An article in the _North American Review_ for April, 1885, on "Free
Thought in America," is chiefly significant as showing how gradual and
tentative the progress of thought in religion was. The comments on
individuals are often wide of the mark, but the general drift is quite
correct. The course was shadowy, but the main point was unmistakable. At
this day, the wholesale abuse of religion is harmless, and can exert no
wide influence. The friends of liberal thought are against it; and those
who seek the old grim conclusion do so in another way, striving to
substitute a new faith in nature for the old faith in divine
inspiration, and to prove the latter to have been a growth rather than
an imposition. The study of comparative religions has put a new face on
the question, and the concern is now to discover the source of faith in
the supernatural and not to make it appear a creation of priestcraft. No
sooner had serious investigations into antiquity become known, than the
method pursued by Voltaire and Dupuis was abandoned, and each generation
since has confirmed the facts of historic development.
That my own immediate predecessors were Emerson and Parker is most true.
With the writings of the former I was familiar; the latter was my
intimate friend. Perhaps my theological views are due to him more than
to any other man, though the circumstances of his generation were
peculiar, and determined, in a much greater degree than in my own case
was possible, the cast of his thought. The Unitarian controversy, in
which he played so prominent a part, and by stress whereof he was driven
into some of his positions, is over. The anti-slavery struggle, into
which he threw himself and as a result of which his religious
antagonisms were sharpened, was ended many years ago.
Poe said in the preface to "Eureka," that perfect beauty was a guaranty
of perfect truth; so I felt--felt rather than reasoned--that a great
character was sufficient proof of the truth of doctrine, and I accepted
the teaching on the strength of the nobleness which was before my eyes.
Later researches confirmed my opinions, but while I was under Parker's
influence, his theological views were accepted without much
consideration; his unique style of personality laying my heart as it
were under a spell.
Emerson was a man of colder temperament, thinner of blood, more spare
in frame; of finer intellectual fibre, of more commanding intellectual
supremacy; not a combatant on any field; a sweet, gracious, shadowy
personality; calm, lucid, imperturbable; pursuing knowledge along the
spiritual path of pure thought, although he was also a student of books;
a regenerator of mind rather than a reformer of customs; a prophet,
distinguished for penetration rather than for will. His ideas were
substantially the same as Parker's, but he did not arrive at them in the
same way, or hold them in the same spirit, or apply them with the same
directness. He carried them out further, not being hindered, as his
contemporary was, by the immediate necessities of the hour. In short, he
was another sort of man entirely. Both were transcendentalists, but
Parker shaped his philosophy to the working exigencies of his
generation, while Emerson let his stream freely in the air. The writer
of the article in question accuses Emerson of want of pathos, and
declares that this was the lack of the transcendentalists, as a school.
But he could hardly charge this on Parker, who was an ardent
transcendentalist, but whose very language was vascular, who affected
multitudes of men and women, and who held audiences by the heartstrings.
Did Hopkins or Bellamy or Edwards melt people? Were the preachers of
Calvinism priests of sorrow? This is a matter of temperament and not of
creed. Extreme rationalists leave their congregations in tears, and
extreme churchmen dismiss theirs unmoved, the humors of the men deciding
the issues of their ministrations. The closer to the ground, the more
abundant the sympathy. The question is whether one is more mundane or
more ethereal by native gift and endowment.
That transcendentalism was mainly speculative may be doubted, but if it
was so this may be accounted an incidental circumstance to be explained
by the prevailing theological temper of the age, and the duty imposed on
it of transferring the body of doctrine to an ideal realm; a task which
demands an intellectual effort of no common magnitude. And when with
this task was joined the endeavor to sift out the purely spiritual ideas
from the mass of dogmatical and ecclesiastical error, it is no wonder
that it should have been speculative in its tendency. Certainly, Brook
Farm was concrete enough, and the transcendentalists were, as a rule,
interested in social reconstruction, though not in a way to touch
popular emotion. One cannot, even at this distance, think of the
quickening radiance shed by the transcendentalists over the whole region
of religious belief and duty, without gratitude. The hymns, the sermons,
the music, the Sunday-schools, the prayers, the charities, the social
ministrations, breathed forth a fresh spirit. If there were fewer tears
of woe, there was more weeping for joy. There was too much gladness for
crying. Life was made sunny. Human nature was interpreted cheerfully.
There was an unlimited future for misery, ignorance, turpitude. Sin was
remanded to the position of crudity, and was banished from the heavenly
courts. Violence was protested against in laws, customs, manners,
speech. Harsh doctrines were criticised. Austere views were discarded.
Intellectual barriers were removed. Spiritual channels were deepened and
widened. Light was let into dark places. The brightest aspects of
divinity were presented. Immortality was rendered native to the soul.
The life below was regarded as the portal to the life above.
In my own case, whatever of enthusiasm I may have had, whatever
transports of feeling, whatever glow of hope for mankind, whatever ardor
of anticipation for the future, whatever exhilaration of mind towards
God, whatever elation in the presence of disbelief in the popular
theology, may be fairly ascribed to this form of the ideal philosophy.
It was like a revelation of glory. Every good thought was encouraged.
Every noble impulse was heightened. It was balm and elixir to me. If
transcendentalism did not appear as a sun illuminating the entire mental
universe it was the fault of my exposition alone. Absolute faith in that
form of philosophy grew weak and passed away many years since, and the
assurance it gave was shaken; but the sunset flush continued a long time
after the orb of day had disappeared and lighted up the earth. Gradually
the splendor faded, to be succeeded by a softer and more tranquil gleam,
less stimulating but not less beautiful or glorious. The world looks
larger under the light of stars. I always loved Blanco White's
magnificent sonnet to Night, but never appreciated its full significance
until the scientific view had succeeded to the transcendental, and I
began to walk by knowledge, steadily and surely, but not buoyantly any
more. It would be a mistake to suppose that anything like pain, sadness,
or sterility accompanies the departure of an old faith, when a new one
takes its place and soon opens fresh prospects of good. The universe but
grows larger: other methods are adopted, other hopes are entertained,
other consolations are presented, and soon the mind adjusts itself to
the altered conditions. The downcast mood of George Eliot, of the author
of "Physicus," and of many another less distinguished unbeliever, may be
due in part to temperament, in part to the first feeling of chill that
ensues upon a transitional period, which brings in a different climate;
but the allegation of lasting coldness, gloom, discontent, is wholly
groundless. The old fable says that quails drop from the clouds, that
even rocks quench the traveller's thirst. There is, in short, no
wilderness.
That the creed was "filmy," the foothold "unsteady," is altogether
likely, for the ancient supports were removed, the pillars that replaced
them were shaking, and tradition alone remained to hold by. But religion
was still the Poetry of Life, and kept its place among the interests
singly represented by art, music, literature, philosophy, those fine
intimations of a higher state, those splendid foreshadowings of the
future, those noble efforts to solve problems that must be forever
insoluble. My creed did not pretend to be final or even definite. It was
simply a study, a preliminary sketch, an essay towards truth. A claim to
completeness, to logical consistency, would have been fatal. Still less,
if possible, did it pretend to meet popular wants. It resolutely turned
in the opposite direction, and took up positions which, it was
understood, the general public could not occupy without abandoning all
its works and retiring to other ground. No effort was made to commend it
to common opinion; on the contrary, everything like concession was
shunned, and the slightest signal of agreement with current beliefs was
regarded as a warning against a compromise of principle. Nothing was
assumed except the validity of the human faculties, including, of
course, the higher reason, the insight of genius, and such feelings as
were parts of the rational constitution, together with perfect liberty
in their exercise. Every theological system was repudiated; even the
doctrines of a conscious Deity and the individual immortality of the
soul were left open to discussion, the atheist and the materialist being
listened to with as much deference as any. These doctrines were
accepted, yet not on the ground of authority or tradition, but simply
considered as faiths, hopes, sentiments of the spiritual being; the
existence of living mind, coupled with the demand for unity, seeming to
guarantee the first, the fact of individual persistency appearing to
demonstrate the second. But all definition was carefully avoided,
conviction being confined to the main idea, and being purely spiritual
in its character, not in the least dogmatical, or exclusive of
knowledge. Of doctrine in the usual sense there was none. There was
merely thought. The very teaching was more of the nature of suggestion
than of final conclusion. For this reason no account of the "credo" can
be given, all fixed expressions of views being discountenanced as
premature, and therefore irrational. This should be distinctly
understood by those interested in coming at the truth on this subject.
The object was to disintegrate, to pulverize, to enable mind to float
freely in the air of intellect, to the end that it might crystallize
about natural centres. All dogmatism, that of the infidel as well as
that of the believer, of the man of science as well as of the
theologian, of the sensualist as well as of the spiritualist, was
obnoxious. There was no sympathy with those who regarded the case as
closed, either as the anti-Christian assailant or as the apologist did;
either with the school of Paine or with the school of Calvin. Hereafter
there may be articles of belief, at present there can be none. This, it
may be said, was a temporary, incidental position, quite indeterminate
and unsatisfactory. No doubt it was. That was all it pretended to be.
The sooner it disappeared and was succeeded by a more stable one, so it
was reasonable, the better, for that would indicate an advance in
rational judgment.
This task--the complete emancipation of the human mind from every form
of thraldom--will occupy liberal teachers for a long time to come. All
that can be said in defence of instituted religion, and all that can be
urged on the other side, had been put forward again and again, but in a
sectarian--that is, in a partisan--spirit. Now an even temper is
demanded. Unfortunately, impartiality is apt to degenerate into
indifference. Breadth of view is, as a rule, inconsistent with rapidity
of motion. The fact that the Free Religious Association had a small
constituency as compared with many an orthodox society is no evidence
whatever that the orthodox society is nearer the truth. The former was
broad enough to admit all religions, the latter shut out all save the
Christians, thus making them a special community saved by their belief.
The problem is to preserve and, if possible, deepen intellectual
enthusiasm while opposing fanatical adherence to dogmas; to associate
breadth with force, to unite freedom with earnestness, and to render the
love of truth more intense in proportion as the horizon recedes and
ideas multiply. Such ought to be the result of free thinking, and such
it is when _thinking_ goes hand in hand with _freedom_.
Critical studies must keep an even pace with philosophy, and both must
conspire to push back the lines of credence as far as faith in the
spiritual sentiment will permit. The latest investigations have
substantiated liberal conclusions and carried them into regions which
were inaccessible to the authorities of an early day. A certain amount
of denial was necessary of course, but this was made in view of a larger
affirmation which had to be brought forward, and was, moreover, confined
to matters incidental, not directed at the substance of faith. The
assumption of a spiritual nature in man guaranteed the inherent
genuineness of all aspiration.
No doubt the assumption of a creative religious nature in man lent aid
to the endeavor to glorify the pagan faiths, and predisposed the mind to
accept criticisms on Christianity; but scientific investigation of the
world's bibles went on quite independently of this assumption. It was
promoted by Catholics and Protestants, by Lutherans and Unitarians, by
Germans, French, English, Americans. Certainly the alleged antiquity of
a system is not in its favor; for ignorance, credulity, superstition,
are much older than this; older than the ancient books, than the ancient
thinkers. The oldest things are errors, delusions, falsities. The
allegiance of great minds simply proves the limitations of intellect.
Sir Thomas More believed in transubstantiation, and Samuel Johnson
believed in ghosts. The wide reverence for the Scriptures is an
impressive fact, until it is seen that no writings have been so guarded,
nor have such pains been taken in regard to any other literature to
create for it a habit of docile veneration. Fidelity is praiseworthy,
but it is no pledge of wisdom. On the contrary it draws attention to the
merits or demerits of the creed to which it is consecrated. Is
witchcraft respectable? Yet it had its martyrs. Is demoniacal possession
credible? Yet saints attested it. The fury of the fighter cannot vouch
for the worthiness of the cause. If it could, the narrowest credence
would be the truest as the world goes, and they who adhere to the
"Christian" tradition would be consigned to the darkest cells of it. The
newest thing is knowledge. This never paralyzes, and never is fanatical.
Its heat is stimulating yet gracious. Its zeal does not scorch or
consume. It awakens every faculty, keeps inquiry on the stretch, excites
the noblest ambition, and at the same time rebukes the partisan temper
in all its manifestations. Its reign is beneficent; its coming is full
of hope. It is ever looking forward with sanguine anticipation, and if
it is at times impatient, petulant, or imperious, it is because it is
fretted by stubborn obstacles that prevent the full realization of its
purpose to discover the truth. For a long time to come there will be
controversy, but its violence will disappear, its acrimony will
gradually cease, the passion for victory will yield to the love of
knowledge, and all genuine seekers will unite in the search after light.
In the last generation the progress of intelligent examination into
nature's secrets has been exceedingly rapid. During my active ministry I
was hardly aware of it, for though an assailant of the popular religion,
a champion of the freest thought, I was a defender of the current
religious ideas; since leaving the profession, the significance of the
mental revolution that is taking place, has been more fully revealed to
me. The advance has approached very near to the heart of the citadel.
The questions under discussion are fundamental ones, the existence of a
self-conscious deity, the fact of personal continuance beyond the grave,
the line of distinction between "material" and "spiritual" things. The
dispute hangs on invisible threads of logic. The conservatives occupy
positions which radicals of thirty years back could not assume.
The next step in the development of free thought must be toward the
realization of all the ideal supports of mankind, the spiritualizing of
the secular, the lifting into heavenly places of this world's activity,
the transfiguration of our common life. If by religion is understood the
striving after perfection in intellectual things by the untrammelled
pursuit of knowledge, in social concerns by the exercise of fraternal
kindness, in the spiritual world by aspiration towards a complete
surrender to natural law, every free thinker will encourage that and
will do what he can to promote it. That there is no final truth
discoverable must be admitted, but such a confession need not trouble
those who look manfully forward to a future of new discoveries, and gird
themselves to remove all obstacles to the knowledge of the world they
live in.
Robert Browning in his "Paracelsus," published in 1835, anticipates the
doctrine of evolution.
Thus He dwells in all,
From life's minute beginnings, up at last
To man--the consummation of this scheme
Of being--the completion of this sphere
Of life; whose attributes had here and there
Been scattered o'er the visible world before,
Asking to be combined.
In 1836, Emerson in his "Nature," reiterated this grand prophecy:
A subtle chain of countless rings,
The next unto the farthest brings,
The eye reads omens where it goes,
And speaks all languages, the rose;
And striving to be man, the worm
Mounts through all the spires of form.
In 1867, science had gone so far that it could announce the Unity of
Creation; the absolute Order and Law; one continuous Force; Progress as
the end of life. The eternal beauty existed for those who had eyes to
see. On this foundation the human heart, with its qualities of mercy,
pity, peace, and love, its sentiments of justice and equity, its hunger
for advance, its idea of goodness, built up a very noble and benignant
conception of deity and the sure hope of moral perfection.