help them to the know- 
 ledge : for assuredly, till Intellect can bring about 
 the Millennium, the Millennium will not come. 
 Mobs, Violence, Treasons, Revolutions, would but 
 retard, nay, indefinitely postpone the period of its 
 arrival. Man must work out his own Redemption. 
 Redeemed HE is already who knows the Truth. It 
 is not now in the power of Governments, Potentates, 
 and Kings much to hinder, or much to accelerate 
 the march of Mind. The Indigent must remain the 
 helpless and degraded things they are until they get
 
 348 THE ALPHA. [PART II. 
 
 enlightenment. Rebel they must not, nor despair. 
 The fiction we call Justice must live out its time. 
 We cannot kill it. It is proof against Sedition's 
 sword and spear ; because, spurious though it is, it 
 is the nearest approximation to abstract Justice 
 for which the Intelligence of the world is at present 
 fitted. It is the tiny star which cheers our night, 
 and must shine on till the Sun of perfect Truth shall 
 extinguish it by its superior brightness. 
 
 CIVILIS. And extinguish it, it will, my dear Ran- 
 dolph. I am truly happy. I have a steady view of 
 all the operations and results of the Intellectual 
 Principle. You have schooled me into Happiness ; 
 not fitful, but abiding. I see the way to Universal 
 Peace without the aid of Peace Societies : and to the 
 extinction of Slavery without much addition to that 
 large expenditure of breath and bathos that has been 
 so all but uselessly exhausted on the subject. We 
 shall see, however, or I am much mistaken, Ran- 
 dolph, that these Anti-slavery and Peace- Society- 
 Men have but few amongst them, WHO, SEEING THE 
 WAY, WILL NOT RENOUNCE THE WORK. The majority 
 of them are mere Sentimentalists who would prefer 
 to whine over imaginary miseries, or miseries so 
 far removed from the vicinity of their counting-houses 
 
 as to have all the charms of imaginary ones, than 
 
 to set their hands to the extinction of the evils which 
 produce them. Show them that to accumulate pri- 
 vate Property that to enrich themselves so as to
 
 CHAP. VII ] THE ALPHA. 349 
 
 afford to be philanthropic is to place millions of 
 their fellow-creatures in that abject condition that it 
 is almost, nay quite A MERCY TO THEM TO ENSLAVE 
 THEM : show them that to monopolise the Earth and 
 the Fruits thereof is the CAUSE OF SLAVERY : show 
 them that to hold a Property in man is not one whit 
 more venial than to hold a property in the Soil 
 which is the very Life of a man his absolute Exist- 
 ence which they have no more Right to molest, or 
 shorten, or endanger, or warp to their own selfish 
 purposes, than they have to manacle his limbs and 
 make a Slave of him, SHOW THEM THIS, AND YOU 
 
 WILL CURE THEM OF THEIR PHILANTHROPY ! Show the 
 
 Peace-Society-Men that AS LONG AS THERE is GROSS 
 INJUSTICE IN THE WORLD THERE MUST BE WAR ; and 
 the roofs of their Congress -Halls will never more 
 echo back their sentimental watchword " Peace !" 
 The Soul-Instincts of these men are right enough; 
 but their Wealth will bind them to the Selfish Prin- 
 ciple : they are Slaves of an abstraction fettered to 
 an Idea " RESPECTABILITY." How well He knew 
 the strength of this Idea who said that "it is easier 
 for a Camel to pass through a needle's eye than for a 
 
 Rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven !" The 
 
 memory of this night, rny dear Randolph, and of all 
 our former communings, will dwell with me for ever. 
 You have awakened my soul to the enjoyment of a 
 new existence. I will endeavour to repay your more 
 than brotherly affection by awakening, or by the
 
 350 THE ALPHA. [PAKT II. 
 
 attempt to awaken, in other minds the same abiding 
 
 and exalted Happiness. Life is brief: or as 
 
 Shakspere so beautifully expresses it, 
 
 " THE TIME OF LIFE IS SHORT : 
 
 " To SPEND THAT SHORTNESS BASELY WERE TOO 
 LONG 
 
 " IF LIFE DID RIDE UPON A DIAL'S POINT, 
 
 " STILL ENDING AT THE ARRIVAL OF AN HOUR." 
 
 We partook of a slight refection together : talked 
 an hour or two of the unapproachable Genius of the 
 Bard of Avon, and parted about midnight. 
 
 How little I have profited by the unobtrusive 
 MODESTY of the world's greatest Bard and best 
 Philosopher, the reader will perceive without any 
 prompting of mine. But it will, I hope, be seen also 
 that zeal in the cause of Truth zeal resulting from 
 a Conviction too absolute to permit the mere affec- 
 tation of modesty has been the sole cause of the 
 otherwise indefensible and unseemly difference.
 
 CHAP. VIII. ] THE ALPHA. 351 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 THE intelligent reader who has thus far accompanied 
 me will not have failed to perceive that the auto- 
 biographical portion of this little work may be a 
 fiction ; and mere inventions the Revelation and 
 the Dreams. And whilst it is due to Truth to admit 
 the latter half of the fact, it is unnecessary to apolo- 
 gize for a deception, the object of which is so well 
 understood. It is rather to be regretted that the 
 practice is so frequently justified by the necessity. 
 Whether the necessity existed in the present case the 
 reader will judge. He will also judge whether the 
 object gained be worthy of the circuitous means 
 employed for its achievement. If we have accom- 
 plished anything, we have laid the foundation of a 
 new Philosophy, which at some future period of the 
 world will be the world's Religion. We have not / 
 broached a new Theory. We have not come before 
 the world with a new System of Opinions ; but with 
 a new Truth. It is a verity : it is THE Truth ; or it 
 is nothing. WE SHALL BE ACCUSED OF RATIONALISM ! 
 We shall be able to endure the taunt. WE SHALL 
 BE DENOUNCED AS LEVELLERS. We plead guilty to 
 " the soft impeachment." WE SHALL BE ACCUSED 
 or PRIDE. It will not much disturb our equanimity. 
 If the first accusation be just (and we own it!), it 
 follows that we are not fools : in this case, our Pride, 
 and our Levelling propensities cannot be set down 
 to the account of our folly ; whilst the converse of 
 this, not only may, but must be true of those who,
 
 352 THE ALPHA. [PART II. 
 
 by implication, pride themselves on not being ra- 
 tional. But do religionists really despise Reason? 
 or do they only pretend to despise it ? Deny any of 
 their dogmas, they will instantly inundate us with 
 reasons (such as they are) in support of them. 
 Every church ; the professors of every system of 
 faith, will, as a last resource, meet us with a reason 
 such as this: "The Bible," or "The Koran," or 
 " The Zend-avesta, says so, therefore it is right." 
 Deny the genuineness of any of these ; and we have 
 the reasons which induce the believers in them to 
 declare them genuine. If our Reason is to decide 
 whether the Koran be a revelation from God to Man, 
 it may also decide on the reasonableness of any 
 of the facts or dogmas promulgated therein, or founded 
 on it ; as, for instance, whether Mahomet was a Pro- 
 phet, or an Impostor, or a sagacious Reformer, 
 who to do mankind a service, resorted to impos- 
 ture. If reason may and must decide on any of 
 these facts or particulars, it not only may, but 
 must decide on all. There is no doubt but 
 all the more gross and palpably-absurd doctrines of 
 the Church of England, would be rooted out, but that 
 our priesthood naturally ask themselves this question: 
 " What will the people say, the thinking, far-seeing 
 people of England in this the Nineteenth Century ? 
 We reasoned ourselves away from Rome, and from, 
 some of her absurdities; but if we should reason away 
 a few more of them, will not the Laity reason too? 
 and where will it all stop ?" Hence nothing is done. 
 The priesthood are wrong in this determination. Pro- 
 testantism must go forward, or return. As a Church 
 which reasoned itself into being, it must (inde- 
 pendently of the influence that any higher Truth may 
 have upon its destinies) it must reason itself onwards, 
 or inevitably fall. The right of private judgment is 
 the corner-stone of Protestantism. Remove it, and the
 
 CHIP. VIII.] THE ALPHA. 353 
 
 blighting doctrines of the Church of Rome will be 
 again predominant, and people of all grades and con- 
 ditions will become once more the passive instruments 
 of a grasping Priesthood ; the mere creatures of a 
 man who not only claims a right of judgment for 
 himself, but absolute infallibility : whilst, with an 
 arrogance as presumptuous as it is absurd, he says to 
 the four hundred millions of his fellow-men, "you have 
 no such right, neither have you the capacity to judge 
 concerning one tittle as to the efficacy of the formulas 
 on which the Salvation of your Souls depend. I am 
 the appointed one. I am God's vicegerent here on 
 Earth. Leave all to me." For three hundred years 
 we have differed with this mitred mountebank. We 
 have claimed and exercised a right of judgment for 
 ourselves. WE HAVE DARED TO BE RATIONALISTS > 
 IN RELIGION. And yet the sun has shone upon us ! 
 still : the Moon and Stars have smiled and twinkled 
 over us as of yore : the dews and rain have continued 
 to descend on our fields and pastures ; and the seed- 
 time, and the harvest-time have come and gone, 
 yielding us their usual abundance. The charge of 
 Rationalism, therefore, be it preferred by whom it may, 
 is not a very grave charge. It may be borne : and we 
 have the courage to bear it. We should be burned if 
 Romanists had their way. But Romanists will not 
 have their way, and we shall escape the martyrdom. 
 
 BUT WE ARE LEVELLERS ! Yes : inasmuch as we 
 are the propagandists of a Levelling Principle we are 
 constrained to plead guilty to the charge. But we are 
 merely " Utterers" of the Principle ; not its Authors 
 or contrivers. We, moreover, came by it honestly. 
 We discovered it, not amongst the dusty tomes of 
 antiquity, the learned lumber of centuries ; but in a 
 previously unheeded corner of our own mind. It is 
 older than the hills. It has existed through the long 
 night of a past Eternity : it will continue to exist 
 
 2A
 
 354 THE ALPHA. [PART II. 
 
 through the eternity of day that is to come. We are 
 but the fortunate finders of a hidden treasure, the 
 which we stumbled upon by accident ; but, perceiving 
 its value, we have taken some pains to lay it in a pre- 
 sentable form before the world. But let us drop 
 unseemly metaphor. The Principle is either true, or 
 false. If false, its falsehood has but to be shown, and 
 its influence ceases ; or rather it has no influence. 
 But, if true, and if our deductions and inferences there- 
 from prove logical, it will not much aid the defenders 
 of Selfishness and Error to affix on us, its humble 
 propagandists, the anathematizing epithet of Levellers. 
 This will no more deprive the Principle of its influence, 
 or stop the course of reformation, than to name the 
 Sun a snowball would diminish the fertilizing in- 
 fluence of its beams. Neither the Principle, nor 
 whatever is true in the minor principles we have 
 deduced therefrom, is ours : for Truth is of God, 
 and cannot originate with Man ; nor, when once 
 perceived, can man resist the subtle progress of its 
 influence, but whithersoever it leads him he must go. 
 It has led us to write a book. 
 
 For the convenience of Critics who would gainsay 
 our conclusions, we will reduce the leading Principles 
 of our Philosophy into two groups of Propositions. 
 FIRST. 
 
 THAT THE PRINCIPLE OF PRINCIPLES, THE FIRST 
 CAUSE OF ALL THINGS, IS INTELLIGENCE : HENCE, 
 THE DEITY is AN INTELLIGENT PRINCIPLE HAV- 
 ING INFINITE FORE-KNOWLEDGE : HENCE ALSO, 
 WHATEVER IS CONSISTENT WITH THE INFINITUDE 
 
 OF THE FORE-KNOWLEDGE OF THE DEITY is 
 TRUE : ON THE OTHER HAND, WHATEVER IS IN- 
 CONSISTENT THEREWITH, IS NECESSARILY FALSE. 
 
 SECONDLY. 
 
 THAT THE HUMAN SOUL is AN INTELLIGENT PRIN- 
 CIPLE, CAPABLE OF KNOWLEDGE, AND NEEDING
 
 CHAP. VIII.] THE ALPHA. 355 
 
 KNOWLEDGE : THAT KNOWLEDGE is ASCERTAINED 
 TRUTH : THAT CONSCIENCE is THE SOUL'S RE- 
 CORDED KNOWLEDGE : THAT KNOWLEDGE (AS 
 FAR AS IT IS TRULY ASCERTAINED, AND ALL IRRA- 
 TIONAL INFLUENCES APART) COMPELS RlGHT 
 SENTIMENTS AND 'RlGHT ACTIONS : THAT RlGHT 
 SENTIMENTS AND RlGHT ACTIONS, CONSTITUTE 
 RELIGION : THAT RELIGION SUPERSEDES THE 
 CONVENTIONAL MAKESHIFTS CALLED THE MoRALI- 
 TIES AND THE VlRTUES, AND TENDS CONSTANTLY 
 TO THAT INTELLECTUAL PERFECTION, AND RESULTS 
 NECESSARILY IN THAT HAPPINESS, WHICH IS THE 
 
 END AND PURPOSE OF THE SOUL'S EXISTENCE. 
 
 If these, OUT fundamental Principles, are not true, 
 then all our inferences are Errors ; AND WE RECANT 
 THEM HERE. But if true, they will ultimately over- 
 come all opposition; level all conventional distinctions ; 
 remove all unjust Laws ; correct all absurd notions ; 
 reform all ridiculous customs ; sweep away all super- 
 stitions ; alter the fabric of all society ; change the 
 whole business and objects of humanity ; and silently 
 and peacefully regenerate the world. 
 
 We shall defend our PRIDE when those who know 
 us better than we know ourselves have told us what 
 it is. We certainly deny that " the heart is deceitful 
 above all things, and desperately wicked." We deny 
 it, as we deny Transubstantiation, Regeneration by 
 baptism, and the Infallibility of the Pope, because 
 our reason revolts at such gross profanity. If this 
 is Pride, we at once plead guilty to the charge : for 
 our pride instructs us that every human form en- 
 shrines an angel: it admonishes us not to treat our 
 fellow-men as slaves, but to cherish them as brethren : 
 not to set ourselves above them, and " despitefully 
 use them," but to regard them as our equals in 
 nature ; to love them as we love ourselves ; and if 
 we happen to have outstripped any of them in the 
 
 2 A 2
 
 356 -THE ALPHA. [PART II. 
 
 pursuit of the one thing needful, Knowledge, to 
 divide it with them. The Angel is awakened within I 
 us, and we have no wish, no motive to be selfish. | 
 The good we have we are anxious to divide with 
 them. This is not the pride of Predestinarianism ; 
 the pride of the " Elect" ; the pride of False Humi- 
 lity ; the pride of Self-righteousness ; the pride of 
 Saintship ; nor the pride of Place, and Power, and 
 False Pretensions. There is, however, a Spice of 
 the Pharisee in us : and whilst we own it. we regret 
 it. But, be it remembered that, to do right is a 
 tacit condemnation of those who do wrong : And 
 how are scribes to correct folly but by denouncing 
 it ? or to denounce it, but (through implication,) by 
 beslavering themselves with praise ? If, however, 
 thre be no hypocrisy in our Phariseeism there is not 
 much turpitude in avowing it : what there is of the 
 inherent stain we will leave to be dealt with by our 
 Censors, who if they should not find a flaw in our 
 arguments, will be glad (some of them) to find 
 a speck in our character so invitingly open to 
 assault. 
 
 Having thus squared our accounts with the pro- 
 fessional Champions of Error, we will lay aside the 
 pompous style of the plural number ; drop the grandi- 
 loquous WE ; which, by the way, is not one whit [ 
 less egotistical than the other : it, moreover, sits 1 
 awkwardly on an earnest man, is frequently incon- ' 
 venient, and rarely honest. 
 
 The Lovers of their Species, and the Friends of 
 Truth, are many. I will suppose thee, my dear 
 Reader, to be one of them. Were it not so, the 
 chances are we should have parted by the way. As 
 a philosophical treatise, into which it was my purpose 
 at the outset to beguile thee, I fear my book may 
 prove deficient in some essential particulars : but as a 
 guide to Truth and Happiness, I have hopes that it
 
 CHAP. VIII.] THE ALPHA. 357 
 
 will not have disappointed thy most sanguine ex- 
 pectations, Thou wilt no longer wonder that in early 
 life my wealth failed to procure that happiness for 
 myself, which it has been my object, by this relation 
 of my experiences, to confer on thee : nor will it now 
 surprise thee that, in after-life, with love for all my 
 Species in my Soul, I found no happiness in the 
 philanthropic USE of wealth, seeing that to dissipate it 
 in charity could purchase THEM no permanent ad- 
 vantage. Thou hast seen whence my Happiness came, 
 and knowest what it is. We now know that in 
 Food ; in Wine ; in sumptuous feastings ; in luxurious 
 homes ; in liveried human appendages, equipages, 
 dress ; in pleasures, pastimes, excitements, Sports ; in 
 Pictures, Books ; in Power and Possessions, however 
 unlimited their amount, not even Selfishness ever yet 
 found Happiness, but only the daily and hourly means 
 of dissipating life, and of silencing the promptings of 
 the crucified and defrauded Soul. To mere Selfishness, 
 therefore, Life has always proved the truthfulness of 
 the luxurious Solomon's exclamation the descriptive 
 epiphonema of his grandeur " All is Vanity !" 
 Together, my dear Reader, we have unravelled the 
 " tangled yarn" of human life : we have solved the great 
 enigma. We have lifted the veil of its mysteriousness, 
 and have found Deformity : we have passed through 
 the intertangled mazes of this deformity and have 
 recognised eternal "Beauty." Like Shadrach, Meshech, 
 and Abednego, hand in hand with the Angel Truth, 
 we have walked through the burning fiery furnace of 
 error-created Evil, and the srnell of fire has not touched 
 our garments : we have talked face to face with Deity 
 and have not been consumed. We know, therefore, 
 what Solomon did not know, namely, why selfish 
 grandeur is " all Vanity." The truth is a great truth : 
 but have men believed it? or has it been with all 
 others as it was with Solomon, the half-consoling
 
 358 THE ALPHA. LPAET II. 
 
 sentiment of disappointed age ? The wisdom of the 
 old, which youth derides, and no man puts his faith in 
 till he must ? The Truth is a great truth : but it was 
 announced, not proved : Look round the world : has 
 the desire for this false grandeur, this deceptive 
 happiness, abated a single tittle? The reason is 
 obvious. Men do not necessarily act on another's 
 dictum ; nor should they ; but only on their own 
 convictions. Were it otherwise, what to us were 
 Truth? What to us were the God of Truth? In this 
 beneficent Principle of our nature, I see the eman- 
 cipation of the human mind from the thraldom, of 
 OPINION ; the possible subjugation of all Evil ; and the 
 regeneration of the entire world ! Every Fact discovered 
 by Science compels us to act in strict conformity with 
 our knowledge. We know that the whole is greater 
 than apart, and we cannot act as though we believed 
 the contrary. It is a Law of our Intellectual nature, 
 and we must obey it. 
 
 Placed in the midst of the existences of which 
 Natural History and the Physical Sciences take cogni- 
 zance, it becomes our chief business to acquaint our- 
 selves with all the facts and phenomena they place 
 within our reach. Here is the great storehouse of 
 Truth. It is the ability to possess ourselves of these 
 truths, to investigate, and comprehend them, that so 
 pre-eminently distinguishes the human family from all 
 the other works of the Deity by which we are sur- 
 rounded. Numerous indeed are the facts which the 
 patient and laborious investigators in this fruitful field 
 of knowledge have discovered and recorded. But 
 much as has been accomplished, very much remains 
 to do. It is to SCIENCE, that, after a thorough know- 
 ledge of ourselves, our rights, and duties, we must 
 chiefly look for that knowledge which enlarges and 
 elevates the Soul ; which opens to us a clearer com- 
 prehension of the Laws by which the Universe is
 
 CHAP. VIII.] THE ALPHA. 359 
 
 sustained ; and which links us in a closer communion 
 with our common God. 
 
 THE SOURCE OF ALL UNHAPPINESS is DOUBT : the 
 source of doubt is Ignorance. To Ignorance every- 
 thing is a Mystery, even its own mischievous doings 
 and ridiculous imaginings; and in all ages " Religion" 
 has been the great Master-Mystery of them all. The 
 ally, or master of all Civil Government, it has ruled 
 the world by its occult mysteriousness. The true 
 religious FEELING, which at all times has been as 
 universal as the human race, has been made the basis 
 of every system that has obtained credence amongst 
 men, and exercised an influence over them. But what 
 Falsehood has been fastened on this feeling, and by 
 what knavery the machinery of the various systems 
 has been worked, let their histories tell. Buddhism, 
 Druid ism, Polytheism, all the ancient Systems were 
 Mysteries managed by the Few for the subjugation and 
 government of the Many; Judaism, Mahomedanism, 
 and I am compelled to add, Christianism, not ex- 
 cepted. As these were, or as they are, aids and 
 instruments of Civil Government, exercising their 
 influence over Ignorance, I grant the necessity for the 
 fraud. But how much better were it to enlighten 
 Ignorance than merely to govern it ! As long, how- 
 ever, as the Millions remain ignorant, these " pious" 
 frauds must be submitted to ; especially as long as 
 that ignorance exists which makes a man a mystery 
 to himself, and leaves him at the mercy of every sanc- 
 timonious pretender. 
 
 However ignorant we may be in other matters, to 
 know what we are, and what is the beneficent pur- 
 pose of our being, is, of itself, an unspeakable Happi- 
 ness ; whilst to want this knowledge, or to entertain 
 doubts respecting it, is to be miserable as frequently 
 as we suffer ourselves to reflect on the mysterious and 
 disheartening subject. It is this universal Doubt on
 
 360 THE ALPHA. . [PART II. 
 
 this all-important matter, that causes all the evils we 
 suffer, and all the mental misery which attends them. 
 Tt is this Doubt which makes self so uninviting a 
 study, nay, the very last to which even thoughtful 
 men devote themselves ; hence it is the one of all 
 others which hundreds of millions of our fellow-beings 
 systematically and totally neglect. Our investigations, 
 my dear Reader, have relieved us from this pitiable, 
 non-progressive state of uncertainty and doubt. We 
 may lack other knowledge, and thence erring, may 
 have to pay the penalty of our ignorance in disappoint- 
 
 * ment, and difficulty, and pain : but we can never be 
 unhappy. Our very errors will teach us wisdom : 
 and every new Truth we thus discover will become 
 a permanent addition to our Happiness. The Know- 
 ledge we have, is the key to all other knowledge, 
 to every mental truth, and perhaps to every physical 
 truth beyond it. 
 
 Thou hast seen, my dear Reader, that all within 
 thee that constitutes theSMan is angelic. Thou hast 
 seen that it is not thy knowledge which brings thee 
 
 . evil, but thy ignorance alone : that thou art an 
 erring creature, not a sinful one : that the ever- 
 present Providence of the Deity is pure Beneficence : 
 that it is not the variable providence of the day, but 
 the never-varying providence of changeless purposes 
 and laws, the same to-day, to-morrow, and for ever : 
 that in these laws and purposes there are no contra- 
 dictions or anomalies, but that the whole are as 
 simple as they are beneficent, and as comprehensible, 
 even to humanity, as they are wise. Thou hast seen 
 that To KNOW is the only purpose and object of the 
 INTELLIGENT PRINCIPLE; and that THE DESIRE TO 
 KNOW is thence the ACTIVE PRINCIPLE of our exist- 
 ence, the beneficent means of self-happiness ; but, 
 that this happiness may not become a mere selfish
 
 CHAP. VIII.] THE ALPHA. 361 
 
 possession, thou hast seen that it might be enlarged 
 almost indefinitely by the means which are afforded 
 us of its UNIVERSAL DISTRIBUTION. Thou hast seen 
 that out of a knowledge of ourselves comes a Love of 
 our brethren : for, to know a man, is to know why 
 he is what he is ; and be he never so vile, to know 
 why he is vile is to pity him. Pity grows active to 1 
 help him ; and active pity what does it lack of 
 Love ? Intelligence is the parent of this Love : it is 
 Happiness seeking to extend itself, and to increase 
 itself by Distribution. Thou hast seen that out of 
 Love like this, but infinitely greater, sprung this 
 universe of wonders ; sprung Man, whose Soul shall 
 be itself a universe ; and all this that Deific Love 
 might have sharers in its beatitude. Thus, indeed, 
 did God create Man " in his own likeness :" like 
 Himself as being an Intelligent Principle, pure, 
 spiritual, and eternal : like Himself as being capable 
 only of knowledge, which is at once Happiness and 
 Power : and like Himself as being by nature endued 
 with Love, which, by seeking to extend itself amongst 
 others, is its own "exceeding great reward." Thou > 
 hast seen that to awaken this Love in the human 
 family came the MARTYR OF LOVE, who, whilst living, 
 taught it by his own beautiful example ; and who, 
 dying, bequeathed it to an erring, mistaken, un- 
 believing world. If these magnificent verities are \ 
 thine, my dear Reader : if, like thy unknown Mentor, 
 thou knowest them to be true, thou art a happy man. 
 What thou yet lackest of felicity is in thy own power. ; 
 Be diligent, and thou shalt obtain the ample residue. 
 Seek, and thou shalt find. Knock, and the arcana 
 of which thou hast the master-key shall be opened 
 unto thec. What thou hast is thine. It is a treasure 
 which thieves cannot steal, nor moth corrupt, nor 
 violence despoil thee of. Distribute it : distribute it 
 
 2 B 

 
 362 THE ALPHA. [PAHT!!. 
 
 amongst thy brethren ; and the Millennium of Intel- 
 lect and Happiness will come, and come to ALL ; 
 and thus a righteous end shall be accomplished 
 righteously. 
 
 E.N.D. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 THOMAS HARRILD, PRINTER, SILVKR STREET, 
 FALCON SQUARE.
 
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