"Spooks" means ghosts, sprites, goblins, and other such phantasms. The
word is not yet endenizened in England, but it will probably take
out letters of naturalisation here, settle down, and become a very
respectable member of the English vocabulary.
Twelve months ago I met an American in London, who told me that he was a
Freethinker, but he did not trouble himself about Freethought. His mind
was made up on the supernatural, and he did not care to spend his
time in "fighting spooks." That is, being emancipated himself from
superstition, he was indifferent about the matter, although millions of
his fellow men were still in bondage.
This American gentleman's remark shows how people can be misled by
phrases. "Fighting spooks" is a pretty locution, and every Freethinker
would admit that fighting spooks is a most unprofitable business. But,
in reality, it is not the aggressive Secularist or Atheist who fights
these imaginary beings. He fights those who do fight them--which is a
very different thing.
Let the priests and preachers of all religions and denominations cease
abusing the callow mind of childhood; let them refrain from teaching
their fanciful conjectures about "the unseen"; let them desist from
a peopling the air with the wild creations of their own
lawless imagination; let them tell no more than they know, and confine
their tongues within the strict limits of honest speech; let them do
this, and Free-thought will be happy to expire in the blaze of its
triumph. There is no joy in fighting superstition, any more than there
is joy in attacking disease. Each labor is beneficent and is attended by
a _relative_ satisfaction; but health is better than the best doctoring,
and mental sanity than the subtlest cure.
The clergy are the fighters of spooks. They babble of gods, who get
angry with us; of devils, who must be guarded against; of angels, who
fly from heaven to earth, and earth to heaven; of saints, who can do us
a good turn if they are properly supplicated. But the chief spooks are
of course the devils, headed by _the_ Devil, Satan, Beelzebub, Lucifer,
Abaddon, the Serpent--in short, Old Nick. "We have an army of red
coats," said old Fox, "to fight the French; and an army of black coats
to fight the Devil--of whom he standeth not in awe."
Before the great procession of Humanity go the priests. "Hush!" they
cry, "the hedges are full of devils. Softly, gently, beloved! Do not
rush into unspeakable danger. We will bear the brunt of it, out of our
fatherly affection for you. See, we stand in front, on the perilous edge
of battle. We dare the demons who lie in wait to catch your immortal
souls. We beat the bushes, and dislodge them from their hiding-places;
strong not in our own strength, but in the grace of God. And behold they
fly! Did you not see them? Did you not perceive the flutter of their
black wings? Did you not smell their sulphurous taint? Beloved, the
road is now clear, the hedges are safe. Forward then! But forget not
our loyal services. Remember, beloved, that the laborer is worthy of his
hire, and--shell out!"
The services of the black-coats are imaginary, and their payment should
be of the same description. Let them live on _their own_ faith, and
trust to him who fed Elijah in the desert with sandwiches brought by
ravens' beaks.
Clearly the belief in spooks is profitable to the clergy. Just as
clearly it is expensive to the people. Whistling between the hedges is
as good as keeping a parson. But that is not the priest's teaching. He
says the spooks are real, and he is the only person to keep them off.
Grant the first point, and the second is sure to follow. But _are_ the
spooks real? Can the clergy show a single live specimen? They cannot,
and they know they cannot, either for love or money. Why then does
the business hold out? Because an imaginary spook is as good as a real
spook, if the clergy can twist and prejudice the youthful mind in their
direction. If a showman never lifts the curtain, it does not matter
whether he has anything or nothing on the other side.
The belief in spooks is more than profitable to the priests. It
enervates and paralyses the human mind. It is the parent of all sorts of
mischief. It is our worst inheritance from our savage progenitors. The
black spirits that haunted the swamps and forests of primeval ages, and
terrified the ape-man who lived in mystery and fear, are not suffered to
depart with the ignorance that gave them birth. They are cultivated by
priests, and used to overawe the cradles and schools of civilisation.
The Freethinker does not fight spooks. He would not waste an ounce
of powder upon them. He fights the fighters of spooks. He assails the
superstition on which they flourish. He seeks to free the human mind
from gratuitous fears. He dispels the shadows and deepens the sunshine
of life.
Surely this is a good work. Whoever takes part in it is giving the race
an unmixed blessing. War with the army of enslavement! Down with the
seducers of childhood--the spiritual profligates who debauch the youthful
mind! Banish them, with their spooks, from the school, the college, the
court of justice, the hall of legislation! Let us train generations of
sound minds in sound bodies, full of rich blood, and nervous energy, and
frank inquiry, and dauntless courage, and starry hope; with faces that
never pale at truth, hearts that hold no terms with falsehood, knees
that never bend before power or mystery, heads that always keep a manly
poise, and eyes that boldly challenge all things from height to depth.