Chapter II: Part 2

Neither will it become me here to lay down the elements of Astronomy, my appeal is to the Astronomer, and I have merely to remind him, that, if he supports the dogmas of the Priest, or the astronomical blunders of any holy book, he is a corrupt and wicked hypocrite, and a disgrace to the science which he studies, practises, or teaches. Science and truth ought to be synonymous terms, and neither the one or the other ought, upon any consideration whatever, to pay the least respect or deference to established error. To those same persons whom I have given a reference for the elements of Chemistry, I would also refer to other works for the elements of Astronomy. They are now published in a variety of shapes and forms, and I am much pleased to see that a number of gentlemen are giving lectures on Astronomy in all our towns and cities of any note. Such men are worthy of support in preference to the Priest, and although they may jointly, from fear, or other motives, attempt to mix up religious dogmas with their scientific lectures, I know that it must tend to a due enlightenment of the public mind. An Eidouranion or Orrery to have been displayed a few centuries ago would have gathered a pile of faggots for the lecturer, and he would have been burnt as a daring blasphemer, and his machine with him, as the devil's workmanship. Such is the rapid progress of natural knowledge, that I almost doubt whether the person, that shall now stand forward and publish Thomas Paine's Age of Reason, and Elihu Palmer's Principles of Nature, in the same open and determined manner as I published them, would find even imprisonment for it, let him do it openly and I will commend him, and be almost answerable for him in point of loss or suffering.

It is not a sufficient excuse for Men of Science to plead established institutions, or to say that Priestcraft is powerful because six millions of money is wrung from the people in the shape of direct taxes to support it, and about as much more levied in the shape of voluntary contributions upon that class of people called Dissenters. Shew the people that they are imposed upon, and they will no longer be robbed and laughed at, they will soon perceive that the money which this Priestcraft takes from their pockets would be sufficient for a splendid execution and administration of the laws and government of the country. Abolish Priestcraft, and the expense which now attends it will cover all the other necessary expences of the state. This twelve millions of money is spent for the very worst of purposes, for it does not civilize society, but rather brutalizes it, by setting its members one against the other, upon different points of belief, all of which are proved to be erroneous and to have no foundation in Nature.

The Man of Science ought not to look at, or respect, any thing but the discovery and propagation of truth. Instead of respecting mischievous and erroneous establishments, he, of all men, is bound, by every honourable tie, to make an exposure of them, and to teach the people right from wrong. His knowledge and discoveries should be like the benefits of Nature dispensed alike to all without price or reward. He ought to be the patron of truth, and the enemy of error, in whatever shape it might appear, or whatever effect it might produce. Like Nature herself, he should be no respecter of persons or of things individually but collectively.

I have now gone through the first head of this Address, and I trust that I have performed what I promised under it. I have shewn that Men of Science, either from having their minds tinged with superstition, or from the fear of offending those who might labour under that malady, have deprived society of many of those benefits which it was their bounden duty to have conferred upon it. They have withheld from the public the most important discoveries, because, as the Christian Inquisition said to Galileo, such discoveries, or such doctrines, were contrary to those of the Holy Bible. Shame upon such dastardly principles, say I--they are a disgrace to mankind, which assumes a superiority over all other animals. We had better never have possessed the gift of speech, and its consequent reason, if we are only to use it for the propagation of falsehood, and the production of misery, to the majority of the species. I have broken through the trammels of Priestcraft publicly, I bid defiance to all the persecution it can inflict upon me, and I now call upon the Men of Science in this island to stand forward and support me. However it might affect the momentary interest of individuals, ought not to be a question, it is certain that superstition would not linger another year, if the Philosophers of the country would stand forward and make war upon it: they would then find that the extortions of the Priesthood would be willingly given for the erection of Temples of Science, and the support of competent professors in the Arts and Sciences; and that a mutual instruction in every thing that can benefit a society would be the first and last object in view, both individually and generally.

I come now to the second head of my address, in which I have undertaken to shew, that, all existing systems of education are imperfect and improper, and further, to give a sketch of a system that shall be more proper. In the first place I would remark that, in all the schools of this country, or with scarce an exception worthy of mention, the youth are subjected to a certain system of religious study and exercise. They have to attend certain ceremonies called public worship or prayers--they have to get those prayers by heart, and also a catechism of religious belief, or I should rather say religious dogmas, as there can be no real belief where there is no comprehension of the object in contemplation or discussion; however, altogether, about these religious ceremonies, one half of the time of youth is wasted; for the lessons in reading, lessons in grammar, copies for writing, and even those lessons in which foreign languages are taught, have their subject matter founded upon religious dogmas, either ancient or modern. Here and there a moral precept is thrown in, but the dogmas of religion have a decided preponderance, and more than half of the time of youth is wasted upon them. It is evident that these religious dogmas make not the least impression upon the minds of youth, further than to stupify them by so dull and so constant a repetition, and the reason of this is, that these religious dogmas have no foundation whatever in Nature. They neither instruct, amuse, interest, or delight, because the youthful mind has no comprehension of their object, and can perceive no real utility arising from them. They are viewed but as a matter of school discipline, and the youth returns to them with a loathing. Still they are continually pressed upon him as long as he remains under parent or tutor, and he grows up with a mind soured by an habitual distaste of that which he is told to venerate. If you were to instruct a child in the elements of Chemistry, you would find that it would be constantly amusing itself with such simple chemical experiments as its childhood could practise and comprehend: it would feel an interest in all the little experiments it could make, and that interest would lead on to a self-importance, to industry, to a knowledge and due comprehension of the value of time, about which children think so little, or rather think nothing at all, under the present system of education. They are exhorted to set a value on their time by written precepts, but they have no inducements to that object, owing to their system of education being one dreary monotony. No part of it is calculated to kindle the fire of genius, or to cherish the aspiring spirit of youth. It is from such a system of education that true genius has become so very scarce, and is so seldom seen: it blunts and stupifies the mind, and obscures that radiance to which the system I now propose would have given energy and opportunity to display itself. Many of Nature's Nobles have passed through life unknown and unheeded entirely from the influence of a superstitious and genius-destroying education!

From the evident disposition of children to imitate all the actions of grown persons, from their little scientific propensities to produce in miniature what they see in magnitude, from the delight which they feel, and the deep interest which they take in all their little works and playful amusements, it is certain that nothing more is required to put them in the channel of correct ideas than to give them such instruction, and to bend their minds to such objects as shall at once employ, amuse, and delight, and at the same time form a playful and healthful exercise for them; whilst it is calculated to expand their minds in the knowledge and comprehension of those objects which are above all things conducive to the interests of society, and which relate to the progressive improvement and advancing state of the Arts and Sciences.

The objects to which I allude, are chemical experiments, and experiments in every other branch of Natural Philosophy: and a study of Natural History by observation and examination of natural subjects. I need not enumerate the various branches of Natural History, suffice it to say, that I would have a system of education that should embrace the whole successively; and here a wide field would be open for the conversion of priests to professors in the various departments of this science; and this science alone is so far infinite as to make the life of man a continual system of education and research. Independent of the foregoing sciences there are Geography, Astronomy, Mechanics, and all the lesser branches which are commonly and necessarily taught to youth in the present system of education. This I consider would be a natural and proper system for the education of youth, and this system has all the degrees which are as well adapted to the comprehension of infants or children of three and four years old, as to the most mature age and knowledge.

The beauty of scientific pursuits is, that there is always a novelty in them--that discoveries in them will ever be infinite, and that the further you proceed the more you see before you, and the more ardour you feel in those pursuits. It is the best of all amusement and pastime, because, it produces universal advantage and universal satisfaction, whilst it neither fatigues the follower nor injures his neighbour. Other amusements and pastimes are apt to occasion individual injury and even misery, but this cannot. The sportsmen cannot hunt or shoot, without damaging the cultivated property of others, and whilst in the pursuit of his game his mind allows no obstacles to be just. With the Man of Science the case is different, his amusements and experiments are made within a narrow sphere, and the result is calculated to benefit all without injury to any.

Chemistry I deem to be the foundation of all other science, and in a manner pf speaking to comprise all other branches of science. As matter and motion comprise everything we can behold or conceive, and as Chemistry is an investigation of the properties of matter, with the causes and effects of its various combinations, it is evidently the most important part of science, or rather, the first and last part of it. The cultivation of the earth--the cookery of our food--its quantity and quality, and every thing connected with feeding the body--the preservation of our health, and the very preparation of our clothing, may be said to be comprised in the terms chemical analysis and composition. There is no one part of the Arts and Sciences, but to which Chemistry has relation, and even the most important relation. In all manufactures, whether wood or metal--clay or stone--wax or glass--paper or cloth, or what not, the knowledge of Chemistry is essential. It is to the science of Chemistry that we owe all our artificial productions, it is to the science of Chemistry that we owe all our knowledge and comprehension of natural productions, and their adaption to our several uses. It is therefore of the first consequence that we should commence our studies in this all important science, even in our infancy. As the Science of Chemistry embraces so extensive a variety of objects, it is not without a class simple enough for the comprehension of children. The burning of a candle is a chemical experiment for the production of light--the burning of the fuel which keeps up our fires, is but a chemical experiment for the production of heat; to which a thousand might be added equally simple, a definition of which could not fail to be of the greatest importance in the education of children. And why might not even the first lessons of children be comprised of these and similar simple chemical experiments, which beyond every other subject must instruct and amuse, attract the child's particular attention, and expand its mind by filling it with correct ideas?

I would banish from our school-books every word about God or Devil--Heaven or Hell, as hypocritical and unmeaning words, mere words of sound, and confine the attention of children and youth to such subjects, as an every day's experience shall evince to them to have a foundation in Nature. Moral precepts might, be necessary and useful but even morality might, in my opinion, be taught much better by example than by precept. Therefore, I would say, that the books of children had better be filled with scientific subjects than with moral precepts, as the former are infinite and cannot be too early entered upon, or too closely studied, whilst the latter might be comprised in a few expressions, and taught better, and with more impression by colloquy and example, than in lessons for reading and writing. However, lessons on moral virtue might be most appropriately mixed up with lessons on scientific subjects. They lead to one common end--the happiness and welfare of the human race in society.

Let no one imagine that I hold moral virtue in light esteem, or that I deem it a secondary object, No, the possession of moral virtue with the grossest ignorance on every other subject, is preferable to the most extensive knowledge connected with an immoral and vicious character. Moral virtue should form the foundation of every motive, and every action in life. It is from the conviction that scientific pursuits, or a scientific education, must naturally lead to the extension of moral virtue, that I have been induced to submit this sketch to Men of Science. Moral virtue is with me a _primum mobile_ in all things. It forms the beginning and the end of all my views, and, according to my conceptions, of all the principles I advocate and teach. But I would most strenuously exhort the reader to abandon the idea, if he does hold it, that morality is dependent on religion, or that the former cannot exist without the latter. I solemnly and deliberately assert, that religion is rather the bane than the nurse of morality. I have imbibed this impression from the deepest reflection and the closest observation of mankind. To those who think Lord Bacon an authority worth notice, for what I assert, I would refer them to a quotation from his writings on a former page. However, I want no written authority, nor no name, to convince me of the truth of my assertion; we have but to look around us with an impartial eye, and we might read it in the every day actions of the majority of mankind.

I would also banish from our schools Homer, Hesiod, Horace, Ovid, and Virgil, and every volume that makes the least allusion to the mythologies of Greece or Rome, or any-other part of what have been called the Pagan mythologies. If such books are amusing or instructive in ancient history, it will be time enough to read them after having gone through a scholastic education. They should make, no part of the school routine. I do not here mean to dispute the propriety of children been taught the dead languages, although I must confess, that I consider them no farther useful than to teach the etymology of our own language. Paine, Franklin, and Cobbett, are powerful instances that they are by no means essential to an enlarged mind. However, if the dead languages continue to be taught in our schools, I could wish them to be taught through a different medium than at present. Those languages might be taught on other subjects than wars, famines, and massacres, immoral mythologies and the history of base and vicious characters. It has been the common misfortune of historians to take especial notice of base and vicious characters. Hitherto profligacy has been the chief passport to immortality, and the virtuous few have passed through life unheeded before or after death with but very few exceptions. The very books which are called holy and divine are filled with descriptions of human monsters, and scarce any set off or contrast to exhibit the benefits and beauties of moral virtue among mankind.

I am sensible that at present no books exist, such as I point out for the use of schools, embracing the elements of the Arts and Sciences, and free from allusion to all kinds of mythology and superstition, among which I wish to be understood as including the mythology and superstition of the Christians, but no task can be more simple than for a few Men of Science to compile them. Of late some brief and partial descriptions of the Arts and Sciences have been introduced into school-books, but it has been mingled with so much trash about religion and superstition, as to render it of no avail, and but as a secondary or useless object. It is high time that the subject was taken in hand by Men of Science, and that such books, in the various departments of science, should be compiled, as to be adapted for all the different stages of education. None but he who is skilled in any particular science can be equal to the task of compilation. He alone can judge of the best method of introducing that particular science to the youthful mind. It will not be necessary that I should here draw out any specific plan for this system of education; I submit the outline to the judgment of Men of Science. My meaning is too clearly stated to be misunderstood or cavilled with. The subject is a proper one to attract the attention of any legislature that emanates from, and legislates for, the benefit of the people, and he that shall move it as an amendment to Mr. Brougham's proposed system, which has no other object than to become a new prop for decaying superstition, will at least deserve well of his country and every lover of science and real liberty, whether he succeeds or not. It is a subject that no honest man need be ashamed of. It is by no means a theoretical subject; if it be a novel one, its practicability, and its importance, must reach every mind that has the least idea about Science, and its utility. I break in upon the present system of education no further than that I would change the medium through which the lessons for reading, exercises in grammar, copies for writing, and that in which the dead, or even living foreign languages are taught: the medium which I would substitute, should treat exclusively of scientific subjects, so as to leave the mind in a continual state of exercise upon the subject of Science, and that alone. Unlike religion, Science can never weary the mind: the dreary monotony of the former is a perfect contrast to the life-inspiring power of the latter. Every step you take in Science, stimulates you to further pursuit. The vast volume of nature, that book of books, that only revelation worthy the attention of man, is always open to the Man of Science; and in this book the child can find a language that shall be intelligible, and adapted to his youthful capacity. He can read here without stupifying his senses, and gain useful information without corrupting his manners.

I would even exclude all historical subjects from our schools, as very little of what is left us can be relied on as true, and such as is true, is of very little consequence to a rising generation. However far it might be useful in the shape of example, or amusing and instructive to grown persons, it forms but a waste of time with children at school. General History is but ill adapted to correct the bad or stimulate the better passions of mankind. It displays scarce any thing but the ignorance and brutality, the massacres and superstitions, which have been so common to mankind hitherto. It is rare indeed to find a sketch of a virtuous character. I am of opinion that we could not do better than draw a veil as close as possible over the past, and endeavour to start upon a system that our posterity shall not blush to read when impartially stated. Who can read the history of the past, without blushing and pitying the madness of that animal man, for making so bad a use of his gift of speech and its consequent reason? I must confess that I cannot.

In teaching Geography it is by no means necessary to describe the ancient division of the earth into Empires, Kingdoms, Principalities, &c, or the customs of their former several inhabitants, as they have been subject to a continual change, to trace which, serves but to distract the mind without filling it with any useful information: it would be sufficient for all purposes in studying this science, to become acquainted with the present divisions of the earth, and the present customs, manners, and distinctions of its inhabitants. The same rule applies to Astronomy, it is by no means necessary, but as a matter of curiosity, to trace and study its history: it is sufficient to acquire all the present information that can be obtained in that science, and to stand prepared to make further discoveries or to receive the discoveries of others. By cutting off all that part of the present system of education which forms but a waste of time, you will gain so much the more time for making fresh advances in the various Arts and Sciences. Of course, I do not expect that under my proposed system, one individual can become an adept in all the various branches of all the sciences--no--it would be still necessary that some individuals should confine themselves to one particular science, and some to another, as their peculiar abilities and dispositions might suggest, as the best means for a further and a quicker improvement and advance in the whole. It is sufficient that they all begin right, and waste no time about unmeaning and useless trash; but, by an assiduous application to their several branches, make the farthest possible progress.

That infinity of experiments which Chemistry opens to our view, and that infinity of subjects for examination in Natural History, makes it necessary to begin at those two sciences as early as possible. The elements of Chemistry, a knowledge of which is so essential in all the relations of life, might be simplified for an adaption to the meanest capacity, and even to that of children beginning to read, of which I have before pointed out two familiar instances, upon which a more enlarged explanation might be made, and to which a thousand others equally simple and instructive might be added. In Natural History what a vast field is open? wherein

"To teach the young idea how to shoot."

Here every thing both in the animal and vegetable world, which comes under the every day observation of the child, or even the grown person, might be familiarly described and explained in our school-books by a regular classification and arrangement. By such a system of education as this, the youth would instinctly and involuntarily read a useful lesson in every object that came within his view; his mind would be incessantly led to a contemplation of Nature, a knowledge of which can alone lead a man to true and substantial happiness. No part of matter would then escape the scrutinizing disposition of man, he would explore the ocean and the rivers, the mountain and the valley, the forest and the plain, the bowels of the earth and its atmosphere, and even the surface and atmosphere of other orbs to gratify his scientific and laudably insatiate curiosity. The blade of grass, the leaf, the tree, its fruit, the flower-bed with all its vivid tints and animating effluvia, with all the infinite variety both in the vegetable and animal world, would alike form matter for his scientific research, and objects for him to explore. Here in contemplating the stupenduous organization which constitutes animal and vegetable life in Nature's infinite variety, all varying, yet all connected by one common link, operating by one common cause, and to one common end, a successive production and decay, decay and production, the human mind might find an exercise as infinite, and have ideas stirred up equally stupendous. I cannot help exclaiming: This is the path of Nature: tread here, O Man! and be happy.

The works of Nature though infinite are strictly analogous, and human reason is produced by the same laws as every other natural product. The culture of the mind, by which human reason is produced, bears a strict analogy to the culture of the soil, by which we subsist In each Nature will produce to a certain degree, but the aid of art is necessary to produce a sufficiency, and to reach refinement and perfection. It is therefore of the utmost importance that we begin right, that all the ideas of our infancy and youth be founded in Nature, and that the poisonous effusions of Priestcraft be carefully weeded, and kept from our minds. We should guard our minds against those destructive enemies of human reason, the priests, as we would our fields and gardens against the destructive powers of the locusts, or similarly destructive insects and animals. Our interest and happiness is as much at stake in the one instance as the other, for the Priest is not content with destroying our happiness, but he must be also fed by our labour. He takes on an average an eighth of all our produce.

The children or the man might here learn that the organization of the vegetable is not less stupendous than that of the animal--that the life and the death of the vegetable is as near alike the life and the death of the animal as that the life and the death of any two animals of a different species are alike each other--that there are animal-vegetables and vegetable-animals, or living substances, in life and vegetation, that partake both of the properties of animals, and vegetables--that this is an evident link between animals and vegetables which unites them in the great chain of nature--that they exist by the same cause, for the same purpose, and to the same effect, He might also learn, that the organization of the smallest insect and animalcule is equally stupendous with the organization of man himself; that it is alone from a peculiar organization that the different animals have the power of uttering so many different sounds, and that man is indebted to the power of uttering a greater variety of sounds for his gift of speech, and for a greater degree of reason, than any other animal possesses, as its consequent. Let the child, or the man even, be taught to reason in this manner, and he will soon feel himself humbled down into his proper sphere in the scale of Nature. He will leave off all the mad tricks which now daily and hourly occupy his time, he will occupy his time by a self and social improvement, and will perceive that a study of Science can alone lead him to true happiness.

Why might not the Linuean system of classification, arrangement, and description, both of animals and vegetables, with all the improvement which has already been made, or which might be made in future, upon that system, be taught in our schools to children? What can be more simple, more amusing, or more useful, and more instructive? What other system of education can be so well calculated for a proper expansion of the juvenile mind? How much more advantageous to society would such a system of education be, connected with a knowledge of Chemistry, Astronomy, Geography, Geometry, and the Mathematics, than all that lying and stupifying lore about religion and its offspring; for the support of which mankind are so excessively robbed? If religion be a word that has any substantial definition, or if it be a proper word, and can be made applicable to Nature in its meaning, or the action it indicates, I have no hesitation to say, that the System of Education which I now propose forms the basis of the only true, the only rational religion. The word religion implying a fixed faith or belief, and having its etymology in the Latin verb _religo_, to bind fast, there can be no true, no just, no rational religion, but that which applies to something we can comprehend, and which has its foundation in Nature and her laws. We cannot strictly speaking fix our faith on a phantom, unless we admit faith itself to be but a phantom of the mind, yet such is the pretence of all those who make so much clamour about the word religion. A study of Nature and her laws, alone forms any substantial faith or religion. This study I would make the basis of all education, to the exclusion, or explosion, of all the remaining mythological nonsense of the day.

Arithmetic, Geometry, and the Mathematics, being taught in figures, admit no change in the system of teaching, or at least in the medium: the same might be said of Algebra, which has the simplicity of the alphabet for its medium for instruction and practice. This forms the only part of education that the priests have not corrupted, and the reason is because they could not; and these figures being above their reach to corrupt or destroy will prove their overthrow. The science of the Mathematics has given a fatal blow to Priestcraft, and this science, connected with Astronomy, was the first which, began to undermine the dogmas of all priests. The science of Chemistry has come to its aid, by proving that matter is indestructible and imperishable, and must have existed as it now is, to all eternity as to the past, and will exist as it now is, to all eternity as to the future. The sciences of Physiology and Zoology have convinced us that the organization of the animal called man, is not more wonderful than that of every other animal and vegetable, nor is he of more importance in the scale of Nature. All that can be said of him is, that he is superior in mental strength to any other animal, and his superiority over the lion, the tiger, or the elephant, is not more than the superiority of those animals over the lesser beasts of the forest. Man only possesses the highest degree in the rank of animals. It is high time to teach man what he really is in the scale of Nature, and no longer allow him to play such fantastic tricks as he does play, by pretending to be something beyond other animals, and to possess supernatural and immortal powers of existence. Man has nothing but the dogmas of superstition in support of his future sensible existence--these dogmas are false and wicked impostures. No appeal can be made to Nature in support of them. Man, as a part of a whole, or as an atom of matter, is immortal, but with whatever he might amalgamate after his frame has passed its dissolution, and has evaporated like a dunghill, or a bed of rotten vegetables, that atom can retain no sense of a former existence. The system of Pythagoras would have been strictly true and rational, if he or his disciples had not imagined a sense of former existence, or that an animal under one shape could retain a sense of his existence under a former shape, although the two might form two distinct animals of a different species. Pythagoras, and his followers, have erred only on this point. I would bring the whole race of mankind back to a conviction that they exist to no other purpose, and by no other cause than every other animal and vegetable. Let mankind be once sensible of this important fact, and they will cease to persecute, to harass, to rob, and to destroy each other. They would then make the best use of their time, and view their animal existence but as a moment in the space of eternity. They would sedulously endeavour to increase the sum of human happiness, and lessen the sum of human misery, and this alone would form the first and the last object of their wish and existence Let our youth be educated upon this basis, and let even grown persons, re-educate themselves in the same manner, and we shall soon see mankind in its proper character. That character will be the opposite of what it is at present. The representative system of government will be found to be the only necessary government amongst them, and the chief part of legislation will consist in an advancement of the Arts and Sciences.

I have now completed the task which I set out by promising, and whatever reception my address might find among Men of Science, I feel assured that I have misstated nothing, and that nothing which it contains can bear contradiction. I neither fear the critic or the caviller upon the ground-work of my address. I have performed a task which I have many months had in view, and the more I have considered the subject, the more I have felt its importance. I submit the whole, not to the prejudices of the bigot or the priest, but to the clear impartial judgment of Men of Science. I have kept much within bounds in noticing the advanced state of Science, and I feel assured that what I have recommended can be easily and immediately reduced to practice. The breath of Philosophy is now sufficiently strong to puff out the glimmering superstition of Priestcraft. The Philosopher should no longer bend the knee to this or any other corrupt power. There is a keen public appetite for philosophical truths. I feel satisfied that I have the daily thanks of thousands for rescuing their minds from the horrible dogmas of Superstition and Priestcraft. I have so strong an assurance of the rapid decay of superstition, and the powerful effect of the books and pamphlets which I have thrown into the social system, that no persecution, no punishment, no fines, shall deter me from proceeding to the utmost of my power and abilities. I am happy to see others following in the same path, as I rather court assistance and emulation than dread it. I am ever pleased at the extensive circulation of those publications to which mine are exposed, as it is of the first consequence to stimulate mankind to read, to examine, and to discuss the pretensions of all principles. The Bible Society might circulate its millions of books, and not a member of that society shall feel more pleasure at the circumstance than myself. I do not wish that any of my publications should fall into the hands of any individual, but he who can read the Bible, and who is fully acquainted with its contents, and all the dogmas which the priests of this country teach. It is on this ground that I wish to try the force of those principles which I advocate and no other. I feel assured that no impartial and disinterested man ever read a copy of

Thomas Paine's Age of Reason without having his faith shaken in the Christian religion, and if ever he has read Mirabaud's System of Nature he will find his faith shaken on the subject of all religion. He will see that the whole has arisen from one common fault--the ignorance and credulity of mankind.

For instance, when the use of the telescope and the advanced state of the science of Astronomy has given us ocular and mathematical demonstration, that every orb we see revolving in the wide and infinite expanse of space, and that each of that infinite number of orbs, which something more than hypothesis convinces us do revolve in space, corresponds with a portion of that solar system, of which our parent earth is a part, that they are guided by the same laws and composed of the same species of matter, by which we infer that they bear the same productions, does not the query arise in our minds, which must inevitably strike down the fabric of the Christian religion, that if it was essential for a Jesus Christ, the only begotten son of God, as old as his father, to pass through the virgin-womb of a woman, to be buffeted, scourged, and put to an ignominious death by a sect of superstitious bigots, who have constantly for the space of eighteen hundred years denied all knowledge of such a person, for the purpose of procuring the future happiness of those animals on this orb whom we call human, and their salvation from the eternal torments which he and his father had prepared for those who should reject them; was it not also essential, that this same Jesus Christ, this only begotten son of God, as old his father, should have submitted to a similar incarnation in a virgin-womb, and have been buffeted, scourged, and executed, as a criminal malefactor, according to the respective customs of treating such characters on the several orbs, or the peculiar part of them on which he might chance or choose to inhabit; was it not essential that he should have performed a similar mission for the similar salvation and future happiness of the several inhabitants or animals denominated human on each and every one of those orbs? Can any priest answer this question? The Man of Science I know will smile at it, and pity the credulity and ignorance of all who have believed, who do believe, or who may believe, such ridiculous nonsense. Then let him come forward and preach up his scientific knowledge, and silence the dogmas of the priest. It is reserved for the Man of Science to rid mankind of this horrid ignorance and credulity, and to impress upon their minds the all-important subject of scientific knowledge. Man does not naturally delight in ignorance and credulity, but he naturally strives to free himself from those vices. There is no truth that you can impress upon the mind of man, but what he will rejoice at feeling it to be truth, and himself undeceived as to former error. It is the interested hypocrite alone, that is alarmed at the progress and power of truth, he whose very trade is the known propagation of falsehood and delusion, the tyrants tool and scourge. All tyranny, oppression, and delusion, have been founded upon the ignorance and credulity of mankind. Knowledge, scientific knowledge, is the power that must be opposed to those evils, and be made to destroy them. Come forward, ye Men of Science, ye must no longer remain in the back ground as trembling cowards, ye must no longer crave protection from, and creep at the pleasure of, your direst foes; grasp at tyranny, at oppression, at delusion, at ignorance, and at credulity, and you shall find yourselves sufficiently powerful to destroy the whole, and emancipate both the mind and the body of man from the slavery of his joint oppressors.

The latter of the before-mentioned works is a most important one, and has hitherto passed through several editions without molestation by the Attorney General, or the Society for propagating Vice. Whatever they may attempt, it will defy the malice of either. Many other very important publications are now in full sale, and from the appetite which I find still exists for them, I have been induced to make this bold appeal to Men of Science, calling upon them to stand forward and vindicate the truth, from the foul grasp and persecution of Superstition; and obtain for the island of Great Britain, the noble appellation of the focus of truth; whence mankind shall be illuminated, and the black and pestiferous clouds of persecution and superstition be banished from the face of the earth; as the only sure prelude to universal peace and harmony among the human race.

DORCHESTER GAOL, MAY 1821.

Eighteenth Month of the Author's Imprisonment, and the Fourth Month of the Imprisonment of his Wife.

End of Project Gutenberg's An Address to Men of Science, by Richard Carlile