Produced by David Widger
AN ADDRESS 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 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. IN WHICH
A SKETCH OF A PROPER SYSTEM FOR THE EDUCATION OF YOUTH IS SUBMITTED TO
THEIR JUDGMENT.
By Richard Carlile
London:
PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY R. CARLILE, 55, FLEET STREET.
1821. Price One Shilling.
ADDRESS,
Gentlemen,
In addressing a Letter to so distinguished and so important a part of
the community, it becomes me to say, that, I am not myself a man of
experimental Science, neither, out of the ordinary occupations of my
past life, have I ever seen a scientific experiment made in any one
department of Chemistry, or Natural Philosophy; all that I know, with
the above exception, has been acquired by reading and meditation. My
present address is chiefly confined to those Philosophers, who study and
practice the sciences of Chemistry and Astronomy. I shall endeavour to
point out to them that, they are bound by duty, by common sense, and by
common honesty, to make known to mankind, or, more particularly their
fellow countrymen, whatever discoveries they may make to prove that the
others are following a system of error, or that they are acted upon by
a system of imposture. I shall make it appear plain to them, that they
have not hitherto done this, and that they have openly countenanced
systems of error and imposture, because the institutions of the country
were connected with them; or, because they feared to offend those
persons who might be deriving an ill-gotten profit from them. This
subject will form the first head of my address. In my second head, I
shall shew that the present system of educating children is entirely
on a wrong basis, and their youthful time is so far wasted, as to leave
them, when advanced to the years of maturity, in a state of comparative
ignorance. I shall shew that if in their school exercises they were made
acquainted with nothing but the elements of Astronomy, of Geography,
of Natural History, and of Chemistry, so that they might at an early
period of life form correct notions of organized and inert matter,
instead of torturing their minds with metaphysical and incomprehensible
dogmas about religion, of which they can form no one idea but that of
apparent absurdity and contradiction, they would be prepared to make a
much greater advancement in the Arts and Sciences, and to improve their
condition in society much more than can be now possibly done. These
shall not be altogether theoretical ideas, their practicability will
reach the mind of every rational being, or he who takes the liberty to
think and reason for himself. Many new plans and schemes for education
are daily starting up, but the whole, of which I have any knowledge,
have the above common error; for the subjects upon which our youth are
taught to read and write, and those in which the dead or foreign living
languages are taught, are by no means calculated to expand the mind,
or to give it a knowledge of Nature and her laws; and thus the most
important of all opportunities is lost, and much time actually wasted,
in which their minds might be prepared for the reception and knowledge
of natural and useful truths. What is the knowledge of the present
school-boy, in what is called classical literature, when compared with a
useful instruction 'in Chemistry and the laws of Nature? Of what use
to society at large is a classical scholar? or one well versed in the
ancient mythologies, for this, after all, is the chief part of classical
knowledge? It neither gives a polish to manners nor teaches morality. It
fills the mind with a useless jargon, and enables the possessor now and
then to make a tinsel and pompous declamation in half a dozen different
languages; which, if it were to undergo a translation into one
language, and that which we call native, would be found to be a mass of
unintelligible and unmeaning trash--words of sound, to which it would
be difficult to attach an idea, and in which all correct notions are
wanting. It makes a man a pedant only. Such men have been most aptly
termed spouters of froth. My present object is to lay down a sketch of
what seems to me a more instructive and useful system of education. I
submit this sketch to the judgment of Men of Science, with an idea
that every schoolmaster ought to be a Man of Science, and not a parish
priest, as Mr. Brougham would have. This is the outline of my second
head, on which in due order I hope to enlarge most satisfactorily.
In my first head I shall address myself first to the Chemists of
this Island, and finish by a distinct allusion to the students and
practitioners in the science of Astronomy.
Of all the advancements made in Science of late years, perhaps the
most pre-eminent and the most important to mankind, stands that in the
science of Chemistry. Our Chemists have proved themselves the greatest
of all revolutionists, for they have silently and scientifically
undermined all the dogmas of the priest, upon which the customs and the
manners of society seem hitherto to have been entirely founded. Every
species of matter has been brought to dissolution, and its elementary
properties investigated, by their crucibles and fires, or their galvanic
batteries, and we have been practically and scientifically shewn in what
manner Nature performs her dissolutions and regenerations. As far as I
understand, but one of the phenomena of nature remains unexplored, and
that is the properties of the electric fluid, or the real cause of the
solar light and heat. I do not despair of this being reached, and I have
the stronger hope, as it will lead at once to a knowledge of the cause
of our existence, and that of every animal and vegetable substance. It
will shew the cause and process by which inert matter becomes organized,
and how all the variegated beauties of nature start into life. However,
at present, we know quite enough to authorize the rejection of all our
priestly cosmogonies, we know quite enough to set at nought the notion
that the planetary system of the universe has existed but six thousand
years--we know that matter is imperishable and indestructible, for,
although, a fire to a common understanding seems to destroy combustible
matter, yet such is not the case, for after any combustible substance
has passed through the fiercest fire, the whole of its component parts
still exist to their former full extent; the fire has only separated
them and changed their relative situations; they are dispersed in
their gaseous state, and again ready for the operations of nature, to
amalgamate with some new living and growing substance, to which their
qualities can be assimilated.*
* The latter part of this sentence might appear preposterous
when addressed to the Chemist, or to the Man of Science, but
it is probable that this Address might be read by some
individual who might not comprehend the assertion that
matter is imperishable and indestructible; therefore the
writer has taken the liberty to introduce this slight
explanation. He confesses that but two years since he
startled himself at the assertion, and asked the assertor
whether fire did not destroy matter.
We know that the planetary system of the universe has existed to all
eternity as to the past, and must exist to all eternity as to the
future. For, although, that solar system of which our habitation is a
part, or other solar systems, might go through great changes, yet its
effect is but as the falling of a hair from our heads, and cannot be
said to disturb the great whole.
Instead of viewing ourselves as the particular and partial objects of
the care of a great Deity, or of receiving those dogmas of the priest
which teach us that every thing has been made for the convenience and
use of man, and that man has been made in the express image of the
Deity, we should consider ourselves but as atoms of organized
matter, whose pleasure or whose pain, whose existence in a state of
organization, or whose non-existence in that state, is a matter of
no importance in the laws and operations of Nature; we should view
ourselves with the same feelings, as we view the leaf which rises in the
spring, and falls in the autumn, and then serves no further purpose but
to fertilize the earth for a fresh production; we should view ourselves
but as the blossoms of May, which exhibit but a momentary splendour and
beauty, and often within that moment are cut off prematurely by a blast.
We are of no more importance in the scale of Nature than those myriads
of animalcules whose natural life is but for the space of an hour, or
but a moment. We come and pass like a cloud--like a shower--those of us
who possess a brilliancy superior to others, are but as the rainbow, the
objects of a momentary admiration, and a momentary recollection. Man has
been most aptly compared to the seasons of the year, in our own climate,
the spring, is his infancy; the summer, the time af his ardent manhood;
the autumn, his decline of life; and the winter, his old age and
death--he passes, and another series comes. He is produced by, and
produces his like, and so passes away one generation after another,
from, and to all eternity. How ridiculous then is the idea about divine
revelations, about prophesies, and about miracles, to procure proselytes
to such notions! To what generation do they apply, or if they apply to
all future generations, why were not the same revelations, prophesies,
and miracles, necessary to all the past generations? What avail the
dogmas of the priest about an end to the world, about a resurrection,
about a day of judgment, about a Heaven and Hell, or about rewards and
punishments after this life, when we assert that matter is imperishable
and indestructible--that it always was what it now is, and that it will
always continue the same. Answer this, ye Priests. Come forward, ye Men
of Science, and support these plain truths, which are as familiar
to your mind, as the simplest demonstration in mathematics is to the
experienced and accomplished mathematician.
Future rewards and punishments are cried up as a necessary doctrine
wherewith to impress the minds of men, and to restrain them from vice:
but how much more impressive and comprehensible would be the plain and
simple truth, that, in this life, virtue produces happiness, and vice
nothing but certain misery.
Away then with the ridiculous idea, and the priestly dogma of
immortality. Away with the contemptible notion that our bones, our
muscles, and our flesh shall be gathered together after they are rotted
and evaporated for a resurrection to eternal life. Away with the idea
that we have a sensible soul which lives distinct from and after the
dissolution of the body. It is all a bugbear, all a priestly imposture.
The Chemist can analyse the body of man, and send it into its primitive
gaseous state in a few minutes. His crucible and fire, or his galvanic
battery, will cause it to evaporate so as not to leave a particle
of substance or solid matter, and this chemical process is but an
anticipation, or a hastening, of the workings of Nature; for the whole
universe might be aptly termed a great chemical apparatus, in which
a chemical analysis, and a chemical composition is continually and
constantly going on. The same might be said of every organized body,
however large, or however minute; its motions produce a constant
chemical analysis and composition, a continual change; so that the
smallest particle of matter is guided by the same laws, and performs the
same duties, as the great whole. Here is an harmony indeed! Man alone
seems to form an exception by his vicious conduct and demoralizing
character. By assuming to himself a character or a consequence to which
he is not entitled, and by making a pretension to the possession of
supernatural powers, he plays such fantastic tricks as to disturb every
thing within his influence, and carries on a perpetual war with Nature
and her laws.
After those few observations upon the properties of matter either
organized or inert, (to which I know every Chemist in the country,
whose science has conquered the bigotry of his education, will give his
assent) I would call upon them all and every one to stand forward and
teach mankind those important, those plain truths, which are so clear
and so familiar to their own minds. It is the Man of Science who is
alone capable of making war upon the Priest, so as to silence him
effectually. It is the duty of the Man of Science to make war upon
all error and imposture, or why does he study? Why does he analyse
the habits, the customs, the manners, and the ideas of mankind, but to
separate truth from falsehood, but to give force to the former, and to
extinguish the latter? Why does he search into Nature and her laws,
but to benefit himself and his fellow man by his discoveries, by the
explosion of erroneous ideas, and by the establishment of correct
principles? Science must be no longer studied altogether as an amusement
or a pastime, which has been too much the case hitherto; it must be
brought forward to combat the superstitions, the vices, and the too long
established depravities among mankind, whence all their present and
past miseries have emanated, and unless the former can be destroyed, the
latter will still ensue, as a regular cause and effect.
It is evident that Men of Science have hitherto too much crouched to the
established tyrannies of Kingcraft and Priestcraft. Speaking generally
they have adopted some of the aristocratical distinctions of the day,
and have supported the frauds upon mankind, which it was their peculiar
duty to expose. This has given room to the advocates of superstitiop,
to put forward as an authority-for their dogmas, the names of Bacon, of
Newton, of Locke, and many others. They say that it is no disgrace
even to err with such men, and thus, for the want of a more decided and
determined character in the advocates of Science and Philosophy,
the enemy has built a strong hold within our lines, and has taken an
important advantage of our irresolution. I will not believe that Bacon,
or Newton, or Locke, in the latter part of their life, had any other
ideas of the Christian religion, or any other religion, than I have. In
their days, the faggots had scarcely been extinguished, nor was the fuel
which supplied them exhausted. They might therefore deem it prudent to
equivocate as a matter of safety. Besides, the two former were in the
employ of a court, and consequently under the trammels of Kingcraft,
which ever has, and ever will find its interest in the support of
Superstition and Priestcraft.
I would appeal to any man who calls himself a conscientious Christian,
and ask him whether he thinks such a man as himself could write the
following paragraph:
"Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to
laws, to reputation: all which may be guides to an outward moral virtue,
though religion were not; but superstition dismounts all these, and
createth an absolute monarchy in the minds of men: therefore Atheism did
never perturb states; for it makes men wary of themselves, as looking
no farther, and we see the times inclined to Atheism (as the time
of Augustus Caesar) were civil times: but superstition hath been the
confusion of many states, and bringeth in a new _primum mobile_, that
ravisheth all the spheres of government." This is Lord Bacon's
apology for Atheism, and, in my humble opinion, he wrote it feelingly,
conscientiously, and upon principle, as an Atheist, which word has no
other meaning than a seceder from all mythologies, although the ignorant
and interested make so much ridiculous clamour and fuss about it.
To shew that Newton was thoroughly ignorant of the chemical properties
of matter, I will quote again a paragraph, which I quoted in page 341,
Vol. II. of "The Republican," in the answer to the Rev. Thomas Hartwell
Home's pamphlet, entitled "Deism Refuted," &c. It is thus: "All things
considered, it appears probable to me, that God in the beginning
created matter in solid, hard, impenetrable particles; of such sizes and
figures, and with such other properties, as most conduced to the end for
which he formed them, and that these primitive particles, being
solids, are incomparably harder than any of the sensible porous bodies
compounded of them; even so hard as never to wear, or break in pieces:
no other power being able to divide what God made in the first creation.
While these corpuscles remain entire, they may compose bodies of one and
the same nature and texture in all ages; but should they wear away
or break in pieces, the nature of things depending on them would be
changed: water and earth, composed of old worn particles, or fragments
of particles, would not be of the same nature and texture now, with
water and earth composed of entire particles at the beginning; and,
therefore, that nature may be lasting, the changes of corporeal things
are to be placed only in the various separations, and new associations
of these permanent corpuscles." The Chemists of the present day must
smile at this notion of Sir Isaac Newton, about what God did in the
beginning: it is evident, that he knew but little about chemical
analysis and composition; or, rather, that his ideas upon the subject
were quite erroneous and hypothetical, when he might have obtained a
demonstration quite conclusive, if he had studied Chemistry with other
parts of his philosophy. Such, in my opinion, is the importance of the
science of Chemistry in the pursuit of truth and in the investigation
of Nature and her laws, that the first proper step towards philosophical
studies must be an acquaintance with its elements and powers.
We need nothing further to convince us of the struggle which existed
between science and superstition in the mind of Sir Isaac Newton than
the following creed, which I have met with quite _a propos_, or in the
midst of writing this address, in a weekly provincial paper, and which,
I imagine, has been put forth at this moment as one of those little
anxieties to prop the declining superstition of the age. It is thus
headed, _Sir Isaac Newton's Creed_: "The Supreme Being governs all
things, not as soul of the world, but as Lord of the Universe; and upon
account of his dominion, he is stiled the Lord God, Supreme over all.
The Supreme God is an eternal, infinite, absolutely perfect being; but
a being, how perfect soever, without dominion, is not Lord God. The
term God, very frequently signifies Lord; but every Lord is not God. The
dominion of a spiritual being constitutes him God; true dominion, true
God; supreme dominion, supreme God; imaginary dominion, imaginary God.
He is not eternity and infinity, but eternal and infinite. He is not
duration and space, but his duration of existence is present, and
by existing always and every where, he constitutes duration and
space--eternity and infinity. Since every part of space, and every
indivisible moment of duration, is every where; certainly the Maker and
Lord of all things, cannot be said to be in no time, and no place. He is
omnipresent, not by his power only, but in his very substance; for power
cannot subsist without substance. God is not at all affected by
the motions of bodies, neither do they find any resistance from the
omnipresence of God. He necessarily exists, and by the same necessity
he exists always and every where. Whence also it follows, that he is
all similar, all eye, all ear, all brain, all arm, all sensation, all
understanding, all active power; but this, not in a human, or corporeal
form, but in a manner wholly unknown to us, therefore not to be
worshipped under a corporeal representation." Here is the creed of Sir
Isaac Newton! and who can read this, and for a moment believe that he
was a Christian when he wrote it? I am not about to approve all this
jargon and contradiction; I despise it; I pity the Man of Science that
could write such nonsense; and rather than I would be called the author
of it, I would relinquish as much fame as Sir Isaac Newton obtained
in other respects. The foregoing ideas of Sir Isaac Newton on the
properties of matter are equally unintelligible, contradictory, and
ridiculous. Lord Bacon's definition of Christianity, or the essentials
of the Christian religion, which I have seen printed as a religious
tract, but which I have not at hand for reference or quotation, is just
of the same stamp, and rather than be called the author of such trash,
I would consent to be considered an idiot. Yet Lord Bacon as a natural
philosopher, and Sir Isaac Newton as a mathematician and astronomer,
were eminent in the highest degree, when the age in which they lived
is considered. The conduct of both evinces the mischievous effect
of superstition on the human mind, particularly where that mind is
brilliantly adapted for making a progress in science and scientific
discoveries.
It is impossible to analyze the creed of Sir Isaac Newton relative to
Deity, or found any one idea upon it. It is a string of words that have
no application, and independent of their contradiction, all that can be
said of them is, that they describe nothing. The writer of such a
creed must have been an Atheist in disguise, or perhaps unknown even to
himself. Its total amount implies that there is no God such as priests
teach, and bigots and fools imagine and believe. Mirabaud, in his
System of Nature, has brought forward several quotations from Newton's
writings, and has commented on them to shew that he was what is vulgarly
called an Atheist: that he was what every Man of Science must be, _a
seceder from the idolatry of the ignorant_. Such I believe he was in his
latter days, and in his private opinion, but he had not the honesty
to avow himself such. It is unquestionable that Newton in his youth
possessed much superstition, and it is equally unquestionable that
the progress he had made in science in his advanced age, had entirely
conquered that superstition and banished it from his mind, although,
I am sorry to say, that he was not honest enough to make a full and
conscientious confession of the change to which his theological opinions
had been subjected. Perhaps I cannot make a deeper impression on the
mind of the reader as to the real character of Newton, than by quoting
an anecdote from William Whiston's Memoirs written by himself.
"Sir Hans Sloane, Edmund Halley, and myself, were once together at
Child's Coffee-house, in St. Paul's Church-yard, and Dr. Halley asked
me, Why I was not a member of the Royal Society? I answered, because
they durst not choose an heretic. Upon which Dr. Halley said to Sir Hans
Sloane, that if he would propose me, he would second it: which was done
accordingly. When Sir Isaac Newton, the President, heard this, he was
greatly concerned; and, by what I then learned, closeted some of the
members, in order to get clear of me; and told them, that if I was
chosen a member, he would not be president. Whereupon, by a pretence of
deficiency in the form of proceeding, the proposal was dropped, I
not insisting upon it. Nay, as soon as I was informed of Sir Isaac's
uneasiness, I told his bosom friend, Dr. Clarke, that had I known his
mind, I would have done nothing that might bring that great man's 'grey
hairs with sorrow to the grave:' Nor has that Society ever refused
to let me come, and lay any of my papers or instruments before them,
whenever I desired it; without my being an actual member: which,
considering my small ability to pay the usual sums for admission, and
annual dues, was almost as agreeable to me, as being a constant member.
Now if the reader desire to know the reason of Sir Isaac Newton's
unwillingness to have me a member, he must take notice, that as his
making me first his deputy, and giving me the full profits of the place,
brought me to be a candidate, as his recommendation of me to the heads
of colleges in Cambridge, made me his successor; so did I enjoy a large
portion of his favour for twenty years together. But he then perceiving
that I could not do as his other darling friends did, that is, learn of
him, without contradicting him, when I differed in opinion from him, he
could not, in his old age, bear such contradiction; and so he was afraid
of me the last thirteen years of his life. See my Authentic Records,
page 1070, 1071. He was of the most fearful, cautious, and suspicious
temper, that I ever knew: and had he been alive when I wrote against his
Chronology, and so thoroughly confuted it, that nobody has ever ventured
to vindicate it, that I know of, since my confutation was published, I
should not have thought proper to publish it during his life-time:
because I knew his temper so well, that I should have expected it would
have killed him. As Dr. Bentley, Bishop Stillingfleet's chaplain, told
me, that he believed Mr. Locke's thorough confutation of the Bishop's
Metaphysics about the Trinity, hastened his end also."
Whiston was the early friend of Newton and succeeded him at Cambridge in
the professor's chair in the science of the Mathematics. Newton when
young was a firm adherent to the ridiculous doctrine of the Christian
Trinity, and so useful as figures were to him in his mathematical and
astronomical discoveries, and to such an extent, beyond all
predecessors, could he carry them, yet superstition could persuade him,
that three could be explained to be but one; and one to comprise three!
The science of Whiston in the Mathematics was almost equal to that of
Newton, though I believe the former had not so fertile a genius as the
latter, and was obliged to acquire by labour what to the other was
natural. Yet Whiston, although he had superstition enough to make him a
honest and conscientious Christian, knew the proper use of arithmetic,
and would not allow three to be one, nor one to be three: he rejected
the doctrine of the Trinity in the Godhead. Whiston honestly and openly
combated this impossibility, and avowed himself an Arian, and contended
under much persecution throughout his lifetime that such were the
sentiments of the early Christians, and that the doctrine of the Trinity
was but a corruption of the church after it had been long established.
Such tenets were then called blasphemous, and Whiston was expelled from
his professor's chair, and from the university of Cambridge altogether,
and had to endure more clamour about blasphemy than ever I had, or have
any reason to fear in future. This circumstance connected with a rivalry
in the Mathematics occasioned the breach between Whiston and Newton, but
ridiculous as even Whiston's superstition appears to me, I think him a
much more honest man than ever was Newton, and as a member of society
much more useful to the age in which they lived. Newton courted
distinction and popularity by servilely succumbing to all the despotisms
of the day: Whiston was a man of principle, and lived and died poor for
the satisfaction of writing and speaking what he thought and believed.
The one has been too much flattered and applauded; the other too much
vilified and degraded, and the clamour by which both circumstances have
been effected has been equally disgusting and disgraceful to the
country.
I have contrasted the conduct of Whiston and Newton, and have made my
observations on the latter to shew that even his name carries no weight
with it in the support of superstition, I trust I have sufficiently
shown that superstition and science can never amalgamate, which
also justifies the inference that, morality and religion never can
amalgamate. Superstition corrupts and deteriorates all the human
passions: science alone is qualified to amend and moralize them. The Man
of Science who knows his duty, and what is conducive to the interest of
mankind, will ever boldly and openly set himself in opposition to the
priest. This has not been sufficiently done hitherto, and I hope that
even my appeal will not be altogether useless, but that, it will rouse
some latent spirit among the Men of Science in this island to assert
their own dignity and importance; and silence the foul, the wicked, and
the mischievous clamour of Priestcraft.
It is beyond doubt that Locke was hostile to the system of Government,
both in Church and State, and the odium which he incurred from a certain
quarter, was quite equal to that which has fallen upon Thomas Paine, or
those who, since the American and French revolutions, have travelled
so much farther in their opposition. Opposition to ill-founded
establishments, possessing power, must necessarily be progressive. Locke
was thought to have gone to an extreme in his time, but I now consider
his writings to be scarcely-worth reading, as far as they apply to
toleration in matters of opinion, or to political economy and political
government. The sentiments which I have put upon paper would have
been called high treason a century ago, and the author hung, beheaded,
embowelled, and quartered, with the general approbation of the people;
and a person of the name of Thomas, Matthews was actually hung for
writing and printing what was called a treasonable libel, in the reign
of George the First; which libel, or a similar one, would not now
bethought seditious by the Attorney General himself. Such is the effect
of general instruction among the people--such is the progressive
power of the printing press, that, I feel a moral conviction that
the sentiments which I have avowed will became general in another
generation. The circumstance is as sure as that no one will now condemn
the political opinions of John Locke, as going too far, but rather as
weak and insipid, and not going far enough in honest principle.
Then come forward, ye Men of Science, it is reserved for you to give the
death blow, or the last blow to superstition and idolatry. Now is the
time--you are safe even from momentary persecution, if you stand forward
numerously and boldly. You will have a people, an all mighty people,
with you, a circumstance which no philosopher could ever heretofore
calculate upon. You have nothing to fear, and nothing to lose, but every
thing to gain, even that which is most dear to you, the kind reception
of your instructions, the adoption of your principles, founded in truth
and the nature of things.
Kings and Priests have, in some cases, made partial pretensions to
patronize the Arts and Sciences, as a cloak for their enmity towards
them. They ever were, and ever will be, in reality, their direst
foes. An advanced state of Science cannot benefit them. Their present
distinctions, and misery-begetting splendour, could not be tolerated,
when mankind shall so far be illuminated as to know the real cause and
object of animal-existence. Common sense teaches us that good government
requires none of those idle distinctions; for why should the servants,
or the administrators of the laws of society, be distinguished above
those whence those laws should emanate? It is the duty of the Man of
Science to attack those distinctions, to combat all the established
follies of the day, and endeavour to restore society to its natural
state; to that state which first principles will point out; the mutual
support, the comfort, the happiness, and the protection of each other.
At present we are but as so many beasts of prey, each strengthening
himself by the destruction of his weaker fellow. The many unnatural
distinctions which Kingcraft and Priestcraft have brought into society,
have totally undermined the first object of the social state. In
addition to this universal evil, those two crafts have set themselves up
as a bar to all useful improvement. They countenance no change but that
which swells the amount of their depredations, (for the manner in which
their incomes are extorted deserves no other appellation.) Societies can
obtain no real or lasting strength under the sway of those two crafts,
for every improvement that has been made in their several conditions,
has been evidently from the force of natural and scientific knowledge,
and in an exact ratio with the diminution of kingly and priestly
influence. This assertion is evident if we examine the decay of their
influence for the last three centuries, in this or any other country.
The printing press has come like a true Messiah to emancipate the great
family of mankind from this double yoke. This Messiah is immortal, and
its saving powers must be universal and perpetual. By this, and by no
other Messiah, can man be saved from ignorance and misery; the only hell
that he has to fear. It will prove the true Messiah of the Jew, of the
Christian, of the Mahometan, and of the Pagan. It is a Messiah for all,
and it will go on to unite under the name and title of Man and Citizen
the whole human race, or all those animals who have the gift of speech,
and its consequent, reason. I hope to see the day, or I fear not but it
will arrive, when every man of property shall consider a printing-press,
a necessary piece of furniture in his house; and prize it more than our
present aristocrats prize their hounds and horses.
In support of my assertion, that Men of Science have hitherto crouched
too much to the established impostures of the day, I have merely to
remark, that I am not aware of any one instance in which any Chemist
of this country has made a public attack upon them, or called them in
question in any public manner. Another proof of my assertion might
be found in the Medical and Surgical professions. From the best
information, I have learnt, that, with a very few exceptions, the whole
body of those gentlemen in the Metropolis, have discarded from their
minds all the superstitious dogmas which Priestcraft hath invented, and
that they have adopted those principles which have a visible foundation
in Nature, and beyond what is visible and comprehensible, their credence
does not extend. Yet, when that spirited young man, Mr. Lawrence,
having obtained a professor's gown in the College of Surgeons, shew a
disposition in his public lectures to discountenance and attack those
established impostures and superstitions of Priestcraft, the whole
profession displayed that same cowardly and dastardly conduct, which
hath stamped with infamy the present generation of Neapolitans, and
suffered the professor's gown to be stripped from this ornament of his
profession and his country, and every employment to be taken from him,
without even a public remonstrance, or scarcely an audible murmur!
It is conduct such as this which gives courage and permanence to the
despots who strive to enslave both our bodies and our minds. It is this
base disposition of making truth crouch before established and antique
error, which has hitherto characterized the searchers after and lovers
of the former, that has given force and longevity to the latter. It is
the bounden duty of every man openly to avow whatever his mind conceives
to be the truth. If he shrinks from this he is a coward--a slave to the
opinions, of other men. Shall the enemies of mankind boldly tell us that
they perceive truth in their mysterious and incomprehensible dogmas, and
shall we shrink from the publication and support of those truths which
we perceive to have an evident foundation in Nature! Shall we shrink
from the avowal of truths because despotism and ignorance have granted
stipends to the propagators of falsehood, and because those stipends
might be endangered? Forbid it, Nature! Let every lover of truth and the
peace and happiness of the human race forbid it.
I may be told that the Man of Science had much better pursue his studies
and experiments in silence and private, and not expose himself to the
persecution of bigots. The idea is slavish--disgraceful. Science has
made sufficient progress in this country, and has a sufficient number of
followers and admirers, to enable them by a single breath to dissipate
all the bigotry in the country, or, at least, to silence all the idle
clamour of the bigoted and interested about blasphemy and atheism, or
any of their nonsense. Is the progress of Science to be submitted to
an Excise, and are all discoveries to be treated like contraband goods,
lest the trade and the tithes of the priest be injured? Shame on that
man who can tacitly submit to such a system. And yet this is just what
we are called upon to submit to, and threatened with punishment, and
even banishment, if we murmur. I, as an humble individual, have resolved
to break through those trammels, to violate all those degrading and
disgraceful laws, and shall the Man of Science be silent, and see all
that he values most dear, persecuted in my person, just because he will
not proclaim that I am right, and that my enemies, and his enemies, are
wrong? Now is the time for him to speak out--now is the time when he
can do it effectually. My humble efforts have alarmed the whole of
Corruption and Falsehood's hosts, and half frightened them to death,
let but a few eminent and distinguished Men of Science stand forward
and support me, and I have no fear of finishing well, what I have
endeavoured well to begin. I aspire to nothing more than to become the
humble instrument of sounding and resounding their sentiments. I am
anxious to sound a loud blast in the cause of Truth, of Reason, of
Nature and her laws. I will give every Man of Science an opportunity of
publishing his sentiments without any direct danger to himself: I will
fill the gap of persecution for him, if a victim be still necessary to
satisfy the revenge of dying Priestcraft.
This is an age of revolutions, and where those revolutions have not
yet displayed themselves, it is not for want of the mind having been
sufficiently revolutionized, but because it is kept down by a superior
acting force in the shape of fixed bayonets and despotic laws.
Throughout Europe the mind of the people has been long revolutionized
from its wonted ignorance, and wherever it finds an opportunity, it
displays itself. This march of the mind will be progressive, and it
is evident that it has already begun to spread itself among the very
instruments of those despots called Kings, by which they vainly hoped
to have checked its course. Every march of the Russian troops into the
south of Europe will but tend to enlighten them, and by and bye they
will become wise enough to return and revolutionize their own country;
by adopting the Representative System of Government, and by making their
present Emperor what he is so well adapted for--a regimental tailor.
The horror which was so lately expressed by the Emperor of Austria at
the progress of Science, and at the revolution which Sir Humphry Davy
had made in the science of Chemistry, is a specimen of that feeling
which pervades all such men. This imbecile idiot quivered at
an observation of his own physician about the state of his own
constitution, and forbade him ever to use the word in his presence
again! Yet it is by such men as this, that the inhabitants of Europe are
held in a state of bondage and degradation!
Will ye, Men of Science, continue to truckle before such animals? Will
ye any longer bend the knee to such Baals--to such Golden Calves as
these? Will ye bend your aspiring minds to prop the thrones of such
contemptible, such ignorant, such brutish despots? Shame on you, if you
can so far debase yourselves! Up, and play the man, boldly avow what
your minds comprehend as natural truths; and all the venom of all the
Despots and Priests on the face of the earth, shall fly before you as
chaff before the wind.
The science of Chemistry has so far explored the properties of matter
in all its variety, and has so far ascertained all its powers, purposes,
and combinations, as to banish the idea of its having been formed from
any chaotic state into its present form and fashion. The Chemist
would smile at such a notion in the present day, even if he feared to
encounter the Priest and his dogmas about the world having been created
out of nothing. Creation is an improper word when applied to matter.
Matter never was created--matter never can be destroyed. It is eternal
both as to the past and future. It is subject to a continual chemical
analysis, and as continual a new composition. For a full comprehension
of these assertions, it is necessary to have a knowledge of the elements
of Chemistry: therefore, if any other person, but those to whom this
letter is addressed, should read it, let him not hastily reject without
a full consideration and enquiry. Mr. Parke's Chemical Catechism, or
Dr. Ure's Chemical Dictionary, will explain all my assertions on the
properties of matter. The elements of Chemistry have been published by
a variety of other Chemists, to any of whom I would refer the reader,
as it will not answer the purport of my address to enter into a fuller
explanation on this important head, or to fill these pages with an
elemental description of Chemistry.
I address myself to Men of Science, not as one of them, but as an
individual who has obtained a sufficient insight into the various
departments of Science, through the medium of books, to convince him
that all the dogmas of the Priest, and of Holy Books, are false and
wicked impostures upon mankind. He therefore calls upon Men of Science
to stand forward and unfold their mind upon this important subject. He
offers himself as a medium through which they might escape the fangs of
the Attorney General, or the Society for propagating Vice, and pledges
himself that there is no truth that any Man of Science will write,
but what he will print and publish. He has a thorough contempt and
indifference for all existing laws and combinations to punish him upon
this score, and will set them all at defiance, whilst they attempt to
restrain any particular opinions. He will go on to show to the people of
this island, what one individual, and he a very obscure and bumble one,
can do in the cause of propagating the truth, in opposition to falsehood
and imposture.
I have now gone through the first part of my first head, and I should
have been happy if I could have made an exception in the general conduct
of the Chemists of this island. I am not aware that any one of them
has ever made himself the public advocate of truth, of scientific
philosophical truth, in opposition to the false and stupifying dogmas
of Priestcraft or Holy Books. In the Medical and Surgical professions
I have found one exception, and but one, although I almost feel myself
justified in calling on many by name to come forward, and among them my
namesake stands most conspicuous, in that cause which is nearest their
hearts.
I have introduced the names of Bacon, Newton, and Locke, under this part
of my address, not as practical Chemists, which I believe they were not,
or if they knew any thing of the elements of Chemistry, that knowledge
is not now worthy of mention, but because they are now claimed as the
patrons of Superstition. Newton certainly deserves to be called a
great astronomer, but as he endeavoured to make even his knowledge in
Astronomy subservient to his bigotry, I have thought proper to treat him
as a wavering and dishonest fanatic, rather than as a Man of Science.
The theological and metaphysical writings of Bacon and Locke, are
completely ambiguous, and form no key to the mind of the writer, or
to any abstract and particular opinions. As I have said before, they
equivocated as a matter of safety; whatever others might think of them,
I feel no pride in saying they were Englishmen. Thomas Paine is of more
value by his writings, than Bacon, Newton, and Locke together.
In calling upon the Astronomer to stand forward and avow his knowledge,
that all the astronomical dogmas of Holy Books are founded in error and
ignorance of the laws...
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...properly be termed a species of madness. Whatever opinions prevail in
the minds of men which have no foundation in Nature, or natural laws,
they can merit no other designation than insanity. Insanity, or madness,
consists in unnatural or incoherent thoughts and actions, therefore, as
no species of religious notions have any alliance with nature, it is but
a just inference to say, that they individually or collectively comprise
the term _madness_. In mild dispositions it may be but a harmless
melancholy aberration; in the more violent it becomes a raging delirium,
which destroys every thing that comes in its way, and for which it has
sufficient strength. It destroys all moral and natural good which comes
within its influence, and madly proclaims itself the _summum bonum_ for
mankind! As yet there is scarcely sufficient reason among mankind to
restrain this madness. It has so mixed itself up with all political
institutions that there is no separating the one without revolutionizing
the other. This is the chief cause of the frequent convulsions in
society, as this madness cannot possibly engender any thing but
mischief, and it is well known, that, in madness, there is no rest; it
is always in a state of motion, unless there be a sufficient power at
hand to curb and restrain it. Reason, or a knowledge of nature, is the
only specific for it, and he who can throw the greatest quantity into
the social system will prove the best physician. Several quacks have
made pretensions to give society relief from this madness but they have
only tortured the patient without checking the disease. Thomas Paine,
and a few American and French physicians, have been the only ones to
treat it in an effectual manner, and by the use of their recipes, and
the assistance of Men of Science, I hope at least effectually to destroy
the contagious part of the disease.
Mathematics, magic, and witchcraft, were formerly denounced by
superstition as synonymous terms, and the mathematical student has
been often punished as a conjuror! Astronomy and Astrology were also
considered one and the same thing. Such were the fantasies and delusions
which superstition could raise in the minds of men, and such has
been the wickedness of priests, who could always perceive and even
acknowledge that human reason was inimical to their views, and whoever
possessed or practised it ought to be destroyed as the enemy not only of
themselves but of their God too! As Philosophy has left us no doubt
that their interest was and still is their God, they have so far acted
consistently, but it is now high time that Philosophy should triumph
over Priestcraft. It is now evident that Philosophy has sufficient
strength on her side for that purpose, as her supporters are now more
numerous than the supporters of Priestcraft. Let Men of Science
stand forward and shew the remaining dupes of Priestcraft, that the
Mathematics are nothing more than a simple but important science, and
that Astronomy has no affinity to that bugbear called Astrology.
The Priests and Judges of the present day are men of the same
disposition as the Priests and Judges of the seventeenth century, who
imprisoned Galileo for asserting the sphericity of the earth, and its
revolution round the sun, contrary to the tenets of the Holy Bible,
and who burnt old women as witches because they might have had the
misfortune to be old, ugly, or deformed. Such is the power and progress
of truth, that those very men are brought to confess that Galileo
asserted nothing more than an important philosophical fact. On this
point I will briefly notice the misgivings of one of our living judges.
Mr. Justice Best in his judicial circuit through the northern district,
at the late Lent assizes for Cumberland, on a trial for libel, made the
following assertion, after attempting to contrast the state of freedom
in this country at this time, with what existed at Rome when Galileo
was imprisoned in the Inquisition, for stating "a great philosophical
truth," his Judgeship observed: "now in this country any philosophical
truth, or opinion, might be stated and supported without its being
considered libellous."