TWO articles have recently appeared attacking the motives of George
Jacob Holyoake. He is spoken of as a man governed by a desire to please
the rich and powerful, as one afraid of public opinion and who in the
perilous hour denies or conceals his convictions.
In these attacks there is not one word of truth. They are based upon
mistakes and misconceptions.
There is not in this world a nobler, braver man. In England he has done
more for the great cause of intellectual liberty than any other man
of this generation. He has done more for the poor, for the children of
toil, for the homeless and wretched than any other living man. He has
attacked all abuses, all tyranny and all forms of hypocrisy. His weapons
have been reason, logic, facts, kindness, and above all, example. He has
lived his creed. He has won the admiration and respect of his bitterest
antagonists. He has the simplicity of childhood, the enthusiasm of
youth and the wisdom of age. He is not abusive, but he is clear and
conclusive.. He is intense without violence--firm without anger. He has
the strength of perfect kindness. He does not hate--he pities. He does
not attack men and women, but dogmas and creeds. And he does not attack
them to get the better of people, but to enable people to get the better
of them. He gives the light he has. He shares his intellectual wealth
with the orthodox poor. He assists without insulting, guides without
arrogance, and enlightens without outrage. Besides, he is eminent for
the exercise of plain common sense. He knows that there are wrongs
besides those born of superstition--that people are not necessarily
happy because they have renounced the Thirty-nine Articles--and that
the priest is not the only enemy of mankind. He has for forty years been
preaching and practicing industry, economy, self-reliance, and kindness.
He has done all within his power to give the workingman a better home,
better food, better wages, and better opportunities for the education
of his children. He has demonstrated the success of co-operation--of
intelligent combination for the common good. As a rule, his methods have
been perfectly legal. In some instances he has knowingly violated the
law, and did so with the intention to take the consequences. He would
neither ask nor accept a pardon, because to receive a pardon carries
with it the implied promise to keep the law, and an admission that
you were in the wrong. He would not agree to desist from doing what he
believed ought to be done, neither would he stain his past to brighten
his future, nor imprison his soul to free his body. He has that happy
mingling of gentleness and firmness found only in the highest type of
moral heroes. He is an absolutely just man, and will never do an act
that he would condemn in another. He admits that the most bigoted
churchman has a perfect right to express his opinions not only, but
that he must be met with argument couched in kind and candid terms. Mr.
Holyoake is not only the enemy of a theological hierarchy, but he is
also opposed to mental mobs. He will not use the bludgeon of epithet.
Perfect fairness is regarded by many as weakness. Some people have
altogether more confidence in their beliefs than in their own arguments.
They resort to assertion. If what they assert be denied, the "debate"
becomes a question of veracity. On both sides of most questions there
are plenty of persons who imagine that logic dwells only in adjectives,
and that to speak kindly of an opponent is a virtual surrender.
Mr. Holyoake attacks the church because it has been, is, and ever will
be the enemy of mental freedom, but he does not wish to deprive the
church even of its freedom to express its opinion against freedom. He
is true to his own creed, knowing that when we have freedom we can take
care of all its enemies.
In one of the articles to which I have referred it is charged that Mr.
Holyoake refused to sign a petition for the pardon of persons convicted
of blasphemy. If this is true, he undoubtedly had a reason satisfactory
to himself. You will find that his action, or his refusal to act, rests
upon a principle that he would not violate in his own behalf.
Why should we suspect the motives of this man who has given his life
for the good of others? I know of no one who is his mental or moral
superior. He is the most disinterested of men. His name is a synonym
of candor. He is a natural logician--an intellectual marksman. Like an
unerring arrow his thought flies to the heart and center. He is
governed by principle, and makes no exception in his own favor. He is
intellectually honest. He shows you the cracks and flaws in his own
wares. He calls attention to the open joints and to the weakest links.
He does not want a victory for himself, but for truth. He wishes to
expose and oppose, not men, but error. He is blessed with that cloudless
mental vision that appearances cannot deceive, that interest cannot
darken, and that even ingratitude cannot blur. Friends cannot induce
and enemies cannot drive this man to do an act that his heart and brain
would not applaud. That such a character was formed without the aid
of the church, without the hope of harp or fear of flame, is a
demonstration against the necessity of superstition.
Whoever is opposed to mental bondage, to the shackles wrought by cruelty
and worn by fear, should be the friend of this heroic and unselfish man.
I know something of his life--something of what he has suffered--of what
he has accomplished for his fellow-men. He has been maligned, imprisoned
and impoverished. "He bore the heat and burden of the unregarded day"
and "remembered the misery of the many." For years his only recompense
was ingratitude. At last he was understood. He was recognized as an
earnest, honest, gifted, generous, sterling man, loving his country,
sympathizing with the poor, honoring the useful, and holding in supreme
abhorrence tyranny and falsehood in all their forms. The idea that this
man could for a moment be controlled by any selfish motive, by the
hope of preferment, by the fear of losing a supposed annuity, is
simply absurd. The authors of these attacks are not acquainted with Mr.
Holyoake. Whoever dislikes him does not know him.
Read his "Trial of Theism"--his history of "Co-operation in England"--if
you wish to know his heart--to discover the motives of his life--the
depth and tenderness of his sympathy--the nobleness of his nature--the
subtlety of his thought--the beauty of his spirit--the force and volume
of his brain--the extent of his information--his candor, his kindness,
his genius, and the perfect integrity of his stainless soul.
There is no man for whom I have greater respect, greater reverence,
greater love, than George Jacob Holyoake.--
August 8, 1883.