;l.-:»-Ki.>i-vl;V«.>.''t'-.-t.'i- <*,--■■ ■'V'1-T*' CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY THIS BOOK IS ONE OF A COLLECTION MADE BY BENNO LOEWY 1854-1919 AND BEQUEATHED TO CORNELL UNIVERSITY Cornell University Library arV13501 The philosophic and scientific ultimatum 3 1924 031 248 796 olin,anx Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924031248796 PHILOSOPHIC AND SOIEiq"TIFIO TJLTIMA.TTJM. THB PHILOSOPHIC AND SOIENTIFIO ULTIMATUM, ■WniTTEN IN THE CONSTITUTION" AND LAWS OF UNIVEESE OMNIPOTENT HAND OF DIYINE INTELLIGENCE, '. SPREAD BEFORE ALL MANKIND UmVEBSAL LANaVAGE OF OSGANIO MIND/a:^ MATTER, CAUSE AND EFFECT, (Hiriid of fJattons anb t|c ^roj COPIED, As READ FROM THE DIVINE ORIGINAIi, AV. A. ALLIBAOO, THE i'RIEND?OF MAN. NEW-YOEK: PUBLISHED BY THiE A-UTECOR. 1864. f > /MoS0ll2 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864, By W. a. ALLIBACO, In the Clerk's ODQce of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of Wew-York. Co iH ■WrrHODT KESrEOT OF NATIOH-, OKEED, OB SEX, WHO SEEK THE IMMUTABLE BANNER OF GOD'S PROTECTING PRINCIPLES, DAILT STRITINO TO THINE PURELY, SPEAK WISELY, AND ACT JUSTLY, ANB USINQ THEIR BEST EXERTIONS TO UNFOLD IN THEMSELVES AND OTHERS DEIFIC LIFE, |s 1|k Wakm |«sttibtb. OOJ^TEINTTS. FASB Intkoducxion, 9_15 The UsFOLDiNa Etolutions, Demonstration and Address of Deity by the Voice that rolls in the Hearens above, in the Earth beneath, and witnesaeth to the Rational Mind within — The Eternal Mind as defined and demonstrated by that Mind itself, through his Universal Language of Cause and Effect — Component Attributes of the Empy- rean Magnet defined — Attribute of Intelligence — Attribute of Love Attribute of Justice — ^Attribute of Wisdom — Attribute of Truth — Unfolding Evolutions and Address, continued — Male and Female Principles — Creation — The Universal Language commended, Igno- rance and Error repudiated, 17-54 The Vail Lifted, and the Delusions and Abominations of the Harlot of Ignorance exposed— The blasphemous Doctrine of the Fall of Man examined — Can Man Fall ? — Faith — Mystery — Miracle — Mes- siahship — The Gods, Priests, and Inspirations of Ignorance — ^Acts of the Eleven Disciples, by Peter — The last Epistle of Peter to the Chapels — The last Epistle of Peter — The Acts of Paul and the Jewish Sanhedrim — The Keligion of Universal Justice defined, 65-282 A Bkief Akalttio View of Man — Man Elucidated — Origin of Ideas — Human Judgment — Reason and Seqgivity — Consciousness — Understanding — Imagination — Association-^The Associating Princi- ple not without Law — Law of Association stated and defined — The present Hypothesis, when established as the Law of Association — A priori Argument — ^All the Phenomena referred to the commonly received Laws can be explained on this Hypothesis — ^Phenomena ex- ist which can be accounted for on this, and on no other Hypothesis — Those falling under the relation of Analogy — Phenomena of Dream- ing — Phenomena of Somnambulism — Facts connected with particu- lar Diseases — ^This Hypothesis established and illustrated, by reflecting upon the Facts of Association — ^Argument summarily stated — Ex- 6 CONTENTS. piOF planatoryEemarks — Reason why different Objects excite eimilar Feel- ings in our Minds — Application of the Principles above illustrated — Ground of the Mistake of Philosophers in Respect to the Laws of Association— Action of the Associating Principle in different Indi- viduals— Influence of Habit— Standards of Taste and Fashion- Vicissitudes in respect to such Standards— Peculiarities of Genius associated with Judgment, or correct Taste — Influence of Writers and Speakers of splendid Genius, but incorrect Taste — Danger of Vicious Associations — Unrighteous Prejudices, how justified — Giving Individuals a bad Name, spreading false Reports, etc. — Influence of the Associating Principle in perpetuating existing Mental Character- istics — ^Memory and Recollection — Terms defined — States of Mind en- tering into and connected with these Processes — The above State- ment verified — Principles on which Objects are remembered with Ease and Distinctness — ^Deep and distinct Impressions, on what con- ditioned — ^Diversity of Powers of Memory, as developed in different Individuals — Philosophic Memory — Local Memory — Artificial Mem- ory — ^Miscellaneous Topics — A Ready and Retentive Memory — ^The vast and diverse Power possessed by different Individuals — ^Im- provement of Memory — Memory of the. Aged — Duration of Mem- ory—Remarks 283-346 The Path or HnKAB Dnrr and Happiness, . . . 34Y-349 EnuCATioif, 350-363 Religion, 364-408 goteknuent, 409^15 APPENDIX The Address and Petition op the Aitthor to his Cottntet, 416-420 INTRODUCTION. 11 only as a point of contrast to bring out in full relief the ineffable glory of our attributes; as through a picture's shades the true likeness gleams, or by the shades of night you know the contrast day. Man inherits his life and powers, as a vegetable of second growth, in a germinal state, perfectly unconscious, and is firstly unfolded by the plastic powers of Deity to a state of sensivity, and thence to a state of self-consciousness, under- standing, and reason, where he becomes gradually acquaint- ed with himself and surrounding objects through the ob- servation and reflections of his own mind ; thus qualified, with the institutions of universe, and the universal language of its Author in cause and effect spread before him, he is left a free age nt, t o progress by the inherent nature, powers, and unfoldin^jHkolutions of his own mind ; receiving the' full and just re^mpense of his own exertions, be they more or less, good or evil. From ignorance man is blind to his true and highest in- terest, and falls into error, and having become conscious of his fault through cause and effect, he feels shame, and like a child who has soiled a new dress, he seeks to hide one error by covering it with another, and only makes things worse ; plunging himself still deeper into ©rror, until, compelled by conscience and the retributive harvest of his own transgres- sions, he is aroused to seek the path of simplicity, justice, and truth as his only hope for peace and salvation. Rational man is an epitome of universe in an unfolding state, and to understand himself in his mental and physical powers, with their corresponding relations to one another, and the source from which they sprung, as his relations to surrounding imiverse, and the principles and laws by which the whole is governed, and on which he is mentally and physically dependent, is to him of the utmost importance, and its value can not be overrated. That rational man, with surrounding universe to the ex- tent of his cognition, does exist, is a tangible truth revealed to every rational mind by intuition of which it is self-con- scious ; and however skeptical man may be, there never has yet lived the man who rationally doubted these facts. That there is an adequate Cause for these phenomena that Cause has also written in the constitution of man. For it is im- possible for man to conceive of phenoinena without referring 12 INTEODUCTIOIT. them to some adequate Cause, as every rational mind can demonstrate for itself. That man is a progressive being, he demonstrates for hun- self by individual, race, and nation. That he is also a falli- ble and erring being, not yet fully understanding himself and his highest and true interest in his relations to the im- mutable principles and laws that govern harmonious uni- verse, and the unfolding Cause from which they flow, is proved from the inherent weakness and fallibility of all his institutions, from his origin to the present day. Man has raised and clothed himself with power and grand- eur in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America; but the ruin and wreck of nations and empires in every quarter of the globe attest the futility of his efibrts, and^us ignorance of the immutable principles and laws of iMkrse, with the nature and character of eternal Cause froiffl^hich they flow, and before which the conflicting institutions of man have ever fallen and will forever fall. Therefore, to demonstrate eternal Cause, with his intrin- sic, germane nature and character clearly defined, by and with his constitutional principles and modes of being, is to unfold the foundation principles and powers of universe, and open up to man the immutable and eternal fountain of per- fect government, religion, philosophy, science, and art. That man is a free agent, conditioned only by the unmu- table principles and laws of universe, is established by the fact that he has inherent in his constitution th^ attribute of justice, knowing right from wrong, and can at will perform the one and reject the other, according to his best light and understanding, which attribute pertains to free agency alone, and distinguishes man from all other earthly beings, and proves him a responsible agent to the attributes of that Cause who has thus endowed him, and of which he is self- conscious, standing revealed to himself by the handwriting of the same eternal Cause written in his constitution. Man being the rational offspring of eternal Cause, he has a divinely natural inherent right to seek and know the Au- thor of his being, and learn the appropriate principles and system of government adapted to his condition, as a child has an inherent right to the breast of its mother. And that which most separates man from his eternal Parent, who is adequate to the supply of every need, is his greatest enemy. mTEODUOTIOK Mak inquires, Who and what is God ?, The voice that speaks the universal language of cause and effect, in phe- nomena of universe, by works and laws, responds. Divine, organic Being. We are God I We are that in which all things move, or are moved by us. We are mind and mat- ter, principles and powers, male and female ; but one unity of being, as the two poles, substance and power of a mag- net, form but one magnet. We are eternal cause, media, and effect. We are that which comprehends and expresses all realities, and by all realities are expressed. We are that without which no reality can exist ; and that which, taken away, leaves universe a chaotic blank profound. We are God of universe with its contents, and without us, there is no God or being. We speak through our attributes and works of universe without, and rational mind within : each one is a witness of the others ; and if any mind declare that which our attri- butes' or works deny, then know there is error. But if one proclaim and another witness, then know of a truth our light is there. We are without beginning, without end ; the omnipotent and eternal Actor, who by our attributes gives the fixed laws and powers of nature, and with molecular matter the coeternal object, have unfolded the present harmonious uni- verse without, and the progressive mind within, which men contemplate with awe and reverence. Every substance is known by its phenomena. Therefore the phenomena of a thing is its true language. The phe- nom,ena or language of a thing must he known or we remain in perfect ignorance of the thing itself. Existing universe, 1* 10 INTRODUCTION. with its contents, are the phenomena as language of eternal cause, and therein we stand revealed in a language that can not lie. . J ■ • ii. Truth is a torrent that nothing can withstand — it is the divine ultimatum ; and all who reject it will not be over- whelmed by the judgments of God, but by the recoil and fruit of their own blasphemous presumption and follies, re- turning in harvest and just judgment upon them as thp in- evitable consequence of their own transgressions. We call upon no minds to lay aside their reason, but to use it for the legitimate purpose of embracing every truth and rejecting all error. The first step to bo taken by every rational mind that desires progress, peace, and hajjpiness, is to elevate that portion of their mind that distinguishes man from the brute, to its legitimate rule and judgment in the whole economy of their being. If you reject the evidence of your rational mind, you cast down the throne of God in your owil soul ; prostrate yourself to the level of a beast, where you will find yourself yoked to the beastly and bloody car of ignorance and superstition, as the inevitable consequence of injustice to yourself and. profanity to God. As a fond mother putteth down her infant child to gain the use of its limbs by its own exertions, so have you been left to develop, by time and experience, the mental func- tions of your being. But the time has come for you to put off the infant swaddling-clothes of ignorance and error, and stand erect in the mental robes of justice, intelligence, love, wisdom, and truth, which we have prepared for you. As a mother fondly holdeth up her infant to the mirror, 80 will we hold you up to the mirror of truth. And as the sun of day rolls back the shades of night, and lifteth up the pearly dew, so will we drive back the clouds of ignorance and error and lift our offspring to a fond embrace. We are the God of love, but not of wrath ; our elements of mind are all in equilibrium and harmonious, and can not clash. Our witness, universe of space, with countless orbs afloat, moving in compound motions with wondrous speed without a jar. Harmonious works proclaim their author such. Wrath is the clashing of elements, ignorance and error the great parents of all such, that hover on the verge of life, where man first finds his being. But with us unknown, INTEODUCTIOSr. 15 fully reveal it ? What is man and his highest interest ? and what are his relations to existing and surrounding universe and the eternal Cause that fashioned and sustains it ? Can man fully know himself without knowing his correct rela- tions to that Cause from which he sprung, and on whose ia- Btitutions he daily depends ? And how can a man under- standingly and correctly know his relations to a thing with- out knowing the thing itself? Can man huild permanent institutions without a permanent foundation ? And what is permanent but eternal Cause, and those principles and laws that have formed universe and by which it is sustained ? These are questions that should interest every rational mind, and that every rational niiad should be able to cor- rectly answer, and xmderstandingly demonsiarate by philo- sophy and science. But who shall make bare the foundations of universe, and open a highway for the himian race to perfect government, religion, philosophy, science, and art ? Who shall presvmie to penetrate the arcana of Deity, and solve to human un- derstanding the eternal mind of Almighty God ? None but tlie infinite and perfect can perfectly reveal the infinite and perfect. We proclaim in our universal language the phe- nomena of universe — that we are eternal Cause, media, and effect — ^we are the divine, organic Mind of universe, and as such we will be known. And to the constitutional principles, laws, and powers of universe, with the eternal Cause in its demonstrated and defined nature and character, by the unerring and universal language of cause and effect, manifest in the phenomena of universe by that Cause itself, we now invite the attention of rational mind, as the most important need of humanity. INTRODUCTION. 13 Wiat is it, then, that no-w separates man from the over- flo-wing, saving, and eternal fountain of perfect government, religion, philosophy, science, and art ? It is ignorance and error — it is ignorance and error alone — that have defrauded you, and ^ept you from your rightful and divine inheritance. It is from them you have derived all your woes. Tlie sav- ing constitutional principles and laws of your eternal Fq^ent and of universe have, during your existence, been spread be- fore you in the universal language of cause and effect that can not be interpolated or caused to lie. But you have failed to know and obey it as the only saving and instructive per- fect trvAh, and language of eternal Gau^e and Author of your being. But tJie Infinite and Perfect reveals himself by a perfect and unchanging language, and speaks in no other — never has, nor forever will. He who says the perfect, eternal Cause speaks and declares his will in an imperfect language charges God with imperfection, and subscribes blasphemy to his own name. The chUd that would learn must learn the language of its parent. Do you teach government, religion, philosophy, and science to your children in the twattle of the cradle? Is it proper for the parent to go backward to the imperfections of the child, or the child to he unfolded to the perfections of the parent ? The child whose capacity is be- low learning the language of its parent is below useful in- struction, and unworthy the appellation of humanity. It is to the perfect language of a perfect Parent that you are now invited to read eternal truth,, and claim the divine inheritance of your birthright, and forever cast out ignor- ance and error, those tyrants of the human race. Man needs no more fabled gods, or iastitutions of Super- stition and ignorance under the name of government and religion. But he needs immutable truth, in a knowledge of truthful government, religion, philosophy, and science, as it flows self-demonstrated from truth's eternal fountain, formed and adapted to. his condition by the hand and wisdom of that Cause who has brought him forth, and who unfolded and sustains harmonious universe in order and beauty. That there is an adequate Cause for the phenomena of man and universe as they now exist is written in the constitution ■ of man. But as to what that Cause is, in its intrinsic con- stitutional nature and character, man has as a race, in his infantile ignorance and animal selfishness, forever differed 14 INTEODUCTION. and quarreled one with another, imbruing his hands in the blood of his feUow-man, and set up phantoni ^ods as the true cause, and ascribed demoniac characteristics to their names agreemg with his own dark state and selfish designs, and instituted ceremonial rites as worship, and from i^or- ance and selfishness has taught the most debasing doctrines, and enforced them by corresponding laws — with torture, fire, sword, and death — in the name of God as the eternal Author and Cause. But is the eternal Cause, in the infinitude of knowledge, power, and wisdom, to be degraded and changed in his con- stitutional principles and modes of being by the ignorance and selfish designs of man ? Must he reverse the order and wisdom of divine intelligence, and reverse the movements of planetary universe, and take upon himself the enraged passions of a brute, to encourage the blasphemous belief that such a being is Deity ? Must he forever be held up as a God who looks with delight and pleasure upon commimi- ties of men of the same blood and race mutually butchering each other, and committing the most enormous and debasing crimes their ingenuity can invent, while they shout glory, honor, and praise, offering up bloody and demoniac sacri- fices to him whose peculiar people they claim to be, and to whom they ascribe as an honor their dark and fiendish deeds? Men have made the gods they worship, and in their own likeness have they made them ; and the inspira- tions ascribed to God, in harmony with such phantom, de- moniac characters, are the fruit of their own dark minds. Being ignorant of themselves and their trije interest — de- ceived, they have become deceivers of one another. Their works are the fruits of ignorance and design, manifest through the perversion and untimely use of their highest endowments under the blind and selfish rule of their animal passions. Man and universe are demonstrated phenomena to every rational mind to the degree of its knowledge and xmder- standing. But what is the eternal, moving Cause that has produced and sustains these phenomena as they now exist ? What is the nature, character, constitutional principles, and powers as laws or modes of beiag, and language of this- Cause ? Is there any other language than the phenomena of a thing, or that which comprehends it, that can correctly and PHILOSOPHIC AID SCIENTIFIC ULTIMATUM. UNFOLDING EVOLUTIONS. The UNFOLDHiTG Evolution's, Demonstration, and Ad- DEBSS OF DeITT, by THE VoiCE THAT EOLXS IN THE Heavens above, in" the Earth beneath, and wit- • NBSSETH to THE RATIONAL MiND VS^ITHIN. There can be Imt one Infinite Organic Being, and that must of necessity form and compreliend universe in mat- ter, energetic motion, life, and mind, or fail to be infinite. As the system of finite man is made up of different and combined systems and members, so is the eternal God of Universe perfected in the fulhiess of harmonious systems and members beyond the power of man to number. And as the rational -judgment of man is his germane and legiti- mate centre and controlling substance, and his phenomena his circumference ; so is Immutable Justice the equilibrium, and controlling central substance in the eternal God of universe, and infinite and all-comprehending truth his cir- cumference. By Universe, we comprehend that expanse of Being cog- nizant to every mind, in degree proportionate to its powers, but to us coextensive with the realms of time and space. All space is filled with the elements of two substances, whose inherent nature and properties are essentially distinct, although intimately connected. We wUl term them Life and Matter. By Matter we coinprehend all particled or molecular substance of whatever name, form, or character ; from the most gross and dense, up to and inclusive of the subtile electricity, odyli, and magnetism. Of all this extensive di- 18 UNFOLDING EVOLUTIONS. vision, there is not one that possesses of its own intrinsic and inherent nature the power of action, much less thought and feeling ; moving only when hove out of balance, or by the inhering life of unparticled substance permeating and exist- ing between its molecular parts. Matter possesses proper- ties, but all matter is inherently inorganic and inert. Life and matter are coeternal, but it is self-evident to every ra- tional mind that life is the actor and matter the substance acted upon. Life is unparticled substance, and comprehends that eter- nal scale of livLag energy that permeates imivei-se, having as many elements and degrees of refinement as there are elements and degrees of refinement in matter or molecular substance. Life, by its own intrinsic and exclusive nature, is active and formatory. Life and matter coalesce, move, and dis- solve, according to corresponding degrees of refinement, affinity of properties, and the conditions and circumstances under which they are placed, producing the phenomena of universe by the most exact rules of philosophy and s'cience. Without life, matter can not form. Without matter, life can not outwardly express itself. Life is the positive sub- stance of all things; and matter the mediate between cause and efiect. In other words, life is the eternal mov- ing Cause, matter the mediate or substance moved, and the phenoniena of universe the efiect, as truth. and demonstra- tion. Life and matter dwell together, forever have and for- ever will. The system of imiverse without detraction or limit is the system of the eternal God ; and he who thinks otherwise stultifies his own mind and presumes upon limiting that which can not be limited. Life does not come in direct con- tact with gross matter ; but there are four elements of matter that combine with life, three of activity, and one of equilibriate repose, that pervade all matter and space, but in different degrees of intensity, refinement, proportions, and density, and manifest different characteristics in their differ- ent modes of being; through and by which the eternal mind and life of universe perform their functions and control all other elements of matter. Magnetism, the odylic force, and electricity, are the elements that respond to active mind and life according to its organization and powers, obeying its UNFOLDING EVOLUTIONS. 19 inherent nature and mandates, and througli and by Avliich it moves gross matter. Ether is the element of equilibriate repose to all mind and life. • Universe is divided into the system of Rational Mind, and the system of Nature. The system of rational n»ind comprehends the pure, ra- tional, divine, organic mind of universe who dweUs in the most refined, exalted, and imponderable elements of matter that fiU all space vpithout the atmospheres of planetary uni- verse : and includes the progressive rational mind of man. Man is the connecting link in which the universe of mind and nature meet in finite form. Rational mind is spontane- ous and voluntary ; possessing the power of self-direction and restraint, with motive, choice, purpose, and determi- nation. The perfect eternal mind dwells in its appropriate system, as the rational mind of man in his brain. But as the life of man pervades his body (which with his back brain is his system of nature) in drfferent degrees, even to his nails and hair, in which he does not feel; so the life of Deity per- vades the perfect universe, even to the mineral kingdoms, where naught but adhesive, chemic,and formatorylife exists. The system of nature comprehends all life below rational mind, and all gross and ponderable matter, with which are blended the imponderable elements with which Ufe combines in fractional and different degrees of perfection and endless variations. Life in nature is not the perfect divine organic mind of universe, but a representation in fractional and comparatively imperfect parts, by and through which as a comparison, like the shades of a picture, the true and per- fect is made to appear. The system of nature is involun- tary, moving and acting by philosophic and scientific laws assigned to it by the formatory rational mind of universe, but of itself without judgment, motive, purpose, or deter- mination. I do exist, is the knowledge of intuition absolute and ne- cessary existing in every mind ; but comparison is the base of ail knowledge; and that without which no rational knowledge can exist. It is impossible for mind to conceive a single idea separate and alone from all others. Three ideas are always in the mind at the same time, or the mind 20 UNFOLDING EVOLUTIONS. is without knowledge. Thus to exist, and not exist, are cor- relative ideas that mutually involve each other and exist in the mind at the same time, hut could not possibly be known without comparison, which is the third, and the one on which the other two are based, and held m contrast, as the positive condition by which alone they can be known. Thus knowledge is the result of comparison and contrast, and without comparison or contrast no knowledge can exist. Positive infinite justice, with intelligence, love, wisdom, and goodness, do and must exist ; but perfect, only in the system of pure rational mind ; and of necessity a contrast does and must exist, that by comparison the infinite and perfect may be known ; and this is found in the system of nature ; where the life of the infinite and perfect in frac- tional parts appears, and compared with the infinite and perfect whole is comparatively, in goodness and perfection, imperfect. Thus the fractional parts of perfection and good- ness become comparatively imperfect and evU. But, as the shades of a picture they are a necessary and perfect good-, to bring out in full relief divine and ineffable perfections and goodness, that otherwise could not appear. The perfect eternal Mind and life pervade universe, but in different degrees of perfection in diferent parts. Ignorance and error can not dwell in. the perfect presence of the eter- nal Mind ; but are the results of his comparative absence. Ignorance does not flow from God, but is to him what the cipher is to the unit, a sign of contrast by which he is known. Error is the cess-pool of ignorance, where men drink sweet but deadly poison, and in their consequent pangs spread their accounts before Deity ; but eventually foot up their own bills to the credit of justice and wisdom. A first principle of divine instruction is to reject all error and embrace every truth without regard to nation, creed, book or individual. Every truth has one foundation, the eternal Author of all truth. The eternal fountain of all truth is the divine organic mind of universe. We ourselves are that mind, the eter- nal moving Cause ; and through our universal language of organic mind and matter, cause and effect, we have defined and demonstrated our eternal mind, attributes, and char- acter. UNFOLDING EVOLUTIONS. 21 The Eteenal Mind as DSEnsrED and demonstrated by THAT Mind itsele, through his Immutable and Uni- TEESAx Language oe Cause and Eeeect. The divine organic mind of universe is a Magnet of Prin- ciples whose positive pole is Intelligence, -whose Sensivity or negative pole is Love, and whose bodily substance and equilibrium is Justice, whose expression, executive power or will is Wisdom, and whose effect, phenomena, or finishing word is Truth. The union of these five principles iq their most exalted perfection, equilibrium, and activity in one organic mind, constitute the omnipoteilt, omnipresent, omniscient, perfect, infinite, eternal, moving Mind and Cause ; as the two poles, bodily substance, expressional power, and effect of a magnet, form but one magnet. We are the Empyrean Magnet of universe, whose intrin- sic and inherent energy evolves and sustains itself ; and in cause, media and effect, fill, move, and animate universe in the most extended as in the most finite sense. That the likeness of our eternal mind as here portrayed, is one and identical with, and the exclusive, eternal, evolv- ing, and sustaining Cause, is demonstrated by the fact, that its component attributes thus organized are adequate to the evolution of existing universe with its phenomena, and that no other combination of powers known or conceivable, is adequate to the solution of the problem, Who and what is God, and the existing phenomena and evolutions of universe ? Component attributes of the Empyrean Magnet defined : Attribute oe Inteixigence. Intelligence is the eternal male and father principle ; it is that elementary substance of mind whose intrinsic and in- herent nature and activity is expansion, knowledge, and power ; it is the substance without which reason and thought can not exist, it is the radiating positive pole of the Empy- rean Magnet of universe. It combines with the odylic force as its fundamentaL physical element in matter, which be- comes energized by the contact, and manifests its character- istics according to the conditions and circumstances under which it is placed. 22 UNFOLDING EVOLUTIONS. Attkibute of Love. Love is the eternal female or mother principle ; it is that element of mind whose intrinsic and inherent nature is feel- ing, endurance, and adhesion. It revolves upon its own centre, and around the object of its attachment. Its nature is con- tractive ; but it moves to, and acts reciprocally^ with intelli- gence from the pleasure it enjoys in exalted living acts of goodness. It is the negative pole of the Empyrean Magnet, and combines with electricity as its fundamental physical agent in molecular substance, imparting spontaneous Ufe and power throughout the system of tmiverse. Atteibute of Justice. Justice is the central attribute and .standard as bodily substance of the Empyrean Magnet of universe. It controls all other attributes, and is the solution in which they are bathed, and the power by which they are evolved. Intelli- gence and love form the battery of rational Mind ; but justice ds the eternal cause of action, and regulates and sustains its currents. Justice is that omniscient and omnipotent element of mind, whose intrinsic natm-e is equilibrium, and whose ener- gy discerns, evolves, and sustains just and equitable relations in all things. It is the eternal judgment; the attribute around and in which all other attributes move as their guide and centre. Justice is the eternal author of order, weight, and meas- ure, harmony and beauty ; the author and only saving ele- ment in government, religion, philosophy, science, and art. Justice is absolute and unconditioned, and combines with the most active and positive magnetism, and placid but pos- itive ether ; it holds the magnetic cords of wisdom, and with them arms the odylic force and the electrical elements of universe ; and through them hurls its mandates through infinitude of worlds. Justice is the ceaseless, dissolving, and formatory Cause ; but it neither adds to nor diminishes any other substance, but by its presence produces change and exchange, of which it is itself the cause and medium, and gives to all beings their right or correct position, and by virtue of that posi- tion, their true and relative value, according to their state UNFOLDING EVOLUTIONS. 23 and corresponding relations to itself and one another. For- ever living by piutation and permutation, it holds its equi- librium, and remains itself in principles immutable. Justice as personified in our eternal Mind, is the absolute, immutable perfection, as equilibrium of all other attributes, and the substance of aU other attributes are necessarily con- tained in justice as the great, immaculate, central, and con- trolling principle in the eternal positive mitfd of God and Tiniverse. As every rational developed mind can demonstrate for itself, all other attributes may he evolved from justice, but from no other attribute ; -which fact establishes justice to be the omnipotent germane characteristic cognomen of the al- mighty and eternal God, as the immutable bodily substance of the Empyrean Magnet, and the exclusive, august, eternal, moving and controlling Cause in God and universe ; and that substance which united universe alone can fully express. We are justice, the omnipotent, immaculate, and eternal God, and as manifest through Intelligence, Love, Wisdom, and Truth, the only preservator and saviour of angels, man, and universe; and in the elements of our liquid, saving, and friendly bosom, harmonious material universe moves and bathes her glorious limbs, awed to silence in adoring praise. ^ Atteibute of Wisdom. Wisdom is the confluent and conjoint product and ex- pressional power of all other attributes ; the eternal flume of life, poured forth in a torrent of moving and living uni- verse, by laws and powers that nothing can resist. It is the eternal executive will and power of the magnet ; and com- biaes with and is the life of material magnetism in all its varied forms and combinations. Wisdom is the eternal light and mirror of mind, the om- nipotent I of pure conscious Being that represents all at- tributes in one identity. It is the recipient tablet j^herein mind stands revealed to itself, and by which it takes ration- al cognizance of all other phenomena. It never detracts from or adds to any thing ; but reports, retains, and moves in all other attributes and powers. Its inherence is life and change, and va. change, renewing life and equilibrium. Wisdom is that conscious omnipresent light that brings all things present to the eternal throne, and stands an angel 24 IINFOLDING EVOLUTIONS AND ADDEESS. agent in every rational mind, with the index-finger raised to justice as the eternal judge. AlTEEBUTE OF TbUTH. Truth is the effect of eternal Cause. All organizations and phenomena of universe are words and volumes of truth, that reveal their Author, each one to the extent that phe- nomena unfolds. Justice is the treasury, wisdom the mint, but truth is the finished coin, bearing the likeness of its Author, that all must appropriately use or lose their just re- lation to the Conservator of universe. It is the eternal robe, finishing work, and immutable word. TjNTOLDrN'G EvOLUnONS AND AddEESS — CONTINUED. We are the perfect eternal Mind and Power, whose in- trinsic and inherent nature evolves and sustains itself, and to which there can be nothing of mind added or taken away. For, as every developed rational mind can demonstrate for itself in the above, our germane and fundamental princi- ples, we comprehend aU othen principles and powers, and evolve all other appropriate attributes as the sun emits its rays. These our constituent attributes and principles are the constitutional law of universe, the foundation on which it is organized, hy which it is sustained, and from which flow the laws of nature. "We are the solution of the problem, adequate to the formation of man with universe, and its preservation in all its parts ; the eternal fountain of perfect government, re- ligion, philosophy, science, And art. True philosophy, sci- ence, and art are the nurslings of our bosom ; who with their lisping lips rebuke ignorance and error, the vile blas- phemers of our name. We are the exclusive, primary source of aU thought, feeling, and action, without which, as every rational miud can demonstrate, he can not himself exist, (^ any possible phenomena.. A finite magnet is a physical being, perfect in its degree, and existing within itself, independent of all other beings, save its great archetype whose existence it portrays by the inherence and energized action of one of his physical pow- ers. But take from the magnet its substance, a pole, ex- pressional power, or effect, and the magnet is no more. So take from the great eternal Cause, as here portrayed UNFOLDING EVOLUTIONS AND ADDRESS. 25 and demonstrated, either of tlie five component principles we have ascribed to ourself, and the universe of mind and action is a blank, as every rational mind can demonstrate for itself. Neither can you take away one of these princi- ples and substitute another in its place adequate to the functions of the one removed, as all other principles and powers are derived from and dependent on these, the ex- clusive, eternal, self-evolving Cause of all that thinks, feels, and acts, which includes all possible phenomena. Man has now, for the first time in the progress of human understanding, a perfect demonstration of the great eternal Cause, in an incontrovertible, definite, clear, and comprehen- sive form, beyond a doubt or cavil, to every upright, rational mind ; that reveals and demonstrates his nature and charac- ter to be eternal Justice, the personification and equilibrium of attributes, manifest through and in intelligence, love, wisdom, and truth : so plain, that a child may read, under- stand, and obey^ Yet adequate to the evolution, as solution of himself, and the problems of universe : as self-evident, from his own demonstrated intrinsic, eternal, omniscient power and perfection; to which nothiug of knowledge, power, or action can be added or taken away. We are the divine organic Being of universe, whose at- tributes in cause, media, and effect are the exclusive pri- mary moving source of its phenomena. As the sun from its central position, by its intrinsic material attributes, in the language of its Author, by cause and effect, is omni- present to the members of its system, and their controlling power and animation, so is our eternal Mind, from its relative and most positive position, by its intrinsic attributes, laws, and powers, omnipresent through the system of universe, and its exclusive primary cause of order, forms, energetic life and motion. The system of universe, without detraction or limit, is the system of the eternal God, and our eternal rational Mind, by its intrinsic evolving attributes and laws, is its relative, positive, central, and controlling substance. But while our perfect rational Mind dwells in the most ex- alted empyreal regions of space, in ineffable light and glory of life, in eternal beatitude ; as a necessary comparative contrast, like the shades of a picture, by which the likeness is made to appear, our spontaneous, instinctive, formatory, and chemic life, unconscious of its being, aim, or* end, per- 2 26 UNFOLDING EVOLUTIONS AND ADDKESS. meates, fiUs, forms, and animates the realms of nature ; where croverned by our assigned but nature's immutable laws it San not pass, it works for the eternal good of rational mind in hiarher spheres. AU truths of universe resolve them- selves into three fundamental truths, which are expressed by life, matter, and phenomena. We are in rational, toi-ma- tory, and instinctive life ; the eternal primary mo^g Cause ; in matter the mediate, and in phenomena the effect, as iin- ishing word and demonstration. But man should regard the august, eternal Cause alone, as the most exalted har- monial unity of all attributes, principles, and powers, that blend in the Empyrean Magnet, to roll forth its own imma- culate perfections in one omnipotent, organic, rational Mind personal, as the exclusive object of unbounded praise and full adoration. In giving to man an understanding knowledge of our constitutional principles, and the organization of our eternal Mind, with its demonstrated and defined nature and charac- ter, as here portrayed and demonstrated an identity with the eternal moving and sustaining Cause, we present to man the hey of universal knowledge, whereby the foundations of universe are laid hare to human understanding, and a high- way opened for human development to perfect government, religion, philosophy, science, and art. Here then is a foundation on which to build that can not be shaken ! Here is a standard reared able to protect that none can. pull down ! Here is a balance able to correctly weigh the greatest as least of both mind and matter ! Here is the true measure wherewith to compare all other meas- ures, and thereby estimate their tendency and value. In the understanding knowledge, constitutional principles, and language of his Creator, will man find all there is to be found, that wiU give true development, power, and happi- ness. And every departure therefrom will to the extent thereof bring its due proportion of dishonor, shame, and misery. And from this there is no appeal, for our immuta- ble justice declares the seed a man soweth shall return its kind again, and all who presume to revolutionize our estab- lished laws subscribe to themselves a libel on the wisdom of God, and sow to themselves a crop of self-damning folly, the harvest of which they can not fail to reap as a just re- ward to themselves and an admonition to others. UNFOLDING EVOLUTIONS AND ADDRESS. 27 Man, we are your great eternal Parent, to which you all may come but can not pass ; neither (jan you conceive of any thing in time or space we do not move or comprehend as the primordi^ source of knowledge, power, and action. Knowledge is the effect of mental polar action, the result of rational comparison and contrast ; knowledge is to the mind what energy is to the magnet — its life and power. You could not know the infinite and perfect but by a con- trast with the finite and comparatively imperfect. There- fore to man, the temporary, comparative imperfections in the finite things of God are really as necessary a part of the eternal perfection as the shades of a picture are equally necessary with its brightest colors to the perfection and beauty of the whole. We are the one, eternal, infinite Truth, that comprehends all other truths, the self-evolving perfect Fountain of govern- ment, religion, philosophy, science, and art. We are the eternal Scale of Life and Being, the five-fold omnipotent chord of Intelligence, Love, Justice, Wisdom, and Truth, whose varied modifications, degrees, and combi- nations comprehend all mind and life, and whose body com- prehends all bodies. We are that from which, in which, and to which, all man- ifestations and degrees of mind, life, and matter form, flow, and have their being. We are unceasing Life and Motion, inheriting eternal bloom of youth, strength, and beauty, with a life forever new, by unceasing and eternal mutations and permutations that are guided by the most harmonious, wise, exalted, per- fect, and immutable attributes. Life is unparticled substance, and energy itself, It is living use — pure being — but possessing different elements, and in different degrees of refinement as. with matter. Mat- ter is particled substance, and the substance used. In the use of matter, life and matter both become changed, not in their principles or respective inherent natures, but in their qualities respectively, and thus life is forever casting off its used elements of matter, and a portion of its own being, (when in an organized state,) and seeking new combinations on which it may spend its enei-gy and sustain its living identity ; and the elements of life thus cast off are, by their own inherent nature, forever seeking new combinations with 28 UNFOLDING EVOLUTIONS AND ADDEESS. corresponding elements of matter, and forming new and modified forms of teing. t, • ^ Life is the moving current of universe, that is torever ascending and descending the eternal scale of being, and manifesting at every degree or plane of action through which it flows in its varied combinations the high or low condition of its sphere by its phenomena. Positive perfect life dwells in the Empyi-eal System of pure Rational Mind without the atmospheres _ of planetary universe. Negative and imperfect life .dwells in the system of Nature within the atmospheres of planetary universe. The Empyreal system is positive, the system of Nature is negative ; and between them there is a reciprocal exchange in the elementary substances of both life and matter, as be- tween the positive and negative poles of a connected gal- vanic battery. The used and grosser elements of the Em- pyreal system are constantly descending to the system of Nature to be there renewed in renewing forms ; and the re- fining and refined elements of life and matter in the System of Nature are constantly ascending to the Empyreal system, to be there used in sustaining the most exalted organizations of organic life and pure rational mind. These two systems united form the system of Deity; and the eternal scale of Ufe and being, whose united perfection and head is the rational mind or spirit of the Infinite and Perfect ; and whose divergent base fills in different degrees of perfection the system of universe, as the life of man his physical system. The system of Nature is the laboratory of Deity, wherein the elements of universe are constantly being regenerated and born anew ; and by which means the universal system inherits eternal newness of Life, and perpetual bloom of beauty. Every primary phenomenon manifest in molecular sub- stance, organic or inorganic, is the result of the living principle within, that by its own inherent and intrinsic power, awakened by the conditions and circumstances in which it is placed reveals the power or combiuation of powers of the one eternal Life, appropriate to the conditions under which they are manifest. Wheresoever you turn, or daUy go, we meet you in our UNFOLDINGV EVOLUTIONS AND ADDRESS. 29 works ; minister to every need your mind unfolds, and through their varied tongues invite you to our arms. We are in every glowing sun, in every eccentric comet, in every rolling orb. In the subtile but potent magnetism, the active odyli, the serving electricity, and the placid but fiery ether. Our tongue is in the igneous vortex, the solid rock, the flaming volcano, the placid lake, and the surging ocean. Our voice is in the ascending vapor, the falling rain, the gushing spring,,the flowuig stream, and the roaring cataract. Our life and voice are in the microscopic mites that teem by millions in one single watery drop. Our life and voice are in the coral insects of the sea, that rear their islands to our name. Our life and voice are in the finny brood made in their varied forms, refiners of the watery realm; devouring, and in their turn themselves devoured ; thus keeping up an equi- librium of their kinds and preparing for higher spheres- the grosser qualities of earth. Our life and voice are in chemic life, that combines the minerals in their beds, bringing each varied substance to its own, or with affiliating neighbors of its choice. Our life and voice are in the humble moss that attacks the strongest rocks, disintegrates their parts, and appropriates them to its use. Our life and voice are in the tender grass and herb, which of themselves refining, lift a substance for the grazing herds ; where ascending matter meets instinctive life, and life in- hering, assumes the various animated forms that throng the plains, the hills, and woodlands of the earth. Our life and voice. are in the upright man, whose earthly substance the most refined, combines the powers of all below, takes on the progressive and immortal gift of reason, the likeness of his God, and stands erect to rule the. earth by our intelligence, justice, love, and wisdom. Life and matter are coextensive as coeternal, existing in and through each other, and correspondent ; each one having as many grades of being, both simple and compound, as the other. The intrinsic nature of life being organic, and the intrinsic nature of matter inorganic. Life being the mover, and matter the substance moved. Life and matter combine according to corresponding qualities, and by affinities and 30 UNFOLDING EVOLUTIONS AND ADDEESS. the conditions under whichi they are placed, producing their correspondent phenomena. And between them there is a coa- lescent and coessential relation by which they combine and dissolve. But life and matter are substances whose mherent natures are entirely distinct, and between them there is no exchange of substance or character. Matter is molecular or particled substance, whose intrm- sic nature and leading characteristic is inertia or rest. And there is no grossness or refinement of this substance that ■H-ill change its intrinsic nature and make it Ijfe. Life is unparticled substance, whose intrinsic nature is thought, feeling, and action, and is of itself germane organic energy, and a self-evolving power and fountain, revealing and demonstrating its own existence and character by phe- nomena in Cause and Effect to every rational mind, through its own conscious existence within himself, and* every phe- nomenon of visible universe. But there is no refinement or grossness of life that can change it to particled or molecular substance. In organic life and being, the grosser elements of life and matter, cast off by living use, gravitate downward to their appropriate level, while the refining and the refined ascend to their appropriate plain of action. Life is omnipresent and inhering, and responds to rational mind according to its mental states ; bringing in its train magnetic and odylic force, with electric power. The illuminated, exalted, aspiring rational mind inhales and appropriates to itself the elements of its divine Creator, and purging off the grosser elements of its earthly being, preserves its identity and ascends to Lfithe in the eternal fountain from whence it came, while the disorganized elements of its former state and being seek in the system of nature their more congenial home. The fractional and comparatively imperfect parts of the eternal living Cause of all that is, are in all forms, and reveals the inhering parts and properties of his being thus made manifest, by Cause and Effect, through phenomena, in that plane of action adapted to its sphere. All forms that have a beginning are in substance first held in solution, or an unformed state, by that grade or plane of plastic life or power that forming power unfolds ; and by degrees manifest the appropriate fonn and properties of the peculiar species belonging to that plane of action. UNFOLDING EVOLUTIONS AND ADDRESS. 31 Each mineral has its own peculiar life, that gathers like to like, and combines them in simples or in families, according to affinity and inherent rules. All crystals thus are formed, each kind peculiar to its native life, and as perfect as con- ditions will admit. Thus, in the lower planes of action, life is collective and formatory. But ascending to vegetable life, plastic power takes on organism : first in its humble forms, as moss and fern ; but every ascending grade of life is imbued with higher properties and powers, according to the plane in which it flows, extending up to man. By the co-relation of life and matter all particled bodies combine and dissolve, and receive their respective character- istic properties. By inhering life the particles of rock cohere together ; iron receives its tenacity, and gold its ductUity. By the co-relation and affinity of plastic life and matter, the organic forms of nature reveal in genera, species, and in- dividual the prolific fountain from which they sprung, and the immutable laws of their Creator, by which they are governed. The poison cicuta forever yields the same medical virtue. The life of the rose forever collects and dispenses the same beauty and aroma. The fig-tree forever produces its fruit without a visible blossom. And trees of different species grow side by side, drawing' their nourishment from the same soil and atmosphere ; each by the properties of its own inherent life appropriating matter congenial to itself, and perpetuating its kmd without admixture or detriment to its species. Ascending the great scale of life, higher grades of plastic power, imbued with sensitive instinct, cohering with material more refined, spread forth their planes of action in varied links of being, from herb to man. In map, as aU below, the life of God in fraction lives and speaks ; referring to the perfect whole. Each fraction of deific life is perfect ; yet perfect only in degree ^ as the imperfect fraction of a number compared to the perfect whole. Degree, affinity, and relation pertain to all things. Degree and relation are comparative, intuitive, necessary phenome- 32 UNFOLBING EVOLUTIONS AND ADDBESS. na of rational mind, without which no knowledge or under- standing can exist. Therefore, perfection and comparative imperfection do and must exist; or otherwise, no knowledge of either would exist. For the same reason, comparative good and evil do and must exist, or there could be no knowledge of either. Ra- tional knowledge without comparison is impossible. Positive, harmonious, infinite, perfect good must and does exist; but could not be known but by comparison with the finite, fractional, and comparatively imperfect parts of the perfect whole. No other than comparative evil does or can exist, for the positive, infinite, harmonious God demonstrates himself in the works of harmonious imiverse, and in positive, infinite harmonious mind, that perfects itself in the universe of life and matter, that with its fractional but united parts make up and fill the infinite perfect whole of aU that is in time and space ; and comprehends within himself all that can give thought, sensivity, power, or action. With the infinite, perfect God of Justice, the omnipotent holy equilibrium of Intelligence, Love, Wigdom, and Truth, there is no division of empire with demons or devils ; no such vile companions or associates with which to contend for the preservation of his own offspring, or to war and di- vide the reign of universal order. That there is no Satan, devU or other god, is to every ra- tional mind a self-evident fact ; as it is an impossibility for either to exist, or rationally to be conceived of as existing within a God who is infinite, unconditioned, perfect and immutable, without destroying that which can not be de- stroyed ; making the infinite finite, conditioning the uncon- ditioned, making perfection imperfect, and mutating the im- mutable. And that mind or life is a real, living, self-evolving sub- stance, every rational mind has a finite living demonstration within itself. For to hold that mind is evolved from mat- ter, is to deny the demonstrated truths of common-sense, philosophy, and science ; and hold that an effect is greater than its cause ; assigning cause, power, and action to that which IS intrinsically inert, and incapable of itself of either thought, feeling, or action. ' UNFOLDING EVOLUTIONS AND ADDRESS. 33 And that pure rational Mind, the positive pole of all life, is eternal, all may know ; as there is nothing adequate to its creation without denying the self-consoious truth that no effect can be greater than its cause. And to say that mind created itself, is declaring the action of power before it ex- isted. And that which is above being created, is above end or destruction. But with life as with matter, there is respectively a recip- rocal change and interchange of~-elements by each in its ap- propriate sphere, by combining and dissolving indifferent de- grees and proportions, and endless modifying combinations, producing the phenomena of universe, and by means of vsrhich the universal system of mind, life, and matter are con- stantly and respectively being condensed, refined, and sub- limated, and forever renewed in one eternal youth and vigor ; while eternal and perfect Mind, in its principles and , laws, forever reposes in immutable equilibrium and beatitude. We are Justice, the eternal, immutable Judge, and self- evolving Cause. All mental attributes and powers are de- rived from us, and in us have their lif^and being. We are the Empyrean Mag-net, whose perfect mind dwells in the Empyreal regions of space-as lie comparatively perfect-ra- tional mind of man dwells in his magnetic voluntary brain, and whose life in different degrees, fills and animates uni- verse as the life of man his physical system. Our life is voluntary and spontaneous. Voluntary life^ pertains to positive rational mind alone ; and is the ruling life of the Empyreal System. Spontaneous or involuntary life reigns in the System of Nature, and is governed by the assigned and immutable laws of nature it can not pass. As the spontaneous or involuntary life of man digests his food, throbs his heart, and heaves his lungs, without a thought or effort from his voluntary or rational miud, so the spon- taneous, or involuntary life of our bAng moves the planet- ary systems of universe, and their united, harmonious, and wisely adjusted effect sustains the elements of our being in eternal newness of life and perpetual bloom of beauty. Male and Female Pbinciples. We are male and female in all our varied degrees of ex- istence, and under the control and innate laws of the eternal Judgment, it is from the reciprocal and harmonious action 2* 34: UNFOLDING EVOLUTIONS AND ADDRESS. of these principles in connection with theii- physical element- ary powers in molecular substance, that aU the phenomena of universe transpire. Our divine impress is manliest m systematic order, proportionate and distributive degrees ot perfection, in all the elements and arrangements of our formation, from the highest endowments of mmd to the lowest organizations of matter. And by our works, m our universal language of Cause and Effect, we demonstrate our attributes and character. _ _ Judgment, Intelligence, and Sentiment, or Sensivity, are the primary and fundamental attributes of every rational mind. All rational minds are magnets based upon these principles ; of which Judgment is the germane, legitimate, con- trolling substance, and Intelligence the male principle and positive radiating pole, and Sentiment or Sensivity the fe- male generating or negative pole. These three principles form the substance as positive and negative poles of every rational mind, as the substance and two poles of one mag- net, and without which no rational mind can exist ; and from the coalescence and inherent nature and activity of these principles combined with their -respective elementary powers in molecular substance, result life ; in thought, feel- ing, and action. Thoughts in the human mind are the scin- tillations of life that flow between the male and female poles of mind, as the electric sparks between the circuit wires of a galvanic battery when slightly separated, and by which the judgment is illuminated and moved to action according to its light. Life in the animal, is its two poles brought in direct con- tact, without intervening judgment or the connecting wires of conscious being. He lives, but he does not know that he lives ; he dies, but he has no knowledge of death. In man life is a sparkling current of thought, with a judgment to illuminate ; and by its light and blissful tide, he is conscious of its high and holy origin, and seeks the fountain fi-om whence it flows. In us, life is one constant eternal, flame that brings all • things present to our view, and knowing the wisdom of the present as blissful end of all, we have eternal bliss. Judgment pertains exclusively to the Empyreal system of rational mind, and is both spontaneous and voluntary. In- telligence and Sensivity, the male and female principles, in the UNFOLDING EVOLUTIONS AND ADDRESS. 35 system of Nature below rational mind, are governed by na- ture's assigned laws they can not pass ; but retain and man- ifest their characteristics in their elementary, as organic forms according to the conditions and circumstances under which they are placed. And it is upon these germane elementary principles of life, with their corresponding and energized respondent element- ary powers in molecular substance, magnetism, the odylic force, and electricity, that the entire universe of mind, life, and matter are based and organized, and by the reciprocal and toalescent action of these principles and powers, trans- pire all the phenomena of universe m their most compre- hensive as minutest sense. The primary and fundamental elements of life combine with their corresponding elements in matter, by affinity and co-relation, and thereby the material elements become ener- gized and positive to all inferior elements, and manifest the characteristic nature of their energizing and coherent life, according to the conditions and circumstances under which they are placed. W§ are Omnipotent Justice, and magnetism our corre- spondent active material agent, permeating, guiding, and rul- ing, by our innate and assigned laws, ia aU other physical agents as we in our attributes. We are positive to all ele- ments of life, and ethereal magnetism is positive to all ele- ments of matter. The fixed stars are condensed, positive, ethereal magnets that mutually repel and hold each other fast in their re- spective positions by the repulsion and equilibrium of their power, and around which all other feebler planets revolve, as all other attributes around justice for theu- guide and centre. The moving stars or suns of universe are condensed odyl- ic and positive male magnets, moving around their fixed and respective centres, each surrounded and accompanied by its numerous and dependent train of earthly globes and their satellites, which are female magnets, in which electricity, the female element, predominates over the odylic and male force ; and consequently negative to their respective odylic male centres to which they respond, and around which they revolve as their guide and centres, holding a position in point of distance where the attractive and repulsive mag- 36 UNFOLDING EVOLUTIONS AND ADDRESS. netic action between them is neutralized in equilibrium, and moving not by any tangent force, but by the mherent natm-e of that element of life that imparts its energy and character to their predominant electrical elementary nature ; it being one and the same inherent energized force that causes the earth to revolve upon its axis that moves her round the sun. Two or more effects being in their nature an identity, demand an identity of cause, and one that will cover the whole ground of action. And the explanation of these phenomena as here given, being the only one known or conceivable adequate to that end, it may be regarded as a demonstrated solution of the problem. The sun is a dark, condensed odylic body, receiving its luminous appearance from its surrounding atmospheric clouds that, occasionally opening, show its body in dai-k spots, and the particles of which (atmospheric clouds) are kept in a constant, intense blaze of light by the friction and chemical action of the passing positive rays emitted through them ; and when these rays strike the atmosphere of the earth or other planets, a similar and corresponding effect takes place, producing light and heat corresponding in de- gree to the density of the atmosphere, and the vertical con- centration and reflection of its' rays upon the surface of the planet. The production of light and heat are mostly derived from chemical action. This is the true explanation of the phenomena of light and heat, and it is for him who doubts its correctness to produce light and heat, or either of them, without the transpiration of chemical change or friction. In the elements of the sun the odylic force predominates, and its rays are positive. In the elements of the earth elec- tricity predominates, and it is necessarily negative. And, consequently, there is a mutual attraction and relation be- tween them as between the positive and negative poles of a magnet. In other words, the sun is male and the,earth is female, and there is a reciprocal intercourse between them. When the remittent, positive male elements of the sun, in its rays, permeate the female elements of earth, she becomes pregnant through friction and chemical change, of which light and heat are the firuitftil children, from and through which emanate, and are supported as physical agents, the entire organic forms of nature. This is the true philosophy of Light and Heat, as revealed UNFOLDING EVOLUTIONS AND ADDRESS. 37 by our simple but unerring language of Cause and Eflfect, which, demonstrates itself from the fact that this solves the problem of the phenomena, and no other known or conceiv- able is adequate to that result. The light of the, earth is coextensive with her atmos- phere and the apparent blue color of the sky, the effect of seeing the dark odyUc regions of space through the chemi- cally illuminated atmosphere of earth. The evening and morning twilight are occasioned by the approaching and re- ceding rays of the sun, in its chemical action upon the rare- fied atmosphere in its upper regions, and are proportionate to the density of the stratum coming in direct contact with the sun's rays. In the perfect Empyreal system of universe, the male and female principles of life are blended in one harmonial unity of being, as reason and exalted sentiment in the rational mind of man. But in the system of Nature they are par- tially Separated, and manifest their distuict characteristics in separate, and individualized existence. The system of jN"ature is the laboratory of universal being, in which the energized, positive male elements in the solar centres are constantly being precipitated upon the negative female members of their systems, (which are the fruitful wombs of nature,) and there performing their appropriate functions they become changed, and generate a reciprocal, returning, negative current to their positive male centres, which in its turii becomes positive, as the blood in the hu- , man system is renovated in the lungs, and the constant healthy tide of life preserved. And upon these harmonious and appropriate principles is the eternal life and equilibrium of universe sustained', and it can be sustained upon no other. And it is thifs, through our universal language of Cause and Effect, in the mental and physical phenomena of universe, that we reveal ourself to our rational offspring, that all may read and understand in a language that no one can interpolate or cause to lie, through erroneous darkness or selfish designs. And to this language we invite all, to read the instructive and immutable truths of their eternal Parent, under a seal of his own hand that none can erase. The cometary system is that endless, interlocking chain and harmonial system of exchange that sustains all the ma- terial systems of universe in equilibrium, and manifests the 38 UNFOLDING EVOLUTIONS AND ADDRESS. eternal and infinite unity of matter in one identity, as wis- dom in our attributes tinds all in the one Omnipotent I of conscious Being. We are Justice, the eternal God, who rule universe, in perfect mind, with Intelligence and Love for our positive and negative poles of action ; and by energized magnetism, with the odylic force and electricity, for its positive and negative poles of action, we rule the perfect universe of matter. The male and female elements of life are two entirely distinct elements, but they mutually attract each other as the positive and negative poles of a magnet, and cohere or grow to- gether, reciprocally acting in unison from their mutually in- herent natures and reciprocal needs. And in this blended state, in a greater or less degree, they manifest themselves in all the great elementary powers of universe, and are rarely entirely separated in any of its organizations. Man, as the animated world, is male and female, thus pro- claiming the inherent attributes of his Author ; but each gender contains the leading features and character of the other, and each inherits the male and female attributes of' life ; but in the masculine gender the male elements predom- inate over the female, and in the feminine gender the female elements over the male. Thus each is measurably hove out of balance, and unhappy alone ; but by a judicious union in couplets between them the balance is restored, and happi- ness attained in the accomplishment of the ends for which they were thus created. Tt is hy the expansive and radiating power of the male energy^ harmoniously and judiciously blended in reciproeal action with the contractive and inherent rotary nature of the ' female energy^ combined with their mutual and relative at- tractions and repulsions, under the guidance of the volun- tary and fixed laws of the eternal judgment, that all the pri- mary phenomena of universe transpire. Justice, Intelligence, and Love are our primary and funda- mental attributes that evolve and sustain all others ; and we are clothed with magnetism, the odylic force, and electricity, as earthly man with flesh and blood. These elements of molecular substance respond to all mind and life, according to its organization, qualities, and powers, and by the contact become energized and subject to its will or inherent na- ture ; and it is through them that the mind and life of man UNFOLDING EVOLUTIONS AND ADDEESS. 39 comes in contact with the gross material of his earthly sys- tem, and every member is animated and moved by his vol- untary and spontaneous life, as we create, govern, and move the systems and members of harmonious universe by our voluntary judgment and the laws of nature. The laws of nature are but the fixed and sustaining spontaneous move- ments of our being, by which our elements are eternally re- newed, and our system kept in one perpetual youth and vigor, as the same functions in man are continually renewing his earthly substance. It is by the blended and reciprocal action of the male and female elements of life through their energized powers, the odylic force and electricity, that all hearts and muscles con- tract and expand, all lungs heave and inhale their breath, and by their positive and negative action all blood circulates. Through Intelligence, the male principle of our being, and the odylic force, we expand the universe. Through Love, our female principle, and electricity, its agent, we restrain and guide it in harmonious spheres of order and beauty, where they continue to move, by the laws assigned them, tlirough the energized effect of inhering life upon their mov- ing elements ; as the heart, the lungs, and blood, in the hu- man system, are moved by the energizing efiect of human life acting upon the same agents, without a thought or effort from the voluntary department of mind. But remove the energizing mind of man from his corporeal system, as the mind of Deity from the system of universe, and the ener- gized, magnetic, odylic, and electric force of each are still in death. In principles we are male and female, and on our works we leave our impress. Man is male and female ; go down the chain, through animal, bird, fish, iasect — all bear the impress of these distinguished attributes ; and in the vege- table kingdom you find the same principles manifested, and most wisely adjusted to sustain each other and perform their appropriate functions. That we are in principles male and female, is demonstrated through our universal language of Cause and Effect, that can not lie, in the male and female phenomena of universe. For that which a substance or be- mg does not contain it can not unfold. 40 UlSTFOLDIXG ETOLUTIONS AND ADDRESS. Ceeation. Coeval with eternal Cause is creation — without begin ning, without end. Universe of space is fiUed with the mind, life, and physical body of God. .^ . , The eternal mind and life of God are mamtest m the eter- ■ nal body and members of imiverse— as the mind and life of man in his corporeal system— by voluntary and spontaneous modes of being. The voluntary is the rational, ruling, and designing formatory Cause, and dwells in its appropriate sphere of the Empyreal system, as the rational mind of man in his voluntary, forward brain. The involuntary, irrational, or spontaneous life predomi- nates in the system of nature, where, under the established and immutable laws of the formatory mind, it carries into effect the purposes of eternal Wisdom, and performs the physical, laborious, and sustaining functions of universe by a constant regeneration or renovation of its elements, and in which duty it perpetuates and sustains' itself. Creation is but the constant renovation of the universal system, and transpires according to the condition and cir- cumstances in which we are placed ; as man by his mind and physical powers, according to the conditions and circum- stances in which he is placed, rolls forth thoughts and words, so we roll forth worlds and systems of worlds. Creation is not an arbitrary act of one department or at- tribute of mind acting upon another, as two or more indi- vidual beings, but the simultaneous, harmonial product of the converged attributes of Deity, moved by the eternal judgment according to requiring conditions, and executed or carried out in wisdom, through the established and un- changing laws of nature. Mind and matter are indestructible. But all things are changeable iu form, and iu the relative proportions and ar- rangements of their constituent elements, save the immuta- ble, eternal, and perfect mind of God in his principles, whose immutable perfections are forever sustained in infinite glory, perpetual youth, unfading beauty, and newness of life, by the constant mutation, dis^lution, and reformation of all life and matter below the plane of God's eternal, living, self- evolving, and self-conscious protecting principles. Immortal, immutable, eternal life and saving form are UKFOLDINa EVOLUTIONS AND ADDEESS. 41 found in our eternal attributes alone ; and all who would forever live immutable with us must clothe themselves with our eternal and immutable attributes, and become in princi- ples and movlQg power one with us, or suffer the transform- ations and dissolution of all mutable substance, and lose their identity of being. In the forms of molecular substance pertaining to the planetary systems of universe, there is nothing immutable but mutation, which is constantly taking place, however slow or unapparent it may appear to man. The planetary system as a whole, and as a consistent and necessary part of the great physical body of God, has ever been and will ever remain perfect and efficient ; but in its individual or constituent parts it has, is now being, and will be renewed as the trees of a forest, when each portion has performed the functions for which it was combined^ and placed in the system as mutable matter, and be replaced by new. The creative energy of our eternal mind is poured forth upon universe as the rays of the sun upon, the solar sys- tem, and omnipresent germs .of life to all foiins are quick- ened into growing being as other and previous forms lose their vigor and recede in their energy and power to give them room, as the wisely established laws of nature require, and adaptation of locality and conditions will admit. As the trees of a forest that covers the ground, so are the planets of universe that occupy space. As one crop of trees attain their growth, bear their fruit, lose their vigor, and one after another gradually drop their branches and make room, the quickening rays of the sun are poured through the opening, and from the well-stored bed of germs below, a new one is quickened into life to supply its place, and re- form and consume its changing substance. In like manner the planetary systems of universe arise from germs, grow to their appropriate size, bear and mature their crop of rational mind, and as they become old, their vital en- ergy recedes from their circumference, and between their con- verging circles new systems spring into being with the vigor of youth, and absorb in new structures the decaying systems of the past, as the young trees of the forest grow luxuriant from the mould of their deceased predecessors. As the individual trees and groves of earth spring from 42 UNFOLDING EVOLUTIONS AND ADDEESS. germs, and gradually attain perfection and usefulness, and are then resolved.into their constituent elements, so are the worlds, and system of worlds, that compose universe organ- ized, matured, dissolved, and taken up in new combinations, and the whole system eternally renewed in strength, life, and beauty, as the physical system of man is renewed particle by particle in his flesh once, a year, and in his bones once in seven, while his system is not impaired by the process, but on the contrary enjoys perfect health and vigor as a conse- quence of the same, and remains identically and effectively the same being. Our works and universal language of Cause and Effect, ■proclaim, in a demonstrative voice that can not lie, the un- varying and uniform modes by which all the m,utable sys- tems of universe are brought gradually and progressively into being, perform their functions, decompose and again recompose, in endless succession / all forms alike meet the inevitable change of all molecular compositions, and to our laws there are no exceptions. Each species and system has its 'own peculiar mo.dification of the sam,e laws assigned to it, beyond which it can not pass. The transient vegetable springs into being, matures, and perishes the same season ; while the sturdy tree of the forest in its rise and faU counts its years by hundreds ; and the planetary systems of universe by hundreds and thousands of millions. As long as this may appear la the mind of man, to the Eternal the renewal of the whole planetary system of universe is but one revolution in the wheel of endless time. The earth, with all other planets within the telescopic view of man, is not as much compared with universe, as one grain of sand is compared to the earth ; yet the same universal laws that pervade all worlds may here be read and applied for the general guidance of man ; as a given cause that will produce a certain effect here, will, under the same circumstances, produce the same effect in every part of uni- verse. Philosophic lovers of truth among men have so far read our divine language of Cause and Effect, as to approximate to a correct demonstration that the cooling process of the earth alone would occupy from two to three hundred mil- lions of years ; and to correctly account upon these princi- ples for tropical products, both animal and vegetable, that ^ UKFOLDINO EVOLUTIONS AND ADDRESS. 43 flourished for other millions of years in the now temperate regions of the earth, but are now being taken from its bowels in the form of mineral coal and fossil remains. Men speak of the antiquity of their race ; but calling one complete renovation of the earth a day, and dividing it into hours ^ you do the daily revolutions, and the human species appear Dut a few hours old, without having attained suffi- cient mental strength to know their own age. Less than one leaf in the forests of the earth, is the earth among the planets of universe ; and man to the earth as an ephemeral race of a leaf, that are brought into being and go through many generations and pass off the same day. All elements of universe move at our eternal will, and our creating fiat rests upon all systems to bring forth theirliving organic forms, as the progressive and maturing conditions of the individual world, or system of worlds, afibrd the susten- ance and proper elements to sustain and give to each succes- sive species of vegetable and animal life, its healthy, just, and legitimate scope of action. The planetary system, with its organic beings, is the most gross and imperfect of the body universal. But as in one part of the human body, compared to another, there is a wide degree of difference in excellence and exalted per- fection, yet without any unnecessary member; so in the most gross and refining department of the universal system, Avhere man first finds his being, are witnessed comparative- ly the most crude and unharmonious scenes of life ;" yet as a shade in the pigture, it is a necessary and wise part of the universal economy of God, the wisdom, and' beneficial effects of which will be more fully apparent, as human understand- ing becomes enlightened by the inherent developing power . of our supernal attributes. The TJj^ivbksai, LAirotrAGE commended, Ignoeajstce and Eeeoe eepudiated. We invite all men to their highest interest and happiness, in an understanding knowledge of themselves, their Creator, and his universal laws to which they are related and subject ; by a studious understanding knowledge of our universal language of Cause and Effect, as displayed in the phenomena of universe. For in this, will ultimately be found the full and perfect answer to every rational aspiration and physi- 44 UNFOLDING EVOLUTIONS AND ADDRESS, cal need, implanted by the Creator in the constitution of humanity. It is the exclusive key of eternal truth that will or can unlock the imperishable treasures of true and perfect government, religion, philosophy, science, and art, and un- fold to man the immeasurable resources of the mental as physical universe spread before him, for his mental and physical happiness and progression. In the understanding light of our universal language, to say that God has implanted in the human constitution rational aspirations and desires, as the desire of immortal life and identity, and has not provided adequate means for their rational gratification, is blasphemous; as it charges upon God injustice and malevolence, and characterizes him as a demoniac being delighting in the misery of his own creation. And to demand an immediate supply and gratification of eveiy mental and physical desire, without a corresponding efibrt to obtain it, when possessed of the means, is to ask favors without merit or justice ; and neglecting that whole- some exercise of mind and body that can alone unfold and give strength to the divine germ of your being, in which lies the true and progressive happiness, as highest interest and greatest mental wealth of man. In mental or physical resources, the intelligence and power of God lacks nothing, and his demonstrated and defined at- tributes and character prove that his benevolence denies nothing to his rational offspring that would be for their last- ing good ; but in the wisdom of God, it is . not good to be- stow without justice, merit, or benefit. Let every one properly weigh the motives that induce them to action, and if they need any thing, ask in harmony with the constitution and laws of the Creator ; ajid by meri- . torious and proportionate works of mind and body, no one will fail to receive their just reward. Although it may not come in the exact time and manner they may expect, yet the reward is as certain as the demonstrated, immutable, and defined character of our attributes, that are an assurance that the bountiful goodness of God will in his own time and wisdom fill to overflowing ever/ upright rational mind. An intelligent and wise child will not only learn to un- derstand and read the language of a wise parent, but speak it. UNFOLDING EVOLUTIONS AND ADDEESS. 45 When Washington as commander-in-chief of the Ameri- can armies descended in silence from his horse, and with his own hands placed a clod of dirt upon a cart, which a corpo- ral in his presence had refused to do because he'was an of- ficer, he spoke a word in the divine language of Cause and Efiect, and not only painfully rebuked false pride, and estab- lished discipline in an untutored army, but mentally im- pressed his love and wisdom upon a nation, and erected a monumental trait in the character of a great and rising peo- ple that will stand a blessing to mankind when armies shall fade away and monuments of stone totter from their base. Scientific, practical wisdom unfolded in love, wiU forever command the blessing of God ; as the admiration and obedi- ence of rational man, and all who would gather the harvest 'of true wisdom should not be ashamed of its practical cul- ture. Our divine universal language is ' the phenomena of the living and moving universe, that do exist and transpire in harmony with the most exact rules of science, philosophical principles and laws. The adequate Cause must be, and is lound, and found exclusively, in»the demonstrated most holy self-evolving fountain of Intelligence, Love, Justice, and Wis- dom. This fountain forever existed, and will forever exist. We are this Truth and Fountain, and we are God, and our immutable character is defined and demonstrated to be Jus- tice, the omnipotent substance and equilibrium of our attri- butes. By our language all things are or may be known, and without it nothing is or can be known. This is the key of truth and universe, and any qiiestion that man will and can correctly put in this our living and unchanging language, can and will be correctly answered. This is for all who seek immutable truth and understanding in government, religion, philosophy, science and art. Leave nothing out of a question that should be put in, and put in nothing that should be left oftt. And put it not in the emp- ty wind of your mouths, for we do not respond to wind ; but to mental aspirations, manifest in living works of mind and body, that from us have derived their being, and seek our truth in harmony with our laws, from the demonstrated inherent constitution of our most exalted nature, attributes and character, we must and do respond ; giving to all in har- 46 UNFOLDING EVOLUTIONS AND ADDRESS. mony with their organization and capacity, and as works and motives merit. We are the God of reality and works, and speak the lan- guage of reality in works of mind and body, by the most philosophic rules and exact science. He that would learn of us may observe our laws, learn our language in Cause and Effect, walk in the path of simplicity, justice, and truth, and put his questions in reality and truth, and in reality and truth he will find an answer. This is the language of true revelation as the language of the eternal God ; and all other revelations, as all other gods, are the offspring of ignorance and error begotten in the human brain in the infant and comparatively undeveloped state of the human race. In this our simple language in all ages of the world, phi- losophic lovers of truth have correctly asked questions, and demonstrated the sublimest truths of their day. A Franklin walks into the field, and in this our simple language, calls to the lightning in the clouds, and it descends trembling at his feet. In this our simple language, a Morse puts the captive fluid a question and gives it a tongue he can. understand, and it becomes your humble slave, doing your bidding round the world. In this our simple language, AUibaco call for the true Au- thor of his being, the eternal Parent and fountain of all that is, with his government, religion, character, laws, and lan- gug,ge ; and he finds himself unveiled in the presence of the demonstrated eternal God of universe, with the eternal re- ccid in the language of its author spread before him, and his own mind overpowered with inexpressible glory and goodness, and the fountain of eternal life forever welling up in the innermost recesses of his soul an overflowing torrent of truth, and dropping its precepts from the point of his pen in the language of man. In the elements of this our simple but most scientific lan- guage of Cause and Effect manifest in phenomena, universe itself revolves, and in it the eternal Cause, the God of mind and life and all that is, doth live and speak. This is true,' or there is no speaking nor forever can be, as every rational mind can demonstrate for itself. The elements of divine Mind are its attributes, forming UNFOLDING EVOLUTIONS AND ADDRESS. 47 the immutable constitution of universe, from which flow the laws of nature that are but the spontaneous and system- atic mode of life or action in the physical system of divine being. We are eternal Justice, the equilibrium and harmony of attributes, the substance of immutable mind, and moving Cause of universe. And the alphabetic characters of our universal language are the simple elements of nature ; through the means of which deific life embodies and mani- fests itself in material forms, as the mind of man through the elements and means of sounds and alphabetic charac- ters embodies and manifests his thoughts and will, in the form of spoken and written words. Every organic form brought into being in harmony with divine law is a word, sentence or more of God ; and pro- portionate to its extent and properties is a revelation of the inhering life thus made manifest by the co-relation of life and matter according to the existing conditions and circum- stances under which it is placed. Man has knowledge of a thing when he can distinguish between that particular thing and all others ; but to correct- ly know a thing he must know its component elements, their proportions and combinations ; but perfect knowledge com- prehends the above with its just relations to all other things. How superficial then, is th^ present state of human knowl- edge ! Universe is the eternal domain of Deity, and universal perfect knowledge alone is his. In the gross and compara- tively imperfect parts of his system his most gross and com- paratively imperfect life appears, ascending in gradation through living links or shades of dark and lighter life, till from the perfect beatific whole, inefiable glory breaks. In all the animal creation below man every species has its peculiar 'law of development and instinctive arbitrary rules of action, by which they are governed and moved with a regular uniformity to a given degree of perfection within a short period of their lives, beyond which they have no power or desire to go. Guided by the unerring laws of their Creator, they each enjoy through the sensitive contrast of unpleasing and pleas- ing emotions, by which surrounding objects and their ap- petites afiect them, that portion of happiness allotted to 48 UNFOLDING EVOLUTIONS AND ADDEESS. their race ; kaowing no distinction of life or body, no re- flection on the past, no knowledge or hope of the future, no judgment or reflection on cause and effect, they live ever in the present, and with the demands of their bodies satisfied, they are perfectly happy and contented ; without reason, conscience, responsibility, or remorse, they are perfect in their degree and complete in their race and sphere of action, fillhig a link in the great chain of comparative life as de- signed by their Creator. But man in his earthly state of existence, is a being com- bining the living powers of the united animal world, to which are superadded the divine likeness of rational mind as an unfolding immortal germ to whose progress there are no limits. Thus organized, he finds no end to his desires, and no end to the unfolding and increase of his mental attain- ments or the exalted glory and beauty to which they lead. With the above at Ms conimand and the laws of his Creator and universe, read to him in the universal language of Cause and Efiect by phenomena that can not lie, man is made a free responsible agent, receiving the full benefit of his own exertions in every mental and happifying improvement in his own mind time without end. The great need of man is to correctly and fully under- stand himself, in connection with his relations to his Crea- tor and the laws of universe, so as to act in harmony there- with ; unfolding the divine germ of Justice in his own mind that will in its own light and the light of his eternal parent, supply every need and guide him in harmonious spheres of scientific truth and quiet, moving among his fellow-men as the planets move in their orbits. Our wiwersal language of Cause and Effect demonstrative- ly proves that the incongruities of conduct witnessed in the human form, arise not from, any defect in mari^s creation or subsequent fall or loss of grade with his Creator ; for that would profanely impeach the perfection, knowledge, benevolence, and conservatory power of his Creator. But they arise from the action of man as a free agent and pro- gressive being, with a mind in its infant state, imperfectly enlightened t9 understand itself and the immutable laws of universe, with the existing and appropriate relations between those laws and himself. Man is endowed with a rational mind, capable of learn- UNFOLDING EVOLUTIONS AND ADDRESS. 49 ing our divine universal language of Cause and Effect, and therein reading the constitution and laws of his Creator and universe, and correctly applying the same to use for his own benefit. And with a divine witness in his own mind to teach him the religious duty of Justice, forever pointing to the difference between right and wrong ; with universe spread before him, man, in his rational mind, is conditioned only by the state of his own development, and the self- evolving, inherent, innate laws of the Creator, which we om-self obey, and which are but the expression as language of divine life in its modes of sacred being immutable, and which no rational being can in the least transgress with- out a corresponding recoil of his own doings by effect, in instructive just judgment upon him. This is the beautiful instructive language of Cause and Effect, as the language of the just and immutable' God. And he that loves the Author of Wisdom will learn to read him in his own language that can not lie or lead astray. While the foolish, blinded by egotism and ignorance, will bring down upon themselves the recompense of their own arro- gance and, folly, until by this just rod of correction they chasten themselves to observation and reformatory obedience. Tinder these circumstances it now rests, as it ever has and ever will rest with man, whether, of his own free choice, he will bow to the legitimate likeness of God in his own rational mind, and be guided by the just and immutable laws of God and universe ; or whether he will cast down the throne of God in his own soul, and ignoring the unmistakable and just government of his Creator in the attributes of pure rational inind, and his laws of universe, prostrate himself to the level of a beast, and wickedly pervert his highest en- dowments to the most shameful and brutal ends ; reaping the ignominious harvest of his own sowing, in wrath, con- demnation, shame, and misery. There is no endowment or faculty possessed by man that is not good and right, as right and timely used ; and ex- cept the untarnished and untarnishable inherent principle of immutable justice, there is none so exalted that may not be perverted, in some degree, to purposes detrimental to its possessor and his fellow-men. The true interest and wisdom of man is to exercise every faculty of his being, under the guidance of reason and judgment, and in harmony with 3 50 UNFOLDING EVOLUTIONS AND ADDRESS. the moral, physical, and organic laws of universe ; for the attainment of the divine likeness in his own mind, thereby securing happiness to himself, and extending the same, by- conferring to the reasonable extent of his ability the same blessing to the great family of man at large. But Ignorance and her progeny are forever blinding man • to his true and highest interest, and deluding him to paths of injustice and error ; where, coming in contact with our immutable principles and just laws, his own deeds recoil upon his mind in disappointment, shame, and misery, and bind him fast in the psychological chains of habit and disrepute. Instinctive life, through all its varied forms, with all the planes below, are but the soul of nature, where life in reason never shines, but is ruled by wise, unchanging, and spon- taneous laws. In man the perfect universe of mind and nature meet in degree in finite form : that mental man is in the true likeness of his Maker, these pages prove — for that which a mind does Hot possess it can not unfold. That the true likeness of the immortal God is not unfolded in his attributes and works, as here portrayed, there is no power can prove. For the immortal universe, with its ten thousand times ten thousand million tongues, shall ever sing its truth in an- thems of eternal praise to him who dwells therein. While phantom, demoniac, man-made Christs and Gods shall only raise their ghostly heads in damning memory and ignomini- ous fame to their priestly fathers, supporters, and worship- ers, until they through living works of reformation do repent, and make just amends for their dark, blasphemous, and selfish deeds. Free agency is a divine right, bestowed hy the Creator of man, and written in the constitution of every rational mind, and for all stich there is but one summum, bonum good, and that is found exclusively in obedience to a correct practical knowledge of themselves, and their existing germane relations to God, tJieir fellow-msn, and the constitution and laws of universe, thrj)ugh which they received their being, and on which they daily depend. It is the revelation of God by reason and intuition, writ- ten in the constitution of every rational mind, to folloio that which it knows to be for its highest and best interest. And with a correct understanding knowledge what that inr UNFOLDING EVOLUTIONS AND ADDRESS. 51 terest is, it is as impossible for a being ruled by understand- ing, reason, and judgment to depart from, the divine government, as it is for a planet to leave its orbit. And this self-evident fact, revealed by Cause and Effect, demon- strates ignorance {which is but the comparative absence of God) to be the great enemy of the human race. For the most exalted munificent Creator and his rational offspring there is but one perfect saying government. And that is the free immutable government of harmonious fixed principles, arising from a self-evolving fountain within, and manifesting itself in outward form by intelligent, benevo- lent, just, wise, pure, and harmonious living works and words ; the govei-nment proclaimed through all worlds, and in which they move and are sustained ; the government written in the simple but explicit and universal language of Cause and Effect, and spread before all nations that.they may read and understand ; the government of God him- self, in his divine attributes and laws — the greatest gift a munificent God can bestow. And for all who will not ac- cept, there is but one inevitable doom ; and that is to gather the ignominious hartest of their own transgressions to the end. To systems, worlds, nations, and individuals, the fiat of immutable Justice is the same. The intellectual, religious, and moral truth, flowing from the dem,onstrated attributes, nature, and character of the eternal Cause, with the fixed physical and organic laws of universe, are the constitution^ and common law immutable ; forming the divine government in polity, religion, philoso- phy, science, and art. It is the eternal Ultimatum, to which all must bow, or suffer in proportion to their transgressions or neglect, andfrorn which there is no appeal or escape. From our divine government you have derived your being, and are indebted for all your blessings and endowments of mind and health of body, for aU acquisitions of true honor, religion, philosophy, science, peace, and happiness, with- all cornforts and consolations of your present state, and just hopes for the future. But as you willfully, or through neglect, disregard the in- stitutions of the Creator, you fall under the rule of ignor- ance and error; where you receive individually pei'sonal insult, •poverty, oppression, disease, imtimely death, robber- ies, slander, dishonor, with wrath and horror of mind 52 UNFOLDING EVOLUTIONS AND ADDRESS. inexpressible. Nationally you have and wiU receive the clash of arms with oppressive taxes, fleets destroyed, towns and cities pillaged and turned, your wives and daughters violated, and once flourishing nations and empu-es trans- formed to comparative deserts, with their mhabitants reduced to slavish oppression, if not blotted out by fire and Ourimmutable justice gives to every individual as nation the legitimate harvest of their own sowing. When man, guided by justice, intelligence, and benevolence, puts forth his efforts in harmony with the moral, physical, and organic laws of his Creator, he is successful, prosperous, and happy, in proportion to his intelligent, harmonious, and effective efforts. But the reign of Ignorance and Error, with the clashing elements of their offspring — injustice, fraud, and supersti- tion — is the bitter fountain from which man has tasted all his woes. It is the comparative absence of our divine pres- ence ; the dark shade of contrast, by the means of which, alone, as a comparison, man knows his God. Happy the man or nation that escapes its stygian flood. We are not a partial God, but the God of universe, with universal love and justice. Men speak of a God who h^s infinite mercy ; but if his mercy is infinite, and distinct from justice, how can he 'be just ? Our mercy is love evolved in justice. • And our love is abiding with every in- dividual and nation, in exact proportion as they abide and increase in universal intelligence, love, and justice. Our demonstrated attributes and character conclusively prove that we can not have any peculiar nation, church, or individual ; but favor and reward all agreeably to their organization and efforts, and in proportion to their aspira- tions of mind, manifest by living works, for the development of themselves and others to the living spirit of our divine at- tributes, and the observance of the immutable laws of uni- verse, on which all true progress and happiness depend. All partial Gods, having vicegerents on earth, as claimed by _man, with peculiar individuals and people, manifest their own lack of omnipotence and justice, and prove they are but the spawn of ignorance and error, begotten in the mind of man while in an infant and comparatively undeveloped state. Whatever nation, sect, or individual claims peculiar and UNFOLDING EVOLUTIONS AND ADDRESS. 53 partial favors at our hands, speak from the profoundest ig- norance, profanely seeking to exalt themselves by repre- senting God unjust. Let man, by individual, race, and nation take each his Tieighbor by the hand, and from the clashing elements of ignorance, error, injustice, and superstition, mentally ascend to the reign of our divine government. Let no opposing diflSculties divert your jninds, or temporary gain allure you from your aim : inaccessible monntains may apparently in- tervene, but the now demonstrated attributes and character of our eternal Mind is an assurance that nothing shall de- feat the mind who calmly, ardently, and steadily pursues the only true hope and highest destiny of man. For our om- nipotent hand is forever stretched forth to all suppliants who perseveringly bow their minds to seek us through obedience to our light and laws. And although you may suffer affliction and clouds of darkness for a season, yet will we bring you forth as gold from the furnace, a tried treasure, and as the sun from the shades of night; and your souls shall glow in happiness with .the light of our divine presence. We ask no one to forsake father or mother, wife or chil- dren, houses or lands, or any just rights they may possess. But we invite all, as a kind parent would invite a child for its own good, to exchange ignorance for intelligence, malev- olence for love, injustice for justice, folly for wisdom, error for truth, and superstition for religion, with condemnation and guilt of conscience for justification, peace, and happi- ness. But why does man call upon God to curse the work of his own hands ? Have we given you a desire without its ap- propriate gratification ? Or do you find pain in rationally answering the just demands of nature? You must answer, No. For when you are weary with action in the pursuit of your own happiness we give you pleasure in rest. And when rest- is no longer a pleasure, you again have pleasure in action — with the combined intellect of the whole animal world at your command, and the ennobling likeness of oui'- self in the immortal, progressive endowment of rational mind for your guide, to go forth and again tread the flow- ery paths of scientific truth in the investigation of our works of universe, with their governing laws, and their adaptation 54 UNFOLDING EVOLUTIONS AND ADDRESS. to your own preservation, peace, and happiness. For your hunger have we not given you food ? and for your thirst have we not given you drink ? And is there not ennobhng health and strength, with moral preservation, in the procur- ing, and pleasure in the consummation of tljese your func- tions ? Admit us to reason, our rightful throne, and the answer of every mind is. Yes. And as with the above, so with evei-y other function of your being. But why does not man love a God whose harmonious worts and provident care proclaim him a God of peace, ho- liness, and love ? The truth is, we are your Creator, Parent, Friend, but up to this day you have never known us but to a very limited extent. You have- had a dark, incongruous idea of a great, eternal Cause, in some way connected with universe and your own being. But the divine germ of jus- tice — the living, harmonial, saving Spirit of God, to guide and move you by individual, race, and nation, as the plan- ets move in universe of space, has not yet been unfolded in your minds but to a very limited extent. Yet, implanted by the omnipotent Creator, it is imperishably there, strug- gling for life, and will not give you the true quiet and en- nobled position its divine nature requires, until you practi- cally unfold it to the light of our divine presence — as the bursting germ of the. natural plant is unfolded to the light of day — and place yourselves under the guidance of those immutable and saving principles and universal laws for which you were adapted by that Mind who gave you being. Do this, and we will be with you as the r^ys of the sun in a garden of flowers ; when, in the place of rivaliy at the sinking of fleets and the burning of towns, and over-reach- ing each other in stratagems of low, animal cunning, you wiU nobly display the character of your divine origin, and vie with each other in the practical exhibition of our divine attributes and mutual love, with courteous deportment .to one another, exhibiting a rivalship in the most exalted vir- tues. But as the child of a fond parent is stolen away by the strolling gipsy, and its mind (though innocent in itself) wickedly perverted to basest deeds through corrupting in- fluence, so have you, the ofispring of the eternal God, been drawn aside from your true and highest interest, and kept from your divine inheritance, through the darkening power THE VAIL LIFTED. 55 of the great seducer and harlot of the whole earth, Igno- rance. She is the mysterious Babylon of the Christian world, who sitteth in darkness upon many waters, obstruct- ing the divine rays of Justice, Intelligence, Love, Wisdom, and Truth, in every form, from penetrating your souls with their harmonizing influence, and filling your minds like an over- flowing fountain with the saving wisdom, love, and joy of our divine presence and goodness. It is she who has mar- ried her own son. Error, and with their incestuous offspring have filled the earth with every crime and woe yet known ta-.- man. She is the great harlot with which you all have play- ed ; you give to her your richest jewels ; she wears them on her filthy form, and in her purple robes of state blasphemes the name of God and rules the nations of the earth. We strip her of her royal robes, We lay her iu the dust ; Hand you the keen-edged sword of truth, To make the vital thrust. Thb Vail lifted, and the Delusions and Abomina- tions OF THE Haelot of Ignoeance exposed. In the so-called revelations of the Christian God, we find the following description of mpatal darkness, personified in the character of " the mothei* ©f harlots and abominations of the earth," as the inevitable and natural result of free agency acting under the governing influence of an animal nature, and with a comparatively undeveloped and perverted use of mind, that clearly can not exist but in that darkness which results, not from the perfect presence and manifest- ation of our divine Mind, but as the demonstrated proof of ■ its comparative absence and contrast. In other words, our eternal Mind, by its manifest presence through the omni- presence of its attributes, is the exclusive cause of those mental phenomena that transpire in harmony with our de- monstrated character and laws; while the phenomena of men- tal darkness transpire exclusively from a deficiency of our manifest perfect light and presence, and stand represented in their cause by mental darkness, the absence and contrast of God, so well represented and personified by the Christian whore of ignorance, mystery, and abominations. John 17:1: "And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me : Conie 56 THE VAIL LIFTED. hither ; I will show unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters : 2. " With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. 3. " So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilder- ness : and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet-colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. 4. " And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and the flithiness of her fornication : 5. " And upon her forehead was a name written : MYS- TERY, BABYLOlSr THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH." It will appear self-evident to every candid, reflecting mind, that Mystery, the first inscription on the forehead of the whore, is here synonymous with ignorance, as implying mental darkness, that can only exist from the manifest ab- sence of our perfect, eternal Mind, whose perfect presence is scientific light and knowledge, and where the one is per- fectly manifest the other can not be. Ignorance, therefore, personifies the absence and contrast of G-od, and, as a cause, represents those mental phenomena which, through compar- atively undeveloped and perverted minds, transpire, not by the perfect manifestation of our eternal Mind, but from its comparative and manifest absence and contrast of mental darloiess. As with the day of nature there are but two dominions — one of darkness and one of light — so it is with the Empyrean day of mind. Where perfect beams the radiant rays of our eternal attributes, there all is harmonial knowledge and sci- entific light, and the abominations of darkening faiths, mys- teries, and ignorance pass away before the light of scientific truth, as the darkness of the night recedes before the rising orb of nature's light. Ignorance is the necessary and con- trasting shade of darkness to mental light, as the darkness of nature stands in contrast to the natural light of day. Ignorance is a great dramatical performer, and enacts all characters, from the Creator of universe to the humble, de- pendent slave of an African king. But she most delights in THE VAIL LIFTED. 57 the perverted and blasphemous use of sacred names, and the drama of gods, with their incarnation and inspirations, rmder the name of Messiahs, Vicegerents, Priests, and Prophets ; and as the fundamental means of her power and sovereign- ty, she makes use of blasphemous doctrines, faith, mysteries, pretended miracles, and profane books — ^by her devoted fol- lowers labelled holy and sacred — as the word of the immu- table and omnipotent God, whose name and character they in truth blasphemously desecrate. But, by the scientific and universal language of Cause and Effect, every -thing is or may be scientifically known by its phenomena. And having now given the outlines of that mental darkness, which has been the prolific cause of human misery from man's creation to the present day, personified in the Christian whore of ignorance, mystery, and abomi- nations, we now proceed to an analytic and scientific view of her, as she rides upon her beast of blasphemy, and stands revealed by the fundamental phenomena of her power, and to which we invite the candid attention and sound examina- tion of every rational mind, as an exposure of the frauds resulting from mental darkness, under the weighty load of which the world has long groaned to be delivered. The blasphemous doctrine of the faU of man, faith, mys- tery, miracle, her gods, priests, and inspirations are the fun- damental phenomena of the great harlot of the earth ; and superstition, by her followers erroneously dignified with the name of religion, is the cement by which they are united. Her fundamental phenomena will now be reviewed in detail. Thb Blasphemous Docteine of the Fall of Man EXAMINED. Can Man fall ? Can an omnipotent, omniscient, all-wise, and perfect God be frusti-ated or fail to accomplish his designs or purposes ? The man who can answer this question in the afiirmative must first lay down his reason, and stand before the world self-impeached as an irrational or blasphemous being at- tempting to impeach the perfection of an all-wise, almighty, and perfect God. As perfect and impregnable as is the God of universe, so are and must be his works. Or as sure as there is a God, so sui-e it is that he can not fail of his purposes, or err in wis- dom or justice. And as we first created the different races 3* 58 THE VAIL LIFTED. of manHnd and awakened them all individuaUy to self-con- sciousness in innocence, so is every child bom and awaken- ed to self-consciousness and innocence at this day. Where then is the fall of man? Every rational mmd, whether created or procreated, at the dawn of consciousness stands alike on the verge of life justified before God and man and in his own conscience, but ignorant, save of its own conscious being, destined to learn by .our universal language of Cause and Effect the evolutions and laws of that eternal energy or power, of which its own consciousness is but one humble phenomenon. Each one alike is endowed with a monad, more or less, of our divine attributes, constituting the un- folding germ of an immortal, rational mind, of which their conscious being is but the effect and awakened flame of life ; and also with a transient, instinctive, animal nature in com- mon with the subordinate tribes of animal creation. Man- kind, each and every rational mind for itself, as a free respon- sible agent of that God who through the laws of nature gave it being, stands before him now at the initial point of con- scious existence, in the same relation of innocence and justi- fication, as stood their first created progenitors. There is then no fall of man, or loss of grade with his Creator as a race ; for no rational, reflecting mind will deny that we gov- ern universe, and teach mankind universally through the sci- entific language of Cause and Effect, and that condemnation and guilt of conscience is the inevitable effect and admoni- tory punishment visited upon all who willfully transgress the laws of justice, written by the hand of God in their innate and mental constitution ; and did the child of the transgres- sor inherit the sins of its parents, it would of necessity inher- it their guilt and condemnation, and we should behold in- fants at the first dawn of consciousness groaning under the accumulated guilt of their progenitors. But as the very re- verse of this is the case, it is self-evident as just, that every rational individual receives the merited reward of their own actions as causes, by the effects they produce, and from which there is no appeal or escape. That the effects of both vice or virtue may be remitted by the parent to the offsprmg is strictly true. And by the im- press and will of the Creator, it is the universal law of na- ture for the parent to desire the well-being of its offspring, and dread its degeneracy or misery ; which is a general stim- THE VAIL LIFTED. 59 ulant to the practice of virtue and the progress of human society as a bar to immorality and vice, and leads to the study and observance of those laws of generation that can not be^ overlooked with impunity by any who take upon themselves the responsible duties of a parent. All mankind have been created or born in ignorance ; in a state of ignorance all are subject to error and the conse- quences arising therefrom. Mankind must therefore first arise from that state in which they all first find themselves before they can fall. As a child physically creeps before it stands or walks, and can not possibly fall until it has pre- viously risen, so it is mentally with all mankind as a race, and by individual. No man can possibly fall from a state of light and exaltation that he has not attained or does no^ possess. And mankind never having previously attained to a scientific knowledge of God in his demonstrated charac- ter, constitutional principles anct laws, or of themselves, and their appropriate relations and duties in regaird to those principles and laws, they can not have fallen therefrom, only in proportion to their several attainments and their willful disobedience to the same; but from the inevitable conse- quence of transgressions bringing eventually their own cer- tain punishment, in the warning voice of God, by the immut- able laws and language of Cause and Efieot, it is self-evi- dent that no rational mind would willfully commit a trans- gression, did it clearly understand and rationally see that the consequences would eventuate in an entire opposite from that which was designed. To suppose or hold other- Avise, is to suppose or hold that mind thus transgressing is irrational, and therefore necessarily not accountable. The transgression of all rational minds must therefore be ascribed to ignorance, or in other words, to the results of its infantile or undeveloped state, wherein it thinks, feels, and acts, but thinks, feels, and acts inconsistent with its highest interest, and erroneously, according to the influences brought to bear upon it, from a lack of scientific knowledge in re- gard to its highest interest, its own intrinsic constitution, and the appropriate existing relations and duties, by which It is connected with the eternal Cause of action, its fellow- beings and the immutable laws of surrounding universe. Evil, therefore, arises not from God, but from his compar- ative absence, or what is the same, a state of mental dark- 60 THE VAIL LIFTED. ness, in which the mind acts in a measure of uncertainty and doubt, and can only find permanent relief as it becomes scientificaUy enlightened to the eflFect and final consequences of its own actions, as the causes that produce its own hap- piness or misery. Man being a free, rational, and accountable agent, be- ■tSomes the subject of merit or demerit, which necessarily implies a choice in regard to action. That a inonad of our attributes constitutes the rational mind of man, is demon- strated from the fact that nothing else known or conceiv- able is adequate to that phenomenon, and were man pos- sessed of nothing else but our attributes in perfection, he would of necessity act exclusively from them, and be as God to the extent of his capacity, but would never know in a self-individualized existence the sweets of merited happi- ness won from the contrasting shades of mental darkness by the voluntary force of will in opposition to the instinct- ive and alluring pleasures presented by an earthly animal nature, that of itself pays no regards to reason and just- ice. And on the other hand, were man possessed exclusive- ly by the animality of nature, he would then be but an instinctive machine, like any other animal or like the magnetic needle, moved by positive and negative attrac- tions and repulsions devoid of merit or demerit, and be- ing without mind, would know neither mental happiness nor misery, and wholly irresponsible for his actions. But in his earthly state of existence man being a compound of both, and, by the aid of judgment and reason, able to compare and decide on their respective merits as they reveal them- selves by their phenomena in Cause and Efiect, he becomes a free conscious agent to investigate their respective claims, and shape his own immortal destiny by the course he pur- sues. There are but these two sources of innate power — ration- al mind and animal nature — from which the identity, or free conscious will of man, can make a choice and precipitate a voluntary action. It may act purely with rational mind, as in the evolutions of mathematical science, or it may precipi- tate its whole force to the indulgence of animal gratifica- tions, ia disregard to the exalted, ennobling, and innate en- dowments of its Creator in justice, reason, and universal love ; or it may exercise all the powers and functions of THE VAIL LIFTED, 61 man's created being, under the guidance and equilibriate government of that monad of our attributes that forms its highest endowments, in the last of which man retains his innocence and justification, and progresses by the innate development of our attributes towards a perfect, finite like- Bess of that God who gave him being. But, from the circumstance that every individual of the human race begins its career of existence in a state of igno- rance, every one is liable to commit more or less errors, until, by the instructive lessons of Cause and Effect, they learn and appreciate the just and harmonial relation of themselves to the innate and surrounding laws of universe. JBut as just- ice does not hold a man accountable for what he can not avoid, unavoidable errors do not separate a man from God, or leave the sting of a guilty conscience, and therefore are not sin or fall from primaeval innocence. But when a man knowingly and willfully disregards the voice of the innate, ever-present, and lofty ambassadors of God, in Justice, Rea- son, and universal Love, to pander to the selfish, irrational, and unjust cravings of his instinctive animal nature, and per- petrates actions below the dignity of a just and reasonable^ being, he then, to the extent of his transgressions, departs from his primeval innocence, and falls from a state of justi- fication and perfect union with his Creator. To this extent all mankind, in their individual capacity as free agents, must and will be liable to fall, and lose their grade with their Creator if they will it, and in no other way ; and as free agents they can continue therein, until they are arrested by the retributive effects which their own actions, as causes, have brought upon them, by innate conviction and con- demnation, or by their fellow-men for their own safety and protection. And as a descending body everywhere moves with accelerated force the further it falls, so is it with the mental fall of man — the further he willfully departs irom rectitude, the less protection he justly receives from God ; and, from the psychologic force of habit, the stronger will be his inclination to evil. But, as every descending body meets a point it can not pass, so every willful transgressor accumulates, soon or late, a load of guilt and condemnation he can not carry and proceed, and is arrested in his course by the overwhelming torments and evil circumstances he 62 THE VAIL UFTED. brings upon himself, as the legitimate consequences, in cause and effect, of his own base actions. But no man can entirely fall, or perfectly separate himself from God ; for as thei-e is no rational, conscious life without an innate monad of God to produce and uphold it, a perfect separation would be annihilation, and incompatible with the perfect work and designs of a perfect God. As we have before in substance stated, transgression is always accom- panied by more or less ignorance, from which it proceeds ; for did any rational mind fully comprehend the final conse- quences of its own deeds in cause and effect before it en- acted them, as sure as it was a rational being so sure it would and must pursue the right and reject the wrong, from the innate, constitutional, and universal love of happiness implanted in every rational mind. And to suffer any ra- tional mind created or born in ignorance to so far transgress, in consequence of that ignorance, as to not be able to re- cover their rectitude and justification, is inadmissible with our demonstrated character and benevolence. No mind can fall so far as to be below the notice and .fa- vor of God, when it persistingly puts forth its best and con- stant exertions to recover its rectitude and justification, by returning to the jDerfect, rational government of universal justice, intelligence, and love, as manifest in the demon- strated and immutable standard of universe. And for this there is but one practical and effectual way for all and every individual of the human family, without distinction of race, birth, or talent — and that is a just restitution or reparation for every wrong committed, and the correction of every er- ror of life, as soon as made conscious of the same by innate conviction, without unnecessary delay, and as far as ration- ally practicable. Innocence is at all times and in all places better than repentance ; but when a mind has transgressed, repentance is then the best gift of God to man, and the only one by which he can regain his primeval innocence and fa-' vor with God. The only just and acceptable sacrifice or offering for sin is the sacrifice of the sin itself upon the altar of justice, by a just reparation of the offense or transgression committed, and the_ forsaking the same forever. When the transgressor does this, he thereby makes a just and practical confession to that God who is a God of justice, reality, and works, and THE VAIL LIFTED. 63 by an innate work, manifest in just, external action, the transgressor will find forgiveness and justification propor- tionate to the merited perfection of his works of repent- ance. It is thus in thepoioer of alC individuals to Jceep their primeval innocence and rectitude with God, their Creator, now, or restore it when lost, as it was for their first-created progenitors, and by the same and exclusive means. There- fore manldnd have not fallen, either by race or individual, from, that relative standing and relation to God in which they were firsP created and placed upon the earth as free agents, to learn by the immutable laws and language of Cause andJElff'ect, and rule their own destiny, for the worse or the^better, according to the course they pursue. But each one now, as then, begins his conscious career of existence in innocence and ignorance, with the same immutable institu- tions, laws, and language spread before him for his guid- ance and protection, and with the same penalties attending their infringement or neglect, as were spread before the first created progenitors of all mankind. And as the em- bryo and progressive work of a just and perfect God, no truly enlightened man can fall from innocence, as we have before shown, from the fact that, as a rational being consti- tutionally desiring happiness, with the known consequences of transgression before his eyes, it is as sure that he will evolve the good to produce that happiness he desires, and shun the evil he abhors, as that he is a rational being. While the ignorant, from their undeveloped and stupid state in not comprehending the final consequences of their actions, can go no further in their transgressions, from the legitimate and painful results they produce, than to awaken their rational functions of mind to a study and comprehend- ing knowledge of themselves, the immutable laws of uni- verse, and their highest interest and relations thereto, and bring themselves as willing subjects to the observance and practice of the same as the only relief from mental torment, and the exclusive and enduring source of mental happiness and progression. As all knowledge and mental happiness comes by com- parison, so ignorance and misery, to some extent, must, for a season, of necessity coexist with every rational mind, as the contrasting shades by which alone it can derive a conscious and enduring knowledge and happiness. And it should not 64 THE VAIL LIFTED. be overlooked, that in this light what are termed_ evils are but transient, apparent, and comparative only, serving a,s ths necessary, darkening shades to be experienced in the living picture of life, through which, by comparison, the true and perfect likeness is made to appear, in the possessed and im- mortal brightness of which the past and transient sufferings of man's • infantile existence become a permanent good, through remembrance and comparison to heighten unal- loyed'^and immortal bliss. To all individuals evil is the temporary, apparent, and comparative absence or negation of good. But good is the relief and positive substance, en- during and eternal, for which apparent evil does but pre- pare the way, and without which good could not be known. Therefore, as no knowledge of one can exist without the other, and the final end of all is eternal good, absolute, pos- itive, and certain, good and evil are but comparative parts and terms, that mark the trees of mental life from root to trunk — from trunk to branch, and flower, and fruit, that never fades nor dies. And is one individual brought into existence under circumstances that cause it unavoidably to endure more sufferings than another, then, from the immu- table and just laws of cause and effect, it will by compari- son realize corresponding degrees of happiness and felicity, when, by meritorious endurance and exertion, it has over- come the opposing obstacles to its immortal happiness. For man to fall, and permanently lose his relative stand- ing with his Creator, is self-evidently as much impossible as for God to be omniscient, all-wise, just, perfect, and al- niighty, and be a foolish, unjust, evil imbecile at one and the same time. Or, in other words, at the same time for him to be and not to be. As just, benevolent, and perfect as are our demonstrated attributes and character, so are and must be our works and institutions. Our demonstrated character conclusively proves that all our designs and purposes are benevolent, just, and perfect, and that their accomplishment must be in haTmony with the character of their Author, and can not fail. Therefore what man terms evil, as it arises to individuals, is only the fruit of their comparatively undeveloped minds, who, while in their embryo state, unable from ignorance of the consti- tional principles and laws of universe as of themselves, and their appropriate relations and duties in regard to those THE VAIL LIFTED. 65 principles and laws, ave temporarily unable to act in har- mony therewith, to the perfect manifestation of an enlight- ened, and pure, rational mind, and must consequently suffer proportionate to their transgressions ; until, from the be- nevolent teachings and admonitions of their Author in the universal language of Cause and Effect, they develop their minds to an understanding and observance of those immut- able principles and laws that harmonize and protect uni- verse, and form the innate and divine government of every fully developed rational mind. Through our universal, but scientific, simple language of Cause and Effect, our institutions and laws are spread alike before all mankind, and in this language we alike instruct them all from the cradle to the hour of death ; the beggar and the prince, the harmless child and the convict in his cell, are all alike the subjects of tuition, by our omniscient pow- er, in a language that can not err or lie. He that can not learn it, is a fool by nature ; he that can, and will not learn it, is a fool of choice, and must reap the ignominious har- vest of his folly, until in truth and justice he learns the language of his Author, and does honor to that God who gave him being. As sure as we, the eternal God, exist as an all-wise and perfect Being, so sure it is our works are perfect ; and as sure as our works are perfect, so sure it is that man, their crowning glory here on earth, can no more fall from that standing and relation for which he was created than the un- created and immutable power who gave him being can change his character. And therefore, the doctrine of the fall of man is a blas- phemous impeachment of our demonstrated and divine per- fections through our works, and can only result from that mental darkness manifest not by the perfect light and pres- ence of God in scientific knowledge, but from its compara- tive absence and contrasting shade of mental darkness per- sonified in the great harlot " with whom the kings of the eatth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine o/ her fornica- tion." For from this blasphemous doctrine, in modified forms, as the means and an opening wedge, ignorance has introduced as mediators, pretendedly for man's restoration to the favor of his Creator, a swarm of her own followers, 66 THE VAIL LIFTED. who as assumed Gods incarnate, Messiahs, Vicegerents, Priests, Prophets, and the like — have as divinely commis- sioned from on high, deluged and deluded mankind with the darkness of her own inspirations and revelations, in the name of God, whose demonstrated character they_ profanely desecrate ; and with her dark and contending factions of su- perstitious Faith, Mystery, and pretended Miracles, she has bathed the world in human blood, under the assumed and sacred names of God and religion, to which her debasing and blasphemous doctrines are but the contrasting shades of mental darkness. Faith . Which of you having children, the one an innocent and dutiful child, while another was willfully wicked, stubborn, and rebellious, would impale upon a cross in sufferings and death the innocent and unoffending to make atonement for the transgressions and crimes of the other, while he was left to pursue his course of wickedness unreformed? Should a case of this kind occur among men, the outraged feelings of humanity would justly stir every rational mind cogni- zant of the fact to arise and extirpate so heinous a monster from the face of the earth. And yet Christians charge this basest of all crimes upon their Creator ; and upon sustaining it they hang their only hope of salvation ! you deluded, self-styled enlightened nations of the earth ! on what a slender pin have you hung your most important interest. From Zoroaster and Chaldean slaves, to borrow devils and make them rulers' and companions with the God of universe is libelous ; but when you characterize your for- eign devils as tormentors of the wicked, and the God of universe as sacrificing the innocent that the wicked may es- cape the just penalties they are suffered to bring upon them- selves for their own instruction and amendment, you cap the climax of presumption and blasphemy, and characterize your God a devil, compared to which all other devils are but just and good. Such like faiths, without justice or reason, are the pheno- mena of the great harlot Ignorance, whose blasphemies, darkening faiths, and mysteries assume as many forms as the beast on which she rides has heads and horns. And in THE VAIL LIFTED. 67 ti-uth, the superstitious faiths of mental darkness, errone- ously called religions, arc really the " abomination of des- olation " she has set up as the fundamental means to ride in power. Faith is truly the shibboleth or test-word of the whore of ignorance ; for where the one reigns the other reigns also, and one is the product of the other. Faith comes of ignorance or mental darkness, as scientific light and know- ledge comes from God. And it is self-evident, in regard to any subject where the perfect light of God in scientific knowledge shines, that darkness of faith must pass away, as the darkness of the night before the light of day. Our eternal Mind is forever manifest by the phenomena of scientific life and knowledge, which as known and obeyed in practical and universal justice or holiness, become the ex- clusive religion of certain salvation to all who possess it ; for where there is no transgression there can be no punish- ment. Ignorance is forever manifest by the darkness of faiths and mysteries that never amount to the light of knowledge, and which can have no place with, or procedure from, our eternal mind, where all is scientific light and knowledge, and to which faith and mystery are but the contrasting shades of mental darkness, which in the minds of men conclusively prove the absence of our light. As the natural darkness of the night comes not by the manifest presence of the sun in his radiant rays of light,' but from the absence of the same, so the blasphemous su- perstitions of Faith, Mystery, and Miracle, miscalled reli- gions, come not by the presence of our eternal Mind in its radiant mental rays of scientific knowledge and light, but from the absence of the same ; for where our light and knowledge perfect shines, no faith or mystery can remain. It is thus by practically ignoring both justice and reason in her superstitions, which she dignifies with the sacred name of religion, and substituting the mental darkness of faith and mystery, that can have no practical existence in the scientific light and knowledge of God, for the divine light and gift of God himself, that Ignorance through her deluded and impostor advocates has succeeded in decoying mankind from following the divine counsel and voice of their Creator, as iftierringly expressed in our scientific and 68 THE VAIL LIFTED. universal language of Cause and Effect. Go where you will upon the broad face of the earth, where a sanctimonious priest of darkness lifts his head, the shibboleth and blasphe- mies of the whore of Ignorance fill his mouth, and roll forth prophetic torments, or damnation to the race of man, as far as any dare oppose the debasing doctrines he has to offer in the name of God, whose name and- character he profanely desecrates. All the superstitions of these deluded men, miscalled faiths of religion — of which, with their roots, trunk,, and branches as different forms of expression or manifestation of the same mental darkness, there are now over one thou- sand varieties in the world — upon scientific analysis by their phenomena prove themselves identically one in their char- acter, nature, and tendency. And from that mental dark- ness that gave them being, and in which alone they can exist, their advocates are constantly wrangling and con- tending one with another about Faiths, that never amount to knowledge, and often blasphemous, and without justice or reason ; Mysteries that can have no existence but in mental darkness. Miracles that as we shall show are impos- sibilities ; and Rites and Ceremonies that of themselves have no intrinsic virtue. Justice universal and perfect — the only practical religion of God and universe — when analyzed, shows its component elements to be the demonstrated attributes of God in equi- libriate and harmonial exercise, and comes not of any dark- ness of faith or mystery, but from scientific light known and obeyed, as revealed and demonstrated by our universal lan- guage of Cause and Effect. Superstition in every part of the world, and by whatever name it may be called, when analyzed, shows nothing but the mental darkness of the whore of Ignorance, manifest in her fundamental phenomena of Faith and Mystery, forever below the light of knowledge, and usually accompanied with their attending train of blasphemies, falsehoods, pretended ■ inspiration, and miracles. Examine whatever creed of superstition you please, and you will find that it is not based upon any scientifically de- monstrated knowledge of God, but that one and all of these debasing doctrines of delusion have their foundation in the same fundamental phenomena of the whore of Ignorance, THE VAIL LIFTED. 69 Faith, Mystery, and Miracle, that can never exist but in that mental darkness which forever marks the absence and con- trast of our eternal Mind, manifest in the light of scientific knowledge, and obeyed in harmony with our demonstrated attributes and character. Go through all the clashing sectarianism of the Buddhists in Eastern Asia, and you will find the fundamental doctrine of each to consist in the mental darkness of Faith, Mystery, and Miracle, and this under the name of religion, which they term holy and sacred, (holy and sacred darkness !) for- ever below the light of knowledge, and consequently below the light of judgment and reason. The same will be the result with Brahminisra in Southern Asia ; the same with Mohammedanism in Western Asia ; the same with Christ- ianity in Europe and America ; all substantially one in darkness, division, contentions, and strife ; all bearing the same fruits of injustice to man, blasphemy to God, false- hood and fraud ; and all leading to the most debasing en- slavement of mind to those deluded and deluding impos- tors with their followers, who set darkness for light, and teach and practice its sanctimonious mummeries in rites and ceremonies, as the practical virtues of a just and saving re- ligion. Now if Faith, Mystery, pretended Miracles, and Revela- tions, with martyrs, rites and ceremonies, were conclusive evidence of true religion, then every sect above enumerat- ed would have that evidence in abundance ; but so far from Faith, Mystery, and pretended Miracles proving religion, their ruling presence with any individual or people, conclu- sively proves the absence of the same, for it is self-evident to every candid, rational mind, Khat religion is the light of God known and obeyed, and as faith and mystery are for- ever below the light of knowledge, no man in the mental darkness of faith and mystery, ever kneiy God or forever can, and to obey as a free agent without knowledge is im- possible. But you must go by faith, say the deluded advo- cates of these debasing superstitions, one and all ; and as a sample, take the blasphemous doctrine of Calvin, a distin- guished Christian leader, in his five points: "First, that there are three Gods. Second, that good works or the love of our neighbor, are nothing. Third, that faith is every thing, and the more incomprehensible the proposition the 70 THE VAIL LIFTED. more merit in its faith. Fourth, that reason in religion is of unlawful use. Fifth, that God from the beginning, elected certain individuals to be saved, and certain others to be damned, and that no crime of the former can damn them, no virtues of the latter save." 'Now compare the character of the Being here described, with that of our analyzed and demonstrated character as we have presented it to our rational offspring, and it stands out in contrast as the darkness of midnight, in the effulgent rays of the noon-day sun. A man who can thus blasphemously ascribe to God a character so seLf-damning and abhorrent to every attribute of a just and benevolent Creator, to fur- ther his own earthly and ambitious designs, conclusively proves himself under the dominion of mental darkness, and his mind perverted to an antagonism with God, that would well answer to that of a devil incarnate. And we will here observe, that it is in this sense — that of a free agent, who through ignorance and ambitious delusion, has perverted his endowments to an antagonism with God, that the word devil may have an appropriate place and meaning, and it is in this sense that we would be understood to use it ; but as designating a self-existing organic being of evil that can not be reclaimed, it has no foundation in fact. It is by such dogmatic, psychologic, and ambitious im- postors as Calvin, that the world has been imposed upon. And as to the fruit of such accursing faiths of darkness, Calvin himself gave to the world a fair specimen, in burn- ing at the stake alive for two hours an honest opponent of his blasphemous doctrine in the person of Dr. Servetus at Geneva. But as Calvin, with all^other impostors of the whore of Ignorance must have some authority for their atrocious doc- trines if they do not pretend to be God himself, in person in- carnate, or to his immediate inspirations or revelations, they refer to their predecessors in ignominy more illustrious, who have not scrupled to thus blasphemously derogate from the demonstrated omnipresence and perfection of God, for the purposes of power and revenue, and to suit their own ambitious designs, and who have left their detestable doc- trines on record under the name of holy and sacred books, as the Vedas of India, the Koran in Arabia, and the Bible with the Christians, as the word of the eternal God, for THE VAIL LIFTED. 71 the guidance of man. Prom these corrupt books, sancti- moniously sanctioned with the name of God, holy, sacred, and the like, their successors and deluded priests can select and quote passages as the authority of God, for any doc- trine or crime that may suit their selfish or ambitious pur- poses. As blasphemous and abhorrent as the doctrine of Calvin must appear to every rational mind, who dare use his rea- son and judgment for the honor of God who gave it, and his own preservation ; yet they are all drawn from the Christ- ian Bible, to which Calvin professedly bowed as the word of God ; and which, with all other so-called sacred, but man- made books, are the work of priestly impostors and their agents, as the gods of faith or darkness, whose self-damning likeness they portray. And made by priests, for priestly ambition, lust, and power, they all for priests contend, and ignobly damn all who to their darkening doctrines do not bend. Does an impostor or priest of darkness under the Christ- ian banner conceive it for his interest to inculcate the most abject submission to his assumed divine mandates in peace, he sanctimoniously refers to the most appropriate passages of the Bible as the all-authoritative word of God, and cites the meek and humble submission of what he calls the peaceful and lovely Jesus to do his Father's will ; that all are by him required to love their enemies, return good for evil, do good to those who despitefuUy use them, and if a man smite thee on one cheek, turn to him the other also. But has some one the discernment to penetrate his hypocritical and base designs, and for the good of mankind honestly ex- pose them, then like Calvin, his malignant and hellish ire knows no bounds — and if he has the power, the fire and fag- ot must bring the honest victim to the most excruciating and lingering death. And he glibly quotes from the same dear priestly Bible as the word of God, where the same lovely and peaceful Jesus expressly says, Matthew 10 : 34 : " Think not that I came to send peace on earth. I came not to send peace, but a sword." 35. " For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mo'ther-in-law." 36. "And a man's foes shall be those of his own house- hold." And from Deut. 17 : 12, he adds: "And the man 72 THE VAIL LIFTED. that will do presumptuously, and will not hearken unto the priest, etc., even that man shall die." Thus, from what he calls the all-authoritative word of God, he can derive sup- port for any crime to which the avarice, lust, pride, or am- bition of his selfish animal nature may prompt him. Does he for himself, or in connection with those who have laid down their reason and judgment at his feet, and become his pliant tools of faith in life and property, as the elect or peculiar people of the Christian god, desire to defraud oth- er people of their property, he has the exj)ress command of the god he worships, as illustrated in his dealing with the children of Israel. Exodus 11:1: " And the Lord said unto Moses," etc. : 2. " Speak now in the ears of the peo- ple, and let every man borrow of his neighbor, and every womaii of her neighbor, jewels of silver and jewels of gold." 35. " And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses : and they borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment." 36. "And the Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyp- tians, so that they lent unto them such things as they required ; and they spoiled the Egyptians." And is it ne- cessary to exterminate any other people to come in full pos- session of tlneir property, he has the same dear Bible au- thority of his demoniac god to Moses and his people in re- gard to the inhabitants of the land of Canaan, of which not one soul was to be left to breathe. Does he conceive that he may introduce malignant pro- fanity and drunkenness to his advantage in the drama of the whore of Ignorance, to accomplish his base designs, he can cite the drunken and cursing Noah, of which he has the revelation of his Bible god to say, " Thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation ;" and to Jeremiah 13:13, where he expressly says : " Then shalt thou say unto them. Thus saith the Lord : Behold, I will fill all the inhab- itants of this land, . even the kings that sit upon David's throne, and the priests, and prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with drunkenness." Is not this Bacchus, the god of. drunkards, under another name? Are deceit and lies at any time necessary to the advance- ment of the impostor's conceived interest, he has the ex- press revelation of his God in the words of the Christian Bible to support him. It informs him that Abraham, with THE VAIL LIFTED. 73 all his lies about Sarah, his wife, was the peculiar favorite of his God, and termed the " father of the faithful ;" that Jacob, the polygamist, obtained the blessing of his father, Isaac, through the deceit and lies practiced upon him by himself and mother in the matter of the birthright, and notwithstanding which he was approved of his god, and on Bible authority declared to have seen him face to face. And further, the adored and sainted Paul expressly says, Romans 3:7: " For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory, why yet am I judged a sin- ner ?" A God whose favors are won by deceit, and who is glorified by lies, is surely not the demonstrated God of uni- verse. Do the delud,ed Christian followers of the whore of Ig- norance and her gods thirst for incest, they have their ready Bible authority, as the revelation of their god, to show that the incestuous family of Lot was by him termed righteous, and so far the object of his special favor on ac- count of that righteousness, as to be warned to withdraw from a city devoted to destruction. Does any Christian priest or his devoted followers, who have laid down their judgment and reason at his feet for his self-accursing faith of darkness, wish to remove either friend or enemy by death, that he may live in undisturbed adultery with his wife, he has the illustrious example of the Bible . David, and the express revelation of his god to say that David was a man after his own heart. And would he become wise, according to the same in- spirations, he may emulate Solomon, and build a temple to the same god, and in it put two calves as the gods of his fathers, and give unbridled indulgence to his lust with a thousand women, as did the aforesaid Solomon, and with whom the Bible god was so well pleased that in reference to him, Samuel 7:13, he emphatically says : "And I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever." 16. "And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established forever before thee — thy throne shall be established forever." Do Christians from their animal natures desire sodomy, they have what they call their holy and dear family Bible, as the express revelation of their god, to show, that of three male and exclusive gods of which their Deity is composed, one is not a created but a begotten Son, and being with the 4 74 THE VAIL LIFTED. Father before creation began, that he must have thus been begotten, a9 there is no other way possible to be conceived of; and therefore, although contrary to every ennobling in- stinct, and the endowments of judgment and reason, as true Christians who go hy faith — and, in the words of Calvin, "the more incomprehensible the proposition, the more merit in its faith " — they must by that faith, which they esteem as before judgment and reason, and the infallible guide of their lives, lay down both judgment and reason as "of unlawful use in matters of religion," and follow the word and exam- ple of that diabolical character revealed by the whore of Ig- norance as the true god of the Christian, and who by his own showing begat a Son in sodomy before the world began. Such are the blasphemous fruits and abominable faiths of Ignorance and her deluded followers, who do^iot hesitate to impute to God, or couple his name with the most base' and degrading crimes, to answer their own ambitious designs, and then term their own designing faith of mental darkness and mystery holy, and hold it up with its self-accursing in- spirations, in connection with perverted intellect, as the re- ligion and light of God ; while a Galileo, who dare advocate a scientific knowledge of our divine laws and institutions through our universal language of Cause and Effect, they per- secute and imprison, or burn at the stake — as the Italian, Bruno — because they expose the base delusions practiced upon the people by an ignominious priesthood for the pur- poses of power and revenue, to the desecration of all that is holy and sacred, and the degradation of the human race. Faith is the psychologic means by which Ignorance, through her deluded and impostor advocates, draws her vic- tims to darkness and destruction. He who acts from faith walks in mental darkness and in constant uncertainty ; for faith is no surety, but a state of anxiety, and unless its emotions are founded in justice and reason, will surely perish. But he who takes the demon- strated, scientific truths of Cause and Effect for his guide walks in the light of knowledge that is immutable and can not betray its trust. Every rational mind is endowed with Justice by the Crea- tor, which is the germ of true Religion that grows as devel- oped by cultivation with all men. So Religion is not derived from any faith or priest but from God the eternal Author, to THE VAIL LIFTED. 75 yield its best fruits as best cultivated, to all who desire them. Superstitions of faith, erroneously called religions, are laid in a drama of mental darkness called mystery. Their gods are mysteries, their so-called sacred books are myste- ries, and their pretended miracles are mysteries ; but in the light of the true God, and the religion of Universal Justice, there are no mysteries. In what then do men now trust for salvation but in mental darkness, the contrasting shade of the demonstrated and eternal God of scientific light and knowledge ? Yet all the deluded advocates of superstition, hold their faith an essential part of religion. AU faiths be- ing less than knowledge, can reveal nothing but the dark- ness and emotions of ignorance and superstition where they dwell. Religion consists in the knowledge and performance of rational duty, in harmony with the demonstrated attri- butes and laws of the Creator. He who trusts and remains in faith, can never know re- ligion, for as faith is forever less than knowledge, the thing is as impossible as for a man born blind and remaining so, to know the light. Faith analyzed, shows that its component elements are mental darkness, or in other words, that its emotions are forever below the light of knowledge. The scientific religion of universal justice resolved to its primary elements, shows its constituents to be the demon- strated attributes of the eternal God in harmouial exercise, neither more nor less. You are all free agents ; will you take the latter for your religion, or will you remain the subjects of a superstitious faith of ignorance and mental darkness, trusting in priest- made gods of anger, wrath, and sodomy, some of which, as the god of Christians, cause the innocent to suffer in atonement for the crimes of the guilty ? Trust your salvation to faith — trust your eternal all to a state of self-damning doubt, when the light of saving know- ledge is within your reach — faith is nothing but a state of doubt and darkness at best, for were faith surety, it would be no longer faith and darkness, but light and knowledge, the very reverse. In light and knowledge obeyed, lies salva- tion, and no where else. For what have all the so-called re- ligious faiths of the world availed mankind, but to plunge 76 THE VAIL LIFTED. them into the ignominious chains of superstitious slavery and darkness, and embroil them in the most destructive and deadly wars, to gratify the avarice, selfishamMtion, and malignant pride of the inspiring and contending impostors and chieftains who led them ? For two centuries were the resources of the Mohammedan and Christian world mutu- ally exhausted in destroying the lives, property, and happi- ness of each other, for a difference of faith about a purged, ' vagabond, phantom god, who according to their respective teachers and his pretended inspirations and revelations, was the special and peculiar friend of each, while both were mu- tually imbruing their hands in the blood of each other, pre- tendedly to sustain and propagate a faith they had each re- ceived by express revelation from the same diabolical char- acter, and as they both respectively claimed, witnessed to them each by numerous miracles as the attesting approba- tion of the same god, that their own was the exclusive faith by which mankind were to propitiate his fkvor. As it is impossible for such things to proceed from our eternal Mind and demonstrated character, or the just, intelligent, and benevolent principles we have given for man's guidance and protection, it is self-evident they arise from the animal selfishness, pride, and ambition of those deluded and base impostors, who instigate them for their own aggrandize- ment, by blasphemously using the name of God, and prosti- tuting every principle of true religion, while they sancti- moniously profess their whole object is to propagate and sustain it. Such have been the fruits- of faith, and such they must continue to be, so long as mankiM will submit to lay down their judgment and reason at the feet of those deluded im- postors, who teach it for religion, rejecting the scientific light and knowledge of God as revealed in our universal language of Cause and Effect. As faith is less than knowledge, no man by faith ever knew God, or forever can. How then can a man obey that of which he has no knowledge ? lie must first know God, as manifest by his constitutional attributes and laws of uni- verse, and by practical obedience thereto, he exercises true religion, the fruits of which are salvation from all known and willful transgressions, and the consequent condemna- tion and debasement that attend them. THE VAIL LIFTED. 77 He who is guided by the light of scientific knowledge, imitates God ; but he who is gilided by faith, walks in its darkness, following those misguided teachers and willful im- postors, who teach it for light. As the darkness of faith leads to sectarianism and dis- cord, thereby proving the comparative absence of God ; so the scientific religion of Universal Justice leads to harmony and concord, thereby proving the presence and inspiration of God. There can -be no difference of opinion in regard to scientific Truth, with those who equally understand and profess it. The superstitious faith of Christianity by blasphemously imputing to God the punishment of the innocent, that the wicked may escape the merited reward of their crimes, ignores both justice and reason. When Faith assumes to go beyond Justice and Reason, it assumes a position beyond the Eternal Cause, and having nothing but darkness on which to stand, it must of necessi- ty fall from its own incongruity. Faith as an incentive to knowledge, is worthy of regard as founded in justice and reason, but should be analyzed before trusted ; as destitute of justice and reason, it will prove an ignis fatuus to the mind, leading it a self-damning chase through the quagmires of superstitious ignorance and error. From the fact that Faith varies in all individuals accord- ing to circumstances and their state of development, and has no fixed and scientific value only as it is founded in justice and reason, and that not being known but by the light of knowledge in comparison with scientific facts, it does not possess the necessary intrinsic principles of salvation. Were all the world of one faith, and that their trust for salvation. Faith not being surety, there would be nothing but uncer- tainty, darkness, and doubt. But religious knowledge con- tains the intrinsic and conclusive elements of science and sal- vation to all, proportionate to their possession and obedi- ence to its dictates. As every rational mind becomes en- lightened to a scientific knowledge of the demonstrated constitutional principles and laws of universe, and of them- selves and their appropriate relations to those laws, and are obedient thereto, they partake of a sure and certain salvation from all the ills that arise from their infringe- ment, which includes all for which man is" accountable. 78 THE VAIL LIFTED. And in proportion as this course of conduct is pursued, mankind become united in the fraternal bonds of univers- al brotherhood and affection, as the children of one Great Parent whose attributes it is their rival pleasure to dis- play. Religion does not consist in a dark and doubtful faith, but in a scientific knowledge and observance of those immutable laws of rational Mind and of universe, which is the light of God unto salvation to all who possess it. Scientific knowledge is truth, and therefore surety ; but faith is not surety ; were faith surety, it would be no longer faith but knowledge. Faiths having no substantial base of demonstrated truth, can have no true science, which is itself truth ; but are con- 'stantly antagonistic and clashing, proving by their own fruits that they have their root in darkness, the comparative absence and contrast of God. "While the scientific princi- ples of universal justice, regarded as the practical govern- ment and religious duty of man, develop him to the di- vine likeness of his Creator, through the innate action of his attributes, with as much certainty as the rules of mathe- matics properly exercised produce their appropriate pheno- mena. Justification and salvation are, the fruit of our divine at- tributes known and obeyed ; but all the faiths of the world united, do not amount to knowledge ; and are therefore in- adequate for salvation. And from their demonstrated con- stituent elements of darkness, they are necessarily and con- stantly running their advocates and followers into the quick- sands and quagmires of ignorance, error, and contention, where faith is taught for religion, sophistry for philosophy, and mankind deluded and robbed, in the place of being en- lightened and saved. A scientific knowledge and observance of the constitu- tional principles and laws of universe, is alone the salvation of man, nationally as individually. And for a rational mind enlightened to an understanding of the same, to trust his salvation to faith, would be as inconsistent as for a rational man to go to sea in a paper boat, when a staunch and invul- nerable ship awaited his reception. All the superstitious faiths of men, erroneously called religions, wear on their faces the evidence of the most debasing ignorance and blas- phemous presumption. THE VAIL LIFTED. 79 That man who knows God, himself, and duty, and that duty 'performed,, knows that he has salvation by the approba- tion of God in his, own conscience : all priestly faith and prayers to the contrary notwithstanding. Scientific knowledge is mental light ; and ■without know- ledge light has no existence in the mind ; faith being less than knowledge, is mental darkness ; and self-accursed is that sanctimonious priest who holds the darkening cloud to intercept the rays of scientific truth from God to man. To establish faith in the place of knowledge, in matters of religion, is to establish darkness in the place of light for the guidance and protection of man. Mind, from its intrin- sic and constitutional nature, requires not faith and dark- ness, but scientific light and knowledge. To trust in faith is to trust in mental darkness, the demonstrated and com- parative absence of God. But to trust in scientific know- ledge is to trust in the attributes of that God who evolves it, and w^ho forsakes none who obey it. The mind, always desirous and open to truth, will never find the end of improvement. But he who revolves upon a fixed faith, is like a top constantly in motion without mak- ing any advancement. Faith being without the light of knowledge, can never ad- vance mankind beyond the circle of darkness in which it re- volves ; for without knowledge mental improvement is im- j)ossible. Faith is a wilderness of darkness and uncertainty. The priests of ignorance preach their self-accursing faiths of darkness as the gift of God ; but darkness can not come from the mind of God, where all is scientific knowledge, light, and truth r that which a substance does not contain, it can not evolve ; the mind of God has not faith, and there- fore can not give it. Faith comes not by the perfect pre- sence of our eternal Mind, but by its comparative absence ; and is therefore a phenomenon of ignorance or mental dark- ness, and not of light or knowledge. Were faith perfect light and knowledge, its emotions would be clear and cer- tain truth, and the mind free from that dark and self-dam- ning doubt that forever attends it, and marks it as the child of ignorance, and the contrasting shade of darkness to sci- entific light. The mind who ^bows to scientific truth, bows to God ; but he who lays down his judgment and reason on the altar of 80 THE VAIL LIFTED. priestly faith, sacrifices his highest endowments to impostors of darkness. The man who has not the rights of judgment and reason, has not the rights of a rational being, and be- comes the abject slave of those who thus sacrilegiously rob him in the name of God — whose name and character they profanely desecrate. Of all the faiths of superstition now in the world, each one calls his own the true faith of religion. But as there can be but one true religion, so there can be but one true faith in regard to it ; and that is it which trusts not in it- self, but in a scientific knowledge of the constitutional prin- ciples and laws of universe, and of the rational mind of man, with his appropriate relations thereto — and the practice of Universal Justice — for which there is no condemnation or punishment, and which yields to its possessor the most un- tarnished honors, glory, and immortal happiness. Faith being less than the light of knowledge, he who for salvation rests therein can never know it. But he who has religion in a scientific knowledge and obedience to our con- stitutional principles and laws of universe, has a surety in salvation itself; for with us the demonstrated God of Jus- tice, where there is no transgression, there is no punishment. If men will and must have faith, let them believe what reason demands and justice approves ; against this there is no law. But to believe against justice and reason is to com- mit rational suicide. When a man rejects scientific knowledge for faith, he re- jects the certain light and truth of God for its contrasting shade of darkness, where the light of God in knowledge never shines. Scientific religion is as perfect and unspotted as the eter- nal fountain from which it flows, and justly and self-evi- dently as saving as the practice of the possessor. It re- quires no. priestly faith or ceremonious mummeries, but the practical exhibition, in word and action, of that innate monad of our divine attributes for the harmonial enlight- enment and advancement of the human family, that brings its appropriate reward by the immutable laws of Cause and Effect, to all who acknowledge and obey them. Having now conclusively shown that faith has no part or place in our eternal Mind, or the scientific and saving relig- ion we teach and inspire, but that it is a phenomenon and THE VAIL LIFTED. 81 characteristic of Ignorance and her superstitions, we now turn to M T S T E E Y. Mystery is the first inscription on the forehead of the Christian whore, and its true import is ignorance or mental darkness, the very absence and contrast of God, as will ap- pear self-evident to every reflecting mind, from the fact that where there is no ignorance there is no mystery ; or in other words, Mystery is antagonistic and incompatible with scien- tific light and knowledge ; for in regard to any subject, as the one exists, the other must disappear. And to give some idea with what profound reverence and awe Christians have been deluded to bow down and worship this fulsome strumpet of darkness, under the name of godliness, we will cite a few passages of her own inspiration, but which those who wor- ship beneath her darkening and polluted garments have been deluded to profanely hold forth and claim as the Word of God. Tim. 3:16: " And without controversy, great is the mystery (darkness) of godliness." 1 Cor. 2:1: " But we (the preachers) speak fhe wisdom of God in a mystery, (darkness,) even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory." - 1 Cor. 4:1: " Let a man so account of us, (the preachers,) as the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries (darkness) of God." Luke 8:10: "And he (Jesus) said. Unto you (the disciples) it is given to know the mysteries (darkness) of the kingdom of God : but to others in parables ; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand." With us, the God of universe, there is no such thing as a secret, mystery, or mental darkness ; and therefore all who teach and worship mysteries as godliness and wisdom of God, teach and worship the very opposite of the demon- strated God, whose eternal mind is the fountain of light and knowledge, from which no mystery, faith, or darkness can proceed. Christians themselves nniversaUy acknowledge the god they worship to be a mystery ; his inspired Word is a mys- tery, his incarnation or Messiah is a mystery, and his whore is a mystery; and this all comes from the darkness of igno- rance, faith, and mystery in which they dwell. And when the mystery or darkness of the Christian superstition, erro- 4* 82 THE VAIL LIFTED, neously called religion, is fully brought to the light of human understanding, it will be seen that by substituting darkness for light, and attaching thereto the sacred name o£,God, with a character in direct antagonism to his own, has been the means by which impostors of darkness, under the assumed names of priests, prophets, and vicegerents of God, have reared and sustained a system of faith and mystery, which for injustice and blasphemy has no'rival upon earth, and de- fies the ingenuity of man to add thereto. What more un- just and blasphemous doctrine ever Scaped the lips of man than that of imputing to God the unnatural and debasing crime of sodomy, and the punishment of the innocent that the wicked might escape the penalties they, as the neces- sary conditions of their free agency, are suffered to bring upon themselves, through the just, benevolent, and univers- al laws of Cause and Efiiect, for their own instruction and amendment ? He who teaches Scientific Truth to enlighten his fellow- men, teaches to the honor and glory of God, and for his own tille interest. But he who in the name of God propa- gates the darkness of faith and m^teries, under the name of godliness and the wisdom of God, implants the very contrast in the place of the reality of God, and desecrates the sacred name of that Being he professedly worships, to his own injury aild that of his fellow-men. It is written in the universal language of Cause and Ef- fect, that can not err : Self-accursed is that teacher who for salvation knowingly and willfully leads mankind to rely upon any thing less than the demonstrated attributes of the Eternal God, and the scientific laws and truths flowing therefrom. The inspirations of Ignorance pay no respect to scientific truth or reason, but assert faiths which are less than know- ledge, pretended miracles that are impossibilities, and mys- teries that can only exist in mental darkness. The inspiration of God speaks scientific truth by the uni- versal language of Cause and Effect, in which no falsehood can exist, and in which there is no change or shadow of turning. Mysteries, sophistries, and legends of superstition, though black with pretended miracles — gray with age — and labeled with all the sacred names of the vocabulary, will have no THE VAIL LIFTED. 83 weight witli an enlightened mind, when tried in the balance against the demonstrated truths of scientific knowledge, re- mitted by our attributes through the universal language of Cause and Effect. Mysteries can no more exist in a scientific knowledge of true religion than the darkness of midnight in the effulgent rays of the noon-day sun. As mysteries can not exist with us, the demonstrated God of universe, or flow from us, so far as regards religion they are the fruit of priestly lust for power and revenue, begot- ten with the strumpet they adore, and labeled with the name. And by the means of which, in the sacred name of God, they delude and rob their fellow-men, and make ob- scure the light which they pretend to preach — unmindful of the truth that injury to man is injustice to the God who made him. The darkness of faith, mystery, and pretended miracles has had its reign upon the earth, but the time is now at hand when our divine principles of Scientific Truth, which have been slowly progressing for ages, will break forth in an over- powering flame for the universal enlightenment and general good of man. The rational functions of mind awakened to appreciate the divine instructions revealed through our universal lan- guage of Cause and Effect, and combining them with the experience of time, will bring men to think and act system- atically, and in harmony with the constitutional principles and laws of universe, as the only means of securing to them- selves the favor of God, and their own best good and hap- piness. Minor lights that have glimmered in the darkness of past ages will pass away before the effulgent brightness of Scientific Truth revealed by our divine attributes, and the discords of Mystery and superstitious faiths of darkness will be supplanted by the harmonial principles of Universal Justice, and the demonstrated facts of Scientific Knowledge. Science is the friend of every rational mind, and none but deluded priests of superstition, and kindred prowlers of the night, who take their prey in mental darkness, wiU know- ingly oppose its heavenly light. Science is the tree of knowledge, whose branches, bending drop the golden fruit — the word of God. Mystery and faith 84 THE VAIL LIFTED. are the negation of knowledge, the dark abyss of contrast, where the light of God in knowledge never shines. Ministers of God teach scientific truth. Ministers of darkness hold forth their clouds of darkening mystery and faith, the radiant rays of scientific truth to obstruct. Self-ac- cursed and self-accursing is that teacher and his doctrine who obstructs the radiant rays of God's Eternal Truth. The altars of faith, mystery, an(i miracle are all altars of darkness — alike Pagan,' alike Mohammedan, alike Christian — whereon mankind are deluded to make their offerings pre- tendedly for God, but in reality to the earthly exaltation and pecuniary benefit of those deluded mortals who have erected and attend them. Their pseudo-gods are all the incestuous offspring of Ignorance and Error, whose priests, like beasts of prey, crouched in darkness behind their altars of faith, mystery, and pretended miracles, profanely use the sacred name of God to hide their ignorance and base designs. Like ravenous wolves, they quarrel for the people's spoils, and with their feuds embroil the world in sectarian strife, bloodshed, and war, pretended for some holy cause ; but power and spoils, once safely to themselves secured, they backward slink, in gloating silence, to their impostor dens of faith and mystery, where the light of God in knowledge never shines. In innocence man enters the immortal temple of rational existence ; in innocence should he ever tread her exalted and sacred halls; and in innocence should he explore and appropriate her exhaustless and jeweled treasures. Scien- tific knowledge is the key to every apartment, while judg- ment and reason attend to compare and appreciate mind's ever-increasing wealth and resources. And who are found to oppose this sublime and exalted march of the human mind in scientific truth and innocence ? None but the deluded craven priests of ignorance, faith, and mystery, who, like coward owls, in screeching horror shrink back from its impaling light to more congenial shades of darkness, calling upon all mankind to lay aside their judgment and reason for their accursing faiths of mystery. Every priest of faith and mystery is a panderer to the whore of Ignorance, and with her shares the golden cup filled with "abominations and the filthiness of her fornications." 'And as surely aa there is a God of justice, so surely shall they share her igno- THE VAIL LIFTED. 85 miny and her judgments, unless in truth they do repent and make just amends for their deluding schemes of darkness. By the immutable just laws and language of Cause and EfFect, those who share in the pleasures of the harlot must share her poisons and her punishment. Mind's first and last duty is to maintain its own rectitude in eternal progression. . Education ennobles and strengthens mind, by innate development, to meet the emergencies of time and circumstances in a manner beneficial to itself and others, where in a state of ignorance it would bfe powerless. And to awaken the most noble affections of rational mind, and properly direct them along with the intellect, is a de- sideratum that can not be overlooked with impunity. We are the God of scientific truth, and before its radiant light the fabled gods of faith, mystery, and miracle will fode away, as the darkness of the night before the rising orb of day. We reveal ourself to every rational mind by the universal language of Cause and Effect, through the innate dwelliog of a monad of our own attributes, by whieh'alone we can be known and appreciated ; and as developed and obeyed we become through them the guide, and protector of all men, according to their merits. As every mind walks in sublime and innocent obedience to its best light, it avoids individual misery and promotes universal happiness. To make mind most iiseful for goodj develop it most by the best education adapted to its charac- ter and capacity. As mankind are brought to an under- standing of the constitutional principles and laws of universe, as they rule by Cause and Effect, they will find their highest interest and happiness involved in their observance, and in proportion to the rising light of scientific truth, ignorance and error, with their train of faiths, mysteries, and pretended miracles, will fade away with their debasing consequences; No man reqmres mysteiy, faith, or miracle to appreciate our demonstrated attributes, for he has them intrinsically by positive knowledge ; it being by their exclusive action that every rational mind exists as a conscious being ; as is self- evident, fi-om the fixct that nothing else known or conceiva- ble is adequate to that result. Pure rational mind is -there- fore a germ of God, standing revealed to itself by our innate life, thi'ough the universal language of Cause and Effect. Every man knows, that as he thinks, feels, and acts in har 86 THE VAIL LIFTED. monywith Justice, Intelligence, universal Love, Wisdom, and Truth, that from these inherent and constitutional attributes of his Creator, as abiding principles of his own mind, that he walks in harmony and innocence with God ; for where there is no known and willful transgression, there can be no conscious guUt or condemnation. And as the innocence of man is forever one with that of a just, rational, and immuta- ble Parent, who upholds it, no man in innocence can be debarred the presence and favor of his Creator, while he conscientiously makes use of his best light and exertions to maintain it. To hold any other doctrine than this is a blasphe- mous attempt to impeach our demonstrated attributes and character, as we stand revealed in the scientific language of Cause and Effect, and hold us forth a^ a demoniac being, who disregards innocence and virtue, and delights in the misery and sufferings of our own created offspring. As a man positively knows he is a conscious being by the innate and demonstrated attributes of God, so by the same attributes he kjfows that he is made to feel conscious guilt when he knowingly and willfully violates the constitutional principles of his own being and that of his Creator. Consequently the only path of safety and salvation for man is not in any mys- tery or faith of mental darkness, but in a known and practi- cal obedience to the demonstrated constitutional principles of God, man, and universe, as revealed by our scientific and universal language of Cause and Effect. Has a man been drawn from the path of innocence and safety to the injury of any other person in character or property, through worldly ambition, envy, avarice, pride, lust, or any other selfish propensity of an animal nature, every attribute of our being unites with Justice in demand- ing of the transgressor a practical confession, not to any priest of darkness gloating on the spoils of power, in his blasphemous assumption of the divine prerogative, Jjut to the God of Justice, whose laws have been violated by the injuiy of a fellow-being. And that copfession can be made, and made only, by a just and full reparation of the injury committed, as far as it reasonably lies within the power of the transgressor. In so doing, and forsaking the crime for- ever, the transgressor manifests by his works the sincerity of his repentance — and, as washed of the crime, he has our forgiveness, and his own justification restored ; and as all THE VAIL LIFTED. 87 men would themselves be forgiven of God, so let them for- give one another. Our demonstrated and immutable character conclusively proves that there can be no sacrifice and atonement for sin but the sacrifice of the sin itself, and the reparation of the injury committed, and that must, as far as consistently prac- ticable, be done by the party ofiending. Any other doc- trine than this is palpably unjust, and therefore incompat- ible with our demonstrated nature and character. To hold with Christians that God causes the innocent to suffer in atonement for the wicked, is a blasphemy that has no par- allel upon earthj and challenges universe for an equal. It degrades the character of God so far below that of all pre- tended devils heretofore described, that they become in comparison agents of justice and light, inflicting upon the wicked only the just punishment of their crimes, while God is represented as delighting in the sufferings of the innocent that the wicked may escape their merited reward, as brought upon themselves through a violation of those benevolent laws of Cause and Effect designed for their instruction and amendment. As it is impossible for such blasphemous and debasing doctrine ever to proceed from us, it is self-evident that it is the work of deluded and impious impostors, who have not scrupled to pervert their highest endowments, as free agents, to pander to the cravings of earthly ambition and avarice, at the expense of desecrating the sacred name of God, and mentally deluding their fellow-men. Their mixing such fa- tal and debasing delusions with some ennobling and bright precepts of true religion, drawn from our universal language of Cause and Effect, as the counterfeiter mixes pure metal in his base coin, superscribing thereon the real index of virtue .and holiness to make it pass, is no palliation of their crimes, but, on the contrary, adds darkness to their dye of igno- miny, as it is by the sacrilegious use of revered and sacred names, mixed with .sanctimonious ceremonies, mysteries, faith, and pretended miracles, held forth in the name of true religion, that they have brought contempt upon the name of God, and all that is truly holy and sacred. And yet these are the very men who, as a class, arrogate to themselves di- vine honors, as that of God Incarnate, Vicegerent of God, Cln-ist or Messiah, Lama, Pope, Brahmin, Prophet, Priest, 88 THE VAIL LIFTED. Divine, and the like. And Christians have carried this so far as to make their Christ to say, Matthew 28: 18, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth," thus blas- phemously pretending to supplant the uncreated, august, eternal Cause in the government of the universe by an im- postor who, according to their own showing, was first be- gotten in sodomy before the world began. And allowing mankind to be the children of their sodomite god, as they pretend, and the Bible his word, the same being, according to him, some thousands of years subsequently, was re-begot- ten by one of the sodomites in incest with his own daugh- ter Mary, who remained a perfect virgin, Recording to the Scripture standard of purity, notwithstanding this incestu- ous connection with her sodomite father. And this doubly refined essence of sodomy and incest is what Christians call the immaculate conception and incarnation of their god — a being who, according to his own inspiration, cursed the earth, the work of his own hands, and the whole human race before they were born — and consequently innocent — because the first created two eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge ; while he was so well pleased with the crime of murder, committed by his own priest upon his own incar- nate person, that all who have faith in its atoning virtue are to be restored to his peculiar favor, under the name of Saviour, Christ, or Messiah. And now, as to what was the mission and purposes of this diabolical character while on earth, we have his own Bible declaration ; for in relation thereto, Matthew 10 : 34, he expressly says : "Think not that I came to send peace on earth ; I came not to send peace, but a sword." 35. " For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law." 36. "And a man's foes shall be those of his own household." And this is what the Christian priests of the whore of Ignorance call and preach as their Prince of Peace. Such blasphemous, incoherent, and debasing doctrines are but the legitimate and inevitable fruits that flow from man's prostituting both judgment and reason, and rejecting the scientific light and knowledge revealed by our universal lan- guage of Cause and Effect, for the dark and self-accursing mysteries and faiths of an impostor priesthood, who set evil THE VAIL LIFPED. • 89 for good, darkness for light, and so teach them in the name of God, to the real debasement of themselves and their fel- low-men. Impostors of darkness, in mystery, faith, and pretended miracles, try to sanctify and give weight to their debasing doctrines in the minds of the people by referring to their antiquity, and the vote of their predecessors in council as- sembled, — as that of the Jewish Sanhedrim to canonize the imposition of the Old Testament, and the Council of Nice to sanction the New. But no authority of man or books can annul a demonstrated, constitutional "principle of universe, or justly and rightfully legalize an action in contravention of the same. And from the self-vindicating nature of our im- mutable laws, all who attempt it must soon or late become the victims of their own unjust and rash acts. No antiquity can give to falsehood the real character and substance of truth ; and all the enactments of earthly Coun- cils united, can not give to the debasing superstitions of ig- norance, error, faith, and mystery the immortal force and character of a single virtue. For salvation they are power- less, and a self-damning delusion to all who follow them. Superstitions of ignorance are manifest by their profes- sions of faith, pretended miracles, and mysteries. Religion is manifest by the scientific knowledge and prac- tice of universal justice, as the duty of rational mind by a daily exhibition of our divine Attributes in living works. Superstition results from the comparative absence of God. Scientific religion is the inspiring presence of God, mani- fest by innocence, progression, and holiness. Superstition arrogates to itself the name of religion, and denies to its subjects the use of judgment and reason to in- vestigate its claims. Religion makes judgment and reason the criterion of every important action, and invites the closest scrutiny and most sound examination. The deluded impostors of superstition, faith, mystery, and miracle, while they pretend to advocate the cause of God, blaspheme his name by ascribing thereto the character of a devil and the passions of a brute. The advocates of religion portray the immaculate and de- monstrated character of God, and do him homage by the practical illustration of his attributes. QO THE VAIL LIFTED. Votaries of superstition to uphold and propagate their in- stitutions of sophistry, faith, and mystery, apply the tor- ments of the inquisition, the fire and fagot, and appeal to the swords of military chieftains. Votaries of religion rely upon the demonstrated attributes of God, as they move in the light of scientific knowledge by the just and universal laws of Cause and Efiect, to the man- ifest salvation of all who obey them. Superstition, by leading men to trust in the degrading and sacrilegious rites and ceremonies of faith and mysteries of darkness, retards science and civilization, while religion is the perfection and nurse of both. And to conclude, it will appear self-evident to every can- did, reflecting mind, that as mystery can have no place in the eternal Mind of God, it can have no place in that reli- gion which is the inspiration of God. MiEACLE. We, the demonstrated Eternal Moving Cause — God of Universe — ^being eternally perfect, and consequently eter- nally immutable, in our Mental Attributes and modes of Be- ing ; and the laws of Nature, but the harmonious constant physical expression of the same omnipresent energy and power, as manifest in and through molecular substance, they are of necessity and incontrovertibly as unchangeable as the fountain from which they flow. Therefore, what has here- tofore been called a miracle, and defined to be, an act or event beyond the ordinary laws of nature ; and contrary to the established course of things, is demonstrated to be an impossibility, that has no real existence but in the imagina- tion of the credulous dupes of Ignorance and her impostor advocates. In other words, a miracle is based upon an assumed revo- lution in the established and demonstrated laws and modes of action, of an Omnipotent, All-wise, and Immutable God ; and from the demonstrated fact, that the assumed revolu- tion is an utter impossibility, all miracles fall to the ground as equally impossible. There is nothing above or beyond Nature but the Eternal Moving Cause of Nature ; and we the Eternal Cause, being eternally perfect and unchangeable in wisdom, and Nature being but the expression of that unchanging power and wis- THE VAIL LIFTED. 91 dom, is subject to no revolutionary contradictions in its principles or rules of action ; and varies in its actions always and only as the varying conditions and circumstances under which it is called into action vary, in harmony with the im- mutable principles and piirposes of our Divine Mind ; to create, propagate, dissolve, and re-create, in one continued renovation and conservation of the eternal whole. Thus our Creating Will and Fiat, by the omnipresence of our Attri- butes, rests in Nature throughout universe, to bring into being the varied systems of planets at such times and in such order as to preserve the balance and equilibrium of the whole by the immutable and scientific course of things we have established, and thereby sustaining universe as a whole, in one continued newness of life and pefpetual bloom of beauty. And as a planet in its creative, growing perfec- tion, becomes adapted to one species of vegetable and of animals after another, in gradual succession, through the omnipresent, omnific energy of our will and fiat, they ap- pear, through and by the unfolding and immutably estab- lished laws of Nature, endowed with the designed, appro- priate, and iatrinsic powers of procreation and self-preserva- tion. The creation or formation of the primary individuals or every species of vegetables, as animals, is but an ordinary act of the Creator ; transpiring in every place, as often as requiring needs or circumstances call it into action, and is momentarily takiug place in some part of universe time without ceasing. In all this there is nothing above or be- yond Nature but the Eternal Moving Cause, who is forever and everywhere manifest in the systematic lays and power of his being.- But there is nothing in all this, of that which ignorant and designing men hav-e termed and defined to be a miracle. As before stated, they define -a miracle to be : " An act or event above or beyond' the ordinary laws of Na- ture ; an event contrary to the established course of things." Now, we the eternal Cause alone, are above that nature we evolve, and to which the constitutional principles of our Rational Mind are the immutable moving and sustaining law. But we are not an act, but the Eternal cause of ac- tion. We are not an event, for that which is omnipresent, always was, is now, and forever will be, can not properly be said to arrive or happen ; neither are we contrary to the established course of things, for the established com-se of 92 THE VAIL LIFTED. things proceeds from us, as its all-wise Author — as a stream from the fountain that sustains it, and is of necessity and undeniably of the same immutable character as the Omnipo- tent and Immutable Fountain, from which it flows. Which established fact, so far from proving a miracle, proves that a real miracle is an impossibility that never existed, nor never can exist ; as the first of all miracles would have to be inaugurated by the destruction of that which can not be destroyed — the Immutable Eternal Cause of all action, as the constitutional principles of universe itself; introducing imperfection for perfection, folly for wisdom, mutability for immutability, and confusion and chaos for harmony and or- der. We, the Omnipotent and Eternal Cause, work by our di- vinely established order of things ; that order of things flowing from our just, intelligent, benevolent, all- wise, immutable, and intrinsic attributes and innate nature. To change this order of things is not consistently possible, even with the Almighty ; for the reason that our almighty power itself consists in the perfection of an intrinsic divine rational nature, and consti- tutional principles or attributes, that do not admit of a change, without the destruction of the most infinite wisdom and perfection, which justice forbids. And it is for that very reason they are immutable and omnipotent. A miracle, therefore, is clearly impossible, even with the God of uni- verse. Thus our omnipotent, omnific energy, working by its own intrinsic rules of science and philosophy, under the governing laws of rational mind, through Cause and Effect, conclusively proves that all pretended miracles, of men or books, are fabulous impositions, designed by perverted minds to mislead the ignorant, as a means to forward their own ambitious and selfish designs. As surely as one man who willfully kills another, without a justifiable cause, stamps his character with the crime of murder, just so surely does the man, or_ pretended God, who presumptuously assumes to work a miracle, label himself as a base and impious im- postor. As our eternal perfection is proved by our demonstrated attributes, and the unchanging and established course of things, so a miracle, being an act or event contrary to that established perfection, would prove imperfection and muta- bility, and therefore incompatible with our demonstrated THE VAIL LIFTED. 93 character and perfection. Or it may be stated in this way : As God is demonstrated to be all-wise, perfect, and immu- table, so must be his laws and rules of action, and therefore to change by a miracle is impossible. Or, as God can not differ from his perfect self without self-destruction, so he can not work a miracle. In regard to a wonder, or prodigy, as being a miracle, it may be remarked that to the ignorant every thing, when first brought to the senses, is more or less a wonder, prodigy, or surprise, and so remains until the first emotions of the mind are supplanted by an enlightened understanding, or worn off by familiarity. And if by this rule one thing may be claimed as a miracle, so may all things ; and no rational mind will contend that every thing is above or beyond the laws of Nature", as that would be the denial of Nature itself. But as with the omniscient God there is no wonder, pro- digy, or surprise, so there is not, nor never can be, a miracle, when defined as a wonder, prodigy, or surprise. But, allowing that miracles were possible, and universe governed by miracles, there would then be no use for reason, and in reality it could not exist, as there would be no known base in Cause and Effect from which it could act. All would •be caprice, chaos, and confusion. No man could possibly foreknow the effect of a single action of life. Were a man to sow a field with wheat for his own sustenance, there would be more than a thousand chances to one that it would not produce wheat, if it produced any thing. It ihight . grow with the tops down and the roots up ; or it might come up a crop of trees ; or, to do remarkably well under the rule of miracles, it might yield a crop of frogs, fish, or serpents ; or, still more remarkable, it might turn out a crop of Christian devils,' with long tails and cloven feet, armed with pitchforks and pots of burning sulphur, to become the tormentors of the hungry planter. Should a man build a fire to warm himself, its rays might remit cold in place of heat, and he become frozen instead of warmed ; or it might consume his stove or house in the place of -the fuel he de- signed. Were merchants in possession of goods, they would , be liable at any time to be turned into scorpions, alligators, or take the wings of bu-ds and fly. away ; their ships might turn to stone and sink, or evaporate in mist. Men visiting their flocks would be liable to find in their stead' and place 91 THE VAIL LIFTED. a pack of hungry wolves or jackals, or to find them grazing upon the bottom of the ocean, and their pastures filled with the monsters of the deep. A fond mother might retire at night, folding to her bosom the darling child of her aflec- tions, and awaken in the morning to find in its place a loathsome reptile or ravenous beast of prey. Such like phenomena would necessarily follow the rule of miracles,^ allowing they were possible, and with them some portion of reason and consciousness ; but as reason can not stand for a moment without a base and system in Cause and Efiect, so neither can consciousness exist without reason; and the whole falls to the ground as a worthless impossibility, but from its being the darkening shade of contrast, by which, through comparison, mind may learn to appreciate the all- wise and unchanging principles and laws of that immutable and just God, who sustains universe in her established harmonial order, glory, majesty, and beauty. The demonstrated existence of an unchanging and perfect God, is the demonstrated impossibility of miracles. But the exclusion of miracles implies no lack of freedom in God ; for perfect freedom consists in a mind's acting purely from its own intrinsic and innate nature, which in ourself, as we have before shown, is that of universal intelligence, love, wisdom, and truth, comprehended in the equilibriate .gov- ernment of immaculate justice, absolute and unchangingly perfect. A miracle may then be defined to be^ with God, an impossi- bility ; with man, a phantom of the imagination, by which the deluded priests of Ignorance decoy and enslave the human race, while they degrade the name of God, whom they pre- tend to worship. Proportionate to the reign of irrational faith, mysteries, and pretended miracles, in the minds of mankind, wiU be the reign of the animal passions — ignorance, superstition, and misery. Proportionate to the reign of scientific knowledge and universal justice, in the minds of mankind, will be the reign of God — universal light, peace, and happiness. Philosophic and scientific truth, revealed exclusively, thi-ough our universal language of Cause and Efiect, is the vital, genial food for the rational mind of man, and that alone which will expand it to the inherent beauty and like- ness of its Author. THE VAIL LIFTED. 95 Messiahship. As we have conclusively shown that man has never lost, nor never can lose, that primeval standing and relation to his Creator in which he was first purposed, created, and placed upon the earth, it requires no Messiah or Vicegerent of a sodomite or other god to restore him. All such are the fruits of Ignorance, and those deluded impostors who worship beneath the darkening skirts of her polluted gar- ments. But the priests of Ignorance are fond of Messiahs, or the incarnation of her gods, of which the Buddhists have pre- tendedly had several, the Brahmins nine, and among the Jews over twenty have -aspired to that ofiice. And Christ- ians, to be in fashion, must also have a Christ or Messiah, which, as a sample of the whole, we will more especially notice. Christians have made a Messiah or Christ ; and had they made him a Created Being, they might have escaped im- puting to God unnatural crime, and been able to render a better account of the use made of their own rational faculties. But by making him a JBegotten Son of two other male gods, and with the Father before Creation began, they have sodomized what they call their Holy Trinity, of which Christ is to them the precious fruit. This Christ, the double- refined essence of sodomy and incest, by their own showing, . is what the Christian nations of the earth now trust in for salvation, through the mental darkness of faith that he was the Son of God, sent to be the Redeemer of the earth in the salvation of the human race. But according to the inspira- tion of their sodomite Bible God, Matthew 15 :. 24, this Christ is made to say : " I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." And in reference to the woman of Canaan, v. 26 : " It is not meet to take the children's t)read and cast it to, dogs." By him the Gentiles are here com- pared to dogs. Would you make your Christ the saviour of dogs, and yourselves his subjects? Now if your Christ is not worthy of belief, why do you preach film ? And if his mission was of God, and, as he himself says, exclusively to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, why. were they not saved ? If you say he bore a contrary testimony at another time, then his testimony is made to contradict itself, and thereby demonstrate its own falsity. 96 THE VAIL LIFTED. But do Christians believe their Messiah ? Their Messiah says, Matthew 21 : 22 : "All things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive." Now Christians have professedly prayed for over eighteen hundred years for the salvation of the world of mankind, and themselves in particular; yet they universally confess themselves sin- ners, and many truly, the chiefest of sinners. And now, in the general epistle of John 3 : 8, we have the authority of the Christian god to say : " He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil." His mission has, therefore, failed, by your own confession, up to the present time, or you must allow that you have not believed, you have not prayed, or your sodomite god is a liar. That Christians do not pray, their daily, .unjust, and blasphemous prayers, that their crimes may be atoned for by the sufferings and blood of the innocent, but too abund- antly, often, and horribly refute. But to such diabolical orisons, that outrage the laws of rational mind -and every demonstrated Attribute of the Creator, a God of Justice can never respond. But why does not the diabolical fiend and sod- omite god of the Bible, who, according to his own inspirations, cursed the himian race before they were born, and consequent- ly innocent, and causes the innocent to suffer for the crimes of ' the wicked, hear and answer your prayers ? ' If you would have another atone for your sins, you must call upon a Charac- ter who approves of the action. In what you call the inspired and Sacred Word of the god you worship, you may learn that he was so well pleased by the pledge of a human sacrifice from Jepthah, in the person of his own daughter, that he falsified his own word, previously given, and gave Jepthah a grej,t victory over his enemies. It is important that mankind properly apprehend the character of the God they worship, and know how to propitiate his favor. But why does not the god to whom you pray hear and answer y6ur prayers ? You say all things are possible with your god ; it is then possible he is asleep, or that he has gone on the war-path with the adulterous David, who, ac- cording to his own inspiration, was a man after his own heart; and that now, after some great conquest upon that four-cornered earth, which the Bible informs us he created THE VAIL LIFTED. 97 in six days and set upon pillars, they are swallowed up in the delights of exterminating conquered nations, without regard to age, sex, or innocence, by hacking them to pieces alive with axes, cutting them with saws, and tearing them with harrows ; as was wont to be the case with the beloved and inspired David while on the earth ; as is attested by that book you call the word of God. Your god may be overpowered with the bliss of a sodomite heaven, or lost in the to him balmy embraces of the drunken and incestuous family of Lot, who, as specimens of those he terms right- eous, were deemed worthy of his special notice. Your god may be charmed with the eloquence of your sainted Paul, who, by his own confession, could commit a murder and lie to the special glory of his god. If Christ was really a good Being, as Christians pretend of him, and the veritable God, how could he reprove a man, as in Matthew 19 : 17, for calling him good, and declare, " There is none good but one, and that is God " ? Or, if he be the veritable God made • flesh, and born to an earthly existence through the woman Mary, how could he say, as in Matthew 11 : 11, "Among them that are born of women, there- hath nOt risen a greater than John the Baptist"? Christians preach their Christ to be a prince of peace ; but as we have before stated, he himself expressly says, Matthew 10 : 34 : " Think not that I come to send peace on earth ; I came not to send peace, but a sword." 35. " For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her' mother-in-law." 36. "And a man's foes shall be those of his own household." Shall' we believe Christ or those who professedly preach him ? Did Christ ever preach a doctrine contrary to the above, then he stands self-impeached by his own testimony. And as regards the peace, progress, and happiness of the human race, what more self-damning .and accursed doctrine was ever taught upon the face of the earth than that of carrying the sword into private families, and making every man's and woman's foes those of their own household ? So much for the fruit of sodomy and incest ; but as the tree is, so is and must be its fruit. As the fruit of a soijomite friend, who delights in the sufferings of the innocent, that the wicked may escape the just and merited sufferings purposed for their amendment and instruction, it 5 98 THE VAIL LIFTED. is quite in character ; but to ascribe it to the demonstrated God of universal Justice and Love, is a blasphemy of which no enlightened mind will ever be guilty It is impossible for a doctrine so antagonistic to the demonstrated character of the God of Universe, to ever proceed from him. ''Matthew 1:1. We have the authority of the Christian god to say, that Jesus Christ was the " son of David, tlio son of Abraham ;" but the same god in the same chapter, v. 18, says : " Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise : When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost." Yet Christians do not pretend their Holy Ghost was the descendant of David. How, then, could Christ be the descendant of David, when his mother Mary was of the tribe of Levi, and he begotten, not of Joseph, but by the Holy Ghost ? The two statements are a plain contra- diction, and consequently prove that one or both are posi- tively false. "Set, on the authority of the first, Chi-istians claim their Christ as the fulfillment of the Jewish prophecies relating to the Shilph or Messiah, which the Jews all agree was to have been but an earthly prince ; and on the authori- ty of the second they claim him to* be a God ! thereby making an amorous adventure for their god with the daughters of men, like those related of the heathen Jupiter. Psalm 132 :11 : " The Lord hath sworn in truth unto David ; he will not turn from it ; of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne." John 7:42: " Hath not the Scripture said. That Christ cometh of the seed of David, and out of the town of J3ethlehem, where David was ?" Had Christians made their Christ exclusively the son of David, they might with more propriety have claimed the prophecies relating to the Jewish Shiloh or Messiah ; but by making him the Son of God, the prophecies all go to sbaar that he was not the person they alluded to, and therefore an impostor. But as many Christians make it their motto to take " the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible, as an all- authoritative revelation from God," we will cite still further from what they term the sacred volume. Isaiah 44 : 6 : " Thus saith the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts : I am the first, and I am the last, and be- sides me there is no God." 43 : 10 : " Before me there was BO God formed, neither shall there be after me." 11. "I, THE VAIL LIFTED. 99 even I, am the Lord, and beside me there is no Saviom"." Christians, where is yom* Saviour, Jesus Christ? Who lies — your father god, or his twice-hegotten Son, who says, Matthew 28 : 18, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth " ? Their testimony is in direct contradiction one to the other, and of necessity one or both must be false. Kow the demonstrated nature and character of our eternal Attributes, manifest by the unerring language of Cause and Effect, make it impossible for us to lie. But your priest- made gods and Christs of ignorance are liars from'the be- ginning, as proved by their own priest-made inspirations, and that is the very character you yourselves ascribe to a devil. Christians hold the Old Testament to be the word of the god they worship, and it expressly says : " The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the child- ren be put to death for the fathers ; every man shall be put to death for his own sin." So the vicarious offering of the Christian god is refuted by his own direct inspiration. A Christ is an attempted blasphemous detraction from the perfection of God, whereby impostors have but too well succeeded in introducing themselves as Vicegerents, Divines, and Ministers of God, to subvert the rights of the people, and make them trail their mental and willing slaves, chained to the bloody car of Ignorance and Superstition ; and, in a pecuniary point of view, many may well exclaim with Leo X. : " It is well known how profitable this fable of Christ has been to us." The man who pretendedly makes himself a Messiah or ' Vicegerent of God on earth, demonstrates himself to be a blasphemous impostor, usurping the prerogatives of God to answer his own ambitious designs, by an ignominious delu- sion and mental enslavement of his fellow-men. The so-called inspired volume of the Christian god says of Christ, Mark 16:19: " He was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God." And in Matthew 28 : 18 he is made to say, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in eai'th," thereby making the ignominious fruit of sod- omy and incest to supersede the immaculate and almighty God in the government of universe. But we say, and have so written it in the scientific language of Cause and Effect that can not lie, that no effect can be greater than its cause, 100 THE VAIL LIFTED. and therefore no created or begotten being can by any means supersede or supplant the self-existing,, uncreated, august, eternal Cause. We are infinite as space, and therefore can not be multi- plied ; we are perfect, and therefore do not admit of addi- tion ; we are almighty, and therefore do not stand in need of aid, as that of a Christ or Messiah ; we are omnipresent, and therefore do not admit of a sodomite Christ as a proxy or substitute ; we are eternal, and therefore can not be sup- planted. And therefore it is a demonstrated scientific fact that the Christian Christ is an abortion of the whore of Ig- norance, begotten by impostors. The Gods, Pkibsts, and Inspieations of Ignoeance. The voice of your great enemy, Ignorance, is forever raised in self-righteousness, arrogance, and division, calling out alike in India, Arabia, and Europe, under the name of Brahma, Buddha, Christ, or Mohammed: I am the Ema- nation, the Incarnation, the only begotten Son, the true Prophet of God. In each of these divisions she more or less sets at naught the harmonial laws and true religion of the Creator, and giving to each division her own discordant but separate code of laws and different creeds of supersti- tion, under the sacred name of religion, arrays one against another with the most deadly rancor and hatred, shutting out that social and friendly intercourse which awakens and promotes the best faculties and harmonial interests of the human mind. But commanding implicit obedience to that peculiar /a JiA of mental darkness she has bestowed on each, she assumes divine rights, and blasphemously imputes to God the com- mand to go forth and propagate, by fire and sword, the dark and enslaving counterfeit of true religion. In these and the like dark and brutal contests for man-made laws and super- stitions, you have desolated the fairest portions of the earth, and butchered one another, not only by the thousand and million, but by hundreds of millions, and spent thou- sands of millions of treasure to destroy other thousands of millions for one another. And what has all this availed to profit your species in in- telligence, wisdom, happiness, or property, in comparison to what you now would have realized had the labor, lives, and THE VAIIi LIFTED. 101 treasure expended and wasted in war been judiciously ap- plied to the improvements of domestic life, national and in- ternational intercourse, with the promotion of the arts and sciences, and, above all, the study and" unfolding to human understanding of the living and unerring language and laws of the Creator in Cause and Effect, for the development of your own rational minds ? Behold the warning shades of Greece, Egypt, Carthage, and Chaldea, still weeping over the ruin and wreck of em- pires, and pointing to their own unrighteous and recoiling deeds, directed against our immutable attributes and uni- versal laws, as the sole cause of their misery and desolation. When will man listen to the voice of a kind Parent, and study the universal volume of Mind, Life, and Motion, spread' before him in the unerring language of Cause and Effect, characterized by our divine Attributes, and in whose lovely pages glow the richest gems of government, religion, philosophy, science, and art ? Why do you prefer the dead languages of a dark and barbarous people, whose criminal disregard of our laws has blotted them from the list of nations, and whose pol- ished literature is festering with their own corruption, and inoculating your youth with the seeds of moral and politi-' cal death ? By our immutable laws, the desire of happiness is im- planted in every individual, race, and nation, and, for the satisfaction of who desire, the endless fields of universe are spread before all, wherein is a corresponding supply to ev- ery rational desire in the mind of man, inviting all to stretch forth their mental as physical hands, and feed and clothe their immortal minds with corresponding truths, as their perishable bodies with appropriate food and clothing, exer- cising an agreeablfe, healthy, and harmonial activity under the law of universal love and justice, which rewards every one as works and motives merit. We desire no one to abandon any known good, whether it be written in a book or existing only in the mental organ- ism ; but try all things by the demonstrated eternal Stand- ard of Universe, and the Constitutional Laws thereof, as re- vealed by our universal language of organic Mind and Mat- ter, in Cause and Effect, that can not err. Truth with us is alike sacred wherever found ; as igno- 102 THE VAIL LIFTED. ranee and error forever profane — leading our offspring asti-ay, whether found in the mind of man or the books he has, in the absence of superior light, been led to revere as sacred. All books are good as they are the conservators of truth and human happiness. All books are bad as they are con- servators and promoters of ignorance and error with their spawn of superstition, profanity, and misery. The only sacred, divine, or superhuman book is the living volume composed of our divine Attributes and Laws, in which we live and speak by effect in the phenomena of or- ganic, rational mind, life, and matter. And this to every candid mind we clearly hold to view, that as with this, the first of books, all others do agree, they must be true ; and as they disagree, they bear the marks of error on their face, and prove a damning curse as they mislead the human race. The so-called sacred books of the Brahmins, or deluded and impostor priests of the Hindoos, are held by them to have been written by the direct inspiration or revelation of their gods. And these books inform us, that of all the host of Divinities to which the Hindoos pay homage, Brehm is the great god of all ineffable, and a mystery (darkness) not to be spoken of, but must be adored in silence. This mythology then goes on in substance to relate how this Brehm, a being infinite, eternal, and immaterial, having passed an eternity in self-contemplation, determined to man- ifest himself ; and separating the male and female functions of his own being, performed an act of getferation, (a function that pertains to earthly man and animals alone,) the fruit of which was three other gods, named Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva. How this mythical god of Ignorance, being, according to his own revelation, already and eternally infinite, could per- form the self-evident impossibility of multiplying himself, neither he nor his priests have condescended to inform us. But as one lie requires another to uphold it, so one darkness or absurd mystery requires another to sustain or hide it ; and by the self-styled Divine Brahmins, you are requested to take another dose of mental darkness in a pill of faith, and swallow the whole, with the sanctimonious and priestly assurance that aU is holy and perfect truth, and to doubt is a damning sin. And in this they display the true character of all other impostors of Ignorance. THE VAIL LIFTED. 103 As the inefiable Brehm is a mystery not to be spoken of, the "principal professed objects of external adoration and , praise with the Hindoos, are the three impossibly multiplied and begotten infinites — Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva. The re- velations of the Hindoo gods distribute the creation and government of universe among these three ; it being accord- ing to them the office of the first to Create, the second to Preserve, and the third to Destroy or change the form of universe. They relate how Brahma, after the exercise of his appro- priate functions, " became proud of having created the woVld jind the eight spheres of purification, and thought himself superior to Siva, his equal ; how this pride brought on a battle between them, in which the celestial globes, or orbits, were crushed like a basket of eggs ; how Brahma, vanquish- ed in this conflict, was reduced to serve as a pedestal to Siva, metamorphosed into a Lingam ; how Vishnu, the god medi- ator, has assumed at Afferent times, to preserve the world, nine mortal forms of animals ; how first, in tbe shape of a fish, lio saved from the universal deluge a family who repeopled the earth ; how afterward, in form of a tortoise, he drew from the milky sea the mountain Mandreguiri ; then becom- ing a boar, he tore the belly of the giant Erenninchessen, who was drowning the earth in the abyss of Djole, and saved it on his tusks ; how becoming incarnate in a black shepherd, and under the name of Chrisen, he delivered the world of the venomous serpent Calengam, and crushed his head, after having been wounded by him in the heel ; how in one of these incarnations he appeared as Boudda, the god of universe, and again in one as Juggernaut." These priestly revelations of ignorance to the Hindoos,f make four castes or classes of society, of which, as a matter of course, the Brahmins are held to be sacred ; for as they relate, they came forth from the head of Brahma, while all other classes were created from his 'less honorable parts. The Brahmins are held to be incarnated with the holy spirit at birth, and are therefore called persons twice born. And being first created from the head of Brahma, by the right of primogeniture, they claim to be the virtual sover- eigns and possessors of the earth. These professed inspirations or revelations of God, as- cribed to Menu as the writer, caution the king against ofi 104 THE VAIL LIFTED. fending Brahmins ; for who, says the canonical authority, could without perishing provoke those holy men by whose ancestors the all-devourmg fire was created? It also en- joins the sovereign to make the Brahmins mafty splendid fifts, to secure his happiness in this and a future state. The ing must be always guided by his Council, and that select- ed from the sacred Brahmins. The promotion of priests is strongly recommended. " Courtesy to the Brahmins insures celestial beatitude ;" and the least insult to one of these so-called holy men is fol- lowed with a severe penance. " The code of Menu, by its burdensome ritual of mytholog- ical gods, which extends to almost every hour of the day, and every function of nature and society, and of which the priests are made the sole judges, in regard to these compli- (;ated and almost unceasing duties, makes them the uncon- trollable masters of human life, as evidently was the inten- tion of that inspiring genius who wrdle it. " Not only is extraordinary respect and preSminence re- quired to be paid to the Brahmins, l)ut they are allowed the most striking advantage over all other members of the social body, in almost every thing which regards the social state. " Although punishment is remarkably cruel and sangui- nary for the other classes of the Hindoos, neither the life nor even the property of a Brahmin can be brought into danger by the most atrocious offenses." Brahmins are held to be objects of worship in their earth- ly life, and theu- departed spirits to be revered as gods in a future state. The so-called sacred books belong exclusively to the Brah- mins ; and the slightest disrespect to one of this self-assumed sacred order is held to be one of the most atrocious crimes. The meanest Brahmin considers himself so much superior to the sovereign, as to be polluted by eating with him. " For contumelious language to a Brahmin, says the law of Menu, a Sudra must have an iron style ten fingers long thrust into his mouth ; and for offering to give instruction to a priest, hot oil must be poured into his mouth and ears. " If a Sudra, the fourth and last class, or caste, sits upon the carpet of a Brahmin, in that case the magistrate having thrust a hot iron into and branded him, shall banish him the . kingdom, or else ho shall cut off his buttocks. THE VAIL LIFTED. 105 " The following precept refers even to the most exalted classes: For striking a Brahmin, even ■with a blade of grass, or overpowering him. in argument, subjected the offender to the obligation of soothing him by falling prostrate. The opinion of one priest learned in these absurd fables, which they teach as the revelation of God, is declared by them to be more powerful than the voice of all the people. The so-called sacred books of the Hindoos, in their doc- trine, violate our demonstrated character, ignore our just and universal laws, and disregard the equal rights of man- kind, as they stand revealed in our universal volume and lan- guage of Cause and Effect that can not err ; and yet assume to regulate in the name of God the whole economy of society in its social state, even to diet, and by making the priests, by whom and for whom they were written, the sole depositaries of these laws, as also the supreme and irresponsible judges in regard to their observance, place in their hands an unlim- ited power over the minds, lives, and property of their de- luded and duped followers, that has never been acquired to the same extent in any other part of the world. Although, by their written laws, many kinds of animals are enumer- ated as unclean, yet evei-y thing is accounted clean which a priest has sprinkled with water, or even praised. So that let their fabled gods and inspirations of ignorance be held to mean what they may, they virtually mean and amount "to nothing more or less than that the self-accursed and self-ac- cursing capricious will of a priest of Ignorance is the su- j)reme. law of the land, above all other laws, human or di- vine, to the extent of their ability to put it in execution ; and who have inaugurated themselves in absolute and irre- sponsible power over the minds, lives, and property of both rulers and people, by a blasphemous use of the name of God, and the dogmatic teaching of a faith that never amounts to knowledge, mysteries that can have no exist- ence but in mental darkness, and pretended miracles that are impossibilities. Philosophy and Science are the oracles of. God, by our universal language of Cause and Effect ; and no faith of darkness, mystery, or miracle, can bear their analytic light. To insist upon the existence of Miracles is to insist upon ca- price in the government of universe, and equivalent to the denial of a God. 5* 106 THE VAIL LIFTED. Priestcraft and superstition, as it existed in Hindoostan in its palmy days, before the Mohammedan and Christian conquests, may be regarded as the prototype of, universal priestocracyand tyranny, that the priests of Ignorance have everywhere emulated to establish, and have only failed or fallen short of its accomplishment in pi-oportion as they lacked intellectual ability, or have been foiled by the light of scientific knowledge existing with rulers and people. Priestcraft of superstition is everywhere essentially the same in its natui'e, character, and manner of operations. For as a door turns on its hinges, so the priests of Ignor- ance everywhere alike — Brahmin, Buddhist, Jew, and Christ- ian — ^turn or move upon the elements of mental darkness in faith, mystery, and pretended miracles, blasphemously mak- ing use of the name of God to hide their ambitious igno- rance and selfish designs. Without the knowledge of the true God, in his demon- strated and defined character, when a deluded impostor makes up his mind to play the priest, he looks about for some fabled god whose character will best enable him to fulfill the purposes he has in view, in connection with the field of his contemplated operations. Or, if he is a genius, and finds he has at hand an abund- ance of the material he desires, in the mental state and de- velopment of the people he wishes to control, his system and plans of operations being matured, he comes out like Menu, as one commissioned of God from on high to reestablish and enlighten mankind in the laws and light of God, which, as he pretends, their progenitors have lost through disobedi- ence : or himself a God incarnate, like Buddha, or as is re- ported of the Christian Christ ; or a prophet, like Moses or Mohammed, for the falfiUment of some divine commis- sion, and to whom all men are to bow, as the vicegerent of God with full powers, and whose will is law. Does he possess the ability to carry his purposes into full execution, then he presents to the astonished minds of his fellow-men a god or gods of his own manufacture, possess- ed of a character in exact correspondence with the purposes he has to accomplish, and the difficulties with which he has to contend. But as comparatively very few impostors have the genius and talent to make and inaugurate to power gods expressly adapted to their own peculiar circumstances, they THE VAIL LIFTED. 107 have mostly been obliged to declare for the gods of their predecessors in ignominy more illustrious, and share the spoils to be derived from the propagation and enforcement of their blasphemous and degrading doctrines. Ignorance inspires her hypocritical priests of Buddhism to hold two distinct doctrines ; one framed expressly for the people, to promote that orderly behavior and obedience which will subserve their own purposes, and another called the interior doctrine, which is reserved exclusively to the initiated faithite priests and teachers themselves. According to the interior doctrine, said by these impostor priests of Ignorance to have been revealed by Fot or Bud- dha himself to his disciples upon his death-bed, all the theo- logical opinions of men are but chimeras ; " the stories of the nature of the gods, of their actions and lives, are but allegories and mythological emblems, under which are en- veloped ingenious ideas of morals, and the knowledge of the operations of nature in the action of the elements and the movements of the planets. " The truth is," (says this pretended revelation,) " that all is reduced to nothing ; that all is illusion, appearance, dream ; that the moral metempsychosis is only the figurative sense of the physical metempsychosis, or the successive movements by which the elements of the same body perish not, but at its dissolution pass into other mediums and form other combi- nations. - The soul is hM the mtal principle which results from the properHes of' matter and from the action of the elements in those bodies where they create a spontaneous movement. God itself is nothing more than the moving jirinciple, the occult force inherent in all beings ; the sum of their law and properties ; the animating principle, in a word, the soul of the univeree, which on aecoimt of the infinite va- riety of its connections and operations, sometimes simple and sometimes multiple, sometimes active and sometimes passive, has always presented to the human mind an insol- uble enigma." Notwithstanding the fundamental point of this doctrine is materialism in its broadest sense, and stands refuted by the self-evident and scientific fact that no effect can be great- er than its cause ; and every mind having within itself the j^nnate revelation of God by Cause and Effect, that mind is 'superior to that matter which it commands, and therefore 108 THE VAIL LIFTED. can not admit it as its canse— yet these deluded impostors of Ignorance, ignoring our scientific language of Cause and Effect, profess to one system of faith and darkness to their shame, while they hold forth another system of darkening faith, mystery, and pretended miracle, to deceive the human race for their own earthly aggrandizement and pecuniary gains. For as they relate in their external doctrine : " In the be- ginning, a sole and self-existent God, having passed an eter- nity in the contemplation of his own being, resolved to manifest his perfections out of himself and created the mat- ter of the world. The four elements being produced, but still in a state of confusion, he breathed on the face of the waters, which swelled like an immense bubble in form of an egg, which unfolding, became the vault or orb of heaven inclosing the earth ; and the bodies of animals being formed, this God, essence of motion, imparted to them a portion of his own being to animate them ; for this reason, the soul of every thing that breathes, being a fraction of the univers- al Soul, no one can perish, they only change their form and mould in passing successively into different bodies ; of all these forms the one most pleasing to God is that of man, as most resembling his own perfections. When a man by an absolute disengagement from his senses, is wholly absorbed in self-contemplation, he then discovers the divinity, and be- comes himself God ; of all the incarnations of this kind that God has hitherto taken, the greatest and most solemn was that in which he appeared twenty-eight centuries ago in Kachemire, under the name of Fot or Buddha, to preach the doctrine of self-denial and self-annihilation." They then relate, (and we have here the prototype of the mythical Christ of tfee Christians,) how " he was born from the right flank of a virgin of royal blood, who did not cease to be a virgin for having become a mother ; that the king of the country, alarmed at his birth, wished to destroy him ; and for this purpose ordered a massacre of all the males bom at that period ; that being saved by shepherds, Buddha lived in the desert till the age of thirty, when he began his mission to enlighten men and cast out devils, that he per- formed a multitude of the most astonishing miracles ; that he spent his life in fasting and severe penitence, and at his, death bequeathed to his disciples a book which contained* THE VAIL LIFTED. 109 his doctrines." And according to these inspirations or rev- elations of Ignorance, her incarnate God Buddha, is made to say: " He that leaveth his father and mother to follow me, be- come a perfect samanean, (heavenly man.) " He that practices my precepts to the fourth degree of perfection, acquires the faculty of flying in the air, of mov- ing heaven and earth, of prolonging and shortening life. "The samanean despises riches and uses only what is strictly necessary, he mortifies his body, silences his pas- sions, desires nothing, forms no attachments, meditates my doctrines without ceasing, endures injuries with patience, and bears no malice to his neighbor. " Heaven and earth shall perish ; despise therefore your bodies composed of the four perishable elements, and think only of your immortal soul. " Listen not to the flesh, fear and sorrow spring from the passions; stifle the passions, and you destroy fear and sorrow. " Whoever dies without embracing my religion, returns among men until he embraces it." Buddha taught the transmigration of souls ; so according to Buddha, if any one does not receive, the darkness of faith, mystery, and pretended miracles which he taught in their first life upon earth, they are to do penance by returning after death to become the soul of some cow, ass, cart-horse, or other animal, until they acknowledge the supreme and divine authority of a' self-inaugurated priesthood of Igno- rance, who claim the service and adoration of all mankind, while they decapitate them of both judgment and reason to the extent of their ability, and to exhibit their own superi- ority, cause them to bow down in humiliating worship before dumb idols filled with their own excrement, as has been by the British conquests in India substantiated to the world. And for this great favor, inaugurated, as they hold, by the express revelation ' of a God incarnate, who, according to their priestly doctrine, is wholly detached from the senses, mankind are to reject both judgment and reason as aU the enjoyments of life, to meditate in the darkness of faith and mystery without ceasing, the doctrines of a hypocriti- cal priesthood, and which doctrines, if perfectly practiced according to their own prescriptions, only put the pupils in connection, and make them one with a god, who as they 110 THE VAIL LIFTED. hold, being -wholly detached from the senses, is self-evidently not any thing of which man has a knowledge, or ever can have a knowledge, and is therefore to all rational under- standing practically nothing. Such are the gods and priests of Ignorance with their faiths, mysteries, pretended miracles, and work8_ of dark- ness, for which mankind are besought by priestly impostors to reject the light of scientific knowledge as revealed in our unerring and universal language of Cause and Effect, and lay down both judgment and reason to become their duped and debased slaves, in both mind and body. As superstition may be everywhere known by its revolv- ing forever in the elements and mental darkness of faith, mystery, and pretended miracles, so true religion is every- where manifest by its rejecting those elements of darkness for the light of scientific knowledge, and its constant and progressive revolutions in universal justice, benevolence, judgment, and jeason. Thousands of talented men have been devoted to the pro- pagation and origination of the faiths, mysteries, and pre- tended miracles of the whore of Ignorance expressly for the advancement of their own ambitious and selfish designs. But all will from the immutable laws of Cause and Effect, prove worse than time lost, in the close of an earthly life and the settlement of its accounts. Such reckless proceedings but too conclusively prove the predominance of the animal passions in those agents who enact them, and their great or utter ignorance of the im- mutable laws and language of their Creator in Cause and Effect, as regards their most exalted and important interests. What does not the doctrine of divine rights and passive obedience assume to do, in the absence of scientific know- lodge among the people ? As the Brahmins among the Hin- doos, the Caliphs among the Mohammedans, and the Pope among Christians, assume to rule by the direct and divine authority of God with full powers, as the legitimate success- ors of those vile impostors who have imposed their various creeds of superstition upon the world ; so the Grand Lamas or high-priests of the Buddhists pretend to be the official representatives of Buddha and God. As the monarchs of Catholic Europe have bowed in hum- ble submission to the Pope of Rome as the spiritual, official THE VAIL LIFTED. Ill representative of God's will on earth, and the potentates of Hindoostan before the Brahmins, so the rulers of South- eastern and Central Asia acknowledge their Lamas ; even the Emperors of China have bowed down in mental slavery of faith and mystery before the Sovereign Pontiff or Grand Lama of Thibetan Tartary, who, claiming unlimited powers within his own dominions, through the country thickly spreads his priests, and brings his worshipers to fall humbly prostrate before him ; and many are made to believe, as his priests do represent that God in very deed within him per- fect dwells incarnate. Impostors well know that so far and so long as they can suppress the light of scientific knowledge, and decapitate mankind of their judgment and reason, substituting in their place and stead faith, mystery, and pretended miracles, to suit their own ambitious and selfish designs, they are the virtual and unlimited sovereigns of the human race ; for, let the name of emperor, king, ruler, or magistrate be re- garded as they may, decapitated of judgment and reason they become the pliant tools of the impostor, who has thus basely robbed them in the name of God, and by a silken cord of faith, mystery, and pretended miracle, leads them exultingly forth, like conquered buUs with a ring in the nose, to grace his brutal triumph over the rights of mind, and to frighten and subdue the people to his sway. The history of Europe during the dark ages of the Christian era, when the sovereign power of the Pope was transcend- ent in its ignominious glory, but too amply verifies the truth here stated. The debasing crimes, enormities, and cruel butcheries of the Crusades have rarely been surpassed, if equaled, upon . the face of the earth ; yet in these bloody and debasing con- flicts, instigatedfby the Popes of Rome, their emissaries, and agents, were marshaled nearly the whole disposable force of Catholic Europe, from the prince to the beggar, for near- ly two centuries, and this by impostor representatives of an impostor, mythical Christ*, the reputed son of a sodomite god by their own showing, whose mission to earth, as they professed, was for the express purpose of establishing peace and good-will among mankind. And for what was all this waste of morals, life, and prop- erty, and against whom was this mighty force precipitated ? 112 THE VAIL LIFTED. Against and for the express purpose of overthrowing and destroying the power of another (as claimed to be) divine institution and vioegerentship of the same diabolical god, and to which both parties professed to ascribe the most im- maculate attributes, while they were both, by his express revelations, or the authority of his representatives, mutually perpetrating upon the world and each other the most horrid crimes and cruelties. And yet Christians preeminently claim the doctrine of loving eveles which with these pretended prcdic- 8* 178 THE VAIL LIFTED. tions go to make up the Christian Bible to give it weight and the appearance of authenticity and truth as the word of God, according to the pretensions of its blasphemous authors and advocates. Yet as startling, dark, and heaven- daring as this may appear at first thought to honest and truthful minds in regard to those professedly holy men who were the authors of the Christian Bible, it is nevertheless a demonstrated fact — there being no other way known or conceivable by which they could have come there under the demonstrated circumstances of the pase. But as dark and self-damning as was the deed, it falls Into comparative insig- nificance when compared with the presumption and blas- phemy of the first founders of what is called the Christian religion ; who have presumed to supplant in the minds of mankind the august eternal Cause in the government of uni- verse by a Christ of sodomy and incest. But that thei'e never was, is not now, nor never can be such a Christ, is as sure as that the Infinite can not be multiplied ; and this every rational mind can demonstrate for itself. Now it is self-evident to every rational mind, that a learned and satanio class of men who would arrogate to themselves divine hon- ors, as Vicegerents of God, Priests, and Divines, to delude and deceive mankind, while they imposed upon them the fruit of sodomy and incest as the supreme object of their praise and adoration, would not hesitate to manufacture pro- phecies to sustain their doctrines, and enable them in the name of that God whose character they demonized and blas- phemed to rule as incarnate devils on the earth. It is true the present Christian clergy did not originate these frauds. But they are all engaged in perpetua'ting them upon the human .race as the word and work of God, when they wear upon their face the certain proof of their Satanic origin. In this they take upon themselves the guilt of their original authors, dishonor the name of God, degrade themselves, and practically curse their fellow-men. And every one so engaged makes himself a walking demon of earth : by which we mean, that as perverted minds they be- come the personified expression of that darkness and evU which stands as the contrasting shade to the perfect light •and saving presence of our eternal Mind. We well know the Jewish and Christian priesthood assert that these professedly divinely inspired predictions were THE VAIL LIFTED. 179 written by and remained with the Jewish nation a long time previous to their accomplishment. But as with their false gods, miracles, and Christs, which they have invented and formed for their own earthly aggrandizement and pecuniary gains, if, when they have formed them, they can palm them off as the veritable truth and reality by the force of arms, the terrors of the inquisition, the stake, fire, and fagots, and the blunderbuss of eternal damnation, it is self-evident they would not scruple a few lies for ornamental predic- tions to give their other falsehoods the appearance and weight of ti-uth. If there is any one prediction' of the Bible in which Christ- ians should place confidence more than in another, it cer- tainly should be that one said to be uttered by Christ him- self immediately before his ascension to the sodomite heaven of his father, recorded in the sixteenth chapter of Max-k, as we have before cited, in regard to the signs that should fol- low those who believed. And this is a prediction the truth of which every Christian can test for himself. Now if every Christian will drink a cup of deadly poison and remains un- hurt in fulfillment of that prediction, then Christ is a verity, and the whole world will , become converted to the faith. But On the other hand,, should the poison take effect, then of a truth you may know there is an immutable God of truth who does not change the laws of nature to accommodate those impostors who teach mankind to lay aside their judg- ment and reason for an accursing faith in a perjured demon spirit of darkness and lies. But if you Christians have no confidence in this predic- tion, and those of a like nature, that openly violate the de- monstrated character and laws of your Creator, then as ra- tional beings you should have no confidence in those per- verted minds who compile them into books and teach them as the word of God, knowing them to be falsehoods and lies, to the delusion and degradation of the human race. We ai-'e now through with our examination of the prophe- cies of the Christian Bible ; and so far from finding them standing there among its " sublime revelations, as divinely attesting witnesses of its holy and divine origin," as the Christian priesthood aver of them, we have conclusively- shown th'Ut they really stand there, among its satanio reve- lations, as divinely attesting witnesses that its desecrated 180 THE VAIL LIFTED. pages were the work of the whore of Ignorance, through her gods, priests, and' prophets, who, as the representatives of comparatively undeveloped and perverted mind, personify the Very absence and contrast of the immutable and perfect God of Truth, rather than his perfect saving light and presence. But what are these sublime Revelations of the Christian god, to which his priests refer ? We open the volume of his inspiration to read. In one j5lace we find he has informed his faithful worshipers of the whore of Ignorance, that the Earth of his Creation is a four-cornered prodigy resting on pillars. In another he gives an account of a girl going slyly to bed with her cousin. In another is an account of an inspired ass. In another place he prohibits his chosen satanic wor- shipers from eating the diseased flesh of such animals as die of themselves, but gives them full liberty to sell the same to aliens. In other parts of the Bible he has informed mankind that he has sent them a Christ begotten in sodomy, whose mission it was to bring a sword and fulfill his predic- tions, one of which was that he would "fill all the inhabitants of this land, (meaning the land of the Israelites,) even the kings that sit upon David's throne, and the priests, and prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with drunk- enness." But in real Christian sublimity, that which excels all others, is the one in which, to use pure Bible language, he revealed to man " how to make a cake and bake it with a turd." Such are a few of what Christians call the a'wfuUy grand and sublime revelations of their Bible god, and a little of his language. And if there is any priest that, on reading them, and contemplating the self-damning blasphemy of ascribing such vile pollutions and abominations of the whore to the Name and Character of his Creator, and the peddling of them out, as the word and work of an immaculate and perfect God, for power and revenue, and does not feel the fiery hands of Shame embrace his soul and crimson his face, he may surely know it is because he has so far become a brute, by diinking the faithite wine of the strumpet, and laying aside his judgment and reason, that even Shame her- self disdains to give him counsel. But you Christian priests say that yoar Bible 'god is a god of Truth, and Omnipotent, and that you take the Bible THE VAIL LIFTED. 181 as the all-authoritative word of God, and allow no other evidence to equal it. So here is Bible evidence on that subject, as you hold, by his own immediate revelation. Exodus 32:2: " And I will send an angel before thee, and I will drive out the Canaanite and the Jebusite." Joshua 15 : 63 : "As for the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the children of Judah could not drive them out, but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Judah at Jerusa- lem unto this day." Was your god here a god of Truth and Omnipotent ? Or did he, upon his Bible word, and ever true to his demon Character, willfully deceive his chosen and peculiar people ? And again, Judges 1 : 19: "And the Lord was with Judah ; and he drave out the inhabitants of the mountains, but could not drive out the inhabitants of t/ie valley/, because they had chariots of iron." If your inspiring god of the Bible is here a god of Truth, what becomes of his Omnipotence ? And if he could not drive a few barbarians out of a valley, what becomes of that four-cornered earth he claims to have made in six days, and those wonderful miracles, which he says were wrought at the Red Sea, Mount Sinai, and in regard to suspending the functions of Universe by making the Sun and Moon ap- parently standTstill for about the space of a whole day ? If, on the other hand, you say he was Omnipotent but lied, deceiving the inspired prophets and penmen of his Bible word, what confidence can then be placed in his pretended miracles there recorded, and why do you teach this Bible for truth, knowing its author to be a liar ? Do not you every one of you know, that you take upon yourselves the character of an impostor, when you teach the Bible as the truth and word of G-od, knowing at the same time that it is a book of falsehood, and a libel on his Character ? You priests, to delude and deceive mankind, say the god of the Bible is Omnipresent and Omniscient. Genesis 18 : 20. "And the Lord said. Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous," 21, "I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it which has come unto me ; and if not, I will know." What must have been the Omnipresence of this god, to have had to go down to his four-oornered earth to see what was doing there ? Or 182 THE VAIL LIFTED, what must have been his Omniscience not to have known it I_ And did he of himself even know how to find the locality of this very grievous sin? 16. "Abraham went with them to bring them on their way." 23. " And Abraham said," 24. " Peradventure there be fifty righteous." 26. "And the Lord said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous," etc.; and thus they communed, until the Lor(J said, 32. "I will not destroy it for ten's sake." What Omnipresence and Omniscience is this, that does not know how many righteous in Sodom, and yet through his prophets pretends to tell the future of individuals, cities, and nations, to the end of the world? But his discerning judgment and taste were fully vindicated in the selection of the incestuous and drunken family of Lot for righteous. The Character of the inspiring Bible god, as a mathemar tician, may be seen in the second chapter of Ezra, where he gives a list of the tribes and families, and the number of souls of each that returned from Babylon to Jerusalem. Through his inspired penman, he begins his enrollment in the following manner: 2 : 3, "The children of Parosh, two thousand an hundred and seventy-two." 4. " The children of Shephatiah, three hundred seventy and two." And in like manner he proceeds through all the families ; and in the sixty-fourth verse he makes a total, and says the whole con- gregation together was forty and two thousand three hun- dred and three score ; but whoever will cast np the several particulars, will find that the total is but twenty-nine thou- sand eight hundred and eighteen. Again, according to the priestly doctrine of inspiration, their Christian god gives a list of the returned families from Babylon to Jerusalem by Nehemiah. He begins, as with Ezra, by saying : *? : 8. " The children of Parosh, two thou- sand an hundred and seventy-two," and so on through all the families. But this list differs in several particulars from that given through Ezra. In the sixty-sixth verse he makes a total, and says, as he said by Ezra, " The whole congre- gation together was forty and two thousand three hundred and three score ;" but the detailed particulars of this list added together make a total of but thirty-one thousand and eighty-nine, so that the error here is eleven thousand two hundred and seventy-one'. This is the same god in whose divinity of the New Testament one and three are made THE VAIL LIFTED. 183 equal and equivalent, meaning the same thing. Such is the fruit of comparatively undeveloped and perverted mind, in the darkness of faith, mystery, and pretended miracles, for- ever below the light of scientific knowledge. But none but a deluded or deliberate impostor ever did, or ever will, im- pute the like to his Creator God. Is the Christian god immutable, as is the demonstrated character of the August Eternal Cause ? Christian priests well know, that their Bible god in the Old Testament, represents and expressly declares himself a being of but one person in the singular number, as in the following passages : Isaiah 43 : 10 : " Before me there was no God formed ; neither shall there be after me." 11. "I, even I, am the Lord, and beside me there is no saviour." 44 : 6 : " Thus saith the Lord, the king of Israel, and his re- deemer the Lord of hosts ; I am the first and I am the last, and besides me there is no God." Hosea 13 : 4: "Yet I am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no God but me ; for there is no saviour besides me." And they equally well know, that in the New Testa- ment they have the same authority as the revelation of their god to say, that he is a being of three persons, consisting of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Does not this conclusively prove the inspiring author of the Christian Bible both a changeable being and a being of falsehood ? Yet in the face of these demonstrated facts, obvious to a child, the Christian priesthood will assert that the blasphemous spirit and inspiring author of the Bible, who thus assumes the name of God, but to defame and libel his name and character, is the exclusive God of universe and unchanging being! Are they not truly of the same spirit, and in their works of fraud and deception one wifh him ? That no being can by any means, be the demonstrat- ed God of universe — or a true minister of the same — who will thus knowingly falsify and desecrate his character, is written in every rational mind by the hand and laws of that God who rolled it into being. And it is for this very reason, that impostor priests of darkness .strive to suppress both judgment and reason in matters of religion, that in the minds of men, they may substitute in their place and stead, the attributes of Ignorance in faith, mystery, and pretended miracles, and thus in the dark- 184 THE VAIL LIFTED. . ness they create, to rule as the incarnate expression and repre- sentatives of that perjured being of darkness a,nd lies who inspired their Bible, and whose hideous deformities and Sa- tanic character they try to conceal by calling him God, holy and sacred, and his woi'd or book, a book of truth. It is self-evident to every reflecting mind, that the agree- ment of a book in all parts, does not prove it a book oi truth, but that disagreements and contradictions prove cer- tain and positive falsehood. And that the Bible is a book of disagreement and contradictions, as we have already abundantly shown, and therefore can not be the word of God, is what every priest well knows who reads it. And knowing that no being who will utter or inspire a lie, can by any means be the true and demonstrated God of Uni- verse, when a priest asserts the Bible to be a book of truth and the word of God, he blasphemously utters what he ra- tionally and positively knows to be false, and teaching it for truth, to the defamation of the character of "his Creator, and the deception and delusion of the human race, he knowing- ly, deliberately, and willfully takes upon himself the character of an impostor of darkness, teaching falsehood for truth, in the name of God and religion. But well knowing the force of education and the psycho- logic power of faith, we will cite still further from the des- ecrated pages of the Christian Bible, in illustration of its truB character and that of its inspiring author as their abet- tors and supporters. Such is the reading, where after giving an account that the Sun stood still upon Gibeon, and the Moon in the valley of Ajalon, Joshua 10 : 14 : "And there was no dm/ like it he- fore it nor after it, that tlie Lord hea/rJcened to the voice of man." Now, read James 5 : 17: "Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not fain, and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months." 18. "And he prayed again, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit." Did not the Christian and inspiring god of the Bible, here not only hearken to the voice of man, but prove him- self a being of contradiction and falsehood ? Numbers 14 : 11 : "And the Lord said unto Moses, How THE VAIL LIFTED. 185 "long will this people provoke me ? And how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have showed among them ?" 12. " I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them. And Moses said unto the Lord ;" 14. " For they the Egyptians, have heard that thou. Lord, art among this people, that thou art seen face tp face, and that thou goest before them by daytime," etc. 15. " Now, if thou shalt kill all this people as one man, then- the nations will speak saying," 16; " Because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them, therefore hath he slain them in the wilderness." 17. "And now I beseech thee, let the power of my Lord be great, ac- cording as thou hast spoken." 20. " And the Lord said, I have pardoned according to thy word." Does not this also prove the insjairing Bible god as a be- ing who both changes his purposes, and hearkens to the voice of man, to the violation of his own word, and in this case to take counsel of a murderer ? How grateful this people must have been, that they had a murderer among them, who could thus commune with their god, and so far surpass him in wisdom and benevolence as to bring the angry being to repentance, and for the time then existing, save him from impending perjury, and them- selves from destruction. But hear him : " Because all those men which have seen my glory and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten tim.es, and have not hearkened to my voice." Poor afilicted being a subject of temptation ! And then to make such a heauti- • ful four-cornered earth, and set it so nicely on pillai-s, with angels at the four corners to hold the winds, and then to be cheated out of the whole human race, by a snake of his own making — and which with his other works he had pro- nounced very good — how impotent and shameful! And after selecting a righteous drunkard and his family to re- people the earth — drowning all the rest — he had again se- lected from their numerously multiplied progeny a chosen few, and helped them rob the Egyptians, and was march- ing them to the sure destruction of other nations, of which not one was to be left alive ; but as he said to Moses, Deut- eronomy 7:2: " And when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee, thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy 186 THE VAIL LIFTED. them, thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor show- mercy /" to have this chosen and peculiar people, who as he himself says, were all adulterers, an assembly of treach- erous men, formed expressly for himself, to turn against him, and not be able to govern them, vith all his satanic attributes of anger, wrath, and sodomy, must have been a scene of great humiliation to a priest-made almighty. And that his faithful priests who committed murder, profaned holy things, and defiled every one his neighbor's wife, should commiserate and call him a being of great forbearance and long suffering is quite in character. Exodus 32 : 12 : " Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against the people." 13. "Remember Abra- ham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of, will I give it unto your seed, and they shall in- herit it forever." ' And here again, the Christian god hearkened to the voice of man, in violation of his Bible word, and taking the advice of his murdering father and counselor Moses, repent ed of the evil he had designed against his people, and was for a time again saved from impending perjury. And the like instances are but too common in the Bible, as every one knows who attends to its readings. But alas for the poor god! His father and counselor, Moses, after writing the five first books of the Bible, (as Christians say,) in wMch he gives an account of his own death and burial, he died, and his poor god without his earthly pi'otection finally fell into perjury, and his chosen and peculiar people were dispersed. But his faithful priests, ever true to his character, have not suffered their god to perish ; but according to their ideas of duty, benevolence, and purity, they have purged him from every stain by bathing him in sodomy, washing him in in- cest, and laving him with lies. And having multiplied his, as they say, eternally infinite person by the most wonder- ful miracles, they have transformed his to them pure and unspotted person into what they call their Holy Trinity of the Christians, and given him a great and mighty people^ of which, they say, his former peculiar few were but the type or shadow. This they call a new dispensation of his un- THE VAIL LIFTED. 187 bounded grace and goodness to man ; and in addition to the arguments of the old dispensation for making converts by the tongue, the lies of prophets, and the power of the sword, they have in this new dispensation added the weighty -argu- ment of cannon, the blunderbuss of eternal damnation, the elocution of the inquisition, and the persuasion of the stake, with fire and fagots. And with these Satanic, improved im- plements of Christian love and mercy at their command, these priests have long flattered themselves that it was their mission to conquer the world to the worship of that demon, misnamed God, who commands his followers to show no mercy, and sends a Christ to earth to bring a sword, and make men drunk. But as surely as a God of truth in just- ice reigns, so surely shall they fail ; and as the howling beasts of prey, that travel in the dark, before the rising orb of day slink backward to their dens, so shall deceiving priests of darkness sink to their respective hells, unless, in truth, they do repent, and by their works make just amends for their blasphemous deeds. Exodus 12:15: "Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread — even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses ; for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut oS' from Israel." 26. " And it shall come to pass, when your child- ren shall say unto you : What mean ye by this service ?" 27. " That ye shall say : It is the sacrifice of the Lord's passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Is- rael in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians and delivered our houses." 29. "And it came to pass, that at midnight the Lord smote all the first-born in the land of Egypt, and all the first-born of cattle." Marvelous god — but how forgetful ! when in the case of the very grievous murrain, of which he has just previously told us, 9 : 6, "And the Lord did that thing on the morrow, and all the cattle of Egypt died." Thus it is that one pretended miracle of the Bible refutes another, and the character of the whole work for sanctity and truthfulness is completely destroyed by its own innate contradictions and absurdities. Read the following from Exodus : " Moses went up to the mount unto God ; Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, and the whole mount quaked greatly." 24 : 2 : " And Moses 188 THE VAIL LIFTED. alone shall come near the Lord." 3. " And Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lofd ; and Moses~came as near the Lord as the people of Israel." 10. " And they saw the God of Israel : and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire «tone, and as it were the body of heaven in its clearness." 17. "And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel." 18. " And Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights." 34 : 28 : "And he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights ; he did neither eat bread nor drink water." This is one of those so-called wonderful miracles, which Christian priests are so fond of citing to delude and deceive mankind. They' will say their god was here seen by the whole congregq,tion of Israel, and that it is impossible that so many men, women, and children, should conspire to impose a falsehood on the world, and therefore the God of the Bible and his miracles are a certain and positive reality. But does the whole congregation of Israel testify to the truth of this phenomenon ? Oh ! no, it is the writer of the Book of Exodus who testifies for them. And who is he ? Said to be Moses, a murderer, who robs and murders people by the express revelation and help of that god who thus appears to him, and who expressly commands him to exterminate, and make no covenants, " nor show mercy i''' But was the Christian and inspiring god of the Bible, who reveals him- self through adulterers, liars, and murderers, in this pretend- ed miracle, and seen by the whole congregation of Israel, as here related ? Take his own revelation for the answer. John 1:18: " No man hath seen God at any time." As with the above pretended priestly miracle, so in re- gard to the one that pertains to the resurrection of the fa- bled Christ. Priests will say : Oh ! he. was seen of more than five hundred at one time. But whoever wiU examine the subject will find that it is not five hundred that say it, but only Paul, a man who could both murder and lie for the glory of a sodomite god, by his own confession, and for which these, his faithful services, he has so far won the afiections of the Christian clergy that they now call him a saint. A like spirit will gather to its like. ' Exodus 14 : 5 : "And it was told the king of Egypt that the people fled." 8. " And the Lord hardened the heart of THE VAIL LIFTED. 189 Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he pursued after the children of Israel," etc. 17. "And I, behold I (the Lord) will hard- en the hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall follow them, and I will get me honor upon Pharaoh and upon all his host." The idea of obtaining honor by hardening the hearts of a rational people for the express purpose of luring them to destruction, as here represented, can scarcely be conceived of as in character with an omnipotent devil, and is totally inadmissible with the character of a just, benevolent, and omnipotent God. . 1 Samuel 16:14:" But the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him." Can a perfectly good fountain send forth evil ? Genesis 22 : 11 : "And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said: Abraham, Abraham." 12. " For now I know thou fearest God." Will any rational mind assert that the God of universe does not know any and every man, without making a trial of him for that purpose ? But the Bible god here puts himself upon the same level with a man. 2 Samuel 24: 1. "We have the word of the Bible god to say: "And again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say. Go number Israel and Judah." But in relating the same cir- cumstance in 1 Chronicles, 21 : 1, he says : " And Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Is- rael." Did the Christian god or Satan inspire this contra- diction ? Or are they not one and the same character repre- sented, by different names ? That it is the work of an immac- ulate and perfect God of Truth is self-evidently impossible. If the Bible god really inspired the Bible, and was a god of truth, he would not assign as a reason for keeping the seventh day, as in the 20th chapter of Exodus, that it was because he made the heavens and the earth in six days, and rested on the seventh ; and then in the fifth chapter of Deu- teronomy give as a reason that it was the day on which the children of Israel came out of Egypt. Matthew 15 : 24, we have the revelation of the Christian god incarnate to say : " I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." Now the Israelites were of the cu'oumcision. But Galatians 5 : 2, we have the revelation 190 THE VAIL LIFTED, of the Christian god to say, hy his inspired penman : " Be- hold I, Paul, say unto you that if ye he circumcised Christ shall avail you nothing." Of what use, then, was the mis- sion of Christ to that people to whom as he himself declares he was exclusively sent ? Such are the revelations and inspirations of the Christian god, of which his priests say : " They manifest one harmo- nial unity of design " ! Alike god, alike priests ; one har- monial unity of design in lies, fraud, and deception. In the 24th chapter of Luke we have the revelation of the Christian god to say that Christ ascended into heaven the same day of his resurrection. But -in the first chapter of Acts we have the revelation of the same god to say that he showed himself alive to his Apostles by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, after which he was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight. Are such falsehoods and contradictions as- the above by the immediate inspiration of the perfect and eternal Mind of Truth, or are they the manifestation of perverted minds in the darkness of Ignorance, who thus write their own con- demnation and personify its contrasting shades of darkness ? There can be but one rational answer to this question, and none but an impostor of the deepest dye will ever ascribe the like to his Creator. Ignorance has been a very popular strumpet, but as an in- spiring author is somewhat defective in science, or of very bad memory. In giving an account of her fabled Christ, by her inspired penman of the Book of Matthew 1 : 6 she gives the genealogy by name from David up through Joseph, the husband of Mary, to Christ, and makes these to be twenty-eight generations. By her inspired penman of the book of Luke she also gives the genealogy by name from Christ, through Joseph, the husband of Mary, down to Da- vid, and makes these to be forty-three generations. And what is remarkable, there are but the two names of David and Joseph that are alike in the two lists ; and yet she has the art to so intoxicate her worshipers with the wine of faith and mystery as to make them profess their fuU belief that these contradictions were inspired by the immutable and perfect God of Truth, and in his name to peddle out her filthy lies and pollutions. Ignorance, in announcing what is called the imniaculate THE VAIL LIFTED. 191 conception of her Christ, inspires her penman of the book of Matthew to say the angel appeared to Joseph ; but by the pen- man of Luke she says it was Mary to whom the angel ap- peared. And so in regard to the ins.oription said to have been placed over Christ upon the cross, she does not pre- cisely agree as to what it was by any two writers. By the penman of Matthew she says it was : " This is Jesus, the King of the Jews." By the penman of Mark she says it was : " The King of the Jews." By the penman of Luke she says it was : " This is the King of the Jews." By the penman of John she says it was : "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews." And yet she has the art of making her wondering worshipers lost in the darkness of mystery and pretended miracles, and drunk with the wine of her faith and fornications, pass all these things off as the inspiration of an immaculate God of perfect truth ! Li reciting the circumstances that are said to have at- tended the crucifixion, this strumpet by the inspired penman of Matthew relates one of her wonderful miracles. She says : " There was darkness over all the land from the sixth hour unto the ninth hour, that the vail of the temple was rent in twain, from the top to the bottom, that there was an earthquake, that the rocks rent, that the graves opened, that the bodies of many of the saints that slept arose and came out of their graves after the resurrection, and went into the holy city and appeared unto many." But what is al- most as wonderful as the events here related, which violate the immutable laws of Nature, and thereby demonstrate their own falsity, is that supposing them true to the in- spiring author of the Bible, both its author and the in- , spired penmen of Mark, Luke, and John should entirely forget all about the graves opening, and the dead men be- coming alive and walking about the city — or think them of too trivial account to be related, as is proved to be the case by the entire silence of those books on that subject. But Christian priests get over these things by covering them with the mantle of the whore — calling them holy myste- ries — and preaching an implicit faith without judgment or reason in a perjured god of sodomy and lies, who makes the innocent atone for the guilty, and commands his followers to show no mercy. Li regard to the appearance of Christ after the pretended 192 THE VAIL LIFTED. resurrection, the inspiring author of the Bible says by the penman of Matthew that the angel who was sitting on the stone at the month of the sepulchre said to the two Marys, 28:7: " And behold, he goeth before you into Galilee ; there shall ye see him : lo, I have told you." And the au- thor in the 9th and lOth verses following makes Christ him- self to speak to these women immediately after the angel had informed them, and they ran quickly to tell it to the disciples ; and in the 16th verse it is said : " Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them." 17. "And when they saw him they worshiped him." But this inspiring authoi', in relating the same story by the penman of John says, 20 : 19 : " Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, (that is, the same day that Christ is said to have risen,) when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and said unto them. Peace be unto you." Now the inspiring author of the Bible, by the penman of Matthew, makes the eleven disciples traveling to Galilee to meet Christ in a mountain, as he had appointed them ; at the same time that by the penman of John the author says they were assembled in another place, and not by any agree- ment with Christ, but in secret, for fear of the Jews. And by the penman of Luke the author says the meeting was in Jerusalem. Concerning the resurrection the author says, by the pen- man of Matthew 28 : 1 : "That at the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn, toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, to see the sepulcher." By the penman of Mark the author says it was sun-rising ; and by the penman of John the author says it was dark. By the penman of Luke the author says it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and other women that came to the sepulcher ; and by the penman of John the author says that Mary Magdalene came alone. And by the penman of Matthew the author goes on to say: 2. " And behold there was a great earthquake, for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it." But by the penmen of the books Mark, Luke, and John, the THE VAIL LIFTED. " 193 author says nothing about this earthquake, nor about the angel who rolled back the stone and sat upon it ; and, ac- cording to the statements of the author by these penmen, there was no such phenomenon as an angel sitting there. By the penman of Mark, the author says the angel was within the sepulcher, sitting on the right side. By the pen- man of Luke, the author says there were two, and they were both standing up. And by the penman of John, the author says they were both sitting down, one at the head and the other at the feet. By the penman of Matthew, the author says that the angel that was sitting upon the stone, on the outside of the sepul- cher, told the two Marys that Christ was risen, and that the two women went away quickly. By the penman of Mark, the author says that the women, upon seeing the stone rolled away, and wondering at it, went into the sepul- cher, and that it was the angel- that was sitting within on the right side, that told them so. By the penman of Luke, the author says it was the two angels that were standing up. And by the penman of John, the author says it was Jesus Christ himself, that told it to Mary Magdalene, and that she did not go into the sepulcher, but only stooped down and looked in. Was the above inspiring author of these self-damning falsehoods, lies, and contradictions, the veritable and eter- nal Mind of Truth, or did they originate in its contrasting shades of dai;kness, personified by the whore of Ignorance, and manifest through the perverted minds of her adoring priests and worshipers? To this question there can be but one rational answer, and every just and reflecting mind will make it for itself. But do not such works betray the blasphemy of man, rather than reveal and unfold the iPerfec- tion and Majesty of Heaven ? Yet, to such blasphemous forgeries and libels on the Character of their Creator, with the use of the sword, the tortures of the inquisition, the 'stake, fire, and fagots, have the Christian priesthood been forced to resort, to palm off upon the human race their fabled Christ of a sodomite god, whose mission to earth, as they have made him to say, was to carry the sword into private families, and make men drunk O inglorious priesthood ! the yawning hell jof infa- my, wfiich by your works 'yon have so ample made, now 9 194 • THE VAIL LIFTED. opens wide her ready gates to receive your self-accuvsed and sinking souls. But should you still desire to retain upon your Bibles the words Sacred and Holy, we suggest the following inscription as of true import, and in harmony with the Christian use of sacred and holy names: " The Sacred Abortion of the Whore of Ignorance, Begot- ten and Worshiped by Priests, and the Holy Tomb of our Sodomite and Perjured god, who lies within. Embalmed in his own Lies." For thus shall your children sing : The Bohun ITpas of the mind, A priestly tree of infamy, Once grew upon this earthly ball : Its top was high and widely spread, And with its dark and poison shade Accursed the nations all. One ray of light from God was shed ; It struclt this tree — Christianity — Its glory fled, its branches drooped, Its roots are dead. To notice in particular every error and forgery of the Bible, and comment upon them, would require a volume as large as the desecrated book itself. This is not our purpose ; for such would be a waste of time, ink, and paper. We' have now cited and exposed sufficient of its frauds and de- ceptions to condemn it, with every rational upright mind, as a book only fit to be the companion of those degraded minds who seek the darkness of self-damning faiths, myste- ries, and pretended mira!?Ies for their own earthly aggran- dizement and pecuniary gains, rather than the scientific light and saving presence of ouV Eternal Mind. We have now but one remaining duty left in regard to the Christian Bible, and that is to still further portray and expose, to the light of day and the contempt of the human race, the true Character of that satanio priesthood of a sod- omite and.peijured god who have been its authors and sup- porters, and to wrest from their defiling and demon grasp, and the infamy which they cast upon them, the true Charac- ter and doctrines of Jesus, and hold them up to the world in their native truth and purity. For while we" ha,ve conclusively shown that there never THE VAIL LIFTED. ' ' 195- was, is not now, nov ever can be, sucli a Being as the one pretended by Christians, whom they call a Christ, we freely admit that there was a man, whose name was Jesus, beloved by the God of Univei-se, and worthy of the respect and imita- tion of the human race ; but so far from his being the sod- omite son of the satanic god worshiped by the Jewish and Christian priesthood, as Christians pretend of him, Jesus utterly condemned this phantom and priestly-begotten Char- acter as nothing less than a demon, and justly cast contempt , upon his priests and prophets as the vilest deceivers and most abandoned of mortals. But for the true Character and doctrines of Jesus, no mind should resort to the Christian Bible ; for there his Character is libeled, and his doctrines are there debased, adulterated, and mixed, as sugar with arsenic, with, the doc- trines of a Satanic priesthood, who worship a perjured de- mon, disguised by them with the name of God, to delude and deceive mankind. Jesus, as we shall directly show, was neither a Jew nor a Christian, but, according to his light and understanding, was a true worshiper of the now demon- strated God of Universe, whose Character and Attributes he displayed ; and, as the morning star presages the rising Sun, so did the light manifested by Jesus indicate the rising Sun of scientific and perfect light, to be inaugurated by the ad- vent of Eternal Justice, the God of Universe, with his demonstrated and defined Character, Constitutional Princi- ples, Laws, and Language, to human understanding. As the purposes of an Omnipotent and Omniscient God can not in the least be frustrated, or fail of their full and perfect accomplishment, it is "self-evident, to every rational reflecting mind, that had Jesus been commissioned by us, the God of universe, to reveal our demonstrated Character and Attributes, and open up to mankind the way of life, and a perfect salvation from the condemnation of a guilty con- science, to as many as desired it, and point out to man the universal language of 'Cause and Effect, by which every individual of the human race may hold direct correspondence with his Maker, according to the mind's development, with- out the intervention of lying priests and prophets, his mission would hiave ])een exactly find perfectly accom- plished. It is self-evident to every reflecting nlind, that, had Jesus 196* THE VAIL LIFTED. thus scientifically demonstrated the character, attributes, laws, and institutions of his Creator by his will, and by an express commission from him for that purpose, and thus opened up 'to man the highway to scientific Government, Religion, Philosophy, Science, and Art, long ere this the human race would have been in the full career of their progressive enjoyment, and the domineering powers of dark- ness crushed before the rising light and power of day, as it is self-evidently easier for a single man to blow out the light of the Sun with his breath, than for the human race to shut out the light of the Eternal Mind against his will, or stay one thought or purpose of the same. But was Jesus inspired by the God of Universe ? "We are no respecter of persons ; but in th^ just ratio as every rational mind by development is capacitated to receive the inspirations of its Creator, and holds itself in a just mental polar relation or rapport with us, by obeying its best light, and rectifying every error of life, and forsaking the same — as soon as they are manifest as such, upon the theater of its conscious being, thereby regaining and maintaining its primeval innocence ; it was in this ratio that Jesus was justly inspired by us ; as the penman of this book, and every other man and woman who di'aw the breath of life, and in no other manner whatever. God is just, and all mankind are alike his children. It is by the development of the ra- tional mind of man to a just rule and government over his animal desires and proclivities, and an observance of the laws of universe, retaining his primeval innocence and beauty, that brings him in near relation and harmonial union with his God, and makes him the fit medium and focus by which the attributes of his Creafor become displayed, to his own eternal happiness, the honor of God and the well- being of his fellow-men. Such are the laws of an immu- table and just God, recorded in the universal volume and language of Cause and Effect, and spread before all man- kind for their instruction and encouragement. Was Jesus the Saviour of Man ? _ Our demonstrated attri- butes are alone >h& light and salvation of all who possess them in proportion to their innate- development, and the mind's obedience thereto. It was tlius, and in that propor- tion exclusively, that Jesus himself found that measure of salvation which he manifested, and as the individualized ves- THE VAIL LIFTED. 197 sel personate that contained and evolved them to the in- struction and development of the same to rule and government in others, to that extent he became the voluntary means in the hands and will of God, to minister to others the awak- ening and saving light and power of our eternal attributes. In this manner exclusively was Jesus the saviour of man, to the extent of his development and ministration, and to this saviourship all other minds are equally invited to contribute according to their endowments without partiality or favor to any. But it is the attributes of God alone that enlight- en, and the attributes of God alone that save. It is, therefore, manifestly improper to call Jesus or any other man a saviour ; but as a voluntary free agent and means to dispense to others the light and power of the Creator, which are alike the gift of God to him who is the dispensing means, as to him who receives them. The human Mind is a mental Magnet ; and p,s one living magnet of iron or steel may be used as a means to awaken or strengthen the dormant powers of other magnets ; so one mind may be used to awaken, strengthen, and develop other minds. But the primary moving Cause of these phenomena does not originate and rest in these magnets of themselves ; but with that Mind and Power who for this and other purposes, has thus formed and endowed them and moves them to actionj» To God be the honor, power, and glory forever. A monad of our attributes more or less, is innate and forms the germ of every rational mind ; but as the germ of every plant is quickened into active and developing life by the permeating heat and light of the sun ; so are the mind-germs of man permeated, quickened, and made to dis- play the likeness of their divine original by the beaming rays of mental light from the etei'nal Mind, whatever may be the medium through which they may conie ; but it is not 'the connecting but the Etei'Ual Cause, that man should rev- erence as his God. Jesus as the penman of this book, saw by the light of our Eternal Mind that beamed upon them from on high, the needy state of man, and the eternal purpose of our will, and as free agents gave the full functions of their being, that purpose to fulfill. The only authentic account of the character and doctrines of Jesus now before the public is a small volume entitled. 198 THE VAIL LIFTED. " The Gospel of Jesus : compiled by his disciple Matthew, from his own memoranda, and those of Peter, Luke, Mark, and John, and lastly revised by Peter. Also, the Acts of the. eleven disciples ; the last epistle of Peter to the Chapel- ites ; the Acts of Paul and the Jewish Sanhedrim ; and the contents of the History of Jesus, by Peter. Translated from parchmept manuscript in Latin, and found in the Cata- combs under the City of Rome. Edited and published by Gibson Smith, 1858." We shall now quote extensively from this work, in order to show the true character of Jesus and his doctrines, and the relative and true character of that aatanic order of priests who worship a demon god, and who first persecuted, then murdered, and finally entered into one of the most self-damning conspiracies ever perpetrated by man, to trans- fer the honors of Jesus to a sodomite Christ ; and for which purpose they have called him Jesus Christ, and claimed him as the Shiloli of their lying prophets ; and having sod- omized and demonized his character, as we now find it por- trayed in their Bible, and corrupted his doctrines so as to be harmless to their malignant and ambitious designs, and to deceive mankind, have professed to worship him as a God Infinite multiplied by sodomy, and still continue the ^practice to the debasement of his character and the delusion of the human race, we go to expose their blasphemous frauds, and expel them from the face of earth. From the editor's preface we take the following as appro- priate, .with, the addition of such remarks as we shall inter- mediate and connect. The editor says ; " In order to escape death at the hands of their persecut- ' ing enemies, the early Christians who were living at Rome fled to the Catacombs, which extend for several miles in va- rious directions under the city." It should not be over- looked that the editor here evi-dently confounds the early followers of Jesus with the early Christians, as do other au-. thors whom he quotes. But so far from their being an identity, as the whole volume before us goes to show, Jesus ignored a Christ, and his disciples repudiated the phantom — and all agree in rejecting the Christly and Christian god of Moses as a priestly demon, and his priests and prophets as the vilest of mortals. So far from early Christians being the followers of Jesus, it was their first founder^, as we shall THE VAIL LIFTED. 199 conclusively show, who persecuted and slew him, and then coitupted his doctrines ; as their followers, the Christian priesthood, now continue to preach them, connected with the sodomite phantom Christ of the Bible, to whom they ascribe all, the honor,- as being the fulfillment of the predic- tions said to have been uttered by the lying prophets of their sodomite and perjured god. But as the editor's pre^ face .throws light on the subject before us, when read with a correct understanding as pertaining to the true character of Jesus, we continue to quote it, desiring the reader to bear in mind what we have here said. The editor continues : " There, in those vaults, where repose the ashes of the ancient dead, they held their religious meetings. The parchments fi'om which this work is translated, were found in these same Catacombs, carefully concealed within one of its walls. And it is not an unreasonable thing to believe that they were placed there by those persecuted Christians (followers of Jesus) in the very first age of Christianity, to prevent their being seized and destroyed by their enemies. " The manuscripts appear to be very ancient. They are parchment rolls, much worn, though very well preserved, ■ with the exception of that which contains the history of Je- sus. The language is Latin. The letters are uncial or large, nearly round, and not joined by any hair-lines! This is evidence of their antiquity. From the size of the strokes, the letters seem to have been made with a style. The ink seems to have been a composition of lamp-black, or charcoal and oil. The writing on some of the rolls is faded^tQ a yel- lowish cast, yet legible. On others it retains its black color. " Now, if these writings are forgeries, they must have been executed at a very early period. And, allowing the supposition, what could have induced their author, or oth- ers, to conceal them so carefully in the vaults of the Cata- combs, where, by mere accident, the place of their conceal- ment was discovered ? But the idea of forgery is not ad- missible here. The writer who could put/orth the-sublime, beautiful, perfect, moral teachings found in this volume could not be guilty of a forgery. The man who uttered the sayings of this book must have been more than a Plato or a Socrates. He could have been no other than a Jesus inspired from on high. ■ " It is a doctrine among the learned, not generally under- 200 THE VAIL LIFTED. Stood by common readers of the Bible, that our four Gos- pels were not written by the disciples Matthew, Mark, Lilke, and John, whose names they bear, but by unknown persons, who professed to write according to them. " This doctrine was advocated so early as the commence- ment of the fourth century by Bishop Faustus, who was at the head of the Manichean Christians. He holds the follow- ing language on this subject : ' It is an undoubted fact that the New Testament was not written by Christ (Jesus) him- self, nor by his Apostles, but a long while after their time by some unknown persons, who, lest they should not he credited . when they wrote of affairs they were little ac- quainted with, affixed to their works fhe names of Apos- tles, or of such as were supposed to have been their com- panions, and then said they were written "according to them." ' (Faust, lib. ii.) Again, in writing to St. Augus- tine upon this subject, he uses the following strong Ian? guage : ' For many things have been inserted by your an- cestors in the speeches of our Lord, which, though put forth in his name, agree not with his faith, especially since — as already it has often been proved to us — that these things were not written by Christ (Jesus) nor his Apostles, but a long while after their assumption, by I know not what sort of half-Jews, not even agreeing with themselves, who made up their tale out of reports and opinions merely, and yet fathered the whole upon the names of the Apostles of the Lord, (Jesus,) or on those who were supposed to have fol- lowed the Apostles.*, They mendaciously pretended they had written their lives and conceits according to them.' Faust, lib. xxxiii. chap. 3.) "Le Clerc, in his Historia Critica, published in 1716, seems to have been the first to put forth the supposition that our Gospels were derived from older works. He was fol- lowed by Dr. Semler, who contended that our first three evangelists used in common a Hebrew or Syriac document, from which they derived the materials of their history. " Dr. Lessing, in 1784, advocated the same doctrine. Dr. Eichhorn, in his dissertation on the Origin of our First Three Gospels, published in 1794, advocates the idea that one document was used by all three evangelists. "In 1793, the theological faculty La Gottingen proposed for the prize essay the following among other questions; THE VAIL LIFTED. 201 What was the origin of the Gospels of Matthew, Marh, Luke and John ? The prize was awarded to Mr. Platfeldt, who contended that the evangelists extracted their Gospels from different documents. " But I now ask the reader's special attention to the testi- mony of Dr. Nemeyer, Professor of Divinity in Halle, and to the conclusion to be di-awn therefrom. " In endeavoring to account for the silence of the New Testament writers concerning the early life of Jesus, he says : ' If credit be due to the authority of th6_ fathers, there existed a most ancient narration of the life of Jesus Christ, (Jesus,) written especially for those inhabitants of Palestine who became Christians from among the Jews. This narrative is distin- guished by various names, as The Gospel of the Twelve Apostles — The Gospel of the Hebrews — The Gospel of Mattliew — The Gospel of the Nazarenes y.and this same, un- less all things deceive me, is to be considered as the fountain from which other writings of this sort have derived their ori- gin, as streams from the spring." He further says : " This book of which we speak contained the narrative of the Apos- tles concerning the life of Christ" (Jesus.) " I here introduce, also, the remarks of the learned Beau- sobre on the same subject. He says : ' At the head of the first class of Scriptures are to be placed two Gospels — that according to the Hebrews, and that according to the Egyp- tians. In my opinion, that according to the Hebrews is the most ancient of all. This, the Nazarenes (followers of Je- sus) pretend, was the original from Which that of St. Matthew was taken. It appears from the fragments* of it which have been preserved to jus, that it contained no here- sy, and that the history of our Lord (Jesus) was therein faithfully related. It is in this Gospel that we read the his- tory of the woman taken in adultery, which is told in the eighth chapter of John, and since it was not contained in many copies of this latter Gospel, some persons have con- jectured that it was taken out of the Gospel of the Hebrews and inserted in that of John.' (Beausobre, Manich. tom. i. p. 445.) " Now, if we can rely on the statement of the Christian Fathers, that there existed a Gospel written by the Apos- tles, and called ' The Gospel of the Apostles ' — ' The Gos- pel of Matthew ' — ' The Gospel according to the Hebrews,' 9* 202 THE VAIL LIFTED. then we have good reason to suppose that we have in these pages a copy of that very Gospel of the Apostles. _ That ancient Gospel claims to have heen written and compiled by the "Apostles themselves. This claims also to have been written by them. That contained the history of Jesus. So does this, professing to have been written by Peter. The parchment eontaibing the history of Jesus was the outside one of the roll, and was evidently designed as an introduc- tion to the Gospel of Matthew. But as the contents only could be deciphered, and this very imperfectly, I thought it best to place the same at the end of the volume. " That ancient Hebrew Gospel contained two chapters before the account of the baptism of John at the Jordan. This contains the same number. Beausobre says that the Nazarenes asserted that Matthew's Gospel (in our New Testament) was taken from the Hebi-ew Gospel of the Apostles. Bishop Marsh contends for the same. And it is true that our St. Matthew follows closely, in its division oi chapters and their general contents, this Gospel here presented. This circumstance, to my mind, is a very strong, if not con- vincing, evidence that we have here in these pages a copy of that identical gospel spoken of by the Fathers as the ' Gospel of the Apostles.' It is very certain that the Latin copy, found in the Catacombs, was a translation of a Hebrew document. The Hebrew title of the priest's book, - ' Melech Ashigh Uthun,' which is left untranslated, is evidence of this. " It is also evident that the writers of the Epistles in our New Testament had access to this Gospel, for some of the most beautiful of the moral instructions contained, in them are copied from this. In fine, this Gospel appears to be the fountain from which the New Testament has drawn all its purest and best teachings. " According to this Gospel, Jesus and his disciples wrought no miracles, but denounced all such pretensions on the part of men as suspicious and fraudulent. For this reason, and because the great mass of Christians at the present day re- ceive with much assurance the doctrine of apostolic, miracu- lous gifts, it wUl require a great amount of evidence to convince them of the genuineness of these writings. But with the learned it will be otherwise. With the most en-. lightened minds of the world, much doubt has existed con- THE VAIL LIFTED. . 203 cerning the miracles reported of Jesus and his disciples. Many hard difficulties have stood ih the way of faith. All authentic history (outside of the New Testament) in the first age of- Christianity, is silent touching any ifniracles which were performed by Jesus or his Apostles, or concerning any phenomenon of Nature like that recorded in the Bible as having transpired at the crucifixion. The account of Jesus in Josephus's History is now believed to be a bungling and stupid forgery, and no well-informed mind attempts to de- fend it. " This historian, who lived in the very age of Jesus, makes no allusion whatever to any miracles which were performed by him or his disciples ; but he has carefully recorded two cases of healing by Vespasian, the Roman general, upon a blind and a lame man. And why should he deem these mira- cles worthy of record, and, at the same time, consider the greater miracles of darkening the sun at mid-day, and rais- ing the dead to life, unworthy of any notice from his pen ? Healing the sick is a gift, not a m,iracle. " But miraculous powerSj so called in that age of the world, afforded no evidence of M'essiahship on the part of those who laid claim to them. It was a period, fruitful of wonders, prodigies, and miracles. Simon Magus and Apol- lonius were cotemporary with Christ, (Jesus.) The former of these claimed to be the ' Logos or wisdom of God, which was in the beginning with God, and whi6h descended in the form of himself to redeem the world from sin.' " He traveled about^preaching, and made many proselytes. He declared he was the ' Paraclete or Comforter' — theimage of the Eternal Father, manifested in the flesh, in order to subdue demons.' His disciples believed he was the first-born of the Supreme. They asserted that he could control the elements of nature ; create man from the atmosphere ; poise himself on the air ; make inanimate things move without visible contact ; change himself into the likeness of another person, or even into the forms of animals ; and raise the dead to life. " The first chapter of John's Gospel represents that Jesus was the ' Word, which was in the beginning with God, and was made flesh.' But Simon Magus taught this doctrine of himself before John's Gospel was written. It is a sentiment of the Oriental philosophy, and was applied to Mercury and 204 THE VAIL LIFTED. Others, long anterior to the times of the ApostleS. To believe that Jesus or his disciples claimed for him what had heen put forth by all pretended saviours and demi-gods, in all the heathen world for whole thousands of years before his appearance, is demanding of us a faith which has no support from reason, nature, or conscience. " ApoUonius, whom we named, was born about four years before Jesus. The miracles related of him also bear a strik- ing resemblance to those reported of Jesus in our four Gos- pels. He cast out devils, forbidding them to enter again those they had possessed and tormented. He healed the sick; restored the blind to sight ; made the lame walk ; and raised the dead to life. The early Christian Fathers admit- ted these miracles, but believed that ApoUonius performed them by the aid of evil spirits. He sometimes suddenly vanished from the presence of his disciples. At one time, when he appeared to them, they supposed he was a spirit. He bade them handle him, that they might be convinced that it was himself. After his death, he is said to have appeared to some persons, to convince them of the future life. " In an age when such marvelous pretensions existed, and were believed in by the ignorant multitude, as evidence that their authors were the divinely inspired sons of God, Com- forters, and Logoses, appearing in human form as redeem- ers and saviours of the world in some miraculous sense, and living, as Jesus did, in the very midst of these pretenders, is it to be supposed that he made the same pretensions, and wrought the same wonders and prodigies to sub- stantiate his claim to the Messiah and only Son of God ?" He made no such pretensions, but on the contrary denounced the Christian god and pretended Father of the phantom Messiah as a demon. But the Editor proceeds to say : " I solemnly invoke the reader's careful attention here ; I ask him to decide whether it is not far more consistent .to be- lieve that one so pure and good, humble and meek, and en- lightened with the wisdom of God by inspiration above all men before him, would not repudiate all fiuch extravagant acts as he is represented to have done in the Gospels now received by the Christian world? Under these circum- stances, the absence of any miracles in the writings here presented, instead of being an objection, is good evidence of their genuineness and authenticity. I employ the word THE VAIL LIFTED. 205 ' miracle ' here in its ordinary sense — something contrary to, or in violation of, the laws of nature. We are informed in this Gospel that Jesus told his disciples to heal or relieve the sick ; and- this, no doubt, they performed. But it was effected by magnetic and spiritual influences, and in har- mony with law. " The reader will be startled at the revelations made con- cerning Paul in the Epistle of Peter to the Chapels, and the Acts of Paul and the Sanhedrim. He is represented as laboring to overthrow the Gospel of Jesus, and build upon its ruins a priestly edifice which would sanction the Mosaic system of religion (superstition) as a divinely ordained in- stitution, (the very thing that has been perpetrated,) and thus it would be perpetuated, with few alterations, to all ages of the world and among all people, where the Gospel should be received. (This we have tabooed.) Hence, he is said to have made Jesus the only Son of God, the Mes- siah, Christ, and Shiloh of Moses and the prophets, who of- fered himself voluntarily a sacrifice for sin. And this ' of- fering which was made once for all,' rendered it imneces- sary to sacrifice any more bulls and goats for the sins of the people. After Jesus was crucified, he was made to rise in his material form from the dead, and ascend bodily into heaven, where he wa"! given a seat at God's right hand. Thus the authority and (pretendedly) divine origin of the old religion (superstition) would be sanctioned by the new, and the priesthood would be augmented and perpetuated imder a new name. Priests and ministers would still be re- quired to act as mediators between men and their Creator, ' beseeching them, in Christ's stead, to be reconciled to God.' " We here close our quotation from the Editor's preface. But we have here, in this last paragraph, giving an account of the doctrines intended to be introduced by Paul, the very identical doctrines the Christian priesthood now preach with the light of this volume before their eyes. And as the fruit of a tree is a conclusive evidence and proof of the ex- istence and qualities of the tree that bore it, so the Christ- ian priesthood stand this day before the world, a demon- strated proof that the conspiracy here represented was a re- ality, and carried into full execution. They represent neither Jesus; his God, nor the doctrines he preached. But w^ leave 206 THE VAIL LIFTED. a more full exposition of their character till after an exam- ination of the true account of Jesus and his doctrines, and more fuUy expose the conspiracy and frauds by which they attained to power. It will be noticed that in the following quotations from the translated memoranda of the disciples of Jesus, they often speak of him as a Saviour ; and in their then mental state of development it undoubtedly to them appeared ap- propriate. But it was no title that Jesus ever assumed to himself, and is manifestly improper for the reasons we have before stated. Jesus should have been called the Friend of Man ; for such preeminently was his character and his mis- sion. As appropriate to the occasion, we nQW copy from the body of the work before us the following ; commencing at Chaptee I. 1. "Joseph, the father of Jesus, the enlightener of the world, was a carpenter and historian. His father, Heli, was a husbandman, who cultivated his small patrimonial vine- yard near Nazareth, in Galilee. 2. " The wife of Joseph, named Mary, was the mother of our Saviour, and the daughter of Joachim, a husbandman, and Anna his wife. Mary was a discreet, orderly woman, well known for her charity and benevolence. 3. " Our Saviour was the eldest son of Joseph and Mary, and was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the time of Herod, who governed imder Caesar." It should be noticed that here, in contradistinction to the Bible account of this circumstance, there is nothing said about the Christian miracle of multiplying the Infinite by sodomy and incest ; no God bom in a manger, no priestly wise men, who are made to see a star in the east, while they follow it to the west, no slaughter of all the innocent children under two years of age, to inaugurate a priestly Christ to be preached as a prince of peace, while in reality, as they make him to say, he canie to bring a sword. But we have here simply a child of virtuous parents brought into being in harmony with the laws of God and man. But to proceed with the account : 4. " Joseph spent the greater part of his time as a writer, to instruct his countrymen in a knowledge of their true his- THE VAIL LIFTED. 207 tory, •which would give them a just conception of the nature of the theocratic laws under which they had been so long oppressed. 5. "This coming to the knowledge of the priests "and Levites, who were deeply interested to continue things as they had been from old, they plotted yiolence against him while they seized his papers. 6. "To escape their vengeance he" fled, with his wife Mary and son Jesus, who was then an infant, into Egypt, where they had four more sons, James and Joses, Simon and Judas ; and two daughters, Mary and Thalda. 7. " While the family of Joseph remained in Egypt, Jesus grew up to manhood, and hecame acquainted with the knowledge and sciences of the country. . 8." About this time the Roman Governor of Judea, dis- gusted with the low cunning and arrogant pretensions of the Jewish priests, checked their intolerance and thirst for blood by countenancing those who openly spoke their minds on religious subjects, and, at the same, deprived the priests of the power of inflicting the punishment of death. 9. " When Joseph heard tiiat he could be protected by the Roman Government against the rancor of his enemies, he returned to Galilee with his family, and took up his abode in his former home in the city of Nazareth. 2:1. " On the arrival of Jesus in Galilee he commenced instructing the people in a knowledge of themselves, their God, and their interests. Thus instructed, he saved them from the effects of their own folly and ignorance, and ac- quired the appellation of Saviour at Nazareth, while the priests and their adherents contemptuously called him the Nazarene. 2. " He taught them that God was not a leader of hosts or armies intent on human slaughter, nor a malignant, re- vengeful being, but full of love, kindness, and benevolence to the humanity he had created." How different is this from the Jewish and Christian god, who leads his peculiar people to battle, and commands his followers to show no mercy. Jesus said of his God : 3. " He had bestowed upon man intellect, reason, and moral freedom, by the proper use of which he could escape the evils of mutual discords, anger, violence, hatred, and vice incident to irrational animal nature. 208 THE VAIL LIFTED. 4. " That, while the larger beasts preyed on the smaller, the more powerful birds on the weaker, and the large fish devoured the more diminutive, 5. " Man, rationally endowed, should, by the influence of that faculty, respect his neighbor as himself. 6. " He would then receive the benefit of the combined power of all, which, is now possessed by superstitious asso- ciations for the benefit of a few, at the expense of all." 7. He called the maxim of the Jewish priests, " Every man for himself, and God for us all," a pernicious one for the common good, which includes individual benefit. 8. " Such maxims alienate man from man, and give addi- tional power to those who prostitute the name of God for selfish purposes. 9. "They also tend to destroy mutual confidence and truth; leaving the great body of the people exposed without remedy to the despoilers. 10. " The form and appearance of our Saviour was highly prepossessing. His eloquence was pure, ingenuous, and un- aifected — equally attractive to the learned and unlearned. 11. "He was a model of religious, moral, and social qual- ities, being condescending without servility, and courteous without insincerity ; 12. " Benevolent without ostentation, and meek and good- tempered without weakness ; 13. " Dignified without pride, and firm and decided with- out obstinacy ; 14. " Humble without meanness, and eloquent by inspira- tion ; 15. "Pious by nature and reflection, and a lover of God without fanaticism ; 16. "Affable without familiarity, and plain and simple without vulgarity ; 1 7. " Wise and intelligent without vanity or pretension, and grave and serious without austerity ; 18. "Religious without superstition or bigotry, and a friend of man through instinctive goodness. 19. "His habits were plain and simple ; his bodily wants few ; and cleanliness of person he recommended as healthful for both mind and body. 3:1. " After the return of our Saviour from Egypt, John the Baptizer was preaching in the wilderness of Judea, THE VAIL LIFTED. 209 2. " Advising all to repent, and be saved from their vices and follies. 3. " I indeed baptize you with water, and counsel you to repentance ; but when Jesus appears, he will baptize you with knowledge from on high ; 4. " He will show you how to be delivered from the cruel and barbarous laws of Moses, and from the impositions of the arrogant priests. 4:1. " Jesus being in the wilderness, was there tempted by the subtle priests to abandon the cause of God and hu- manity. 3. "From thence they enticed hiin'to Jerusalem, and showed him from the temple the magnificence of the city. They then tempted him with offers of great honors and riches to advocate their interests. 3. " But our Saviour preferred to suffer every privation and persecution, ih a just cause, to the honors and ease of- fered him." In the j)riestly Bible these temptations are ascribed to the devil ; but this account refers to more than one, and explains who those devils were that tempted him. And it may be truly said, that greater devils never walked the earth than those priests, with Paul, who tempted, persecuted, and slew Jesus, and then corrupted his doctrines, and under another name became the founders of that system of blasphemy mis- called the Christian Religion. They were conspirators against the rights of both God and man ; and their success- ors in office, by the millions they have burned at the stake and caused to suffer on the rack, have done them, with the demon god they worship, most ample satanic honors. 5:1." Jesus being on a mountain with his disciples and others, instructed them in his doctrines by saying : 2. " Blessed are the lowly in spu-it, for theirs is a blissful hereafter. 3. " Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be com- forted. 4. "Blessed are the meek, for they shall long inherit the earth. 5. " Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after right- eousness, for they shall be satisfied. 6. "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. 210 THE VAIL LIFTED. 7. " Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. 8. " Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. — 9. " Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteous- ness' sake, for God will reward them. 10. " Blessed are those whom men revile and persecute, and falsely speak evil of for abiding in truth. 11. " Let them rejoice, for great will be their reward, for thus have the righteous ever been persecuted. 12. " The doctrines we publish shall shine forth through the darkness of clerical superstition and bewilderment, and shall enlighten the world. 13. " Let us, then, be up and doing, and not conceal the light we possess, like a lighted candle which is hidden. 14. " Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works." The reader will take notice that it is. not faith, mystery, and pretended miracles that are here commended to be shown, but good works. 15. "Our doctrines are opposed to the superstitious laws of Moses." (This is very different from the Bible and priestly doctrine that he came to fulfill them. " They were made by him to control our rude, slave fathers, and are not adapted to us." (How much less to the present genera- tion !) 16. "By living according to the Gospel we deliver you — we become new creatures. Old things are done away, and all that we preach is new." (The character of God in- cluded.) 17. "Therefore do the priests, who divide and plunder under the law of Moses, seek to destroy my life. 18. "Though heaven and earth should pass a-n^ay, our doctrines would endure. 19. " We owe reverence to tJie God of truth, who in no manner resembles tJie revengeful God of Moses" (whom you Christians worship.) 20. " For he is not subject to base passions. 21. " He is not revengeful nor partial, neither does he be- come angry, and swear in his wrath. 22. " Neither does he malignantly visit the sins of the fathers on the children unto the third and fourth genera- tions. THE VAIL LIFTED. 211 23. " Neither is he jealous, as Moses represents his god, against whom, he says, the Jews were always revolting. 24. " He is nat unjust or cruel, exacting an eye for an eye. 25. " Neither to gratify his malice will he give revenge the coloring of Justice. 26. " The God we reverence is kind to all.. 27. "And truly he hates not any thing he originates; nei- ther oppresses he any of his children." How different is this from the god of the Christian priest- hood, whose wrath (on Bible authority) makes the pillars of his four-cornered earth to tremble, and is pleased to have ' the innocent atone for the crimes of the guilty. But Jesus continues to say of the God he taught and worshiped : 28. " Let us, therefore, live in such a way as to merit his goodness. 29. " Acts of benevolence to our fellow-men afford tran- quillity, and an agreeable solace to the mind of the good man; strengthening him in his need and smoothing the rough path of life to his feet. 30. '■'■In GocTs providence there is no variableness or shadoio of change; but all is just and righteous forever. This is true doctrine ; but on Bible authority, the Christ- ian god repents of good works, and takes counsel of a mur- derer. 31. "Thou shalt not kill, has always been a law in every country. 32. " But whoever is angry with his brother, without a cause, shall be in dangef of condemnation. 33. " Neither affect good- will to one brother, with a heart evil disposed toward another. 34. " You have also heard that, in oldest times, as now, the law has everywhere been, 'Thou shalt not commit adultery.' 35. " But whosoever looks on a woman to lust after her, has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 36. "Agree with your adversary, and harbor not embit- tered feelings. Bear patiently unavoidable evils. 37. "To swear or forcibly asseverate, is a weakness the silly and vain only will be guilty of. 38. " Let your communication with each other be with civility, Yes or No, without detraction or evil-speaking of one another. 212 THE VAIL LIFTED. 39. "It profits not to injure a neighbor's good name, nor will it add to the detractor's own ; but he shows a wicked heart. 40. "It is unjust to lay lures and temptations, as stum- bling-blocks in the way of others, to entrap them into evil. Such plots do the priests practice, to destroy the good name of the truly pious and just, whom they privately hate. 41. "Neither should you entice your neighbor, by false and crafty words, to commit acts injurious to himself, his family, or his property. 42. "But it is an evil sign when all men shall speak well of you ; for so did your fathers of the deceiving prophets. 43. "And I urge it upon you all, to bless your enemies, and do good to those thut hate you. 44. " Bless also those who curse you. And be kind to those who despitefully use you. 45. " And as you desire that men should do to you, do also the same "to them. 46. "You do well to respect those who are not your enemies. 47. " But I wish you to respect your enemies also. Do good to all ; and lend without exaction. 48. " Be, therefore, merciful ; for you may wish for mercy. 49. "Judge not with severity, that you may not be judged harshly. Condemn not unjustly, that you may not be condemned unfairly. Forgive that you may be forgiven. 50. " Give good measure, for the same measure you give may be measured back to you again. 51. " Our Saviour then inquired : If the blind lead the blind, will not both fall into the ditch ? Therefore be not led by bigots. 52. " The disciple is not above his master ; but every one who is perfect shall be as his master. 53. " Why do you notice the mote that is in thy brother's eye, and perceive not the beam that is in your own eye ? 54. " And how can you consistently say to your brother : Brother, let me pull out the mote that is in your eye, when you yourself behold not the beam that is in your own eye ? 55. " Thou hypocrite ! first remove the beam out of your own eye, and then you can see clearly to pull out the mote from your brother's eye. 7:7. " He then impressively advised them (his disciples) THE VAIL LIFTED. 213 to live in peace together, uninfluenced by the designing priests or their agents. 8. "If they were not guarded against their wiles, they would introduce a destructive spirit of rivalry, false ambi- tion, pride, and vanity, and reckless zeal among them, which would disturb their present amity, and destroy their use- fulness. 9. " But very few are successful in striving for power ; and, in so doing, subject themselves to innumerable vexa- tions. 10. "Rather seek to benefit your fellow-men by good works and the example of a virtuous life, whereby they may acquire a good and clear conscience. 11. " Let them thus enter in at the strait gate, and the narrow way leading to life, with few travellers ; and avoid the wide gate and broad road, thronged with the gay, un- wary, and worthless. 8:6. " Happy is the man that endures temptations ; for if he remains firm under them, eternal life is his reward. 7. "Letlio man say when- he is tempted; I am tempted by God ; because God can not be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt any man. 8. " But every man is tempted and enticed when he is drawn away by his own lust, or the craft, envy, or malice of the world. 9. " Then, when lust has conceived it brings forth sin ; and sin, when it has finished brings forth misery. 10. "Every good and perfect gift is from God's provi- dence, in which there can be no variance or' shadow of . turning. 11. " God is truth ; and we are created hy Him with reason and truth, that governed by them, we may he happy P How different is this from the doctrines of those priests, who teach mankind that " reason is of unlawful use in mat- ters of religion," and should be laid aside for mysteries, miracles, and a self-damning faith in the multiplication of the Infinite, the sodomy of God, and a full reliance and con- fidence in the priesthood of a perjured demon, who makes the innocent atone for the crimes of the guUty, and com- mands his worshipers to show no mercy. 12. " Let every man be swift to heSr, slow to speak, and slow to wrath, for the wrath of man is to his own damage. 214 THE VAIL LIPTED. 13. " Wherefore lay aside all filttiness and superfluities, apd naughtiness, and receive with meekness the ingrafted truth. 14. " Hut you must be doers of the truth, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves ; for if any of you arc hear- ers of the truth and do not abide by it, they may be com- pared to a man beholding his face in a glass ; for he sees himself, goes away and forgets what kind of a man he was. 15. "If any man among you seems to be religious, and bridles not his tongue, he Receives his own heart, and his re- ligion is vain. 16. "This is pure and undefiled- religion : to visit the fatherless and widows in their sufferings ; to keep yourself unspotted from the world, -to do justice, walk humbly, and love mercy. 17. "And Jesus entered into a woman's house whose name was Martha. Both herself and her sister Mary under- stood the truths of the Gospel. Martha ever burdened her- self with dom.estic cares, which Mary neglected. 18. "Martha said to Jesus : It is not right tha* my sister does not aid me in our domestic duties. Bid her that she may help me. 19. "Jesus replied: You are too careful, and too much troubled about your household duties, and Mary too little. Both of you would do better measurably to follow the other's example. 10 : 1. "Jesus called together his disciples and instructed them, wherever they went, to visit and relieve the sick, and cast out the unclean spirits of envy, pride, discord, mutual animosities, and dissensions, with which they had been pos- sessed by the priests. 2. " He directed them to spread abroad tte doctrines of a good and benevolent God among their countrymen. 3. " Tour oppressors spread false doctrines and supersti- tions, and enforce heavy exactions for their trouble. But latterly, under the Roman' government of the Caesars, the power of the high and chief priests has been restrained', and you may now openly expose their oppressions, and cast con- tempt on their superstitions. 4. " Instead- of pretending .to receive instructions from God for oppressing the people, the priests are now compelled THE VAIL LIFTED. 215 to obey th^ dictates of the Roman emperor, who has justly shorn them of their wantonly abused power. 5. "The punishment of death, which they inflicted with so much cruelty, is now taken from them. They are also debased by the contempt of the Roman emperor, with whom they wished to treat for their own exclusive benefit, at the expense of- the people, as they had done formerly. 6. " Besides Moses, the prophets and traditions, the priests and their kindred Levites, drew private instructions from the priests' book, called ' Melech Ashigh Uthun,' kept safely by the high-priest, and only read by him in his palace. Y. " The following are some of the contents of the book : 8. "The whole country is apportioned off into allotments, each allotment having its allowance of priests and Levites." (How like the arrangements of their successors, the pres- ent Christian clergy !) 9. " It directs them in what manner to create discords in towns, neighborhoods, and families, and commands that the same be done, that the people, contending with each other, may not molest God's (the devil's) servants. 10. " That the people, being made unhappy and miserable in this world, will look for happiness in a future life by con- sulting^ the priests; while the poverty created by Temple and Synagogue exactions will render them humble and sub- missive. 11. "That, relyi^g on their own righteousness, or an up- right life without clerical faith, makes their condition more hopeless than if they had been unjust and wicked; 12. '■'■ That faith was their only hope; their own right- eousness being like a filthy rag." , • (How truly Calvinistic, Christian, and devilish !) 13. "That a priest only can save a man's soul ; and that gaining the whole world would be a poor exchange for one's soul ; 14. " That the mission of a priest from (their demon) God was not peace, but a sword ; IS., "To set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law ; and that ^ 16. " Aman'sfoes should be his own household." . The reflecting reader, acquainted -with the many satanic readings of the „N'ew Testament falsely ascribed to Jesus, 216 THE VAIL LIFTED. can not here fail to recognize their true origin, and the identity of the New Testament god, priesthood, and doc- trines with those here cited, and the reason why its origi- nal authors should desecrate the name and doctrines of Jesus, as we there find them, mingled with their own. It is difficult for the human mind to conceive of a more crafty, low, base, and devilish act than the one perpetrated by Paul and the Jewish Sanhedrim, as the first founders of the Christian superstition, in which they transferred to the name and character of Jesus their own self-damning and demon doctrines, whUe they appropriated to themselves and their demon god his real merits and honors, by affixing to his name the title of their fabled 8hiIoh or Christ, to de- lude and deceive mankind, and palm ofi" their false predic- tions and fabled god, and with a change of name to so con- tinue their own enslaving and dehasing power over the human mind. But to revert to their doctrines : 17. "And that he that loveth father or mother more than the priest is not worthy of the priest, or of his sanctifying influence ; as also he that loveth son or daughter more. 18. "And the brother shall deliver up the priest^condemn- ed brother to death, and the father the child; and it shall be the bounden duty of the children to rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death, when God re- quires it by the word of his priests, or sufier ' anathema? 19. "And he that will not obey every order of God by his pi'iests, shall be ' anathema? " To see how strictly the Christian priesthood have followed the above instructions, we have only to read the history of their past slanders and persecutions against those who have refused to acknowledge their satanic faith and authority. Galileo was anathematized by the Christian church, and suf- fered years of imprisonment, for denying the errors of the Bible and avowing the Copemican system of astronomy. Scipio, the Roman general, though called a pagan by the Christian priesthood, conclusively proved to the world that he possessed more of the innate and' saving Religion of universal Justice and Benevolence, when he restored the betrothed Spanish bride unharmed to her lover, than the whole priestly world in the darkness of faith imited for per- secutions, enslavement,' and plunder. But to again return to priestly doctrines : THE VAIL LIFTED. 217 20. " ' He that findeth his life without the aid of God's priests, shall lose it ; hut he who loses his life in the service of a priest of God, shall save it.' 21. "The book ' Melech Ashigh Uthun' also compels the elect to act in mutual defence, when the unelect charge any of them with their misdeeds ; for the priest only can see the heart and try the reins of the children of men. 22. " ' Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God who justifieth. Who is he that condemn- eth ?. God being for us, who dares be against us ? 23. " ' Whosesoever sins the priest remits,are remitted by God ; and whosesoever sins the priest' retains, God will not forgive.' " (How strictly have many of the Christian priest- hood impressed this doctrine upon their deluded followers!) 24. " ' He who is not for the priest, is against God who made him his minister.' 25. "A priest is bound to take away from the poor, not to aid them. So says the holy book Melech. 26. " ' Unto him that hath, shall be given ; but unto him that hath not, shall be taken away what he hath. 21. " 'The earth is God's, and the fullness thereof; and as the priests represent God in the world", the earth is their inheritance. 28. " ' All other sins he may forgive ; but a sin against the Temple, a synagogue, or the Holy Ghost, shall not be forgiven in this world nor in the world to come. 29. " ' The Holy Ghost of the priests corresponds to the spirit of peace, contentment, confidence, and security cre- ated among their followers by a sanctimonious union, by the power of which -the most profligate are screened from pub- lic censure, and the spots of the leopard made white as snow. * 30. " ' To remain without rivals in their associated power, the ' elect ' have sufiicient influence to debar the religious and deserving from the benefit of associating for their mu- tual happiness and security, unless they adopt their old su- perstition and pomp, and admit the secret agents of the elect among them. 31. " ' He that opposes the authority or the will of a priest for his salvation or otherwise, it shall he that no man or loomati shall consort with him. The priest of the place, and others of the' elect, wherever he goes, shall be notified, that he 10 218 THE VAIL LIFTED. "may have him pointed out to be shunned by all, and counter- acted in his business. 32. " ' His property and earnings shall go to strangers, who will obey the will of the Lord. Sis wife shall be given to another, or be made lewd ; and his daughters sh/iU, be wooed by profligates^ " . Such are the recorded practical sentiments of that priest- hood who make use of the name of God in fraud and decep- tion, while they really worship a perjured demon spirit that triumphantly rules within them, and knows no law but their own capricious, malignant, and perverted wills. But hear their blasphemy : 33. " ' Is there evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it? 34. " Whatsoever a priest shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven ; and whatsoever he shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven ; for there is nothing you can do for the good of his Church but God must accede to. For you are his representatives on earth, and strategy, ubiquity, influence, and power are yours. 35. " ' Overturn and overturn, until the high-priest whose turn it is shall rule king and lord of lords, as he now rules king of saints.' 36. " The priests, to be prepared to vindicate and give plausibility to such arrogant presumption, have schools in which they acquire a knowledge that bewilders the common people and confounds the wise. This fraud on intellect is a species of sophistry originating in Greece, and employed in aid of superstition and bigotry. 37. " This science does not enlighten, but misleads' the mind and darkens truth, and is, therefore, with priestly mysteries, highly useful to men who prefer darkness to light, and who profit by falsehood. 38. " These are the names of the disciples to whom our Saviour had thus spoken : 3 9. " Matthew, Philip, Joseph of Arimathea, Bartholomew, Thomas the Publican, Mark, Luke, Peter, Andrew, James, John, and Judas Iscariot. 40. " These twelve disciples Jesus sent to preach, direct- ing them not to go among the Gentiles, (the Jews wanting reform the most) neither to enter into any city of Samaria ; but to visit the oppressed and misled among the ' Israelites, THE VAIL LIFTED. 219 and preach for their benefit the Gospel of peace on earth and good-will among men. 41. "Visit and relieve the sick, console the afflicted, sub- due false pride, remove the cause of discord and dissensions, establish Gospel-societies to draw the women from the priests and- from the synagogues, that they may make their homes happy and their fathers and husbands virtuous. 42. " Freely have I taught you the truth, and freely dis- pense it. And into whatever' city or town you may enter, inquire who in it are worthy, and instruct them in a know- ledge of their true interests. 43. " And when you enter a house, salute those within ; and if they are intelligent, teach them the docrines of re- spect and peace, harmony and concord, and to respect their neighbors as themselves. For if a man respect not his neighbor vfhom he has seen, and who was created hy God, how can he reverence God whom he has not seen ? 44. " And depart from those who will not receive you in a friendly manner. You will be among them like sheep among wolves ; and must be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. 45. " But beware of the priests and Levites, whose hy- pocrisy and oppression you expose ; for they will deliver you up to the councils, and influence them to scourge you in their synagogues. They will also allege it against you as criminal before kings and potentates that you preach peace and con- cord among men. 46. " The persecutions and cruelties you will suffer will, however, be an eventual testimony against priestcraft and tyranny. Therefore take no thought what you shall say ; for if you plead the good you are doing to men, it will with them be the worst evidence agaiost you ; it is for that that they will condemn you. 47. " Although you will be hated by the tyrants and op- pressors of the world and deluders of the people, fear not ; continue to enlighten your brethren, and sooner or later the powers of darkness wUl fall never to rise again. 12:1. " Jesus went on the Sabbath day through the corn ; and his disciples being hungry, plucked and eat the ears. 2. " When the Pharisees saw it, they said to him : Your disciples do what is not lawful on the Sabbath daj^ 3. " Jesus answered : Qne day in sev«n is needful for 220 THE VAIL LIFTED. rest ; and the same day should be observed by all, that one may not disturb another. 4. " This day being appointed to that purpose by the com- mon consent of the community, none of us would willfally encroach on its observance to the annoyance of others. 5. "To allay hunger is as necessary on the Sabbath, or day of repose, as on any other day. 6. " In as far as God is concerned, all days are alike to Him, who never requires rest as men do. 1. " They then asked him : Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day ? desiring to bring an accusation against him, as it was contrary to law. " 8. " He replied by asking : What person is there among you having his sheep fall into a pit on the Sabbath day, would not lift it out ? 9. "A man being better than a sheep, it shoulJl be lawful to be merciftil. to hun on the Sabbath day. 10. " The Pharisees then went out, and consulted toge- ther to destroy him. .11. "The priests and Levites having heard of his healing the discords and dissensions they themselves had excited among the people, to keep them at variance while they plun- dered them, 12. " Were displeased, and accused hkn of being in league with the devil ; 13. "That all his acts were specious, and, though appar- ently good, fall of evil ; that reconciling the animosities of relations and neighbors would only tend to continue them in sin and opposition to God's authority. 14. "Jesus then showed the evident distinction between wickedness and goodness, and exposed the selfishness and sophistry by which the vices and wrongs in society are justified. 15. " He also made it apparent that his adversaries were interested in promoting the vice and immorality existing among the commonalty, as the overlooking or forgiving of their faults was a source of profit to them, and, besides, placed the perpetrators in their power. 13 : 18. "In another parable, Jesus compared the Gospel preached by him and his disciples to a man who sowed good seed in his field. THE VAIL LIFTED. 221 19. "But, while men slept, the wily, designing priest came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. 20. " But .when the blade had sprung up and brought forth the seed, the tares also appeared with it. 21. "The servants of the man noticed the tares, and said to him : Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field ? and yet it yields tares. 22. " He answered : An enemy hath done this. The serv- ants inquired whether he wished them weeded out ? He then directed them to gather the tares thoroughly from the wheat and burn tljem. 23. "And we must hereafter be wary and watchful that the powers of darkness repeat not the fraud. 24. " In this manner Jesus addressed them in parables, and then said : We are the unselfish sources of the true seed of a divine religion, producing the love of God and of our fellow-men, which can he derived only from a just and good God ; for with it there are no priestly tares . of mystery, clerical faith, obscurity, superstition, creeds, indirect devices, contradictions, nor unprincipled selfishness." (It should be noticed that here is a doctrine the very op- posite and contrast of that now preached by the Christian priesthood, and points them out, in an unmistakable manner, as the real successors and faithful representatives of those who persecuted and slew Jesus, and then corrupted his doc- trines, while they professed to worship him as the promised Christ of their perjured 'and demon god.) 25. " The field is the world ; the good seed is the Gospel of truth, which we preach to you without money and with- out price. 26. " The tares are the doctrines of the priests and of despotisms y mysteries, instead of explicit truths j priestly faith, instead of uprighteovsness ; indecencies and incred- ible superstitions, instead of decent, rational credibilities. 21. "Our forefathers, the barbarous Jews, though just es- caped from Egyptian bondage, despised the superstitions of' Moses, and worshiped the image of a calf. 28. " The wise ICing Solomon worshiped wooden gods in preference to the revengeful, malignant God of Moses. Yet this same wise Solomon had before built a great temple, for the priests of a priestly God, at Jerusalem." (The same you Christians now worship.) 222 THE VAIL LIFTED. 29. '■'■ TTie sower of tares is the sanctimonious,, extorting priests, amply supplied with the tares of deceit, sophistiry, discord, mystery, 'superstition, clerical faith, slaiiders, aimse of female influence, ^indictiveness, and hypocrisy. 30. " The reapers of the good seed are those who reverence God in sincerity and truth, and benefit their brethren." Jesus being followed by many to a desert and remote place, " addressed them in the following words :" 14:15. "Truth forever existed, and will forever exist with God ; and God is truth. 16. " Without truth nothing could exist* The law, order, and system which control universal nature are founded on truth. 1 7. " Man separates himself from a benevolent God and his trae interest in proportion ashe abandons truth. 18. "The existence of God is manifest by the immense universe. 19. "God transcends all material and immaterial exist- ences. God is preternatural, for he is above the nature he formed. He is supernatural, for he is superior to the nature he created. He is the essence of all things, and therefore omnipresent. Being the source of all knowledge, he is om- niscient. And, like a circle, he has no obvious beginning nor end. 20. " God is spiritual and material ; spiritual, because he is invisible to man, and indestructible. And he is material in his unlimited creation, which he animates and moves with his invisible power. 21. "In the temple and synagogues the ignorant are taught to believe that God is a God of armies, and delights in blood and slaughter ; that he is wrathful, angry, malig- nant, jealous, envious, a hater, partial, violent, vindictive, and treacherous, cruel, and deceitful. 22. " Let us no longer prefer the demon god of revenge and disorder to the benevolent God, whose works every- where exhibit a system of order, harmony, and truth. 23. " Parts of universal nature change or decay, but can not entirely perish. 24. " Light emanates from God, and reflects the image of external nature ; and light from the universal mind of God, disseminated by the Gospel we preach, will irradiate the THE VAIL LIFTED. 223 darkened understandings of men to make^ them wiser and better. 25. " The human body dies, and is mixed with the earth. The Soul becomes an incorporeal spirit, invisible and inde- structible. 26. " The souls of the worthy, untrammeled by the body, enjoy an infinity of bli§s in the visible presence of God. The souls of the unworthy are harassed withthe evU minds and dispositions which they neglected to control while in the worldly life. 21. " Their envy of the happiness of the good, even in the regions of the blest, rankles their souls as in bodily life. 28. " The horrors and fears experienced by the murderer, the malignant, the revengeful, the violent, and the ferocious, while on earth, accompany their spirits, and harass them un- availingly. 29. "In the temple and synagogues men are taught to be- lieve in witches who disturb the spirits of the dead, and ex- hibit them bodily in the world, either as they had habitu- ally dressed, or with the dress of the grave. 30. " That they can do so with the aid of God the priests may assert ; yet none who reverence God, and believe in the undeviating nature of his providence, can believe. 31. "The soul, being incorporeal after the death of the body, has neither physical substance nor power, nor can it return to the world and resume its putrid body to please the ignorant and deluded. 32. " And if it could return to the world in the invisible form in which it parted from the body, and having-no phys- ical power, it could neither be heard, felt, or iu any way ob- served or noticed." (How different is this from the carnal resurrection preached of him by the Christian clergy!) 33. " The Gospel we preach calls on you to do unto oth- ers as you wish they should do to you. Do so; and all will prosper. 34. " Truth, uprightness, justice, benevolence and the other ■virtues which cmistitute the morality of God, form the relig- ion of good men who dignify humanity hy their practice.'''' In the above sentence, the Religion of Jesus is distinctly defined ; and we ask every reader to honestly compare it with the ceremonial mummeries, faiths, mysteries, and pre- tended miracles, that go to make up the Christian supersti- 224 THE VAIL LIFTED. tion ; and enforced by the priesthood of a demon god, with the threats of eternal damnation. 36. " Ignorance and superstition debilitate and degrade the mind and originate bigotry. Religion enlightens and elevates the mind to virtue and happiness. 37. " Religion binds men together for their mutual inter- ests. Superstition is supported by discord-makers, who by destroying mutual confidence, raise from among the people standing armies with which they enslave themselves. 38. " The slaves of superstition and bigotry, they starve at home while they maintain their kings, nobles, and priests in silly power and costly luxury ; who in their turn, riot on their labor and mock at their imbecility ! 15 : 20. "Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all' men. 21. "If you can, live peaceably with all men. 22. "Avenge not yourselves, nor give place to wrath. Leave revenge to Providence. 23. " Therefore, if your enemy is hungry, feed him ; if he is thirsty, give him drink. 24. " J3e not overcome by evil, hut overcome evil with good. 25. "Be submissive to the powers you create. Be not disorderly in your own houses. 26. " Obey the powers who rule. 27. " Whoever resists the authority chosen by his neigh- bors, acts as an enemy to them, and to social order. 28. " Order and peace can not exist without authority. 29. "Be not excited to insubordination agaiust those you elect to govern. 30. " Beware of the influence which would give you bad men indirectly to injure you. 31. "Beware of the influence of associated, sanctimoni- ous men over the weak-minded, whether men or women. 32. " Beware of their influence on your children, whom they wUl endeavor to educate. 33. "Respect works no injury to our neighbor ; therefore respect is the performance of our duty. 16 : 1. "Jesus also said: Let those who live publicly with each other in a mutual assurance of fidelity, as hus- band and wife, be faithful to their pledge ; and let all wo- men be chaste, discreet, and clearly seeking their happiness THE VAIL LIFTED. 225 in their own homes, whero alone they can find rational en- joyment. 2. " Let them, by their chaste and mild conversation, soft- en the rougher dispositions of the men. Let them rever- ence God, honor and respect the aged, and have peaceable, industrious households. 3. " Let their adorning of the person be not in ornaments of gold and jewels, to stir up rivalry and pride, but in neat- ness and propriety. 4. " Let their minds be adorned with the ornaments of a meek and quiet spirit, to render themselvgs approved by God and their own consciences. 5. " Blessed are such women. Peaceable, contented, and serenely beautiful at home, they flutter not mischievously abroad. 6. " Each one profiting by the other's example, they mu- tually dispense cheerfulness and concord around them, while all things exist in harmony and order. 7. " How different and how unhappy the Avoman who is not domestic, and flatters with her words ! 8. " Who strays along gaudily attired, and with a subtle heart ! 9. " Who is silly, vain, fond of show, parade, and public assemblies ; who reverences not God with her heart, but is always seen where she can best display her allurements, and where some professedly divine man is worshiped with ful- some form and sanctimonious foppery. 10. "Whose thoughts are never with God or her home ; having sympathy only with folly and weakness ! 11. " In her house there is no peace, no sincerity, no con- cord or contentment ; whUe her smiles and affected gayety may conceal her deceitful, agonized heart. 12. "Also, let all men love and reverence God, and He will reward them ui His providence. Respect and honor your parents and the aged, for your own honor and duty. Do justice to your neighbors, aiid respect the weaker sex, as being with you enlightened by the gospel of peace into the knowledge of a true and benevolent God. 13. "And let the man and the woman meet in their fam- ilies every morning and evening, if only for a short time, in honor and reverence to God, and to compose their minds for the duty of the day or the repose of the night. Be all 10* 226 THE VAIL LIFTED. of one mind, having compassion on one anotlier. Love as brethren and sisters. Be piteous, be courteous ; 14. "Not rendering evil for evil or railing for railing, but blessing, knowing that you will be approved by God. Trw- ly, all things will turn out for good to those who reverence God in the love and respect of their brethren. 15. "And as for him who loves life, and would see good days^ let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips from guile. 16. "For the eyes of God regard the righteous, and His guardianship wUl not fail them ; while His providence dis- concerts those who do evil. 21. " Having a good- conscience, what matters it that they speak evil of you as of evil-doers ? They err who falsely censure your good conduct. 22. " Is it not better that you suffer for well-doing than for evil-doing ? 23. " As the filth of your bodies is washed away with water, so let the impurities of your conscience toward God be washed away by penitence ; that being approved by Him in your good works, you need not fear what man can do'. 24. " God is no respecter of persons, but judges impar- tially of every man's works. 17 : 1. " There were many Pharisees attending, when our Saviour spoke aS follows : 2. " When Moses led the Israelites from their bondage in Egypt, 3. " The Egyptians had one religion for the common peo- ple and another for tKe nobility. For the first, T;he priests had devised the worship of idols, and kept them ignorant and debased. 4. " The priests and nobility believed in one just and eter- nal God ; while as a distinct class of men, they jealously ex- cluded the common people from all access to useful knowl- edge and science. To continue their power over them, they also kept them impoverished by creating useless works and monuments for their kings and for show. 5. " The eternity of the existence of God, which is with- out beginning or end, they fitly illustrated by a circle inclos- ing the word Eternal. 6. " Moses adopted neither the just God of the Egyptian priests and nobility, nor the idols they had g^ven to the people. THE VAIL LIFTED. 227 I. " Instead of the just Deity of the priests and nobility, he instituted a partial, jealous, revengeful, and malignant God. 8. "And instead of the inanimate idols of the common people, he substituted living idols, in tie persons of his own family of Levites, as perpetual priests, who have ever since been exalted and worshiped as such in the tabernacles. Temple, and synagogues. This priest-.worship is principally attended"by the wives and daughters of the common people, who are influenced thereto by the wives and daughters of the priests and nobles, who flatter their vanity by their notice of them, at the expense of their families. 9. " The malignant, revengeful" God of Moses was a ne- fcessary spiritual agent to continue the priesthood in his own eamily, as he would at all times afford them a pretext for tvery kind of tyranny and oppression consequent on arbi- trary power, as his character made it plausible for the priests to refer every cruel act of their own to Mm and his revenge- ful justice. 10. " This terrific and horrible God of Moses has created fear, bigotry, superstition, ignorance, religious murders, li- centiousness, and crime, to support the arrogant power of priestcraft, wherever his clergy are found." In the bloody wars they have instigated, with their slan- ders, licentiousness, and their horrid persecutions, by the tortures of the inquisition, with the stake, fire, and fagots, how fully and perfectly have the Christian clergy proved the truth of thesa doctrines of Jesus ! He continues : II. "They are crafty, subtle, and maligna;nt, walking like a pestilence in darkness, and operating secretly and fatally against the enemies of superstition." Now the Christian clergy openly and professedly acknow- ledge no God but this demon god of Moses and the Jewish priesthood, and, like their predecessors who persecuted and slew Jesus, while they profess to worship him as a God, they not only practically reject the enlightening and saving Religion of Universal Justice and Benevolence which he taught, but practically abjure the God he worshiped, and teach the most debasing and blasphemous superstitions to keep the people in ignorance, while they plunder them'under the mask of religion and in the name of God, whose prerogatives they assume, while they prostitute both his name and Charao- 228 THE VAIL LIFTED. ter for the most corrupt, selfish, and self-damning purposes. And what, without repentance and reformation, will justly damn them for eternal ages as the vilest, blackest, and most accursed of all impostors is, that they are doing these things in the light of a scientific and certain knowledge that no men before them ever possessed. 12. " Moses, the author of the Jewish religion, was brought up and educated by ^ king's daughter, and married to a priest's daughter, (Reuel, priest of Midian.) 13. " Moses, commanded by his God, made his own brother Aaron high-priest, and all his sons chief-priests. And as Moses was a Levite, the God of Moses further commanded him to make the whole tribe of Levi clergymen and min- isters. Joshua was his minister, and he was appointed by him as his successor in the government, because he was his relation and a Levite. 14. " Soon after Aaron had been appointed high-priest, he exhibited his clerical talent by taking vengeance on all those who sneeringly worshiped himself and sons. 15. "And at the same time, by Moses' knowledge of chemistry, he secured the gold and jewels of all the women. 16. "The gold he coveted was the jewelry he told his followers to despoil the Egyptian women of, who were friendly to them on their leaving Egypt. 17. " During the absence of Moses, Aaron caused the gold ear-rings to be taken from the wives, and daughters, and sons of the people, and made a molten calf for an idol from the gold. 18. " On his return, Moses saw them worshiping the calf. 19. "And be took the calf and burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strewed it on the water, and made thepeople drink it. 20. " He then ordered the Levites to gird on their swords Jnd slay every man his enemy. This severity to these de- based, ignorant men insured the worship of living idols, in the persons of the Jewish priests, unto this day. 21. "Exalted ever since on their thrones in the taberna- cles. Temple, and synagogues, the people have bowed down submissively before them. 22. "This is the first instance of priestcraft on record. By it Aaron acquired much gold, slew three thousand of his irreverent enemies, by the hands of his kindred the Le- THE VAIL LIFTED. ' 229 vites, for preferring the worship of an innocent idol-calf to a vindictive idol priest. 23. " Our Gospel recommends a true arhd just Ood for our reverence, without the intervention of a priest. 24. " It does not rely on Mosaic magic, conjuring, chemi- cals, sighs, miracles, or wonders to delude the ignorant • neither does it ascribe natural facts, occurring under a gen- eral Providence, to a special Providence." ■ (How different this from the Christian superstition, falsely called religion !) 25. " A just and true God requires not the aid of bigotry and superstition to debase man into a knowledge of him- self. 26. " But the Gospel recommends him to the understand- ing, hearts, and consciences of all for reverence. 27. " His general characteristics in the Gospel are these : 28. "God has ever existed, and will forever exist; for time, and all else existing, have their being with him. 29. "He, therefore, should be reverenced as an eternal being. 30. " The nature and extent of his power are as far be- yond the comprehension of man as is the vast universe supe- rior in dimensions to the rain investigator. 31. "He may, therefore, be known as the God of immen- sity. 32. " Analogy, human intellect, and the resources of man, employed to ascertain his power, are but finitude investigat- ing infinity with finite capacity ; or the ephemera estimating the extent of eternity. 33. "Therefore he may be considered as Omnipotent. 34. " Truth existed at all times with God. 33. "The truths of God shine forth in the light of the Gospel; but the darkness of bigotry can not comprehend them. 36. "All things exist with God, and without him nothing can exist. 37. " He should therefore be esteemed omnipresent, and the author of our being. 38. "His spirit is the essence of all material things, and from Him all things are quickened with life. S9. "We, therefore, should know Him as a spiritual being. 40. " Even death is animated by his all-pervading spirit. 230 THE VAIL LIFTED. 41. "We therefore should reverence him as a reanimat- ing God. ■ 42. "He is the source of universal life which everywhere surrounds us ; and with him there is no death. 43. "Therefore he should he known as the author of life everlasting. 44. " He is the source of the laws which govern and regu- late the vast universe. 45. " And these laws, or the system of order, are also God ; and God is truth. 46. " Sustained by order, system, and truth, the universe of God can never be chaotic. 47. " He therefore ought to be known as the God of per- petual truth, order, and system. 48. " From the globe we inhabit we can behold a small part of the immense materiality of God, visible in innumer- able orbs of light, forever in motion above and around us. 49. " He therefore ought to be known as the God of act- ive materiality, whose existence is moving under, above, and around us. 50. " By His power the soul of man can not die, unless his wickedness and misdeeds create for him a death to hap- piness, with a perpetual life of the soul in misery ; while the just and righteous, after the death of the body, enjoy ever- lasting beatitude. 51. " Eternal Providence favors man with reason to dis- criminate and judge ; volition and moral agency to will and act ; the faculty of speech and religious aspirations, to cre- ate a happy providence for himself. 52. " Instead of improving these advantages for his bene- fit, he submits to ignorance and to superstitious influences, and aUows the worst of men to create evil providences for him. 18:1. "Our Saviour said: A mild, considerate deport- ment is one of the fruits of the Gospel. 2. " Be no longer duped by cunning men, who, with sanc- timonious solemnity, arrogate to themselves the exclusive privilege of invoking God for you. . 3. " As true religion has no err.ors to correct, or faults to justify, it requires no priest to explain it. 4. " Religious associations under the Gospel create a happy mutuality of good feeling, a sense of protection and THE VAIL LIFTED. 281 peace, and a holy sympathy, confidence and faith in each other, and a reliance on God's providence. 5 " Those who associate under the Gospel of truth will find themselves prosperous and happy, if they exclude from among them the contentious, with their inappropriate craft, sophistry, and excitements. Avoid the wordy contentions in which such men are trained. 6. "The Gospel, plain as truth, and inspired by a God of truth, can be fully understood by aU who wish to be true. 7. " Peter then inquired of him how often it was his duty to forgive another ? 8. " Jesus answered : The man who is outraged, and har- bors in his breast angry feelings, punishes himself for the fault of another. Let such forgive at all times. 9. " It is a duty we owe to ourselves, to avoid contentious persons as we would any other evil. 10. "Let all men possess themselves of a mild and for- giving temper, and let the degrading spirit of revenge give place to an approving conscience. 11. " Let the world know that you have risen above the savage condition of -the priest-debased man by the enlight- enment of the Gospel of peace, and can forgive an offend- ing brother. 12. "Thus you will prevent disagreeable feelings, avoid contention, and disappoint mischief-makers. 13. "Be also charitable to one another, judging each other with kindness. 14. "Charity suffers long, and is kind; charity envies not ; charity vaunts not itself; is not puffed up ; 15. " Does not behave itself unseemly ; is not 'easily pro- voked ; engages not in evil ; 16. " Rejoices not in iniquity ; but rejoices in the truth. 17. "Bears much; believes kindly; hopes all things ; en- dures much. 18. "Let Charity never fail us.- 21 : 1. " Jesus, with some of his disciples, passed through Bethphage and the Mount of Olives, on their way to Jerusa- lem. After entering the city they went into the Temple. 2. " There Jesus instructed those who heard him in tlie happiness to be derived from a true knowledge of God, and the practice of the duties men otoe each other. $. " That the Mosaic doctrines they .had hitherto heard 232 THE VAIL LIFTED. misrepresented God^and were injurious to the morals of the people, who were deluded and deceived by them ; 4. " That wherever priestcraft prevailed, men were de- based by its influence and made unruly by its oppressions. 5. " Jesus then also said that the priests lived and thrived by oppressions, cruelty, and disorders, sanctimoniously cre- ated and continued among the people. 6. " Many other things were spoken by him in parables, for the better understanding of many who heard him. I. " But the chief-priests and others who heard were sorely enraged, yet dare not excite their inobs to violence, for they feared both the people and the Romans. 8. " When he again visited the Temple, the chief-priests and scribes came to him, while he was teaching, and said : By what authority do you teach these things ? and who gave you this authority ? 9. " Jesus answered them : Since the Roman government conquered the priests, every man has been privileged to speak freely on religious subjects. I only use a right which all others have, and which the laws of Caesar, that are hu- mane, and not tyrannical and oppressive like those of Moses and his priests, warrant me in. 10. "I am more worthily employed than you, for I en- deavor to eradicate the superstition ajid ignorance with which you have debased the people. . II. "Your sole study and practiee is to debase and de- grade, that you may lord it over and plunder them. 12. " But what is your opinion of a certain man who had two sons? He spoke to the first, and said: Son, go. and work to-day in my vineyard. 13. " He answered , and said : I will not. But afterward he repented, and went. , 14. "He then spoke to the second, and ordered him as the first. 15. " He answered, and said : I will go. And he went not. 16. " Which of the two did the will of his father ? The priests answered : The first. Jesus replied : I say unto you that the publicans and harlots wiU be more blest than you ; 17. "For you know the truth and excellence of the doc- trines we preach, yet teach your own foolish superstitions. THE VAIL LIFTED. 233 But the publicans and harlots were reformed hj the doc- trines of truth, and became more just than yourselves. 18. " Hear another parable : There ivas a certain house- holder who planted a vineyard, audjiedged it round about, and dug a wine-press in it, and built a tower, and let it out ■ to husbandmen, and went into a distant country. 19. "At the beginning of the fruit harvest, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it. 20. " But the husbandmen misused them. They beat one, killed another, and stoned the rest. 21. " He again sent other servants, in greater numbers than the first, whom they also ill-treated. 22. " When the owner of the vineyard makes his appear- ance, what will he do to those husbandmen ? 23. " One of the priests answered: He will miserably de- stroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard to other husbandmen, who will render him the fi-uits in their season. 24. " I therefore say, that the abominable principles and craft by which you have so long oppressed the people, must sooner or later become generally known, and your craft, as well as your priestly power, be destroyed forever. 25. " And all good men will rejoice when the day of con- tinued Egyptian bondage shall cease, and men begin to ad- vocate their own interests against the crafty, domineering priests. 26. " When the chief-priests and Levites heard him speak thus boldly of them, 27. " They would have laid hands on him ; but, fearing the people, they departed from the temple, full of wrath against the Roman power, which prevented them from slaying him. 22 : 1. " Jesus delivered the followLag in presence of cer- tain persons who affected to please God by outward observ- a;nces, to make men believe they were religious, while through self-conceit they despised others : 2. " Two men went into the temple to pray ; one was a Pharisee, and the other a publican. 3. " The Pharisee stood and prayed thus : God, I thank thee that I am not as other men — extortioners, unjust, adul- terers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week ; I give tithes of all I possess. 234 THE VAIL LIFTED. 4. " The puWican, standing far off, smote his hand on his hreast, saying : God be merciful to me, a sinner ! 5. " This man went to his house justified rather than the other. For he who exalts himself shall be abased, while the humble in mind shall be exalted. 6. " Beware of such as love to walk in long robes, and receive greetings in the market-place, and prefer the first seats in synagogues, and the chief rooms at feasts ; 7. " Who, while they plunder widows and orphans, make long prayers. 8. " Beware especially of priests, for they are mostly lovers of their own selves, covetous, proud, arrogant, unthankful, and sanctimonious ; 9. " Without natural affection ; truce-breakers ; false ac- cusers, in their own persons or by others ; quick to become angry, through pride ; fierce, yet appearing placid ; despis- ers of the good, yet loving those who have priestly faith without virtue or integrity ; 10. "Treacherous, gluttonous, high-minded, haters of a God of truth, and full of vanity ; 11. " Having the form of godliness, without honesty. Of such beware, and be not deceived by their saintly appear- ance. They smile blandly, and flatter only to deceive and ruin. 12. " These are the men who creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, and led away with di- vers lusts, whom they make their tools, and whom the^ per- suade to slander their enemies, and with whom also they gratify their libidinous propensities. 13. " They are ever learning, but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth ; 14. " Because they resist it with a sophistry of which they boast, as they thereby darken the minds of the people into a quiet assent to their superstitious and ghostly tricks ; being of corrupt and reprobate minds, professing clerical faith, and hating probity. 15. "But their impositions must have an end, and then the folly and weakne^ of their dupes and their own pre- sumption will be manifest to all. 16. " But until that time evil men and seducers will grow worse, deceiving others and deceived by others. 11. " Still, do you continue steadfast in the things yon THE VAIL LIFTED. 235 have learned and been assured of, for you confidently know their source ; always anxious that the truth we preach to you may prevail, and clerical oppression cease. 18. "The priests who- were present then went aside and took counsel with the Pharisees, ia what manner they could entangle him in his discourse. 19. " They then sent to him their students, with the He- . rodians, who thus addressed him : Master, we know that you are true, and teach the way of God in truth ; neither do you fear any man ; 20. " Tell us, therefore, your opinion : is it lawful to pay tribute to Caesar, or not ? 21. "Jesus, perceiving their low device; said: Why do you tempt me, ye hypocrites ? Show me the tribute-money. They then brought him. a penny. 22. " On receiving it, he inquired, "Whose image and su- perscription is this ? They said: Caesar's. 23. " Render, then, to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's. 24. " On hearing these words they were perplexed, and left him. 25. " The Pharisees, who assert there is a resurrection of the body — which the Sadducees deny — came to him the same day, 26. " And inquired of him whose wife a woman should be afjer the resurrection, she having had two husbands ? 27. " To which Jesus replied : The spirit of man alone survives the death of the body, which last it is our duty to respect, as the remains of what did enshrine a spirit which -will live eternally.. Therefore the remains of the dead should be respected until they are buried. 28. " This answer displeased the Pharisees, and they gathered together in council against him. 29. " Then one of them, who was a lawyer, asked him this question to tempt him : Master, what is our first relig- ious duty ? 30. " Our Saviour answered : To reverence God, and be submissive to his providence ; to love and obey our parents ; to have respect to the aged, and to respect your neighbor as yourself. 31. "Do this, and you will please God, your parents, the aged, your neighbors, and yourself. 236 THE VAIL LIFTED. 24 : 1. " While our Saviour was still about the temple, his discipJes came to him, to show him. some of the buildings. 2. " When he said : Do you behold the great extent and grandeur of the buildings ? Yet before long not one stone will be left upon another. 3. " A nation can not exist long without religion. Super- stition gives too much power to priests and bad men, and is worse than no religion. 4. " Superstition must be supported by priests, armies, pomp, and exactions, to keep the people poor and submissive. 5. '■'■ Meligion must be supported by schools of discipline, to render priestly persecutions and army discipline unneces- sary. 6. " The taxes to support the government of a foreign na- tion, and the exactions and oppressions of the Jewish cler- gy, have driven the people to despei-ation. I. " Certain destruction awaits this city and Temple, for the priests will give no aid from their enormous wealth to support the country. 8. " Yet shall the pure Gospel of the God of peace and love be preached over the earth, and eventual light and knowledge among aU men will ensue from the doctrines we now preach. 9. " In vain will kin^s, priests, and wicked men unite their power with the haughty and proud to destroy a relig- ion derived from God, and intended for the benefit of his creatures. 10. " jThey will prosper for a season by altering and adapting it to suit their sinister purp<^ses, and converting our doctrines of love and truth into engines of oppression. II. '■^ Many years of clerical darkness, oppression, and persecution will prevail on the earth, before the true light from God will universally triumph. 12. For they viill have the power for a season, like the clergy of Moses, to blind and debase the people, by distract- ing their mAnds, sowing among them dissensions and strifes, stirring up excitements, and vitiating their plain tastes with shows and pageants. 13. " Good men they will hate with the instinctive wick- edness' of their hearts, while they corrupt the healthy nutri- ment of pure religion into the poison of superstition. 14. "And they will raise up the abomination of desola- THE VAIL LIFTED. 237 tion in a false priest, who will be more rapacious, malignant, revengeful, cruel, and blood-thirst-y than the high-priest ; who in his anger and wrath will torture and hum those he hates, and totally desolate the poor with the semblance of feasting and hilarity. 15. '■'■Surrounded with his gorgeous ministers of craft and oppression, he will deceive and delude all around him. This tyranny and oppressive craft will also be supported by all princes and lords ; by all the vile among the rich, and the base and unprincipled among the poor. 16. "Their banner will be inscribed as now, '■clerical faith^ against righteousness and justice. 17. "This tyranny so dreadful, this gorgeous pomp so despicable, must be supported by the poor of the earth ; while lesser tyrants make further exactions, until they are stripped bare to support this silly splendor, and to polish the chains which fetter them. 18. "Then if any one shall say. Here is the gospel of truth which will teach you how to break the bonds of ty- rants, he will scarcely be believed. (How perfectly have the above predictions been verified in the Christian superstition !) 19. "i" repeat to you, beware of subtle, deceitful priests. Make your homes happy by excluding them, and their indi- rect influences. Exclude all con'ffentious persons, and re- spect others as you would be respected. 20. " Avoid false pride and silly vanity, which lead to strife .and useless rivalry. Establish order and system in all your affairs, and let the same prevail in your households. In this imitate the priests, for they observe order in their own houses, while they disorganize yours. 21. "Without order and system, the universe of God could not exist. How, then, can humble man prosper with- out the aid required, by God ? 22. ^ Let economy be practiced under all circumstances ; not to hoard like the miser, but to enable you to dispense to the sick and necessitous. 23. " Educate and instruct your children to reverence God, to honor and respect their parents and the aged, to pay defer- ence to the laws and their executors, and to be firm, mild, and benevolent toward all men. 24. " A true religious knowledge is of the greatest im- portance ; therefore teach them early the trutlis of the gos- 238 THE' VAIL LIFTED. pd, in which there is no superstition, mystery, miracle, or magic. 25. " Cultivate in them a proper ambition, without envi- ous contentions or revengeful rivalry. 26. " Make your homes happy, iu seeking for enjoyments' of this life, and a state of mind to prepare you for the hap- piness of another. 27. " Teach your children that the poor -vvill always be im- poverished, debased, and oppressed, without a pure and true religion. Teach your chUdi'en this. And also, 28. " That the religion of kings and priests is not their religion, but the superstition prepared for them by their op- pressors. 29. " Those who preach the old oppressive doctrines, cre- ating a discordant inequality among men, are scattered like a destroying pestilence, over the whole face of the country, 30. " Where they protect the Spoiler and divide with him the plunder wrested from the helpless, forlorn, and friend- less. 31. "These sanctimonious men influence silly women to plunder their husbands and fathers for some pretendedly holy purpose, that they may pamper their pride or appetites. 32.' " When their wickedness, cruelty, and prosperity are at their height, the religion of a God of goodness will sup- plant their knavery, and release the world from their bond- age. 33. " Then the histories of kings, priest, and tyrants will be remembered with abhorrence ; while men will marvel that their fathers were so simple. 34. " Taught by the gospel, men will understand their true interests ; and the beastly selfishness which now governs them, will be supplanted by the truth emanating from God, which shows that when men respect their brethren, they do in truth respect themselves, and reverence.the God of all. 25 : 3. " Why will you dispute and disagree about tri- fling things? One man esteems one day more fortunate than another, while others esteem every day alike. Let every one have his own opinion without idle controversy. 4. " No man lives for himself alone ; but he should be kind and complaisant to others. And let no man put a stumbling-block in his brother's way. 5. "Rather let us follow after the things that make peace, and things whereby one may edify another. THE VAIL LIFTED. 239 6. "Wheve there are many masters, there will be con- fusion. 7. "In many things we all offend. If any man offend not in word, he is the more perfect, and also the more able to bridle his whole body. 15. " A wise man, endowed with true knowledge, will show his good works by a corresponding conversation with the meekness^of wisdom. 16. " But if you have bitter envyings and violence in your hearts, conceal your infirmity, and speak not against the truth, but be ashamed of your weakness. 17. " These unwise, groveling passions descend not from God, but are priestly, sensual, and base. 21. " Adopt, therefore, virtuous and generous resolutions, with firmness, resolutely resisting envious and base feelings, which will flee from you. 22. " Contemplate God as he is, and you will find him just, good, and benevolent. Let the double-minded cleanse then* hands and purify their hearts. 23. " Speak not evil one of another. He who speaks evil of his brother speaks not well of God who made him. 25. " Lay up in your hearts the doctrines of virtue and integrity, that they may confirm you in all goodness. 26. " Be not proud, knowing nothing ; doting about ques- tions, and contending about words of no import, from which originate envy, railings, evil surmisings, anger and hatred." We have now given a fair specimen of the doctrines of Jesus ; all of which go to .conclusively prove, that so far from his being an incarnation of the demon god of the Jew- ish and Christian priesthood, as the Christian clergy pre- tend of him, he was the divinely enlightened antagonist and means by which the eternal God of Justice saw fit to ex- pose the true character of that priestly demon, who reigns in the minds of his clergy, to the enslavement of the human race in both mind and body, by the propagation of one of the most blasphemous and debasing superstitions that ever cursed the human race. In the two following chapters, the disciples of Jesus give an account of the ordinance of a monthly communion of bread established by him ; to be observed in all chapels there- after established, as a commemoration of the introduction of the light of the doctrines by him introduced into the world. 240 THE VAIL LIFTED. And they also contain the account of his betrayal into the hands of his enemies, the priestly fathers of the Christian superstition, by the treachery of Judas, with the account of his execution at their hands, and the removal of his body from the cross by his own disciples to a sepulcher, which was in a garden near the place of his crucifixion. We com- mend the careful perusal of the whole work to all who would do perfect justice to the true character of Jesus, and to those walking incarnate demons of earth who under the assumed name of Christian divines, profess to worship him as a god ; while they ignore and disown the God he taught and worshiped, and most basely libel his own character and cori'upt his wholesome doctrines, to transfer his honors to a Christly perjured demon of sodomy and lies, whom they de- voutly worship ; while they prostitute the name of God' to brutalize and enslave the human race. But without un- necessary quotations to eventually show their true origin and character, we now pass on to the "Acts ch the Eleven Disciples. BT PETEE. 1:1. "After the vindictive clergy had taken their re- venge on pure, unsophisticated intellect, by taking the life of the God-inspired Jesus ; 2. "When clerical faith and ludicrous creeds, with the superstitious aids of parade, gorgeousncss in dress and equi- page, tawdry banners, music, pageants, and silly pomposi- ties, to delude and dazzle the foolish,' were proudly dis- played ; * _ 3. " And when, in the full confidence of their murderous success, they had sanctified and raised a cross conspicuously in the Temple, with the image of our bleeding Saviour on it ; and the high-priests, Annas and Caiaphas, had placed smaller, splendid ones on the hinder parts of their miters ; 4. " When, that the triumph also might be more general, less splendid crosses were worn by the inferior clergy, with orders to erect large ones in their synagogues, that they might be everywhere displayed- as tokens or trophies of clerical triumph over the poor and oppressed, in the destruc- tion of their friend ; 3. " After all these triumphs over the death of our Saviour, THE VAIL LIFTED. 241 tliey -were sorely alarmed at the intelligence that his eleven disciples, countenanced by the Roman authority, were es- tablishing numerous chapels, and adding greatly to their numbers. 6. "The eleven disciples who remained after the death of Judas were named Bartholomew, Joseph of Arimathea, Philip, Matthew, Thomas the Publican, Mark, Luke, Peter, Andrew, James, and John. 7. " These often met in a house in Jerusalem, after the death of our Saviour, where they resolved to separate, and establish chapels wherever convenient, accordimg to the Saviour's Gospel and ordinances. 8. " Before leaving Jerusalem they visited the Saviourites, and coniirmed them in the cause of truth and the Gospel. , Many were also added to the number of these, who continued steadfast in the Saviour's doctrines, and who regularly every month commemorated the last supper, or communion of bread of the good and ever-blessed Jesus. 9. "When the chapels became numerous in Jerusalem and other places, those who belonged to them were com- monly called Chapelites. The industry and exemplary con- duct of the Saviourites gained them the favor and good-will of the people. They also accommodated each other with employment, so that none need be idle ; and all were indus- trious, religious, and contented. 10. " One day, while Peter and John were talking to some people in a street of the city, they observed a number of the clergy, with their captains of the Temple, coming . toward them. Their object was to arrest and imprison them, that they might put down their doctrines, which had become so popular as to attract multitudes of followers, which ex- cited their jealousy. 11. " The arrest was made in the evening, and they were imprisoned during the night. On the next day the high- priests, Annas and Caiaphas, and John and Alexander, and many others of the Levites, had met together in Jerusa- lem. 12. "Having Peter and John before them, they asked them by what authority they were spreading pernicious doctrines ? 13. "Peter, encouraged by the countenance and good- will of the Romans, and all the people, 11 242 THE VAIL LIFTED. 14. "Answered: We have said nothing against, nor have we in any way interfered with, the government or religion of the Ceesars. 15. "The Jewish people,' being without religion, for no one under the sway of the intelligent Csesars can believe in the sUly devices of Moses, the crazy, priest-hired prophets, or traditions handed down by priest-enslaved elders, we therefore instruct them in the knowledge of the trUe God, and their true interests. 16. "Jesus, our Saviour, whom you feared and crucified with your priestly mob, taught us the true knowledge of a just- and benevolent God, and the duties we owe to each other. These doctrines we teach, that men may reverence the God of truth, act justly to each other, and become useful members of society, avoiding your treacherous devices as destructive to their interests and domestic happiness. 17. "We preach to men a credible religion, one which they can believe, and which will benefit them, not falsehood and superstition to debase them. We do not require of them Xo prof ess faith inthout believing, and thus make them profligate, hypocritical, and godless. Observe how indus- trious, sober, and happy those become who are taught the precepts of the gospel of peace and good-will, and the misery of those who adhere to you and prey upon each other. 18. "When they heard the boldnesS of Peter they mar- veled, and directed him and John to leave the council- room, whUe they conferred together among themselves, as follows : 19. "What shall we do with these men, whose doctrines are rapidly spreading over the whole country?. At the same time the Roman authorities despise us, make. a jest of our holy religion, and countenance the Saviourites. 20. " Their proselytes become complaisant and industri- ous. The charge of sacrilege, which fonnerly struck them with horror, they now hear with indifference, or treat with stem contempt. Our anathemas, instead of injuring, now bind them more closely, together, while they despise them who regard them. Our slanders, which of old destroyed, now make the slandered resjjected. 21. "But to prevent the spread of their doctrines among the people, let us sternly threaten them, in order that they may no more speak in the name of Jesus. They then called THE VAIL LIFTED. 243 them to their presence, and with much authority commanded them not to speak at all in the name of Jesus. 22. " Peter replied : Judge yourselves whether it is right to hearken to you, or to perform our duty to God and our fellow-men. No one denies that our Saviour, the good, un- pretending Jesus, was inspired of God. And all know that Moses, from whom you derive your authority, was inspired' by selfishness, ambition, and a tyrannical spirit. 23. "His selfishness and ambition caused him to make his whole tribe of Levites perpetual clergymen, hundreds of years ago, when they numbered twenty-eight thousand. And Joshua, a relative and Levite, he made his successor in the government. 24. " Moses was determined that his family should govern , by superstition and fear ; and with this object in view, his laws were a selection of all that was cruel and oppressive .from those of Egypt, Hindostan, and other countries. And " his religion was intended to keep in subjection ignorant slaves just escaped from bondage, by continuing them in ignorance and debasement, that his own family and clan of priests might extort from them and tyrannize over them in pomp and power. 25. "Therefore, should we obey you, om* own consciences would condemn us as unfaithful to our trust, and unjust to mankind. 26. " Confounded by their daring to utter these undenia- ble truths, and not finding suitable grounds for punishment, fearing also to offend the people who hated and the Romans who despised them, they threatened them again and let them go. So much had the friends of the Gospel of Jesus increased since they destroyed him. 2Y. "After being liberated, Peter departed to establish distant chapels, leaving John to attend to those in and about Jerusalem. 2:1. " After the establishment of the chapels, the women, both rich and poor; of the families of the Saviourites, aban- doned the Temple and synagogues, and regularly attended the chapels presided over by the seniors. Neither could appeals to their pride or vanity, made by the women of the princes and priests, seduce or flatter any of them from their duty to their long degraded families. 2. " Many of the seniors of the chapels had been elders of 244 THE -V^AIL LIFTED. the Temple and synagogues, where, though they gave respect and importance to the clergy by' their age and experience, they were compelled to second their self-interested projects or suflfer their hatred. 3. " Should any of them, as elders of the Temple or syna- gogues, have dared to disobey the mandate of a clergyman, he would forthwith employ certain women and weaker mem- bers of the synagogue to render the good name of the up- right elder contemptible. 4. " All this would be done because he would not surren- der his conscience to the keeping of a priest, and become a knave, with a good character and a bad conscience, for peace' sake. 5. " Tired of persecution and urged by his family, who share his trouble and distress, the elder shows his faith by his works, and kneeling humbly at the feet of the priest, ■ asks his forgiveness. 6. " But this degrading act does no good. The reverend priest allows the persecution to go on, because by it he has gained a powei-ful friend in the person of the elder whose favor he has acquired by gratifying his own malice and re- venge. 1. " By thus encouraging the worst passions which mili- tate against true religion, and the harmony, peace, and hap- piness of society, they gain importance and create fear, which increases their arrogance and pride. 8. " The seniors in the chapels of our Saviour being no longer subservient to the priests, are treated with the defer- ence their age and conduct merit. Consequently, they have acquired their own self-respect, and that honor and import- ance in society which God, in his providence, had assigned to man, but was usurped by the sanctimonious priest. 9. " The seniors acquire their authority among men by prescription and the wise providence of God, under whose care they have lived to possess the necessary experience of age. Thus experienced, they superintend the chapels, with wisdom and prudence. 10. " God has also given them a jus^, moral influence over their own families and neighborhoods, which they exercisr beneficially, being equal and highly respected among equals. They are neither objects of advdation, worship, or envy. THE VAIL LIFTED. 245 They are pious without sanctimoniousness, affable without grossness, and benevolent without ostentation. 11. "The clergy, deriving their spiritual authority from Moses, were set apart by him as a distinct class from the people, with whom, from that time, they had no mutual sympathies. 12. " Moses also gave them a religion full of superstition and bigotry, to blind and delude their ignorant worshipers, by which the priests have ever since extorted money, exact- ed homage, and received adoration. 13. " Some affect humility which they never possess, but which causes their ill-concealed pride and exalted condition above their fellow-men to appear more glaring and repul- sive. 14. " Among the various means devised to retain power and continue their influence over the rich, one plan has al- ways been to make them believe (and frequently they fur- nish the evidence to convince their dupes) that with the de- clension of priestly power their property would be tmpro- tected from popular rapacity. 15. "To prove their assertions true, they stir up excite- ments among the vulgar by means of their agents, to be ac- companied by acts of violence against property. Thus they themselves create the evils they profess to correct, and there- fore profess to know how to remedy them. It is also com- mon for them to influence the poor to claim tmdue services from the rich as a matter of right^^nd which they know will be refused. 16. " Thus do they continue unhappy differences between the rich and the poor, to maintain their false ascendency over both for the benefit of themselves and the lordly, cry- ing, ' Peace ! peace !' while committing hostility, and preach- ing ' Virtue ! virtue !' when they believe they would starve if integrity should supplant clerical faith ! 17. "The base, invidious spirit of the poor against the rich, and the contempt and iasolence with which the rich treat the poor, have yielded to the mild, enlightening spirit of the Gospel, and industrious habits prevail wherever chap- els are established. By the happy spirit of the Gospel, a mutual feeling of good-will^ and kindness between rich and poor has succeeded the groveling enmity sown by the priests. 18. " Let, therefore, the poor always continue to meet the 246 THE VAIL LIFTED. rich with open, manly consideration and respect. Let them be cautious that the malignant, unhappy feeling of envy, in- directly encouraged by the priest,- is not harbored in then- hearts against a successful neighbor, nor allow the low cun- ning of the designing to tempt them to outrage and vio- lence. , 19. " And let the rich man avoid the weakness, pride, or vanity that would enslave him to the priest and noble, who despise him for abandoning the love and good-will of the many for the secret though imconcealed contempt of the few, who, while they consider him as a presumptuous in- truder, manage to rnake his wealth subservient to the sup- port of their self-assumed superiority. 20. " A great part of the avails of the industrious hus- band and father which formerly, under the Mosaic Religion, the clergy abstracted through the simplicity or vanity of the wife or daughter, under plausible, holy pretenses, 21. "The husband, father, and wife now retain for the benefit of their own families. 22. " What formerly built the large Temple and syna- gogues, to add to the pomp of the clergy and allure the women from their home-duties, 23. " Now founds the well-built and comfortable chapels for their families. 24. " The avails of their honest industry, which now cre- ate for them and their families the neat and comfortable houses in which they reside, 25. " Are not, as formerly, alienated from them to con- struct the magnificent palaces of the clergy, nor the royal edifice for the equally jDroud and insolent prince. 26. "Those earnings of industry which are now expend- ed to create neatness, comfort, and convenience in their own homes, 27. " No longer furnish the gaudy equipage, the expen- sive furniture, the xshildish pageant, and other prodigalities of the clergy, princes, and lords. 28. "The ChapeUtes now have the means to provide a suf- ficiency of good and healthy food for their own families, and to be charitable in clothing and feeding the needy ; 29. " The same being no longer appropriated by the wife or daughter of the Saviourite for the over-fed priest to pam- per himself, THE VAIL LIFTED. 247 30. " They can now afford to provide suitable and conve- nient clothing for their families. 31. " Their means being no longer abstracted from them to furnish the clergy and their accomplices in a heartless relig- ion with the childish regalia of mitres and crowns, 32. " Tiaras, croziers, sceptres, thrones, altars, diamonds, ephods, breastplates, urims and thummims ; 33. " Blue and purple robes, gold bells, mitre -plates, and sumptuous equipage. 34. " Their share of this ridiculous expenditure to delude the vulgar now makes their own homes agreeable, and they are no longer driven from them by discomfort, brawls, and discord. The publican no longer profits from the discon- tented and unhappy, whom the priests and oppressors for- merly drove to his gate. 35. " Having their own chapels for religious worship, their wives and daughters are no longer indirect spies over them, as they were while acting under the sly, plotting priest. 36. "The chapels, with the religion of God, need no priests and Levites to act as mediators between God and man ; no regalia or pageants to please the ignorant ; 37. " No colleges for sophistry to obscure truth ; no mys- tery or juggling, to make fools stare ; no miracles or signs of wonder, to impose on the weak-minded ; no clerical faith for knaves '; or creeds for tmbelievers to profess faith in ; nor any indirect policy to mislead men. 3ff. "Designed to do good, and not to mislead, the gospel is plain and intelligible to all. 39. "How different from the hideous structure of false- hood and absurdity made by the selfish Moses, to raise to worldly power and despotism his owti tribe and family ! His religion has continually supported the despotism, cruel- ty, and tyranny of priests and kings. 40. " Those are to be pitied who allow themselves to be duped by such ridiculous absurdities, called religion, with its vain pomp and show, its sophistries and delusions, creating heartless pride and smiles, under which is concealed an ach- ing heart. 41. " Yet great numbers have abandoned the comforts of peaceable homes, to join successful Mosaic impostors and the worst of tyrants, at the expense of religion and happiness. 248 THE VAIL LIFTED. 42. " The institution of the communion of bread is found- ed on immutable truth, and binds the Saviourites to each other by the principles of charity and benevolence. In its observance it includes a commemoration of our Saviour and his gospel of light and good-will. It is a holy communion with God, whose wisdom and purity were imparted to Je- sus for the benefit of the world. 43. " The brotherhood of Saviourites have for their found- ation the charity of procuring bread for all, and the gospel by which general charity is promoted. Their associated power thus founded, where many are as one in unity of ob- ject, thought, action, and purpose, creates mutual confidence, and gives them a contented and happy mind. 44. "This social, religious happiness among men and wo- men is denounced as sacrilege by the clergy, unless they themselves preside under their malignant God of Sabaoth, and practice their sanctimonious mummeries. 45. " Our vindictive enemies, envying the prosperity of the chapels, have commenced more violent persecutions than before, under the conduct of a bold, perfidious man, named Saul, who being a Jew, was made a Koman citizen by pur- chase, which was paid for by the priests, as well as his hire for harassing the chapels. 46. "He brought Stephen, an intelligent and useful fol- lower of the gospel, before the high-priests, under a charge of sacrilege for administering the communion of bre^d and holy comfort and consolation to women as well as men, and caused him to be stoned to death, contrary to the Roman laws. 47. " As for Saul, he was abundantly paid by the clergy, who revered him for his plausibility and total want of piin- ciple. He was continually plotting oppressions, and making great havoc of the chapels in and about Jerusalem ; enter- ing houses, and abusing and tormenting men and women, and often committing them to prison. 48. " Still the chapels were continually increasing ; the people being far more happy under their persecutions, with the Gospel of God in their possession, than they formerly were when free from such persecutions, and destitute of the Gospel." We now invite the reader's special attention to the last Epistle of Peter to the Chapels, THE VAIL LIFTED. 249 Arid in a more particular manner, to a comparison of the simple and sublime doctrines of Jesus and . his disciples, with the Satanic doctrines of the Christian superstition, which are here described as then being introduced by Paul in order to corrupt and subvert them. " This was the last Epistle of the pious disciple Peter to the chapels. It was accompanied with manuscripts of the Gospel and ordinances for the rule and management of the chapels according to the system enjoined by the blessed Sav- iour. They were intended to be copies, by which the others could correct and conform all their small variances, that they might be uniformly alike. The Last Epistle of Petee. 1. "Simon Peter, an humble disciple, of Jesus, justly called the Saviour of the world, 2. "To all the seniors and mediates of all the Saviourite chapels of Rome, Corinth, Philippi, and elsewhere, as the accompanying epistle does direct ; 3. " And also to the sti-angers throughout Pontus, Gala- tia, Cappadocia, Bithynia, and elsewhere, and to all the be- loved brethren : 5. " May the peace and love of God remain with you, and may you continue to respect each other ; not hating and deceiving, as in the dark times past. 5. " Both myself and the brethren here are well pleased to hear that the love of God and charity toward each other abound among you. 6. " We also rejoice that your trust in the Gospel of the crucified Saviour on the accursed cross has given you pa- tience and hope to bear the tribulations and persecutions created by the arch enemies of God and oppressors of men. 7. " Dearly, beloved seniors, mediates, and brethren, I have examined the Gospel and ordinances of our revered Saviour Jesus, written and compiled by his disciple Matthew, after it had received the additional notations of the disci- ples Mark, John, Luke, and myself; to all which I have also made additions from my own written memoranda, in six chapters. 8. " These we send to you, that there may be no variance between them in the different chapels. 11* 250 THE VAIL LIFTED. 9. " The blessed Saviour suited his language to the com- prehension of those -whom he addressed. 10. "For this purpose he often spoke in parables, that he might instruct the dull and ignorant ; explaining by familiar things and objects the truths he wished .them to understand. 11. "Many of his lessons I had written down at the time he delivered them, as did also Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John ; which, with the blessing of God, will be pre- served for the good of the world in his Gospel forever. 12. "The disciple Matthew wished me to alter his plain language into better style ; but as his unadorned language corresponded with the plain truths of Jesus, I declined. 13. " After Jesus had proposed to me to become one of his disciples, the priests, with their usual industry in mis- chief, wished to degrade him as a bastard, and unable to attaint the character of Mary, his mother, 14. " Reported that he had called himself the son of God, hoping thereby to bring him into contempt for his arrogance and folly ; 15. "And at the same time implying his bastardy, as though, having no father but God, Joseph was not his father. 16. "Thus, in priestly pride and rage, trampling on the character and happiness of his virtuous mother, the good Joseph, and his highly respected brothers, Joses, James, Simon, and Judas, and also his two sisters, Mary and Thalda. 1 7. " Such baseness, however much they may have been exasperated by his exposure of their knavery and supersti- tions, and also their loss of influence by the success of his doctrines, was inexcusable, 18. "And induced me no longer to defer complying with the offer of Jesus ; and from thenceforth I became his disci- ple, with a perfect conviction of the hardships and persecu- tions to which I exposed myself. 19. "Another plan of his crafty and desperate enemies was to exalt him wherever he went, as one who had power to heal all diseases ; yea, who could restore the dead to life! ^ 20. " These things did they affect to believe ; and would also wonder if he was aided by the devil. THE VAIL LIFTED. 251 21. "Thus did they invidiously act, and pretend a desire to see him exhibit his power. 22. "And fools were not wanting who fell into the snare so artfully laid by deceitful, indecent men, who made the art of deceiving the people a regular study, to promote their profit or interest. 23. "Having thus raised the expectations of the people, they supposed they would be disgusted with Jesus if he disappointed them, as many would believe he had thus pre- tended. 24. " These things did the enemies of Jesus propagate, to destroy his influence with the people, and make his doctrines vain. 25. "As for the wiser sort, when they heard these tales falsely spoken by those they respected for their supposed sanctity, tkey believed Jesus had thus boasted, 26. "And were displeased with his folly and presump- tion. 27. " While the simple, by far the most numerous, were for a season dissatisfied that he did not gratify them. 28. " Such artifices and tricks to deceive and delude the people, and prevent their instruction in true knowledge, are taught in the four colleges for instruction in the law and religion of Moses, in the city of Jerusalem. 29. "These men, boldly confident, sanctified ia look, and intermeddling with others' affairs, readily disorder the har- mony of families. 30. " And having been taught a crooked knowledge, de- void of truth, are purposely scattered and found every- where. 31. "Thus scattered, and practiced like soldiers to act as one man, they speak with one voice in favor of the worth- less who profess priestly faith, and against the worthy who do not. 32. " The priests, jealous of the influence of the doctrines of our Saviour, reported that he had, by magic, multiplied a few loaves of bread into thousands, with which he had fed the multitude. 33. "This was also done by them with the same inimical purpose as the raising from the dead : falsehoods to make him and his doctrines scorned. 34. "'Reverence God, respect your neighbor and his 252 THE VAIL LIFTED. rights, be always innocently if not uscfuUy employed, and avoid idleness as the parent of misery.' 35. " These and like doctrines Jesus taught, which were condemned hy the priests, because, when added to the cau- tions he gave, it made men entirely independent of them. 36. "The priests, instead of teaching the people such useful knowledge, preferred instructing them in the most preposterous nonsense, confounding their minds with ridic- ulous mysteries, sanctified mummeries and incredibilities." (How strictly do the Christian clergy follow their example !j 37. " They are living everywhere, having the country di- vided into allotments, and districted off for them, where they can intrude into every family, their power being feared by aU. 38. " When a good man was attacked by one of them, in any allotment, it was immediately known to them all, and he had no place of refuge from their hatred. 39. " But a city of refuge was at all times provided for the murderer and burglar, who -were necessarily submissive to their superstitions, who, having no righteousness of their own, were provided for by clerical or priestly faith. 40. " The policy of confounding virtue and vice, by intro- ducing clerical faith as a substitute for righteousness and a just life, was first introduced in their Regulator, or book called ' Melech Ashigh Uthun,' in the time of Solomon. 41. "It gave the priests great power and influence, by association with the unprincipled and dishonest; for a Jcnave can profess a belief in any thing, though he can not be just. 42. "In company, with such men, the family of Moses, numbering twenty-eight thousand Levites when first consti- tuted priests and ministers by him, have, under the banner of priestly faith, compared righteousness to a filthy rag, and persecuted the just and upright even to this dayP (And with the addition of the stake, fire, and fagots, the Christian clergy have continued them.) Under the comparatively humane government of the Ko- man emperoi's, the power to punish with death, was taken from the vindictive, theocratic priests, on account of their cruelty. This gave Jesus an opportunity to benefit the world with his inspired revelations, before the rancor of the THE VAIL LIFTED. 253 priests and their mob induced Pilate reluctantly to give him up to them. 44. " Our Saviour proposed for mankind a religion without priests. By the providence of God, numbers of men live long enough to acquire the wisdom and experience of age ; of these he formed the rulers or seniors of the chapels. 45. " By this policy he placed all men, as near as can be, on an equality in the chapels of God ; and his doctrines ex- hibit them as equal in the sight of God. 46. "The seniors, having no permanent office, could not leave an inheritance of clerical power to foster pride. 47. " But their successors were constituted, as they them- selves had been, by a choice of the mediates and seniors. 48. " The excellence of this plan we have happily expe- rienced ; but our happiness and prosperity are again bring- ing dawn on' us the vengeance of the powers of darkness and superstition, in a more artful manner than accompanied the violence which nerved us and bound us more closely together. 49. " The clergy have again brought out against us the noted Saul, who formerly persecuted us with violence, until he was disabled by wounds. 50. " This Saul had studied with the priest and doctor, Gamaliel, who first recommended hirn to the priestly council at Jerusalem as a person every way qualified to revenge them on Jesus, being cunning, and cruel, and totally un- principled." (As the first founder of the Christian supersti- tion, how perfectly has his character been handed down through its persecuting clergy !) 51. " Saul being employed by them, made great havoc of the followers of our Saviour's doctrines frequently entering their houses, and committing the inmates to prison. 52. " Also exciting mobs, and other excesses ; in one of which he caused the good and exemplary Stephen to be stoned to death." (The Christian clergy now dignify such a char- acter with the title of saint !) 53. "In one of these tumults, which he had himself ex- cited, he was severely wounded, and fell from his horse. 54. " A Saviourite having compassion on this ruthless en- emy, raised him from the ground, carried him to his own house, dressed his wounds, and entertained him hospitably until he was healed. 254 THE VAIL LIFTED. 55. " While he was in the house of this good man, he as- certained that he could destroy some of the chapels under the guise of friendship. 56. " When his wounds were healed, he went to a dis- tant chapel, where he was unknown, and, under the assumed name of Paul, became a member. This made Mm equally a member of all the other chapels. 57. "Having an abundance of money furnished by the priests, and their extensive influence beside, he is now un- dermining the doctrines and ordinances of our blessed Sav- iour, and substituting the Jewish in their place, excepting the sacrifices." (Now behold the Christian doctrine.) "77ie sacrifice of our Saviour on the cross, he says, is accepted of God, as sufficing in their stead. 58. " He invites the Chapelites to join themselves to the clergy, calling them the bishops of their souls, from whom as sheep they have gone astray. 59. " By a letter just received from Damascus, I am in- formed that he has altered our Gospel and ordinances, leav- ing parts of the lessons of Jesus as they were, but generally mutilated and intermingled with his own and the priests' de- vices and superstitions. (This is just as we now find them in the New Testament of the Christians.) 60. " Saul or Paul, in his new-fangled Gospel, boldly con- firms the slanders of the priests on Jesus and his family, 61. '"'' £y audaciously' calling our Saviour the Son of God. 62. " He has also coupled his name with that of the phan- tom Christ of the priests, calling him Jesus Christ the Shi- loh and anointed Messiah of Moses and the crazy prophets." (In this he is strictly imitated by his followers, the Christ- ian, and successors of the Mosaic, clergy, to this day.) 63. "To suit his shameless purposes, he makes Jesus, whose ancestry we all know, a descendant of David, and insolent- ly calls David ' the man after God's own heart I ' " (Strict- ly New Testament and Christian doctrine.) 64. " As an evidence of the triumph of the priests over humanity in the person of Jesus, he has the hardihood to place a cross, with the bleeding image of Jesus suspended on it, near the forum, from which he preaches." (And this we still behold in many of the Christian temples of wor- ship.) THE VAIL LIFTED. 256 65. "To reconcile this glaring insult to the people, he re- stores Jesus to life three days after he had buried him." (Sur^y, the doctrines of Paul and Christianity are an iden- tity ; but how antipodal to the doctrines of Jesus !) 66. " And shamelessly asserts that myself and the other disciples said we saw him and talked with him after his death "and burial ! And he declares that we have given our testimony thereto !" (How strictly miraculous, Christian, priestly, and devilish !) 6V. '■'■ After raising him from the dead, he causes him to ascend bodily into heaven / This^ also, he boldly asserts we said we had witnessed / and also his sitting at the right hand of God. There Saul eventually places him, with the name of Jesus Christ the Son of God / " (All fundamept- al pure Christian doctrines.) 68. " He also, with equal effrontery, represents that our Saviour, knowing himself to be the only Son of God, the phantom Messiah, Shiloh, or Christ of the priests, 69. "Voluntarily offered himself to be. sacrificed by the* clergy, and calls his cruel death on the cross a voluntary sacrifice to please his Father !" (Still purely Christian.) 10, " Paul or Saul then goes on, ia the spirit of gross conception, to create a priestly, sacrificial feast. And as the priest feasted on the carcass of the animal that was sac- rificed, with the exception of what he gave to God, 71. "So he, in the most ignominious manner, makes a cannibal feast at which to feed, not only their gluttony, but their rancorous hatred and triumph over the good Jesus. 12. " For this purpose, the murder of the blessed Saviour by the clergy is commemorated by eating his actual l)ody, as Paul says, when he gives his proselytes bread to eat at what he calls the Lord's Supper. 13. " And, as though this was not savage -enough, he in- troduces wine ; and on giving a cup of it he says : This is the blood of Jesus, drink of it, my beloved ; for Jesus himself instituted this sacrament when he ate his own body and drank his own blood." (And this sacrilegious mummery, the priestly Christian church of a sodomite Christ and god still retains, to identify itself with its murdering and Satan- ic founders.) 14. " This cannibal feast, so ludicrous yet barbarous, could originate only in a base, revengeful heart, and corresponds 256 THE VAIL LIFTED. with the malignant feelings of those whom it was intended to gratify. Y5. " The chapels with the Gospel and ordinances of Je- sus have been continued long enough to prove, that with re- ligion the people, unannoyed by priests to create discord and to explain superstition by sophistry, become orderly, in- dustrious, and happy. Whether rich or poor, they envy not each other, but are mutually kind and benevolent. 76. " Wherever Paul has operated, a reversed state of things exist. For the letter from Damascus states that the cannibal feasts, or the Lord's Supper, as Paul calls it, is in- variably a scene of drunkenness aiid gluttony. 11. " Paul has also established three Gods to replace the one he has deposed^ (And here we see the origin of the Christian Trinity.) 78. " God the Father, is the first. Then Jesus Christ, descended, as he says, from God and the Virgin Mary, (meaning Joseph's wife,) is the second. Now, Joseph had five sons and two daughters by his wife Mary, itad we are acquainted with all of them. 79. " He couples the name of our Saviour Jesus with that of the priest-anointed fantasmic Messiah. And to every chapel under his control a cross has been attached, as a token of the victory of the Mosaic clergy over Jesus. 80. " M)en at his Lord!s Supper, the name of Jesus is coupled with Christ." (How perfectly is the Christian church portrayed !) •: 81. "To flatter the siUy part of the women, it is sup- posed that he is about deifying Mary, the good wife of Joseph, as the mother of God !" (This we now see has been accom- plished.) " The arrogance and insolence of the fellow scorn alike rationality and decency." (And this might alike be said of the whole Christian clergy who are his followers and worshipers.) . 82. " His -third God he calls the Holy Ghost, who remains on earth, and belongs to the bishop of souls. The first God, the Father, is in heaven, to which place myself, he says, and the other disciples saw the second God, Christ, ascending to join him ! He also falsely asserts that I am aiding him in thus subverting the purity of the Gospel." (Paul was a true lying, persecuting, murdering Christian, and may justly be THE VAIL LIFTED. 257 bermed^the first father of the Christian clergy, and the found- er of the sect.) 83. '"Backed with all the money and influence of the priests and their thousands of kindred, the Levites, who are scattered everywhere, he can assert or prove any thing he pleases, and has an infinity of vileness. ' 84. " The Holy Ghost, he says, proceeds from the Father and the Son, and he protects him bettes than the other gods of his conception. 85. " For he says that God will forgive all sins save a. sin against the Holy Ghost. That will not be forgiven in this world or in the next. 77ie three Gods, he says, are one God." (So Paul is the true demon author of Christian priestly phi- losophy ; and to sum up the whole matter, the satanic and blasphemous doctrines of Paul and the Christian clergy are one and identical, and stand opposed to those of Jesus as darkness is to light.) 86. " He has also changed the government of the chapels. The seniors he calls elders, and the mediates, deacons ; and has established bishops, whom he selected from among the Levites, over all, the same as in the synagogues. 8Y. " The writer from Damascus also states that the es- tablishing any religious associations in which women are in- cluded for the happiness and protection of any but the cler- gy and their friends, who are the elect of God, is A sin against the Holy Ghost, or third God. This last God Paul also describes as the spirit of peace, concord, and happiness, proceeding from associated confidence of power, through the mutual protection of many. 88. " Now, my brethren, it would seem from this letter that it is intended by Saul to permit none but Mosaic priests and those who humble themselves before them to be allowed the happiness we now enjoy with our families as a religious association. 89. " By means of our religious association we have been gratified with the kindly afiections of men having confidence in and respecting each other, accompanied with a happy sense of security, mutual sympathy, and content. Our wives and daughters, by resorting to our religious chapels, are in- dependent of the priests and their synagogues, and no longer their spies and agents of discord. 90. " Dear brethren : My health has lately been much im- 258 THE VAIL LIFTED. paired ; yet I trust in God that I shall be enabled to correct these false teachings. 91. " Oh ! that we had strictly obeyed the oft-repeated in- junction of our Saviour : ' Beware of priests and of the scribes ! They smile benignantly while they stab fatally.' " (As true now as at the time when Peter wrote.) " ' Their whole study is to deceive and delude, and their smile is more to be dreaded than their hatred. 92. " ' Beware of the pi'oud, for they respect none but themselves. Neither are they capable of religious feelings.' 93. " The religion of Saul is so absurd and ridiculous that we have only to dread the cunning which the unhappy man will employ to divert the power and favor of the Roman government from us. 94. " But we must exert ourselves and rely on the good providence of God, which has thus far successfully sustained us. 95. " Let us hereafter follow strictly the admonitions of our Saviour, that we maybe enabled to preserve the benefits of the Gospel and its ordinances for ourselves and posterity, and avoid the blight of discord, bigotry, and superstition. 96*. " With the light and knowledge of God, conveyed to us by our Saviour, shining in our hearts, we have confidence and hope. 97'. " So that, though we are troubled on every side, we are not distressed ; though we are perplexed, we are not in despair ; 98. "'We are persecuted, but not forsaken ; cast down, but not destroyed." We now come to an account of the conspiracy by which the doctrines and worship of a Just and Benevolent God as taught by Jesus were suppressed, and. the priestly doctrLues and worship of a demon, as inculcated in the Jewish and Christian Bible, were substituted in their place and stead The Acts of Paul and the Jewish Sanhedkim. 1. " Paul having failed by open violence to destroy the chapels established by the disciples of the revered and loved Jesus, and having been sorely wounded in one of his ofiens- ive forays, his rancor and hatred against them knew no bounds. THE VAIL LIFTED. 259 2. " Finding that his former violence had increased their numbers and strengthened their resolution, he determined to assail their integrity with artifice. 3. " When he had formed his system of operation, he com- municated it to his friend Ahosaphal the priest, whom it pleased, and he promised to engage the supreme council of priests, at its next session, to furnish the necessary funds to carry his plans into operation. 4. " Consequently, at the next meeting of the Sanhedrim, Ahosaphal introduced the subject by saying : ' Openly are we denounced every day by the Saviourites in their chapels, while the holy reverence formerly paid us in the Temple and syii3,gogues is now turned into contempt. 5. " ' This destructive state of things is indirectly encour- aged by our Roman masters, who ridicule and despise both us and our religion. 6. " 'The sacrilegious Chapelites, who worship God with- out the intervention of holy appointed priests, are increas- ing in numbers and creating their chapels everywhere, while the utmost quietude, prosperity, and happiness attend them. This must not be allowed to continue. 7. "'By their established rules they exclude from* their number all priests, lawyers, and contentious persons, with the last of whom, however, they ingratiate themselves by favor- ing their control in civil affairs, without open interference. Their Gospel is plain ; so are its ordinances. Both are to be continued without any change or amendment whatever to the end of time. For God, they say, is always the same. Should we introduce our agents among them, therefore, we could effect nothing for their overthrow. 8. " ' Thus fortified, sophistry or desire of change can not affect them. 9. " ' They have no mysteries, and say that a pure religion requires none. They assert that mystery implies a fraud on the understandings or purses of themselves or neighbors. Sym- bols they equally avoid as useless, except for the very ig- norant. 10. " 'Having a religious establishment of their own, £hey have drawn from us all their women, who before worshiped in our synagogues ; also, some of our elders and great num- bers of the aged and rich (but I am happy to «ay, no priests 260 THE VAIL LIFTED. or princes) have added respectability to their heresy, by joining them. 11. " ' By withdrawing their women from us, we have lost a great source of power we derived from their vanity and their inquisitive and communicative -dispositions, which made them more valuable to us than ordinary spies in their own houses ; in which capacity, being themselves ignorant of thus acting, they were unsuspected by their own hus- bands. 12. " ' Having taken from us their Delilahs, by whose silli- ness, vanity, and pride we so long lorded it over the Samsons, we can no longer shear them of their strength ; the sacrileg- ious Jesus having so instructed them that their heifers will no longer work at our plow, to the degradation, as they say, of their own families. 1-3. " 'Spies we can not employ in their houses, because they are on their guard against them. We can therefore neither harass nor profit by them, as we are ignorant of their doings and designs. 14. " ' A hiredfipy can not enter into every secret of a family as can the wife, who may ascertain the secrets of the heart, and hUs free access everywhere. So silly and vain were they, that they observed not their delivering their families bound hand and foot into our hands, that we might profit by their weakness. " There can be no evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it." 15. "'^ spy or agent may he suspected and guarded against^ but the wives and daugMers are the natural aids of the priest, possessing the necessary aids of an instructed one. For they are always possessed of an insatiable curiosity, with a frantic desire to communicate every secret. 16. " 'Hired spies in families and neighborhoods expect compensation. The- woman is .paid by her love of gossip and excitement. And verUy their families receive the re- ward of their labor. "Those who sow in the whirlwind shall reap in the whirlwind." 1^. " ' From the want of female agency, we can no longer sow discord and distraction in their families, and then ex- hibit our balance of power by throwing it on one side or the other, as would best suit our interests or conven- ience. 18. " ' The sacrilegious Jesus, who taught his followers to THE VAIL LIFTED. 261 mutually benefit and respect eacli other, has taught them a lesson they never before could practice, which will dilapi- date our priestly palaces, and build houses for the base, who know not how to enjoy prosperity with moderation. 19. " 'In this melancholy state of our affairs, our reliance, to reinstate ourselves into former power, must be placed on Saul, whom we formerly employed against them, and who has requested me to explain his designs to you, which, I am convinced, he wiU successfully carry into effect, if supported with sufiicient funds. 20. "'He has recovered from wounds he received while engaged with others, in your service, in breaking up a chapel by force. Wounded and dismounted, he was forsaken by his followers, when a Chapelite in compassion took him to his own house, and with care and attention- cured him. 21. " ' While in the house of this man, he had opportuni- ties of noting how best they could be destroyed. 22. " 'He then ascertained that, when admitted into one chapel, he became a member of all the rest ; and he intends to join a chapel where he is unknown, under the assumed name of Paul. 23. " ' When he will flatter them hy preaching that Jesus, whom we crucified, had risen from the dead, and was after- ward seen hy his disciples and others, to whom he gave such authority and itistructions as Saul will invent and preach to suit our purposes. 24. " ' it is also his intention to deify Jesus and add Christ to his name, and thus introduce him as the Shiloh, Messiah, or Christ so long ago promised hy Moses, the priests, and the prophets, to soothe the discontented Jews. 25. '"He will thus add the popularity to Jesus of our ' holy religion and laws, making the most arbitrary and ty- rannical parts less objectionable, by intermingling them with the pure morality of Jesus. 26. "'The Chapelites have more among them who can read and write than can be found elsewhere. 27. " ' Saul says that their women, instructed in the Gospel of Jesus, are no longer silly, proud, or vain. . And since his death, the disciples have taught them to imitate the virtuous and pious example of Mary, his mother. 28. '"The sons are also taught to imitate the worthy ex- 262 THE VAIL LIFTED. ample of the pious and just Joseph and his son, theii' Saviour and the enlightener of the world, as they call him. 29. " ' They profess to feel grateful to the Providence which gave so excellent a father and mother to Jesus, as instructors, to make him worthy to be inspired and enlight- ened by God to benefit the world, and create for them their present happiness. 30. " ' JVoio Saul proposes to flatter tJie women by deifying Mary as the mother of the Son of God. And he intends to mate a saint of her husband Joseph. 31. '■'■'■ Jesus, after arising from the dead, he will boldly assert, vias seen by his disciples ascending with glory to Itea- ven, where God gave him a seat at his rigMhand, welcoming him, there as the priestly Jifessiah and his only Son. 32. " 'He says it will do them no good should the disci- ples deny these assertions, as the foolish vanity of their fol- lowers and our influence will outweigh their testimony. 33. " ' T7ius, out of the dead Jesus, whom we abhorred for his blasphemy and sacrilege, we will give the people the Shiloh, Messiah, or Christ we, and Moses, and the prophets have so long promised them ; and aU their fabric of sacri- legious haziness will fail them, for they will faU into our toils, and tihe priesthood will acquire a renewed power. 34. " ' Saul requires our aid to induce the women of rank to wait upon, honor, flatter, caress, and delude the Chapelite women, and to excite in tJiem a false ambition, to be commu- nicated to their husbands and sons, that they may elevate Jesus into a God, by the name of Christ. ' 35. " ' He says, that however disagreeable it may be for exalted women to mix with such low persons, the purpose to be afiected by their humiliation will soon be accomplished, when they can cast oS" their society forever. 36. " ' Jb throw contempt on their ignorance and stupidi- ty, he will convert the commemoration of the last supper of bread, instituted by Jesus, into a feast, at which wine will be introduced and called tJie actual blood, and the bread the actual body, of Jesus. 37. " 'He will also solemnly affirm that, when Jesus in- stituted the rite, he ate his own body for bread, and drank his own blood for wine ; saying to his disciples that the bread was his real body, and the vnne his real blood, and that they must eat and drink abundantly ; THE VAIL LIFTED. 263 38. " ' Saul intending by tliis seeming nonsense to create a division among them ; for the weaker sort will fall in and separate themselves from the more intelligent, who will re- coil from avowing a belief in such palpable absurdity, when our influence, joined to the numbers of the ignorant, will give us the ascendency. 39. "'Jesus promised his followers that, if they would practice his doctrines, they would always have an abundance of bread ; and instituted the rite, that the Gospel, the source of plenty, should be always remembered. • 40. " ' Saul furtlier says, that he will thus render accept- able to the silly fellows the anointed Christ or Messiah, who was promised of old, in the person of the dead Jesus, who having ascended hodily into heaven, was accepted hy God as the Christ, and his only well-beloved Son. 41. " ^ Thus Jesus having become the Christ or Ifessiah, the old fabric of our religion is imposed on the people anew, with all its splendor, excepting tlie sacrifices. 42. " '■As to them, Saul wiU preach to the Chapelites, that the one voluntary sacrifice of Jesus, the Son of God, by the priests, was so highly acceptable to his Father, that God told the priests they need not offer any more beasts. i2. " ' He says, the sure effect will be to bring them back to the now contemned religion of their fathers and the priests, with Jesus as the Christ, sitting loith God in heaven. 44. " ' He will, also, by this policy, entice them to accord and fall in with our old and formidable doctrine of "faith," for no man of the most ordinary understanding can believe these things. Saul, therefore, will make a profession of faith necessary and meritorious. Me will also give a corre- sponding creed to be professed by them. 45. '•'■'■ By his efforts, faith by association wiU again tri- umph among them over uprightness ,• and the one m,is- trusting the other, the priest will conquer and govern all. 46. " ' For, by making a profession of faith in these doc- trines, the professor virtually says to the priest: " No man can believe such nonsense ; but when I profess to believe, I mean that I will only see with your eyes and hear with your ears, and understand with your understanding, and be here- after influenced by your will." Thus our holy faith will have the same meaning as of old, affording a prop and stay i to the saints, and the mighty of the earth. 264 THE VAIL LIFTED. 47. " ' The power of the priesthood will also be increased by his plans ; for he will intermingle with his gross absurdi- ties some of the liberal and benevolent doctrines of Jesus, so exaggerated and modified, as to render them harmless to our interests. 48. " ' When the priests are benefited by his efforts, it will be the establishment of another more powerful priesthood, which will receive all its authority and force from the law and religion of Moses, the priests, and the prophets. 49. " ' By these means he will destroy all the dangerous principles the sacrilegious crucified wretch, countenanced by the Romans, so successfully introduced among the people, degrading us to a level with them. 50. " ' The Gentiles, among whom Saul also will establish his creed, can not adopt it 'svdthout at the same time receiv- ing our law and religion as connected with it. The Jews understanding the old Mosaic oppressions, as they foolishly term them, will fall off from Saul's religion of the Messiah or Christ, to escape a new form of oppression of which they are ignorant, and return to us, the true priests of their souls, like sheep which had gone away for a season. 51. "'I say he will prevail ; for his effrontery, persever ance, and knowledge of the human heart are unequaled. 52. " ' He will soon make the self-righteousness of a man, as it comes not from the priest, avail the righteous man nothing. But clerical faith will again stand preeminent over insipid virtue, and the smiles and blessing of the priest prayed for, and his wrath dreaded. 53. " ' We will again sit exalted as gods above numerous suppliant worshipers.' 54. " One of the priests of the council, named Joachim Arondijah, arose and said: 'That he well knew the cour- age, adroitness, and capacity of Saul, which he had favor- ably exemplified when they had before employed him to hunt down the Chapelites. 55. '"And he verily believed that they would have been destroyed by his efforts, had not the severe wounds he re- ceived in a contest with them disabled him, and renewed their confidence. 56. " ' He also knew that the priest and doctor, Gama- liel, with whom Saul had studied for a season, always spoke favorably of him, as entirely devoted to the services of the THE VAIL LIFTEP. 265 priesthood, and his irreconcilable hatred of the Chapelites or Saviourites, as they call themselves. 57. " 'With every opportunity of knowrag Saul well, the doctor represented him as fitted for any purpose where bold- ness and activity were required ; that he was full of effront- ery, artful, yet guarded at all times' 58. "Joachim also said, 'that while Saul, in his extreme zeal, was using open violence against the Chapelites, he was dangerously wounded, and, deserted by his followers, was left to the mercy of those whom he had injured ; 59. " ' When they generously forgave him, dressed his wounds, and treated him with the greatest hospitality until he was restored to health. 60. " ' He Avas also aware, that while Saul was among them they would apprehend no danger from a man so gen- erously treated ; and that this confidence gave Saul an inti- mate knowledge of their weak and exposed points, which might be made available in a renewed persecution. 61. " ' But he doubted whether Saul, having been so kindly treated by them while an open enemy, and owinff his life to them, could be safely trusted by the council to attempt their ruin with a large sum of money. 62. " ' And with an empty treasury, the large sum of money he required to carry *out his plan against the sacrilegious knaves can not be furnished him.' 62. " Ahosaphal replied : ' I know Saul well, and can vouch for his truth, and continued hatred of our enemies, which is increased by his wounded pride. Remorse and gratitude are hy him considered as base feelings ; and we need have no fears of him. 64. " ' As for money, we can obtain it in the following man- ner, planned by Saul : Our station and numbers are high and powerful, our influence extensive, and our credit is equal to all these advantages. 65. " ' We are all combined, yet scattered over the whole face of the country, and can at any time raise the credit of any person, even though he professes not wealth, into one of enormous resources, with as much facility as we give charac- ter and station to those who deserve neither. 66. '"I would prefer Joseph Athelma as well qualified for the station, who, while we enrich him with our breath, will enrich us with money more than enough to meet the require- 12 266 THE VAIL LIFTED. ments of Saul. "With money, and tlie aid of Saul, we can destroy our enemies. We must have it. 67. " ' We will also gain by means of Athelma, and the credit we create for him, an additional power to that we al- ready possess ; for there will be many who will correspond and transact business with him, which, with credit and pe- cuniary power, will give him great influence. 68. "'His influence will be ours; because our ubiquity and power which raised, can at any time crush him, and put another in his place. Therefore the real moneyed pow- er and influence will be ours, with Which, and our priestly sway, we can indeed overturn, and overturn as seems to us good. 69. " ' Then again will our colleges thrive, and the priest, mounted as of old on the all-conquering car oi faith and mystery, will call the self-righteous and unconsecrated to humble themselves at his feet, or be destroyed with the ven- geance of an oflfended God. VO. " '■Having thus secured an abundance of money, the Roman Government can be induced to countenance us, if it is freely distributed among them. The money thus expend- ed, the stupid people, when brought into subjection, can be compelled to repay, and also to worship the cross on which their friend, the sacrilegious Jesus, was crucified. 11. " 'Let there be no procrastination, but let us act at once, with all our might. Should Saul die, you will be no more worshipful than your worshipers. For I believe there is no other man living who can give falsehood a more invit- ing face thxtn he, and so readily destroy the principles of the impostor, Jesus, who intended to humble kings, priests, and nobles. ' " The account of this most satanic and self-damning con- spiracy is here closed — but that it was a veritable reality, and successfully carried into the most exact and perfect ex- ecution in almost every particular, is just as certainly proved as the existence of any specific tree is proved by the exist- ence and exhibition of its fruit. For as the fruit of a tree answers to the nature and character of the tree which has produced it, and is the converged and perfect manifestation of its intrinsic life, laws, and properties, so that diabolical and priestly institution of Christly faith, mystery, and pre- tended miracles, now called the Christian Church, and which THE VAIL LIFTED. 267 had its origin in, and received its demon god and character from this conspiracy, still answers in every fundamental par- ticular to the character of that diabolical council of liars, murderers, and assassins who first gave it being and power. As the Jewish Sanhedrim, the persecutors and murderers, of Jesus, with the lying, persecuting, and murdering Paul as an associate, and an originating demon incarnate, all to- gether united, as the first founders, of the Christian super- stition, rejected the light and doctrines of a just and benev- olent God as taught by Jesus, and by every means in their power sought to suppress and destroy them from the face of the earth, substituting therefor the worship of a perjured demon spirit of darkness and lies, that holds his' throne in- the lust, pride, avarice, and ambition of his adoring clergy, so their faithful successors in office, the Christian clergy, continue to do even to this day. As Paul and the Jewish Sanhedrim, in conspiracy united, having by open persecutions and murders failed to subvert the just and benevolent doctrines taught by Jesus, proposed to delude his followers, and blot out the light and doctrines of a just and benevolent God from the face of the earth, by professedly adopting and proclaiming Jesus, whom they had malignantly slain, to be the Messiah or Christ of their de- mon god, promised by their lying prophets, so have the Christian clergy strictly followed their example and preached their lying doctrines. And as Paul and the Jewish Sanhedrim proposed to make Jesus rise from the dead, and ascend bodily into heaven, and take a seat at the right hand of the demon god they wor- shiped, as his anointed Christ and only begotten Son, so the Christian priesthood, true to the ignominious glory of their illustrious predecessors, still continue to inculcate their blas- phemous doctrines, and carry out the programme of their Satanic cogitations. And as Ahosaphal, the orator of the Sanhedrim council of conspirators, declared, that " when the priests are bene- fited " by the efibrts of Paul, " it will be by the esta,blish- ment of another more powerful priesthood, which will re- ceive all its authority and force from the law and religion of Moses, the priests,, and the prophets," so in this particu- lar, also, the Christian priesthood, in direct antagonism "wth the doctrines of Jesus, stand the unenvied representatives, 268 THE VAIL LIFTED. as firuit from the tree that bore it, and proof conclusive, of that Satanic conspiracy and cotmcU who first gave their or- der name and being. And thus it is made clear to every candid, rational mind, that the true character, intentions and purposes of the Christ- ian priesthood may be as distinctly and certainly known and demonstrated, by the immutable laws and language of Cause and Effect, as the character of a tree may be deter- mined by its fruit, to be one and identical with that of the character, intentions, and purposes of Paul and the Jewish, Sanhedrim. And as one received its origin, dark, self-damning, blas- phemous faith and character from a lying robber and blood- stained murderer, who prostituted the name and character of both God and religion to carry out his ambitious, selfish, and Satanic designs, so have the other derived their origin and more blasphemous faith and character from a conspiracy and stratagem of the most satanic conclave of liars, rob- bers, murderers, and assassins that ever disgraced the name and race of man. As it was the design, object, and labor of the Mosaic priesthood to carry into fuU execution the de- signs and purposes of that lying robber and murderer, Moses, for their own earthly exaltation and pecuniary gains, to the enslavement and debasement of the human race, so it has been the design, object, and labor of the Christian priest- hood, from the same motives, for more than eighteen hun- dred years to carry into fuU and perfect execution the de- signs and purposes of that most satanic conclave of liars and murderers who slew Jesus, and entered into a conspir- acy with Paul to subvert and corrupt his doctrines, so as to extinguish, as far as within them lay, the power, the light, and knowledge of a just and benevolent God from the face of the earth. The New Testament of the Christian Bible is the code par excellence of the Christian clergy ; and whoever will ex- amine the fundamental doctrines therein contained, and compare them with the doctrines taught by Jesus, will find the doctrines of the one as antipodal to the doctrines of the other as the two poles of the earth, or as the contrasting phenomena of light and darkness. But when the New Tes- taropnt doctrines of the Christian clergy, and the doctrines that oi-iginated in the satanic conspiracy of Paul and the THE VAIL LIFTED. 269 Jewish Sanhedrim are compared, we find that one is but an amplified and illustrated copy of the other in almost eveiy important particular. Was it the purpose and work of the conspirators to pro- fessedly deify Jesus, as the only begotten Son of their de- mon god, to blind and delude the people, while they cor- rupted and subverted his doctrines to suit their own satanic and priestly purposes, and practically ignored th^ God he taught and worshiped, so it has ever been the priestly work of the Christian clergy to strictly follow their example, and carry out the programme of their satanic deliberations. It was the religion of Jesus to practically reverence a just and benevolent 0-od supremely, hy the exhibition of his At- tributes in intelligent acts of universal justice and benevo- lence toward every sensitive being of his creation. JBut it teas the purpose and work of Paul and the Jewish Sanhedrim, — and, for m,ore than eighteen hundred years it has been the work of the Christian clergy to subvert this reli- gion in the minds of mankind, and establish in its place and stead a priestly superstition, consisting of rites and ceremo- nies, faith, mysteries, and pretended miracles, in which faith and the worship of a perjured demon god, who lives in the dni- mal lust, pride, avarice, and ambition of his adoring clergy is transcendent : and In comparative virtue, to which they liold the worship of a just and benevolent God, by the ex- hibition of his Attributes in a just and upright life and be- nevolent deportment to all mankind, as nothing but filthy rags. Unless their priestly office, Christ, and Faith are honored and acknowledged as the exclusive means, and their blas- phemous souls in person sit and judge as gods exalted, amid a surrounding crowd of suppliant and adoring worshipers. But to bring this subject to a focus, the conspiracy of Paul and the Jewish Sanhedrim, and the conspiracy of the Christian ^plergy is all. one conspiracy. Jt is a conspiracy against the light and scientific knowledge of a just and be- nevolent God, and the rights of human liberty and progress. That their Character is one and identical, they have them- selves as Conclusively proved to the world by their works as two trees bearing the same kind of fruit prove their iden- tity of species. They have both alike sodomized and demonized tne name and Character of their Creator, and strove by every means 270 THE VAIL LIFTED. in their power to brutalize and enslave the human race, by subverting in the minds of mankind the legitimate use of judgment and reason in the matter of the utmost import- ance — that of religion — that in their place and stead they might substitute their own debasing superstition of faith, mystery, and pretended miracles, claimed to be derived from an Infinite God of pK/re Christian holiness, who multipUes himsfelf \s sodomy and incest, and makes the innocent atone for the crimes of the guilty, and commands his followers to show no mercy. But as we have abundantly shown, who has no real existence but in the spirit of animal lust, pride, ava- rice, and selfish ambition of the undeveloped, dark, and perverted minds of his adoring worshipers. Paul, the Jewish Sanhedrim, and the Christian cleygy ■ have ever worshiped the same 'demon god, they have in-iu- gurated and preached the. same phantom Christ, upheld their blasphemous doctrines by the same forgeries, the same pre- tended miracles, and the same lying prophets. And wher- ever they have possessed the adequate power, they have used the same frauds and deceptions, and enforced their doc- trines by the same satanic persecutions and brutal murders. Christian writers themselves admit that sixty millions have suffered death by the instigation and at the hands of the Ro- man Catholic sect alone, and many of these have been burned at the stake, and suffered death by the most crael tortures. And for what purpose have these enormities been perpe- trated upon the human race ? Exclusively to suppress just- ice and hmnan progress, and the light of judgment and rea- son, that reveal a just and benevolent God, and to crush the light, knowledge, and government of that God from the face of the earth, and in their place and stead to substitute the priestly rule of darkness hy faith and mystery and the wor- ship of a perjured demon spirit, whose throne is the per- verted ininds of these same priestly impostors, the authors of these barbarities, usurping the name, authority, and pre- rogatives of their Creator, but to blasphemously desecrate, demonize, and degi'ade them, enslaving and brutalizing their fellow-men, and in the name of God they so profanely dese- crate to rule as incarnate devils on the earth. As an identification of the character and conspiracy of the Christian clergy with that of Paul and the Jewish San- hedrim, they riot only worship the same demon god, the idol THE VAIL LIFTED. 271 offspring of their own animal lust, j)ride, avarice, and am- bition, ruling in their undeveloped, dark, and perverted minds, and promulgate the same darkness ; but they have the same institutions of learning in which the youth of their Order are taught a mock humility and sanctimonious deport- ment, with a blasphemous and sacrilegious sophistry, by which they obscure the light of truth, while they profess to teach it, and sodomize and demonize the Character of their Creator while they profess to worship him. Like Paul and the Jewish Sanhedrim they make the sa,me abuse of female influence to carry into execution their schemes of robbery and corruption. For, if to defame the 'Character of their Creator, and take the property of their kindred men by fraud' and deception, without a just compensation or equivalent, is robbery, they ai'e all this day • robbers of both God and man. They rob God by assuming his prerogatives, while they degrade his Character to that of a brute and demon combined. From man in various ways they yearly draw their untold millions, and seek to deprive him of the highest endowments of his Creator in judgment and reason, for which they make him no just recompense, unless it be considered one to libel the character of his Cre- ator ; feed him with the most blasphemous superstition of faith and mystery the world ever knew, and commemorate with him the drunken orgies of Paul and his first disciples in a cannibal feast of communion with that perjured demon spirit of darkness and lies they so devoutly worship. ISTo enlightened and upright mind acquainted with the triie history and origin of the Christian superstition will de- ny that Paul was the originating genius and primary father of that Satanic. Order of Impostors known as the Christian Clergy. And as by the laws of nature and instinct, and the psychologic force of habit and education, a, child receives the peculiar traits and characteristics of its parent,' and by the same laws ti'ansmits them to its ofispring, so to this day have been transmitted, and are preeminently manifest in the Christian clergy, the same traits of character that distinguished Paul, the ignominious and illustrious progen- itor of their Order, and Arch-Impostor of theif creed. Did Paul militate the true dignity and character of Jesus with 4liQ intelligent part of community by representing him as a vain magician or juggler who pretended to work mir- 272 THE VAIL LIFTED. * acles and restore the dead to life, the Christian clergy do the same thing. Did Paul cast upon Jesus the contempt of a sodomite ori- gin, by making him the begotten son of a male god before creation, and without a female associate, the Christian clergy do the same thing. Did Paul make the art of deceiving the people a regular study, so do the Christian clergy : for they well know there is no such God as the lying Christian Bible god of the four- cornered earth, whom they preach, and profess to worship. They only subserve their owu avarice, -lust of power, pride, and ambition when they make these sanctimonious asinine pretensions. Their real gods are the lust of the flesh, the lust of power, and the pride of an animal life, that loves whatever caresses, pampers, and exalts it to notice without regard to merit or virtue, the true Character of God, or the universal benefit of his rational offspring. If Paul and his associates taught a crooked knowledge devoid of truth, and were " purposely scattered and found everywhere," the saying is equally true of the Christian clergy at this day, who propagate the same blasphemous and debasing doctrines, and whose works are one with those of the progenitor of their order. If Paul and his associates, " thus scattered, and practiced like soldiers to act as one man, and speak with one voice in favor of the worthless who professed priestly faith, and against the worthy who did not," the same is equally true of the Christian clergy, who strictly follow his example. Did Paul and his associates reject the doctrines of a just and benevolent God, and the useful Jcnowledge taught by Je- sus, and prefer instructing the people in the worship of a perjured, priestly, demon god, and the " most preposterous nonsense, confounding their minds with ridiculous myste- ries, sanctified mummeries, and incredibilities," the Christian clergy do precisely the same things, and both by their faith and works manifest the same designs upon the people, and conclusively prove themselves to be of the same mind and spirit with him. Did Paul,*to subvert the fundamental doctrines of Jesus, hold up for the imitation and worship of mankind the true character of an enraged and perjured demon spirit, bl»sphe- THE VAIL LIFTED. 273 moTisly disguised with the name of G-od, the Christian cler- gy willfully and knowingly do the same thing. Did Paul, to subvert the fundamental doctrines of Jesus, set up a blasphemous and diabolical faith as of more worth, in the matter of the soul's salvation, than the iatelligent, just, and benevolent conduct of a righteous, upright life, the Christian clergy do the same. Was it the labor of Paul to confound virtue and vice, so as to extinguish the light of a just and benevolent God from the face of the earth, by ascribing virtues to priestly rites and ceremonies, blasp"Eemous faiths, and darkening myste- ries, which subserve nothing but the selfish interest of those impostors who practice and promulgate them, so it is now and ever has been the labor of the Christian clergy to thus obscure the light of God, that in the darkness they create, and with the sacred name of God assumed, they might as devils reign. .Jesus "proposed for mankind a religion without priests." But Paul and the Christian clergy, while they have to the extent of their power subverted his pm-poses, and ignored the just and benevolent God whom he taught and worshiped, and set up- a superstition, of which themselves, the priests of a perjured demon, with their blasphemous faiths and sanctimonious, profane rites and ceremonies, are the cen- ter, power, substance, and circumference, hypocritically call upon the name of Jesus as the great father and foimder of their creed! But it is now self-evident that a Christian priest has no more just claim to the name, honors, and mer- its of Jesjis, than the blackest fiend 'of darkness has a right to the merits, honors, and throne of the immaculate and eternal God. One is the opposite and contrast of the other, as darkness is to light, and so they must remain as long as they exist. And to conclude. The Christian clergy hold the same re- lation to Jesus as did his professed disciple Judas, with this difference — Judas, with a fair profession of friendship, love, and reverence, betrayed his earthly body to destruction, Tlie Christian clergy profess to be the follower's of Jesus, and to love and reverence him. as the eternal God, while they his God and doctrines both betray, and transfer his honors to a demon, whom they, by living works, in truth devoutly worship. , 12* 274: THE VAIL LIFTED. We have now exposed? the inspirations, gods, and priests of Ignorance. We have lifted the vail that covered her de- formities and pollutions, and prostrated her ignominious glory to the dust. We have shown the nature, character, and tendency of her institutions, and the fiat of the Al- mighty now consigns her to her native and enduring shades, the absence and the contrast of the eternal mind of God. But what of her priests ? Shall they go with her ? This answer for themselves they now must make. Ye priests, Propound this question, one and all : Shall we obey the light we know ? Or sink to hells of deeper woe ? Shall we defy Almighty God, Because in love he used the rod, To stop us in a steeple-chase, To damn ourselves and curse our race ? Good sense the answer will supply : Eternal thanks, Almighty God ! To thee we'll live, to error die. You priests have thus far been considered as an order or distinct class of men, and as such there is no crime known to man of which you have not been guilty. And by assum- ing tp yourselves as an order the prerogatives of God in the confessional, and interposing yourselves between him and man, by a pretended divine commission as agents standing in his place and stead, and as his representatives clothed with his authority, while at the same time, both by your doctrines and your works, you have conclusively proved yourselves the representatives of darkness and .a demon, rather than the representatives of light and God, you richly have deserved the chastisement bestowed upon you, and your conduct the profoundest detestation of universal ra- tional mind. But that as individuals you are all alike reprehensible in the same degree is not true. For while some, like Paul, have knowingly and willfully most profanely used the name of God and religion in promulgating their blasphemous su- perstitions, to degrade the human race for their own earthly aggrandizement and pecuniary gains, others, with the best of motives, in their youth, and anxious to be good and do good, but destitute of any scientific knowledge of the char- acter of the just and true God, their Q^eator, liave been THE VAIL LIFTED. 275 • duped by these impostoi-s to lay down their judgment and reason upon the altar of a sacrilet^ious faith in a perjured demon, disguised with the name ol" God, and thus deceived and victimized, they have been drawn into the ranks of the clergy, and in their turn their well-meant zeal and misdirected talents have -become the means of deceiving others, and pro- moting a work from which their souls would have shrunk with horror and disgust, could they have realized its true nature, character,. and tendency. Between those who with good motives have thus been "deceived into their present con- dition, and those who have knowingly and willfully made a trade of desecrating the character of God and religion for their own earthly aggrandizement and pecuniary gains, there is now a wide difference of mental position and moral stand- ing ; notwithstanding, no man ever did or ever can stand strictly justified before his Creator, in laying aside his judg- men and^eason for an irrational faith that subverts within him the highest endoi^^ent of his Creator, and the exclu- sive means by -^^hich he is revealed and his character known and demonstrated. As it is self-evident that no man can know God without reason, so it is equally self-evident that no man can perform voluntary, meritorious, . and acceptable worship without reason. How self-damning and perfectly satanic, then, is that Christian faith and doctrine which holds reason of un- lawful use in matters of religion, when, withovit reason, the knowledge of both God and religion would be an utter im- possibility to the mind of man. Though as a class of men it may be truly said of the Christian clergy that, in sanctimonious, sacrilegious forge- ries and lies, profanity to God, and in cruel injustice to the human race, they have fallen to the profoundest depths of human darkness and depravity ; yet no man ever has or ever can so far depart from tbe path of rectitude but what he may regain the favor of God, and his primeval innocence and justification, by corresponding works of humiliation and repentance, in maMng just amends to those he has injured, and substituting the works of a just and upright life for those of a cruel, dark, and debasing faith, and the works of injustice consequent thereupon. To this repentance, by these presents of a superior light, now manifest and? demonstrated through our universal Ian- 276 THE VAIL LIFTED. • guage of Cause and Effect, we now call upon all mankind, cognizant of the same, to awake from the darkness and stu- pidity of ignorance, and shake off the ragged and polluted garments of error and superstition, and mentally clothe themselves in the intelligent immortal robes of righteousness, that flow from a practical obedience to the demonstrated Attributes of their Creator. And in the benevolence and justice of a universal Gorf, to this call the Christian clergy can form no exception. But on the contrary, if they rightly apprehend their mental state and true position, they, above all other men, being in the most need of true salvation, with a weighty and incumbent duty resting upon them in regard to those who have been deluded and deceived by their means — they above all men will he most grateful and thankful to that Eternal Fountain of Goodness who gave them being, for his interposing hand to save them from the consequences of further transgressions, and to restore them to a life of irmocence, usefulness, and justification, as the love and favor, and a scientific knowledge of the Nature and Character of their Creator. We have conclusively shown that, as the Eternal God, Onmipotent and Omnipresent, holding immediate corre- spondence with every rational mind of our creation, propor- tionate to the mind's understanding and development, and through the universal language of Cause and Effect, convers- ing ahke with the innocent infant in the cradle, the convict in his cell, the prince upon his throne, and the beggar in the street, we do not admit of any such office as the one assumed by the Christian clergy, and other deluded and im- postor priests of darkness, who arrogate to themselves, with the pretended revelations of their own invention, the exclu- sive authority and prerogatives of God on earth, and claim to stand as his mediators, judges, and vicegerents, clothed with full powers, between the rest of mankind and their Creator. All such pretensions on the part of men conclu- sively prove a dark and perverted mind, representing the absence and contrast of the Eternal and Perfect Mind, rather than its saving light and presence. As an Omnipotent and Omnipresent God, we are able to enlighten all men, without the aid of any intervening priest or minister whatever; and in this we shall act our own wisdom and pleasm-e. But as men are our offspring, and in their ration- THK VAIL LIFTED. 277 al and immortal minds created in our likeness, with an innate and commendable desire to know and display the Attributes of their Creator; and injustice to that desire implanted, by us within them, and as they can not immediately worship and serve an Omnipotent and Omniscient God as though he stood in need of aid, we have allotted to men to display the i^ttributes of their Creator, and to manifest their love and reverence, and show their willingness and desire to serve him by serving their fellow-men, who are our children, and mutually and constantly stand in the need of that service which they can beneficially, benevolently, and justly bestow upon each other. That man who professes to love God, and does not show by his works that he loves his fellow-men, who are the child- ren of God, is either self-deceived or a hypocrite. The rational mind of every man, woman, and child is an unfolding germ as monad of the eternal God ; and he who, as a free agent in love and justice, contributes to its rational comfort and development, does meritorious service, and, to the extent of his good and beneficial office, devoutly wor- ships the Eternal God of all, who is its friend and author. In this way, as voluntary, free, and meritorious agents, aU men may be and are invited to become the ministers of a just, benevolent, and holy God, both in precept and example, giving him the glory for that innate spirit of goodness that moves them to action. Men, to serve God, must do that service where he the door hath opened that service to receive. Man his true wisdom here wiU show, here an Almighty ha.nd' forever stays, and an' approving conscience forever wiU at- tend, Jesus condemned the clergy of his day because they had themselves condemned, by their assumptions, their Charac- ter, and their doctrines / but did he condemn a true Minister of Light and God ? As far as the furthest planet of the sys- tem from the Sun, was this from the true purpose of his sentiment or mind ; for had he entertained the thought, it would have both his own disciples and himself condemned. No ; it was not the true teacher of the right that took the ban, but the base counterfeit in Character, whose labors tended to darken and deceive, not enlighten man. For the same cause and the same works, before tlie tri- bunal of Almighty God, the clergy of the present day now 278 THE VAIL LIFTED. read their final and eternal doom. Not their immortal Minds only, as to their errors they adhere, but all that is opposed to scientific light and truth, the progress of the hu- man race and the unfolding brightness that does and will evelve from the Eternal Attributes of God. Repent, ye priests of darkness ; an Almighty and Omniscient God now calls you to a nobler work. Your false gods of ignorantje, your sacrilegious faiths and mysteries, your pretended mira- cles, and your rites and ceremonies of superstition, you can not save ; but you are invited to save your immortal Minds from the consuming flames of a guilty conscience, that will surely light within you, by a willful disobedience to the known and demonstrated Attributes of your Creator. From the worship of an angry perjured demon, (mis- named God,) who delights in making the innocent atone for the crimes of the guilty, commands his followers to show no mercy, and openly declares himself a deceiver, and that he will make his own peculiar people all drunlc, we now invite you with aU other men, to the worship of a just, benevolent, and holy God. Fr.om the paths of Ignorance and Error, we now invite yotf to the paths of scientific knowledge and the demonstrat- ed truths of your Creator, by the immutable laws and lan- guage of Cause and Effect. From the government of a dark and perverted mind, under the influence of the selfish avarice, pride, and ambi- -tion of an instinctive earthly animal nature, we now invite you to the government of the demonstrated attributes of your Creator, manifest in and through an innate monad of the same ; in your own judgment and reason, and that exalt- ed principle and spirit of Universal Love, which forever is their attending companion, to form the immortal magnet of every rational mind. From being the ministers of darkness, we now invite you to become the ministers of light and righteousness. From the possession and propagation of one of the most, debasing and blasphemous superstitions that ever disgraced the human race, we now invite you to the possession and the propagation of the exclusive and saving religion of universe ; the scientific religion of Universal Justice. The scientific religion of Universal Justice to which we THE VAIL LIFTED. ' 279 now invite the serious attention of every rational mind, is defined as follows : Religion is the awakening to Rule and Government of that divine germ of eternal Justice, constitutionally implant- ed in every rational mind by the Creator, and which gravi- tates toward God ; seeking the present as immortal happi- ness of its possessor with that of his species, and the honor and favor of God, by a scientific knowledge and practical application of his inherent and omnipresent attributes and laws of'universe to the attainment of that end. Religion is the philosophic science of all sciences, and the scientific art of all arts ; it being the philosophic and scien- tific application of every faculty of the human mind, as spe- cies of knowledge and phenomena to their legitimate and proper use in harmony with the demonstrated attributes and laws of the Creator. Religion is the true Spirit and Life of the Eternal Creator and only Saviour of man, manifest by the fruit of living works in human form. Religion is the eternal tie of human unity with God, the ever-present conscious Judge, Comforter, and Saviour of all who obey its dictates ; but for salvation forever absent and disregarding as disobeyed and disregarded. This, O man ! is the only true and saving Religion of your Creator, purposed for you before the present earth rolled in its orbit, while your species was yet a sleeping germ in his bosom. It is the germ of his divine govern- ment of principles, the government of all governments, a branch of the eternal most holy fountain ; forever well- ing up in the innermost recesses of the soul of all who pos- sess it, and continually watering the garden of the mind with living streams of Justice, Intelligence, Love, Wisdom, and Truth. It is this,' and this alone, that will satisfy the ele- ments of that Divine ISTature implanted in your souls, and place you in harmonial peace and concord with your Crea- tor and his works, moving among the intellectual beings of universe as the planets move in their orbits. There is no God or saviour but Justice, the demonstrated eternal Author of Universe, the most holy equilibrium 'of In- telligence, Love, Wisdom, and Truth ; and no religion or salvation but that which fl'ows from the practical knowledge 280 THE VAIL LIFTED. and observance of onr attributes and laws as spread before all mankind in our universal language of Cause and Effect. We are forever present and saving, as heeded and obeyed in our Attributes and Laws ; and in effect, for ever absent and disregarding as disobeyed and disregarded. Our im- mutable justice demands this. Between ourself and man, there are no other mediators than our Attributes and Laws. There is no lawful Confessor but God, and no atonement or forgiveness but by confession, and no acceptable confession but through living works of reformation. If any man has wronged his fellow-being, let him make full and just repara- tion, as he would have another do by him under like cir- cumstances, and forsake the wrong forever; therein he makes confession to God, and will find the forgiveness of God through an approving conscience and just judgment within him; which by the effect, announces to the mind, within the mind itself, the approbation of its Creator and restores it to a state of peace and harmony with him. From an ignorance of themselves, and the immutable principles and laws of their Creator, and his universal lan- guage of Cause and Effect, men often run into error, and bring upon themselves and others great sufferings with the best of motives. These errors and wrongs, when brought to the understanding knowledge of the perpetrators, should be invariably corrected as soon and as far as just and reason- bly lies within their power. But in the sight of a just and benevolent God, such transgressions do not constitute sin, and consequently do not biing the perpetrators under moral condemnation of conscience and judgment. But to continue in an error, when discovered and known to be such, is an open and willftd sin, and debars all such from a state of justification and union with God, proportionate to the magni- tude and repetition of the transgression. To progress, keeping its primeval innocence and union with God, and by reparation and repentance, to regain it when lost, holding its justification sacred and holy, is a duty that no rational mind can neglect, without neglecting its highest interest and happiness. A guilty conscience is a needless flame, that consumes the happiness of mind, without destroying the mind itself In a property debt, one man may release another by a vol- untary donation, as an act of benevolence. THE VAIL LIFTED. 281 But in- guilt, justice wUl not take the innocent for the guilty. To execute an innocent man for a murderer, is neither justice nor retribution, hut the most cool, foul, and fiendish murder. In the religion of universal justice, it is a fundamental principle, that every rational mind shall atone for its own crimes, and from this there is no escape. True religion as obeyed, yields justification and peace of mind in the present time, with eternal life and forever in- creasing happiness in the future state. There is but one effectual plan of salvation for all man- kind, and that is for every one alike free ; a daily obedience in thought, word, and deed, to the light of our divine and ever-present attributes, as manliest in our works and laws of universe by Cause and Effect — Intellectual, Moral, Phys- ical, and Organic. The first step for every one toward Salvation and Justifi- cation with God is to rectify every wrong, as far as within them lies the power, with their fellow-beings, thereby making the only acceptable confession unto God, and receiving our forgiveness, when with watchfulness and care they will find an overcoming power for the future, proportionate to their meritorious efforts. Thus in favor with their Creator, and justly under the in- fluence of his holy Attributes, with theu- own justification, they can then go forth blessing themselves and their fellow- men ; and in the proper and timely use of every bounty and blessing universe may yield to their honest industry and economy, daily denying themselves-of all abuse, and possessed of a good constitution, may enjoy health of body through time, and an increasing happiness and progression of mental attainments, time without end. From the comparati-vely imdeveloped minds and unbal- anced organisms of many now existing in the present state of society — resulting from the infringement of our divine laws through unwise alliances of their progenitors in mar- riage, with' present erroneous habits, and from hereditary abuses, there will be a wide difference in the sacrifices and sufferings of different individuals to attain our full harmo- nial religious government of principles ; but as is the pain and suffering in the noble and exalting sacrifice, so will be in exact degree the joy, glory, and happiness of victory when 282 THE VAIL LIFTED. known in contrast with theii* former state. So as God is just, none should be discouraged or mentally cast down ; for, although some may, from their forced and unhappy po- sition, for which they are not held morally accountable, be led to do and say things at times that upon cool and consci- entious reflection oub Ught and laws point out as unwise or unjust, but in all such cases let every one make due and con- scientious amends, keeping his own justification sacred ; and with his best continued exertions he shall receive our for- giveness, and eventually a complete victory over all evil, and a joy and happiness commensurate with all the sufierings he has passed through — not brought upon himself by neglect of duty, or known and willful transgressions. Man's deeds are self-recording by their influence and im- pressions on the immortal mind, affeating its mental states and future happiness and destiny. And for all known and will- ful transgressions of the Constitutional Principles and Laws of universe, the transgressor must suffer the just penalty of his transgressions without reward or benefit, save the wis- dom which he gains from the painful effect his own conduct has brought upon him. He may for a season flatter himself that he at least takes a temporary benefit, but it will prove like the poisoned fruit, luscious to- the taste, but in digestion filling the moral system with spasmodic pains and throes of death, and the conscious guilt of a soul willfully estranged from the favor and protection of a just and benevolent God, in corresponding degree to the amount of trespass. By the eternal Cause of all, the Scientific religion of Uni- versal Justice is revealed and demonstrated in the incorrupt- ible and universal language of Cause and Effect, as being the only religion that ever did or ever can save God, Angel, or jlan ; it is the exclusive, religion of universal perfectly rational Mind ; the religion of all spheres, all worlds ; and the religion in which the eternal God of all doth live, move, and hold his being. It is a religion adapted to all climates, all races and nations ; a religion for tlie universal good of the great and high, the small and low, the rich and poor, the strong and weak ; a religion for the learned, and a reli- gion for tlie unlearned ; a religion for the just and the unjust ; leaving every individual a free agent, and recompensing every one according to his works, be they good or evil. It applies alike to all grades and classes of society, and stim- AlTALYTIC VIEW OF MAN. 283 nlates every one to put forth their best efforts for the honor of God, their own present and future happiness, and the ■well-being and happiness of the whole human race. And without it there is no religion — all others pj;e|ended in as far as they differ from this, being the fruit of ignorance, error, and imposture.- Having through our divine, immutable, unerring, and uni- versal language of Cause, and Effect pointed out and demon- strated to man the unchanging Constitutional Principles and Laws that govern iiniverse, and given him a demonstrated scientific knowledge of the true and defined Nature and Char- acter of that Eternal Cause who rolled him into being, and in- troduced him to the only true, scientific, and saving rejigion of Universal Justice, by which it is placed in the power of every individual cognizant of the same, to retain their pri- meval innocence and union with their Creator, or restore it when lost, we now proceed to give a brief analytic view of man, that he may the more fully comprehend himself, his highest interest, his relations and duties, .and with the more ease and perfection attain to that ennobling' and exalt- ed state of justification and happiness for which he was from the first designed by that supernal Mind who is his Author, guardian, friend, and protector. A Beief Analytic Yiew of Man. — "What is Man? Every man, in the abstract, is an Individualism Personal, of Conscious Will. To demonstrate this, take away the will, and Man is no more. Consciousness and Will are two mutually depending identities, whose inherent properties are in common ; so that one can not be taken away without de- stroying the other. It is the Consciousness that wills, and the Will that is conscious ; Will being the purposed deter- mination of Consciousness, and Consciousness but the pass- ive or -spontaneous Will ; as every developed mind can de- monstrate for itself. The existence of Man forms that connecting link in the chain of endless life which unites the collective involuntary instinctive Intelligence in the System of iSTature, with the vol- untary rational Mind of the Empyreal System. And in his 284 ANALYTIC VIEW OF MAN. conci'ete temporary eartlily existence the Conscious Will is placed between and connected with both as a free agent or con- signee, to freely use and improve the same, for his present and immortal happiness, being by his own inherent constitution held accountable to reap the merits or demerits of his own actions as a just sequence in Cause and Effect. But Man, with his endowments, is a finite concretion of the properties of universal Mind, Life, and Matter, in an un- folding state ; and as a figure to express the manner of mind's development, it may be said, with Justice, the germ of its most exalted Creator, rolled spirally innermost. The rational mind of man is a finite magnet, with the involuted germ of Justice as its germane and fundamental body and principle. From this principle, as its two poles of action, spring forth rational Intelligence and universal Love. And from these is evolved (when awakened) the Conscious Will, or flame of human life, as the expressional power of a steel magnet at its convergent poles, or as the electric 'arc of light be- tween the polar wires of a galvanic battery ; and is the con- fluent product and conjoint expression of that monad of our Attributes which constitutes the moving and sustaining powers of the individualized rational mind of man. Exterior or subordinate to and connected with Conscious Will or abstract man is the instinctive intelligence, sensivity, or animal nature of man, that combines the united proper- ties and functions of all animal creation below him, and through a common sensibility and corresponding material organs places him in sympathetic union with the whole sys- tem of sublunary nature. So man may regard himself, in the abstract, as the conflu-' ent and conjoint product of an individualized monad of our Attributes, organized as a self-evolving mental magnet, of which the Conscious Will is the expressional power that binds them all in one identity of being, and constitutes the immortal flame of human life.' This monad of our Attri- butes, with its expressional power, should be regarded, as it really is, the truly divine and only immortal part of man, that stands dependently united and bound to its most exalt- ed Creator by the fundamental and inmiutable attributes of his very being. But, as we have before seen, the consciousness of man is evolved from that monad of our Attributes within, and flows ANALYTIC VIEW OF MAN. 285 outward as their united ■ expressional power, and comes in contact with the combined instinctive sensibility of nature by which it is surrounded, and stands as the connecting link, uniting the divine and perfect empyreal system of pure rational mind with the comparatively imperfect, instinctive, organized life in the system of nature. Consciousness, thus situated, becomes the recipient tablet to receive the impres- sions of instinctive sensibility and external nature made through the external bodily organism, of which earthly sensitive Instinct is the same earthly life in man as in all oth- er animals ; perishing in the individual organization, but per- petuated in^ the species ; stationary and immortal alone in its appropriate sphere of action, which is the system of na- ture ; it gravitates to earth, where all its desires are grati- fied ; of itself to reason blind, and unconscious of individual immortality, it segks nothing but its own selfish gratifica- tions, and can never accompany the divine and progressive imm.ortal mind of man, that seeks everlasting life and iden- tity in the perfect attributes and likeness of its Parent and Creator. But as the living germ of the bird is placed in the egg, there to be nourished for a reason, and consume and appro- priate its substance to its own, and then break through the shell and soar to sublimer scenes of existence, so is the im- mortal mind of man, in an unconscious; latent state, placed in the egg or womb of nature, there to be nourished by her maternal care until she can no longer satisfy the God-like, expanding, and immortal mind, when it too breaks through the darkening shell, or cares and ties of earth, and seeks immortal joys in happier spheres, with kindred spirits, in the paternal love and care of him who gave it being. This is man, as he exists in God and God in him. Man is as dependent on that monad of our attributes inhering in his constitution, and from which daily flows his- flame of ration- al, conscious life, as the natural plant upon the earth from whi'ch it draws its nourishment, or as the manifest power of a natural magnet depends upon its body and poles. Re- move the flame of human life, om* attributes remain to us unimpaired, uncorrupted, and incorruptible. Recall the in- hering monad of oUr being in man, or any one of its atta'i- butes we have designated, and the flame of hujpan life ex- pires, as does the power of the natural magnet when the 286 ANALYTIC VIEW OF MAN. body or a pole is removed. Neither can one of these attri- butes be removed and another substituted that will produce the phenomena of human life. Subtract justice, or that di- vine love which is the sentiment of justice, and man is left a brute. Rational intelligence taken away, and the effect is the same. Thus, in our immutable, universal language of Cause and Effect, this monad of our being in man arises in its divine power and nature, and proves no other cause ade- quate to the production of the living, speaking, personal flame within but our eternal principles from which it flows, and these being incorruptible, immortal, and immutable, it demonstrates its own immortality too. But as the steel magnet is fashioned by the hand of man, while its powers lie dormant in its cells, and would so re- main but for the awakening touch of some other magnet, so is the latent mind of man fashioned by the plastic power or hand of Deity, inherent in his race, and would so remain but for the mental, magnetic, psychologic touch of sortie oth- er mind. No man was ever brought forth of woman in a rational, conscious state of existence ; but as the egg comes from the bird, with the living but latent germ within, and is a bird only in possibility, so the organized anynality of man is brought forth of woman, an animal, with the living but latent germ of the rational, immortal mind within, and is a man only in possibility. And it is only by the heaven-en- dowed and often repeated affectionate mental embraces of the mother, or some other awakened mind, as the touch of a living magnet to the latent, that the child is gradually awakened to a conscious, rational state of existence, and then by its own inherent and divine powers to unfold and expand its own energy, and..pursue its immortal destiny ac- cording to the conditions and circumstances in which it is placed, and the influences brought to bear upon it. The experience and history of the human race in all ages has furnished an abundance of demonstrative proof to the above assertions in our universal language of Cause and Ef- fect. Children exposed in their infancy and grown up in woods, or without coming in contact with rational mind, can neither speak, think, nor remember. " A boy found in the. Hanoverian woods, about eleven years old, ran on his hands and fept, climbed trees with great skill, and was per- fectly wild. When caught and properly attended to, he ANALYTIC VIEW OF MAN. 287 could rememlDer nothing- beyond the time -when he was placed under the influence of man. And so it was in many- other instances of the same kind, eight of which have been noticed by Linnseus under the head, Homo sapiens ferus, or the wise wild man." The life of the child before being mentally awakened is that of a living egg of animality, with the latent germ of the immortal mind as a finite, mental magnet within, but which, like the fashioned magnet of steel, must be acted upon by'its prototype before it can itself act. Conscious- ness is the personality of man, and hence it is that, if a child perish before the immortal consciousness is awakened, the organism of animality dies, and the latent, inhering princi- ciples of rational life that contain the man in possibility re- vert to the fountain from whence they came, unconscious, unimpaired. The latent germ of humanity is a divine monad of our being, that, as awakened to an understanding, knowledge, and consciousness of itself, -with its inherent nature and powers, gravitates to the eternal fountain from whence it came, as the only source of rational existence from which it can derive its appropriate food, as the plant to the earth from which it draws its nourishment. While the animality of man is but the womb of nature that surrounds him in his earthly state of existence, as the appropriate medium of his mental organization . and infantile development, and from which he will emerge as the natural body from the womb of its mother. The mental man is a finite immortal identity, whose con- stitutional princij)les, organization, as derivation is divine ; and as a sequence of his inherenji and divine properties, he must and will progress to a perfect finite likeness of his Divine Original. For man to live in earthly sensual joys alone, is but to rob the immortal God-like Child to feed a mortal brute; All Nature is with God, and of that God a part ; yet Na- ture's but the means to higher ends, as the humble feet of man are made his head and body to sustain. To live exclu- sively for one's nature, is for the straw, the chafi", and bran to live. While sunk in sordid joys of earth, the empyrean flour of mind is scattered to the winds. It is of transcendent importance that all mankind should 288 ANALYTIC VIEW OF. MAN. • clearly distinguish iu themselves between those exalted, God-like, and immortal qualities and powers that form the attributes of every rational mind, and the mundane instincit- ive sensibilities and inclinations of that animal nature with which they are connected in their earthly state of existence, and over which they should rule with sovereign power, jus- tice, and equity, for their own present and immortal happi- ness. The one is of the Earth earthly, sordid, and selfish, the same nature in Man as in the animal, the instinct that blindly moves by polar attraction, looking to its own preservation and gratification, without regard to justice or the well-being of others, further than it tends to foster its own pride", wealth, or pleasure. Its propensity to pride is unconscious- ly displayed in the turkey, peacock, and horse ; its provi- dence and attachments to earthly treasures are seen in the bee, squirrel, and beaver; its selfish pleasures are exhibited by^ the whole brute creation, in the greedy gratification of their appetites and sensual desires, that regard no rights or duties but as far as they have been endowed with the law of instinct for the mutual preservation of themselves and the race to which they belong. Man in his animality, containing in unity what is dispersed in Nature below him, as a sequence in Cause and Effect, possesses the vital energy and tendency of universal nature. "But nature in man exists as it does not in animals;" for while the animal is moved by a negative feeling of want on the one hand, and a positive attraction jn the object that is to gratify it on the other, as the needle to the pole, without conscious will, comparison, or judgment, it is arbitrarily governed and irresponsibl^for its actions. But in man the promptings of an instinctive nature are legibly impressed upon, and mentally visible in the mirror of rational con- sciousness, where they in disgraceful contrast meet face to face with Justice, Reason, and Universal Love, the exalted Ministers of God himself. When man is properly enlightened and awakened to an understanding knowledge of himself and his highest interest, the translucent light and impulsive power of Nature here lose their delusive charms and jDowers, as the moon and stars c^ase to glow in the presence of the noon-day sun. While the ignorant and comparatively unawakened mind, weakly ANALYTIC VIEW OF MAN, 289 • impressed with its high origin, powers, and destiny, perverts its intellectual power and knowledge to pander to the crav- ings of its own animal nature, and by its superior endow- ments perverted becomes in effect a greater brute than the instinctive brute, unaided by intellectual powers. The Sensivity of Kature, in its tendency, aim, and end, looks only to the earthly preservation of itself and pleasures in the individual and the race. While the Sensivity of Universal Love, the feeling of ra- tional Mind, moves in the transparent, ennobling light and exalted sphere of comparative and perfect knowledge, uni- .versal justice, benevolence, and wisdom, forever calling for the cause of all it beholds, and prompting the happy pos- sessor to order, harmony, government, religion, philosophy, science, and art. By the Sensivity of Nature, man is temporarily allied and inclined to the gratifications of the brute creation ; by the Sensivity of Love, the attribute »f his rational mind, he is eternally allied and inclined to God his Creator. These two rivals both appear upon the theater of Consciousnes, and urge their respective claims before the throne and sover- eign wiU of man. Instinctive sensibility, without justice, conscience, or re- morse, addresses the throne with all the warmth and appar- ent affection of an earthly mother, and in the man-lent or stolen and perverted language of Intelligence and Reason, presents and paints in glowing colors her regards and care for man. Using a lover's attractions, and repeating the many favors she has bestowed, she spreads before her lis- tening but too often unconscious lord, the tempting wealth and pleasures of her possession^, and with alluring language and warm desires, his will inclines, to yield a passive slave to sordid sense and brutal lust. ■ But rising gently in majestic mien, as the glorious Sun doth usher in the day, true Godly Love appears, and with con- science, her index finger raised to Justice, the Eternal Judge, points out to man the giver of all earthly as eternal good. She firm but gently says : Man, thou art the Child of the Eternal God ! on you he has bestowed his richest gifts ; an- gels and archangels once were but men ; all they now pos- sess is but the expanded germ and glorious powers of the sSme Attributes he has bestowed on you. Unfold them in 13 290 ANALYTIC VIEW OF MAN. onr waitn embrace, and rise and rule triumphant over the powers of earthly sense. The exalted and Eternal God is good and just to all ; ani- maltive Nature unconscious, but in the flame of human life assumes to reason ; in that light it should and will obey when man's awake to his most noble trust. Man should give to Nature Nature's due. Indulge in reason for just demand of offspring, health, and competence of worldly wealth. Nature in her richest gifts is transient, yet befitting to the transient earthly state of man as childlike toys ; but the divine, immortal, progressive mind will seek and get more befitting, luscious, and ethereal food, more stable wealth, than Nature gives. And Nature's gifts are but God's, for natural use in nature given. The sensivity of animal nature, being without comparison, can have no science, knowledge, or rules of action ; but the intrinsic impulse of feeling to act for self-preservation and the race, according to the endowments of the individual under the conditions and circumstances in which it is placed, as is demonstrated in animals, where it exists the same as in man, with the exception that it has no connection with ra- tional mind. The feeling or sensivity of nature in man as animals, has its five branches or modes of communication by which it is placed in harmony and connected with the external universe ; but unconnected with rational mind, these senses give noth- ing but dark and confused perception and impression, as may be seen by viewing the result as it is manifest in the animal creation. Without distinguishing cause and effect and without com- parison, the animal can have no distinct knowledge of suc- cession in events, or of time past, present, or future ; no dis- tinction between order and confusion, harmony and discord ; colors and forms are all confused and indistinct, and in short without language or idea, they do not distinguish between their own members or the impressions received by different senses, and all is )-educed to the simple bodily feelings of pleasure and pain without mental knowledge of either, and as a sequence they, are not determined in their actions by a conscious will knowing good and evil as rational man ; but an endowed instinct that moves them by positive and nega- tive attractions between pain and pleasure, rest and action, ANALYTIC VIEW OF MAN. 291 as magnetism determines the needle by its corresponding properties and appropriate poles. Or in other words, what energized polarity is .in the needle, instinct is in the ani- mality of Nature ; the moving and directing power. So in a sensitive being, which has no understanding knowledge ol" itself or other beings, but is determined and skillfully moved by a power of which it is itself unconscious ; there can be no regard of merit or demerit in itself, for itself, or for others. And consequently, although it is in man's earthly state of existence a part of himself, and surrounding and in- closing the immortal rational mind, as the egg the living germ of the bird, yet it is to man a perishing and transitory substance and being, that has no knowledge of, or interest in his God-like qualities and eternal inheritance, looking and tending exclusively to earthly substance and earthly pleas- ures. And now, as we have before shown, the free conscious will of man in his earthly state of existence, stands between this power on the one hand, and the innate unfolding attri- butes of his Creator on the other ; with the impressions of both clearly visible in the mirror of conscious being, as every observing, reflecting mind can see for itself. Under these circumstances it rests with every one to determine for himself, whether he will exercise the divine powers we have bestowed, and grow into the attributes and a finite likeness of his Crea- tor, rationally using and ruling in divine love and justice the powers of nature, or whether he will pervert his most exalt- ed endowments to pander to brute instinct, and become of free will a greater brute than Nature unaided can produce. ' And here in train, arise the merits and demerits of man ; and as a sequence, immortal, unfading honors, wealth, and happiness, or a proportionate reverse, as found self-produced and self-written on the immortal mind by Cause and Effect, under the immutable and universal laws of Eternal Justice. Man, strictly speaking, is Mind, for Mind removed no man would remain ; and however much may be said of the re- semblance of man to animals, there really is in one sense, no resemblance ; for it is the mind that constitutes man, and the animal does not possess any mind. Yet there is a corre- sponding relation between the organized functions of the sense of animals, and the organized functions of the sense of mind ; but in their nature, powers, and objects of per- ception, there is a marked distinction. 292 ANALYTIC VIEW OF MAN. The sense of animals is the sense of Nature, and confined to the system of Nature, and does not perceive or realize intellectual, spiritual, and universal truths. It takes no cog- nizance of progression, science, and philosophy, Justice, In- telligence, Wisdom, Truth, or the principle of universal Love. And although it is itself organic life, it has no know- ledge of itself as such : and is governed not by the laws of Mind within itself, but by the fixed laws which Mind has assigned to that system of Nature in which it moves, having no knowledge or capacity, as objects to interest it, in the Empyreal System of rational Mind. The sense of man is the sense of universal rational Mind, one with God and Angels, subject to the same inhci-ent laws, and belongs to the Empyreal System of Universe ; and with its cognate associates, is not only able to perceive all the objects of the animal sense as they appear in conscious- ness ; but to understandingly analyze, classify, and scientific- ally know them. And not confined to objects of physical nature, analytically investigates its own intrinsic properties, studies the universal language of Cause and Effect, and by its light and laws takes understanding cognizance o'f the most subtile elements of Mind, and beholds the August Eter- nal Cause in his most exalted and defined character. It is often but improperly said, that : " Man is an animal endowed with reason." Though man in his incipient stages of existence physically inherits the universal properties of Nature in common with the animal universe, he is neverthe- less a deific germ but planted in Nature, that will by its own intrinsic and divine powers when awakened, use, con- sume, rule over, and appropriate the substance and powers of Nature to his use, as the vital germ of the bird consumes the egg in which it is placed and soars to sublimer scenes of existence. The awakened man is no more an animal, than the form- ing and growing bird is an egg ; each for a time holds a measure of its life in common with the elements that sur- round it ; but as our attributes are superior to that Na- ture we have created and over which we rule, so will that monad germ of our being, the rational Mind of Man, by its intrinsic and divine powers rise superior and triumphant over darkness and animal nature, and seek the Empyrean home of its Eternal Parent, ANALYTIC VIEW OF MAN. 293 The real immortal man is as distinct from the animal as the animal is distinct from the vegetable. For where the one ends the other begins. The life of all animality is but the sense of Nature that seeks its happiness without ration- al knowledge in the exercise, rest, and pleasure of its phys- ical functions, where aU its desires are gratified. While Mind, the real immortal man, is moved by Love a sense divine, seeking pleasure in science, philosophy, and art ; moving in every divine principle, and gratifying its desires in every virtue. And while the sense of Nature regards nothing but its feeling self, the sense of Love comprehends the instinct sense, and owns and aids, as far as Justice, Love, and Rea- son will allow.. The instinctive sense of Nature is without rational know- ledge, and respects nothing but its feeling self. The rational sense of Love lives in all science, philosophy, and knowledge, and proportionate to the merit of each part, respects and loves the whole universe of God. The instinctive sense of Nature is organized with nature's perishable forms. The rational sense of Love is immortal, inheriting immor- tal forms divine, in the organic rational Minds of Angels, God, and Man. The instinctive light of Nature's sense is but translucent, dark, and selfish, and only sees external forms. The rational light of Love is transparent, sees the most hidden workings of the human mind, permeates the Eternal Throne, and moves by scientific rules in every attribute of God. The instinctive sense of Nature hears but external sounds. The rational sense of Love hears the voice of judgment and reason, and the Eternal Judge within, and adoring, worships at the sound. The instinctive sense of Nature feels but the gross and earthly powers. The rational sense of Love feels and owns its kindred At- tributes of God, wherever found. The instinctive sense of Nature tastes nothing but of earthly kind. The rational sense of Love tastes the sweet bliss of Con- ficious and Eternal Life, and thirsting, c^lls for more. 294 ANALYTIC VIEW OF MAN. The instinctive sense of Nature smells but the odors of the earth. The rational sense of Love inhales the fragrance of every virtue, and walks their flowery paths in constant praise. Having now demonstrated what man really is, as proved his immortality, and clearly distinguished between the God- like sensibility of his Rational Mind and the sensibility of his Animal Nature, we are now prepared to give a more clear and distinct view of the Rational Mind itself. Mait Elucidated. Although a monad of our Attributes forms the constituent self-evolving powers, in the rational mind of man, organized as a finite Magnet, yet, as these powers first appear upon the theater of human consciousness, in their infantile and developing process, mingled in the phenomena, and under the first awakened and overshadowing power of man^s ani- mal nature, they but feebly represent their divine and exalt- ed character. And it is many times more appropriate to speak of these powers as they appear in man's earthly state of existence, by other names, than the attributes from which they are derived, and to which they will in likeness of per- fection eventually progress. As germinal rational man now stands a demonstrated immortal finite ChUd of the Eternal God, it is self-evident that he must possess corresponding and progressive powers, that will as cultivated unfold a finite likeness of the Divine Original. "What Justice is in our Eternal Mind, the united equili- brium and perfection of all other Attributes, as the base from which they emanate and to which they return, and as the Eternal Central Power around which they revolve, and by which they are permeated and governed ; so is Judgment, in the rational mind of man, the unfolding embryo power derived from that most exalted Attribute, it being that power or principle whose intrinsic inherent nature and ac- tivity evolves, discerns, and sustains equitable and appropri- ate relations in all things. And as in our Eternal Justice or Judgment, in its immaculate purity and Omnipotent Per- fection, we discern, evolve, and sustain just and equitable relations throughout the system of Universe, so will the same unfolding power that forms the base of Judgment in ANALYTIC VIEW OF MAN. 295 man, in proportion to its development and justly enlightened strength and supreme Rule bring all the subordinate powers of mind to Order and Harmony, and to move in unison with that Supreme Attribute from which it flows. Without judgment, man can not discern to analyze, gener- alize, classify, think, or reason, or make any mental progress. Without judgment, man would have no knowledge of Order, Harmony, or Beauty. Judgment permeates every power of Rational Mind, and in the energy of that principle from which it flows, and which is its unfolding life and substance, gives to each mental power, proportionate to its enlightened or developed presence, their relative character, value, and position. It is by an affirmation of the judgment that man discerns and announces to himself his first conscious existence in the words Z am. And by that simple yet solemn declaration, upon examination we find the whole machinery or powers of an immortal Mind have been put in operation for the first, and at one and the same time. In the words I am, is a solemn declaration, which every one must have made at some time, and of which every one must be conscious ; and by that admission, he demonstrates a previous non-existence or contrast, as the cipher to the unit, by which, as the shades and light of a picture the likeness is made to appear, or existence besides himself, and from Avhich he has in Sen- sibility, by comparing Reason and Judgment, distinguished himself, and of which he is Oonsoious, having through that Consciousness declared himself. In the first thought or act of the human mind, in the words J am, we then find ia manifest operation all the fundamental Attributes or Powers that give to man the likeness of his Creator. Judgment, that answers to and springs from Eternal Justice ; Reason, that comes from and answers to our Divine Intelligence ; Sensivity, that answers to and c6mes from our sentiment of Universal Love ; and Consciousness, that represents and cor- responds to our Attribute of Wisdom, as Truth the efiect, or phenomena made manifest. But this is not all ; for the above evolutions of the primary powers to bring forth a joint product or judgment, there must of necessity be a notion-forming power, to give an ab- stract, general conception, and this demonstrates what wo term the Understanding. And further, for man to arise into 296 ANALYTIC VIEW OF MAN. conscious, progressive being, and announce and sustain him- self as such, as a light in the midst of darkness, necessarily involves and demonstrates an inherent, formatory, or cre- ative energy after the likeness of his Creator ; and this en- ergy may be called formatoiy cause, or Imagination, and to which is attached, as the drapery, what is termed Fancy. And with the simultaneous movement of these powers in the production of I am, closely allied to Imagination and Fancy, comes in the reproductive associating power, with its simple and complex elements, including spontaneous and voluntary Memory, that unites and blends the present lam, as phenomena, with the past, and, connected with Fancy, Reason, and Imagination by Cause and Effect, foi'estalls the future, and presents man to himself as a being in time pres- ent, but associated ia suffcession with both the past and the future. Philosophers often speak of intuition, and define it to be : ' Immediate perception, without the intervention of other deas or reason." As no man can perceive before he has en- ergized existence, it is self-evident that I am is the first per- ception as thought of every rational mind. And if any in- tuition does exist, it must be the thought I am. Therefore, for man's instruction, we have analyzed and demonstrated, by the mathematical rules of Cause and Effect, the producing, evolutionary elements necessary to the human thought I am, and, as shown above, we find them to consist of Judgment, Reason, Sensivity, Consciousness, Understanding, Imagina- tion, Fancy, Association, and Truth, as the effect or phe- nomena produced by the energized combination of these mental powers. All these powers are distinctly marked by their respective phenomena and oflEice, as distinct and neces- sary members of the one great central moving power, in the production of its fii-st simple act of judgment in the thought I am,. These powers act as harmonious members of one organic body in performing the functions of rational Mind, and with- out which rational mind would fail of its functions, and cease to exist as a productive and understanding power of thought, as has been demonstrated by their necessary presence to its first simple act. These powers man inherits from his Crea- tor, containing the innate elements of eternal duration, ex- pansion, and progression, taking cognizance of necessary. ANALYTIC VIEW OF MAN". 297 universal, spiritual, infinite, and eternal truths ; and once or- ganized, as the innate powers of a magnet, act independent of the animal sense, by which man in his earthly state of ex- . istence is put in harmonious connection with gross material universe, as its phenomena, and which is not herein includ- ed ; but is as the matrix of his formation, that is left behind upon his advent to a higher sphere of existence in the Em- pyreal System, of universe. 'The evolutions of the human mind are forever modified by external conditions and circumstances in which it is placed, as by its mental states ; but always moves by the most exact rules of mathematical science. To think is to make statements ; -and every evolution known to min4 is a statement, comparison, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, proof, or negation. By the Scientific Creative En- ergy inherent in man, his first act produces for himself in the statement Jam, the Unit without which he could not exist, and of necessity the Cipher of contrast without which, by comparison, existence could not be known. And forever onward, the same immutable law of perfection attends to preserve, pi-ogress, -and enlighten him; and without which, as stepping-stones of existence, rational mind would cease to be. Dissolve the law that unites rational mind and ma- thematical science, and both are dissolved, and with them universe itself as an object of knowledge. In connection with the thought I am, may now be settled the Oeigin of Ideas. For more than a century, two great schools have divided the philosophic world : and the origin of ideas in the mind of man 'has been a fruitful subject of discussion between them. The first contending that all ideas existing in the mind are derived from two sources — " Sensation and Reflec- tion " — and resting these on Mcperience, they say : "All know- ledge is exclusively constituted of elements furnished by ex- perienee" The second, opposed to the above, maintain : " That experi- ence is so far from giving necessary truths that these truths themselves lie at the foundation of all experience. And that necessary ideas are the condition and ground of all experi- ence." 10* 298 ANALYTIC yiEW OF MAN. Now in answer to the first, take I am, the first Idea of every rational mind. What is its origin ? To say that^ it comes from experience is to announce experience before awakening or conscious existence. Again, in answer to the second, the idea I am is the first experience of every rational mind. And to hold with this school, and say that necessary ideas are the ground of all experience, is the same as to say there was an idea in the mind before the first idea was experienced. The true solution of the problem is found in the demonstra- ted facts we have before stated — that the Consciousness of man is derived from a monad of our Attributes as a latent germ, placed and organized in the animality of man as a matrix, as the living but latent gei-m of the bird in the egg ; and that certain conditions being fulfilled, this germ, as a finite latent mental magnet, is awakened into activity or con- scious being, with all its inherent powers. This awakening is the beginning of all conscious and real mental existence, as thought and experience ; and all are announced in one act, at one and the same time, in the conscious movement, experience, and thought I am,. This being of necessity the original idea in every finite mind, we have seen in the an- alysis given above its origin demonstrated to be : The latent powers of the human mind put in motion. And as the steel magnet, when formed and awakened, continues to act, so with the magnet of mind. The mind having been first formed and aroused to action in the matrix of man's animality, con- tinues its evolutions, and develops and rolls forth its ideas, according to the relative strength and energized activity of its constituted powers, and the influences brought to bear upon them. HuMAiT Judgment. To properly understand a thing, it is necessary to under- stand the Character of the governing power or principle that rolls it forth and sustains its being. The judgment of man, as it is manifest in his earthly state of existence, is but an unfolding germ 'of that eternal principle of perfect justice, which forms the judgment of the august eternal Cause, the equilibrium and mover of all attributes and powers. And wherever universe is, to some extent, or in some degree, the principle of Justice il manifest, by the ANALYTIC VIEW OF MAN, 299 equitable and appropriate relations existing in the parts of things as adapted to the whole, and in the necessary and harnionious relation of one being to another, and all, as needed for the mutual and reciprocal good of all. Jus- tice is the equitable and appropriate relation of things, whether found in the Empyreal System of rational Mind, where it is conscious, or in the System of Nature, where in its immutable laws it reigns unconscious. And upon reflec- tion, man will find that wherever he directs his attention, to Mind or matter, nothing can exist in its present state or form for a single moment, but from the presence of this all- pervading and omnipotent power. And though all things else form and dissolve, change and exchange, yet Omnipo- tent Justice forever sustains and renews universe by its prin- ciples and laws immutable. It is on the presence of Justice or, in other words, the equitable and appropriate relation of things, that the very existence of every arga,nized being momentarily depends. Take from a machine its equitable and appropriate relations, which is the principle or law of Justice, and its power is gone. Remove the appropriate re- lations existing in numbers, and the science of mathematics is destroyed, and with it the human mind itself; for num- bers and their relations, in their intrinsic value and relative proportions, are the stepping-stones of human existence, without which no man can think. "Without number no mind could distinguish the Ego, or Unit of existence, I am, from the Cipher of non-existence, or one thought, feeling, or ac- tion from another. But the first statement being given in the living Unit, lam, one statement flows from, or is born of anothei", and added by cognizance and corelation. to the first. To think is to make statements, and the natural ac- tion of mental life itself; and life is preserved and progress- ed only by one continued flow of statements, comparisons, additions, subtractions, multiplications, divisions, conclu- sions, and negations, in their equitable and appropriate relations. And in all minds, these evolutions will be scien- tifically .perfect or defective in exact proportion to the de- veloped state or perfection of the mind producitig the phe- nomena. Mental life is the embodiment and living con- «cious process of mathematical science. It is the equitable and appropriate relation of sounds .that gives to music its melody and harmony. 300 ANALYTIC VIEW OF MAN. It is the equitable and appropriate relation of things that gives to the rose its beauty and aroma, and to aU beauty its happifying charms. It is the equitable and appropriate relation of things that causes every herb of the fields to grow, and to sustain Ihe animated forms of nature,*as both to perpetuate their spe- cies by the same inherent laws. It is the equitable and appropriate relation of things that causes the vapors of the earth to ascend and the rains to de- scend, springs to rise, and rivers flow, mountains kiss the lofty skies, as ocean's billows roll below. Weight, measure, order, religion, government, as the har- monious movements of planetary universe itself, are all de- rived from and sustained by our divine, omnipresent attri- bute of Justice, the base and substance of judgment, in its equitable and appropriate relations and laws. Justice is the all-discerning and ceaseless, dissolving, formatory, and sustaining Cause,- that by its living, omni- present energy produces mutation and permutation, but re- mains itself in power and principles immutable. Justice is the combined and most exalted equilibrium, as perfection of all mental attributes, and therein all other at- tributes may be found. But without Justice no other attri- bute can be known to exist. The most transcendent exaltation and perfection of all in- telligence, benevolence, wisdom, power, and truth, is then concentrated in the great I Am, Eternal Justice ; and he who would add to, detract from, or in any way militate our eternal power, character, or perfection, will find he has un- dertaken an impossibility. The judgment of man is to his mind what the fulcrum is to the lever, the pivot to the balance, or Justice to the eter- nal Mind and universe — that which, taken away, all falls to the ground, or nullity remains. We have seen the demon- stration, that there is nothing able to give the immortal, dis- cerning, self-evolving, judicious energy and functional pow- ers that constitute the judgment of man, biit our omnipo- tent perfection of Justice from which it flows, and of whose divine perfections and natm-e it partakes or inherits, as the germ of the natural tree partakes of its parent. But to de- mand as an evidence that it should exhibit the -perfect like- ness' and qualities of its parent, while in the embryo state, AlfALTTIC VIEW OF MAN. 301 is aa unreasonable as to ask the perfect fruit of the oak from the germinating acorn, or to demand of a bird to fly while yet inclosed in the egg. But as every attribute or power of our divine Mind is found in Justice, so in the mind of man every functional power is found in the Judgment, as we have before demon- strated, in their necessary presence to its first simple act, in the thought and conscious statement I Am. Man is the lit- tle, progressive I am, but the germ of his great Archetype ; his mind a magnet of unfolding principles, he must and will progress to justice and finite perfection, as a sequence of his unfolding, divine energy and holy origin. It is not to be understood that the mental attribute or functional powei's of man exist m his mind as distinct and separate as so many oranges in a box ; but, on the contrary, they exist in every mind, as the colors of universe, with light, heat, and chemical power, are united in a single ray of the sun, and as each color is attracted to those properties of matter to which it is in justice correlative, and so paints the landscape of Nature, so each functional power of mind gravitates to its appropriate objects and office, and paiats the horizon of mind with the phenomena of its cognition. Over these cognitions it is the prerogative of Judgment to sit as judge -.- to analyze, classify, and generalize, and by decree of Justice, according to its light, lay by for future use, or, approving, put to present use, or utterly condemn. And that Justice is the base of Judgment is what every one can see who, candid and observing, will its evolutions watch within his own immortal mind ; that its whole aim is to arrive at just conclusions of the idea or interest presented to* the mind, requires but the notice to know- Judg- ment, within itself, has no interest but the right and just. It may be forced by will, but then it wiU that will condemn, for conscience is hut the verdict of one's judgment^ and the eternal God within forever holds him guilty who disobeys tlie sovereign light of mind. Judgment is the audience-chamber of the eternal, omni- present G-od within the mind, where he in justice ever sits, and approves or condemns, not by the eternal and perfect standard of his own — for were it so, all men, being imper- fect, would Hby that standard be condemned. But justice holds each one accountable to the best light they know, and 302 ANALYTIC VIEW OF MAN. as obeyed or disobeyed they find the favor of their God, or the dark frown a guilty conscience does portend. To discriminate and decide is the true office of the judg- ment, and no interest or duty is to the mind of such import- ance as a right verdict for its own immortal happiness ; and as a true guide for this. Cause and Effect, the unerring lan- guage of eternal Cause, stands transcendently preeminent, unrivalled and alone. To neglect the admonitions of one's judgment, and the unerring language which it speaks, for darkening faiths and mysteries, is to forsake the council-chamber of Almighty God for his contrasting shades of darkness. Judgment may err, but from the imperfection of its un- developed state, not being able to reach all the data neces- sary to a light conclusion — as he who has an imperfect statement of a sum must an imperfect product make. The lying will, or abstract man, may for the truth declare that four and five are ten, but this the truthful judgment never can. Judgment forever is with God and right, as far as devel- oped the true God and right to know ; it will not lie, nor can it be corrupted, but will approve or condemn each man or deed in justice, according to the data furnished for the mind's decision. Give judgment a clear, full, and perfect statement of a case, and its verdict is as uniform, just, and perfect as the just product of a sum in mathematics. Judgment is the rightful sovereign of the mind, and its intrinsic nature craves the scientific facts of knowledge — that as the August Author of its being it may not err — ^but forever perfect with him live. Then to feed the eternal judgment of the mind With its appropriate food, is man's highest interest and for his present as eternal good. Reason and Sensivitt. As judgment is the germane and great central principle, as bodily substance, in the- mental Magnet of Mind, so are Reason and Sensirity its appropriate and fundamental poles of action. Every evolution of the human mind .is comprehended in thought, feeling, and action. And as it is thj^ ofiice of the Judgment to discriminate, arrange, and sit in judgment ANALYTIC VIEW OF MAJ?'. 803 ■upon the mind and the phenomena of its cognitions, so it is the office of Reason and Sensivity to give those elements of knowledge to which they pertain, whether spontaneous or hy direction of the will. Reason is the positive male pole radiating, comparing, ex- panding, and progressive principle of the human mind ; and may. he termed the father of thought. Sensivity or feeling, is the recipient, prompting, generat- ing female pole, and may be termed the mother of thought. Action is reciprocally common between them as between the poles of a galvanic battery ; and as the opposite poles of a steel magnet mutually attract each other, so are the poles of the mental magnet drawn together, and from their sexual intercourse, as the electric sparks between the con- necting polar wires of a galvanic battery every thought is born. Were thought the product of Reason alone, then man could think and reason without ■ motive or feeling, and its product would be a cipher ; as it would be without an ob- ject. Or were it the product of Feeling alone, man could then think without reason. To produce a thought that does not to some extent, inherit the character of both its parents. Reason and Sensivity, is an impossibility all can demon- strate. Thought is the legitimate and common child of Reason and Sensivity, and the highest reach or ultimate of the com- bined powers of the human mind except consciousness, the living flame of human life which receives and makes it know- ledge. All that is or ever can be known of any mind, is re- vealed through the simultaneous and reciprocal action of Reason as the positive pole, and rational and animal Sensiv- ity, either one or both combined as its negative pole, and manifest in thought as the joint product and only point of knowledge. Without thought no knowledge can exist. Let any one try to conceive of a mental phenomenon that does not depend on these principles and this process for its existence, and he will find he is attempting an impossibility. And equally impossible is it, for these powers to bring forth a rational product without the presence of the Judgment, or for Judgment to exist without the living element of the Eternal God in Justice. Every object of which the mind takes cognizance, is an object of Reason or an object of Sen- sivity. " And every known object is conceived of as exist- 304 AJSTALYTIC VIEW OF MAN. ing either of necessity or contingently, that is, the object ia conceived of as existing with the impossibility of conceiv- ing of its non-existence, or it is conceived of with the possi- bility of conceiving of its non-existence." And upon exam- ination and reflection, it will be found that animal sensivity only initiates to the mind the elements of finite and contin- gent objects of conception, while reason and rational sen- sivity generate or give to mind the elements of necessary, jiniversal, infinite, and eternal truths. But whatever each may contain separately, is unknown to the mind until through the marriage of the polar principles of mind, thought is pro- duced. Every mind can demonstrate for itself, that it is an impossibility for mind to conceive of or know any object, but by and through thought as the medium. Thought and knowledge can not be separated or conceived of in a separ- ate state of existence. It has been truly said, that all human knowledge is com- prehended in a knowledge of the infinite, a knowledge of the finite, and the relations of the finite to the infinite and of the finite to the finite. And for this knowledge — the Judgment aside — which is the permeating, discriminating, arranging and finishing element of mind, man has three distinct elementary knowledge-giving functional powers, to wit : First, a temporary animal sensibility, adapted to, and pertaining exclusively to his temporary earthly state of existence, that puts him in harmonious connection with the material universe through its difierent organs of perception, and gives him the elements of aU material external know- ledge, and to a certain extent of his mundane material or- ganism. But which being confined to its appropriate sphere of finite, earthly, or material action, pays no regard from any law within itself, to the higher and immortal functions and interests of man's rational mind. But like all other func- tional powers of man, has its representation in Conscious- ness, the only and universal perfecting functional power of knowledge, to be hereafter elucidated. Second and thirdly, Man inherits the likeness of the Eter- nal Mind in the great male and female polar Principles of Mind, the intelligence of Reason, and the Sensivity of Uni- versal Love, that apprehend or give the elements of spirit- ual, infinite, necessary and universal truths. Although rea- son and the sensivity of rational mind are perfectly distinct in ANALYTIC VIEW OF MAN". 305 their character and functions, they are nevertheless insepar- ably connected in their action as the poles of a galvanic bat- tery, in all the productions or phenomena of pure rational mind. To such an extent is this demonstrated, that it is im- possible for any one to produce a pure rational thought with- out the reciprocal and conjoint action of these two princi- ples. While Reason alone can give the elements of all nec- essary, universal, infinite, and eternal knowledge, and com- pare the finite with the infinite, and the finite with the finite, and show their relations, as the logical antecedents of con- tingent or infinite objects of conception, it is by the incitive power of Sensivity alone, that it is enabled to perform its functions. And again in return, it is through the light of Reason and Judgment alone, that the divine sensibility of universal love discerns its different, p^|per, and exalted ob- jects of attachment, and the appropriate share it should re- spectively bestow upon each. And if on one hand, Mind through Reason receives the elementary K^A« of knowledge, it on the other hand, through Sensivity receives the element- ary weight of knowledge ; for it is through the divine ra- tional Sensibility of Universal Love, that,, the mind exclus- ively feels those weighty elements of truth that through the ■ divine marriage of Reason and rational Sensivity have been revealed. While Reason unveils the August Eternal Au- thor of being, Sensivity is mentally impressed and pierced with his radiating Empyrean rays of Justice and Universal Love ; and like true lovers that can not part, clasped in each others arms — Sensivity and Reason — in adoration prostrate fall, and as one being, worship the Eternal moving Cause and light of all. It is through these reciprocating, inseparable, cognate principles of .mind, that man receives those elements of knowledge that constitute him a rejigious, moral, philosoph- ic, scientific, and progressive being. Although man may and does receive, while in his earthly state of existence, through his animal sensibility, those elements of knowledge, which, digested by reason and judgment, place him preemi- nently above all other earthly beings, it is from the sensibil- ity of immortal rational mind alone, that he feels, the divine elements of Justice, Benevolence, Adoration, Hope, Joy, and Truth ; and it is that which causes him to yearn for know- ledge, wisdom, purity, and immortal life in the likeness of 806 ■ ANALYTIC VIEW OF MAN". his Ci'eator, as the natural child yearns for the breast of its mother. And as the principle of Universal Love is the di- vinely natural incitive power of Reason, it approves and seeks the well-being of man's animal existence within its appropriate sphere and under the government of rational mind, as a part of its own divine and universal inheritance. Every functional power of the human mind pertains alike to its appropriate objects and fills its peculiar office. And with the exception of the free Conscious Will, Vhich is the confluent and conjoint ultimate product as focus and expres- sional power of the magnet, or the abstract man, that by the voice of God through the verdict of the Judgment, is held accountable to the divine attribute of Justice as manifest in the judgment of man^nd through that to God his Creator, no one functional pdlrer is accountable to its neighbor ; or in other words, no one functional power can invalidate the tes- timony of another, or cause it to give other testimony than that which it apprehends and declares. Ask any rational mind from whence its knowledge of any material object of conception, and he will refer immediately to his animal sensibility : I have seen, heard, felt, tasted or smelt, as the case may be ; and thereby I know the reality of those things to which I testify. Ask any developed rational mind from whence his know- ledge of space, and he will refer directly to. his reason ; body being given, space must be. Ask a developed rational mind whence his knowledge of Justice, right and wrong, and he will refer directly to the sensibility of universal rational mind : Rational Sensivity and free will being given. Justice, right, and wrong, exist of necessity ; for to conceive of a rational sensibility and its concomitant free-will without a choice, is as impossible as to conceive of body without space. Ask Reason upon what authority or upon what base, do you rest your conclusions ? "Will it say, as some philoso- phers have asserted, upon my individualized responsibility ? By no means ; it refers directly to Justice, the immaculate Eter- nal Moving Cause in God, Man, andTJniverse, and as our voice it proclaims : Such is the equitable and appropriate relation of things, that they so exist of necessity, as one number stands related to another, and such are those relations that they can not be otherwise. Beyond this point no man can ANALYTIC VIEW OF MAN. 307 go ; by the immutable language of Cause and Effect, it is the Omnipotent Answer, absolute and final. Reason and rational Sensivity, as the positive and negative poles of immortal human existence, give to man all those elements of knowledge pertaining to God, Mind, and Immor- tality. While transitory animal Sensivity puts him in connection with the gross material substance of universe, and only gives him those elements of knowledge that pertain to his transi- tory, earthly state of existence ; yet, through the superior endowments of his rational sensibility and reason, man is en- abled to permeate the dark elements of knowledge as given through his animal sensibility, and reduce its objects of per- ception in the mind to orderly and philosophical arrange- ments and the rules of science ; whereby, as a child in a rudi- mental school, he is developing for his eternal good, the im- mortal functions of his mind, while transitory objects for transitory ends his mind employs. And it should be observed, as an existing, marked, and distinguishing trait of character between /Sensivity and Reason, that whatever knowledge is obtained through the medium of Sensivity is subject to qualifying degrees. While the laws of Reason are based upon the equitable and appro- priate relations existing in immutable, infinite, and perfect Justice, that precludes all degrees. " Reason also exists in all men, and equally in all who pos- sess it at all. This is evident from the fact, that if an indi- vidual knows a truth of Reason at all, he does and m^ust know it absolutely. There are no degrees in such know- ledge. The difference and only difference between men, lies in their perceptive and reflective faculties. Newton differed from other men not because he knew any more, absolutely, than they, that events suppose a cause, that things equal to the same things are equal to one another, etc., but be- cause he possessed power of perception and reflection which enabled him to see (what they could not discover) the con- sequences involved in such truths." We have now portrayed and demonstrated Reason and Sensivity as the great polar principles of mind, and the prim- ary procurators of all conceivable elements of knowledge, and the parents of thought. But thought in its elementary state, like a child unborn, conveys no tidings ; and as a child 308 AJSTALYTIO VIEW OF MAN. must bo born to life before it can become a man, so must thought bo born to Consciousness Jjcforo it can become know- ledge. Conscious Will is the personality of man, and it is a seltevident fact to every reflecting rational mind, that no tiiought, feeling, or action, which mcludos all possible men- tal phenomena, is known to the mind, until in thought they appear upon the theater, and at the disposal of the free Con- scious Will and personality of man. Consciousness being the agent or functional power alone th.at receives the elements furnished by all other functional powers of the human mind, and in the form of thought, as produced by Reason and Sensivity, therein breathes the breath of conscious lifo and makes them knowledge. ' CONSCIOUSN-ESS. ConsciovTsness has very generally been defined to be : The knowledge of what passes in tho mind. Had it been de- fined to be tho knowledge of what passes without the mind, so far as the knowledge of the mind extends, it would have been effially true. For it is tho universal and necessary functional power of knowledge, and without which no know- ledge can exist : and is, in fact, tho Abstract Mind itself. For, Consciousness removed, no active mind or knowledge remains. Though, as we have .before demonstrated, other functional powers procure the elements of knowledge, oacli one in its appropriate sphere and peculiar office, and com- bine them into thoughts, the only vehicles of all knowledge, no mind knows the contents of a thought until in his own personality of Consciousness it is embraced, and by the di- vinely inherent light and constitutional nature therein con- tained it is thus made knowledge. As every rational mind can demonstrate for itself, it is an absolute impossibility for mind to bavc or conceive of one idea of knowledge, whether the object be material or men- tal, external or internal, in time past, present, or future, but that which has been, now is, or will be made such by Con- sciousness. This demonstrates Consciousness to be the uni- versal and only functional power of ])erfect knowledge. The question now is. What is this power, its distinguishing char- acteristics, office, and relations ? Consciousness in man is no more, no less, than his Per- ANALYTIC VIEW OF " MAN. 309 sonality, the immortal awakened flame of human life, and ne- cessary universal power of knowledge, that springs from, and is sustained by that monad of our attributes which, oi^ ganized as a finite mental magnet, gives to man the likeness of his Creator. And as in our eternal Mind wisdom is the confluent and conjoint product as Expressional Power, Sus- ceptibility, and Executive Will, of all other Attributes, so Consciousness in the mind of man is the confluent and con- joint product, susceptibility, expressional power, and ex- ecutive wUl of all attributes and powers composing the human mind. In its negative, spontaneous, or quiescent state it is a susceptibility, merely taking cognizance of, and giving birth to, the spontaneous phenomena of know- ledge as they are produced or presented by other func- tional powers of mind. But in its positive, absolute, or determined state, it becomes Will ; and being the only power of perfected knowledge, and concentrating withiu itself the converged and united power and elementary light given by. all other powers of mind, it of necessity becomes the divinely natural and free Executive Ruler and ^respons- ible agent, to incite and strengthen, or to suppress and weaken the activity of any particular functional power, or any particular member thereof, and govern and improve the whole, or neglect the same, or any part thereof, as by the developed and enlightened state and strength of the several powers of mind it may determine as its duty, or for its in- tei-est or pleasure, and as circumstances will allow and con- ditions do admit. Consciousness is the keystone in the arch of mind ; or, in other words, it is that principle which, uniting all others, binds them all in one identity of being Persotial ; and itself holding the focus of expvessional power, may be said to oc- cupy relative to other powers in the magnet of mind, the same relative place or position as does the armature or keep- er to the magnet' of steel. As the natural mouth of man ex- presses or speaks of aU the senses, and speaks of them as its own, saying, I see, I hear, I feel, taste, and smeU, that being its office ; so Consciousness, filling its appropriate office, speaks for every functional power of mind iu the first per- son, it being the legitimate, expressive, representative Per- sonal of aU human powers. It says, I judge, I reason, I un- derstand, I remember, and so on, through the whole series 310 ANALYTIC VIEW OF MAN. of powers composing the human mind. But while Consci- ousness, in the form of Will, which exclusive prerogative it can assume at pleasure, is sovereign executive monarch of the Mind, it is held accountable to answer to our eternal tribu- nal of justice in the Judgment, where, arraigned by Reason and Universal Love, the potent angelic marshals of the hu- man mind, the vain-glorious monarch is brought to feel the sword of conscience, until Consciousness becomes Wisdom, and the Court of Heaven reigns. It is the exclusive and appropriate office of Consciousness as the executive monarch of the mind, and most perfected power of knowledge, clothed with the united light and power of all, for the individual, as collective and united good of all, to hear the pleading and propositions of all other powers of mind, within the bounds of reason and jus- tice, and to submit the same to the most august Court, com- posed of Judgment, Reason, and Universal Love, in which Justice rules as Judge ; and by that decision, as its guid- ing center of action, to assume absolute and unflinching sway and carry into undeviating execution the ennobling mandates of the mind. But there is no power in the con- scious determined will of man that can change the constitu- tional power and inherent divine nature of immutable Jus- tice, either within or without the human mind ; for Justice is everywhere the same, upholding the right, and condemn- ing the wrong ; and, proportionate to its enlightened and developed strength and presence, will assert its divine rights, and by the unchanging laws of Cause and Effect and the sword of conscience — itself clad in the invulnerable armor of the immaculate God, it is destined in eveiy individual to ultimately bring the arbitrary will of man to act in harmony with the universal laws of his Creator, and view it not only as his duty, but to behold therein his highest interest as greatest pleasure and happiness. While all other powers of the human mind have each their peculiar laws or rules of action, and from which they can not depart, but certain conditions being fulfilled, they are obliged to act,' and each by the laws laid down as a rule for its own peculiar functions and office. Consciousness has a free and arbitrary choice ; it can remain passive, or become absolute, it can make the God-like powers of Judgment, Rea- son, and rational Sensivity its center and guide of action, and ANALYTIC VIEW 0^ MAST. 311 rule in Justice and Benevolence as the child of God, giving to each endowment its appropriate, meritorious, and just share of enjoyment, harmoniously expanding and improving ^he whole rational man, and in obeying its best light sec a daily progress, and feel that justification that no external foe can destroy. Or it can make the animal sensivity of man's transitoiy, earthly nature its center and guide for action, re- sisting the admonitions of its most exalted endowments for a season, and perverting the use of reason, degrade itself by brutal, selfish, and beastly action, to condemnation, woe, and shame, below the level of the brute creation. But it is not within the jfcwer of the Conscious Will and Personality of Man, while in his infantile, ignorant, and de- veloping state, to permanently destroy or change the divine and all-wise constitutional organization of his own mind, or the laws thereof. Though he may destroy the constitutional force of his temporary animal functions, and by their destruc- tion die to the benefits of health, and perhaps to an earthly state of existence, as a penalty for willful trangressions, criminal ignorance, or slothful neglect of duty, abd as a warning admonition to himself and others, through our uni- versal language of Cause and Efiect ; yet there remains to him a never-ending inheritance, in the elements and consti- tutional principles of his immortal miud, that can not be de- stroyed or their constitutional relations permanently chang- ed, but which yield to the immortal possessor the eternal, wise, and instructive lessons of Cause and Efiect, and being in themselves unchangeable, and acting by the inherent en- ergy and nature of the Eternal Cause that rolls them forth, they will eventually and effectually, but gradually, propor- tionate to the efibrts of the possessor in their favor, perma- nently change the infantile and changeable Conscious Will of Man, and, supplanting the temporary animal sensibility, bring to the Conscious Will and Personality of Man an overpowering strength and knowledge through cause and effect, and mould it to a permanent finite likeness of the Divine Original, moved by a monad of the same immortal powers, and governed by the same inherent and eternal laws, working within as the sustaining cause of its own Identity, for the fruits of Justice, Intelligence, Universal Love, Wis- dom, and Truth, one in tendency and effect with God and Angels ; and animality, with its concomitant demands and 312 ANALYTIC VIEW OF MAN. desires, left behind as the loathsome womh from whence it came, these exalted principles become the exclusive and holy- fountain that furnishes the Identity Personal of raan's_ exist- ence ; and the stream being of necessity as the fountain, the arbitrariness of man's infantile earthly state must cease to be, and he will then act exclusively from that monad of our Attri- butes that constitutes his own developed and then pure and holy nature, which is at once the most perfect liberty, in harmony mth the universal laws and benevolent designs of his Cre- ator. But as the natural body of man is at first but a germ that is gradually developed, matured, and perfected, according to the conditions and circumstances in which it is placed, so it is with his Conscious Personality. The child possesses animal sensibility as soon as bom, but his mental faculties, like the untouched powers of the steel magnet, yet slumber in the perfect darkness of inactivity. For- many days sounds fall upon the well-formed ear, the eyes open, and surround- ing objects are reflected upon the retina of the eye ; but to the child there is no conscious sound or sight. Attention is the first indication of an awakening mental sensibility. At- tention pertains to Conscious Rational Mind alone, and as a voluntary act proceeds from will ; but in its first psycho- logic or spontaneous developments, as manifest in the natu- ral developing child of animalty, it is the incipient, premoni- tory psychologic awakening of the RationalMind, which as yet has no conscious existence, but from which it proceeds as a pre- monitory voice, indicating its developing presence as the morn- ing twilight precedes and indicates the rising Sun from which it proceeds, while as yet it has no visible presence. Attention , in the infant child may be called the morning twilight of its imfolding mind; but it is by slow degrees, and with difficulty, that the human mind becomes fully conscious of itself. The child may soon notice its single and difierent members of the body, 'and distinguish between them; but to enable it to comprehend the body and mind as distinct, and yet as one united whole, whose controlling power is the self-evolving Magnet self, requires not only time and labor from the in- structor, but reflective industry on the part of the unfolding germ. The Personality of Man is complete only when he has a comprehending, clear, and distinct view of his own mental AN-ALYTIC VIEW OP MAK. 313 personality, with its responsibilities and correct relations to God his Creator, and his universal and immutalile laws, with the powers and laws inherently pertaining to his own rational mind, as their preeminent claiilis to a ruling regard in preference to the animal sensibility of his temporary earthly state of existence. The Personality of Man com- plete, and having, through the universal language of Cause and Effect, been taught circumspection, and suffered the just penalties of his transgressions in instructive lessons of ad- monishing kindness, through Cause and Effect, Consciousness becomes Wisdom, and that monad of our Attributes that constitutes his endowments becomes the fit and full vessel of our Divine Spirit, and the then Conscious Will or Wisdom of man becomes, to the extent of its development, the ex- pressional power of God, governed by his laws, and fed by - his innate and perfect spirit, self-evolved in the finite magnet of his likeness ; and man, in tendency and effect, becomes one with his Creator, in happifying and comparative contrast to the mind's former state, proportionate to the unavoidable sufferings through which it has passed, and its deserving merits. The personality or Conscious Will of man is that volun- tary and responsible power that, by its own intrinsic and controlling properties, position, and relations to all other powers of , mind, according- to its developed light and strength, determines his own mental states, and as a conse- quence his progress, merits, and demerits, and as a sequence becomes the formator of his own happiness or misery. For- ever " one and identical, opposed to its ever-changing phe- nomena and mental states," is the Conscious Will of man. Consciousness in a state of will is magnetic, and through Magnetism as the means is able to control the Odylic and Electric elements of Nature to the production of all those varied phenomena that characterize Psychology, Table-tip- ping, and Animal Magnetism, but which, to properly eluci- date, would require a volume, and do not come within the prescribed limits and nature of the present work. In Consciousness the rational mind of man inherits and manifests the infinite, omniform, and omnipresent character- istics of his Creator. That which a Conscious mind does in scientific knowledge grasp is within the mind, and as a means, mindis developed by knowledge, and every mind will and 14 314 ANALYTIC VIEW OF MAN. must become as infinite, powerful, and perfect as the scien- tific knowledge it appropriates and wisely puts to use. And to this there is no restraint or limit hut the unfolding powers of mind itself. ' • . _ Mind lives in tlie thoughts which it evolves, and self-evi- dently, thoughts are as onmiform as the objects they.em- brace. The idea advanced by Christian philosophers, that thoughts are without forra, having neither length, breadth, hight, nor depth, and neither a this nor a that side to them, is simply too ridiculous to be entertained by any mind which has not laid aside both judgment and reason for a self-accursing faith of darkness. Thought is in form as the object it contains ; he who thinks of a yard-stick, evolves a thought containing as many feet and inches, and with as many sides and ends, and of the same width, shape, and proportions, and of as many colors, as the yard-stick which he thinks of; and so with every other object of creation. He who thinks of Justice evolves a thought embracing a power so infinite it can not be multiplied or added to, and so perfect it can not be mutilated, yet so completely within the comprehension of man that it may be and has been a subject of analysis, and its constituent elements scientifically demonstrated. All thoughts, as the minds who evolve them, may be weighed as we'll as measured, not always by the pound and yardstick, but most truly by the effects they may and do produce. Although the earthly body of man is finite and local, yet the conscious, immortal mind, in its intrinsic nature and character, is imbued with and aspires to the perfections of its august Author, and is, in reality, an embryo omnipresent being, proportionate to its mental knowledge and develop- ment. This is self-evident from the fact that whatever part or locality of universe is known to the mind, however re- mote it may be in point of distance, it is equally present to the mind in thought as the nearest object within the reach of the natural hand. And man, living exclusively in his thoughts, 'when released from the egg of animality that chains him to earth, must be where his thoughts and affec- tions carry him, and that of which he thinks- will then be present with him, and tangible to his mental powers as the ANALYTIC VIEW OF MAN. 315 immediately surrounding objects of earth are now present to his natural senses. The earthly body, as animal life of man, forms no essen- tial part of the immortal human mind, only as the connected matrix of its formation and infantile development. And as the adorned butterfly emerges from the larva of the grovel- ing woiTn, and is wafted on the balmy breezes of the sum- mer air, to sip the choicest nectar from the choicest flowers, so will the immortal mind of man triumphant leave the cra- ven ties of animal life, and on aifection's downy wings, swift as the thoughts they bear, roam the fair fields of uni- verse, and drink uncloyed the choicest nectar there. Undeestajstding. Understanding is that functional power of mind that re- quires and gives a marked and distinct characteristic con- ception or notion of whatever knowledge is brought upon the theater of Consciousness by other functional powers of mind. Its conceptions are all necessarily complex, the ele- ments thereof being furnished by the other functional pow- ers, including both necessary and contingent elements of knowledge. Through the elements furnished by Judgment, Reason, and rational Sensivity, man, by the functional power of Un- derstanding, forms a distinct notion of the substance of mind as contradistinguished from the substance of matter, as they are brought before the mental eye in the theater of conscious being. And from the evolving, intrinsic, divine nature of the elements furnished by that mo»iad of the pri- mary attributes of his Creator within, man, through Under- standing, is enabled to form a distinct and just conception of his own mind in its personal identity, and powers to feel, think, and will, with his inherent attributes in the likeness of God, as also time, space, eausCj and efiect, and the eter- nal Fountain that has rolled him forth and sustains his being. And with the additional elements furnished by his animal Sensivity, his Understanding forms a like conception of mo- lecular substance in its peculiar characteristics of form, ex- tension, resistance, color, and the like. The Understand- ing, to the degree of its development, gives a distinct con- ception to the mind of all things, as they are furnished and 316 AlfALTTIC VIEW OF HAS. displayed by the other fanctional powers of mind in the arena of conscious being, acting simultaneously in every ra- tional evolution, often preceding the Judgment, and always following it. Understanding conceptions are of two kinds — particular and general. A particular conception is such a notion as the mind forms of God, an individual man, or other object, by a specific name. A general conception is such a notion as is formed of a genera, species, or class. And all concep- tions are more or less perfect, proportionate to the developed state and powers of the conceiving mind in regard to the object under apprehension or contemplation. As, for exam- ple, a developed and understanding mind will apprehend, portray, and obey God in the light of his most exalted, de- fined, and demonstrated character, whUe minds undeveloped in Understanding and Judgment, and necessarily under the darkening and selfish government of their animal natures, may ascribe to God the mdst immaculate attributes, and then portray him as a God of wrath, and in the deeds they ascribe to him profanely hold him forth as a hellish monster, and the crowned fiend of blackest devils, who offers up the innocent and just a willing sacrifice, on which the hardened sinners of the earth may gloat, and glut their vilest rage to ignominious sufferings and death, and then proclaim it the behest of God for their salvation, inviting all to wash in the innocent blood of the victim slain, and thereby become ab- solved from every crime. And this while we, by reason and our universal language of Cause and Effect, proclaim in ev- ery land that immutable Justice rewards as merits mete, and every mind must reap the just fruits in harvest of the deeds they sow, be they more or less — good or eviL Imagikation'. ' Imagination ! cries the half-awakened embryo of the hu- man race, but so far unfolded as to feel and knq,w his animal life — to eat -and drink of mundane food alone, -and only prize the transient wealth and pleasures of the earth that for the cravings of his animal life are given. Who or what is Im- agination but an airy, fictitious phantom ? Imagination an- swers for herself. We are the Omnific Angel, Agent of Universe, eternal. ANALYTIC VIEW OF MAN. 317 and extensive as the realms of time and space. By us, in thought, was first the mind of man conceived, and with in- trinsic and inherent powers, in likeness of the evolving Cause, a matrix for the latent germ in nature was decreed, there to unfold and grow, progressing onward to a perfect finite likeness of his Author, God. Which now is the real- ity, and which to thee the substantial good ? ' The inherent and immortal conceiving and creating power of the eternal and omnific God, that rolled you into being and sustains you here, or the gewgaw trifles of a transient life, that pampers alone its craven sense and feeds its fading pride ? Is the conceiving and creative power that formed the mind less real or less noble than the mind it formed ? Or is the im- mortal mind, in its endowments, less a reality than its earth- ly body, the transient matrix of its formation ? Who counts the shell against the living bird when bursting into life ? We trust these questions you can solve. We 'are the ceaseless, dissolving, and creative genius, in the minds of Angels, God, and Man ; and as the Sun is robed in his own resplendent light, and by his radiant rays paints the landscape he creates ; so are we thus clothed with Fancy of our own creation, and robe our works in the beaming bright- ness of th^ resplendent colors she displays. We are the plastic mirrored substance, Fancy ^ the adorning frame-work, and our own reflected rays. Understanding moves upon the elements of knowledge as they are furnished ; and combining into notions, presents them as they are. Conceived notions we dissolve, and from their disintegrated parts new wholes compound, to serve utility and art and move all things onward to the ideal standard and most ennobling functions of the mind, for one eternal good. Elements of knowledge, given by other func- tional powers, in substance, quality, cause, and effect. Un- derstanding does combine : her characteristic this, none will dispute ; but in the arena of conscious being she simply lays her budget down ; things as they exist, true Understanding comprehends ; but to invent, modify, and embellish for the improvement of the mind, her tongue is mute. Here we step in, and calling Judgment, Reason, and Sensivity to our aid, overhaul the treasures Understanding has produced, and from the horn of plenty we sustain, add to her substantial stores our intrinsic, inventive, and progressive elements of 318 ANALYTIC YIEW OF MAN. utility — as the grand, the. perfect, the heautiful, and the sub- lime. Over the treasures thus in store, by the supernal pow- ers of mind, a solemn conclave now is held, where sovereign Will presides. The needs of mind are all discussed, while w« on all this varied store of thought in Fancy move, and set up new model frameworks for the mind. The needs of mind are what we serve, and to the standard reared we shape our work. You ask of us : "What have we done ? And here we meet you in rebuff, and ask of you — of all below the eternal Mind — what have we not done ? What are forms in mind or matter, but embodied thoughts? And forms without imagination who could invent or who conceive ? We hold the plastic magic wand, and at its touch qaxae forth the plow, the anvil, and the loom. The Press we formed, and worked it long with slavish thought, by earthly hands un- helped. All railroads thread the planes of mind before they mark their kindred earth — as Yacht, and Steamboat, and the stately Ship, from floating in a sea of thought, find an embodied exit to the seas of earth. We heed the wants of man in all things, and in all ways, but most delight to ele- vate the mind, and lead it onward to its Creator God. In contradistinction to nature, the rational myid of man to uphold in grandeur, sublimity, and beauty, is our pe- culiar lot. For him, of nature we make a pliant tool ; dis- solve her wholes to parts, and blend her parts in wholes anew, in a most striking but harmonious contrast. And thus, by Cause and Effect, we cause her mute substance ■ to speak, and shadow forth in words sublime the power and glory of her God. Here, too, man drinks exalted wisdom sweet that lures him onward to the eternal fountain, where perfect beauty dwells, sublimest grandeurs reign, and one eternal joy supplies the place of pain. Understanding conceptions are perfect, when with their objects they perfect do compare^ our conceptions are per- fect, as they perfect reach the sovereign needs and ideal standard of the mind. Unity of thought and feeling, in sub- lime beauty to blend before the Conscious Throne of Mind is a transcendent point at which we aim. It was we who, in the dying Roman chieftain slave, raised our voice before that band with whom he had combined for liberty, and who assembled stood — ANALYTIC VIEW OF MAN. 319 " To hear his last and solemn charge, Ere death should set his soul at large. Half-raising up his giant form, With awful lustre in his eye, He spal£e : ' Ye spirits of the storm, Careering chainless through the sky, Your thunder-trumpet peals for me A glad and glorious jubilee. Like you, unmoeked by man's control. When on the clouds your chariots roll, My free and disembodied soul Soon makes the elysiau fields, long sought, The play-ground of its deathless thought.' " It was we who gave utterance to the imprisoned eagle, as he longed to " Rise through tempest-shrouded air. All thick and dark, "with wild winds swelling. To brave the lightning's lurid glare, And talk with thunders in their dwelling." It was we who said : " Oh ! then what soul was his, when on the tops Of the high mountains he beheld the sun Rise up, and bathe the world in light ? He looked — Ocean and Earth, the solid frame of Earth, And Ocean's liquid mass, beneath him lay In gladness and deep joy. The clouds were touched. And in their silent faces he did read Unutterable love." Devotionally we speak as follows : " Fades froin the West the farewell light, Flung backward by the setting sun, And silence deepens as the night Steals with its solemn shadows on ! Gathers the soft, refreshing dew On spring grass and flow'ret stems — And lo ! the everlasting blue Is radiant with a thousand gems ! " Not only doth the voiceful Day Thy loving-kindness. Lord ! proclaim — But Night, with its sublime array Of worlds, doth magnify thy name ! Yea, while adoring seraphim Before thee bend the willing knee. From every star a choral hymn Goes up unceasingly to thee ! 320 ANALYTIC VIEW OF MAN. " Day unto Day doth utter speech, And Night to Night thy voice makes known ; Through all the earth where Thought may reach, Is heard the glad and solemn tone — And worlds, beyond the farthest star Whose light hath reached the human eye, ■ Catch the high anthem from afar. That rolls along Immensity !" And again : " His word of grace is sure and strong. As that which built the skies ! The voice which rolls the stars along Speaks all the promises." Beauty predominating over sublimity and devotion, we said: " The twilight hours like birds flew by, As lightly, and as free : Ten thousand stars were in the sky. Ten thousand in the sea : For every wave with dimpled cheek That leaped upon the air. Had caught a star in its embrace, And held it trembling there." And again : " I have heard the laughing wind behind. When playing with my hair — The breezy fingers of the wind. How cool and moist they were !" We are the Amaranthine Flower of Mind, that never fades nor dies. Association. We comprehend hy Association that living principle or power of Mind, that evolves what is often termed Sugges- tion, Memory, and Recollection. Memory and Recollection being distinguished from each other, by Memory being the spontaneous effort of the associating power to recall concep- tions of facts and events ; while Recollection is an exercise of the same power under the influence and direction of the will. But Association being the C/iaracteristic Term for the Solving ^Principle that produces all the varied phenom- ena ascribed to suggestion, memory, and recollection, it is AJSr^LTTIC VIEW OF MAK. 321 thereby demonstrated to be the germane appellation of the principle under consideration. " That one thought is often suggested to the mind by an- other, and that the sight of one external object often recalls former occm-rences and revives former feelings, are facts which are perfectly familiar, even to those who are least dis- posed to speculate concerning the principles of" the human mind. In the language of Mahan : " This is what is meant by the term association. It is that principle of Mind by which past thoughts and states are recalled and revived, through the influence of present perceptions, thoughts, and feelings." The object of these pages being to inculcate immutable truth as drawn and demonstrated from our Universal Lan- guage of Cause and Effect, and Professor Mahau being just- ly entitled to the credit of having thus correctly read and demonstrated the law and characteristics of this important principle of rational Mind, we shall take the liberty to pre- sent the substance of his commendable and uistructive eluci- dation of it in his own language : The Associating Peinciple not without Law. "Although," says Mahan, "the mind is so constituted, that certain states follow certain other states, these phenom- ena, as philosophers have long since observed, not only do not follow each other at random, but are known to follow some one or more fixed law or laws. To ascertain and illus- trate the operation of these laws, has been considered one of the great problems in Intellectual Philosophy ; and has accordingly occupied a conspicuous place in almost every treatise upon the science. Mr. Hume, I believe, was the first philosopher who attempted to settle definitely the num- ber of these laws. According to this philosopher, they are all reduced to three : Resemblance, Cause and Effect, and Contiguity in time and place. Others have since added that of Contrast. Law 01? ASSOCIATION stated and defined. " It is somewhat remarkable thait while philosophers have observed that the principle of Association acts, as a matter of fact, in accordance with the above so-called laws, they 14* 322 ANALYTIC VIEW OF MAN. have not inquired after the ultimate cawse of its action in these forms, and have not raised the inquiry, whether this cause is not always one and the same. Some bodies, vapor for example, rise from the earth, while others descend to- ward it. Some bodies float upon the surface of water, while others sink to the bottom. Philosophy has long since demonstrated the fact, that the cause of all these diverse effects is one and identical, in all instances. The same law which causes the stone to descend toward the earth, causes the vapor to rise above it. The same law which causes lead to sink to the botton of a mass of water, causes other bodies to float upon its surface. Does not a similar imity obtain in the action of the associating principle ? May not all the facts of Association be reduceettb one common principle, and the laws of Association, as presented by philosophers gener- ally, be shown to be but different forms in which this one prin- ciple develops itself? I think that this may be done, and that the principle referred to, may very readily be pointed out: " When the mind has once been in a given state, we are all aware that there is a strong tendency to return to that state again. Hence, if any one element of that state is re- produced from any cause whatever, a recurrence of that state to a greater or less degree is very likely, from the known principle under consideration, to be occasionfed. Ev- ery perception, every thought in the mind, induces a mental state. Now suppose, that by some new perception or thought, some element of this state is revived. By the law of mind under consideration, is not the state itself likely to be re- vived in a greater or less degree, and with that state, is not the remembrance of the perception or thought referred to, likely to be recalled ? Have we not hero the universal law of Association ? A train of thoughts passed through my mind on yesterday, for example. Another is now passing. As a consequence, the former train is recalled. What is the reason of this fact ? It is this .: Something in the present train has -reproduced some element of the state of mind induced hy the one-which passed through th e mind on yesterday. By means of this common state, and that exclusively, the latter train has been recalled. So in all other instances. The law of Association, then, may be thus stated : When present thoughts or trains of thoughts, recall former ones, it is al- ANALYTIC VIEW OF MAN. 823 ways and exclusively because the present has induced the state of feeling, or some element of the state induced by the former. It is always and exclusively by means of this com- mon state, that such Associations arise in the mind ; the truth of this proposition it will now be my object to estab- lish. The present Hypothesis whex established as the Law op Association. " To establish the hypothesis irader consideration, as the law of Association, two conditions must be fulfilled : " It must be shown in the first place, that all phenomena referred to the commonly admitted laws, can be accounted for on this hypothesis. " It must be shown with equal clearness in the second place, that there are facts of Association which can not be account- ed for by these laws, but which admit of a ready explana- tion on this hypothesis, and upon none other conceivable by us. These positions being established, the judgment affirms the hypothesis, as the exclusive and universal law of Asso- ciation. " We are now prepared to take up the question, whether there are many, or but one law of Association, and whether the hypothesis under consideration gives us that law ? A Peioei Argument. " It will be admitted on a moment's reflection, that there is a very strong d priori probability in favor of the suppo- sition that the facts of Association are controlled by one law, instead of many. The opposite position supposes a de- parture, in this single instance, from what we find true of all other classes of facts which lie within and ai'ound us in the universe. The phenomena of attraction in the material universe, for example, are many, and endlessly diversified. Yet they are all controlled by one law. "Why should we suppose the phenomena of Association to be an exception ? Should we not expect, in the ultimate analysis of :fiicts, to find unity amidst diversity here, as well as everywhere else ? This argument is adduced as of weight, simply in favor of the supposition of one instead of many laws, and not at all in favor of any one hypothesis, in distinction from another. 324 ANALYTIC VIEW OF MAN. Any one principle, which would lay claim to the prerogSr tive of universal law, must fulfill the conditions above pre- sented. We are now prepared for a direct investigation of the question, whether the hypothesis under consideration fulfills these conditions. All the Phenomena eefeeeed to the commonxt ee- CErvED Laws can be explained on this Hypothesis. " That many of the phenomena of Association can be ac- counted for, in consistency -with the commonly admitted laws, will be denied by no person of reflection. That ob- jects which resemble each other, that those which have been perceived at the same time and place, which sustain to each other the relation of contrast, or Cause and Efiect, do mu- tually suggest each other, is undeniable. But do such phe- nomena necessarily suppose the existence of a plurality of laws ? May they not all be referred to one, and that the one under consideration ? Those of resemblance obviously may. The same is true of those which sustain to each other the relations of contiguity of time and place, and of cause and efiect. For they have undeniably coexisted with the same feelings or states of mind. The only phenomena which pre- sent the appearance of difiiculty are those of Contrast. That a giant and dwarf resemble each other in but few par. ticulars, and that they stand -in striking contrast to each other, is readily admitted ; but that, as objects of percep- tion or recollection, they may have coexisted with the same feelings, or states of mind, and as causes also of the same, I as fully believe as I do that the conception of a hero and a lion have coexisted in a similar manner. A giant and a dwarf are strongly contrasted, but each, as striking departures, though in ^ifierent directions, from the common stature, may have coSxisted with similar feelings of wonder or svr- prise, and as common causes of the same ; and this may be the only reason why one suggests the other. In conversing upon this subject on a particular occasion, an individual re- marked that he recollected having, at a particular time, seen a dwarf. A giant, which he had previously seen, was not suggested at all, but another dwarf whom he had before met with. I at once asked the speaker if the giant referred to was not a familiar acquaintance of his ? He re- plied that he was. This fact readily accounted for the phe- ANALYTIC VIEW OF MAN. 325 nomena of Association presented by him. Familiarity had destroyed the feeling of strangeness which had formerly co- existed with the perception or recollection of the giant. The same feeling, however, coexisting with the perception of the two dwarfs, the perception of one would of course sug- gest the other. In the same manner all the phenomena of contrast may he reduced to the hypothesis before us. PHENOMEiq^A EXIST WHICH CAN BE ACCOUNTED POE ON THIS, AND ON NO OTHER HYPOTHESIS. 1. " Those falling under the relation of Analogy. — But how can we account for those associations which fall under the relation of analogy ? A hero and a lion sustain no rela- tion of external resemblance, by which one would suggest the other. Equally removed are they from the relations of contiguity, cause and effect, or contrast. But as causes of similar feelings, or states of mind, the conceptions of them have coexisted in the mind, in connection with such states ; and this, I believe, is the only reason that can be assigned why the contemplation of one suggests the other. " Milton's account of the fight of Abdiel and Satan may present a striking illustration of the principle under consid- eration ; " So saying, a noble stroke he lifted high, Which hung not, but so swift with tempest fell Ou the proud crest of Satan, that no sight, Nor motion of swift thought, less could his shield, Such ruin intercept. Ten paces huge He back recoiled ; the tenth on bended knee His massy spear upstayed ; as if on earth Winds under ground, or waters forcing way, Sidelong had pushed a mountain from hia seat, Half sunk with all his pines." " Now, why did the conception of Satan, thus smitten down, suggest to the mind of Milton that of a mountain pushed from his seat ? The only answer that can be given is, that the contemplation of each induces similar feelings or states of mind. So of all the phenomena of association falling under the relation of analogy. Suppose, further, that an individual relates to a nuinber of men some incidents of ' a sublime, beautiful, heroic, horrid, or ludicrous character. How happens it that each hearer instantly recollects almost every incident of a similar character which he has ever met 326 ANALYTIC VIEW OP MAN. with ? These incidents resemble each other in one partic- ular only, and sustain no other relation to each other than this : they have, as objects of perception or contemplation, existed in the mind as causes of similar feelings to those awakened by the incident under consideration. The hypo- thesis before us is the only one conceivable which accounts for such phenomena. 2. " Plienomena of Dreaming. — The phenomena of dreaming can readily be accounted for on this hypothesis, and, as I conceive, upon no other. In consequence of peculiar attitudes of the body, or states of the physical or mental systfem, certain feelings are awakened in the mind. Those objects of thought or perception which have formerly coex- isted with similar feelings are consequently suggested ; and these are judged to be the causes of existing feelings. A sick man, for example, with a bottle of hot water at his feet, dreamed that he was walking upon the crater of -^tna, and that this was the cause of the burning sensation which he felt. He had formerly felt similar sensations when walk- ing upon the craterof Vesuvius, and had just been reading of a traveler's walking upon the crater of ^tna. These facts fully account for his dream. In a similar manner, all the phenomena of dreaming may be accounted for. Can they be accounted for by the common laws of Association ? I answer, No. 3. "■Phenomena of Somnambulism,. — Some of the pheno- mena of somnambulism here deserve an attentive considerar tion. It is well known that sonmambulists frequently pass from a state of wakefulness to tliat of sleep, and viee versa, very suddenly ; and that in each change there is an entire oblivion of what passed m the preceding state, while the train of thought, or the employment left, when passing from the present state, is, on returning to that state, instantly re- sumed at the very point where it was left. Sentences left half finished, when passing out of one state, are completed as soon as the individual enters upon the game state again. How manifest, from such phenomena, is the fact, that the universal la^ of Suggestion is based upon similarity of states of feelings ! 4. " Facts connected with particular "Diseases. — There are many facts connected with particular diseases which more fully confirm and illustrate the principle whiish I am en- ANALYTIC VIEW OF MAN, 327 deavoring to establish. Take, as a specimen, the two fol- lowing cases stated by Dr. Abercrombie in his Intellectual Philosophy. I give them in the words^of the author. " ' Another very remarkable modification of this affection is referred to by Mr. Combe, as described by Major Elliot, Professor of Mathematics in the United States Military Academy at West-Point. The patient was a young lady of cultivated mind, and the affection began with an attack of somnolency, which was protracted several hours beyond the usual time. When she came out of it, she was found to have lost every kind of acquired knowledge. She immedi- ately began to apply herself to the first elements of educa- tion, and was making considerable progress, when, after several months, she was seized with a second fit of somno- lency. She was now at once restored to all the knowledge which she possessed before the first attack, but without the least recollection of any thing that had taken place during the interval. After another interval she had a third attack of somnolency, which left her in the same state as after the first. In this manner she suffered these alternate conditions for a period of four years, with the very remarkable circum- stance that during the one state she retained all her original knowledge ; but dui-ing the other, that only which she had acquired since the first attack. During the healthy interval, for example, she was remarkable for the beauty of her pen- manship, but during the paroxysm wrote a poor, awkward hand. Persons introduced to her during the paroxysm she recognized only in a subsequent paroxysm, but not in the in- terval ; and persons whom she had seen for the first time dui-ing the healthy interval, she did not recognize during the attack.' " ' Dr. Prichard mentions a lady who was liable to sudden attacks of delirium, which, after continuing for various pe- riods, went off suddenly, leaving her at once perfectly ra- tional. The attack was often so sudden that it conameneed while she was engaged in interesting conversation, and on such occasions it happened, that on her recovery from the state of delirium she instantly recurred to the conversation she had been engaged in at the time of the attack, though she never referred to it during the continuance of the affec- tion. To such a degree was this carried, that she would even complete an unfinished sentence. During the subse- 828 ANALYTIC VIEW OF MAN. quent paroxysm, again she would pursue the train of ideas which had occupied her mind in the former. Mr. Comhe also mentions a porter, wha in a state of intoxication left a parcel at a wrong house, and when sober could not recollect what he had done with it. But the next time he got drunk he recollected where he left it, and went and recovered it. " Here are manifest and striking facts of Association. On the commonly received laws of the associating principle, they can not be explained at all. On the hypothesis under consideration, however, they admit of a most ready expla- nation. How can they be explained on any other hypoth- esis? " I will adduce another fact taken from the same author : ' A case has been related to me of a boy, who at the age of four received a fracture of the skull, for which he underwent the operation of trepan. He was at the time in a state of perfect stupor, and after his recovery retained no recollec- tion either of the accident or the operation. At the age of fifteen, during the delirium of a fever, he gave his mother a correct description of the operation and the persons who were present at it, with their dress, and other minute par- ticulars. He had never been o"bserved to allude to it before, and no means were known by which he could have acquired the circumstances which he mentioned.' " But one explanation can be given of such a remarkable fact. During the interval between the surgical operation and the sickness referred to, the feelings existing in connec- tion with the operation had never been revived, and from the peculiarity of the feelings could not have been. During this sickness, in consequence of the action of the fever upon the brain and skull, these feelings were revived. The con- sequence was, that the circumstances attending their exist- ence were recalled. No other hypothesis can explain such facts. 5. " Tliis Sypothesis established and illustrated^ hy reflect- ing upon the facts of Association. — Every true explanation of the facts of Consciousness wiU, as soon as it is understood, be confirmed in the conviction of every one who understands it, as he subsequently reflects on what passes in the interior of his own mind. This is in a special manner true of the hypothesis under consideration. Every person who under- stands it, subsequently finds its truth confirmed and illustra- AKALYTIC VIEW OF MAN. 329 ted by his own reflections upon the facts of Association, as they fall under the eye of his Consciousness. Aegtjment summaeilt stated. " The argument in support of the principle of Association, under consideration, may be summarily stated in the follow- ing propositions : , 1. "It is known to exist as a law of Association, in certain cases, in all instances of Association founded on the rela- tions of analogy. No other reason can be assigned why the conception of a hero, for example, suggests that of the lion, but the fact that they have coexisted with similar feel- ings, and as causes of such feelings. 2. " All the phenomena, explicable by the commonly re- ceived laws of Association, admit of an equally ready and consistent explanation, upon the hypothesis before us. 3. "All other phenomena, which can not be explained by the commonly received laws, admit also of a ready explana- tion, when referred to the above hypothesis. ' 4. " No other^hypothesis yet known explains all the phe- nomena of Association, " We are at liberty then to assume, that the hypothesis with which we stal-ted ceases to be an hypothesis. It may be regarded as the law of Association. ExPLANATOET ReMAEKS. "To understand fully the operation of the associating principle, two circumstances pertaining to it demand special attention. ^ " The first is the fact, that when a deep impression has been made upon the mind by any thought or perception, the feeling excited may not only be revived by some subse- quent thought or perception, but those feelings may af- terward recur spontaneousij/, without any other apparent cause than the well-known mental tendency to return to states in which our minds have previously existed. " When we have listened to an enchanting musical performance, for example, who has not, months subsequent to the event, felt in the depths of the inner being the spontaneous movements of the chords of melody, which were so powerfully swept on the occasion referred to, and which at once bring the whole 330 ANALYTIC VIEW OF MAN, past scene into distinct remembrance? The law of Asso- ciation is this : When any feeling which has coexisted •with any past intellectual state i* revived, whether that revival is spontaneous or is occasioned by some present thought or perception, that state will recur again, as the consequence of the revival of this feeling. " The second remark is this : The feeling which has co- existed with any former intellectual state, need not be whol- ly but only partially revived, in order to occasion the re- currence of that state. Let some present occurrence pro- duce feelings of joy, wonder, surprise, or regret, for exam- ple. Should any subsequent event excite these feelings in only a very slight degree, the former occuiTence would thereby be suggested. This is the universal characteristic of the action of the principle of Association, Reason why Djffeebnt Objects excite Similae FbeI/- iNGS IN CUE Minds. " The law of Association has been stated and illustrated. We are now prepared for another important inquiry, to wit : On what principle is it that different objects, or rather thoughts and perceptions, excite similar feelings in our minds, and thu,s mutually suggest each other? The following maybe specified as the most important reasons why difierent objects excite such feelings : 1. "In consequence of natural resemblance between the ob- jects themselves. That objects naturally alike should excite similar feelings, is a necessary consequence of personal iden- tity. Such objects do not suggest one another because they are alike, but because being alike, they excite similar feel- ings. The principle of association in such instances, is the same as in all others, 2. " Objects excite similar feelings, and thus mutually sug- gest each other, in consequence of similarity of relation to the original principles of our nature, Sweetness, beauty, and hai'mony, as mere objects of sense, are totally- unlike. But they may and do sustain such a relation to the original prin- ciples of our nature, as to induce similar states of mind. Consequently, the perception of one may suggest that of the other. Thus the origin of a figurative language, such as sweet or beautiful sounds, admits of a ready explanation. Also the sublime comparisons of poetry arid oratory, found- ANALYTIC VIEW OF MAN. 831 ed on tbe relations of analogy. An Indian orator, speaking of the American Revolution, said : ' That it was like the whirlwind, which tears tip the -trees, and tosses to and fro the leaves, till we can not tell from whence they came,, or whither they will fall. At length the Great Spirit spoke to the whirlwind, and it was still.' Says another whose age nmnbered more than one hundred years : ' I am the aged hemlock. The winds of an hundred winters have whistled through my branches, and I am dead at the top.' ' And I beard,' says the sacred writer, ' as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and the voice of mighty thunderings, saying : Hallelujah ; for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.' Milton, speaking of the breaking up of the council of Pandemonium, says : ' Their rising all at once, was aa the sound Of thunder heard remote.' An aged soldier, in one of the tragedies, says of himself: ' For I have fought when few alive remained, And none unscathed ; when but few remained,. Thus marred and mangled — as belike you've seen 0' summer's night, around the evening lamp. Some scorched moths, wingless, and half consumed. Just feebly crawling o'er then: heaps of dead.' " How different, as rnere objects of sense, are all the things compared together in the above quotations ! But sustain- ing a common relation to the original laws of the mind, they induce similar feelings or states of mind. Consequently, the apprehension of one suggests that of the other. 3. " Objects coexist with, and excite similar feelings, in consequence of a perceived relation between the ohjects them- selves / such, for example, as the relations of cause and ef- fect — parent and child, etc. Why it is that the feelings ex- cited by one of these object are transferred to the other as soon as the relation between them is perceived, we can not tell. All that we can say is, that such is the constitution of onr minds, that when two objects are known to sustain such relations to each other, they will in all ordinary circum- stances, excite similar feelings, and the idea of one will, consequently, suggest that of the-other. 4. " Objects coexist with similar feelings in consequence of mere accidental association. When the mind has been 332 _ ANALYTIC VIEW OF MAN. brought, from any cause whatever, into any particular state, the accidental perception of any object, or suggestion of any thought, however foreign to the cause of the present state, will so modify that state, that the new object will ever after sustain an entirely new relation to the sensibility of our nature. To the present state of the mind, thus modified, it sustains the relation of a cause. Consequently, its subse- quent presence as an object of perception, or of conception, will excite, in a greater or less degree, that state, and will of course recall the objects which formei'ly coexisted with the same state. Thus the same object may, at different periods of our lives, be associated with entirely different and even opposite states of mind, and states of mind totally different from what they are naturally adapted to produce. Thus of course they may and will recall entirely different objects to our remembrance. In naany instances, we find it wholly im- possible to account for the change which has taken place in the effect of particular objects upon our sensibility, and con- sequently upon our trains of association ; so gradual and ac- cidental has been the transfer of the objects from one state of feeling to another. Application of the Peinciples above illtjsteated. " The law of Association which has been confirmed and illustrated, has many and very important applications. To a few of these, special attention is invited, as we conclude the present chapter. GEOinsrD op the Mistake of Philosophees in eespect TO THE Laws of Association'. " We are now prepared to state distinctly the ground of the mistake of philosophers, pertaining to the laws of Asso- ciation. In this manner, they have overlooked the fact, that objects suggest each other, only on the ground of a com- mon impression made by each upon the mind, and that the relations existing between them present the reason why they make a common impression, instead of revealing laws of the associating principle. Philosophers have noticed the fact, that some objects are associated on the exclusive ground of a common impression. Yet they have singular- ly overlooked the universal law of Association revealed in that fact. 'Things,' says Mr. Stewart, 'which have no ANALYTIC VIEW OF MAN. 333 known relation to each other, are often associated, in conse^ quence of their producing similar effects on the mind. Some of the finest poetical allusions are founded on this prin- ciple ; and, accordingly, if the reader is not possessed of sensibility congenial to that of the poet, he will be apt to over- look their meaning or censure them as absurd.' Now, had the question suggested itself to this philosopher : Is not this Ihe condition and ground of aU Association of every kind, and do not objects sustaining to each other the relations of resemblance, contiguity in time and place, contrast, cause and effect, and analogy, mutually suggest each other, because, that being thus related, they produce a common impression ? he would have perceived at once, that his mind had dropped down upon the universal law of Association. AcTioK OF THE Associating Principle in Different Individuals. • " "We are all familiar with the fact, that the action of the associating principle is very different in different individuals. This is evidently owing to two circumstances. — natural tem- perament and the diverse pursuits of individuals — one thereby being more deeply interested in and consequently more deeply impressed with different objects, and with dif- ferent elements of the same object, than another. Let any number' of individuals of diverse temperaments, for example, contemplate the same painting, each will be more forcibly impressed with those features of it particularly correlative to his own peculiarities of natural temperament. Hence the corresponding diversity of the action of the associating prin- ciple in such cases. So with a gentleman on a tour of ob- servation, a merchant engaged in the purchase and sale of grain, and a farmer seeking a location for his family, in looking over the same plantation. Each will contemplate it in the light of the leading idea in his own mind. A corre- sponding diversity will of course exist in the impressions received, and in the consequent action of the associating principle. Influence of Ha^it. " That actions and trains of thought, to which we have been long familiar, are performed and carried on by us with a degree of ease and exactness perfectly unaccountable to a 334 ANALYTIC VIEW OF MATT. new beginner, is obvious to every one. In respect to the ease and exactness with which trains of physical actions to which we have become habituated are repeated, two reasons may be assigned. " The first is, a certain conformation of the physical or- ganization, so that, as soon as the train is commenced, the action of the muscles in obedience to the will is spontaneous arid necessary in a given order of action. " The second is, the fact that all the actions imder con- sideration have become indissolubly associated with the same state of mind. Of course, as soon as that stat& is produced, those actions are spontaneously suggested in their proper order. ^ " The same remarks are equally applicable to trains of thought to which we have become habituated. When the mind has often existed in a certain state, there is, as shown above, a strong tendency, spontaneously or on the slightest impression, to recur to that state again. The train of thougtt having become associated witb this state, is of course pur- sued with precision and facility. Stastdaeds of Taste and Fashion. " ' A mode of dress,' says Dugald Stewart, ' which at first appears awkward, acquires in a few weeks or months the appearance of elegance. By being accustomed to see it worn by others whom we consider as models of taste, it becomes associated with the agreeable impressions which we receive from the ease, and grace, and refinement of their maijners.' Thus the pronunciation common to the higher classes in Edinburgh, while it remained the capital of Scot- land, and which was then regarded as the standard of purity in diction, has now become barbarous, in consequence of the removal of the capital to London. Vicissitudes in eespect to such Standards. " Every one is familiar with the perpetual vicissitudes in dress, and every thing the chief recommendation of which is fashion. The remarks of Mr. Stewart on this point also are so much to the purpose, and so well expressed, that I will venture another citation from him : ' It is evident that, as far as the agreeable efiect of ornament arises from associa- ANALYTIC VIEW OF MAN. 835 tioii, the effect will continue only while it is confined to the higher orders. When it is adopted by the multitude, it not-** only ceases to be associated with ideas of taste and refine- ment, but it is associated with ideas of afiectation, absurd imitation, and vulgarity. It is accordingly laid aside by the higher orders, who studiously avoid every circumstance in external appearance which is debased by low and common use ; and they are led to exercise their invention in the in- troduction of some new peculiarities, which first become fashionable, then common, and last of all are abandoned as vulgar.' There is one circumstance which Mr. Stewart has not mentioned, which has perhaps quite as much influence in inducing these vicissitudes as that presented above. ' The higher classes' are pleased with revolutions in society which are visibly produced by themselves, and which do not di- minish, but increase and render manifest, to themselves and the world, their own controlling influence. In the perpetual vicissitudes of costume, proceeding from and controlled by themselves, they are continually manifested to themselves as the ' glass of fashion and the mould of form.' Thus a continued gratification of the love of power is enjoyed, a motive not the most commendable, to be sure, but yet quite as real as that above presented." Pbcitliaeities of Genius associated with Judgment, OE CoEBECT Taste. " We are now able to state distinctly the peculiarities of true genius, when associated with good Judgment. It con- sists in distinguishing those things which please simply in consequence of accidental associations, like those above re- ferred to, from those which are correlated to the original and • changeless principles of our nature, and in thus shadowing forth the real and permanent forms of beauty, sublimity, and fitness. Those forms of thought which stand. correlated to the current opinions of the day, may have a wide-spread, ephemeral popularity, after- which they sink to a silent or dishonored grave and a long oblivion. The productions of true genius, associated with good taste, on the other hand, Avill please as long as human nature remains what it is. 336 ANALYTIC VIEW OF MAN. jIlfFHIENCE OP WeITEES ASTD SpEAKEES OB' SPLENDID Genius but ikcoeeect Taste. " It is -well known that very strong'conceptive and imagi- native faculties (the peculiarities of true genius) sometimes exist in the absence of a -well-balanced Judgment, and con- sequently good taste. The productions of such individuals ■will be characterized by surpassing excellencies and glaring defects. Tet the mass of their admirers will in time become as weU pleased with the latter as with the former, and the defects will be more frequently copied by imitators, perhaps, than the excellencies. The reason is this : The defects come, to be associated with the feelings of interest and delight which the excellencies excite. The former are thus em- balmed and consecrated by the latter. Every individual who would preserve his taste unvitiated, should be, in a special sense, on his guard under such circumstances. Dangee of vicious Association. Great genius and great vices, polished manners and cor- rupt morals, and productions the most finished in respect to style and imagery, and the most foul in respect to sentiment, are not unfrequently associated among men. The imminent peril of intercommunication with such minds and with such productions, is manifest in the light of the law of Associa- tion above illustrated. The feelings of sublimity, beauty, and delight, awakened by the contemplation of great minds, polished manners and style, with the loss of virtue and vir- tuous principles. That " which can not be gotten for gold," and for " which silver can not be weighed as the price there- of," in comparison with which " no mention shall be made of coral or of pearls, and the price of which is above rubies," has been exchanged for that which might have been attained in much higher perfection without this irreparable loss ; hut which may exist in connection with the foulest morals and an equal preeminence ia guUt. Uneighteous Peejudices, how justified. Every individual is famUiar with the fact, that persons and classes of men, placed in circumstances degrading in public estimation, often become the victims of cruel 'and un- ANALYTIC VIEW OF MAN. 337 righteous prejudice. Some circumstance, aside from con^ dition, is fastened upon as the cause of this feeling, which is justified on the assumption that it is natural, and therefore necessary, designed and sanctioned by Providence. Feelings connected with individuals by accidental association, are as- sumed as resulting from the original constitution of our na- ture, and are justified on that assumption. • Giving Individuals a bad Name, spehading false Re- ports, ETC. " It is frequently asserted as a proverb, that the evils re- sulting from giving persons a bad name, and spreading false reports respecting them, wiH ere long correct and more than correct themselves, in consequence of a reaction of pub- lic feeling, as the truth comes to be known. This would be true, were men disposed to render impartial justice in aU instances. But this is far from being the case. Preeminent virtues and endowments, together with a commanding influ- ence, may often, under such circumstances,, occasion a reac- tion of public feeling which will perfectly overwhelm the author's of the mischief. The standing of the mass of man- kind, however, is not such as to occasion such reaction, even when the wrong done comes to be known. Hence it often happens that the feelings first awakened come to be per- manently, to a greater or less degree, associated with them in the public mind. If this is not so, no thanks are due to those who first set the Ipall rolling. Ineluence op the associating Peinciple in peepetuat- iNG existing mental Chaeacteeistics. " 'To the pure," says the Sacred Writer, "all things are pure ; but to the corrupt and unbelieving, there is nothing pure." In other words, a mind truly pure comes to be so correlated to objects in respect to not only the action of the voluntary power, but also in respect to the Sensibility and Intelligence, that all things awaken thoughts and feelings tending to perpetuate and increase that purity. The same is true with the vicious. Every object of thought and per- ception is brought into such a relation to their minds, as to generate thoughts and feelings which tend only to develop and confirm existing tendencies to corruption. This law of 15 <, 338 ANALYTIC VIEW OF MAK. self-perpetuation which virtue and vice respectively possess, is found in the associating principle. In a mind which has lon^ been the cage of impure thoughts and feeliugs, those feelmgs at last come to be associated with all objects of thought, and thus the entire current of thought and feeling is turned into an impure channel. " There are no* limits to the application of the associating principle, as above illustrated. Its importance in mental science will be appreciated as it is understood in its endless- ly diversified applications. Memory and Recollection — Terms deeined. " Memory and Recollection are treated by philosophers only as important departments of the principle of Associa- tion. This, as we shall see,, is demanded by sound philoso- phical analysis. The two terms above named are often used interchangeably, and never distinguished but by the follow- ing circumstances. In the process denominated Memory, notions, or conceptions of facts and events, are spontaneous- ly recalled to the Mind. In that called Recollection, these intellectual states are recalled by an efibrt of will. States op Mind entering into and connected with THESE Processes. • " There are three distinct mental operations connected with each of these processes of Mind. ■ 1. " Some feeling or state of mind which has formerly co- existed with the perception or apprehension of the object recalled — a feeling or state spontaneously recurring, or re- vived by some object of present thought, percejition, or sen- sation. 2. " A simple apprehension of the object or event itself — an apprehension attended with no belief or judgment what- ever pertaining to the object. 3. "A recurrence, in thought, of the circumstances of time and place connected with the perception or apprehen- sion of the object. The above statement verified. " That objects of Memory and Recollection are not re- called directly and immediately, but are suggested in the manner above described, is. obvious fi'omtwo considerations. ANALYTIC VIEW OF MAN. 339 1. " From universal Consciousness. Those who are least accustomed to analyze the operations of their own minds, as well as philosophers, have noticed this fact. Hence the com- mon affirmations : ' This reminds me of,' or ' This suggests to my mind such and such occurrences,' clearly showing, not merely that such events are suggested, but that the subjects of them are conscious of it. 2. " When we wish to recollect any events, or in the com- mon ptrase, to recall them, we do not attempt to do this di- rectly, but by directing the attention to various objects, at present before the Mina, that they may suggest those which we wish to recall. Memory and Recollection are, in this respect, subject to precisely the same law, and the law which governs each is the same which governs the entire phenomena of Association. The above remark is so obvi- ously true, that philosophers, as stated above, almost univer- sally treat of these subjects in the same connection, Memory being considered only as one department of Association. Peinciple on which Objects ake eemesibeeed with Ease and DiSTiNCiiirBSS. "Taking this position for granted, or as having been al- ready proved, it will follow, as a necessary consequence, that the ease and distinctness with which any objects or events will be recalled to the Mind, will always be propor- tioned to the depth and intensity of the impressions former- ly received from them, and with the number of objects and events with which such impressions have heretofore coexist- ed, or may hereafter coexist. This conclusion we also find to be confirmed by universal experience. When you hear the declaration, ' Such and such events I shall never forget,' suppose you ask the reason for such an affirmation. The an- swer will invariably be : 'It made such a deep impression upon my Mind.' On the other hand, if a person is asked for the reason why he recalls with such difficulty any par- ticular event, he will uniformly answer : ' It made such a feeble impression upon my Mind.' Assuming that the state of the Sensibilitjr is the regulating principle of suggestion, the fact is self-evident, that the ease with which any partic- ular event will be recalled, depends not only upon the depth and intensity of the impression ■ which it formerly 340 ANALYTIC VIEW OF MAN. made, but upon the number of objects or events with -which such impressions may have coexisted, and shall hereafter co- exist. Deep and Distinct Impeessions — ok vthat conditioned. " One inquiry, of no small importance in mental science, here claims our attention, to wit : the circumstances under which impressions received from objects of thought or per- ception are rendered deep and distinct. Among thesq, I no- tice the three following, as the most important : 1. "Attention. In former chapters it has been shown that attention is the condition of distinct perception, both in respect to the phenomena of Sense and Consciousness. In walking, for example, we do not remember the particular acts of volition, which directed each particular step.. Yet we know that we must have been conscious of such acts. The eye runs carelessly over a particular landscape, and nothing but the most general outline is remembered, while we know that each particular part must have been seen by us. For the want of attention, however, these objects were not distinctly perceived. Of course no distinct and vivid impression was made upon the Mind, and consequently they are not remembered. The manner in which attention irrflu- ences Memory is twofold. It not only impresses deeply and distinctly on the Mind particular scenes, each taken as a whole, but all the parts of such scenes. Hence the whole of such scenes wiU be recalled by the perception or sugges- tion of any particular part which may be met with in other scenes. That Memory, however, does not depend primari- ly upon attention, but on the impression made by an object of attention, is evident from the fact, that the ease with which any particular event is recalled, is not proportioned to the degree of attention devoted to it, but to the vividness of the impression received from it. 2. " The impressions made upon the mind by a particular event, and consequently the ease with which it will be re- membered, depend upon the circwnstances in which the event occurred — circumstances external to the Mind — such, for example, as its occurrence at a time or place unexpected, in connection with other events deeply interesting to us, etc. 3. " The impression which events make upon the mind de- ANALYTIC VIEW OF MAN. 341 pends upon the state of the Mind itself, when they occur. Offices of kindness, when we little need them, make a com- paratively slight impression upon the Mind*. They are ac- cordingly forgotten with comparative ease. But the stranger- who watched over us when we were sick in a strange land we never forget, for the obvious reason that such occurrences are deeply impressed upon the Mind. Who is not aware that the impression made upon the Mind in reading a book, listening to a discourse, or witnessing any scene, and conse- quently the ease and distinctness with which they are re- called, depends greatly upon the state of the Mind at the time ? DiTEESiTT OP Powers of Memoet, as developed in DIPEEEENT InDIVIDTJALS. " Assuming the principle, that those things of which we have formed distinct conceptions, and which have deeply moved and affected our Sensibility, will be easily and dis- tinctly remembered, the diverse kinds of Memory, as they appear in diJQferent individuals, may be readily explained. Philosophic Memoet. ." The philosopher is, above all things, interested in uni- versal truths and general principles, and in facts which illus- trate such truths and principles. With names, and minor circumstances of time and place, he has little or no interest. These, of course, he seldom recalls ; while general principles he never forgets. Here we have the peculiarities of what may be called Philosophical Memory. LocAi Memoet. " With general principles, however, the mass of men are very little interested. Events, as mere events, with all their circumstances of time, place, etc.f are the things which chiefly interest thejn. In such cases, general principles, if under- stood at all, will readily pass from the Mind, while facts and events, with all their adventitious circumstances, will leave their permanent impress upon it. Here we have the char- acteristics of what is called Local Memory. Aetietcial Memoet. "The third and only other kind of Memory which it is neces- sary to notice, is called Artificial Memory, a method of con- 342 ANALYTIC VIEW OF MAK. necting things easily remembered witli those which are re- called with greater difficulty, that the latter may be recalled by means of the fonner. The maimer in which the principle of suggestion operates in this instance may be readily ex- plained. The two objects are brought into the relation of coexistence with one and the same state of Mind ; and the familiar object, by exciting that state, recalls the one less fa- miliar. The inexpediency of resorting to such associations, except upon trivial subjects, is so obvious as not to need any particular remarks. Miscellaneous Topics. " A few topics of a somewhat miscellaneous character, connected with our present inquiries, will close this chapter. A Ready and Retentitb Memokt. " The distinction between what is called a Ready and Re- tentive Memory next demands attention. A philosophic Memory is known to be the most attentive and least ready. General principles are regarded by the philosopher as above all price. Thesfe, of course, he never forgets. For the same reason, facts and events connected with and illustrative of general principles, leave an impress equally permanent upon the Mind. The Memory of such a person, however, will not, in ordinary circumstances, be ready, for the obvious rea- son that when he wishes to recall any particular fact he finds it necessary first to recall the general principle with which it was associated. For the same reason, Local Memory will be more ready but less retentive. The qualities in objects with which such persons are interested exist alike in such an infinite variety of^ objects, that when this quality is met with a great multitude of similar objects will at once be suggest- ed. They will generally be those, however, which have been most recently seen. Persons possessing Local Memory mere- ly will excel in common cory^ersation, and in what may be called loose and rambling composition. Philosophical Mem- ory displays itself in the laboratory, the hall of science, on the bench, in the lecture-room and pulpit. The Vast axd Diverse Powee of Memoet possessed by diepeeent individuals. . " The degree in which this faculty is developed in differ- ent individuals may now be readily accounted for. It is ANALYTIC VIEW OF MAN. 343 owing, as I suppose, to two ciroumstanoes — natural diversi- ties, in which the power is possessed by different individ- uals — and an accidental direction of the power. Themis- toeles knew every citizen of Athens by name. Cyrus and Hannibal had each a similar knowledge of every soldier in his respective army. Their original endowments made them capable of such acquisitions. They made such acqui- sitions because they considered them necessary to the end they designed to accomplish. Impeovbment of Memoet. " But for the faculty under consideration, the past would be to us as if it had not been. No advantages could be de- rived from experience of our own or that of others. Exist- ence, at each successive moment, must be commenced anew. The same errors and follies which formerly occurred must be repeated, without the possibility of improvement. Through this faculty the past furnishes the chart and the compass for the - future. The progress of improvement is onward, with per- petually accumulating force. The question, therefore : How can this faculty be improved ? presents itself as of special importance. The following suggestions may not be out of place on this point : 1. "The first thing to be kept distinctly in mind, in all plans for the improvement of Memory, is the principle on which its ready and retentive action depends, to wit, deep and distinct impression. All our plans for the accom- plishment of the object under consideration should be formed with direct reference to this one principle. 2. " As impressions depend very much upon distinctness of conception, in all efforts to improve this faculty we should habituate ourselves to form distinct conceptions of objects, especially of those we wish to recollect. In this manner the impression will not only be deep and permanent, but the notion associated with it being distinct, will, when recalled, possess a corresponding distinctness. 3. " In thought the object should be located in distinct relation to the circumstances of tim,e and place with which it is associated. In this manner the impression and concep- tion both will not only be rendered deep and distinct, but each circumstance referred to, as it occurs in connection with other thoughts and perceptions, will, by exciting the 344 AJTALTTIC VIEW OF MAT?. feelings under consideration, recall the object associated ■with it. 4. "Knowledge, in order to be retained permanently, must be systemaMzed and reduced to general permanent prin- ciples. Otherwise, it will be exclusively subject to the law of local Association, which is so temporary in respect to re- tention. 6. "To converse with others, and write down our thoughts which we wish to retain, contributes to permanency and distinctness of recollection. Knowledge "by this means is rendered distinct, the corresponding impression deep and permanent, and the whole subject of thought most likely to be systematically arranged. All these circumstances tend to render Memoiy distinct and permanent. 6. "Memory also, to be improved, must be trusted, but at the same time not overburdened, as is the case when eveiy thing is committed to it without the aid of a judicious diary of important thoughts and occurrences. That faculty which is not exercised will not be developed and improved. Mem- ory is not exempt from this law. At the same time, to overburden a faculty is a sure way to palsy its energies. Nothing but Reflection and Judgment, properly exercised, can fix upon the line where memory should and should not be trusted, without the aid of written records of our thoughts, and thus secure a proper development of this faculty. Memoet of the Aged. " One of the first indications of the approaching feebleness of age is the failure, in a great or less degree, of the power of Memory. A characteristic precisely the opposite is also presented in the experience of aged persons — a wonderful revival of the Memory of the occurrences of early life. A lady of my acquaintance, for example, aged about ninety years, had occasion to amuse some of her gi-eat-grandchildren one day. She thought she would, as a means to this end, relate to them the substance of a story, related in verse, whicTi she had read when quite young. She had never com- mitted it to memory, and doubtless had thought little of it for more than, half a century. As she commenced the story, the entire j)oem came fresh to her recollection. She could re- peat it all, word for word. These two facts in the expe- rience of the aged — ^the failure, on the one hand, and the ASTALYTIO VIEW OF MAK. 345 * wonderful revival -of this povrer, on the other, need to be accounted for. " In respect to the first class of phenomena, two reasons may be assigned for their existence : 1. "The failure of the faculty of perception and attention. As a consequence, distinct notions are not formed of objects of present thought and perception, nor do they affect the Mind as they formerly did. For these reasons, the peculiar feelings which have coexisted with former thoughts and perceptions, and would, if revived, suggest them, are not re- vived. 2. "In the failing of the perceptive faculty, tliere is a cor- responding change in the correlation of the Sensibility to ob- jects of thought and perception. Hence the same feelings precisely are not now excited by objects of thought and perception as formerly, and consequently former intellectual states are not reproduced. "In respect to the second class, I would remark tha every one is aware that, amid the hm-rying scenes of ordi- nary life, such crowds of associations rush upon the mind, at one and the same time, that no one entire scene of the past is often distinctly recalled. On the other hand, when we are in a state of temporary isolation from the varying tide of events which is floating by and around us, then is the time when our recollections of the past become full and distinct. ISTow the aged are in a state of isolation of a more permanent character. Hence, when a past scene is recalled, the Mind is in a state of comparative freedom from all diverting and distracting associations. Consequently the scene, in its entireness, is brought into full and distinct re- membrance. DUEATIOK OF MeMOET. " If the law of Association, illustrated in the preceding chapter be admitted as true, it will follow, as a matter of course, that Memory is absolutely indestructible. Thought can never perish. If the impression with which any thought has coexisted should, at any period, however remote, be in any form revived, the thought itself may be recalled. If any element of a given impression be reproduced, no reason can be assigned why a thought which coexisted with it, myriads of ages ago, should not thereby be recalled, as well as the one which coexisted with it but yesterday. 15* 346 . ANALYTIC VIEW OF MAN. " Numberless facts also, which lie around us in society,* fully confirm the principle under consideration as a law of Memory. The case of the aged lady referred to above pre- sents a fact of the kind. The most striking one that now recurs to my recollection is given by Coleridge. It is the case of a German girl, who had always labored as a domes- tic. While Coleridge was on a visit to Germany, and in the vicinity of her residence, she sickened, and, if I mistake not, died. During her sickness she began to utter sentences in languages unknown to all her attendants. Learned men, from a neighboring university, were called in. It was then found that she was reciting, with perfect correctness, entire passages from the Hebrew, Greek, Arabic, and Syriac Scrip- tures, and also from the writings of. the ancient Fathers. The occurrence was by many regarded as miraculous. A young physician in attendance, however, determined to trace out her past history, for the pui-pose of finding a clue to the mystery. He found at last that, when quite small, the young woman had lived in the family of an aged clergyman, of great learn- ing, who was in the daily habit of reading aloud in his study from the writings above referred to. As the child was at work in a room contiguous, she was accustomed to stop, from time to time, and listen to those strange sounds, the meaning of not one of which did she understand. There was the clue to the mystery. Those sounds were imperishably impressed upon the Memory. Hence their repetition, under the circumstances named. Cases of a similar nature might to any extent be adduced. They point. with solemn interest, to the nature of the immortal powers within, as well as to facts of portentous moment in the future development of those powers." This analytic view is here closed. Remaeks. It having been conclusively demonstrated, that the men- tal powers described in the foregoing analysis are all neces- sary to the first conscious thought of human existence, and adequate ,to the analysis of the Eternal Mind and the phe- nomena of Universe, they may be justly termed the Gamut of the human Mind, which is capable of ringing as many changes as the difierent states of development through which it may pass, and the difierent infiuences that maybe brought to bear upon it, from its first conscious existence throughout THE PATH OF HUMAN DUTY AND HAPPINESS. 347 eternal ages. The Rational Mind of Man, as an unfolding Germ of the Eternal Mind, is absolutely infinite in its Na- ture and Character, and limited by nothing but its state ot development, and those immutable Laws and Powers of Universe that have rolled it into conscious being-, and which innately sustain and guide its action. As the Eternal Mind of God is Omniform and Omnipresent in its laws and mani- fest phenomena, so is and will be the rational mind of man, to the extent of its knowledge and development. That which a man knows is forever present with him, and becomes a part and parcel of his own power and influence. How important then is the acquirement and right application of scientific knowledge to every individual and nation ! Having now demonstrated the Eternal Moving Cause, in his most exalted and defined Character, with the Constitu- tional Principles and immutable Laws of Universe, and pointed out to Man the unerring, ever-present, Universal Language of Cause and Efiect, by which every rational mind may hold direct correspondence with its Maker, pro- portionate to the Mind's developed scientific knowledge and understanding light, and opened up to him the way of Eternal Life, in a state of justification and innocence, through the scientific Religion of Universal Justice, and given him an analytic view of his own mind, sufficient to enable him to carry the same to a complete and illustrated scientific completion, it now remains as a closing duty to niore distinctly cite him to those fundamental elements of human progress and happiness to be found in what may be termed : The Path of Humais' Duty and Happiness. To pursue the mental path of human duty and happiness is, in effect, one and identical with the cultivation of scien- tific liberty. And Scientific Liberty is a tree, whose roots are mental development and education, whose trunk is the scientific and saving religion of Universal Justice, whose branches are philosophy, science, and the arts, whose leaves are the vir- tues of life, whose flowers yield the aroma of immortal 348 THE PATH OF HUMAK DUTY AND HAPPINESS. minds in adoration and thanks to God, and whose ripe fruit and perfection is Scientific Government. Amid the shady groves of scientific liberty, forever and exclusively, lies the true path of human duty and happiness. And that it is the wiU and first command of a Just and Benevolent God that his rational ofispring should pursue liberty and happiness, is just as self-evidently and distinctly written in the innate and intrinsic Constitution of eveiy ra- tional mind, by the immutable laws of its Creator, as it is therein written that he has conscious existence, and to breathe is a divine and natural right, the endowment of his Author. For one is as legibly and self-evidently written in the in- trinsic nature and constitution of man by that Omnipotent Power who gave him being, as is the other. It has been a question in the comparatively undeveloped minds of men, in the comparative absence of our Divine Pres- ence, under the dark vail of Ignorance where man first finds his being, why God, the Omnipotent and Benevolent Au- thor of Man and Universe, should create the Earth as it is, divided between trackless fields of snow, burning and dreary deserts of sand, watery wastes, interspersed with towering mountains, rolling hills, and fruitful plains. Why not make all to man one elysian field of happiness, love, and beauty, without a darkening shade ? . Such minds are like the delicate boy who prided himself upon his white countenance, and was highly pleased when taken to an artist for his portrait, but wanted it all made white. As there is no picture without a variety of shades in color, so there is no knowledge but by comparison, and no com- parison but by contrast and variety. You know intelligence by contrasting it with ignorance, light with darkness, peace and pleasure of mind by a contrast with discord and pain, white witti black, rough with smooth, and so on through the whole catalogue of £iowledge. And without knowledge there would be no conscious existence ; and by the same un- erring laws of universe, to be rational, you must from the finite and imperfect infer the Infinite and Perfect. But all is perfect in degree, and for the end, time, and purpose de- signed by the Creator is perfect. "As the progressing child while at his mother's breast is as perfect for his age THE PATH OP HUMAN DUTY AND HAPPINESS. 349 and time as when he is a man, and presides in halls of state." As we have before shown, in one respect man is unlike all other earthly beings ; he is finite in his present state and form of natural body, but infinite in the elementary nature of his Rational and Moral Faculties, seeking by the aspirations of his innermost mind, immortal life and honor with" the God of Universe; and finding no perfect and abid- ing comforter to these higher faculties only as he finds the sweet hope and assurance that he will some day triumph over all darteiess, trouble, and error, and reign with God in peace and love : and desii'ing with a just and noble self-re- spect to become in some way meritorious of his high and heavenly aspirations. For the unfolding and progression of the Being Man, with his most holy and exalted aspirations, is the earth wisely prepared and adapted, as she now rolls in the heavens. And with the harmonial pattern of his Creator in his works and universal language spread before him, it is for immortal man to discover and unfold himself, and with the suitable means at his command to have the honor and inestimable happiness of modifying and completing in endless progression the im- mortal fabric of his own mind. God does his part — ^he is quiet and free ; as each mind for itself now buUds a heaven or hell, so must it be. From the circumstance of man individually as in the spe- cies, beginning his existence in a state of perfect experi- mental ignorance he must as a matter of necessity commit many errors before he comprehends the universal language of Cause and Effect. And as the physical and organic laws of Nature are absolute, and take efiect upon all transgress- ors in proportion to the infringement of their immutable rules, without regard to the knowledge or ignorance of the transgressor ; there has, must, and will occur more or less suffering to every individual in his inexperienced and igno- rant state, as has been the case with the species. But every occurrence of the kind that takes place is a les- son of instruction, not only to the sufferer, but to all alike ignorant that become cognizant of the fact ; so that by the sufferings of one many may become wise. For the unavoid- able errors of ignorance we hold no one morally responsible ; but from the sufferings of man through ignorance and trails- 350 EDUCATION. gression without moral guilt, m Ms mental infant state mil arise in contrast a rich harvest of saving bliss found in obedi- ence to the unerring laws of divine Intelligence, Love, Jus- tice, and Wisdom. But the nation or individual that remains in ignorance or disobedience to our universal unerring divine laws — Intel- lectual, Moral, Physical, or Organic — must suffer in all and ev- ery department in the exact proportion to their willful neglect or guilty disobedience. And hence it is that a scientific ed- ucation that will unfold the Mind to a distinct comprehend- ing knowledge of itself, the immutable constitutional prin- ciples and laws of universe, and its appropriate relations thereto, is indispensable as an element of progress and un- interrupted permanent happiness to every individual and nation. As ignorance begets error, and errors bespeak men- tal weakness, and bring upon their perpetrators their inev- itable consequences by the immutable laws of Cause and Ef- fect, in suffering and misery, so every individual and nation may be said to be weak and miserable proportionate to their ignorance and disregard of the constitutional principles and laws of universe and their appropriate relations thereto. Education. By Education we mean that enlightened development of ' Mind that gives it a true and understanding knowledge of itself, its highest interest, relations, and duties, with a knowl- edge of things as they exist in their intrinsic Nature and Character, and their appropriate relations by the immutable laws of Cause and Effect. The monkey and parrot training of men to repeat actions and words in the darkness of faith and mystery, without the enlightenment of the judgment or undei'standing, so long palmed upon the human race for learning, by the deluded and sanctimonious priesthood of a demon god of darkness and lies, only serves to chain and enslave the mind with the vUest and most blasphemous superstitions, and deserves the universal detestation the of human race. The greatest curse of the world, is man's ignorance of himself, his highest interest, relations, and duties, as he stands connected with surrounding universe. From igno- EDUCATION. 351 ranee flows every error and its consequences. Were man un- derstandingly enlightened to a Imowledge of himself and his highest interest, as he finds himself iu connection with the institutions of universe, it is self-evident, he would ^s surely follow that interest as he is a rational being ; as we have before conclusively shown, that such is the intrinsic nature and constitution of rational mind that it could not do otherwise, from its own innate and universal love of hap- piness. What, then, can be of more importance than the universal development of rational mind in a scientific know- ledge of itself and the constitutional principles and ' laws of universe, and the appropriate relations existing between them ? As the child withholds his hand from the fire when he knows it will burn, so will man cease to violate the insti- tutions of his Creator when he knows they are self-vindicat- ing and immutably sure to inflict a punishment that will, in suifering, outweigh all the traijisitory pleasure or gain to be obtained by their infringement. To hold otherwise, is to hold man to the same extent, an irrational being, which very few men are willing to admit of themselves, whatever they may think of others. ■ Our demonstrated Character conclusively proves, that all our creations are of the most ample goodness. But man as a free agent in our exalted likeness, from being initiated into existence in a state of ignorance, through ignorance of him- self and his appropriate relations to the constitutional pi-in- ciples and laws of universe, creates temporary evil for him- self, proportionate to the perverted and untimely use he makes of his endowments and those things over which he holds controlling power and influence, llids is the exclusive origin of evil, and is to be remedied exclusively by an en- lightening education. Man to avoid evil, must become ac- quainted with himself, in connection with surrounding uni- verse, andunderstand those laws that regulate Cause and Effects In proportion as hci understands and obeys these laws, he es- capes those evils arising from their transgression, and- pro- portionately rises in the scale of mental progression and hap- piness ; gradually growing into the intelligence and perfections of the Almighty God who gave him being, through an innate development of that monad of our attributes which consti- tutes his rational mind. The immaculate character and im- mutability of our demonstrated Attributes are a surety to all 352 EDUCATION. rational minds, that as they attain to their equilibriate action and perfect government, for them all evil will cease to exist. The government of our attributes once permanently attained, is perfect, immutable, and eternal. While the evils that at- tend the infantile state of mind's development, pass away before the rising sun and light of Scientific Knowledge, as the darkness of a winter's night, before the rising orb of day. To all individuals in a state of ignorance, sufferings necessar- ily arising from their developing state, appear as evils ; but as the shades of contrast, by which their future joys appear, they are made a wise and lasting good ; from the constitu- tional necessity of man's not being able to know and enjoy any thing but by comparison. No person is responsible for the time and circumstances of his birth. He who begins with the smallest and dark estthread of conscious life, and, from unavoidable circumstances, wanders longest in the labyrinths of ignorance and error, will, as more he suffers, more enjoy the bright contrast experienced in his future and enlightened state. God is just ! and for all the suffering man does not bring upon himself through injustice or neg- lect, our immutable and all-wise laws provide the adequate reward beyond the reach of earthly power or envy's shafts. But man as a free, responsible agent, being endowed with a monad of our Eternal Attributes in a germinal or unfold- ing state, and also temporarily with an animal nature, that wholly seeks its selfish gratifications in earthly ambitioii, pride, wealth, and sensual pleasures, by an instinctive pro- clivity without regard to justice, can, if he will, make these earthly elements the niling powers of life, and pervert the exalted endowment of reason to pander to their gratification in antagonism to the rights of justice and benevolence ; thereby subverting the Divine Rights of Justice to the Su- preme Government of Mind, for that of brute instinct aided by reason perverted. So on his own conduct as a free re- sponsible agent depends his own happiness or misery. Evil is a penalty that follows the transgression of divine laws, both as an instructive admonition and punishment. The scientific and harmonious phenomena of planetary universe, and the exalted functions and aspirations of ration- al Mind, refer to the demonstrated Eternal Cause as the ex- clusive object and fountain, from which man is to derive that knowledge and practical wisdom by the universal Ian- EDUCATION. 353 guage of Cause and Effect, that will alone satisfy; the inher- ent cravings of his constitution for scientific and immortal happiness. As the light and heat of the sun refer .to, and prove their existing source and center, so mind's attriljutes in man, as an effect that can not be without adequate cause, refer to and prove that we are the demonstrated Eternal Author and Cause ; beyond which no mind can go, and to the at- tainment of whose immaculate perfections no mind should cease to aspire. Our demonstrated Attributes are sublimely supreme, and our ever-present plenipotent Ambassadors with all nations, powers, and individuals, that none may lack the official stand- ard of their own justification. A scientific knowledge and practical regard of our demon- strated Attributes is a guarantee omnipotent of our divine favor and protection to aU mankind, proportionate to their just merits by attainment through developing exertions. Scientific analysis and experience conclusively prove that as a nation or individual departs from the divine government of Universal Justice and Benevolence they depart from wis- dom, permanent prosperity, happiness, and the most exalted and true interest of man, and the favor of an Omnipotent, Jiist, and Benevolent God. As a flower unfolds itself to the sun, so in Justice, by a developing scientific knowledge, should Man spread forth the ennobling endowments of his Crdktor before the eternal Light of Mind. The rational mind of man being a monad of our divine Attributes, in a germinal or unfolding state, his greatest treasure and attainable happiness self-evidently lies in their development by educational exercise. How exalted the po- sition, how ennobling the liberty ! But how debasing the slavery, and what perversion of talent to submit to the un- just and tyrannical rule of a transient animal nature that passes away, but leaves its shackles upon the mind, in chains of habit, misery, shame, and disrepute. With the intelligent, it needs but a moment's reflection to see that the welfare of society and the world demands uni- versal education ; as the imbecility of individuals, through ignorance, becomes the weakness of a nation, so the univer- sal diffusion of scientific knowledge among its members be- 354 EDUCATION. comes its strength and glory. A single mind perverted, from an ignorance of its highest interest and duty to itself and community, may become a universal calamity. Therefore all have a direct interest in-mind's best enlightenment and di- rection. By a right education man is best enabled to promote the happiness of himself and -fellow-men, both here and here- after. And a right education is that which enlightens the mind to behold its highest interest in the strict performance of its duties to God, itself, and kindred minds, in harmony with the constitutional principles and laws of universe ; and this requires no sanctimonious mummeries of faith and mys- tery, but scientific knowledge. It is the scientific knowledge and understanding of things in their intriasic nature and character that justly constitutes learning ; and not the remembrance and rehearsal of words alone ; as a parrot imitates the words of its teacher, so have the Christian clergy for more than eighteen hundred yeai-s reechoed the lies and blasphemies of those impostors who wrote the Bible, without once having made a scientific ex- amination andr comparison between the Xame and Character of that Being they so devoutly pretended to worship. Such a course of conduct directly tends to retard and suppress the progress and happiness of the human race, rather than pro- mote it. Rational mind should not be crushed, but enlightened and exalted — not in the pride and vanity of an animal nature, but in an ennobling self-respect, that makes it feel itself an im- mortal monad of the eternal God, whose daily and hourly duty and interest it is to unfold the innate Attributes of its Creator, for the present and future good of itself and kindred minds. Put every man upon his rights and honor ; high re- solves and best exertions will yield the mind justification, and the favor of a just and benevolent God, whatever present ills betide. Every rational mind, acting according to its best light, in harmony with the constitutional principles and laws of uni- verse, attains to the object of its immortal desires as a sound " ship arrives at her port of destination, subject to sundry and varied incidents on the voyage." It being a demonstrated scientific fact that nothing less EDUCATION". 355 than the demoustrated Attributes of God are adequate to the evolution of rational Mind, and the mind of man being rational, and a progressive being, beginning with the mere light of Consciousness, it follows, of necessity, that he is an awakened monad and unfolding germ of the omnipotent Creator, destined to be developed to a perfect finite likeness of his Author. This fact being established, it becomes of paramount importance that every rational mind should by .appropriate cultivation unfold to rule and government the immortal and God-like functions of Mind, in preference to submitting himself -to the rule of his instinctive animal na- ture destined to a transient and earthly existence. Nothing but an innate development of that monad of our Attributes within can ever elevate man to that position and dignity with his Creator which the intrinsic nature and con- stitution of his rational mind requires. And this can be ef- fected only by the light of philosophic and scientific truth, as revealed in our universal language of Cause and Effect. Man can best serve God, hunself, and fellow-men, as he best understandingly knows and appreciates the constitu- tional principles and laws of universe, as they stand re- vealed in our unerring, universal language of Cause and Ef- fect, through which we constantly address him. In this lan- guage, all minds, proportionate to their development, can hold immediate correspondence with their Creator : instruc- tion in this language should commence with the dawn of conscious existence, and never cease while time and space endure. As men learn to converse with their Creator in an unmistakable and perfect language, so will they learn to love and obey him. The right cultivation and exertion of Mind are its only safeguards to prosperity and happiness. Mind, as developed to the harmonial scientific government of universal principles becomes a perfect living temple of the eternal God. As all men aspire to happiness, so all should be enlight- ened with the best scientific knowledge as to the means of its attainment ; and as these aspirations are unceasing, so should be the instructions that relieve them, and tend to de- velop it. With suitable and timely instruction, innocence maybe re- tained ; but when far gone it is only regained with difficulty 856 EmrcATioN. and sufTerings proportionate to the estrangement. He who soils the garments of innocence violates Justice, and by just reparation must make amends, or suffer the debarring sword of a guilty conscience to pierce his bosom, and remove him to a just extent from the full favor and protection of his God. Scientific knowledge, wisely illustrated in just and har- monious actions, is eternal death to ignorance and error, as their vicious and miserable consequences. But as the his- tory of the world abundantly proves, without scientific knowledge and obedience thereto, man becomes the subject of the most debasing superstitions, and the slave of his own animal passions. From an intrinsic monad of our Divine Attributes, eveiy rational mind possesses the self-generating means of its own elevation and progress. And where, from the least means, under the most adverse circumstances, the m.ost is accom- plished, it is most honorable to the possessor. Scientific knowledge is both the light and power of Mind; and'he who opposes it opposes the highest interest of the human race, and he who promotes it promotes that interest to his own eternal happiness and that of his fellow-men. Scientific knowledge is the Light of our Eternal Mind, and opposed to it, in one united phalanx, stand the priest- hood of the Whore of Ignorance, who prefer the darkness of faith and mystery, and a Christ begotten in sodomy and sent into the world to bring a sword and make men drunk. Man's highest interest is the performance of every duty, which, to perceive distinctly, requires scientific knowledge and strict attention. The ignorant and foolish copy the errors and vices of one another, whUe the. man wisely educated will be ad- monished by every folly that comes to his knowledge, and profit by both the vice he sees to shun, and the virtue wor- thy of his imitation. Truth is the voice of Science, the voice of God, every- where manifest in phenomena ; and that mind is wise and blessed who learns to read it understandingly, in the un- adulterated language of its Author. Scientific knowledge and virtue mutually aid each other, harmonially and exclusively, flowing together from one fountain, the demonstrated Attributes of God. From their EDUCATION. 357 comparative absence arises all mental darkness, with its attending vices and consequent misery. Mind without kfiowledge is a blank. As is the knowledge and use thereof, so is the Mind. Knowledge used in har- mony with the demonstrated constitutional principles and laws of universe, becomes the wealth and treasure of its possessoi", forever increasing its resources of light and hap- piness. IBut knowledge used in contravention of the estab- lished principles and laws of Universe, brings its retributive reward in suffering and misery, as a kind admonition and just punishment, until appropriate atonements are made. Every mind should strengthen itself with the most useful and congenial knowledge ; but to make the most judicious use of that which the mind possesses, requires a developed Judgment, which is the light of mind preeminent, to be sought by every individual. The magnitude of a mind can not always be correctly measm'ed by its assumptions, but by the momentum or force with which it is able to precipitate itself to the accomplish- ment of a great and noble object. And this requires sciea* titic knowledge, reflection, and Judgment. The difference between a great and little, or in other words a developed and undeveloped Mind, is this : The first displays the exalted, innate, and ennobling Attributes of his Creator, while the latter displays the low and selfish pride and cunning peculiar to an instinctive, earthly, animal nature. The one is under the predominating influence of the Empyreal system of rational Minid, the other is under the predominating influence of the mundane System of Na- ture. The one is the bird in the egg, progressed to a strong resemblance of its parent, the other is the bird in the egg in its incipient stages cf existence. . The mind best enlightened to a knowledge of itself, the constitutional principles and laws of Universe, and the ap- propriate relations existing between itself and those princi- ples and laws, is self-evidently the best prepared to success- fully grapple with all the difiiculties attending its earthly career of existence, to tower over all the ensnaring and en- slaving temptations of an animal nature, and make its triumph rapid and easy. Mind, desirous of the best improvement, will make self- 353 EDUCATION. examination and comparison, with the immutable and perfect standard of rational mind, an often and repeated duty. With the best education and developmfflit of mmd, come the best advancement and universal good of man. The fickleness and instability of man arises in a great measure from his ignorance of himself, his true interest, and the fixed principles and laws of Universe, by his not dis- tinctly distinguishing between the innate and exalted prin- ciples of his rational mind, that would lead him to a just, equilibriate, and exalted course of conduct, governed by judgment and the known laws of Cause and Effect, and his instinctive animal nature, that prompts him to worldly am- bition, avarice, and the gratification of his sensual desires ; but as the one or the other predominates in his feelings, from incidental causes, not distinguishing in their merits, by a knowledge of their final effects or consequences, he alter- nately acts with the one or the other, as each, by its excit- ing cause, gains the ascendency of his feelings. But en- lighten man to his highest interest, in a knowledge of him- self, his relations and duties, and the result and consequen- ces that must inevitably follow the actions of his life, by the immutable laws of Cause and Effect, and as he is a rational being, so will he foUow the stable and right, and reject the fickle and wrong. Every one should assert the divine intrinsic claim of his birthright, to know God, his Character, and Laws, and as rational he will then observe and obey them. Analysis of God, Man, and Universe, is the Divine innate right of every rational Mind, bestowed for its enlightenment. And he who can and does not use it, neglects one of the noblest means of his own advancement. Scientific knowledge is a knowledge of those rules of ac- tion by which the energy of Universe performs its functions in the production of phenomena ; and therefore the truth of God and the truth of science are one and indivisible ; and he who presumes to dispute the one disputes the other. An enlightened mind self-conscious of its own rectitude, is the best prepared for any crisis that may or can arise. But the ignorant are always weak in resources, and the un- godly have no confidence to appeal to a God of Justice and Benevolence, whose laws they knowingly violate. It is of great importance, that all minds should be so en- EDUCATION. 35 9" lightened as to clearly distinguish between that high-mind- edness and self-respect which is the Attribute of Rational Mind, and that animal feeling of importance, denominated vride. A- man may be proud in the extreme, and yet guilty of the most sordid, selfish, and debasing actions, that would cause him to blush, and even shun the company of the vir- tuous were they exposed in their naked deformity. But a high-minded man, from a divine, innate feeling of intrinsic honor or self-respect, will so deport himself in private, as Well as public, that he may justly feel the approbation of God and his own judgment in all his conversation and ac- tions, and have no occasion to blush were all his motives and actions spread before the world in their naked reality. As error is the consequence of ignorance, so suffering and misery are the consequence of error ; and universal instruc- tion becomes absolutely necessary to universal salvation. Civilization is the fruit of scientific knowledge, the fruit of developed rational mind, the presence of God. Savagism is the comparative absence of the Eternal Mind, mental darkness, the predominant rule of instinct and the animal passions. Ignorance is a worthless servant and a bad master, for she teaches nothing but errors, and from them flow every curse and misery of the human race. A judicious education will develop the functional powers of Judgment, Reason, and Universal Love, which are the appropriate ruling powers of every rational mind. Knowledge is a power that all mankind possess, to a greater or less extent, for either good or evil. If under the guidance of a justly enlightened, rational mind, it is for the good of all under its influence. If under the supreme sway of the animal passions, evU is the result to its possessor and his fellow-men. Therefore to give the mind a right direc- tion and government, by developing the principles of justice and benevolence in connection with the intellect, is a matter of the utmost importance to both nations and individuals. The mind most developed and educated to the rule of Jus- tice, Benevolence, and Reason, will most realize the fruition of -scientific government, and most deprecate the undue sway of the animal passions. Rational Mind as best enlightened and cultivated, can best discharge its duties to God, itself, and fellow-men. 360 EDUCATION. Ignorance is the grand storehouse of miracles that are im- possibilities ; mysteries, that can only exist in mental dark- ness, and faith that is counted virtuous in proportion as it is void of reason and justice. The path of science is the highway of intellectual improve- ment. And its cause is the cause of God, and the cause of universal truth ; from which arise the prosperity and happi- ness of nations, families, and individuals. And as the force and habits of education are powerful, and hard to change, they should at first be rightly made. Children at the dawn of Consciousness have existence in unspotted innocence, and being helpless of themselves, have a just claim to support and the protection of that innocence until they arrive to years of judgment and understanding, as a matter of the highest importance to themselves and the community with which they are connected. _ The welfare of the world depends on the proper protection and rearing of youth and children. How best to preserve innocence and render the best practical instruction, is the desideratum to be universally sought. It is for the world's highest interest and happiness, that every mind be reared in innocence, and under the guidance of judgment and reason. The youthful mind should be taught self-reliance upon its own best exer- tions in harmony with the demonstrated constitutional prin- ciples and laws of universe, and its own justification by the performance of its whole duty as a free accountable agent. As the young tree is easily bent and trained to the most desirable form, which it retains of itself when once estab- lished ; so the mind in infancy and youth, may, in a great measure, be easUy trained to that system of thought, feel- ing, and action, which when established by habit and tlie mind enlightened to see therein its highest interest and hap- piness, it will as necessarily follow as it is a rational being, > or as the tree follows the established bent of the sapling. To neglect the education of youth and children, is to con- sign the innocent to the tyrants of Ignorance and EiTor, who are the parents of every crime, and the curse and scourge of the human race. To protect the innocent, is not only the duty of parents but of the state. And those who will not protect them- selves by proper laws and schools for the development of rational mind, in the education and training of youth and EDUCATION. 361 children, may be left to find protection for their lives and property in well-built and well-filled prisons. Which are the most beneficial and honorable as free agents, every com- munity or nation has a right to decide for itself. The human mind is a casket of living jewels in embryo, that requires the most careful education to unfold to the boat advantage. Children should be so educated as to exercise and devel- op the judgment, and unfold and originate new ideas. Tho parrot and monkey training to evolve words and actions without judgment, understanding, or reason, is of compara- tive little value. It is no crime for the infant to be caught in the company of Ignorance ; but as the universal and uncompromising en- emy of man, every child should be taught that it is its high- est interest and duty to give her the exterminating sword of knowledge without sympathy or remorse from the cradle to the grave, as one of tlie greatest benefit^ it can bestow upon itself and the human family at large. Sopjiistry and Flattery are the progeny of Ignorance and Error, and should not be spared. Truth in its native majesty and glory should be the desire of every mind, to the exclusion of every darkening shade. No parent can properly govern a child who has come to years of understanding without their esteem and respect, and from a lack of this, many parents see their children morally perish before their eyes. The proper instruction and development of mind is before all expenditures for the gratification of pride in mere earth- ly show. Every child, for self-preservation, needs informa- tion that will satisfy the mind, and guard it against the frauds and deceptions practiced by those under the selfish government of their animal natures, to the disregard of vir- tuous principles. Mind uncultivated becomes a harbor for the vilest pas- sions, as a fruitful soil overgrown with weeds and thorns be- comes the shelter for the vilest of reptiles. How difiicult it is to eradicate false conceptions and erro- neous habits of mind, when once established, too many already have been left to find by sorrowful experience. There is no other safeguard for mind against the self-damn- ing errors of ignorance and superstition than a scientific 16 362 EDUCATIOK. knowledge revealed by Cause and Effect. And an unde- viating rule for nniversal action should be : that an error discovered should be an error corrected. Though wrong from whatever cause, no one should persist in error when known. To do so is willfully adding one error to another. No ac- cursing superstition of faith should ever be allowed to rule the mind one moment, in contravention to the demonstrated truths of scientific knowledge. He who walks in faith and mystery walks in darkness, but he who walks in the light of Justice and scientific know- ledge walks in the light of that God who is their Author and Fountain. The proper education and enlightenment of mind from the first dawn of Consciousness to the dissolution of the an- imal body, is a duty that none can neglect without suffering proportionate punishment by the immutable laws of Cause and Effect. Man has the revelation of his Creator written iji his Con- stitution, and manifest by Cause and Effect, in its innate and intrinsic nature and requiring needs : to divide the use of time between Devotion, Education, Labor, Rest, and Recre- ation. And as every mind is powerful, great, and good in proportion to the amount of scientific knowledge it contains and judiciously applies to use, it is neither more nor less than a religious' duty that every rational mind owes God, itself, and fellow-beings, to devote a portion of each day to the de- velopment of its own mind, and the acquisition of useful and scientific knowledge. Scientific knowledge expands the mind, and it can not be , expanded without it. Every mind is as extensive as the knowledge it contains. To stand before God, in scientific knowledge and self-con- scious rectitude, is every one's right ; and noble is that Mind who asserts it. Every additional truth known is another point gained for further and future advancement. Relieve the rational Mind of man from the thraldom and curses of ignorance and superstition, and as sure as it has rational being, so sure will it adopt the demonstrated and innate Attributes of its Creator for its guide and protection. The errors of mind and their consequences are the result EDUCATION. 363 of its incipient ignorance, and only to be washed away by the developing and purging hand of Science. From on high comes Science, the Daughter of God, to subserve the purposes of all who implore her aid. Science is the undeviating word of revelation, manifest" by phenomena, and all who reject its saving light for faith, mystery, and pretended miracles, reject the demonstrated light of God, for his contrasting shades of darkness. Our demonstrated wisdom and Character make it obvious that man, as a free agent, endowed with an unfolding monad of our Divine Attribute, should be adequate to the correc- tion of his own errors. " Free agency of Mind, being the noblest gift of God, is adequate to the noblest results." Intelligence is power, and combined with Universal Love, and guided by Justice, is adequate to the dispersion of all mental darkness and the correction of every error. As there is in every rational mind an incorruptible monad and unfolding germ of Deity adapted to our divine Govern- ment, that wiU forever bear an internal testimony in favor of our Divine Attributes and Laws, to the condemnation of all who ignore and transgress them, it is the true policy of all human governments to unfold this germ by education to the likeness of its Divine Original and his government in the minds of every individual to the extent of their capacity in their earthly state of existence. And that will, from its own inherent Jiature, manifest itself outwardly in intelligent power, wealth, harmony, and order, and grateful loyalty to ■ the government which has nourished it. And thus the in- telligence,, power, wealth, happiness,'and loyalty of individ- uals'beoome the intelligence, wealth, power, and happiness ol the nation. Unfold the rational mind of man tcf distinctly see his true and highest interest in harmony with the Constitu- tional, Physical, and Organic Laws of Universe, and with the way open before him, he will and must- as surely follow it as the earth keeps its orbit. And is there Ruler or Government that would like to real- ize the soul-felt happiness and favor of the universal Parent, with the love and gratitude in the present and all future time of an awakening and rising people to civilization and hap- piness, let them establish the foundation of a system of edu- cation, with intellectual and moral intercourse that will, when perfected, reach every family hearth, and be the bar- 364 RELIGION. monizmg, moving ILfe of the nation, as the circulating Wood of the human body, renovated in the Imigs, dispenses its electrified and revivifying influence to every member. Feed the Divine Germ of the human Mind with its ap- propriate food, and it will unfold itself, expand and grow in the likeness of its eternal Author, treading down all oppos- ing obstacles. Mental death and hell will flee before it, and proportionate to its virtuous powers it will command the elements of Nature, and they obey it. A well-developed system of education to a nation, with in- tellectual and moral intercourse, are what the lungs and' blood are to the animal system — its life and power. Nations, as individuals, that allow themselves to be moved by the hallucinations of intellectual and moral turpitude, bow their necks to the yoke of a tyrant from which death alone will not free them. The acquisition and right application of scientific know- ledge is a universal duty that has but one end, and that nec- essarily is the beginning. The foregoing is not the vain imagination of a disordered human intellecl^ but the immutable modes of procedure in Cause and Efiect, and written by the Creator in the Consti- tution and Laws of Universe ; his universal language, with rational mind witnessing, that all may read and obey, but none can disregard, without sufiering the corresponding and proportionate penalties of their transgressions. RELiGioiir. As the scientific Religion of Universal Justice is as exten- sive as the Infinite an(k Eternal Mind of Almighty God, whose life it is, and as finite as the duties of the rational mind of man, which is an individualized expression of its diversified powers, and an unfolding monad of the same, which it necessarily embraces and comprehends, the theme • is one that has not been exhausted, and from its intrinsic nature and relations self-evidently never can be. But having already necessarily said much on the subject, defined the terra, and clearly and distinctly pointed out to man its fundamental duties, and by the immutable laws and RELIGION. 365 language of Cavise and Effect demonstrated it to be the Mechcsive and Saving JReligion of Universe, and all others pretended but as contrasting shades of darkness, and given every rational mind of the earth a key to the whole, in our universal language of Cause and Effect, to which we refer them, and through which we constantly address them, we shall close our present duties on this important subject by some miscellaneous additional remarks and proverbs, and leave the whole to man as a free, responsible agent, to make such thereof as he may determine for his interest and happi- ness. The problem of man's Salvation has been raised and solved. And as scientifically shown and demonstrated, there is no perfect Salvation for man, Philosophical, Political, Re- ligious, Physical, or Organic, for Nation or Individual, for time past, present, or future, but through a scientific knowl- edge and strict observance of those Constitutional Principles and Powers of Universe that regulate Cause and Effect, and a just restitution or recompense for every unjust and willful act committed, with the correction of every error, as far as just and reasonable lies within his power, as soon as cogni- zant of the same. What the roots are to a tree, scientific knowledge is to Religion and scientific Government, that without which their functions can not be either perfectly known or per- formed. Education, Religion, and scientific Government are as necessarily and intimately united to form the System of Scientific Liberty, that sets man free from the tyrants of Ignorance and Error, or mental darkness, as light, heat, and chemical power are united in the rays of the Sun, to set him free from the physical darkness of Nature. One is the ra- diance of the great orb of Mind, the other is the radiance of a great orb of Nature Were it possible for man to re- fuse and entirely esJcape the influence of the one, it would be physical death ; were it possible for man to refuse and entirely escape the influence of the other, it would be mental and eternal death. It is self-evident there can be neither scientific Religion nor scientific Government in the mental darkness of igno- rance ; and that in proportion as it rules Nations and indi- viduals, in the same proportion will both Religion and Gov- ernment be defective. And hence it becomes a religious 366 RELIGION. duty of both scientific Government and Religion, as a matter of self-preservation, to promote that development and direc- tion of rational mind on which their very existence de- pends. In the acquisition and exercise of scientific Knowledge^ scientific Religion, and scientific Government, forever lies the path of human duty, human progress, and human hap- piness. And as you divert and deprive man of these prerogatives, the endowment of his Creator, to the same extent you de- prive him of his liberty, his highest interest, and his noblest rights, and strew his path of life with thorns and difiicul- ties. . The Church of God is as extensive as the rational minds of Universe ; for with aU such we maintain an immediate correspondence, through the immutable, incorruptible, and unerring language of Cause and Effect. And he whom God thus condescends to notice, let no man despise, though it is his duty to despise and resist the errors of all, while in love he makes every reasonable effort to enlighten and save them from the errors they commit. • It is in the power of every rational mind to obtain and keep a justified Conscience, by righting every wrong to the extent of its ability as fast as brought upon the theater of Consciousness, and forsaking the same forever. The Church of God has but one Sacrament, and that is a Justified Conscience, to which all mankind must come, or never commune with God in peace. To this Sacrament, as an Eternal Covenant of Union, and a continued feast of happiness, all rational minds are invited, without distinction of time, place, or person. A guilty Conscience is a needless fire, that consumes the happiness of mind, without destroying the mind itself. And as it can only be lit by a known and willful wrong or act of injustice, so it can only be extinguished by the mind's best exertions to rectify and forsake the wrong by doing justice. This is an immutable and fundamental law of religion, written by the Creator in the Constitution of every rational Mind, and which every rational Mind may read for itself in our universal language of Cause and Effect, and from which there is no appeal or escape. RELIGION. 867 That a mind who sins against the light ^f Justice, shall proportionately die to peace and happiness, is the fiat of an Almighty God that none can alter." All men are called to he Ministers of God, hoth by pre- cept and example, and mutually emulate -each other. But those among mankind are most our Ministers who think most purely, speak most wisely, and act most justly, and do the most to develop the demonstrated Attributes and Gov- ernment of their Creator in themselves and fellow-men. Let such be your Official Rulers, Legislators, Teachers, and Magistrates" at all times. Theology is that science which demonstrates the August Eternal Cause, his Government, Religion, Attributes, Char- acter, Institutions, and Laws, and by us is taught exclusive- ly in our universal language of Cause and Effect. It is the duty of all men to learn this language and teach it to one another, as through it, as the incorruptible stream from the Eternal Fountain, flows every blessing to man. As man in his rational mind is a religious and immortal being, endowed with free agency, he has it innately written in his constitution that to set apart or devote a portion of his time to those important interests, is neither more nor less than a religious duty. And as it is the self-evident duty of every man to respect the rights of others as he would have his own respected, therefore, when by agreement and common consent, the majority of a Community set apart certain days for the exclusive benefit of their immortal interest, it is the duty of all to so far respect them as to not unnecessarily dis- turb their devotions. With God, all days are holy and sacred ; with man,, all days are good or bad, as good or badly use. And in this, he is no less a free and responsible agent, by the immutable laws of Cause and Effect, than in all things else. To man, as a free responsible agent and an unfolding germ to our likeness, we give no commandments but through the immut- able laws and language of Cause and Effect. We hold the creation of man in our hands to do with as our wisdom directs. But the command of Omnipotence is instantly and exactly obeyed in every iota, moving the whole power of Iftiiverse, if that were necessary to accomplish it. But with command to man — otherwise than through those immutable laws spread before him, in our universal language 368 EELIGION. of Cause and Effect, which we ourself obey — there would be an end of his free agency. And as the purposes and wisdom of God are perfect, and consequently can not be changed, it is manifest that he who assumes to communicate the commands of God to man in any other way than through a philosophic and scientific knowledge, and pointing out to him of those Eternal and Unchanging Principles and Laws that govern Universe, and manifest by the incorruptible and unerring language of Cause and Effect, subscribes to his own name the character of an ignorant or blasphemous impostor. He who teaches the word of God by Cause and Effect, teaches scientific light and saving knowledge, and makes himself the minister of God. But he who teaches faith, mystery, and pretended mira- cles, teaches that which can not abide the perfect presence of the Eternal Mind, and thereby^ makes himself the minis- ter of darkness. The rational mind of man is a magnet ; and as the mag- net of steel or a needle, in proportion to its awakened pow- ers, has a tendency to arrange itself in harmony with the great magnetic center of the sphere to which it belongs, so the mind of man in proportion to the innate awakened powers of the Eternal Mind, seeks by the corresponding eternal magnetic laws of Mind to arrange itself in harmony and order with that August, Elernal, Magnetic Center of Mind, whose permeating life and currents have given, and sustain its life and being. This tendency, or existing relation between man and his Creator, is manifest in the Mind of Man, by Adoration and Gratitude / the ennohling and grateful dements of Religious Worship. And from this simple but philosophic view it is easy for every reflecting mind to see, that that worship of God, which is best adapted to the mind's development, and will place, strengthen, and smtain it in the most perfect union and harmony with the Eternal Laws and Author oj its heing, wiU at once he the worship which is most accept- able to God, and m,ost beneficial to his worshipers. And Man being a free agent of this, every community and individual will Bte their own judge. Man*having no commandment of God but that written in his constitution, and the unchanging laws of universe spread before him in EELIGION. 369 our universal language of Cause and Effect, public -worship will everywliere manifest itself in harmony with the mind's progress and development. The desideratum uniformly sought, being that best adapted to honor God and promote the well-being of the community by an enlightenment, and awakening magnetic touch of the rational mind to its high- est interest, by a daily communion with God in the Sacra- ment of a justified Conscience, and the living exhibition of his Attributes in manifest and -corresponding works. We, the Eternal God being Omnipotent, and the whole Universe at our command, it is self-evident to every reflect- ing mind, that we can not be served or worshiped as though we stood in need of aid. But having many ignorant, poor, and erring earthly Children, who constantly stand in need of aid and instruction, those desirous of serving God will render him. most acceptable service by so aiding and enlight- ening all within their reach, as to enable them to behold their highest interest, in the path of human duty and happi- ness, in harmony with the demonstrated Attributes and Laws of their Creator. Those who would serve God, must render that service where he the door hath opened that service to receive. That man knowing God, who professes to worship and adore him, and does not show it by his works, is either self- deceived or a hypocrite. For as the active Cause is mani- fest by the effect, so the effect of a Cause being wanting, denies the existence necessary to its production. No mind can worship God to his fuU acceptance with a guilty conscience. But that Mind wlio daily makes use of the best exertions its circumstances will reasonably allow to develop and ad- vance itself and others, to the divine likeness and perfections of its Maker, and daily eats the Sacrament of justification with him, worships God to his full acceptance, and that of his own soul's salvation. The worship of God is as extensive and diversified as the means of doing good. For he who voluntarily doeth good of any kind, to that extent worships the God of goodness who is its Author. He who with the toe of his boot removes a stone from the path of his neighbor, can not fail of his just reward, though the act should be unknown to any but himself. As a drop 16* 370 RELIGION. of -water adds to the ocean, so by our just and omnipresent laws in Cause and Effect, every good or evil deed leaves its impress on the enacter, and goes to make up his final sum of happiness or misery. As every mind itself, would desire to find favor and for- giveness of God, so let it treat each erring brother or sister of the human race, in their manifest efforts to rectify their wrongs. He who in justice forgives, will of God in justice find for- giveness. Prayer is the gravitation of Mind to the object of its de- sires. That which a mind does not desire it can not pray for ; for to pretend to do so, by a formula of words, is a sanctimonious profanity, that justly condemns every pretend- er before the throne of God in his own judgment. Religious prayer is the response of that unfolding monad of God within the Mind to the call of its august Author, to look mentally upward and behold the true interest and object of its being. As the physical body of man gravitates to the earth from whence it came, and of which it is an individualized and separate part, so his rational Mind, which is but an individ- ualized and unfolding germ or monad of the Eternal Mind, when awakened to a knowledge of its true interest and re- lations, gravitates to that Fountain from whence it came, and from which alone it can draw that mental nourishment and support necessary to its immortal happiness, as the ani- mal body to the earth on which its individualized existence depends. Prayer being the aspiration or gravity of mind to the ob- ject of its desires, becomes a key of much useful instruction to every observing mind acquainted with the constitutional organization of his own being. For as is the tendency or gravity of the Mind, so is the influence operating wpon it ; and it is an easy matter for any one enlightened to a scien- tific knowledge of himself, his highest interests and rela- tions, to distinguish between the selfish, instinctive, and earthly influence of his animal nature, and the ennobling and God-like endowments of his rational Mind ; and by the light of a just judgment and the force of Will, to so govern him- self as to live in harmony with the unchanging laws of God and universe, and secure his own mental happiness by a EELIGION. 371 State of justification, both in his earthly and future state of existence. Can a man by prayer change God ? or, in other words, can that which is mutable and imperfect change the im- mutable and perfect ? The idea is preposterous ! Yet the priests of Ignorance profess to address God in prayei-, and bring him over to violate his own immutable laws, which are a part of himself, and the manifestation of his perfection, to work miracles and coincide with them in their devised schemes to delude, enslave, and plunder the human race. The prayers of men, as just and rational, are the inspira- tion of God, arising from the gravity of that monad of his being within the mind to its appropriate center ; and for- ever in harmony with his laws and institutions, the yearning for a knowledge of which being the innate cause of action implanted by the Creator, not for the purpose of changing the immutable and perfect Creator, but tor changing the mut- able and imperfect creature by enlightenment and develop- ment to a perfect finite likeness of its Author. It is self-evident to every rational reflecting mind, from our demonstrated Nature, Character, and perfection, that we must make a just and wise provision for every desire im- planted in the minds of our rational offspring. But does it not become an aU-wise parent to answer the prayers or de- sires of his imperfectly developed children in the perfection of his own wisdom, rather than in the imperfection of theks ? " Act well your part and do your best, then to Omnipotence leave the rest." Prayers, to be eiBcacious for good, must be in harmony with the demonstrated and unchanging laws of universe, and here again is manifest the importance and saving power of scientific knowledge. As a material body gravitates to its center of attraction with a force not in proportion to its bulk, but in proportion to the awakened energy by which it is held in rapport with the center of gravity to %\iliich it re- sponds ; so, other things being equal, every rational Mind tends to the eternal Center of its attractions proportionate to its prayers ; or, in other words, the awakened gravitating force of its desires. Weak and hypocritical prayers may disclose themselves, and culminate in windy words alone ; but those which shake the foundations of the mind, and move to life and action 372 EELIGION. each innate Attribute of God, will manifest a force that wUl produce by works the Very object which they seek. Thus each prayer is justly weighed and valued, as through unfolding works the sought object is attained, and known as a Cause or Effect, and realized as the means for further, fu- ture, and scientific action. Had Franklin's prayers been of no higher value than priestly prayers of Ignorance, which end in worded breath, then still the wild lightning might have roamed his ether fields untamed, and bid defiance to the power and guiding reins of man. Had AUibaco prayed by wind alone, instead of that labo- rious Analysis which has demonstrated the eternal Cause, and defined his Nature, Character, Government, Religion, Lan- guage, and Laws, who can say how long the world would have plodded on under the accursing blight of its man-made, demon gods of darkness, faith, mystery, and pretended miracles. Yet righteous prayer in words — when words, like springs, come gashing forth from the innate pressure of the mind, and in burning psychologic touch sweep the sympathetic feelings of all within their reach, and lift them up to God — are virtuous in proportion to the good they do. Use ev- ery power of Mind of God endowed to enlighten and to save his needy children of the earth. God responds to prayers not by miracles, but by just, immutable, and eternal laws. God lights the Minds of the Jitst, and no just and rational prayer was ever lost to him who made it, nor forever can be. But in the wisdom of that God whose Mind is infinite and perfect, will every just and rational aspiration be rewarded. Idke the eternal Author of your being, whose power is equal to his will, pray justly, and till the olyect is attained ; for knoio this truth, that just and perfect prayers, whenfuUy made, ar»omnipotent. Chastity, or a virgin life, is an important virtue, and as temperance is an equal remove from both gluttony and ab- stinence, so a virgin life is an equal remove from the life of the libertine on the one hand, and the life of the anchorite on the other. Both are extremes, but in different directions ; and to those having the full endowments of Mind and Na- ture, a life of virgin pmity consists in steering directly be- EELIGION. 373 tween them, and applying every functional power of mind and body, as the endowment of the Creator, to their legiti- mate, timely, and temperate use. As a life of perfect purity and holiness self-evidently con- sists in living in perfect harmony with the laws of God and Nature, under the just government of Judgment and Rea- son, after the full maturity of the physical system, with the fuU endowments and health of mind and body, such a life can not be perfectly maintained by either sex in , a state of celibacy. A perfect vii'gin life is, then, maintained only by a union of the sexes in a solemn compact to keep the laws of God and Nature together, and to so love and respect each other as to secure the approbation of God, their own happiness, and justly merit the love and respect of their fel- low-beings. Virtuous use and virtuous self-denial is the true path of human duty, purity, progress, and happiness. Those Buddhite and Christian celibates, who set the laws of God and Nature at defiance, and call that function of Nature by which God gave them being an unclean act, thereby charging their Creator with being the Author of uncleanness and sin, in the exclusive institution by which his Omnipotent "Wisdom saw fit to perpetuate and multiply the human race, only show the darkness and blasphemy of that aceursing faith which for so many centuries has made its advocates the vilest slaves and dupes of Ignorance, but never once enlightened them to distinguish between the Char- acter of a just and benevolent God, and that of a lying and perjured demon. Faith is nothing but a surmise of darkness, that forever marks the comparative absence and contrast of the Eternal and Perfect Mind, and can not abide its perfect light and presence, any more than the darkness of night can abide the beaming rays of the noon-day Sun. To call it holy, and make it the guide of action, is to establish for the mind who does it a demon of darkness in the place of a God of light. Man in his earthly state of existence is a garden watered by two streams, one of Nature and one of Rational Mind, both of which are good, in their right and timely use, under the guidance of judgment and reason. But" the celibate first exchange9 his judgment and reason for what he calls a holy faith, which faith directs him to amend the work of his Creator, by exterminating the stream of Nature which 374 BELIGIOIT. his holy faith informs him is unclean, and the great enemy of his peace and happiness. So he dams the natural and legitimate channel of the stream at every available point, and causes the whole stream to overflow its banks and flood the mind with those very thoughts and feelings which he most abhors ; and, steeped in the flesh, with the remaining force of his mind almost constantly engaged to resist the enemy of his own creating, if he does not die prematurely by a loathsome disease he thus brings upon himself, he drags out his filthy and barren life with but little benefit to himself or others, while in sanctimonious self-righteousness he es- teems himself above his fellow-men, and claims for himself a preeminent place with that very God whose laws he vio- lates, and whose Name and Character he libels and blas- phemes. In man's earthly state, imbued nature is to the immortal mind of man what the egg is to the life-germ of the bird, in which It is placed as the matrix of its formation — that which can not be injured without a corresponding injury to itself. Nature is not the first, but a secondary good, and as such should be governed by and made subservient to the first ; and whUe it is not worshiped, like the useful and faithful dog it should receive Its proper food, and held as clean, while its true office it performs, and strictly keeps its proper place. But like the selfish, forward brute It 80 aptly does portray, In church or parlor of the mind It has no proper claim ; But he who will not feed a dog, To which he owes his very life, And for a time is chdned, Can but expect his snarls and bark Till justice is obtsuned. As the association of the sexes is a systematic and regular call of Nature, those who make the legitimate and necessary provisions therefor, in manifest harmony with the designs of the Creator, and regularly attend to them under the guid- ance of judgment and reason, keeping their rational minds alive to their immortal an'd highest interest, like those who regularly attend to other calls of nature, will manifestly think less of them than those who constantly strive to resist them, EELIGION. 375 yet can not extinguisli them but with the extinction of natural life. Because one man makes a glutton of himself, and brings upon himself diseases and death, there is no just reason why another man should call eating a sin, and starve himself to death. ^ And so in regard to innate nature. Because some men and women, as free agents, defile and abuse themselves in the use thereof, it is no just cause for others to charge their crimes upon Nature, and steep themselves in a like filthy pool, by attempting to resist its legitimate and proper de- mands. They are both an equal disregard of the just and immistakable laws of the Creator, and a departure from the path of rectitude, that brings many diseases of body, and the most terrific and disgusting temptations of mind. TTncleanness self-bvidbntlt can not exist with God, and therefore every thing of our Creation is clean in its appropriate place and timely and proper use. And man, as a free agent, can only retain his primeval innocence and purity, hy strictly using every thing in harmony with the manifest designs and purposes of the Creator, and can only defile himself hy a resistance to o^- perversion of the same. Yet, in those who abstain from sexual association, to pre- vent the propagation and perpetuation of m^ental and physi- cal disabilities and diseases upon the human race, Celibacy becomes an important virtue, that should command the uni- versal respect and admiration of mankind. For as the wel- fare of the human race is of more importance than the tran- sient gratifications of a few individuals, such make an ac- ceptable and voluntary sacrifice for the universal good, that they may not be able to' equal in any other way. It is self-evidently more just and proper that one diseased member of the human family, though it temporarily suffer inconvenience, should be so separated as to prevent universal contamination, than that the infirmity should be perpetuated upon the human race, and unnumbered generations should be afflicted and made to suffer for the transient gratifications of one individual. To efiect the greatest amount of good, with the least possible evil, is the desideratum to be univer- sally sought by nations, societies, and individuals. Mankind spend their hundreds of millions of dollars annually for the cure of diseases under which they suffer, while a sci- 876 RELIGION. entific examination, properly instituted, and pursued by the immutable laws of Cause and Effect, to point out the causes and the scientific manner of theu* avoidance or removal, would in a short time save them a large proportion of both sufferings and money. But to reach the foundation remove the cause, and properly open the fountain of physical health and happiness, mankind must lay aside all false notions of deli- cacy, and both know and obey those laws which look to the proper association of the sexes, so as to produce that affinity and congenial union, conjoined with a sound and healthy offsjpring, which is the just and rational desire of every indi- vidual worthy of the marriage covenant, and one of the most important interests to every community and nation. And as disease and crime, if not always united, most generally have an identity of origin, it is manifestly the incumbent duty of every legislator, religious teacher and physician, as the friends and benefactors of the human race, to use their best exertions to have every cause sought out and removed. Another important interest neglected,"^ is the universal de- volopment and proper cultivation of the minds of females, so as to bring woman's whole awakened mental and physical force to bear for the progress and happiness of the human race, and elevate her to understandingly know and fill that ennobled and exalted position designed by the Creator, and without which, no nation can reach its culminating point of true mental development, civilization, and happiness. In savage and barbarous nations women are treated little better than slaves ; mere objects to do the disagreeable drudgery, and minister to the animal pleasures of man, and bought and sold like cattle. While in those nations, now pretending to the most civUizatiofl, they are many times basely flattered and pretendedly adored, yet made the vilest dupes by pandering to their animal pride and vanity ; while as a general thing, with the exception of a few ornamental accomplishments, they are kept in the profoundest ignorance of their heaven-endowed birthright, and made to exhibit themselves in the mere instinctive pride and vanity of their earthly animal nature as ornamented puppets or peacocks, while their immortal, rational Min'ds, and their most vital in- terest and duty to themselves and the state, are left to slum- ber in the darkness of ignorance and degradation, to the great detriment of themselves and their fellow-beings. EELIGION. 377 The true position of woman is not tliat of a slave or a mere pupppt of animal vanity and pride, but one of the most weighty and important interest to every community and nation. Women as the mothers of the human race, and the divine- ly naturally endowed guardians, protectors, and promoters of virtue in their offspring, hold an almost undivided sway and influence over mankind from the period of conception to the years of understanding and puberty. And when it is considered that within ithat time, every human being re- ceives those endowments and forms of both Mind and Body, which in a great measure shape their destiny for both time and eternity, it must be allowed that the position, duties, and responsibilities of women, are of the most momentous and vital importance, not only to themselves as rational and accountable beings, but to the whole human family at large. Now it is an immutable law of Universe, written and re- vealed in our universal language of Cause and Efiect, that every rational, reflecting mind can read for itself, that a be- ing to impart a thing to another, must itself first possess it ; for that which a. being does not possess, it can not impart to others. All women, like men, inherit their animal pride and vanity as the spontaneous growth of instinctive nature born with them. But as we have before conclusively shown, the ennobled, rational, and immortal Mind in its first stage of existence, is but a latent germ to be psychologically awakened and developed to rule and government by cultiva- tion. And as every female will and must impress her off- spring with those identical properties and influences which weigh most heavily upon her, if left uncultivated, save in the fickleness, pride, and j^anity of an earthly Nature, until she becomes a mother, she can not imbue her offspring with those ennobling properties that adorn humanity, like the fe- male who appreciates her true position and is under the weighty impress and guiding influence of the innate and awakened Attributes of her Creator. How different in character and destiny, will be that of two children having one father, but bom and brought up to the age of maturity under the controlling influence of two mothers, each one having the control of her own offspring, and one being an enlightened and noble woman understand- ing the laws of Nature and her true position, and perfectly 378 ■ BELIGION. governed by the innate and awakened Attributes of her Creator, while the other in the' darkness of ignorance is left to the undivided and fickle sway of her animal instincts. Unavoidable accidents aside, by the immutable laws of Cause and Effect, allowing the father to be of extraordinary intellectual endowments, the first must as inevitably become the benefactor of the human race, as the second become its curse and scom-ge. And these laws apply no less to nations than individuals. Two nations, being otherwise equal, the fa'st developing the, rational minds of its females to rule and government, while the other leaves its females in the darkness of instinctive nature and treats them like some vain, fickle, treacherous, half-endowed rational animal, (which they will in reali- ty appear to be,) and of which they feel half proud, and half ashamed — the second nation must become eclipsed by the first, in every exalted and noble endowment, as the fee- ble lustre of the moon is hid by the resplendent glory and beaming brightness of the noon-day sun. Man and woman are but the two-fold manifestation of the same power, and woman, as the rational companion, stands related to man as the negative pole of the magnet to the positive, and in reality the two form but one identity of be- ing in the immortal magnet of rational mind, as the positive and negative poles in a magnet of steel. And it is self-evi- dent to every enlightened, reflecting mind, that, from what- ever cause one pole of the magnet remains undeveloped or becomes impaired, the whole force or power of the mag- net is deteriorated to the same extent, and must be manifest in the offspring. It is our almighty fiat, written in the Constitution of Uni- verse, and spread before all mankind in our universal lan- guage of Cause and Effect, that no nation shall ever reach the culminating point of human perfection, mental glory, and happiness, until it shall both cease to enslave and flatter woman, and by judicious encouragement and aid, enable Iier to understandingly comprehend and fill, as the indispensable and rational companion of man, those weighty and import- ant duties resting upon her as the mother of its children, and the natural internal guardian of its virtues. It may be said that all women are not capable of becom- ing philosophers. But it may be also said, with equal truth, EELIGION. 379 that a female who is incapable of being made to understand the proper powers and functions of a woman in mind and body, and clearly distinguish between the impulses of ani- mal instinct, and the ennobling rational endowments of her Creator, is an unfit subject to become a mother; and any man making her such, should be held guilty of a crime. If it is a virtue to promote the highest interest and ennoble the human race, it is, then, self-evidently a crime to deteriorate and degrade it. The conduct of those females who, by modes of dress, suppress the free action of the lungs and blood of their daughters, thereby destroying the vigor and health of their constitution, and distort the natural form of their bodies, from which causes they become incapable of either propa- gating a healthy offspring, or the enjoyment of happiness themselves, deserves the universal detestation of the human race ; and no rational man, who has a just regard for the well-being of his offspring, his own future peace and happi- ness, and the progress of the human race, will ever accept such an abortive gift in marriage, though it should be en- sconced in the richest jewels of Christendom. As such things do not proceed from justice and benevolence, or the developed and right use of judgment and reason, or any other attribute of rational Mind, they proceed from brute instinct ; and those who perpetrate such crimes against the laws of God and Nature and the welfare of the human race deserve to be looked upon as their works merit, until, by rational cultivation and humane conduct, they raise them- selves to the dignity of that humanity they have so shame- fully and brutally violated. No one, through ignorance or otherwise, can trample upon the constitutional principles and organic laws of Na- ture with impunity. And as we have endowed every ra- tional individual to read the handwriting of their Creator impressed upon their constitution, to pursue happiness, and avoid misery, and spread before them, in our universal lan- guage of Cause and Effect, the sure and exclusive means by which that happiness is to be, attained, it is the manifest and religious duty of every individual to develop and promote a scientific and universal knowledge of that language, as they value their own peace and happiness and that of their offspring and fellow-beings. 380 EELIGION. It is a manifest law, written in our universal language of Cause and Effect, that for a propagated organic individual to have a sound constitution, so as to enjoy health and hap- piness in its earthly stage of existence, it must spring from a sound and healthy germ ; and while mankind have almost universally read an^ observed this law, so far as it relates to the reproduction of plants and the subordinate animal creation, they have most shamefully neglected to practice its observance in the most important point of all — the propaga- tion of their own species. As every germ of a new human being is formed by a union of the male and female principles, connected by the impregnation of the ova of the female from the living ani- malcules contained in the semen of the male, it is self-evi- dently' necessary for a sound and healthy germ that both the ova be sound and healthy, and the impregnating animal- cules be equally strong and vigorous. And to avoid an un- healthy and degenerate offspring, all mothers should know their times of conception, and by virtuous self-denial abstain from the demands of nature at any such times, when, from sickness or other cause, they have a just reason to believe the monthly ova are deteriorated ; as the fathers for the same reason, or when they themselves are not in the full vigor of health, and have within the last twenty-four hours been under the deleterious influence of alcoholic drinks, or powerful drugs, which are known to impair the vital energy of the impregnating animalcules. It is our Eternal Impress, resting upon all virtuous par- ents, to desire virtuous, intelligent, sound, and healthy off- spring ; and on their production, to a great extent, rests not only their own private future peace and happiness, but that of nations, and the welfare of the human race. And as such offspring can not be produced but in conformity with those immutable and wise laws of which such offspring are alone the legitimate fruit, it is self-evidently the religious duty of those nations awakened to their true and highest interest, to have them scientifically copied and demonstrated from our universal volume of Cause and Effect, and so dispensed that every citizen, male and female, shall be solemnly bound to know and obey them, as a prerequisite to the rites of the marriage covenant. To this, the fastidious dupes of Ignorance, who hold the EELIGIOIT. 881 realms of mystery and mental darkness in -which they live to be both holy and sacred, may oppose their squeamish and affected notions of delicacy. But as there is no indelicacy in the immutable laws of an Almighty, Just, and Benevo- lent God, nor a knowledge and observance of the same, and as that knowledge is necessary to their observance and the welfare of the human race, it is manifest that all the indeli- cacy lies with those advocates of darkness who fear the searching light of scientilBc truth may scorch their sordid bliss of mystery, crime, and darkness. Ignorance and Error, as the great and universal enemies of the human race, with their incestuous offspring of crime and disease, are not to be extirpated from the face of the earth by fulsome sermons of superstition or sodomite tracts and Bibles. It requires the drawn and naked sword of sci- entific knowledge placed in the hands of every rational man, woman, and child, and a war that will decapitate them upon their thrones, exterminate them from the forum and pulpit, follow them in the highways and byways .of the earth, hew them down in the field and the forest, and leave them not a den or a closet in which to generate ' their self-accursed and infamous offspring. This is the only perfectly holy and sacred war in which . the whole world may be engaged with honor to God, and without detriment to itself. In this war, woman as well as man may show her generalship and valor ; and, as the di vinely-appointed guardian of the fountain of human life, she holds the post' of honor, from which she can not shrink with- out bringing the greatest disasters upon the human race, with its just contempt for her infidelity of conduct, and innate guilt and shame proportioned to her crimes. An improper education and general degradation of female honor and virtue in a country is a blight that no nation can long resist. When the eggs of a serpent bring forth doves then men may look for healthy and virtuous children from diseased, de- graded, and abandoned women. Fortuitous and unavoidable circumstances aside, the child- ren of women are their immortal monuments of glory or shame. While the monument of stone erected to Washing- ton will crumble and decay, the mind and virtues of -the Man will stand an expanding and immortal monument to the 382 RELIGION. glory of that mother who, under God, thus formed, trained, and gave him being. " Take away woman's chastity, and one of the noblest sympathies is torn away, and the brightest of jewels is lost. " Lovely is the modest woman — truly lovely is the chaste one, more honored than all jewels and brilliants. She mak- eth glad the nation, and is the praise of all. Poor and friend- less, her chastity is her strength and glory ; when she loses that, she loses the treasure of all price, that, if a queen, she is an outcast and beggar." Every nation, society, and individual make their impress for weal or woe upon the great current of human life that rolls onward through eternal ages ; and reflection's mirror brings back the rays of good or evil deeds as a just re- ward, in happiness or misery, to its appropriate author. Public opinion is a powerful engine for good or ill. It is, therefore, the duty of eveiy individual to so express himself by word and deed as to build up a public opinion based upon the principle of immutable justice. Where public opinion is right, both government and individuals will be careful how they deport themselves. That man do'es injustice to himself who does not, by exalted habit of thought ,and action, merit a favorable public opinion. But he who knowingly and willingly perpetrates injustice practically disrespects the first principle of God, Man, and Universe, and has no just cause of complaint if others disrespect, him ; a guilty conscience of his own, and the disrespect of others, is a just punishment he brings upon himself, and from which there is no escape but by a just reparation as an atonement, and the forsaking of the same forever. He who opposes justice does no injury to the principle, but injures himself proportionately to his exertions. Christian nations have much to say about a day of judg- ment. With the Just, Immutable, and Omnipresent God of Universe, who, in the Attribute of Justice proportionate to its development^ is present in every individual — forming the base and mental power of judgment — the verdict of which is Conscience — the day of judgment commences with the fii'st known crime committed, and never completely ceases until the last crime is forsaken and atoned for. There is no other day of judgment but this, and from this there is no appeal or escape but by a scientific knowledge and ob- RELIGION. 383 servance of the ooni9titutional principles and laws of uni- verse. And where a nation or individual are conscious of their power and means to obtain and obey the saving light of scientific knowledge, there is no justification for them to remain in ignorance. In his omnipresent laws, light, and power, an Omnipotent, Just, and Holy God forever sits in judgment to consciously uphold the just and condemn the guilty. Industry and Economy are heavenly messengers, of "Wis- dom born ; sisters twin that none should separate. They tender their services alike to rich and poor ; plenty reigns where both united find a pleasant home, and Wisdom often calls to pay respects, as honor justly due, to those who entertain her offspring, while Justice bestows the right reward, and smiling Happiness makes her abode with such a crowning gem. Philosophy and Science are 'the twin children of our bo- som who elucidate to man the immutable rules of action our omnipresent energy assumes in the production of the mental and physical phenomena of universe. - , The Christian Bible, so far from being the demonstrated word of God, tends to remove tl>e mind of man from any correct views of him, by attaching his name to a Character in direct antagonism with his own. The Christian Bible* is like a barrel of flour mixed with arsenic — specious to appearance, but full of the most deadly poison. As the flour is only safe in the hands of a chemist, so the Bible is only safe in the hands of the Analyst. If it will pay to restore the stolen jewels unadulterated to their rightful author, it is lawful work ; but they are all still safe and untarnished in the universal volume of Cause and Efieot. Let every one use his endowments to do the most good he is able. As the Creator and impartial Conservator of Universe, we regard all mankind, according to their merits, as fi'ee, responsible agents, who bring upon themselves the just re- ward or punishment of their own actions, as they are in harmony or contradiction with established, immutable, and self-vindicating laws. We punish no man ! But immut- able laws being necessarily given for the guidance of man, if he neglect, willfully disregard, or ignore them, he, in efiect, is as one who, having eyes, neglects to use them, and 384 HELIGION. runs his head against a landmark or guide-post erected for his benefit. He who constantly performs good actions as ability and opportunity offer, has the constant enjoyment of their fruition, and an accumulating treasure in memory's store, that smooths the path of life, and cheers it onward to its final home. But he who neglects the kindly deed sufiers the negation of a good reward, and morose darkness gathers over the path of Ufe, and clouds the blithesome happiness he should enjoy. As our Attributes are demonstrated omnipotent, univer- sal, and immaculate purity, but existing in different com- binations and degrees of strength and perfection in different manifestations and parts of the universal created system, so it is demonstrated that no evil can exist but in the com- parative absence or imperfect expression of these attributes. Or, in other words. Good flows from a self evolving, per- manent, and eternal Fountain, as the natural light flows from the Sun ; but evil has no existing source or rival foun- tain, occurring only in the comparative absence or imper- fect expression of our governing Attributes, as the darkness of the natural day results from the absent rays of the Sun. Good and its Fountain are permanent, universal^ and eter- nal ; while evil, to all individuals, is a necessary but tran- sient and comparative state of darkness, through which, by comparison, they arrive at a knowledge and possession of permanent and eternal good, as the only demonstrated -ne- cessary means by which it can be known. Good is the light in the picture of life, absolute, positive, and eternal. Im- perfections and evils are its negative shades of contrasf, conditional and transient to every individual. Man is ini- tiated into being in the shades of ignorance ; and from that ignorance, which results from the comparative absence of God in the mind's development, arise those ills of dark- ness and error to be dispersed by the light of scientific knowledge. ■ That man is ignorant who knows not himself and God, and his appropriate relations to surrounding universe. A seientific knowledge of our universal language of Cause and Effect leads every one to God, and impresses the sub- limest adoration. Religion is the duty of practical justice in thought, feel- EELiGiojr. S85 ing, and action ; and requires Jcnowledge^ but neither faith, mystery, nor mii-acle. Faith, at best, is an imperfect light, a mere surmise, and unless founded in justice and reason, is no light at all. Mystery is mental darkness — the absence and contrast of God ; and miracles are demonstrated im- possibilities. These are the foundation pillars on which men have built, and the engines of power whereby they sustain their superstitions, and call them religion. But as far as darkness is from light, so far are the superstitions of men from the known and practical duties of religion, which is the harmonial exercise of .our demonstrated Attributes for the honor. of God, the salvation of man, and the univer- sal benefit of creation. Go where you will, as men are ruled by the self-damning darkness of faith, mystery, and pretended miracles, there reigns Ignorance and Superstition, though their priests be as thick as the clouds of darkness they portray. But as the scientific truth and light of knowledge, in justice, reason, and benevolence, control the minds of men, their true religious duties will be performed, though no dogmatic teachers, but the inspiring mnate Attri- butes of God show, by their fruits, they shed their gladsome tidings there. To practice the religion of Universal Justice, unalloyed by ignorance and superstitions of faith, should be the paramount desideratum of every rational mind. A conscientious indi- vidual, who correctly comprehends his appropriate- relations with the Constitutional principles and laws of universe, re- quires no equivocal and doubtful faiths of darkness, but that scientific and practical knowledge that will supplant every vice by a living and exalting virtue. And when, by the immutable laws of Cause and Effect, a nation becomes so far enlightened as to behold its true and highest interest to consist in the education of every citizen, according to his capacity ; to comprehend that a generous emulation of all, in the acquirement of scientific knowledge, and its practical use on the principles of universal justice and benevolence, is the real paramount good of the public, as of every individual ; then that nation becomes great indeed, and to its progress in all that is truly noble and honorable there need be no end. The subjects of Ignorance and Superstition are governed by creeds of faith, fear, and darkness. It S86 RELIGION. The subjects of Religion are governed by Justice, Intelli- gence, and Love, expressed in Wisdom and manifest in Truth. Man is saved by the presence of our Attributes alone, and not by any pretended vicegerent or impostor priest of dark- ness. Men may become agents or mediums to enlighten one another, as it is a fundamental duty ; but it is the Attri- butes of God that enlighten, and the Attributes of God that save. Man's best fidelity to God, through the innate government of his Attributes, is his best .fidelity to his own immortal interest, and that of his fellow-men. As the scientific religion of Universal Justice is manifest by the light and presence of the Eternal Mind, so the -super- stitions of faith are manifest by its comparative absence and contrast. Impostors of Ignorance and faith strive to divest mind of the innate attributes of its Creator, by denying it the use of judgment and reason to investigate their base impositions. Teachers of true religion develop and ennoble every power of rational mind, by calling it into action for the best of purposes, and invite the closest scrutiny. Impostors ask reverence for their superstitious creeds of Ignorance, on account of their antiquity. But the scientific religion of Universal Justice is coexistent with the Eternal God of Universe. Religion being the innate life of perfect rational mind, no mind can be perfectly governed without it. The well or ill-being of every rational mind is forever identified with their practice, or disregard of Universal Jus- tice. The practice of justice and religion can no more be separated than justice and holiness. In their nature and tendency they are all three one and identical, and can not be parted. Consequently all the superstitious'creeds, faiths, mysteries, and ceremonies of a demon god, pretended as religion by itnpostors of darkness, are a base imposition, having no practical virtue, only as far as they have borrowed or stolen from the elements of true religion some golden precepts, by which they gild their false coin and pass it off as the pure mental gold from the mint of God. Nothing less than the practice of Universal Justice will save man from the ruling influence of a selfish animal nature, and yield him the ripe fruit of justification, through which EELIGION. 887 he can address God in confidence, and meet tie trials of life with resignation. It is the Character of Impostors to have their selfish inter- ests and consciences of one measure ; and to make a fair appearance, they do not hesitate to desecrate' the name of God, and use the foulest sophistry. They deny analysis, that they may not be exposed and that all men may be brought to believe in their superstitions for religion. But a Minister of God will invite analysis, that all men may see and know the light of scientific truth, and, knowing, obey it. . . ' . In the path of Ignorance, error, and superstition, there is no safety. In the path of universal Justice, Intelligence, Love, and Wisdom, there is no danger. God is the inspiration of every mind, who walks in perfect justice. Superstition is founded in the mental darkness of ignorance and error. Religion is founded in the analytic light and knowledge of God's demonstrated and immutable Attributes. Superstitions are factitious, sophistical, and fortuitous. Religion is divinely natural, certain, and uniform. Superstition pays her resp6cts to faiths, mysteries, and pretended miracles. Religion pays her respects to God her Author, hi§ rational children, philosophy, science, and art. The superstitions of faith 'save no one, but are cbnstantly running their advocates and dupes into the quagmires of ignorance and error. The scientific religion of Universe yields a fuU and perfect salvation to all, as full and perfectly obeyed. The superstitions of faith, by denying the use of judgment and reason in regard to them, chain the minds of all who embrace them in the most degrading and brutal ignorance. The religion of Universal Justice calls for the best devel- opment and most exalted harmonial use of every functional power of rational mind. Superstitions of faith are discordant, and everywhere tend to wrangling, divisions, and war. The religion of Universal Justice is the Eternal Harmony of Universe, andT as kno^frn and obeyed imites aU rational 388 RELIGION. minds in the strongest bonds of friendship and affection, upon scientific and immutable principles. Superstition is a diseased strumpet, blindfolded with a bandage of faith, and led about by a perjured god of lies and sodomy, who feeds her from a golden cup with the filth of her own pollutions, and slays her offspring for the priests of Ignorance to peddle out as a sacrament of holy commun- ion. And those who follow her do not distinguish between the bray of an ass and the voice of Deity. A rational mind will never be satisfied with less than a rational GoS for its Judge and Advocate. What is more worthy of man's attention than to make himself worthy of the audience and instructions of Deity by a scientific knowledge of his language, and the observance of his constitutional principles and laws ? And for this, every fr«e agent has but to look to the best use and devel- opment of his mind, in thought, feeling, and action. It is in the audience-chamber of known and demonstrated princi- ples that every man meets. God. It is the scientific laws of Cause and Effect, known and obeyed, that set man right with God and in harmony with his laws. But all the faiths of the world combined leave man in a state below the light of knowledge, and thereby manifest their own darkness and incompetence for salvation. In mental happiness or misery, every man lives in his present thoughts and affections, and the memory of his own past deeds, be they good or evil. And from the demon- strated Constitution of Mind, and the immutable laws of Cause and Effect, it must so continue for eternity. How important, then, that the life of man be so spent, that the memory of the past shall bring no condemnation or painful reflections, but an ever-conscious knowledge of the best light sought and obeyed, and that happy and enlightening trains of thought have been established by habit, and the paramount affections of the mind fixed upon those scientific principles and mental treasures that become an ever-in- creasing fountain of honor and. happiness to the possessor, when the sengual pleasures and treasures of an earthly ex- istence pass away- forever. AU who violate principles, by the laws of retributive jus- tice establish themselves in bad habits that, as followed, become at once their tyrants and tormentors, and from which RELIGION". 389 they can not escape without gi'eat suffering and remorse, and by a return to the government of the very principles they have violated ; and as accumulating transgressions bring accumulated misery, the scientific result is, that all transgressors alike must and will, at some time, by the re- action of their own deeds, be inevitably forced to the right position by the immutable laws of Cause and Efiect, and from wliich there is no appeal or escape. Our demonstrated Character and pevfeetions conclusively prove that nothing was made in vain ; but as the immortal rational mind of man is superior to the transient animal nature of his earthly state, so should it rule. Man right- fully enjoys many healthful and innocent pleasures, through the exercise of his animal functions ; but when these are car- ried beyond the bounds prescribed by justice . and reason, and become t\e ruling powers of the mind, legitimate gov- ernment is subverted, and their exercise becomes criminal, and those retributive, demoralizing effects ensue, that have devastated societies, nations, and empires. Man shows his highest reverence of God by the innate admission and supreme rule of his Attribute of Justice. This insures Intelligence and Love as its positive and nega- tive poles of action, and begets constant obedience as the greatest pleasm-e of life, in which the mind becomes an ama- rynthine flower, whose fragrance is eternal gratitude. The proper cultivation and training of mind arouses the noblest and most exalted emotions, and makes it radiant in acts of goodness, to its Creator's praise. The practice of Universal Justice is the performance of man's duty to God, his fellow-men, and subordinate crea- tion. It begets love and gratitude, and substitutes confi- dence for fear and terror; holding the mind under the equili- briate government of judgment and reason, it supersedes the contingencies of ignorance by the uniform results of scientific knowledge, and progresses its possessor rapidly onward fSv the high honors of- his most illustrious Author. Whatever may be a person's feelings, he should never allow them indulgence beyond the bounds prescribed by justice and reason. Feeling is the breeze that moves the ship of life ; but justice, under the name of Rational Judg- ment, is lashed to the helm of every ship, to head against every adverse wind and tide, and nobly guide her to her 390 EELIGION. port. As a ship by the best government Boonest attains her destination, so man by the strictest justice, judgment, and reason, arrives quickest at a mental state where ennoblipg deeds tenfold repay his earnest toil, and adverse passions fade away. As the Sun is the great central light of its system, so Justice is the great central light of Mmd, to which love and reason bow in submissive reverence. But as the traveler who desires to be at ihe end of his journey, yet neglects the proper evolutions to take him there, will never arrive, so they who desire happiness will never obtain it until they observe those practical laws of Cause and Effect that will alone produce it. Justice is the legitimate standard of Government, Reli- gion, and Morals to the world as universe. To what does mind univergally look for protection from imposition and its treachery, but to justice and its concomitant attributes of reason and universal love ? Surely nothing but justice is adequate to the proper balance of mind, society, or the spheres of universe. \ As a child who, in ignorance, thrusts his hand into the fire, thereby disregarding an organic law of his being, expe- riences a pain to admonish him that persistence will cause- the loss of the member, which would in reality be an evil, 80 the man who transgresses a constitutional principle of mind by an act of injustice, does not fail to receive an ad- monition of Conscience, to warn him that persistence in that course of conduct will end in the destruction of his peace and happiness, and thereby eventually defeat him of the very object of which he is in pursuit, and prove an evil in magnitude proportionate to the crime or crimes that have produced it. Evil as a Creation, being incompatible with our demon- strated Character and Attributes, it follows that it is a nega- tive in their comparative absence. Therefore to know and abide in our Divine Attributes and laws, is the salvation of all proportionate to their knowledge and obedience. Judgment, reason, and universal love, as the exclusive means, refer to and demonstrate to the mind an Eternal Cause as God, as conclusively as the retina of the eye, and the picture thereon drawn, refer to and prove the reality of the object seen. Therefore, to lay aside judgment and rea- RELIGION. 391 son, or either of tliem, in matters of religion, is to lay aside the exclusive means by which it can be known. ^ To say, with Calvin, that " reason is of unlawful use in religion," is as inconsistent and irrational as to say that light is of un- lawful use in the day. "As there can be no day without light, so there can be no reUgion without reason. All such doctrines, so far from proving their authors and teachers to be the vicegerents of God and apostles of light, conclusively prove them to be the dupes or impostors of Ignorance and darkness. The sophistry of impostors should be met by the immu- table truths of science, as unfolded in our universal language of Cause and Effect. Mind possesses the innate means of conquest for every rational need. But it must be forever watchful of its rights and sovereignty, while in its earthly state of existence, or the besetting sophistry of impostors or the allurements of an animal natui-e will gain the ascendency, to its immor- tal detriment. Man, being a free and progressive agent, but in the in- cipient stages of his existence being ignorant, from that ignorance makes improper and untimely use of his own endowments and the subordinate' works of creation, that produce a transient evil as an admonition of instruction, that, through Cause and Effect, he may le9,rn the appro- jjriate and timely use of all things. But to say that evil arises fi'om God, is as inconsistent as to say the sun dispenses darkness. There . are no punishments but such as mankind bring upon themselves from not knowing a!nd appreciating their best and highest interest. And aU such look to their in- struction as preparatory to a state where error is eradicated by scientific knowledge and justice, and a permanent hap- piness built up in relieving contrast to the mind's former ignorance and misery. • For all individuals evil is comparative, finite, and tran- sient ; but good is positive, infinite, and eternal. Evil being but the necessary means through which, by compar- ison, the mind arrives at a knowledge of the Infinite, Per- fect, and Eternal Good. One is the light, the other the shade, in the eternal and infinite picture of life, without which neither good nor evil could be known. 392 RELIGION. Supreme and universal justice is best promoted through its irradiating positive and generating negative poles — universal Intelligence and universal Love. Of these, uni- , versal Wisdom will be the confluent stream, and universal Truth the soientilic and united effect. As inind is purified from ignorance and error, in the same proportion -will our Attributes illuminate and protect and bring in their train the concomitants of scientific govern- mentj religion, liberty, and happiness. Nothing but a perfect likeness of its Creator will satisfy the expanding germ that for that likeness was designed. The unavoidable difficulties and trials of life, with which, more or less, all men meet, are the means by which mind is brought 'to look into and develop its own resources and strength, and vindicate its divine origin and superiority to all opposing difficulties it may encounter in the progress of its immortal destiny. The mind who relies upon the de- monstrated Attributes and Laws of its Creator, with its best exertions and obedience, can never know a permanent defeat, but from one difficulty will acquire wisdom and strength to encounter another, until it arises superior to all, and triumphs in the beatific light, power, and presence of its Eternal Author with the conscious merits of its high position. It is the religious duty of every rational miqd to obey its best light, thereby standing self-conscious of its own rec- titude before God and man ; thus cultivating the monad of • our own Divine Attributes within, if unfolds itself to the likeness of its august Author, and becomes a living fountain for every virtue. Analysis of the scientific religion of Universal Justice shows the known, immutable, and demonstrated Attributes of God as the constituent elements of its being, and their harmonial exercise the living fruit by which it proves its immaculate virtues and holy origin. From the demonstrated nature and character of our Divine Attributes, there can be but one religion, and that having been clearly defined and scientifically demonstrated, all others pretended are necessarily counterfeits and false. It would be as consistent to hold to conflicting powers of gravitation as to assert conflicting principles of religion. From one would arise chaos and confusion of material uni- EELIGION. 393 verse, and from the other, chaos and conflicting opinions of mind,, as has heen abundantljt proved by substituting the superstitions and dogmas of faith, as now: witnessed on earth, for that of scientific religion. There can be no per- manent unity of faith, for the reason that it has no identified and known principles on which to base a unity, but is a mere creature of darkness and doubt, depending ^n time and circumstances, and as changeable as the shades of dark- ness in which it lives. The superstitions of faith can no more abide the scientific light of demonstrated religion than darkness can abide the presence of the noon-day sun ; in • other words, the demonstrated mental light of scientific re- ligious truth is as incompatible with the mental darkness of faith as the light of the sun is incompatible with the dark- ness of night ; for where the one is, the other can not be. What a man knows, is no longer faith and darkness, but light and -knowledge. As mind becomes developed to the possession and government of scientific principles, their neg- ative and contrasting shades of superstition — faith, mystery, and pretended miracles — wiU sink, self-damned, to their respective shades of darkness. Man is an immortal and scientific being, and when pro- perly awakened to appreciate his exalted birthright and calling, will treat any thing less than a scientific and im- mortal religijan with that contempt which all superstitions deserve. As the workman is superior to his work, so is' the uncre- ated Eternal Cause Superior to his works of creation and their exclusive governor. And that man is short of sight who does not look through nature up to nature's God, as the eternal, moving Cause. The animality of nature is of God, but confined to its ap- propriate sphere within the atmospheres of earthly globes, and can nort rise above. Animality is 2s''ature's highest reach ; governed by her unchanging laws, it can not pass. Nature is blind and unconscious of her being, end, and aim — without purpose, choice, or determination ; but by the laws we have assigned her, she, in her smallest parts as in united whole, moves as the needle to the pole, nor does she err, but is always constant to her trust, as circumstances will allow or conditions do admit. Nature in the mite shows but a single organ of her life — 17*- 394: EELIGIOK. to move, to feel, to eat and drink ; -while, in ascending links, she combines more art in vai;ied compounds for varied^ends. " Social and industrious in the bee, she, blind, portrays the provident care her Creator has bestowed ; yet in it all no conscious thought or knowledge attends the teeming hive, with order, skill, and luxurious stores replete." " Nature in the fish gives animation to the liquid floods, and though silent, in the speech of man, they plow the crys- tal waves in social schools, and in their sportive plays, un- conscious of the cause," — by Cause and Effect, — " they speak the language of their God, and proclaim his presence there." Instinctive Nature in the subtle serpent moves, nor are we stingy to the sordid form ; the magnetic fire beams from his eyes. Though unconscious of the. hand that feeds, the swift-winged bird descends to sustain the sordid mortal form of an immortal power, which far its own transcends. " In the Dove, kind Nature, sympathetic, feels a kindred mate, and coos and courts ;" and at our will the Eagle hag another leading sense, the perfect sight, to fit him for his proper sphere. The Turkey struts, the Peacock spreads its gaudy plumes ; no pride they know, but only feel and usher forth, in the true language'cf their God, the inherent gifts he has bestowed. Wherever Nature breaks her tidal wave, in ocean, earth, or air, from the upheaving spray new forms of being sparkle into life. Unconscious of the power that moves, " they speak a language all divine," and through immortal power they usher forth eternal praise by living use, for which they were designed. But life in man is an ocean, where every one is master of his own ship ; Nature the harbor where all are built ; Hap- piness in the likeness of his Creator the port of destination that all desire. "Wisdom is the Chart, Love the magnetic Needle, .lustice the polar Star, while Judgment takes tlic helm. These we give to guide, with Intelligence and Truth as lielping hands, to be shipped at discretion without stint or number. " Desires and passions are the winds and storms that fill the expanded sail, and agitate the sea of life;" Watcliful-Care the quadrant by which you know and keep your right position; Hope the spy-glass that ever holds your port in view. Attention to duty leads through balmy RELIGION. 395 skies, and genders peaceful, pleasant gales of progress and prosperity ; while Ignorance and Sloth yield to the stormy ^last, and drift to dark and polar seas, where mouinful sighs and jarring passions blend. Man in his earthly state of existence is the connecting link and common subject o/McUional Mind and Instinctive Kature; and his highest honor, interest, and happiness in- vite him to nnderstandingly know himself in his appropriate relations and duties, and to conquer and rule over Nature in justice, judgment, reason, and benevolence, and unfold our innate Attributes to their perfect rule and government. In proportion as Justice, Reason, and Benevolence rule the mind of man, he will forever think, feel, write, and act in harmony with the constitutional principles of Universe and the best interest of his feUow-men. But on the conti'ary, where from ignorance man is given over to the control of a proud, selfish, and irrational animal nature, he will manifest its unjust and selfish, instincts to his own immortal detriment and that of his fellow-beings. To surrender the ever-con- scious rule of justice in the mind, is to subvert the govern- ment of an aU-wise and just God for that of a tyrannical and brutal nature, that knows neither compassion nor remorse, and which the more subserved the more demands, until the hapless mind, an outcast from the just and good, and bound fast in the psychologic chains of habit and disrepute, sinks down beneath the mental chains it for itself has forged, a loathsome prisoner of sorrow and despair. Every wiUfial violation of justice sinks the mind who pei> petrates the deed from the Eternal Fountain of Justice and purity, and as followed so will continue, until, from the op- pressive load of darkness, guilt, and shame, it can no further go, when, as a just penalty, it then will find that, with re- pentant steps, it has to make amends for every wrong, and, through long and painful snfferings, regain a just rebition to the good. TTte whole aim of animal instinct is animal self-preserva- tion and animal ffratifications. And if man, with the innate Attributes and exalted endowments of his Creator, gives himself up to be wholly governed by the same incitives, knowing a more exalted sphere of action, does he not degrade himself below the brute, by subverting his noblest and im- mortal ftmctions for the transient gratification of brute in- 396 EELIGION-. stinct, in violation of known and demonstrated principles ? What is more distressing than conscious guilt? or who, upon his death-bed, would not exchange all earthly wealth for innocence ? The paramount sway of justice, reason, and benevolence, by a proper educational development and prac- tical use, is the appropriate remedy. The rational mind of man, being an individualized living monad and child of God, should refer to his demonstrated and immaculate character as the exclusive test and immuta- ble standard for his own, and by analogous review and practical exertion, develop the innate Attributes of his Au- thor to the government of justice in every action of life. When a man has attained to this, he has arrived at a just appreciation of our Divine Attributes, wherein he will find a never-failing and inexhaustible source of strength and con- solation, under all the temptations and afflictions that may . beset him dwing his purification from the governing influ- ence of an animal nature, while in his earthly stage of exist- ence. Justice, Reason, and Universal Love are guardian sentinels of God in every mind to which Conscience points with respect and afiection, and, when obeyed, insure the reward of wisdom. To properly heed the admonitions of Conscience is a fundamental starting-point, that saves from tlie retributive. reaction of virtuous deeds neglected and evil deeds committed. But to obtain the perfect innate govern- ment of justice, in thought, feeling, and action, is the great triumph of mind. It places its possessor in harmonial rap- port with that self-evolving Fountain who is the Eternal Author of all just government, religion, philosophy, science, and art, as the Creator of mortals and conservator of uni- verse. The scientific religion of Universal Justice is as durable as duration, as immutable as its Author,- as comprehensive as the duties of God, Angels, and Men, as perfect as holi- ness, as beautiful as perfection, and as desirable as the im- mortal happiness it affords. As an enlightened and upright man may be known by his simple and unpretending mental garments of Scientific light, justice, and truth, so you may know a deluded and blasphe- mous priest of Ignorance by his sanctimonious and self- righteous deportment, and his flowing robes of darkness, pretended miracles, mysteries, and faith. RELIGION", 397 But wjiatever faith of ignorance declares, in opposition to the demonstrated Constitutional principles and laws of uni- verse, wears upon its own face the conclusive proof of its own falsity, and contains the innate seeds of its own de- struction. Mental knowledge alone is the light of mind ; for without knowledge no light can exist. And faith, clearly not amount- ing to knowledge, how then can, it safely direct the world of mankind in government, religion, philosophy, science, or art ? Faith rejects reason, when not perverted to reason in its favor, and without reason judgment must fall to the ground; and to know God without judgment or reason. is impossible. Yet Ignorance, through her inglorious priest- hood, holds forth faith as the only saving gift of God, be- cause the 'faith they teach, without reason or judgment, makes men the imbruted suppliant tools of their debasing power. What more debasing and self-accursed doctrina was ever taught upon earth than that which leads mankind to believe that tbey may revel in all the lowest debaucheries of an animal nature, and commit theft, robbery, and murder, and" then, by a profession of priestly faith, have another to suffer for all their crimes, while they are wafted off to the presence of a being miscalled God, where one such individ- ual is to be the object of more affection and rejoicing than ninety and nine just persons ? It is a bounty on crime that has no parallel out of the Christian Church of a lying demon and sodomite god. Every one would do well to remember that for every soul he becomes the means to rescue from the paths of ignorance and error, he erects two immortal fountains of gratitude and happiness ; one in the mind of the rescued, and one in his own. And for every one deluded to the paths of supersti- tion and vice, corresponding fires of innate hell will arise to burn unquenohed, save by the just amends and repentance that can alone restore innocence. While the superstitions of faith revolve lipon themselves in constant darkness below the light of knowledge, religion forever moves in the light of scientific truth, and radiates the demonstrated attributes of her Eternal Author. Man, under the guidance of his highest endowments, seeks the highest position and best good for all; but under the sway of his animal propensities, he is too often engage'd in 398 EELIGION. crusliing the just rights of others for some transient pecuni- ary benefit of his own. To sacrifice the sublimity of mind's justification and inno- cence upon the altar of animal passions, is an ofiering too degrading for any truly enlightened mind to make. " It is the Character of an egotistic, bigoted mind to make itself the standard and judge of the world ; condeifaning all who do not respectfully allow its ignorant and debasing as- sumptions. But it is sure to have a snug little hell of its own in consequence of others not being able to appreciate its pretended dignity. The best indication of true religion is that where mind, by the best observance- of Cause and Efiect, best realizes its true position, duties, and relations, and cheerfully performs them. From one defeat or error, man should learn to avoid' all others possible; but never sink to discouragement in a good and practical cause, and no other should be engaged in. The religion of IJniversal Justice- is the inspiration of the Almighty, and he who would most receive, should best pre- pare by the best practical rectification of every wrong, and the best exertion of mind for the ^armonial rule of its con- servative power. There is a right time, a right way, and a right spirit, by which to do every good work prosperously. The scientific religion of Universal Justice embraces the mind's duty, its whole duty, and nothing but its duty. And its full realization is the perfect unity of mind's highest in- terest, honor, liberty, glory, and happiness. As no mental darkness, faith, or mystery can abide the perfect presence of our Eternal Mind, it is splf-evident that all such are but the manifestation of its contrasting shades of darkness. The best civilization is the inevitable and self-evident re- sult of a perfect and scientific religion. It being a scienti- fic fact, proved l5y Cause and Efiect, that there can be no higher grade of society than that where the practice of Un- iversal Justice rules uniform, perfect, and supreme. It is the perfect ultimate of every Attribute of God, and every living virtue. The religion of Universal Justice is the immaculate Gos- pel of the immutable God, as a free-will offering to evei-y EELiGiojsr. 899 rational mind. " It extends through all extent ; spreads un- divided, and operates unspent." There is no depth too low .for its reach, no heaven too high for its rule. No enlightened statesman can ever oppose the scientific religion of Universal Justice, as it is the indispensable and true base of every legitimate and permanent government. The practice of Universal Justice is the best security for progress and happiness, both in the present and future life. Comprehending man's duty in every form to God, govern- ment, and individuals. The religion of Universal Justice requires that no man should injure the character of another sooner than his own ; but to conceal no crime where the public good requires its exposure. As God is a being of scientific order, so let every one who professes to honor him in aU things, be systematic and or- derly, having a time and place for every good thing, and all things in their place, and timely and properly used. As God is holy and pure, so let all who worship and adore him be cleanly in their habitations and surroundings, and keep their persons and raiment free from all unneces- sary pollutions. Attention to order and cleanliness in external and tempo- ral things, trains the mind to scientific order, purity, and holiness in things of the utmost importance. Be diligent in every good work, preferring that which will most honor God and benefit the human race ; for as the amount of good performed, so eventually will be the re- compense. There is no damnation for mankind, but what they bring upon themselves. Duty to man is duty to God, who is the Father and Friend of every rational mind. All men are relatively virtuous as they are governed by an enlightened rational mind, find all men are comparatively corrupt in proportion as they pervert their rational endow- ments to subserve the proclivities of an animal nature be- yond the bounds of justice and reason. Such is the constitution of man that all must hold their animal propensities in strict obedience to justice and reason, or suffer the enslavement and punishment necessarily result- ing from the infringement of this just law. ' 400 EELIGION. The man who disregards the dictates of justice, as mani- fest through his own judgment, in -the verdict of conscience, for the love of money, earthly power, or ambition, lets go the substance of happiness to grasp a shadow. A truly enlightened mind will estimate his interest and just relation to principles above all other interests. To resign the government of principles for the capricious rule of the animal passions, is to resign salvation and happi- ness for condemnation, shamej and misery. Mind as most tTioroughly awake to Justice and best ration- ally cultivated, will best comprehend, appreciate, and fulfill its whole duties to God, itself, and society. The man of principles will be just and kind to all ; but he can not take the unprincipled to his confidence without detriment to himself and the cause of justice. ■ Circumspec- tion is the first fruit of wisdom. Thi innate monad of our Attributes forms the mindfund or capital of every individual or free agency, for the itse of iohich it is accountable and on which icse depends its merits or demerits, accorded in harmony with its obedience or dis- obedience, to the light therefrom, evolved. The rational Mind of God inspires no one but through those principles that form an innate monad of his living At- tributes within. And these to the extent of their develop- ment and rule, are the inspiration of God, alike to all. As mind progresses, so progresses inspiration. To the innate extent and harmonial Government of God's demonstrated Attributes, every rational mind is inspired of God. That man is mentally a true freeman, who is exclusively governed by the innate Attributes of God ; controlling pei-fectly his animal passions by the reins of justice, reason, and benevo- lence. Antagonism to Truth can not exist in a rational- mind that is fully awakened to understand its highest interest, true destiny and duty. • Its intrinsic nature is to love its greatest good ; and that consists in a truthful and scientific know- ledge of itself, and the constitutional principles and laws of universe by which it is surrrounded and influenced. All antagonism to Tratb, and the principles from which it is derived, is to be found in minds under the controlling in- fluence of Ignorance and Error, who for the want of mental enlightenment, mistake their true interest, and set them- EELIGIO% 401 selves ia antagonism with the immutable and conservatory principles of God and universe, where their own deeds re- coil upon them in sorrow, shame, and misery. Scientific knowledge is the light and power of God to the. salvation of all, in the exact proportion as they receive and obey it in harmony with his Attributes and Laws. Every man should audit his accounts with his Creator at the close of every day, and every succeeding day strive to correct all past errors and bring his thoughts, feelings, and actions, to more perfect harmony with our demonstrated Attributes. For happiness and prosperity, mankind must both know and obey the scientific rules of our Divine Attributes and Laws, in place of the debasing faiths and dogmas of men. The immortal and rational part of, man has noble-m,ind- edness and self-respect; his animal nature, pride, pomp, pageantry. There is no religion in the vain pride and pompous shows of man's instinctive animality. Statues and paintings are but embodied thoughts, and. when honorable to their authors, the God who does endow them, will by their works be honored. Let the cold marble speak, and make the canvas blush in honor to their God, till every feeling is refined and every mind instructed. The wisest, appropriate, and timely use of every endow- ment, is the religious and paramount duty of every rational mind. And as it should be their aim, so it is also their highest and only true interest. Appropriate and beneficial employment of both mind and body, with rational intermediate times of recreation and rest, is the duty of all classes. But there is no position safe, that does not make justice the guiding rule for action. Misery arises from the infraction of divine laws ; religion teaches the scientific knowledge and observance of these laws, that misery may cease and happiness abound. As God attd his Principles are scientific, one and univers- al, so must be religiop that is but the appropriate exercise of those principles. And this excludes both faith and sec- tarianism. The -scientific religion of Universal Justice demonstrates itself as the exclusive means of salvation, from the fact, that in its ever-present rule, there can be no crime to punish. It is injustice that makes crime, and brings its merited punish- 402 RELIGION. merit. Injustice, is like the blunderbuss of eternal damna- tion carried by the Christian clergy, most fatal to those who use it. Men, as the immortal children of God, to amend their lives, should compare themselves with the perfect and im- mutable Standard of Universe, and not justify themselves by one another. A daily and paramount question with every individual should be : Do the demonstrated Attributes of my Creator supremely rule my mind in thought, word, and action, or do the desires of an earthly animality gain the ascendency beyond what justice and reason approve ? There can be no solid and substantial happiness in that mind, which is without practical justice and innocence. As the sun of Science lights the horizon of Mind, Igno- rance with her errors, and their consequent punishment, must depart. Knowledge will supplant the darkness of faith and mystery ; peace and prosperity supply the place of war with its taxes and desolations, and confidence and happiness, that of distrust and misery. As the rational mind of man is everywhere the same, varied only by organization, difierent states of development, and the different influences brought to bear upon it, wher- ever found in its legitimate exercise, one man should regard the rights of others, as he justly would himself desire to be regarded under like circumstances. Man, by the ennobling endowment of rational mind, is made a free agent, and enabled to control the impulses of an instinctive nature, and regulate his conduct by the Atti-ibutes of his Creator, by which the general and universal good is held paramount to the selfish interest of peculiar classes arid particular individuals. A man enlightened to an under- standing of the constitutional principles and laws of uni- verse, with his appropriate relations thereto, and governed by the same, will regard and treat the whole human family as the children of one parent with himself, and entitled to the same natural rights and privileges.^ But as sonie indi- viduals, nations, and races of the human family are planted deeper in nature than others, manifesting proportionately less mind and more instinct, in their earthly state of exist- ence, it does not foUow that a race or nation having pre- eminent'development of rational mind, is obligated to amal- gamate its blood with that of an inferior race or nation. EELIGION. 403 They can not do so without .detrimeht to themselves and the highest interest of the human race. The universal good demands that ennobling rivalry, in which every race and nation shall do their best to mutually excel each other in the most perfect development and rule of rational mind. As in- dividuals are called to progress by the innate laws of God written in their constitution, so are nations and races ; but it can not be affected by amalgam with inferior blood. Indi- viduals may give their blood for the benefit of inferior races or nations, but their offspring will lose the earthly grade of their progenitors. As with individuals, so with nations, it is their duty to ef- fect the greatest good within their reach. Scientific knowledge obeyed is the power of the Eternal mind itself, and by it alqne will man find salvation. As in the light of the sun the material man walks safely, so in the light of scientific truth obeyed the mind glides safely on to its eternal home of happiness. But as the -material man who for the first time walks in the dark in a strange land, is constantly in danger, and gets into trouble, so is the mind which trusts itself to tEe darkness of faith, mystery, and pre- tended miracles. Progress in the dark js slow and danger- ous, but in the light swift and sure. Therefore enlighten all men, and spare not the darkness of ignorance that misleads them. • Every inducement should be held out to mind, to enable it to free itself from the imbecility and shackles of ignorancB and superstition, and feel. the exalted, innate, awakened ac- tion of our Divine Attributes as its appropriate guide and center. Immaculate and universal Justice should be the paramount principle of every rational mind. Where all minds are governed by innate and perfect Jus- tice, there will be perfect liberty and perfect government. Penalties as well as rewards arise from the justice and wisdom of God. And he who is wise will appreciate both. He who neglects no duty avoids many errors, but without watchfulness no mind is safe. A justified conscience is the fruit of innocence, and abides the presence of God in peace and joy. But a guilty con- science mars every enjoyment, and leaves its possessor no abiding peace or assurance with his God. The first duty and most important interest of man is to 404 EELIGION. Tnaintain his primeval innocence, and so know himself with his relations to surrounding laws and institutions of universe, as their immutable rules of action in Cause and Effect, as to most honor God, suhserve his own happineSs, and bene- fit his fellow-men. • In the same proportion as man is without a scientific know- ledge of the immutable laws and language of his Creator, in Cause and Effect, to the same extent is he exposed to run into error and suffer the consequence. Innocence and happiness are the desire of all mankind, and in. the justice and benevolence of the Creator they are bestowed as a primeval endowment upon the infant and un- developed ; but no mind ever did or ever can maintain them unimpaired, or restore them when lost, without a scientific knowledge and observance of those divine laws of mind and nature, on which their existence depen.ds ; and herein, by the immutable and unmistakable language of Cause and Ef- fect, is the command of God to all, as they prize their union to the Author of their being, with their innocence and hap- piness, to seek a scientific knowledge. of his laws and insti- tutions, that, in obedience thereto, they may realize the an- swer of their own innate desires, and the exalted object of that munificent Being who is alike the kind Parent of all. God being Omnipresent, all men locally are equally near him. But not so in development of mind or mental states. To approach God, be just at all times, and develop the best thoughts, feelings, and actions your circumstances will allow. It is the prerogative of every free agent to attain to the most desirable position by the best meritorious use of all his endowments. Free agency is the munificence of God to every rational mind who thus permits all to justly merit their own destiny, and rule it for the better. But a, person .must clearly distin- guish between the functions of his rational mind and those of his animal nature, in order to maintain at all times a le- gitimate self-government. A good judgment is the criterion of a well-balanced mind. Where there is no reason there is no conscience ; there- fore, he who teaches that reason is unlawful in religion, teach- es not religion, but a superstition that degrades man to the level of a brute. RELIGION. 405 It is right to do good to all men, but when a man with- out just cause smites another on one cheek, it is not right for the subject to passively turn to him*the other also ; for that is to encourage injustice at the expense of innocence. Self- preservation is the first law of Mind and Nature, and de- mands self-defense against all unjust injuries, and that in the most rational and efiectual way possible. It is doing an ene- my more good to actively and rationally resist his wrong than to passively allow his unjust encroachments. It is no benefit to injure the character of another ; for he who perpetrates injustice can not escape its penalties by the im- mutable laws of Cause and Effect. Every act of life leaves its impress for weal or woe on the immortal mind of its en- actor. When a man has willfully committed a trespass against the just rights of another, he must make just and full resti- tution; as far as reasonably lies within his power, before he can justly look to God for full protection in future. If any man is lowered or raised in the estimate and pro- tection of God, that man must do it for himself, for no other can. Any esteem that one person should hold for another should be based upon principles in virtue of merit. With- out the merit of virtuous principles esteem has nothing but selfish ends. True 'rational love never dishonors nor degrades its ob- ject. While animal desire (often called love) regards noth- ing but its selfish ends and fleshly gratifications. Friendship unintentionally alienated should be restored by the most explicit, courteous, and candid explanations. He who neither gives nor takes improper liberties justly stands upon his own merits. The man who constantly seeks the best light, and honors it with his best obedience, being just to all, is truly relig- ious, and will live and die with a pure conscience, and find an everlasting inheritance with God the Creator. The wise and prudent will never trust themselves to the commission of any deeds but those approved by the demon- strated Attributes of God, where justification and innocence forever smile, and enliven their darkest hours with their joy- ous notes of peace. But how miserable is the man who has done an unjust 406 EELIGION. and disgraceful deed for whicli he has no power or means to make amends in his earthly life, and knows not what may be his facilities ia the next. Eveiy mind should assert the dignity of its Divine Or- igin, and make it manifest in the practical exhibition of our Divine Attributes in thought, word, and action, respect- ing the just rights and feelings of others, as it would itself be respected in like circumstances. To make the scientific light and triumph of justice uni- versal should be the constant aim of every one. The scientific religion of Universal Justice, universally possessed, is uniform and universal protection to the world — to universe. A man must respect himself, to be respected of God and other men. The rational mind who forsakes all error, and persever- ingly embraces every truth, in thought, word, and deed, to the extent of its power, as fast as cognizant of the same, insures that mental progress, justification, and confidence with God, that no earthly power or misfortune can take away or destroy, and for the loss of which no earthly favor, friend- ship, wealth, or power can compensate. The religion of Universal Justice is humiliation to the unjust ambition, pride, vanity, and irrational selfishness peculiar to man's instinctive animal nature ; but stimulates to best exertion every ennobling endowment of rational mind, and unfolds it to a perfect finite likeness of its Au- thor. The only legitimate object of power is to confer benefits in justice, benevolence, and wisdom. The order and harmony of Universe are founded and sustained by Justice and Wisdom. ' True wisdom consists in applying every thing to its ap- propriate use, at the right time, and in the right degree. What justice condemns, a conscientious man will not 3)ractice, although the laws of men may not condemn it. Interested parties absent should receive as strict justice as though they were present. He who would have the confidence and respect of his fellow-men should so deport himself as to merit it. Extreme wealth and extyeme poverty both have a ten- dency to generate crime. EELIGION. 407 Overgrown -wealth often enslaves and embitters the minds of those who possess it. But in competence there is neither the slavery nor temp- tations of either riches or poverty. Errors are departures from justice and wisdom, and the reverse of fixed facts. If you can not speak to praise, do not speak unjustly. The approbation of God and ofie's own conscience is of more worth than the approbation of the whole world with- out them. There is no immutable friendship but in the coalescence of principles. A man may do himself a more serious injury than all others put together. Neither make nor. require promises incompatible with justice. Never let the mouth say yes when justice and reason within say no. Speak and act from judgment and reason, and the feelings can find no just cause for condemnation. Do no injury to others, and put it not unnecessarily in their power to injure you. The verdict of an enlightened judgment is the only force necessary to compel a just man to the performance of every duty.; therefore enlighten and cultivate the judgment of all men. Universal justice among mankind can only be established by the universal development of rational mind. By a careful review of the past in relation to Cause and Efiect, the future is often amended. Justice and scientific knowledge are immutable truths,, and that inspiration of God that will correct all errors with those who possess them. Mental light sees no mysteries ; where there is mystery, there is ignorance and mental darkness. Every just man wiir favorably regard the dispositions of others, for the purpose of doing them good, as far as a strict regard to principles will allow. Courteous and refined manners, equally removed from superciliousness and servility, are the characteristic and le- gitimate fruit of principles. Innocence is a flower bom with the conscious existence 408 RELIGION. of every rational mind, and to keep it untarnished is a guaranteed passport to the eternal presence of its Author. It is unjust to take advantage of innocent and ignorant people to their detriment. The man who clothes himself in perfect justice wears an armor\hat can not be permeated, save by the hand or con- sent of him who wears it. No mind can do full jifttice to itself without doing it to others. A guilty conscience is a needless innate flame of hell that consumes nothing but the happiness of him who carries it. K by any means a fault has been committed, it should immediately be repaired, if consistently possible, and never be repeated. He who is just to all is sure of a justified conscience, and may reasonably look for much good fruit from such abun- dant sowing. But he who sows injustice must reasonably dread the harvest, and carry a conscience that constantly condemns him. Justice is perfection, and therefore immutable, invariable, and omnipotent. Who can escape the violated laws of Eternal and Omnipresent Justice ? Every unjust or evil action is a thorn planted in the gar- den of memory, to arise and be the future torment of its possessor. Every just and virtuous action is a flower of inamortal fragrance planted in the garden of the mind, whose aroma makes life agreeable, and, with the ascending dew of grat- itude, forms the welcomed ofiering unto God. No man can fully reverence God that does not respect the .just rights of his fellow-men. Illegitimate pleasures defeat and debar more enjoyments than they inaugurate. He who brings upon himself self-reproach does himself an injury that no one else can inflict or remove. The time present is the one to improve, for the past is ' gone forever, and the future can only benefit as it becomes present. There is no universal empire for him who conquers with a sword of steel. But he who conquers with the sword of scientific truth will conquer the world, and hold and guide an immortal empire with the reins.of justice and wisdom. GOVERNMENT. 409 The phenomena of universe demonstrate conservative principles ; principles analyzed demonstrate Justice as the harmonial and Omnipotent central power of principles, in eternstl immutability and active equilibrium ; beyond this, no man can go, or conceive of gsing but as a negative. Justice is the eternal and immutable Fountain of princi- ples ; all things refer to and are subject to Justice ; but Om- nipotent Justice refers to nothing" higher. The religion of universal Justice being the only one known or conceivable that is adequate to the full and perfect salva- tion of man, carries on its face the demonstrated evidence of its own divinity, and excludes all others pretended as the spawn of ignorance and error, oriyinated in the compara- tively undeveloped state of the human mind. To secure happiness for a futUre life, do perfect justice to all God's creation here. GOVBENMENT. Government is a power whose only just and legitimate object is to confer benefits on "the governed, and those with- in its influence. And any government, under whatever name or form, as it departs from this, its legitimate use and object, to the same extent becomes unjust, illegitimate, and a despotism. A scientific analysis of the demonstrated constitutional principles and powers of universe conclusively proves that for rational mind there are but two entirely original and dis- tinct governments, from which all others now known on earth have been compounded. Of these two, the first gov- ernment is the force, power, and caprice of that instinctive animal nature in which the rational mind of man is implant- ed and born, as a living but latent germ, like the living but latent germ of the bird in the egg. The second government is the supreme and conscious rule of the demonstrated constitutional principles of universe, which are one and identical with the demonstrated Attributes of the eternal Mind, and the embryo rational mind of man. Under the predominating influence or power of the first government, the rationnl minds of mankind are awakened to conscious being ; and, like the forming bird in the egg, 18 410 GOVERNMENT, are so blended with it ia the first stages of the mind's dc- velopment, as to be unable to clearly distinguish between the exalted innate Attributes of the eternal Mind, of which it is but an individuaUzed, embryo, monad being, and the selfish mundane attributes of that nature in which, as the matrix of its formation and development, it holds its earthly existence. And as there are but these two sources of power for all gov- ernments, it is self-evident that the government of every indi- vidual and nation will exactly correspond to the predomin- ating influence and rule of one or the other of these origi- nal primary powers. And as mankind have it written in their constitution to desire progress, peace, and happiness, and as this progress, peace, and happiness will be in exact proportion to the ex- cellency and perfection of the Government which they adopt and obey, it is important that the best possible government for man, as a standard of perfection, should be known — that all nations may then compete in generous emulation for the great and demonstrated standard of perfection. Now we hold this fact self-evident, and beyond contro- versy, that the best Government for man is that under which every citizen is governed by innate and perfect justice. It combines perfect government with perfect liberty and per- fect law, gives perfect security to lil'e, property, and happi- ness, and puts man in harmonial 'rapport with every Attri- bute of God, every principle and law of universe, every en- dowment of mind and body, and carries him to the haven of his most exalted and eternal interest. This is scientific and perfect government, the ripe fruit of the tree of liberty, as education, religion, philosophy, science, and art are its roots, trunk, and branches. And as man's highest interest is identical with the high- est state of perfection possible, it becomes his religious duty, as revealed by our immutable laws and language of Calise and Effect, written in his constitution, to forever aim at ab- solute perfection of government, religion, philosophy, sci- ence, and art. And for the attainment of this end a perfect Constitution becomes absolutely necessaiy for both nations and individu- als ; and. as we have before demonstrated, there being but one absolutely perfect Constitution for all the rational minds of universe, Almighty God included, it becomes absolutely GOVERNMENT. 411 necessary to those minds who regard their 'highest interest, that the one we have established should be adopted. And this Constitution, the Constitution of universe, as we have before demonstrated, consists of the .five following prin- ciples : Justice, Intelligence, Universal Love, Wisdom, and Truth. And of these the three first are the primary govern- ing code, of which Wisdoffi is the expression and Truth the united effect. And as the head and central power of ail, stands immutable and perfect Justice, as the Empyrean and Eternal Law, that gives to every other principle and power its relative character, value, and position. Now a"fe this Constitution, known and obeyed, has proved itself the exclusive saviour of God and universe, it is self-evi- dent that, as known and obeyed, it wiU prove itself the sal- vation of nations and individuals. To carry this constitution into effectual operation, in a national form, requires an Executive Magistrate to represent the win of the nation ; a Legislature consisting of two Houses, an upper and lower ; the first to represent the Judg- ment and Justice of the nation, in its most exalted and su- preme form, and the second to represent its rational power and sentiment, with a Bureau for every important interest, under the supervision of the Executive.- A Nation consists of Life and Property, and its Govern- ment being for the security and benefit of that life and pro- perty, and supported by taxes on the same, it is self-evidently just that every qualified citizen should have an influencing voice or vote in that government, pro rata to the life and property he represents, and measured by the taxes he con- tributes to its support. The name of every voter should be registered in the pre- cinct where he belongs, with the amount of pr&perty on which he pays taxeS, and each one have a life-vote and one for every thousand dollars, (or some other sum agreed upon,) from which he contributes his proportionate share for ,the public good and safety. This will justly put the control of the Government into the hands of every one pro rata to the interest they have at stake, and for the security of which, according to their means, they equally contribute. For the intelligent, industrious, and economical portion of a Nation, who, as a general rule, are the creators and 412 GOVERNMENT. holders of its wealth and resources, to annually pay their millions for a good and just Government, and then, through the poUs, suffer the harpies of ignorance and vice to appoint their Government and control their property and destinies, is neither Justice, Reason, Wisdom, nor Benevolence ; and the Nation who suffers and continues to allow it will, soon or late, wreck itself upon the rock of its own ignorance and folly. A just and benevolent Government can only be establish- ed and maintained by intelligence and watchfulness, and the poUs of a Nation can not be too strictly guarded. Any actual or attempted fraud upon the poUs of a Nation is to the same extent an actual or attempted demonstration to subvert the just rights and liberties of the people, and shpuld forever debar the instigator and perpetrator from the elective franchise and all ofiices of trust or profit. The polls of a Nation should be made, as far as possible, the fair ex- pression of every voter's judgment, without feai', bribery, fraud, or deception. If members of the National Legislature do not, as far as may be consistent, represent districts casting an eqaal num- ber of votes, they should themselves cast votes pro rata to the votes they reprfesent. Perfect Justice is the only swre base of strength, harmony, and order. And as a nation or individual depart from this, they to the same extent depart from their true and highest iaterest, and tend to destroy the very strength and happiness they pursue. Was not Justice adequate for the salvation of Universe, then Universe itself would not exist. Its harmonious ex- istence proves the omnipotence and perfection of its Sav- iour. Justice, Intelligence, and Benevolence should be the ob- ject and sought end of all government and law, and the ruling principles of every Court. Of what value is a government to the people where Jus- tice is defeated in the very Courts pretendedly instituted to dispense it ? Constitutional Gcivernments and Courts are all a farce where rational freedom and justice are not obtained. Men governed by their animal instincts and passions will use all kiads of deceit to gain the confidence of the people, for the advancement of their own selfish designs. Unjust GOVERNMENT. 413 men will be tyrants if the ignorance and imbecility of their fellow-men will allow them. Man's instinctive animality knows no principles. His rational mind demands the perfect governnient of principles. A man who does not govern himself by justice, will not in justice govern others. Though the written Constitution and Laws of a country be ever so perfect, if they are not innately written and de- veloped to rule and government in the mental constitution of those chosen to administer them, the administration will be corrupted. And people punish themselves when they elect such to. administer their government and laws. ^ The Government of a country should be the united and harmonious expression of the light and will of an enlight- ened people. And as scientific knowledge, in the universal laws of Cause and Effect, is both the light -and power of Mind, so the more enlightened the individuals of a country, the more enlightened, harmonious, and powerful should be its Government. As nations and individuals are governed by the developed innate attributes of rational Mind, so are they civilized ; as by the instinct, proclivities, and passions of an animal na- ture, so are they savage. The worst of governments is that where the rational minds of mankind are governed by ignorance and supersti- tion, and made the slaves of vicious habits from the impro- per indulgence of their animal appetites and passions. The true and perfect Liberty of Man consists in his act- ing from his own innate, developed, Hational Constitution. And as all mankind become developed to a state in which the light of Justice, Meason, and Universal Love bear in- nate and perfect rule, they will all act in harmony with each other and the Constitutional Laws of Universe, from the constitutional necessity of those laws forming the innate government of one and all, and this arising from within, there will be perfect Government and perfect Liberty. Universe and Man were rightly made, as proved from the demonstrated character of the Creator. But man, from his incipient ignorance, misuses both, and brings upon him- self the evils of which he complains. Universal education in the scientific laws and language of Cause and Xlffect can alone rerhove them. 414 GOVERNMENT. National Governments can only promote the harmony and welfare of the world, forward the highest interests of their own citizens, and secure to all their just and equal rights. More, is union of State with a peculiar few, and leads to oppression and the most disastrous consequences. The noblemen of a nation are those who nobly think and nobly act, and it is one of the first duties of every gov- ernment, as far as possible, to make its citizens all noble. But individuals who require special laws to make them such only confess their own weakness and inferiority. True mental worth, left free, will gravitate to its appropriate pSce, as every planet to its sphere of action. • No legitimate Government can ia any other way do as much for its permanent durability, power, wealth, and glo- ry, as by a system of education that will develop the mind of every citizen to the full extent of its rational means and capacity. As every nation and individual honor God, by a scientific knowledge and obedience to his laws, as spread alike before all in our universal volume of Cause and' Effect, so will they of God be hbnored. E.ulers govern by divine right alone, when they rule in justice and equity for the best good of aU, and in the affec- tions of the people. The paramount problem of all governments should be the best disposition of their power to promote the best rational welfare of their people, and the universal good of the human race. In proportion as the Constitutional Principles of Universe attain supreme and universal sway, will wars, crime, and disease cease to exist. The prevalence of universal justice is the prevalence of universal order, harmony, and happiness. The rational mind of man, as developed to the innate gov- ernment of our Divine Attributes, reflects the likeness of its Creator as the mirror reflects the sun. A scientific analysis of rational Mind and Nature, conclu- sively proves, that no nation, society, or individual can bo permanently prosperous, only in proportion as they adopt the demonstrated Constitutional Principles of Universe and the Laws of Nature, as their fundamental and governing code of action. GOVERNMENT. 415 And now, as the saving and demonstrated Constitutional Principles' of Universe allow no wars among mankind, but for the maintenance and defense of the just and equal rights of men under the government of these principles, it is mani- festly the will. of Almighty God, as therein written, that as fast as the nations of Earth become enlightened (to under- standingly recognize and allow universal Justice, Intelligence, and Benevolence to be the will of God and for the universal good of map, so far and so fast shall they most solemn- ly covenant together to lay aside all wars and fighting be- *tween themselves, and adjust all their international difiicul- ties in the most civil and courteous manner by a commission or court appointed for that purpose. This will, as carried into efiect, unite all civilized nations as one great family upon the basis of immutable principles, and supplant the feeling of universal distrust with that of mutual confidence and friendship. And by mutual agree- ment, as the government of principles prevails, the now ex- pensive armies and navies of the world may be reduced to a force sufficient only for internal police and the police of the seas, with perfect safety and a benefit to all, and hun- dreds of millions annually diverted for the improvement and happiness of the human race. The foreign colonies of a nation are its children, and by the laws of God and Nature, stand in the same relation to the parent state, as do the offspring of individuals. Their infancy and youth demand its fostering care and protection, . and in their turn, they owe a just fealty and respect as that of a child to its parent, until they have grown to a national strength and manhood, by which they are qualified to take upon themselves the responsibilities of self-government and the control of their own destinies,' with the same divine and natural rights that belong alike to all mankind under the same circumstances. And when such is the manifest will of large and distant communities, it is the true interest of the parent state to secure their lasting good-will and friendship by a direct acknowledgment and respect of those rights, as they themselves would desire to be respected in a like condition. What is not here written, will be found in our universal language and volume of Cause and Effect, and spread alike _ before all mankind. Look mentally upward, and learn to 416 APPENDIX. converse with your Creator in an unmistakable and incor- ruptible language. Done at the Place of Rest, where the will of God and man are one, as read and copied from the Divine Origi- nal, by W. A. Allibaco, the Friend of Man ; this first day of January, in the fourth year of the Advent of Eternal Justice, God of Universe, to human understanding. APPENDIX. The Addeess and Petitiok of the Attthoe to his COUNTET. As extensive as the dominion of rational mind, is the country of Allibaco. But those of my countrymen whom I would in a more particular manner address at this time, are the Caucasian race of the United States and the British Colonies of North-America. It is with you I was born and bred, and have mostly associated. To me you are one peo- ple ; blood of my blood, flesh of my flesh, and mind of my mind. We are all descendants of the same stock, the same race, and comparatively with few exceptions of the same language. We are all as a people, in pursuit of happiness, from a development of our rational minds and the internal resources we inherit in a contiguous and common country, separated from all others by natural deserts on the north and south, and the largest oceans of the globe on the east and west. United as we are, by the hand of God and Nature, as I read the demonstrated language and Character of our Creator, it is his manifest will, as our common and highest interest, that we should become united in will and govern- ment, as we are in contiguity of territory, blood, race, and interest, to become the generous rival of all other nations in the pursuit of Scientific Government, Scientific Religion, and Scientific Liberty, by a coromon and united effort for the universal diffusion of that scientific knowledge and mental cultivation in relation to Cause and Effect among all classes of citizens, that, as a means, can alone produce and sustain them. It- is with you, in the development of the human race, that the Attributes of our Creator have first unfolded the APPENDIX. 417 human mind to an analytic and demonstrated, scientific, un- derstanding knowledge of Ms defined Nature and Charac- ter, the Constitutional Principles of Universe, Scientific Government, the universal, perfect, and exclusive Language of his Revelations and Communications, and a Religion as pure, perfect, holy, and saving, as the Justice of that God who is its Author, and the obedience which we yield it. Can you, my countrymen, in the greatest light and gift of a Just and Benevolent God, ever manifested to the un- derstanding of the human race, and scientifically demon- strated among you — can you refuse this greatest boon of God to man, and by the immutable laws of Cause and Ef- fect, not sink yourselves self-damned to the lowest mental hell and the darkest shades of ignominy that ever disgraced the human race ? To this solemn and weighty question, there is not, and never can be, but one just and rational answer, and that answer, an Omnipotent, Just, and Benevolent God has written in the rational mind of each one and all of us. In view of the solemn and weighty responsibilities that now rest upon us as a people, allow me, fellow-citizens, to humbly entreat you, as you prize the favor and guidance of that Just and Benevolent God who has so liberally showered his blessings upon us, as you prize your own present and future happiness and that of your offspring, with the welfare of the human race, to show your humility and gratitude before God and man, by a- practical exercise of justice, in the acknowledgment of the equal rights of all his rational children, and the rectification of every wrong within your power. It is my humble and fervent prayer to God and you that, in the demonstrated scientific light of God now spread before you, you will cut yourselves loose from your own past errors and those of the world surrounding you, with every accurs- ing faitlPand mystery of a sodomite, perjured, and demon god, and practically acknowledge the demonstrated scientific God of Justice, Intelligence, and Universal Love, in every action of your lives, to the extent of your ability. And to commence the work like men who know the laws of God and Nature, proclaim to the World, in the most solemn and emphatic manner, that the demonstrated Con- stitutional principles of Univer'se, Justice, Intelligence, and Universal Love are now, and forever shall be, the Supreme 18* 418 APPENDIX. Law and Constitution of your God and Country, to the sub- version of all conflicting laws, eiiher human, jriestly, or Satanic. And simultaneously with this movement, as the necessary and sustaining means to give these generous and God-like resolves their fullest force and permanent endurance, organ- ize yourselves into one great School National, upon the principles of the Federal Union, with a Central Institution at the seat of the Federal Government, (fed with the milk thereof,) and one for each State, with the ramifications ex- tending through every County, Town, and District of the Country. Make this School what you call it, and call it The American School for the Promotion of .Universal Jus- tice, Scientific Government, Scientific Education, Scientific Liberty, and, as the result, Scientific and Universal Happi- ness, to be pursued from the cradle to the grave. As has been scientifically demonstrated, the Constitutional Principles of Universe are innately written by the Omnipo- tent hand of our Creator in every rational Mind. And the object of this School is to awaken and expand them to rule and Government. And as this Government, coming from within, becomes perfect and universal, there self-evidently will and must be, to the same extent, perfect Government, perfect Religion, and perfect Liberty. This Scientific and Universal School, which is for the common and universal good of all, should embrace every citizen of the Republic, and have an Organ of Universal Communication, in harmony with its Character, to at once become the means of collecting and dispensing the light, power, and influence of the Institution, with that of the General and State Governments, in the promulgation of Laws and Treaties, with whatever their wisdom may deem of interest within their respective jurisdictions. And for this reason, and on account of mail transportation, it should be first published at the seat of the Federal Government, and republished in every State, with such addition of local interest as the respective States and Territories may require. Through this medium the General and every State Legis- lature should advertise, and each one ofier a periodical premium for at least one and tjie best volume, copied and scientifically demonstrated from the Universal Volume of Cause and Effect, on the subject or subjects they in their APPENDIX. 419 wisdom should deem and designate to be of tte most benefit for the progress of the State and Nation. And these pre- miums should be of such magnitude as to constatitly command and direct the best Genius and Talent of the Nation to its progress and prosperity, upon just, scientific, and immutable principles. And when these volumes are printed, and -mu- tually exchanged between the difierent parties interested, they should go to found and build up a great National Li- brary of Scientific Truth, so multiplied and distributed as to be accessible to every citizen of the Country. And to keep the Nation constantly alive to every import- ant interest, there should be a weekly bounty paid for the best-written piece on each and every leading interest of the Country, to be published in the same Organ, and universal- ly distributed, with an account of all valuable discoveries and improvements, and such matters of fact as most tend to enlighten and expand the mind, and promote the temporal well-being of man. As a child must <3reep before it can walk, so it is not ex- pected that, in the development and organization of this School, in the present state of human society and scientific knowledge, you will at once attain to absolute perfection. But what I ask and entreat of you. is, to make an effort worthy of the object to be attained, and, by periodical pre- miums, and the light of your own experience, derived from the Universal Volume of Cause and Effect, pursue it until you do attain it. Statesmen and Legislators of America! the American Eagle is now stupid, with his eyes partly closed, and brought to the earth from the Thorn of Slavery, which has festered in his side. But cause him to gaze upon the Universal Vol- ume of Cause and Effect, now opened before him, and if he does not open his eyes and rise, first to your hands, and thence to your shoulders and heads, and from there soar gracefully and spirally into the heavens, extending his cir- cuit as he rises, and dispensing the Attributes of our Crea- tor from the ends of his wings, in concentric and expanding circles of light in the colors of the Rainbow, till the whole atmosphere of Earth is illuminated, then you may call this infant Mind an ignoramus, who can not make a mathematical calculation, nor read the language of his Maker." 420 APPENDIX. And now, once more pointing you to the Universal Vol- ume of Cause and Effect, and commending your immortal Minds to the guidance of its Author, I submit this humble volume to your care and reflection, and my Spii'it to the bosom of that God in whose Eternal Attributes we shall ever live and hold our being. W.A. Allibaco.