RELIGION OF MAN AND ETHICS OF SCIENCE. '' BY HUDSON TUTTLE, AUTHOR OF "ARCANA OF NATURE," "ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF MAN," " INTELLIGENCE FROM THE SPHERE OF LIGHT," "STUDIES IN THE OUTLYING FIELDS OF PSYCHIC SCIENCE," ETC. NEW YORK : M. L. HOLBROOK & CO., 1890. COPYRIGHT BY HUDSON TUTTLE, 1890. TO J. H. PRATT, SPRING HILL, KANSAS, THIS VOLUME IS GRATEFULLY Jnscribrir. 2049691 PBEFACE. THE past has been the Age of the Gods ; the Present is the Age of Man. Not servile trust in the Gods, but knowledge of the laws of the world ; belief in the Di- vinity of Man and his advancement toward perfection is the foundation of the Religion of Man and the Ethics of Knowledge. The Keligion of the Gods comes from without, as a foreign system, to be received by the servile devotee ; the Religion of Man originates from within, and is a normal growth of humanity. While all past ages have been employed in the study and illustration of the former system, not until recent times has the latter received attention. Those who have in the past dared advocate the rights of man have been mercilessly crucified. The field is new ; broad as the universe ; profound as the depths of space ; as high as heaven. In its exploration, the old charts are worthless, the old guides are blind leaders of the blind, and not a step can be taken until the chains of superstition and bigotry are cast aside. Not alone the Manger-born, but every child is a divine child, and the Immaculate Mother is repeated in every human mother. The divine and immortal spirit of man, and its inherent tendency to perfect its powers and realize its ideals, is the foundation of the new VI PREFACE. system. Let us endeavor, on entering this field, to leave superstition and educational bias as worn-out gar- ments by the way, and without revengeful anger at the spectacle of the innumerable host of martyrs to Free Thought swinging in gibbet-chains, tortured at the stake, or entombed in horrible dungeons along its border, direct our steps to the Highlands of Free Thought. The way is new ; the obstacles are many ; the reward, not the applause of the multitude. It offers no atoning sacrifice; no scape goat for sin. It demands an upright, manly, self-reliant life, complete in the harmonious ac- tivity of all faculties and endowments. To assist and encourage those who are weary of the theological views of Nature and Man, and are restless under the light of Knowledge, is the object of the fol- lowing pages. THE AUTHOR. COI^TE^TS. PAGE PREFACE, 5, 6 PART I. THE RELIGION OF MAN. FUNDAMENTAL RELIGIOUS PROPOSITIONS, . . . 9, 10 FUNDAMENTAL SCIENTIFIC PROPOSITIONS 10, 11 PRELIMINARY. THE DEAD GODS AND THE LIVING MAN. The Gods of Chaldea Persia The Pageant of Babylon India Egypt Greece The Mysteries of Eleusis The .Tews Early Christianity Constantino the Great The Carnival of Theology Soul Saving The Dawn of Knowledge The Dying Gods Is Life Worth the Liv- ing ? The Religion of Pain Has Taken all the Sunshine out of Life True Happiness 12-43 I. RELIGION. Religion the Strongest Motive Actuating Man The Bible The Church Education as a Means of Conserving Old Beliefs The Methods of Attack and Defence Changed, 44-55 IL WHAT is RELIGION ? Among all Races Its First Manifestation Fetishism Religious Ideas of Australians Of the Tribes of Central Africa Of the Esquimaux Forest Dwellers of India What is Religion ? Its Highest Expression, . . 55-63 III. FETISHISM. Ideas of Savage Man His Worship is from Fear He is Controlled by Passion His Ideas of the Future State Vlll CONTENTS. I'AOE Fraught with Terror To Subject the Invisible World the Ambition of the Priesthood Worship of Inanimate Objects The Evolution of the God-Idea Fetishism Preserved in Christianity Thanksgiving Miracles, . G3-73 IV. PHALLIC WOESHIP. The Oldest Keligion Prehistoric Sun Worship Wor- ship of the Generative Principle In India Of the Druids The Basis of all Religions The Eleusian Mys- teries the Great Church of the Ancient World Christ's Reference to Apuleius's Testimony Established 1400 B.C. The Temple of Eleusis Initiation The Second Birth Change of Heart Grew Out of a Mistaken View of Nature Mysteries for Women Ceres, the Goddess of Humanity St. Paul The Virgin Mary, the Divine Mother Divine Fatherhood The Christian Church and the Mysteries Origin of the Christian Dogmas The Phallus- The Cross The Steeple The Dome- Superstition The Past Needed Sects The Conflict of the Ages 73-103 V. MAN'S MOBAL PBOGEESS DEPENDENT ON HIS INTELLECTUAL GBOWTH. All Civilized Eaces Have Sacred Books Man's Moral Prog- ress Equivalent to Intellectual Growth Protestantism Catholicism Revelation in Conflict with Science The Battle no Longer Waged by Metaphysical Argu- ment, but by Science The Bible and Reason Futility of Missionary Effort Persistency of Customs and Be- liefs Christianity and the Dark Continent Christian- ity and th Dark Ages Did it Foster Learning ? Its Real Animus How Did Humanity Escape ? . . 103-124 VI. THE GBEAT THEOLOGICAL PBOBLEMS THE OBIGIN OF EVIL, THE NATUBE OF GOD, AND THE FUTUBE STATE. The Human Mind Mistakes Ignorance for Profundity Position of Man Universality of the Belief in Positive Evil What is Evil ? The Friction of Nature's Activities Protean Form of the God-Idea The Existence of God Attributes of The Belief in God the Foundation of Religion Knowledge Compared Belief in Immor- tality More Universal than in the Existence of God In Egypt, Hindustan, Greece Seized by the Priests The Jews The Old Testament The New The Scheme of Salvation Metempsychosis Consc-iousness of a Previous Condition, 125-138 CONTENTS. ix vn. PAOB MAN'S FALL, AND THE CHRISTIAN SCHEME FOB HIS REDEMPTION. Man Insulted the Infinite Creation a Failure The Blood of Christ The Miiid May be Cramped until it Ceases to Rebel The Fall a Myth Adam a Myth Primitive Man Scientific Evidence of the Antiquity of Man The Development of Brain Necessity Influence of Conditions Area of History Gulf between the Moral and Physical Man, 138-147 VIII. MAN'S POSITION FATE, FKEE-WILL, FBEE AGENCY, NECESSITY, RE- SPONSIBILITY. Position of Man An Epitome of Creation Is he Free ? Character Plastic to Influences Necessity Rightly Born Influence of Geographic Position Destiny Based in the Moral Realm, 147-157 IX. DUTIES AND OBLIGATIONS or MAN TO GOD AND TO HIMSELF. God Demands Everything The Priest God's Laws Need no Special Revelation Verbal Prayer Duty to God No Mediator between Man and Law He Cannot be Held Amenable to Laws not in his Constitution Morality Does not Embrace Dogmatic Religion All True Revelation Must Be in Harmony with the Laws of the World To Live for Our Own Sakes not the Glory of God Prayer Holy Days Sunday Laws Faith Purity The Saint of the Past Of the Present Of the Future, 158-170 PART II. THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. I. THE INDIVIDUAL. Has Fought the Battle of History The Lowest Man Sus- ceptible of Infinite Improvement Duty A New Crite- rion by which to Decide Right and Wrong Man a Dual Structure Physical Man The Nervous System the X CONTENTS. PAOE Bridge between Matter and Spirit The Prophecy in Each Member of the Series of Evolution Is Creation a Sham? The Course of Progress Changed To Mind The Immortal Spirit, 171-181 II. THE GENESIS AND EVOLUTION or SPIRIT. Origin of Matter and Force Conservation of Force Foundation of Spiritualism Definition of Spirit Re- incarnation Dead Matter Origin of Life Origin of Man Mental Growth Spirit Similarity between the Spiritual and Physical Worlds Progress of Unlimited Immortality the Highest Aim of Creative Energy, . 181-194 ni. THE LAW OF MOEAL GOVERNMENT. The Subordination of the Lower to the Higher Similar- ity between the Moral and Physical Worlds Illustrated in Cohesion and Gravitation The Forces of Nature Will be Under Human Control The Faculty which Distinguishes Man Reason as Intellectual and Moral Consciousness Shall we be Natural ? The Test of Eight, Spiritual Welfare, 194-199 IV. THE APPETITES, Division into Instinctive and Voluntary Hunger Thirst Sleep Sexual Instinct The Natural Activity of an Appetite Yields Happiness Temperance False Theories of Intemperance Habit Activity and Rest The Sexual Instinct Purpose of Deplorable Ignorance Better Control by Fear than License Application of the Rule 199-207 V. SELFISH PROPENSITIES. Love of Life Have we a Right over Our Own Lives ? Combativeness Destructiveness Secretiveness Love of Self Love of Wealth Cautiousness The Right over Life To Love Life The Object of Life, its Uses Rights of Labor Self Love 207-214 VI. LOVE. Definition of Manifestations of Flows out Like the Light of the Sun Has its Forms Grown out of Experi- CONTENTS. XI PAGE ence ? Benevolence Justice Passive and Active Vir- tues Religion Failed in Teaching Justice Meaning of Love of Truth Perception of Absolute Truth Slow to Mature Faith, 214-225 VII. WISDOM. The Senses Channels Leading to Wisdom Two Schools Conscience Of the Savage Reason and Conscience Is the Imperfection of Supplied by Revelation 'I Accountability Loss of Conscience Change of Heart Culture of Conscience Can the Brutal Man Become an Angel ? Temptation Practical Application De- cision of Conscience What is Good ? What is Hap- piness ? Whatever is, is Right Life a Discipline Whatever is, Must be The Path of Advance Con- sequences, ... 225-244 VIII. WISDOM THE WILL. The Will, What is it ? Is Man Free ? Can we Do as we Please? Development of the Will Depravity of Culture of 244-248 IX. CHAETEB OF RIGHTS. Existence a Charter of Rights Hunger has a Right to Food Limited by the Right to Labor Labor Has the Right to its Own Products Must Have the Opportu- nity Right to Land Rent Interest Illustration Liberty The Right to Think Salvation in Freedom Right of Mental Culture Happiness Woman's Rights Is She a Human Being ? The Highest Civilization Must Give Equal Rights to Woman Summary of Rights, 248-260 X. DUTIES AND OBLIGATIONS op THE INDIVIDUAL. Rights Presuppose Duties Duties and Obedience to God Sin Forgiveness and Pardon of Not Known in Na- tureKnowledge the True Saviour Atonement a Premium on Vice No Pardoning Power in the Uni- verse Punishment In the Future Life Duty of Prayer Faith Resting on Knowledge Natural Duties Of Spiritual Culture Duty of Children Duty of Parents Duties of Society Duty as a Source of Strength 260-277 Xii CONTENTS. XI. DUTY AND OBLIGATIONS or SOCIETY. PAGE The Struggle for Existence Prehistoric Man Dawn of Civilization Rights of Society and the Individual Tendency of Civilization Education Family Relations Centralization The Old Idea Revived The Danger, 277-288 XII. RIGHTS or GOVERNMENT. Rights of Government Based on Eternal Justice Not on the Consent of the Governed All Rest on the Same Foundation, 288-290 XIII. DUTIES OF SOCIETY TO CBIMINALS. If Government Fails to Give Protection it is Illegitimate A Republican Government Must be for the Good of the Whole Criminal Laws of Moses, not Christ Fear Pre- vents, it Never Reforms The Vengeance of Law on the Criminal Picture of an Angel in the Judicial Chair Reform not Vengeance Capital Punishment, . . 290-295 XIV. THE DUTY OF SELF- CULTURE. Is it the Chief End of Man to Glorify God and Enjoy Him, or to Glorify Himself ? A Radical Change Required in Educational Methods Physical Culture The Edu- cation of Labor Education Begins with the Body Culture of the Intellect Culture of Morality, . . 295-303 XV. MARRIAGE. Earliest Phase Where are the New Truths which are to Take the Place of Our Broken Idols ? Confusion of Church and State Views of Marriage A Sacrament A Legal Contract A Wrong to Woman a Wrong to the Race Communal Marriage Tried and a Failure Polyg- amy Brutal Monogamic Marriage Society' s Interest in Conjugal Love Exchisive The Mother Paternal In- fluence on Offspring Free Love Affinity Chastity of Man and Woman Demanded on Scientific Grounds Mistakes Divorce The Ultimate, Ideal Perfection, and Unselfish Love, . 303-313 PART I. THE RELIGION OF MAN. FUNDAMENTAL RELIGIOUS PROPOSITIONS. MAN was created perfect, placed in a perfect world by the direct and miraculous act of an Infinite God, and by disobedience brought sin and death into the world, thereby becoming estranged and lost from. God, and a depraved and fallen creature. DEPENDENT PROPOSITIONS. 1st. As he Binned against an Infinite Being, his sin is infinite, and requires an infinite sacrifice. 2d. God, as the only Infinite Being, is alone capable of fulfilling the requirements demanded. 3d. God incarnated and offered himself as such an atoning sacrifice, and became a mediator between him- self and sinful man to save the world. 4th. The efficacy of this mediation depends on faith. 5th. Man is a free agent, and can choose by his own free will between good and evil. 6th. Endowed with life through the arbitrary will and for the pleasure of God, man's free choice brings on himself reward or punishment. 7th. Mortal life is a state of probation ; immortality, a miraculous gift of God, dependent on entertaining 10 THE RELIGION OF MAN. certain beliefs, in which is meted rewards and punish- ment. 8th. God gave the Bible as a direct revelation of his will to man, as the only infallible guide and source of authority. Results. Superstition ; a priesthood ; bigotry ; persecution ; suppression of knowledge ; and the arrogance of infal- libility. FUNDAMENTAL SCIENTIFIC PROPOSITION. Man has been evolved from the lowest form of being through intermediate stages to his present attainments by the fixed and immutable laws of growth. DEPENDENT PROPOSITIONS. 1st. Man has never fallen from a state of perfection never has been nor can be estranged or lost from God. 2d. The only mediator that can exist between God and man is knowledge, and through it man becomes his own saviour. 3d. Evil is imperfection, which can only be eradicated by moral growth. 4th. A creature of organization and subject to un- changing laws, man, in the theological sense, is not a free agent, nor has he a free will. His apparent free agency is based on the combination of forces by which he becomes an individual. 5th. Mortal life is not probationary ; immortality is FUNDAMENTAL SCIENTIFIC PKOPOSITION. 11 not bestowed, but evolved from and a direct continuance of the physical being by laws as sharply defined and as unchangeable. 6th. The only infallible authority is Nature rightly interpreted by Reason. Results. Man not God the divine centre ; nobility of life ; highest ideal aspiration for perfection ; calm reliance in the presence of universal and omnipotent forces ; all- embracing charity and philanthropy ; earnest endeavor to actualize the ideal perfect life rendered possible by his organization in this world, as the best preparation for the next ; and for the Religion of Pain, the substitu- tion of the Religion of Joy. PRELIMINARY. THE DEAD GODS AND THE LIVING MAN. THE past has been the Age of the Gods, the future is to be the Age of Man. The gods ! Can the gods die ? Aye, die, and be buried out of sight beneath the wrack thrown from the seething waves on the coast line of the ages. There they lie on that desolate coast, against the black back- ground, deserted, pale, dead, past all resurrection or second coming. About them lie the ruins of the races that bowed to their shrine the broken column, the crumbling temple, brooded over by silence profound, impenetrable. Dead tribes, dead empires, dead races, dead civiliza- tions, and dead gods scattered as sea-waste along the interminable shore-line which extends into the night of the past, lost in clouds and mist. In the lovely age of a new earth, fresh, strong, and exultant in its youth, came the Persian civilization. Above the lofty walls of Babylon, centre of Magian faith, arose the more ambitious towers devoted to her gods proud gods, lording it over their abject subjects. They forgot their lineage. They ignored their ances- tors ; for beyond them, the terror of a savage race, were the fetiches, of which they were the union and concen- tration. Innumerable minor fetiches became in them one, blended in the sun, most glorious object of worship in the heavens. Light and darkness, Ormuzd and THE DEAD GODS AND THE LIVING MAN. 13 Ari manes, good and evil how naturally the antagonism falls ! The vast empire, stretching from Indus to the Mediterranean, received with unquestioning devotion the religion of light. The Magians were the priestly order : more powerful than kings or nobles, whom they created and cast down at a word ; for they were directly endowed by the gods. The king might rule the people, but they ruled the king. Theirs was the court of final appeal. "When the oracle was consulted, the deity spoke ; and disobedience called down divine wrath. How honored were these gods ! The finest marble, the hardest granite carved into exquisite forms and pol- ished with incredible labor formed the walls of their temples, which, witbin, were encrusted with silver, gold, and precious stones. On their altars burned the perpet- ual fire, consuming the first and best of the flocks ; for grateful was the odor of roasting flesh to the nostrils of these deities. In the very shadows of these vast towers the people dwelt in hovels uncomfortable for beasts, and were content with innutritions pulse and sodden cake. Oh, then was the paradise of the priests and the high tide of godhood ! The people were all believing, and doubt was unknown. It was a grand belief this worship of light and flame as the emblem of the Creator. Nature wrote in her symbolism the profoundest distinctions of the analyzing mind. What is more glorious than the sun bursting out of the eastern darkness, flooding the world with daz- zling light? Life awakes at the coming of the lord of day. He is the creator of the life he evokes. How sad is his setting in the mists of evening, and terrible the darkness ! more terrible to the uncultured, as their fancy peoples it with invisible beings. The beast of prey lurks in the shadows, and the enemy takes advantage of 14 THE RELIGION OF MAN. it to approach. It was opposed to light ; the antagonist to good ; the symbol of evil. Here was founded the religion of which the Magians held the key, and swayed the destinies of the Chaldean and Persian civilizations. When Babylon had reached the zenith of her glory, resting on the lovely Euphrates, could send her orders to remotest tribes by a single messenger and have them obeyed ; when the summits of her broad walls gave am- ple field for the mano3uvre of armies, and she could throw wide her hundred gates, allowing a host to march from each then with the splendor of war came the splendor of the priesthood ; and the gods were supreme. There was the divine Father Ormuzd, "The King of Light," god of the Firmament, of " Goodness" and Truth ; addressed as " Eternal Source of Sunshine and Light," " The Centre of all that exists," " The First- born of the Eternal One," " The Creator," " The Sov- ereign Intelligence," " The All-seeing," " The Just Judge." He rested on a white throne in the regions of pure light, and was the " Eternal One." So far removed was he from the paths of men to heed their cries or minister to their cares, Mithras, the Medi- ator, came between the father god and the children of men. He was the sun-god, and they kept December 25th as his birthday. Then it is the sun from its south- ern journey perceptibly begins to return northward, or is born again ; and they celebrated the event with far greater ceremonies than we now do our Christmas tide. And again, on the vernal equinox, or Easter day, they held festivities which for splendor never were excelled. The " annual salutation of Mithras," the " Mediator" and " Saviour," was an event in which the whole peo- ple participated ; and neither time nor expense was spared to make the pageant attractive. It lasted forty THE DEAD GODS AND THE LIVING MAN. 15 days which were devoted to thanksgiving and sacri- fice. On the appointed day, long before the light of morn- ing, the great city Babylon, the centre of the fire-wor- ship, was astir ; and her myriad population swarmed the streets, washed and dressed in gala attire. The vast brazen gates looking to the east were wide swung ; and the procession began its march to the holy Mount Orontes, there to salute the rising sun. First was the high priest, bareheaded, his tiara borne by a page, and behind him followed a long train of Magi, in robes of spotless white linen, chanting hymns, and swinging over their heads silver censers, in which the sacred fire was burning. Behind them, in single file, came three hun- dred and sixty-five noble youths, representing the days of the year, clad in scarlet to represent flame. Then came the chariot of the sun, empty, but decorated with garlands, drawn by white horses harnessed with bur- nished gold ; and led behind this the most superb white horse to be obtained, his forehead blazing with a diadem of gems. Then came the king in a chariot of ivory and gold, and an endless train of courtiers and nobles riding on camels, followed by the people. Slowly they ascend- ed the mountain ; and, gaining its summit, the vast host faced the east, overlooking the purple plain, where on the remote horizon the first red blush of Aurora, goddess of morning, heralded the coming of her lord. The stone altar was prepared in front of the breathless ranks and piled with odoriferous woods and frankin- cense, on which the beautiful white horse devoted to the god was placed. The high priest assumed his tiara, wreathed now with myrtle, and taking the silver censer, from which streamed the sacred fire, held it aloft, while he watched for the coming of the sun. When its rim 16 THE RELIGION OF MAN. first appeared, he lighted the offering ; and as the fra- grant smoke arose in the clear, still air, the Magi sang a hymn of praise to Ormnzd, source of all blessings, who had sent the radiant Mithras as a saviour to mankind. Then the high priest offered prayers, and all the vast mul- titude joined in a chorus of praise ; and beggar, priest, and king prostrated themselves before the orb of day. Wonderful pageant, yet not so tender as that given in honor of Mylitta, virgin mother of Tammuz, the in- carnation of Mithras, the holy son of Ormuzd. She was represented as bearing in her arms her infant son, and the mothers of Tyre and Babylon bowed at her shrine. To them she was the affectionate, all-loving mother, whose tender heart would be touched by their appeals, and intercede for them with her son. She was exceedingly beautiful, and the erring sinner could ap- peal to her with more chance of success than to the stern father. She had incarnated the divine nature without sin, and her son had suffered death for the salvation of men ; hence she had a right to plead. She was the " Celestial Virgin," " the Mother of God," " the Great Mother," "the Immaculate One." Glorious age, when the gods were nigh unto the chil- dren of men, and daily conversed with them, daily told them that their followers should possess the earth, and force the heathen nations, who knew not Ormuzd or Mithras, to bow at their shrine ! Arimanes, the Evil One, the Darkness, should be bound at length, and the garden of Paradise be regained. What a beautiful dream of these gods ! The sands drift in waves like the sea over their morning empire, and stagnant pools breed miasm where the walls of Babylon swarmed with armed myriads and the tower of Babel provoked the deity by its cloud-piercing am- THE DEAD GODS AND THE LIVING MAN. 17 bition. The mighty king, whose frown or smile was like a decree of fate ; the leaders of armies and of States ; the hero clad in brazen armor guiding the neighing war- horses in the thundering chariot ; the countless swarms of warriors, gone all gone ; and the sands drift and the slimy pools fester in the sun. The bright orb rises as of old ; but no Magi await his coming with swinging censer, no altar on the mountain tops, no sacred groves, no priests with flaming sacrifice. The empire is dead, the priests are dead. Ormuzd, the Father, Mithras, the Mediator, Mylitta, the Holy Mother, her beloved son, Ari manes, the Evil One, all dead dead ; and the desert sands drift, and the slimy pools fester in the sun. By the side of the Persians is another people as re- mote in time, and occupying a wide extent of coast for they are hundreds of millions strong and of countless generations the Hindus, whose religion still exists, though its vitality is gone. Over all that fruitful India, religion came to blight and blast with its doctrine of caste and childish whims, which destroyed the pleasures of living. Here the Eeligion of Pain strikes root, and spreads luxuriant its upas branches. The Brahmins en- couraged beliefs entirely to their advantage, and ruled by inherited prejudice they had thus established. There was a host of gods, of whom Brahm was the eternal one, the unthinkable and infinite. Brahma came as his emanation, a lower degree, yet too far removed to re- quire honors, festivals, or temples. Vishnu and Siva are the gods of good and evil. Siva is the destroyer ; and his companion, Doorga, the chief of the female deities, whose altar often streamed with blood, even of human victims. Vishnu incarnated himself in Buddha and Krishna. Their mothers were " Celestial Virgins," and they were 18 THE RELIGION OF MAN. " Saviours." Of Buddha, it is said in the sacred books, " He gave his life like grass for the good of others." He was called the " great physician," " Saviour of the world," "the Blessed One," "the Anointed," the " Messiah," the " Only Begotten. " The theology taught by the priests of these gods was as gloomy as the shadows of the Indian jungle or its rock-hewn temples. Life was a struggle to free the spirit from the sin of having entered the flesh. The physical world and everything connected therewith was evil. It was the earliest form of primitive Christianity. The welfare of the spirit could only be gained by cruci- fixion of the flesh. The devotees sought the caverns in the densest forests. They abode with wild beasts, and sustained themselves on roots and herbs ; they wore gar- ments that chafed the flesh, whipped themselves with thongs, or wore crowns of thorns piercing the brow ; submitted to the extremes of hunger and thirst, heat and cold, to overcome and subdue the flesh. From all parts of the vast empire, streams of pilgrims came to wash away their sins in the sacred waters of the Ganges. Vast numbers gathered to celebrate the days sacred to their gods. The temple car was drawn at the head of the imposing procession ; and, as it passed through the living lines of prostrate people, some in their infatuation threw themselves beneath the crushing wheels, and by their zeal gained the approbation of their gods. The people are there still ; but other gods are jostling these sad old deities, who die supine and paralyzed, while the tide of thought sets by them. As a daughter to a mother, so was Egypt to India. At a time history speaks not of, the former was a colony of the latter ; and there the people carried their gods with them. There on the banks of the Nile, mysterious THE DEAD GODS AND THE LIVING MAN. 19 river, flourished a civilization unlike any other furnished by the ancient world. The labor of a dense population easily fed was used by the priesthood for their own pur- poses. The gods wanted temples ; and the bodies of the dead must be carefully preserved against the time the soul returned again to occupy them. Egypt became a land of temples and of tombs. The gods gave the priests absolute authority, and they made the people slaves. Into the rocky cliffs they hewed enormous gal- leries, faced and columned from the flinty stone, and written over all the walls with hieroglyphics recording pious thoughts and godly deeds. To the banks of the sacred stream they brought the titanic columns and blocks, and erected temples as colossal and gloomy as the mountain caverns. The gods had said that the body would be demanded by the spirit ; and, unless preserved, the lone spirit would be compelled to wander forever without one. Hence the care of the body as well as of the soul fell to the priests ; and they embalmed the dead and wrapped them carefully, awaiting the resurrec- tion. When Egypt was at her prime, the Nile flowed through the most fertile and best-cared-for country on the globe, bringing the waters of Central Africa to nourish the gardens and palm-groves ; and in its little valley, hemmed in by deserts, the population was crowded in villages and teeming cities along its banks. It mirrored a thousand temples ; and between were the towering Pyramids, fresh from the hands of their builders. Col- ossal images of stone guarded the temples, of which the Sphinx is a remaining example. All was alive, active, breathing the intense zeal and superstition which pre- vailed. Osiris was the active creator, and the sun was his em- 20 THE RELIGUON OF MAN. blem. He was the " oldest Son of Time, and courser of the day." With Amon dwelt the exalted goddess Xeith, in the sphere of pure ether. Her temple at Sais exceeded in colossal grandeur any before seen, and her power was written on their walls in characters deciphered by Cham- pollion : " I am all that has been, all that is, and all that will be. No mortal has ever raised the veil that conceals me. My offspring is the sun." The Holy Family of Egypt presented a beautiful and charming picture. As Osiris was the active principle of creation, Isis was the passive. She was the prolific mother ; and, between them, they are represented as bearing the cross, mysterious emblem of life, which, in a later age, the Christians adopted as the symbol of life immortal gained thereby. In her arms she bears her beautiful infant Horus, the incarnation of the All Father. In the hieroglyphics she is styled " Our Lady," " Queen of Heaven," " Mother of God," " Im- maculate Virgin," all of which were afterward applied to the Virgin Mary. She is represented as standing on the crescent moon, with twelve stars over her head, and holding her son in her arms. The twenty-fifth of December was his birthday, and the occasion of national rejoicing. It was realized, in order the more forcibly to impress its significance on the minds of the people. The high priest, followed by the priesthood, the king, and nobles, marched in pro- cession to the village where Horus was said to be born, and there found the infant, in a manger, awaiting them. The mother, thus exalted for a time to act the part of the mother goddess, with her infant, was borne to the temple, crowned with flowers, and followed by THE DEAD GODS AND THE LIVING MAN. 21 crowds chanting sacred hymns of joy. When they came to the Nile, the high priest launched a miniature ship, freighted with the choicest fruits of the land, as an offer- ing to the " Immaculate Mother." Over the rejoicing multitudes the Pyramids arose like miniature mountains, the temples cast gloomy shadows, and the sphinxes gazed with stony eyes. beautiful gods, remorseless gods ! not content with ruling this world, who sat over the Stygian river, in your cavern temple, and at midnight's awful hour judged the dead ! Fearful judgment ! for, if adverse, the body of beggar in his rags or the Pharaoh in his purple robes was cast to the crocodiles, and thus the soul forever and forever doomed to walk in Stygian darkness. A thousand years have gone by, when the wandering souls, it was said, would return and claim their bitu- minized dust. A thousand years have three times passed, and decay has made the dust its own. A few of these god-commanded mummies are preserved, curiously gazed on with disgust ; dreadful preservations of ghast- liness ; but the ashes of the Pharaohs fertilize their native soil. That grand civilization, at which the world gazed with charmed wonder, is dead. The Pyramids, useless efforts of labor, the crumbling columns of colossal temples, gnawed by the sharp sands in which they are half buried, are all that remains. Egypt, once able from her burst- ing granaries to feed the world now none so weak as to do her homage. The race that tent beneath the ruined arches of her former greatness know not of that famous time, and are alien to the soil. The pageantry of the gods is no more. They are dead Osiris and Isis and Horus, Amon and Neith, with all their train of de- pendent deities dead, and nothing remains. Ay, their 22 THE RELIGION OF MAX. mummies ! Did they embalm the gods as well ? Sure- ly, and a museum boasts of having the only perfectly preserved mummy of the god Apis. That god is a curi- ous sight, lying down with head erect, wound in every direction with linen bands. By his side are ranged the embalmed remains of sacred cats, storks, and the ibis. Poor dead gods ! Was it not enough to die, that these remains should be preserved to mock your godship and awaken the laughter of the unborn ages ? You cannot preserve the perishable. Time will crum- ble adamant to dust ; and although the mummy out- lasts the god-idea it represents, it shall vanish. The sharp tooth of the desert wind shall level the last block of the Pyramids, and not even the Sphinx shall remain a monument to the history it will not reveal. The gods of Greece ! How fascinating the mythology of the classic race ! Its gods were so human, and ap- proached so near the ways of men, their devotees uncon- sciously felt for them the love they fully returned. What a flood-tide of intelligence in that age when Plato and Socrates searched for spiritual truth, Aristotle phil- osophized, ^schylus and Sappho sang, and Phidias made the white marble breathe ! The gods were not the terror of their worshippers : they were their fellows. They evoked the loveliest conceptions of beauty in the imaginative Greeks. The temples erected for them have been models of architecture since their time, and admit of no improvement. Their sculptured images, freed from the coarse symbolism which forced itself forward in other races, were perfectly human, and hence di- vinely beautiful. Jupiter ruled over the firmament, Pluto over the nether world, and Neptune over the sea ; and there were Bacchus, Adonis, Mars, and a host of inferior deities. THE DEAD GODS AND THE LIVING MAN. 23 They were all susceptible to the softening influences of love ; and what an array of goddesses shone in the Pan- theon Juno, Minerva, Venus, Proserpina, Ceres, and countless lesser goddesses and nymphs, perfected in every grace ! Ceres was the mother goddess, affectionate, tender, and true, the perfect type of womanly loveliness. What a wonderful festival was hers, when the autumn brought its harvest ! It was the Mysteries as celebrated by wom- en. They gathered on the sea-shore, and for several days performed prescribed rites. She was the goddess of humanity, and hers was the shrine of Compassion and Peace. There were the greater Mysteries, wherein the secrets revealed by the gods were taught. The Mysteries were the church of Greece. If the initiated revealed the se- crets, he met the vengeance of the gods ; and the stigma of non-observance was far greater than that attending infidelity at the present time. Socrates was given the hemlock because he neglected the worship of the gods. Every five years all Greece assembled at Eleusis in Attica to celebrate these solemnities. The vast con- course tented on the plains around a splendid temple erected over a cavern, in which, at an earlier time, the rites were first held. This temple was of divine archi- tecture, its endless colonnades chiselled from purest marble, without spot or stain. It stood on a swell of ground, and could be seen rising in snowy beauty by the vast multitude. Over its front was a colossal statue of Jupiter, calm, beneficent, all-powerful ; and, on either side, a statue of Ceres smiled on the passers-by. The novitiate was led to the door, crowned with myrtle. There he was washed in a fount of holy water. Then he was asked : " Are you pure and spotless from the ^4 THE RELIGION" OF MAN. world ? Are you free from crime ?" Then, as the door opened, an impressive voice chanted : " He who enters must be pure, or the gods will destroy him. He who passes this portal goes into a shadow, from which only the just return. Oh, weak, thoughtless, and improvident mortal, daring to penetrate the realm of the gods : aspire to truth and perfection, and strive to discard the flesh and the world !' ' The Mysteries were celebrated for nine days, during which all distinction of rank was abolished. The first day was for social gathering. They bathed in the sea, offered sacrifice to the gods, marched in processions. Every ceremony had a meaning which was fresh in their minds. What a delightful episode in their lives must these ceremonies have been ! and how they bound the people together ! The gods were in every respect human, and their favor was gained by homage and tribute. They were regaled with the fragrance of the altar ; and the more sumptuous the offering, the better were they pleased. When angry, the sacrifice must be greater ; when exceedingly wroth, human victims were required to appease them. The husbandman offered to Ceres cakes made from the grain she had given him ; he poured out wine to the god of the vineyard. The sailor threw an offering to Neptune into the sea. There was a goddess presiding over birth, over marriage, and over death. Every river and lake and stream had its presid- ing divinities ; every grove and mountain. The pas- sions and the thoughts were guided and controlled by them. A delightful world, when such exquisite gods and goddesses rule the affairs of men, with whom they form such close communion ! Poetry grew on such celestial food, and art attained unparalleled perfection. Such gods, surely, are immortal. Their temples are in- THE DEAD GODS AND THE LIVING MAN. 25 destructible, their altars will retain the constant flame. The temples are in ruins ; the marble shafts, the fine- ly wrought architrave, win the admiration of a race un- known to their builders ; and the sculptured images are treasured as priceless specimens of art. History records the daring deeds of heroism the march of the ten thousand, the defence of Thermopylae, the devotion at Marathon, the brighter pages of the achievements of orators, statesmen, philosophers, and poets. The old race is dead. The shrines are deserted. No gath- ering of wives on the sea-shore in honor of Ceres ; no hosts camping on the plains of Eleusis ; no wailing for the death of Adonis ; no festivities at the Christmas- tide ; Jupiter no more the god of thunder. He is dead. Ceres, the immaculate mother, Venus, Isis, Pluto, Nep- tune oh, the endless line of dead gods and goddesses, whose departure seems to take the poetry out of nature and existence ! With the Greek and Roman civiliza- tions, which they led to the flood-tide of glory, they passed away, and now linger on as sweet and beautiful interpretations of the phenomena of the world. "We now meet the hard facts of experience, behind which we expect no hidden god. The Greek might say that Aurora blushed when the sun kissed her pale brow ; but, with us, it is simply the revolution of the earth, lie could fancy a saucy nymph in echo : we can find nothing but reflection of the waves of sound. He could picture Neptune lashing the sea : we only the effects of the wind. He was affrighted at the thunder, as the voice of Jove in anger : we know it is nothing but an overcharged cloud. Oh, what a matter-of-fact, unpoetic world, with the gods dead, and reality and certainty everywhere ! 26 THE EELIGIOK OF MAN. Most influential on the strong tide which set past historic headlands, entering into and forming a part of the civilization of the present, is Jehovah of the Jews. He was at first a vagabond god, imprisoned in a chest or ark, slung on poles, and carried on the shoulders of his priests, as they fled across the desert from a people they had robbed. Moses, chief of the priesthood, an initiate in the mysteries of Egypt, bestowed on his pa- tron god the character ascribed to Osiris, and called him, in language he had learned, the All-powerful, the Great I Am, propitiated him by the burnt offerings he had learned were acceptable to the Egyptian gods. The movable ark or shrine, having Jehovah boxed up, ready at all times for transportation, was a brilliant fore- thought of a leader of a wandering band of barbarians. Having their god always with them assured success ; and, to preserve the box, the priesthood formed a body- guard. When the Jews roamed the desert, their god, beside his box, had a tent or tabernacle, the curtains of which he had ordered exactly how to be made, even to the rings thereon. It was a tent, but much larger, better, and cleaner than the foul coverings of his fol- lowers. When they had conquered the land he had promised them, then Solomon built him a temple not as large or beautiful as those other nations had erected for their gods, but sumptuous for such a poor and weak nation as the Jews. The temple was better than a tent, and large enough for the Jewish people. They had one god, and wanted but one temple ; and other nations were forbidden, in their selfish exclusiveness, to join in their worship. But whether in his box, in a tent in the desert, amid the lowing cattle, bleating sheep, and the shouting herds- men, the dirt and squalor of nomadic life, or behind the THE DEAD GODS AND THE LIVING MAN. 27 purple curtains of the Holy of Holies in the temple of Solomon, with attendants in fine linen burning frank- incense or offering up the smoking blood of the firstlings of the flocks, what a terrible god he was ! He had neither friendship nor love. He was a shrewd, cun- ning, conniving Jew, bargaining, trafficking, envious and jealous of other gods, and sanctioning unmention- able atrocities. He would at times, on the slightest provocation, smite his chosen people as remorselessly as he would their enemies. He led them up from the des- ert, a horde of covetous Bedouins, and showed them the promised land, flowing with milk and honey. It was a fruitful land ; for it had been long occupied by a race of agriculturists, who had by labor conquered the desert, and made it bloom like the rose. They had built cities and villages, planted orchards and vineyards and fields of grain ; and when that horde appeared, following the priests carrying their god-box, over all that bright land were peace and plenty, and the happiness these insure. Then Jehovah spoke, and gave this land to his followers. They must take it by the sword, and he would go with them. He would even lengthen the day by causing the sun to stand still in the heavens, that they might have more time to murder. Spare no man, was the blood- thirsty order. Kill men, women, and children, except the virgins, whom they had better have killed. The white hairs of age, the prattling babe, the strong man, and the pleading woman all the people of a province, the most lovely and happy the sun ever shone upon, con- signed to butchery, that this chosen people of Jehovah might despoil them of their homes ! History is just ; for the Jehovah who urged this deed, when his people became possessed of that laud, and had erected a gorgeous temple for his dwelling, submitted 28 THE KELIGIOK OF MAS'. to the ignominy of their captivity, and heard their vain cries from the slavery of Babylon. In the age of his glory, he could say that he trod the winepress of the gory nations alone, and his garments were red with the blood of the slain. ' ' I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons to- gether, saith the Lord : I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy them." With mighty boast constantly repeated, he called his Jewish people his chosen ones, who were to own the earth, and to whom all nations were to bow. The temple they had built would become the world's shrine, and into their laps the products of all climes would be poured as a peace offering. Great promises egotistic boasting of proud rascality, abject selfishness, and shameless crimes all gone. The Jewish tribes receive justice at the hands of time, and the slaughtered warriors and innocent babes of Canaan are avenged. Scattered from their country, as chaff before a strong wind, is that people who, ejected from the land of the Nile, came over the desert, with that god-box slung on poles, to the promised land. They have received, instead of homage and titles, the scorn of the world and the buffets of all people, aliens and foreigners, wherever they go. Their country is little better than a desert ; the city of their pride is half in ruins, and of no consequence except as a relic ; the boast- ed temple vanished in dust ; and Jehovah dead, and not even the box borne over the desert by the sweating priests remains for decent sepulchre ! Are the gods all dead? Nay ; they may die, but they reappear in other forms and under new names. The monotheism of the Jews was modified into the trinity of Christianity. The Father God was supplemented by THE DEAD GODS AND THE LIVING MAN. 29 the Son Jesus Christ ; and the third person was estab- lished in the Holy Ghost, a sort of second emanation from the Father. It was a strange conception, at which human reason revolted. How God could be his own son or Jesus his own father, how one could be three or three one, was a mystery which to attempt to solve was a sin. The difficulty was overcome by the church Fathers teaching that belief should come without exam- ination in the words of Celsus, neither giving nor re- ceiving any reason for tbeir faith. Julian, the last of the philosophers, gays that " the sum of all their wis- dom was comprised in the single precept believe." That belief was considered praiseworthy which re- ceived the most incredible statements. As Tertullian says : " I maintain that God died. Well, that is wholly credible, because it is monstrously absurd. I maintain that, after having been buried, he rose again ; and that I take to be absolutely true, because it was manifestly impossible." Founded on such an all-receiving credulity, the new doctrines grew. The Godhead became strong, and for nearly two thousand years tyrannized over the minds of men. It stripped the dead gods of their garments, with which it clothed itself, and paraded before the world. The Emperor Constantino Constantino the Great, as the early Church delighted to call him after a life of most atrocious crimes, assassinations, perjury, and mur- ders, with the blood of his wife and son on his hands, called on the pagan priests for absolution. They told him that for such crimes they could not save him from the vengeance of the gods. Then it was he turned to a priest of the new Christian faith, and was assured that, however great his villainy, if he professed belief, he 30 THE RELIGION OF MAH. would become pure and spotless. From that moment he declared himself the protector of the new sect. With him began persecution for free thought. In Tain, says Renan, to search the Roman laws before his time for enactments against abstract doctrine. He brought persecution and the sword. Then came the carnival of theology. The night of ignorance rapidly gathered over the world. The phil- osophers, sages, poets, orators, statesmen, perished ; and none arose to take their places. Men stopped in worthier pursuits to wrangle over the most indifferent distinctions of creeds. The fantastic speculations of Asia were grafted on the growing stem ; and it bore as fruitage a complicated system of theology, the despair of reason. This theology taught that man was created perfect, and fell. Hating committed an infinite sin, only an infinite sacrifice could atone therefor. God himself must suffer, and did Buffer on the cross, that sin- ners might be saved thereby. The Hindu Siva was transformed into Satan, the Greek Hades into hell, and the priesthood, not content with ruling this life, claimed possession of the keys of the next. They decided who should be saved, who lost. This life was at best a vale of tears, and the horizon of its brief day was lurid by the reflection of the gulf of hell. Only a chosen few were to be saved. The great current of humanity swept onward, broad and deep as a mighty Amazon, and poured over the edge of the gulf of death into the abyss of hell. There was no respite, no forgiveness, but eternal torture. And God who, in his all wisdom and power, might by a thought change all to Eden smiled at the Buffering he had created ! I need not enlarge on this awful picture, nor mention the minor doctrines which sprang from the fundamental be- THE DEAD GODS AND THE LIVING MAN". 31 lief in the fall of man. For a thousand years or more the nations calling themselves Christians suffered the chronic spasms of theological nightmare, and cast aside the real world for dreams. It was enough if God com- manded through the most ignorant priest. To hear was to obey. Europe became a battle-field, where the con- tending armies decided the whims of doctrine by the sword. The dungeon, the rack, the fagot, were the chosen means for conversion of heretics. If belief was the one thing required, and simple belief saved the soul from hell, it were better received at the hands of the inquisitor than not at all ! Beautiful theory, the cul- mination of this system of theology ! Here is a little instrument into which, like the ends of the fingers of a glove, you place your fingers. There is a screw on top pressing down on the sensitive nails. You can bear one or two turns of the screw. " Do you believe now that three times one are one, and that Jesus Christ was his own father?" "No." Another turn, that starts the blood. You wince, but say, " No." Then the priest says he must save you, and turns down until the nails start. ' ' Now do you believe ?" " Yes, ' * you cry through the white lips of pain " yes." Then you are saved, you are a Christian. Saved from what ? Hell and the devil ; for, mark you, now the devil is first in the Godhead. He captures nine souls out of ten, and the other narrowly escapes. Not only was Europe a battle-field, her hill-sides whitened with the bones of the slain and the air darkened with the smoke of burning cities : she precipitated her hosts against Asia, in a useless effort to gain the sepulchre of God, and wasted a million lives in the vain effort. What a stifling night was that when the Church with its theology reigned supreme, and lorded over the minds 32 THE RELIGION OF MAN. of men ! To think became a crime, and the all-believ- ing fool the type of Christian grace. At the time Gior- dano Bruno was burned at the stake, because he thought, the darkness seemed impenetrable, and poor humanity without effort to free itself from the fetters of darkness. What was there to save in this ever downward course of bigotry and superstition? What power could free the mind from its fear of God, the devil, and the priests? Knowledge came. One thing had been left out of count when the God-appointed hierarchy bound man- kind. They forgot that thinking was man's heritage. Set him to counting his beads and praying over dead saints, he will weary after a time, and begin a new order of thought for himself. Then have a care ; for when he begins to think, the old boundaries will not confine him. Knowledge came. Knowledge, calm of brow, clear of eye, the earth beneath her feet, the stars for a dia- dem, bowing before no shrine, offering prayers to no superior power, uncompromising with ignorance, pity- ing credulity, scorning unsupported belief, came like the dawning sun ; and darkness, bigotry, and supersti- tion vanished as wreaths of fog in the light of morning. Knowledge came, asking no favors of king or priest, in the proud consciousness of invincible strength ; and the fetters which bound the nations broke like bands of straw. Knowledge came ; and Theology, which had grasped the throat of humanity and held it in the dust, loosened its hold. Mankind awoke from the stupor of ages. Against the black background of the past it saw innumerable gibbets from which its thinkers swung, the scaffold still gory with its best blood, the smoke of the dying fagots ; and hailed with shouts of joy the advent of knowledge as the true saviour. The hordes of su- THE DEAD GODS AND THE LIVING MAN". 33 perstition are pushed back, snarling with thirst of hate's slanderous tongue ; and their gods are incapable of ar- resting the flood of light which overthrows the teachings of fifty generations of their devotees. Ahrimanes, Siva, Satan, the poor devil, was first to die. Robbed of his horns and cloven foot ; resolved into a human being, with some excellent qualities ; re- solved into a myth, the impersonation of a principle he disappears, leaving not even a shadow. Jesus, the Christ, the Son, the Saviour, the central embodiment of the legends of Adonis, of Horus, of Christna, of Prometheus, of Mithras, of Hermes freed from which, he becomes a self-sacrificing, true, and noble man, giv- ing his life for the good of others, in the same manner that they have done. The God who created all things in six days, and sat a personal ruler, like an Asiatic tyrant, on the throne of the universe, could not endure the presence of Knowl- edge. The Infinite cannot be circumscribed, nor calcu- late and plan. The Infinite must know without thought, and think without reason. The terrible beliefs which have wrung the soul ; the creeds against which the heart has rebelled, amid torture ; doctrines on which eternal welfare, it was taught, depended long since dead, are galvanized for the last time into mimicry of life. Poor dead beliefs the fall of man and his re- demption through the blood of another, and all that per- tains thereto ! Dead, and, dragged after the ignorant, tortured into the grimace of life ! It would be a dread- ful spectacle for a man to have the corse of his dearest friend bound to him. Still more dreadful to be fettered to a dead creed, a dead belief, and obliged to drag it after him. The power has departed ; and the anathema, " Be- 34 THE EELIGIOK OF MAN. lieve or be damned," is the threat of impotency. The fiery tongue of flame cannot be used to compel faith ; but the old hate is retained by the old ignorance, not yet quite driven out of the world. In the churches of to-day, the preachers hold the corses on their feet, dried into mummies, and make be- lieve they are alive. They grin with the horrid contor- tion which shows the pangs felt in the olden time by many a martyr. The audiences make believe they enjoy the spectacle, and that the preachers are honest. It ap- pears well, but is all a sham and a farce. A spectacle at which we may laugh or weep a preacher, with dead ideas, preaching to a dead church. Shall we weep at the fleeting glory of gods, and turn aside, saying, Life is a cold reality ; there is no warmth in this certainty ? Of all impotent cries of weakness, this of want of warmth is the most impotent. What has it to do with the matter ? The truth comes ; we have no question whether it pulsates with love or the cold certainty of fact. A Saviour's all-absorbing love may kindle the heart ; what of it? That makes it not true. There are better ways of kindling the heart than contemplating selfishly the sacrifices others have made for us. They who are best pleased to hug a delusion, even though they know it to be such, must retain their fond idol. Knowledge has no dungeon or gibbet ; she abhors persecution, and her saviour is the growth which is the birthright of the soul. Slumber on, dead gods, in your eternal sleep 1 Were you gods, you had not perished ! You were created from the minds of men, and bear the impress of the finite. Creeds, dogmas, beliefs, doctrines, moulder in decay along the shore, like seaweed and salt sea spume beautiful imagings or grotesque and horrible as the THE DEAD GODS AND THE LIVING MAN. 35 misshapen forms and devil-fish which are concealed in the drift. Sacred books Zend-Avesta, Vedas, Shastas, King, Koran gather dust on your most holy pages ! for, as ye were written by men, when men were filled with the superstition of ignorance, better can now be written, if Bibles are required. Free soul, emancipated from the bonds of darkness, breathe full breath and think without fear ! The god of to-day scorns the cringing slave, the narrow bigot, the weakness of ignorance. He demands a brave and fearless mind, which accepts not defeat, and conquers the forces of nature and binds them to its will. When we look down this long vista, the road over which mankind has travelled, wearily and with pain, through the countless centuries, the tortures of body, the more refined and excruciating agony of spirit, all this suffering borne for the gods, imposed by the gods, and, for the sake of religion, to save souls never lost, come up before us in one black mass of world-pervading woe, and we say, Just is the doom of such gods and such religions ! Our temple of worship is the universe, our saviour is knowledge, our religion to embody perfection in our lives by ordering our conduct in accord with the laws of the world, and our prayers for the perfect strength and trust which come from understanding. The gods are dead ! Their age is past, never more to return. Man is in the ascendant. We are not living because of sin this life is necessary for punishment ; not enduring this life in order to gain the glorified hap- piness of the next. This life is a part of the life which is to come, and is for happiness. The doctrine of Pes- simism, that there is any value in suffering for its own sake, is replaced by the certain knowledge that suffer- ing indicates violated law ; it is the danger signal that 36 THE EELIGION OF MAtf. the sufferer is not in harmony with the laws of the world and his being, and is the warning to get into the path from which he has wandered Yet, such a gloomy view of life has sprung from the old religion of pain, that the question is seriously ask- ed ; Is this life worth the living ? And the saddest commentary of a mistaken theology is the fact that it has cast such a shadow of gloom over existence as to make the crushed heart moan a negative response. It is the answer of weakness and defeat ; and the melan- choly view of life it expresses is a reflection of the prev- alent notions entertained by the apostles. Christianity came to the Jews in the hour of their decline, when they were environed by war and threat- ened by famine. It gained ascendancy by their defeat and the destruction of the holy city. Its kingdom was not of this world ; for its founder, the incarnate God, perished with malefactors on the ignominious cross, and its early apostles suffered martyrdom. Dungeons and stripes, contumely and scorn, were for its believers ; and its fundamental doctrine was that the kingdom of heaven was gained through tears and suffering. It came at length to be believed that only through the crucifixion .of the flesh could heaven be gained. Poverty and filth were praised, and thirftlessness became equivalent to godliness. The Old Bible pointed to the ant as a worthy example of industry and forethought ; the New, to the lilies of the valley, toiling not 3 and said, Takq no thought for the morrow. Give to the poor all you have, and depend not on your own exertions, but on God. The old religions had taught this doctrine ; and in some it had taken almost as wild a course, yet in none were its evil consequences so far reaching. The East- THE DEAD GODS AND THE LIVING MAN. 37 era myth of the union of the flesh with the spirit, and the crucifixion of the former for the purification of the latter, became fixed as a fundamental dogma on which the scheme of salvation rested. The flesh i.e., matter, was of itself essentially evil ; and hence physical pain became a means of spiritual purification. The hermit, flying from the allurements of life, the flagellant, the ascetic, became the type of religious excellence. It was a terrible view of the world, justified by the imputed sayings of Christ. He was never known to laugh ; he wept. The good Christian should be known by his sol- emn face and streaming eyes. Whatever gave amuse- ment or joy was of evil. Life was only to be endured because death liberated the enslaved spirit. Jesus had said, " Blessed are they that mourn. . . . Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad ; for great is your reward in heaven." " Lay not up for yourselves treas- ures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal ; but lay up your treasures in heaven," etc. " But seek ye first the king- dom of heaven and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." " Take, therefore, no thought for the morrow ; for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." This doctrine of the times being evil and the body sinful, that the present was only of value as it hur- ried us to the next life, was fraught with momentous consequences, and moulded the thought of nineteen cen- turies, and from its influence we are just escaping. Under its sway men became wild with religious frenzy. They retired to the wilderness to escape the temptations they could not resist. They trampled under their feet the 38 THE RELIGION OF MAN. most delicate sentiments of the heart as instigations of Satan. They looked on woman in her loveliness as a snare of the arch-deceiver, and spurned her gentle infiu- ,ence with unutterable loathing. Physical comfort was a sin, and self-inflicted pain a merit. Sackcloth, abrading with every motion of the wearer, was adopted as raiment, knives and thorns thrust into the flesh, and the inclem- ency of heat and cold, rain and snow, eagerly courted. What strange characters come in view, when we go back a century or two in history, produced by this mistaken belief regarding objects of life the wild- eyed flagellant lashing himself until the blood ran in streams, the Stylite on the summit of lofty pillar, the monk counting beads, the nun kneeling day after day on the cold, hard stones to propitiate the Infinite ! A great mistake, which transmitted a legacy of evil to the present. There lingers a prejudice against pleasure which yet makes en- joyment next to a sin, and constantly asserts that God made a failure and blunder in the character of man. The kingdom of God is to come, and man's being on earth is a mistake. He must endure it as best he may until death releases him. When all the sunshine and joy are taken out of life, it is not strange men think it not worth the having. When a monster is placed on the throne of the universe, and man made a puppet to dance to his supreme whim, the earth becomes a gloomy prison house and life a hor- rible farce. We may have a strong conviction of the reality of a future life, yet not perceive any antagonism between that life and the present. The materialistic school that cries, " One world at a time," receives its bias from the old ideas against which it is a reaction. There is no necessity of sacrificing earth to gain heaven. The true THE DEAD GODS AND THE LIVING MAN. 39 and abiding love of husband and wife for each other, or for the children in whom their united lives commin- gling flow, is as holy and sacred as the love borne to God himself, and as much a part of religion. The contrary would make the adaptation of man to his environments a failure, and the infinite qualities of the Maker, other- wise than infinite. These gloomy views of life are rapidly disappearing, and a reaction has come. Instead of plac- ing the objects of life in the future, the future is ig- nored, and the present made supreme. Not sufficient for the day is the evil thereof, but sufficient for the day is all the day produces ; the morrow is unknown. Hence, as life is only a succession of sensations, some pleasing, others painful, the more of the pleasurable sensations which can be crowded into the few years of its continuance, the better. This materialistic view would be complete had not life a morrow, and a morrow intimately related with to-day. After the full satisfac- tion of present wants there comes the immeasurable aspirations of the spirit. The physical world, bodily enjoyment, or mental culture are not all ; and, when so regarded, the mistake entails misery where happiness was sought. Freeing ourselves from these erroneous ideas, we are prepared to answer the question of what true happiness consists, and how best it may be gained. It is the primal desire of the heart, and our constant efforts are to gain it. True happiness is a result of our being in accord with the laws of the world. When all the physical forces of nature and the spiritual energies move in harmonious rhythm through our being, there is no jar or conflict as we are wafted onward, and the soul feels the delight of perfect happiness. To arrive at this desired condi- 40 THE RELIGION OF MAN. tion, we must understand the fundamental principles of creation and the relations of God thereto, and of our- selves to both. We may accept as granted that the plan of nature, whatever idea be received of God, is perfect, and man as a part of nature is a unit therewith. There can be no break in the continuity of being, and hence his adaptation to the physical world must be regarded in the same light as the adaptation of his spiritual fac- ulties to a spiritual life. Man as a dual being, a physi- cal and spiritual, faces two worlds, and is amenable to the laws of both. As such, he must conform his life so that it will accord with both these states. He must un- derstand that obedience to the laws of physical health is as obligatory and as much a part of religion as obedience to moral laws. Perfect health is a primary element of moral excellence. Hence it is that men, laboring under the mistaken theory which left the physical life out of its scheme, have fallen into grievous blunders. Had not Calvin been physically diseased, he would not have burned Servetus. A jaundiced theology was the offspring of a jaundiced preacher. Gall in the blood embittered the mind, and bred intolerance and hate. There was a gospel these teachers knew not of, the gospel of health. The teach- ers of the world have taught that happiness was not to be sought in this life, which at best is a vale of tears, and only came as a reflection from the perfect peace which comes from abject contentment with the decrees of fate, after assurance of having gained a passport to the future. We are assured that s the world was not created nor is sustained by any such artificial or arbi- trary plan ; and abjectness and contentment, growing out of dwarfishness, are not in nature's creed. " Give us health !" cries Nature. "No puny sickl ings, THE DEAD GODS AND THE LIVING MAN. 41 but the bounding pulse of fresh blood, the firm muscle, the quick nerve. When the songsters come up from the South to greet the spring, their voices gladdening hill and dale, there is no weak note, no feeble wail, but the fulness of strength. The pride of the forest, the sleek denizens of the wild, have no refined pleasures ; but all they have flow from the perfection of physical being. One lacerated nerve makes life a martyrdom. The luxuries of wealth are indifferent, the softest down a bed of nettles, the costliest viands tasteless to one diseased. And yet, ignorant of the primary conditions of happi- ness, how many lose their hope of gaining it in their at- tempt to grasp it ! Is it through the appetite, the delicate food which tempts the palate, the seasoned dishes, the blendings of many flavors ? The time soon comes when the taste re- fuses to be pleased, and dyspepsia takes the place of di- gestion. The crust is sweeter to the hungry than rich- est viands to the palled tongue. Rare wines, distilled by the sun, with delicate flavors, are sipped with mirth and gossip of fair lips ; but at the bottom of the ruby cup is a serpent whose sting creates unquenchable thirst. How many mistake the means of happiness, and drift insensibly into the resistless tide ! The hungry nor the thirsty man cannot be happy. He must have food, and that of the proper kind, else disease and ultimately death follow. As happiness springs from the full and perfect expres- sion of the laws of our being, and as such expression is in accord with the plan of nature, it follows that hap- piness is the natural estate, and misery or pain the un- natural. Talk of the saving power of pain ! Pain has no saving power. Happiness is not built on misery. 42 THE KELIGIOK OF MAK. People talk as though they expected a reward for suffer- ing, when the very suffering shows a wrong which, if righted, changes pain to joy. Yet they count their pains, disappointments, and measure their tears as treasures laid up in heaven, which are good at sight with heavy interest for answering joy. A man may be a victim of chronic sickness for a score of years and daily racked with physical torture, is it not his loss ? How can he be repaid ? Crowd his after years with all the heart may desire, and this loss cannot be made good ; for life should be replete with its just demands fully met, and its cup cannot overflow. Why should he be rewarded for a sin against the laws of health ? When we walk in accord with the laws of our being, the very fulfilment of these requirements brings delight. We are athirst, and with what exquisite delight we drink the crystal water ! We hunger, and how delicious the plainest food ! We desire to breathe, and what joy to inflate fully the lungs with the pure air ! Health is next to heaven, and with it we are in unison with the material world. The beat of its pulse vibrates through our being, chord re- sponding to chord. Thus have we felt when on some lofty mountain top, the world at our feet, the blue sky overhead, fading and melting into the distant mountain ridges, the crisp air like wine, and to the beauties every- where around us our being responding. Then, life was a song of joy, and to exist the supreme delight. But how shall we keep ourselves in accord with the laws of our being ? Ah ! true, most momentous question ; for we are ignorant of those laws and conditions, and we inherit the results of the ignorance of our ancestors. We are the results of all the actions of our parents, and the conditions by which they were surrounded, of their parents and of theirs, back to remotest time. All THE DEAD GODS AND THE LIVING MAN. 43 these through them have flowed down to and become embodied in us. We drag the results of their transgres- sions after us, and cannot escape them. This ignorance, this mass of festering inherited wrong- doing, makes us lose faith in the final justness of law and become pessimists, cravenly submitting to tl|e in- evitable. This mental darkness is dispelled by the light of knowledge. To know is the birthright of the mind of man. The Infinite are its boundaries. Whatever In- telligence has planned, Intelligence as expressed in man has the right to know, and the capability of knowing. When the Sun of Knowledge shines from the zenith of the cloudless heavens, and there remains no dark shadow of ignorance behind which superstition may linger, then man will find that restful peace in the certainty of law and order, the devotee now receives from his blind faith in salvation by the cross. Then will have perished the Religion of Pain, which has through past ages held mankind on its rack of torture, and will have dawned in the millennial day, which is not divine, but essentially human, the RELIGION OF JOY. lART'N; 44 THE RELIGION OF MAN. I. BELIGION. That matter called the Christian religion was in existence among the ancients ; it has never been wanting since the beginning of the human race. ST. AUGUSTINE. Change rides upon the wings of Time A regal artist, dumb and still, Who visits God's remotest clime, And sculptures matter to her will. EMMA TUTTLE. HISTORY yields no example of a motive actuating man stronger than religion. All the most holy and sacred emotions of the heart bow to it in abject servitude. Love of friends, of family, of country, is as nothing compared with religious faith. The tender appeal of childhood, the fond embrace of conjugal affection, the pleading voice of fraternal ties, are at once cast aside by the devotee blind to all perception and calloused to all the influences which usually sway the human heart. Bound to the stake, the martyr smiles at the excruciat- ing pain, and his soul ascends in the lurid flames chant- ing hymns of victory. It is one of the first faculties awakened in the mind Protean in its forms, and ever triumphant. The hero who, unwavering, rushes against serried ranks of bayonets, or unappalled storms the redoubt crowned with deep-throated cannon, condemned by his religion, quaking with fear, falls prostrate, and with white lips cries frantically for pardon to an offend- ed God. Religion demands monasteries filled with monks and convents with nuns vowed to celibacy ; and RELIGION. 45 thousands rush to their lonely cells and suffer through their mortal lives the imposition of the most revolting requirements. It asks the wife to ascend the funeral pyre of her husband, and she herself applies the torch. It asks its devotee to cast himself into the Ganges or beneath the Car of Juggernaut, and its voice is obeyed with joy. It destroys the humanity of its recipient, transforming him into a blind fanatic and too often an avenging fiend, who will sacrifice all the human heart holds dear on the altar of its f aith. Such being its wonderful power, we ask, What is Re- ligion ? The world gives a multitude of diverse answers. In the sense in which the word is usually employed, it means the peculiar beliefs in the form and essence of God, and the ceremonials of his worship, entertained by any par- ticular people. In this sense it is distinct from moral- ity, which relates to actual life. Each great race of mankind, by organization evolving a different mental- ity and a varying moral code, answers the question after its own manner. The Hindu declares religion to be believing on Cristna and the Holy Books, in keeping caste with the scrupulousness of olden times, observing the ceremonies prescribed, repeating long prayers, pil- grimages to holy cities and rivers, and blind obedience to the priesthood. The Persian answers that belief in Zoro- aster and the sacred Zend Avesta, the repetition of pray- ers, and the feeding of the sacred fires, are all essential. The Chinese believe in Confucius ; the Moslem, in Mohammed ; the Jew, in Moses and the Prophets. The Hindu has his Shaster ; the Persian, his Zend Avesta ; the Mohammedan, his Al-Koran ; the Jew, his Old Testament ; the Christian, his New Testament all claiming divine and infallible inspiration. All have 46 THE RELIGION OF MAN. their divine men their saviours to believe in whom is sufficient for salvation. Each has a supreme God jeal- ous of other people's gods. Brahma, Ormuzd, Jehovah, apparently rest on the same foundation blind faith. Christianity is not a unit in its answer. There is a wide disparity between Catholic and Protestant, and the sects into which the latter is divided reply with count- less discordant voices. The Mother Church replies : Belief in the divinity of Jesus and the virginity of Mary, crucifixion of the body, punctual attendance at church, and undoubting belief and co-operation in the forms of its fantastic worship. The Protestants make religion to consist of faith, grace, baptism, belief in Christ as the Saviour, the Bible as the Word of God, and various other dogmas, until, in the confusion, no decision can be arrived at. If bap- tism is essential, either immersion or sprinkling is wrong, and the followers of one or the other of these modes are not fulfilling God's law. If good deeds are worth- less and faith is everything, those who rely on an upright life have built their houses on the sands. Should good deeds prove of more avail than faith, the opposite host must eternally suffer. All Brahmin, Buddhist, Persian, Moslem, Jew, Catholic, Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, down to the smallest and most obscure sect are equally willing to sanctify and prove their dogmas with their lives. Mar- tyrs are the cheapest product of mankind, and the most meaningless. They have sealed with their blood the greatest follies with a zeal which proves nothing but their ignorance and fanaticism. Ah ! Keligion, are you only a name, changeable to the varying requirements of the time the convenience and selfishness of men ? Broad and deep has been the RELIGION. 47 gulf between what has been called religion and moral- ity, and a designing priesthood has ever sought to deepen and widen it, and break down any bridge adven- turous thinkers might seek to throw across. Obedience to moral commands, unless such obedience has special reference to the Divine will, is said not to be religion, which is " real piety in practice, consisting in the per- formance of all known duties to God and our fellow- men, in obedience to Divine command, or from love to God and his law." The questions arise, What is obedience? How are we to know the will of God ? What duties do wo owe to him ? What is piety ? This definition is as broad as the world, and narrow as the most selfish bigot can wish. It applies to the pow-wow of the Red Indian as well as to the prayers of Christians the pilgrimage to Mecca as well as that to the Holy Sepulchre. To be religious is to observe the methods of worship of one's country. A Mohammedan may be very pious at Constantinople, but he would be an Infidel in New York. At Constantinople the Pope himself would be an Infidel dog. The pious Trinita- rian does not consider the Unitarian better than an In- fidel. Eeligion is, then, the worship of Joss-sticks not for ourselves, but to please God. The Infinite One becomes offended if we do not sink our selfhood in him ! Out of this slough there is one method of escape by another assertion. The Bible furnishes a code, God- given, which man must obey. This satisfies until other races produce their several sacred books, with equally positive evidence of their truthfulness ; and it is learned that all the vital moral precepts were well understood before these sacred books were written, and that unless 48 THE RELIGION OF MAN. the capabilities for morality exist in the mind, there can be no revelation of moral obligations even by a God. The religious views entertained by the Christian world are a chain of unwarrantable assertions. Being lost from God, getting saved, getting nearer to God, being restored to God, form a mass of verbiage, meaningless or false. Can man be lost from an all-pervading, infinite Father ? Not only is such a religion humiliating it is absolute- ly immoral. The ceremony quickly comes to stand for the practice of virtue ; the ritual takes the place of deeds ; the man encased in impenetrable formulae and truth departs. The Bible is interpreted by the sects very differently. If our eternal salvation depends on obeying the laws of God for his own sake, the choice of the sect with which we cast our fortunes, and the interpretation we accept, are fraught with momentous consequences no less than our eternal happiness or misery. Yet are we left to stumble in darkness and doubt, and find it impossible to decide from the evidence furnished us. Whose fault is it the Infidel's, who cannot receive the evidence, or the Infinite God's, who furnishes it in so imperfect a man- ner ? If God has made a revelation, it is because he saw its necessity, and a part of that necessity is that it must be in such a form as will be received ; otherwise it an- swers not the ends designed, and is useless. On the Bible, as an absolute inspiration from God, the Christian Churches found their claims. As they discard reason, they have no right to use it in determining the character of this revelation. By their acknowledgment that man cannot gain a knowledge of truth by other methods, they are compelled to base their systems on its authority. Having thus planted themselves, they one and all arrogate dictatorship in religious matters. Even RELIGION. 49 the most liberal in their creeds and dogmatic formulae claim the power of commendation and denunciation. They are right, and all who disagree are wrong, and sub- jects for hell. The Catholic regards all Protestants as led astray by the Evil One, while the Protestant feels assured that the Catholic Church is the Scarlet Woman of Babylon. Both summarily condemn the freethinker, philosopher, and scientist, as hopeless Infidels. Such is the force of education, that the arrogance of the Church has been in a measure acquiesced in, and a tacit admis- sion of her right granted ; but we ask how and when the Church received such power ? What is the Church ? An aggregation of individuals, for the object of religious instruction and propagation of religious ideas. The Christian Churches gather around the conception of Christ an incarnation of God. Their authority is the Bible. But the Bible nowhere even mentions a church in the modern sense. Jesus, so far from being a model of, was the antipodes of church spirit. He gathered a few fishermen around him, and taught wherever he found a willing mind to receive. He cast aside all ceremonies and rites. The observance of the Sabbath was to him an idle tale. He abolished the sacrifices, the prayer at set times and seasons, holding only the absolute principles of morality. He bestowed no power on his disciples that the most ordinary men did not possess. The strength of the argument rests on a single text founding the Church on Simon Peter, which their own critics now pronounce spurious. Nowhere in the Gospels has Christ sanctioned any- thing except pure and exalted morality. Baptism and the Supper were only accidents, and nowhere recom- mended as essential. Where, then, can the Church found its claims to infallible dictation of the beliefs of 50 THE RELIGION OF MAN. men ? Not on the Bible ; not on anything Christ said or did, for his life is a plain denial. The Church has acted from the commencement of its existence as though it held a commission from God to scourge all who opposed its exactions, and torture them into the road it said led to heaven. The Protestant sects, having lost the irresistible power of the Pope, still rely on the withering influence of excommunication, and the social pressure they wield. They cannot place the Infidel on a rack and tear his limbs to pieces, but they can torture his spirit by social ostracism, the influ- ence of which lies in the prejudices they create. When a thinker walks out on the breezy highlands of untrammelled thought, and would gladden the world with the spectacle of a beautiful life devoted to noble aims and lofty endeavor, how rave the sectarian winds over the theological marshland below ! and how ten thousand tongues run swift to defame his fair name ! The calm soul will let them prate, as the unnoticeable anger of children. We learn, then, that the claims of the Church to au- thority in matters pertaining to religion are without foundation, unsanctioned by the Gospels, unauthor- ized by any word or deed of Christ, and everywhere condemned. Nor can it, as an aggregation of individ- uals, claim authority over the individual. It may be answered : The Church is an aggregation of individuals gathered around a centre that centre the God-man, Christ. Its power arises from its holding this being as a model for human action. If Christ were a veritable incarnation if he were God clothed in flesh he could not be a model for finite man. His example would be useless and wholly incomprehensible. If he were simply a good and perfect man, it would be well RELIGION". 51 for us to follow his example, as it is well to learn lessons from all exemplary men. Thus, as a God or as a man, no power is conferred on his followers, by accepting him as a model, to enforce their views on others, or to reject what they may con- sider as conflicting with their established beliefs. All authority that the Church has is that of brute power ; human and bestowed by might, not by divine delegation. This right is admitted, not because it is supported by evidence, but by that blind obedience men pay to the old, which grows out of fear, admiration, and a sense of duty the result of education. The Church has the appliances to create fear in an eminent degree, as it claims it holds the keys of liell and eternal damnation in its hands. He who bravely sub- mits to physical torture is appalled at threats of eternal anguish. This element is chiefly relied on, is largely used in all revivals, and its thunder tones are heard in excommunications and anathemas. Humanity is loyal to its leaders, whether those leaders direct it right or wrong, and once imbued with certain notions, is ready to sustain those leaders, from admiration of the success with which they carry forward their measures. One generation having submitted, the next is educated into submission, or, in other words, they have a sense of the moral duty of obedience. Having by these means gained supremacy, the Church has attempted to preserve her power by two quite differ- ent methods. Thoroughly comprehending that knowl- edge is power, it has either sought to check its diffusion altogether, or only disseminate such ideas as it pleased. It held universal dissemination of knowledge to be not only useless, but that it led to discontent, sedition^ 52 THE RELIGION OF MAN". and revolution. The masses, if allowed to be informed in the arts and sciences of the ruling classes, would be- come turbulent and uncontrollable. The High Church Party in England maintained this view until a recent date, and the supporters of Slavery upheld it with most stringent laws. The other method, the deeper and most insidious, introduced by the more ultra leaders of Prot- estantism, and by the Jesuits into Catholicism, is to compel all to become educated, making it even compul- sory with parents to instruct their children, but while opening the doors of the mind, taking care to supply only unobjectionable food. An injunction is served on the Press and the author. No book or paper is issued until examined by the theological power, and suppressed if containing anything displeasing. Authors who write in accordance with prevailing ideas are en- couraged to occupy the public mind, the Press thus be- coming a power in the hands of the Church to dissemi- nate its doctrines and maintain its authority. It scatters tracts and religious books by the million, but to every call from any conflicting idea is silent. It is not only gagged, it is made a slave, and all its giant-energy com- pelled to labor for darkness instead of light. The school has been supplied with books written in the service of the Church, to the exclusion of others, and every avenue to knowledge seized with rapacious hand. The primary school, the seminary, the college, if not publicly teaching theology, are controlled by the- ologians. Wise and subtle as this scheme appeared, they who employed it knew not wherewith they built. The mind becomes enlarged and its perceptions sharpened even by erroneous learning. After receiving the knowledge prepared by the priesthood, it gains increased capacity, EELIGION". 53 and one ray of light allowed to enter creates desire for the whole sunshine. The New England common schools, of which those of other States are copies, were estab- lished chiefly to maintain Puritan orthodoxy ; but they have in a great measure escaped from the controlling hand of the Church, and from them have flowed the heresies which have led to the free thought of the pres- ent. May we soon hail the day when they shall be- come wholly secularized, and the light of knowledge, instead of revealing the dead creeds and dogmas to the ardent imaginations of the young, be allowed to shine as the sun of morning over the beauties of Na- ture ! Neither the Church nor any organization has the right to decide what is truth, and man is thrown on his own resources for its determination. Granting the dogma of miraculous creation, every organ and function is designed and created for pleasure, not for pain, and it is essential that an All-wise Being make him an authority to himself. If not, how is it possible for him to receive the revelation of his Maker ? Here we leave the dark night-land, where, in the miasmatic gloom of ignorance and dank vapors, superstition grows like a foetid mushroom, and with relief gain the heights of un- trammelled thought, where religion becomes moral obli- gation. Not to systems, but to the mind itself, are we to turn for the understanding of religion. The meaning of that word can be exalted. The true religious code and the moral are one. The most moral man is the most religious. Everything outside of a well-ordered life a life devoted to the most perfect accomplishment of the object of being, under the name of whatever religion is a sham. Eeligion is the citadel in which emotional ignorance has entrenched itself and fought to the death 54 THE RELIGION OF MAN. every advance of knowledge, which, expressed in the gen- eral term Science, is the true saviour of mankind. " Ah !" it is rejoined, " science is well in its place, but in morals and religion it is at fault ; they are be. yond its pale. " The worshipper of beans and garlics under the shadow of the Pyramids made the same state- ment four thousand years ago. Religion is the province of unreasoning faith, and the greater the faith required, the more miraculous the system and laudable the un- wavering faith of the devotee. Faith is another name for credulity. The weapons of metaphysical theology are now useless. The war has changed its base. It has been fought on the marshlands of ignorance, and the combatants have been guided by will-o'-the-wisps, mistook for stars of heaven. Now the light of certain knowledge floods the world, and the systems of theology and metaphysics disappear. They can never change front and battle with the new weapons. Knowledge not only destroys dogmatism ; it renders its existence impossible. The Goliaths of the- ology, arrayed on the battle-field of science, become phantasms, the attenuated shadows of ghosts, which amuse rather than annoy with their incoherent gibberish. Knowledge carries men away from Churchianity. The leading minds of Europe and America stand outside of its influence. Yet they and their followers form the most moral members in their respective societies. The drifting away of the dross of dogmatism leaves the true gold of morality. In these pages the great questions of religion and mo- rality are treated by knowledge, and not by faith. No obscure region is covered by the " mystery of Godli- ness." The only mystery admitted is that of Ignorance, By religion is meant all systems, and Christianity will WHAT IS RELIGION ? 55 be weighed in the same balance with Mohammedanism, Buddhism, and the lowest Fetishism. If it stands the test, it is well ; if not, why mourn ? As from the mind of man has sprung all the systems of the past, he is superior to them as the master to his work, and adequate to the production of the systems essential to his future progress. The essential cannot be destroyed. Fetish gods only need to be jealously guarded. II. WHAT IS RELIGION? The way to gain admission into the portals of science is through the portal of doubt. SOCRATES. He that takes away reason to make way for revelation puts out the light of both, and does much the same as if he should per- suade a man to put out his eyes the better to receive the remote light of an invisible star by a telescope. LOCKE. If religion be devotion to an awe of personified life and intelli- gence, it is possessed by the brutes of the field. Europe, with all her nameless store Of cultivation, wisdom, pride, Had marched through centuries of gore Before she reached the lighted side Of God's humanity. Her veins, Though pure, have run barbaric blood ; Her fair face has worn pits and stains ; But change wrought error into good. EMMA ROOD TUTTLE, IN "GAZELLE." THE assertion that religious phenomena are found among all races of mankind has been a standard argu- 56 THE EELIGION OF MAN. ment to prove man, by necessity of his organization, a religious being, and worship in some form indispensable. Undoubtedly this is one of the strongest arguments possible to urge, and if received as expressing the fact that no mental phenomenon can be manifested without an adequate cause residing in the mind, is indisputable. Furthermore, and a fact of great significance, religious feelings and observances become refined and elevated, and tend to disappear in morality, in exact ratio to the advance of reason and knowledge. There are degrees of progress, from the Patagonian, the sum of whose re- ligion is roasting a sea-bird's egg and singing a wild song over it, to the refined subtilties of the Evangelist. The existence of such feelings is not proof of their munificence, or that they should be uncontrolled. War appears normal to all mankind, and is even more uni- versal than religion, going down through the successive grades of the animal world to the lowest. Its existence proves man to possess combative elements, which, prop- erly directed by reason, are salutary. It does not prove a separate faculty of war, but arises from a combination of faculties which an advanced civilization emplo3 r s quite differently. The existence of religious feelings proves no more than the love of war. We are not sure we cannot discover intimations of religion in animals themselves. When the wild winds blow, and the lightnings fill the black clouds with fire, and the air is rent with thunder, how piteously the brutes of the field fly here and there, ut- tering their plaintive moans, or rush into the presence of man, trembling with fear ! The first germ of religion in savage man is this same fear of the elements. Under like circumstances he cries with terror and falls prostrate, appealing for protection WHAT IS RELIGION" ? 57 to something, he knows not what. Is there any differ- ence in kind between the fear of the brute and that of the savage ? The animal throws itself under the pro- tection of man ; the savage, having no visible superior to whom to appeal, personifies the elements themselves, and casts himself before the ideal of his own creation. Those who regard man as fallen from a high estate see in the savagery, not a primitive, but a degraded condi- tion. This conclusion conflicts with the facts of human history. The races of mankind began, like the individ- ual, ignorant and brutal. The early man was a savage, a cannibal, whose religion if he possessed a religion was of the grossest form. Fetishism has been consid- ered the lowest expression of religious instinct, but it does not touch the bottom of the abyss. Comte, when he declares this statement insupportable, combats a posi- tive subject with metaphysical argument. He says if man existed in a state wholly material, there must have been " a time when intellectual wants did not exist in man ; and we must suppose a moment when they began to exist, without any prior manifestation." This he concludes impossible. His argument is of that meta- physical kind, as delusive as unsatisfactory, which he utterly discards in others. The "want" is subject to an imperceptibly slow growth. The appearance of the "want" is evidence of the prior capability for its de- velopment, and there must be a time when this develop- ment becomes manifest. Fetishism is not the first expression of the religious sentiment. There are many species of animals in which it is apparent, especially in those which have had the advantage of the culture given by man. A kitten mis- takes a ball for a living being as readily as a savage sees 58 THE RELIGION OF MAN. a life like his own in the wind. The thoughts awakened in the mind of a dog by presenting a watch to his ear are of the same kind he regards it as a living being ; the savage thinks it possessed by a demon. A Bech- uana, seeing the sea and a ship for the first time, said the ship must have come of itself, for it could not have been created by man. The Yakuts are represented as being so amazed by the action of a telescope in bringing distant objects close to the eye, that they believe it pos- sessed by a spirit ; writing they cannot comprehend, and books they regard as living objects that can talk. In our own individual development we can mark the same ideas in our childhood. They even extend to our mature years ; as when a machine refuses to do its work, how readily the mechanic gives it personality ! The child converts a broomstick into a prancing steed, and the engineer speaks of his locomotive as a person for whom he has the warmest attachment. The child chas- tises the offending object ; Xerxes, leading the myriads of Persia, would send a message to the turbulent sea and bind it with chains. These are examples of Fetishism the endowment of inanimate objects with life. We have advanced so far from that primitive faith that we cannot study its peculiar phases without refer- ring to people who are at present in the same stage as that which we have left in the remote distance. As human development is governed by the same unchang- ing laws, similar stages of growth present corresponding phenomena. This field of study is lamentably broad, as only a moiety of mankind have become what is styled civilized, and at least one third of the human family are savages. Those vast regions forming the continents of Africa and Australia, the countless islands of the Pacific Sea, and WHAT IS RELIGION ? 59 the interminable expanse around the North Pole in America extending southward almost to the great lakes, are inhabited by tribes whose religious beliefs are of the grossest form. The Australian has not made an attem pfc toward embodying his religious ideas, if he has any, in rites and ceremonies. (Latham.) Certain wild songs, accompanied with gestures, mistaken for such, have proved of foreign origin. Even missionaries, eager to discover analogous ideas in the heathen they would con- vert, have honestly expressed their perplexity. Says one : " They have no idea of a Divine Being. They have no comprehension of the things they commit to memory. I mean especially as regards religious sub- jects." Another remarks : "What can we do with a nation whose language presents no terms corresponding to justice or sin, and to whose minds the ideas expressed by these words are completely strange and inexplicable ?" " A kind of highly developed instinct for discovering their food, which is always difficult for them to obtain, seems among them to have taken the place of most of the moral faculties among mankind," is the statement of Lesson and Garnot. Unless watched by the police, they would offend law and decency with as little scruple as the monkeys of a menagerie ; and so dormant is their reason, that the same means must be employed to con- vince them that is used with children and idiots. The inhabitants of Central Africa are little more ad- vanced. Leighton, who for four years served as missionary among the Mpougwes, Mandingos, and Grebes, important tiibes, says that they have neither priests, nor idolatry, nor religious ceremonies. The testimony of Livingstone on the Bechuanas is the same. In order to translate the word God and make it comprehensible to Caffre in- 60 THE RELIGION OF MAN. tellcct, the missionaries had to employ the word Tixo, meaning " wounded knee." Tixo was a well-known sorcerer, and received his name from a wound received on his knee. He was the highest ideal of the Caffre mind, and his name best translated the idea of God to their understanding. Of the Esquimaux, people depressed by the cold as the preceding are by excessive heat, Sir John Ross speaks in no nattering terms as regards their religious status : " Did they comprehend anything of all I attempted to explain, explaining the simplest things in the simplest manner that I could devise ? I could not conjecture. Should I have gained more had I understood their lan- guage ? 1 have much reason to doubt. That they have a moral law of some extent, ' written in the heart/ I could not doubt, as numerous traits of their conduct show ; but beyond this I could satisfy myself of nothing ; nor did these efforts and many more enable me to con- jecture aught worth recording. Respecting their opin- ions on the essential points from which I might have presumed on a religion, I was obliged at present to aban- don the attempt, and I was inclined to despair. " The Esquimaux is an animal of prey, with no other enjoyment than eating ; and, guided by no principle and no reason, he devours as long as he can, and all that he can procure, like the vulture and the tiger. The Esquimaux eats but to sleep, and sleeps but to eat again as soon as he can." .South of the Himalayas, in the dense forests of Cen- tral Hindustan, man exists in lower caste than has yet elsewhere been described. Mr. Piddington, who had extensive experience of travel, describes one of these re- markable people, whom the Hindoos call " monkey- men :" WHAT IS RELIGION ? 61 " He was short, flat-nosed, had pouch-like wrinkles in semicircles round the corners of the mouth and cheeks ; his arms were disproportionately long, and there was a portion of reddish hair to be seen on the rusty black skin. Altogether, if couched in a dark corner or on a tree, he might be mistaken for a large orang-utan." No sharp line can be drawn between man and the brute which will leave the dawn of religious conceptions on one side and the absence of such on the other. The ancestors of the great European civilizations were sav- ages as degraded as those here introduced. In the Egyptian representations described by Champollion, the victorious Sesostris leads captive representatives of Eu- rope, Asia, and Africa. The European is sketched as a savage clad in the skins of wild beasts, but the Syrian is attired in splendid Asiatic costume. Europe has her own monuments to indicate the status of her ancient people. The shell-heaps of the North, the arrow-heads and other imperishable remains found buried beneath the earth, are vestiges of peoples rude as the Eed Indian of British Columbia. The inhabi- tants of Britain two thousand years ago met the invasion of Caesar with arrows and spears of wood hardened in the fire. Their clothing was of skins of wild beasts, and their dwellings caves excavated beneath the earth. It is well determined that these savages, shouting their harsh war-cries as they gallantly met in unequal com- bat the invincible legions of Rome, havo absorbed their conquerors, and that the present English people are their direct descendants. This progress has involved an equal advance in re- ligious conceptions. Every increment of knowledge threw new light on the nature and influence of the gods, and revealed more correctly the relations of man to his 62 THE RELIGION OF MAX. fellows. There is not a vestige of moral sense until the intellect is capable of comprehension. Eeligion is the observance of certain ceremonies. "Why are these observed ? Because they are supposed to have been dictated by the gods, and especially pleasing to them, propitiating their wrath and winning their favor. The religious element, as that term is received, at its ultimate analysis is fear of the anger of the gods, by which imagination is perverted and reason enslaved. It is said we are conscious of this element within us that, by the failure of our schemes, the blasting of our hopes, the mystery which gathers around our lives, the limitation of our understanding, the unfathom- ableness of causation, we are prone to bow in submis- sion, and acknowledge a superior Power governing Na- ture. As knowledge of the laws of causation becomes more accurate, we are enabled to account for the blasting of our hopes, the failure of our plans, the mystery of our lives are less impressed and overwhelmed with a sense of the unknown, and feel less of that dependence which some acute metaphysicians claim to be the ultimate of religious feeling. Here the distinction is drawn between morality and religion. The observance of the prescribed ceremonials of his time has constituted the religious man, and no amount of good works shielded him from the charge of infidelity if he neglected such observances. To primitive man the observance of superstitious customs is far more essential than moral conduct. Cherishing the coarsest vices, he will suffer death before he will disobey the requirements of superstition. We shall find, as we proceed in this discussion, that amidst this rubbish of superstition there is pure gold ; FETISHISM. 63 and religion, in its highest meaning, is the last term of knowledge and morality : DEVOTION TO THE EIGHT, CON- SECRATION" TO DUTY, UNSHRINKING SELF-SACRIFICE. IAKTXN. in. FETISHISM. If any man love acorns since corn is invented, let him eat acorns ; but it is very unreasonable that he should forbid others the use of wheat. SAVAGE man is depressed and overpowered by the ob- jective world. He is the sport and buffet of the ele- ments. The invisible wind, bearing on its wings clouds and tempest, through whose chambers the lightnings are flung and thunders bay ; the ever-moving waters of river and sea ; the sunshine flooding the earth, are grand and inexplicable mysteries to his untaught mind. He endows all objects with life : fires arrows to intimi- date the lightning ; undertakes hostile expeditions against offending winds ; or shouts his battle-cry to frighten the monster devouring the eclipsed sun or moon. Every moving thing has life and intelligence like his own. The animal world forms one great family, of which he is the elder brother. They understand each other and him. Like a child he converses with them. " Do not cry like a woman, but bear death like a brave," says the Indian to the wounded bear. " He keeps silent for fear of slavery," says the Negro of the baboon. His ardent imagination, unrestrained by reason, exalts the 64 THE BELIGKW OF MAN". instincts of his fellow animals. He is not far removed from them, and, astonished at their sagacity and the mystery of their instinctive actions, believes them his superiors. He worships, because he fears, everything rocks, trees, streams, mountains, sun, and stars. These are worshipped direct, and not as types or symbols of in- terior deities, as is often claimed, not God behind a veil, for the mind at this stage is not capable of entertaining any conception beyond the sphere of the senses. Each individual, according to his caprice, selects an object of worship ; at first only for the time, but afterward for a longer period, even during life. Objects exciting fear, terror, or emotions of pleasure, are first selected. The savage is ruled by his passions and emotions. The dark is a monster every obscure cavern the jaws of destruc- tion. Terrified by the life he cannot comprehend, he personifies that life ; and coming to a belief that person- alities stand behind visible effects, a sense of his own helplessness intensifies his fear. He believes these per- sonalities interfere in his affairs, and may be influenced by prayers and incantations. He devoutly believes in witchcraft and sorcery. Jn this early theology moral- ity has no part. The gods do not interfere for the pur- pose of rewarding man's moral or punishing his immoral acts, for he has not arrived to the understanding of moral relations. His dim consciousness of a future state is fraught with terror. Death, the surrender of existence to the ele- mental forces, is a frightful phenomenon. The spirit then leaves the body to wander an unseen shade, capable of assuming any shape, and inflicting torments on the living. Its name must not be pronounced, for fear of recalling it. The world of spirits is terrible from its in- FETISHISM. 65 visibility ; and the savage, fearless in battle with over- whelming foes, feels utterly powerless, and prostrates himself before the mysterious and irresponsible beings of the air. To enter this invisible world and subject its shades to mortal will to approach the gods in their secret cham- bers, and engage them in the furtherance of mortal plans has been from earliest times the daring scheme of theology. This scheme is manifested by Catholicism in holy relics, the cross, rosaries, and amulets ; and by the Protestant in holy days and books, and meta- physical philosophers, when they assign a soul to Nature and lose themselves in a bewildering Pantheism, return to Fetishism. Here is the cradle of theology. The savage, by deify- ing all objects, dwells constantly in the presence of his gods. He cannot escape from them. He illustrates a state theologians never weary of applauding, wherein reason creates no doubt, nor examines with too curious eye the vague theories of cosmology. All ideas are theological, and every act of man's life has direct refer- ence to his theological belief. There is no necessity for mediators between him and the gods, and priests are not wanted . There are no priests, no religious system, as each individual is his own priest, creates his own system. All is indeterminate, vague, and unreal. When everything is regarded as subject to the caprice of controlling intel- ligences, there can be no conception of universal law or fixity of action. The spirit of investigation is dormant, or overwhelmed by the religious emotions. It is for this reason the Fetish state is one of intellectual stagna- tion, and progress out of it is extremely slow. The mind is so preoccupied with its childish vagaries as to preclude correct observation. When Nature becomes 66 . THE EELIGIOX OP MAN. thus idealized, there is no room for human effort. The gods rule arbitrarily, and nothing is left for man but to appease their anger or flatter their vanity by abject hom- age. Such conceptions impede progress, and suffocate thought by superstitions, childish fear of evil beings. Man travels a long and weary road, one directly diverg- ing from religion, before he gains the mastery of nature, and through moral sensibilities recognizes a benevolent being as Creator. This early condition has not yet been wholly outgrown, and too often is the spectacle present- ed of men of scientific acumen prejudiced by religious dogmatism. To understand the feelings and ideas of savages, we must place ourselves in their position. Standing on the high ground of the present, we find it difficult to appre- ciate their sensations ; but if we imbibe the true Fetish spirit, we shall be astonished that infant man, placed in a strange world, which appeared to him like a gigantic phantasmagoria, was not led into greater errors by his the- ories, founded as they were on illusions instead of correct observation. It is usual to regard the systems of Pagan- ism as Impostures, and their priests as jugglers ; but no fact is more patent than that all these systems are legiti- mate outgrowths of the mind, and these jugglers are the parents of the present race of theologians. The Puri- tans were shocked at the pow-wows of the Indians, and referred them to the devil ; but the Indians were un- doubtedly as sincere as the rigid Puritans. Theological ideas are born of the necessities of their time. Artifice and dissimulation may answer immediate ends, but they can never be received by whole races of men. Those whom it is customary to regard as impostors were thor- oughly convinced themselves, and found responsiveness in those they led. The dreadful extravagances into FETISHISM. 67 which they fell are sufficient proof of their own entire sincerity. The worship of plants and animals may have served a beneficial purpose before their usefulness could be learned. The savage is intent on destruction alone, and without some check might destroy himself by thoughtlessly exterminating the animals which supplied him with food. Each selects an object for his own in- dividual worship a tree, an animal, a rock, a stream and addresses his prayers direct. Any uncommon oc- currence as an earthquake, tornado, or falling meteor attracts general attention and homage. A black stone became the shrine of, or rather at first was, Cybele. Eough blocks of stone, from some singularity of form, were worshipped by the ancient people of Greece. The glory of the rising sun, the activity of life evoked by its presence, the calm repose of his going down, are among the most surprising events of Nature. The splendor of the starry hosts of night, if not as startling, is full of awful mystery. The sun, as source of life, is chief among the gods, and the stars are living souls. When blind adoration advanced to star-worship, the borders of Polytheism were reached. The Fetish of the individual became that of his family ; when the family enlarged to a tribe, it became that of the tribe ; and as it still enlarged by growth or conquest, it became the chief of the na- tion's gods. During this growth the conception of the Fetish changed. The object was no longer worshipped, but a Spirit behind the object. A generalization was made by the worshipper. It was no longer an individual tree he adored, but the Spirit of all the trees ; not the brook, or sea, but the Spirit of all the waters ; not the different winds, but the god of the wind. "With this enlargement of their spheres, the character 68 THE EELIGION OF MAN. of the beings worshipped changes, becomes trauscen- dentally human. The Anthropomorphism is not lost for a moment, but constantly magnified. The gods are re- moved from man by the intervention of physical objects by whole provinces of physical objects and become active forces. The necessity of a mediator to interpret their will becomes felt, and priests are introduced. The medicine-man of the Indian, the juggler of the African, are illustrations of the early priesthood. They, by ob- serving certain customs, more or less absurd, come in nearer contact with their deities. They can avert evil, bring rain, make the chase or war-path successful, assist their friends, or overwhelm their enemies. At first they have little power, but they soon come to be feared as much as the gods whom they interpret. As love of power is a dominant motive with man and especially on this low plane they were not tardy in grasping any means and putting forth their strength. They surrounded their gods with mystery, invented cere- monies, sacrifices, and forms innumerable, by which the gods were removed beyond contact with the common people, and their own office rendered more necessary. By keeping the people in profound ignorance they made them willing dupes, and from age to age strengthened the power of theology. It became tyrannical, usurped political as well as spiritual dictatorship, and at times rested on the prostrate nations like a horrid vampire, paralyzing their strength and crushing every effort of advancement. Fetishism with our own race is of the remote past, yet its stain is indelibly fixed on our religious system. Christianity is full of it. Claiming, as it does, divine completeness and the worship of the one true God, there would be little left of it were its Fetishism stripped away. FETISHISM. 69 "When pestilence smites our cities, the earthquake pros- trates their proud towers, or storms devastate, prayers and sermons are sent forth from every Christian pulpit, asking God to deal lightly, or charging these natural events to warning Providence. In seasons of drought, fasts are still held to invoke rain, in exactly the same spirit in which the Indian medicine-men shake their calabashes and call on the Great Spirit. Churches are peculiarly holy places, Sunday a holy day, and fasts, penance and the sacrifice of worldly considerations pe- culiarly acceptable to God. The outbursts of the ele- ments, in the Christian view, are acts of Providence. Recently the California earthquake called out an expres- sion from clergy and laymen characteristic of Fetish worshippers. Instead of seeing the activity of forces in the subterranean volcanic axis on which that country is placed, they saw only the warnings of an angry God. It would be difficult to say why California needs such warning more than New York, where the revenue of the most aristocratic church is derived from the rent of its estate occupied as drinking saloons, gambling hells, and houses of prostitution ; whose sleek, high-salaried min- ister is literally clothed by the activity of the purple fingers of starvation, and fed by the sale of human souls. The annual thanksgiving ordered by the American Government, and re-echoed by the States, is a relic of Fetishism, and, as such, is degrading in its tendencies. 1 1, is a hopeful sign that year by year the " Proclama- tion" is becoming little more than a form, and we may hope, at no distant day, a chief magistrate may be elected having sufficient manhood to ignore this absurd and outgrown custom. The lingering faith in miracles is a remnant of the belief that the gods manage everything. Miracles are 70 THE RELIGION OF MAN. at the foundation of all systems of religion ; and it is maintained by leading theologians that the human mind is so constituted that it cannot believe religion of divine origin unless accompanied with miracles. Catholicism retains the miracle-working power, which its priests continue to practise, and the erudite Protestant divine stands up in his pulpit a competitor with the African rain-maker. This belief is like some mollusks found fossil in the rocks of all past ages, and with charmed lives flourishing in the seas of the present ; it grasps the animal and emotional faculties, and, as long as they are in ascendancy, will not yield its tenacious life. Polytheism constantly presents its Fetish origin. The family or tribe Fetish became the Panates of the Romans and the bull Apis of the Egyptians ; the national Fe- tish, the Olympian Jove of Greece the Capitoline Jupi- ter of Some the Caaba of Arabia. It would be presumed that the Jews, from the earliest period carefully instructed by the only true God, would not show the least trace of religious progress, for their system was not of growth, but revelation. Contrary to this inference and infallibly indicating its human ori- gin their history presents all phases of growth, and, at the period of their greatest splendor, Fetishism and Polytheism blended with their vaunted Monotheism. The Seraphim of Laban was a family Fetish ; the horses consecrated to the Sun in the Temple of Solomon (2 Kings 23 : 2) were of the tribe, and the Cherubim and Most Holy Place were national Fetishes. The God of Abraham was a coarse Fetish. The Jews never escaped the influence of grossest idolatry. They believed that their Jehovah dwelt especially in the Holy Place of their Temple, and propitiated him by sacrifices, rites, and ceremonies innumerable. He is a mean, cruel, unjust, FETISHISM. 71 vindictive, bloodthirsty despot, to whom the purely hu- man and lovable Jove of Greece should not be compared. The Jews reflected their own stern, grim, and revenge- ful natures in their God, and their religion nowhere in- dicates a superhuman origin. Fetishism is emphatically a religion of fear, because it reflects most clearly the origin of what are called the religious feelings. It asserts the anger of the gods, and its priests are tireless in their efforts to invent methods by which they may be appeased. They run wild with a terrible hallucination. The more unnatural an action, the more pleasing to the gods. Mutilation as cutting off a finger, knocking out a tooth, flagellation, sacrifices often human are required of the servile devotee. Knowledge is repressed. All ideas of fixed order or law are lost in creation resolved into a succession of miracles. As these are not always in accordance with the welfare of man, appropriate gods are assigned to each. Classes of gods are formed one good, the other evil. Man be- comes a buffet between the two. Sacrifice gains the favor of the first and appeases the anger of the last. There is God- worship and Devil-worship, as retained in the Christian Church, which assigns in its theology the second place to the God of Evil. The later phase of Fetishism, where every individual has his own particular object of worship, so far from exerting a moral influence, acts in the opposite direction. It loosens the moral bonds, if any exist, and the posses- sion of the especial favors of a god makes its recipient selfish and overbearing. If the Fetish united the mem- bers of a tribe in closer union, it intensified their hostility to other tribes. The national Fetish would become jeal- ous of those of others, and all wars would become relig- ious crusades, the national Fetishes commanding and 72 THE RELIGION OF MAN. guiding their followers through their priests. The jeal- ousy of the Fetishes, or gods, arrayed tribe against tribe, nation against nation. The words "foreigner" and " enemy" become synonymous, war the normal state of mankind, and the slaughter of nations acceptable sac- rifice to the gods, who love the steaming blood of their enemies. This instinct of destruction at times becomes so energetic that the life of the worshipper is jeopar- dized, the necessities of the sacrificial altar obligating incessant war to secure captives to appease the anger of the terrible gods. The Aztecs carried this slaughter to such excess that often in default of captives they drafted from their own ranks, and from this cause the nation was rapidly declining at the time of the Spanish con- quest. The Jews furnish an appalling example of a people blindly obeying the commands of their Fetish as interpreted by their priests. Jehovah is a God of bat- tles ; commands the extermination of whole nations ; the butchery of men and children ; the prostitution of the charms of woman, and countless unmentionable horrors. Only among the cannibals of the South Seas is there a parallel example. The sacred historian has recorded the slaughter of the Midianites, the dis- possession of the comparatively refined and opulent Ca- naan ites, with a hear tlessn ess equalled only by the fiend- ishness of the commands of Jevovah. The political influence of such religion is to encourage a narrow, intense patriotism, and exclusive national iso- lation. It institutes two codes one for the stranger, the other for citizens a distinction retained by the Jews. Fetishism evolves Polytheism by insensible degrees, and the two are inextricably blended. The worship of the object is transferred to the spirit, but to the PHALLIC WOKSHIP. 73 very latest the image is preserved, and the Polytheist bestows quite as much adoration on the one as on the other. IV. PHALLIC WORSHIP. Though before thee the throned Cytherian Be fallen, and hidden her head, Yet thy kingdom shall pass, Galilean, Thy dead shall go down to the dead. SWINBURNE. THE preceding chapters, descriptive of theological and cosmological progress, the rise of polytheism and advance to monotheism, is really only a representation of the branches and a portion of the trunk of the great tree of religious thought which strikes its roots down- ward through the dim prehistoric ages into underlying strata of spiritual development. In the study of the religious progress of the races of mankind, everywhere is met more or less obscure strands coming up from some unknown older faith ; the rem- nants of a great mental and religious culture on lines of thought entirely different from those pursued at the present day, although religious systems preserve in their phraseology the impress of that faith. The study of these constantly reminds the student of the mingling of two strata ; the blending of the conceptions of nature of an older and newer people ; and while the ideas transmit- ted from the Old modify and transform those of the 74 THE KELIGIOK OF MAN. New, their origin is lost in the mists of time. There is the Sun Worship, with symbolism so complex, as ex- plained by later commentators, that one is at a loss whether the ancients received the symbols, or looked beneath to the realities. This Solar "Worship itself reaches backward to an older faith, the worship of the generative principle, of which the sun, as the great life giver, is the visible emblem. Creation and procreation were mysteries, and as such early awoke the attention of the inquisitive mind. To the primitive children of the Wild these mysteri- ous processes were as pure as the rising of the sun. They knew no shame, nor the delicacy and modesty which makes uncleanly by concealment these vital proc- esses. To be the prolific mother was the woman's am- bition, for thereby she became like her ideal mother god- dess, and the virile father was the the type of the creative power, the All Father. In times as late as the Patriarchs, which must be regarded as recent, there was nothing like modern delicacy in treating of this subject. They were not ashamed to speak, because they considered birth a plain interposition of the gods, and their acts could not be of shame. The same phase of thought is seen in the worship of Hindustan, where the Phallic Symbols literally sculptured, of gigantic size, are bowed before by reverential devotees, without a thought prurient or un- clean. Yet the missionaries were filled with horror at the spectacle, which to their corrupt minds suggested only foulness and degradation, and they wrote mournful accounts of the terrible spiritual condition of these poor heathen, who really were worshipping as, will hereafter be shown, the original form of the symbol the mission- aries regarded as the emblem of their faith, the holy cross. In the ancient temples of India the sculptures pre- PHALLIC WORSHIP. 75 serve the earliest form of this worship of the generative principles, male and female, with gigantic literal em- blems, and the circle of upright stones of the Druid worship ; the cairn ; the post of the American Indian, with its splash of red paint, rudely express the same faith. Here is the beginning of the study of the devel- opment of religion, and, although fragmentary, affords one of the most fascinating fields for investigation. Un- fortunately, in a volume like the present, the necessities of modern thought must be complied with, and this oldest faith must be guardedly spoken of with veiled words, suggestive rather than expressive. Subjects once spoken of with the same freedom as the flowers or the sunshine are now relegated to silence, and mentioned only with a self -accusing blush. It is thus impracticable to enter into the detail of the subject and give full value to this wonderful faith, the understanding of which makes plain the mysteries of modern religions ; yet we may define its outline with sufficient distinctness, and fill in the sketch here and there with lights and shades most essential, so that at least a partial conception may be gained, sufficient for the purpose of this investigation. The Mysteries, the religion of the cultivated nations of antiquity, were founded on Phallic and Sun Worship. They were revered by the Egyptians and polished by the aesthetic Greek. Such charms and attractions were thrown around them, so vividly were the secrets of life and death presented to the votary, that Cicero says, " Men came from the most distant shores to be initiated at Eleusis ;" and Sophocles remarks, " True life is to be found only among the initiates ; all other places are full of evil." The Mysteries was the great church of the ancient 76 THE RELIGION OF MAN". world, in which concentrated all its hopes, and from which Christianity drew the major part of its doctrines. The efforts of Julian to stay the tide of Christian inno- vation and restore the old doctrines, the numerous pro- tests furnished by history, show how deeply rooted was this old faith in the hearts of the people. The Ancient Religions were embodied in and perpetu- ated by the Mysteries. They were secret orders instituted by the priesthood in Egypt, Persia, and all the countries of Western Asia, among the Brahmins of India and in Greece. In the East a more profound metaphysical philosophy was taught with their rites, which in Greece assumed more aesthetic forms. Only priests were admitted into the most inner court, the Holy of Holies, but laymen might take the first de- grees or enter the outer chambers. Perhaps there can be no more apt illustration of these degrees than in the workings of Masonry, from the apprentice to the mas- ter, and ascending to the highest degree. The Chris- fiian Church, in its early formation, copied the popular Pagan Mysteries, and distinguished its devotees of the grades of the initiates as Neophytes (1 Timothy 3 : 6), spiritual and perfect. The Eleusian Mysteries are best known, and yet from their secret character little can be gathered of their most esoteric rites or doctrines ; but from the allusions made by different classic authors, a faint idea may be gathered of their surpassing beauties and awful terrors. The references made by those authors are veiled and guarded, for the gods were swift to deal vengeance on any one who should reveal the doctrines or rites of the interior circles ; and it was deemed unsafe to dwell in the same house with such a wretch, whom, if the gods spared, was ignominiously put to death. PHALLIC WOKSHIP. 77 Christ defended himself at least his biographer places the defence in his mouth when accused of uttering parables, because to his disciples the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven were known ; but the multitude did not know, nor was it fitting that they should. Apuleius thus describes his initiation as far as lawful for him to do : " I approached the confines of death ; and having trodden on the threshold of Proserpina, returned, hav- ing been carried through all the elements. In the depths of midnight I saw the sun glittering with a splendid light, together with the supernal and infernal gods ; and to these divinities approaching near I paid the tribute of devout adoration." Those who received the Epoptea, or final degree, be- held the gods ; became seers and clairvoyants, realizing what the soul will enjoy in the next life. As celebrated at Eleusis, the Mysteries far eclipsed in singular mag- nificence and imposing grandeur all others of the world, and ancient writers take delight in exalting and gather- ing the clouds of fancy around them. The Mysteries were established about fourteen cen- turies before Christ ; and such was their hold on the popular mind, that for eighteen hundred years they were celebrated, and were only abolished by the severity of the bigoted Theodosius the Great. He would have none of the old faith except that absorbed by the Church. During all these ages the Mysteries were held in pro- found reverence as containing all spiritual knowledge. The stigma of non-observance was far greater than that attending infidelity at present. Every five years all Greece assembled at Eleusis in Attica to celebrate these solemnities. The Lesser Mys- teries were the lower degrees, into the first of which all 78 THE RELIGION OF MAX. could enter, and were held more frequently. The Eleusian or Greater Mysteries were the higher degrees. A vast concourse gathered on the plains, around a splendid temple erected over a cavern, in which, at an earlier day, the rites were first held. This cave was ex- cavated into a labyrinth of passages, in which the novi- tiate could be led through darkness, until bewildered and overcome with terror and fatigue. This temple was of the purest Doric architecture, its endless colonnades chiselled from snowy marble, without spot or stain. It stood on a swell of ground, and could be seen, rising in crystal beauty, by all the mighty multitude. Over its front was a colossal head of Jupiter, calm, beneficent, all-powerful. On either side a statue of Ceres smiled on the passing worshipper. All the effect produced by grandeur of architecture or beauty of form was lavishly bestowed. Persons of both sexes, and without regard to age, were initiated. They had first to enter the Lesser Mysteries of Agrae on a previous year ; at the expiration of which time they subjected themselves to a rigid system of purification. For nine days they bathed and fasted, keeping them- selves un contaminated by the world. Then they pre- sented themselves before the temple of the Greater Mys- tery. Athens has assembled old men and young, hus- band and wife, and prattling babe. Athens has betaken herself to the field for a time, to indulge in free com- munion with nature and the divine spirits, whom she believes govern the world. Those who await initiation the indoctrinization into their subtle wisdom have crowns of flowers, and offer sacrifices and prayers. Under their feet they wear the skin of some animal offered to Jupiter. Then they offer a sow to Ceres, in thankfulness for the benefactions of the goddess. PHALLIC WORSHIP. 79 They are then prepared to enter the presence of the gods, having overcome the sins of the body. Night set- tles over the mountains of the most beautiful country on the earth. The stars flash from the pure azure sky, as though the watchfires of heaven responded to the camp-fires dotting the vast plain. The approaches of the temple are thronged with people, those to be initiated and those assisting in giving them their first lessons. Crowned with myrtle, the aspirants are led to the vesti- bule of the temple, and are received by attendant priests. At the door was a fountain of holy water, in which they washed. Above this in a recess sat a priest, who, with a low, calm, but terrible voice, asked the candidates, one by one, the following questions, all of which they must answer in the affirmative or be at once expelled : " Have you passed the mystery of Agrae ? Are you pure and spotless from the world ? Are you free from crime ?" Then in impressive tone he chanted, " He who enters must be pure, or the gods will destroy him. He who passes this portal goes into a shadow from which only the just return. Oh, weak, thoughtless, and improvident mortal, daring to penetrate the realm of the gods ! Aspire to truth and perfection, and strive to discard the flesh and the world." They were then led onward, in front of a lofty trib- unal, when the Mysteries, or laws, were read to them. These were written on two stones cemented together. Then they were led before another tribunal, more lofty and imposing than the other. Above it was a zone, on which was painted the twelve signs of the zodiac ; on its front was a blazing sun, on either side of which was a winged globe. The intense light beneath revealed the priest seated in an ivory chair, his dark mantle em- broidered with gold, and a silver crown on his temples. 80 THE RELIGION OF MAN. All else was blackness and profoundest gloom. The awe-struck initiates could see nothing but the form of the priest glittering in the terrible darkness. As they paused before him, he asked them a series of questions referring to the conduct of their lives. When they were answered he waved them onward. As they advanced, a terrific blast extinguished their dim torches ; the darkness became stifling ; the trem- bling worshippers were blinded with lightning, that seemed to hiss through the void. The crash of thunders deafened their ears ; the earth swayed and quaked under their feet, and from its bowels came the most frightful bowlings and meanings, as of myriads of lost souls writhing in the agony of scorching flames. Out of the darkness leaped spectres of gigantic and awful outline. Sometimes these shades threatened to destroy the pale and trembling worshipper ; at others they mock- ingly laughed and derided, and the vaulted rocks echoed their demoniac merriment. Then others would spring up, like a body of flame, and as instantly disappear. Then a thousand would arise out of the blackness, and with sound of a whirlwind rush toward the intruders. As they came near they vanished, and the place was left in night, and from afar came the most dismal and ter- rifying wails. Such were the sufferings of those who were untrue to the Mysteries, who revealed the secrets there entrusted ; of those who were unjust and evil on earth, and who disregarded the rights of their fellow-men. Not one, not even the stoutest-hearted soldier, could endure this terrible ordeal without fear. The initiates sank, stupefied, on the marble floor, and stared vacantly at the horrid forms of men, the fly ing dragons and scor- pions, the huge and ravenous beasts and birds of prey, PHALLIC WOESHIP. 81 which winged hissing above them. Their hair stood up- right, and the cold perspiration beaded on their rigid foreheads. Their guide assumed the form of a demon, and if they failed to follow, dragged them through the labyrinthine passages. Hoarse voices shrieked behind them, to seize and destroy the outcasts, and drag them with vulture beaks into the abysm of fire. The hissing of their breath was close ; they seemed in myriad num- bers ; their very touch could be felt by the initiates, who were too frightened to escape. Then, in an in- stant, light broke in a glistering flood of silver over the scene. They stood in a magnificent hall, lighted from an azure dome above, by a light like the sun's. Marble pillars supported it on every side, between which, in various attitudes, the gods and goddesses were chiselled from Parian. Surges of most exquisite melody filled the place, and thrilled the soul with unspeakable admira- tion ; they beheld a being clothed in white, with silver embroidery, descending from a throne, and taking each by the hand, pronounce the words, " It is finished." That is, the moral lessons ; for the last and most signifi- cant symbol was yet to be presented as the final act in the terrible drama. Proved and instructed by the Archpriest, who had been his steadfast guide, the dazed initiate was led down to a pool in the floor of the temple, in the side of which was a cleft in the wall symbolizing the Yoni or female organ of generation, of sufficient size to admit the pas- sage of a man. This passage was the Second Birth, which the initiate was to undergo. Freed from the sins of the past, having expiated those of the flesh, he was now to receive regeneration by water, and become the more especial care of the gods. As he stood on the brink of this pool, the moral lessons were 82 THE KELIGIOST OF MAN. repeated, and fearful warnings if lie proved untrue to the holy trust reposed in him. The Mountain Cavern travailed and groaned with terrible throes, and every known device was employed to impress the votary with the fearful responsibility of his position. As all living beings are gestated in water, and as it precedes birth, it was thought to be a creator and of sacred character, and one of the four vital elements. As the first birth, so must be the second. The initiate was plunged into the pool, just as he was emersed before birth, and after this ablution, which washed away and made him pure and free from stain of sin, he was thrust through the opening, and found himself outside the temple, surrounded by his waiting friends, who greeted him with shouts of joy. He was too exhausted to stand erect for several hours, but he had met with the greatest spiritual change possible to man. He had entered a new world; his sins had been " washed away ;" he had re- ceived the second birth. Henceforth he regarded him- self, and was regarded, as an especial favorite of the gods. The consecrated water in which the good Catholic dips his fingers and signs himself with the cross when entering a place of worship exactly preserves the symbol of the ancient rites. The baptism of the second birth is preserved in a barren form by Protestant sects in im- mersion, which washes away all sins, and in a fainter manner in sprinkling the face with the cross, emblem of prenatal life. The primitive idea is preserved in the word regenera- tion. Its origin is forgotten in the spiritual symboliz- ing, as is invariably the case with all these Phallic rites. The Christian dogma of " the Second Birth" is a di- rect continuance of this practice. When St. John says, PHALLIC WORSHIP. 83 (3 : 3), " Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God, and except a man be born of water and the spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God," he expresses in Greek what the Magians had spoken in their tongues a thousand years previously, and the idea of Christians of to-day. If it is sinful to be born into the flesh, purity requires escape from its defilement. The stern necessities of life prevent relief by cutting short the cords of earthly exist- ence. Hence the spirit, scorning its limitations, dis- gusted with the coarse and corrupt matter with which it has to consort, symbolizes its delivery therefrom. The Mysteries furnished the means of deliverance. The chafing spirit need not await the tardy separation from the body by death ; it could gain the coveted prize by initiation, wherein it met a " second birth," as the Christian now has a " change of heart." What this phrase, so often used by Christians, really meant in its original acceptation, few of them know, and if they did, perhaps they would not use it so flippantly. Such were the Greater Mysteries. Out of the blackness and turmoil ; out of the insane madness, the death-grappling of this life ; out of its seething trials and groans of anguish, its night of sor- row and pain, comes the light, the bright day of joy, the beautiful day of peace and ever-enduring happiness. In ourselves we are nothing. The gods are all in all. Rely on their guidance and reject the sham of this life. Such was the lesson burned into the heart, branded in- delibly into the fibres of the soul. All that was awful, terrific, amazing, dreadful, was presented ; and after it the sinking soul was lifted to heaven, on the wings of all that please and delight. What were the words read from the tablets of stone, 84 THE RELIGION OF MAN. for which these Mysteries were an introduction and a safeguard ? So profoundly was the knowledge of them concealed that historians have never obtained a syllable. They were, probably, the rules for moral conduct, simi- lar to those which Moses gave the Israelites principles which man early learns, and which naturally arrange themselves into a moral code. The Mysteries were celebrated for nine days, during which all distinctions of rank and wealth were abolished. Lycurgus passed a law that any woman who should at- tend in a chariot should be fined six thousand drachmas. These nine days were filled with interesting and curious episodes. The meeting on the first day was that of a social gathering, after which they bathed in the sea to purify themselves ; offered a small quantity of barley to Ceres, the goddess of the harvest, and to all the gods. Were the ceremonies coarse and vulgar ? These an- cient people saw nothing impure in their ideas of crea- tion and purification. They made real in practice that which is vaguely symbolized by Christians, and held of vital cons'equence in that faith. If, however, the theories of the ancients were errone- ous, then all the changing dogmas based thereon are necessarily false, and however sublimated and spiritual- ized, being erroneous in their inception, are erroneous in their last expression. The doctrine of the "second birth" or "regenera- tion" grew out of a mistaken view of nature, and hence, however spiritualized, must be as erroneous as its source. There is no antagonism between spirit and matter. There is no inherent or original sin for which the spirit must atone. One birth, that which ushers into exist- ence, is quite sufficient, nor would anything be gained by a thousand successive gestations. Creation is not PHALLIC WORSHIP. 85 such a botch and sham as to need a theological tinker at every turn. It moves forward with the irresistible force of destiny. And regeneration is by means of in- herent growth affected day by day and hour by hour, through all future time. There were special Mysteries for the women, the festi- val of Ceres, the prolific Mother, the blended embodi- ment of the sun- myth and Phallic worship. The myth is most beautifully adorned by Grecian fancy, and re- flects more clearly, because reaching further into antiq- uity than that of the Virgin Mary, the genesis of the story as a sun-myth. The philosopher interpreted it as a poem of solar changes, the common people accepted it literally, and the adorable goddess became all and more to them than the Virgin to the devout Catholic. Ceres was the embodiment of the full fruition of the year, when the husbandman gathered the golden grain, the blushing apple, the wine-giving grape. It was the divine Ceres who gave them, and he poured out libations of wine and offered cakes of grain as an expression of his thankfulness. We, in our dull, tame day of accurate knowledge, know little of the feelings of the ancients when they peopled the groves, the rivers and the moun- tains, the earth and the stars, with divine beings. They who read in mythologies the story of Ceres, and take it in a literal sense, wholly misunderstand the genius of the Grecian mind. The story is that of the changing year, and is an exquisite poem, as the story of every year is a rounded and complete poem. Ceres is the goddess of an agricultural people a people of honest thought, free from subtlety or guile ; for labor gives honesty of thought, and Ceres was the goddess of labor. She was to woman what Hercules was to man, the giver of great labors, and the Mother of Peace. 86 THE RELIGION OF MAN. Yet her great, all -bestowing heart is wrung by unut- terable sorrow. In the spring her beautiful daughter, Proserpine, goes down to the sea gathering flowers so runs the story and is carried away by Pluto, the god of darkness. Ceres, when she knew of her loss, tore off her head- band,releasing her tresses, put on garments of woe, and, with funeral torch, rushed over the world in search of her child. Even the gods were silent to the questions of her mother's* heart, until the sun in compassion revealed all to her. In the depths of her sorrow, stung by the sense of the great injustice, she resolves never to return to heaven ; she will wander forever on the earth. Broken in spirit and untimely old, four beautiful maidens, daughters of the king, conduct her to their motber, who sits with her last babe at her breast. " Give me the child to nourish,'' cries the heart of tbe goddess. She takes it, and attempts to feed it on nectar and am- brosia, and thus make it immortal. Alas ! she fails, but contents herself in the assurance that her adopted son will become a great and good man. She is more inconsolable, and goes forth on her wan- derings. The earth, deprived of her influence, becomes sterile. There is no harvest, animals perish, and the gods are famished because there are no sacrifices offered by suffer- ing man. They appeal to Ceres to return to her sway. " No ; give me back my daughter." At last Pluto is forced to comply. Proserpine is yielded to the embrace of her mother, but alas ! she has partaken of food in the under world, and must return. Exquisitely beautiful story of maternal love and daughterly devotion, in which is expressed the philoso- phy of life and death ! PHALLIC WOESHIP. 87 Proserpine is the seed, which must be torn from its mother and planted in the under world, or earth, to spring up into life. The four beautiful daughters of the king are the four seasons, and the babe which Ceres adopted and attempted to make immortal while on earth is man. She failed in this, but she made him a worker and a helper. He prepares the soil for the seed, and his hands shall gather the harvest. Imbued with the full sense of this myth, enveloping the seasons and life as a living faith, who can wonder that the women of Greece devotedly kept the festivals in honor of their goddesses ! Proserpine, when she came in the spring, clothing the earth with flowers, was re- ceived with joy, and in autumn there was the Thesmop- Jioria, or festival of Ceres or of women. Then the Grecian matrons abandoned their husbands and gathered at Eleusis or on the sea-shore, and for several days per- formed certain rites, among which was carrying the laws of Ceres in procession. Those laws were laws of peace, for this religion was emphatically a woman's re- ligion. They prescribed love of family and detestation of blood. No animal must be offered as sacrifice ; noth- ing but fruits, grains, and flowers. They inculcated the spirit of peace even in war. When they returned to their homes, these mothers bore the laws with them, and bound their husbands by oath to maintain them. On these laws arose the Athenian altar of Compassion, and from these Peace became deified. Ceres was the god- dess of humanity. Not only does her story reveal the changes of the year the death of summer, the long burial of winter, and the resurrection of spring it passes beyond the horizon of earthly things, and solves the problem of immortality. What is more like the death of the body and resurrec- 88 THE RELIGION OF MAX. tion of the spirit than the life of Proserpine ? St. Paul, deeply versed in the wisdom of Greece, in that wonder- ful chapter of Corinthians (15) uses the illustration with startling effect : " That which thou so west is not quickened, except it die," etc. The Virgin Mary, the Divine Mother, as received by the Christian Church, was not an original creation, but transplanted from the mythology of the pagan world. To free her incarnate God-child from the sinfulness of matter, it was essential to free the mother from contact with matter, and hence the miraculous conception. The Queen of Heaven, the Mother of God, the Im- maculate Virgin in Egypt, was Isis, Mother of the in- fant Horus, Mediator, and Saviour of mankind. It was a charming fancy. The followers of Jesus slowly arrived at the logical necessity of assuming his miraculous birth. His par- entage must have been divine to meet its requirements. If he is to be a mediator, and his blood atone for the sins of the world, he must have a divine origin. It was early seen that even the divine fatherhood did not save Jesus from the sin of the mother. This necessity was recognized by the authors of the Apocryphal Gospels, and they strive to supply the missing link by narrations of the birth of Mary, more astonishing than those told about that of Jesus. With a divine father and mother the divinity of the child was perfect. Maia, mother of Buddha, conceived by a ray of light ; the mother of Christna by influencing the god ; the mother of Jesus, most glorious of them all, must have had equally divine parentage ; and thus the humble wife of Joseph became the divine Mother, and each succeed- PHALLIC WOKSHIP. 89 ing age her ideal changed from the beautiful type of motherhood, the glad-hearted woman holding proudly her divine child, who by his excellence and moral char- acter was to become a constantly perfecting model for all coming ages, to the pale and weeping mother with heavy eyes and ashy lips of pain. Only a part of the old conception of the Virgin Mother was taken. When Isis had mourned for a season the loss of her son, she rejoiced because he was found, and was represented in this character rather than as a mourner. The sad-hearted, persecuted Christians, deeply imbued with the terrible dogmas of sin and evil from Asiatic sources, pictured the mother as weeping for the loss of her son on the terrible cross, overlooking the joy she must have experienced at the resurrection. One was the sympathetic mother, who came near the bleeding heart, and poured balm on the bruised wounds. The other was cold, impassionless, and stainless. Christianity was founded not on Judaism, but on the Mysteries. From them it drew its primary doctrines, as the trinity, the incarnation, the resurrection of the dead, the atonement, hell, heaven, Purgatory, and the judg- ment day. To plainly point out the Phallic origin of the Christian religion, and not off end an over-fastidious taste, the outgrowth of false views of nature and of life, is a most difficult task, and hence the treatment of the sub- ject must be more suggestive than direct. To trace the origin of the various dogmas to their final retreat in Phallic worship or sun-myths would require volumes, and we here only introduce some of the more central dogmas. The teachings of Jesus and his Apostles are tinged with the Mysteries. They classified their doctrines into secret and common ; or " The Mysteries of the King- 90 THE RELIGION OF MAN. dom of God" for the Apostles, and "Parables" for the people. Says Paul, " We speak wisdom among them that are perfect" (initiates). The distinction of Neophyte and perfect was continued in the Christian Church. Whenever orthodox authors have written of the origin of religion they have suppressed everything adverse to their conclusions. In consequence their works have only the value of an ex parte examination, made by in- terested and prejudiced persons. Had the Christian writers freely and faithfully stated the origin of their doctrines, as the early writers did, there would be no controversy on that subject at present. All these writers acknowledged their indebtedness to paganism. Justin Martyr, born ninety years after Christ, writes, " If, then, we hold some opinions nearer akin to those of the poets and philosophers in most repute among you, why are we thus unjustly hated ? You, in saying that all things were thus made in this beautiful manner by God, what do you seem to say more than Plato ? When we teach a general conflagration, what do we teach more than the Stoics ? By opposing the work of man's hands we concur with Meander, the comedian ; and by declaring the Logos the first begotten of God, our Mas- ter, Jesus Christ, to be born of a virgin, without any human mixture, to be crucified and dead, and to have risen again and ascended into heaven, we say no more in this than you say of those whom you style the Sons of Jove." Eusebius says, in his " Ecclesiastical History," " The religion delivered to us, in the docrine of Christ, is not a new and strange doctrine." Faustus, A Manichaean bishop, addressing St. Augustine, says, " You have substituted your Agapae for the sacrifices of the pagans ; PHALLIC WORSHIP. 91 and for their idols, your martyrs, whom you serve with the same honors ; you appease the shades of the dead with wine and feasts ; you celebrate the solemn festival of the Gentiles, their calends and solstices ; and as to their manners, those you have retained without any alteration. Nothing distinguishes you from the Gen- tiles except your assemblage apart from them." The spirit actuating those early church leaders was the op- posite of love and charity. Tertullian voices his time when he says, " How shall I admire, how laugh, how exult, when I behold so many proud monarchs, so many fancied gods, groaning in the abyss of darkness?" At a later period, the leaders of Christianity sought to conceal its origin by destroying the records of the past, and thus cutting it off from its source, and casting re- proach on paganism. In their zeal they paused not for truth or justice. They pillaged the temples, and in- dustriously searched for manuscripts, which they changed or destroyed ; nor ceased to blacken the character of the old faith. Tardy retribution has at length overtaken them, when it is proved that the philosophy of Plato is the culmi- nation of the thousands of years of growth of the Eleu- sian Mysteries. The student will ask, "When has any other system borne such fruits ? Christianity is a limb cut off from the parent trunk, and sapless. Its dogmas, based on pagan ideas, are meaningless jargon without the explanatory key thus furnished. The symbolism it has appropriated had a beautiful significance to the Grecian sage, but to the Christian of to-day is incom- prehensible " mystery of godliness," over which trained theologians wrangle in never-ending dispute. The old faith, which gathered all the spiritual truths of the past, which constantly grew, and was the bread and wine of 92 THE RELIGION OF MAN. life for ages to great races of people, became sadly de- graded when for its exponents stark enthusiasts took the place of the philosophers, and Plato was displaced by the jargon of " the Fathers." To prove this more than dogmatic statement, we will trace two Christian emblems to their source, as illustra- tive of what may be done with all the others ; it will thereby be seen that the doctrines of Christianity were not grafted on to paganism, but were the direct continu- ance of the old forms under new names. The popular idea of Christianity is that it is wholly distinct from the religious systems of the pagan world which preceded or was its contemporary ; that its rites, dogmas, and ob- servances were instituted by its founders, and without a special divine inspiration it could not have come into existence ; yet the researches of modern criticism in- controvertibly prove that this is the reverse of the truth. There is not a fast, festival, procession or sacra- ment, social custom or religious symbol, that did not come bodily from previous paganism. Of all the great religions, Christianity is most purely Phallic, as is distinctly shown by comparing its doc- trines and symbols with more ancient faiths. By Phallic is meant the worship of the generative principle, which is probably the most ancient of all religions, and which by its universal acceptance by primitive man has given its precepts and symbols to all others, even those of the most civilized peoples. Procreation, the most mysterious phenomenon of nature, early attracted attention, and by analogy primi- tive man sought to solve the problem of creation. As offspring came from the union of male and female, so all things sprang from the union of male and female gods, types of the active and passive in nature. Uence PHALLIC WORSHIP. 93 the reverence for these principles or gods, and for the sexual parts (the Phallus, male, and the Yoni, female) as their types. These were carved or drawn true to nature, and became symbols of the male and female prin- ciples, and their union the expression of creative energy. The devout worshipper bowed before their sculptured representations. The uncultured instincts of primitive man saw nothing impure in the act of generation, but considered it as one of the divine processes of creation, as sowing the seed ; the command to increase and multi- ply became a sucred ordinance, and the act itself a sacra- ment to the Creator. As Mrs. Child well remarks, " Were they impure thus to regard it ? Or are we impure that we do not so regard it? . . . Let us not smile at their mode of tracing Infinite and Incomprehensible Cause through all the mysteries of nature, lest by so doing we cast the shadow of our own grossness on their patriarchal sim- plicity." The ideas of indecency are the result of an advanced civilization, when the rites imposed by the simplicity of the childhood of the race become perverted by licentiousness. It may be said that this subject is too delicate to dis- cuss. We confess to little sympathy with that senti- ment which prefers darkness to light, error to truth. If it is indelicate to mention the source of these dog- mas, how much more indelicate to found a system of salvation thereon ! If there be indelicacy or sacrilege, it is to suppose that there can be impropriety in any truth, or that the processes of nature are intrinsically impure. We should not, as we honor and value our humanity, cover its origin with shame. No such thought pervaded the minds of the ancients as they sought to express their 94 THE RELIGION OF MAX. reverence for the mysteries of generation. A later period added the fig-leaf of concealment. In the dim and undefined prehistoric age, out of which the forms of Phoenician, Assyrian, and Egyptian civilizations emerge, Phallic worship appears to have been universal. Criticism confirms Bryant's statement that II or El was at the head of the Babylonian panthe- on, and that the Hebrew Elohim, Phoenician Illus, Cro- nus, and primitive Saturn were names of the same god, represented by a pillar carved in the form of a Phallus. The name Baal Shalisha (Kings 4 : 42) gives an equiva- lent idea, translated "my lord of Trinity," or, "the triple male" Set or Seth, equivalent to Saturn, means "the erect," and Kivan, said by Amos to have been worshipped by the Hebrews, signifies " god of the pil- lar," and Baal Tamar means " god of the Phallus" ("Symbol Worship," p. 60). The supreme god of the Assyrians was Bel, " the Procreator." The union with his wife, the goddess Mylitta, was the origin of all created things. Virgil expresses the Greek and Roman idea when he makes the conjugal act between Jupiter and Juno the cause of the productions of the earth. As at present in India, the Phallus, as an emblem of the Creator, is found in all the temples, and is carried in religious processions, the Eomans, when they held the festival in honor of Venus, a procession of women carried the phallus and pre- sented it to the goddess. As the male principle, under whatever special or local name, was symbolized by an upright pillar, more or less carved to represent the Phallus, so the female principle was represented by a conical one as symbolical of the " mother goddess." This was said to express the form of the swelling abdomen. At the temple of Ammon, PHALLIC WORSHIP. 95 in Libya, this symbol was borne in a boat or ark. At Delphi, the navel-stone of white marble was kept in a sacred sanctuary (Strabo, ix., 420). The goddess Astarte was represented at Carthage in like manner, as well as on Cyprian coins. The famous Caaba of Mecca is a rounded stone having like significance. As Christianity is founded on this ancient faith, it is interesting to learn the ideas of these primitive peoples. It was natural for them to believe that the testes each had special functions, one giving male and the other female offspring a theory recently revived, but science has proved to be incorrect. According to the analysis of Rawlinson, this " con- ception gave origin to the Trinity." The Assyrian triad of Ashur, Anu, Hea (the membrane virile and testes), were united with the goddess Bellis, forming the perfect Creator. Ashur means the " Upright," while the left testes was Anu and the right Hea the three forming the sacred Trinity, the Three in One, the great " I AM." The pictured or sculptured representation of these organs, or the Phallus, was received as the em- blem of life, of the creative energy, ages before the Christian era. The devout follower of Isis suspended the Phallus from her necklace, as the Christian suspends the cross to-day. When the pyramids were fresh from the hands of their architects, and the temples of the Nile were in their pristine glory, around the heads of the " Queen of Heaven," and the " Virgin Mother," and the infant Horus the aureole was painted, expressive of their creative functions. The Phallus, by the necessities of rapid delineation, or perhaps of taste, which dictated the symbol instead of the exact representation, became contracted to a sim- ple perpendicular mark, with a horizontal one across its 96 THE RELIGION OF MAN. top, and in later times was used as the letter Tau of the Phoenitic alphabet. This sign (T) was received as a symbol of the male Creator at least 3000 years ago, and in India is still retained. The female principle, represented at first true to na- ture, became symbolized by an oval or circle, which united with sun-worship gave origin to the aureole ; and to express also the threefold receptivity of the male triad, was expressed by a triangle, which in later ages became the letter Delta. Again, the oval or circle was placed above the cross (i)> symbolizing the perfect and complete godhead, the " three in one," the union of the male and female, whereby all created things were evolved. This is its most common form, although it is met with the parts drawn true to the organs they symbolize. The sanctu- aries of Indian temples still furnish the cross formed of intersecting Phalli, to the horror of Christian mission- aries worshipping in blissful ignorance the same em- blem of creation in its conventional form of the cross. Had they visited the Temple of Solomon when it was * in its glory, they would have seen two Phallic columns standing in its porch, carved so true to nature that they would have required no explanation, and named Jochin and Boaz. Here by the cross was serpent worship, made to con- tribute its myths to form the sacred history of Chris- tianity. The cross was represented as the Tree of Life, as it became an emblem of Eternal Life. Around its upright shaft the serpent twined. The serpent, strangest of living beings, and carrying life and death in its poison fangs, first awoke fear, curiosity, and at last worship. PHALLIC WOESHIP. 97 Thus Christianity adopted the cross, the central sym- bol of its faith, from the pagan world ! The devout maiden may blush to hear that the diamond cross she wears on her breast is only a disguised Phallus, and in- dicates almost the same ideas of the more truthful sym- bol worn by Egyptian ladies four thousand years ago ; reverently kissed by Syrian matrons, or, crowned with flowers, carried in procession by the women of Hindu- stan. If the cross was thus boldly usurped, forms and ceremonies were bodily transferred. The " Virgin Mother" is the goddess Isis, and her immaculate infant is the Child Horus, Blessed Babe, and Saviour of the Nile. The name Madonna is an exact translation of the Sanskrit Isi. The lotus has become the lily, the charm- ing sistrum has been replaced by the hideous clanging bell, the high cap and hooked staff of the Egyptian God has become the bishop's mitre and crosier ; the celibate monks and nuns (the latter a purely Egyptian word) dedicated to the Phallic worship have been transferred to the " Virgin and Son ;" the erect oval, type of the female principle, or the Yoni, became the aureole, or rather the aureole itself was transferred with head of Isis, mother of Horus, now renamed the mother of Christ. (See " Gnostics and their Remains," King, p. 71.) Even the sacred vessels of the pagan Mysteries became those of the holy communion. The emblem of the fish, held sacred by Buddhists, Egyptians, Babylonians, and Assyrians, and prescribed as diet on certain days and ceremonies, because such diet was supposed to be favor- able to reproduction, was not overlooked. And as the pagan ate fish on Friday, a day consecrated to Venus, for reasons quite apparent to one receiving the Phallic religion, Christianity accepted the day and the diet. The legend of the Apostles being fishermen, and of the 98 THE RELIGIOX OF MAX. loaves and fishes, has an undoubted Phallic significance. When the priests assisted in worshipping the ancient goddesses whom Mary displaced, they put on feminine attire, hence the chemise and priestly robes. The ton- sured head was adopted from the Egyptian priests, and is a remnant of the worship of Venus, the feminine principle being a symbol like the rounded navel-stone of the abdomen. The sacred days of the Church are all pagan, and not only the garments of the priests, but the emblems of their office, staff, mitre, crowns, etc. The gods and heroes received new names and became saints. When the village steeple, of a beautiful summer even- ing, is seen arising above the green shade, indicative of the Christian worship, we pronounce it an inspiring ob- ject, and would not have it removed from the landscape. Yet our thoughts revert to its origin, and if we ask his- tory why churches have steeples and what they signify, the answer returned does not enhance our reverence. Is there any meaning to a steeple or a post with a splash of red on its side, the rude stone pillar, the monumental shaft, or the dome surmounted by the gilded spire? What greater incongruity and inexplicable nonsense to hew out the obelisk, build the tower over the hero's grave, or make the steeple more costly than the church it towers above, if there is no other meaning than human desires and vanity ! The primary significance is unknown to the builders, who regard them as appropriate and beautiful because of the hereditary bias given by the primeval worship of the generative principle of which the steeple, dome, tower, arid obelisk are modified emblems. We can now explain the pride which sacrifices untold wealth to build the tallest steeple, emblem of the male, and the highest PHALLIC WORSHIP. 99 dome, emblem of the female principle, as a later form of the worship of the pillar and navel-stone. Column, tower, minaret, and obelisk all have one significance, slightly concealed by the requirements of architecture. Directly stated, the aspiring steeple, con- nected with the " House of God," has a purely Phallic meaning " the Creator," the " Great I Am." If it is crowned with a dome, it refers to the Yoni, the navel- stone, type of the mother goddess, of Ammon, of Delphi, of the Shrine of Isis. When the dome is surmounted by the cross, there is completed the symbol of the Phal- lic religion. The " communion," under the shadow of the Phallic steeple, is a mutilated copy of the pagan rites, wherein communion with the gods was the euphonious phrase- ology meaning with the women maintained in the tem- ple for that object, as is proven by the fact that any mutilation unfitted the individual for the " congregation of the Lord" (Deut. 23 : 1), and that thirty- two thousand Midianitish virgins were preserved for this purpose. The Hebrew words for "sanctuary," "consecrated," and " Sodomite" are essentially the same, indicating amatory passions. The communion wafer should still retain its original form of the Phallus and Yoni, as it does in some places in France on Easter day. Christianity is a translation of paganism. Was not Jesus crucified ? The tale is doubtful. Christna, Prometheus, Buddha, and other deities were incarnated ages before his time. Singular to note, the cross is never depicted as an instrument of torture, and the story of Christna is identically that of Christ, except in names and dates. Paul hesitated not to " lie for the Lord's sake," and taught that cursed doctrine to his followers. Who can unravel the mystery ? Is it worth , 100 THE RELIGION OF MAN". unravelling ? Except as a page in the history of belief it is worthless. Christianity, founded on Phallic conceptions, is, true to its origin, a religion of feeling, of emotion. Its basis is the passions. To them it makes its strongest appeal, and without them it is nothing. Its watch cry, " God is love," has a pertinency. Is it strange, then, that in seasons of" revival," under the Phallic cross and steeple, that the emotions overmaster the intellect, and that the orgies of Babylon are repeated ? Is it to be thought strange that the priests of this religion, although held in check as they are by the civilization of our times, are, in proportion to their number, the most licentious class ? or that the strength cf the churches is in the fe- male members, held under the magnetic control of " Ministers of the Cross" ? It is the one effort of the priesthood in all countries and races to hold the masses, and they do this, not by education, but by and through the emotions and pas- sions. It is not with a scoffing spirit we have studied this in- teresting subject, which exhibits more, perhaps, than any other the vital affiliations of religious systems how- ever diverse, and reveals the foundation of them all. Because Christianity is held to be the only true system, of divine origin and infallible, it becomes necessary to show its human origin and relations to the so-called pagan faith. Superstition lurks in this stronghold, ready to clutch the throat of civilization ; and to dis- lodge this foe of mankind, and throw the light of truth through its dark dens where dogmas are made plethoric by faith, is a necessity of the time. The Church, the steeple, the cross, nourish the superstition on which they are founded. PHALLIC WORSHIP. 101 This superstition is early impressed on the plastic minds of children, preparing them for the reception of the seed sown from the pulpit and in the Sunday- school. It is the duty of all who value liberty and free- dom of thought to free their children from the bondage of creeds and false beliefs, and how can they better ac- complish this than by presenting them with the facts of history ? Do you fear anarchy? There may be for a time con- fusion of thought. The Copernican system of astron- omy broke in pieces the crystalline spheres of Eudoxus, yet astronomy was not harmed. Without the errors which preceded him, Copernicus would not have ar- rived at the truth. They prepared the way. So of religious ideas and dogmas. However false, they have been stepping-stones to new and broader views. The Triune God maybe proven only a myth, arising out of a false and childish physiological notion ; hell may be shown to have no existence ; the sufferings of God on the Cross be discarded, and the book in which the relations of God to man are said to be contained re- ferred to human origin and when all is done the world be the better. The past needed sects and the battle of conflicting creeds ; the present has no use for them. They are dead bodies, once pregnant with vitality, now festering in decay. Something else is required. It is positive knowledge, scientific accuracy of thought and demon- stration. Blind belief finds its last hold with the ig- norant. There will be conflict and change assuredly. Eighty thousand ministers in the United States will be relieved of the arduous task of " saving souls" never lost, and allowed to follow more profitable pursuits. The $200,- 102 THE RELIGION OF MAX. 000,000, the yearly cost of maintain! og the churches in this country, will be turned to better use. The hosts who go through a vale of tears in search of a " fountain filled with blood" will be emancipated, and dare to think and even seek rational enjoyment in this life. The conflict of the ages has been the conflict between the received religion and the tendency of civilization. The saviours of the world, one and all, have suffered mar- tyrdom at the bloody hands of religion. Is there any evidence that the present received religion of Christianity is absolute truth, and all the world will ever require? On the contrary, does it not exhibit marks of decay ? Is it not, even now, a sapless trunk, on whose leafless, moss-grown branches, theological owls echo the mournful monody of salvation to man never lost ? Is it not even now directly in the path of advance- ment and intellectual activity ? The great lights of the world are aloof from the churches. Knowledge has been and is the bane of religion. Religion has ostracized Galileo, Bruno, Darwin, Huxley, Tyndall, Mill, Paine, Jefferson, Shakespeare, Dickens, leaders of a countless host in the front of mental and moral achievement. Is it said that if the religion of the past has been largely composed of superstition, that of the present is free from this repulsive element ? What assurance have we that a century hence the creeds and formulas of the churches will not be regarded with even more pity than we regard the childish superstition of the Puritans, or the corruption of Romanism ? Are we certain that be- liefs now cherished as cardinal will not then be consid- ered of little worth, or intrinsically harmful ? We have not arrived at infallibility in the realm of the intellect or of morals. If it be known that mankind move onward with the MAN'S MORAL PROGRESS. 103 absolute certainty of planetary bodies around their cen- tral orbs ; that there is no retrogression, and as yester- day's thoughts are replaced by to-day's, so to-day's will yield to to-morrow's, it is our duty not to stand in the way of this tidal flow in the sea of humanity. V. MAN'S MORAL PROGRESS DEPENDENT ON HIS INTEL- LECTUAL GROWTH. If the Jews had not made a beginning, some other nation would have offered the requisite organs, and those organs would have guided the advance in precisely the same manner, only transfer- ring to some books, now probably lost, the sacred character which is still attributed to others. COMTE. ALL civilized races of men have books which they re- gard as sacred, and to which they refer their knowledge of moral law and the foundation of religion. Such books are accepted as direct revelations from their God. They all Vedas, Shaster, Koran, Testament (Old and New) make one claim of divine origin, its consequent infallibility, and that they are absolutely essential for man's understanding of the will of his Maker. As the Bible is more intimately related to us, and as we accept no other volume as sacred, it may be regarded as a type of all others. We shall reach the conclusion, if we investigate this realm over which superstition has spread for immemorial time her forbidding pinions, that mankind have derived little benefit from their moral 104 THE RELIGION OF MAX. codes except as they have comprehended them by their intellect. Man's moral progress has been and is equiv- alent to intellectual growth. Until moral truths become the property of the intellect they remain barren beliefs, or united with superstition are productive of great evil. In the vast volume of universal history not one page can be pointed out wherein Christianity has contributed to social or intellectual advancement. On the contrary, it has invariably arrayed itself with the Old, and by every possible means sought to retard humanity's growth. This is its necessary position ; it is a part of the Old, and must battle for it. Claiming the infallibility con- ferred by direct inspiration, it cannot retract. Its creed renders growth impossible. A perfect God writes word by word a perfect, infallible revelation for infinite time and generations. Such a revelation cannot expand it is complete and finished. To add thereto is to blemish. Thus presented, the Church divides on the method of its interpretation. The Protestant gives to each man the right to interpret for himself. In this he is most il- logical ; for how is a finite, imperfect, fallible being to interpret and comprehend an infinite, infallible revela- tion ? When the right of reason is granted, the finite and fallible status of the Bible is acknowledged. The right to reason presupposes the right to receive or re- ject ; for of what use is reason unless this right is be- stowed ? Protestantism struggles in this absurdity, really occupying the identical grounds of Catholicism, which grants the right to reason, but refuses the right of re- jection, saying, " Believe, or be damned. Reason on the Bible, but receive it." If infallible, reason is need- less ; if infinite, it is impossible. Protestantism denies this when it assumes the right of private judgment, and thereby breaks the path for radical infidelity. If MORAL PROGEESS. 105 Luther, Calvin, or Melanchthon have the right to protest against Rome, Beecher, Murray, or Parker may protest against them, and the end is a universal individual pro- test, there being as many sects as persons, and thorough and complete individualization. Catholicism is severely logical. It stifles reason at the beginning. It truly says finite man cannot comprehend an infinite revelation ; hence God has chosen teachers to interpret his revelation ; the priesthood is as neces- sary as the Bible itself ; to ordinary men it is a book written in a foreign tongue, and inspired priests only can translate and apply it to mortal wants. How far has the intellectual life of the race been benefited by the Bible? It cannot claim scientific ac- curacy or knowledge, for it accepts the views of Nature received by the rude and savage Semitic people. They believed the world to be a perfectly square and flat island floating on the water beneath the firmament. It was stationary, and the sun, moon, and stars revolved around it. This is the accepted theory of the Bible, and scarcely three centuries have passed since the man who dared to dispute it would have been burned. Its cosmogony is that of conjecturing ignorance. Did not God know that his world was a ball, and the sun not the earth- was the central body ? Knowing these facts, he writes the very reverse in his revelation, leaving those whom he seeks to enlighten to discover the truth by painful research, after thousands of years. The civilizations for whom no divine revelation is claimed, had arrived at a moral code quite as elevated as that of the inspired law of the Hebrews. When that people received their revelation, they were rude and al- most barbarous. In later times their manners softened and became more refined by contact with other nations 106 THE KELIGIOX OF MAN. and the processes of growth, when an urban and agri- cultural life had taken the place of the nomadic. The anomalous fact is thus presented for the advocate of a divine revelation made to the Jews alone, that the nearer the period of its reception is approached, the ruder the people become, while the farther away, the more refined. It would have been inferred that a people so far removed above all others as to be the especial fa- vorites of God would have given some indication of the infinite difference which must have existed between them and all others. It is urged that this is a wrong view of the intentions of the Deity. He adapted his words to the comprehen- sion of the savage Hebrew. He would not have been understood had he spoken in the phrase of modern science. This revelation, then, becomes a special affair for the exclusive benefit of a small tribe, and cannot be urged on the present ; for if intended for infinite gen- erations it must have infinite extension and application. It is interesting to trace the progress of ideas and the slow yielding of the interpretation of the Bible. From the dawn of science to the present a constant battle has been waged. Every new truth has been fought to the death, and after the Church found it could not withstand it, it turned and claimed it for its own. Geology dealt the death-blow to the Mosaic cosmogony. The earth created in six days ? Turn over the leaves of the great rock-volume, stratum reposing upon stratum for fifteen miles of crust, replete with vestiges of organic beings, once swimming, flying, creeping, or walking, succes- sively evolved while millions of ages rolled away, each but a single swing of the pendulum which marked the progressive evolution of worlds. Geology and Gen- esis can never be reconciled. The story of the Creation MORAL PROGRESS. 107 is not an allegory, but an attempt of the ignorant savage to account for phenomena he did not comprehend. It is the same with all its pretended explanations, as wit- ness that of the rainbow. It is not the sunbeam paint- ing itself on the descending drops of the shower, but a sign set by God after the flood for the comfort and as- surance of Noah, and even to the present this interpre- tation prevails. A thousand ages before Noah's time, on the wild and desolate shores of the new red sandstone, the winds dashed the raindrops, and can we suppose that when those dark showers rolled away no rainbow gorgeously decorated their misty garments ? After the, great battle waged on the intellectual field, it is again urged that it is not to teach science, not for intellectual progress, but as a revelation of morals, the Bible was given to man. It was taken as a standard for the intellect as long as the claim could be maintained, and only by compulsion did it relinquish its blighting grasp. Is there better foundation for its claims as the sole teacher of moral truth ? Does it teach any truths man would not have gained without its aid? It is claimed that it does, and the same claims are made for all sacred books. Against this assertion, so arrogantly maintained, a volume of extracts, wise sayings, and proverbs might easily be compiled from classic writers and the records of remote and even barbarous peoples, which would be in every respect equal to the Bible. What is there in the famous Sermon on the Mount not well known before the first century ? Confucius, more than five hundred years previously, taught a code equal- ly pure. The vaunted Golden Rule was expressed by the Chinese sage, and about the same time by Pythagoras in Greece. Were not the ancients moral ? Witness their laws and customs. Do they not present lives favorably 108 THE KELIGION OF MAN. comparing with the most shining examples of Christian virtue ? Plato and Socrates were equal in forgiveness of enemies, in patient endurance of suffering, in all the virtues bestowed by religion to any Christian saint. But it is said, although the ancient sages wrote wisely and spoke truthfully, though their lives put to blush those of a vast majority of Christians, they could not agree respecting the foundation of virtue, the ultimate object toward which it should be directed, or in what man's happiness consisted. This is a singular objection from the Christian world, who never could agree, with all the light of their revelation, on these same questions, who from the Apostles' time have disputed with word and sword, and are now divided into more than a thou- sand contending sects. Nothing is more obvious than the independence of ethics of revelation. Kevelation is only its accidental expression. This is proven by the fact that all moral truths expressed in the Bible were clearly recognized for indefinite time before its compilation. It abounds in precepts good of themselves, though not original with it ; but as a moral code it is exceedingly imperfect. So far from pointing man to the eternally true and right, in the hands of its interpreters it has taught the oppo- site of truth, and blinded those who would see. It ad- vocates slavery. The chosen men of God are slavehold- ers. He urged them to battle, assisted them to gain the day, and directed them how to divide the spoil of cap- tive wives, mothers, and maidens. If, in the terrible ordeal of slavery through which we have passed, the slaveholder found consolation anywhere, it was in the Bible. He fought under the direct command of God, who cursed Ham and his posterity, and declared it just that they should be bondsmen and bondswomen for all MAN'S MORAL PROGRESS. 109 time. So directly did the Bible oppose anti-slavery that the agitators threw it down and trampled it in the dust. It upholds capital punishment. Its code is a code of vengeance, and although the great thinkers of the day one and all oppose the death penalty, and the refined sense of the age revolts at it as a relic of barbarism, the prejudice created and sustained by religious education founded on the Bible preserves it as a black and dismal blot on our civilization. It holds woman in her present unequal position with man, and sets itself directly in the way of her advancement. One of the most startling miracles recorded in the Old Testament is the standing still of the sun and moon to enable the Israelites, push- ed on by God, to slaughter their enemies. A religion, of peace ? The millions that have perished in its wars are a minority of those who have fallen victims to the rack, the stake, the gibbet, and nameless instruments of torture, or suffered a thousand deaths in reeking dungeons, with iron links festering their flesh, without appeal and without hope. The Church has arrogated to itself the authority to do for the living as it believes its God does for nine tenths of the dead created a hell ; and carried out his commands by commencing those tor- tures which he will intensify and continue forever. For the Bible, it is claimed that the human mind could not unaided have arrived at a moral code. Surely the mind of man could not have obtained the conception of the angry, jealous Jehovah, whose gar- ments were dyed red with the blood of the slain ; his creation of the world in six days and then resting ; his creation of life and light before he created the sun ; his creating man perfect, and man's becoming a most piti- ably imperfect work ; his drowning all the world except eight souls, who became worse than those destroyed ; 110 THE KELIGIOX OF MAN. his self-sacrifice on the cross as the only means of re- claiming a moiety of mankind from the innate and all- powerful principle of evil this only can be learned hy such a revelation. After its acquisition, it requires thousands of years to free mankind from its incubus. At this stage of the discussion we ask, Can a book bring new moral truths to man ? Can he be taught that which is not inherent in his constitution ? The horse cannot comprehend mathematics because the mental qualities necessary are dormant or absent, nor can it understand moral relations for the same reason. The same is true of man. Unless he has the moral qualities, moral truths would fall as unappreciated before him as the animal. He must first possess these moral qualities in order to receive a revelation, and, possessing them, they evolve moral truths, and a revelation is not re- quired. Do not understand that reproach is cast on the Bible. It should be placed with the sacred books of other races the A vesta, the Shaster, the Vedas, the Koran and consider them all as equally creditable records of the strivings and spiritual experiences of childish and savage men to fathom the mysteries of the spiritual universe within and the illimitable universe without. One has no more right to command belief than another. Truths are beautifully expressed by all. They repeat what is inherent in the constitution of man. If all sacred books were blotted from the world this day, not a single truth would be lost. The reception of or acquiescence in an ethical system, in order to work a lasting benefit, must not be by belief, but by knowledge. The system must meet an intellectual development competent to under- stand and make it its own. It is asserted that the sim- ple belief has power to elevate. Most mischievously MAN'S MORAL PROGRESS. Ill false is the assertion. If the believer advances, it is not from the power of his belief, but by intellectual culture. This is demonstrated by the results of missionary labors. Glowing narrations are published of conversions of the natives of the farthest islands of the sea, and the glori- ous results wrought by the Bible among the savages of the frozen north or burning equator. The zealous mis- sionaries appear to think baptism of the natives indica- tive of their reception of Christianity. ' ' Blessed book !" say they, " wherever thou goest, civilization and innu- merable blessings follow." Oh, missionary ! it is not with the Bible that civilization goeth forth, but with the self-reliant Anglo-Saxon. Are savage men changed to Christians ? Nay ; they vanish like frost. It is not conversion, but terrible, inevitable extinction. The red Indian, from a race holding a vast continent, has become a remnant fast expiring not driven westward, as is poetically said, but dying out, as the wolf and deer, in the place of their birth. The Spaniards converted the swarming population of Mexico and Peru ; where now are their converts ? A charming story, highly suggestive, is related of an Aztec tribe. They were readily persuaded to demolish their idols and set up the cross in their places, and Cortez left them, fully persuaded that they were true believers. It so happened that one of his horses was disabled and left with them. Alas ! for the worship of the true God. The superstitious natives, connecting the unknown ani- mal with the power of the white man, worshipped it as a deity, gave it flowers and savory viands ; and when it pined and died on such inappropriate diet, its afflicted worshippers reared its effigy in stone, and a century later, when the Franciscans came to preach the Gospel, they were astonished to find this image of a horse occupying 112 THE RELIGION OF MAN". the highest place in the temple, and devoutly adored as the god of thunder and lightning. The native mind found its level in worship, despite the efforts of the con- queror to force the mystification of the Trinity on its un- tutored intellect. Were the Aztecs converted ? They are gone, and not one remains to read the hieroglyphic tablets of their ancestors. Is the Bible more deadly than the rifle? One of the most active and zealous missionaries on the African coast confessed that he never converted a single African. Once he thought he had succeeded, but his new convert, on being informed that he must deny himself a plurality of wives, at once denied his religion. After the vast outlay of missionary labor, there is not an important Christian community of their founding constructed of heathen elements. The battle between Christianity and the great Asiatic religions Buddhism, Brahminism, and Islamism has not been more fortu- nate. Mr. Hutchins gives the results of ten years' attendance at a mission school on the west coast of Africa in the answer of his servant when asked what he knew of God, " God be very good : he made two things one, sleep ; and the other, Sunday, when no one has to work." He says that after scores of years of intercourse with Euro- / / pean traders and missionaries, the Africans still cling " to their gis-gis, jujus, and Fetishism with as much per- tinacity as they did many hundred years ago. . . . Here we have all the appliances of our arts, our sciences, and our Christianity, doing no more good than did the wheat in the parable that was sown among briers and thorns. To attempt civilizing such a race before they are human- ized appears to me beginning at the wrong end. " Ham- ilton Smith remarks : " Even Christianity of more than three centuries' duration in Congo has scarcely excited MOEAL PROGRESS. 113 a progressive civilization." No people have had more direct communication with Europe than the Africans, among whom Christian bishops achieved renown in the times of the primitive fathers, and in modern times nu- merous missionary stations have been maintained at great sacrifice of money and of life, yet no visible effect has been produced toward civilizing the black race. The people of the torrid zone find in the picturesque and passional teachings of Moslemism greater satisfaction than in the colder and more intellectual forms of Christianity. Where Christianity is apparently received, it proves in the end only a form, and its transcendent doctrines are changed into crudest Paganism. The negroes of the South, despite centuries of contact with Christian mas- ters, retain their belief in Voudooism. Humboldt saw in the Cordilleras a savage crowd dancing and brandishing their war-hatchets around an altar where a monk was elevating the Host. They simply transferred their war- dance around a fire to an altar. Savary states that no Indian has ever become a true Christian. Mr. Kennon, in one of his popular lectures on Northeastern Asia, said the missionaries found it impossible to convey any idea of God or of the atonement to the Yakuts, because their language had no words for any of the high moral con- ceptions of Europeans. The want of such words indi- cates the want of the ideas they express a deficiency supplied only by ages of growth. The Greek priest hangs a cross on the neck of the low-browed, skin-clad Yakut, and reports to St. Petersburg another remark- able conversion to Christianity. The Christianization of the Dark Continent is being pushed with great zeal at present, for greed joins hands with godliness in rescuing the black heathen from sin and its consequences. 114 THE RELIGION OF MAK. It is a laudable effort, and better results may flow from it than the earlier attempt, whereby Christian slave- traders brought the poor creatures to Christian lands, to be converted into Christians and slaves at the same time. Now the vast Congo country is opened, and there are a multitude of preachers streaming in to extend the gospel to every creature. Civilization and Christianity are forced on these poor people. The nude native will be induced, at the point of the bayonet, to wear panta- loons and a stovepipe hat, and the belle of the tropic jungle, who has found most comfort in being adorned the least, will no longer clothe herself with a copper bracelet, but wear crinoline, pin-back dresses, and high- heeled shoes. With the traders thirsting for ivory, gold, and the palm products, go the missionaries to teach end- less punishment in a climate that will discount Hades ! One of the steamships engaged in the trade recently left her civilized European port for the Congo country with an assorted cargo of rum, gunpowder, and mis- sionaries. There were 60,000 gallons of ruin, 700 gallons of gin, and twelve missionaries. The number of Bibles and tracts that went with the missionaries is not stated. If a Congo negro should attempt to understand an orthodox tract on " Predestination and Original Sin," it would not require the rum to make him crazy ! The missionaries are a necessity of the trader. The Congo dude is satisfied with palm oil and elephant fat for a dressing, and so is the fair beauty of the jungle, until taught by the men of God the first idea of original sin, whereby calico and a silk hat are atonement. Herbert Ward gives some interesting pen-pictures of how the civilizing invasion is going on. The European traders want ivory, and the Arabs set to work to pro- cure it. A band of three or four hundred organize, and MORAL PROGRESS. 115 armed with Christian Enfield rifles, inarch into the in- terior. They enter a country which is a paradise of fruits, orchards of plantains, palm fruits and nuts, and all the luxurious growths nature in that wantonly bounteous country provides. There are villages with teeming populations, and a happy people with all their wants supplied. These emissaries of Christian civiliza- tion at once and without warning open fire, shooting down every one they meet. Wild consternation seizes the people, their village is surrounded, and the flames swiftly spread over its thatched dwellings. They at- tempt to escape. The women are captured, the men shot down unless they make good their flight to the jungle. Having thus wrought desolation, the victors settle down with their spoils, and send word to the fugi- tive fathers and husbands that they can have their wom- en back for an elephant's tusk each. Then the poor savage goes out hunting the mighty beast armed with his arrow, for all that is dear in the world to him can be regained only by his success in this unequal chase. When the tusks are secured, the exchange made, the ad- vance guard of European civilization returns loaded with booty, leaving a desert waste in place of the peaceful village reposing in its fruitful garden ! How thankful these benighted savages ought to be for the enterprise of Stanley in opening their country to Christian civilization ! When the sleek missionary comes among them, after the raid which has brought death to every thatched dwelling, how thankful they ought to be when that missionary explains that every one of those murdered relatives has gone to perdition, and the only escape of the living is to believe in the religion which has brought rum, rifles, gunpowder, and the blessed Bible to the Dark Continent ! 116 THE RELIGION OF MAN. When civilization reaches its ultimate, the Ethiopian will not be a civilized race, but shall have passed away, as the Indian has done in America. The New World is civilized, but the Indian has perished. As long as he remains his old beliefs and customs are retained. The Pagan rites and frantic ceremonies of the Egyp- tians are now enacted before the churches of the Copts, as described by Herodotus, earliest of historians ; the Greeks still preserve the Pyrrhic dance ; the celebrated Chorographic dance of the ancient Romans is still pur- sued by the Wallach peasantry, showing how much stronger are customs wrought in indigenous faiths than foreign systems, even when these are apparently suc- cessful. William H. Seward, in his " Travels Around the World," p. 456, agrees with the universal testimony of unprejudiced observers. His opinion has vastly more value than that of ordinary travellers, for he possessed superior advantages, and he certainly will not be ac- cused of saying a word against the benefits of mission- ary labor he could possibly avoid : " It was not for St. Xavier or the Catholic Church of the sixteenth cen- tury to bring India and the East into Christian civili- zation. It must be sadly admitted that this yet remains to be done. It is to be hoped that the great work has been begun in the humble schools for native men and women which have been opened under missionary aus- pices in various parts of the country." This is virtually yielding the whole question. It is not the religion taught by the missionaries, but the knowl- edge taught in the schools which is to elevate Hindu civilization. The report of Lieutenant Wood, of the United States Navy, who made a trip on the Trenton to China and Corea in 1884, is not more cheering. MAN'S MORAL PROGRESS. 117 Their attack on the religion of the three or four hundred millions of the Celestial Empire, he states, is absolutely without results. He unreservedly says that he does not believe there is a single Chinese convert to Christianity of sound mind in the entire extent of China to-day. The converts about whom so much talk is made are menials employed by the missionaries, and are converted for the sake of the higher wages given them. As soon as they are discharged they leave their professions. The mis- sionaries have little or nothing to do with the high-cluss natives. Many meetings are in English, the missiona- ries themselves being the only attendants. A nobleman or mandarin has never acknowledged the Christian faith. The missionaries have translated the Bible into a lingo which has the same relation to the classical lan- guage that an obscure negro dialect of Louisiana has io pure English. When located at Foo Chow, they learned the dialect of that locality, and of course could use no other in making their translation. The classical tongue is that which is alone employed by the educated, and in which the sacred precepts of Confucius are given. Hence the Bible and the preaching of the missionaries excite the ridicule of the educated, and the latter oc- cupy nearly the same position that the uncouth and igno- rant followers of the Salvation Army do in this country. Who can dissent from Kenan when he says, "As to the savage races, those sad survivors of an ancient world, for whom nothing better can be wished than quiet death, it is almost derision to apply our dogmatic for- mulas to them. Before making Christians of them, we should first have to make them men, and it is doubtless if we should succeed in doing that. The poor Otaheitan is trained to attend mass or a sermon, but the incurable softness of his brain is not remedied ; he is made to die 118 THE KELIGIOJST OF MAJT. of melancholy or ennui. Oh, leave these children of nature to fade away on their mother's bosom ! Let us not with our stern dogmas, the fruit of twenty centuries of reflection, disturb their childish play, their dances by moonlight, their hours of sweet intoxication." The mistake of devotees is the belief that morality and re- ligion can be manufactured and forced on the mind. They create their formulas, which they call religion, and regard the acceptance of these as conversion. This process may be very well where educational train- ing and prejudice are in their favor ; when they do not depart far from the generally received ideas ; but when they attempt by this means to storm the religions of other races, they, without exception, utterly fail. The true conversion of the savage to our transcendental morality is as possible as the domestication of the lion and tiger. A thousand ages of growth lie between the two. This is a question of anatomy and physiology. Its solution depends on the structure and resulting functions of the brain. When the savage is able to grasp knowl- edge with the acumen of the civilized man, then, and not till then, can he be converted to the morality of civilization. Christianity, born from the debris of im- memorial ages, has grown with the growth of the people who accepted it, and is the representation of their theo- logical ideas. Now go to the wilds, and meeting a sav- age with mind untrained except to the exigencies of his precarious life, thrust this system upon him. He is utterly incapable of its comprehension. The wide in- terval between the savage and philosopher has been passed over by slow and painful progress through mil- lions of ages. The savage may receive aid from our ac- quirements, but we cannot bridge the interval nor furnish him a shorter road. MAST'S MOEAL PROGRESS. 119 Religion concreted in formulated systems is organi- cally opposed to progress. The formulas of religion nrnst of necessity be sacred and inviolable ; they cannot yield, and soon are left behind. Then commences the des- perate struggle not to cease until the reign of perfect knowledge. On one side there is a constant effort to extend the domain of the known ; on the other, perse- cution ; for with the belief in infallibility comes the right of enforcing that belief, and faith and bigotry al- ways are in exact ratio to ignorance. There are no limits to the illustrations history furnishes of this sub- ject. Faith in a religion not understood always resuHs in superstition, intolerance, and persecution. It might as well be said that a man's coat influences his mind, as that he is organically changed by an exotic system of religion. A church-member, a bigot, a fanatic are easily made, but an organically good and upright man is good and upright from development, and cannot be made to order. It is claimed by the leaders of Christianity that to it we entirely owe our civilization. Without it we should still roam the forests of Europe, skin-clad savages, with- out the least conception of right or wrong. To the gen- eral views expressed in the preceding pages we specialize to show the real influence Christianity exercised on the progress of European civilization. Although it may not be said that Christianity is re- sponsible for the night of ignorance in which Europe wandered for over a thousand years, yet, if not the sole cause, it was the chief and most active agent in the pro- duction of that awful catastrophe, and the prejudice then instilled against learning by ecclesiasticism has not yet wholly disappeared. Even in the Reformation, which originated in the increase of intelligence, a fanatical 120 THE RELIGION OF MAN". crusade against learning was undertaken. Sage pro- fessors sent their pupils home with the assurance that the Spirit of God would inspire the true believer. The first century was the flood-tide of Roman intellect- ual greatness the age of inimitable poetry, perfected history, and diligent love of philosophy. Probably at no period in the history of the ancient world did the masses enjoy in a higher degree the comforts of life. The refinement of the few reached to the many, and the love of knowledge was not a monopoly of a select circle. The age immediately following yielded historians, law- yers, and philosophers, who would have been illustrious in any period, and learning became so generally diffused that there were a greater number of cultivated minds than even in the Golden Era. The third century presents a different picture learn- ing everywhere despised, history degraded to lying chronicles, poetry and philosophy contemptible, and the Latin tongue corrupted into a barbarous jargon. The laws of Constantine and succeeding emperors in the next century could not stay the tide of ignorance. Great men are evolved by the progress of events, not created by laws. Why this rapid decline, in two centuries, from the pinnacle of greatness to the abyss of ignorance ? Not the inundation of Northern hordes so much as the re- ligion introduced into the Roman world during those centuries. The early Christians stigmatized learning as profane, and so identified was ancient literature with the old form of worship that it was held in abhorrence by the fanatical devotees of the Nazarene. In 398 the Council of Carthage forbade its being read by bishops, and the ignorant masses were prevented from in curring the sin by inability. MORAL PROGRESS. 121 As long as the Christians were an insignificant sect, the influence of their contempt for learning had little effect ; but when they gained power and controlled the Government, their influence was exceedingly great. The offices of instructors of the Imperial family and of the sons of distinguished men, previously held by noble philosophers, were assigned to ignorant and supersti- tious priests. The knowledge of the Pagan world was discarded, and the dogmas of theology supplied their place. The Church absorbed all the mental activity of the times. Philosophy, poetry, and profane history were discarded as unworthy the attention of regenerated mortals. A new arena was opened for intellectual con- test one which engaged the thought of the centuries. This was polemics : the solution of incomprehensible dogmas by never-ending verbal warfare. As science expands and ennobles the mind, so such dis- putations narrow and dwarf its powers, and make it im- becile. These studies of questions which are merely arti- ficial formulas, having no existence except in imagina- tion, corrupt the fountains of knowledge. While the supporters of conflicting creeds, dogmas, and vagaries disputed, the Latin tongue became so debased that the record of ancient knowledge was sealed except to a few. With the temples, ruthlessly destroyed by those who considered them profane, perished the Old Empire of Thought. The heated disputants over vacuities, fur- nished instead their interminable discussions, which, by preoccupying the attention of those who cared to think, excluded the old literature ; ignorance became canonized. No adequate conception can be formed of the darkness of the human intellect at this period. Su- perstition grew like a rank and pestilent weed, and as- ceticism depressed the understanding to still lower 122 THE RELIGION OF MA2T. depths. The Old was cast aside, and the literature given instead was valueless. Even the minds of thinkers were led astray along paths beginning in ignorance and end- ing nowhere. Worthless, except as a curiosity, is the literature succeeding the age of inspiration, when bishops sat in solemn council over such vast problems as the immaculate conception, the manner of the operation of Christ's will, the digestion of communion bread and wine, and the possession of property by Christ. When the Barbarians overspread the empire, they were plastic as children in the hands of the priests, and easily persuaded to substitute the Mother of God and Christ for their peculiar deities. The New Religion held high carnival. Ignorance is the primeval slime in which infallible authority grows sleek and powerful. The Christian hierarchy grew from century to century, grasping power by every possible means, staying its hand at no crime, pausing at no cruelty, until it seemed that Europe must inevitably remain a theocracy like that of ancient Egypt, or of the Druids. From commutation or payment for pardons, from tithes, from intestate estates, from legacies, the Church at one time owned the title-deeds of a greater portion of the lands of Eu- rope ; kings and emperors bowed unclad in the porch of the Pope's palace, who ruled with undisputed despotism over the spiritiial domain, and sought in the same man- ner to seize temporal affairs. Out of this night Europe emerged. How ? By the influence of Christianity? Who, after reviewing this dismal record of crime against humanity, dare assert that the knowledge by which Europe is blessed to-day, and by which she is superior to the hordes of her ancient forests, flowed from Christianity ? If the Christian re- ligion is so productive of advancement, why did it not MAN'S MORAL PROGRESS. 123 put forth its fruits during the thousand years it held mankind in implicit obedience, and its nod was more potent than the laws of emperors ? Did it foster learning ? Countless martyrs at the stake and on the rack, whose only crime was extending hu- man knowledge beyond prescribed limits, cry to the pitying Heavens. For a thousand years it sat on the prostrate form of a great civilization, and attempted to guide the course of events. What were the results ? Eead the chronicles of the Dark Ages. With blanched face and trembling nerves call up its scenes of fiendish- ness, where the representatives of this religion, clad with their power by God, wrought the work of fiends incarnate. The morality of Europe sank below that of the Empire even under Xero and Caligula. Morality, manly self-reliance, and nobility of character disap- peared as the new religion gained ascendancy. We now witness its blasting effects on Spain, a fossil of the Dark Ages, where the priest is more powerful than the king he faithfully supports. The poison of unquestioning faith entered deep into the vital current of Spanish life, and paralyzed the intellect. It is this same faith that supports the Hapsburgs, like evil birds preying on the people, who detest, but dare not move for fear of the terrible power unscrupulously excited by the priesthood. Napoleon held his throne, and Louis his villainous shadow kept his position on the slack rope of French politics by the same aid. Italy fairest laud on which the sun ever shone almost perished in the embrace of tin's devil-fish, shaken off by desperate revolution. The coAvled monk and drivelling priest are the types of Church perfection. Who wishes the hierarchy could have succeeded as they hoped, and made the holy faith descended from the 124 THE EELIGION OF MAN. Apostles and sealed by the blood of martyrs the tri- umphant ruler of Europe ? When we read the history of its usurpations, its unspeakable crimes, its love of torture, its fiendish cruelty, are we not unspeakably thankful that it did not succeed ? The hierarchy fought against a self -reliant people, and the fortune of events was against it. The Crusades not only exposed the fallibility and duplicity of the Church, but foreign contact enlarged the intellectual horizon of Europe. The introduction of the long-buried classics through Arabic channels stimulated the ever-present desire for knowledge. Aristotle, a thousand years for- gotten, became the leader in science, and anew civiliza- tion began at the identical point where research in ac- curate knowledge closed with the ancient philosophers. Humanity had passed a long night of pain, terrified by the incubus of nightmare, to resume where thirty gen- erations before it surrendered the burden. '.W MARTIN. GREAT THEOLOGICAL PROBLEMS. 125 VI. THE GREAT THEOLOGICAL PROBLEMS THE ORIGIN" OF EVIL, THE NATURE OF GOD, AND THE FUTURE STATE. THE ORIGIN OF EVIL. 'Tis not for lack of goodness, man, The flames of hell are lit ; Hear a whole world's experience Proclaim " 'Tis lack of wit." Ah ! sighing over empires wrecked, And mighty nations cowled in gloom ? Error is mortal and must die, But Progress rises from its tomb. EMMA ROOD TUTTLE. THERE is a tendency of the human mind to accept its ignorance of a subject as involving a problem, and after research has shown that what it mistook for profundity was only vacuity, the devotee holds to his opinion with a tenacity inversely proportioned to its nothingness. At one time astrology was believed to present problems the solution of which would unravel the grand enigma of the stars in their relation to man. In another age the Philosopher's Stone and the Fountain of Youth were as eagerly sought. We know now that astrology, the Philosopher's Stone, the Fountain of Youth, were not problems, but chimeras. In like manner, moral problems have been imagined, and the welfare of man, not only in this life but in the future, made to depend on their solution. These imaginary problems have prob- ably engaged more attention and discussion than those which have a reality. 126 THE RELIGION OF MAX. Of these, the origin of good and evil, redemption, pre- destination, free-will, and the existence of Satan are ex- amples, each having called forth the keenest thought, and many having served as subjects of controversy for ages, yet all actually being names standing for nothing. Of these, none have received more attention than the existence of evil. Out of it have grown the overshad- owing systems of theology and the wonderful cosmog- onies childish dreams of infantile man to account for the phenomena of Nature. Man is placed in a beautiful world, where the grand and inspiring scenes of land and ocean, boundless forests and plains, the stormy grandeur of the sea, the dreary expanse of the desert, constantly excite activity of thought and profoundest emotions. Nature with bounti- ful hand spreads happiness and enjoyment on every side. Man plants the grape, the corn and olive, and genial showers and sunshine mature the harvest. Na- ture works expressly for him. The uncultured savage is impressed with the presence of a good Deity who governs for the express purpose of bestowing happiness on his children. He is met, however, by counter-phenomena, which it seems impossible to refer to a good being. The sunshine and shower, the abundant harvest, the ex- hilaration of health are mingled with the rush of storm, with swift lightnings and terrible thunders, prostrating in a moment the labors of years of repose ; the parching drought, withering and destroying the efforts of man ; pestilence dark and fearful, and famine preying on friend and foe. There is an antagonism which cannot be referred to one source. There must exist an inferior or equal power delighting in subverting the designs of the good and benevolent one. This belief is not cf a tribe or race, but is common to GREAT THEOLOGICAL PROBLEMS. 12? all at a given stage of advancement. It is not a question of time, but of development. Although widely differing in the trappings which surround them, there is slight difference in the countless myths of the world. View- ing Nature through their animality, savages behold reflections of themselves, and, unbiassed by geographi- cal position or age, arrive at similar conclusions. They are constantly impressed by this antagonism. Storm and zephyr, sunshine and cloud, health and disease, life and death, speak in unmistakable language, and as fear is stronger than love, the C-od of Evil receives by far the greater homage. They view with apathy the bless- ings poured forth by the Good Deity, but become frantic with fear and servilely prostrate themselves in the dust at the approach of the Evil. Days of sunshine, boun- teous harvests, years of health, are effaced by an hour of storm, the failure of a season, or a moment of pain. What is evil? Evil is imperfection. We are not to in- quire why an all wise, omnipotent Creator did not create perfectly in the beginning ; we must accept the fact. Our improvements acknowledge Nature's imperfections. We would destroy noxious weeds, venomous reptiles, and in- sects, thereby lessening our toil and ensuring the harvest ; we would abolish whirlwinds and earthquakes, equalize climates, demolish mountains, fill up rugged places, and drain marshes and lakes. Such to us are physical evils ; to other children of Nature they are not. She loves the reptile of the slime as well as the eagle of the crag, and is equally attentive to their wants. She will cor- rect her failures in due season, imperceptibly, without convulsion or revolution, while man must suffer the pains of his imperfect surroundings and organization. Out of this imperfection grew the evils of individual action. The savage, barely able to fashion a bow and 128 THE RELIGION OF MAN". spear, as little feels the impress of a higher law as the lion or tiger, and as well might we say to the latter, as it leaps on its victim, " Cease, it is wrong." Both act in accordance with their organization. It is just and honorable for the Carib to refresh himself at his canni- bal repast according to his standard. The passions be- ing first developed and unguided, there is, previous to the growth of the intellect, a period of great excess. This is overcome by growth, and, one by one, errors none the less necessary for being false are discarded. The mind matures as the limbs of an infant are enabled to walk. Progress is the evolution of inherent qualities. It is not derived from revelation or any foreign source. To understand a revelation there must be answering faculties in man's mind, else it would be unintelligible. A revelation of morals to a totally depraved being would be in an unknown tongue. Man is organically moral, else he could not have moral ideas ; and, possessing in- nate moral capacities, he has no need of a revela- tion. The first conception of evil originated in an imperfect knowledge of Nature, and the personification of this imperfect knowledge is the God of Evil. The attain- ments of a later age, by indicating its origin, demolish the dogma. If the Good Deity is infinite in benevolence and power, and created everything as pleased him, he could not have created evil. Then, if evil exists, it must be self -existent a supposition conflicting with the infiniteness of the Good Deity. Evil is the friction of Nature's activities working for eternal good. As man advances, he is torn less and less by the thorns against which he is thrust by ignorance, and realizes that the only divine life is that wherein he comprehends QEEAT THEOLOGICAL PKOBLEMS. 129 Nature and gladly does her bidding, and that Evil can only be overcome by growth. THE NATURE OF GOD. Each nation believes that its own laws are by far the most ex- cellent. No one, therefore, but a madman would treat such prejudices with contempt. HERODOTUS. FROM the All-God to the One God who rules all is a long and painful journey. The idea was conceived in a false understanding of natural phenomena, and its progress is the application of increasing knowledge. Monotheism, simply substituting one God in place of many, is scarcely removed from Polytheism. Its great advance is ma.de when it shakes off his personality and believes God to be a spiritual essence. The Protean forms the idea and conception of God have assumed should teach the falsity of the theory that God is revealed to the intuitions. Zenophanes saw the error of supposing man's conception of God a proof of his existence or character. He said, " If horses or lions had hands and should make their deities, they would respectively make a horse and a lion." English theo- logical writers have rarely ventured to attempt the proof of the existence of God by philosophical argument. Kant has shown their insufficiency. The stronghold is in intuition. The reason acknowledges God's existence. But what becomes of this supposition when it is found that whole nations have no idea of God, and when some of the most enlightened men fail to feel his existence ? Monotheism is not the end of the series, but it reduces the gods to one. What is his nature ? He is self -existent. 130 THE RELIGION OF MAN. It is said, in argument of the existence of God, that we cannot conceive of creation, with all its designs and adaptations, without a planner, a creator ; at the same time it is asserted that we can conceive of the self exist- ence of the designer ! In other words, the mind that cannot comprehend the lesser is amply able to grasp the greater ! He is of infinite power, wisdom, and love. Are these spiritual abstractions, or are they per- sonified ? Necessarily the latter, and every man's con- ception must be different. What logically follows? That as our ideas of God are projections of ourselves, there can be no certain and true idea of the Divine. We may build an ideal of what God must be, analyzed to his elements. He must be infinite causation, as the cause of all ; he must be the controlling mind, yet he cannot reason, for that would imply imperfect con- sciousness, the co-ordination of cause and effect ; he cannot be said to foresee, for that implies relations as to time ; he cannot be said to have judgment, fancy, com- parison, qualities of the finite mind. The primary ele- ments left, by analogy, are being, cause, knowledge, love each of infinite degree. Can personality be formed from these ? Can they be infinite in a personal being? Well did the learned and pious Dr. Arnold say : "It is only of God in Christ that I can, in my present state of being, conceive any- thing at all." The abstract God is the Father ; the personified God is Christ. The Trinity supplies the needs of both the metaphysician and the most sensual mind. God must be infinite. Man, being finite, can form no conception or idea of him whatever. This is an un- avoidable logical conclusion, from the necessity of man's constitution. GEEAT THEOLOGICAL PROBLEMS. 131 But, it is claimed, we cannot understand Nature or ourselves not even the growth of the humblest flower ; shall we therefore cease investigation ? The fields of thought thus compared are totally unlike. With mat- ter we deal with finiteness, and pause on the threshold of infinite generalizations. With God thero are no finite qualities to seize hold of ; his very being is differ- ent from ours, and to us his thoughts cannot be trans- lated. As children strive to clutch the moon, philosophers and metaphysical theologians have endeavored to grasp the infinite. They attempted the impossible and failed, and the world is little better for all their dogmatical speculations. It is claimed that belief in God is the foundation of all religion. This is true of religion considered as the ceremonial growing out of a belief that God demands reverence from man, but not true of morality. Men have believed in all varieties of gods, or renounced all gods, and yet lived honest, upright, and noble lives. The solution of this vexed problem has no relation to morality, being only interesting to religious schemers. While the best of men have held diametrically opposed ideas of a God, or placed such ideas with the indeter- minable, the worst and most fiendish of mankind have claimed to understand God perfectly, and have waded in human gore to vindicate their opinions, and often sealed their faith by terrible forms of martyrdom. Let Theology bury its myriad dead, whose bones whiten the plains of the Old World ; wait till the pitying showers of heaven wash away the stains of blood, the fagot ceases to smoke, the tears of widows and mothers and helpless children be dried, and a great race of people rise from the dust in which with iron heel it has crushed 132 THE RELIGION OF MAX. their spirits, ere it call its worship the religion of love and peace sent to redeem mankind. Science will go her quiet way, of God neither affirm- ing nor denying. All that the past has furnished in proof of the existence of a Divine Architect she pro- nounces the assumption of children grasping at the moon. The vexed so-called problem is not a problem ; it is a chimera. She goes forward from facts to the order of facts called law, on to the organization of matter. Here the human mind stands on the threshold of an unknown universe into which it can go, which it will conquer and claim, only to find, as the intellect grows acute, new do- mains extending beyond. As we pass from matter to law, from law to principle, from principle to attribute far beyond the outermost skirts of space, we may tread the sanctuary of Supreme Being. What is his nature ? Is he personal? Is he an omnipotent spirit? Vain questions ! When the intellect enters the sanctuary, all shall be made plain. Until then it must calmly wait, content with investigations it can comprehend. THE FUTURE STATE. Do right ; act justly ; love your race ; then will you softly close your eyes in sleep when age has settled on your earthly form. No shadow will darken your soul, but peacefully will the internal unfold itself, and you will awake in heaven an angel of light. THE SAGE. But my mind by I know not what secret impulse was ever raising its views into future ages, strongly persuaded that I should then only begin to live when I ceased to exist in the present world. Indeed, if the soul were not naturally immortal, never, surely, would the desire for immortal glory be a passion which always exerts itself with the greatest force in the noblest and most exalted bosoms. CICERO. GREAT THEOLOGICAL PROBLEMS. 133 A BELIEF in the immortal existence is perhaps more universal than that in the existence of the gods. There are tribes of men too low to entertain it, but it seems that no high state of advancement is requisite for its rudest form. It is from its lowest to its most perfect state a reflection of the intellectual status of its recip- ient. Savages pass to a land where the chase is success- ful, a country stocked with game. They place in the grave of the dead warrior his bow and arrow and provi- sions for his lonely journey. All go to one place. As man advances, orders of merit are recognized ; the good are separated from the bad ; either directly or through mediators, the gods pass judgment on mortals. The doctrine in Hindoostan and Egypt early attained a complex expression. The spirit, although immortal and descending from eternity, became involved in the vortex of metempsychosis, and was compelled to follow a weary round of being. The belief has descended to the present in the petrified theology of Hindoostan. The visible body contains a subtile invisible body, to which the faculties are assigned. This spiritual body is not cast off at death, but accompanies the soul in its trans- migration, until it is left at the beatific absorption into the bosom of Brahm ; tlien it returns, and is again clothed with a physical body, the form of which depends on the character of the soul that last inhabited it. This expression of the doctrine has been more widely received than any other. It was early transferred to Greece, and appears in the songs of her bards and the speculations of her philosophers. Greece always had her sceptics, but immortality was defended by her best minds. Her philosophers built up metaphysical argu- ments with similar tact and acumen to that manifested by metaphysical theologians of to-day, and equally well 134 THE RELIGION OF MAX. succeeded in asking more questions than they answered. Her poets dreamed of Elysian fields, and her people re- ceived their fancies with the same relish they did the lucubrations of her sages. When there are no facts to guide the vaulting imagination, there is no predicting where it will take its erratic course. The priests early seized the doctrine, and forged out of it chains for the spirit. It gave them not only power over the body, but also enabled them to blast the im- mortal being. It would be inferred that the chosen people of God from the beginning had a clear and per- fect conception of immortal life. As a cardinal doctrine of religion and incentive to morality, they should have understood its elements, and their sacred books defi- nitely expressed it. These books indicate their human origin by their conflicting statements of this important subject, at times showing that the writers had a dim idea of futurity, and at others positively denying it. The early writers placed the seat of the soul in the blood, the breath, the heart, and the bowels. Their ideas were fluctuating and indefinite. The future state was a dark, joyless, conscious state, like the shadow-land of the Greek poets. The prophets could be evoked by witches ; and favorites of the gods, like Enoch and Elijah, were miraculously translated. Again, the doctrine is posi- tively denied in the Sacred Word. " As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up, so man lieth down and riseth not," etc. " For there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goest." " For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth the beasts. ... As the one dieth, so dieth the other ; yea, they have all one breath. " During the exile, the Jews imbibed from the religion of Zoroaster a more complete idea of immortality. GEEAT THEOLOGICAL PEOBLEMS. 135 Henceforth the sacred writers speak more definitely, and in Maccabees a moral application is made. It is used as an incentive. The righteous are to be happy, the sinful miserable, in the next life. At the advent of Jesus we find three phases of the belief entertained by three distinct sects. The Pharisees maintained the res- urrection of the body an idea older than the Egyptian Pyramids. A divergent portion received also the doc- trine of transmigration, and must have entertained the companion belief of pre-existence. The Essenes believed in a future state, where the actions of this life would be rewarded or punished, but discarded the corporeal res- urrection. The Sadduoees were doubters, and en- tirely discarded the doctrine. Such was the influence of revelation on those for whom it was especially de- signed. The advance of the idea of a future state as a reflec- tion of the receiving mind kept pace with intellectual growth. It has been discarded by many great think- ers, and received by other minds equally great, and it would seem that the abilities of metaphysics have been exhausted in the arguments on either side. The New Testament, as well as the Old, leaves the subject of the form of future existence indeterminate. From them certain sects claim the resurrection of the body and its reinhabiting the earth ; others the reverse. Some claim the eternal death of the wicked ; others their eternal torture. The belief has been used to terrible purpose by the priesthood. The ghastly theology of Christianity turns on immortality. Hell and its fearful despot are the stock-in-trade of the Protestant, and praying souls out of purgatory the lucrative business of the Catholic priesthood. 136 THE RELIGIOX OF MAN. Man having fallen, and thereby committed an infinite sin, must be saved. This theology does not trouble itself about this life, but is vitally concerned with the next. Earthly life is too brief for it to carry out its diabolic schemes of endless torture. Eternal life must be bestowed for that purpose. It breaks the continuity of existence at death ; what is good for this life may be damnation for the next ; overrides all laws, and howls the doom of myriads damned. It is not surprising that culture, disgusted with such barbarous doctrines, should revolt against them and support absolute materialism, finding in that system the true basis of morality and happiness. Metempsychosis does not meet the scientific demands of an immortal existence. It involves the birth and ex- istence of every living being in direct interference of a personal God, a perpetual miracle. If the spirit clothes itself with flesh through embryonic growth, then it fol- lows that generation itself is only another name for this process, and could not exist without a spirit ready to be incarnated. The science of life in such case would be- come valueless and visionary. While every fact of sci- ence opposes this theory, it has not a single evidence of its own to bring in support. The vague sense of double existence, or a preceding state, to which is given so much weight, is fully explained by the well- determined duality of the brain, both hemispheres normally receiv- ing the same impression at the same instant, and thus combining them as one, as the double organs of seeing and hearing convert two images into one. But abnor- mally one hemisphere acts slower than the other. An in- determinate interval of time intervenes between the two actions, and one is projected into the past and con- founded with things remembered. The theory of reincar- GREAT THEOLOGICAL PKOBLEMS. 137 nation is opposed to science, as it breaks the continuity of evolution, and substitutes miracle for law. As sure as creation is pervaded by a fixed and deter- minate plan, is it certain that man's future life, what- ever its form may be, constitutes a part of that plan. "When we survey the realm of causation this unity can- not escape us. All causes and all effects tend in one direction, like the irresistible set of a great current. The evolution of organic life out of the primeval slime, its progress through successive types, ascending step by step the ladder of existence, through mollusks, fishes, reptiles, and mammals, to man, indicate terms in the series of advance. Is man the last term ? Shall causa- tion, having reached its limit in him, go no further, or expend itself in making him more and more perfect? Then, to our finite reason, Nature is a failure. The perfection of physical form was reached years ago, and advance has been diverted into the new channels of moral, intellectual, and spiritual life. Only in this di- rection is unlimited progress possible. Man's immor- tality thus becomes a part of Nature's plan the great end and aim of creative energy : not a foreign element introduced at death, nor a supernatural state, but an evolution from physical existence, and amenable to de- terminate laws. The future state thus considered is no longer a part of theology, but a portion of knowledge, and its relig- ious and moral bearing is radically changed. What its superstitious inculcation yields has already been noticed. It often has a beautiful effect on the life, but more often in the past became a terrible engine of misery and deg- radation as it was manipulated by craft and unflinching selfishness. When made a part of accurate knowledge, stripped of supernaturalism, held to the rule of law, re- 138 THE RELIGION" OF MAX. duced to the province of science, and viewed with calm reason, immortality becomes the crowning desire and blessing of human life. Under its best phase, as a re- ligious institution, the future of the righteous was a curse ; and Prometheus bound to the rock, with in- satiate vultures tearing his vitals, is an appropriate symbol of man forced to accept an immortality of despair- ing misery or passive inactivity. Ennobled as the goal of physical causation, emerging from the slime of super- stition, taking rank with sister sciences, the future life, with its lofty ideality, reacts with irresistible force on the earthly existence. VII. FALL, AND THE CHRISTIAN SCHEME FOR HIS REDEMPTION. As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive. BIBLE. There is but one religion, and it can never die. THEODORE PARKER. THEOLOGY makes the fundamental assertion that Adam was created directly by God, pronounced perfect, and placed in a perfect world. He had the choice of good and evil, and choosing the latter, alienated not only himself but the whole human race from God, corrupted absolutely and irretrievably the fountain of morality, and metamorphosed mankind into the offspring of the Devil, corrupt from the crown of their heads to the soles of their feet. " Ever since the fall of Adam, age has MAN'S FALL. 139 shaken the tree of human life, and the Devil has gath- ered the fruit into hell. " Man insulted the Infinite by his own free choice, and his punishment is endless death. God's eternal justice knows no mercy ; and hence man must suffer the an- guish and torture of fire, the gnawing tooth of the un- dying worm of pain, forever and ever. This terrible view of the origin of sin and its porten- tous consequences, conjured out of the gloomy depths of a diseased and morbid imagination, requires an equally tremendous myth for the redemption of man, the fallen god, the incarnate devil. He of himself is pow- erless. Utterly, hopelessly depraved, he must rely on the atoning power of something outside of himself for salvation. Creation had proved a gigantic failure. The highest effort of creative energy was an abortion ; and the ulti- mate spirit for whom all this labor had been expended, instead of rising to the light of God, rushed madly into darkness, and became a slave to Satan, his enemy. Logically, it may be difficult to account for a perfect man in a perfect world overruled by an omnipotent and infinite God falling into sin, but theology passes this abyss on the bridge of mystery. Man, having fallen, must be saved. The Infinite God had performed his best work, and failed. There was no alternative in this unique spiritual cosmogony but for God to sacrifice himself. An infinite sin had been committed, and an infinite sacrifice only could atone for it. The death and never-ending pain of myriads of men would be as a drop to the ocean of punishment re- quired. God, as the only Infinite Being, must suffer. Placing the doctrine of metempsychosis and the He- brew idea of the efficacy of animal sacrifices together, 140 THE EELIGION" OF MAN". both ardently supported by the Pagan world thousands of years before Christ, the ready reception of the divine in- carnation of Christ can be understood. The Infinite Spirit descended, and in the person of Christ, by mar- tyrdom, paid the infinite debt. The ledger of Heaven by this act was balanced, and an infinite sum carried over to the credit side. " The blood of Christ," says Jerome, ' ; quenched the flaming sword at the entrance of Paradise." The countless millions of spirits confined in the terrible underworld, or Hades, were released, and the heavens were white with the glitter of their ascend- ing wings. Christ died for us ; to him wo look for sal- vation, and if we believe in him, even at the last hour, we are safe. The divinity of Christ reflects on his mother, and it is to be hoped that the idea of incarna- tion will extend to every child, that they may be re- garded as incarnations of Divinity miraculous concep- tions, to mature into perfection. In this scheme there is no choice. " Whatever is not a duty is a sin." A blind obedience is the only praise- worthy passion of human nature, which is so absolutely corrupt that there is no hope for any one until he is sure it is dead within him. We can do nothing without sinning ; but the more we surrender ourselves to God, the less sin we commit. Dreary doctrines ; how they distort the soul ! And yet how many think the dwarf- ed, starved, and pinched specimens treated by this sys- tem models of Christian virtue ! So are there admirers of the distorted evergreens, trained into the forms of pyramids and animals, which disfigure many a lawn, who think them more beautiful than the trees of the forest. The elasticity of the tree can be subdued ; it becomes so gnarled it ceases to resist. So the mind can be cramped and stinted until it ceases to rebel ; MAN'S FALL. 141 but this is a terrible condition an imposition and a sham. These ideas give tone and direction to Christianity. They make it a system to be endured, not of develop- ment. It is fitly represented as a grievous cross, and Banyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" is the most popular, because the most correct picture of a Christian life. If the idea of atonement for sin through the suffer- ings of another were not so generally received, its refu- tation might be considered a gratuitous task. Eeally no belief is so abiding, none more zealously held. Beliefs once thoroughly impressed are well-nigh indelible. The young mind finds a system ready made, which it is taught to revere, to receive unquestioningly, and which becomes a shell, hard, indurated, impenetrable, from which it is difficult to escape, and in which it is com- fortable to reside. Selfishness is strongly enlisted. We throw our transgressions on the shoulders of another, and are saved by faith. The incentives are of the basest hope of gain and fear of suffering. Heaven is held out by the Infinite Father as a sugar plum, and hell yawns to frighten ! A strange moral government of the world ! Can the Church advance out of it ! Mankind assuredly can and will, but the Church cannot, for as soon as it does its character is wholly changed. There is no need of a church except to save man in this man- ner. If man never fell, if he is a progressive instead of a retrogressive being, the stupendous scheme is an idle tale, and with it atonement, salvation, and numberless minor dogmas become superfluous. Outside of theology or mythology there is no indication of man's fall. Sci- ence has not been consulted by bigoted votaries ; her followers have pursued their thoughtful way, while the 142 THE EELIGIOX OF MAX. theologians have gone theirs. Theological speculation is the easiest speculation, for it does not require facts, and if incapable of demonstration, is equally invulnerable to refutation by those employing the same weapons. It has been dimly seen that science conflicts with the bibli- cal myths of the creation, and although, on one hand, theology has sought to reconcile science with itself, the students of the latter have not made any such attempt, rather shrinking from the application of the facts which they well knew were in such irreconcilable opposition. Geology has proved the vast duration of the world, and more dexterous hands than have yet applied themselves to the work must gloss its revelations to make them ap- parently accord with the Bible. "With the extension of the age of the Earth, the intro- duction of man is carried into the Past. Beyond the in- determinate period of tradition, the geologist finds an indisputably authentic volume written on tablets of rock by fossil remains. Adam, as the first man, becomes a myth. Before he is said to have been placed in the Garden of Eden, man had inhabited the earth for a vast period of time. That mystic era before the beginning of history, when man existed as the rudest savage, has been divided into the Iron, Bronze, and Stone Ages. Each of these periods represents a vast epoch. Man first used stone weapons ; then he discovered bronze ; and, lastly, iron. An age previous to and lower than stone weapons has been discovered. M. Boucher de Perthes divides the Stone Age into the ground and unground. He says : " We have no knowledge of any savages at present so low that they do not sharpen their weapons by attrition, but the lowest Stone Age presents us ex- amples of this want of sharpening. The implements found in the post-tertiary, so far, are only chipped rude- MAN'S FALL. 143 ly into form ; they are spear-heads, leaf-shaped instru- ments, flints chipped to an edge on one side and left unwrought on the other. When the Tasmanian wants an instrument for cutting wood, he takes a stone and breaks an edge, with which he at once proceeds to his work. Similar instruments are found in the drift. The instruments of the drift are less neatly formed by larger chippings than those of the Scandinavian shell heaps, or of America. Besides absence of grinding, the in- struments are very rude, a character which gives them important bearing on the history of civilization." The men who used these weapons made by breaking stones to an accidental sharp edge dwelt in caves. Of them Vogt remarks : " The cave man was the rudest of sav- ages. Perhaps there exists at present no race so low. His diet was exclusively flesh. No traces of vegetable food, nor even hooks or nets for capturing fish, have been found. He attacked his prey like a wild animal by cunning, speed, strength ; and it seems that with his simple stone instruments he mastered the young rhinoceros. He clothed himself with the skins of ani- mals sewed together with sinews by means of needle- shaped bones. His dwelling was a nest or hut, perhaps little better than some anthropoid apes construct. He had no domestic animals ; and not until a later period did he domesticate the dog the first animal he took under his protection." Such is a faithful picture of the European savage the progenitor of the Anglo- Saxon. For the last fifty years facts have been constantly pro- duced in support of the vast antiquity of man ; but so strong has been theological prejudice that they have either been strenuously denied or ignored. Human fos- sils have been repeatedly found in such positions and 144 THE RELIGION" OF MAN. state of preservation that had they belonged to any other animal they would have been pronounced true fossils, but, belonging to man, they were at once cast aside as recent. Slowly and patiently scientists have labored and accumulated a mass of facts which now challenge refutation. In no province of investigation has preju- dice more absolutely suppressed facts or silenced reason. Theologians make no mention of the mass of evidence daily accumulating, presuming that science and theology have no relation. They have found that this, like all other questions, must be fought on the ground of positive knowledge. The discoveries bearing on man have been condensed in another volume" Origin and Antiquity of Man ;" and the present pages only allow of the general statement of their results. M. Boucher de Perthes, from calculations based on the growth of peat, makes the flint arrows found in the Valley of the Somme, in France, one hundred and twenty thousand years old, and yet to this vast duration must be added the indeterminable period allowed for the formation of the gravel bed in which they are found. Human fossils are found in Sweden, at least (estimated by Lycll's data of two feet and a half of coast elevation in a century) twenty-seven thousand five hundred years old. The investigations of Linaut Bey in the Delta of Egypt give certain evidence that man was sufficiently civilized to fashion bricks and pottery forty-one thou- sand years before the building of the Pyramids. Be- neath this civilized state for man had already made a great advance when he acquired the art of making pot- tery lies the savage or Stone Age, when he possessed only stone arrows and spears, such as the Valley of the Somme has preserved. He dwelt in the midst of a dense wilderness inhabited by colossal beasts, armed only with MAN'S FALL. 145 a rudely broken flint. For what length of time he had previously existed cannot be determined, but he had ad- vanced from the rudest state by a process slow and pain- ful. The more enlightened a people, the more rapid their advancement. Savage tribes remain from age to age apparently without change, so extremely slow is the awakening of their intellectual powers. The period of time from the flint axe to that of bronze must be ex- tremely long, and still more vast that which stretches into the night of time to the unarmed hairy savage the pri- meval man. All this vast duration lies far below the base of the hoary Pyramids, which of themselves are scarcely of historic time, reaching back, according to Lepsius's calculations, to within one hundred and twelve years of the Creation, according to received chronology.* But the savages of the Stone Age were of yesterday. They represented % a degraded civilization, as has been admirably though unintentionally shown by A. K. "Wal- lace, who, in his survey of the continuity of species, rec- ognizing the break existing between these savages and the highest animals, declared that the theory of devel- opment advocated by him and the great Darwin failed to bridge the impassable chasm. He fixed the origin of man at too recent date, and seeing that there was not time enough to effect such a great change, he rushed to the conclusion that other causes must be invoked. He found the brain of this early savage almost as large as that of the most learned philosopher, and the skull found in a cave of the drift had a cubic contents almost equal to the average of modern times. The savage had no use * For the facts corroborating these statements, see the works of Lubbock, Steenstrup, Dr. Keller, Sir Charles Lyell, and the lin- guistic researches of Miiller. 146 THE RELIGION OF MAN. for such a brain. His cave life did not demand more skill or cunning than the bear he slew or the dog he domesticated. No argument drawn from the data of evolution can account for vast development of brain without necessity for its use. Its acquisition demands ages of time preceding the drift, when man, pushed to the torrid zone, must have perished in those regions where he had reached the highest development. In the favorable conditions of the tertiary, man must have advanced far beyond what is found in savage life, to a civilization calling for all the remarkable develop- ment of brain found in the drift savage. The latter is like a blacksmith, who cultivates the muscles of his arm until they are of abnormal size, and then ceases work. The muscles remain without anything for them to do, and if the cause was unknown, it would be said the de- velopment was an unaccountable freak. Thus the drift savage, inheritor of those ages of advancement, has a brain large enough for the requirements of a complex civilized state, with nothing more for it to do than thwart the cunning of the wild beasts which surround him. In this interminable vista opening through the gla- ciers of the drift into the luxuriant grandeur of the Tertiary Age, centuries become as moments, and a thou- sand years as the swing of a pendulum. From the brutal savage, through the interminable duration of the ages of Stone and Bronze, man advanced into the uncertain light of tradition. Constantly de- veloping his intellectual powers, he slowly and steadily ascended into civilization. Has he ever fallen ? He has been too low to fall. Could the savage, all of whose genius was comprised in the art of breaking a stone to a sharp edge and using it in offence or defence, fall ? MAN'S POSITION". 147 He could not well be more savage. But when we pass from the Bronze to the Iron Age, we reach the dawn of history, which, century after century, records the ac- cumulation of thought in unbroken advancement. Ah ! Garden of Eden, state of blissful perfection, you are myths aspirations of the human heart retro verted into the past. vni. MAN'S POSITION FATE, FREE-WILL, FREE AGENCY, NECESSITY, RESPONSIBILITY. Morality is based on Anatomy and Physiology. An individual is the representative of all the conditions by which he is evolved. Fate is the personification of the constitution of things. MAN is surrounded by gigantic, terrible forces, over which he has no control, and to avert which his efforts are as unavailing as those of the brutes. He is a child of the elements, an atom thrown up by their collision and concentration as a bubble arises on a stream by con- flicting currents. He is more : he is a bundle of ele- ments which thus united become a centrestance, from which causes emanate as from the elements themselves. As the elements from which he springs are amenable to unvarying laws the irrevocable mandate of fate man, as the result of their union, must be a creature of fate or unchanging law. The anthropomorphic view of the universe at once dissolves. The elements he seeks to 148 THE RELIGION OF MAJS T . control are masters. Man is a slave, chained, under their perpetual surveillance. Is this a truth? Are we bound to this Achillian car, or are we free ? Seemingly we are free. We are gods, willing and doing in perfect freedom. Ah ! this free- dom is a delusion one of the wiles of our masters to cheat us into self-complacency. Not a leaf falls, not a hair of our heads whitens, but a myriad of ages ago it was written in the Book of Fate. Is a tree overturned by the wind ? It was known before a tree existed, and every acorn counted by the recording causes. Every leaf, every insect which feeds on the leaf, every drop of rain, of dew, every flake of snow which has or will fall on those leaves, was known before the earth was evolved from the abnormal ocean. The human being, physically and mentally matured, is the representative of every law and condition which has ever acted on him or his progenitors, ad infinitum. In him they are not only individualized, they are cen- trestantialized. He exists because of their action ; he is as they have made him. In this sense man is a creature of circumstances. So far as these forces and conditions acted previous to his birth he is not a free agent, nor is he in his relation to the fixed action of the great forces of Nature. But on the circumstances which surround his maturity he acts by virtue of his inherent selfhood, the resultant of all previous conditions which make up that selfhood. In this view he may be considered free ; for what we call a man is nothing more nor less than the aggregate of forces and conditions, many of which we understand, and many of which we do not under- stand. He is free, just as his organization, representa- tive of all previous conditions and forces, will allow. This freedom is quite distinct from the dogmatical tenet MAX'S POSITION. 149 of free agency, inasmuch as it regards man's existence as an effect becoming a cause, and not a self-existent cause. Difference in the primordial or pre-natal conditions has greater influence than those which environ us after birth. These are integral parts of our being. The difference in these conditions makes the individuality of mankind. Were they the same, all men would be identically the same. The permutation of an infinite series of causes never repeats a number hi the series. Hence one man is no more to blame for being unlike another than the oak is to blame for being different from the pine, or the leopard for being unlike the antelope on which it preys. Character found in oak, pine, leopard, or man, alike is the expression of conditions pre-natal and environing. As the acorn treasures all the forces which have develop- ed it into a germ capable of producing an oak, so the child is a treasure of forces which will develop a man, and such a man as this treasury compels. There is an- other aspect to this subject. The acorn, germinating in a barren soil, strives according to the impulse of the forces by virtue of which it is an acorn to perfect an oak ; but hard as it may strive to gather sustenance from the crevices of the rocks, its knotty roots can sup- port little more than a gnarled and blighted stem bear- ing dwarfish branches. What should have been a tree, lofty and gigantic, is blighted into a pitiful shrub. The same acorn, if allowed to germinate in a fertile soil, watered by the showers, refreshed by dew and sun- shine, with every condition save the one the same, strikes deep roots down into the earth, and on them towers a column-like stem supporting a forest of branches. So the child constantly suffering the pangs of want is 150 THE KELIGION OF MAN. dwarfed and distorted, not only physically, but to the centre of its spiritual nature. The same child surround- ed by ennobling influences might astonish the world with its genius. Circumstances make the Alexanders, the Napoleons, Platos, Ciceros, the warriors and sages of the world, but they can do nothing without a pre-exist- ing individuality organized in harmony with their re- quirements. It was not my choice whether born a serf in Russia, a slave in the swamps of Carolina, or as I am. Had I been born a serf, so far from thinking of fate, I should have a brute instinct for my native cot, and consider my horizon the limits of the world. So of all conditions in which a human being may be placed ; they are ever plastic to the influences of their environment. Ah ! then what becomes of poor human accountability ? If we are thus creatures of fate, we may make no endeavor of our own, but, like listless Turks, sit' still and let the world move. This is not a necessary sequence to the doctrine of necessity. Although Nature teaches a clear lesson, it is not sufficiently clear that " those who run can read" rightly. True, an individual may become so imbued with the idea of fate as to consider exertion on his part unnecessary, and remain perfectly passive. The idea becomes with him the moving cause. This, however, is a partial view of the subject, leaving out en- tirely the influence of individual exertion. Man is a centrestance as well as a circumstance. The forces con- centrated in him react on surrounding conditions. The philosopher, for instance, is born with the capabilities of becoming a philosopher : he is as ignorant at first as the slave-child. In actual acquisition both children are alike ; but one child has the desire for and capacity to receive knowledge the other has not. The desire may MAN'S POSITION. 151 be strong, yet obstacles oppose with stronger force, and the " mute, inglorious " Newtons fail to rise above the common level. Knowledge is an efficient circumstance of Fate, and furnishes the strongest incentive for ex- ertion. This question includes the entire doctrine of good and evil, and the measure of man's responsibility. If we acknowledge and it is unavoidable the neces- sity for all that has been, is, and will be, we cannot stray far from a knowledge of the true position. If, on the contrary, we consider ourselves free and independent agents, with such an erroneous guide we cannot avoid going astray. Bound hand and foot by the gigantic forces of Nature, turn which way we will there is no outlet. Yet, are we not footballs, impelled hither and thither as this or that force predominates ? The ball is a passive instrument, a mass of matter opposing only the resistance of gravity. Man is a football for the play of the elements, but he, by the concentration of circum- stances, becomes more than a circumstance, and there- fore reacts on the elemental blows. Our existence is the resultant of forces and events reaching back to the dawn of time. These events are evolved in us are united and individualized. Hence we are not inactive footballs. The elements strike at us ; we parry the blow or bend it to our purpose. Here lies the deception. We rush abroad in wild free- dom, doing as we please ; so we flatter ourselves. He is insane who doubts our free agency. Our ships out- ride contending billows ; the winds are our slaves ; fire, fierce and insatiate, our vassal ; and the red lightnings of the storm are grasped in the giant hand of man. Such is our vaunt. Is it true ? Very true, but not all the truth. I draw no circle prescribing the capacity of 152 THE RELIGIOX OF MAN. the human mind. It is incomprehensible ; its domin- ion is wide, and day by day extending from its pulsating centre ; yet how small the area it has conquered to the vast unknown which environs it ! How weak its power of resistance to the resistance it meets ! Like a man beneath an avalanche, it can assert its might, but the avalanche crushes onward. Man may roll a stone, but the mountain never. The stone which he can turn and the cloud-capped mountain hold like comparison, as the realm wherein, by virtue of his centrestantial quali- ties, he is free holds to the surround ing province which rules him adamantinely. In this small realm, wherein we are apparently free, lies the fallacy of our free agency. Here, too, originated the primitive conception of our responsibility for our actions. This we know : free or not, we are held re- sponsible. Whether we act from choice or direct com- pulsion, knowingly or unknowingly, we bear the conse- quences. Is this doubted ? Take an individual at random from the mass. He is as he is not from his own choice. He is the culmina- tion of a line of progenitors, of the infinite number of conditions in which it is possible for him to be placed. Let us take extremes one very good, one very bad. Born with an inharmonious organization, possessing de- praved passions and insatiate lusts cultivated by his an- cestors and poured down to him in a corrupting sewer of slimy filth, he matures, not into manhood, but into a beast. All the noble qualities of his mind are crushed and blighted, and he lives only for sensual pleasures. A born robber or murderer, he has all the ferocity and cunning of the wild beast. Miscreated are such : cast into the world like rude, half-finished pottery. As much to blame the wind for blowing, as much sinful the tiger MAN'S POSITION. 153 devouring the kid, as they. Yet Nature holds them to account, and compels rendition of the last farthing. As inexorable as the artificial law which gibbets the felon, she hangs the offender in the scorching deserts of pas- sion, there to await until appetite has consumed itself by its own fires. The harmoniously born, inheriting from noble ances- tors all the qualities the heart cherishes, mature to man- hood, and live to perform works of goodness. Blessings fall on such and are received, that thereby better work may be accomplished and still greater blessings fall. It is glorious to be rightly born ; terrible to be other- wise, and held to the rack for the faults of others. Yet the greater part of man's transgressions are ancestral. Circumstances over which he has as little control as over his unconsulted birth force him in new directions. Born in a den of vice and infamy, the individual may, by inherent qualities or central impetus, burst the re- straints of villainy, and burn a pure star of light over a sea of corruption. If deficient in these qualities, then the inner fires and the external burn in unison, and the lowest Stygian depths of perversion or depravity are reached. Surroundings may correct a disordered or- ganization. Fate casts us into the world, caring not whether we awake in a palace or a manger, with a sil- ver spoon or a wooden platter, or without platter or provender at all. Stern, inexorable mother, she forces existence upon us, aad then rings the terrible mandate in our ears, " You can suffer ; you can enjoy ; you cannot die work." We are from our germinal beginning strained to this rack of iron, and throughout our existence force rules the empire thus early usurped. Forced into this life and forced into another, of the limited space between 154 THE KELIGION OF MAX. these events how little our control ! We cannot com- mand our senses, or prevent the brain from receiving the impressions which they convey. Man's distribution on the globe holds him under check of iron law. The Southern Hemisphere and the North Torrid Zone, or the whole globe south of the Tropic of Cancer, has yielded no grand civilization, neither has the Arctic Circle. A narrow belt of country along the Mediterranean Sea, across Europe, and extending into the same latitudes of North America, is the whole area of history. Man outside of this little blot on the map of the earth has done nothing worthy of record. Why, unless mentality is amenable to physical laws ? And here we approach the gulf said to separate the moral from the physical man. A careful study will show that no such gulf exists. Physical conditions affect morality and intellect in the measure they do the body. The heat of the torrid enervates ; the cold of the frigid pro- duces torpidity. The two extremes are equalized in the temperate. Man, having acquired the control of forces, supplying himself with light and heat, breaks the fetters with which Nature binds him. Being enabled to carry the heat and light of the sun with him by means of his knowledge of fire, he penetrates the frozen North. He invents clothing and dwellings, devoting almost his en- tire energies in overcoming the antagonism of surround- ing Nature. If he has free-will, it is in this combat ; but even here he engages in the same manner as animals do, there being only a difference in degree. He is as irresistibly impelled as they by motives which originate in his environment or that of his ancestors. Man realizes the feasibility of a dam across a river, and constructs it. He is actuated by motives of advantage ; so is the beaver. There is this difference : shut the beaver in a MAN'S POSITION. 155 room, and it will construct a dam across one corner out of whatever material it can find ; man must realize the advantage to be gained by so doing. The beaver is im- pelled by blind desire inherited from progenitors ; man, by equally blind thirst for property and power, also in- herited from ancestors. Nationalities are moulded by their geography, and it is not left to individual choice to select race or locality. No choice of Lapp or Finn that they were driven to the most inhospitable climate of Europe, and have become degraded by their stern surroundings ; no fault of the Irish that by oppression they have sunk from the rank of a leading Celtic people to such wretchedness ; or of the Eed Indians that they melt away before a more civ- ilized race. " Scientific physiology has no better ascer- tained fact than that man possesses no innate resistance to change. The moment he leaves his accustomed place of abode to encounter new physical conditions and al- tered modes of life, that moment his structure com- mences slowly to change." Any system of reasoning which severs the constitution of man, placing the dismembered parts under the con- trol of separate systems of government, is fundamen- tally false. Man, physically, intellectually, and morally, is an indivisible unit, and to be understood correctly must be studied as such. From a thousand grand paternal sources the streams of our being flow and blend. We sleep when drowsy ; we eat when hungry ; we drink when thirsty. For a moment we may will contrary to the desire, but the next moment the will is paralyzed, and the desire be- comes paramount to everything else. Will against sleep closing the eyelids, the gnawings of hunger, the burn- ings of thirst ? Pretty free agents are we ! 150 THE RELIGION OF MAN. So far Destiny is supremo. We die. Can we control the event? The suicide is the tool of motives. Thales said life and death were the samo ; and when asked why, then, he did not kill himself, he replied that, as living and dying were the same, he had no motive for so doing. Does fever burn us in its furnace, consumption prey on our vitals, or miasm rankle in our veins can we will them away ? We may acquire a knowledge of their laws, and avert their penalties. " The only way to govern Nature is to obey her laws. " The forces of the external world move in certain chan- nels, in which, if we are placed, we are certainly and directly impelled, but we must not cross the lines. As soon as we depart a hair's-breadth, we meet the rude buffet of the elements. We are bound to this rack of existence until death. Until death ? We cannot die. The soul, like the elements which gave it birth, is im- mortal. We readily admit that the elements and the vegetable and animal worlds are impelled by these masters with definite and undeviating certainty ; but we hesitate to admit that we, with our apparently independent will, are thus controlled. In a moment of egotism we ask : " Are we not capable of doing as we please, and are we not responsible for the consequences ? Are we not. like the gods, capable of willing and doing? Have we not vast and unavoidable responsibilities?" Pleasing ques- tions to vanity are these, but they apply to the grass- hopper as well as the man. We arrive at moral considerations. Is there a prov- ince here outside of and unamenable to law ? Shall we apply law everywhere else, and leave this province to the wild caprice of the individual ? The statistics of the world show the unflinching supremacy of order here as MAN'S POSITION. 157 elsewhere. The number and atrocity of crimes vary with the season, and the age of the criminals, with mathe- matical certainty. The seeming irregularity of individ- ual phenomena confuses the superficial gaze. We can- not say of an individual that he will commit a crime, but we know that of a certain number of individuals one each year will commit a given crime ; for, extended over a sufficient length of time, the force impelling to crime is an invariable quantity. Even the mistakes of men are controlled by laws dimly seen in gathered statistics. To the grand sum of Nature our individualities are nothing. To obtain the truth we must look to the eternal and not to the evanescent flashes of the hour. Human pleasures, passions, wants, emotions, are fleeting expressions, and valueless except as they direct us to the constant, the inexorable law. Of the brute we expect brute actions. What shall we expect of the man with the organization of the brute ? We cannot avoid the conclusion that, whatever be the relations of spirit and brain, the manifestations of mind are dependent on organization. Anatomists have re- marked the approach of the idiotic brain to that of the lower animals. The brains of savage peoples Indians, negroes, etc. approach those of the Caucasian infants. These facts point unerringly to the supremacy of law in the moral and intellectual worlds. We are accountable, but not in the manner we are to artificial laws. We are accountable to laws which form an integral part of oar constitution, and to none other. We cannot move in channels other than those marked out by the laws of our nature without pain. By the progressive unfoldment of intellect we are re- moved above the realm of brutal desires. 158 THE RELIGION OF MAX. IX. DUTIES AND OBLIGATIONS OF MAN TO GOD AND TO HIMSELF. I am satisfied that Cambyses was deprived of his reason ; he would not otherwise have disturbed the sanctity of the temples or of established customs. HERODOTUS. THEOLOGY claims certain duties which man owes to God. The requirements made at different times have been extremely variable and almost endless. In the early and savage age, man fancied God to be like himself, only more savage and demoniac. His anger was to be ap- peased, not his goodness trusted. The best of the har- vest and of the flock was set apart for him. The smoke of incense arose from his altars, and the blood of slaugh- tered victims too often human stained his shrine. By this method these child- men believed they best pleased their child-God. After a time the sacrifice is found to become more personal and of higher tone. Whatever is held dear is yielded to the selfishness of God. The world becomes a serpent's den of temptation. God de- mands everything, and everything must be yielded up to him. He created man for his sole pleasure and profit, and it is man's duty to obey. If he knew the law as recorded and interpreted by the priest was God's law, things would be different. Always the priest must stand between us and God. We must drink the water as it percolates through finite channels, often reeking with corruption. The priests have said, " Thus saith the Lord," and men have run gladly to death. However united they DUTIES AND OBLIGATIONS OF MAN. 159 have been in crushing mankind in ignorance, they have been inconsistent in their interpretation of God's de- mands. They require of the Catholic, fasts, feasts, and holy days innumerable ; of the Puritan, rest on Sun- day ; of the Jew, rest on Saturday, and circumcision ; of the Moslejii, pilgrimages to Mecca ; of the Hindoo widow, the burning of herself on her husband's funeral pyre ; of the devotee, to plunge into the holy Ganges ; of the South Sea islander, to knock out a front tooth or cut off a finger ; of a modern Christian, to build churches and make prayers at stated seasons. To review the various opinions of the different peoples of the world to see the craft and cunning, the villainy and arrogance of the priesthood, and the ignorance and folly of the masses, presents a sickening picture, from which we turn with disgust. If God has made any reve- lation of his will regarding the duties man owes to him, he has made it in such a manner that there can be no mistake, nor need of any class of men to act as inter- preters. God knows what man wants quite as well as the priests, however trained and cunning they may be. With astonishing audacity they place themselves be- tween God and man to make plain what he had not power to render intelligible. God's laws need no special interpretation, but are as far-reaching as space, and ubiq- uitous in their operation. If he makes demands, the mortal need not fear the demand will be unsatisfied. We can do nothing for God. As finite beings, the sum of all our efforts would count as nought to the Infinite. Ten thousand roasting lambs or ten thousand crucified Christs are all the same to him. He must from his very nature remain the same impassive and immovable. Our duty performed or neglected only affects ourselves. ItiO THE RELIGION OF MAN. We can dash ourselves to pieces against a mountain, but the mountain remains unmoved. Let us at once free ourselves from the old idea that God directly interests himself in mortal affairs, and can be reached by prayer. A verbal prayer may seem to re- fresh the heart, but goes no further. God will not turn aside though the whole world cry " Turn." The sup- position that he will is a superstition descended from Fetish- worshipping savages. We come in direct contact with laws unswerving and adamantine. They prescribe our duty, which is implicit obedience. All outside and extraneous observances are absolute folly. When the law has been complied with, duty has been done. No fasting, prayer, or Sunday sermon is required. Duty to God, in the sense taught by the priesthood, is meaningless, except as it gives them an interpreter's position and pay. Ceremonies, observances, and customs made and kept because God is supposed to demand them are worse than follies they are infantile stupidities.^/ Duty ! In that one name more crime has been com- mitted, more misery created, than in any other. All the persecutions of the world have been carried forward to compel man to obey God. Jesus was nailed to the cross that the Jews might not fail in their time-honored temple-worship ; and the petty churches of to-day wrangle and would crucify each other remorselessly for rejection of their peculiar views. Little cares the Infi- nite whether a mortal is sprinkled in the face, plunged in the water, or neither sprinkled nor plunged ; whether he works on Saturday or Sunday ; whether he circum- cises, knocks out a tooth, cuts off a finger, or says grace. Obedience to God can only mean observance of the laws of our being. The only duty we owe is such obedience ; and it is time we cast aside the trappings, the ceremo- DUTIES AND OBLIGATIONS OF MAN. 1G1 nies, and observances which mislead and divert. Here we cannot mistake our duty. We stand face to face with these laws, and need no priest between them and us. If we obey, we at once reap the reward ; if we fail, we at once incur the penalty. If in our extremity our lips utter a prayer, it is from habit acquired in childish days, which we know to be as valueless to help us as the breath which gives it sound. Our obligations to God are not prayer or praise, but the fulfilling of the laws which created and sustain us. / By such conduct shall we please him ? The Christian world answers, " No. God is pleased with lofty spires grandly towering above a vain and thoughtless world, with regular attendance at church, long prayers, and sanctimonious face. He wishes man to do everything for his glory and love of Christ, and he bestows salva- tion, not because deserved, but as a special favor." In olden times he was pleased with the fattened calf, the firstlings of the flock, and the fragrance of smoking blood and roasting offal. / The priesthood assume to be the only interpreters of God's will, which cannot be written, and can only be learned by contact with Nature. His will is expressed by the term Law, and is co-eternal with matter. There can be no law foreign and un wrought into the constitu- tion of the world, nor can man be held amenable to laws which are not a part and portion of himself. Obedience is from necessity, and not for the " glory of God." Is this church God an Asiatic monarch so jealous that we must bow before his throne servilely to gain his ap- proval ? A God making such a botch of creation that we, his misbegotten, abortive creations, creep to his feet to ask his pardon for his having thus shammed us, of all others is the most loathsome. 162 THE EELIGIOX OF MAN. " No," cries the soul, " you please not God by long prayers or ghastly faces, sepulchral tones, or sermons beneath lofty steeples. The Inflnite breathes through all Nature, and obedience to his will is our ultimate necessity. The world is beautiful, and man walks therein a beautiful spirit. God is not pleased to have that spirit become a blear-eyed bigot, or this beautiful world viewed through the muddy waters of Fanaticism stirred by the craft and arrogance of a self-nominated priesthood. He is pleased with a well-ordered life." While it is claimed that religion necessarily embraces morality, morality by no means embraces dogmatic re- ligion. A man may clearly observe the distinction be- tween right and wrong, walk uprightly, deal honestly, act benevolently, and have an unblemished moral char- acter ; but if all this does not result from a sense of love and dependence on God, he is not religious. Doing right because right, and avoiding wrong because wrong, is not sufficient. The action must be based on love and dependence on God. If man possessed an absolute and complete revelation from God for his guidance there would be no reason for disobeying or question of de- pendence ; but, unfortunately, the Bible, as interpreted by the thousand wrangling sects it has originated, fur- nishes no such criterion ; and Nature makes no revela- tion except as yielded by closest research and patient investigation. Having discovered such laws, it may be asked whether man should obey them because such is the constitution of things, or because of his dependence on God. If from the first cause, he is only moral ; if from the lat- ter, he is religious. Here is an entirely artificial dis- tinction. Does God demand servile dependence ? If so, is it not strange that only a privileged class have DUTIES AND OBLIGATIONS OF MAX. 163 learned this lesson ? They, never having come in con- tact with God, assume to tell what he demands, what will please and what displease him, and the form of re- ligion he prescribes. If God has made a revelation, it is in harmony with the laws of the world. They, as expressions of his unchanging purpose, are finalities. What more can be required than obedience to them ?y We come in contact with fire, and are burned. Henceforth, understanding its nature, we avoid it. Shall we do so to please God, or because of our own preservation ? Shall we do right for God's sake or our own for Christ's sake or for humanity's ? Through trial and suffering we gain an understanding of our physical, intellectual, and moral relations. If a human father should write a code for the guidance of his children, would he not be better pleased if obedience were given because they considered it right to do so, than because it was his will, to which they servilely yielded ? But, it is said in reply, " God's ways are not man's ways." Why, then, attempt to reason about our rela- tions to him? Unless God's reason is like our reason we can know nothing about his demands. The human father would say, " My children, there is no honor in servile obedience. I am not to be considered. Do right because it is right, and you will please me more than by the most slavish submission simply because it is your father's will." Has God more self-consciousness and vanity than man ? Can he be nattered by the " sense of depen- dence" of man ? The value of this " sense of dependence" and the true position of the" religious element inherent in man" have been shown to be as vaning as the geographical locality or color of the race. Salvation is not a gift be- 164 THE RELIGION OF MAN. stowed out of favor. If we do right, we earn and com- mand it. Shall we live for the glory of God ? Nay, for our own. The Infinite cannot be glorified. If the order of Nature is unchangeable, of what avail is prayer ? Apollonius, who was not enlightened by the mysteries of Christian revelation, truthfully said of prayer, " A man may worship the Deity far more truly than other mortals, though he neither sacrifice animals nor consecrate any outward thing to that God whom we call the First. . . . Pure spirit, the most beautiful portion of our being, has no need of external organs to make itself understood by the Omnipresent Essence." Porphyry says of prayer, " It produces a sort of union between the gods and the just, who resemble them." Prayer the earnest desire of the heart the prophecy of possibilities is quite different from the spoken ver- biage which a parrot may learn as well. The child, too young to understand the meaning of words, is taught that there is efficacy in a little prayer lisped on retiring. What does it know of the Infinite ? Is there not a strik- ing similarity between the situation of the child lisping a prayer it does not comprehend addressed to a Being it does not know and the grave deacon repeating in church-meeting a memorized formula for the thousandth time, praising the forbearance of that unknown Being, and demeaning his sinful self? How far removed is the pompons preacher reciting his well learned lesson beseeching God's mercy by rote ? They all think they are doing what is best for them what their religious education requires ; and are equally self-satisfied as the Red Indian who prays to his Totem, or the Chinese bowing to his Joss-stick. In some countries written prayers are attached to a wheel turned by water power, DUTIES AND OBLIGATIONS OF MAN. 165 and every minute of the day a prayer is presented to the sky. Who can say that the praying wheel is not as efficacious as the praying parson ? The requirements of prejudice are fulfilled by their several methods. Some striving soul may have found relief in formulated prayer, and thus it came into general use. Some may yet find in it relief. It has become a part of religion. Family service is as essential as church-going, and is the means whereby the theological crust is formed around the young mind, in after years to harden and press out its spirit- ual energies. We change nothing by prayer but ourselves. We can- not in the least affect external Nature. If a ship were freighted with a thousand saints, their united prayers would not keep her afloat if there was a plank torn from her side. The Divine Power moves onward as heedless of our demands as a locomotive of the schoolboy's cry. If prayer gives us strength and courage, it is well ; but far better the self-reliance of the strong soul depend- ing on no external power. Nature has no especially holy days, for with her all days are sacred. The learned and exceedingly pious Neander says that " the celebration of Sunday like that of every festival was a human institution. Far was it from the Apostles to treat it as a divine com- mand ; far from them and from the first Apostolic Church to transfer the laws of the Sabbath to Sunday." Sunday was a Pagan festive day, and was adopted by the Christians on that account. The Romans, according to a very ancient custom, named the days of the week after their various deities. The first day was Dies Solis, or the Sun's Day. As Apollo became more popular, the day of his worship was held in greater esteem. Con- stantine early adopted the Sun as his emblem and Apollo 1GG THE RELIGION OF MAX. as his protector, and until fifty years of age strictly ad- hered to their worship. When he was converted to Christianity he would not renounce the day he had al- ways held sacred, and one of the first acts of his reign was to compel its observance. No allusion was made to Christianity in the edict, which was prompted by a lin- gering love of the old religion of the hero gods. The courts were closed on that day except for the manumis- jsion of slaves, and military exercises forbidden. The I Christian bishops, who saw in the Emperor an incarnate divinity, adopted the day to please their Roman converts. (It is a Pagan day devoted to Apollo, or the Sun, and they who keep it in no sense fulfil the command " Re- member the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." There is no command in the Bible to observe the first day of the week. The old Jewish Fetishism is trans- ferred from the Sabbath to Sunday, and the church-goers of the present think the day far more sacred than any other. Even their house used on that day is sacred. They meet God there more directly than anywhere else. They do not believe the old Pagan notion that he loves incense and the smoke of burnt offerings, but they do believe that he enjoys their praises of him and depre- ciation of their own worm-like selves. The day is holy, and so strong is this prejudice that the laws for its ob- servance form one of the few instances where religion interferes with affairs of American State. Nature has no Sabbath. The winds blow, the waters run, it rains and is calm, the leaves and flowers expand, the birds sing, on Sunday as well as on all other days. What is wrong on Sunday is wrong on week-days ; and not until the processes of Nature point out the day of rest should legal enactment seek to make it holy. Until then, Sun- day laws are a scandal on civil liberty. DUTIES AND OBLIGATIONS OF MAN. 1G7 Of faith, it is said it transcends knowledge, and is the only means whereby man's relations to God can be made known. Far more correct to say that faith, the acceptance of authority, has cursed mankind. The more unreasonable and absurd the statement, the more loudly has the receiving faith been extolled. The sal- vation of the soul has been made to depend on faith, as opposed to reason. Belief depending on reason can be caused only by sufficiency of evidence ; it cannot be coerced nor gained by the will. The faith which re- ceives the improbable is attained by narcotizing the rea- son. But it is claimed that man's eternal welfare de- pends on his acceptance of certain doctrines. He must believe in God, in Christ, the resurrection, and many other minor dogmas, else he will assuredly be damned. If he cannot believe, what then ? Believing or non- believing is involuntary. One man may have an all- receiving faith without reason to trouble him, while an- other's reasoning powers are so active that he receives nothing without the closest scrutiny. Is one more blamable than the other ? Faith is a blind guide, and is no criterion of truth. It has, in their time, received a stone, a garlic, a cloud, a bull Apis for gods. The myths of the Olympian Court ; the fables of the Incar- nation of Brahma in Christna ; the revelations of Zoro- aster, of Moses, of Mohammed all religious systems the world over, unlike in everything else, agree in this : the faith, or, in other words, blind, unquestioning belief of their devotees. When Abelard began to prove theology by reason, he was hushed by the priests, who said if he pioved the reasonable by reason, he would reject the unreasonable by the same, and this was by no means admissible. If Christianity had always made the same demands on 1G8 THE RELIGION OF MAN. faith, it might at least plead consistency. It has not. Forced onward by the growth of the race, it has from age to age been compelled to change its ground. It has required acceptance of miracles, a personal God and Devil, witchcraft, the real presence, eternal punish- ment, predestination, total depravity, infant damnation, and countless other dogmas which have lived their day, been outgrown, and sunk into oblivion. Yet in the day of each, salvation was made to depend on their accept- ance. As faith can only be possessed at the expense of reason, it must always be pernicious, baleful, and blast- ing. The belief in its necessity, united with the dogma of free-will and free agency, has worked untold misery and ruin. / Science, on the contrary, demands impartial state- ments, leaving the judgment free. When mankind reach this firm ground, and are able to give a reason for their beliefs, no doubts will cloud their clear sky, nor will they apostatize. Then they will arrive at an un- derstanding of true holiness and purity, and find the theological standard only a caricature. Not the ob- servance of formulated ceremonies, the saying of long prayers, the keeping of saints' days, makes man holy. The devotee who performs weary pilgrimages to the Ganges to wash away his sins is none the better for his pains. The convert to Christianity goes down into the water for like motives, but comes out none the better. Holiness is nearness and likeness to God in other words, to perfection. None of these forms bridge the profound gulf. They may have been helps to those who first used them, but are dry and soulless to those who follow. The Stylite, the hermit, the Flagellant, devoutly sought holi- ness in their various ways unwisely sought by faith. The world moved on, and in a better age said of them, DUTIES AND OBLIGATIONS OF MAN. 169 " Not, Stylite, on your pillar's windy summit ; not, Hermit, in your lonely cave ; not, Flagellant, in the pangs of lacerated flesh, is the perfection sought by you attained. Beautiful to the eye of Infinite Cause is the pure essence of spiritual life ; but equally beautiful the bonds of flesh which hold it to earth. It loves the earthly clay as well as the spiritual life." Holiness and purity begin with the body. Gall in the stomach creates gall in the mind, and the demons of perse- cution have many a time been unleashed by the fever of indigestion. The olden saint was a crucified wretch, suffering unutterable misery. He had but to show his neck cut to the bone by his hair cloth shirt to be recog- nized. Thorns pierced his brow ; the lash tore his back ; hunger gnawed at his vitals ; the world itself sank into indefinite proportions ; and the demons of hell ever howled around the soul that thus endeavored to escape. Purity has been sought by renouncing the world and retiring from its allurements. The rocky cavern, the cell of the monastery, the solitude of forest and desert all have had their fanatical devotees, who, unable to conquer themselves in the world, voluntarily banished themselves out of it. An individual may preserve him- self unsullied in the darkness of a cavern simply because untempted. He is no better or worse for that. It is not what a man does, but what he is. Doing is only a revelation of the inner life. The spirit touches the material world through and by means of the physical body. Hence physical purity is a condition of spiritual growth, and its perfection the rhythmic harmony of all physical and spiritual func- tions. It is not bestowed by miracle. The waters of the Ganges or the church fount yield it not. It is an 170 THE RELIGION OF MAN. acquirement of struggle. It is the serene calm of a life- time of spiritual dictatorship, wherein all the untoward promptings of menial desires have been subdued by the supreme power of reason. Holiness is only attainable by obedience to the laws of our being. The Anchorite is as reprehensible as the debauchee. The command is, Not crush, but govern ; the proper subjection of the physical and spiritual by harmonious action. The saint of the past was known by the marks of self- inflicted physical torture ; the saint of the present be- lieves a long face, interminable prayers, and self-sacri- fice acceptable to God, entirely forgetful of his body, which may be a whitened sepulchre reeking with corrup- tion. The saint of the future will hold his body as no- ble as his spirit, and of equal importance. The bravest soul is useless in a corrupted body. Science resolves faith into accurate knowledge duty into obedience. Piety, which in its lowest stage is ser- vile reverence and love of God, is exalted to a willing obedience not because demanded by a Superior Being, but because the requirement of the constitution of things. Religion, if in this new sense that term may be employed, is the ceaseless effort for purity and integrity of being, and harmony with the order of the world ; it is devo- tion to the right. PART II. THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. THE INDIVIDUAL. THE individual has fought the battle of history. The determination of the sphere of mine and thine, where the I terminates in society, has been the bloody battle- field of the past ; nor has the ever fresh problem yet been solved. In a just and natural order, the individual should surrender no rights to society. Whatever is right for the mass is right for the individual. As all rights of society are founded on individual rights, the study of the individual is the key whereby the social order must be resolved. The individual, then, first claims our attention. We are not to regard him as a being degraded from a higher estate, with distorted faculties and abnormal desires, out- side of animal life and supernatural. He is a direct out- growth from the life beneath him, still retaining clearly defined traces of his origin in his instinctive nature, to which are added superior qualities more or less defined. Man is distinguished from animals by superior or moral faculties. In the brute there is a prophecy of qualities allied to morality, but, in none of them is there anything like a clear perception between right and wrong. Of their actions, we cannot say they are im- moral, for they act by impulse or desire, and not from a sense of duty. It may be said of savage man, and of 172 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. the savage of civilized life, that they are as destitute of morals as the brute, and hence notblamable. This fact is the cause of inextricable confusion in the old sys- tems, wherein the distinction between the animal and man have been attempted to be set forth. If an animal kills a man it is not held responsible as morally guilty, while a man who kills his fellow is guilty of the highest crime against morals. It is said the man knew better ; he had a free choice, and chose the part of guilt. While this might apply to cultured minds, such as the philosophers who study the theme of ethics, it does not to the class who usually commit such actions. The savage is almost as much a creature of blind impulse as the brute, and has as little choice. The feelings excited by contemplation of similar acts in the brute and man are results of the distinction in motives. The brute is pitied, man is blamed, often mercy being lost in hot in- dignation. If this be an error, it is relieved by the fact that while the brute is incapable of moral culture, and must be ruled by fear or hope of reward, THE LOWEST MAN IS SUSCEPTIBLE OF INFINITE IMPROVEMENT. The moral faculties ever are present, and may be awakened by proper stimulants. It is the possession of moral faculties that makes a science of morals possible, and the possibility of their culture gives such science its great and beneficent influ- ence. While moral perceptions were early in appear- ance, the development of anything like a system of ethics was reserved for recent time. The broad relations of in- dividuals and society were seized and expressed in proverbs and laws, but the subtle questions lying at the foundation were too complex for such general statement. Of all the departments of thought, this lies nearest the central existence of the spirit. The physical sciences are objective, and interest the senses. This is the study of the mind by the mind itself. It enters the secret cham- THE INDIVIDUAL. 173 bers and studies the methods of its own activities and the causes which incite them. DUTY. An animal rushes at, lacerates or crushes a man. We utter no word of censure. The animal has been true to its brute instincts ; we commiserate the result, and do not hold it responsible. We may even censure its victim, if he has provoked the attack. A man sheds the blood of his fellow. At once we censure the act. We say he ought not to have done the deed. Why ? Because he knew better. Here is intro- duced a word which conveys a meaning unequivocal and distinct. We do not say of the animal, it ought not, for it has no faculty comprehending ought. We say it of man because he has such faculty. He has a sense of duty, of obligation, for doing or not doing, to which the animal is a stranger. He is the thrall of a higher sphere of motives, and if he is not obedient, he sinks at once to the animal plane. In fact, he sinks far lower, for the blind instincts of the animal in him are intensi- fied by the intellect, directing and directed. When we consider man as a, product of evolution, and not as a fallen being, we eliminate from the discussion the intricate dogmas of his fall and redemption through vicarious atonement. Moral philosophy becomes a sci- ence to be advanced by research and observation in the same manner as other sciences. We are no longer con- fused by metaphysical argumentation based on the twisted meaning of words, and dogmatic theology yields its place as blind autocrat. In this study we regard the mind as a unity composed of diversity. It is the bane of metaphysical systems that they analyze the mind into several groups of faculties more or less arbitrarily, and then reason from such classi- fications as though they were finalities. By this means the mental powers have come to be regarded as distinct, clearly defined, and independent in their action. The same error enters into what may be termed anatomical psychology. The brain is mapped into divisions more 174 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. or less minute, and from these the mind is formed, as a government of many individual states. However accu- rately the brain may be divided, or sharply defined its several functions, the mind must be regarded as a whole, arising from the blending of them all. A greater error, because leading to ruinous consequences, is the doctrine that all the faculties, being natural and necessary, should be regarded as equals, and the action of one as right as another. Casting aside revelation as a standard of authority, man has nothing outside of himself to which to appeal. If he appeals to his own faculties, he must know how to interpret their voice. In a conflict between them, he must have some criterion by which he can decide. For this understanding we must know man's position in the universe, and the purposes and functions for which his mental faculties are adapted. We shall thereby learn if they are equal in authority in the determination of conduct, or if they are co-ordinated in an ascending series, the lower subject to the higher. We shall ascer- tain which are the higher, which the lower, and the dis- tinct provinces of each. POSITION" OF MAN. / Man is the superlative being, the last, greatest, and yet incomplete effort of creative energy. I shall consider him in the twofold aspect of a physical and spiritual being, related on the one side to the material world and on the other to the spiritual. Since the motto " Know thyself" was carved on the portal of a Grecian temple, the study of man has been the most absorbing pursuit of the thinker ; for all departments of science cluster around him as a centre, and a perfect knowledge of him is a comprehension of the universe. Early was the mo- mentous question asked by the soul blindly calling for an understanding of itself, Wliat is man? The solu- tion was felt to be fraught with infinite consequences, not only in this life but the interminable future, which was vaguely shadowed on the understanding of savage man. The answer early given, in the very childhood THE INDIVIDUAL. 175 of the race, became the foundation of the great religious systems of the world. The conjecture of untutored minds became the received system of causation, and growing hoary with age, arrogated to itself infallible au- thority, and required implicit faith and the exercise of reason only in making palatable the requirements of that f ai th. Conceived in an age when nature was an unknown realm, and law and order not imagined to control or di- rect causes to effects, when science opened her mysteries to the understanding, and one by one dogmas claiming infallibility were shown to be false, there of necessity was antagonism and conflict. I do not propose to en- large on the theological aspect of this subject more than incidentally. That treatment has grown threadbare, " stale, flat, and unprofitable," for every drop of vital juice it contained has been extracted long ago. The in- terminable sects, wrangling over the dogmatic solution of the vital question of man's origin and destiny, arriv- ing at nothing determinate, wrangling with each other and themselves, do not furnish incentives to follow their paths. If metaphysical theology contained the germ of truthful solution, satisfaction would have resulted ages ago, and the mind, reposing contented with the answer, would have employed its energies in other directions. In- stead there is restlessness, turmoil, conflict and indeci- sion, and never has been an answer so broad and deep in catholicity of truth as to meet the demand. If science fail also, it is not the irretrievable failure of assumed infallibility. Its teachings are ever tentative, and proph- ecies of final triumph. As the most ennobling study of mankind is man, the crowning work of science is the solution of this vexed question. By science I mean ac- curate knowledge, close and careful observation of phe- nomena, and the conclusions drawn therefrom. , s MAN A DUAL STRUCTURE. While theology, Brahminical, Buddhistical or Chris- tian, teaches that man is an incarnate spirit, indepen- dent of the physical body, created by miracle, supported by a succession of miracles, and saved by miracle from 176 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. eternal death, material science, as at present taught by its leading exponents, wholly ignores his spiritual life, and declares him to be a physical being only. It is not my purpose to reconcile these conflicting views. Truths never require reconciliation, for they never conflict. If the results of two different methods of investigation are at variance, one or the other is in error, and the only reconciliation is the elimination of that error. The egotism of theology and the pride of science array their votaries in opposition, while the truth remains unques- tioned in the unexplored middle ground. Man is neither a spirit nor a body ; he is the intimate union of both. In and through his physical being, the spiritual nature is evolved from the forces of the elements, and is expressed. There is something more enduring than the resultants of chemical unions, actions and reactions in his physical body. Beneath this organic construc- tion is that which remains, to which it is the scaffolding which assists, while it conceals the development of the real edifice. PHYSICAL MAN". First, as most tangible and obvious in this investiga- tion, is the physical man, the body, the temple of the soul. The student, even when imbued with the doc- trine of materialism, arises from the study of the physi- cal machine with wonder and surprise akin to awe. It is not surprising that we die, but that we live. The rupture of a nerve fibre, the obstruction of a valve, the momentary cessation of breath, the introduction of a mote at some vital point, brings this complex structure to eternal rest. By what constant forethought, by what persistency of reparation is it preserved from ruin ! This physical man is an animal, amenable to the laws of animal growth. His body is the type of which theirs are but imperfect copies. From two or three mineral substances his bones are crystallized and articulated as the bones of all vertebrate animals, and over them the muscles are extended. From the amphioxus, too low in the scale of being to be called a fish, a being without organs, without a brain, little more than uii elongated THE INDIVIDUAL. 177 sack o- gelatinous substance, through which a white line marks the position of the spinal chord and the fu- ture spinal axis, there is a slow and steady evolution to the perfected skeleton of man. His osseous structure is the type of all. The fin of the fish, the huge paddle of the whale, the cruel paw of the tiger, the hoof of the horse, the wing of the bird, and the wonderfully flexi- ble hand of man, so exquisite in adaptations as to be taken as an unqualified evidence of Design, are all fash- ioned out of the same elementary bones, after one model. The change of form to meet the wants of their possessors results from the relative enlargement or atrophy of one or more of these elements. When the fleshy envelope is stripped away from them, it is aston- ishing how like these apparently divergent forms really are. In the whale the flesh unites the huge bones of the fingers, and produces a broad, oar like fin ; in the tiger the nails become retractile talons ; in the birds some of the fingers are atrophied, while others are elongated to support the feathers which are to offer re- sistance to the air in flight ; in the horse the bones of the fingers are consolidated, and the united nails appear in the hoof. If there exists such perfect similarity in the bony structure of man to the animal world, the muscular sys- tem for which it furnishes support offers the same like- ness. Trace any muscle in the human body from its origin to its termination, mark the points where it seizes the bones, the function it performs, and then dissect the most obscure or disreputable member of the verte- brate kingdom, the same muscle performing the same function will be found. The talons of the tiger are extended and flexed by muscles similar to those which give flexibility to the human hand, and the same ele- ments are traceable in the ponderous paddle of the whale. More vital than the bony framework, or the muscles to which it gives support, is the nervous system, seem- ingly not only the central source of vital power, but the means of union and sympathetic relation of every cell and fibre of the entire body. 178 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. The brain has been aptly compared to a central tele- graphic office, and the nerves to the extended wires, which hold in communication and direct relation all the organs, and from which the functions of each are di- rected. The nervous system is the bridge which spans the chasm between matter and spirit, and the battle be- tween Materialism and Spiritualism must be fought not only with brain, but in the province of brain. The is- sue directly stated is this : Does the brain yield mind as the result of organic changes in its cells and fibres, or is mind a manifestation through and by means of the brain of something superior and beyond Y The material sci- entists rely on facts, yet the most profound in their ranks admit that the structure of the brain is a mystery, its functions unfathomable, and really nothing is abso- lutely known of the offices it sustains to the body, or the methods by which these are performed. They are satisfied with the investigation of what may be called secondary relations and effects. The chemist has found phosphorus and sulphur in the nerve substance, and hence it is claimed that they are essential to thought. So much phosphorus, so much thought, and so much waste product of decomposition. These philosophers have gone so far as to prescribe the diet for- students. Fish abound in phosphorus, and are hence the best brain food. But surely phosphorus never wrote Homer's Iliad, or solved the problem of gravitation. It is not phos- phorus, or carbon, or nitrogen, however vigorously oxidized, that pulsates in the emotions of friendship or love ; that feels, and thinks, and knows ; that rec- ollects the past, and anticipates the future, and reaches out in infinite aspirations for perfection. The actions of thought on the brain, the effort com- pelling the body to serve the bidding of the spirit, may consume this element and many others, as the movement of an engine consumes the coal and wastes the steam ; but the coal and the steam are only the means whereby mind impresses itself on matter. The materialist studies the brain as a person wholly unacquainted with an engine, and mistaking it for a THE INDIVIDUAL. 179 living being, might be supposed to do. He would ob- serve its motion, and weighing the coal consumed and the products of combustion, would say that they appeared in steam, which, after propelling the piston, was waste. The design in the engine, the eifect of these combina- tions and this waste, this observer would claim to be the guiding intelligence. And he would further argue that so much coal in the grate, so much water in the boiler, and you have so much intelligence, and the waste may be predetermined by chemical formulas ! Until the threshold of the structure of the nervous system and the functions of the brain have been passed, the primary principles of scientific investigation would at least require modesty in asserting conclusions of such momentous consequences. If it be claimed that man is a natural being, origi- nated and sustained by natural laws ; that he came with- out miracle, then do we unite the margins of the human and animal kingdoms, and are satisfied with placing man at the head of the animal world. An interminable and unbroken series of beings extends downward from man until the organs by which the phenomena of life are manifested are lost one by one, the senses disappear, and, we arrive at what has been aptly termed " protoplasm," not an organized form, but sim- ply organizable matter, or matter from which organic forms can be produced. If in reviewing this chain of beings, slowly arising by constant evolution, we closely examine several of its con- secutive links, we shall find that while each is appar- ently complete, yet it is only the germ out of which the next is evolved in superior forms. Each link is a prophecy of future superiority. We can trace the ful- filment of the prophecy of one age in the next, until man appears as the last term in the physical series. They who teach us this doctrine of evolution, which is to life what the law of gravitation is to worlds, also teach that, united with the doctrine of " conservation of force," our hope of immortality becomes a dream. What a sham they make of creation ! What a turmoil for no result ! Infinite ages of progress and evolution, 180 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. during which elemental matter, by force of inherent laws, sought to individualize itself and incarnate its force in living beings ; ages of struggle upward from low to high, from sensitive to sentient, from sentient to intellectual, from zoophyte to man ! And now, having accomplished this, and given man exquisite susceptibil- ity of thought, of love, of affection, making him the last factor in the series, he is doomed to perish ! What is gained by this travail of the ages ? It would have been as well had the series stopped with the huge sau- rians of the primeval slime, or the mastodon and mam- moth of prehistoric times, as with man. As each fac- tor in the series prophesies future forms, so does man, read in the same light, prophesy forms beyond. They cannot be in the line of greater physical perfection, for in the days of Greece and Rome man was as perfect physically, as is seen by their sculptures, as to-day. Ages ago this exceeding beauty was attained. It can- not be in the evolution of a being superior to man, for in each lower animal imperfect organs or structures or partially employed functions are improvable and per- fected by succeeding forms ; in man the archetype is com- plete, and no partially developed organ indicates the possibility of future change. THE COURSE OP PROGRESS CHANGED. Progress having arrived at its limits with the body, changes its direction, and appears in the advancement of mind. Death closes the career of individuality, and we live only in thoughts our self hood is absorbed in the ocean of being. Mankind perfects as a whole, and the sighed-for millennium is coming by-and-by. Of what avail is it to us if future generations are wise and noble, if we pass into nonentity ? Of what avail to them to be wise arid noble, if life is only the fleeting hour ? Not yet will I believe Nature to be such a sham such a cruel failure. The spirit rebels against the supposition of its mortality. The body is its habili- ment. Shall the coat be claimed to be the entire man ? Shall the garments ignore the wearer ? THE GENESIS AND EVOLUTION OF SPIEIT. 181 This is the animal side of man. Physically composed of the same elements, and having passed through these innumerable changes, he is an epitome of the universe. As man was foreshadowed in remotest ages as the crown- ing type in the series of organic life, so man foreshadows superior excellence. Springing out of his physical per- fectibility arises a new world of spiritual wants and aspirations, unanswered and unanswerable in mortal life. IF THERE IS AN IMMORTAL SPIRIT, IT MUST BE ORIGI- NATED AND SUSTAINED BY NATURAL LAWS. If this be true, we are to seek the origin of the indi- vidualized spirit with the origin of the physical body. We are to place the growth of one with that of the other. The physical body is the scaffolding by which the spir- itual being is sustained, and when matured sufficiently, remains after that support is taken away. A certain stage of progress or perfection must be reached before this result, else all living beings would be immortal. Like the arch, which unless completed falls as soon as the scaffolding is removed, the spiritual part of the animal falls at death. Continue the task still further and place the keystone in position, and the arch remains self-supporting. II. THE GENESIS AND EVOLUTION OF SPIRIT. ALL religious systems of necessity are based on immor- tality. Man may be moral without belief in the future. .But the faith and knowledge of a life infinitely contin- ued sheds a glory over the present, and consecrates the character. The motives of the hour become sanctified with the mighty influences which are theirs in their in- 182 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. terminable reach, and every act lias, a new significance in the superadded eternal relation. Moral science is the crowning arch of all knowledge, the latest and the best. Its study involves that of all others, for the moral faculties are the acquisition of an ascending series, are directly related with the faculties which reach down and lay tiold of the physical world. They are hence subject to laws, form a continuity, and are a factor in the mental unity. That we may com- prehend the foundations on which we build the spiritual temple whose dome is crowned with the heaven-light of a religion sublimated from a pure morality, a brief out- line of the relations of the spiritual and physical uni- verse is here introduced. On this ascending order we found our classification of the mental faculties, as the order of beings is ascertained from embryonic growths, and shall determine the higher from the lower. THE ORIGIN" OF MATTER AND FORCE. The origin of matter and force evade the grasp of the human mind. Consistent philosophy can only rest its sure foundations on the admission of the co-eternity of the atom and the forces which emanate therefrom. We have no knowledge of the creation or destruction of the least fragment of matter. We are only acquainted with change. The wood or coal burns in the grate and dis- appears, leaving a residuum of ashes. Has the fire de- stroyed the matter of which the coal was formed ? Ah no ! there has only been a change of form. Nor is the force lost. It disappears, as the solid coal disappears in the atmosphere, but retains its potential- ity. No discovery of modern times has had greater in- fluence than that of the indestructibility of motion. We have instanced the burning of coal. We say it is de- stroyed and the heat which it produced has ceased. In both expressions are we at fault, for as the carbon of the coal has changed its form, and heat has resulted from the change, that form of force has not ceased to be after warming our dwellings. The carbon of the coal was secreted by the action of the heat and light of the sun THE GENESIS AND EVOLUTION OF SPIRIT. 183 during the coal period. It existed as carbonic acid gas in the atmosphere, and the rays of the sun tore asunder the carbon and oxygen of the gas, and the former was stored away by the plant, at length to become coal. What, then, have we when we allow these atoms of car- bon and oxygen to rush together ? The phenomenon of heat, or, in other words, the identical force which mill- ions of ages ago separated these elements. If we place the coal in the furnace of an engine, the heat it affords is changed into motion, and if possible to utilize it all, the amount of motion will exactly equal the amount of heat. Thus a pound of coal represents a certain amount of force derived primarily from the sun. If burned in a furnace and perfectly economized, it will give the engine power to raise a certain number of pounds one foot ; or if the engine drive a machine to create friction, that friction will produce light and heat exactly equal to the quantity of sunlight and heat originally required to create the pound of coal ; or it may be applied to produce electricity, and that electricity will be sufficient to produce light and heat of the same degree, or to propel another engine of the same power. In all these changes of form of motion, to light, to heat, to electricity, and revertive to motion, nothing is gained, nothing lost. FOUNDATION OF SPIRITUALISM. Here, on the assumed co-eternity of Matter and Force, on the foundation of rigid Materialism, we can study the processes of evolution in the material world and also in the world of spirit, understanding that one is as inflexibly controlled by law as the other. We propose to treat this great problem from this stand- point, well knowing the magnitude of the task and the difficulties to be met. So far as we are aware this is the first attempt to reduce spiritual existence to the do- minion of law, or extend the process of formation in a continuous and direct line from physical forms to spir- itual life. 184 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. DEFINITION" OF SPIRIT. How far removed this subject is from the path of exact observation or scientific thought is clearly shown by the received definition of spirit. It is, according to the standard lexicon, "The intelligent, immaterial and immortal part of human beings." If immaterial, spirit at once escapes us. The methods by which we in- vestigate physical nature are worthless, and it is amenable to no laws which we can ascertain. But how can an im- material being have intelligence? How, even, can itexist? It is an absolute nothing, an intelligent, immortal noth- ing ! And this nothingness is not a fact of organiza- tion, but a gift from God! Ardent, indeed, is the imagination of the metaphysician who accepts such an existence, and maintains its desirability. This imma- terial part they say is a fragment from the Divine Being, and is an image of him in quality, but differs in degiee. Not a step has been made since the Brahmins of the Ganges, so remote that our historic dates are of yester- day, perfected their system of theology. Man's spirit was a portion of the Infinite Spirit, and was, after pass- ing through a certain cycle, reabsorbed into the divine bosom, to flow out again in an endless succession of be- ings. This theory is plausible, but being entirely imag- inary, is no more worthy of credence than the vagaries of a dream. Here the speculations of one man are as reliable as those of another, and all are as idle conjec- tures, for at the very beginning it is impossible for finite man to know anything of the Infinite Spirit, and how, then, so flippantly assert that the spirit of man is a detached fragment or spark from this Infinite Source ? REINCARNATION. Nor is the modified form of this theory known as re- incarnation less objectionable. The spirit is something foreign to the physical body, which takes up its abode therein. This is a very old idea, and is received in al- most its original form, as advocated by the Pythagorean and Platonic schools. In proof it is said there are those THE GENESIS AND EVOLUTION OF SPIRIT. 185 who distinctly recollect passages in their previous exist- ence. As the poet has said : " Some draught of Lethe doth await, As old mythologies relate, The slipping through from state to state." But memory is not always silenced. Sometimes the potent draught is not sufficiently powerful ; and then we decipher the mystic lines of some previous state : " And ever something is or seems, That touches us with mystic gleams, Like glimpses of forgotten dreams." Plato regarded this life as only a recognized moment between two eternities, the past and the future. Innate ideas and the sentiment of pre-existence prove our past. To Plato, representative of the attainment of ancient thought, such might be satisfactory evidence, but to us, with the knowledge we possess of the physiology of the brain, they are of little value. If the spirit is an independent portion of the Deity, what can it possibly gain by reincarnation F It is claimed that spirits who have sinned in the body are obliged to reincarnate themselves for purifica- tion. If the spirit is essentially pure, and becomes cor- rupt by contact with the body, it is strange, indeed, a second contact is able to purify. If we admit the theory of reincarnation, the birth of every human being is a miracle, and the spiritual realm at once removes itself from rational investigation. The difficulties which lie in the way of its reception are insumountable ; the greatest of which is, that at best it offers a speculative solution to a problem far better solved by the application of known causes. The entire animal world must re- ceive its living element in the same manner, and re- incarnation must apply to brutes as well as man, for one type of structure pervades all living beings. If this incarnate or physical state is one of probation, how can a portion of the infinite take on a probationary state, and, being absolutely perfect, what benefit does it derive from, incarnation, or by repeated reincarnations? The higher can gain nothing by contact with the 186 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. lower, and if spirit exists independent of matter, and living beings receive the breath of life by receiving a portion of the spiritual essence, then that essence must be the loser, and repeated contacts degrade rather than elevate it. That we lose our consciousness of the pre- ceding states is among the least of objections, for con- sciousness and memory are often treacherous. The cardinal objection, which supplants all others, is derived from a study of the constitution and order of the world. Nature has one structural plan extending from the ani- malcule to man, taking in with all-embracing sweep the vegetable and animal kingdoms. In accordance with that plan all beings beneath man are developed. Why are we to suppose that, although his physical form is a direct continuance of the line of progress, as expressed in animals, and his psychical being different from theirs not in kind, but degree, a new method is introduced, which sets aside and renders worthless this interminable series of advancing life ? Man would exist just the same were not this new method introduced, as the laws of creation extend directly to him. They consequently disturb the otherwise unbroken harmony of nature by the introduction of a miracle. An oak germinates from an acorn under the favor- able conditions of moisture and warmth, by which the germ is enabled to expand according to the laws of its growth. It is not necessary to suppose the spirit of a decayed oak takes possession of the acorn to clothe itself again with woody fibre. If we received the theory of reincarnation, and that the spirit is a fragment of the Divine spirit, as the phys- ical body is of the physical world, the difficulties are by no means escaped. We can see that the infinite series of creation is the means whereby the fragment we call the body was broken off from the physical world. By what process was the fragment broken off from the spir- itual world ? To say that some human spirits are re- incarnations, while others are not, will not suffice, for all are re-incarnations, else none. If all are, then this difficulty is only placed more remote, for the first incar- nation must have occurred at some time, and how was THE GENESIS AND EVOLUTION OF SPIEIT. 187 that effected? How was the individual spirit at first created by or detached from the Infinite Spirit ? Thus, at every point, the theory is beset with insurmountable difficulties, and it ever appears supposititious, as the psychical phenomena it seeks to explain are consistently referred to the known laws of the world. DEAD MATTER. The old idea of the inertness of matter, that it is dead and inanimate, only moving when acted upon by su- perior force, has become obsolete. Whether we regard the atom to which matter is finally reduced as a pulsat- ing centre of force or as an entity affects not our con- clusion. If an entity, we can never know anything of it except by means of the forces flowing from it. We never see, feel, taste nor touch matter. It is its proper- ties or atmosphere which affect us. All visible effects are produced by invisible causes. All the forces of na- ture act from within outward. " Tho things to be ex- plained," remarks a modern thinker, " are changes, active effects, motions in ordinary matter, not as acted upon, but as in itself inherently active. The chief use of atoms is to serve as points or vehicles of motion. Thus, the study of matter resolves itself into the study of forces. Inert objects, as they appear to the eye of sense, are replaced by the activities revealed to the eye of the intellect. The conceptions of " gross,' ' corrupt,' ' brute matter,' are passing away with the prejudices of the past ; and in place of a dead, material world, we have a living organism of spiritual energies." The organization of atoms cannot manifest any qual- ity that does not reside in the single atom. Hence, if matter, in its aggregation, yields the phenomena of life and consciousness, the atom must contain the possibili- ties of life and consciousness. We are to divest ourselves at once of the old idea of the inertness of matter. It has within itself the forces by which it acts, without which it could not exist. We have to deal with force, or what has ever been termed spirit, from the beginning. Beyond this force 188 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. and visible matter may lie the domain of the Infinite Mind, the expression of whose will and purpose these phenomena are. ORIGIN" OF LIFE. The cell is the beginning of all forms of life ; even in reproducing life in any manner, as by division or par- entage. The cell is the primary form from which the infinite series of vegetable and animal life is derived. Life is inherent in matter, and living beings are the in- dividualization of that life. Its individualization was the result of conditions such as now exist in the sea, so that, should the earth be divested of living beings, it would begin a new series of advancement, differing only from that recorded in the rocky strata by the superiority of present conditions to those of the original chaos. The fragment was broken from the world of matter and individualized, and by evolution, the gradual un- folding of inherent qualities, we can trace its growth through the successive geological ages. It may not be possible to trace with completeness the progiess from the microscopic atom of protoplasm to the highest form of mammals. The great Darwin has, with a flood of facts, bridged the vast distance, and established the doctrine of creation by evolution in a direct and continuous line, in a fixed and unvarying order. ORIGIN" OF MAN. The forces of change are operating to-day with the same swift but noiseless energy as in the past. The once prevalent notion of catastrophes has passed away. The geological ages are no longer divided by sharp lines, formed by overwhelming convulsions, but fade into each other. From the cellular atomy to the mollusk ; from inollusk to the fish and reptile ; from the reptile to the warm-blooded animal, is one unbroken line of ascent. The animate beings of each age are direct outgrowths of the preceding, and man is not an exception. There is as little necessity to introduce miracle at his creation, as at the production of the atomic of the primeval slime. THE GENESIS AND EVOLUTION OF SPIRIT, 189 He did not spring, like Minerva, from the brain of Jove, with all his God-like qualities complete. Even the brief records of history carry us back to barbarism, and in the unknown period beyond man becomes a skin- clad savage, scarcely superior to the animal his strategy eludes or destroys. The first indication of his presence is a broken flint, so rude it was at first referred to ac- cident ; his dwelling was the natural fissures of the rocks, which he disputed with varying fortune with his brother animals. As the animal world advances, man is degraded, until the chasm said to exist between them vanishes, and the two inseparably blend. It is admitted by those who have studied the subject most profoundly, that the mental powers of animals and of man are the same in kind, only differing in degree. The distance between the intellect of Newton and that of the dog is immeasurably great, but the difference between him and the Bosjesman, who is unable to count four, is greater than between the intelligence of the latter and the dog. The manifestation of intellect is determined by the brain, and the brain of the higher animals and man are identical in structure. Whatever we may hereafter find the functions of brain to be, we know its size and form indicate the thoughts which accompany it. Thus, anatomy alone proves the inseparable union in organiza- tion between man and the animal. Even language has been employed both by Darwin and Wallace to strengthen this union, animals having signs and sounds to ex- press their thoughts and emotions. Physically and mentally man is the culmination of the vast series of organic changes from the dawn of life. Organs faintly shadowed or indifferently formed in him are perfected, balanced, and brought in harmony with the perfection of others. He is the type and perfection of the animal kingdom. MENTAL GROWTH. This survey of the realm of living beings presents us with the perfection of the physical forms of animals as well as of man. The lion, for instance, is no more per- 190 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. feet than its ancestors of the tertiary epoch. The sle- phant is not in advance of the elephant of the same. These high forms have attained their completeness, and are subject to little variation. The physical man has also reached perfection. In ancient times he had done so, as is shown by the perfection of the marble models of Greece. There is every reason to suppose that the human form was as exquisitely moulded three thousand years ago in Greece, as it is under the highest civiliza- tion at present. With the acquisition of intellect, progress changed its object and direction. Previously acting on unresisting bodies, it has now found a directing power in intelli- gence. Animals are even in their highest estate almost as resistless to the conditions which environ them as the elements. The same holds true of lowest man. He offers no resistance to change. When, however, he be- gins to understand the laws of the elements, he takes advantage of their power, and dictates to them. In ex- act ratio of his knowledge is he the master instead of the slave. A new element is introduced into the meth- od of evolution. Perfection of physical form is reached and progress directed through the channel of intelli- gence. A certain mental endowment is gained by ani- mals, but their physical structure precludes any consid- erable attainment. The upright position, the dexterity of the hand, which obtain in man, are essential to his intellectual growth. Even were it possible for a tiger to become as intelligent as man, its organization would render such endowment worthless. The hand of the inventor is as necessary as his intellectual faculties. An ox with the mind of La Place in vain might seek to record its calculations ; and though it should plan a Hoosac Tunnel, its hard hoofs could not execute the work. The question is asked, If animals in the past, by con- stantly availing themselves of every change for the bet- ter, have reached their present status, will not improve- ment still continue, and may not races superior to man be expected ? In those regions, unmolested by man, the process of change will continue ; but as he meets the THE GENESIS AND EVOLUTION OF SPIKIT. 191 requirements of his position, as in him is made perfect expression of type, there can be no physical advance beyond him. If we study the structure of any individ- ual animal, we readily perceive wherein important changes might be made for its improvement. Not so with man. His physical organization is complete, and although we find traces of organs once useful to lower being, but now atrophied, we find no partially developed organs, or indications of latent functions. Further- more, at this point where he gains physical perfection, his intellect makes him master of conditions. If he have an imperfect organ it is his brain, which now re- ceives the entire force of the elements of change, and shadows forth the most exalted intellectual possible at- tainments. The savage offers slight resistance to the conditions which surround him. The Esquimaux build ice-houses to protect themselves, but in the struggle for existence are overpowered by the climate, and as a race are disappearing. The African is enervated and over- powered by the tropic heat ; civilized man, on the con- trary, by his knowledge of architecture, clothing, fire and skill, overcomes climate. He carries the tropics to the poles, and the polar ice to the tropics. Not only does he set aside the order of progress in himself, he dictates to the animal world. He introduces domestic animals in place of the denizens of the wild, which he extirpates. These domestic species are the product of his whim and caprice, in which his ideas are expressed, as he, by study of the methods of nature, has learned to substitute new methods of his own. By this rapid survey we have determined man's posi- tion at the apex of the pyramid of life, the crowning work of creative energy. We have observed the method by which his physical body has been broken like a frag- ment from the world of matter. The development of mind can be traced by a parallel course, and to con- tinue the figure of speech, indicates the method by which man's spirit is broken, a fragment from the spiritual universe. ! 1ART?.K: 192 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. SPIRIT. We now come to the consideration of the immortal man. Thus far our course has been with the material- ists, who will be pleased with our conclusions. But we can go no further, for we cannot hold with them that intelligence vanishes as the flame of the lamp when the oil is burned out ; the tones of music when the instru- ment is destroyed, or the hum of the bee after the insect has passed on its busy wings. The highest culture of all ages and the instinctive yearnings of the soul contradict this conclusion. Ever it exclaims with the great Goethe, " The destruction of such high powers is something which can never, under any circumstances, come in question," and we are prone to say with the shade of Anticlea, " When a man is dead, the flesh and the bones are left to be consumed by the flames ; but the soul flies away like a dream." More deeply are we impressed with that conclusion, when by a survey of the realm of life we find that the progressive labor of the ages is for the creation of man. He is the resultant of the vast series of evolutions. The labor has been for his benefit, and whatever results have flowed to other beings have been accidental to the main line of advancement. A plan is revealed, which, as previously stated, is inherent in the constitution of the world, and must be inevitably followed. To stop short of man would be to render creative energy an abortion. PROGEESS UNLIMITED. "We cannot limit this progress. Having reached its highest point in physical man, it seeks a new channel through his spiritual nature. In the human form we observed no imperfectly fashioned organs or illy exe- cuted functions prophesying greater perfection hereto- fore, but in the mental realm we do find this state of things. Compared even with his ideal, the man of pro- foundest thought is a child. Infinite possibilities are his, and vet he actualizes scarcely the alphabet ! THE GENESIS AXD EVOLUTION OF SPIRIT. 193 Nor is it possible for the individual man in the short space allotted to mortal life to do more. Shall the race accomplish what is denied the individual ? The great stream of civilization flows onward, and each individual atom rises above the preceding. Then, what is the benefit or aim of this progress ? Is there anything gained by the mastodon taking the place of the saurian of the primeval slime, or man of the mas- todon ? If the production of mortal beings is the end, the process would be as perfect at one stage as another. We consider it perfect in proportion as the typical struc- ture is attained, and that structure is one which most completely embodies the possibilities of the elements. Mun is the nearest approximation to this result. He has in a measure become master of the forces which sur- round him, but who will say he has reached the limits of his capabilities in this direction ? With the same ratio of progress for the next century as in the past, he will have the forces of nature under his control. But this is for the race. What is for the individual ? He cares not if mankind a thousand years hence become as Gods : lie asks, What is my destiny ? The great plan of animal life comes to fruition in physical man ; he is the result of countless millenniums ot evolutions. As this progress evolves man, the same laws extend into a higher domain and evolve his spirit. Unless this be so, creation is a failure, and the chain of beings which form its cycle represent no purpose. Unless the order be extended, and as a result a portion become advanced to a new and higher plane, we have the spectacle of ceaseless activity without object or gain, which is nowhere else met with in the bounds of na- ture. The material is wanting to bridge the gulf between matter arid spirit, but it must be borne in mind how brief has been the period since investigation has been intelligently directed to this subject, and also the great difficulties in the way. A boundless field of research is here opened, across the threshold of which none have yet passed except those who have studied it from the im- mortal side. For the present, then, the main argument 194 THE ETHIf'S OF SCIENCE. rests on the perfect and satisfactory manner in which this theory accounts for all the diverse phenomena. IMMORTALITY IS CONFERRED AS THE HIGHEST AIM OF CREATIVE ENERGY, admitting no mistakes. Man's spiritual state must surpass his mortal, which is its prototype, extending and consummating the mortal life. Whether we die drawing our first living breath, or after a full century, has not the least influence on the final growth and at- tainments of the spirit, which embodies every law of progress. Whether as a spirit clad in flesh, or as a spirit in the angel spheres, man is amenable to law. We can learn many lessons from this contemplation. By it we comprehend our duty to lower and our rela- tions to higher orders of intelligences. The brutes of the field, our ignoble brethren, all the forms of life be- neath us, require our kindness, love, and sympathy ; the angels of light, our elder brothers, call forth our love and emulation. We are not ephemerae of a day, but companions of suns and worlds, and possessed of a proud consciousness that when the lofty mountain peaks have crumbled and the earth passed away, when the sun no longer shines, the stars of heaven are lost in night, our spiritual being will have but begun its never-ending course, III. THE LAW OF MORAL GOVERNMENT. WE state the law of morality and of conscience to be that the highest faculties should always control the con- duct of life. Each and every faculty of the mind has its own appropriate function and office to perform, and within its sphere of activity is promotive of good and conducive to happiness. Whenever any lower faculty THE LAW OF MORAL GOVERNMENT. 195 transcends its sphere and encroaches on that of a higher, evil and unhappiness results. But how are we to deter- mine the high from the low ? Are not all good, and foi 4 good, and as integral parts of the mind are they not all equal ? For the thorough comprehension of this subject, which has become a confusion of conflicting theories, the formation of the mind must be attentively studied. Then we shall be prepared to pronounce on the ascend- ing degrees of higher or lower, and what can be elimi- nated from the mind and yet preserve its integrity ; what faculties and functions man may lose and yet re- main man. SIMILARITY OF THE MORAL AND PHYSICAL WORLDS. Man, as the crowning effort of the physical world, and a compend of the universe, reveals in his organiza- tion his kinship with its forces. He is the expansion of the germ ; its prophecy in the beginning, as within the acorn resides the possibilities of the oak. If we ask what is the foundation law of the physical world, without which it could not exist, even as material, at first we might find it difficult to answer. We can approach the solution by a process of elimination. We shall have no difficulty in pronouncing the vegeta- ble beneath the animal, or the energies called vital above those of purely chemical affinity. The vital forces of vegetation are a modification of chemical affinity, which lies directly beyond. This force aggregates like substances. Its manifestation depends ON COHESION, the indiscriminate attraction of atoms. Before there can be selection, atoms must be brought together. Neb- ulous clouds, the atoms of which are dissipated by re- pulsion, have no cohesion. But there is a force re- maining after the cancellation of the vital, of affinity, of cohesion, and that force superior to all others is 196 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. GRAVITATION". vVithout the tendency of bodies toward each, other there could exist no systems of revolving worlds, nor would such systems have been formed in the beginning from the primal chaos. Annul gravitation, and matter ceases to exist. There is nothing above, or more all- embracing. It embodies the mathematics and mechan- ics of nature. Life may be extinguished, selective affin- ity and cohesion destroyed, yet this force will remain unchanged. As we cannot go beyond it, and it depends on no other, it must be the highest force in the physical world. It was first to manifest its influence in the vor- tices in which suns and systems were gestated from chaos. When the atoms, repelled into most attenuated vapor, were drawn into each other's sphere, cohesion and then chemical affinity were manifested. The latter made vegetable life possible, which in turn supported animal life. As the universe of matter has one principle superior to all others, on which its very existence depends, so man, as an epitome of the universe, has one principle or faculty which makes him man, and without which he is not man, but an animal. It is self evident that all those faculties which he holds in common with animals do not make him man. It is some quality which they do not possess which confers that title of honor. The development of every child begins at the same point with the animal. The germ has but one function, that of assimilating food. The first command is to grow. The next step is taken by the acquisition of or- gans of locomotion. It no longer waits for its food, it reaches after it. Then we see the dawn of mentality in the directing power applied to the locomotive organs. In man the first process is of growth, assimilation, and the mental faculties, which are awakened by the gratifi- cation of the demands made by this process, and its cor- related functions lie at the base of the brain, and are called the Appetites and Passions. Related to these, and in part springing from them, are the desires, and above THE LAW OF MORAL GOVERNMENT. 197 these the emotions. In order of growth, the latest in development is the intellectual and moral faculties. That they are not essential to animal life is proved by the fact that animals exist without them. The later development of moral consciousness proves that it is not c-ssential to intellectual life, though these two have kept an even and parallel course. Comparing man with the animal, we eliminate all faculties except REASON AS INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL CONSCIOUSNESS. It is to man what gravitation is to the physical world. It is unlimited by any other faculty, nor is it dependent for its manifestation on any other. Unlike the lower, it makes no prophecy of another faculty ; its promise is of its own perfection. The appetites minister exclu- sively to the demands of the body, performing which their task is finished. But if there is not something more, nothing but animal life is attained. The body is nourished for something. There is a work for it to do. That work is the evolution of spirit and its mentality. On the appetites rests a group of desires, from the most selfish, to those which reach into the future, for contin- ued life, and the loves, which are represented in the physical world by heat, radiating out from the individual to the family and the world. The body was made to serve the mind, and not the mind the body. The appetites were made to serve the desires and love, and not the desires and love to serve the appetite. All below were made to serve those above. And lastly the intellect was made to serve the moral consciousness, and not the moral consciousness the in- tellect. Here we grasp the true distinction between HIGH AND LOW. When a faculty is the foundation of another, it must be regarded as lower than that to which it administers. Thus the appetites that feed the body are lower than the faculties which are manifested through the body being so fed. Reason, which takes cognizance of perceptions and 198 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. emotions, must be superior to the faculties on which it sits in judgment. Spiritual reason, or moral conscious- ness, the essence of the spiritual perceptions, must be highest of all. If you now ask what can a man not spare and yet remain man, the answer must be, Reason and Conscience.* We now have a rule by which to determine the grade of the mental faculties. It is precisely the same as that by which the naturalist determines the grade of organic life. Whatever looks forward to the sustenance of something beyond is lower than the organism it thus foreshadows. The faculties possessed by man, which distinguish him from the animal, are as superior to those which belong to the animal as the hand is supe- rior to the claw, formed of the same elements. SHALL WE BE NATURAL? As every faculty has a function to perform, eke it would not exist any more than a superfluous organ, the natural activity of all faculties is essential to well being. What is this natural activity? It is activity within the sphere of each, to the point where the superior receive only bene6t. The body being created for the mind, its appetites were given for its proper growth and suste- nance, and are for this end productive of good. But if they seek gratification beyond that sphere, they are de- structive of the purpose of their being. We at once say, this is unnatural and wrong. The idea of man is of a reasoning, moral being, and every faculty and function promises that result. Whatever interferes with growth in that direction is unnatural as it is wrong. Hunger is the demand of the body for food. To an- swer such demand is the first duty of being, as life itself depends upon it. To partake of food, and of such quality as reason dictates, is right, and is rewarded by asatisfac- * The reader will find further on that by Conscience is meant the highest form of Reason, or Spiritual Consciousness. The term is used to avoid circumlocution, but always with this mean- ing. THE APPETITES. 199 tion which is happiness. If, however, we eat for the gratification of this appetite when the body makes no de- mand, and of deleterious food, we defeat its purpose, and bring pain and disease. The same is true of all other faculties. Each has an appropriate sphere, in which it is iiseful and productive of good. That sphere is bounded on one side by the body ; on the other, it reaches upward to the mental qualities, which depend and grow out of it. The gourmand destroys his intellect and his moral sensi- bilities by surfeit, while hunger should be limited to the proper wants of the body, which stimulate and do not interfere with mentality. The same is true of the de- sires and loves in their relation to the intellect. To present this subject in its broadest sense, as immortal spirits we have an infinite future of development before us. That development must come through the spiritual faculties. Hence the gratification of physical desires should only reach that point where they conduce to our spiritual welfare. Our progress dates at the beginning of being. The physical body is an incident of earth-life, which will be cast aside at death. Its use and purpose is to bring the spirit in contact with the physical world for its development. While this earth-side of our na- ture is of primal consequence, it sinks into utter insig- nificance when compared with the infinite life beyond. It should be conducted in strictest reference to future well being and happiness, and the pleasures of the mo- ment yield to those of the future ; the mortal to the immortal. IV. THE APPETITES. THE mental qualities are involuntary or instinctive, and voluntary. The demarkation between these divi- sions is not clearly defined. In the animal the invol- untary appear to form the whole mind ; in man, this 200 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. substratum, held in common, is more or less under the control of the will. Tn proportion as the voluntary faculties expand, the involuntary recede. The Appetites belong to the in- voluntary division, for though measurably controllable, in the end they escape the will. Those functions which arise out of and are essential to the existence of man as a physical being are called the Appetites. These have been classed with the Pas- sions, or indiscriminately called by that name. It is preferable to apply to them a term which clearly ex- presses their relations to the body and distinguishes them from the Passions, which are essentially distinct. As the sustenance of the body depends on the Appe- tites, they are characterized by their periodical response to its needs. If their demands are not answered, they increase in intensity, until the Will is forced to yield. The Appetites are hunger, thirst, sleep, activity, rest, and sexual instinct. The desire for air, like that for water, may also be included. HUNGER. To exist requires the assimilation of food, and life is a ravenous maw insatiably demanding organizable material. Living beings are created hungry. Their first activity is in search of food. The protoplasmic cell, lowest form of organic life, assimilates and grows. It exists to assimilate and grow. The first articulate sound of new-born life is a cry for food. Life is a wasting force, and as it wastes, it must be fed. Throughout the sentient world hunger is the cardinal force compelling activity. It is the ever-applied spur, As food is not brought to the mouth, it must be sought, and the seeking is labor. Labor stimulates thought, and civilization grows out of the pangs of Hunger. Were it not for this motive, idleness would never arise from its imbecility. The fact that man has regarded labor as a curse bestowed for sin, proves how inherently he prefers idleness broken only by spasmodic activity. He embodied this necessity in the myth of " The Fall," THE APPETITES. 201 and thus accounted for the disagreeable burden of gain- ing bread by the sweat of his brow. In the tropics nature spoils man by her bounty. Con- tinued supply of food in wasteful abundance makes forethought useless and labor unnecessary. Man, ener- vated by the climate, vegetates under the palm and orange, and never arises above his childhood. In the North he is crushed by the too stern necessities of the climate. Hunger is the one motive of the Es- quimaux, which absorbs all others, and so difficult to an- swer, life is absorbed in its gratification. Only in a narrow belt of the temperate zone are the antagonistic forces so balanced that man can attain perfection. It is only there that the demands are sufficiently great to stimulate yet not exhaust the vital energies, leaving a surplus for other and higher uses. On the desire for various articles of food commerce in a great measure depends, to gratify which its ships navigate the farthest seas. The West is supplied with the spices of the East, and the East with the corn of the West. The North par- takes of the fruits of the tropics, and the tropics of the North. A diet, formed of the mixed products of all climes, is not only a result of commerce, it is essen- tial to high civilization. A simple diet, like that of rice, for example, is incapable of supporting complex mental manifestations, such as are shown in the nations of Europe or in America. Hunger has not only sent the countless sails of com- merce around the world, it has stimulated invention, and the growing of food is only equalled by its prepara- tion, which has become a science as well as an art. The early man ate the seeds of grasses and weeds uncooked ; masticated the hard acorn, and devoured the warm raw flesh. He learned to soften and make more palatable the seeds, and broil the flesh with fire. By culture the small seeded grass became golden grain, filled to the brim with life-yielding elements. The force used to masticate and digest was relieved by the art of cooking, and the surplus thus gained was an endowment of his intellect. 202 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. THUS KNOWLEDGE AND MORALITY ARE BASED ON HUNGER. The starving man knows nothing but his insatiate desire for food. This desire, when natural that is, when unfettered or uninfluenced by other motives, is a true criterion of its own needs, and a trusty guide in the selection and quantity of food. When stimulated it fails and becomes treacherous. THE NATURAL ACTIVITY OF AN APPETITE YIELDS HAPPINESS. To insure the proper attention to the demand for food, it is made imperative and cumulative, and the sense of taste is bestowed not only for discrimination, but pleasure. But the sense of taste does not pall the moment Hunger is satisfied, and hence we eat after the necessity is supplied, or for the single purpose of pleas- ing the palate when no necessity exists. As Hunger is the test of the amount of food which can be digested and assimilated, the energy of the digestive organs is not sufficient to meet this extra demand ; indigestion and imperfect assimilation breed disease. As life itself, with all its manifestations, depends on the food we eat, the importance of the quality and quantity of that food will be seen to be of primary im- portance. Health is the cardinal requisite of a perfect life, and health depends on food. Thus we perceive that Hunger, when answered by appropriate food, is a source of happiness. Its func- tion is to supply the waste of the body. If it do more, transcending its sphere, and is gratified for its own sake, misery is the sure result. THIRST. Nearly four fifths of the body is water, which is an essential element for the manifestation of life. To supply the waste of this through secretions, excretions, and chemical changes, thirst is given. It demands THE APPETITES. 203 water, and no effort of the will can conquer its impera- tive voice. If it demands any other draught, it is through the imposition of habit. The difference be- tween a habit and a natural demand is that the latter is for something inherently necessary for the support of the organism, while the former is for something which has of itself created the desire. The desire for water is not a habit, but a necessity of being, while the desire for alcoholic drinks is a habit, because such beverages have caused the peculiar changes in the system which cull for these beverages instead of water. The same is true of tobacco, opium, etc., the use of which leads to the habit. They all exhilarate for a time, to be followed by a corresponding depression, from which the nerves cannot be rallied except by a new indulgence. They induce a radical change in the system, which is felt in the intellectual and moral per- ceptions. The feverish antagonism of the present civilization is promotive of stimulation, as the flagging racer is urged onward by the spur, and the over-working of the masses also creates a desire for unnatural drinks and food. The weary laborer finds momentary pleasure in alcohol, tobacco, opium, coffee or tea, and resorts to their use. Nature requires simply rest, that she may recuperate, but there is not time to rest. The pleasure of years is sacrificed to that of a moment. The stream of life is changed in its course, and the appetite is no longer to be trusted. HABITS. When such habits are thoroughly formed it becomes difficult, if not impossible to break from them, because there is an organic change corresponding, which places the body in relation to the habit in a similar position as that it naturally holds to an appetite. Thus the habit of drinking alcoholic beverages once established, every portion of the body becomes adjusted to the presence of alcohol. The victim may fully comprehend his situa- tion, and with his whole will strive against it. In some instances the will may be strong enough to control the 204 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. desires until the natural action is established ; in others it will fail. The artificial state demands alcohol just as the natural demands water, and in the same manner goes on increasing in urgency. The withdrawing of each particle of alcohol increases the fierceness of desire, until the will is overborne. TEMPERANCE. The advocates of temperance should consider that in- temperance has two relations -to the mind and the body and not trust exclusively, as they do, to mental influ- ence. It is a disease, and should be treated as such. The body should be purified and sustained by healthful diet and tonics that take the place of alcohol, until a natural action is established. Then appeals to the Will and morality may be made with prospect of being heeded. The inebriate is made the victim of false views of mental and moral philosophy. It is said he knows bet- ter, and can reform if ho would. He may have in- herited a constitutional tendency craving alcohol more insatiately than others crave water, or ignorantly he may have induced such a state. Is he to be censured ? Kather should he receive unmeasured pity. By over-indulgence the Appetites defeat their end, which is happiness. Whenever they are followed for their own sakes they invade the province of higher faculties, and not only is the result ruinous to those faculties, but to the Appetites themselves. The pleas- ure of eating bestowed by hunger is changed to disgust by over-indulgence, and dyspepsia, gout, and a thou- sand ills and pains follow. A true system of morals must begin with diet, and by that highest law we can regulate our conduct as regards our food. As hunger was given to compel attention to physical waste, when that is met it is sufficient ; further gratification is not desirable, and is opposed to physical well being and mental growth. ACTIVITY AND REST. These are mutually complementary. After activity there is a requisition for rest, which becomes more and THE APPETITES. 205 more imperative, and after the system has recuperated by rest, activity becomes equally essential. The mutual alternation of these is best seen in childhood. SLEEP. The perfection of rest is sleep. It is then that tho rebuilding processes are most active. The worn tissues are repaired and the waste products excreted. The day is the season of activity, the negative night of repose. The magnetic state of the earth is represented by that of man. How much rest, how much action, how much sleep ? These questions are answered by the natural de- mands of the system. Sleep is for the purpose of re- storing lost energy, but if prolonged it may leave too little time for the use of what is gained. Activity may overreach itself, and destroy the organism on which it depends. THE SEXUAL IMPULSE has for its sole end the perpetuation of the species. That this function be unfailingly performed and not obstructed, it is impelled by physical pleasures, as in the case of hunger and thirst, and made cumulative in energy. "What in brutes is a blind instinctive impulse, in man becomes sublimated and joined with the highest and purest affections. We shall again revert to this sub- ject when we consider the social relations, but here, in this preliminary discussion of the motives which actu- ate man, what rule have we as a trusty guide? It is the same we applied to the other Appetites. Having ascer- tained their true sphere, purpose, and object, the natural accomplishment of that purpose is right, and conducive of the greatest happiness. If, then, this be the end of the sexual impulse, having fulfilled it, noth- ing more is required of it ; and if gratified for itself alone, it encroaches on the province of higher faculties, to which the energies it wantonly wastes most justly belong. Unrestrained, unguided, it is the cause of the most terrible crimes, and from it flows a great share of the 206 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. misery and degradation of the world. The force which it exerts is drawn away from the intellect and mentis and flows through the channels of the Passions, all of which are intensified. To eat and multiply is the end of animal being, and when man yields to the same im- pulses he becomes an animal, more debased and brutal in the proportion his enslaved intellect furnishes the means. DEPLOKABLE IGNORANCE. In no department of the science of man does such lamentable ignorance prevail as in this, which is con- sidered impolite and of too delicate a nature to men- tion. Yet the well being of the present and of the numberless generations of the future depend on its proper understanding. When we consider the degrada- tion, disease, misery, and spiritual death which follows uncontrolled Appetite, the necessity of knowledge is convincingly shown. The simoon, withering, blasting, is not more terrible than the life of debauch, which\ blights every pure and noble aspiration, brands the face with the mark of shame, fills the body with arrows of pain, and destroys the spirit. Pleasure in its lowest sphere defeats itself by its own selfishness. The fire that gently warmed has burned the dwelling, and ashes only remain. What in itself is pure, becomes the cesspool of abomi- nation, a Pandora's box, out of which unmentionable sufferings flow in never-ending streams. To arrest the cause of misery, man must know the laws of his nature, and become impressed with the necessity of obedi- ence. He must learn to fulfil the law not because pleasing to any one else, but because such obedience is a necessity of his constitution, and the supreme good. It is better that the appetites be controlled through fear than not at all. Better that punishment frighten than reckless indulgence. Hence the force of public opinion, religious influences, or legislation, are better tnan license. But these are only expedients to prepare the way for self-government, which is based on knowl- edge, and emanates from the superior faculties. SELFISH PKOPE^SITIES. 207 THE EULE WE HAVE GIVEN" as applicable to all the Appetites, when comprehended and applied, leaves these builders each its sphere of activity, restricted and clearly defined. Unrestrained in the animal, they are self satisfying and work no mis- chief, for the animal has no higher end than their grati- fication, and urged by no conflicting impulses, is held true to the laws of its being. Man has higher purposes, and whenever the Appetites oppose these or conflict with -their perfect expression they have transcended their sphere, and there should be no doubt as to the right, or the course from which the greatest good may be expected. V. SELFISH PBOPENSITIES. THESE are love of life, combativeness, destructivenesp, secretiveness, love of self, love of wealth, and cautious- ness. They are held in common with the animal world. The fierce onslaught of the tiger illustrates combative- ness and destructiveness ; the squirrel lays by a hoard of food like a miser ; the fox is secretive ; the hare is cautious ; the peacock is vain of approbation. From the combination of these passions arise the composite known as pride, envy, jealousy, malice, hatred, resent- ment, falsehood, and deceit. The passions are necessary to unite the spiritual with the physical. They are the driving power, which enables the spirit to actualize in the physical world its ideal, and in this sphere they re- sult in good and happiness. The love of life is conspicuous throughout the ranks of sentient beings. The preservation of existence, for its own sake, calls into action the play of all their facul- ties. Though suffering the pangs of most unbearable pain, and life is an excessive burden through disease or want, yet death is regarded with unspeakable aversion. 208 TUE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. Life is sweet under the most unfavorable conditions. The criminal prefers the perpetual dungeon to death. In animals it is pure in its expression, for they can know nothing of death, and they live for the sake of living. But man may regard death either as cessa- tion of life or as the gateway to immortality. The latter idea is the perfect fruitage of this propensity. To him the desire is intensified by his knowledge of death. Human life becomes sacred and surrounded by the strongest safeguards of law. To take it is the capital crime, transcending all others. Though life be a good of greatest value, when its preservation is gained through dishonor it is at too great cost. Here the superlative qualities of man assert his humanity. The animal will blindly risk its life in defence of itself or offspring, but man, fully knowing the consequences, risks his life for an ideal which per- haps has no relation to himself. The grandest examples of history are the exaltation of man above selfishness, where he lays down his life for principle. The patriot dying for his country, the martyr for the truth, are never forgotten by admiring generations. The story of Thermopylae is ever new, the calm decision of Polycarp and Socrates the themes of undying song. We feel that the men who willingly give their all for their highest convictions of right and duty have escaped the motives of ordinary mortals, and allied themselves to the Supreme. HAVE WE A RIGHT TO TAKE OUR OWN LIVES ? If it be better to suffer martyrdom than live dishon- ored, is it not better when already dishonored to escape by self-inflicted death ? In other words, have we a right over our lives? Life being for its uses, and as no use can come of suicide, we would by the latter defeat its purpose. If we do not destroy life, but only the body, we would gain nothing, and would lose the essential training of the existence from which we escaped. Overborne by burdens and duties, we selfishly cast them on others. The patriot and martyr die for others, but SELFISH PROPENSITIES. 209 the suicide dies for himself ; while they are actuated by the loftiest motives, he is by the most ignoble ; they die in strength, he in weakness. Man has no right -over his own life, for he is part of the social body, to which he owes allegiance, and he is not to judge when the circumstances environing him warrant the step. True courage meets and grapples with fate, and if defeated, dies in harness. The Roman who cast himself on his sword was educated into a wrong conception of life and its duties. That we have life shows that we should maintain it in its integrity. The desire for existence is not only a product of health, but is a leading cause of its maintenance ; when we lose the desire to live, our earthly bodies are nearly fallen from our spirits, and we soon depart. It is right to love life not for its own sake, but for its highest object, which that love may never overstep. Thus, while an animal flees from danger and is praised for so doing, having neither honor nor principle to main- tain, a man who deserts his post of duty is execrated and despised, because his love of life dominates superior motives. " Though you tear my limbs asunder, throw me into the den of wild beasts, or give my body to the flames, I will never deny what my conscience tells me is the truth," grandly declares the martyr in the pres- ence of death, when the spirit is exalted above the plane of physical life. COMBATIVENESS AND DESTRUCTIVENESS. The antagonistic and destroying propensities, when allied with love of property and the appetites,are the cause of crime. In savage man, and in that sub- stratum present in the most polished civilization, the pro- pensities predominate, and this condition is known as human depravity. It, however, is not total depravity. Man in his lowest estate never reaches that depth. If there be a totally depraved being, it is one without moral or intellectual faculties in other words, a brute ; but we cannot say that they are depraved, for they have not fallen from a higher plane, and they are true to 210 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. their constitution. Only man, who is actuated by two motives, a higher and a lower, by yielding to the lower can become depraved. That he advances out of this lower to a higher plane proves that he has the germs of goodness within him, that he naturally inclines in that direction, and is not totally bad. There are obstacles to be surmounted, difficulties to be combated, burdens to be borne in this physical life, and these propensities have a wide field. Of themselves they are ferocious and terrible. They strew the battle- field with the dead, and darken the heavens with the smoke of ruined cities. Combined with reason, they grapple with the forces of nature, tame the lightnings, and harness fire with bands of steel to ship and car, and compel the brute elements to toil. At first man was alone and defenceless in the wilder- ness. The forest must be felled, the wild beasts de- stroyed. He was surrounded by destruction, and his life was one of incessant combat. To endure this strug- gle his propensities were predominant. He would have been sadly defeated had they not been. When the wild beasts were destroyed, he found in man himself a more subtle and invincible foe. War, first caused by the pro- pensities, stimulated the intellect until it at. last con- quered them, and thus removed the principal source of war. LOVE OF PROPEETY. " Take not heed for the morrow," can never be actu- alized in this life. It is saying we should not have forethought, which is as impossible as undesirable. Property is the result of labor, and a reserved force, which we can use long after the labor has been ex- pended. Property is capital, which is concrete labor, without which abject poverty would prevail, and ad- vancement would be impossible. It is essential to hu- man welfare that there be constant accretion to wealth, that labor accumulate more than is required to sus- tain it. The squirrel teaches this lesson, for as nuts do not last the whole year, when they are plenty it gathers for the winter. The bee fills its hive when the SELFISH PROPENSITIES. 211 flowers bloom against the time when there are no flowers. Next to the love of life is the love of the means of sustaining it. This is the legitimate function of this propensity, and is entirely praiseworthy. How much it shall grasp and under what circum- stances must be determined by the spiritual faculties. If a hive of bees should gather all the honey for many miles, and fill their comb with a thousand times more than they want to preserve them through the winter, we would say they grasped too much, especially if by so doing many other ssvarms were unable to secure any, and were starved. The wealth of the world is so limited that when one grasps more than is necessary, otheis are robbed of their dues. Avarice is unrestrained de- sire for wealth, and in its selfishness is utterly debas- ing. The miser is the mock of humanity ; for, making wealth the end, he defeats the object of wealth, which is its uses. EIGHTS OF LABOR. To gain wealth that it may be employed in works of benevolence-, charity, or culture is as noble as hoarding is ignoble. Avarice is purely selfish. Its greed has no reference to the good or rights of others. It knows no law but its own insatiate desire. Eutering into gov- ernment, it legislates for its own advantage, seizing every opportunity to grasp and retain. If wealth be the result of labor, no statement can be more self-evi- dent than that the laborer has the right to the products of his labor, and that no one has a right to what he has not earned. Property acquired by fraud, deception, or iu any way without a just equivalent, is not held by' right. And furthermore, the devotion of a portion of such ill-gotten gain to worthy purposes does not right the wrong. If, then, wealth be acquired, it must be for the noble uses it will subserve, and not by the sacrifice of the higher sentiments. It must be gained honorably and used honorably. In America circumstances have awakened this pro- pensity into unparalleled activity, and money is the god 212 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. of the masses. As money has power to purchase almost everything the mind can desire, it is sought with ab- sorbing eagerness. Blinded by the glitter of wealth, the means of its acquisition are not questioned. Sharp bargains, usurious interests, remorselessly collected rents, the dark ways of trade, the deception of igno- rance, are not regarded as altogether dishonorable, and are winked at by society. Success is measured by money-getting. Get money first, get money last, and by all means get money is the watchword of the times. It is forgotten that it can be purchased at too great cost, and always is when the least sentiment of right and justice, honor or integrity is disregarded. SELF-LOVE. Self-love or self-esteem is allied to the love of power and of the respect of others. The analysis of this group is difficult and of little practical importance in relation to this discussion. Self-love is essential to self-preservation, and when rightly directed is a strong ally of justice. The love of self then prevents any act which is ignoble or wrong. Alone this propensity becomes selfishness, one of the most contemptible in human, nature. It is the antipode of spirituality. The selfish man destroys by his selfish- ness the pleasures he might receive through the higher faculties. The disappearance of self-love in love for others has always been held as angelic, and selfishness as utterly at variance with ideal character. Its sup- pression, at least in appearance, has been the aim of polite culture and refinement, and its presence is stig- matized and scorned, even most bitterly, by the selfish themselves. It is natural and right for man to love power. It is a function of the Will, for to will presupposes the power of willing. Man delights in the control of matter by mind, the obedience of the elements to his will. This is the legitimate sphere of this propensity. His selfish- ness enslaves others, and ignoring right and justice, he becomes a tyrant. Out of this love of power, blindly SELFISH PROPENSITIES. 213 directed, has grown the governments of the world and their kaleidoscopic changes, which make the sum of his- tory. Love of power and ambition are the motives of the conqueror, like Alexander or Napoleon, who count nothing worthy unless possessed by themselves, and are infatuated by praise, which men call glory. Over the smoking battle-field they force their way, forgetting that every groan and pang of pain is recorded against them in the black page of their future. Of the mill- ions who have made ambition and love of glory the end of their lives, a breath will name those who have suc- ceeded in gaining mention in history. Far more have reached renown through quiet adhesion to right and unswerving justice. The hero-worshipping age is of the past, with its dead gods and broken shrines. It will be seen from the foregoing that the propensi- ties are essential to man's well being, and in their true sphere pure and right. That sphere is assigned by their position. As they are superior to the Appetites and inferior to the intellectual and moral nature, their sphere is for purest and truest manifestation of the lat- ter. Whenever they obstruct or distort they fail in their functions. They are for the spiritual nature, not the spiritual nature for them. The man who in old age says life is vanity pro- nounces his own sentence. He plainly says that he has not been actuated by the proper motives, that he has been the slave of his Appetites and Propensities ; for life should be like the snowball, rolling forward to gather to itself and grow round, large and complete. If it shrivels and shrinks with advancing age, it is because of wrong living. The individual who has no higher purpose than worldly pleasure, when the body on which this depends fails, has nothing on which to lean ; the moral consciousness is idiotic ; the dwarfed spirit goes down to the grave pitiably moaning, with incoherent utterances. Most deplorable of all spectacles presented in the world is a spirit inherently glorious, and capa- ble of infinite achievement, thus enslaved by desires, sinking below the horizon of earth-life in black clouds of despair. Yv T hat the ages of immortal life have in store 214 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. for that spirit may relieve the sad picture, which has supported the belief in inherent depravity and eternal punishment. In what contrast stands the examples of those who have cultivated the intellect and morals, and hy them regulated their lives ! As of these, Ilumboldt furnishes the most conspicuous illustration. Retaining his mental powers in all their vigor until the hour of his death, when he departed saying, " How grand the sunlight; it seems to beckon earth to heaven !" prophetic of the spiritual light so soon to break on his existence. All this side of man's nature, which he holds in com- mon with animals and relates exclusively to the body, decays with it. In. health and maturity they make the ordinary every-day character, and the man passes among his fellows as capable. But his capacity rests almost exclusively on this physical life. The spiritual side re- ceives little attention, and is more susceptible and active in childhood than at threescore and ten. It follows that when the earth-side decays, the man is less than a child. He "loses his mind," and enters his second childhood. This is not a necessity. It is a result of giving life over to earthly pursuits at the expense of the spirit. When the mind is lightly cultivated, and a just harmony between it and the body preserved, it re- mains growing in vigor with age, and at death is not even in appearance like a lamp extinguished. In the life beyond, the errors of this will be righted, and freed from the weight of physical necessities, the spirit will reach an ideal of which mortal cannot dream ; but even then will the primary lost remain unrestored. VI. LOVE. WE enter a new realm. That of the animal is rapidly disappearing, and a new motive becomes apparent. This motive is Love, the antipode of selfishness, hold- ing a similar relation to the spirit that heat and mag- LOVE. 215 notism do to the physical world ; being their type and correspondence. All that we have hitherto considered lias related to the existence of the individual ; has been drawing toward self for the individual's exclusive bene- fit. We now pass the limitation of these lower propen- sities, and find the exact reverse, a flowing out. Love, in the wide definition of that word, flows out from the mind in a continuous tide, as the warmth from the sun. When combined with the Appetites, it presents its lowest manifestation in conjugal affinity ; arises to affec- tion for its offspring, friendship, and ultimates in the perfect benevolence which embraces not only man, but all forms of sentient life. Full of truth is the expres- sion, " God is love," meaning that it is the foundation of all things. Benevolence has been made to cover this wide field, and Love one of its special manifestations ; but such a classification is confusing and entirely arbitrary. Love is always benevolent. It always seeks the good of others. It hoards not for itself. It is self- forgetful and self-denying. From it flows the so-called virtues, gentle affections, and humane emotions. Gratitude, which makes us thankful for bestowed favors and desirous of rendering the same to others ; Mercy, which overlooks offences ; Pity, which feels for the distressed ; Humility, which questions our abilities and worth, and yields the first place to others, are out- growths of Love. To it belongs Justice, the sense of merited reward and punishment, the absolute giving to each and all their deserts, and the sense of the sacred- ness of truth. In the trustingness of Love arises faith, the reliance on the testimony of others, which, unsup- ported by the Intellect, becomes credulity, and fosters superstition, maintains bigotry, and defies knowledge. Love is the social element, and nature has so exquis- itely organized man that he is surrounded by an atmos- phere through and by which its attractions and repul- sions are expressed. As animals are drawn together in flocks and herds, men unite in social life. Half the joys of existence flow from the amenities of friendship. To be true, it must be founded on similarity of souls, and be free from selfishness. To use one's friends for 216 THE ETHICS OF SCIEXCE. selfish purposes is to lose them. The attachments formed on the highlands where self enters not are only lasting. We may think, and no second being need enter the current of our thoughts, for our ideas may be purely abstract. We cannot love or feel any of the innumera- ble changing sensations which it includes without an objective personality ; Justice, Mercy, Benevolence, Charity, Pity, Devotedness, go outside of ourselves. It is claimed that all these conceptions have grown up out of experience ; that man knew nothing of them until he learned by observation that honesty, justice, charity were the best policy. He trimmed his course by expediency, until thereby there grew up in. his mind a sense of absolute Right, Justice, Benevo- lence, and the other virtues. This is simply referring to the Intellect the promptings of Love, and then de- claring the Intellect itself to be an effect of long ac- cumulating forces. This, however, does not affect this argument. Whatever may be the cause of mind, or however the mental manifestations may be classified, the Virtues have a distinct place, nor can it be success- fully shown that they are resultants of experience, and hence entirely selfish in their inception. We cannot believe that these virtues, which in their perfection make man angelic, began in utter selfishness ; that the experience of the inconvenience of falsehood taught man truthfulness, when he had no sense of what truthfulness was, is contradictory. Light could never be known were it not for the receiving eye, nor could truth be known unless there was a receptive faculty of truth in man's nature. We believe that because there was light in the world, the living beings it evoked were modified by its rays ; that the diffused nerve tissue, equally sen- sitive, became more sensitive in some one point, and from this starting-point growth proceeded, until an eye was beaten out of living matter by waves of light. So the principles of truth and justice are comprehended by man, because he embodies the essence of these virtues. Cunning, fraud, deception, perfidy are tolerated in the animal, because they do not conflict with the pur- LOVE. 217 poses of its life. In faci,, they are essential to its exist- ence. They do not defeat higher purposes, for it has none. Man, however, has somewhat more than exist- ence to strive for. Its preservation is undesirable when united with dishonor and falsehood. The immortal spirit claims mastery over the flesh, and scorns its limitations and degradation. Granting Justice, Benevolence, etc., are products of accumulated observation, we must at once allow that they have become factors of the mind, and the argu- ment again resolves itself into its consideration as a unity. The theory of evolution leads directly to this conclu- sion. Organs grow into exquisite form after a given type by the accumulation of advantages, so faculties of the mind increase by the accretion of observations. As the perfecting of physical organs tends to unitize the being, so the perfecting of mental qualities unitizes the mind. As the foundation of physical man is laid in the interminable series of forms beneath him, so is the spiritual. Because he is a spirit, his mind reaches into and grasps spiritual truths. This gives him a tendency toward virtue, and repugnance to \ice. That man has such tendency is proved by history. Had he not had, there could have been no progress more than in the ox. The virtues are a part of his organization, and as such impel him in their pursuit. He loves to be good and to do good, and countless examples of the opposite do not invalidate this claim. A whole race of people in- clined to evil without tendency to the good would never become good, nor would an individual ever do a good act. Nor can we escape this conclusion by saying that from time to time individuals far better than the aver- age arise and teach higher truths ; nor by claiming that, as man is incapable himself of the discovery of moral truth, he must have received and has received a revelation. If such perception is not in human nature, no individual can acquire it or receive a revelation more than a sightless person can understand the beau- ties of light. The fact, revealed in the interminable pages of his- 218 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. tory, that man has advanced in morality proves that lie has within himself the germinal power of growth in that direction. This perception is of the Reason and its higher ex- pression in Conscience. The first of these qualities, the one which often gives name and characterizes the group, is BENEVOLENCE. It is the antipode of selfishness. Its office and de- light is to bestow. It pictures the Infinite on a throne, from which, as light from a central sun, uninterruptedly flows boundless streams of beneficence. Uncontrolled, it is like the shower that falls alike on the just and un- just, the parched desert and the flood. Its manifesta- tion, even thus indiscriminate, has a charm, for it shows how far removed human actions are toward the spirit- ual, the unselfish, and such actions are always beauti- ful, however undeserving the object of their bestowal. Better to suffer ten impositions than turn a needy one away, is a proverb founded on this love. The public charities which have grown out of this faculty are productive of great individual good, but it has been questioned if they are of any real benefit to the com- munity. They can only reach a small fraction of want and wretchedness, and it is thought better to devise some means whereby all may be elevated from degrada- tion. Yet as the means have not been devised, and are apparently very remote, we shall not soon escape the demands on our chanty. This, however, is only a lower form of Benevolence. Its higher sphere of activity blends into the qualities better expressed by Love ; that love which exists for its own sake. In its ideal expression, it is absolute devo- tion to its object, not for any hope of reward or any benefit to self whatever, but from a spontaneous desire to promote the happiness of others. In animals we often see the affections exhibited in great strength, the conjugal, parental, and fraternal instincts banding herds and flocks together. These are, however, momentary, and when the physical necessities LOVE. 219 or occasions pass they separate. It is interesting to ob- serve this dim beginning, and by it we learn the beauti- ful unity of the world. The instinctive attraction is developed into disinterested desire to promote the well being of others. To love those who return vindictive hate ; to feel the same kind regard and interest in an implacable enemy as in a friend ; never to repay un- kindness with harsh invective ; to regard wrong and error with charity, is an ideal that few attain, but with which we endow angelic beings, and thus claim as our own highest estate. / To be benevolent and to love one's own family or I friends, is too common to mention. Benevolence which I goes beyond is more rare. When it grasps one's country it becomes Patriotism, still selfish and in a degree instinctive. In all these forms Benevolence does not rank high in the scale of the Virtues, nor does it tend greatly to ele- vate the mind. The father who loves his children to idolatry, and will make for them any sacrifice, may be a hard, exacting, unjust man beyond his own fireside. When it arises from the family and grasps mankind, irrespective of nationality or race ; when it feels for suffering wherever found, and with self forgetfulness devotes itself to the good of others, Benevolence be- comes Philanthropy, its most angelic expression. It sends its Florence Nightingales to bind up the lacera- tions of war ; its Howards into the dark recesses of prisons ; it holds devoted men to their posts of duty in times when pestilence is abroad, and great suffering crushes the people. JUSTICE in the material universe moves in the channels of law. From the star to the dancing mote, there is no accident or chance. Of these laws we know nothing except by means of their phenomena. We know certain causes inevitably move to certain effects. The same is true in the domain of mind. The relations individuals sustain to each other, in the family, the State, and to the world, that each m ly revolve in his own personal sphere, hav- 220 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. ing all his rights, yet never infringing on the rights of others, this is Justice. The knowledge of what is just, and unjust was not suddenly acquired. Mankind had at first a dim and vague conception of the absolute Right. In their attempts to enforce Justice they often were excessively unjust. But they felt that this abso lute existed, and that they must conform thereto. They constantly recognized the blindness of their predeces- sors, and reformed their laws. The laws are the prac- tical expression of the moral feeling of a people, and determine what is their sense of justice. If the laws are severe and cruel, the people are equally severe and cruel as a whole. This, however, may be observed, law is conserva- tive, and usually represents the ideas of a previous gen- eration. When its injustice is felt, it is the task of the present to reform the inheritance of the past. Thus slowly an approximation is made to absolute Justice. As will hereafter be shown, in the discussion of the criminal code justice is too often used in the sense of vengeance. The penalty for crime is meted out as ret- ribution and not for the sake of Justice, and Mercy tempers Justice not because Mercy is of itself just, but because of the pleadings of the Affections. In our in- tercourse with our fellow men, we desire them to act toward us justly that is, to respect our individual rights, and not encroach on our sphere of selfhood. If actu- ated by high motives, there is no difficulty in being just to all. We would shrink from doing to another what we would not do unto ourselves. PASSIVE AND ACTIVE VIRTUES. There are two states in which all the virtues may exist, a passive and an active. A man may not do an unjust act ; he may never utter a falsehood, he may not be cruel, yet he has small credit if he has never acted justly, truthfully, mercifully. He may exist in a passive state, and while doing nothing bad, do nothing good. The Virtues exist, but in a latent form ; they are asleep, and the individual is not bad simply because LOVE. 221 his Appetites and Desires are also asleep. The har- monious or ideal man is the reverse. A thousand de- sires, purposes, and motives draw him diverse ways, but the conscious intellect and love impel him in the direc- tion of Truth and Right. Does he stumble? Does he at times go astray ? Yes, but he rises and seeks the right path. He grows strong by experience, and his feet become sure. He cannot be always right, for he is fallible, but he is conscious that he must put forth his best endeavors. The young eagle that would cleave the empyrean and soar above the clouds, at first may lose its balance on its untried wings. It is not by failures it learns to soar, but by its success. The child learns to walk not by its falls, but by the command acquired over its limbs by repeated efforts. We may not always be just, and man while on earth may never gain that high ideal, yet it is always before him. RELIGION has lamentably failed in teaching Justice. It has allied itself with the government, and taught obedience to Ca3sar instead of to the commands of the absolute. It has been the servant of rulers, and taught the divinity of kings and autocrats. It has disdained the temporal affairs of this life for the next, and offered the gloomy consolation for its injustice, compensation in the next. In fact, its idea of justice has been compensation. They who mourn in this life shall rejoice in the next, and they who receive their good things here shall there re- ceive their evil. The main evidence of immortal life, as stated by the popular religion, is its necessity in order to compensate the injustice received on earth. This is the religious idea of Justice, though sometimes it changes to that of Vengeance. The Infinite Father is pictured as terribly just, and his divine vengeance on sinners no more than absolute justice ! The awful picture is intensified by being thrown on a background of omnipotent wrath. Faith, interpreted to mean be- lief in dogmas, has been taught to be of more value than 222 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. actions, and often the so-called religion has been di- vorced from morality. Religion, if it mean anything, means reliance on the absolute supremacy of law, and man's obedience thereto. He who obeys is the religious man. He obeys from the knowledge of those laws ; because it is right, and his own good and happiness and that of others depends on his so doing. He is also impelled by his higher spirit- ual reason, which presciently directs him aright before he has come to a full knowledge of the law. He should obey not from selfish motives, but from his love of Jus- tice and Eight. But does man love Justice ? Assured- ly, else he would have no idea of that virtue. Men may be excessively unjust, but, except in savages, they feel the reprovings of Conscience. They know that there is Justice, and if they do not love, they fear it. In the higher development of the individual the love of Jus- tice becomes a ruling motive. It is not asked if a cer- tain action will be beneficent to self, but is it just ? Not in the narrow, hard sense of the word, meaning that no one is wronged, but in the large, broad sense, of benefit conferred. LOVE OF TKDTH. In the ascending scale from the savage to the civilized man there comes a time when the mind arises into the atmosphere of Truth. Man learns by experience the value of Truth ; that falsehood and deceit are productive of misery. He finds that it is essential to place confidence and faith in others, and unless they are truthful, this is impossible. It is interesting to trace the progressive growth of this virtue from the savage, who regards falsehood honora- ble, and has no faith in his own brother, his wife or child, to its full expression in the ideal angel. Has heredity stored up the results of experience, and thus made the man of the present heir to all that Truth has gained over falsehood in the past ? This is undoubted- ly a correct statement, and equally that the mind has within itself the faculty of Truth." It loves Truth for its own sake better than all else in the world. E\ery LOVE. 223 effort made in invention and discovery arises from this intense love. The astronomer keeps nightly vigils, in- tently gazing into the depths of the heavens, that he may gain a knowledge of the revolving orbs ; the geolo- gist delves into the bowels of the mountains, and perils his life in upturning strata, questioning the rocks, the fin and tooth, the bone and scale of extinct beings ; the chemist labors in his laboratory, failing a thousand times to gain one success ; the antiquarian and historian plod in the misty labyrinths of the past, that by chance some hidden manuscript, some rude carving on temple wall may shed the light of absolute Truth on their conjectures, and make plain the early pages of his- tory. Truth was the precious gem for which the student burns his midnight taper, and the man of science never wearies in the search ; for it the colossal telescope fathoms the infinite deep of stars, and the microscope penetrates into the infinite abyss of living forms ; for it the hermit renounces the pleasures of life and wanders into the wilderness ; the martyr cheerfully lays down his life, and the warrior rushes on certain death. Let even the belief that man has the Truth firmly fix itself in the mind, and no sacrifice is too great, no pain or suffering appalls, no ties are binding, before the lofty sense of duty and obligation it imparts. The perception of Absolute Truth is of slow growth, and man has mistaken his own imperfect sense for that absolute. It is necessary that he should, else he would not hold his position. He must maintain the highest light that is his, for thereby he gains still higher grounds. The same argument applies as to Keason. At first man arrives at erroneous results, which proves not that he should cease reasoning, but reason more ! In his ignorance he has embraced the wildest errors, and as an idolator pays his carven image the same de- votion as the most spiritual worshipper gives to his ideal ; he has zealously loved and sacrificed himself to them, because he believed he held the absolute. But does this prove there is no absolute? Because history is a record of mistakes, and man has been the slave of 224 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. error ; because he has repeatedly made his eternal hap- piness depend on the reception of doctrines he soon dis- carded for others held as tenaciously, does this prove there is no absolute truth ? It proves the imperfection of man, and that there is an absolute toward which he approximates. The mistake was in the ideas taught in the past by de- signing men, that man was inclined to error, and had no means of himself of arriving at the Truth. He was thus necessitated to receive a revelation from a source purporting to be divine, as interpreted to him by a class of self-constituted teachers. This result, which has been a brake on the wheels of progress, seems to bo an inherent growth of human nature, for among all races it has been the same moral truth has become concrete in holy books, and a priesthood has organized itself as vicegerents of God on earth, to interpret hi-s word and guard the morals of the people. Only after ages of struggle have the people gained a knowledge of the Truth in spite of obstructions, and emancipated themselves. The facts of the material world are truths compre- hended by the intellect. Nature is never false, never changes nor abuses the faith reposed in her. If there is seeming contradiction, we at once refer it to our un- derstanding. The mind in the spiritual spheres repre- sents this harmony. There are a countless host of in- dividuals, all revolving in their own spheres, like the suns and worlds in space, and all governed by fixed principles, which we call Moral Truths, as the methods of Power uniting worlds we call Law. As nature is exact in her expression, man desires to become exact in the conduct of his life. He must, in order to gain this desirable end, act in accordance with his highest per- ceptions of Truth. From Truth arises trust, faith, confidence, without which individuals would become selfish, isolated, and unable to unite in society. If we reject everything ex- cept what is demonstrated to us, there will be little left of the past. We must take for granted, and trust in tho demonstration of others. We trust because \ve know WISDOM. 225 that the thinkers of the world arc honest, and if they err, it is from ignorance and not design. This trusting faith, when it is supported by knowl- edge and is not the slave of ignorance, is one of the most exquisitely sweet and beautiful qualities of human nature. Deceived it often may be, but we feel that it will bloom in immortal fruitage after all the Desires and Appetites which lead it astray are lost in spiritual- ity. It will be seen in this survey that the faculties of the mind are so closely bound together that one division cannot be discussed without unconsciously invading another. Thus the group under the name of Love are inextricably bound to the Perceptions and Eeason. A man could not be moral without the Perceptions any more than without the group we have termed Wisdom. Reason is essential to morality. If a man acts morally simply by force of a blind instinctive impulse, he is not thereby a moral agent, and deserves not merit. Still more clearly defined is the unity of the Virtues. Their basis is Love, of which they are varying manifes- tations. Love is the divine power which reveals itself in obedience to the order of the physical and spiritual worlds. It seeks the good and happiness of all other beings. Its justice is merciful, unlike the vengeance which flows from the Appetites. It has infinite Charity and Benevolence, VII. WISDOM. THE senses and perceptions are channels leading up to Wisdom, and are held in common with animals. There is no doubt but even the senses of animals are more imperfect than in man. While they see clearly, often more quickly, they may not perceive a feature visible to him. They may not take cognizance of colors, except their most intense hues, and sounds audible to 226 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. the ear of one species may be unheard by others. The latter difference is marked between savage and civilized man, in whom all the senses appear most complete, and with them the perceptive faculties, which take cogni- zance of phenomena. Above these lies a region of pure thought. It is re- lated to the superior portion of the brain, which is last to develop. This thought sphere transcends the animal realm, in which are dim prophecies of its grandeur, sufficient to indicate the continuity of being and rela- tion of the lowest to the highest. Beyond this, man is alone. In the highest faculties of knowing, the spirit- ual perceptions which take cognizance of spiritual en- tities and their laws, nothing remains to indicate con- nection with lower beings. Conscience is exclusively man's. CONSCIENCE. Xenophon says of Socrates that " he never discoursed concerning the nature of all things, how that which is called the Universe is constituted, under what laws the heavenly bodies exist, etc., but invariably represented those who concerned themselves with inquiries of this sort as playing fool. First of all, he inquired whether such persons thought they had so far mastered the acts which relate to man as to be justified in proceeding to such investigations, or whether they considered it in order to have human inquiries for physical researches." It is not because the thinker has mastered the facts which relate to man that he turns to the Universe, but because he shrinks from the profundity of the problem furnished by his own mind, and essays the easy task of observation of the external world. Thus to the question, Has man a conscience ? the answer to which seems as evident as that to the ques- tions, Can he see? Can he hear? Has he a Eeason? exactly opposite answers are given, and the affirmative, which was unhesitatingly received at first, has yielded to the negative with the advanced and scientific school of thinkers. The reason for this is it fell into bad com- pany and became ccnfouiided with superstition, and WISDOM. 227 thereby the prop of creeds and dogmas. The scientific thinkers, starting from matter, desired to refer all mani- festations to the scheme o.f Evolution, and explain how Thought, Reason, Feeling, result from the accretion of experiences, and Conscience must share the common explanation. There are two schools the Intuitional and Utili- tarian. The first claims that Conscience is a faculty of the mind, which decides of itself what is right and what is wrong ; the latter ciaims that Conscience is the result of experience. What it regards as good is that which results in happiness, which is the supremo good. It sneers at Conscience as a phantasm, the creature of education and superstition, which changes from age to age with the culture of the times. In Mohammedan countries it is different from that in Christian ; on the Ganges from that on the Mississippi ; in Catholic from Protestant countries ; so inconsistent and depend- ent is it, that it cannot be an independent faculty. This position is made more plausible when we look still deeper into history. Religious wars and persecutions, all have grown out of and been sustained by Conscience. The Jewish mob crucified Christ to appease their Con- science, as Pilate washed his hands to allay his own. Conscience built the loathsome dungeons and prepared the horrible tortures of the Inquisition ; it gathered the fagots and kindled the flames around the heretic ; it suppressed learning ; made a merit of ignorance, and has been the slave of religion. The man whose Con- science will not allow him to pare his nails on Sunday, will rob on Monday without compunction. Formerly the minister must have a smooth-shaven face, and the Conscience of the laity prevented them from labor on Sunday. Conscience compels the South Sea Islander to knock out one of his front teeth or cut off one of his fingers ; the Jew to circumcise ; the Christian to be baptized. But this is confounding terms. What is here called Conscience is superstition and nothing more, and has only a similitude to the real faculty, which, it must be confessed, it has often blinded or usurped the place of. 228 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. If this reasoning prove the non-existence of Conscience, precisely the same argument will prove the non-existence of Reason itself. At one stage of mental advancement Renson declared the world flat, and that the sun and sidereal heavens revolved around it. It thus inter- preted the facts of perception. From that time to the present its voice has been, in accordance with the en- tertained facts, constantly changing. Yet we unhesitat- ingly declare that Reason is supreme umpire in its pro- vince. Of the Conscience the same may be affirmed. It is, like all mental qualities, subject to growth. As in the early ages Reason seems to have been endowed with prescience and intuitively grasped results, only demon- strated after thousands of years of observation, so Con- science, with only greater forecast and more wonderful breadth, perceived moral relations so clearly and pro- foundly that not yet has man progressed to their prac- tical realization. THE CONSCIENCE OF THE SAVAGE may be obscure and concealed by superstition, yet as far as it is manifested, it presents the same qualnics as that of the most civilized man. There is no swerving in its decision when applied to its proper subjects. But as his Reason is untrained and like the child's, and is often based on insufficient data, its results are not of final importance. In the same manner the Conscience of savage man arrives at moral conclusions, which are imperfect and subject to constant revision. REASON AND CONSCIENCE. Thus it appears that between Reason and Conscience there is a perfect parallelism. As Reason may be in- fluenced by the Passions and Emotions, so also may be the Conscience ; and as one when thus overpowered be- comes a slave, working in the interests of its tyrants, so the other unites its voice with superstition, and lends its name to religious fanaticism and intolerance. As Reason WISDOM. 229 is the umpire of facts in the intellectual realm, is Con- science in the realm of moral principles. AVe better understand the processes of Reason which deal with physical facts than its spiritual prototype, which rests on the subtle perceptions of spirit. The latter more closely resembles Reason in its exalted state of prescience, when it apparently escapes the trammels of facts and at once seizes on the truth. If Conscience is that faculty which discriminates between right and wrong, as the imperfect mind cannot know the absolute right and wrong, the decision of Conscience must be comparative. As actions of themselves are neither moral nor im- moral, these qualities belonging to the actor, and as all actions spring from motives, the decision of Con- science must be a choice of motives. If all the motives which actuate the mind are on the same plane and of the same grade, then there can be no choice, for one is as good as the other. But if these motives are of differ- ent grades, some being higher than others, then there is a choice. Thus the desires are lower than the spiritual aspirations ; selfishness, than benovolence ; greed, than generosity ; intemperance, than abstinence ; and when their conflicting claims arise, Conscience at once decides in favor of the higher motive, its voice can never be mistaken. It never favors the demands of the lower against the higher faculties. It ever is allied with the spiritual, the noble, the pure. In this respect it is the most clearly defined and unmistakable of all faculties of the mind. On this gradation of the mental faculties, whereby the Will is influenced, rests the science of morals. By this means only is such a science possible. Moral principles must be fixed and determined as the theories of mathematics, else nothing but vague uncer- tainties can result. Progress itself depends on fixedness here. Conscience deals with living entities with actors. It judges the actors, founding its judgment on motives. And it will be found that its judgment is in accordance with the grade of those actuating motives. The result is not taken in consideration. Success would not 230 THE ETHICS or SCIENCE. have changed the verdict in favor of Arnold, or have sanctioned the claims of slavery ; nor defeat have re- versed the principles of the Declaration of Independence or of the Magna-Charter of England. The popular voice is usually an expression of popular conscience, and ap- plauds unselfish, noble, and magnanimous actions, while it sneers and scoffs the selfish, mean, and ignoble. Not from its common selfish experience that such actions of the individual are best for the State, but because to love and respect such motives is inherent in the human mind. If this is not so, we have the mass influenced to admire in the individual unselfish qualities, because these ad- minister to their selfishness. Now as the mass is com- posed of individuals with precisely similar faculties, shall we say, most paradoxically, that their selfishness admires unselfishness, or rather that they admire be- cause there is in them a chord which responds with har- monious vibrations to unselfishness ? Noble souls are adored for their generosity and deeds of self-forgetfulness, because their adorers feel that they have done what is possible for all to do. IS THE IMPERFECTION OF CONSCIENCE SUPPLIED BY REVELATION ? If it is, there should be no hesitation in interpreting that revelation. If it is as obscure as Conscience, then it is equally uncertain. The Revelation presented is more ambiguous than Conscience. It is differently in- terpreted by different individuals, and hence is an un- certain guide, or far worse than none. If Revelation is truly given as a supplementary guide to Conscience, it must appeal to Conscience and be in- terpreted thereby. If it can understand Revelation, then it must have qualities like the revelator ; having which it would arrive at the principles of such revela- tion without foreign assistance. If it had not these qualities, it could not comprehend such Revelation. In either case Revelation can be of no assistance in remedy- ing the imperfection of Conscience. If Conscience be the result of heredity, handing down - WISDOM. 231 to us the experiences it lias treasured, we ask, What faculties treasure these experiences and make this con- tinuous analysis of motives ? Is it Reason ? Is it the Emotions? Is not Conscience their complete expression and central manifestation. It is in this sense we use this term, choosing to retain it, although liable to misinterpretation, rather than in- troduce a new one. ACCOUNTABILITY. If a man kill another intentionally or by accident, the result is the same, but he in one case would not re- ceive blame, for he was not actuated by wrong motives. The act must be designed, and in the design rests the moral accountability, for it is the expression of the Will. Conscience is the force which influences the Will, or it is a part of the Will itself ; distinguishes right from wrong, and decides the course of action. Hence it is the last court of appeal. But appeals cannot create a tribunal, which must pre-exist. It is clear that Conscience cannot exist without Rea- son, of which it is a higher part. It is the result of all the perceiving, knowing spiritual faculties. An individual may be learned and not good, because Season has only been cultivated in the relations of phys- ical life, and has not advanced to Wisdom, which is the comprehension of spiritual forces. Education may stop with the physical perceptions, and then there can be no proper conception of morality. It is equally true that a man cannot be positively good without intellectual knowledge ; a passive goodness may exist with the most complete ignorance. In the order of development the Intellect first ex- pands in perceptions of nature ; its higher perception of spiritual phenomena and forces are last to appear. This growth is in the direct line of the knowing facul- ties, and hence, although as a matter of convenience and to avoid repetition the term Conscience may be used, it is with the significance of " Spiritual Reason." 232 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. LOSS OF CONSCIENCE. By disuse Conscience may become lost in the energy of the Propensities and Appetites. The child who passes sleepless nights because it has gathered a flower not his own may by continuous crimes so destroy Con- science that it will cease its reprovings. He may be- come so hardened by deeds of blood that human life will be regarded of no more value than the butcher re- gards the animals that he slaughters. The voice, potent at first, becomes silent in the contention of baser desires, which unrestrained run swiftly in their brutal channels. The first glass is met with bitter rebuke, but Appetite soon silences the reprovings of Conscience, and becomes a tyrant. Yet we may rest assured that Conscience is never blot- ted out. It becomes latent, but may, at the proper mo- ment, be rekindled. CHANGE OF HEAET. It is this fact that makes reformation possible, as on it rests the " Change of Heart." However bad the individual may become, however much he may be the slave of his Desires and little reproved by Con- science, he never can fall to the level of the brute by its destruction. It may be suddenly intensified, and be- come the master. A pirate whose hands were red with the blood of numberless victims, and mind calloused to pity or the emotions of sympathy, was resting under the shade of a grove on the coast of Florida after a bloody cruise. He slept, to be awakened by the cooing of a pair of doves in the branches overhead. Fora long time he watched their gentle manners, their assiduous attentions and constancy. A responding chord was touched in his heart, a chord which had not vibrated since his youth. Conscience became a vital energy, and with its intense light illumined his soul. He arose a new being, with unspeakable abhorrence of his old life. He shrank from his former associates, and bade them fare- well forever. WISDOM. 233 Eeligious revivals often exert the necessary power by which Conscience is awakened, and although accom- panied with unessential forms and observances, which are made more essential than the result itself, are thus of intrinsic value. Complete success, however, is rarely attained. The disturbed Desires seek to gain their former control, and the mind oscillates between contend- ing faculties. The individual " backslides ;" is period- ically repentant, and perhaps scorned for inconsistency. CULTURE OF CONSCIENCE. Conscience is strengthened by use. Like the taste for the beautiful, it grows with that it feeds upon. Every time it chooses the highest between contending motives, it becomes stronger. The moral progress of the race is referable to the culture of Conscience, which is typed in its development in the individual. The observance of religious rites, the reading of so-called moral books or moral contemplation, are not of practical value as means of culture. Moral books are invariably religious books, narrow, one-sided, sapless, and at best contribute to a dreamy, ideal desire. It is by use alone, by contact with and decision on actuality that this faculty receives proper culture. Its constant co-ordination with Keason yields the just and desirable balance of the mind. The ideal angel is a being perfect in the supremacy of Conscience and Eeason. The animal nature has no part in its choice. Even the inclination to wrong has disappeared, and a calm, undisturbed serenity ever fills its being. Temptation maybe a test of moral strength, but it is not true, as held by many, that morality de- pends on its presence. It is true that our own failure to do right teaches us charity for others and quickens our sympathy, but it is not the origin of these sentiments. We are not chari- table to others because we feel that we may need their charity, nor sympathize with the suffering because we want sympathy when we suffer. These, with their related feelings, spring from that realm of mind the central force of which is Conscience. 234 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. CAN THE IMPERFECT, BRUTAL MAN ATTAIN THE SUBLIME PERFECTION OF THE ANGEL ? As a flesh-clad spirit, possessing all the faculties of supreme spirit, man has the mental faculties of an angel. As a being susceptible of progress, the perfection of these faculties is the fruition of time. As an immor- tal being, eternity furnishes that element, and the im- proving conditions facilitates the rapidity of advance- ment. As Reason, throned on intelligence, will ascend to the comprehension of the laws of the physical universe, Conscience will become the shining light of the moral world, shedding its pure radiance over the character. This is possible to every human being. However de- based and brutalized by the accidents of time and place, the spirit has within itself the immortal germs of good- ness and purity. If not awakened in this life, they will be at some period in the Hereafter. Life in man is a continuity not broken by death, and the hour of repent- ance is never gone by. In the future life the spirit, freed from the conditions of physical existence which crushed it in the dust, has a brighter field, and where before all influences were earthward, all become spirit- ward. Under such conditions advancement is as certain as life. The most reckless and debased criminal, lost to sympathy and the reprovings of Conscience, selfish and brutal, will sometime actualize this ideal ; and on the highlands, where stand those immortals redeemed by progress, the marshlands from which they have ascend- ed, though remembered, will cast no shadow. / TEMPTATION. It is said that, as human life is the combination of antagonizing Aspirations, Desires and Appetites, temp- tations on one side, resistance on the other, the future life, wherein all is perfect and good, would be an unbear- able monotony ; that temptation, suffering from sin and reform are essential to happiness. Temptation may WISDOM. 235 develop character through resistance, but it is possible for the spirit to arise out of and above it. It is possible for every Faculty and Desire to become so perfectly bal- anced and correlated that no whisper shall enter the mind, enticing it to any course but the Just and Right. Temptation does not exist for itself, or for its effect on the individual. The individual is tempted because his lower is not subjected to his higher nature. It is not conducive to pure morals to teach that it is necessary for men to be tempted and sometimes ex- pected to yield, nor is it true. It is not necessary, and they are expected to act according to the highest spir- itual light. If they fail, Charity may shield, but not justify them. PRACTICE. As Conscience chooses between motives, we may al- ways know its voice. It not only distinguishes, but impels to the higher course of conduct. If, then, we hesitate, and are at a loss which way to go, we should always accept the highest course presented unselfish instead of selfish, generous instead of ungenerous, for- giving instead of revengeful, charitable instead of un- charitable, noble and magnanimous instead of mean and treacherous. Such decisions will never bring regret. If we are in doubt, and many equally strong motives impel us in diverse ways, the highest motive should have the benefit of such doubts. REWARD. When Conscience is the impelling power, the charac- ter becomes strong, the mind serene, and happiness un- alloyed. The unselfish action made for the good of others rebounds to the good of the actor. Such is the beautiful compensation by which all obligations meet a just recompense. HOW DOES CONSCIENCE DECIDE ? Right is productive of good or happiness ; Wrong brings suffering. It will be seen in the sequel how these 236 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. results are natural and unavoidable sequences. Does Conscience decide spontaneously, knowing by an all- seeing intuition the Good from the Bad, the Right from the Wrong ? Or does it infer from facts, in a manner similar to Eeason, arising by a series of steps to con- clusions ? This brings us to the question, WHAT IS GOOD ? Jouffroy says that " the particular good of each crea- ture is but an element of universal order," wherein he strongly blends physical laws with moral insight, and does not account for the idea of Good. Reason may, and often does, regard the " universal order" very differ- ently, and ages before such order was recognized, con- crete conceptions of Good were entertained. If to the idea of universal order be supplemented that of activity for uses related to mind, then would arise the concep- tion of Good. Another school says, " The highest good, the sum- mum bonum, is worthiness of spiritual approbation" (Dr. Hickok, " Moral Science," p. 43.) Shall we choose, as an ultimate end, that which we must be in order to make the choice ? Equally absurd to suppose the highest good to consist of personal intro- spection. It would not be a Good to stop short on bar- ren approbation, even of the most spiritual, for activity is put forth for a purpose else it is objectless, and the pur- pose of right activity oversteps approbation to its result. Dr. Fairchild (" Moral Philosophy," p. 21) says Good " consists in the satisfaction of that sensibility satis- faction in every form, in which it can exist." This definition, places the Desires on a level with the highest spiritual perceptions, and makes the satisfac- tion of the Passions, in their lowest estate, a Good. This is the position of the optimist, who, affirming all things Right, would allow the fire of Desires to consume themselves, forgetting that ashes only remain after conflagration. Happiness as the Supreme Good belongs to Pa ley's Mechanical Scheme of Creation, based on a personal 237 God and the selfishness of his adherents. In the scheme of nature, as Happiness is always in great excess of Pain, whatever is best must produce the greatest amount of happiness. To say that the Conscience de- cides in favor of Happiness is an inversion ; for its de- cision is for the Eight, which necessarily yields the Su- preme Happiness. Obedience to law is productive of the greatest pleas- ure, but most rarely is it practical or possible for the mind to know that such will be the result of a determi- nate action. The martyrs and heroes of the world testify that Happiness has no part in their determination of Eight and Duty. Not for Happiness stood Leonidas with his three hundred in the pass of Thermopylas, nor Joan of Arc at the head of the French army, nor Washington with his bleeding soldiers at Valley Forge. The love of country, the generous emotion of liberty, blotted out every vestige of Happiness as a motive, and to brand them with such ignoble motive is sacrilege. Man being endowed with varied sensibilities both on the physical and spiritual side of his nature, their per- fect satisfaction in accordance with the laws of each, co- ordinated with all the others, is Ihe highest Good. This result presupposes harmony and perfection of func- tions, separate and collective, and brings into view the comparative Good, with its many-sided consequences. This perfect satisfaction is the Absolute Good, about which there can be no difference of opinion. When we speak of objects as Good, the word has a relative and distinct meaning. Absolute Good is only realized by thinking beings. The answering of every desire and motive results in Happiness. It is the state of virtue. It is pronounced good by all, as the most desirable state. The opposite condition is Wrong, so pronounced uni- versally, for its result is Pain and TJnhappiness. APPLICATION. The most potent fact of wrong-doing is that it is ut- terly opposed to the best interests of the wrong-doer. The eternal is sacrificed for the temporal ; the ad van- 238 THE ETHICS OF SCIEXCE. tages of the future for the moment. The enjoyment of an hour is followed by the bitterness of a life-time. The wrong-doer may or may not be conscious of this fact. If sufficiently cultured, this consciousness will be forced upon him. A well-conducted life yields greater gratification, even to the Desires, than one ill-regulated and devoted to the Passions. Happiness pursued as an end in other words, Self-gratification, brings disgust and ruin. Not that there is intrinsic Wrong in the Desires, but in their subjugation of Reason and Con- science. They should be controlled, and not control. There were two theories in ancient times, which have held their places to the present : of the Stoics and Epi- cureans. The former held happiness in contempt, as all the accidents of life, and made the Good to consist in liv- ing according to Nature and Reason. The latter made Happiness the enjoyment of Desires, the end of life. The Master did not construe this in a corrupt sense, but made it the enjoyment of mental pursuits ; but his followers failed not to render it in the coarse proverb, " Eat, drink, and be merry, for to-morrow we die." This doctrine has found expression in modern times in the theory of WHATEVER IS, IS EIGHT, the fatalism of the Optimists, which annuls all distinc- tions between Right and Wrong, and vitiates accuracy of thought by destroying its means of expression. Right and Wrong by insensible gradations approach each other. They are comparative, admitted ; so do the great and the small stand compared in infinite grada- tion ; but the great and the small remain unchanged, and gradation proves not the mountain and molehill the same. More truthful to say that WHATEVER IS, IS WROXG, to be made right in the future. Either statement con- fuses accuracy of thought, and if accepted leads to a WISDOM. 239 placidity which receives the most distorting error with ap- proving smile. Tolerance and commendable charity be- come a weak excuse for and supine indifference to error. There is, it is claimed, no absolute Right nor Wrong. What is Wrong for one individual may be Eight for another ; what is AVrong in one age is Eight in a suc- ceeding. Even our ideas of Eight and Wrong, it is held, are gained from selfish considerations. Whatever affects us unpleasantly or disadvantageous^ we consider Wrong, and the reverse Eight. As every individual's impressions are different, so these qualities vary, and hence have no absolute value. The eyes of different observers take in all degrees of light, and from blindness to clear vision all degrees of sensitiveness exist, yet the light remains unchanging. Eight and Wrong are absolute moral qualities existing outside of moral beings, and are not subjective concep- tions of the mind. Their perception is of growth, like all other faculties of the mind, and is as much keener and determinate in civilized man than in savage, as the former is superior to the latter in intelligence. This progress points to an absolute toward which the noblest aspirations of the mind are attracted. Hedged in by expediency, and endeavoring to tread the treacherous path of compromise, it feels that beyond its best efforts is an absolute, which admits of no comparison. Every hour of life it asks itself the momentous question, What is Eight ? and its interpretation seals its destiny. Not how will this affect ourselves alone, but how will it affect others, must be our inquiry. Will it give them pain, deprive them of their just measure, or in any way be detrimental to them ? If we are gainers and they are losers is evidence of injustice. We cannot isolate our- selves from humanity and receive benefits at the expense of others without being overtaken at some time by the consequences. Integral parts of the human world, the least member of that world cannot be injured without all being affected. Eight injures no one. It is benefi- cent to all. Happiness is dependent on this lofty state of benevo- lence, flowing to the mind, as an undercurrent, from 240 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. the flood streaming out from it continually. The good of others is our own Supreme Good. Benevolence is never in error, never wrong. It is a key-note in the octave of the spirit. LIFE A DISCIPLINE. As the embryonic forms of higher animals revert to the lower, ascending by various stages to their perma- nent level, so every child is born a savage, having the superior capabilities bestowed by hereditary descent from civilized ancestors. The capabilities are at first latent, and the child of savage and the child of civilized parents travel side by side in gaining knowledge of the relations they sustain to external things. It has been said that the first questions asked by primitive man were, How ? Why ? Wherefore ? These are the first asked by every child asked even before it learns the use of spoken language. From that period onward the child is absorbed in the acquisition of knowledge. He has entered a new and strange world, and it is essential that he learn the relations between himself and external na- ture. Possessing a will seemingly independent and free, the young barbarian asserts his kingship, to find his vas- sals stubborn and relentlessly unyielding. He clutches at the moon, and learns the reality of space ; or the glittering flame, and discovers the properties of heat ; essays to walk, and by many a fall becomes conscious of gravity. TO CONQUER NATURE. Nature submits to no rude hand. He learns that she is only conquered by obedience to her laws. He m; pout over his bruised head, cry over the smarting bun. but Nature is an unrelenting mother, coaxing none j her children. Her rules are fixed, and deviate not for the child of an emperor more than for the larva of the ephemera. He gains knowledge of her laws by the re- sistance they offer ; a veritable fetish worshipper, he kicks the table against which he bumps his head, as the grown children, in the childhood of the world, sought to chain WISDOM. 241 the sea or control the winds. The table does not change to a cushion to save his tender feet. Such is his first discipline, and slowly, as his mind matures, he finds that, so far from being a born lord, he is an hum- ble serf ; that above, beneath, and around him stretch the iron arms of inflexible law, and instead of command- ing, he must obey. Overwhelmed with a dim conscious- ness of his position his weakness, on the one hand, and, on the other, the gigantic powers of nature primitive man defied the latter, and explained his own contradic- tory being by supposing that his mortal life was a pro- bationary state, wherein his god-like spirit underwent a process of purification, which completing, it would ascend to its native home. This life was one of disci- pline. Here man, the brute, was wedded to man, the spirit, and the high end of his existence was to bring the former into subjection to the latter. Fearfully long and wearisome, terribly painful, and beset with torture of body and spirit has been the road he has travelled. THE PATH OF ADVANCE. It began with the savage of the wild, hairy, matted- locked, armed with a club or stone, feeding on raw flesh, solitary, distrustful, vindictive, cruel and selfish, living only for himself. It ends in the ideal of spiritual perfectibility, the man living for others instead of him- self, with sympathetic benevolence embracing all human beings, acknowledging the use of his physical nature, but holding it in strict abeyance to his spiritual percep- tions. This long stride of development has been made with blood and toil. Tribe has destroyed tribe, nation, nation, and great races have pitted themselves in death grapple. Empires have arisen and melted away. Kings, theocrats, auto- crats, and the turbulent masses have in turn vainly striven, retarding or accelerating as their influence was thrown on the side of the brute or the angel. Great thinkers have been cast up by the seething waves, like pearls from the wild depths, from whose birth date eras of progress. 24-2 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. This interminable interval must be travelled by every child, with this advantage : the way is prepared for it, and it may thus quickly pass over. May, or it may linger under the pressure of interwoven circumstances, and in the midst of civilization remain a barbarian, as criminals and law-breakers exemplify. This life is not probationary ; coming up from the rank soil of animal being, dwelling in the midst of sen- tient life, and sending down strong roots into the physical stratum, our spiritual nature, of slow growth, must be cultivated carefully as an exotic, else the rank weeds will overtop and sap its vitality. From the cradle to the grave, Life is discipline. Children are sometimes born with extraordinary mental and spiritual endow- ments ; the majority must by effort attain the status these possess by their happy organizations. " If in excess, let the passions burn themselves out, and then will the man become subject to his angel na- ture/' says the optimist. This conception, so satisfactory to the Desires and appeasing to opposing Conscience, is dangerous and false as it is subtle. The strongest faculty draws the most sustenance at the expense of the weaker. Like the hardiest cub, it not only absorbs its own share, but pushes its weaker fellow. Does it grow weak by satiety ? The fire is extinguished by burning itself out what remains ? Ashes. " The passions are natural, let them go, as a river flows to the sea, as the fire burns. Their manifestations are as right as those of the intellect. Why restrain them ? Why denounce and punish ? It is the only way some men can be reduced and gain control of them- selves, and commence a higher course of advancement." THINGS ABE AS THEY ABE BECAUSE THEY MUST BE, not because right ; because such is written in the con- stitution of the world. He who unleashes his brutal nature under the delusion that it is right ever finds, to his cost, that misery is the sternly inflicted penalty. Do the passions extinguish themselves ? Ah! the result is a wreck of manhood over which angels weep ! WISDOM. 243 The distinction of Eight and Wrong in all our actions is spoken in words unmistakable ; Right always confers true and permanent happiness, and Wrong with equal certainty brings suffering. The deceptive gleam of sensuous pleasure, too often mistaken for happiness, is the foretaste of misery ; sensuous pain in the triumph of conscience is the harbinger of endless pleasure. Sub- jected to this impartial test, " AVhatever is, is right," with the deductions flowing logically therefrom, fall as idle schemes of those who would rebuke error with an excuse for the ruin it produces. Even these theorists acknowledge that ultimately the recreant will commence to advance, and as they ignore discipline and restraint, they would have a ruin burned and charred, rather than the plastic material fresh from the quarry. Life is for discipline and progress. Seasoning found- ed on its termination at the grave is fallacious. Our every thought and deed having eternal relations, the faculties which connect us to external life are necessary so far as they affect that object, but any further exten- sion of their sphere is detrimental. The finite possibil- ities of to-day and the infinite of to-morrow is our birthright. Turn where we will, we find this lesson taught in unmistakable language, and the lash of pain distin- guishes with nicest discrimination the Right from the Wrong in the conduct of life. The child setting forward toward the ideal angel, be- fogged by the world, is content to remain half a savage ; that is, dominated over by his brutal nature, or its slave, restrained only by the laws of the society of which he is a member. CONSEQUENCES. If we do Wrong, we are certain to bear the conse- quences ; if Right, to enjoy the results. To know the Right from the Wrong is the foundation of moral con- duct. To know these involves a knowledge of man's nature and of the world. Hence, the highest morality 244 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. must rest on knowledge, and the Intellect lie between the world of active life and morals. VIII. WISDOM THE WILL. THE Will is considered by mental philosophers as a distinct and independent faculty and source of power. In moral philosophy it becomes the source of responsi- bility, and its freedom is a cardinal doctrine of theology. Man cannot be held responsible for his actions unless they are of his own free choice. They must be within his means of doing, and he must not only be allowed to do or not do, but have the power within himself. If he is hedged in by circumstances which change the pur- pose of his Will, and if that Will be dependent on his physical surroundings and mental conditions, he cannot be said to be a free moral agent in the theological ac- ceptation of that term. IS MAK PEEE ? If we consider the constitution of man, we shall ar- rive at a widely different conclusion. The individual is the result of every cause and condition which has been exerted not only directly on himself, but his ancestors from remotest time. He is a centerstance, in which blends this infinite series of causes and conditions. This cumulation from the beginning, this resultant of the entire mind, is the Will. If the Will is a distinct power or source of power, why is its strength in any given direction exactly pro- portioned to the strength of mind in that direction ? For illustration, when combativeness is strong, why does the individual Will to be combative, and if weak, why Will to be the reverse ? WISDOM THE WILL. 245 If a man has untoward ambition, the Will is alike fa- vorable to ambition. If he is without, there is no vault- ing Will. The same is shown functionally when a portion of the brain is removed, as has been repeatedly done by ac- cident. With such destruction or removal, certain faculties cease to be manifested, and with them the Will in their particular direction. The Will is the result of all past experiences of the individual direct and by heredity, received through all the faculties, reacting on the outer world. While responsible, it is not correct to hold it as a free agent, which of itself chooses and impels. What is this power of the Will ? It is that of the indi- vidual as a whole. On the understanding of the will rests our estimate of human actions praise and censure, and the penal code. If a man do wrong when he could do right if he so willed, moral philosophy assumes a theological aspect, with which this is a favorite dogma : Man can will as he pleases. Although this has long been accepted, it certainly is one of the most erroneous theories, and leads to deplorable consequences. REFORM. If a man, after a long series of crime, changes his course and begins to do right, we say he wills to reform. It would be more correct to say that the nobler faculties of his mind have been aroused. This cannot be ac- complished by the unassisted Will, for no such autocratic power, superior to all the faculties, exists in the mind. The loss or weakening of the Will is the decay of all the faculties, or it may result from a negative passive condition. Such persons are said to have " no Will of their own," always conceding to those they are with. They would be of no use in the world were it not for the use others make of them. CAH "VVE DO AS WE PLEASE ? To say we can do as we please ignores the question of Will, for it is really saying we Will thus and so, conse- 246 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. quently we can Will, which is a truism. The real ques- tion is, Can we Will ourselves to Will, to do a given task, or think a certain train of ideas? It is self evi- dent that we cannot ; that the Will cannot transcend the mental qualities on which it rests, and from which it springs. Nothing proves this more completely than the force of habit. The drunkard may Will to reform, and for a time maintain his determination ; but the desire for stimulants increases, until it sweeps his resolution away. He strives for a time and breasts the current, all the time feeling that his strength is only for the time, and will soon yield. He feels that he is doomed irrevocably. The Appetites affect the Will in the same manner, and starvation will reduce the most sensitive to a cannibal. DEVELOPMENT OF THE WILL. The assent of the Will may be traced from the sensi- tive contraction of protoplasmic life upward through the ascending series, from the involuntary to the volun- tary. The highest animal is governed by instincts which are incoherent efforts of Will. Children are dominated in the same manner, and many adults cannot be said to have wills of their own. In the more perfect man we find the diverging purposes unitized, and the highest ex- pression of Will is the voice of Reason and Conscience, which is justly given the government of the conduct of life. It is considered wrong to Will to do anything un- justified by the higher faculties. To do otherwise, to Will to follow the Propensities or Appetites, is regard- ed as DEPRAVED. The Will receives the blame, and is made the seat of " moral depravity." The seat of "moral depravity" is not in the Will, for the Will cannot act without motives, and these motives of wrong action are formed by the Propensities and Ap- petites. The moral faculties are aways moral, and hence WISDOM THE WILL. 24 ]' the term " moral depravity" is a misnomer, such a state being impossible. CULTURE OF THE WILL. An Egyptian physiognomist, on reading the character of Socrates, said he was a libertine. His disciples laughed ; so far, thought they, the reading departed from the truth ; but Socrates chided them, saying the Egyp- tian was right ; that he had been, and only overcame his appetite by severest discipline. Strength of Will, morally directed, is one of the noblest traits of man, be- cause it is a measure of his attainments, and prophesies his inconceivable possibilities. By the culture of the harmonious activity of all fac- ulties, and the constant effort to place the higher in just ascendancy, the Will maybe strengthened in that direc- tion to an unlimited extent. Not only can it gain mastery over the body, defying the pangs of hunger, and the fever of thirst, and the keenest arrows of pain, it treads the desires beneath its feet, and shows how much stronger is the spirit than the body. The martyrs, who smile at physical pain, show how independent the spirit may become through the force of high resolves, and they who forsake all for principle illustrate the same in the sphere of intelligence. In this high relation the Will has no limitation ex- cept the mental faculties by which it is expressed. The term Will, as popularly used, means the sum of the mental activities. We must regard it as the dynam- ics of the mind. To say it is corrupt is saying in an- other form that the mind itself is corrupt. To say it has become pure and never yields to base desires is say- ing that the mind has been cultured in that direc- tion. But so thoroughly are we bound in the iron ways of habit, that the term must be retained to avoid tedious circumlocution, as we retain Conscience, giving it a modified meaning. So far as man is a circumstance, his Will is not free ; as a centerstance of force it becomes free. The mind 248 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. as a treasure-house of the past is a mighty reserve force, which is at the disposal of the 'Will. Writers of the school of Darwin, Spencer, and Bain have explained the processes of this cumulation, and consider their statement of facts as demonstrations. They have, however, allowed the real question to escape them. They iiave only shown how individualized spirit gains control over matter. They have not given the least explanation of the origin of ideas, or how matter gets caught in the vortices of thought. A.fter all their labors they are little nearer the explanation than at the beginning, for they are prepossessed with false views which distort their conclusions. In this rapid survey no attempt has been made to compare the theories on the questions discussed, for they are barren speculations, and the result would be fruit- less. It would have been a waste of time to enter into disputation or their disproval. Instead of demolishing the old time-stained structures, a new and practical system has been presented, and the future pages will be devoted to their plain application. IX. CHAETEB OF EIGHTS. THE existence of a being is its Charter of Rights. It is an incontrovertible evidence that such a being has the right to all the essential conditions for the mainte- nance of such existence. The presence of lungs not only proves that there is an atmosphere, it also proves that this organ owns by right so much of the atmosphere as is required to expand its cells and arterialize the blood that flows thereto. The appetite of thirst, which indi- cates the absolute necessity of water to the sustenance of the organism, declares its right to so much water as shall answer its wants. There can be no other side to CHARTER OF RIGHTS. 249 this question ; for it would not only be a want of be- nevolence, but a cruel blunder to create a being with imperative wants and not to supply those wants. To create fish, which by their constitution could only en- joy life in the water, and not to give them the boundless tide to which fin and gills are fashioned ; to create birds with wings to cleave the atmosphere, and withhold that element, would be to defeat the object of their creation. The form of the fish demonstrates its right to the water ; the wings of the bird its right to use them in the air ; the lungs have a right to be filled with air, the thirst to be slaked by water. Hunger, the terrible necessity of life, carries with it the right of gratification. In the animal it knows no limitation. It is the fundamental right, equivalent to that of existence. In man the rights of the Appetites are subject to the limitation of his superior faculties. The individual is confined in his sphere by that of other individuals. He has a right to act precisely as he pleases in his sphere. He must never transcend it and trespass on the rights of others. The air and water are so abundant that none claim preoccupancy, or dis- pute their use. With food and the right of Hunger it is different. In the savage state man, a creature of the tropics, supplies his scanty wants from the teeming abundance of Nature, and the answer of hunger is as certain as that to the desire for air. But in an advanced and more crowded state food keeps pace in no ratio with the demand. The intelligence of man must direct his hands to labor for the increase of fruits, grains and animal life. IK A CROWDED STATE LIFE MUST BE SUPPORTED BY LABOR. The earth itself will furnish only a little of what is demanded. The game in four thousand acres of forest may satisfy the hunger of one Indian, but it will be an insignificant fraction of supply to a thousand people which civilization crowds on the same area. Only by labor can the deficit be supplied ; labor of the hands, 250 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. in tilling the soil, mining the ores, fashioning machines to do more work, or the exchange of surplus products. Hunger stimulates labor, and is supplied thereby. Hunger has the right to the food it demands, limited by the right to gain that food by labor. This is the first law of Right, limited in man by Benevolence, for labor must not be at the expense of others. It follows that LABOR, WHEN SO DIRECTED, HAS THE RIGHT TO ITS OWN PRODUCTS. The idea of ownership is inherent in being, and the deed of ownership is doing something to create or appro- priate. Any law or usage which conflicts with this pri- mary right is wrong. " Ah !" it is said, " you make no exceptions ; then every child, when born, has a right to be fed and clothed ; every man to be fed and clothed." Certainly, as every child, when born, has a right to fill its lungs with air, to be nourished at its mother's breast, to water when thirsty. This right is, however, subject to this quali- fication : love assures the rights of the child, labor must that of the man. It is not enough that this be granted. LABOR MUST BE ALLOWED OPPORTUNITY. It is not enough to say man has the right to labor ; he has the right to the OPPORTUNITY to labor, and hav- ing the opportunity, the results should be his. RIGHT TO LAND. As the land is the primary source of supply of food, Labor has the right to the land, and they who use it with greatest profit that is, make it most productive, have the right to the land. This law is illustrated in the contact of culture with barbarous peoples. The race that makes the land produce the greatest supply of food is its triumphant owner. " Ah ! this is agrarianism. " Xo ; for in a long period CHARTER OF RIGHTS. 251 of civilization the land does not remain in the wild. Air and water are ever the same, but the land is change- able. The forest is removed, the stagnant waters drained away, the crust pulverized, and an ownership established by the labor expended, which has received no reward except in ownership, which is valuable for what it may yield in the future. If such land cannot be oc- cupied by the one who has given this preparatory labor, and is by another, it is just that the products of this joint labor be equitably divided in proportion to the value of each. This is rent, or interest, which are really one and the same ; for interest would never be paid on money if money would not procure the use of something desired. Rent, then, of itself is just, and not to be regarded by labor as a grievance. But when it exacts more than its share, it becomes the most un- just and oppressive power possible to conceive. Hav- ing seized the means of life, it reduces labor to a pitiable struggle for existence, granted by monopoly with be- grudging scorn. RENT AXD INTEREST. Ill the present complex civilization, however, rent and interest are means whereby present labor is robbed by that of the past. Past labor is aggregated in capital, which represents the surplus savings of labor. The de- sire of ownership is essential to human well being, to progress and civilization ; but ownership should not transcend the law of Love and Benevolence. So great are the demands that labor cannot of itself, honestly directed, accumulate more than a competency under the most favorable circumstances during the brief period of earthly life. By yielding to the desire of wealth for its own sake ; crushing love and benevolence, and giving rein to the propensities ; by fraud, dishonesty, sharp practices and dubious ways of trade, fortunes are accumu- lated which have no relation to the labor of the legal owner. The production or acquisition of wealth is not governed by the laws of human well being, as expressed in the higher morality, and hence accumulated labor, or capital, stands opposed to present labor. The means of 252 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. labor are monopolized, and it is compelled to give the lion's share for the privilege of activity. ILLUSTRATION OF THE MILL. As an illustration, there is a river which, by a costly dam, will become a continuous source of power. The opportunity is seized by an energetic individual, who proceeds to make the dam and build a mill for grinding. To make the comparison complete, we must suppose that there is no other mill, nor can be, and that the people cannot grind for themselves. This mill must grind their corn or they can have no bread. The owner of the mill now says, " I will grind your corn for half," and the people are thankful he is satisfied with less than the whole ; or he may not wish to work himself, and say, to the people, " You may grind for yourselves and give me nine tenths, and you may have the remaining." Under these circumstances they would be compelled to obey or starve. So long as their portion sustained them they may not rebel, and to find that minimum would be the study of the owner. The injustice of such an arrangement is too obvious to require serious answer, yet it is a mild form of mo- nopoly. Cannot the mill-owner say to the people, ' ' This is my mill, I built it and the dam, and by foresight dis- covered the waterfall. You may do as you please about bringing your corn. If you do not, I can lock my door." They plead, " We cannot have our corn ground into meal any where else. "We must bring it." " Well," he might reply, " do not grumble, then. I am not to blame for there not being two mills. I built this for myself, and not for you ; and has not one a right to do as he pleases with his own ?" Justly the mill-owner should receive reward for the labor he has invested, in due proportion to those who use it. Because he can exact more is no reason why he should. He has no right to the work the powers of Nature are doing for him more than he would have to the air or the sunshine. These forces are the birthright of all men. If actuated by justice he would say, " I will CHARTER OF RIGHTS. 253 take so much as will pay me for my labor past and pres- ent, or you may grind yourselves and give an equivalent for my part of the labor." It is thus seen that the wrong is fundamental, lying at the root of the popular idea of ownership, which is possession and the power to hold ; whereas true owner- ship is based on the spiritual law of uses. If the farmer owns his farm, cultivates his broad acres of grass and grain, and rears his domestic herds for the purpose of increase as the ultimate end, he fails in his efforts. The purpose of all his labors should be the cul- ture of his family and himself. More than this it is not possible for him to do, and less is giving the control of his life to the earth-side of his nature, which has no permanent value. He has ownership, so far as the gratification of physical wants is demanded for his high- est spiritual attainments. By the present monopoly, the Past, instead of a loving mother, becomes the enemy of the Present, and enslaves it for the purpose of accumulating a stronger power against the Future. Day by day the lot of the laborer becomes harder, and to achieve success more difficult. Everything is grasped, and will not be relinquished. While ownership is natural and desirable, it should not rest alone on legal enactment. Whenever exercised for its own sake it must work disastrously, as the exercise of selfishness always does. The man who collects a vast library for the purpose of owning it, while he cares not to read nor allows any one else, would be considered supremely selfish and ignoble, while the man who made the collection for the purpose of throwing it open to the public for the benefit of all would be regarded as a bene- factor. It is precisely the same with all wealth. When grasped for self, the purposes of its creation are defeated. A greater evil than has yet been mentioned results from this monopoly. The many, who are compelled to overwork to gain a sufficiency to supply the demands of Hunger alone, having no time nor inclination for spirit- ual culture, lose all the advantages of life. Denied the first right, they lose by default all the others. If such monopoly did not exist ; if Wealth was held by Benev- 254 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. olence and not by Selfishness ; if the better and nobler ideas of the purposes of life and its mutual responsibil- ities were entertained, Hunger would not only have the right to labor, but its opportunities. The Government of the United States, at a day too late for its full usefulness, has recognized this principle in the free homestead law, by which the actual occupant becomes the owner of the soil. It has not, be it regret- ted, forestalled monopoly by just laws. In all this reasoning we have understood that Labor is to be directed in channels for the good of man, and not to his detriment. The statement may be safely made that one half of all the labor expended by man is for objects deleterious or useless. In the ministering to the habits created by narcotics and alcoholic stimu- lants, an incalculable amount of labor is expended for the ruin of fellow-men. If the laborer understands the law and responsibility of labor, he could not conscien- tiously engage in work which is not only useless, but positively and unmitigatedly bad in all its consequences. We have, then, three fundamental rights : the right to air, to water, to food, and the right necessitated by the latter to labor, with the opportunity which makes such labor productive. Also that Labor has the right to its own productions, limited by the law of highest uses. These may be regarded as physical rights, having which we may consider the spiritual. LIBERTY. First is Liberty. To the American mind that man should be physically free is axiomatic. In whatever station of life, he is born free. His muscles are for the support of himself and for the use of no other. Except by forfeiting this right by disregard of the laws of So- ciety, he cannot lose it. Of the freedom of the mind doubts still exist, and a vast majority live in abject slavery. The fetters which bind the body may be unspeakably wrong and deplorable, but those which bind the soul are CHARTER OF RIGHTS. 255 incomparably more ruinous. This bondage is gained and exercised through ignorance and the superstition it fosters. It is this which maintains the hoary wicked- ness of Church and State. Religion has been the hard- est master, and to it man has gone down abjectly in the dust. It has forbidden him to think for himself, and he has received through a blind faith the wildest dogmas. HAS MAN" THE RIGHT TO THIKK FOR HIMSELF ? Protestantism answered, " Yes," but it added there- after, " to think as Protestants do !" From whence came the right of a church to dictate what a man shall think or believe ? Is not a church an aggregation of men, and does a body of men acquire a right not pos- sessed by them as individuals ? Can they as a whole ar- rive at a truth which they could not as individuals ? Having a body carries with it the right to use that body for its natural uses, and having a mind gives the right to use that mind to think. We have a right to believe or disbelieve ; to read such books as may interest us ; to listen to such discourses ; to write or speak as we please, subject only to the limitation that in so doing we do not interfere with others' rights in the same direction. It may be urged that any divergence from established customs would be such interference. Sabbath-break- ing, for instance, might be thought a violation of the rights of those who regard that day as especially holy. But it must be considered that no one can justly or au- thoritatively say to another what is holy or what is not holy. If the day is to them holy, they may use it for such service as they please, and allow others who do not agree with them to use it as they may desire. They have no right over the day except for themselves. It may be claimed, in the same manner, that the Press, although free, has no right to publish pernicious doctrines. Who is to decide what pernicious doctrines are ? To church-members materialism or atheism would be considered exceedingly so, and to an atheist the church dogmas would be thought exceedingly harmful. There is fortunately or unfortunately no infallible tri- 25G THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. bunal to which to appeal, and if the press be free it must be allowed to express views on all subjects, nor be pro- hibited except in case of gross immorality. Even in such case, it is doubtful whether suppression is the proper method. Such papers are not the cause, but effect, and when the cause is removed they will disap- pear. The heralding of every crime by the press at first may incite to crime, but, in the end, the certainty of wide exposure becomes a strong motive against its com- mittal. The argus eye of the newspaper is ever open, and there is a scorpion's lash ready at any moment. Itf FKEEDOM THERE IS SALVATION". The failures it apparently makes grow out of a pre- ceding order for which it is not responsible, as the flume is not for the injury done the moth that is dazzled and burns its wings. Liberty must not be confounded with license, which is its selfish exercise at the expense of others. It is the mistake of the suddenly freed slave ; of the emancipated serf of ignorance and superstition. America is said to be free, and every one allowed to think as they please. Yet it is far from that perfect liberty which is desirable. It would be impossible for a Mohammedan to gain an official position. While it is not true that every one is allowed to worship or not worship, the tendency is toward the church, and a large proportion of the people are held in spiritual bondage. If man has the right to think, he has the right to think as he pleases. How correctly he may think, how truth- ful the results of ''thinking, depends on his education. The ignorant man is a slave of superstition. His mind is not reliable, and is swayed by inferior influences. BIGHT OF MENTAL CULTURE. As the province of the mind is thought, which is the sum of all uses, and the apparent purpose of life, it has the right to the means of its cultivation. In other words, the possession of an educable mind proves its CHARTER OF RIGHTS. 257 right to education. Society acknowledges the right, because it understands the advantage conferred is recip- rocal. Education is the food of the mind, as bread is that of the body. Education is not the narrow training to read and speak as taught in the schools, but the com- plete harmony illustrated in the chapter on " The Duty of Culture." One may read and write well, and yet be abjectly ignorant. HAPPINESS. This subject may be argued on other grounds, and often is. It is the right, it is said, of every being to enjoy the largest measure of happiness compatible with its constitution. Happiness is a result, and should not be a motive. We do not seek food that we may be happy, but because impelled by hunger. We may be very happy when we secure it, but that is an after-effect. The ex- perience may be remembered, and in that manner enter into our ideas of the gratification ; the primary motive remains. If we associate happiness with the gratification of the appetites it is from memory of ex- periences which have taught that such gratification gives pleasure. In the same manner we associate misery with experiences of great deprivation or over-indul- gence. WOMAN'S RIGHTS. . In the foregoing discussion the word man is used in its broad acceptance as embracing all human beings, and it must be understood that all the rights belonging to one sex equally belong to the other. To decide what are woman's rights there is but one question, Is she a human being? If "yes" be the reply, then she has all the rights of a human being. There can be nothing more self-evident. If it be asked, Is she the equal of man ? we reply that she is equal 1 in some respects, inferior and superior in others. Her constitution and the sphere it prescribes is different from his in a portion of its arc, but in the main coin- cides. Her equality or inequality, however, has nothing to do with the question. The highest form of civiliza- 258 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. tion- must give woman equal rights and equal opportu- nities with man. Emancipated from the slavery which, from the dawn of the race, has been her lot, and freed from the mental traits this slavery has cultivated, her future will be inconceivably glorious. She is now be- hind man in the race because she has been retarded. Her future is now opening before her. Everything she may desire to do awaits her hand. It is pitiable to see the opponents of woman's rights bring as evidence anatomical and physiological pecu- liarities, in precisely the same spirit as the old defend- ers of slavery did that of the hair, the color of the skin, or the conformation of the skull. What has all this to do with rights and justice? Would they prove their mothers not to be members of the human family ? The question is not of Rights of Sex, but of humanity, and will fade into and be solved by that greater issue. Far more than man has woman suffered from false ideas and superstitions, and has not even yet escaped in the full measure he has done. In the early age of brute force she was made a slave, and it has taken all the ages, by means of the refinement of culture, to bring her liberation. Religion has forged her chains and prevented their being cast off. She was made the principal agent of bringing sin into the world. The mortal pain she suffered in giving birth to offspring was the token and effect of her guilt. Not only was she to be enslaved, but her master had justification in his tyranny in the interpretation of God's word by the priests. If man has been made to bear the tortures of continuous martyrdom, woman has been made the target of his scorn, the recipient of his hate, because for her he has been compelled to endure this suffering. That old despicable idea that woman is inferior to ' man lingers to-day, as expressed in the greater joy over a child if a boy than if a girl. Some ages ago the mother would have, in her shame, strangled the girl or thrown her into the river. The fable of the rib is the justification of ownership of body and soul, and countless wives have been brutal- ized into their graves often welcomed by practice nur- CHARTEE OF RIGHTS. 259 tured by this fable of the beast. It is quite time all this rubbish" should be swept out of the world. It has blighted and cursed loug enough. If woman is inferior jto man it is because of ages of repression by his brute 1 strength ; by the force of heredity, which has remorse- lessly stored up the results of this selection of what has been desirable to his selfishness. It would take many generations, even if the absolutely right views were now accepted, to change by the proc- esses of growth, and so purify the race physically and mentally, that reversion would not occur. The future will regard the views of woman's posi- tion and rights now entertained by the masses as evi- dence of a low civilization. She will then be the equal with man, and have absolute control over herself. She will have the right and privilege to do whatever she wishes to do in the same measure as has man, with the same limitations. So clear is this right of hers, it seems as useless to argue in its favor as would be the attempt to demonstrate an axiom. When the soul awakes from the lethargy of the Kelig- ion of Pain there will be no hesitancy or doubt. The future will bring a civilization beyond the dreams of the present, for the past and the present has had only a civilization of man, while the future will have that of man and woman also. She will bring the spirituality of the feminine, the refinement, the ideal which the past has known only as it has escaped intermittently from its repressing bondage. SUMMARY OF RIGHTS. The child, as an immortal intelligence capable of in- finite progress, has these self-evident rights : To air and water, which, requiring no artificial change, and incapable of ownership, cannot be monop- olized. He has the right to food through the ministrations of Love. He has a right to be clothed and sheltered by the same. He has a right to an education. Matured, he has a 260 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. right to labor in whatever direction lie pleases, not con- flicting with others' rights, and to all his labor produces. He has the right to think, and as thinking can never interfere with the thinking of others, he has here per- fect freedom. In speaking and writing, in putting thought into ac- tion, there is the limitation by the sphere of others. This limitation, however, is daily being pushed further away, and must ultimately be obliterated, except so far as the amenities of culture and refinement dictate. Freedom of speech and of the press embrace their own purification. X. DUTIES AND OBLIGATIONS OF THE INDIVIDUAL. EIGHTS presuppose Duties. Freedom is overshadowed by obligations. This is true in the highest sense with- out relation to theological dogmas. The system of duties and obligations created by the latter are artificial and foreign to the constitution of man. Theoretical duty and obligation to God, or the gods, has been the foundation of religion. Theology starting with a false conception of God, the religion arising from it has been vitiated and baseless. Christian, Jew, and Pagan place the same great stress on these subjects, and the priests and clergy are the interested parties to enforce acquies- cence. DUTIES AND OBEDIENCE TO GOD. To obey God was the first requisite of a good man. As no one knew or could know what God's commands were, the priestly order declared them. To obey God was to obey the voice of the priest. Obedience was re- ligion, and all temporal duties sank into insignificance l>y the side of this. To obey God in Egypt meant to worship leeks and garlics ; in Koine, to obey the oracles DUTIES AND OBLIGATIONS OF THE INDIVIDUAL. 2G1 of a multitude of gods and goddesses. To obey him in Turkey means to believe in Mahomet and Al Koran. To obey him in Christian lands is to believe with some one of the Christian sects. Perhaps more intolerance has grown out of the idea of the necessity of compelling this arbitrary obedience than any other dogma. Allow an order of men to set themselves up as God's chosen exponents, and give them power to enforce obedience, and there is nothing at which they pause. The decay of the priestly order has shorn it of its pQwer of enforcing doctrines, but the dogma of obedience and duty to God remain, and form the foun- dation of the Christian religion. Man must obey the laws of his being and of the physical world or suffer. He cannot swerve a hair's-breadth from implicit obedi- ence without pain. To obey is not a duty, it is a neces- sity. This, however, is not obedience as understood by theologians. The will of God is expressed not in Na- ture, but the Bible. To believe the Bible and obey the requirements of the church is the obedience intended. Unqualifiedly man owes no such obedience and has no such duties. SIN. Sin is not the refusal to meet these arbitrary demands, but the yielding to the impulses of the lower nature. Such impulses may appeal to the Reason for support, and even force it into alliance. Thus the drunkard, before the habit is formed, may have a reason for grati- fying his desire, and he will reason in his lowest depths of degradation. Desire itself furnishes a reason. While virtue is obedience to right, reason, and intelligence, sin may be regarded as the unrestrained action of the Ap- petites and Propensities. Their desire to do is their rea- son therefor. HOW CAN WE OWE OBEDIENCE TO GOD? The system of dogmatic theology grew up in an age which unquestionably received the personality of God. When he was regarded as an Asiatic despot, seated on 2G2 THE ETHICS OF S^IEXCE. an ivory throne, there was nothing contradictory in the supposition that he personally demanded obedience, and to disobey excited his anger. The slow relinquishment of the personality of God has left this doctrine in a most precarious state, and with its fall churchianity ceases to be. The personality of God is an irrational theory, for he must be infinite. If infinite, every part must be infinite. An infinite personality must have, for in- stance, an infinite hand ; but if his hand is infinite, fill- ing all space, then there will be no space for the re- maining organs. Hence, an infinite personality is ab- surd. If God is a principle, or the sum of all principles, man must obey such principles as are expressed in his physical, spiritual, mental, or moral constitution. He can know nor be held amenable to none other. He owes no obedience to any arbitrary authority. This in- ference is equally applicable to moral action, for man could not comprehend a moral principle better than a physical, unless expressed in his mental constitution. The nature of God, which has always formed a promi- nent feature in Christian ethics, has little interest in this discussion, which relates not to God, but to man. Man's conception of God must grow out of and be a part of himself, as he can form no idea of a being of different qualities from himself. Happily, theoretical views of the Deity do not neces- sarily affect the true system of morals. The grand foundations of llight and Justice have been slowly and painfully builded under innumerable forms of belief, and the moral sages of the world alike have bowed to the shrines of Ormuzd, Jupiter, Allah, and Jehovah. The problem of man's Rights and Duties is solved by a study of man himself, and not by foreign revelation. Hence, admitting any theory of the existence of God, it follows that an infinite good being, such as God must be, desires man, his crowning effort, to perfectly till the sphere in. which he has placed him. To do so, man must be true to the principles of his constitution, and this is the only obedience that can be required of him. DUTIES AND OBLIGATIONS OF THE INDIVIDUAL. 263 FORGIVENESS AND PARDON FOR SIN. Out of this false idea of a personal God and man's re- lations to him has grown the equally false dogmas of punishment and forgiveness. If God demanded obedi- ence, he must have the means to enforce his commands. If man did not obey his artificial requirements he must be punished, and a Hell and Devil furnished the ready means. If man disobeyed, and then, through fear of the terrible consequences or the influence of friends, returned to his allegiance, he must be allowed to make his peace with God and be forgiven. He could, in this manner, escape the consequences of his sins. Terrible is the significance, and humiliating to the student of history, of the words " peace with God," "lost from God," "reconciled unto God," "atonement," "sal- vation through the blood of the lamb," " regeneration" an endless vocabulary, in which is fossilized, igno- rance, credulity, folly, selfishness, fear, and rascality. To sin, yet escape the penalty and become reconciled with God, are even to-day important problems in the- ology, at which eighty thousand ministers in the United States alone, and probably three times that number in the Christian and ten times that number in. the Pagan world, are engaged. Many a scapegoat has been invented before and since the one allowed by the children of Israel to depart into the wilderness, bearing the sins of the whole people. The Devil is the prompter of evil with Christians, and receives the blame for the sins of the world. Yet as man is claimed to be free and to act from choice, if Satan is the instigator, his victims receive the punishment. In ancient times men sought to atone for sin by sacrifices. If they had com- mitted a great sin, they made an unusual sacrifice. All the nations of antiquity offered human beings on their altars on great occasions. The Hebrew was not an ex- ception, as the story of Isaac proves. Whatever is most pleasing to man must be to his God, and hence he sac- rificed whatever gave him joy. The best, the first of the flock or the harvest, the most useful, were for the gods. Some of the South Sea Islanders knock out a 264 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. tooth ; others cut off a finger. The Dervish lashes his bared back until gory, or hangs himself upon iron hooks. The Christian blots joy and pleasure out of his life as unworthy. His God demands faith, prayer, and change of heart. Man is lost from God, and only by faith in Christ can be redeemed. It is unquestionable that man is just as God created him, and that he acts just as God desires him to act, else God is not omnipotent nor good. Being infinite and omnipresent, it is difficult to understand how we can become " lost" from him. It is riot manly to pur- sue a sinful course for years and allow Christ to bear the punishment. His blood is as nothing to one noble act. If man cannot escape from sin except in this manner, he is not worth saving. He in his best estate is a sneak and a coward. But is there an escape ? By faith and prayer ? There are fixed and unchangeable methods of action in the world, and these are known as laws. If a man throw himself from a precipice, thus allowing gravitation to act unimpeded, will faith and prayer save him or pre- vent his being dashed on the rocks below? If all the priests of Christendom stationed themselves on a rail way track aud should attempt to stop a train by simple prayer, their united voices would not have the weight of a single wave of a red flag. Prayer or faith will not prevent fire from burning, nor change in the least the order of the world. Moral sins may not be as tangible, but their influence and punishment are as certain. Slaughtered oxen, hecatombs of human victims, or ten thousand bleeding Christs will not atone for the least transgression of the laws of our being. An infinite Gpd can and has made the world sufficiently well not to be compelled to be nailed to the cross as an atonement. As long as man is imperfect he will no* fully comply with the laws of his being, and will suffer, not punish- ment, but the result of his imperfect compliance. He need not expect pardon or forgiveness. The words are not known in nature or with God. The true redemp- tion is not through the blood of Christna of India, a pilgrimage to the shrine of Mahomet, or the efficacy DUTIES AND OBLIGATIONS OF THE INDIVIDUAL. 265 of Christ's blood, but by compliance with the laws of the physical and spiritual worlds. Knowledge of these is the true Redeemer, the Saviour of the world. To do right is a passport to heaven. Then forgiveness is un- necessary, and no one will feel in doubt whether they are of the "elect." ^ The doctrine of the atonement is a pleasing one for crime, which can pursue its terrible career, and at the end lift its hands in prayer and have all its sins washed away ! Barely is there a murderer who does not slip through the hangman's knot into heaven ! A religion which teaches that a man may enjoy the fruits of sin and crime and then escape all punishment by obtaining pardon through Jesus Christ is verily a religion of ras- cality, offering a premium on vice/ / First, then, if we ask, Can sin be pardoned ? we an- swer, No ; for there is no pardoning power in the uni- verse. To pardon is to set aside the consequences of the laws transgressed, and as laws are unchangeable, this is impossible. > PUNISHMENT PRESENT AND PUTUEE. God nor nature seek to punish the offender for the sake of punishment. The idea of retribution and pun- ishment in such a sense came from confounding terms. Natural laws, or the laws of God, are not enactments recorded in changeful words. They are not forces, but the channels through which causes run to their effects. If we do what is right, which, as we interpret it, is to do that which brings the greatest sum of happiness, we scarcely know there are laws, for we pass along their fixed grooves so easily. But there are other causes run- ning to effects quite opposite. In the physical world the effects of these are disease ; in the moral, sin, error, crime, as you may please to term it. These laws bring pain or punishment inevitably. Take an example in the physical world. The healthy, robust man in the full enjoyment of life, strong of mus- cle, firm of nerve, with a redundancy of strength, mak- ing the act of living a joy, may ignorantly take into 266 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. his blood a specific poison, which will corrupt the foun- tains of life, breed loathsome ulcers, rack his nerves with tortures to which no inquisitor ever approached; and the physician stands powerless, the recuperative ener- gies of the system are paralyzed, there is no cure. Is ifc said, nature does not punish? See this terrible re- sult, and consider if, as regarded by human comprehen- sion, there is not only punishment, but almost remorse- less torture. The man is tortured through life, and by heredity his offspring to the third and fourth genera- tion feel the lash. His poisoned blood poisons theirs, and, reproducing itself in changing forms, engenders consumption, ulcers, cancers, or insidiously and unper- ceived so weakens vitality that at an early age the children sicken and die. It certainly is a strange system of moral philosophy which teaches that the next life is a direct continuation of this from which it is evolved, and yet wholly distinct from it. Take this man as further illustration : he, ignorantly perhaps, subjected himself to the causes of disease, and the effects followed. There was no retreat, no forgive- ness to the bitter end. Eemaining in his ignorance, he might feel no remorse, and if a Christian, think that his sufferings in this life were to be rewarded by extra happiness in the next. Perhaps he erred knowingly, in which case more certainly is he amenable to the com- punctions of conscience ; and as his knowledge increases with every step, the wrong will appear more heinous. Punishment means pain inflicted for transgression. Per- haps there is no more expressive term to designate the result of subjection to the operation of causes detri- mental to well being. The punishment is not for its own sake, and is really the movement of causes to effects with the same certainty as those which yield happiness. Now, in the instance before us the sufferer may not be a victim of Grod's displeasure, yet as years go by there is no hope for pardon, or that the processes of dis- ease will bring health. They run their course, and the cancer which eats its way to the vitals has a fixed method of growth. Are we to suppose that the spirit of such an one will DUTIES AND OBLIGATIONS OF THE INDIVIDUAL. 267 be the same after death as it would have been had he remained in perfect health ? Will there be no moral contamination nor remorse, when the sufferings of gen- erations are brought home? There is not essentially any crime in the gaining of wealth, and a man may be exemplary and retain great riches. But we know this : that the vastly rich sacrifice themselves to the amassing of gain. They give soul and body to that end, and the result is that they are morally idiotic. To steal a rail- road, and by its aid steal other roads, and laugh at the sufferings of widows and orphans, whose wealth, invested in good faith, built and equipped these roads, may not in this life produce a twinge of conscience, but that does not speak for all time to come. The grasping of mill- ions as a veriest swine, and holding for the benefit of self sordidly, may even in this life give a low kind of pleasure, but the time will come when all these posses- sions will be left behind, and the poor, dwarfed spirit stand in the desert of his selfishness. Then, as his knowledge increases, he will not only feel the wrongs he has done to others, but will perceive the good he might have accomplished with the means placed at his disposal. AVhen he fully awakes to the realization of his past, will he not feel remorse, shame, and regret ? And what a tedious road of culture lies ahead of him, constantly reproved by the benevolent helpfulness of angels leading upward, as he never led others ! It is not a literal hell of fire into which death and after progress brings such spirits, but can it be other than unutterably wretched? In the same manner we reason in regard to the sui- cide. The simple fact of change from this life to the next may not yield either happinesss or misery. A per- son may be so wretched in this life that there will be no increase of his suffering in the next ; but this does not prove that death opens the gate of joy to the eman- cipated spirit. It cannot get away from itself. The mother who takes her own life to join a husband and child gone before her may not be shunned by them, may receive their love, but the desperation of the means indicates an unbalanced mind, which cannot readily re- cover its normal condition. rr - K A TinnT "KT 268 THE ETHICS OF SCIEXCE. In treating this subject, physical and moral forces are too often confounded, and hence the conclusions drawn therefrom erroneous. There intrinsically is a wide difference between the violation of a physical and moral law, and to draw illustrations from one in reason- ing on the other is fallacious. To burn our finger, either by accident or design, is not a crime ; we subject ourselves to the force of heat, which, in performing its work, disorganizes our flesh, and through the torn nerves we experience pain. The vital force at once sets about repairing the injury. We are the same individ- uals, without the least change in our character. Even if the injury is ineffaceable, and the suffering ends by death, the character remains unchanged. When, how- ever, one yields to passion, trespassing on the rights of others, his character is changed thereby, inasmuch as intellect, reason, conscience should govern and control, whereas he gives rein to the lowest animal faculties. This we call sin and crime. Granted conscience is so weak it does not reprove him, and he enjoys the fruits of his sin. If we accept the doctrine of progress in spirit life, as well as in this, the time must come when the criminal's conscience will not be weak, when it will become the dominant faculty. How, then, will he re- gard the black record of the wasted and abused past ? If not with regret and remorse, then there is so great con- stitutional change at death that identity is as good as lost. DUTY OF PKAYEE. The savage, when overawed by the elements, cries out in terror to their invisible personification, and implores the Being he thus creates in fancy. This is the begin- ning of prayer. For it is necessarily a personal God, capable of changing the laws of nature and the order of events, who hears and is changed in his purpose by the prayer that is offered. If he is not thus changed, if events follow a determined plan, prayer is useless. It is utterly impossible to appeal to an impersonal being, to a principle or combination of principles. Of the countless millions of prayers made by Buddhist, Mo- DUTIES AND OBLIGATIONS OF THE INDIVIDUAL. 269 hammedan, and Christian, there is nothing cognizant to human intelligence more certain than never one has been answered by a personal interference of any deity, or that any law of nature has been changed. This alone ought to silence forever the advocates of constant appeal to " the throne of grace." The duty of prayer depends entirely on the character of its objects. If an autocrat sits on the throne of the universe, overseeing and super- intending the movement of everything, and has com- manded us to pray, then it is our duty to do so. If, however, there be no such autocrat, and we have no command, there can be no such obligation. We cannot implore principles and laws. Gravitation would draw a saint over a precipice, despite his prayers, with the same energy it would a stone. There is not a religionist in the world who dare to prove the efficacy of prayer in the incontrovertible manner of such an appeal. To escape this unpleasant certainty, it is said prayer does not affect the physical world, its province is the moral. This of course removes it where demonstration is far more difficult. But it has been held up to recent times that prayer was efficacious in the material world. The Bible teaches it. The prayer of Joshua caused the sun and moon to stand still, and it is said that if one have faith as large as a grain of mustard-seed he may re- move mountains with his prayers. The prayer of Jesus fed the multitude with five loaves and two fishes. Mill- ions daily offer prayers for like objects, expecting like results. The failure of tangible evidence has caused a partial withdrawal of this claim. It is now said that prayer, although it may not affect God or change the order of nature, may react on the supplicant, and thus become of great benefit. Prayer in time of mental or physical suffering may confirm res- ignation, which, by passive endurance of the inevitable, is one of the most praiseworthy traits of human nature from a religious standpoint. In this manner it is a Bource of strength. Even in this respect the utterance of prayer is like the dog baying the moon. He changes not her course, but works himself into a state of excite- ment, and if she pass under a cloud, may think his bark 270 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. has driven her out of the heavens. If God sends the chastening rod, it is not only folly, but sinful to repine. He expects no vain questioning of his goodness. To rebel is a waste of strength ; to submit is, therefore, a gain ; and if the mind be actuated by a lofty idea that we are under the special care of God, who, however hard he may chastise, will hold us from harm, we are strong as Hercules, and invincible to the pangs of suffer- ing. To have this effect it must proceed from belief. We must have faith or there will be no reaction. The child may receive pleasure in lisping to the unknown in which it trusts, and the savage feel that he is one with the great Spirit by his offerings of tobacco or game ; they who have advanced beyond these early and mistaken ideas can feel none of these emotions. They have no personality to which to appeal, and their knowledge of the inevitable action of causes is not promotive of de- votion. From a profound knowledge of nature we may have faith, confidence, and perfect trust in the laws of the world, yet reverence we cannot feel, for that implies personality. We cannot reverence impersonality nor can we experience piety, which is based on reverence and love of the divine personality, and a desire to obey his wishes. These qualities are artificial creations, and are not included in our understanding of duties and obligations. Not that whatever is beautiful or benefi- cial in these traits is lost, but that they are refined, and directed to their proper objects. FAITH RESTING ON KNOWLEDGE. Faith, the sheet anchor of religion, may be more firm- ly grounded on knowledge than on ignorance, as the faith of a man is superior to that of a child. Sweet, indeed, is it for the worshipper to rest in the arms of implicit faith arising from utter ignorance. There is no need of the effort of thinking. No doubts assail, no antagonism of theories ; no jar to shake the implicit trust. Out of this lethargy to awake is to advance. To awake is to be torn with doubts. Before knowledge DUTIES AND OBLIGATIONS OF THE INDIVIDUAL. 271 Is gained scepticism rules terrible rule. The circle is completed by a return to faith, this time based on the knowledge of the laws of the world. They never change, and are without shadow of turning. Implicitly can we trust them, and again the happiness of rest is ours. What has been gained by this mighty cycle which has taken mankind several thousand years to accomplish, and through which every individual passes ? We are prepared for the comprehension of truth and the infinite life before us. We have become active entities instead of passive receptacles. NATURAL DUTIES. Man has natural Duties and Obligations, dependent on his constitution. Rights are overshadowed by Duties. First, and at the foundation of all others, is that of the preservation of the integrity of his physical body. That condition is known as health, when every organ performs its natural function in perfect harmony with all the others. It is a crime to be sick. The knowledge of the effects of food, of activity and rest, and the elements which environ, will in the future teach how health may be conserved. So intimately is the spiritual blended with the phys- ical that the inharrnony of the latter affects the former, and although at times special advancement is made under most painful physical conditions, it maybe stated as a rule that spiritual culture rests on the harmony of physical functions. Hunger and thirst must be an- swered and the wants of the body supplied before there is force for spiritual work. The preservation of health, then, is a cardinal duty, carrying the obligation not only of carefulness, but of the acquisition of a knowledge of the laws on which it depends. OF SPIRITUAL CULTURE. The object of life is the perfection of spirit ; hence the constant effort to exalt the life and devote it to 272 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. noble purposes, the rule of Love over the lower facul- ties, is an unceasing duty. The care of the body is not only for the body's self, but for the spirit. If 'it stop with the body it fails in the primary object of human life. The processes and methods of superior culture need not be specially mentioned here, as they form the context of this entire work. DUTY OF CHILDBED. To the ministrations of love the child owes obedience. For a time it reverts to the ancestral savage, and is gov- erned by the same motives. Its intellect and morality are last to develop. It is ruled by impulse and emotion. It is presumable that its parents have outgrown this stage, and hence for the time their Reason and Con- science must guide the child. To these faculties the child owes obedience. It owes none to selfishness. It asked not for existence, which is bestowed by the par- ents, and owes allegiance only to the love which shall minister to its highest welfare. The present status of parents and children has no bearing as evidence against this perhaps so considered Utopian view. The biblical scheme of force, of brute coercion by the rod, 'has been discarded by those who have grown into the atmosphere of love. If the child cannot be influenced by love, it cannot by fear. It may yield to force, but there will be no change of mental qualities, which make yielding ,of value. If severity governs, it fosters revenge, hate, falsehood, and when the subjects escape they are either ruled by those fac- ulties, or yield to uncontrolled license. As the parent treats the child, so will the child treat the parent in the after years ; and when old age reverses their relations, abuse, contumely, and scorn will repay the harsh word and the use of the merciless rod. If parents are abused . by their children, they receive what they themselves have sown. DUTY OF PARENTS. The culture of an immortal germ, and shaping its be- ing for infinite uses, is one of the most momentous un- DUTIES AND OBLIGATIONS OF THE INDIVIDUAL. 273 derfcakings possible to contemplate. The parents are creators, and their creation is the highest object in na- ture. Their influence for good or evil will extend into remote ages. The rule by severity lingers in its strong last citadel, the prisons, and the old plea is made of strength meeting strength ; forgetting that the smallest strand of Love is stronger than the combined forces of all the passions. The old idea entertained by parents that the child must obey them, whatever they commanded, should be discarded. The parent's right of command is not based on parentage, but on true superiority manifested in love. This is always obeyed, and obedience excites respond ing qualities in the child, as the rod used in anger, as it al- ways is, excites anger, hate, and revenge. The position of parent is self-imposed, and should be assumed with a full sense of its vast obligations. The belief that children came by special providence, and were bestowed by God in preordained numbers, has been a potent cause of conjugal sin and misery. They should have existence through parental desire, and thus the first duty of the welcome of love be assured to them. That mankind have continued to grow better and wiser under the past system, which has forced children into the world by unbridled passion, received them as dis- tasteful burdens, and given them the least possible at- tention, shows the persistency of evolution. The child should be welcomed with love, and its birth- day held as a memorial. Its physical wants should be answered, and its spiritual growth cultured with unfal- tering care. But, it is objected, this is fanciful, for how can the poor perform these offices, which even the wealthy fail to do for want of means ! We answer, that this objection cannot be urged against the principles we have stated. They cannot for a mo- ment be doubted by any one. Their practical applica- tion depends on the political economist, and if society is in such a state that it cannot be just to its children, that state should be changed as soon as possible. It is not the number of children that gives strength 274 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. to society, it is their perfection ; and hence it is better to have one child thoroughly reared and cultured than the largest neglected family. DUTIES TO SOCIETY. The present system of morals, if it may be called a system, practically is a system of selfishness. With rare exceptions the daily lives, even of the most devoutly religious, show that they are atheists at heart and with- out faith in a future life, for they order their conduct after the advantages of to-day. If there were but one human being in the universe, that being might be an individual sovereign. There would be no reciprocal relations, for to him there could be no social or moral world. However strong his moral and social faculties might be, they could not be called into action, because there would be nothing to excite them. This is the isolation and dreary waste of indi- vidual sovereignty, an impossible state. The individ- ual cannot exist alone ; millions of others must be forced around him, with whom he comes in continuous contact. If he lose somewhat of his individuality, he gains immeasurably by reciprocity. Without marriage he could know nothing of the joys of conjugal love ; the union of heart and purpose, of rnind and body with another, or the refining, purifying power of such devo- tion. Without becoming a parent he would never know the happiness of caring for and rearing children, and the thousand joys they bring. He would remain cold and emotionless, thinking only of himself. Paternity and maternity call the entire range of those high quali- ties we have designated as Love into action, and al- though at first they are directed to the offspring, under proper guidance they expand outward to society at large. Without society the network of reciprocal relationship, which forms a large share of earthly experience, would remain unknown. Hence the individual is bound with adamantine cords to society, which he can no more break than he can blot out his own existence. His interests compel I DUTIES AND OBLIGATIONS OF THE INDIVIDUAL. 275 him to become cognizant of the condition of all hu- manity, even to the farthest isles of the sea. He is conscious that his own status depends on that of all others, and when he elevates from crime or ignorance a single hapless being, he elevates the temperature of the moral atmosphere of the world. At present these relations are coarsely determined, and concretely expressed by laws. They were more rudely expressed in the past. Their execution is referred to brute force. This legal expression usually places the greatest stress of obligation on artificial requirements, and ignores the great, underlying principles of social justice and morality precisely in the same manner as religion places love of God first and love of man second in importance. If we were to give the cause of the brutality of law, we should point to the fact that laws are fixed in comparison to growing humanity, and have descended from a savage past. Why they have not been ameliorated is because the element of love has been ex- cluded from legislation in the person of woman. Leg- islation because of this is severe, and its logic is com- pulsion. The artificial requirements of legislation, of custom and public opinion are burdens often grievous to be borne, and the antipode of right and justice, and so far from it being a duty to observe them when they conflict with justice, it is a most imperative duty to discard them. DUTY AS A SOUKCE OF STEENGTH. Allegiance to Duty is among the strongest motives which actuate the human breast. History teams with examples of high resolve and self-sacrifice, and the adoration of succeeding ages. When Xerxes, with the superb army of Persia and allied hordes drawn from every province of his vast em- pire, in all a million of men, marched on Greece, he considered the conquest of that little country, forming but a dot on the map of his empire, an easy task. He knew not the power of a single human soul fully im- bued with the principles of justice, sense of honor, and 276 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. unfailing loyalty to duty. All his vast army, drawn from the banks of the Oxus to the Ethiopians beyond the confines of Egypt ; from the JEgean Sea to remote India ; gorgeous armor-clad Persians, lords of the realm ; cotton-vested Indians ; Assyrians with brazen helmets ; painted Nubians ; warriors seeking renown and delight- ing in carnage ; rustics drawn from field and forest ; Lycians armed with bows, Chaldeans with clubs, Scyth- ians with lasso and dagger ; in solid phalanx, with sword and spear ; myriads on foot, with escorts of clouds of Arabians on the fleet steeds and dromedaries of the des- ert ; terrible engines for hurling masses of rocks, with war chariots from Babylon, Africa, and India all united and hurled in an avalanche of fury were not equal to the strength of one man encased in the armor of justice. The single arm of Leouidas, Sparta's noble king, ar- rested its course and shattered it in foam. He buckled on his armor, and with a chosen band determined to die in the pass of Thermopylae. Xerxes ordered forward the ten thousand Immortals. The Spartans, worn with inces- sant struggle, sorely wounded, and with broken spears and swords, without a murmur, sank beneath the count- less hosts of their assailants. The heroic soul of Leoni- das, trained to feel that life was nothing if dishonored by falsehood to trust, bore the burden of duty. He im- bued his followers with his spirit. When one was re- quested to bear a message home, he replied, " Our deeds will tell all Sparta wishes to know." Who conquered ? Every Greek was slain, but the Persians met defeat. Xerxes, appalled by such heroism, inquired how many more such men there were in Greece, and was answered that Sparta alone had eight thousand who, if occasion demanded, would do as Leonidas had done. The blood of that devoted band stained not the rocky pass in vain. The mountain became an altar, and all Greece saw its red stream and smoke ascending to heaven. Her people became united as one soul, with garments purified by this baptism of blood, and Salamis and Marathon were sacrifices of the barbarian hordes offered to the manes of the heroes of Thermopylae. The myriads of invaders were powerless before antagonists DUTY AND OBLIGATIONS OF SOCIETY. 277 who knew no law bnt of honor and justice ; no allegiance but to the demands of duty ; no result but victory. One great soul comprehending and unselfishly devoted to its duty is stronger than the combined forces of the world. XI. DUTY AND OBLIGATIONS OF SOCIETY. NATURE is .1 remorseless strife of all against all ; a piti- less struggle to annihilate competitors. Selfishness and the passions are the impelling motives. This terrible struggle for existence, by which the stronger dominate over the weak, is the Darwinian cause of ascent, and has been carried into history by his school, and made even an apology for cruelty, selfishness, and heartless disregard of consequences to the suffering individual. It is forgotten that when we reach the plane of human- ity a new and distinct element enters into the problem. The intellectual and moral nature of man is opposed to this antagonism. Such is the momentum it has ac- quired, it is not checked by a single effort. These fac- ulties began their growth and have expanded in the midst of this struggle until they have become controlling influences. The animal man may be impelled by ani- mal forces, but the spiritual man is governed by a higher code. It is no longer burly strength and rude selfish- ness ; it is the gentle power of fostering love. The weak are no longer trodden under foot, the unfortunate pressed to the wall ; asylums and hospitals are initial expressions of this grand love and benevolence which slowly is taking the place of force. There was a time when man existed in the wilds of the primitive world, an individual sovereign. What his condition then was we may learn from the savage peo- ple, who are nearly as low as he was then, such as the Australians, the Bosjesman, and the forest tribes of 278 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. Borneo, although none of these reach the depth of sav- ageness of this autocrat of the forest. The branches of the trees furnished protection from wild beasts and from the storm, or a more secure refuge was sought in the clefts of the rocks. Man was alone. He lived ex- clusively for himself, like the animals on which he preyed or which preyed on him, and had no thoughts beyond the gratification of his animal instincts. The history of civilization is that of progress from this estate. The problem it presents is this : " Given a brute, how shall brutality be eliminated and the di- vinely human evolved ?' ' THAT PREHISTORIC MAK stands before us, brawny, sinewy, with shaggy, unkempt locks and scraggy eyebrows, from beneath which gleam black and sunken eyes, cunning, shrewd, treach- erous. The jaws are furnished with prominent teeth covered with coarse, sensual lips ; the nose is short and prominent. Over his shoulders is thrown the skin of some wild beast ; a club formed from a broken branch or a stone is his weapon of offence and defence. He is too selfish to be gregarious. He is a hermit in the wilds of the primeval world. His hand is against every other, and every other is against him. There are no tribes. He even shuns the ties of family. The mother clings to her offspring until it is able to care for itself, and then the ties are broken, never to be renewed. Such is the startling picture drawn by those who have explored the evidences of man's primitive history, pass- ing downward through the lake deposits of Switzerland, that stand on the borders of historic time, into the beds of drift gravel, where the only vestiges remain to prove man existed in the days preceding the glacial epoch, a contemporary of the mastodon, at a time when Europe was a tropic clime, inhabited by the lion, tiger, rhinoceros, and the elephant, are the flakes of flint, so rude as to have passed as natural fractures washed from an older formation. Out of the wreck of this forgotten world, whose existence no one dreamed of fifty years DUTY AND OBLIGATIONS OF SOCIETY. 279 ago, fragments of bone and brcken skulls show the low estate of ancestral man. How vast the interval between that time and his first appearance on the highlands of Asia in a vaguely de- fined historic character ! DAWN OF CIVILIZATION. The revelations of geology are here met by tradition. In the dawn we perceive the form of Chaldean civiliza- tion, and beyond that, misty in outline, colossal in half- defined magnitude, older empires, which arose and sank in the interminable waves of time. But the theological record by no means touches the historic. Countless ages intervene, which the fancy, aided by the study of savage people, cannot even outline. There is the prognathous skull of the drift, far from the lowest, for the ages have swept away all trace of numberless preceding races, itself indicative of great advancement. It is thick, marked with great knobs and ridges for the attachment of strong muscles. It is low-browed, broad through the base, extended backward, drawn out forward into massive jaws. Then there is an impenetrable night. No footprint on the shore of the ages, no carved stone, no fossil bone, no record in brazen metal, nothing but silence and darkness, until suddenly, in the gloomy twilight, numberless ages thereafter, we see looming in the mists on the plains of Assyria empires of colossal proportions, with their walled cities, their written languages, their vast armies, from which comes the neighing of steeds and the roar of chariots. That interval was filled with pain and struggle. The inherent tendency of growth forced itself through the darkness of that night. It seized upon every advantage, and the strong came forward in the dreadful struggle for existence. There was the individual, alone, a hermit, skin-clad, defenceless, except by his club. Around him the wil- derness, filled with savage beasts, and, what he most feared, men savage like himself. What were his family relations? If we pass to Aus- 280 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. tralia, we shall find a similar estate of savage life, a fos- sil remaining for our inspection. The Australian se- lects a hollow tree for his house, and goes out to seek a mate. He prowls through the forest like a beast of prey. If he chance to meet a female, his courtship is of short duration. It is unmarked with the gentle amenities of civilized life. He stealthily approaches her, knocks her down with a club, and drags her to his rude retreat. This is the beginning of marriage, of the family, of the State. It will be perceived that, should the affections become sufficiently strengthened to hold the family together, an incipient tribe would be founded, and, deriving strength from mutual protection, they would possess great ad- vantages over solitary individuals. Government rests on the family. The family is the origin and foundation, the centre of departure of the social fabric. We do not propose to sketch this progress, which of itself would require volumes, and only introduce it to show the origin of that bundle of customs, beliefs, usages, and attainments which we call society, and that man, instead of being a fallen being, has from his appearance on this globe constantly advanced. His evolution is subject to fixed and unchangeable conditions. Diverse as the phenomena presented by society, seemingly conflicting and uncertain as are its individual phenomena, we are assured by those who have studied the perplexing diversity that births and deaths, the phases of crime, the occupations of people, the intensity of their thought, their character, is gov- erned by unchanging laws. The whole social fabric is bound together with bonds no individual can break. Here is forced upon our attention the primary prob- lem which laws, in the beginning, attempted to define, from which has grown all legal enactments, and which forms the basis of history. EIGHTS OF SOCIETY AND THE INDIVIDUAL. This problem is to determine where the sphere and rights of the individual terminate and those of society DUTY AND OBLIGATIONS OF SOCIETY. 281 begin. Here is the battle-field of human rights, on which the combatants have fought with varying for tune since society began. The individual has been slowly and surely gaining on society, sometimes victorious and plunging into anarchy, sometimes defeated and made a slave. The understanding correctly of the obligations of so- ciety to the individual, or the opposite, the obligations of tne individual to society, is the solution of this inter- minable problem. The primeval man, as an individual sovereign, owed allegiance to no one ; he depended on himself. It is true his life was not complicated, a. simple matter of eating and breathing, in which he was left alone. With the family, the tribe, the nation, and the acquisition of property came the conflicting rights of the clan over its individual members. The latter were compelled to sur- render more or less of their individual liberty for the good of all. In those ages of war, when might consti- tuted right, the conqueror was ruler. The individual became nothing, the State, the rulers, everything. The effects of this condition still remain in all the nations of the world. The government, be it an emperor, a king, a monarchy, or democracy, is absolute over the individual. AMERICAN SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM. In America this order is modified. The government flows from the consent of the governed, and is an ex- pression of their will. Yet laws cannot change what has been inwrought by the ages. Revolutions are not the work of a day, but of centuries. If the active force of coercion has ceased, there is a force still stronger and more subtle brought to bear that of public opinion. They who advocate the sovereignty of the individual overlook or too lightly estimate the bonds which unite society since the time that the family held itself to- gether, because it derived great advantage in the strug- gle for existence ; by so doing new obligations were as- sumed ; and as the welfare of all depended on the ac- 282 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. tions of each one, they became interested in the welfare of each of its members. Society was organized and laws framed to define these various and conflicting rights, constantly becoming more and more complex as new interests were involved, until the present time, when the best metaphysicians are led astray in their attempts to reconcile the conflicting claims. FABLE OF THE WHEEL. There has supervened such a perfect mutual depend- ence, society has become so thoroughly blended and unitized, that the whole body is intensely sensitive to the disturbance of its individual members. The de- pression of one nation affects many others. One indi- vidual cannot suffer without all others feeling it more or less. The most insignificant pursuit has its own field, and is woven by golden threads into the most extensive. No one can withdraw without damage to the others. Such is this close connection, reminding one of the fable of the coach-wheel, the parts of which engaged in dispute as the coach was descending a mountain, which was the most essential ; the hub claiming that it was the central pivot, the spokes that they gave it extent, the felloes that they gave circumference, and the tire that it bound all together. When they waxed warm in argument, the linchpin cried out it was overlooked. " Ah ! my little fellow, what are you good for?" they all cried. " Well, I'll show you, for I will drop out, and we will see what will become of you." So it dropped out, the wheel came off, and the coach dashed over a preci- pice. Those who would centralize government and grant it control over everything argue after this fashion : The individual is a brick in the edifice, and lives not for him- self, but for that edifice. THE TENDENCY OF CIVILIZATION has been to place greater and greater safeguards around the rights of the individual, assuring him safety of per- DUTY AND OBLIGATIONS OF SOCIETY. 283 son and property and freedom of thought. To do this is the essential function of government. It guards the individual from encroachments, giving him liberty to do as he pleases at his own cost, so far as he does not interfere with similar rights of others. In the United States it has been held as a maxim that the best govern- ment was that which governed least in other words, which allowed the greatest liberty to the individual and the minimum of control to itself. Our theor} r of gov- ernment is that the individuals composing it unite for the purpose of mutual aid and protection. This end is best accomplished by allowing each individual his own chosen sphere of activity, and bestowing on the general government the power to compel the members to grant the same liberty they demand for themselves. If they will not confine themselves to their own spheres, but trespass on the rights of others, the government must carry out the will of its component members and re- strain the offender. In no other case can it rightly de- prive any of its members of liberty, and it can do this only because the individual has shown himself incapable of governing himself. In such cases the object should not be vengeance or punishment, but reform, and in this light the present prison system is a blot on the fair face of our civilization. We do not reform, we punish. The government promises protection to its citizens from the criminal class, and most justly removes the right from the individual to become his own avenger. Having done this, it is obligatory on it to render the detection of crime certain, justice unflinching, and provide such conditions for the offender as will tend to his reforma- tion, instead of plunging him deeper in crime. The sentencing of criminals for a fixed term, to emerge at its termination to resume their career of crime, is a farce. A man commits robbery and is sentenced for a certain time, does the judge or any one else expect he will issue from his cell at the end of that time a better man or less a rascal? No! It is not even so stated. It is so many years' punishment, having received which, the debt of justice is cancelled. If a man will injure others, he should be confined 284 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. where he cannot do so, and surrounded by the best edu- cational influences, and not allowed freedom until it is apparent he has met with a reformation. EDUCATION". As education lies at the basis of progress, it is of vital importance that every individual become educated. This is a matter in which all are equally interested, and it becomes obligatory on the State to assume its control. As the government discards religious influences, that education must be strictly secular, and whenever it is otherwise the government transcends its just powers. Experience has taught that it is cheaper to educate the children than to punish the criminals, but half the po- tency of that training is lost if accompanied with sec- tarian bias. The Protestants, at the Reformation, opened wide the doors of learning, *and have never been able to close them. The Catholics recognize its value, but govern the school by the church, and dictate what shall and what shall not be taught. Human foresight and reason is good enough in the priest, but cannot be trusted in the layman a logic only correct by bestowing on the priest peculiar qualities by virtue of his office. It is of incalculable value to all that education be uni- versal ; as this is the only safeguard against decay and degradation, it becomes obligatory on society to open free schools at which all may receive the benefit of in- struction. It is essential that sectarianism under all of its insidious forms be excluded, for if it is not, the State enters the province of individual beliefs. The course of instruction should be exclusively confined to the facts of science and demonstrated knowledge. The question at present forcing itself on public atten- tion, is compulsory attendance at the public schools. There is no doubt but the issue was first broached by the Catholics, in the hope of breaking down the present system, nor can it be gainsaid that if free schools be founded for the purpose of educating all alike, and especially for the wants of those who cannot provide for themselves, the object is defeated if these do not attend, DUTY AND OBLIGATIONS OF SOCIETY. 285 and in practice those who need instruction the most, and by whose attendance society would be most bene- fited, are the ones who stay away. It is not the concern of society where an individual receives education ; it is concerned only in education be- ing obtained. Hence it may consistently require every child at a certain age to pass examination in prescribed branches of knowledge ; as, at fourteen, to be able to read, write, and pass creditably in arithmetic, grammar, and geography, and hold the parents or guardians re- sponsible. It is true the rights of society here closely tread on those of the individual, and there is no more tender point than the rights of a parent over his child. But the parent has no right to allow his child to become a burden to the society which must receive him if he can avoid so doing, and hence if he will not educate it him- self, he must be compelled to do so. FAMILY RELATIONS. In this field lie all the family relations out of which society itself originally sprang, and which it seeks to support. When society attempts the regulation of mar- riage it deals with the most subtile and complex relations of human beings. The reactionary element demands free- dom in this relation, claiming it to be a contract entered into by two parties, and should be as readily cancelled by the consent of the parties. They overlook the funda- mental principle involved, which distinguishes marriage from all other contracts. In the latter, if broken, rep- aration can be made ; the damages estimated in dollars, and the obligation cancelled. In the former each party changes even the form of their lives under the induce- ment of the pledges of the other. The union is valu- able because it is expected to be permanent. If these pledges be broken there can be no reparation. Further- more, unlike other contracts, it looks forward to a third party or parties, as much or more deeply affected as the principals. It is for the protection of these, and the 286 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. rights of the individuals themselves, that society is under the obligation to interfere. Its own rights are also involved. Experience has shown that civilization and purest morality are cultivated best in the family. Around the hearth cluster the beatitudes of love, friendship, and lofty aspiration. Monogamic marriage purifies and ennobles, and by it the parents are compelled to bear the burdens they as- sume when they enter that relation. The duty of the parent plainly is to care for and educate his children, and only when he fails to do so under the pressure of circumstances he cannot control, is he justified in cast- ing his burden on society. As this contingency may arise at any time, society in self-defence is obliged to surround the family institution with such restrictions as experience has taught essential to the best interests of the individual and the State. The mistake committed, which renders the objections of innovators plausible, is placing man and woman in an. unequal relation before the law, a remnant of bar- barism of marriage by the club, as illustrated by the Australian ; and the creation by public opinion another relic of an early age of a different code of morality for man than woman. CENTRALIZATION. Against the general tendency toward individualiza- tion, recently there has set a counter current in favor of centralization. It would place all the railroads, telegraphs, canals, banks, etc., in the hands of the general government, which represents society in its most concrete form. This centralization, if correct in principle, should not rest here, but embrace all great manufacturing interests and that engine of power the press. Then society would be everything ; with such an immense patronage a pop- ular election would be impossible, and we should have a tyranny to which that of the monarchies of Europe would be liberty itself. DUTY AND OBLIGATIONS OF SOCIETY. 287 REMNANT OF THE OLD IDEA. The old idea that the government should direct the individual is a constant bane. There are men who should know better constantly saying that the govern- ment should do this or that, charging it as the cause of hard times, panics, strikes and corruption, when, should the government acton such suggestions, it would become a despicable tyranny. A representative govern- ment cannot be better than the aggregate of its com- ponent members. It cannot become corrupt if these be pure. If rascals, as a rule, obtain office, it is because of a rascally constituency. Government has no right to do what individual enterprise can do better. Its prov- ince is to protect such individuals in their enterprises, and open wide the door of competition by forbidding monopoly. In matters of conscience, in religion, where nothing can be demonstrated and each individual is proportion- ally tenacious of his opinion, it is obligatory on the State to allow absolute liberty, guaranteeing all in their rights and forbidding interference of opposing beliefs. Be- cause certain beliefs honestly held are opposed to those popularly accepted, or because they may be deemed im- moral, does not justify interference. Every one must be his own judge in th'is matter. Take, for instance, the ordinance of Sunday. It is well to rest one day in seven, and, on physiological grounds, the custom of its observance is a good one. In order to yield its full benefit it must be general, that the labors of one may not compel that of an- other. Yet to make it a sacred day, and by legal enactment compel every qne to observe it, transcends the sphere of the State. The individual is the best judge of his own methods of observing that day. In the days of the Puritans, who strove as thoroughly as they could to chase pleasure and joy out of the world, every other place of resort was closed, that there might be no ex- cuse from the church. It has taken two hundred years to outgrow that bias, and yet the museums and public 288 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. libraries refuse to open their doors on the only day the laboring people can enjoy them. THE DANGER. The great danger which now threatens the liberties of this country is the insidious attack on the constitu- tional guarantee of freedom of conscience. The evan- gelical party, who are engaged in this bigoted movement, unknowingly join hands with the Catholics they detest, and together form a strong force, which the utmost might of liberalism will find it difficult to stay. This movement has the destruction of the common schools at heart, and with them perish civil liberty. True government is that which allows the individual the utmost freedom, and exercises that power which is necessary to guarantee this freedom and execute those measures which society as a whole can better perform than the individual. The obligations of society end here, and the sphere of the individual begins. XII. EIGHTS OF GOVERNMENT. THE rights of government are based on eternal justice. If it be said it rests on the consent of the governed, than this must mean that the governed consent to the re- quirements of justice ; if on the will of the majority, then that it is presumable the majority comprehend justice better than the minority. But the minority may be in the right, and there may be such an occurrence as a single man standing on justice opposed to a whole realm. It is not correct to say government is based on the free consent of the governed, for it is not, more than the right of Reason and Conscience to control the mind rests on the consent of the lower faculties. RIGHTS OF GOVERNMENT. 289 Those who make repressive laws necessary, and are controlled by them, never have consented to such Jaws, and would not had they been given the choice. The entire criminal class rebel against government, and would annul all repressive laws so far as they are con- cerned. That such government exists is because a large proportion of the community have so decided, and their decision is directly against the wishes of the class they seek to govern. It is the same under all forms of gov- ernment, autocratic or extreme republicanism ; for in the latter the majority force obedience on the minority. In a society where the criminal class are in majority, repressive laws might be enacted as a homage of vice to virtue, but they could not be enforced. The criminal majority would bid defiance to legal control. Hence the laws, as the expression of a few wise and good men, may be far better than the society ; they are, however, powerless unless their execution is in the hands of effi- cient power, which cannot exist in a republican govern- ment unless a majority are on the side of virtue. In fact, until this be the case a republic cannot exist. A free government cannot maintain itself unless a strong majority of its individuals are able to govern themselves. Until this stage is reached autocracy and monarchy are the only rule capable of holding, with strong hand, in necessary restraint the dominant vicious element, and thus giving protection to the weaker portion. The worst form of tyranny, although itself given over to propensities, depends for its existence on the observ- ance of the higher laws by those it governs. The tyrant may hold himself amenable to no law but his desires, but the people are controlled by laws fixed by the wisest of the realm. If the tyrant introduces his own vices into his government his reign is brief. It is this fact which has made monarchy an essential means of prog- ress. However it may have failed, as a whole it has followed the course expressed in the law of the higher governing the lower. It has attempted to enforce right with might in a rude, coarse fashion, and because it has done so it has been permitted to rule. The freest re- publicanism attempts the same. Society has advanced 290 THE ETHICS OF SCIEXCE. so far that a sufficient number of its members hare ac- quired the power of self-government. The monarch is replaced by the majority. The right of government rests on the necessity of restraint, which makes any gov- ernment for a savage or half-civilized society better than none, and the purpose to compel obedience of the lower to the higher faculties ; of selfishness to benevolence ; of hate to love ; of individuality to patriotism ; of ani- mality to morality. It will thus become evident that all governments, from tyranny to republicanism, rest on the same foundation. Tyranny or absolute mon- archy is the first step out of barbarism, and, becoming more and more limited, prepares the way for republi- canism. The former will exist until the preparation is gained. When the majority in the latter form of gov- ernment temporarily advocate injustice, as is sometimes the case, it becomes one of the most despicable forms of tyranny. XIII. DUTIES OF SOCIETY TO CRIMINALS. TRUE government is the concrete expression of the will of society, practically based on the free consent of the majority. As the minority never greatly falls below the majority in number, it is clear that the will of the latter cannot widely differ from the former without work- ing injustice and possibly becoming tyrannical. The rights of the minority are gained by the ever threatening prospect of its acquiring power. If we ask why it is estab- lished at such sacrifice and cost to the individual, there is one answer : it guarantees the protection of life, lib- erty, and property. This is the principal end of free government by the people and for the people. If it ex- ceeds this sphere and grasps the rights or the property of the individual it is robbery. If it fails to give protection it is illegitimate. If it is made an object of itself, it be- comes dangerous, and one step removed from tyranny. DUTIES OF SOCIETY TO CRIMINALS. 291 A true republican government is the expressed will of the governed, and its every provision must be for the good of the whole. As government means restraint, this restraint rests on those who do not control them- selves. Society is compelled to protect itself against the appetites and propensities of its members who do not or cannot restrain themselves. Were all governed by morality and knowledge, laws would be unneces- sary. A complicated portion of the machinery of gov- ernment is set in motion for protection against fraud, rascality, and crime, and has been in operation since im- memorial time. Under whatever form of government tyranny, monarchy, theocracy, or republican almost the same identical code has been accepted. The individual who has broken the law has been dealt with by an iron hand. The way of the transgressor has been hard. The Mosaic code, an " eye for an eye," holds its place even to the present day, despite that Christianity claims to be founded on charity and love. Jesus taught, if a man strike you on one cheek, turn the other also. Moses taught, and the law repeats, if a man strike you, strike him back as hard as you can. Our criminal laws are founded on Moses and not on Christ. Theology is respon- sible for their cruelty and the injustice they work by the false doctrine it has taught that man, being a " free agent," sinned from choice and must be punished, and punished eternally. As the sin was in the will, that must be broken, and the sentence of the law was ven- geance. When it speaks of justice even, it is vengeance, not justice, that is implied. The law to-day depends on force in the same manner it did in Moses' time. It is backed with jails, state prisons, penitentiaries, dungeons, and gibbets. There has been no change in its spirit. This must all be changed. Fear may prevent, it never reformed. It has held undivided sway, and the result is not flattering. Men rob and are false, and murder under the very shadow of the scaffold. Hanging is a sacrilegious mockery, which serves to make life cheap and to erect new gibbets. Society is protected imperfectly both in life and property. The prisons overflow, and daily the gallows stretches its gaunt arm, 292 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. and only a few raise their voices that this is not the best possible method of disposing of human beings ! There is a criminal class. They are human, but un- fortunately constituted. They cannot be trusted. They encroach on the rights of others, and thus show that they are dangerous to be allowed at large. Whenever one of these commits a crime he is seized by the law and sentenced for a fixed term of years at hard labor in the penitentiary. The judge grades the time to deal justly that is, to administer the proper punishment ! But why punish ? Is it for the good of the individual or so- ciety ? Nature never punishes for the sake of punish- ment. To do so is the height of cruelty and folly. It cannot change the results of the crime, and at most can only by fear prevent its recurrence. The unfortunate criminal remains the same, or is made worse. He ex- piates his offence and is then free. He was at first a dangerous individual to trust at large, he has become still more dangerous. He was systematically brutalized. His hair was cropped, his clothes changed for prison stripes, he was compelled to labor for others, his diet reminding him of his ignominious position, cutoff from all news from the world, literally buried alive. This has not tended to reform him. Now he is again free, the mark of Cain is on his brow. He goes into the world, moneyless, friendless, characterless, with an evil repute. No one will employ him he must steal or starve. He may go forth with high resolve, but it will be blown away by the rude contact with heartless life, and in des- peration another crime will blacken the dark annals, and again punishment will avenge injured rights. The law and the theology on which it rests have no faith in man, nor belief in his immortality. Is he an immortal being, with the grand and infinite possibilities which form the horizon of such a being, his earth -life one of growth and reform from the bondage of desires, or a vicious brute, to be hunger branded with infamy to deter other brutes from like course ? If anything is self-evident, it is that this system has completely failed, as appeals to the lower nature always must, for in their spirit they degrade instead of elevate. DUTIES OF SOCIETY TO CRIMINALS. 293 If there is any law of moral duty written in letters of light, so that he who runs may read, it is the obliga- tion we owe to the unfortunate and the undeveloped. Picture to ourselves a pure and loving angel in the judi- cial chair sentencing a wretched being to prison or the gallows ! The picture would be branded as a falsehood. We anticipate the estate of the angel ; to become as pure and loving we feel is our birthright. Is not that which every instinct revolts against referring to the angel equally abhorrent when practised by ourselves? This is not idle sentimentalism, but a practical system, which will give the most desirable results. We by no means would allow the criminal the freedom which he forfeits by his disregard of the rights of others. He is incapable of self-control, he must be controlled. How? By temporary imprisonment and compulsion to work for others? By branding with infamy? Rather by confinement, so that he cannot injure others, and in- tellectual and moral education. This confinement not to be a definite punishment for a certain crime, but the crime indicating incapacity of control, he is to remain until he gives assurance of being able to govern himself, be that time one year or a lifetime. Under the present system, when a convict emerges from the gate of the penitentiary does any one claim that he is reformed ? Is it not known that, with rare exceptions, the punishment has hardened him in crime, and he is more dangerous than before ? Why should he be reformed, when there has not been the least effort made to reform him ? Deprived of books, of papers, of conversation even with his fellows, often confined in a solitary cell, how is it possible for the higher faculties to gain that activity which alone can assure him a bet- ter life ? There are asylums in which the blind, by patient in- struction, learn difficult arts, and to read with their delicate sense of touch. There are others where hu- mane men learn the deaf mute to converse by signs, and thus unbind the fetters of the struggling spirit. And others yet undertake the almost hopeless task of instructing the idiotic, and are rewarded by seeing the 294 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. dormant intellect quicken and gleam with the inspira- tion of thought. Numberless asylums for the insane are conducted without stint of cost, that Reason de- throned may again assert her rule. Is the case of the criminal more hopeless ? Why treat him with such vindictive hate? He, too, is capable of culture, and in a far superior measure to any of the others. His is a species of moral idiocy and insanity requiring the same benevolent training and loving charity. The prison should not bo a rack of torture, but a school of reform. By this means life and property would be far more secure than at present, for at least one half the crimes are committed by those who have been set at liberty after serving sentence. Tlie portion of life these convicts spend outside the prison walls is brief compared to that during which they are incarcerated. Nor would the prisons be more overcrowded, for those who were sent out would not return, and crime would be lessened. GOVERNMENT SHOULD GIVE ASSURANCE. If government attempt, as it does, to assure protec- tion, let it make its assurance good. Now, if a robbery is committed the robber is convicted and sentenced, but government attempts no restitution of the lost prop- erty. It taxes the loser for protection and grants none. Justice demands such restitution, and that the govern- ment look to the robber for its rendition. He should be employed, and the proceeds of his labor used to make good the amount he appropriated. The last crime we have to consider is the capital offence, which has been unflinchingly punished with death. While society has the right to employ such means as is necessary to protect itself, it cannot justly resort to severest means when others will answer the same purpose. By capital punishment it ignores the sacred- ness of human life, the very offence it strives to punish. It does not lessen crime, and hence cannot plead intim- idation. As conducted in the jail yard, with priestly confessors, it is a ghastly farce little removed from a brutal butchery. THE DUTY OF SELF-CULTURE. 295 The sacredness of human life should be upheld firmly, that even the murderer should not forfeit it. He should lose his liberty, and safety may demand the for- feit perpetual. If the death penalty is for the purpose of vengeance, or if it is for intimidation, hanging is too mild a form of execution. The most terrible tortures and excruciat- ing methods should be used, so as to appall the stoutest heart. This was done in olden times, and resulted in stimulating instead of frightening. Crime grew out of the punishment of crime. In those States that have abolished capital punishment crime has decreased. These, however, have not gone far enough. They have only reached what may be called a passive stage, which simply places the criminal where he can do no harm, and do not trouble themselves with his culture. The priest is their reliance to work a change of heart, which, when pronounced, is practically denied by the fastened bolts of the prisoner's door. Humanity can know but one duty in the premises. It may shrink from it now, but the future is full of promise. Even the murderer is immortal, and some- time will begin an advancement which shall culminate in angelic excellence. The laws of the universe work out their own purpose. We need not trouble ourselves to avenge their transgression. We can with justice pro- tect ourselves, and in doing so work directly in their channel. XIV. THE DUTY OF SELF-CULTUEE. It is said the chief end of man is "To glorify G-od and enjoy him." There is a duty which precedes this, however, the same expressed in different words, and that is to glorify himself. By glorify we mean the glory 296 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. of a noble, well-spent life. If man lives not for this end his life is aimless and profitless. The necessity of education is felt by all who have thought on the subject. The free schools, where all can receive the rudiments of knowledge, are justly regarded as the bulwark of liberty, yet there is a broad difference between the learning of the schools and the true culture most desirable. Statistics show that the criminal class are not all unlearned, and some of the most flagrant are thoroughly educated so far as the schools go. Learning to read, to write, for- eign tongues, or science may leave the mind, beyond these acquirements, a barren waste. What is usually considered as an education is only the means whereby an education may be acquired. Even the collegiate course is rudimentary, and when finished the graduate is no more than poorly prepared with means whereby he may become truly educated. To say of such that they are educated is like calling one an artist because he has the materials with which to paint a picture or chisel a statue. lie has the means, but it rests with himself how he uses them ; whether he produces a daub or a Eaphael, a grotesque caricature or an Apollo Belvidere. The parrot learning of the schools, which takes no deep root in the mind, may be used, and more frequently is, by the lower as well as by the higher nature. Then we see the anomaly of learning making men worse instead of better. This shows the necessity of a radical change in our educational methods and the ideas on which they are founded. Man was not created for the exclusive de- velopment of any one faculty. If he ignores this fact he becomes one-sided, deformed, and dwarfed. Educa- tion should embrace the entire circle of human capabil- ities, and if it falls short of this it is proportionally de- fective. The ordinary routine of the schools ignores the body. The student graduates with enfeebled health, and thus in getting knowledge has destroyed the means by which it can be made practical and effective. On the other hand, the laborer gives his life to unre- mitting physical toil, and ignores mental and moral culture. The result of this one-sided activity may be THE DUTY OF SELF-CULTURE. 297 seen in the deformed characters everywhere to be met with. PHYSICAL CULTURE. As the body is the instrument whereby the spirit ex- presses itself, its perfect development is important not only to earthly existence, but to spiritual well being. Health is the greatest good to the body. It is the har- monious activity of all its organs, performing all their functions each in its sphere. Disease is the reverse of this, and comes not as a punishment, but as a re- sult. There are instances where the mind seemingly has arisen above physical limitations, and while disease has slowly destroyed the body, it has remained bright and clear ; yet these are exceptional cases. Disease weakens physical power and suppresses spiritual energy. The spirit, as long as it remains in the body, is subject to its limitations. The body is an instrument perfectly adapted to bring it in contact with and give it control over matter, but may become through disease an in- cumbrance. To preserve the health should be the first effort. Everything detrimental to it should be regarded as only a step removed from immorality. This subject falls under the law of the Appetites, as already discussed. Health does not require extra physical development, which may be carried to an extreme and defeat entirely its pur- pose. The muscles of the gymnast are too often en- larged at the expense of his mind. Muscles half as strong may be quite as indicative of health. The child should be taught, first of all, that labor is not only noble and honorable, but a duty. That, as every- thing is created by labor, he must be too magnanimous to live by the toil of others. It must be instilled into the mind that it is as noble to plough and sow as to pull the oar ; to swing the sledge as the dumb-bells. The body, as the temple of the spirit, should be re- garded as holy and too sacred to be desecrated by any vile habits. The man who thus regards his earthly tem- ple will not dare defile its purity. He will regard it as 298 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. an obligation to maintain its functions to the utmost of his power. Disease is not a punishment, but an inevitable conse- quence. While many of its causes inhere with the body, a proportion are of the mind, which, properly directed, can rise above and entirely cast them off. This is the right method of their treatment. The mind can possess a far greater control over the body than it does at present. Instances are recorded where individuals could arrest the circulation and the pulsations of the heart, and lestore the same by their wills. These extreme cases show what is possible for all. From the control of the excretions and secretions is scarcely a step to molecular changes in the tissue it- self, on which health and disease depend. It is possible for the Will to become so strong as to dominate over the body and control its activities. This is the new medi- cal science of the future, when drugs will be regarded as the coarse expedients of a rude age. As the spirit constantly gains power over the body from generation to generation, there can be no limits set except where it gains perfect control. That this is possible is shown by the degrees of Will and instances of its triumph. The martyr smiles on burning coals, and feels not the tortures which rend the limbs asunder. There is that state of spirit ecstasy, of freedom and triumph, which changes physical pain to spiritual pleasure. When such control is gained and directed by the knowledge which finally will be its accompaniment, the body will no longer be a fetter to the spirit. It will be built up beautiful and perfect, and the most poisonous sub- stances the venomous fang and sting, the malarious at- mosphere, the changes of temperature, all forms of dis- ease will be harmless against the strongest force in nature, the human Will. Such is the perfection of physical culture when the body is under absolute control of the Will. How im- perfectly it is at present our educational methods show. The child, in learning to walk, is taking its first lessons in Will over its limbs. Its effort to speak is a struggle THE DUTY OF SELF CULTUKE. 299 of the "Will to control the tongue. In learning to write the ideal forms of the letters are in the mind, the diffi- culty is to move the fingers correctly. The same is true in music, to execute which excellently, training must be- gin early and be continued for a lifetime. And yet, after all this practice the Will never gains perfect con- trol. Even in walking and speaking this is quite apparent. The efforts of the elocutionist show how great an improvement can be made in speech, what fine tones and subtile distinctions may be produced ; yet this is only a prophecy of what is possible. The dancer shows what command the Will can gain over the feet, and the skilled penman and artist what it can gain over the hand. That it has not similar mastery over other organs and functions is because it has not been educated in their directions. It is thus apparent that education begins with the body, which must be preserved in health, the equivalent of purity. We must feel that it is a sacred shrine, wherein the immortal spirit resides during its earth life, and by which it is brought in contact with and is able to control the material world, and should disdain to do any act which shall deform or defeat its usefulness. CULTURE OF THE INTELLECT. The possession of mind by man imposes the obliga- tion of its culture. He must not only think, but thiuk aright. Observation of phenomena is the food of the intellect, which digested appears in ideas. Of the methods of culture a wide diversity of opinion prevails. This, however, may be held as true, the In- tellect is benefited in proportion as it assimilates its food. Collegiate cramming is the antipode of educa- tion. It is the learning of the parrot, and not of the man. What the intellect is capable of achieving is shown by the attainments of those who have led in the discoveries of science and art. Newton shows what all may be- come in mathematics ; Herschel, in astronomy ; Hum- 300 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. boldt, in the sciences ; and assured that what is possible for them is possible for every human being, there opens an interminable field for culture. For the individual sci- ences it may be better that each have specialists, but for the specialists it is a sacrifice of completeness and dwarfing of their minds except in certain directions. THE CULTURE OF MORALITY. The morals are the highest faculties of the mind. Without them Intellect becomes the ally of the Appe- tites and Propensities. The sense of right, justice, benevolence, unselfish love, which is benevolence all are included in this group. Its culture is of highest importance, as by it man approaches the perfection of his ideal. The culture should be gained by actual exercise, and not by theorizing. You may commit to memory all the moral sayings of the world and read all its moral philosophies, and one deed will have more influence than all. It is usual for age to give mellowness to character, for the Propensities are less active and the morals gain ascendency. The same desirable state may be gained by culture. Morality is the growth of a lifetime. It is not what a man does, except as that indicates what he really is and the motives which actuate him. The murderer on the gallows murmurs a prayer, calls on Jesus, and is forgiven. He dies with the certainty of salvation it is said, all his crimes washed away. This is a most immoral doctrine, and leads to ruin in- stead of salvation. The young convert who receives mercy from the throne of grace is told and believes he is religious, or, in other words, is as moral as it is possi- ble to become. He cultivates a vain self-conceit instead of moral character, which cannot be gained by a resolve in an hour, a day, or year, but by slow accretions, build- ing with each new opportunity and trial. There can be no healthy, moral culture in seclusion. True character is the balance of faculties in the presence of the active world. There is no virtue in the gourmand THE DUTY OF SELF-CULTUKE. 301 not eating when surfeited, of the drunken not drink- ing. Strength is gained and tested by temptation. The parents who keep their child from contact with the world for fear of its contamination forget that sooner or later this contact must come, and that the only way it can be prepared is by the contact itself. Then its tendencies can be watched and balanced, and moral- ity grow strong by use. The plant droops and withers in darkness, and can be prepared for the light only by giving it the light, itself. The present every-day business and political code of morals is a keen satire on the moral system taught under the name of religion. It shows how false is the basis of that system. It has authoritatively told mankind that they were weak and depraved until they have come to think weakness and depravity their normal state. They are not ennobled by the thought that they are di- vine, but degraded as worms of the dust. The child should be taught as the first moral lesson, that it is a divine and holy being, too good and pure to do wrong. That as physical health is the perfect action and balance of all bodily powers, so spiritual health and happiness depend on the action and balance of all men- tal faculties. It should be taught that expediency must never influence its choice, and that the conscience should rule. For the man and woman there is the same code. The thought or word which causes one to blush should crimson the cheek of the other. Virtue, chastity, fidel- ity have no limitation of sex. Such should be the first lesson instilled into the mind of the child. He should be taught to fear ignorance as the source of all error, and to seek knowledge as his only saviour. If the men of thought are instanced as examples of the grand capabilities of the intellect, and the intellect of the schoolboy incited by achievements of the Hum- bold ts, Herschels, La Places, and Darwins, still more should his moral character be stimulated by examples of morality. Now it is deadened with the opiate of business necessities, which are ruled by selfishness. 302 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. The Astors, Vanderbilts, and Drews are embodi- ments of commercial morality. How low and igno- ble their selfish, grasping, unscrupulous aims ! None of these, but the sages of ancient and the spirit- ual thinkers of modern times show to what sublime heights it is possible for man to reach. The Christian well may worship his ideal Christ, for what is possible for him is possible for every human being. He per- ceived the true object of life, and made his ideal practi- cal. Every child has the germs of these high qualities, which, however dwarfed by the conditions of earth-life, will mature in ripe fruitage in some future time. As this is the ultimate destiny, moral education should take precedence of all other instruction. In fact, education should be directed toward the moral instead of the purely intellectual. It is not enough to know. Facts have no life unless their relation to spiritual advance- ment is understood. And here the knowledge of future life enters and unites all knowledge into one complete whole. Man becomes the greatest fact in the world, and his moral nature the greatest fact in man. XV. MAKEIAGE. THE difference in the condition of man and woman has been an element of confusion in reasoning on the relations they should sustain to each other. She, being the weaker, has, during the vast ages of man's savage life, been subject to his strength. Instead of the wife being the equal of her husband, she has been his abused slave and beast of burden. It is interesting to trace the marriage relation as it arises from the brutal instinct to the spiritual plane, and note the slow changing of an intense, selfish appetite to the ally of the purest senti- ments and feelings of humanity. MARRIAGE. 303 The union of man and woman in the relation of hus- band and wife, a connection around which the holiest affections and purest emotions of the heart gather, to us is so natural that we infer all the races of men re- gard it in like manner. On the contrary, however, the lower races have no marriage in our sense of that term, nor are they susceptible of true and abiding love. Mar- riage is little more than the meeting of the sexes, and is unaccompanied with affection. The words expressive of tender emotions, as " to love," " dear," " beloved," are not found in languages spoken by savages. The lowest races are as destitute of affections as the brutes, and cohabit in the same manner. The " Hottentots," says Kolben, " are so cold and indifferent to one an- other that you would think there was no such thing as love between them." Lander, in his " Niger Expedi- tion," says of the Central African, " Marriage is cele- brated by the natives as unconcernedly as possible : a man thinks as little of taking a wife as cutting an ear of corn affection is entirely out of the question." The lowest form of marriage, as presented by the most inferior races, has been styled very inappropriately communal marriage, a term that applies as well to the sexual relations of animals. It is consummated with- out love or affection, and is simply the result of brutal instinct. From this instinct we arise to a consideration of the abstract significance of its development in marriage as expressed in civilization. The conjugal instinct in the savage, like all his appetites, is unrestrained by higher motives. We perceive as we arise to more advanced stages the blending, of those motives, but nowhere their full appreciation. Marriage, even with the most civ- ilized people, is not wholly redeemed from the original stain. Viewed as it was by the ascetic religionists of the past, it is not strange that it should be forbidden their holy men, or regarded as evil. Marriage, which should be made in heaven, was in their conception made in hell, and to speak in correspondence, truthfully, in the hell of the Passions. Now that attention has been drawn to this subject 304 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. more scrutinizingly than ever before, and the very foun- dations of monogamic marriage itself questioned ; now that in some quarters the savage form of communal marriage is sought to be revived, and there is a loosen- ing of confidence in the permanence of the marriage re- lation, by the ease with which legal divorce is procured, a thorough investigation of the subject is demanded. Never before has social science received such close and careful attention and impartial scrutiny as at present ; and the marriage relation, as the basic institution of our social life, has,- of course, absorbed a due share of in- vestigation. It must, however, be confessed that soci- ology is far from resting on a fixed basis, and as yet holds similar relations to science that alchemy or astrology did several hundred years ago. We are entering a new era. Old ideas and cherished beliefs are broken up, and we eagerly ask where is the new truths which are to enshrine themselves in the place of our broken idols ? The social relations are of such subtile character, so intricate and difficult to understand, that the student is confounded on the threshold of the subject. Eight and wrong become confused ; the new is sought because new, and the old is said to be false because old. In a measure this social agitation is the result of the emancipation of the State from the Church. Marriage has been regarded as a sacrament. The State declares it a legal institution, and, by giving its officers power to legalize marriage, has destroyed its sacramental charac- ter. In this change is danger, for the mind, pressed in one direction, is prone to swing too far in the other when the pressure is removed. Marriage, considered as a sacrament solemnized by God's vicegerents on earth, and founded on divine ordinance, was considered indis- soluble except for great crimes. There is enchantment in this view of marriage. If the right individuals are united in its adamantine chains, so far from galling, they give perfect security and rest. Love receives the sanction of divine authority, and is declared eternal. But the right individuals do not always unite. Hu- man nature being fallible, errs in its judgment. The MARKIAGE. 305 wrong inflicted by irrevocable marriage became appar- ent, and the institution came under the control of the State. The poesy, the charm of imagination, the play of fervent fancy in this prosaic age gather, as they should, around the actual love ; but the ceremony has no divine power or awful mystery of authority. It rests on man-made laws. Now the social philosopher swings with a bound from the sacramental to the legal. He declares marriage to be a mere legal contract, and, like all other legal contracts, dissolvable with the consent of the parties. Is it true? So far as marital laws protect the rights of the contracting parties and their offspring, it becomes like other legal contracts. Beyond these limits, it is subject to higher laws. A legal contract, when fulfilled, if justly made leaves the contracting parties as they were before it was made. If the marriage relation is assumed, can the contracting parties make restitution, and is it not impossible to till its obligations except with an entire and devoted life? Furthermore, the institution, with all its enactments, looks beyond, to children as a third party, who, although outside of, absolutely depend on its provisions. It is assuredly untrue to term such an agreement a legal con- tract like any other, which may be annulled at anytime by the desire of one or both of the parties. The rights which grow out of marriage may be defined by law, but no human enactments can reach the subtile relations of souls. Estates, real and personal, may be measured and apportioned bylaw ; the heart lies beyond its province. Sacred and holy are its relations, and, so far as it is concerned, marriage becomes a divine sacra- ment ; the golden chalice in which the mutual lives of parents and offspring are pressed by generous hands to willing lips. The great question is what will bring the most good and happiness to the individual and humanity, and whatever that may be will certainly gain ascendency. We feel assured by history that wife slavery has been tried and failed. Woman has the same right to freedom as man, and a wrong inflicted on her is a wrong to the race. Half the life of humanity is destroyed by her 306 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. slavery. Communal marriage has been tried and proved a failure. In its gross form, or combined with wife slavery, it gave no warm social life, and threw the bur- den of the family on the wife, to whom it did not belong. Polygamy is essentially brutal and degrading. The family, with its united responsibilities, its social life, its purest of joys, can never exist with a plurality of wives and mothers. It has been fully tested, and civilization where it exists is a failure. We have, then, to consider monogamic marriage, and ask, first, Is it based on the constitution of man ? The fact that the number of male and female births is nearly the same, being practically identical, and when uninterferedwith remains identical, is a strong evidence in favor of monogamic marriage. If one man have several wives, then several men must remain single. If marriage has advantages, and through and by it a higher good and happiness be attained, then on the latter an irreparable wrong is inflicted. Polygamy does not cancel this wrong by a greater amount of happiness or good bestowed on the plurality of wives, for they are held in abject slavery, and the harem is not a favorable school for children. Marriage looks forward to the family, Children have a right to parental love and affection, and parents, by the marital act, assume the responsibilities of the care and proper education of their children. Society is interested in marriage so far as compelling the individual to bear such responsibilities ; otherwise, if the individual did not, then the burden justly his becomes a common tax on all, which would be unjust, except through benevolence. The duties of parents of caring for their children lasts until the latter have at- tained their majority, and this period extends over the mature portion of parental life. It is in the home es- tablished by such marriage that the most complete ex- pression of the best qualities of human nature is attained. It is through the family that love goes forth to the world. Then the child receives the attention the warmth of affection bestows, which in no other way can be poured out in such full measure. Then the mother can receive MARRIAGE. 307 the protection and care which is her right ; for to the father belongs the maintenance of his child. This duty is his, because of his greater strength and ability. Marriage demands honor, truthfulness, and fidelity. While love is free to choose, it is not free to cast aside duties once assumed. When it has once decided, the fact that its decision is final is a potent cause of per- manency. If it be allowed to decide with every mo- mentary whim there could be no marriage, which, by its nature, contemplates and presupposes permanence. The pledges of lovers are exchanged under the assur- ance of eternal duration, for love is prophetic, and rec- ognizes with clear prescience its demands. Conjugal love is exclusive, because it presciently feels what science is slowly but surely revealing, the great and imperishable influence the parents have over each other through the parental act. The very, being of the mother is moulded by the force which fashions the germ after its father. She assimilates and becomes like him. It is a union if possible more close than were the same blood to pass through their united veins, and beyond this, in the domain of subtile magnetism yet almost un- heeded, are more delicate blendings. The attraction and repulsion which finer natures experience, and which are remorselessly sacrificed to convenionce or interest, are the surest guides in the formation of proper unions, and the health, beauty, and development of offspring are directly related to their satisfaction and balance ; for they express the primal condition of the spirit, which builds up the physical body. The suffering which flows from ruthlessly ignoring conjugal love, both mental and physical, is beyond the expression of language. The magnetic or nervous forces, if unbalanced and unsatis- fied, induce mental suffering which can only be borne by high resolves and the passivity of endurance. The germinal force carries with it the mental and physical conditions of the father, and the mother is modified by their influence. The transmission of disease long latent in the father is the most obvious illustration of this state- ment. The poison may not appear in the same form as in the father, but attacking the weakest organs of the 308 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. mother, result in consumption, nervous debility, scrofula, or cancer. Or it may fail to attack the mother from constitutional peculiarities, and fall on the offspring. They will die young or struggle with chronic disease, incurable because resulting from radical organic changes. By entering the physiological and psychological fields, a volume might be written on this subject in evidence of the principles here stated. These principles lie at the foundation of human progress, and cannot be ignored. Their evidence is in the experience of every one who has given the least thought to this momentous subject, and, still more wonderful, the husband and father by these nervous forces is subject to changes second only to those in the wife and mother. This province, which lies between physiology and psychology, has yet to be explored. Thus the necessity of removing marriage from the plane of Appetites, of the Desires, to that of the purest spiritual necessities, and its consummation by the guid- ance of knowledge instead of blind, infatuated ignorance, is presented in its strongest light. Free Love has, by its plausibility, led many a well- irtentioned soul to perdition. Love is not free, nor can it be. It has freedom in its own sphere, but not to in- terfere with other faculties. If by love is meant simply the Appetite, then in animals it is free. They have no sense of Eights, they have no duties, and are led only by the reproductive instinct. In man this Appetite is com- bined with the most spiritual and noble qualities. He has Rights and Duties unknown to brute?, and his de- sire is bounded by them. Their voice is superior to its promptings, even in its most spiritualized form. The necessities of their existence forbids the stability of the conjugal instinct in animals, and mutation is their law. The same instinct in man of itself prompts to the same evanescent character. Its uncontrolled activity or misdirected energy has caused more pain and ruin than all other causes of human wretchedness com- bined. A more destructive belief never existed than this, which converts man into an automaton guided by one of his lowest Appetites. MARRIAGE. 309 Free? Certainly, to love under guidance of Wis- dom. The doctrine of affinity is responsible for a large share of those erroneous ideas. It is a revival of the old myth that husband and wife were two halves ; when the right ones came together a perfect unit was formed, but when the wrong, inharmony and antagonism was the result. As with fallible, imperfect beings, such units are rare, the presumption is that the wrong halves have been brought together. If every one has a corresponding mate created especially, it is self-evident that all have a right to seek until they find that mate. The search may be hopeless, they nevertheless have the right. The modern phase of this myth has as little foundation as the ancient. Its acceptance leads to discontent, and thus intensifies any inharmony which may exist. Love is free to choose, but in man love means more than instinct ; it means the affections, and all that vast sphere of unselfish qualities which have been aptly termed benevolence. Having made choice, it incurs the most momentous duties possible for a human being to assume, and rights spring up which cannot be set aside. These can be properly met only by a life of mutual devotion between the husband and the wife. The fruit of love is an immortal spirit, coming unbidden into this world, and claiming as a right inalienable the affection and care of its father and mother. No sophistry can answer this first law of humanity. Not only does the child call for care and attention, it intensifies the best qualities of its parents' hearts. This is not all. Man is helpless in infancy, and remains so for a longer period than almost any other being, and hence the rearing of two or three children spans the length of most lives from youth to age. During this period separation of parents is a deplorable event to their children, who thus lose the care and aifection which is justly theirs. In case of separation, the children, being the joint right and responsibility of both parents, are either torn from each other or, because the affection of the mother is the strongest, they are given to her. She, however, 310 THE ETHICS OF SCIEXCE. is least able to support them, and thus bears a double injustice. But, it is replied, this objection does not apply where there are no children ! When a man and woman unite their lives and found a home, the chief consideration which actuates each is that it will be permanent. They risk everything on this belief ; all their plans are made in accordance with it. There is a trust and confidence which never would be bestowed if there was a shadow of a doubt. There are rights common to both. Purity and chastity are required by physiology as well as mo- rality. Unselfish affection and devotion are also de- manded, which shall always regard the happiness and pleasure of the other rather than its own. Less than this will yield unhappiness. There are duties which cannot be set aside. First, of truthfulness to the vows as taken ; of mutual assistance, of yielding affection. No untoward event can cancel these rights and duties. "Can you help loving the lovable?" is asked. We reply, Can you help committing an injustice ? Can you help stealing ? Why do you claim that you can refrain from gratification of avarice, of taking that which is not your own, and not from loving ? For here love is simply appetite. If you mean the pure love which ig- nores self, we say the more of it you have the better, for it only elevates you and those you love. Look at the practical results of the doctrine of Freedom in Love. After half a lifetime spent together, during which all the interests of each is inextricably bound in those of the other, the husband finds a lovely person, whom he must love because lovely. Which shall triumph, the rights of the wife, justice, honor, purity, or animal in- stinct? Every one will draw back with aversion from the gulf on the brink of which this man stands. The hell of passion is in that abyss. If he yields, manhood, character, integrity, usefulness are gone, for the cable which holds him to right is broken, the compass of duty is lost, and at one fell step he is plunged from humanity to brutality. No course so utterly paralyzes the spiritual nature as MARRIAGE. 311 this. None arouse all the other propensities with equal stimulant. For this instinct saturates and influences all others. The treachery of the tiger, the cunning of the fox, the ferocity of the lion it augments tenfold, and even the timid deer will fight to the death. It allies itself with brutality, and stimulates the taste for intoxi- cants and narcotics. It is unmixed and unmitigated selfishness. The smallest part of human life should be diverted to the natural and essential obligation of this instinct. |With as many offspring as can be cared for and educated, its function is accomplished. \ That num- ber must be determined by the united wisdom of both parents. An undesired child can never enter a family holding the relations we have outlined. It is objected that marriage often results disastrously. The home becomes a pandemonium, and unmentionable suffering results. This is only too true ; but it must be admitted that such marriages are the exceptions, and they are such because they violate the principles before stated, to which a union fraught with such vital conse- quences should conform. Likeness, similarity of views and tastes, are considered unimportant, and attractions of the moment, convenience, or interest decide the most important matter which can be presented, on which life- long happiness or misery depends. Should these mistakes be remedied by divorce ? We think, as the lesser of two evils, both appalling, they should be. That divorce, however, should be granted for such reasons and in such a manner as not to weaken confidence in the marriage relation. What is wanted is not divorce, which is a bad remedy for a bad disease, but education in the broad and most liberal sense, and especially a deep moral culture, which shall present the purpose of life, its objects and destiny. Before such education can become general and effec- tive, where mistakes have been committed there should be the right of divorce, and that without prejudice to either party. The old superstition of marriage being a sacrament, and because sanctioned by a priest in the name of God is indissoluble, is being strenuously main- tained by the priesthood, who put forth every effort 312 THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE. to prevent the enactment of laws sanctioning di- vorce. We have maintained that marriage rests on a more sacred obligation than a divine ordinance that is, the constitution of man ; and yet there are many reasons for granting the right of separation. If the husband and wife are hateful to each other ; if the old fable of the union of heauty and the beast is repeated ; if refinement, pu- rity, and spirituality are united to coarseness and brutal- ity, there is no law of right or justice which should keep them together. It is a wrong against not only the suffering individual, but against society ; for the latter cannot be benefited by the martyrdom and sacrifice of the individual to laws working injustice. There is no immorality in such a divorce, but there is the lowest depths of degradation and immorality in compelling the pure and noble to accept the vile and detestable in the nearest relations of human life. The highest form of marriage, as taught and exacted by the Christian churches, endures until death. Vastly higher and purer is the ideal which extends this union into the infinite future, where every stain of earthly at- traction shall perish, and soul be drawn to soul by the holiest motives of benevolence. Beyond this no higher relation can exist. It lies at the foundation of all social life. And as, in its lowest expression, it is a creator of beings, in its higher it is the golden bond which unites them in universal broth- erhood. Speculatively, what will be the ultimate of this union, which we have seen reaches its adamantine cords through every fibre of the united beings? Will it con- tinue the gross connection it is commonly regarded ? There can be no doubt that love survives the shock of death of the physical body, and in the sphere immedi- ately beyond this contributes to the joys of existence. Yet the proposition has axiomatic force, that whatever has relation only to this mortal life and not to immor- tality will sooner or later disappear. Nature, in her interminable series of living beings, from the atomie to man, ever keeps one aim in view, MARRIAGE. 313 the evolution of a perfect human being. Sexual distinc- tions are her methods of propagation, arise from neces- sity, and have this one object in view. With this dis- tinction is correlated, or of necessity accompanies, others of dependent character. The mental qualities of the parents must correspond to the diverse demands made on each. The qualities of father and mother are stamped on the spirit. It is also axiomatic that whenever a function ceases to be required, all its dependent manifestations, how*- ever remote, sooner or later also cease. The distinction of sex is an accident in the earth-life of the spirit, es- sential for the furtherance of the requirements of organic being ; but when the spirit has cast aside the physical body, through and by which such distinctions are of ralue, it is logical to suppose that the mental and spiritual accompanying distinctions are cast aside. The organization possessed while in the physical body will for a time reflect itself on the spirit. It will think and feel as it did on the earth, but these effects will be outgrown. The fundamental faculties of man and woman being the same, the mental distinctions arising from greater activity in certain directions than in others an activity dependent on organic requirement it consequently follows that when such demands are no longer made, the mind will seek a state of equilibrium. The men- tal qualities dependent on the accidents of earth -life will be lost, as man and woman become like each other by mutual approach to a common type. Conjugal love, so exquisitely beautiful in its expression on earth, will become sublimated into a higher and purer form. The stain of earthly qualities will disappear, and the spirit be conscious of its own completeness in feeling that it is self-contained. It has at last reached the ideal per- fection of Love, which pours out its golden flood like the ever-pulsating sun, unasked, and with no selfish thought of recompense. 1ART 1 University of California SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY Return this material to the library from which it was borrowed. >0;'f JUL 2 o 1988