4;/: 
 
 t'< 
 
 *' /1 1 
 
 I 
 
<. COVRISE! 
 
 OF 
 
 POPULAR liECTURESi 
 
 AS DELIVERED BY 
 
 FRANCES WRIGHT, 
 
 IN NBW-YOHK, PHILADELPHIA, BALTIMOSE, BOSTON, CINCINNATI, 
 
 ST. LOUIS, LOUISVILLE, AND OTHEH CITIES, TOWNS, AND 
 
 DISTRICTS OF THE UNITED STATES 
 
 WITH 
 
 THREE ADDRESSES, 
 
 VARIOUS PUBLIC OCCASIONS. 
 
 AND A REPLY TO THE CHARGES AGAINST THE FRENCH 
 REFORMERS OF 1789. 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 NEW-YORK: 
 
 PUBLISHED AT THE OFriCB OF THE FREE ENftUIREH, HALL OP SCIENCE, 
 
 BROOME-STUEET. 
 
 % 
 
 1829. 
 
Souihem District of Netc-York, ss. 
 
 Be it bemkmbered, That on the 8th day of October, A. D. 1829, in 
 the fifty-fourth year of the Independence of the United States of America, 
 Frances Wkight, of the said District, hath deposited in this office the 
 title of a book, the right whereof she claims as author, in the words fol- 
 lowing-, to wit: — 
 
 " Course of Popular Lectures, as delivered by Frances Wrig-ht, in New- 
 York, Philadelpnia, Baltimore, Boston, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Louisville, 
 and other cities, towns, and districts of the United States. With three ad- 
 dresses, on various public occasions. And a reply to the charges against 
 the French Reformers of 1789." 
 
 In conformity to the act of Congress of the United States, entitled, " An 
 Act for the encouragement of Learning, by securing- the copies of Maps, 
 Charts, and Books, to the authors and proprietors oi such copies, during 
 the time therein mentioned." And also to an act, entitled, " An Act, sup- 
 plementary to an Act, entitled, an Act for the encouragement of Learning, 
 Dy securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the authors and 
 proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned, and ex- 
 tending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etch- 
 ing historical and other prints." 
 
 FRED. J. BETTS, 
 Clerk of the Southern District of New-York. 
 
*. 
 
 TO THE 
 
 PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES, 
 
 (fiusb to bxamxhe, to judge, to adopt, or to discard thb 
 viE-ws therein contained, and the measures 
 
 THEREIN RECOMMENDED,) 
 THESE 
 
 FAMILIAR DISCOURSES 
 
 ARE INSCRIBED, 
 
 BY THEIR VRIEND AND TELLOW-CITIZEN, 
 
 FRANCES WRIGHT. 
 
 42.5596 
 
H 
 
 • • 
 
 .Jt. 
 

 CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 Preface - ...-,.-.,..-- 7 
 
 Introductory Address to the course, as delivered for the second 
 
 time in New- York -----------..- 13 
 
 Lecture I. — On the'nature of knowledge -----.-- 17 
 
 Lectuee II. — Of free enquiry, considered as a means of obtain- 
 ing just knowledge -----.--.-.---- 41 
 
 Lectuhe III. — Of the more important divisions and essential 
 
 parts of knowledge -••.--.•••.-.-- 63 
 
 Lectuhe IV. — Religion .---.••------ 85 
 
 Lecture V. — Morals --------».,--- 106 
 
 Lecture VI. — Opinions •-•.*-.--•--- 127 
 Lecture VII. — On existing evils and their remedy, as delivered 
 
 in Philadelphia, on June 2d, 1829 150 
 
 Address I. — ^Delivered in the New Harmony Hall, on the fourth 
 
 of July, 1828 171 
 
 Address H. — ^DeUvered in the Wahiut-street Theatre, Philadel- 
 phia, on the fourth of July, 1829 --------- 183 
 
 Address HI. — DeUvered at the opening of the Hall of Science 
 
 New-York, Sunday, April 26, 1829 203 
 
 Reply to the traducers of the French Reformers of the year 1789 227 
 Analytical Table of Contents ------------233 
 
 a2 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The substance of the three first lectures which appear in the 
 present volume, was first delivered in Cincymati, during the course 
 of the last summer. 
 
 The motives that activated me to step forward in a manner ill 
 suited to my taste and habits, which are rather those of a quiet 
 observer and reflecting writer, than of a popular reformer or pub- 
 lic speaker, will appear sufficiently in the discourses themselves. 
 I may observe, however, that from the age of seventeen, when I 
 first accidentally opened the page of America's national history, 
 as portrayed by the Italian Bocca, the only work on a subject so 
 politically heterodox which had found a place in the aristocratical 
 libraries which surrounded my youth— from that moment my at- 
 tention became rivetted on this country, as on the theatre where 
 man might first awake to the full knowledge and the full exercise 
 of his powers. I immediately collected every work which pro- 
 mised to throw any light on the institutions, character, and condi- 
 tion of the American people : and as, at that period, little satisfac- 
 tory information on these subjects could be gleaned in Europe, I 
 visited this country in person. The " Views" then rapidly form- 
 ed I published on my return to England, with the single object of 
 awakening the attention of European reformers to the great prin- 
 ciples laid down in American government. Those principles had 
 indeed so warmed my own feelings, as to have influenced my per- 
 ceptions. During my first visit to America, I seemed to hear and 
 see her declaration of independence every where. I studied her 
 institutions, and mistook for the energy of enlightened liberty 
 what was, perhaps, rather the restlessness of commercial enter- 
 prise. I saw her population active and thriving, and conceived 
 that to be the effect of wise social regulations, which had, perhaps, 
 rather its source in the temporary state of an artificial market. I 
 saw neither princes nor bayonets, nor a church married to the 
 state, and conceived, in very truth, that liberty had here quicken- 
 ed the human mind, until it was prepared to act under the influ- 
 ence of reason instead of fear. It was true that I saw this coun- 
 try at a favourable moment, when peace had opened to her the 
 ports of the world, and set a second seal on her republican hber- 
 ties and national independence. Still, however favorable the time 
 
8 PREFACE. 
 
 might be, my own enthusiasm doubtless conspired to throw a 
 claud-lorraine tint over a country which bore the name of Re- 
 pubUc. It required a second visit, and a more minute inspection, 
 to enable me to see things under the sober light of truth, and to 
 estimate both the excellences that are, and those that are yet 
 wanting. 
 
 This second visit, while it has exposed to my view evils and 
 abuses differing in degree rather than in nature from those of Eu- 
 rope, has rivetted me in mind and feeling yet more strongly to a 
 country where are enshrined all the hberties and aU the hopes of 
 the human race. From a visiter, therefore, I have become a resi- 
 ]_.dent and a citizen. 
 
 While yet imperfectly acquainted with the state of things in 
 my adopted country — ^with the breadth of distance between Ame- 
 rican principles and American practice — between the theory of 
 American government and its actual application— my attention 
 had been attracted towards the political anomaly and moral injus- 
 tice presented by the condition of the coloured population in the 
 slave-holding states, as well as by the feeling exhibited, and prac- 
 tices legally countenanced, towards that race, generally through- 
 out the union. Four years of extensive and minute observation, 
 with deeper reflection, and more varied, as well as more reasoned 
 experience, have convinced me that American negro slavery is but 
 one form of the same evils which pervade the whole frame of 
 human society. And as, in common with all human errors, it has 
 its source in ignorance, so must one common panacea supply its 
 and their remedy. The spread and increase of knowledge alone 
 can enable man to distinguish that the true interests of each point 
 to the equal liberties, equal duties, and equal enjoyments of all ; 
 and that then only, will the principles set forth in the first national 
 instrument of American government, the declaration of indepen- 
 dence, be practically exhibited— when the law of force shall give 
 place to the law of reason, when wealth shall be the reward of in- 
 dustry, and all things shall be estimated in a ratio calculated in 
 the order of their utility. 
 
 Satisfied that the melioration of the human condition can be 
 reached only by the just informing of the human mind, I have 
 applied such powers as I possess to the furtherance of this plea- 
 sing, though laborious task. In the citadel of human error, as 
 exhibited in this country, it is easy to distinguish two main strong 
 
PREFAC£. 9 
 
 holds, which, if once carried, the fastness would probably surren- 
 der at the first summons. These are : First, the neglected state 
 of the female mind, and the consequent dependence of the female 
 condition. This, by placing the most influential half of the nation 
 at the mercy of that worst species of quackery, practised under 
 the name of religion, virtually lays the reins of government, na- 
 tional as well as domestic, in the hands of a priesthood, whose 
 very subsistence depends, of necessity, upon the mental and moral 
 degradation of their fellow creatures. 
 
 Second, the ineptness and corruption of the public press, ridden 
 by ascendant influences, until it is abandoned alike by the honest 
 and the wise, and left in the hands of individuals too ignorant to 
 distinguish truth, or too timid to venture its utterance. The for- 
 mer of these evils, as somewhat unusually exhibited last summer 
 in the towns and cities of the western country, first led me to chal- 
 lenge the attention of the American people. 
 
 The city of Cincinnati had stood for some time conspicuous for 
 the enterprise and liberal spirit of her citizens, when, last summer, 
 by the sudden combination of the clergy of three orthodox sects, 
 a revival, as such scenes of distraction are wont to be styled, was 
 opened in houses, churches, and even on the Ohio river. The vic- 
 tims of this odious experiment on human credulity and nervous 
 weakness, were invariably women. Helpless age was made a 
 public spectacle, innocent youth driven to raving insanity, mothers 
 and daughters carried lifeless from the presence of the ghostly 
 expounders of damnation ; all ranks shared the contagion, until 
 the despair of Calvin's hell itself seemed to have fallen upon 
 every heart, and discord to have taken possession of every man- 
 sion. 
 
 A circumstantial account of the distress and disturbance on the 
 public mind in the Ohio metropolis led me to visit the afl!icted 
 city ; and, since all were dumb, to take up the cause of insulted 
 reason and outraged humanity. 
 
 The consequences of the course of lectures I then first de- 
 livered, on three successive Sundays, in the Cincinnati conrt- 
 house, and re-delivered in the theatre, were similar to those Which 
 have been witnessed elsewhere ; — a kindling of wrath among the 
 clergy, a reaction in favor of common sense on the part of their 
 followers, an explosion of public sentiment in favor of liberty, li- 
 berality, and instructional reform, and a complete exposure of the 
 
10 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 / 
 
 nothingness of the press, which, at a time when the popular mind 
 was engrossed by questions of the first magnitude, sullenly eva- 
 ded their discussion, betraying alike ignorance the most gros^ 
 and servility the most shameless. All that I then observed, con- 
 spired to fix me in the determination of devoting my time and 
 labour to the investigation and exposure of existing evils and 
 abuses, and to the gradual developement of the first principles of 
 all moral and physical truth, every where so perplexed and con- 
 founded by the sophistry of false learning, the craft of designing 
 knavery, and the blunders of conceited ignorance. 
 
 The two means which presented themselves, were those of po- 
 pular discourses, and a periodical pubhcation, which should fol- 
 low up the same objects, consistently and fearlessly, and, by in- 
 stituting enquiry on matters of real interest, aid in drawing off 
 the public attention from the squabbles of party, the verbiage of 
 theory, the gossippings of idleness, and the ravmgs of zeal with- 
 out knowledge. 
 
 The present volume contains the first, or introductory course, 
 closing at the seventh lecture ; in which I have attempted to 
 sketch an outlme of the field of truth, and, at the same time, to 
 expose such existing errors as must tend to blind the intellectual 
 sight to its perception. 
 
 The second course, which will be found sketched at the close 
 t)f the fifth lecture, on Morals, will attempt the developement and 
 practical application of those simple principles by which the con- 
 duct of human beings, one towards the other, may be justly regu- 
 lated, and the face of human society be harmonized into beauty. 
 ' In the seventh discourse, on " Existing Evils and their Reme- 
 dy," I was induced by circumstances, and the impatience of the 
 public mind, somewhat to anticipate a subject whose more com- 
 plete developement will form an important item in the second 
 course, as laid out at the close of the fifth lecture, already referred 
 to, and to which I shall apply myself so soon as some duties of a 
 more private nature may permit. 
 
 In attempting reform by means of instructional improvement 
 at the present day, the laborer is perplexed by the alternate dull- 
 ness and vivacity, inertness and restlessness of the human mind. 
 At first, curiosity is. slow to awaken ; then it runs too fast ; anon 
 it slumbers, as if all truth were seized, and its every feature dis- 
 
PREFACE. 11 
 
 tinguished, when perhaps not a single impression received is in 
 accurate accordance with fact and with reason. 
 
 The effects of a pernicious education are in nothing more con- 
 spicuous, than in the universal activity of the imagination and the 
 inertness of the judgment. To treat any subject with perspicui- 
 ty, a certain order and arrangement are indispensable. Let this 
 order be disturbed, and arrangement interrupted, and things the 
 most simple appear confused, and truths the most evident, diffi- 
 cult or doubtful. But to proceed step by step— to trace the outline 
 and consider the details— to substantiate first principles, and then 
 trace them out in their various applications, demands attention too 
 patient, and reflection too dispassionate, for minds habitually un- 
 settled by the day-dreams of fancy, and accustomed to adopt 
 conclusions without examining premises. The first effort of the 
 reformer is to awaken, but soon he finds it yet more necessary to 
 compose. The spur is hardly applied when the rein is wanting, 
 and the impatience of curiosity is soon a greater hinderance to 
 progress than the apathy of ignorance. 
 
 All this, however, a little perseverance, sustained by zeal and 
 temp'eredby prudence, might speedily vanquish, were it not, most 
 unhappily, the momentary interest of a large and encreasing 
 body of men to feed the worst passions of the hour, and to coun- 
 teract the labors of truth's advocates by every means possible for 
 art to devise or violencelo dare. Still, in this country, the pro- 
 gress of the human mind, if impeded, cannot be arrested. And 
 truly, if regard be had to the conflicting interests and sinister in- 
 fluences which now pervade society, we may rather marvel at 
 the success obtained than at the difficulties encountered. 
 
 The views which I have felt it my duty to present to the Ame- 
 rican people — the only people free to choose between truth and 
 error, good and evil — are as yet but faintly sketched. The outline 
 only is presented, and those first principles laid down in whose 
 general and minute application I shall hereafter seek the law of 
 nations and the law of men. WhUe attempting the develope- 
 ment of these first principles, I have been often challenged to 
 their premature application to existing laws and usages ; not see- 
 ing that with these the enquirer after truth has little to do, and 
 that it must be rather for our laws and usages to bend to princi- 
 ples, than for these to shape themselves to our laws and usages. 
 As a lecturer, therefore, I have rather appUed myself to develope 
 
12 PREFACE. 
 
 what is true than to expose what is false ; reserving my comments 
 on the passing opinions and practices of the age for the pages of 
 the periodical of which I am a joint editor. 
 
 The Free Enquirer, formerly the New Harmony Gazette, was 
 the first periodical established in the United States for the pur- 
 pose of fearless and unbiassed enquiry on all subjects. It was con- 
 ducted in Indiana, with more or less consistency and ability, for 
 the space of three years, when I assumed its joint proprietorship, 
 and removed it to New- York, under a name more expressive of 
 its character. Since that period, it has been conducted, I am 
 sure, with honesty, and, I hope, not without utility. Its editors 
 have had singly in view the discovery of truth and the well be- 
 ing of man. If their zeal has been warm, their spirit has, I trust, 
 been gentle. If they have spared no error on account of its po- 
 pularity, they have neither sought the exposure of the erring, nor 
 resented the hostility of the violent. They have kept true to the 
 pledge given in their prospectus — they have sought truth " alone, 
 and for itself;" "they have devoted their pages without fear, 
 without reserves, without pledge to men, parties, sects, or sys- 
 tems, to free, unbiassed and universal enquiry ;" and, while ta- 
 king for their premises the principles developed in the following 
 discourses, they have tested, as they will continue to test, the laws, 
 opinions, and practices of men, by that only standard of truth, 
 supplied by nature herself, and by the powers of the human 
 
 FRANCES WBIGHT. 
 
 KmrYorktith Octohery 1829. 
 
 #^ 
 
INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS, 
 
 TO THE SECOND COURSE. 
 [As delivered for the second time in New- York.] 
 
 The circumstances under which I now meet this as- 
 semblage of the people of New- York, are, I believe, un- 
 paralleled in the history of the world. All nations have 
 had their revolutions — all cities, in the hitherto unfortunate 
 annals of the human race, their disturbances, and their 
 disturbers ; but truly, the sight and the sound is aUke 
 novel, of privilege and pretension arraying aU the forces 
 of a would-be hierarchy and a would-be aristocracy, to 
 assassinate the hberties of a free state in the person of a 
 single individual, and to outrage public order and public 
 decency, by ribald slanders and incendiary threats, against 
 the reputation and person of a woman. Truly the 
 signs are novel which mark this hour, and truly the place 
 assigned to myself by the clamour and artifice of a body of 
 men, trembling for privileges and profits, and eager to drown 
 with noisy words that which they cannot confute by argu- 
 ment, might cower the strength of one less confident in her 
 cause, or less ardent for its success. But, so surely as I 
 know the strength of the ground which I have assumed, 
 and the weakness of that which thei/ have to defend, will 
 I stand fast, and stand firm. And did I need, in this hour, 
 ought beyond or without my own bosom to sustain me, I 
 should find it in my conviction of the destined triumph of 
 the cause I serve, and in the pure decision of wiser and 
 happier generations to come, who (be what it may, the 
 momentary issue of this hour, and its momentary conse- 
 quences, lo me,) shall write my name and preserve my 
 
 B 
 
14 INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 
 
 memory among those of the champions of human liberty 
 and heralds of human improvement. 
 
 I know of none, from the modest Socrates and gentle 
 Jesus, down to the least or the greatest reformers of our 
 own time, who have remembered the poor, the ignorant, or 
 the oppressed, raised their voice in favour of more equal 
 distributions of knowledge and liberty, or dared to investi- 
 gate the causes of vice and wretchedness, with a view to 
 their remedy ; I know of none, I say, who have not been 
 the mark of persecution, drank the poison of calumny, or 
 borne the cross of martyrdom. What better and wiser 
 have endured, 1 shall not lack courage to meet. Having 
 put my hand to the plough, I will not draw back, nor, 
 having met the challenge so long cast at hiunan nature 
 and human reason, alike by privilege and superstition, will 
 I refuse to meet all hazards in their cause. 
 
 I have already pledged myself to show evidence for all 
 my opinions ; I pledge myself farther, to shotv all my 
 opinions, for, so truly as I have taken man for my study, 
 and his happiness for my object, do I believe that all my 
 opinions can bring facts to their support, and will, sooner or 
 later, find an echo in every thinking mind and feeling heart. 
 
 It hath been asked again and again, amid all the confii- 
 sion of reports and assertions, threats and declamations, 
 conjured up to fright the timidity of woman, and alarm 
 the protecting tenderness of man, why I do not reply to 
 the slander of enemies, and supply arguments to friends ? 
 
 If among the present assemblage there be any who 
 have followed all or some of my previous discourses, I 
 would put it to their memory and their reason, if I, on 
 those occasions, presented arguments and evidence for the 
 opinions advanced; and if any one of those arguments 
 has been by a single individual refuted, or that evidence, 
 in whole or in part, by one single individual impugned. 
 
 m. 
 
INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 15 
 
 * 
 
 And I will here call upon you to observe, that my oppo- 
 nents have had the command of the whole press and all 
 the pulpits of this city. To what account have these 
 been turned ? To heap on my name and person outrage 
 and abuse. To libel my audience; intimidate women, 
 attack the interests of men, invoke the interference of the 
 magistracy of the city, and threaten the lessees of this house 
 with " riot, fire, and bloodshed." 
 
 My friends, I appeal to your reason, if, by resorting to 
 such measures, my opponents have not substantiated their 
 own weakness, and supplied an acknowledgment, that so 
 far as I have spoken they cannot gainsay me 1 
 
 And now, then, I will ask, and that rather for the sake 
 of good order and common sense, than for any personal 
 interest of mine, if on the topics I have spoken, I have 
 neither outraged your reason nor your feeUngs, and re- 
 main unanswered by my enemies— if it be not at the leeist 
 probable that on the topics I have not spoken, I may be 
 rational also. I have nothing in my head or my heart to 
 hold back from such of my fellow creatures, as may desire 
 to read either, with a view to the eliciting of truth. I have 
 already sketched out to you the subject matter of many 
 future investigations, embracing all our weightiest duties 
 and responsibiUties, as reasoning and sentient beings. 
 
 But, as I have opened our discussions in order, so in 
 order must I pursue them, if pursued at all. We cannot 
 speak to aU things at once, nor demonstrate the last prob- 
 lem in Euclid, ere we have substantiated the first. 
 
 In comphance with the wishes of a mass of the citizens, 
 as conveyed to me by individuals, and attested by my own 
 observations of the many disappointed of entrance in oia: 
 former places of meeting, I have consented to redehver my 
 elementary course on the nature of all kno\^edge, physical 
 and moral. 
 
16 INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 
 
 Without a thorough understanding of the primary truths 
 which it has been my attempt, in this elementary course, 
 familiarly to elucidate, the public mind must be unfit for 
 any discussion ; therefore it is, that I commence with tliese 
 primary tiTiths ; and therefore it is, that I shall decline the 
 discussion of all other topics until, our first premises being 
 laid, we are supplied with fi standard by which to test all 
 existing opinions and existing practice. 
 
 Whenever hereafter I may be called, in peace and with 
 seriousness, to dehver my views on any subject of general 
 interest to my fellow beings, I will meet their wishes. My 
 opinions, whatever they may be, I am not accustomed to 
 defend^ but I will willingly explain ; and explain with 
 that simplicity, which befits enquiry after truth, and that 
 tenderness to the feelings of others, which I think I am 
 not apt to forget. 
 
 Before we open our discussions of the evening, I would 
 suggest to the audience, the propriety of bearing in mind 
 the circumstances under which we meet, the former futile 
 attempts to disturb our meetings in the Masonic Hall, and 
 the possible presence of some mistaken and misguided in- 
 dividuals, ready to excite false alarm, and to take advan- 
 tage of any the least disturbance, with a view to the 
 injury of the cause of human improvement, which we are 
 met to promote, and to the injury of the lessees of the 
 building which we now occupy. 
 
 In case of any attempt to disturb our meeting, by cries 
 of alarm, I beg the audience to bear in mind, that the 
 house is under vigilant and double poUce. 
 
 I shall now, then, present you with the opening dis- 
 course, formerly delivered in the Masonic Hall. And, as 
 it will be in matter and words the same, you will judge of 
 the accuracy of the reports presented in your daily 
 papers. 
 
I.ECTURE I. 
 
 ON THE NATURE OF KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 Who among us, that hath cast even an occasional and 
 slightly observant glance on the face of society, but must 
 have remarked the differing opinions, which distract the 
 human mind ; the opposing creeds and systems, each as- 
 serting its claim to infallibility, and rallying around its 
 standard pertinacious disciples, enthusiastic proselytes, 
 ardent apologists, fiery combatants, obsequious worship- 
 pers, conscientious followers, and devoted martyrs ? If we 
 extend our observation over the surface of our globe, and 
 consider its diversified population, however varied in hue 
 and feature, we find it yet more varied in opinions, in one 
 opinion only invariably agreed, viz. that of its infallibility. 
 The worshipper of sculptured idols bows before the image 
 of his hand, and shrinks with unfeigned terror, if a sacri- 
 legious intruder profane the sanctuary of his superstition. 
 The adorer of the bright luminary which marks our days 
 and seasons, sees in the resplendent orb, not a link in the 
 vast chain of material existence, but the source of all ex- 
 istence ; and so from the most unpretending savage, to the 
 most lettered nation of a lettered age, we find all shaping 
 their superstitions, accoixling to the measure of their igno- 
 rance or their knowledge, and each devoutly believing his 
 faith and practice to be the true and the just. Or let us 
 confine our observation within the limits of the country we 
 inhabit — ^how varying the creeds arising out of one system 
 . b2 3 
 
18 NATURE OP KNOWLEDGE. [lECT. I. 
 
 of faith ! How contradictory the assertions and expecta- 
 tions of sects, all equally positive and equally, we may 
 presume, conscientious ! How conflicting the opinions and 
 feelings of men upon all subjects, trivial or important ! 
 until we are tempted to exclaim, " Where, then, is right 
 or wrong but in human imagination, and what is truth 
 more than bhnd opinion ?" Few of us prone to study or 
 observation, yet educated after existing methods, but must 
 have asked these questions, and halted for a reply. 
 
 Should the problem here started be, I say not impossible, 
 but even diflftcult of solution, lamentable must be the 
 human condition to the end of time ! Had truth no test — 
 no standard — no positive, no tangible existence, behold us, 
 then, sold to error, and, while to error, to misery, through 
 all the generations of our race! But, fortunately, the 
 answer is simple ; only too simple, ^ it would appear, for 
 mystery loving, mystery seeking man, to perceive and 
 acknowledge. 
 
 Let not the present audience imagine, that I am about 
 to add one more to the already uncountable, unnameable 
 systems, which distract the understandings of men, or to 
 draw yet new doctrines and precepts from the fertile 
 alembic of the human brain. I request you to behold in 
 me an enquirer, not a teacher ; one who conceives of truth 
 as a jewel to be found, not to be coined ; a treasure to be 
 discovered by observation, and accumulated by careful, 
 persevering industry, not invented and manufactured by 
 learned art or aspiring quackery, Hke the once fashionable 
 elixir of immortality and philosopher's stone. My object 
 will be simply to take with you a survey of the field of 
 human enquiry ; to ascertain its nature, its extent, its 
 boundaries, its limits ; to discover, in the first place, what 
 there is for us to know ; secondly, the means we possess 
 for acquiring such knowledge as is of possible attaiimient, 
 
LECT. I.] NATURE OP KNOWLEDGE. 19 
 
 and, thirdly, having satisfied ourselves as to what can be 
 known, and as to what we know, to seek in our knowledge 
 the test of our opinions. 
 
 It must be admitted, that, as all our opinions must rest 
 upon some evidence, real or imagined, so upon the truth 
 or falsehood of the evidence admitted, must rest the tmth 
 or falsehood of the opinions based thereupon. It is evident, 
 therefore, that before we can apply any safe or certain test to 
 our opinions, we must well luiderstand the nature of true 
 evidence ; before we can reflect, we must have something to 
 reflect upon ; before we can think accurately respecting 
 any thing, we must know accurately all relating to it ; and 
 wheresoever our knowledge be complete, will our opinion 
 be just. 
 
 Seeing, then, that just opinions are the result of just 
 knowledge, and perceiving, as we must all perceive, how 
 much confusion arises to society out of the conflicting 
 ©pinions, which divide alike nations and families, into sects 
 and parties, it is equally our interest and our duty, to aim 
 at the acquisition of just knowledge, with a view to the 
 formation of just opinions. And, as we shall hereafter 
 have occasion to observe, just practice being the result of 
 pst opinions, and human happiness being the certain result 
 of just practice, it is equally our interest and our duty to 
 aim at the formation of just opinions, with a view to the 
 attainment of happiness. 
 
 We shall, therefore, open our investigations by an en- 
 quiry into the nature and object of just knowledge ; and 
 if we succeed in ascertaining these, we will farther exa- 
 mine the causes which at present impede our progress, 
 and the means best calculated at once to remove such im- 
 pediments, and to advance us in the course which it is 
 our interest to pursue. 
 
 If we consider man in comparison with other animals, 
 
BQ NATURE OP KNOWLEDGE. [lECT. I. 
 
 a view to convenient and suitable divisions in the greal 
 work of inspecting the whole, and also with a view to the 
 applying more order and method in the arrangement of 
 the facts collated in the wide field of nature, they have 
 been classed under different heads, each of which we may 
 call a branch of knowledge^ or, more succinctly, a science. 
 
 Thus : do we consider the various living tribes which 
 people the elements? We class our observations under the 
 head of natural histoiy. Do we direct our attention to 
 the structure and mechanism of their bodies ? We desig- 
 nate the results of our inspection under the heads anatomy 
 and physiology. Do we trace the order of occurrences 
 and appearances in the wide field of nature ? We note 
 them under natural philosophy. Do we analyze substan- 
 ces and search out their simple elements ? chemistry. Do 
 we apply ourselves to the measurement of bodies, or cal- 
 culate the heights and distances of objects ? geometry. 
 And so on, through all the range of human observation, 
 extending from the relative position of the heavenly 
 bodies, and accurate calculation of their courses, to the 
 uses, habits, structure, and physiology of the dehcate plant 
 which carpets our earth. 
 
 Now, all the sciences, properly so called, being com- 
 jlounded of facts, ascertained or ascertainable by the sen- 
 sations of each individual, so all that is not so ascertainable 
 is not knowledge, only belief, and can never constitute for 
 us matter of fact certainty, only greater or less probability. 
 In elucidation, we might remark that the facts we glean, 
 in the study of chemistry, supply us with knowledge ; 
 those received upon testimony, as in the study of history, 
 supply us with probabilities, or with improbabilities, as it 
 may be, and constitute belief. 
 
 Now, again — as our knowledge is supplied by our own 
 individual sensations, and our belief by the attested sensa- 
 
LECT. I.] NATURE OF KNOWLEDGE. St 
 
 tions of others, it is possible, while pretending to commu- 
 nicate knowledge, only to communicate belief. This we 
 know to be the system pursued in all our schools and 
 colleges, where the truths of the most demonstrable 
 sciences are presented under the disguise of oral or written 
 lessons, instead of being exposed, in practical illustrations, 
 to the eye, and the ear, and the touch, in the simple, incon- 
 trovertible fact. This method, while it tends to hide and 
 perpetuate the errors of teachers, so does it also incul- 
 cate credulity and blind beUef in the scholar, and finally 
 establishes the conclusion in the mind, that knowledge is 
 compounded of words, and signs, and intellectual abstrac- 
 tions, instead of facts and human sensations. 
 
 Greatly, very greatly to be desired, is a just mode of 
 instruction. It would not only shorten the road of know- 
 ledge, it would carpet it with flowers. We should then 
 tread it in childhood Avith smiles of cheerfulness ; and, as 
 we followed its pleasant course, horizon after horizon would 
 open upon us, delighting and improving our minds and 
 feelings, through life, unto our latest hour. But if it is of 
 the first importance to be launched aright in infancy, the 
 moment we distinctly perceive what knowledge is, we 
 may, at any age, start boldly for its attainment. 
 
 I have said, we may start holdly — ay ! and there lies 
 the surety of our success. If we bring not the good 
 courage of minds covetous of truth, and truth only, prepa- 
 red to hear all things, examine all things, and decide upon 
 all things, according to evidence, we should do more wisely 
 to sit down contented in ignorance, than to bestir ourselves 
 only to reap disappointment. But let us onCe look around 
 upon this fair material world, as upon the book which it 
 behoves us to read ; let us understand, that in this book 
 there are no puzzling mysteries, but a simple train of occur- 
 rences, which it imports us to observe, with an endless 
 
22 NATURE OF KNOWLEDGE. [lECT. I. 
 
 of an intimate acquaintance with all the most esteemed 
 branches of knowledge, he may be utterly unacquainted 
 with the object and nature of knowledge itself Let us, 
 then, enquire again, what knowledge is. 
 
 Is it not, in the first place, acquaintance with ourselves? 
 and secondly, with all things to which we stand in relation ? 
 
 How are we to obtain this acquaintance ? By observa- 
 tion and patient enquiry. 
 
 What are the means we possess for this observation and 
 enquiry? Our senses ; and our faculties, as awakened and 
 improved in and by the exercise of our senses. 
 
 Let us now examine what are the objects really sub- 
 mitted to the investigation of our senses. 
 
 These may be all embraced under the generic term 
 matter, implying the whole of existence within the range 
 of our inspection. 
 
 Were we to proceed minutely in our analysis, we shoiUd 
 observe that matter, as existing around us, appears under 
 three forms, the gaseous, the liquid, and the solid ; and 
 that under one or other of these forms may be accurately 
 classed all that is submitted to our observation — all, in short, 
 that we can see, hear, feel, taste, or smell. But to enter at 
 present into such details would be foreign to our purpose. 
 
 I shall, therefore, pass on to observe, that the accurate and 
 patient investigation of matter, in all its subdivisions, to- 
 gether with all its quaUties and changes, constitutes a just 
 education. And that in proportion as we ascertain, in 
 the course of investigation, the real qualities and actual 
 changes of matter, together with the judicious apphcation 
 of all things to the use of man, and influence of all oc- 
 currences on the happiness of man, so do we acquire know- 
 ledge. In other words, knowledge is an accumulation of 
 facts, and signifies things known. In proportion, there- 
 
LECT. I.] NATURE OP KNOWLEDGE. 23 
 
 fore, as the sphere of our observation is large, and our in- 
 vestigation of all within that sphere careful, in proportion 
 is our knowledge. 
 
 The view of knowledge we have here taken is simple ; 
 and it may be observed, that not in this case only, but in 
 all others, accuracy and simplicity go hand in hand. All 
 truth is simple, for truth is only fact. The means of at- 
 taining truth are equally simple. We have but to seek 
 and we shall find ; to open our eyes and our ears; without 
 prejudice to observe ; without fear to listen, and dispas- 
 sionately to examine, compare, and draw our conclusions. 
 
 The field of knowledge is around, and about, and within 
 us. Let us not be alarmed by sounding words, and let us 
 not be deceived by them. Let us look to things. It is 
 things which we have to consider. Words are, or, more 
 correctly, should be, only the signs of things. I say they 
 should he ; for it is a most lamentable truth, that they are 
 now very generally conceived to constitute the very sub- 
 stance of knowledge. Words, indeed, should seem at 
 present contrived rather for the purpose of confusing our 
 ideas, than administering to their distinctness and arrange- 
 ment. Instead of viewing them as the shadows, we mis- 
 take them for the substance ; and conceive that in propor- 
 tion as we enlarge our vocabulary, we multiply our ac- 
 quirements. 
 
 Vain, then, will be the attempt to increase our know- 
 ledge, until we understand where we are to look for it, and 
 in what it consists. Here is the first stepping stone. Let 
 our foot but firmly strike it, and our after progress is easy. 
 
 And in what lies the importance of this first step in 
 human knowledge ? In the accuracy which it brings to all 
 our ideas. It places us at once cm firm ground, introduces 
 us into the field of real enquiry, and lays the reign of the 
 imagination in the hand of the judgment. Difiicult were 
 
f if 
 
 24 NATURE OP KNOWLEDGE. [lECT. I. 
 
 it to exaggerate the importance of the step which involves 
 such consequences. Until we bring accuracy to our 
 thoughts, and, we may add, accuracy to the words em- 
 ployed for their expression — we can make no progress. 
 We may wander, indeed, and most certainly shall wander, 
 in various paths ; but they will be paths of error. The 
 straight broad road of improvement it will not be ours to 
 tread, until we take heed unto our feet, and know always 
 whither we are going. 
 
 Imagine — and how easy is it to imagine, when we have 
 but to look around us or within ourselves — imagine the 
 confusion of hopes, desires, ambitions, and expectations, 
 with which the scholar enters, and but too often leaves, 
 the halls of science. On entering them, he conceives that 
 some mysterious veil, hke the screen of the holy of holies, 
 is about to be withdrawn, and that he is to look at things 
 far removed from real Ufe, and raised far above the vulgar 
 apprehension. On leaving them, he has his memory sur- 
 charged with a confusion of ideas, and a yet worse confu- 
 sion of words. He knows, perhaps, the properties of 
 ciphers and of angles ; the names and classification of 
 birds, fishes, quadrupeds, insects, and minerals ; the che- 
 mical affinities of bodies ; can measure star from star ; 
 analyse invisible substances ; detail in ch^nological order 
 the rise and fall of nations, with their arts, sciences, and 
 sects of philosophy. He can do all this, and more ; and 
 yet, perhaps, is there neither arrangement in his know- 
 ledge, distinctness in his ideas, nor accuracy in his lan- 
 guage. And, while possessed of many valuable facts, 
 there is blended with all and with each, a thousand illu- 
 sions. Thus it is that so many wordy pedants, and hare- 
 brained or shallow disputants, are sent forth from the 
 schools of aU coimtries, while those who do honour to 
 their species, by rendering service in their generation, are, 
 
LECT. I.] NATURE OF KNOWLEDGE. 25 
 
 most generally, what is called self-taught. And the reason 
 of this is evident. Our existing modes of education, being 
 equally false and deficient, and the instruction of our 
 schools full of fallacies, theories, and hypotheses, the more 
 regularly a youth is trained in fashionable learning, the 
 more confused is usually his perception of things, and the 
 more prostrated his reason by the dogmatism of teachers, 
 the sophism of words, and the false principles engrafted 
 by means of pretended science, ostentatiously inculcated, 
 or real science, erroneously imparted. While, on the 
 other hand, a vigorous intellect, if stimulated by fortunate 
 circumstances to enquiry, and left to accumulate informa- 
 tion by the efforts of its own industry, though its early 
 progress may be slow, and its aberrations numerous, yet 
 in the free exercise of its powers, is more likely to coUect 
 accurate knowledge, than those who are methodically fed 
 with learned error and learnedly disguised truth. 
 
 I shall have occasion, in a more advanced stage of our 
 enquiries, to examine minutely the errors in the existing 
 mode of instruction, and which are of a nature to perplex 
 the human mind from infancy to age, and to make 
 even learning an additional stumbling block in the way 
 of knowledge. For the present, I would confine myself 
 to the establishing the simple position, that all real know- 
 ledge is derived from positive sensations. 
 
 In proportion to the number of senses we bring to bear 
 upon an object, is the degree of our acquaintance with that 
 object. Whatever we see, and feel, and attentively exa- 
 mine with all our senses, we know ; and respecting the 
 things thus investigated, we can afterwards form a correct 
 opinion. Wherever, respecting such things, our opinions 
 are erroneous, it is where our investigation of them has 
 been insufficient, or our recollection of them imperfect ; 
 c 4 
 
26 NATURE OP KNOWLEDGE. [lECT. I. 
 
 and the only certain way of rectifying the error, is to refer 
 again to the object itself. 
 
 Things which we have not ourselves examined, and 
 occurrences which we have not ourselves witnessed, but 
 which we receive on the attested sensations of others, we 
 may believe, but we do not know. Now, as these two 
 modes of intellectual assent are generally, if not univer- 
 sally, confounded; and, as their accurate distinction is, in 
 its consequences, of immense importance, I shall risk the 
 straining of your attention for a few minutes, while I at- 
 tempt its elucidation. 
 
 To select a familiar, and at the moment a pertinent 
 example. The present audience know that an individual 
 is now addressing them, because they see her person, and 
 hear her voice. They may believe that some other speaker 
 occupies the pulpit of a church in this town, if assured to 
 that effect by a person of ordinary veracity ; but, let the 
 testimony of that person be as well substantiated in their 
 opinion as possible, the fact received through his reported 
 sensations, they would believe ; the fact of my presence, 
 admitted upon their own sensations, they will know. 
 
 My hearers will imderstand that my object in presenting 
 these definitions, is not to draw a mere verbal distinction, 
 but a distinction between different states of the human 
 mind ; the distinction in words only being important, in 
 that it is necessary to a clear understanding of the mental 
 phenomena it is desirable to illustrate. 
 
 Did the limits of our present discourse permit such a 
 developement, or did I not apprehend to weary the atten- 
 tion, it would not be difficidt to draw the line between 
 knowledge and behef, and again between the different 
 grades of belief, through all the varieties of intellectual 
 assent fi:om the matter of fact certainty suppUed by 
 
LECT. I.] NATURE OF KNOWLEDGE. 27 
 
 knowledge, down to the lowest stage of probability, sup- 
 plied by belief. But having suggested the distinction, 
 I must leave you to draw it for yourselves; requesting 
 you only to observe — that, as your own positive sensa- 
 tions can alone give you knowledge of a thing, so is your 
 belief of any thing stronger, in proportion as you can 
 more accurately establish, or approach nearer to, the 
 sensations of those whose testimony you receive. 
 
 Thus: if a friend, or, more particularly, if several 
 friends, of tried veracity and approved judgment, relate to 
 us a circumstance of which they declare themselves to 
 have been attentive spectators — our belief is of the highest 
 kind. If they relate a circumstance which they shall 
 have received from another, or from other individuals, for 
 whose veracity and judgment they also vouch, our belief, 
 though in a measure accorded, is very considerably 
 weakened ; and so on, until, after a few more removes 
 from the original sensations of the reported spectators, our 
 belief is reduced to zero. 
 
 But farther, it is here of importance to observe that be- 
 lief — ^that is. the belief of a well trained mind — can never 
 be accorded to the attested sensations of others, should those 
 attested sensations be contradicted by our own well estab- 
 lished experience, or by the unvarying and agreeing expe- 
 rience of mankind. Thus : should one, or twenty, or a 
 thousand individuals, swear to the fact of having seen a 
 man, by effort of his unaided volition, raise himself through 
 the air to the top of a steeple in this city, we should believe 
 — ^what ? Not the eccentric occurrence, however attested, 
 but one of two very common occurrences — either that the 
 individuals were seeking to impose upon us, or that their 
 own ignorant credulity had been deceived by false appear- 
 ances. 
 
 But now let us suppose a case, very likely to be pre- 
 
 riBfii 
 
B8 NATURE OP KNOWLEDGE. [lECT. I. 
 
 Bented in form of an objection, although in reality capable 
 of furnishing a forcible elucidation of the simple truth we 
 are now attempting to illustrate. Let us suppose that 
 some of our organs should become diseased — those of 
 sight, for instance ; and that we should, in consequence, 
 imagine the appearance of an object, not perceptible to 
 more healthy individuals. If the phantasy presented 
 nothing uncommon in any of its parts, or inconsistent 
 with the course of our previous sensations, we should at 
 first, undoubtedly, yield credence to our eyes ; until, in 
 consequence, perhaps, of some incongruity, we should be 
 led to appeal to our other senses, when, if they did not con- 
 cur with the testimony of our vision, we should distinguish 
 the appearance, immediately, for the effect of disease, and 
 apply ourselves, on the instant, to its investigation and 
 remedy. 
 
 But again, let us suppose (a case by no means uncommon 
 in the history of human pathology) that two of our senses 
 should be diseased— our sight and our hearing ; and that 
 wc should in consequence see the spectral illusion of a 
 human being ; and, farther, imagine such illusion to dis- 
 course with us. Our belief would be now strongly ac- 
 corded to this two-fold evidence ; but we should still have 
 a resource in our sense of touch. Should this last not con- 
 firm the evidence suppUed by our vision and our hearing, 
 we should suspect, as in the former case, the health of our 
 organs, and consult on the subject with an able physician. 
 
 But now let us suppose that all the organs of sense, in 
 some individual, should become suddenly diseased, and 
 eight, hearing, feeling, taste, and smell, should combine 
 to cheat him into the belief of existences not perceptible 
 to the more healthy sensations of his fellow creatures. I 
 do not conceive that such an individual, however natural- 
 ly strong or highly cultivated his judgment, and even 
 
LECT. I.] NATURE OP KNOWLEDGE. 29 
 
 supposing his judgment to retain its activity in the midst 
 of the general disorder, could for any length of time strug- 
 gle with the delusion, but must gradually yield intellectu- 
 al assent to his diseased sensations, however incongruous 
 these might be, or however at variance with past experi- 
 ence. I conceive that an individual thus diseased in all 
 his organs of sense, must rapidly lose all control over his 
 reasoning faculties, and present, consequently, to his fel- 
 low creatures, the afflicting spectacle of one labouring 
 under mental insanity. 
 
 If we look to the unfortunate maniac, or to the sufferer 
 tossing in fever dehrium, we shall perceive how imphcit 
 the credence given to his diseased sensations. The phan- 
 toms which he hears, and feels, and sees, are all realities 
 to him, and, as realities, govern his thoughts and decide 
 his actions. How, in such cases, does the enlightened 
 physician proceed ? He does not argue with the incongru- 
 ous ideas of his patient ; he examines his disordered frame, 
 and as he can restore healthy action to all its parts, so 
 does he hope to restore healthy sensations to the body, and 
 accurate ideas to the mind. Here, then, we see, in sick- 
 ness as in health, our sensations supplying us with all our 
 intellectual food. In fever, they supply us with dreams ; 
 in health, if accurately studied, with knowledge. 
 
 The object of these observations is to show, that as we 
 can only know a thing by its immediate contact with our 
 senses, so is all knowledge compounded of the accurate- 
 ly observed^ accumulated^ and agreeing sensatimis of 
 mankind. 
 
 The field of knowledge, then, we have observed to be 
 the field of nature, or of material existence around and 
 within us. The number of objects comprised within the 
 circle of human observation, is so multipUed, and the pro- 
 perties or qualities of these objects so diversified, that with 
 c2 
 
 ^ 
 
80 NATURE OF KNOWLEDGE. [lECT. I. 
 
 a view to convenient and suitable divisions in the greal 
 work of inspecting the whole, and also with a view to the 
 applying more order and method in the arrangement of 
 the facts collated in the wide field of nature, they have 
 been classed under different heads, each of which we may 
 call a branch of knowledge^ or, more succinctly, a science. 
 
 Thus : do we consider the various living tribes which 
 people the elements? We class our observations under the 
 head of natural histoiy. Do we direct our attention to 
 the structure and mechanism of their bodies ? We desig- 
 nate the results of our inspection under the heads anatomy 
 and physiology. Do we trace the order of occurrences 
 and appearances in the wide field of nature ? We note 
 them under natural philosophy. Do we analyze substan- 
 ces and search out their simple elements ? chemistry. Do 
 we apply ourselves to the measurement of bodies, or cal- 
 culate the heights and distances of objects? geometry. 
 And so on, through all the range of human observation, 
 extending from the relative position of the heavenly 
 bodies, and accurate calculation of their courses, to the 
 uses, habits, structure, and physiology of the dehcate plant 
 which carpets our earth. 
 
 Now, all the sciences, properly so called, being com- 
 j^unded of facts, ascertained or ascertainable by the sen- 
 sations of each individual, so all that is not so ascertainable 
 is not knowledge, only belief, and can never constitute for 
 us matter of fact certainty, only greater or less probability. 
 In elucidation, we might remark that the facts we glean, 
 in the study of chemistry, supply us with knowledge ; 
 those received upon testimony, as in the study of history, 
 supply us with probabilities, or with improbabilities, as it 
 may be, and constitute belief. 
 
 Now, again — as our knowledge is supplied by our own 
 individual sensations, and our beUef by the attested eensa- 
 
LECT. I.] NATURE OF KNOWLEDGE. Zt 
 
 tions of Others, it is possible, while pretending to commu- 
 nicate knowledge, only to communicate belief. This we 
 know to be the system pursued in all our schools and 
 colleges, where the truths of the most demonstrable 
 sciences are presented under the disguise of oral or written 
 lessons, instead of being exposed, in practical illustrations, 
 to the eye, and the ear, and the touch, in the simple, incon- 
 trovertible fact. This method, while it tends to hide and 
 perpetuate the errors of teachers, so does it also incul- 
 cate creduUty and blind beUef in the scholar, and fiinally 
 establishes the conclusion in the mind, that knowledge is 
 compounded of words, and signs, and intellectual abstrac- 
 tions, instead of facts and human sensations. 
 
 Greatly, very greatly to be desired, is a just mode of 
 instruction. It would not only shorten the road of know- 
 ledge, it would carpet it with flowers. We should then 
 tread it in childhood with smiles of cheerfulness ; and, as 
 we followed its pleasant course, horizon after horizon would 
 open upon us, delighting and improving our minds and 
 feelings, through life, unto our latest hour. But if it is of 
 the first importance to be launched aright in infancy, the 
 moment we distinctly perceive what knowledge is, we 
 may, at any age, start boldly for its attainment. 
 
 I have said, we may start boldly — ay ! and there lies 
 the surety of our success. If we bring not the good 
 courage of minds covetous of truth, and truth only, prepa- 
 red to hear all things, examine all things, and decide upon 
 all things, according to evidence, we should do more wisely 
 to sit down contented in ignorance, than to bestir ourselves 
 only to reap disappointment. But let us onCe look around 
 upon this fair material world, as upon the book which it 
 behoves us to read ; let us understand, that in this book 
 there are no puzzling mysteries, but a simple train of occur- 
 rences, which it imports us to observe, with an endless 
 
32 NATURE OP KNOWLEDGE. [lECT. I. 
 
 variety of substances and existences, which it imports us 
 to study — what is there, then, to frighten us ? what is 
 there not, rather, to encourage our advance ? 
 
 Yet how far are we from this simple perception of sim- 
 ple things ! how far from that mental composure which 
 can alone fit us for enquiry ! How prone are we to come 
 to the consideration of every question with heads and 
 hearts pre-occupied ! how prone to shrink from any 
 opinion, however reasonable, if it be opposed to any, how- 
 ever unreasonable, of our own ! How disposed are we to 
 judge, in anger, those who call upon us to think, and 
 encourage us to enquire ! To question our prejudices 
 seems nothing less than sacrilege ; to break the chains of 
 our ignorance, nothing short of impiety ! 
 
 Perhaps at this moment, she who speaks is outraging a 
 
 prejudice — (shall I be forgiven the word?) Perhaps, 
 
 \ among those who hear me, there are who deem it both a 
 
 presumption and an impropriety for a woman to reason 
 
 with her fellow creatures. 
 
 Did I know, of a surety, this prejudice to prevail among 
 my hearers, I should, indeed, be disposed to reason with 
 them. I should be tempted to ask, whether truth had any 
 sex : and I should venture farther to ask, whether they 
 count for nothing, for something, or for every thing, the 
 influence of women over the destinies of our race. 
 
 Shall I be forgiven for adverting, most unwiUingly, to 
 myself? Having assumed an unusual place, I feel, that to 
 my audience some explanation is due. 
 
 Stimulated in my early youth, by I know not what of 
 pitying sympathy with human suffering, and by I know 
 not what persuasion, that our race was not of necessity, 
 born to ignorance, and its companion, vice, but that it pos- 
 sessed faculties and quaUties which pointed to virtue and 
 enjoyment ; stimulated, at once, by this pity for the actual 
 
LECT. I.] NATURE OP KNOWLEDGE. 33 
 
 condition of man, and this hope of a possible melioration, 
 I applied myself to the discovery of the causes of the 
 one, and of the means for effecting the other. 
 
 I have as little the inclination to obtrude on you the 
 process of investigation and course of observation I fol- 
 lowed through the period of an eventful youth, as you 
 would probably have to hsten to them. Suffice it, that I 
 have been led to consider the growth of knowledge, and 
 the equal distribution of knowledge, as the best — may I 
 say, the only means for reforming the condition of man- 
 kind. Shall I be accused of presumption for imagining 
 that I could be instrumental in promoting this, as it ap- 
 pears to me, good work? Shall I appear additionally 
 presumptuous for beheving that my sex and my situation 
 tend rather to qualify than to incapacitate me for the un- 
 dertaking ? 
 
 So long as the mental and moral instruction of man ia 
 left solely in the hands of hired servants of the pubhc — 
 let them be teachers of religion, professors of colleges, 
 authors of books, or editors of journals or periodical pub- 
 lications, dependent upon their hterary labours for their 
 daily bread, so long shall we hear but half the truth ; and 
 well if we hear so much. Our teachers, political, scientific, 
 moral, or rehgious ; our writers, grave or gay, are compelled 
 to administer to our prejudices and to perpetuate our igno- 
 rance. They dare not speak that which, by endangering 
 their popularity, would endanger their fortunes. They 
 have to discover not Avhat is true, but what is palatable ; 
 not what will search into the hearts and minds of their 
 hearers, but what will open their purse strings. They 
 have to weigh every sentiment before they hazard it, every 
 word before they pronounce it, lest they wound some 
 cherished vanity or aim at some favorite vice. A familiar 
 instance will bring this home to an American audience, 
 
 5 
 
14 NATURE OP KNOWLEDGE. IlECT. I. 
 
 I have been led to inspect, far and wide, the extensive 
 and beautiful section of this country which is afflicted 
 with slavery. I have heard in the cities, villages, and 
 forests of this afflicted region, religious shepherds of all 
 persuasions haranguing their flocks ; and I have never 
 heard one bold enough to comment on the evil which 
 saps the industry, vitiates the morals, and threatens the 
 tranquiUity of the country. The reason of this forbear- 
 ance is evident. The master of the slave is he who pays 
 the preacher, and the preacher must not irritate his pay- 
 master. I would not here be understood to express the 
 opinion, that the preaching of religious teachers against 
 slavery would be desirable. I am convinced of the con- 
 trary — convinced that it would be of direful mischief to both 
 parties, the oppressor and the oppressed. To judge from 
 the tone but too generally employed by religious writers 
 in the northern states, where (as denunciation against the 
 vice of the south risks no patronage and wins cheap credit 
 for humanity) negro philanthropy is not so scarce — to 
 judge, I sayj from the tone employed by northern reli- 
 gionists, when speaking of their southern neighbours, and 
 their national crime and affliction, one must suppose them as 
 Uttle capable of counseUing foreign as home offenders — as 
 little capable of advising in wisdom as of judging in mercy 
 or speaking with gentleness. The harshest physician with 
 which I am acquainted is the religious physician. Instead 
 of soothing, he irritates ; instead of convincing, he disgusts ; 
 instead of weighing circumstances, tracing causes, allow- 
 ing for the bias of early example, the constraining force 
 of implanted prejudice, the absence of every judicious 
 stimulus, and the presence of every bad one ; he arraigns, 
 tries, convicts, condemns — ^himself accuser, jury, judge, and 
 executioner; nobly immolating interests which are not his, 
 generously commanding sacrifices which he has not to 
 
LECT. I.] NATURE OP KNOWLEDGE. 35 
 
 share, indignantly anathematizing crimes which he can- 
 not commit, and virtuously kindling the fires of hell to con- 
 sume sirmers, to whose sins, as he is without temptation, 
 so /or whose sins he is without s)m(ipathy. 1 would not 
 be understood, therefore, as regretting in this matter the 
 supineness of the southern clergy ; I would only point it 
 out to you, desirous that you should observe how well the 
 tribe of Levi know when and where to smite, and when 
 and where to spare ! 
 
 And though I have quoted an instance more peculiarly 
 familiar to Americans, every country teems with similar 
 examples. The master vice, wherever or whatever itiA 
 be, is never touched. In licentious aristocracies, or to look 
 no farther than the towns and cities of these states, the rich 
 and pampered few are ever spared, or so gently dealt with, 
 as rather agreeably to tickle the ear, than to probe tlie 
 conscience, while the crimes of the greatly tempted, great- 
 ly suffering poor, are visited with unrelenting rigor. 
 
 Is any discovery made in science, tending to open to us 
 farther the book of knowledge, and to purge our minds of 
 superstitious behefs in occult causes and unsubstantiated 
 creeds — ^where has it ever found opposers— or, might we 
 not say, persecutors ? Even among our hired preachers and 
 licensed teachers of old doctrines and old ways. Is any 
 enquiry instituted into the truth of received opinions and 
 the advantage of existing practice — who are the last to 
 encourage it ? nay, the foremost to cry out " heresy !" and 
 stop the mouth of knowledge ? Who but those who live 
 by the ignorance of the age, and the intolerance of the 
 hour? Is any improvement suggested in our social ar- 
 rangements, calculated to equalize property, labour, in- 
 struction, and enjoyment ; to destroy crime by removing 
 provocation ; vice, by removing ignorance ; and to build 
 up virtue in the human breast by exchanging the spirit of 
 
36. NATURE OP KNOWLEDGE. [lECT. I, 
 
 self abasement for that of self respect — ^who are the fore- 
 most to treat the suggestions as visionary, the reform as 
 impossible ? Even they who live by the fears and the vices 
 of their fellow creatures ; and who obtain their subsist- 
 ence on earth by opening and shutting the door of heaven. 
 
 Nor, as we have seen, are our licensed and pensioned 
 teachers the only individuals interested in disguising the 
 truth. All who write for the public market, all who plead 
 in our courts of law, all who harangue in our halls of 
 legislature, all who are, or who aspire to be, popular ser- 
 vants or popular teachers of the people, all are compelled 
 to the support of existing opinions, whether right or wrong 
 — all, more or less, do, and, more or less, must, pander to 
 the weaknesses, vices, and prejudices of the pubUc, who 
 pays them with money or applause. 
 
 I have said not only that they do, but that they must ; 
 and most assuredly they must conciUate the popular feel- 
 ing, or forego the popular favour. Here is intended no 
 satire upon any individuals, professions, nor employments. 
 The object is merely to expose a fact, but a fact highly im- 
 portant to be known ; that as, to be popular, men must not 
 speak truths, so, when we would hear truths, we must 
 seek them from other mouths and other pens than those 
 which are dependent upon popular patronage, or wliich 
 are ambitious of popular admiration. 
 
 And here, then, is the cause why I have presumed to 
 reason with my fellow creatures ; why, in my earliest 
 years, I devoted myself to the study of their condition, 
 past and present ; why I searched into their powers and 
 their capabilities, examined their practice, and weighed 
 their opinions ; and why, when I found these both wanting, 
 I volunteered to declare it. I beheve that I see some 
 tjruths important for my fellow beings to know; I feel that 
 I have the courage and the independence to speak that 
 
LECT. I.] NATURE OP KNOWLEDGE. 37 
 
 which I believe ; and where is the friend to his species 
 that will not say, '■^ Happy ^ most happy shall it he for 
 human kind, when all independent individuals, fnale 
 or f empale, citizens 07' foreigners, shall feel the debt of 
 kindness they owe to their fellow beings, and fearless- 
 ly step forth to reveal unbought truths and hazard 
 unpopidar opinions." 
 
 Until this be done, and done ably, fearlessly, and fre- 
 quently, the reign of human error must continue ; and, 
 with human error, human vice, and human suffering. 
 The advocates of just knowledge must be armed with 
 courage to dare all things, and to bear all things, for the 
 truths they revere; and to seek, as they may only find, 
 the reward of their exertions in the impression, great or 
 little, slow or rapid, as it may be, which their exertions 
 may produce on public opinion, and, through the public 
 opinion, on the public practice. 
 
 We have now sufficiently considered, so far as I have 
 found possible in a single discourse on so wide a topic, the 
 main subject of our introductory enquiries : viz. the na- 
 ture and object of just knowledge. We have examined, 
 also, some of the errors vulgarly entertained on the subject, 
 and many of the impediments which now obstruct our 
 advances in the road of improvement. We have seen 
 that just knowledge is easy of acquirement, but that few 
 are interested in revealing its simple principles ; while 
 many are driven by circumstances to interpret or dissemble 
 them. We have remarked that, to accelerate the progress 
 of our race, two means present themselves ; a just system 
 of education, and a fearless spirit of enquiry ; and that 
 while the former would remove all difficulties from the 
 path of future generations, the latter would place far in 
 advance even the present. We have also observed on the 
 advantage which would accrue to mankind, if all inde- 
 
 D 
 
Hi NATtTRE OP KNOWLEDGE. [lECT. I. 
 
 ^ndent individuals would volunteer the task, for which 
 Appointed teachers and professional men are now but too 
 frequently unfit, by devoting themselves to the promulga- 
 tion of truth, without regard to fashionable prejudice. I 
 have been led, also, incidentally to advert to the influence 
 exerted over the fortunes of our race by those who are too 
 often overlooked in our social arrangements and in our 
 civil rights — I allude to women. 
 
 Leaving to a ftiture opportunity the more complete de- 
 velopement of the important subject, we have this evening 
 approached — the nature of all knowledge — as well as the 
 equally important subject of youthful education, I shall, at 
 our next meeting, consider the other two enumerated 
 means of improvement, viz. by free enquiry. And as this 
 is for us of the present generation the only means, so shall 
 I endeavour to show how much it is our interest, and how 
 imperiously it is our duty, to improve it to the uttermost. 
 
 It is with delight that I have distinguished, at each suc- 
 cessive meeting, the increasing ranks of my own sex. 
 Were the vital principle of human equality universally 
 acknowledged, it would be to my fellow beings without 
 regard to nation, class, sect, or sex, that I should delight to 
 address myself. But until equahty prevail in condition, 
 opportunity, and instruction, it is every where to the least 
 favored in these advantages, that I most especially and 
 anxiously incline. 
 
 Nor is the ignorance of our sex matter of surprise, 
 when efforts, as violent as imrelaxed, are every where 
 made for its continuance. 
 
 It is not as of yore. Eve puts not forth her hand to 
 gather the fair fruit of knowledge. The wily serpent now 
 hath better learned his lesson ; and, to secure his reign in 
 the garden, beguileth her not to eat. Promises, entrea- 
 ties, threats, tales of wonder, and, alas ! tales of horror, 
 
LECT. I.] NATURE OF KNOWLEDGE; 99 
 
 are all poured in her tender ears. Above, her agitated 
 fancy hears the voice of a god in thunders ; below, she 
 sees the yawning pit ; and, before, behind, around, a thou* 
 sand phantoms, conjured from the prolific brain of insatiate 
 priestcraft, confound, alarm, and overwhelm her reason ! 
 
 Oh ! were that worst evil withdrawn which now weighs 
 upon our race, how rapid were its progress in knowledge ! 
 Oh ! were men — and, yet more, women, absolved from 
 fear, how easily and speedily and gloriously would they 
 hold on their course in improvement ! The difficulty is 
 not to convince, it is to win attention. Could truth only 
 be heard, the conversion of the ignorant were easy. And 
 well do the hired supporters of error understand this fact. 
 Well do they know, that if the daughters of the present, 
 and mothers of the future generation, were to drink of the 
 living waters of knowledge, their reign would be ended — 
 " their occupation gone." So well do they know it, that, 
 far from obeying to the letter the command of their spiri- 
 tual leader, " Be ye fishers of men," we find them every 
 where Jishers of women. Their own sex, old and young, 
 they see with indifference swim by their nets ; but closely 
 and warily are their meshes laid, to entangle the female 
 of every age. 
 
 Fathers and husbands ! do ye not also understand this 
 fact ? Do ye not see how, in the mental bondage of your 
 wives and fair companions, ye yourselves are bound? 
 Will ye fondly sport yourselves in your imagined liberty, 
 and say, " it matters not if our women be mental slaves 7" 
 Will ye pleasure yourselves in the varied paths of know- 
 ledge, and imagine that women, hoodwinked and unawa- 
 kened, will make the better servants and the easier play- 
 things ? They are greatly in error who so strike the ac- 
 count; as many a bankrupt merchant and sinking mecha> 
 nic, not to say drowning capitalist, could bear witness. 
 
40 NATURE OP KNOWLEDGE. [lECT. I. 
 
 But, setting aside dollars and cents, which men, in their 
 present uncomfortable state of existence, are but too prone 
 exclusively to regard, how many nobler interests of the 
 mind and the heart cry "treason !" to this false calculation? 
 At our next meeting, we shall consider these interests, 
 which will naturally present themselves during our inves- 
 tigations on the subject of free enquiry. In what just 
 knowledge consists we have cursorily examined ; to put 
 ourselves in the way of attaining that knowledge, be our 
 next object. 
 
 % 
 
I.ECTURE n. 
 
 OF FREE ENCIUIRY CONSIDERED AS A MEANS FOR 
 OBTAINING JUST KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 The subject we have to examine this evening, is that 
 of free enquiry, considered as a means for the attainment 
 of just knowledge. 
 
 At our last meeting, we endeavoured to investigate the 
 nature and object of just knowledge, together with the 
 means proper for its attainment. We discovered these 
 means to be two ; a judicious education, and a free spirit 
 of enquiry. 
 
 From the first and best means, a judicious education, 
 we of the present generation are unfortunately excluded. 
 Wherever our lot may have been cast, or whatever may 
 be our attainments, we must all be conscious that we are 
 what we are in spite of many disadvantages ; and that, 
 however wise or good our vanity may pronounce us to be, 
 we should have been much wiser, and, consequently, better 
 and happier, had a judicious education more carefully de- 
 veloped our tender faculties, and brought order and accu- 
 racy to all our nascent ideas. But the forest is grown ; and, 
 straight or crooked, the trees have to stand pretty much as 
 early circumstances have inclined them. Still, something 
 may be done ; nay ! if we bring fearless and determined 
 spirits to the work, much may be done — much for our- 
 selves, and every thing for our descendants. It rests with 
 us to command, for the rising generation, that education, 
 d2 6 
 
42 FREE ENQUIRY. [lECT. II. 
 
 whose want we, in our own case, deplore. It rests with 
 us to open, with a golden key, the gates of just knowledge 
 for our children ; and to marshal them in those smooth, 
 broad, pleasant paths, which we ourselves have never trod. 
 Equally true it is, that we cannot, for ourselves, command 
 that first, best means for attaining the first, best good. 
 Our opinions have, unfortunately, to be changed, not 
 simply formed ; our advance in knowledge must involve 
 forgetting as well as acquiring. We have not, in our own 
 minds, to till a virgin soil, but one surcharged with weeds, 
 rank, entangled, and poisonous. Still it is ours to redeem 
 the soil. We may set the edge of our ploughshares, apply 
 them with a steady and nervous hand, and scatter the 
 good seed in time to reap a harvest. 
 
 The second means for the attainment of knowledge is 
 ours, if we choose to exercise it ; that is, if we feel the 
 importance of the object, and have courage to employ the 
 means. The importance of the object we must feel, if 
 we feel at all for ourselves or for our race ; if we are not 
 wholly indifferent to the rank we hold in the scale of 
 being ; not wholly indifferent to our moral excellence, to 
 our mental elevation; to our own peace, to our own 
 utility ; to the liberty and happiness of our species through 
 all the ages of time to come. And, if such be the mighty 
 consequences depending on the object, shall we lack the 
 courage to employ the means? And what means? to 
 open our eyes and our ears ; to throw wide the gates of 
 our understanding ; to dare the exercise of our intellectual 
 faculties, and to encourage in others, as in ourselves, a 
 habit of accurate and dispassionate investigation. 
 
 We have seen, also, that it is not our own improvement 
 merely that must be advanced or impeded according to 
 our courage or timidity, but that of future generations, 
 whose destiny it is ours to influence. Strongly, then, are 
 
LECT. II.J PEEE ENQUIRY. 43 
 
 we pledged to lay aside indolence and fear ; and to en- 
 gage honestly in the task of weeding out our prejudices 
 and establishing our opinions. 
 
 There is a common error that I feel myself called upon 
 to notice ; nor know I the country in which it is more 
 prevalent than in this. Whatever indifference may gene- 
 rally prevail among men, still there are many eager for the 
 acquisition of knowledge ; willing to enquire, and anxious 
 to base their opinions upon correct principles. In the 
 curiosity which motives their exertions, however, the vital 
 principle is but too often wanting. They come selfishly, 
 and not generously, to the tree of knowledge. They eat, 
 but care not to impart of the fruit to others. Nay, there 
 are who, having leaped the briar fence of prejudice them- 
 selves, will heap new thorns in the way of those who 
 would venture the same. 
 
 And have Americans yet to learn that the interests of 
 all are compounded of the interests of each? and that 
 he who, in pursuing his own advantage, immolates one in- 
 terest of his fellow beings, fails in justice as a man, com- 
 mits treason as a citizen ? And oh ! what interest so dear 
 as that of mental improvement ? Who is without that in- 
 terest ? or of whom is not that interest sacred 'I Man, wo- 
 man, child — ^who has not a claim to the exercise of his 
 reason 7 or what injustice may compare with that which 
 says to one, " thought is good for thee," and to another, 
 " knowledge is to thee forbidden ?" 
 
 But will this imputation startle my hearers ? Will they 
 say, America is the home of liberty, and Americans bre- 
 thren in equality. Is it so ? and may we not ask here, 
 as elsewhere, how many are there, not anxious to mono- 
 polize, but to universalize knowledge? how many, that con- 
 sider their own improvement in relation always with that 
 of their fellow beings, and who feel the imparting of truth 
 
^ FREE ENQUIRY. [lECT. II. 
 
 to be not a work of supererogation, but a duty ; the with- 
 holding itj not a venial omission, but a treachery to the 
 race. Which of us have not seen fathers of families pur- 
 suing investigations themselves, which they hide from their 
 sons, and, more especially, from their wives and daugh- 
 ters ? As if truth could be of less importance to the young 
 than to the old; or as if the sex which in all ages has 
 ruled the destinies of the world, could be less worth en- 
 lightening than that which only follows its lead ! 
 
 The observation I have hazarded may require some ex- 
 planation. Those who arrogate power usually think 
 themselves superior de facto and de jure. Yet justly might 
 it be made a question whether those who ostensibly govern 
 are not always unconsciously led. Should we examine 
 closely into the state of things, we might find that, in all 
 countries, the governed decide the destinies of the governors, 
 more than the governors those of the governed; even as 
 the labouring classes influence more directly the fortunes 
 of a nation than does the civil officer, the aspiring states- 
 man, the rich capitalist, or the speculative philosopher. 
 
 However novel it may appear, T shall venture the asser- 
 tion, that, until women assume the place in society which 
 good sense and good feeUng aUke assign to them, human 
 improvement must advance but feebly. It is in vain that 
 we would circumscribe the power of one half of our race, 
 and that half by far the most important and influential. 
 If they exert it not for good, they will for evil ; if they 
 advance not knowledge, they will perpetuate ignorance. 
 Let women stand where they may in the scale of im- 
 provement, their position decides that of the race. Are 
 they cultivated ? — so is society polished and enlightened. 
 Are they ignorant ? — so is it gross and insipid. Are they 
 wise ? — so is the human condition prosperous. Are 
 they foohsh? — so is it unstable and unpromising. Are they 
 
LECT. II.] FREE ENCIUIRY. 45 
 
 free? — so is the human character elevated. Are they 
 enslaved? — so is the whole race degraded. Oh ! that we 
 could learn the advantage of just practice and consistent 
 principles ! that we could understand, that every depar- 
 ture from principle, how speciously soever it may appear 
 to administer to our selfish interests, invariably saps their 
 very foundation ! that we could learn that what is ruinous 
 to some is injurious to aU ; and that whenever we establish 
 our own pretensions upon the sacrificed rights of others, 
 we do in fact impeach our own liberties, and lower our- 
 selves in the scale of being ! 
 
 But to return. It is my object to show, that, before we 
 can engage successfully in the work of enquiry, we must 
 engage in a body ; we must engage collectively ; as human 
 beings desirous of attaining the highest excellence of which 
 our nature is capable ; as children of one family, anxious 
 to discover the true and the useful for the common advan- 
 tage of all. It is my farther object to show that no 
 co-operation in this matter can be effective which does not 
 embrace the two sexes on a footing of equahty; and, 
 again, that no co-operation in this matter can be effective, 
 which does not embrace human beings on a footing of 
 equality. Is this a republic — a country whose affairs are 
 governed by the public voice — while the public mind is 
 unequally enlightened ? Is this a republic, where the in- 
 terests of the many keep in check those of the few — 
 while the few hold possession of the courts of knowledge, 
 and the many stand as suitors at the door? Is this a repub- 
 lic, where the rights of all are equally respected, the inte- 
 rests of all equally secured, the ambitions of all equally 
 regulated, the services of all equally rendered? Is this 
 such a republic — while we see endowed colleges for the 
 rich, and barely common schools for the poor ; while but 
 one drop of colored blood shall stamp a fellow creature for 
 
46 FUEE ENQUIRY. [lECT. II. 
 
 a slave, or, at the least, degrade him below sympathy; and 
 while one half of the whole population is left in civil bon- 
 dage, and, as it were, sentenced to mental imbecility ? 
 
 Let us pause to enquire if this be consistent with the 
 being of a repubUc. Without knowledge, could your 
 fathers have conquered liberty ? and without knowledge, 
 can you retain it ? Equality ! where is it, if not in educa- 
 tion ? Equal rights ! they cannot exist without equality 
 of instruction. " All men are born free and equal !" they 
 are indeed so born, but do they so live ? Are they educated 
 as equals 7 and, if not, can they be equal ? and, if not 
 equal, can they be free? Do not the rich command in- 
 struction ? and they who have instruction, must they not 
 possess the power ? and when they have the power, will 
 they not exert it in their own favor ? I will ask more ; I 
 will ask, do they not exert it in their own favor ? I will ask 
 if two professions do not now rule the land and its in- 
 habitants ? I will ask, whether your legislatures are not 
 governed by lawyers and your households by priests? 
 And I will farther ask, whether the deficient instruction 
 of the mass of vour population does not give to lawyers 
 their political ascendency ; and whether the ignorance of 
 women be not the cause that your domestic hearths are in- 
 vaded by priests? Are not these matters of popular interest? 
 matters for popular enquiry ? We shall examine to-mor- 
 row whether you have not now in your hands all the 
 means necessary for equahzing instruction, not merely 
 among your children but yourselves ; so far, at least, as 
 to place your liberties beyond risk of attainder. 
 
 This examination ^vill involve all your interests, national 
 and social. Your political institutions have taken equality 
 for their basis ; your declaration of rights, upon which your 
 institutions rest, sets forth this principle as vital and invio- 
 late. Equahty is the soul of liberty ; there is, in fact, no 
 
LECT, II.] FREE ENdUIRY. 47 
 
 liberty without it — ^none that cannot be overthrown by the 
 violence of ignorant anarchy, or sapped by the subtilty of 
 professional craft. That this is the case your reasons will 
 admit; that this is the case your feelings do admit — even 
 those which are the least amiable and the least praise- 
 worthy. The jealousy betrayed by the uncultivated against 
 those of more polished address and manners, has its source 
 in the beneficial principle to which we advert, however, (in 
 this, as in many other cases,) misconceived and perverted. 
 Cultivation of mind will ever lighten the countenance and 
 polish the exterior. This external superiority, which is 
 but a faint emanation of the superiority within, vulgar 
 eyes can see and ignorant jealousy will resent. This, in a 
 republic, leads to brutality ; and, in aristocracies, where 
 this jealously is restrained by fear, to servility. Here it 
 will lead the wagoner to dispute the road with a car- 
 riage ; and, in Europe, will make the foot passenger doff 
 his hat to the lordly equipage which spatters him with 
 mud, while there he mutters curses only in his heart. The 
 unreasoning observer will refer the conduct of the first to 
 the republican institutions — ^the reflecting observer, to 
 the anti-republican education. The instruction befitting 
 free men is that which gives the sun of knowledge to shine 
 on all ; and which at once secures the liberties of each in- 
 dividual, and disposes each individual to make a proper 
 use of them. 
 
 Equality, then, we have shown to have its seat in the 
 mind. A proper cultivation of the faculties would ensure 
 a sufficiency of that equality for all the ends of repubhcan 
 government, and for all the modes of social enjoyment. 
 The diversity in the natural powers of different minds, as 
 decided by physical organization, would be then only a 
 source of interest and agreeable variety. All would be 
 
If 
 
 48 FREE ENaUIRY. [lECT. II. 
 
 capable of appreciating the peculiar powers of each ; and 
 each would perceive that his interests, well understood, 
 were in unison with the interests of all. Let us now exa- 
 mine whether liberty, properly interpreted, does not in- 
 volve, among your unalienable rights as citizens and 
 human beings, the right of equal means of instruction. 
 
 Have ye given a pledge, sealed with the blood of your 
 fathers, for the equal rights of all human kind sheltered 
 within your confines ? What means the pledge ? or what 
 understand ye by human rights ? But understand them as 
 ye will, define them as ye will, how are men to be secured 
 in any rights without instruction ? how to be secured in 
 the equal exercise of those rights without equality of 
 instruction 7 By instruction understand me to mean, 
 knowledge— jw5^ knowledge ; not talent, not genius, not 
 inventive mental powers. These will vary in every human 
 being ; but knowledge is the same for every mind, and 
 every mind may and ought to be trained to receive it. If, 
 then, ye have pledged, at each anniversary of your political 
 independence, your lives, properties, and honor, to the 
 securing your common liberties, ye have pledged your 
 lives, properties, and honor, to the securing of your com- 
 mon instruction. Or will you secure the end without 
 securing the means? ye shall do it, when ye reap the 
 harvest without planting the seed. 
 
 Oh ! were the priaciple of human liberty understood, 
 how clear would be the principle of human conduct ! It 
 would light us unerringly to our duties as citizens. It 
 would light us unerringly to our duties as men. It would 
 lead us aright in every action of our lives ; regulate justly 
 every feeling and affection of our hearts, and be to us a 
 rule more unerring than laws, more bindiag than oaths, 
 more enforcing than penalties. Then would passion yield 
 
LECT. II.] FREE ENQUIRY. 49 
 
 to reason, selfishness to justice, and the equal rights of 
 others supply the sole, but the sure, immutable limits of 
 our own. 
 
 As we have somewhat swerved from our leading sub- 
 ject to consider the nature of equality, let us again pause 
 to consider that of liberty. We have seen that they are 
 twin sisters ; and so were they viewed by the effulgent 
 mind of Jefferson, when from his fearless pen dropped the 
 golden words, " All men are born free and equal." Those 
 words his fellow citizens and descendants will have in- 
 terpreted, when they shall have shed on the minds of the 
 rising generation, and as far as possible on their own, the 
 equal effulgence of just knowledge ; before which every 
 error in opinion and every vice in practice will fly as the 
 noxious dews of night before the sun. 
 
 Let us, then, pause to consider these immortal words, 
 graven by an immortal pen on the gates of time, " All 
 men are born free and equal." 
 
 All men are born free and equal ! That is : our moral 
 feelings acknowledge it to he just and proper ^ that we 
 respect those liberties in others^ which we lay claim to 
 for ourselves ; and that we permit the free agency of 
 every individual, to any extent which violates not the 
 free agency of his fellow creatures. 
 
 There is but one honest hmit to the rights of a sentient 
 being; it is where they touch the rights of another sentient 
 being. Do we exert our own liberties without injury to 
 others — we exert them justly ; do we exert them at tho 
 expense of others — unjustly. And, in thus doing, we 
 step from the sure platform of liberty upon the uncertain 
 threshold of tyranny. Small is the step ; to the unre- 
 flecting so imperceptibly small, that they take it every 
 hour of their lives as thoughtlessly as they do it unfeel^ 
 ingly. Whenever we slight, in word or deed, the feelingf 
 E 7 
 
60 FREE ENQUIRY. [lECT. II. 
 
 of a fellow creature ; whenever, in pursuit of our own 
 individual interests, we sacrifice the interest of others ; 
 whenever, through our vanity or our selfishness, we in- 
 terpret our interests unfairly, sink the rights of others in 
 our own, arrogate authority, presume upon advantages of 
 wealth, strength, situation, talent, or instruction ; whenever 
 we indulge idle curiosity respecting the private affairs, 
 opinions, and actions of our neighbours ; whenever, in 
 short, we forget what in justice is due to others, and, 
 equally, what in justice is due to ourselves, we sin against 
 liberty — ^we pass from the rank of freemen to that of 
 tyrants or slaves. Easy it were to enumerate the many 
 laws by which, as citizens, we violate our common liber- 
 ties ; the many regulations, habits, practices, and opinions, 
 by which, as human beings, we violate the same. Easy 
 it were ? Alas ! and say I so ? when to enumerate all 
 these our sins against liberty, would be well nigh to 
 enumerate all that we do, and feel, and think, and say ! 
 But let us confine ourselves within a famiUar though most 
 important example. 
 
 Who among us but has had occasion to remark the ill- 
 judged, however well intention ed government of children 
 by their teachers ; and, yet more especially, by their 
 parents ? In what does this mismanagement originate 7 In 
 a misconception of the relative position of the parent or 
 guardian, and of the child ; in a departure, by the parent, 
 from the principle of hberty, in his assumption of rights 
 destructive of those of the child ; in his exercise of autho- 
 rity, as by right divine, over the judgment, actions, and 
 person of the child ; in his forgetfulness of the character 
 of the child, as a human being, born "free and equal" 
 among his compeers ; that is, having equal claims to the 
 exercise and developement of all his senses, faculties, and 
 powers, with those who brought him into existence, and 
 
LECT. II.] FREE ENdUIRY. 61 
 
 with all sentient beings who tread the earth. Were a child 
 thus viewed by his parent, we should not see him, by 
 turns, made a plaything and a slave ; we should not see 
 him commanded to believe, but encouraged to reason ; we 
 should not see him trembling under the rod, nor shrinking 
 from a frown, but reading the wishes of others in the eye, 
 gathering knowledge wherever he threw his glance, re- 
 joicing in the present hour, and treasuring up sources of 
 enjoyment for future years. We should not then see the 
 youth launching into Hfe without compass or quadrant. 
 We should not see him doubting at each emergency how 
 to act, shifting his course with the shifting wind, and, at 
 last, making shipwreck of mind and body on the sunken 
 rocks of hazard and dishonest speculation, nor on the foul 
 quicksands of debasing licentiousness. 
 
 What, then, has the parent to do, if he would conscien- 
 tiously discharge that most sacred of all duties, that 
 weightiest of all responsibihties, which ever did or ever 
 Avill devolve on a human being ? What is he to do, who, 
 having brought a creature into existence, endowed with 
 varied faculties, with tender susceptibihties, capable of im- 
 told wretchedness or equally of unconceived enjoyment ; 
 what is he to do, that he may secure the happiness of that 
 creature, and make the life he has given blessing and 
 blessed, instead of cursing and cursed? What is he to 
 do ? — ^he is to encourage in his child a spirit of enquiry, 
 and equally to encourage it in himself. He is never to 
 advance an opinion without showing the facts upon which 
 it is grounded ; he is never to assert a fact, without proving 
 it to be a fact. He is not to teach a code of morals, any 
 more than a creed of doctrines ; but he is to direct his 
 young charge to observe the consequences of actions on 
 himself and on others ; and to judge of the propriety of 
 those actions by their ascertained consequences. He is 
 
68 FREE ENaUIRY. [lECT. II. 
 
 not to command his feelings any more than his opinions 
 or his actions ; but he is to assist him in the analysis of 
 his feehngs, in the examination of their nature, their 
 tendencies, their effects. Let him do this, and have no 
 anxiety for the result. In the free exercise of his senses, 
 in the fair developement of his faculties, in a course of 
 simple and unrestrained enquiry, he will discover truth, 
 for he will ascertain facts ; he will seize upon virtue, for 
 he will have distinguished beneficial from injurious actions ; 
 he will cultivate kind, generous, just, and honourable feel- 
 ings, for he will have proved them to contribute to his 
 own happiness and to shed happiness around him. 
 
 Who, then, shall say, enquiry is good for him and not 
 good for his children ? Who shall cast error from himself, 
 and allow it to be grafted on the minds he has called into 
 being ? Who shall break the chains of his own ignorance, 
 and fix them, through his descendants, on his race ? But, 
 there are some who, as parents, make one step in duty, 
 and halt at the second. We see men who will aid the in- 
 struction of their sons, and condemn only their daughters 
 to ignorance. " Our sons," they say, " will have to exer- 
 cise political rights, may aspire to public offices, may fill 
 some learned profession, may struggle for wealth and ac- 
 quire it. It is well that we give them a helping hand ; 
 that we assist them to such knowledge as is going, and 
 make them as sharp witted as their neighbors. But for 
 our daughters," they say — if indeed respecting them they 
 say any thing — " for our daughters, httle trouble or expense 
 is necessary. They can never he any thing ; in fact, 
 they are nothing. We had best give them up to their 
 mothers, who may take them to Sunday's preaching ; and, 
 with the aid of a httle music, a little dancing, and a few 
 fine gowns, fit them out for the market of m^arriage." 
 
 Am I severe ? It is not my intention. I know that I am 
 
LECT. II.J FREE ENQUIRY. 53 
 
 honest, and I fear that I am correct. Should I offend, 
 however I may regret, I shall not repent it ; satisfied to 
 incur displeasure, so that I render service. 
 
 But to such parents I would observe, that with regard to 
 their sons, as to their daughters, they are about equally 
 mistaken. If it be their duty, as we have seen, to respect 
 in their children the same natural hberties which they 
 cherish for themselves — if it be their duty to aid as guides, 
 not to dictate as teachers — ^to lend assistance to the reason, 
 Tiot to command its prostration, — then have they nothing 
 to do with the blanks or the prizes in store for them, in the 
 wheel of worldly fortune. Let possibihties be what they 
 may in favor of their sons, they have no calculations to 
 make on them. It is not for them to ordain their sons 
 magistrates nor statesmen ; nor yet even lawyers, physi- 
 cians, or merchants. They have only to improve the one 
 character which they receive at the birth. They have 
 only to consider them as human beings, and to ensure 
 them the fair and thorough developement of all the facul- 
 ties, physical, mental, and moral, which distinguish their 
 nature. In like manner, as respects their daughters, they 
 have nothing to do with the injustice of laws, nor the 
 absurdities of society. Their duty is plain, evident, 
 decided. In a daughter they have in charge a human 
 being; in a son, the same. Let them train up these 
 human bemgSj under the expanded wings of liberty. Let 
 them seek for them and with them just knowledge ; en- 
 couraging, from the cradle upwards, that useful curiosity 
 which will lead them unbidden in the paths of free 
 enquiry ; and place them, safe and superior to the storms 
 of life, in the security of well regulated, self-possessed 
 minds, well grounded, well reasoned, conscientious opi- 
 nions, and self-approved, consistent practice. 
 
 I have as yet, in this important matter, addressed my- 
 i:2 
 
64 FUEE ENQUIRY. [lKCT. II. 
 
 self only to the reason and moral feelings of my audience ; 
 I could speak also to their interests. Easy were it to show, 
 that in proportion as your children are enlightened, wiU 
 they prove blessings to society and ornaments to their race. 
 But if this be true of all, it is more especially true of the 
 now more neglected half of the species. Were it only in 
 our power to enlighten part of the rising generation, and 
 should the interests of the whole decide our choice of the 
 portion, it were the females, and not the males, we should 
 select. 
 
 When, now a twelvemonth since, the friends of liberty 
 and science pointed out to me, in London, the walls of 
 their rising university, I observed, with a smile, that they 
 were begirming at the wrong end : " Raise such an edifice 
 for your young women, and ye have enhghtened the 
 nation." It has already been observed, that women, 
 wherever placed, however high or low in the scale of cul- 
 tivation, hold the destinies of humankind. Men will ever 
 rise or fall to the level of the other sex ; and from some 
 causes in their conformation, we find them, however armed 
 \vith power or enhghtened with knowledge, still held in 
 leading strings even by the least cultivated female. Surely, 
 then, if they knew their interests, they would desire the 
 improvement of those who, if they do not advantage, will 
 injure them; who, if they elevate not their minds and 
 mehorate not their hearts, will debase the one and harden 
 the other ; and who, if they endear not existence, most 
 assuredly will dash it with poison. How many, how om- 
 nipotent are the interests which engage men to break the 
 mental chains of women ! How many, how dear are the 
 interests which engage them to exalt rather than lower 
 their condition, to multiply their solid acquirements, to 
 respect their liberties, to make them their equals, to wish 
 them even their superiors I Let them enquire into these 
 
LECT. II.] FREE ENCIUIRY. 68 
 
 things. Let them examine the relation in which the two 
 sexes stand, and ever must stand, to each other. Let them 
 perceive, that, mutually dependent, they must ever be 
 giving and receiving, or they must be losing ; — receiving 
 or losing in knowledge, in virtue, in enjoyment. Let them 
 perceive how immense the loss, or how immense the 
 gain. Let them not imagine that they know aught of 
 the deUghts which intercourse with the other sex can 
 give, until they have felt the s)n:npathy of mind with 
 mind, and heart with heart ; until they bring into that 
 intercourse every affection, every talent, every confidence, 
 every refinement, every respect. Until power is annihi- 
 lated on one side, fear and obedience on the other, and 
 both restored to their birthright — equality. Let none 
 think that affection can reign without it ; or friendship, or 
 esteem. Jealousies, envyings, suspicions, reserves, decep- 
 tions — ^these are the fruits of inequality. Go, then ! and 
 remove the evil first from the minds of women, then from 
 their condition, and then from your laws. Think it no 
 longer indifferent whether the mothers of the rising gene- 
 ration are wise or foolish. Think it not indifferent whe- 
 ther your own companions are ignorant or enUghtened. 
 Think it not indifferent whether those who are to form the 
 opinions, sway the habits, decide the destinies, of the spe- 
 cies — and that not through thek children only, but through 
 their lovers and husbands — are enlightened friends or ca- 
 pricious mistresses, efficient coadjutors or careless servants, 
 reasoning beings or blind followers of superstition. 
 
 There is a vulgar persuasion, that the ignorance of 
 women, by. favoring their subordination, ensures their 
 utility. 'Tis the same argument employed by the ruling 
 few against the subject many in aristocracies ; by the rich 
 against the poor in democracies ; by the learned professions 
 -against the people in all countries. And let us observe, 
 
M FREE ENQUIRY. [lECT. II. 
 
 that if good in one case, it should be good in all ; and that, 
 unless you are prepared to admit that you are yourselves 
 less industrious in proportion to your intelligence, you must 
 abandon the position with respect to others. But, in fact, 
 who is it among men that best struggle with difficulties ? 
 — ^the strong minded or the weak ? Who meet with se- 
 renity adverse fortune ? — the wise or the foohsh ? Who 
 accommodate themselves to irremediable circumstances? or, 
 when remediable, who control and mould them at wiU ? — 
 the intelligent or the ignorant ? Let your answer in your 
 own case, be your answer in that of women. 
 
 If the important enquiry which engaged our attention 
 last evening was satisfactorily answered, is there one who 
 can doubt the beneficial effects of knowledge upon every 
 mind, upon every heart ? Surely it must have been a mis- 
 conception of the nature of knowledge which could alone 
 bring it into suspicion. What is the danger of truth? 
 Where is the danger of fact? Error and ignorance, in- 
 deed, are full of danger. They fill our imagination with 
 terrors. They place us at the mercy of every external cir- 
 cumstance. They incapacitate us for our duties as mem- 
 bers of the human family, for happiness as sentient beings, 
 for improvement as reasoning beings. Let us awake from 
 this illusion. , Let us understand what knowledge is. Let 
 us clearly perceive that accurate knowledge regards all 
 equally; that truth, or fact, is the same thing for all 
 human-kind ; that there are not truths for the rich and 
 truths for the poor, truths for men and truths for women ; 
 there are simply truths , that is, facts, which all who 
 open their eyes and their ears and their understandings 
 can perceive. There is no mystery in these facts. 
 There is no witchcraft in knowledge. Science is not a 
 trick; not a puzzle. The philosopher is not a conju- 
 ror. The observer of nature who envelopes his discoveries 
 
r 
 
 LECT. II.] FREE ENQUIRY. 57 
 
 in mystery, either knows less than he pretends, or feels 
 interested in withholding his knowledge. The teacher 
 whose lessons are difficult of comprehension, is either 
 clumsy or he is dishonest. 
 
 We observed, at our last meeting, that it was the evident 
 interest of our appointed teachers to disguise the truth. 
 We discovered this to be a matter of necessity, arising out 
 of their dependence upon the public favor. We may ob- 
 serve yet another cause, now operating far and wide — 
 universally, oronipotently — a cause pervading the whole 
 mass of society, and springing out of the existing motive 
 principle of human action — competition. Let us exa- 
 mine, and we shall discover it to be the object of each in- 
 dividual to obscure the first elements of the knowledge he 
 professes — ^be that knowledge mechanical and operative, or 
 intellectual and passive. It is thus that we see the simple 
 manufacture of a pair of shoes magnified into an art, de- 
 manding a seven years apprenticeship, when all its intri- 
 cacies might be mastered in as many months. It is thus 
 that cutting out a coat after just proportions is made to in- 
 volve more science, and to demand more study, than the 
 anatomy of the body it is to cover. And it is thus, in like 
 manner, that all the branches of knowledge, involved in 
 what is called scholastic learning, are wrapped in the fogs 
 of pompous pedantry ; and that every truth, instead of be- 
 ing presented in naked innocence, is obscured imder a 
 weight of elaborate words, and lost and buried in a medley 
 of iiielevant ideas, useless amplifications, and erroneous ar- 
 guments. Would we unravel this confusion — would wo, 
 distinguish the true from the false, the real from the un- 
 real, the useful from the useless — would we break our men- 
 tal leading strings — would we know the uses of all our fa-^ 
 cutties — ^would we be virtuous, happy, and inteUigent be- 
 ings — ^would we be useful in our generation — ^would we 
 
 8 
 
68 FREE ENaUIRY. [lECT. H. 
 
 possess our own minds in peace, be secure in our opinions, 
 be just in our feelings, be consistent in our practice — ^would 
 we command the respect of others, and — ^far better — would 
 we secure our own — ^let us enquire. 
 
 Let us enquire ! What mighty consequences, are in- 
 ■ volved in these little words ! Whither have they not led ? 
 To what are they not yet destined to lead ? Before them 
 thrones have given way. Hierarchies have fallen, dun- 
 geons have disclosed their secrets. Iron bars, and iron 
 laws, and more iron prejudices, have givea way ; the pri- 
 son house of the mind hath burst its fetters ; science dis- 
 closed her treasures ; truth her moral beauties ; and civil 
 liberty, sheathing her conquering sword^ hath prepared her 
 to sit down in peax:e at the feet of knowledge. 
 
 Let us enquire ! Oh, words fraught with good to man 
 and terror to his oppressors ! Oh words bearing glad ti- 
 dings to the many and alarm only to the few 1 The mo- 
 narch hears them and trembles on his throne ! The priest 
 hears them, and trembles in the sanctuary ; the unjust 
 judge — and trembles on the judgment seat. The nations 
 pronounce them and arise in their strength. Let us enquire ; 
 and behold, ignorance becomes wise, vice forsakes its er- 
 rors, wretchedness conceives of comfort, and despair is vi- 
 sited by hope. Let us enquire ! — when all shall whisper 
 these little words, and echo them in their hearts, truly the 
 rough places shall be made smooth, and the crooked paths 
 straight. Let us enquire ; and behold, no evil but shall find 
 its remedy, no error but shall be detected, and no truth but 
 shall stand revealed ! Let us enquire ! These little words, 
 which presume in nothing, but which promise all things, 
 what ear shall they offend ? what imagination shall they 
 affright ? Not yours, sons of America ! Not yours. What 
 hold ye of good or great ? what boast ye of rights, of pri- 
 vileges, of hberty, beyond the rest of the nations, that by 
 
LECT. II.] FREE ENQUIRY. 69 
 
 enquiry hath not been won, by enquiry improved and pro- 
 tected ? Let us enquire, said your ancestors, when kingly 
 and priestly tyranny smote them on the banks of the 
 Thames or the Seine. Let us enquire, said your fathers, 
 when imperious princes and arrogant parUaments ques- 
 tioned their charters and trampled on their rights. Let us 
 enquire, said Henry, said Jefferson, said Franklin, said the 
 people and congress of '76. Let us enquire ; and behold, 
 the enquiry gained to them and their descendants a coun- 
 try — ^lost to kings and their empires a world ! 
 
 And shall the sons fear to pronounce, in peace, under 
 the shadow of the olive and the laurel planted by their fa- 
 thers — shall they, I say, fear to pronounce those httle words 
 which, by their ancestors, were uttered under ban and for- 
 feiture, outlawry and excommunication, in prison and 
 under scaffolds, before the bayonets of tyranny and the 
 threatening thunders of leagued armies ? 
 
 Or, is the race of human improvement ended, and the 
 work of reform completed 7 Have we attained all truth, 
 rectified all error, so that, sitting down in wisdom and per- 
 fection, we may say, " our duty is achieved, our destiny 
 fulfilled ?" Alas for our nature, alas for our condition, alas 
 for reason and common sense, if such should be the an- 
 swer of our presumption, such the decision of our igno- 
 rance ! Where is the mind so vast, the imagination so 
 sublime, that hath conceived the farthest limits of human 
 improvement, or the utmost height to which human virtue 
 may attain ? Or, say ! where is the heart so insensible, 
 the mind so debased, that, looking abroad on the face of 
 society, as now disfigured with vice, rapine, and wretched- 
 ness, can seriously think and feel farther enquiry superflu- 
 ous, farther reformation impossible ? 
 
 Did the knowledge of each individual embrace all the 
 discoveries made by science, all the truths extracted by 
 
60 FREE ENaUIRY. fl.ECT. II. 
 
 philosophy from the combined experience of ages, still 
 would enquiry be in its infancy, improvement in its dawn. 
 Perfection for man is in no time, in no place. The law of 
 his being, like that of the earth he inhabits, is to move al- 
 ways^ to stop never. From the earliest amials of tradi- 
 tion, his movement has been in advance. The tide of his 
 progress hath had ebbs and flows, but hath left a thousand 
 marks by wliich to note its silent but tremendous influx. 
 
 The first observations of Indian and Egyptian astrono^ 
 mers ; the first application of man to civil industry ; the 
 first associations of tribes and nations, for the purpose of 
 mutual protection ; the invention of an alphabet, the use 
 of each ornamental, and, far better, of each useful art,-— 
 stand as so many tide marks in the flood of recorded time, 
 until, applying a lever to his own genius, man invented 
 the printing press, and opened a first highway to enquiry. 
 From that hour, his progress has been accelerating and ac- 
 celerated. His strides have been those of a giant, and are 
 those of a giant growing in his strength. Mighty was the 
 step he made, when, in Germany, he impeached the infal- 
 libility of Rome ; mightier yet when, in England, he at- 
 tacked the supremacy of kings ; mightier by far, when, 
 appealing to his own natural rights, he planted in this new 
 world the more new standard of equal Hberty ; and migh- 
 tier still shall be his impulse in the onward career of end- 
 less improvement, when, rightly reading and justly execu- 
 ting his own decree, he shall extend lo every son and 
 daughter within the confines of these free states, liberty's 
 first and only security — virtue's surest and only guide — 
 national, rational, and equal education. 
 
 Something towards this has been done, and in no divi- 
 sion of this promising repubhc more than in New-England 
 and the commonwealth of New- York. But, as it may 
 hereafter be my attempt to show, in the efibrts yet made 
 
LECT. U.5 FREE ENQUIRY. 61 
 
 and making, the master spring hath not been touched, the 
 republican principle hath not been hit, and, therefore, is the 
 reform imperfect. 
 
 If this be so — and who that looks abroad shall gainsay 
 the assertion ? — if this be so — and who that looks to your 
 jails, to your penitentiaries, to your houses of refuge, to 
 your hospitals, to your asylums, to your hovels of wretch- 
 edness, to your haunts of intemperance, to your victims 
 lost in vice and hardened in profligacy, to childhood with- 
 out protection, to youth without guidance, to the widow 
 <vithout sustenance, to the female destitute and female out- 
 ;ast, sentenced to shame and sold to degradation—r-who 
 ,hat looks to these shall say, that enquiry hath not a 
 world to explore, and improvement yet a world to reform ! 
 
 Let us enquire. Who, then, shall challenge the words? 
 They are challenged. And by whom ? By those who call 
 themselves the guardians of morality, and who are the con- 
 stituted guardians of religion. Enquiry, it seems, suits not 
 them. They have drawn the Une, beyond which human 
 reason shall not pass — above which human virtue shall not 
 aspire ! All that is without their faith or above their rule, 
 is immorality, is atheism, is — ^I know not what. 
 
 My friends, I will ask you, as I would ask them would 
 they meet the question, what means we possess for settling 
 the point now at issue between the servants of faith and the 
 advocates of knowledge, but what are supphed by enquiry? 
 
 Are we miserable creatures, innately and of necessity ; 
 placed on this earth by a being who should have made 
 us for misery here and damnation hereafter ; or are we bom 
 ductile as the gold and speckless as the mirror, capable of 
 all inflection and impression which wise or unwise instruc- 
 tion may impart, or to which good or evil circumstance 
 may incline ? Are we helpless sinners, with nought but 
 the anchor of faith to lean upon ? Or are we creatures of 
 p 
 
62 FREE ENCIUIRY. [lECT. II. 
 
 noblest energies and sublimest capabilities, fitted for every 
 deed of excellence, feeling of charity, and mode of enjoy- 
 ment ? How may we settle this problem but by enquiry ? 
 How shall we know who hath the right and who hath the 
 wrong but by enquiry ? Surely the matter is not small, 
 nor the stake at issue trifling. Every interest dearest to the 
 heart, every prospect most exhilirating to the mind, is invol- 
 ved in the question and trembles on the decision. 
 
 Oh ! then, let us gird up our minds in courage, and com- 
 pose them in peace. Let us cast aside fear and suspicion, 
 suspend our jealousies and disputes, acknowledge the 
 rights of others and assert our own. And oh ! let us un- 
 derstand that the first and noblest of these rights is, the 
 cultivation of our reason. We have seen what just knowledge 
 is ; we have ascertained its importance to our worldly pros- 
 perity, to our happiness, to our dignity. We have seen, that 
 it regards us, not only individually, but relatively and col- 
 lectively. We have seen that to obtain it, we have but to 
 seek it, patiently and fearlessly, in the road of enquiry ; 
 and that to tread that road pleasantly, securely, profitably, 
 we must throw it open to both sexes — to all ages — to the 
 whole family of humankind. . 
 
 It now remains for us to distinguish what are the most 
 important subjects of human enquiry. The field of know- 
 ledge is wide and the term of our existence short. With 
 many of us Hfe is considerably spent and much charged 
 with worldly and domestic occupation. Still have we lei- 
 sure sufficient, if we be willing to employ it, for the acqui- 
 sition of such truths as are .most immediately associated 
 with our interests and influential over our happiness. 
 
 At our next meeting we shall enquire what these truths 
 of primary importance are, together with the means now 
 in your hands for their general distribution and popular ac- 
 quisition. 
 
L.ECTURE in. 
 
 OP THE MORE IMPORTANT DIVISIONS AND ESSENTIAL 
 PARTS OF KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 In our preceding discourses we have investigated, first, 
 the nature and object of just knowledge ; secondly, the 
 means for attaining that knowledge. It remains for us to 
 distinguish those parts or divisions of knowledge, with 
 which it most concerns us to be famihar. 
 
 We ascertained at our first meeting just knowledge to 
 consist in, first, acquaintance with ourselves ; and secondly, 
 with all things to which we stand in relation. 
 
 Now we stand in relation, more near or more remote, to 
 all substances and all existences within the range of our 
 observation ; that is, to the whole of matter, of which 
 whole we ourselves form a part. 
 
 We shall understand this relation more accurately if we 
 bear in mind, that the simple elements of all things are 
 eternal in duration and ever changing in position. We 
 may analyze or decompose all substances, from the rocks 
 of the mountain to the flesh of our own bodies ; we may 
 destroy sentient existences — the ox in the market, or the 
 insect beneath our foot ; we may watch the progress of 
 rapid or more gradual decomposition by age or disease in 
 our own bodies ; but let us not imagine that here is de- 
 struction, here is only change. We may evaporate water 
 into steam, or convert it into air ; we may transform the 
 blazing diamond into the elements of dull carbon ; we may 
 
64 DIVISIONS OF KNOWLEDGE. [lECT. III. 
 
 (i stop the current juices in the plant or the tree, and leave it 
 
 fading and withering until we find only an earthy heap on 
 the soil ; we may arrest the action of organic life, and 
 stretch the warm and sentient being a cold, dull clod of 
 corruption at our feet — yet have we neither taken from, 
 nor added to, the elements before us. We have changed 
 one substance into other substances, ended one existence 
 to start others into being. The same matter is there ; its 
 appearance only is changed, and its qualities diversified. 
 These facts being so, as observation and experience attest, 
 it follows, not merely that we form at this moment a part 
 of one great whole, but that we ever have and ever shall 
 form a part of the same. Under various forms, with 
 varying qualities, the elements which now compose our 
 bodies have ever held, and will ever hold, a place in the 
 vast infinity of matter ; and, consequently, ever mingling 
 and mingled with the elements of all things, we stand, in 
 * our very nature, allied and associated with the air we 
 
 breathe, the dust, the stone, the flower we tread ; the worm 
 that crawls, the insect that hums around us its tiny song, 
 the bird that wheels its flight through the blue ether, and 
 all the varied multitude of animal existences, from the 
 playful squirrel to the lordly elephant. 
 
 Thus related, as we are, to all things, and all things to 
 us, how interesting a theatre that in which we stand ! 
 How calculated to awaken our intellectual faculties, and 
 excite our moral feeUngs ! Our sympathy is attracted to 
 every creature, our attention to every thing. We see our- 
 selves in the midst of a family endlessly diversified in 
 powers, in faculties, in wants, in desires ; in the midst of 
 a world whose existence is one with our own, and in 
 whose history each mode of being is an episode. 
 
 Were this simple view of things opened to us with our 
 opening reason, royal indeed were our road in improve- 
 
LECT. III.] DIVISIONS OF KNOWLEDGE. 65 
 
 ment. Easily, as pleasantly, should we tread all the paths 
 of knowledge ; and advancing, without check or back- 
 sliding, become familiar with every object within the circle 
 of each opening horizon, until the whole map of material 
 existence, with all its occurrences and changes, lay reveal- 
 ed to our sight and apprehension. Then would our edu- 
 cation be simply a voyage of discovery. We should have 
 only to look within us and to look without us, to store up 
 facts and to register them for future generations. Far 
 other is our occupation now. Instead of estabhshing facts, 
 we have to overthrow errors ; instead of ascertaining what 
 is, we have to chase from our imaginations what is 7iot. 
 Before we can open our eyes, we have to ask leave of our 
 superstitions ; before we can exercise our faculties, we have 
 to ask leave of each other. When I think how easy and 
 delightful the task would be to present you with a simple 
 table of just knowledge — ^to arrange under the single head 
 of MATTER AND ITS PHENOMENA, all the reaZ objects of 
 human investigation and real subjects of human enquiry ; 
 and when I picture to myself all the imaginary objects 
 which now engage your attention, and all the fanciful sub- 
 jects on which your imaginations run riot — I know not 
 where to begin, and am fain to ask pardon of you and 
 pardon of myself for the unmeaning words I must em- 
 ploy, the unreal subjects we must consider. But, waving 
 these for a moment, let us enquire what, under these two 
 divisions of knowledge — acquaintance with ourselves and 
 acquaintance with the world Avithout us — are the subjects 
 of primary interest ; and in what degree we are at present 
 engaged in their consideration. 
 
 First, acquaintance with ourselves. We must allow 
 
 this to be important. If any thing concerns us, it should 
 
 be our own bodies and minds. What do we understand 
 
 of their structure ? what of their faculties and pwers 1 
 
 f2 9 
 
6d DIVISIONS OP KNOWLEDGE. [lECT. III. 
 
 If we understand not these, how may we preserve the 
 health of either? How may we avoid injurious habits, un- 
 derstand our sensations, profit by experience, and estabhsh 
 ourselves in bodily temperance and mental sobriety ? 
 ^ Without pausing to develope all the importance of these 
 studies, we will take its admission for granted ; and place, 
 therefore, at the head of our list, anatomy, physiology, and 
 the natural history of man. 
 
 In passing to the world without us, we come to a sub- 
 ject of equal importance ; one, indeed, which, accurately 
 considered, comprises the knowledge of ourselves in com- 
 mon with that of all existences — ^physics, or a knowledge 
 of the material world. 
 
 Under this head we may remark many distinct subjects 
 of enquiry. The motion of the heavenly bodies, and that 
 of our earth considered as one of them. The form and 
 structure of the earth, with all the appearances and sub- 
 stances it exhibits ; the physiology of animals, their 
 habits, instincts, and moral character ; with those of all the 
 swarms of existences which diversify matter with endless 
 variety. But, leaving these with other subdivisions, we 
 may confine ourselves to the remark, that without some 
 general acquaintance with the three great branches of 
 physics, commonly called chemistry, natural philosophy, 
 and natural history, more especially that of man, we can 
 know nothing ; nothing of ourselves, nothing of the world 
 about us, nothing of the relation we bear to things, nor of 
 their's to us, nor of their's to each other. The best road to 
 correct reasoning is by physical science j the way to trace 
 effects to causes is through physical science ; the only cor- 
 rective, therefore, of superstition is physical science. 
 
 Nor let us imagine this difficult of attainment. Of all 
 human accomphshments, it is the easiest. For why ? it 
 consists exclusively of facts. It is not that even here 
 
LECT. III.] DIVISIONS OP KNOWLEDGE. 67 
 
 human ingenuity has never devised confusion. But, 
 thanks to the persevering labors of some enlightened indi- 
 viduals, many of them persecuted in their generation, and 
 not a few persecuted in our own, we now understand that 
 if we would investigate nature, in whole or in part, we 
 must use our eyes, ears, and understandings, simply 
 treasure up facts, judge from facts, and reason from the 
 premises of facts. 
 
 Admitting, as we must, the importance of this mode of 
 judging and reasoning, we shall perceive the peculiar ad- 
 vantage and necessity of commencing our researches in 
 the world of fact and science of things. 
 
 Before we can proceed to examine our opinions, we 
 must ascertain facts drawn from the attentive observation 
 of matter. We must know the anatomy of the matter 
 composing our own bodies, and that of the matter com- 
 posing all other bodies. We must familiarize our senses 
 and our understandings with the multiform and yet un- 
 varying phenomena of nature. We must know what 
 does happen and what does not happen. We must trace 
 in the physical world, cause to cause ; or, more properly, 
 occurrence to occurrence ; and whenever we do not per- 
 ceive the clenching link between two occurrences, we 
 must not imagine it ; we must say we do not know it, 
 and we must go, with our five senses open, in search of it. 
 Had human beings, in all ages of the world, done this, 
 where should we not now be in just knowledge ? It is time 
 that we seek out the right road. We have groped long 
 enough in error ; lived long enough in fairy land ; dream- 
 ed more than enough of things unseen and causes un- 
 known. We have, indeed, dreamed so much and ob- 
 served so little, that our imaginations have grown larger 
 than the world we live in, and our judgments have dwindled 
 down to a point. 
 
66 DIVISIONS OF KNOWLEDGE. [lECT. III. 
 
 Having obtained a general view of the philosophy of 
 matter, we may then carry our investigations into the 
 Other branches of knowledge, according to our leisure, 
 taste, and opportunity. We may apply ourselves to the 
 past history of man, as handed down to us by tradition, 
 oral or in writing ; and comparing these traditions with 
 what we know of the nature of man and the nature of 
 things, of matter and its phenomena, we may judge of 
 their credibihty. If we are not prepared thus to judge by 
 accurate analogy, we may receive every fable for matter of 
 fact, swallow every fairy tale for true history, suppose 
 every mythology sound philosophy, and mistake equally 
 the tricks of conjurors and the phenomena of nature for 
 miracles. 
 
 We may then peruse with equal interest and advantage 
 the narratives of travellers, and engage in general reading 
 with httle risk of taking facts for granted without evidence, 
 or receiving the visions of weak understandings for the 
 lessons of wisdom. We may then, too, examine our 
 opinions with some hope of discriminating between the er- 
 roneous and the correct ; we may then change or form our 
 opinions with good security for basing them on a soUd 
 foundation; we may then exercise our reason, for we 
 shall have facts to exercise it upon ; we may then com- 
 pare popular creeds, and investigate unpopular doubts; we. 
 may then weigh all things in the balance of reason, seat 
 our judgment on her tlirone, and listen to her decisions. 
 
 But, it may be asked, how are the generality of men, 
 and, more especially, of women, to find time and opportu- 
 nity for such preparatory investigations as we acknowledge 
 to be absolutely indispensable ? Should we discover that 
 they now spend more time and more opportunity in use- 
 less investigations, than they need devote to the most use- 
 ful; that they now waste more anxious thought, more 
 
LECT. III.] DIVISIONS OP KNOWLEDGE. 69 
 
 precious time, and more hard earned money in fruitless 
 enquiry — enquiry which never can be answered, and 
 whose answer, if possible, could profit them nothing — 
 than would suffice to gratify every laudable curiosity, and 
 store their minds ^vith knowledge, whose utility should be 
 felt at every moment of their lives — should we discover 
 this, would there be no effort made to turn time and op- 
 portimity to better accomit, and to divert thought and 
 money into the more useful channel ? 
 
 We spake of enquiry. Behold ! my friends, a subject for 
 it ! Ask yourselves how ye employ your leisure hours — 
 how ye employ your leisure day^ the first of the week ! 
 Ask, for what have ye raised spacious buildings through 
 your cities and villages, and for what ye pay a host of 
 teachers, interested, as we have seen — as we have jorovec? — 
 in deceiving you ! 
 
 I must pause a moment to conciliate the feelings of my 
 audience: I know the influence exercised by religious 
 teachers, and I know the sway yielded to them ; I know 
 the hostihty I must excite by exposing the circumstances 
 which render worse than nugatory the lessons of the pul- 
 pit, and which interest the press in confirming the errors 
 which the pulpit promulgates. I understand aU that I 
 must provoke ; but equally do I understand the urgency 
 of the duty which hsis already led me to expose the fact, 
 that the teachers of the public mind are, by the very 
 circumstances of their situation, constrained to conciliate 
 every prejudice, and gainsay every truth. 
 
 Nor rests the fatal necessity to which I called your at- 
 tention, in my opening discourse, only with our public 
 teachers. Each member of the public feels something 
 of the same. Trained as we all are, more or less, in the 
 ways of hypocrisy — constrained by fear or by policy, to 
 assume the semblance of such opinions, whether we hold 
 
70 DIVISIONS OP KNOWLEDGE. [lECT. III. 
 
 them secretly or not, as rule the ascendant because they 
 command the wealth of the country ; or, should we for- 
 bear from expressing what is false, obliged, at the least, 
 to withhold what is true ;^-constrained, I say, in very 
 self-defence, to keep silence, lest the bread be taken from 
 our mouths, or peace from our firesides ; the inutiUty, or, 
 worse, the mischief of our ordinary public instruction, is 
 apparent, both in its effects and in its cause. 
 
 Far be it then from me, in exposing the evil, to reflect 
 upon individuals, who are rather its passive agents than 
 its authors. If some there are, so depraved by reigning 
 corruptions, as to volunteer their increase, and fight their 
 way to false honor and foul wealth, by falsehoods uncall- 
 ed for, dishonesty and defamation as unmanly as they are 
 gratuitously wicked, still are there others who mourn in 
 secret, while they conciliate ruling prejudices, and who ask 
 pardon of truth while they bow themselves in the house 
 of Rimmon. Well do I know this to be widely true, with 
 respect to the press — widely true also, with respect to the 
 teachers of our youth in schools and colleges — and, dis- 
 posed am I to believe it partially true, with respect to the 
 clergy. But for these last, more especially, the rail road 
 is marked out, and that they have to tread. Should they 
 depart from it, the very flock would rise up against the 
 shepherd ; or let us observe, that if the flock should be 
 convinced by the shepherd, the very calling of the shep- 
 herd were destroyed, the craft by which he lives overthrown. 
 
 I have seen an honest teacher of religion, bom and bred 
 within the atmosphere of sectarian faith, and whose hairs 
 have grown white in the labors of sectarian ministries, 
 open his mind to more expanded views, his heart to more 
 expanded feelings, and as the hght dawned upon his own 
 reason, steadily proclaim it to his followers. And what 
 bath been the reward of his honesty? They who should 
 
LECT. III.] DIVISIONS OP KNOWLEDGE. 71 
 
 have blessed, have risen up against him ; the young in 
 years, but the old in falsehood, even among his followers, 
 have sought their own popularity, by proclaiming his 
 heresy ; nor rested from plots and persecutions until they 
 drove him from his own pulpit, and shut the doors of bis 
 own church, upon his venerable person. 
 
 Such being the reward of sincerity, who then shall 
 marvel at its absence. For myself, in exposing the dupli- 
 city of the clergy, I neither marvel at, nor judge it in 
 severity. Hypocrisy is the vice of the age, and hjrpocrites 
 are made to be its teachers ! 
 
 Not then in satire of the clergy, but in good will to my 
 fellow creatures, have I attempted the exposure of that 
 craft, which is necessary to the very existence of the cleri- 
 cal profession. And not from indifference to the feelings 
 of my hearers, but from deep sympathy with their vital 
 interests, shall I venture, now and hereafter, to probe their 
 secret thoughts, and expose their most cherished errors. 
 In so doing, never will it be my intention to offend. I 
 would not wound one conscientious prejudice ; not deal a 
 rough word against one feeling of a fellow creature. But 
 I am here to speak what I believe the truth. I am here 
 to speak that for which some have not the courage and 
 others not the independence. I am here, not to flatter the 
 ear, but to probe the heart ; not to minister to vanity, but 
 to urge self-examination ; assuredly, therefore, not to 
 court applause, but to induce conviction. Must it be my 
 misfortune to offend ? bear in mind only that I do it for 
 conscience sake — ^for your sakes. I have wedded the 
 cause of human improvement ; staked on it my reputa- 
 tion, my fortune, and my life ; and as, for it, I threw be- 
 hind me in earliest youth the follies of my age, the luxu- 
 ries of ease and European aristocracy, so do I, and so will 
 I; persevere, even as I began ; and devote what remainfi 
 
t2 DIVISIONS OF KNOWLEDGE. [lECT. HI. 
 
 to me of talent, strength, fortune, and existence, to the 
 same sacred cause — ^the promotion of just knowledge, the 
 establishing of just practice, the increase of human happi- 
 
 Such being my motives, such my object, I must entreat 
 you to enquire what the knowledge is, that you learn 
 from your spiritual teachers. " The knowledge by faith," 
 they will answer for you. " And faith," they will add, 
 " is the knowledge of things unseen." Can there be any 
 such knowledge? I put it to your reason. Knowledge we 
 have shown to be ascertained facts. Things unseen! 
 Can human understanding know any thing about them ? 
 More I will ask : could it be of any utihty were even such 
 knowledge possible ? And do ye liire teachers to teach you 
 nonexistent knowledge, impossible knowledge, and know- 
 ledge which, even under the supposition of its possibihty, 
 could serve no conceivable purpose ? We are on the earth, 
 and they tell us of heaven ; we are human beings, and 
 they tell us of angels and devils ; we are matter, and 
 they tell us of spirit : we have five senses whereby to admit 
 truths, and a reasoning faculty by which to build our be- 
 lief upon them ; and they tell us of dreams dreamed 
 thousands of years ago, which all our experience flatly 
 contradicts. 
 
 Again I must intreat your patience — your gentle hear- 
 ing. I am not going to question your opinions. I am not 
 going to meddle with your beUef. I am not going to dic- 
 tate to you mine. All that I say is, examine ; enquire. 
 Look into the nature of things. Search out the ground 
 of your opinions, the /or and the against. Know whi/ 
 you beUeve, understand what you believe, and possess a 
 reason for the faith that is in you. 
 
 But your spiritual teachers caution you against enquiry — 
 tell you not to read certain books ; not to listen to ceitain 
 
LECT. III.] DIVISIONS OP KNOWLEDGE. 73 
 
 people ; to beware of profane learning ; to submit your 
 reason, and to receive their doctrines for truths. Such ad- 
 vice renders them suspicious counsellors. By their own 
 creed, you hold your reason from their God. Go ! ask 
 them why he gave it. 
 
 Be not afraid ! If that being which they tell us of exist, 
 we shall find him in his works. If that revelation be his 
 which they tell us to revere, we shall find all nature and 
 its occurrences, all matter and its phenomena, bearing tes- 
 timony to its truth. Be not afraid ! In admitting a crea- 
 tgr, refuse not to examine his creation ; and take not the 
 assertions of creatures hke yourselves, in place of the evi- 
 dence of your senses and the conviction of your under- 
 standing. 
 
 But you will say, the clergy are moral teachers no less 
 than religious. They form and amend our practice as 
 well as dictate our belief. 
 
 My friends ! we have ascertained the contrary. We 
 have seen that from Maine to Missouri — ^from hence each 
 way to our antipodes — ^the hired preachers of all sects, 
 creeds, and rehgions, never do, and never can, teach any 
 thing but what is in conformity with the opinions of those 
 who pay them. We have substantiated the fact, that they 
 never did, and never can, touch the master vice, whatever 
 it be, and wherever found. We know that they ever have, 
 and ever must, persecute truth, by whomsoever discovered 
 — ^by Galileo, or by Leslie and Lawrence ; we know that 
 they have stifled enquiry, wherever started, in every 
 age and every nation on the globe ; and that hardly a fact^ 
 in science or a truth in philosophy, but has been pm'chased 
 with the blood, or the hberty, or the domestic peace of a 
 martyr. We have traced this conduct of your teachers 
 to its cause. Remove the cause, and the effect shall cease. 
 Give premiums for the discovery and revelation of know- 
 
 G 10 
 
>/ 
 
 74 DIVISIONS OP KNOWLEDGE. [lECT. III. 
 
 ledge, not for its repression ! Take for your teachers ex- 
 perimental philosophers, not spiritual dreamers ! Turn 
 your churches into halls of science, and devote your leisure 
 day to the study of your oa\ti bodies, the analysis of your 
 own minds, and the examination of the fair material 
 world which extends around you ! Examine the expenses 
 of your present religious system. Calculate all that is 
 spent in multiplying churches and salarying their minis- 
 ters; in clothing and feeding travelling preachers, who 
 fill your streets and highways with trembling fanatics, and 
 your very forests with frantic men and hysterical women. 
 Estimate all the fruits of honest industry which are en- 
 gulfed in the treasuries of bible societies, tract associations, 
 and christian missions ; in sending forth teachers to cen- 
 tral Africa and unexplored India, who know not tlie geo- 
 graphy of their own country ; and, hardly masters of their 
 native tongue, go to preach of things unseen to nations 
 unknown ; compassing the earth to add error to ignorance, 
 and the frenzy of rehgious fanaticism to the ferocity of 
 savage existence. See the multitude and activity of your 
 emissaries ! Weigh the expenses of your outlay and out- 
 fit, and then examine if this cost and this activity could 
 not be more usefully employed. By a late estimate, we 
 learn the yearly expenses of the existing religious system, 
 to exceed in these United States twenty millions of dollars. 
 Twenty miUions ! For teaching what 1 Things unseen, 
 and causes unknown ! Why, here is more than enough to 
 purchase the extract of all just knowledge — that is, of 
 things seen and causes known, gathered by patient phi- 
 losophy through all past time up to the present hour. 
 Things unseen sell dear. Is it not worth our while to 
 compare the value with the cost, and to strike the balance 
 ^jetween them ? 
 
 If we consider that there is no arriving at just practice 
 
LECT. III.] DIVISIONS OF KNOWLEDGE. 75 
 
 but through just opinions, and no arriving at just opinions 
 but through just knowledge, we must perceive the full im- 
 portance of the proposed enquiry. Twenty millions would 
 more than suffice to make us wise ; and, alas ! do they not 
 more than suffice to make us foolish ? I entreat you, but 
 for one moment, to conceive the mental and moral revolu- 
 tion there would be in this nation, were these twenty mil- 
 lions, or but one half — but one third of that sum, employ- 
 ed in the equal distribution of accurate knowledge. Had 
 you, in each of your churches, a teacher of elementary 
 science, so that all the citizens, young and old, might culti- 
 vate that laudable curiosity without which the human ani- 
 mal is lower than the brute, we should not then see men stag- 
 gering imder intoxication, nor lounging in imbecile idle- 
 ness ; nor should we hear women retailing scandal from 
 door to door, nor children echoing ribaldry in the streets, 
 and vying with the monkey in mischief. 
 
 " But," you will say, " the clergy preach against these 
 things." And when did mere preaching do any good ? 
 Put something in the place of these things. Fill the va- 
 cuum of the mind. Awaken its powers, and it will respect 
 itself. Give it worthy objects on which to spend its strength, 
 and it will riot no more in wantoimess. Do the clergy this? 
 Do they not rather demand a prostration of the intellect — 
 a humbhng and debasing of the spirit ? Is not their know- 
 ledge that , of things unseen, speaking neither to the 
 senses, nor to the faculties ? Are not their doctrines, by 
 their own confession, incomprehensible ? Is not their mo- 
 rality based upon human depravity ? Preach they not the- 
 innate corruption of our race ? Away with this libel of 
 our nature ! Away with this crippling, debasing, cowardly 
 theory ! Long, long enough hath this foul slander ob- 
 scured our prospects, paralyzed our efforts, crushed the ge- 
 nerous spirit within us ! Away with it ! such a school 
 
76 DIVISIONS OF KNOWLEDGE. [lECT. III. 
 
 never made a race of freemen. And, see ! in spite of the 
 doctrine, to what heights of virtue and intelligence hath 
 not man attained ! Think of his discoveries in science — 
 spite of chains, and dungeons, and gibbets, and ana- 
 themas ! Think of his devotion to principle ! Even 
 when in error, great in his devotion ! Think of the ener- 
 gy stronger than power, the benevolence supreme over sel- 
 fishness, the courage conquering in death, with which he 
 fought, and endured, and persevered through ages, until 
 he won his haven of liberty in America ! Yes ! he has won 
 it The noble creature has proved his birthright. May he 
 learn to use and to enjoy it ! 
 
 But how shall he do this ? Sons and daughters of Ame- 
 rica ! 'tis for you to answer. When will ye improve the 
 liberty for which your fathers sought an unknown world? 
 When will ye appreciate the treasure they have won? When 
 will ye see, that hberty leans her right arm on know- 
 ledge, and that knowledge points you to the world ye in- 
 habit ? 
 
 Consider that world, my friends ! Enable yourselves, 
 by mastering the first elements of knowledge, to judge of 
 the nature and importance of all its difierent branches. 
 Fit yourselves for the examination of your opinions, and 
 then examine your opinions. Read, enquire, reason, 
 reflect ! Wrong not your understandings by doubting 
 their perception of moral, any more than of physical, 
 truth. Wrong not the God ye worship by imagining him 
 armed with thunders to protect the tree of knowledge from 
 approach. If ye conceive yourselves as holding from one 
 great being your animate existence, employ his first best 
 gift — your reason. Scan with your reason that which ye 
 are told is his word, scan with your senses those which ye 
 are told are his works. Receive no man's assertion. Believe 
 no conviction but your own ; and respect not your own 
 
LECT. III.] DIVISIONS OP KNOWLEDGE. 77 
 
 until ye know that ye have exammed both sides of every 
 question ; collected all evidence, weighed, compared, and 
 digested it ; sought it at the fountain head ; received it 
 never through suspicious channels — altered, mutilated, or 
 defaced ; but pure, genuine, from the authorities them- 
 selves. Examine ye things ? look to the fact. Examine 
 ye books ? to the text. And, when ye look, and when ye 
 read, be sure that ye see, and be sure that ye under- 
 stand. Ask why of every teacher. Ask why over 
 every book. While there is a doubt, suspend judgement; 
 while one evidence is wanting, withhold assent. 
 
 Observe here the advantage of material science. Does 
 the physician — (I use the word here, as I shall often have 
 occasion to use it hereafter, to signify the student of phy- 
 sics, or the observer of nature) — does the physician tell you 
 that water is compounded of gases ? He performs the ex- 
 periment. That the atmosphere is another compound ? 
 The same. That more or less of activity is in all matter? 
 He shows you the formation of crystals in their bed, and 
 composes and decomposes them before ye. Does he tell you 
 that matter is ever changing, but never losing 7 He ana- 
 lyzes the substance before your eyes, and gives you its ele- 
 ments with nothing wanting. Do the anatomist and phy- 
 siologist describe the structure and texture of your bodies ? 
 They show you their hidden arcana, dissect their parts, 
 and trace their relation ; explain the mechanism of each 
 organ, and observe, with you, its uses and functions. Do 
 the geologist and mineralogist speak to us of the structure 
 and component parts of this globe ? They explain to us 
 the strata of earths ; the position of rocks ; the animal re- 
 mains they envelope ; the marks they exhibit of convulsion 
 or of rest — of violent and sudden, or of gradual and silent, 
 phenomena. See, then, the superiority of physical science ! 
 g2 
 
78 DIVISIONS OF KNOWLEDGE. [lECT. III. 
 
 The proof comes with the assertion ; the fact constitutes 
 the truth. 
 
 But, you will say, there is other evidence than the phy- 
 sically tangible— other truths than those admitted through 
 the senses. There is the more immediate and the more 
 remote testimony of our senses ; nothing more, nothing 
 less. Will you appeal to numerical and geometrical truth ? 
 Had we no senses, could we know any thing of either ? 
 Were there no objects, no substances and existences around 
 you, how could you conceive of number or of form ? If the 
 child see not four things^ how shall he understand the 
 meaning of four 7 If he see not two halves, put them 
 together, divide them, compare them, measure, weigh them, 
 how shall he know that two halves are equal to a whole 1 
 or a whole greater than its part ? These are the simple 
 truths conceived by the philosopher of nature, Pestalozzi. 
 Here are the leading beauties of that system of experi- 
 mental instruction which he so long strove to put in prac- 
 tice, and which time may enable others successfully to 
 develope. 
 
 But, I hear you again object, that there are truths ap- 
 pealing only to the mind, or directly to the feelings : such 
 are moral truths. The varying degree of sensibility 
 evinced by individuals towards the joys and sorrows of 
 others is apparent to every observer. This sensibility 
 forms the basis of virtue ; and, when by meatis of expe- 
 rience we have distinguished painful from pleasurable sen- 
 sations in our own case, this sensibility assists us to estimate 
 them in the case of others. Yet have we no doors by which to 
 admit knowledge but the senses. We ascertain what is good 
 or evil by experience. The beneficial or injurious conse- 
 quences of actions make us pronounce them virtuous or 
 vicious. The man of cultivated sensibility then refers his 
 
LECT. III.] DIVISIONS OF KNOWLEDGE. 7^ 
 
 sensations and applies his experience to others, and sym- 
 pathises in the pain or the pleasure he conceives them to 
 feel. But, here are our moral truths also based upon 
 fact. There is no test of these but experience. That 
 is good which produces good ; that evil, which produces 
 evil ; and, were our senses different from what they are, 
 our virtue and our vice would be different also. Let us 
 have done with abstractions ! Truth is fact. Virtue is 
 beneficial action; vice, mischievous action; virtuous feel- 
 ings are those which impart pleasure to the bosom ; bad 
 feeUngs, those which disturb and torment it. Be not 
 anxious in seeking your rule of life. Consult experi- 
 ence ; your own sensations, the sensations of others. 
 These are surer guides than laws and doctrines, and when 
 the law and the doctrine coincide not with the evidence of 
 your senses, and the tei^timony of your reason, be satis- 
 fied that the^/j that is, the law and the doctrine^ are 
 false. 
 
 Think of these things ! Weigh the truth of what I 
 advance ! Go to your churches with your understandings 
 open. Enquire the meaning of the words ye hear — ^the 
 value of the ideas. See if they be worth twenty millions 
 of dollars ! And, if they be not, withhold your contribu- 
 tions. But — ye will be afraid. Afiraid ! of what ? — of 
 acting conscientiously ? of acting reasonably 1 Come ! 
 learn, then, of a stranger and a woman ! Be bold to speak 
 what ye think and feel ; and to act in accordance with your 
 beUef Prefer your self respect to the respect of others. 
 Nay ! secure your own respect, and command that of 
 others. 
 
 I speak with warmth. I feel warmly. The happiness, 
 the honor, the dignity of man, are dear to my heart His 
 ignorance afflicts me ; his cowardice afflicts me ; his indif- 
 
^ DIVISIONS OP KNOWLEDGE. [lECT. III. 
 
 ference afflicts me. He feels not for himself, he feels not 
 for his race. 
 
 But — ^ye will wipe off this stain. Ye will awake to the 
 uses of things. Ye will enquire. Ye will collect just 
 knowledge. Ye will cultivate your reason. Ye will im- 
 prove your nature. 
 
 Many are the societies, associations, treasury funds, 
 among you. Organize a society for the promotion of just 
 knowledge. Raise an edifice, sacred to national union 
 and national instruction, capable of holding from three 
 to five thousand individuals, where the citizens of all ages 
 may assemble for the acquisition of useful knowledge, and 
 for the cultivation of that social feeling and brotherly fellow- 
 ship, without which no real repubUc can have an existence. 
 Select good instructors, masters of science, and capable of 
 developing it easily and agreeably. Attach to the institu- 
 tion your museums and your pubhc Hbraries. These are 
 of httle use single, detached, and unassisted by the eluci- 
 dations of experienced instructors. Such an institution as 
 that I have now sketched, should be open to as many as 
 possible free of all charge. The rent of a portion of the 
 seats might be devoted to the remuneration of such indivi- 
 duals as could not bestow their labors gratuitously. The 
 building itself, I am disposed to hope, could be raised for 
 such a purpose by voluntary contributions. 
 
 As soon as possible, there should be attached to this hall 
 of science, a school of industry, which, in time, might be 
 made to cover its own expenses by the labor of the chil- 
 dren. Here, besides the imparting of useful trades, would 
 be held also, the earUer classes in intellectual knowledge: 
 and, when sufiiciently advanced, the young people could 
 perfect their studies in the hall of science. In the com- 
 mencement, the school of industry might be conducted on 
 the plan of a day school only, where, at successive hours, 
 
LECT. III.] DIVISIONS OF KNOWLEDGE. 81 
 
 the teachers in the various branches of knowledge, me- 
 chanical and intellectual, might hold their classes. 
 
 Nor let the rich imagine that such a plan of education 
 would not advantage them equally with the poor. What 
 is the education they now command ? At once false, im- 
 perfect, and expensive. Nor let them imagine that any 
 can be well trained until all are well trained. Example 
 is more than precept. While the many are left in igno- 
 rance, the few cannot be wise, for they cannot be virtuous. 
 Look to your jails, your penitentiaries, your poor-houses ! 
 Look to your streets, your haunts of vice, your hovels of 
 wretchedness ! Look to the unhappy victims of poverty, 
 of passion, gambUng, drinking. Alas, the heart turns 
 sick, and the tongue falters, under the enumeration of all 
 the shapes and sounds of suffering which affright the eye 
 and the ear of humanity ! 
 
 And what is the cause of all this ? Ignorance ! Ig- 
 norance ! There is none other. Oh ! then, be up 
 and be doing ! Rich and poor, be up and be doing. 
 Are ye not all fellow creatures ? Are ye not all of one* 
 form, of one nature? Have ye not all the same 
 wants ? Oh ! then, why have ye not the same interests ? 
 And ye have — ye have. Oh that ye could believe it ! Oh 
 that ye could see it ! Oh that ye would unite under the 
 wings of liberty as brothers, as equals, as fellow men ! 
 Oh that ye would enter as one family the courts of know- 
 ledge, and cast down at her feet your prejudices, your dis- 
 sentions, your jealousies, your fears ! Whenever the peo- 
 ple of all the larger towns shall begin the good work of 
 popular and equal instruction, the same must soon become 
 a state concern ; and instead of endowing, as is now thef; 
 custom, colleges for the erroneous education of the few, we 
 shall see spread throughout the land, national institutions 
 for the rational education of the many. To this primary 
 
 11 
 
82 DIVISIONS OF KNOWLEDGE. [lECT. III. 
 
 object will be then directed the legislation of all the states; 
 to the same object the taxation of all the states ; to the 
 same, also, those contributions which are now devoted to 
 the building of sectarian churches, each frowning defiance 
 at the other, and sectarian preachers all flourishing the 
 torch of discord, and fighting each his own battle for 
 wealth and supremacy, against common sense and the 
 common weal. 
 
 But the tree which hereafter shall shadow the land, 
 must grow from a small seed. Plant ye that seed now, 
 that ye may see it shoot and blossom, and that your chil- 
 dren may reap of its fruits. Look around upon each other 
 as upon fellow citizens and fellow creatures, interested 
 alike in the discovery of the true and the useful, for the 
 common advantage of all. Unite — unite for the promo- 
 tion of knowledge ! Exchange the spirit of sectarianism 
 for that of universal love, charity, and toleration. Turn 
 from the teachers of strife, and seek ye out enquirers after 
 truth. Look around first among yourselves. Seek out 
 the talent that is at home, and when ye find it not, invite 
 it from afar. Encourage the wise to come among ye in- 
 stead of the foolish; the peaceful and enlightened instead of 
 the noisy ignorant; the reasoner instead of the declaimer ; 
 the child of science who will give you all he knows, and seek 
 with you what he knows not, instead of the master by 
 right divine, who promulgates doctrines without advan- 
 cing evidence, and who stuns our human reason, as our 
 human ears, with absurdities which, he says^ come from , 
 heaven. 
 
 With such guides, and engaged in such investigations 
 and undertakings, as I have ventured to recommend, you 
 will all meet on common ground. You will no longer see 
 in each other Calvinists, baptists, catholics, Lutherans, 
 
LECT. III.] DIVISIONS OF KNOWLEDGE. iB3 
 
 methodists. and I know not what; you will see only- 
 human beings. The halls of science are open to all ; her 
 truths are disputed by none. She says not to one, " eat 
 no meat on Fridays f to another, '•''plunge in the river f 
 to a third, '■^ groan in the spirit f"* to a fourth, ^^ wait for 
 the spirit f^ to a fifth, "ea^ bread in the Lord f^ to a 
 sixth, "ea/ the Lord in bread f^ to a seventh, " dance in 
 divine praise f^ to an eighth, ^^ dance not at all f to a 
 ninth, ^^ perceive in things visible the shadows of things 
 unseen f^ to a tenth, '^ there is for you salvation f^ and 
 to nine hundred and ninety-nine thousandths of the hu- 
 man race, "ye were born for eternal fire." Science says 
 nothing of all this. She says, only, " observe, compare, 
 reason, reflect, understand :" and the advantage is, that we 
 can do all this without quarrelling. 
 
 I have now attempted to substantiate, with you, the 
 nature, object, and consequences of just knowledge ; the 
 means proper for its attainment, and the measures requi- 
 site for securing those means to yourselves and your 
 children. 
 
 Considering the investigations we have held together in 
 our meetings of Tuesday, Thursday, and this evening, 
 as introductory to the examination of existing opinions, 
 and the present mode of spending the leisure time and 
 surplus money (which I pray you to bear in mind is the 
 surplus industry) of the nation, I propose that we investi- 
 gate, at our next meeting, more closely the subject which 
 now engages your weekly attention in your churches. 
 
 The acquisition of knowledge being essential to our 
 happiness, as being the only means by which we can at- 
 tain to truth in opinions, and wisdom in practice, it is im- 
 portant that we bestow on every branch of it, an attention 
 exactly proportionate to its utility. We have observed 
 
S4 DIVISIONS OF KNOWLEDGE. [lECT. III. 
 
 Upon the importance of some now entirely neglected. It is 
 well that we weigh accurately the value of that which 
 now engrosses twenty millions per annum of the national 
 wealth, and that we hereafter apportion to it, liberally and 
 readily, so much of both as we may discover it to deserve — 
 and no more. 
 
 t-* 
 
LECTURE IV, 
 
 RELIGION. 
 
 I HAVE selected for our consideration this evening a sub- 
 ject which we are generally accustomed to consider as of 
 vital importance; which is usually made to occupy the 
 human mind from the cradle to the grave, and which, 
 however varying in the views and interpretations of its ex- 
 poiuidersj is conceived to constitute the polar star of human 
 conduct ; to be our only guide towards virtue, our only bar 
 from vice, our source of comfort, our anchor of hope, and at 
 once the alarming deterrer from crime and its terrific 
 avenger. My hearers will aheady have divined that our 
 subject is Religion. 
 
 To those who may already have substantiated with me 
 those first premises, which I am ever desirous should be 
 seen and understood before I enter on the discussion of 
 isolated topics, or approach the tests of reason and e:^peri- 
 ence to all or any of the multiform tribe of human opi- 
 nions — ^to those, I say, among this audience, who may 
 have attended the three preliminary discourses on know- 
 ledge, closed last evening, I might consider all prefatory 
 observations on the present occasion unnecessary. But, 
 as in all probabiHty, I am addressing a portion of this 
 audience for the first time, I feel unwiUing to launch with 
 imdue precipitancy into a discussion calculated perhaps to 
 alarm the fears of some, and the honest prejudices of 
 others. 
 
86 RELIGION. [lECT. IV. 
 
 Myself a scholar, not a teacher, who have purchased 
 such knowledge as I possess, by years of self-directed study, 
 persevering observation, and untiring reflection, I can well 
 conceive, for I myself have experienced, the doubts, difficul- 
 ties, hopes, fears, and anxieties, which beset the awakening 
 mind in the early stage of enquiry ; the indistinct and, often, 
 evanescent perceptions which encourage, and then check, 
 and then again encourage, again to intimidate its advance ; 
 the conflicting thoughts and feelings with which it has to 
 struggle ere it can vanquish early impressions, and con- 
 sent to receive new ones, admit ideas subversive of those 
 which had grown with its growth, and which, associated 
 with tender recollections, cling to the heart as well as the 
 head, or, not unfrequently, grafted on the imagination of 
 childhood, by an education as cruel as erroneous, continue 
 to alarm the fancy and agitate the nerves even after the 
 judgment has pronounced them chimeras. All this I can 
 understand, for all this I have either felt or observed in 
 others. Anxiously, therefore, would I temper my words 
 to the timid, and, if possible, the truths themselves, which 
 we are ipaet to search out and investigate. 
 
 If, then, in manner or in matter, I should touch too 
 harshly on the opinions of some, or the feelmgs of any, I 
 will^ray them to absolve me of every desire but that of 
 eliciting truths important to the well-being of man ; of 
 every intention but that of administering to the instruction, 
 and consequently, to the happiness of those I may address. 
 But, will it be asked, why I conceive myself fitted to im- 
 part instruction, and increase the sum of human happi- 
 ness ? For I must observe, that the individual who should 
 successftilly attempt the one, must succeed in the other ; 
 error and misery being inseparable companions, and know- 
 ledge and happiness the same. If I have thus conceived 
 of myself, it has been neither (as I at least believe) through 
 
LECT. IV.] RELIGION. 87 
 
 too high a valuation of my own acquirements, nor too 
 eager a desire to assume that tone of dictation which I am 
 accustomed to deprecate in others. I have advanced just 
 too far in knowledge to overrate my attainments ; just far 
 enough at once to understand my own deficiencies, and 
 to have detected the false pretensions of many self-called 
 wise. It is to render apparent the simplicity of real, and the 
 charlatanism of false learning, that I have volunteered — 
 not, I request you to beUeve, without due reflection, and a 
 thorough understanding of all the criticism, censure, and, I 
 may say, unseemly abuse, which I was about to encoun- 
 ter : — that I have volunteered, I say, to impart to others, 
 what I myself know, and, more than all, to enlighten them 
 as to what can really be known. This has been the more 
 especial object of my previous discourses on knowledge ; 
 and, as we then observed, so must I now repeat, that until 
 we see clearly what knowledge is, we caimot perceive truth, 
 detect error, nor possess one really accurate, reasoned, and 
 consistent opinion. 
 
 Knowledge, we ascertained to consist in an accumula- 
 tion of facts. The doors by which we admit these facts, 
 are our senses ; and the means we possess for judging, 
 comparing, analysing, and arranging these facts, are sup- 
 pUed by our faculties, intellectual and moral. Had we 
 only senses, each impression would disappear with the object 
 which excited it ; in which case, no knowledge, or accu- 
 mulation of facts, could exist for us. But, having memory, 
 we can retain each impression, by whichsoever of our senses 
 received ; having judgment, we compare and arrange these 
 impressions ; having imagination, we ingeniously combine 
 impressions, however removed as to time, distant as to place, 
 or slightly assimilated by affinity or resemblance. And, 
 having moral feelings, we consider all occurrences with a 
 reference to the good or evil they mav induce to our race. 
 
8& RELIGION. [lECT. IV. 
 
 By these cursory remarks, it is my object to lead to the 
 observation, that nothing can be known where there is 
 nothing to operate on our senses ; or, to place more accu- 
 rately the position, ichere we have no primary sensations to 
 constitute elementary facts. 
 
 In my opening discourse upon the nature of knowledge, 
 I had occasion to insist especially on this truth ; reminding 
 my then audience, that the sciences but too generally 
 taught on the erroneous principle of assumed instead of 
 substantiated data, (we here instanced arithmetic, geometry, 
 and morals,) were in reality based upon demonstrations 
 supplied by positive sensations. I will not say that the 
 teachers of unreal science, and dogmatical declaimers upon 
 imaginary subjects and unmeaning words, are aware of 
 the stumbling block thrown in the way of the human in- 
 tellect by the old ; and, alas, still the customary method of 
 imparting these most important branches of knowledge ; 
 but I will say, that whether awake or blind to the conse- 
 quences, those consequences are as favourable to the reign 
 of their errors, as they are fatal to the progress of truth and 
 the vital interests of man. Were every teacher called 
 upon to substantiate the elementary facts upon which he 
 builds the fabric of his science, how would the number of 
 our dogmatical assertions and unsubstantiated doctrines — 
 ay ! and the list of our sciences themselves, be curtailed ! 
 
 In that dawn of intellect, however brilliant, which broke 
 on ancient Greece, when the range of human observation 
 was circumscribed within the limits imposed by a clumsy 
 and imperfect system of navigation, and by a world of un- 
 broken forest, and widely extended barbarism, and farther 
 circumscribed within the limits of the human vision, un- 
 aided by telescope or microscope, and all the ingenious 
 materiel which now aids the labours of the physician, and 
 has revealed to us the anatomy of matter, with all its 
 
LECT. IV.] liELlGION. 89 
 
 wonder-working qualities — such as we are accustomed to 
 distinguish by the names of attraction, electricity, resist- 
 ance, form, colour, motion, rest, and we may add, feeling, 
 thought, and life. In that bright, but only opening dawn 
 of human enquiry, science had hardly an existence. Facts 
 were wanting; the means for accumulating these were 
 not devised, and therefore, while excelling in all the arts 
 for which the state of his knowledge, the form of his go- 
 vernment, and his exquisite physical organization com- 
 bined to fit him, (we may here more especially particular- 
 ize painting, sculpture, architecture, poetry, and oratory,) 
 we observe the ingenious Athenian to have been invariably 
 a false logician, and an absurd physician. Physician in- 
 deed was a word inapplicable to him, for he knew nothing 
 of physics. With him, all was theory and nothing fact ; 
 and knowledge, let it ever be remembered, is all fact, and 
 never theory. 
 
 But, before we leave the interesting people to whom we 
 have alluded, I would request you to observe, that while 
 the moderns have opened a field of inquiry imknown to 
 the ancients — ^while they have substantiated facts subversive 
 of all their dreams — ^we are still in the habit of employing 
 in our seminaries of learning, such of their elementary 
 books, as the devastation of time and of early Christian 
 fanaticism have spared to us, and of following out theu' 
 method of instruction wherever it was most defective. 
 Thus are we still in the habit of imparting to the child a 
 first idea of number through the medium of allegorical 
 ciphers, instead of tangible and visible objects ; thus do we 
 still persist in substantiating solely by a process of abstract 
 reasoning, based upon verbal sophisms, the truths involved 
 in geometrical science, instead of first submitting those 
 truths in the form of facts to the eye ; and thus also are we 
 wise enough to persecute such teachers as have judgment 
 h2 
 
^ RELIGION. [lECT. IV. 
 
 sufficient to distinguish the better method, and courage suf- 
 ficient to attempt its adoption. We might here further 
 observe, that the logic of Aristotle, with its text additionally 
 obscured and confounded by the labours of puzzle-headed 
 commentators, was, till within a few years, held in vulgar 
 respect, and vulgar use, throughout the seminaries of the 
 world. And, should we examine, we might find, in spite 
 of the labours of a Locke and a Condillac, and others, 
 wiser yet, because aided by the hght previously thrown on 
 the path of knowledge by a succession of giant intellects, 
 that the erroneous mode of reasoning admired in ancient 
 Greece, yet lives, imder modified but, perhaps therefore, 
 more dangerous forms, in the schools, colleges, and 
 churches of modem Europe, and revolutionized America. 
 I may be alluding here to subjects imfortunately foreign 
 to the apprehension of a large portion of this audience. 
 Unfortunately, say I ? ay ! and most inconsistently and 
 unjustly : inconsistently, if we consider the nature of the 
 national institutions which secure equal rights, and conse- 
 quently, equal instruction, (necessary, as I have formerly 
 shown, to the understanding, protection, and just exercise 
 of those rights,) to all the citizens ; and unjustly, if we 
 consider the great principle of liberty, which proclaims to 
 the enlightened mind the equal rights of all human kind. 
 If the prefatory observations which I have felt necessary 
 for the elucidation of our subject, should prove difficult of « 
 apprehension to any present, may it serve as an additional 
 stimulus towards the adoption of some measures for the 
 popular instruction, by devoting some of the now misspent 
 time, and misspent money, to this desirable object. Now, 
 as on all other occasions, my utmost ingenuity is apphed 
 as well to simphfy my words as my arguments ; and I 
 wish the least informed of my hearers could believe that 
 all the facts to which I refer, and all the learning to which 
 
LECT. IV.] RELIGION. 91 
 
 I find myself constrained to allude, are of most easy at- 
 tainment ; far, far easier than are the errors over which 
 they are now perhaps weekly stumbling in the churches 
 of this city. 
 
 But, to return from our digressions, and to point out 
 more distinctly the conclusions towards which my pre- 
 vious observations have aimed : — it is a fact well known 
 to the really enlightened, and well known also, I beheve, 
 to the designing, who live by the ignorance of the multi- 
 tude, that every thing depends upon the manner of con- 
 veying instruction, and upon the first premises from which 
 subsequent arguments are deduced, and thus final con- 
 clusions estabhshed. 
 
 It is not many years, since a native of Switzerland, 
 whose opportunities were confined within the limits pre- 
 scribed by poverty, and to the society of a simple mountain 
 peasantry, but whose native intellect, and unsophisticated 
 observation, led him to distiaguish some first principles, 
 which the more learned have been accustomed to overlook; 
 and, above aU, whose beautiful moral feelings, led him to 
 see in every human being, a brother — ^it is only as it were 
 yesterday, that this sunple philosopher, among a simple 
 people, caught a first gUmpse of a true and rational method 
 of instruction ; namely, by first addressing the senses, and 
 through them, awakening the faculties, commanding the 
 attention, and convincing the reason. Led by his exam- 
 ple, other generous minds have labored to improve the 
 idea he had origmated ; and the day must be fast approach- 
 ing, when the same correct principle will be apphed to 
 every branch of knowledge, and prevail throughout the 
 civilized world. 
 
 And yet, hitherto, the enemies of human improvement, 
 have shown a quicker scent to the consequences of the 
 radical reform, suggested by Pestalozzi, than have the 
 
92 RELIGION. [lECT. IV. 
 
 nations who are to profit by it. Even the leaden faculties 
 of the despot of Austria, quickened by the imperial 
 anxiety, as he himself expressed it, to possess within his 
 dominions, not wise men but obedient subjects, could per- 
 ceive the danger to kingcraft, and its coadjutor priestcraft, 
 in a mode of instruction which taught the opening mind 
 to see through the eye, and hear through the ear, and be- 
 lieve only upon the testimony of fact, experiment, and ex- 
 perience. The yomig Pestalozzian schools, started by the 
 patriots of Italy, in the short dawn of liberty which so late- 
 ly broke on their unhappy country, only to close in darker 
 night, were overthrown, and their very foundations plough- 
 ed up, by the soldiers of the holy ally. In Spain, similar 
 efforts met of course with a similar fate. In Switzerland, 
 Pestalozzi's native Switzerland, the aristocratic cantons 
 saw the threatened danger to the pretensions of the few 
 in the simple labors of the friend of the many. In France, 
 the Jesuits, resuscitated for a while l:)y the imbecile Bour- 
 bons, persecuted aUke all instruction but that patronized 
 by the servants of rehgion : and, even here, in republican 
 America, such has been the influence of superstition, and 
 of the teachers of superstition, that the efforts of Pestaloz- 
 zian disciples, have been for the most part paralized, and 
 invariably impeded. 
 
 And why in all countries — why in either world this 
 persecution? 
 
 Because educators of youth, who speak to the mind, by 
 tangible objects presented to the senses, and who encourage 
 their disciples to look to things, and to seek the proof in 
 the fact, have been supposed to prepare unmanageable 
 subjects for kings, and troublesome disciples for priests. 
 And' most wise this apprehension on the part of those who 
 would command the blind obedience, or the blind belief of 
 their fellow-men ! Most wise this apprehension on the part 
 
XECT IV.] RELIGION. 93 
 
 of those whose power lies in the weakness of those they 
 rule, or in the ignorance of those they lead ! They alone, 
 who have justice on their side, fear not to have to do with 
 free minds ; they alone, who have truth on their side, fear 
 not to encounter knowledge. 
 
 But, would we not have truth and justice on our side ? 
 What interests have we inconsistent with either ? What 
 have we to fear from the bold enquiry of free intellects ? 
 Why should we shrink from the fulness and from the 
 universality of knowledge? ^ 
 
 But what is knowledge ? Again must we put the ques- 
 tion. Again must we repeat the answer : for on this 
 answer, my friends, depends the truth or the falsehood of 
 every opinion we hold, the reahty or unsubstantiaUty of ^ 
 every subject presented for our investigation. 
 
 Knowledge signifies things known. Where there are 
 no things known^ there is no knowledge. Where there 
 are ho things to he known, there can he no knowledge. 
 We have observed that every science, that is, every branch 
 of knowledge, is compounded of certain facts, of which 
 our sensations furnish the evidence. Where no such evi- 
 dence is supplied, we are without data ; we are without 
 first premises ; and when, without these, we attempt to 
 build up a science, we do as those who raise edifices with- 
 out foundations. And what do such builders construct 1 
 Castles in the air. 
 
 Havmg now, I trust, substantiated the nature of know- 
 ledge, and the basis of all true science, I would suggest the 
 propriety of examinmg into the reaUty of the science, 
 current among us under the varying name of religion, 
 theology, or divinity. As this science now draws from the 
 surplus industry of the American nation, twenty miUions 
 per annum, and as it is legally authorised to consume all 
 the leisure days of the industrious classes, and farther re- 
 
94 RELIGION. [lECT. IV. 
 
 commended to consume all the leisure hours snatched from 
 their days of labor, I think we must admit the examina- 
 tion to be not imcalled for. 
 
 It will be conceded that religion engulfs more money 
 and more time, than any subject wliich ever agitated the 
 enquiring mind of man. You will reply, that it is because 
 it involves his most important interests. Such indeed 
 ought to be the case, judging from all that is expended 
 upon it. 
 
 Admitting rehgion to be the most important of all sub- 
 jects, its truths must be the most apparent ; for we shall 
 readily concede, both that a thing tme, must be always 
 of more or less importance — and that a thing essentially 
 important, must always be indisputably true. Now, again, 
 I conceive we shall be disposed to admit, that exactly in 
 proportion to the indisputabihty of a truth, is the proof it is 
 capable of affording; and that, exactly in proportion to 
 the proof afforded, is our admission of such truth and be- 
 lief in it. 
 
 If, then, rehgion be the most important subject of human 
 enquiry, it must be that also, which presents the most 
 forcible, irrefragable, and indisputable truths to the en- 
 quirer. It must be that on which the human mind can 
 err the least, and where all minds must be the most agreed. 
 If rehgion be at once a science, and the most true of all 
 sciences, its truths must be as indisputable as those in any 
 branch of the mathematics — as apparent to all the senses, 
 as those revealed by the chemist, or observed by the natu- 
 ralist, and as easily referred to the test of our approving or 
 disapproving sensations, as those involved in the science of 
 morals. 
 
 To ask if this be the case, might seem putting a ques- 
 tion in satire. And it is not I who will use a weapon of 
 ridicule, where the opinions and feelings of my fellow 
 
LECT. IV.J RELIGION. 9S 
 
 creatures are concerned. Against designing teachers of 
 error, I will use any and every weapon within the com- 
 pass of my talents and acquirements to wield ; and against 
 error itself, considered apart from those who may miscon- 
 ceive of its nature, the same. But ill-fitted were I for the 
 task I have volunteered, ill-fitted to assist in letting down 
 the barrier which holds back the many from the courts of 
 knowledge — ill fitted, I say, were I to address the popular 
 mind, if I could idly wound the popular feeling ; — ill-fitted 
 and unworthy, to approach the tests of reason and experi- 
 ence, to human practice and opinion, if I should treat with 
 levity one honest error, or make truth a cause of offence 
 to one conscientious bosom. Far be such consequences 
 from my words, as they are from my heart, while we weigh 
 in the balance that — must we call it science? whose 
 value is now estimated at a yearly tax of twenty miUions ! 
 
 Must we call it science, I asked ? Is rehgion a science ? 
 Is it a branch of knowledge? Where are the things 
 known upon which it rests ? Where are the accumulated 
 facts of which it is compounded ? What are the human 
 sensations to which it appeals ? 
 
 I request your undivided attention to the present investi- 
 gation. I request you to keep m view what we have as- 
 certained all knowledge to be, and how we have observed 
 all knowledge to be acquired. Unless these simple primary 
 truths be ever present to the mind, it is without a standard 
 by which to judge any fact or any opinion ; and reflection 
 or reasoning, to any useful purpose, with any chance of 
 rational results, is absolutely impossible to it. 
 
 Knowledge then, (my hearers will forgive the reiteration,) 
 is compounded of things known. It is an accumulation 
 of facts gleaned by our senses, within the range of material 
 existence, which is subject to their investigation. As I ob- 
 served on a former occasion, the number of objects com- 
 
96 RELIGION. [lECT. IV. 
 
 prised within the circle of human observation is so multi- 
 plied, and the properties or qualities of these objects so 
 diversified, that, with a view to convenient and suitable 
 divisions in the great work of inspecting the whole, and 
 also with a view to the applying more order and method 
 in the arrangement of the facts collated in the wide field 
 of nature, they have been placed under difTerent heads, 
 each of which we may caU a branch of knowledge^ or, 
 more succinctly, a science. Thus, do we consider the 
 various living tribes which people the elements ? we class 
 our observations under the head of natural history. Do we 
 direct our attention to the structure and internal mechanism 
 of their bodies ? we designate the results of our inspection 
 under the heads anatomy and physiology. Do we trace 
 the order of occurrences and appearances in the wide 
 field of nature ? we note them under natural philosophy. 
 Do we analyze substances, and search out their simple 
 elements? chemistry. Do we apply ourselves to the 
 measurement of bodies, or calculate the heights and dis- 
 tances of objects ? geometry. And so on through all the 
 range of human observation, extending from the relative 
 position of the heavenly bodies, and accurate calculation 
 of their courses, to the uses, habits, structure and physiology 
 of the dehcate plant which carpets our earth. 
 
 It may be here suggested, in accordance with the vague 
 notions still current respecting the nature of knowledge, 
 that there is yet a science, which rests not upon the evi- 
 dence of common individual sensations, namely, history, 
 which is supplied by the recorded sensations of others. 
 
 I have already observed, in my opening discourses upon 
 knowledge, that history is not, properly speaking, know- 
 ledge^ only prohahility. This probability is less or greater, 
 according to the proximity or remoteness of the circum- 
 Btances it relates ; according to the style of the narrator, 
 
LECT. IV.] RELIGION. 97 
 
 the accuracy and extent of the knowledge he displays, 
 the consistency of his statements one with another, and, 
 above all, with the result of our (the reader's) own obser- 
 vation and experience. Human tradition, written or 
 spoken, is only history so long as it relates probabihties ; 
 when it relates improbabilities, it is fable. Even the his- 
 tories best authenticated by the testimonies of concurring 
 probabilities, living witnesses or surviving monumental 
 remains, are doubtless filled with erroneous statements ; 
 and the judicious reader, in admitting the general outline, 
 or thread of the relation, is well aware that his acquaintance 
 with the whole must be very imperfect, and his conceptions 
 of the details both confused and mistaken. 
 
 The knowledge, then, suppHed by history, is not posi- 
 tive, but only relative. It carmot be admitted as know-^ 
 ledge, until it is corroborated by all the knowledge accu- 
 mulated by our experience ; and, whenever our observa- 
 tion of the phenomena of nature refutes the assertions of 
 the historian, we distinguish the latter immediately for 
 erroneous. History, therefore, can only testify to itself; 
 that is, to its own probability. If it relate circumstances 
 in accordance with the nature of man, and the nature of 
 things, we receive it as credible ; if it relate circumstances 
 in violation of these, we discard it as spurious. We may 
 here remark as a consequent, that no history can be re- 
 ceived in testimony of any occurrence opposed to the 
 established course of natural phenomena; since this would 
 be to receive the reported or traditionary experience of 
 others in preference to our ovm, which, in the case of a 
 rational being, would be impossible. 
 
 Now let us see where, in the table of knowledge, we 
 may class religion. Of what part or division of nature, 
 or material existence, does it treat ? What bodies, or what 
 properties of tangible bodies, does it place in contact with 
 
98 RELIGION. [lECT. IV. 
 
 our senses, and bring home to the perception of our 
 feculties. 
 
 It clearly appertains not to the table of human know- 
 ledge, for it treats not of objects discoverable within the 
 field of human observation. "No," will you say? "but 
 its knowledge is superhuman, unearthly — its field is in 
 heaven." 
 
 My fi-iends, the knowledge which is not human, is of 
 sUppery foundation to us human creatures. Things 
 known, constitute knowledge ; and here is a science treat- 
 ing of things unseen, unfelt, incomprehended ! Such can- 
 not be knowledge. What then is it ? Probability ? pos- 
 sibility? theory? hypothesis? tradition? written? spoken? 
 by whom ? when ? where ? Let its teachers — nay ! let 
 all earth reply ! 
 
 But what confiision of tongues and voices now strike on 
 the ear ! 
 
 From either Indies, from torrid Africa, fi*om the fi-ozen 
 regions of either pole, firom the vast plains of ancient 
 Asia, firom the fields and cities of European industry, 
 fi-om the palaces of European luxury, from the soft 
 chambers of priestly ease, from the domes of hierarchal 
 dominion, from the deep cell of the self-immolated monk, 
 firom the stony cave of the self-denying anchorite, from 
 the cloud- capt towers, spires and minarets of the crescent 
 and the cross, arise shouts, and hosannas, and anathemas, 
 in the commingled names of Brama, and Veeshnu, and 
 Creeshna, and Juggernaut ; heavenly kings, heavenly 
 queens, triune deities, earth-born gods, heaven-bom pro- 
 phets, apotheosized monarchs, demon enhglitened philoso- 
 phers, saints, angels, devils, ghosts, apparitions, and 
 sorceries ! 
 
 But, worse than these sounds which but stun the ear 
 and confoimd the intellect, what sights, oh human kind ! 
 
LECT. IV.] RELIGION. 99 
 
 appal the heart ! The rivers of earth run blood ! Nation 
 set against nation ! brother against brother ! Man against 
 the companion of his bosom ; and that soft companion, 
 maddened with the frenzy of insane remorse for imaginary- 
 crimes, fired with the rage of infatuated bigotry, or subdued 
 to diseased helplessness and mental fatuity, renounces 
 kindred, flies from social converse, and pines away a useless 
 or mischievous existence in sighings andtrembhngs, spectral 
 fears, uncharitable feelings, and bitter denunciations ! Such 
 are thy doings, oh rehgion ! Or, rather, such are thy 
 doings, oh man ! While standing in a world so rich in 
 sources of enjoyment, so stored with objects of real en- 
 quiry and attainable knowledge, yet shutting thine eyes, 
 and, worse, thy heart, to the tangible things and sentient 
 creatures around thee, and winging thy diseased imagina- 
 tion beyond the hght of the sun which gladdens thy 
 world, and contemplation of the objects which are here to 
 expand thy mind and quicken the pulses of thy heart ! 
 
 " But," say the teachers of that which is not know- 
 ledge, which may not be called a science, but which de- 
 vours the treasure of nations and maddens the intellects 
 of men, " that which we teach, unseen, unknown, unfelt 
 by others, is revealed to us ; incomprehended of others, is 
 understood by us ; unknown to others, is by us ascertained." 
 
 Ha ! has their God of justice children of preference 7 
 Does their God of wisdom open worlds to the observation 
 of a few especial ministers, who have not senses to investi- 
 gate the objects presented to them, or, at the least, faculties 
 to describe those objects intelligibly to others ? Does their 
 God of beneficence reveal his nature to those who can 
 neither comprehend nor pourtray it ? his will, to creatures 
 who, in expounding it, convulse human society to its 
 centre? Are we to beUeve this? Oh, my fellow-beings! 
 have we believed this so long? 
 
100 RELIGION. [lECT. IV. 
 
 Sisters and brothers ! ye more especially who, knowing 
 the least of things, believe the most in doctrines ; who, 
 rocked perhaps in the cradle by fond but mistaken mo- 
 thers, closed nightly your infant eyes to troubled sleep, 
 upon tales of wicked angels, and tempting devils ; and 
 opened them, to shrink, under the blessed light of morning, 
 from the imaginary frown of a revengeful God — on ye, 
 more especially, do I call, to arouse the faculties which 
 superstition may have benumbed ; and to put the question 
 to your reason, if all the doctrines of the servants of reli- 
 gion are not inconsistent with their own assumed first 
 premises? Could a Being of Wisdom demand of ye to 
 spend your tune and torture your faculties in imagining 
 things which ye never saw ? worlds beyond the reach of 
 human ken, and existences of whose nature ye can form 
 no conception ? Could a Being of Justice command ye to 
 prostrate the reason he should have given, and swear cre- 
 dence to doctrines, which they even who teach, pretend 
 not to understand ? Could a Being of Beneficence visit in 
 anger the errors of the children of his hand, and delight 
 in the torment of those whose ignorance he could en- 
 lighten, and whose sorrows he could heal ? 
 
 Oh, my fellow-beings ! let us leave these inconsistencies 
 to those who teach them ! Let us leave thmgs unseen and 
 causes unkno\vn, to those who vend them in this land for 
 twenty millions of dollars ; and, in other lands, less free and 
 more benighted than ours, for that sum twenty times told. 
 Let us turn from that which is not knowledge, to all which 
 is knowledge. Let us leave theory for fact; the world of 
 tlie imagination for that of the eye ; laws graven on stones 
 for those graven on the heart ! Let reason be our guide, 
 observation our teacher, our own bosoms our judges ! 
 
 But, alas ! ere this may be done, our reason must be exer- 
 cised, our observation awakened, our feeUngs quickened, 
 
LECT. IV.] RELIGION. 101 
 
 by that spirit of charity and brotherhood, which jarring 
 creeds have through ages stifled, and which just know- 
 ledge can alone impart ! 
 
 It has been my object, in this, as in my previous dis- 
 courses, to develope with you the nature of knowledge, to 
 substantiate in what it consists, and where and how it 
 may be found. I have farther, on the present occasion, 
 attempted to prove that you are now engaged in the pur- 
 suit of what is not knowledge. That you are now paying 
 your quota of the twenty millions per armum towards the 
 support of a system of error, which, from the earhest date 
 of human tradition, has filled the earth with crime and 
 deluged its bosom wit]^ blood, and which, at this hour, fills 
 your country with discord, and impedes its progress in 
 virtue, by lengthening the term of its ignorance. 
 
 The conclusions I am desirous should be drawn from 
 our investigations of this evening, are the same which our 
 judgments must draw from observation of, and reflection 
 upon, the events passing before our eyes in the walks of 
 life. How do these events exhibit the danger of looking 
 out of our own nature and our own world for subjects of 
 enquiry ! How do these admonish us of the errors of our 
 ways, and check the impotent presumption of our pervert- 
 ed curiosity, which, aiming at things beyond our vision 
 and so beyond our comprehension, neglects the fair field 
 of nature it is ours to admire; the human duties and 
 charities it is ours to fulfil ; and the human delights it is 
 ours to administer and to enjoy. 
 
 I will pray ye to observe how much of our positive 
 misery originates in our idle speculations in matters of 
 fiatith, and in our blind, our fearful, forgetfulness of facts — 
 our cold, heartless, and, I will say, msane indifference to 
 visible causes of tangible evil, and visible sources of tan- 
 gible happiness 7 Look to the walks of life I beseech ye — 
 
RELIGION. [lECT. IV. 
 
 iook into the public prints — ^look into your sectarian 
 churches — look into the bosoms of families — ^look into 
 your own bosoms, and those of your fellow-beings, and 
 see how many of our disputes and dissentions, public and 
 private — how many of our unjust actions — how many of 
 our harsh judgments — ^how many of our uncharitable 
 feelings — spring out of our ignorant ambition to rend the 
 vail which wraps from our human senses the knowledge 
 of things unseen, and from our human faculties the con- 
 ceiption of causes unknown ? And oh, my fellow beings ! 
 do not these very words unseen and unknown^ warn the 
 enthusiast against the profanity of such enquiries, and 
 proclaim to the philosopher their futility ? Do they not 
 teach us that religion is no subject for instruction, and no 
 subject for discussion? Will they not convince us, that as 
 beyond the horizon of our observation, we can know 
 nothing, so within that horizon is the only safe ground for 
 us to meet in pubUc? 
 
 I know how far from this simple conviction we now 
 are. Perhaps at this very moment, the question, what 
 does she believe^ is uppermost in the thoughts of two 
 thirds of my hearers. Should such be their thoughts, I 
 will reply to them. 
 
 With respect to myself, my efforts have been strenuous- 
 ly directed to ascertain what I know, to understand what 
 can be known, and to encrease my knowledge as far as 
 possible. In the next place, I have endeavoured to com- 
 municate my knowledge to my fellow creatures ; and strict- 
 ly laid down to myself the lule, never to speak to them of 
 that of which I have not knowledge. If beyond the horizon 
 of things seen — without the range of our earthly planet, 
 and apart from the nature of our human race, any specu- 
 lations should force themselves on my fancy, I keep them 
 to myself, even as I do the dreams of my nightly sleep, 
 
LECT. IV.J RELIGION. 103 
 
 well satisfied that my Deighbour will have his speculations 
 and his dreams also, and that his, whatever they may be, 
 will not coincide precisely with mine. 
 
 Satisfied by experience, no less than observation, of the 
 advantage to be derived fi:om this rule of practice, viz. to 
 communicate with others only respecting my knowledge, 
 and to keep to myself my belief, I venture to recommend 
 the same to my fellow creatures ; and, in conformity with 
 this rule, would urge them, as soon as possible, to turn their 
 churches into halls of science, and exchange their teach- 
 ers of faith for expounders of nature. Every day we see 
 sects splitting, creeds new modelling, and men forsaking 
 old opinions only to quarrel about their opposites. I see 
 three Gods in one, says the trinitarian, and excommuni- 
 cates the socinian who sees a godhead in unity. I see a 
 heaven but no hell, says the universalist, and disowns 
 fellowship with such as may distinguish still less. " I see 
 a heaven, and a hell also, beyond the stars," said lately 
 the orthodox friend, and expelled his shorter sighted bre- 
 thren firom the sanctuary. I seek them both in the heart 
 of man, said the more spiritual follower of Penn, and 
 straightway builded him up another temple, in which to 
 quarrel with his neighbor, who perhaps only employs 
 other words to express the same ideas. For myself, pre- 
 tending to no insight into these mysteries, possessing no 
 means of intercourse with the inhabitants of other woiids, 
 confessing my absolute incapacity to see either as far back 
 as a first cause, or as far forward as a last one, I am con- 
 tent to state to you, my fellow creatures, that all my 
 studies, reading, reflection, and observation, have obtained 
 for me no knowledge beyond the sphere of our planet, our 
 earthly mterests, and our earthly duties ; and that I more 
 than doubt, whether, should you expend all your time and 
 all your treasure in the search, you will be able to acquire 
 
liWl RELIGION. [lECT. IV. 
 
 any better information respecting unseen worlds, and 
 future events, than myself. Whenever you shall come to 
 the same conclusion, you will probably think the many 
 spacious edifices which rear their heads in your city, are 
 somewhat misapplied, and the time of the individuals who 
 minister therein somewhat misemployed : you wiU then 
 doubtless perceive that they who wish to muse, or pray, 
 had better do it after the manner designated by the good 
 Jesus, namely, by entering their closet and shutting the 
 door ; and farther perceive, that the true bible is the book 
 of nature, the wisest teacher he who most plainly ex- 
 pounds it, tlie best priest our own conscience, and the 
 most orthodox church a hall of science. I look round 
 doubtless upon men of many faiths, upon calvinists, 
 unitarians, methodists, baptists, cathoHcs, and I know 
 not what beside, and yet, my friends, let us call ourselves 
 by what names we will, are we not creatures occupying 
 the same earth, and sharing the same nature ? and can 
 we not consider these as members of one family, apart 
 from all our speculations respecting worlds, and existences, 
 and states of being, for which, in ages past, men cut each 
 other's throats, and for which they now murder each 
 other's peace ? 
 
 And now, if among my hearers there should be one, 
 whose opinions I have too rudely jarred, or, worse, whose 
 feehngs I have wounded, more deeply than he will I la- 
 ment the offence, and lament it the rather because of its 
 necessity. Had your piiblic teachers employed their 
 twenty milhons in shedding peace on earth, and know- 
 ledge among men, I had not been here to startle the flock 
 nor alarm the shepherd ; I had not stept forth from the 
 studies and retirement which I love, into a world distract- 
 .■♦ ed with dissension and profaned with vice ; I had not thus 
 % ventured, and thus endured, in the cause of human reason, 
 
LECT. IV.] RELIGION. 106 
 
 happiness, and tranquillity, if the teacher had done his 
 duty, and the people had grown wise under his tuition. 
 
 At our next meeting, I purpose to call your attention to 
 a subject of vital importance. I purpose to develope with 
 you that just rule of life, which no system of religion ever 
 taught, or can ever teach; which exists apart from all 
 faith, all creeds, and all written laws, and which can alone 
 be found by following, with an open eye, a ready ear, and 
 a willing heart, the steps of knowledge ; by exercising the 
 senses, faculties, and feelings, which appertain to our na- 
 ture ; and, instead of submitting our reason to the autho- 
 rity of fallible books and fallible teachers, by bringing al- 
 ways the words of all books and all teachers to the test 
 of our reason. 
 
L.ECTURE V. 
 
 MORALS. 
 
 In my previous discourses I have chiefly labored to sub- 
 stantiate with you the nature of knowledge. The impor- 
 tance of the object may have led me to insist even to 
 tediousness, on those primary truths which, once percei- 
 ving, the mind wonders could ever be unseen, and which, 
 but for the errors inherent in our education, could never 
 fail to be brought by the opening senses to the opening 
 mind. But, as it is, our instincts supplanted, stifled, anni- 
 hilated, instead of actively exercised, and widely guided ; 
 our faculties perverted, tortured, neglected ; the most use- 
 ful cramped or misled ; the least useful unduly forced, pre- 
 maturely exercised, and fed from a wrong source ; our 
 feeUngs led astray from the first moment of their blossom- 
 ing; the canker of fear blighting their freshness, and 
 visionary thoughts usurping the place of realities : nothing 
 more difiicult, sometimes more hopeless, than to awaken 
 the mind to a perception of first principles, by simply 
 calling on the eye to see, the ear to hear, all the senses to 
 feel, and the understanding to admit, arrange, compare 
 the facts so ascertained. Aware at once, both of the neces- 
 sity and the difficulty of clearing the simple threshold of 
 knowledge of the thorns and branches heaped on it, by 
 imbridled unaginations ; I ever hesitate in our progress to 
 make a step in advance, without appealing to the first 
 simple premises which we have so labored to establish. 
 
LECT. v.] MORALS. lOt 
 
 At our last meeting, therefore, we carefully recapitulated 
 the result of our previous observations, respecting the 
 nature and the Umits of the field of human enquiry ; and, 
 having first convinced ourselves of what real knowledge 
 consists, we proceeded to try, by the test thus obtained, the 
 reality of a subject which now absorbs the leisure, sways 
 the feelings, and engulfs the surplus industry of mankind. 
 
 The result of these investigations, placed religion with- 
 out the field of knowledge. Based upon assertion, hypo- 
 thesis, tradition, we found it wanting in substantiated and 
 ever enduring data to which the senses of eax^h. individual 
 might appeal, and by which the faculties of each indi- 
 vidual might be convinced. We remarked, that in conse- 
 quence, no minds were agreed upon the matter ; that while 
 none disputed the truths of real science, consisting of 
 things known, all disputed the lessons of religion, treating 
 of things unknown, and things imagined. We remarked 
 farther, that what is unreal in its nature, vague and ever 
 varying in its lessons, could afford no safe guide to human 
 reason, no just rule to hiunan conduct ; but that, on the 
 contrary, all the experience supplied by tradition as well 
 as by the observation of existing generations, combined to 
 attest, that, so far from entrenching human conduct within 
 the gentle barriers of peace and love, religion has ever been, 
 and now is, the deepest source of contentions, wars, perse- 
 cutions for conscience sake, angry words, angry feelings, 
 backbijings, slanders, suspicions, false judgments, evil in- 
 terpretations, unwise, unjust, injurious, inconsistent actions. 
 
 But shall we be told that these consequences are the 
 result of false religions. Alas, my friends ! and who has 
 the true ? Ask the Mahomedan, the Jew, the Pagan, the 
 deist, the christian, in all his multiform varieties, under all 
 his multiphed appellations — each has the right, all others 
 possess the wrong. And where, among these contradictory 
 
ifli MORAL* [lECT. V. 
 
 and confounding faiths, is one whose ipse dixit truths are 
 compounded of facts; whose first premises are demon- 
 strable to the human eye, the human ear, the human 
 touch ; whose proofs are sought and found in the nature 
 of man and the nature of things, and whose conclusions 
 are sanctioned by our own confirming sensations and 
 assenting reason ? 
 
 No, my firiends ! we have seen that no religion stands 
 on the basis of things known ; none bounds its horizon 
 within the field of human observation ; and, therefore", as 
 it can never present us with indisputable facts, so must it 
 ever be at once a source of error and of contention. 
 
 If, then, that which we have followed for a true light, 
 be proved a meteor — if, instead of leading us into safe 
 and pleasant paths, it have enticed us into swamps and 
 quagmires — if, instead of informing the mind, warming 
 and gladdening the heart, it have clouded and confounded 
 the one, chilled and bruised the other, are we then without 
 a guide in the path of Ufe ? Are our barks launched upon 
 the ocean, without rudder or compass ? Is there no star 
 by which to steer, no rule-directed skill wherewith to trim 
 our sails, and point an unerring course through the rocks 
 and whirlpools of our passions and appetites, and the fogs 
 and deceiving mirage of our deluding and deluded imagi- 
 nations ? Wo to man, should the answer be a negative ! 
 Wo to our race should we be — T say not without a rule, 
 but without an unerring rule, by which to shape our 
 course safely, steadily, usefully, happily, justly ; by which 
 to regulate our actions, frame our opinions, chasten our 
 feelings, and render the term of our existence one of utility 
 and dehght ! Were not this rale within our power to sub- 
 stantiate, idle were every other human enquiry ; idle were 
 every fact gathered in every science; yea, idle were all 
 human researches if their results combined not to aid us 
 
LECT. v.] MORALS. 109 
 
 in the establishing of that golden rule, which conducts by- 
 one and the same path to virtue and happiness ! 
 
 And what then is this rule ? Where in the field of 
 knowledge must we seek it ? Under what science shall we 
 find it written ? In casting our eye over the table of just 
 knowledge, we shall find the rule we seek, under the 
 head of " morals" — it being the science of human ac- 
 tions or of human Hfe. 
 
 In earlier ages, however removed from the simple view 
 of things to which the clearer lights of physical science 
 are now leading civilized man, we perceive him always to 
 have had some general ideas respecting this important 
 branch of human enquiry ; nor, however it may adminis- 
 ter to our vanity to beheve the contrary, might we find 
 upon minute investigation, that we have greatly advanced 
 this science beyond the point to which the sages of Greece 
 and Rome, or of Persia and China, had placed it before 
 the date of our modern era. The cause of this remissness 
 on our part, T conceive to be, that we have lost sight, even 
 more than did the ancients, of the true basis of the science, 
 and substituted one even more false than did the legislators 
 of Greece or the patriots of Rome. 
 
 The usual motive principle in Athenian ethics, and in- 
 variably of Spartan and Latin virtue, was the good of 
 country, but that good always more or less unwisely inter- 
 preted ; mihtary glory the means, and national greatness, 
 instead of national happiness, the object. Still, if in some- 
 thing, or even in much, mistaken, the morals of the 
 ancients was a soul-stirring science, encouraging a gene- 
 rous, if even an exaggerated forgetfulness of self, and 
 calculated to form, as we read that it did form, command- 
 ing nations, and self-respecting men. Among the Athe- 
 nian schools, indeed, were some models of practical virtue, 
 and teachers of moral science, whose lessons and whose 
 
 K 
 
110 MORALS. [lECT. V. 
 
 lives seem to have equalled all that we can show in 
 modern generations of good and wise. Such appears to 
 have been the modest and benevolent Socrates : such, 
 more especially, appears to have been the mild, unpre- 
 suming, reasonable Epicurus, in whose ethics, as imper- 
 fectly conveyed to us, we find the science first based upon 
 its just foundation — the ascertained consequences of 
 human actions. 
 
 The moderns, whether we look to the numerous family 
 of Christian nations, or to the equally numerous family 
 who have followed the standard of Mohammed, have un- 
 fortunately based their morals upon their religion, or, where 
 that was impracticable, have so mingled the truths of the 
 science with the dogmas of the faith, that, while the 
 vulgar mind has been unable to conceive of them as sepa- 
 rate, even more enlightened minds, yielding to the force 
 of education, have found it difficult not to conceive of 
 them as related. The more effectually to detect the error 
 of this persuasion, let us examine first what we under- 
 stand by the term morals, and then what we understand 
 by that of religion. First, then, what is the meaning 
 attached to the word morals. It is a word often in our 
 mouths, and the first step towards acquiring a knowledge 
 of any science, is to possess an accurate idea of the subject 
 of which it treats, or of the meaning of the term employed 
 for its designation. 
 
 What then is morals ? 
 
 A rule of life. 
 
 How formed ? from what deduced ? 
 
 From the consequences of actions as ascertained through 
 our sensations, and our observations of the sensations of 
 others. 
 
 Actions which produce good, we call moral actions ; ac- 
 tions which produce evil, immoral actions. Revolve the 
 
LECT. v.] MORALS. Ill 
 
 matter as we may, we can come to no other rational con- 
 clusion. The word morals, then, is employed to desig- 
 nate 3- :ourse of actions, whose effects are beneficial to 
 ourselves and others. In other words, they constitute a 
 rule of hfe drawn from the ascertained consequences of 
 actions. The rule is simple. If we never look out of it, we 
 can never go wrong in morals. 
 
 Let us now enquire what is religion ? We have seen 
 what religion is not. Our present object will be to ascer- 
 tain what it isj and thus to estabhsh a correct definition of 
 the word applicable to it, by whatever rehgious sect, in 
 whatever country, employed. 
 
 Were each individual in this assembly to answer the 
 question in turn, I am somewhat doubtful if there would 
 be two who would agree in their repUes. Some would 
 place religion in the intellectual admission of certain dog- 
 mas ; others, in that of dogmas directly opposed to the first 
 enumerated. Others would see it in the observation of 
 certain days, fasts, and festivals ; some in certain prayers 
 offered up in certain places ; others in songs and hymns, 
 or in meditations, and visions, and ablutions, and all man- 
 ner of ceremonies. There are doubtless some present, 
 who would say all external rules and abstract creeds are 
 of no importance ; and who would direct us to see religion 
 in the just actions of men. 
 
 I wish you here to observe, that such religionists as the 
 last mentioned, are in fact no religio7iists at all ; they are 
 only good men. Either religion is something distinct 
 from morals, or it is the same thing. If it be distinct, what 
 is it ? I beUeve there is one definition which will embrace 
 all religions, firom the Laplander's to the Hottentot's ; from 
 those of this city, round the world, until we land here again 
 in the same. 
 
 Religion, as distinguished firom morals, may be defined 
 
113 MORALS. [lECT. V. 
 
 thus : a belief irtj and homage rendered to, existences 
 utiseen and causes unknow?i. This definition vnll ap- 
 ply equally to the Hindoo, Mahomedan, Jew, Christian, 
 pagan, theist, and every variety of religionist existing or 
 imaginable. Of rehgion, as used to express a just prac- 
 ticey nothing can be said, but that it is a misappUcation of 
 terms. If rehgion mean good morals, let us call it good 
 morals, that we may understand each other. I had occasion, 
 during the course of our preliminary investigations on 
 knowledge, to insist much on the importance of accurate 
 language. Without it there can be no accurate ideas. 
 
 We perceive then that rehgion and morals are words 
 bearing distinct significations. The one implies a mode 
 of beUef ; the other a just mode of practice. These may 
 indeed be occasionally conjoined, but there is no necessary 
 relation between them ; and I must request you to observe, 
 that it is exceedingly difficult for them to be placed in con- 
 tact, without the one, more or less, neutrahzing the other. A 
 necessary consequent of rehgious behef is the attachmg 
 ideas of merit to that beUef, and of demerit to its absence. 
 Now here is a departure from the first principle of true 
 ethics. Here we find ideas of moral wrong and moral 
 right associated with something else than beneficial action. 
 The consequence is, we lose sight of the real basis of mo- 
 rals, and substitute a false one. Our rehgious behef usurps 
 the place of our sensations, our imaginations of our judg- 
 ment. We no longer observe effects ; we lay down laws. 
 We no longer look to actions, trace their consequences, and 
 then deduce the rule ; we first make the rule, and then, 
 right or wrong, force the action to square with it. 
 
 But, methinks, I hear you observe — ^that Rehgion, if not 
 the source, may be at Least the coadjutor of virtue ; if not 
 the parent, she may be at least the companion. Far be it 
 from me to say that such may not be — that such never 
 
LECT. v.] MORALS. 113 
 
 is. I have crossed in the path of life some lovely minds 
 and lovely hearts, of which no harsh and narrow creed 
 could mar the beauty ; and which could enfold in their 
 own gentleness, and expand with their own warmth, the 
 chiUing and censorious faith, which drove less kindly 
 natures to angry uncharitableness or morose fanaticism. 
 
 Rehgion I have observed to take its complexion from 
 that of the bosom which harbours it. Where the disposi- 
 tion is gentle, its inmate will soften her temper, modify 
 her doctrines, and sink to whispers the thunder of her de- 
 nunciations. Where the character has more vigor, and 
 firnmess of purpose and ardent imagination unite with 
 scrupulous conscientiousness, we find the ardent zealot 
 and sincere fanatic ready to sacrifice life, friends, country, 
 aye, and the whole human race on the altar of his idolatry, 
 and to make his existence one long scene of denial to 
 himself, and of infliction upon others. On such tempera- 
 ments as the last adverted to, we perceive the most fatal ef- 
 fects of religion on the moral character of the man. Such 
 as we have here depicted, should be the enlightened bene- 
 factors of their race ; the leaders of improvement, the firm 
 defenders and fearless advocates of truth. Such would 
 they be if led by wise guides into the field of real know- 
 ledge, and there taught by observation and experience, to 
 base their opinions upon ascertained facts, and to seek in 
 their own unsophisticated sensations, the rules of tempe- 
 rance, justice, toleration, and humanity. But led by error 
 into the stony ground of rehgious faith, all the qualities of 
 their noble nature are perverted to evil. Their eye no' 
 longer fixed on this world, nor their hearts on their fellow 
 creatures, they are transformed into the enemies of true 
 science, the scourgers of society, the persecutors of reason 
 and of sane morality. It may be, as we have observed^' 
 that religion will borrow the fair robes of virtue, and speak 
 k2 15 
 
114 MORALS. [lECT. V. 
 
 in the tones of love caught from lovely hearts, but never 
 did she herself originate, however she may sometimes per- 
 vert to her own purposes, that human sympathy with hu- 
 man weakness, that gentle patience with human error, that 
 untiring perseverance in the cause of human improve- 
 ment, which the study of human nature, and acquaint- 
 ance with the reforming, enlightening power of human 
 knowledge, impart to the reflecting observer of the world 
 without and of the world within. 
 
 Let us not mistake causes ! Let us not misconceive of ef- 
 fects ! Let us not so wrong the heart of man, as when we 
 see the turbanned follower of Mohammed, invoking Allah, 
 while he spreads the carpet for the weary traveller, and 
 shares with him his bread — ^let us not, I say, so wrong tlie 
 human heart, as to believe, that but for the written law of 
 his Koran he would shut his door against the houseless, the 
 friendless, and the hungry ; or that when he opens it, he 
 obeys not a law nobler and purer than that cried by his priest 
 from the minaret — even that which is entwined and incor- 
 porated with his being, and which teaches him to pity in 
 others the wants which he feels within himself ! The sim- 
 ple African, whose desires are bounded by his grove of co- 
 coa nuts and bread fruits, and whose superstitions extend 
 not beyond the charms and whimsical ceremonies of nur- 
 ses and conjurors over the bodies of the sick, yields his mat, 
 and shares his fruits with the fainting white man whom 
 the love of science, or the madness of superstition, leads to 
 his peaceful hut ; and, unlearned in all of truth as of er- 
 ror, beyond what his simple experience has taught him, 
 binds up the wounds of the suffering stranger, and lulls 
 him to sleep with his pitying songs. Or, who that has vi- 
 sited the native sons of America's forest, where the vices 
 of civilized and christian nations are yet unknown, but 
 has eat of the venison prepared by the gentle squaw, where 
 
LECT. v.] MORALS, 111 
 
 there was no priest to bless, or written law to teach ; and 
 farther seen the son of nature lay him down to his last 
 sleep with the dignity of a mind which had followed virtue 
 up to its knowledge, and knew as Uttle to fear possibilities 
 beyond the grave, as reahties here. 
 
 And must we be told that unnerving fears and disgracing 
 penalties are requisite to drive man into the path of vir- 
 tue ? Must he be made a coward ere he can be innocent 7 
 Must he be sold to folly ere he can be saved from crime ? 
 Little have such moralists studied the latent powers in- 
 herent in our nature — ^the beautiful faculties and emotions 
 which need but to be awakened and exercised, for us to 
 distinguish good from evil, even as we distinguish pleasure 
 from pain ! Little know they of the satisfaction imparted 
 to the bosom by a course of gentle feeling and generous 
 action ; little conceive they of the pain and disquiet conse- 
 quent on feehngs of uncharitableness and deeds of vio- 
 lence, who imagine temptations of heavenly rewards requi- 
 site to incline the well taught mind to the one, or threats 
 of ugly fiends, and phantoms, and torments, first conceived 
 and accurately realized in the earthly dungeons of Christian 
 inquisitors, necessary to turn the humanheartfirom theother. 
 
 Alas, my friends ! we have tampered with imaginary 
 demons through all the ages of human ignorance up to the 
 present hour — we have quailed the human heart with 
 fear — we have shaken reason from her throne with the 
 agues of superstition — we have broken dowTi the self-re- 
 specting spirit of man with nursery tales and priestly 
 threats, and we dare to assert, that in proportion as we 
 have prostrated our understandmg and degraded our 
 nature, we have exhibited virtue, wisdom, and happiness, 
 in our words, our actions, and our lives ! 
 
 Time it is, that we awake to a better knowledge of 
 things — a more just appreciation of our own powers and 
 
116 MORALS. [lECT. V. 
 
 capabilities, a more accurate observation of consequences 
 and causes, and that we fit ourselves wisely to enjoy the 
 life which is ours, and wisely to instruct the rising genera- 
 tion to avoid the errors which have led our minds astray, 
 and to seek the truths which we have neglected. 
 
 Conceiving us, my friends, to have sufficiently discuss- 
 ed the tendency of those doctrines and assertions which 
 were never made to stand an encounter with reason, we 
 will now recal our attention to the consideration of the 
 science which is to supply the unerring rule of human 
 conduct. 
 
 Morals we defined to be a rule of life drawn from the 
 ascertained consequences of human actions. You will 
 observe that here, as in every other breufich of knowledge, 
 our own sensations, accurately observed, supply us with the 
 facts of which the science is compounded. 
 
 Morals, thus considered, is a wide and spacious field ; as 
 spacious as human hfe and human action. There is a 
 wrong and a right way of doing every thing ; a wrong 
 and a right way of feeling every thing ; a wrong and a right 
 way of saying every thing. We are therefore moral or im- 
 moral at every moment of our conscious existence. 
 
 What is required for the securing of our moral rather 
 than our immoral state ? Attention. Attention to the con- 
 sequences of our actions ; attention to the nature of our 
 feelings ; attention to the meaning, and the bearing, and 
 the effects of our words. Look to these ! Look around ye ! 
 Look within ! Ye need no other rule ; ye need no other 
 law. Would ye ascertain what of your rules are just? 
 Put them to this test. Examine where they run ; what 
 they hit, and what they miss. Trace them through all 
 their consequences, to all their results. Believe not they 
 aie right because they are your rules, but test them by 
 
LECT. v.] MORi^LS. IIT 
 
 the actions they produce, and these actions again by the 
 simple good or evil of their results. 
 
 Permit me here to recapitulate a few observations pre- 
 sented at our last meeting. We then remarked, that had 
 we only senses, each impression would disappear with the 
 object which excited it; in which case, no knowledge, or 
 accumulation of facts, could exist for us. But, having 
 memory, we can retain each impression by whichsoever 
 of our senses received ; having judgment, we compare and 
 arrange these impressions ; having imagination, we in- 
 geniously combine impressions, however removed as to 
 time, distant as to place, or slightly assimilated by affinity 
 or resemblance ; and, having moral feelings or emotions, 
 we consider all occurrences with a reference to the good or 
 evil they may induce to our race. 
 
 In that most important branch of knowledge which we 
 are now considering, all these properties of our nature are 
 called into action. Our sensations supply the facts which 
 our faculties treasure up and arrange; and, aided by our 
 emotions, enable us to judge and to feel for others : out of 
 which sympathy springs all the bright family of. the 
 virtues. 
 
 In considering the science of morals, it might seem, at 
 the first glance, to divide itself into two distinct heads : as 
 our conduct affects ourselves, and as it affects others. This 
 distinction, however, is more apparent than real, since it is 
 barely possible for us to consider any action, much less any 
 course of actions, without a reference to their effects, either 
 immediate or more remote, by example, on the sentient be- 
 ings around us ; which effects must ever again react upon 
 ourselves, and influence, pleasurably or painfully, our state 
 of being. Still are there some actions involving more pecu- 
 liarly our own selfish interests ; and upon which, in cases 
 where no counter interest of others is presented, prudence, 
 
If 
 
 118 MOEALS. [lECT. V. 
 
 or a just calculation of consequences to ourselves, may be 
 allowed solely to decide. Such are the actions incidental 
 to the gratification of the appetites appertaining to our 
 nature. The rules by which to restrain these within just 
 and healthy propriety are peculiarly simple ; and, when 
 carefully substantiated by observation, and habitually fol- 
 lowed, supply us with the virtues of temperance and so- 
 briety. Were the habit induced from infancy upwards, of 
 closely observing all our sensations, and distinguishing the 
 moment when healthy indulgence passes into unhealthy 
 excess, there would not be (except in cases of defective 
 organization) one being in existence afflicted with those 
 unreasoned, self-tormenting habits, which are now, in 
 vulgar parlance, more especially distinguished by the name 
 of vices. 
 
 But let us here observe, that to secure for ourselves that 
 €eemly propriety which constitutes the rule of temperance, 
 we must as httle incline to the extreme of fanatical self- 
 denial as to that of indulgence. We must govern and 
 not crucify the appetites wliich, forming a part of our 
 being, can as Uttle be stifled as palled, without injury to 
 our physical, moral, and mental health. It has been the 
 requiiing the annihilation instead of the just government of 
 the human passions, which has nourished the behef, so 
 slanderous to our nature, that they were beyond the con- 
 trol of our resison. Oh ! let but reason be appealed to, 
 and we shall acknowledge, for we shall see and feel her 
 power ! 
 
 In the day that reason shall be consulted, we shall 
 study ourselves with a reference to the world about us, 
 and that world again with a reference to ourselves ; and, 
 applying all external things wisely to their uses, apply 
 also all our organs, physical and intellectual, wisely to 
 tlieirs. Then may we find that the error hes not in our 
 
LECT. v.] MORALS. 119 
 
 nature, but in the false usages, opinions, laws, habits, and 
 customs, which have originated in our ignorance and in 
 the superstitions which that ignorance has engendered. 
 
 In considering our conduct with relation to the world, 
 without us, we find the science under our immediate re- 
 view associated with every other ; extending its ramifica- 
 tions through the whole field of knowledge, turning to 
 profit every fact drawn from the rich stores of nature, and 
 calming and expanding the human heart in proportion as 
 the human mind becomes enlightened. 
 
 The sciences have ever been the surest guides to virtue, 
 because, demanding calm observation, obtaining all their 
 results by means of dispassionate investigation, they bring 
 into action our noblest faculty, the judgment, and submit 
 the imagination to its guidance; dispose us by the previous 
 accurate observation of things to an equally accurate ob- 
 servation of men, and, confirming us in the habit of 
 tracing effects to causes in the world without, prepare us 
 to follow attentively the train of occurrences in the world 
 within. 
 
 In seeking that principle of our nature which leads the 
 heart of m^n to sympathise with that of his fellow ; to 
 extend the hand in succor, or to drop the tear in sym- 
 pathy, philosophers have strangely disputed. But, without 
 adverting to the various arguments and speculations which 
 have more frequently tended to confuse the intellect than 
 to develope the fact, we may remark, that the many who 
 have agreed in referring all our noblest actions and most 
 beautiful feelings to the single desire of attaining our own 
 individual good, present, at the least, an immutable basis 
 of morals ; since even self-love and self-interest, rightly 
 understood, would always lead to justice, beneficence, gen- 
 tleness, truth, candor, and indulgent toleration. And such 
 doubtless is the truth. A simple but accurate calculation 
 
120 MORALS. [lECT. V. 
 
 of selfish consequences, would lead invariably to the culti- 
 vation of every amiable feeling, and practice of every 
 action beneficial to society. For, as we have previously 
 enquired, how come we at a knowledge of virtue? By our 
 sensations. What constitutes moral good ? A course of 
 actions producing beneficial results. What moral evil? 
 A course of actions whose results are injurious. Now most 
 true it is, as I trust the experience of each and all of us 
 can testify, that never does the human breast throb with 
 purer dehght, than when man has been instrumental to 
 the happiness of his fellow man. The pleasure derived 
 from any selfish enjoyment dies with the immediate sen- 
 sation ; but that shared with others, or that imparted to 
 others, even with temporary loss or inconvenience to our- 
 selves, will five in the memory to the latest period of ex- 
 istence, and thrill the bosom with pleasure each time it is 
 recalled. Certain it is, therefore, that the pursuit of our 
 own happiness would alone suffice to induce the cultivation 
 of that tone of thinking and feeling, which tends to pro- 
 mote that happiness. But we have still something within 
 us, better than any process of reasoning, which prompts 
 us to spring forward to the relief of suffering ; and which 
 we have only to cultivate, in conjunction always with the 
 cultivation of our judgment, (or we may sadly err) to be- 
 come the active and enlightened friends of our race. When, 
 having distinguished beneficial from injurious actions, in 
 the consequences resulting to ourselves, and observed simi- 
 lar effects to result from similar actions to others, we dis- 
 tinguish an emotion within us, varying indeed in strength 
 in each individual, which prompts to the conferring of 
 benefits to our brother man, and even, occasionally, to the 
 preferring of his advantage to our own. In this preference 
 of others to self, or, to put it according to the views of the 
 moralists before quoted, in this seeking of our own plea- 
 
LECT. v.] MORALS- |2t 
 
 sure through the pleasure of others^ consists the highest 
 degree of active virtue. 
 
 Great is the difference between what I have here c(e» 
 nominated active virtue^ and what we may call negative 
 virtue — albeit, in the present unfortunate state of society, we 
 are often but too happy when we find the latter, and have 
 not to encounter active mischief. 
 
 By the negatively virtuous, I understand those who, r^ 
 gulating judiciously their passions and appetites with a 
 view to their own healthy existence, and forbearing from 
 all words and actions which might disturb their tranquillity 
 by attracting the hostility of others, yet are deficient in 
 that generous sensibility to the feelings of others, which 
 we have distinguished as the source of active virtue; 
 and which dictates the ready sacrifice of selfish enjoyment, 
 whenever such sacrifice will purchase a greater enjoyment 
 to a fellow creature, or stimulates to voluntary exertions in 
 favor of suffering, or in the cause of human improvement. 
 
 This cultivated sensibility, variously called by philoso- 
 phers the moral principle, emotion, faculty, or sympathy, and 
 in the figurative language of Friends, the light within^ 
 the spirit of truths or God within the breast^ may, I think, 
 be distinguished by every self observer, as existing apart 
 from the purely intellectual powers, though always de- 
 manding their guidance. When not under the guidance 
 of our noblest intellectual faculty, the judgment, it may 
 place ourselves, and involve others, in the worst difi[icul- 
 ties ; when under the direction of a well-balanced and 
 discriminating intellect, it leads to every good, and consti- 
 tutes a man of virtue. 
 
 Now the object of all education should be, the active 
 
 developement and cultivation of the generous emotion we 
 
 are now considering, and which is but too often allowed to 
 
 remain dormant in the bosom, until it is absolutely choked 
 
 L 16 
 
128 MORALS. [lECT. V. 
 
 and annihilated by vicious examples and equally vicious 
 lessons. First comes false parental indulgence, teaching 
 the young creature to seek its little pleasures at expense of 
 the comfort and convenience of others, by passionate cries 
 and obstinate peevishness ; to seek them, too, without a 
 reference to its companions and playmates, if not often at 
 their cost. Next comes erroneous instruction, to frighten 
 the opening mind from innocent truth, to unfit it for ob- 
 servation of the interesting reaUties around it, and to poison 
 the sweet pleasures of its age, by tales of unseen things 
 and revengeful beings — ^these also armed, like their earthly 
 governors, with whips and scourges. Then comes woildly 
 policy, with selfishness, censoriousness, and avarice, in her 
 train, to perfect an education whose motive principle is 
 FEAR, and whose fmits are hard-heartedness and hypocrisy I 
 
 What, my friends ! and do we charge to our orga- 
 nization what springs from our ignorance of its powers ! 
 Do we libel the nature of man, while we are violating 
 instead of guiding its instincts, perverting its faculties, 
 and feeding it with error instead of truth ? That 
 wliich we sow, must we reap. The infant mind is a 
 virgin soil. While we plant tares, shall we gather tares. 
 While, in pursuit of things unseen and causes unknown, 
 we waste our surplus time and our surplus industry, and 
 while we neglect or pervert the powers of the human 
 mind, must idleness and error, with their offspring, violence 
 and profligacy, distract and aflflict all the nations of the earth ! 
 
 But let us adopt measures for wisely developing and 
 directing the faculties which distinguish our nature. Let 
 us seek out patient and enlightened guides, instead of angry 
 and dogmatical teachers, who will encourage the lively 
 observation of childhood, foster its better feelings, remove 
 from its eye, and its ear, and its imagination, all that can 
 ftwaken unkindly emotions, impart painful sensations, 
 
LECT. v.] MORALS. 123 
 
 provoke angry passions, suggest false ideas, and judiciously 
 surround it with such impressions as shall turn aU its 
 faculties to good. 
 
 To prepare such a system of education for the young, 
 we must begin with ourselves. We must purge our own 
 hearts of evil, and our own minds of error, ere we can dis- 
 tinguish those just rules of conduct, which, as parents, as 
 citizens, as human beings, it is our common duty and 
 common interest to discover for the rising generation. 
 
 In this imperfect discourse, I have but sketched the out- 
 hne and laid down the first principles of that beautiful 
 science, of which all others should be but the handmaidens, 
 to which the whole field of knowledge should lend its ac- 
 cumulated facts, and a succession of enlightened genera- 
 tions supply their accumulated experience. 
 
 My object here, as in all our previous investigations, has 
 been to elucidate the simple nature of the science. To 
 show that its truths are discoverable by observation, and 
 supplied by our sensations ; that all lessons which depart 
 firom the premises of our sensations, are but idle decla- 
 mation ; that the seeds of all excellence are within our- 
 selves — that is, in the senses and the faculties which en- 
 lighten and adorn our nature ; that the source of all vice 
 is ignorance, and that of virtue, knowledge ; that the field 
 of human enquiry is the world we inhabit ; the field of 
 human duty that of human action ; the only rational pur- 
 suit of human beings that of human happiness ; that hap- 
 piness, to be experienced by miy^ must be shared by all ; 
 that the real interests of the whole human family are one, 
 even as their nature is in itself the same ; that comprising 
 in our being physical, moral, and intellectual organs, it is 
 only in and by the judicious exercise of all these organs 
 that we can secure to ourselves the health of any ; that 
 unless our limbs and muscles be exercised, our whole fi-ame 
 
^h Mk'ktM. [lect. v. 
 
 ihrrstbe weak or diseased ; unless oiir iniellectual fttctilties 
 be fairly developed and exercised, we cannot regulate wisely 
 our passions or our actions, and unless all our sensibiliti^^ 
 be wisely cultivated and regulated, we can never ex- 
 perience that highest enjoyment proceeding from the prac- 
 tice of active virtue, which we have seen to flow from a 
 ready sympathy in the wants and feelings of others. 
 
 I shall now close our investigations by the riemark, that 
 MORALS, or THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN LIFE, may, for 
 better convenience, and with a view to the presenting in 
 order all the relations it involves, be divided into several 
 heads. 
 
 These divisions may, in some cases, be rather supplied 
 by existing errors than by inherent truths. It being indis- 
 pensable, however, in the actual state of society, to develops 
 all truth with a reference to existing error, I purpose, as 
 leisure and my more regular engagements may permit, to 
 Consider the conduct of human beings under the three 
 ^reat relations in which we may observe them to stand. 
 
 First. Their relation to each other, and to the mass. 
 This will embrace a review of all our duties, public and 
 private. It will lead us also to inspect the principles of 
 national government, law, and social economy. 
 
 Secondly. The mutual relation of the two sexes ; in 
 Vhich we shall be called upon to examine the principles that 
 should direct the social intercourse of men and women. 
 
 Thirdly. The relation of the old to the young ; of the 
 lexisting to the rising generation, viewing us in the 
 character of human beings, free born, and self govern- 
 ing. Also, the relation of parents to children; examining 
 the duties and responsibilities of the being who gives life 
 to the being who receives it. This will lead to the discus- 
 sion of the important subject of education, and ehcit sugges- 
 tions respecting a plan of national education. Until somd 
 
iECT. v.] IffdHALl^. 125 
 
 measures shall be adopted for the judicious and equal in- 
 struction and protection of every son and daughter born to 
 the Republic, ye cannot be (as I conceive) Republicans. 
 Until exclusive colleges, paltry comnion schools, ignorant 
 Sunday schools, and sectarian churches, be replaced by state 
 institutions, founded by a general tax, and supported by the 
 same, (so long as it shall be riecessary-— that is, till the well 
 regulated industry of the children shall meet the expenses of 
 their education ;) and until, in these national institutions, the 
 child of your Governor shall be raised with the child of your 
 farmer, and the child of your President with that of your 
 mechanic, ye cannot be (as I conceive) Republicans. And 
 farther, until ye have good libraries and good teachers of 
 elementary science in all your towns, for the mental im- 
 provement of the existing generation, and popular halls of 
 assembly, where all adults may meet for the study and 
 discussion of their social and national interests, as fellow 
 creatures and fellow citizens, ye cannot be (as I conceive) 
 RepubUcans. 
 
 To attempt the satisfactory developement of the impor- 
 tant subjects to which I have here alluded, it would be 
 necessary for us to meet under other circumstances than 
 those at present existing. On my part would be necessary, 
 the conviction that I was devoting my time and labor, not 
 to satisfy the unmotived and momentary curiosity of a 
 public indifferent to its noblest interests, but that I was 
 employed with and for a pubhc anxious to substitute 
 knowledge for error, and virtue for superstition. 
 
 To inspire that conviction in me, would be necessary on 
 your part some active measures, for which the desire or 
 the courage, or both, may be at present wanting. 
 
 For the time being, I shall confine my exertions to the 
 simple elucidation of the first principles of the science ; to 
 the sketching of that great outline within which all truth 
 l2 
 
12? MORALS. [lECT. V. 
 
 must be sought, and where, I trust, you may yet be in- 
 duced to seek it. To complete the general survey in which 
 we are considerably advanced, I shall endeavor, at our 
 next meeting, to elicit the nature of opinions, and the 
 manner of their formation : with a view to the correction 
 of that spirit of proselytism, which now transforms us all 
 into angry combatants, for each whimsey of our brain, 
 and of that spirit of censoriousness, which is now ever in- 
 terfering with the mental Hberty and moral peace of so- 
 ciety, and rendering the Hfe of man one continued scene 
 of strife and of hypocrisy. 
 
LECTURE VI. 
 
 FORMATION OF OPINIONS. 
 
 The subject to which I shall call your attention this 
 evening, the formation of opinions, is one of the 
 utmost practical importance; one which thoroughly un- 
 derstood, would remove uncharitableness from the heart 
 of man, and shed the placid rays of peace and truth upon 
 the path of life. 
 
 For eighteen centuries and upwards, the nations styled 
 civilized, have waged a war of opinion, dying the altars 
 of their faith with each other's blood, or, in their gentlest 
 mood, in this freest country, and in this (compared with all 
 the past) enlightened age, judging in severity, sentencing 
 in bitterness, and persecuting, by angry word and oppres- 
 sive deed, each his fellow creature. For eighteen centu- 
 ries and upwards, sword and fire, chains, dungeons, tor- 
 tures, threats and curses, or (scarcely less severe) pubUc 
 scorn and private censure, the falling back of friends and 
 setting on of foes, the whisperings of detraction, the sur- 
 mises of folly, the misapprehensions and misrepresentations 
 of ignorance, have conspired to wreak vengeance upon 
 the mind and body of man, constraining the sacrifice, im- 
 possible to force, of honest opinion, and commanding the 
 assent to truth or error, as it may be, of that noblest pro- 
 perty of our being — even our free-born intellect. For 
 eighteen centuries and upwards, the human family, 
 estranged from each other, albeit pinned within the fold of 
 
V 
 
 128 OPINIONS. [lECT. VI. 
 
 one faith, have striven in deadly feud like the fierce beasts 
 in the Roman arena, or like the iron knights of crusading* 
 chivahy within the fatal lists of cruel ordeal, where 
 might alone did constitute the rights and the fall of the 
 weak substantiated the justice of the strong. 
 
 Such, to look no farther than the date of the modem 
 era, hath been the fate of the nations. The weak have 
 been trampled on, the bold in spirit have been crushed, 
 the conscientious have been martyrized, the honest have 
 been silenced, the stigmatized for liberty, mercy and chan- 
 ty have been hunted through the earth by the blood- 
 hounds of superstition, until the heart of philanthropy hath 
 drooped even to despair, and the hope of philosophy in a 
 better and fairer future hath given way. Such droopings 
 and faintings must have been experienced by every 
 generous mind, when, in contemplating the face of so- 
 ciety, it loses sight of the generating cause of the evil 
 which it mourns ; and, again, when it ceases to compare 
 the present with the past, and so marks not the slow and 
 silent progress of our race from the foul night of barbarous 
 ignorance towards the fulness of civilizing knowledge. 
 But let us clearly distinguish the cause, and we may 
 hasten the application of the remedy ; let us trace the 
 advance already made and now making, and we may 
 calculate with cheerful confidence on our future destinies. 
 
 Persecution for opinion is the master vice of society. It 
 was this raised the gloomy walls and dug the foul caverns 
 of the Inquisition. It was this invented the rack, and 
 the wheel, and the faggot, and the death-pang, and the 
 dungeon, where the Moor, and the Jew, and the philoso- 
 pher, and the suspected heretic expired, unpitied, unremem- 
 bered, before thanksgiving, heaven-invoking bigotry. Jt 
 was this butchered the simple Waldenses, in the valleys 
 of their mountains. It was this mowed down the Huanie- 
 
LECT. VI.3 OPINIONS. 129 
 
 nots in the palace of the Gallic king. It was this dyed 
 the rivers of either Indies with the blood of their peaceful 
 children. It was this reared the horrid pile round the 
 gentle Servetus, by the hand of presbyterian Calvin. It 
 was this drave from their native isle the forefathers of this 
 nation ; and it has been, and yet is, the same scourger of 
 human peace, and bridler of human liberty, persecution 
 FOR opinion, which ruffles the whole surface of this fair 
 republic, nurtures the harsh spirit and pride of sectari- 
 anism, hardens the heart of man towards his brother, 
 sours the disposition of woman, and drops gall and aloes 
 into the cup of human hfe. Surely, then, are we called, 
 in our character of reasoning beings, to pierce to the 
 source of this poisonous fountain of woe ! Surely then, 
 are ye doubly called, in your character of a self-governing 
 people, to arrest the flow of its deadly waters, and to 
 seek the ways and the means for refreshing the land with 
 the soft dews of love ! 
 
 In developing the cause of the vice to which we have 
 reference, we must first examine what an opinion is ; es- 
 tablish the meaning of the word, and the nature of the 
 intellectual state it is employed to designate. 
 
 The chief aim of my previous efforts, in this pliace, has 
 been directed to the attaining a just apprehension of the 
 nature of knowledge. The result of those elementary 
 enquiries, I conceive to be present to your minds. Now, as 
 we established knowledge to be an accumulation of facts, 
 so are all just opinions, intellectual conclusions drawn 
 from those facts. It follows, therefore, that exactly in pro- 
 portion to the extent and accuracy of our knowledge 
 must be the justice of our opinions ; and vice versa, that 
 in equal proportion to our remissness in collecting, and 
 carelessness in weighing, examining, comparing, and 
 arranging facts, must be the error of our opinions. Here 
 
 17 
 
130 OPINIONS. [lECT. VI. 
 
 — then we see ignorance, or the absence of facts from the 
 mind, to be the primary cause of all error. 
 
 I must now call your attention to a very curious incon- 
 sistency in human feeling. Men are seldom disposed to 
 be angry with each other on account of the more or less 
 knowledge they may possess, while they are incessantly 
 angry with the varying opinions, which are as necessa- 
 ry consequents upon this varying knowledge, as we con- 
 ceive hght or darkness to be upon the rising or setting of 
 the sun. That one should know more than another ap- 
 pears simple and pardonable; but, that one knowing more, 
 should think differently from others, is stampt for a mortal 
 offence, without hope of pardon or benefit of clergy. The 
 absurdity of applying the torture to the physiological 
 anatomist, who should simply discover such and such to 
 be the structure of our corporeal machine, would appear 
 too gross for the human imagination, and yet the no less 
 gross absurdity of resenting the conclusions generated by 
 his discoveries appears to it quite facile of admission. The 
 facts themselves, if deprived of all their consequences and 
 so of all their utihty, would be tolerated, but let them 
 generate, as they must inevitably generate, their own con- 
 clusions in the mind, and the unfortunate explorer of 
 science is hunted down by the dogs of persecution. When 
 the observations of Lawrence associated the phenomena 
 of Ufe, thought, and motion, inseparably with the Uving, 
 thinking, and moving organs of our frame, instantly 
 awoke the cry of Infidel ! Sceptic ! Materialist ! Atheist ! 
 As if with these unmeaning words, which those who 
 employ usually understand no more than did Aristotle 
 the rules of his own logic or the causes of the influent and 
 refluent tides — as if, I say, by these unmeaning words, 
 coupled with insulting vituperations, we could overthrow 
 nature herself, aimihilate the facts in her own bosom, or 
 
LECT. VI.] OPINIONS. 131 
 
 stifle the conclusions which the inspection of those facts 
 necessitate in the perceiving mind. When the enquiring 
 Gahleo observed that the phenomena of the celestial 
 bodies, substantiated the motion of the planets in heu of 
 that of the sun, why was he dragged before the tribunal 
 of death 7 Because the facts he proclaimed started in the 
 mind of bigotry itself the inevitable conclusion, that if he 
 was right, the astronomy of the Jews was wrong ; and 
 that, " Sun, stand thou still," argued an error in the pen 
 that wrote, or in the voice that spake. And we may far- 
 ther ask, why in these or our own times, why at the 
 present hour, if a bdd enquirer unclasp the book of know- 
 ledge, and simply proclaim its simple truths, the trump of 
 alarm sounds throughout the land, and threats, outrage, 
 and abuse, are heaped even on the head of a woman ? 
 Why, but becausie the facts which she, strong in her love 
 to man, has the courage to reveal, generate in the minds 
 of her very opponents conclusions inimical to existing sys- 
 tems and existing expenditures, and proclaim aloud to the 
 teacher as well as the scholar, the clergy as well as the 
 people, the designing as well as the ignorant, that if know- 
 ledge be true, superstition is false, and that if enquiry be 
 prosecuted, church and hierarchy must fall ! 
 
 But in discovering the propeUing motives of this incon- 
 sistency, the inconsistency remains the same. Unless we 
 can annihilate facts themselves, how can we annihilate 
 the conclusions, that is, the opinions, which those facts 
 suggest? When we employ our eyes, and when we 
 see, or when we stretch forth our hand, and when we 
 feel, must we not acknowledge the presence of the objects 
 before us, and can we resist the intellectual assent which 
 follows upon their perception ? 
 
 Whenever, then, we hear an opinion startling from its 
 novelty, what, in modesty, should we say ? " Perhaps the 
 
1^ OPINIONS. [lECT. VI. 
 
 individual is possessed of facts which have not fallen undei 
 our observation, or attracted our attention. Let us enquire 
 of him what they are, and then examine the facts for our 
 selves." And what upon such a course of proceeding 
 would be tlie result ? One of three consequences. Either 
 we should find the opinion corroborated by facts, in which 
 case it would be true, and compel our own minds to its 
 admission ; or it would appear insufficiently substantiated 
 by facts, in which case we should leave it for doubtful ; or 
 we should find it in contradiction with facts, in which case 
 we should discard it for spurious. 
 
 But now, in any or all of these cases, what rational ground 
 can we find for anger against the iudividual who may 
 think otherwise than we think ? He is right ; he is credu- 
 lous; he is wrong. What then? If he be right, it is for 
 us to agree with him ; if credulous, we are not obhged to be 
 the same ; if wrong, he is mistaken — and, in so far as this 
 may be a source of evil, the loss must be to him. For that 
 he thinks as he thinks, and as we think not, it is convincing 
 that some evidence is present to his mind which is not 
 present to ours ; and, albeit upon examination we should 
 pronounce that evidence false, so long as it exist in his 
 mind for true, must he think as he thinks. And shall we 
 stigmatize his honest opinion for a crime ? By treating 
 him as a felon we may indeed force him into hypocrisy, 
 but cannot convince his understanding. To do the latter, 
 we must present some other and better evidence to his 
 mind-p— some incontrovertible facts, out of which a more 
 correct opinion may arise. Opinions are not to be learned 
 by wte, like the letters of an alphabet, or the words of a 
 dictionary. They are conclusions to be formed, and 
 formed by each individual in the sacred and firee citadel of 
 the mind, and there enshrined beyond the arm of law to 
 reach, cm: force to shake ; ay ! and beyond the right of im- 
 
LECT. VI.] OPINIONS. 133 
 
 pertinent curiosity to violate, or presumptuous arrogance to 
 threaten. Alas, for consistency ! Alas, for reason and hap- 
 piness ! Hath man fought and bled for political Hberty, and 
 will he violate the hberty of the mind? When he has 
 broken the bars and bolts of corporeal dungeons, will he 
 essay to clip and stretch the thoughts of his fellow beings 
 to the measure of his own? Must all see just or far and no 
 farther than we see ? If this be civil hberty, better the wild 
 freedom of the wild hunter ! Nay, better the honest slavery 
 of oriental despotism, where at least the wretch is warned 
 to choose between unmuttering obedience and the bow- 
 string ! 
 
 I speak warmly, my friends, for truly my heart is 
 moved in the cause of that holy principle, whose name is 
 on every hp, on every badge, on every coin of the land, 
 but whose vital spirit is profaned in our high places and 
 our private ways, in house and chamber, in book and con- 
 verse, in hall and church, and oh, more than all profaned 
 in the secret heart of man ! 
 
 Could we but obliterate all the false lessons imbibed 
 during a pernicious education — could we but arrive at the 
 perception of those primitive truths, which it is now the 
 object, because the interest, of all our teachers to stifle — 
 could we but engage in the investigation of the operations 
 of our own intellect — could we understand the nature of 
 an opinion, and the manner of its formation, never could 
 we be guilty of persecution for the involuntary conclusions 
 of the mind. 
 
 And yet simple ignorance, as we have seen, is not the 
 only cause of the irrational anger eUcited by the varying 
 opinions of men. Ignorance, unbacked and unspurred, 
 would not suffice to breed such tempests in the human 
 bosom as we see engendered against so gentle, so unin- 
 tentional an offence as a difference in opniion. The un- 
 
 M 
 
134 OPINIONS. [lECT. VI. 
 
 tutored Indian lifts not his tomahawk against his brother 
 because he thinks not with him respecting the attributes of 
 their Great Spirit, or the nature of their expected hunting 
 ground in the shadowy world of the dead. No ! igno- 
 rance of the powers of the human mind will not alone ex- 
 plain the existence of the deadly evil, albeit knowledge of 
 those powers ^^-ould suffice to dispel it. 
 
 The unhappy circumstances which combined to orga- 
 nize a system of instruction in speculations of faith instead 
 of objects of knowledge, and to set apart a body of men 
 for the express purpose of expounding inexplicable creeds, 
 and chaining the intellects of their hearers down to written 
 points of doctrine, unintelligible mysteries and verbal 
 quibbles, first originated the monstrous absurdity and 
 lamentable evil to which we have reference. Were it not 
 absolutely made the occupation of a part of the community 
 to set the rest by the ears, never could human beings have 
 disputed for ages, and shed rivers of blood, for establishing 
 and protecting the dogma of a Trinity in Unity, predestina- 
 tion to salvation or damnation, the divine presence or ab- 
 sence in a wafer of bread or the liquor in a wine cup, the 
 saving efficacy of the sign of the cross, or the sprinkling 
 of cold water on the forehead of an infant. Never could 
 they have wasted their lives and their treasure in squab- 
 bles about hair-drawn distinctions in fantastic ideas and 
 unimportant possibilities, had not the custom been origi- 
 nated of employing teachers of opinions^ instead of 
 teachers of facts. 
 
 That we have here suggested the main cause of the 
 irrational disputes which up to this hour have corroded the 
 peace of society, is abundantly substantiated by observa- 
 tion, and corroborated by history. 
 
 In whatever country there has existed a priesthood, 
 there opinionative persecution has prevailed, and there, and 
 
LECT. VI.] OPINIONS. 136 
 
 there only, has the popular superstition been profaned by 
 blood, expiatory atonements, and never slumbering 
 opinionative dissentions. 
 
 Let us look back to Egypt, to India, to Judea, to 
 Carthage, to Greece, to Rome — in all, tradition presents 
 us with a priesthood, and exactly in proportion to the 
 power of that priesthood, with less or more of rehgious 
 butcheries or opinionative persecutions. We find the same, 
 in a ratio exactly proportionate to the power of the priesthood, 
 among all Christian nations ; while among savages, how- 
 ever ignorant, or even in their ignorance revengeful, but 
 whom we find without religious teachers, the popular 
 superstition is ever harmless. Witness the gentle South 
 Sea Islander, or the fierce Indian of this Northern hemis- 
 phere, whose faith, simple in itself, and entirely devoid of 
 ceremonial, has never once been found a cause of war, or 
 even of dissention ; while in Mexico, when first explored 
 by the Spaniards, the blood of victims streamed from 
 altars sanctified by officiating ministers, whose butcheries 
 only ceased, to give place to those of their Chiistian con- 
 querors. 
 
 And among ourselves, my friends, what feeds the angry- 
 spirit which is abroad ? Even that which first originated it 
 among men : the exalting the dreams of our ignorance 
 into a science ; the setting apart times and places for its 
 especial study, and the ordaining a body of men to pro- 
 pound its mysteries, and to protect them from the power 
 of that principle which is inherent aUke in matter and in 
 mind — ^improvement. Let us leave Religion to herself, 
 and she will work no evil. Let us leave her single and 
 alone, without the adjimct of priest or temple, to measure 
 weapons with knowledge. If true, she will stand; if 
 false, she will fall. Let us store the human mind with 
 the truths of science j and, whatever opinions these may 
 
136 OPINIONS. [lECT. VI. 
 
 confirm or may generate, neither time nor changes, power, 
 wealth, violence nor cormption, the vicissitudes of fortune, 
 nor the fall of empires, can overthrow. 
 
 I have already attempted to show that .an opinion, pro- 
 perly so called, is a conclusion of the mind, spontaneously 
 elicited upon the admission of facts, or upon the admission 
 of evidence which it receives for fact. On the accuracy 
 of the evidence received must then depend the accuracy 
 of the opinion ehcited therefrom. Wheresoever we are in 
 possession of facts, well examined, well substantiated, ar- 
 ranged, and compared, are our opinions just ; whenever 
 we receive for fact what is not fact, or whenever we are 
 careless in our examination of facts, must our opinions be 
 erroneous. 
 
 But how are we to designate those states of the mind, 
 when in the absence of all facts, and all evidence, it is 
 tortured to receive ideas? Ideas they cannot be called, 
 for these are suggestions derived from sensations. Opinions 
 they cannot be called, for these are conclusions spon- 
 taneously elicited by evidence. The teacher who begins 
 by essaying to instil opinions, attempts an impossibility. 
 He may engraft prejudices, suggest fantasies, distort the 
 feehngs, put the mind in confusion, but he cannot teach 
 opinions. 
 
 Oh, when will men perceive what it is possible to im- 
 part, and desirable to acquire ? When will they look to 
 KNOWLEDGE as the subject matter of instruction, and 
 dropping its pleasant truths in the fertile soil of the mind, 
 leave opinions to spring up themselves, as the plant from 
 the seed ! 
 
 But, look ye, my friends ! what are ye or your agents 
 
 now labouring to teach, not in your own land only, but in 
 
 I the remotest regions of the globe? Opinions. About 
 
 "**" what are ye disputing yourselves, and essaying to make 
 
LECT. VI.] OPINIONS. IW 
 
 all tribes and nations dispute ? Opinions. For what pour 
 ye forth your treasures ? For what endow seminaries and 
 churches ? For what plant spies and eves-droppers in every 
 establishment, charitable, philosophical, or humane, founded 
 in your cities ? For what are the gentle and the wise 
 driven from superintendence in your jails, your bridewells, 
 your houses of refuge, your asylums, your schools ? For 
 what all this but for opinions. 
 
 But ye will say, " It is not we, it is not we, the people — 
 it is the Clergy, it is the American Jesuit, it is more than 
 all, the Presbyterian." With permission, my friends, but 
 it is you — it is the people. Why give ye the rein to am- 
 bition ? Why gold to rapacity ? Why stay ye not the 
 strife of tongues, the battle for supremacy, the fever of 
 proselytism, the persecution for opinions ? True, the 
 teacher hath led the way. True, the false shepherd hath 
 beguiled you. But when ye see the error of the path, will 
 ye not tread back your steps ? Will ye madly drive on 
 when your eyes are open to the pit and your ears warned 
 of destruction ? 
 
 But say that ye be willing to foster strife within your 
 own borders — under what plea, by what right, by what 
 authority, scatter ye its seeds in lands not yours, among 
 people neither acknowledging your supremacy, nor subject 
 to your laws ? I will not follow your missions across At- 
 lantic and Pacific, athwart other zones, and one half of the 
 world's meridians, to the banks of Senegal and Ganges ; 
 I will not track your emissaries to the Isles of the Southern 
 Sea, and note the peace of their simple children profaned 
 by dogmas, and their innocence by intoxicating liquors. I 
 will not look beyond the borders of this Union, nor will I 
 invoke other testimony than that supplied by the native 
 sons of the land. I will summon my witnesses and your 
 accusers from the deep forests of the Mobile, the sweet 
 m2 18 
 
138 OPINIONS. [LECT. VI. 
 
 springs of the pleasant Yazoo, and the shores of your own 
 fresh water seas. I will call upon the Creek and the 
 Choctaw, the Cherokee and the Seneka, to denounce the 
 folly and mischief of your emissaries, and the madness of 
 your zeal. Or it shall suffice, to array against ye the 
 words of the venerable chief, the expostulations of the father 
 of his people, who in this city, so lately, in the ears of its 
 citizens, denounced the intriguing spirit, the feud-breeding 
 faith, the honey-lipped but hitter-hearted hypocrisy (I 
 employ his own epithets) of your proselytizing missionaries. 
 Oh, when ye afflict strange people and other races with 
 the curse which rests upon yourselves — when, despite their 
 expostulations, and presuming upon your power, ye add 
 the feuds of opinions to the hatred of tribes, and send forth 
 retailers of spirituous and spiritual poison to the dusky 
 children of nature — Oh, think well of the liberty ye out- 
 rage, the rights of nations that ye violate, the awful respon- 
 sibiUty that ye assume ! 
 
 Could ye send to your red brethren peaceful instructors 
 in the useful arts of life, enhghtened observers of nature, 
 respecters of human feeling, who, without questioning their 
 reverence for the benign spirit whose presence they ac- 
 knowledge in the heart, would travel with them in peace 
 the paths of hfe, and exchange with them all the offices of 
 human love ; could ye send to the feeble remnant of that 
 race, whose decay has been the price of youi* greatness, 
 such instructors as these, ye might cancel the remembrance 
 of injury, and preserve in your bosom a happy rehc of a 
 people, interesting from your own history, their character, 
 and their wrongs. But, until such ye can send, (and, alas, 
 such how rare !) oh, my friends, send not at all. 
 
 Another remark here suggests itself ; that as in the exist- 
 ing state of human knowledge, an uncommon opinion is 
 
LECT. VI.] OPINIONS. 1319 
 
 always unpopular, so does it afford strong evidence of the 
 honesty of the individual who expresses it. 
 
 If the observations now presented, in conjunction with 
 our previous investigations, should have satisfied you of the 
 involuntary birth of opinions in the mind, the impossibility 
 of changing opinions but by supplying other and stronger 
 evidence than that wliich generated the existing opinions, 
 and the impossibiUty of teaching opinions as we teach 
 words to a parrot, you will perceive the absurdity, no less 
 than the injustice, of all displeasure on account of the intel- 
 lectual conclusions generated in our fellow-creatures, and 
 the equal absurdity of devoting your time and money to 
 the acquisition and propagation of opinions, instead of the 
 acquisition and propagation of facts. You will admit also, 
 I think, that an honest opinion, even w^hen erroneous, 
 merits always the respect of a good mind, and that an 
 uncommon opinion merits always the investigation of an 
 enquiring mind. 
 
 These considerations will appear to you of the highest 
 moral importance should you examine, as it is your duty 
 to examine, the harsh feelings and ungentle dealings 
 springing daily and hourly out of intolerance and censo- 
 riousness. Lamentably has the list of the human virtues 
 been curtailed by our inobservancy of the occurrences 
 passing around us, our inattention to the effects of our 
 words and actions on the happiness of our fellow beings, 
 our ignorance of the powers of our own minds, and our 
 indifference to the gentle dictates of human sympathy. 
 While our thoughts have been wandering in the 
 limbo of theological speculations, our eyes have been pry- 
 ing with impious curiosity into those of our neighbor, our 
 hps have been outraging the Uberty of man, by challenging 
 his right to the utterance of his opinions, and so perverted 
 has been our reason, so corrupted our hearts, that while 
 
k 
 
 140 OPINIONS. [lECT. VI. 
 
 thus engaged in murdering our own peace, and the peace 
 of others, we have called our censoriousness by the name 
 of virtue, and sanctified our orthodox intolerance by the 
 name of religion. Alas ! when shall we see that our 
 business is with our own doings, our ow7i feelings, our own 
 opinions ; and that with a view to the formation of the 
 one, and the regvdation of the other, we must patiently 
 observe all things, and gently hear all things, even that 
 we may be fitted in all things to choose that which is best ! 
 
 One observation, not without its practical importance, 
 yet occurs to me on the subject of opinions. While our 
 first duty is correctly to form our own, it is doubtless our 
 farther duty to assist in the formation of those of others. 
 How this may alone be done we have seen ; namely, by 
 presenting facts to the mind ; in other words, by organizmg 
 a plan of uniform and universal instruction in all the 
 branches of positive knowledge, by wliich means all men, 
 being giadually put in possession of the same correct 
 evidence, may be gradually led to the formation of just 
 and coinciding opinions. 
 
 It needs not to ask if such a consummation be de- 
 sirable. It needs not to ask if disputing and quarrelling 
 be advantageous or agreeable. It needs not to ask if the 
 employment of twenty miUions per annum in feeding sec- 
 tarian jealousies, bitter feelings, persecuting creeds, and 
 contradictory conclusions, be injudicious or profitable. I 
 care not what opinions or what fantasies we profess, I care 
 not under what standard we have ranged ourselves — ^I care 
 not how ignorant or how positive we may be in our errors, 
 still am I persuaded that allj however differing as to the 
 pouit of union, are agreed that union would be desirable. 
 All ? Said I that all are agreed 7 Yes, all ; save those who 
 live by existing divisions and confusion. 
 
 But it will be asserted, in the present confused state of 
 
LECT. VI.] OPINIONS. t4^ 
 
 the human intellect, that, however desirable, what we have 
 suggested is impossible. We shall be told that men can 
 never agree in opinion. They certainly never can, until 
 they understand what an opinion is, and what know- 
 ledge is ; then will they perceive how, when we shall 
 be all informed in the knowledge of things, and shall con- 
 sent to restrict our enquiries within the range of our ob- 
 servation, we must all agree in the other. 
 
 I know we shall be asked tauntingly, whether we ex- 
 pect all men to become philosophers. Certainly not all 
 those now living, and Tnost certainly few of those who put 
 the question. Generations may pass away ere, even in 
 this comparatively free country, all men attain to their 
 birth-right equal privileges of instruction. I incline not to 
 gigantic hopes respecting our cotemporaries. Much they 
 certainly may do. Much more I wish them to do. And 
 though it be ill planting the best seed in the summer and 
 autumn of life, and though the spring time be put in our 
 own minds, could we but learn sufficient to remove some 
 weeds, and but to lop away that one poisonous wide-spread- 
 ing tree of evil, persecution for opinion, the paths of life, 
 even in our day, might be made smooth, and the children 
 of men travel through them in peace. 
 
 Nor should we omit to notice one fact, sufficient if ob- 
 served, even in the absence of all other knowledge, to turn 
 men from the idle warfare in which they are engaged. 
 Let us look to the consequences of persecution. Did it 
 ever convince? did it ever convert ? Violence indeed may 
 overthrow empires, may slaughter nations, may assassi- 
 nate individuals, may harrass the mind, crucify the feel- 
 ings, but it cannot controvert opinions. Persecution will 
 suffice even to estabUsh error, and hath ever proved om- 
 nipotent in advancing truth. They who have recourse 
 to it are Wind to aU fia-cts, blind to the noblest principle 
 
142 
 
 OPINIONS. 
 
 [lECT. VI. 
 
 '\ 
 
 of our nature, to the strongest instinct in all sentient ex- 
 istence. Where doth violence not provoke resistance from 
 the lowest animal up to man ? Wound the bear, and he 
 will turn on the hunters ; press on the noble stag, and he 
 will give battle to his murderers ; nay ! injure the gentle 
 and faithful dog, and we find the spirit of the Uon. 
 
 And is it man — man, strong in every noble energy, 
 powerful in every faculty, rich in all the resources, and 
 sublime in all the dignity of intelligence — is it man whom 
 we would frighten into tame surrender of his loftiest pow- 
 ers ? whom we would cudgel out of his own free thoughts, 
 and crush under the chariot-wheels of intolerance ? Let us 
 look into past history — let us mark on the human mind, 
 through all ages, in aU nations, the effects of persecution. 
 When the justice of Aristides turned admiration to envy, 
 what restored him to the love of his countrymen ? Per- 
 secution. When the lessons of Socrates fell powerless on 
 the giddy ears of the Athenians, what graved his name 
 and his precepts on their hearts ? His death by persecu- 
 tion. What revenged all the patriots of Rome of a mis- 
 guided multitude ? Persecution. And what rooted Chris- 
 tianity in the hostile soil of heathenism? Persecution. 
 What fostered the heresy of Luther ? Persecution. What 
 built up the church of Calvin ? Persecution. What hath 
 given a substance and a name to all the distinctions, real 
 or imagined, of each religious reformer? Persecution. 
 What hath preserved the Jew pure and entire in his faith, 
 in his blood, in ceremony and feature, through ages of 
 time, and wliile lost and scattered amidst nations opposed 
 in every custom, law, feeling and creed ? Why hath he 
 stood a noble monument of patient endurance, conscien- 
 tious pertinacity, scrupulous fidelity, long-suffering and 
 uncomplaining, yet unyielding resistance? Why, like a 
 column in the desert, wearing its capital and its tracery and 
 
LECT. VI.J OPINIONS. 143 
 
 all the form and ornament stampt by the genius of for- 
 gotten artists and forgotten nations, stands he to this hour 
 a wondrous relic of empire departed and grandeur over- 
 thrown ? Why, but because of persecution ? 
 
 Or, say again, what hath provoked vengeance on the 
 head of kings? What hurried English Charles to the 
 scaffold ? What threw down the royalty and nobility of 
 France from their antique thrones, and long estabhshed 
 supremacy ? Or, yet once more, what turned the people 
 from the prostituted name of liberty and the insignia of a 
 repubUc dropping with gore, to reconcile them again to 
 detested sceptres and the name and style of king ? And, 
 oh say, people of America ! descendants of English Puri- 
 tans, French Huguenots, Irish cathohcs, condemned regi- 
 cides, outlawed patriots, and sanctified martyrs ! what, 
 driving your fathers from European realms, hath built up 
 the noble frame of this repubhc ? Oh say, torturers of the 
 human mind ! what hath done tliis save persecution ? 
 
 And will ignorance never cease from troubhng, and 
 error never be at rest? Will persecution take her stand 
 even at the fane of freedom, denouncing alike socinian, 
 universalist, Jew, sceptic, and philosopher, yea ! denoun- 
 cing every profession, employment, discovery and recrea- 
 tion which squares not with the rule of orthodoxy, or 
 diverts dollars from its treasury ? 
 
 I point here to no particular sect ; I point here to no 
 individuals : I point to the spirit of persecution arising out 
 of written creeds, and authorizing ambition to make re- 
 ligion its stalking horse, and to say to every man within 
 or without the pale of the declaration of faith, " so far 
 shall thou go, and no farther. ^^ 
 
 I am said to make war upon the clergy, and to hold 
 them up to the hatred and derision of the people : it is not 
 so. I have denounced the system, not the men. I have de- 
 
IM OPINIONS. [lECT. VI. 
 
 nounced the system which splits this nation into parties, 
 which encourages and authorizes individuals, under the 
 plea of serving God and teaching faith, to injure what I 
 beheve the interests of man, and darken what every mind 
 blessed with intelligence kiwws to be the hght of truth. I 
 have not denounced the clergy as men. I have denoun- 
 ced them as an organized body. As a body, set apart from 
 the people, with other interests, other duties, other feel- 
 ings. I have not denounced them as men — so help me 
 that spirit of charity which I trust by my lip or my pen 
 hath never been profaned ! but I have denounced, and (so 
 help me the spirit <rf truth which arms me to fight this 
 battle in its cause !) so loill I denounce them, as the organs 
 and ostensible representatives of a pernicious system, 
 which is driving the moral character, and shaking the 
 political frame of tliis nation, to its dissolution. 
 
 But I will say more. So far from essaying to stigma- 
 tize the mass of any clergy, I have held in private esteem 
 and respect mdividuals among all. The catholic, the epis- 
 copal, the baptist, the methodist, the unitarian, the univer- 
 salist, the most rigid as the most benign expoimders of the 
 christian law, may doubtless show among them men who 
 wear theii- religion less on the Up than in the heart, and 
 who, more citizen than sectarian, present to their fellows 
 a creed made up of gentleness and love. But such as 
 these could echo if I mistake not the denunciations I pro^ 
 nounce. Yea ! such as these, if I mistake not, writhe under 
 the fanaticism they are constrained to tolerate in their bre- 
 thren, and both lament the error of the system with which 
 they are associated, and blush for the arrogance of those 
 martinets in orthodoxy, whose noise drowns all gentler 
 voices, and whose assumption of authority, awes the timid 
 and the ignorant into submission. 
 
 Say I too much of the spirit that is abroad ? Denounce I 
 
LECT. VT.] OPINIONS. 146 
 
 too warmly a system, which in a land professing liberty, is 
 the more dangerous because the less suspected ? There is 
 other persecution than that by fire and faggot; other 
 weapons than the bayonet and the sword ; other restraints 
 than those of law and arrest ; other ways to coerce con- 
 tributions than by tithes and taxation : yea ! and those 
 other, and those worse, because less alarming while equal- 
 ly effectual and vexatious — those other, and those worse, 
 are here. In this land, cunning does the work of violence. 
 Persecution wears her shafts close hid: they are not wing- 
 ed in the broad sun-shine for every eye to see and every 
 spirit to resent : silently, and from the covert, are they 
 sped ; unseen the aim, and unheeded the mischief. There 
 is a secret influence at work, which all feel and none dis- 
 tinguish. It infects all society, taints every institution in 
 the land, poisoning alike human instruction, h iman laws, 
 and human recreation. In your schools— -it diseases the 
 infant mind with superstitious terrors, and with reason- 
 confounding, heart-distorting creeds. In your colleges — it 
 stifles the breath of your teachers of science, and con- 
 strains the entanglement of their simple facts with the 
 dreams of theology. In your books and periodicals — ^but 
 it matters not to speak of the press. In your courts of law- 
 it tempts to perjury, sitting in judgment on the religious 
 creed of witnesses, and reflecting even on that of the 
 prisoner. In your legislatures — it dictates unconstitutional 
 ordinances, and unconstitutional disposals of money and 
 of lands. Nay ! at this moment, it is outraging the ear 
 of your national congiess, with presbyterian Sabbath law 
 petitions.* In your amusements — alas ! there its influence 
 
 * This discourse was first delivered in the Second Universalist Church, 
 New- York, (by request of its pastor and the majority of the trustees,) dur- 
 ing the season of the presentation of those petitions at Washington, which 
 produced the celebrated report of the committee of the senate, already &. 
 miliar to every American citizen. \J^'^ ^*^ iX>.^-«iu i>L 
 
 N 19 
 
*'^' 
 
 i4^ O^PINIdWS. [lECT. VI. 
 
 hath been mortal ! Your amusements, which under wise 
 direction and judicious encouragement, should elevate the 
 mind and humanize the heart — ^your amusements, I say, 
 it has degraded, it has perverted, and so led the mind 
 astray from pleasure to vice, from healthy recreation to 
 mind-debasing, life destroying licentiousness. 
 
 Have I charged orthodoxy with too much ? Look to 
 your stage ! see what it is ; then look back to ancient 
 Greece, and judge what it might be. Listen on every 
 hand to the denunciations of fanaticism against pleasures 
 the most innocent, recreations the most necessary to bodily 
 health, and conducive to social fellowship and mental im- 
 provement. See it make of the people's day of leisure, a 
 day of penance ! Thus, in the absence of innocent diver- 
 sion, or improving study, driving men to intoxication, 
 women to scandal, or to silly, sentimental, reason-con- 
 founding novels, half filled with romance and half with 
 superstition, and by dint of fatiguing the mind with irra- 
 tional doctrines, and tedious exhortations, disgusting youth 
 with all instruction, and turning it loose upon a corrupt 
 world with no light for its reason, no rein for its passions, 
 ho prop for its integrity. 
 
 We hear of sabbath breakers. And who are they that 
 break the sabbath of the mind? Even such as, it would seem, 
 taxed with sabbath breaking the poor man's friend and 
 rich man's reprover, Jesus ; who, instead of frequenting 
 temples made with hands, where the Scribes and Phari- 
 sees expounded their written laws, and acted the outer 
 ceremonies of their superstition, sought the world of 
 nature and the fields of human industry, and, as he 
 gathered the ears of corn on the day sanctified to super- 
 stition, sentenced by practice as well as precept, those ob- 
 servances which, at this day, in a country styled Christian, 
 cost to the nation twenty millions per annum. " Many 
 
LECT. VI.] OPINIONS. 1411 
 
 things," said the mild reformer, whose mildness 8aye4 i^m 
 not from martyrdom — " many things have I to say to ye, 
 but ye cannot bear them now." And alas, could his fol- 
 lowers bear them yet ? Are they not still led as were the 
 Jews of old by Scribes and Pharisees, who make broad 
 their phylacteries, devour widow's houses, and for a pre- 
 tence, make long prayers ? Are they not still sitting in 
 judgment on their neighbor ; questioning his faith, ii^stead 
 of looking to their own doings ; and, content with idle 
 observances of days and seasons, neglecting all that could 
 improve their own hearts and add to the happiness of theif 
 fellow creatures ? 
 
 What think ye my friends ? If Jesus, or his likeness, 
 should now visit the earth, what church of the many 
 which now go by his name would he enter ? Qr, if tempt- 
 ed by curiosity, he should inchne to look inlLo all, which 
 do you think would not shut the door in his face 1 " H^ 
 despises the law," would sound from one ; " He breaks the 
 sabbath," would echo from another ; " He makes no pray- 
 ers and professes no creed," would mutter a third ; " He 
 would exalt the low, bring down the mighty, and revolu- 
 tionize society," would cry a fourth ; " He keeps company 
 with publicans and sinners," fxom a fifth ; " He is no bet- 
 ter than an infidel," would shout the whole, since he lets 
 pass the Sadducees without reproach who profess no know^ 
 ledge out of this world and this life, and denounces the 
 Pharisees who hold the keys of heaven and hell, aiid 
 know all that is passing in both regions. 
 
 It seems to me, my friends, that as one who love^ 
 peace, taught industry, equality, union, and love, o^i^ 
 towards another, Jesus were he alive at this day, would 
 recommend you to come out of your churches of faith, 
 and to gather into schools of knowledge. Methinks he 
 would enquire ii^l^ the use of all the large buildings yga 
 
148 OPINIONS. [lECT. VI. 
 
 are now raising, for the only purpose of collecting" there 
 once a week in groups of sectarians, and this again, for 
 the only object of learning what we are all too much dis- 
 posed to believe already — viz. : that we are each of us in 
 the right, and that all others are in the wrong. Methinks, 
 I say, that Jesus would recommend you to pass the first 
 day of the week rather otherwise than you pass it now, 
 and to seek some other mode of bettering the morals of 
 the community than by constraining each other to look 
 grave on a Sunday, and to consider yourselves more virtu- 
 ous in proportion to the idleness in which you pass one 
 day in seven, and to the length of the doctrinal creed you 
 allow your spiritual instructors to sign for you. 
 
 The importance attached to opinions and formal obser- 
 vances of days and ceremonies by all Christian sects, is 
 truly surprising, when we consider that Jesus, so far as 
 tradition informs us, never wrote a line, never framed a 
 creed, condemned all prayers in public, and taught his 
 disciples to " love one another," which was as much as to 
 say — never discuss opinions. Now those who profess to 
 follow him, discuss Uttle else but opinions, and therefore 
 do little else but quarrel. To think this way, or to think 
 that way, constitutes the whole duty of man. 
 
 — My friends, I am no Christian, in the sense usually 
 ■ attached to the word. I am neither Jew nor Gentile, 
 Mahomedan nor Theist ; I am but a member of the human 
 family, and would accept of truth by whomsoever offered — 
 that truth which we can all find, if we will but seek it — 
 in things, not in words ; in nature, not in human 
 imagination ; in our own hearts, not in temples made with 
 \ hands. 
 
 ^'. Fain would I see my fellow creatures in pursuit of that 
 truth which is around, and about, and within us. Fain 
 would I see them burying their opinions in their own 
 
LECT. VI.] OPINIONS. 149 
 
 bosoms, and uniting for the study of facts and a knowledge 
 of themselves. Many evils are abroad on the earth, and 
 never did supineness threaten greater dangers than at the 
 present moment. Old superstitions are shaken to their 
 foundation. The false restraints imagined in ages of pri- 
 meval ignorance are loosened from the mind. Men have 
 grown out of the fear of devils and eternal brimstone, and, 
 applying their ingenuity to evade the laws of earth, laugh 
 in secret at the hobgoblin tales of hell. What then must 
 ensue, if, while old things are passing away, we seek not to 
 discover new ? If, while the chains of superstition are 
 falling from the mind, we build not up therein a moral 
 bulwark, nobly to replace the Gothic barriers that are 
 withdrawn, nor apply ourselves to lead by persuasion and ^_ ^ 
 
 conviction that nature which may be no longer cowed 5^ 
 
 by superstition, nor mastered by force ? Man is no longer 
 in leading-strings, nor submissive to the rod. He is at 
 this hour too knowing to be driven, and too ignorant to 
 walk alone. Let a free people look to it in time, nor 
 waiting, until law and religion are aUke under foot, they 
 shall have to devise remedies in the midst of confusion, 
 and to school the human mind and the human heart in 
 the depths of their corruption. Enough hath been said — 
 the path lies clear. Yirtue and truth dwell only with 
 knowledge, and as, when a people shall possess knowledge, 
 they will form on all subjects just opinions, so will they 
 also, in all the relations of life, as citizens, parents, and 
 fellow creatures, discover and pursue a just practice. 
 N 2 
 
 -1' 
 
JLECTURE VII. 
 
 ¥ 
 
 ON EXISTING EVILS, AND THEIR REMEDY. 
 
 [As delivered in Philadelphia, June 2d, 1829.] 
 
 Having now traced with you what knowledge is in 
 matter and in mind ; what virtue is in human conduct, 
 where its rules are to be sought, and how they may be 
 found ; tested, by the standard thus supplied, the ruling 
 topic of discussion and instruction throughout this country ; 
 shown that, while this topic subtracts from the wealth of 
 the nation twenty miUions per annum, and from the hearts 
 and minds of the people social fellowship and common 
 sense, it has in nature no real existence — is not know- 
 ledge, but only imagination — is not fact, but only theory ; 
 and, having shown, moreover, that theory can supply no 
 subject matter of instruction ; that the teaching of opinions 
 }s as erroneous in principle as it is dangerous in practice ; 
 that the duty of the instructor is simply to enrich the mind 
 with knowledge, to awaken the eye, and the ear, and the 
 touch, to the perception of things, the judgment to their 
 comparison and arrangement, and to leave the free, un- 
 biassed mind to draw its own conclusions from the evi- 
 dence thus collected, — I shall now present a few ob- 
 servations on the necessity of commencing, and gra- 
 dually perfecting, a radical reform in your existing out- 
 lays of time and money — on and in churches, theological 
 colleges, privileged and exclusive seminaries of all descrip- 
 tions, rehgious Sabbath schools, and all their aids and ad- 
 juncts of Bibles, tracts, missionaries, priests, and preachers, 
 
LECT. VII.] EXISTING EVILS. IH 
 
 multiplied and multiplying throughout the land, until they 
 promise to absorb more capital than did the temple of Solo- 
 mon, and to devour more of the first fruits of industry than 
 did the tribe of Levi in the plenitude of its power ; — on the 
 necessity, I say, of substituting for your present cumbrous, 
 expensive, useless, or rather pernicious, system of partial, 
 opinionative, and dogmatical instruction, one at once na- 
 tional, rational, and republican ; one which shall take for 
 its study, our own world and our own nature ; for its object, 
 the improvement of man ; and for its means, the practical 
 development of truth, the removal of temptations to evil, 
 and the gradual equalization of human condition, human 
 duties, and human enjoyments, by the equal diffusion of 
 knowledge without distinction of class or sect — both of 
 which distinctions are inconsistent with republican institu- 
 tions as they are with reason and with common sense, 
 with virtue and with happiness. 
 
 Time is it in this land to commence this reform. Time 
 is it to check the ambition of an organized clergy, the de- 
 moraUzing effects of a false system of law ; to heal the 
 strife fomented by sectarian religion and legal disputes ; 
 to bring down the pride of ideal wealth, and to raise honest 
 industry to honor. Time is it to search out the misery in 
 the land, and to heal it at the source. Time is it to re- 
 member the poor and the afflicted, ay! and the vicious 
 and the depraved. Time is it to perceive that every sor- 
 row which corrodes the human heart, every vice which 
 diseases the body and the mind, every crime which startles 
 the ear and sends back the blood affrighted to the heart-^ 
 is the product of one evil, the foul growth from one root, 
 the distorted progeny of one corrupt parent — Ignorance. 
 
 Time is it to perceive this truth ; to proclaim it on the 
 housetop, in the market place, in city and forest, through^ 
 out the land; to acknowledge it in the depths of our 
 
169 EXISTING EVILS. [lECT. VII. 
 
 hearts, and to apply all our energies to the adoption of 
 those salutary measures which this salutary truth sponta- 
 neously suggests. Time is it, I say, to turn our churches 
 into halls of science, our schools of faith into schools of 
 knowledge, our privileged colleges into state institutions 
 for all the youth of the land. Time is it to arrest our 
 speculations respecting unseen worlds and inconceivable 
 mysteries, and to address our enquiries to the improvement 
 of our human condition, and our efforts to the practical 
 illustration of those beautiful principles of hberty and 
 equaUty enshrined in the political institutions, and, first 
 and chief, in the national declaration of independence. 
 
 And by whom and how, are these changes to be 
 effected ? By whom ! And do a free people ask the 
 question ? By themselves. By themselves — the people, 
 
 I am addressing the people of Philadelphia — the people 
 of a city where Jefferson penned the glorious declaration 
 which awoke this nation and the world — the city, where 
 the larum so astounding to tyranny, so fraught with hope, 
 and joy, and exulting triumph to humankind, was first 
 sounded in the ears of Americans. I speak to the descen- 
 dants of those men who heard from the steps of their old 
 state house the principles of hberty and equahty first pro- 
 claimed to man. I speak to the inhabitants of a city 
 founded by the most peaceful, the most humane, and the 
 most practical of all Christian sects. I speak to mechanics 
 who are uniting for the discovery of their interests and the 
 protection of their rights. I speak to a public whose bene- 
 volence has been long harrowed by increasing pauperism, 
 and whose social order and social happiness are threatened 
 by increasing vice. I speak to sectarians who are weary 
 of sectarianism. I speak to honest men who tremble for 
 their honesty. I speak to the c^ishonest whose integrity 
 has fallen before the discouragements waiting upon indus- 
 
iECT. VII.] EXISTING EVILS. 153 
 
 try; and who, by slow degrees, or in moments of despera- 
 tion, have forsaken honest labor, because without a reward, 
 for fraudulent speculation, because it promised one chance 
 of success to a thousand chances of ruin. I speak to 
 parents anxious for their offspring — to husbands who, 
 while shortening their existence by excess of labor, foresee, 
 at their death, not sorrow alone, but unrequited industry 
 and hopeless penury, involving shame, and perhaps in- 
 famy, for their oppressed widows and unprotected chil- 
 dren. I speak to human beings surrounded by human 
 suffering — to fellow citizens pledged to fellow feeling — to 
 republicans pledged to equal rights and, as a consequent, 
 to equal condition and equal enjoyments ; and I call them — 
 oh, would that my voice were loud to reach every ear, and 
 persuasive to reach every heart ! — I call them to unite ; 
 and to unite for the consideration of the evils around us — 
 for the discovery and application of their remedy. 
 
 Dreadful has been the distress exhibited during the past 
 year, not in this city only, but in every city throughout 
 the whole extent of this vast republic. Long had the 
 mass of evil been accumulated ere it attracted attention ; 
 and, would we understand how far the plague spot is to 
 spread, or what is to be its termination, we must look to 
 Europe. 
 
 We are fast travelling in the footsteps of Europe, my 
 friends ; for her principles of action are ours. We have in 
 all our habits and usages the same vices, and, with these 
 same vices, we must have, as we see we have, the same evils. 
 
 The great principles stamped in America's declaration of 
 independence are true, are great, are sublime, and are all 
 her own. But her usages, her law, her reUgion, her edu- 
 cation, are false, narrow, prejudiced, ignorant, and are the 
 rehc of dark ages — the gift and bequeathment of king- 
 governed, priest-ridden nations, whose supremacy, indeed, 
 
164 EXISTING EVILS. [lECT. VII. 
 
 the people of America have challenged and overthrown, 
 but whose example they are still following. 
 
 A foreigner, I have looked round on this land unblinded 
 by local prejudices or national predilections ; a friend to 
 humankind, zealous for human improvement, enamored 
 to enthusiasm, if you will, of human liberty, I first sought 
 this country to see in operation those principles conse- 
 crated in her national institutions, and whose simple 
 grandeur had fired the enthusiasm and cheered the heart 
 of my childhood, disgusted as it was with the idle parade 
 and pride of unjust power inherent in European aristo- 
 cracy. DeUghted with the sound of political hberty, the 
 •absence of bayonets and constrained taxation, I spake and 
 published, as I felt, in praise of American institutions ; 
 and called, and, I believe, first generally awakened, the 
 attention of the European public to their study and appre- 
 ciation. 
 
 Disappointed, in common with all the friends of liberty 
 in Europe, by the issue of the well imagined, but ill sus- 
 tained, revolutions of the old continent, which closed, 
 as you will remember, by the triumph of France and the 
 holy alliance over the bands of Riego and Mina in Spain, 
 I returned to this republic as to the last hope of the human 
 family, anxious to inspect it through its wide extent, and 
 to study it in all its details. 
 
 The result of my observation has been the conviction, 
 that the reform commenced at the revolution of '76 has 
 been but little improved through the term of years which 
 have succeeded ; that the national policy of the country 
 was then indeed changed, but that its social economy has 
 remained such as it was in the days of its European vas- 
 salage. 
 
 In confirmation of this, I will request you to observe, 
 that your religion is the same as that of monarchical 
 
LECT. VII.] EXISTING EVILS. 155 
 
 England — ^taught from the same books, and promulgated 
 • and sustained by similar means, viz. a salaried priesthood, 
 set apart from the people ; sectarian churches, in whose 
 property the people have no share, and over whose use 
 and occupancy the people have no control ; expensive mis- 
 sions, treasury frmds, associations, and, above all, a com- 
 pulsory power, compounded at once of accumulated 
 wealth, established custom, extensive correspondence, and 
 a system of education imbued with its spirit and all per- 
 vaded by its influence. 
 
 Again — in proof of the similarity between your inter- 
 nal poUcy and that of monarchical England, I will request 
 you to observe that her law is your law. Every part 
 and parcel of that absurd, cruel, ignorant, inconsistent, in- 
 comprehensible jumble, styled the common law of Eng- 
 land — every part and parcel of it, I say, not abrogated or 
 altered expressly by legislative statutes, which has been 
 very rarely done, is at this hour the law of revolutionized 
 America. 
 
 Farther — in proof of the identity of your fabric of civil 
 polity with that of aristocratical England, I will request 
 you to observe that the system of education pursued in both 
 countries is, with little variations, one and the same. There, 
 you have endowed universities, privileged by custom, en- 
 riched by ancient royal favor, protected by parliamentary 
 statutes, and devoted to the upholding, perpetuating, and 
 strengthening the power and privilege to which they owe 
 their origin. There, too, you have parish schools under 
 the control of the parish priest, and a press every where 
 coerced by law, swayed, bribed, or silenced by ascendant 
 parties or tyrannous authority. And here have we not 
 colleges with endowments still held by the royal charters 
 which first bestowed them, and colleges with lands and 
 money gianted by American legislatures — ^not for the ad- 
 
1M EXISTING EVILS. [lECT. VII. 
 
 vantage of the American people, but for that of their 
 rulers; for the children of privileged professions upon* 
 whom is thus entailed the privilege of their fathers, and 
 that as certainly as the son of a duke is born to a duke- 
 
 -^ dom in England. Here have we not also schools con- 
 trolled by the clergy ; nay, have we not all our public in- 
 stitutions, scientific, literary, judicial, or humane, ridden by 
 the spirit of orthodoxy ; and invaded, perverted, vitiated, 
 
 ^ and tormented by opinionative distinctions? And here have 
 w^e not a press paralized by fear, disgraced by party, and 
 ruled by loud tongued fanaticism, or aspiring and threaten- 
 
 - ing sectarian ambition. And more, my friends, see we 
 not, in this nation of confederated freemen, as many dis- 
 tinctions of class as afflict the aristocracies of Britain, or 
 the despotism of the Russias ; and more distinctions of 
 sect than ever cursed all the nations of Europe together, 
 from the preaching of Peter the hermit, to the trances of 
 Madame Krudner, or the miracles of Prince Hohenlohe ? 
 Surely all these are singular anomalies in a republic. 
 
 -^ Sparta, when she conceived her democracy, commenced 
 with educational equality ; when she aimed at national 
 union, she cemented that union in childhood — at the pub- 
 he board, m the gymnasium, in the temple, in the common 
 habits, common feelings, common duties, and common con- 
 dition. And so, notwithstanding all the errors with which 
 her mstitutions were fraught, and all the vices which 
 arose out of those errors, did she present for ages, a won- 
 drous sample of democratic union, and consequently of 
 national prosperity ? 
 
 ~]~ What, then, is wanted here ? What Sparta had — a nor 
 ' tional education. And what Sparta, in many respects, 
 
 had not — a rational education. 
 
 Hitherto, my friends, in government as in every branch 
 of morals, we have but too much mistaken words for truths, 
 
 f 
 
LECT. VII.] EXISTING EVILS. 167 
 
 and forms for principles. To render men free, it sufficeth 
 not to proclaim their liberty; to make them equal, it 
 sufficeth not to call them so. True, the 4th of July, '76, 
 commenced a new era for our race. True, the sun of pro- 
 mise then rose upon the world. But let us not mistake 
 for the fulness of light what was but its harbinger. Let 
 us not conceive that man in signing the declaration of his 
 rights secured their possession ; that having framed the 
 theory, he had not, and hath not still, the practice to seek. 
 
 Your fathers, indeed, on the day from which dates your 
 existence as a nation, opened the gates of the temple of 
 human liberty. But think not they entered, nor that you 
 have entered the sanctuary. They passed not, nor have 
 you passed, even the threshold. 
 
 Who speaks of liberty while the human mind is in 
 chains? Who of equality while the thousands are in 
 squalid wretchedness, the millions harrassed with health- 
 destroying labor, the few afflicted with health-destroying 
 idleness, and all tormented by health-destroying solicitude? 
 Look abroad on the misery which is gaining on the land ! 
 Mark the strife, and the discord, and the jealousies, the 
 shock of interests and opinions, the hatreds of sect, the 
 estrangements of class, the pride of wealth, the debasement 
 of poverty, the helplessness of youth unprotected, of age 
 uncomforted, of industry unrewarded, of ignorance unen- 
 lightened, of vice unreclaimed, of misery unpitied, of 
 sickness, hunger, and nakedness unsatisfied, unalleviated, 
 and unheeded. Go ! mark all the wrongs and the wretch- 
 edness with which the eye and the ear and the heart are 
 familiar, and then echo in triumph and celebrate in jubilee 
 the insulting declaration — all men are free and equal! 
 
 That evils exist, none that have eyes, ears, and hearts, 
 can dispute. That these evils are on the uicrease, none 
 who have watched the fluctuations of trade, the sinking 
 o 
 
158 EXISTING EVILS. [leCT. VII. 
 
 price of labor, the growth of pauperism, and the increase 
 of crime, will dispute. Little need be said here to the 
 people of Philadelphia. The researches made by the 
 pubUc spirited among their own citizens, have but too well 
 substantiated the suffering condition of a large mass of 
 their population. In Boston, in New- York, in Baltimore, 
 the voice of distress hath, in like manner, burst the bar- 
 riers raised, and so long sustained, by the pride of honest 
 industry, unused to ask from charity what it hath been 
 wont to earn by the sweat of the brow. In each and every 
 city necessity has constrained enquiry ; and in each and 
 every city enquiry has eUcited the same appalling facts : 
 that the hardest labor is often without a reward adequate 
 to the sustenance of the laborer ; that when, by over exer- 
 tion and all the diseases, and often vices, which excess of 
 exertion induces, the laborer, whose patient, sedulous in- 
 dustry suppUes the community with all its comforts, and 
 the rich with all their luxuries — when he, I say, is brought 
 to an untimely grave by those exertions which, while sus- 
 taining the life of others, cut short his own — when he is 
 mowed down by that labor whose products form the boasted 
 wealth of the state, he leaves a family, to whom the 
 strength of his manhood had barely furnished bread, to 
 lean upon the weakness of a soul-stricken mother, and 
 hurry her to the grave of her father. 
 
 Such is the information gleaned from the report of the 
 committee lately appointed by the town meeting of the 
 city and county of Philadelphia, and as verbatun reitera- 
 ted in every populous city throughout the land. And what 
 are the remedies suggested by our corporation, our news- 
 paper editors, our rehgious societies, our tracts, and our 
 sermons 1 Some have ordained fasts, multipUed prayers, 
 and recommended pious submission to a Providence who 
 should have instituted all this calamity for the purpose of 
 
LECT. VII.] EXISTING EVILS. 159 
 
 fulfilling the words of a Jewish prophet, " the poor shall 
 never cease from the land." Some, less spiritual-minded, 
 have called for larger jails and more poor houses ; some, 
 for increased poor rates and additional benevolent societies j 
 others, for compulsory laws protective of labor, and fixing 
 a minimum^ below which it shall be penal to reduce it ; 
 while others, and those not the least able to appreciate all 
 the difficulties of the question, have sought the last re- 
 source of suffering poverty and oppressed industry in the 
 humanity and sense of justice of the wealthier classes of 
 society. 
 
 This last is the forlorn hope presented in the touching 
 document signed by Matthew Carey and his fellow la- 
 borers. 
 
 It were easy to observe, in reply to each and all of the 
 palliatives variously suggested for evils, which none pro- 
 fess to remedy, that to punish crime when committed is not 
 to prevent its commission ; to force the work of the poor 
 in poor houses is only farther to glut an already unproduc- 
 tive market ; to multiply charities is only to increase pau- 
 perism ; that to fix by statute the monied price of labor 
 would be impossible in itself, and, if possible, mischievous 
 no less to the laborer than to the employer; and that, under 
 the existing state of things, for human beings to lean upon 
 the compassion and justice of their fellow creatmes, is to 
 lean upon a rotten reed. 
 
 I believe no individual, possessed of common sense and 
 common feeling, can have studied the report of the com- 
 mittee to which I have referred, or the multitude of simi- 
 lar documents furnished elsewhere, without acknowledg- 
 ing that reform, and that not shght nor partial, but radical 
 and universal, is called for. AU must admit that no such 
 reform — ^that is, that no remedy commensurate with the 
 evil, has been suggested, and would we but reflect, we 
 
160 EXISTING EVILS. [lECT. VII. 
 
 -—.should perceive that no efficient remedy can be suggest- 
 ed, or if suggested, applied, until the people are generally- 
 engaged in its discovery and its appUcation for themselves. 
 In this nation, any more than in any other nation, the 
 mass has never reflected for the mass ; the people, as a 
 body, have never addressed themselves to the study of their 
 own condition, and to the just and fair interpretation of 
 their conmion intersts. And, as it was with their na- 
 tional independence, so shall it be with their national hap- 
 piness — it shall be found only when the mass shall seek it. 
 No people have ever received hberty in gift. Given, it 
 were not appreciated ; it were not understood. Won with- 
 out exertion, it were lost as readily. Let the people of 
 America recal the ten years of war and tribulation by 
 which they purchased their national independence. Let 
 efforts as strenuous be now made, not with the sword of 
 steel, indeed, but with the sword of the spirit, and their 
 farther enfranchisement from poverty, starvation, and de- 
 pendence, must be equally successful. 
 
 Great reforms are not wrought in a day. Evils which 
 are the accumulated results of accumulated errors, are not 
 *• to be struck down at a blow by the rod of a magician. A 
 free people may boast that all power is in their hands ; but 
 no effectual power can be in their hands until knowledge 
 be in their minds. 
 
 But how may knowledge be imparted to their minds ? 
 ^^ Such effective knowledge as shall render apparent to all 
 the interests of aU, and demonstrate the simple truths — 
 that a nation to be strong, must be imited ; to be united, 
 must be equal in condition ; to be equal in condition, must 
 be similar in habits and in feehng ; to be similar in habits 
 and in feeling, must he raised in national institutions^ 
 cbs the children of a common family , and citizens of a 
 L eo9mfion country. 
 
LECT. VII.] EXISTING EVILS. t^} 
 
 Before entering on the developement of the means I 
 have here suggested for paving our way to the reforni of 
 those evils which now press upon humanity, and which, 
 carried, perhaps, to their acme in some of the nations of 
 Europe, are gaining ground in these United States with a 
 rapidity alarming to all who know how to read the present, 
 or to calculate the future — I must observe, that I am fully 
 aware of the difficulty of convincing all minds of the 
 urgency of these evils, and of the impossibility of en- 
 gaging all classes in the apphcation of their remedy. 
 
 In the first place, the popular suffering, great as it is, 
 weighs not with a sufficiently equal pressure on all part^ 
 of the country ; and, in the second, affects not equally all 
 classes of the population, so as to excite to that union of 
 exertion, which once made, the reform is effected and the 
 nation redeemed. 
 
 While the evil day is only in prospect, or while it visits 
 our neighbor but spares ourselves, such is the selfishness 
 generated by existing habits, and such the supineness 
 generated by that selfishness, that we are but too prone to 
 shrink from every effort not absolutely and immediately 
 necessary for the supply of our own wants or the increase 
 of our own luxuries. Yet, would the most spoiled child of 
 worldly fortune but look around him on the changes and 
 chances which ofttimes sweep away the best secured trea- 
 sures, and bring in a moment the capitahst to bankruptcy, 
 and his family to want, he could not feel himself entirely 
 removed in sympathy from the suffering portion of his 
 fellow creatures. But let us take the case of the thriving 
 artizan, or successful merchant — on what security does he 
 hold that pecuniary independence which puts the bread 
 into the mouths of his children, and protects from destitu- 
 tion the companion of his bosom 7 On sustained industry 
 and unremitting exertions, which siclaiess may interrupt, 
 o2 21 
 
EXISTING EVILS. [lECT. VII. 
 
 a fall in the market reduce to half its value, or a few casual- 
 ties or one miscalculation in a moment annihilate. Or 
 what if death finally internipt the father's care or the 
 husband's tenderness — where is the stay for his orphan 
 children ? where succor for their widowed mother, now 
 charged alone with all the weight of their provision ? I 
 have taken no extreme cases ; I have taken such as may, 
 in the course of events, be the case of every man who 
 hears me. 
 
 Were it my disposition, which, I think, it is not, to ex- 
 aggerate evils, or were I even disposed to give a fair pic- 
 ture of those really existing among a large mass of the 
 American population, more especially as crowded into the 
 cities and manufacturing districts, easy it were to harrow 
 the feelings of the least sensitive, and, in the relation, to 
 harrow my own. 
 
 But aa the measure it is my object this evening to sug- 
 gest to the people of Philadelphia, and my intention 
 hereafter to submit to the whole American nation, must, at 
 the first sight, win to its support the more oppressed and 
 afflicted, I am rather desirous of addressing my prefatory 
 argiunents to that class from whence opposition is most to 
 be apprehended. 
 
 I know how difficult it is — ^reared as we all are in the 
 distinctions of class, to say nothing of sect, to conceive of 
 our interests as associated with those of the whole commu- 
 nity. The man possessed of a dollar, feels himself to be, 
 not merely one hundred cents richer, but also one hundred 
 cents better^ than the man who is pennyless ; so on through 
 all the gradations of earthly possessions — the estimate of 
 our own moral and political importance swelling ahvays 
 m a ratio exactly proportionate to the growth of our purse. 
 The rich man who can leave a clear independence to his 
 children, is given to estimate them as he estimates him- 
 
LECT. VII.] EXISTING EVILS. 163 
 
 self, and to imagine something in their nature distinct 
 from that of the less privileged heirs of hard labor and 
 harder fare. 
 
 This might indeed appear too gross for any of us to 
 advance in theory, but in feeling how many must plead 
 guilty to the prejudice ! Yet is there a moment when, 
 were their thoughts known to each other, all men must 
 feel themselves on a level. It is when as fathers they 
 look on their children, and picture the possibiUty which 
 may render them orphans, and then calculate all the 
 casualties which may deprive them, if rich, of their in- 
 heritance, or, if poor, grind them down to deeper poverty. 
 
 But it is first to the rich, I would speak. Can the man 
 of opulence feel tranquil imder the prospect of leaving to 
 such guardianship as existing law or individual integrity 
 may supply, the minds, bodies, morals, or even the fortune 
 of their children ? I myself was an orphan ; and I know 
 that the very law which was my protector, sucked away 
 a portion of my little inheritance, while that law, insuffi- 
 cient and avaricious as it was, alone shielded me from 
 spoliation by my guardian. I know, too, that my youtL^ 
 was one of tribulation, albeit passed in the envied luxuries 
 of aristocracy. I know that the orphan's bread may be 
 watered with tears, even when the worst evil be not 
 there — dependence. 
 
 Can, then, the rich be without solicitude, when they 
 leave to the mercy of a heartless world the beings of their 
 creation? Who shall cherish their young sensibilities? 
 Who shall stand between them and oppression? Who 
 shall whisper peace in the hour of affliction ? Who shall 
 supply principle in the horn* of temptation ? Who shall 
 lead the tender mind to distinguish between the good and 
 the evil ? Who shall fortify it against the corruptions of 
 w^ealth, or prepare it for the day of adversity? Such, look- 
 
164 EXISTING EVILS. [lECT. VII. 
 
 ing upon life as it is, must be the anxious thoughts even 
 of the wealthy. What must be the thoughts of the poor 
 man, it needs not that we should picture. 
 
 But, my friends, however differing in degree may be 
 the anxiety of the rich and the poor, still, in its nature, is 
 it the same. Doubt, uncertainty, apprehension, are before 
 all. We hear of deathbed affliction. My friends, I have 
 been often and long on the bed of mortal sickness : no fear 
 had the threatened last sleep for me, for I was not a parent. 
 
 We have here, then, found an evil common to all 
 classes, and one that is entailed from generation to gene- 
 ration. The measure I am about to suggest, whenever 
 adopted, will blot this now universal affliction from exis- 
 tence; it will also, in the outset, alle\nate those popular 
 distresses whose poignancy and rapid increase weigh on 
 the heart of philanthropy, and crush the best hopes of 
 enlightened patriotism. It must further, when carried in- 
 to ftill effect, work the radical cure of every disease which 
 now afflicts the body politic, and build up for this nation a 
 sound constitution, embracing at once, pubhc prosperity, 
 individual integrity, and universal happiness. 
 
 This measure, my friends, has been long present to my 
 mind, as befitting the adoption of the American people ; 
 as alone calculated to form an enlightened, a virtuous, and 
 a happy community; as alone capable of supplying a 
 remedy to the evils under which we groan ; as alone com- 
 mensurate with the interests of the human family, and 
 consistent with the pohtical institutions of this great con- 
 federated republic. 
 
 I had occasion formerly to observe, in allusion to the 
 eflforts already made, and yet making, in the cause of 
 popular instruction, more or less throughout the Union, 
 that, as yet, the true principle has not been hit, and that 
 until it be hit, all reform must be slow and inefficient. 
 
LECT. VII.] EXISTING EVILS. 165 
 
 The noble example of New-England has been imitated 
 by other states, until all not possessed of common schools 
 blush for the popular remissness. But, after all, how can 
 common schools, under their best form, and in fullest 
 supply, effect even the purpose which they have in view? 
 
 The object proposed by conmion schools (if I rightly 
 understand it) is to impart to the whole population those 
 means for the acquirement of knowledge which are in 
 common use : reading and writing. To these are added 
 arithmetic, and occasionally, perhaps, some imperfect les- 
 sons in the simpler sciences. But I would ask, supposing 
 these institutions should even be made to embrace all the 
 branches of intellectual knowledge, and, thus, science 
 offered gratis to all the children of the land, how are the 
 children of the very class, for whom we suppose the schools 
 instituted, to be supplied with food and raiment, or in- 
 structed in the trade necessary to their future subsistence, 
 while they are following these studies ? How are they, I 
 ask, to be fed and clothed, when, as all facts show, the 
 labor of the parents is often insufficient for their own sus- 
 tenance, and, almost universally, inadequate to the pro- 
 vision of the family without the united efforts of all its 
 members? In your manufarturing districts you have 
 children worked for twelve hours a day ; and, in the rapid 
 and certain progress of the existing system, you will soon 
 have them, as in England, ivorked to death, and yet 
 unable, through the period of their miserable existence, to 
 earn a pittance sufficient to satisfy the cravings of hunger. 
 At this present time, what leisure or what spirit, think 
 you, have the children of the miserable widows of Phila- 
 delphia, realizing, according to the most favorable estimate 
 of your city and county committee, sixteen dollars per 
 annum, for food and clothing? what leisure or what spirit 
 may their children find for visiting a school, although the 
 
166 EXISTING EVILS. [lECT. VII. 
 
 same should be open to them from smirise to sunset ? Or 
 what leisure have usually the children of your most 
 thriving mechanics, after their strength is sufficiently de- 
 veloped to spin, sew, weave, or wield a tool ? It seems to 
 me, my friends, that to build school houses now-a-days is 
 something hke building churches. When you have them, 
 you need some measure to ensure their being occupied. 
 
 But, as our time is short, and myself somewhat fatigued 
 by continued exertions, I must hasten to the rapid de- 
 velopement of the system of instruction and protection 
 which has occurred to me as capable, and alone capable, 
 of opening the door to universal reform. 
 "^ In heu of all common schools, high schools, colleges, 
 seminaries, houses of refuge, or any other juvenile institu- 
 tion, instructional or protective, I would suggest that the 
 state legislatures be directed (after laying off the whole in 
 townships or hundreds) to organize, at suitable distances, 
 and in convenient and healthy situations, estabUshments 
 for the general reception of all the children resident within 
 the said school district. These establishments to be de- 
 voted, severally, to children between a certain age. Say, 
 the first, infants between two and four, or two and six, 
 according to the density of the population, and such other 
 local circumstances as might render a greater or less num- 
 ber of establishments necessary or practicable. The next 
 to receive children from four to eight, or six to twelve 
 years. The next from twelve to sixteen, or to an older 
 age if foimd desirable. Each estabhshment to be fur- 
 nished with instructors in every branch of knowledge, 
 intellectual and operative, with all the apparatus, land, and 
 conveniences necessary for the best developement of all 
 knowledge ; the same, whether operative or inteilectual, 
 being always calculated to the age and strength of the 
 pupils. 
 
LECT. VII.] EXISTING EVILS. 167 
 
 To obviate, in the commencement, every evil result 
 possible from the first mixture of a young population, so 
 variously raised in error or neglect, a due separation 
 should be made in each establishment ; by which means 
 those entering with bad habits would be kept apart from 
 the others until corrected. How rapidly reform may be 
 effected on the plastic disposition of childhood, has been 
 sufficiently proved in your houses of refuge, more espe- 
 cially when such establishments have been under liberal 
 superintendance, as was formerly the case in New-York. 
 Under their orthodox directors, those asylums of youth 
 have been converted into jails. 
 
 It will be understood that, in the proposed establish- 
 ments, the children would pass from one to the other in 
 regular succession, and that the parents, who would neces- 
 sarily be resident in their close neighborhood, could visit 
 the children at suitable hours, but, in no case, interfere 
 with or interrupt the rules of the institution. 
 
 In the older establishments, the well directed and well 
 protected labor of the pupil would, in time, suffice for, and, 
 then, exceed their own support ; when the surplus might 
 be devoted to the maintenance of the infant establish- 
 ments. 
 
 In the beginning, and until all debt was cleared off, 
 and so long as the same should be found favorable to the 
 promotion of these best palladiums of a nation's happi- 
 ness, a double tax might be at once expedient and pohtic. 
 
 First, a moderate tax per head for every child, to be laid 
 upon its parents conjointly, or divided between them, due 
 attention being always paid to the varying strength of the 
 two sexes, and to the undue depreciation which now rests 
 on female labor. The more effectually to correct the lat- 
 ter injustice, as well as to consult the convenience of the 
 industrious classes generally, this parental tax might be 
 
168 EXISTING EVILS. [lECT. VII. 
 
 rendered payable either in money, or in labor, produce, or 
 domestic manufactures, and shovild be continued for each 
 child until the age when juvenile labor should be found, 
 on the average, equivalent to the educational expenses, 
 which, I have reason to believe, would be at twelve years. 
 
 This first tax on parents to embrace equally the whole 
 population ; as, however moderate, it would inculcate a 
 certain forethought in aU the human family ; more espe- 
 cially where it is most wanted — in young persons, who, 
 before they assumed the responsibility of parents, would 
 estimate their fitness to meet it. 
 -^ The second tax to be on property, increasing in per 
 N centage with the wealth of the individual. In this man- 
 ' ner I conceive the rich would contribute, according to their 
 riches, to the rehef of the poor, and to the support of the 
 state, by raising up its best bulwark — an enhghtened and 
 united generation. 
 
 Preparatory to, or connected with, such measures, a 
 registry should be opened by the state, with offices through 
 all the townships, where on the birth of every child, or 
 within a certain time appointed, the same should be enter- 
 ed, together with the names of its parents. When two 
 years old, the parental tax should be payable, and the 
 juvenile institution open for the child's reception; from 
 which time forward it would be under the protective care 
 and guardianship of the state, while it need never be re- 
 moved from the daily, weekly, or frequent inspection of 
 the parents. 
 
 Orphans, of course, would find here an open asylum. 
 If possessed of property, a contribution would be paid 
 firom its revenue to the common educational fund ; if un- 
 provided, they would be sustained out of the same. 
 
 In these nurseries of a free nation, no inequality must 
 be allowed to enter. Fed at a common board ; clothed in 
 
LECT VII.] EXISTING EVILS. 16^ * 
 
 a common garb, uniting neatness with simplicity and con- 
 venience ; raised in the exercise of common duties, in the 
 acquirement of the same knowledge and practice of the. 
 same industry, varied only according to individual taste 
 and capabiUties ; in the exercise of the same virtues, m 
 the enjoyment of the same pleasures ; in the study of the 
 same nature ; in pursuit of the same object — their owHI 
 and each other's happiness — say ! would not such a race, 
 when arrived at manhood and womanhood, work out the 
 reform of society — perfect the free institutions of America 1 
 
 I have drawn but a sketch, nor could I presume to 
 draw the picture of that which the mind's eye hath seen 
 alone, and which it is for the people of this land to reahze. 
 
 In this sketch, my friends, there is nothing but what is 
 practical and practicable ; nothing but what you your- 
 selves may contribute to effect. Let the popular suffrage 
 be exercised with a view to the popular good. Let the 
 industrious classes, and all honest men of all classes, unite 
 for the sending to the legislatures those who will represent 
 the real interests of the many, not the imagined interests 
 of the few — of the people at large, not of any profession 
 or class. 
 
 To develope farther my views on this all important sub- 
 ject at the present time, would be to fatigue your atten- 
 tion, and exhaust my own strength. I shall prosecute 
 this subject in the periodical of which I am editor,* which, 
 in common with my pubUc discourses, have been, and 
 will ever be, devoted to the common cause of human im- 
 provement, and addressed to humankind without distinc- 
 tion of nation, class, or sect. May you, my fellow beings, 
 unite in the same cause, in the same spirit ! May you 
 learn to seek truth without fear ! May you farther learn to 
 advocate truth as you distinguish it ; to be valiant in its 
 
 * The Free Enquirer, published in New- York. 
 
 p 22 
 
'170 EXISTING EVILS. [leCT. VII. 
 
 defence, and peaceful while valiant ; to meet all things, 
 and bear all things, and dare all things for the correction 
 of abuses, and tlie effecting, in private and in public, in 
 your own minds, through the minds of your children, 
 friends, and companions, and, above all, thrmigh your 
 legislatures^ a radical reform in all your measures, whe- 
 ther as citizens, or as men ! 
 
ADDRESS I. 
 
 p)elivcred in the New Hanuony Hall, on the Fourth of July, 1828.] 
 
 The custom which commemorates in rejoicing the anni- 
 versary of the national independence of these states, has 
 its origin in a human feeling, amiable in its nature, and 
 beneficial; under proper direction, in its indulgence. 
 
 From the era which dates the national existence of the 
 American people, dates also a mighty step in the march of 
 human knowledge. And it is consistent with that prin- 
 ciple in our conformation which leads us to rejoice in the 
 good which befals our species, and to sorrow for the evil, 
 that our hearts should expand on this day ; — on this day, 
 which calls to memory the conquest achieved by know- 
 ledge over ignorance, willing co-operation over blind obe- 
 dience, opinion over prejudice, new ways over old ways, 
 when, fifty-two years ago, America declared her national 
 independence, and associated it with her republican fede- 
 ration. Reasonable is it to rejoice on this day, and useful 
 to reflect thereon ; so that we rejoice for the real, and not 
 any imaginary good, and reflect on the positive advan- 
 tages obtained, and on those which it is ours farther to 
 acquire. 
 
 Dating, as we justly may, a new era in the history of 
 man from the Fourth of July. 1776, it would be well, 
 that is, it would be useful, if on each anniversary we ex- 
 amined the progress made by our species in just know- 
 ledge and just practice. Each Fourth of July would then 
 stand as a tide mark in the flood of time, by which to as- 
 
ri 
 
 172 FOURTH OP JULY, 1828. [address I. 
 
 certain the advance of the human intellect, by which to 
 note the rise and fall of each successive error, the disco- 
 very of each important truth, the gradual meUoration in 
 our pubhc institutions, social arrangements, and, above all, 
 in our moral feelings and mental views. Let such a re- 
 view as this engage annually our attention, and sacred, 
 doubly sacred, shall be this day ; and that not to one na- 
 tion only, but to all nations capable of reflection ! 
 iT Ul*-'^ '^*i5s;., T^® pohtical dismemberment of these once Britisli co- 
 ^ lonies from the parent island, though involving a valuable 
 
 principle, and many possible results, would scarcely merit 
 a yearly commemoration, even in this country, had it not 
 been accompanied by other occurrences more novel, and 
 ' far more important. I allude to the seal then set to the 
 system of representative government, till then imperfectly 
 known in Europe, and insecurely practised in America, 
 and to the crown then placed on tliis system by the novel 
 experiment of pohtical federation. The frame of federa- 
 > I tive government that sprung out of the articles signed in 
 i f '76, is one of the most beautiful inventions of the human 
 intellect. It has been in government what the steam 
 engine has been in mechanics, and the printing press in 
 the dissemination of knowledge. 
 
 But it needs not that we should now pause to analyse 
 what all must have considered. It is to one particular 
 feature in our political institutions that I would call atten- 
 tion, and this, because it is at once the most deserving of 
 notice, and the least noticed. Are our institutions better 
 than those of other countries'? Upon fair examination 
 most men will answer yes. But why will they so an- 
 swer 1 Is it because they are republican, instead of mo- 
 narchical? democratic, rather than aristocratic? In so 
 far as the repubhcan principle shall have been proved more 
 conducive to the general good than the monarchical, and 
 
ADDRESS I.] FOURTH OP JULY, 1828. 173 
 
 the democratic than the aristocratic — in so feir will the rea- 
 sons be good. But there is another and a better reeiscoi 
 than these. There is, in the institutions of this country, 
 one principle, which, had they no other excellence, would 
 secure to them the preference over those of all other coun- 
 tries. I mean — and some devout patriots will start — I 
 mean the principle of change. 
 
 1 have used a word to which is attadied an obnoxious 
 meaning. Speak of change, and the world is in alarm. 
 And yet where do we not see change ? What is there in 
 the physical world hut change ? And what would there 
 be in the moral world without change ? The flower blos- 
 soms, the fruit ripens, the seed is received and germinates 
 in the earth, and we behold the tree. The ahment we 
 eat to satisfy our htmger incorporates with our frame, and 
 the atoms composing our existence to day, are exhaled to- 
 morrow. In like manner our feelings and opinions are 
 moulded by circumstance, and matured by observation and 
 experience. All is change. Within and about us no one 
 thing is as it was, or will be as it is. Strange, then, that 
 we should start at a word used to signify a thing so fami- 
 liar ! Stranger yet that we should fail to appreciate a 
 principle which, inherent in all matter, is no less inherent 
 in ourselves; and which, as it has tracked our mental 
 progress heretofore, so will it track our progress through 
 time to come ! 
 
 But will it be said change has a bad, as well as a 
 good sense ? It may be for the better, and it may be for 
 the worse ? In the physical world it can be neither the 
 one nor the other. It can be simply such as it is. But 
 in the moral world — that is, in the thoughts, and feelings, 
 and inventions of men, change may certainly be either for 
 the better or for the worse, or it may be for neither. 
 Changes that are neither bad nor good can have regard 
 p2 
 
174 FOURTH OP JULY, 1828. [address I. 
 
 only to trivial matters, and can be as little worthy of ob- 
 tservation as of censure. Changes that are from better to 
 worse can originate only in ignorance, and are ever 
 amended so soon as experience has substantiated their 
 mischief. Where men then are free to consult experience 
 they will correct their practice, and make changes for the 
 better. It follows, therefore, that the more free men are, 
 the more changes they will make. In the beginnmg, 
 possibly, for the worse ; but most certainly in time for the 
 better ; mitil their knowledge enlarging by observation, 
 and their judgment strengthening by exercise, they will 
 find themselves in the straight, broad, fair road of im- 
 provement. Out of change, therefore, springs improve- 
 ment ; and the people who shall have imagined a peace- 
 able mode of changing their institutions, hold a surety for 
 their melioration. This surety is worth all other excellen- 
 cies. Better were the prospects of a people under the 
 influence of the worst government who should hold the 
 power of changing it, than those of a people under the 
 best who should hold no such power. Here, then, is the 
 great beauty of American government. The simple 
 machinery of representation carried through all its parts, 
 gives facility for its being moulded at will to fit with the 
 knowledge of the age. If hnperfect in any or all of it? 
 parts, it bears within it a perfect principle — the principle of 
 improvement. And, let us observe, that this principle \if 
 all that we can ever know of perfection. Knowledge, and 
 all the blessings which spring out of knowledge, can 
 never be more than progressive; and whatsoever sets 
 open the door does all for us— does every thing. 
 
 The clear sighted provision in the national constitution, 
 as in the constitutions of the different states, by which the 
 frame of government can be moulded at will by the public 
 voice, and so made to keep pace in progress with the public 
 
ADDRESS I.] FOURTH OF JULY, 1828. 176 
 
 mind, is the master-stroke in constitutional law. Were our 
 institutions far less enlightened and well digested than they 
 are — ^were every other regulation erroneous, every other or- 
 dinance defective — nay, even tyrannous — this single pro- 
 vision would counterbalance all. Let but the door be opened, 
 and be fixed open, for improvement to hold on her unim- 
 peded course, and vices, however flagrant, are but the evils 
 of an hour. Once lanch the animal man in the road of 
 enquiry, and he shall — he must — hold a forward career. 
 He may be sometimes checked ; he may seem occasion- 
 ally to retrograde ; but his retreat is only that of the re- 
 ceding wave in the inning tide. His master movement 
 is always in advance. By this do we distinguish man 
 from all other existences within the range of our observa- 
 tion. By this does he stand pre-eminent over all known 
 animals. By this — by his capability of improvement : by 
 his tendency to improve whenever scope is allowed for the 
 developement of his faculties. To hold him still, he must 
 be chained. Snap the chain, and he springs forward. 
 
 But will it be said, that the chains which bind him are 
 more than one ? That political bonds are much, but not 
 all ; and that when broken, we may still be slaves 1 I 
 know not, my friends. We tax our ingenuity to draw 
 nice distinctions. We are told of political liberty — of re- 
 ligious liberty — of moral liberty. Yet, after all, is there 
 more than one liberty ; and these divisions, are they not 
 the more and the less of the same thing ? The provision 
 we have referred to in our political institutions, as framed 
 in accordance with the principle inherent in ourselves, in- 
 sures to us aU of free action that statutes can insure. 
 Supposing that our laws, constitutional, civU, or penal, 
 should in any thing cripple us at the present, the power 
 will be with us to amend or annul them so soon (and how 
 might it be sooner ?) as our enlarged knowledge shall 
 
17& FOtTRTH OF JULY, 1828. [ADDRESS I. 
 
 enable us to see in what they err. All the liberty there- 
 fore that we yet lack will gradually spring up — there^ 
 where our bondage is — in our minds. To be free we 
 have but to see our chains. Are we disappointed — are we 
 sometimes angry, because the crowd or any part of the 
 crowd around us bows submissively to mischievous usages 
 or unjust laws ? Let us remember, that they do so in 
 ignorance of their mischief and injustice, and that when 
 they see these, as in the course of man's progressive state 
 they must see them, these and other evils will be corrected. 
 T" Inappreciable is this advantage that we hold (unfor- 
 tunately) above other nations ! The great national and 
 political revolution of '76 set the seal to the liberties of 
 North America. And but for one evil, and that of im- 
 mense magnitude, which the constitutional provision we 
 have been considering does not fairly reach — I allude to 
 negro slavery and the degradation of our colored citizens 
 •— w« could foresee for the whole of this meignificent 
 country a certain future of uniform and peaceful im- 
 provement. While other nations have still to win reform 
 at the sword's point, we have only to will it. While in 
 Europe men have still to fight, we have only to learn. 
 While there they have to cope with ignorance armed cap- 
 a-peej encircled with armies and powerful with gold, we 
 have only peacefully to collect knowledge, and to fiame 
 our institutions and actions in accordance with it. 
 
 It is true, that we have much knowledge to collect, and 
 consequently much to amend in our opinions and our 
 practice. It is also true that we are often ignorant of what 
 has been done, and quite unaware that there is yet any 
 thing^ to do. The very nature of the national institutions 
 is frequently mistaken, and the devotion exhibited for 
 them as firequently bsised on a wrong principle. Here, as 
 in other countries, we hear of patriotism ; that is^ of love 
 
ADDRESS I.] FOURTH OP JULY, 1828. 179 
 
 of country in an exclusive sense ; of love of our country- 
 men in contradistinction to the love of our fellow-creatures ; 
 of love of the constitution, instead of love or appreciation 
 of those principles upon which the constitution is, or ought 
 to be, based, and upon which, if it should be found not to 
 be based, it would merit no attachment at all. 
 
 The sentiment here adverted to involves much of im- 
 portance io us in our double character of human beings 
 and citizens. That double character it will be also useful 
 that we examine, as much confusion prevails in the vulgar 
 ideas on the subject. 
 
 It will be conceded, that we do not cease to be human be- 
 ings when we become citizens ; and farther, that our happy 
 existence as human beings is of more importance to us 
 than our artificial existence as members of a nation or 
 subjects of a government. Indeed, the only rational pur- 
 pose for which we can suppose men congregated into what 
 are called nations, is the increase of happiness — ^the in- 
 suring of some advantage, real or imagined. The only 
 rational purpose for which we can suppose governments 
 organized, the same. If, upon examination, we should 
 find the object not gained, the experiment, so far as it went, 
 would have failed, and we should then act rationally to 
 break up such national congregations, and to change or 
 annul such governments. Our character as citizens, there- 
 fore, must ever depend upon our finding it for our interest 
 as human beings to stand in that relation. What then is 
 patriotism, or the fulfilment of our duties as citizens, but the 
 acting consistently in that way which we conceive it for our 
 interest that we should act ? Or what reason might be 
 offered for our consulting the interests of a government, 
 unless its interests are in unison with our own ? 
 
 The great error of the wisest known nations of 
 antiquity, the Greeks and Romans, was the preference 
 
 23 
 
tf9^ FQU^TH OP JULY, 1828. [ADDRESS I. 
 
 invariably given to the imagined interests of an imaginary 
 existence called the state or country^ and the real interests 
 of the real existences, or human beings, upon whom, in- 
 dividually and collectively, their laws could alone operate. 
 Another error was the opposition in which they invariably 
 placed the interests of their own nation to the interests of 
 all other nations ; and a third and greater error, was the 
 elevating into a virtue this selfish preference of dieir own 
 national interests, under the name of patriotism. The 
 moderns are growing a httle wiser on these matters, but 
 they are still very ignorant. The least ignorant are the 
 people of this country ; but they have much to learn. 
 Americans no longer argue on the propriety of making all 
 men soldiers, in order that their nation may be an object 
 of terror to the rest of the world. They understand that 
 the happiness of a people is the only rational object of a 
 government, and the only object for which a people, free 
 to choose, can have a government at all. They have, 
 farther, almost excluded war as a profession, and reduced 
 it from a system of robbery to one of simple defence. In 
 so doing, they ought also to have laid aside all show of 
 military parade, and all ideas of military glory. If they 
 have not done so, it is that their reform in this matter is 
 yet imperfect, and their ideas respecting it are confused. 
 
 Who among us but has heard, and, perhaps, echoed 
 eulogiums on the patriotism of statesmen and soldiers — 
 not because they have upheld some strict principle of jus- 
 tice, which should rather merit the name of virtue, but 
 because they have flattered the vanity of their countrymen 
 in a pubUc speech, defended their own interests, and the 
 national interests, in some foreign treaty, or their own pos- 
 sessions, and the national possessions, in a- siege or a pitch- 
 ed battle ? It is not that some of these actions may not 
 be just and proper ; but are they justly and properly esti- 
 
JlDDRBSS I.] FOURTH OP JULY, 1828. 179 | 
 
 mated ? Is it virtuous in a man if a pistol be presented 
 to his breast, to knock down the assailant ? The action 
 is perfectly warrantable ; but does it call forth admiration? 
 Should the attack be made on another, and should he de- ^ 
 
 fend the life of that other at the risk of his own ; the | 
 
 action, though not exceedingly meritorious, might excite a ;| 
 
 moderate admiration, as involving a forgetfulness of self in ^ 
 
 the service rendered. ^' 
 
 Does not the defence of country afford a parallel case 
 to the first supposition ? Insomuch as it be ours, we defend 
 our own. We do what it is fair and proper that we should 
 do, but we do nothing more. What, then, is patriotism, 
 of which we hear so much, and understand so httle ? If 
 it mean only a proper attention to our own interests, and 
 the interests of the people with whom we stand connected, 
 and of the government instituted for our protection, it is a 
 rational sentiment, and one appertaining to our organiza- 
 tion. It is one, in short, with the love of self, and the 
 principle of self-defence and self-preservation. Again; 
 are we to understand by it an attachment to the soil we 
 tread, because we tread it ; the language we speak, because 
 we speak it ; the government that rules us, merely because 
 it rules us ? It means nothing, or it means nonsense. 
 Again ; are we to understand by patriotism a preference 
 for the interests of our own nation under aU circumstances, 
 even to the sacrifice of those of other nations — ^it is a vice. 
 
 In continental Europe, of late years, the words patriot- ^ 
 
 ism and patriot have been used in a more enlarged sense ' f f 
 
 than it is usual here to attribute to them, or than is attach- ■ 
 
 ed to them in Great Britain. Since the political struggles ■ 
 
 of France, Italy, Spain, and Greece, the word patriotism 
 has been employed, throughout continental Europe, to ex- | 
 
 press a love of the pubhc good ; a preference for the inte- 
 rests of the many to those of the few ; a desire for the 
 
 ■t 
 
196 FOURTH OF JULY, 1828. [ADDRESS I. 
 
 emancipation of the human race from the thrall of despo- 
 tism, religious and civil ; in short, patriotism there is used 
 rather to express the interest felt in the human race in ge- 
 neral, than that felt for any country, or mhabitants of a 
 country, in particular. And patriot, in like manner, is 
 employed to signify a lover of human Hberty and human 
 improvement, rather than a mere lover of the country in 
 which he hves, or the tribe to which he belongs.. Used in 
 this sense, patriotism is a virtue, and a patriot a virtuous 
 man. With such an interpretation, a patriot is a useful 
 member of society, capable of enlarging all minds, and 
 bettering all hearts with which he comes in contact ; a 
 useful member of the human family, capable of establish- 
 ing fundamental principles, and of merging his own inte- 
 rests, those of his associates, and those of his nation, in 
 the interests of the human race. Laurels and statues are 
 vain things, and mischievous as they are childish ; but, 
 could we imagine them of use, on such a patriot alone 
 could they be with any reason bestowed. 
 
 Is there a thought can fill the human mind 
 More pure, more vast, more generous, more refin'd 
 Than that which guides the enUghtened patriot's toil i 
 Not he, whose view is bounded by his soil : 
 Not he, whose narrow heart can only shrine 
 The land — ^the people that he calleth mi-ne ; 
 Not he, who to set up that land on high. 
 Will make whole nations bleed, whole nations die j 
 Not he, who, calling that land's rights his pride, 
 Trampleth the rights of all the earth beside ; 
 No ! — He it is, the just, the generous soul ! 
 Who owneth brotherhood with either pole, 
 Stretches from realm to realm his spacious mind, 
 . And guards the weal of all the human kind, 
 Holds Freedom's banner o'er the earth unfurl'd. 
 And stands the guardian patriot of a world ! 
 
 If such a patriotism as we have last considered should 
 
ADDRESS I.] FOtJRTH OP JULY, 1828. 181 
 
 seem likely to obtain in any country, it should be certainly 
 in this. In this, which is truly the home of all nations, 
 and in the veins of whose citizens flows the blood of every 
 people on the globe. Patriotism, in the exclusive mean- ^ 
 ing, is surely not made for America. Mischievous every 
 where, it were here both mischievous and absurd. The 
 very origin of the people is opposed to it. The institu- 
 tions, in their principle, militate against it. The day we 
 are celebrating protests against it. It is for Americans, 
 more especially, to nourish a nobler sentiment ; one more 
 consistent ^vith their origin, and more conducive to their 
 future improvement. It is for them more especially to 
 know why they love their country, and to feel that they 
 love it, not because it is their country, but because it is 
 the palladium of human hberty — the favoured scene of 
 human improvement. It is for them, more especially, to 
 know why they honor their institutions, a^id to feel that 
 they honor them because they are based Oh just princi- 
 ples. It is for them, more especially, to examine their in- 
 stitutions, because they have the means of improving 
 them ; to examine their laws, because at wiU they can 
 alter them. It is for them to lay asidei luxury, whose 
 wealth is in industry ; idle parade, whose strength is in 
 knowledge ; ambitious distinctions, whose principle is 
 equality. It is for them not to rest satisfied with words, 
 who can seize upon things ; and to remember, that equa- 
 lity means, not the mere^quaUty of poUtical rights, how- 
 ever valuable, but equaUty of instruction, and equality in 
 virtue ; and that liberty means, not the mere ^oting at 
 elections, but the free and feaprless exercise of th^ mental 
 faculties, and that self-pos^ssion which spring^ out of 
 well-reasoned opinions and^ consistent practice.^ It is for 
 them to honor principles rather than men — to conmiemo- 
 rate events rather than days : when they rejoice, to know 
 
 I 
 
p-: 
 
 tSK FOURTH OP /ULYj 1828, ^ADDRESS I. 
 
 for what they rejoice, and to rejoice only for what has 
 brought, and what brings, peace and happiness to men. 
 The event we commemorate this day has procured much 
 of both, and shall procure, in the onward course of human 
 improvement, more than we can now conceive of For 
 this — ^for the good obtained, and yet in store for our race — 
 let us rejoice ! But let us rejoice as men, not as children — 
 as human beings, rather than as Americans — as reason- 
 ing beings, not as ignorants. So shall we rejoice to good 
 purpose, and in good feeling ; so shall we improve the vic- 
 tory once on this day achieved, until all mankind hold 
 with us the jubilee of independence. 
 
ADDRESS n. 
 
 [Delivered in the Philadelphia Theatre, on the Fourth of July, 1829.] 
 
 [The Declaration of Independence was read, and laid, unrolled, on the 
 table by the speaker, who during the following Address, will be concaved 
 as frequently appealing to the same.] 
 
 Fellow Citizens and Fellow Beings — 
 
 The day we are assembled to commemorate, liatb 
 been ushered in by the roar of cannon, and tlie roll of 
 musketry. Such, in very deed, was the note of war and 
 dreadful preparation it awoke for your fathers. Such, in 
 very deed, had they to hear and to answer, as they might 
 and as they could, when, weak in numbers, unskilled in 
 the art of human butchery, but strong in the courage of 
 a righteous cause, they gave the challenge to tyranny in 
 the name of humankind ; and staked hfe, fortune, and 
 honor on the throw. Yea ! on that morn, big with the 
 destinies of humankind, prophetic of reforms then even 
 unimagined, of knowledge, and liberty, and virtue then 
 even unhoped for and unconceived — yea ! on that morn, 
 when freedom's first larum was rung to the world, and 
 despotism's legions sprang to arras at the sound, then, in- 
 deed, might the fathers of our peaceful Hberties, in pro- 
 claiming those truths in which we, now in part, and here- 
 after in fulness, may live, and move, and have our being 
 as free-men — then, indeed, I say, in uttering the words 
 of peace, might they grasp the weapons of war ; and, 
 while pronouncing the future redemption of the world 
 from violence, injustice, and tyranny, might they array 
 
184 FOURTH OP JULY, 1829. [address II. 
 
 the battle, and mount the cannon, and number the child- 
 ren of the land, who, in the hour of need, might prove 
 them men of war, and forsake the plough and the pruning 
 hook, for the musket and the spear. 
 
 But wherefore now sounds the martial reveillie and the 
 clash of steel ? Where is the foe who threatens devasta- 
 tion to our borders, fire to our cities, slaughter to our peo- 
 ple ? Are his fleets on the waters — his armies in the field, 
 that we wake the day as with the thunders of battle, and 
 profane this solemn anniversary with sights, and sounds, 
 and pageants, and clamor befitting a sieged city ; and 
 awakening thoughts of violence and blood, unhallowed 
 ambition, and more unhallowed murder ? 
 
 Curse on the crimson' d plumes, the banners flouting 
 The stirring clarion, the leaders shouting, 
 The fair caparisons, the war horse champing. 
 The array'd legions — pressing, rushing, tramping, 
 The blazon'd falchions, crests that toss afar, 
 The bold emprize, the spirit rousing jar, 
 The martial paeans, thvmdering acclaim, 
 The death of glory, and the Uving fame, 
 The sculptor's monmnent, the people's bays, 
 The historian's narrative, the poet's lays — 
 Oh — curse on all the pageant and the show, 
 That veileth o'er the fiendish hell below I 
 
 Far be such pageantry from our eyes — such sounds 
 from our ears, on this day of hope, and in this land of 
 peace ! Let the insignia of death, and the parade of mili- 
 tary violence, bespeak the accession of European mon- 
 archs to the lawless thrones of lawless power. Let the 
 war note and the cannon's thunder proclaim the success 
 of titled robbers returning from the sack of cities, and de- 
 solation of empires. Let them follow the steps, and cele- 
 brate the deeds, of insane and insatiate ambition. Let 
 them surround the car of bloody conquest, where they 
 
ADDRESS II.] FOURTH OF JULY, 1829. 185 
 
 may drown tlie cry of the injured, and the curse of the 
 oppressed. Let them sound in the courts of tyranny, 
 where they may stifle the moan of the captive, and the 
 death-sob of the patriot martyr. Let them swell over 
 the field of carnage, where they may drown the sigh of 
 the widow and the shriek of expiring agony. There let 
 them sound ; for there they gpeak the spirit of the hour, 
 and proclaim their own work of rebbery and death ! 
 
 But not the chaste ear of liberty let such sounds pro- 
 fane, where, as in this land, she hath broken her sword to 
 clasp the wand of peace ; and waits only for knowledge 
 to extend her dominion, and fix her throne in every hu- 
 man breast. No 1 let the sound of rejoicing, in this land 
 of promise, be heard in the glad voice of an enlightened 
 and united people. Let it breathe from minds wise with 
 truth, and hearts warm with benevolence. Let it rise in 
 songs of joy from fields rich in the treasures of prosperous 
 industry ; from dwellings blessed with social happiness ; 
 from a land — from a world possessed, improved, enjoyed 
 by a race awakened from ignorance, redeemed from error, 
 reclaimed from vice, and healed from suffering. Yea ! 
 let the sun which riseth on this blessed morn — this festi- 
 val of freedom and anniversary of human independence — 
 be hailed by sounds betokening universal peace and uni- 
 versal prosperity; and welcomed by hearts proud and 
 blessed in the accomplishment of the gloried and the glo- 
 rious declaration — all men are free and equal. 
 
 I have said let this so he. Let this so be ; for this is 
 not yet. I am not here, as the custom is, to flatter your 
 pride, fellow citizens of a common country ! by recount- 
 ing the deeds of your ancestors, and applauding you for 
 the truths they proclaimed, and the conquests they 
 achieved. I am not here, fellow beings of a common 
 race ! to feed your presumption, by culling from the an- 
 a2 24 
 
186 FOURTH OP JULY, 1829. [address II. 
 
 nals of humankind the brightest records of human great- 
 ness, and teaching ye that, in wisdom, ye are wiser than 
 the wisest, and, in virtue, more exalted than the best. 
 Enough have ye heard of flattery — more than enough of 
 gratulation. The more honest, the more useful, but the 
 more ungracious and thankless task be mine to speak 
 the words of counsel, or, if it must be, of reproof 
 
 The first jubilee of your nation's independence has 
 been celebrated, and ye are advancing towards the second. 
 Fifty-three years have ye been in possession of the herit- 
 age won by your fathers ; that heritage comprising na- 
 tional independence and political freedom — the one gua- 
 ranteeing a free theatre of action at home ; the other pre- 
 senting security from all interference from abroad. 
 
 Previous to that memorable era which converted these 
 then colonies into independent states, the North American 
 continent was known to few Europeans, save the business 
 trader, the daring adventurer, or the pohtical martyr. 
 They only whom gain allured, or persecution drove to the 
 shores, seemed aware of their existence. Even their im- 
 perious rulers, while taxing the population, disputing their 
 laws and their constitutions, were ignorant of the extent 
 and geography of the country, and, possibly, in common 
 with even the better informed portion of the English com- 
 munity, imagined the color of its population to be akin to 
 that of the Moors, and its language to be a corruption of 
 Iroquois. 
 
 The resistance of America first fixed the eyes of the 
 world upon her. It was at first the gaze of astonish- 
 ment and curiosity. But, when the battle was fought, 
 and that having sealed her independence with her blood, 
 she sat down to entrench her liberty within the novel 
 bulwark of novel institutions ; when her act of national 
 independence had been followed by a declaration of 
 
ADDRESS 1 1. J FOURTH OF JULY, 1829. 187 
 
 rights, and a constitution based upon and limited by those 
 rights ; and, when a term of years had tried the strength 
 of the daring experunent, she then became, what she 
 still is — the hope of the nations, and the terror of their 
 oppressors. On her, from that hour, has the eye of hu- 
 man patriotism been fixed. The political reformer, in 
 lands the most benighted and enslaved, has seen in the 
 existence of America, the promise of his own country's 
 redemption ; while, in the same, the philosopher hath 
 found a surety for the final and universal enfranchisement 
 of humankind. 
 
 When the European sage hath seen the old continent 
 bowed beneath the yoke — when he hath seen its choicest 
 sons shed their blood on the scaffold, expire in dungeons, 
 or deplore in exile and poverty their degraded country and 
 ruiaed hopes — when he hath seen the hghts of knowledge 
 quenched around him, the tide of time turned, as it were, 
 backward in its course, and the human mind receding 
 into the night of bygone ages — still in this wide spread- 
 ing scene of desolation could his heart find comfort — still 
 did he behold a nation, strong and established in princi- 
 ple, with whom was the power to roll back the clouds of 
 ignorance, and bid the human intellect " move on !" 
 Then, when the storm gathered darkest around him, 
 hath he said, " Behold Uberty hath followed the sun in 
 his path, and called the new hemisphere her own ! and 
 there shall not knowledge kindle her torch, and man, by 
 its light, explore his own world and himself, until error, 
 crime, and wretchedness shall disappear, and truth, in its 
 effulgence, break upon the world ?" 
 
 Hath wisdom hoped thus of ye, free born citizens of 
 independent republics ! Hath such, I say, been her hope ? 
 If it have, how have ye fulfilled it ? 
 
 Oh, people of America ! weighty is your responsibility ! 
 
^e 
 
 FOURTH OP JULY, 1829. [ADDRESS II. 
 
 The destinies of mankind hang upon your breath. The 
 fate of all the nations of the earth is entrusted to your 
 keeping. On you devolves the task of vindicating our 
 human nature from the slanders heaped on it by super- 
 stitious ignorance, and the Ubels imagined by designing 
 ambition. With you rests the duty, for with you is the 
 power, to disprove the blasphemies of temporal tyrants, 
 and spiritual craftsmen. On you the whole family of 
 humankind turns the eye of expectation. From the Hel- 
 lespont to the icy sea — from the Don to Atlantic, suffer- 
 ing Europe hopes in your liberty, and waits for the in- 
 fluence of the virtue she dreams must be yours. On the 
 shores of the ravaged Tagus, the ruined Tyber, the bar- 
 barous Tanais and Danube, the palace crowned Thames 
 and luxurious Seine, where wealth displays its splendor, 
 and poverty its wretchedness — there, in each varied realm 
 and distant region, does the oft defeated patriot, and oft 
 disappointed beUever in the latent excellence and final 
 enfranchisement of trampled humanity, breathe his sighs, 
 and wing his hopes to the far off land, which, on this 
 day, celebrates, not its own, but the world's festival ; and 
 renews, in the name of humankind, the declaration of 
 human independence. 
 
 Say, will ye disappoint these high expectations ? Will 
 ye prove false to the cause ye have espoused ? Will ye 
 belie the pledge of your fathers and your own ; and 
 make of this day, and all that it commemorates, a by- 
 word and a mockery among all the nations of the earth ? 
 
 Let me reason with you, fellow beings ! for to develope 
 your interests, to point to your duties, to detect your 
 negUgence, or, if such there be, to challenge your trans- 
 gressions, am I here. 
 
 High is the ground you have assumed, people of the 
 United States ! Pure and subUme are the principles on 
 
ADDRESS II.] FOURTH OP JULY, 1829. 189 
 
 which you have based your institutions. Simple and 
 grand are those institutions themselves. And, in propor- 
 tion to the greatness of these, is your responsibility. 
 
 Other nations, governed by the loose tide of circum- 
 stances, or by the whim of silly monarchs and their crafty 
 ministers, may throw from them the folly of their national 
 errors, or claim but Uttle part in their wiser actions. Not 
 so with you, people of these United States ! You have 
 willed yourselves /ree as well as independent. You are 
 proclaimed to the world for a self governing people. You 
 have declared liberty to be the birthright of man. You 
 have purchased it with toil, and blood, and suffering ; en- 
 trenched it within the peaceful but immutable bulwarks 
 of representative government, and hold in your hands 
 the power to correct its every error, and to improve its 
 every good. 
 
 Behold, then, every institution, every law, every action, 
 of your government emanating from yourselves ! Is the 
 spirit of the national policy enlightened— -on you reflects 
 the honor. Are the public measures wise — ^to you is 
 traced the wisdom. Is aught done foolishly — ^the foUy 
 rests with your ignorance. Is aught neglected — with 
 your negligence lies the omission. You may not, then, 
 be judged in comparison with other nations. Your own 
 mouth must supply your sentence. Even by those prin- 
 ciples shall you be tried, which are set forth in this de- 
 claration ; and to the support of which, you, even as 
 your fathers before you, have pledged your lives, your 
 fortunes, and your honor. 
 
 If, then, in your constitutional code, there shall be 
 found one article in violation of the principles herein 
 enshrined, then is your sacred honor impeached in the eyes 
 of the world. If, in one act of your government, at home 
 or abroad, you shall have violated these principles, then 
 
• 190 FOURTH OP jrULY, 1829. [address II. 
 
 is your sacred honor impeached in the eyes of the world. 
 If you shall have harbored within your bosom, and sanc- 
 tioned by your laws, one practice outraging these princi- 
 ples, then is your sacred honor impeached in the eyes of 
 the world. If ye shall have omitted one measure neces- 
 sary for the protection and practical illustration of these 
 principles, then is your sacred honor impeached in the eyes 
 of the world. 
 
 How stands, then, your account, my fellow citizens? 
 How have ye fulfilled your promise and redeemed your 
 pledge ? Can ye, on this day, when the eyes of the world 
 are upon ye, renew your solemn appeal to all the nations 
 of the earth, and court their scrutiny throughout your 
 borders ? Can ye, on this day, challenge the investigation 
 of mankind, and say — " We have improved the heritage 
 bequeathed by our fathers. We have followed the path 
 they traced for our footsteps. We have revealed, in our 
 practice, the excellence of those truths whose theory 
 they proclaimed. We have exercised those rights 
 and powers which they purchased with their blood, and 
 gave us, in peace to enjoy, and in wisdom to improve ?" 
 
 Can ye, fellow citizens, say this ? Oh — would, for the 
 sake of humankind, that ye could answer " Yea 1" 
 
 Bitter are the words of reproof ; nor needs it that my 
 voice should speak them. The cry of misery hath gone 
 up from the land ; and that cry is your condemnation. 
 
 And was it for this your fathers raised the standard of 
 rebellion ? Was it for this they braved an empire's power, 
 and bare with ten years of war and tribulation ? Was it 
 to effect no more of good than we see around us, that 
 they shut their unarmed ports against the navies of Bri- 
 tain, and set at nought the authorities of ancient days 
 and the threats of parliaments and thrones ? Was it to 
 exchange the open tyranny of temporal kings for the 
 
ADDRESS II.] FOURTH OP JULY, 1829. 19i 
 
 more subtle dominion of spiritual hierarchs, that the 
 American people first pledged their honor to this sacred 
 instrument ? Was it to build up the ascendancy of priests 
 omniscient by the grace of God, that they challenged the 
 prerogatives of monarchs omnipotent by the same ? Was 
 it to crush down the sons and daughters of your country^s 
 industry under the accumulated and accumulating evils 
 of neglect, poverty, vice, starvation, and disease, that 
 your fathers bought your independence with their blood, 
 and decreed, by this charter, your equality as citizens, 
 and your liberty as men ? Oh ! were this noble instra- 
 ment to work no more of practical reform than it hath 
 wrought to this hour, wiser it were to burn it on the very 
 spot where sages first conceived and heroes proclaimed it, 
 than longer to mock the ears of this nation and the hopes 
 of the world with the sound of truths, man is never to 
 realize, ,of blessings he is never to enjoy ! Yea ! were the 
 rights of conscience, of self government, of thought, and 
 of action, as set forth in this declaration, able to effect no 
 more than we behold, I would tell ye to hasten to your 
 old state house — and there, where these bold words first 
 startled the world, to consign them to oblivion. I would 
 tell ye, I say, to let the same walls which echoed the 
 first cry of " Liberty and Equality," give back, ere they 
 totter to decay, the last hollow murmurs of a deceiving 
 sound. I would tell ye to end in the patriot's breast the 
 sickness of hope long delayed ; to remove from the ear 
 of reason and the eye of philanthropy sights and sounds 
 which should then speak only of insult and mockery ; 
 and to leave the good and the wise, who now stand ex- 
 pecting at your hands the redemption of our race, to let 
 go the deceiving anchor of their hope, and nerve their 
 minds to view with fortitude .or apathy evils without re- 
 
192 FOURTH OP JULY, 1829. [address II. 
 
 medy, and submit to a destiny beyond the reach of cir- 
 cumstance to influence, or knowledge to improve. 
 
 I pray ye to observe and well to understand that the fate 
 of this nation involves that of the world ; and that if man 
 should here fail to improve his nature and his condition, 
 his nature must stand demonstrated for innately de- 
 praved, his condition for irretrievably wretched. No argu- 
 ment is required to show that, if the human character and 
 position are capable of improvement, it must be in the 
 country where human exertion is free. All must perceive 
 that if good sense and right principles of action are to 
 talce place of prejudice and corrupt principles of action, it 
 is in the country whose government, in its forms as well 
 as its measures, may profit by the lessons of experience 
 and look to pubUc opinion for its guide and its corrector. 
 
 I have already (in the address delivered on the last an- 
 niversary of this day) developed, in full, what I conceive 
 to constitute the excellence of the national institutions, 
 and to which it is now only necessary to make a passing 
 allusion. 
 ' I then observed the great beauty of American govern- 
 ment to be, that the sbnple machinery of representa- 
 tiofij carried through all its parts, gives facility for its 
 being moulded at will to fit with the knowledge of the 
 age ; that thus, although it should he imperfect in any 
 or all of its parts, it hears within it a perfect princijyle 
 — the principle of improvemeyit. And that, therefore, 
 we should distinguish the advantage we possess over 
 other nations, to be — not that our form, of govemmjcnt 
 is repuhlican, or democratic, or federative, hut that it 
 possesses the power of silent adaptation to th^e cAering 
 views of the governing and governed people ; that it 
 may ever peac^uLLy^he changed with the changing 
 
ADDRESS II.] FOURTH OP JULY, 1829. 
 
 spirit of the age, and express the sentiments and adr 
 Vance the interests of each successive generation. 
 
 This one distinguishing property of a government, 
 purely representative in all its parts and modes, is that,- 
 in virtue of which, the era we now celebrate, and this* 
 charter of the rights of humankind, may alone be made in- 
 strumental to the happiness of our race. And so, in like 
 manner, has it been the nonappreciation and nonpercep- 
 tioii of this one inherent excellence which has hitherto 
 neutralized the effect of the American institutions. 
 
 This, with all other errors, may be traced to that de- 
 fective instruction, which, teaching words, apart from 
 principles as from things, makes us ever intent on the 
 sign instead of the substance, the theory instead of the 
 practice. 
 
 Because we find in this instrument the liberty and 
 equality of man set forth as an abstract truth, we con- 
 ceive the same to be practically secured. Because we 
 have established in the constitutional code that each male 
 adult, or nearly so, shall have a voice in the nomination 
 of the public officers, we conceive ourselves to be in effect 
 a self governing people. And yet to what, I pray ye, 
 does the privilege of the elective franchise, as now exer- 
 cised, amount? To a choice of men, and those men 
 found, and necessarily found, among a class whose 
 interests are at variance with those of the great body 
 of the nation. And what are the results even of this 
 right of choice, partial and ineffectual as it is ? Let 
 the history of every election declare — from that of a 
 militia colonel to the governors of your commonwealths ; 
 from that of a member of your city council to the officers 
 of your national senate, or even to the first magistrate of 
 the repubUc ! What, I ask, at this hour, are the moral 
 results to the American people of that political right upon 
 R 25 
 
194 FOURTH OF JULY, 1829. [aDDRESS II. 
 
 which rests the whole frame of their civil hberty ? What 
 does its exercise now generate but a spirit of intrigue and 
 ambition on the one hand — of Ucense, violence, and cor- 
 ruption on the other 7 What have your popular elections 
 to office, as yet, produced, but a system of electioneering ? 
 — the very word breathing of vice and venality. 
 
 How perverted your pohtical institutions from their first 
 intent, let your press declare ! Sold, alternately, to each 
 party and each partizan ; ever silent as respects principles, 
 insolently bold as respects men. Visit not this upon your 
 editors. Let the people take it home unto themselves. 
 
 The writers for the public market write for the public 
 taste. To teach the truths they may even distinguish, 
 would be to offend their readers ; to investigate principles — 
 to treat of a subject too novel to interest the attention ; to 
 explore the actual condition of society, and seek the means 
 for its ameUoration, would be to rouse the hostility of 
 wealth, alarm the fears of every speculating aspirant after 
 the same, and muster in battle array every priest, every 
 lawyer, and every poUtician in the land. While, on the 
 other hand, to libel or to eulogize each pretender to public 
 favor is to feed the credulity and curiosity of every mind 
 unawakened to matters of real interest, and, oftimes, to 
 win credit for courage and patriotism (those prostituted 
 words !) by the very efforts which are more deeply corrupt- 
 ing the feelings and blinding the understandings of the 
 people at home, and bringing into contempt the character 
 of the nation abroad. 
 
 When such are the rewards awaiting on the worse and 
 on the better part, are we to marvel that the worse is 
 chosen, and the better left ? When bribes are held out to 
 slander, to intrigue, to folly, and to falsehood, are we to 
 sit in judgment upon those who follow where they are led ? 
 So long as the people are blind to principles, will they be 
 
ADDRESS II.] FOURTH OP JULY, 1829. 195 
 
 deceived by men. So long as they are occupied with 
 trifles, by triflers will they be led. So long as they neglect 
 their own interests, will their press, their teachers, and 
 their rulers, do the same. 
 
 I said that I was not here to flatter, and you will think 
 that I have kept my word. Doubtless it were more 
 pleasing to you, and less hazardous for me, to echo all the 
 compliments and proud thanksgivings customary on this 
 day, and which to utter is to ensure popularity ; to with- 
 hold, to purchase cold looks; while to replace, as I may 
 seem to have done, the honied words of praise by those 
 of censure, may be only to win more of that calumny 
 which my fellow beings have already so bounteously 
 bestowed. 
 
 Yet all this am I willing to meet, if, haply, I may be 
 instrumental in shortening the term of those errors and 
 that apathy which now pervert your noble institutions, and 
 neutralize the truths enshrined in this sacred heirloom of. 
 your revolution. 
 
 Your fathers proclaimed, on the day of which this is 
 the fifty-fourth anniversary, your independence as a na- 
 tion, and your equal rights as members of the human 
 family. To secure these blessings from foreign assault 
 and domestic attainder, you associated for the mutual 
 defence of your Hves, your property, the country you in- 
 habit, and that form of government which appeared to 
 present the greatest advantages and the fewest evils. The 
 result of this association was your national constitution, 
 together with the revision of all your state constitutions or 
 old colonial charters : the same being always subject to 
 future alterations, curtailments, or amendments. Within 
 the pale of these constitutions, and in the mode specified, 
 you decreed it should be lawful to legislate for the correc- 
 tion of evil and promotion of good. Of this evil and this 
 
W9^ FOURTH OF JULY, 1829. [ADDRESS II. 
 
 good you dedaiedthe people to be the only judges ; deciding, 
 however, that, for the prevention of disorder, the opinion 
 of the majority should stand for that of the whole body ; 
 and that the view of that majority should be carried into 
 effect through the medium of representatives, chosen for 
 the express object. 
 
 This system, simple in all its parts, evidently rests upon 
 two main positions : first, that the people are enlightened 
 judges of their own interests — ot, in other words, that they 
 are^ hy nature or by education^ fitted to distinguish 
 the means hy which the greatest happiness may he 
 produced to the whole population; and secondly, that 
 the representatives^ through whom the people legislate^ 
 shall J in all cases^ faithfully carry into effect the views 
 i)f the people whose attorneys they are. 
 
 Now, unless we suppose that all human beings come 
 into the world full grown in intellect and endowed with 
 foreknowledge, we should certainly expect to find some 
 provision for the just training of their minds and habits in 
 childhood, with a view to the high character they are des- 
 tined in after hfe to sustain as a self-governing people, and 
 the important duties they are then to fulfil as citizens, as 
 parents, and as human beings. I say we should expect 
 the same instrument which charges the people with the 
 duties of government to suggest the means by which they 
 may be fitted to fulfil the same. I say that common sense 
 would lead us to expect that, before legislation, should 
 come instruction; even as childhood precedes manhood, 
 and the training of the youth decides the character of the 
 adult. 
 
 It does appear to me, then, that the right of equal in- 
 struction should have been enumerated among those 
 human rights which preface your constitutional codes ; 
 and that the first act of a self-governing people should 
 
ADDRESS II.] FOURTH OF JULY, 1829. Vif 
 
 have been that of organizing a plan of rational and re» 
 publican education, in unison with the bold declaration 
 we are called on this day to celebrate, and which, if prac- 
 tically attempted at the close of your revolutionary struggle, 
 would have rendered you, at this hour, in fact, what you 
 are as yet only in theory — a people equal in rights, free in 
 the exercise of those rights, and happy in the result of 
 that exercise. 
 
 But if ever we turn the eye on the past, it should be — 
 not idly to regret, but wisely to reform. The present is 
 ours ; the future is before us. The power that was with 
 your fathers is with you. What they omitted, you, wise 
 by their experience and your own, may supply. If they 
 laid the foundation^ do you lay the wrner stone, of the 
 republic. If they brake the fetters from the limbs, do you 
 break them from the mind. If they won for their chil- 
 dren the right of free action, do you give to yours the 
 knowledge to use it. If they declared you equals at the 
 birth, do you prepare the next generation to be equals 
 through Ufe. Extend to your children the never dying 
 protection, the never slumbering care, of their country — 
 of the nation. Make them, in tender infancy, fellow 
 playmates, fellow learners, fellow laborers ; so shall they, 
 when grown to manhood and womanhood, be, in thought, 
 in feeling, in affection, fellow citizens and fellow creatures. 
 
 Much labor have ye bestowed in law making; much 
 money have ye expended in the same. Much time, much 
 temper, have ye wasted in canvassing the merits and de- 
 merits of individuals — in eulogizing and libelling, by 
 turns, the very men judged most worthy to fill the first 
 office in your gift, until foreign nations must have been 
 in doubt whether the people were most void of truth and 
 decency, or their rulers of honor and honesty. Hot hath 
 been your indignation against vice, and fearful your veA- 
 
 r2 
 
158 FOURTH OP JULY, 1829, [ADDRESS II. 
 
 geance against crime. Ye have given your thousands 
 to raise jails and gibbets for punishing sinners in this 
 world, and millions to proclaim their damnation in another. 
 Zealous have ye been to spread your fame in foreign 
 lands, and your faith in the farthest regions of the globe. 
 Ye have covered the seas with your ships, and the earth 
 with your missionaries. Ye have rested not until ye 
 rivalled Britain in her commerce, in competitive labor, in 
 mechanical ingenuity, in the triumph of monied wealth, 
 and in the oppression of industry ; nor will ye rest, per- 
 haps, until ye rival her in riches and in want ; in luxury, 
 in pauperism, and in misery. 
 
 Such have been your doings, oh ye people ^ under the 
 banner of independence and of equal liberty. Ye have fol- 
 lowed the footsteps of aristocratic nations, and their cha- 
 racter and their destiny shall be yours. 
 
 Wisdom and mercy forbid the fulfilment of the pro- 
 phecy ! Noble charter of the freedom of our race, do 
 thou forbid it ! As, in the hands of the past generation, 
 thou brakest the sceptre of transatlantic oppression, so, in 
 the hands of the present, do thou break the chains of our 
 vice, and hghten the darkness of our ignorance ! As of yore 
 thou nervest the minds of the fathers of this people to 
 assert their rights before the cannon's mouth, so do thou, in 
 this day, inspire their children with wisdom yet more 
 justly to interpret the same, and with courage to make 
 thy truths the law of their hearts, and the rule of their 
 lives ! Not in words let thy truths live alone ! Not from 
 this parchment let us learn the equal rights of human- 
 kind ! Let the spirit which breathes from this instrument 
 animate our thoughts and our exertions ! On this day be 
 the pledge of Americans renewed ! In the deep solemnity 
 of contrition for past errors and past omissions — in the 
 ardor of hope and generous intent for the future, may they 
 
ADDRESS II.] FOURTH OP JULY, 1829. 199 
 
 breathe on this day the vow of '76, and earn, by their 
 efforts, for the next generation, yet more than they re- 
 ceived from their fathers ! 
 
 By this charter, oh ye people ! your destinies are placed 
 in your own hands. By this charter ye are free to choose 
 between liberty and slavery, knowledge and ignorance, 
 virtue and vice, happiness and misery. Will ye choose 
 the nobler and the better part? Prepare the only means that 
 reason suggests and consistency demands. Add to your 
 institutions what can alone ensure to them permanence, 
 dignit)^, and utility. Add to your system of repubUcan 
 government one of repubhcan instruction. Then, and 
 then alone, shall these United States be a republic, and 
 their citizen&^ republicans. What hath been said of other 
 nations is true of this — to he free you have hut to will it. 
 Legislate for the enfranchisement of the rising generation 
 — you, who are doubly its fathers ! Suspend, if needs be, 
 all other measures ; curtail all other expenditures, postpone 
 all other improvements, until this first of all duties be ful- 
 filled by a self-governing people ! 
 
 Enough have we of churches, my fiiends — enough of 
 bridewells and jails. Enough of monuments to the dead, 
 and prisons for the hving. Enough, and more than enough, 
 of curious inventions, time and labor-saving skill. Let 
 us learn to enjoy the riches we possess ; to distribute the 
 wealth we accumulate ; to apply to the benefit of man 
 the works of his own genius. We hear of internal im- 
 provement. Let us have it ; let us see it ; let us feel it — 
 in the mind. Let us, at least, end where we ought to 
 have begun. Let us suspend our refinements in machinery, 
 our canals, and our railroads, which, at the present time, 
 under existing arrangements, only encourage monied spe- 
 culation and stock-jobbing gambling, farther to crush 
 down productive industry, and to blind the mass to the 
 
200 FOtJRTH OP JULY, 1829. [address II. 
 
 causes of their ruin. Let us suspend, I say, these labors 
 befitting a race more advanced than ours. Let us turn to 
 the field of human life, rank with every poisonous growth, 
 and thicker sown, from hour to hour, with seeds of cor- 
 ruption ! Let us turn to the study of our human condi- 
 tion — ^to the consideration of our social existence. Let us 
 count all the evils we have there to remedy, all the obsta- 
 cles to overcome, all the sorrows to alleviate, all the wrongs 
 to redress. To this work of charity and of duty let us 
 apply. Let us give rehef to the widow, protection to the 
 orphan, the guardianship of the state to every chUd in the 
 land. Let us assist oppressed industry in the discharge of 
 the parental duties. Let us form the morals, and advance 
 the happiness of the nation by watching over its educa- 
 tion. " These things ought we to do, and, then^ not to 
 leave the others undone." But, until these duties be ac- 
 complished — until this righteous work be achieved — until 
 every son and daughter in this galaxy of commonwealths 
 shall be equally provided with the means of instruction — 
 shall be raised in the habits of healthy industry — ^be pro- 
 tected equally from the sufferings and the vice attendant 
 on poverty and on riches — be trained as equals to under- 
 stand and to exercise the rights set forth in this charter — 
 all your laws and your provisions, your preaching and 
 your punishments, your churches, your prisons, your par- 
 tial colleges and inefficient schools, your asylums and your 
 hospitals, your restricted commerce and protected manu- 
 factures, your canals and your raihoads, your taxes and 
 your bounties, your inventions and your improvements, 
 multiphed without object and without end, will work no real 
 benefit to man — will do nothing towards the alleviation of 
 one of the weighty evils which now press on the popula- 
 tion — will, and can, tend to no other consequences than 
 ferther to vitiate the feelings, confound the understandings, 
 
ADDRESS II J FOURTH OF JULY, 1829. ^01 
 
 deprave the habits, and render yet more disproportiona^ 
 the condition of humankind. 
 
 While wealth is considered distinct from enjoyment, and 
 enjoyment is calculated by the luxury of the few instead 
 of the ease of the many — while art and science are ap- 
 plied, not to reheve the labor of industry, but to depre- 
 ciate its value— ^while human beings count but as an ap- 
 pendage to the machinery they keep in motion, and tne 
 tender strength and dawning intellect of infancy are crip- 
 pled by forced labor, improper diet, neglect, ill usage, ^n4 
 bad example, think not that canals and railroads are 
 to advance the nation, nor that steamboats and spinning- 
 jennies are to save the world. 
 
 The subject now. adverted to I have already treated at 
 large in the last discourse delivered in this 9ity " on Ex- 
 isting Evils." But I feel its importance too deeply npt to 
 recur to it often — not to recur to it. especially on this day, 
 when the past history, present condition, and future pros- 
 pects of the nation all crowd upon the mind. Conceiving, 
 as I do, rational education to comprise the whole duty of 
 man, to involve the principles of all law, all liberty, all vir- 
 tue, and all happiness — to present the only possible cure 
 for every vice in our existing practice, error in our opinions, 
 and evil in our condition, I could not, on this day, speak 
 of your national institutions without adverting to an omis- 
 sion which it behoves you to supply, and which, by the 
 light emitted from this charter, you may see to frame in 
 unison with human nature, with human liberty, and with 
 republican equality. 
 
 Until this great oversight be rectified, the revolution we 
 this day commemorate will be incomplete and insuificient ; 
 the " declaration" contained in this instrument will be 
 void. 
 
 Liberty shall exist only for man when it shall reign in 
 26 
 
202 FOURTH OP JULY, 1829. [ADDRESS II. 
 
 the mind ; equality, when it shall exist in our knowledge, 
 in our habits, in our enjoyments ; and both these righteous 
 principles, and blessed sources of all individual security 
 and national greatness, shall only exist in practice when 
 a self-governing people shall legislate for the equal in- 
 struction, the rational education, and the national pro- 
 tection of youth. The day on which this righteous re- 
 solve shall pass the senate of one commonwealth in the 
 Union — ^that will be for this nation what the Fourth of 
 July, '76, is now for the world. 
 
 May the light of knowledge so dawn upon your minds, 
 my fellow citizens ! and the spirit of freedom which erst 
 guided your fathers on this day, so quicken your exer- 
 tions, that, to us now present, it may be given to celebrate 
 the decree which alone can work out the fulfilment of this 
 declaration, and lead to the equal hberty and equal happi- 
 ness of all humankind. 
 
ADDRESS III. 
 
 pDelivered at the opening of the Hall of Science, New-Tork, on Sunday, 
 April 26, 1829.] 
 
 The object that assembles us here this day is the same 
 for which, through all past ages, the wise have labored, 
 and the good have suffered. This object it imports us 
 well to understand, and steadily to keep in view. If mis- 
 conceived, or if lost sight of, our efforts here will be worse 
 than useless — they will be mischievous ; in that while 
 they fail of success, they must bring discredit on the un- 
 dertaking. 
 
 The words engraved over the entrance of this building 
 define its purpose and our object. Raised and consecrated 
 to sectarian faith, it stands devoted this day to universal 
 knowledge — and we, in crossing its threshold, have to 
 throw aside the distinctions of class ; the names and feel- 
 ings of sect or party ; to recognise, in ourselves and each 
 other, the single character of human beings and fellow 
 creatures, and thus to sit down, as children of one family, 
 in patience to inquire — in humility to learn. 
 
 What I have here suggested as our single object, may 
 appear too simple for some, and prove too hard for others. 
 Oh, may it not prove beyond the power, superior to the 
 reason, of us all ! 
 
 Born and reared as we have been in a world of strife j 
 fed with error even from the cradle ; encouraged, alike by 
 precept and example, to esteem ourselves wise in our own 
 conceit ; to imagine that truth lies only in the opinions we 
 
V 
 
 204 HALL OP SCIENCE. [ADDRESS III. 
 
 have imbibed ; that to be obstinate is to be consistent ; to 
 be disputatious is to be zealous ; to resent injuries is to 
 show good courage ; to vilify our fellow creatures, to prove 
 our own worthiness ; to reprobate sinners, to substantiate 
 our own morality ; to laugh at the folUes of others, to give 
 evidence of our own wisdom — trained, I say, as we have 
 be^y to' judge and to be judged in severity ; provoked oft- 
 times by persecution to persecute, and driven by injustice 
 to misanthropy — ^who among us, the best or the wisest 
 that shall have no rebetlioiis spirit to quell, no watch to set 
 iipon ms lips, no internal censorship to execute, ere he can 
 enter, at peace with all mankind, the courts of union, and 
 sit down, in sirhpliciiy oi heart, a pupil in the Hall of 
 Science! 
 
 I would not seem to counsel where 1 would rather lis- 
 ten, nor to teach where I would rather learn ; but the 
 views and circumstances, heretofore explained, which 
 dalied irie foi-th to stein the tide of prejudice, and to enter 
 my protest against religious controversies and sectarian 
 hostilities, have necessarily exposed to my individual ob- 
 servation all the worst consequences aiid tendencies of the 
 evils I have challenged. Few in these days, none in this 
 country, have ventured morfe, if as much endured, for the 
 great, and good, and solemn causie which assembles us 
 here this day. Let me, then, so far presume as to prefer 
 to my fellow laborers in truth's vineyard, a caution sug- 
 gested at once by all that I have had occasion to observe 
 and to experience. 
 
 There are who apprehend danger to the attempt now 
 made towards national union, and moral and intellectual 
 improvement, from the hostility of constituted authorities 
 and organized bodies, tiere lies not ihy fear. There are, 
 also, wno apprehend our failure from the popular indiffe- 
 rence, or from the prevailing cowardice and immorality 
 
ADDRESS III.] HALL OF SCIENCE. 205 
 
 which the existing forms of society are so calculated to 
 generate. I see no such grounds of discouragement. 
 The spirit of enquiry is abroad ; the dawn of a brighter 
 day is kindling in the horizon, and the eyes of the people 
 are opening to its observation. I say of the people ; of 
 that large, and, happily, sounder part of the population 
 who draw their subsistence from the sweat of the brow, 
 and whose industry constitutes at once the physical 
 strength, and the moral prop of the nation. No ! my 
 fears look not to the power of the few, nor to the indiffe- 
 rence of the many. They look not, my friends, beyond 
 ourselves. Let the soldiers of the van preserve at once 
 good courage and good discipline, and the army of the 
 nation shall follow its lead in confidence and security. 
 
 But what must constitute our courage that it be good 7 
 AVe may be bold and yet may we be weak. The brave have 
 been overthrown in the onset and in the breach, when the 
 pulses throbbed with enthusiasm, and the word was " vic- 
 tory or death." There is a courage better than that of 
 valor — it is that of wisdom ; which, seizing at once on 
 the post to be defended, plants firm the foot, neither to re- 
 treat from it in alarm, nor to hurry past it in zeal. And 
 what must supply our discipline ? Self government. Firm 
 in principle, fixed in purpose, we must turn neither to the 
 right nor to the left. Wise in the choice of means, tem- 
 perate in our words, chastened in our feelings, we must 
 pursue truth in the path of knowledge, and, without dis- 
 puting with errors, seek to substantiate facts. 
 
 I am tempted on this to speak farther. I am tempted, 
 at this commencement of our labors, to give utterance to 
 some anxious thoughts which the importance of our enter- 
 prise, and the circumstances which surround us, are cal- 
 culated to inspire. As I have said, I apprehend not the 
 wrath of the few, nor the indifference of the many. Pride 
 
206 HALL OF SCIENCE. [ADDRESS III. 
 
 or passion will ever work their own destruction. The more 
 strenuous the opposition to truth, the more speedy will be 
 its triumph. The efforts of a hierarchy, the denunciations 
 of orthodoxy, or the jealousy of wealth and pretension, can 
 do nought against free thoughts and free speech in a coun- 
 try politically free. IVor is it in such a country that the 
 many can be long indifferent to their best interests, nor 
 deaf to those who would stimulate to their investigation. 
 I see the field open before us. I see no let nor hindrance 
 in the way of our rapid progress and final triumph, but 
 such as our own deficient virtue may breed, foster, and per- 
 petuate. 
 
 The object we have in view, namely, the acquisition and 
 diffusion of knowledge, is so noble, so rational, and so pure, 
 that, in pledging ourselves to its pursuit, we may feel ele- 
 vated above all unworthy feelings, and not merely willing, 
 but eager, to exchange passion for reason, and to immolate 
 selfishness at the shrine of the public good. But enthu- 
 siasm, however ardent and pure, cannot supply the spirit 
 which must sustain our perseverance and effect the exten- 
 sive reform which we have in view. Zeal may impart 
 energy to our first movements, but will not generate and 
 nourish those steady motives which, by sustaining equal 
 and healthy exertions, can alone ensure success. Anxious, 
 as I feel assured we all are, that the spiiit of enquiry now 
 kindled in the public mind should be turned to the best 
 account, and that our efforts in this place should be of 
 lasting benefit to the human race, it seems advisable, that, 
 at this opening of our labors, we well examine, imtil we 
 distinctly understand, both our object, and the means by 
 which it may be attained. 
 
 Our object is simply and smgly the acquisition of know- 
 ledge, and its diffusion among our fellow creatures. My 
 previous exertions in this city, both as a lecturer and a 
 
ADDRESS III.] HALL OF SCIENCE, 207 
 
 writer, have been devoted to the developing the nature of 
 all knowledge, physical and moral, and to the distinguish- 
 ing those first principles which have been so long and so 
 universally obscured by the sophisms of false learning — 
 the words, maxims, dreams, and hypotheses of man's per- 
 verted ingenuity. If the general survey of the field of 
 knowledge, as presented in my pubUc discourses and the 
 pages of the Free Enquirer, be present to your minds, our 
 object in this place cannot be mistaken. You wiU under- 
 stand both what knowledge is, and how it can be ac- 
 quired ; and you will understand, moreover, what investi- 
 gations can be useful to man, and, consequently, suitable 
 to be followed in this place, and what others must neces- 
 sarily be useless, and, consequently, unsuitable. But, far 
 better will you understand our object here, and distinguish 
 between the profitable and profitless in human enquiry, 
 when you shall have entered on the patient developement 
 of nature's phenomena, under the guidance of your vari- 
 ous scientific instructors. I have presented you only with 
 an outline of the whole ; a general view of that field of 
 varied interest and untiring beauty, through which mas- 
 ters of more practical experience and minute research will 
 now undertake to lead you. 
 
 Under the wise direction of men of science, honest 
 enough to reveal what they know, and bold enough to be 
 silent — (for, alas ! in these days of error even silence may 
 be a crime ;) bold enough, I say, to be silent where (hey 
 are ignorant — under the guidance of such friends your 
 steps cannot err, and your minds must gradually expand 
 to the perception of all those truths most important for 
 man to understand. 
 
 What, then, I am most anxious we should bear in mind 
 is, that we have all to be learners. Ask the most expe- 
 rienced philosopher, whose patient mind has explored all 
 
d88 HALL OF SCIENCE. [ADDRESS III. 
 
 the paths of discovered knowledge, and added new wealth 
 to the stores of the human intellect — ask him, and he will 
 tell you he is yet a pupil. Ask him, and he will tell you 
 that the span of human Hfe sufficeth not to explore the 
 whole even of the observable wonders of nature— won- 
 drous at least to our limited perceptions and finite exis- 
 tence ; while, beyond the stretch of our vision, as evinced 
 by the microscope and telescope, he will tell you that the 
 phenoiAli\a of nature extend through the infinitely Uttle 
 and the infinitely great, in duration and extension, without 
 Ihnit as without end. Oh, who hath said that science 
 teaches pride, when with her alone is humility ! Who 
 hath said, that to study the field of nature can generate 
 self-conceit, when he who should know all that by human 
 senses and faculties can be known, would only best imder- 
 stand that he knew, as it were, nothing ! 
 An ingenious poet hath sung : 
 
 " A little learning is a dangerous thing ;" 
 
 1 will not say that, nor will I say : 
 
 *' Drink deep or taste not of the spring ;" 
 
 but this I will say — be sure that ye mistake not between 
 what is now esteemed learning, and what is knowledge. 
 Drink of the right spring, and, drink little or drink much, 
 so far as ye drink ye shall be wise. Yet this, above all 
 things: speculate not farther than you know. Endea- 
 vor to curb that futile curiosity, which, fostered by a vicars 
 education, is ever winging the human imagination beyond 
 what the eye hath seen, the touch examined, and the 
 judgment compared. Let us unite on the safe and sure 
 ground of fact and experiment, and we can never err ; yet 
 beti«r, we can never differ. Let us investigate within 
 
ADDRESS HI.] HALL OP SCIENCE. 209 
 
 these walls what are to us all realities, and will yield to us 
 all useful truths. The field of nature is before us to ex- 
 plore ; the world of the human heart is with us to examine. 
 In these lie for us all that is certain, and all that is impoc^ 
 tant. 
 
 What matter to us by what, by whom, for how long, 
 from whence, to what limits of space, through what extent 
 of time, the vast ethereal, in which our atom globe per- 
 forms its revolutions, is peopled with sentient existence. 
 How may we decide whether genii, or demigods, or beings 
 unnamed and unconceived, live, and breathe, and exult in 
 life through all the bright worlds which stud our starlit 
 heaven ? Nay, or could we decide, how should the know- 
 ledge profit us in this our removed, but, to us, all sufficient 
 sphere ? Were our human attainments,, indeed, co-exten- 
 sive with human observation, and our human wisdom all 
 sufficient for our human exigencies, then might there be 
 some apology for our borrowing the kaleidoscope of fancy, 
 and gazing, through it, into the moon and beyond the stars. 
 Were all our human duties understood and fulfilled, all the 
 joys of earth developed, and its woes removed, then might 
 those speculations be more excusable, which now steal oxxx 
 attention and our sympathies from the sphere we occupy, 
 and the fellow creatures, whose wants, interests, joys and 
 sorrows should be all our own. 
 
 But how far we are from this fulness of human know- 
 ledge and human happiness, let nature with all her unex- 
 plored phenomena — let earth with aU her wrongs and aU 
 her miseries — let our own hearts with all their bitterness 
 — our own minds with aU their prejudices, bear witness 
 and attest. Oh, then, let us, in this place at least, lay 
 aside dreaming, and apply to observing ! Not that I would 
 presumptuously dispute, or uselessly reason, with the 
 dreams of any fellow creature : I would simply lead ail to 
 s2 27 
 
210 HALL OF SCIENCE. [ADDRESS III. 
 
 distinguish between their dreams and their knowledge, to 
 estimate the value of the one, and the futility of the other, 
 and to perceive that within the horizon of human obser- 
 vation we may all enquire with profit, and in fellowship ; 
 without that horizon only with danger of error, and with 
 certainty of differing. 
 
 Seeing, then, the useful discoveries to be made in the 
 world of nature as existing without us, and the world of 
 the human heart as existing within us, and seeing, also, 
 the interminable disputes fomented by enquiry abstracted 
 from these, let us preserve our popular meetings in this 
 place uncontaminated and undistracted by religious dis- 
 cussions or opinionative dissensions. 
 
 I would apply this exhortation equally to the sceptic as 
 to the believer, and to the believer as to the sceptic. Are 
 we believers ? Let us believe as we may, but let us l^elieve 
 peacefully, in the depths of the heart, that our belief offend 
 not that of our neighbor. Do we see with the eye of 
 faith ? Let us see what we may, and dream what we 
 will, but let us dream at home. In our own closets be 
 our worship, whether of god or gods, saints, angels, pro- 
 phets, or blessed virgins ; but here — ^here, in the hall of 
 union, sacred to peace and to knowledge, let us study that 
 book which all can read, and, reading, none dispute — ^the 
 field of nature, and the tablet of the 'human mind. Or, 
 on the other hand, have we learned to doubt the lessons of 
 books, and the laws of men, let us beware in what spirit 
 we set forth our scepticism, lest, haply, while discarding 
 the dogmas, we retain the dogmatism, and lend, even to 
 truth, the tone of presumption, and the spirit of error. 
 
 It follows not, that in having lost some of our creduUty, 
 we must have lost our intolerance, nor that in correcting 
 some of our opinions, we must have changed our feelings, 
 and amended our habits. The effects of erroneous edu- 
 
ADDRESS III.] HALL OP SCIENCE. 21,1 
 
 cation, and the influence of unfavourable circumstance 
 are, more or less, with us all. As beUevers, we have learn- 
 ed censoriousiiess with our creed of faith ; as heretics or 
 sceptics, we have learned intolerance from persecution. 
 Judging or judged, inflicting or enduring, our bosoms have 
 been filled with bitterness from our youth up ; our hearts 
 estranged from each other, and our thoughts still bent 
 rather on proving others wrong, than on seeking the right 
 for ourselves. It is for this cause — ^it is for the frailties of 
 temper, the errors of judgment, the harshness of feeling 
 existing in us all, that I would deprecate in this place all 
 discussions of speculative or abstract opinion. Were we 
 all reasonable, gentle, indulgent, to discuss any or all sub- 
 jects, real or imaginary, might be useful, or, at the least, 
 amusing ; but while we are all irrational, perverse, ill na- 
 tured, violent, prone to misinterpret, to offend in our man- 
 ner, to irritate in our language, to wound and to be wound- 
 ed, to give and to receive alarm, to judge ourselves in pride, 
 and others with contempt — ^while we are as we are, and as 
 all we see, or hear, or experience, in an ill regulated state 
 of society, combines to keep us, we are unfit to grapple 
 with each other's thoughts — ^ill prepared to ehcit truth by 
 the shock of opinions in the subtle field of argument. 
 
 I mean not altogether to condemn religious discussions 
 while the world is overrun with conflicting rehgious super- 
 stitions ; but, methinks, in our popular meetings, I would 
 condemn them here. We must bear in mind, that we 
 come together in this place as members of a family long 
 divided and estranged by feuds and strifes ; that we see 
 in each other wanderers from every school of faith — it 
 may be Jews, Christians, deists, materiahsts, with every 
 variety of sect and class existing within the pale of each. 
 Surely, then, prudence, if no higher virtue, demands that 
 we set a watch upon our lips, lest, haply, we offend where 
 
Kft " HALL OF SCIENCE. [ADDRESS III. 
 
 it is our object to conciliate, and divide where we are as- 
 sembled to unite. 
 
 Permit me here to reiterate an observation which I have 
 already had frequent occasion to prefer, that the only sure 
 way to correct erroneous opinions is to present facts to the 
 mind. The more we know, the less, in the popular sense 
 of the word, do we believe. The better we vmderstand 
 the phenomena of nature in the visible and tangible world 
 without us, and in the mental, moral, and physical world 
 within us, the more just and perspicuous must be all our 
 ideas. 
 
 It is possible, indeed, to subvert, by process of reasoning, 
 many human superstitions, and to confute by the ad ab- 
 surdum many books, maxims, and statutes honored as 
 wise, or worshipped as divine. But let us remember, that 
 to expose errors is not necessarily to distinguish truths; a 
 train of deductive logic may suffice for the one, but dispas- 
 sionate observation and accurate knowledge can alone 
 suffice for the other. 
 
 I know that, up to this hour, the least safe and the 
 least effectual method of disengaging the popular mind 
 of error has been the one employed. This has been, per- 
 haps, the necessary result of the system of religious teach- 
 ing so long prevalent ; the nature of the evil suggesting 
 that of the remedy, and the virulence of the clergy, strug- 
 gling, at one and the sam.e time, for the profits and the 
 tenets of their craft, provoking, perhaps, an excusable, but 
 certainly an objectionable, hostihty on the part of their 
 opponents. While the advocates of mental darkness 
 found their strength in teaching rehgious opinions, the 
 friends to mental enfranchisement might naturally be 
 tempted to seek theirs in teaching the opposite. But, as I 
 have already attempted to show, in my introductory dis- 
 courses to the p/eople of this city, opinions, whether true 
 
ADDRESS III.J HALL OP SCIENCE. 213 
 
 or false, are no proper subject for teaching at all. We have 
 each of us to form our own, and we must each of us form 
 our own, if we would really understand what our opinions 
 are — know their foundation, and perceive their practical 
 consequences. All that a judicious instructor will attempt 
 is to present to the mind, in suitable train and order, such 
 evidence as is supplied by nature herself — in other words, 
 to fertilize the intellect with knowledge, and to leave it to 
 draw, on all subjects, its own free, fair, and unbiassed 
 conclusions. 
 
 The practice, but too generally followed up to this hour, 
 of promulgating laws, establishing creeds, laying down 
 maxims, and teaching opinions^ has tended to affect our 
 species with a mental paralysis. 
 
 Accustomed to receive our knowledge, so called, from 
 the ipse dixit of books, instead of seeking it for ourselves 
 in the bosom of nature and the occurrences passing around 
 us, and, again, to receive our opinions from the nurse, the 
 schoolmaster, or the priest, we but too often, nay, but too 
 universally, live and die without exercising more of our 
 faculties than our memory and our imagination — closing 
 our eyes upon this beautiful world, and resigning our 
 human existence, ignorant alike of the treasures so thickly 
 strewed in the one, and the powers inherent in the other. 
 So dead, or, rather, so unawakened within us, are the 
 nobler faculties of observation and judgment, that, even 
 if aroused for a moment to doubt the authorities before 
 which we were trained in infancy to bow our reason, we 
 still shrink from the labor of being an authority to our- 
 selves, and, at one and the same moment that we turn 
 from the priest, have recourse to the philosopher — wiUing 
 to see with his eyes, to hear with his ears, and to think 
 with his thoughts, so that we may but escape the labor of 
 exercising our own. Like the vain and impatient tyrant 
 
S14 HALL OF SCIENCE. [ADDRESS III. 
 
 of antiquity, we must still ask of our instructor, not a royal 
 road to the truths of geometry alone, but to all truths in 
 matter or in mind. We would know all things without 
 examining any thing, and, above all, Httle curious of the 
 knowledge which is useful and attainable, we must ever 
 crave that which neither concerns us nor has an existence 
 for us. 
 
 Truly, if we consider the state of our own minds— our 
 willingness, nay, our very anxiety, to be bitted, and 
 bridled, and led through any of error's labyrinths, rather 
 than to seek for ourselves the paths of truth — truly, I say, 
 considering our own indolence and our own gullibility, we 
 have small reason to exclaim against the presumption of 
 priests or the dishonesty of teachers. Methinks we should 
 rather bless their moderation for cheating us so httle in 
 proportion to our credulity, and riding us so gently if com- 
 pared with our slavishness ! The marvel is, (permit me the 
 freedom,) not that we should encounter much knavery, 
 but that we should meet with some honesty. The marvel 
 is, that any should honor truth so much and love man so 
 well, as to attempt the enhghtening of ignorance or the 
 correcting of error, without either tiring of the task or be- 
 traying the cause. 
 
 Easy were that task and rapidly triumphant that cause, 
 could we understand that correct opinions may be found 
 only through knowledge, and that the task of the in- 
 structor is only to show us facts, and thus to lead us to first 
 principles. But, so accustomed are we to be crammed 
 with opinions and dictated to in beUef, that the faithful guide 
 who may refuse to feed our diseased appetite may hardly 
 win our ears, or command our sickly attention. Would 
 he point to those interesting phenomena to which our 
 eyes are now, as it were, hermetically sealed, he is met by 
 the question — what god he worships. Is it explained to 
 
ADDRESS III.] HALL OF SCIENCE. 215 
 
 US that cause and effect are words, either without mean- 
 ing, or expressive simply of the train of occurrences and 
 succession of changes ever taking place around or within 
 us, we ask of our teacher, if he believes ifi a first cause. 
 Does a moraUst instigate us to investigate the numerous 
 ills which afflict our existence, and, with a view to the 
 remedy of these, to study the physiology of our own 
 bodies, the operations of our own minds, and then to dis- 
 tinguish what in human practice is in violation and what 
 in unison with the laws of our being, he is interrupted by 
 enquiries as to his belief in the distinct existence of a 
 soul and its future immortality in another world. The 
 disappointed instructor in vain interrupts the train of his 
 observations to explain, that, as his knowledge is neces- 
 sarily bounded by the horizon of his observation, so his 
 instruction can extend no farther than his knowledge ; and 
 that when he shall have communicated all the facts 
 gleaned in his studies, it will rest with his pupils to draw 
 such conclusions as those facts may generate. Instead of 
 appreciating the respect thus paid to human truth and 
 human liberty, his hearers, accustomed by long habit to 
 submit their reasons to whomsoever will take the trouble 
 to ride them, find perchance offence in that he will not 
 feed their curiosity by tampering with their creduhty, nor 
 spare them the necessary labor of mastering the sciences, 
 and studying human life in conjunction with the human 
 frame, in order that they may think on all subjects fOr 
 themselves. 
 
 But let the friends of man be of good courage in a 
 good cause. Let them not faint with weariness under the 
 heedlessness of folly, the obstinacy of error, nor the seem- 
 ing ingratitude of ignorance. Above all, let them not 
 swerve from the strait and clear path in which it must be 
 their aim to lead the erring and warring family of human- 
 
StU HALL OP SCIENCE. [ADDRESS III. 
 
 kind. Let them be true to themselves as children of 
 science — ^true to their fellow creatures as the simple ex- 
 pounders of nature, and, by slow degrees, the ears of men 
 shall be won, and their minds composed to reflection. 
 
 I am aware of the common persuasion that science re- 
 gards only what are called scientific men — which meansj 
 in plain language, that knowledge is only good to he 
 made a trade of. It seems in the order of things, 
 that the surgeon should understand the structure of 
 our frame, in order that he may repair it if injured; 
 that the physician should study its physiology and pa- 
 thology, in order to heal it if diseased. But it strikes us 
 not, that did we ourselves possess the same knowledge, we 
 might oft prevent both the injury and the disease, or apply, 
 ourselves, the remedy. It seems natural that the mechani- 
 cian should study mechanics, the pharmacian chemistry, 
 the lawyer law, the priest religion ; not perceiving that, 
 while each part and parcel of human learning remains 
 confined to its ostensible professors, the public at large has 
 no means of estimating its real value, nor the possessor 
 himself of understanding all its bearings and relations, dis- 
 tinguishing its truths, or detecting its fallacies. Not seeing, 
 also, that, in this manner, every facility is afforded to the 
 crafty and the superficial to palm upon society deficiency 
 for skill, or error for truth. Not seeing, moreover, that all 
 the real sciences are so related and conjoined, that no indi- 
 vidual can thoroughly understand any one, without some 
 general acquaintance with aU. Not perceiving, in fine, 
 that it is in the absence of this general acquaintance, that 
 false knowledge, pretended science, erroneous institutions, 
 unwise expenditures, absurd customs, and every species of 
 fraud and folly obtain among men, and are handed down, 
 from parent to child, like the heirlooms of aristocracy in 
 feudal Europe. 
 
ADDRESS III.J HALL OP SCIENCE. 217 
 
 But I am aware, also, that the word science is associated 
 in the popular mind with mental fatigue, abstract study, 
 and scholastic application. True it is, that, according to 
 the method of instruction now usually followed, all these 
 charges may be brought, with more or less truth, against 
 every useful, no less than every ornamental, acquirement. 
 Yet, I think, those who have attended the opening classes 
 already held in this building, under all the disadvantages 
 of deficient accommodation and imperfect arrangement, 
 will incline to admit, that the acquisition and imparting of 
 knowledge is not necessarily the dry, abstruse, and unin- 
 teresting occupation that the perverted ingenuity of our 
 ancestors had contrived to make it. I am tempted here 
 to borrow the words of a teacher, whose lucid genius 
 would reflect honor on the country which gave him birth, 
 could genius belong to any country, which more truly 
 belongs to the world. " Philosophy," says Alexander B. 
 Johnson, in his lectures on language, as delivered in Utica. 
 New- York, " philosophy is not necessarily the frowning, 
 sluggish divinity that her ministers have injudiciously re- 
 presented. Her dress may be splendid, her decorations 
 brilliant ; the clearest light should always illuminate her 
 throne, and disputation be banished from her presence." 
 
 Be it our object, then, to disenrobe philosophy of the 
 cumbrous disguise with which human error hath veiled 
 her features, and to present her in all her native loveli- 
 ness — heightened, polished, and enhanced by all the glow 
 and the grace which judicious genius may know to im- 
 part ; but never distorted by the whimsical and meretri- 
 cious ornaments of depraved taste or perverted ingenuity. 
 Be it our object to discover truths where alone they are to 
 be found, in the bosom of nature ; and let us understand, 
 that without a perception of these truths — that is, without 
 a general view of the whole range of the sciences — we can 
 T 28 
 
218 HALL OF SCIENCE. [ADDRESS III. 
 
 neither judge ourselves nor our fellow creatures, possess 
 any opinion, nor pursue any practice, in full certainty of 
 its justice towards others and its utility to ourselves. 
 
 To obtain and impart this general view of the whole 
 field of human knowledge, is the object of this institution. 
 Whenever, therefore, this building shall be occupied by a 
 teacher, nominated by the trustees as a popular instructor, 
 it would appear to me desirable that his subject should 
 be invariably one of explanation, not of disputation — one 
 whose text shall be chosen within the pale of knowledge, 
 not sought in the limbo of opinions. 
 
 Whenever this building shall not be occupied for the 
 popular meetings under the direction of the trustees, it 
 will be open for the use of any respectable teacher, be his 
 subject what it may. Orthodoxy itself, if the day should 
 ever come (which good sense and good feeling avert) that 
 it should be driven forth as have been the advocates of 
 truth, from house to house, until every door is shut against 
 them — let orthodoxy itself here find a refuge, and win, if 
 it can, the ears and hearts of men by the threats and de- 
 nunciations of its gospel. 
 
 For objecting to religion, either as a topic of discussion 
 or subject of instruction in our popular meetings, I would 
 prefer two reasons : first, that religion appertains not to the 
 table of himian knowledge ; and secondly, that we see it 
 every where give rise to interminable disputes and all 
 varieties of bad feehng. 
 
 For objecting to party poUtics, I should prefer the same 
 reasons. They have nothing to do with knowledge, and 
 every tiling to do with quarrelling. 
 
 Opinions apart firom facts, and men apart from princi- 
 ples, may assist vanity to a field of display, ambition to 
 one of power or profit, and passion to one of contention, 
 but can never supply matter of interest to a people simply 
 
ADDRESS lU.] HALL OF SCIENCE. 219 
 
 and honestly desirous of improvement, and aiming at 
 union. We cannot enter the hall of science to learn nor 
 to teach Christianity, nor Judaism, nor Islamism, nor pa- 
 ganism, nor deism, nor materialism ; we can enter it only 
 to study the world we hve in, to study ourselves as inha- 
 bitants of that world, and to form our opinions in confor- 
 mity with the results of our studies. 
 
 I have said — to study ourselves. Oh, my fellow be- 
 ings, what a study is here ! What a field of discovery — 
 what a world unexplored is that of our own being! 
 What truths yet unperceived, what duties unexercised, 
 what faculties unimproved, what delights unenjoyed, are 
 in the nature — the neglected, the slandered, the perverted, 
 the outraged nature of man ! 
 
 Let not bold enquiry apprehend that the field of human 
 knowledge is confined in its horizon, and uninteresting in 
 its details. While every path is rich with treasures and 
 rich with novelty, there is one — and that the noblest and 
 the fairest — on which the restless mind of man hath 
 barely thrown a glance. 
 
 The master science — the centre path and fairest avenue 
 in the field of knowledge, and from which and into which 
 all others, if rightly followed, would be found to branch 
 and converge — the science of human life remains to this 
 hour in its infancy. We have dived into the secrets of 
 external nature — we have pierced the blue ether and 
 tracked the courses and revolutions of its planets, its sys- 
 tems, its comets, and its universe of suns ; we have laid 
 bare the bowels of the earth, disclosed their hidden trea- 
 sures, and brought to light the past phenomena of pri- 
 meval worlds ; we have passed around our globe and ex- 
 plored its realms and climates through the scorching 
 tropics to the icy barrier of the poles ; we have torn the 
 lightning from the clouds, and jewels from the depths of 
 
220 HALL OP SCIENCE. [ADDRESS III. 
 
 the ocean ; we have bowed the elements to our will, and, 
 appropriating and guiding their strength, have achieved 
 more than the fabled exploits of demigods, or the miracles 
 of prophets and saints — we have, in truth, in ingenuity 
 proved ourselves magicians, in power all but gods ; yet is 
 our knowledge only ignorance, and our wisdom that of 
 babes, seeing that while exploring the universe we have 
 left unexplored the human heart, and wliile mastering the 
 earth we have still to master ourselves. 
 
 Oh ! let us not fear, that within the atmosphere of our 
 own world, in the powers and wants of our own nature, 
 and in the woes of human life, as originating in human 
 error, that we may not find a field of enquiry more than 
 sufficient to fill our time, enchain our thoughts, and call 
 into action every latent faculty and feeling of our nature. 
 
 Let, then, morals, or the science of human life, as- 
 sume, among a people boasting themselves free, (and free, 
 rightly interpreted, would mean rational^) the place of re- 
 ligion. Let us, instead of speculating and disputing 
 where we can discover nothing, observe and enquire where 
 we can discover every thing. 
 
 Surely it befits a people acknowledging political hberty, 
 to investigate the meaning of the word, and the power in- 
 volved in the principle. Surely it concerns a people claim- 
 ing equal rights to examine how they may exert those 
 rights with a view to equal benefit. What has been done 
 towards this, let the state of society attest. How far we 
 have studied human hfe as a science, let our human con- 
 dition bear witness. How far the people of this land have 
 improved their repubhcan institutions, or reduced to prac- 
 tice the declaration of '76, let the state of society declare. 
 We speak of equality, and we are divided into classes ; of 
 self-government, and we fit not ourselves to govern. We 
 hear of law and legislation, and the mass of the people un- 
 
,* 
 
 ADDRESS IIlJ HALL OP SCIENCE. 221 
 
 derstand not the one, and take no interest in the other. 
 We complain of existing evils, and seek neither their 
 source nor their remedy ; we see pauperism on the increase, 
 and vice travelling in her footsteps, and we ask only for 
 more jails and larger poorhouses. 
 
 Say, have we suggested here no subjects of interesting 
 enquiry and profitable investigation ? Should a self-go- 
 verning people not understand the nature and object of 
 government ? Should they charter representatives to make 
 statutes in the dark; and, leaving lawyers to interpret the 
 laws which lawyers have made, rest satisfied to obey the 
 reading of which we see not the justice 7 Should they 
 permit taxation and encourage contributions, without direct- 
 ing the stream of their subtracted wealth into channels of 
 national utility? Should they profess equal representa- 
 tion, and possess no equal instruction? Or, not possessing 
 equal instruction, should they profess equal rights? 
 
 All these, and more questions, it behoves us to ask and 
 to answer. Every contradiction and deficiency in our in- 
 stitutions it concerns us to discover, and discovering, to sup- 
 ply or to remedy. Here may the good work begin. Here 
 may we commence the work of reform by fitting our- 
 selves to be reformers. Here, stud3ring our common nature 
 as human beings, our common interests as fellow citizens, 
 may we present to a republican people a first example of 
 republican miion and repubUcan enquiry. Here, too, let 
 our efforts but be sustained, and we may present a first 
 sample of that repubUcan instruction whose dawn shall 
 bring hope to the nation, and in whose fulness shall be sal- 
 vation. 
 
 Far off may be the day of universal peace and univer- 
 sal knowledge ; but every effort made, and every word 
 spoken, approaches us to its dawn. And even now see we 
 not omens of that dawn ? Feel we not something stir- 
 t2 
 
'222 HALL OP SCIENCE. [ADDRESS III. 
 
 ring in the air ? Hear we not, from time to time, some 
 i faint but spirit-stirring sounds prophetic of the light, and 
 the hfe, and the animation which are to come ? See we 
 not ears opening? Perceive we not imderstandings 
 awakening? Is not the spirit of enquiry abroad, and 
 shall not the truths which would now startle the ear, ere 
 long sink into the heart ? All things may we hope for 
 man, should our efforts in this place be successful. Let 
 us water the seed we have planted, and from it shall 
 spring a tree whose branches will shadow the land. Let 
 us be true to the cause we have espoused, and it shall con- 
 quer the world. Let us preserve union and pursue truth, 
 distinct from class or sect, or opinionative association, and 
 yearly, monthly, daily shall we wax in strength, and our 
 opponents grow fewer and weaker. There is no backsli- 
 ding in knowledge. The human mind cannot unlearn 
 facts, nor forget first principles. The reason, once cleared 
 of prejudice by means of science, can never re-enter within 
 the fogs of error. She will not experience seasons of 
 darkness, doubts, and misgivings; require the stirring 
 cadis of supernatural grace, or the frenzied fits and hyste- 
 ria of miraculous revivals. Her operations are silent, 
 peaceful, certain, ever enduring, ever gathering in light, in 
 strength, in security. Let us, then, gather under her 
 peaceful standard, and present a point of union to which 
 gradually all of the present generation, not absolutely lost 
 to reason and common sense, and, yet more especially, all 
 the young and the ingenuous, may gather, until the na- 
 tion, collected in her might, prepares, through enlightened 
 legislatures, for the training together as one family, all the 
 children of the land in national or state institutions. 
 
 Then, in that day, shall we see equality ! Then, in that 
 day, shall we possess liberty — ^beyond the fear of loss, be- 
 yond the possibility of assault ! Then shall we dwell 
 
ADDRESS III.] HALL OP SCIENCE. 
 
 in a free country ! Then shall we be a free and virtuous^ 
 a self-governing and self-respecting people; for then shall 
 we be an enlightened people. 
 
 There is no halfway in these matters. There is no 
 liberty for any until there is liberty for all. There is no 
 surety for liberty but only in equality. And let us remem- 
 ber, that there is no equahty but what has its seat in the 
 mind and feelings. All — all is there — virtue, honor, 
 truth, law, liberty and knowledge ! Build up these in the 
 human breast, and we shall see human beings walk up- 
 rightly. 
 
 Your institutions may declare equality of rights, but we 
 shall never possess those rights until you have national 
 schools. Your legislatures may enact prohibitory laws, 
 and laws offensive and defensive, protective or invasive, it 
 matters little which ; our hberties will never be secure, for 
 they will never be understood, until you have national 
 schools. Your spiritual teachers may preach damnation 
 and salvation henceforward through all the eternity of ex- 
 istence, and we shall never be wise nor happy, peaceful 
 nor charitable, useful in our generation, nor useful through 
 our descendants, to all generations, until ye open the flood- 
 gates of knowledge, and let her pure waters fertilize all the 
 land. 
 
 As preparatory, then, to greater measures, and prophe- 
 tic of extensive reform, our meeting in this place, on this 
 day, and for our proposed object, may mark an era in the 
 moral history of the republic. The greatest events have 
 grown out of the smallest ; the most important reforms 
 have been generated by fewer individuals than now fill 
 these walls, and effected too in countries less free to thought, 
 to speech, and to action, than this favored land. Here all 
 is possible to truth if sustained by perseverance. In revo- 
 lutionized America she has not to contend with the bayo- 
 
224 HALL OP SCIENCE. [ADDRESS III. 
 
 net, nor to encounter the scaffold and the dungeon. The 
 battle of blood is here happily fought, and the sword of 
 freedom sheathed, as we trust, for ever. Yet great is the 
 victory she hath yet to achieve. It is over the tyranny of 
 ignorance, and the slavery of the mind. Noble be her 
 weapons, and spotless as her cause ! let her seek them at 
 the hand of knowledge, and wield them in the spirit of 
 peace, of charity, and of love to man. 
 
225 
 
 [The following odes, written by F. W. for the occasion, 
 were sung ; the first previous to the commencement of the 
 address, the second at its close.] 
 
 ODE I. 
 
 Long have the nations slept : hark to that sound! 
 The sleep is ended, and the world awakes : 
 Man riseth in his strength and looks around, 
 While on his sight the dawn of reason breaks. 
 
 Lo ! Knowledge draws the curtain from his mind ; 
 
 Q,uells Fancy's visions, and his spirit tames, 
 
 Deep in his breast that law to seek and find, 
 
 Which kings would write in blood, and priests in flames. 
 
 Shout, earth ! the creature man, till now the fiw 
 Of thee, and all who tread thy parent breast, 
 Henceforth shall learn himself and thee to know, 
 And in that knowledge shall be wise and blest 
 
 ODE n. 
 
 Oh, sohs of men! throw round your eyes 
 Upon the earth, the seas, the ^es ! 
 Say, doth not all, to every sense, 
 Show beauty and magnificence ? 
 
 See hill and vale with verdure spread ! 
 Behold the motmtain lift his head. 
 In stature, strength, and power sublime. 
 Unscathed by storm, untouched by time ! 
 
 And see the flower which gems the sward! 
 List to the pipe of evening bird — 
 The streams, the winds, the balmy breece 
 Making soft music with the trees. 
 
 29 
 
226 
 
 And see the glories of the night I 
 The deep blue vault with stars of lighf^ 
 The silver clouds, the odorous air — 
 All soft} and still, and sweet, and fair I 
 
 And oh I that hour of matin prime, 
 The cool, the fresh, the joyous time, 
 When Sol, as if refreshed by sleep, 
 Springs blazing from the kindled deep: 
 
 Then mark how nature with delight 
 Exults and kindles at the sight ; 
 Earth, ocean, jdr — above, around, 
 All fuU of life, and stir, and sound ! 
 
 Yes I all unto the outward 
 Shows beauty and magnificence ; 
 All feir — imless that world we scan, 
 That moral world, as made by man. 
 
 To all earth's blessings deaf and blind, 
 Lost to himself and to his kind, 
 With mad presumption, lo ! he tries 
 To pierce the ether of the skies. 
 
 ffis &ncy wing'd to worlds unknown, 
 He scorns the treasures of his own ; 
 By fears of hell and hopes of heaven, 
 ffis nofaii udnd to madness driven ! 
 
 Oh I first of all the tribes of earth. 
 Wake to a knowledge of thy worth ; 
 Then mark the ills of human life, 
 And heal its woes, and quench its strife. 
 
 Victim and tyrant thou, oh man ! 
 Thy world, thyself, thy fellows scan, 
 Nor forward cast an anxious eye. 
 Who knows to liv^ shall know to die. 
 
REPLY 
 
 TO THE 
 
 TRADUCERS OF THE FRENCH REFORMERS 
 
 OP THE YEAR 1789, 
 
 As given by Frances Wright^ in the Park TTieatre, 
 New- York, January Z\st, 1829, at the close of her 
 discourse on Religion. 
 
 [Among the many artifices devised by the clergy of New- York, 
 during the first and second delivery of these discourses, was the 
 circulation of inflammatory placards and pamphlets, in which 
 the object of the lecturer was represented to be nothing short of 
 a universal insurrection of the people against, and massacre of, 
 themselves. The flying missiles of the tract house, were backed 
 by the heavier artillery of the daily papers ; when, upon the 
 night of the meeting held in Tammany Hall, in reprobation of 
 the memorials presented to congress for the interruption of the 
 Sunday mails, an article appeared in the Evening Post, which 
 occasioned the following reply. It was first pronounced at the 
 close of the third lecture, and repeated on the night of the 
 founh, for the reason explained by the lecturer.] 
 
 The subject which has engaged our attention this 
 evening, will permit me, without irrelevancy, to repeat the 
 observations with which I concluded my discourse of Sa- 
 turday. I am influenced to this repetition, by the 
 knowledge, that many were prevented on that occasion 
 from attendance, by the public duty which they were then 
 summoned to fulfil, and the style and manner of whose 
 fulfilment presents another evidence of the stirring spirit 
 which is abroad, and the radical reform in opinion, as in 
 practice, now in preparation fortius brightest portion of the 
 
228 EEPLY TO THE TRADUCERS 
 
 civilized world. I am tempted to this repetition also, by 
 all the crowd of solemn and sacred recollections, which 
 the circumstance that elicited my observations of Saturday 
 had outraged in my bosom ; and which, allied as I have 
 been in thought and feeling with the surviving veterans of 
 the French revolution, and with the martyred and exiled 
 patriots of Europe's latter years, who drank their inspira- 
 tion from the heroes of '89, challenges in me, from outraged 
 friendship, no less than from outraged truth, a reply as 
 public and as bold as hath been the slander. With the 
 view of rendering that reply more public, I shall here 
 repeat it, and farther publish it in the columns of the 
 Free Enquirer. 
 
 True it is, that the attack against human liberty, and 
 its advocates, which challenged my notice, stands not 
 singly and alone ; it forms only an item in the long tissue 
 of falsehoods and misrepresentations with which the 
 annals of human improvement have been sedulously 
 ^rkened and confounded. 
 
 Let us listen to sermon, peruse religious tract, or reli- 
 gious essay, yea, or political journal under orthodox in- 
 fluence, or clerical dictation, what find we but exhortations 
 to passive obedience ? laudatory apostrophes to thrones, do- 
 minations, and powers ? insidious reflections, or open de- 
 nunciations against enquiry, under the name of infidelity; 
 against honest opinion, under the name of heresy ; against 
 self-respecting virtue, under the name of vice ; against re- 
 sistance to oppression, under the name of sedition ; and 
 against revolution, under the name of rebellion ? But I 
 shall ask ye, for the moment, to look no farther than the 
 editorial columns of the Evening Post, of Thursday last, 
 in which, setting aside the momentary object, and conse- 
 quent personal allusions of the writer, we find him openly 
 advocating feudal despotism, and classing poUtical revolu- 
 
OF THE FRENCH REFORMERS. Q29 
 
 tions among the crimes most inimical to man and odious 
 to God. 
 
 This spiritual oracle presents the citizens of New- York 
 with a quotation from the speeches of Edmund Burke, 
 made after that statesman had sold himself for place 
 and pension to the throne he had once so boldly defied. 
 In these quotations we are presented with the foulest slan- 
 ders against noble deeds and noble men ever pronounced 
 by traitor or slave 1 
 
 Know the citizens of New- York, who fathered the 
 French revdution of '89, thus upheld in their daily journals 
 to execration and opprobrium ? The virtuous, the venera- 
 ble, the venerated Lafayette. Know they the principles 
 then proclaimed, and to which a BaiUie, a La Rochefou- 
 cauld, a Condorcet, a Madame Roland, set the seal 
 of their blood ? They were the same signed by a Frank- 
 lin, an Adams, a Jefferson, and all the worthies of '76. 
 They were the same to which the people of this land 
 stand pledged in life, property, and honor. And while 
 the fallen, the sold, the misguiding and misguided Burke, 
 was thus confounding times and dates, blaspheming glo- 
 rious names and more glorious eras, perverting words and 
 perplexing principles, were the sages and heroes of '89, the 
 virtuous men, and high-minded women, who had reared 
 in Europe the standard of civil liberty and mental eman- 
 cipation, expiring in sublime philosophy on the scaffolds 
 of the religious — ay ! of the religious Robespierre ! 
 
 I have thus again condescended upon the pages of this 
 journal, with a view to the exposure of the literary and 
 religious fraud, now carried on under cover of the popular 
 ignorance, through every vehicle of popular instruction. 
 Not a fact but is misinterpreted — not a name but is slan- 
 dered — not a system, not a principle, not a book, page, 
 word, but is travestied, tortured, perplexed, and beUed, 
 
230 REPLY TO THE TRADUCERS 
 
 to serve the purposes of clerical ambition, and support a 
 system of error and fraud, as inimical to the interest of 
 the many, as it is abetting and flattering to the preten- 
 sions of the few. 
 
 And now, I will ask, how that very large portion of 
 the community, who glean their only information respect- 
 ing past or present events, from newspapers, magazines, 
 tracts, and pamplilets, all more or less under a similar in- 
 fluence with the Evening Post, are to judge rightly re- 
 specting things, or respecting men. I have now in my hand, 
 a bill, or tract, I know not how the flying paper should be 
 designated, wliich was distributed, among many others, to 
 the citizens who attended the meeting at Tammany Hall, 
 on Saturday evening. In this we find a similar confusion 
 of times and circumstances, causes and effects, as that 
 observed upon in the Evening Post. Here, again, all the 
 horrors acted in France, subsequent to the bright dawn of 
 the revolution, by an ignorant populace, excited to frenzy 
 by the subtle emissaries of the British ministry, and by 
 the hired incendiaries of a discomfited court, aristocracy, 
 and priesthood, are presented to the uninformed reader, as 
 the work of pliilosophers and pohtical reformers. 
 
 I shall hereafter take occasion to elucidate in the pages 
 of the Free Enquirer, some of the leading events and 
 characters of the French revolution ; when it will be 
 seen that the virtuous supporters of order, peace, brotherly 
 union, and brotherly love, were the patriots and philoso- 
 phers who, having raised the standard of equal Hberty, 
 died in its defence ; while the ignorant and brutal Robes- 
 pierre was signing their death-warrants in his chamber, 
 and decreeing in his legislative hall, by act of assembly, 
 the existence of a God, and consecrating a day for his 
 especial worship. 
 
 And how shall the people judge between wliat is and 
 
OF THE FRENCH REFORMERS. 231 
 
 what is not, until knowledge shall be present to the mind? 
 And how shall knowledge be present to the mind, so long 
 as faith is made the only subject of instruction. Shall, 
 then, the object for which we are met in this place, be de- 
 feated or deferred ? Shall knowledge never own a shrine, 
 nor truth a temple ? Win a free people never pronounce 
 the httle words, let us enquire ; the modest and ra- 
 tional words, let us learn ? 
 
ANALYTICAL. TABLES 
 
 OP CONTENTS. 
 
 Introductory address to the course^ at delivered for the second time in 
 New- York. — Observations on the violent spirit betrayed by the clergy 
 and the press under their control. — ^Persecution the reward of reform- 
 ers in all ages. — Determination of the lecturer to persevere in her under- 
 taking. — Appeal from the misrepresentations of designing individuals 
 to the good sense of the audience, and pledge given by the lecturer to 
 explain, in due order, her views on all subjects connected with the well- 
 being of humankind. 
 
 LECTURE I. 
 
 On the nature of knowledge. — ^Variety of opinions among' men, through- 
 out the world, and in our own country. — Q,uestion started as to what 
 constitutes truth. — Conceived difBculty and real facility of its solution. 
 — ^Nature of evidence. — ^True evidence to be sought in accurate know- 
 ledge. — Improvement the distinguishing principle in man. — ^In it a 
 surety presented for the excellence and happiness of the race. — Desire 
 of advancing in knowledge : universality and vagueness of the same. — 
 Erroneous ideas respecting the nature of knowledge. — Enquiry into its 
 real nature. — Mode of its acquisition. — Simplicity of all true ideas. — 
 Words the signs of things. — How mistaken for the things themselves. — 
 Importance of taking aright the first step in knowledge. — Confused 
 state of the youthful mind imder existing modes of instruction — Effects 
 of college education up to the present time. — ^Unassisted observation 
 better than false learning. — Minute examination into existing modes 
 of instruction deferred. — Chief position to be established in the present 
 discourse. — Acquaintance with an object, how obtained. — Difference 
 between knowledge and belief. — Examples explanatory of the distinc- 
 tion. — Review of the field of knowledge. — Divisions of the same. — ^Be- 
 lief how confounded with knowledge in the lessons of teachers. — Effects 
 of this on the mind of the scholar. — Importance to the rising genera- 
 tion of discovering and adopting a rational method of instruction,— 
 Effects to be anticipated from the same on the infant and adult mind. — 
 Importance to the present generation, of free and fearless enquiry. — 
 Erroneous conceptions respecting the nature of knowledge occaaioathe 
 
 u2 30 
 
234 ANALYTICAL TABLE. 
 
 fear with which it is often regarded.— Fearlessness and composure of 
 mind necessary for its acquisition. — These seldom possessed. — Alarm 
 occasioned by enquiry,— Remarks on the place sissumed by the lecturer 
 and the motives which influence her. — General incapacity of public 
 teachers, and causes of the same. — The peculiar dependence of the 
 clergy, and their consequent inability to probe the vices of the age. — 
 Instance adduced from their conduct in the slave states, as contrasted 
 with their conduct in the free states. — Their universal opposition to 
 Bcience and all the practical reforms attendant upon its progress. — Sla- 
 very of the press and all the learned professions. — Importance to the 
 human race, that individuals independent of patronag-e and party, 
 should undertake the gxiidance of the human mind. — Q^ualifications ne- 
 cessary in such individuals. — Recapitulation of the topics embraced in 
 the discourse. — Concluding- remarks to the female part of the audience. 
 —Peculiar influence exerted to prolongs the ig-norance of the female sex. 
 ■ — ^Appeal to the male sex to consider the indirect effects of this igno- 
 rance on their own condition. 
 
 LECTURE II. 
 
 Of free enquiry.— A just education possible only for the next generation ; 
 accurate and dispassionate investigation in the power of the present. — 
 Selfishness betrayed by individuals in their pursuit of knowledge.— In- 
 consistency of this selfishness with American institutions. — Equal rights 
 of all to the equal developement and exercise of the judgment. — Equal 
 or greater importance of the same to youth than to age, and to women 
 than to men. — Influence exercised by women. — Mutual dependence of 
 the two sexes, and of all human beings one upon the other. — The real 
 interests of all one and the same. — Impossibility of discovering these 
 interests unless all be engaged in their investigation. — Equality of in- 
 Btruction necessary to equality of rights. — Absence of that equality, the 
 source of all the false influences which rule society in public and pri- 
 vate. — Misconceptions respecting the meaning of the word equality, 
 and explanations on the same.— Examinations into the nature of liberty. 
 — ^How the ssune is violated. — Instance adduced from the government of 
 children,— Duties of the parent and rights of the child exhibited.— The hu- 
 man race more especially interested in the enfranchisement of the female 
 mind. — Inconsistency of the arguments commonly presented against the 
 personal independence and intellectual cultivation of women. — ^No sex 
 in knowledge, and no mystery in truth. — Mystifications in science gene- 
 rated by false learning, professional dishonesty, and competition. — To 
 simplify knowledge in all its branches and applications free enquiry 
 indispensable. — ^Past and present effects of free enquiry on the condition 
 of man. — ^Man always in a progressive state. — Remarkable epochs in 
 his progress.— The greatest yet to come. — Enquiry challenged— by 
 whom.— Problem to be settled by enquiry at the present time. — Summa- 
 ry of the topics embraced in the discoure. 
 
ANALYTICAL TABLE. 235 
 
 LECTURE III. 
 
 Of the more important divisions and essential parts of knowledge. — First 
 great division. — Relation in which we stand to all that surrounds us. — 
 Identity of the simple elements of things ; their duration and varying 
 appearjince, as decided by position. — Order of nature's phenomena, and 
 our connexion with the same. — If rightly explained to the young" mind, 
 advance in knowledge rapid and pleasant. — How different at the present 
 time. — Simplicity of the table of just knowledge. — Actual impossibility 
 of developing the same without a reference to existing errors. — Apology 
 for the necessity of employing unmeaning words, and discussing imma- 
 ginary subjects. — Subdivisions of the two first divisions of knowledge. 
 Importance of those embraced under the first head. — Enumeration of 
 the subjects of leading importance found under the second. — All easy 
 of attainment — Why.— Nevertheless rendered difficult. —Difficulties 
 lessened by the labors of enlightened individuals. — Important step now 
 made. — Much knowledge necessary previous to an examination of our 
 opinions. — What knowledge in particular. — Importance of acquiring 
 the same, — Order in which it should be acquired. — Time for its acqui- 
 sition ample.— Time and money how wasted at present.— Important 
 subject for the exercise of free enquiry. — Leisure hours and leisure 
 day how employed; buildings, why raised, and teachers salaried. — 
 Apology to the audience for risking the wounding of their feelings. — 
 Reference to the influence of the clergy. — Necessity of exposing their 
 incapacity. — Hyprocrisy engendered by the habits of existing society. — 
 This more or less experienced by every one ; in the highest degree by 
 the clergy. — ^Peculiarity of their situation. — Instance of honesty in one 
 of that body. — Consequences of the same. — Fault less in individuals 
 than in their situation. — Motives which induce the lecturer to probe the 
 popular prejudices. — Possibility of knowledge by faith questioned. — Its 
 impossibility exhibited, and its inutility under the supposition of its 
 possibility. — ^Propriety of hiring teachers to teach impossibilities ques- 
 tioned. — Inapplicability of all spiritual lessons to human life and hu- 
 man beings. — Lecturer deprecates the idea of questioning the opinions 
 of her hearers or dictating others. — Exhorts to examination and enqui- 
 ry. — Spiritual teachers warn against the same. — Their counsels suspi- 
 cious. — Questions for them suggested to their hearers. — Encouragement 
 to examine without fear, and to exert each his own judgment. — Claim 
 of the clergy as moral teachers considered. — ^Disproved. — Appeal to 
 their followers to exchange spiritual dreamers for experimental philoso- 
 phers ; churches for halls of science ; to calculate expenses and examine 
 effects of existing religious system; to compare value with cost, and 
 strike balance. — Importance of such examination. — Twenty millions 
 expended to make us foolish. — If righty expended, the effects on the 
 population. — Inefficacy of preaching against vice. — Real cure for the 
 same. — This never supplied by the clergy. — Their knowledge that of 
 things unseen.— Their virtue based on depravity.— Theory unworthy 
 
236 ANALYTICAL TABLE. 
 
 of freemen. — Baleful effects of the same. — ^Vindication of human na- 
 ture. — Man's noble energies how evinced. — Appeal to Americans to 
 evince them farther. — To improve their liberty by means of knowledg-e, 
 and to seek knowledg-e in the world they occupy. — Exhortations to the 
 study of nature. — To rely on the powers of the human understanding. — 
 To examine each for himself, and to question the infallibility both of 
 books and teachers. — Advantages of material science. — Truths exhibited 
 when asserted. — Examples. — Prevalent notion that some truths exist 
 apart from our physicad sen&ations. — Falsity of the notion exposed. — 
 Exhortation to weigh the words of tlie lecturer ; to go to church and 
 to weigh the words of the clergy. — Warmth of tlie lecturer, and where- 
 fore. — Invitations to associate for the acquisition of sound knowledge, and 
 to raise a popular edifice for popular assemblies. — Proposal for a pattern 
 school of industry for children, attached to a haU of science for adults. — 
 Advantages from the same, equal for the poor and the rich. — Common 
 nature, wants, and interests, of all human kind, — Exhortations to unite 
 in the courts of knowledge. — To exchange declaimers for instructors, 
 wise guides for ignorant threateners, and consistent science for incon- 
 sistent faiths. — Summary of the topics embraced in the three first lec- 
 tures, and subject of the next set forth. 
 
 LECTURE IV. 
 
 Of religion. — Its engrossing character. — Lecturer's desire not to wound 
 the feelings, or arouse the prejudices. — Reasons for approaching the 
 subject. — Knowledge obtained by the senses. — Erroneous modes of 
 teaching science. — Ancient Greeks false logicians, because ignorant of 
 ph3rBical science. — Grecian logic still retained. — Aristotle. — Pestalozzi. 
 — Enemies of human improvement more quick sighted than its friends. 
 — Rational education unfavorable to loyalty and credulity. — Definition 
 of knowledge. — Is religion a science 7 — Its cost. — Are its trutlis appa- 
 rent, — Where shall it be classed. — Knowledge not human of slippery 
 foundation. — What is religion. — Revelation by special favor. — Exhorta- 
 tion to leave things unseen for knowledge. — Lecturer's creed. — Turn- 
 ing churches into halls of science. — Splitting of sects. — Lecturer igno- 
 rant of unearthly phenomena. — Jesus' s mode of prayer recommended 
 to the pious.— Deprecation of intention to wound. — Test of books and 
 teachers. 
 
 LECTURE V. 
 
 Morals, — ^Necessity of clearing the threshold of knowledge. — Religion 
 excluded as unreal and furnishing no just rule of life. — If there be a 
 true religion, who has it 1 — If religion deceive, what rule shall guide 
 us 7 — The rule of morals. — Little progress in the science of morals 
 since the early days of Greece and Rome. — Modern morals based on 
 religion.— Definition of morals.— A simple rule.— Definition of religion. 
 
ANALYTICAL TABLE. 237 
 
 —Religion and morals distinct.— Religion never a source of virtu^ 
 even when the religionist is virtuous. — Relig-ion takes its spirit and 
 character from the individual spirit and character of each of its pro- 
 fessors. — Virtue springing- not in religion, but in the human heart.— Of 
 fear as a motive to virtue. — A knowledge of true morals derived through 
 our sensations. — What produces morality 7~Test Of moral precepts. — 
 Two great divisions of morals; separate yet blending. — Usages of 
 society, not nature, to blame.— Propriety not found in extremes.— Con- 
 nexion and importance of the sciences-— Self interest alone might 
 teach virtue; but selfish calculations superceded by cultivated sensi- 
 bilities. — Negative virtue. — Object of a just education to produce ac- 
 tive virtue. — Lamentable influences on the youthful mind.— Organiza- 
 tion charged with evils which spring from ignorant instruction alone- 
 Enlightened guides should replace dogmatical teachers.— Simplicity of 
 the science.— Summary. — Moral principle. — Divisions of morals.— Each 
 branch must be developed as opportunity oflFers in coxmexion and in 
 order. — Conclusion. 
 
 LECTURE VI. 
 
 JF\)rmation of opinions. — Importance of the subject, and consequences to 
 be anticipated from a just understanding of the same. — ^Persecution for 
 opinion. — Review of its dreadful eflfects. — Examination of its cause. — 
 Meaning of the term opinion. — Truth or error of opinions determined 
 by the greater or less degree of our knowledge. — Singular inconsistency 
 in human feeling. — Anger generated not against facts but the conclu- 
 sions which they generate. — Absurdity of this anger. — ^What conduct 
 would be rational in cases of difference of opinion.— Only method by 
 which to induce a change in opinion.— Sacredness of mental liberty, 
 how violated. — Ignorance of the nature of an opinion, not the only 
 cause of opinionative persecution. — This unknown in countries without a 
 priesthood. — Instances thereof. — Religion should be left alone. — Know- 
 ledge, not opinions, should be taught.— The people encourage the teach- 
 ing of opinions at home and abroad.— Honest opinions never culpable. — 
 Bitterness of sectarianism.— Advantages of union.— Persecution. — Its 
 nature and consequences.— The clergy denounced as a body, though 
 sometimes amiable as individuals. — Secret influences more powerful 
 than open force. — The stage. — The people's day of leisure.— Spirit that 
 persecuted Jesus, still abroad. — Jesus would be ill received by modern 
 religionists. — Churches of faith and schools of knowledge. — Lecturer 
 of no sect.— Signs of the times.— A substitute for ancient errors re- 
 quired.— Knowledge alone leads to just practice. 
 
 LECTURE VII. 
 Existing evils, and their remeciy.— Summary of the topics embraced in 
 preceding lectures, and subject of the present. — Ignorance the source of 
 evils. — The people the true reformers. — ^Who are addressed 7— Distress. — 
 
238 ANALYTICAL TABLE. 
 
 Imitation of Europe—Small progress in reform since 1776.— Republican 
 anomalies. — Forms and principles. — Practical freedom and equality. — 
 Reality of evils. — Philadelphia report. — No effectual remedy found. — 
 Reform gradual. — DiflBculties in the way of a popular effort to correct 
 existing- evUs. — Practical prejudices. — Appeal to the rich.— Parental 
 anxieties universal. — Their cure sug-gested, and the first measure 
 towards the remedy of existing- evils pointed out. — Great measure of 
 national education.— Common schools inefficient. —Plan of national in- 
 stitutions.— Educational tax. — Promise of further developement.~Ex- 
 hortation to radical reform through the state legislatures. 
 
 ADDRESS I. 
 Celebration of fourth of July, 1828.— Reasonable to rejoice on the day.— 
 Fourth of July, 1776, a new era-~Change, the distinctive attribute of 
 American institutions.— Change, the harbinger of improvement.— Im- 
 portance of constitutional provision for reform. — One liberty. — National 
 advantages we possess. — Much to be done. — Patriotism only condition- 
 ally a virtue.— Ancient patriotism.— Misnamed patriotism.— Selfish 
 patriotism. — Patriotism of a citizen of the world suitable for America. — 
 Mischiefs of exclusive patriotism.— Duties of Americans. — Character of 
 rational rejoicing. 
 
 ADDRESS II. 
 
 Celebration of fourth of July, 1829.— Reminiscences of the day.— Martial 
 pageantry out of character.— Peaceful be its celebration.— Lecturer's 
 task to counsel, not to flatter. — America little known until she declared 
 her independence. — America now the refuge of liberty. — Hopes enter- 
 tained of her as a nation of self-governing citizens. — Her citizens re- 
 eponsible for national delinquencies. — Their responsibility how fulfilled. 
 — ^Reproof- Fate of America, fate of the world.— National institutions. 
 — Elective franchise virtually forfeited. — The press. — Its temptations to 
 venality.— A promise kept— Two positions on which rest the fabric of 
 American government.— The people being- governors, should be fitted to 
 g-overn. — Before legislation should come instruction.— Education the 
 foundation of a republic. — Omission on the part of the first framers of 
 American constitutional law.— America following Europe's footsteps. — 
 Appeal to America's charter of independence. — The raising of churches 
 and jails should give place to works of charity, and labors of education. 
 — All rational law and virtue involved in education.—Liberty and 
 equality to be built up in the mind. — National education, sole means of 
 human happiness.— Exhortation to supply it. 
 
 ADDRESS III. 
 
 Object of assembling.— Purpose of the Hall.— Popular reluctance to be- 
 come ftimple pupils.— Danger within, not without.— Courag-e of wisdom 
 
ANALYTICAL TABLE. 239 
 
 Necessity to examine the object proposed.— Statement of that object.— 
 All learners. — Learning- and knowledge. — Spiritual existences. — World- 
 ly researches suitable for the Hall of Science. — Faith should not be pub- 
 lished. — DogTnas often discarded and dogmatism retained. — Religious 
 discussions.— To distinguish truth better than to expose error, and to 
 examine facts them to teach opinions.— Man's willingtiess to be bridled. 
 — Certain science interrupted by spiritual questions. — Science the con- 
 cern of all.—Philosophy not gloomy nor mysterious. — Hall of science 
 for the teaching of knowledge, not the discussion of opinions.— Hall 
 open to all respectable teachers. — Place of refuge promised to ortho- 
 doxy if persecuted.— Reasons for studying- ourselves rather than dis- 
 cussing religion. — Field of himian knowledge extensive. — Science of 
 human life. — Science of human life should replace religion.— Its fitness 
 for discussion. — ^Variety of subjects for enquiry. — ^Day of knowledge, 
 though distant, is approaching ; and with it freedom and virtue. — Liberty 
 for one, liberty for alL— National schools.— Great events from small be- 
 ginnings. — Conclxision. 
 

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