'y

HETEEODOI LONDO^t,

GJ

HETERODOX LONDON

OE,

PHASES OF FEEE THOUGHT IN
THE METROPOLIS.

BY

EEV. CHAELES MAUEICE DAVIES, D.D.
AtTTHOR OF " ORTHODOX " AUI) "UNORTHODOX LONDON," EIO.

'PROVE ALL THINGS: HOLD TASI THAT WHICH IS GOOD.

IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. II.

LONDON :
TINSLEY BEOTHEES, 8, CATHEEINE STEEET, STEAND.
1874.
[AU rights of Translation and Reproduction are reserved.]

LONDON :
SAVILL, EDWARDS AND CO., PRINTERS, CBANDOS STREET,
COVENT GARDEN.

CONTENTS.

PAOB
A Sunday Stance .  ....... 1
A Spiritual Organization  .12
An Inspirational Speaker  42
Modern Mysticism  90
Mr. Bradlaugh versus God  116
The Literature of Infidelity  . 147
The Ritual of Infidelity  165
Mr. Bradlaugh on Toryism .  188
The Land and Labour League  . 210
The Kansas Co-operative Colony . , ,  234
At Sunday School  ........ 242
Spouting at Cogers' Hall  . 264
Somers Town on Bible Slavery  273
Vegetarianism  ...... 282
West-End Secularism   315
Irishism  319
The Victoria Institute on Atheism and Pantheism . . . 330
An Atheist's Funeral  397
VOL. II. b

INTRODUCTION.

The great advantage which I expect individually to
gain by this examination of outlying forms of belief
is the confirmation or modification of my own previous
convictions. Once admit the function of Private
Judgment, and it is quite impossible to hold a creed
on such tenure without freest comparison thereof with
other claimants on one's belief. Without further re
ference to my own convictions, which it would be
irrelevant and therefore impertinent to thrust on my
readers, except in so far as may be necessary to the
elucidation of my subject, I proceed nevertheless to
quote some passages from a sermon I preached in the
church where I was curate (St. George's, Campden
HiU, Kensington) .just before I commenced the inqui
ries which resulted in the present volumes. I do
this, not at all by way of self-glorification, but, on
the contrary, to show how idle it is to dogmatize
on these matters without proper data ; and how com
pletely the clerical life cuts one off from the accumu
lation of such data. I spoke the words (pp. x. xi. below)
b 2

viii Inlrochci'ion.

in all honesty then ; but I am convinced that they are
now ruinously wrong. The processes by which such
conviction has been forced in upon my mind have
been glanced at passim, but are more particularly
adverted to at pp. 128, 391.
I feel certain that, as an institution based on the
exercise of Free Judgment and an open Bible, the
Church of England must stand on the defensive, and
have a Christian Evidence Society in something more
than name, officered with her very be^t men, if she is
to hold her own against the advancing tide of Free-
thought — as it is specifically termed.
I find that I have, then, in the following words,
depreciated — as I fancy most of the clergy do — the
magnitude of the task before them, and especially the
method of argumentation which I now see must be
used for its accomplishment. The sermon was nearly
the last I preached before relinquishing my curacy : —
The Duty oe Faith towards Unbelief.
" Blessed are tliey that have not seen, and yet have
believed." — St. John xx. 29.
Some short time ago, when I was preaching on
another subject, I set aside this one for subsequent
inquiry — the attitude of Faith towards Unbelief
How ought Christians to comport themselves to such
persons as openly avow unbelief in the doctrines of

Introduction. ix

Christianity, or even the existence and providential
superintendence of God?
It becoraes necessary for me to redeem my promise
of treating this subject to-night if at all.
The question presents itself to us at every step, is
utterly different from that which regulates our conduct
towards nominal Christians.
There we can come forward with a strong point in
our favour. We can say, " Tou are inconsistent ; you
profess to believe in God, yet in works you deny Him."
That is the staple subject of nine-tenths of our ser
mons. We exhort our hearers to walk worthy of
their vocation, to discharge vows voluntarily assumed,
to be true to their colours as good soldiers of Christ.
But these people are consistent. Their self-chosen
ground is logic. They say I do not believe in God.
Either I am a reluctant doubter, or I dogmatically
deny His existence ; or, again, granting God as a
necessary first cause, I deny His superintending
providence, or the Kevelation of Himself by Jesus
Christ. They could, of course, consistently go on and
question the Bible's code of morals ; but, in fairness
be it said, they do not generally do this. No ; they
arrive (so they say) at the same end by a different
road. Eeason dictates to them what Faith pre
scribes to the believer. Worship and Prayer are, of
necessity, meaningless to them ; but morality — such
moral duties as honesty, sobriety, temperance,

Introduction.

chastity are rigidly observed and forcibly incul
cated. If they were wicked profligate people, as the unbe
lievers of another age were, the case would be easier.
We could say look at the results of your doctrines.
But they are not. They are decent respectable
people, in no way distinguishable from Christians
as far as practice goes ; and the question becomes a
very difficult one indeed as to what should be the
course adopted by a person who, firmly believing
himself, feels that when he is converted, there
devolves upon him the duty of converting others — of
strengthening his brethren. It is to that very
practical question I ask your attention for a few
moments. Not only is it in itself pertinent but it
is part of a much larger one still — namely, how
Christians ought to behave in reference to all forms
of faith and practice which they regard as wrong —
in reference, that is, to sin. Depend upon it, the
most fatal mistake that can possibly be made, is to
use hard words : to talk to the sinner as though he
vvere enjoying some luxury which we begrudged him.
Do we not all of us know Christians whose
Christianity seems to exhaust itself in finding out
that other people are wrong, and then, instead of
trying to set them right, calling them hard names, and
adopting that very course which is sure to harden
them in their own opinions or practices ?
You must fix in your mind this fact, which lies on

Introduction. xi

the very surface ofthe Gospel, that sin is a moral
disease, much more deserving our pity than any bodily
ailment — certainly not calling for vituperation or
harshness in the treatment.
Look, Christians, to your great example, Christ.
See him face to face with the sinful woman — one
whose name was a by-word about the streets, and
whose very presence shocked that good Simon, the
Pharisee. See Him in presence of the adulteress,
driving out her accusers with that awful scathing
irony — -" Let him without sin be the first to cast
the stone." Nay, see Him at the very last, speaking
so gently to the thief on the Cross that people are
almost afraid to dwell upon the sweet words — "To
day shalt thou be with me in Paradise" — lest they seem
to sanction what is called a deathbed repentance.
But we are speaking now, not of moral sin or
obliquity, but of the intellectual failing — I use that
word advisedly — of unbelief. Look at those words
to Thomas the Doubter, the ideal sceptic. There is
not a word of what is termed rebuke in them. Not
one whit more — if so much — than that with which
the Great Master received the credulity of Nathanael,
who believed Christ's Messianic claims because, for
sooth, Jesus said He saw him under the fig-tree,
before Simon called him. The whole tenor of Christ's
words to Thoraas is one of compassionate sympathy
— not of rebuke or vituperation.
Fix this preliminary fact in your mind, then — that

xii Introduction.

it is no more use to teU a man to believe than to tell
him to be strong, or to have an ear for music. One
man has Faith, and another has not ; as truly so as
one man is in robust health, and another an invalid.
Of course there is such a thing as shutting one's
eyes to conviction, just as it is possible to ruin one's
bodily health by excesses. That, however, is not
the point we are considering — but where a man, like
Thomas, simply says, " I cannot believe."
But then, in the second place, you will say. Taking
this type of St. Thoraas, if I am not to abuse the
Doubter, I may — nay, I must — try to convince him —
to reason him out of his doubts. Your very com
parison of feeble health suggests this. The physician
does not leave the sick man to recover in the course
of nature. He gives him medicine to heal his
sickness. Accepting, of course, the case alluded to in the
text as typical, there is this to be said. If you were
quite sure that you could bring to bear that kind and
amount of evidence which Christ did— and which was,
in fact, demonstration, then, by all means, argue with
tho Doubter. But when can you ? I believe that
more harm has been done by weak friends and inju
dicious advocates than by all the open enemies
Christianity ever had. However much we may any
of us sympathize with the spirit which animated the
Christian Evidence Society to go and meet Infidelity
on its own ground, we stiU cannot, with any truth.

Introduction. xiii

say that it has been successful. I have been present
at discussions between Doubters and Believers, and
not, for obvious reasons, taking rayself as an average
listener — but supposing it possible to have a tho
roughly unprejudiced person there, I felt very dubious
indeed as to where such a person would say the
weight of evidence lay.
We corae back once more to the point frora whence
we set out then. Faith, though it may be strengthened
by argument, does not originally corae of arguraent,
any more than of volition. That appears the great
mistake of the intellectual advocates of the Bible.
They seem to think that they can inspire a saving
faith in its teachings, just as they can in any fact of
coraraon life. Infidelity itself is forced to confess
that the facts of the Bible are every day receiving new
corroborations. It is not these the Doubter questions ;
it is their supernatural origin : and this, I hold, no
araount of argumentation will ever prove.
This is really only the sarae as saying that no
amount of medicine will ever cure the sick raan,
unless the principle of Hfe be there. It can aid that ;
but it cannot inspire it. If it is absent the man will
die, in spite of all medicines.
Do we mean, then, that we are siraply to leave the
Doubter to his fate? We seem to have cut the
ground from beneath our feet when we say that we
are neither to denounce unbelief, nor to argue
against it.

xiv Introduction.

With the example of Christ and St. Thomas before
us, and also having taken unbelief as equivalent to
spiritual sickness, it is quite certain that is not the
course we would suggest.
It appears to me that, in our treatment of these
cases — that is, in our conduct with reference to those
who do not believe in God or Christianity — we leave
out altogether the cardinal idea of the supernatural
character of Faith.
I dislike technical terms of theology when I can
avoid them ; but we seem to forget that there is such
a thing as "preventing grace,"
Thoraas, remember, though in the episode of the
text we see him as a sceptic, was no Doubter, but a
tried and trained Apostle. Christ, who knew that
man's soul, as God knows yours and mine, to its very
depths and abysses, knew that the principle of Faith,
the principle of spiritual life, remember, was there, or
all the demonstration in the world would have been
useless. Do you think the prints of the nails or the
scar of the spear would have convinced Pilate or
Caiaphas ? Not at all. They would only have said
it was a clever imposture.
Call to mind, too, a case which I doubt not has
occurred to many of you in your commonest ex
perience of life. When some dear one droops and
fades before your eyes ; when you see health's hues
die out of the cheek, and youth become feeble and
decrepid as palsied age, you send for the most skilled

Introduction. xv

specialist money can procure ; and as he bends over
the panting chest or feels the languid pulse, you
tremble to hear him sa}'- " I can do nothing ; the
physician's work is over, because the life-giving
principle is virtually gone" — and then you have to
summon us to prepare for a higher life which no death
can ever touch.
Do you not perceive to what this tends ? We see
a man before us who either will not (if we like to use
that phrase) or cannot believe. We want to impart
to that man the simple Christian faith which is our
greatest stay and comfort here, and which we know
he will want, 0 so sadly ! when his call comes to go
from this world to another.
What shall we do ? Blame such an one ? Surely
not so, with the tender example of Christ and St,
Thomas before us. We may venture to ask, as He
did. Is seeing the only mode of believing ? We raay
even moralize—How blessed it would be for you if
you could believe without seeing. But, 0 brethren,
for Christ's sake, literally for the sake of our Blessed
Master, no hard names. No saying. Stand by, for I
am holier than thou ; no thanking God we are not as
other men, or even as these publicans.
Shall we reason with them ? — It were hard to say
No, if -we feel that we have the intellectual skill to
fence their doubts, or if we are quite sure that we
have the evidence at hand that will satisfy them — not
that satisfied us, mind, but that will satisfy them. Only

xvi Introduction.

remember that if we argue and fail to convince them,
they will be sure to claim a victory, and to be con
firmed in their doubt.
What I would rather advise — nay, rather what I
feel our Master teaches — is this, go to your closet, and
kneel down and wrestle in prayer to God for that
one. Don't call this leaving him to his fate. You
believe in what is called the dynamical force of prayer,
do you not ? Intercessory prayer is exactly what we
have been speaking of as medicine for a sin-sick soul.
You may blame a man for not believing ; you may
argue with him and deem your reasoning un
answerable — and yet fail. He cannot believe. Your
logic does not touch his case. Kneel down and pray,
" God, give that weak and wavering soul strength to
believe and live !" that is more the attitude for a
Christian believer — I mean a believer in God, not a
believer in self.
Do you not remember some solemn words Christ
spoke to this effect to another apostle, who was really
a more habitual doubter than St. Thomas — I mean St.
Peter ? He said Satan had desired to have him that
he might sift him as wheat ; but He had done what ?
Eated him soundly for his frequent wavering ? — No.
Commenced a course of evidential instruction ? — Not
at aU. He had prayed the Father that his faith fail
not. And when he was converted, he was, in like
manner, to strengthen his brethren who may in their

Intfoduction. xvu

turn be wavering. Not by abuse ; not by logic or
rhetoric ; but by praying to God for them.
Praying and living; for life is prayer. Do you
know the great stumbling-block of the Doubter? If
you don't, I can tell you. It is the inconsistent lives
of Christians. He says, and dare we say it is unfairly,
" You, with all your apparatus of Bible, Church,
sacrament, service, sermon — I know not what — live
no better than I with my conscience void of offence
towards God and man."
It used to be the fashion to point to the Doubter's
deathbed, and triumphantly say, " Look there — if un
belief helps man to live, it will not help him to die."
They have their array of philosophical deaths ready to
hand; and, on the other side, they point us to the death
bed terrors of the conscience-stricken Christian, and
turn back the argument upon ourselves.
To pray for the Doubter, and at the same time not
to silence his doubt by the quiet protest of our own
holy lives, is just like giving the sick man wholesome
medicine while you keep him prisoned in a poisonous
.atmosphere. You see this is one more instance, then,
where the real Christian, like his Master, does not
strive or cry, does not break the bruised reed, or
quench the smoking flax. Harsh denunciations and
hot arguments are the world's methods. Quiet prayer
and unobtrusive piety are Christ's. What is that be
fore which unbelievers of every class bow down in

xviii Introduction.

unwilling homage? — The historical fact of Christ's
moral teaching, which no casuistry can call in ques
tion. There is a path in which we can all follow Him.
Tell the unbeliever to come to you, and you will show
him what God has done for your soul. That your
belief in God and Christ and your Bible and Church
does not make you intolerant, or incline you to be
argumentative ; that it inspires, on the other hand, a
chord of sympathy with all his doubts and difficulties.
It is not supercilious pity that you feel ; such pity
would be offensive. It is not that you echo out the
Psalraist's dictura, " The fool hath said in his heart
'There is no God.'" They are not fools that are
saying it now. They are the world's intellectual
masters. But you feel your faith in God has been a
comfort and a stay to you in difficulties. You do not
feel that it has forced you to dwarf your intellectual
faculties, or pause for one raoment in the course of
practical progress. On the contrary, you feel it has
helped you on in all of these. And so you will not
venture to question a creed that you feel is as honest
on the negative side as yours on the positive — will.
not say that " Doubt is devil-born." You will not pre
sume to argue with those you freely confess your in
tellectual superiors. But you will dare to pray in
secret for them. You will try to show them what
Christ has done for you ; and if all this fails, you will
do no more than your Master did when comment
ing on the long withholden recognition of His apostle

Introduction. xix

• — hope on still, and say (Christ said no more)
" How blessed it would be if you could believe !"
I am quite content to incur the iraputation either
of egotism, or that which is technically termed " pad
ding," if I convince my clerical brethren that some
thing more is necessary than prayer and piety in
these days of enlightened doubt, and that is to be able
to give to every one that asks a reason for the hope
that is in us. I depreciated such machinery when I
preached ray sermon ; perhaps I unduly exalt it since
I wrote my book, and that the truth, as is so often the
case, lies somewhere between the two extremes.
A word again on the subject of the quotations
which I have been forced to put into this volume,
and which cannot fail to be as painful and offensive
to those who read as they have been to myself in
writing them. It was incumbent on me to show how
far the mischief has gone, and especially to illustrate
forcibly the inevitable connexion between dogmatic
atheism and political disaffection. Mr. Bradlaugh's
ironical Letter to the Prince of Wales is the final
outcome of the doctrines held by its writer; or at
least there was only one stronger expression still —
not penned by Mr. Bradlaugh, but sold at his Lecture
jJaU — and this I could not bring myself to quote. I
entreat those who feel outraged by the publication of
such matter to believe that I have only tolerated it,
after raost careful deliberation, as a serious and un
pleasant duty.

HETERODOX LONDON,

A SUNDAY SEANCE,
It may perhaps appear to some persons that, in this
and other works I have written on kindred subjects,
I give too prominent a place to Modern Spiritualism.
I do so advisedly, however. I stated at the outset,
and I here repeat, that Modern Spiritualism is rising —
nay, has risen — into the rank of a religion to an ex
tent of which few persons are aware. The very fact
that, in dealing with each part of my threefold sub
ject, I have felt bound to treat of this new claimant
on our regards, raay be taken in evidence both of its
ubiquity and its Protean character. As an " unortho
dox" system — if it were to be considered a religious
system at all — its place was clear enough ; but we
also found it claiming a niche in the temple of
Orthodoxy. There is, I mean, a Christian Spiritual
ism widely prevalent in all the various religious bodies,
not even excepting the Eoman Catholic, but clairaing
particular notice from rae as spreading widely over
the Established Church. I have already narrated my
VOL. II. B

A Sunday Seance.

experiences at a Sunday Evening Seance, which was
preceded by a religious service, where the officiating
minister was a clergyman of the Church of England ;
and ray present paper will detail sorae further sittings
with this same circle ; though here it will be found
the religious and theological teaching assumes such a
shape as to justify its comprehension in a work bearing
the title of Heterodox London. The proceedings of
this particular body I mean, which had so far only
slipped the moorings of discipline, have now cut them
selves quite aloof from distinctive Christian doctrine,
and the teachings appear to me to be rapidly
gravitating towards that goal which is reached by so
many different approaches — namely, a Pure Theisra.
But here I am beset by a difficulty which more or
less attends every one who would describe the out
come of an inceptive or nascent creed; its professors
are still in a Church-in-the-Catacombs kind of state,
and to let in daylight upon thera may be to do them
serious injury. " Never mind, as long as the truth
gains by it," I fancy I hear some enthusiastic
defender of orthodoxy exclaim ; but, it must be re
membered, I am indebted to the courtesy of these good
people — for I am sure they are good even if mistaken
— in that I have been allowed to be present at their
services and seances. They utterly disclaira all idea
of propagandism (though I suppose no one ever held a
creed tenaciously which he did not wish to spread), and
therefore some amount of reticence will still be im-

A Sunday Seance.

posed upon me in reference to these phases of faith. For
instance, all references to personality or locality I
must not only forego, but seek to conceal and mislead
my readers. I vouch, however, for facts ; and I repeat
my conviction that any account which proposes to be
a vivid sketch of heterodoxy in 1874, and from which
a picture of existing practices in Modern Spiritualism
should be absent, must be raeagre and unfaithful.
Although, then, I heard by a side-wind that ray
previous report on the Sunday Evening Seance had
given some little offence, I did not find that I was
utterlv excommunicated. In fact, the clergyman him
self, who would be most likely to be injured in respect
of his bishop and congregation by such publicity, took
no urabrage at all ; so with respect to other objectors
I did not trouble mj^self rauch ; and found I had done
no very serious damage from the fact of my receiving
two cards, one inviting me to a service and spirit-
seance, over the former of which the clergyman in
question, and over the latter a distinguished American
medium, was to preside ; while another similar card,
bearing date for the following Sunday, invited me to
a celebration of the Lord's Supper, to be followed by
an exercise of the gifts of magnetic healing. This
promised to be heterodoxy, and no mistake; so I
need scarcely say I thankfully accepted both invita
tions. The address to which I was thus led was in central
London, being, in point of fact, the residence of the
B 2

A Sunday Sconce.

lady-medium herself I entered an old-fashioned
panelled parlour, which I found arranged as a chapel,
a recess, wherein stood an antique oak sideboard,
serving the purpose of a quasi-sacrarium. Over the
face of this article of furniture was spread a red
velvet frontal, with a medallion of an ecclesiastical de
sign worked in the centre. On the sideboard were,
first, a large standard crucifix, wreathed with a garland
of forget-me-nots — whether natural or artificial I could
not determine — and two large lighted wax bougies,
which were necessary, as the windows were carefully
shuttered and curtained, and there was no other light
in the room, with the single exception of a deep red
sanctuary-lamp suspended above the kneeling-cushion
in front of the " altar." On the table, or sideboard
itself, were numerous little photographs, presumably
of friends of those accustomed to sit there, and a very
small flagon and chalice of white polished metal —
I fancy silver. Tbe chairs for the congregation, about
fifty in number, all fronted the altar; and there were
already two or three ladies occupying them ; but the
room was so dark that I could not at all see what they
were like, and they were, moreover, all engaged in
private prayer or in reading. In fact, the whole
scene looked like a private chapel in a Eoman
Catholic convent. At right angles to these chairs,
and on both sides of the altar— I shall call it so
throughout — ran two short forms which I rightly
surmised were for the choir; and in the corner

A Sunday Seance.

farthest from the door was a plain oak lectern, with a
small harmonium behind it.
Gradually the chairs were pretty well filled — a boy
in the passage keeping the door ajar so as to prevent
the necessity of new-comers knocking or ringing.
There seeraed to be no scrutiny as to those who carae ;
but I noticed that each one on enterina: made his or
her way to the chiraney-piece, and dropped some coin
into an alms-box on which was inscribed " For
Expenses." I found afterwards that all the admis
sions were by private invitation, and there was a tacit
understanding that every one who came should con
tribute according to ability. I appreciated the deli
cacy which had not informed me upon this detail.
I am very much mistaken if I did not hear the clink
of gold coin more than once, as some richly-dressed
and jewelled lady passed to her place during the
quarter of an hour's waiting which intervened
between my arrival and the beginning of the
service. At half-past three — the appointed time — a lady
came in and went to the harmonium, playing a soft
simple air, while the clergyman entered in white sur
plice only, preceded by four children similarly attired,
two little boys, and two girls of ten or eleven, the
latter with long golden hair streaming over their white
garment. One of these carried a fuming pot of fra
grant incense, which she placed on the altar, the
clergyman kneeling in front, and the children prettily

A Sunday S:'ance.

grouped two on either side of him. All remained for
a long time in silent devotion.
Proceedings commenced with the singing of a
beautiful Metrical Litany, which I believe I am right
in saying had been written by the clergyman himself,
or rather compiled from many of those which had
cropped up during the then recent Mission Week.
The air was a very taking one ; and I recognised it
as a familiar one at Eoman Catholic Benediction Ser
vices. It was sung antiphonally, one verse by the
clergyman, the other by the choir and congregation,
an accompaniment being played throughout. I
noticed that all Trinitarian passages had been carefully
expunged whenever the suffrages had been taken from
orthodox sources. It ran, as far as I can recollect,
thus : —

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A Sunday Seance.

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Pi'iest.
Maker of the starry height.
From amid our earthly night.
When we draw Thy presence near,
Hear usj Holy Spirit, hear.
People.
(Repeat the same verse.)
Priest.
When -we feel our heart within
Leading on to -works of sin.
Thou oar blinded gaze canst clear —
Hear us, Holy Spirit, hear.
People.
Let Thy grace in bounteous shower,
Fall with Absolution's power.
Nought -with Thee as guide -we fear-
Hear us, Holy Spirit; tear.

A Sunday Seance.

Priest {pianissimo).
When in silent grief we bend
Losing some departed friend,
Teach us that they still are near —
Hear us, Holy Spirit, hear.
People.
Open Thou the weeper's eye.
Make the mourner's teardrops dry ;
Keep our parted ones still dear —
Hear us. Holy Spirit, hear.
Priest.
When the thorny path is trod,
Link us closely still to God.
When the storm breaks dark and drear —
Hear us. Holy Spirit, hear.
People.
In all time of our distress,
In the hour of joyfulness,
Thee alike we -nould revere —
Hear us. Holy Spirit, hear.
A few Collects followed, and one longer prayer, of
a deeply spiritual character ; but I did not recognise
it as coming from any book of devotion with which
I was acquainted. Then a second hymn was sung to
the tune known as " Melcombe," to which the " 0
Salutaris Hostia" is generally set in the Benediction
Service. The clergyman then passed to the lectern,
and read the Parable of the Eich Man and Lazarus,
on which he made no comment, except so far as
to justify the alteration he adopted in reading the

A Sunday Seance. 9

soleran story, where he changed the word " HeU" to
" Hades" — " In Hades he lift up his eyes," &c. —
as he said it was desirable to leave more time for the
seance. He therefore gave out a third hymn, and
pronounced the beautiful Old Testament Benediction ;
after which he took off his surplice, and, clad in his
cassock, helped the children to arrange the congrega
tion in a sort of open square two or three deep, and
to place a small table with five chairs in the centre.
Then the children left ; he extinguished the altar-
lights, leaving only the dim glare of the red sanctuary
lamp to make darkness visible, and the seance proper
coraraenced. There was considerably less of that plunging and
kicking of the table which I find is comprehended
under the title of physical manifestations. Our
medium did not obtain those, and I was glad of it,
for they are eminently unsatisfactory. The answers
to questions came by means of minute raps, like the
pecking of a bird, on the table; one of the sitters
going through the alphabet, and the rap coming at
the letter that was intended. There was nothing
very remarkable, as far as I recollect ; certainly
nothing that even approached a test or might not
have been communicated by any of those present.
The first message that came was : — ¦
"We are sent to tell you that God is love, and
that we live."
There were little loving speeches addressed thus to

10 ' A Sunday Seance.

many of us, myself among the number, all of a
strictly devotional character, and quite in keeping
with the state of mind which raight be supposed to
be induced by the previous service : I was told
indeed of direct writing, spirit-voices, faces and even
forms, as being among the ordinary experiences of these
s(%nces, which had even obtained for it the name of
the Miracle Circle ; but I write strictly of what I saw
myself: and to me the service was more marvellous
than the seance itself.
On the next occasion when I was present the Com
munion was celebrated. The form used was an
abridgment of the Church of England office, the
Beatitudes being substituted for the Ten Command
ments, as in some Unitarian Churches. It was
claimed that the miraculous gifts of the first century
had never died out, and that they were connected in
the form of magnetic healing, with faithful reception
of the consecrated — that is, they told us, the mag
netized — elements. Several of those present averred
that they were then and there cured of slight maladies,
such as headaches, under which they laboured, and I
had obviously no means of checking their assertions,
In most cases, however, I was told the cure was
gradual, and scarcely perceptible to any but the
sufferers. In the sermon that accompanied this service, I was
surprised to hear the preacher distinctly claim to
have revived the school of the sceptics — a name

A Sunday Seance. 11

which I had always fancied hateful in spiritualistic
ears. Taking his basis on the Eeforraation of the
sixteenth century as an instance of destructive theo
logy, the preacher said it was quite impossible
henceforth to adrait any dogmatic halting-places.
Between the poles of Catholicism and Atheism there
was no resource but Scepticism. This might be of
an eclectic or siraply an Epicurean character ; and I
may be wrong, but I thought the speaker evidently
inclined somewhat to the latter, and that he vvas
disposed to question authority in morals as well as
belief, not without a penchant even for the extreme
of Free Love or Elective Affinity.

12

A SPIEITUAL " OEGANIZATION."
There is a well-known and probably inevitable ten
dency on the part of all sets of opinions to organize
themselves into systems, and eventually to become
formulated into creeds and articles of faith. It is, no
doubt, part of a general law pervading nature, and
running up through the physical into the intellectual
and spiritual spheres, bringing about at one time the
proverbial "fortuitous concourse of atoms," which
hardens the nebulae into terra firma ; at another stereo
typing the crude notions of an individual or a sraall
coramunity into a regular, perhaps an established,
rehgious " system." Such is the history of most, nay,
of all " Faiths." First of all they live in the con
ceptions of one man, the Inspired or Illuminatus of
his period ; then disciples are made ; the electric
influence spreads with the strange contagion of
sympathy from one to many, from many to more ; and,
the impetus once given, none can calculate the cir-
curaference; for the force is centrifugal, and may
widen out to any area according to the force of the
original bias and the opportunities for subsequent
expansion. This tendency is variously regarded by the

A Spiritual " Organization." 13

devotees of the Faith in question, and by its outside
critics. While the forraer, led away by a transitory
triuraph, see in such culraination only the legitimate
influence of their favourite dogmas, which are now to
take the world by storm, the outside observer is
accustomed to associate the period of prevalence and
establishment with the beginning of decrepitude and
decay. He points to history and says — " See how
systems, like empires, have risen to a cliraax and then
toppled over : how they flourished while persecuted,
but directly they became recognised and respectable,
dwindled away 1" They will even — but then these,
of course, are Heterodox people — point to existing
systeras such as Wesleyanism, or even the Church at
large, and say with Sir Christopher Wren's epitaph —
"Si monumentum requiris, circumspice /"
Modern Spiritualisra is just undergoing the throes
of such a crisis in this year of grace 1874, twenty-six
years frora the tirae when, on the eve of AU Fools'
Day, the now historic Eochester Eappings were first
heard in the Fox household. It has passed through
all the infantile trials incidental to a nascent systera
— the raoral raeasles and whooping-cough of cora-
munities — and now, feeling itself to have attained
manly proportions, wishes to assume its toga virilis
with all the ardour of young Hopeful, who pictures
to hiraself the first dress-coat as the acrae of existence.
How little does that arabitious juvenile dreara ofthe
shawdowy frontier-line that separates the prime of

14 A Spiritual " Orgam::aiion."
life from senility ; or would he not cling to his round
jackets and aspire to perpetuate his knickerbockers,
lest he developed prematurely (as it will always seem)
into the " lean and slippered pantaloon ?"
Emanating, then, most clearly from that Eochester
horaestead in the States, and stiU represented in
Heterodox London by Mrs. Jencken, nee Kate Fox,
Spiritualism slowly but surely invaded these shores
of the antique world. Mr. Home may be considered
its St. Paul, for he was the apostle to whom is largely
due the conversion of our Orbis Veteribus Notus.
He has borne testimony before many of the crowned
heads of Europe ; and ray own " experiences" of
Spiritualisra commenced from the fact of my being
resident in Paris in the year 1857, and Mr. Home
a nightly guest at the Tuileries. So it was that
" circles" were forraed. The Spiritual Institution of
Mr. Burns was formed first at Camberwell, and then
in the more central situation it now occupies at
15, Southampton Eow. This has for years been the
focal point of London Spiritualism ; and only the
more ambitious spirits even now feel they have out
grown the limits of that "Progressive Library."
Then the Dialectical Society examined and reported
upon the new creed. Fellows of the Eoyal Society
fought about it in Quarterly Eeviews and Journals
of Science. Learned Serjeants of the Law wrote
gravely of it ; and here and there a clergyman, less
timid or time-serving than his feUows, confessed there

A Spiritual " Organization." 15
raight be " soraething in it." So the influence spread,
and is spreading ; and so — wisely or unwisely — sorae
of its professors have resolved to organize, and have
chosen for theraselves the lofty title of the " British
National Association of Spiritualists," of whose plat
form raore anon.
It is easy to see that such an organization though
possibly conteraplating no rivalry with the existing
" Institution," will certainly disintegrate the as yet
United Happy Family. Far-seeing men, too, like
Mr. WiUiam Howitt, have written deprecating the
proposed organization on the grounds above-men
tioned — viz., as being a possible precursor of decay ;
but the British Association is aspiring and arabitious,
and will listen to no arguments from anxious friends.
Probably before these pages see the light, that or
ganization whose commenceraent they chronicle will
be an accomplished fact.
Having been for so many years a careful examiner
of the claims of Spiritualism, and a close attendant on
all the meetings of the Dialectical Society during its
examination there, I was honoured by the Provisional
CouncU of the British Association of Spiritualists hy
being invited to a seat on their board. I did not feel
able to avail rayself of this privilege ; but still was
enabled to be present at one or two of their raeetings
while there was being waged what might be caUed
the Battle of the Prospectuses. (One feels almost
tempted to ignore declensions and write Prospect2,

16 A Spiritual " Organization."
like the would-be classical lady who spoke of the
omnib? !)
Two rival prospectuses had been put forward ; one
by Mr. Herbert Noyes, an Oxford graduate, and
among the raost devoted disciples of Spiritualisra ;
another by a lady bearing the Charles Dickens-like
name of Miss Kislingbury. Strange to say, the
gentleman's document was long and diffuse, the lady's
short and concise. Consequently the latter found
favour with the British Association, and was perhaps,
on that account, more fitted for general circulation ;
but Mr. Noyes's paper gives such an excellent idea of
the present position, aims, and prospects of Modern
Spiritualism, that I cannot forbear giving some ex
cerpts from it at the end of this account.
When I accepted the invitation of the Provisional ^¦
Council to be present at one of its sittings, I really
thought I must have made a mistake ; for, on repair
ing to the address specified, T found that it was one
of the most palatial offices in the City of London. I
must not, of course, give the faintest clue to its
whereabouts; but it was with even more than my
usual diffidence that I rang the bell and asked the
janitor if "a meeting" — it was so I ambiguously
phrased it — were taking place upstairs. It was all
right; and he marshaUed me into a resplendent office,
where about a dozen gentlemen and two ladies were
sitting round the largest circular table I ever saw.
They might have been going in for a seance — I should

A Spiritual "Organization." 17
have liked to see that table skip about 1 — but they were
not. They were debating, paragraph by paragraph.
Miss Kislingbury's very concise and practical Pros
pectus. I will not relate how we sped slowly, word by
word, through the two final paragraphs; how some
gentlemen wanted to organize so fully as to start forth
with an Index Expurgatorius for excommunicating
tricky Mediums ; how Sensitives were to be " certifi
cated" like cabmen; how, while one wanted a
Spiritual Church to be included in the Association's
Central Buildings, another felt that the new Faith
had outgrown the necessities of Temples buUt with
hands. There seemed every variety of religious and
political opinion represented at that Eclectic Board;
and it amused me to calculate the chances of their
ever agreeing on the moral qualities of a Medium —
or indeed on any other subject here or in the
spheres !
Suffice it to say the "organizing" even of the
short Prospectus took us three mortal hours, and
they had had I do not know how many such sittings
before ray time. This was the form the docuraent
assumed whilst I was there; but the stiff-necked
gentleman who went in for certificating Mediums
gave notice that he should move resolutions next time
calculated to re-model the whole affair. It struck
me, however, that to quote this inceptive form of
the shorter Prospectus, and Mr. Noyes', which was
VOL. IT. C

18 A Spiritual " Organization."
rejected solely on account of its dimensions, would be
likely to give as good an idea as we could possibly
get of the position of Modern Spiritualism in 1874.
I am, of course, unable to give names, or the
faintest indication of personality ; but let me state
that those twelve men I saw round that volurainous
mahogany were hard-headed practical men, well-to-do
in their several professions, and the chairman, a grey-
bearded gentleman, who went iu at that Prospectus
with as shrewd a buslness-hke air as though he were
prospecting a new company. There was no rhodo-
raontade or nonsense. They were a practical dozen
of raen, raet to embody principles in which they be
lieved intensely, and which they thought it would
serve the world to spread. This, then, was the docu
ment to which, so far, they were prepared to " set
their hands and seals,"
" Declaration of Principles and Purposes.
" Spiritualism iraplies the recognition of an inner
nature in man. It deals with facts concerning that
inner nature, the existence of which has been the
subject of speculation, dispute, and even of denial,
amongst philosophers in aU ages; and in particular,
with certain manifestations of that inner nature which
have been observed in persons of peculiar organiza
tions, now called Mediums or Sensitives, and in
ancient times. Prophets, Priests, and Seers.
" Spiritualism claims to have established on a firm

A Spiritual " Organization." 1 9
scientific basis the immortality of man, the permanence
of his individuality, and the Open Comraunion, under
suitable conditions, of the living with the so-called
dead, and affords grounds for the belief in progressive
spiritual states in new spheres of existence.
" Spiritualisra furnishes the key to the better un
derstanding of all religions, ancient and raodern. It
explains the philosophy of Inspiration, and supersedes
the popular notion of the miraculous by the revelation
of hitherto unrecognised laws.
" Spiritualisra tends to abrogate exaggerated class
distinctions ; to reunite those who are now too often
divided by seeraingly conflicting raaterial interests ;
to encourage the co-operation of raen and women in
many new spheres ; and to uphold the freedom and
rights of the individual, while maintaining as para
mount the sanctity of family life.
" Finally, the general influence of Spiritualism on
the individual is to inspire hira with self-respect, with
a love of justice and truth, with a reverence for Divine
law, and with a sense of harmony between man, the
universe, and God.
" The British National Association of Spiritualists
is formed to unite spiritualists of every variety of
opinion, for their mutual aid and beneflt ; to promote
the study of Pneumatology and Psychology ; to aid
students and inquirers in their researches, by placing
at their disposal the raeans of systematic investigation
into the now recognised facts and phenomena, called
c 3

20 A Spiritual " Organization"
Spiritual or Psychic; to raake known the positive
results arrived at by careful scientific research ; and
to direct attention to the beneficial influence which
those results are calculated to exercise upon social re
lationships and individual conduct. It is intended to
include Spiritualists of every class, whether members
of Local and Provincial Societies or not, and all in
quirers into psj^chological and kindred phenomena.
"The Association, while cordially sympathizing
with the teachings of Jesus Christ, will hold itself
entirely aloof from all dogmatism or finalities, whether
religious or philosophical, and will content itself with
the establishment and elucidation of well-attested facts,
as the only basis on which any true religion or phi
losophy can be built up.
"The Association proposes, when circurastances per
rait, to establish a Central Institution, coraprising a
Hall, Lecture and Seance Eooras, also a Library for
the use of Merabers, and for the benefit of all students
of psychical and spiritual phenoraena; to keep a
register of Mediuras or Psychics, with the view of
affording facilities for investigation ; and to promote
co-operation and intercommunion between Spiritualists
in all parts of the world.
" The Association, while aiming to unite the ad
vantages of vigorous centralization with the benefits
of independent local effort and local seU- government,
emphatically disclaims any right or desire to interfere
with the action of Societies or Institutions already

A Spiritual " Organization." 21
established. It is hoped that Local and Provincial
Organizations will avail themselves of the powers
afforded in its Eules by becoming affiliated with
the ' British National Association,' and by appoint
ing from their own body a member to represent them
on the Council."
With reference to Mr. Noyes' prospectus, the
Spiritualist (one of the organs of this denomination)
says —
"Several of the members of the Council of the
National Association drew up a prospectus each, and
aftewards compared thera. The one finally adopted
originated with Miss Kislingbury, but sorae of Mr.
Noyes' suggestions were incorporated with it, after
which it was considerably revised by a comraittee. The
prospectus suggested by Mr. T. Herbert Noyes, jun.,
B.A. (Oxon), was an elaborate docuraent; it was not
adopted, but is of interest, coraing as it does from a
highly-educated and inteUigent gentleman, who has
given much thought to the question, 'What work
should a national organization undertake ?' It
touches upon many controversial subjects, and gives
the opinions of Mr. Noyes as to the position which
an organization should assume in respect thereto as
follows : —
" I. The victories of civilization have been achieved
by a judicious organization of the units of society,
and the advantages of inteUigent co-operation are

22 A Sp'mtual " Organization."
now so universaUy acknowledged that it would be
unpardonable for Spiritualists to ignore them.
" II. It has accordingly been determined to draw
up articles of association upon the broadest possible
basis, and invite the co-operation of all students of
pneumatology and psychology — a numerous and
flourishing minority, who may reasonably expect ere
long to absorb the majority.
III. The flrst question for consideration was the
choice of a style and title for the new Association,
and after much deliberation it has been decided to
call it, ' The British National Association of
Spiritualists. '
" To obviate possible misconceptions, we proceed
to define the meaning we attach to the terms selected.
" We have chosen the terms ' British National'
to express our intention that all persons who for the
time being are sojourners within the British dominions,
shall be eligible as members, and having regard to the
fact of the intimate association between the spirit and
the soul, we have chosen the word Spiritualist with
the intent that it should be taken to include all
Psychologists, all students and investigators of facts
and phenomena caUed spiritual or psychical, and that it
shall not be taken to imply adhesion to any pre
conceived theory or any religious dogma whatsoever.
We do not even intend that it shall exclude professed
materialists who seek admission to our ranks.
" IV. The next question for consideration was the

A Spiritual " Organization." 23
definition of the functions of the Association, the
aims and objects of its organization, and these we
have now to enumerate.
" 1. The first object of the Association is to secure
the public and general recognition and intelligent
appreciation of the marvellous facts and phenomena
which first attracted public notice at Eochester in the
United States, through the intervention of Miss Kate
Fox, now Mrs. Jencken, and which have since been
observed, with innumerable modifications and unex
pected developments, by millions of credible witnesses
in all parts of the world. Phenoraena inexplicable
by any previously recognised laws of nature, phe
noraena which have hitherto baffled the ingenuity of
aU critics who questioned their spiritual origin,
phenomena which are daily occurring in our own
faraily circles, and which now claim to extend the
realm of nature and the reign of law to an invisible
world, and bid fair to vanquish the scepticism of the
votaries of science, as weU as the prejudices of the
religious world.
" 2. The second object of the Association is to
secure to all students and investigators the necessary
facilities for systematic investigation and study —
facilities which in the face of an adverse public
opinion, due to our traditional prejudices and here
ditary misconceptions, can only be secured by orga
nized and energetic co-operation, and by the judicious
management of a common purse.

24 A Spiritual " Organization."
" 3. The third object of the Association is to study,
formulate, and proraulgate the new systeras of meta
physical and moral philosophy and religious teaching,
which would seera to be the legitiraate outcome, and
all sufficient justification of these same facts and
phenomena, however trivial they may appear in their
earlier manifestations to superficial observers.
" The achievement of these objects involves —
"1. The coUection of records of such occurrences
during the last twenty-five years, whether published
or unpublished, and a diligent coraparison of such
records with the records of sirailar occurrences which
have taken place in all ages and araong all nations,
but which have been raisunderstood, raisrepresented,
and discredited, as being miraculous and outside of
law, or assigned to superstitious and epidemic
delusions. " 2. It involves the diligent investigation and
verification of the occult sciences of the Middle Ages,
and the much neglected science of Mesraerism, which
are concerned with such phenomena, as well as the
study of ancient religions and ancient raysteries,
inasrauch as the experience of the past is useful for
the elucidation of the present, and may itself be
elucidated by the multitude of novel facts elicited by
modern discoveries.
"3. It involves the collection, recording, and
classification of contemporary testimony to the
occurrence of similar phenomena in our homes, and

A Spiritual " Organization." 25
the diligent scrutiny of multitudinous facts, collec
tively and individually on the part of the Association
and its members.
"4. And inasmuch as these facts and phenomena
are ascertained to take place only in the presence and
by the intervention of certain exceptionally gifted
persons, now called ' Mediums,' ' Sensitives,' and
' Clairvoyants,' but of old called ' Prophets,'
' Priests,' and ' Seers ;' and inasmuch as their
exceptional gifts have been proved to require culti
vation and development under very subtle and delicate
conditions, it involves much diligent labour in the
discovery, cultivation, education, and classification of
public and private Mediums, and, further, a diligent
investigation of the conditions most favourable to the
manifestation of the highest phenomena.
" 5. And inasmuch as these phenomena are not
only physical, but metaphysical, and have developed
since the earlier manifestations into multitudinous
phases which correspond to and even transcend the
spiritual gifts enumerated in the New Testaraent, and
throw new and unexpected light on the philosophy of
inspiration and revelation, yielding cogent proof that
there was no greater finality in the revelation of the
Christian era than in the revelations of the Mosaic
era — it involves an obligation to make these facts
widely known, however unpalatable they may be to
popular prejudices; it involves an obligation to publish
the fact that if the world is unwilling to welcome

26 A Spiritual " Organization"
unpalatable truths, it must be because it is unwUling
to give up its malpractices — unwilling to welcome
truths which wiU exhibit them in their true light,
and prove it to be a wicked world ; and it involves an
obligation to proclaim that all who have the progress
and prosperity of the world at heart, will do well to
welcome Spiritualism.
" 6. And, lastly, inasmuch as it has been found of
great practical iraportance that seances should be held
in rooms speciaUy appropriated and preserved, like
the chancels of our churches, from mixed influences,
and that such conditions are at present difficult of
attainment ; and as, moreover, it has proved difficult
to find even public lecture halls in suitable localities
open to lecturers who do not belong to the reputed
orthodox schools, and equally difficult to obtain free
circulation forthe literature of Spiritualism, it involves
the founding of a Central Institution, comprising a
public lecture hall, library, reading, and seance rooms,
with all the machinery of a missionary organization
in some central situation, as a model for similar
institutions. " Now, inasmuch as the world is now-a-days ready
to receive truth, if convinced of it — willing to receive
truth when it is found to be true — we think it is
desirable to put before it the facts which we believe
it will discover to be true. We think it will find
that the mission of Spiritualism will be to introduce

A Spiritual " Organization." 27
Eeforms into the political and social systems of the
world, which will be the inauguration of a Neio
Dispensation. " We wiU, therefore, proceed to enumerate the
missions of Spiritualism, as they appear to us to
present themselves, under the influence of the teach
ing of the invisible world.
" The Missions of Spiritualism.
"1. To afford demonstration of the fact of the Im
mortality of the Soul, and so to arrest the mate
rialistic tendencies of modern philosophies, and to
disarm death of its terrors.
" 2. To throw new light on the moral government
of the visible universe by invisible agencies ; to furnish
fresh proofs of the perfections of the Almighty; and
to dispel doubts of the efficacy of Prayer by disclosing
its true philosophy.
"3. To supplement the ancient Eevelations of the
future state. To prove the unbroken continuity of
conscious existence and personal identity in the
mental condition of the departed, and their ability
and inclination to open communications with those
whom they have loved and left on earth.
" 4. To disclose and promulgate the conditions and
laws of such open communication, and to cause the
experience of the most highly favoured few to be
utilized for the benefit of the less highly favoured
many.

28 A Spiritual " O^y ani zation."
" 5. To teach that the best preparation for our
future state is a life of energy and activity, lived
up to the highest physical, raoral, and intellectual
standard attainable in this world, by the harmonious
development and adequate exercise of all the faculties
with which each man is individually endowed, and
that, while it is well to direct special attention to the
cultivation of special aptitudes, none of the higher
faculties can safely be left uncultivated.
" 6. To indicate and revive the time-honoured
belief that the protection of Guardian Angels is still,
and has ever been accorded to mankind, and to prove
that these willing workers exert an occult influence
even upon those who are wholly unconscious of their
presence, and utterly ignore their agency ; and that
their special mission is to keep alive the still sraall
voice of conscience, and flash bright thoughts into
the head, and pure and holy aspirations into the
heart, so long as their benign influence is not repelled
by obstinate persistence in the paths of transgression.
That they are, indeed, willing workers of all good
works in the spirit world, ever ready to aid those
who need their aid in all things needful for their
teraporal and eternal welfare.
" 7. To vindicate and revive the belief, as old as
the days of Hesiod, that our Guardian Angels are
generally the spirits of our departed fellow mortals,
who, having once inhabited our earth, have their

A Sjjiritual " Organization." 29
experience of the troubles of life to guide them in
ministering to us.
" 8, To rectify the current misconceptions of the
powers of evil, and to prove to the world that the
Prince of Darkness eraploys innumerable agencies,
made ready to his hand by the rulers of the world in
which we live ; inasrauch as the hosts who do his
work are the undeveloped Spirits who have passed
unpurified frora earth life into the spirit world,
whence they gladly return to earth to gratify their
own evil passions by inspiring raen of like passions
with themselves with evil thoughts and impure
desires. "9. To convince the world that the powers of evil
will eventually be conquered by the invisible hosts
of the Almighty, when the end of the present dis
pensation shall have corae, but not till after the earth
shall have been desolated by terrible wars, which,
within the brief period of ten years frora the present
time, will have ceased for ever, if the world will but
believe in the power of the angel world to deliver
them from their invisible foes,
" 10. To revive and place upon a rational basis the
practice of praying for departed friends, by disclosing
the fact that they often yearn for human sympathy,
and are conscious of its being accorded them ; and
that if they have not yet risen to the happier spheres,
and are stiU earth-bound spirits, raessengers of mercy

30 A Spiritual " Organization."
and love may be sent to aid them in answer to our
petitions. "11. To prove to the world that the state of the
soul after its departure into spirit life is not fixed,
final, and stationary, but a state of progressive and
eternal development ; not a state of rest and idleness,
but a state of energy and activity, in which all its
mental powers cultivated on earth will find suitable
employment, and in whicli many other faculties now
dormant will be developed — a state much more closely
reserabling our own than has heretofore been con
ceived. To show in short that the world has been
heretofore left to look forward to rest in Heaven, as
being the way in which it could best be taught to
realize the soul's release from many of the jDhysical
suffei'ings of the earth-life which are intended for the
purification of the spirit.
" 12. To raake clear to the world that the Day of
Death is the Day of Judgment, and that the prevalent
belief in the Eesurrection of the body is due to a
misconception of the fact of the resurrection of the
Spiritual body, which is coincident with the death of
the mortal body.
" 18. To throw light on many most important
physiological questions involved in the relations of
the indweUing soul and spirit to the mortal body — to
wit, the action of the mind upon the brain, and the
action of the brain upon the nervous system.
" 14. To discover and promote the development of

A Spiritual " Organization." 31
whatever faculties may be latent in human nature,
and thereby to show that the unfolding of higher and
nobler faculties is the ultimate destiny of every soul
of man. •
"15. To extend the domain of science to the
realms of the invisible, the impalpable, and the
iraponderable, and to supersede the supernatural by
proving that the occult mysteries of human nature,
heretofore deemed beyond the reach of human intel
lect, if not forbidden to human research, are destined
to be revealed to the truth-seeker, to the unspeakable
advantage of humanity.
"16. To dissipate erroneous views of the distinc
tion between Science and Eeligion, and to build up a
new Church based on the identity of religious and
secular knowledge.
" 17. To winnow the wheat of truth frora the chaff
of theology, and reconcile antagonistic creeds by
elirainating their errors, and raaking raanifest the
spiritual truths which underlie all systeras of religious
belief in the world.
"18. To encourage wUling works of Love, Mercy,
and Charity upon earth,
"19. To proraulgate a sounder systera of Political
Economy calculated to remedy many crying social
evils. " 20. To remedy the evils resulting from excessive
irregularity in the distribution of Wealth under the
present system of social and political economy

32 A Spiritual " Organization."
which has made the rich too rich and the poor too
poor. " 21. To sow the seeds of a general Eeforraation of
Morals, and bring about the cure of moral and
physical diseases in the way which nature would be
found to prescribe when her occult laws come to be
understood. " 22. To bring about a more rational observance of
the Day of Eest and recreation by a more liberal
application of the maxim that the Sabbath was made
for man, not man for the Sabbath, a maxim which is
opposed to the common practice of making it a fast
day. " 23. To introduce a sounder system of Education
by directing more special attention to the discovery
and cultivation of the natural gifts of our children,
and by encouraging the general teaching of the ele
ments of physiological and psychic science in our
elementary schools, seeing that an intelligent appre
ciation of these subjects is essential to the attainment
of the highest physical, moral, and intellectual
development. "24, To vindicate, popularize, and perfect the
much neglected but most iraportant sciences of
Phrenology and Physiognomy, and introduce them into
our national schools and seminaries, with a view to
the utilizing to the utmost of our educational resources
and to the great benefit that would accrue to society
if the practical use of these sciences in deaUng with

A Spiritual " Organization." 33

their neighbours were understood by the people at
large, "25. To suggest reforms in the principles of our
Criminal Legislation, and in the practice of our penal
establishments. " 26. To reform the principles of our Lunacy
Legislation and the practice of our lunatic
asylums. "27. To bring about the liberation of raany Sensi
tives and Mediuras now wrongfully incarcerated in
these asyluras on account of their possessing faculties
not coraprehended by the Faculty, and who, if liberated,
under judicious treatraent, would prove to be sorae of
the raost useful raerabers of society.
" 28. To inaugurate extensive Sanitary Eeforras by
enforcing the more general application of the principle
that prevention is better than cure, and by suggesting
radical improvements in the principles and practice of
the healing art. Such iraproveraents may consist in
the introduction of more scientific methods of using
resources provided by the beneficent action of the
laws of the world of spirits, in the suggestions of
novel applications of the use of changes of tempera
ture, and of the uses of air, light, and darkness, in
the disclosure of the use of many simple remedies at
present unknown to the world, and of the efficient use
of many hitherto misused drugs, and in the develop
ment of the remedial uses of electricity and magnet
ism, which, although of late introduced by a few en-
VOL. II. D

34 A Spiritual " Organization."
lightened practitioners, are stiU ignored by the Faculty
at large,
" 29. To suggest reforms in the principles upon
which our Hospitals are conducted, and to bring their
practice more into harmony with the laws which
nature prescribes.
" 30. To revive the ancient practice of healing by
imposition of hands, and to build up as a science that
beneficent art, as ancient as the world itself, which is
known among us by the modern name of ' Mesmer-
isra ;' an art which is erapirically practised all over
the world under various names, but whose sphere of
usefulness would be vastly enlarged, if the principles
which lie at the root of the practice were made to
yield their secrets to scientific research.
" 31. To revive and popularize the ancient practice
of Cremation, which is so preferable to burial, from a
sanitary point of view, and which will be useful to
make the world understand that the body will not
rise again in the flesh, but in the spirit.
" 32. To minister consolation to the bereaved, and
prove that it would be more rational to mourn for the
survivors. " 33. To suggest reforms in the principles of our
Poor Law Legislation, and remedies for the terrible
evils of our Workhouse system.
" 34. To cause the rights of the Labouring Classes
to a larger share of the produce of their labour to be
conceded.

A Spiritual " Organization." 35
" 35. To improve the condition of the Labouring
Classes in this country in the matter of wages, in the
matter of dwellings, in the matter of education, and
in the matter of well-doing in the world ; and especially
to ameliorate the condition of the workers in factories,
mills, mines, and mineral workshops and manufac
tories dealing with poisonous materials, who sacrifice
their health for hire, and who wiU not help themselves ;
and those who labour in the seething workshops of
private tradesmen who will not help their workpeople.
We are not blind to the fact that the attention of the
Legislature has of late been directed to these crying
evils ; but we know that Legislation has been power
less to eradicate them, and we believe that it will con
tinue to be powerless until the true principles of action
come to be better understood ; and these principles we
believe it to be the mission of Spiritualism to inculcate.
" 36. To raise the standard of humanity, and im
prove the physical and raental conditions of future
generations, by directing attention to raany questions
relating to Marriage, and the psychological influences
affecting unborn babes which have been so grievously
overlooked, to the great detriraent of the human race ;
and especiaUy effects resulting from marriages con
tracted from mercenary motives, and from the irregu
larities incidental to the more or less nominal celibacy
of so large a percentage of the population.
" 37. To cause the Eights of Woman to be recog
nised to the full, D 2

36 A Sjnritual " Organization."
" 38, To cause the Wrongs of Woman to be re
dressed to the full,
" 39. To open the Churches of England to the free
use of the laity for the secular instruction of the
people on week days and Sundays, after the brilUant
example recently set by the Dean of Westminster,
and to show that all truth, all knowledge, and all
wisdom may fitly be taught therein without profana
tion from the pulpits hitherto monopolized by the
clergy, but hereafter destined for the free use of
faithful Mediums.
"40. To inaugurate a universal Missionary work
with a view to raake the world wiser and raore willing
to render efficient help to the poor, the weak, and the
afflicted, wherever they are to be found, and generally
to do the work of the Spirit- world in amending the
evils of the world in which we live.
" 41. To teach that the last will be the first in the
Kingdom of Heaven, if the last is the most deserving
in the world of spirits, and has been the raost deserv
ing in the earth-life ; and that the first in earthly
honours will be the last in spirit-Ufe if he have won
no higher place by his own raerits.
" 42. And generally to enlighten the world in all
matters in which the occult influence of Spiritual
agency has been heretofore ignored 
" Having thus enumerated some of the many
missions which modern Spiritualism seems destined
to fulfil, it becomes our duty to consider by what

A Spiritual " Organization." 37
practical ineasures this Association may best improve
the suggestions, and second the philanthropic aims of
the invisible world.
" It has been decided that the corporate affairs of
the Association shall be committed to a large and
liberal representative Council, who trust that their
initiative will be cordially seconded by the energetic
co-operation of a very nuraerous body of raerabers,
working collectively and individually in their several
spheres. " It has been decided that the gates of raerabership
shall be* thrown open to all honest students and appli
cants who are able and willing to contribute as a
miniraum the sraall annual subscription of 5s.
"But inasrauch as a large expenditure raust be
incurred efficiently to further the multitudinous objects
which have been indicated, it is hoped that special
subscriptions and donations wiU be offered by those
whose means enable them more liberally to promote
the laudable and philanthropic work which is con
templated. " It is proposed to establish, as soon as possible, in
the most central situation that can be procured in the
metropoUs, an Institution coraprising a public Hall
and Lecture rooms, Eeading-room, Library, and
Seance rooms, where discourses may be delivered and
seances held on week-days and Sundays ; an insti
tution which shaU not only be a focus of radiation
and attraction for all inquirers, worthy of the

38 A Spiritual " Organization."
SpirituaUsts of England, but also serve as a raodel for
local affiUated institutions which it is hoped wiU ere
long be found not only in all the different districts
of the metropoUs, but in all centres of population in
the United Kingdom.
" It is proposed to found in connexion with this
Institution, and so soon as funds will permit, a
College of Mediums, at which all Psychics, Sensitives,
Clairvoyants, and Mediums may be instructed how
best to discover, cultivate, and develop their latent
gifts ; a College calculated to offer opportunities for
the more systematic study of the various phenoraena
than can now be obtained, and special facilities for
the study of the occult sciences in general.
" It is proposed that diploraas shall be granted by
this College to all such Mediuras and Sensitives,
whether trained and developed within its walls or not,
as are able to satisfy the Association of the genuine
character of their gifts and their own trustworthiness,
after undergoing such tests as may be deemed con
clusive by the Council, and that diploraas shall also be
issued to lecturers on Phrenology, Physiognomy,
Mesmerism, Psychology, Pneumatology, and other
occult Sciences, who are found qualified to undertake
the missionary labours of the Association.
" It is proposed that registers and records shaU be
kept of aU such Mediums, Sensitives, and Clair
voyants, and their specialties, for the use of individual
merabers and affiliated Societies, and also registers of

A Spiritual " Organization." 39
all iraportant facts and phenoraena coramunicated to
the Society by its raembers and correspondents which
can be authenticated to the satisfaction of the Council,
and that the due authentication of all such recorded
facts be the special function of a standing judicial
coramittee of the Council. It is further proposed that
in connexion with the Institution and the College of
Mediums there shall be established a Mesmeric
Hospital and a School of Mesraerism, in which that
iraportant branch ofthe healing art may be studied,
practised, and developed into a systematic Science, and
in which gratuitous treatment may be provided for
the poor by the most gifted healers.
" It is proposed that the library of the Association
shall be stocked with all the ancient and raodern
works on pneuraatology, psychology, mesmerism,
phrenology, physiognomy, and the kindred sciences,
which can be collected, and rendered accessible to
aU merabers under the most liberal regulations
compatible with security.
" It is proposed that public Services, Lectures, and
Seances be held on week-days and Sundays, at the
central Institution, so soon as it is possible to found
one, and that in the meanwhile the Council shall do
their best to further the objects of the Association, by
promoting publicity and organizing lectures and
public meetings in churches, chapels, halls, and
lecture rooras in town and country, wherever and
whenever it is practicable, but above all that they

40 A Spiritual " Organization.

should direct their attention to the discovery and
development of Mediuras and Psychics willing to
devote their gifts to the service of the Association and
its raissionary labours in the cause of truth ; and that
steps be taken to make due provision to preserve all
approved workers from the temptations of the
necessitous. But inasmuch as the extent to which
these operations can be undertaken must be regulated
by the condition of the funds at the command of the
Council, and their execution will involve grave
consideration of innumerable questions of detail which
will arise from time to time, it will be desirable that
the work of progressive organization of the several
departments should be reraitted to standing com
mittees of the council, who should report from time to
time, and whose reports, when discussed and approved,
should be duly circulated among the members in the
journals of the Association and the quarterly reports
of the Council.
" Meanwhile it is proposed that immediate steps
shall be taken to raise the funds requisite for the
establishment of this central Institution by co-opera
tive action, under the provisions of the Limited
Li abUity Acts, upon a plan in which all Spiritualists,
Psychologists, and Students of humanity in the
United Kingdom may be invited to assist according to
their inclination ; and of which it is intended to
embody the details in a paper which wiU be circulated
with the present manifesto."

A Spiritual " Organization." 4 1
From this it would appear that the method of the
Spiritualists is something like a combination of pure
Positivism with unliraited Scepticism. Much as they
misUke that word in its loose colloquial sense, it really
does, in its etymological acceptance, clearly express
their tenets. They rest on the deraonstrations of
science — a science, however, which does not illogically
stop short at the physical or intellectual, ignoring the
spiritual portion of raan's being, but applies its rigorous
analysis to the domain of revelation hitherto disposed
of in the wide category of the supernatui-al.
SpirituaUsm has no such word as Supernatural. It
substitutes the certainly less objectionable term
supra-sensual — for who shall presume to define the
liraits of nature ? It is quite impossible to set super
ciliously aside a system which has the support of such
scientific men as Mr. Crookes, F.E.S., and Mr. Crom
well Varley, the former of whora has, while these
sheets were passing through the press, declared his
positive conviction, based on scientific experiment and
the evidence of his senses, that the hitherto suspected
Spirit Forms are no result of trickery, but a legitimate
case of Double.

42

AN INSPIEATIONAL SPEAKEE.
One of the raost recent developments of that Protean
thing called Modern SpirituaUsm is in the direction
of Inspirational Speaking by gifted ladies. The Sibyls
are generally, though not always feminine; and indulge
in the very tallest of tall talk bythe hour together under
the guidance of possessing spirits. I once heard a plain-
spoken old gentleman, the late Professor Donovan, say
in public and in presence of such a speaker, he really
did not think much of this particular kind of mani
festation, "because," he added, "it requires no ghost
to come from the dead " to make a lady talk !" That
was in reference to Mrs. Emma Hardinge, who was,
I believe, the first Inspirational Speaker we had in
England. She came to London in 1866, and when
I was taken by Mr. Benjamin Coleman to hear her
at the Beethoven Eooras, I at once recognised her,
and remembered her name, as an actress at the
Adelphi Theatre in the year 1850 — 51. Strangely
enough — and it struck me as a great testimony to the
new powers of Mrs. Hardinge — I recollected her as
a then young actress who used to play in a farce
called " My Precious Betsy," with Wright and Mrs.
Frank Matthews ; and the two veteran players took

An Inspirational Speaker. 43

a delight in " gagging" and throwing out the young
actres^, who could not wander one degree frora her
part without floundering. Mrs. Frank Matthews
remembered the circumstance distinctly ; and agreed
with me that about the last person she would ever
have expected to see come out as a public speaker was
Emma Hardinge ! The reigning favourite at present in
London is Mrs. Cora Tappan, who was better known
as a medium in America by her maiden narae of Cora
Hatch. She carae out with considerable eclat at St.
George's Hall, after which she drifted to Weston's
Music Hall in Holborn, in which slightly incongruous
locality she set up her " Spiritual Church." Now she
has abandoned the ecclesiastical title, and hangs
out at Cleveland Hall, somewhere down a slum by
Fitzroy Square. Facilis descensus t
It was in this locality I heard her a few Sundays
since, after much inquiry on the part of my enter
prising cabman, who thought he could find out the
place, but could not. Our lengthened wanderings
made us late ; and by the time we had paid our
shillings at the entrance Mrs. Tappan had begun to
pray, and the door was shut.
In a little time it was re-opened, so that the
liturgical exercises must have been brief, and we were
admitted into an unraitigated Dancing Academy,
where a fair congregation was gathered, and at the
farther end Mrs. Tappan was mounted on a platform
extemporized from refreshment tables, and accompa-

44 An Inspnrational Speaker.
nied by an old gentleman in a chair, before whom
was a table with a conventional water bottle which
had seen better days, and a big Bible.
Mrs. Tappan was dressed neatly in black, with a
profusion of golden hair — very golden indeed, falling
in studied negligence over her shoulders. She had a
tasteful bunch of flowers on her head, and another on
her bosom. She is a fine woman, above the middle
height, and decidedly good-looking. When we
entered she was sitting in a plain Windsor chair,
holding her head as though she had the toothache,
but presumably in converse with the invisibles. The
elderly gentleman read a few verses from i Corin
thians XV., and we sang, first an anthem and then
a hymn ; after which Mrs. Tappan rose, and in a clear
silvery voice, and strain of unbroken eloquence,
delivered her Inspirational Address, as follows : —
" We propose this evening to give you sorae of the
truths concerning the influences of the present life
upon the future, and what condition the spirit shall
occupy in reference to that future life. The passage
which has been read from Paul, were we to subject it
to the scrutiny that is usually given to secular
writings, would not bear the test of strict losical
criticism, inasrauch as it conveys within itself a seem
ing contradiction. This difficulty may be overcome
by suggesting another word for the word ' it ;' since
it leaves the mind of the reader in somewhat of a

An Inspirational Speaker. 45
doubt as to what ' is sown in weakness' and what
' raised in power.' In one instance he says it shall
' put on corruption ;' ' it is sown a natural body ; it is
raised a spiritual body ;' and in the next sentence,
' There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual
body,' Now, if the same body is first a natural and
then a spiritual body, why does he say there are two
bodies — the natural body and the spiritual one ?
" Upon this one chapter hangs largely the founda
tion for the belief in the resurrection of the material
body ; but we think no careful student, no one who
reads it with an eye to the spiritual meaning, can for
one moraent determine that that which he refers
to as being the part resurrected can apply to the
physical body. We do not think there is the
sUghtest shadow of foundation, except ambiguity
in the use of the word ' it.' But this may be the
fault of the interpreter. It may be that one word
meaning the substance of man himself — the soul
or spirit — is here referred to ; and that this single
syllable entirely perverts the meaning of the original
writer. Most assuredly we must take into account
the fact that Paul's writings were not all of them the
teachings of Jesus ; that he afterwards introduced and
incorporated raany of his own previous scholastic
views ; and with the exception of the general phases
of the Christian teachings, Paul's doctrines were
disputed among the early Christians; and the
followers of Apollos and Cephas did not accept many

46 An Inspirational Speaker.
of Paul's interpretations and his references to the
present and future life. But whatever credit and
whatever authority raay be given to a singularly
gifted, zealous, and studious apostle should be given
to the writings of Paul. However, the question now
promises a more speedy solution from the fact that it
is not only impossible, but is confessedly at variance
with the existing laws of nature to suppose that the
whole mass of raankind shall be raised physically
from their graves. We doubt even if the most
tenacious adherent to the letter of these epistles
believes it in reality. The earth itself does not
contain substance enough to fashion raaterial bodies
for the entire huraan faraily that have lived upon it.
The component parts of many human bodies in
existence to-da}^ have been parts of other bodies that
existed ages ago ; and it would be a singular position
in the laws of nature and anatomy to determine
in what particular body an atom should take its place
when it has now occupied many bodies before. But
the spiritual significance of this discussion is apparent,
and so apparent and plain that he who runs may read.
Yet many there are who refuse to read with the eye of
the spirit, and only interpret literally that which should
be interpreted with the spiritual significance.
" The resurrection of Christ is referred to as
authoritative with reference to the physical resur
rection. But it must be remembered that the record
is a Uttle dubious in this account. When it is said

An Inspirational Speaker. 47
that he lay in the sepulchre three days, and when
it is said that previous to his death he said to the
thief on the cross by his side, 'This day shalt thou be
in Paradise,' where, during the three days he was
immured in the sepulchre, was he ? The tradition is
that he visited the spirits in prison, and when he
arose he requested those who saw him not to touch
him, that he had not yet ascended to his Father.
Now, either he did not know that he would ascend,
and so could not make promises, or he had gone
in spirit to Paradise to unseal the spirits in prison,
and so afterwards returned to his raaterial body — to
his disciples in the material body. All these points
of your belief it remains for the theological student to
clear up ; our own opinion being that the spiritual
body was not sufficiently strong to undergo the
contact of those who were about him, and that he
appeared to them in a form resembling his own
physical body. There is another point often discussed
among theologians, but one with which we have very
little to do, and that is as to the actual time when
this resurrection shall take place. Those who believe
in a final and entire resurrection contend that the
dead yet sleep in their graves, and that this resur
rection shaU come at one time with the sounding of
the trump referred to by Paul. But where were
Moses and Elias who appeared on the Mount of
Transfiguration ? If they were resurrected from their
graves in anticipation of this last day, it shows a sin-

48 An Inspirational Speaker.
gular partiality in the Divine Mind to allow them to
rise frora their graves, and leave other prophets slum
bering until the trump shall sound. Again, he who
appeared to John upon the Isle of Patmos declared hira
self to be an angel, and not God, as John believed. If
the spirits can thus be raised without their physical
bodies, and appear to man, does it not appear absurd
that they should require, after many hundreds of
years, this physical body again, if they can leave the
grave and hold converse with mortals, and have taken
on the clothing of the spirit ?
" But the purpose of our reraarks to-night applies
to a more spiritual, and we trust a more interesting,
subject than this. It is concerning the actual con
dition of spiritual life, and the effect which material
organization has specifically upon that condition here
after. Undoubtedly modern Spiritualism has revealed
the fact to all who have come within the knowledge of
its philosophy, that the communion with spirits proves
not only their existence, not only that they inhabit a
world real and tangible, but that their condition in
that world is largely determined by the knowledge,
the occupation, the thoughts that are held in this life,
and that the wisdom and philosophy which can give
to humanity a tangible and distinct revelation con
cerning the effects that this life and its thoughts have
upon the next will do much to destroy the ancient
fear of death — that death which Paul refers to as
being sin. It is undoubtedly true that the existence

An Inspirational Speaker. 49
of ignorance in the world concerning the eleraents, the
priraal laws of spiritual being, accounts not only for
the criraes that are in existence, but for raany of
those weaknesses, faults, and foibles that would other
wise be reraoved.
" One of the most interesting inquiries concerning
the future state connects itself, not only with those that
are endowed with usual inteUigence, gifted with the
gifts of mind and the graces of the spirit, not only
with those who, ordinarily good, are well qualified to
enter another state of existence ; but the question
naturally arises, ' What becomes of those who are
idiotic? those afflicted with madness? those who have
raoral obliquity frora the hour of birth ? those who
commit crime seemingly for the love of crime ? And
what effect does idiocy, madness, moral obliquity have
upon the spirit itself?' A most interesting and
serious inquiry, since the perfections and imperfections
of human Ufe are all equally divided on an average ;
and since where an instance occurs of absolute
aggressive evil or of an unaccountable malady, they
form the subject of the study of the most enlightened
men on the earth.
" We have said in previous discourses that the
condition of the average man in the future life is in
the beginning just what it is here; that you besjin
your new state of existence where you left ofi" here ;
and you only leave behind you those tastes and
appetites that are purely raaterial, without leaving
VOL. II. E

50 An Inspiratio?ial Speaker.
behind any of the immediate consequences of those
material tastes or appetites. Now in the case of
idiocy, many persons who have believed in im
mortality for the most of mankind have rejected
immortality for those unfortunate beings. That might
be extended to madness, when the human mind
possesses no control over its thoughts or actions ; it
might also be extended to those who have only in
tellect without spiritual nature ; and so in the general
result we should only get a smaU minority of beings
adapted to immortal life. If intelligence is to con
stitute the test, then who would venture to draw the
line ? For the beasts termed brutes (though many
men being much less intelligent are far more brutal
than they) raight claim, with more propriety, admission
to the immortal existence than those who abuse them.
" But it is not a question of this kind. The germ
of spiritual existence belongs to all human beings, or
it is doubtful for aU. Everything wearing the human
form has either the germ of iramortal life, or there is
no immortality ; and that condition of future life
which wiU unravel the mysterious and painful results
of the violation of law in material life will go far to
prevent that violation, and make it possible that im-
raortal souls shall exist in fitting habitations here
after. We claim that every being wearing the human
form possesses an immortal spirit, that the spiritual
life animates, pervades that form, or it could not
exist ; that the breath ofthe living soul that descended

An Inspirational Speaker. 31
upon the first raan, as recorded, descends upon every
child that lives in the world, and that idiocy is only
an obscuringr of that inteUigence from outward view,
while the soul itself is immured in a prison.
"Dr. Howe, of Boston, a most distinguished
physician and naturalist, says that there is as much
difference between the cultivated idiot and one who is
uncultivated as there is between an ordinary person of
education and one who is uncultured. In the asylum
for idiots established in that city, many hundreds who
were supposed to have no intelligence whatever have
been reclaimed frora that abject state of ignorance to
one of average knowledge by various processes.
With some it is the intonations of music that fall
upon the poor benighted intelligence in some capti
vating strain, and gradually they learn to read by
musical sounds. With others it is a striking array of
brilliant colours ; and while the idiot in that direction
could not learn to read the ordinary printed letter in
black and white, if it is printed in yellow, or red, or
green, or blue, the idiot wiU learn to read. This goes
still further ; and oftentimes sentiments of the deepest
and profoundest kind, convictions, knowledge, are
developed in that way, until what was supposed to be
a huraan being lacking intelligence is raade a useful
raeraber of society. You do not think deaf persons
devoid of intelUgence, and he that is blind is natu
rally the subject of your corapassion. That which
you terra idiocy is but mental blindness — but the
E 2

52 Ail Inspirational Speaker.
defects of organization, the result probably of ante
natal influences that it would be well for you to under
stand and avoid. Those laws are within the range
of human study and human comprehension. You
immure the soul in the prison-house called the bodj^,
and there is oftentimes no release frora that but
death. The uncultivated idiot enters the spiritual
world as the babe enters this life, with no experience,
no intelligence, and it becoraes a question of serious
import concerning human physiology and anthropology
whether you will allow beings to be born into this
world that will give no experience to the spirit, and
allow it to be transported to spiritual existence with
out the experience that human life was intended to
give. " If this be true of those who are so unfortunate as
to be idiots, why not also true of the hundreds of
thousands of infants who are sent prematurely from
this world to the next, with no hour of earthly
existence, with no hour of sunshine, but hurried on
like pale overblown flowers that blossom in the shade
of the wall or in the cold barrenness of the cellar,
with nothing of the influence and strength of earthly
life to give them the thought, the aspirations, the
objects of being? Mankind are guilty of all this.
The murder of innocent children lies at your doors
and hearthstones ; and thousands go out from the
slums of your cities, from the haUs and palaces of
pleasure, daily and hourly, who have breathed no

An Insjnrational Speaker. 53
breath of earthly life. Idiots in spiritual existence !
transported before they have taken root on earth ;
gathered there by scores; and unto these do the
angels minister.
" You think it a great deprivation if your children
in the flower, the maturity and bloom of early youth,
are taken from you. But rather rejoice for those
than for the young buds — the very fledglings that go
out from your midst, ere they have plumed their
wings for flight. Oh, you will meet them face to face
in spiritual life, and they will look almost reprovingly
upon you ; for the experience which nature intended
has been denied them, and they must ever learn in
other ways than through the laws and forms of
earthly life.
" Madness is in itself a disease of the mind. The
madness that has once taken absolute possession of
the human mind is almost invariably the result of
disease, disorganization, the lack of physical know
ledge. But there is no greater madness in the world
than the fascination of pleasures, the aUurement to
crimes of that form of civilized life and that form of
. enlightened society that permits the souls of infants
to go from earthly life ere they have tasted the
experience intended by the Infinite. There is not a
subject of g;reater import; there is nothing that you
should learn more thoroughly and fully than to keep
people here in earthly life, until they have achieved
the experience of earthly existence. ' There are com-

54 An Inspirational Speaker.

pensations for this,' you say ; ' they are removed
from temptation and crime.' But who is strong
unless he learn to overcome temptation ? and who is
great unless he learn to battle with the realities of
life ? It is true they are removed to the care of
loving hands, and that spiritual existence pro^vides for
growth in knowledge and education ; but there is no
knowledge hke experience, no knowledge equal to
that which comes to every individual frora the secret
race of their souls and actual contact with the living
realities of life.
" Many are sent out thus, and they blossom like
pale primroses along the hedgerows of immortal life,
where the gardeners of God, who are the angels,
culture them carefully ; but they cannot become the
stately trees, nor can they reach the height of
blossom of the gorgeous rose, that hath" reached the
full fruition of life upon earth. It is a portion of
your punishment when you come to spirit-life that
you meet the result of your ignorance there face to
face. It is a portion of your punishraent that you
find there not only the results of your earthly
ignorance — but all those failures, all those longings,
and all those unfulfilled words and thoughts of your
own natures. You find thera there even like those
preraature buds that have failed to experience the full
fruition of life ; and that is a part of your future
reraorse. Besides that, the whole system of existence
in earthly life has been heretofore intended to satisfy

An Inspirational Speaker. 55
present need and present necessity and convenience.
Tliat which is acceptable has taken the place of
right ; and men have been taught to love honesty
because it is the ' best policy,' not because honesty is
the best ; to be good, because goodness prospers in
the end, not because goodness is the divine fruit of
the tree of life ; to love virtue, in order to gain the
esteem of your feUow-men, not because virtue is
better than vice ; and finally, the whole sentiraent
has becorae morbidly inactive with reference to those
spiritual duties and the absolute necessity of keeping
thought and mind and aspiration pure, as well as
conduct and life.
" We have referred to insanity in connexion with
the future life. Undoubtedly mankind are all
measurably insane ; that is, there is a lack of the
essential power which constitutes perfect reason. You
do not all go mad and slay one another. You are
not dangerous raaniacs in your households and araong
your fellow-beings ; but you are liable to be un
balanced by passing emotions, by popular impulses
and enthusiasm, by manias for war or greatness or
ambition. So it finally comes to be a test as to
whether the human reason itself is not liable to the
perversion and temporary suspension that perraanently
fiUs the lunatic asylum and causes your madhouses
to be peopled. Unquestionably there are hundreds
of persons even in lunatic asylums no more insane
than you are when angry, excited, or unbalanced.

56 An Insp'irational Speaker.
Undoubtedly there is many a maniac that occupies a
throne and makes war upon nations in a methodical
way whora you would not imprison within the walls
of a lunatic asylum, and yet his sole madness is to
slay his fellow-man, and he is possessed of the
sublime frenzy of human arabition which looks
upon human life as only valuable when belonging to
one. There are those within the limits and jurisdic
tion of asylums who have no other madness than
imagining themselves to be kings and queens ; and
there are those deemed mad whose only failing is that
they see and hold converse with beings of another
world. Such madness as this would make great
improvements in the world, since the presence of
such a lunatic in every house would aid largely td
check the present imperfections and ignorance con
cerning that future life.
" But supposing the mind to be really unbalanced —
supposing that, while the lack of reason exists in the
maniac, it generally is the result of physical imperfec
tion, either of a slowly creeping disease that has its
seat in the vital centres, or of some organic difficulty,
the result of hereditary taint; in which case it is
physical ; in which case the release comes when the
spirit is disenthralled; in which case the person is
irresponsible in the moral sense ; and in which case
there must be an awakening in spiritual Ufe that wiU
reveal some of the difficulties surrounding earthly
existence.

An Inspirational Speaker. 57
" For much of this insanity the existing order of
society is responsible ; since subjects often agitate the
minds* of persons that are forbidden to be discussed,
and when burdened with pent-up thoughts the raind
wUl inevitably become unbalanced. The man so
imprisoned may have broken down by the weight of a
single thought, which, if expressed, would have
relieved the mind from that natural tension and strife.
Be careful how you suppress intense thought upon
any subject. Be careful how you ask its suppression
in others. Be careful as mothers and friends to guard
the thought that presses down the sensitive daughter
or friend. Be sure you study this infirmity, and
become as alarmed as you would for any physical
symptoms. The diseases of the mind are oftentimes
more prevalent than those of the body; and the
subtle influence of the thought that cannot find
expression is oftentimes far more dangerous than the
suppression of circulation, or any undue quantity of
oxygen taken into the system. Be sure j'ou study
these as a portion of your lives, and that you make
free outlets and avenues for the expression of anxious
thoughts, that you allow in your children the expres
sion of ideas, even if they are not compatible with
your usual teachings ; and above all that you do not
suppress those intuitions and tendings to spiritual
expression. They have much to do with the existing
stages of insanity in the world ; for persons endued
with sensitive, impressionable natures are in another

58 An Ihpirafional Speaker.
atmosphere than that which ordinary people breathe,
have different thoughts and are acted upon by different
extraordinary intelligence ; and if that expression is
forbidden, if they may not tell the vision they see ; if
they have to repress, lest they come in contact with
some preconceived notion or opinion ; if forbidden to
teach of the grounds that relate to the spiritual nature
and futurity — then insanity is the result, and the
untoward effect is realized instead of that which is
beneficent and true and good.
"Many persons that in childhood are surrounded
by angels, and imagine (as you term it) themselves
watched over by guardian spirits, in middle life
becorae tormented by demons, because the good spirits
have been forced away — because you have forbidden
them to enter, and told the child not to believe, but
only to think it imagination. That imagination
turned recoils upon itself, and the doorway that was
open is shut, the benign influences have been replaced
by unkind ones, and the angels that have been sent
away have given place to spirits who are undeveloped,
and the victim is sent to the madhouse. Be sure
also in studying these things that you take into con
sideration the fact, the sublime fact, that this life is
the seed-ground, the time for sowing and planting
the spiritual truths, for the reception of spiritual
ideas. Be sure that you consider weU that that which
belongs to your highest interests and to your loftiest
thoughts in future life is that which you should

An Inspirational Speaker. 59
cultivate and study most here, not only because it
brings here raost happiness, but because it is
absolutely the only enduring thing, those matters
that pertain exclusively to the body, serving simply as
experience ; that those things that pertain exclusively
to the body serve only as the means whereby the
spirit has to gain knowledge of material laws ; while
that which is abiding, permanent, is the spiritual
nature itseU — the soul of man — the spirit that anon
shall put on the spiritual body and wear the garraent
of incorruption.
" You have places weU-nigh innuraerable established
for all kinds of physical raaladies, and even idiocy and
madness have received the kindest care of materia
niedica ; but the more searching physician is needed
in the soul — he that understands the spiritual nature
and that can unite with the healing of the body the
healing also of the mind ; he that can minister not
only to the disease of the body, but that knows the
reraedy for the spiritual disease. Find such an one,
and you have found out the one that will disenthral
the world. A principle may do it- — it is not a person.
Knowledge may do it — it is not an individual. Make
known to humanity the results of certain pernicious
forms of life and certain fictitious practices ; make
known the results of violation upon the hereafter, and
you supply the healing balm. In ninety-nine cases
out of a hundred no raan will voluntarily plunge into
the fire : make it for human knowledge and human

60 An Insjnrational Speaker.
happiness that the results of earthly existence and the
conditions of future life depend upon certain known
laws and principles that are just as easily followed,
and just as natural as the laws of life, and you go
very far to disenthral the world from every sin. Be
cause from the knowledge of that sin and its causes
comes freedom from ignorance in the same way ; and
as ignorance is the parent of sin, it comes to be a fact
in the world that you have only to present the truths
that belong to the spiritual nature, and you have a
panacea for the ills of spiritual life and material life.
" He who understands fully the laws of physical
life, protects himself from cold, will not voluntarily
breathe poisoned air, will not enter a place where he
is liable to misfortune ; and, understanding, guards
well his body, and sees to it that no untoward diver
sion comes in. Show man spiritually that these are
just as distinct and decisive laws ; let it be known
that these laws by being understood, aid in strengthen
ing and developing the soul, and that whatsoever you
do in violation of these laws renders the spiritual
nature weak, and makes the spiritual nature absolutely
unimportant, and you do much to disenthral the world.
Then it becoraes also true that the expression of these
truths in the world and their dispersion in society
constitutes the saving grace of man ; for that which
does not apply to man's practical life is not really a
thing of any value to huraan society. The golden
rule is set high, engraven upon aU the arches of your

A71 Inspirational Speaker. 61
sacred^temples, set in a shrine snowy and white, and
in the secret altars of your souls you believe in it im
plicitly ; but when it comes to daily life, and to the
application of it in your actions, then you hesitate and
falter, and the average man and woman yield on the
side of selfishness — the average man and woman fail
to meet this high and exalted ideal. Whatever shall
bring that ideal within your grasp, that shall make
you know not only that the golden rule is right pro
verbially, but right practically. Think of this every
hour when you hesitate between one act and another ;
that will save you. You are in doubt about a course
of conduct, yet you know perfectly well the raoral law
and the commandraent that applies to that action. But
you feel yourselves specially extenuated ; you draw
for yourselves a fine line of demarcation ; you make
metaphysical exceptions in your own favour, and ex
pect to escape the consequences, raerely because you
know what is right ; but that is the chief reason why
you will not be exerapt ; it is just the reason why,
with all your struggling, you do not attain that high
expression. " If the golden rule is applicable for any raan, at
any time, upon any given occasion, it is to all men, at
all times, and upon all occasions. If it be true you
must abide by it ; there is no exception to that rule ;
no business justifies it, no commerce with nations, no
laws, and no society. If it be true also that you know
each of those sophisms that you weave to protect your

An Inspirational Speaker.

self-respect and your individuality as sophisms, and
that when you stand face to face with your own spirit
you know it to be so, the cobwebs, the flimsy excuses
that are woven by society, whereby you adorn yom*
outward understanding and make yourselves believe
that you do the best under the circumstances — these
fall in fragments to your feet, and you see the pitiable
excuses in their naked barrenness, that you stand face
to face with your own ignorance, and that the soul
itself raust reap the consequences.
" You would consider that raan most foolish who,
in defiance of a cough and certain symptoms of con
sumption, exposes himself to the night air, going out
unprotected, and adding little by little to this disease
until it undermines his health and destroys his ex
istence. So in spiritual matters, it becoraes a very
easy matter to extend a line of demarcation, and say,
This little here and that little there will answer.
The only absolute way is that the spirit shall be pro
tected by final and ultimate laws, and that those laws
shall be fearlessly, constantly, unequivocally followed
without regard to the consequences. These laws are
so clear and so distinct, so well defined, and so well
known in the world, that no man ever need hesitate.
The right and the wrong — the doing of an act, from
the kindness that you bestow on the beggar by the
wayside to those subtle, moral, and intellectual specu
lations wherein you consider your brother man and
humanity — are aU as clearly and well defined as the

An Inspirational Speaker. 63
problems of Euclid, or as the system of mathematics.
Make this known, let it be certain that every spirit
suffers correspondingly to the neglect of duty, and
rejoices and is glad correspondingly to the fulfilment
of duty, and you have the solution of the whole moral
problems of the world.
" The pursuit of happiness — the actual individual
need of man — the desire to attain the greatest and
loftiest good, these come within the range of every one;
and it comes to be a fact that these selfish wants and
needs, these narrow pursuits, those individual problems
of happiness, melt and fade before the grand systems
of spiritual happiness, that cause a man to withdraw
from all yielding to mere external that he raay in
reaUty buUd up the spiritual.
" As we have stated, you enter spirit-life with all
these iraperfections and all these deformities upon you,
and it becoraes a question for mankind to have a
perfect immortal existence instead of the physical
teraporal life that belongs to the material. You edu
cate your young men to be statesmen, politicians,
physicians, or clergymen. The average young man is
not educated to any of these; but he must be a
useful raeraber to society. The nearer society culti
vates these young men into exactly the resemblance
of one another the better is society pleased. There
are masses of minds ground through the sarae raill of
classical education, and belles lettres, and legal argu
ment. They come out precisely in the same mould.

64 An Insjiirational Speaker.
and the world feels that it is infinitely better when
these highest types of legal, medical, theological, and
literary gentlemen are in the world. Your daughters
are all educated in the same mould ; society requires
certain forms of expression from them — they give
them in obedience to society. The schools are founded
upon this principle, and the nearer they resemble one
another the better society is pleased.
" Your gardener, while cultivating similitudes in
the types of daisies and roses, nevertheless encourages
variety, and you consider that horticulturist the most
successful who produces the highest individual types
of each form of plant. That society will be the best,
and that spiritual culture and raaterial culture the
finest, that shall raake roora in the world for the highest
cultivation of each individual gift; not that there
shall be so raany good citizens merely, but that each
citizen shall be an individual ; not that there shall be
so many good lawyers, and that each one shall possess
his particular gift and qualification, and be the highest
type of his kind ; but that those individual attributes
that make up the individual soul shall be allowed
room to grow, and not that each individual shaU be
forced into the mould of artificial life. In spiritual
life these aU change. The similitudes that exist in
societies of spirits are natural siraUitudes, because of
some common grand attraction. But the highest
attention is given to the individual growth of every
individual soul. You are not received into spiritual

An Inspirational Speaker. 65
existence as so many lawyers, doctors, and theolo
gians ; but you are each received as individuals, with
the merit of imraortal life peculiarly and distinctly
your own, and with the advantage that eternity is
large enough to allow of the culture of every indivi
dual quality that requires culture in spirit-Ufe.
" Eepression is the difficulty in raortal education ;
with spirits it is expression. Subjecting the intellect
to the authority and dictates of another mind is the
rule here ; allowing that intellect the fullest growth
is the rule in spirit. Making every child of earth a
prototype of some other child is your practice ; aUow
ing every child of the spirit to becorae distinctly and
absolutely itself, each working out that special indi
vidual experience and that special brightness that
belongs to its ideal and individual being, is the prac
tice with us. ' One star differeth frora another in
glory,' says Paul ; every star has its appointed place,
and every spirit is just as iraportant in the spiritual
firmament as every other one. The lowgst of those
whora you despise on earth is gathered into the gar
dens of Paradise and is one of the chiefest ; the least
of those souls that, alraost without a raurraur, go out
from your midst, is endowed with some special indi
vidual attribute and quaUty ; and those of you who
imagine yourselves in the humblest position in life,
and who are accustoraed to look upon the great and
wise and good as your superiors, you each have also
as great a possession as the greatest. Araong those
VOL. II. ^

66 An Inspirational Speaker.
whose names are enrolled upon the pages of history,
and who have traced their work's record in shining
deeds for their fellow- men ; among those that have
been the leaders of nations and societies, who have
given to humanity some precious gift, and have
adorned the world with the fruits of their genius ;
among those shining stars that rise above the horizon
in huraan life, and seem to shape the destiny of nations
by their calmness and grandeur — every human being
is destined to occupy a place. Not one but is pos
sessed of equal grandeur; not one but is endowed
with as splendid attributes ; not one but shall rise and
shine even as the greatest have done. And those we
have referred to, most unfortunate of earthly beings,
whom you are accustomed to look upon with the
greatest corapassion, and for whora, perhaps, your
pitying prayers and external professions avaU little —
these also are counted in the unnumbered hosts of
spiritual beings as equal to the others ; and these con
stitute some of the shining ones whose spiritual life
shall be traced even as the stars are in their courses,
even as the worlds are that decorate space.
" Chiefly let us reraind you again of those little
ones of whora Christ said, ' Of such is the kingdom of
heaven.' Bear in mind that the earth is the nursery
of souls; bear in mind that those souls that have not
gained knowledge, aud reaped the results of earthly
experience, must go out and gain that knowledge
under other conditions than those nature has provided.

An Inspirational Speaker. 67
See to it, that they go not to untimely graves ; see to
it, that they are not hurried and transplanted too soon
to the bowers of eternal life ; see to it, that those im
portant laws of nature that become divine when they
concern the welfare of the huraan spirit are no longer
evaded ; see to it, that you shape your lives, and be
come possessed of this knowledge, that the earth itself
shall be a paradise, and that you here behold all the
conditions of spiritual life."
Perhaps, however, some of the earlier discourses
are more iUustrative of the impromptu character of
Mrs. Tappan's speaking. From these I select the one
bearing the title : —
What Great Teacher has produced the most Potent Effect
u])on Society, and Why ?
This Oration was delivered in St. George's HaU,
on Sunday evening, September 28th, 1873. Before
Mrs. Tappan entered the hall, the Chairman, Mr.
Thomas Slater, the gentleraan raentioned above, stated
that, agreeably to announceraent, she would speak on
a subject selected by the audience, and that a cora
mittee should be chosen for that purpose. Drs.
Sexton and Clark (Spiritualists) and Messrs. Watt,
Goalen, and Cooper (non-Spiritualists) were accord
ingly duly elected to prepare a subject on which Mrs.
Tappan should speak. During the early part of the
service the comraittee retired and, on returning. Dr.
Sexton announced that the question proposed by a

68 An Inspirational Speaker.

non-Spiritualist and decided upon was that given
on the previous page. A hymn having been sung,
Mrs. Tappan proceeded with her address, having
previously delivered the foUowing characteristic
Invocation.
" Our Father, which art in heaven, infinite Spirit of
love and of life, thou divine and supreme source of all
intelligence, we praise Thee. Thy children would
lay upon the altar of thy love their offerings of devo
tion. Sorae corae to Thee laden with worldly cares,
bowed down and oppressed with the raanifold turaults
of outward life. 0, let thera turn within and behold
that, howsoever vast raay be thy raaterial workings,
thy Spirit is infinite, and the treasures of knowledge
are vast and boundless ! Sorae raay corae to Thee
laden with sorrow, mourning for the dead, and seeing
no light above the tomb. 0, above the grave, beyond
the pall, may they behold the brightening glory of
immortal life 1 may they see their loved ones in light
and beauty around ! Some come laden with joy, and
these lay their offerings upon thy shrine, as doth the
sun lay his fuU rich offerings upon the shrine of the
morning, shedding radiance within upon the spiritual
loveliness that gives light and kindles a flame of living
beauty. But, whatsoever offerings thy children bring.
Thou, infinite Spirit, wilt receive them. Thou alone
dost understand the secrets of the human heart ; Thou
alone hast provided for its needs ; and thy soul is in

An Inspirational Speaker. 69
our raidst, even though the clouds of materialism hide
thy wondrous face. 0 living Love ! 0 surpassing
Spirit, glorious and full of all loveliness ! let our words
be of truth; let our minds be awakened to under
stand ; let our spirits strive to know Thee, and then
we shall have all knowledge. To thy narae, 0 loving
Father, will thy children for ever sing praise ; and
unto Thee raust we for ever bring all our offerings of
love." Discourse.
" What Great Teacher has produced the most Potent
Effect upon Society, and Why ?"
" We believe we state the subject correctly. Un
doubtedly your coramittee do not expect us to go
back into those ages of human history the records
of which are lost, since existing society cannot be
affected by those periods of civilization that are
either wholly obscured in darkness, or have only just
emerged from their obscurity through the investi
gating hand of modern science. Past ages, of which
we know nothing except through the investiga
tions of modern scientists, cannot have had much
influence on the present condition of huraan society.
But in what consists huraan society ? It is custoraary
to believe among Christian nations so-called that the
enlightened portion of the earth's surface — that is,
the most civilized ofthe nations of the earth — consists
of those that have adopted and believe in what is

70 An Inspirational Speaker.
termed the Christian religion. A large proportion of
the earth's inhabitants do not accept, have not
adopted, and are entirely ignorant of the enlighten
ment and civilization accompanying Christianity.
" The first influence, or the most remote influence
of which history gives us any account, is the civiliza
tion that existed amongst the ancient Egyptians,
although the Chinese claim still greater antiquity.
But we raust deterraine that the highest point of
civUization in ancient times was reached among: the
Egyptians. Their worship, however, differed essen
tially from that of the raodern worshipper. The
veiled Osiris — the raysterious god, who had no external
representation, but who was hidden behind his works
— we may presume, represented the spirit of the uni
verse, or creation. Isis, the raother Earth, was
supposed to be the revelation of deity, or the im
mediate intercessor between Osiris and his children.
The Egyptians, however, were not satisfied with this
simple form of worship, but framed images of created
things and established ceremonials. Araongst their
various objects of worship was Apis, or the sacred
ox. Then there was the worship of the bird Ibis,
and of other beasts and reptiles, all of which were
supposed to represent deity. The serpent araongst
¦the Egyptians symbolized wisdom; not, as amongst
you, evU. And every form in nature which the
Egyptians worshipped was supposed to contain some
element of deity. But the whole of this system of

An Inspirational Speaker. 71
religion has been lost to the world, owing to the
destruction of the Alexandrian library. The raore
subtle eleraent of it, however, had already been lost —
namely, the spiritual meaning of these forms ; for, of
a certainty, no nation ever possessed a form of
religion that did not originate in sorae spiritual
inspiration in the beginning, and however raaterial
the coraraencement, the first inception of their wor
ship was from the Divine mind. Among the nations
of the East, embracing India and China, of all the
forms of worship — excepting the Mahomedan, which
has latterly extended widely over the Eastern world —
the most prominent are the Brahmin, and the
Buddhist. The Brahmin is an ideal worship. Its
ideas of divinity are inverse frora the senses. All
forms of speculative spiritual theories, every abstract
thought of divinity, rests with the Brahmin. He has
no syrapathy with the senses, although his systera
has its expressions ; he dwells in the realm of
transcendentalisra. Brahraa is concealed and veiled,
but is represented by the three great powers or
principles of nature. These principles are the Past,
the Present, and the Future — the Creator, the Preserver,
and the Destroyer of the universe. In these guises
or forras soraetiraes he worships the past, sometimes
bows in homage to the present, and sometimes
wanders far into the regions of the future. The
Buddhist, on the contrary, believes in an outward
expression of divinity, wherein God, at certain and

72 An Inspirational Speaker.

stated periods of tirae, manifests himself through
Buddha, comes to the earth, and teaches the chUdren
of men. Buddhas have been numerous, and the last
was about 200 or 300 years before the Christian era.
This Buddha is supposed to corae, at certain stated
intervals, as the representative of the Divine mind.
" In the teachings of Buddha great prominence is
given to the external forms of worship and practical
charity and kindliness to our fellow-raen. The
Buddhist, contrary to the Brahmin, believes in the
practical expression of religion, that human life should
be governed by it, and that it should form its diviner
part. We have the worshippers in the far East of
various material eleraents, such as fire, air, and water ;
and, indeed, the Persian fire-worshippers forra no
sraall part of the wonderful systems of religion which
hold sway in the world. The Indians, as you know,
have their bibles, such as their Vedas and other sacred
books. Zoroaster developed the principles of the
religion of the ancient Persians in the Zend-Avesta,
and many of its teachings compare favourably with
those of raore recent books, and in fact are the origin
of the teachings of raore modern religions. Araong
the Chinese the sacred books consist of the writings
of Confucius. He represents the more modern and
more concentrated thought of their ancient religions.
The teachings of Confucius embrace the inspiration,
and were the reproduction of the phUosophy of ancient
times, when the seers and prophets were truly inspired;

An Inspirational Speaker. 73
he represents the erabodiment and handing down to
posterity of the inspirations of aU previous ages.
Thus there have been at all tiraes, outside the realm
of iijspiration of ancient days, certain leading minds
which almost take the position of seers and prophets.
The works of Confucius exhibit so perfect a code of
spiritual ethics, as to constitute it one of the systems
of the present day ; and yet they are but the erabodi
ment of the thoughts of the most inspired minds of
his and previous tiraes. For remeraber, all inspired
works of Deity are not comprised in the so-called
bibles of nations ; and there have been prophets and
sages reared up outside of established churches, and
their inspirations have ever redounded to the benefit
of humanity. The religion and theology of all nations
represent the highest thought of their inspired writers
united. Unquestionably the Bible of the Hebrew
nation, said to be the progenitor of the Christian
religion, is the embodiment or compendium of the
writings of the Hebrew prophets and seers. But
there have been superior minds, as we have said, like
Socrates, Confucius, and Aristotle, who have concen
trated and embodied the teachings of inspired men ;
and these concentrations, afterwards disentombed,
have been found to bear the most searching light and
criticism of inspired thought. The Hebrews were
especially an inspired race. Hence we know they
held their first communings with the Spirit of
Jehovah — Je-ho-vah meaning Spirit of the Past, the

74 An Inspirational Speaker.
Present, and the Future — the one God, than whora
there was no other, and before whora all other gods
raust bow. This was in contradistinction to the
many gods of the other Eastern nations, while the
Hebraic nation in their original simplicity believed
but in the one Divine Godhead. Their seers and
prophets looked forward to a time on the earth when
Jehovah should raanifest himself in person, and corae
to rule on the earth as their king. Consequently all
the songs of praise, the prophecies, and inspirations of
the Old Testament deplored the materialism of the
age in which the writers lived, and looked forward to
the great day when the very Spirit of God should
dwell in the midst of the nations of the earth. This
Hebrew nation, however, was rather exclusive ; and
if Deity had never spoken to the earth before, nor in
any other manner, he surely has not spoken according
to the Hebrews since ; for, although they expected
a Messiah, and looked forward to his coming, when
at last it was supposed he had come, the Hebrews
would not accept him, and they are yet waiting for
their king who shall restore thera to the New
Jerusalera ; and so firra is this conviction that they
have preserved their teraples and their ancient
customs, and around their shrines gather only the
chUdren of the downcast nation of Israel. Spread
abroad throughout the countries ofthe earth, they are
buUding up material prosperity, awaiting their
Saviour who is yet to come, as they contend.

An Inspirational Speaker. 75
" Meanwhile there came a voice in the East, simple
like that of a child. There dawned a star, there
beamed a day, and the wise raen saw that the Christ
they had so long expected had corae. Now it does
not matter, in our opinion, whether, as the infidel
believes, this birth of Jesus is a tradition, or whether,
as the Christian believes, it is a reality ; the influence
of that supposed birth upon the world is precisely
the same — and whether you take it from the stand
point of the secularist or the standpoint of the
religionist, it does not matter. The point we have
to consider is, what effect this theory has had upon
the world. Born in obscurity, raised in humbleness,
and at last proraulgated throughout the most
advanced and civiUzed nations of the earth ! — what
effect has this had upon humanity ? The religions of
preceding ages — all religions antecedent to this of
Jesus — accepted and believed in raaterial worship.
Temples were buUt, places were set apart, symbols of
the Godhead were formed, and every rehgion becarae
an idolatry on the face of the earth. The Spirit of
God departed from the Egyptian, from the Brahmin,
from the Buddhist, from the Persian forra of worship,
because they carae to construct idols of wood and
stone, and to build raagnificent teraples wherein no
spirit could be found. Even the Hebrews because
of their materialisra were banished frora their sacred
Jerusalera, and their gorgeous temple was overthrown
because they would not listen to the voice of the

76 An Inspirational Speaker.

Spirit. Christ's lesson from first to last, then and
now, whether in the words recorded, or in the
influences left upon his immediate disciples, was this :
Past religions have believed that there were inter-
mediate gods, and that the Most High God was
entirely out of the reach of mortals. Christ taught
that between the human soul and the Father there is
no intercessor but love ; and the divinest feature of
his teaching was that it left the individual in the
hands of deity, instead of in the hands of an outside
god who might or might not listen to prayer. More
than this, instead of oflerings of bloodshed and burnt-
offerings and sacrifices, he taught that the only offer
ings were those of the human spirit, that the only
sacrifice was the sacrifice of the senses, and that to the
spiritually-minded there is no need of an intercessor,
for God is there and will listen. Could anything be
more at variance with the materialisra of the past than
this? Could anything be more surprising to the
existing forms of worship then upon the earth than
this simple teacher, without retinue, without shrine
or altar or priests, rising up in the midst of his
fellow-people and declaring that God is not in any
shrine or temple, but in the huraan heart alone ? It
was the advent of the Spirit as against matter, of the
spiritual nature of man as against the material nature,
the advent of the true form of worship as against
idolatry ; and, whatsoever man raay have done in the
name of Christianity and religion, the teachings of

An Inspirational Speaker. 11
Christ reraain the same — clear, transparent, everlast
ing protests against aU outward forms and ceremonies
that are not born of the living spirit of inspiration.
Christ's life and example represent the possibility of
man as a teacher, as an elder brother. Why, the
Eoman Catholic Church even clairas that he represents
that to which all raay become heirs by their spiritual
gifts ; and this may be said of the Eoman Catholic
Church, in spite of its idolatry, temples, and cere
monials, that it invariably preserves the spiritual gifts
wherever they are authenticated, and places thera
upon the records of the Church as instances that the
spirit is stiU alive, however rauch the matter that
surrounds thera raay kUl the spirit. But it is
recorded that Christ taught that those who believed
should perforra even greater things than he had done.
He gave his disciples the gifts of the Spirit — the gift
of tongues, of prophecy, of the interpretation of
tongues, and of healing. AU these gifts he gave, and
his disciples becarae possessed of them. May we
ask where they are now ? And do the believing
possess the Spirit as they ought ? Christ's teachings
were those of lovingkindness and direct and perfect
charity, that casts out all complaining and bitterness,
and brings huraanity closer and closer to the Father
in the bonds of love.
" We do not criticise the Christian world to-day ;
we do not criticise the warfare, the bloodshed, and
crimes that are incident to humanity. In spite of

78 An Inspirational Speaker.
these the truth is abroad, and notwithstanding these
the spirit of Christ is struggling in your raidst to-day.
It has been said that Christianity has been the cause
of more bloodshed than all other religions put
together. What can you say of Mahomedanisin,
that, with the sword in the one hand and the Koran
in the other, devastates the whole of the empires of
the East? Knocking at the doors of established
customs and of ancient religions, it demanded instant
acceptance or death. Mahomedanisra had sorae
inception of religion, but when its promulgation is
accorapanied by devastation and ruin, we can have no
word for it but condemnation. But these nations
have sunk into degradation, while the ancient religions
have been quenched. It is true war has followed in
the wake of Christianity ; but it is not true that this
is attributable to the spirit of Christianity. If men
make war upon their fellow-men, shall we blame that
religion which advocates love and human-kindness ?
Eather say that it is the undeveloped state of man
kind ; that, notwithstanding this light, human selfish
ness, cupidity, and ignorance seek to make a cloak
and shield of rehgion to slay mankind. Shall we say
that it is Christianity that has brought about all the
revolutions of the last eighteen hundred years ? War
was known before. Cupidity and ignorance prevail ;
and if under the guise of religion man slays his
brother, it is not because of religion, but in spite of it
that he does so. Christ's teachings in their simplicity

An Inspirational Speaker. 79
would lead only to peace. Christ's Serraon on the
Mount, whatever sermons may be spoken or written,
will never be transcended ; it remains the one shining
utterance on the page of all history that reconciles
man to the Infinite. Christ's comraandraent — 'A
new commandraent I give unto you, that ye love one
another' — transcends the whole of the Mosaic law,
since it brings humanity into close brotherhood, and
makes them one with the Father. Christ's prayer to
the Deity, recognising the Father, 'our Father,'
makes every child of the earth one with the Infinite,
and establishes the bond between humanity and God.
Immortality, that was before a vague hope, an uncer
tain speculation that had no share and part in the
ancient religions, except in some forra of transmigra
tion, re-incarnation, or sorae other raethod, was made
clear and plain ; and instead of mysticisra and fable,
it was brought to the understanding of every one.
' In my Father's house are many mansions ; I go to
prepare a place for you,' says Jesus to His loving
followers. What more could you have of the future
state ?
" Then, when predicting his final change, he saw
the glory of the life which should eventually follow ;
and when he said he should corae again, it was literally
fulfiUed in his presenting himself to his disciples;
and when he said, " If I go away, I will send you a
comforter, even the Spirit of Truth,' has it not been
proven that aU who seek find it ? We say nothing as

80 An Inspirational Speaker.
to the different interpretations of Christ's teachings ;
we say nothing of the various creeds and theologies
that have been built upon them, though all have their
uses ; we make no war with them even though they
war with one another ; but we say that if the foun
dation of the Christian religion be Christ's teaching,
and the foundation of Christian society Christ's
exaraple, the world can never possess a higher stan
dard ; for it is better, if we fall short of the raark,
airaing high, than if we only aira at the rocks beneath
our feet. The golden rule should be inscribed on
every altar and shrine, so that every one who strives
therefor raay have the consciousness of striving ; and
Jesus taught that those who strive, even though they
fail, have some of the rewards of the spirit of God's
love. We know that there is a very strong argument
against the originality of Christ's teachings, and that
raaterialists and infidels have searched history and
found a parallel between the teachings of Christianity
and those of other religions ; that there was soraething
sirailar in the writings of Confucius, and that other
teachers taught the golden rule — but Christ was the
first teacher who erabodied his teachings in the loving
works of his life and hands — Christ was the first
teacher to awaken the consciousness that spirit is
superior to raatter, and that the soul transcends
the casket in which God has placed it.
" And we know of nothing better to-day than in
the fulness of the human understanding to know that

An Inspirational Speaker. 81
these lessons, however perverted and abused araong
men, form the chief aim and inspiration of the loftiest
minds in human society. Even when they do not know
it, and when materiaUsra enthralls the senses, the un
conscious leaning is towards that high standard of
moral exceUence and spiritual worship ; and though
they are humble in thought, they shun the more
external forras of creed and cereraonial, and seek this
true and living spirit within it. The greatest thought
of the Christian world is for the peace and advance
ment of humanity. Whatever kings may do, or
selfish demagogues raay deraand, we know that
Church and State are alike united with the greatest
and highest powers of the earth to bring about
' peace on earth and goodwUl to raen ;' that the
British nation as a governraent has set its face towards
the ' golden rule,' in striving towards that arbitrament
that shaU cause the sword to be set aside and the
understanding of huraanity to be used in its stead.
When such a thought is in the rainds of your rulers,
we certainly do not despair ; and when the greatest
minds, raoved by the irapetus of huraan fellowship
and love, look kindly and joyously towards the era
when goodwiU shaU prevail, and when the nations of
the earth shall be gathered together beneath the eye of
God, and when huraan governraents shall try the mUd
sway of the Christian, we cannot conderan, but on
the contrary say that spirit is abroad in aU the lands ;
that it forras the basis and foundation upon which the
VOL. II. G

82 An Inspirational Speaker.
superstructure of human society is built ; that the
spirit wiU kill the letter as the letter has sometiraes
killed the spirit, is unquestionably true; and that
in an age not far distant, without the eye of prophecy,
the religionist and statesman can say there wiU be an
entire end of wars and bloodshed and governraents of
force, and that the suprerae law of all the land wiU be
this law of peace. No other teaching could have
wrought this work. It matters not, as we say,
whether it be a clever creation of the early teachers
of the Christian Church, or whether, as we believe,
Christ was indeed an inspired teacher. It raatters
not : the influence upon society is still the sarae, and
the great culmination of moral and spiritual thought
was in the birth and life and teachings of Jesus of
Nazareth." Having finished her discourse, the lecturess
offered to answer any question by the coramittee
bearing upon the subject treated. Mr. Cooper rose,
and, in the name of the comraittee, thanked Mrs.
Tappan for her eloquent address, and said he only
spoke the sentiments of all when he said they had all
been delighted with what they had heard. He only
wished such a sermon might be heard every Sunday
in all the churches of the metropoUs. Mrs. Tappan
then offering to answer any question put to her by
the audience, a gentleraan asked, " Do you regard
Christ as really God, or merely as a human teacher ?"

An Inspirational Speaker. 83
To which the lecturess answered, "We were not
asked for our theological views ; we were only re
quested to state what great teacher had had the
greatest influence on human society." Another
gentleraan considered the speaker had not fully
answered the question erabodied in the subject of the
discourse. She had shown that Christ had had the
greatest influence on huraan society, but had not
pointed out why. He should have expected, and no
doubt the gentleman who had asked the last
question had expected, the answer — Because he
was God. Mrs. Tappan replied that "For our
selves, we believe that all truth is of God, and
Christ erabodied in his form as much of deity
as the truth he expressed ; that he was the Son
of God, and that he represented the possible of raan,
inasrauch as he proraised the same gifts to others that
he himself possessed. But we certainly decline enter
ing into any discussion upon the creed of the Trini
tarian or Unitarian, or any form of theological
controversy. Christ's v/ords when he says : ' I and
my Father are one,' did not mean he was God ; if he
and his Father were one, it siraply signified they
were one in spirit ; and the proraise given to earth's
children, the sarae as to Christ, is, that Christ could
not have been a greater embodiment of deity than the
divine and perfect humanity he represented." Another
gentleman having understood the speaker to eulogize
the connexion of Church and State, the answer was
g2

84 An Inspirational Speaker.
given: "We do not eulogize J^the connexion of
Church and State unless the Church and State are so
reformed as to have neither Church nor State." And
to a further remark : " We believe all churches and
religions should have free action in every land be
neath the sun." A gentleman in the gallery, while
speaking in high terms of the discourse as a whole,
questioned the speaker's conclusions with reference to
Buddhism. If she meant that Christ's teaching had
exercised the greatest influence on Christian society,
then he granted she was right ; but if she meant
human society, or the human race as a whole, then
he begged to differ with her, for there were from
three to four hundred mUlions of the human race
who were believers in Buddhism, while only a small
minority were Christians. Then again, he believed
the speaker had been wrong in her estimate of
Buddhisra, in representing its central doctrine as the
periodical incarnation of deity ; the researches of
raodern science had led raen to doubt very rauch
whether the whole systera was not an atheism. In
her reply, Mrs. Tappan said that numbers were no
criterion of exceUence ; it had been indicated that the
Christian portion ofthe world was in a minority, yet
in human society the Christian portion represented
the most advanced state of modern civilization. It
had been said that human society might fairly be
caUed that portion of the human race which was in
the most advanced state of enlightenment, and that

An Inspirational Speaker. 85
portion was represented by the Christian nations.
With reference to the second point, they must be
allowed to have their opinion. They did not claim
infallibility, and were open to conviction ; they had
been asked to give their opinion, and had given it.
The following particulars, too, relative to the
spread of the belief, are extracted from one of the most
widely circulated of its tracts : —
" Another fact, comparatively unknown, is that an
important literature of the subject exists. For many
years the subject has received the attention of able
and courageous men, and many valuable works have
appeared in relation to it. We may narae the follow
ing: — 'The Two Worlds: the Natural and the
Spiritual ; their Intiraate Connexion and Eelation,
illustrated by Examples and Testiraonies, Ancient
and Modern ;' by Thomas Brevior. ' The History of
the Supernatural in all Ages and Nations ;' by Wil
liam Howitt ; 2 vols. ' Footfalls on the Boundary of
Another World ; with Narrative Illustrations ;' by
Eobert Dale Owen. 'Planchette; or, the Despair of
Science ;' by Epes Sargent. ' Modern American
Spiritualism : a Twenty Years' Eecord of the Com
munion between Earth and the World of Spirits ;' by
Emma Hardinge. ' The Debatable Land ;' by Eobert
Dale Owen. ' Outlines of Ten Years' Investigation
of Spiritualism;' by T. P. Barkas. 'Hints for the
Evidences of SpirituaUsm ;' by M.P. ' SpirituaUsm :
a Narrative, with a Discussion ;' by Patrick B. Alex-

86 An Inspirational Speaker.
ander, M. A., Edinburgh, Author of ' Mill and Car-
lyle,' &c. ' Experimental Investigations of Psychic
Force ;' by WiUiam Crookes, F.E.S., &c. ' The Ee-
port of the London Dialectical Society's Committee
on Spiritualism.' ' Concerning Spiritualisra ;' by
Gerald Massey. ' Nature's Secrets ; or. Psychometric
Eesearches ;' by William Denton. ' Glimpses of the
Supernatural ;' by Adin Ballon. ' Spiritual Experi
ences ;' by Eobert Cooper. ' The Night Side of
Nature ;' by Mrs. Crowe. ' Spiritualism : its Facts
and Phases; Illustrated with Personal Experiences;'
by J. H. Powell. 'The Confessions of a Truth-
seeker : a Narrative of Personal Investigations into
the Facts and Philosophy of Spirit-Intercourse.'
' Scepticism and Spiritualism : the Experiences of a
Sceptic ;' by the Authoress of ' Aurelia.' ' Is it True ?
Intercomraunication between the Living and the (so-
called) Dead ;' by a Working Man. ' Plain Guide to
Spiritualism ;' by Uriah Clark. ' Notes and Studies
on the Philosophy of Animal Magnetism and Spiritual
ism ;' by Dr. Ashburner. ' From Matter to Spirit :
the Eesult of Ten Years' Experience in Manifesta
tions;' by Mrs. De Morgan. 'The Magic Staff;' by
A. J. Davis. ' Spiritualism ;' by Judge Edmonds
and Dr. Dexter. ' Supraraundane Facts in the Life
of Dr. Ferguson ;' edited by Dr. T. L. Nichols. ' Ex
perimental Investigations of the Spirit-Manifesta
tions ;' by Professor Hare. ' Incidents in my Life ;'
by D. D, Home, ' Spirit-Drawings ;' by W. M, Wil-

An Inspirational Speaker. 87
kinson. 'The Scientific Aspect ofthe Supernatural;'
by A. E. Wallace, F.Z.S. ' The Arcana of Spiritual
ism ;' by Hudson Tuttle. Many of these works have
had a great circulation, several of the volumes of A.
J. Davis, the celebrated clairvoyant, attaining frora
ten to forty editions respectively.
" At the present tirae, in addition to these volumes,
the periodical literature on the subject indicates a
widespread interest in it. In the United States, the
Banner of Light (Boston), a weekly paper, has been
established for upwards of a dozen years, and enjoys
a very large circulation. The Beligio-Philosophical
Journal (Chicago) is also a weekly paper, established
some years ago, having an extensive circulation.
Britain's Journal of Spiritual Science is a high-class
quarterly, emanating from New York. In England
we have the Spiritual Magazine, Human Nature, the
Christian Spiritualist (monthly), the Spiritualist (bi
monthly), and the Medium (weekly). In the foUowing
countries Spiritualism is represented by forty-seven
periodicals : — France, 3 ; Belgium, 3 ; Holland, 2 ;
Denmark, 1 ; Eussia, 1 ; Germany, 1 ; Austria, 3 ;
Bohemia, 1 ; Spain, 1 5 ; Italy, 6 ; Greece, 1 ; Egypt,
1 ; Turkey; 1 ; Brazil, 2 ; Uruguay, 1 ; La Plata, 2 ;
Peru, 1 ; Chili, 1 ; Mexico, 1. There was also one,
until lately, in the Eepublic of Ecuador, but it has
just been suppressed through the influence of the
priests, as was also the case in Sicily. In all countries
Spiritualism is regarded as the bulwark of religious

88 An Inspirational Speaker.
freedora, spiritual enlightenraent, and a higher rao-
rality; and hence it is equally opposed by the upholders
of priestly dorainion and those who are iraraersed in
worldly pleasures and occupations.
" In the AustraUan colonies and in South Africa this
work has taken deep root, though in the latter colo
nies no periodicals exist. In Melbourne the Harbinger
qf light is published raonthly, and a powerful local
association exists. The Echo of Dunedin, New Zea
land, advocates Spiritualisra, and several other papers
admit of its free discussion. Spiritualism is also
making steady progress in India and the colonial pos
sessions of various European countries.
" It is a notable fact, too, that raany well-known
men and women, with a good repute for learning,
science, and sense, have been and are among the
number of those who at least accept the ' facts,'
whatever they make of thera. We may name as
'believers' — the late President Lincoln ; W. Lloyd
Garrison ; the poet LongfeUow ; Mrs. H. B. Stowe ;
Bayard Taylor ; the late Dr. Kane, Arctic explorer ;
the late Eev. J. Pierpoint ; Lord Lindsay ; the late
Lord Dunraven ; Lord Adare ; C. F. Varley, F.E.S. ;
the late Dr. Eobert Chambers ; Dr. Gully ; Dr. J. G.
WUkinson ; Dr. Ashburner ; the late Dr. ElUotson ;
the late Professor De Morgan ; H. G. Atkinson,
F.G.S. ; William and Mary Howitt ; Mr. and Mrs.
S. C. Hall ; Gerald Massey ; Dr. Sexton ; the late
W. M. Thackeray; the late Elizabeth Barrett Brown-

An Inspirational Speaker. 89
ing ; Serjeant Cox ; W. Crookes, F.E.S. ; A. E.
WaUace, F.Z.S., &c. &c.
"Amongst crowned heads Spiritualism has made
many conquests. The late Prince Consort was
deeply interested in clairvoyance. Mr. Home, the
well-known medium, has visited the palace ; and
several merabers of the Eoyal Faraily are investigators.
Mr. Horae has also been a visitor at the Courts of
St. Petersburg, Berlin, and Paris."

90

MODEEN MYSTICISM.
Closely connected with Modern Spiritualism — indeed
so closely that sorae of us fail to detect the frontier
line that separates the two — is the creed of Sweden-
borgianism. It is, I am aware, only by almost
straining the somewhat elastic signification of ray
title that I am able to include the doctrines of the
New Jerusalera Church in a work on "Heterodox
London," and do it under protest, and simply for the
sake of illustrating the larger subject ; for — I do not
say it offensively — Swedenborgianism certainly stands
related to Spiritualism as the species to the genus.
Swedenborgianism is the specific revelation of one
particular seer, Eraanuel Swedenborg, whora Emerson,
in his " Eepresentative Men," sets down as the Mystic
par excellence, and whose utterances the raore orthodox
of the New Jerusalera Church deem final. They
acknowledge the spiritual nature of the phenoraena
of Modern Spiritualisra, but question their character.
This point I have already elaborated with sorae care ;
and aU I purpose to do in the present work is to
describe very briefly the typical place of worship
where these doctrines were represented at the period
of writing ray present work, and to add one or two of

Modern Mysticism. 91
the most recent utterances from its chief exponent in
London; more by way of pendant to what I have
said above on the generic subject of Spiritualism than
as going over again ground which I feel has been
sufficiently covered already.
If we accept the impersonation of Emerson, above-
mentioned, the New Jerusalera Church is the shrine
and focus of modern mysticisra. Under such an
aspect, and not without reference to the present rather
prominent claims of occult science to be heard in our
midst, I deterrained to pay a visit one Sunday raorn
ing to the handsorae chapel in the Mall, Kensington,
formerly occupied by Mr. Offord, and recently handed
over to Dr. Bayley, who removed thither from the
New Jerusalem Church, in Argyle Square, King's
Cross. The Mall Chapel is a handsorae and commodious
building, and its fittings rich in the extreme. A finely
draped altar bore, as is the custom in Swedenborgian
places of worship, an open Bible, and was adorned
with an exceedingly rich frontal, with the sacred
monogram bordered with lilies of exquisite workman
ship. Two pulpits stood within the chancel rails
flanking the altar ; and in one of these a young and —
will he permit me to say it ? — handsorae man was
reading the service. The other was occupied by Dr.
Bayley himself, who took a large share of the prayers
too. Each was habited in surplice and bands. A
font stood in front of the altar raU; while over

92 , Modern 2Iy sti cism.

the Holy Table were the Ten Comraandraents and
Christ's summary of Duty to God and Man. There
was nothing in any of the arrangements to show that
one was not in an " orthodox" Church of somewhat
rich and complete adornments. The choir was a
mixed one, and rendered the musical portions of the
service effectively, to the accompaniment of an excellent
organ well manipulated.
The service, which was one of a varied series of set
forms arranged for the different Sundays of the month,
opened with a prayer, culminating, as it were, in the
Lord's Prayer. The Psalms were divided into por
tions for the year, and each bore above it Swedenborg's
" Internal Sense." Two lessons were separated by an
anthem — Elvey's "Arise, shine" — and succeeded by
the Commandments with Kyrie. Another prayer
followed ; and then, after giving notice of Good Fri
day and Easter Sunday services. Dr. Bayley preached
a sermon as follows : —
" ' Now in the morning as he returned into the city he
hungered. And when he saw a fig-tree in the way, he
came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only ;
and said to it. Let no fruit groio on thee henceforward
for ever. And presently the fig-tree loithered away.' —
Matt. xxi. 18-19.
" This day being Palra Sunday has long been re
garded as the appropriate tirae to coraraeraorate the
remarkable entry of our Lord into Jerusalem, in royal

Modern Mysticism. 93
state, as described in the chapter before us. He ful
filled the prophecy of Zechariah, given five hundred
years before. Jesus entered as the king of Jerusalem
in its symbolic character, the Church. That prophecy
is a very remarkable one. It runs, ' Eejoice greatly,
O daughter of Zion, shout, 0 daughter of Jerusalem,
thy King cometh. He is just, and having salvation,
lowly, and riding upon an ass.' — Ch, ix. 9.
" The day of humiliation and gloom was at hand,
but it was to be preceded by a day of exaltation and
triumph. The Lord, before He suffered, was to be
hailed as king. The disciples, the coramon people,
and the children united to salute Him as the King of
Zion. They went before to salute Him, and crowded
around with branches in their hands and strewed
them upon the way, praising God for all the mighty
works that they had seen, and saying, ' Blessed be
the King, that cometh in the name of the Lord :
peace in heaven, and glory in the highest.' The full
significance of this impressive procession will not be
perceived unless we dwell a little upon the circum
stances. The prophecy designates Jesus as the King
of Zion. In every other place where the king of Zion
is naraed in Zechariah, it is accorapanied by words
indicating the King Eternal. In the 14th chapter,
V. 1 6, it is said ' The nations shall go up from year
to year to worship the King, the Lord, or Jehovah
of hosts.' And in the following verse, ' And it shall
be that whoso will not corae up of all the farailies

94 Modern Mysticism.

of the earth unto Jerusalera to worship the King, the
Lord, or Jehovah of hosts, even upon them shall be
no rain.' In verse nine of the same chapter, we find,
' And the Lord (Jehovah) shall be king over all the
earth : in that day there shall be one Lord (Jehovah)
and His name one.'
" The Lord Jesus then, in fulfilling this prophecy,
was really intimating before His suffering that He
was Jehovah in the flesh. Let us notice the incidents
as set forth in this chapter, which preceded His last
great entry into the corrupt and therefore self-dooraed
city. " He sent two disciples into a village, over against
Bethphage on the Mount Olives. Because He was
omniscient He told them they would find an ass and
her colt tied. They were to loose them and bring
them to Hira. Because He was the Great Proprietor
of the Universe to whora aU things belong. He was
the Suprerae Owner of these animals, and therefore
He said, ' If any man say ought unto you, ye shall
say the Lord hath need of thera ; and straightway he
will send them.'
"These things were done. The Divine Saviour
entered Jerusalera seated on the colt, accompanied by
its mother, surrounded by His disciples and an
exultant multitude, headed by children, singing
'Hosanna to the Son of David.' The whole city, we
are told, was moved. The cry arose everywhere.
Who is this ? The answer given by the multitude

Modern Mysticism. 95
was. This is Jesus of Nazareth of Galilee. But the
Eedeemer showed He was more than a prophet,
greater than the teraple, the Lord of the Sabbath.
" He visited the teraple and found it, not the house
of wisdom, prayer, and peace, but of traders. The
desecrated sanctuary of God was turned into a den of
thieves. Acting as the Divine Judge — and with the
authority and majesty which he exerted whenever
needed, and which over-awed alike the faithful and
the faithless, which cowed evil spirits and calmed the
sea — He cast out unresistingly all that bought and
sold, overthrowing the tables of the money changers,
and of them that sold doves. He then restored for a
time the teraple to its proper use. The blind and tbe
larae carae to hira, and he healed thera all.
"This reform, however, was not from within but
from without, and therefore was but teraporary.
Jesus left the city again, and withdrew to Bethany.
" Interesting as these particulars are as acquainting
us with the stirring events of the closing period of
our Lord's life in the world, we shall derive far
deeper and more profitable lessons if we regard them
in their spiritual and symbolic character. The Jewish
Church was corrupt, and drawing to its close. It was
not wanting in knowledge, but it had systematically
perverted what it knew. They loved darkness rather
than light, because their deeds were evil. They had
made the comraandraents of God of none effect by
their traditions. The priests were like whited sepul-

96 2Iodern Mysticism.

chres, outwardly fair, but inwardly full of dead raen's
bones and aU uncleanness. They had had their day,
but it was rapidly drawing to a close. They had been
visited, warned, admonished, invited. And now, for
the last time, in the most impressive way, they were
shown-their duty, in the strongest yet in the tenderest
manner. How often, said the Saviour, would I have
gathered thy children as a hen gathered her brood
under her wings, and ye would not. 'As he approached
the city. He wept over it saying. If thou hadst known
in this thy day the things belonging to thy peace ;
but now they are hid from thine eyes.'
" Such was their day. Every nation has its day,
so has every individual. Time is to-day — the day of
probation. Eternity is to-raorrow. Alas 1 how sad
it is when the day is evilly spent, as it was with
Jerusalera, then is the to-raorrow a period of condera-
nation and withering away.
" We shall understand still more vividly the
spiritual lesson involved in the circurastances before
us, arising out of their symbolic character.
" The fig-tree is an emblera of religion bearing fruit
in daily life. The fig-tree was a fruit-tree, but not so
valuable as the vine or the olive. It was not culti
vated in oliveyards or vineyards, but grew on the
way-side. Trees in Scripture are the erableras of
truths in the mind. The cultivated soul is like a
cultivated garden. There are truths of various kinds,
as there are trees of various kinds. The truths of

Modern Mysticism. 97
love, the slightest truths of religion, are represented
by the olive. Hence, it is said, in Zechariah, there
are two olive trees, the symbols of love to God and
love to man, before the throne. Of the gentle influ
ences which flow from these truths, the Psalmist
speaks when he says, ' Thou hast anointed ray head
with oil, my cup runneth over.' The vine represents
truths of faith, and its wine their power to corafort
and cheer the soul. Hence, when the trees, in the
parable in the ninth chapter of Judges, wished the
vine to becorae their king, the vine said, ' Shall I
leave my wine, that cheers both God and man, and
go to be proraoted over the trees ?' God is cheered
when raan is raade wise and happy. The fig-tree
was also addressed and invited to be king, but replied,
' Should I forsake my sweetness, and ray good fruit,
and go to be promoted over the trees ?' Kind deeds
in daily life are very sweet. The fruits of integrity
and genuine virtue are good fruits. Though not so
showy as extraordinary talent, they are the solid
bases of corafort, happiness, and progress iu society.
Jeremiah, in chapter 24, relates a vision he had of two
baskets of figs. The good figs, he shows, represent
the good and obedient people; and the bad, those
who disobeyed the Lord, and became a curss and a
reproach, wherever they might be.
" The fig-tree, bearing fruit, is the lowest type of a
Christian life. It does not represent a Christian life
from love, nor a Christian life frora elevated and en-
VOL. II. H

98 Modern 'Mysticism.

lightened faith, but a Christian life frora coraraand,
from obedience. That state of obedience is the last
which remains when religion is declining with a man ;
or it is the first state, when religion is advancing with
a man. "Hence our Lord in one of His parables said,
' Behold these three years I corae seeking fruit on this
fig-tree, and find none ; cut it down, why curabereth
it the ground ?' And the cultivator answered, ' Lord,
let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it and
dung it, and if it bear fruit, well ; if not, then after
that thou shalt cut it down.' No fruit on the fig-
tree signifies no virtues in ordinary life. Where these
persistently fail, a man does not belong to the Lord's
Church at all. Why curabereth he the ground ?
When the Lord is describing the rise of a new dis
pensation, after the end of a former one, meant by the
end of the world. He says, ' Now learn a parable of the
fig-tree : When his branch is yet tender, and putteth
forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh ; so likewise
ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is
near, even at the doors.'
" When the young soul opens itself to the influences
of religion, and is steady to the calls of virtue and
duty, it is like the opening fig-tree. The branches
are tender and put forth leaves. The sentiments
are delicate and the thoughts are new, but a
spring-time of the soul has begun and summer is
nigh.

Modern Mysticism. 99
" A fig-tree all full of leaves, and no fruit, is like a
soul all profession, and no real goodness.
" On the tree of human character you not unfre
quently find a large growth of conversation, but no
works of charity, piety, or integrity. They say, and
do not. The apostle Paul terms such sounding brass
and a tinkling cymbal. They are a fair show, but no
reality. They have not the energetic sap which
comes from earnest love. Divine love has yearned
over them, and visited them from tirae to time, but
there is no heartfelt response. They are selfish and
cold. They have leaves, but no fruit.
And they "wlio only leaves can shew.
Still on the stock of nature grow.
" When such are in the Church of God, they are
there only from mercenary motives. They are traf
fickers in the temple, mere raoneychangers, or dealers
in holy things for gain.
" There are many visitations raade by the Lord in
the conscience of a man, from time to time, and at
last one more powerful exploration than ever before
comes, and reveals the base and unworthy principles
which are active in his heart, and for the time over
awes and drives them out.
" If a man's religion, however, be pharisaical, and
his heart selfish, no sooner is his terror over, and the
restraint passed, than he comes out carping ana
cynical as before. Like the Scribes and Pharisees who
h 2

100 Modern Mysticism.
heeded nothing of their own impieties, but were
troubled at the children's joyous praise.
" From such a soul Jesus withdraws. He leaves
their city. He retires within His own grace and
mercy — represented by Jesus leaving the city and going
to Bethany, whose name means the House of Grace.
" Their day ends ; and what happens to them on the
morrow or in eternity was represented by what is said
in our text.
" Now, in the raorning as He returneth into the city
He hungered. There is a divine hunger, as well as a
human one.
" I have meat to eat, said our Lord on one occasion,
that ye know not of I stand at the door and knock.
If any man will open the door I will come into him,
and sup with him, and he with me.
" The Lord's desire for the salvation of his creatures,
and conjunction with thera, is His divine hunger.
Spiritually minded men have such hunger in an inferior
^degree. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after
righteousness, for they shall be filled.
" It is this divine yearning for a man's real hap
piness that is expressed in the spiritual application of
the words, He hungered.
" His coming to see the fig-tree, represents His ex
ploration of the soul. He wishes to find fruit.
Leaves are nothing in His sight, if they are net
accompanied by fruit.
"But men who are like the fig-tree before us have

Modern Mysticism. 101
no fruit. By their fruits ye shall know them, our
Lord said on another occasion, and by their want of
fruits ye may know them.
" The fig-tree shows fruit before leaves. There
were plenty of leaves, and ought to have been fruit.
In Mark it is said the time of figs was not yet! But
yet is not in the original. The meaning is there were
no figs. But there ought to have been.
" In the eternal world, no knowledge, no religious
thoughts, remain which have not been grounded in
love, and embodied in works.
" If we come there without good works, all other
talents wither away. Whenever you find judgment
described in the Bible, it is a decision according to
works. ' Unto him that hath shall be given, and he
shall have abundance ; and from him that hath not
shall be taken away even that which he seemeth to
have,' This is the divine and eternal law. No
eloquence, no talent, no thoughts even, which have not
been accompanied by goodness in the heart will reraain.
Charity remaineth, but shams and superficialities
collapse and perish.
" It was to represent this, our Lord said to the fig-
tree, let no fruit grow on thee henceforth for ever.
Andthe fig-tree presently withered away.
" It was a striking and astounding spectacle to see
this miracle performed. And no doubt the collapse
of empty professors, of self-seeking and sanctimonious
souls, will in the eternal world be as complete as that

102 Modern 2Iysticism.

of the fig-tree. The same truth is often taught in the
Word in other forras. When the raan who had not
a wedding garraent was addressed by the King, in the
Parable of the wedding feast, he was speechless. To
the Church of Ephesus which had left its first love,
the Lord said, ' I will come unto thee quickly, and
will reraove thy candlestick out of his place, except
thou repent.' The sarae truth is implied in these
various forms of speech. What is then that truth,
dear brethren, to us ? It is this. Let us become
genuinely true and good — trees of righteousness, as
the Prophet Isaiah says, branches of the planting of
Jehovah. Let us beware of being trees of leaves only.
" The Lord visits us from time to time during our
probation days ! let us profit by His mercies. Let us
plough our mental ground, and plant, and sun our
mental trees until they bloom and bear the virtues of
a holy life. Let us dread having a name that we live,
though we are dead. Let us fear the to-morrow of an
eternity that will find us with leaves only, for then
the Eighteous though loving Judge must say, ' Let
no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever.'
" But, on the contrary, let us realize the divine
assurance, ' Those that be planted in the house of the
Lord shall flourish in the Courts of our God. They
shall still bring'forth fruit in old age : they shall be
fat and flourishing : to show that the Lord is upright :
He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in
Him.'"

Modern Mysticism. 103
Prefixed to the Service Book is a brief summary of
the faith of the New Jerusalem Church, which is
worth transcribing, as the principles of this religious
body are little understood, and consequently often
misrepresented : —
" That there is one eternal, self-existent God, who
is infinite love and wisdom — the Creator and Sustainer
of all things.
" In fulness of time, and for the rederaption of raan.
He took upon Him human nature by birth of a virgin,
and became ' God manifest in the flesh' in the per
son of Jesus Christ, in whom ' dv/elleth all the ful
ness of the Godhead bodily.'
" The Lord Jesus Christ is the one only true object
of Christian faith and worship ; and in Him is centred
the Divine Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit —
the Divinity of the Father being the soul of the Son,
and the Humanity ofthe Son being the body of the
Father — so hence proceeds the Holy Spirit to re
generate and save mankind.
" The Lord became our Eedeemer by subduing the
infernal hosts and glorifying His Humanity, without
which no man could have been saved, and by which
aU men are capable of being saved by belief in Hira ;
such belief iraplying a faithful obedience to the divine
laws as the means of receiving the gifts of salvation.
" The Sacred Scripture is the Word of God, and
contains within its external or literal sense an internal
or spiritual sense — being thus divine.

104 Modern Mysticism.

" On the death of the natural body, man rises again
in a spiritual body ; and, according to the quality of
his life here, lives in happiness or misery hereafter.
" Now is the time of the Lord's second coming, not
in person, but in the power and great glory of His
Holy Word, to establish a new and permanent church,
typified in the Eevelation by the holy city. New
Jerusalem, descending from God out of Heaven."
Perhaps, however, a more definite exposition still
of the present position of the New Jerusalem Church
raay be gathered from the following extracts from
" A Sermon for the Times : The second coming of
Christ. — Christ is coraing ; but how ?" by Dr. Bayley.
He that hath my commandments, and keejoeth them,
he it is that loveth me ; and he that loveth me shall be
loved of my Father, and I will love him, and loill manifest
myself to hiin.' — John xiv. 21.
" Christ is coming soon. The world is old, worn
out and may quickly now be expected to end. The
world is disjointed, corrupted, profligate, fraudulent,
turbulent, immoral, and miserable; it is time it were
judged and burnt up. The end of all things is at
-hand. It has been mistakenly placed in 1867, and at
many other past periods. But it cannot be far ofl'
now. There were to be troubles, wars, and rumours
of wars, and surely we live in very troublous and
changing times. AVe do not know where we are

Modern Mysticism. 105
going, or what it all means. Such are the reraarks
one occasionally hears or reads, and they are of a
sufficiently startling character. Sometimes this senti
ment takes a very curious forra. There are religious
persons who will not use the Lord's Prayer or let
their children use it, because it contains the petition
' Thy kingdom come,' because they think it means
that this glorious fabric of the universe will be de
stroyed, and leave not a wreck behind, when the
kingdora of God shall come.
" I read in a newspaper the other day, that it was
proposed by a minister who visited a small town in a
county of Tennessee, America, that there should com
mence a Sunday school, in which the children might
be instructed in the Bible, the good people of that
town never having had such a thing as a Sunday
school. The deacons, however, of a leading congre
gation of the place called the Hardshells, a species of
Baptists, I believe, said, ' If these Sunday schools go
on everywhere, the world will soon be full of the
knowledge of the Lord, and then the end is to come,
and the world will be destroyed. We dread this awful
catastrophe in our clay, we must stop this Sunday
school.' And the Sunday school was stopped.
" On the contrary, there are nurabers who maintain
that the world is growing younger. Bad as it is, they
believe the world is throwing off ignorance, super
stition, selfish laws and selfish habits, enmities of
people against people, and nation against nation.

106 Modern Mysticit

.^m.

Vice and crime and poverty are being struggled with
as they have never been encountered before, and
these feel assured that the day is coming, however
distant, when —
All crimes shall cease, and ancient fra-ad shall fail,
Keturning justice lift aloft her scale ;
Peace o'er the world her olive wand extend,
And whiterobed innocence from heaven descend ;
No sigh, no murmur, the wide world shall hear.
From every face He'U* wipe off every tear.
Those of this hopeful faith sing with Tennyson, and
with aU the poets, those prophets of the future —
King out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife ;
Eing in the nobler kinds of Kfe,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.
Ring out the want, the care, the sin.
The faithless coldness of the times ;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes.
But ring the fuller minstrel in.
Eing out false pride in i)lace and blood,
The civic slander and the spite ;
Eing in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.
Ring out old shapes of foul disease,
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold,
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.
Ring in the vahant man, and free.
The larger heart, the kindlier hand ;
Eing out the darkness of the land.
Ring iu the Christ that is to be.
"Such are the hopes throbbing in the bosoms of
* The Lord Jesus.

Modern Mysticism. 107
multitudes of thoughtful men now respecting the
' good tirae coming.' And certainly they are all
warranted clearly by numerous places in Holy Writ,
as I trust we shall see before this discourse is ended.
" Those who thus think have noticed that in Scrip
ture the breaking up of the world means the change
of a bad old system for a better. The end of the
world raeans the ' end of a dispensation,' the end of
one great system of thought and action (see i Cor. x.
11 ; Heb. ix. 26) 
" A church with genuine God-given doctrines,
having a priesthood devotedly pious, with pure hearts
and enlightened minds, diligent in studying God's
Word, and faithful in teaching it, will raake a happy
world. But when the Church, instead of leading
men to struggle faithfully against their sins, excuses
thera, palliates them, invents methods by which
people raay iraagine they can sin and take no harra,
then it is bad for the world. Multitudes take
advantage of a lax and dangerous doctrine, and suffer
their passions or their lusts to go unchecked during
a long life, soothing themselves with the delusion
that a few pious thoughts and prayers, when^nature is
worn out, wiU make aU right for heaven. So, selfish
frauds arise and spread and multiply, until trade is
altogether corrupted, and instead of the pleasures of
honest dealing between upright men, there exists on
every side, suspicion, trickery, and deceitful schemes
of every kind, making life painful and difficult to

108 2[odern j\[yst'ie'ism.

multitudes who pray only to do their duty sincerely,
and have, a modest and temperate provision for their
daily wants 
" The Church is, as it were, the heart of the world.
When it is healthy, pure, and strong, holding up
among men those grand principles of love, faith,
justice, and judgment by which the Almighty
enthrones Himself in the hearts of angels and of men,
the pulsations of virtue flow freely, and carry health
into all the ramifications of- the social body, even to
the very extremes. A nation having such a church
becomes a wise and understanding people (Deut. iv. 6).
But where a church is feeble, or, still worse, false,
neglecting its high duties of holding up before men
the laws of heaven as the guides of earth — suffering
the young to grow up in ignorance, and permitting
superstition to hold the place of enlightenment and
good sense — weakly pandering to the pride of the
powerful and passing by unnoticed the debasement of
the poor — winking like some great owl in a bewilder
ment at every ray of new light, but securing a full
share of the general plunder — the body ofa nation will
swarm with social evils. The whole state in such a
condition of society is tainted by restlessness, un
certainty, private and public imraorality tempered
onlj' by low motives, chronic convulsion, and general
decay, until some stormy disaster comes, like the
destruction of Jerusalem. and the French Eevolution.
The once popular forms of religion - have received

Modern Mysticism. 109
•severe blows during the last hundred years, and will
continue to receive thera, until the i'orraer heavens
and the forraer earth have passed away, with all their
corruptions, hypocrisies, and rauraraeries ; and a
religion true to God and true to man, a full develop
ment of the Word of God, a new heaven and a new
earth, are established in their stead.
" Heaven and earth in scripture raean a church and
a state of the world growing out of it. The church is
the Lord's heaven upon earth. How plainly this
will appear to the observant reader respecting the
formation ofthe church when he regards the following
language ofthe prophet: — 'And I have put my words
into thy mouth, and I have covered thee in the
shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens,
and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto
Zion, thou art ray people' (Isa. li. 16). No one
could surely suppose that in consequence of the Lord
putting His words into raan's mouth, the starry
heavens were planted, or the rocky foundations of -the
land were laid. The destruction of the church is
equally represented as the reduction to chaos of
heaven and earth by Jeremiah. ' For my people is
.foolish, they have not known rae : they are sottish
children, and they have none understanding : they are
wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.
I beheld the earth, and lo it was without forra and
void ; and the heavens, and they had no hght'
(iv. 22-23). Here the vices and follies of the people

110 Modern 3fysficism.
are declared to have had the result of making the
earth without form and void, and the heavens so that
they had no light. But every intelligent reader will
see that the language is only to be understood in a
moral and spiritual sense. It refers to the church,
its confusion, and the absence of spiritual light in
it, owing to human traditions and human vices making
the comraandraents of God of none effect 
" Let us now look at another class of passages —
passages full of hope and consolation, but owing to
the darkness which had been induced in the raind by
the erroneous view respecting the end of the world,
very rauch overlooked. These all speak of the latter
days, as being a time of restoration, of universal light,
love, purity, and peace, all flowing from a true know
ledge of God in Christ, the Father in the Son. But
how could such passages ever be fulfilled if the uni
verse were to be burnt and pass away, leaving not a
wreck behind ?
" In Isaiah we read, and it is repeated in Micah,
chap, iv., ' And it shall come to pass in the last days,
that the mountain ofthe Lord's house shall be estab
lished in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted
above the hills, and all nations shaU flow unto it.
And many people shall go and say. Come ye, and let
us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house
of the God of Jacob : and He will teach us of His
ways, and we will walk in His paths : for out of Zion
shaU go forth the law, and the Word of the Lord from

Modern Mysticism. Ill
Jerusalem. And He shall judge among the nations,
and shall rebuke raany people ; and they shall beat
their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into
pruning-hooks : nation shall not lift up sword against
nation, neither shaU they learn war any raore. 0
house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light
of the Lord !' (ii. 2-5) 
" In the corruptions of the dark ages every condi
tion and every occupation of life has been defiled and
disfigured by selfishness —
The trail of the serpent is over them all.
"Above all, the Lord is coming to sanctify the
central work of domestic life, and imbue with His
Spirit of Love and Wisdom the sacred ties of marriage.
True religion and marriage go hand in hand together.
Where marriage is lightly esteemed, religion is weak
or worthless. When raarriage is regarded as the focus
of heaven's choicest blessings, and its best representa
tive on earth, the nursery for angels, the centre, the
safeo-uard, and jewel of huraan society, to be prepared
for with sacred purity and guarded with holiest
reverence, then wiU . the world be purified in its
sources of influence, and happiness, rich, deep, and
pure, will irradiate every part. Governraent has been
the trade of capricious and despicable tyrants, instead
of the ennobling rainistry of true kings of raen :
commerce, which is the friendly intercourse of mutual
blessings, becarae the self-seeking gamble of men only

112 Modern Mysticism.
anxious for sordid, and often fraudulent, gain. Christ
does not yet reign at the dockyards ; but He is coraing,
and, oh ! what a clear-out of trickeries and treacheries
raust follow !
" Work has been despised and degraded. Labour,
which is the use of raan's God-given faculties, and
which diffuses over the earth the rayriad beauties and
blessings which sustain, enrich, and decorate the
world, has been deemed a curse. The rich and noble
have been taught to glory in the dignity of having
nothing to do. In the ' good time coming ' it will
not be so. Each man will be trained to rejoice in
perforraing the work which God has prepared him to
accoraplish, and to do it in the best manner, as his best
way of serving Hira who is the Infinite Worker, and
all whose works are done in truth. Our blessed Ee
deemer condescended to work as a carpenter, araongst
other reasons to consecrate all labour by His exaraple,
and to teach all that happiness is to be sought not in
selfish sloth, but in loving usefulness. 0 ! let the
laws and the spirit of our blessed Eedeemer come
into our workshops ; let every youth who comes there
come with a well-taught mind, .trained by a previous
sound education to delight in work — enough for com-
fort, enough for health, and enough for progress, but
not debased by crushing toil, or withering, unhealthy
conditions, and the Christian workraan shall be Christ's
man indeed. The hearts of the multitudes, which
have been driven away from the religion of talk, of

Modern Mysticism. 113
profession and of so-called faith only, will come back
to the Christ of loving-kindness. The Lord Jesus is
coming again, and when He has come into the work
shops, as the spirit of justice and love, there will be
no oppression and no strikes ; but mutual ministry
among the employers and the eraployed will manifest
that the Lord in very deed is Emanuel, God with
us. Then wiU the promise of the latter-day glory be
fulfilled — ' 0 house of Jacob, come ye, let us walk
in the light of the Lord' (Isa. ii. 5). ' The nations
of them that are saved shall walk in the light of the
holy city, and the kings of the earth do bring their
glory and honour into it' (Eev. xxi. 24) 
" There is no death to hira who has conquered sin.
His reraoval frora earth is a departure to a higher life
and a raore perfect home. He who keepeth my saying,
said the Eedeemer, shall never see death (John viii.
51). Whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall
NEVER die (John xi. 26). The future life is a higher
form of this, as the blossom is higher than the leaf,
the butterfly than the caterpillar. He who is trained
for heaven has already heaven in hiraself, already is
in company with angels, and already is prepared for
the golden sceptre of the raessenger of heaven. He
goes to heaven because heaven has corae to hira.
" Away, then, with those carnal drearas of a great
parade in the outward sky. No outward trurapeters
are wanted to make a clamour in the clouds. What
we need is the still small voice of the Saviour God
VOL. II. I

114 Modern My sti

icism.

within ; that coraes like a dew from heaven to refresh
and fertilize the wilderness of unregenerate souls, and
make them blossom like the rose. ' The kingdom of
God cometh not with observation' (outward show).
Oh, when shall we learn the depth of that wonderful
declaration — ' Neither shall they say, Lo here ! or,
lo there ! for the kingdom of God is within you'
(Luke xvii. 20-21). Gaze not among the outward
clouds expecting a coraing of the Lord Jesus there.
When you love Hira, as our text says. He will manifest
Himself to you. He is in all the wise arrangements
of creation, but you will never see or feel Hira there
until you open your heart to receive Hira as Christ in
you the Hope of Glory (Col. i. 27).
"Let the Spirit of the Lord Jesus enter into
all you do and say, let Hira go forth with you
into your farm, your counting-house, your warehouse,
jovs manufactory, your workshop, your council-
chamber, and your horae, filling you with His Divine
Love and Wisdora, and you will soon find the earth
brighter about you.
" God's world is a glorious world, it only needs you
to enter into God's idea of it. Be like-rainded with
angels, and you will soon find this world like heaven.
You wish to enter heaven ? Enter then. Heaven is
here also when you let it enter you. There is nothing,
my beloved brother and sister, wanting to the Lord's
Second Coming, vvith all its splendour and happiness,
but your heartfelt embrace of His Divine Will in all

Modern Mysticism. 115
things. Corae into His kingdora. ' The Spirit and
the bride say, Corae. And let hira that heareth say.
Come. And let hira that is athirst corae. And
whosoever will, let hira take of the water of life freely.
Even so, come. Lord Jesus.' "

I 2

116

ME. BEADLAUGH VEBSVS GOD.
The farther I pursue my subject, the more convinced
do I become how unadvisable it is to act the part of
ecclesiastical gentlemen of England and sit at home
at ease, if we would rightly estimate the present
state of reUgious thought in our midst. I am, of
course, in my individual capacity, only taking London
as typical of England ; and I can assure my readers
that the fertility and coj)iousness of my subject sur
prised, almost alarmed, me, though I had undergone
some previous experiences in this way, and was pre
pared to find diversity where I had at first only
expected uniformity. It is only thus, practically, by
plunging beneath the surface, that one gets to realize
the subdivisions of what we too often vaguely speak
of as Free Thought or Infidelity, as if it were only one
and not a hundred things.
Just, however, as I had on a previous occasion dis
covered that there were Plymouth Brethren and Ply
mouth Brethren — as I had found out that Judaism
had its two schools of thought divided almost as
strongly as Catholics and Protestants, so did I find,
at an early stage of my present inquiry, that there
were these three marked divisions to be reaUzed,

Mr. Bradlaugh versus God. 117
admitting in their turn, of copious subdivision : (1 )
descending, so to say, gradually from orthodoxy,
Unitarianism in its manifold phases, differing from the
Established Faith etymologicaUy by the elimination
of one dogma, but more generally by the excision
of any Test, Creed, or Articles. (2) Theisra,
under varied aspects, frora Christian Theisra to Pure
Theisra ; where, to speak again roughly, the whole
idea of Mediator and much of Eevelation was aban
doned. And (3) Atheism, with its raore advanced
development of dogmatic Anti-Theism.
It would have been, of course, greatly to be desired
that one should treat these raatters in sorae definite
serial order; but the detached mode of publication
adopted for these papers precluded the possibility of
that, while, at the same tirae, the work never assuraed
the proportions of a philosophical inquiry, but was
content to aim at giving a series of pictures, raore or
less vivid, of religious life in London.
It wiU be inevitable that, wherever our subject is
Atheisra, especiaUy in its raore advanced phases, that
picture shall resolve itself into a portrait of Mr.
Bradlaugh, the drapings and adjuncts varying, but
the man reraaining the sarae. The influence of this
one man in his department is simply prodigious, as
anj' one can prove for hiraself who wiU only take the
trouble to do what I have done ; that is, not sit at
horae and read reports at second-hand, but, Sunday
after Sunday, pass by the " customary hassock," as

118 Mr. Bradlaugh versus God.
Thomas Hood says, and follow Mr. Bradlaugh at the
Hall of Science, or wherever else he raay be found.
Other forras of Free Thought have often many repre
sentatives; but at this most advanced outpost Mr.
Bradlaugh is alraost in sole coramand. There are
one or two prorainent men, whose names we shall
have to mention by-and-bye, associated with him ;
but, as I have said, his influence is so pre-eminent
that it is not only aUowable but almost inevitable our
picture-painting shall for awhile give place to portrai
ture. I thought I could not do better, in laying down
my first broad outlines of this portion of my subject,
than to visit the Hall of Science, Old Street, St.
Luke's, on a Sunday evening when Mr. Bradlaugh
was to take as his subject the thoroughly distinctive
one of the " Existence of God." We should, at all
events, be sure to get at the root of the raatter thus.
The lecture was to take the special forra of a reply to
Francis E. Abbott, of the Index ; but to me it was
interesting only on its own merits ; and accordingly
I went to the HaU of Science, which is near the
Aldersgate Street station of the Metropolitan Eailway,
about a quarter to seven on the Sunday evening in
question. The lecture was to commence at seven.
Though I was a fuU quarter of an hour before
time then, and fortified, moreover, by Mr. Bradlaugh's
card to pass myself and friend to the reserved seats, I
found that the vast area and galleries of the Hall of

Mr. Bradlaugh versus God. 119
Science were even then full, and I had great difficulty
in struggling to a front seat, which soon ceased to be
a front seat, for busy officials had to range forras in
front again, thus destroying my fond hopes that I
should have fair play for my somewhat extended legs.
I was amazed, not only at the continuous stream of
people which flowed into this building, paying, let us
remember, their twopence and fourpence each, but
also at their character. The large majority, perhaps,
were of the tradesman and artisan class ; but close by
me, in the reserved seats, I had men-of-war's men in
their naval costume, and real labourers and navvies in
their working clothes ; and I could not help asking
myself the question. How is it Mr. Bradlaugh can
get these people to pay fourpence and listen to an
abstruse subject, while we cannot " compel them to
come in ?" Surely that problem is legitiraately open
to debate.
By the tirae the colossal head and shoulders of Mr.
Bradlaugh — for he is a son of Anak — were seen
struggling araong the crowd, every inch of room for
sitting or standing was occupied ; and he had con
siderable difficulty in piloting his two daughters on to
the lofty platform, where a few men were already
seated on either side of his lecturing table. The
applause was long and loud as he took his accustoraed
place on the left of the chairman ; and when this sub
sided, that functionary passed at once to the business
of the evening. First of aU he gave notice that Mr.

120 Mr. Bradlaugh versus God.
Bradlaugh would open the new Democratic Club in
that Hall on the following Saturday ; that on a sub
sequent Tuesday he would expatiate on the Queen's
Speech and the Premier's intentions ; and finally —
much to my delectation — that he would, previously
to his lecture that evening, perforra the ceremony of
Naming an Infant. Then Mr. Bradlaugh rose — a tall,
commanding figure, with a clean shaven face, and
hair brushed back from his forehead ; a quick, bright
eye, and that massive appearance of the jaw which is
so often seen in the habitual speaker. He first of all
asked us if we who were sitting down would mind
taking our hats off; those who were forced to stand
could do as they found most convenient. Next he
announced his intention of devoting the Sunday
evenings of April to an exaraination of the volurae
issued by the Christian Evidence Society entitled
" Historical Illustrations of the Old Testaraent," his
general subject resolving itself into the inquiry, " Is
tbe Bible true ?" Then he stated that he had acceded
to the wish of the parents that he should publicly
name their chUd. He took the little crooning thing
in his brawny arras, and said he did this, not in
mockery, not in imitation of any religious bodies, but
simply as a matter of public utility. The child must
be known hereafter by a distinctive name ; and he
took it to be desirable that the name should be thus
publicly bestowed. He here pronounced the narae
"Elizabeth," and, in handing the child back to its

Mr. Bradlaugh versus God. 121
mother, kissing it as he did so, he took occasion to
say that she at all events, could not consider his
ministrations demoralizing since she entrusted her
daughter thus to him. He did not ask the congre
gation to undertake a sponsorship, but he did ask
them to bear witness to the ceremony, and hoped the
child in after years would never have cause to regret
her association with him.
He then went on to say that he had never, as an
Atheist, concealed his views on the subject of the
lecture. He stated thera, not in bravado, but because
he believed there was utility in his doing so. Some
people said to him it was very well to criticise a book
or a church, but why, they asked, should he unsettle
men's minds? Why should we solve a problem in
arithmetic ? Why should we measure the area of an
estate, or the distance between two towns? Why
should we ascertain any truth at aU? "Answer rae >
that," he said, "and I wUl answer your question."
Such was his very characteristic exordium.
Every truth, he proceeded, was useful, in its recog
nition and in its affirmation. There was no limit to
human thought, and there should be no limit to the
expression of those thoughts except honesty in their
utterance. "Suppose that my theory were as false
as I believe it to be true," he said, " it would be weU
that I should speak it out stiU. Unsettle men's
minds 1 Surely that is a sign of weakness. Am I so
strong that I can undo the knot which a mUlion-

122 Mr. Bradlaugh versus God.
clergy power has been so long tying? Either that
must be intended as a great compliraent to rae, or
raust be a confession of weakness. I will presurae it
is a compliment to myself"
Then again others said, they could understand the
demolition of the special God of the Koran or of the
Buddhists, of the Persians or of the Hebrews; but
the pure Theist said. What have you to say to us ?
It was to them he addressed himself on the present
occasion. He would take Mr. Abbott and Professor
F, W. Newman as his texts. (Alas ! how irapossible
I had once thought it that anybody should take up
his parable frora the author of " Phases of Faith," as
erring on the side of excess. Verily we live and
learn in these progressive days !) Mr. Abbott spoke
of a " God of Science ;" and he generally found that
every Theist assumed four-fifths of his positions, and
turned a somersault over the other fifth. He raeant
a mental somersault, which differed from physical
ones in this way, that in the latter you usually
came to the ground, but in the former you often
never carae to earth at all, but remained in the
clouds. He read a long passage frora Mr. Abbott's
article in the Index in support of this assertion ; and
I took occasion to look round and notice the gaze of
that vast audience riveted on the lecturer. Truly,
for good or UI, that man sways a vast power !
Those who owned this God of Science attributed
to Him a magnificently successful plan. " I attribute

Mr. Bradlaugh versus God. 123
just the reverse," said Mr. Bradlaugh. " If I could
conceive an Infinite Mind, which I cannot," he pro
ceeded, " I should say that the results are inadequate.
The Infinite Mind contrived the teeth of the jack to
eat minnows ; but the same Infinite Mind devised
the swiftness for the minnow to get out of the way
of the jack. I shall be told it is blaspheray to say
this ; but is not the blaspheray rather on the other
side ? The vessel long owing puts into the port of
New York, having encountered icebergs 1800 railes
frora land. Now, on the doctrine of Infinite Mind,
were those icebergs planned to destroy the ship,
which they did not, or only to frighten the people on
board, which they did ? Had He arranged those ice
bergs an eternity ago — and several eternities before
that — or were they an effect on which He had not
calculated ?"
Then, again, there was Vesuvius. Was it a part
of the plan that there should be no eruption for raany
years, and that the village of Torre del Greco should
be built on the slopes ; and then that the Creator,
who had not worried the people with lava since the
time when Pompeii was destroyed, should suddenly
send down the fiery stream and destroy the villagers
in the dead of night? This argument of the
Universal Mind, he urged, proved too much. How
could it be brought to bear on the hurricane and the
earthquake ? Creation to the Atheist was only
change of conditions. If something carae where

124 Mr. Bradlaugh versus God.
nothing was before, who was there to create it ? He
protested against this question being regarded as a
mere trick of words. It was meant to make those to
whom he put it think.
Then he passed on to Professor Newman. This
gentleman found Mr. Abbott's God too cold for him,
and so wrote a letter to the Index called " The Two
Theisms." A third might be added — namely, the
Deism of the eighteenth century ; but the two
specially alluded to were (1) the Greek Theism, repre
sented by Aristotle, which regarded God as the source
of General Law, and might resolve hira into a force —
this was Mr. Abbott's doctrine, objected to by Pro
fessor Newraan ; and (2) Hebrew Theism, acknow
ledging God plus Providence. This latter Theism
recognised the instinct of individual prayer. Said
Mr, Bradlaugh, in his own positive way, " I deny it."
Modern Science had proved that habits might be
created and transmitted; aud these, he urged, were
often mistaken for instincts. He would examine the
Prayer-Doctrine, not of the Bible or the Koran, but
speaking as Atheist to Theist. Prayer was simply
the appeal of the weak and ignorant for a result which
they did not understand how it could be accom
plished by other means. The " Greek Legions"
(sic) prayed to Mars for success in battle. Tell me
the difference, he said, between this and saying,
" Our Father which art in Heaven, Give us this day
our daily bread." If the sword arm of Horatius

Mr. Bradlaugh versus God. 125
faUed, Mars did not intervene to save. So, while
we repeated " Our Father," men starved in Lancashire,
if the work failed.
Sir John Lubbock, he went on to say, told us, in a
book which he (Mr, Bradlaugh) had exarained in that
Hall, of certain tribes whose language contained no
word representing prayer. They had no conception
of it. " I," he said, " am the proof that it is not
instinctive. I don't pray. Twenty-five or twenty-
six years ago," he continued — and here Cleon's
brazen voice sank to tones of the very tenderest
pathos — " I as a young man did try to pray. I was
suffering agony ; and I prayed that some sign raight
be given rae of ray prayer being heard. None carae;
and I doubted. I don't doubt now, I'm not a sceptic
now. I know, and I disbelieve now ; mine is not a
mind of doubt."
Then he would go into the reason of Prayer,
"Why do you pray?" he kept asking. If there
were a Providential plan, you could not change the
plan. If your prayer were part of the plan, it was
useless to pray. But why did people pray ? To get
something done for thera? On the supposition of
the plan, aU that was necessary would be done. It
was an impeachment of the plan to try to modify it
by prayer. The greater nuraber of people, he
thought, prayed without thinking why they prayed ;
but only fancy some twelve hundred raillions of
people in the world aU praying for different things !

126 Mr. Bradlaugh versus God.
Multiply that by a few billions of worlds in the
universe, and the idea becarae raonstrous. The
Christian Theist, in addition to this, believed in
special salvation, and that the more he called, the
quicker he should get it. Let them be sure, how
ever, that, whether their God existed or not, the more
they worked and the less they prayed, the safer they
would be.
His own position was that of an Atheist. To hira
the word God represented nothing. He did not know
what it meant. He did not know where, even in
thought, to put God. Even if he could conceive
Him, which he could not, the God so conceived could
not be irarautable. He was told of Providence, and
he reraarked how a high tide in the river destroyed
the goods of a poor faraily which would have been
saved if they had been rich enough to live one storey
higher in the house. Or he thought of faraine de
vastating large tracts of country. Now there should
be no evil like this. Either God wanted to prevent
such evil and couldn't, or else He deliberately
planned it. " I ara an Atheist," he added, in a bold
apostrophe. " He raust have planned me .''" The vast
asserably recognised the point, and applauded to the
echo. " I am told this is imraoral," he proceeded.
"Nothing that is true is immoral. Show me that
my doctrine is false, and you will compel me to
abandon it. I do not say I shaU be ready to concede

Mr. Bradlaugh versus God. 127
the falsity. Prove rae the falsity and I must abandon
the position."
But it was asked. What would there be to hold
raen to the truth if you raade thera Atheists ? What
held them now? King William announced the
slaughter of ten thousand men, and thanked God !
"Go out," he added, "into the lanes around this
Hall. The people don't believe in rae. They have
the name of God often enough on their lips. What
good does it do thera ?
" What guide have I ? If I had none, it would
not make your Churches and Prayers true. It would
only be the increase of ray weakness, not of your
strength. So far I haven't touched your Book. If you
dare to put your Bible morality in evidence — do it."
It had been said that nothing had come of all this
war of atheisra against belief; but soraething had
come. Freedom of thought had come. There was
less cant — a good deal still, but less than forraerly.
It had come that men could not be burnt now for
their opinions. Eacks and autos-da-fe, had disap
peared. Education could not be shut out. Bruno
and Shelley and Voltaire and Paine had done sorae
thing; "though, remember," he said in conclusion,
" we have only been able to talk for the last two
hundred years. You have had thousands of years to
deaden men's brains in." And so he sat down amid a
perfect storm of applause.

128 J/;-. Bradlaugh versus God.
A reply was invited, and it was stipulated by Mr.
Bradlaugh that the sarae indulgence should be ex
tended to opponents as to hiraself. They were strong
and could afford to be generous. If they did not
encourage discussion, they would get into the way of
the " pulpit people."
One Mr. Jenkins, a feeble supporter of Christianity,
passed raost disadvantageously to the place Mr.
Bradlaugh had occupied. He submitted that Sir
John Lubbock's prayerless people were on a level
with the brute beasts, and wound up a rambling
oration by a verbal struggle with Mr. Bradlaugh, in
which he had decidedly the worst. It was another
case — of which I have seen only too many — where
Christianity had to pray to be saved from its friends.
I can quite understand that raore harra would be done
by Mr. Jenkins's weak defence than Mr. Bradlaugh's
bold defiance ; and I was really glad when Mr.
Jenkins obeyed the forcible injunction of soraebody
in the audience to " shut up," though Mr. Bradlaugh
and the Chairman protested strongly against the
interruption. They were wise enough in their
generation to see that Mr. Jenkins was playing into
their hand.
Mr. Williams, who followed on the theistic side,
was better ; but still I cannot help thinking
the Christian Evidence Society must be holding some
stronger men in reserve. Why should not some of
their very strongest dignitaries come down to the

Mr. Bradlaugh versus God. 129
Hall of Science and justify their title of "Doctors"
— teachers — " of divinity ?" Mr. Williaras judiciously
praised Mr. Bradlaugh's oration, which was too pro
found to be dealt with off-hand, and should be read
and studied. Mr. Bradlaugh, however, was not to be
thrown off his guard even by buttered sugar, and
corabated Mr. Williaras's positions so severely that
the method became dialectical or catechetical on a
sudden. People tired of it then. They had come to
" hear Bradlaugh," not to listen to discussion : but
stUl Mr. Williams stood his ground manfully, and
gained applause, when he wound up by saying that
Atheism rested on a flimsjr foundation, and urged
his audience " in the name of comraon sense" to
" prove aU things."
After a brief reply by Mr. Bradlaugh the meeting
closed, and most of us went. Many remained,
however, and broke up into little knots for discussion.
There was a large sale in the roora for Paine's works,
for the National Beformer of the week, and notably
for the following small pamphlet by Mr. Bradlaugh
himself, " Is there a God ?" which suras up several of
the arguments utilized on the occasion in question : —
"Is there a God?
" Some of those who have heard rae venture to ex
araine the question of the existence of Deity viva voce,
have desired to have ray reasons for holding the
Atheistic position briefly stated, and while I do not
VOL. II. ^

130 Mr. Bradlaugh versus God.
pretend to exhaust the subject in these few pages, I
trust to say enough to provoke thought and inquiry.
I do not say, ' There is no God,' and the scarcely
polite rejoinder of those who quote the Psalmist cannot
therefore be applied with justice towards myself I
have never yet heard living man give me a clear, co
herent definition of the word ' God,' and I have never
read any definition from either dead or living man
expressing a definite and comprehensible idea of Deity.
In fact, it has always appeared to me that men use
that word rather to hide their ignorance than to ex
press their knowledge.* Climatic conditions often,
and diversity of huraan race always, govern and
modify the meaning conveyed by the word. By
' God' one nation or sect expresses love — another, ven
geance ^another, good — another, wisdom — another,
fire — another, water — another, air — another, earth —
and sorae even confound their notion of Deity with
that of devil. Elihu Palraer well observes : ' The
Christian world worships three infinite Gods, and one
omniscient devik' I do not deny ' God,' because that
word conveys to me no idea, and I cannot deny that
which presents to me no distinct affirraation, and of
which the would-be affirraer has no conception. I
cannot war with a nonentity. If, however, God is
affirraed to represent au existence which is distinct
* In Sir Wflliam Hamilton's Essay on Cousin, I find a note quoting
M. Piesse on Kant, in vihieh the word God stands as the equivalent for
a phase ofthe imhtoivable.

Mr. Bradlaugh versus God. 131
frora the existence of which I ara a raode, and which
it is alleged is not the noumenon, of which the word
' I' represents only a speciality of phenomena, then I
deny 'God,' and affirm that it is impossible 'God'
can be. That is, I affirm that there is one existence,
and deny that there can be raore than one. Atheists
are sometimes content to say to their opponents, your
' proofs' are no proofs, your ' evidences' are failures,
you do not, and cannot prove the existence of Deity.
This ground may be safe, but the conduct of its occu
pier is not daring. The swordsman who always
guarded and parried, but never ventured cut or thrust,
might himself escape unwounded, but he would thus
make but little progress tojvards victory over his
opponent. " It is well to show that the position of your anta
gonist is weak, but it is better to prove that you are
strong. " In a paper as limited as the present, it is neces
sary to be brief both in answer to opponents, and in
the statement of my own opinions. This is rather
intended as the chaUenging speech of a debate, not
as a complete essay on the existence of Deity.
" There are two modes in which Theists endeavour
to prove the existence of God, and each of these
modes is in its turn denounced by Theistic writers —
1st, the a priori; 2nd, the d posteriori. Of the
former, Pearson, in his ' Prize Essay on Infidelity,'
says : ' The a priori raode of reasoning is the ex-

132 J/r. Bradlaugh versus God.
elusive idol of many of the German logicians 
But in their hands this kind of reasoning has com
pletely failed. It conducts the mind to no firm
resting-place ; it bewilders instead of elucidating our
notions of God, of man, and the universe. It gives
us no divine personal existence, and leaves us floating
in a region of mere vague abstractions. Such reason
ings are either altogether vain, or are not really
what they profess to be. In our country the name
of Dr. Clarke is chiefly associated with the a priori
argument  Clarke himself found it necessary
to stoop to the argument d, posteriori, and thereby
acknowledged the fallacy of attempting to reason
exclusively ct priori. . . . The fate of Dr. Clarke's
pretended demonstration, and the result, in so far as
theology is concerned, of the transcendental reasoning
of the continental philosophers, show the futility of
atteraptiug to rise up to the height of the great argu
raent of the existence of God by the a priori raethod
alone.' " Of the latter, WiUiara GiUespie, in his ' Treatise
on the Necessary Existence of Deity,' writes, that it
' can never make it appear that infinity belongs in
any way to God.' It ' can only entitle us to infer
the existence of a being of finite extension, for, by
what rule in philosophy can we deduce from the
existence of an object finite in extent (and nothing is
plainer than that the marks of design which we can
discover must be finite in their extent) the existence

Mr. Bradlaugh versus God. 133
of a cause of infinity of extension? What, then,
becomes of the omnipresence of the Deity, according
to those who are content to rest satisfied from the
reasoning of experience ? . . . . It will be vain to
talk of the Deity being present by his energy,
although he may not be present by his substance, to
the whole universe. For 'tis natural to ask not so
much how it is proved that God is vUtually present,
though not substantially present, in every part of
nature, as what can be raeant by being everywhere
present by mere energy ?' This ' reasoning can no
more make out that the Deity is omnipresent by
his virtue, than that he is omnipresent as to his
substance  And from the inaptitude of the
reasoning under consideration to show that im
mensity, or omnipresence, belongs to God, it will be
found to follow, directly and immediately, that his
wisdom and power cannot be shown to be raore than
finite, and that he can never be proved to be a
free agent  Omnipresence (let it be only by
energy) is absolutely necessary in a being of infinity
of wisdom. And therefore, " the design argument"
is unable to evince that the Deity is in possession of
this attribute. It likewise plainly follows, from the
inaptitude of this argument to show that God is
omnipresent, that thereby we cannot prove infinity of
power to belong to him. For if the argument cannot
make out that the being it discovers is everywhere
present, how can it ever make out that He is every-

134 Mr. Bradlaugh versus God.
where powerful ? By careful reflection, too, we may
perceive that omnipotence of another kind than
power which can exert itself in all places, requires
the existence of imraensity.' The design arguraent
' can never evince that God is a free agent. ... If
we cannot prove the immensity or omnipresence of
the Deity, we can for that reason never show that
he is omniscient, that he is omnipotent, that he is
entirely free  If the Deity cannot be proved
to be of infinity in any given respect, it would be
nothing le?s than absurd to suppose that he could be
proved to be of infinity in any other respect.' It
' can do no more than -prove that at the commence
ment of the phenomena which pass under its review,
there existed a cause exactly sufficient to make the
effects begin to be. That this cause existed from
eternity, the reasonings from experience by no means
show. Nay, for aught they make known, the de
signer himself may not have existed long before those
raarks of design which betoken his workraanship.'
This reasoning ' cannot prove that the God whora it
reveals has existed from all eternity, therefore, for
anything it intimates, God may at some time cease
to be, and the workmanship may have an existence
when the workman hath faUen into annihilation. . .
Such reasonings can never assure us of the unity
ofthe Deity.' 'Whether there be one God or not,
the arguraent frora experience doth by no means
make clear. It discovers marks of design in the

Mr. Bradlaugh versus God. 135
phenomena of nature, and infers the existence of at
least one intelligent substance sufficient to produce
them. Further, however, it advances not our know
ledge. Whether the cause of the phenomena be one
God or many Gods, it pretends not to determine past
all doubt  But did this designer create the
matter in which the design appeared ? Of this the
arguraent cannot convince us, for it does no more than
infer a designing cause from certain appearances, in the
same way as we would infer from finding some well-
contrived machine in a desert, that a huraan being
had left it there. . . . Now, because this reasoning
cannot convince us of such a creation, it cannot
convince us there is not a plurality of deities, or of
the causes of things  If we cannot prove the
eternity of God, it is not possible we can prove the
unity of God. To say that, for anything we know to
the contrary, he may have existed from all eternity,
being much the sarae as saying that, for anything we
know to the contrary, there raay be another God or
many Gods beside.' Sir W. Harailton considered
that the only valid arguments fpr the existence of a
God, and for the immortality of the human soul, rest
on the ground of man's moral nature,
" Dr. Lyman Beecher issued, some few years since,
a series of lectures on Atheism, without merit or
fairness, and which are here only alluded to as fairly
iUustrating a certain class of orthodox opposition.
His statements of Atheistic opinions are monstrous

136 Mr. Bradlaugh versus God.
perversions, and his answers are directed against the
straw man built together by himself. The doctrine
of ' almighty chance,' which Dr. Beecher attacks, is
one which I never heard an educated Atheist teach,
and the misrepresentation of Free-thought objects is
so obvious, that it can only be effectual with those
who have never freed theraselves frora tbe traramels
which habit and fashion-faith bound upon them in
their infancy, and which have strengthened with
their growth. The Eev. J. Orr, in his ' Treatise on
Theism,' says, ' All inquiry about chance is, however,
impertinent in the present day. The idea is an
infantine one, jiossible of entertainment only in the
initial state of huraan knowledge. Chance is not the
position relied upon by raodern Atheism. And
when, therefore, the Theist expends the artillery of
his arguraent upon this broken-down and obsolete
notion, he is intermeddling with the dead, and after
accomplishing the destruction of the venerable fallacy,
the modern Atheist will likely ask hira to come down
to the nineteenth century, and meet him there.'
" The only atterapt at arguraent in Dr. Beecher's
book is founded on the assuraption — 1st, That there
is an existence called raatter. 2nd, That there are
certain effects perceivable which cannot result from
raatter. 3rd, That therefore there is a God the cause
for these effects. Where are there any Materialists
who accept Dr. Beecher's limitation of matter ? It is
a word I do not use rayself

Mr. Bradlaugh versus God. 137
" On the question of evil, Coleridge, in his ' Aids
to Eeflection,' says : — ' 1st, That evil raust have had
a beginning, since otherwise it must either be God,
or a co-eternal and co-equal rival with God. 2nd, That
it could not originate in God ; for if so, it would at
once be evil and not evil, or God would be at once
God — that is, infinite goodness — and not God.' If
God be infinite goodness, can evil exist at all ? It is
necessary above all that we should understand the
meaning of each word we use. Some men talk as if
their words were intended rather to conceal than to
express their ideas. So far as this essay is concerned,
I will endeavour to avoid this difficulty by explicitly
defining each special word I use. Dugald Stewart,
indeed, says, ' That there are raany words used in
philosophical discourse which do not adrait of logical
definition, is abundantly manifest. This is the case
with all those words that signify things uncom-
pounded, and consequently unsusceptible of analysis —
a proposition, one should think, alraost self-evident ;
and yet it is surprising how very generaUy it has
been overlooked by philosophers.'
" The advantages, however, accruing frora frequent
definitions are very great; at the least they serve to
explain what was meant by the persons using the
word, whereas sometimes two men confuse each word
by using words to which each attaches an opposite or
a dissimilar value.
" Men wiU talk of ' First Cause,' and ' InteUigent

138 Mr. Bradlaugh versus God.
First Cause.' Do they know what they mean? I
confess I do not, and from the manner in which they
use the words, the most charitable conclusion is that
they use them because others have done so, and for
no worse or better reason. They talk of the ' Beauties
of Creation,' aud ' AYorks of the Great Creator.' If
by creation is meant the origin of existence, then
each utterance of the phrase is an absurdity. The
human mind is utterly incapable of construing it in
thought as possible that the complement of existence
has either been increased or diminished. Man can
neither conceive nothing becoming something, or
something becoming nothing.
"Definitions. — 1, By existence, or sub.stance, I
mean that which is in itself and is conceived j5(?r se —
that is, the conception of which does not require the
conception of anything else as antecedent to it.
AVhenever I use the words universe or matter, I use
them in the same sense as representing the totality
of existence. Existence can only be known in its
modes, and these by their attributes. 2, By attri
bute, I understand that by which I cognize any mode of
existence. Hardness, brightness, colour, life, form, &c.,
are attributes of conditioned existence. 3, By mode,
I understand each cognized condition or accident of
existence. 4, By eternity, I mean indefinite duration ;
that is, duration which is to me illimitable. 5, By
infinity, I raean indefinite extension. The axioms,
so far as I shall give them, are in the precise language

? Mr. Bradlaugh versus God. 139
of Spinoza. ' 1, Everything which is, is in itself, or
in some other thing. 2, That which cannot be con
ceived through another per aliud, must be conceived
per se. 3, From a given determinate cause, the effect
necessarily follows ; and vice versa, if no determinate
cause be given, no effect can follow. 4, The know
ledge of an effect depends on a knowledge of the
cause, and includes it. 5, Things that have nothing
in common with each other, cannot be understood by
means of each other — that is, the conception of one
does not involve the conception of the other.'
" Propositions. — Existence is prior to its modes.
This follows from definitions 1 and 3, because modes
of existence are conceived relatively and in dependence
on existence, which is absolutely precedent in such
conception. Existences having difierent attributes
have nothing in common with each other. This is
founded on definition 1. Existences having nothing in
common with each other, cannot be the cause of, or
affect one another. If they have nothing in common,
they cannot be conceived by means of each other {per
axiora 5), and they cannot be conceived as relating to
each other, but must be conceived per se {per defi
nition 1) ; and as {per axiora 4) the knowledge of an
effect depends on the knowledge of the cause and
includes it, it is irapossible to conceive any existence
as an effect, so long as you cannot conceive it in
relation to any other existence. By 'cause' in the
absolute, I mean 'existence.' In its popular or

140 Mr. Bradlaugh versus God.
relative sense, I use ' cause' as an effect of sorae
precedent causative influence, itself the cause of sorae
consequent effect, as the means towards an end, in
the accomplishment of which end it completes itself.
" What fact is there so certain that I may base all
my reasonings upon it? My existence is this primary
fact — this, to ine, indubitable certainty. I ara. This
logic can neither prove nor disprove. The very nature
of proof is to raake a proposition more clear to the
mind than it was before, and no amount of evidence
can increase my conviction of the certainty of my
own existence. I do not affirm that I am in existence,
but I affirm that there is existence. This existence
is either eternal, that is, unliraited in duration, that
is, indefinite in duration ; or else it had a beginning,
that is, it has been created. If created, then such
creation raust be by some existence the same as itself,
or by some existence differing from itself But it
canuot have been created by any existence the same
as itself, because to iraagine such, would be to conceive
no more than a continuance of the same existence —
there would be no discontinuity. ' But,' says S. T.
Coleridge, ' where there is no discontinuity, there can
be no origination.' And it cannot have been created
by any existence differing from itself, because things
which have nothing in comraon with one another,
cannot be the cause of, or affect one another. There
fore this existence has not been created, that is, its
duration is indefinite — that is, you cannot conceive

Mr. Bradlaugh versus God. J 41
a beginning — that is, it is eternal. This eternal ex
istence is either infinite in extent, that is, is unlimited
in extent, or it is finite, that is, limited. If limited,
it must be limited by an existence the sarae as itself,
or by an existence differing frora itself. But the sarae
arguments which applied to a limitation of duration,
also apply to a liraitation of extension. Therefore,
this existence is unliraited in extent ; that is, is in
finite and eternal — that is, there is only one existence.
It is at this point that Atheism separates from
Pantheism. Pantheism demonstrates one existence,
but affirms for it infinite attributes. Atheism denies
that attributes can be infinite. Attributes are but
the distinguishing characteristics of modes, and how
can that be infinite which is only the quality of finity ?
Men do not talk of infinite hardness or of infinite
softness ; yet they talk of infinite intelligence. In
telligence is not an existence, and the word is without
value unless it strictly comprehend, and is included
in, that which is intelligent. The hardness of the
diamond, the brilliancy of the burnished steel, have
no existence apart from the diamond or the steel. I, in
fact, affirm that there is only one existence, and that
all we take cognizance of is mode, or attribute of
mode, of that existence.
" I have carefully abstained from using the words
' matter ' and ' spirit.' Dr. Priestley says : — ' It has
o-enerally been supposed that there are two distinct
kinds of substance in human nature, and they have

142 Mr. Bradlaugh versus God.
been distinguished by the terms matter, and spirit or
mind. The former of these has been said to be
possessed of the property of extension — viz., of length,
breadth, and thickness, and also of solidity or im
penetrability, and consequently of a vis inertia; ; but
it is said to be naturally destitute of all other powers
whatever. The latter has of late been defined to be
a substance entirely destitute of all extension, or re
lation to space, so as to have no property in coraraon
with matter ; and therefore to be properly i/n-
material, but to be possessed of the powers of per
ception, intelligence, and self-raotion. Matter is al
leged to be that kind of substance of which our bodies
are composed, whereas the principle of perception and
thought belonging to us is said to reside in a spirit
or immaterial principle, intimately united to the body ;
while higher orders of intelligent beings, and especially
the Divine Being, are said to be purely immaterial.
It is maintained that neither matter nor spirit (raean
ing by the latter the subject of sense and thought)
correspond to the definitions above mentioned. For
that matter is not that inert substance that it has been
supposed to be ; that powers of attraction or repulsion
are necessary to its very being, and that no part of it
appears to be impenetrable to other parts ; I therefore
define it to be a substance possessed of the property
of extension, and powers of attraction or repulsion ;
and since it has never yet been asserted that the
powers of sensation and thought are incompatible with

Mr. Bradlaugh versus God. 143
these {solidity or impenetrability, and, consequently, a
vis inertia, only having been thought to be repugnant
to them), I therefore raaintain that we have no reason
to suppose that there are in raan two substances so
distinct frora each other as have been represented. It
is likewise maintained that the notion of two sub
stances that have no coraraon property, and yet are
capable of intiraate connexion and mutual action, is
absurd.' '
" I clo not conceive spirit or mind as an existence.
By the word mind, I simply express the totality of
perception, observation, collection, and recollection of
perceptions, reflection, and various other raental
processes. Dugald Stewart, in his ' Essay on Locke,'
says : — ' We are conscious of sensation, thought,
desire, volition, but we are not conscious of the
existence of the raind itself
" It is urged that the idea of God is universal.
This is not only not true, but I, in fact, deny that
any coherent idea exists in connexion with the word
' God.' The chief object to which the emotions of
any people were directed in ancient tiraes became their
God. When these emotions were corabined with
vague traditions, and a priesthood became interested
in handing down the traditions, and increasing the
emotions, then the object becoming sacred was
hallowed and adored, and uncertain opinions formed
the basis ofa creed. Any prominent phenomenon in
the universe, vvhich was not understood, was personi-

144 Mr. Bradlaugh versus God.
fied, as were also tbe various passions and phases of
humanity. These, in time, were preached as religious
truths, and thus diverted the people frora inquiry into
the natural causes of phenomena, which they
accounted for as ordained by God ; and when faraine
or pestUence occurred, instead of endeavouring to
remove its cause or using preventive measures against
a recurrence of the evil, they sought to discover why
the supernatural power was offended, and how it
might be appeased, and ascribing to it their own
passions and emotions, they offered prayers and
sacrifices. These errors becoming institutions of the
country, the people, prompted by their priests,
regarded all those who endeavoured to overturn them
by free and scientific thought and speech as
blasphemers, and the Eeligion of each state has, there
fore, always been opposed to the education of the
people. " Archbishop Whately, in bis ' Elements of Ehe-
toric,' part 1, chap, ii., sect. 5, urges that ' those who
represent God or Gods as malevolent, capricious, or
subject to human passions and vices, are invariably to
be found amongst those who are brutal and un
ci vUized.' We admit this, but ask is it not the fact
that both the Old and New Testament teachings do
represent God as malevolent, capricious, and subject
to human passions and vices — that is, are not these
Bible views of God relics of a brutal and uncivUized
people ?

Mr. Bradlaugh versus God. 145
" There is, of course, not roora in a short essay like
the present to say rauch upon the morality of
Atheism, and it should therefore suffice to say, that
truth and morality go hand in hand. That that is
moral which tends to the permanent happiness of all.
The continuance of falsehood never can result in
permanent happiness ; and therefore if Atheisra be
truthful, it must be moral ; if it be against falsehood,
it must tend to huraan happiness.
" Yet if quoting great naraes will have effect. Lord
Bacon, who is often quoted against Atheisra, also
says : ' Atheisra leaves a raan to sense, to philosophy,
to natural piety, to laws, to reputation, all of which
may be guides to an outward moral virtue, though
religion were not ; but superstition dismounts all these,
and erecteth an absolute monarchy in the raind of
men ; therefore Atheism never did perturb states, for
it makes men wary of theraselves, as looking no
further ; and we see the times inclined to Atheisra — as
the tiraes of Augustus Csesar — were civil tiraes; but
superstition has been the confusion of raany states.'
George Corabe says : ' I have known raen in whora
the reasoning organs were amply developed and well
cultivated, who assured me that they could not reach
the conviction of the being of a God. I have known
such men equal in point of integrity and practical
benevolence to the most orthodox believers.' In the
West Eiding of Yorkshire, amongst the men thera
selves, a wealthy employer bore favourable testimony
VOL. II. ^

146 Mr. Bradlaugh versus God.
to the conduct and inteUigence of Atheistic working
men. Nay, even the fanatical Dr. Lyman Beecher is
obliged to concede that Atheism made converts
amongst ' females of education and refinement —
females of respectable standing in society.' "
Outside in Old Street there were people distribut
ing Christian tracts, and the Golden Lane Mission
had got the words "God is Love" in gas jets above
the door, to attract people en. route to the Hall of
Science. At the Beckford's Head public-house close
by, an enterprising gentleman gave Shakspearian
readings gratuitously every Sunday evening ; but the
HaU of Science was full and enthusiastic, and surely
must present itself to the regards of the Christian
Evidence Society as crying out, in the language of
the Man of Macedonia, " Come over and help us !"
One of the most extraordinary phenomena of this
age is that, with an expensively officered society, Mr.
Bradlaugh, who pluckily invites argument, should be
left to the well-meant but puny efforts of Messrs.
Jenkins and Williams.

147

THE LITEEATUEE OF INFIDELITY.
I WAS riding horae in the Underground Eailway after
service on Ash Wednesday evening, when the talk
fell on Lenten duties in general, and on subjects of
Lent study and meditation in particular. We were
several in party; and one proposed this, another
that. The London Mission had ended the day be
fore, and had set us aU raore or less thinking, when I
resolved, under excellent advice, to take up as a defi
nite study during Lent, God willing, the subject of
Modern Unbelief, especially in London, where ray
own lot was cast. I had comraenced the study, and
indeed written about it elsewhere in a fragraentary
and desultory way ; but now I would try to raake ray
study a systeraatic one. This much, at least, the
Mission had taught us, that we could no longer afford
to stand aloof frora any forra of sin, and say that it
did not concern us. If Father Prescott gathered the
habituees of the Argyll Eooras to listen to hira in S.
Peter's, Windraill Street; and Father Steele, of S.
Thomas's, Eegent Street, not content with doing the
same, went out into the alleys and compelled them to
come in, surely it was not competent for any Christian
clergyman to say that his hands would be soiled by
L 2

148 Tlie Literature of Infidelity.
contact with the refined infidellt}" of London ; no
longer, be it remembered, the coarse, vulgar type of a
century since, but polished, argumentative, often ten
der and courteous ; but on those very accounts surely
the more insidious, surely the raore iraperatlvely de
raanding the very best attentions of those who would
study the signs of the tiraes.
I have often made my friends — good, timid, narrow-
minded people — lift up their hands in blank dismay
when I told thera that I joined the London Dialec
tical Society, and sat patiently once a week during
two years on their coramittee for the investigation of
Modern Spiritualism. The motto of the Dialecticians
is, that they accept nothing except as the conclusion
of a logical argument. The tone taken in reference
to Modern Spiritualisra was this : That its rairacles
were better attested than those of the Bible, because
tbey appealed to the evidence of tbe senses, and clairaed
soraething like demonstration; while the sacred mira
cles raust be accepted on the written testiraony of a
Book, whose authenticity (so ran their Socratic logic)
was very doubtful. I thought it was just as well to
hear all they had to say — and they had a very great
deal to say — on this and many other raatters ; and I
ara sincerely glad that I laid aside ray clerical starch
and joined their circle.
In the sarae way I proposed, during the Lent of
1874, to attend as many of the atheistical, infidel, and
free-thinking meetings in London as I could, and also

Tlie Literature of Infidelity. 149
look in upon those republican gatherings which are
always so closely associated therewith, as though the
two commands " Fear God" and " Honour the king"
had really a very close connexion one with the other.
I, as an individual, resolved to do what the Christian
Evidence Society had done in their corporate capacity,
namelj^ to visit personally the headquarters of Unbe
lief in London, and gather what was to be heard and
seen there. As a guide to my footsteps (for I was
profoundly ignorant of the geography of Infidel Lon
don), I went to 17, Johnson's Court, Fleet Street, and
bought the National Beformer of the current week. I
passed to Mr. Truelove's, the pubUsher's, at 256,
Holborn Bars, the office of the Sunday League, and
invested sixpence in the Secular Almanac, turning in
671 route at a shop in the Strand to buy for a penny
that which has been truly described as a "a raost
alarming sheet," the Bepmblican Herald. Armed with
these, I could, at aU events, find my way about for
awhile. A mere description of these organs will perhaps
give as good a general idea of the ramifications of
London infidelity as we could desire. The National
Secular Almanac, edited by Charles Bradlaugh and
Austin Holyoake, gives, under the guise of an inno
cent calendar, a very complete account of the Secu
larist body and its principles, throwing in occasionally
a lighter leaflet or two in the way of bon-mots which,
from a religious point of view, would be considered

150 The Literature of Li fidelity.
decidedly profane. The book, in fact, is a clever organ
of secular propagandisra. I am not complaining of
this. Eespectable insurance offices issue "Year Books,"
covering, under a sirailar veil of light literature and
an alraanac, advertiseraents of their own clairas on
public attention. Mr. Lynes, the raerchant-tailor of
Shoreditch, Issues frora tirae to time a veritable maga
zine to which authors of established repute contribute,
but whose pages are designed to promote the spread
of Messrs. Lynes's " Kensington suits." Why should
not Messrs. Bradlaugh and Holyoake do the same ?
They are intensely earnest, and verily believe that
the promotion of their opinions would hasten the Mil
lennium, which, being translated into secular lan
guage, means the " good time coming."
The volume consists of seventy pages, only one
dozen of which are devoted to the almanac and
kindred topics, such as eclipses, &c., and, even in the
almanac, raost of the days are described in their
reference to some secular hero, as, for instance;
"January 29. Thomas Paine, republican, born 1737."
"February 16. George Odger polled 4382 votes for
Southwark. 1870." " June 29. Jean Jacques
Eousseau born 1712 ;" and so on. Then we merge
at once into a " Eetrospect of Secular Progress," and
the kindred " Eepublican Movement," Mr. Francis
Neale teUs us " What Secularism is ;" Mr. Austin
Holyoake writes " In favour of Atheism;" Mr. MaccaU
describes " Pantheism" for us ; and then follows more

The Literature of Infidelity. ] 51
purely literary matter, occasionally breaking out in
the form of poetry. Padding takes the shape of
a verbatim report of the debate on International
Arbitration, and the whole winds up with an ode
which is too curious to be oraitted : —
IMPROVED SECULAR NATIONAL ANTHEM— " SAVE
OUR NATIVE LAND."
(Dedicated to AsiHim Tbjbvelyan by the Authoe.)
Tune — " Qod Save the Queen."
0 ! save our Native Land !
Prosper fair Ereedom's band —
Prosper and bless ;
Make them -victorious,
Happy and glorious.
That long may reign over us
Concord and Peace !
Friends of the People ! rise,
Instruct our enemies —
Make falsehood fall !
Confound bad politics,
Frustrate all knavish tricks,''
On Justice our hopes we fix-
Truth save us all ! ,
Perish vile slavery,
Pries-toraft and knavery-
Hypocrisy cease !
In amity then we'U join.
Commerce and Art shaU shine,
Knowledge and Truth divine
Widely increase !
Champions of Freedom ! stand
Firm in your native land !
Thus flows the strain ;

152 The Literature of Infidelity.
Guarded by Truth and Light,
Virtue and Honour bright,
May Freedom, and equal Right
Triumphant reign !
Prior Hall, Northumberland, Geoege Snowball,
May 20, 1830. Tenant Farmer.
Among the advertisements stitched up with the
almanac is one of the " Secularist's Manual," which
bears strange evidence to man's necessity for some
ceremonies at the crises of his life. Among the con
tents we find " Secular Ceremonies, — The Naming
of Infants ; A Marriage Service ; and a Burial Ser
vice," aU by Austin Holyoake, Mr, Holyoake seems
to stand in much the sarae relation to Secularisra
which Corate during the later portion of his life did
to Positivism. He was its High Priest in everything
but narae.
The chief attraction in ray eyes, however, was that
the volurae gave rae the names of sorae twenty places
in London where I could go and see Secularism at
work, as I have done. Thirty-six provincial towns
were deemed of sufficient importance to have their
secularist institutions chronicled herein ; and there
was, moreover, a list added of three metropolitan and
sixteen provincial republican clubs. A few of the
London haunts were previously known to me, such
as the " HaU of Science," the " Positive School," and
" South Place Chapel ;" but I learned for the first
time of the "United Secularists' Propagandist
Society," the " Eleusis Club," the " Minerva Club,"

Tlie Literature of Infidelity. 153
the " Advanced Unitarian Church," and several others,
which I set down for instant anatomization.
Then I proceeded to regale rayself with my
National Beformer, which I found well written and
weU edited, and with very unmistakable evidences
throughout of the genius of Mr. Bradlaugh, who
had just returned frora his American tour. It would
be the greatest mistake possible for Christians to
depreciate their foe, or pretend to look down on
Secularism. It is to correct this mistake — to give
Christians sorae idea, at all events, of the diraensions
of the systera with which they venture to raake war,
that is araong my chief objects in writing these
papers. It is all very well for Orthodoxy to hold up
its hands and say it is wicked to go among " these
people;" but unless somebody goes among them,- how
are those Christian gentlemen who sit at home in
ease to know anything at all of what " these people"
are like ?
There I learned, too, somewhat more in detail, the
sort of entertainment provided on Sundays at the
various places of meeting whose names I had as yet
only seen chronicled. At the Hackney Secularist
Association a debate had been opened on the " Justi
fiability of Suicide," an announcement being added
that, on the following Sunday, the subject would be
" What has Christianity done to benefit Mankind ?"
At the Advanced Unitarian Church and Theological
Discussion Society " Sacrifices and Sacraraents" were

1 54 Tlie literature of Infidelity.
demolished. The Hall of Science devoted itself to
the well-worn subject of Thomas Paine's Life, with
an " ovation" to Mr. Bradlaugh, who had just
returned from the United States ; though many
of the institutions had not got over the election
fever, and were raore given up to political than
religious, or irreligious, raatters.
I reserved the " alarraing sheet" as my bonne louche
for the last ; and weU indeed the Bepublican Herald
deserved such an honour. The quality of the spice
with which their journal Is flavoured may be inferred
frora the following extracts, which are curious and
appropriate in this connexion as each emanating
from clergymen of the Established Church : —
" The Established Church.
" My own experience of the Established Church,
which has been varied and considerable, has irre
sistibly led me to the conclusion that this Church is
dead, and must be buried. Indeed, I have been
driven to the conviction that the whole state of
Christendom, involving all the old orthodoxies, with
the feelings, hopes, and conduct to which they are
akin, are devoid of true spiritual life, and must,
therefore, be put entirely away. As frora the Esta
blished Church of England, which is identical in its
fundaraental doctrine with the Church of Eorae, the
voluntary Churches which go by the name of Christian,
have in agreat measure taken their cue, I shall, by laying

The Literature of Infidelity. 155
bare the evil and benighted condition of the English
ecclesiastical Establishraent, at the same tirae be exhi
biting the false and uncharitable character of the other
so-called Christian sects in this and other countries.
" A Church, or dispensation, of spiritual life and
light, like every other finite thing, has its rise, pro
gress, culmination, and gradual decay, till it reaches
its close, when it is succeeded by a new Church, or
new spiritual state which is opened in those who are
fitted to receive it. This was the case with the
Jewish Church. This, too, is now the case with the
first Christian Church. It was distinguished by
attachment to the person of Jesus Christ, and by a
life in accordance with His verbal directions. It
flourished in the siraple charity and rautual helpful
ness of its raembers. In the face of earthly powers
and persecutions it grew and multiplied, extending its
sway solely by the power of good exaraple and the
siraple truths which it taught. It had begun to
decline when, in the beginning of the 4th century, it
consented to become an instrument in the hands of
the State. The process of degeneracy went on tiU its
chief officer assumed the power of the keys, teaching
that he had the prerogative of opening and closing
heaven, and of dooming to eternal perdition those
whom he denounced as the enemies of the loving
God, Wars were undertaken in the narae of religion,
and the priesthood becarae the central corrupters of
mankind. The Eeforraation, in the 16th century,

156 The Literature of Infidelity.
exposed in some raeasure the wickedness of the
Church, and, by dividing the priestly power, in sorae
measure weakened it, but it did little if anything for
the reformation of religion itself. The good which
resulted was owing to the freedom which then becarae
possible to rainds of a certain teraper, unwUling to
yield implicitly to priestly authority. But the decay
of the Church went on, and the first unmistakable
indication of its death was presented by the French
Eevolution, when priests threw off the mask, de
claring that for years they had been infidels, hardly
able to preserve a decent solemnity of countenance
during the celebration of the prescribed services, and
the people revelled In the slaughter of their fellow
men. In England, Catholics in power persecuted the
Protestants, and Protestants, when they were able,
persecuted the Catholics. The Puritans in the days
of Cromwell persecuted the Episcopalians, and dealt
so hardly by the Friends that George Fox predicted
that God would overthrow the foUowers of Cromwell
and bring back the Episcopalians into power, as the
latter were less cruel than the forraer. The Puritans,
who had their noses slit and their ears cut off by the
Eoyalists, fleeing to Araerica for a new horae, there
cut off the ears and slit the noses of Friends because
they could not compel thera to think as they thera
selves thought. Episcopalians and Presbyterians
treated each other with equal barbarity. When that
which had been intended as a blessing to raankind

The Literature of Infidelity. 157
had evidently been converted into a curse, and when
in England, as elsewhere, this corrupted and perverted
religion was established and endowed by the State, as
it stiU is, it is as clear as anything can be that the
breath of life has departed from the Church.
" The division of the Godhead into three persons ;
the sufferings and death of the second person to
appease the wrath and satisfy the offended justice of
the first person, who, because of Adam's transgres
sion, was supposed to have turned away His face in
displeasure from His own children, and to have been
minded to destroy or torment them for ever in hell ;
justification by faith alone in the sacrifice of Jesus
Christ, as needed for the salvation ofthe sinner, is to
reconcile God to him, which if he possessed, he would,
quite irrespective of his own mental and practical
character, be regarded by the Almighty as clothed
with the perfect righteousness of Christ, and conse
quently meet for the Kingdom of Heaven — these,
viz., tri-personalism. Divine vindictiveness and sub
stitution, are the essentials of the Established Church,
as they are of the Eoman Church, and of all the old
Christian denominations in the world. Now, to hide
the imraorality and hideousness of this doctrine frora
the eyes of the laity, it has been feigned and taught
that good works as necessarily spring frora this faith
as good fruit is brought forth by a good tree. But
as raan cannot add to a Divinely finished work — as
he cannot amend or suppleraent the free gift conferred

158 The Literature of Infidelity.
by the grace or favour of God, as it is irapossible for
hira to improve the work of the Holy Spirit, nay,
should he even think of doing any good thing for the
sake of God, or his own soul, or eternal life, he would,
as the doctrine runs, by his blindness, presuraption, or
ingratitude, profane the work of Christ, and thus sin
against God — it may be easily seen what is the
character of these good works. Salvation according
to orthodoxy, is secured without them ; in respect to
religion, they are, therefore, not good, they can,
therefore, only be accounted good In securing
worldly advantages ; and it thus becomes indis
putable that they never would have been men
tioned at all in this connexion, but as a veil to screen
from the public eye the real nature of justification by
faith alone, which in reality justifies every description
of injustice, thus blaspheraing God and degrading
raan. These doctrines are the all in all of the fallen
Church. If consistency were duly observed, nothing
else would ever be preached as necessary to salvation.
Besides these doctrines, which are sufficient to convict
the Established Church of degradation and benlght-
edness, there are other tenets which set all sober
reason at defiance and are antagonistic to wise benevo
lence. Amongst these raay be enuraerated the doc
trines of an alraost oranipotent devil, who disputes
with God for sovereignty over men's souls and has
a dehght in torturing the lost in hell, multitudes
believing he wiU torture them there for ever ; of death

The Literature of Infidelity. 159
being a punishment inflicted by the Alraighty upon
every one for the disobedience of Adara ; of the resur
rection of the rejected body, no one knows when;
all the departed beings in the raeantirae without eyes
to see with, ears to hear with, hands to handle with,
and feet to walk with ; of the general judgment at
the last day in this world, and then of the destruction
by fire of the world itself. Besides all this, according
to orthodoxy, only one profession is holy, one day in
the v/eek is the Lord's day, one house In a parish is
God's house, one piece of ground only is holy ground,
one set of services alone are services rendered to
Almighty God, and one book only is the sacred
Scripture. Viewing so much as unholy, with which
nevertheless men have to do, it is not wonderful that
the spirit of unholiness or injustice should be so
prevalent even amongst those who are caUed Chris
tians. One of the Articles of the Church of England
teaches that it is lawful for Christian men at the
commandment of the magistrate to wear weapons and
serve in the wars. If this be not murderous teachinsr
— ^in direct opposition to the true Christian teaching of
forbearance, forgiveness, and charity; that charity
which coramands us to return good for evil, and so
overcome evil by good, the only raeans by which it
can ever be effectually overcome — language has no
definite meaning, and the human understanding can
never be a fair interpreter of words.
" Now, it has been stated that when an old state of

160 Tlie Literature of Infidelity.
religious faith and life comes to an end, a new state
is always raised up by Divine Providence, raan's
destiny in this world being discipline for a better-
And beneath all the theological confusion observable
within the Established Church, as well as beyond it,
there is a seed of better things. The reforra which
underlies every other reforra, and which is the source
from which every other true reform springs, is religious
reforra. The best of the clergy, and the best and
raost thoughtful in all classes, are losing more and
raore their hold upon the old tenets. The sharp-
headed artisans of our large towns are, in a great
measure, too intelligent to believe in an angry God, a
tri-personal Deity, salvation by substitution, and an
endless heU. Yet we should corae to a wrong con
clusion if we thought or said they were aU without
religion. It is the New Church within thera and
others, the Church of genuine faith and love, faith in
the will of the Good God as revealed in individual
conscience, and practical love for all God's children,
which has destroyed their faith in the old Church, and
wUl corapass the overthrow of the Established Church
of England, and of all other worn out sectarian
organizations. It is this new religious life, this
new-born love of justice and true brotherhood, which
is showing raen more and more that the Established
Church is simply a corrupt department of a corrupt
State ; that it is a political injustice to aU Noncon
formists ; that it is a huge barrier to progress, and

Tlie Literature of Infidelity. 161
that for religion's sake, and the State's sake, it must
be entirely swept away.
" Sometime ago a very celebrated member of the
Cabinet asked me if I would not again resume my
ministry in the Established Church. My reply was,
' No. If England were a truly religious country there
could not be an Established Church in it.' He said,
with a grave look, ' Well, that is my way of thinking.'
The other day a brother clergyman put a simUar
question to me. The answer I gave was this — ' If
the Church were disestablished and the Act of Uni
formity repealed, so that I could keep my conscience
clear, then I should be very glad to minister again.'
But such rainistry would be that of the New Church ;
of service to God in service to raankind.
" In reality the Church and the State are inseparably
and eternally one. The people in their spiritual
capacity are the Church, and the same people in their
political capacity are the State. The Church is the
soul of which the State is the body. The Church is
within and above the State, as the human soul is
in and above the human body. The State derives its
quality frora the Church, as the body its quality from
the soul. Then, as is the Church such must be the
State. Were the Church pure and noble, the State
would be pure and noble too. When the Church is of
a mixed character, the State must have a mixed cha
racter. When the Church is dead, the State is dead
also. It is only when there is no Church within to
VOL. II. ^

162 The Literature of Infidelity.
inspire, and mould, and lead the State, that the State
sets up, endows, and controls an ecclesiasticism which
It raisnaraes the Church, and which it uses chiefly to
school the people into obedience to the civil power,
irrespective of its character. Accordingly we find
clergymen, as a rule, the greatest aid and abettors of
every cruel law and of every political abuse.
" I raust beg the reader's kind indulgence for all
the iraperfections with which I ara persuaded this
article, as a literary production, must abound ; for I
am so hurried that I have not time to re- write, amend,
or polish a single sentence. I present it as it is ; only
asking for it that earnest consideration which the
subject undoubtedly demands, and that practical
fidelity to tbe lesson it contains which is necessary
for the reraoval of the Established Church and many
cognate evUs, and for the growth and development of
that New Church of spiritual truth and goodness
which is necessary to purify and bless the outward,
social, and political life of mankind.
" William Hume-Eothery.
" Merton Lodge, TivoU, Cheltenham."
The second is poetical in shape : —
PIOUS MINSTRELSY.
Br A Progressive Pakson.

Our Patron Saints.
Great Simon ! It's not St. Peter I mean.
Nor Stylites, piously unclean.
But one who from Thames to Tagus,

The Literature of Infidelity. 163
Owns empire of a wider scope.
Object of every church's hope.
The cynosure of prelate and pope-
Adored St. Simon Magus !
Come — ^to my impecunious self
Teach thy lessons of holy pelf;
Nestorian or Pelagian —
Whatever be my heretical drift.
My bishop I know -tfiU give me shrift.
If I only study the law of thrift
And turn out a Simon-Magian !
Oft have I sought a shoe of fat
From my lord in apron and shovel-hat,
When some swell, inside an all-rounder.
Has raised his voice my claim above,
Getting more for money than I for love.
Slipping as into his lavender glove.
To my lord's ten thousand pounder.
That, as the ball commercial rolls,
Is the price of a London " cure of souls,"
But, alas ! I cannot try money ;
While this more adventurous clerical gent
Knows the true episcopal beut
And borrowing money at sixty per cent.
So shaves the edges of Simony.
Come to my aid, auriferous saint.
Bring me money to aid my plaint.
Or a war unequal wage I ;
Even in Sacred legends we're told
How h-vings of yore were bought and sold.
For were there not heaps of glittering gold
In the gifts of adoring Magi ?
Come Iscariot, lord of the money-bag.
Saint of the apostolic swag.
Then, stretched beneath the/ajrits,
I may spend the rest of my pious days
Singing ever thy saintship's praise.
And studying all the pleasant ways
Of thyself and St. Simon-Magus.
M 2

1 64 The Literature of Infidelity.
High in episcopal regard.
When death shall waft me to my reward
In s-wift celestial chariot.
Up shall I soar to the asphodel wold.
By the glassy sea with its sands of gold.
And eternity spend in bliss untold
With Magus and Iscariot !
Perhaps this latter extract had more attraction for
me, through ray having just lost my curacy, after a
six years' tenure, in consequence of the living having
been sold !
To excuse is to accuse one's self, I repeat. I ara
quite sure that some persons will quote the old
proverb, " Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis foUy to be
wise." But is ignorance ever bliss ? Is it ever folly
to be wise ? These sheets are being sown broadcast
on the metropolis. Is it any good to sit down and
shut our eyes ; and then, one of these days, helplessly
wonder at the crop of tares ? Quieta non movere has
been too long our policy ; and now we have to lay on
missions, and employ all sorts of special machinery
to combat infiuences we can no longer ignore. It is
surely better to learn the strength of our opponents,
and measure our own against it. And how can this be
done without employing that disagreeable but most
necessary instrumentality, a spy in the camp ?

165

THE EITUAL OF INFIDELITY.
It has always struck rae as the raost raarveUous con
cession, not only to man's need of religion, but of the
necessity of outward forras to express that religion,
when Comte, the founder of Positivism, in his later
days, and after being saddened by sorrow, became a
sort of high priest of his own systera, and overlaid
what was before the most unsyrabolic creed with a
culture more elaborate than the Eoman itself. So too
is it with that kindred system which really differs frora
Positivism only in name — Secularisra. Since it fore
goes everything in the shape of a creed, one would
not expect to find anything like ritual attaching to it;
in fact, I doubt not but that the title of this paper
wiU seem at first to some persons to involve a contra
diction of terms. It is not so, however ; Secularisra,
though without a creed, has, iUogically enough, a
ritual. It differs, as might be expected, from all that
we signify by the name as widely as Secularism itself
differs from Christianity; and the diversity here is polar.
Adopting my plan — the fairness of which none can
question — to let those whose opinions I am describing
speak for themselves, I find Mr. Francis Neale thus
portraying and defending Secularism : —

166 The Bitual of Infidelity.
" Secularism raay be briefly defined as the science
of this life — the philosophy of the present existence,
Secularisra is a religion without superstition — a theo
logy the divinity of which is huraanity. It teaches a
man how to live without dependence on a God, and
how to die without the fear of a devil. It instructs
him how to prosper without a Providence, how to live
happily without a priest, how to be moral without a
Bible, how to be useful without theological belief It
asserts the possibility of a Paradise without the neces
sity of an ascension, and thinks salvation attainable
without the blood of the ' Lamb.'
" Secularisra devotes itself to the present existence
entirely, the improvement of which it is its mission to
attempt. Should there be another existence, then it
holds that be is the more fitted to enter upon it who
has done his utmost to make the best of this.
" Secularism does not say there Is not a future state,
nor does it say there is. On this subject men have
been long and hopelessly disagreed, and In the absence
of conclusive evidence on either side. Secularism does
not presume to dogmatize or decide. But Secularism
points to the present existence, about which there can
be no doubt, difference, or dispute, and asks its adhe
rents to attend to this in preference to longing, wait
ing, watching, praying, and sighing for another, which,
after aU, may never come. Of this life we are certain;
no one in his senses can dispute its reality. Its signifi
cance, its importance. We know it, can feel it, can

The Bitual of Infidelity. 167
enjoy it, can appreciate it, with a keenness no logic,
no sophistry, can dull or destroy. But of another Ufe
we are not so certain ; at the best it is but a matter
of probability, of faith, of hope, of beUef."
It seems difficult to see how, on such grounds, there
can be anything like a confederation or society of Se
cularists. Its very eclecticism seems to involve isola
tion. Such, however. Is again not the case. Secularists
are better than their principles, and have not forfeited
altogether their character as social beings. Witness
the foUowing : —
"Principles of the National Secular Society.
" This Association declares (1) that the proraotion
of Huraan Iraproveraent and Happiness is the
highest duty.
" 2. That the theological teachings of the world
have been, and are, most powerfully obstructive of
human iraproveraent and happiness ; huraan activity
being guided and increased by a consciousness of the
facts of existence ; while it is raisjudged and impeded
in the most mischievous manner when the inteUect
is warped or prostrated by childish and absurd super
stitions. " 3. That in order to promote effectually the
improvement and happiness of mankind, every indi
vidual of the huraan faraily ought to be well placed
and weU instructed, and aU who are of a suitable

168 The Bitual of Infidelity.
age ought to be usefully eraployed for their own and
the general good.
" 4. That human iraproveraent and happiness
cannot be effectually proraoted without civU and
religious liberty ; and that therefore it is the duty of
every individual — a duty to be practically recognised
by every member of this Association — to actively
attack the barriers to equal freedom of thought and
utterance for all upon political and theological sub
jects. " The admission of merabers is in the discretion of
the Executive, subject to appeal to a general raeeting,
and any lady or gentleraan desiring to be admitted,
must sign the form printed on the next page.
" The National Beformer is the recognised organ of
the Society, and all advertisements, &c., of the Society
appear therein.
" The chief place of meeting ofthe Society is at the
New Hall of Science, a central position, where friends
from the country wiU find a comfortable place at
which they may obtain refreshments, and where they
may have their letters sent.
" The members are either active or passive.
" The active list consists of those who do not object
to the publication of their names as members of the
National Secular Society. An active member's duty
is to send, as often as possible, reliable reports to the
President of the doings of the local clergy, of special
events, sermons, lectures, or publications, affecting

Tlie Bitual of Infidelity. 169
secular progress. He should also aid in the circula
tion of secular literature, and generally in the free-
thought propaganda of his neighbourhood. Where
a local society exists, he ought to belong to it, whether
or not it be a branch of this Society.
" The passive list consists of those whose position
does not permit the publication of their naraes, or
who do not feel able to do any active duty.
" Form of Declaration.
" ' I declare that I ara desirous of joining the
National Secular Society, in order to proraote the
improvement and happiness of myself and my feUows.
That I pledge myself to do my best, if admitted as a
member, to co-operate with my fellow members to
attain the objects of this Association.
" 'Name 
" 'Address 
"'Occupation 
" ' Active or Passive.' 
"This Declaration, signed with the name and
address of the candidate, being transmitted to the
Secretary of the Association, Mr. David K. Eraser,
17, Johnson's Court, Fleet Street, E.G., with Three
pence for a Quarter's Subscription, a Card of Member
ship wiU be issued available for three raonths. Any
further subscription is in the discretion and according
to the means of the person joining.

170 Tlie Bitual of Infidelity.
"Objects.
" The Executive of the National Secular Society
finding that the power of the free-thought body in the
State is specially recognised in connexion with the
political and social changes now taking place, points
out to its members and friends the following matters
as deserving of their earnest and active attention : —
"1. To obtain the repeal of the Blaspheray Laws as
a special raatter affecting its raembers.
" 2. The disestablishment and disendowment of the
State Church, and the placing all religions and forms
of speculative opinion on a perfect equality before the
law. " 3. Specially the iraproveraent of the condition of
the agricultural classes, whose terrible state of social
degradation is at present a fatal barrier to the forraa
tion of a good state of society.
" 4. A change in the Land Laws, so as to break
down the present system by which enormous estates
are found in few hands, the many having no interest
in the soil, and to secure for the agricultural labourer
some share of the iraproveraent in the land he culti
vates. " 5. The destruction of the present hereditary
Charaber of Peers, and substitution of a Senate con
taining Life Members, elected for their fitness, and
therewith the constitution of a National Party in-

The Bitual of Infidelity . 171
tended to wrest the governing power frora a few
Whig and Tory families.
" 6. The investigation of the causes of poverty in
all old countries, in order to see how far unequal
distribution of wealth or more radical causes may
operate. The discussion in connexion with this of
the various scheraes for social araelioration, and the
ascertainment if possible of the laws governing the
increase of population and produce, as affecting the
rise and fall of wages."
We have heard a great deal at different tiraes —
very much more than most of us probably believed —
about certain " Jesuitical" tricks on the part of a
particular school of thought in the Church, and how
those of one branch which was unpopular, " reserved"
or disguised their opinions by remaining in another
section Avhich was popular. Secularists especially have
always been prone to talk of " wolves in sheeps'
clothing;" but if this distinction into "active and
passive" merabers be not a piece of diploraacy, to
enable men to conceal their opinions, we do not know
what is.
But stiU, so far, we find no sign of sacerdotalism,
save that which the infidel falsely attributes to the
believer, and is here found to be adopting fuU-fiedged
himself; nor is there any symptora of ritual. Mr.
Bradlaugh has not yet, as far as we know, constituted
hiraself Pope, Archbishop, or Grand Llama of the

172 Tlie Bitual of Infidelity.
Secularists ; but Mr. Austin Holyoake and Mr. Watts,
It appears, have. In that which Mr. Gladstone is,
rightly or wrongly, said to have called " a question
able book," namely. The Secularists' Manual, I find
something like the Eituale Holyoakense or the Hier-
urgia Secularis. It concedes, like Corate, the fact
that man cannot live without a worship of sorae kind ;
and that, grotesque as he may elect to make it, he
must have that worship. Between Fetishism and
Secularism it is only a question of degree, not of
kind, when once the old moorings of Eevelation are
abandoned. At those solemn crises in life whose records fill so
strangely the first column in our giant paper, which
read so prosy and unromantic there, but are so full of
that deepest of aU romance, reality, then it Is that, as
it were instinctively, raan adopts a cereraony of some
kind ; and it cannot but be interesting to contrast the
utterances of secularism with those of theology. Do
not the former read cold and dead ; reminding us, in
the Apostle's own words, of the " body without the
soul?" From the "questionable book" above men
tioned I gather the following : —
" Secular Ceremonies.
" I. The Naming of Infants.
" Bt Charles Waits.
" In publicly naming the infant now before us we
recognise the parents' desire to identify their offspring

Tlie Bitual of Infidelity. 173
with the Secular Party, which proclaims the necessity
of unfettered thought during the formation of cha
racter. Diversity of organization precludes uniformity
of belief ; we do not, therefore, guarantee that in after
life a child shall profess any particular class of
opinions. But by keeping its mind free from theo
logical creeds we enable it the better to acquire a
more liberal education than is perraitted by the
conventional faith of the Church. During infancy
the imagination frequently revels in the ideal ; care
should be taken, therefore, to protect the chUd as
much as possible frora the beguileraents of super
stition. For in the sunny days of childhood, when
the heart leaps with joy, when innocence bearas on
the cheek, and hope sparkles in the eye — when the
mind in its purest simplicity is unable to detect the
snare, then the seeds are sown which in after years
frequently bear unfortunate fruit. An opportunity
should be given for the faculties to be fairly developed
before the judgraent is taxed with the mysteries and
perplexities of theology. The true and the beautiful
in nature should be placed before the young with
a view of inspiring them with a desire to understand
and appreciate the realities of life. ,Theological
prejudice and religious bigotry prevent the realization
of this object. Hence it is our duty to surround the
child with influences that will enable him to avoid
those evils.
" Viewing this emblera of innocence, we recognise

1 74 Tlie Bitual of Infidelity.
linearaents of love and siraplicity, which are an Index
to the goodness of its nature. The gerras of virtue
are here awaiting judicious cultivation, that they raay
bud forth and ripen into moral fruit. Youth is
impressible. The conduct of children in after life
is generally a reflex of their earlier education. En
circle thera with pure influences, place before them
examples of integrity, foster the desire for exceUence
which is allied witb huraan affections at the dawn of
life, you will thereby open the avenues to the purest
Instincts of their nature, and knit a bond of union
between thera and their parents which all the turraoil
of life and strife of the world will fail to sever. Seek
to win the affections of children with love, not repel
thera with fear ; inspire hope and joy, awaken not
dread and despair. The Infant raind is sensitive, and
requires to be irradiated with smiles, not darkened
with gloom. Parental indifference, harsh treatment,
and cruel frowns produce stultified intellects and
unpleasant dispositions ; but kindness, care, and
forbearance evoke intelligence and cheerfulness of
conduct. " We sincerely hope that in after life [here name
the chUd] he [if the chUd be a girl, substitute the
feminine gender] may have reason to rejoice in his
fellowship with us. May the principles of Free-
thought enable hira to brave successfully the battle of
life. And as he sails o'er the billows of time, raay
experience increase his guiding power, that when

The Bitual of Infidelity. 175
arriving at maturity he shall have acquired sufficient
knowledge to enable him to regulate aright his
further career. And when the evening of his exis
tence has arrived, may he obtain consolation from the
reflection that his conduct has won the approval of
the wise and the good, and that to the best of his
ability he has been faithful to the mission of life.
ON THE BIRTH OP AN INFANT.
Joy to thy parents, 0 mayst thou be found ;
Peace as a halo thy pathway surround ;
Duly approving and prompting thy care,
Love in its fulness fulfilling its share.
Goodness attend thee wherever thou go,
Mercy defend from the shafts of its foe ;
Virtue stiU pro-ving thy way mark to be —
Nothing presuming through sweetness in thee.
Sweetness resembling the flow'rets of spring,
Nurtar'd by dewdrops fresh odours to bring ;
Tear-drops of pity, of feeling, of soul.
Temper -with prudence, their force to control.
Sunbeams of -wisdom illumine thy day ;
Chase the dull meteors of folly away ;
Point, as the shade on the dial wUl move,
How the fleet moments of time to improve.
Knowledge engage thee its wonders to scan ;
Teach thee the greatness, the weakness of man !
Show thee of Ufe, how its dangers to pass,
Show thee thyself in humility's glass.
" II. A Marriage Ceremony.
" By Austin Holyoake.
" We have met here to-day to perforra the pleasing
duty of celebrating the raarriage of our two young
friends, A. and B. They are entering upon a new
mode of Ufe, the paths of which may be strewn with

176 Tlie Bitual of Injidelily.
roses, if love and mutual respect guard the way ; or
witb thorns, if harshness and petulance are allowed
to invade the domain of the affections.
" May health, happiness, and long life await them.
" Marriage is the most raoraentous event in the life
of both raan and woraan. On it depends the happi
ness or raisery of their future. Carefully then should
the induceraents be weighed that irapel to so im
portant a step, that the contracting parties raay be
sure that love, and love alone, has prorapted them to
the act. Any sordid or capricious motive will speedily
bring its own punishment. It is the union of hearts,
not hands, that constitutes a true marriage. But
while the heart should be the prime mover, the head
sbould.take care of it, or the happiness ofthe married
couple will be a matter of accident, where it should be
the result of the raost careful and enlightened judg
ment. Marriages of mere passion are as disastrous as
those of avarice or arabition.
" Marital love is necessary to the perfection of life ;
and the love of children springing therefrora is the
purest eraotion known to huraanity. In the doraestic
affections is to be found the highest happiness, and
they who fail to cultivate thera lose half the joys of
existence. " Our young friends who have now entered upon
the married state, raust not forget that it has its
duties as well as its pleasures. New responsibilities
will devolve upon thera, and the fittest preparation

Tlie Bitual of Infidelity. 177
they can make to enable them to properly meet them,
will be to so .order their own lives that their minds
may be free from the bickerings and irritations that
so constantly await ill-assorted and ill-regulated
unions. The golden rule in married life is Mutual
Forbearance. We must never forget that no alliance,
however well designed, can ever secure perfect con
tentment ; for it so happens that where people love
most, they are apt to be most exacting one to the
other. There may be a fanaticism in love as well as
in belief, for affection is but the religion of the heart.
As with a people the aggregate of individual virtues
make up the sum of national greatness, so iu domestic
life the multifarious duties devolving upon each, faith
fully fulfilled, make up the measure of huraan bliss.
" We urge each not to be the first by whora the
harsh word is spoken, nor the last to offer the hand of
reconcUiation. Beware of jealousies, and vigilantly
foster feelings of trust and loving-kindness.
" It is fervently to be hoped that the newly-married
pair will prove to each other suitable companions
through life, and be knit together, not only with the
silken cords of affection, but with a bond that
strengthens with years and brightens with age — the
bond of congenial tastes and intellectual attachment.
Marriage is itself an education, which schools the
heart, and directs the affections in the paths of peace.
A world of bliss is ever present in that household
which is pervaded by the elevating and softening
VOL. II. N

178 The Bitual of Infidelity.
influence of hterature and art, which purifies love, and
attunes the feelings to harmonious sympathy with all
humanity. " The names husband and wife have a charmed
sound, and the married state has a halo around it that
dims with its lustre all other relationships of life.
Husband and wife are ' aU the world to each other,'
and they should strive to raake their doraestic hearth
so pure and tranquil, that when they assurae the
momentous but blissful responsibilities of father and
mother, they may feel sure that their children will
be born under influences that shall make them dutiful
and loving to their parents, and enthusiastic workers
for the good of others.
" To the husband we say : Conserve and cherish
the sacredness of home ; make it the altar at which
you worship, and be sure that domestic bliss Is within
the reach of all who intelligently strive to attain it.
It is to be won alone by a raanly yet considerate
treatraent of the one to whora you have dedicated
your life, and who will return your affection, however
lavish, with boundless interest,
" To the wife we say : Now that you have won a
woman's greatest prize, a loving heart, guard it with
zealous care, nor ever let the storm of anger rise to
wither true affection with its fiery breath. In attain
ing the consuinraation of aU the gentler feelings which
animate a woraan's breast, never forget that love,
unaccompanied by true companionship, soon droops

The Bitual of Infidelity: 179
and perishes under the chilling infiuence of uncon-
geniality of mind.
" To husband and wife we say : So live, that when
the evening of life arrives, secure in the affection of
children and friends, you can exclaim with the poet —
' Not another joy like unto this succeeds in unknown
fate.' " [As Secular Institutions are not Ucensed as places
wherein marriages can be legally performed, the fore
going service can be used in this way: After the
couple have been duly 'joined in holy matrimony' at
the Eegistrar's Court, the party can adjourn to the
Hall, where the celebration can be held. It will be as
well that this should take place on the same day,
though that is not absolutely necessary. The reading
of the service should be preceded by the singing of
poem No. 5 in this Manual, and followed by No. 19,
both of which should be set to cheerful and impressive
tunes. The reader of the service can introduce a few
reraarks of a personal nature, if he thinks fit.J
" III. A Burial Service.
" By Austin Holyoake.
" We this day consign to the earth the body of our
departed friend; for him life's fitful dream is over,
with its toUs, and sufferings, and disappointment. He
derived his being from the bountiful mother of all ;
he returns to her capacious bosom, to again mingle
with the elements. He basked in life's sunshine for
N 2

180 The Bitual of Infidelity.
his allotted time, and has passed into the shadow of
death, where sorrow and pain are unknown. Nobly
he perforraed Ufe's duties on the stage of earth ; the
irapenetrable curtain of futurity has fallen, and we see
hira no raore. But he leaves to his sorrowing rela
tives and friends a legacy in the reraembrance of his
virtues, his services, his honour, and truth. He fought
the good fight of free inquiry, and triuraphed over
prejudice and the results of raisdirected education.
His voyage through life was not always on tranquil
seas, but his strong judgraent steered hira clear of the
rocks and quicksands of ignorance, and for years he
rested placidly ,in the haven of self-knowledge. He
had long been free frora the fears and raisgivings of
superstitious belief. He worked out for hiraself the
problem of life, and no man was the keeper of his con
science. His religion was of this world — the service
of humanity his highest aspiration. He recognised
no authority but that of Nature; adopted no methods
but those of science and philosophy ; and respected in
practice no rule but that of conscience, illustrated by
the comraon sense of mankind. He valued the lessons
of the past, but disowned tradition as a ground of be
lief, whether rairacles and supernaturalism be claimed
or not claimed on its side. No sacred Scripture or
ancient Church formed the basis of his faith. By his
example he vindicated the right to think, and to act
upon conscientious conviction. By a career so noble,
who shall say that his domestic affections were im-

The Bitual of Infidelity. 181
paired, or that his love' for those near and dear to him
was weakened? On the contrary, his independent
method of thought tended to develop those sentiments
which have their source in human nature — which im
pel and ennoble all morality — which are grounded
upon intelligent personal conviction, and which mani
fest themselves in worthy and heroic actions, especially
in the proraotion of truth, justice and love. For wor
ship of the unknown, he substituted duty; for prayer,
work; and the record of his Ufe bears testiraony to
his purity of heart ; and the bereaved ones know but
too well the treasure that is lost to them for ever. If
perfect reliance upon any particular belief in the hour
of death were proof of its truth, then in the death of
our friend the principles of Secularism would be
triumphantly established. His belief sustained him
in health; during his illness, with the certainty of
death before him at no distant period, it afforded him
consolation and encouragement; and in the last
soleran moments of his life, when he was gazing as it
were into his own grave, it procured hira the most
perfect tranquillity of mind. There were no misgivings,
no doubts, no tremblings lest he should have missed
the right path ; but he went undaunted into the land
of the great departed, into the silent land. It may
be truly said of him, that nothing in life became him
more than the manner of his leaving it. Death has
no terrors for the enlightened ; it may bring regrets
at the thought of leaving those we hold dearest on

182 Tlie Bitual of Infidelity.
earth, but the consciousness of a well-spent life is all-
sufficient in the last sad hour of huraanity. Death is
but the shadow of a shade, and there is nothing in
the name that should blanch the cheek or inspire the
timid with fear. In its presence, pain and care give
place to rest and peace. The sorrow-laden and the
forlorn, the unfortunate and the despairing, find re
pose in the tomb — all the woes and iUs of life are
swallowed up in death. The atoms of this earth once
were Uving man, and in dying we do but return to
our kindred who have existed through myriads of
generations. [Here introduce any personal matters relating to the
deceased.^
Now 0U3- departed brother has been removed, death,
like a mirror, shows us his true reflex. We see his
character, undlstorted by the passions, the prejudices,
and the infirmities of life. And how poor seera aU
the petty arabitious which are wont to sway man
kind, and how small the advantages of revenge.
Death is so genuine a fact that it excludes falsehood
or betrays its emptiness ; it Is a touchstone that proves
the gold and dishonours the baser metal. Our
friend has entered upon that eternal rest, that happy
ease, which is the heritage of all. The sorrow and
grief of those who remain alone mar the thought
that the tranquil sleep of death has succeeded that
fever of the brain caUed living. Death comes as the

The Bitual of Infidelity. 183
soothing anodyne to aU our woes and struggles, and
we inherit the earth as a reward for the toUs of life.
The pain of parting is poignant, and cannot for a
time be subdued ; but regrets are vain. Every form
that lives must die, for the penalty of life is death.
No power can break the stern decree that all on earth
must part ; though the chain be woven by affection or
kindred, the beloved ones who weep for us wiU only
for a whUe reraain. There is not a flower that scents
the raountain or the plain, there is not a rosebud that
opes its perfumed lips to the morning sun, but ere
evening comes raay perish. Man springs up like the
tree : at first the tender plant, he puts forth buds of
promise, then blossoms for a time, and gradually
decays and passes away. His hopes, like the count
less leaves of the forest, may wither and be blown
about by the adverse winds of fate ; but his efforts,
springing from the fruitful soil of wise endeavom-, will
fructify the earth, frora which wiU rise a blooraing har
vest of happy results to raankind. In the soleran pre
sence of death — soleran, because a raystery which no liv
ing being has penetrated — on the brink of that bourne
from whence no traveller returns, our obvious duty is
to emulate the good deeds of the departed, and to
resolve so to shape our course through life, that when
our hour comes we can say, that though our tempta
tions were great — though our education was defective
—though our toUs and privations were sore — we never
wUfuUy did a bad act, never deliberately injured our

1 84 The Bitual of Infidelity.
fellow-man. The reward of a useful and virtuous life
is the conviction that our raemory wUl be cherished
by those who corae after us, as we revere the raemorles
of the great and good who have gone before. This is
the only immortality of which we know — the immor
tality of the great ones of the world, who have bene
fited their age and race by their noble deeds, their
brilliant thoughts, their burning words. Their
example is ever with us, and their influence hovers
round the haunts of men, and stimulates to the highest
and happiest daring. Man has a heaven too, but not
that dreamed of by sorae — far, far away beyond the
clouds ; but here on earth, created by the fireside, and
built up of the love and respect of kindred and friends,
and within the reach of the hurablest who work for
the good of others and the improvement of humanity.
As we drop the tear of sympathy at the grave now
about to close over the once loved forra, may the
earth lie Ugh tly on hira, may the flowers bloom over
his head, and may the winds sigh softly as they herald
the coming night. Peace and respect be with his
raeraory. FareweU, a long farewell 1"
" [The foregoing service is suitable to be said over the
grave of an adult male ; it raay, with slight effort, by
altering the gender, be raade suitable for a female
also. It is almost impossible to write that which
would be applicable to persons of all ages. It can
always be sufficiently individualized by some friend of

The Bitual of Infidelity. 185
the deceased introducing a few remarks of a personal
nature.]" Amid aU the grotesqueness of these compositions
— and they are grotesque, as being a sort of travestie
on what we, frora our point of view, consider most
solemn — still I cannot but regard them as hopeful. I
read them as a sign of Secularism against itself Man
may try to limit his ideas to this world, but he
cannot ; and these very makeshifts attest the fact. I
print them in full for that very reason ; because I am
sure if one only passes from them to the contempla
tion of the simplest service under revelation, he wUl
see that in the latter case only is life : the soul at
last animates the dry bones. Dr. Sexton, who,
curiously enough, has pointed ray raoral in another
way by passing frora Secularisra to the opposite
extrerae of raodern Spiritualisra, as it were, antici
pates this objection of the soullessness attaching to his
creed in the following, which I extract frora the
Secularists' Hymnal : —
THE WORSHIP OP NATURE.
Music by John Lowry.
They tell us that we worship not.
Nor sing sweet songs of praise ;
That love divine is not our lot,
In these cold modei-n days ;
That piety's calm, peaceful state
We banish from the earth :
They know not that we venerate
Whate'er we see of worth: —

186 The Bitual of Infidelity.
The singing of the birds on high,
The rippling of the stream,
The sparkling stars in yon bright sky.
The sunhght's merry gleam.
The ocean's wide and watery main,
The lightning's vi-nd flash.
The sweet and gentle showers of rain,
The awful thunder's crash ;
The trees and flow'rs that deck the land,
The soft and grassy mead.
The firm-set earth on which we stand,
Are worshipful indeed.
We venerate great Nature's plan.
And worship at her shrine,
While goodness, tmth, and love iu man.
We hold to be di-vine. G. Sexton.
And so too in the following Benediction, or " Dis
mission" as it is terraed, one is almost terapted to
sraile as one recognises the old animus. I still regard
these different coraposltions as erainently hopeful,
because I believe those who used them and felt the
need of them would soon find it necessary to put
soraething else in place of "great nature" in the
forraer, and the " social systera" in the latter. Even
the significant letters which stand for " Common
Metre" are witnesses on our side, and bespeak our
Secularist friends more ecclesiastical than they have
any idea of; — DISMISSION,
Farewell, dear friends ! adieu, adieu ;
In social ways dehght ;
Then happiness wOl dwell -with you :
FareweU, dear friends ! good-night.

Th e Bitual of Infidelity. 187
FareweU, dear friends ! adieu, adieu ;
Remember us this night ;
We claim to do the same for you :
FareweU, dear friends ! good-night.
Farewell, dear friends ! adieu, adieu,
TUl we again unite ;
The social system keep in view :
FareweU, dear friends ! good-night.

188

ME. BEADLAUGH ON TOEYISM.
For one who hungers and thirsts after heterodoxy,
whether theological or political, Mr. Bradlaugh is,
by his own election and of set purpose, a standing
dish where one raay " cut and corae again." There
Is this vast advantage about Mr. Bradlaugh that it is
irapossible to mistake him. None can accuse him of
giving an uncertain sound. Theologically he is an
atheist, or rather an anti-theist : politically, a re
publican pur sang. In the former capacity I had
heard hira laboriously and at length deny the exis
tence of God, and defend his position, with the skill
of a master In debate, against all comers ; and the
announceraent that he would take, as a Tuesday
evening subject at the Hall of Science, " The Queen's
Speech and the Preraier's Intentions " — that Premier
being Mr. Disraeli — assured rae that I should hear
sorae equally definite and decisive utterances on poli
tical raatters. I recognised the invitation as the call
of duty, and went. The National Beformer fails as a
vade mecmn, frora the fact of being, unUke its editor,
vague in its stateraents of forthcoming events. No
hour was mentioned for the lecture ; so I took it for
granted it would come off at the same time as on

Mr. Bradlaugh on Toryism. 189
Sundays, and consequently got there at seven o'clock,
which I found was just an hour and a half too soon.
The prospect of ninety minutes on the inhospitable
and unattractive flagstones of Old Street, St. Luke's,
is sufficient to try one's philosophy ; but what is the use
of going to the Hall of Science unless one is a philo
sopher ? I was philosophic, and waited. What else was
I to do ? My philosophy resolved itself into necessity.
One thing I could say, at all events, that the
rewards of my patience were iraraediate and appre
ciable — I got a front seat. The hall was filled cora-
pletely and early : the twopenny gallery with genuine
working men and working women ; the fourpenny
seats with working men and working women too, but
with a large admixture of those whose work, like my
O'wn, was of the head and not of the hands. Buyers
and sellers throng the aisles of the Temple of Science,
and a shriU-voiced lad tempts the waiting audience
with such racy paraphlets as " John Brown and the
Queen," " Mr. Bradlaugh's letter to the Prince of
Wales," " Autobiography of Mr. Bradlaugh." I in
vested in all three, and raay quote from the two last,
but certainly not from the first. Immersed in the
events of Mr. Bradlaugh's chequered career, I found
the time pass quickly enough; and in due course,
accompanied as usual by his two daughters, our
orator mounted his rostrum amid great applause.
" It was almost a raistake," he said, after a few open-

190 Mr. Bradlaugh on Toryism.
ing remarks by the chairman, " to have chosen the
Queen's Speech for a subject, because there was so
little in it. That speech was delivered by commis
sion, and such a proceeding could scarcely fail to
suggest the possibility of the Crown itself one day
being put into coraraission altogether. He had lately
been in a country where there were thirty-eight par
liaments ; and he had read some fourteen or fifteen of
the Messages addressed to these legislative assembhes.
These Messages were real ones. They told you some
thing of what the policy was going to be. The
Queen's Speech differed in the fact that it showed
what the policy was not going to be, or rather it told
nothing at all. It began by saying that her Majesty's
relations with foreign powers were friendly, and yet
we were in the thick of the Ashantee war. The fact
was that five of the paragraphs in the speech were
copied from former speeches; only two paragraphs
had any claim to originality. On the subject of treaty
obligations, he warned his hearers that there was
danger in the exercise by ministers of what was
called the Crown prerogative, by which the country
might be first plunged into war, and then the war
itself afterwards made the subject of debate. The
Abyssinian and Ashantee expeditions had been very
expensive ; but when we were once embarked in them
we were told that 'the honour of the country was
involved,' and we must go on. It would be a great
thing if it could be raade a part of the Constitution

Mr. Bradlaugh on Toryism. 191
that no rainister could protect hiraself in this way, or
war entered upon without the consent of Parliament.
He saw danger in the fact that both Gerraany and
France were making vast prepara,tions for war. Both
countries had larger armies than when the Franco-
Prussian war broke out. At one single place on the
French frontier provisions for a year and a half had
been lately served out to the German troops in the
space of four weeks, Italy, France, and Germany
each had armies at our doors in nurabers utterly dispro
portionate to their areas. Suppose," he said, " Prussia
had seen fit to make a way to the sea for herself by
the dismemberment of Belgium, and Mr, Disraeli felt
disposed to interfere, what could we do ? We could
not put fifty thousand men into the field. We had
too many troops for peace, but not enough to justify
any intervention in European questions.
" Then, as to the marriage ofthe Duke of Edinburgh,
the Queen said : —
" ' The raarriage of ray son, the Duke of Edinburgh,
with the Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrowna of
Eussia, is at once a source of happiness to myself and
a pledge of friendship between two great Empires.'
" This was unobjectionable enough. No wonder
there had been some rejoicings. It was, no doubt, a
source of happiness to the Queen" (this was said with
the driest humour). " It might be a pledge of friend
ship between two. great Empires ; but between the
Eussian and English people, no— leant be

192 Mr. Bradlaugh on Toryism.
expected to rejoice," he proceeded. "I regard the
Eoyal Faraily as too large ah-eady. I don't object to
the Eoyal Faraily increasing and raultlpjying, if they
would do it at their o'wn expense ; but they don't.
It was said that this was a love match ; and no doubt
there were great induceraents for the Duke ; but, as
far as experience had gone, the woraen had not had
rauch to induce thera to marry into our Eoyal
Faraily. When we saw the people greeting a
Eussian Princess, could we help thinking of the cries
we had once heard on behalf of Poland ? And what
hope could there be for a people who would lend
themselves to such a sham ? Is the EngUsh
nation," he asked, " forgetting its old history ?
Charles Fox told George III. that he anh his faraily
were but the creatures of a revolution. You seera to
have forgotten that. Then with regard to the
Ashantee War. If Sir Garnet Wolseley had stopped
long enough at the Gold Coast, we should have
made a treaty, and if it suited our purpose, perhaps
we should have observed its provisions. We were a
long-suffering people abroad. We had done all a
Christian nation should have done. I hope " he
continued, " you understand why the war broke out
at all. I don't ! Still it did break out — we have
been victorious — we have got our trophies — have
got (this amid shouts of laughter) — the umbrella I
" As to the Bengal famine. India, it must be
remembered, had no representative in the House of

Mr. Bradlaugh on Toryism. 193
Coramons. We governed India by a pure despotisra.
This was not the first famine. We had depopulated
Eohilcund (cries of sharae). Yes — but he doubted
whether that depopulation was a greater sharae than
the present faraine, because we could have pre
vented it,
" From India we came horae again, and met with
one of Disraeli's juggling tricks, the Trades' Com
mission. The Speech said : —
" ' Serious differences have arisen and remonstrances
been made by large classes of the comraunity as to
the working of the recent Act of Parliament affecting
the relationship of Master and Servant, ofthe Act of
1871, which deals with offences connected with trade,
and of the law of conspiracy, more especially as
connected with these offences. On these subjects I
am desirous that, before attempting any fresh
legislation, you should be in possession of all
material facts and of the precise question in con
troversy, and for this purpose I have issued a Eoyal
Coraraission to inquire into the state and working of
the present law with a view to its early araendraent,
if it should be found necessary.'
" So long as the relation of Master and Servant re
mained, so long there would be a war between Capital
and Labour. There had been a time when serfdom
prevailed in England ; and the law was fraraed on the
supposition that it existed stUl. Did they know that
there was still in force and unrepealed a statute of
VOL. IL 0

194 Mr. Bradlaugh on Toryism.
George II. which makes misbehaviour — or 'mis
carriage,' whatever that might be — on the part of
an artizan to his employer punishable with imprison-
raent and whipping? True that statute was never
carried out, and why ? Only because Public Opinion
was stronger than the law. He defended Mr. Mac-
donald for taking his seat on this Coraraission. It
was, he knew, one of the wretchedest farces ever
enacted ; but still, if such a Coraraission was to be,
he thought Mr. Macdonald did quite right in ac
cepting a seat upon it. The Land Question was going
to be a big one ; and this was how the Speech disposed
of it :—
" ' The delay and expense attending the transfer of
land in England have long been felt to be a reproach
to our systera of law, and a serious obstacle to dealings
In real property. This subject has in former Sessions
occupied the attention of Parliament, and 1 trust that
the raeasures which will now be submitted for your
consideration will be found calculated to remove much
of the evil of which complaint has been made.'
" There was at that moraent a lock-out of the farmers.
The farmers told the peasants to go and starve and be
damned. Do you know," he asked, in the most
measured tones, " what starving raen do ? Did you
ever hear of the Jacquerie? Unless they let the
peasants till their own land, some of their titledeeds
won't be worth the stamps they've got upon them.
Was it not better," he asked, " to create peasant pro-

Mr. Bradlaugh on Toryism. 195
prietors than paupers ? It was not, he held, the fault
of the tenant-farmers, but of the superior landlords,
that things were in this position. The facility of
transfer they wanted was not between the Duke of
Westminster and the Duke of Northumberland, but
from the Duke to Harry, Dick, or Hodge, with a large
family and a starving wife all drifting fast to a pauper's
grave !
" It would indeed be a shame for us if we were
going back, as some had said, to old Toryism. I
deny it," he thundered out. " They dared not make
one backward step. What had been the history of
the Tory party ? It had lent itself to some liberal
measures, but when ? When it was out of office, and
wanted to come in. What had it ever conserved for
us ? Since 1760, labour had been continually getting
cheaper and bread dearer. They had conserved debt.
Twenty-seven millions of tax was conserved by a
Tory Government. Those who talked about Con
servative working men siraply did not understand
English. Not, however, that there was much to
choose between Whig and Tory. It was like the
two slaves, Pompey and Sambo. When they were
lost and their master advertised them, he said that
they were very much alike, only Porapey was a little
more like Sambo than Sambo was like Pompey. The
only difference was, the Tories were a little more
open and honest in their rascality than the Whigs.
How was it that such a-cheap paper as that he held
o 2

196 Mr. Bradlaugh on Toryism.

in his hand was possible ? Why, because working
men went to jail to raake it so. Catholic Eraanci-
patlon and Eeform had only been conceded through
fear. I ask you, Tories, can you stop one repub
lican club or lecture in London ? You sent men to
j^rison in '39 for speaking as I am speaking now.
Dare you send rae to jail ? (Iramense applause.)
And if you can't stop the mouth of one man, how
will you stop the men in the Northumberland mines,
the Durham pits, and the workshops of Lancashire ?"
He concluded by picturing the great parks of the
nobility, given up to hares and pheasants and keepers,
and surrounded by starving peasants, and sat down,
saying abruptly, by way of suraraary, " I deny your
Conservative Eeaction."
Such are the very plain words of this plain speaker
as they raay be heard alraost any week at the Hall
of Science. It raay be interesting to know frora his
own words how he first attained to his present state
of opinion. The foUowing are extracts frora his
Autobiography : —
"I was born on the 26th Septeraber, 1833, in a
small house in Bacchus Walk, Hoxton. My father
was a solicitor's clerk with a very poor salary, which
he supplemented by law writing. He was an ex
tremely industrious man, and a splendid penman. I
never had the opportunity of judging his tastes or
thoughts outside his daily labours, except in one re-
.spect, in which I have foUowed in his footsteps. He

Mr. Bradlaugh on Toryism. 197

was passionately fond of angling. Until 1848 ray
life needs little relation. My schooling, like that of
most poor men's children, was small in quantity, and,
except as to the three E's, indifferent in quality. I
remeraber at seven years of age being at a National
school in Abbey Street, Bethnal Green ; between seven
and nine I was at another sraall private school in the
sarae neighbourhood ; and ray ' education ' was cora-
pleted before I was eleven years of age at a boys'
school in Coalharbour Street, Hackney Eoad. When
about twelve years of age I was first eraployed as
errand lad in the solicitor's office where ray father
remained his whole life through. After a little more
than two years in this occupation, I becarae wharf
clerk and cashier to a firra of coal merchants in
Britannia Fields, City Eoad. Wblle.in their employ
ment the excitement of the Chartist moveraent was
at its height in England, and the authorities, frightened
by the then huge continental revolution wave, were
preparing for the prosecution of sorae of the leaders
araongst the Chartists. Meetings used to be held
almost continuously all day on Sunday, and every
week-night in the open air on Bonner's Fields, near
where the Consumption Hospital now stands. These
meetings were in knots of frora fifty to five hundred,
sometimes raany raore, and were occupied chiefly In
discussions on theological, social, and political
questions, any bystander taking part. The curiosity
of a lad took me occasionally in the week evenings

198 Mr. Bradlaugh on Toryism.
to the Bonner's Fields gatherings. On the Sunday I,
as a member of the Church of England, was fully
occupied as a Sunday-school teacher. This last
naraed fashion of passing Sunday was broken sud
denly. The Bishop of London was announced to
hold a confirraation in Bethnal Green. The incumbent
of St. Peter's, Hackney Eoad, tbe district in which I
resided, was one John Graham Packer, and he, de
siring to raake a good figure when the Bishop carae,
pressed rae to prepare for confirraation, so as to answer
any questions the Bishop raight put. I studied a
little the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of
England, and the four Gospels, and came to the con
clusion that they differed. I ventured to write the
Eev. Mr. Packer a respectful letter, asking him for
aid and explanation. AU he did was to denounce ray
letter to my parents as Atheistical, although at that
time I should have shuddered at the very notion of
becoming an Atheist, and he suspended me for three
months from ray office of Sunday-school teacher.
This left rae ray Sundays free, for I did not like to go
to church while suspended frora my teacher's duty,
and I, instead, went to Bonner's Fields, at first to
listen, but soon to take part in some of the discussions
which were then always pending there.
" At the commenceraent I spoke on the orthodox
Christian side, but after a debate with Mr. J. Savage,
in the Warner Place Hall, in 1849, on the ' Inspiration
of the Bible,' I found that ray views were getting

Mr. Bradlaugh on Toryism. 199
very much tinged with Free-thought, and in the winter
of that year, at the instigation of Mr. Packer, to
whom I had submitted the 'Diegesis' of Eobert
Taylor, I — having becorae a teetotaller, which in his
view brought out my infidel tendencies stiU raore
vigorously — had three days given me by my em
ployers, after consultation with my father, to ' change
my opinions or lose my situation.' I am inclined to
think now that the threat was never intended to have
been enforced, but was used to terrify me into sub
mission. At that time I hardly knew what, if any,
opinions I had, but the result was that sooner than
make a show of recanting, I left home and situation
on the third day, and never returned to either.
" I was always a very fluent speaker, and now
lectured frequently at the Temperance Hall, Warner
Place, Hackney Eoad, at the sraall Hall in Philpot
Street, and in the open air in Bonner's Fields, where
at last on Sunday afternoons scores of hundreds con
gregated to hear rae. My views were then Deistical,
but rapidly tending to the more extrerae phase into
which they ultiraately settled 
" I studied hard everything which came in my way,
picking up a little Hebrew and an imperfect smatter
ing of other tongues. I tried to earn my living as a
coal merchant, but at sixteen, and without one farth
ing in my pocket, the business was not extensive
enough to be profitable. I got very poor, and at that
time was also very proud. A subscription offered me

200 Mr. Bradlaugh on Toryism.
by a few Freethinkers shocked me, and awakened me
to a sense of ray poverty ; so, telling no one where I
was going, I went away, and on the 17th Deceraber,
1850, was, after sorae difficulty, enhsted in the
Seventh Dragoon Guards. With this corps I reraained
until October, 1853, being ultiraately appointed or-
derly-roora clerk ; the regiment, during the whole of
the tirae I remained in it, being quartered in Ireland.
While I was in the regiment I was a teetotaller, and
used often to lecture to the men in the barrack-room
at night ; and I have more than once broken out of
Portobello barracks to deliver teetotal speeches in the
small French Street Hall, Dublin. Many times have
I spoken there iu my scarlet jacket, between James
Haughton and the good old father, the Eev. Dr.
Spratt, a Eoman Catholic priest, then very active in
the cause of teraperance. While I was in the regi
ment my father died, and in the summer of 1853 an
aunt's death left me a sraall sura, out of which I pur
chased ray discharge, and returned to England, to aid
in the maintenance of my mother and family."
In reference to more recent tiraes, he says : —
" During the Franco-Prussian struggle I reraained
neutral until the 4th of Septeraber. I was against
Bisraarck and his blood- an d-iron theory, but I was
also utterly against the Erapire and the Emperor ; so
I took no part with either. I was lecturing at Ply-
raouth the day the decheance was proclaimed, and
immediately after wrote my first article in favour of

Mr. Bradlaugh on Toryism. 201
Eepublican France. I now set to work, and organized
a series of meetings in London and the provinces,
some of which were co-operated in by Dr. Congreve,
Professor Beesly, and other prominent members of
the Positivist party 
" When the great cry of thanksgiving was raised
for the recovery of the Prince of Wales, I could not
let it pass without protest. While he lay dangerously
ill I had ceased to raake any attack on hiraself or
faraily, but I made no pretence of a grief I did not
feel. When the thanksgiving day was fixed, and
tickets for St, Paul's were sent by the Lord Chamber
lain to working men representatives, I felt It right to
hold a meeting of protest, which was attended by a
crowded audience in the New Hall of Science 
" It is at present too early to speak of the Eepubli
can moveraent in England, which I have sought, and
not entirely without success, to organize on a tho
roughly legal basis. It is a fair raatter for observa
tion that my lectures on ' The Impeachraent of the
House of Brunswick,' have been delivered to crowded
audiences assembled in sorae of the finest halls in
England and Scotland, notably the Free Trade Hall,
Manchester, the Town Hall, Birmingham, the Town
HaU, Northampton, and the City Hall, Glasgow, It
is, as far as I am aware, the first time any English
citizen has, without tumult or disorder, and in build
ings belonging to various Municipalities, directly chal
lenged the hereditary right of the reigning famUy,

202 Mr. Bradlaugh on Toryism.
" In penning the foregoing sketch I had purposely
to omit many facts connected with branches of Italian,
Irish, and French politics. I have also entirely
oraitted ray own struggles for existence. The politi
cal parts are left out, because there are secrets which
are not my own alone, and which raay not bear full
teUing for raany years to corae. The second, because
I hope that another year or two of hard work raay
enable me to free rayself frora the debt load which for
sorae time has hung heavily round me."
As a speciraen of Mr. Bradlaugh's power of irony,
I quote the other paraphlet 1 spoke of as being sold
at the Hall of Science, oraitting, for obvious reasons,
sorae few passages. It is entitled —
" A Letter from a Freemason
TO
"General H.R.H. Albert Edward, Prince op Wales, Duke of Saxony,
Cornwall, and Rothesay; Earl of DubUn, Colonel 10th Hussars,
Colonel-in-Chief of the Eifle Brigade, Captain-General and Colonel
of the Hon. ArtiUery Company, K.G., G.C.S.I., K.T., G.C.B.,K.P.,
etc. etc. etc.
" Dear Br. — I do not ask you to pardon this, to
the profane, perhaps, an apparently too farailiar style
of address, although I do pray pardon if I have unin
tentionally omitted any of your numerous titles in
the formal superscription to this letter. I have never
written before to a Prince, and may lack good raan
ners in thus inditing ; but to ray brother Masons I
have often written, and know they love best a plain.

Mr. Bradlaugh on Toryism. 203
fraternal greeting, if the purpose of the epistle be
honest. " You have voluntarily on your part, and unsought
on my side, commenced by accepting rae as a brother,
and you have cemented this fraternity by specially
swearing to protect rae on appeal in my hour of
danger; and though history teaches rae that sworn
proraises are less well kept than steadfast, manly
pledges, and that Princes' oaths are specially rotten
reeds to lean upon ; yet in the warmth of newly ^created
brotherhood, I am inclined to believe you, brother
— for we are brethren, you and I — not brothers
perhaps as we should be of the sarae common
humanity — for in this land I know that Princes are
no fair mates for those who are pauper born ; but we
are brothers by your own choice, raerabers of the
sarae fraternity by your own joining ; raen self-
associated in the same grand Masonic brotherhood,
and it is for that reason I write you this letter. You,
though now a Past Grand Master, are but recently a
free and accepted Master Mason, and probably yet
know but little of the grand traditions of the mighty
organization whose teraple doors have opened to your
appeal. My knowledge of the raystic branch gained
amongst the Eepublicans of all nations is of some
years' older date. You are now, as a Freemason,
excommunicate by the Pope — so am I. It is fair to
hope that the curse of the Church of Eome may have
a purifying and chastening effect on your future life.

204 2Ir. Bradlaugh on Toryism.
at least as efficacious as the blessing of the Church of
England has had on your past career. You have
entered into that illustrious fraternity which has
numbered in its ranks Swedenborg, Voltaire, and
Garibaldi, These are the three who personify grand
Idealism and Poetic Madness ; Wit and Genius, and
true Huraanity ; manly Energy, sterling Honesty,
and hearty Eepublicanism. My sponsor was Siraon
Bernard — yours, I hear, was the King of Sweden.
" In writing, dear brother, I do not address you as
a Prince of Wales, for sorae of our Princes of Wales
have been drunken, riotous spendthrifts, covered in
debt, and deep in dishonour ; but you, dear brother,
instead of being such an one, figure more reputably
as the erudite raeraber of a Eoyal Geographical
Society, or as a steady fellow of the Worshipful
Corapany of Fishraongers. Happily there is no fear
that in your case a second Doctor Doran may have to
pen the narrative of a delicate investigation. If
Junius were alive to-day, his pen would not dare to
repeat its fierce attack on another Prince of Wales.
Junius charged George, Prince of Wales, with quit
ting the arms of his wife for the endearments of a
wanton, with toying away the night in debauchery,
and with mocking the sorrows of the people with an
ostentatious prodigality. But your pure career, your
sober and virtuous life, would win laudations even
from Junius's ghost. You are an English gentleman,
as well as Prince of Wales ; a good and kind husband

Mr. Bradlaugh on Toryism. 205
in spite of being Prince of Wales ; with you woraan's
honour is safe frora attack, and sure of protection.
The draggled and vice-stained pluraes on your pre
decessors' escutcheons have been well-cleaned and
straightened by raodern journalism, and the Prince of
Wales' feathers are no longer (like the Bourbon fieur-
de-lis) the heraldic ornament of a race of princes sans
foi, sans mce.urs. Fit were you as profane to make the
journeys to the Altar, for fame writes you as sober and
chaste, as high-minded and generous, as kind-hearted
and truthful. These are the qualities, oh Albert Edward,
which hid your disability as Prince, when you knelt
bare-kneed in our audience chamber. The brethren
who opened your eyes to the light, overlooked your
title as Prince of Wales in favour of your already
faraous manhood. Your career is a pleasant contrast'to
that of George Prince of Wales, Yet because you are as
different from the princes whose bodies are dust,
while their raeraories still reraain to the historian as
visible monuments of sharae, I write to you, not as
English Prince, but as brother Master Mason. Nor
do I address you in your right as one of Saxony's
princes, for araongst ray raeraories of other men's
readings, I have thoughts of some in Saxony's
electoral roll, who were lustful, lecherous, and vile;
who were vicious sots and extravagant wasters of
their people's earnings, who had lured for their
seraglios each fresh face that came within their reach :
while you, though Duke of Saxony, have joined a

206 Mr. Bradlaugh on Toryism.
brotherhood whose main intent is the proraotion of
the highest raorality. I do not indeed regard your
title of Duke at aU in writing you, for when we find
a Duke of Newcastle's property in the hands of
Sheriffs' Officers, his title a jest for bankruptcy
messengers, and the Duke of Hamilton's narae an
European byeword, it is pleasant to be able to think that
the Duke of Cornwall and Eothesay is not as these
Dukes are ; that this Duke is not a runner after
painted donzels, that he has not written cuckold on
the forehead of a dozen husbands, that he is not deep
in debt, has not, like these Dukes, scattered gold in
filthy gutters, whUe deaf to the honest clairas of
justice. We know, brother, that you would never
have voluntarily enrolled yourself in the world's
grandest organization, if you had been as these. It
would have been perjury if you had done so — perjury
which, though iraperially honoured at the Tuileries,
would be scouted with contempt by a Lancashire
workman 
" You are a prince, but dare you be a man ; for the
sake of the Danish flower, whose bloom should
gladden your life; for the sake of the toiling
millions who are loyal frora habit, and who will
revolt reluctantly, but for peace will pay taxes
readily; for the sake of the halo that history will
show round your head in its pages ? If you dare, let
us see it. Go to Ireland — not to Punchestown races,
at a cost to the people of more than two thousand

Mr. Bradlaugh on Toryism. 207
pounds — but secretly araongst its poor, and learn their
deep griefs. Walk in London, not in parade at its
horse shows, where snobs bow and stumble, but in
plain dress and unattended ; in its Spitalfields,
Bethnal Green, Isle of Dogs, and Seven Dials ; go
where the unemployed commence to cry in vain for
bread, where hunger begins to leave its dead in the
open streets, and try to find out why so many starve.
Don corduroy and fustian, and ramble through the
ploughed fields of Norfolk, Suffolk, Northamptonshire,
Wiltshire, and other counties, where thirteen
shillings per week are high wages, out of which the
earner has to feed and clothe raan, wife, and faraily,
and pay rent.
" Brother, before you die you will hear cries for a
EepubUc in England, cries that will require the brains
of a grand man to answer, cries which are gathering
now, cries from the overtaxed, who pay, without
thought and without inquiry, many raore pounds in
unearned pensions, for yourself and brother princes,
than they wiU by-and-by pay shillings, unless indeed
you all work miracles, and make yourselves worth
your money to the nation. Yet even this you might
do ; you might — you and your fellow princes in
Europe — if you would disband your standing armies,
get rid of the tinselled drones and gaudy court cater
pillars, the State Church leeches, and hereditary
cormorant tax-eaters, and then there would be a
renewed lease of power for you, and higher happiness

208 Mr. Bradlaugh on Toryism.
for the people. But whatever you determine to do,
do quickly, or it will be too late. The Vive la Be-
publique now heard from some lips in Paris, Lyons,
Marseilles, Bordeaux, will soon be the voice of France,
and there is an electric force in the echo of that
cry — a force which evokes the lightning-like flash of
popular indignation with such directness against
princes who mock peoples, against kings who rule for
theraselves, and against peers who govern for their
own class, that as in a raoraent the oak which has
stood for centuries. Is stripped of its brown bark, and
left bleached and blasted to wither, so is royalty
stripped of its tinselled gilding and left naked and
defenceless to the cold scorn of a justly indignant
nation. As a Freeraason you are bound to proraote
peace, but peace makes the strength of peoples, and
discovers the weakness of princes. As a Freeraason
you are bound to succour the oppressed of the world,
but then it will be against your fellow princes. As a
Freemason you are bound to aid in educating the
Ignorant, but if you do this you teach thera that the
sole authority kings can wield they derive frora the
people; that a nation raay elect a chief raagistrate
to administer its laws, but cannot give away their
liberties to a master who shall have the right to
bequeath his authority over their children to his
child. As a Freemason you are bound to encourage
the development of Free- thought, but Free-thought is
at war with the Church, and between Church and

Mr. Bradlaugh on Toryism. 209
Crown there has ever been most unholy aUiance
against peoples. You were a prince by birth, it was
your misfortune. You have enrolled yourself a Free
mason by choice, it shall either be your virtue or
your crime — your virtue if you are true to its raanly
dutifulness ; your crirae if you dream that your blood
royalty is of richer quality than the poorest drop in
the veins of " A Free and Accepted Mason."

VOL. II.

210

THE LAND AND LABOUE LEAGUE.
It is not always possible to follow rigorously my
method of treating first of all descriptively, each body,
religious or political, which I make ray subject
of study. It has happened, especially in the case
of political associations, that no public raeeting has
occurred during the period of ray exaraination, and
I ara therefore reduced to the necessity of throwing
myself on the courtesy of the secretary or sorae other
official for the inforraation I require. In that case,
I state openly my object, enclosing a stamped en
velope for reply, and in most cases, or at all events
in many cases, have received a prompt response.
What the motive may be for refusing information
I cannot of course do raore than surmise, and must
leave my readers to draw their own conclusions. It
may be remembered by the readers of " Unorthodox
London" that two only out of all the multitudinous
sects I dealt with thus refused information. The
Irvingites did not -wish for publicity, though they
have been advertising and holding public meetings
furiously ever since ; and the Particular Baptists
refused to answer my letters. The Positivists only
declined courteously to adopt anything which might

The Land and Labour League. 21 1
appear to savour of propagandism through the press,
but have since supplied rae with everything I
required. I regret to find that sorae "heterodox"
societies appear to be following the evil exaraple of
the Particular Baptists.
Such, let rae hasten to say, was far frora being the
case with the "Land and Labour League," the
secretary whereof, in reply to ray inquiries, obligingly
wrote rae the foUowing letter, and added the docu
ments which I herewith append, on the principle
of allowing every religious or political body to speak
for itself " 80, Whiteoross Street, E.C.
"Dear Sir, — Please accept as apology for the
delay in answering your letter my iUness, which
having confined rae to the house, has prevented me
from attending to correspondence. I enclose you two
publications which wiU give you some idea of the
principles advocated by the League.
"We are out of other publications we have issued.
It is also our intention shortly to invite corabined
action of other Eadlcal and Liberal Associations, In
support of the principles of our League.
" About a twelveraonth ago we published five
reasons for opposing Mr. Mill's proposition for Free
Trade In Land, which probably you have seen either iu
the Examiner, or the National Beformer , or i\iQ Eastern
Post. The Standard also took a favourable view of
our opposition at Mr. MUl's meeting at Exeter HaU,

212 The Land and Labour League.
where we moved a counter resolution. I also enclose
you a copy of songs in elucidation of our principles.
" We have sent copies of the circular headed ' Deus
Eex' to several of the Lent Preachers at tbe Chapel
Eoyal. And now for a few remarks which j^ou will
please receive as coming from rae. It seems to me that
the Heterodoxy of London owes its life to the Infidel
way in which professors and teachers of religion have
pretended to teach God's truth. They have all along
ignored what I may rightly call Material Christianity,
that is, a Christianity suitable for man In bis material
existence ; and then the arguraents, or rather asser
tions without argument or reason, by which they
support their Spiritual Christianity are so contrary to
reason. Divine justice and truth, that they must have
driven raany frora accepting even Spiritual Christ
ianity ; while millions cannot at all reconcile the
present state of society and suffering, as in accordance
with the love of Him who Is represented as a God
of love. The fact is the religious world, are endea
vouring to engraft religion upon a state of society
tbe fundamental principles of which are the very
opposite of those social principles laid before us in the
Bible ; hence there Is no unity between the practical
and theoretical, or I raay say Theocratical. Take
for instance one simple land-law of the Bible, ' The
land shall not be sold for ever, for the land is
Mine.' Therefore it appears that as long as ' The
earth is the Lord's' it Is not rightly, and never should

Tlie Land and Labour League. 213
becorae a raarketable coraraodity. — Our rulers ' frame
mischief by a law,' and ' are not valiant for the truth
upon the earth.' They will not accept the doctrine
that the land is raade for the people, and that God
never appointed a rent collector.
" Should anything unforeseen occur, or any raove
raent of the League within a short period, I will
advise you. I shall look out for ' Heterodox Lon
don,' as doubtless it will contain rauch that is in
harmony with my own sentiments. " Yours faithfuUy,
(Signed) " F. Eiddle,
" Secy. L.L.L."
1 have a shrewd suspicion that Mr. Eiddle, aware
of my clerical status, was poking a sly homily at me
in this letter ; but the courtesy of his reraarks made
me a willing listener, and I shall always be glad to
" sit under" him or any other lay-preacher who will
give me a novel light upon my duties and responsi
bilities. Indeed, the clerical profession seems, not
unnaturally, to be a great object of the League's
attentions. The foUowing is the text of the circular
distributed among thera ; and I venture to hope sorae
of my reverend brethren have taken the hint, and
" improved" the very suggestive text named therein : —

214 The Land and Labour League.
"Deus Eex.
" Land and Labour League,
"80, Whiteceoss Street, Loxdox, E.C.
" Eev. Sir, — By a resolution of the Council of this
League, under date October 27th, 1873, 1 am directed
to suggest to you — ' The propriety and utility — under
the present circumstances of society — of directing or
requesting the various Clergy, Ministers, and others,
to give Serraons or Addresses on Nehemiah, chapter v.
verses 1 to 13 inclusive.'
" It will be obvious to you that the misery, desti
tution, deaths from starvation and disease, now ex
isting amongst a large number of the honest, tolling
industrial classes of Great Britain, are raalnly, if not
entirely due to a neglect of duty on the part of those
who have constituted theraselves the governing classes,
and who, under a pretence of legislation, have fraudu
lently and dishonestly appropriated to theraselves for
their own use, a raonopoly of the Land and raaterial
resources of Great Britain — the which they could
alone rightly hold in trust for the benefit of the people
— and who have also made such laws in reference
to Currency, National, Local, Harbour and Public
Works, Bonds and Debts, and the permission of un
liraited usury and extortion, as altogether have prac
tically subjected and enslaved the Workers to the
Capitalists. " The Land and Labour League respectfully urges
that the Clergy and Ministers have hitherto preached

Tlie Land and Labour League. 215
to the poor alone the words of the tent-maker
Paul,
' That if any would not work, neither should he eat.'
Working men contend that this doctrine should be
preached with equal impartiality to their antagonists
and enemies, the non-producing classes ; and if neither
the consideration of duty to God nor the raotive of
love to man, has been sufficiently powerful to induce
those who have voluntarily taken charge of the moral,
mental and material welfare of the people, to abolish
the infamous monopolies — the Land and Labour
League would urge upon all interested, the considera
tion of the question of how far, or whether it would
be wise under present circumstances to delay a just
and equitable reparation of these wrongs — until the
working classes shall have determined to vindicate for
themselves their just, natural and lawful rights as
huraan beings.
" Signed on behalf of the Land
" and Labour League,
" Frederic Eiddle,
" Secretary."
The specific objects of the League, however, will be
best gathered frora the two paraphlets enclosed by
Mr. Eiddle, which I abridge without, I hope, omitting
any material point : —

216 Tlie Land and Labour League.
I.
Address of the Land and Labour League to the
Working Men and Women of Great Br'itain and
Ireland.
" Fellow Workers, — The fond hopes held out to
the toiling and suffering millions of this country
thirty years ago have not been realized. They were
told that the removal of fiscal restrictions would raake
the lot of the labouring poor easy ; if it could not
render thera happy and contented it would at least
banish starvation for ever frora their midst. They
raised a terrible coraraotion for the big loaf, the land
lords became rampant, the raoney lords were con
founded, the factory lords rejoiced — their will was
done — Protection received the coup de grace. A
period of the most marvellous prosperity followed.
At first the Tories threatened to reverse the policy,
but on mounting the ministerial benches, in 1852,
instead of carrying out their threat, they joined the
chorus in praise of unlimited competition. Prepared
for a pecuniary loss, they discovered to their utter as
tonishment that the rent-roll was sweUIng at the rate
of more than 2,000,000/. a year. Never in the history
of the human race was there so rauch wealth — raeans
to satisfy the wants of man — produced by so few
hands, and in so short a time, as since the abolition
of the Corn Laws. During the lapse of twenty years
the declared value of the annual exports of British

The Land and Labour League, 217
and Irish produce and manufactures — the fruits of your
own labour— rose frora 60,000,000/. to 188,900,000/.
In twenty years the taxable income of the lords and
ladies of the British soil increased, upon their own
confession, from 98,000,000/. to 140,000,000/. a year ;
that of the chiefs of trades and professions from
60,000,000/. to 110,000,000/. a year. Could huraan
efforts accomplish more ?
" Alas ! there are stepchildren in Britannia's family.
No Chancellor of the Exchequer has yet divulged the
secret how the 140,000,000/. are distributed araongst
the territorial magnates, but we know all about the
trades-folk. The special favourites increased from
sixteen, in 1846, to one hundred and thirty-three,
in 1866. Their average annual income rose from
74,300/. to 100,600/. each. They appropriated one
fourth of the twenty years' increase. The next of
kin increased from three hundred and nineteen to
nine hundred and fifty-nine individuals : their average
annual income rose from 17,700/. to 19,300/ each:
they appropriated another fourth. The remaining
half was distributed amongst three hundred and forty-
six thousand and forty-eight respectables, whose
annual income ranged between 100/. and 10,000/.
sterling. The toiling millions, the producers of that
wealth — Britannia's Cinderellas — got cuffs and kicks
instead of halfpence.
" In the year 1864 the taxable income under Sche
dule D increased by 9,200,000/. Of that increase the

218 The Land and Labour League.
metropolis, with less than an eighth of the population,
absorbed 4,266,000/., or nearly a half 3,123,000/. of
that, more than a third of the increase of Great
Britain, was absorbed by the City of London, by the
favourites of the one hundred and seventy-ninth part
of the British population : Mile End and the Tower,
with a working population four tiraes as numerous,
got 175,000/. The citizens of London are smothered
with gold; the householders of the Tower Hamlets
are overwhelmed by poor-rates. The citizens, of
course, object to centralization of poor-rates purely on
the principle of local self-government.
"During the ten years ending 1861 the operatives
employed In the cotton trade increased 12 per cent. ;
their produce 103 per cent. The iron miners in
creased 6 per cent. ; the produce of the mines 87 per
cent. Twenty thousand iron miners worked for ten
mine owners. During the same ten years the agri
cultural labourers of England and Wales diminished
by eighty-eight thousand one hundred and forty-
seven, and yet, during that period, several hundred
thousand acres of common land were enclosed and trans
formed into private property to enlarge the estates of
the nobility, and the same process is still going on.
" In twelve years the rental liable to be rated to
the poor in England and Wales rose from 86,700,000/
to 118,300,000/. : the number of adult able-bodied
paupers increased from one hundred and forty-four

The Land and Labour League. 219
thousand five hundred to one hundred and eighty-five
thousand six hundred.
" These are no fancy pictures, originating in the
wild speculations of hot-brained incorrigibles ; they
are the confessions of landlords and money lords, re
corded in their own blue books. One of their experts
told the House of Lords the other day that the
propertied classes, after faring sumptuously, laid by
1 50,000,000/. a-year out of the produce of your labour.
A few weeks later the President of the Eoyal College
of Surgeons related to a jury, assembled to inquire
into the causes of eight untimely deaths, what he saw
in the foul ward of St. Pancras.
" Hibernia's favourites too have multiplied, and
their income has risen, while a sixth of her toiling
sons and daughters perished by faraine, and its con
sequent diseases, and a third of the reraainder were
evicted, ejected and expatriated by torraenting felo
nious usurpers.
" This period of unparalleled industrial prosperity
has landed thousands of our fellow toilers — honest,
unsophisticated, hard-working raen and women — in
the stone yard and the oakum room; the roast beef of
their dreams has turned into skilly. Hundreds of
thousands, men, woraen and children, are wandering
about — horaeless, degraded outcasts — in the land that
gave them birth, crowding the cities and towns, and
swarming the highroads in the country, in search of

220 'Hie Land and Labour League.
work to obtain food and shelter, without being able to
find any. Other thousands, more spirited than honest,
are walking the treadmill to expiate little thefts, pre
ferring prison discipline to workhouse fare, while the
wholesale swindlers are at large, and felonious land
lords preside at quarter sessions to administer the laws.
Thousands of the young and strong cross the seas,
flying from their native firesides, as from an exter
minating plague ; the old and feeble perish on the
roadside of hunger and cold. The hospitals and in
firmaries are overcrowded with fever and famine-
stricken : death from starvation has become an ordi
nary everyday occurrence.
" All parties are agreed that the sufferings of the
abouring poor were never more intense, and misery
so widespread, nor the means of satisfying the wants
of man ever so abundant as at present. This proves
above all that the raoral foundation of all civil govern
ment, ' that the welfare of the entire community
is the highest law, and ought to be the aim and
END of all civil LEGISLATION' has bccu utterly dis
regarded. Those who preside over the destinies of the
nation have either wantonly neglected their primary
duty while attending to special interests of the rich to
make thera richer; or their social position, their
education, their class prejudices have incapacitated
hera frora doing their duty to the coramunity at
arge or applying the proper remedies : in either case
they have betrayed their trust.

The Land and Labour League. 221
" Class government is only possible on the con
dition that those who are held in subjection are
secured against positive want. The ruling classes
have failed to secure the industrious labourer in the
prime of his life against hunger and death from starva
tion. Their remedies have signally failed ; their
promises have not been fulfilled. They promised
retrenchment ; they have enormously increased the
public expenditure instead. They promised to lift the
burden of taxation from your shoulders ; the rich pay
but a fractional part of the increased expenses ; the
rest is levied upon your necessaries — even your pawn
tickets are taxed — to keep up a standing army, drawn
from your own ranks, to shoot you down if you show
signs of disaffection. They proraised to minimise
pauperism : they have made indigence and destitution
your average condition — the big loaf has dwindled
into no loaf Every reraedy they have applied has
but aggravated the evil, and they have no other to
suseest — their rule is dooraed. To continue is to
involve all in a coraraon ruin. There is one, and
only one, remedy. Help yourselves. Deterraine that
you will not endure this abominable state of things
any longer ; act up to your determination, and it will
vanish. " A few weeks ago a score of London working men
talked the matter over. They came to the conclusion
that the present econoraical basis of society was the
foundation of all the existing evUs — that nothing

222 The Land and Labour League.
short of a transforraation of the existing social and
political arrangeraents could avail, and that such a
transforraation could only be effected by the tolling
raillions theraselves. They erabodied their conclusions
In a series of resolutions, and caUed a conference of
representative working-men, to whora they were sub
mitted for consideration. In three consecutive meet
ings those resolutions were discussed and unanimously
adopted. To carry them out a new working-men's
organization, under the title of the ' Land and Labour
Leasue,' was established. An executive council of
upwards of forty well-known representative working-
men was appointed to draw up a platform of prin
ciples arising out of the preliminary resolutions
adopted by the conference, to serve as the programme
of agitation by means of which a radical change can
be effected.
" After mature consideration the Council agreed to
the following : —
" 1 . Nationalization of the Land.
" 2. Home Colonization.
" 3. National, Secular, Gratuitous and Compulsory
Education.
" 4. Suppression of Private Banks of Issue. The
State only to issue Paper Money.
" 5. A direct and progressive Property Tax, in lieu
of all other Taxes.
" 6. Liquidation of the National Debt.

The Land and Labour League. 223
" 7. Abolition of the Standing Army.
"8. Eeduction of the Number of the Hours of
Labour.
" 9. Equal Electoral Eights, with Payment of
Members.
" The success of our efforts will depend upon the
pressure that can be brought to bear upon the powers
that be, and this requires numbers, union, organiza
tion, and combination. We therefore call upon you
to unite, organize, and combine, and raise the cry
throughout Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and England
' The Land for the People,' — the rightful inheritors
of nature's gifts. No rational state of society can
leave the land, which is the source of life, under the
control of, and subject to the whims and caprices of,
a few private individuals. A government elected by,
and as trustee for, the whole people is the only power
that can manage it for the benefit of the entire
comraunity. " Insist upon the State reclaiming the unoccupied
lands as a beginning of its nationalization, and
placing the unemployed upon it. Let not another
acre of coraraon land be enclosed for the private
purposes of non-producers. Compel the Governraent
to eraploy the array, until its final dissolution, as a
pioneer force to weed, drain, and level the wastes for
cultivation, instead of forraing encampments to pre
pare for the destruction of life. If green fields and

224 The Land and Labour League.
kitchen gardens are incompatible with the noble sport
of hunting, let the hunters emigrate.
" Make the Nine points of the League the Labour
programme, the touchstone by which you test the
quality of candidates for parliamentary honours, and
if you find them spurious reject thera like a counter
feit coin, for he who is not for thera is agaiust you.
" You are swindled out of the fruits of your toil bj-
land laws, money laws, and all sorts of laws. Out of
the paltry pittance that is left you, you have to pay
the interest of a debt that was incurred to keep your
predecessors in subjection ; you have to maintain a
standing armj^ that serves no other purpose In your
generation, and you are systematically overworked
when employed, and underfed at all times. Nothing
but a series of such radical reforras as indicated on
our progrararae will ever lift you out of the slough of
despond in which you are at present sunk. The
difficulty can be overcome by unity of purpose and
action. We are many ; our opponents are few. Then
working raen and women of all creeds and occupa
tions claira your rights as with one voice, and rally
round, and unite your forces under the banner of the
' Land and Labour League' to conquer your own
emancipation I " John Weston, Treasurer.
"Martin J. Boon,

"Martin J. ±}oon, \ „ ^ ¦ >¦>
,, T /-I -Cl \ Secretaries.
J. George Eccarius, )

The Land and Labour League. 225
II.
" The Land (Question.
" Eesolutions submitted to the Conference held at the
' Bell Inn,' Old Bailey, on Wednesday evening,
October 13th, 1869, and adjourned to Wednes
day, the 20th, and succeeding Wednesday even
ings, at the sarae place.
" Preamble.
"Whereas the existence and rapid increase of
poverty and pauperism araongst the industrial classes,
side by side with the equally rapid increase and
developraent of the scientific appliances of production,
is an anomaly that demonstrates the existence of
radical and fundamental defects in the arrangements
of society, which it is the incumbent and imperative
duty of all classes of Eeformers to use their utmost
endeavours to discover and remove, this Con
ference recomraends that a vigorous, outspoken, and
manly exposition of the causes of this anomalous
state of things, with a view to its eradication, be
forthwith set on foot by an Association to be now
forraed under the title of the ' Political and Social
Eeforra League,' on the basis of the foUowing Eeso
lutions, and pledges itself individually and collectively
to support such a raoveraent : —
" Eesolutions.
" First. — That the good of the comraunity, indivi
duaUy and coUectively, requires that the Government
VOL. II. Q

226 The Land and Labour League.
of the country should be conducted in strict accord
ance with the principles of justice and impartiality,
and with a paternal regard for the raoral, social,
intellectual, and raaterial welfare of all the inhabitants:
That justice to all is the interest of each, and injustice
to any an injury to all : That the present raonopoly
in land and practice of usury are dIaraetricaUy op
posed to these philosophic and unassailable truths,
and lie at the bottom of all the evils, social and moral,
that afflict society.
" Second. — That the natural eleraents — earth, air,
and water — with their natural products, are the
rightful inheritance and birthright equally of all the
inhabitants of a country, of which no huraan power
or authority can justly deprive thera : That the
creation of private property in land, and its "alienation
frora the great raass of the people, was a blunder and a
crime that laid the foundation for" the system of false
hood, fraud, and deception that now obtains — a system
in which vice becomes virtue and virtue vice — that
has resulted in incalculable raischief and confusion ; in
universally ' rauzzling the ox that treadeth out the
corn'; in poverty, pauperisra, starvation, and premature
death to the ' hewers of wood and drawers of water,'
and in piUng up mountains of wealth for the enjoy
ment of the idle and worthless, thereby engendering
vice, crime, and immorality blacker than ' Egyptian
darkness,' obliterating the Creator's image in
man, sinking him immeasurably below the brute

The Land and Labour League. 227
creation, banishing from his being all that is noble
and godlike in humanity, and converting him into a
very fiend and a demon, delighting in the cruelty and
injustice he perpetrates, and in the damnation and
death he inflicts : That the mitigation and reraoval
of these evils can only be effected by the rectification
of the errors that have occasioned thera; — 'viz. the
restoration of the land to its rightful inheritors —
the People — and abolishing the accursed systera of
usury. " Third. — That the present systera of land-holding
and letting having caused such raanifold evils, a new
arrangeraent, whereby the land shall be held by the
State as trustee for the people, to be used for their
sole benefit, has become an imperative necessity, in
order to avert the otherwise inevitable calaraity of
violent convulsions, and the terrible alternative — a
sanguinary and bloody revolution — as no power could
control the exasperation and rage for vengeance that
would necessarUy ensue should the raass of the people
become fully aware of the heinousness of the system
by means of which they have for ages been robbed
and murdered, ere steps had been taken to peaceably
effect its reraoval.
" Fourth. ^ — That while it would be entirely in
accordance with the principles of justice and equity
to call upon the landlords unconditionally to surrender
the land, and not only the land, but likewise a little
of the hundreds of raiUions of raoney they have levied
Q 2

228 Tlie Land and Labour League.
on the people for its use, yet, as such a course might
in some few instances, where the ownership had
recently changed hands, be attended with some degree
of hardship, to avoid which, and in order to make the
transition from the old to the new order of things as
rapid and as smooth as possible, the present holders
should be entitled to receive such corapensation. In
the forra of terminable annuities, payable out of the
national revenue, as a parliament elected by universal
or manhood suffrage should deterraine.
" Fifth. — That having recovered possession of the
land, the Government should lay down such terms
and conditions for its occupancy and cultivation as
might be deemed necessary and expedient to protect
and advance the interests of the community, and, at
the sarae tirae, create such a feeling of confidence and
security amongst the cultivators of the soil, and such
induceraents to industry as would leave no excuse for
idleness in raen capable of wielding the irapleraents of
husbandry while there reraains an acre of land waiting
to be cultivated, or of reclalmable waste or bog to he
reclalraed : That to this end the land should be let in
such quantities as to suit, as far as practicable, the
circumstances and aspirations of all persons or asso
ciations desirous of placing themselves upon the land,
and, where necessary, loans or grants of raoney should
be raade, either in corapensation for improvements
effected or in progress, or on the security of the crops,
and the holdings, on the fulfilment of the required

The Land and Labour League. 229
conditions, should be of a fixed and permanent cha
racter. "Sixth. — That along with the abolition of the
landlords, it is also imperatively necessary to cancel
and abolish their eight hundred mUlion power patent
for plunder, misnaraed the National Debt, with its
twin iniquity and raonuraent of folly and wickedness,
the standing array, consuraing between thera wealth
to the enorraous amount of a mUlion a week, every
pennyworth of which is ground out of the bone and
muscle of down-trodden and famishing industry ; that
the raaintenance of a large standing array in tirae of
peace, at an enorraous cost — whUe raillions of Her
Majesty's subjects are perishing of cold and hunger —
is incapable of any other interpretation the working
classes can accept, than that it is kept up for the sole
purpose of raaintaining the ascendancy of aristocratic
imbecility, foUy, and blindness — of. perpetuating their
well-worn ' privilege' of wholesale ' picking and steal
ing,' and steraraing the approaching recognition of
the dignity of labour ; That the so-caUed National
Debt (raoney borrowed of theraselves for theraselves),
having been contracted by the aristocracy and money-
ocracy to further their own selfish and wicked de
signs, they, and they alone, are responsible for its
liquidation and settlement, and ought to be specially
taxed for that purpose, and not another farthing
should be levied on industry for the payment of either
the principal or interest, nor for the maintenance and

230 The Land and Labour League.
education of a raighty host of useless consuraers and
professional cut-throats.
"Seventh. — That the object and duty ofthe Poli
tical AND Social Eeform League shall be to disse-
rainate and enforce the views and declarations set
forth in the preceding resolutions, and to show that
no adrainistration or party in the State who are not
prepared gradually to carry out the reforras they pro
pose, with raany others not stated, but equally neces
sary to bring the Governraent into unison and har
mony with the principles laid down in the first
resolution, are worthy of the confidence and support
of the industrial classes ; and that all their professions
of sympathy for the poor or of a desire to inaugurate
a career of ' Justice to Ireland,' or anywhere else, are
mere shams and pretences, which it is their bounden
duty to treat with unraitigated derision and contempt."
From the poetry of the League, which I ara unro
mantic enough not to like so well as the prose, I cull
two extracts, selecting one as a speciraen of the sub-
lirae, and the other of — well, of the reverse : —
Songs of Freedom and Bight for the People.
GOD SAVE THE PEOPLE.
Great God the people save.
Bless them with length of days,
God save us all.
Make us "victorious.
Triumphantly glorious
O'er those who misrule us, God save us aU.

The Land and Labour League. 231
O Lord our God arise.
Teach aristocracies To heed thy law.
Confound their poUtics,
Frustrate their knavish tricks, ^
On Thee our hopes we fix, God save us all.
Thy plenteous gifts in store,
On us be pleased to pour. Long may we Uve.
May we defend Thy Laws,
And ever have true cause,
With heart and voice to sing,
God is our King.

NOT POE RAD.
Titwe— "Not for Joe."
I don't care what you eaU my name.
My friends aU call me Ead,
I'm up to many a Tory trick,
And sure they're very bad.
So long you've bled you scarce cau teU
Why your suif'rings are so sad,
But if they try my sense to gull
I teU them not for Ead.
Chorus — Not for Ead, not for Ead,
He's too wide awake you know.
No, no, no, not for Rad,
Not for Eaddy, oh dear no.
I used to wonder what it was
That made the world so bad,
At last, my friends, I found the cause
"Why 'tis things are so sad.
Now the other day I asked for a crib.
Was told that trade's so bad.

232 The Land and Labour League.
Then Bobby poked me in the rib.
Says he, I'U have you, Ead.
Spoken— WeU now, said I, no, no, by Gad.
Cltorus — Not for Ead, not for Ead,
He's too -wide awake you know.
No, no, no, not for Rad,
I told Bobby not for Ead.
There's fellers called most noble Lords,
They does no work at all.
They're always giving us hard words.
And pays us very small.
Ten shiU'ns a week they'U give to us,
" Take that and be content,
And sure you needn't 'make a fuss,
You scarce pay any rent."
Spoken — ^WeU says I, I reaUy think you ought to gi'e me more ; myself'
my wife, and kids, we make up half a score, we really cannot live
on that. Chorus — Not for Ead, not for Ead,
He's too -wide awake you know.
No, no, no, not for Ead,
Not for Eaddy, oh dear no.
I read a book the other day
"When I'd no work to plan,
It told me what they would not say,
" God gives the land to man."
And the secret then I found at last.
This land they've ta'en away,
That's how 'tis they're rich so fast
And we so Uttle pay.
Spoken — Fancy hundreds of thousands of acres of land— the people's
lands too — for one man, aud they mahes us pay rent to work it, and
when we've made such lots of wealth, they doles ns our starvation's
mite and says " Eest and be contented."
Chorus— Whsit ! Content ! I Not for Ead,
He's too wide awake you know.
No, no, no, not for Ead,
Not for Eaddy, oh dear no.

The Land and Labour League. 233
I think you've heard enough from Ead
To set you aU in thought.
And though things now go bad and bad.
Don't be so cheaply bought.
Make up your minds at once, my lads,
Proclaim your rights aloud,
And be no longer lordUngs' cads.
Although so long you've bowed.
Spoken — I say, mind you teach your fellows that the Land of Britain
belongs by God's o-wn gift to Britain's men, and that
Chorus — 'Tis for Eads, 'tis for Eads,
They're so -wide awake I guess.
Yes, yes, yes, 'tis for Eads,
'Tis for Eaddies, oh dear yes.
Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah.
The land, the land, the land.

234

THE KANSAS CO-OPEEATIVE COLONY.
It must not be supposed from the easy-going couleur
de rose descriptions which my readers meet with iu
these different chapters, that the hunter after Hetero
doxy always has a successful run. Covers are often
drawn blank for a long tirae, soraetiraes altogether,
and such, at the tirae of sitting down to write tbe
present account, appears to be the case -with the
Working Men's Co-operative Colony, Kansas, U.S.A.,
the Association for proraoting which advertise Sunday
Evening Lectures in the National Beformer, and name
two gentleraen as corresponding secretaries ; but they
steadily refuse to correspond with me. I have written
on two occasions, enclosing staraped envelope for re
ply, but as yet, can only say, in the language of
Bradshaw, " no inforraation received."
However, I was not going to be done by the coy
ness of the Kansas secretary, so on a certain Sunday
evening I arrayed rayself in my garb of ouvrier, and
set out to beard that retiring gentleman in his den.
A public meeting was advertised as usual in the
National Beformer thus : —

The Kansas Co-operative Colony. 235
" Working Men's Co-operative Colony, Kansas,
U.S.A. — Public raeetings in the Large Eoora on the
first floor at the Eclectic Hall, 18, Denraark Street, Soho,
every Sunday evening, at 8.30, at which lectures are
delivered and progress at the Colony reported. J. F.
Murray, Cor. Sec, A. Days, Assist. Cor. Sec."
This looked all fair and above-board enough, and
in due season I reached Denraark Street, which is
close by St. Giles's Church, and found the Eclectic
Hall without difficulty. I passed at once into the
meeting-room, and saw a goodly assemblage ga
thered. I had got it ; the reason of the secretary's
reticence was they had so many volunteers for Kansas
that they had no time to answer letters. I sidled up
to a working-man next rae, who was raaking notes in
what looked like a washing-book, and asked hira when
the lecture was to commence. To my great joy he
informed me there were to be three speakers, so I
flattered myself I should soon know all about the
Kansas co-operatives ; when he followed up his in
formation by asking me — somewhat inconsequentially,
I thought — whether I was an abstainer. Coyly as the
Kansas secretary himself I answered I was not, and
asked hira whether abstinence was a part of the Kan
sas scherae. The raan glared at me for a raoraent,
and then the truth flashed upon him and me simul
taneously. I had strayed into the wrong room. A

236 The Kansas Co-operative Colony.
teetotal lecture was irapending here, and ray Kansas
co-operatives gathered on the first floor.
To the first floor I mounted, and entered what
could only be by a stretch of com-tesy called a " large"
roora, where I found about eight or ten raen and
two or three women seated on forras, with two indi
viduals, rather raore jauntily dressed than the others,
at a table. One, a red-headed, bright-eyed young
raan, with a nosegay in his button-hole, scrutinized
me severely when I came in, as indeed did all the as
sembled except the second secretary, who was an
austere-looking gentleraan, in reverend black, writing
hard, after the raanner of actors on the stage. I have
a suprerae con'victlon that he was writing nothing ;
but he kept on perseveringly at it all the tirae I was
there. I could not get to feel at ray ease ; for all the
other folks in the room seemed to know one another,
and kept up a coustant conversation about people and
things utterly unknown to aU except the initiated.
The chief topic of talk was a Mr. Eadford, who it
appeared had just set sail with his wife and family
for the Colony, and who, the dapper secretary re
marked in a semi-official tone, would at that time be
feeling very sick- — the secretary used an inelegant but
perhaps more expressive synonym for that disagree
able process.
I waited about an hour listening to this not very
edifying conversation, and watching men and boys
paying their pence to the officials — I presume sub-

Tlie Kansas Co-operative Colony. 237
scriptions ^o this mystic Association. Mystic it was
in the strictest sense of the term, for nothing in the
shape of a public lecture took place, and no one whit
of information could I extract beyond what cropped
up in conversation ; which was to the effect that Mr.
Eadford having got out to the Colony would want
sorae funds to go on with, and a coramittee was
formed to discuss the problera of ways and means.
One fine bearded working-raan, whose brother had
gone out with Mr. Eadford, was disposed to be com
municative ; but he could not coraraand the publica
tions of the Association, which the jaunty secretary
kept all to hiraself; so I passed downstairs into the
teetotal lecture roora, where my friend pf an hour
since was inveighing against alcohol to his heart's
content. As for me, I had the disagreeable sensation
of having lost an evening by being decoyed to the
Eclectic Hall under proraise of a public lecture, when
none such was forthcoraing. I was prepared to
sympathize greatly with the objects ofthe Association
as far as I could infer thera from its title ; but I con
fess I cannot understand why, if the scherae is bond
fide intended for the public good, the Association
should be converted by its officials into a secret
society. Certainly the Kansas Colony Association has the
most remarkable way of doing things. WhUe the above
reraarks were being printed, and the Association still
steadily refusing to answer my letters, I received a

238 Tlie Kansas Co-operative Colony.
copy of the Leamington, Warwickshire, and Centre of
England Chronicle, the London letter of which con
tained the foUowing paragraphs relative to the
Kansas Colony carefully marked for ray inspection.
If the raission of Mr. Eadford be "the most interest
ing event that has happened since the creation of the
world," and the Kansas "chick" really anxious to " peck
up applicants for membership," one would fancy the
secretary might, at all events, receive instructions to
be ordinarily civil to inquirers, instead of treating
them in this circumlocutory backstairs kind of manner.
However, the Association has full right to conduct
its affairs in its own way. My coraraission simply Is
to chronicle facts, and leave others to draw their own
inferences. Subjoined are the remarkable paragraphs
in question : —
" If we speculate on the prospective future from
the completion of present actions, a meeting that was
held in the Large Hall In Denmark-street, to present a
testimonial to Mr. Eadford on his departure to
America, to take the stewardship of the Kansas Co
operative Colony, was the most interesting event that
has happened since the creation of the world. I am
bound to explain why I use such an apparently
exaggerated estiraate of the night's proceedings.
The Kansas Colony has been wallowing in all but
insurmountable difficulties, with a strain on the
pockets of the promoters that literally deprived them
of butter for their daily bread. What with the in-

The Kansas Co-operative Colony. 239
stalments for the land payraents, the land tax of the
State of Kansas, the raising money to send out Mr.
Eadford, his wife, and seven children, one would have
thought philanthropy would have found out these
fighters for a noble purpose, and poured in aid to enable
them to do without the strain of attempting the next to
impossible. Would it be credited that they have sub
scribed, in five years, something over two thousand
pounds, and all — with perhaps the exception of say
£50 — by raen earning weekly wages ? They had been
attempting a mortgage ; but an Araerican raortgage
is not looked at by English capitalists. Luckily, on
the occasion of the raeeting, the chairraan of the Com
pany was enabled to announce that a mortgage had
at last been obtained, and that now they, on release
frora the anxiety for iraraediate subscriptions, could
take their time, as the repayments for the mortgage
were in sraall suras that the Colony could easily raeet
when once the land was under cultivation ; and as re
payment did not begin for three years from the date
of signing, they could now breathe freely, and exert
all their powers for the development of the Colony.
This is very satisfactory, but it does not justify the
stateraent that it was the raost iraportant meeting
that has been held since the world began. You raay
think I have forgotten the labourers' meeting under
the tree at WeUesbourne, but that was to raise wages,
not actual emancipation. True ; but why it is so Is
because the system they intend to follow out is the

240 The Kansas Co-operative Colony.
rederaption of society — in mutual co-operation —
labour exchange — the nationalization of the land,
which raeans that no individual can ever o-wn the
land, as it will always belong to the Company ; and
even the present mortgage is not out of the Company,
for it is the chairman himself who has made the
promise of a personal repayment of the mortgage by
spreading its re-payment over a certain time, so that
the raembers have nothing to do with its liquidation.
But as the chairman had only lately joined the
Company, the real battle had been fought by the
Society, just as the English won the battle of
Waterloo before the Prussians came up to the front.
The land is never to be sold, but each colonist, at
home or abroad, can occupy ten acres as an everlast
ing occupancy, so that the idea of horae shall be a
fact — of generation following generation to the crack
of doora ; I presurae, with the right of the Colony, on
an Improvement or alteration being required, of giving
hira not less than double compensation, if required, to
surrender his occupancy. But as such a requisition
is all but impossible, save in the village for a to-wn-
haU or new street, so on his ten acres he can build his
house as a castle that is impregnable. You may say
a man and his family cannot live on ten acres ; true,
but they have sorae 250 acres for a co-operative farm,
at which he can eraploy his tirae; and the proba
bilities are, that as soon as the estate secures the
prospect of the re-payraent, the Corapany wiU buy

The Kansas Co-operative Colony. 241
land, not only in Araerica but in England, and so
make their principles a practical exaraple for the
public, which hitherto has had to be contented with
paper proposals. You raay say, Why is the Corapany
not more known ? The answer is, that people do
not like joining a Society in difficulties ; but now tha^l".
the difficulties are removed, and the egg satisfactorily
hatched, the chick will peck up appUcants for ad
mission to raerabership, which raeans iraraediate
emancipation from the troubles that now encorapas.s
the man who is born into the world with the right to
work — if those who want work think it right to give
it to him, if not, he is left to starve. I say, therefore,
that a Society on its legs, with such intentions, is the
first institution that has recognised the authority
of the comraunity, in corabination with the sovereignty
of the individual ; and being the first, its principles,
as noble, just, equitable, and proraoting the welfare
of all, will now spread like wildfire araong the op
pressed, either to join it or to go and do likewise.
I wish Mr. Eadford's speech, in conclusion, could
have been reported, for I never hstened to a speech of
such heartfelt eloquence, tempered with the modera
tion of common sense. If the labourers have an Arch
over thera, the mechanics have a doorway."

VOL. II.

242

AT SUNDAY SCHOOL.
It is a very significant evidence of heterodoxy when a
religious body, foregoing the ordinary appellation of
church or chapel, bestows on its place of Sunday
meeting the philosophic title of " school." Such is
the case with the Positivists, or followers of Auguste
Comte, who gather week by week on Sunday raorning
and evening in a sraall lecture roora In Chapel Street,
Bedford Eow, on which they bestow the old appel
lation of the Positivist School. I have visited this
school on two recent occasions, and heard lectures by
the chief apostles of Positivism in London, Dr.
Congreve and Dr. Bridges, each of which seems
sufficiently distinctive to merit a report.
There would seera to be a tendency on the part of
most religious bodies, in these days of keen competi
tion, to push to the front, and no longer elect to
"blush unseen;" and even that coy and demure
damsel, PhUosophy, is catching the contagion from
her more impulsive and gushing sister, A year or
two ago, when I was collecting materials for my
" Unorthodox London," two religious bodies stood
rigidly aloof and refused me aU information. They
did not want to be "done." These were the Irving-

At Sunday School. 243

ites (or Catholic Apostolic Church) and the Particular
Baptists, The former seemed to think ventilation in
the columns of a penny paper infra dig. and un-
Apostolic ; the latter never answered my letter at all.
Since then the Irvingites have come out strongly in
the advertising way. It seems to have struck them
that, though penny papers were not, of course, an
institution in Apostolic tiraes, yet still their
existence is a necessary and legitimate developraent
of civilization. Be that as it may, the Catholic
Apostolic Church rivals Professor HoUoway in the
extent of its advertisements, and seeks a platform in
every haU in London, while it must have pretty well
made the fortune of its biU-poster. The Catholic
Apostolic Church is wise in its generation ; not so the
Particular Baptists. They blush unseen as ever, and
still vend their " Earthen Vessels " down the little
chapel in Johnson Street, as though there was no
world at all outside Notting Hill.
So when I entered the Positivist School a few
Sundays since, I did so much in the sarae way as a
gentleman likely to be " wanted " presents himself at
one of Ned Wright's exclusive suppers. 1 secreted
my note-book as furtively as I had my cigar on the
Metropolitan EalL But it was no use. Some raen,
as Malvolio says, have greatness thrust upon them ;
and since the publication of " Unorthodox London," I
cannot enter a conventicle without being " spotted "
forthwith. A cheery gentleman who had given me
r 2

244 At Sunday School.
most of the information I had gathered on a previous
visit, some years before, was warming his hands at a
stove, and no doubt his heart simultaneously by
talking to a young lady — ^I presume a Positivist, but
I know pretty. I saw from his manner he
reraerabered me. I believe if I were to go in the garb
of an Ashantee chief they would still find me out.
However, we said nothing, except about the weather,
and such other safe topics ; and in course of time the
lecturer and his smaU audience arrived. This
lecturer was Dr. Congreve, who had on ray previous
visit firraly but courteously declined to give rae
information, siraply on the quite intelligible ground
that the Positivists did not seek publicity. They
were glad to see all who came, and were, of course,
open to be reported ; but they wished criticism to
come purely from without — a canon which none will
deem other than sound.
There were very few Sunday scholars at school that
raorning. The weather outside was miserable ; and
inside Dr. Congreve was on a heavyish subject,
namely, the Positivist Doctrine of Subraission, The
special phase, however, to be treated that particular
morning was a very fascinating one indeed, being an
inquiry as to whether the great leaders of thought in
past ages believed in the bases they laid down for
their teachings, Dr, Congreve, at sorae length,
divided the past and present experience of humanity
into three epochs, which he naraed respectively the

• At Sunday School. 245
Initial, the Transitional, and the Final. In the
organic periods of the Great Theocracies and of the
Highest Catholicism, he thought there was no doubt
that the leaders of thought did believe the doctrines
they proclaimed. The success and prevalence of the
doctrines were an evidence that they did so. Even in
times of dissolution, like those of Aristotle, there was
in this philosopher, for Instance, a respectful tolera
tion of the old Polytheism, though quite different
from that of Plato. So in the cases of Bacon and
Descartes, there was no attack on the ancient faith,
but a reverent acquiescence which, nevertheless, was
only provisional. When the dissolution was very
advanced the attitude becarae more daring. The
higher speculative rainds deraanded change; the
lower would still hold on provisionally to old faiths
and forms. " We have," said Dr. Congreve, " for the
time being eliminated the name of God ; but there is
no reason why in process of tirae it should not be
replaced, though standing, of course, as the repre
sentative of a new idea, namely, Huraanity."
WeU, this was a bit profound ; and as I dared not
use my note-book, lest the lecturer should see and
denounce me, I fear I carried away but a few frag
ments of a masterly discourse. Professor Beesly was
among the scholars, or audience, or congregational
never know which to caU it — and, as soon as the
lecture was over, I prepared to go : but not a bit of
it. My cheery friend fished me out, and presented

246 At Sunday School.

rae incontinently to the lecturer as the author of
"Unorthodox London." I hope I blushed; I hon
estly tried to. At all events, I srailingly reminded
the Doctor of our previous correspondence, and he
repeated to me once more what were his sole and
certainly reasonable objections to giving me informa
tion. The Positivists are very far above puffing them
selves; that was all. He told rae that on Sunday
evenings Dr. Bridges was delivering a course of
lectures on the Great Names in the Positivist Calendar
— those to which the months are dedicated. The
subject for that evening was Dante; for the next,
Gutenberg ; for the following, Shakspeare. I selected
what the French call the " noble Williams," and went
accordingly. I found the school quite full now, as they told me
I should. Many members of trades' unions attend in
the evening, the teaching of this Sunday school being
quite as much political as raoral or religious ; and we
were then in the thick of politics, for it was the first
day of the great election week.
Dr. Bridges had coraraenced, with soraething more
than punctuality, before I got there, and I could only
struggle into a bad seat at the back. They seeraed to
be all bond fide working raen around rae ; and there
were a good raany who looked like working women
too: many who might have been decent domestic
servants spending their " Sunday out " in that most
unlikely of aU places. The savans and strong-minded

At Sunday School. 247
ladies (if there were any of the latter) were more in
front. Mr. Odger came some time after me, with a little
knot evidently of his Southwark supporters round him,
and passed up to the chief seat in the synagogue, as
if he had been on the floor of St, Stephen's already.
" The original purpose of Art," said Dr. Bridges,
" was to enable man to live outside the present, in
the past or the future. Art was not of necessity
beautiful or iraitative ; but this was of its essence,
that it should supply the necessity which all
felt of escaping frora the present. Narrow-minded
moralists preached the advisability of becoming ab
sorbed in duty ; politicians bade us be absorbed in
the State ; but this Life of Memory was essential to
all. It should only co-exist with and not supplant
the life of Common Duties ; for," said he, " the most
degraded of all is the ultra art-life of self-indulgent
Epicureanism. For healthy existence the two lives
were necessary. But the question might be asked.
How could this extend to the degraded classes ? It
was true of thera, as of us, that they needed this
double life. If not, they would satisfy their craving
by drunkenness. What was not done by art would
be done by gin. The function of art, both good and
bad, was to give a pleasurable exciteraent outside of
self. Bad art, for instance, was that of Holywell
Street, or of raodern novels. It was a Di-version in
the literal sense of the word — a turning away from
self, that was sought.

248 At Sunday School.

" This function of Art in old tiraes was always asso
ciated with religion, as in the Hindoo and Hebrew
poetry ; but the era to be considered was that of the
Eenaissance, or, in other words, the fifteenth century,
when there took place the revival of beauty, of free
thought, and of the old classical spirit. But there
was more than this ; it was not merely a revival that
then occurred. It was a continuance. An onward
step was made. There was a blossoming out of the
Middle Ages. As in Dante the Catholic side, so in
Shakspeare the chivalrous side of MedlsBvallsm was
represented. Ariosto was eraphatically the Poet of
Chivalry ; and chivalry raeant loyalty, courage, firm
ness, tenderness, and truth — especially towards
woman. The Greek and Eoman woraen had been
whoUy or partially degraded. Hence it was a new
type of poetry which was embodied in Ariosto and
Calderon." The working men in front of me began to fidget
and speculate as to when he was " a-coraing to Shak
speare." They were, in fact, but overgrown boys, and
Ariosto and Calderon were a little beyond them.
" Shakspeare," said Dr. Bridges — as if he had heard
the honest artisans — " was the representative of this
renaissance spirit in England. Chaucer had been the
contemporary of Petrarch; but after his time came
the French Wars, the Wars of the Eoses, and the
Eeforraation. Life had been too unsettled for the
revival. Shakspeare especiaUy, Uke CorneiUe, opened

At Sunday School. 249

up the pages of Eoraan History. It had been said
he was aristocratic. The fact was that Art idealizes
the actual, and that the virtues -with which it could
deal lived in raediseval times only among the upper
classes. The Positivist is, qua Positivist, neither
Aristocrat nor Deraocrat, but Sociocrat, He wants
to level up, not down : to raise the general level of
society. The type of Bayard was a perfect combina
tion of courage, truth, and tenderness, seldom seen
before his time or since. The nearest approach
perhaps, was Garibaldi. Others raight be discerned
in the best of CromweU's Puritans, or the best of the
Paris workmen. The self-sacrifice of these latter was
worthy the knights of the Middle Ages.
"Art at present," concluded Dr. Bridges, after
giving a lengthened analysis of " King Lear" (which
sent me to sleep), "was now confined to drawing-
rooms, where Browning and Tennyson were simpered
out to coteries. It was not national, because society
was disturbed. English society was, for the present,
given over to money-making; and therefore there
was no national Art. In Parliament Street, onlv the
day before, he had seen the raost sharaeless elec
tioneering placard — he knew not of which party —
which exerapUfied that aspect of modern society. It
exhorted people to ' vote for those who defend trade
against co-operative societies, and are ready to amend
the law against adulteration!' That meant really,
' vote for the right to charge more for goods than

250 At Sunday School.
they are worth, and to adulterate ad libitum.' He
was," he said, " careless as to which party got in as
things are at present ; but this selfishness was fatal
to Art. AU we could do was to use the Art of the past
as best we might ; and the corafort for Positivists lay
in the fact that the noblest sphere of the Art of the
future lay in the Eeligion of Humanity. One word
as to electioneering. He had said he viewed the
question of parties with indifference. There were
reasons which might incline him to either side. He
hoped to see disestablishment compassed. He hoped
workmen would be elected who would push forward
social problems. All these matters deserved serious
attention ; but there was no chance of success in the
present elections ; at least the success could only be
partial. Even the prevention of further estabUshment
 -vrhich was involved in the Education Act — was
scarcely to be hoped for. He hoped that such raen
as should be elected would join for an uncom-
proraising use of their powers ; but he doubted
whether they raight not do raore good outside than
inside Parhament, in forming a healthy state of
pubUc opinion. At aU events, it was to be hoped
that the few thoroughgoing raen in Parhament would
continue so, and not consent to feeble compromises."
Such were sorae of the teachings of this strange
Sunday School; and, as I passed out into sancti
monious Bedford Eow, I saw the good people coming
out of St. John's, and Mr. Odger girding up his loins

At Sunday School. 251
to address his foUowers on the fiagstones ; but I had
imbibed instruction enough for one while, so passed
on and left him orating.
There is no part of my present task which I have
approached with so much diffidence as the description
of the outward and visible signs of Positivism, or in
the execution of which I am so conscious of deficiency.
The outward and visible sign conveys so little of the
inward meaning; and the process by which the
Positive Philosophy passes into the Eeligion of
Huraanity is so coraplicated and delicate, that I feel
my best plan will be siraply to transcribe a few
extracts from Mr. G. H. Lewes's "History of Phi
losophy," and refer my readers to that work, together
with the prolific literature of Positivism, or, better
' still, counsel thera to adopt the sarae course of per
sonal observation which I myself put in practice.
The first two essays of Comte were : I. " Plan des
Travaux Necessaires pour Eeorganizer la Societe;"
II. "Considerations Philosophiques sur les Sciences
et les Savants." " These form," says Mr. Lewes, " an
excellent introduction to the study of Positivisra ;
and in thera it is shown (1) that all phenomena, even
those of politics, are subject to invariable laws; (2)
that the human raind passes frora initial theological
conceptions to final positive conceptions, through the
transition of raetaphysical conceptions; (3) that
huraan activity, in like m'anner, passes through three
phrases, from the conquering mUitary regime to the

252 At Sunday School.
pacific industrial regime, through the transitional
state of a defensive military regime ; (4) that every
where, and at all times, the state of opinions and
manners deterraines the institutions, and that the
nature of the general beliefs determines a corre
sponding political regime ; (5) that philosophy (or
general beUefs) in passing from the theological to the
positive stage, must bring about the substitution of
the industrial for the military regime; and, finally,
that the spiritual reorganization, which is the neces
sary condition of aU social reorganization, raust repose
upon the authority of demonstration; it must be
based on science, with a priesthood properly con
stituted out of the regenerated scientific classes. In
other words, the spiritual authority must issue frora a
phUosophy which can be demonstrated, not from a
philosophy which is imagined."
Some years ago, when the subject was quite new to
rae, I alluded to it in one of my Sunday evening
serraons, and found the congregation greatly interested
in the subject. I hope it is not egotistical to quote
one's seU again. The passage I subjoin, referring to
Cerate's separation frora his wife and subsequent
connexion with Clotilde, explains in sorae degree the
evolution of the Eeligion out of the Philosophy. It
must be remembered under what circumstances the
words were spoken ; I prefer to insert them as they
were then delivered, instead of modifying them as I
might perhaps be incUned to do now : —

At Sunday School. 253
" Mary of Bethany I would make the type of that
trite and rudimentary truth — man's deep need of reli
gion. Yes ; the truth is trite and rudimentary enough.
It is a truism as well as a truth ; but it came to me
supplemented with an illustration which may prove as
interesting to you as to me.
" Some of you may be aware — others are not — that
there is a system in our raidst, represented, slenderly
perhaps, but still represented, by individuals whose
naraes are well known, which systera professes to have
outgro-wn aU belief in, or need of, God and super
natural agencies ; nay, to have also outstripped raeta-
physics, the science of mind, and to have reduced
everything to positive knowledge.
"This you may say is simply the position of Atheism ;
but this is not quite the case ; and why and how it is
not so is the raost curious part of the systera. The
man who elaborated that system for many years found
it answer his purpose. At length, in face of an ex
perience precisely the same as befel the sisters of
Bethany, he found himself obliged to supplement his
philosophy with a religion. One whom he loved died,
and then his system faUed him. Then there carae
home to the mind of this philosopher for the first
time, as it would appear, a conviction of that poor
truism which seeraed just now so rudimentary — raan's
deep need of religion. But what was he to do ? He
had cut the ground frora beneath his feet. He had
ceased to believe, and made his many followers cease

254 At Sunday School.

to believe in God, They did not even believe in the
noblest part of self What then was left him ? A
' Eeligion of Humanity' as it is termed. So grew
up, out of its founder's sorrow, this strange system.
The year is di'vided into thirteen lunar months, each
naraed after sorae great raan. Every day is dedicated
to sorae rainor celebrity — one day to the dead in
general, one other to the raemory of holy women. The
calendar is studded with/e/e days just like a calendar
of the saints. This is not the place to discuss the
merits or demerits of the system; but this is the
the place, and now, when that system is growing up
in our midst, is surely the tirae for the preacher to
put the fact in its true significance as a curious, a
marvellous piece of evidence of that other fact (not so
rudimentary as it might seem) of man's deep need of
religion. " Starting in absolute Atheism about the beginning
of this century, it has resulted in this strange form of
religion. The founder, only some fifteen years dead,
actually preached and performed the marriage and
burial services. Surely the deduction frora this strange
history is, not only raan's deep need of religion, but the
further truth that ' the old Is better,' The God of Eeve
lation is surely more worthy our worship than the God
of Humanity — the God of Self, that is. The Church,
with aU her defects, all the fluctuations in her history,
has surely served her purpose better, and presents to

At Sunday School. 255
us in the roU of her noble array soraething more
worthy of our acceptance than a calendar which en
shrines the naraes of Orpheus and Solon, and even
condescends to chronicle S, Paul, but has no place
for the name of Jesus of Nazareth,*
" There is nothing perhaps more useful than new and
striking enforcements of old and familiar truths. You
were, very likely, half inclined to resent the statement
of such an eleraentary fact as raan's need of religion.
But I ask you, has not God's Finger written down a
curious sanction of it In this growing systera ? The
men who profess it are intellectual giants ; they are
active and energetic in all works of practical and
social well-doing. But this is not enough; and they
have unconsciously written down the fact for us that
it is not enough, Man that is, has not only a body
to be tended, and a mind to be educated, but a spirit
to be trained for a life beyond the present.
" We are told that Society thus growing out of its
need of God and belief in God, growing up to the
¦ merest materialism is typed by the life of the in
dividual. Often too truly it is the case. The man.

* On a subsequent occasion I inserted the following : — "I have this
afternoon Ustened to an able exposition of this doctrine ; and being
anxious to ascertain how any religions system could grow up in
Comte's brain, was informed that Comte was insane when he was re
ligious—though how to distinguish between Comte sane and Comte
insane, we were not told. Comte certainly was insane, but at an
early period of his Ufe, when he formed his philosophy and not his
religion !"

256 At Sunday School.

grown up from childhood seems to have outgrown
God — seems to forget the nobler part of self — seems to
be iraraersed in things of this world. Seems, but is
not. You know — such of you as have at all ex
perienced this in self — that, however far you seemed
to get frora God — however much you were led to
sacrifice the higher to the lower impulses of your
nature, there were times when this could not be the
case. The spirit would not be ignored any more than
the mind or the body. You could no raore starve the
spirit of communion with God than you could starve
the body with impunity, or prevent the mind appro
priating soraething to itself frora surrounding In
fluences. " And oftenest — as in this Bethany household, and
as in this strange system — it is sorrow that caUs out
the true self, and teaches the man or the woman what
one would at first fancy the familiar lesson of their
own inner needs."
On the subject of Comte's separation from his wife
and subsequent connexion with Clotilde, Mr. Lewes
writes thus : — " Into the doraestic question I cannot
enter. Be the blarae of the failure chiefly hers or
chiefly his, the faUure sprang from conditions we
cannot accurately appreciate. That the separation was
her deed and not his, seems indisputable  It Is
clear frora many indications, that they quarrelled
frequently and violently; their views of Ufe were
different, and probably the worldly views of the one

At Sunday School. 257
were a continual exasperation to the other ; but it is
also clear that he did not regard her as having done
anything to forfeit his respect and admiration. He
continued for sorae years to correspond with her on
affectionate terms.
" It was," continues Mr, Lewes, " in the year 1845
that he first met Madarae Clotilde de Vaux. There
was a strange similarity in their widowed conditions.
She was irrevocably separated from her husband by a
crirae which had conderaned hira to the galleys for
life ; yet, although raoraUy free, she was legally bound
to the raan whose disgrace overshadowed her. Corate
was also irrevocably separated frora his wife by her
voluntary departure ; and, although raorally free, was
legally bound. Marriage being thus unhappily ira
possible, they had only the iraperfect, yet inestiraable,
consolation of a pure and passionate friendship. He
was fond of applying to her the lines of his favourite
Dante — Quella che imparadisa mia mente
Ogni basso pensier dal cor m'avulse.
Every one who knew hira during this brief period of
happiness will recall the raystic enthusiasm with which
he spoke of her, and the irrepressible overflowing of
his emotion which led hira to speak of her at all tiraes
and to all listeners. It was in the early days of this
attachraent that I first saw him ; and in the course of
our very first interview he spoke of her with an ex-
pansiveness which was very interesting. When I
VOL. II. ' s

258 At Sunday School.

next saw hira he was as expansive in his grief at her
irreparable loss ; and the tears rolled down his cheeks
as he detailed her raany perfections. His happiness
had lasted but one year."
The context rerainds one forcibly of a passage in
the " Autobiography of John Stuart MiU." " Her
death," continues Mr. Lewes, " raade no change in
his devotion. She underwent a transfiguration. Her
subjective immortality became a real presence to his
mystical affection. The reraainder of his life was a
perpetual hymn to her raeraory. Every week he
visited her torah : every day he prayed to her, and
invoked her continual assistance. His published In
vocations and eulogies may call forth mockery frora
frivolous contemporaries — intense convictions and dis
interested passions easily lending themselves to ridi
cule — but posterity will read in them a grave lesson,
and will see that this modern Beatrice played a con
siderable part in the evolution of the Eeligion of
Humanity. " The increasing notoriety of the name of Auguste
Comte is significant of a spreading syrapathy and a
spreading dread. In grave treatises, and in periodical
works, his opinions are silently adopted, openly
alluded to, and discussed with respect; but rauch
oftener they furnish a flippant sentence to some jaunty
journalist, or pander to the austere dishonesty of some
polemical theologian. Indignation, scorn, and ridicule
are poured forth with all the greater freedom, because
usuaUy unhampered by any first-hand knowledge.

At Sunday School. 259
"Meanwhile," it is so Mr. Lewes concludes his
subject, " anarchy continues, and the Faith is slow in
spreading." I very much hope that, although I wrote these
words first of all for a Manchester newspaper, 1 do
not corae under Mr. Lewes's category of a "jaunty
journalist," as I am sure I do not under that of a
polemical theologian. To me there is no problem
half so interesting as that proposed for solution by
the Positivist body ; and I rejoice, whenever I have
the opportunity, to transform myself into a disciple
in the Chapel Street School. Plaster busts of the
great of all ages stand on brackets round the walls,
and pictures of sacred and secular subjects are hung
between and beneath them. Of worship there is
nothing, as far as I have seen ; the object of the
meeting being simply to listen to a lecture, I must
confess 1 should vastly Uke to see the full ritual as
organized by Corate himself carried out ; but, as far
as I can ascertain, this Chapel Street School is the
only focus of the faith in London, I only wish that
the other visits which I have had to pay in the
execution of my now almost completed task were half
so agreeable and instructive as those at the " Sunday
School," The following are the Positivist Calendar, and the
course of Lectures thereupon, one of which I have
reported above : — s 2

260

At Sunday School.

POSITIVIST CALENDAR, ADAPTED TO ALL YEARS EQUALLY.
By Augusts Comte, Fnimder of tlie Brliijiiiu of Ilinniuiihi.

o aJ
I*

FIRST month.
MOSES,
THE INITIAL THEOCRACY.

SECOND MONTH
HOMER.
ancient poetry.

Mon.

Jan. 1

Tues.

„ 2

Wed.

„ 3

Thur.

,. -1

Fri.

,. 6

Sat.

„ 6

SCK.

„ 7

Moil.

„ 8

Tues.

„ 9

Wed.

„ 10

Thur.

„ 11

Fri.

„ 13

Silt.

„ 13

.^UN.

„ 14

Mon.

„ 15

Tues.

„ IK

Wed.

„ 17

Thur.

„ 18

Fi-i.

„ 19

Silt.

,. 20

Sun.

„ 21

Mon.

„ 22

Tues.

„ 2:l

Wed.

„ 24

Thur.

„ 2,5

Fri.

„ 21)

K;lt.

»j 27

Sl'.v.

,. 2s

1 Pvometheus  ('(ithiii's
2 HcR'ules  Theaeus.
3 Orpheus  Tiresmt>.
i Ulisscs
5 Lycurs^us
6 Romulus
7 NUMA
8 Belus  Semh-nmiii.
9 Scsostris
10 Menu
11 Cyrus
13 Zoroaster
13 The Druids  Oifsiau.
IJ. BUDUHA
16 -Po-Hi
16 Lao-'rseu
17 Menjr-Tseu
18 The Thcoerats of Thibet
19 The Theoerats of Japan
20 Maneo Ciip.ic  Tamehameha.
21 COITFUCIUS
22 Abraham  Joseph.
23 Samuel
2.1 Solomon  DarlJ.
25 Isaiah
2ti St. John the Baptist [///.
27 Harouu-al-Rasehid ...Ahderrakman
2S MAHOMET

Jan.

1 Hc.«iod
2 Tyrtajus  Sappho.
3 AtiatreoD
4 Hindar
5 Sophoeles  F.'nnf.idu.
6 'I'hencritus  Luu'iidi
7 .^SCHYLUS
8 Seopas
9 Zeuxis
ll) Idiiius
II I'raxilelos
12 Lv.-^ippus
13 Apellei
li PHIDIAS

12 16 TEsop  Pilpai/.
13 16 l^lautus
14 17 Terence  Menander.
15 18 Plia-dnis
lejl9 Juvenal
17 I 20 Lui-ian
IS 21 AJSISTOPHAKTES
19 I 22 Ennius
20 23 Lucretius
21 21 Horace
22 25 Tilmllus
2a 1 2(i ( ivid
21 1 27 Luenn
2", I 23 VIRGIL

Mon.Tues. Wed.Thur.Fri. Sat.Sun.Mon.Tues. Wed.Thur. Fri.Sat.Sun. Mon.
Tues. Wed. Thur.Fri.
SatSun. Mon.
Tues. Wed.
Thur. Fri.
Sat.Son.

„ 28
JIar. 1

THIRD MONTH.
ARISTOTLE.
AXCIENT PHII.O^IIl'HY.

1 Ana.xiniander
2 Anasimcnes
3 Herachtus
4 Anaxa^orag
5 Demoeritus  Lettci^ipus.
6 Herodotus
7 THALES
8 Solon
9 Xeuophnnes
10 Empedoclos
11 Thticydides
12 Arehytas  Thiloluus.
13 Apollonuls of Tvaua
14 PYTHAGOKAS

IJar. 2B
„ 27
„ 2H
„ 29
„ 30
„ 31
April 1

12 15 Aristippus
13 16 Antisthenes
14 17 Zeno
15 1 18 Cicero  Pliny the Tmniner.
16 19 Epict.'tus  An-uiii.
17 2" Tacitus
18j21 SOCEATE3
19! 2-3 Xenocrates
20 23 Philo of Alexandria
21 ; 24 St. John the Evangelist
22t25 St. Justin  St. IrencEus.
23 1 26 St. Clement of Alexandria
24 27 Origen  TertuUian

25 I 28 PLATO

FOUETH MONTH.
ARCHIMEDES.
ANCIENT SCIENCE.

1 Theophrastus
2 Herophilua
3 Erasistratus
4 Celsus
6 Galen
6 Avicenna  Avcrrhoes.
7 HIPPOOEATES
8 Euclid
9 Aristsus
10 Theodosius of Bitbynia
11 Hero  CteeiUuf.
12 Pappus
13 Diophantus
14 APOLLOBriUS

9 ! 15 Eudoxus  Aratui.
10|lii Pytheas  .Vmrri»».
11117 Aristarchus  lieronus.
12 i IS Eratosthenes  Sodi^enes,
13 119 Ptolemy
11 20 AUiateffnius  Nasir-Mdin.
16 21 HIPPABCHTJS
16 22 Vairo
17 . 23 Columella
18 24 Vitruvius
19 26 Strabo
20 26 Frontinus
21 27 Plutarch
-22 23 PLIETY THE ELDEB

At Sunday School.

261

FIFTH MONTH.
CiESAR.
MILITARY CIVILIZATION.

^^ a

SIXTH MONTH.
SAINT PAUL.
CATHOLICISM.

Mon.
Tues.Wed. Thur.Fri.Sat.Suit. Mon.Tues. Wed.
Thur. Fri.Sat.
Suit. Mon. Tues. Wed.
Thur. Fri.
Sat. Sun.
Mon.
'Cues. Wed.
Thur. Fri.
Sat.SUK.

Apr. 23 24
, 26
, 26
. 27
, 23

May

1 Miltiades
2 Leonidas
3 Aristides
4 Cimon
5 Xenophon
6 Phocion 
7 THEMISTOGLEa
8 Pericles
9 Philip
10 Demosthenes
11 Ptolemy Lagas
l2 Pliilopoemen
13 Polybius
14 ALEXANDER
15 Junius Brutus
16 Camillus  Cin'innatns.
17 Fabricius  Mec/uhis.
18 Hannibal
19 Paulus iEmilius
20 Mai-ius  The Gracchi.
21 SGIPIO
23 Augustus  MtBcmas.
23 Vespasian  2'itos.
21 Hadrian  Nerva.
25 Antoninus  Marcus Aurelius.
26 Papiiiian  Vlpwn.
27 Alexander Severus  ^etim
28 TKAJAiVT

Ma/ 21
, 22
, 23
, 24
, 35
, 26
, 27

„ 30
„ 31
June 1

1 St. Luke  St. James.
2 St. Cyprian
3 St. Athanasius
4 St. Jerome
5 St. Ambrose
6 St. Monica
7 ST. AUGUSTIN
8 Constantine
9 Theodosius
10 St. Chrysostom  St. Basil.
11 St. Puleheria  Marcian.
12 St. Genevieve of Paris
13 St Gregory the Great
14 HILDEBBAUD
15 St. Benedict  St. Antony.
16 St. Boniface  St. A.asttti.
17 St. Isidore of Seville  St. Bruno.
18 Lanfranc  ,  St. A^iseim.
19 Heloise  Bcdi-ice.
20 The Architects ofthe Middle Ages
21 St.BEaNAEDS.£cMueH«eiess
32 St. Francis Xavier Ignatius Loijola.
23 St. Ch. Borroineo Fredk. Borromeo.
24 St. Theresa ...St. Catherine of Siena.
25 St. Vincent de Paul At)i}i de VBpee.
26 Bourdaloue  CtauJe Fle:iry.
27 Wiltiaui Penn  George Fox,
28BOSSUET

P S

Mon.

June 18

Tues.

, 19

Wed.

.. 20

Thur.

>. 21

Fri.

22

Sat.

„ 23

Sun.

.. 24

Mon,

„ 25

Tues.

„ 26

Wed.

,. 27

Thur.

,. 28

Fri.

„ 29

Sat.

„ 30

Sun.

July 1

Mon.

„ 2

Tues.

,. 3

Wed.

„ 4

Thur.

» 6

Fri.

,. 6

Sat.

,. 1

Sun.

„ 8

Mon.

„ 9

Tues.

,. 10

Wed.

¦. 11

Thur.

,. 12

Fri.

>, 13

Sat.

„ 1*

Sun.

„ 15

SEVENTH MONTH.
CHARLEMAGNE. FEDERAL CIVILIZATION.

1 Theodoric the Great
2 Pelayo
3 Otho the Great ...B.enry the Fowler.
4 St. Henry
6 Villiers  ta Valette.
6 Don John of Austria .fohn Solieshi.
7 ALEEBD
8 Charles Martel
9 The Cid  Tancred.
10 Kiehard I  Suludiu.
II Joan of Are  Marina.
13 Albuquerque  Sir W. Baleigh.
13 Bayard
14 GODFBEY
15 St. Leo the Great  Zeo IV.
16 Gerbert  Peter Damian.
17 Peter the Hermit
18 Soger  St. Mligius.
19 Alexander UI  Becket.
20 St. F'raneis of Assist  St. Dominic.
21 IBrHOCEBTT III.
23 St. Clotilde
33 St. )ia.ihi\(ia.St.'Mathildaof Tuscany.
24 St. Stephen of Hungary. ..ifef. Cor-
25 St. Elizabeth of Hungary [vinu.8.
26 Blanche ot Castile
27 St. Ferdinand III  Alfonso X.
28 SAIBTT LOUIS

o > a

July 161718
, 19
2021322324252637
38

„ 30
„ 31
Aug. 1
., 2
„ 3
n 4
.. 6

EIGHTH MONTH.
DANTE,
MODERN EPIC POETRY.

1 The froubadours
3 Boceaeeio  Chaucer.
3 Rabelais  Sivift.
4 Cervantes
6 La Fontaine  Burnx.
6 De Foe  Gulanmitli,
7 AEIOSTO
8 Leonardo da Vinci  Titian.
9 Michael Angelo  Faul Veronese.
10 Holbein  Men.hruudl.
II Poussin  Lesueur.
13 Velasquez  Murlllo.
13 Teniers  Rubens.
14 BAPHAEL
16 Froissart  Joinville.
16 Cainoens  Spenser.
17 The Spanish i.omaneers
18 Chateaubriand
i9 Walter Scott  Cooper.
20 ilanzoni
21 TASSO
23 Petrarca land Bunijau.
23 'I hos. a Kempig ...Louis of Qranada
24 Mn.e. de Lalayette ...Mme. de Stael.
35 Fenelon  St. Francis of Sales.
36 Klopstoek  (Ressner.
27 Byron  Eliza Mercosur, Shelley.
28 MILTON

262

At Sunday School.

1^

Mon.
I'ues.
Wed.
Thur. PH.
Sat.OUN.
Mon.
Tues. Wed.
Thur. Fri.
Sat. Sun.
Mon.
Tues Wed.
Thur. Fri.
Sat.Sun.
Mon.Tues.Wed.'I hur.
Fri.Sat.
Sun.

Aug. 13
14161617181«
203132
232435
36

Sept,

NINTH MONTH.
GUTENBERG. MODERN INDUSTRY.

I Marco Polo  Chardin.
3 Jaques Coeur  Gresham.
3 Vasco de Gania  Magellan.
i Napier  ilriggs.
6 Lacaille  Delaml,'re.
6 Cook  Tasman,
7 COLUMBUS
8 Benvenuto Cellini
9 Aniontons  Wheatstone.
10 Harrison  Pierre Zeroy.
11 Dollond  Graham.
13 Arkwright  Jacguard.
13 t-onti?
J4VAUCANSON
16 f tevin  TorriceUi.
16 Mariotte  Boyle
l^J"??*"  '.'.'Wmester'.
18 Black
19 Jouftroy  Fnllon.
30 Dalton  Thilorier.
21 WATT
23 Bernard de Palissy
23 Guglielmini  Biquet.
24Duhamel (du Monoeau)...So!(i-<;rfai'.
26 .Saussure  Botiijuer.
26 Coulomh  B'arda.\
27 Carnot  Vauban.l
28 MONTGOLPIEE

Sept. 10
.. 11
„ 12
„ 13
.. 1-t
„ 16
„ 16
„ 17
» IS
„ 19
„ 20
,. 21
>, 22
„ 23

TENTH MONTH.
SHAKSPEARE. THE MODERN DRAM.4.

Oct.

1 Lopez de Vega  Mont.ilrm.
2 Moreto  Quillcm de Castro.
3 Rojas  Gueiara.
4 Otway
6 Lessing
6 Goethe
7 CALDEEON
8 Tii-so
9 Vondel
10 Racine
11 Voltaire
12 Metastasio  Altieri.
13 Schiller
14 OOKNBILLB
15 Alarcon
16 Mme. de Moteville ...Mme. Voland.
17 Mme. de ScWignd ...Lady Mnal"!ia.
18 Lesage  Slerne.
19 Madame de Stael ...Miss Fdyeworth.
20 Fielding  Richardson.
21 MOLIEEB
22 Pergolesi  Palestrina.
23 Sacchini  &relri/.
24 Gluck  Liilly.
25 L'ecthoven  Lfamltl.
36 Rossini  Uther.
27 Bellini  Dauizrili.
38 MOZAET

'=1

n

Mon.

Oct.

8

Tues

„

9

Wed.

JJ

10

Thur.

JJ

11

Fri.

13

Sat.

JJ

13

Sun.

„

14

Mon.

16

Tues.

JJ

16

Wed.

JJ

17

Thur

JJ

18

Fri.

JJ

19

Sat.

J,

30

Sun.

„

21

Mon.

22

Tues.

JJ

33

Wed

JJ

24

¦1 hur.

JJ

25

Kri.

„

26

Sat..

JJ

27

Sun.

»

28

Mon.

29
Tues.
JJ
30
Wed
31
Thur
Nov
1
Fri.
3
Sat.
JJ
3
Sun.
"
4
ELEVENTH MONTH.
DESCARTES. MODERN PHILOSOPHY.
I Alhertus Magnns John of Salishury .
2 Roger Bacon  Raymond Lally.
3 St. Bonaventura  Joachin.
4 Ramus  The Cardinal of Cusa.
5 Montaigne  Erasmus.
6 Campanella  Sir Thomas More.
7 ST. 'iHOMAS AQUINAS
8 Hobbes  Spinoza.
9 Pascal  Qiordino Bruno.
10 Locke  Malebranche.
11 Vauvenargues......lfwie. de Lambert.
12 Diderot  Luulos.
13 Cabanis  Qeorqe Leroii.
14 LOED BACON
15 Grotius  Cujas.
16 Fontenelle  Maupertms.
17 Vico  Berdtr.
18 Fri^ret  Wincklemann.
IH Montesquieu  d'Aguesseau.
20 Buffon  Oken.
21 LEIBNITZ
32 Robertson  Gibbon.
33 Adara Smith  Dunoyer.
34 Kant  Fix:Ue.
35 Condorcet  Ferguson.
26 Joseph de Maistre  Bonald.
27 Hegel  Sophie Germain.
23 HUME
Nov. 6
,j 6
,1 7
Dee.
TWELFTH MONTH.
FREDERICK II.
MODERN POLICY.
1 Marie de Molina
2 Cosmo di Medici the Elder
3 Philip de Comines  Guiceiardini.
4 Isabella of Castile
5 Charies V  Sixtus Y.
6 Henri IV.
7 LOUIS XI.
SL'Hopital9 Barneveldt
10 Gustavus Adolphus
11 De Witt
12 Ruyter
13 William III.
14 WILLIAM THE SILENT
15 Ximenes
16 Sully  Oxenstitlru.
17 Mazarin  Wali>oU.
18 Colbert  Lmiit XIV.
19 D'Aranda  Pombal.
20 Turgot  Campomanes.
31 EICHBLIEU
22 Sidney  Lambert.
23 Franklin  llamj«lni.
24 Washington  Kcsiusko.
26 Jefferson  M:aJin„.
26 Bolivar  Toussaint L'Ouverture.
27 Franeia
24 CEOMWELL
At Sunday School.

263

l^

Mon.Tues. Wed.Thur. Fri.Sat.Sun. Mon.
Tues. Wed.
Thur. Fri.Sat.
Sun. Mon.Tues.
-iVed.
Thur. Fri.
Sat.
Sun. Mon. Tuos.Wed.
Thar. Fri.
Sat. Sun.

Dec.

THIRTEENTH MONTH.
BICHAT.
MODERN SCIENCE.
1 Copernicus  Ty oho Brake,
2 Kepler  Salley.
3 Huyghens  Varignon.
4 James Bernouilli ...John BerTwuilli.
5 Bradley  Eoemer.
6 Volta  Sauveur.
7 GALILEO
8 Vieta  Sa/rriotf.
9 Wallis  Fermat,
10 Clairaut  Foin^ot,
11 Euier  Mange,
12 D'Alembert  Daniel Bernouilli.
13 Lagranffe  Joseph Fourier,
U NEWTOIT
15 Bergmann  Scheele.
16 Priestley  Daoy.
17 Cavendish
IS Guyton Morveau  Geoffroy.
19 Berthollet
20 Berzelius  Bitter.
21 LAVOISIER
23 Harvey  Ch, Bell.
23 Boerhaave  Stahl.
2rfe Linnaeus  Bernard de Jussieu,
25 Haller ,,.  Vicq d'Azyr.
26 Lamarck  Blainville.
27 Broussais  Morgagm.
28 GALL

n

Izi

.52 S-

<)

H

""n

fA

o

fi

s„.3

H

^

¦a a-g

H

fx

=3

Hi 0

III

o

w

-§ P.(^

g

o

I-
5|.g| t- & 00 o
ea O (U
K.-S a5
gSa„- So S,
^ Course of Lect ares, hy Dr. Bridges, ^^po^^ the Principal Names ofthe Positivist
Calendar. These names are as follows .- —
I. Moses, with whom are associated  | ^^''^^^ nThoSet'
II. Homer, with whom are associated  [ ^'"I^^^'''' Aristophanes,
' J^ PhidiaSj Vrrgil,
III. AristotlEj with whom are associated  | Vf}''^' Socrates,
' ( PythagoraSj Plato.
IV. Archimedes, with whom are associated  I Hippocrates, Hipparchus,
' I ApoUonma, Pliny.
V. C.SAR, With whotn are associated  { ^^^^' ^,
VI, St. PAH., with whom are associated  { ^^^^^^^ St.^f--^>
VII. CHARi.EM.^G»E, with whom are associated  { ^1'-"^'^ ^^ ^^^^^^^ S^Louis.'"'
VIII. DANTE, with whom are associated  [ ^™«^°J_ , ^asso,
IX. GOTENEERG, With whom are associated  { ^"^^IZ, Mont^olfier.
.J., , . J. J r Calderon, Molifere,
X. SHAKSPEARE, With whom are associated  | CorneiUe, Mozart.
.^ ..,.1. 1. • i. J f St. Thomas Aquinas, Leibnitz,
XL Descartes, with whom are associated  | Bacon Hume.
„ T. -i.-!, t, • 1 J f Louis XL RicheUeu-
XII. FREDERIC or PRUSSIA, With whom are associated | ^^ .jjj^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^ CromwelL
.... . i J ( Galileo. Lavoisier,
XIII. BicHAT, with whom are associated  j Newton GaU.
These Lectures, like all others given at the Positivist School, are Free to all.
264

SPOUTma AT COGERS' HALL.
Down one of the slummy byeways which diverge
from Fleet Street — that wondrous centre of the
newsmongers, where they spend their time in learning
or telling sorae new thing, like the Athenians of old
— there stands a public-house bearing the title, at once
pretentious and convivial, of Cogers' Hall. I am
no antiquary, and never busied myself to inquire
into the origin of the appellation ; nor have I any
notion where the apostrophe ought to stand in the
word, or even whether there should be an apostrophe
at all. Cogers' Hall was known to me when I was a
Slave of the Lamp on the London Press, as a supper
house where I was wont to beguile an hour in the
course of the evening by eating a capital Welsh
rarebit, smoking a long clay, and moistening my own
clay with a glass of whisky and water, whilst I lis
tened simultaneously to discussions de omnibus rebus et
quihusdum aliis. A knot of clever tap-room orators —
I hope the term is not an offensive one— gather
nightly at Cogers' Hall and discourse learnedly on all
things in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, but
chiefly on British politics. It was a nice free and easy
way of combining instruction, not exactly with

Spouting at Cogers' Llall. 265
amusement, but with nutrition ; and although I am
no more sorry to have left my nightwork behind me
than I am to have discsarded my boyish tunic and
corduroys, still I like to look in at Cogers' occasionally,
just as we all like to go back to the old schoolhouse
and look at the name we carved on the desk at the
time when we inhabited the tunic and trousers afore
said. Perhaps the pleasure I feel is due to contrast
ing my present state of freedom with that past
condition of bondage. I often wonder whether
ordinary, unromantic prisoners in Newgate, or the
places whither small debtors gravitate, feel the same
sort of attachment to their dungeons as Silvio Pellico
did, and whether that accounts for the large number
of second convictions we read and hear of It was
rather like a privileged Peri voluntarily quitting
Paradise and taking a look at Purgatory ; but
I determined to kick off my slippers and shake
mj^self clear of my dressing-gown the other night,
and start for Fleet Street. It was a thoroughly
characteristic evening I selected. In fact, I would
not give a straw to visit these haunts except
under conditions of proper local colour. Fleet
Street on a bright moonlight night is a mistake. I
used to run so as not to see the summer dawn when
I left the newspaper office in the small hours. About
midsummer I could not escape it, of course. It would
steal incongruously over the chimney-pots, making
the cats and policemen who monopolized the streets look

266 Spouting at Cogers' Hall.
real ridiculous — as Sam Slick says. But the evening
I chose for my visit to Cogers' was a thoroughly
appropriate one. The whole scene was suggestive of
pea-soup. It lay in native fluidity on the roads and
pavements. It was vapourized into fog and Scotch
mist above. The sky was palpable jyaree aux croutons.
The whole scene resembled a very turbid Turner's
picture, utterly uncomfortable, but highly picturesque
and quite sui generis.
Let no one whose object is simply to hear the
oratorjr ofthe Ancient Society of Cogers — "established
175.5," as the lamp over the doorway informs him —
present himself at the portal before half-past nine
o'clock, for he will have to wait until that somewhat
untimely hour before the fun begins. As I was a
" chiel takin' notes," it did not matter in my case.
I wanted to look about me ; and I had ample time,
for I got there at eight o'clock. By a placard outside
the door, I learnt that the subject of discussion for
the evening was, " The Newcastle Election," which
was to be treated by a " Dispassionate Eclectic."
The gentleraan who had assuraed this mystic alias,
however, had no wish to conceal his identity, for he
was also described by his ordinary title of Mr.
M'Gilchrist. I do not know that the subject was
particularly attractive, but I remember the opener of
the debate as a racj^ speaker, and thought I might as
v/ell go in at once as stop outside in the pea-soup, the
more liquid portion of which was beginning to come

Spouting at Cogers' Hall. 267
down in the shape of something more than a drizzle.
Some half-dozen habitues were scattered over the long
room as I entered, earlier even than myself, and among
them, in seediest of attire, the well-remembered form
of Mr. M'Gilchrist himself. He was in close confab
with another man, and looked as little likely to
" orate" as any one I ever saw. Two respectable
tradesmen were discussing the comparative merits of
red and yellow pine planks at a centre table, and a
feeble old man, destined as " Vice" to occupy a chair
at the nether end of the room, uncomfortable as a
monkish Miserere, was dothering about the place, and
finally settled down to coffee. I supped and read the
" Siliad," which I had bought en route in Booksellers-
row ; but was astonished to find that scarcely thirty
people had gathered when it was time to begin.
Having smoked a cigar and eaten several lumps of
loaf sugar, the Dispassionate Eclectic took his seat on
the right of the chair, which was itself filled by a sharp
bead-eyed little man, who smoked a long clay pipe,
and had a steaming glass of soraething comfortable
before him. Somebody proposed that the opener of
the debate should refresh prior to commencing his
harangue ; and the Dispassionate Eclectic, expressing
audibly his opinion that such a process would do him
no harm, ordered, "Hot rum." He divided his
modicum into two portions, so as to take it hot and
hot during his speech. I could not help noticing that
he spoke almost deferentially to the waiter when he

268 Spouting at Cogers' Hall.
asked for a second tumbler, and I felt an old sensation
coming over me that Mr. M'Gilchrist's talents deserved
a better sphere.
At length, in deference to a decisive " go on," he
went on. He began by explaining and defending his
title of a Dispassionate Eclectic. He simply meant,
he said, that he was not prone to perform an act of
servile homage (of which I cannot even hint tbe
nature) to Mr. Gladstone, as the Daily Telegraph did,
nor, on the other hand, did he long to apply his foot
offensively to that gentleman's person after the manner
of the Standard. If I succeed, in this veiled way, to
convey to my readers the forcible but inelegant
manner in which this Dispassionate Eclectic opened, I
shall have justified forthwith his being included in
the somewhat heterodox list of nan:es I have to
do with. He contrasted the scantiness of the present
Liberal majority in Newcastle with the larger numbers
of previous years, and confessed that the discrepancy
was significant. In terse and telling sentences he
sketched the position of Newcastle as comparatively
isolated, unlike the other l^rge towns of the
north which lay " in a pack," and so virtually still
the metropolis of Northurabria. Joe Cowen — it was
thus familiarly he spoke of the nascent M.P. — was the
son of a father who took his daughters to church on
Sundays; but Joe had got mixed up with the
Holyoake lot, and was moreover a teetotaller in a
city where there were 1200 publicans. He had

Spouting at Cogers Hall. 269
against him, then, Toryism en masse, alcohol en masse,
and also the frightened Whigs. The working men
who' sought to vote for Joe, were prevented by the
crowded state of the booths during dinner hour, so
that they lost their only chance, and Joe's majority'
was thereby narrowed.
But, in the first place, said our Dispassionate
Eclectic, this event reminded us that we wanted to
get rid of the " infernal nuisance" of elections turning
so entirely on the Permissive Bill and alcohol ques
tions—the Beer^ and Pump interests, as he would
term them. People merged all political differences in
hatred of grog, and elevated water into a cardinal
virtue. What use was it to grumble if a cure could
not be found for drinking ? Here the Dispassionate
Eclectic raised his tumbler of "hot rum" to his
eloquent lips, and the coincidence caused a laugh
araong his audience. You may laugh, he said, but
can you find the cure ? In the opinion of the Eclectic
the Government ought once and for all to declare its
policy on this liquor question.
A second " infernal nuisance" was the Home Eule
question ; but on this point " Joe," he held, had given
in his adhesion when he spoke generally in favour of
local self-government. But the third, and most im
portant point was that, though " Joe" had not actually
risen from the ranks, he was strong on all Eadical
measures. Whiggism — and this was really the ques
tion raised by our Dispassionate Eclectic — -had been

270 Spouting at Cogers' Hall.
practically effete since 1868. Sir George Grey had
made a virtue of retiring from Morpeth, but it was
really because five-sixths — if not seven-eighths — of
the constituency had solicited a working man's candi
date to stand. When asked to explain the attitude
of Mr. Gladstone, the Daily Telegraph said he was
" resting on his oars," the Times that " people were
tired of sweeping changes." So he took this New
castle election as a type of what the general election
would be. We were apathetic now, but should be
excited then j and, although he seldom indulged in
vaticination, he prophesied that there would be few
candidates on the old Whig programme, but lots like
" Joe." That was the bone of contention he threw
down for the Cogers to discuss.
A bearded man named French replied, and con
fessed hiraself disappointed with the Dispassionate
Eclectic. When a man gave himself that name, he
generally found hira turn out a rabid Eadical; and
he was sorry to find that Mr. M'Gilchrist had done
so on this occasion. He held that the so-called effete
Whigs were the men of the future. People were tired
of the "blazing" policy of Gladstone and the no-
policy of Disraeli. On the liquor subject the question
was grog or no grog. It was a question between
despotism and freedom. We ought to be able to
drink when we wanted. He, as a press man, wanted
to drink just at the time when the publics were closed.
Somebody suggested that the Ben Jcnson had an

Spouting at Cogers' Hall. 271
exceptional licence in favour of press men, and was
open all night, to which Mr. French replied that the
Ben Jonson made its monopoly an excuse for vending
inferior liquids. No, Whiggism was not effete — witness
the Lancashire elections. As comes the voice of
Lancashire, so — said Mr. Gladstone himself — comes
the voice of England. The narrow majority of " Joe"
was practically a defeat.
The little dark man in the chair laid aside his
churchwarden and spoke discursively, but nobody
listened. Some Newcastle men, who had eaten
Welsh rarebits and drunk stout on the side benches,
rose up and went. The "Vice" had more coffee,
and the Dispassionate Eclectic was supplied con
descendingly by the waiter with a huge lump of
cheese and bread and a foaming glass of beer. As
I rose to go I saw — and saw with pain — a kindly
old gentleman, who was sitting next the Dispas
sionate Eclectic, and eating a plate of cold meat,
surreptitiously transfer half of his portion on to the
plate of the Dispassionate Eclectic, who clearly
thought this would do him no harm, and proceeded to
eat it accordingly ; but the waiter, who was ubi
quitous and all-seeing, as his craft mostly are,
espied the transfer, and looked indignantly at the
Dispassionate Eclectic, as though he had lent himself
to an irregular and heterodox proceeding. There
was a good deal of very plain speaking at Cogers'
Hall, besides the inelegant exordium I have been

272 Sjiouting cd Cogers' Hall.

unable to report ; but I could not help thinking that
places like these act very much as safety valves,
enabling these rabid Eadicals and Dispassionate
Eclectics to let off the steam. Perhaps if other
countries had some kindred institutions we should
hear of fewer coups d'etat and political complications
in general.
So meditating, I passed out into the pea-soup,
as did most of the rest, and the harmless little bead-
eyed chairman was " left speaking."

273

SOMEES TOWN ON BIBLE SLAVEEY.
Of all the unholy haunts into which my pursuit of
heterodoxy has led me, decidedly the unholiest is
Somers Town. There is a suburban sound in the
title which ill prepares one for the reality ; and
although I cannot say I expected anything very
romantic, I was not prepared for the actual slummi-
ness which supervened upon me when, in consequence
of information I had received from the columns of the
National Beformer, I went one Tuesday evening to
hear the latter of two discussions at Middlesex Hall
on the interesting question, "Does the Bible teach
Slavery ?" I had only the vague idea that Somers
Town was somewhere near King's Cross Station ; and
when I reached that point I was really adrift : but,
passing behind the cathedral-like structure of the
Midland Eailway Station, soon found myself, as usual
too early, in the precincts of Middlesex Hall. Turning
to my right from the Euston Eoad, I had to turn to
my left to get into Chapel Street, and to my right
again to reach Middlesex Street. Such were the
directions I received from an aborigine outside a
flaunting public-house. Chapel Street I found to be
one of the most characteristic localities I ever visited.
VOL. ir. T

274 Somers Town on Bible Slavery.
There was a sort of permanent market going on there;
a double row of costermongers' trucks lining the
street, while the shops were driving a busy trade too,
so that there were four rows of emporiums all in full
action at once in busy Chapel Street. The shops were
chiefly devoted to boots and shoes of fabulous cheap
ness, or composed of butchers' stalls where garrulous
salesmen exhorted non-existent "ladies" to "buy,
buy." The roadway was very much absorbed in the
dissemination of vegetables, salads, &c., all of which
looked temptingly fresh, and were arranged in thump
ing penny " lots ;" though here too there were trucks
for the sale of liver, tripe, &c., which did not look by
any means so attractive. I have reason to believe
that anything from a boot-lace to a round of beef could
be purchased in the great bazaar of Chapel Street,
Soraers Town.
My mission in these heretical expeditions of mine
seems, I regret to state, very often to resolve itself
into scandalizing sorae good orthodox people. I paced
Middlesex Street from end to end, and there was only
one building I could see in the most distant degree
reserabling a " Hall," and that turned out to be a
Sunday school. I went in, emboldened by success in
many a previous expedition, and anxious only on the
score of being a quarter of an hour before time ;
when, on inquiring whether that were the arena for
discussion on Biblical Slavery, I was answered in
a pert negative by a pug-nosed little pupil teacher.

Somers Town on Bible Slavery. 275
and referred to the other end of the street, on the
opposite side of the way. While I went out the
occupants of the Sunday school commenced a sort of
defiant psalm-singing, levelled, I have no doubt, at
myself; for I ought to mention that in those evening
escapades I array myself in the seediest of overcoats,
with a brigand hat, which I purchased specially for
Grafton Hall on St. Patrick's Day, unclerical trousers,
with a fierce stripe down the sides, and boots which
have seen very much better days. In fact, I try to
impersonate the not-very-well-to-do working-man of
advanced opinions, and sometimes wish I wore a
beard and could induce the signs of labour on my
bands ; for I find where the people do not know me
they glance very suspiciously at me — I fancy,
on the score of my Jacob-like chin and my in
artistic hands. Gloves, of course, would betray
me on the spot.
From beneath a low-arched passage higher up the
street, and on the other side of the way, as Miss Pug-
nose had said, I heard the sounds of an awful brass
band proceeding, and thought possibly that might be
a preliminary flourish of trumpets before the impend
ing Bible study. It was Middlesex Hall, sure
enough, and a placard outside announced the discus
sion which had attracted me ; but I thought I would
let them get the overture — if such it should prove to
be — done before I went in. I therefore paced Mid
dlesex Street, and took another turn through the
T 2

¦^'^ So7ners Town on Bible SI a

very.

Chapel Street Bazaar. When I came back the
minstrelsy had ceased. In I went, therefore, and was
directed to pass to the reserved seats ; somebody
would come by-and-by and take my twopence.
It was the usual type of "Hall," and a gentleman,
who afterwards turned out to be the chairman, was en
gaged in propping up the rickety balustrade of the
platform with pieces of firewood, and then tying the
desk which it supported with a piece of string ; for
the whole affair swayed about on the shghtest provo
cation, and might really prove dangerous if speakers
waxed warm in debate. This done, the audience
having assembled, and somebody volunteered to
collect the pence, the chairman assumed his place,
and the two disputants, each bearing a newspaper
parcel of books for quotation, took chairs on his right
and left; an attendant at the same time putting a
jug of water, almost as big as an ewer, and a glass on
a box within easy reach of the speakers.
As this was the second lecture or discussion, it may
be as well briefly to post up my readers in the first
by quoting the report of the National Beformer : —
" MinuLESEX Hall, Middlesex Street, Somers
Town. — The first of two evenings' debate on the
question, 'Does the Bible Teach Slavery?' took
place here on Tuesday evening last, between Messrs.
W. Hale and T. Harrington. The former opened in
the affirmative, by quoting Noah's curse of Canaan,

Somers Town on Bible Slavery. 211
and the several laws relating to the subject to be found
in the Pentateuch, such as that the Jews were to
purchase bondmen and bondmaids of the heathen
round about, as a possession for ever ; supplementing
his quotations by the authority of men eminent in the
Christian Church, to the effect that these texts justified
slave-dealing and slave-holding. Mr. Harrington
denied that the texts quoted proved his opponent's
case, because, according to Kalisch, the Hebrew word
used did not mean slave, and proceeded to deal with
the several passages on this understanding, and stated
that where a man was said to be sold, he had simply
sold himself for a given number of years. He also
quoted texts against cruelty and injustice, and con
tended that these were incompatible with slavery as
known in modern times. A vote of thanks to the
chairman (Mr. Turpin) closed the proceedings. The
debate will be concluded next Tuesday evening, April
7th, at 8.15. Admission Id. — A. E. Jackson."
On this occasion, Mr. Harrington, a respectable and
soraewhat youthful working man, opened the debate
and drew attention to the disadvantage he laboured
under in having to do so on the negative side. He
aUuded ironically to his opponent's previous practice
in debate, whereas he himself was only a plain man,
fitter to sit at the feet of such a Gameeliel {sic) than
to argue with him. He read a long definition of
slavery as it existed in Greece and Eome, from

278 Somers Town on Bible Slavery.
Professor Bekker, and then launched forth into a
really eloquent picture of a gathering of slaves
at some great pagan centre, such as Corinth or Ephe
sus — slaves who were reduced to the condition of
human chattels from no fault or crime of their own,
but simply because their skin was black instead of
white. A reader came araong them and read Christ's
Golden Eule and other texts, which the speaker
quoted in great abundance, and made them exclaim,
" Listen to what that man is a-saying of. He says we
are all one family, and that no man has a right to
own us." He quoted frora Barnes an apposite story,
of a man who had bought a "bright-haired girl" in a
slave-market, and afterwards found she was his own
sister. Such was the discovery which the slaveholder
made under Christianity ; and the speaker urged with
much warmth, and not without a certain rough elo
quence, that there was in the New Testament no ex
plicit statement in favour of slavery. Even in Paul's
Epistle to Philemon (I was afraid he would call him
so, and he did), he urged, after reading nearly the
whole letter, (1) that there was no positive evidence
that Onesimus was a slave in our sense of the term.
The Greek word SovXoc, he said, meant a servant in
any capacity; (2) there was no evidence that Paul
forced or even advised Onesimus to return ; (3) even
if he were a slave, it was questionable whether he re
turned to that condition; and f4) it was distinctly
said, in V. 16, that after his return he was to be no more

Somers Town on Bible Slavery. 279
considered a servant. When Ignatius wrote his Epis
tle to the Epheslans, the bishop of that Church was
named Onesimus, and was supposed by commentators
to be this identical person. Cheever, whom his oppo
nent had allowed on a previous occasion to be a just
and good man, and whose words he argued must
therefore be true, had said that it was quite impossible
to carry out Christ's Golden Eule in the case of a
slave, and that the whole Bible from Genesis to Ee
velation was one continual line of fire against this ini
quity. The duties of husbands towards their wives, and
children towards their parents, became impossible in
a state of slavery. Thomas Paine himself said that
Jesus Christ preached excellent morality, and taught
the equality of man ; and Eobert Owen, that He re
quired all men to love one another ; and how could this
be if He sanctioned the idea that man was a chattel ?
Mr. Harrington's half-hour was now up, and Mr.
Hale advanced to the gingerbread balustrade, quaffing
a long draught from the washing jug as he did so.
In fact, both the disputants were profuse in their po
tations of cold water.
He complained, in broad provincial dialect, of Mr.
Harrington's quotation of irrelevant texts, and as
sured him he had no intention of resting his case
only on Philemon — the quantity of whose pen
ultimate he relieved me by correcting. After making
severe onslaughts on Mr. Harrington's numerous
quotations from sacred and secular writers, Mr. Hale

2^0 Somers Town on Bible Slavery.

thus clinched the case. His opponent had — so he
said — conceded the fact that slavery did exist in the
Old Testament, though slaves were to be manumitted
at the Year of Jubilee. Christ, in Matt. v. 17—" I
will give you chapter and verse if you want it," he
said, triuraphantly — had stated it to be His mission
" not to destroy but to fulfil the Law," ergo He did
not destroy the legal institution of slavery. The
passages which bade raen not resist evil, and turn to
the smiter the smitten cheek, were, he said, calculated
to sanction any iniquity, moral or physical ; and
St. Paul, in his Epistle to the Eomans, said "the
230wers that be are ordained of God," and were not to
be resisted. Were slaveholders not a power? Pie
read a long passage frora Theodore Parker, defending
the conduct of Judas Iscariot on these grounds. He
was bound to betray Christ — in fact, both Christ and
the Apostles upheld the system then in vogue, and
advised obedience to masters, not only to the good
and eentle, but likewise to the froward.
Each of the disputants had now had half an hour for
main speech ; and then followed a quarter of an hour's
reply on both sides. In their second speeches, however,
they left the case very much where it was before ;
and I was less interested in the debate itself than in
the keen, eager faces of the listeners, who foUowed it
attentively, and applauded equally when a point
was made on either side. They were mostly
o-enuine working-men, in their working clothes, and

Somers Town on Bible Slavery. 281
with signs of the day's toil upon them ; and it was
really a curious problem as to how they could be
brought to feel interest in an archaic question like
that proposed. There was only one woman present
at the debate, and she looked like a decent matronly
person returning from a day's charing or washing —
very much the same sort of congregation one gathers
at a school or cottage lecture, only — and this it was
that struck me — with the preponderance of nurabers
on the men's side. Why should we not organize
orthodox discussions, where everybody should have
the chance of ventilating his opinions, and all command
a " clear stage and no favour ?"
Good might be done, I could not help thinking, as
I passed once more through busy Chapel Street,
by thus coming down from Coward's Castle and
inducing a healthy collision of thought. Why should
we leave this Socratic method entirely to the heterodox
and the heretical ?
A further idea struck me too in reference to this
discussion. If it did nothing else, it made both sides
read their Bibles. If one tripped at a text the other
was down upon him in a moment. It may be a little
Jesuitical, perhaps, but an energetic curate who
believed in Bible-reading would do well to invite any
Freethinker in his parish to a discussion in the
schoolroom, if onljr with the ulterior object of forcing
him to post himself up in the litera scripta of the
Sacred Writings.

282

VEGETAEIANISM.
Ie Heterodoxy be understood according to its
etymology as thinking differently from other people,
there can be no question as to the title of this par
ticular " ism" to stand on my voluminous list of
religious and social heresies.
A " good cut at a sirloin" has always been con
sidered the standard of dietetic excellence for the full-
blooded Englishman ; and to exchange that standard
for a leguminous or farinaceous one has certainly
never been dreamed of in our philosophy until the
present crisis in the kitchen. But there is a notice
able tendency at the present moraent to go to the
basis of things, and accept nothing as final until
proved by argument or experience. The age that has
opened the question whether alcohol is wholesome may
be expected— after some inevitable delay perhaps —
to enter on the more revolutionary question still,
whether flesh be a necessity of diet, at all events in
anything like the proportions it has hitherto borne.
Having the question forced upon me, then, not only
as the social topic of the hour, but as an item of
housekeeping assuming every day more formidable
proportions, I resolved to open up in the most prac-

Vegetarianism. 283

tical way possible the whole question of dietary. I
sought, and soon found, a gentleman who had been a
vegetarian for a quarter of a century, and who, I
heard, had brought up a stalwart family of nine on a
system of housekeeping from which flesh meat was
rigidly excluded. This was the very man I wanted.
Of course, like everybody with a hobby, he was glad
of an opportunity to ventilate his. The following is
the result of my colloquy : —
I must not, of course, violate confidence by giving
even the slightest hint as to my informant's name
and local habitation, though, as I was a perfect
stranger to him, I have every reason to believe he
would as readily impart to any member of the com
munity the results of his experience as he did to me.
As I sat in his office there entered to me- — as the
stage phrase goes — a well-built man of middle height,
lacking equally the emaciation or the adiposity which
one is accustomed to associate with the adoption of a
vegetable diet. He looked neither thin, like our
conventional Yankee, nor fat, like a priest towards
Eastertide, but was a lithe, active-looking, healthy
paterfamilias, decidedly juvenile for a progenitor of
nine. He will, I am sure, excuse this pen-and-ink
photograph. The portrait, though faithful, will be
flattering; and it is most pertinent to my present
purpose. Had my typical vegetarian been too thin
or too stout, too sallow or too rubicund, I might
have been discouraged at the outset. This healthy-

Oc;f _,. . .
''-^ / egetarmms

sm.

looking gentleraan, with the crisp curly hair and
beard one always attributes to a Hercules, startled
me with a favourable irapression as to the flesh-
making and health-sustaining properties of whatever
pabulum he might have adopted. Another point
that told immensely in his fiivour with me was that
he was the reverse of pig-headed, which is not always
the case with men who have ideas or hobbies. He
began by assuring rae that, though he was a vegetarian
and a water-drinker, he had made no savage vows
in either capacity. He would soraetiraes, upon com
pulsion, not from choice, pick a bit of fish, fowl, or
even flesh ; he was not guiltless of an occasional glass
of brandy and water, though, from long disuse, he
always felt more or less uncomfortable after either.
The solid was not easily assimilated, and the alcohol
left an unpleasant tingling in his system for four-
and-twenty hours, as though to give him a gentle
reminder that he had been trespassing.
I checked — politely I trust — a tendency on the part
of my friend to wander back to the Garden of Eden.
I quite conceded the point that a vegetable diet was
all that could be gathered frora Genesis, and even that
the use of flesh meat might be a part of the Fall ;
but, to come to the question at issue in my mind —
" What, Sir," I said, " did you have for breakfast
this morning ? What will you have for dinner, tea,
and supper?"
Smiling at the practical form my questions took, he

Vegetarianism. 286

told me he had just partaken of two slices of Neville's
bread, with some figs and a glass of water. " This,"
he added, handing me a paper bag containing two or
three slices of plum-cake, " with a draught of water
from yonder decanter wiU be my dinner. For tea I
shall have a bowl of milk and some bread and
butter, and for supper bread and cheese, with a
salad." In answer to my suggestion that one might probably
tire of plum-cake and water for dinner, he reminded
me that the carte of most men, tied like himself
to the City during the day, was almost as mono
tonously limited to the routine of " chop or steak."
" Besides," he added, " there are endless varieties of
vegetarian cookery for those who seek a relish. I am
detailing, as you asked me, the regimen I myself have
adopted. Vegetables, fruits, and farina afford quite
as large a field as fish, flesh, and fowl."
He was loud in praise of oatmeal and beans. He
pointed to the fact that whilst in England the men
were ill-fed, and the horses in fine condition, the re
verse was the case in Scotland, where the men were
muscular and the cattle comparatively ill-conditioned ;
from which he inferred that we gave to our cattle that
nutrition which the canny Scot wisely reserved for
himself. But still I was not satisfied. What, if I might
make bold to ask, was the nature of my interlocutor's
life ; and did he never feel that vacuum which — British

286

Vegetarianism.

like — I had got to think could only be filled vvith
beefsteak and stout, or their equivalents ?
His calling, he told me, besides chaining him for
many hours each day to the office, took him into the
most squalid parts of the East-end of London ; and
so it was he had found the cruel nature of the fallacy,
that meat and beer were the staples of existence,
forced in still more strongly on his conviction. " To
secure such," he said, "these poor people sacrifice all
the decencies of life. They cannot buy best joints.
They feed on liver, tripe, and such offal, where, if at
all, disease is sure to lurk.
" I really began to see what a powerful agent of
civilization a sensible diet-table might be made." Say
ing thus, he pointed out triumphantly to a tabular
forra hanging in his office, and especially drew my
attention to the name of the non -vegetarian chemist
who subscribed it : —
" Composition of Food.

THE POLLOWIIfG

CONTAIN :

bUPPLT TO BODY :

Weight.

Solid

Flesh

Heat

AEIICMS OF DIET :
Water.
forming
forming
Ashes.
Principle.
Principle.
lb.
lb.
lb.
lb.
lb.
lb.
100
Turnips 
11-0
89-0
1-0
9-0
1-0
Red Beet Root ...
11-0
89-0
1-5
8-5
1-0
Carrots 
13-0
87-0
2-0
10-0
1-0
'
Potatoes 
28-0
72-0
2-0
25-0
1-0
Butcher's Meat ...
36-6
63-0
21-5
14-3
-8
¦
Bread (stale) 
76-0
24-0
10-7
6-1-3
1-0
Peas 
84-0
16-0
29-0
51-5
3-5
Lentils 
84-0
16-0
33-0
48-0
3-0
'
Barley- meal 
84-5
15-5
14-0
68-5
2-0
Wheat- meal 
85-5
14-5
21-0
62-0
2-5
Beans 
86-0
14-0
31-0
51-5
3-5
I
SaETO 
88-0 90-0
12-010-0
3-4
11-0
84-0 77-0
-6
2-0
Maize-meal 
1
Oat-meal 
91-0
92-4
9-0
7-6
12-0 8-4
77-082-0
2-0
2-0
Rice 
Vegetarianism. 287

" Grain and other nutritious vegetables yield us,
not only in starch, sugar, and gum, the carbon which
protects our organs from the action of oxygen, and
produces in the organism the heat which is essential
to life, but also in the form of vegetable fibrine, albu
men, and caseine, our blood, from which the other
parts of our body are developed. These important
products of vegetation are especially abundant
in the seeds of the different kinds of grain, and
of peas, beans, and lentils, and in the roots and
juices of what are coraraonly called vegetables. They
exist, however, in all plants, without exception, and
in every part of plants, in larger or smaller quantity."
Again : — " Vegetable fibrine and animal fibrine, veget
able albumen and animal albumen, hardly differ, even
in form ; if these principles be wanting in the food,
the nutrition of the animal is arrested ; and when they
are present, the graminivorous animal obtains in its
food the very same principles on the presence of which
the nutrition of the carnivora entirely depends." The
next stateraent is very important to be remembered.
" Vegetables produce in their organism the blood of
all animals, for the carnivora, in consuming the blood
and flesh of the graminivora, consume, strictly speak
ing, only the vegetable principles which have served
for the nutrition of the latter." — Liebig.
Another strong point which my voluble friend put
forward was his comparative immunity from adultera
tion. He needed no analyst to examine his fruit, his

""^ Vegetarianism.

vegetables, his occasional egg, and filtered water. He
even argued warmly against cooking fruit— though
here I know the homoeopathists, whom I had always
considered the most consummate masters of diet,
would join issue with him. "Nature gave thera to
us as they are, ready to eat ; and what do we find ?
Edible in their original state, these fruits — such as
the apple, cherry, or plum — are not palatable, when
cooked, without sugar ;" and sugar he seemed to regard
as the very concentration of all adulterations. Tea
and coffee he also patronized but slenderly, preferring
the Paradisiacal spring water.
And how do we think this active gentleman
amused himself when work was over, and he retired to
the suburban residence of his nine vegetarian olive-
branches? As an amateur carpenter and joiner.
Vegetarianism, in one word, according to his repre
sentation, had kept him sound in wind and limb, as
well as clear in head, for a quarter of a century.
Barring the arrivals of the nine, and an accident or
two, his doctor's bill had not been 10/. during all that
period. Eemerabering what ray butcher, brewer,
wine merchant, and doctor had derived frora me dur
ing a far shorter period, it was all I could do to pre
vent myself from rushing into a greengrocer's,
purchasing an enormous salad, and, bearing it
triumphantly home, resolving my little household into
graminivora on the spot. But, like Wordsworth's
pertinacious querist in the pretty poem " We are Seven,"

Vegetarianism. 289

I ventured on one more question, as I stood hat in
hand to depart. Did he not find it inconvenient in
social life, and especially when travelling ? There was
no vegetarian restaurant even in London, I believed,
or I should have immediately adjourned to it. There
was none, he said ; but there was no difficulty, he
submitted, in culling from the carte, especiaUy of
foreign restaurants in town, such dishes as suited
him. In travelling, the landlords of rural hostebies
generally looked on him as a " foreigner," and were
tolerant of his little weaknesses. So, in social life, he
was saluted by his intimate friends with the remark,
" In the name of the Prophet, figs !" from that fruit
forming so large a portion of his diet. At public
dinners he could pick his way among the various
dishes, affecting chiefly the leguminous ones ; and, if
necessary, he could, being free from aU vows, partake
of a slice of meat or a glass of wine, though certain
— perchance like some of his fellow-guests — to feel the
retributive "morning after."
Such was my interview with a vegetarian. He
forwarded me afterwards a number of pamphlets on
the subject, which I proceed to analyse. The long-
defunct " Vegetarian Messenger," one of those
volumes, represents a period in the history of the
system when it appeared likely to take firmer hold of
popular esteem than afterwards proved to be the case.
It is full of recipes for savoury vegetarian dishes, the
mere reading of which makes one's mouth water ; and
VOL. II. u

290 Vegetarianism.

British housewives would do well to consult its
pages, if only to provide a stopgap for meat whilst
famine prices rule.
Take for instance the following recipes, which
certainly, in these days of deep culinary study, may
well alternate with, if they do not supplant, the
ordinary courses of fish, flesh, and fowl : —
" Twelve Vegetarian Eecjpes.
" 1 . Breadcrumb Omelet. — One pint of breadcrumbs,
a large, handful of chopped parsley, with a large slice
of onion minced fine, and a teaspoonful of dried mar
joram. Beat up two eggs, add a teaspoonful of milk,
some nutrheg, pepper, and salt, and a piece of butter
the size of an egg. Mix altogether, and bake in a
slow oven till of a light brown colour. Turn out of
dish and send to table immediately.
"2. Yorkshire Budding. — Flavour your batterwith pot
marjoram, lemon thyme, and sweet balm powdered, a
little chopped parsley, and an onion minced fine.
Bake in moderate oven ; serve hot with gravy.
" 3. Macaroni Budding. — Two ounces of macaroni ;
boil till tender, drain the water from it, and add half
a pint of new milk, and half an ounce of parsley,
chopped fine. A teaspoonful of leraon thyme
powdered, some lemon peel, pepper, and salt, and
dash of nutmeg. Put it in a well buttered dish, and
bate twenty minutes. If wanted richer, beat up an
egg in the milk.

Vegetarianism. 291

"4. Buttered Onions. — Take enough (rather small)
onions to make a dish ; let them all be of like size ;
peel them, and throw them into a stew-pan of boiling
water with some salt. Boil for five minutes, drain
them, put them into a saucepan with a good thick
piece of butter, a sprinkling of nutmeg, pepper,
and salt ; toss them about over a clear fire until they
begin to brown; add a tablespoonful of mushroom
ketchup, and a dessert-spoonful of sage and marjoram
and parsley. Do them gently for a quarter of an
hour, and serve upon toast moistened in lemon juice.
"5. Mushroom Budding. — One pint of mushrooms,
half a pound of breadcrumbs, and two ounces of
butter. Put the butter in the breadcrumbs,
adding pepper and salt, and as much water as will
moisten the bread ; add the mushrooms, cut in pieces ;
line a basin with paste, put in the mixture, cover
with paste, tie a cloth over, and boil an hour and a
half. It is equally good baked.
" 6. Buttered Eggs or Bumbled Eggs. — Break three
eggs into a small stew-pan, put a tablespoonful of
milk and an ounce of fresh butter, add a saltspoonful
of salt and a little pepper. Set the ste -v-pan over a
moderate fire, and stir the eggs with a spoon, being
careful to keep every particle in motion until it is
set. Have ready a crisp piece of toast, pour the eggs
upon it, and serve immediately. [This mode of
dressing eggs secures that the white and the yolk
shaU be perfectly mixed. The white, which is so
u 2

292 Vegetarianism.

Yerj nutritious, is insipid and unpalatable when the
egg is simply boiled, fried, or poached.]
" 7. Bolted Lentils or Haricots. — Stew a teacupful of
lentils in water, with a morsel of butter and some
mushroom powder. Beat up to a smooth paste.
When cold, add an equal quantity of fine brown
breadcrumbs, with seasoning of salt, mace and
cayenne, and the size of a walnut of old cheese.
Beat all together with two ounces of butter. Press
firmly into pots. (Haricot beans may be used in
stead of lentils.) If it is to be kept long, hot butter
must be poured on the top.
" 8. Ba.ied Botatoes with Sage and Onion. — Peel as
many potatoes as you require ; put them in a pie-
dish, and a good-sized onion, with half a teaspoonful
of dried sage, two ounces of butter, and enough
water to cover the bottom of the dish. Season with
salt and pepper.
" 9. Barley Soup. — Soak four tablespoonfuls of Scotch
barley in cold water for an hour. Put it in stew-pan
-with about a pint of cold water. Set it on a raoderate
fire; let it stew gently, and add three good-sized
onions, two smaU turnips, a carrot, and a head of
celery. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
When quite soft, add a tablespoonful of mushroom
ketchup. " 10. Groat Budding. — Pick and wash a half pint of
groats, and put them in a dish with a pint of water,
a large onion chopped small, a little sage or marjoram.

Vegetarianism. 293

a good lump of butter, pepper and salt. The groats
may be steeped thus for some hours before baking.
Apples may be added, or substituted, for the onions
and herbs. If substituted, use sugar instead of the
seasoning. Bake in a moderate oven tiU the groats
are tender.
"11. Savoury Bie. — Pare several potatoes and two
or three onions. Slice them, if large. Place these
in a buttered pie-dish, in layers, with a little well
steeped tapioca, pepper, salt, and powdered sage upon
each, also mushroom powder, or fresh mushrooms if
liked. Slices of cold bread omelet, or a few Brusselt
sprouts, may be inserted. Cover with a plain crust;
one made of ordinary bread dough, with a very littk
butter, is preferable to anything heavy. Keep the
bottom of the pie supplied with hot water while
baking, or it will be without gravy.
" 12. Vegetarian Gravy. — This may be flavoured
either with mushroom powder or browned onion, and
coloured with a little chicory, the basis being made
as plain melted butter, with less flour or thickening,
and seasoned with pepper, salt, and mace, if approved.''
Professor Francis WilHam Newman, whose
theological proclivities have already claimed our
notice, is a tower of strength to the Vegetarians, and
in dealing with the current literature of the subject
I give the preference to his lectures. I only regret
that I cannot find space to print in full the Address

^^ Vegetarianism.

of 1872; but I select those passages which have a
present interest, on account of their economical
bearing, and also those which bring the subject into
connexion with the known theological opinions of
our author : —
" vVhen the name and practice of Vegetarianism is
brought casually before an English man or woman, it
is very generally regarded as fanciful and ridiculous.
I wiU not deny that while I knew it myself only
from a distance, I thought it a strange, perhaps even
a silly fancy ; hence I cannot be surprised that others,
equally uninformed as I then was, so regard it. I
have often heard the rather scornful question, made in
a peculiarly decisive tone : ' What is the use of it ?'
Of course the questioner implies the true and
obvious answer to be, ' Absolutely none whatever.'
Now, by way of reply, I will take the liberty of
asking some questions in return. Did you ever
hear of such a thing as Cattle Murrain? Did you
ever hear of Diseased Meat in the Market ? or of
Contagious Disease spreading among foul eaters ? or
are you at all aware of butchers' meat becoming very
dear ? inconveniently dear for most, ruinously dear to
hand-workers ? Well, if these matters are famiharly
known to you, I have one more question — Did you
ever reflect on the causes of these things ? for you can
hardly believe that they come without a cause. It
is possible that many present have never inquired
into the causes, and my first attempt will be to

Vegetarianism. 295

aid in the research, by recalUng many obvious and
notorious facts.
" The easiest question to answer is — What is the
cause of the high price of butchers' meat ? The reply
is — An enormous increase of demand. The whole
series of events is in the easy memory of those who
are no longer young, yet may need to be shortly
recapitulated to the new generation. I will first
remark, that any great murrain in cattle (however
caused), would naturally be followed by an increased
price of meat. I do not overlook this, when I refer
to the increase of demand as the main and steady
cause of the rise in price. In fact, it was distinctly
predicted by far-seeing economists in 1846 and the
previous years, during the contest for the abolition
of the old Corn Laws. The late General Perronet
Thompson illustrated popularly his economic pre
diction, by saying : ' When, through the cheapening
of bread, a man finds he has an unexpected sixpence
in his pocket, he is very apt to want a mutton-chop.'
On this ground he foretold that the abolition of the
Corn Laws would make the artisans eat, not more
bread, but more butchers' meat, and that the price of
such meat would rise. Accordingly, he and Colonel
Torrens prophesied that the farmers would become
enriched by the sale of agricultural luxuries, in
proportion as the one agricultural necessary (bread)
became cheaper: for most persons expected that
bread would permanently be reduced in price. In

296 Vegetarianism.

fact, it has only been saved from great fluctuations,
and its indefinite rise hindered. Higher wages and
steadier work, rather than clieaper bread, have made
our artisans able to demand flesh meat ; and this
increased demand was a marked fact already in 1848.
Importation of foreign cattle for immediate con
sumption has been on the increase thenceforward.
With the development of the railway system the
prices have become more equalized, not by a fall in
the towns, but by a rise in the more secluded rural
districts. At length it became worth while to turn
Irish arable land into grazing, for the production of
more cattle. This must be the tendency everywhere,
at a certain point of price, if butchers' meat go up, or
bread go down ; for land is husbanded, not for the
cultivator's mouth, but for his purse (or what here
amounts to the same, for the landlord's purse) ; hence,
unless our present career be checked, we have a very
dreary prospect before us 
" It may be replied, that the working classes are
wilful and besotted, and wiU of course grasp at every
luxury in their power. See, it will be said, how
recklessly they spend their money on beer or gin, or
if not on drink, then on tobacco-smoking, or perhaps
on both. There are many exceptions. Nevertheless,
I concede, they are a minority. I admit and press,
that so long as aU who are rich enough to get an
article, insist on getting it, the poorer wiU covet it,
wiU count it a luxury, and wiU often ruin their finance

Vegetarianism. 297

by eagerness for it. But what then ? Why, then,
this is precisely the reason why the richer should set
them a different example. ' I will eat no meat while
the world standeth,' said the great Paul, ' if it make
my brother to offend.' If there is not enough sound
flesh meat for all, and it be not necessary for our
welfare, why should we, who are richer, rush in to
clutch at it ?
" But I turn to another side of the subject, hardly
less important. Just alarm is widely spread con
cerning a fact too broad to be denied — the. growth of
our towns, and the disproportionate emptiness of our
country. This is everywhere the symptom of
progressive national decay. The Eoman poet Horace
saw it already before his eyes in Italy. Sraall free
holds had become rare. On the great estates were
beautiful villas, splendid parks cultivated for elegance,
not forj service. The fruit-tree was ' evicted' (to
use his phrase) by the barren tree. The towns were
full, and the country empty. Grazing superseded
agriculture ; cattle took the place of robust freemen,
and were tended by a sparse population of slaves. A
Gaulish chieftain, soon after, in urging his country
men to revolt against Rome, used the argument,
' Italy is poor in men ;' and Pliny echoed it in the
utterance, 'Broad estates have ruined Italy.' In
modern Turkey we have the same deplorable phe
nomenon, from widely different causes — well filled
towns and empty country. The historian Sismondi

298 Vegetarianism.

attests that it characterized every land, which was in
its turn ruined by the Eoman empire. No impartial
and well-informed person can look on Great Britain
without discerning the same alarming phenomenon iu
contrasting our rural districts to our towns. The
country places do not support their own births ; the
rustic population flock to the towns. Now, I am not
about to say that this is directly caused by flesh
eating; it undoubtedly depends on circumstances of
landed tenure, which cannot here be treated. Never
theless, the evils are aggravated by the demands ofthe
wealthy towns for cattle and their products ; this fact
alone makes it worth a landlord's while to keep
arable in pasture. If the towns renounced flesh
eating, we should see in a single generation, even with
out improved land tenure, a tide of migration set the
other way, from towns into the country. Eustic
industry would be immensely developed. All motive
for expatriation of our robustest youth would for a
long time yet be removed, and the country might
be enormously enriched, not in an upper stratum of
great fortunes, but (if national morality kept pace
with wealth) down to the bottom of the community.
Our strength is proportioned to the number of our
industrious and loyal citizens. The country would
then bear a great increase of population without
effort ; for it is certain that ordinary arable land will
produce easily four times as much human food as the

Vegetarianism. 299

same land devoted to grazing. Of course there is land
where the soil barely covers the rock — where a
plough cannot be driven, or where mere steepness
forbids — on which nevertheless grass can grow. No
one wishes to get rid of all grazing land. But where
the soil has moderate depth cultivation improves it ;
if there be but enough labourers. The area for
which twenty men suffice to tend oxen grazing on it,
might need the labour ofa thousand (including rustic
artisans) if it were duly laid out for crops. I do not
forget or dissemble that a large part of cattle food,
especially the winter supply, is provided by cultivation,
as beans and oats for horses, turnips and other roots
for sheep and oxen. Still, the moveraent towards
Vegetarianism would be a movement for native culti
vation and rustic industry 
" But it may occur to you that I have said nothing
of fish. It is true that the economic objections to
butchers' meat do not apply against fish from the
sea ; nor is the moral objection to killing them equal
to that against killing birds. Fish do not displace
crops on the soil, and are a real addition to the food
of a nation. But except on the sea-coast, fish on the
average is dearer than mutton ; I believe I may say,
by far dearer ; and has less nourishment, pound for
pound. Flabby fish, which is very unnutritious, and
wiU not bear transport, is not coveted, and may
remain cheap. But the really solid kinds are not

300 Vegetarianism.

cheap anywhere, I believe :* and are in general
enormously dear, as turbot and salmon. Salmon, I
know, recently in Clifton, where I live, was selling at
3s. Qd. a pound, and 2s. Qd. is a common price. I do
not know that a pound of salmon gives more nourish
ment than a pound of mutton, even to those who are
able to digest it ; hence until the price of fish is
enormously reduced, it is difficult to say much in
their favour from the economic side, except so far as
they are used as condiment, like anchovy, herring,
sardines, or even sprats. Vegetarians being desirous
of attesting that their strength is not supported on
fish, any more than on beasts and fowls, think it
right to abstain even from these condiments ; but it
is not likely that they will devote any large portion
of their zeal to dissuade people from them. Eather
they will take for granted that those who on the
whole see reasons for abstinence from flesh, will think
it wiser, in the present state of opinion, when the
example of every abstainer tells for something, to aim
at that completeness in a broad principle which all
alike are sure to understand.
" Perhaps some of you are disappointed, that I
have not entered into any proofs that farinaceous
food suffices for strength and health. Indeed doctrine
so opposite is sedulously preached by men who ought
* Perhaps I 0"ught to except Skate. I have always -wondered that
so solid and nourishing a fish, so palatable when thoroughly dressed,
is so cheap in the London market. The rich seem to despise it for its
cheapness.

Vegetarianism. 301

to know, that I think it rather better to refer you to
those who can speak with authority on this question ;
else I must perhaps have devoted the entire lecture
to it. But as our Society has printed a four page
tract of testimonies from celebrated physiologists —
few of them Vegetarians — who assert that farinaceous
food and pulse, suffice abundantly for strength, and
tend eminently to health and long life — I have
requested a supply of these to be provided at hand,
so that all of you may be able to read the testimonies
at leisure.
" I therefore content myself with saying, that the
inhabitants of county Kerry and county Cork are by
impartial testimony singularly beautiful and strong,
though nourished on potatoes with, at most, butter
milk; that the Scotch, Uving on oatmeal, are on the
whole stronger and healthier than the English ; that
the porters and boatmen of. Turkey equal the
strongest navvies of the English railways ; and that I
am persuaded, a general survey of the broad facts of
the human race show it to be a delusion, that flesh
meat ever gives to men who labour with body or
mind any advantage whatever.
" In conclusion, I beg to state the pleasure with
which I have delivered this lecture within a Friends'
Institute. The Friends from their origin have em
phatically taken as their motto— Be not conformed
to this world. Accordingly they have espoused the
most unpopular causes for the sake of truth and

302 Vegetarianism.

justice, defying dominant opinion, prevalent practices,
fashions, and power. They have been foremost
against that greatest of iniquities which is now dying
out. Chattel Slavery. They have championed the
rights of Woman, and nearly every form of mercy. I
will not call them our forlorn hope, but in apparently
the most hopeless assaults on evil they have been
leaders. No foreign victims of evil so call on them
now as the most wretched of our own population,
who cannot indeed be raised by any one form of
action, but only by many combined. Y^'et I boldly
assert, that it is simply impossible to Uft them out of
their misery and rottenness, unless they are trained
to avoid ensnaring drink and expensive eating.
Though I cannot claim a first rank for Vegetarianism
in elevating the people, yet it is only secondary to
abstinence from alcoholic liquors. It directly pro
motes that gentleness of heart which abhors blood
shed, and indirectly that hatred of war for which the
Friends have always been eminent."
But, advanced as Professor Newman may be, it is
naturally to America that we turn for the most pro
gressive ideas on this or any other subject ; and I
cannot refrain from quoting a few passages from Dr.
TraiU's address, deUvered at the eleventh annual meet
ing of the Vegetarian Society, noting especially those
which refer to the moral aspect of the matter : —

Vegetarianism. 303

" As a reform. Vegetarianism may be said to under
lie many other reforms which have made vastly more
noise in the world, the temperance cause particularly.
Without the co-operation of this, they can never
achieve but partial and temporary success. Talk
about politics, commerce, navies, armies, annexations,
and secessions, unions, and constitutions ! What are
all these compared with the institution of victuals
and drink ? . . . .
" Philanthropists, statesmen, politicians, are alwaj^s
busy discussing multitudinous, and in some respects
very conflicting schemes of reform, improvement, and
progress; and they keep the nation perpetually agitated
about banks and tariffs, parties, platforms, squatter
sovereignties, extensions, non-interventions, fusions,
and confusions, each of which may, perhaps, be of
some importance to somebody, but altogether sink
into insignificance, as affecting the permanent pros
perity of our country, or the weal and woe of the
human race, when compared with this matter of eat
ing and drinking. Douglas, Breckenridge, Bell, Lin
coln, are all important personages no doubt, and each
very useful in his way ; but none of these orators have
thus far, during the pendency of the presidential
campaign, broached any subject so vitally important
to the voters as that of beef versus bread, hog v.
hominy, mutton v. squash, oysters v. peaches, chickens
v. whortle-berries. ' A sound mind in a sound body'

304 Vegetarianism.

is the best possible platform, not only for all political,
but for aU human purposes.
" Food supplies the elements of our tissues. We
are literally made of what we eat. Our mental mani
festations are dependent on the quaUty of our bodily
structures. According to our dietary will be the con
dition ofthe ' house we live in' — this bodily tenement
of the immortal spirit, which we are commanded b}'^
its Author to keep pure, holy, and undefiled.
" I know it is customary with some clergymen,
while magnifying the spiritual laws of the Supreme
Being, wholly to ignore his physical laws. But I
cannot see why one law of the Deity should not be as
dear to Him as another. AU laws in the universe are
laws of nature ; and nature's laws are God's laws ;
and I cannot understand why He should look with
any less complacency on the transgression of a law
which we call physical, because it relates to the body,
than He does on the violation of a law which we term
moral, because it relates to the soul. Certain it is that
penalty and punishment equally follow the infraction
of any law of the universe.
" And history, which is said to be ' philosophy
teaching by example,' informs us that all nations of
the earth have gone up or down, have risen or faUen,
as they ate and drank.
" Turkey, not long since a powerful nation, is now
dying of narcotic poisons. The swarming mUlions of
China are becoming rapidly demoralized and deterio-

Vegetarianism. 305

rated with opium. And who so blind that he cannot
see that the four yet great and powerful nations of the
earth — England, France, Eussia, and the United
States — are taking a serpent to their bosoms, yea,
many serpents, which are bound ere long to have their
best heart's blood, unless they in some way, and that
speedily, rid themselves of them? It is enough to
name that triune demon — alcohol, opium, and to
bacco. These physiological fiends are just as sure to
sink aU these mighty empires to barbarism, sooner or
later, provided the people generally persist in their
use, as effect is sure to follow cause ; so surely as
there is law in the universe; so surely as God
reigns 
" Well, what has all this to do with Vegetarianism ?
Much, very much ! I look upon dietetic reform as
one of the essential pre-requisites of any general and
successful temperance or anti-tobacco reform. The
demand for liquor and tobacco is founded in perverted
appetences, and so long as these morbid appetites are
kept up by gross food, so long wUl these pernicious
habits do their work of destruction 
"And now, what is the basis of our Vegetarian
creed ? The arguments pro and con may be viewed
from various stand-points.
" Some persons are Bible Vegetarians. They think
that this book inculcates this doctrine.
" Some are scientific Vegetaria,ns. They believe
that nature teaches it.
VOL. 11. X

306 Vegetarianism.

" Some are Vegetarians from benevolence. They
regard it as cruel to kiU animals for food. They can
see no 'peace on earth and good-wiU to man' while
cruelty, even to animals, prevails.
" Some are sesthetic Vegetarians. They see the
sublime and the beautiful in human nature, only in
circumstances which dispense with slaughter-houses,
fowl-pens, and piggeries.
"Others are economical Vegetarians. They perceive
a vast saving in soil and territory, and in the wear
and tear of human machinery, and an immense di
minution of the most degrading toil and drudgery, in
abstinence from animal food.
" Others, still, are Vegetarians from experience.
They have in some way learned that others have sub
sisted very well, and perhaps improved, on the adoption
of a vegetable diet, and so they try it as an experiment,
sometiraes just to see if it will agree with their con
stitutions. Unfortunately, too many of these, not
being well-grounded in the theory, are very apt, in
some moment of uncomfortable experience, to murmur,
as did the children of Israel for the flesh-pots of Egypt,
and like the children of Israel, they are often cursed
with the permission to eat again what their souls lust
after. " And yet others are Vegetarians from necessit3^
This is altogether the most numerous class. They are
mostly invalids, and are quite numerous at some of
the Water-cures, which, by the way, are quite as much

Vegetarianism. 307

Diet-Cures as Water-Cures. They cannot recover
health, and many of them cannot even live much
longer, without adopting a rigidly simple and strictly
Vegetarian diet. Although these persons always get
more or less benefit to themselves, they do not very
well comraend our system to the public. Being
generally the worst class of invalids — many of them
possessing but the mere relics of ruined constitutions —
they do not serve our system very well as advertise
raents. If they speak ever so well of it, and declare
that it has prolonged their lives, and even rescued them
from death, those who see and hear them are very apt
to regard them as partially demented, and look upon
them as frightful examples of the dangerous effects of
Vegetarianism. " But there is one argument yet to be named. We
all have our ' isms,' our hobbies. Mine is the truth
argument. Vegetarianism is true. This is why I
adopt it ; and this I consider reason enough 
" No animal organization can create or form food of
any kind. All that the animal can do is to use or appro
priate what nutrient material the vegetable kingdom
has provided. The vegetable kingdom is intermediate
between the mineral and the animal kingdoms. The
vegetable kingdom, of the eleraents of the inorganic
world, compounds or creates alimentary principles, as
albumen, casein, fibrin, gum, sugar, starch, &c. These
alimentary principles are not properly food in their
separate states : they are merely the proximate elements

308 Vegetarianism.

of food. Food, or aliment proper, is the compound
of these alimentary principles, as in the potato, the
apple, the grain, &c. And all of these proximate ali
ments of food (alimentary principles) are produced in
the vegetable kingdom, and in the processes of
formation, growth, development; in the green or
growing state.
" Hence the error of those who would medicate
diseases by plying the system with inorganic or chemical
elements, or animal excretions, to nourish the tissues,
as the preparations of iron, phosphates, or hypo-
phosphites of lime, magnesia and soda, cod-liver oil,
and other specimens of ' blood-food,' as they are called.
The thing cannot be done. Nature abhors the plan.
The animal organism will not receive and cannot as
similate inorganic elements or compounds, nor effete
matters of any kind. They must first be reduced to
their primary elements, and then compounded by the
vegetable kingdom. Medicating the huraan system
by means of fertUizers, as we may manure the earth
for vegetables, is a sad mistake on the part of medical
men — a mistake which is sending the human family,
old, young, and middle-aged, in great and constant
droves, to premature graves, and sadly damaging
those constitutions which are not wholly destroyed
by this practice.
" Animals may, indeed, feed on other animals; and
human beings may feed on other huraan beings, or
on animals. But food, once used, is more or less

Vegetarianism. 309

changed, vitiated. And all of the flesh, and blood,
and fat of animals contains more or less of the effete
or waste matters, together with any morbid secretions,
diseased products, or accidental poisons or impurities
which may happen to be present. Hence, as the
animal furnishes nothing that it does not derive from
the vegetable, the logical deduction is irresistible, that
if we would have the best and the purest food, we
must take it directly from the vegetable kingdom, and
not indirectly through an animal organism 
" People raise the anatomical objection, and this is
pretty much all resolved into the teeth argument.
And what about the teeth ?
" Why, we are solemnly assured that man has car
nivorous teeth, and, therefore, consequently, he is bound
in some sort to ' play the dog.' It is not pretended
that there is anything inhuman in or about his face
otherwise. There is nothing bestial in his form or
features. His hands seem better fltted to pluck the
luscious fruit and gather the waving grain, than to
rend and tear the quivering flesh. ' He walks erect,
with face upturned to heaven,' instead of prowling on
all fours, like a predaceous brute in search of his feast
of blood. He does not crawl along the ground like a
reptile hunting a frog for his dinner, nor does he skulk
in sly corners and dark places, like the hideous hyena,
to pounce on some weaker creature, and drink his flU
of gore. And were it not for those carnivorous teeth
w^e read so much about in medical books, we should.

310 Vegetarian ism.

perhaps, never suspect him of any murderous dispo
sition at meal-times.
" But there they are — the carnivorous teeth — in
the books, I mean. If we undertake to argue with a
medical man, we are summarily snubbed off with the
statement that man has teeth like a hog or a dog —
and, ergo, he should eat like a pig or a puppy. I can
never mention Vegetarianism to a flesh-eating medical
gentleman, who does not introduce the teeth arguraent
as the conclusion of the whole raatter, as he asks
triumphantly, ' What were carnivorous teeth put into
our jaws for if not to eat flesh ?'
" I have a short answer. They were never put there
at all. If they really exist in particular cases, it must
be by some accident. They were no part of the
original constitution of humanity. And in truth
they have no existence at all, except in the imagi
nation of medical men, in medical books and journals,
in the public newspapers, and in the jaws of car
nivorous animals.
" I take the ground that man should not have
animal teeth, because he is not an animal. He is
endowed with mental powers which relate hira to a
future state, and to an immortality of existence, and
which impel him to improve his condition from gene
ration to generation — viz., hope, ideality, conscien
tiousness, spirituality, &c. No animal possesses the
least trace of any of these phrenological organs. Hence
man is not ' a higher animal,' but a human being.

Vegetarianism. 311

" And now I propose to put this matter of the
teeth to the proof. Hearing may be believing, but
seeing is the naked truth. I ask medical men to
shoiD their teeth; to extend their jaws and let their
teeth be seen. Let us have the light to shine in upon
this dark and perplexing question. I appeal from their
statements to their faces; from their books and schools
to their own anatomy.
" Is there a person here who believes that, in the
anatomy of his teeth, he is only part human ? — ^that
he is a compromise of human and brute ? Let him
come forward and open his mouth, not to asseverate
his carnivorousness, but to let us see, with our own
eyes, what manner of creature he really is. Let us
see if he is not created wholly in the image of God,
who lives eternally, and not in any respect in the
image of the beast that perishes.
"I think, if we make a careful exaraination, we
shaU readily discover that he is, toothatically con
sidered, neither predaceous nor bestial; that he is
dieteticaUy, neither swinish nor tigerocious ; neither
dogmatical nor categorial ; nor is he exactly grarai-
nivorous, like the cattle ; he is not even sheepish ; but
simply, wholly, and exclusively human.
"True, there are some resemblances between the
teeth of men, women, and children, and the teeth of
cats, dogs, lions, tigers, hogs, horses, sheep, cattle,
crocodiles, and megalosauruses, (s«c.) But there are
differences, too. And the differences are just as sig-

312 Vegetarianism .

nificant as are the resemblances. There is a resem
blance between a man's face and the countenance of a
cod-fish. There is also a striking difference. There
is some reserablance between a man's features —
especially if he does not shave — and the features of a
bear. There is some reserablance between a woraan's
hair and a peacock's feathers; between a man's finger
nails and a vulture's talons ; between his eye-teeth
and a serpent's fangs. But, luckily for us, they are
not the sarae, not precisely alike. Man resembles,
more or less, every animal in existence. He difiers,
too, more or less, from all animals.
" There is one class of scholars who are competent,
and qualified by their studies, to give an opinion on
the question of the natural dietetic character of raan.
I mean naturalists who have studied comparative
anatomy with especial reference to this question.
And it gives me pleasure to inform medical gen
tlemen that all of them, without a single exception,
with the great Cuvier at their head, have testified that
the anatomical conformation of the human being,
teeth included, is strictly frugivorous 
"And now, in conclusion, I object to animal food
because everything about it — the breeding, tbe
butchering, the cooking, and the eating — is sensual
izing and depraving. It gives a morbid, unbalanced,
and, in some respects, a precocious developraent. It
gives preponderance to the lower propensities at the
expense of the moral and intellectual nature. It

Vegetarianism . 313

cultivates, in a thousand ways, the spirit of cruelty
and selfishness. It engenders strife in society, and
wars among the nations.
Just as the t-wig is bent, the tree's inchned.
" It distorts the development of childhood and per
verts the instincts of youth. It leads directly to
liquor-drinking and tobacco-using. It interferes with
the law of harmonious development. Every struc
ture, every organ, every faculty, and every power
should have its equal, its normal, its proportionate
developraent. All are good in themselves. Eightly
educated and properly directed, all conduce to the
perfect being. But when we so train and develop
the organism as to place the spiritual nature under
the dominion of morbid propensities and perverted
instincts, the whole being becomes a lusus naturce and
a moral monstrosity, and we may well build prisons
and penitentiaries, for they will be needed ; and we
may well organize temperance, and peace, and moral
reform, and female guardian societies, for aU wiU have
enough to do."
After these tremendous sentences it is difficult to
imagine any of us sitting down coolly and compla
cently to our accustomed chop, or calmly taking a
slice from the family joint. The only wonder, indeed,
is not that we are so bad as we are nowadays, but
that we are not a great deal worse. My Vegetarian
friend was, as I have conceded, a very fair average

314 Vegetarianism.

specimen of humanity ; and I am, I believe, rather
celebrated among my friends and acquaintances for
my modest demeanour and imperfect appreciation of
my own merits ; but I am not sure that I felt so
immeasurably that gentleman's inferior as I perhaps
ought to have done. I suppose the truth is that, just
as some of us are better than our creeds, so some are
worse ; or else really these vegetarian people being
so purged and purified of all the ills, physical, intel
lectual, and moral which flesh is heir to, would be un
congenial people to live with, until they shall have
levelled the rest of us up to their own lofty ideal.

315

WEST-END SECULAEISM.
By what appears to me a manifest defect of arrange
ment, nearly aU the secular " events" in London seem
to " come off" at the same time — namely, on Sunday
evening. Not only does this fritter away the strength
of the persuasion by extending the force along the
whole line instead of massing it on a single point,
but — what is of more immediate consequence to me —
it renders the examination of the different Secularist
bodies a work of time, or would do so, had I not,
from lengthened experience as a newspaper " Special,"
learned the art of being in several places at the same
time. " How. it's done" is my secret, which I may
ft
perhaps unbosom some day, like Dr. Lynn the
conjuror. . To this rule there are, of course, exceptions, but
scarcely more than enough to prove it. Among these
are tbe meetings in Tarlington Hall, Church Street,
Paddington, which take place on a Thursday evening,
and which I remembered to have seen claiming in the
National Beformer to represent the secularism of the
West-end of London. It has long been a source of
surprise to me that Free-thought should seem to
eschew the higher strata of society, and work at the

316 West-End Secula

ecutansm .

East-end of London, and down by-streets. I fail
to see the necessary antagonism between Free-thought
and " respectability" which some of the professors of
the forraer, it appears to me, make a raistake (from
their point of view) in conceding. There are surely
exaraples, which it would be invidious to specify, of
very advanced thought in high places which need not
make a West- end crusade quite a forlorn hope. 1
fancied I had discovered the basis of operations for
such crusade in Tarlington Hall, and to Tarlington
Hall I went.
I was not so far misled by the palatial name of
the place as to be very rauch staggered when I found
that Tarlington Hall stood in the rear of a boot shop
near the well-known public-house called the Wheat-
sheaf, where the Paddington omnibuses change horses,
or that you had to go almost through the bootraaker's
emporiura to get to it ; but I loas shocked when, on
turning the handle of the only door I could see, I
found mj'self in that respectable tradesman's back
parlour. He soon reassured me, however, by emerg
ing as I closed the door, and informing me that in
consequence of the w^eather (it was raining hard)
there would be no lecture that evening, but the sarae
subject, that naraely of " Jonah," would be taken on
the following Thursday. I was disappointed, I own,
for I had come a long way through soaking rain to
hear about Jonah ; yet I masked ray disappointment
with a mild joke, saying that I fancied a little rain

West-End Secularism. 317
more or less would not have mattered much to that
particular prophet ; but the man did not appear to
appreciate the mild innocent pleasantry, and retreated
to the back parlour whose privacy I had invaded. I
could not help realizing the conviction, however, that
the number of West-end Secularists must be very
smaU, when a lecture could be thus summarily put off
in consequence of a drop of rain ; and I must confess
I saw no other disappointed individual leaving the
boot shop except myself.
I had a second experience of an equally infructuous
character at the only other West-end focus of Secu
larism I could find out. This, I may mention, was
situated in the very parish where I formerly held my
curacy — St. George's, Campden Hill, Kensington — and
Uxbridge Street, where the " Progressive Club" stands,
was in my own district ; but, of course, I never dared
go near Progressive Clubs in those days. It was bad
enough to write about Unorthodox London — most of
the old ladies thought that wrong ; I should have
been a blacker sheep than ever had I entered any
thing so heterodox as a Progressive Club then.
I need not have endangered my character on this
particular evening either ; for the meeting, although
advertised in my vade mecmn, the National Beformer,
was strictly a business one, consisting of contributions
for the sufferers from the Farmers' Lock-out, and
the passing a vote of thanks to the Bishop of
Manchester for the part he had taken in the agricul-

318 West-End Secularis

sm.

cultural question. Eeference was also made to the
forthcoming Hospital Saturday; but all was too
ephemeral to find a place in these pages, or be
elevated into a type of West-end Secularism. Uxbridge
Street, however, is decidedly nattier and much more
convivial than the other places I had visited. There
was a newly-painted proscenium at one end, and
tables were distributed round the roora whereupon
the members regaled themselves with beer in white
jugs, and grog from their own "stores." Altogether
Uxbridge Street seemed a very " clubbable" place
indeed, and that was about all. The West-end of the
metropolis still awaits its secular propaganda on
anything Uke a large scale.
I had projected a second visit to Jonah on the fol
lowing Thursday evening, but matter raore attractive
cropped up in another direction ; and, besides, the
wind turned to the east, and I doubted whether that
misrht not be as deterrent to the Tarlino-ton Hall
lecturer and audience as a rail d downfall of rain !

319

lEISHISM.
In default of any recognised comprehensive title to
cover the various degrees of Hibernian opinion, from full
blown Fenianism down to mild Home Ruleism, I adopt
the above, which I heard coined by a gentleman who
was waxing warm on the subject at the Temple Discus
sion Forum, and which seems generic enough for all
purposes. I have to confess that, except as far as
descriptive matter goes, my information on the sub
ject of Irishism in London is defective. For obvious
reasons the patriots of Erin do not care to lay bare
their plans to me or anybody — it is not to be expected.
I wrote to the head Secretary of the Irish Home Eule
Confederation of Great Britain in Manchester, and
received from him a prompt and courteous reply,
simply referring me to the branch Secretaries of the
Confederation in London, whose names, he said, I
should find in the Lrishman.
I bought the Lrishman — (my newsvendor, by the
way, must think me remarkably eclectic in my read
ing just at present) — and when I did not find what I
wanted there, I of course at once understood that the
reference was only a delicate way of declining to be
" done." I am not so unreasonable as to be surprised
at this. In a nascent political scheme, where success

320 Trishism.

depends on things being kept " snug," I can under
stand the pertinacious newspaper correspondent being
the greatest possible bore. He has got into the habit
of looking at everything in the light of an article in
a paper or a chapter in a book, and an else successful
scheme might easily be blown upon and rendered
abortive by one of these ubiquitous gentleraen. I
hope that is a confession which will be appreciated by
my Hibernian friends.
But if I did not find the addresses of local Secretaries
in the Irishman, I found w^hat was almost more to my
immediate purpose — naraely, announcements of the
arrangeraents for the Aranesty Meeting in Hyde
Park, and coming festivities for St. Patrick's Day.
The first was as follows :—
" Fellow-Countrymen in London. — We trust you
will attend in thousands on Sunday in Trafalgar
Square, and show to the world that we wish those
prisoners to be set free. We have not had much time
to organize, but we hope this will be made up by your
energy. If there is no procession to start from your
neighbourhood, come straight to the Square and fall in
with the raain body. On this day we are aU Irish,
without the least shade of political strife. Let every
man bring as many friends as he can to swell the ranks.
Do not stand on the footways or in little groups, but
faU into line at once. Let every one who reads
this report go to work at once among his friends, for

Irishism. 321

it is a noble duty in a holy cause. Friends, we trust
you will pardon us if this report is not so well drawn
up as it ought to be, as we have but very little time.
The meeting time in Trafalgar Square is half-past
two. Do not stand particular about dining at the
usual time if it would cause you to be too late. We
request you will join any procession to the Square
from your own district. But come whether you have
processions or not. There will be several bands in the
demonstration. The Irish National Brass Band on
Clerkenwell Green, and the St. George's Temperance
Brass Band have volunteered their services gratis (all
honour to them!). We ask our countrywomen in
London to aid us by their presence in the procession.
We trust as raany as possible will wear green rosettes,
scarfs, or ribbons, and we most emphatically request
men not to smoke in the ranks. Marshals will be
appointed to direct the procession on the line of
march. Last year's demonstration was so grand and
so well conducted that everybody is acquainted with
the order of march and the route to be taken. The
different district processions will start from the same
meeting-places that they did last year, and at the
same time. Do not fail to be in Trafalgar Square,
and march to Hyde Park, in the interest of the God
like virtue of setting the captives free. — We are,
fellow-countrymen, yours truly —
" The Committee or Delegates appointed to
Carry out the Proceedings."
vol. ii. t

322 Irishism.

The second as follows : —
"To THE Nationalists of London. — A ball and
concert wdll take place at Grafton Hall, Grafton
Street, Soho, on Tuesday, March, 17, 1874. An
efficient band will be in attendance. There wUl also
be a Grand Panorama of the principal Irish Patriots
and leading political events from 1848 down to the
present time. Chairman, Mr. J. Eyan ; Master of
Ceremonies, Mr. J. Keane ; Secretary, T. Dunne ;
Treasurer, P. Deering. Concert to commence at
seven. Dancing at 9.30. Admis.sion, sixpence;
money taken at the door. The proceeds of the enter
tainment will be devoted to a National purpose."
Though having no connexion with Ireland, and
owning no particular syrapathy with the Fenian
prisoners beyond that coraraiseration which all must
feel with possibly well-meaning men suffering for
their offences, I resolved to "demonstrate" on the Sun
day like a real patriot. I took my station under the
Eeformers' Tree in the Park, and read The Irishman
and the Flag of Ireland — two papers in which I found
some sweetly loyal sentiments touching the Imperial
Government in general, and the Ashantee War in
particular. I wonder whether King Koffee takes in
those two newspapers. He would be surprised to
find his cause so warmly espoused against the
British. It was a balmy spring afternoon, and there was

Irishism. 323

already a good sprinkling of people in the Park when
I got there. I only saw one patriot, and he wore a
green riband with a gold harp embroidered on it,
carried a sort of Field Marshal's baton in his hand,
and had an artificial leg. Itinerant preachers were
improving the occasion, and gathering large con
gregations from the enforced idlers ; while the few
police who were present occupied themselves in
expelling the vendors of oranges from the Park. The
way that an active and intelligent officer hustled
a feeble old woraan beyond the railings was edifying
to see ; but she was soon back again when the
procession hove in sight.
We heard the sound of a patriot punishing a big
drum in the distance, and presently saw what looked
like the top of a bright green four-post bedstead
struggling among the trees. This was the leading
banner of the Emerald Isle ; and really the procession
was an imposing one in quantity, if not in quality.
Men of all grades were there, each wearing his green
badge or bit of shamrock, baskets of the latter being
sold along the line of procession. The brass bands
played excruciatingly, as usual. " St. Patrick's Day
in the Morning" and the " Tramp Chorus" were the
prevailing melodies ; and the effect of the two, played
by bands in close proximity, and a few fifes and
drums coming in with another air, was exhilarating
in the extreme. I fancy the computation of ten
thousand people was quite within bounds. There
Y 2

324 Irishism.

were some score of banners and flags, and about half
as many bands, representing I know not what
societies. A great many females marched in the last
batch, and all seemed to enjoy their outing amazinglj\
When they got to the centre of the Park — where
even those many thousands interfered with nobody —
there was some speechifying, which a very small
fraction could hear, and no doubt enjoyed. We out
siders could only see it all in dumb show.
It was certainly the most imposing demonstration,
and best deserved the name of any of the attempts
I had ever witnessed. The working men were there
literally " in their thousands," and if they did not do
much towards getting their fellow-countrymen out of
Portland, still they had a day's outing ; and I could
not help thinking how much wiser we were in 1874
than in 1866, since we let the patriots exhaust their
energies in blowing trombones, beating big drums,
and making speeches which nobody could hear,
instead of pulling down the Park railings. Nothing
could possibly be more orderly aud decorous than the
behaviour of the patriots ; and by five o'clock the
talkee-talk was over, and the only signs of the late
gathering were stray patriots with green decorations,
drifting along Oxford Street eastwards, and cheering
one's heart with their merry brogue as they discussed,
with the best of good-humour, the accomplished
" meeting." The circumstances of this Hyde Park demonstra-

Irishism. 325

tion brought home to my consciousness the fact that
St. Patrick's Day was at hand, or else I do not think
I quite knew when the festival of his saintship
occurred ; but the question of Home Eule had been
somewhat occupying my attention, and I thought
I might gain something on the subject if I attended
some of the London celebrations. I referred once
more to my two newspapers — The Irishman and The
Flag of Ireland — and immediately found, as Wright
used to say in " My Precious Betsy," apropos of " The
Penny Satirist," that those publications would hence
forth be necessary to my existence. The open
undisguised way they sympathized with King Koffee,
for instance, against the hated Sassenach was, as I
have said, edifying in the extreme; and altogether the
sheets are suggestive as to the perfect freedom of
the press in the British Islands.
Well, I found in these savoury journals that there
would be no dearth of doings in London — from a
concert in St. James's Hall, and a West-end gathering
of the Archbishop and Catholic clergy, down to the
panorama at Grafton HaU, St. GUes's, with speechify
ing and singing. It was, I suppose, an evidence of
my heretical tendencies that I deliberately chose the
last, and resolved — like a true Irishman — to begin
St. Patrick's Day at night.
I had some difficulty to find Grafton Street, Soho ;
and could not go to it again even now without asking.
There was scarcely anybody there when I arrived.

326 Irish

'iism.

paid my sixpence, and passed into what had evidently
once been a chapel ; for the galleries, which I tried
first, were still pewed, but downstairs the " flure"
was covered with forms, and at the other end Avas
a smartish little stage and proscenium, also loco
motive. I first of all took my place in the gallery,
but some lively Irish boys came in, and occupied
themselves awhile in fighting, but ultiraately took
to spitting at one another from a distance, which
was dangerous, so I evacuated and went down
stairs. I studiously wore a Tyrolese wide-awake, and gar
nished my button-hole with a sprig of shamrock, but
I don't think the people liked the look of me. I feel
sure they thought I was a policeman, though I cannot
say that circumstance caused them to be at all parti
cular in what was said or sung. The patriots did
their singing and recitations themselves ; but had a
professional fiddle, cornet, and harp for the instru
mental accompaniments. Occasionally these gentle
men tried to accompany the singers ; but the raelodies
were of a character best left to themselves. " Biddy
McCarthy" was most racily sung, and " The Eising of
the Moon" and " My Brave Fenian Boy" were sug
gestive of something more than Home Eule. In fact,
pikes were plainly mentioned, and whenever they were
so the applause was vociferous. One fine young fellow
in a stirring recitation, pined for a revival of Fon
tenoy, and several bright-eyed Irish girls triUed out

Irishism. 327

their untutored lays in a manner that showed how
essentiaUy music is an Irish gift.
The singing went on a very long time, and then
came the panorama of Irish patriots. The gentleman
who read the description had such a very fine brogue,
and all the audience were so exceedingly anxious to
bear their concurrent testimony to the exceUence of
the heroes at once, that I failed to catch many of the
names. I can only express a hope, however, that
none of those gentlemen at all resembled his portrait,
for a more atrocious misrepresentation of the human
physiognomy than that series of portraits it was never
my misfortune to behold. Had they been at aU like
the originals (which I am quite sure they were not)
Mr. Gladstone would simply have made the most
fatal mistake in amnestying such ill-favoured person
ages, and no amount of demonstrations ought to induce
Mr. Disraeli to repeat the error. But excitement, not
art, was what our Irish friends wanted ; and they got
it to their heart's content out of that hideous magic-
lantern. It was eleven o'clock before that exhibition was
over, and then the " flure" was cleared for dancing. I
only waited for the opening quadrille, which was
danced by the younger portions, the old people solac
ing themselves with solitary jigs in the corner, after
which I went out ; and I confess I think the door
keeper was easier in his mind when he found I did
not take a check to return.

328 Irishism.

My next experience on the Irish Question was at
the Temple Discussion Forum, Fleet Street, where I
found the subject of debate set down one evening
thus : — " The Meeting of the Home Eule League in
the DubUn Eotunda. Ought there to be an Irish
party acting independently of all other parties in the
United Kingdom ? To be opened by Mr. Vaughan
DayreU." The opener, one of those remarkable specimens
continuaUy met with in such associations, was an
eloquent scholarly man, sparkUng with wit, copious in
classical quotation, and with frequent allusion to his
own Oxford career. He opened decidedly in the
negative, and took as his exordium the fact that the
day on which he spoke, AprU 10th, was the anniver
sary of the occasion when his right honourable friend
eating his supper at the other end ofthe room (Mr.
Finian) led the Chartist forces to Wimbledon Common
and then ran away. He himself was on duty that day
as a Special Constable, and narrated the raciest stories
of his experiences when " alone in the Strand, in the
execution of his duty." He had frequent recourse to
a half-pint pewter of stout — begging to be excused
whilst he took his " champagne" — and kept his lis
teners thoroughly amused, if not much edified on the
subject of Home Eule, for nearly an hour. He
apologized for his incoherence. He had made notes ;
but some rival orator — probably his right honour
able friend at the other end of the room — had

Irishism. 329

no doubt appropriated them. Mr. Finian rose
to reply, and, in measured terms, occupied some
twenty minutes in personal recrimination, when he
had to be called to time, and sat down angry, without
having even approached the subject of debate. A
herculean young man on the right of the chairman
followed, and whilst bearing testimony to the in
dividual excellence of the Irish, thought they were
unreasonable in their demand for Home Rule. Mr.
McSweeney rose on the Irish side, but he too got
angry, being interrupted by the talking in the room,
and could not be, persuaded to continue. The conse
quence was that we only got two speeches at all
ad rem — one from an elderly gentleraan, who instanced
the Hungarian Parliament at Pesth as a case of an
. imperium in imperio working successfully ; and another
from a young man, who, in a most lucid speech,
pointed out that Ireland, with a population of
5,000,000 only, sent 105 members, or nearly one-
sixth of the whole, to the House of Commons, and
therefore could not reasonably complain of deficient
representation. Time and trains wait for no man — not even listeners
to an Irish debate. I had to leave while this young
gentleman was speaking, and without waiting for
Mr. Dayrell's reply. And there my meagre experience
of Hibernicism ends.

330

THE VICTOEIA INSTITUTE ON ATHEISM
AND PANTHEISM.
In portraying the various phases of heresy in the
metropolis my method has nearly always been to
visit some heterodox gathering, note its more salient
points, and either myself report in essence, or more
frequently transcribe at length the utterances of my
representative man or woman, adding such quotations
as I could collect from published books or pamphlets
of recent date on the subject in hand. I know of no
better plan to get a view which shall be at once
compendious and, as far as may be, exhaustive of
unfamiliar faiths and practices.
In the present instance I exactly reverse the
process, and on the principle that, occasionally at all
events, fas est ab hoste doceri, take my illustrations of
Pantheism and Atheism principally from the mouth
of an assailant. After pursuing my former method
to this advanced portion of my work, and giving full
liberty of speech — some may perhaps even deem it
licence — to the representatives of heresy and hetero
doxy, I thought it might be useful in the way of
comment, as certainly a relief in the shape of variety,
to change my tactics, for once at all events ; vrhile such

On Atheism and Fantheism. 331
a variation might do something towards relieving the
minds of my more sensitive readers by securing that,
so far at least, the bane and antidote should go
together. The Victoria Institute, or Philosophical Society of
Great Britain, which assumes as its motto the ortho
dox words, " Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam," meets at
8, Adelphi Terrace, Strand, and enumerates among
its objects the following : —
" First. — To investigate fully and impartially the
most important questions of Philosophy and Science,
but more especially those that bear upon the great
truths revealed in Holy Scripture, with the view of
reconciling any apparent discrepancies between Chris
tianity and Science.
" Second. — To associate men of Science and authors
who have already been engaged in such investigations,
and all others who may be interested in them, in
order to strengthen their efforts by association, and
by bringing together the results of such labours, after
full discussion, in the printed Transactions of an In
stitution ; to give greater force and influence to proofs
and arguments which might be little known, or even
disregarded, if put forward merely by individuals.
" Third. — To consider the mutual bearings of the
various scientific conclusions arrived at in the several
distinct branches into which Science is now divided,
in order to get rid of contradictions and conflicting
hypotheses, and thus promote the real advancement

332 Tlie Victoria Institute on
of true Science ; and to examine and discuss all sup
posed scientific results with reference to final causes,
and the more comprehensive and fundamental prin
ciples of Philosophy proper, based upon faith in the
existence of one Eternal God, who in His wisdom
created all things very good.
"Fourth. — To publish Papers read before the
Society in furtherance of the above objects, along
with full reports of the discussions thereon, in the
form of a Journal, or as the Transactions of the
Institute. "Fifth. — When subjects have been fully discussed,
to make the results known by means of Lectures of a
mo];e popular kind, and to publish such Lectures.
"Sixth. — To publish English translations of ira
portant foreign works of real scientific and philo
sophical value, especially those bearing upon the
relation between the Scriptures and Science ; and to
co-operate with other philosophical societies at home
and abroad, which are now or may hereafter be
formed, in the interest of Scriptural truth and of real
Science, and generaUy in furtherance of the objects of
this Society.
" Seventh. — To found a Library and Eeading
Eooras for the use of the Members of the Institute,
combining the principal advantages of a Literary
Club." Moreover it appends to its conditions of member
ship the very significant and characteristic one : —

Atheism and Fantheism. 333
" It is to be understood that only such as are pro
fessedly Christians are entitled to become Members."
My own attention had been first caUed to the
Institute by the receipt of an invitation to become a
member, after preaching my sermon on Positivism
which I quoted above. For various reasons I felt
bound to decline, although, of course, flattered by the
suggestion ; and I was glad when I saw advertised
for discussion a subject which so exactly came within
the limits of my present work, as Prebendary Eow's
Paper on " The Principles of Modern Pantheistic and
Atheistic Philosophy, as expressed in the last work of
Strauss, MiU, &c."
It was an assembly of " potent, grave, and reverend
signers," of which I found myself making one in the
handsome room of the Institute, very different from
the squalid haUs and motley assemblages in which I
had recently been " assisting." I no longer needed
to wear the brigand hat or forswear the sober livery
of black clothes and white tie ; and it was quite a
relief to feel once more in propria persona. By a
peculiar arrangement, we each of us as we entered
had placed in our hands a proof copy of the paper to
be read ; which, whilst it was in some respects con
venient, rather resembled a prologue to one of the
Tragedies of Euripides, wherein you are told at the
outset all the plot of the ensuing drama; and any
thing like surprise or possible sensationalism is
thereby at once obviated. We did not come to the

334 The Victoria Institute on
Victoria Institute to be surprised, but to be edified ;
and the staid, decorous, and eminently orthodox tone
of ray surroundings had already begun to exert its
influence on me when Prebendary Eow took up his
parable and read, while we took up our proof copies
and followed him : —
" The following passage from the ' Autobiography of
the late Mr. J. S. Mill,' he said, " demands the earnest
attention of all those who believe that there is a
personal God, who is the moral governor of the
universe : ' The world would be astonished if it knew
how great a proportion of its brighest ornaments — of
those raost distinguished even in popular estimation
for wisdom and virtue — are coraplete sceptics on
religion, raany of them refraining from avowal, less
from personal considerations, than from a conscien
tious, though now in my opinion raost raistaken
apprehension, lest by speaking out what raay tend to
weaken existing beliefs, and by consequence, as they
suppose, existing restraints, they should do harm
rather than good.'
" The first question which strikes the mind on read
ing this passage is. Is the assertion true, ' that a large
proportion of the " world's brightest ornaments " are
complete sceptics on religion ' ? If so, it is of the
most serious import. Mr. Mill has probably exerted
a greater influence in the higher regions of thought
than any writer of the existing generation. No
holder of his philosophy can any longer entertain a

Atheism and Pantheism. 335
doubt that certain portions of it are the philosophy of
scepticism. The peculiar idiosyncrasies of mind which
the Autobiography discloses, may have led Mr. Mill
somewhat to over-estimate the sceptical tendencies of
others. Yet the large number of writings which
have been recently published of a sceptical tendency,
is a sufficiently clear evidence that the principles of a
pantheistic or atheistic philosophy are widely diffused
among cultivated minds. Strauss, in his recent work,
distinctly affirms that he is only acting as the spokes
man of a wide range of pantheistic thought.
" I quite concur with Mr. Mill in opinion, that the
time is corae for speaking out plainly. In fact, un
less morality is nothing better than expediency, there
never has been a time when it has been right to
profess adhesion to a system of thought which in
secret we utterly despise. I fully concede that theo
logians no less than philosphers would do well to act
on this opinion, and not to have an exoteric doctrine
for the vulgar, and an esoteric one for theraselves.
But it is with the latter that I am now dealing. A
sound philosophy requires that the too frequent
exaraple of the ancient philosopher, who acted the
part of the high-priest of the god whose moral
character he despised, and whose existence he dis
believed, should be utterly repudiated. What can
be more degrading than the spectacle of an atheist
Csesar, dressed in the pontifical robes, uttering soleran
vows to Jupiter in the Capitol? Persons capable of

336 Tlie Victoria Institute on
acting such a part must have a supreme contempt
for the vulgar herd of humanity ; and are at one in
principle with the priests whose conduct they de
nounce. It is satisfactory to be informed that in the
opinion of Mr. J. S. Mill, his father's prudential
principle of not avowing his opinions to the world
'was attended with so?«(? moral disadvantages.' The
italics are ours ; in place of ' some ' we would read
' great.' "Before entering on the consideration of some of
the principles of pantheistic and atheistic philosophy,
to which I propose drawing attention in the present
paper, it will be necessary to state what Atheisra, as
held by raen of culture, really means. The son's
account of the character of his father's atheism will
clearly define its nature. 'Finding,' says Mr. J. S.
Mill, 'no halting-place in Theism, he yielded to the
conviction, that concerning the origin of things
nothing whatever can be known. This is the only
correct statement of his opinion, for dograatic Atheism
he looked on as absurd, as most of those whom the
world have considered atheists have always done.'
Atheism, therefore, as a philosophic theory, does not
consist in the denial of the being of a God, but in the
affirmation that there is no evidence that there is one.
The moral value of the distinction between these two
positions is nil, but the intellectual one is great, for
it frees him who entertains it from the necessity of
proving a negative.

Atheism, and Pantheism. 337
" The following is worthy of quotation, as an illus
tration of the nature of the elder Mill's atheistic
reasonings. 'He impressed upon me from the first
that the manner in which the world came into exis
tence was a subject about which nothing was known;
that the question, "Who made me?" cannot be
answered, because we have no experience or authentic
information from which to answer it ; and that the
answer only throws the difficulty a step further back,
since the question immediately presents itself, " "Vy^ho
made God?" It is almost incredible that such rea
soning could have coramended itself as valid to a
man of the mental acuteness of the elder MiU ; and
it is quite a relief to be informed by the son that
his father's atheism was rather moral than intel
lectual. "I now proceed to examine some of the philo
sophic principles on which modern Pantheism and
Atheism are based ; and, first, their principle of
causation. It is an accepted dogma of the Positive
philosophy that a cause is nothing but an invariable
sequence between an antecedent and a consequent,
and that the notion of any efficiency in the cause to
]-)roduce its effect is a fancy which has been exploded
by the discoveries of physical science. This opinion
is the natural outcome of a philosophy which teaches
that the whole of objective nature, and even the fun
damental principles of the mind, are nothing else but
a bare succession of phenomena; and that a know-
vol. ii. z

338 Tlie Victoria Institute on
ledge of any truth objectively valid for all time and
space is unattainable by man.
"It strikes one at first sight as a strong objection
against such a system of philosophy that language
has been formed on the assumption that it is not
true; its forras erabody the universal experience of
mankind, and have grown out of that experience.
Now, nothing is more certain than that whenever we
use words denoting causation we mean by them
something very different from the mere invariable
following of a consequent on an antecedent. If this
is the true idea of a cause, nothing is raore mis
leading than human language ; for it is impossible to
express the conceptions of this philosophy in it
except by using it in a non-natural sense. One of
the first duties which it owes to truth is to revo
lutionize human language, for, in its present forras,
it is incapable of being the vehicle of accurate thought.
If, therefore, this philosophy is a true representation
of ultimate realities, one of its first duties is to
attempt to construct a language capable of expressing
them. At present it is a strong argument against
the truth of this system of philosophy, that a few
phUosophers are comraitted to a particular theory on
the one side ; and, on the contrary, is the universal
experience of mankind, as testified by the funda
mental structure and the forms of language 
"We must now consider another most iraportant
principle on which this philosophy is founded — viz..

Atheism and Pantheism. 33&
its denial that the order and adaptations of nature are
a sufficient ground for inferring the existence of an
intelligent and conscious mind, which the philosophy
of theism designates as a Personal God. The affirma
tion of certain systems of current philosophy is clear,
and leaves no doubtful issue — viz., that we are not
justified from the presence of order in nature in in
ferring the existence of an arranger ; or from adapta
tion, of an adapter, or from apparent contrivance, of a
contriver ; or from the suitableness of the means by
which a definite result has been brought about to
effectuate it, of a designer. In one word, it is affirmed,
when we see in nature results which elsewhere are
unquestionable evidences of the presence of intelli
gent mind, all such inferences are invalid in the
domains of nature ; and that in making them we are
only transferring the subjective impressions of our
own minds into objective facts. On the contrary,
this philosophy teaches that the order and adapta
tions of nature are not due to the presence of con
scious intelligence ; but of latent unintelligent self-
evolution. To put the matter broadly : it is affirmed
that intelligence has not produced nature, its order
and adaptations, but that nature is the storehouse
from which unintelligent law and latent forces have
evolved all these wonderful phenomena. Non-life has
generated life ; uninteUigence, intelligence ; uncon
sciousness, self-consciousness; impersonality, person
ality; necessarylaw,freedom; latent forces,moral agents.
z 2

340 The Victoria Institute on
One aspect of pantheistic philosophy postulates the
presence of unconscious intelligence in nature. But
what is its nature, how it acts, or in what it is inherent,
it leaves involved in a haziness which far exceeds that
of any mystery involved in theism.
" Let us do these theories justice. It is affirmed
that our conceptions of order and adaptation are
essentially human, and have no validity when they
are applied to anything which is not the product of
the human mind. Also it is affirmed that all analogy
fails between the works of nature and those of man ;
and that this renders invalid the conclusions which
the theist seeks to draw from thera.
" I reply that the objection is invalid, because, if
true, it conderans us to universal ignorance. Our
conceptions of law, force, and energy are huraan con
ceptions, the creation of our own minds. If this is a
reason why they raust be invalid in the one case, it is
no less so why our reasonings respecting thera raust
be invalid in the other. The objection is suicidal, and
one which would render all philosophy impossible.
" But further : when we contemplate order and
adaptation, we do not infer from it the presence of
any particular form of intelligence, but of intelligence
o-eneraUy ; just as when we speak of matter, time, and
place we do not confine them to the special subjects
from which we have derived our conception of them ;
'but we apply them to phenomena generaUy. It is
perfectly true that within the range of our experience.

Atheism and Pantheism. 341
men and animals are the only beings who are capable
of producing the results of order and adaptation. We
have evidence that among these, different orders of
intelligence exist. We are therefore justified in con
cluding that different orders and degrees of intelligence
may exist in regions beyond our experience ; though
they may differ in some respects from that of men.
" I admit that there are a few cases in which order
and adaptation have resulted frora the action of that
which, for want of a better term, we designate chance.
Such, however, are so rare, and the instances so im
perfect, that they are not worthy of consideration in
the present argument. One thing is certain. As far
as our experience goes, chance is only capable of pro
ducing such results on a very diminutive scale, and
after long intervals of time. Yet the principle of
chance is largely invoked in aid of the theories of this
philosophy; though all experience affirms that it is
incapable of producing the results in question.
" The all-important fact to be observed is that, as
far as experience goes, lucky chances have no tendency
to repeat themselves. On the contrary, the legiti
mate inference is that the occurrence of one once is a
reason why we should expect it not to occur again.
Whenever such a result takes place frequently, we
cannot help inferring that this must be due to the
intervention of mind. Let us take an example. If
we were to throw up twelve dice into the air at hap
hazard, it is possible, though in the highest degree

342 The Victoria Institute on
improbable, that they might all fall with their aces
uppermost. But if the operation were repeated one
hundred tiraes, and the sarae result followed, there is
no one who is capable of understanding the operation
who would not draw the conclusion that the dice were
heavily loaded as the highest of certitudes. Tlie case
is precisely similar with respect to the order and
adaptations of nature. They are not only numerous
but innumerable. It follows, therefore, that nature
in every part is loaded heavily, and that that which
loads it is the Divine mind.
" It will be objected that this philosophy nowhere
affirms that order and adaptation have been evolved
by chance action, but by forces working in conformity
with immutable law. I reply that chance is only
another name for the blind action of unintelligent
laws and forces, and that the only additional factor
introduced by the terra chance, is that two or more of
these forces or laws happen to intersect one another
at a time and place suitable for producing a particular
result, and without which concurrence the result could
not have existed. When these do so at such a tirae
and place that a particular effect is the result of their
intersection, this is what we call a lucky chance.
What I raean will be more easily understood by an
illustration. Let us suppose a rock undergoing the
process of disintegration. The action of water and of
frost have opened in it several fissures. In accordance
with another set of natural laws, the wind, or some

Atheism and Pantheism. 343
other force, carries into them at this particular moment
a number of seeds. These take root ; fresh disinte
gration takes place. The operation is repeated ; and
thus the process is accelerated far more than it could
have been by the action of a single force. This philo
sophy is compelled to invoke the aid of such lucky
concurrences of forces in numbers numberless. With
out them it would be powerless to impart to its
speculations even the appearance of probability. In
addition to this, it demands the right of drawing to
any extent on the eternity of the past for an indefinite
amount of time for the purpose of carrying on its
operations. What is not possible in one hundred
years may happen in one million. In this manner,
with the bank of eternity at command, all things are
possible. " I submit that this mode of reasoning is not to
solve the question, but to evade it. It gives no real
account of the origin of those adaptations with which
the universe abounds. On the contrary, there is
something in the constitution of our minds which
compels us when we contemplate an adaptation of
complicated parts, exactly fitted to produce a suitable
result, and observe that the result is brought about
by the adaptation, to infer that it has been effected
by the action of intelligence. Eeason arrives at the
conclusion that order and adaptation cannot have re
sulted from the action of unintelligent forces, but of
intelligent mind. This will be the invariable inference,

344 The Victoria Institute on
except where the exigences of a particular theory
compel those who hold it to renounce the convictions
of common sense. Let it be observed that I am
speaking, not of sorae imperfect condition of the
human savage, but of the fully developed intellect of
cultivated men.
" The importance of this principle in reference to the
philosophy of Pantheism and Atheism is strikingly
brought before us in the celebrated work of Strauss,
entitled ' The Old Faith and the New,' in which he
professes not only to state his own opinions, but to be
acting as the mouthpiece of a large number of German
unbelievers. As this work has already gone through
more than one edition in our language, besides the
large nuraber that it had previously gone through in
Germany, it will be necessary to give it a special at
tention, for the purpose of exposing the unsound
basis of its philosophy. The questions discussed in
it are such that it is impossible to exaggerate their
importance. They are as follows : In answer to the
question, Are we still Christians ? in the name of ad
vanced thought in Germany, he answers in the
negative. In reply to the question, Have we a
religion? the answer is of a similar import. In
answer to the question. What is our conception of the
universe ? his reply assumes the form of a material
Pantheism, which differs in nothing from Atheism
except in an illicit use of the language of Theism
Lastly, wonderful to say, in answer to the question.

Atheism and Pantheism. 845
What is our rule of life ? he announces himself a
thorough-going German conservative, and utters a
loud protest against the various forms of Communistic
Atheism. It would appear that he and those in whose
name he speaks are of opinion that the only effective
mode to bar out the ocean is to demolish the old
strongly-built sea-wall to its foundations, which has
for ages past successfully repelled its bUlows, and in
future to attempt to dam them out by substituting
for it a thin layer of sand.
¦ " The faith into which the author's philosophy has
conducted him, and those in whose name he speaks,
is that of the existence of a Cosmos, the sum total of
all being, material, mental, and moral, including all
existence and its laws, but which is void of personality,
which is deaf to the voice of prayer ; in which the
place of volition is supplied by necessary and un
yielding laws ; of an intelligent Creator, by a self-
developing power utterly unconscious, which to man
is incapable of being the object of either hope or
trust ; which in the course of its self-development has
evolved both the individual and the race, and will
crush them again beneath the heel of iron destiny.
This power will, through the endless whirl of the
eternities of time and the infinities of space, go on
evolving fresh worlds out of the ashes of preceding
ones, and endless successions of systems and of
galaxies, in which we as individuals shall take no
part, to be again absorbed into the bosom of the mighty

346 The Victoria Institute on
infinite. At death our self-conscious existence shall
perish, never to be renewed. The atoms which com
pose us, after having been absorbed into the un
conscious infinite, may be useful as raaterials for
future life : but tbe hope and the destiny of the in
dividual is eternal silence. Tb this, the only alle
viation which this philosophy affords, is the con
sideration that while our conscious selves have utterly
perished, the cosraos will go on evolving fresh forms
of life and beauty throughout eternity, and will crush
them again beneath the iron wheels of its chariot. No
feeling of responsibility for the past need disturb us.
Our destiny is non-entity.
"Such is the general sura total — the net result
which this philosophy propounds to us in lieu of
Theisra. A few quotations from it will place its
principles in a striking light.
"' The argument of the old reUgion was, that as
the reasonable and the good in mankind proceed
from consciousness and will, that, therefore, which
on a large scale corresponds to this in the world must
likewise proceed from an Author endowed with
inteUigent volition. We have given up this raode
of inference. We no longer regard the Cosmos as the
work of a reasonable and good Creator, but rather as
the laboratory of the reasonable and good. We
consider it not as planned by the highest reason, but
planned for the highest reason. The Cosmos is
simultaneously both cause and effect, the outward and

Atheism and Pantheism. 347
the inward together.' Again : ' We stand here at the
limits of our knowledge. We gaze into the abyss,
we can fathom no fufmer. But this at least is
certain, that the personal image which meets our
gaze there is but the reflection ofthe wondering
spectator hiraself If we always bear this in mind,
there would be as little objection to the expression
" God " as to that ofthe rising and setting of the sun,
when we are all the time conscious of the actual
circumstances.' After these and numerous similar
assertions, the following utterance is remarkable : ' At
any rate, that on which we feel ourselves entirely
dependent is by no means merely a rude power, to
which we bow in mute resignation ; but is at the
same time both order and law, reason and goodness,
to which we surrender ourselves in loving trust.
More than this — as we perceive in ourselves the sarae
disposition to the reasonable and the good which
we recognise in the Cosraos, and find ourselves to
be beings by whom it is felt and recognised, in whom
it is to become personified, we also feel ourselves
related in our inmost nature to that on which we are
dependent ; we discover ourselves at the same time
to be free in that dependence, and pride and humility,
joy and submission intermingle in the feeling for the
Cosmos.' "Such is the substitute which this philosophy
provides for a personal God. We are to feel all
this for a being (if an infinite Cosmos can be caUed a

348 The Victoria Institute on
being) who has neither personality, intelligence, nor
%vill ; who is the prey of inexorable law ; who is
incapable alike of affection and of thought ; who, if he
has children, has not made a single provision for their
wants, cares not for them, and in due time inexorably
devours them. Surely the theories of Atheism are
rational compared with a Pantheism which offers
such adulation to a Cosmos which can neither see,
hear, feel, nor think, which is alike incapable of
affections and intelligent volition. Truly, one is
reminded ofthe mocking of Elijah, 'Cry aloud, for he
is a god. Surely he sleepeth, and must be awaked.'
" One of the atheistic friends of our author, whose
works he advises the reader not to glance at but to
study, pronounces that it would have been better if
the universe had never existed; and if no life had
ever arisen in the earth anymore than in the moon.
This assertion is certainly not invalidated by Strauss's
thin logic. ' If it be true,' says he, ' it follows that
the thought that it would have been better if the uni
verse had never existed, had better not to have existed
likewise.' One can hardly help thinking that the
following passage must have been written in irony : —
' Sallies of this kind, as we remarked, impress our in
telligence as absurd, but our feelings as blasphemous.
We consider it arrogant and profane on the part of a
single individual to oppose himself with such audacious
levity to the Cosmos whence he springs, from which
also he derives that spark of reason which he misuses.'

Atheism and Pantheism. 349
" But I must now draw attention to some of the
principles from which the author considers that these
are natural conclusions.
" He begins with the conception of the Cosmos,
which he defines ' not only as the sum total of all
phenomena, but also of all forces and of aU laws.
The AU,' says he, ' being the all, nothing can exist
outside it ; it seems even to include the void beyond.'
After having pointed out the various changes through
which its various parts have passed, he goes on to
assert that this infinite Cosmos constitutes a unity.
' The Cosmos itself,' says he, ' the sum total of
infinite worlds, in all stages of growth and decay,
abides eternally unchanged in the constancy of its
absolute energy amidst the everlasting revolution
and mutation of its parts.'
" I have quoted these passages for the purpose of
showing that the fundamental difficulties of this
philosophy fully equal those of theisra, against which
it is in vain for it to urge that it enters into the
regions of the unknowable. If the universe is the
sum total of all phenomena, forces, and laws, a few
questions may be propounded for. its solution. Is it
nothing but these ? Are phenomena and laws
possessed of an objective existence, or must something
else underlie them ? Are laws existences, or modes
of existence, or what are they ? Are its forces
actuaUy existent things, or qualities inherent in them ?
Again : 'the Cosmos is the sum total of infinite

350 The Victoria Institute on
worlds.' It is therefore infinite, but consists of finite
parts. Can it therefore be a unity ? It follows, then,
that that which is infinite is not absolutely un
thinkable, and that some of the conceptions which are
derived from our finite modes of being may be
projected into it without violating any principle of
sound philosophy. But further : this infinite uni
verse consists of parts several of which are infinite ;
it follows, therefore, that an infinitude which is
coraposed of subordinate infinities, can constitute a
unity. But, as a crowning mystery, we are told that
it abides eternally unchanged in the constancy of its
absolute energy amidst the everlasting revolution and
mutation of its parts. Surely a philosophy which
admits a number of such positions among its funda
mental principles may be asked to show a little
modesty when it assails the difficulties of theism.
The one contains unfathomable mysteries equally as
the other.
" ' But,' says our author, ' the Cosmos is a phoenix,
ever recovering itself from its ashes.' Yes, surely, it
is a consolatory truth for men who wUl never renew
their personal existence, to be assured that their
remorseless parent never had a beginning to its
activities, and never shall have an end, but that it
shall continue throughout the infinities of time and
space to cast up the bubbles of phenomena, and devour
them, to reappear again, in endless progression. Yet
this is the god of this philosophy, who goes on end-

Atheism and Pantheism. 351
lessly reproducing himself, under the impulse of blind
forces directed by equally blind laws, in endless forras
of life and death, of reproduction and decay, through
out the dismal eternity of the future. Full well may
Strauss's atheist friend satirize the folly of such a
god. But, no : he is alike incapable of wisdom and
of folly ; though he contains in himself potentiality,
and evolves into actuality all wisdom and all folly, all
order and disorder, all growth and decay, all good and
evil, all virtue and aU crime. Verily such a god
cannot be a phoenix, but a Proteus. Yet our author,
and those in whose narae he speaks, assert that they
think it worthy of a reverent regard, and that to
insult it is a blasphemy !
" There is an obvious difficulty which confronts
this philosophy, of which it does not atterapt to offer
a solution. If the Cosraos is thus eternally repro
ductive, why may it not at some period during the
infinity of future time reproduce our own personal
existence, and even hold us resposible for what we
have done in our previous state of being ? To do so
would only be to add one wonder more to the mul
titude of wonders which it is declared to be able to
effect. Against this most serious contingency this
philosophy has nothing to offer but its dogmatic
assertion, that personal existence, after its fleeting
phenomenal appearance, must sink into eternal
silence. "Let us now examine some of the processes by

352 The Victoria Institute on
which it attempts to account for the origin of the
existing order of things. With respect to some of
the processes by means of which it affirms the
universe of matter to have been constructed, we need
have no difficulty. They raay have been the very
means which the Creator has employed to effectuate
His purposes; and to accept them as denoting the
law according to which creation has been evolved is
quite consistent with a belief in Theism. As all His
manifestations with which we are acquainted are in
conformity with law, and involve the use of means,
so there is no difficulty in conceiving that God's
creative work has been conducted in conformity with
a definite law and order, and that He bas made use
of means in effecting it, instead of creating each
separate existence immediately. On the contrary, it
is highly probable that such would be the mode of
His action.
"But this is widely different from the assumption
that the Cosmos can have been built up by the action
of blind forces without the aid of intelligence and
will. Law, however convenient as a term, denotes
nothing but an invariable mode of action. In itself
it embraces no conception of energy or power,
although nothing is more common, even in philo
sophic language, than to confound this conception
with it. But it is impossible to build the universe
¦without the energetic action of both these. Unless
forces have an action given to them, they can effect

Atheism and Pantheism. 353
nothing — confusion, not harmonious arrangement,
will be the results of their operations. These can
only be found in intelligence and will. As far as
human experience extends, forces acting in confor
mity with blind laws, have never produced a single
adaptation, order, or arrangement, but destruction
only. This philosophy, for the purpose of enabling
it to dispense with the directing power of inteUigence
and will, postulates an eternity of time, during which
forces have acted, and affirms that this can produce
all the results of intelligent volition.
"Having evolved the matter of the universe into
planets, suns, and systeras, by means which the
Theist need not dispute, as long as they have an
omnipotent intelligence at their back, energizing in
and through them, our author is compelled to face
the question of the origin of life. He is fully aware
of the difficulty of the problem, and admits that it is
no solution of it to say, that its absence may be
accounted for in the lower strata, by the supposition
that causes may have been in existence which have
destroyed- all traces of it. ' There was a time,' says
he, ' when the temperature of the earth was so high,
that living organisms could not exist on it. There
was once no organic life on the earth : at a later
period there was : it must consequently have had a
beginning, and the question is, how ?'
"Yes, truly; that is the question. Kant judged
that it might well be said, 'Give me matter, and
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354 Tlie Victoria Institute on
I will explain the origin of the world ; but not, Give
me matter, and I will explain the origin of a cater
pillar.' Let it not be forgotten also that Kant bowed
in reverence before the moral nature of man, and its
authoritative affirmation of the obligation of the
moral law. These mighty gulfs, however, the
philosophy of Atheism and Pantheism has attempted
to bridge over. ' Here,' sajs Strauss, ' faith inter
venes with its miracle.' This philosophy postulates
an operation no less miraculous — viz., the action of
blind forces under the direction of blind laws, con
tinued throughout an eternity of tirae.
" I need hardly say, that our author resolves all
difficulties by boldly assuming the truth of the theory
of spontaneous generation. Here let it be observed,
that Atheism is obUged to use a word which implies
the presence of will. He admits the uncertainty of
previous experiments ; but nothing daunted, he
affirms, ' If the question of spontaneous generation
could not be proved in regard to our present ter
restrial period, this would establish nothing with
respect to a primeval period under totally different
conditions. The existence of the crudest form of life
has however never been actually demonstrated. Life
too, after all, is nothing but a form of motion.'
" On questions of pure physics I shall not enter.
But it belongs to the present subject to point out the
conditions of the problem which this phUosophy has
to solve ; and not to allow it to substitute an unreal

Atheism and Pantheism. 355
for the true issue. That issue is not the one here
stated. Before it can advance one step, proof positive
of the truth of the theory of spontaneous generation
must be given. It is no solution of the problem to
take refuge in the assumed possibility, that it may
have taken place under widely different conditions
during the uncertain past. To do so is cunningly to
assume the question at issue. Professor Huxley tells
us that proof of the theory of spontaneous generation
has yet to be given.
" But further : supposing a living being of the
lowest type could be constructed in the laboratory,
does this bring us one atom nearer to the point at
issue ? The real question is, whence comes living
matter ? and what is the distinction between it and
non-living matter ? There our opponents, being the
judges, differ toto ccelo from each other. Is there any
evidence that matter which has never lived, can be
made to pass into living forms ? Till this can be
shown, the mere formation of a being in the labora
tory, which possesses the lowest form of life, proves
nothing. The only adequate solution of this question
on the Pantheistic and Atheistic side is proof positive
that life is a mode of motion, and nothing else. This
proof has certainly not yet been adduced, aud even if
it could be found, there is yet a further question
which demands an answer — viz., how, whence, and
where has originated this peculiar modification of
motion which constitutes life ; and how has it como
A a2

356 The Victoria Institute on
into existence at the favourable moraent for its exis
tence ? Had it not been favourable, the feeble germ
would have been crushed \>y the mighty powers of
nature in the struggle for existence. AU this and
much more must be answered before it can be proved
that mechanical or chemical forces can become vital
ones by any powers which they possess of self-
transrautation. " Our author endeavours to evade the question by
concealing it behind a mass of scientific jargon. He
says : ' Life is only a special — viz., the most compli
cated, form of mechanics. A part of the sum total
of matter emerges from time to time out of the usual
course of its motions into special thermico-organic
combinations ; and after having for a time continued
therein, it returns again to the general modes of
motion.' " When we are famishing for scientific bread, it is
cruel for philosophy to throw us a stone. As an
account of the matter we are considering, part of the
above sentence is unintelligible, and the reraainder
atterapts to answer one difficulty by raising others
far greater.
" The perusal of this work affords a striking proof
that the philosophers in whose naraes it is written
were far from being satisfied with their position, even
after they had obtained possession of an inorganic
cell, from whence they might commence the operation
of creating the various forms of organic life, of which

Atheism and Pantheism. 357
man is the crown,. They felt deeply, iu the words of
our author, ' that no acorn ever produces a fig ; that
a fish always produces a fish, and never a bird or a
reptile ; a sheep always produces a sheep, and never
a bull or a goat.' They have therefore hailed, as the
rising of a new sun, the theory of natural selection
as a means for constructing the worlds of life and
organism, without the intervention of a Creator. For
the use they make of it, it is possible that its author
will owe them little thanks ; but they are almost
ready to forgive Mr. Darwin for his postulate of the
original intervention of a God to infuse into inorganic
matter the principle of life, in consideration of the
greatness of his discovery. He is with them, the
founder of the new age, in which the belief in the
being of a God is destined to become an old wife's
fable. " Let it be observed, however, that the Darwinian
theory, whatever be its merits or defects, is only a
special form of a theory of creation by evolution. It
assumes, in the first instance, a creative act, by which
sorae cells had infused into them the principle of life.
It then proceeds to account for the existence of every
living form by the aid of two principles, designated
natural and sexual relation, without any subsequent
intervention of Divine power. Whatever may be
thought of this particular theory, it is evident that a
principle of evolution, by which I mean that all ex
isting organisms have been gradually evolved from

358 Tlie Victoria Institute on
one another by the Creator's wisdom and power,
through certain forces of which He possesses the
absolute control, is as consistent with theism as any
other theory of creation. The only theories which
are essentially Athei«tic and Pantheistic are those
which lay down that God is not the author of the
laws of nature, nor their contriver, nor the director of
their operations, and that blind forces can produce
the phenomena which result from the operation of
intelligence, and that forces can exist independently
of His constant energy. The old theory of creation
was, that each species was produced by a separate
creative act, the idea being that its progenitors must
have started into being entire and complete. This
may or may not have been the modus operandi em
ployed by the Creator ; but, as a theory, it leaves us
in the dark how creation was effected, except that it
was the result of the exertion of the divine will. A
theory of developraent professes to give the law
of progress and to account for some of the means
through which creation has been accomplished.
Whether it has been effected in this way, or in that,
can only be determined by the facts of nature which
throw light on the subject. To speak of creation
out of nothing as an adequate solution of how creation
has been effected is only a confession of our ignorance.
The real point is, is the theory suggested an adequte
account of the facts of nature ? Are the means ade
quate to produce the result ? Or raust other agencies

Atheism and Pantheism. 359
have contributed to it, and among, thera the direct
intervention of God ?
" There is, unquestionably, a tendency among re
ligious men to charge every theory of creation by
evolution with Pantheistic and Atheistic tendencies.
This would be just, if it were a necessary part of such
theories, that blind forces and laws are able to produce
this result independently of the power and intelUgence
of a personal God. But where I ask, is the Pantheism
and Atheism, if we assume that the Creator has
followed a definite order and law in His creative acts,
and has carried them on, as He does all the acts of
His providence, by the use of means ? Or if, instead
of causing the first progenitors of a species to spring
up from the ground, he has produced thera out of
beings previously in existence? Our present know
ledge is very inadequate to determine how creation
has been effected. This is a strong reason why we
should avoid premature dogmatizing ; but certainly
none why we should not make it the subject of care
ful study.
" There are not wanting indications that in the for
mation of the universe the Creator has acted through
the agency of means, and not by that which we
designate direct action. Of this the evidence is con
siderable. Whether this be an entire account of the
matter is quite another question. Still more clear is
it that His creative acts have followed a sequence and
order, and been constituted on a general plan. This

360 Tlie Victoria Institute on
latter point must be admitted even by those who
refuse to admit the theory of creation by evolution.
We might have hoped that the general acquiescence
in the weU-known illustration of Paley's watch, would
have been a sufficient safeguard against wholesale
denunciations of those who hold this theory as if it
were destructive of Theism. As he observes, if a
watch could be so constructed as to produce another
watch by its mechanism, and should thus go on pro
ducing a succession of watches, each possessed of the
power of self-r,eparation, we should feel the most
profound admiration for the skill of the artist. Nor
would it be diminished, if the mecbanisra could con
struct a first-rate chronometer ; and this a succession
of still more perfect instruments. The only point in
which such a theory can be either Pantheistic or
Atheistic is when it is assuraed that such harraonies
can have resulted from the action of blind forces,
without the intervention of intelligence.
"Still more remarkable is it that such a theory
should be suspected of Pantheistic or Atheistic tenden
cies, when w^e reflect that the mode in which God has
created every individual is by a process of evolution.
Y'^et surely it will not be pretended that He has not
made each one of us, aud every individual of every
species. Yet He has unquestionably effected this by
a process of evolution. The media through which He
works may be very obscure ; but this does not affect
the fact itself. History also teaches that in man the

Atheism and Pantheism. 361
evolution of more perfect from less perfect states, is the
order of God's providential government of the world.
The New Testament declares that Eevelation has been
communicated in a similar manner. Why, then, may
not theCreator have created different speciesbyproduc-
ing one out of another by a process unknown to us ? It
is absurd to atterapt to shut up all inquiries on this
subject, by asserting that all such theories are either
Pantheistic or Atheistic.
" Still it is undeniable that the Darwinian form of
this theory has been widely embraced by the philo
sophic schools in question, as affording an apparent
solution of some of their difficulties. The joy with
which they have hailed its advent is very remarkable.
It becoraes, therefore, a duty thoroughly to examine
into its ability to produce the results in question, and
to estimate the difficulties with which it is attended.
Yet it must not be forgotten that its author distinctly
assumes the necessity of a Creator to infuse into
matter the first forms of life, and to impress on it its
laws. This difficulty can only be got over by Pan
theists and Atheists by the exercise of a hearty faith
in some unknown powers of the past or discoveries ot
the future. It follows, therefore, that the faith which
they deride in connexion with religion and Christianity
is essential to this philosophy. It demands the exer
cise of faith in the unseen — viz., the discoveries of the
future or the unknown possibilities of the past, for
without it it is destitute of even the semblance of

362 The Victoria Institute on
proof It would seem as if faith in the unseen is
only objectionable when it is demanded in connexion
with religion.
" It follows, therefore, that it is irapossible for
these systems to bridge over the interval which sepa
rates life from not life. There is also another interval
which can be spanned by no arch — viz., the produc
tion of the power of sensation. According to these
theories, there must have been a time when there was
no sensation in that part of the universe to which we
belong. There, therefore, must have been a time
when the first being which was capable of sensation
sprang into existence. Pantheism will, perhaps,
affirm that the infinite Cosmos has ever possessed
within itself sensation and intelligence. If so, par
ticles capable of sensation must have existed in that
fire mist out of wliich the present order of things has
been evolved, the heat of which was sufficient to have
sustained all existing matter in the form of gas. If
so, their existence must have been very uncomfortable
during the countless ages the matter of the solar and
sidereal systeras has taken in cooling. The alternative
will doubtless be preferred, that a tirae once was,
when the first being capable of sensation began to be.
But a vast interval separates the sentient frora the
non-sentient, not a succession of trifling variations.
The philosophy which attempts to construct a uni
verse without the intervention of a God is bound to

Atheism and Pantheism. 368
give us an account of how the first sentient being
began to be.
" But there are several other states of being which
are separated from each other, not by short steps but
by vast intervals. Among these self-consciousness
occupies a conspicuous place. It is obvious that it
exists. It is as certain as any fact of time or space.
We can all and each of us utter the mysterious word
' I,' and attach a distinct meaning to it. It is the
most mysterious of words. Who shall fathom its
profound depths? It is that which separates be
tween self and not-self, person and thing. It
is that which constitutes us a unity in the
midst of plurality and change. As beings capable
of self-consciousness, we feel that we have existed
through long intervals of time, surrounded by
and deeply interested in multitudes of things
which are not ourselves. Not one particle of
raatter constitutes our present bodies which composed
them twenty years since, yet we are the sarae. There
must have been a time when self-conscious beings
existed not. There must, therefore, have been one
when a self-conscious being first began to be. Here
then is an interval, the depth of which the imagina
tion can but imperfectly fathom. It is not too much
to say that no theory of evolution can bridge this over
without the intervention of a self-conscious Creator.
" There is yet another interval. A being may be

364 The Victoria Institute on

a person, and yet have no conception of right or duty.
I select this conception as representative of the whole
moral nature of man, of which it forms the raost
remarkable characteristic. It is immaterial to my
argument whether the utilitarian philosophy is correct
in its analysis of the origin of the idea. I firraly be
lieve that it is not. But the fact cannot be gainsaid,
that vast nuraber of minds, of the highest order, have
a clear conception of duty quite distinct from any
reference to utilitarianism. On the contrary, they
feel the strongest obligation to sacrifice themselves to
it in contradiction to the strongest dictates of expe
diency. There is something within us which says,
let right prevail, even if the heavens fall. There
must, therefore, have been a time when the first
being, who was capable of feeling a sense of duty,
who could bow before a moral law, and say, ' I
ought,' began to be. The interval is one which
separates the conception of duty from non-duty ; of
conscience from non-conscience ; of a moral nature
from the want of it. The difference is not one of
degree but of kind. Between laws of motion and
their modifications, and conceptions of duty, there is
no one thing in coramon. When the idea of duty first
originated a nev/ order of being entered the universe.
" Even if the principle of the utilitarian philosophy
is correct, that duty is the obligation to seek the
greatest happiness of the greatest nuraber, the argu
ment is unaffected by it. The question stUl impera-

Atheism and Pantheism. 365
tively demands solution, how came it ever to be felt
to be a duty, to seek the greatest happiness of the
greatest number ? When and how has this sentiment
arisen? Of what form of motion is it the modifi
cation ?
" Such are some of the gaps which must be bridged
over by means of clear and indisputable facts, before
a philosophy which has no other forces at its command
but blind, unintelligent ones, can account for the
origin of things. But supposing for a.rguraent's sake
that these have been surmounted, the question at
once arises, whether the Pantheistic and Atheistic
theory of evolution is adequate to account for the
existence of the various orders of beings which lie
within these bounds. I will now examine sorae of
the special agencies by which it has been attempted
to be shown that the various forms of organized life
have been developed without the agency of a being
possessed of personal intelligence and power. The
only principles which this philosophy presses into its
service for that purpose are Darwin's two principles
of natural and sexual relation.
" I by no means wish to affirm that these may not
have been potent instruments in the hands of Om
nipotence by which God has carried on His creative
work. That they act within certain limits is an
obvious fact. The question is, what are those limits?
Are they the only agencies ? Are they alone adequate
to the work ? Must not other principles, known and

366 The Victoria Institute on
unknown, have contributed to it ? Is their distinct
and separate agency conceivable without Omnipotence
at their back ?
" We must begin by assuming that life has some
how originated in the earth. The problem before us
is as follows : given matter and force acting in con
formity with invariable laws, both alike destitute of
intelligence, to evolve everything in the sentient
universe, which bears the indications of the action of
intelligence. Let us even suppose that one or more
cells have been evolved from which our course of
evolution is to commence which is ultimately to
culminate in the production of raan.
" There is one resource to which this philosophy
flies in every difficulty, and which it uses with un
bounded freedom — an infinite storehouse of past time.
If a thing cannot be effected in one thousand years,
it can in a million ; if not in a million, it can in one
hundred million. If the last period is inadequate,
boldly multiply, for it is impossible to break the bank
of the eternity of the past. With this agency at its
command, all things are possible. Let us hear
Strauss : — ' Short steps and longest intervals of time
are the magic formula by which actual science at
present solves the mystery of the universe : they are
the talismans by whose aid she quite naturally unlocks
the portals, formerly reputed to fly asunder at the sole
bidding of miracle.'
" Yes, truly : there is more truth in this passage

Atheism and Pantheism. 367
than its author probably intended to convey. The
action of this principle is truly magical and talismanic;
it is worthy of the deep consideration of those who
invoke it, whether it can effect any results more real
than the magical formularies and talismans of the
' Arabian Nights.' Little jumps, and infinite time to
jump in, is all that is required to evolve all the order
and adaptations ofthe universe, which exist in numbers
passing all comprehension. The proposition that, if
we have time enough to walk to a galaxy, compared
with which the distance of Sirius is a speck, by taking
steps of an inch long, we shall get there in the course
of infinite tirae, may be incapable of being disproved;
but it is absurd. I subrait that this continual in
vocation of infinite time is not a rational solution of
a difficulty, but an evasion of it.
" The truth is that physical science breaks this
magic wand in the hands of the operator. While it
tells us that the universe has existed a vast interval
of,J:inie in its present form, it affirms that it cannot
have existed for an indefinite one. The laws of its
physical forces assign to it clear and definite limits,
which it cannot have exceeded. It follows, therefore,
that indefinite demands on a past eternity cannot be
tolerated by a sound philosophy.
" Not only is this philosophy compelled to assume
that a number of sraall variations must have taken
place, which for any practical purpose it is impossible
to distinguish from infinite ; but it is compelled to

368 Tlie Victoria Institute on
take for granted that all those have been on the side
of progressive improvement. Yet the history of raan
testifies that nature has made many failures and
retrogressions. Human progress has been, unhappily,
full of them. But these are easily got rid of by the
theory of the destruction of the weakest and the
survival of the strongest in the struggle for existence.
Yet history informs us that some of the weak races of
mankind have a reraarkable tenacity of life.
" But if such a tendency exists in nature, this
philosophy is bound to give us sorae account of its
origin. Tendencies in nature on the side of progress
are very useful ones. It is, therefore, a serious
question. How got they there ? For aught that
appears, blind matter, force, and law might have pro
duced tendencies suited to shiver systems to pieces,
and not to construct them. Does not the existence
of such tendencies imply the presence of super
intending mind ?
" But, says this phUosophy, all that is necessary is
to continue advancing by slow and gradual variations ;
and this glorious universe, with all its complicated
adaptions, crowned by man, will appear at last ! We
need not care for the shortness nor the variety of the
steps, nor for occasional movements in a backward
direction ; for have we not infinite time at our com
mand? The ceU with its lowest forms of life, or the
intellectual or moral atoms diffused in yonder fire-mist,
will in due time produce all the complicated organ-

Atheism and Pantheism. 369
isms of living beings, with their wondrous adaptations,
and at length a Newton, a Shakspeare, and a self-
denying Howard.
"But, I ask emphatically, are such short steps all
that is required? Shall w^. not be brought to a stand
still by the absence of necessary conditions ? Blind
forces cannot effect their work except by the aid of
things which, for want of a better name, we must call
favourable chances, by which I mean forces intersect
ing one another at the right time and place. What
myriads of forces must have worked in vain for the
want of this condition of successful operation ? Let
me iUustrate this by the example which Strauss has
chosen as an illustration of the raanner in which we
may readily account for the production of the various
organisras of nature. ' Let us suppose,' says he, ' a
herd of cattle in priraitive tiraes to be still destitute
of horns, only possessed of powerful necks and pro
jecting foreheads. The herd is attacked by beasts of
prey : it defends itself by running against them and
butting with the head. The butting will be the more
vigorous, the bulls the fitter to resist the beasts of
prey, the harder the forehead with which he butts.
Should this butting in an individual have developed
into an incipient horny accretion, then such an indi
vidual would have the best chance of preserving his
existence. If the less equipped bulls of such a herd
were torn to pieces, then the individual thus equipped
would propagate the species. Unquestionably there,
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370 Tlie Victoria Institute on
would be some at least among its descendants in whose
case the paternal equipment would be repeated ; and
if on renewed attacks these very ones again survived,
and, moreover, principally those whose horns were
most developed, then little by little, by transmission
of this weapon to the other sex, a completely horned
species would be formed, especially if the other sex
would of its accord give the preference to the males
thus ornamented ; and here Darwin's theory of natural
selection is supplemented by the so-called sexual
selection, to which he has recently devoted a special
work.' " Few of the operations of nature would seem to be
more simple than the manufacture of a horn ; let us,
therefore, carefully examine the amount of time and
lucky chance which this theory finds it necessary to
postulate as necessary for its formation. This will
give us a clear idea of the difficulties which must
have been surmounted in the course of the evolution
of man from an inorganic cell, if there was nothing
but unintelligent forces to operate with.
" I. The theory before us presupposes a very
favourable concurrence of circumstances with which
to commence our operations. Nature has already
kindly furnished us with a herd of cattle, with power
ful necks and protruding foreheads. How long it
must have taken to forra these latter appendages this
philosophy does not tell us. Having eternity at is
coramand, it simply brandishes its magic wand and

Atheism and Pantheism. 371
says, as indefinite a number of aeons of past time as
you require.
" II. Another falvourable condition is provided all
ready for our use. It seems that a horn cannot be
grown on a hornless animal without the exercise of
butting ; accordingly, a number of beasts of prey are
at hand at the proper time and place to offer battle to
our unhorned herd — these, be it observed, are supposed
to be fully equipped with all their weapons of offence.
But suppose that these latter had come into existence
at a different time and place, or that instead of our
oxen being surrounded by beasts of prey, they had
come into existence among a number of peaceful
creatures, the whole operation of horn- growing must
have come to a standstill. The concurrence of such
favourable contingencies could only have occurred after
the lapse of indefinite seons.
" III. The herd, when attacked, defend theraselves
by butting. It was fortunate that nature should have
furnished them with this impulse. This looks like
the presence of intelligence, for unintelligent nature
might quite as well have provided them with a dis
position to run away when attacked, as she has the
hare, and there would have been no tendency to gene
rate a horn. Such a disposition must have required
the concurrence of multitudes of favourable circum
stances for its formation, as well as that of indefinite
seons of time.
" IV. The act of butting has a tendency to harden
B B 2

372 The Victoria Institute on

the skull ; this we know to be a fact. Still, a
philosophy whose object is not theory, but truth,
cannot help inquiring. Whence came this tendency ?
It might have been one in an opposite direction.
" V. We are next invited to assume that repeated acts
of battery have not only hardened the skull, but
developed a horny accretion. The remarks of our
author might lead the reader to believe that all this
could have been effected in a single generation of
bull life. But it is quite evident that it could only
have been the result of the struggles of protracted
generations, who succeeded in transmitting to their
descendants a gradually increasing horny appendage.
If it were not so, bull life in those priraeval ages raust
have been protracted to a period corapared with which
the age of Methuselah must have been as nothing.
Let it be observed also, that the concurrence of every
one of these favourable conditions must have been
continually repeating theraselves.
"VI. The bulls, says our author, who have suc
ceeded in developing these horny appendages wiU
have the best chance of preserving their existence.
Still this is a chance only, but not a certainty, for
many other contingencies might have destroyed
thera. Deaths from disease were probably not un
known in primeval times, and against this the
possession of an incipient horn would have been no
prevention. "VIT. We are next asked to assume that these

Atheism and Pantheism. 373
bulls go on continually fighting until all the less
equipped ones are torn in pieces, in order that an
individual with incipient horns may become the pro
genitor of a race. This philosophy, however, is
utterly silent as to the nuraber of years and of favour
able contingencies it would have taken to bring about
this result. It siraply brandishes its magic wand, and
the unhorned oxen disappear.
" VIII. It is necessary that the bull with incipient
horns should procreate descendants similarly equipped.
It is undoubtedly in accordance with natural facts that
he should do so. Still this philosophy is bound to
tell us how came this law into existence, for it has
the appearace of being a result of that intelligence
the existence of which it denies.
" IX. Our incipient horn has yet to grow into a
longer one, and then into a longer one, until it attains
its full length. For this purpose, these processes of
fightings and buttings, and throwing out of sraall
variations and survivals of the strongest, besides
ever-recurring favourable contingencies, have to be
repeated times without number. To evade these dif
ficulties our only resource is again and again to
brandish our magic talisman of infinite time.
"X. As yet this long and painful process has only
led to the evolution of horned individuals, and not a
horned race. We must therefore invoke the theory
of sexual selection, and suppose that the horned
females faU in love with the horned appendage of

374 The Victoria Institute on
their male companions. It is not easy for us to say
what are the precise ideas which cows entertain of
beauty. We know however, that it is far from an
invariable fact that the most handsome men and
women unite in matrimony. Still, however, the
assuraption must be made, that the horned bull is
irresistibly attractive to the horned cow before a
horned species can be finally established by the forces
at the service of this philosophy.
"It is hardly possible to go through these suc
cessions of indefinite seons of time, and of concurrences
of lucky chances with gravity, and suppose that the}"^
constitute a true account of the past history of the
race of long-horned oxen. But the consequence
which I deduce from it is a perfectly grave one. Few
operations of nature can have been more simple than
the evolution of a horn. But if by the aid of these
forces alone the operation must have been so compli
cated, involving indefinite seons of time, and the casual
concurrence of multitudes of happy chances, for its
accoraplishraent, what must we say of the period
requisite for the production of the other peculiarities
of the race of oxen ? What must we say of the in
finitude of them, which must have been necessary for
the production of all the complicated organisms and
adaptations of animal life ? This philosophy affirms
that the bodily, intellectual, and raoral nature of the
most highly gifted man has been slowly evolved by a
few unintelligent forces in a long line of ancestry from

Atheism and Pantheism. 375
a simple cell. Will it endeavour to compute the
number of distinct species which must have been
evolved in this long succession ? the number of seons
which must have elapsed before each stage could
have been accomplished? or the nuraber of happy
chances which must have concurred before each step
could have become a possibility ? When it has done
this, let it multiply these arrays of figures, which it is
scarcely possible to embody in any finite conception,
and present us with the result? Surely this phi
losophy has stumbled on the regions of miracle
without observing it. Far more miraculous is this
mode of evolving the universe than the intervention
of an intelligent Creator.
" The number of intersections of independent forces,
directed by nothing but blind laws, which this system
is compelled to postulate, is alone sufficient to destroy
its claira to be received as a philosophy. We know,
as a matter of fact, that the occurrence of one lucky
chance is a reason for expecting that it will not occur
again ; but this system is compelled to postulate them
in endless succession. What right has it to make
unlimited drafts on the infinite past, or the infinite
future ? What can positive science have to say to
either of them ? To affirm that blind forces can effect
all things, if they have only sufficient time in which
to operate, is not to propound a philosophy, but its
negation. Our author, however, is not insensible to
the difficulties with which he has to struggle. ' It

376 The Victoria Inxlitute on
was doubtless,' he says, ' no sraall achievement,
when, in yon ape-like horde, which we must consider
as the cradle of the human race, the thoroughly erect
posture becarae the fashion, instead of the waddle or
partially developed gait of the higher apes ; but step
by step it went on improving, and tirae at least was
no consideration. . . . More astonishing still does
this progress appear, from the harsh scream of the
ape to articulate huraan sjjeech.'
" Yes, doubtless, vast is the gulf which separates
the two, for it involves the entire interval which
separates the rational frora the irrational, the self-
conscious from the non-self conscious, the capacity of
moral obUgation from the absence of it. Strauss is
well aware that without language as an instruraent,
all real thought is irapossible. He therefore sura-
raons to his aid a race or races of intermediate being's,
of whose existence the evidence is nil, and supposes
that they have existed. He also observes that
monkeys have a kind of language, although he
candidly admits that, whatever else they are capable
of being taught (and they can be taught raany
things), they have never learned to speak, even when
they have been brought into the closest contact with
man. Nor has our constant companion, the dog,
with his half-rationality and his apparent desire to
give utterance to his feelings, made the smallest
approach to the use of articulate speech, although he
has been the friend of man for thousands of years. If

Atheism and Pantheism. Sll
a Pantheistic or an Atheistic philosopher could educate
either the dog or monkey to use rationally even the
lowest elements of human language, he would do
more to prove his theory than by millions of con
jectures. " But, adds our author, ' Ere that pre-human branch
little by little elaborated soraething of a language,
periods of immeasurable duration may have elapsed ;
but after he had once hit upon speech, in however
imperfect a condition, the speed of his progress was
vastly accelerated,' &c.
" I ask emphatically, is it reasoning, to have re
course to the magic talisman of infinite time, as the
solution of every difficulty ? Is it not more rational
to invoke the aid of an intelligent Creator ? If it be
replied that an intelligent Creator belongs to the
regions of the unknowable, does not an inexhaustible
past eternity equally belong to them ? Does it not
leave the origin of inteUigence utterly unsolved ?
" Our author justly reraarks, that if the power of
thought fills us with astonishment, that of feeling is
no less marvellous. ' A divine force,' says he,
' reveals itself in the sensations of the lowest animal
as much as in the brain of a Newton.' After giving
utterance to this great truth, a number of reasonings
follow, for the purpose of proving that neither the
one nor the other is divine. ' If,' says he, ' under
certain conditions, motion can be transformed into
heat, why may it not, under other conditions, be

378 The Victoria Institute on
transformed into thought, into sensation, or even into
self-conscious reason and will ?' Why, indeed ? Be
cause the one class of phenomena are entirely different
from the other. Any philosophy worthy of the name
ought to give proof of its assumed facts, instead of
taking them for granted, by asking others to prove
their impossibility.
" This school of philosophy is forced to admit that
there are certain organisms which are formidable
obstacles in the way of elaborating the universe
without the aid of an intelligent Creator. Of these,
the eye may be taken as a crucial instance. ' It is
formed,' says Strauss, ' not in the light, but in the
darkness of the womb, yet it is admirably adapted to
light which has had no concern in its formation.' A
similar difficulty is well put by another writer,
quoted by our author, respecting the instincts of
animals. ' These latter enable them to perforra frora
their birth, with hereditary finished art, to which the
highest reason raight have prompted them for their
weU-being, without any thought, experience, or
practice on their part, or any instruction, example, or
pattern.' Pantheism endeavours to account for this
by assuming the presence of unconscious inteUect in
the universe.
" Let it be observed that our sole experience of
intellect is as an attribute of conscious beings. If
philosophy is to rest on a basis of fact, the existence
of unconscious inteUect diffused in the universe is a

Atheism and Pantheism. 879
gratuitous assumption. No doubt many intellectual
processes take place in our minds without leaving
any trace on the memory ; perhaps without emerging
into direct consciousness. This is especially the case
with such actions as have become habitual. But this
affords no proof of the presence of intellect in a
wholly different class of beings. If unconscious
intellect can exist independently of any thinking sub
ject, and aid in the construction of organisms, it
follows that it mu.st be inherent in every particle of
matter of which they are composed. Also, that these
unconscious inteUectual atoms must have the faculty
of acting in unison for the production of a common
end ; and from the various means by which it may be
accomplished, of selecting the most suitable. The
bare statement of such a proposition is its most
effectual refutation.
" Next, our author invokes a theory of an uncon
scious absolute, which, ' acting in all atoms, and
organisms, as a universal soul, determines the con
tents of creation, and the evolution of the universe,
by a " Clairvoyant Wisdom," superior to all con
sciousness.' Such a theory may safely be consigned
to the regions of dreary mysticism, though it is one
which was hardly to be expected from one who
imagines that he has escaped from the regions of the
miraculous, by eliminating the conception of God
from his philosophy.
" But to enable him to account for the production

380 The Victoria Institute on
of beings endowed with these faculties our author
supplements these two principles by a theory of
inherited habits, transmitted through a long Une of
ancestors, which have been gradually accumulated
through indefinite successions of seons. ' It is not,'
says he, ' the seeing individual which forms its own
or its offspring's eyes by acting in concert with
light ...... the individual finds itself put into
possession of an instrument which its predecessors,
during immemorial time, have gradually brought to
an ever higher grade of perfection.' Again, 'It is not
our present bee which plans its skilful constructions,
neither is it instructed in thera by a Deity ; but in
the lapse of thousands of years, since the lowest
instincts were gradually developed into the various
forms of Hymenoptera, the increasing needs produced
by the struggle for existence have gradually fashioned
these acts, which are now transmitted without effort
as heirlooms to the present generation.'
" In the case of the eye there are two problems
which require a definite solution, and we must not
have our raental vision distracted frora the point at
issue by any phantasraagoria of words. First, the
admirable adjustments and adaptations of the instru
ment itself — How come they ? Secondly, How has
this instrument, formed in total darkness, become per
fectly correlated to the properties of light ? There is
one solution of these problems quite simple, and fuUy
adequate to account for the facts — the existence of a

Atheism and Pantheism. 381
God of boundless power and matchless skill, and fully
acquainted with all resources and the end to be at
tained, who has fraraed the raechanism and adjusted
it to external nature.
" But there is also the solution of Pantheism and
Atheism. Some of the simplest forms of life in the
shape of cells burst into existence we know not how.
These in the course of indefinite seons developed them
selves into organisras of the simplest character, and
these into others of endless variety, impelled by blind
forces alone ; these grew into more perfect forms in
the struggle for existence. Though why, until life
had become abundant, there should have been any
struggle at all it is hard to conceive. A power of
sensation originated somehow, but how or whence we
have no means of telling. These beings gradually
differentiated themselves — but how% whence, or where
this power originated, or how each becarae possessed
of another power, that of propagating its like — this
philosophy is silent. After long courses of indefinite
seons, a general power of sensation, diffused through
out the entire aniraal, concentrated itself in special
senses, and produced the lowest form of eyes. Mon
after seon rolled on its relentless course; variation
arose after variation. Struggles for existence were
ever ready to destroy iraperfect specimens ; at length
one of the most perfect forms of eyes emerge. But
all this leaves the problems with which we started
utterly unaccounted for — viz., whence has originated

382 Tlie Victoria Institute on
the adaptations of the instrument itself; and how,
being formed in darkness, has it become perfectly
adapted to external light ?
" With respect to the origin of instincts, our philoso
phers take refuge in a theory of transmitted habits dur
ing something like an eternity of time. Step by step
they have grown from the smallest origin, and by gra
dual accretions have been handed down from remote
ancestors until they have assumed their present forra.
But if this were conceivable, the question arises, How
carae habits to be thus transmissible P Is it the result
ofthe action of blind forces or of intelligence ? Again,
why is it that the inherited habits of instinctive intel
ligence, which must have been possessed by multitudes
of ancestors in the long line of man's pedigree, have
not been transmitted to him ; but in this respect he
IS utterly distanced by the inferior animals? Let it
be observed, that it is not a single instinct which has
to be accounted for, but numbers numberless, spread
over the wide regions of animated nature, and each
adapted to the external circumstances of the aniraal.
" The philosophy which we are considering is never
wearied with urging the objection that our concep
tion of a personal God is nothing more nor less than
a magnified man. A very popular writer has recently
had the bad taste to assert that the belief in a personal
Gods differs little from a magnified Lord Shaftesbury.
Such a question is one far too grave to be settled by
ridicule.

Atheism and Pantheism. 383
" It is perfectly true, that as long as man is man
he can only represent truth in human conceptions.
No less so is it that multitudes of his conceptions are
inadequate representations of the realities beyond. If
our reasonings were to be confined to conceptions
which are adequate representations of things, they
would be few indeed. The truth is, there is a law of
our intellectual being which compels us to transcend
the limits of the finite, and to assert that there must
exist something beyond our highest conceptions of it.
It is the very condition of thought.
" But this philosophy affirms that the conception
of a being who is at the same time personal and infi
nite involves a direct contradiction, and that a philo
sophy which asserts the existence of a personal God
must be rotten at its foundations.
" It is perfectly true that we have no experience of
personality except as an attribute of finite beings.
Let us inquire what we mean when we affirm that we
are persons. A being who is a person is one who
can predicate 'I' of himself, who is conscious that
he is distinct from all other persons, and non-persons,
whose identity is preserved throughout all changes,
and through protracted intervals of time, who feels
himself to be a free agent, and is the subject of moral
affections. There is no reason why an infinite being
should not be capable of all these. The objection
would be equally valid against introducing infinite
quantities into calculations, because all our concep-

3S4 The Victoria Institute on
tions are finite. These, however, exist for the prac
tical operations of mathematicians.
" There is no doubt that the habit of theologians of
reasoning about the infinite in the abstract, and not
in the concrete, has involved the whole controversy in
serious difficulties. What do we really mean Avlien
we assert that God is infinite ? I answ^er that He is
a being who transcends our highest thoughts, and
that He is something beyond which we cannot fathom ;
that there is no point of space where His energy is
not pi-esent ; that there is nothing which is possible
which he cannot effect ; nor any knowledge which He
does not possess. His moral attributes ought to be
designated perfect rather than infinite. The concep
tion of infinite is quantitive, a raoral one has nothing
to do with quantity. Perfection, not infinitude, is
properly applied to our ideas of justice, holiness, truth
fulness, benevolence. The conception of a personal
being, who in this sense is both infinite and perfect,
plainly involves no contradiction ; and is evidently
not unthinkable, though our conception of Hira may
be inadequate.
Now, while it is a law of our nature that all our
ideas must be human ones, there is no possible reason
why they may not represent attributes of other beings
as well as of ourselves. If 1 see an animal perform
actions of a certain character, I am justified in drawing
the conclusion that they are the results of intelli
gence. I infer justly that the animal raind possesses

Atheism and Pantheism. 385
in these respects an intelligence similar to my own. If
then, I can conceive of an imperfect form of intelli
gence, and reason on the fact, why may I not attribute
our highest powers, freed frora the imperfections with
which thej'- exist in man, to God? To assert that
such an act is merely to manufacture a gigantic Lord
Shaftesbury is not to appeal to reason, but to the worst
feelings of our nature.
" Nothing more clearly shows the impotency of this
philosophy to grapple with the difficulties in which it
is involved than the necessity it is under to use language
which contradicts the truth of its own assumptions.
Our author endeavours to apologize for the practice :
' In so far as we speak,' says he, ' of a purpose in the
universe, we are clearly conscious that we are express
ing ourselves subjectively, and that we only express
by it what we seem to recognise as the general result
of the co-operation of the entire powers of the world.'
" In one word, aU such expressions are blinds to
enable us to impose on ourselves. A purpose in the
universe is no purpose. It exists only in a delusive
fancy of our subjective selves. Numbers of similar
conceptions made use of by this philosophy can only
exist as attributes of personality, and are utterly in
applicable to an impersonal something, whether we
designate it Universe or God.
" Yet our author writes as follows : — ' The general
deduction from the existence of the universe appears
to be, as a whole, the most varied motion or the
VOL. II. C C

386 The Victoria Institute on
greatest abundance of, life ; this motion or life
specialized as one developing itself morally as well as
physically, struggling outwards and upwards, and even
in the decline ofthe individual only preparing a new
uprising.' " Such language is a plain stultification of the prin
ciples on which this philosophy is based. StiU more
remarkable is the following passage ¦.-^' From our
standpoint the object of the terrene development
seems much nearer its attainment now, when the earth
is filled by men and their works .... than
many thousands of years ago, and when she was still
exclusively occupied by moUusca and cretacea, to which
fish were added later, then the mighty saurians with
their allied species, and, finally, the primeval mammals,
yet without man.'
"What object? I ask; for an impersonal Cosmos
can have none. Is man, then, the end of creation, its
complement and crown? Is the purpose of an im
personal Cosmos getting near its realization ? Unless
this philosophy utters absolute nonsense, it has arrived
at the same conclusion as Theism, that a purpose
exists somewhere in the universe. Common sense
must draw the conclusion that a purpose can exist
only in a personal intelligence, i.e. in God.
" But there is a future which this phUosophy must
face, and which the mind of man, despite of all
philosophy, will inquire into with the profoundest
interest. What, then, are the destinies ofthe Cosmos ?

Atheism and Pantheism. 387
What are the future prospects of man as an individual
and a race ? Let us hear the answer which it returns.
' Nevertheless a time must come when the earth will
be no longer inhabited ; nay, when we shall have
ceased to exist as a planet. Then aU which in the
course of her development was produced, and in a
manner accomplished by her — all living and rational
beings and all their productions, all political organiza
tions, all works of art and science — -will not only
necessarily have vanished from existence without a
trace, but even the memory of them will survive in no
mind, as the history of the earth must necessarily
perish with her.'
" Surely this is a dark prospect which this philo
sophy unfolds. Man, as an individual, and as a race,
shaU pass into eternal silence ; and no trace of him or
his works shall remain in any mind. Still, if this is
the inevitable destiny of the future, let us face it
boldly and honestly; and not imitate the ancient
philosopher, who wished, if the doctrine of man's im
mortahty were not true, that no one should undeceive
him while he lived. No ; if this philosophy is true,
the most cultivated intellects, the greatest moral ele
vation, and the lowest baseness of wickedness, shall
alike rest in peaceful, but eternal silence.
" Again, ' Either the earth,' says the author, ' has
missed her aim here — no result has been produced by
her protracted existence — or this aim did not consist
in something which was intended to endure, but has
c c 2

388 The Victoria Institute on
been attained at every moment of her development.'
Let us take courage then, for the gospel of despair
can only express itself in the terms of the gospel of
hope. Nature then has an aim and a purpose !
Aims and purposes are nob attributes of an imper
sonal infinity, but of intelUgence, personality, and
will. It also announces that the infinite All perishes
not, nor ceases from its perfection. ' The All in no
succeeding moment is more perfect than in the pre
ceding one, nor vice versa. There exists in it, in fact,
no such distinction as sooner or later, because all
gradations and successions, stages of contraction and
expansion, ascent and decline, becoraing and perish
ing, exist side by side, rautually supjjleraenting one
another to infinity.' This then is our consolation.
Though we perish, the raighty All reraains un
changed in its perfection. The eleraents of which
we are coraposed raay, during the evolutions of eter
nity, help to build up glorious galaxies, though of
ourselves, as conscious individuals, there shall be no
resurrection. " There is something in human nature too strong
for the reasonings of Pantheistic and Atheistic philo
sophy to crush. Danton, when questioned at his last
trial as to his abode, replied, ' My abode shall soon
be annihilation ; but I shall live in the Pantheon of
History.' This philosophy teaches that even this
hope is only a fond delusion. What are the sub
stitutes it furnishes to satisfy the eager cravings of

Atheism and Pantheism. 889
the human heart ? Ah ! a reverent regard for a
Cosmos for which it is impossible to feel either reve
rence or regard. The memory of a departed wife, to
be to us in place of a religion ; the worship of huma
nity, typified in a female form, the destruction of
which humanity is certain. This is its substitute for
a personal God, the moral governor of the universe
which He has created — whose attributes are justice,
mercy, and truth ; whose providence embraces all His
works ; who shall continue reigning for ever and
ever. Eeligion teaches an hereafter, which shall give
a scope for the exercise of raan's mighty powers
which is denied him here. But this philosophy
affirms that one destiny awaits the holiest and the
most abandoned, the man of the most disinterested
benevolence and the -most refined cruelty, a Nero and
a St. Paul — a sUence from which there shall be no
awakening — the conscious being of both alike shall
be swallowed up in the infinite Cosmos. The only
conclusion of such a philosophy must be, let each
man enjoy life as he best can, for we shall die to
morrow, and sleep for ever the sleep of unconscious
ness. The best safeguard against such a philosophy
is, that human nature will refuse to accept it as a
true account of its aims, its aspirations, and its
destinies." I have quoted largely from the above paper, in the
same way as I have done with those utterances of a

390 The Victoria Institute on
different character which I have frora time to time
reported. Under the conditions of membership prevailing in
the Victoria Institute, it was not, of course, possible
to have any great collision of opinion. There was,
in fact, some danger lest we should altogether
renounce the dialectical method in favour of a stag
nant mutual admiration. The chairman, while
admiring the paper on the whole, thought Mr. Eow
had scarcely grasped Darwinism, which he defended.
Mr. Darwin, he said, admitted God plus natural
selection, but in such a way that it appeared to the
speaker, he was rather polytheistic than atheistic or
pantheistic. An inoffensive gentleman asked whether
Mr. Eow believed in the evolution of man ; whereupon
Mr. Eow, who was as lithe and active as his querist
was stout and phlegmatic, flew at him and hit out
cruelly — in an intellectual, not a physical way, of
course — saying he had made that perfectly clear in his
lecture, and half insinuating that the adipose gentle
man had been asleep. One gentleman just behind
me had slept all through the paper, and snored so
loudly that we had to stir him up with the point
of an umbrella ; but it was not this one : and he sat
down again with a look of personal injury on his
countenance which it was painful to witness. A
fresh-looking gentleman, who seeraed to carry weight
with the meeting (but whose name I cannot chro-

Atheism and Pantheism. 391
nicle, as the chairman omitted to name any of the
speakers who were members), then took Mr. Row
to task on the subject of the dice and lucky chances,
which he set down as a " mathematical heresy." It
was quite refreshing to find some heterodoxy in so
august an assembly. Dr. Irons, whom I knew by
sight, said it was sad to find Strauss and Mill so
popular, and asked how it was that such was the case
when Christianity had been in possession of the world
so long ? Why would men accept a " thin theism" in
place of dogmatic Christianity ? — It was because they
saw we were ourselves afraid of dogma.
This was all the discussion — if so it could be called
— which we had ; and by-and-by even this flagged,
and blushing disputants had to be fished out from
among the visitors. Last of all, and very much the
least, my turn came ; and if I quote myself it is only
to chronicle the impression left upon my own mind
at the moment. I told those orthodox Victorians
that I had just concluded a personal examination of
all the Atheistical and Secularist meetings I could
find in London ; and I thought it was a great pity
men of Mr. Row's calibre did not go and discuss
matters with the representatives of those systems on
their own platforms, instead of leaving the defence of
Theism to the feeble ninepins that had been bowled
over so triumphantly. In his reply he confined him
self to my speech, and agreed with me that Christianity

392 Tlie Victoria Institute on
suffered more from its weak defenders than its most
powerful opponents.
It may not be out of place to append to the
above a brief account of Pantheism, extracted from
the Secular Alraanac for 1874 : —
" By Theism we mean the recognition of a principle
apart from nature, independent of nature, yet mould
ing, regulating, and sustaining nature. This principle
is supposed to be spiritual, and to be able to communi
cate to dead matter vital and organic energy. On the
contrast between the spiritual and the material
Theism is fond of dwelling. Both literally and sub
stantially Atheism is simply the denial of Theism,
but it is not the necessary rejection of a formative or
procreant force in the universe, which many Atheists
are the foremost to admit. The spiritual, whatever
meaning may be attached to the word, Atheism con
sistently renounces and persistently denounces. That
ascription to the universe itself of those attributes
which the Theist limits to an infinite and spiritual
principle is Pantheism, whereof, however, as of Theism
and Atheism, there are numerous varieties. By way
of distinction, I call the Pantheism in which I believe,
and have long believed. Pantheism poetical and pas
sionate. For Pantheism the distinction between the
material and the spiritual is wholly meaningless.
Pantheism propounds and defends the unity of sub
stance, a unity carrying us into depths w^here the

Atheism and Pantheism. 398
material and the spiritual lose their customary signifi
cation. Conscious substance, acting eternally and
instinctively, such is the universe to the Pantheist,
who everywhere beholds supreme order, but not in the
rationalistic sense. All things, according to him,
not merely flow from the substance conscious and One,
but are essential portions thereof. He thinks that
nature creates, not with plan or purpose, but from in
terior and irresistible necessity. Hence he takes a
cosmical not an ethical view of the Cosmos and all
its relations ; and instead of puzzling himself about
Providence, he tries to identify himself to the utmost
with the universal life. Of this universal life he does
not pretend to know anything. It is to him an im
penetrable mystery, whose common veil is form, whose
higher veil is beauty, whose highest veil is symbol.
Sympathizing with the universal life. Pantheism
sympathizes with all its manifestations, with its
minutest expressions, with its tiniest embodiments,
and it finds nothing specially miraculous simply be
cause it finds everything miraculous. Free from
inteUectual disdains. Pantheism is equally free from
the ambition to solve problems. There are, in truth,
no problems in the universe ; it is only ethical Theism
which encounters problems, and perplexes itself with
them. One of the figments on which Pantheism
makes war is the notion that man is ceaselessly pro
gressive. The tides of life ebb and flow inhuman
destinies as in the entire sum of existence, and they

394 The Victoria Institute on
have no reference to remote results and final triumphs,
either in the developraent of mankind or in develop
ment generally. Nevertheless, though Pantheism
scorns theories and abstractions, it is intensely
idealistic. As nature is the symbol of symbols, so
is she likewise the idealist of idealists, striving ever
more toward the unattainable. As the son and
adorer of nature, the Pantheist idealizes his own being,
idealizes whatsoever comes within the sweep of his
phantasy. " Next to the living universe, it is with the great
Pantheistic philosophies, tbe great Pantheistic reli
gions of olden days, and of Oriental climes, that he
loves to hold converse. It is the hope of still sublimer
Pantheistic philosophies, still sublimer Pantheistic
religions, than those of the past which cheers him.
But while he is always wilUng to bear testimony to
his faith, he is never inclined to take either a prosely
tizing or a polemical attitude, knowing how little his
puny efforts can either help or hinder. He is per
suaded that the only demonstration of the Pantheistic
evangel which he can give to his brethren is the
nobleness and heroism of his own deeds. Democracy
he views not as man's ultimate condition, but as the
path to the Theocracy, for with the Theocracy man
began, and to the Theocracy he must return. Pan
theism at present is not much more than an aspira
tion. The war between Theism and Atheism must
be fought out before there can be a magnificent and

Atheism and Pantheism. 395
exuberant Pantheistic revival. So gross are the
inconsistencies, so crass the imbecilities, so debasing
the tendencies of Theism, that Atheism would have
an easy victory over it if the European world had
not been for two thousand years under the empire of
Theistic influences. Theism must perish as slowly as
Polytheism perished — perish from the assaults of
Atheism, perish from its own exhaustion and corrup
tion. The Polytheism ofthe Greeks and the Romans
was an imperfect Pantheism. In its deification of the
individual objects of nature it overlooked or did not
comprehensively behold, as the Indian and Egyptian
religions beheld. Nature, the Mighty Mother herself.
Pantheism revels in the illimitable ; but art, in which
the Romans, and especially the Greeks, exceUed, is
limitation and self-limitation. To say that Pantheism
is the most joyous of creeds would not be enough to
prove its superiority. Its disciples, however, deem it
the truest of creeds, because the most natural. Having
its birth in the fetishism of the savage, it ascends and
ascends, it expands and expands, till the Pantheistic
religions and the Pantheistic philosophies are as rich
in symbol and suggestion as the universe itself.
Logical Pantheisms, such as those of Spinoza and
Hegel, are by no means attractive. To be fascinating
Pantheism must wear a poetical garb, such a garb as
Shelley could have given it, and in his gladder and
grander moments really gave it ; and it would not be
wrong to caU SheUey the laureate of Pantheism, for

396 Atheism and Pantheism.
his professed Atheism was little more than a cry of
anger and anguish, or a caprice. Whoso lives poeti
cally and rejoicingly in nature, venerates nature as
holy, loyally submits to nature, evermore idealizes
nature, is substantially a Pantheist, even if he is
regarded as an Atheist by others and by himself.
However, the vast Pantheistic temple, the universe,
is, with its starry dome ever open, whether the wor
shippers there be many or few."

397

AN ATHEIST'S FUNERAL.
To those who believe in special providences there
might appear something significant in the death of
Mr. Austin Holyoake at the very time when the last
sheet of this book was going through the press.
It was in the following words that the National
Beformer announced the departure from this life of
one who was in many respects foremost in the ranks
of Advanced Thought in London, Austin Holyoake: —
 I

Jn p.um0riam.
"GONE BEFOEE."
AUSTIN HOLYOAKE,
DieS, April Wth, 1874.
Aged Fobtt-seven Teaes.
" This -world is the nurse of all we know ;
This world is the mother of all we feel ;
And the coming of death is a fearful blow
To a brain unencompassed with nerves of steel."

I " I have lost a friend ; the movement has lost a
worker. Nearly a quarter of a century since our first
meeting, and fourteen years of the closest friendship

898 An Atheist's Funeral.
and communion, death has closed a well-filled com
mon page, in which no word of quarrel or mistrust
has ever figured between us. For quite three years
death has waited very near, and the ending is no
sudden shock ; but it is none the less painful to lose
one trusty counsellor and loyal co-worker from a circle
so narrow. This journal has owed much to his labour;
our movement is greatly debtor to his loyalty. Not
my pen can tell the story of his Ufe, but he died as
true and brave as man could die. His ' Sick-roora
Thoughts,' which appear in another column, dictated
to his wife and revised by himself, were — at his own
request, and in any event — to have been published
this week. Two days before he died I received the
MS. from his own hands to give to the compositor.
This is now become the voice from the tomb, the last
utterance of his thoughts. He identified himself
wdth ray cause, made his foes mine ; and if this my
tribute to the dead be poor and weak it is from my
lack of power to make mere words the translators of
my emotions. " Charles Bradlaugh."
I could not help noticing as adding to the pathos
of this touching "In Memoriam" the omission of
those two words which form its compleraent to the
Christian. To the believer in an iramortality and
future reunion it reads " Not lost, but gone before" —
to the unbeliever, only " Gone before." Probably
no such speaking syrabol of the difference be-

An Atheist's Funeral. 899
tween the two systems could be instanced as the
negative one of the quiet elimination from thought
and speech of the words " Not lost." Even suppose
it be but the wish which is father to the thought,
there is surely more comfort in realizing the exquisite
words of Keble —
'Tis sweet, as year by year we lose
Friends out of sight on earth, to muse
How grows in Paradise our store.
The following are the Thoughts in the Sick-room
referred to above : —
"AprU 8th, 1874. — All those persons who have
taken the trouble to read what I have written in the
National Beformer for sorae years past, and also pub
lished in paraphlets, will know what ray opinions on
death and immortality recently were. Those views
were formed when I was in perfect health, and after
years of reflection and inquiry. I am now about to
state how my views remain after protracted suffering.
" Christians constantly tell Freethinkers that their
principles of ' negation,' as they term them, may do
very well for health ; but when the hour of sickness
and approaching death arrives, they utterly break
down, and the hope of a 'blessed immortality' can
alone give consolation. In my own case I have been
very anxious to test the truth of this assertion, and
have therefore deferred till the latest moment I think
it prudent to dictate these few lines.
" I was born of reUgious parents, my mother being

400 An Atheist's Funeral.
especially pious, belonging to that most terrible of all
sects of the Christian body — the Calvinistic Metho
dists. From my earliest childhood I remember being
taught to dread the wrath of an avenging God, and
to avoid the torments of a brimstone hell. I said
prayers twice a day, I went to a Sunday-school where
I learnt nothing but religious dogmas, and I had to
read certain chapters of the Bible during the week.
My Sundays were mostly days of gloom ; and I may
sincerely say that up to the age of fourteen I was
never free from the haunting fear of the devil.
" About this period new light began to break in
upon me. Robert Owen and his disciples first ap
peared in Birrainghara, and attracted ranch attention.
My eldest brother and sisters went to hear the new
preachers, and what they had heard they came home
and discussed. I listened with all the eagerness of
an enthusiastic boy, and from that hour my mental
emancipation set in.
" My belief in the infaUibUity of the Bible first
gave way. Soon after commenced my disbelief in
the possession of any special knowledge on the part
of the preachers of the Gospel, of the God and
immortality of which they talked so glibly. But it
was years before I thought my way to Atheism. It
cannot therefore be said that I never experienced
religious emotions.
" For twenty years past my mind has been entirely
free from misgivings or apprehensions as to any

An Atheist's Funeral. 401
future state of rewards and punishments. I do not
believe in the Christian Deity, nor in any form of so-
called supernatural existence. I cannot believe in
that which I cannot comprehend. I shall be accused
of presumption in expressing disbelief in an idea
which has commanded the faith of sorae of the best
intellects for centuries past. This I cannot help. I
must think for myself; and if each of those great
men had been asked to define his God, it may safely
be predicted that no two would have agreed. I may
also be reminded that ' the fool hath said in his heart
there is no God.' This would imply thought, and it
is doubtful whether a fool ever thought upon the
subject at all ; but his idea of a Deity, if it could be
got at, would no doubt be as coherent as most other
men's. Many fools have written and spoken as
though they had penetrated the secrets of the inscru
table, and many wise men have lost their reason in
endeavouring to solve the insoluble; and the world
remains just as ignorant on the subject as it did at
the earliest dawn of civilization.
" I do not believe in a heaven, or life of eternal
bliss after death. There is nothing in this world to
induce me to give credence to the possibUity of such
a state of human existence. Wherever there are
living organisms there are suffering and torture
araongst thera ; therefore analogy would go to prove
that if we lived again we should suffer again. To.
desire eternal bliss is no proof that we shall ever
VOL. II. D D

402 An Atheist's Funeral.
attain it ; and it has long seemed to me absurd to
believe in that which we wish for, however ardently.
I regard all forras of Christianity as founded in
selfishness. It is the expectation held out of bliss
through all eternity, in return for the profession of
faith in Christ and Him crucified, that induces the
erection of temples of worship in all Christian lands.
Reraove this extravagant promise, and you will hear
very little of the Christian reUgion.
" An eternal hell seems to me too monstrous for
the belief of any humane man or sensitive woman ;
and yet millions believe in it. Like heaven, it is
enormously disproportionate to the requirements of
tbe case ; as man can never confer benefits deserving
an eternal reward, so it is impossible for him to
comrait sins deserving eternal punishment. The idea
must have had its origin in the diseased imagination
of sorae fanatic ; but it has been carefully cherished
and improved upon by priests in subsequent ages, till
it is now incorporated in the creed of all Christian
churches. Father Pinaraonti's ' Hell Open to Chris
tians,' and the Eev. Mr. Furness's 'Sight of Hell,' show
to what a fearful extent this diabolical idea can be
used in warping and stultifying the minds ofthe young.
" As I have stated before, my mind being free from
any doubts on these bewildering matters of specula
tion, I have experienced for twenty years the most
perfect mental repose ; and now I find that the near
iipproach of death, the ' grim King of Terrors,' gives

An Atheist's Funeral. 403
me not the slightest alarm. I have suffered, and am
suffering, most intensely both by night and day ; but
this has not produced the least symptom of change of
opinion. No amount of bodily torture can alter a
mental conviction. Those who, under pain, say they
see the error of their previous belief, had never
thought out the problem for themselves.
" I cannot conclude without expressing the gratifi
cation I have received from my connexion with the
National Beformer. My work on it has indeed been a
labour of love, and my association therein, with my
esteemed friends Mr. Bradlaugh and Mr. Charles
Watts, for the past eight years, has been of the most
harmonious nature. My extreme regret now is, that
I cannot do my full share in the work the ' Trinity'
have hitherto performed ; but I must bend to inevit
able fate, and content mj^self by knowing that an
abler and better man may be found to take ray place.
However, of this I am sure, that my colleagues wiU
never meet with a more faithful and ardent friend.
" To the true courage and patience of my dear and
devoted wife I owe my present tranquillity. In my
little son and daughter I have all a father's hope and
confidence, and it softens the pain of parting when I
contemplate leaving them with one who has all the 
[Mr. Austin Holyoake commenced the dictation of
this last paragraph a few hours before he died ; but,
being soon exhausted, had to break off, and was not
able to resume it.]"

404 An Atheist's Funeral.
It was soon after noontide, on a genial spring day,
when I set out for the beautiful northern suburb of
Highgate to attend the Atheist's funeral. Emerald
buds decked each living bough, and seemed to realize
Sydney Smith's idea when he pointed to the crocus
peering above the mould and said, " The resurrection
of the world !" For him who was to be borne to his
last resting-place, and for those who would follow
him there was no resurrection realized, even in con
ception. It was the heathen notion of the eternal
farewell that was to be embodied there in the quiet
sleeping-place. It was for thera no ceraetery — no
sweet place of repose — but veritably the Necropolis,
the City of the Dead.
A motley throng, representing the most advanced
Free-thought of London, had gathered round the
open grave, which was of course in the unconsecrated
and less frequented part of the ceraetery — as quiet
and retired a nook as one could wish to rest in when
" the fever called living is over at last." There were
many faces I had seen of late on London platforms ;
raany voices I had heard in hot debate were hushed
to silence in the forced solemnity of that gathering
round the grave.
Doubt as we will, that same grave will make us
serious. Though why should it do so, if it were
only something akin to yon clods, something far in
ferior to the germs of that budding hedgerow yonder
— we were committing to the earth ?

An Atheist's Funeral. 405
At length a procession of the hearse and seven
mourning coaches, followed by one private carriage,
made its appearance at the lower entrance of the
cemetery, and having finally halted, the remains — if
so we dare write it — of the dead unbeliever were borne
to the grave, the mourners following bareheaded in
double line. Behind the coffin were three brothers
and the little son of the deceased. Who could help
surmising the effect on the child of such a sepulture
for his father ?
When the body was lowered into the grave Mr.
Charles Watts, in a voice broken with emotion, read
over it the form of service written by Mr. Holyoake
himself, and quoted at page 179 above. Mr. Bradlaugh,
who, man of iron nerve as he is, could not quite con
trol the quivering nerves of his rigid face, spoke as
follows, and then the brief ceremony was over : —
" Here we pay farewell tribute to the last remains
of my staunch friend, and your most loyal brother
and true servant to the cause of human progress.
Death came to him so slowly and yet so certainly, and
with such coustant menace, that it needed great
courage to await the end so long and so bravely as he
awaited. Around his grave we are gathered, each
reverently placing on his coffin our testimony to his
fidelity ; trusting that thereout our children's memory
will weave an enduring wreath of immorteUes to mark
at least his life, even when his tomb shall be forgot-.

406 An Atheist's Funeral.
ten. He has left us two legacies — one, the benefit of
which enures to all who desire thought free and true —
this is, the tendency of the labour of his life. The
other legacy, involving sorae duty, was an unwilling
one — he would not have left it to us wiUingly as any
burden. His last recorded words, broken short like
some death-marking granite splinter, remind us of
this second legacy — his wife, his boy, his girl. To
morrow can alone tell whether his little ones shall
have to be glad or sorry that their father died believ
ing that the party whose minister he had been would
try to smooth the life path his death has made for
them so rugged. Of the dead and to the dead I can
say nothing ; a quarter of a century's recollections,
and fourteen years' unbroken friendship are now in
that grave. He did well ; he did his best ;
No more weary, now at rest."
With the one last lingering gaze upon the coffin-
lid, which seemed so instinctive at such a moment,
the hopeless mourners withdrew, and left him wdiom,
in thought, they had lost for ever. There were few
around the grave except those who shared the senti
ments of the buried ; but I heard one rough woman,
evidently uninitiated, thus criticise to her companion
the two addresses she had listened to: — "It was
beautiful. And they caU them Infidels! They
might put many of our Christians to shame." It was
another of the many cases I have noticed, and some

An Atheist's Funeral. 407
of which I had cited, where men are so vastly better
than their creeds ; and I believe if hearts could have
been analysed that spring afternoon, a gentler
scepticism would have been found there than was
often admitted, and which contained the germs of hope
within it. The genius loci must have inspired so
much ; though who shall say how evanescent it was,
or how soon, after they had turned their backs upon
that grave, it relapsed into the old unhappy nega
tion ? To me it seemed a strange and significant com
mentary upon my then concluded work of examining
the ranks of the unbelievers. It needed only the
adoption of the new system, cremation, to have re
produced exactly that funeral scene so graphically
described in Lord Lytton's " Last Days of Pompeii,"
with its SALVE ETERNUM.
Farewell ! O soul departed !
Farewell ! 0 sacred urn !
Bereaved and broken-hearted.
To earth the mourners turn !
To the dim and dreary shore
Thou art gone our steps before !
But thither the swift hours lead us,
And thou dost but a while precede us !
Salve ! salve
Loved urn ; and thou, solemn cell,
Mute ashes ! farewell, farewell !

Salve ! salve !

* * « #
Hicet — ire licet.
The spark from the hearth is gone
Wherever the air shall bear it ;
The elements take their own 
# * # #

408 An Atheist's Funeral.
As I sat in the quiet sleeping-place of God's Acre,
after the rest had gone, and read over again a
kindly letter the dead man had a short time since
written me, the utter hopelessness of mere negation
seemed to come so forcibly upon me as to carry its
own assurance that it could not be true. God would
be an austere man, and life the cruel infliction of a
tyrant, if all ended in that grave yonder. And as I
wended my way back to the Great City, there seeraed
to echo and re-echo through, my mind those sadly
beautiful lines of Clough's in reference to the resurrec
tion, with which I once concluded a sermon on " The
Sorrows of Scepticism :"¦ —
Eat, drink, and die, for we are souls bereaved.
Of aU the creatures under heaven's wide cope
We are most hopeless, who had once most hope,
And most beUefless, that had most believed.
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust ;
As of the unjust, also of the jus-t —
Tea, of that Just One too !
It is the one sad gospel that is true —
Christ is not risen !
Weep not beside the tomb,
Te women, unto whom
He was great solace while ye tended Him ;
Te who with napkin o'er the head.
And folds of linen round each wounded limb,
Laid out the Sacred Dead ;
And thou who bar'st Him in thy wondering womb ;
Tea, daughters of Jerusalem, depart ;
Build up as best ye may your own sad bleeding heart !
THE END.

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