WRITINGS DR. CARL HERRMANN HORSCH WRITINGS OF DR. CARL H. HORSCH EDITED BY H. C. AND J. W. BARTLETT WITH A SHORT SKETCH OF HIS LIFE at tlir BtoewilJe ]Ji TGC FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION 1894 R 117 H7SG w PREFACE. These writings have been collected from various sources, in order to preserve them in a permanent form, as a tribute to a very dear friend, who for many years shared all our joys and sorrows, and by his loving care and companionship made our lives sweeter and brighter. The greater part of the religious articles were published in " The Index ; " those on other subjects have been taken from sanitary journals, and reports of societies to which he belonged. The short notes were written for our friend's own satisfaction, with no thought of publication ; but they manifest his spirit so truly that we feel we have done him no injustice by adding them to the collection. H. C. B. J. W. B. 1 C66701 CONTENTS. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 1 IN MEMORIAM 2 ^ RELIGIOUS WRITINGS 31 SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS . . .129 MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS 213 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH A SHOET BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF DR. CARL H. HORSCH CARL HERRMANN HORSCH was born July 23, 1822, in the small, pleasant village of Eythra, six miles from Leipzig, Saxony. He was one of a family of five, three girls and two boys, who, although widely separated in early youth, remained devotedly attached to each other through life. Of these, only his brother Ernst, long a resident of Russia, survives him. His parents, Johann Gottfried and Christiana Friedericke Horsch, were per- sons of very superior character, who, owing to sickness and misfortune, were in extremely moderate circumstances. His early life was one of toil and hardship, and he was obliged to work his own way upward through the world. Fortunately, the village schoolmaster, Jo- hann Christoph Leuschner, was a man of 4 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH great talent and discernment, who saw the boy's worth and awakened in him a thirst for knowledge. At the age of fourteen, he left home and went to Altenburg, to earn his own living. Here the court surgeon was attracted toward him ; he strongly advised him to be- come a physician, and gave him instruction in the rudiments of medicine and surgery. Working his own way, and studying when opportunity offered, Dr. Horsch, when twenty years old, had fitted himself for the univer- sity. Being obliged to practice rigid economy, he traveled on foot, with his knapsack on his back, from Leipzig to Prague. In the re- nowned university of this ancient city, he received his medical and surgical education. Here he studied six years, supporting himself during the first four by his own exertions. Being obliged the last two years to devote his whole time to practical, clinical studies, through the friendship of his former teacher, Cantor Leuschner, he obtained a small loan from the Gutbesitzer of Eythra, which ena- bled him to finish his course. This loan he repaid in a very short time from the meagre salary of an assistant army surgeon. He graduated with honor, September, 1848, BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 5 receiving an especial commendation from his professors, his papers being endorsed ausser- ordentlich. Returning home, he applied for a position in the army, and passed the requi- site examination, the diploma of an Austrian university not being recognized in Saxony. At this time he was offered an excellent sit- uation in the Dutch East Indian service. Fortunately for himself and others he de- clined it, and entered the Saxon army, Octo- ber 1, 1848, as assistant surgeon in the field hospital. I give here an account of a portion of Dr. Horsch's life in his own words, taken from an address delivered in 1888 to the Strafford District Medical Society, on " Some Expe- riences in a Study and Practice of Medicine of Forty-four Years : " " When I landed on the shore of the study of medicine I thought that my professors were superior to all others ; but some of them com- pelled me to be almost as humble as Uriah Keep, and with pity I think of their haughty bearing and arrogance ; yet the majority of my teachers kindly imparted their knowledge and treated me as a man deserves, and with gratitude and thanks I recognize and remem- ber how much I am indebted to them. 6 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 11 A medical student in the Austrian univer- sities, at the time when I studied in Prague, was more dependent than in other medical colleges, because the semi-annual examina- tions kept him constantly under the control of the professors ; which was well to keep the lazy and negligent students to their studies, but rather hard for those who had not the favor of a pedantic professor ; but with pleas- ure I praise and honor the thoroughness of teaching in those institutions, and in Ger- many generally. " In the spring of 1848 we had a revolu- tion in Prague, and every student belonging to the Academic Legion was forced to fight on the barricades, and to defend himself against an unnecessary attack ordered by General Windischgratz. This was a trying week. One day a poor old mother was killed and dragged through the streets by the mob with a rope around her neck ; and all that poor soul had done was to try to carry some food to her son, who was a soldier and com- pelled to fight us. This mobocracy was on our side, robbing and murdering friend and foe; and this element, about twenty thou- sand, we had to accept as our comrades. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 1 " After we were shelled out I got home safely, and went to Dresden, Saxony, passed the examination, and received the appoint- ment as assistant surgeon in the field hospital of the Saxon army. In the spring of 1849 I was ordered to the ambulance corps, and went to the war in Schleswig-Holstein. Here I did my part of duty in the battles of Satrup, Diippel, and Friedericia ; and after the Saxon troops returned to their fatherland I was ordered to take charge of a military hospital at Flensburg. " While I was in charge of this hospital, of which a regimental surgeon was the direc- tor, I had a case of pneumonia. The patient was a fleshy, lymphatic person, twenty-six years old. On the fourth day, when my superior medical officer was visiting the hospi- tal, we found the pulse a hundred and sixteen, very feeble, extremities cold, breathing quick, lower lobe of the lung hepatized ; the director commanded bleeding ; I argued, in a respect- ful way, against it, on the ground of his con- dition and constitution, and expressed the fear of pulmonary oedema ; he took out his lance, and was { going to reduce that pulse ; ' the next day he bled him a second time. (Edema 8 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH took place, and our patient died. After that event the medical director became stern and showed a dislike to me, which was not a pleas- ant experience for a subordinate to suffer. When I sent in my monthly report to the surgeon-general's office I described the case, and petitioned for a command to the military hospital in Dresden. My request was grant- ed, and, returning from here to Saxony, I received the appointment as assistant surgeon in the King's body-guard. " The aristocratic notions and rather slavish adherence to royalty of some of the officers were somewhat disagreeable. One day we were discussing the obedience to our king, when one of them remarked : ' If his Majesty commanded me to jump out of the window in the second story of a house, I would obey his command.' I was arguing on the ground of self-preservation, and said I would attend to that superior law and command. ' Oh ! ' said a superior officer to me, ( you are one of the heroes of the barricades of Prague, in 1848.' That stopped the argument, and it was not safe for me to press it any further ; I thought it better to let him jump ! "In Budissin (Bautzen), Saxony, where I BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH was from 1850 to 1852, I became a member of the Natural Scientific Society, Isis, and was secretary two years. Here we had very inter- esting papers and pamphlets. " Although I had the credentials from the University of Prague, wherein it was certified that I had given satisfactory answers in all the subjects taught in that medical college, and had passed the examination for medical and surgical service in the army, I had to pass the examination of the state of Saxony before I could be promoted in the military ranks or practice medicine generally in said state. " During this examination, Dr. Pech, pro- fessor of surgery, a kind and pleasant old gentleman, but extremely pedantic, asked me a question, and, when I answered it, said, ( That is not the way I have taught it,' think- ing that I must explain the case in accordance with his own words ; but Professor Chousant said, ( Professor, the gentleman has given a correct explanation.' " In 1853 1 received a satisfactory offer from a physician in Boston, Dr. William Wessel- hoeft; and he kindly sent me two hundred dollars to defray traveling expenses. Decem- 10 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH ber, 1853, 1 embarked in a sailing vessel, at Bremen, for America, and, after a nine weeks' voyage, arrived in New York; from here I went to Boston, where I found a pleasant home in the house of my generous friend. He was a sincere believer in Hahnemann's maxim, ' similia similibus curantur,' and carried it out consistently in his extensive practice. " My aim was then, and is now, to accept and practice what I consider rational and ben- eficial for suffering humanity, from whatever so-called system of medical treatment it may come ; and I think that a truly scientific sys- tem must have a scientific basis, and cannot be established on any of the maxims, 'contra- ria contrariis curantur ,' 'similia similibus curantur? or ( cequalia cequalibus curantur? and that a regular medical practitioner is one who can prove before any just forum that he is versed in all the branches of the medical encyclopaedia, and bases his treatment upon them. I therefore accepted and practiced what I had learned and found rational from the works of others and my own experience. " When I came to Dover, N. H., August, 1855, 1 made a mistake by suffering myself to BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 11 be advertised as a homoeopathic physician, which title I renounced October, 1869; and I have explained my standpoint as well as I could in various published articles, wherein any person may find that I only renounce the names and false claims of the Apathies,' but acknowledge that all have some truth and principles which ought to be recognized and valued by any rational physician and person." It is somewhat singular how an apparently trivial event will sometimes change the whole current of a man's life. While in Dresden Dr. Horsch received an invitation to spend an evening with a friend. He at first decided not to go, but afterward changed his mind. Here he met Mrs. Wesselhoeft. She was much pleased with the appearance of the young surgeon, who at that time had not the least idea of quitting the army or emigrating to America. Some time afterwards Dr. Wes- selhoeft, wishing for a physician to take charge of a water-cure establishment in Brat- tleboro, Vt., with which he was connected, offered the position to Dr. Horsch, which he accepted. His coming, however, was delayed by various circumstances, and when he ar- rived Dr. W. had severed his connection with 12 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH the institution, but retained him in his own family, to assist in his practice. Dr. Horsch remained about a year in Bos- ton, and practiced mostly among the Ger- mans. At that time there were many of his countrymen residing in that city who were connected with the political troubles of 1848- 49, and were obliged to seek shelter in Amer- ica. They were all educated men, many of whom had occupied high positions at home. This congenial society met two or three times a week at the gasthof of the elder Pfaff, on Park Square, and in the rooms of a German brewer on Avery Street, where, over mugs of lager beer, a beverage then recently intro- duced into Boston, they discussed the political affairs of their country, cheered each other's exile, and lived again for the hour their life in the Fatherland. Preferring a country life, he declined a generous offer from Dr. W., and went with a German friend to the little village of South Berwick, Me., to spend some months in the study of the English language, which he had thus far had little opportunity to acquire. In August, 1855, he settled in Dover, N. H., where he remained during his life in a large BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 13 and very successful practice. In March, 1858, he married Miss F. A. Littlefield, who, with two daughters, survives him. During the Rebellion, in 1863, the officers of the Fifteenth Regiment New Hampshire Volunteers wished to have Dr. Horsch as their surgeon, and applied to the state author- ities' to have him commissioned. Wish- ing to do his .part in serving his adopted country, and expecting opposition from the examining board, in order to give some proof of his ability besides his credentials from Europe, he went before the medical examiners of Massachusetts, and passed a triumphant examination, receiving from them a recom- mendation to the governor for an appoint- ment. A week later the medical commission of New Hampshire rendered the following decision, " We have examined Carl H. Horsch, M. D., and find him not competent to dis- charge the duties of surgeon." This singular decision against a man who had served with honor five years in the German army was due to the aversion of the board to homoeopathy. Three months afterward the surgeon of the Fifteenth Regiment resigned, on account of illness, and the field and staff officers peti- 14 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH tioned for Dr. Horsch's appointment as their surgeon. Governor Berry immediately gave him his commission, and he joined the army near New Orleans. Here his experience in the German army was of great benefit to him, and his merit was soon recognized. He re- ceived especial commendation from the medi- cal director of the Gulf Department for the excellence of his field hospital. He was a great favorite with the regiment. Many are the expressions of gratitude which we have heard from officers and men, who have told us that but for his devoted care they never would have returned to their homes. At the siege of Port Hudson Dr. Horsch was appointed assistant operator. During the engagement on the 27th of May, to use his own words, " We all had to do our full duty, day and night." One of the surgeons who worked with him at that time stated that " many poor fellows owed to his skill the preservation of their limbs, which otherwise would have been sacrificed." The work was continued until late at night, and, when his last case was disposed of, Dr. Horsch sank exhausted on the ground, under his operating table. On the 7th of June he received an BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 15 order promoting him to first operator, and assigning his brigade-surgeon and another as his assistants. In vain he tried to decline the position, insisting that it belonged to another by seniority of commission, and declaring that he "cared nothing for rank or precedence, but desired only to do his duty." He was not allowed to refuse. But his work was done; fatigue, consequent on over-exertion and exposure, brought on a malarial fever, which nearly cost him his life, and from whose effects he never fully recovered. Every summer, for many years, the hot weather brought on a return of the fever. Returning home with his regiment, to the great satisfac- tion of our citizens he resumed his extensive practice. In 1882 he was by the recommendation of many prominent physicians of New Hamp- shire appointed a member of the first state board of health. He helped organize it, and served thereon until failing health compelled him to resign in 1886. Shortly before this he became aware of a trouble with the heart (insufficiency of the mitral valve). Although slight, he felt the necessity of avoiding the overwork and exhaustion consequent on his 16 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH large, active practice, and determined to give up a part of it. In this he only partially suc- ceeded, owing to the constant demands of his patients and their extreme unwillingness to place themselves under the care of any other physician. After a few years, however, more frequent attacks of illness compelled him to confine himself almost entirely to office prac- tice. He devoted much of his leisure time to microscopy, and became very proficient there- in, using it much in professional work, and finding intense enjoyment in the study of the lower forms of animal and vegetable life. He took great pleasure in imparting to others the results of his observations and experiments. His health gradually failed, the heat of each succeeding year having more and more effect on him. The last summer of his life he spent at his seaside cottage at Wells, Me. He took considerable exercise, and several times visited the patients of an absent physi- cian in the village of Ogunquit, three miles away. He spent many pleasant hours in our cottage. Speaking, one day, of his health, he said he had made a gain over the previous season, and expressed the hope that he should BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 17 live many years. September 14th he had a sudden nervous attack, followed by extreme prostration. Rallying a little he returned to his home in Dover. Unfortunately, he en- countered three days of intense heat, which had a very injurious effect upon him, and, after a few days of suffering, on the evening of September 22, 1891, he suddenly passed away. Dr. Horsch had a lofty, noble character ; of his perfectly unselfish life all who knew him bear witness. He never regarded his profes- sion simply as a means of acquiring wealth, but gave freely of his knowledge and skill to every one who needed it, whether rich or poor. His only thought was to alleviate suf- fering. None but his most intimate friends were aware of the extent of his benefactions to the unfortunate. His presence always brought sunshine into the sick-room, and every patient felt him to be a personal friend. Often have strangers approached us, who ex- pressed their sorrow for his death, and told us of the affection and esteem in which they held their beloved physician. Not his patients only, but all who knew him, loved him, and the mourning for him was universal through- out his adopted city. 18 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Dr. Horsch stood very high in both branches of his profession, and was much sought for in consultations. In addition to a most thorough education, he possessed a rare insight into the nature of disease. He had few equals in the correctness of his diag- noses, which were always the result of careful observation and close reasoning. In surgical cases his firm, strong hand was balanced with a feminine delicacy of touch. Keeping abreast of all the latest discoveries in medical science, he believed in relying on one's own experience more than on the teaching of books. Opposed to all sectarianism in med- icine, he persistently refused to join any par- tisan society. He did not believe that any one school possessed "the only scientific treatment," or that such a treatment has yet been discovered. He advocated much greater strictness in our laws in regard to the prac- tice of medicine. He believed the state should require all applicants to be thoroughly educated in all that pertains to that honorable profession, and to that end should recognize the diploma of no school, but require a strict examination by its own authorities. That, after admission to the profession, the members BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 19 should be known as physicians only, and be left free to adopt any and all means which in their judgment would alleviate suffering. In accordance with this conviction, in 1881, he prevailed upon all the physicians in Dover to give up their distinctive names and claims and unite in one harmonious society. One of the leading practitioners said to us that no one else could have succeeded in doing this. He was a member of the American Medical As- sociation, the Medico-Legal Society of New York, and the Strafford District Medical So- ciety of New Hampshire, which he joined, after repeated invitations, in 1886. He was elected president of the latter society in 1887-88. Dr. Horsch was also a prominent member of the American Public Health Association. Throughout his whole medical career he took a deep interest in sanitary work, believing the prevention of disease to be as much a part of a physician's duty as its cure. He ever had the welfare of his fellow townsmen and the public generally at heart, and was earnest and active in every good cause. The hygienic surround- ings of his patients always received his care- ful attention, and many of the improvements 20 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH in the sanitary condition of our city are due to his untiring efforts. Numerous valuable papers have been contributed by him to san- itary publications throughout the country. Dr. Vaughan, of Michigan University, wrote of him : " The cause of public health has sustained a great loss in his death, and he will be missed, not only in his own state, but by the sanitary workers throughout the land." One of the most prominent traits in his character was his strict conscientiousness in every act of life. He never promised a cure, always telling patients he " would use the best means in his power for their recovery." He was much averse to what he considered undue praise, and was exceedingly unwilling any should say " they owed their lives to him," believing a physician could rarely claim that the cure was due to his skill alone. In- capable of the least professional jealousy, he always strove to obtain due appreciation for all good efforts of other practitioners, and through his influence many dissensions among them were healed. He gave freely of his knowledge to younger members of his profes- sion, and, when recognizing merit, did much BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 21 to assist them. Some have told us they never could forget his kindness to them, when as strangers they settled in Dover. Naturally of a bright, joyous temperament, his presence was -everywhere welcomed. Though preferring to spend a quiet hour with a few congenial friends, he was yet the life of every company which he entered, equally at home in the society of scholars and scientists and with the poor laboring man. A German workman said of him that "their festivities were never complete unless they could get Dr. Horsch to join in them, and when he left none cared to remain." Visiting with him his little native village of Eythra, it was pleasant to witness the hearty, cordial greetings and the unchanged relations between him and his former mates and playfellows of the village school, many of whom were still occupying very humble positions in life. Dr. Horsch was brought up in the Lutheran church ; as he grew older he began to ques- tion and doubt, and could no longer accept its narrow and irrational theology. Naturally he swung to Materialism, but his strong mind could not long rest satisfied there ; as his rea- son developed he grew into broader, higher, 22 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH nobler conceptions of God and religion than those of his boyhood. Patients belonging to the so-called Evangelical sects were sometimes concerned about his spiritual welfare, know- ing he believed in no church. An elderly lady, a strict Baptist, whom he was attending during her last illness, expressed her anxiety about his salvation. He held many conver- sations with her upon religious subjects, and shortly before her death she said to him: "Doctor, you have no idea how much com- fort your views have given me." Mrs. Tal- bot, a Quaker lady, a well-known revivalist, having occasion, when in Dover, to place her- self under his care, made a strong effort to convert him. When he explained to her his belief she recognized the loftiness and beauty of his religious sentiments, and at the close of the interview said, "Thee and I are not so far apart as I thought we were." On one of his visits to his native place, while conversing on his religious views with his old Lutheran pastor, to whose teachings he had listened in his boyhood, the aged man said, " Where did you get those ideas, Herrmann? They are beautiful ! " Dr. Horsch's religion was not confined to BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 23 sentiment or belief only, but carried into every act of his daily life. His nobility of soul was recognized by all with whom he came in contact, but those on whom he be- stowed the inestimable privilege of his inner- most friendship best know the full strength and beauty of his spiritual nature. The life- motive of this brave, noble-hearted, aspiring soul is fittingly expressed in the inscription on his memorial-stone, written by Dr. F. E. Ab- bot, a friend of many years : " His worship of the All-Good was faithful and loving service of his brother man." J. W. B. IN MEMORIAM IN MEMORIAM DR. CARL HERMANN HORSCH has passed from our midst. He needs no eulogy from any one, but I desire to give him this last tribute; His was one of the noblest of souls ; he always gave himself for others. His only question was, What is my duty to my fellow- man ? and at whatever cost of suffering to himself he faithfully performed it. He lived among us thirty-six years, openly, fear- lessly, acting himself before the world. He never concealed his convictions on any sub- ject. Having thoughtfully come to his con- clusions, he held them firmly and openly. Whatever he thought right to do, he did, whether others praised or blamed. The world is better for his having lived in it. His whole influence was for good ; no one ever came in contact with him but went away the better for the intercourse. His mind never occupied itself with trivial subjects; his thought was always, What can I do to bene- 28 IN MEMORIAM fit Humanity? It was my privilege, as an intimate friend, to be much with him, and to share his innermost life. Never did we meet but that his mind turned to the higher, ho- lier questions of life. When parted by dis- tance, his letters always breathed the same high aspirations. He never allowed any one to speak harshly of another in his presence. He always imputed the best motives to every one, and if deceived was ready to forgive and trust again. Truth with him was sacred, the least deception was hateful, and his word given or implied was never broken. Dr. Horsch's religious views were of the loftiest character. He did not believe in churches or creeds, considering them simply- as the primary schools for the childhood of Humanity, which must at some future time be done away. He gave up the name of Chris- tian, and refused to be so called. To him that name meant a limitation which he could not endure. He did not believe in Christian- ity as the all-good, the one true religion. To him religion itself was above and beyond Christianity. His great heart could not rest satisfied with anything less than one wide, all- embracing religion, in which all believers in IN MEMOEIAM 29 every faith could equally share. He could accept nothing on the authority of Bible or Church. To him, religion was the natural outgrowth of human life. He believed that the spiritual nature of man is as much a God- given part of him as his natural body, and that every noble deed is as much inspired of God to-day as ever in the past. I quote his own words : " I cannot accept the idea that Christianity, or any other form of religion, contains all which that beautiful, all-embracing word means." " True religion must provide equal shares for all. " " I find in religion the concentration of the best thoughts and actions of the human soul and body." " I sincerely believe in an impartial Creator and Ruler of all, who has given all He has for each and all, for the existence and subsistence of his creation." He did not believe in prayer. In frequent conversations on this subject he said, " I be- lieve in an all-wise, all-just Creator, one who knows my needs, and will supply them better than I can ask. My endeavor is to do my 30 IN MEMORIAM duty at all times, and doing that duty is my prayer." To show his deep spiritual nature I give a few extracts from his writings : " * Nearer, my God, to Thee ' ought to be applied to this life, by believing that under all circumstances of life God is always near us, and that we can come nearer to Him, by rightly using our reason received from Him, and obeying his laws, and believing firmly that He is our Father who loves us." " It is futile to say that God favors or pun- ishes us. He has given his creation the best He possesses ; otherwise He could not be our Creator, endowed with wisdom and love." Our dear friend has gone from our sight to a happier home, to a world, as he always hoped, of renewed activity and progress ; but the influence of his pure, noble life will al- ways remain a power for good in the hearts of the many who love him. I can say of him, what he once wrote me of R. W. Emerson : " He has left so much in this sphere that it appears as if the greater part of him remains with us." J. W. B. DOVER, N. H., September 30, 1891. RELIGIOUS WRITINGS RELIGIOUS WRITINGS LETTER IN ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF A GIFT OF TRACTS. MY DEAR MRS. TALBOT, Your sincere and honest efforts to do good induce me to write these lines, which I hope will give you some opinions of my honest conviction. No. 16 of your tracts, " Only believe : " The only true belief is in God, the Father of all men, without difference of religion or sect, and in the goodness and humanity of Jesus. No soul of God's creation can perish. No. 64. " Business and Religion : " No man can do any business without God. I believe in the omnipresence of our Creator. Men worship God often better in business than by sayings or in the Church. No. 125. " Pray for the Holy Spirit : " The only Holy Spirit is God ! To the prayer advised in that tract I must say with that good man, Ralph Waldo Emerson : " That which they call a holy office is often not so 34 RELIGIOUS WRITINGS much as brave and manly. Prayer looks abroad and asks for some foreign addition to come through some foreign virtue, and loses itself in endless mazes of natural, supernatu- ral, mediatorial and miraculous. Prayer that craves a particular commodity, anything less than the all-good, is vicious. Prayer is the contemplation of the fact of life from the highest point of view. It is the Spirit of God pronouncing his worlds good." No. 134. The One Thing Needful : " Believe in God and do like Jesus ; live a good life, and your soul will be saved, just as the soul of that good man, Jesus, is saved. No. 150. " No Rest but in Christ : " Rest your faith in God. But neither the soul of Jesus nor the soul of any man has a real rest. The very aspiration towards the goodness of God is activity and no rest. Come, come, and do like Jesus and he will be with you. No. 161. " The Best Things are to come : " Peace with God, hope in his conscience, grace in his heart, are the best things Heaven and Hell are conditions of the mind, and no places, therefore we have them in this world. I expect no better heaven than the RELIGIOUS WRITINGS 35 satisfaction after doing good or right, and no worse hell than the dissatisfaction after I have done wrong. The Jew, Mohammedan, Hindoo, Pagan, Christian, and all, can find the best things by acting up to their honest con- victions. God has created every individual with a reason, which is proportioned to the mind. No. 174. " How to come to Jesus : " By doing like Jesus, live a good life, and if we can, do even better than he. If needed die for pure principles. To fall down and touch him and cry, "Be merciful to me a sinner," is not required, and it does not correspond with the expression of Jesus, " Why caUest thou me good ? No one is good but the Father." Neither a man nor a woman can save a soul ; every one has to work out his own salvation. Therefore, my dear Mrs. Talbot, do not give yourself any uneasiness. We all shall meet in that great centre towards which all souls as- pire, although in various ways, and that is : the all-wise, all-mighty, omnipresent God ! the Creator of Jesus, you, and all of us ! Yours with the deepest admiration for sincere belief, CARL H. HORSCH. DOVER, April 24, 1869. 36 RELIGIOUS WRITINGS BUCK-SHOT. DEAR FRIEND, The various criticisms on the "Index" contained in your supplement to No. 120 are certainly amusing, and suggest a few words of reply to several misguided and misguiding gentlemen : To the Avalanche, Petersburg, Mich. : You call the " Impeachment of Christianity " a " grand editorial splurge." If splurges or showers of that kind are falling in your place, it will not take long to melt the dirty snow and ice which such an "avalanche" brings down upon humanity. To the Jackson (Mich.) Herald : Yes, sir ! The " Index " has " a great power for harm " to nonsense, and teaches common sense, which is fearfully destructive to such sheets as the " Herald." To the Washington Daily Chronicle : If the "Index," the "exponent of Free Religion," pointed to such pasturage as " the widely cir- culating Bible, the exponent of Christianity," points out to its adherents, there would be a great rush for that field, and the " Chroni- cle " would be the first to graze in it. To the New Covenant, Chicago : There RELIGIOUS WRITINGS 37 is more need of such papers as the " Index " than of the many mystification sheets which now, like the " Covenant," " feed humanity on stale bread and bilge water." To the Christian Observer, Bowman ville, Ontario : Yes, the radicals will excuse you from taking up Free Religion ; and they beg to be excused from the burden of old super- stitions you would lay on their backs. To the Raleigh (N. C.) Christian Advocate : Looking at the " Index " from your standpoint, I can hardly blame you for getting wrathy. Certainly, your business goes down on the rising of " the supremacy of science in all matters of belief." To the Christian Union, N. Y. : You might as well claim that this globe is the universe as assume that Christianity is anything more than one " species " of religion. The " Index " " must have reasons of its own." Yes, sir ! None can reason for the whole congregation not even the pastor of Plymouth Church ! To the Sunday Republic, Phil. : If such bile as you pour out is to be in fashion in your " Sunday Republic," God save the na- tions from such a republic during the week ! To the Brooklyn Daily Eagle : If you 38 RELIGIOUS WRITINGS should try to " fish for scientists," you would not get even a " bite," so long as you use rot- ten bait. To the Review and Journal, Franklin, Tenn. : You act like all slaveholders in keeping books out of the reach of slaves. Reasoning is dangerous for such sheets as are edited by slaveholders of the mind. The pure endeavors to liberate humanity from the bond- age of priestcraft are always " foul heresies " in their eyes. To the Daily Pantagraph, Bloomington, 111. : You preach in the same strain as the Hard-Shell Baptist minister whose text was, "They shall gnaw a file, and fly into the mountains of Hepsidam, where the lion roar- eth and the whangdoodle mourneth for the firstborn." You tremble in your shoes at the thought of even mentioning the name of the " Index." What a courageous cause you have got! To the Christian Observer, Catlettsburg, Ky. : If " Christianity is a free religion " and yet cannot " tolerate " free thought, no wonder the press and the ministers bun- gle badly in their explanation of it. With shackled hands and shackles in their hands RELIGIOUS WRITINGS 39 to put on others, they cannot be free, and do not even know what freedom is. To the Catholic Advocate, Louisville, Ky. : The God you teach must be denied by every man and woman who has learned to think. A God who creates finite beings with failings, and then, if they fail, damns them forever, is not a reality, but the scarecrow you use to enslave ignorant people with. Faith in a God of love, and faith in reason, will bury your doctrines so deep that even the accomplice of your God, the devil, could not find them. To the Christian Advocate, Nashville, Tenn. : You say the "Index" "denounces prayer." The " Index " is a prayer to a Father who loves his children and gave them reason. By using that reason, it is forced to denounce the stupid prayers and selfishness of which you are the " advocate." Gentlemen, with the sincere hope that you will put your brains to better use very soon, for your own and for manhood's sake. C. H. H. 40 RELIGIOUS WRITINGS A FRIENDLY WORD TO DR. CLARKE. REV. JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE. DEAR SIR, In your book entitled " Steps of Belief, or Rational Christianity maintained against Atheism, Free Religion, and Roman- ism," you say : " One of these days we shall have a mind- cure, and then we shall send sick people to es- tablishments where the body will be cured by well-arranged and properly administered men- tal stimulants and mental food. People will be talked into health, sung into health ; and the wise physician, instead of potions and pills, will prescribe great thoughts and beautiful ideas." Yes, Mr. Clarke, this sentence expresses a " great thought and a beautiful idea," and I hope that the time of its realization may come soon ! But apply it to theology. One of these days there will be a belief purified from dogmatic assumptions and speculations, and the wise theologian, instead of preaching dog- mas and misty doctrines, will give us great thoughts and beautiful ideas. Then Free Re- ligion and universal Liberty will be developed. I find that you do your best to free religion RELIGIOUS WRITINGS 41 from certain dogmas. Keep on ! and you will land at last on the beautiful shore of Free Religion, the culmination of Protestantism and all other crude religious beliefs ! Yours very respectfully, CABL H. HORSCH. DOVER, N. H., August 11, 1870. OUTSIDE OR INSIDE. MY DEAR FRIEND ABBOT, " Outside or inside of Judaism " would have been the ques- tion eighteen hundred and seventy-three years ago. To-day it is "outside or inside of Christianity." There seem to be just as many Christiani- ties as there are Christians. Those who board in the " half-way houses " try to make it out that their own is the only Chris- tianity. The consistent Christian must sub- mit to the authority of Christianity. Love was taught before Jesus, and has its broadest development and basis in the true radical mind. The two most admirable points of the life of Jesus and his apostles were their consistent opposition to the assumptions and corruptions of the priests and church, and likewise their 42 RELIGIOUS WRITINGS holding fast to that which they found to be true and good in the church of their birth. But did they not cease to be Jews ? Were they " outside or inside of Judaism " ? If Mr. " H. B." calls himself a radical he will be more Christ-like outside than inside the complica- tions, assumptions, and corruptions of the Christian church. The council of years ago opposed the Protestant, or radical, or infidel Jesus and his followers. The Evangelical Alliance of to-day is, by necessity, a council of the same nature. The member who called Mr. Charles Bradlaugh a "liar" would be likely, if he had the power, to be a crucifier. C. H. H. DOVER, Oct. 18, 1873. THE BREAD AND BUTTER QUESTION. As long as we have to take care of this body the care of it is one of the most impor- tant of questions, and will bring us back to this sphere, if we think ourselves ever so high " up in the balloon " of intuitionalism and transcendentalism. Yes; the most exalted and excited theologian, who talks of the beauty and bliss of his heaven, has to attend first to that question. The Free Religious RELIGIOUS WRITINGS 43 Association has a splendid start and purpose ; if it is carried out it will bring us the best millennium which we can think of. But it will not succeed, and must die from overestimation and cramp, if we are too much or not enough attentive to our daily wants. Our beautiful millennium may be accomplished in the future, but to provide for a partial one, and to free some troubled souls and bodies from the pur- gatory of poverty, I enclose here five dollars as my mite towards a fund to be contributed by those who feel like myself. I propose to all that they send their part to our worthy secretary, Wm. J. Potter, and that at the end of every annual meeting, or at any other convenient time, a collection be taken, added to the amount received during the year, and privately presented by the presi- dent to one, two, or more ( in accordance with the amount ) of the most needy in the asso- ciation. In order to provide also for good mental food, each one shall receive one copy for one year of the " Index," the three dollars to be paid from said sum. Let every " hard- shell " liberal manifest his liberality and " shell out." Amen ! C. H. H. DOVER, Nov. 16, 1874. 44 RELIGIOUS WRITINGS LETTER TO MB. VOYSEY. DEAR SIR, In your letter of Nov. 29, 1873, you manifest once more your noble spirit of cosmopolitanism and charity. But you say, " Let us, then, welcome the Jew, the enlightened, emancipated Jew, as one who will bring to a desperate and determined minority that timely support which may help to lift the dark clouds of atheism, and to bring the sunshine of true faith and hope into the hearts which are well-nigh frozen among the ' icebergs of materialism.' ' Allow me to relate my own experience. I was brought up a Lutheran Protestant, and I did believe in the God of the churches and his favored family until I was compelled by my reason to disbelieve that, a dark dream of my youth. Matter and its inherent forces became superior and more satisfactory to my mind than the theological scarecrow of the Church. I became a confirmed atheist ; but I had all the God I needed, the forces of nature being my Deity. Although I could not define them precisely, I had enough left to think about and hope for. I believed as far as my RELIGIOUS WRITINGS 45 thinking faculty went, and it found its limit in matter. I could not help it ! With the conviction that there was no such God as I had been taught to believe in, and no hereafter, I was contented ; yes, even to the moments which I believed to be the last of my existence. In 1857 I contracted typhoid fever, and had symptoms which are considered fatal by medical men. During my eleven years' study and practice of medicine I never had seen a patient recover who had such symptoms; therefore I had cause to think that I should die. But, my dear and noble pioneer in the promotion of universal liberty, I can assure you that it would have brought forth a happy smile if somebody had told me, or I had seen it in print, that I was in dark clouds or among icebergs. After my recovery I kept on reasoning; and my mind's and heart's content now is the existence of a higher and better than the finite human mind. Men love, but there is a higher, a better love ; men have wisdom, but there is a higher wisdom, to which we all aspire. Say tf He " or " It," there are no hairs to split ; but I believe ! 46 RELIGIOUS WRITINGS Among all the rest I include the atheistic brethren, and if I should intimate that the atheists were in " dark clouds " or the materi- alists "among icebergs" I should consider myself under the same mistake as the revi- valist who said : " The Unitarian prayer is so cold that it will freeze hell over for the Uni- versalists to slide on." Our illustrious Theo- dore Parker said the right thing, at the atheist's funeral, when he prayed : " God, though our friend doubted thy existence, yet he kept thy laws." Now, my more able fellow-laborers for the abolishment of mind-slavery, let us criticise all those who assume knowledge and authority ; but true faith is beyond criticism, however it may be manifested. Let us speak and write of our own ; and if we can convince others that our faith, attained by reason, is better than theirs, they wiU accept it ! You, Prof. New- man, Mr. Darwin, and others, do a noble work in old Britannia ; your sharp dissecting knives will examine every fibre of that muscle which has contracted the iron hand of the English Church. That iron hand crosses even God's free ocean, and interferes with free American citizens when they travel in English RELIGIOUS WRITINGS 47 vessels. Keep on in your great work of analy- sis : dissolve in oblivion the bad, and keep the good ! CARL H. HORSCH. Dec. 24, 1873. MR. VOYSEY S REPLY TO DR. HORSCH. DEAR SIR, I cordially greet your friendly words, and should be ready to endorse nearly every word you say. " Men love, but there is a higher, a better love ; men have wisdom, but there is a higher wisdom, to which we all aspire." With all my heart I subscribe to these words, and with you can say, " I believe." I hope that no words of mine ever border on that crudest of all forms of intolerance, contemptuous pity. For those who call them- selves atheists, or materialists, I have no feel- ing but that of respect. The term " unhappy men," so freely flung at Bishop Colenso and others by the orthodox, is one I would never willingly use in the ordinary contemptuous sense. But if I speak of the " dark clouds of atheism," I mean that to me, enjoying the warm sunshine of a faith and a hope which I trust are founded in fact and reason, it would 48 RELIGIOUS WRITINGS be like a dark cloud to have no longer faith and hope. If I thought any evil could permanently fall upon any one dear to me, I should be in despair. If I thought any suffering was pur- poseless, or not to issue in final good, I could not be happy again, unless steeped in oblivion. I do not pride myself on my convictions and hopes ; but I may be permitted to cherish them with gratitude, and to do my utmost to impart them to others. Once more, it is not death for oneself that one dreads ; it is the bitter parting with the beloved if that parting is to be forever ! Very sincerely yours, CHARLES VOYSEY. LONDON, ENGLAND, January, 1874. REFLECTIONS AT LARGE. When we listen to the speeches or read the reports of political, religious, or medical meet- ings, we find that a great deal of time is wasted. Politicians tell us what they are go- ing to do for the welfare of the greatest num- ber, and think of " number one ; " they depre- ciate and vilif y other parties, when they would occupy their time better by explaining their own principles. RELIGIOUS WRITINGS 49 Theologians quibble about another world, or a heaven and hell, and neglect the reality this life. The members of that sect which has the most diluted form of Christian dog- matism have their Christianity so much atten- uated that they needed a long discussion and a multitude of resolutions to settle the ques- tion, whether a man who honestly avows that he is not a Christian belongs to their asso- ciation or not. Every one of them tries to manufacture his own form of Christianity. If we should receive a really honest avowal of thought from all Christian ministers, as to whether they believe in the " divine Christ," or in the " Lord and Master, Jesus," we think there would be only a small number who could consistently profess that faith. How many would accept and agree with Jesus if he should be the editor of a religious paper or come to the anniversary meetings ? Some would try to maintain Liberal Christianity, others Orthodoxy, etc. In medical meetings, we find often that those who assume the most are considered the prominent members. They relate great cures, and cannot cure themselves. Just as we have a great many religious discussions among 50 RELIGIOUS WRITINGS theologians, without religion, we have among medical men discussions concerning systems, yet without system. Can any one of those physicians who relate their great cure-stories state upon honor that he either ever cured or never cured a single patient ? Schiller must have been impressed by ob- serving royalty, aristocracy, the honorables, D. D.'s, LL. D.'s and M. D.'s when he wrote : " It is dangerous to awake the lion ; Destructive is the tiger's tooth ; But the most horrid of all horrors That is a man in his conceit ! " The most prominent among the lawyers are those who can turn and twist the law to the best advantage of their own selfish ends. The so-called great men among theologians are those who mystify religion, or dilute it the most ; shining lights in the medical profession tell us, postfestum, or post mortem, how the cure would have been made if they had been called," or how they performed the cure when the patient happens to recover. But if they have the same disease, and cannot cure them- selves, their disease is then as extraordinary, complicated, and incurable as their own spec- ulations ! RELIGIOUS WRITINGS 51 Suppose we could reanimate the good and true men who are gone, and they should become editors of Christian or radical papers, is it not likely that the first opposition to their earnest and honest endeavors would come from those who now worship or eulogize them ? Allow me to point out one living example; that is the earnest and honest " Index." With due credit to both editors and to the various contributors, we challenge any man or woman to name a journal so free and candid as the " Index." But we cannot help expressing our surprise that the force of such logical reason- ings as those of Mr. Abbot should be so little felt. Mr. Higginson, whom we consider an able and true friend and a faithful laborer in the radical cause, is reported to have said that he thought the dispute between the Christian and antichristian was concerning the cradle in which both were born. What to do with the cradle ? Mr. Calthrop wanted to stay in the cradle, Mr. Abbot wanted to smash it. Any one who has really outgrown Christianity is incorrectly termed an " antichristian." Neither Mr. Abbot nor any one who com- prehends his situation outside of Christianity 52 RELIGIOUS WRITINGS has a desire to smash the cradle ; we all ac- knowledge the good which historical religions have done ; but we are protestants, and our reason compels us to protest against every- thing, whether it comes from the "Index," Bethlehem, or Rome, which interferes with the development of universal liberty. We respect all who sincerely believe in one or the other form of religion : but many of those who claim to be religious teachers do not seem to care so much for the cradle as they do for the pap ! Even many excellent scholars and free men, governors, presidents, and professors of colleges, who should crave more manly food, are not entirely weaned. Dr. C. A. Bartol makes, by the side of splendid remarks, the following : " I cannot flatter the radical literature with any great accomplishment. The new theology has not arisen yet out of the l Fifty Affirmations,' 1 Impeachments,' ( Liberal Leagues,' or exclud- ing God and Christ from the Constitution." When Jesus preached his Sermon on the Mount, and when Luther's theses were nailed on the church-door at Wittenberg, new and better theologies began to be developed. If all those able gentlemen should work together RELIGIOUS WRITINGS 53 at creating it, the hints given in Abbot's " Fifty Affirmations " and in the " Impeach- ment of Christianity " will help a great deal to develop a theology in harmony with science and liberty, and (most beautiful of ah 1 beauti- ful things) a firm and reasoned belief in an unselfish Deity. Let us promote, in accord- ance with the will of a Father of love, the best welfare of all his children, humanity. That is the " breadth " of the opinions repre- sented in the " Index," and all the faith and " beauty " we need " beyond the bald, bare prose of logic and life." It is futile to say or suppose that we would or could " exclude God and Christ from the Constitution : " that beautiful compact is the will of our Creator, expressed by his best cre- ation, the human mind, and the good teach- ings of Jesus had their influence in it. But the vilest and silliest attempt is to put the names into the Constitution. Are the priests of this country and their helpers so deluded as to think that God and Jesus need advertis- ing ? Are they believers in an omnipresent, impartial God? You may speculate within the realms of speculation ; but refrain, for your own sake, from speculating with the 54 RELIGIOUS WRITINGS highest, the best, which the human soul can approach by faith only ! Can we call it a real land of liberty as long as we tax women without representation, and suffer church influences to be represented without taxation ? Was it the purpose of the tea-party to spill or to drink the tea ? CARL H. HORSCH. DOVER, June 15, 1874. THE LAW OF SELF-PERFECTION. Mr. 0. B. Frothingham, in his excellent sermon on " Religion and a Religion," says : " Mr. Abbot's conception of religion may be severely philosophical, but it strikes the ordi- nary mind as bleak and desolating." Can the " ordinary mind," or man, escape the law which impels him " to perfect him- self?" Or will he or she? Do not all the various believers described by Mr. Frothingham make that effort, accord- ing to their various ideals of perfection ? The ordinary mind may not be able to com- prehend the definition of Mr. Samuel Johnson : " The natural attraction of mind as finite to mind as infinite ; " or Mr. Frothingham's " third description of religion : " " Religion is RELIGIOUS WRITINGS 55 the close relation of the separate parts to the whole." But if any one thinks the definition of Mr. Abbot ever so " bleak and desolating," the humblest individual cannot help acting in accordance with that logical conception, any more than any one of us can help revolving with Mother Earth around the sun. Mr. Johnson's definition leaves the atheist and materialist out in the cold ; how can they acknowledge an attraction to the infinite mind ? Yet, are they void of all religion ? Have they too no warm faith and hope ? Do they not make the " effort to perfect them- selves ? " They obey the same laws which the theist obeys ; and will they refuse to ac- cept the existence after death, when they come to it ? Many of our religious teachers seem to have the idea that the common people need a sentimental definition of their inherent attri- bute. Religion requires action rather than words and sentimentalities ; and are we able to act without an effort ? Free Religion seems to me the effort, or, if that is too " bleak and desolating," the desire, of honest reasoning men and women to free 56 RELIGIOUS WRITINGS religion from the corruptions and pollutions which the speculators and usurers of histori- cal religion have brought upon it. If that purification is accomplished, men will be in- deed "listening to the still, sad music of humanity," and will make the effort to pro- duce more cheerfulness and harmony. CAUL H. HORSCH. DOVER, Feb. 22, 1863. MR. BRADLAUGH'S "VIEWS OF THE FREE RELIGIOUS ASSOCIATION." MY DEAR MR. ABBOT, Mr. Bradlaugh in his " Views of the Free Religious Associa- tion," says : " I cannot, I avow, understand the position," etc. The wish of the Free Re- ligious Association is to give all men a chance to hear or to express honest and earnest con- victions ; but Mr. Bradlaugh will understand that " the honest Roman Catholic, the sincere disciple of the Society of Jesus," who submits to-day to the authority which " negates all possible free thought," may become an Atheist or a Free Religionist as the mind develops. Was not Jesus a born Jew? Luther and others born Catholics ? And Mr. Bradlaugh himself a born Christian ? RELIGIOUS WRITINGS 57 "Mr. Higginson himself, by speaking of the Atheist possibly elevating Atheism into a religion, affirms his own conviction, at any rate, of the inferiority of Atheism as compared with this undefined religion." Colonel Higginson is an able and zealous cooperator in the Free Religious movement, but he has manifested several times, and shows us now, that he does not fully comprehend the principles of Free Religion. Here we know no high or low seats, no superiority of one faith over the other, but sincere faith. The Atheist or Materialist does not know that there is no God, but he believes that there is none ; the Theist does not know, but believes that there is one ; therefore both have faith. We all are compelled to accept an unknown ; but the unknowable is just as much an assump- tion as the infallibility of the Pope. The conditions and development of my own mind, in a life of fifty -three years, brought me out of a firm belief in the Augs- burg Confession and Lutheran doctrine into Materialism, Atheism, and now Theism and Free Religion, just as our convictions come to us from day to day. Mr. Bradlaugh, the earnest and zealous ad- 58 RELIGIOUS WRITINGS vocate of universal liberty, concludes his let- ter with these noble words : " Right or wrong, preachers like Mr. Frothingham do the world good service. For the grand truths uttered we thank them, and we listen attentively and reverently, even where we differ." We say with our noble brother in humanity, Theo- dore Parker, " Though our brother doubts Thy existence, yet he keeps Thy laws," as much as he knows and can. Fellow-Jews, fellow-Mohammedans, fellow-Christians of all sects, fellow-Spiritualists, fellow-Materialists, fellow- Atheists, go on in your own way, and as our reason and theories develop we all shall meet at the inevitable centre which we all seek and love, and where we shah 1 understand each other. Yours truly, C. H. H. DOVER, Dec. 6, 1875. Let us harmonize our beliefs and thoughts, and not assume that our own are the only true ones, which must govern all others. Every thought and belief is a link to the chain of the universe. What you call infidelity in me is just as much conviction and firm belief as yours is to you. RELIGIOUS WRITINGS 59 CHRISTIANITY AND ANTICHRISTIANITY. The definition and the laws which our Chris- tian authorities have made, compel any con- sistent man or woman, who has been born of Christian parents, to be for or against Christianity. If I am for Christianity, I must believe in its essential doctrines and abide by the laws. If my reason brings me to the conviction that universal liberty and a broader religion of humanity cannot exist with those contending sects of this es- tablished form of religion, I must oppose them wherever I am. And just as much as Jesus and the apostles were anti-Jews, I strive to be antichristian and do my part for the development of a better form of religion than Christianity is. All men have religion, but every one thinks his or hers the best ; each one has a right to believe so, but to force our belief upon others is arbitrary and leads us to gross mistakes. Many of our so-called liberal Christians do not accept the definition of the Christian Church, or try to manufacture a new one. They call themselves Christian ministers and remain in the Church ; but whether they do it for the 60 RELIGIOUS WRITINGS material support which the Church can give, or from consistent convictions, they them- selves must decide. It is a pitiful condition of mind, to have had a specific form of reli- gion for eighteen hundred and seventy-five years, and not to have yet a definition of it which all can agree upon. Volumes and sermons seem to have con- founded and not expounded. " Names and sects and parties fall ; Thou, our God, art all in all." GAEL H. HORSCH. DOVER, June 30, 1875. CHRISTIANITY AND LIBERALITY. Is it possible for a true believer in the Christian doctrine to be as liberal as the thoroughly developed Radical must be? It is just as impossible for a consistent Christian to concede to the Jew, the Mohammedan, or the skeptic the same degree of goodness and happiness which he claims for himself and his fellow-believers as it would be for a child to be a man. It is chiefly the bias of education, or peculiar mental development, which makes the Jew, the Christian, the Radical, what they are. If a man concedes the same share of RELIGIOUS WRITINGS 61 goodness and happiness which he enjoys him- self to those who differ from him in helief, his mind is developed to the condition of genuine liberality. "We respect the rights of all men," it is said and written alike : but it is carried out in accordance with the various degrees of development of the minds of men. When Francis E. Abbot took, consistently with the development of his own mind, the antichristian position, only those could fully agree with him who had congenial minds and could comprehend the absolute necessity of opposing Christianity because it clashes with universal liberty, which we are compelled to love more than all special forms of religion. The true liberal must strive in order to de- velop the religion of humanity, and therefore he must be antichristian ; but he should not cherish the least personal ill-will to Chris- tians, or wish to throw aside all that is covered by the word " Christianity," as even some of our liberal writers seem to imply. My fellow- men, Christians and Radicals alike, who have not yet been able to comprehend our stand- point, an all-just God is our witness that we have no desire to be destructive, or to do you any harm. No ; our only endeavor is to act up 62 RELIGIOUS WRITINGS to that sense of justice which our Creator has impressed upon our mind, or, as our brother Materialist or Atheist would say, that which the mind has developed within itself. CARL H. HORSCH. DOVER, Oct. 11, 1875. THE SAME ON BOTH SIDES. "Dr. Hogg of the United Presbyterian Mission in Egypt reports that two natives have been bastinadoed at Negadeh for meeting with others to read and study the Bible. One of them has since died from the effects of the cruel treatment. This outrage has awakened the indignation of the more enlightened and liberal class." " Boston Evening Journal." Such fanaticism exists where common-sense and common honesty are wanting. Some of our Christian fanatics would like to bastinado those who cannot call the Bible the only divine book, and who do not consider it just to force people to read it. Do not blame the Indians for murdering on your frontiers. Those poor ignorant men have been compelled to consider the whites as robbers and murderers, and do unto you as you do unto them and others. Uncle Sam RELIGIOUS WRITINGS 63 has land enough for all ; work it, and abstain from your selfish speculations, mixed with cheating and lying ! Christian friends, do not find too much fault with the fanatics from other sects and churches ; they do only what you have done, and what some others would do, if the guard, common-sense, did not prevent them. As- sumptions like your own, that you are in pos- session of all bliss, monopolize heaven, and leave only a place in hell to all who cannot believe as you do, are some of the causes of such outrages as we hear from Negadeh, Sal- onica, and other places. Let those people alone, and apply your missions here, and with the money assist the poor around your costly churches. A part of your worship is like the sacrifice of a fat ox, surrounded by hungry people who cannot believe as you do, but who have not cunning enough to get posses- sion of the fat ox. C. H. H. DOVER, May 14, 1876. We may just as well quarrel about the in- dividual expression of our faces, as about our faiths. 64 RELIGIOUS WRITINGS WHY DO I VOTE THE BEPUBLICAN TICKET ?* With due respect for my Democratic friends and their convictions, I must say that the majority of intelligent people are in the Re- publican party ; and as intelligence is certainly the best guarantee for the propagation and maintenance of liberty, we find the Repub- lican party nearer to it than the Democratic party. The history of both parties is before us. Did the Democratic party propagate universal liberty when they worked for the maintenance of slavery, and their ministers preached that it was a divine institution ? When they had the government, did they use the United States army for universal liberty in Kansas ? Have they ever condemned the wicked state law by which that honest friend of universal liberty, John Brown, was executed ? Was it not the Democratic party which op- posed that most necessary measure, the best of Mr. Sumner's efforts, the Civil Rights Bill? Let us go to their political meetings, and com- pare the speakers and the audience with Re- publican speakers and audiences, and we must decide that the intelligence is on the Republi- 1 Inserted here as being one of a series (see the two follow- ing articles, on " Religion and Politics " ). RELIGIOUS WRITINGS 65 can side. Just as individuals have their im- perfections, so has a party ; and the Repub- lican party officials have dishonest, selfish, and incompetent men among their number. But where did the most of them receive their polit- ical education ? Was it not in the time-hon- ored Democratic party ? They were educated by Professor Floyd regarding the United States finances. Professors Jefferson Davis, Slidell, and Wakefield were their teachers of universal liberty ; Professor Buchanan taught them statesmanship, and how to let a people rebelling against liberty sincerely and severely alone, because they belonged to " our party." Has it not been manifested that dema- gogues and dishonest officials have less chance in the Republican party than they had in the Democratic party? Intelligence is the best police against rogues, and we think and hope that there is reason and common-sense and honesty enough to guard against a repetition of the evils of the past. May the people soon comprehend that religious liberty, universal suffrage, and equal taxation are just as neces- sary for the maintenance and propagation of liberty as the air is for us to live ! When re- ligion and politics are promulgated by men 66 RELIGIOUS WRITINGS who realize the value of the principles un- folded by the Liberal League, then we shall have a President and officials who will look upon such organizations as the American Alliance with contempt, and treat it like the Ku-Klux-ism. CARL H. HORSCH. DOVER, N. H., Oct. 16, 1876. RELIGION AND POLITICS. Some persons, especially among my German friends, seem to have a perfect abhorrence for those names, but are my good countrymen not as much religious and political as other people ? If we consider the unreasonableness and selfishness which are covered with those names, we must agree with them ; and if we had no other meaning than what some theo- logians, stump-speakers, so-called religious pa- pers, and political partisan sheets partly give, such " religion and politics " ought to be, if possible, " scrupulously excluded," not only from the " Index " but from humanity ! If we comprehend the right interpretation and adap- tation of principles, must we not advocate and carry out, as much as our capability permits, the best and most vital requisitions for the ben- efit of the human family under the head of RELIGIOUS WRITINGS 67 true religion and right politics ? (Science is also abhorred by some all-knowing individuals.) We might just as well request an editor to exclude printer's ink, as to keep out party pol- itics " entirely ; " it cannot be kept out, even from the brain whence the " mild admonition " came. If our editor, who has given satisfac- tory proof that he is competent to judge which articles are fit for publication, should try ever so hard to accommodate all who make such singular requests, and omit, if pos- sible, party politics, etc., extra wisdom would reveal something which had that " ugly om- inous look " of party politics. Mr. M. Einstein is milder than those unrea- sonable partisans who have given up the paper, but he is not very considerate when he admon- ishes the editor of the " Index " that " all po- litical communications (for instance, such as Dr. Horsch's, in the ' Index ' of October 26) ought to be scrupulously excluded," and gives the peculiar advice to " leave politics to R. C. and his ' Current Events.' ' The Emperor of Russia can dictate to and restrict his partisan politicians, but not an impartial editor his contributors. Mr. Einstein seems to be in a fog again 68 RELIGIOUS WRITINGS regarding politics, as he was with regard to religion when he said (" Index," July 27th, 1872), " Religion has for me no other defini- tion than superstition, prejudice, or illusion." He confounds religion with the f ollies of some theologians, and honest party politics with unreasonable partisanship. We hail with great pleasure the admirable editorial, " A Third Great Party." Yes, that was the ideal of a number of liberal Republi- cans, but it was frustrated by selfish political partisanship. We never shall forget the first meetings, where many gentlemen, with hair silvered by age, rejoiced that they could vote a Free-soil ticket again, and oppose those de- luded partisans who think, " My country, right or wrong ! My party, right or wrong ! " Let us unitedly work for such a party ! There should be ample material and power in the Liberal League to form such an organiza- tion ; and if there is not stamina enough in the Republican party to do the imperative duty towards women and their just rights, and bring about a perfect separation of Church and State, there must be somewhere power and force enough to accomplish it. CARL H. HORSCH. DOVEK, Nov. 26, 1876. RELIGIOUS WRITINGS 69 RELIGION AND POLITICS AGAIN. The definitions which we find in diction- aries explain mostly historical forms of reli- gion ; but have we not broader definitions by which all human beings are invested with that attribute? " Religion will attend you as a pleasant and useful companion in every proper place and every temperate occupation of life," said Buckminster. " Let us with caution indulge the supposi- tion that morality can be maintained without religion," said Washington. " Religion is the effort of man to perfect himself," says Abbot. I cannot accept the idea that Christianity or any other form of religion contains all that this beautiful, all-embracing word means; neither can I agree with Mr. Einstein when he says : " Religion has for me no other defi- nition than superstition, prejudice, or illu- sion." Faith and theories are individual affairs, and I respect the sincere faith of my histori- cal religious brother, and also the rational theory of my materialistic brother; but I 70 RELIGIOUS WRITINGS must call their definitions of religion an in- sufficient interpretation of the true meaning of the word, because I can see and enjoy and impart something beyond the limits of Chris- tian dogmas and materialistic theories. I find in religion the concentration of the best thoughts, aspirations, and actions of the human soul. I strive to maintain and propa- gate all the good which I find in Christianity, and in the schools of materialism and atheism, but I must oppose mere assumptions. Can we not all be better " fathers " than the as- suming, cruel, partial, insufficient God of the churches? I was once wholly satisfied with the theories of atheism and materialism, even to the hour which I thought to be really my last one in existence. I was a confirmed atheist until my reason developed to the firm conviction that there must be something more than matter and force, and something better and more perfect than the human mind. When my reason found its limit, and my as- piration and longing to that better could not be satisfied, a better faith developed; and now I believe in an all-wise, just Creator and Ruler of all, who has given all He has for each and all, for the existence and subsistence of his creation ! RELIGIOUS WRITINGS 71 Every human being has religion, and in my mind I cannot divest one of it. The good efforts and aspirations which our brother Einstein manifests in his communications, and his appreciation of the true religious and right political principles which we find in the " Index," and his good wishes for the editor, convince me that he is one of the best reli- gious men among my good countrymen. His political position shows that he is a reasonable political partisan ; but as the best political objects which we have to attend to now are the separation of Church and State, equal tax- ation and equal rights to all, and as it seems to me impossible to accomplish' our work with- out true religion and right partisan politics, he must kindly allow others to communicate their opinion. If he gives us a better one and corrects our fallacies, we will cheerfully acquiesce. True religion must provide for all ; we ask no favors in the form of a savior, because the soul and body cannot be lost, unless He who created us loses a part of his own power and justice. Our soul is a part of his, and so is each atom of our body. We have no specu- lations about another world ; let us attend 72 RELIGIOUS WRITINGS faithfully to this life and sphere, and when we come to another, do the same. Political opinions and actions which come the nearest to the principles unfolded in the Declaration of Independence, and by which we carry out the Constitution of the United States, and enact rational laws, are the best I know of. I am contented with the best conditions and party we now have, and do my mite to make them better ; but the most I have to do is to improve myself. C. H. H. DOVER, Jan. 16, 1877. QUESTIONS. 1. Is the belief in a Savior or Lord and Master in harmony with the faith in an om- niscient and omnipresent Creator and Ruler ? 2. Are we not a part of God, and must not every action of ours be known to him ? 3. Can God lose or damn a soul without losing or damning a part of himself ? 4. Is it possible for a sincere believer in an omnipresent deity to accept another man as the only begotten son of God, and as his Savior, one who said : " My God, why hast thou forsaken me ? " RELIGIOUS WRITINGS 73 5. Can reason and common-sense pro- nounce the transactions in the Tabernacle sanity ? 6. Should we not condemn physicians if they tried, for the sake of gain, to spread an epidemic ; or if their ignorance was the cause of an increase of such diseases ? 7. Must we not condemn or pity all who assist in spreading so-called religious doctrines which cause insanity ? I attend now two women, one in Lee, N. H., who is a sincere believer in the brimstone doctrine of orthodoxy ; the other in Dover, N. H., who belongs to the Baptist persuasion. Both suffer intensely from the idea that their souls are lost forever. Will not our friends who speak about saving souls, and others who know (?) that there is no immortality, come here and help these poor women ? 8. Is it not the only excuse we can offer for those noisy, self-styled religious teachers, to say that they are either insane on the sub- ject, or not further developed than just to the level of the " missing link " ? 9. Will not the intellectual people of New Athens and other places very soon cooperate and make it impossible that church and taber- nacle folly can exist? 74 RELIGIOUS WRITINGS 10. Is it not necessary for liberals, whether they are atheists, materialists, theists, or what not, to avoid dogmatizing? 11. The questions, "Is there a God?" "Is there no God?" "Has man a soul?" have not been answered satisfactorily to all. Each human being has an answer for himself or herself ; but is it not just as dogmatic as the Pope's bulls, if men speak about the " unknowable," or assert that those questions never will be answered ? 12. Can our individual " desires, longings, and aspirations " be realized as well by others as by ourselves, and can their " talk to the contrary" have as much weight with us as our own convictions? 13. There are now on the earth 1,350,200,000 souls; are there not just as many beliefs and theories? 14. Christians claim 417,912,700 souls; but have they not to allow a considerable deduction if they count all those out who are called by them " infidels " ? 15. There are over two hundred Christian sects. In each sect we find much similarity of speculation ; Tbut can we find two persons among them who believe perfectly alike, and RELIGIOUS WRITINGS 75 is not the development of reason, which caused the formation of those sects, the first step of their transformation into reasoning beings ? C. H. HOBSCH. DOVER, March 18, 1877. WHAT IS RELIGION AND WHAT IS NOT BELIGION. It is religion To do our daily duty towards God, our- selves, our fellow-men, animals, and all crea- tion; To live this life as well and nearly right as we can, and let everybody have his or her opinion about another life ; To ascertain the divine laws and the laws of Nature, and use them for the best good of all ; for if a man cannot believe that there is a God, yet obeys his laws, he is more religious than another who prays to God and violates his laws ; To make the best efforts for the develop- ment of our own and others' reason ; To have sincere faith in that which our reason dictates us to believe, and sincere doubt of that which we cannot believe ; To aspire to true manhood and universal 76 RELIGIOUS WRITINGS liberty, and all other good attributes of tbe human soul. It is not religion To bow-wow about God, Jesus, Mohammed, etc., and, acting like the devil, Cain, Judas, etc., to build costly temples, surrounded by the poor and needy ; To try to believe or make believe that a pope or the Bible is infallible ; To make long faces on Sunday, and during the week speculate with the so-called religion for the gain of selfish ends ; To pretend that an emperor or a king is born with an extra mercy from God, while some of them act as if they had an extra share of folly from their devil ; To assume positive knowledge of some- thing which is our individual belief or theory only, or to make believe that we have a holy office, while the most of it is speculation, money-making, " cheek," and " gab." To presume that our faith or theories are right, and all others wrong, that we are saved, and all who do not believe as we do will be damned. If the pope, sultan, or the commander-in- chief over Stewart's hotel in Saratoga, calls RELIGIOUS WRITINGS 77 his unreasonable and selfish acts religion, I consider it just as much a mistake as when Mr. Einstein says, " Religion is an evil." "Religion must do everything for the good," therefore it cannot be evil ; but hypoc- risy, selfishness, vanity and fanaticism are often called religion. Just as much as I must, in accordance with the development of my reason and faith, call God the highest, all-ruling Power, I have to define religion as the concentration of the best thoughts, aspi- rations, and actions of the human soul. Mr. Beecher's criticism of Judge Hilton's silly act is good ; but do we not find similar exclusions in the churches? Do they allow Jews at their communion-tables? Do the Jews give Christians and others equal rights in their synagogues? With regard to the "cotton and codfish aristocracy," we think Plymouth Church has as full a share of them as Stewart's hotel in Saratoga. All such actions as Hilton's are the fruits of church education. When the reason and common- sense of our priests and judges and all others are better developed, then the time will come when we shall have the true religion of hu- manity, and all speculative forms of religion, 78 RELIGIOUS WRITINGS sectarianism, and false theories must fade away. " Father, forgive them, they know not what they do," said that good, and (for his time) well-reasoning Jew. But we have to say : " Reasonable people, forgive them, and try your best to make them think and reason." There is a perfect and an imperfect; the perfect we believe in and aspire to, the im- perfect we have to acknowledge and regret. Are not science, morals, ethics, politics, com- ponent parts of religion ? Rev. S. G. Bonney finely says : " Beware then, I pray you, of the arrogance of a theology which claims that all things have been revealed to it, no less than that of a science which claims that all things have been discovered by it." All forms of religion with another name appended, as Christian, Mohammedan, etc., are aggressive, and offend the genuine religion of other souls. Massacres and wars have not been caused by religion, but by such offensive names. One man cannot shape the religion of all souls ! C. H. H. DOVER, N. H., July 24, 1877. RELIGIOUS WRITINGS 79 THE LORD'S PRAYER ANSWERED. " Our Father which art in Heaven ! " My child, I am not only in Heaven, but on earth and with and within thee. " Hallowed be thy name." Not by thy saying so, but by thy obedience to my laws and by my doing unto thee as a loving Father. " Thy kingdom come." It is already near thee, only comprehend, appreciate, and en- joy it- " Thy will be done." It must be done and thy will must be submissive to mine for thy own good. " Give us day by day our daily bread." Do not waste time in asking for it, but use the faculties which I have given thee, and earn thy daily bread. " And forgive us our sins, for we also for- give every one that is indebted to us." Sins are caused by thy imperfections. Reason and conscience are thy monitors. Remorse pun- ishes thee. Strive to develop reason, and thou wilt lessen thy sins and come nearer to me. " And lead us not into temptation, but de- liver us from evil." A good and loving 80 RELIGIOUS WRITINGS Father will do no such wrong to thee. Rea- son, conscience, and true faith will deliver thee from evil. CARL H. HORSCH. DOVER, N. H., October 3, 1880. THE LORD S PRAYER. To the Editor of the Weekly Vineland In- dependent, who reviews " The Lord's Prayer Answered : " Will our reviewer have kindness and fair- ness enough to publish the article, " The Lord's Prayer Answered," in his paper, and give his readers a chance to decide how cor- rectly and impartially he has criticised the same, and what a destructive iconoclast I am ? With all due deference for your sincere faith, my brother in humanity, I assure you that I had not the least intention to destroy your idol nor any other. But with the development of our reason, our childish beliefs must change ; and we can follow no " Master," or find per- fection in his prayer, wherein he asks an all- wise, all-mighty, all-just Father, " Lead us not into temptation," etc. Liberals and Free Religionists have cer- tainly sufficiently demonstrated that they have RELIGIOUS WRITINGS 81 more rational, human reverence, public virtue, and trustfulness than very many of those who assume to have all religion in hire, and they would rather live and act than babble a prayer. But if they give thanks to the Crea- tor they do it in accordance with the reason and spirit of the nineteenth century. C. H. H. DOVER, N. H., Nov. 7, 1880. A FEW WORDS OF CONGRATULATION. To the members of the Free Religious As- sociation and to the co-workers for universal liberty throughout the world : There was a time when it was dangerous to speak in public about liberty, even here in the now so-called land of liberty. It is very dan- gerous now in many other lands, and in my dear fatherland Germany, to address the peo- ple and tell them what that divine word means. Real liberty in religion seems to be almost in the same condition and to have almost as many opponents as liberty in poli- tics had in the Virginian Assembly in May, 1765. But just so far as we comprehend the real meaning of the word " liberty," shall we learn to understand God's Free Religion. 82 RELIGIOUS WRITINGS While I was at the convention of the Free Religious Association, I thought that Con- fucius, Socrates, Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, and other reformers, with three of their good sisters, had met together on one platform to discuss fairly their individual differences of opinion, and at the same time to affirm most harmoniously the essence of all religions, and acknowledge the Creator of love to whom we all aspire through the reason given by him for us to use. But where reason finds its limit, infinite wisdom is illimitable still, and compels us to have faith and hope ! If our good brethren who work for special beliefs or creeds and also our atheistic and materialistic brethren had all been there, I think no one among them would wish to oppose that uni- versal faith in which we must all unite. The real free religionist ought to meet with equal kindness and charity the Trinitarian with his three Gods and the Atheist or Materialist with his forces of nature. Let us strive to keep aloof from minor speculations, and remember only our great principles in our association. Every intelligent human being should be invited, with the motto, " In creeds and politics you may disagree, but if RELIGIOUS WRITINGS 83 your reason has attained to faith in Deity, let us have harmony." If that, in your honest belief, is infidelity or blasphemy, do not call me brother, but call me infidel or blasphemer, until you have come to comprehend this faith ; then, and not be- fore, will you be in the highest sense my brother, with every fibre and attribute of your being. But allow me to call you brother from my standpoint now, because I do sincerely believe that we are all brothers and sisters created by one eternal Father. C. H. H. THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. " Re and ligo, to bind together a con- scious union of the soul with God." If we never heard that word we might have done just as well ; who knows ? I contend that all men have religion, and each one has his or her part, in accordance with the development of their reason and civi- lization and environment. Just as we speak of parts or equivalents of the atmospheric air, I will of the human attribute, religion. The parts of religion are : A sincere belief in many Deities, or one ; or 84 RELIGIOUS WRITINGS a sincere disbelief in a personal God. It is religion to believe in a personal God or a God in Nature. A conviction attained by reason and study of the existence of matter and forces only. A rational, comprehensible explanation of the forces of matter, as combined in the soul, in animal life, reaching its highest condition in the human soul. Aspiration to a higher condition of the soul and its environment. Morality ; Ethics ; Love ; and Honesty. All these parts are transacted and executed as well as the intelligence of the various nations and individuals permits. Religion must do everything for the best of each indi- vidual and his fellow-men, even in the lowest form. If it does not, it cannot be religion, no more than wrong can be called right. Here religion and science must go hand in hand ; science is only in the domain of thought and reason ; where belief commences, it must stop ; it has its theories but no beliefs. Definitions and names of religion are suita- ble for a certain number of people, but neither gives a universal, all-comprehensible explana- tion of that always more improving, ever de- veloping attribute to all ! RELIGIOUS WRITINGS 85 Religion cannot be hired by some men, castes, or sects, nor can it be discarded or got rid of by those who say they " have no reli- gion ! " If my sectarian neighbor says I have no religion because I do not believe as he does, I will not deny or dispute his part, but try to enjoy his and mine, because what I do in the name of religion cannot be otherwise than for the good of myself and all. Within the standpoint of law, ethics, and morality of any nation or community, religion ought to be left as free as air and water. Infidelity to another person's conviction is generally fidelity to our own. All men who speculate with religion and try to make believe that they have an extra share of it, neglect a part of it, just as much as physicians who style themselves homoaopa- tliic, allopathic, or eclectic, while they strive to maintain those names by advertising, over- look the good which the various modes of medical treatment possess. If any one asks me what I name my religion, I answer, If you find a part of religion in my expressions and actions, which appear good and true to you, do likewise ; but I know no 86 RELIGIOUS WRITINGS extra name for them, and cannot say they are Christian, Mohammedan, etc. If an almighty, omniscient, omnipresent Creator has created the normal condition, he must know the abnormal. Every form of religion is a true one to him who believes in it only, but may appear false and even ridiculous to his neighbor. From the religo, to bind together, to the best and broadest definition, " Man's effort to perfect himself/* and all other efforts to define religion, none seems to give the full meaning of this attribute, which ought to be compre- hended by all ; they are only parts of religion explained. Religion is broader than any definition, creed, etc. ; these are different species of re- ligion. No one can deprive a man of religion, and he can no more rid himself of it than of air, as long as he thinks and acts. Deities, religions, and theories are just as numerous and changeable as men ; only rea- son, faith, science, and philosophy will one day conceive the right, and harmonize hu- manity into a universal republic, compre- hended and enjoyed here and in an eternity RELIGIOUS WRITINGS 87 for conscious beings forever, even by the lowest race and grade ! QUESTIONS ADDRESSED To those ministers who claim the name " Christian " and do not believe in Jesus the Christ : 1. Is it consistent with the doctrines of the Christian religion, as taught by Jesus and his apostles, to call yourselves, or silently suffer yourselves to be called, Christian ministers, when you do not believe in his Messiahship ? 2. Could a man honestly call himself a royalist if he believes in republicanism and works for it? 3. Do you believe you can do more good by retaining the name " Christian " than by dropping it ? If so, how ? 4. Do you believe that Christianity and the Christian church include all goodness and truth? 5. Do you not think that you do as much harm as good by a course which involves a constant struggle with the churches for a mere name? I entreat you who do not believe that Jesus is the divine Christ, as claimed by him and 88 RELIGIOUS WRITINGS taught by the church, to enlighten us on these points. CARL H. HORSCH. DOVER, N. H., April 12, 1870. REPLY TO " MY CREED," " THOUGHTS ON THE LORD'S PRAYER," ETC. To , MANCHESTER, N. H. My Dear Brother, not in Christ, but with him, and all others in humanity : Our creeds change in accordance with the development of our reason. Your effort is good, and with regard to your faith I have no criticism to make ; but I do respect and admire sincerity. My con- victions are as follows : We are the imperfect, aspiring to the per- fect, and as my reason compels me to consider Jesus a man only, I do not expect him to an- swer for my failings or provide and invite me to a welcome seat in the place called heaven. I do not think that such a place exists, but that heaven and hell are conditions of the mind ; if I do right for the right's sake I expect no bet- ter heaven or reward than the satisfaction that I have done right. If I do wrong, and my con- science admonishes me, and the remorse comes, RELIGIOUS WRITINGS 89 I fear no worse hell than that condition of my mind. I believe that there is a to-morrow for you all, my friends, and for me ; and to-morrow we hope to be progressed better and " Nearer, our God, to Thee ; " in a similar way do I believe in a hereafter. Sincere faith brings me no fear nor dissatisfaction, but contentment and happiness. True religion and true science must go hand in hand, to produce the real happiness of hu- manity. CARL H. HORSCH. December 6, 1880. RELIGIOUS CREEDS AND SOME CONSEQUENCES. With satisfaction and pleasure we read such timely and logical criticism as we find in Mr. M. J. Savage's article, " Orthodox Apologetics." We are surprised and grieved that such intelligent and well-educated men as Dr. Storrs can make such " curious and of course unconscious contradictions " (or per- haps, speculations) as Mr. Savage proves ; but, if we find similar contradictions among those brethren of humanity who are nearer our rea- son, the surprise and grief are certainly greater. 90 RELIGIOUS WRITINGS When the bad news came from Syracuse, N. Y., in October, 1866, that a majority of Unitarian ministers had submitted to the Uni- tarian creed, it was a sad disappointment to all those who thought that Unitarians, and espe- cially their generally well-educated pastors, were compelled by their development of rea- son and logic to live and act outside of creeds. What have been the consequences of that Unitarian stricture or speculation ? 1. Those who really believe in the Messiah- ship of Jesus can now no more agree with the Unitarian idea of the Lordship of Jesus than they have generally agreed with " Unitarian Christianity." 2. It has created such discord as we had in Dover, N. H., in 1868, where an earnest, honest, faithful, scholarly Unitarian minister and the majority of the members of his society were drawn into a lawsuit, and expelled from their church by an inconsistent, bigoted injunc- tion, a manifesto which no rational persons in Christendom, the judges who manufactured it included, can consistently and conscien- tiously respect, believe, or carry out, any more than they do the Blue Laws, and which, if conscientiously and honestly enforced, would RELIGIOUS WRITINGS 91 compel the majority of Protestant ministers to refrain from preaching in that church. 3. Many persons manifest by their conver- sations, lectures, and writings that they are more liberal than the creeds, but they still use them for church and clerical association spec- ulations, and try to make believe that they are the essence of their piety. Free men and women of republican Amer- ica, your independence proves that you can- not acknowledge or sincerely believe in the Messiahship or Lordship of Jesus. If you strive to maintain the principles of the Decla- ration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States you cannot allow any man, dead or living, to be your absolute spiritual ruler or master. If all intelligent persons will, under all circumstances, as they are called upon, tell what they do know and what they do not know, what they do beh'eve and what they do not believe, and act up honestly to their knowledge and faith, true science and true religion will have better chance to de- velop, and we will be a secular and free nation indeed. CARL H. HORSCH. DOVER, N. H., March 11, 1881. 92 RELIGIOUS WRITINGS QUESTIONS ADDRESSED TO JOHN WHITE CHAD WICK. DEAR SIB : 1. Are we, against our reason, tendency, faith, and will, " still Christians " ? 2. Was Jesus still a Jew, because he was born of Jewish parents and had some of the humanitarian tendencies of his ancestry, after he followed his own reason, tendency, faith, and will, and opposed the Jewish creed ? 3. Are the tendencies of Moses, Confucius, Buddha, Jesus, or Mohammed superior to those of all good and well-developed men, and does either of those persons count more than one in the scale of humanity ? 4. Are the claims of superiority for any one of the historical forms of religion or sects, and for their tendencies, in keeping with re- publican principles, and favorable to the main- i tenance and propagation of liberty ? 5. Is it not vanity, selfishness, speculation, and a false claim, rather than modesty, charity, fairness, and truth, when we stamp modesty, love, charity, patience, civilization, and good tendencies generally with the name " Chris- tian"? RELIGIOUS WRITINGS 93 6. Will our learned brother favor us with answers hereto ; and, instead of his efforts to wrap F. E. Abbot and others of like belief in the threadbare folds of his Christianity, give us a reply to " The Impeachment of Christian- ity," by F. E. Abbot ? Yours sincerely, CARL H. HORSCH. April 18, 1881. JOHN WHITE CHADWICK'S ANSWERS REVIEWED. 1. A person who does not believe in the most essential points of Christianity, as we find them in the New Testament, and renounces publicly and privately the divine Christ and Saviour, or the " Lord and Master Jesus," cannot be " objectively " or " subjectively " a Christian. Disraeli was a Jew, renounced the Jewish creed, was accepted by a Christian church, became a Christian, and was made Lord Beaconsfield. Abbot was a Christian Unitarian minister, renounced the Christian creeds, was expelled from a Christian Unitarian church, accepted by men, and remained a man only. Christianized Lord Beaconsfield tried to main- tain and propagate royal and Christian civ- ilization by the swords of his vassals. Human- 94 RELIGIOUS WRITINGS ized Francis E. Abbot strives to maintain and propagate civilization by reason, logic, scien- tific methods, and a " gospel of purity." The forum of reason must denounce the so-called " Christian civilization " as a false claim, and it implies (perhaps unconscious) insolence toward millions of civilized men, who have been "factors in the sum" of civilization outside of Christianity. When we wish to define Christianity correctly and impartially with reference to sects, we cannot do it from the extreme ends, Catholicism or Unitarianism, neither can we take the definitions of Catholic priests or Unitarian ministers ; but we have to rely on what we read in the history of the New Testament and in our own reason. 2. I do not think that Jesus could con- ceive himself to be religiously any more a Jew than Abbot can conceive himself to be a Christian. It was not so much " the intense nationality of Judaism that prevented its open- ing out into a universal faith," as the selfish- ness, cunning speculations, and controlling influence and power over credulous people of the Jewish priests. As soon as the " new religion " was named " Christianity," similar conditions commenced, and have continued RELIGIOUS WRITINGS 95 ever since. Universal faith can only be es- tablished and maintained by reason, sincerity, universal liberty, and in a truly secular repub- lic. All the various efforts to Christianize the world create wrangling, and impede the strife for better conditions in humanity. 3. Reason and republicanism recognize only the historical man Jesus ; but the intellectual development, occupation, and actions do not double or " forty million " an individual. Before the tribunal of Liberty and Justice " all men are free and equal " and must re- ceive equal shares of human rights. Any ra- tional person must know that in " faculty " and " influence " " men are not created equal." 4. In each of the historical forms of reli- gion exists the claim of superiority over all others, and also that the founders are superior to all other men. All such forms of religion are founded on tradition and faith, and all persons demand equal rights for their faith ; but no ecclesiastical forum is enabled under the existing conditions to grant such equal rights. No one endowed with common sense will assert "that all historical forms of reli- gion are exactly equal." Morality and ethics belong to humanity ; they are linked in the 96 RELIGIOUS WRITINGS forms of religion and carried out in accord- ance with the conditions of races, development of reason, commerce, climate, and atmospheric and terrestrial proportions. Republicanism is founded on facts and truth ; and it is " so much the worse " for all of us if we do not ascertain, maintain, and propagate republican principles, or let religious notions interfere with them. 5. Religion and virtue need no stamps. Any name attached creates false claims, con- tentions, and speculations. We attain to man- hood when we are religious for religion's sake, virtuous for virtue's sake, and give proof by actions rather than words. CARL H. HORSCH. May 29, 1881. A belief in Deity cannot be learned from other people's ideals ; we must attain to that belief by our own reason. God has given us that attribute to find Him by. The lowest mind may find just as much as it needs of God, appropriate to its reason. I do not pre- tend to ascertain all the plans of our Creator, but his laws, which I find by reason, explain to me all his plans which I need to know. RELIGIOUS WRITINGS 97 MB. BEECHER ON HEBBEBT SPENCEB, EVOLUTION, AND PBOGBESS. EDITORS OF THE " INDEX : " The following is from the Dover (N. H.) " Daily Republican : " " Henry Ward Beecher said in his speech Thursday evening, at a ban- quet in honor of Herbert Spencer : ( We are rather an ambitious people. We have learned from the astronomers that they are five hours ahead of us every day in England, and we have to work with all our might to make up those five hours.' Mr. Beecher also said, ( I think that the doctrine of evolution, and its relation to the work of Mr. Spencer, which takes in that and a great deal more besides, to speak in plain language, is going to revolutionize theology from one end to the other [applause] ; it is going to make good walking where we have had very muddy walk- ing hitherto. [Applause.] It is going to bridge over rivers which we have had to wade. There are many points in which the theology of the past did well enough for the past, but it does not answer reasonable ques- tions and the moral considerations that are brought to bear upon it in our day/ ' 98 RELIGIOUS WRITINGS That is true, and so is a part of Mr. Bee- cher's article, " Progress of Thought in the Church," published in the " North American Review," August, 1882. But Mr. Beecher finishes that essay with the following sen- tences : " Our time is one of transition. We are re- fusing the theology of absolute monarchy, of divine despotism, and framing a theology con- sistent with the life and teachings of Jesus Christ." No person endowed with reason, common honesty, sense, and reverence will deny the good life and teachings of Jesus, or the learn- ing and theological training of Beecher ; but can Mr. Beecher, or any free citizen, believe and advocate the divine right of kings, or the consecration and sanctification of any person ? The Christship is, in my opinion, not only a divine despotism, but also a divine partiality and weakness. No person with developed reason, and who comprehends the necessary conditions for the maintenance and propaga- tion of republican principles, can believe in a despotic, partial God. It is also just as im- possible for a reasoner of the nineteenth cen- RELIGIOUS WRITINGS 99 tury to believe in a Devil, or Holy Ghost, as in a spiritual ruler and savior of the human soul. Each one is so constituted that he has to work out his own salvation. Is it not folly and mockery of those who manifest by their sermons, essays, and conver- sations that their reason dictates them to be- lieve in an all-wise, just Creator, to ask special favors of him in the name of " the Saviour, Jesus Christ"? CAUL H. HORSCH. DOVER, N. H., Nov. 13, 1882. HOPE AND REFLECTION. EDITORS OF THE " INDEX : " I hope for a better development of univer- sal reason and for a scientific method attain- ing to a universal religion and philosophy en- joyed and comprehended by all intelligent persons. If a writer has studied the philosophy of Spencer up and down to the Unknowable, and somebody expresses a hope for a future " phi- losophy which must be comprehended by all rational beings," it is inadequate to proclaim that " such a philosophy must be so extremely simple as not to be entitled to the name of 100 RELIGIOUS WRITINGS philosophy at all ; " and, after giving several definitions of his philosophy and of his mas- ter, he finishes his reply with a peculiar dic- tum, " Such a philosophy can be comprehended only hy clear-headed and profound thinkers." When a noted philosopher proclaims, and his disciples believe in, an " Unknowable," a majority of good thinkers generally will try to ascertain something more regarding the clouds and mountains, but will not look down with them into their abyss. Such thinkers experience and appreciate facts. They value rational doctrines of the atheist, materialist, theist, and of the scholars Berkeley, Spencer, and others ; but when it comes to individual notions and conclusions, one said, " If Berke- ley says there is no matter, it is no matter what he says ; " and, when Spencer concludes his philosophy with the theory of an Unknowable, it is not known what he means, " powerful reason " and " concurrence among modern psychologists and philosophers that our know- ledge is limited to our state of consciousness " notwithstanding. To set God and infinite wis- dom on a throne in heaven is one extreme, and to assume that finite wisdom has arrived at an ultimatum is another. There are many RELIGIOUS WRITINGS 101 thinkers who cannot find a limitation on either side. But they are going on striving to ascer- tain more and more from the unknown. They agree with Longfellow, when he says : " Dust thou art, to dust returnest, Was not spoken of the soul." CARL H. HORSCH. DOVER, N. H., March 15, 1886. COMMENTS ON ARTICLE OF B. F. U. IN "INDEX." With full respect for your convictions, and for the opinions of those gentlemen you quote in support of your position, I must say that it seems to me impossible that any thinker can exhaust his reason and aspiration so as to bring his mind to the assumption of an " Unknowable ; " that " philosophical idea " is to me similar to the dogma of the " Infal- lible," and the disciples of Mr. Spencer ought to know that a " consensus of the competent " cannot have competency enough to pass a judgment regarding an " algebra of thought," " knowledge of the highest generality," " com- pletely unified knowledge," which ends with nothing. We cling to the hope for the every day more to be known, and for better reli- gious convictions and true faith. 102 RELIGIOUS WRITINGS I am well aware that many so-called philo- sophers have rhetorical learning and self-reli- ance enough to assume clear-headedness, pro- found thinking, and competency, but from the standpoint of my simple reason and thinking I can find no more in such a philosophy than I can in transcendentalism. My eye, with all the telescopes and microscopes, sees as far as it can ; beyond that point the brain, which sends by the telegraph of sensation to my ret- ina, has something more, and that is, a hope and faith for further conditions and con- tinued existence ; the first I call a part of the known, the second the unknown, but if I should think that all of the second was un- knowable, what would I have for aspiration and hope? You may answer, the forces of nature, science, and scientific researches of those conditions, until you arrive at the Un- knowable. Here I would have to say to my dearest friend, I must leave you, and if you cannot go any further with me I must go on toward the unknown, and try to know daily more. When I expressed the hope that a philo- sophy which must be comprehended by all ra- tional beings might be created, I based my hope on the progress of the intellect of man. RELIGIOUS WRITINGS 103 If philosophy is so extremely complicated that no reasonable being can understand it, what does the " clearheadedness and profound thinking " amount to ? TRUE RELIGION. I have found the best religious men among those who are called infidels by those who peddle out religion on Sunday. Church piety is daily more and more superseded by intellec- tual piety. When Theodore Parker prayed at the fu- neral of a good man, who considered himself an atheist, " God, although our departed friend doubted thy existence, yet he kept thy laws," he gave that man due credit for his religion. If a man's reason is developed beyond the dictates of priests and churches, he can be a gospel to himself and find the grace of God and the promises in his own soul. Some otherwise good people, who have not yet over- come the conceit that their belief is the only true one, are likely to bore us with their assumed wisdom. The systems of Confu- cius, Zoroaster, Brahma, Buddha, and Mo- hammed, together with Judaism and Christi- 104 RELIGIOUS WRITINGS unity, and their various sects, are all parts of religion, and have done their good and are do- ing it now, to all those who are not developed in reason so that they must differ from those beliefs. If we can get our brains' and hearts' content directly from the Deity we believe in, we do not need priestly aid and church for- malities, any more than a grown person re- quires a child's playthings or nursing-bottle; but let us be kind and charitable if our bro- thers or sisters, who belong to one or the other church, think we cannot get along without their convictions and formalities, and let us consider it a kindness when they wish for us to partake of their dearest beliefs. Every one advances truth as he or she sees it, and when they claim that the form of religion with a name contains the all in all of that attribute, let us excuse their short sight and try to show them good eyeglasses by the reason we possess. As religion is an attribute of humanity and all men have a religious nature, it cannot be monopolized by one, or millions of men ; the strife for monopoly and extras is the cause of great miseries. RELIGIOUS WRITINGS 105 QUESTIONS REGARDING RELIGION. 1. Do not all human beings naturally pos- sess a part of religion ? 2. Is it possible for any person to be en- tirely without religion, or to discard it ? 3. Are not reason, talent, and education the best guides toward a universal and last- ing religion, comprehended and enjoyed by all beings ? 4. Is it not a convincing evidence that the efforts and, in some cases, pretensions even, of the most noted theologians, to teach and inculcate their conceptions of religion, are inadequate, when we find that some of their own and best educated children are compelled by the development of their reason to op- pose the doctrines and dogmas of their good fathers and mothers ? 5. Can religion be defined satisfactorily to all, and improved by stamping it with an extra name, and do not the false claims of superi- ority over other forms or sects narrow reli- gion ? 6. Is it not an essence of religion, when men, whether believers or skeptics, atheists or materialists, etc., manifest by speech, writings, 106 RELIGIOUS WRITINGS or actions that they appropriate and love what is rational and lovely, in the finite and infinite or in facts and theories, bestow charity upon the less developed mind, kindly and diligently strive for others and their own welfare and progression toward the better and the All- Good? C. H. H. January 3d, 1886. SOME OF MY INDIVIDUAL OPINIONS REGARDING RELIGION AND POLITICS. RELIGION. I admire : Liberality, sincere faith in that which an individual professes to be his true belief, charity towards all who dif- fer from us, due deference to the opinions of others, benevolence, beneficence, righteousness, common sense, reason, knowledge, wisdom, and the prayer of a Hindu, who prayed God not to take him into Heaven until all beings were saved, and to give him power to help .along that event. I abhor : Uliberality, insincerity, hypocrisy, bombastic claims of knowledge, which we find to be individual sentiments, beliefs, or even fictions and speculations, blind faith in that which others say or do, the stupid, selfish RELIGIOUS WRITINGS 107 idea to be the only chosen religious people of God, Sunday religion, and all sectarianism. POLITICS. I admire : Fair, honest dealing, voting for the best men, voting in accordance with true convictions only, true pride to be a free citizen, forbearance and deference to the opinions of all who are at variance with us, speakers and writers who give us only facts and principles of their own platform and criti- cise their opponents justly, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution. I abhor : Blind partisanship, eagerness to gain by party politics, buying and selling votes, pledges of candidates and officials for selfish schemes, bribery, back-room caucuses of political cliques, speaking in a low voice in a man's ear in conventions, legislatures, and other public forums, where one ought to hear the loud voice of one member at a time only, untimely crowing and misrepresentations about election news, candidates for office who are exceedingly friendly before elections, shake hands with every voter and ask him to vote for them, and make vague promises, laws which are a dead letter, like the Maine liquor law, Sunday law, and other narrow, one-sided productions, which are used for dishonest 108 RELIGIOUS WRITINGS political purposes, for spite, and tend to pro- pagate hypocrisy. I endeavor : To do unto others as I wish to be done by, to say what I do believe and what I do not believe, to vote in accordance with my knowledge and judgment, for prin- ciples and not for party only, for candidates who are the most zealous to maintain the principles unfolded in the Declaration of In- dependence, and who abide by the laws which are in harmony with the Constitution. A FEW THOUGHTS REGARDING INDIVIDUALITY, NATIONALITY, AND HUMANITY. Individuality : " Separate or distinct exist- ence, a state of oneness." We have young and old, strong and weak, large and small. The younger and weaker being who is de- pendent and compelled to submit to the older one, and who is not as much account and ben- efit to the family, must count just as well one as the older being, before the forum of human rights ; they are " the eternal inalienable rights by which freedom is secured to each indi- vidual in society," and without those rights his true destiny cannot be attained. Only under the condition of Liberty can indi- RELIGIOUS WRITINGS 109 viduality develop to its full sway. Royalty, aristocracy, priestcraft, false cunning author- ity, vile speculations, can only subsist on that which is wrongfully taken from the human rights of other individuals; if each person receives his or her due, all those conditions must be evils of the past, as absolute des- potism and slavery are now in this great and noble country. All bodily and mental development is sec- ond and inferior to that highest condition of true manhood and womanhood, to grant a full share of human rights to ALL ! Yes, that must be nearer my reason to thee, " Nearer, my God, to Thee ! " All historical forms of religion and their doctrines and dogmas do not grant a full share of human rights to all men ; even their god is partial. The idea of the " only begot- ten son " manifests partiality of the Christian Deity. If a god himself said to me, " You are my only begotten son," I would be com- pelled to say, " You cannot be my God." Jesus said, " I and my Father are one," but I would say, My Father is one with all his children, as far as that oneness is developed, comprehended, and attended to. Jesus ex- 110 RELIGIOUS WRITINGS claimed, " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ? " My God cannot forsake one atom of one of his children. Now, my Chris- tian brethren, in the name of your reason and common sense, can you believe that God can forsake you ? Did that religious authority, or Lord and Master, as you call him, manifest to you that he comprehended the fatherhood of God better than you do, or others even, who do not know anything about Jesus ? Can he be your savior and redeemer, and from what can he save and redeem you ? The very sectarian spirit, which has greater sway in this republic than in any other coun- try, shows to me that you give individuality allowance, but when you attempt to force your sectarian ideas upon others, and try to grasp the authority of the State, or United States, your sectarianism becomes aggressive, and you reach over for a part which belongs to other individuals full as much as it belongs to you. If you ask or force me to pay taxes for your church property, why do you not pay the same amount for my free sentiments ? Many of you talk liberty ; why do you not act it ? If you act it, your priests will have to follow suit soon. You all manifest in your daily life that RELIGIOUS WRITINGS 111 you are better than your creeds, but a part of your creeds adheres to you and fetters you in your business transactions. My brother atheist and materialist, as far as you sincerely believe that there is no God, and nothing beyond your own reason, a true lib- eral cannot have any contention, and must re- spect your convictions, just as much as he does those convictions of his various historical religious brethren ; but when you pretend to know that there is no God, you have to bring us more convincing proof, in order to convince others. No man has, as yet, been able to prove that there is a God, or that there is no God, but I do not consider it unknowable either way. A Jew to whom a Catholic said, " You have crucified our Saviour, our God," answered, " I have not done it, but they say that my forefathers did it. Now I will tell you what you can do : catch my God and crucify him, then we will be square." I would say to my Jewish and Christian brethren, Catch my God and ask Him if He commanded his children to crucify Jesus ? If He really spoke to Moses, and at the same time neglected the children of Israel, and let them build the golden calf, or, if they had taken 112 RELIGIOUS WRITINGS more gold from the Egyptians, a golden cow, or an ox? If the prophets really prophesied all those events mentioned in the Bible, or if they were afterwards fitted in by cunning priests for their selfish ends ? If He has an extra heaven for you, and a devil and hell for those who do not believe as you do ? If your own reason is not the best He could give you, and if your priests can reason for you ? If He can grant so many different things at the same time and at the same places as you pray for j one for ram, another for sunshine ? If your historical religious God, who can inter- vene and violate his own laws, who saves only those who worship or flatter Him, in their way, and puts to everlasting torment ah 1 others, can be an all- wise, all-just, omnipresent Being? If I did believe in such a God, and his power to grant prayer, I would pray Him to make me insensible to all feeling, take away my consciousness, and if there should be a part of that blessedness, in that heaven our extra religious brethren talk about, due to me, to divide it equally among his children. To my brother atheists and materialists I will say, Prove to me if you can that my God is insufficient to satisfy and attend to the RELIGIOUS WRITINGS 113 individuality of all men. With our human language we must say He or It, but I call Him a world's fountain, a world's resource, the truly All in All, as far as human reason can fathom or believe. WHO ARE THE LIBERALS? Some traders in liberal literature, and ed- itors of so-called liberal papers, and some other assuming scribblers, have shown them- selves to be the greatest enemies to the liberal cause. In every generation there are men like Jesus and like Judas, like Washington and like Arnold, like Emerson and like Cook, etc. It is a great enjoyment to find men who are really liberal, especially those who give us better insight into the vital principles of lib- eralism, and who are true to the cause which must promote the welfare of humanity. But it is a sad disappointment to find men who boast about their liberality, in the same way as some theological speculators ostentatiously parade their religion. They possess no real ability except to ridicule, misrepresent, and defame others, who decline to obey their will or join their wrangling. If you differ from them and publish your opinion, they make 114 RELIGIOUS WRITINGS long-winded replies, in which they write very much about themselves and their great doings, but dodge the question. They pretend that they seek the truth; but if you tell them truth they do not like, they accuse you of not having outgrown reverence for old dogmas, etc., and will not scruple to use slander and falsehood instead of good reasoning. Every brother who dissents from their no- tions is charged with mean motives and ac- tions against them ; yes, the very misrepre- sentations of their own manufacture they try to charge others with. They have a number of accomplices, who assist them to misrepre- sent the good motives of others, and deceive good people who read only one side. The press and public speakers do certainly a great deal of good ; but if vain, jealous, unscrupulous persons and shrewd dissemblers wield an edi- torial pen, they can easily pervert the un- schooled mind. Let us ascertain who are true liberals, cooperate with them and assist them with heart and hand ; but if we wish to main- tain and propagate liberalism, let us shun all those pretenders, whose most important effort is only to sell their illiberal productions, and make money out of the liberal community. RELIGIOUS WRITINGS 115 Quacks and mountebanks cannot thrive where intelligence and honesty prevail. CARL H. HORSCH. June 25, 1878. The attempt to insert the names of God and Christ into the Constitution, and the ex- emption from taxation of church property, are retrograde movements for the establish- ment of Church and State. For such a union, give us rather an absolute despotic monarchy, which would be the less of the two evils. Oh, how we must admire the wisdom of the framers of the Constitution, and how we are compelled to pity those de- luded souls who make the futile effort to es- tablish a union between Church and State ! Which sect is the Christian Church ? Sup- posing the chaplain in Congress is going to be chosen, will Episcopacy be satisfied if a Unitarian is chosen ? The real anti-Christian could not wish for anything more favoring his cause. The enemy could not bring more destruction to the Christian ranks. The true radical has no desire to destroy the good in any historical religion, because he is compelled to harmonize that good with the evolution of 116 RELIGIOUS WRITINGS the human mind, but his reason, which he has in keeping from his Creator, urges him to op- pose folly and assumption wherever he finds them. We give the glory to God that he has given us our reason, and by using it we know that it is futile to pray for rain or sunshine. We know that God gives us those in accordance with his wisdom. We may admire the poesy of the Bible, but the ideas expressed there re- garding Deity and the laws of Nature are the ideas of a child, compared with the better developed reason and poesy of our age. The Bible is a history, with uncertain or doubtful statements. Translations and spec- ulations may be considered the causes that this ancient history has been changed. The priests and theologians of all ages have been eager to manifest, or make believe that they are the mediators between God and man, and almost every one has interpreted it in accord- ance with his or her notion, and mostly for selfish ends. The word of God need not and cannot be interpreted. God speaks di- rect to each one of his children ; therefore no Bible or theologian can do that for him or for us. RELIGIOUS WRITINGS 117 God has no wrath. He governs the uni- verse by immutable laws. The earthquake after the Crucifixion, and other events, are often considered as being sent by an angry God. " The plans of God," as illustrated by historical religions, manifest the speculations and undeveloped thoughts of races, but not his plans. Do you, Herbert Spencer, and your disci- ples, call the distances beyond Alcyone, con- sidered by some the central sun of our sun system, unknowable ? Is not our know- ledge of nature continually extending? How friction inflames a match we know not. Gravity, how does it act? We explain, but know not what it is ; yet is it unknowable ? How can you localize God and heaven, and believe in omnipresence? Truth can only be conceived or compre- hended as the individual sees it. Nothing is miraculous ; it only appears so to us, as long as we have not ascertained the governing laws of that event. 118 RELIGIOUS WRITINGS If a man does his duty to his fellow-men, they will, yes, they must, appreciate it. It is obedience to God to use our reason ; but if it clashes with theology it is de- nounced as blasphemy and infidelity ; but let us use our reason just as we have received it, and so express our convictions. Is it not a godly work to reason speculative theology out of existence ? Theologians base their reasoning on their belief ; radicals reason until they come to a firm belief. Blind faith has done more harm than good, but earnest, honest reason can do no harm ; the atheist is a better man than the believer in a partial God. There is no motion without mind, which is an ever present energy. The omnipresent God is the motion of my body to my will. Theism, Christianity, etc., are forms of religion, but no more all religion, as it is assumed, than a family in botany is all bot- any, or a thunderstorm is the whole of nature. RELIGIOUS WRITINGS 119 Unitarian ministers contend that Christian- ity has a deeper meaning than the definitions of it, and therefore dream that it will convert all human beings. This noble aspiration can- not be accomplished by one form of religion, but it will and must be accomplished by re- ligion, the divine rational attribute, which no man can give, or elevate another person into, and which each one has, in his or her way, just as all have their own faces. We find similarity among human faces, and congeniality of faith, but never two perfectly alike. Is it therefore possible that a Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, or any other, could estab- lish a form of religion which all human souls can accept and sincerely cling to? The de- velopment of reason compels us to drop the childish faith and its superstition, but we must retain and develop such convictions as are in harmony with the capacity of our minds, whether we are Jews or Christians, atheists, materialists, or theists. Jesus of Nazareth kindled with his best material a fire 1877 years ago, and burned a part of the rub- bish of Jewish priestcraft ; the rays and heat warmed the hearts of others as far as 120 RELIGIOUS WRITINGS they reached. Moses, Buddha, and Moham- med made similar efforts and succeeded in a similar way. We all expect the happiness of heaven, but we can only attain it by our own efforts. Live your life as well as you can, and you have all the heaven you need. God cannot give you a better here, or there, hi the sphere we believe in and hope for. All Orthodox believers are too good fathers and mothers to believe and carry out their be- liefs. Supposing one of their children should commit what they term the unpardonable sin, would they assist their God to put that child in an everlasting hell ? He who really believes in the omnipresence of God must see good in every being. How much anger we would save, or get rid of, if we spoke always of the good of our neighbor ! Speaking of his good makes our mind con- tented, and we cannot speak of his mistakes without getting angry. God has given us our reason, and by this RELIGIOUS WRITINGS 121 attribute we attain to faith. We are therefore guarded, and it is impossible for us to believe anything unreasonable. Just as much as we are compelled to use our respiratory muscles to breathe, we have to use our reason to be- lieve. Every human being uses that attribute in accordance with the development of his mind. The divine Christ is needed for the mind which cannot or does not really believe in a reasonable, impartial Deity. The slave and the dog, but not a freeman, follows a master. We agree with the opinions of other more able men, but we follow the dictates of our own reason. Catholicism became fanaticism when it stopped short, and did not submit to the bet- ter reason of Protestantism. I endeavor to keep the good of all the gradations of the human mind ; yes, what I find true in Judaism, Catholicism and Pro- testantism, with due appreciation of all the truth in those different degrees of develop- ment. 122 RELIGIOUS WRITINGS The true religion of Moses, Jesus, Moham- med, and all other men must eventually de- velop into a religion of humanity. Theologi- cal and all other speculative, selfish forms of religion and false theories must fade away ; it is impossible that the forum of reason and common-sense can accept nonsense. All who assume that their conception of Deity is the only true one are kindly reminded that they pretend to know what is only partly known, and the greater part can only be as- pired to by reason and faith. Morality, eth- ics, and modesty compel reasoning beings to oppose all persons who try to make believe that their reason commences on the so-called throne of their God. When the mind is developed to self-know- ledge and to independence, trading and all speculations on religion will be conditions of the past, and republicanism and secular gov- ernment will exist. The soul and its attributes are created just as our bodies are ; therefore we have to use them as they are given to us. RELIGIOUS WRITINGS 123 When we consider the average human fatherhood and motherhood, and compare it with the fatherhood of God as taught by the theologians, reason must find the latter inferior to the former. Our conceptions of Deity have changed with the development of reason. Yet He is the same ; are we so wise as to reason Him away? Call me a believer or disbeliever, theist or atheist, but I call myself a man only, who be- lieves that there exists a higher, a better than himself. The person who could really believe in the total depravity of any being manifests insan- ity, just as much as the person who commits suicide does at the time when the act is done. Salvation is no more free than food or drink is ; every individual has to work for it. The "Unknowable" seems to be just as unreasonable as the pretended infallibility of a man or a book. 124 RELIGIOUS WRITINGS To attain to manhood and overcome apery is one of the best efforts of life. Socrates, Confucius, Jesus, and others are not remem- bered for that which our priests attribute to them ; no, only for their developed manhood. Evil is the deficiency of knowledge, or the disobedience of divine laws or the laws of nature. If a man says, Your views are peculiar, all I have to say is, They belong to me and I like them ; except you can give me yours, and make me find them better than mine, I shall hold on to mine. Read the various lives of Jesus, and you find that every one of the authors has a dif- ferent idea regarding his doings and pur- poses. Science is the only true foundation for the temple of religion. The greatest enjoyment which I can have is to meet a man or a woman as I think they ought to be. RELIGIOUS WRITINGS 125 Let us sincerely believe where we do not know; but for reason's sake, let us use rea- son where and as far as we do or can know. Let us not commence with belief, but at- tain to it by reason, and we will have an ap- propriate and lasting faith. If we speak of " the working force in na- ture itself," or the nature of the mysterious force of gravity, we speak of Him who is the Ruler. I love the name " religion " and all its es- sences, but just as I am not able to breathe all the air, I cannot partake or execute all which that word means. Another person's conception of Deity may be similar to mine, but when we exchange opinions we find differences which may ap- pear to a third person as if he believed in one God and I in another ; but God is the same. Manifest, as much as you can, kindness to every being you meet, and you cannot do yourself a much greater kindness than such manifestations. 126 RELIGIOUS WRITINGS Whenever and wherever religious, political, and mercantile efforts are made for individual gain only, they fail to meet the requirements of God and Humanity. Before the forum of reason there is no op- position to or denunciation of any sincere be- lief, or sect, in the historical forms of religion ; but only against silly formality and the unrea- sonable assumption, " I am holier than thou." Never say to others, How can you believe as you do? It is an expression of illiberality. Every being enjoys his or her belief in his or her own way. Do not try to frustrate that highest, that best of enjoyments. It is the enjoyment of God within and with us. It brings to every one tears in the eyes and joy in the heart. Does not the human mind need a starting- point ? Does not Christianity start from the Christ? And honest, free religion from the belief in God, the Creator and Preserver of Jesus and all men ? Some people act as if God were for them RELIGIOUS WRITINGS 127 only, and the Devil for all others who do not believe as they do. They have a desire to fill hell with sinners, so that there will be no place left for them. If we free our minds of the idea that there is an extra share in heaven for Christians, we will ennoble the mind and believe sincerely in universal salvation, the only true belief for a republican citizen. Heaven is a condition of the mind, and no place. If a man believes that his conception of re- ligion is good and true, he takes from that fountain what suits his mind, but with the daily development of his reason he partakes of the better ; the prof oundest scholar in the world cannot do a jot better for his own sat- isfaction. SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS VENTILATION OF PRIVATE AND PUBLIC BUILDINGS. WE all know that air is the most important constituent of animal and vegetable material supply. We can sustain animal or vegetable life without food for many days, without water for less, but without air we cannot live at all. The purity of articles of food is full as important as the supply, because if we do adulterate food and allow contamination of water and air we cannot have a healthy pop- ulation. The proportions of oxygen, hydro- gen, nitrogen, and carbon in the atmosphere are the necessary conditions of all life, animal, vegetable, or mineral ; if they are disturbed by irregularly constructed buildings, or by mixture with noxious gases, or other impuri- ties, health and even life cannot exist. What is ventilation of our buildings ? Answer : To let out contaminated foul air 132 SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS and supply the room -with pure air. The dif- ferent strata of the air around our globe are the lower, more condensed, specific heavier, the higher, more attenuated, specific lighter ; this same condition exists in our rooms. If the air in a room is in a pure, normal con- dition, and we inhale it, what is the conse- quence ? We inhale the oxygen gas and ex- hale carbon in the form of carbonic acid gas ; the latter is no more fit for breathing than molasses would be, and just as molasses takes the lower strata in water, so does carbonic acid gas in the air ; beside the carbonic acid gas, there are other impurities unfit for breathing and health, dust, perspiration, sewer-gas, germs and eggs of infusorise. Many people think they ventilate a room by opening the windows, or have a so-called ven- tilator near the ceiling ; but that is only let- ting in outdoor air, which mixes with the air in the room, and by the circulation which is produced through the different temperatures, heated air being more attenuated than cold air, carries a part of the foul air and the ob- noxious gases around the room ; but only a part of the contaminating matter can be ex- pelled through the top outlets, provided the SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS 133 out-door air were warmer than the air in the room, because we are aware that nature al- ways equalizes different conditions of matter, and the denser cold air flows toward the warm air, in order to fill the space produced by the expansion of the air particles by heat. THE NECESSITY OF INSPECTION OF ANIMALS REQUIRED FOR FOOD. 1 Among the number of persons who have made efforts to prevent the eating of diseased animal food, Moses was the first well known. The commands in the Talmud are : 1. The animal shah 1 be killed with a sharp knife, and with three cuts. If the knife has a jagged edge, or the animal breaks a leg when falling at the time of butchering, the meat is condemned. 2. To eat no meat from a diseased animal. 3. From an animal which has died suffer- ing with tympanitis. 4. Animals which have jaw worm. 5. Lameness from any cause. 6. No meat from calves under eight days old. 1 This paper was read November 8, 1887, at the meeting of the American Public Health Association, Memphis, Tenn. 134 SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS 7. No meat from sheep suffering with tetter. 8. Diseases of lungs ; abnormal forma- tions ; more lobes on one side than on the other, on the right, 3, 5, 7 ; left, 4, 6, 8 ; adhesions ; indurations ; patches ; water blis- ters ; matter in the vessels ; if the lungs are flabby, dry, black, yellow, whitish, fleshy, or if coagulation of dark, stringy blood is found in the vessels. 9. No suppuration or other diseases of the liver, spleen, or kidneys. 10. No sharp things in the stomach, which perforated the tissue of the walls, and have pus on them. Meat from healthy animals, and where the large vessels have been cut out, is called kausher. The prohibition of pork, and of fish without scales, was most likely a dietetic regimen for the conditions of the Israelites. In tropical regions, and against prevailing diseases, as leprosy and other forms, it would be well if the rational parts of those commands were obeyed by all nations. Dr. Most says, " Only healthy animals should be butchered, and their meat used for food. The signs of health are : the animal moves SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS 135 around and appears lively; by applying a gentle pressure on the back does not bend the ears or tail ; the eyes look clear and bright ; the body is well formed and nourished ; rumination of the cud is carried on well ; no saliva flowing from the mouth ; no blisters or pustules on the mucous membrane ; breathing is normal ; no cough, groaning, or gasping ; the skin is not tightly grown to the body ; free from pustules, scurf, or scales ; tempera- ture normal ; the hair is glossy. After skin- ning the animal, we find no boils, tumors, pustules, and no black spots ; the meat is firm, and has the characteristic fresh smell. "Meat is not fit to eat from too old, too young, or from sick animals. Such meat is hard, tough, or soft, pale, watery, or greasy ; the fat is soft, green, or yellow. On open- ing the chest of healthy animals there is no putrid, bad-smelling exudation, no white patch or ulcer, no difference in color, and no disease in the surroundings of the lungs. In the stomach and bowels we find no red spots, soft, gray-black places, no dry, dark-looking re- mains of food. The best meat comes from healthy animals of middle age. The appro- priate age to fatten oxen is from five to eight 136 SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS years old. Calves should be at least three to four weeks old, dropped the umbilical cord, and have the last milk teeth. Veal and mut- ton should be kept from two to four days; beef and pork, four to six days ; venison, four to ten days ; fowl, two to four days. Fish should be cooked soon after they are killed. " The meat of animals which have been driven fast before slaughter is darker, heavier, contains more blood, and decomposes sooner. The meat of animals killed by lightning is not good for food. Some butchers inflate mutton to make it look plump, but such meat may contain the fetid breath of some person." Dr. Most cites the following cases : " A man contracted a malignant fever and died, after salting the meat from an ox which had been sick with murrain ( Viehseuchs}. A family died after eating the meat from a hog which had been sick with angina (Braune). In Marburg Steinmark several persons died with hydrophobia, who had been eating meat from cattle which had been bitten by a mad dog.'" In 1869 I was called to see a patient in 1 Ausfuhrliche Encyklopadia der gesammten Staatsarznei- kunde, von Georg Friedrich Most, M. D., Ph. D. SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS 137 Dover, N. H. The gentleman was seventy years old, a man of regular habits ; had been most of the time of his life healthy and strong, until March, 1869, when two of the lymphatic glands on his neck and several of the inguinal glands became enlarged. After examination and deduction of other diseases, I had to diagnose scrofulosis. The patient was a reliable, intelligent ob- server. He stated that he never had had any sign of said disease in his life, and that there was no case of scrofulosis on his father's or his mother's side. After I found out where my patient bought his meat, I ascertained that his butcher had slaughtered and sold the meat of an ox which had a large swelling near one of his ears. The gentleman who saw the animal called it a wolf. In this case I found no other cause than that diseased meat. Two years ago a farmer brought a fat well- looking turkey into my house. When it was prepared for roasting, it was found to have a very large liver, with white patches about as large as a cent all through the tissue. On fur- ther examination, it was determined that it was fatty degeneration of the liver ; and decided that the rest of that fowl would perhaps be better relished by the worms. 138 SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS Glanders, hydrophobia, malignant pustule, splenic fever, tuberculosis, trichina, and other diseases are dangerous, and communicable from animals to man. When we consider the diseased animals and their meat used for food, there is not only the aversion which we have against eating diseased meat, but certainly great danger to man of contracting diseases by the meals. Prof. D. E. Salmon, Chief of the Bureau of Animal Industry, sent the following answer to a letter from Mr. B , of Dover, N. H. WASHINGTON, February 12, 1887. SIR, In reply to your communication of the 9th inst., referred to me by the commis- sioner of agriculture, I would state that, so far as I know, there is no systematic and com- plete inspection of cattle killed for beef in any State in the Union. Many States have beef inspectors, but as a rule they do not in- spect all the beef ; and in most cases do not see the animal before it is slaughtered, or the internal organs when they are removed. They simply look at the beef after the carcass is dressed. Such an inspection is not sufficient to discover all cases of disease for which SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS 139 carcasses should be condemned. I have no special information in regard to the inspec- tors or inspections in Omaha or in Montana. Very respectfully, D. E. SALMON, Chief of Bureau. In an interview with Dr. S. H. Durgin, physician of the City Board of Health, Bos- ton, Mass., Mr. B ascertained that Boston has had inspection of cattle and meat three years. All the cattle are inspected two or three days before the slaughtering, and the in- spector sees the animal killed. If he suspects any disease, he inspects the heart, lungs, liver, etc., but does not make a general practice thereof. In case the animal shows evident signs of disease before killing, it is slaugh- tered in the rendering-house, away from all healthy animals. In the case of a dispute, it is referred to the City Board of Health, whose decision is final. Dr. Durgin stated, also, that a large amount of tuberculosis in cattle, espe- cially in cows, had been found. In order to have a better safeguard for the prevention of the use and sale of diseased animal food, every animal should be inspected by competent persons before slaughtering, and 140 SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS the internal organs thoroughly examined afterwards. The members of the American Medical Association, medical societies, Na- tional Board of Health, American Public Health Association, state and local boards of health, and every well-meaning medical prac- titioner and citizen, will see the importance of such sanitary measures, and make an effort to impress it upon the minds of the representa- tives of the United States, States, counties, cities, and towns, that it is for their own and the safety of over sixty millions of inhabit- ants, and thousands of persons traveling in this country, to pass a law and make appropri- ation for such protection, and to give the able ones of eighty-five thousand six hundred and seventy-one physicians, and the veterinary surgeons, a chance to carry out that very much needed part of state medicine. PHYSICAL EXERCISE AND HEALTH. 1 The Spartans had various violent exercises and sports ; they had their Gymnasia, and 1 These exercises were introduced into the Dover, N. H., public schools and much liked. " Der Verein der Aerzte des Oesterlandes " of Germany wrote Dr. Horsch that these exer- cises were the first they had ever seen which were based on anatomical principles, and they recommended their use in the public schools. SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS 141 even killed their crippled offspring, in order to produce a strong, bodily well developed race. They succeeded to some extent, and be- came resolute, stern, but cruel, rude, and nar- row-minded warriors; their mental develop- ment was neglected, and notwithstanding their capability of a self-sacrificing patriotism, they were overruled by a wiser policy of the Roman republic. What exercise is necessary in our republic, to produce a better development of all our faculties, better health, and appropriate condi- tions for an intelligent, free nation ? 1. Our first care should be for cleanliness of the body and its surroundings, good sewerage, water, food, etc. 2. A well-regulated use of our voluntary muscles. This is a very important aid for the functions of digestion and assimilation of the food, circulation and mixing of the blood, growth, production, and reproduction of our system. The circulation in the veins, wherein the blood is carried from the parts of the body back to the heart, is influenced to a great ex- tent by the contraction of the muscle fibres. If the fibres of our muscles contract, a pres- 142 SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS sure against the surrounding vessels takes place, and the blood is pushed towards the heart. The valves which we find in the veins prevent the blood from flowing back again when the contraction ceases ; a next contrac- tion brings the blood still nearer, and at a cer- tain time back to the heart. Gaskell and others have demonstrated by experiments that the flow of blood through the muscles is in- creased during the period of contraction. For that part of the circulation of the blood, sys- tematic free exercises are the most effectual, and in order to carry them out systematically, we must know what different motions the muscles produce. If the following exercises are practiced, we are sure that we have brought the voluntary muscles, which can be entirely controlled by our will, into rational, systematic physiological action, and have them better prepared for daily labor, forced muscular exercises, as gymnastics, boating, etc., for a better balance of our body, and for a development of agility and vigor. The following exercises should be made at least three times a day, and every mo- tion three times, which can be executed in about two minutes. There are many vocations SANITAR Y AND MEDICAL WRITINGS 143 where persons use or even overtax some of their voluntary muscles, but do not contract the fibres of the other sets of muscles, which the circulation of the blood and other physi- ological functions require. 1. Use the abductor muscles by spreading the extremities, and move them from the mid- dle line of the body. 2. The adductor muscles are well used by drawing the limbs as close as possible to the middle line of the body ; you can do it after each abduction, but it is better to draw the limbs close to the body by separate motions, and when the extremities are about one inch from the body. 3. Attraction muscles are used by making a step forward, and with every step throwing the arms forward. 4. Retraction muscles by stepping back- ward, and with every step throwing the arms backward. 5. Use the extensor muscles by stretching the body, the right arm and leg, then the left arm and leg. 6. The flexor muscles by bending body, neck, right arm and leg, then left arm and leg. 144 SANITAE Y AND MEDICAL WRITINGS 7. Rotator muscles by throwing the head as much as possible to the right and then to the left, and turn the arms and then the legs on their axes. 8. The pronator and supinator muscles are exercised by stretching the arms full length at the sides, at the height of the shoulders, and turning the palms upward and downward. 9. Depressor muscles, which draw the lower lip, the angle of the mouth, and the side of the nose down. To stretch and bend our arms and legs would not be a sufficient physical exercise for a normal circulation in these extremities, be- cause the rotator muscles, pronators, and the supinators must also be brought into action for that purpose. Breathing is accelerated by proper exercise of the voluntary muscles, and, therefore, we have a more appropriate exchange of oxygen, carbonic acid, and water. The heart beats more frequently and for- cibly during moderately energetic, regulated exercise, and the blood and its nourishing constituents are better distributed. The digestion and the appetite are im- SANITAR YAND MEDICAL WRITINGS 145 proved by physical exercise, on account of the increased waste, more rapid absorption, and greater demand of food ; but as there is an increased flow of blood to the stomach during digestion, in order to supply more gas- tric juice, exercise right after a meal interferes with that process; gymnastics should there- fore not be practiced within an hour after eat- ing. Systematic exercise gives also tone to the nervous system. Outdoor exercise gives us better air, more light, and a different pressure of the atmosphere than our buildings con- tain. Out of town exercise is beneficial, as we breathe no impurities which are floating in the air in thickly settled places. Swedish gymnastics, or so called " move- ment cure," is an effort to produce more ac- tive contraction of the voluntary muscles and improve the nutrition of the same. Every school ought to have a properly arranged place and apparatus for gymnastics, and for free exercises of all the voluntary muscles ; then the teachers and scholars can improve their physical condition, and have systematic means by which the body will be developed to better usefulness and symmetry. 146 SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS The present " rough and tumble sports " are more likely to be injurious. Erasmus Wilson says : " In mind lies the great secret of bene- ficial exercise, and without it exercise is a misnomer and a fraud on the constitution." When mental culture and physical education are going hand in hand, various crippled con- ditions and diseases may be prevented, and a more vigorous people will exist. There are already a number of educational institutions where physical education is taught, and also gymnastic institutions, athletic clubs, the German Turnverein and the American Turnerbund. DOVER, 1885. ADDRESS TO THE CITY COUNCILS OF DOVER, N. H., CONCERNING THE APPOINTMENT OP HEALTH OFFICER. 1 MK. MAYOR, AND GENTLEMEN OF THE CITY COUN- CILS: Considering it a duty of any citizen to give his aid for improvements; agreeing with Herbert Spencer when he said, "That 1 This address was occasioned by an attempt to ignore the City Ordinance and elect the health officer on the strength of petitions in January, 1890. SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS 147 knowledge which treats of the preservation of health yields in importance to none other whatever," and having gathered some know- ledge and experience, in a study and practice of medicine of over forty-five years, regard- ing sanitary measures and prevention of pre- ventable diseases, I come before you and ask permission to give my opinion how a health officer should be elected and situated. First. The election ought to depend on ex- amination regarding the sanitary laws of our State and city, as ordered by the new City Ordinances; qualifications of the candidate, and his good moral standing in the commu- nity. Petitions should be ignored in this case, because they are superfluous, and manifest, to some extent, that neither the aspirants nor the signers consider what is demanded in our new city ordinance regarding the health officer. No one who desires to be elected to that office needs to waste time and trouble people with signing his paper, but should go before the appointed forum and be examined. The examiners will report to the city authorities regarding the merits of the candidates, and that body will elect the one whom it consid- ers the best fitted for the office. 148 SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS Second. That important office should be given for the time of good behavior, or at least for three years, in order to protect an able and honest health officer against political trickery and favoritism. A man who per- forms the full duties which that office de- mands will have opposition among unreason- able persons in a short time, and they may use their political influence and succeed in having him removed. Third. The salary of the health officer should be sufficient to support himself and family, and to enable and to demand of him to spend his whole time for the numerous duties required to bring and keep a city in good sanitary conditions. He ought to have an office in the centre of the city, where he can be found at certain hours of the day, for consultation, and to receive complaints. In cases of contagious and infectious diseases, it is his duty, in cooperation with the attending physician, to make arrangements for isolating, cleansing, and disinfecting. The health officer should be authorized to inspect sewers and sewer connections and give instructions regarding properly cement- ing the joints of earthen pipes. He should SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS 149 also coincide with the street commissioner to bring sewers and streets into good condition, and prevent the formation of cesspools and other nuisances. He should make an annual house-to-house inspection. In dwelling and tenement houses he should advise, and, if necessary, enforce proper cleaning of cellars, kitchens, and surroundings, good ventilation, a proper amount of light, and sufficient air space in the rooms for the inhabitants. In all cases he should strictly adhere to, and carry out, the demands of the " public health laws" of the State of New Hampshire, and the City Ordinances. It is an excellent act of the city government to put the City Marshal and Physician on the Board of Health, and it is praiseworthy and generous in those gentlemen to do that extra work without compensation. Gentlemen, if you elect an efficient health officer, establish for him a situation, and vote him sufficient means to enable him to give all his time to his important duties, you will do a work for the benefit of yourselves, your fam- ilies, and the people. The prevention of one case of sickness, the saving of one life, is of great value, and no amount of money can 150 SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS compensate for the suffering and grief which the loss of health and life creates. THE NECESSITY OF BURIAL PERMITS AND IN- SPECTION OF THE BODIES OF DECEASED PERSONS. 1 In this great country we find an aggregation of people from all civilized and also from un- civilized nations. The forefathers had to settle so many vital points for the establishment of a free nation that arts, science, and state medicine could not receive the same attention as in older countries, but conditions have come when this now great and noble nation can and does more faithfully attend to these, and all good meas- ures for the welfare of humanity. In European cities this necessary and san- itary measure has been practiced for many years. In 1791, the celebrated medical practi- tioner Dr. Huf eland made his excellent efforts for a thorough inspection of the bodies of deceased persons. In that year, through his influence, the first public Leichenhaus (house for the dead) was erected in Weimar, Germany. 1 This paper was read to the American Public Health Association, at Memphis, Tenn., 1887. SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS 151 Berlin followed the good example in 1797. Mayence in 1803, Munich in 1818, Dresden, Frankfort-on-the-Main, and Leipzig in 1834, and now this excellent institution is in use hi almost every German town and city. These buildings are used for the reception of all bodies of deceased persons which cannot be properly cared for elsewhere, and especially for the accommodation of the poor. Those who lose their beloved ones by a contagious or infectious disease receive the benefit of these humanitarian institutions ; all bodies are placed therein, without regard to age, religion, social rank, or cause of death. Every one receives the same attention. The rooms are kept per- fectly clean, and the bodies are under constant care and vigilance. Watchers by day and night are provided free by the government. The inspecting physician visits the house daily, but whenever the signs of death are not well developed, and doubts exist, he must go several times daily, and under some circumstances he must call a consultation. All the means for post-mortem examinations and for isolation and disinfection are provided. When I was in Germany, in 1884, a nephew of mine died in Lindenau, a town near Leipzig. I was present 152 SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS when the post-mortem was made in the Leichen- hauSj and found everything as well arranged as we find in hospitals. The inspection and examination of the bod- ies of deceased persons are necessary for the following reasons : 1. It is the best safeguard against the pos- sibility of premature burial, and also that the apparently dead may not be placed in cold rooms, or on ice, and frozen to death. 2. Cases of concealed contagious and infec- tious diseases will be detected, and an epidemic may be averted. 3. Murder and suicide may be detected; and if cremation, the surest method for the destruction of disease germs, is generally established, there will be also less danger that the body of a murdered person will be cre- mated and the crime concealed. 4. Life insurance frauds may be prevented. 5. It is a kindness and the last duty which the attending physician owes to his departed patient, and gives satisfaction and consolation to the members of the family. Signs of death are : Dryness of forehead, wrinkled; eyes hollow, cornea covered with film; nose drawn up, edges often black or SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS 153 brown ; ears hanging ; lips dry ; skin pale yellow or lead colored ; body, after fifteen to twenty hours, cold. The hands are less trans- parent when we hold them before a light. The first joint of the thumb is bent toward the middle of the palm of the hand, while the other fingers are bent and stand apart. Limbs are stiff. But none is so sure a sign as de- composition. There are various methods for the detection of life in cases of asphyxia or apparent death. Holding a looking-glass before the mouth, we may find the condensation of the vapor on exhalation. A candle-light or a feather held before the mouth or under the nose will show motion if there is respiration. Setting a tumbler full of water on the chest and keeping the surroundings quiet, we will ee a motion on the surface of the water if there is feeble breathing. Opening a vein, and if the blood flows there is life. Vesicatories and other irritating appli- cations will produce blisters or redness on the skin. Tying a string around the middle of a finger ; if it turns red, and after untying the string 154 SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS the blood returns, it is a sign of life, and resuscitation should be tried, just as much as if we find breathing, by vapor on the looking- glass, motion of the light, vibration on the surface of the water, or any of the other signs. If we find either of these signs of life we should try the various methods for resuscita- tion. Remove the slime from nose and mouth. Blow in pure air through the nostrils carefully and gently. Apply pressure against the chest and ab- domen, and imitate the motions of the thorax and abdomen during respiration. Percuss the body and use other methods of massage. Rub the parts of the body upward. Apply warm flannels. If we ascertain respiration, put the patient in a warm bath, and after that make irritating applications, and apply electricity. In 1883, 1 our State Board of Health found 1 Dover, N. H., is the first city in the United States, so far as I can learn, which has adopted the sanitary and hu- mane law requiring a personal inspection by the attending physician of his deceased patients ; and Dr. Horsch is en- titled to the credit thereof. The City Councils unanimously passed the ordinance April 10, 1883 ; and the citizens have for ten years heartily approved and supported it. Soon after its adoption, a few of the older practitioners induced the SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS 155 the laws relating to regulation of burials very deficient in many of our towns and cities, Do- ver among others ; and at the request of our President, Dr. Conn, I proposed the adoption of burial permits to our city government. At the same time, I advocated the passage of an ordinance requiring the personal inspection of the bodies of deceased persons as a necessary requisite for that permit. The following amendments to chap, xvii., City Ordinances, were passed unanimously : Sec. 3. Whenever any person shall die within the limits of the city, it shall be the duty of the physician attending such person during his or her last sickness to examine the body of such deceased person before the burial thereof; and to make out and sign a certifi- cate setting forth . . . cause, date, and place of death of such deceased person ; . . . and in each case of a physician so examining and reporting he shall receive of the city a fee of one dollar. Dover Medical Society to put itself on record against it, by a vote of nine against one (several of the members were absent). Now (1893) nearly all the leading physicians strongly uphold the measure. The Milwaukee, Wis., Board of Health have tried, without success, to have this measure adopted by that city. J. W. B. 156 SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS Sec. 4. Whenever a permit for burial is applied for, in case of death without the at- tendance of a physician, or it is impossible to obtain a physician's certificate, it shall be the duty of the city physician to make the neces- sary examination, and to investigate the case, and make and sign a certificate of the prob- able cause of death ; and if not satisfied as to the cause and circumstances attending such death, he shall so report to the mayor. All citizens, who have the welfare of hu- manity at heart, rejoice that the time has come when state medicine can and does receive more attention ; and let us hope that this humanitarian and sanitary measure the inspection and examination of the bodies of deceased persons will be carried out faith- fully by all medical practitioners, and that the medical profession will receive assistance and full appreciation from the people. PROTEST ENTERED AT THE DOVER MEDICAL SOCIETY MEETING OF FEB. 5, 1884. 1 MR. EDITOR : Will you please publish the following protest, which I entered at the meeting of the Dover Medical Society, held 1 Published in Dover papers. SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS 157 Feb. 5, 1884, against the resolution there voted, concerning the " inspection of deceased persons," as required by our City Ordinances ; and which protest is entered on the records of said Society. Resolution as voted " nine to one : " "Whereas, By recent actions of the City Councils of Dover, a somewhat expensive post-mortem medical examination of all per- sons deceased within its limits is required ; therefore, " Resolved, That, as physicians, we regard such general post-mortem inspections as un- necessary." PROTEST. I protest against such a resolution for the following reasons : 1st. I deem it necessary and timely that physicians should use all the means they have against the misery of being buried alive. 2d. I deem it necessary to use every meas- ure for the detection of murder, suicide, life insurance frauds, and concealed contagious and infectious diseases. 3d. I deem it necessary to gather and weigh all the evidences which are required 158 SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS for a certificate signed by the attending or the city physician, to procure a burial permit. 4th. I do not consider hearsay sufficient and lawful evidence for such a certificate. 5th. I consider an examination and inspec- tion of the bodies of deceased persons by physicians an important measure. 6th. I consider the ordinance of the City of Dover, " relating to Vital Statistics and Funeral Undertakers," sec. 3, 4, 5, and 6, chap, xvii., a necessary, timely, and just law. CARL H. HOBSCH. DOVER, N. H., February 5, 1884. HINTS TO THE PUBLIC BY A PHYSICIAN. 1 The practical physician ! This title is due to him who practices in accordance with med- ical science and his own best knowledge and judgment, without regard to sect or school, desire of undue credit, boast of being an allopathist, homoaopathist, eclectic, etc. Some practitioners are apt to hide their igno- rance under the wings of medical societies. All the claim which an honest practitioner ought to make is, that he is a physician, and 1 Published in 1869. SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS 159 does the best he can for his patients. The public may beware of him who speaks of his great cures, or promises them, and who is so Conceited as to pretend that no other physician could produce such good effects as he. No man is able to promise a sure cure ; whoever does it is either an ignoramus or an impos- tor, and the suffering community is gulled by such promises. The physician is not always understood. If he expresses his doubt about permanent cures of chronic forms of disease, such as ca- tarrh, etc., he is set aside and a promising one employed, whose experience is very limited, but who has always a dozen or more cases on hand, which he has cured (?). An edu- cated physician who combines knowledge with experience, and has the necessary grain of common sense, can certainly increase his pow- ers of observation ; but he is more sure of favorable results in a family where he has at- tended all the members and has ascertained their individual peculiarities and constitutions. But the credulity which makes many good men believe what promising pretenders say, and the patient's own conceit of knowledge, is often the cause of serious mistakes. A so- 160 SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS called cure is often accidental and no sign of knowledge or skill. The well-known line of Pope, " An honest man 's the noblest work of God," should certainly be applied to that noble profession whose members are devoted to suffering humanity. But since the noble- ness of the profession finds its limit where selfish speculation commences, we give some hints to the public. 1. If your physician bores you about his great cures, set him down as a braggart, and inform him that he ought to give his attention to your case. 2. If he calls three or four times a day, and tries to make you believe that you are very sick, and represents it as close attention, shake him off as soon as possible, before he gets your last dollar. If such a man is called after another practitioner has attended, he is likely to say "the case has been neg- lected," etc., and if the patient dies, he tor- ments the family with the assumption, "if I had been called in the first place, I think I could have saved the patient." 3. In consultation, mark the one who details his cases and brags about his great results. He is talking for effect, and neg- SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS 161 lects the patient's real welfare by attending to himself and his own vanity. 4. Be suspicious of those who join your religious society. It is done in some cases for speculation. Woe to him who joins the church for his pocket's sake ! Let us hope that on the day of judgment only his pocket may be found. 5. The wise doctor, whose face is long- stretched, who coughs solemnly and delivers oracular opinions expressed in technical terms, may appear very kind, as he asks every one he meets how his health is, etc. ; but if you have a spark of credulity, he is very likely to take you in. 6. If you call at a physician's office, and find his parchment diploma displayed on the wall, remember that in most cases the sheep- skin belongs properly on the great doctor's back, to correspond with his head. In short, constant improvement in the knowledge of medicine, of all auxiliary sci- ences, and of the chief systems of treatment, a rational and skillful adaptation of reme- dies to each special case, and a willingness to " prove all things, and hold fast to the best," without false pride of being an allo- 162 SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS pathist or homoeopathist, should be the aim of every honest physician. A LETTER TO THE NEW HAMPSHIRE HOMCE- OPATHIC MEDICAL SOCIETY. GENTLEMEN, The repeated kind invitation to attend your meetings and become a member of the New Hampshire Homoeopathic Medical Society, communicated by your Secretary, in- duces me to give this explanation. Allow me to state, with due modesty and respect for the members of the society, the reason why I do not join it. It would be inconsistent with my convictions to become a member of any medical society with the names " allopathic," " homoeopathic," " eclectic," etc., prefixed. All these societies do some good, but they are apt to be sectarian, and their unreasona- ble oppositions and prejudices prove that no one of them has that which is essential to the highest welfare of humanity. Every honest practitioner wiU acknowledge that if we ex- amine all the different modes of treatment we find only small assurance of the cure of suffering humanity. Do we increase the amount of our know- SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS 163 ledge by these sectarian oppositions and feel- ings ? Can a homoeopathic practitioner assume that before Hahnemann and his system there was no curative method ? Or can an allopa- thic practitioner assume that after Galen and his system there was no improvement? Yet both of these absurdities seem to be implied in these unreasonable, vituperative oppositions. Our medical treatment is in the same condi- tion as the theology of all the historical reli- gions and sects. No one of them has arrived at the condition of science, but they all strug- gle for it. The seed of science is in all, but its development is impeded by these sectarian ideas. Masonry, that ancient and lasting fraternity, asks no man if he is a Jew, Mohammedan, Christian, etc., but every Mason must or ought to be a good man. This broad ground seems to me one cause of its success. Medical frater- nities ought to ask no one, who wishes to join them, if he is an allopathist, homo3Opathist, eclectic, etc., but every one should be fairly examined. Do we not have a better chance to ascertain whether a person is a physician, than Masonry has to ascertain whether a person is really a good man ? 164 SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS I never have found any remedy which acts so promptly to relieve certain pains as an allopathic dose of morphia, neither have I found a remedy which acts with such prompt- ness in certain feverish actions as a homoeo- pathic dose of aconite. When I meet an allo- pathic practitioner, and tell him that I gave the dose of morphia, and he knows nothing about my other treatment, he will call me an allopa- thist. When I meet a homoeopathic practi- tioner, and tell him my treatment with aconite in the same way, he will call me a homoeopa- thist. Does not common honesty compel me to tell them that I am neither an allopathist nor a homoeopathist ? But I will say to both of them that I am a physician, and administer remedies in accordance with my knowledge and judgment. If they dispute that, all I request of them is to try me by a fair exami- nation. Would it not be better for all honest practi- tioners to unite, and form a society of physi- cians with the principle : " Prove all things, and hold fast to the best ? " Therefore, gentlemen, let us hope that your society may be the first in the State of New Hampshire to invite all those who have ac- SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS 165 quired the right to claim the name physician without regard to difference of treatment, provided it is based on scientific principles, as much as possible, and rationally adapted to the present state of science. With the sincere hope that you will assist in carrying out these principles, Yours, CARL H. HORSCH. October, 1869. A SECOND LETTER TO THE NEW HAMPSHIRE HOMOSOPATHIC MEDICAL SOCIETY. GENTLEMEN, The resolutions adopted by your society on the 15th of June, 1870, have been transmitted to me by your Secretary in accordance with your instructions, and they read as follows : " WHEREAS, a letter has been addressed to the society by Dr. C. H. Horsch, of Dover, taking exception to the title of ' homoeopathic/ and advising that the society disclaim its dis- tinctive features, and invite all to unite in an organization, * who have acquired the right to claim the name of physician, without regard to difference of treatment,' etc., thus virtually denying the truth of homoeopathy, and admit- ting that our system is based upon false 166 SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS assumptions and untenable grounds : therefore be it " RESOLVED : That we were never more fully convinced than now of the truth of similia similibus curantur ; and, believing it to be the only scientific law that has yet been adduced to govern the administration of re- medial agents, we propose to rigidly adhere to the peculiar views of the homoeopathic school, believing that the future will continue to abundantly demonstrate the superiority of that system of medical practice over all others. "RESOLVED : That while mongrel medical organizations such as have been proposed to our society in this instance may do for those who have not fully embraced the truth of homeopathy, we respectfully decline to be a partner to any such absurd and impracticable scheme, being persuaded that the interests of humanity and science alike would be compro- mised and endangered by such action." In my former letter I do not " deny the truth " of any system in the practice of med- icine ; I do most sincerely acknowledge that all of them aim at truth and science. But if the member of your society who framed those SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS 167 resolutions, and the members who adopted them, claim to be fully convinced of the truth of similia similibus curantur, and " believe it to be the only scientific law that has yet been adduced to govern the administration of remedial agents," I am forced to admit that such manifestoes are based upon false assump- tions and untenable grounds, and not upon science. The followers of the law contraria contra- riis curantur have just as much claim to call it " the only scientific law," and can give a more plausible explanation than the followers of similia similibus curantur. But if we search for a real, scientific, logical demonstra- tion of the truth of the one law, which shall prove the other law to be false, what has the earnest and honest investigator found thus far ? Nothing but conjectures backed by empty words. Credulity has prevailed in this investigation rather than science. How much members of medical societies are fettered by society notions ! That suffer- ing humanity is compromised by such schemes will be shown by the following narrative: A medical practitioner related to a gentle- man that he used cold water in a certain case, 168 SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS and stated that he had a splendid result. When asked why he did not follow it up and use it in other cases, he said : " I did not dare to." He belonged to a medical society which was not a hydropathic society, there- fore he did not dare to benefit his pa- tients with hydropathic treatment. Roman- ism would not acknowledge or appreciate anything good if it came from Protestantism. But I am sorry to say the same is also true of sects in medicine. If a patient is suffering from pain, and in- finitesimal doses will not relieve him, is it not absurd and even cruel to refrain from giving a dose of morphia, which does relieve certain pains, provided it is adapted to the case ? Do you, gentlemen, " rigidly adhere to the pecul- iar views of homoeopathy " in such cases ? It is my opinion, however, that homoeo- pathy, isopathy, hydropathy, and other mild forms of treatment, ought to be investigated by medical societies and individual physicians, as much as possible, and without prejudice. If we compare the terrestrial and atmospheric conditions of the vegetable and animal life of past ages with the conditions of the present age, we find changes which may be considered SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS 169 among the causes why modes of medical treat- ment have changed. The depleting system which was practiced one hundred years ago, when inflammatory diseases prevailed, would not be adapted to men of the present day. All modest, rational men and women search for the truth, reason and science being their guide ; they have one universal aim for the good of humanity. But whether it is prob- able that a medical society would become " a mongrel medical organization" if the members should base their treatment on sci- entific principles, and rationally adapt it to the present state of science, we leave it to such men and women to decide. Can the in- terests of humanity and science alike be com- promised or endangered by scientific prin- ciples ? " The interests of humanity and science alike" are certainly compromised and endangered by sectarian speculations and assumptions, and the truth is thereby sacrificed. It seems to me that if a system of medicine were in reality so harmonious as the above singular resolutions seem to imply, we should not find among its adherents sectarianism or want of harmony ; but have we not already 170 SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS two sects among the homreopathists, those who give low and those who give high po- tencies ? And when we consider those who give mother tinctures, and the extreme alter- natists, where would Hahnemann, or where do his followers, find the real system which reconciles or includes these conflicting schools of homoeopathy ? You may believe what you please, gentle- men ; but allow me to remind you, that mere belief and positive science are two entirely different things. Where mere belief commences, positive science has reached the last step, and cannot go a line further ; and while we are compelled to keep them separate, let us beware of mis- taking the one for the other. Belief becomes sectarian bigotry if it sets itself up for knowledge. But science is the enemy not only of ignorance, but also of its twin brother, sectarianism. CARL H. HOBSCH. DOVER, N. H., August 11, 1870. SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS 171 AN OPEN LETTER TO THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF HOMOEOPATHY. GENTLEMEN, With due respect for in- dividual opinion, your good intentions, and with thanks for your kind invitation, commu- nicated by your President, permit me to give you my reason why I do not join your In- stitute. It is against my conviction to become a member of any medical society, where names and dogmas pervert the mind, create dishar- mony, and frustrate cooperation of all edu- cated, honest, and modest physicians, for a real scientific principle in pharmacodynamics and therapeutics. The forum of reason must still find the un- reasonable conditions of vanity, jealousy, false pretensions, and flattery, which exist yet to some extent in medical societies, and there is a great deal of time wasted by the compile- ments of conjectures backed by many empty words, subjective symptome complexes, cure stories, and the folly to palm off empiricism for science. Physicians endowed with integ- rity do not talk much about cures. If we attenuate or triturate a drug, " above the 172 SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS tenth " (Hahnemann's method), and we do not find anything of the drug by chemical tests, or the microscope, can reason and sci- ence justify our cure story ? The maxim of Dr. S. Hahnemann was similia similibus cu- rentur ; curantur was assumed by more eager speculation. Let us hope that there is a majority of medical men who have the maintenance of that which the medical profession possesses of science in their heads and hearts, and who desire a cosmos out of the chaos in pharma- codynamics and therapeutics, and also a more positive scientific basis than the " something- nothings " of contraria contrariis curantur, similia similibus curantur, cequalia cequali- bus curantur. May the time come soon when such names and false claims as homoeopathy, isopathy, allopathy, eclecticism, will be considered use- less, and smiled at, like astrology and al- chemy. The agreement of the physicians of Dover, N. H., which you find enclosed, and the excellent efforts of the Faculty of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Buf- falo, N. Y., are commencements in that di- rection. SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS 173 Medical society and physician are in keep- ing with the true spirit, dignity, and harmo- nious strife for better conditions in the med- ical profession. All liberal practitioners who comprehend and strive for their own and the welfare of humanity will use the best means to remedy diseases, and will accept anything rational which other physicians kindly communicate ; but if we expect or speak of a scientific sys- tem, we must certainly have a scientific foun- dation to build it on. Our auxiliary sciences are daily better developed ; and with that de- velopment the good and true of all so-called systems may be harmonized in one truly scientific system. Sincerely, CARL H. HORSCH. May 26, 1881. APPRECIATION. 1 While we find conditions of agreement in the medical profession, there are still many subjects left for discussion j yet we can agree to disagree and meet as physician to physician in consultation, and for mutual improvement ; 1 This, and the articles connected therewith, " Sanitary Science," " Pathies and Isms," were published in pamphlet form in 1883. 174 SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS but if practitioners claim to be in possession of all the truth and knowledge regarding medication, and try to make the people believe that their mode of treatment is a " scientific system," we meet them kindly on the level of humanity ; and if they prove their superiority, we shall be glad to acknowledge it. Honest and modest physicians are in duty bound to meet their fellow practitioners on the level of physicianhood ; but it is in accordance with liberty and for the safety of the people, if they refuse to meet in council with persons who, though ever so learned, use charlatanry and make capital out of credulity. It is a pleasure to see the untiring industry and energy of many teachers of the auxiliary sciences, and the zeal of the majority of students to gather all they can from the many subjects required for an appropriate practical life, or for a professorship. After the college course terminates and the candidate has to prove his fitness for the prac- tice of medicine by examinations, he has great anxiety and passes restless nights ; but when the subjects are mastered and he receives his credentials, those are happy moments. We experience similar happiness in our SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS 175 practical life, when we have done our duty, our efforts are crowned with good results, and we receive due appreciation. It is a noble work to remedy disease and mitigate suffering ; but one of the noblest works of man is to prevent disease, and the imperative duty of every physician is to give faithful attention to SANITARY SCIENCE. This is the forum in which positive sciences and laws can be applied for the maintenance of health and life. It is a vast territory with large fields which need cultivation, and there is room enough for all the States to come in and build and provide for better sanitary conditions. If the representatives and citizens of the United States will give the necessary support to the National Board of Health, and organ- ize good state and local boards of health in all the States of the Union, they will have a safeguard fully as important and necessary as the army and navy. The people need only look upon the trans- actions and unselfish efforts of the American Public Health Association, national, state, 176 SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS and local boards of health, to see that it is for their benefit to maintain such institu- tions. Take such excellent endeavors and achieve- ments as we find in the report of the Ha- vana Yellow Fever Commission, so well executed by the members, Drs. Sternberg, Chaille, Guiteras, and Colonel Hardee, C. E., who visited the infected regions of Cuba to carry out the direction of the National Board of Health ; they received valuable information and aid from the auxiliary commission ap- pointed by the captain-general of Cuba. Many other praiseworthy efforts and achieve- ments have been made by the national, state, and local boards of health. If the people and their representatives will consider how much sickness and suffering can be prevented by good sanitation, and how many millions of dollars may be saved by such measures and well-conducted quarantine, they will certainly be willing to make the necessary appropriations. Only under the condition of liberty, and with financial aid, can science prosper ; com- prehension, appreciation, propagation, and freedom of science are the necessary condi- SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS 177 tions for the liberation, prosperity, and happi- ness of humanity. What can science, that august and necessary attribute of true manhood, do with the PATHIES AND ISMS ? These have to appeal to credulity and live on vanity and speculation ; but science, professional ethics, and etiquette demand a sound thinking faculty, reason, honesty, mod- esty, and common sense. If we had a system of therapeutics which was truly scientific, the medical profession and all intelligent people would be very glad to adopt the same. It is a deplorable condition that we find some able writers and speakers among physicians, with so much unfairness and vanity ; they denounce other schools and methods, and assume that they practice in accordance with the " only scientific law." Others pretend that they have all eclecticism, or regularity in hire ; but when we examine their transactions, we have to find empiricism instead of science, speculations and chaos instead of system or cosmos, neglecticism where we seek for that true condition of a scientific mind, eclecticism, irregularity instead of regularity. 178 SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS Better knowledge in physiology, chemistry, and other auxiliary sciences, and correct diag- nosis of diseases, will be followed by more exact pathology, and a treatment based upon such foundations is more likely to become scientific. Hippocrates, Galen, Stahl, Boerhaave, Browne, Hahnemann, and others, have made valuable discoveries, but every credulous sec- tarian assumes that his master left the all in all for medication. Where scheming regarding regularity in the practice of medicine, or for superiority of a pathy or ism, is raging, we find arbitrary medi- cine men, and their associations are exclusive castes. Every physician should practice in accordance with his best knowledge and judg- ment ; but if a practitioner has such names as allopath, homoeopath, eclectic, etc., on his sign or advertises as one or the other, it is for the safety of every honest, modest physician and the public to oppose such impertinence, just as much as we must do our best to abolish all unprofessional, dishonorable conduct. SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS 179 QUACKERY IN MEDICINE. 1 A medical quack is ' a boastful pretender to medical skill or knowledge which he does not possess. Dr. Wilks defines quackery as trading in treatment, and the Royal College of Physicians of London have adopted the following resolutions : " While the College has no desire to fetter the opinions of its members in reference to any theories they may see fit to adopt in connec- tion with the practice of medicine, it neverthe- less considers it desirable to express its opinion that the assumption and acceptance, by mem- bers of the profession, of designations implying the adoption of special modes of treatment, is opposed to those principles of freedom and dignity of the profession which should govern the relations of its members to each other and the public. The college therefore expects that all its fellows, members, and licentiates will uphold these principles by discountenancing those who trade upon such designations." Dr. A. Flint says regarding the new code of ethics in the New York State Medical So- ciety, admitting homoeopaths and eclectics 1 Published in the Dover papers and in pamphlet. 180 SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS for consultation, and the opposition to it by the American Medical Association, "The article relating to consultations should be modified as follows : Instead of saying that no one can be considered as a regular practitioner or asso- ciate in consultation whose practice is based on an exclusive dogma, I would say, in substance, no one who adopts a sectarian name or belongs to an organization in antagonism to the medical profession. I would not interfere with entire freedom of opinion, but so long as homceopathists, eclectics, et id genus omne, retain these designations, and remain in an attitude of hostility to legitimate medicine, I cannot see how members of the regular pro- fession can with propriety or self respect affiliate with them." I fully agree with the discarding of the names and false claims, but when we speak about " legitimate medicine," that can only be proved by knowledge, skill, judgment, and conduct : knowledge of that which is scientific in medicine; skill and judgment, for the adaptation and rational medication ; right con- duct toward our fellow practitioners and the public. Regarding the different modes of treatment, or so-called systems in medicine, SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS 181 any candid physician has to acknowledge that there is some truth in all, but neither contains all, and if there were as much positive science and as many facts of curing diseases as we read in medical journals and hear in medical societies, it would be well for suffering hu- manity. It is not only the empiric or ignorant practitioner who can be called a quack, but even an educated physician may become a quack by his conduct. Hahnemann, that profound scholar and man of genius, indefatigable industry, and undaunted energy, took similar measures to those of quacks when he assumed that the shaking of attenuated medicines increased the curative power, and called it " dynamization," attenuated drugs to the hundredths or thou- sandths "potency," boasted of his cures, and pretended that the " old school " never cured, baptized his mode of treatment Homoaopathy, and nicknamed other physicians, who could not agree with him, allopaths. Although his valuable discoveries and the rational part of his medication are appreciated and used by all who have studied and compre- hended them, his notions and assumptions can- not be valued tiy science and intelligence, but 182 SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS speculation and credulity have made the most of them. If we boast of our own regularity, and assume that none of Hahnemann's tritu- rations and attenuations can do any good, denounce Hahnemann's method and eclectic medication as quackery, pretend that our medication is the only legitimate one, and call all physicians who have graduated in an eclectic or homoeopathic college, quacks, we certainly manifest a share of quack spirit. A practitioner who has graduated in a so- called eclectic or homoeopathic college, where all the auxiliary sciences of medicine are taught, who can give proof of the required knowledge and skill in medicine whenever called upon by any forum, and renounces all sectarian names, is just as much entitled to recognition and affiliation, in the profession, as he who has graduated in another so-called regular medical college. If one physician has better knowledge than another, he owes it to his brother and to suffering humanity to im- part it ; but if speculators in the practice of medicine try to take a standpoint above hon- est physicians by such designations and other pretensions, and will not listen to good advice, we let them sincerely alone. SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS 183 Some physicians, and among them two deans and one professor of homoeopathic medical colleges, have expressed the opinion that the following resolutions are illiberal, illogical, and against Homoeopathy. The agreement of the physicians of Dover, N. H., has one signer who graduated in an eclectic and one in a homoeopathic medical college ; all administer remedies in accordance with the methods which they consider rational, and neither will give up what he has learned ; but they do agree that such names and false claims are full as much against common honesty and modesty as patent medicines and all nostrums, and it is inconsiderate or impertinent to use them. Harmony in the medical profession, and united efforts for the best medication, will receive better attention when such designations are discarded and practitioners meet in consultation as physi- cians, and prove that degree by knowledge and judgment. The following agreement is for no other purpose than for harmony among physicians, and that they meet in consultation as physi- cians to physicians, and united strive to agree upon the best method to cure diseases and mitigate suffering : 184 SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS DOVER, N. H., Dec., 1881. We, the undersigned, assuming that entire liberty of thought and freedom of opinion are absolutely essential to real progress in the science and art of medicine : Resolve, First. That we will in no way approve, sanction, or hold allegiance to any organization, society, or name, as Homoeo- pathy, Allopathy, Eclecticism, and any other pathy or ism, which, by giving exceptional prominence and authority to any exclusive medical dogma or mode of practice, tends to limit such freedom of thought or opinion. Second. That we will recognize, profession- ally, only such honorable and well-accredited physicians as in their medical associations and conduct conform to the spirit of the foregoing resolution. LEVI G. HILL. PAUL A. STACKPOLE. T. J. W. PRAY. JOHN R. HAM. CARL H. HORSCH. JOHN G. PIKE. JAMES H. WHEELER. CHARLES A. FAIRBANKS. JASON W. DRAKE. CHARLES A. TUFTS. ALBERT G. FENNER. M. C. LATHROP. EDWARD S. BERRY. WM. B. MACK. D. T. P. CHAMBERLIN. M. B. SULLIVAN. A. NOEL SMITH. H. R. PARKER. JEREMIAH HORNE. JUSTIN G. HAYES. SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS 185 EXTREMES. 1 1. The most regular of all " regulars," who calls everything " quackery " or " moon- shine " except what comes from him or his associates, who takes and gives only large " active " doses of medicine ; supposing he were sick, and his stomach could not retain even the smallest dose of his medicines; a friend comes to him at that time, who has had good results from attenuated, so-called homoe- opathic remedies ; he prescribes for him, and the regular who has suffered for months re- covers in a few days, and the very medicine which he has denounced as " quackery " and " moonshine" has cured him. 2. A homo3opath, one of the purest of " the purists," who swears to every word which his master Hahnemann has said and written, believes and tells the people that allopathic medicine injures or even kills ; he has very severe pain, his medicine does not relieve, he gets impatient, and will take a full dose of the " old-school medicine " to relieve his suffering. 3. An eclectic physician, one of the 1 Published in pamphlet, 1883. 186 SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS sect which takes and gives only vegetable medicines, who perhaps believes that mineral medicine will bring those who take it into a similar condition to Lot's wife ; but if he has a sour stomach will risk a dose of magnesia or soda, and if he is very sick and has taken " botanic medicines," even up or down to "vegetine," he will take mineral medicine which benefits him. To meet such practitioners in consultation is just as much waste of time, and against the welfare of the patients, as to meet with advertising charlatans. It is in accordance with liberty and justice, when physicians exclude all pretensions. May the time come when all differences in the medical profession will be conditions of the past, for harmony and suffering hu- manity's sake. If you take a post-graduating course, take it in the country of which you know the lan- guage ; otherwise, you can only gaze and not hear ; medical study requires all the senses, in order to comprehend the teaching of the subject. SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS 187 FACTS REGARDING THE VOCATION OF A PHY- SICIAN ; THE PEOPLE ; AND QUACKERY IN MEDICINE. 1 The duties of a physician are arduous and full of care ; there is no profession, business, or trade where there is so much and constant exertion of mental and physical strength re- quired as in a long and conscientious practice of medicine. The sentence, "Vita brevis, ars longa" of father Hippocrates is well applied to physicians. When we consider the exposure to all kinds of weather and to con- tagious and infectious diseases, disturbance of night rests, interruptions at meals, and mental troubles of various kinds, it is certainly a fact, and no wonder, that the lives of the majority of physicians are short ; but long is the art and science of medicine ; because there is no earthly life long enough for an exhaustive study of one of the many auxiliary sciences required for a true physician ; all he can do is to study the subjects as thoroughly as con- ditions and his talent permit, and continue the same to the end of his life ; and combine with his efforts, love of mankind, love of 1 Written in 1883. 188 SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS nature, integrity, charity, generosity, and honesty, and discard vanity, jealousy, self- ishness, brag of practicing in accordance with an only scientific system of therapeutics, and trying to deceive people by assuming designa- tions, and all other dishonest unprofessional conduct. Goethe, in his sarcastic criticism of the pro- fessions, gives the advice to a student, through the mouth of a devil, beginning with Well, any simpleton may seize The soul of Medicine with ease, You simply study through and through The world of man and nature too, To end with leaving things to God To make or mar them. 'T is in vain That you go mooning all abroad, Picking up science grain by grain ; Each man learns only what he can ; But he that has the gift and power To profit by the passing hour, He is your proper man ! Faust. It is a deplorable condition that there are some individuals in the medical profession who follow the advice of a Mephistopheles, and some short-sighted persons who judge the profession by their standpoint ; but the development of reason makes the number smaller from year to year. SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS 189 I think it would be better for educated, honest physicians, and the people, if the States employed their medical practitioners in a similar way as the United States appoints and supports the medical officers of the army and navy. All rational citizens would be willing to pay a tax for the preservation and restoration of health. The excellent efforts which are made by the National Board of Health, State and local boards of health, American Medical Association and other medical societies and the American Public Health Association, for a higher standard of education, and for better sanitary conditions, are certainly highly praise- worthy. A more appropriate degree of classical culture, as a necessity for admission to medical colleges, a longer term of study, compulsory clinical instruction, and the establishment of post-graduate courses of study everywhere, will be followed by more correct diagnoses of dis- eases, comprehension of the necessity of thor- ough inspections of the bodies of deceased per- sons, and post-mortem examinations, for the better security against being buried alive, and better vigilance in cases of concealed contagious and infectious diseases, murder, suicide, and life-insurance frauds, and by exact statistics of 190 SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS births, deaths, and diseases. All these con- ditions are demanded by a truly scientific pro- fession, and by all intelligent people. The establishment and maintenance of such reforms will also be the best means of over- coming the evils of " Quackery in Medicine." FEEE MEDICINE. 1 PHYSICIANS : We meet here for the purpose of bring- ing about greater harmony among all the practitioners of medicine in our town, and to shield the public and ourselves against false pretensions. We agree not to use presumptuous names, e. g., allopathy, from the Greek words sig- nifying other, and morbid condition: "the method of medical practice in which there is an attempt to cure diseases by the production of a condition of the system, either different from, opposite to, or incompatible with the conditions essential to be cured." The term "allopathy" has not been used by medical societies, and only partisans among the phy- sicians have called themselves aUopaths. Such 1 A paper read to an assembly of physicians in Dover, N. H., December, 1881. SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS 191 terms have been used only by medical parti- sans and sects in medicine, probably for specu- lative purposes and to distinguish themselves from those physicians who could not accept their dogmas and pretensions. All impartial men and women will agree that " medical society " and " physician " are sufficient to designate the medical profession. So also : Homoeopathy, from the Greek words signi- fying like, and affection : " the doctrine or theory of curing diseases with very minute doses of medicine, by producing in the patient affections similar to those of the disease." Hydropathy, from water, and affection : " the water-cure, a mode of treating diseases by the copious and frequent use of pure water both internally and externally." Isopathy, from equal, and affection. " This mode of treatment was expounded by a physi- cian in Germany, who administered remedies in doses similar to those of Hahnemann ; but he classified the diseases in accordance with the remedies indicated, as sulphur diseases, silver diseases, etc." Eclecticism, from out of, and to choose: " the art or practice of selecting from different systems." 192 SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS Thompsonianism. " This mode was intro- duced by Thompson, who treated the patients with vomiting, sweating, and stimulation." The founders of the various modes of treat- ment were men of indefatigable industry and undaunted energy, and some of them were profound classical scholars ; but their minds must have been perverted by vanity when they assumed that each one of those so-called systems contained the all-in-all for the cure of diseases, and when they baptized the children of their brains with those peculiar names, or something - nothings. Strife and wrangling about pathies and isms have frustrated many good endeavors for human improvement among medical practitioners. Like all par- tisan and sectarian schemes, these hobbies in- terfere with better work for the welfare of humanity. Let us use honestly what we pos- sess of science, and strive to make a cosmos in our own minds out of the chaos of the conflicting schools of medical treatment. Re- ligion and science are the most misjudged and misused words we have ; but let us endeavor to use them rightly. When we are called upon to meet a new comer in consultation, let us not refuse to go. SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS 193 But when we find an advertising cure-promis- ing pretender, let us attend to the immediate wants of the patient first ; then let him know what we think of him, and inform the family. If they still desire to have such a person con- tinue visiting the patient, let us then refuse farther aid, because such individuals are dis- honest and are likely to interfere with our sincere efforts. Let us try to convince prac- titioners, who have been educated in colleges with the names "eclectic" or "homoeopathic " prefixed, that such titles cause contention. Let us kindly invite them to come on our plat- form, which we will make so broad and free that the physicians of the world may find room and contentment on it. If they then continue to proclaim their dogmas, they create exclusiveness, and compel us to let them sin- cerely alone. We will pay due deference to all rational modes of medical treatment, and appreciate, maintain, and propagate know- ledge and truth, whether it comes from Galen, Hahnemann, or any other man (Paracelsus, Stahl, Boerhaave, Braun). The title " regular physician " seems to be also a superfluity; because, if persons have not studied medicine and cannot give proof of 194 SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS their acquirement, they are not " irregulars," but simply no physicians. Let us do our best to convince the people that we have their welfare at heart, and have no desire to form an exclusive medical caste. If we carry out our agreement consistently and conscien- tiously, guard against vanity, jealousy, selfish- ness, and prejudice, an all-wise, all-just Deity and the intelligence of humanity will bear witness that we have a true standpoint as physicians, and that we are better enabled to act in unison for the relief of suffering humanity. SECTS IN MEDICINE. 1 Reasons why those practitioners of medi- cine do not act in accordance with rationality and honesty who pretend to practice exclu- sively any so-called therapeutic system : 1. All physicians ought to know that every one of the so-called therapeutic systems contains some valuable discoveries, which if rightly adapted will benefit suffering human- ity. 2. True physicians are in duty bound to ascertain and adapt such discoveries, whether 1 Published in Dover, N. H., Daily Republican. SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS 195 they belong to the old school or the new school. 3. Medical colleges, medical societies, and physicians, with any presumptuous names and false pretensions, cause useless contentions, limitations, and neglect of imperative duties which teachers of medicine and practic- ing physicians owe to themselves and to humanity. 4. No physician can stand alone and hold an exclusive name or dogma without sacrificing the necessary conditions for mutual improve- ment among physicians, and the welfare of his patients. 5. If physicians use such names and ex- clusive dogmas for selfish ends, or have not sufficiently developed reason or sagacity to see their folly, they can no more expect to have the respect of rational people, or assistance from educated and honest physicians, than veritable quack doctors can. 6. Reasoning people will beware of such pretensions and follies, but credulous persons are deceived and imposed upon by the names " homceopathist," etc., displayed on a sign, while the practitioner sometimes falls far short of the demands of his profession. If 196 SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS you are a stranger in a city, try to find a true physician for your own safety's sake. PHYSICIAN. QUESTIONS ADDRESSED TO THOSE PHYSICIANS WHO PRETEND TO PRACTICE EXCLUSIVELY ALLOPATHY, HOMOEOPATHY, OR ECLECTI- CISM. 1. Is either of the so-called systems of medicine void of all valuable discovery for the relief of suffering? 2. Does one or the other contain the all-in- all for the cure of diseases? 3. Do physicians act up to rationality, or even common honesty and modesty, and for the welfare of the patients, who assume that they practice an exclusive system? 4. Are physicians justified in promising a cure, or boasting, after the patients recover, that they have cured them ? 5. Can we prove that we ever, or that we never, cured an acute or chronic disease with our medicines ? 6. Do we tell a truth when we give rem- edies in the form as first taught by Hahne- mann, and call it allopathic treatment ? SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS 197 7. When we administer medicines in full doses to ease our own pains or our nervous- ness, and give effectual antidotes, is that homoaopathic treatment ? 8. Is the administration of so-called con- centrated eclectic medicines, or the exclusive use of roots and herbs, and claiming that poisonous mineral medicine is never used, eclecticism ? 9. Is it in accordance with the interpre- tation of the word " eclecticism " to say we give only eclectic medicines ? 10. Do the statistics of either system prove anything more, thus far, to the scientific and modest mind, than that the milder forms of medications are preferable to the so-called he- roic remedies, for the effort to remedy diseases ? 11. Could a Humboldt, a Huxley, or any other well-developed mind endorse exclusively either of the present modes of treatment ? 12. Can a scientific treatment start with a belief in contraria contrariis or in similia similibus, and do not reason and knowledge find their outline where belief commences ? C. H. H. 198 SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS STATE MEDICINE AS TREATED IN GERMANY. 1 Staatsarzneikunde, medicina politico forensis, is the doctrine which includes all the conditions of medicine and the med- ical profession of the state. I. Gerichtliche Medicin, medical juris- prudence. II. Medicinalpolicei, medical police. III. Medicinalverfassung, constitutio medicinalis, the conditions and regulations of physicians, dentists, veterinary surgeons, apothecaries, midwives, and nurses. I. Medical jurisprudence, medicina fo- rensis. Henke defines this doctrine : " The application of the principles (knowledge and art) of medicine, and its auxiliary sciences, for the explanation and decision of doubtful law questions." Medical jurisprudence is taught in the uni- versities. Hundreds of works treating on this doctrine are existing. Bonn's " Medicina fo- rensis specialis " was published in 1690, and I think it is one of the first treatises on that subject, but the works of Hippocrates, Aris- totle, and Galen contain treatises on medical 1 Head to the Dover Medical Society. SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS 199 jurisprudential subjects. No one can receive a degree for the practice of medicine who has not passed just as satisfactory examinations on this subject as in anatomy, physiology, pathology, and all auxiliary sciences. In every city we have Gerichtsarzte, judi- cial physicians ; this position can only be ob- tained after an extra examination ; they are the experts and have to make medical juris- prudence and psychology and all their branches a specialty. Their duties are to attend to all jurisprudential questions within their jurisdiction, and give their judgment regarding written testimonials and affidavits of practicing physicians, veterinary surgeons, apothecaries, and others. II. Medidnische Policei, medical police. In this forum medical principles are pro- jected, practiced, and the law applied for pub- lic health, and as it is the duty of any state and the members of its institutions to look after the welfare of the people and appoint police forces to enforce the laws, it is a neces- sity to have a well educated and regulated medical police, to ascertain and maintain the best principles and conditions for the preser- vation and restoration of public health. 200 The duties of its officials are : 1. Prevention of quackery and the enforce- ment of the law against quacks and nostrums. 2. The arrangement, regulation, and en- forcement of quarantine in epidemic diseases. I remember the cholera epidemic of 1832, in Saxony; every individual was obliged to have a passport, and was not permitted to en- ter a city or neighboring town without show- ing it. Military guards with loaded guns were stationed in the high and by ways and at the gates of cities. 3. Proper arrangements against the spread of contagious diseases. 4. Regulation and enforcement of good sewerage, drainage, ventilation, heating, and lighting of public and private buildings, and prevention of all nuisances. 5. Inspection of drinking water and public water supplies, baths, and mineral waters. 6. Inspection of foods and drinks, vege- tables, groceries, and animal food. Every animal is examined before and after it is butchered ; fish are generally sold alive, large fish excepted. The sale of diseased and tainted animal food, unripe and rotten vege- tables, ice cut on filthy places, adulterations SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS 201 of food, drinks, and medicines, must be strict- ly watched and controlled, and offenders are punished by confiscation, heavy fines, and even imprisonment. 7. Drug stores are also inspected, remedial agents examined, and the druggist reminded of his obligation to keep fresh and well-pre- pared extracts and tinctures, that all the med- icines should be pure and unadulterated, not to keep nostrums, and to prepare prescriptions with care, readiness, and precision. Every apothecary in Germany is compelled by law to keep all drugs which are under the class and number of officinal medicines. For neglect of duties and violations of the law he is liable to heavy fines, confiscation, sus- pension of his business, and also imprisonment. Apothecaries have to study three years and pass examinations in natural philosophy, chem- istry, botany, mineralogy, and other branches which belong to pharmacy, before they are permitted to take charge of a drug store. It is also a duty of the medical police to keep physicians, surgeons, dentists, veterinary surgeons, apothecaries, midwives, and nurses within their respective spheres. III. Medicinalverfassung, Constitutio 202 SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS medicinalis, medical constitution. This is the part of state medicine which contains all the conditions and regulations of physicians, surgeons, apothecaries, dentists, veterinary surgeons, midwives, and nurses. In general, this forum has the care to supply the state with properly educated medical men, keep them to their respective duties, and regulate their degrees. The following regulations were inaugurated in Prussia, 1685, and have been adopted and executed in similar ways in Austria, Bavaria, Saxony, and other German states. Every Regierungsbezirk (district) has its own med- ical faculty ; all are under the jurisdiction of the universities and the state councilors. The degrees of medical councilors are : I. Medical councilor of the state, Medi- zinalrath. II. Professors of the university. III. Medical councilors of the district, Bezirksphysicus. IV. Medical councilor of a city, Stadt- physicus. All these are the medical authorities, and they receive their salaries from the state ; they are the judicial physicians, Gerichts- SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS 203 arzte, police physicians, Polizeiarzte, and the forum for examinations and regulations of all which pertains to the welfare of the medi- cal profession and the people. All statistical reports of prevailing diseases, deaths and births have to be sent to the Stadtphysicus, and he forwards the same to the Bezirks- physicus, and this medical councilor sends them to the councilor of the state. In the armies there are similar regulations. The degree of practicing physicians are : I. Promovirte practische Aerzte, gradu- ated practical physicians, Medicince et Chi- rurgice Doctor es, medicine and surgery doc- tors. They are permitted to treat all diseases, external and internal; they are required to have a classical college education of six years, and four years university education ; and they have to produce testimonials from the Gym- nasium, classical college, or prove by an examination their maturity for entering the university, and after four years study they have to produce testimonials of all the aux- iliary sciences, in order to receive permission for the examination of the state, Staats- examen. During three mouths the candidate has to 204 SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS attend three patients in the Klinic, and three surgical cases, and operations ; he has to give full histories and the daily observations of all the cases, write a thesis, dissertation ; then comes the verbal examination, Approbationis- examen, and the Disputation, disputation ; here we have mostly medical jurisprudential subjects. II. Wund'drzte erster Classe, Medico Chi- rurgen, surgeons of the first class. They have to pass all the other examina- tions in medicine and surgery ; but are not re- quired to furnish a thesis and also not to go through the disputation ; they are permitted to treat internal diseases. III. Wund'drzte zweiter Classe, surgeons of the second degree. They have to pass exami- nations in surgery only, and are not permitted to treat patients with internal diseases. The second and third class have to study three years. Veterinary surgeons, dentists, midwives, and nurses have their studies in their re- spective departments, and have to pass ex- aminations. In the universities of Austria it is obligatory to attend a prescribed number of lectures SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS 205 in each year and at the end of the course to pass examinations. The candidate has to an- swer nine questions on each subject. Three in the preparatory examination, Vorprufung, three in the public examination, Hauptpru- fung, and three in writing, schriftliche Prufung. If the candidate does not give satisfactory answers in one of the prescribed subjects, al- though he may have passed a good examina- tion in all the others, he is obliged to go through the whole course another year. Any student who fails to give satisfactory answers in one or the other doctrine for three successive years, is expelled as unfit for the medical profession, and that may happen in the first or even in the fourth course, after years of hard study and when the poor student has spent all his property. One of my classmates, a good, industrious fellow, failed for three years in the examina- tion of anatomy ; he entreated the professor to save him from expulsion, and with tears in his eyes said, " Professor, if I am expelled, I know not what to do, unless I kill myself," he received the stern answer, "If you can- not do otherwise it is better that you should 206 SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS kill yourself than to be allowed to practice medicine and injure or kill hundreds of others." In 1848, when we struggled for more lib- eral conditions, a petition for freedom of teaching and learning, Lern-und-Lehrfreiheit, was sent to Emperor Francis of Austria ; that clever man said : " I grant you every- thing ; " and we felt for a few months in that eventful year that the people and we aca- demic citizens had everything. Emperors, kings, aristocrats, and priests were frightened and fully as yielding and extremely polite as some of our political candidates before elec- tion, but after a few months of our happy vision the despotic and arbitrary conditions were reinstated, because they are a necessity for monarchy, aristocracy, and priestcraft. When reason, intelligence, science, justice, and honesty are universally developed, mon- archy, aristocracy, priestcraft, and quackery must become conditions of the past. The institutions and regulations of state medicine, as enacted in Germany, have many excellent points ; let us hope that they may be adopted in this country. In a despotic country they are likely to be arbitrary and SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS 207 compulsory, while in a free nation they be educational and optional, for it is only under the conditions of liberty that science can prosper and do the most good for human- ity. The establishment of the National Board of Health and twenty-seven State boards of health are good commencements, and when all physicians, local boards of health, and intelligent people cooperate for better sani- tary measures, the best parts of state med- icine, as enacted in older countries, will be adapted to this best institution among civ- ilized nations, the Republic of the United States of America. Physicians come often to your sick-bed with the same disease which they pretend to cure. As soon as we use a designation or name for religion or medicine, as Christian, Mo- hammedan, etc., Allopathic, Homoeopathic, etc., we pervert the real meaning, and have discussions about nothing. Before the forum of science no one opposes 208 SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS the honest effort to create a system of medi- cine, but every one demands that it shall be based on science, and not on names and spec- ulations. We read in the Bible (Gen. chap. 1.) that when Jacob died, " Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians." Thus, at the death of Jacob, 1700 years before the birth of Christ, Egypt possessed men who practiced the art of medicine. This is the most ancient authentic monument that we possess of the Healing Art. It is not all quackery that is denounced as such, even in medical societies. Microbes are not always the cause of dis- ease, but effects of disease. Biological chem- istry is yet in its infancy. A science is never composed of unknown things. A medical man said the profession ought to stick together : that is true and right, in cases where impositions take place against an honest physician's pursuit and truly profes- sional work. We also should, in the pursuit SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS 209 of real scientific knowledge and truth, but we must oppose that vile effort of dishonest brag- garts of the profession, who stick together and try hard to manifest that their science is the only and highest in existence, and that they have all the truth. The stringent orthodox Allopath fails with his adherence to palliatives and neglects the other curative measures. The orthodox Ho- moeopath is likely to neglect indicated pal- liatives, and by both notions, the poor patient has to suffer. The change which pathology has undergone since the development of bacteriology, com- pels us to use the microscope, not only to as- certain the results of disease, but to search for the cause, prevention, and cure of diseases. A physician can stand alone, assume that his treatment is superior to that which other physicians practice, and when he gets a pa- tient from another practitioner, denounce his mode of treatment ; there are always credulous people enough in any town or city, who em- ploy such a person j he may have a large prac- 210 SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS tice and make money, but no rationally devel- oped person can call him an honest and true professional man. The public demands physicians who do not profess any one system exclusively ; other- wise they would only be able to afford help in a one-sided manner. Nature is not governed by systems and theories of human invention. The public good requires physicians who are allopaths, hydropaths, homoeopaths, isopaths, or followers of Radimacher, etc., all in one ; they must or ought to know, by study and practical experience, what each of these sys- tems is capable of accomplishing. We consider that cremation is the most effectual means of decomposition of conta- gious infectious matter. In every city and town there are thousands of human bodies buried on hills, many of whom have died of contagious and infectious diseases ; and in the valleys people drink the water from wells. Is there not a possibility that diseases are con- tracted in this way ? Furthermore, the time is coming when the ground will be needed for building purposes, especially in large cities. SANITARY AND MEDICAL WRITINGS 211 There is no element in chemistry which so effectually destroys germs as fire. The honest and modest physician will not promise to cure his patients, but will do his best to prevent and remedy disease. He will not be jealous if people praise the good efforts and results of another physician, but will en- joy such appreciation and strengthen their confidence in the attending physician. He will value and carry out the good principles, actions, and truth coming from great men, and he will strive to come nearer to them, reach them, or even to do better than all savants who have existed or do exist. He cannot believe that an all-wise Creator can have partiality and prefer or give a king, priest, or professor extra grace; only credulous persons and undeveloped reason can believe or support such notions. MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS TRAVELING KINGS. EDITOB INDEX: When will the time come that presidents, senators, representatives, and citizens will com- prehend better what liberty and equality demand, and act more in accordance with the Declaration of Independence ? The oath to support the Constitution of the United States reads : " I do solemnly swear that I will sup- port the Constitution of the United States of America, and that I do absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty whatever, and particularly to Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, of whom I was a subject." But when a king or a prince comes here, our officials ape royal and aristocratic notions, make appropriations of $50,000, and spend 1 This oath is now altered to suit each nationality. 216 MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS the money of the tax-paying people for a hypocritical, troublesome, silly display. When the princes return home, they are likely to laugh, and think how many people could re- ceive the necessaries of life out of the $50,000 during this cold winter ! Furthermore, such appropriations give cheats good chances. If the President, with his now double salary, or aristocratic officials, like such parades, they have perfect liberty to make them, but they ought to do it at their own expense, or assess each other in the same way that rumor says they do to carry out election frauds. The fugitive, when he came to our free shores, could travel as any free man or woman. We tried to teach him what liberty meant, as much as we knew of it; if he needed aid, private individuals or societies gave it. Let us treat kings and potentates like any other citizen. International intercourse and cour- tesy are better attended to by treating all foreign citizens in the same manner as we expect them to treat us. If we desire trade with the people of the Sandwich Islands, or any other nation, let us trade fairly and hon- estly with them, and they are likely to seek commercial relations with us ; and if we want MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS 217 a new island, let us treat it as we do our territories. If our young princes and officials travel in foreign countries, they will not run the risk of being snubbed by royalty or aristocracy if they let them sincerely alone ! If all our so- called great men will travel everywhere as free and independent citizens, they will manifest more true dignity, spare themselves a great deal of trouble, and save the people's hard- earned money. As long as missionaries invade the Sandwich Islands, and sell tracts and Bibles for high prices to the natives, and cheat them, we may receive their king with all the royal pomp we know of, but the islanders will not trust us. Let us hope and strive to act up to the principle that " all men are created free and equal ! " Yours sincerely, CARL H. HORSCH. DOVER, N. H., Dec. 16, 1874. TO ELLIOTT COUES, M.D. DEAR SIR, You receive here some of my observations regarding the senses and souls' actions of some animals. 1. I had a dog three years old, mixed breed, between setter and Newfoundland. He was 218 MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS an excellent retriever. One day I saw a bunch of lilac blossoms swimming in the middle of a river, nearly half a mile broad. I pointed it out to my dog, and he brought it to me. If I put something on a slanting tree, he would climb like a cat and get it. One evening when I was in my bed he left his place and came very slowly in front of the bed, as it appeared to me, to find if I was sleeping ; then he lay down on the sofa, but as soon as I moved he started quickly and went back to his bed. When I was testing his acuteness of scent I took a piece from a heap of crushed granite between two fingers, and with a new wash-leather glove on my hand laid it on the other side of the heap ; the dog did not see it when I took it up, nor when I laid it down, but he brought the same piece, and did it many times afterwards. When I left my home I gave him to a friend ; and after an absence of eight years I found him blind and deaf, but his scent had not left him ; when I came near him he manifested full as much affection as when we roomed together from 1849 to 1852. 2. I owned a cocker spaniel ; he was as much attached to me as the first dog. I MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS 219 presented him to two ladies, after I had him a year, but almost every time when I stopped with my carriage near his new home I found him on the seat. One day I spoke sharply to him, and said, Go home ! From that day he never would come to me, yes, even growled when I called him. I tried many times, and in various ways, to gain his affection again, but to the last day of his life he scorned me. CARL H. HORSCH. AN APPEAL TO THE WOMEN OF DOVER BY A MAN. The sincerity and energy of the Women's Temperance Committee have induced me to make this appeal. Let us hope that the en- ergy of those ladies will accomplish more in this line than it has thus far in the good and praiseworthy endeavor to stop the liquor traffic and drinking. We ask every woman to ex- amine herself if she is right on the following questions : Are you temperate in regard to eating, drinking, and dressing ? If there are any among you who are in the habit of eating, daily, candies, cakes, pies, pickles and other spiced food, we ask you to 220 MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS limit their use. We come to you in the name o those poor diseased women, who are suf- fering with dyspepsia and the diseases which are caused by this malady. We appeal to you who are in the habit of drinking tea or coffee three times a day to limit it as much as possible. Not to be tee- total, because we do not believe in it. Tee- totalism seems to us an extreme on one, and drunkenness on the other side, and there never was a law in history, and we do not think there is one in existence now, by which there are so many hypocrites made as by the " Maine Liquor Law." Food and drink are gifts of our Creator, and the reason how to use them is also a gift of God. We appeal to you, ladies, to be less extra- vagant in regard to dress. The superfluous quantity of dry goods which many carry around must be a burden, and with the unne- cessary amount of work which you have with your trimmings, and other fashions, you make slaves of yourselves, and we consider it as one of the causes by which we are deprived of servants to do housework, because many of the girls who would do that are busy in millinery MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS 221 and dressmaking. We entreat you, ladies of the Temperance Committee, to assist us in this work, and teach your sisters how necessary it is, for the preservation of their health, to do away with those excesses. The kindness of the women towards men, which is manifested in this temperance move- ment, ought to propagate a similar movement among the men, for the benefit of our good sisters. We think it the best way to remind them as often as occasion may require it. Allow me to warn you, ladies, and mem- bers of this society, to beware and keep out of the society sectarian oppositions and feelings. We consider those among the first causes which frustrate such good endeavors as your temperance movement is. Yours with the highest esteem for your sincerity, A CITIZEN. DOVER, N. H., 1869. REPLY TO A CRITICISM. A very unkind notice appeared in the Dover " Enquirer " of Sept. 30, 1869, regard- ing the " Appeal to the Women of Dover." Every honest, reasoning woman and man must smile to see the words : " a very poor bill 222 MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS of indictment against the women." I have no indictment against the women, and with regard to the fair sex generally agree most sincerely with Schiller when he says : " Honor the women ; they twist and weave heavenly roses into earthly life." But does this writer assume that every woman is perfectly tem- perate with regard to eating, drinking, and dressing? To those only who have imper- fections in this line the appeal was kindly directed. With the same honest and kind feelings as I do it almost every day verbally, I entreated the ladies of the " Women's Tem- perance Committee to assist in this work." I beg them to state if there was anything in my appeal to offend any lady. Their desire is to do good. This was the aim of my feeble effort. If I have done it bunglingly, the public must be my judge. The unguarded play upon the word " man," and the injustice done to my honest endeavor, compel me to disregard the reviewer as my critic in the future. I sign my name in order to give him a chance to decide upon my manliness. I re- quest him to give me the same chance. Let us hope that a free American repub- MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS 223 lican paper may never again make such criti- cisms upon an honest endeavor. CARL H. HORSCH. A GERMAN LIBERAL ON THE WAR. MY DEAR FRIEND, The article in the " Index " entitled " The War from a German Standpoint " seems to emanate from ideas similar to those of Rev. Mr. Williams' sermon on " Observance of the Sabbath," in which the " home born " enjoyed a monopoly of rights. Hans Breitmann says : " Only the Deutschers have the original ideas." With all due respect for Mr. C. Weber's love for our good German nation, I must dis- agree with him when he holds national notions above individual liberty. He seems to con- found the two nations with the two men, Napoleon and Wilhelm, certainly not the best men out of these two great nations. The war commenced with these two. Not only the French army, but both armies, had to fol- low their leaders like a flock of sheep. My German brother says : " Germany is neither fighting for monarchical nor republican prin- ciples ; she is simply carrying out the defense of her home and her rights against the desire 224 MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS of a robber nation." I should be glad to agree with him if he would say, not Germany, but a part of Germany. Only a part of her people were driven from their firesides to hunt the fox, Napoleon. Now that the fox is caged, the monarch who is full of that con- ceit of the " grace of God " forces his troops to devastate the country where the fox lived. As to " robber nation," I am quite confident that, if my German brother were a French citizen and lived in the invaded country, he would be very likely to call the Germans a " robber nation " too. Do not blame the French if they do so now. Does my liberal f rieijd sympathize with him who had to run away from Berlin in 1848 ? The people who gasped for a liberal govern- ment drove him out. Will this same King William refrain from interfering with a liberal government in France ? I would rather trust the men who are now struggling to maintain a liberal government there, and whose watch- word is : " Give us liberty, or give us death," than a king who had his own countrymen slaughtered in the streets of Berlin because they asked for a liberal government. Their history is a better guarantee than his. Oh, MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS 225 that he and his able minister, Bismarck, might be inspired with the modesty and goodness of a Washington ! They would assist the French to form a liberal government. This kindness would be a better defense than all their castles and fortresses ; and, instead of having the hatred of a great nation, they would have the love of all the civilized na- tions of the world ! " Germany's mastery is the peace of Europe ! " If France is conquered, may there not be a war between Prussia and Austria or Russia ? The prophecy of Mr. Weber seems to me as uncertain as English neutrality. If the people of all civilized na- tions get the mastery over their despots, aristocrats, and priestocrats, and liberty is once fairly established, then is it far more likely that Europe and the whole civilized world will indeed have peace ! Let us have free men and free women, and let every free nation help all other nations to freedom ! Liberty first and nationality second ! CARL H. HORSCH. October 13, 1870. 226 MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS A QUESTION TO MB. HEBERLING, WHO ARGUES THAT "TO TAKE INTEREST ON MONEY IS WKONG." EDITOR INDEX : Suppose that Mr. Heberling, after working hard all his life, found his health so poor that he could work no longer, but having laid by a little surplus of earnings, invested it so that the interest would just support himself and family, while the principal would not be sufficient to carry them through life without suffering want ; under these circum- stances, would it be right or wrong for Mr. Heberling to refuse to take the interest? Suppose that the merchant who borrows his money makes a profit of equal amount by his sagacious use of the capital, thus securing enough to support himself and his own fam- ily ; would it be right or wrong to refuse to take the profit ? Will Mr. Heberling please answer through the " Index " ? CARL H. HORSCH. DOVER, Oct. 13, 1873. A man who has not outgrown vanity does not allow us to be a friend. MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS 227 USURY AGAIN. MY DEAR FRIEND ABBOT, The laws of every civilized nation sanction and protect legal interest, just as much as they do wages. Messrs. Heberling, Hutchinson, and Tucker have failed to give us a comprehensible expla- nation "why interest should not be taken for money." Mr. Heberling " has not space enough in the * Index ' to explain why men should not charge for the use of their money," but in what he thinks to be a satisfactory answer to my questions he compares interest- taking with stealing. In accordance with the extreme and unde- fined code of morals of those gentlemen, every third man or woman must be a thief. Mr. Tucker seems to be very sensitive and sar- castic on that question ; but he must certainly make his new code of morals more just and comprehensible, before he can convince reason- able moral people that legal interest-taking is unjust. We hope those gentlemen will find space enough somewhere for a plain and con- vincing demonstration of their position ; but as long as it remains their theory or belief only, they ought to abstain from making pretentious 228 MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS charges and comparisons. Otherwise, we must consider them in the same category with those extra-religious people who believe that every- body will be damned who does not believe as they do. CARL H. HORSCH. DOVEB, Nov. 17, 1873. AN APPEAL To the benevolent ladies and gentlemen of Dover, by the members of the Grand Army of the Republic : You are doubtless aware that a Post of the Grand Army of the Republic has been estab- lished in our city, composed entirely of men who have been in the service of our country. We are pledged to bestow our sympathies upon, and render material aid to, any of our comrades, or their families, who by reason of misfortune are rendered destitute pledged never to allow a soldier, or those dear to him, to suffer for the want of a friend, or friendly benefactions. Our country's call, ladies and gentlemen, was your call, and it was promptly responded to. Some of those who gallantly served for the maintenance of the principles unfolded in the MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS 229 Declaration of Independence are now in dis- tress : others have been assisted during their sickness by the Post, and when at last the messenger of death had come, we have borne them with sad hearts to the City of the Dead. Our order is composed of men with large hearts, but generally with small purses ; men who gave themselves at the call of duty and loyalty, and who, through a four years' war, found their greatest inspiration in the encour- agement and support of the people whom they served. And now, when they call for aid in so noble a cause, they feel assured that the same support will continue to be given them. With this assurance, we have decided to hold a fair, Nov. 30, in the City Hall, and all are earnestly entreated to assist us in our charitable endeavor. Every aid will be thank- fully received, and we promise the utmost care in the distribution of the funds ; and should there be a surplus after rendering aid where absolutely needed, we pledge our honor that it shall be sacredly kept as a nucleus for a Soldiers' Monument fund. C. H. H. Nov., 1876. 230 MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS MASONRY. This ancient institution has kept its purity, notwithstanding all the assaults, insults, and misrepresentations which have been made against it. Its secrets are similar to the secrets of nature after we have ascertained them. We are not afraid, and do not think, as some people do, that they are bad, or the products of Beelzebub. Masonry is as broad as humanity. Special religions and politics have no place here ; but some members will bring their private notions into it. On the 23d of March, A. L. 5876, we had a public installation and banquet in Belknap Chapter, Dover, N. H. The ceremonies are very impressive, and the charges given to the several officers are broad and excellent. Every man, Jew, Mohammedan, Christian, and Radi- cal, can accept them. But in one of the charges the phrase " Christian charity " has been put in. With due respect for all good endeavors in any church, we must say this is a gross mistake, and anti-masonic. We hope that it may be taken out, and carried to one or the other of the Christian churches where it belongs. We have here, like the Free MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS 231 Religious Association, no offensive Christian, Jewish, or Mohammedan charity; but every good Mason, just as well as every good man, ought to practice human charity, that is, char- ity to all human beings. Just as " all men are created free and equal," so ought all men to be charitable to each other. Specifications or special claims imply or manifest partiality and assumption, which we find in the Church and among ecclesiastics ; but when our minds are developed to common sense and common honesty, we must have common charity and common virtue. CARL H. HORSCH. DOVER, March 26, 1876. Quacks live on misrepresentations, and it is a shame that an enlightened free press gives them aid by publishing unreasonable promises and cure stories. In 1853 I sent a letter to an editor, regarding publications of nostrums. Although he advocated reform and truth, he replied that " the paper had to live on such advertisements." I am glad to say that I know one paper which has lived without such impositions on credulity since 1870, and that is the Boston " Index." 232 MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS MASONRY. SECOND ARTICLE. The principles of this time-honored insti- tution are similar, with regard to religion and politics, to those of Free Religion ; but just as all human beings have imperfections, so have human societies ; and it is true that Masonry is not yet as broad as humanity. We hope, however, that we shall develop to a broader platform. Operative Masonry re- quires a strong, healthy man, and the found- ers had to exclude sick or old men and women. Improvements are made, and if all male citizens shall learn to grant women the same rights which they themselves have, I think speculative Masonry will have to learn the same lesson. We are already in- stituting degrees for our good ladies. No man is excluded on account of race. Almost all races have Masonic lodges ; a majority of narrow-minded step-brothers do make such exclusions in their lodges. Christians try to exclude Jews, and perhaps vice versa ; but it is no more Masonic, than it is liberal to ex- clude women from voting. In my article on Masonry I did not mean Masonic charity, but most earnestly " human MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS 233 charity," and I differ not at all from Mr. M. G. Griffin, when he says that there is too much spent for " foolish finery." Yes, when we see those gaudy regalias, uniforms, bands, and military, it confirms most conclusively Darwin's theory of the link between the ape and man. I thank Mr. Griffin because he has pointed out many imperfections, and we hope he has given our brethren some good hints. When I speak of the imperfections of societies, I am very sorry to say that even the majority of radicals, and the Free Religious Association, are not sufficiently "imbued with the principles of charity, justice, and equality," but we hope sincerely that it will be better soon, and it makes us all happy to see the good leaven working. The next cen- tennial year will be celebrated by men better developed to manhood. " It must be so ! " CARL H. HOBSCH. DOVER, June 1, 1876. POLITICAL PARTIES AND VOTING. There will always be two or more parties who oppose each other; we have, therefore, to vote with the one which comes the nearest to our convictions, in order to carry out the 234 MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS principles of a republic as well as the average capacity and honesty of officials and the people permit. We have to accept the best conditions which exist at the present time. If I could not find better political or reli- gious parties than as they are represented by Emperor Wilhelm and the Pope, I would vote for Wilhelm ; I would vote even for the Pope as against a worse candidate. Who will deny that the United States is the freest nation existing, and the Republican party the best political organization known? We hope that the beautiful principles of the Lib- eral League and perfect secularization of church and state will be carried out by that national party just as well as the abolishing of slavery was. I do agree with our good friends F. E. Ab- bot and F. A. Angell that the secularizing of the state is very important ; but who has to accomplish this secularization ? Is it not one or the other ruling party ? I therefore think that a " protest ballot " is a vote thrown away, and not voting at all is a neglect of a citizen's duty. Did those abolitionists who did not vote abolish slavery ? If Gov. Hayes is in favor of this anti-Republican fraction, MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS 235 the American Alliance, it shows a pitifully perverted condition of his mind. Send him an honorary membership of the Liberal League and the " Demands of Liberalism," which ought to convince him of the folly which that deluded institution advocates ; but the ma- jority of the Republican party are against it, and therefore it will vanish like Know-nothing- ism. The " Index " is certainly the best pioneer for a truly free press, and if hundreds of such papers were established and each one had a large circulation, we should come nearer to the principles of a true republic. But until then, let us work in the best way with the material we have for the ballot-box. CABL H. HOKSCH. DOVER, N. H., Nov. 12, 1876. AN OPEN LETTER TO MR. BENNETT. DEAR SIR, With a full appreciation of your sincere efforts "for the maintenance and propagation of liberty, you will allow me to give you my opinion regarding your " Open Letter to Jesus Christ," and also of some communications which appeared in your paper. Your pamphlet contains many pithy sentences ; but will it benefit humanity if 236 MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS better developed liberal minds ridicule and speak slightingly of persons like Jesus? My dear brother in humanity, if that fully as sincere man as you are yourself could an- swer your letter, would you expect a kind fraternal reply? Is it not more likely to convince those who have such extravagant and erroneous opinions about their Christ, and would it not promote the cause of lib- eralism, if you able writers would criticise and communicate the truth in such a kind way that even the orthodox Christians and others would be compelled to call it kindness and charity, or at least respectful ? When Mr. Francis E. Abbot logically ex- plained why he could no longer be a Christian, an orthodox lady said to me, " Mr. Abbot says that he is not a Christian, but I call him a true Christian." That sincere lady ex- pressed the idea that Christianity means everything that is good and true, and there are many who have the same idea. Now, is it liberal to offend such good people, who cannot see beyond the circle of their church? Is it not an absolute necessity for a liberal to cherish what he finds good and true in any historical form of religion and its sacred MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS 237 books, but to explain kindly what his reason compels him to call error ? With due respect, I compare some of the communications in your paper with Solanum dulcamara (bittersweet), which is a good remedy for certain brain diseases, providing it is rightly adapted and given in the right doses. The excellent and sweet letter of Mr. James Parton of Dec. 29th ult., is an appro- priate administration and dose. But " H. B. B.," with his " Wet Blanket," and George Francis Train, will have to take their own dose and wrap that " Wet Blanket " around them to cool off. Every one who has his reason developed to the standpoint of liberalism, and not per- verted by speculation or vanity or jealousy, and who knows what the " Index " has done and is doing for the cause of liberalism, must disagree with such wrangling attempts to criticise a good endeavor. Is there anything in Mr. Abbot's editorial in the " Index " of Dec. 20, 1877, but a kind and needed advice and his opinion ? "A law against obscene literature," sounds so plau- sible that it certainly requires all the best ex- planations to convince the senators and rep- 238 MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS resentatives why it ought to be repealed or materially modified. The three sentences which Mr. Abbot proposes would certainly be a valuable addition to your petition. Sincerely yours, CARL H. HORSCH. DOVER, N. H., Jan. 8, 1878. SOCIALISM. The excellent lecture on Socialism in Ger- many and the United States, by Professor Henry Fawcett (" Index," Jan. 16), contains the true statement, " Capital which is ad- vanced by the state is just the same as cap- ital which is owned by private individuals. It cannot be procured like water rained down from heaven ; some one must have labored to produce it." The debts by which all the states in the civilized world are burdened prove to me that the states give more than they can afford, or rather that they are still too much used for the selfish ends of officials and cunning speculators. A better and more appropriate regulation of the relations be- tween the individual and the state is the most important aim of true socialism ; and in order to accomplish it we must have perfectly equal MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS 239 taxation, and perfect separation of church and state, representation, better regulations of the salaries of officials, fair dealings of con- tractors with the state, abolition of primogen- iture, where it exists, and similar reforms. The law might provide that, if a capitalist leaves to his heirs over (say) $100,000, the surplus should go to the state, of which the individual is a citizen, for charitable pub- He purposes. Better education, vigorous agitation, and general cooperation will help to develop true liberalism and true socialism. When the human mind is ripe for these blessed con- ditions, they will be appreciated and enjoyed. CARL H. HORSCH. DOVER, Jan. 18, 1879. WHAT IS THOUGHT OF US. An opinion sui generis. The following is a letter which we must publish just as it comes to us. It is genuine " home-spun." We should like to go fishing with the writer ! " Forest and Stream." DOVER, N. H., Jan. 19, 1879. MR. EDITOR AND COOPERATORS OF " FOR- EST AND STREAM : " Your noble effort to 240 MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS make " Forest and Stream " a valuable edu- cator and journal has been well carried out thus far, and it will be appreciated and en- joyed by thinking persons who read it. When we meet a man who loves the study of nature, and is a true sportsman, we gen- erally find a gentleman and a whole soul. Only once in a life of fifty-six years have I met two individuals who belonged to an honored sporting club, the Oquossoc Angling Association, Indian Rock, Lake Rangely, Me. who impressed me with the idea, if the theory is true that whenever a child is born somebody dies and the soul of the dying man goes into the child, that at the time when those two leather-dealers of New York city were born, nobody died. In an article, " True Sportsmen and Sporting Literature," " Forest and Stream," Jan. 9, we read : " The great trouble nowadays is the want of judicious discrimination between a sporting man and a sportsman. The former must, as a consequence, be over just to himself with the bottle ; must deal at the pool-room and consequently visit the gaming-table. The latter must be either a painter or poet, a thorough naturalist (Darwin's views excepted), must keep the MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS 241 ten commandments, the revised statutes, and Thirty-nine Articles of the Episcopal Church." With due respect for individual faith and convictions, the gentleman will allow me to state that no thorough naturalists of the nine- teenth century can afford to except this only ra- tional theory of development of our illustrious Darwin ; but men like Professor Huxley and others have accepted it. An English bishop said in an assembly : " Ladies and gentlemen, is it possible that the learned Professor Huxley can believe that we spring from a monkey?" The Professor replied, " Ladies and gentle- men, if it were a matter of choice whether we spring from a monkey or something else it would be different, but science deals in in- vestigations and facts ; but if it were as the learned bishop wants it, my choice to spring from a monkey, or from a bishop of the Episcopal Church who can put his brains to no better use than to ridicule science and its facts, I certainly should choose the mon- key." The game and fishing laws of New Hamp- shire are good, but many wish (with me) that the slaughter of striped bass in Exeter and South Newmarket rivers which is now going 242 MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS on should be stopped, and that the laws were executed ; but we find it a sad fact that irra- tional, superannuated laws remain on the stat- ute books, and rational laws are treated in the same way as two ministers of the gospel ex- ecuted their Sunday law, when they were on the Grand Lakes, Maine, in June. They re- quested the man who carried them over the lakes to bring them back to Princeton on Sunday. The man remonstrated and said, " You gentlemen teach us not to work on Sunday." One of the divines replied, " If I prove to you that it is your duty to get us out of here where we are plagued by mosquitoes and black flies, will you do it ? " The man promised he would. " Now, you find in the Scripture, ' If thine ox or thine ass falls into a pit on the Sabbath, get him out ; ' and have you ever seen two bigger asses than we are, to come here to be all bitten up by these creatures ? " The man found the con- fession too strong ; he skipped that elastic law, with those who pretend to execujbe it at home, and shipped them back. The Ditmar powder is excellent and all that Mr.' Ditmar claims for it, but will he be so kind as to explain why the dealers sell a can MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS 243 which weighs eleven ounces, can and all, and call it a pound ? Hoping that you will re- ceive a circulation of your valuable journal to your full satisfaction, I am, Yours truly, C. H. H. LETTER TO " FOREST AND STREAM." Another " Home-spun," which you will find " 'alf and 'alf " in its construction : 'alf Hinglish and 'alf German. ED. MR. EDITOR, It would give me great pleasure to have you go fishing or gunning with me, and I would let you fish the best holes in the trout-brooks, and when we went hare hunting put you on the places where you would get the first and most shots, if you did not act like my friend W , with whom I went after hare, or rabbits as they are called here, to Parsonsfield, Me. He had a very large double-barreled gun, and I placed him where I expected the hare to come ; when the swift creature arrived and ran very near the feet of my nervous friend, he sang out, " Here he is, here he is," and he ran from place to place with the gun on his shoulders, after the hare, but forgot to fire. It was so comical tkat 244 MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS I laughed so heartily that my chest ached full as much as the shoulders of my friend after carrying the heavy gun all day. Yours truly, C. H. H. QUESTIONS TO THE REPEALERS OF THE LAW AGAINST OBSCENITY. A few questions to Mr. T. B. Wakeman and all those who eulogize his elaborate language. We find in the Constitution of the United States (Article I., Section 8) the right " To establish post-offices and post-roads ; "To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times, to authors and inventors, the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries ; "To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court." 1. Has Congress no power to pass and exe- cute a law against obscenity, and protect the post-office against that evil as much as possible ? 2. Is it true that " there is not a peg left " for the maintenance and propagation of the better part of the rational law against the transportation of obscene matter through the post-office, and has the position which Mr. MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS 245 Wakeman has proclaimed " swept away " all reasonable demands for such a necessary measure ? 3. Are not all rational beings, who know the so-called Comstock laws, and Comstock's hypocritical, selfish execution of the same, opposed to a part of them, and shall we throw the clean child, with the bathing-water and its filth, away ? Mr. James Parton, in his eulogy to Mr. Wakeman, says, " I would join heart and soul in hanging a wretch who for a little money would either write or publish or sell such works, and yet it seems to me that the espionage of the mails by an illiterate person is even a worse evil than that. It menaces the very citadel of liberty." If the law is " im- mediately and unconditionally repealed," how is Mr. Parton going to convict and hang the " wretch " ? By lynch law ? Liberty ! thou hast a variety of advocates ! And does not that even more menace the citadel of liberty than the examination of the mails by an illiter- ate person ? Is it necessary to repeal a law because an incapable agent abuses it ? Is it not better to impeach that agent and dispose of him? 246 MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS Can any law be executed to the ultima- tum? Can there not as much be executed of the postal law against the transportation of obscene productions as of any other law which you consider constitutional ? Will any one of those gentlemen who are for repeal affirm that this law against obscenity, with all its imperfections, has done no good at all ? Is it not a sad fact and disappointment that some of these traders in liberal literature, editors of very doubtful publications, who were, though wrong- fully, arrested for blasphemy and obscenity, have proved to be calumniators and fanatics, and have they not manifested full as much falsehood, libel, hypocrisy, defamation, and ugliness as Mr. Comstock and Rev. Joseph Cook? And is it not true " that the friends of decency and honesty must look for safeguards elsewhere ? " Can they find it in the shops, sheets, speeches, and transactions of the indi- viduals above mentioned ? C. H. H. We expect and think that others should be as we are ; but they are as they are. MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS 247 THOMAS PAINE AND JOSEPH COOK. In 1775, after the battles of Lexington and Bunker Hill, the " hero-author " of the Amer- ican Revolution entered the room where Ben- jamin Rush, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and George Washington had met together. Franklin introduced Thomas Paine. All were in gloom, and Franklin said, " What is to be the end of all this ? Is it to obtain justice of Great Britain, to change the ministry, to soften a tax ? " Paine answered, " These States of America must be independent of England ; that is the only solution of the question." Washington leaped forward, and taking both of his hands besought him to publish his views to the country. In Dec., 1775, his work entitled " Common Sense," which caused the Declaration of In- dependence, was published. " That book," says Dr. Rush, " burst forth from the press with an effect that has been rarely produced by types and paper, in any age or country." At the time when Washington feared that his disheartened, half-starved, and ill-clothed troops would entirely disband, Paine brought forth his series of essays called " The Crisis." 248 MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS " These are the times that try men's souls," was the watchword at the battle of Trenton, and Washington himself set the pen of Paine above any sword wielded that day. Thomas Paine was acknowledged by the legislatures of all the Colonies, and by Congress itself, to be the leader of American statesman- ship and the soul of the American Revolution. The tribute of his greatest enemy was in these words : " The cannon of Washington were not more formidable to the British than the pen of the author of ' Common Sense.' ' In his " Age of Reason," Paine says, " I be- lieve in one God and no more, and I hope for happiness beyond this life. I believe in the equality of man, and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make all our fellow crea- tures happy. I do not believe in the creeds professed by the Jewish, Turkish, Roman, Greek, and Protestant churches, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church." Joseph Cook is a man of zeal ; but it would be better for him and more agreeable to his hearers if he possessed more modesty, fairness, and charity. When he spoke of Thomas Paine MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS 249 he seemed to be taken with a chill. He acknowledged that Paine had done something during the Revolution ; hut he narrated, some- what sneeringly, that some boys hooted the aged man, and made fun o his red nose, which, Mr. Cook said, looked like a carbuncle. Those rude, ignorant boys must have been influenced by the misrepresentations and def- amations which had been hurled at that con- sistent freeman by clergymen, lecturers, and other zealots. Mr. Cook eulogized Lyman Beecher, but with contemptuous pity mentioned his son ; meaning, in all probability, his (Cook's) far superior orthodox stepbrother, Henry Ward Beecher. Mr. Cook also spoke of Keshub Chunder Sen. Let us see how the religious sentiments and convictions of that reformer correspond with the opinions of the lecturer. The follow- ing is the reply of Chunder Sen, when strong efforts were made in London to induce him to become a Christian : " I am now a Christian, only more than a Christian. I love Jesus, but I do not stop there ; I love more than him. My Christ is God ; not in one man, but the God in humanity." " You," he said, " have 250 MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS too much Christ, but too little of the spirit of Christ. God cannot become a mere man, but He dwells in all pure souls." He hoped that "all the world might become Theistic," but he did not believe it " could become united on any religion that was less than that." With due deference to Mr. Cook's belief, and to the ideas expressed in his first four " wonders of the world," we think if his sixth and seventh " wonders " had been applied and carried out, this country would now be under a monarchy ; and no republican institutions could have been formed or have existed. The- ocracy can rule in the church, but a truly secular government can have nothing to do with that, nor any special form of religion. If the believers in one or another creed obey the laws of a republic, they all fare alike. We are not a Jewish or Christian nation, but a union of men. If the principles so well defined in the " Declaration of Independence " are consistently carried out, complete secular- ization of church and State and equal taxation will be established, and a true republicanism will develop and spread over the civilized world. HISTORICAL JUSTICE. March 22, 1884. MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS 251 THOMAS PAINE. The article in the " Daily Republican " of March 15, 1884, headed, "Be Consistent," contains several good hints ; but does the writer think that the pioneer of independence needs defenders ? If a man's mind is not perverted by bigotry, and he reads Paine' s works, he must admire that man as much as the Revolutionary leaders, for the constant efforts to shake off the yoke of monarchy and establish liberty. The time is coming when the sentiments laid down in the "Age of Reason," "Common Sense," and other works guiding the way to freedom, will become universal. Then all men will have reached and enjoy a true republi- canism. C. H. H. GOVERNOR CURRIER'S THANKSGIVING PROCLA- MATION. MR. EDITOR, Every person who compre- hends what republican principles and a secular government demand will sanction the senti- ments in the Thanksgiving proclamation of our venerable governor. Only selfish individ- uals, who have the conceit that their forms of 252 MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS religion are the only true ones, can agree with such a statement, in a Republican paper, as the following : " Governor Currier's agnostic proclamation for a day of Thanksgiving is not commended very highly by the pastors of churches gener- ally." If these pastors considered the excellent efforts for the development of a free secular nation made by Washington, Jefferson, Frank- lin, and others, and if they comprehended the Declaration of Independence, they would find that Governor Currier's Thanksgiving proclamation is a rational and appropriate recommendation to a free people, for giving thanks to an intelligent, impartial, and just God. A CITIZEN. A COMRADE SPEAKS. MR. EDITOR, The article " Halt," which appeared in the " Daily Republican " of Jan. 16, 1884, ought to be heeded by all societies and churches ; because if we are the law ma- kers, we ought not to be the law breakers ; and do not all honest persons despise the axiom of the Jesuits, " the purpose sanctifies the means " ? MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS 253 What good people we would be if we had as much practicing as we have preaching, and as much morality as we have moralizing ; then we would have in our religious organizations sincere belief instead of make-believe. If a trader said, I give you that article for cost price, it would be so; the press would not have in its columns, moralizing on one side of the sheet and advertisements, and recommen- dations of nostrums on the other ; the Board of Trade would advocate one of the most important principles of this republic, equal taxation, instead of exemption from taxation, whereby the so-called first people of one town try to beat the same class of another. Let us be a more law-abiding people, have less backbiting, always say what we do believe, and also what we do not ; advocate what we do know, and acknowledge what we do not know, and we are sure to come nearer to the demands of true faith, morality, and universal liberty. A COMRADE OF THE G. A. R. Work for humanity, and you receive the thanks of humanity. If you are selfish and work for yourself only, you receive your thanks only. 254 MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS LASKER AND BISMARCK. The late lamented Dr. Lasker was a patriot, a man for the people and of the people ; his life efforts were for better conditions in Ger- many and for the welfare of humanity. The energy, learning, and cunning of Prince Bismarck have been used for the formation and the maintenance of a German empire for his royal master, whom he helped to his eleva- tion, and who elevated him to a prince. In the " Economist," N. Y., March 15, 1884, we find the following : " Just now the particular antipathy of the American people is Bismarck, the despoiler of Denmark, the evil genius of France, the Juggernaut of Germany, the tyrant of Prussia, and the arbiter of Europe. For this man of * blood and iron,' the American people had a kind of admiration but no love, and when he took occasion to make them feel his despotism they flashed back the indignant protest of freedom with lightning quickness. It is now demanded that before Dakota be admitted as a State the name of its capital, which a year ago was christened ( Bismarck,' shall be changed. All this is only Natural, after all. MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS 255 There is something in American republicanism that separates it from monarchical Europe by more than 3000 miles of salt water." The strife for the autocracy of his emperor seems to be Bismarck's aim and ideal, and it is one of the conditions of royalty which create misery ! Some people call Bismarck " a great man," but all we can say is that he is a shrewd diplomatist, and only for the people, and in friendly relation with this and other countries, as long and as far as his selfish ends are served. A republican citizen, who comprehends and enjoys liberty, can have no admiration for that kind of greatness. Reason and freedom demand opposition to all royal schemes and assumptions. When Bismarck made his speech in the Reichstag, and tried to defend his actions regarding the resolution which he returned to our government, loud cries of " Shame " came from the Left, the people's side. The Left is generally considered the weaker side, but there are some men on the Left of the German Reichstag, who, like Lasker, can handle the Left just as well as the Right. May the time come soon when the Right and the Left in, 256 MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS every congress and in all countries are equally for the people and for universal liberty. A KEPUBLICAN. AN OPEN LETTER TO HON. CARL SCHURZ. THE RIGHT OF SUFFRAGE. The principles of the Declaration of Inde- pendence, that sublimest of human expressions, must be admired, maintained, and propagated in accordance with the degrees of development of reason and conditions. Let us not blame poor human beings because their conditions of mind and education are such that they do not comprehend and enjoy the best develop- ment of reason, which grants equal human rights to all men, universal suffrage and liberty ; but if we wish to bring humanity to those truly happy conditions, we will attain them by kind and correct explanations and education. Monarchs, aristocrats, priests, and citizens carry out and slice out those rights as they comprehend them. A monarch must keep as much of those rights from his subjects as his reason and the conditions of his monarchy demand, otherwise those parts which he may conscientiously consider his divine rights would be used by other persons as human rights, and MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS 257 his monarchy would become a democratic, or republican form of government. The aristo- crat claims these parts as his birthright, the priest for his church rights, and the citizen for his sex rights only. The United States of America is called " the land of the free and the brave," and as we all enjoy to be called free citizens, let us therefore earn that attri- bute free; but as long as we can say to our mothers, sisters, wives, and daughters over twenty-one years of age, You cannot vote, we are not fully developed to liberty, because we are to some extent in the same condition as George III. and some of his ministers, who said to the people in the Colonies, You cannot have the same right of suffrage as our English subjects. As this subject is fully as important as the Indian policy which that able statesman and honored citizen has thus far carried out better than any other man, will he kindly give men and women his opinion and counsel ? Shall such women as Miss A. E. Carrol and thou- sands of others be any longer deprived of the ballot box, where they are fully as much needed as Miss Carrol was in our Civil War ? Sincerely, CARL H. HORSCH. 258 MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS EXTRACT FROM PRIVATE LETTER. To JOHN GBEENLEAF WHITTIER : MY DEAR BROTHER IN HUMANITY, Your excellent poem on Strasburg has thrilled every fibre of my being with joy. More joy will I have if I know a man or woman who can say and feel, " I never am unhappy." A written yes from you, or from any human being, will stimulate my longing and aspiration towards that only true " Trinity, " Knowledge, Good- ness and Almighty Power. Yours sincerely, CARL H. HORSCH. PRIVATE LETTER TO JOHN G. WHITTIER. MY ESTEEMED AND KIND FRIEND, I heart- ily thank you for your very good letter. It is to me a treasure. Your poems and these lines are good guides to the happy condition of trust and contentment, and an excellent stim- ulus for the longing and aspiration towards the Better. I am convinced, my dear and noble brother, that if all intelligent nations carry out the doctrines which you and few others teach, and if statesmen give us such lessons, and their MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS 259 pupils comprehend and act in accord with them, as " The Poor Voter on Election Day," and religious teachings such as the " poor and old man " gave Tauler, we will come nearer our honesty, nearer our reason, nearer, our God, to thee. When I only consider how much you have aided one of the best achievements of this generation, abolishment of slavery, and what your literary efforts are doing towards univer- sal reason and universal liberty, I must think that you enjoy a happiness which I hope and strive to attain. Sincerely, CARL H. HORSCH. LICENSE LAWS. 1 I give here a brief opinion and some expe- riences regarding license laws. This important branch of excise duties, rationally adapted to the conditions of civilized nations, benefits the government and the people. The manufacture and sale of poisons and alcohol are just as necessary and beneficial as 1 A paper read to the Medico-Legal Society, New York, June, 1889. 260 MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS other supplies for animal and vegetable life, but a rational and safe application and adap- tation of those articles can be efficiently con- trolled by competent persons and well con- ducted license laws. 1. The States in which such laws exist receive thereby a great part of a rightful and needed revenue. 2. The manufacturing and selling of alco- holic beverages are placed in the hands of responsible citizens, and this business can be conducted as legally and lawfully as any other. 3. Competent inspection and examination of those articles will be safeguards against adul- teration. 4. It will be for the interest of the licentiates to be vigilant, and try to prevent illegal sale of liquor. 5. Dealers in such beverages have the best opportunity to guard against drunkenness, and can be made directly responsible and forbidden to sell to minors and known drunkards. 6. A well-construed license law will give security to the employment of thousands of legitimate laborers, to honest business men, and to millions of well-invested property. Honesty, modesty, integrity, and common MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS 261 sense demand such protection and security from the government of any state, especially in a free and independent nation. There are among the manufacturers and dealers of alcoholic beverages as many intelligent, honest, and noble persons as in any other business. If they receive the rightful protection from the state, and due appreciation from the people, appropriate social conditions will be improved by their efforts, and many gloomy notions overcome. In tastily arranged, well-managed restau- rants, coffee-houses, and concert-gardens, where good meals, coffee, tea, wine, and beer are enjoyed, people can take their needed recreation and comfort. If such public places are conducted by intelligent, responsible persons, ladies and ministers of the gospel can visit them, enjoy what their appetites crave, and also extend the noble mission for temperance. In Germany I have seen pastors taking beer in a hotel, after preaching their sermons on Sunday, and nobody found fault with them. I have also heard of a case where an Amer- can judge condemned a liquor dealer to imprisonment for a third offense of selling 262 MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS liquor, and coming from the courthouse went into a saloon, bought and drank his whiskey. Rational and rightful laws are good aids to keep the people in due bounds ; but unwise, inexpedient laws, like the Sunday and Maine liquor laws, pervert even the minds of ministers and judges. Cases are known where officials, and so-called temperance speakers, have vio- lated secretly what they advocated violently in public. Prohibition may do well as " a writ in Eng- land, proceeding out of a superior court of law, to prohibit and prevent an inferior court from proceeding to hear or dispose of a suit or matter over which it has no jurisdiction," but as a law prohibiting manufacturing and selling alcohol and alcoholic beverages it is inexpe- dient and unjust. 1. It is an infringement upon personal rights. 2. An established traffic and legitimate business and labor would be suppressed. 3. Millions of intelligent and temperate persons would be deprived of pleasures and beneficial enjoyments. 4. The State would have the financial loss of an important and necessary revenue. MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS 263 5. Zealous advocates of prohibition charge legal and legitimate business men, who have licenses from the United States government, with criminality, and in their mistaken zeal perhaps unconsciously insult better temperance men than they are by their notions and stric- tures regarding intemperance. Some of their peculiar statements create pity or laughter before the forum of reason. One of those zealots made the assertion that Jesus did not use wine at the " holy supper," but grape juice ! Another gives his opinion in the "Boston Evening Transcript " of March 21, 1889, as follows : " I am very decidedly in favor of the consti- tutional amendment prohibiting manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors, and I believe in enforcing it, if necessary, at the point of the bayonet. We have had hell at the helm long enough." 6. Such prohibition is likely to cause illegal manufacturing, home distilleries, cellar, kitchen, garret bar-rooms, and liquor smuggling from other States. Under the management of the traffic by irresponsible, unscrupulous individ- uals, drunkenness is more likely to increase, and rational efforts for the right use of such 264 MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS beverages, and prevention of abuse, are frus- trated to a great extent. Mental sobriety considers inebriety as a disease ; it is inherited, and the afflicted ought to be treated like other patients, by kindness, experience, and skill. The best places for the cure of such persons are well arranged and managed institutions ; imprisonments and other punishments of such individuals are unjust and cruel. Temperance in all things will be promoted by education, persuasion, and appropriate social conditions. Food and drinks are given by our Creator for our subsistence, and the reason to use them is also a gift of God, and has to be devel- oped and cultivated by individuals, States, and nations. The right use of food and beverages is a very important study for every person during life. If it is necessary to abstain from one or the other kind, rational persons will do it, or follow the advice of better educated minds. Total abstinence from any kind of supply for our subsistence and pleasures, for the sake of pleasing religious, political, or social notions and fanaticism, is an unreason- able, slavish submission, and a deprivation which will cause exhaustion. MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS 265 Abuses and excesses which are harmful and interfere with public welfare coine under the jurisdiction of authority and the law of the land. In a life of over sixty-seven years thirty- one years and five months in Europe and thirty- six years and five months in America my ex- perience has brought me to the conclusions which this paper contains. It is evident that all well-wishing people do their best against the evil of drunkenness, although they may differ in their methods. Let us hope that the best may succeed soon. How utterly silly or insignificant a person appears, who tries to raise himself or herself above his or her capacity ! Wisdom and knowledge cannot be counterfeited. When will the time come that the civil rights bill is passed and appreciated ? Now in this so-called land of liberty and civilization we find that a man with a black face is still abused ; he may be a gentleman and have a pure, white soul, but many white-faced men stain their souls black by depriving the black man of equality and human rights. 266 MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS I am not a scholar nor a scientist, but what little I possess of scholarship and science I enjoy and try to keep unpolluted by van- ity and selfishness. Just as people laugh at a clown, so is it with a so-called great man ; he may say or write sometimes very simple things, but many call them grand and beautiful, and give them undeserved admiration and credit. I consider it an abusive term to be called a great man ; it is a flattery which arouses van- ity. If I were the profoundest scholar and wisest man in the world, and people would call me a great man, or a prominent man, I would reject it, and would say, I am a man, and you may be in many respects more of a man than you find me to be ; but I endeavor to be a man, and act manly. Is it not a burning shame when free citizens are so depraved as to sell their votes ? Do they not violate the holiest which any free man has (and women ought to have), the ballot, besides their faith? And are those men worthy of the honor and confidence of the MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS 267 people, who buy votes? Oppose them, free citizens of America, and give them the pub- lic condemnation instead of your vote. Humanize, educate, and persuade people kindly, and intemperance will decrease sooner than by all hypocritical partisanship, and self- ish legislation. Knowledge is continually increasing, grow- ing, and every year adding to our material comforts, our mental enjoyments, and our ability to act aright. A scientific fact is that light, heat, electri- city, chemical action, are only modes of motion. Somebody may say they are ag- gregations. To the question, What pro- duces the motions ? I will answer, the same tendency which exists hi nature to fill space or a vacuum. " There is no sound without an ear to re- ceive it." Does not a deaf man feel the vibration? Blind men can distinguish col- ors by their feeling ; and who can assume . that the vibrations in air and light do not ex- UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles ~'~-~i~ This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. Form L9-20m-7,'61(Cl437s4)444 0013545603