THROUGH millions of ages, by countless efforts to satisfy his wants,
to gratify his passions, his appetites, man slowly developed his brain,
changed two of his feet into hands and forced into the darkness of
his brain a few gleams and glimmerings of reason. He was hindered by
ignorance, by fear, by mistakes, and he advanced only as he found the
truth--the absolute facts. Through countless years he has groped and
crawled and struggled and climbed and stumbled toward the light. He has
been hindered and delayed and deceived by augurs and prophets--by popes
and priests. He has been betrayed by saints, misled by apostles and
Christs, frightened by devils and ghosts--enslaved by chiefs and
kings--robbed by altars and thrones. In the name of education his
mind has been filled with mistakes, with miracles, and lies, with the
impossible, the absurd and infamous. In the name of religion he has been
taught humility and arrogance, love and hatred, forgiveness and revenge.
But the world is changing. We are tired of barbarian bibles and savage
creeds.
Nothing is greater, nothing is of more importance, than to find amid the
errors and darkness of this life, a shining truth.
Truth is the intellectual wealth of the world.
The noblest of occupations is to search for truth.
Truth is the foundation, the superstructure, and the glittering dome of
progress.
Truth is the mother of joy. Truth civilizes, ennobles, and purifies. The
grandest ambition that can enter the soul is to know the truth.
Truth gives man the greatest power for good. Truth is sword and shield.
It is the sacred light of the soul.
The man who finds a truth lights a torch.
How is Truth to be Found?
By investigation, experiment and reason.
Every human being should be allowed to investigate to the extent of
his desire--his ability. The literature of the world should be open to
him--nothing prohibited, sealed or hidden. No subject can be too
sacred to be understood. Each person should be allowed to reach his own
conclusions and to speak his honest thought.
He who threatens the investigator with punishment here, or hereafter, is
an enemy of the human race. And he who tries to bribe the investigator
with the promise of eternal joy is a traitor to his fellow-men.
There is no real investigation without freedom--freedom from the fear of
gods and men.
So, all investigation--all experiment--should be pursued in the light of
reason.
Every man should be true to himself--true to the inward light. Each man,
in the laboratory of his own mind, and for himself alone, should
test the so-called facts--the theories of all the world. Truth, _in
accordance with his reason_, should be his guide and master.
To love the truth, thus perceived, is mental virtue--intellectual
purity. This is true manhood. This is freedom.
To throw away your reason at the command of churches, popes, parties,
kings or gods, is to be a serf, a slave.
It is not simply the right, but it is the duty of every man to think--to
investigate for himself--and every man who tries to prevent this
by force or fear, is doing all he can to degrade and enslave his
fellow-men.
Every Man Should be Mentally Honest.
He should preserve as his most precious jewel the perfect veracity of
his soul.
He should examine all questions presented to his mind, without
prejudice,--unbiased by hatred or love--by desire or fear. His object
and his only object should be to find the truth. He knows, if he listens
to reason, that truth is not dangerous and that error is. He should
weigh the evidence, the arguments, in honest scales--scales that passion
or interest cannot change. He should care nothing for authority--nothing
for names, customs or creeds--nothing for anything that his reason does
not say is true.
Of his world he should be the sovereign, and his soul should wear the
purple. From his dominions should be banished the hosts of force and
fear.
He Should be Intellectually Hospitable.
Prejudice, egotism, hatred, contempt, disdain, are the enemies of truth
and progress.
The real searcher after truth will not receive the old because it
is old, or reject the new because it is new. He will not believe men
because they are dead, or contradict them because they are alive. With
him an utterance is worth the truth, the reason it contains, without
the slightest regard to the author. He may have been a king or serf--a
philosopher or servant,--but the utterance neither gains nor loses in
truth or reason. Its value is absolutely independent of the fame or
station of the man who gave it to the world.
Nothing but falsehood needs the assistance of fame and place, of robes
and mitres, of tiaras and crowns.
The wise, the really honest and intelligent, are not swayed or governed
by numbers--by majorities.
They accept what they really believe to be true. They care nothing for
the opinions of ancestors, nothing for creeds, assertions and theories,
unless they satisfy the reason.
In all directions they seek for truth, and when found, accept it with
joy--accept it in spite of preconceived opinions--in spite of prejudice
and hatred.
This is the course pursued by wise and honest men, and no other course
is possible for them.
In every department of human endeavor men are seeking for the truth--for
the facts. The statesman reads the history of the world, gathers the
statistics of all nations to the end that his country may avoid the
mistakes of the past. The geologist penetrates the rocks in search of
facts--climbs mountains, visits the extinct craters, traverses islands
and continents that he may know something of the history of the world.
He wants the truth.
The chemist, with crucible and retort, with countless experiments, is
trying to find the qualities of substances--to ravel what nature has
woven.
The great mechanics dwell in the realm of the real. They seek by natural
means to conquer and use the forces of nature. They want the truth--the
actual facts.
The physicians, the surgeons, rely on observation, experiment and
reason. They become acquainted with the human body--with muscle, blood
and nerve--with the wonders of the brain. They want nothing but the
truth.
And so it is with the students of every science. On every hand they
look for facts, and it is of the utmost importance that they give to the
world the facts they find.
Their courage should equal their intelligence. No matter what the dead
have said, or the living believe, they should tell what they know. They
should have intellectual courage.
If it be good for man to find the truth--good for him to be
intellectually honest and hospitable, then it is good for others to know
the truths thus found.
Every man should have the courage to give his honest thought. This makes
the finder and publisher of truth a public benefactor.
Those who prevent, or try to prevent, the expression of honest thought,
are the foes of civilization--the enemies of truth. Nothing can exceed
the egotism and impudence of the man who claims the right to express his
thought and denies the same right to others.
It will not do to say that certain ideas are sacred, and that man has
not the right to investigate and test these ideas for himself.
Who knows that they are sacred? Can anything be sacred to us that we do
not know to be true?
For many centuries free speech has been an insult to God. Nothing has
been more blasphemous than the expression of honest thought. For many
ages the lips of the wise were sealed. The torches that truth had
lighted, that courage carried and held aloft, were extinguished with
blood.
Truth has always been in favor of free speech--has always asked to be
investigated--has always longed to be known and understood. Freedom,
discussion, honesty, investigation and courage are the friends and
allies of truth. Truth loves the light and the open field. It appeals
to the senses--to the judgment, the reason, to all the higher and nobler
faculties and powers of the mind. It seeks to calm the passions, to
destroy prejudice and to increase the volume and intensity of reason's
flame.
It does not ask man to cringe or crawl. It does not desire the worship
of the ignorant or the prayers and praises of the frightened. It says to
every human being, "Think for yourself. Enjoy the freedom of a god, and
have the goodness and the courage to express your honest thought."
Why should we pursue the truth? and why should we investigate and
reason? and why should we be mentally honest and hospitable? and why
should we express our honest thoughts? To this there is but one answer:
for the benefit of mankind.
The brain must be developed. The world must think. Speech must be free.
The world must learn that credulity is not a virtue and that no question
is settled until reason is fully satisfied.
By these means man will overcome many of the obstructions of nature. He
will cure or avoid many diseases. He will lessen pain. He will lengthen,
ennoble and enrich life. In every direction he will increase his power.
He will satisfy his wants, gratify his tastes. He will put roof and
raiment, food and fuel, home and happiness within the reach of all.
He will drive want and crime from the world. He will destroy the
serpents of fear, the monsters of superstition. He will become
intelligent and free, honest and serene.
The monarch of the skies will be dethroned--the flames of hell will be
extinguished. Pious beggars will become honest and useful men. Hypocrisy
will collect no tolls from fear, lies will not be regarded as sacred,
this life will not be sacrificed for another, human beings will love
each other instead of gods, men will do right, not for the sake of
reward in some other world, but for the sake of happiness here. Man
will find that Nature is the only revelation, and that he, by his own
efforts, must learn to read the stories told by star and cloud, by rock
and soil, by sea and stream, by rain and fire, by plant and flower,
by life in all its curious forms, and all the things and forces of the
world.
When he reads these stories, these records, he will know that man must
rely on himself,--that the supernatural does not exist, and that man
must be the providence of man.
It is impossible to conceive of an argument against the freedom of
thought--against maintaining your self-respect and preserving the
spotless and stainless veracity of the soul.