ancient division of the earth into Empires, Kingdoms, Principalities,
&c, or the customs of their former several inhabitants, as they have
been subject to a continual change, to trace which, serves but to
distract the mind without filling it with any useful information: it
would be sufficient for all purposes in studying this science, to become
acquainted with the present divisions of the earth, and the present
customs, manners, and distinctions of its inhabitants. The same rule
applies to Astronomy, it is by no means necessary, but as a matter of
curiosity, to trace and study its history: it is sufficient to acquire
all the present information that can be obtained in that science, and to
stand prepared to make further discoveries or to receive the discoveries
of others. By cutting off all that part of the present system of
education which forms but a waste of time, you will gain so much the
more time for making fresh advances in the various Arts and Sciences.
Of course, I do not expect that under my proposed system, one
individual can become an adept in all the various branches of all the
sciences--no--it would be still necessary that some individuals should
confine themselves to one particular science, and some to another, as
their peculiar abilities and dispositions might suggest, as the best
means for a further and a quicker improvement and advance in the whole.
It is sufficient that they all begin right, and waste no time about
unmeaning and useless trash; but, by an assiduous application to their
several branches, make the farthest possible progress.
That infinity of experiments which Chemistry opens to our view, and
that infinity of subjects for examination in Natural History, makes
it necessary to begin at those two sciences as early as possible. The
elements of Chemistry, a knowledge of which is so essential in all the
relations of life, might be simplified for an adaption to the meanest
capacity, and even to that of children beginning to read, of which
I have before pointed out two familiar instances, upon which a more
enlarged explanation might be made, and to which a thousand others
equally simple and instructive might be added. In Natural History what a
vast field is open? wherein
"To teach the young idea how to shoot."
Here every thing both in the animal and vegetable world, which comes
under the every day observation of the child, or even the grown person,
might be familiarly described and explained in our school-books by a
regular classification and arrangement. By such a system of education as
this, the youth would instinctly and involuntarily read a useful lesson
in every object that came within his view; his mind would be incessantly
led to a contemplation of Nature, a knowledge of which can alone lead
a man to true and substantial happiness. No part of matter would then
escape the scrutinizing disposition of man, he would explore the ocean
and the rivers, the mountain and the valley, the forest and the plain,
the bowels of the earth and its atmosphere, and even the surface
and atmosphere of other orbs to gratify his scientific and laudably
insatiate curiosity. The blade of grass, the leaf, the tree, its fruit,
the flower-bed with all its vivid tints and animating effluvia, with all
the infinite variety both in the vegetable and animal world, would alike
form matter for his scientific research, and objects for him to explore.
Here in contemplating the stupenduous organization which constitutes
animal and vegetable life in Nature's infinite variety, all varying, yet
all connected by one common link, operating by one common cause, and to
one common end, a successive production and decay, decay and production,
the human mind might find an exercise as infinite, and have ideas
stirred up equally stupendous. I cannot help exclaiming: This is the
path of Nature: tread here, O Man! and be happy.
The works of Nature though infinite are strictly analogous, and human
reason is produced by the same laws as every other natural product. The
culture of the mind, by which human reason is produced, bears a strict
analogy to the culture of the soil, by which we subsist In each Nature
will produce to a certain degree, but the aid of art is necessary to
produce a sufficiency, and to reach refinement and perfection. It is
therefore of the utmost importance that we begin right, that all the
ideas of our infancy and youth be founded in Nature, and that the
poisonous effusions of Priestcraft be carefully weeded, and kept from
our minds. We should guard our minds against those destructive enemies
of human reason, the priests, as we would our fields and gardens against
the destructive powers of the locusts, or similarly destructive insects
and animals. Our interest and happiness is as much at stake in the one
instance as the other, for the Priest is not content with destroying our
happiness, but he must be also fed by our labour. He takes on an average
an eighth of all our produce.
The children or the man might here learn that the organization of the
vegetable is not less stupendous than that of the animal--that the life
and the death of the vegetable is as near alike the life and the death
of the animal as that the life and the death of any two animals of a
different species are alike each other--that there are animal-vegetables
and vegetable-animals, or living substances, in life and vegetation,
that partake both of the properties of animals, and vegetables--that
this is an evident link between animals and vegetables which unites them
in the great chain of nature--that they exist by the same cause, for
the same purpose, and to the same effect, He might also learn, that the
organization of the smallest insect and animalcule is equally stupendous
with the organization of man himself; that it is alone from a peculiar
organization that the different animals have the power of uttering so
many different sounds, and that man is indebted to the power of uttering
a greater variety of sounds for his gift of speech, and for a greater
degree of reason, than any other animal possesses, as its consequent.
Let the child, or the man even, be taught to reason in this manner, and
he will soon feel himself humbled down into his proper sphere in the
scale of Nature. He will leave off all the mad tricks which now daily
and hourly occupy his time, he will occupy his time by a self and social
improvement, and will perceive that a study of Science can alone lead
him to true happiness.
Why might not the Linuean system of classification, arrangement, and
description, both of animals and vegetables, with all the improvement
which has already been made, or which might be made in future, upon that
system, be taught in our schools to children? What can be more simple,
more amusing, or more useful, and more instructive? What other system
of education can be so well calculated for a proper expansion of the
juvenile mind? How much more advantageous to society would such a system
of education be, connected with a knowledge of Chemistry, Astronomy,
Geography, Geometry, and the Mathematics, than all that lying and
stupifying lore about religion and its offspring; for the support of
which mankind are so excessively robbed? If religion be a word that has
any substantial definition, or if it be a proper word, and can be made
applicable to Nature in its meaning, or the action it indicates, I have
no hesitation to say, that the System of Education which I now propose
forms the basis of the only true, the only rational religion. The word
religion implying a fixed faith or belief, and having its etymology in
the Latin verb _religo_, to bind fast, there can be no true, no just,
no rational religion, but that which applies to something we can
comprehend, and which has its foundation in Nature and her laws. We
cannot strictly speaking fix our faith on a phantom, unless we admit
faith itself to be but a phantom of the mind, yet such is the pretence
of all those who make so much clamour about the word religion. A study
of Nature and her laws, alone forms any substantial faith or religion.
This study I would make the basis of all education, to the exclusion, or
explosion, of all the remaining mythological nonsense of the day.
Arithmetic, Geometry, and the Mathematics, being taught in figures,
admit no change in the system of teaching, or at least in the medium:
the same might be said of Algebra, which has the simplicity of the
alphabet for its medium for instruction and practice. This forms the
only part of education that the priests have not corrupted, and the
reason is because they could not; and these figures being above their
reach to corrupt or destroy will prove their overthrow. The science of
the Mathematics has given a fatal blow to Priestcraft, and this science,
connected with Astronomy, was the first which, began to undermine the
dogmas of all priests. The science of Chemistry has come to its aid, by
proving that matter is indestructible and imperishable, and must have
existed as it now is, to all eternity as to the past, and will exist as
it now is, to all eternity as to the future. The sciences of Physiology
and Zoology have convinced us that the organization of the animal
called man, is not more wonderful than that of every other animal and
vegetable, nor is he of more importance in the scale of Nature. All that
can be said of him is, that he is superior in mental strength to any
other animal, and his superiority over the lion, the tiger, or the
elephant, is not more than the superiority of those animals over the
lesser beasts of the forest. Man only possesses the highest degree in
the rank of animals. It is high time to teach man what he really is
in the scale of Nature, and no longer allow him to play such fantastic
tricks as he does play, by pretending to be something beyond other
animals, and to possess supernatural and immortal powers of existence.
Man has nothing but the dogmas of superstition in support of his future
sensible existence--these dogmas are false and wicked impostures. No
appeal can be made to Nature in support of them. Man, as a part of a
whole, or as an atom of matter, is immortal, but with whatever he
might amalgamate after his frame has passed its dissolution, and has
evaporated like a dunghill, or a bed of rotten vegetables, that atom can
retain no sense of a former existence. The system of Pythagoras would
have been strictly true and rational, if he or his disciples had not
imagined a sense of former existence, or that an animal under one shape
could retain a sense of his existence under a former shape, although the
two might form two distinct animals of a different species. Pythagoras,
and his followers, have erred only on this point. I would bring the
whole race of mankind back to a conviction that they exist to no other
purpose, and by no other cause than every other animal and vegetable.
Let mankind be once sensible of this important fact, and they will cease
to persecute, to harass, to rob, and to destroy each other. They would
then make the best use of their time, and view their animal existence
but as a moment in the space of eternity. They would sedulously
endeavour to increase the sum of human happiness, and lessen the sum of
human misery, and this alone would form the first and the last object of
their wish and existence Let our youth be educated upon this basis, and
let even grown persons, re-educate themselves in the same manner, and we
shall soon see mankind in its proper character. That character will
be the opposite of what it is at present. The representative system of
government will be found to be the only necessary government amongst
them, and the chief part of legislation will consist in an advancement
of the Arts and Sciences.
I have now completed the task which I set out by promising, and whatever
reception my address might find among Men of Science, I feel assured
that I have misstated nothing, and that nothing which it contains can
bear contradiction. I neither fear the critic or the caviller upon the
ground-work of my address. I have performed a task which I have many
months had in view, and the more I have considered the subject, the more
I have felt its importance. I submit the whole, not to the prejudices of
the bigot or the priest, but to the clear impartial judgment of Men of
Science. I have kept much within bounds in noticing the advanced state
of Science, and I feel assured that what I have recommended can be
easily and immediately reduced to practice. The breath of Philosophy
is now sufficiently strong to puff out the glimmering superstition of
Priestcraft. The Philosopher should no longer bend the knee to this
or any other corrupt power. There is a keen public appetite for
philosophical truths. I feel satisfied that I have the daily thanks
of thousands for rescuing their minds from the horrible dogmas of
Superstition and Priestcraft. I have so strong an assurance of the
rapid decay of superstition, and the powerful effect of the books
and pamphlets which I have thrown into the social system, that no
persecution, no punishment, no fines, shall deter me from proceeding to
the utmost of my power and abilities. I am happy to see others following
in the same path, as I rather court assistance and emulation than dread
it. I am ever pleased at the extensive circulation of those publications
to which mine are exposed, as it is of the first consequence to
stimulate mankind to read, to examine, and to discuss the pretensions of
all principles. The Bible Society might circulate its millions of
books, and not a member of that society shall feel more pleasure at
the circumstance than myself. I do not wish that any of my publications
should fall into the hands of any individual, but he who can read the
Bible, and who is fully acquainted with its contents, and all the dogmas
which the priests of this country teach. It is on this ground that I
wish to try the force of those principles which I advocate and no other.
I feel assured that no impartial and disinterested man ever read a copy
of
Thomas Paine's Age of Reason without having his faith shaken in the
Christian religion, and if ever he has read Mirabaud's System of Nature
he will find his faith shaken on the subject of all religion. He will
see that the whole has arisen from one common fault--the ignorance and
credulity of mankind.
For instance, when the use of the telescope and the advanced state
of the science of Astronomy has given us ocular and mathematical
demonstration, that every orb we see revolving in the wide and infinite
expanse of space, and that each of that infinite number of orbs,
which something more than hypothesis convinces us do revolve in space,
corresponds with a portion of that solar system, of which our parent
earth is a part, that they are guided by the same laws and composed of
the same species of matter, by which we infer that they bear the
same productions, does not the query arise in our minds, which must
inevitably strike down the fabric of the Christian religion, that if it
was essential for a Jesus Christ, the only begotten son of God, as
old as his father, to pass through the virgin-womb of a woman, to
be buffeted, scourged, and put to an ignominious death by a sect of
superstitious bigots, who have constantly for the space of eighteen
hundred years denied all knowledge of such a person, for the purpose of
procuring the future happiness of those animals on this orb whom we call
human, and their salvation from the eternal torments which he and his
father had prepared for those who should reject them; was it not also
essential, that this same Jesus Christ, this only begotten son of God,
as old his father, should have submitted to a similar incarnation in
a virgin-womb, and have been buffeted, scourged, and executed, as a
criminal malefactor, according to the respective customs of treating
such characters on the several orbs, or the peculiar part of them on
which he might chance or choose to inhabit; was it not essential that
he should have performed a similar mission for the similar salvation and
future happiness of the several inhabitants or animals denominated
human on each and every one of those orbs? Can any priest answer this
question? The Man of Science I know will smile at it, and pity the
credulity and ignorance of all who have believed, who do believe, or
who may believe, such ridiculous nonsense. Then let him come forward
and preach up his scientific knowledge, and silence the dogmas of the
priest. It is reserved for the Man of Science to rid mankind of this
horrid ignorance and credulity, and to impress upon their minds the
all-important subject of scientific knowledge. Man does not naturally
delight in ignorance and credulity, but he naturally strives to free
himself from those vices. There is no truth that you can impress upon
the mind of man, but what he will rejoice at feeling it to be truth, and
himself undeceived as to former error. It is the interested hypocrite
alone, that is alarmed at the progress and power of truth, he whose very
trade is the known propagation of falsehood and delusion, the tyrants
tool and scourge. All tyranny, oppression, and delusion, have been
founded upon the ignorance and credulity of mankind. Knowledge,
scientific knowledge, is the power that must be opposed to those evils,
and be made to destroy them. Come forward, ye Men of Science, ye must no
longer remain in the back ground as trembling cowards, ye must no longer
crave protection from, and creep at the pleasure of, your direst foes;
grasp at tyranny, at oppression, at delusion, at ignorance, and at
credulity, and you shall find yourselves sufficiently powerful to
destroy the whole, and emancipate both the mind and the body of man from
the slavery of his joint oppressors.
The latter of the before-mentioned works is a most important one, and
has hitherto passed through several editions without molestation by the
Attorney General, or the Society for propagating Vice. Whatever they may
attempt, it will defy the malice of either. Many other very important
publications are now in full sale, and from the appetite which I find
still exists for them, I have been induced to make this bold appeal 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 the focus
of truth; 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.
DORCHESTER GAOL, MAY 1821.
Eighteenth Month of the Author's Imprisonment, and the Fourth Month of
the Imprisonment of his Wife.
End of Project Gutenberg's An Address to Men of Science, by Richard Carlile