.: THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESENTED BY PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID WO RMS FOB SALB WHOLESALE AND RETAIL, BY GEORGE H. EVANS, Granville, Middletown, N. J. (The retail prices are annexed.) The Bible of Reason, 2 vols. By B. F. Powell, Taylor's Diegesis, Lawrence's Lectures, 2 The Correspondent, com. plete in 5 vols., each, 1 Discussion on the Existence of God, and the Authenti- city of the Bible, between Origen Bachelor and Ro- bert Dale Owen, 2 vols., 1 Vice Unmasked; An Essay on the Influence of Wealth, The Philosophical Dictiona- ry of M. De Voltaire, Volney's Ruins, and Law of Nations, Paine's Political Works, new edition, 2 vols., 3 Paine's Theological Works, 1 vol., (new edition,) 1 The Age of Reason, new edition, with Likeness, Jefferson's Works, 4 vols. The Elements of Modern Materialism, Ecce Homo ! 1 Palmer's Principles of Na- ture, View of the Discussion be- tweenOwen andCampbell, Good Sense. 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JUST PUBLISHED, THE REVELATION OF NATURE, PREFACED BY A VIEW OF THE MORAL STATE OF NATIONS. The " Revelation of Nature" was originally published at the epoch of the great revolution of France. It was intended as a continuation of the " Sys- tem of Nature," and to exhibit a code of morals founded on ihe immutable principles of Reason, Truth, and Humanity. Price, $25 for 100 conies 315 for 50, 310 for 30, $5 for 14, retail 50 cents. **The above works are sold, also, by Messrs. Matsells, 94 Chatham street, and John Morrison, cor. Chatham and Roosevelt streets, New York : Ransom Cook, Saratoga Springs ; John Turner, Philadelphia: J. Q. Adams, 35 Wash- ington street, Boston ; Joseph Lawton, Dover, N. H. %* Books ordered of Evans, delivered in New York free of charge. NATURE nursing in vain her warring children, benighted by the artifice* of Priestcraft and Politics ; Philosophy consumes tlieir screen in order todisplay the universality of transmuiatioiis : For Self and Nature link'd in one great frame, Shows true Self-love and Nature's as the same. Eternal matter to one centre brings Men changed to beasts, and insects changed to kings. Who dares with force on Nature's chain to strike, On man or insects, jars the chain alike On Self, which changing never quits the chain In life or death, transmits or joy or pain. ; THE MORAL STATE .,-'-* NATIONS, OR TRAVELS OVER THE MOST INTERESTING PARTS OF THE GLOBE, TO DISCOVER THE SOURCE OF MORAL MOTION ; COMMUNICATED To LEAD MANKIND THROUGH THE CONVICTION OF THE SENSES TO INTELLECTUAL EXISTENCE, AND AN ENLIGHTENED STATE OF NATURE. Speculative or Abstract Truth is a beacon on the shore of Life, to direct the tempest-tost vessel of Humanity in the storms of Er- ror and Prejudice, to the haven of Happiness, Intellectual Exis- tence, and an Enlightened state of Nature. Practical Truth is the pilot Wisdom, who holds the helm, and directs the tacks, which impelled by the zephyr of Reform, ob- liquely approximates that beacon, and guards the vessel from the - boisterous hurricanes of precipitate Innovation and Revolution, which propelling the vessel of Humanity in the face of the storm, wrecks it on the shoals of Error and Prejudice. ID the Year of Man's retrospective 'Knowledge, by astronomical Calculation 5000. [Year of the Common Era, 1790.] Granville, Middletovrn, N. J. Reprinted by George H. E^ans. 1837. r// v 5s- ADVERTISEMENT. IF ever book possessed paramount claims upon the intel- lects and feelings of the human family, as being identified with their freest exercise and fullest enjoyment, it is the work with which they are now presented. Its author, the Modern Pythagoras, travelled the globe, like his worthy prototype, not to gratify vanity, avarice, or luxury, but to study and ad- vance humanity. For the accomplishment of his magnific project, he exerted a power of thought equally profound and sublime, a courage absolutely independent, the spirit of truth in its intrinsic radiance, and a beneficence pure and perfect, coextensive with all sensitive existence. This universal be- neficence, the sum and substance of moral duty or virtue, he established on his favorite and fundamental proposition, That every sentient being ever has been, in portions, and, in por- tions, ever will be, a constituent part of its great integer, Na- ture, conscious of its present, but necessarily oblivious of its past, and ignorant of its future combined modes of existence. The something termed mind, soul, spirit, intellect, is either itself a distinct, subtile agent, material or essentially anala- gous to matter; or, else, it is an innate property of matter, at times latent, and at times under particular combinations, sen- sibly exhibited. This last hypothesis, (that sentience and intelligence are the results of matter's organization,) has been adopted by the author, who proves that the necessaiy immor- tality, now universally conceded to the physical properties and capacities of matter, is equally an attribute of its moral and intellectual powers and susceptibilities. But under the first theory, (that intellect itself is a divisible element,) its eternity is no less certain and perhaps more obvious; for Nature, by every fact and phenomenon, uniformly tends to demonstrate, and never to contradict, this fundamental truth. Sympathy and intelligence are as much immortal as gravity or cohesion. Man, collectively, is the moral ruler of the moral world, and moulds it to enjoyment or suffering. This Bible of Nature, then, exhibits a stupendous scheme of PANTHEISM; not a contradiction, but a confirmation, of all that is good in existing morals, on every branch of which it abounds with original and lucid views. Assuming the subject of theology, where infidelity has abandoned it, it presents the long demanded and much desired substitute for orthodox faith. While completely substantiated by physical proofs, it is as consistent as any sectarian doctrine whatever with the scrip- tures, and therefore the only one true and tenable, being alone supported also by reason. It presents the golden mean, the great mediation between the deluded superstitionist, the dog- CONTENTS OF THE MORAL STATE OF NATIONS. ITALY. Mental Strength and Weak- ness 80 The insanity of Jealousy 81 The corruption of Education 82 Perversion of Talent 85 The Advent of Wisdom 83 The source of Moral Action 84 SPAIN Love alloyed by Jealousy 85 The Despotism of Supersti- tion 85 PORTUGAL Dreadful excess of the Pas- sions 86 The Mind likened to Fire 7 Politics and Superstition 87 Their reform must be gradual 88 SWITZERLAND. Its Democracy nominal 88 The People mercenary 89 GERMANY. Tenacious of Custom 90 Superior docility of the Asi- atic Nations 91 HOLLAND and BELGIUM. The Rapacity of Avarice 92 DENMARK and NORWAY 93 SWEDEN Its favorable Simplicity 94 RUSSIA. A compound of European fraud and Asiatic vice 95 Oppression and Want 96 POLAND. Its Chaotic Government 97 LAPLAND. Its Primeval Simplicity 99 Civilization and Nature contrasted loo Man like a Musical Instru- me:st 103 The Source of Human Ac- tion must he purified 104 TURKEY 105 The Philosophy of Neces- sity Contrasted with Europe ARABIA P>:RSIA Its cruel Government INDIA 106 107 108 109 110 111 1J2 European Oppression, _,_ England's Suicidal Power 114 SOUTHERN ASIA Malacca. Slam, Pegu, <$-c. 1 1 5 Gaming and Cock-fighting 116 CHINA. 117 The Futility of Ceremonies 118 TARTARS. Its Animal Happin ess 118 AFRICA. Its violence and Sufferings 120 An Appeal to Nations HI AMERICA. The Colonist's Selfishness 12* The Slaves' Ignorance 122 The Indians' Natural State 122 An Allegory of NATURE 123 CONCLUSION 124 Abstract aaid Practical Truth 125 The French Populace 125 The Moral chaos Universal 12ft CONTENTS OF THE REVELATION OF NATURE. PREFACE. 3 The Ignorance of the World 4 The Omnipotence of Tiuth 5 INTRODUCTION 7 MATTER 9 MOTION * JO MAN 11 Compared to a five-stringed musical instrument 11 An eternal part of Nature 12 The VOLITION is The source of Moral Ac- tion 13 THK JUDGMENT is The Sovereign of the mind 14 The Insidiousness of Van- ity 15 The KSSF.NCK of MAN. Rational Immortality 18 INDIVIDUAL STATE 18 STATE OF ASSOCIATION 19 Its totality of Error The criminal inequality of the Rich and the Poor 20 Of Male and Female Chas- tity 21 MATTER, continued 1 SELF 28 Self knowledge or Wisdom 25 Other knowledge or Folly 26 PERSONAL iMprmYfi 27 Consciousness of existence and Power of Action 29 SELF Continued 30 HAPPINESS 32 Reciprocity of Interests 33 The Benefits of Repose 35 Reason must be augmented 36 VIRTUK is 37 The Benefactor of Sell 28 The Object of Society 39 The Enormity of Ignorance 40 True Self-love is Virtue 41 Philosohic Authors recom- 43 WISDOM 45 Brief code of Morals 43 Reform must he gradual 44 KNOWLEDGE is The material of Wisdom 45 INTELLECTUAL EXISTENCE 47 Continual change of Matter 48 TRUTH, Its obscuration 51 Appeal in >t behalf 52 The EDUCATION of NATUIE Exercise and Example 53 Philology or Language 54 Peifection of the Greek and Latin 55 THE MORALITY of NATURE 57 The principle of Utility 57 A metaphor of Vegetation 59 The SCIENCE of NATURE 59 The Futility of disputing 60 " Science 61 Th : LOGIC of NATURE 62 The Imperfection of Lan- guage 63 Knowledge is derived from the Senses only 64 The MEDICINE of NATURE 65 Vegetable diet and Water 6t> The Quackery of Medicine 69 The Atrocious Excess of In dustry 71 Its depression of the Poor 71 The inanity of the Rich 72 THE ARTS - 73 Agriculture 73 The Mechanic Arts 73 The Polite Arts 74 The RELKHON of NATURE 75 Its -principal Tenets 75 76 Superstition agahwt Morality 77 The Enormity of Indu>try 79 '( he Misery of the Poor 80 The Transmutations of Na- ture ci Universal Humanity Q% CONTENTS OF THE REVELATION OF NATURE The Retribution of Nature 84 The Misguidance of Ignor- ance 85 Relative and Abstract Truth 86 PRINCIPLES of ASSOCIATION 01 CIVILIZATION 87 Communities or Cohabita- tions proposed 88 The Permanence of Truth 89 A REVIEW of the PRESENT INSTITUTIONS of SOCIETY 90 Law- Craft and Priest-Craft 91 The Delusion of Theology 92 The Tyranny of Govern- ment S3 The Education of Civiliza- tion 95 That of Enlightened Nature 96 Objections Answered 97 CONCLUSION. 97 Self retribution of Virtue and of Vice 99 The Diversities of Charac- ter 101 The Enslavement of Wo- men io< Errors at d Terrors of Su- perstition 103 The Inequalities of So- ciety 104 Aphorisms of Nature 105 INVOCATION to SELF 106 The Vanity of Learning 107 The Universality of Sym- pathy 109 APPENDIX, m Influence of Reason 11 The Motives of the Author 113 Sympathy and Probity 114 The Subversion of Sym pathy us The Divinity of Thought 118 THOUGHTS on GOVERNMENT 119 The British Constitution 120 The Superiority of Principle 121 The Pythagorean Error 122 A VOCABULARY Of 80MT> OF THE MORE UNCOMMON WORDS USED IN TIIK MORAJU STATE OF NATIONS, AND THE REVELATION OF XATUlt. , The height or summit. Apocalypse, Revelation. Apothegms, Maxims, Wise concise sentences. Archetype, Pattern or original. Caducity, Ripeness. Catholic, Universal or General. Centripetal, Gravitating to the centre Ctfrt/n/w^aAlteceding from the centre. Coercion, Force, Tyranny. Colossal, Gigantic* Colossus, An enormous figure. Collusive, Fraudently concert- ed; Dialectic, Logic, the art of reasoning. Dilemma, A doubtful choice. Duct, A passage or channel. Duodecimo, 12 leaves to a sheet JEndemic,Pecu\ arto a country. Epoch, Important date, from which other dates are num- bered ; similar to Era Errant, Wandering. Ethics, Morals. Eucharistical, Sacramental. Euthanasy, Easy death. Exotic, Foreign, Goal, Termination, the fina> object. Harpy, A ravenous wretch* IgnisFatuua, A fallacious light Indefeasible, Not to be annul- led. Integer, The whole. Integral, Entire. Interregnum^ Intermediate reign. Irrefragable, Un-breakable, not to be confuted. Knowledge. Learning, percep lion ot facts. Labyrinth, A maze, intricacy. Lingua Franca, A general lati- guage. Logomachy, A contention about words. Lusus Naturae, A prank) or freak of Nature. Vbickievalian, Politically craf- ty. Medicament, Medical remeay. Medium. The means. Minutiae, Trifling detaus. Moral Motion, Moral Action. Parochial, Of a parish or dis- trict. Phenix, A bird fabled to con- sume, and a young one to rise from the ashes. Phenomenon, Appearance. Philology, Verbal learning. Plastic, Capable of giving form. Policy, The craft of govern- ment. Polities Primum Mobile, The original moving power. Ratio, Proportion. Rulticon, The crisis, boundary, S-mativtly. Healingly. Sanctum Naturae, Sacred re- treat of Nature. Spungitig-houstSi The firsk, prisons of Debtors Stamina. The fundamental principles. Succinct, CrrncLse, short. Syens, Eloquent seducers, Mermaids Synonitnous, Similar ins inean^ ing. Vacuum, Empty space. Volition The faculty of willing. Wisdom, The liaupy search lor au'J application of Knowledge.. INVOCATION TO TRUTH. I KNOW not in what language to utter thy operation of thought, while thy glorious essence is the subject of its contemplation. Error has so condensed the medium of speech, through which only thou canst be defined, that should thought, elevated above the atmosphere of preju- dice obtain a view of thy effulgent nature, speech would sully thy glory in the clouds of definition, formed of per- verted epithets and unmeaning terms. Shine forth then in the plenitude of thy radiance! Dispel with the ardor of thy rays the thick mist of cre- dulity and vanity, which error collects to envelope the human thought, to hide it from the least glimpse of thy light, to conceal the source of moral motion, to hide self from man, to betray him into misery, and by perpetuat- ing the moral chaos, to universalize and eternize the pains of Nature, by the artifice of a detestable proverb, that "Truth is dangerous." This blasphemy of the holy majesty of Nature is an infernal falsehood. While the moral world is agonizing under the double oppression of tyranny and error, where can relief be found, but in human thought in a state of absolute freedom, emancipated from all the chains of civil, domestic and religious institutions, to obtain thai 4 INVOCATION TO TRUTH. clear medium of Just conception, in which only thy di- vine nature can be discovered. Teach mankind, that while the most feeble groan is caused by moral volition to any part of sensitive Nature, it arises from thy light being interrupted and eclipsed by error, and that thy power over moral and. physical causes is sufficient to remove almost the whole of evil and mise- ry from the domains of Nature. O, inspire me with thy divine qualities of sympathy and probity, and unprejudiced conception, that by the en- ergy of simple speech, though I may not be able to de- scribe the immensity and beneficence of thy essence, I may at least detect the machinations of tyranny and error ; and induce mankind to attempt that emancipation from their yoke, which must precede, and be the twilight or that happy aurora of thy glorious sun, to generate intel- lectual existence, reduce the moral chaos into system, and procure happiness to all sensitive Nature ! DEDICATION. TO THE CHILD OF MATURE. O YOU, happy mortal, elevated above the articulated air of applause, and looking down upon humanity, not with pride but pity you, who are in contrast with all the heroes of the world, and like visible objects become greater, the more we approach you on your eminence of sympathy, probity and wisdom you, moving in the mo- ral system, with the same irrefragable order that planets move with in the solar, and governed by similar laws of gravitation, towards self as the centre and -sympathy or attraction towards other selfs in the universality of sensi- tive Nature deign to protect the sentiments of the work now presented from the fangs of tyranny and error. You, who in your daily perambulations, seek and give relief to various parts of distressed Nature; who from extreme anticipative powers of mind, see, and study to remove the causes as well as the effects of misery; who frequently drop a tear with your penny into the basket of the industrious poor that are ashamed to beg, and leading their half starved offspring, to strike with double force fi 6 DEDICATION TO THE CHILD OF NATURfi. upon sympathy the chain of Nature. Your penetrat- ing mind sees, and your sympathetic heart feels, the mise- rv which pride or fear induces poverty to conceal. The numberless shops that are open to support a numerous offspring does accident every day reward the anxiety and captivity of the owners by procuring a mere subsistence? the doubt gives pain to your sympathetic mind, and ex- cites the wish, that civilized association which makes no provision for misfortune or mental weakness, might be improved into natural, where wisdom assisting folly, and strength weak-ness, would produce universal liberty and equality, without which the moral world must ever ire main in the chaos of error and misery. Under the protection of that sympathy and probity I launch out my little bark of opinion upon the tempestu- ous ocean of the world; and though the storms of error, and thunderbolt of interest may impede its progress, yet, covered by your benign influence, it shall navigate unhurt, and arrive at the haven of humanity oppressed by error, and discharge its cargo of sympathy and truth, to reform and relieve mankind, by leading them to a state of intel- lectual .existence and enlightened Nature. PREFACE. IN a disposition of mind interested in the happiness of all animated matter, the author of the following new ideas traversed the globe, and proposes to lay them before the public, conjuring his readers to pay them the attention their importance demands. He must take the liberty to admonish his critics, who lie hopes may be as numerous as are their interests in the subjects tre'ated on, to withdraw the mind as much as possible from t!he influence of education and custom; and as the author's reflections have dared to claim and as- sert tlie .right of reason, to investigate every institution that is to direct the essence of man to well-being and happiness, he hopes they will be aware, how difficult it is to arrive at that elevated position, where a critic must place himself, to take a view of this work. The rarest character I have sought, for among mankind "is, the man who unites the excellence of natural with that of acquired good sense or learning. The latter ac- customs the mind to such habits of decision or cessation from reflection, that I believe the talents are incompati- ble ; for a mind of great natural capacity is wholiy occu- pied in investigating sentiments, or moral truths, while the other is constantly composing and consolidating the ideas of others and its own into new sentiments, which it labors to establish, and thereby to acquire fame for an excellence in knowledge. The wind of natural good sense, improved by educa- tion, not. books, into wisdom, is aware of the vanity of lame, and decomposes and analyzes the sentiments of oth- ers and its own, which ~it recommends to the discussion of mankind, and by this co-operative exercise of thought, acquires that intellectual power of reflection, that never decides, but rather reposes upon the evidence that dis- cussion has presented, and acts thereon, till further re- jection or discussion provides it with more. g THE INVETERACY OF PREJUDICE, How few minds can even tolerate, much less join "ri^ the discussion of ancient opinions, or of others rendered sacred by an illusive importance attached thereto by ig- norance. What American savage is there, but would be scandal- ized at any discussion, that should suppose cruelty or in- famy in the practice of putting aged parents to death? What Chinese that could bear, without indignation, a dispassionate inquiry into the custom of putting chil- dren to death, and the supposing infanticide a crime? What Spaniard but applauds the virtue of the infernal court of inquisition, that burns the body from which thought, the sacred germ of Nature to produce moral good, emanates, to call on wisdom for aid, to break the iron shackles of prejudice and ignorance : and by such terror procures the abortion of those ideas, that would carry man to a state of intellectual existence, and tri- umphing over the general and only enemy, ignorance, elevate himself to a state of enlightened Nature? How many men of erudition, in all countries, but are as intolerant as inquisitors, when their inveterate prejudi- ces are attacked ; and though they have not the infernal zeal to burn the body in order to destroy the germ of thought, that inestimable gift of Nature, to direct man to happiness, yet they collect all the arms of sophistry and logic, to throw a veil over their own eyes and those of mankind, lest if truth was discovered, the respect they acquire from ignorance would be converted into a seve- ;reign contempt, and mankind, cultivating the only system of society, equality and universal fraternity in the .parent- age of Nature, would devise such innovations as would make ignorance alarmed at the loss of partial property and power, which wisdom condemns as universal Devils. These innovations, df not gradual, and conciliatory with the weak foresight .-of , men, -would Coffer remedies, that would aggravate 'the ^disorder; but the province of v wisdom is to discover the link that connects speculation and practice in policy and civilization, as knowledge in ^medicine vdoes the modification of poisons when THE MOST MOMENTOUS EPOCH. $ to the natural body. But the most refined speculation gerves as a beacon to practice. The author thinks it necessary to declare, that this work has been hurried to the press with a precipitancy, that the present conjuncture of events calls for. The moral world is agitated and threatened with dreadful storms, and wisdom is called upon at this moment, to leave its outward occupation of art and science, to form such moral conductors, as may convey the thunderbolt oJf revolution, to purity, and not destroy the moral elements or associations of mankind. The present epocha is by far the most important that the annals of the world have recorded the moral world is affected by an extraordinary commotion. Commerce having opened an extensive communica- tion among mankind, the fountain of knowledge spring- ing up in an island of liberty, where the human mind is unrestrained in its faculties of thought, has, through the channel of a free press, flowed into neighboring nations, and given birth to sentiments, which ar*e ripened into ac- tion, that h^s been the cause of these sudden and impor- tant revolutions in the two' hemispheres. Any one new idea conceived and communicated, cre- ates a new germ, that must ultimately, though impercep- tibly, spread over the moral world, and produce senti- ment which will produce action, and be the cause of va- rious revolutions and changes, to which Nature is proue in all her works. In the economy of association over all the world, it may be observed that man possesses freedom in proper* tion to his knowledge, otherwise freedom would he an evil ; for where the volition of man is free, and guided by ignorance, he will be constantly doing injury to him- self. As the moral atmosphere is rendered morbid by the ignorance of mankind, its inhabitants must be subjected to a certain regimen, which may bring their constitution to a state congenial with the atmosphere. As nations live in a state of legitimate rapiae am! vio 10 PREFACE. lence, their defence obliges them to give up natural liber- ty for public energy; and the same observation is appli- cable to violence in the assault of individuals, and the de- fence of society. An ignorant man who cannot see beyond the present moment, or extend the concerns of self to the great orbit of society, must be directed by coercive power which may relax or contract in proportion as ignorance disap- pears, and knowledge takes its place. ^ What would a peasant reply to a tax collector, if he v asked him for a proportion of the aliment and clothes destined for himself and family, by assuring him, that if \ he did not voluntarily part therewith, the emperor would conquer the king of Prussia, and his new association with his fellow-subjects, the savages of Nootka Sound, would be broken off' by the king of Spain? The peasant would look upon him as a robber, or madman, and no doubt drive him out of his house. What would be the consequence in the present relative and and active situa- tion of the political world? The king augmenting in power, and aided by millions of slaves, called subjects, would shortly appear upon the coast, and reduce, by the violence of subordinate governors, the ignorant and self- ish peasant to a state little better than that of the savages just mentioned. Till nations become more just and humanized, it is necessary to discover that medium point between demo- cracy and monarchy, where public energy and individual liberty unite, and from this enviable and firm position,* *The end of all improvement in constituted governments hould be, to give such influence to the democracy, as may pre- vent the influence of the crown from establishing too great a dis- proportion between the interest of the country, and the interest of partial offices; for men always sacrifice the less to the greater interest. But this point is difficult to be discovered, and 1 pre- fer disseminating wisdom among the people, and net extending the superstructure of government till the foundation is laid. The only present improvements to be wished in the policy of FREEDOM MUST BE PROPORTIONED TO KNOWLEDGE. 1 1 which England alone, among all the nations of the world, has had the wisdom to discover, and the virtue to estab- lish, let her open the fountain of thought, that only source of moral perfection, and by establishing the absolute lib- erty of the press, inundate the globe, and fertilize the soil of humanity into intellectual existence; and when this glorious effect is produced, let her then, and not till then, resign the power, which art and violence have assumed over Nature, for her own benefit, into the hands of en- lightened citizens, who finding wisdom spread to every part of the globe, will break down the barriers of coer- cion, and live in universal fraternity, guided by the reli- gion of Nature, having purified essence into intellectual existence, and elevated civilization, by the virtues of sym- pathy and probity, to a state of enlightened Nature. Mankind are coming of age, and breaking from the leading strings of priests and kings ; they demand new modes of moral settlement, and woe be to humanity, should freedom be assumed, and ignorance still control their actions. They would then be precipitated into an abyss of anarchy, from which despotism alone could re- lieve them, and a despotism of such force and durability, as would destroy the germ of wisdom, which alone can procure well-being, or an enlightened state of Nature. Internal consciousness of rectitude, which enables an author to bid defiance to interest, malice and prejudice, elevates him so far above the vanity of erudition, that if it was possible to explain his sentiments, and communi- cate his ideas in all the anomalies of grammatical error and logical diction, he would pour forth the current of thought in all the cataracts of literal irregularities of eve- ry kind, and study only to convey the whole of its stream to the ocean of the human intellect, though it arrive in tempestuous and broken billows. The author of the following work disclaims all preten- England are parochial associations of correspondence, which would collect the unbiassed and deliberate will of the people, which would prevent knaves and fools from aspiring to the sacred office of minister, with the sordid view of private interest. 12 PREFACE* sions to erudition, and attributes his present unprejudiced state of mind to the neglect thereof. He preferred read- ing the volume of life, (in travelling over the extremities of the globe, whence he collected real ideas, which enlight- en the mind,) to books, whose verbal ideas confound it. He begs to warn his readers against any unpleasant surprise, in finding much repetition and total neglect of the arrangement of his matter, whose different species is offered under the same genus; and preface, introduction and work, were forms prefixed to his thoughts and ideas, whose violent fermentation, arising from the novelty and importance of the subject, untempered by the modifica- tions of erudition, have flowed over their reciprocal boun- daries. However the sentiments in the following pages may be dogmatically delivered, the author declares his inten- tions are, to recommend to his readers the subjects on which they ought to think, rather than the mode how they are to think; and the principal reason for communicating these ideas to the public was, to open a candid and libe- ral discussion on the nature of existence, which private conversation refuses. The author has made the most ex- tensive researches in every country, to discover enlighten- ed and liberal minds, whose mutual intercourse might fa- cilitate the ' investigation of truth, and bring the result more advantageously prepared for the public discussion; but he has been able to find no such characters, and has been treated with negligence and contempt wherever he . has been too importunate to urge the investigation of truth, by inquiries which brought the knowledge of man- kind to a state of humiliation almost below instinct. What reception men of learning would give to such a system the public may easily judge. The author in the progress of these researches met. with a character, who united strong mental faculties to profound erudition, and a great degree of liberality of judg- ment, obtained by travelling. Here he hoped to have found a man, whose standard of opinion would have ex- tended ovef the whole domain of Nature ; but alas he THE AUTHOR S VIEWS AND EXPERIENCE. 13 had been no farther than the boundaries of Europe, and his opinions terminated with its extremities. This gen- tleman declared, "tfeat an opinion- which co&tfacRcted the most important, institutions of society, should not be pro- mulgated," sanctifying thereby the inquisition of Rpain^ the despotism of Turkey, and every crime hallowed by public institution over all the world ; thereby destroying the instrument of Nature . to operate changes towards u more perfect state of existence the HUMAN THOUGHT- which, according to him, was irredeemably enslaved by civil, religious and domestic institutions, and was to. he. emancipated only in affairs of little moment. The author since has been discouraged by the disap- pointment he met with in a character tnat promised so much perfection, and has determined to present his ideas to the public; for which his morality and sentiments as-> a child of Nature, must offer an apology, and he hopes it not a favorable reception, at least a candid discussion, to enable him to reform his own errors, and correct those ot mankind. He proposes printing this work in duodecimo, to render it portable, that the judgment of the reader ma^ deliberate and discuss its matter without the aid of mem- ory, and that it may be opened in the scenes of rural soli- tude, where Nature affords a clearer atmosphere for tho judgment, than the literary mist of the cabinet or library, where verbal ideas alone arise and circulate, to perpetuate prejudice and confound truth. The study of Nature should be pursued in the cabinet of Nature groves, for- ests, lawns, lakes &c. &c. Here real ideas or things present themselves to contemplation, and the great stan- dard of truth becomes Nature's self. Truth will present itself to the reader in these works, without the dress of erudition or eloquence, and under ail the disadvantage which the criticism of learning, prejudice^ superstition and personal interest can bring upon it., This opposition, like many other operations of ignorance^, will defeat its own purpose, and the ingenuity of syilcn gisin and insidious eloquence, and terrors of political and religious enthusiasm, will but serve to, establish a color* 2 14 PREFACE. cd lens, thai the sun of truth may be distinctly contend-' -plated; whereas in the meridian effulgence this work pla- ces it, the mind of man, emerging from the d;trk cave of error, might be dazzled and confoirndcd, instead of en- lightened with its blaze of splendor. The author hopes that the imcouthuess of his style, the irreguhrity of ar- ruioment, and the absence of erudition, will not preju- dice the minds, of the -learned, so as to forbid a pcrusaj of his matter: he entreats their criticism, whic.li nnv farms'} him with new light to approach that, dark and recondite subject, .the source of moral motion, and to .discover the means of improving and extending human essence to in- tellectual <'.xi sic nee. I must beg the indulgence of my render for any dcfefts of composition, and oiler, as my <>n!y apologv, the foi- loivi-.ig reflection: The ideas communicated in the fol- lowing work are real, and not verbal; that is. taken froui tilings in the volume of Nature, and not from words am! adopted sentiments in books, and the mind, in explaining new conceptions, finds greater difficulty to employ lan- guage whieh erudition and extensive reading alone can give, and this advantage the author, whos<-. whole life bar* been spent in travels, has been deprived of, which he shall not regret, if his iileas are intelligibly explained. lie re- grets much the impulse of a. genius, which (lies too .ra- pidly ov. r the tardy detail of demonstration ; hut be hopes that the. penetration of many of his readers, and the erudition of many of his critics, will assist in fur- nishing a supplement, for the demonstration of s/.icti truths as carry with them conviction, and the exposition of such errors as may oppose the end of his labors and attentions, to procure systematic happiness to all sensi- live Nature. lie moreover declares, that in transferring from the mind to p:\pcr his thoughts, he has been careless as to style and hnguoge, and in the enthusiasm of sympathy, hiis not been ably to give discrimination, or ample ex- planation to his ideas. This Sank will serve to call into exercise the penetration erf his readers, and call with THE IMMORTALITY OP SELF IN IATURE. 15 more necessity upon him, for a series of commentaries, to elucidate this work of texts, and be hopes in these to be aided by the light of frequent and sagacious criticism, to which he will pay an extreme attention, and pardon all the rancor, or personal abuse, which the passions may indulge in, when interested or rooted prejudices are attacked. He implores all his fellow parts in the great integer of Nature, not to treat these ideas with contempt, as visionary systems, but to favor the benevo- lent intentions of the author, whose mind is beyond the reach of the sordid motives of interest, and vanity of ap- plause, but. wishes to procure happiness to aU an.imatcd Nature. He trusts, that this observation will be suffi- cient to entitle him to a patient reading, and impartial criticism, which he will himself ever labor at, till a pe- riod be put to the revolution of this identity, which dis- solving into the great mass of Nature, and returning to animation under a different identity, may receive as an eternal part of Nature, the advantage that his former la- bors may have procured by removing moral evil from ex- istence. Identity is continually interrupted in the period of ex- istence, and it is difficult to seize the moment of abso- lute identity, the moral and physical parts of body con- stantly changing; but the capacity of identity to pro- cure present and future pleasure, and avoid present and future pain, is sufficiently evident to procure well-being. Present identity concerned, and interested to procure pleasure for future identity, which may have scperated from and consequently forgot its antecedent, represents the interruption of identity in the dissolution of life"; for by the labor of the identity in life interrupted by death, as a part of Nature it must assume other identity, though it must have forgot its antecedent identity of life. If the mind is once brought to a great force of inteN nal operation or reflection, it can conceive with the ut- most facility its internal and immortal connexion with Nature. Self, under all its changes and combinations must ever be a component part of that integer, or uni- 16 PREFACE. versal mass of mailer; and it is impossible in concep- tion, to separate self as a part from its whole, notwith- standing the sudden interruption or dissolution of iden- tity, whose connection being broken cannot remove its interest in the future good a*nd evil of the aggregate mass of matter assuming new identities. Some part of me was probably [?] some part of Alexan- der. If he had humanized instead of barbarizing man- kind, the universal happiness of animated matter being the operation of his identity as Alexander, he would now enjoy under my identity, and his virtuous remembrance would serve to unite the two identities. I have given this conception much investigation in my mind, but I must ctose till the investigation of others may give me nevr matter to proceed and operate with. In the mean time I enjoy the utility of its influence, which establishes more encouragement to persevere in virtue, than imaginary and ridiculous rewards and pun- ishments, that are now abandoned to nurses and children with the tales of ghosts and witches ; by reflecting, that the good or evil I procure in this life are perpetuated to my enjoyment or suffering, as a part of Nature reanima- ted in a new identity. This also forms that comforta- ble and reasonable doctrine of immortality, which brought home to the conception, gives dignity and resig- nation to the mind of man. If the utility of a doctrine cannot be disproved, the mind, in a state of doubt, will do well to establish utili- ty or happiness, as a valuable criterion. Lest bigots or enthusiasts might attempt to profit by this criterion, I must observe, that their visions are clear only in the darkness of credulity and superstition ; for they dare not appeal to reason, which the doctrine o' universal identity in the integer of Nature courts as it.* only support, spurning belief as a weakness, and respec- ting the assent of the mind, or formation of sentiment, which arises from conviction alone, as to positive or pro- bable truth. INTRODUCTION THE present Is a moral crisis the most extraordinary the world ever witnessed. Man in various parts -rf the globe struggling to obtain liberty, and reclaim (be natu- ral rights of which despotism or fallacy of J>olicy has deprived him; the mind of man is peculiarly called upon to desist from the futile occupations of arts and science, and to deliberate .upon the present state 'f Humanity. Whoever attends to the conduct and conversation of what is called 'fhe polite world, must observe, that virtue, that is, sympathy and probity, are treated w-fth contempt; and honor or courage, that 'is, 'to pay a frebt of which another has robbed you, or cut his threat if he exposes your falsehood or knavery, is :thc whole code of moral law. Luxury, which makes rapid strides in all Europe- an countries, while it destroys the bodily and mental health of the rich, increases the misery and labor of the poor, who are subjugated to institutions on-y calculated to protect property, of which they have none to and happiness, all their possession, is sacrificed to ton avarice, and their. corporeal powers are worn into premature dissolution, and their mental powers so total- ly suppressed, that extreme labor leaves the peasant no time to acquire conscientiousness or intellectual exis- tence. Human knowledge has acquired .faw the experience 2* 18 INTRODUCTION* of past, ages, and the extensive intercourse of the present, such force and power, that it threatens to absorb the in- tellectual faculty, and to renew an epocha of the most dangerous superstition, that shall surpass that which bas held the world in ignorance and misery for nearly eigh- teen centuries. The secrets of Nature in her physical domain are every day brought to light by the ingenuity of man. The imagination, whose powers are subject to physical causes, Las been explored, and various wonderful effects have been produced; and Swedenburghers, Loutherburghers, .and animal magnetarians have forced credulity, emanci- pated from the superstition of religion, to do homage to the works of -men of some little ingenuity, and not posses- sing one grain of judgment or common sense; and yet the revenue they have gained from the credulity of igno- rance, menaces the world with a basis of superstition more indestructible than fancy ever formed, as it pro- fluces real effects, whose cause being known to few, ap- pear the most obvious and manifest miracles history evei recorded. Priestcraft, thn{ has latterly been confined to the dark regions of error in an imaginary world, is now attempt- ing to mix its metaphysical errors with the complicated science of policy; and the pulpit is become" a political rostrum, in order to confound and perplex tiie weak and debilitated reason of man. In this very critical state of tlie world, contemplative and unprejudiced minds are called upon to direct the pas- sions of mankind, thrown into fermentation, not so much by an increase of wisdom, as an augmentation of cru- ehy and oppression ; for if the rich in France had con- INCONSISTENCY 1 OF THE FRENCH. 19 to pay their proportion of the public burden of taxes, no revolution would have happened in that coun- try, and despotism would have taken deeper root. The French have gone farther in the theory of virtue and liberty, than any nation upon the globe; but they have failed in their practice. They had the glory to de- clare, that the citizen had an indefeasible right to be re- presented, and in practice have taken away that right, by subjecting it to be purchased for three shillings per an- num. They have declared that, man is born free, and hold in slavery millions of fellow creatures in the West India Islands; and while the British Parliament, whose theory is not so brilliant, are making laws to alleviate that slavery, the French nation have left their fate to be decided by their cruel task-masters, bullied into this measure by the audacious avarice of some few sea-port / ^ towns of patriots, dealers in human flesh. ^ They have declared that, they will wage no unjust war, and yet suffer themselves as auxiliaries, to support the extravagant pretensions of Spain, founded upon a bull of the pope, who having the whole of the spiritual world in his possession, must surely have a claim to all un- known corners of the present or temporal. It womld have been more consistent with the princi- ples -cf n Assembly, struggling to establish and perpetu- ate liberty and happiness to all mankind, to have become mediators, and declared that their arms should be em- ployed on the side of justice, exist where it might. , Such an act wuld force a peace upon the whole world, and all political treachery would cease, and would arrive at the end of national seciu&ty sooner than left-handed, insi- dious and partial policy, which is pi sparing an ambush. 20 INTRODUCTION. | that may overthrow all that virtue and wisdom have hith- erto labored to produce. The revolution in France is of so formidable a nature to the security of personal authority and dominion of the tyrants of the earth, that all foreign schemes of ambi- tion must he suspended, and the whole of their attention taken up with guarding their menaced despotism. For should France succeed in forming a happy government upon the principles of liberty, truth and virtue, so glori- ous an example must spread to the utmost boundaries of the earth, and the impious tyrants may attempt to par- alyze the most active power of Nature, human thought, which ihey have done by cutting off all moral communi- cation by scriptory correspondence; yet a-s the moral horizoHrhad acquired a strong twilight, the sudden facti- tious darkness will be more sensible, and humanity, ap- palled, will adore every glimpse of light, that must pri- vately break in under the cloak of commerce, and every article of public news will be illumined and sanctified by its rarity and matter. That which in liberal and open communication would have been discussed, will now be- come conviction, sentiment and action; and the tyrants 'will be precipitated into that abyss, they intended for their unhappy subjects. Men of wisdom, or children of Nature, form a wish no doubt, that France had approached the haven of lib- erty with the breeze of reform, rather than the tempest of revolution, which would not have alarmed the tyrants in their neighborhood, so as to induce them to spill the hallowed germ of moral Nature, in the womb of thought, or cut off its channel, as they cannot dry up its source, and under the common interest of despotism lead their APOSTROPHE TO ENGLAND. 21 "bands of slaves in crusades against liberty in France, which will probably happen should a general peace take place. O England ! favorite isle of Truth and Constitutional Liberty! prepare an asylum for that holy divinity, if vice or tyranny should banish her from the continent. You are the only nation of the world capable of approaching the haven of happiness by the breeze of gradual reform. Extend and equalize your representation, shorten the duration of your parliament, consecrate the liberty of your press, establish a negotiation with foreign powers, to check the spirit of ambition, devastating the earth, and annihilating peace and happiness. How deplorable is the fate of humanity how defective is virtue, when one formidable state has the power to reform the universe, if it had but the least proportion of wisdom or virtue, or had but the magnanimity to attempt so glorious an enter- prize ! Of two contending nations, urged by the demon of ambition, which would dare invade the territories of its rival, if England became the umpire, and threatened the aggressor? If we take a view of the present state of Europe, and reflect, that all nations are satisfied with the present state of their possessions, and yet are reciprocally enga- ged in destructive wars of chimerical policy to destroy them, we must conclude, that mankind are wandering un- der the fascinations of ignorance and passion. Whence comes it, that individuals emerging from the errors of bar- barism, had wisdom enough to confederate for their per- sonal security, and though aided by the deliberation of collective wisdom, in national councils, could not force the boundaries of error beyond r the circle of national in- 22 INTRODUCTION. terest, and extend confederacy so far as to involve the limits of the whole quarter of the globe, and progressive- ly to the globe itself, which would certainly be the pro- gress of association, if founded upon the principles ot truth and reason. We must then conclude, that the pre- sent principles of society or policy, have in them a lea- ven whkh corrupts their mass, and that they are foun- ded upon an union of power and property, to guarantee and augment themselves, without regard to the welfare of the greater body of the weak and poor, whose interest can be placed only on the basis of wisdom, virtue, truth and happiness, to procure the well-being of mankind; and these virtues can proceed, not from the form of law or policy, but only from the extension of the mental fac- ulties, whose force operates to improve the volition and to procure happiness to self in the system of all sensi- tive Nature. THE MORAL STATE OF NATIONS. ENGLAND. I BRING this country first under consideration, Ij the world are agreed in giving the high pre-eminence o. thought, or mental powers, to the natives of this island. This opinion I do not respect for its universality, hut having examined it closely, and hrought it' to the test ot experience, hy constant observation, I find it to be- an in- controvertible truth. However, that I may not be subject to the suspicions of prejudice in holding such an opinion in favor of my native country, I shall explain my experi- ence. The excellence or supreme power of the intellectual faculties, depends on their capacity to form the greatest number of simultaneous ideas, or [rather,] to take in at one view, the different relations or parts of the object under consideration. As, when we say, government is necessary for man; a weak mind views the object, man, as a bad being; and government as a good coercion, A great mind takes in all the relations and connections oS 24 THE MORAL STATE OF ENGLAND. these two objects considers profoundly the nature of man and of government, establishing conclusions conform- able to their present state, and continuing the investi- gation which liberal speculation adduces. The English peasant in conversation with his lord> looks down, blushes, scratches his head, and shows eve- ry sign of extreme sensibility; while the capacity, or ope- rative power of his intellect, takes a simultaneous view of the lord's riches and his own poverty, the lord's pow- er and his own weakness, the lord's knowledge and his own ignorance ; and excites the passions of fear and shame. When a peasant of any other part of the globe is accosted by a superior, and conversation is entered into, the questions of the one put in action the memory of the other, which keeps the imagination from operating,, and which, when too much burthened, oppresses and al- most annihilates the judgment. The foreign peasant, oc- cupied with his memory alone, to furnish an answer to his lord, discovers no agitation, and proves that he has- neither sensibility nor extensive mental faculty. It is, however, a curious problem, that the instinct or memory of the foreign peasant acts right, while the ex- tensive intellectual faculty of the English peasant does wrong. The following observation will however solve this problem. Instinct and intellectual existence are two extremes in the essence of man ; at the first point he possesses happiness without conscientiousness, and at the last he unites both ; but in his progress from the first to the last, he struggles through much 'ignorance and misery, upon quitting his guide Nature, to reach the goal of intellect. Whoever takes a moral view of the English nation, will observe that in approximating the goal of intellec- tual existence, they have left far behind them all other na- tions ; and this pre-eminence they mark by the superior degree, of thought or consciousness which they possess, while the very inferior degree of animal happiness they enjoy, shows that they are still very distant from the goal. The reason of this is, that their mental capacity is exter- EXCESSIVE SENSIBILITY OF THE ENGLISH. 25 nally employed to acquire power, riches and knowledge,, which are tbe causes of much pain and ignorance, and these, meeting with consciousness and thought, conspire to render them miserable. When, on the contrary, the mental capacity shall be internally employed to discover the source of moral motion or knowledge of self; they will then arrive at the goal of intellectual existence, when consciousness and thought will augment the happiness- sought after, and procured in an enlightened state of Na- ture. The greatest field for observation of this truth is in do- mestic society. Individuals, when forming these associ- ations, are oppressed with silence and reserve. That this is not the effect of apathy or stupidity, is discovered by the restless and uneasy attitudes of the men, by the blush- es and downcast eyes of the women, which, if at any time, through a wonderful effort of courage, they are ele- vated to a horizontal position, seem rather wandering in their orbits, to look for an asylum from the regard of others, than directed with benevolent assurance to ine^t the eyes of those with whom they converse. This em- barrassment proceeds from extr&me sensibility, or great proportion of intellect, which is constantly reflecting and revolving within its own sphere, producing extreme ap- prehensions, and reasoning thus : " If I speak, I may say something impertinent, as to time, place, subject or person, this will give my asso- ciates an unfavorable opinion of me ; whereas, if I keep silence, I shall risk no criticism, and feel no mortifica- tions of self love, by encountering an argument that may prevail, and cause the impeachment of my judgment.'* This habit of reflection keeps the mental faculties in constant exercise, and gives it the same vigor as the body acquires from corporeal exercise, and forms that real capacity of mind called good sense or sound judg- ment. In this consists the pre-eminence of man over man, and over brutes ; as it enables him to take a com- prehensive view of the past, present and future, to dis- cover the relation of different events, and their consequea- 26 THE MORAL STATE OF ENGLAND. ces, and to notice such only as have an effect upon his happiness or well-being, which is the only object worthy the contemplation of a great and wise man. The. activity of the intellectual powers of the people is to be discovered in their deportment in the social rela- tuons of inferior and superior; in their intercourse em- barrassment is testified by both parties, and < an uneasy reserve is reciprocal. What can this proceed from, but, that the mind, with its great reflective powers, turns over many pages of tire great volume of memory ; draws forth matter upon which it reasons relatively, and multiplies its apprehensions and fears. Thus, when the lord con- verses with his peasant, the latter, with downcast eyes, and agitation of mind discoverable by a thousand awkward motions of the body, reasons upon the extensive ideas of his lord conveyed in eloquent language, which com- pared with his own, humiliates and confounds him ; then he reflects upon his power, and comparing it with his own weakness, he is alarmed, and almost annihilated. The conduct is almost similar between the lord and his sovereign, the soldier and general, the servant and master, the lover and sweetheart ; in short, through all the so- cial relations of life, this active power of the mind, or its very intimate connection with the body, called sensibility, is the only universal and common feature which marks the character of the English nation. The extensive operation of the mental faculties pro- ceeds, no doubt, [?] from a greater sensibility in the nerves to vibrate strongly ; and these receiving the con- cussions of the passions with more violence, increase the powers of the volition. If this is controlled only by reli- gious or political laws, the sagacity of the mind breaks down these imaginary limits, and urges the man to ac- tion; and hence the cause of the violent character of the English nation, and of all private and public injustice committed in that country. This shows that sagacity is but a dangerous and critical degree of excellence, at which the human mind arrives in its progress towards wisdom, or the source THE EVIL EXCESS OF THE PASSIONS. 27 of moral motion the knowledge of self. When it reach- es this acme of human perfection, the breach of order would be treason against self-happiness. By this sensibility or intimate connection of the mo- ral and physical part of man, the passions acquire the same power as the understanding, and while the latter operates with its penetrative and anticipative powers, to examine the volition which induces action, whether it be well formed for the future and present well-being of the man, or in other words productive of his happiness; the impujsive and collossal force of the passions oppo- ses it with dreadful violence, and precipitates the man to decision and action, whose consequences are not distant but almost instant pain and misery, though veiled with a gauze of pleasure. Hence is the origin of suicide, robbery, and personal violence of every kind, which occur in this country more frequently than in any other part of the globe. Hence those political atrocities of the people, collec- tively to sacrifice the civil rights of mankind, to the base and detestable advantages of a mean and avaricious commerce, testified by the intrigues of the English Cabi- net with the Court of Berlin, in the affairs of Holland, Flanders, and Poland ; in which countries they support despotic aristocracies against the great body of an op- pressed and enslaved people. Hence the support of their own aristocracy, the most abandoned, shameful and prof- ligate of any upon the face of the globe; who, not satis- fied to buy one half of their constituents, hire bravos and ruffians to beat the other half into compliance. O Italy ! your assassins are honorable, compared to these degene- rate miscreants. It is the violent and impetuous passion of love that directs your poniard to the rival's heart ; but those miscreants sacrifice for a crown piece and a pot of porter, the lives of their fellow citizens, and the happi- ness of their country ; and hold out an example that dis- graces human nature, and shows men so depraved as to delight in the most atrocious acts of deliberate murder without the plea of temptation. This example is enough 28 THE MORAL STATE OF ENGLAND. to turn virtue into misanthropy, and drive good men to seek an asylum in the forest with the brutes. Hence also, the English political hypocrisy that inter- feres with empires On the Continent, to check inordinate ambition that may invade the rights or provinces of oth- ers ; while they assume universal empire over an element, the free domain of Nature's self. And when the world combined in an armed neutrality to assert its freedom, this nation threw off its veil of hypocrisy with one hand, and with the other snatching the trident of Neptune, with the audacity of a ferocious animal, whose mind can anticipate no evil and therefore knows no fear, bid defi- ance to the most formidable combination of power in the most sacred and just cause ever recorded in the annals of the world. It is by this fatal preponderance of passion over rea- < son, that the atrocious and damnable TRADE in^HuMAN ' FLESH is sanctified; an act so infamous, that could all the crimes which history records be collected and consoli- dated into one, it would lose its nature of atrocity, and become a virtue, when placed in comparison with the slave trade, considered with the double flagitiousness of first buying the human species, and then destroying them. It is inconceivable that an assembly of a nation can be fuilty of an act that no individual, who has not degraded imself below his species, and familiarized his ear to the association of his name with that of villain and scoun- drel, but would feel a horror of committing. Though, legislative accomplices may cover his shame, and screen him from public censure ; yet how, in the name of truth, if he possesses a well organized mind and body, and but a common share of reflection, or rather the pre-eminent and characteristic share of an Englishman, how can he esteem himself, when conscience will ever upbraid him with the participation in an act, whose flagitiousness is so great, that unless he renounces the character of man, his very share would be sufficient to sink him under the most ignominious contempt, and draw upon him more ' ' &&&*&/& i ; J trt. THE BARBARITY OF PUGILISM. 29 4 remorse than would all the^catalogue of acted or imagin- ed crimes in Nature. It is from the despotism of passion, that an act is tol- erated in this kingdom, which would make savage na- - ^ tions look down upon them with pity : I mean the igno- minious and base practice of BOXING, which has brok en down all order of civilization, and deprived men of a ;N defence, which is enjoyed in the most miserable state of barbarism. By this disgraceful practice the less, more familiar and more frequent foibles and passions of men ; such as pride, envy, hatred and malice, are let loose to disturb the repose of society; and the safety of a man's person is at the mercy of every skilful boxer, or stronger *\* man. t* If the parent or guardian who has the child or or- Sx phan under the arm of protection, should meet these ruf- tfian?, and her beauty should elicit their ferocious regards, ^ there is nothing that can oppose their brutal desires, or impertinent freedoms. The parent who may retort the ^ instilling language offered to innocence and modesty, be- * comes the martyr of his own virtue; and as his skill, 'f which has been .occupied only in the parental care of fil- ial education, must succumb to the gymnastic skill of the ruffian, the law gives no remedy to the beaten, and de- mands no vengeance for the murdered. Alas! such is ^ X the state f civilization in a country, whose character is v * wisdom, philosophy and philanthropy. Under what form v/, ??* does the demon, Error, the A great enemy of human happ'i- ij isj ness, thus shamefully and completely triumph over these ^v virtues. Nothing proves so evidently as this base practice of personal assault, how incapable the human mind is while its faculties operate externally in contriving civil and so- cial institutions, in order to preserve property, as if hu- ^ ^' man happiness had no other basis: for personal safety is given up as a matter beyond acquisition, or not neces- sary lo well-being, the end of all social union. This violence, known in no other part of the world but England, may probably be a check upon the sensi- Mlity peculiar to this nation, which seems to demand a 3* 30 TttE MORAL STATE OF ENGLAND. more powerful control than v civil laws, which suffice to procure subordination in omer societies where the pas- sions have less force, and existence less animation. But a general and critical inspection of society into the char- acters of individuals, would have a more powerful effect. This practice supports only a vain pride, to be thought braver than another, without reflecting, that valor unac- companied by virtue, is brutality and ignorance ; and this passion should be changed into sentiment of self-estima- tion, arising from a consciousness of utility in producing happiness to self, as the centre, and all animated Nature, as the circle, of which sympathy forms the constant and spontaneous tadii. It is said this practice promotes courage in the people. How can this be proved ? We observe in the conduct of many nations, who give great and splendid examples of valor, that they look upon this practice as a mark of cowardice, and having received a blow, as its indelible stamp. When I reflect on this contrasted conduct .and opinions of nations, I am induced to believe, that were .naked swords opposed to the combatants, instead of doubled fists, they would retire with trembling from the stage. It is observed also in defence of this practice, that courtesy and decency of conversation is produced or enforced by it ; this may be true as to public conver- sation in company ; for certainly a man will be cautious in speech, when his friends who appear around him are all armed with the axe of the executioner, that, should his tongue make a 'slip, and accidentally or unwittingly offend the irritable temper of a fellow guest, his eye must be knocked^ out, as an expiatory sacrifice to his idol, arid offended passion. But this will never stop the mouth of calumny, that acts the more effectually, as more secretly to destroy reputation. Vice will ever be censured and exposed; and it would be more for the safety of honor and virtue that the public trial of con- versation was permitted and uncontrolled. There is another barbarous practice fostered and sani> *tkmed hy this enlightened nation; I mean DUELLING : THE INJUSTICE OF DUELLING. 31 this is more dangerous, anymore disgraceful than the former, as its consequences are more fatal. It is the harpy of prejudice, that in a moment snatches the pa- rent from the bosom of .his family, and leaves the orphans and widow destitute of support. Nothing testifies HO much the despotism of error, as this practice. The dark ignorance of men has attached the word honor to a privation of the fear of death, and when the parties make this appeal, whatever may be the criminality, for there must be some on one side or the other, the victim and the vanquished are both adjudged innocent. The apolo- gy for this prejudice is, the prevention of calumny. Alas! how long will men remain dupes to their ignorance ! Calumny is enforced by being obliged to secrecy, and therefore more effectual and more dangerous. Truth has 'nothing to fear from the open discussion of table con- versation, and vice would here find some advantages, of which secret calumny deprives it. Whence comes it, that we see senators laying aside the dignity of their character, and meeting personally the enemies of their country, whose conduct their duty obliges them to rep- robate in the senate; removing the terrors and disgrace of the law, which should act as a sacred barrier against the resentment of a disappointed traitor, tt is the terror of the ridicule of fools; they have courage enough to die, but they have not magnanimity enough to live. They have neither wisdom, nor dignity of mind enough to dis- tinguish between animal and intellectual courage; the former every soldier supplies for six-pence a-day the latter -should be the property of the citizen, and expose his life only when virtue and wisdom call in the defence of his country, or his fellow-creature. How deplorable is the lot of humanity, when error thus triumphs over wisdom, and prejudice of opinion can legalize and mo- ralize the most atrocious crime in nature a cool, pre- pared, reflected, and deliberate murder of a fellow-crea- ture. The mode of reasoning upon relative truth, may, perhaps be used to justify this act, as it does all the of civil, domestic -and national policy ; and if we 32 THE MORAL STATE OF ENGLAND. view the monster luxury, that with vast strides overruns this country, and compels, with gigantic menace, every individual to over-leap the .bounds of his income, to es- cape a blow from its enormous club ; it is necessary that some force should counteract these fears, and stop his flight, lest he precipitate himself into the abyss of destruc- tion, and draw society after him by his dreadful example and connections. It is here that this barbarous custom of duelling, which erects every society into a tribunal, and makes of every guest an executioner, arrests the monster in his devas- tating course. The man of luxury, vice urges to se- duce and betray the confidence of a generous friend, by robbing him of his property under the specious pretext of borrowing what he knows he cannot, and may be, nev- er intends to repay. The friend, whom the oppression of want, and not vice, urges to demand the promised pay- ment; disappointment on one hand debauchery and dis- tress on the other, dictates severe language, which aug- ments into reproach and insult, and terminates at last by the dreadful, and often foreseen appeal of duel and death. This operates among the class of mankind, where lux- ury is most active and most dangerous. >The more mod- erate class of men are kept in bounds by the severity of the law against debtors. The barbarous practice of duelling destroys the super- structure, as boxing does the base of society, and leaves man, after many ages of improvement in knowledge founded upon a world of experience, in a state of savage Nature. This proves that the mind has not yet ripened to a state of intellectual existence, or found means to invert its faculties upon self, and withdraw them from all ob- jects of no 'immediate importance to happiness, which serve only as men of erudition, and nick-named philoso- phers have declared, to divert them from an intolerable , state of languor or te This brutal sensibility has turned the means of sub- sistence of society in a state of barbarism, into an uni- versal modern pastime ; I mean the cruel pleasure of the CHASE. Here the demon error, under the cloak of cus- tom, and the encouragement of example, fortifies the heart of man against the omnipotent, hallowed and immortal affection of sympathy. Here we see those men occupied, who in the scale of relative truth bear unspotted char- *acters, join their savage yells to the barking of the less savage dogs, and measure their brutal sensation of plea- sure by the standard of duration and sufferance of the agonizing pain of the animal hunted ; and forfeit the only plea of humanity, that of self-defence in the destruc- tion of a general enemy. The cruelties of mankind committed on the brute cre- ation are falsely apologized for by the plea of utility; as the forcing them to destructive labor, to procure the con- veniences of life, and putting them to death to procure aliment. The great activity which civilization has pr6duced among mankind, by associating them as individuals, and separating them as nations, among whom the same com- petitions and jealousies subsist, as among individuals in a state of Nature, promotes industry with such enthusi- asm, that man and beasts are mutual victims thereto; this procures wealth, and wealth power ; and these uni- ted are the end of civilization, and the acme of human happiness ! As truth, considered relatively, forces mankind to this treatment of the brute creation, it may plead an excuse for man in an animal state of existence, but a mind in an intellectual state, that by sympathy feels itself a part of all Nature, which in futurity will change that component part into beast, offers no plea, as it sees no necessity to violate the life or liberty of an innocent animal, be- cause the aliment of life may be procured from the vege- ., table world, and that produced by his own labors ^ ; . 38 THE MORAL STATE OF ENGLAND. such aliment procures bodily and mental health, by sa- lubriatiHg the humors of the one, and tranquillizing the passions of the other. Here, then, utility, or a greater degree of happiness, is the universal motive which puts in action, intellectual existence. But what plea can be offered for that preposterous passion, or habit of mind, acquired by custom, to de- stroy animals, not for the necessity, but the pleasure' of destroying them. This practice alone proves what little progress the mind has made towards intellectual existence. Notwithstanding this practice is too common in every part of the globe, yet the sacred truth of sym- pathy, the virtue of Nature-remains unimpeached, as sup- ported by minds of great sensibility. Men of refined understanding are never addicted to this vice, and women who should delight in the butchery of the chase, should unsex themselves, and be regarde'd as monsters : and these instances alone fix the truth of sympathy, as an efficient and universal motive to bring man to intellectual existence, and an enlightened state of Nature*; when all violence shall cease, and man shall will for himself alone, or reciprocally assimilate that of his fellow-creatures, by instruction and persuasion, con- ducted by truth and probity. This brutal pleasure claims also, as a sacrifice to the impious crime of ingratitude, the tender body of the tim- orous stagjWho interchanges his life with man, and -fur- nishes a wholesome aliment; why does not he enjoy the same privilege as the inoffensive sheep, whose transform- ation is procured with the least pain and torment by the expeditious knife? And why is this trepidating, timo- . rous, weeping, half-humanized animal, with sensibility selected by the select of mortals, called kings, to pro- cure, by agonizing pain, testified by almost human tears, ^ joy to that heart, which if it possesses real excellence, should possess superior sympathy? Can this heart of excellency or royalty (which should mean excellency if it means any thing,) be so perverted and unnatural, as to receive emotions of pleasure from causes of pity, repay y . THE FOLLY OP INTEMPERANCE. 37 tears with laughter, shrieks of pain with acclamations of joy, and duration of misery with the cheerfulness of hope ! The relief of torment by instantaneous death shall that cause angry disappointment, and shall those who can feel no sympathy with the heart-rending groans of the victim, join only with the blood-hounds, from whose ravenous fangs the huntsman snatches the prey, in the bowlings of disappointed brutality? And shall they afterwards claim an excellence over their fellow creatures, when they degrade themselves by assimilating in passions to the brute creation? O poverty! though thou art in the endurement of the imperious passions of hunger, thirst and love, thou art to be adored, and not dreaded: thou art debarred these brutal pleasures, ene- mies to sympathy. They are necessary tempests, to keep from putrefaction the stagnated waters of a depra- ved heart; while sympathy, like a mild zephyr, undulates the regular tides, which flow and re-flow from Self to Nature in the boundless ocean of a benevolent heart, and the injustice of power of the higher order of men, to de* prive the inferior of the rights of Nature, is abundantly atoned for. To this characteristic and brutal sensibility is to be attributed the national vice of DRUNKENNESS; a crime the more odious and atrocious, as being the greatest ene- my to Reason, the greatest friend to mankind. Thia passion becomes imperious from habit, and gives to man an indifference for the innocent and beneficent pleasures, as dancing, music, love, sports and pastimes, and corpo- real exercises. It is this passion which causes the pa- rent to sacrifice the comfort and subsistence of a family, to obtain a few moments' relief from the pangs of remorse, in the delirium of folly, which for a moment appeases while it prepares a ten-fold proportion of misery in the loss of mental and corporal health. It is this folly that opens a dreadful field to that giant-prejudice, private com- bat; and friendship, which, in more rational moments, opposes the only barrier to his violence, is here singled 3 THE MORAL STATE; OF ENGLAND. out, as a delicious morsel to glut his sanguinary appe- tile, and let\ves him a complete triumph over law and civilization, the protectors of mankind. The vice of drunkenness offers a delusive asylum to a mind oppressed with the cares of life, and the hospitable host at first, like the blandishing harlot, caresses and comforts in lascivious embraces, and dismisses at length, with empty pockets, and an infected constitution. Civilization, with its extravagant and unnatural refine- ments, demands so much activity and industry from every individual, to keep pace with the velocity of its orbit, that where any one from extreme sympathy or pro- bity, finds his motion retarded, his respiration becomes* painful, if not aided by great intellect vial capacity, an4 he seeks relief from the oblivion of intoxication, and sac- rifices the basis of happiness, health, to its superstruc- ture, pleasure. It is a matter of much wonder to obsen'-e, that while Nature in the moral and physical world produces a va- riety of capricious combinations, or lusus naturae, that she has not yet sported, in the political work?, an union of integrity and ability to form a king or minister: But what augments the wonder is, that, moral aptitude or fit- ness is constantly presenting this matter to creation ; for true ability implies iutegrit-y, and the reverse. A minister whose prevalent motive is the applause of his. country, would be sure -to obtain it by absolute integ- rity; but in temporizing with prejudice and custom, he balr.jys an integrity that, is only comparative, and keeps but at a little distance from dismissed and unpopular pre- decessors, and proves how averse Nature is to produce that political phenomenon an honest minister; which would be such a prodigy in the moral world, that it would be impossible to calculate its effects upon the hap- piness of all mankind, which could not fail to be of the utmost magnitude, as would be the esteem and venera- tion paid to his person. It is this predominancy of impetuous passion over THE DEPRAVITY OF POLITICS. 39 'powerful reason, that induces the senator to sell himself to a sovereign ; to betray the country and what coun- try ! a country enlightened, generous and iree to know his conduct, to reward it, and to render him happy. How lamentable to observe, that in this land of genius, virtue and truth, Nature has yet produced no public char- acter, where they have completely triumphed, led on bv witfJom, to obtain untarnished laurels for the victor of which the conduct of the late Lord Chatham furnishes an humiliating instance. His ambition, (like the rage of avarice, duping its votary, giving shadow for substance,) reduced him with the tinsel glare of title, from the pin- nacle of glory, and brought the splendid sun of his politi- cal fame to a precipitate decline, under the dark horizon of oblivion, and left such an indelible blot on the char- acter of patriotism, that it has ever since become a term of reproach. Among the various factions that have constantly ami .still continue to agitate this happy isle, the present ap- pears to be the most alarming. It is formed by a union of the first talents and abilities of the kingdom, deprived of every virtue but liberality, which standing alone, has degenerated into licentiousness. Administration, headed by a minister in possession of talents and virtue united, would triumph easily over a ruinous faction, though supported with the greatest abil- ities : but the increase of luxury, the corruption of man- ners, and the avaricious principle of self-interest, de- stroying patriotism ; while the rxigencies of the state, caused by an immense public debt, demand uncommon sacrifices of personal interest from every citizen, and forms a favorable conjuncture to the insidious combat of a vicious interested faction. I have viewed this conjuncture with all the impartiali- ty of a philosopher and citizen of the world, and it ap- pears to me to be a combat of vice and virtue. The arms with which vice combats in the hands of the present dangerous faction, are the temptations of person- al interest and personal liberty, held out in the opposi- 40 THE MORAL fcfATE OP ENGLAND. tion given to taxes and democratical innovations in the system of the constitution; and it seems a problem, that they have not gained the victory, as their enemy, a virtu- ous minister is obliged, by taxes and order, to oppress and control the great body of the people, and by that means furnish an insidious faction with arms against himself. This problem can be solved only by considering the opposite characters of the two parties. The minister possesses that vernacular English char- acter of probity, prudence, thoughtfulness and candor; and this attracts the congeniality of the English people. The character of the faction is the reverse cunning it substituted for probity, extravagance for prudence, ac- tivity for tboughtfulness, and ingenuity for candor; and this* character repels in the same proportion the other attracts. The body of the people pressed down by the weight of taxes, and incommoded by the restraint of le- gal liberty, moves on to unite with the very source of these inconveniences, and flies from the blandishments of the faction as from a political harlot, who promises present pleasure, but betrays her victim to future pain. And thus the faction assuming the character of the guar- magistrate; on whose prudence, dignity, s< tranquil reflection, depends the s-.uety au-i millions? Will he be desirous or uble i- ll^em what he cannot, am i visi < - not t<> himself? Will not the .activ.iy Oi is-s p.iss the nation in all the disqu,. tu.u- ni o\% while he stakes hf* -existence, t -si i i, the moment, upon an ace of spadt-s. \vui ti the nation be of greater estimation? or A i staked frequently upon the axe of war ? 4* 42 THE MORAL STATE OF ENGLAND. What integrity or economy can be expected from the man whose insensibility render* him deaf to the cries ot distressed creditors; and who, from the infamy of legal executions, is elevated to the highest post of confidence and importance, as supreme magistrate ? Will he treat the nation with more justice? And he, who has not prudence or foresight to preserve himself from an abyss of distress, shall he, by the exercise of those faculties, in regulating a complete and most delicate constitution, secure liberty, virtue and happiness to the British empire? When such characters assume the magistracy of the state, corruption, that has hitherto been measured by ex- pediency and necessity, will then become absolute. Pa- triotism and English austerity will be terms of reproach, and rogue and knave be terms of glory ; as they imply splendid talents and abilities, or more properly low cun- ning, or left-handed wisdom. The very characters stigmatized by the National As- sembly of France, as unworthy of the rights of citizens, in England aspire to the supreme magistracy; and this single instance among many other inconsistencies of hu- manity, forces speculation, after the most profound in- vestigation, to continue in doubt and discussion. I am sorry, in a work of universal interest to Humani- ty, to condescend to the censure of parties ; but as the source of happiness, which will ultimately inundate all Jsature, is placed In this island, whatever impedes or augments its current, becomes an object of magnitude and importance. And this reflection leads me to consi- der the nature of that source THE LIBERTY OF THE PRESS. Had I the talent of speech of all the orators the world ever produced, it would be inadequate to give form to the operation of thought, while it contemplates this hallowed subject, involving the happiness and well-being not only of humanity, but of all animated Nature. O Britons ! could I inspire you with my sentiments ,of veneration for this holy fountain, you would guard it with the affectionate vigilance of a protecting parent to Ibis beloved offspring. THE LIBERTY OF THE PRESS. 43 Secure the defences of this; Sanctum Naturae, and the empire of liberty will be : snfe, though frequent excursions are made upon the. frontiers by its despoiling enemies- error, superstition and despotism. Confine its fertilizing waters, that it may not devas- tate private reputation, and unite the virtuous to league with the vicious in rebellion against its sacred power; but let all men in office, the sovereign alone excepted, whose minister supplies his responsibility, be subject to its universal empire. Let vice see, when it dares sally forth from gaming tables and spunging houses, that pow- er can . afford no protection against public inquiry, and that if it. has the audacity to. receive public recompence, the nation will demand a strict scrutiny of the merit of its votaries, and if their characters will not stand this test, let them conceal themselves in that station of pri- vacy, where the press has no jurisdiction; but which in the'progress of human reason she will reclaim as the metropolitan part of her universal empire, which the pre- judices and errors of mankind induce her at present to contract. The doctrine of libellism has been hitherto founded in error, and truth and falsehood have been confounded in its definition. Libels, with respect to private persons, whether true ar false, in the present unhappy state of civilization, are equally Injurious to the individual, against whom they are directed ; because as unknown or uninteresting to the pubJlc, the charge will not be investigated, and the stigma will remain. But the character of a magistrate interests I'lie community, and the same press that crimi- nates will furnish him with equal means of defence; and the public tribunal \vill be ot-jupied in the trial, and ac- quit, or condemn, with an unprejudiced verdict, in the ex- amination of those opinions, which the religious duty of citizen calls -upoa -every member of the community to give of public measures, In which his own safety is con- cerned; ami of public men, as being worthy or unworthy to conduct those measures. 44 THE MORAL STATE OP ENGLAND. If this discrimination of public and private character is not attended to by a British Jury, the foantain of uni- v rs;il liberty and happiness will be dried up by the rub- ill, t power and personal interest have been lately, uiolmg to discharge into it with numberless pro-e- s for libels, when the process and verdict have ; the friends of liberty, and given such encourage- i .o vice, thai Newgate will in luture furnish its share* ( . (dates, to fill the sacred magisterial functions t ./.<. '1 hat epodi will not, however, begin with the^ , 1 MI i he present sov< reign, [George III.] whose char- 3 * 1 * : Z i r is marked by thai austerity, probity and prudence,^ c-n.g ni.ii to the British nation; and whose reign has "^ } n rendered happy, i*y studying the will of the people, ; v'ureto sacrificing bis own, and by making his great- s ^ J t i j i-rsoiial ene.mv hi> bonfrttentiaJ minister, if the wis- / i -i * i *. c'D;) oi the nation V'-cjuireu it.%" jc Hie jM'ess has a most powerful influeme over society, being the means of universal mentu! intt-n ourse for all in ;i,iviii i. As the pebble thrown into the lake, agitates >J ^ t ,-.- cen'.re with violence, and unrlul.ites the water to the \^ i;:os( di-tiint shore; so, from its ti rone of liberty estab- V J;s.,n! in this island, the press dsr.'cts its wonderful mir- ror, r fl sling from the sun of truth the !er- &> . % * ..ml splendid ci.iTjd. if an anticipating and r fleeting people. There is M> ntiitii levity, ti,o.:g!iut,ssness and dissipation in the 0,1 ... si.-iian heterogeidous mixture of vice and virtue, vis .i,n and foliy in the others, contrasting with the so- li.iify, prudence and virtue o! the diglisii nation; that in tit- many attempts they have made to save the con- *titutiui to vindicate the violated nghts of subjects THE TRUE AXIOM OF GOVERNMENT. 45 to extinguish the torch of discord, by establishing a be- nevolent toleration ; the sanctity of these causes seems t< have been contaminated by the impurity of their exot- ic characters ; and the salvation proffered was spurned by a suspicious people. O wisdom! teach the sovereign and ministers of this isle, that the supreme and omnipo- tent power is the WILL of the PEOPLE, that the minister must be their confidential friend, and that their confidence is obtained only by the character uniting virtue and wis- dom. This axiom contains all the doctrine for the edu- cation of kings ; and the only effort of wisdom indis- pensably necessary is to be able to discover, through the false lights of a prostituted parliamentary majority, and the suborned addresses of boroughs and corpora- tions, the general will of a wise and virtuous people, which is never equivocal, and demands but a small de- gree of penetration to discover. The prince who may have weakness and obstinacy enough to depend upon the shadow of forms, and the blasted doctrine of legal right for the support of his will, in opposition to that of the nation, would meet the fate that history records of such attempts, which holds out as the moral of its narative Kings have a right to do that only, which is right to be dane. The present progress of political and individual cor- ruption is so great and rapid, that unless ?ome virtuous character shall rise up to supplant the present, leaders ot an unpopular opposition, I predict that the liberty of this country will contract the cause of decline in the present century, and dissolve in the early part of the next. TU- implicit confidence of the people in the private virtue of a minister who has not the courage to reform the deUx is in the constitution, and the influence of the crown ac- cumulating with an eastern empire, will be the cause thereof, and a vicious and unpopular opposition will co- operate with great efficacy. 40 THE MOKAL STATE OF ENGLAND. I shall now take a view of the moral character of these islanders, which is the effect of their powerful and characteristic faculty of mind Reason. This produces violent sensations cf sympathy and unbounded benevo- lence ; and such a hallowed ami universal veneration for TRUTH, as justly gives them, notwithstanding their vices, individual and political, the first rank among the different species of mankind. This acoration for rectitude and veracity is so early inculcated into them, Unit a child seven years old exposes his person to a contest of blows, if charged with the injurious crime of falsehood. The tutor or parent holds up truth as an asylum for every kind of offence, and the candid confession of the. fault is ever received as an atonement for guilt and a pledge of pardon. The jealousy of this honorable character, im- bibed at so early an age, never quits him; and though he may forfeit all pretence to every other virtue, he is ever ready to sacrifice his life to support hi* character for ve- racity. When this is lost, the remorse of conscience bursts into paroxisms of despair; makes knaves or garuesters fight for honesty, traitors for patriotism, and liars for truth. Upon this virtue is founded all the mo- ral happiness, commercial opulence, and political strength and splendor of this nation, physically weak, and at the sarae time the mo*t powerful upon the face of the globe. That this is the source of domestic and individual confi- dence, is testified by its internal commerce, in which even children are often sufiioiiMit agents in article* of common consumption und of some consequ-. nr.e. This individual confidence, its rays being oolkvkd into a fo- cus by commercial associations, eoiomamfa (he com- merce of the globe. It also ris-.:s into political union, and though this has broken the link by which it o^iu to be connected with the great body of the people, it still participates of that virtue by virtual osnmuniciUion, and forms such a coloss?.] and nr>ral strength, that it govcriss the rest of the world in the same manner that weak men govern powerful beasts, tiy the excellence ami superiority of their moral force. This rectitude pervading all ranks THE OMNIPOtffctfeE OF TBETH. 47 of people, ami the homage they pay to this virtue, pro- cure that spirit of subordination so necessary,~ ! and at the same time so peculiar to this country of liberty. Hence that order constituting domestic tranquillity, which causes the servant to submit to the will of a respected master; and the resignation of millions to the decrees of a venerable senate and virtuous sovereign. Hence that military discipline, which, though it equals not the Ger- man parade tactics ; yet in important service and the moment of battle, unites the moral force of thousand* by their respect and confidence in the character of the commanders, and bears down like a torrent upon the pearl-strung rank of paraded foes, whose union being purely tactical, has no strength to oppose the colossal force of moral union. Among the various errors that Tiave been regarded by prejudice, as too sanctified for investigation, and- shut up from profane inquiry, the form of government, or mode of civil institution, by which mankind are held together in society, is the most obstinate as well as the most important. At the degree of approximation, mankind are arrived in the progress of the mind towards universal truth, England stands alone, and has left all other nations at an infinite distance. The mind, in this island, with it? capacity of thought, has taken a view of- all the moral relations of Nature, and has formed a government per- fect, as to the relative considerations of tTlfe, place and circumstances; and though it opposes all dangerous and sudden innovations which destroy, it encourages ail grad- ual changes which tend to improve ; like a parent, who proportions liberty to the degree of wisdom his children acquire; that when they become of age, they may not burst the rigid chains of parental restraint, and like an African slave intoxicated with liberty, use it to their own destruction. "/Education is established to inculcate morality, and the liberty of the press to disseminate wisdom, and from these causes is produced a spirit of administration that G^ v* 'stS&tsijc, 48 THE MORAL STATE OF ENGLAND. supersedes all form, however it may be aided by it ; and procures a happiness to its subjects, envied by all na- tion*, who mistake for the effect of form that of admin- istration; and its power is admired, while they overlook the confidence which morality has placed as the great basis of all civil institutions. In this confidence alone, administration must always participate; for in all subjects of speculative policy, where individuals find no cause of decision in the sug- gestions of their own conceptions, they must appeal to an arbiter, which is always the integrity of the minis- ter; for no man cedes his judgment to the abilities of another whose integrity is suspicious; and hence arises the necessity of virtue in the character of a prime min- ister. And whenever the nation is duped by an inde- pendent logomachy, mistaken for abilities, or shall place a suspicious character at the helm of state; from that moment the British Empire will fall into convulsions, and a state of political decline will ensue. But should this event be retarded only fifty years more, the liberty of the press will have so much augmented the wisdom and virtue of the people, that being of age, they will claim their indefeasible arid hereditary right of empire^ and free themselves from the bondage of ignorant and ambitious tutors, who were necessary to restrain them in a state of minority, when liberty would have proved licentiousnei^to conduct them to misery and ruin. This inestimable virtue, [Truth,] the source of all others, produces that wonderful and impartial adminis- tration of justice, the admiration of the whole world ; it is this which resists the gangrene of corruption, with which the political body is infected, holds the flaming sword of vengeanir, whose effulgent rays appal aspiring faction and relentless tyranny, and encourages patriots in the cause of integrity and liberty. This must be a foundation to every political structure. The history of past, and the view of present nations, prove that the sceptre of despotism, swayed by the hand of truth, is preferable to that of liberty dispensed with the hand of THE OMNIPOTENCE OF TRUTH. 49 corruption, and verifies the sentiment of Pope, that the happiness of nations does not depend on tl)e form of government, but on the integrity of its administration, which can never be found, but among the people where truth is cultivated as the first of all virtues. That constitutional form has an effect upon the men- tal faculties of the members of the community, cannot be doubted, because it suppresses or exercises them in proportion as they have a greater or less share in the government, and so far form is important, because it promotes wisdom, the only means to discover and culti- vate truth; but divest form of this important, though often distant consequence, and it becomes an ignis fatuus which has led the world for many ages to the precipice of error. This observation will be illustrated and pro- ved by taking a comparative view of the government of England, with any the most perfect democracy in Swit- zerland. Though in the latter the pyramid of govern- ment stands, as all good governments should stand, upon its base; and in the former the pyramid is truncated and deformed, and the base with the side is as one to six ; yet that of England, though inferior in form, is superior in administration, as in the former justice is as aban- doned as a prostitute, and in the latter chaste as a ves- tal virgin ; and this can only proceed from the less or greater cultivation of truth, and force of wisdom to dis- cover it. This virtue, truth, is as much the peculiar and appropriated character of this nation as sensibility, and proceeds from its extraordinary modes of EDUCATION. I shall consider this Education under two heads, scho- lastic and domestic, the first of which I shall subdivide into public and private. Public scholastic education takes muter its tuition the sons of the rich, and aristocratic part of the nation > here they are placed at an age when the passions are be- ginning to operate, and removed from the more immedi- ate control of private tutors or theiy parents ; they are assembled here as in a state of Nature, Fubjesi only to 5 50 THE MORAL STATE OP ENGLAND. relaxed school laws, containing boundaries of space to rove in, limited periods to read books, to eat, drink, sleep and rise. Their persons and property are at the mercy of tyrant school-fellows, and every one indemni- fies himself by retaliation on the weakest. They have no cotffrnunication with men, and must therefore receive counsd, and place a confidence in those who act under the impulses of similar passions and weaknesses. They have no knowledge of any moral laws, and no fears but what arise fro n the breach of the puerile code of school laws, which sel.lom goes unpunished, while the highest ounces against the law of morality are taken no notice of'; and the audacious boy who has no fear of personal combat, or the puerile and shameful punishment of expo- sing his posteriors to be flogged by a birchen rod, may revel in every species of tyranny, injustice and cruelty. Tiie mind of youth is left as uncultivated as the heart; a few grammar rules and compositions in the ancient and dead languages occupy their mouths and their time, and produce the learning of the parrot, and as improved as that animal they proceed to the university. Being now arrived at the age of adolescence, and entering into the society of men who are constantly displaying the contents of an extensive memory, they begin to feel the vacancy of their own, and proceed to burden it with all the errors of unprofitable philology. They know that the improvement of the heart may keep pace with that of the understanding; throw ofif the school vices of tyr- anny, injustice and robbery, being exposed to the dan- gers of punishment (like, any other citizen) in the breach of the civil laws ; they substitute the more manly vices of gaming, whoring and drinking; and with the pedantic and morose manners of a collegian, they proceed to the last stage of education travelling abroad. Accompanied by their pedagogues as guides, they en- ter into foreign regions, and memory, respiring from the fatigue of ancient history and languages, returns to as futile an occupation ; and crams itself with ecclesiasti- cal, civil, political and domestic forms, ceremonies and THE EFFECTS AND DEFECTS OF EDUCATION. 51 institutions, and geographical and physical observations. Judgment, oppressed with its weight, has just strength enough to make relative conclusions, and to measure every thing by a local standard formed by education and habit; but has not energy enough to push back the bounds of truth beyond the circumscribed limits of its ^own native prejudices; and while the understanding is "thus futilely occupied, the heart is surprised by pleasures called by the name of gallantry in all foreign countries; in England only, moral turpitude and depravity of princi- ples; but as education has taught them to place virtue in abstinence from pleasures, they feel a remorse of con- science in the enjoyment of moral liberty ; but Nature triumphs, and forces them to be happy. Conscience by the frequent friction of its irritability gains callosity, and leaves no sensibility when real virtue, or probity and sympathy are assaulted by the temptation of self-in- terest. The English traveller constantly sacrifices the national character of stubborn rectitude, in proportion as he assumes the worldly polish or liberality which he tra- vels to acquire. From what cause the great energy of thought or ex- tent of the mental faculties which characterizes this na- tion arises, it is difficult to say, but education seems to have much influence. I have observed a great contrarie- ty of conduct between England and other nations in this respect. Upon the Continent, children associate more with men, and adopt their concerns at a very early age. As these affect only the memory, the judgment of children being inadequate to operate upon them, the former is cul- tivated while the latter is neglected. These concerns convey a knowledge of all the chicane and interested conduct of life, corrupt the heart; and judgment rinding no exercise, is overwhelmed and lost in the powers of the memory, and this latter instead of the former, be- comes the guide of the adult through life. In England men have as much aversion to associate with children as they with men ; this leaves them to 52 THE MORAL STATE OF ENGLAND. their own society, where plays, toys and friendship, offer matter adequate to the exercise of infantine judgment ; and memory throws off the frothy nothing contained in books, and the narative of worldly transactions, while the body is directed by the mind to gymnastic exercises, which improve the physical constitution. Probity or love of truth is the only moral, which parents or peda- gogues have time or inclination to inculcate ; though sympathy should precede it; this, however, Nature takes charge of, and never fails to inspire it into a vigorous mind and body. Though its use may be perverted by bad instruction and bad example, yet it gives an unpar- alleled humanity to the English character over all the globe. From this mode of education, the English mind ac- quires that peculiar habit of thought or intellectual ex- cellence, which, in proportion as education improves, or wisdom appears, will become a glorious luminary to spread, by means of the liberty of the press, over all the globe, and bring man to a knowledge of himself to In- tellectual Existence, and an Enlightened state of Nature. And such is the course of an education w r hich forms man to elevate him into the office of senator, and gives him qualities which are to promote and secure the hap- piness of his fellow-citizens. To this system of educa- tion I attribute the good and evil preponderating in the remarkable character of the English nation. In the age before puberty, the mind unattended to by parents or pedagogues, who will not condescend, as in other coun- tries, to associate with children, is left to occupy its en- ergy by being abandoned to the society of children ; and it is here that judgment and invention are called into ex- ercise, to make friendships, to acquire the property of toys, to defend their persons by forming alliances, by the exercise of personal strength or cunning; and de- mands for these purposes all the efforts and ingenuity requisite to a man living on the great stage of the world. The passions accustomed to early impressions from liv- ing in a state of Nature, grow tremblingly alive, and THE MELIORATION OP SUPERSTITION. 53 form an early habit and temperament of the most ex- treme aiiJ characteristic sensibility. By a different mode of education, as in foreign countries, children being as- sociated to their parents, have their memories burdened with family duties and tales, which make a deeper im- pression on the mind, than the unintelligible jargon of books and pedagogues, and suppress or blunt the exer- cise of the judgment. The sensibility of the heart is free from all impressions, as the association and protec- tion of the parents provide him with every thing he may want, and with menaces, fears and punishment, deprive him of every sentiment but submission, which must de- stroy the springs and energy of the passions, the source of sympathy. And this would be a proper mode of edu- cation, if society was happily and wisely constituted ; but being the reverse, sympathy is destroyed by the cru- el conduct of tyranny in parents in the exercise of do- mestic government, as probity and judgment are by the tales of civil treachery and relations of knavish transac- tions, which overwhelm the memory, and confound the superior faculties of the mind, corrupt the ingenuous and sympathetic dispositions of the tender heart. In the subject of education, I shall consider the church and the theatre as mediate causes. RELIGION or priestcraft will probably maintain its ground longer in England than in any other country, notwithstanding the progress of its great eneni}, wisdom. In this country the priests, like the conductors of a pup- pet-show, use wires so fine or metaphysical, reasons , so subtle, that gross understandings do not perceive them, and know not what passes behind the scenes : whereas in most other countries, the wires that move the puppeU to play the farce of religion, are so gross or ceremoni- ous, so absurd and futile, that the weakest mii|ds de- tect the fraud, and penetrate behind the scenes, Vvhere the whole machinery is discovered. This must happta upon the Continent in the course of a very few years, which the progress of knowledge will alone effect, with- out the aid of wisdom, whose strongest powers will be 54 THE MORAL STATE OF ENGLAND. required to dissipate the illusion of intellectual idolatry, established on metaphysical reason ; or, the most dan- gerous of all error, false knowledge, arising from the technical powers of the mind, operating without the aid of judgment, as is the case in England. Religion in this island being divested of the grosser cer- emonies, or proofs of its absurdity, leaves the mind few- er substitutes for real virtue, probity and sympathy; and the minds of its ministers being strengthened and enlight- ened by the education above treated of, they preach up the exercise of that virtue more with the noble ardor of citizens, than the furious and fanatic bigotry of priests. The THEATRE of this country is conducted in a man- ner disgraceful to an enlightened and civilized people. The dramatic representations of tragedy and comedy convey a poisonous with a wholesome moral. The for- mer holds up gigantic tyranny and splendid vice, revolv- ing through the hemisphere of military and imperial glo- ry, and setting in a radiant horizon by a pompous death. The spectator is made a witness of the most bloody deeds of cruelty and villainy, and the heart accustomed to the stronger vibrations of sensibility, feels no shock from the feeble impressions of the common evils of life, and receives no advantage that can form any counterpoise to this evil, in contemplating the disappointment of am- bition and treachery. In the neglected and despised state of the theological theatre, the dramatic theatre would be a necessary and excellent substitute, if its conduct had that attention be- stowed upon it, which it merits. How many church au- ditors whom sleep has protected from the absurdities and impieties against the religion of Nature, -delivered from the pulpit, have found no escape from the barbari- ties and vices of scenic representations, that seduce the passions, and enliven the temperament to receive the most lasting impressions. This important source of instruction and. morality should be guarded with the utmost vigilance. Colleges should be established for actors and dramatic writers, THE DEGRADATION OF THE DRAMA. 55 and subjects should be selected in possession of all the perfections of human nature, which that profession de- mands. Authors should be taught the modes of human passions, the nature of virtue, and the means of exciting the minds to its practice, by the forcible impulse of nat- ural example, displayed on the stage as a true mirror of life. The dramatic art should also form a part of universal education, that the public might become its just and only arbiters ; and then, being purged by their censure from the licentious scenes that scandalize sympathy and pro- bity, virtue, divested of all sophistical relations and theo- logical impieties, would appear in all her charms, and manifest herself as wise self-love; and mounting this immoveable throne, would subjugate all doubts, and be elevated above the reach of the most ingenious sophistry that could inspire scepticism, or seduce the mind from her beneficent empire. Comedy claims the greater part of reproach, and in- stead of correcting, is become the school of prejudice, vice and buffoonery ; and the representation of a piece called the Beggars 7 Opera is alone [?] sufficient to dis- grace the stage, and hold it up to the execration and in- dignation of the whole world. In this, the most danger- ous vices, which in other countries are buried in oblivion with their authors, are here resuscitated and metamor- phosed into acts 6f heroism, decorated with all the inci- dents of enterprise and martial glory, accompanied with scenes of the most seducing gayety and pleasure : and the unexampled number of malefactors which this indus- trious and enlightened country produces, would be par- adoxical, unless solved and accounted for by the sedu- cing scenes of a debauched stage ; which fact, if its vic- tims had not frequently declared in their dying confes- sions, wisdom and common sense would discover. The low ribaldry and vulgar buffoonery of farces and panto- mimes, displayed not in wit or intrigue, but in kicking, cuffing, falling, and every mode of personal assault and insult, infects the morals of the people, and is the cause 56 THE MORAL STATE OF ENGLAND. of those pugilistic contests that disgrace the streets of our metropolis. The childish introduction of ghosts, witches and hob-goblins, recalls weak minds back to the remembrance of follies and fears, which time would obliterate, if theatrical managers had wisdom enough to copy the improvement of other nations, who must con- tent a refined people with the combination of the libe ral arts of painting, dancing and music, and the more dignified, though equally absurd mythology of ancient times. Having taken a view of the intellectual faculties, affec- tions and passions of the English people, and the educa- tion that may excite or modify them, I shall proceed to observe them, in their political and social conventions. The science of GOVERNMENT is the most important and intricate of all sciences, and demands a capacity of mind to comprehend and consider a subject sim.ultane- ously in all its parts and relations : and this power is what constitutes wisdom. It is evident to a mind in possession of this faculty, that government, to be perfect, should conform to the moral powers and habitudes of its subject ; that these are related to many circumstances of situation, custom, and policy of neighbors. Nobody would conceive it po- sible to establish an absolute democracy, the most per- fect form of social union, in the island of Jamaica, with- out changing the temper of its inhabitants, by a total re- form in the institutions of society. The principles of the aggregate body being heteroge- neou ; three-fourths placing happiness in liberty and re- pose, and one-fourth in slavery and activity, it is plain there can be no point of union or concentration, and that force alone can hold together such a herd of men ; for I cannot call it a community. This exemplar will serve for all nations in proportion as they possess union ot sentiment in the only true centre, wisdom or virtue ; for they ore synonimous. Tbere is no- nation in the world whose inhabitants LIBERTY REGULATED BY CIRCUMSTANCES. 5'f possess generally, or in the gross, wisdom ; and there- fore force of government is employed to substitute an artificial for the natural point of union, and it relaxes or contracts its energy, according as virtue has more or less influence. If the volition of man was directed by the unerring guide, wisdom, all kinds of government would become inimical and vicious coercion. While error, in- terest and superstition pervert the human faculties, it is necessary that the collective judgment of many individu- als should establish a system of coercion or government, to prevent ignorance in its rage from destroying the whole race of humanity. Government must also be considered as to local situa- tion, and the policy of its neighbors. If these are ig- norant, and consequently wicked, their properties *nd lives will be in danger ; coercion must then augment its pow- ers, in order to drag the selfish citizen from that avari- cious ignorance, which makes him refuse pecuniary aid to public exigencies, and by giving up a small part of his property to furnish an armament of his countrymen, pre- vent the whole from being plundered by an enemy. Many others not prompted by sordid avarice, hut influ- enced by their affections as parents or children, have not wisdom to intrench on their comforts, in order to pro- cure them greater in public safety. The nations agitated by uncommon industry acquire superior strength and riches, and would sooner conquer their neighbors, if a spirit of emulation or equality of industry did not take place. This industry is enforced by the institutions of society, which coercion executes, and by the accumulated property of the great, forces the poor, or the great body of the people, .to a state of ex- treme necessity, which compels Nature, ever seeking re- pose, to violent and destructive labor: but if the viola- tion was uncontrolled by a participation of authority, as in a democratical government, labor and property would be soon equalized, if political wars were frequent, and the nations populous and extensive. Government cannot be regulated by abstract princi- 58 THE MORAL STATE OF ENGLAND. pies of liberty and truth, but is imperiously subjugated to sacrifice their plenitude, and to reduce them to the proportion which national wisdom has arrived at. to es- tablish domestic and that which universal wisdom is arrived at, to establish political institutions ; and the im- portant point, which great intellectual faculties only can discover, is that, where speculation and practice unite. The English nation, by the powerful operation of the collective force of thought, have seized this glorious point both in politics and morality, which has elevated it to become the envy and admiration of all the nations of the globe. O that this inestimable genius of thought- fulness may every day acquire increase ! Speculative truth will then be no longer dangerous, but serve as ef- fulgent beacons of light, to bring the tempest-tost vessel of Humanity, with wisdom at the helm, and contempla- tion casting the lead at the prow, into the harbor of In- tellectual Existence, and an Enlightened State of Nature. The policy of this country is founded upon an exten- sive basis of aristocracy,, consisting of the tenth part of its population. This power is organized by means of three estates. The first is the King, w r ho having assum- ed a superiority by the right of conquest, temporized with the independent disposition of his subjects, and go- verned them by forming a partial assembly of the House of Commons, to represent the people, and an hereditary and permanent council of the House of Lords,yMo rep- resent the nobles. By this coJlusive participation of authority with the nation, men of power and property are satisfied; and the people, being left in possession of the power of the law, and the administration of justice, preserve the majesty and sovereignty of the nation, on this insurmountable bulwark, from tyranny and despo- tism. Power being thus divided, the public offices and emol- uments of every sort being monopolized by one tenth ot the people, this creates an interest independent on the public good, and is the cause of the corruption, factions and intestine broils, which disgrace in a peculiar manner : THE BASENESS OF THE ARISTOCRACY. 59 this nation, and are carried to such extremes, as to insult civilization itself. Boroughs are put up to auction like bales of goods ; treacherous representatives are as pub- licly bought, as faithful ones are arbitrarily punished ; and the political liberties of the nation are endangered or bartered for the spoils of power by an ambitious sove- reign. Add to this mass of constitutional evil the embarrass- ment and corruption which the administration of policy acquires from the union with independent kingdoms, and the domain of conquests in the East and West ; I know not whether we ought to feel more alarm or admiration, when we approach under the body to view this hetero- genious and nicely-poised colossal fabric. Was it the trembling hand of form, that alone upheld this enormous weight, we should recoil from it with dread ; but I see this Colossus fixed firmly to its base, by the cement of private and public virtue, which ena- bles it to resist such violent concussions of audacious and impious vice, as would overturn any other empire upon the face of the earth. This virtue is the effect of social convention, whose tacit and implied compacts, formed by morals, customs, and manners, are most religiously and sacredly obeyecf; and though they are in most cases repugnant to the laws of Nature ; yet, as the breach of them is assimilated to the breach of Nature's compendious, but comprehensive code PROBITY and SYMPATHY ; the mind, reflective and anticipative, pays an universal obedience, and becomes habituated to the order so necessary to concentrate the force of individuals, and forms that wonderful confidence and unity, which elevates the nation of England to a po- litical and civil pre-eminence which astonishes mankind. I shall now proceed to take a view of the life of man, conducted by the social conventions in this island, and discover what degree of happiness or well-being he there- by acquires. We have allowed him the most operative intellect and the most sympathetic or virtuous heart; but these operate in the same dark hemisphere of pre- 60 THE MORAL STATE OF ENGLAND. judice common to all mankind. He has preferred politi- cal greatness and wealth, to moral liberty and happiness, and furnishes the world with an instructive example of their incompatibility. The nature of man is constantly tending to liberty and repose, and would revolve tranquil- ly, like the sun round its own axis : but social institu- tions, like the physical laws of attraction in nature, force his planet into the more extensive and agitated revolution of a political orbit. This attraction may be remarked in the severity of domestic government by pa- rents, the rigid observance of civil compacts exacted by the laws, and the sacrifice of private interest by policy, to the public good. The individual is thus shackled and enslaved, to form a powerful collective mass called a na- tion, which may become the lordly oppressor of all na- tions upon the face of the globe. The force of multiplied civil restraints, laid in a most extraordinary manner upon the inhabitants of this island, has called in private combat to its aid, as if afraid that the wonderful energy of Nature in the temperaments of the people, would overturn the colossal pyrnmid of go- vernment, though placed on its base. This dreadful personal legitimated combat, while it supports the ma- chine of policy, destroys the power of truth and Nature, and like a Cerberus of hell, it is made the guardian of individual rectitude and virtue, and must be so while the iniquitous acts of domestic and foreign policy resem- ble so well the [fabled] infernal regions. Hence arises that taciturnal gloom which haunts so- ciety, and in the form of a naked axe in the hand of each guest, makes him the spectre of an executioner, to ex- tinguish joy in benevolent and convivial hearts. Hence the patient, though painful content of the wise, fur the insults of vice and folly in our streets. Hence the in- sults inflicted upon the audience at the theatre, when their pleasures are interrupted, and the unprotected fe- males alarmed by the drunken and beastly riot of disso- lute and abandoned bullies, who have too much folly to have any fear. Hence those daring assaults of bands of THE PROSTITUTION OF THE PERIODICALS. 61 pick-pockets, who, being resisted or detected in their attempts to plunder, beat their victim to the point of death, and by calling the horrid assassination by the term "boxing," society can only weep over, but not avenge the death of a virtuous and unfortunate member. Alas ! in what language to paint and deplore the des- tiny of man, while we view him in this island enjoying in a most partial manner the best gifts of Nature ; a happy climate, fertile soil, secure position, superior un- ders^anding and sympathetic heart ; and yet all these ad- vantages are abused and perverted, and error, the great enemy of humanity, seduces him to prefer political pow er to private liberty, and national wealth to personal hap piness ; and the most morally enslaved individuals are proud to be the most powerful and wealthy nation on the globe. The characteristic violence of the passions of the En- glish nation extends its despotism to poison the inesti- mable and only source of wisdom and happiness, the lib- erty of the press. And while truth beams with celestial and auspicious glory from the pens of many enlightened, independent, and liberal authors, the ephemeral and pe- riodical productions of the press, under the title of news- papers, journals, pamphlets &c. &c. throw mud and dirt from the common sewer of avarice and interest, into the eyes of those who would look up to the splendid orbs of wisdom. But these base prostitutes of human rea- son, like the female prostitutes, haunt the roads of busi- ness and pleasure to seize their votaries, and sacrifice in a similiar manner wisdom and virtue, to gain a base and dishonorable subsistence. The news-papers of this country are disgraceful to its characteristic wisdom; they are mere Newgate Calendars or Court Diaries, dis- playing the ingenuity of house-breakers, and the contemp- tible operations of the conduct, dresses and carnages at a levee. Their censure is so illiberal, that it recoils with contempt upon the authors ; their anecdotes are fur- nished from the lives of whores and gamesters, of whom a news-paper forms a complete biography, and marks 6@ THE MORAL STATE OF ENGLAND. with distinguished paragraphs their only heroes, bruisers, pick-pockets and sharpers ; and was it not for an acci- dental epistolary correspondence, their prostitution, igno- rance and falsehood would render them, instead of the sentinels of liberty, the agents of error and despotism. England, the happiest of nations, propelled by a pow- erful aggregate mass of wisdom and virtue, which pre- dominates over a great and weighty mass of vice, is still rising upon the broad arc of its political hemisphere; but luxury and conquest bear hard upon the point to force it to a declination. Public orators arraign the fe- rocious hand of conquest, but their text being suspected from their insufficiency of character and measures, they serve only to tear the veil from the treacherous acts of unrelenting policy, and extend the Machiaveliau spirit from the contracted sphere of ministerial council, to the assembly of the people, and the sacred palladium of the constitution. The House of Lords is forced to the hu- miliating and mortifying dilemma of either sacrificing the sacred and rigid character of the judge, or the patri- otism of the zealous and compromising political minister. The sophistry of these mock patriots and verbal orators brings the most atrocious crime of murder in the dillem- ma of policy, to be palliated and modified in a British senate. How much is it to be dreaded, that this politi- cal casuistry should iri a short period totally debase and corrupt individual integrity and sympathy, which I have before shown to substantiate all forms of government, and render force and policy almost unnecessary. If there was a citizen, the greatness of whose mind possessing (the essence of virtue,) sympathy and probi- ty, could comprehend the happiness of all his fellow- creatures in every part of the globe, he would, in the en- thusiasm of humanity, drag nations to the bar of con- science, and make (hem depose, upon the altar of justice, to expiate their guilt, ail the unjust conquests of domain and property, and not add ingratitude to treachery, by offering up the head of *.he citizen, who in the zeal of patriotism mistook policy for justice, as an illusive sac- ITS FUTURE POLITICAL PROSPECTS. S3 rifice, which would be rather an insult than adoration of that holy shrine. Having exposed the [negative] extreme and lowest degree upon the scale of happiness, of a nation possess- ing the most elevated rank on that of grandeur, I shall in conclusion, open to it the consoling PROSPECTS of fu- turity. The political thunderbolt that shook down the pyra- mid of civil government of France to its foundation, was the accumulated weight of public debt : this storm is gathering fast in this island. The government of this country stands on the broad basis of a truncated pyra- mid, which will resist equally the shock of policy and the hand of repair ; and should the corroding damp of luxury not destroy the cement of integrity, sympathy and wisdom, in the base or people, it may receive the vio- lence of the shock, and be happily subverted by changing its base. This was not the case in France, the pyra- mid placed on its point fell from a great height, and having no constituent cement in the great body of the people, it was reduced to such a dust as will require the education of a century to prepare the cement of unity under any form.* If the aristocracy of England had as much wisdom as they have ambition, they would not only prepare con- ductors of reform, as the storm of public debt lowers, and the taxes, (vivid flasiies of the lightning of individual misery,) indicate the dreadful momentum of the falling thunderbolt; but they would extend the basis of the * Observation of much Importance. Insolvent debtors have been declared by the National Assem- bly of France, unworthy of the rights of citizens 5 while the same characters have had the audacity to solicit, and the nation of England the baseness to appoint them to the office of sena- tors and chief magistrates. Luxury and debauchery are rapidly introducing into this country, a base indifference towards the moral characters of candidates for public offices ; a certain prog- riostic of the decline and fall of all constituted governments. 64 THE MORAL STATE OF ENGLAND. fabric of government, by reforming and extending the re- presentation of the people, which would so far resist the shock, that the mass, by being well incorporated, would not be demolished but removed only by the most violent impulse, to a more happy and secure position. The mode of organization of society is to the nation what the economy of the passions is to the individual ; * the only means to procure well-being or happiness, and for a nation to be well constituted, every native must partake of its government ; this may debilitate the arm of attack, but in the same ratio it invigorates the arm oi defence. In proportion as 'the circle of government ex- tends itself, luxury, vice, ambition and all the evils of despotism are contracted; and the mind losing all fero- city and martial vigor, in the progress of society to such a state of perfection, may render such happy people ex- posed to the inroads of neighboring corrupted kingdoms, or savage hordes. This would be the case but that the glorious and moral effulgence which radiates from their happiness, will not fail to enlighten and civilize the sur- rounding nations, and dart its auspicious and congenial rays to the utmost extent of the globe. O England^ NATURE thus calls upon you to accom- plish her labors and ends, and procure happiness to all her creatures. " O my favorite and long cherished isle ! I have pla- ced thee on the globe in a position, separated from its inhabitants, and fortified by the seas ; I have bestowed on thee fertility of soil, and a congenial temperate cli- mate; I have most partially endowed thy inhabitants with the greatest powers of mind, and the best virtues of the heart. Thou shalt be the fountain oi' light, the source of happiness, and the glorious instrument I have chosen, for procuring to my works, that moral perfection for which I constantly labor. The liberty of the press forms that holy source ; guard it, O Bntons ! from its most dangerous enemies, despotism and error; let not their unhallowed violence profane the sanctity of its temple; it is the high priest of the God I adore TRUTH. THE INVOCATION OF NATURE. 65 It is the aurora that precedes the moral sun, which shall enlighten the dark hemisphere of ignorance and error ; that has already operated in the Western hemisphere, to form several nations of free citizens ; that has destroyed the despotism of a formidable empire in the Eastern hemisphere, and erected the state of liberty on its ruins. I now conjure you, in the name of liberty and truth, to open the glorious source, the press, and correct your own errors, by the means by which you have demolished those of other nations. Let not the merit of the pupil make the tutor blush at a comparative view of excellence. America has amply and gratefully recognized my gift of liberty, by the veneration of the liberty of the press above all nations, and I should transfer my tutelage and partiality for this isle to that continent, but for that mo- ral and physical unity arising from the love of truth and exnvise of thought, which assures, in an essential and singular manner, the perpituity of the English empire. 1 Since, then, I have favored you with these inesti- ma-'le advantages, transfer your hopes and labors for pow- er and riches, to peace and happiness. To effect this, the absolute liberty of the press, on all speculative sub- jects, is necessary to call your superior intellectual pow- ers into exercise, to oppose the enormous strength of your passions ; or do I think that private character should be privileged. Calumny, with all its treachery, would then be transferred to public reproach; virtue would have nothing to fear, and vice would, at least, have a fair trial. This would prepare, by the light of reason, such unanimity of sentiment in the unity of truth, that all adopted political reforms would be a gradual and tranquil extension of the base of government, by an uni- versal representation.* This would, in the same propor- * This operation of reason through the channel of a free press, would offer an antidote to the baneful effects of luxury and con- quest, which threaten to destroy that valuable and characteristic moral cement, which will still hold society together, whatever change of position the mass may take from the concussions of policy. *-6 66 THE MORAL STATE OP NATIONS, tion, extend happiness to every individual, and the na- tion will arrive at that glorious eminence, which I have predestined to it before all others ; and with the ema- nation of light from its press, and the more converting example of its virtue, they will first establish domesti- cally, and then universally, the empire of happiness, or State of Enlightened NATURE." [Jls the author, in his list of nations, has not mentioned SCOTLAND, he probably mtended to include it in the preceding account of England.] [To palliate the severity of the following strictures on IRELAND, it may be premised that such redeeming spir- its as SWIFT, E, FITZGERALD, ORR, EMMET, CURRAN, GRATTAN, T. WOLFE TONE, MONTGOMERY, MATURIN, MARLA EDGEWORTH, THOMAS MOORE, SHIEL and O'CoN- NELL, show the high degree of intellectual and moral ele- vation^ of which tlie IRISH character is susceptible, and which it may eventually attain, if liberated from the oppres- sive and withering despotism, of the author's boasted Eng- land. In the conclusion of this icor/c, he explains : u I have censured most, those nations whose individuals I most love, and with whom I most live ; I mean the Irish and the French, whose urbanity, facility, joyous and lib- eral characters are as pleasing," &c.] ME MORAL STATE OP NATION). 67 IRELAND. THOUGH this country is united under the same sove- reign, governed by the same constitution, laws, customs and education, [ ? as Great Britain,] yet the individuals differ so much in moral character, that the paradoxical axiom of Pope, " For forms of government let fools contest, " That which is best administered is best," is solved and explained by the extreme and unparalleled misery of this people. The mind of the native of this island is so peculiarly devoid of its anticipative and reflective power, that it has not prospective capacity to the short period of a sentence, to explain an idea with perspicuity and cor- rectness ; and hence arise those blunders of speech^ termed bulls in their discourse ; hence also arises that want of intellect, sympathy and probity, the constituent parts of virtue, displayed by the national character of effrontery, which removes all fear to offend, and all ap- prehension of disgrace, from too familiar deportment, and thoughtless loquacity ; testified also by the aptitude to enter into foreign service, and put to death their fellow- creatures to obtain a livelihood less honorable in the eye of unprejudiced reason than the profession of a highway- man ; hence their indifference to murder, and propensity, nay even pleasure in the contest of blood, by frequent duels, that sometime ago were said to be a pastime in a Dublin coffee-house, and even now in those of Galway ; hence the droves of fortune-hunters, sharpers, gamesters and malefactors with which that country inundates its neighbors; hence that character of falsehood that is be- come a proverb, and an Irish evidence is synonomous with perjury. From this sum of individual corruption the aggregate of society or government is formed, and it proves by an 68 TUB MORAL STATE OF IRELAND. unconcealed and audacious prostitution of its members, that it is a perfect representation of its people. The administration of justice, the palladium of liberty 5 flowing from the same impure source, is equally infected. The subordinate civil officers prostitute their consciences, and betray the sacred and sovereign trust of judicial au- thority, by compromising, or conniving at felonies, and committing to prison a poor man who shall resent, with opprobrious language, the insult and tyranny of cruel and avaricious landlords, whose dissipation, libertinism, and defective intellect incapable of knowing fear, under the specious names of liberality and courage, tear the bread from the famished mouth of the peasant, and render him o wretched, that he might emigrate to Turkey, and there be blessed and receive from the equitable administration of an honest despot, a happiness which the unprincipled administration of liberty refused.* The state of this country teaches an instructive les- ion to all mankind, and shows that the mind must be enlightened, and the heart humanized before any form of association can procure public happiness. The mind of this country is in such a manner deprived of a providen- tial reflection, that instead of avoiding, it rushes on ap- proaching and future danger ; and individuals frequently oppose the whole body of the nation in the collection of taxes, recovery of rents, and execution of laws. Sub- ordination is unknown, and great military force can alone effect, what an inoffensive symbol of office in the hand of an old woman, would and does execute in every civilized country upon the face of the globe. Happy is it for the rest of the earth, that this nation of monsters, like tigers or lions, cannot act in droves * Unparalleled violence ! disgraceful to civilization. The rents of small farms in this country are collected with more violence, arms and bloodshed, than imperial tributes are in the savage states of Asia. The courageous great, urged by extravagance and lux- ury, dare withhold indulgence from the ferocious and oppressed tenant. IGNORANC.E, VICE AND MISERY. 69 or unity. That very ignorance which makes them indif- ferent to danger or their own preservation, would ena- ble them to violate and subdue the rights and liberties of all mankind, but religion has destroyed that union, and as if to expiate the misery it has caused for many ages past , here operates a powerful good, destroying by big- otry all union, and forces them to turn their sanguinary talons upon themselves, which diverts and disables them from oppressing and enslaving the rest of mankind. The character of the Irish nation is a moral phenom- enon, which proves above all other evidence, that man- kind has its species as well as the brute kind. It may be evinced from observation, that in proportion as the powers of animation convey energy to. the passions, it gives it to the mental faculties. We must here take no- tice, that it is sensibility I speak of, and not any par- ticular passion. In the course of my observation, I have always found good sense associated therewith ; but in the moral constitution of the Irish nation I find this quality all on the side of passion, and the mind that sees with wonderful perspicuity on one side of the object un- der contemplation, is absolutely incapable to take a sim- ultaneous view of all its parts, and possesses neither extension nor profundity. The cause of this lays beyond the power of discovery; the cure, however, does not; for we see, in those per- sons who have long associated with the English nation, more capacity to think, than in others who have not had that advantage, and their natural ferocity of temper wears off in proportion as that faculty augments. The means of bringing this nation to make any pro- gress in the attainment of wisdom and happiness, will' be to select virtuous characters from their own sister kingdom, to place them in the offices of civil and politi- cal administration, choose them for ministers of reli- gion, and masters of education. Let a more intimate intercourse of marriage and residence with England be established as a system ; and it is only by such univer- sal communication and influence, that the present animal TO THE MORAL STATE OF IRELAND, existence of an Irishman can be brought into intellectual existence ; and when they enter into that happy orbit, let them learn from the dreadful example of misery and de- cline, which policy and luxury must in a short period bring upon their sister kingdom, that intellectual power is to be employed in studying man, to discover the state of well-being in conformity to his nature ; and that vvis- dow and virtue are the means to procure it, as wealth and grandeur are to destroy it socially and individually. Pardon me, virtuous characters of Ireland, if the en- thusiasm with which I embrace the cause of suffering humanity, should force me to a severity of censure, which may wound the feelings of patriotism.* I lament that prejudice has such an influence over the pride of virtue and honor, that it sympathizes in the groans of its tortured enemies vice and ignorance. I mean to inflame your resentment I mean to ani- mate you. Satire should touch the quick of man, self- love. This urges him to action, and is unlike the so- phistry of measured rhetorical periods, which serve but to burthen his memory and confound his reason. Ani- mated language, like electrical tire, strikes all minds with the same force, in the same moment. It is the energy of simple words that creates thought thought, action and action by the combination of numbers, produces ir- resistible force and efficacy to whatever it may be ap- plied. * Like a skilful and unpitying surgeon, I must cut into the gan- grene, though the sound flesh must sutler in the operation. THE MORAL STATE OF NATIONS. FRANCE. How important is the situation of this numerous arirl powerful nation, having torn from the hands of the mon- ster, tyranny, the iron sceptre that oppressed it with fear and terror, and laboring under the rage of enthusi- asm, to put the silken fetters of law and order upon ihe convulsed and active arm of Struggling Liberty! The contemplative regard of the whole world, anxious lor the fate of humanity, attends upon this political phe- nomenon this wonderful event, that eclipses in impor- tance and novelty the whole records of universal history. I will not attempt to augur success or failure; but while I congnftulate them upon their glorious triumph over tyranny, I will proceed to examine the source of all good and evil, the hearts and minds of the individuals of whom this nation is formed, and by exposing the de- fects, propose such means of improvement, as may for- ward the end of all association human happiness. This land is most partially and eminently blessed by- Nature in all its physical relations; the climate is heal- thy and the soil productive. Man, here possesses an instinct, [LOVE.] which has given him an animal happi- ness superior to all other people, enabling him to fill up the moment with pleasure, inducing him to adopt it as a system and to study it as a science ; while a neighbor- ing nation acquires it by stealth or accident, regarding it as -as an enemy to public and individual prosperity. This nation, even while it was convulsed in political apathy and slavery, enjoyed the most perfect moral liber- ty ; and he who was so fortunate as to escape the re- gards of political tyranny, was the freest man upon the globe. Nature has blessed the mind with such instinc- tive toleration, that foibles are reciprocally pardoned. Here the fiend jealousy that cursed enemy to human hap- piness, holds not in a state of torture and subjection, 72 THE MORAL STATE OF FRANCE, love, the first and freest affection of the human heart. Instinct, unerring, shows the chains of love to be form- ed by the imponderous links of attraction, and where their influence is not felt, to bind it with the iron chains of violence and force, is regarded as equally foolish and atrocious. Jealousy, in a liberal mind, operates only in regret, and struggles to regain a lost, beloved object, by redoubling its effort to please, and when this does riot succeed, and hope is swallowed up by despair, the re- jected lover leaves the pursuit, and forgets the disap- pointment in the affection of some more congenial object. This country from its state of moral liberty, has been the asylum to persecuted Nature: here Southern nations, of amorous weakness and tenderness, withdrew from their detested regions, bedewed with the blood of love's victims, sacrificed on the altar of vindictive jealousy : here those of the West withdrew from the morose, ill- natured censure of innumerable laws of social decorum, and found a congenial spirit of liberality, that gave res- piration to the suffocation of endless oppressive formali- ties : here the nations of the North exchanged the heavy moral and physical atmosphere, for one more light and gay; and the mind, contracted by rigid rules and customs, expanded in the mild region of genius and pleasure. If this great blessing of moral liberty be secured un- der the benign and auspicious influence of a free consti- tution; and if to the animal enjoyments of pleasure could be added, by the force of wisdom, intellectual happiness, a native of this country would be chosen as an example to the world, of a man existing in a state of enlightened Nature. O Frenchmen ! how glorious is the attempt of your present revolution ; the hearts and happiness of all man kind are interested. Permit me, with the zeal of a child of Nature, sympathizing with all sensitive matter, to expose to you the conceptions of an unprejudiced in- genuous mind, which, though they may not have the con- sistency or perfectability of system, may be as scatter* THE DEPLORABLE WANT OF CONFIDENCE. /** cd rays of light, which, concentrated by more able minds, may produce efficient heat. The connections of every intellect under novel com- binations, are rays of reason, purified and proved by the collision of many minds. The press unbounded and absolutely free, is the divine force, which by communi- cation with moral Nature, extended over the whole globe, would concentrate those rays with such abun- dance, that when applied to error, they would so instan- taneously volatilize it, that not an atom would remain, and human happiness would reign without an enemy to combat. This glorious attempt to establish the onto form of constitution, which reason presents, and virtue adopts, requires that every citizen must consent, by deputy or in person, to the laws which bind him in society, aud can be procured or supported only by the great powers of the mind, called reflection, and the great virtues of the heart, probity and sympathy. Do ye, that is, the majority of yoflr nation, possess these? I have lived much among you, to partake of your animal pleasures, but my intellectual existence could find no associate, and became irksome. I saw a lamen^ table absence of these perfections I found your minds possessed of all that knowledge could give, retentive and full memories, inventive imaginations, good judgments, fruitful in works of ingenuity, and having produced " the System of Nature," the greatest effort of human wisdom, to destroy error : but alas ! I found not the divine pow- er, that soul of intellect, reflection ; that power that leaves the intellect of Newton at as great a distance, as he has left instinct ; that gives to man the only knowl- edge worth acquiring, the knowledge of himself; and that alone should, or can be called wisdom. The mind that possesses this, must possess probity, and must convey to the heart that sympathy, which identifies it with Nature, and regenerates it to intellectual existence, happiness and immortality. The melancholy proofs, that you want the virtues of 74 THE MORAL STATE OF FRANCE. probity and sympathy, are to be discovered in the asso- ciation of Nature, domestic society. Here the demon of envy rages, and all characters of merit, or objects of success, are constantly the subjects of discourse, to be- come the butts of calumny and hatred; and this in so / peculiar a manner, that is become a characteristic of the f nation. The want of every species of confidence is an ample and conclusive proof of the absence of those vir- tues that give worth and dignity to human nature. Po- litical confidence had never an existence ; and civil, which must have that for its basis, was unkown, as is evinced by an absolute incapacity to form commercial associations, and by suffering other nations possessing confidence, England and Holland, to carry on your prop- er and natural commerce, and even the insurance of the national maritime commerce, carried on by rich individu- als. At this important crisis of the happiest revolution in form and means, that annals or history records ; the whole body of the nation, completely and satisfactorily represented and concentrated, pledging their private and public faith to fulfil the engagements of the nation; was there a grain of confidence in the people, surely it would come forth at so glorious a period, when the salvation of their liberties calls for the immediate aid of that vir- tue, and adds the allurement of immense gain to the in- citement of public honor and safety. But alas! the shouts of triumphant liberty are deadened by the multipli- ed murmurs of suspicion, selfish love, and in the deliri- um of emancipated slavery, confidence 'is not to be found. Alas! I tremble for the destiny of the expectant, im- patient and attentive world, lest the lustre of your po- litical revolution should, like an ignis fatuus, draw other nations to the precipice of emancipation ; for who, that knows human nature, would instantly unshackle the Af- rican slaves, without preparing their minds to receive freedom, lest the disorder of anarchy might let loose mankind in the delirium of licentiousness, to destroy one another ? DEPLORABLE WANT OF CONFIDENCE. 75 1 fear that liberty has, with rapid strides, out-run vir- tue in this country ; and if that is the case, it will be the demon of licentiousness broke loose from the chains of arbitrary coercion, wielding the sword of anarchy with blind zeal and vindictive fury, till exhausted with the violence of its own struggles, it sheaths the sword, and ; in a fit of despair, bows its head to the galling, though' less destructive yoke of despotism. I still hope, however, that there is virtue enough in France, to suppress licentiousness, natural and in the present moment even necessary, to aid the weakness of virtue, by overawing vice in this country ; where confi- dence had long been unknown, it was impossible to have established liberty upon a constitution. The people have done wisely to take the government into their own hands, and had they placed a confidence in acjr form, they would certainly have been betrayed. O French- men ! pursue this mode, till education and custom, aided by the revolution, shall introduce a system of virtue and confidence; then, and then only can you repose in repre- sentatives ; and though you may lose in power and ener- gy, you will be amply recompensed in the gain of liberty. Emancipate yourselves from the slavery of women ; separate the corporeal from the intellectual pleasure, and esteem a woman as a man for moral worth only, and know, that virtue is placed in the mind, and ru)t in the ignoble parts of the body, formed only for sensual plea- sure. An opposite opinion is the effect of folly and vanity; which passion, the dreg of humanity, woman plays upon to dupe mankind to adopt her vice and weak- ness. Promote assiduously the good education of wo- man, and bring her to her natural equality in intellect with man, that she may claim her equality in society, and then only will she become a worthy member, and assent to the great moral truth, that virtue is placed in the mind. But while man keeps her in ignorance and subjection, she will oppose such an axiom as deprives her of all worth and consequence. What a dreadful re- flection for the. interests of humanity ! The tyranny of 76 THE MORAL STATE OF PRANCE. man depriving woman of dignity and virtue, while Na- ture has given her powers to subjugate her tyrant, and force his wisdom to be controlled by her folly, which is the cause of the greatest part of the misery of the whole human race. Government in a country bordering upon powerful em- pires, where foreign policy, population and commerce are so active as in France, must have energy, or it would fall a prey to the more concentrated powers of neighboring states. This, liberty would furnish, in a most efficacious manner ; but then it must be founded in virtue, and the preponderating mass or majority of the . people must possess, Wisdom, Probity and Sympathy, the essence of all private and public Virtue. Hasten then, O Frenchmen ! to accelerate the progress of these virtues, the cause of all sound happiness, and the true substance of all government. Send over your youth to the island of truth and virtue, England let them there receive their education to an adult age en- courage English preceptors to transfer themselves to your country to educate, by instruction and example, the youths in all the colleges and universities of France ; and thus, to the physical blessings of your own country, adding the moral blessings of your neighbors, you may furnish an example of human perfection, to be a model to all rising and reforming nations upon the globe. Be cautious in your choice; the strong and violent passions of an Englishman, when they triumph over a very powerful reason, produce such monsters, that they would bring among you all the evils of ignorance and vice, that afflict and disgrace humanity. In the same country are to be found bigots, enemies to reason ; bloods and boxers, enemies to humanity ; sharpers and game- sters, enemies to honesty ; and public orators, under the mask of patriotism, enemies to society. Select those great characters alone deserving the name of men, the integrity and sympathy of whose minds forms a prepon- derating mass in the aggregate of society; and who, while they secure the social union amid the most dread- ITS STUPENDOUS REVOLUTION. 77 ful concussions of vice, give it an efficacy to procure domestic peace, and an avowed superiority over all oth- er nations of the globe. When I contemplate the REVOLUTION of this country, I am appalled with my reflections, and seem to regret the absence of the monster despotism. I think I see the moral world convulsed and swallowed up in the dreadful chasm and abyss of anarchy. The moral hem- isphere, surrounded with the darkness of civil and reli- gious error, presents a desolating scene priests running about with the blazing torch of superstition, causing dreadful conflagrations, and with alternate fire and dark- ness dazzle and confound the intellectual eye, and pre- cipitate the followers into the dreadful chasm! The moral earthquake has opened. Mock patriots, led by the fury of ambition to profit by these troubles, augment the incension, and precipitate those whom the enthusi- astic fury of the priests had spared. The liberty of the press, whose sparks the despot trampled upon and extinguished, now shines; to its light I turn my eyes to receive some comfort, while I turn my back on the above calamitous scene. But alas! the darkness in which the despot had educated the subjects, makes them mistake the meteor for the star, and the friends of despotism profit by their ignorance and the liberty of the press, to augment it. O Frenchmen ! listen to the counsels of ,a child of Nature, whose universal sympathy attracts you as near to him, as his social or parental connections. Since you have leaped to the pinnacle of absolute liberty, which should be approximated only by the aid of the ladder of wisdom and virtue, you must either conjure those qualities to your immediate support, or descend from the pinnacle to meet them. Virtue demands much time and improved education to spread into habit, which gives birth to confidence, a quality, without which no nation can rise on the pinnacle of absolute liberty, or perfect democracv. 7* 78 THE MORAL STATE OP FRANCE. You have made the experiment to attain liberty with- out the above-mentioned ladder; if you do not succeed, descend upon a more contracted base, to found the con- stitution ; and there, by means of a good education and free press, cultivate wisdom and virtue, and let your ap- proach to democracy, or perfect government, be parallel to their increase. England,* possessing the latent powers of extensive thought, demands the aid of a great country, which by a reciprocal freedom of Ihe press, may find a steel for her flint, from whose collision, sparks of wisdom may be produced, to illumine the whole world, and bring man- kind to a state of intellectual existence, liberty and hap- piness, through the tranquil and only medium of wisdom and virtue. To prove that liberty cannot exist, or be established without virtue in the people, look to the Belgic provin- ces, where fanaticism 4ias armed the people against her; look to Holland, where the zeal of loyalty to the House ot Orange has done the same; in both countries the liberty of the press is destroyed, to keep the moral horizon in a state of darkness, congenial to the reign of despotism and superstition. Had the liberty of the press been es- tablished under the new forms of government which these countries assumed, I should then have applauded a wise and cautious constitution, that held power by trust, as a guardian of the subject in a state of minority or igno- rance, with intention to prepare their minds for their estate of liberty, when they arrive at the adult age of wisdom an-d virtue. But the violation of the liberty of the press, proves the one to be detestable bigots, and the other contemptible slaves, both meriting the universal execration of mankind. When I contemplate the state of wisdom and virtue in France, I feel more doubt than hope for the establish- ment of a perfect association, or organization of society, * A country reasoning from its own prejudices and habJts, is a flint without a steel. ITS PORTENTOUS REVOLUTION, 79 by an universal representation. Though they have tri- umphed over bigotry and slavery, the great enemies to reason and truth, yet there is such an aversion in the mind, to reflect or invert its faculties of thought upon self, from which operation wisdom and virtue can alone be produced, that I predict and pronounce it .impossible for that country to establish any system of constitutions! government, and anarchy, dreadful anarchy, will bring it to its only repose, in the tomb of despotism. No coiist.i - tutional form can be built, but upon the basis of confi- dence, and this noble affection of the human heart, the result of wisdom and virtue, is almost unknown in France. Hasten then, O Frenchmen ! to learn to think ; for he who knows not how to think, knows not how to live. I never saw a Frenchman, but would decide in a moment upon the most important questions, when the deliberation of a year would not be long enough for a re- flective mind to determine truths of less moment. Ne- cessity may demand decision, but then a reflective mind calls that action necessary and true, only as relative to that necessity ; whereas a thoughtless contracted mind looks upon its decisions as absolute truths. I wish for the sake of human nature, interested in this important revolution of France, .that virtue and wisdom may be as rapid in their progress, as the necessity of their aid is urgent, lest liberty, the soul of Nature, infec- ted by the morbid humors of selfish Ignorance, may be- come a plague more dreadful than despotism, to destroy mankind. Surrounding nations are already alarmed at the concussions and portentous commotions of this country, though that germ of Nature, to produce perfec- tion in the moral world, is guarded as an enemy ; and lest it should spread its powerful roots into their do- mains, Despotism, trembling, draws out all its powers, and Wisdom, fettered, testifies her doubts and interest in the cause of Liberty and Nature, in the suppressed eloquence of deep-fetched sighs, as the gag of Pespotism checks her lamentations. I rejoice exceedingly and congratulate in ecstacy this 80 THE MORAL STATE OP NATIONS / country in its triumph over the most formidable enemy of humanity, abhorred and cruel priestcraft ; and this would alone compensate all the evils of an unsuccessful revolution ; though I hope that liberty will give birth to virtue, virtue to confidence, and confidence to good go- vernment; for twenty-five millions of people must be organized by a constitution, which demands much virtue and confidence for its basis ; but democracy can have no repose in the efficient powers of contracted delegation, till the dangerous spirit of aristocracy and monarchy is totally abandoned and lost. ITALY. THOUGH this subdivision of Europe contains various states; yet, as the individual inhabitants differ but in fine and scarcely perceptible shades, I shall speak of them, as participating of the same general character, and nearly the same nature of arbitrary government, though different in form. The peculiar constitution of the mind of the inhabi- tants of this country, furnishes observation with a num- ber of curious effects, to facilitate a knowledge of the human intellect, and that by a very extraordinary contrast of strength and weakness. The imagination, memory, and judgment of the natives have most extensive pow- ers ; and the monument that attests the efforts of their combination, to produce all that is wonderful in the province of art St. Peter's church at Rome, the won- der of the world, at the same time furnishes a most hu- miliating evidence of the most deplorable ignorance and folly, by the Eucharistical sacrifice on its altar, where the Cause .of all Nature is devoured every day, in the form of a crust of bread, by its creatures. It is/here that human reason seems to preserve order THE INSANITY OF JEALOUSY. 81 in a state of madness ; here the best blood of the best hearts is wantonly and vainly spilt by the assassin's dagger. Here Insanity commands and menaces the mild and timorous infant Love, and says, " love me, or I will put you to death!" and Jealousy, with a thousand dag- gers, heaps piles of victims at the feet of his mistress, and adding the horror of ferocity, to the deformity of person and turpitude of mind, courts in this array the smiles of beauty, the consent of virtue, and affection of love. While the male monsters pay such homage, there are female monsters to receive it; nay the operations are in- verted, and the female not having the courage to wield the dagger, conceals a surer vengeance in the treacher- ous draught of liquid death, and menaces with poison the infant, love, upon the wing of flight and departure. But does this connection or association, the effect of vice and horror, proceed from love? No, true love is the affection of sympathy, which can be known only in vir- tuous minds. Pride, ambition, interest, and other pas- sions may tolerate the assassin, as a lover, and induce hatred to put on the mask of affection ; but he can never obtain esteem. Though the knight-errant could, by con- tests of blood, gain the hand of a mistress, he could never expect, to detain or preserve the heart, but by be- ing lovely in mind and person ; for the moment a more lovely or congenial object presents itself to the mistress, daggers and bolts may keep the lover at a distance, but the heart will fly to him, and leave the body alone to be a prey to the brutal lust of the tyrant possessor. The mind of the inhabitant of this country possesses all the technical powers of intellect, which operate out- wardly, to procure all the advantages of art, and all the joys of invented pleasures; but of the internal operation, called reflection, which creates sympathy and probity, the only source of happiness, it is totally devoid. The cause of this is to be found in their education, which here in common with every nation in the world., 82 THE MORAL STATE OP ITALf. England excepted, burdens the memory of the infant and corrupts the heart by a familiar communication of age to infancy, of all the chicane, treachery and falsehood trans- acted in society, of which, by the want of dignity in man, they are made to participate, as soon as their fac- ulties are 'capable to render them useful to their parents. Whoever has travelled into foreign countries, with the least observation, must have remarked this social famil- iarity between men and children, which enables the lat- ter, at the age of ten, to have more worldly knowledge than a youth of twenty in the island of England. The continental child is acquainted with all the anecdotes of its family; their concerns made up of envy, treachery, falsehood and selfishness ; while the English youth, if rich, has nothing in his memory, but Latin and Greek, foot-ball and cricket ; and if poor, knows only the tech- nical part of the trade to which he has been brought up ; and the only communion he has had with men is, to receive from them moral admonitions, to instil into him principles of rectitude and truth. Thus the heart and intellect escape being corrupted and distorted ; and en- lightened Nature contracts not, but compresses its pow- ers into the narrow and necessitated form of social con- vention, and disciplines the corps of society, to secure it from the violence of those unhappy nations, whom the menaces of a tyrant unite, to reduce others to their own state of misery and slavery. O nation ! favored with all the gifts of Nature, change the operation of your superior mental faculties, and trans- fer them from their outward, to an inward exercise, and instead of animating canvass and stone, human- ize yourselves ; call into exercise the anticipative and reflective powers of the mind the pre-eminence of man over beast. It is the faculty of mind, called reflec- tion, or internal operation of mental faculties upon self, that gives a consciousness of existence, and teaches that wisdom, which procures all the happiness and well-be- ing which the essence of man is capable of attaining. The means to procure, or bend back your faculties to PERVERSION OF TALENT. 68 this inward operation is, to substitute for books of er- ror, those of philosophy, which, aided by the liberty of the press, would destroy the infernal demon of prejudice and superstition, that keeps his foot upon the dejected neck of reason, and like the dark assassin of night, thrusts his angry talons into its mouth, to suppress speech, and stifle the operation of thought and intellect. The moral character of the inhabitants of Italy proves to what an extent the internal operations of the mind and its technical powers may arrive, without producing that capacity of thought, which inverts upon self, and gives birth to wisdom. An Italian will employ a whole life to turn a stone into a wonderful resemblance of man ; but it never enters his imagination to employ a moment of his time to render animated intellectual man. There is no nation in the world who have so much aversion to contemplation, if self is the object; a strong proof that the heart must be very corrupt, and home very unpleas- ant, since they fear so much to approach it. In England, where contemplation is familiar to almost every mind, industry has been recommended by Mr. Hume, miscalled a philosopher, because it kept man from entering into himself. This dangerous error may delay the birth of Wisdom; but I predict with confidence, that this island will be honored in a very short period with that event, and that wisdom will be nursed by that tran- quillity which the moral and physical situation of this country affords over others on the continent, which from their contrasted situation, are exposed to convulsions. This nursling, having attained the size and vigor of adult age, may leave its home and possess force sufficient to combat its enemies, superstition and despotism, in the greater field of humanity upon the continent, of which, every part is incompatible with the education of wisdom while in its infancy ; For this must be entrusted to a thoughtful and insulated nation, whose secure situation permits such a relaxed state of policy, as leaves thought and its promulgation in a state of absolute freedom. 84 THE MORAL STATE OF NATIONS. This, I predict, no country on the continent will be ena- bled to do, till wisdom shall have triumphed over error, and have totally changed the institutions of mankind ; for it is impossible, that there can be peace or happi- ness upon the earth, while the ridiculous chimera of the imagination shall be the source of sentiment, which is the source of action. Conception is the only true source of action to lead man to a state of well-being or happiness. The only operation of wisdom should be to improve and enlarge that capacity ; and till that is effected, ihe moral world will continue in its present chaos, till some centre of ac- tion is determined, about which humanity may revolve peaceably, though in different orbits. This centre, the Apocalypse of Nature will show, which England, I hope, will protect and promulgate ; and I call upon all intelli- gent minds, in every part of the world, who pant for ex- tension of their existence, to facilitate the means and co- operate for the end proposed, to lead mankind to a state of Intellectual Existence and Enlightened Nature. THE MORAL STATE OF NATIONS. 85 SPAIN. THIS country possesses many moral and physical ad- vantages a peninsular locality, which facilitates unity and defence, with a fertile soil, and happy climate the mind of its inhabitants lively and active, and their hearts uncorroded by multiplied and extravagant desires. This activity of thought is entirely occupied hy the pleasures of love, mixed with the alloy of inhuman jealousy, and suppressed by the prejudices and menaces of supersti- tion. The heart seems guided by the truth of instinct, to suppress the extravagant desires, which hurry and pre- cipitate other nations into an orbit of activity and indus- try, which deprives the mind of the calm necessary to contemplation, the medium of conscious existence and intellectual happiness. The errors and terrors of super- stition, however, keep thought from reverting to its source, and commencing that internal operation which marks the epoch of regeneration to intellectual existence, and consequently happiness. This country is characterized for a rebellious audacity against its parent, Nature, by seizing her sceptre, and chaining her powerful agent, the mind of man ; and like the parental assassin of the human embryo, it forces thought to a sacrilegious abortion, and deprives man of the means to elevate his species on the scale of animal existence. O Spaniard : look towards those countries where the glorious sun of truth and liberty shines forth ; and though some lands not having the humidity of wisdom and vir- tue, have been burnt up, and rendered sterile by heat, prepare your soil by the labor of education and study ; call to your assistance the preceptors of those countries, whose improved soil cherished and imbibed the conge- nial rays, and brought forth the fruit happiness. 8 $6 THE MORAL STATE OF NATIONS. PORTUGAL. THIS country possesses the physical advantages of soil and climate, which are counterbalanced by a danger- ous locality, exposing them to maritime invasions. It is very inferior to its neighbor in moral qualities. The mind possesses a great deal of activity, which is occupied in the enterprizes of commerce, and is amused and sup- pressed by the errors and terrors of superstition. The heart is swollen with multiplied desires, which force it into an orbit of activity, the velocity of whose revolution presents no object separate or perfect to the eye of con- templation, and debases weak minds to that point of ex- istence, connected with vegitative matter. Where the faculties of the mind are powerful, as in England, though a superior industry forces the orb of existence to an un- common velocity y<:t the understanding still preserve * ils contemplation vVtiich will ultimately retard il.scour.se, and continue it in that slow progressive motion, which f 'onus the point where contemplation enables thought to revert to its source, and produces intellectual existence and perfect happiness. In the moral constitution of people of this country, the passions have a dreadful preponderance, and destroy all sympathy and probity ; and shame or pride, the source whence their neighbors draw a small proportion of these virtues, is unknown to the Portuguese, who feel as much triumph in the ingenuity of falsehood, as the Spaniard would feel shame and apprehension in detection ; and the characteristic content of the latter, when natural wants are satisfied, may be contrasted to the union of luxurious nud natural wants of the former, which activity serves to nourish, but never seems to satiate. When the desires of the human heart acquire strength and number, probity becomes an embarrassment, and must be thrown oif, that they may acquire rapidity in their course, to overtake the object of their pursuit. THE MORAL STATE OF NATIONS. 87 Of this truth, both the existence and the cause are proved by a comparative view of the two nations, Spain and Portugal. The latter forming, as it were, but a broad shore to the ocean, is pervaded in ail its parts by commerce, which always brings in its suite avarice, falsehood and discontent ; whereas Spain, from its situ- ation, has its interior parts unconnected with the sea, and uncorrupted by the activity of commerce and its baneful attendants; and hence the eulogium of the pro- verb "Divest a Spaniard of all his virtues and he will form a good Portuguese." This country seems, however, to be in a progress of improvement, and the maritime situation to which it owes its vices, opens to it, by way of compensation, the means of perfection. The operations of the great agent of Nature, the hu- man mind, in various countries, is communicated to these people, and this all the rigor of the most damnable ty- lanny of the inquisition cannot prevent. As the flint in collision with the steel, educes sparks of fire, which, communicated to the tinder, thence to the match, and from the match to the pile of wood, extends that element, the cause of life, comfort and pleasure; so mind in col- lision with mind, elicits its sparks of light or thought, which expressed in words, transferred to the paper, and from the paper to the press, diffuses wisdom, the intel- lectual element, which produces that consciousness which alone can be called human existence and happiness, In the approximation of the moral world to a state of perfection, two dangerous and difficult passes or defiles present themselves Policy [Politics] and Superstition. In the early stages of the world, when ignorance was universal, the latter defile, thought necessary for the de- fence of humanity, was strongly guarded; in this more enlightened age, the garrison^ have been withdrawn to augment those of policy. Spain and Portugal, by refus- ing to follow this universal example, prove their inferior- ity in intellect to the rest of mankind; and show at thg 88 , THE MORAL STATE OF NATIONS. same time, by some late reforms in their infernal court of inquisition, how impossible it is to resist the course of Nature, and that the volition of man, impregnated with wisdom, will expand in proportion as that quality is influenced by the heat of invention and investigation, caused by the collision of thoughtful enlightened nations, and explode, like confined gunpowder, till it has reached the plenitude of its elasticity, intellectual existence, though compressed with worlds heaped on worlds of policy and superstition. It is wise in ail nations to watch this expansive ten- dency of the mind, and to move in a reform of supersti- tion and politics parallel to its force ; for all sudden and unequal operation of reform is dangerous innovation, in- imical to the ultimate state of man's happiness, and would resemble the conduct of an imprudent nurse, who, to comply with the child's will, relinquishes the leading- strings, and leaves it to wander in ignorance, to the brink of a precipice, where it would not fail to meet its destruction. But it is at the same time very unwise to resist grad- ual reform, which promotes a tendency of the mind to expansion, as is the case at present in England, where the revenue of extensive conquests, and appointments of office have created an interest in the legislative body that preponderates against the interest of the country; and reform, undiscriminated from innovation, is dreaded, and the current is left to swell, till by accumulated force, it breaks down the dikes, and inundates and devastates all the land. THE MORAL STATE OF NATIONS. 89 SWITZERLAND. THIS country contains a variety of associations or states, but their moral character has not shades sufficient- ly strong to require a separate and discriminating rela- tion. That noble and only true principle of all govern- ment, that every citizen must consent to the establish- ment of laws, which he is obliged to obey, is, in appear- ance only, better known and practised here, than in any other part of the world. The democratic states nearest perfection in this coun- try, authorize the humiliating destruction of sovereign, towns and subject towns, and admit an anti-republican principle, which destroys, degrades and confounds all the slates of this country under the general term, aris- tocracy. The moral constitution of these people is formed of good intellects, and calm passions : the first have no great energy to surpass the boundaries of human institu- tions, nor the latter to urge man to an unhappy course ot activity. They seem to be but a higher order of animals, and differ from the woolly inhabitants of the same moun- tains, only as the one bears, and the other shears the fleece from the back ; or wnence comes it, that a people laying in the lap, and hanging on the nurturing breast of its mother Nature, dares, like an ungrateful infant, revolt, and bite the benign nipple that gives it aliment. This allegory I shall explain, by taking a view, not" of the form, but the administration of the different govern- ments. Policy, here demands no external efforts to maintain tranquillity at home, but stretches out its arm beyond the boundaries of its own country, to receive the infamous price of the lives of fellow-citizens, who are sent to ambitious empires, to be sacrificed to the demon of despotism and slavery. Internal policy seems to have no other exercise but 90 THE MORAL STATE OF NATIONS. the administration of the laws, the economy of which is 80 ill-contrived, that it seems rather to intend the sale than the impartial distribution of justice. This provokes the selfish appetite of these rustic citizens, and depraves the heart which would otherwise be secure by 1he ab- sence of luxury, (that, parent of all vice in great and powerful empires;) and explains and justifies the unfa- vorable allegory which 1 have chosen to represent the ivhole of that country ! GERMANY. I AM averse to that detail which minds fond of minu- tiae may require, and I shall endeavour to comprehend un- der an identical character the various inhabitants, who, though they have many moral differences, yet agree in some general affections. This agreement I discover in the universal tenacity to established order and custom ; insomuch that if other nations had not inundated this land with novel ideas that have borne down their prejudices as violent torrents do trees, they would have remained in the barbarism of their Scythian ancestors to this present day. The mind in several parts of this country seems to be emerging from its state of apathy, and several of their authors have caught the (ire of foreign genius, which will enliven iheir torpidity, and bring them to mental anima- tion. The despotism of governors and priests will no doubt labor to suppress its progress, which like every other opposition to truth, is as a feeble dike to oppose z torrent, which by checking the course, elevates and in- creases the body of water, till augmenting, it forces the feeble boundary, and spreads its inundations in propor- tion to the elevation of the opposing dike. THE MORAL STATE OF NATIONS. 91 The locality of this country is inauspicious to its pro- gress in moral and social perfection. It is the bulwark of Europe against eastern barbarism; and as it is a well-known truth, that in the same proportion as the in- dividual gains liberty, the state loses its energy; the man of Nature is confounded in reducing this great theoretical truth to practice; as first an universal centre of action or morality must be established over tbe whole world. The Germans, in proportion as they acquire from their neighbors, the light of wisdom (or in other words, that internal operation of the intellectual faculties, by which to become acquainted with ourselves,) should transmit it to the Turks by books and civil missions, which should be substituted for religious ones. I am convin- ced, that had nations taken one hundredth part of the pains to render mankind wise, which they have done to make them fools or madmen; the globe would be at this day a terrestrial paradise, and the fabulous golden age would have been realized at the epoch of 1790. The eastern nations are better prepared to receive great natural and moral truths than the western. They have no errors to unlearn; they have no books to confute. I never proposed a moral truth to an Asiatic, who did not conceive my ideas, and form similar sentiments to myself; and declare, that he followed the absurd customs of his fellow citizens, from the value he placed on their esteem finding it necessary to his own happiness. 92 THE MORAL STATE OF NATIONS. THE UNITED PROVINCES. [NOW HOLLAND AND BELGIUM.] TLJE Moral character of this nation is perfectly lar to the German, -with the difference only, that the lat- ter is passive, and the former active. Commerce, thai arch-corruptor, assuming the name of comforter, has formed these people to display the concealed passions of the German character, tenacity of custom, called preju- dice, and avarice, the intoxication of selfish love. These people, whose avarice has rohbed the sea of its domain, have spread abroad upon- its surface, to establish colonies, whose detestable avarice has gained vigor from being transplanted, and is called forth into destructive ac- tion from circumstances of place and things. Their ad- ministration is so fraught with despotism, cruelty and avarice, that though the English colonies have, like them, usurped territories and domain, and hold them with a vi- cious sceptre ; yet in a comparative view with the Bata- vians, they are guardian angels, as the latter are desola- ting devils. The English who rob the princes of the East of glory, riches and dominion, leave them as a con- solation, dignity, luxury an-i liberty; but the Batavians, when they seize upon dominion, doom the possessor to endless punishment and slavery ; and not satisfied with one victim, the usurped dominion, administered with in- fernal avarice and cruelty, gives the fate of a victim to every unhappy subject. In the West Indies, the Batavians, involved in the guilt, common to nations, of converting the blood of their Af- rican fellow-creatures into sugar, coffee and tobacco, have the same infernal pre-eminence and avarice ; and this passion weeps, whenever repose spreads the effusion of feeble joy over the cheek of the palpitating and succum- bing African. THE RAPACITY OF AVARICE. *w O wisdom! it is in this land, that the all-devouring monster avarice has fixed its throne, and appears with all its deformity through the flimsy veil of commerce and in- dustry ; O, dart thy benign rays through the dark clouds of error, formed by human institutions show them that they are in pursuit of happiness by the road which leads to misery; approach them with that temperate light that may not dazzle their weak sight, which has hitherto been found too feeble to admit even those milder rays, which have been received with efficacy in other countries. Enlighten their minds in the present state^ of a con- founded policy, and let them not fall a sacrifice to the treachery of a despot, and the ambition of a perfidious ally, who, in open violation of the rights of nations, dares to attempt, (and audaciously avows that he dares,) the empire of the sea, the free domain of Nature. Rescue them from the chains of error and avarice, and place them in the silken bonds of sympathy and probity; so shall they first become men, and then citizens ; and tri- umphing over the demon, discord, who with its scorpion goads excites to civil war, they may repose with univer- sal union in the arms of peace and liberty. DENMARK. The country on this side of the Baltic, agrees with the moral description of Germany. NORWAY possesses a character differing from the rest of Europe except Sweden. This is my conjecture, corroborated by information. Having never visited that country, I shall proceed to the description of its resem- blance*, where I have travelled. THE MORAL STATE OF NATURE* SWEDEN. THIS Country's connection with Europe is interrupted by the Baltic sea, and from this cause, the moral charac- ter of its inhabitants is uncultivated. The Swedes have not that animal tenacity to customs, that limited contemplation, and that sordid avarice, which are the prominent features in the character of their Ger- man neighbors. The heart is agitated with a greater va- riety of desires, as the mind is filled with a greater vari- ety of ideas, which is caused by their maritime commu- nication with other nations; and this variety divides im- pulse, and deprives energy of its force, so that the Swed- ish character has no prominent feature. As the Swedes live mostly an agrestic life, and their wants are for the most part supplied by the labor of the earth, their probity is preserved from the treachery and falsehood acquired by commerce or barter. Sympathy or virtue (for they are synonymous) is ever found where the heart is unagitated by selfish desires, and the head uncorrupted by falsehood. Whenever wisdom descends upon this land, it will meet with a hearty welcome, and make a more rapid pro- gress than in any Country upon the face of the globe. The mind has but few errors to unlearn, and the heart but feeble passions to combat ; And I could almost form a wish, that wisdom should choose this country to estab- lish its inceptive empire. For woe be to the inhabitants of the earth, if wisdom should be defeated in her first on- set. and the tj-embling despots of the earth, like the bru- tal and cruet^Herocl, who destroyed whole generations to sacrifice a suspected rival, should deprive her of herarms, the liberty of the press, and destroy the power of Nature in its moral source. The communication of mind or thought being cut off, men would remain in a state of * / ' ' THE MORAL STATE OF NATIONS. 95 vicious knowledge and enslaved civilization, and retro- grade from that state, to which wisdom, if triumphant, must ultimately conduct them the state of enlightened Nature and happiness. RUSSIA. THIS country participates of the European and thr Asiatic characters, and derives from the former the acti- vity and factitious wants, which its extravagant civiliza- tion introduces; and from the latter all the treachery and falsehood which arises from an ignorant selfishness, as- suming the character of self-love, which consequences prove to be self-hatred. The present empress, [Catharine II.] when her com- prehensive mind is employed in taking a general view of her empire, feels her pride and compassion equally affect- ed. While the latter forces her to weep over the desti- ny of millions of her subjects, existing in the most ab- ject slavery, the former is humiliated by the degraded rank of nn empress over a herd of beasts. Happy is it for these people, that the glory of their sovereign cannot exist till the subjects are elevated to the rank and rights of men. But there is a formidable body of aristocratic tyrants, called nobles, (or more pro- perly ignobles, as possessing a greater share of vice and villainv.) that are dangerous enemies to both those events. The empress has made some happyJaws to effect these purposes, ami they have been well administered only by h^r-elf, on her own persona! domain; but she dares not enforce them nationally*; and if she had the resolution, she would fmd no one willing or capable to assist her io the execution. 96 THE MORAL STATE OF RUSSIA. The arts and sciences have been transplanted into this country with an intent to correct the minds of the people, the source and basis of all happy government ; and their progress forms a better apology for Rousseau, than all his letters, to justify his satire on the arts and sciences. Astronomers, botanists, antiquarians, mathematicians and zoologists have arrived to instruct the wretch, whose understanding is debilitated and whose body wounded and ulcerated with the galling chains of the most cruel tyran- ny. The astronomer presents his telescope to the weep- ing eye of a father, deploring the loss of a son, sold into captivity, like a beast; and while his soul demands, " O ! where is the lost object of my love, and support of my wretched existence!" answers by relating where to find the constellations in the zodiac. The botanist approach- es, and while the Russian peasant groans with the pangs of hunger, strows flowers upon his iron couch, and an- swers his demands for sustenance, by explaining their virtues to relieve disease. The antiquarian directs his attention to a truncated marble column, while he is con- triving to repair his ruined and deserted cottage. The mathematician relates to him the Newtonian calculation of infinities, while he is contriving to number and divide th<: loaf of black bread, to furnish a twenty-four hour's subsistence to himself and family - and the Zoologist is teaching him to preserve the bodies of beasts, while he is studying and laboring to preserve the expiring animation of his nakeci and famished children. The only sciences that can improve this country are, philosophy and agriculture; the one to suppress factitious, and the other to supply real wants. The sciences, though they give exercise and energy to the mental faculties, pro- pel the mind in a tangent from its own orbit , and it is philosophy alone which attracts that force back to its own centre, ;md shows mankind that the first and most useful of all study is man arid self. THE MORAL STATE OP NATIONS. 97 POLAND. THIS country from its situation, partakes more of the European than the Asiatic character; and the people have less treachery than the Russians, and less luxury than the Germans. The form of government, a mixture of aristocracy and monarchy, has introduced the passion of pride, a friend to virtue, and this has induced the no- bles to treat their peasants with less brutality and tyran- ny than the Russians. " Literature, more cultivated here than in Russia, gives the Poles more knowledge, and opens a national commu- nication, without which a body of people are better de- scribed by herd or flock, than the dignified title of a na- tion, which Russia by no means merits. This commu- nication and knowledge is every day increasing, but the impediment to its extending to the great body of the peo- ple is, the vice of drunkenness, propagated by the Jews, who have over-run the provinces, and act as pumps in the hands of the nobles, to draw from the spring of ex- hausting labor, drops of perspired blood, that coagulate into gold, and form the revenue of the Polish lord. The diet of this country holds forth to mankind a dread- ful scene of the conflict of private and public good. A spectator might imagine himself in the area of a Roman amphitheatre among gladiators, rather than citizens dis- cussing the general interests of this society. The vari- ous members seem to have no common centre ; some move in the attraction of the king ; some are propelled by the corruption of foreign gold ; others agitated by fa- mily attachments ; and every one revolving on the axis of unknown self. The orbit of society is unknown, and the sharpest scimitar being judged the best reason, the result of this assembly, while it marks the different epochs of increasing misery, gives as it were, a despond- ent hope from the extravagance of its anarchy ! 9 98 THE MORAL STATE OF NATIONS. LAPLAND. THIS country is situated at a northern extremity of the continent, with a soil so steril, that moss alone vegetates, and a climate so rude, that the circulation of the human blood is stopped by its rigorous cold. Here Liberty, ex- iled from every other part of the globe, seems to have retired, as to an only asylum. Here, after a reign of whose doubtful term history makes no mention, she was assaulted in her strong fortress, by the Russians, Danes, and Swedes, led on by haggard avarice, and the blind hag her associate, superstition, the one tempted by the fur* of beasts, and the other to make beasts of ignorant men,, to increase her domain of folly. Nature led on the troops of Liberty, but the cunning: treachery of her double-headed foe found means to cor- rupt them, and under the veil of commerce, for furs, ex- changed spirituous liquor : this inflamed them with a new passion, which destroyed instinctive wisdom and the sceptre of Liberty, who was dethroned not without a ca- pitulation which marked an honorable defeat. The troops of her enemies, priests and soldiers, poured in upon Lapland from the neighboring states of Russia, Sweden and Denmark ; but it was agreed that the wars of avarice, policy and ambition, which might be waged by the conquerors, should not involve the con- quered. Nature gained a glorious triumph over policy ; and the Laplanders though deprived of liberty, were left in the consolatory arms of peace. The priests marched forward to establish the throne of avarice and superstition in the holy sanctuary of virtue and liberty. Nature's code, which is comprised in one in r, FORCE NOT YOUR WILL UPON ANOTHER, and wnich was instinctively and religiously obeyed, removed : knowledge of vice and slavery. THE MORAL STATE OP LAPLAND. 99 The priests, attended by soldiers and traders, began tbeir sacrilegious mission ; finding the laws of Nature most sacredly obeyed, they contrived their first attack up- on instinctive wisdom, and by the aid of traders, who dis- persed their spirituous liquors, caused cessations of its power, so frequent though temporary, that the Lapland- ers, assaulted by the demon of fury and vengeance, intro- duced by intoxication, fled, from the rage of liberty de generated into licentiousness, to the arms of priestly des- potism. The transports of this new, but vigorous passion led them to the Christian altar, where they assented to and repeated articles of theological belief, which were equal- ly impossible to their comprehension and their practice. The priests having thus established their power, and that of the prince to whom they belonged, were not at all anxious to inquire into the state of the conscience of their proselytes, but contented themselves with collecting a re- venue upon every breach of Christian rites; for they knew well, that the Laplanders had only changed their form, but not belief in the adoration of Nature, and that they continued their ancient practices and forms when private in their families; but these offered an increasing hope to the priest, whose revenue was augmented when he detect- ed them. The Laplanders, who were living in a state of instinc- tive, but not enlightened Nature, were in parental, but not political society ; for the mode of existence in that coun- try opposes association. The people subsist upon their flociks of rein-deer, and the face of the earth offers but scanty pasture for those animals ; so that every family must have a range of thirty or forty miles for its support, which obliges them to separate from others, and this is the only part of the globe where political association is unnecessary, and parental is contracted and subdivided. In this Nature maintains her empire, and procures well- being and happiness to its creatures, gratifying and satia- ting all physical desires in the plenitude of liberty, and instinctive virtue, which teaches aversion to force, and 100 THE MORAL STATE OF LAPLAND. gives amiable ingenuity to persuade, and thereby assimi- late and associate the will of a fellow-creature to our own. By this parental association the distinction of property, the cause of all civilized vice, is unknown, and sympathy, the circle and centre of all virtue, and the cause of all happiness, is created by congenial love. Civilization, which by means of the external operation of the mind, increases the desires of man, and discovers, though not in the same proportion, means to gratify them, forced this asylum of Nature, reigning with her colleagues, liberty and virtue ; and ever mistaking activity for happi- ness, ever in arms and rebellion against Nature, it usurp- ed her lawful sovereignty, and began its own reign of slavery and error. Churches were -erected, and in them civilization fixed her throne. The Laplander was summoned at the dis- tance of several hundred miles, to quit his flocks, de- fenceless, threatened by devouring wolves, and wander- ing half-starved from the pasture to which they demand- ed the guidance of their absent pastor ; to leave the hap- py home of peace and innocence, where tradition of an- cient, and narrative of modern events, accorded to the sounds of rustic music, and the measure of the joyous dance gave to the mind that pleasing emotion which so modifies desire and content, which, together with physi- cal pleasures, makes up the whole of happiness. From the bounds of content, the Laplander obeys the dread summons, and with food economized from the pangs of a hungry family, he arrives at the altar. He approaches the angry priest, and with this food (cheeses of rein-deer) deprecates the wrath of the deity Civilization. The destructive phenomenon of Nature that he formerly feared and adored, was appeased by sup- plication and resignation ; but this new destructive, and malignant moral phenomenon demanded the means of life, as a recompense for destroying it. The priest receives and appropriates this sacrifice, and in return puts into his mouth blasphemies against Nature, called articles of faith; CIVILIZATION AND NATURE CONTRASTED. 101 reads to him records of vice and cruelty, called holy writ ; and instructs him to sacrifice his immediate happiness, proceeding from sympathy and probity, by inculcating principles of avarice tyranny and falsehood, to procure, by way of consolation for the loss of present, an illusive eternal happiness. The Laplander having made his offering, is sent back, his memory loaded with frequent and zealous injunctions to return with expiatory offerings, to atone for his want of belief in, or comprehension of the deity Civilization. He returns to his disconsolate and half-famished family, and consoles them with his relations how he has appeas- ed the present wrath of the demon, which might, if neg- lected, increase into a fury that might demand their lives as a sacrifice. , The priests at particular periods make circuits of visi- tation, to levy fines upon those Laplanders, who dare fol- low the rites of Nature in preference to the painful and incompatible rites of civilization; and these fines are levied upon their backs and bellies ; the raiment being torn from the one, and food from the other, because two individuals, whom Nature prompted to communicate [mu- tual] happiness, without offending a third, had not con- sulted the priest, to know whether Nature was right or wrong in composing such passions, and furnishing means to gratify them, discordant with civil institutions that must be adapted to moral and physical circumstances. Their child is also taken from them by these religious harpies, under the pretext of instruction, and is forced from the honorable and useful occupation of pastor, sup- porting his aged and infirm parents, to the study of let- ters, as useless to him, as they have been hurtful to those who teach them ; and when age emancipates him from the bondage of a school, he returns depraved and debili- tated to a life of Nature. O ! enemies of Nature, and therefore enemies of Self, a part of Nature, what apology have ye to offer in behali of this desolating tyrant, Civilization? Is it, that it in- creases the means of gratifying, when it multiplies the 102 THE MORAL STATE OP NATIONS. number of your passions ? It does, but in what propor- tion ? In that of one thousand to one on the side of mise- ry or wants. Shut up then this box of Pandora, or if it must be opened, confine it to your own countries, and de- file not, with your impious steps, the hallowed asylum of Nature, the residence of liberty, virtue and happiness. In this holy land, let the man of Wisdom ai^ne ap- proach, whose instructions will call Nature from the light of instrntrt to the intellectual light of reason ; who will teach them with oral lessons, and make every man a book of precept and example, to explain that succinct, yet comprehensive and perfect law : FORCE NOT YOUR WILL UPON OTHERS, BUT ASSO- CIATE THEIRS TO YOUR OWN BY PERSUASION ; for in this code of Nature is contained all wisdom, virtue and happiness. The man of wisdom will instruct them how to pre- serve life, and gratify those passions which render it de- sirable ; he will teach them their intimate connection with the aggregate mass of Nature, to promote sympathy and Jove of truth, the constituent parts of virtue ; he will warn them against all assumptions of selfish partialities in property or power ; and he will teach them the inter- nal, and not external use of the mental faculties, which will show them, that to be able to love yourself, you must first know yourself; and that he who wouli make himself happy, must have the volition, and use the means to render happy all sensitive Nature. The man of wisdom will proceed in the important and glorious enterprise of bringing these people from an im- perfect to a perfect state of Nature; he will observe and consider the actions which produce pain, and those which produce pleasure ; he will, by instruction enforced by ex- ample, teach them to avoid the one, and cultivate the other; and instead of violating natural liberty, by com- manding and forcing the will, he will, by arguments of self-love, induce his proselytes to form volitions consist- ent with the well-being of thrir existence. By an amia- ble intercourse, founded on the principles of love, aiwi CIVILIZATION AND NATURE CONTRASTED. 10$ not terror, which superstition invents, he will be regard- ed and beloved, and will gradually draw instinct from its brutal state to its high rank of intellectuality, where, operating free from the prejudices of corrupted civiliza- tion, it will establish that happy order of association, which effects and secures the means and happiness of existence upon the basis of moral and absolute liberty ; and by the union of mental force discover, study and pro- mote wisdom, the cause of the well-being of all sensi- tive Nature. The reflections that must take place in every contem- plative mind, upon studying 1 the preceding subject, must be very exalted and extensive, and cannot fail to force the ascending curve of intellect, by the ponderanco and momentum of their pressure, to decline upon the centre self, and to penetrate as a bomb-shell into the wrih, in the ratio of its weight and elevation. The reflective mind will draw a comparison between the state of civilization, with all its attendant evils, and a state of Nature, with all its tranquillity and liberty. To aid in estimating the preference of either, the follow- ing illustration is submitted : The machine man, according to the system of Nature, resembles a musical instrument, with the difference only that man is superior, as possessing consciousness, a quaf- ity of whose existence we are certain, though we know not how to define its situation or cause. The melody and perfection of the instrument .should augment in an equal ratio with the consciousness. Civilization may represent the instrument much played upon, and producing many tunes, though few in melody; these, however they may increase consciousness, do not improve it; for that is produced by melody alone. Nature may represent the instrument playing few tunes, but all in melody, with little consciousness, in propor- tion to the small number of tunes. In this state, as no false notes of discord are produced, Nature might be ea- sily taught to improve in melody and consciousness, and the instrument would be brought to perfection ; whereas- 104 THE MORAL STATE OF NATIONS. civilization is so embarrassed with false notes, and a mul- tiplicity of discordant airs, that to the difficulty of learn- ing melody, a much greater is added, that ol unlearning discord. To explain this allegory. A man born and educa- ted iti a state of civilization, who had unlearned the dis- cordant notes of refined society, might communicate to these the melodious tunes or virtues he had learned, which would not fail to improve the melody of their ex- istence; and in the same ratio consciousness would im- prove into intellectuality, and the moment the ma- chine, or instrument, man, should arrive at perfection, iri any part of the globe, it would not fail to spread over the whole; for truth and happiness being the universal pur- suit of savage and of civilized man, are recognized the moment they present themselves to view. The practice of mankind to teach or spread improve- ment has been the reverse of the above. Discordant airs, mistaken for melody, or virtues for vices, and vices for virtues, have been communicated by priests and rulers, and if they did but force mankind from tranquillity and content, into a tempestuous industry, and the imagination to predominate over instinct, by forming factitious wants, and vain desires, they were satisfied in thus extending ci- vilization, without doubting of its quality, or inquiring whether it conveyed happiness or misery. It is impossible that the moral operations of the hu- man mind can be well directed, or flow pure till the source is discovered and cleansed. Men have been employed, since history gives us any knowledge of the past, to clear the river of humanity at its mouth : and hence the cause of so much dirt and misery, which accumulates upon the shores of society. No mortal has been bold or wise enough to go in search of the source, being appalled by the abuse of the vulgar, the anathema of priests, and the tyranny of kings ; and if this work, without executing so important an enterprise, should have the simple merit of stimulating some powerful mind to undertake it, the au- thor will be amply consoled for all the abuse the ignor- THE MORAL STATE OF NATIONS. 105 ant vulgar may bestow on him, who tears from their fond caresses the child, error, to substitute a more amiable in- fant, wisdom, who, while he may demand greater atten- tion, will abundantly repay them with happiness. Priest- craft, the nurse of the child, error, will gnash her teeth with malice, and in the disappointment of avarice, vent her vindictive anathemas, which will be proportionably impotent, with the declining power of despotism. TURKEY. THIS country, partly in Europe and partly in Asia, claims all the identity of character belonging to the lat- ter; and will serve as a very clear exemplar to demon- strate that the happiness of a people depends on its vir- tue* and not on its government. This government is arbitrary, and the will of the prince, as in all other despotic states, forms the law ; but the subject is miserable beyond comparison. He is robbed of his property, and deprived of his life by the officers of state, as. European subjects are by robbers on the high- way. Disputes among individuals for persons or pro- perty are terminated by courts of justice, who basely put their decision to sale, and induce both parties to buy their hopes of success so dear, that the victory is of no value. Justice is become so contemptible, that individ- uals prefer the appeal of force ; and the dagger often de- crees a more equitable sentence than the judge. All social subordination and confidence is unknown, and the empire is united only by its name. The gover- nors of provinces attempt no general acts of authority, but exercise them upon individuals seperately, whose per- sons they cruelly seize and put to death, and by appro- 106 THr PHILOSOPHY OF NECESSITY. priating the property, purchase favor at court, at the ex- pense of a widow and many orphan children, who are left to the cruel and lingering death of famine. These ignorant and selfish people are roused to vengeance, only when a bashaw or governor dares attack them in a body by the imposition of taxes ; they then rebel, and he ne- ver fails to become a victim to their resentment, which suffers the wolf to carry off his prey one by one, but if he dares attack the whole flock, he then only rouses their destructive fury. Nature, ever disposed to mix some sweet in the bitter- est cup of life, has adapted their moral character to sus- tain these political miseries. They possess few of the physical wants, which luxury has introduced into European states; and the mind, instead of being agitated with im- patience, and impelled to seek a remedy for its sufferings, sinks into the apathy of resignation, and moderating the energy of private action, rests on the general motion of Nature, and exclaims Fate so ordains. There is no doubt that all matter, however organized or modified, is subject to the same laws of Nature ; but as man can never know her ultimate intentions, he will constantly operate to produce the well-being of his ex- istence, and though the doctrine of necessity must soften the pain of resignation, under irremediable evils, it can never stifle hope, or suppress action, when reason points the way to relief and happiness. In the book of Fate, man can read only the page before him, and hope will al- ways induce him, by action, to turn over another leaf, and he will reasonably expect to find many pages of well- being before he comes to the blank one of destruction. This wholesome and orthodox belief in the fixed laws of Nature enables the Turk to submit patiently to the evils of life, and to modify the energy without ceasing the efforts and changes of action. The character of this nation possesses no shade or gradation of contour or feature, that connects it with the European ; and though in their dealings with Europeans, they have an apparent exactness in payment, this is not EUROPE AND TURKEY CONTRASTED 107 the result of principle, but of fear; for the European merchants, through the influence of their consuls can force the payment, if refused, and this the Turks well know. They have no rectitude or honesty in their deal- ings with the native merchants, and indeed, the practice of honesty under a government, administered as in Tur- key, would bring upon its author the imputation of folly, in the place of honor, and the same loss and inconven- ience as would accrue from the practice of virtue in an association with thieves and robbers. Notwithstanding the unhappy state of existence to> which ignorance ever reduces mankind, a consolatory re- flection offers itself to check the pain of a sympathetic mind, upon surveying the miseries of its fellow-creatures, which is, that the Turkish mind is not enslaved in the irrefragable chains of learned and interested error, which binds down the European mind to its iron bed, like a ma- niac, whose frantic movements to procure release accele- rate destruction. The ignorance of the Turkish mind is caused by the cloud of illusion spread by the ingenious impostor Ma- homed, which the least dawn of light would disperse, and one star of truth would enlighten the whole moral atmo- sphere of this country. But the European atmosphere is buried under the most palpable darkness of learned er- ror, and in order to condense the vapor of ignorance that might be exhaled by the heat of wisdom, produced by the collision of human thought, there are laws formed to de- stroy that being, whose mind might produce a spark of truth, which, like electric fire, is inextinguishable, and must pervade all Nature, and whose light would serve to show the darkness. Then mankind would attempt in unison to dispel it, and by their collective force would ef- fect it, and restore human nature to liberty, virtue, truth and happiness. O hasten ! men of wisdom, children of Nature, to as- sociation, and send missions over all the Eastern world, and you will make more proselytes of their unfettered 108 THE MORAL STATE OP NATIONS. minds in a day, to the religion of Nature, than the mis- sions of folly, bigotry, and superstition would make in ages, to the metaphysical mysteries of intellectual idola- try, the cause of desolation and misery. ARABIA. THIS country, comprehending a variety of nations, as- similates and identifies the moral character of its inha- bitants, in relation to the Asiatic world, by the passion of avarice, and the mental quality of ingenuity, which operate to produce an universal spirit of commerce ; and though the Arabs are governed by various forms of poli- cy, this spirit of commerce pervades the whole, and re- ceives more or less energy from the propinquity or dis- tance of the sea. These moral qualities protect the mind from falling into the abyss of bigotry and superstition, in which its neighboring nations are plunged, and the force and pre-eminence of their ingenuity is proved beyond a doubt. There is a tribe of wild Arabs, inhabiting the interior deserts of Arabia, where commerce furnishing but a con- tracted field for the display of this ingenuity, it has oc- cupied its activity by approaching the province of wis- dom, and has broken down the cobweb barrier that en- tangles savage and civilized nations in one common net. They have swept away the superstitious inventions of priestcraft, as enemies to truth and happiness, and adore the incomprehensibility of Nature in contemplation, but not in conception, and their penetrating ingenuity is too forcible to suffer a delusive definition and description, and marks the idea by a simple nomination in the word God. THE MORAL STATE OF NATIONS. 109 Here then is a country, where the religion of Nature would prosper, and the first mission might select this as the centre of their circle of enlightened labors. Here the seed would find a congenial soil, and spread with ra- pid progress, as in the surrounding country, error lies on the surface, the earth would be free, and the roots of Na- ture would spread and acquire such strength, as would defy the resistance in the more distant soil of rooted er- ror and prejudice, and would spread its branches of pro- tection and happiness over all mankind. PERSIA. i THIS country presents a dreadful picture of the dire ef- , feet of ignorant self-love, or vice, to destroy the most advantageous gifts of indulgent Nature. The hnppiest ; climate and a productive soil are joined to great moral ! blessings. The natives of this country possess great force of mental faculty: their genius for poetry is as powerful, as it is eminent and singular among the nations of the East, and the mind has not. only testified its force by descriptive ingenuity, but it lias pushed back the bounds of human knowledge upon tin: province of wis- dom, by its sentiments ; but these, (as in the prince of poets, Pope,) are rather meteors of truth, that dart across the imagination, than the flame of wisdom, in concep- tion, which presents a durable and effulgent light, and by explanation is conveyed to enlighten and edify the be- holders. The government of this country, if the bloody con- tention of usurpers, who occupy it iro longer than the shouts of victory are heard from a triumphant army can be so called, is beyond all that history has recorded, or 10 110 THE MORAL STATE OF NATIONS. imagination conceived cruel, unjust, unstable, barba- rous and desolatory. The tortures inflicted upon defeat- ed rivals, if related, would unhumanize a sympathetic mind, and congeal the circulation of blood, with the cold intensity of horror. The arbitrary seizure and destruc- tion of the life and property of the individual, by the mushroom tyrants of Persia, suppress and corrupt all mo- ral energy and affection, and the mind contracts itself with fear, like the frighted snail, that sacrifices all ad- vantages of food and comfort derived from its expansion, and confounded by its excessive terror, dies in the limits of its shell. With all the physical and moral mean? of happiness, this country is immersed in misery, O hasten! benig- nant, sympathetic and enlightened children of Nature, to disperse at least one spark of truth by means of books or missions. The mind of the inhabitant, from its qual- ities, resembles tinder that would be fired by the smallest spark ; and as the productions of their poets form the delight and instruction of all Asia, this country would be a luminary to the whole Eastern hemisphere. THE MORAL STATE OP NATIONS. Ill INDIA. THE moral qualities that may serve as a general iden- tification of this extensive country are, sloth, cowardice and falsehood, which characterize its various and numer- ous inhabitants, though diversified by a multitude of re- ligions, and subjugated all to the yoke of despotism. Religious prejudices have a strong hold upon the minds of these people : not that, the memory is replete with learned error, t>r the imagination corrupted with a perpet- ual contemplation of the same chimeras ; but religious ceremonies being substituted for social virtues, the man who should be guilty of the least breach of the former, though he might observe the latter with more than hu- man perfection, would be an irredeemable exile from soci- ety, and be reduced to a state of wretchedness, from which nothing but death could relieve him. The sun of reason must shine with a heat emulating the natural sun in this climate, before it could dispel or exhale such tenacious vapors of prejudice, condensed by custom, and preserved by terror. European nations profiting by the divided state into which superstition reduces its votaries in this unhappy land, have, by means of commercial associations, let loose the monster avarice to plunder and subdue it. They arrived in this country few in number , but be- ing united by moral confidence, every European company of a few men became a giant, that trod down the dis persed natives who dared hostilely approach his steps , and as this confidence was the result of superior intelli- gence, the English nation, who possessed of all Euro- peans the most, have negotiated themselves, with arms in their hands, into the conquest of the most flourishing part of the Indian empire. The victory of the English would have been the victo- ry of humanity, if the damnable spirit of commerce had not directed the government of the conquered land. 112 THE MORAL STATE OF INDIA. The English, ignorant of the language, customs and tempers of the natives, found it impossible to govern what had required but little art to conquer. Empires contain- ing the lives, properties and happiness of millions of hu- man beings were put up to auction, and consigned over to the highest bidder, who was sure to be the greatest vil- lain ; villany being the only means of amassing riches in that country, [and in every other.] This auction-inaugurated emperor called a renter, took possession of his purchased, but temporary kingdom, which he so rack-rented and tyrannized over, that till the end of his reign, or term of tenure, the value constantly diminished, and the abdicating emperor left beggared sub- jects to an avaricious and tyrannical successor ; and the crown continued always in an auction dynast ry, marked by those infernal passions. The unfortunate subjects under their native lords had suffered much oppression, yet. their complaints were heard, and this checked the avaricious violence they were often subject to from the collectors. But when they fell under the European yoke, the hope of complaint was lost, as the communication between the subject and sovereign was intercepted by interpreters, whose interest it was t> perpetuate the ignorance of the latter, and the oppression of the former, by becoming the corrupted agents of the renters ; and as the ignorance of Europeans in the lan- guages of the country secured them from detection, their rapacity and corruption knew no bounds ; and it is a po- litical problem, difficult to solve What has prevented the total devastation of that country under the system of auction sovereignty, which the ignorance of Europeans made necessary ? Europeans have, indeed, increased in knowledge of the languages, customs and tempers of the natives, but by no means in the ratio that the corruption of interpreters and agents have increased. The employ of the East India Company's servants in that country, is an impeachment of the wisdom and vir- tue of the metropolitan government. The inferior grade EUROPEAN OPPRESSION. 113 of servants, called writers, are confined to copying let- ters and bills of sale in the different offices ; when they rise to the office of factors, they are made deputies, pay- masters, store-keepers. &c. &c. ; when senior and junior merchants, they are employed in subordinate settlements to record and execute the councils of interpreters ; and when they are called to the government, all the know- ledge they possess to execute the important trust i's, the knowledge of the character of the different interpreters, es- timated according to their abilities of drawing revenue from an exhausted and depopulated country. Why are not the writers sent to the manufacturing towns to learn the state of the investments, to relieve the poor weaver from an oppression, which destroys industry in its source, and is the cause of all debasement in the qual- ity, and deficiency in the quantity? Why are they not sent into the country to learn the languages, customs and tempers of the natives, to see how the collection of the revenue is formed, and to remove the baneful hand of oppression, which destroys and depopulates the farms ? Why are they not appointed collectors? Is it that this knowledge might impede the interest of the superior agents, and that the mystery of making Asiatic fortunes might be exposed ? The pretext for not following the above system is, that the humanity and liberality of Europeans would not con- descend to the base severity used by native agents to col- lect the revenue, and that there would, in consequence, be a deficiency. I hope there would ; but this temporary deficiency would be like the operation of the flood-gate which diminishes the current watering the arable lands, but which swells the pool so the industry of the labor- ers and farmers would acquire strength, if freed from the violent oppression of a cruel exactor, and would augment in the ratio of the justice and humanity of an honest Eu- ropean collector. To this also may be added, that the rapacious gains of a native collector would be sacrificed for the happiness of millions of our fellow subjects ; and should a proportion of the public revenue be also sacri- 10* 114 THE SUICIDAL FOWER OF ENGLAND. ficed/I hope the country of England would not produce a wretch so infamous, as not to rejoice at the event. The happiness of the natives placed under the imme- diate government of Europeans, would so conciliate them to their protectors, that their minds would attend with respect to the moral instructions that might be proffered ; and the author of their animal, might with facility make them proselytes to intellectual happiness, by the light of Keason and the Religion of Nature. The insatiable appetite of the monster ambition is most cruelly exemplified in the conquest of India. An island, almost in its physical and absolutely in its moral antipodes, forces one hundred millions of people to sub- ject their will to ten millions, who can only take from them their property, but grant them no recompense of civil or political protection ; and I think it demands no spirit of prophecy to foretell, that if some happy event tloes not break off this unnatural connection, the weight of this conquest will sink the island of Great Britain in- to an abyss both of political and moral misery. To a person of observation, the progress of this event is already remarkable. This heterogeneous mass of pow- er is of a -dangerous magnitude to be entrusted to the ex- ecutive authority, and it can be placed no where else without destroying the constitution, and suffering, the le- gislative authority to partake of the executive. This partition is already begun, and co-operating with the riches and interest procured from that country by in- dividuals, has introduced a mass of luxury and corruption into the kingdom; which alone would account for the 'present state of party, where vice has thrown off all dis- simulation, and has formed such an association of lead- ers, as no longer than twenty years ago would have so scandalized the moral principles of a virtuous people, that, so i'av from leading, they would have lost by their as- sociation the most numerous party that ever was formed.* * In some eventual ministerial arrangements of the late fac- tion, it is said that the incongruity of their characters with ma- gistracy was so flagrant, that they objected to themselves, and virte forced shame from vice itself. THE MORAL STATE OF ASIA. 113 Who could ever have imagined, that the characters proscribed and declared incompatible to possess the rights of citizens, by a thoughtless and dissipated nation,* should be elevated to the sacred office of supreme ma- gistrate, by a thoughtful and virtuous nation? This alone shows a progress of corruption, that nothing could have produced, but some sudden, powerful and immediate cause; and that is evidently the conquest of India. England, like a voracious glutton, becomes morbid with its insa- tiate appetite for power, which will induce a premature and painful dissolution. * The National Assembly of France have declared insolvents incompetent to enjoy the rights of citizens. SOUTHERN ASIA. COMPREHENDING MALACCA, SIAM PEGU, AND VARIOUS NEIGHBORING ISLANDS. THIS arbitrary division of the globe I am induced to form from the prominent feature, which marks the minds of the inhabitants of those various countries, and though living under different climates, customs and governments, unites them in one common character. These are the passions of play and vengeance; and they produce the political phenomena of nations of rogues, assassins and monsters. These nations afford instances of vice, as difficult to conceive, and as wonderful as the mathematical prob- lems of infinity, In a paroxysm of despair they draw the dagger, and indiscriminately destroy all they meet either friends or foes. This despair is caused by their losses at play, which is exercised in cock-fighting ; all that is dear to affection, 116 THE MORAL STATE OP SOUTHERN ASIA. and productive of sympathy in savages wives and chil- dren become the stake at that inhuman sport, which sinks the mind to a state of inconceivable depravity. We know the effects of the dangerous vice of gaming in civilized countries ; and all its subjects are assimilated in the moral character of these above-mentioned coun- tries. Whoever attends the gaming tables in Europe, will see the duellist, with his dagger ready to plunge into the breast pf his friend ; and having not sold his family but done worse, reduced them to perish by distress and want ; if he finds no relief by the death of his friend, turns at last his vengeance upon himself. In these countries, where the greatest enemies of Na- ture are to be found ; her doctrine should be first propa- gated. Their language is easy, and their conceptions lively, and as they have no bigotry, there is every reason to hope for success to missions, which might be sent to convert these most dangerous enemies to the peace and religion of Nature. THE MORAL STATE OF NATIONS. 117 CHINA. NOT having travelled into this country, I must form an opinion of this extensive and populous empire from the relations of historians and travellers. This, however, is as little satisfactory to myself, as it may be uninstructive to the public ; but as there are no means to penetrate in- to this country, all entrance being refused to strangers, I 'must, in order to complete my moral account of the world, substitute probability for the certainty with which I have treated of those countries I have myself travelled into ; and as a very peculiar habit of intimate observation of the human mind has enabled me to give a just calcule of the actions which I have seen, I flatter myself, that I shall present a probable, though conjectured estimate of ac- tions seen through the medium of the narration of others. This country communicates with European nations by their commerce alone, and has often sacrificed the great advantages it holds over those nations who trade with it, to a sanctimonious observance of its own laws. An in- stance of this has occurred in the late interruption of the Russian commerce, and another in the execution of an English sailor, in Canton, for the accidental homicide of a Chinese ; to save whom, all the European traders uni- ted their threats and promises, but to no effect.- Their obstinacy proved, that they would have sacrificed their trade, if the alarmed avarice of the Europeans had not delivered up the victim. This conduct of the sovereign administration will ap- pear a problem difficult to solve, if we take a view of the subordinate administration of justice and policy, which is corrupt and selfish in the extreme ; but if we consider the frequent insurrections in China, and that the study of the government is to subject, and not benefit the individ- ual. All acts of publicity arc directed by the form of 118 fHE MORAL 8TATK OF NATIONS. law, that idol, behind which the despot skulks, and which imposes upon the people, decorated in the robes of sanctity, when it appears in public ; but in private is a corrupted body of infamy and wickedness. The morality of this nation is formed of actions total- ly indifferent to happiness, such as domestic, civil and religious ceremonies ; and the mind and attention is so immersed in these forms, that the substance of virtue is totally unknown, and the moral discourses preached by the magistrates to the people, are mere instructions to defend the poor from the rich, by means of crafty pa- tience, recommended to the former, implying (hereby, that the powers of policy and justice are but illusive pro- tection. The external operations of the mind in this country remove from the circle of happiness in a tangent, being projected by the difficulty of subsistence, the observance of forms, and the obscurity of language; and it must be removed from the pressure of these physical evils, before it can lose that projective force, and return upon its cen- tre, to produce that internal operation which can alone procure to man that wisdom, which by teaching him what he is, shows him what he may be, and directs him m the knowledge and well-being of 'his existence. The moral situation of this country is owing to the obscurity and difficulty of its language ; it will be a long time before it can communicate morally with the rest of the world ; and as it was the first to be civilized, it will be the last enlightened. THE MORAL STATE OF ASIA. 119 TARTARY IN this country I have never travelled ; but having been among the Turcomans, a nation of Tartars inhabiting the uncultivated parts of Turkey, I conceive the analogy of their morals to be close, as their origin is the same, and this opinion has been corroborated by frequent conversa- tions I have had with the Tartars themselves. They are all pastors, associated in different tribes un- der an hereditary chief, and wandering about the country in pursuit of pasture. Their cattle supply them with abundant food, and they also exchange them for the only luxury they know dress. They possess a great degree of animal happiness ; but are far removed from that state where the mind expands to participate of intellectual hap- piness or consciousness, the sublimity of reason, which elevates man as much above his species, as that species elevates him above the brutes. Their minds might however easily be brought to this state of enlightened Nature; as their superstition is fixed on a feeble basis, it might easily be overturned, and the whole fabric of their errors, which consists in magic and worshipping idols, might be destroyed by the ligbtest breath of reason; and these people, whose hearts are uncorrupted with the infinite factitious wants of civilized nations, would make no forcible opposition to a happy reformation in the religion of Nature. 120 THE MORAL STATE OF NATIONS. AFRICA. I To describe the moral state of Nature in this country, this one observation may be sufficient : All the natives near the sea, form nations of pirates ; and all the inland inhabitants, nations of robbers, not only of property, but the more outrageous violence of persons. What a heart breaking reflection this causes in a child of Nature ! to see almost a fourth part of human nature, which this country contains, doomed to such a state of misery, that if the rest of the globe had arrived at that enlightened state of sympathy and wisdom, of which man is capable, the contemplation of this portion would destroy all happiness. One half suffering, and the other half sympathising with equal pain. Civilized nations, for want of being enlightened, are as much engaged in the universal rebellion against Na- ture, as the wretched Africans, whose destruction, in- stead of being checked, is augmented and encouraged by the avarice of these civilized rebels, whose political en- terprizes having passed the Rubicon of Nature, the im- pending ruin of interest makes them dread to return. The rebel hosts of civilization press forward, boldly trampling upon sympathy and probity, ultimately assault and subdue the metropolis of Nature ; and there subvert- ing her throne of happiness, will reduce humanity to such a state of misery, that knowledge and sensibility, acquired by civilization, will become a curse, and there will be no relief to their sufferings, till the mind sjnks into the animal repose of savage ignorance. There has lately been established in England an asso- ciation to discover the interior parts of Africa, to aug- ment the arts and sciences. This I hope will prepare the means of communication, that when Europe shall be enlightened, and discover human nature to be the onl^y THE MORAL STATE OF NATIONS. 121 science worthy men of wisdom, they will send forth their missions to quiet these ignorant and malignant children of Africa, who, in common with civilized nations in the universal delirium of passion, tear one another to pieces in the act of sucking the abundant and nourishing breast of their common and indulgent mother Nature, and by their impious fratricidious struggles, tear the nipple, and sacrilegiously spill the universal nourishment. O Na- ture! come forth in thy simple and un mysterious revela- tion, and display thy divinity, which requires no aid of learning, no unusual strength of mental power to recog- nize. Thy appearance alone would subdue all mankind, by means of thy benevolent caresses of sympathy and probity, which are thy only attributes, and subjection to thy empire would be a state of absolute liberty and hap- piness. 122 THE MORAL STATE OF NATIONS. AMERICA. To describe the moral state of Nature in this country, we must divide its inhabitants into three classes colo- nists, slaves and natives. The colonists mark their different origin by a moral similitude in policy and customs to the European states from which they emigrated, and agree with the metropoli- tan character in all its more prominent features. These various moral species, however, constitute the general genus of American Colonists, by their distinctive trait interestedness or selfishness. This quality is inseparable from minds agitated with the hopes and fears arising from the occupations of com- merce. Every colonist is struggling to improve his pos- sessions, and none, or very few, are enjoying the life of content of the land-holders in Europe, which begets dis- interestedness, or at least checks the spirit of selfishness, and forms that mass of virtue which enables England in particular to resist the dire effects of luxury, corruption and conquest, and preserves a happy administration of a happy form of government in such a tempest of moral and political evils, as would overwhelm any other nation upon the face of the globe. The slaves are that unfortunate class of inhabitants, who, robbed of the rights of men by their masters, the European colonists, must ever remain enemies to the states, and their minds being retained in a savage state of ignorance, they and the colonists will form such an heterogeneous mass of people in this land, as will resist all coalescence into union and association, and portends dreadful evil to this rising continent, or new world. The native who approximates in his mode of life to the state of enlightened Nature, where liberty is law, and vir- tue is love, increases the leaven and ferment cf this mass. When man, by an education of example is rendered so THE MORAL STATE OP NATIONS. 123 benevolent that he associates and assimilates his will to others, instinctively like : the brute creation; Coercion will be a demon unknown^ which in European countries is set up and worshipped as an idol, to whom liberty, moral and political, is sacrificed to obtain the surety of a miserable existence. If the native of America had but a ray of reason sufficient to show him the folly and wick- edness of warring with his neighboring tribes of fellow Indians, his mode of association would have charms that would attract the slaves and victims of civilization, and all Europe would fly to happiness among Indian tribes, toying away a life of liberty, peace and love, in the in- dulgent arms of their coiifimon mother, Nature. These dark clouds o heterogeneity, in the mass of population, that eclipse ihe rising sun of American em- pire, can be dispersed only by the religion of Nature, which, if universally taught, would assimilate and incor- porate this great mass. JThis may be represented by the allegory of two childrenptruggling to destroy each other, while they were hanging! each upon a redundant and pro- tuberant breast of their Bother Nature, tearing the nipple and forcing out blood to mix and corrupt the spilled and overflowing milk ; Nature repaying these injuries with the indulgent caresses of a fond parent, and striving, by wise admonition, to appease that passion of interest which fascinates the creature, pursuing misery to obtain happiness, and destruction to procure salvation. This figure, painted in lively and just colors, should be worn about the neck by those, whose intellect could be en- lightened only through the sensual sight ; it might also, by the statuary, be chisseled in marble, and should be erected upon the ruins of those monuments of falsehood, error and misery, that have been elevated and cemented by the bloody sweat of the laborious part of mankind, whose liberty, virtue and happiness are sacrificed in them upon the altars of superstition, by the baseness and treachery of the vilest, though most elevated part of the human species priests and princes. 124 THE MORAL STATE Or NATIONS. CONCLUSION. HAVING taken a general view of the state of virtue, or sympathy and probity, of the different nations of the globe, I shall now draw up some retrospective and con- clusive considerations, to prove that virtue, and not form of political institutions, is the real source of national as well as of individual happiness. Though various constituted governments have snatched the sceptre from the hand of one tyrant, they have but effected the transposition of tyranny, and rendered it more incurable, and more intolerable in the hands of an oligarchy or aristocracy, whom riches have thrown into the bosom of luxury and debauchery, where sympathy and probity cannot possibly exist, as they delight only in the bosom of sobriety, temperance and wisdom. England and America are the only countries in the world, where the people exercise the most sacred and fundamental functions of all authority, the administration of civil and criminal justice ; and they are singularly em- inent in the candor of their commercial dealings. Let a purchaser enter a store in these countries, and though he be as ignorant of the commodity, as of the seller's per- son, both parties deal with confidence, and neither are de- ceived. Let him enter a store in any other part of the world Italy, France or Germany for instance, upon the continent, and deal with simplicity and confidence, the purchaser would be as basely cheated, as if he had dealt with a Jew or a sharper. The discussion or commercial dialogue used in a shop in these countries, would force the pride of an English shop-keeper to turn his customer out of doors, or be subject to the humiliating suspicions, that he is an arrant knave. This practice of rectitude proves, that the people possess that virtue, the only source and basis of all good political association, and the mo- ABSTRACT AND PRACTICAL TRUTH. 125 inent that this virtue becomes infected by luxury and de- bauchery, they must divest themselves of all their liber- ty, and establish a despot, like the sentinel or watchman of the night, to protect them in the darkness of vice and ignorance. In the present moral state of mankind, practical truth will ever cause a dangerous variance in vhr.ir opinions, and is to be counteracted only by the stability, and unity .f abstract truth. This, therefore, should be the end of nil reflection and deliberation, and any action that opposes it should be entered upon with extreme regret, as the eject of deplorable, necessity, which the cultivation of truth wiil gradually annihilate. Mankind should, therefore, enter into an intellectual commerce, to improve the mind to supplant that which avarice has rapidly extended to pamper and poison the body ; and they should treat thai man or country as an enemy to the divinity of Self and Nature, who should tyrannically and ignorantly murder the embryo, or sacri- legiously spill the germ of intellect, by violating the liber- ty and faculty of thought, the source of intellectual life and happiness, the comprehensive divinity of Nature. To- [elucidate this subject, 1] shall relate what passed in France upon the important motion in the National As- sembly, respecting the powers of making peace or war. The aristocratic party involving their personal interests with the political interests of the nation, maintained, that national energy required the sovereign to be invested with those rights. The democratic party contracting abstract truth to the standard of practical truth, influenced by the consideration of necessary energy, passed a decree, by which the king and the nation divided that, power. This, however, was effected by a very small majority, and it is said, that the populace of Paris were waiting with tumul- tuous murmurs of discontent and threats, at the door of the Assembly, that if the decree which passed, had not tallied with the point of abstract truth, measured by their enthusiasm, the most fatal insurrection would have en- 126 ABSTRACT AND PRACTICAL TRUTH. sued, and such anarchy must have prevailed, as would have prepared the tomb of liberty, and the triumph of the most irrefragible despotism. Alas ! how deplorable is the fate of humanity ! how weak the state of pervert- ed and prejudiced reason ! Man is induced to proscribe the standard of practice, and exclaim Stet veritas, mat mundus ; [(Abstract) Truth shall stand, though the World should fall !] I am apprehensive that my curious readers will have been much disappointed, that I have neglected the policy, customs and manners, together with the natural history of countries ; to which subjects it has been usual for travellers to confine their observation and narrative. If mankind are wretched over the whole face of the globe, and the moral chaos is universal, what avails the infor- mation that marks the civil and physical position of man ! it serves but to increase the labyrinth of knowledge, and augment the embarrassments of wisdom ! THE REVELATION OF NATURE: WHEREIN THE SOURCE OF MORAL MOTION IS DISCLOSED AND A MO11AL SYSTEM ESTABLISHED, THROUGH THE EVIDENCE AND CONVICTION OF THE. SK1NSES, TO ELEVATE MAN TO INTELLECTUAL EXISTENCE, AND AN ENLIGHTENED STATE OF NATURE. "In Error's room. This holds up Nature's Liulu, Keeps wand'ring Passion on the line of Right ; Grasps the whole worlds of Reason, Life and Sense In one close system of Benevolence." From tliP Fk-a of the first rising of the Sun of Reason, or the Publication of the Revelation of Nature, in the \ear of retrospective Astronomical Calculation 5(>00. London : Printed for J. RIDGWA Y, York-street, No. 1, St James' Square 1790. (From the above original edition, revised and re-printed, 1835.] PREFACE. WHAT a hallowed and important crisis is that, when a glimpse of the intellectual or moral world breaks in up- on the mind what complicated reflections of regret and astonishment arise, while it strives to arrange and dis- close its conceptions and ideas ! The mind, according to history, tradition and astronomical calculation, has been operating for 5000 years, with a ratio of improvement equal to its experience in knowledge, and yet has been so confined by the narrow boundaries of the animal and physical world, that the existence of an intellectual world has never suggested itself even to the imagination What an inexplicable problem ! Through the same long epoch, the whole power of the mind has been employed to preserve existence by means that renders it miserable. What a grievous and melancholy reflection ! ' How shall we attempt the solution of this problem how offer consolation to afflicted thought ? " Truth is dangerous to be displayed." This is the detestable axiom whose exposed falsehood will produce the solution of the problem, and the conso- lation of human sorrows. The vanity of erudition and the cowardice of animal sensibility, labor to propagate this false doctrine. To indolent and weak minds memory is made the sub- 4 THI REVELATION OP NATURE. statute for judgment, and the facts and chronology of an- cient history become its criterion for the present conduct and counsel of nations. To minds of great animal sen- sibility, and little judgment, every reformation or change portends danger and destruction, as the patient racked and tortured with the disease of the stone, sees, in the relief of lithotomy, all the horror of instantaneous death, Men of great animal knowledge and ingenuity, in a comparative view of nations, fear the progress of truth, lest it produce wisdom and virtue to humanize their own country, which losing in consequence its ferocity, would be invaded and enslaved by the vice and folly of their neighbors. They do not reflect upon the irresistible force of truth, which, whenever it appears, will remain fixed as a sun, and all the powers of error, aided by art, can never force it below the moral horizon, though they may cause occasional fogs and mists, to interrupt, like passing clouds, its meridian splendor. Animal sensibility would find an asylum in its congenial rays, which could not fail to bring all humanized matter into the happy state of uni- versal sympathy, and, rising above the horizon of human- ity, would mark the aurora of intellectual existence,' or well-being of all sensitive Nature. All mankind are agreed in their lamentations for the miseries of human nature, and all do, or must agree, that the only remedy is to be found in the intellectual facul- ties of man. Under what diabolical fascination, or spell of the demon Error, must he act, who consents to chain those faculties, lest their operations should produce the increase instead of the remedy of those miseries. THE IMPORTANCE OF TRUTH. 5 In the primitive state of society, men removed many- physical ills by the power of intellect ; and those ills which may be called moral, or ignorant institutions, skull they be perpetuated by prohibiting the use of intellect or exposition of thought, at the very time humanity stands in most need of it. ? It may be the interest of priests and kings to maintain such a doctrine, to persuade men, like the sheep, to suffer the aggregation of the fold ; but when, b^ the increase of intellect, arising from the free communication of thought, they shall find that the acci- dental evil of the wolves is to be preferred to the con- firmed treachery and tyranny of shepherds, who, for their own personal advantage tear oif their fleeces, arid perpetuate their miserable existence ; Humanity will then, with one common consent, burst from the chains of error, and hail the glorious dawn of the sun of truth, bringing the first day of light to intellectual existence, and the first day of happiness to all sensitive Nature. For any defect or inelegance of style in the following pages, I myself possess, and offer also to my readers, this consolatory reflection ; Error will be divested of all the power of her insidi- ous blandishments of eloquence ; and TRUTH will be dis- played in all the beauty of her nakedness. INTRODUCTION. THE incomprehensible cause of motion having hitherto been adored by mankind, under the personification of a, deity, with attributes suited to the imagination of the vo- taries, it is no wonder that more than nineteen twentieths of animate matter, or the brute creation, has been sacri- ficed to the cruelty, and the caprice of mankind, who created the deity and his laws for the protection of their particular species alone. The Apocalypse of Nature, which testifies and expo- ses the intimate connection and relation of all matter, must necessarily destroy this partial demon, and his more partial laws, and substitute in his place, a power thatde^ mands no personification ; and this is the effect of mo- tion, or its instrument of operation, the VOLITION OF MAN, which is the source of all [moral] good and evil. This then is the true and comprehensible power, which demands no adoration, but only the study and attention of mankind to bring it into operation, which may be ef- fected by extending the force of the intellectual faculties. The means to produce this first of all intelligible causes, must be by association ; for as by the increase of num- ber of bodies, greater physical powers are acquired ; SQ also is intellectual momentum increased by collective minds ; so that if an union of all the inhabitants of this globe was procured, the increase of corporeal and of mental strength would be parallel. Such an union of the mental powers, produced by the free communication and intercourse of thought of all mankind, would form such a perfect intelligence, or pri- mary cause to direct a wise and universal volition, as would bring the moral world from its chaos to order and system, by exposing to every individual the knowledge of 6 INTRODUCTION. Self, and its connection with Nature. Man would then exist in all the plenitude of his essence, connecting him- self with all sensitive matter. He would stop the vibra- tions of violence upon the great chain of nature, and the moulds of animation would be perfectionated to commu- nicate happiness to the universal inter -revolution of mat- ter ; and though the chain of Nature might be agitated from time to time, by opposition to the offensive volition of destructive animals, as ignorant men, beasts of prey, and venemous reptiles ; yet its vibration would subside when the cause was removed, and sympathy would re- sume its power to eternize the tranquillity and happiness Of all sensitive Nature. The adoration of the effect of moral motion in voli- tion, or self in system, should be formed by the example of the Guebers, or worshippers of the Sun, who contem- plated its effects alone, and direct its congenial rays to the purposes of subsistence, and comforts of life. So shotald the children of Nature direct the congenial emo- tions of the volition, or self, in system, to procure a hap- piness to all sensitive Nature, the only adoration a pure and perfect intelligence can admit of. Were the Guebers to neglect the effect, and reason only upon the cause or essence of the sun, the physical world would be affected with the same disorders that the moral world is now sub- ject to, from the preposterous employment of thought about the cause, and not the effect, of intelligence- THE APOCALYPSE [OR REVELATION] OF NATURE. MATTER. ALL things that make an impression upon the sense? of animated matter, contain in themselves a power or propensity to motion, which power is augmented or va- ried by the different combinations of bodies. Matter, which in its dissolution, separates, can never be annihilated, and though it may disperse into an infini- ty of small particles, which, making no impression upon the gross organs of sense, may disappear, yet must con- tinue to be in the great mass of existence ; to which, as it is impossible to suppose a beginning, it is also impos- sible to suppose an end, and it may, therefore, be called eternal. Matter is sufficiently defined to all the purposes of useful intelligence, by the word substance. Motion is that substance in action. Volition is the. inceptive motion of the moral world, and the direction of this, in a right line to happiness, or well-being, is the only operation upon which the intel- lectual powers ought to be employed. Secondary causes and effects should alone be investigated, and primary or connection abandoned. We know that desire is the motive cause of pleasure, which effect is also the object of 10 THE REVELATION OF NATURE. desire; but the connection between them .can never be known ; and as it is the effect alone which brings any Utility, the augmentation and improvement of its causes alone merit attention. The operation of the intellectual powers is to be gui- ded and governed by utility, till it has discovered the line or orbit of happiness : then speculation and abstraction may be indulged in, as if unsuccessful in discovery they will be useful in amusement ; whereas at present they serve but to confound the mental faculty, and embarrass it in the search of the right line to happiness. How vain are the researches of the finely-constituted faculties in the discovery of the well-being of animated matter, if the errant powers of some minds labor to prove its non-existence, whose soph'iNtieal reasonings, like the destructive eye of the basilisk, dazzles the fear-con- founded faculties of the self-devoted bird. I have exa- mined the syllogisms of these sophists, that seem to have confounded all philosophers, and they appear to me such impertinent vagaries of the verbal ingenuity of man, that they form a deplorable evidence of the distance of the human mind from its intellectual acme. The mind ar- rived at this state possesses full power to procure hap- piness to its essence, and all abstraction beyond that point, proves its weakness by its impertinence. MOTION Is the force or soul of matter, and cause of all action ; fits source is] impenetrable to all human knowledge. The noblest production of motion is the animation of matter, which it combines into an organization capable of much action; the long continuance of which uses the machine, and dissolves it into its primary state, from which it. again returns into animation, and forms an eter- nal revolution of combination and dissolution. The most complicated animal machine is that called THE REVELATION OF NATURE. 11 MAN. THIS machine is formed of particles of matter, organ- ized so as to resemble a corded instrument of music of five strings which correspond with the five senses. The intellectual faculties hold the bow and play, and the passions form the stops upon the handle of the instru- ment, and if just tones are produced, simultaneously or successively, tin ir harmony or melody forms what is called an agreeable tune or air, or well-being and happi- ness, of which man himself possesses consciousness, and iu this power he is superior to, and differs from the inanimate, instrument. The inceptive power of motion can no more be ac- counted for in the animal, than in any other part of mat- ter ; nor should the discovery at all interest the mind, being obviously impossible. The volition or operation of the intellectual faculties to pioeure tliis agreeable air, or well-being of its essence, is ;ill to at merits the concern of a well-organized man. Thf.; i.nittial man is a subject that demands the whole attention and capacity of intellect, to investigate, not the origin, but means and end of his existence. On his ac- tion or motion depends the well-being of all animate and inanimate matter. We have proved that animals are duels, or canals of identity, to receive matter in its eter- nal revolution. The connection or communion of mat- ter with matter is seen by the constant transmutation of it in alir.ient, dissolved and digested by animated bodies; which bodies, decomposed and absorbed by the elements, return to vegetation and animation, and continue this change, (not ileath,) of existence, to all eternity. Death or change of existence is the dissolution of iden- tity, which is but the tune of the instrument, and has no connection with Nature, which is formed by matter alone. How this is formed we know as little of, as of the con- nection between fire and heat ; but we have an instinc- 12* 12 THE REVELATION OF NATURE. tive and conscious testimony, that we are immortal parts of the great integer Nature ; that we have existed from, and shall continue to exist to all eternity, though our identities have been interrupted by the weakness of re- miniscence, or changed by decay or death. A weak mind, that attaches itself to identity alone, may not be able to conceive its eternal connection with Na- ture, but I defy a mind, that has arrived at the acme of intellect and considers the indestructibility of matter to separate itself from its eternal integer, though it can have no knowledge of the mode of connection.* The utility of this doctrine is indisputable, as it shows us that we shall participate, in present and future, of all the evil that our vice or violence may bring upon the great mass of Nature, in the same manner, that the sobriety or intemperance of youth prepares a healthy or disor- dered old age, and that no clemency of an imaginary power or deity, can relieve us from the present or future consequences of our own actions. Such a religion or doctrine would not fail, if universal- ly taught, to render all mankind wise, virtuous and hap- py. The tyrant would tremble at the cruelty he prepares for another identity the violent or vicious man would cease to perpetuate his brutality, lest his succeeding iden- tity be animated to a world of misery; and the brute creation would be entitled to more humanity than our own species, lest their dumbness might conceal the pain which man inflicts, and lest he in future, assuming the identity of a brute, might suffer that pain, his inhumani- ty had caused and perpetuated. The absurd and cruel institutions of society tyrannize over Nature, by multiplying the wants and classes of hu- manity, by substituting power to peace, labor to repose, riches to happiness. Original violence having destroyed * The river that is lost in the ocean, though its identity is no more, does not cease to exist, but undergoes all the agitations and evaporations of the sea, and returns into rivers again ; and thus k is with the connection of man and Nature. THE REVELATION OF NATURE. 13 truth in its abstract, or in the great circle and system ; mankind, by operating in a contracted system of relative truth, perpetuate misery for their present and future iden- tities. When the human capacity shall arrive at intellectual existence, and conceive intuitively the sacred doctrine of the unity and eternity of all Nature, the whole moral eco- nomy of humanity will be changed the system of Na- ture will be known self will be discovered happiness will be studied and man, in the plenitude of intellectu- al existence, will be brought to a state of enlightened ^ature, or absolute liberty directed and controlled by a wise volition, to obtain the end of well-being to self and fellow-selves, or all sensitive creatures. THE VOLITION OR will is produced both by physical and by moral causes ; it is first examined by the Judgment, and in pro- portion as it is, or is not, thereby influenced, it effects an harmonious or a discordant tune. The volition of man may be regarded as the source ot moral motion, and takes its birth from out ward or in ward impression. This affection in man, unaccompanied by wisdom, is often dangerous to his well-being, and is very inferior to that of brutes, which instinct directs in a right line to their well-being. Hence the origin of coercion, to restrain the volition which would have answered all the end of wisdom, had not mankind, from an increase of population, seperated into several societies, each of which became, as it were, an individual, with its own unwise volition. Different associations having no coertion to restrain them, waged war on each other, and their vio- lence or evil volition unrestrained, forced mankind into the asylum of civilization, where they met coertion, a monster who devoured their liberty and happiness, in or- der to assure to them their miserable existence. In proportion as wisdom augments or advances, coer- 14 THE REVELATION OP NATURE. tion must diminish or recede, and this is exemplified in the present, state of different nations ; those possess most liberty who possess most wisdom. The latter must al- ways precede; for should the former dare to assume the precedence, it changes into licentiousness, and wisdom flies from its society, and to preserve existence, coertion must be called in, though to that demon, happiness is sa- crificed upon the altar of despotism. THE JUDGMENT Is the power of the mental qualities^ to assort, to re- late, to compare the ideas presented to it, to draw there- from just inferences or deductions, and to direct and pre- serve the volition in a strait line to truth. It is the great moral excellence of the machine called man ; and if this machine is so organized as to allow the perfect operation of judgment, it must, when played upon, ever produce a melodious air. Other machines that are less perfectly organized, and where this faculty may be wanting, are still capable of performing the same melody, but then they must follow the example of the first, which answers to the leader of the band, and they may acquire the habit of playing well, though they do not in so eminent a degree feel the con- sciousness, or know the cause of the melodious tune, which they produce by imitation, as the leader does by invention, by which it must receive a greater proportion of pleasure. The faculty of judgment is the sovereign of the mental powers, and places its throne in the mind, holding a most despotic empire over the volition, whose residence is [figuratively said to be] in the heart. This it must treat with uncommon severity; for upon the least indulgence it rebels, and drives judgment from its throne, and eveii when it assumes an abject posture of supplication to wait with resignation the sovereign decree, its treachery must still be suspected, and it must not be suffered to approai-.li THE INSIDIOUSNESS OP VANITY. 15 even the steps of the throne ; nay, with all these precau- tions, it has been known to menace its sovereign, and in- fluence decrees, which judgment imagined were of pure motive. It often employs an officious emissary, named vanity, who whispers in the ear of judgment to obtain a partial decree for volition concealed behind its flowing robes. In short, judgment can never be secure till it has elevated its throne to a pinnacle, where the whispers of the emissary, and the supplications of volition, can never reach. If we attend to the polemical writings of mis-name<3 philosophers, and the conversation of modern disputants, we shall be sensible on what a low and humble throne judgment is seated, and what power the emissary, vanity, possesses ; for their disputes tend not to form, but only to support an opinion ; and with them truth and triumph are synonimous. If we would demonstrate by observa- tion the power of volition over judgment, we might no- tice the clubs in St. James' street, and the conduct of some august personages, who resemble and equal in their great powers and excellence of intelligence, reflection and anticipation, the Caribbee Indians, who play for their beds in the morning, and cry for them at night, as do the former for their estates. Having, by this allegory, shown the powers and pro- perties of the animal machine, Man, I shall proceed tc* investigate his essence and end of existence ; and first of his ESSENCE. 16 THE REVELATION OF NATURE ESSENCE. WE find in that combination of matter, called man, two powers, one passive, and the other active. The first is the corporeal power, formed of the visible and tangible parts, called body : the other is the result of the organi- zation of that body, forming the power vulgarly called soul. The body, by its organs of sense, as eyes, ears, nose, palate, and various members, communicates with the soul, and conveys to it that intelligence, which the soul administers in procuring well-being to the body, and constantly directs it to the objects of pleasure, and warns it against those of pain. Where these component parts are perfect, the machine is moved in a right line to well- being, unless interrupted by some extraneous power over which it has no control. The corporeal part of this machine is, as it were a ca nal or duct, to receive extraneous matter, and to commu- nicate to it in its momentary passage the pleasure of con- sciousness or existence; for the foreign matter incorpo- rates every moment in the machine, by respiration and aliment, and passes with such velocity, that thought can form no period of absolute, corporeal, or mental identity. The action of the memory, which lasts no longer than the nerve, its agent, vibrates, conveys ep'ochas of pain and pleasure, called existence, to the circulating matter, and this is what is vulgarly understood by identity, which ceases, upon the decomposition of the corporeal and mental union, and releases itself in all Nature, from which it is impossible, even in thought, to separate it- All Nature, that is, all its parts, called I, you, they, which are, were, and will be eternally a part of Nature, are interested in preserving these canals, or selfish iden- tities 'of persons, in order that matter may be assured happiness and well-being in its eternal revolution. The essence of man may be simply and intelligibly de- fined to be ; Matter organized so as to procure a volition, THE ESSENCE OF MAN, 17 and to possess means, to gratify the same, and to procure judgment, which may direct that volition and means to well-being and happiness of the man. Whatever oppo- ses that judgment, must be inimical to man, a$what aids it must be friendly. Nothing proves HO strongly the false principles of civil institutions, as the political tenet of necessity to keep the people in ignorance. This tenet is justified upon considerations of relative truth: for example ; suppose any one nation, to cultivate truth ; in proportion as this advanced, coercion would recede, and ultimately leave mankind in a state of absolute liberty, which would be employed in enjoying happiness, or a state of pleasure, repose and content. If the neighboring nations contin- ued in a state of ignorance, coercion would oblige them to substitute wealth and power to pleasure, labor and care to repose, and ambition and avarice to content. This dis ; position would lead them to invade their happy neighbors, in order to subdue and enslave them; but moral princi- ples are like seed on the earth, which in many cases may be dispersed, and trod to destruction, yet some will not fail to take root, and these will invigorate and mul- tiply, and may eventually cover the whole earth with ve- getation. Nations tremble, therefore, at this effect of truth, auil dread the revolution or innovation, which may change its acorns into oaks, though these latter must ultimately ve- getate over all Nature, and shade it from the injuries of ignorance and violence. The innovations that truth must naturally bring about, would not appal strong minds, if they reflected, That the agitation which the falling pebble of truth causes in the centre of the lake, subsides into easy undulations, which spread themselves to the extremities, without injuring the waters. The innovations of error are alone to be dread- ed. Truth and Nature, oppose the recoiling frothy waves, and never suffer a calm upon the lake of human- ity, while error like a hurricane, continues to trouble its waters. 18 THE REVELATION OF NATURE. Of what little value is the present period of existence, compared to eternity? how important is that reform which promises eternal happiness to our immortal con- nections with Nature, when this essence dissolves, and breaks our present form of connection with Nature. Since the elements in motion may convey our connec- tions to the climes of Africa, some members of the Brit- ish senate, not yet arrived at a state of intellectual exis- tence, who vote the continuation of African slavery and misery, no doubt perpetuate that injustice and cruelty to their own connections, or future essence HI Nature. How- ever this doctrine of connection may, by its novelty and importance, dazzle or confound minds unused to abstract contemplation, or the common exercise of thought ; to an intellectual mind, that can invert its powers upon self, it appears intuitive, easy and almost demonstrative, from the universal transformation of matter into matter, and the impossibility to conceive its cessation, though we can- not imagine its mode of connection with Nature. Let us now consider what are the causes that disorder these canals, or oppose this machine, man, in his pro- gress on the right line to well-being, or happiness. First, let them be considered in an INDIVIDUAL STATE. In this state his opponents or enemies are, physical ills, as hunger, beasts, sickness, disorder of the elements, and enemies of his own species. These alternately in- terrupt his repose, and destroy him. His mental facul- ties, in a progressive improvement, lead him to associa- tion, which may guard him against these evils ; but as the faculties of the mind are slow in improvement, asso- ciation, will be slow in its effect, but like all parts of Nature, will move in a circle of perfection and destruc- tion. Let us now view the animal man in a THE REVELATION OF NATURE. STATE OF ASSOCIATION. THE first state of association of men was domestic, and it seems to have been well adapted to the enjoyment of animal happiness; or corporeal well-being, by their mutu- al aid in building houses, nursing in sickness, procuring provision, increasing defencf against the common enemy, and improving their mental powers and sensual pleasures, by inter-communication. In this state, however it might be corporeally grateful, the mental faculties had no pow- er, either to confer consciousness of existence, or intel- lectual happiness, and could not arrest the evil progress of a too extensive association, which introduced the different violences of personal tyranny, assumption of property, and public or civilized coercion, which destroyed all liberty and with it happiness. The progress of the extension of association,, will no doubt, at length so improve the mental faculties, that it will discover that state, individual and social, which the essence of man requires, to procure to. it well-being or happy existence. As long as individual violence exists, so long must ex- ist public coercion ; but this should only be exercised over the violators. I know but one other instance where it has the slightest pretext of justification, which is, in compelling the individual to labor on his proportion of soil, which gives subsistence to the society; but this would be rendered absolutely unnecessary by the exam- ple of education ; for as the labor of one man would maintain twenty, the unconquerable indolence of a few perverse individuals, who might resist the force of edu- cation, can never be a sufficient reason to employ coer- cion, which Ls the demon of all sensitive Nature. Be- sides, the example of many Indian tribes, who cultivate the soil in common, and have substituted the habit ot custom and education for coercion, demonstrates this to be the error of civilization, and shows the superiority ot 13 20 THE REVELATION OF NATURE. HilKcnrupted instinct over corrupted and prejudiced rea- son, bv conducting the animal, man, nearer to a state of well-being; though- this can only be perfected and se- cured by enlightened reason. The present mode of association is founded upon ig- norance ajd error. The competition of nations for riches and power has obliged them to sacrifice happiness to those objects, and states and individuals are both the vic- tims of this folly. Let us review the life of nfan in the present state of civilization. The poor man,, upon whose labor depends the riches of the state, is > by the avarice and policy of the great, obliged to such excessive toil, as reduces him to a state of mere animal existence, and a premature and painful dissolution. He is so stimulated by the goad of necessity, that his mind, attached to the object of his labor, leaves him no repose, in which alone the faculty, of thought can extend itself, and acquire consciousness of existence ; so that his body becomes a painful duct or stage of matter, in its eternal revolution. The rich and powerful, who cause this evil, are themselves no less unhappy, though relieved from the goad of necessity, which they inflict upon others, to urge them to excessive labor. They do not labor sufficiently to procure them- selves health, and this reduces them to a state of languor, from which they seek relief by the occupation of the mind, which, though it may cure that disorder, causes, by sedentary habits, a variety of others more painful. The moral laws of chastity oppress with greater vio- lence the rich females than the poor. The former, from their luxurious diet, derive irritable habits of blood, which inflame the passions, and these are incessantly exposed to the temptations attendant on the mode of conduct in high life ; while the poor are freed from this torment, and its various causes. I allude only to the females ; for the males, who have contrived by superior power to impose this law upon the weaker sex, disavow its duties ; and disease, premature and painful old age and death revenge their treachery ; for by imposing continence unnn *^ THE REVELATION OP NATURE. 21 whole gentle sex, the few, whose sense and sensibility see and break through the cobweb fetters of imagination, and Mm their rightful asylum of Nature, from the small- ness of their number, have to seek subsistence from the brutal lust of their tyrants, arid become repositories, or common sewers of such pestilential diseases, that man, like the phenix, procreates in a burning nest. The laws of chastity are intended to promote popula- tion, and population to increase defence. Would it not be wiser to consider, whether an unhappy people ought to be augmented, or desire to be defended ; and wheth- er it is acting as becomes intellectual beings, conscious of their eternal connection with the integer of Nature, to augment the quantity of matter in animal revolution, while the ducts or stages of identities are forned to com- municate misery to passive matter, and perpetuate it to the active, or procreator. FURTHER CONSIDERATIONS OF MATTER THE mind is overwhelmed with astonishment when it reflects, that the intellectual faculties seem to have lost their natural gravitation towards seifj and are constantly propelled from their true centre. They have formed, or imagined a knowledge of motion, by an universal intelli- gence they have discovered the laws of planetary revo- lutions of distant worlds they have discovered the va- rious laws of Nature in the parts of their own inhabited world and yet the centre self is as unknown and neg- lected, as if it was a non-entity. What can be the cause of this moral phenomenon ? It would seem as if Nature had, by the propel ling force ot rejudice and error, elevated the mind to a great distance its centre that in returning, by falling from such a TI1E REVELATION 0V NATURE. height, its impulsive weight might carry it to tlw centre of gravity or self, where it would find eternal repose. The fictions or the corruptions of truth, made by the- imagination when considering universal motion, are ab- surd and useless ; and it is unworthy of human reason, to combat; the errors of mankind, formed by the reveries of the imagination upon this subject. The only digni- fied and useful operation of the mental faculties, unbiassed by the prejudices of custom and education, is to consid- er the motion and nature of self. My mind is filled with amazement when I review the past ages of the world, and find every subject that Thought and Nature present, investigated with zeal, eru- dition and capacity, and the subject Self, of such infinite importance that its very comparison annihilates every other, almost without mention, and absolutely without investigation. What applause and glory have Ptolemy, Copernicus and Newton obtained by discovering the planetary system ? What benefit has mankind received from them? I know of none. What will that mortal deserve who shall discover, or rather, form the moral system, and jirevent the terrestrial bodies from moving in eccentric and destructive collision? He will be amply recompensed by the proportion of hap- piness, which he, r^s a part of the great integer of Na- ture, will receive from his zealous study; for that mind which has force to make such a discovery, can receive no recompense from the articulated sounds of praise be- stowed upon it by its fellows. Self is that chain which connects Man with Nature; and though its vibration is strong upon the sense of feel- ing, thought can give it no form. It revolves about the universal centre of Nature in the moral world, and is connected with the infinite orbit of other selfs, by the radii of sympathy, which is to the moral, what attraction is to the physical system. The quality of willing for self alone, may be called its attraction of cohesion, and the quality of assimila- f't*.* 4^4 figs*. the excellence of his nature, we must consider him in union with others of his species. By this union, however, he can give up none of his in- dividual liberty ; he associates to facilitate and secure (he free operation of his mental faculties, and of his volition. In the first associations among mankind, if the free will of man had been forced or violated, ihe passion of li-ar would immediately have dissolved the assembly. We may suppose in this first state of society, any two men under the impulse of the same passion of hunger, lust or fear; if they found an egg, would they contend i'or it or divide it? If judgment was weak, as in the brute crea- tion, they would contend for it with their lives, hut if strong they would certainly divide the egg, as no one could hope to preserve his own person inviolate, if he encroached on the liberty of another. In like manner, should a woman present herself to two men, both being under the impulse of the passion of lust ; if savages they would contend for her like brutes; if wise, to se- cure the freedom of their own will, they would assimilate it to hers. For man to obtain well-being or happiness, it is ne- cessary that he should eojoy an absolute state of liberty, to will for himself, but not for others ; which may be ef- fected by means of good government and good educa- tion, which will reciprocally correct and reform each oth . I'.;sonal identity is that state of matter in which it pos:*. sses a consciousness of existence,, and power of motion to procure happiness for the present, and thereby perpetuate it in every stage of its transmutation or revo- lution ; and no change of that identity by loss of memo- ry or by death, can dissolve the connection with its inte- ger .Nature, but like a river absorbed by the ocean, it transmutes into all forms of matter, and returns to riv- ers again. The vegetables, animals and water, incorporate every day by aliment, [and air by breathing] into self or identity ; it is of consequence therefore to all Nature, that this due 1 30 THE REVELATION OF NATURE. duct, through which they are to pass, should communi- cate to them happiness. Self or identity is the union of this various matter, organized to feel pleasure and pain or consciousness of existence which is continued by the influence of memory. Vegetables, animals, rivers, [air, caloric, electricity,] all Nature are interested in the intellectual and corporeal organization of this common duct called personal identity ; and since its interruptions or cessations never affect the immortality of Nature, it is the interest of matter in motion to procure happiness to matter out of motion, which will be reciprocated and perpetuated, if inteilectualized mutter should be influ- enced by the above reflections. The mind, being strongly impressed with the immortal connection between self and Nature, expands its bounds of existence, and acquires a new intellectual essence \ and though elevated beyond the essences of fellow-selves, yet in the wisely measured gratification of the sensual and full enjoyment of intellectual pleasures, it conde- scends into the orbit of society, and there, by a nice eco- nomy of reason and passion, plucks the roses of pleas- ure, and erases those thorns of pain, to which the insti- tutions of ignorance have subjected the whole human species, and which error or vanity, co-operate to per- petuate. This vast and important sentiment of the immortal connection of self and Nature, regenerates its authors in the instant of its conception, and causes the exalted char- acter, which the ethics and example of ages could never produce : a man whose heart, finding or sufficient ali- ment for its universal sympathy in the contracted seg- ments of parental, social, patriotic, and human affection and love, expands to the great circle of sensitive Nature, and dries up the source of evil with the ardor of its be- i-evolence : and whose existence so elevated, if not tem- pered by great wisdom, would find no medium of happi- ness in the society of ignorant creatures, or fellow selves or parts of the common integer of Nature. THE REVELATION OP NATURE. 31 SELF. [CONTINUED.] THE study of this important, but unknown and neg- ] lected subject, will explain all the mystery of the moral world. Self is God self is religion self is virtue, wisdom, truth and happiness. The greatest power and operation of the mental faculties is, to invert and reflect on self: for he who gains a knowledge of himself, will know how to love himself, and by making self happy, will communicate happiness to all animated matter. Philosophers, or those who, having broken the bonds of puerile error, thought themselves wise, have all been ig- norant of self, and have called treason against the sacred majesty of self, by the names "virtue" and ''duty," and have lead mankind from the mist of error, to sink them into its abyss. I The investigation of self demands an uncommon ex- ertion of the intellectual faculties, and is a phenomenon as rare in the moral world, as would be a river in the physical world, [if endued with consciousness,] attempt- ing to flow back to its source, to discover in order to pu- rify it. If the mind in this stupendous attempt should not be steady, or make its progress in a direct line, it will be neither cause of wonder nor reproof. \ Self is formed of a body of organized matter, produ- cing volition or moral motion, to give life and mind or understanding, to direct that body or machine, called man, to the well-being of his essence, or a happy state. j When the mind has, by the arduous process of ab- straction from education, custom and will, reached its source, or that point of issuing where its motion is visi- ble, it surveys the plains, and selects that channel to bound its course, which will convey fertility to its world t or happiness to itself. 14 THE REVELATION OF NATURE. HAPPINESS Is that state of the animal man, at. which he arrives by the power of the understanding which being exerted in reflection* on past, present and future, enables him to form a volition, or acquire a motion, to progress forward tmimpe'ded, in a state of absolute liberty, and in a right line to the well-being of his essence. Whatever impedes this volition, formed by means of the understanding, must be inimical to the happiness of man. These impediments are either physical or moral; physical, as when he hungers and the fruit upon the tree is elevated beyond his reach ; moral, as when one of his own species is in possession of it, and refuses to parti- cipate it. To remove these impediments, associations of the human species were formed, by whose collective bodily force, physical impediments were overcome, and by their collective mental force, moral ones might be counteracted. In this state self seems to have acquired new relations, or rather to have extended its own nature ; but by no means to have contracted it, nor, according to both vulgar and philosophical opinions, ancient and modern, to have sacrificed its own happiness to that of society; but on the contrary, the volition is only changed, and though forced back by the. understanding, to react upon its source, it acquires a greater momentum, and is kept steadier up- on a right line to happiness, which it reaches the sooner, imitating the laws of material projectiles. * The connection of identity or being with Nature passes through the infinite combinations of existence and essence. I have been from all eternity passing through the several stages of inanimate, vegetable and animal states ; and this truth gives me an interest to oppose and remove every evil from sensitive Ma- ture : as I labor to the advantage and happiness, ultimately o my own connections, and upon this truth reposes the whole mo- ral system of Nature. THE RECIPROCITY OF INTEREST. 33 To prove this axiom, which if established will over- turn all ancient philosophy, and introduce a new system, I shall suppose that two individuals, just entered into a social state, and impelled by the most powerful of all the passions, hunger, discover upon a tree a small quantity of fruit, which they can acquire only by mutual aid : this being done, the fruit is found to be too little to satisfy the appetite of either, and yet they divide it, though they had each a volition, propelling them to eat the whole. This volition, however, they suppress ; and this is called the sacrifice of self to society ; whereas it is, on the contrary, turning the advantage of society to the particular ad- vantage of self; for the mental power surveying con- stantly its own motion or volition, pushes it back up- on the source, self, to acquire an augmentation ; and the first volition of eating all, is changed to a wider or greater volition of giving away hal^ by the following re- flection : Were I to devour the whole of the fruit, my companion would desert me, and I should lose his aid, and conse- quently suffer want ; I should also be deprived of the passion of sympathy, which extends and harmonizes my essence ; and lastly, I should barter the great good of so- ciety, present and future, acquired by mental reflection, for the momentary pleasure of taste. I shall suppose another instance, where three individ- uals are concerned, a female and two males ; the latter desire to enjoy or cohabit with the former, since they cannot both participate, as in the case of the fruit, there must be a momentary preference. The delay, however, or check of the volition of enjoyment, in this case, would proceed from the paramount volition of liberty, which never can violate the will of another, if the understand- ing is sound or in its natural state ; because on reflection or thought, we must be sensible, that the forcing our will upon another, perverts the order of the moral world, and breaks down all the barriers that guard happiness or well- being, and this for the advantage of a momentary prefer- 34 THE REVELATION OF NATURE. | ence. The moment we suffer self to violate volition, we assent to its being violated, and destroy the basis of all well-berng. By these examples we see, that when self, in its voli- tion, directed by judgment, gives up a little present for much future good, it makes no sacrifice, but is ever most partial when it seems the least so, and that judgment when opposing, or resisting volition, operates as a flood- gate, not to destroy, but to preserve the water to flow in a current of utility. If, in the first institutions of society, its collective force of coercion had been employed only against the vi- olators of personal freedom, there would have been no moral evil at this day upon the face of the globe. But the torrent of violation has now gained a dreadful extent, and the rugged rocks of coercion, in attempting to stop the destructive current of this enormous cataract, turn the inundation upon the peaceful meadows, and involve all Nature in the same calamity. The civil institutions of mankind, in order to preserve and perpetuate exis- tence, have destroyed the liberty and happiness of es- sence or self. Self is the subdivision and partition of all Nature, into particular identities, to enjoy conscious- ness, happiness and motion in the dispensation and eco- nomy of Nature, who seems to have rendered it impossi- sible for self, willingly and knowingly, to do any thing against its own happiness ; and even were it possible that the volition, under the guidance of a sound under- standing, should will evil to self, it would be the highest crime in Nature to execute such evil ; and this proves, that virtue and self love are one and the same thing. Happiness is that condition or state of essence in which the sensations of pleasure predominate either in actual gratification, or in expectation which causes agree- able emotions to fill up the vacuum or passage from that to enjoyment. Violence has given so dreadful a concussion and vibra- tion to the universal chain of existence, that policy has THE BENEFITS OF REPOSE. 35 invented institutions, calculated solely to give tenacity to the links, in order to preserve, the whole from destruc- tion or annihilation. To wave figurative speech ; Man has totally changed the idea of well-being into strong or durable being. To constitute happiness, repose is the greatest component part ; but the violence of nations demands a sacrifice of it to labor, which procures population and riches, upon which the strength and competition of nations and indi- viduals are founded. To a regenerated mind in a state of intellectual exis- tence, repose lengthens time moments into hours, hours into days, days into years, years into ages, and ages into eUrnily ; and wisdom fills up the immense space. But the same repose is misery to an unregenerated mind in a state of mere animal existence, that has no knowledge of self, but demands the agitation of perpetual occupation, or, like the pendulum, loses life with motion. The intellectual mind also cannot exist without mo- tion; but it is the undulation caused by the zephir of de- sin's, and corrected by the intellectual sun shine ; where- as the motion of animal existence is that of the vessel, tempest-tost, and without the helm of reason ; and intel- lectual lightnings are dreaded, as they increase while they expose the horrors of the storm. Thus, the mere animal existence dreads the repose which invites reflection, while the intellectual mind, courts it as the only means of enjoying, ensuring and perpetuating happiness. The former has little more cori- sc'wusuess of existence than the brute, and his happiness, which consists in the indulgence of blind tempestuous pas-ions, is interrupted by the least relaxation. The in- tellectual mind, on the contrary, besides its pure calm en- joyment, fills up each period of repose, with the emo- tions of reflection and anticipation, which increase its powers of consciousness. Tlie present situation of mankind in society, recals to mind, the fable of two inimical, ferocious beasts, who continued in combat so long, each watching the assault 14* 36 THE REVELATION OF NATURE. >of its antagonist, that inanition consumed both on the field of battle, as they neglected to feed, whi-e fury and suspicion rivetted their attention on their visible enemy, till death, by famine, triumphed over both. So it is with mankind. They combat nation against nation for existence, and sacrifice the end to the means, or well-being and happiness to the security of existence. The great enemy to happiness is the fear that every individual nation has of adopting the theory and practice of truth, lest if its neighbors should not also adopt it, its own safety would be exposed. Every one fears to throw the pebble of truth into any part of the lake of humani- ty, lest the resistance of the circumjacent waters, in- creasing the violent agitation on tlie centre self, should overwhelm and destroy it ; whereas it would but give that energy of concussion necessary to carry its undula- tions upon the shore of all sensitive Nature. There is no subject of such infinite importance to mankind, as the augmentation of judgirent or reason, which can be promoted only by a free and unlimited disqui- sition of truth, and the evils which human nature suffers over all the globe, can never be remedied while thought is shackled. Did no evil exist in Nature, thought might then be bound in the strongest fetters, lest it might perhaps do harm by inventing error ; but, as at present, the contrary is the case, and humanity is put to every kind of torture upon the rack of coercive institutions and barbarous cus- toms, it is sacrilege and rebellion, against reason and Na- ture, to control the power of thought. When the proposal of emancipating the mind from er- ror is heard, every one is consternated, not on his own account, but on his neighbor's, for he thinks that truth would not be dangerous to himself: this proves the recip- rocal and universal suspicion of others to be a general calumny, which checks the progress of reason in the re- formation of error, the removal of misery, and establish- -ment of well-being or happiness. THE REVELATION OF NATURE. 37 VIRTUE CONSISTS of those acts or motions of the intellectu- alized animal man, which procure the well-being of his essence or happiness. We have defined man to be a machine, formed of corporeal and mental faculties, pos- sessing passions and reason ; and the well-being or es- sence of this machine to be the freedom of thought and judgment, to direct the will, and absolute liberty to put it in execution. Virtue having hitherto been placed upon a false basis, men of letters and not of ideas, vulgarly dubbed philoso- phers, have accumulated error upon error to prop it up. Some have invented the most impious and atrocious per- sonifications, to torment and torture those who bow not in adoration to the demon of their corrupted and unprin- cipled imaginations. These dogmatic and systematic fools mistook the semblance for the principles of virtue, and. by this error they have confined mankind in a moral labyrinth, which demands the clue of pure and enlighten- ed, though simple reason, to extricate them. The most important, as well as the most evident and true moral axiom, that ever the human understanding dis- covered is, that " TRUE SELF LOVE AND SOCIAL IS THE SAME." What a glorious instruction for human nature! this with its own mighty force destroys all the colossal and impious fictions of theology. Why imagine a metaphy- sical sovereign or deity to reward or punish the being that does not know how to love, or do good to itself? Every thinking being imagines it knows how, and intends, in all its actions, to do good to itself, and if it does harm instead of good, ignorance alone is the cause. W hy then institute metaphysical punishments, when the evil suf- fered by man, and caused by ignorance, is, of itself, a cru- e\ injustice 1 Those metaphysical quacks, called theolo- ,gists, if they intended to cure the moral ills, arising from 38 THE REVELATION OF NATURE. the collision of the passions of men, should enlighten and extend the powers of judgment ; whereas, by their gioss fables, and mental impositions, they destroy that judgment, and perpetuate and increase ignorance, the cause of all human ills. The inventors of metaphysical fictions designing the- oiogists and ignorant speculators, called philosophers, if they had possessed a grain of wisdom, would never have transferred the study of their own nature, or self, to in- finity, because that is incomprehensible ; nor to the phy- sical scieuces or arts, because these bear no appreciable proportion, in a comparative view of utility, with, the knowledge of self. Sel then, is the only subject worthy the study of man. The arts and sciences should be left, to mere men of knowledge. Self if considered as isolated, appears to be in a state incompatible with well-being or full ex- istence. The impotence of man, in a state of infancy, demands the aid of parents ; the passion of hunger would be more painful ; the passion of lust without grati- fication ; the passion for life insecure, and the affections of sympathy unknown; and no approximation could be made to an intellectual existence. Self, therefore, must be considered in a state of society, and society must pro- cure the well-being of its members. Should any mem- ber through ignorance, the cause of moral malady, be- come an ulcer, it must be healed by applying to it the balm of wisdom, and if this succeed not, coercion must be applied ; should coercion be unsuccessful, the member must be amputated, or destroyed and thrown, like the potter's ill-moulded clay, into the general mass, to be re-kncaded with it, and to be cast and returned into a happier combination. Wisdom, in its operation to gain the knowledge of self, must begin with the mental faculties, and by discovering the means to exercise them, and executing their functions, their primuni mobile, or active moral force will be estab- lished. * THE OBJECTS OF SOCIETT. 39 The understanding, by taking a view of the past and the present, is enabled to anticipate the future ; and to respect the wise axioms; A less present pleasure is to be given up, in order to obtain a greater in future. A less present yain is to be borne, in order to avoid a greater in future. The volition of man may be guided to will no more or less than procures his well-being ; [including of course its eternal connection with all sensitive existence.] This volition thus formed, must be executed; and whatever promotes it is good, and whatever impedes it is evil or bad. ^ociety is formed to enable men to execute, with more efficacy and liberty, their particular volitions; and yet it is impossible to conceive a society, which, formed of in- dividuals whose partial volitions are regulated by perfect and sound understanding, should be able to establish a general or social volition, that could restrain the will of any of its members. Society in its origin was, probably, of this naiure, and began with an individual family, whose increase gradual- ly estranged its members, and becoming too numerous for subsistence thay separated. vVith this separation commenced the era of moral evil. The mind in the infancy of the world possessed only instinctive powers, and when men were assaulted by hard necessity or want, they had not sufficient power to anticipate, or look into futurity, and therefore obeyed their first volition : thus began contest, violence and murder. Several societies were progressively established, and though the instinctive operations of tbs mind enabled self to extend to the contracted circle of a small paren- tal society, and to prefer general and future to partial and present conveniences; yet it had not power to go beyond this circle. This separation of societies brought on a moral pestilence, which ended in' universal and internal 40 THE REVELATION OF NATURE. infection, and violence abroad, engendering violence at home , the demon coercion was called upon to assist mankind in the civil wars of ignorance, and has so well established its own power, that it has reduced ignorance to be a tributary potentate, and maintains the security of its throne by the aid of this, the worst enemy of man- kind. What a melancholy prospect is furnished by the hos- tile operations of this universal enemy to human nature, IGNORANCE. All men are in pursuit of the same two objects hap- piness and truth ; and ignorance is constantly employed to conceal them from the pursuers. " Moral truth," says ignorance, or its advocates, priests and false philosophers, " is incomprehensible or imagin- ary, and happiness is unattainable in this lite."" They hold the language of folly and falsehood. Moral truth is the just association of ideas; and a nice calculation respect- ing future pain and pleasure, is formed from these ideas by judgment, in order to decide the volition to action. Happiness is the state acquired by such operations of the understanding and passions it is the habit of pleas- ing emotion, in passing from one enjoyment or pleasure to another. How heart-cheering is the reflection, that wisdom is elf-knowledge, and virtue is self-love ! Self-knowledge must precede self-love, and it may be attained without the aid of learning or art. Habits of solitude, contem- plation and meditation, cannot fail to produce it in the weakest understandings, if they are long enough contin- ued. They should, however, be frequently interrupted by social enjoyments, lest the understanding should be impaired instead of strengthened, and disgust terrify the mind so as to prevent all inclination for the alternate en- joyments of solitude and society, which confer on each other a reciprocal zest, and render man a more amiable guest, in proportion as he advances by me'ans of medita- tion towards intellectual existence, or knowledge oi self. VIRTUE OR SELF LOVE, 41 Virtue is the conformation of the volition a?n<$ judg- ment in the action of man, to procure happiness to self, and is subject, like the other cardinal principles of well- being, to a general standard. It is an absolute truth, that no man can perform a vo- luntary act against the sovereignty or happiness of self; and the being that murders self, does it to avoid misery, or to obtain happiness. The man who puts aliment into his body to preserve it, has the same motive as the man who thrusts a knife into it to destroy it the former acts to promote its pleasure, the other to obviate its pain ; but they are not in an equal degree virtuous or happy, (for the words are synonimous) their virtue must be judged of by circumstances. Was the suicide placed in the prison of the inquisition, from which there was no escape, it would be more virtuous in him to destroy, than to nourish himself; and the man who in such a predicament should take aliment, would be a coward and a traitor to self, considered as a part ot the great integer of Nature, entrusted with the manage- ment and conduct of a certain proportion of matter, which it becomes an easy, though sacred duly to take care of, and advance in a right line to happiness, either by support or dissolution. Dissolution is the entrance into new life, and not death, which conveys a painful and false idea ; for till we can conceive a period to the con- nection between us arid Nature, death can mean nothing but a new mode of connection. The virtuous man is he who gives the most, happiness to the whole moral system, regarding self as the centre, which through the radii of sympathy comprehends the circle or orbit of all sensitive Nature. A being who shall cause, or permit any violence to any part of sensi- tive Nature, has not yet reached the system of intellec- tual existence, and the man who puts a bridle in the mouth of a horse, however he may justify his conduct, by necessity and custom, is but upon the low scale oi being, or animal existence. 42 THE REVELATION OP NATURE. That man only, reaches the summit of the scale of es- sence, or intellectual existence, who dreads to impose his will by violence, when he cannot by persuasion assimi- late it to that of his fellow-creature, and disclaims, as totally unnecessary td the well-being of the human spe- cies, all intercourse with the brute creation. For, their unknown and unintelligible pains caused by human co- * ercion, so agitate the chain of connections of matter and Nature, that we prepare dreadful evil for our own con- nection, which must no doubt, in the eternal revolution, pass through those animal ducts or identities of brutes. Sympathy, or the affection that participates in the pain suffered by our fellow-animals, is the all of virtue. Pre- tended duties Lave been imposed by the arbitrary institu- tions of cunning and powerful men, in order to subju- gate to their will, the great body of the people, under the pretext of enabling them to contend with hostile na- tions ; these " duties" are enemies to individual happi- ness, and therefore are vices. Did these bodies of people, who are organized by in- stitutions that demand the sacrifice of individual liberty and happiness to the security of existence, labor to con- ciliate political enmities, by disseminating wisdom, and opening virtuous communications, I should then bear pa- tiently the present misery of nations, in hopes of a hap- pier futurity. But as the great, who administer the pow- er of nations, make no such attempts, governments ap- pear to me, to be intoxicated with the love of dominion, which entails misery on themselves and their subjects ; and they are as much the dupes of the passions of pride and ambition, as the miser is of avarice, who stands over his hoard agitated with ambiguous emotions of pain and pleasure, blinded by ignorance, which prevents him from putting it to a proper use. Thus is it with power, which would be the cause of happiness, if the hereditarj error and prejudices of mankind did not induce them to imitate the ignorant conduct of the wretched miser, and regard the accumulation rather than the use of their fa- vorite hoards* THE KEVELATION OF NATURE. To assist these meditations, these pages, I fcope, will be useful ; if not, I must recommend the writings of Hume, Voltaire, Bolingbroke, Rousseau, and last of all Mirabaud [D'Holbach,] who has completed the destruc- tion of error in his System of Nature : and when, con- versant with these writings, the mind shall be purged of its errors and prejudices, these pages will, I trust, be use ful to introduce it to a system of wisdom and happiness. WISDOM, Is the internal operation of the mental faculties, as knowledge is the external. In the first, the mind returns upon itself immediately when it receives an alarm front the passions, or impression from the senses. When the passion of hunger, for example, agita'tes the machine man, and he finds a fruit he never saw before, the first volition he forms is to eat it; hut judgment immediately arrests it by the following reflections : I know not whether it is congenial to my nature, and that, while it allays or gratifies the passion of hunger, it may not be noxious to my essence by causing disease, or dangerous to its exis- tence, being a poison to cause death. In consequence of this reasoning, the volition of the animal is changed, and he goes in pursuit of other food, reserving this for expe- riment, by eating it gradually, and observing its innocent or noxious effects. In a similar manner all the passions are cited to the tribunal of judgment, and tried by the succinct and universal CODE OF MORAL LAW : Prefer a greater pleasure in futurity to a less pleasure in time present : Suffer a less pain in time present, to avoid a greater in futurity. This internal operation of the mental faculties upon Belf is called wisdom. Wisdom is that quality of the mind that guides the volition of man in a right Hue to his well-being or hap* 44 THE REVELATION OF NATURE. pi ness, by taking a large and comprehensive view of the past and present, and by a just and accurate association of pure, unprejudiced ideas that arise in the contempla- tion, to judge of the future, and prepare such causes as mny, in the greatest probability, produce the desired effects. In the labyrinth of error, when contemplation pene- trates, practice constantly breaks the clue of speculation, and prevents man from arriving at the exit for hap- piness. Wisdom, when unembarrassed by the prejudices of education and custom, should lead contemplation to avoid the violent frictions of practice, and having carried the clue of theory safe to the exit, practice will of itself fol- low, and humanity will be extricated from the dark dic- tates of error and ignorance. The mystic point of union of speculation with prac- tice can never be determined ; wisdom imperceptibly guides the mind to this union: but though the progress is comparatively as little discernable as in vegetation is that of the seed to its tree, it is equally active, and as ulti- mately certain. A man who may, upon full conviction, adopt the reli- gion of Nature, will not recommend to the government to annihilate its coercive powers, civil and military, but "will recommend the improvement pf education, the pro- mulgation of that, useful knowledg| which leads to wis- dom, and then the association of e^ery member in a state of democracy, where the odious an<] humiliating name of subject is changed to the equitable and honorable appel- lation of citizen, who will claim his natural rights the moment wisdom arrives to intellectualize his essence* The child of Nature will not recommend to a parent the dereliction of tutelary defensive authority over his children, but will explain to him, that being the author of their existence, he is bound to render that existence hap- py; and that the pretext of custom does not justify the parent in acts of tyranny or torment, to resemble a cruel task-master. THE REVELATION OF NATURE. 45 The same humanity and liberality he will inculcate in- to masters, without destroying the bonds of subordina- tion; and these virtues he will recommend to the prac- tice of every individual in the mutual toleration of weak- nesses and foibles, without removing the restraints laid on vice, and the encouragements offered to virtue, by abolishing the blame or applause which the customs of society attach to them; and lastly, all these virtues he will sum up in the universal affection of sympathy to all sensitive Nature. KNOWLEDGE Is the effect of the intellectual faculties externally ap- plied in the arts and sciences, to procure the means of corporeal subsistence, well-being arid health. Agricul- ture and medicine occupy the first rank in the operations or scale of knowledge, and all other branches or works of art follow, in proportion as they procure means to gratify the pleasures of the senses, and increase the com- fort of animal existence ; contrivances of dress and ar- chitecture, to preserve the bo.ly from the inclemencies of the elements ; music to delight the sense of hearing ; and inventions of imagination, as oratory and poetry, to amuse the mind, and to make up the complement of pleasure, or well-being of the animal existence. Knowl- edge is to wisdom, what food is to the body, mere nouri- ture and aliment; and as the body animalizes food or matter, so serves wisdom to intellectualize knowledge, and gives to the combined machine intellectual existence, or knowledge of self. The great cause of the origin and perpetuation of er- ror has been the mistaking the quality of knowledge for that of wisdom. The former resembles the latter in all its productions, and they differ only in their application. The operations of knowledge ore employed upon out- ward and foreign objects ; but those of wisdom are in- ternal, arid applied only to self. The greatest efforts of 4(5 THE REVEL1T10N OF NATURE. the former were exerted by Sir Isaac Newton, to disco- ver the physical laws of bodies; but when he attempted to make use of the latter to make discoveries in the mo- ral world, he became an eminent example of deficiency in the quality of wisdom, and proved its great difference from knowledge. Mankind, however, had long been used to confound them, and Newton was immortalized, though all his works produced not a grain of utility to the well-being of man. The shoals of error seem so to have empoisoned the stream of wisdom, ihat knowledge is wholly employed to keep man from approximating its source, lest before he can arrive at it, the draught of this adulterated stream on his passage, should destroy him. These fears caa never be dispelled till some mortal shall set the success ful example, and having discovered the source, may turn the current from the letiferous soil of prejudice, that in- fects its waters, to the pure and wholesome channel of truth, when every draught will invigorate the traveller upon its banks, and give him strength in proportion to the labor he undergoes to arrive at the fountain of wis- dom. What destructive apothegms folly and error have inven- ted to guard the access of this fountain of light and hap- piness ! " The people must be kept in ignorance." "Truth is dangerous to the happiness of mankind." These are the infernal falsehoods from which are de- rived the origin and perpetuation of ignorance, the cause of all misery. Speculative or abstract truth is irrefragably and eter- nally right, and its practice is right or wrong, in pro- portion as it is [or is not] skilfully reduced to operation and exercise. What man of even superior animal existence, but knows and avows, that the trade and practice of slavery In America is an infernal and abominable crime? yet he would not immediately cast off their chains, lest the dis- orders produced by the intoxication of liberty in minds J^ ' ' THE OBJECTS OF SOCIETY. 47 whose volition are uncontrolled by judgment, should an- nihilate all commerce, and cause a famine to destroy all their inhabitants; bul he would labor at a perpetual and gradual relaxation thereof, which would approximate the end, total emancipation. But the vile spirit of ignorance and avaricr declaims against all reform, as being danger- ous both to slaves and masters, and the child of Na- ture is disposed o n -juice (even though self is submerg- ed,) at the accumulated waters of evil, breaking down the dikes of despotism and ignorance, and overwhelm- ing the oppressors and oppressed ; as the eternal hap- piness of the eternal integer of Nature would be there- by promoted. This blind tyranny is the cause that all moral reforms havt been brought al;>nt by a dreadful ne- cessity, and procured through much misery and blood- shed, as the history of the different revolutions of nations attests. INTELLECTUAL EXISTENCE. THERE is no renVttion that astonishes the mind so much as that which arises from considering man as not y< t arrived at this period in the scale of existence. The proof may be drawn from the records of knowledge in history, and from conversation with the individuals of the present moment. The operations of the human intellect in past ages have produced nothing but its external effects, and know- ledge has been derived from the transposing and combi- ning of the ideas of the memory; or, when exerting it- self in observing the operations of its own passions, the mind has assumed the pompous title or nick-name of Philosophy for this act, because it bore a semblance to internal motion or reflection, though very distant from it. The modes of the operations of the intellect and the passions which knowledge has taken cognizance of, and become acquainted with, and by that means obtained the dignified title of philosophy, are as easy to be observed. 48 THE REYELATION OF NATURE. as the motions of outward bodies, and their cause and effect as easily known. They invented rules by which the moral machine man was to be directed in orbits of well-being or happiness, and these not being drawn from a central point of attraction, constantly met and swal- lowed up each other. No one has either had resolution or capacity to attempt the discovery of the centre, which is self. That part, independent of that partial identity of I, you, and they, which forms the integer of Nature, and which generalizes itself by sympathy with the whole, partaking of the immortality of Nature, and arising into the most perfect state which man is capable of, intellec- tual existence, composed of self knowledge and self love, comprehending all Nature. t Knowledge, as it has hitherto operated among man- kind, could only lead them to reason relatively : it had suborned the passions by a specious display of interest, and has served to perpetuate and establish ignorance and its consequence, vice. War with all its destruction, was declared a good, and violence, which includes the centre and circumference of all vice, was declared a vir- tue ; and the whole art and eflbrt of knowledge has been, and still continues to be, to separate self from its integer Nature. The universal intercourse of matter and of per- sonal identity clearly demonstrates, that matter is con- stantly changing places from its two stages of animation and inanimation, and the former being in motion, can pre- pare happy identities or combinations for its successor, and the successor for the progenitor which in turn be- comes the successor, and &o on in this eternal revolution, from animation to animation: and this idea is the only one that can produce intellectual existence, or found vir- tue on a comprehensible and immovable basis. \ THE REVELATION OK NATURE, 49 TRUTH, Is two-fold, physical and moral. Physical truth may be explained by bodies: thus, no two separate bodies can occupy the same space, and two bodies added to two bodies must make lour bodies. Of mural truths, 1 know but one that is absolute, viz: That the volition of man is to be restrained only until be has acquired judgment ; for while the restraint of pa- rents is consistent willi truth, judgment must be absent in the child; and social coercion must be justified on the same principle. While education, custom and policy, pervert and de- stroy, as they do by the present institution*, the judg- ments of mankind, coercion is necessary, and liberty must be sacrificed to the safety of existence. The mind under the influence of moral truth or happi- ness, (for they are synonomous terms,) will abstract it- self irom all relative considerations of custom and pol- icy in the investigation of this virtue, and will hold it up as a luminary, to direct relative or practical truth ; .n its progress, or will scatter abroad its discoveries and reflec- tions, and disseminate them as seed over the ground, which must take root and grow into practice as unac- countably and imperceptibly as the acorn becomes an oak. Speculative writers, as well as readers, have constant- ly injured the cause of truth or happiness, by instituting or insisting upon its immediate practice. Ii would be as wise in the husbandman to demand the harvest immedi- ately from the seed, or the tree from the plant. The difference between theory and practice may be evinced by considering them with respect to the forego* ing and only absolute moral truth, that the volition of man is to be restrained only by the judgment of him who forms it, in order to procure to the animal its well-being, which is a state of enlightened Nature. i't^- ) 50 THE REVELATION OF NATURE. Let us examine this important truth; first speculative ]y. Judgment, which by collecting ideas of the past, present and future, calculates the greatest probability of pain and pleasure 1 , to be derived from the act of the ani- nul. |)< r>u;uks the first volition to change or reform it- siii ': and the ultimate volition is the best and most spon- tawous, notwithstanding the apparent restraint of judg- ment ; but if the extraneous power, political or parental government, forces man to act contrary to volition, the animal is deprived of free agency, and cannot possibly arrive at a state of well-being. Let us now consider it practically. If coercion or government of every kind should cease to execute this moral truth immediately, peremptorily and universally, no doubt great evil and confusion would arise ; because, were the government of force to abdicate its throne be- fore judgment became of age, the inter-regnum of such a minority would be dreadful, and therefore it has ever been the study of that part of mankind, who have usurp- ed a power over their fellow-creatures, to form an alli- ance with another set of usurpers, called priests, in or- der to perpetuate, by means of false and trivial instruc- tion, the minority of judgment, as they knew that if it became of age, it would compel tyranny and ignorance to abdicate the throne of reason. The minds of weak men are always alarmed at the junction of practical with speculative truth, because they view it in the effect of immediate instead of mediate adoption, and view the gradual relaxation or change of the iron chain of society into the silken bonds of love and reason, as a dissolution of moral existence. Let us imagine the establishment of this speculative truth in practice, and consider if it could be done with- oui giving society any injurious shock. '1 !>e operation would begin by disseminating knowl- ediif among the people ; from this act no shock or injury can be apprehended; knowledge, by being generally cul- tivated, would produce wisdom wisdom would give en- erg}' to the will, and this being: universal, would prevent THE OBSCURATION Of TRUTH. 51 all concussion, or injurious shock, but would claim the privilege of partaking in the legislation ofits own society. Society thus extended and tempered with the collective wisdom of a great nation, would check the fury of the passions, ambition, avarice and luxury, arid substitute the affection of love, justice and temperance in their place ; and the frequent operations of collective wisdom would bring man, in a short period, to the happy state of en- lightened Nature. Physical truth, which is the type of moral truth, is alone manifested to mankind. Moral truth, being viewed through the medium of cus- tom and education by men, appears to them under differ- ent shapes, and all attempts to change the medium are- restrained by political and religious inquisition; and the individual, who by reading things, and not words, in the volume of Nature, in travelling over the face of the globe, ratifies the thick medium of custom, appears a danger- ous Colossus to puny creatures of prejudice, and being dreaded by vanity is depicted as an enemy to society, while he is a real friend to all Nature. The dark and rooted prejudice of mankind nas so contracted the standard of judgment, that an animal man. and an intellectual, in their intercourse, differ as much as does the astronomer from the carpenter who resembles the animal man, by pulling out his loot-measure to de- termine the distance of the heavenly bodies, which the former has calculated. To illustrate this : let a child of Nature, the standard of whose reason is the diameter of the circle of all Na- ture, discourse with a Spaniard, and arraign the sacrile- gious institutions of the inquisition, for causing abortion of the most sacred germ of Nature, human thought, in. order to prevent man from arriving at intellectual exis- tence, or an enlightened state of Nature. The Spaniard will with his standard of custom, reply that the inhabi- tants of his country, being exceedingly addicted to super- stition and furious zeal, if thought was permitted to be exercised and divulged, it would introduce heresy, and 52 THE REVELATION OF NATURE. that would cause a dreadful civil war. This he could not prove, and would be forced to confess, that his ap- prehensions might have no other foundation than ignor- ance and interest, which operated equally with other na- tions, who indulged religious but opposed political reform. Truth is, therefore, utterly unknown to mankind black in one country is white in another good is bud and bad good; and this owing to the medium or standr.rd of prejudice and ignorance. The utility of truth is to be found only in the equality of standard and purity of me- dium presented by the religion of Nature. O deluded mortals! rise from your iron beds of error, turn your regard towards the moral orient invoke the sun of reason to ascend; those who excite fears and ap- prehensions of its benign rays, are the robbers of liberty and reason, whose designs and operations suit best with the darkness of the atmosphere of interest and ignorance. Some feeble fellow creatures there are, who like the cap- tives in the dungeon, dread the light ; these are betrayed by their fears to join with the mitred and crowned rob- bers that suppress with calumny all reformers and with a verdict of sedition give them up, bound as victims, to these legal depredators, and perpetuate, unwittingly, their own ignorance and misery. Come then, fellow-parts, come to the enlightened communion of your integer, Nature seek after intellec- tual existence, acquired in the contemplation of this un- ion matured into conviction: this regeneration will ele- vate you above animal, as animal does above the vege- table state this makes happiness systematic, immortal- ity comprehensible, and carries the intellectual faculties to the strongly-marked barrier of its boundaries opens the secrets of Nature and infinity as far as it is neces- sary to well-being, and enables man to fill up the pleni- tude of his essence, and all of existence, and to run his course in the great orbit of Nature with tranquillity, re- signation, and happiness, and to arrive at the periods of change, or renovation of form, without terror, or pain.and sleep, as it were, into the euthanasy of a happier existence. THE REVELATION OF NATURE. 53 THE EDUCATION OF NATURE CONSISTS in the example and instruction of seniors to youth, to remove all dangerous inclinations to be wicked before judgment assumes its maturity, or to vio- late the liberty of our fellow-creatures, or to confound or suppress the maturity of judgment, by uttering falsehoods to corrupt and mislead it. Parents are to be separated from their children as soon as judgment makes its appearance and Nature de- mands no longer parental care, lesl the aflcctionatp in- tercourse may tend to weaken the social habitudes, and prevent them from extending self into the comprehensive and ample existence of the orbit of Nature, the univer- sal and common parent, who testifies the relation of hu- manity to supercede all other. While the mild and in- nocent example of seniors are guarding the passions from the evil propensities of violence in the early period of in- fancy, sports and pastimes are to be taught, that may give vigor, health and comeliness to the body. These bodily sports may be connected at the age of maturity, [puberty,] with mental amusements, as poetry, logic, music, painting, and mechanic arts. In all mental in- structions, the will is to be led to them, and coercion of every kind must be unknown. Pleasure, both mental and corporeal of every kind, controlled by wisdom, is to be cultivated as flie great object of lift.-, and to b< measured by judgment, improved and extended by reason and reflection. Children are to mix with all the members of society, and parents are to withdraw themselves from all partial attentions, and the least partiality is to be guarded against, as an enemy to society. The example of seniors is to be the whole code of instruction, in doing no violence and speaking no falsehood but taking care that the mouth is a faithful interpreter of the heart. The religion of 54 THE REVELATION OP NATURE. Nature, morality and polity will be afterwards communi- cated at an adult age, by the examples and conversation of society. As cultivation in agriculture improves the vegetable, so does education improve the moral world. The pre- sent mode, like every other part of the moral system, ia measured and adjusted by the short standard of relative truth. Philology or language is the universal subject of study and instruction, for two reasons : First, as it furnishes a key to unlock the treasures of knowledge, contained, according to the present fixed, and therefore sacred opinion, in the ancient authors of sci- ence and history ; And second, as enabling the student to improve the powers of speech, by which he may inculcate, explain and convince others of the truth of those ideas or knowledge, which habit and ignorance have called the wisdom of an- tiquity. This blind adoption of the ideas of the ancients proves, that many moderns possess not the capacity of forming new ideas; for a man of the least strength of mental faculties must discover, that as time in its progress chan- ges universally the circumstances of life, the idea that was wise yesterday, may be folly to-day, as it does not coincide with tbe new events of the new era ; and it is this blind veneration for antiquity, that is both the origin and perpetuation of the present ignorance of mankind; for if the reasoning faculty of man had been well directed by education, it must, profiting of the boundless experi- ence of past ages, have long ago arrived at the acme of its perfection. The present detestable mode of beating the absurd ideas of the ancients into the posteriors, because Nature, rntaneously improving, refuses them admittance into head, must be changed. The birchen scepters ot tyrant and ignorant pedagogues must be broken, and vir- tuous, wise and amiable associates must assume their places instruction should be instilled into the mind THE REVELATION OP NATURE. voluntarily and, as it were, imperceptibly, of which sports and pastimes should be the chief medium. Gym- nastic exercises, and the early practice of ethics, or sym- pathy and probity, should form the whole code of in- struction to the age of maturity, [puberty ;} and then philology should be admitted in the vernacular language only. Those wonderful productions of human ingenui- ty, the Latin and Greek languages, should be studied at in adult age, not for what they contain, but for their un- paralleled perfection,* which reduces all modem langua- ges, in comparison, to the most contemptible jargons. They should become the lingua Franca of the world, and as their very sound seems sense, what would be the effect of sense or reason, when communicated with their irrcsis* tible eloquence? It would certainly produce the unity o ideas, the unity of association, the unity of religion, and the last and perfect unity in the integer of Nature, the acme of human perfection. THE MORALITY OF NATURE CONSISTS in the means of procuring happiness or well-being to self, as generalized with society. The pleasures of the senses are particularly to be cultivated, and are to be directed by the following important and universal axioms : GlVE UP A LESS PRESENT PLEASURE FOR A GREATER FUTURE. SUFFER A LESS PRESENT EVIL TO AVOID A GREATER FUTURE. To follow these axioms, the volition must be guided by an anticipative and reflective judgment that sees into futurity, and by a power or accuracy of decision, called taste, to transfer sensual pleasure to intellectual joy. To illustrate these operations of the judgment, I will adduce examples borrowed from civilized society. To explain the first axiom, let us suppose a man possessed 16 56 THE REVELATION OF MATURE. of a yearly income of five hundred pounds. Should ftc spend it all in one day, he will no doubt augment the sensual pleasures of that day, but the three hundred and sixty-four following will be days of pain; judgment brings this calcination to the conception of the mind, and the volition is regulated 1o economize pleasure, and perpetuate it by forbearance to the year's end. The second axiom may be explained by the pleasure of helping our guests to the be:?t of the repast at a convi- vial board ; for ihc esteem and affection that affability and hospitality obtain from surrounding guests, in declin- ing the best, and taking the less delicious parts of the viands, confer an intellectual comfort and complacency, that, is of infinitely more value than the sensual plea- sure which the palate would obtain by the mastication of those morsels. Self being a part of Nature, organized, diversified and identified, though by no means separated from itg integer, for that is impossible, it will never be directed by judgment to forego what is essential to its happiness, in order to promote that of another part of the same integer;* for suppose that I am starving, and a fellow- * On this important subject all the powers of mind are to be ex- ercised to calculate how far the happiness or existence of self are to be apparently or momentarily encroached upon, in order to promote that of a fellow-creature, which must ever co-operate w'nh our own ; and considered relatively to the common integer, Nature, be ultimately all our own. Man may, in his relation to Nature, promote the happiness of self, by sacrificing the identity or existence of self, as is the case of a tyrant, who having subdued twenty millions of fellow-creatures ^continues to render them miserable by despotism and cruelty. It would be the interest of any self or identity to put him to death, though the end of its own existence might follow ; for having removed a great proportion of evil from identity or existence of a great proportion of animated matter self as a part of Nature, would, on its return to Jife under different combinations, meet with less eril. THE MORALITY OF NATURE. 57 creature demands from me the food which I cannot part with without annihilating my essence ; I must then keep the food, and though I should suffer much pain by sym- pathizing with that of my fellow-creature, yet judgment would never direct me to my own destruction, and de- mands from me no suffering, but an augmentation of pleasure by relieving my fellow-creature, by means not dangerous to existence, or destructive of self happiness. There are instances, however, where a sound and capa- cious judgment would counsel dissolution, and encourage man to annihilate the combination of bis essence, by his own powers over life. Such are incurable disorders causing incessant pain, either of the mind or of the body: but, as in the first instance, the loss of judgment deprives the man of ability to put an end to his existence, it be- comes the interest of society to do it, who are to protect all animate combinations of matter from misery to keep in order identities, which resembling inns upon the road of life, to receive matter in its travelling revolutions, must be provided with every comfort. In the latter instance, where man suffers uninterrupted and excruciating bodily pain from disease, and where the judgment remains, he should authorize a fellow creature to give him relief, or seek it by precipitating himself into the arms of death or flew existence. All the actions of man, directed by judgment, must promise to be useful to, or propose happiness to self; and the laws of moral motion have reuilered it impossi- ble for the animal to perform any act, in which it does not propose its own well-being, which proves and evin- ces sulf to be the centre of moral gravitation or attrac- tion, by whose powers the different animated and inte!- lectualized bodies are directed in orbits, winch procure tbe m-ora-l system or well-being and happiness of anima- ted matter. The present moral world is in a state of chaos; every intdlectualized body, attracted by a partial centre, rolls in wild confusion in the moral regions, and by perpetual and destructive collision opposes and annihilates all sys- tem of well-being and happiness. 58 THE REVELATION OF NATURE. There is, however, at this period, a ray of light aris- *ng from the horizon of knowledge, which promises to oelong to the glorious sun of wisdom, approaching the moral hemisphere, which by discoYering the union of self with Nature, will give happiness to the moral world, by attracting the various setts into the common and univer- sal centre of Nature, even as the physical sun diffuses light and warmth to this planetary system. In such a moral world, regulated by wisdom, and mov- ed by universal sympathy, his horse is as nearly related to man as his child, [in proportion as their capability for pleasure and pain is equal ;] and violence committed up- on ither is violence done to self, and to Nature, the great integer of self; nay the injury is greater when ap- plied to the horse, as he possesses not the same power of language, or signs to affect sympathy, which shakes the great chain of Nature, by whose links all essences are united. Therefore, the sensitive part of Nature, called horse, may suffer excruciating torments from our actions, without the least hopes of relief^ whereas the indifference towards children is not so dangerous to the integral happiness, because the signs of language and in- dications of gesture shake with violence and perpetuity the chain of sympathy, and by giving constant alarm at the approach of the great and only enemy of Nature, vio- lence, they urge man to the immediate relief of pain. Sympathy and wisdom have a reciprocal foi-ce to keep man in the universal centre of Nature. The former de- monstrates a present connection, though under a different identity, and wisdom teaches that upon the dissolution of that identity, man still continues to be a part of Na- ture, though assuming fresh identities, and that in remov- ing present evil from others, he removes present and fu- ture evil from himself, and demonstrates the one, only and comprehensive principle of the morality of Nature to be, WlLL FOR YOURSELF ALONE, AND ASSOCIATE THE WILL OF OTHERS BY PERSUASION J And the man who moves his volition or arm to vio- lence, is a rebel against Nature, and a traitor to self, and has not yet arrived at the state of intellectual existence. (M#T3N U.* / njewt &j***i-ne in order that reason may be upon its guard against the am- bush of the will, which constantly surprises the mind in social discourse, except it is formed by men in a state of intellectual existence, who are much used to, and im- proved by the advantages of contemplation, and then it acquires energy, mid facilitates investigation and the knowledge of seJ^ in proportion to the numbers of wiiich that society is formed. The moment the properties or essence .'f self is dis- covered, the study of Nature is directed to well-being or happiness, and then the faculties diverge from the centre, and take an outward course towards letters, the sciences, and mechanic art's, which are prosecuted in proportion to their utility, or produce of happiness ; and the man who discovers a planet would be rewarded with a pota- to, as he who produces a potato would be rewarded with [llie knowledge of] a planet, I am sensible that men of learning and erudition woul<% reverse the dispensation of rewards; and I would, there fore, propose, that the study of the sciences be suspend ed universally over the whole globe that the humai mind, freed from the blandishments of the Syrens of sci ence and arts, might be able to return to its home, and invert all the force of its faculties upon self. Rousseau treated all science as an evil ; but in thai he was wrong; for science is a good, as procuring pleasure and utility if it did not precede or expel the science of Nature, or knowledge of self. These reflections will justify ROUJ>- seau's disapprobation of science, though not his opinion. The pursuit of knowledge, or arts and sciences, pro- duces the great enemy of wisdom, vanity ; and the man of learning is infinitely further removed from a state of wisdom, than the unlettered peasant. The former, con- stantly environed with the mist of confirmed and learned error condensed by vanity, demands a .greater proportion of light to extricate him, than the peasant in the vacuum of ignorance, where the least ray of light penetrate*, ami 62 THE REVELATION OP NATURE. meets no resistance, as it does in the moral atmosphere of the lettered blockhead, whose words are but articulat- ed air sound, without sense; and whose powers of im- agination have transferred to the memory, a repository of ancient ideas, which, if ever they were true, time and cir- cumstances must have rendered false. Memory thus be- comes a mere copy of absolute archetype, and judgment is so much overwhelmed, by the learned rubbish with which the mind is crammed, that it has neither room nor power to exert itself; and should the wisdom of others, by exposing the contents of this lumber room, offend the vanity, memory flies, as the substitute of judgment, to its aid, and with its usual weapons, impertinent syllogism and false conclusion, blinds the weak eyes of the ignor- ant, without casting the least shade over the bright sun of truth. The unlearned peasant, if removed from the dusty neighborhood of the learned blockhead's agitated rubbish, would rub off from his eyes the attenuated film of natu- ral ignorance, and contemplate in ecstacy, the glorious luminary of truth transcending the horizon of sense and conviction. THE LOGIC OF NATURE. WORDS are names, which by various combinations, transfer the conceptions of one mind to those of another. Abstract words, or those expressive of quality, can never be confined to a fixed and determined import, on account of the constant change of Nature, and the scholastic logic, by falling into the error of supposing the import of words to be fixed, has so bound the human faculties in syllogistical false conclusions, that whenever knowledge seems disposed to ripen into wisdom, or reflect in its course upon its centre or self, it is constantly propelled by logic, to preserve an outward form or centrifugal force. For example; when the word good is made use of and THE IMPERFECTION OF LANGUAGE. 63 applied to man; if it is one in the state of enlightened Nature who speaks, he means by good, that man, whose nature is so benevolent, that he never attempts to force the will of his fellow creature, but assimilates it to his own by persuasion or argument ; and that does not suf- fer his tongue to belie his heart, by wittingly sacrificing truth to falsehood. If it is an artificially civilized being who speaks, he means by good, the man who is obedient to the laws and constitutions of society. In Spain, to put a mtn to death for daring to exercise the unalienable and sacred privilege of reason, is according to law, and therefore good. In France, where reason has more en- ergy and religion less, to serve your friend, with the sac- rifice of probity and patriotism, is called good : in Eng- land where the mind approaches nearest to intellectual existence, without having attained it, to sacrifice the rights of all mankind to the advantage of your country, is called good. An American savage may think it good to put his father to death ; a Chinese his child ; and a thousand more instances might be adduced, to prove that the meaning of words cannot be fixed in the present sys- tem of life, and that it is the erroneous supposition that they are so, that forms the only impediment to the pro- gress of wisdom. It is, however, in the power of strong intellectual fac- ulties, notwithstanding this apparent imperfection of lan- guage, to communicate by words, most accurately, the whole of their conception, and this, by the circumlocu- tion of definition ana description ; and this dialect hav- ing no other quality but intelligibility, could not fail to bring all mankind to one common standard of good, to the light of wisdom, or knowledge of self to the prac- tice of virtue, or true love of self to the religion of self to intellectual existence and to a state of well-being or happiness, or a state of enlightened Nature. The greatest evidence that might be brought to support, the truth or utility of natural religion i,s, that no dialect or definitive terms can be understood, without it ; for eome universal standard must be invented, to give fixed 64 THE REVELATION OF NATURE. and positive import to words. Circumlocution or de- scription might answer this end with minds in a state of intellectual existence, but in the colloquial intercourse with the mere animal mind of man, it will avail nothing. For supposing that a child of Nature, in a dialogue with a man of civilization in a state of animal existence, makes use of the word goodness, and defines it to be a quality incapable to commit violence, or force the will of self upon a sensitive fellow-creature ; in a state of civiliza- tion, no such quality being known, it is plain that the present state of language, and every possible modification of terms, could never convey the same sentiments, when the words to express them mean black for white, and in- vert the ideas, so that it is impossible to ascertain or fix any dialectic or logic, but upon the basis of natural religion, where the import of words may be adjusted as accurately, as that of numbers; and the progress of the human kind, with such a medium for collecting and com- municating its powers, must propel it to an acme of per- fection, that surpasses all conception. The syllogistical reasoning of metaphysical writers is an insult to common sense, and I never perused any of those "unanswerable conclusions" which, m'any learned blockheads, dubbed philosophers, have avowed, without deploring the abased state of the human faculties, inca- pable of detecting the intelligibility of the terms, and the vanity, puerility and impertinence of the conclusions, di- vested of the common veil of ingenuity, with which all metaphysical authors abound ; for metaphysics and ab- surdity are terms synonomous. An intellectual mind admits of no demonstration and evidence, but what is drawn from the senses, and will not receive even as probability, what is not a very t lose and substantial deduction from them. The religion of Nature, which consists in [the knowledge of] the eternal connection of self and Nature indissoluble by change of essence, as its foundation, is first demonstrated to the senses, by the perpetual transmutation, and indestructi- bility of matter, and probability points out by a close THE REVELATION OP NATtTRE. 65 and substantial inference, that I essence or that same- thing, me is connected with Nature as its integer, and all the powers of thought cannot conceive its cessation, which impresses such an almost intuitive idea oi this incontrovertihle and useful truth upon the mind, as c-l- evates the existence of the intellectual man a.< murh ahove the animal, as he is above the vegetable, and pro- duces that state of enlightened Nature, which (wins the acme of human essence. MEDICINE OF NATURE. THE first study of mankind is man, and it is the most abstruse and difficult, of all others. The intellectual properties of his combination are to be discovered by much solitude and contemplation : for the conversation of his own species promotes only the communication of ideas, formed under the bias and cor- ruption of the will ; for when two persons dispute or dis- cuss, it is always to support ad maintain their favorite conceptions ; whereas, man, in self-conversation, feels no humility in changing or examining his own opinion, and judgment in this state, makes more progress towards truth in one minute, than in hours of conversation, either oral or scriptory. The advantage of conversation with others of his species, serves to extend his knowledge and ideas; but it is in conversation with self that judgment strengthens and improves, and it is by this habit of thoughtfulness, contemplation, and self-conversation, st> remarkable in the English nation, that they have left the rest of the world centuries behind, in their progress to- wards intellectual existence, though they are still them- selves at, a great distance from that glorious acme of hu- man nature. The mind, in hobit of self and social conversation, re- sembles in its mode of labor, the industrious bee, that roams abroad to get its material, but makes all its honey at home. This habit mast, in the end conduct the mind 46 THE REVELATION OF NATURE. to a knowledge of self, or the intellectual part of its or- ganization. This being done, the corporeal part will be easily explored. The knowledge of anatomy, or the different parts of the body, and their union, may be learned by dissection, and a variety of accidental derangements or wounds reme- died by the art of surgery ; but there is another knowl- edge of the body, which no art can discover; that is, in the circulation of its fluids. The order or disorder of these, upon which depends the health of the body, can be known only by experimental sensations. The attention paid to these must be critical, and the inductions of Na- ture strictly observed and followed. When the body gives the first symptoms of disorder, the loss of appetite often follows, which indicates aliment to be noxious ; but as life demands from reason, though not from corpo- real sensation, some sustenance, judgment goes in search of what may be congenial to the present habit of body, and by cautious and guarded experiment, discovers the healthful diet. The science of medicine, from one general rule of ap- plication to the infinite variety of human constitutions, has done more harm than good to mankind, and though its sudden operations may frequently delay the hand of death, yet it ever undermines the stamina oflife, and few, if any of its votaries, but become victims, conducted in- sidiously to a premature tomb, through a painful and de- bilitated existence. Medicament is studied by Nature in aliment alone, and this applied preventively, rather than sanatively. It is in the power of a man of wisdom, to discover by expe- rience, what food is homogeneous, and what is heteroge- neous to his constitution. The first promotes and per- petuates order, or the just operations of all the functions oflife the latter, in most cases, indicates the noxious- ness of its quality, by an impediment in the functions,;' where no derangement of the animal functions are 'b!5, v'? may th?,n reason from the experience of THE MEDICATION OF NATURE. . 67 For example; I travel into a distant country, and ob- serve the natives inflicted with endemic disorders ; wis- dom counsels me to quit that country, though my consti- tution has given no symptoms of disorder. I see also the effects of gluttony in my fellow-citizens, the vigor of whose youth resisted the poison of debauchery, and whose animal functions, unimpeded, gave them no alarm, but they are now dragging on life in all the misery ol dis- ease, to a premature caducity and death. This miserable old age, which distinguishes the Eu- ropean from the Asiatic nations, whose age is but the decline of strength, or the sleep of apathy, ending in peaceful dissolution, excites my wonder and curiosity, and interest compels rne to the investigation of this mel- ancholy truth. Upon a comparative view of the constitutions and cli- mates, I find them reciprocally adapted, and offering no* difference of good or evil. I then consider the aliment, and though upon a superficial observation, the difference might be supposed wisely adapted to the difference of climate; yet upon more critical investigation, I am dis- posed to believe the aliment of flesh and fermented li- quors to be heterogeneous to the nature of man in every climate. [Distilled liquors are not even aliment,] 1 have observed among nations, whose aliment is ve- getables and water, that disease and medicine are equally unknown, while those, whose aliment is flesh and fer- mented liquor, are constantly afflicted with disease, and with medicine more dangerous than disease itself, and not only those guilty of excess, but others, who lead lives of temperance. These observations show the great importance of the congeniality of aliment, o the discovery and continuance of which depends the inestimable blessing of health, or basis of well-being or happiness. As my own discoveries in this important subject may be of some use to mankind, I shall relate the state of my own health and aliment. At a very early period 1 left my native climate, before 17 C8 THE REVELATION Of NATURE. excess, debauchery, or diet had done the least injury to my body. I found many of my countrymen in the coun- try of India, suffering under a variety of distempers; for though they had changed their country, they would by no means change their aliment; and to this ignorant obsti- nacy I attributed the cause of their disorders. / To prove ibis by my own experience, I followed the diet of the na- tives, and found no change in my health, nor was I af- fected by the greatest contrariety of climate, to which I exposed myself more than any of my countrymen dared to do. This led me to consider the nature of aliment upon the human body abstractedly. Anatomy which discovers the nature and connection of flie solids, or material organization of the human body, can give no adequate knowledge of the fluids, or matter in circulation ; for these recede from, and are changed or destroyed by all chirurgical operations. These can only be discovered in our own living bodies, not their cause or nature, but their effect, either latent or manifested in the change or disorder of the functions oflife, or the excrement of the body. The ducts or ves- sels which convey the circulation of the fluids, are cer- tainly affected by the quality of the latter, as the banks of a river are broken down or preserved by the regularity of the current. fAs I possess from care and nature a perfectly sound constitution, my body may serve as an example which may generalize the affect of aliment upon most other bo- dies. I observed in travelling, if my body was wet, and must continue any time in that state, I abstained from all nourishment till it was dry, and always escaped the usu- al disorders of cold, rheumatism, and lever. When I was in the frigid zone, 1 lived upon a nutricious aliment, and eat much butter with beans, peas, and other pulse* In the torrid zone I diminished the nutritious quality of my food, and eat but little butter, and even then found it accessary to eat spices to absorb the humours, whose Y TIIE QUACKERY OF MEDICINE. 69 redundancy are caused by heat, and are noxious in hot climates. In cold climates Nature seems to demand that redundancy, as necessary to strength and health. The ahove is an account of the circulation of the flu- ids in a healthy body. In proportion as bodies have the least duct or vessel foul from morbid habits and peccant humours, they cannot follow the above example; but still it is in the power of wisdom and observation to form a congenial diet, that may be sufficient, though not to pro- cure perfect health, yet may guard against painful sick- ness, or dangerous disorder ; and Nature, treated with constant care, may possibly reform all the injured or be- fouled ducts and vessels, and return to a state of perfect health. The present practice of mankind, both of the doctor and patient, proves how distant the mind is from tire acme of its powers or intellectual existence. The doctor applies his theoretic pharmacy, to every disease, as an ignorant, bombadier does his mathematical calculations to every kind of gunpowder, by which means the former as rarely hits the point of remedy, as the lat- ter the object of his projectile. Happy would it be for mankind, if their disappointment had the same result ! The doctor acquires the knowledge of his patient's constitution in a period of time that is measured by the drawing and opening of the purse to pay the fee, while the proverb allows the patient forty years to obtain it. The sagacious doctor comprehends the whole in two minutes, and the fee makes up the supplement of all ne- cessary communication. The study of the catholic remedy of Nature, aliment, infinite as it is in variety, is confined, by most doctors, to broth and boiled meat ; and the prescription the most innocent, though ultimately letiferous is, "purges and vomits," which by opening the two doors of the fortress, force the enemy to a partial or momentary retreat, though the auxiliary troops have caused much devastation in their passage. 70 THE REVELATION OF NATURE. When drugs ot latent operation are applied, All is un- certainty, except debility, premature caducity, and death. There may be some few instances where the ducts or vessels of the body are so foul, from disease brought on by excess, that Nature requires the assistance of art or efforts of medicine ; but I believe these are as five to one hundred, and aliment [dieting] must be allowed to have this great advantage over medicine, that if it does not cure it does not kill. I believe, if the question, " Whether medicine did more good or harm to mankind ?" was put to a consci- entious physician, he would determine against his own profession. [This actually has been done.] Remediary aliment, as it requires great sagacity, atten- tion and patience, is neglected, and medicine is preferred, as it favors the natural indolence and ignorance of man- kind, and the moment the glorious sun of wisdom shall appear on the moral horizon, learned error, which forms the blackest clouds in the atmosphere, will be first dis- pelled, that simple ignorance may find its way with ease to the road of happiness and reason. The learned error of medicine poisons the body, as the learned error of morality does the mind, and when these shall give place to sympathy and wisdom, man will acquire the result of all his researches and labors, a sound mind in a sound body. He will also discover, that moral and physical motion have the same double force, centripetal and cen- trifugal, and that, as the celestial bodies are detained in tranquil orbits, by the diurnal motion upon their own axis, and their annual motion round the sun or systematic cen- tre, so moral bodies conjoined with intellectualized minds, move upon the axis self, in the orbit of society, and the moment this discovery presents itself to human capacity, man will so regulate the centripetal and centrifugal force of self, as to preserve universal harmony in the Moral System of Nature. Till the knowledge of self, corporeally and intellectu- ally, is discovered, ethics, as well as physic will never procure either happiness or health to mankind ; for if the THE CRIMINAL EXCESS OF INDUSTRY. 71 mind is averse to the close attention, through the medium of temperance, which procures a knowledge of the bodi- ly functions, how infinitely more averse must it be to the more difficult attention through the medium of virtue, to procure a knowledge of the mental functions, or self. T..e present false systems of ethics and medicine ac cord in recommending their greatest enemies, ethics in Justly, and medicine physic. Let us examine the present effects of industry among mankind. The English are by far the most industrious nation upon the globe ; but what is the consequence ? Nationally, they are the most powerful and the richest people. From calculation formed on an average of the whole, it would appear that every individual should wear upon his back the value of five days labor ; inhabit a house, whose rent is equal to the daily value of four days labor ; his daily food equal the value of three days labor; and these calculations are formed upon an average (remember.) of the whole ; so that the support of each subject of England may, on the average, require twelve days labor. We will suppose his own superior industry to equal four days labor of a stranger, and his skill or product of his ingenuity is exported and procures him the value of eight days labor from foreign countries. What is ultimately its utility or effect uppn his happi- ness ? [under the existing system of property?] The poor man upon whom the unequal division of la- bor falls, must be reduced thereby to a piece of mechan- ism, or mere animal state of existence. His life must be spent in the alternate occupations of toil and sleep, which must deprive his essence of all consciousness, and depress him to a very low state upon the scale of exis- tence, even if bodily health should render him absent from pain, but sickness must render it miserable and deplo- rable. Let us now inquire whether the misery of. the poor promotes the happiness of the rich. The latter escape from bodily toil, which leaves them in such a vacuum of indolence, that the body loses all its vigor and health, the 72 THE REVELATION OF NATURE. foundation of happiness. The mind, to avoid stagna- tion creates various factitious desires and wants, pursu- ing them with an energy, that agitates, arid not undulates the current of life. Castles are occupied by themselves and families, where -forms of etiquette and proud cere- mony turn their pompous habitations into gloomy prisons, and where the elastic balmy air of the atmosphere is for- bid entrance to purify the morbid air of the drawing- room, exhausted with the heat of candles and fire, infect- ed with the respiration of unhealthy and numerous com- panies, and which turns their inhabitants into spectres in appearance, and invalids in reality. The muid partici- pates of the debility of the body ; and memory to avoid the tedium of inactive life, fills itself with all the rubbish of ancient and modern history, courts, domestic anec- dotes, which overwhelm the faculties of judgment, and reduce the mind to the same state of unconsciousness with excessive labor, and is evinced by that easy behav- ior, and thoughtless loquacity of the rich and great, 'which seem to indicate no vacuum in life, but is, at the same time, a sure proof of want of judgment, sensibility, and consciousness, without which rational existence can liave no excellence over animal, and the mind can possess no powers to expand into intellectual existence. Industry, therefore, according to the .present system, *.eems a necessary evil or a relative good, as it gives pow- r and riches to nations ; but the morality of Nature re- gards all excessive occupation, as an enemy to human happiness, and demands a medium of repose and labor to enable the mind to expand into consciousness, by con- templation of itself, and to invigorate the corporeal fa- culties, to procure the perfection of essence, A SOUND MIND IN A SOUND BODY, THE REVELATION 0V NATURE. 73 THE ARTS. TffE first "aft, and the most useful, which quality alone, ' in an enlightened state of Nature gives pre-eminence, is AGRICULTURE, as on this depends the existence of ani- mate matter ; and though a greater proportion of the hu- man race subsist by devouring sentient fellow parts of this matter, yet this evil must cease in an enlightened state of Nature ; and man, the great instrument by which Nature operates her ow perfection, the moment he is called to intellectual existence, must change his aliment from animal to vegetable, in order to procure both health of body and health of mind. For as animal food tends to pamper the body with gross humors, and inflame the blood which gives strength to the passions, and in the same proportion debilitates the reason, so it must engen- der disease and vice ; but vegetable diet has the contrary effect, which may be proved at any time by experience : though it requires a delicacy of attention, and accuracy of judgment to discover such results. A man in an enlightened state of Nature will be averse to the violence necessary to procure subsistence by ani- mal food, and the only violence he will permit, and that with extreme regret, will be the destruction of destruc- tive creatures, whom he cannot change by education or prevent by restriction .: both of which means he will first attempt, in order that the sacred passion of sympathy may receive no callosity or diminution by hasty or vo- luntary violence. THE MECHANIC ARTS. THESE useful arts serve to assist the art of agriculture by fabricating its implements, and to combat the incle* mencies of the climate, by building houses and making clothes ; also to construct arms to oppose destructive animals ; to invent also various machi&es of sport, plays, aad enjoyments of ^very kind. 74 THE REVELATION OF NATURE. THE POLITE ARTS. THE FINE ARTS Music, Painting, Sculpture, En- graving, Poetry, Eloquence, &c. are to be studied as con- tributing much to the comfort* and pleasures of life ; and* Eloquence is highly beneficial, as lending to give form to thought, and to facilitate its communication, by which alone intellectual existence can be promoted or preserved, in the .present corrupted state of man, or erroneous civi lizalion. Eloquence is used to communicate thought, biassed and corrupted by the will, and is therefore the the greatest enemy to intellectual existence ; for if elo- quence had not arrayed error in such seducing ornaments of language, mankind would long ago have been emanci- pated from the charnas of this syren. It is, however, consolatory to human nature, to reflect that the more strength eloquence acquires, the more useful it will be- come when subdued by wisdom, when as an auxiliary ai.-'l tributary power, it will amply atone for all the inju- ry it has yet done to mankind in destroying truth; arid by extending over the whole world the empire of wis- dom, and by surrounding its throne, render it invincible and eternal. The mechanic a<3 the fine arts are real friends to hu- man nature, and if contemplation of self, or the study of man is not sacrificed thereto, happiness will be greatly indebted to them for much comfort, pleasure and utility. Poetry, eloquence, music, &c. constitute the relaxation of wisdom, who acquires energy from the temporary re- pose in their tender and voluptuous embraces ; but these valuable exercises of the mind are at present basely pros- tit'Ued to the service of adulation, falsehood, vice, "and superstition. But when wisdom shall have gloriously triumphed over the errors of civil institution and the pre- judices of credulity and superstition, the fine arts will amply atone for their apostacy and prostitution, by be- coming the ministers of truth, virtue and happiness, to support the throne of wisdom. THE REVELATION OF NATURE. 75 THE RELIGION OF NATURE. TENET I. NATURE is the great integer of being, or matter and motion, without beginning as without end. II. Mankind are the instruments of Nature in its mo- ral motion, formed to procure well-being or happiness to all animated matter. III. All animated matter, however organized, changed, or dissolved, is related as parts inseparable from the great integer Nature. IV. Bodies intellectualized and possessing identifica- tions of I, you, and they, are created to possess con- sciousness of existence by sensations of pleasure and cain ; and though these [individual identities] are anni- hilated upon the dissolution of the bodies, they still, as parts of Nature, are concerned in the future pain and pleasure of their common integer, from wh'ch they are inseparable, though subject to endless change and revo- lution. V. Moral and physical motion are subject to fixed laws, which produce volition the cause of action in ani- mate matter. VI. The judgment or result of the operation of the mental faculties can have cognizance only of secondary- causes which it apparently controls and directs to pro- duce well-being or happiness to its essence, which it will ever suppose to be the end [object] of primary causes. VII. The human intellect has no power beyond these secondary causes of volition, and their end, which is happiness, all beyond being incomprehensibility ; and the reasoning of analogy can influence only from its proba- bility, and that, must be considered relative to the happi- ness of all animated Nature. VIII. Man, in forming a volition to procure happiness, begins with self as the centre, and extends to the circle 76 THE REVELATION OF NATURE. formed by all animate matter. He is to will for himself alone, and do no violence to any part of animate matter; and in the orbit of social attraction he must imitate the revolution of the celestial bodies, whose reciprocal re- pulsion and attraction operate without concussion or vio- lence to the centre, or the point, self. Man cedes not, but reforms his volition when it is in collision with that of another, to acquire more happiness, considering him- self a component part in this eternal relation to the great integer of Nature ; and by this means he produces and eternizes a system of moral harmony, or pain and pleas- ure, of which he must ever be a centre, and participate as an eternal part of an eternal integer ; which connec- tion is indissoluble, though its mode is incomprehensi- ble, and passes through every form of matter in an infi- nite revolution. WHEN the mind takes into contemplation a subject of such importance, novelty and magnitude, as the Religion of Nature, it is apprehensive and alarmed, and descends with caution and terror into its vast profundity. In sub- jects and researches of infinitely less utility and conse- quence, how many minds have been debilitated and dis- tracted ! The mathematics have sacrificed many victims, astronomy more, the longitude and chemistry have ab- sorbed and deranged many of the most strongly organ- ized faculties, but the subject of religion has so univer- sally deranged and destroyed the human faculties, that reason seems to have lost its powers of pre-eminence, and instinet would be preferred, but. that the former Con- tains iuaate elastic matter, which, when heated by the sun of wisdom, must expand, and reason then assume its pre-eminence and dignity. Agitated, though not confounded by these discouraging reflections, I shall proceed to give the course* of exposi- tion to my thoughts without any regard to ceremonious rules of literature on one hand, or the menaces of preju- dice on the other. RELIGION WITHOUT MORALITT. l" To erect the glorious fabric of natural religion, it is by no means necessary to clear away the rubbish of pre- judice and priest-craft, which become mere dust when the ponderous stones of truth, of which this fabric is composed, are collected, and the foundation is laid ; but lest this dust should embarrass weak eyes, one single observation, like a torrent from the clouds, will con- dense it to a palpable mud, and wash it all into the com- mon sewer of ignorance. In every country into which I have travelled, I have always observed that morality and religion were constant- ly in enmity, and where the one reigned, the other was exiled. If we begin the parallel of examination in the East, and proceed with it to the West, we find the Asiatic na- tions occupied one half of the day in ceremonies of re- ligion, while the other half of the day is spent in acts of knavery, fraud and cruelty ; sympathy of heart and rec- titude of mind are absolutely not only unpractised, but literally unknown. The nations of Europe follow the same parallel, and the most religious countries are here also the most immoral, which Russia and Italy incontes- tably prove ; France and England, as being the least reli- gious, excel in morality, in the same degree as they have abandoned religion. In England alone this parallel is strongly illustrated, where the most zealous sect in the world becomes an asylum for the most abandoned of mankind, and wis- dom seems to have produced an event, which, if the mind viewed it through an unprejudiced medium, woula cause religion to become a suicide, and die by its own hand. This sect of mental idolaters have formed a tenet, that declares morality inimical to religion, and that a man obtains the recompense of heaven for credulity alone. The blindness of zeal has led these enthusiasts to produce more evidence in favor of natural religion and truth, than the most ingenious and elaborate arguments of a child of Nature. 78 THE REVELATION OP NATURE. Priests of all other religions, however they may im- pose their reveries upon the ignorance of their votaries, nave policy enough to sanctify their follies with morality, in order to procure the support of government, which participating of the error and prejudice of the govern- ed, is not able to detect the shallow artifice of priest- craft, which, by the dispensation of pardon for the most atrocious crimes, betrays itself almost as openly as does the enthusiasm of the metlmdists ; and the tariff of expi- ations and atonements of the one, and the impious blas- phemy against virtue of the other, is ample evidence to convict such religions in the court of wisdom and con- science, of impiety, falsehood and treason, to the happi- ness and well-being of all sensitive Nature. If these observations are not comprehensible or satis- factory, I must refer my. reader to the u System of Na- ture" written in French by M. Mirabaud, [now ascribed to Baron D'Holbach,] where error is so closely combat- ted and pursued in all its recesses, that the mind by ir- resistible conviction emerges from its abyss, and seeks with impatience a new guide, or the light of Nature, which I hope will be found in these pages, and that they will form a complete supplement to that work. The progress of human thought, or moral motion, to the meridian of human essence, has been repressed and arrested by an assent of the mind, to Intelligence as be- ing the primary cause of all matter arid motion, from its property of order and analogy with human intelligence. But what effect does this assent produce? a painful ac quiesence in the evils of life, filled with doubt and terror of futurity. The Religion of Nature considers the cause of mo- tion as incomprehensible, and studies only the effect as being interesting and important, and sanctioned by Utility^ which is the god of Nature. When hunger propel does the wise man hesitate to eat till he has discover the cause of that passion ? No, he earnestly sets about procuring its gratification. So does the child of Nature, with moral motion or action ; he considers not its caus? THE ENORMITY OF LABOR. 79 but studies to conduct it to its end, or the well-being of self, as the centre of the great system of animated mat- ter, which, like the celestial systems of planets, moves in the order of unitary influence, and no part of the one can lose its gravity or attraction, or the other its sympa- thy or rectitude, without communicating disorder or pain to the whole ; and the moral world must remain in itfr present chaos, till wisdom has gained the first combat over coercion, and confined it to the succinct law of re- straining the will of violators; and in this state it would soon exhaust its own element and dissolve. This triumph of wisdom can only be accelerated by the enormities of political evils, and destructive warfare^ which having the same direful effect as anarchy in indl* vidual states, will render the confederacy of nations as necessary to the safety of mankind, as is domestic gov- ernment. At this aera all national competition being destroyed, and the peaceful communication of commerce promoting intellectual intercourse, individual competition will also relax; and Industry, the dreadful enemy to truth and hap- piness, which under the veil of necessity and avarice, isi cultivated as a friend, will be changed for repose, the only medium through which intellectual existence or conscious- ness can be obtained. The industry which Nature de- mands as the means of existence and comfort, is repose when compared with the destructive toil, which the comv petition of nations, and the avarice of powerful individ- uals, imposes on their fellow-creatures. Among the various devices and contrivances, which the ingenuity of man has invented, through civil, political' and domestic institutions, to fill up the measure of life, is that of the arch-fiend, Industry, who has pierced a hole in the bottom of the vessel, which, like the urn of the Danaides, excites and mocks the laboring hands that fill it. The laws of civil society are not invented to protect the indigent : for the rich merchant or land-holder holds them in a subjection from the necessity of subsistence, 60 THE REVELATION OF NATURE. which, law has as yet contrived no remedy to relieve them in, and policy seems not to demand it, or to measure it by the common standard of political necessity. The poor artizan, who may have a wife and several children, labors, we will suppose, for two shillings ster- ling per day : this is but barely sufficient to maintain his own person; what then becomes of his family? Death, no doubt, relieves many, and misery drags on the rest to a state of feeble manhood. The same observation ap- plies to the peasant and his landlord. The poor, then, have no dependence, but on the hu- manity and generosity of the rich, and in proportion as the latter are virtuous or wicked, the poor are more or less miserable. This is exemplified by the state of the poor in England and Ireland. In England, where the land-holders are more temper- ate, and humane, and less dissipated, the poor are better paid, though they enjoy but little repose. In the latter country, the dissipation and hard character of the Irish gentlemen, render the state of the peasant very misera- ble, though both countries are governed by nearly the name lavas'. In; France, where they have been obliged, in the late revolutioiTto stretch out the hand of the law to draw the peasant Jj'orn an abyss of misery, as soon as the estab- lishment .ftf government shall remove the fears of the rich, the afolition of taxes, feudal rights, &c. &c. will be demanded v 3'~m nate, as is the moral directory in the word think; foi in every part of the globe I find men in possession of conscious happiness in proportion to the faculty of thought ; and though the indications of joy are more fre- quent among animal men, yet one moment of conscious THE MOTIVES OF THE AUTHOR. 115 is worth a century of animal existence, which diffuses in- ternal, perpetual, and inexpressible peace and happiness, and elevates the intellectual being as much above the an- imal, as that is above the vegetable. I must deprecate humanity to consider the ideas in the foregoing work to have been the pure operation of thought, agitated with the sufferings of all sensitive Nature. I have endeavored, through great danger, difficulty and suf- fering, to study by travelling the sources of good and ill. If, by exposing tbem, I have offended the prejudices of in- dividuals and nations, it was from the same motive that the surgeon torments his patients, only to heal their wounds. I never had but one enemy in the world ; he attempted my life ; I both forgave him and pitied him. Good men must be happy, and bad men miserable, and the former ran never suffer resentment to augment the misery of the latter; they will pity the victims of ignor- ance, and endeavor to remove this universal cause of universal ill, by disseminating thought and reflection, the parent of wisdom and happiness. I disclaim the appropriation of ideas, and therefore have not put my name to this work : they can gain nei- ther credit or discredit from the author, and he seeks no reward or praise, but what arises from the consciousness of good intent. They are texts or themes for the exer* citation of the mental faculties on a more extensive ami important sphere than has hitherto been presented to the mind of man, and should they be the means of extending its powers through the faculty of thought and reflection, thdse few philanthropic pages will be crowned with abun- dant success, and the labor of their author most amph rewarded. Before I conclude, I must again consider an event (th Revolution in France) where man has passed the Rubi- con of relative truth, and must press straight forward 10 the source of moral motion or knowledge of self; for should it turn aside by one oblique step of temporizing policy, to contend with, or imitate other nations, it wii.' lose its equipoise upon the delicate line of right, which 114 THE REVELATION OF NATURE. leads thereto, and fall into anarchy, and from thence into an abyss of despotism. The poor must be conscien- tiously and comfortably provided with subsistence, lest their frequent appearance and neglected supplications ia public streets, should paralyse the fine sympathy of man. How many thousands in the streets of London and Paris contract into the narrow sphere of animal existence, by a habit of refusing aid to supplicating fellow-creatures in distress. Probity must be guarded by reforming the chicanery and dupery of commerce. Means must be discovered to prevent adulteration of specie, whose falsi- ty is a dreadful enemy to probity; and a bad shilling re- ceived, which casuistry justifies the passing into the hand of another whom we cheat, introduces corruption into a heart, whose integrity would be otherwise impregnable.* Personal vanity must be humbled thought and speech must be absolutely free, and no man must be permitted to murder a fellow creature for offensive sentiments. Calumny, when rendered public, will always be detected* An innocent man may feel a temporary injury, but con- science will in the end triumph, and the approaches to thought, the source of intellectual life, must be cleared of all terror and impediment. To this source the French nation must proceed in a straigSjt line, and take large draughts of its stream to enable them to proceed, and to detect vice under the mask of virtue. Virtue and merit, in an acquaintance, must not be sacrificed to the selfish partiality of friendship. .Principles of sympathy and pro- bity must not be sacrificed to dissipated and thoughtless. liberality. Pure benevolence, and not bartered gratitude, must be the only motive of beneficence ; and love itself must expand into the great circle of all sensitive Nature, leaving the grosser parts or dregs to the commerce of pleasure, and joining friendship to those passions, which * This is most lamentably exemplified in England, where the de- basement of the coin is become a tolerated profession, and has done more 'injury to the morality of this country in a few years, than the baneful effects of luxury would do in a century THE REVELATION OF NATURE. 115 in proportion as they in animal existence are able to con- tract the essence of self to a narrow circle, are changed by intellectual existence into the unison of sympathy ami probity, the only laws of motion, upholding the mo- ral system, which the conventional virtues and customs of civilization tend to destroy, by cutting off the com- munication between self and sensitive Nature, by th% partial duties of friend, parent, and citizen, or the boun- daries of seas and mountains ; and thus confine intellec- tual beings within the limits of sheep. But thought breaks down these animal barriers, and expands self into the union with its integer Nature. That political energy which the active and unjust poli- cy of nations demands, France must totally lose, anc| defence will rest in virtue (or sympathy and probity): which will intellectualize those animal monsters, called conquerors, that, may attempt to subdue them, and having' had the glory to cast the pebble of truth into the lake of humanity, their locality will feel the most violent agita- tions for a while, and will then spread into those softer undulations, which will reach from the centre self to the shore of all sensitive Nature, to propel the vessel of life to the harbor of intellectual existence arid an enlightened state of Nature. I could not close my book till I had added some further considerations of the all of virtue, SYMPATHY. Sympathy is the gravitation of the moral system, and men, in proportion as their essence contains less or more, become meteors agitated by every blast of passion, or in- tellectualized bodies, moving with its density in the vir- tuous and stable orbit of society, comprehending all sen sitive Nature. In a high state of animation or sensibility, divested of reason, as it is found in some characters among the Eng- lish, Irish, and Malay nations, Sympathy changes its nature and delights in the suffering, of sensitive creatures. I shall endeavor to trace the cause of this moral phe- nomenon. I find in the first instance a great conformity between these nations in the customs of tormenting ani- 116 THE PERVERSION OF SYMPATHY. maU. The fir$t and second are equally delighted with the cruelty of the chase, running horses to death in ra- cing and travelling, buli-baiiing, cock-fighting, &c. The Malay nation has no other diversion hut rock fighting, which occupies the whole of their leisure hours ; by these diversions the sensations of Sympathy are totally sup- pressed. Self is connected into a point, and its link in the chain of Nature feels no vibration, from even the most approximate parts; hence, in the two former n a- tions, those frequent personal assaults, in which the finer feelings of Sympathy are sacrificed to the vanity of an hypocritical reputation, which they have esteem for, only $s it is profitable, but have no consciousness to enjoy or Discover, that true virtue consists in Sympathy 'the cen- tre and circumference of all that is good. Nature has singled out these countries to produce the most extraor- dinary productions of vice and infamy. England has lately given birth to a monster, who singled out the most beautiful and best works of Nature, handsome, innocent women, who wantonly stabbed several in their thighs to gratify an infernal passion of seeing the blood run, and hearing the groans and agonies of hiir and innocent vic- tims. Ireland sent forth an assassin to murder a philo- sopher who had dared to censure the vice of that island ; and with a head as depraved as his heart, the ruffian by that atrocious intent to crush the germ of happiness by extinguishing the light of thought, confirmed the testimo- ny he intended to confute. Malacca produces monsters on purpose, one would think, to avenge the cause of Sympathy, for the death of one cock in battle bringing despair upon the owner, urges him to draw his dagger, and destroy promiscuously every one within his reach. Personal assaults, duelling and boxing are become so com- mon in England and Ireland, that if the laws do not immedi- ately extend the arm of protection to innocent and sym- pathetic minds, they must emigrate to the continent to claim from tyranny an asylum against the ferocious des- potism of individuals ; and to enjoy a greater personal security than lawless liberty can afford; and I am in- THE REVMLATIOar OP NATURE. 11? duced to think that the residence of many English in fo reign countries is caused by .such reflections ; for who- ever has travelled into foreign countries as an observer, must be sensible of the great contrast between their peaceful manners and the turbulence of England. These observations will tend to show the necessity not only of refraining from violence, but of breaking on all connection with the brute creation ; as they cannot explain the pain which their loss of liberty may cause, and as our own connections may shortly assume those links in the chain of existence, and man would also gain by assuming their labor. The vortex of industry would be moderated, and labor become less ; great cities, the cause of much moral and physical evil, would be changed into happy villages; exercise would procure health of body ; repose and content, -peace of mind ; and sym- pathy being cultivated and established, would fix the cen- tre of the moral world upon the most sacred Law of Nature : FORCE NOT THE DEFENSIVE WILL OF ANY PART OF SENSITIVE NATURE. To CONCLUDE, I must conjure my readers to consider the sentiments contained in these pages, not as proceed- ing from passion or partiality. I have censured most, those nations whose individuals I most love, and with whom I most live ; I mean the Irish and the French, whose urbanity, facility, joyous and liberal characters, are as pleasing and necessary to society, as the joys of sex- ual love are to animal existence. Not so the moroseness and spleen of the English, whose thought, however pow- erful, if not directed by wisdom, may claim esteem, as it shows human nature in a progress to intellectuality, but does not seduce my love, though it obtains all my ad mi-- ration and praise. I must entreat my readers to cotisidec these sentiments, as not coming from the brain of a ministerial hireling, who prostitutes his pen to parties a famished author who writes to live a poet who writes for fame a religionist who writes from enthusiasm a dogmatist who writes from the pride of erudition ; but to respect and examine them as the holy emanations of 118 THE DIVINITY OF THOUGHT. thought, from an intellectual atom struggling to discover the source, or centre of well-being or happiness, an&* '/'//. /i*-r ' s- * '(. /?./ tst* I , ~ / 14 DAY USE DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED LOAN DEPT. This book is due on the last date stamped below or on the date to which renewed. Lenewed books are subject to immediate recall. REC'U 2 5 '65 - LD 21A-60?n-3 '65 (F2336slO)476B General Library University of California Berkeley 06870