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 National Libiaiy Bibliotheque nalionalP 
 ot Canada <lu Canada 
 
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AD.DEE88 
 
 \ I 
 ' 
 
 Delivered at a Conversazione of the Progressive 
 Society of Ottawa, held on the 2^th December, 
 
 18t7. 
 
 I do not know how I can more fitly occupy the time 
 that has been placed at my disposal this evening, than 
 by relating briefly, for the information of those in the 
 audience to whom the facts may not be fully known, 
 how this Society came into existence, and by defining, 
 as I understand them, the objects which it strives to 
 accomplish and the position which it aims at occupying. 
 I do not stand here as an authoritative exponent of the 
 views or feelings of the members of the Society ; and 
 yet, I am not without hope, that what I have to say will 
 command their assent and their sympathy ; and that my 
 task of definition will be regarded and accepted as a 
 contribution towards the evolution of the true ideal of 
 the organization we all prize so much. 
 
 Some years have now passed since a few scattered 
 individuals in the City of Ottawa and its neighbourhood, 
 became aware that they agreed in dissenting from the 
 views entertained by the mass of the community in: 
 regard to theological matters. Something more than 
 mere agreement in dissent drew these persons together ; 
 their desires and aims were^-in a great measure concor- 
 dant ; and naturally they " spake often one to another," 
 sometimes enquiring when the opportunity would arise 
 
2 
 
 of enjoying the benefit of regular intercourse. They 
 were sensible of the vast advantages resulting from 
 association, and often wished' that their number might 
 some day be such as to make it possible for them to hold 
 regular meetings for purposes of mutual instruction and 
 edification. In addition to those to whom I now more 
 especially refer, there were othere of similar views, but 
 less favorably situated, as being more isolated, and 
 scarcely in communication with any one to whom they 
 could look for sympathy or even unreservedly express 
 their opinions. I need hardly say, that there is no one 
 who needs sympathy more than the Freethinker. Broadly 
 speaking, he has the world against him, he has the 
 whole force of tradition against him ; he has against him 
 to some extent his own organization, moulded as it has 
 been by the institutions and creeds of the past. On 
 the other hand, of course, he can take himself to witness, 
 in the fine language of Matthew Arnold, that he has 
 
 (( * 
 
 * Loved no darkness 
 Sophisticated no truth, 
 Nursed no delusion 
 Allowed no fear."* 
 
 Still he cannot thoroughly enjoy his liberty alone; 
 and when he sees a hostile world, he wants to know and 
 to feel that some one stands abreast of him, — that he is 
 not all alone. Cut a man ofi" from all congenial com- 
 panionship, make no demands upon his social faculties, 
 and there is much danger that his moral nature will 
 either wither or harden, that everything will fall away 
 frc A him, but the impenetrable little nucleus of self. 
 We all need the discipline of common work carried on, 
 not in the spirit of com pe^ion, but in fche simple spirit 
 
 * " Empedocies on Etna." 
 
 -"--••i*^ 
 
of good-fellowship. This alone will place us in right 
 relations with our fellow-men, this alone will enable 
 us to regard the world with all its varied activities in a 
 spirit of broad humanity. Do you say that, in the very 
 act of associating upon special lines, we form ourselves 
 into a set apart from the rest of society? I answer, 
 yes ; but by partaking, ourselves, of the benefits of 
 association, we learn to respect more or less every institu- 
 tion, every influence, that binds men in the bonds of 
 good-fellowship, and educates them in the science of 
 society. We shake off our individualism, and learn 
 that men were made for one another, and that the 
 highest happiness any man can realise is that which 
 comes from social harmony. To have felt this even 
 once, is to have been a man in the highest sense of the 
 world ; to have felt it never is to have missed the chief 
 glory of life and of humanity. 
 
 At length to those who were waiting and hoping an 
 opportunity such as they desired presented itself. An 
 attempt which was made to establish a Unitarian Society 
 in this city, brought them together. Some were at first 
 disposed to assist the Unitarian scheme ; but after a free 
 interchange of views, it became apparent that a freer and 
 less formal organization was what they really desired. 
 A very informal meeting of half a dozen persons was held 
 in the street after one of the Unitarian meetings, «nd it 
 was then and there determined to organize a Liberal 
 Society. What precise shape it would take, no one then 
 knew ; but every member of that little assembly knew that 
 something was wanted ; and all seemed to think that they 
 were agreed as to what that sgniething was. Well, that was 
 eight months ago, and the result of the brief conference then 
 held was the organization of the Progressive Society. 
 
There are several questions concerning our organization 
 which might be asked by some who are present this 
 evening. The first would natnrally be, What is your 
 bond of union or what beliefs or disbeliefs do you pro- 
 fess 1 To this the answer would be, that we have, as 
 a society, no syst-m either of beliefs or disbeliefs, and 
 that our only bond of union is a promise which we make 
 to one another, that we shall " pursue truth in the spirit 
 of charity." Can such a bond as this keep us together] 
 It has done so up to the present, and has enabled us to 
 considerably increase our numbers. There are no signs 
 as yet of any weakening of our organization : all the 
 signs indeed point the othei- way. Those who attend 
 church — it matters little what church — know how com- 
 mon it is to hear ministers complaining of the lukewarm- 
 ness and indifference of their congregations ; and not 
 unfrequently the congregations have complaints not very 
 dissimilar to make of their })astor8. With us, I may say 
 without boasting, the case has, up to the present, been 
 very different. We are all ministers to one another — 
 each man f according to his several ability ;" and, what- 
 ever we may lack in wisdom or learning, there is no 
 lack of earnestness or interest. We do not delegate to 
 one man the task of teaching us, and throw upon his 
 shoulders the whole responsibility of our spiritual educa- 
 tion, sitting mute while, entrenched in his creeds, and 
 safe from all contradiction, he feeds us with such food 
 as he judges convenient for us — and for himself. No, 
 we mutually teach and learn. One ministers some 
 original remarks, another a selected essay, another a 
 piece of poetry, another some strains of music, another 
 a friendly criticism upon what some one else has advanced ; 
 and the complaint is never heard that our meiBtings are 
 devoid of interest or unprofitable. We do not talk for 
 
 f 
 
5 
 
 f 
 
 talking's sake : we talk for the sake of knowing and with 
 a view to working. We desire such an increase of our 
 knowledge, and such a correction of our thoughts, as 
 shall make us efficient servants of the truth, and of every 
 good cause which we may have it in our power to serve. 
 
 In regard to our bond of union, it may be remarked 
 that there is nothing in it to exclude any sincere seeker 
 after truth ; and if some of our orthodox friends, accept- 
 ing our pledge, were to seek to unite themselves with 
 us, they would receive a most hearty welcome. I can 
 think of friends of mine in the churches at this moment 
 whom I would earnestly desire to have in our Society, 
 and who, I feel persuaded, would find a great deal of 
 moral sympathy here. They would have to bear with 
 the free expression of opinions very different from their 
 own ; but, on the other hand, they would have every 
 opportunity of maintaining their own opinions, and why 
 should they not hope to do so with the very best 
 results ] An earnest believer should ask nothing better 
 than a fair field for advocating that which he holds to 
 be the truth. 
 
 While we have here no standards of belief, no doctrinal 
 tests whatever, it is true, in point of fact, that as the 
 Society is at present constituted, its members have all 
 seen reason to reject the current forms > religion. 
 Carlyle has described Socinian preachers in New England 
 as quitting their pulpits and saying : " Friends, this is 
 all gone to coloured cob- web, we regret to say.'' So to 
 us, things that once seemed very grave realities have 
 turned to little better than coloured cob-web ; yet is life 
 none the less real, and truth none the less sure. What- 
 ever was valuable in our former beliefs we can retain ; 
 
I 
 
 % 
 
 but we retain it, not ii{)on authority, but from a percep- 
 tion and conviction of its truth. We try to look honestly 
 at every question that claims our attention ; we shirk 
 no issue, however momentous. We want to know the 
 truth ; and, failing that, the true state of our own minds, 
 the true order of our own thoughts, the true possibilities 
 of belief for us. We depart very far from what 
 some count saving truth, but we retain as the sheet 
 anchor of our minds, a settled conviction that our highest 
 duty lies in being true to ourselves. We have deter- 
 mined to make, once for all, our peace with Nature ; 
 and, from the widest and most candid study of what 
 is, try to discern what ought to be. All duties are 
 founded on relations ; the relations once truly uuder- 
 stood, the duties are easily deduced. Those who have 
 never exercised, or do not care to exercise their minds 
 in the discovery of truth will naturally have little faith 
 in the success of the attempt, — as little as he who hid 
 his talent in a napkin had in the results of honest 
 industry. We hold, however, that the blessing which 
 was pronounced upon those who hunger and thirst after 
 righteousness, might equally have been pronounced upon 
 those who hunger and thirst after truth : they shall be 
 filled; they may not escape all en-or, but they shall 
 escape the perversion oi mind that comes of error wil- 
 fully clung to, of light wilfully shunned. 
 
 But we shall, perhaps, be asked : Can any real con- 
 tentment of soul be found apart from some form of 
 wha,t is commonly called faith. To this I should be 
 inclined to answer, No; but then by faith, I do not 
 understand assent to a number of more or less unintelli- 
 gible doctrines. I wculd call faith the repose of the soul 
 in certain ascertained moral truths. " What a man 
 
i 
 
 i. 
 
 / 
 
 soweth that shall ho, also reap" — there is a tiiith, I 
 should say, adapted to sustain any man who sincerely 
 desires to do his best in the world. Such a truth as 
 thi* does not produce contentment in the mind of one 
 •who wants to shirk his duty ; but then, he who wants 
 to shirk his duty should not be helped to contentment. 
 Nor V7ill it give much comfort to that large class of jjer- 
 Bons who want both to eat their cake and have it ; and 
 who value *' the gospel" chiefly because they thinkthey see 
 in it a means whereby this paradox may be realized. Any 
 system, however, which undertakes or promises to equalise 
 things for the wise and uuMdse, the reckless and the care- 
 ful, the wasteful and the provident, stands self-condem- 
 ned. The true worker trusts gladly to the constancy of 
 nature's laws : assure him that he shall reap as he sows, 
 that it shall be mesisured to him as he measures to 
 others, that the law of the conservation of energy applies 
 in the moral no less than in the physical sphere, and he 
 asks no more. He feels that he has Nature — "tue 
 Power that makes for righteousness" — on his side ; and 
 this suffices to give him all the confidence and tranquility 
 oi faith. 
 
 To conclude these remarks, I would just say that our 
 aim to-night is not to make proselytes, but to enjoy 
 social intercourse, and to become better acquainted with 
 one another. We are glad to have some with us on this 
 occasion, who are not with us ordinarily : and if any 
 should desire to know more of our principles, opinions oc 
 methods than they can gather this evening, we cordially 
 invite them to our Sunday meetings. We do not claim 
 to possess the truth : we hold all our opinions subject to 
 revision; we do not regard the leaders of modern thought 
 as one whit more infallible than the leaders of aRcient 
 
 #, 
 

 8 
 
 We sympathise with all, IhlZ^'t "«?* Principlel 
 similar oljeots at heart IZ 'f •?'""'>' '*'*''<> have 
 The time, we trust, Tr^t for I^ T ""■''■ -^^^l^'hy. 
 moral aim will attraot „ '''''®'' community of 
 
 theoretical difteren^ewmCelthr P"^^*"^ «'» 
 the Progressive SocietT or '^11 "" ^ """' "> that day, 
 will bo the st..„gest chtoh in Xt"L7"™'"'* *° '^ 
 
 G^^ 
 
;he means 
 itl bring- 
 rinciples. 
 vho have 
 m pa thy. 
 unity of 
 ly than 
 hat day, 
 lit to it. 
 
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