* Written in August, 1884.
We are in the midst of a political crisis. The House of Lords opposes a
reform unanimously voted by the House of Commons. Great demonstrations
are being held all over the country, to insist on the popular will
being carried into effect, and there is a growing cry of "Down with the
Lords." A spectator from another planet might wonder at all the fuss.
He might marvel how forty millions of people needed to stamp and
gesticulate against a handful of obstructives. He might imagine that
they had only to decree a thing and it would immediately be; that all
opposition to their sovereign will would melt away the moment they
declared it. This traveller, however, would soon be undeceived. A little
study would show him that the people are kept in check by faith and
custom. He would learn that the nation is tied down like Gulliver was,
by ligatures springing from its own head. Behind the King there is a
King of Kings; behind the Lords there is a Lord of Lords. Behind every
earthly despotism there is a heavenly one. The rulers of mankind overawe
the people by religious terrors. They keep a body of men in their pay,
the black army of theology, whose business it is to frighten people from
their rights by means of a ghost behind the curtain. Nobody has ever
seen the bogie, but we are taught to believe in it from our infancy, and
faith supplies the deficiencies of sight. Thus we are enslaved by our
own consent. Our will is suborned against our interests. We wear no
chains to remind us of our servitude, but our liberty is restrained by
the subtle web of superstition, which is so fine as to be imperceptible
except to keen and well-practised eyes, and elastic enough to cheat us
with a false sense of freedom.
Yes, we must seek in religion the secret of all political tyranny and
social injustice. Not only does history show us the bearing of religion
on politics--we see it to-day wherever we cast our gaze. Party feeling
is so embittered in France because the sharp line of division in
politics corresponds with the sharp line of division in religion. On
the one side there is Freethought and Republicanism, and on the other
Catholicism and Monarchy. Even in England, which at present knows less
of the naked despotism of the Catholic Church than any other European
country, we are gradually approximating to a similar state of things.
Freethougnt is appearing upon the public stage, and will play its
peculiar part as naturally as religion does. Those who fancy that
theology and politics have no necessary relations, that you may operate
in the one without affecting the other, and that they can and should be
kept distinct, are grossly mistaken. Cardinal Newman has well shown how
it is the nature of ideas to assimilate to themselves whatever agrees
with them, and to destroy whatever disagrees. When once an idea enters
the human mind it acts according to the necessary laws of thought. It
changes to its own complexion all its mental surroundings, and through
every mental and moral channel influences the world of practice outside.
The real sovereigns of mankind, who sway its destinies with irresistible
power, are not the czars, emperors, kings and lords, nor even the
statesmen who enact laws when public sentiment is ripe; they are the
great thinkers who mould opinion, the discoverers and enunciators
of Truth, the men of genius who pour the leaven of their ideas and
enthusiasm into the sluggish brain of humanity.
Even in this crisis it is easy to see how Religion and Freethought are
at variance. The Liberal party is not pledged to the abolition of
the House of Lords, but the Radical party is. Orthodox Liberalism
is Christian, only a little less so than orthodox Conservatism; but
Radicalism is very largely sceptical. It would surprise the dullards
of both parties to learn how great a portion of the working energy of
Radicalism is supplied by Freethinkers. True, many of them are unavowed
Freethinkers, yet they are of our party although they do not wear our
colors. But setting all these aside, I assert that Radicalism would be
immensely weakened by the withdrawal of declared Freethinkers from its
ranks. No one in the least acquainted with political organisation would
think of disputing this.
Belief in God is the source and principle of all tyranny. This lies in
the very nature of things. For what is God? All definitions of religion
from Johnson's down to that of the latest dictionary agree on this one
point, that it is concerned with man's relations to _the unknown_.
Yes, God is the Unknown, and theology is the science of ignorance. Earl
Beaconsfield, in his impish way, once said that where our knowledge ends
our religion begins. A truer word was never spoken.
Now the unknown is the terrible. We become fearful the moment we
confront the incalculable. Go through the history of religions, consult
the various accounts of savage and barbarous faiths at present extant,
and you will find that the principle of terror, springing from the
unknown, is the essential feature in which they all agree. This terror
inevitably begets slavishness. We cannot be cowardly in this respect
without its affecting our courage in others. The mental serf is a bodily
serf too, and spiritual fetters are the agencies of political thraldom.
The man who worships a tyrant in heaven naturally submits his neck to
the yoke of tyrants on earth. He who bows his intellect to a priest
will yield his manhood to a king. Everywhere on earth we find the same
ceremonies attending every form of dependence. The worshipper who now
kneels in prayer to God, like the courtier who backs from the presence
of the monarch, is performing an apology for the act of prostration
which took place alike before the altar and the throne. In both cases it
was the adoration of fear, the debasement of the weak before the seat of
irresponsible power.
Authority is still the principle of our most refined creeds. The
majority of Christians believe in salvation by faith; and what is the
God of that dogma but a capricious tyrant, who saves or damns according
to his personal whim? The ministers of Protestantism, like the priests
of Catholicism, recognise this practically in their efforts to regulate
public education. They dare not trust to the effect of persuasion on
the unprejudiced mind; they must bias the minds of children by means of
dogmatic teaching. They bend the twig in order to warp the tree.
Now God is the supreme principle of authority as he is the essence
of the unknown. He is thus the head, front and symbol of terror and
slavery, and as such must be assailed by every true soldier of Progress.
We shall never enfranchise the world without touching people's
superstitions; and even if we abolish the House of Lords we shall still
dwell in the house of bondage unless we abolish the Lord of Lords; for
the evil principle will remain as a germ to develop into new forms of
oppression.
Freethought is the real Savior. When we make a man a Freethinker, we
need not trouble greatly about his politics. He is sure to go right in
the main. He may mistake here or falter there, but his tendency will
always be sound. Thus it is that Freethinkers always vote, work and
fight for the popular cause. They have discarded the principle of
authority in the heavens above and on the earth beneath, and left it to
the Conservative party, to which all religionists belong precisely in
proportion to the orthodoxy of their faith. Freethought goes to the
root. It reaches the intellect and the conscience, and does not merely
work at haphazard on the surface of our material interests and party
struggles. It aims at the destruction of all tyranny and injustice by
the sure methods of investigation and discussion, and the free play of
mind on every subject. It loves Truth and Freedom. It turns away from
the false and sterile ideas of the Kingdom of God and faces the true and
fruitful idea of the Republic of Man.