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A LAST WORD
Spoken at the Athenaeum, on
the
closing of
our Services there, June 27th, 1880,
BY
ONWAY,
ONCURE
^nnbrrn :
PRINTED
BY WATERLOW AND SONS LIMITED, LONDON WALL.
l88o.
�E™—
—.
�A LAST WORD.
It was on the seventh day of this month, 1868, that
I gave at the little chapel where this society was
cradled its first anniversary discourse.
Thirteen years
have brought us to its closing hour. As I have already
stated, my ministry here ends by my own action based
upon personal considerations, but having reference to
the cause we have at heart.
I repeat this because it
would be unjust to those who have so long and
earnestly worked with me, unjust to the large and
sympathetic audiences which have steadily gathered
here, to have it understood that it has been or is
through any suggestion from others, or from any dis
couragement about the condition of this society, that
I have resolved on this step.
On the contrary, this
�4
society appears to me more vigorous to-day than at any
time of its life, and it is a distress to me that I must
adhere to my resolution to close it. That resolution
was formed under a sense of failing health which has
passed away; but there remains a conviction that my
future work will be better done if concentrated upon
one society.
If it were not that I have hope of retain
ing the friendships formed here, and that a good
many of you will be able to unite with us at South
Place, it would be a greater grief than it is to speak
this last word.
I trust it is not a parting word.
I
feel sure that my friends at South Place will welcome
with warm hearts those who have so valiantly, amid
evil as well as good report, sustained this evening
society, to the work of enlarging the strength and
influence of that stronghold of religious liberty.
In that anniversary discourse of 1868, to which I
have alluded, I sounded for our then small society a
key-note caught from him who wrote the Epistle to
the Hebrews. “ Seeing that we also are compassed
about by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside
every weight, and the sin that doth so easily beset us,
and let us run with patience the race that is set before
us.”
I claimed that as that Hebrew, setting out upon
a novel path against the faith of his fellows, still felt
the good and great of his race to be witnesses around
him, so we were surrounded by the witnesses of
�5
liberty and truth in all time ; and never more than in
abandoning their opinions in the same spirit in which
they also abandoned the outgrown creeds and con
ventionalised errors of their time. I protested against
the limitation of the great religious leaders within the
mere letter of their faith, maintaining that we could
be related to them and derive strength from them only
as we shared their spirit, their independence, their
courage, love of truth and justice ; laying aside, as
they did, every weight, even their own authority, and
running with patience the race set before us, not that
which was before them.
On reading over that discourse I feel a strong
desire to quote this evening some passages from it.
“ Each great teacher, amid many limitations, added
a fresh tint to -the holy ideal which our life exists to
attain, and a new impulse towards it; and each from
being a wing becomes a fetter if we accept his thought
or work for our own, instead of receiving his spirit as
the inspiration of our own.”
“ He who gives men great names as authorities does
much, as if he should ask us to put out our eyes
because near by are excellent guides for the blind.”
‘‘There is no arrogance in refusing the absolute
guidance of the greatest authority.
Aristotle taught
�that an amethyst worn on the breast would prevent
drunkenness.
Does one claim to be greater than
Aristotle because he refuses to accept that supersti
tion 1 Lord Bacon believed in witchcraft. Can one
not accept the wisdom of Bacon without his errors ?
Nay, to follow out faithfully the ethics of Aristotle
and the philosophy of Bacon, I must reject their
errors.”
“Jesus said, ‘ If ye believed in Moses, ye would
believe in me J by which he would say, Moses was not
like you, a preserver of rotten systems and antiquated
errors : he was a reformer, an emancipator of the
people, and though now long ages after he is dead, you
worship the letter and form of Moses, I, in being a
reformer and emancipator, am nearer him than you ;
he is my witness.”
“ It is sometimes said of those who leave narrower
church relations for larger ones that they have changed
their faith. But no—they have deepened, widened,
realised it. As you can trace the blossom in the
apple that grew from it, so shall you find in such the
essence of
that which has apparently fallen from
them.”
“ As a liberal society of believers and thinkers, not
fettered to the world’s infant speculations, nor con
�7
fined in any denominational grooves however wide, it
is important we should recognise our relations to the
past. We have no thought of ‘ sundering the sacred
links which bind together the generations of men,’ or
*of rudely cutting off the solemn perpetuity of the
religious commonwealth.’ We know that from along
and noble past come the burning visions of the future
brotherhood; but we also know that the perpetuation
of the commonwealth of faithful souls up to the realisa
tion of these visions depends on the courage with
which the hearts of the present can lay aside every
weight, and that dogmatism which so easily besets
sects, and run with patience the race set before us in
our own time.”
“We should surely have learned from the ages of
cruel dogma, of paralysing creeds, from which we are
emerging, enough to prevent our forging new chains
for our children.
I would fain trust that we who
have gathered into this company of worshippers recog
nise as the course set before us a maintenance of the
spirit in its absolute purity, apart from any opinions
whatever, vaulting like a pure sky above all temples,
domes, spires, yet a gentle air and soft light enfolding
and illumining all who worship in sincerity, even amid
their errors.”
“ The race we are running is not always to the swift.
�There was an Olympic race in which each competitor
bore a lighted torch ; he won the race who came in
first with his torch still burning.
They who cared
more for swiftness than to guard their torches, had
them speedily extinguished by the opposing currents
their motion excited.
Let us remember, friends, that
promoting a great movement here were no success at
all if our torch were not kept bright—if for such
success we should have sacrificed one ray of the
freedom in worship and inquiry for which we exist.
The rushlight that sends its light to the night-wan
derer is of far greater worth than a candlestick of
gold that bears no flame. No doubt, by compromising
our truth—by accommodating popular superstitions,
we might grow big. The appeal to pure reason is
slower work.
Let us press on unfaltering, unwearied,
taking care above all that our torch shall not be ex
tinguished, but shall send into the darkness and
superstition of the land a steadfast light, leading all
who follow it to that supreme and universal Light at
which our torch was kindled.
Let us press on, and
though every star should set, and suns wax dim, be
sure every spark of truth shall burn and glow in the
firmament of God for ever and ever.”
Such were my closing words at the outset of our
society. Well, it has now, in one sense, reached its
goal, and, I will venture to claim, with torch still
�9
lighted. A good many winds have blown upon it,
but it has not been extinguished. Some of us may
remember that it flickered considerably at one time
under an internal disturbance. In the course of my
inquiries some changes in my own point of view have
occurred, and one of these grieved some excellent men
and women who started with us. I came to the con
clusion that the custom of public and formal prayer
was not in harmony with our fundamental principles
and convictions.
It appeared to me inconsistent with
the belief in Supreme Wisdom and Love that we should
suggest anything to the one or petition the other.
I
explained this as well as I could, and with tenderness
for the traditional feelings of our reverent circle.
They were asked to consider whether they would like
to have their own children petition them daily for
their love and care ; whether they would not feel this
to be rather a reproach than a truly filial feeling.
Some that we loved and could little spare were never
theless offended and left us, though we were happy to
find that our personal relations with them were not im
paired. But by this our movement did not seriously
suffer.
The larger number showed that they had
counted the cost of a life of intellectual and religious
progress, and were resolved to stand by every position
to which they should be led by honest and logical in
quiry.
It is my belief that our reverence grew as the
�■S^B
io
old forms, which confined rather than expressed it,
fell away from us.
It became necessary to continue this kind of selfcriticism. In the course of it our use of the Christian
name came under re-consideration.
The name of the
little iron building in St. Paul’s Road, which some of
us remember with much affection, was the “ Free
Christian Church.”
But it appeared to myself and
others that there was justice in the orthodox assertion
that it was a misuse of language to call ourselves
Christians. If a man call himself a Mohammedan, it
implies a belief in the position assigned to Moham
med by the Moslem world, and in the authority of the
Koran. If a man call himself Christian, it conveys a
similar impression of his belief in Christ and the New
Testament. It is not a question of what the word ought
to mean, or of its etymology, but of the sense it actually
does convey to those around us. The word ‘ Catholic ’
means ‘ universal ’; the word ‘ orthodox ’ means ‘ right
opinion ’
but because we might in an etymological
sense call ourselves 1 catholic ’ and ‘ orthodox,’ it would
none the less convey a false impression to so call our
selves by names whose popular meaning is different.
To call ourselves ‘ Christians,’ when to ninety-nine in
every hundred persons that term must convey the
impression that we held the opinion of Jesus above
the science and discovery of our own time, was felt by
�II
us to be the suggestion of policy rather than of simple
truth.
We felt, too, that our old name,
‘Free
Christian,’ was a contradiction ; we could not fairly
claim to be free, and in the same phrase limit our free
dom by the name of a particular system of belief. So
we abandoned that name. In so doing I believe that
we took a step nearer to Christ himself, who, in his
time similarly abandoned all the pious titles and labels
which might have gained him favour; and we shared
the freedom of the
apostles,
among whom
the
Christian name was known only as an epithet of con
tempt, under which they suffered as much as is now
suffered by its rejection.
Therefore we surrendered this title to popularity;
and it is my firm conviction that thereby our society
gained much in religious life and force.
We left be
hind us the realm of disputation about words and
entered a region where it became necessary for us
to concentrate 'ourselves upon realities. We could no
longer build our spiritual abodes out of the debris of
crumbled creeds and the relics of tradition.
We were
compelled to repair to the laws of nature, to the facts
of our own mind and consciousness, to build our
new shelter as best we could ; and in the energies which
this demanded, in the freedom of spirit and earnest
ness which the new necessities evoked, we found a
deeper, larger meaning in religion itself.
We had
�ft fr
i
SK
12
undergone inward experiences of our own; we had
made some sacrifices of our own; and had discovered
that the religious life consisted not in any doctrines
whatever, but in the spirit in which truth was
pursued and the fidelity with which that which we be
lieved right and true was maintained.
Our trust in this principle was not without test. We
were severely arraigned and criticised in high quarters.
The chief clergyman of the neighbourhood denounced
us as blasphemers and infidels ; the champions of the
Christian Evidence Society were summoned to preach
against us; the pulpit fulminated, and the press
teemed for a year with hostilities ; they who admitted
us to this hall, and even the servants belonging to it,
were persecuted for not persecuting us.
that ordeal we grew strong.
But under
There was not one
single instance, within my knowledge, where any
member or friend of this Athenseum Society failed in
heart or interest because of these denunciations.
the contrary, we were greatly benefited.
On
It led to a
complete revision of the ground on which we stood.
Point by point, text by text, fact by fact, we went
over the whole history of the evolution of liberalism
with our opponents; and many of our number, who
had not done that before, were reassured by discover
ing the incredible fictions, the antiquated delusions,
the defiances of common sense and common senti-
�*3
ment, upon which Christian theology is
founded.
Many of our young people, who had not participated
in the controversies through which the intellect of
Europe and America had emancipated itself, were re
inforced by that memorable discussion which showed
us accomplished and scholarly men driven by the
remorseless necessities of their position to defend the
wild speculations of primitive man about religion
while rejecting the notions of corresponding times on
every other subject.
On that controversy which so long agitated this
community I look back with unalloyed satisfaction.
It appears to me to have been a genuine and thorough
one.
I have always respected the clergyman who
began it.
When he saw what he believed a wolf near
his fold he did not flee like a hireling shepherd ; he
grappled the supposed wolf and did his best to slay it.
He did not conceal his opinions; he did not jesuitically smooth over his dogmas ; he stood by them
honourably, even when the community was shudder
ing at them.
By originating and maintaining that
controversy he did us so much good; he added so
many to our years as a society, that I cannot grudge
him and his church any satisfaction they may feel at
our departure from their neighbourhood. They are
welcome to their relief, for they have aided us to sow
our seed as widely in thirteen years as without them we
�14
might have done in many more; and we know that
the seeds of thought and freedom are of the kind that
do not die, but must bear their fruit manifold.
This society was not begun in any formal way, and
it has not been continued out of any dry sense of
duty.
A few families, dissatisfied with the ministra
tions of the chapel to which they had belonged, with
drew from it.
It was not because of a doctrinal dis
agreement, but for other reasons. That which was so
begun has been continued after the occasion for it
had ceased, simply because we had come to love it.
Nobody has had any pecuniary interest in keeping up
this society; indeed, it has required a good deal of
self-denying energy to support an evening service in a
community where most people were already supporting
other societies. Had I been free to give my Sunday
mornings to this place there is no doubt that this
society would have grown too large for our hall.
We
have no reason to be ashamed either of its dimensions,
its character, or its zeal. It has not catered to popu
lar prejudices, it has had no dissensions, it finishes its
course after having fought a good fight for that freedom
to think and speak honest convictions, which an un
just and oppressive vote in Parliament last week
shows us to be a cause not yet won. Our work has
not been repaid in money, but it has not been without
its reward.
At least, so I feel it, and I trust it is so
�i5
felt by you. We have seen the steady expansion oi
our principles in social influence; we have grown in
love and sympathy for each other ; we have seen in
tellectual and moral activities awakened such
as
cannot slumber again : and as we go to our homes
to return here no more, we shall be carrying our
sheaves with us in the religious emotions and aspira
tions, the personal relations and friendships which
will always be associated with our unity and co-opera
tion in this society.
Thirteen years represent a long time in the brief life
of man.
The years which we have passed together as
a society represent for some of us the best years of our
lives.
So far as they have been well lived their fruits
are with us still, will remain with us, can never be
taken from us. This society as a visible body ends;
but the thoughts and feelings we have had here, the
resolutions that have here been formed, shall never
end; they have become parts of our being, they shall
for ever radiate in our influence, and when we are no
more they will still work on in the life and influence of
our children and of those affected by us, however un
consciously.
And, whatever may have been my shortcomings as
your minister, this at least I have never forgotten for
a moment since I first stood before you,—that every
principle we were here incorporating into our lives
�i6
would be one of endless influence.
The community
would be better or worse for it; many families would
be happier or unhappier for it; children unborn, and
children’s children, would be made more glad or
sad, weaker or stronger, wiser or unwiser, by our
every thought and word.
This responsibility has not
been upon me alone but upon you also ; for I have
spoken to men and women able to think for them
selves, to those who had nothing to attract them here
except their sympathy with our principles, and who
are amply competent to sift truth from error in what
they hear. Nevertheless, we have had the young here
also, and I have felt profoundly the responsibility
under which I uttered my thoughts in their presence,
for errors do not die so easily or pass so harmless as
many suppose. And now, as I prepare this my last
word, it would be to me a happy relief could I recall
and reverse every mistake I have made, and remove
every error committed. But who can understand his
errors? Perhaps time will reveal them. Perhaps
when I am no longer able to stand here and point them
out I shall discover that on one point and another I
did not see so far as I thought while here. But I shall
have this reflection also, that you and I travelled our
thirteen years’ pilgrimage together;
my heart and
thought were shared with you; we have grown so far
together: therefore if I shall gain a new experience,
�i7
or attain a riper thought, it will be my consolation to
believe that you also have attained the same, and will
be able to modify and correct the errors of years less
mature, both for yourselves and your children. For
at least I may claim never to have tried to lord it over
your conscience or your judgment. I am conscious that
truths, however valued, have not been here made into
absolute formulas, but every mind has been taught that
its chief end is to grow. No question has been closed ;
all questions are open. I have heard, from time to time,
not without satisfaction, that outsiders complained that
we did not label ourselves with a name, and they
could not tell just what we did believe.
When on one
occasion the magistrates who license this hall ques
tioned the applicants about our meetings here, and
showed some signs of interference, it appeared difficult
to give any clear account of us.
The magistrates in
quired our belief, and what we were, but no clear
answer could be returned by the applicant, who was
not one of us. I believe he said we were “ seekers
after truth and a long time finding it.”
not far wrong.
If so, he was
It has certainly been less my aim to
urge and defend any doctrine that appeared to me
true than to cultivate the spirit that seeks truth, the
fidelity that follows its lead, and the hope that every
idea reached as truth may presently pass like a blossom
before the fruit of a larger conception of truth.
And
�i8
this evening, in parting with this society, it is with a
trust that the spirit of growth, of progress, of inquiry,
of thought unfettered by authority however kindly
exerted, will be antidotes against any particular mis
takes or partial views which I have uttered.
It is my
real belief, it was stated in that first anniversary dis
course which I gave at our foundation, and it shall be
repeated in this last, that religion means to me no
doctrine at all but a spirit and a life.
An atheist,
earnestly seeking truth, and speaking what he believes
truth, bearing the cross of his denial in the face of the
world, is a religious man,while they who persecute a man
for his fidelity and scourge him for his veracity are
irreligious men, though they may seem to themselves
the protectors of omnipotence.
It is my belief that
until this principle animates society, there will be no
general religion at all.
The dogmas which are estab
lished in hngland are not more self-confident than
the established dogmas which poisoned Socrates, or
those which crucified Jesus ; as those proud systems
turned out to be no religion at all, but the reverse of
religion, so will the dogmas of our time which poison
intellect with hypocrisy and crucify humanity, turn
out to be the real irreligion. The coming man will
preserve such dogmas as fossils belonging to a Saurian
epoch of psychology, when men fancied that to crawl
before a god, and venomously bite all who did not
crawl with them, was religion.
�But beyond these dogmas, even the finer specula
tions of philosophy, even many attractive generalisa
tions, must pass away ; the best statements of truth
cannot share the immortality of truth. Therefore, let
US subordinate all opinions to the spirit of truth; let
US cultivate in our hearts such a love of it, that when
we meet one who disagrees with our opinions, but
shows veracity of mind and the earnest desire for
truth, we shall recognise in him a worshipper of the
holiest, a brother of the best and wisest. Nor let us
confuse this love of truth with a defence of any
particular doctrine or proposition.
Truth is one
thing; a truth another.
A man may defend his
opinions; the opinions may be true; yet he may not
be a lover of truth ; he may not reverence the spirit
of truth when it denies his own opinion; he may not
love truthfulness in his neighbour when it goes against
his interests; or, if he holds an unfashionable truth,
he may not bravely acknowledge it, seek to diffuse it,
and be willing to suffer with it.
But why repeat this now? I should regard our
thirteen years as worse than wasted if this were not
now felt by every one of us as the true religion. Yet
I desire that my last word here should impress it
upon old and young that it is in this spirit our
inquiries must move if they are to elevate our mind,
life, and character.
It is this alone which makes any
�20
opinion we may reach more than a mere opinion,
makes it also an experience, an inspiration, something
that quickens the moral life within us, interprets for
us the wisdom of the past, and enables us to minister
to the higher life'of the present and future. As it is
not so much to give our children wealth as to foster
in them habits of prudence, industry, and enterprise ;
so is it of far less importance to give others our
opinions than to stimulate in them the powers, and
evoke the resources by which they can form wise
opinions of their own. And I will add, that it is of
less importance to give them set maxims and rules of
morality than it is to awaken in them the love of
rectitude, the passion for justice, the sentiment of
virtue, which will lead them securely through paths
we cannot foresee, and instruct them in emergencies
where our best maxims may be inadequate.
Finally, my friends, be of good courage ! Do not
be cast down because this particular society ceases, or
because its enemies rejoice. That search for truth,
for which this society has stood, will not end nor fail;
that standard of a purer religion, which it has up
lifted, will not trail in the dust. The constituents of
this body will not lose their vitality; they will com
bine in other ways, let us trust in higher, larger ways,
and for more effective work.
It will be a pain to us
that we shall no longer gather here to sing our
�21
hymns, to meditate on things dear to us, to clasp
each other’s hands, and smile in each other’s faces ;
but we shall still be near each other, we will still feel
that wherever separated we are still one in loving
and serving the good cause ; and when, after this
society is dissolved, we too shall fall out of the ranks,
and our hands be folded on our breast, it rests with
ourselves to leave behind us the memory and influence
of lives faithfully lived, of tasks honestly performed,
of having done our best.
And so I bid you farewell.
��
Dublin Core
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Title
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Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
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Original Format
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Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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A last word: spoken at the Athenaeum, on the closing of our services there, June 27th 1880
Creator
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Conway, Moncure Daniel [1832-1907.]
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: [London]
Collation: 21 p. ; 15 cm.
Notes: Printed by Waterlow and Sons, London Wall. Morris Miscellaneous Tracts 2.
Publisher
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[Waterlow and Sons]
Date
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[1880]
Identifier
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G3345
Subject
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Free thought
Rights
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<img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /><br /><span>This work (A last word: spoken at the Athenaeum, on the closing of our services there, June 27th 1880), identified by </span><span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk">Humanist Library and Archives</a></span><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
Format
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application/pdf
Type
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Text
Language
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English
Christian Doctrine
Free Thought
Moncure Conway
Morris Tracts
Rationalism
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Obituary Notice of Michel Chevalier
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Robinson, Moncure
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Conway Tracts
Michel Chevalier
Obituaries
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ur2-4-
NATIONAL SECULAR SOCIETY
RALPH WALDO
EMERSON,
THE EMINENT AMERICAN
PHILOSOPHER AND ESSAYIST.
gesniptxcn anh (^sthnair nf
ms
WRITINGS.
BY
CHARLES
C.
CATTELL,
Author of “The Martyrs of Progressf “A String of Pearls
&=c., &e.
“ That which befits us, embosomed in beauty and wonder as we
are, is cheerfulness and courage, and the endeavour to realise our
aspirations.”
LONDON :
WATTS & Co., 84, FLEET STREET, E.C.
PRICE TWOPENCE.
��RALPH WALDO EMERSON:
ut jng Writings.
Emerson has been • called the Columbus of modern
thought, the successor to Lord Bacon, with whom, as also
Montaigne, there seems some affinity. He began when
American literature was but a name, when writers worked
for nothing and paid their printer. To-day Emerson’s
influence is felt by all speakers and writers. As a philo
sophic writer, I know none so charming. He is the
Plato of modern times. Nature and science in his hand
seem vivid : he animates all he sees; his wit and humour
playfully enliven fossils and granite rocks. He is master
of metaphorand phrases, so that definitions and formulas
become a burden and he dispenses with them. He
describes the order of nature, points out the distance
from the rock to the oyster, and from thence to man,
thinking and writing. This he does with as much distinct
ness as though he had read the experience of explorers,
and had had private interviews with Murchison, Lyell,
and Darwin before the day of publication. In imagina
tion he equals the writers to whom all men bow, and is
one of the chief ornaments of the modern Saxon race.
His philosophy is not only for boiling pots, it is to give
joy and hope, to make society happy men and women.
It is to develop the intellect of the race, and apply it
to the promotion of the public good, the good of al!.
Emerson has, strangely enough, been taken for the ghost
of Carlyle, has been set down as a sort of moon to
Carlyle’s sun. Nothing is more palpably absurd.
Readers who cannot distinguish crystals from pine
forests make poor critics, and should abandon the pro
fession. The parallel to Emerson is unborn, or at least
undeveloped.
�4
RALPH WALDO EMERSON.
In the Atlantic Monthly for 1880 there is an account
of a party to Wendell Holmes, the founder, it being his
70th birthday. The chairman remarks that Emerson
is with us, although silent by preference. I note it is
Emerson’s 77th year, he having been born at Boston, May
25th, 1803. As arrangements have been made by my
friend, Mr. David Kirkwood, to circulate in Boston what
I write, a few words on Ralph Waldo Emerson will be
well timed. I feel my indebtedness to Emerson, and
express it in such unadorned style as my ability permits.
He is an inspired man, rich in imagery, in poetry, in
arts; I am but the poor beggar subsisting on the crumbs
that fall from his table. But it is bad policy to let
people know how poor we are. When equals meet there
is no apology, no introduction, no preface. I approach
Emerson : his ability, age, and influence, demand respec
and a certain condescension from me. He is a giant, I
a pigmy. A friend who once met him at breakfast in
New York tells me he was surprised when the name
Emerson was applied to the gentleman near him, who
looked no better and no worse than others, and not
different from other people. It is as Emerson says, you
cannot see the mountain near. I noticed we could not
see the Saxon emblems when on the spot; but twenty
miles away the horse and the man stood out from the
hill in bold relief.
Ralph Waldo Emerson graduated at Harvard College
in 1821. He was schoolmaster for five years; was
ordained minister of the second Unitarian Church,
Boston, 1829, resigning in 1832 ; and in 1832 and 1847he visited Europe. He was married in 1830; but his wife
died five months after, and he married again in 1835.
He speedily gave up his clerical profession, and retired
to the village of Concord. Here he studied his favourite
theme—the nature of man and his relations to the uni
verse. In 1840 he became associated with Margaret
Fuller in editing a magazine of literature, philosophy,
and religion, entitled the Dial, which continued four
years. In 1852, in connection with W. H. Channing, he
published “ Memoirs of Margaret Fuller, Marchesa
d’Ossoli.” His “ Representative Men ” was popular in
England in 1850, in which he portrays, in his own inimit-
�RALPH WALDO EMERSON.
5
.able manner, types of classes of men under the names of
Plato, Swedenborg, Montaigne, Shakespeare, Napoleon,
and Goethe. In 1856 another popular work appeared,
.giving an account of his travels, entitled “ English
Traits.” Between the years 1837 and 1844 he delivered
addresses and wrote essays, which were circulated in a
cheap form in England; and to these I was indebted for
my introduction to this expositor of “ the divine laws.”
Looking in a window full of selected books is one of
.the delights which fade in the presence of the free public
library. I often think what a debt we owe the old
collectors of books, who made it the business of their
lives to gather a variety for the public choice. The
Church library is carefully selected, resembling a flower
garden painted on a tea tray : Emerson never enters
there. His living thoughts, full of fire, would dissolve
any school collection of innocent Sunday serials.
“ I am owner of the sphere,
Of the seven stars and the solar year,
Of Caesar’s hand and Plato’s brain,
Of Lord Christ’s heart and Shakespeare’s strain.”
Thus Emerson places every individual man on a
common level, giving him a share in the whole estate of
the intellect of the race; he thinks as Plato did, and
there is no saint like whom he may not feel. Perse
cutors and slanderers, to such a well-endowed man.
appear as dwarfs acting under the hallucination that they
are giants. The Bible to him is only a portion of the
scriptures of mankind. Jesus is one of the many young
men hanged or gibbetted at Tyburn. Socrates is no
longer a poor benighted heathen, but a noble, heroic man,
.and Jesus only a brother. After reading Emerson our
idea is that the world is fair and beautiful, although there
are sorrow and death. Before, it was on its last legs
—creation a blunder—men and women had neither
beauty nor dignity. It seemed a pity so much sin and
ugliness were born, and only the long-suffering patience
of their creator prevented their extinction. Everything
pointed to an eternal collapse; but Emerson gives con
fidence in the stability, the self-sustaining power of
nature. We are consoled with the assurance that the
sun and moon will last our time, and we leave the good
�6
RALPH WALDO EMERSON.
will to posterity, and transfer our anxiety to their holy’
keeping. It is, then, no longer a misfortune to be born,
a misery to live, or a terror to die. We become cheerful,
and revive our courage. We return to the battle of life
—up again, old heart, and at them : we are yet neither
foam nor wreck.
In reading Emerson the mind acquires new habits of
thought. The ideas generated are new and startling,
and still founded on observation a thousand years old.
The chatter of the theologians is as chaff and chips
Emerson is as sweet and refreshing as a summer’s breeze.
The words of the theologian are like a flickering candle
in a widow’s window on a dark and stormy night; Emer
son’s words are as the brilliant sun shining through the
forest. Compared with Emerson, the doctrines, the
parson, and even the Church itself, appear fossils, mere
wrecks of a former world of beauty and of truth.
Emerson speaks from the heart; he has seen nature,,
and he interprets what he has seen ; everything appears
living and full of purpose. The theologian sees nothing
to-day ; he only reports that God and nature were seen
ages back, when the world was young and innocent. He
is a talking machine, he is a canal, not a river. Emer
son is the waterfall, dashing and sparkling; the theolo
gian a stagnant pool, fed by little brooks that flowed
from the hills after the last flood. The theologian
speaks of a God who died long centuries ago, who left
his will, and appointed him executor to his children.
One cannot help pitying the poor orphans ! Emerson
says God is alive to-day; through me, through you,,
through all pure souls, God speaks to-day. But the God
of Emerson cannot be measured, cannot be put into a.
box, nor be eaten. He does not reside in Judea, nor in
Christendom. “ There is a soul in the centre of nature,
and over the will of every man, so that none of us can
wrong the universe.” “There is a power over and
behind us, and we are the channels of its communica
tions.” Again : “ When we have broken our god of
tradition, and ceased from our god of rhetoric, then
may God fire the heart with his presence.” Elsewhere
he says : “ The baffled intellect must still kneel before
..his cause, which refuses to be named.”
�RALPH WALDO EMERSON.
7
Our quaint names, fortune, muse, holy ghost, are too
narrow to cover the unbounded substance. Every fine
genius has tried to represent it by some symbol. Anaxi
menes, by air; Thales, by water; Anaxagoras, by thought;
Zoroaster, by fire; Jesus and the moderns, by love.
Emerson says that in “ our more correct writing we
give to these generalisations the name of Being, and
thereby confess we have arrived as far as we can go.
I do not believe that there is a soul in the centre of all
things, or that a soul in man presides over and directs all
the organs of his brain; still, I fondly cherish the remem
brance of being lifted into the universal being, which
had its centre everywhere, and its circumference no
where. The bewilderments of metaphysics _ and the
cobwebs of theology make the confused brain so hot
that these words act like a gentle shower in sultry
weather:—
“ The rounded world is fair to see,
Nine times folded in mystery ;
Though baffled seer cannot impart
The secret of its labouring heart,
Throb thine with Nature’s throbbing breast,
And all is clear from east to west.
Spirit, that lurks each form within,
Beckons to spirit of its kin ;
Self-kindled every atom glows,
And hints the future that it owes.”
One thing is clear, that, if a man fails to find conso
lation and peace in nature, he will find it nowhere. If
he sees no beauty in a landscape, receives no pleasure
from looking at a rose, a tree, or a simple weed ; if he
sees no grandeur in a storm; if the rolling, tempestuous
sea excites no feeling of admiration or of awe, of wonder
or fear, he may rely upon it, either his mind or his body
is out of health. Emerson says he knew a physician
who believed that the religion a man accepted depended
very much on the state of his liver. If diseased, he
would be a Calvinist; if that organ was sound, a Uni
tarian. No doubt the kind of religion adopted depends
a great deal on the climate and the state of the blood.
The great idea that Emerson teaches is self-reliance ;
every heart vibrates to that iron string. Individualism
�8
RALPH WALDO EMERSON.
is encouraged by him in every chapter he writes. He
delights in the man who sets up the strong present tense,
does broad justice now, and makes progress a fact; to
fill the hour, that is happiness, and leaves no room for
repentance or approval.
“ Work of his hand
He nGr commends nor grieves ;
Pleads for itself the fact;
As unrepenting Nature leaves
Her every act.”
Thus men of character become the conscience of
society, and unite with all that is just and true. Emer
son teaches that the world exists for a noble purpose,
the transformation of genius into practical power. The
popular idea is that the world is in a state of liquidation,
that the Grand Master of the Ceremonies is about to
appear to wind up the whole concern, and only believers
will share what may be realised from the estate. Emer
son, on the contrary, encourages men to work on and
hope on, believing that right and justice will ultimately
triumph.
There is one special feature in Emerson that is worthy
the serious attention of students, and readers of who are
not students. In his writings he shows an acquaintance
with the literature of the Old and the New Worlds. He
places within the reach of ordinary readers a mine of
literary wealth. I have read a great variety of books
during the past quarter of a century, but confess that,
with few exceptions, Emerson knew all I ha' e since
learnt. I know of no more economic method of gaining
an insight into the literature of the Old World and the
New than by reading the writings of this remarkable
man. However practical a man may be, he needs some
poetry to make life tolerable, and in Emerson the poetic
side of life has sufficient attention, although mixed with
science and philosophy.
Emerson is called a visionary dreamer; but do not his
words show that he sees life as it is, and has felt the
dark side of life, been under the shadow of existence ?
While he teaches Individualism, he is not mad, forAhe
writes of love and friendship, and says :—
�RALPH WALDO EMERSON.
9
“ All are needed by each one,
Nothing is fair and good alone.”
In his fable of the quarrel between the mountain and
the squirrel, the squirrel says :—
“ Talents differ ; all is well and wisely put;
If I cannot carry forests on my back,
Neither can you crack a nut.”
In his “ Compensation ” he teaches that “ the world
is dual, so is every one of its parts.” This chapter is
unlike anything written in modern times. He desired,
when a boy, to write this essay, for it seemed to him life
was ahead of theology, and that the people knew more
than the preachers taught.
In politics he says nature is neither democratic nor
Limited-Monarchical, but despotic. Persons having
reason have equal rights—demand a democracy—but
besides persons, the State undertakes to protect pro
perty; and here is inequality—one man owns his clothes,
another a county. He does not urge that the Republic
is “better,” but that it is “fitter.” It suits them. He
holds that the limitation of government, all govern
ments, is the wisdom of men; all men being wise, the
State would disappear. The tendency of the time
favours self-government. The less government we have,
the better. We think we get value for our money every
where, except what we pay for taxes.
In “ The Conduct of Life,” among the many questions
discussed is wealth.
He says: “ As soon as a
stranger is introduced the question is, How does he get
his living ? He should be able to answer. Every man
is a consumer, and should be a producer. He fails to
make his place good in the world who does not add
something to the commonwealth.”
In a chapter on Worship he mentions that some of
the Indians and Pacific Islanders flog their gods when
things take an unfavourable turn. Laomedon threat
ened to cut the ears off Apollo and Neptune in his
anger. King Olaf put a pan of glowing coals on the
belly of Eyvind, which burst asunder, saying, “ Wilt
thou now believe in Christ ?” In the romantic ages of
Christianity, to marry a Pagan husband or wife was to
�IO
RALPH WALDO EMERSON.
take a step backwards towards the baboon. To-day he
says, religion is weak and childish; we have the rat-andmouse revelation, thumps in table drawers. To-day, he
says men talk of 11 mere morality,” which is as if one
should say, “ Poor God, with nobody to help him!” He
prophesies that there will be a new Church, founded on
moral science, that will gather science, music, beauty,
picture, and poetry around it.
“ Society and Solitude,” which contains a valuable
chapter on Books, is written in language less angular and
studied than his previous books—more like his
“ English Traits,” which I suppose everybody has read.
The great variety of Emerson’s writings prevents the
notice of any special chapter at any considerable length.
A few allusions sufficiently indicate his wide departure
from the popular theology. The belief in the existence
of God and the immortality of the soul is, with him,
as natural to the soul of man as apples are to apple
trees. Revelation, with him, is the disclosure of
the soul—the popular idea is, that it is telling of fortunes.
He would not believe any man who said the Holy Ghost
told him the last day of Judgment occurred in the
eighteenth century. His teaching seems to indicate
that all opinions, beliefs, conjectures, and anticipations,
to be of use to the individual, must come to him. He
cannot learn from other men; there is nothing second
hand in his divinity. Omniscience flows behind and
through every man ; he is simply a medium. Holding
these transcendental views, still he paints the Sceptic in
his essay on Montaigne with marvellous fidelity. His
description of the position of the believer, the unbeliever,
and the disbeliever is so accurate that one often regrets
the clergy and ministers of the Gospel do not devote
one hour of their long and busy lives to the reading of
this one chapter of Emerson; whatever they might
have to say after might be understood by the persons
holding the opinions they attempt to refute. Emerson
shows that the Sceptic is not a fool; he is the considerer,
the man who weighs evidence, and limits his statement
by the assurance of facts. He does not allow that any
Church or society of men have all the truth. He
knows all knowledge is relative; all conclusions not
�RALPH WALDO EMERSON.
H
based on ascertained facts are open to doubt. Perhaps as
much can be said against as for any speculative opinion.
Who then shall forbid a wise Scepticism ?
In confirmation of my representation of Emerson’s
views, I quote his approval of Spenser. He says:—
“ The soul makes the body, as the wise Spenser teaches;
For of the soul the body form doth take ;
For soul is form, and doth the body make.”
His description of man entering the world among the
lords of life is—
“ Little man, least of all,
Among the legs of his guardians tall,
Walked about with puzzled look.”
He is born in a series of which the extremes are un
known—there are stairs above and below, both beyond
our vision ; no man knows how far they extend in either
direction. “ Life is a string of beads, and as we pass
through them, they prove to be many-coloured lenses,
which paint the world their own hue, and each shows
only what lies in its own focus.”
All martyrdoms look mean when they are suffered;
every ship is a romantic object, except the one we sail in;
our little life looks trivial, and we often wonder how any
thing of use or beauty was produced by us; the land
scape of our neighbour's farm is beautiful to look upon,
but as to our field it only holds the world together.
In 1876 he published “Letters and Social Aims,”
in which we find the last chapter is on Immortality.
Emerson was then in his 73rd year, and might be
expected to tell us something of the life beyond life.
But he knows nothing to impart to another; yet in our
weakness we ask, does Emerson believe it? The mem- bers of the church ask their pastor, is there any resur
rection ? Did Dr. Channing believe we should know
each other ? “ Let any master simply recite to you the
substantial laws of the intellect, and in the presence of
the laws themselves you will never ask such primary
school questions.” He says the Sceptic affirms the
universe to be a nest of boxes with nothing in the last
box.
Montesquieu delighted in believing himself as im
�12
RALPH WALDO EMERSON.
mortal as God himself. Young children have a feeling
of terror of a life without end. “What, will it never
stop ? Never, never die ? It makes me feel so tired.”
Penal servitude “ for life ” fills men with terror, but
“for ever” makes them sing and rejoice. The thought
that this poor frail being is never to end is overwhelming.
Herodotus, in his second book, says : “The Egyptians
were the first among mankind who have affirmed the
immortality of the soul.”
As the savage could not detach in his mind the life of
the soul from the body, he took great care of his body.
The great and chief end of man being to be buried well,
the priesthood became a senate of sextons; and masonry
and embalming the most popular of the arts.
Sixty years ago we were all taught that we were born
to die, and theology added all the terrors of savage
nations, to increase the gloom. A wise man in our
generation caused “ Think on Living ” to be inscribed
on his tomb. Emerson says this shows a great change
and describes a progress in opinion. He describes the
soul as master. “A man of thought is willing to die,
willing to live; I suppose because he has seen the thread
on which the beads are strung, and perceived that it
reaches up and down, existing quite independently of the
present illusions.” Matter-of-fact people will pronounce
these sentences nonsense, while they pretend to believe
greater miracles on Sundays and holy days. “And
what are these delights in the vast, permanent, and
strong, but approximations and resemblances of what is
entire and sufficing, creative and self-sustaining life?
Eor the creator keeps his word with us.”
He says, after making our children adepts in arts, we
do not send for the soldiers to shoot them down.
Nature does not, like the Empress Anne of Russia,
employ all the genius of the empire to build a palace of
snow. Emerson thinks the eternal, the vast, the power
ful in nature indicates the permanence of living thought
•—the perpetual promise of the creator. Goethe said :
“ It is to a thinking being impossible to think himself
non-existent; so far every one carries proof of immor
tality.” Van Helmont wishes Atheists “ might taste, if
only for a moment, what it is to intellectually under
�RALPH WALDO EMERSON.
IS
stand; whereby they may feel the immortality of the
mind, as it were, by touching.”
“ The healthy state of mind is the love of life. What
is so good? Let it endure.” This is the language of
the inspired on the mount; but those who live in the
valley inquire, JEzZZ it endure ?
“ I think all sound minds rest on a certain preliminary
conviction—namely, that if it be best that conscious per
sonal life shall continue, it will continue ; if not best, then
it will not.” Whatever it is, “ the future must be up tc>
the style of our faculties—of memory, hope, and reason.”
There is this drawback to all statements—hungry eyes
close disappointed; listeners do not hear what they want.
At last Emerson confesses that you cannot prove your
faith by syllogisms : the reasons all vanish ; it is all flying
ideal; conclusions are always hovering; no written theory
or demonstration is possible : Jesus explained nothing.
Emerson remarks that it is strange that Jesus is esteemed
by mankind the bringer of the doctrine of immortality.
“ He is never once weak or sentimental; he is very
abstemious of explanation ; he never preaches the personal
immortality ; while Plato and Cicero had both allowed
themselves to overstep the stern limits of the spirit, and
gratify the people with that picture.” Emerson compares
the grandeur of the doctrine with frivolous populations :
Will you build magnificently for mice ? Offer empires to
such as cannot keep house ? Here are people on whose
hands an hour hangs heavily—a day ! Will you offer
them rolling ages without end ? At last all drop into
the universal soul; each is as a bottle broken into the
sea. Emerson quotes, “The soul is not born; it does
not die.” This is the Hindoo faith.
Another chapter in the 1876 volume is on “ Quotation
and Originality.” Emerson has been reading and quot
ing and thinking and writing all his long life; hence,
what high value must we set on this chapter ! To the
literary student it is simply invaluable. He is like the
old mountain guide, who never misled a tourist, and never
missed his way. Only those who wander extensively in
new paths can appreciate one to whom all roads are
known. Read Tasso, and you think of Virgil; read
Virgil, and you think of Homer; read Plato, and you
�14
RALPH WALDO EMERSON.
find Christian dogma and Evangelical phrases. Rabelais
is the source of many a proverb, story, and jest.
“ Reynard the Fox,” a German poem of the thirteenth
century, yielded to Grimm, who found fragments of
another original a century older.
M. le Grand showed the original tales of Moliere, La
Fontaine, Boccaccio, and Voltaire in the old Fabliaux.
Mythology is no man’s work. Religious literature
psalms, liturgies, the Bible itself, is the growth of ages.
Divines assumed revelations of Christianity, the exact
parallelisms of which are found in the stoics and poets
of Greece and Rome. After the modern researches,
Confucius, the Indian Scriptures, and the history of
Egypt show that “ no monopoly of ethical wisdom could
be thought of.”
Sayings reported of modern statesmen and literary
men can be traced to Greek and Roman sources
Baron Munchausen’s bugle, hung up by the kitchen
fire till the frozen tune thawed out, is found in the time
of Plato.
Only recently England and America have discovered
their nursery tales were old German and Scandinavian
stories ; and now it appears that they came from India,
and were warbled and babbled by nurses and children of
all nations for unknown thousands of years. “Next to
the originator of a good sentence is the first quoter of it.
Many will read a book before one thinks of quoting a
passage.” When Shakespeare is charged with debts,
Landor replies : “ Yet he is more original than his
originals. He breathed upon dead bodies, and brought
them into life.” If De Quincey said to Wordsworth,
“ That is what I told you,” he replied, as his habit was
to reproduce all the good things: “No, that is mine—
mine, and not yours.” Marraontel’s principle was : “ I
pounce on what is mine, wherever Ifind it.” Poets, like
bees, take from every flower that suits them, not con
cerned where it originally grew. “ It is a familiar expe^
dient of brilliant writers and witty talkers, the device of
ascribing their own sentence to some imaginary person
in order to give it weight.”
�ALL ABOUT
THE ENGLISH
LAND QUESTION,
FROM ALL POINTS OF VIEW.
BY
PRICE ONE SHILLING.
LONDON :
WATTS & Co., 84, FLEET STREET.
�NEW WORKS AND NEW EDITIONS
BY
CHARLES C. CATTELL.
One Penny.
RADICALISM AND IMPERIALISM : An Exposition
and Impeachment.
Twopence Each.
WHAT IS A FREETHINKER ? His Distinctive
Principles Stated.
IN SEARCH OF A RELIGION, and Notes by the
Way : its Relation to Students, Teachers, Free Inquiry
Morality, and Nature.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON, the American Philoso
pher and Essayist.
LAND NATIONAL PROPERTY. With a Criticism
of the Views of Mr. Bright and Others.
Third
Edition.
SHAKESPEARE: WHAT DID HE WRITE? Fourth
Edition.
THE BACON AND SHAKESPEARE CONTRO-
Sixpence Each.
THE MARTYRS OF PROGRESS. Being a History
of the Perils and Persecutions of Past Genera
tions.
GEORGE DAWSON’S SPEECHES ON SHAKE
SPEARE.
One Shilling Each.
A STRING OF PEARLS FROM THE MASTERS
OF THOUGHT AND LANGUAGE.
ALL ABOUT THE LAND QUESTION, from all
Points of View.
Two Shillings.
GREAT MEN’S VIEWS ON SHAKESPEARE.
London : 'WATTS & Co., 84 Fleet Street.
�
Dublin Core
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Title
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Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018
Publisher
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
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Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Ralph Waldo Emerson, the eminent American philosopher and essayist : description and estimation of his writings
Creator
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Cattell, Charles Cockbill
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: London
Collation: 14, [2] p. ; 18 cm.
Notes: Not dated. Internal evidence suggests 1880. Other works by Cattell advertised inside and on back cover. Part of the NSS pamphlet collection.
Publisher
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Watts & Co.
Date
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[1880]
Identifier
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N124
Subject
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Emerson, Ralph Waldo
Philosophy
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (Ralph Waldo Emerson, the eminent American philosopher and essayist : description and estimation of his writings), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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application/pdf
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Text
Language
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English
NSS
Ralph Waldo Emerson
-
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95067ff2ff940b4183a1cba34d8a71de
PDF Text
Text
G& 1
-
II
* *■
REPORT
9
OF THE
COMMITTEE
OF
SOUTH PLACE RELIGIOUS SOCIETY,
FOR THE YEAR 1879.
�SOUTH PUCE RELIGIOUS SOCIETY" .
18 7 9.
Jumtster:
MONCURE D. CONWAY, M.A., Inglewood, Bedford Park, Chiswick
Committee:
Mr. G. E. SADD
„ C. H. SEYLER
„ J. SHAW
„ W. C. STOREY
„ J. STOUT
Mrs. T. TAYLOR
Mr. C. W. THIES
„ W. D. THOMSON
„ T. R. WRIGHT
„ G. H. YOUNG
Mrs. ANDERSON
Mr. E. K. BLYTH
„ W. CROWDER
„ E. DALLOW
„ P. EVERITT
Mrs. I. FISHER
Miss C. FLETCHER
Mr. CORRIE B. GRANT
„ G. HICKSON
„ J. KNIGHT
„ J. PUNNETT
®rca surer anU Chairman:
Mr. GEORGE HICKSON, 35, Highbury New Park, N.
Setretarp:
Mr. W. J. REYNOLDS, Elm House, Mare Street, Hackney, E.
'Sulfitors:
Mr. A. Me MORRAN
1
Mr. J. A. LYON
trustees:
Mr.
„
„
„
„
WM. BURR
J. CUNNINGTON
G. HICKSON.
J. A. LYON
M. E. MARSDEN
Mr. W. C. NEVITT
„ J. L. SHUTER
„ F. WALTERS
Sir S. H. WATERLOW, Bart.
M.P.
’
Mr. A. J. WATERLOW
Secretary Soiree Committee:
Mr. S. G. FENTON, 18, Courthope Villas, Wimbledon, S.W.
Cfjo(r=jJ$Iaster ank ©rganist:
Mr. J. TROUSSELLE, 7, Blandford Place, Regent’s Park, N.W.
�Ikpurf of tbc Committee
OF
SOUTH PLACE RELI&IOUS SOCIETY,
FOB THE YEAE 1879.
The Committee, in presenting the Report for the year 1879,
have not the pleasing task of chronicling such an eventful
period as the preceding year proved to be. They are, how
ever, able to record a degree of progress that is of a most
satisfactory and substantial character. Indeed, our Society
having now become a well known centre of liberal thought;
could scarcely fail to share the gratifying advance that has
been made, on all sides, in the direction of freedom of opinion.
It is scarcely possible for any one who is conversant with
science and literature, or who merely glances at the best
periodical writing of our day, not to notice the changed aspect
which the great battle for mental liberty now presents.
Within the recollection of many members of this Society, the
time was when heterodoxy—or anything that its opponents
chose to stigmatize by that name—could hardly obtain the
scantiest attention ; and was compelled to adopt a tone that
was apologetic, rather than outspoken or decisive. It would
almost seem now, that this position. is completely reversed.
The furtive apology, and the cry of despair, are heard indeed;
but it is from the orthodox camp that the lugubrious sounds
go forth. Whether we notice the bishop, who, having as he
thought, satisfactorily answered modern rationalists three years
ago, finds himself “ called again to the task, more urgently,
�4
more imperatively, than before ; ” and who yet finds “ that as
yet it has been by no means clear where it would ultimately
be most hopeful to make a decided stand ; ” or whether we
observe the eager manner in which anything that wears the
semblance of a scientific argument, is caught up by orthodox
apologists (often without any suspicion of its two-edged
character); we are in either case forced to conclude that the
contest between science and supernaturalism has entered upon
an entirely new phase. We cannot but regard it as significant
to the last degree, that the privileged sects feel themselves
already in extremis; and cannot but rejoice to find, that the
weight of intellectual influence is rapidly being transferred
to the side of mental freedom. It would be impossible to
reoount all the circumstances that lead to this conclusion;
but one of the most suggestive is furnished by the recent
publication of a small volume of poems by Miss Bevington.
That the progress of modern thought should call forth
excellent controversial writing, was of course to be expected;
but that the new ideas, which as yesterday seemed but
struggling into existence, should now be sufficiently developed
to find expression in poetry, indicates that they have pene
trated far more deeply into the public mind than was hitherto
suspected by either friends or foes.
It must not be forgotten, however, that this progress has
been chiefly attained by the efforts of some of our leading
thinkers; amongst whom the late Professor Clifford occupied
an unusually prominent position. His untimely death in the
early part of last year, has deprived the liberal ranks of a
champion; whose intellectual power, coupled as it was with an.
earnest enthusiasm for the welfare of mankind, made him a
justly dreaded foe to those creeds and dogmas which he con
sidered had become the principal obstacles to moral and
religious progress. No one, perhaps, has done more to detach
really useful ideas from theological incrustations, and to place
�5
them on an altogether loftier plane; most certainly no one
ever approached his task in a more determined and uncom
promising manner. Unfortunately, his busy life, and pre
mature death, prevented anything like an adequate provision
being made for those dear to him. His friends endeavoured
to supply this deficiency, and by their efforts a sum of £3,000
was collected; of which sum the members of this Society con
tributed £95. 17s. 6d. A memorial service in honour of this
true friend of humanity was held on March 16th; an im
pressive discourse being delivered by Mr. Conway to one of
the most numerous audiences ever assembled at South Place.
The special work of this Society, led by Mr. Conway, has
also, the Committee venture to think, done most useful work
in advancing freedom of thought and opinion. The fearless
ness, and intellectual grasp exhibited in the discourses at
South Place during the past year, while giving continued
pleasure and instruction to the members of our Society, are
also steadily becoming appreciated by an increasing number.
In illustration of this, it may be mentioned that our services
have received favourable comment from the press on some
recent occasions.
It has long been felt that a more frequent publication of
Mr. Conway’s discourses would be desirable; as it was as
patent to the Committee, as it doubtless has been to the
members, that most of these thoughtful and suggestive
essays ought to be preserved in some permanent and accessible
form. They have, however, been deterred from accomplishing
this task, by the circumstance that it is necessary to publish a
large number of each, in order to bring the price within
reasonable limits. With the means of distribution at com
mand, these editions could seldom be disposed of with
the rapidity that was essential, and the stock of pamphlets
thus accumulated unduly.* But the Committee have now
The pamphlets now in stock number 12,648.
�the pleasure to state, that this difficulty has been obviated by
Mr. Conway having made a special arrangement with a new
periodical, entitled Modern Thought, for the frequent and
full publication of his lectures. This journal will be constantly
on sale in the library, and as in addition to Mr. Conway’s
discourses, it will contain much matter of interest, it is hoped
that our members will find its perusal fraught with both
pleasure and profit.
The other educational work that had been begun in con
nection with the Society, has also been carried on with
considerable energy. It will be within the recollection of the
members, that a course of lectures (by Mr. Rigg) on The
Theory of Perception was being delivered when the last
Report was presented. These lectures were brought to a
satisfactory conclusion, and were succeeded by a subsequent
course of nine lectures by Mr. W. C. Coupland, on Goethe’s
Faust. This unusually attractive subject brought together a
numerous audience, who were extremely well pleased with
the very excellent manner in which the subject was handled.
The profound thought, and keen knowledge of human
character displayed in the masterpiece of the great German
poet, are becoming better appreciated in these days of mental
activity; and it was, therefore, a gratifying circumstance
that our Society assisted in disseminating such interesting
information on this important work, as was happily accom
plished by Mr. Coupland’s efforts. During the autumn,
another course, on Political Economy was commenced, and is
now being continued by Mr. J. H. Levy, whose masterly
exposition of this important subject is closely followed by
a numerous assemblage. These lectures have been initiated
and sustained by a few members of this Society, the Com
mittee having assisted them by granting the use of the
building at a nominal charge* But it is a matter for con
sideration, whether the time has not arrived when a definite
�’Constitution might properly be granted to the body which
has carried on this work; and thus enable South Place Insti
tute to take its place amongst the educational agencies of
this City.
The Musical arrangements have received an unusual
amount of attention during the past year. At the com
mencement of that period the Committee received, with
regret, the resignation of Madame Worrell-Duval, who filled
the position of first soprano in the choir. The appointment
of her successor has been a somewhat difficult matter ; for it
was felt, that it was better to sustain the inconvenience of
some frequent changes, rather than appoint any one who did
not win entire and unqualified approval. During the year
some additions have been made to the music, and the Music
Committee are now engaged in selecting from a large number
of pieces, some new Anthem Music, with a view of enlarging
and improving our repertoire. This is being accomplished
with Mr. Trousselle’s able assistance, to whom the Committee
feel indebted for his painstaking efforts to sustain and im
prove the character of our music.
In connection with musical matters, it may be stated, that a
proposal was made to form a Musical Society from amongst
our members; but that up to the present moment, sufficient
support has not^been accorded to the movement to justify a
commencement.
Should, however, this difficulty be sur
mounted, the Committee will gladly place every facility in
the way of so excellent a project.
The usual series of Soirees have been held under the
management of the Soiree Committee; and it perhaps hardly
requires any statement to remind the members, of the many
opportunities for pleasant social intercourse they have enjoyed
on these occasions. The “ Tableux Vivants ’ ’ that were presented
on one evening, formed an unusual attraction; and, the Com
mittee think, reflected great credit on those engaged in
�8
furnishing the entertainment. They are also of opinion, that
many thanks are due to the ladies and gentlemen forming the
Soiree Committee, for their arduous efforts to promote the
enjoyment of the members and their friends on each evening.
It is a satisfaction to be able to record that a profit has been
secured amounting to £19. 16s. lid. The Annual Soiree
was held on May 3rd, at the Cannon Street Hotel, and was
more than usually successful; as, in addition to the pleasure
afforded, the large attendance enabled the managers to realize
the substantial surplus of £11. 5s. lOd.
The lettings of the building, unfortunately, have not proved
quite so remunerative as in past years; the amount received
during the year having only reached £184. 2s. 6d., against
£211 for the preceding year.
This is the more to
be regretted, as there are some repairs to the building of a
rather serious character that cannot much longer be delayed.
The roof has been in an unsound condition for some time
past, and during the next vacation will require thorough
repair.
In addition to this, the Committee think it
absolutely necessary for the comfort of the members, that
some more efficient apparatus for warming the building should
be provided as soon as it becomes possible. Unfortunately,
both these matters will entail considerable expense ; and the
Committee were therefore compelled to seek some means of
increasing the revenue, unless these necessary works were to
be indefinitely postponed. Their attention had been drawn
to the very unequal value of the sittings on the ground floor,
by the circumstance, that, whilst some were promised in
advance long before vacancies occurred, others would scarcely
let at all. They therefore went carefully through the books,
and revised the scale of cha ges for sittings, seeking to bring
them more in harmony with the recognized values they
appeared to have with the members. They believe that
additional revenue will be obtained in two directions : first,
�9
by the increased rental of those seats that are confessedly the
most eligible; secondly, by greater inducements being offered
to obtain subscribers for those which are not so desirable.
The Committee feel that in this matter they are calling upon
some of the members for an effort to aid them; but it should
in fairness be remembered, that, although the seat rents at
South Place may seem high, the members are not, as in all
other Religious Societies, continually solicited for additional
contributions. With the exception of the Benevolent Fund,
the seat rent is now the only sum that is either demanded or
even invited, and from it the greater part of the current
expenditure has to be met. A remembrance of this will
possibly aid the members in giving the Committee their
help at this juncture.
In concluding the review of the labours of the year that
has just elapsed, it may fairly be stated, that, while a sub*
stantial amount of success has been achieved in the past,
there is also reason to hope that, with goodwill and unanimity
on the part of the members, coupled with energy on the part
of the Committee, still greater prosperity may reward the
efforts of the future.
*** Since the drafting of the above Report, the following
letter has been received from Mr. Conway, and the subject there
mentioned will require the careful consideration of the future
Committee. The arrangements that may be found necessary,
will be communicated to the members at an early date.
“ Inglewood, Bedford Park,
“ Turnham Green,
“ 13th January, 1880.
“ Dear Mr. Hickson,
“ I enclose the receipts for the year. And in doing so,
111 will ask you to lay before the Committee the following
“ statement—to which they may think it important to allude in
“ the next Annual Report.
�10
“ It is my purpose to go to America with my family at the
“ close of July next, and I shall require for the visit a four
“ months’ furlough.
11 It had been my hope that my friend Octavius Frothingham,
“ now in Italy seeking health, would be able to pass the autumn
“ in London, knowing how highly our South Place Society
“ would value his eloquent discourses. But by a letter just
“ received from him, I learn with regret that his efforts to re11 gain health have been so unsuccessful that it is impossible for
“ him to be with our people. I doubt not, however, that the
“ Committee, to whom I shall have to leave the task (assisting,
“ however, as much as I can) will be able to secure the services
“ of good men during my absence, and I trust the Society will
il be willing to bear the expense of such supplies.
li I may add that I have concluded to determine my ministry
“ at the Athenaeum, which will be discontinued in June, and not
“ resumed after my return from America. I have formed this
“ resolution of my own accord, having discovered that it is
“ necessary for me to husband my energies more in future.
“ The growing requirements of South Place appear to me to
“ need all the strength that remains to me.
“ Ever faithfully,
“MONCURE D. CONWAY.”
KOTICE.
In accordance with the Rules, seven members of the Com
mittee will retire from office at the ensuing Annual Meeting,
and are not eligible for re-election until next year. The
members so retiring are Mrs. I. Fisher, Miss Fletcher, Mr.
J. Knight, Mr. C. H. Seyler, Mr. J. Shaw, Mr. J. Stout,
Mr. C. W. Thies. The members will therefore have to elect
seven new members of the Committee, and two Auditors.
Nominations for the above offices must be forwarded to the
Secretary (in writing) on or before January 29th.
The
Annual General Meeting will be held on Thursday, Feb
ruary 12th, at 7.0 p.m. precisely.
���
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Report of the committee of South Place Religious Society for the year 1879
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
South Place Religious Society
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: London
Collation: 11, [31] p. ; 22 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
[South Place Religious Society]
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
[1880]
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
G5579
Subject
The topic of the resource
Conway Hall Ethical Society
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (Report of the committee of South Place Religious Society for the year 1879), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
Format
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application/pdf
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Language
A language of the resource
English
Conway Tracts
South Place Religious Society
-
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PDF Text
Text
NATIONAL SECULAR SOCIETY
THE EUCHARIST.
“Ibant obscuri sola sub nocte per umbram,
Perque domos Ditis vacuas, et inania regna :
Quale per incertam lunam sub luce maligna
Est iter in silvis ; ubi ccelum condidit umbra
Jupiter, et rebus nox abstulit atra colorem.”
JEneid vi., 268-272.
LONDON:
FREETHOUGHT PUBLISHING COMPANY,
28 STONECUTTER STREET, E.C.
Price Sixpence.
��PREFACE.
Marriage, Baptism, Eating and Drinking at the
Encharist, Laying on of Hands, Prayers at Burial, are
Christian sacraments and ceremonies which are admini
stered or performed at the present day. The Eucharist
is considered by far the most important, and, therefore,
its origin and development have been most carefully
and extensively examined in this tract. All our
sacraments had their origin in the ignorance, miseries,
and fancies of the primitive savage condition of all the
human races, a condition which these sacraments to
some extent relieved. Their original significance has
long passed away from the knowledge of civilized races,
who, now labouring under total misconceptions regard
ing their significance, suffer poignant stings of con
science, which constitute the natural punishment
attending on “ sins of ignorance.” To free the reader’s
mind from those misconceptions is the object of this
tract.
Kilferest :
Feast of St Ntcodemus, 1880.
��THE EUCHARIST.
HEN a man prays his object is to induce the Deity
YV to do something which the suppliant supposes
would benefit himself. Prayer is an offer of a bribe.
Originally this bribe was flattery. Prayer has always
contained this element of flattery. Next there was
added the offer of a present. This consisted in an
article of food, or something else which the suppliant
considered valuable. Since the Deity neither devoured
the food nor took away the present, the offering was
subsequently consumed with fire, or otherwise de
stroyed, to render it useless to the suppliant. So, in
course of time, a “ burned offering ” came to be con
sidered the most efficacious bribe that could be offered
to the Deity; because the suppliant thereby suffered a
loss which he could not recover. The suppliant glori
fied the Deity by squandering to his honour something
which the suppliant considered valuable, and the
Deity was supposed to be bound to take that fact
into consideration. In this way, sacrifice was supposed
to have a magical or charming effect on the Deity, and
it became and has ever since continued an essential
element of religion. Sacrifice was, in fact, a miracle,
which word is a term convertible with the word ignor
ance. Its origin was fear of those forces in nature
which hurt mankind,—such as storms, deluges, earth
quakes, pestilence, and the like. Man was ignorant
concerning the true causes of these things and he
supposed them to be anthropomorphic deities : that is
�6
The Eucharist.
to say, unseen, reduplications of himself, but vastly
more powerful. So he endeavoured to bribe these
deities with offerings which were calculated to appease
the anger of his fellow men. Thus the suppliant
hoped that by means of prayer and sacrifice the laws
of nature would be suspended, for his benefit. He
was wholly ignorant of the fact that those laws are
invariable,—that the present condition of the universe
is the necessary result of every preceding state; that
the same men, acted on by the same motives, would
do as they have done; and that every thing that takes
place in the universe is the necessary result of un
varying forces. As the necessary result of this ignor
ance, the primitive worshippers supposed that prayer
and sacrifice operating through the Deity, should have
on man’s body and its environments as powerful an
effect as a sound constitution, an intelligent under
standing, a healthy atmosphere, a fine summer, a
fruitful autumn, and anything else which omniscience
and omnipotence could bestow. This supposition is
an essential element of Christianity, and it is embodied
in the Eucharist, or giving of thanks.
Although the celebration of the Eucharist is now
an innocent ceremony, yet it was not .so originally.
The account of its institution and nature, which is
most approved of by the Christian Church, is that
set forth by the writer of the first epistle to the
Corinthians, xi. 23-30, who says, “ I have received of
the Lord that which also I have delivered unto you,
That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was
betrayed took bread : and when he had given thanks,
he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body,
which is broken for you : this do in remembrance of
me. After the same manner also he took the cup,
when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new
testament in my blood : this do ye, as oft as ye drink
it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this
bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s
�The Eucharist.
7
death till he come. Wherefore whosoever shall eat
this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily,
shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of
that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth
and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damna
tion to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For
this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and
many sleep.”
So, by the supernatural power of the Christian
Church the apparent elements of bread and wine are
metamorphosed into the body and blood of a human
being. By the same supernatural power, the celebra
tion of the Eucharist proved injurious to some of its
unworthy recipients. It proved even fatal to others ;
for the Greek verb rendered by our verb “ sleep ” in
the above quoted passage is applied, Acts vii. 60, to
the death of Stephen, and it has the same meaning,
namely that of “ death,” in several other passages of
our New Testament.
It is a remarkable fact that the above quoted pas
sage is not to be found in our four Gospels. It is
still more remarkable that our four Gospels are never
quoted in any of the other writings contained in our
New Testament. It, therefore, becomes a very impor
tant question, namely, whether the above quoted
passage is canonical ? A similar question arises regard
ing several other quotations. For instance, the writer
of the Epistle to Titus, i. 12, 13, says, “ One of
themselves, a prophet of their own, said, The Cretans
are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. This witness
is true.” There are also in our New Testament several
other quotations from the Septuagint, from profane
sources, and from apocryphal gospels. Are these to be
regarded as canonical ?
This question has been answered by Sir Lancelot
C. L. Brenton, in the Preface to his translation of the
Septuagint. He says, “ What was uninspired before
�The Eucharist.
quotation becomes inspired after ; or rather quotation
by the Holy Ghost is the very stamp and seal of in
spiration affixed to the words at the moment he con
descends to use them. If God can employ human means,
including human words and phrases too, not the pure
tongue of Paradise, but language in itself (till purged
by Him) witnessing to the pollution of man’s sinful lips,
may not the Heavenly Dove light upon truth, which has
been ignorantly, perhaps foolishly, perversely uttered,
and yet truth, and therefore infinitely precious, because
of its capacity to minister to the spiritual wants of the
children of God? If any think this language too
strong let him refer to Tit. i. 12, 13, where we have
the testimony of inspiration itself to assure us that
God can take words of one nationally and as it were
constitutionally a liar and add this sanction, This
witness is true. Much confusion and difficulty may
indeed be avoided if we bear in mind that it is through
out a question not of originality but of inspiration,
save that whatever is good anywhere must of course
be original with the Father of lights, whatever the
channel through which it happens to flow. In reply
then to the question, how far does the apostolic quota
tion of a part of the Septuagint warrant the inspiration
of the whole ? we venture to state that it is no warrant
at all. What the Holy Ghost touches it hallows—
beyond this the translation, whatever its excellence,
comes into our hands as the work of fallible man,”
So quotation by an inspired writer renders the words
quoted from any writing a canonical portion of
holy Scripture, just as the celebration of the Eucharist
by a duly ordained priest changes bread and wine into
human flesh and blood. The quotation in the former
case operates as the blessing in the latter.
Can it be shown that the popes have promulgated
an absurdity for which an equivalent cannot be found
in publications of Protestant writers ? Or among the
precepts of practical wisdom and among the doctrines
�The Eucharist.
9
of theological nonsense which are contained in the
Bible, can there be found any which are not merely
echoes of similar wisdom and similar nonsense contained
in the Veda and the Bedagat ?
One of the strongest reasons for considering anthro
pophagy or cannibalism as having widely prevailed in
pre-historic ages, is the fact of its being deeply in
grained in savage and barbaric religions whose gods
are so often regarded as delighting in human flesh and
blood. This is admitted by scholars of such eminence
and of such different opinions as Paley and Gladstone.
Sometimes the flesh of sacrificed human victims serves
to provide cannibal feasts. The understood meaning
of those rites in some cases is that the bodies of the
victims are consumed by the worshippers vicariously,
and in other cases that the gods themselves feed on
the spirits of the victims while their bodies are eaten
by the priests and people. As might be expected the
same ideas and practices prevail at the present day
among utterly barbarous nations who now practise
that religious cannibalism which the ancestors of
civilized people formerly practised. Then Mr T.
Williams (“Fiji and the Fijians/’ Vol. i., p. 231)
says, “ Of the great offerings of food, native belief
apportions merely the soul thereof to the gods, who
are described as being enormous eaters ; the substance
is consumed by the worshippers. Cannibalism is
a part of the Fijian religion, and the gods are de
scribed as delighting in human flesh.” In Mexico
the anthropophagy which prevailed was distinctly
religious in its origin and professed purpose. See
Prescott’s “ Conquest of Mexico,” Bancroft’s “ Native
Races of Pacific States,” Vol. ii. That the primary
meaning of the human sacrifice was to present victims
to their deities is shown by the manner in which the
sacrificing Mexican priest tore out the heart,
offered it to the sun, and afterwards went through
ceremonies of feeding the idol with the heart and
�Io
The Eucharist.
blood. To obtain supplies of captives for sacrifices
caused the Mexicans to engage in frequent wars ; and
it was the limbs of these victims which were eaten in
the sacrificial feasts that formed part of the festivals.
See Thomas J. Hutchinson’s “ Ten Years among the
Ethiopians,” p. 62, &c., Lander’s “ Records,” Vol. ii.
p. 250, whereby it is shown evidently that in Africa,
cannibalism has in some cases a sacrificial character.
Sir John Lubbock (“Pro-historic Times,” Third Edi
tion, pp. 468-9) says, “ The cannibalism of a New
Zealander, though often a mere meal, was also some
times a ceremony; in these cases the object was
something very different from mere sensual gratifica
tion ; it must be regarded as a part of his religion, as
a sort of unholy sacrament. This is proved by the
fact that after a battle the bodies which they preferred
were not those of plump young men, or tender damsels,
but of the most celebrated chiefs however old
and dry they might be. In fact they believed that
it was not only the material substance which they
thus appropriated, but also the spirit, the ability and
the glory of him whom they devoured. The greater
the number of corpses they had eaten, the higher
they thought would be their position in the world to
come.................. Religious persecutions have scarcely
ceased in Europe even now, nor is it so very long since
the fire and the stake were regarded as necessary for
the preservation of Christianity itself.”
It is to be observed, however, that the element of
murder is excluded from the celebration of the eucharist;
because, Hebrews x. 12, Jesus “ after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right
hand of God.” But the eating of actual human flesh
and the drinking of actual human blood are both ne
cessary for the salvation of a Christian; because, (John
vi. 53), “Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say
unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man,
and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.” All man
�The Eucharist.
11
kind, and especially untutored nations, attributed
supreme and most abiding importance and efficacy to
human sacrifices. This supremacy arose from two
causes, namely, firstly, imperfect observation of cause
and supposed effect which is common to all practices of
sacrifice, and, secondly, supposed value of human
sacrifices.
Regarding the first cause, Bacon says, (“ Novum Organum,” book i., aph., § 46), “When any proposition
has been once accepted, the human understanding
forces everything else to add fresh support and con
firmation; and although most cogent and abundant
instances may exist to the contrary, yet the human un
derstanding either does not observe or despise them,
or get rid of and reject them by some distinction, with
violent and injurious prejudice, rather than sacrifice the
authority of its first conclusions. It was well answered
by him [Diagoras], who was shewn in a temple the
votive tablets suspended by such as had escaped the
peril of shipwreck, and was pressed as to whether he
would then recognise the power of the gods by an in
quiry, But where are the portraits of those who have
perished in spite of their vows? All superstition is
much the same, whether it be that of astrology, dreams,
omens, retributive judgment, or the like, in all of which
the deluded believers observe events which are fulfilled,
but neglect and pass over their failure, though it be
much more common. But this evil insinuates itself
still more craftily in philosophy and the sciences, in
which a settled maxim vitiates and governs every other
circumstance, though the latter be much more worthy
of confidence. Besides, even in the absence of that
eagerness and want of thought, which we have men
tioned, it is a peculiar and perpetual error of the human
understanding to be more moved and excited by affirma
tives than by negatives, whereas it ought to be duly
and regularly impartial: nay, in establishing any true
axiom, the negative instance is the more powerful.”
�I2
The Eucharist.
Unfortunately the false reasoning pointed out by
Bacon can never be eradicated from the human con
stitution. For the human understanding is so en
vironed by human pain, want, waste, misery, fear, de
sire, and (worst of all) hope, that a really free exercise
of reason is almost out of the question. Moreover,
reason cannot directly influence a belief that did not
originate in reason. Hence this false reasoning clings
to men of talent, courage, experience, and education.
Xenophon successfully conducted the celebrated retreat
of the ten thousand Grecian soldiers from the neigh
bourhood of Babylon to that of Byzantium. He has
left us an account of that retreat in his “ Anabasis.”
There, when relating (book iv., ch. v. 3, 4) the last
passage of the Greeks across the Euphrates, he says,
“ The last day’s march was hard to bear, for a north
wind, blowing full in their faces, quite chilled and
stiffened the men. Upon this, one of the seers advised
to sacrifice to the wind; so they sacrificed, and the
severity of the wind perceptibly abated.”
Here we have sacrifice and false reasoning going to
gether hand in hand as they have always gone since
man was what he is. It is the old story. A man
wishes to gain the favour of the Deity, who is assumed
to be a Power encompassed with human feelings and
human infirmities: in fact, to all intents and for all
purposes an immensely powerful Man. Therefore, in
the first place, the man prays to his supposed Deity.
Secondly, the man makes a vow that he will give his
supposed Deity something. Thirdly, the man resolves
to glorify his supposed Deity, and this leads to the
fourth and last step, namely, since the man wishes to
give public proof of his attachment to his supposed
Deity, the man must impose upon himself PAIN, and
the pain must be such as not to present the remotest
prospect of any dependent or independent reward.
Mankind will measure the amount of devotion by the
amount and intensity of the pain which the worshipper
�'The Eucharist.
'3
gratuitously inflicts on himself. Hence have arisen
fasting, asceticism, filth, austerity, celibacy, torture,
poverty, seclusion.
It would be well if religious pranks ended here. But
since the worshipper imagines himself morally bound
to glorify his supposed Deity, it follows that the universal recognition of his Deity will be the chief object
of the worshipper, who is thus placed in a state of hos
tility to all those who (1) do not believe in the exist
ence of this supposed Deity, (2) who do not obey his
will, and (3) who imperfectly obey his will.
It has been demonstrated (“ Outlines of Cosmic
Philosophy,” by John Fiske) that “ No two indivi
duals are exactly alike.” It is a well-known truth
(John i. 18) that “ No man has seen God at any time.”
Hence it follows that all deities, supposed to be en
dowed with moral or immoral attributes, or with both,
are and always have been as numerous and as various
as the worshippers who pay those deities homage. In
this, and only in this respect, religion is “ the same
yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.” Hence arises not
only hostility, but an immense extension of that feel
ing. A number of artificial instances are created and
subjected to its control where before it had not any
application; and every fresh case of collision swells and
aggravates the hostility which sprang from the previous
sources. Keeping this fact constantly in view, it will
soon become self-evident that to put a limit to the
miseries arising from religious fear, religious ignorance,
religious selfishness, and religious cruelty, would be
simply impossible. Although the human race has
existed on earth during millions of years, yet we know
comparatively very little regarding the history of man.
Our knowledge of human progress does not extend back
during a longer period than about eight thousand years,
of which, at least one-half, we know only in outline.
But we know that we have strong grounds for believing
“ That existing savages are not the descendants of civi
�14
The Eucharist.
lized ancestors. That the primitive condition of man
was one of utter barbarism. And that from this con
dition several races have independently raised them
selves.” (Lubbock's “ Origin of Civilization,” Ed. 1870,
p. 323.) We also know that those races who have so
raised themselves have been in their progress retarded
more by the hostility of Religion to Science than by
any other impediment. So well as we know, the his
tory of every religion is a tale of woes, cruelties, and
revolting atrocities. None is so bad as the history of
Christianity. Judaism destroyed thousands of Canaan
ites. Mohammedanism slaughtered hundreds of thou
sands among the Arabs, Persians, and Hindoos. But
these are trifles when compared with “ the tender mer
cies ” of Christianity. According to an eminent writer,
“ Christianity indeed has equalled Judaism in the atro
cities, and exceeded it in the extent of its desolation.
Eleven millions of men, women, and children, have
been killed in battle, butchered in their sleep, burned
to death at public festivals of sacrifice, poisoned, tor
tured, assassinated, and pillaged in the spirit of the
Religion of Peace, and for the glory of the most merciful
God.” Here is a eucharist indeed. Here is a real and
genuine “ giving of thanks,” compared with which all
other eucharists dwindle into insignificance.
It is a most melancholy subject for reflection that
such eucharists—although upon a much smaller scale
—have been celebrated all over the earth. That in
one shape or other they are being celebrated even at
the present time. And that so long as religion is what
it is, such eucharists must be celebrated more or less
among mankind.
Eor, since sacrifices originated in the human desire
to appease angry gods by offerings held by the
worshippers as dearest and most precious, it cannot be
.surprising to find that—at all events for a considerable
time—human sacrifices were almost inseparable from
religion. “ Not content with presenting their choicest
�The Eucharist.
I5
property, whether animate or inanimate, untutored
nations slaughtered in honour of their deities human
beings, prized as the noblest work of creation, and in
many respects kindred with the gods themselves.”
ICalisch “ on Leviticus,” vol. i., p. 324.
Like all other offerings, human sacrifices were prized
in proportion to the self-denial which they involved.
Man cannot manifest his earnestness and religious
devotion more strikingly than by sacrificing his own
life to move the will of the gods. Hence the highest
and most glorious offering was supposed to be selfimmolation. This belief pervades the stories contained
in the works of the Greek Tragics, and the narratives
of ancient Roman legends. This belief was also
entertained by Jesus Christ, according to our New
Testament.
Lor we are told (Matthew, xvi. 21-23), “ From
that time forth Jesus began to shew unto his disciples
how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many
things of the elders, and chief priests, and scribes, and
be killed, and be raised again the third day. Then
Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be
it far from thee, Lord : this shall not be unto thee.
But he turned and said unto Peter, Get thee behind
me, Satan; thou art an offence unto me ; for thou
savourest not the things that be of God, but those that
be of men.” This determination of Jesus to seek death
by self-immolation is repeated, over and over again, in
our New Testament. And when Jesus was on his trial
for life or death, he took care to goad his judges into
killing him. For we are told (Matthew xxvi. 62-66,)
that “the high priest arose, and said unto him,
Answerest thou nothing ? What is it which these
witness against thee ? But Jesus held his peace.
And the high priest answered and said unto him, I
adjure thee by the living God that thou tellest
whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus
saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say
�16
The Eucharist.
unto you, Hereafter ye shall see the Son of Man sitting
on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds
of heaven. Then the high priest rent his own clothes,
saying, He hath spoken blasphemy ; what further need
have we of witnesses 1 Behold, now ye have heard
his blasphemy. What think ye ? They answered
and said, He is guilty of death.”
Commenting on the self-immolation of Jesus, an
eminent writer says :—“ All Christendom has always
believed that the death of Jesus was voluntarily
incurred; and unless no man ever became a wilful
martyr, I cannot conceive why we are to doubt the
fact concerning Jesus. When he resolved to go up to
Jerusalem, he was warned by his disciples of the
danger ; but so far was he from being blind to it, that
he distinctly announced to them that he knew he
should suffer in Jerusalem the shameful death of a
malefactor. On his arrival in the suburbs, his first
act was to ride ostentatiously into the city on an ass’s
colt, in the midst of the acclamations of the multitude,
in order to exhibit himself as having a just right to
the throne of David. Thus he gave a handle to
imputations of intended treason. He next entered the
temple courts, where doves and lambs were sold for
sacrifice, and committed a breach of the peace by
flogging with a whip those who trafficked in the area.
By such conduct he undoubtedly made himself liable
to legal punishment, and probably might have been
publicly scourged for it, had the rulers chosen to
moderate their vengeance. But he ‘meant to be
prosecuted for treason, not for felony,’ to use the words
of a modern offender. [John Mitchel, 1848.] He
therefore commenced the most exasperating attacks on
all the powerful, calling them hypocrites and whited
sepulchres and viper’s brood, and denouncing upon
them the ‘ condemnation of hell.’ He was successful.
He had both enraged the rulers up to the point of
thirsting for His life, and given colour to the charge of
�The Eucharist.
J7
political rebellion. He resolved to die ; and he died.
Had his enemies contemptuously let him live, he
would have been forced to act the part of Jewish
Messiah, or renounce Messiahship. If anyone holds
Jesus to be not amenable to the laws of human
morality, I am not now reasoning with such a one.
But if any one claims for him a human perfection, then
I say that his conduct on this occasion was neither
laudable nor justifiable: far otherwise. There are
cases in which life may be thrown away for a great
cause, as when a leader in battle rushes upon certain
death, in order to animate his own men ; but the case
before us has no similarity to that. If our accounts
are not wholly false, Jesus knowingly and purposely
exasperated the rulers into a great crime—the crime of
taking his life from personal resentment............... At
his public trial the vast majority judge him to deserve
punishment, and prefer to ask free forgiveness for
Barabbas, a bandit who was in prison for murder. We
moderns, nursed in an arbitrary belief concerning these
events, drink in with our first milk the assumption
that Jesus alone was guiltless, and all the other actors
in this sad affair inexcusably guilty. Let no one
imagine that I defend for a moment the cruel punish
ment which raw resentment inflicted on him. But
though the rulers felt the rage of vengeance, the people,
who had suffered no personal wrong, were moved only
by ill-measured indignation. The multitude love to
hear the powerful exposed and reproached up to a
certain limit, but if reproach go clearly beyond all that
they feel to be deserved, a violent sentiment reacts on
the head of the reviler, and though popular indignation
(even when free from the element of selfishness) ill
fixes the due measure of punishment, I have a strong
belief that it is righteous, when it pronounces the
verdict Guilty. Does my friend deny that the death of
Jesus was wilfully incurred ? The ‘ orthodox ’ not
merely admit, but maintain it. Their creed justifies it
B
�i8
The Eucharist.
by the doctrine that his death was a (sacrifice ’ so
pleasing to God as to expiate the sins of the world.
This honestly meets the objections to self-destruction,
for how better could life be used than by laying it down
for such a prize ? But besides all other difficulties in
the very idea of atonement, the orthodox creed startles
us by the incredible conception that a voluntary sacri
fice of life should be unacceptable to God, unless offered
by ferocious and impious hands. If Jesus had ‘autho
rity from the Father to lay down his life,’ was he
unable to stab himself in the desert, or on the sacred
altar of the temple, without involving guilt to any
human being ? Did he, who is at once ‘ high priest ’
and victim, when ‘ offering up himself ’ and ‘ present
ing his own blood unto God,’ need any justification
for using the sacrificial knife ? .... In entire con
sistency with his previous determination to die, Jesus,
when arraigned, refused to rebut accusation, and
behaved as one pleading guilty............... After he had
confirmed by his silence the belief that he had used a
dishonest evasion indicative of consciousness that he
was no real Messiah, he suddenly burst out with a full
reply to the high priest’s question, and avowed that he
was the Messiah, the Son of God, and that they should
hereafter see him sitting on the right hand of power,
and coming in the clouds of heaven—of course, to enter
into judgment on them all. I am the less surprised
that this precipitated his condemnation, since he
himself seems to have designed precisely that result.”
Such was the eucharist offered by Jesus Christ!
Of course, we Secularists know that, as an objective
reality, it cannot be proved that Jesus Christ ever had
a really historical existence. And the object of quot
ing the foregoing passage is merely to prove not only
the pre-eminent importance attached to suicide in
ancient times, but also the palmary importance attached
to it—at all events in the case of the mythical Jesus.
Christ—even in our own time.
�The Eucharist.
l9
When, b.o. 1225, the seven Argive heroes, under
Adrastus, King of Argos, invaded the Theban territory,
the Cadmeians, assisted by their allies the Phocians
and the Phlegyae, marched forth and fought a battle
in which they were defeated, and forced to retire
within the walls of Thebes. The prophet Tiresias in
formed them that if Menceceus, son of Creon, King
of Thebes, would offer himself as a victim to Mars,
victory would be secured to the Thebans. The heroic
youth slew himself before the city. Six of the Argive
heroes perished in the subsequent battle, and the in
vading army was almost annihilated.
Again, (2 Kings iii. 9, 24, 26, 27),—when, B.c. 895,
“the King of Israel went, and the King of Judah,
and the King of Edom . . . and they . . . smote the
Moabites so that they fled before them . . . and when
the King of Moab saw that the battle was too sore for
him, he took with him seven hundred men that drew
swords, to break through even unto the king of Edom :
but they could not. Then he took his eldest son, that
should have reigned in his stead, and offered him for
a burnt offering upon the wall. And there was great
indignation against Israel: and they departed from
him and returned to their own land.” It is needless
to multiply instances.
Next to self-immolation, the most valued sacrifice
was that of the dearest relation. Hence arose the wellknown eucharist of burning to death children as offer
ings to certain gods. In course of time aged parents
were sacrificed by their children to those gods. So,
both infanticide and parricide were eucharists.
Next to these, priests and pious people were regarded
as highly acceptable eucharists. At Meroe, near the
confluence of the Blue and the White Nile, when the
priests pretended that some oracle had directed the
king to be sacrificed in order to avert some great
calamity, it was customary to kill his majesty as an
offering to the gods. It is hardly conceivable that this
custom could have lasted very long. At all events,
�20
The Eucharist.
about b.c. 300, we are informed (Diodorus Siculus,
iii. 6) that the ^Ethiopian king, Ergamenes, havingbeen summoned for a similar sacrifice, collected his
forces together, defeated and slew the priests, and
abolished the custom.
After the happy conclusion of a military expedition,
victorious nations sacrificed captives taken during the
war. This gradually led to killing strangers rather
than natives in honour of the gods. But we know
from Plutarch (“ Concerning Superstition,” 13) that
even this first step was not achieved without a severe
struggle. It was denounced by priests and fanatics,
who censured it as a means for evading, in a cowardly
manner, the most sacred of religious duties.
Nevertheless it was impossible that matters could
stop here. Thanks be to Energy, who has always
caused religion to be subdued by time ! Bacon says,
“ He that will not apply new remedies must expect
new evils; for Time is the greatest innovator.” In
fact, we know that the tendency of all natural forces
is to bring all organizations more and more into har
mony with each other, and to disintegrate the inhar
monious elements altogether. So, the very continuance
of this adjustment is itself Progress.
“ Fear not the tyrants shall rule for ever,
Or the priests of the bloody faith ;
They stand on the brink of that mighty river,
Whose waves they have tainted with death.
It is fed from the depths of a thousand dells,
Around them it foams, and rages and swells,
And their swords and their sceptres I floating see
Like wrecks, in the surge of eternity.”
So another advance was soon made towards mitigat
ing the horrible crime of sacrificing innocent men and
children. This advance was made by slaughtering
men, especially condemned criminals, who, by the laws
of the land, had forfeited their lives. And so long as
there are murderers on earth, it is to be hoped that
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2I
this slaughter—but not as a sacrifice—shall never be
abolished. No doubt all men act from what is, for the
time, the strongest motive, and they cannot act other
wise. Consequently, to prove that the punishment in
a future existence for what was inevitable in this life
could be an act of justice, is simply impossible. But
a man who commits murder is not to be trusted. And
entertaining the most profound esteem and admiration
for Mr Bright’s genius, talents, eloquence, and amiable
disposition, still, murderers here must be destroyed if
the human race is to advance. But such destruction
is to be inflicted for the same reasons that any other
immediate obstacles to human advancement are to be
removed. This is the justification of human punish
ment. We do not accuse the venomous serpent of
moral guilt. But we cannot trust the venomous ser
pent ; neither can we trust the murderer. But punish
ment does not justify protracted torture here or here
after.
Another, and a very decided step towards a less
revolting form of sacrifice was made by merely bleed
ing a man in honour of the gods. This ceremony was
performed at Sparta, in the time of Pausanias, (III.,
xvi. 6), and at Rome, B.c. 85, when the obsequies of
Marius were being celebrated.
./Egypt possesses the oldest history of any country
with which we are acquainted. There it is that we
find the earliest trace of worshippers, when sacrificing,
substituting symbolical figures instead of men. During
the long, (b.c. 570-526), and prosperous reign of the
/Egyptian King, Amasis, that enlightened prince (Por
phyry, “ on Abstinence,” II. 55) offered, at Heliopolis,
a sacrifice of wax images, instead of human beings
formerly sacrificed. Here, at length, we come to the
institution of harmless sacrifices, including, amongst
other things, a crumb of bread and a drop of wine !
Bread and wine were the primary food of man when he
was rising out of barbarism, and were by him offered to
�22
The Eucharist.
the powers of Earth and Energy, Demeter, an old form
of
^rrip, “ Mother Earth,” and Dionysus, a name of
uncertain etymology, hut probably connected with the
same root as the word Dyaus,
Aio$, Deus, etc.,
and regarded as the god of joy and animated emotion.
Hence bread and wine are symbols of elemental wor
ship, which still lingers in the dove which symbolizes
the Holy Ghost, while it also was the bird sacred to
Venus, and points to an ecclesiastical institution, the
explanation of which is purposely omitted from this
tract.
Thus, then, cannibalism, the bloody eucharist, and
the slaughter of men to secure the favour of the gods,
originated in ignorance, fear, irrational selfishness, and
cruelty, which constitute that religious sentiment,
which, it is to be feared, is common to all nations, and
seems to be inherent in the human mind. This
slaughter was resorted to on occasions of exceptional
solemnity, when the sacrifice of animals seemed
inadequate to express the full irrational selfishness of
religious emotion; and it was for a long time regarded
as a form of worship so praiseworthy and exalted that
its neglect was deplored as a sign of cowardice and of
declining piety. Unfortunately, the practice of human
sacrifice proved compatible with a very considerable
degree of civilisation and mental culture, which proves
that the immoralities of religion ought to be entirely
excluded from all early education of human beings;
because since religion accustomed men to feel supreme
satisfaction in seeing their fellow beings and even
their own children and parents massacred, pierced by
the sword, burned to death, hurled from rocks, build
ings, or lofty terraces, drowned in cess-pools, seas, or
rivers, exposed to starvation, or otherwise cruelly
exterminated, history thereby abundantly and awfully
proves that the practice of religion invariably leads to
the most degrading, the most cruel, and the most
revolting enormities—especially it did so during those
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“ dark ages,” when Christianity was uncontrolled by
civil law or moral science, and forced its votaries into
religious wars, the persecution of sects, the murder of
Infidels, the burning of witches, the pillage of Jews,
and the horrors of the inquisition !
But, after all, perhaps it may be asserted that the
Christian church does not recognise the existence of
cannibalism in the celebration of the eucharist. Here,
then, is the admirable advantage of definition. In the
Catechism of the Christian Church, edited by the
most reverend Dr James Butler, the eucharist is defined
by question and answer in the following words :—
“ Question. What is the blessed Eucharist ?
Answer. The body and blood, soul and divinity of
Jesus Christ, under the appearances of bread and wine.
Q. What means the word Eucharist ?
A. A special grace or gift of God, and it means
also a solemn act of thanksgiving to God for all his
mercies.
Q. What do you mean by the appearances of bread
and wine ?
A. The taste, colour, and form of bread and wine,
which still remain after the bread and wine are
changed into the body and blood of Christ.
Q>. Are both the body and blood of Christ under
the appearance of bread and under the appearance of
wine?
A. Yes: Christ is whole and entire, true God and
true Man, under the appearance of each.
Q. Are we to believe that the God of all glory is
under the appearances of our corporal food ?
A. Yes : as we must also believe that the same God
of all glory suffered death, under the appearance of a
criminal on the cross.
Q. How can the bread and wine become the body
and blood of Christ ?
A. By the goodness and power of God, with whom
no words shall be impossible,—Luke i. 37.
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The Eucharist.
Q. Are we assured that Christ changed bread and
wine into his body and blood ?
A. Yes: by the very words which Christ himself
said when he instituted the blessed eucharist at his
last supper.
U Which are the words Christ said when he
instituted the blessed Eucharist ?
A. This is my body, this is my blood—Matt,
xxvi. 26.
Q. Did Christ give power to the priests of his
church to change bread and wine into his body and
blood 1
A. Yes: when he said to his apostles at his last
supper : Do this for a commemoration of me—
Luke xxii. 19.
Q. Why did Christ give to the priests of his church
so great a power ?
A. That his children, throughout all ages and
nations, might have a most acceptable sacrifice to offer
to their heavenly Father, and the most precious food to
nourish their souls.
Q. What is a sacrifice ?
A. That first and most necessary act of religion,
whereby we acknowledge God’s supreme dominion
over us, and our total dependence on him.
Q. What is the sacrifice of the New Law?
A. The Mass.
Q. What is the Mass?
A. The sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ,
which are really present under the appearances of
bread and wine, and are offered to God by the priest
for the living and the dead.
Q. Is the Mass a different sacrifice from that of the
cross ?
A. No; because the same Christ who once offered
himself a bleeding victim to his heavenly Father on
the cross, continues to offer himself in an unbloody
manner by the hands of his priests on our altars.
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Q. Was Mass offered in the Old Law?
A. No : so great a sacrifice was reserved for the New
Law, which was to fulfil the figures of the Old Law,
and to give religion its full perfection.
Q. At what part of the Mass are the bread and wine
changed into the body and blood of Christ ?
A. At the consecration.
Q. By whom are the bread and wine changed into
the body and blood of Christ ?
A. By the priest; but in virtue of the words of
Christ, whose person the priest represents at the awful
moment of consecration.
Q. What are the ends for which Mass is said ?
A. To give God honour and glory, to thank Him
for His benefits, to obtain remission of our sins, and
all other graces and blessings, through Jesus Christ.
Q. For what other end is Mass offered ?
A. To continue and represent the sacrifice of Christ
on the cross. ‘ This do,’ says Christ, ‘ in remembrance
of me.’ 1 Cor. xi.
Q. How should we assist at Mass ?
A. With great interior recollection and piety, and
with every mark of outward respect and devotion.
Q. Which is the best manner of hearing Mass ?
A. To offer it to God with the priest for the same
purpose for which it is said, to meditate on Christ’s
sufferings, and to go to communion.”
So the Christian church still offers a real human
sacrifice at the celebration of the Eucharist by trans
forming the bread and wine used at that feast into “ the
body and blood of Christ, which are really present under
the appearances of bread and wine, and are offered to
God by the priest for the living and the dead.” And,
therefore, whenever members of the Christian Church
celebrate “ the blessed Eucharist ” they also celebrate
a real cannibal feast.
�q.6
The Eucharist.
SCHOLIUM.
Although about three hundred millions of Christians
continue to celebrate the Eucharist, unconscious while
they are doing so that they are celebrating a cannibal
feast, yet their unconscious celebration of other Pagan
and even savage ceremonies connected with religion is
a more remarkable incident in the history of human
thought. So powerfully does the force of inactivity, or
the conservative element, act on the brain of man,
that sometimes ceremonies are practised long after
those ceremonies have ceased to manifest the circum
stances that gave them their original significance. To
indicate the circumstances which, we have reason to
believe, originated some ceremonies still observed and
celebrated by Christians may excite a reader’s curi
osity, and even his active inquiry.
PHALLIC WORSHIP.
It is a well ascertained fact that when Christians
worship the Trinity, they worship in the abstract that
which was originally a concrete symbol of the Sun.
The primitive human thinker observed that the sun’s
rays produced an influence on vegetable life analogous
to male generation in animal life. So they represented
the sun’s rays under the symbol of the cross, which
symbol was intended to be a spiritual representation of
generation in the abstract. And it is a well ascertained
historical fact that from China westwards to Spain, and
from Mexico to Chili, the cross has been an emblem of
the Trinity and of Sun worship from times that are re
motely prehistoric down to our own times. On this
subject, and on other matters connected with worship
of the Sun, volumes have been written. Here let it
be sufficient to state that the names Helios, Phoebus,
Jupiter, Pasiphte, Jehovah, Ulysses, Jesus Christ,
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Sinbad the Sailor, and a multitude of other names
have been more or less clearly identified with matters
relating to worship of the Sun. In fact, any name in
mythology that can be identified with a name of the
Sun may be regarded safely as connected with solar
myth.
MARRIAGE.
Among all purely savage tribes there is not any such
relation between any two members of the tribe as that
which we understand by the expression “husband and
wife.” The females are the common property of all
the men: and consequently when a man wished to
have a wife of his own, he had to capture a woman
from some other tribe. Then she became his wife in
the same way as a horse, a cow, a sheep, or any other
thing captured from some other tribe was a man’s
property. This led such of the men as were strong
and brave to separate from the tribe and rear families
of their own after the manner of a lion and his lioness.
Eor this purpose the patriarch constructed for himself
a fort, afterwards a castle; and when his family was
sufficiently large, the strong castle became the centre
of a village which, in course of time, grew into a
fortified town. Hence the meaning of the Psalm,
cxxvii. 4, 5 : “As arrows are in the hand of a mighty
man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the
man who hath his quiver full of them: they shall not
be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in
the gate.” In course of time a strong town rendered
weak towns tributary, and in this manner the Assyrian
kingdom, with its headquarters at Nineveh, and after
wards Babylon, Athens, and Rome, grew into national
powers.
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The Eucharist.
To return to the patriarch. He had absolute power
to slay or sell his children, slaves, servants, cattle, wife,
&c. The sale of daughters is admirably illustrated in
the case of Laban and Jacob (Genesis xxxi.), although,
in that case, the astute son-in-law generally obtained
the advantage over his more opulent father-in-law.
This selling of children has left its traces in the
Christian Church. In the solemnization of matrimony
by the Church of Rome, when the man and woman
have signified their agreement to become husband and
wife, the Roman Catholic Missal directs : “ Deinde
detur foemina a patre suo vel ab amicis suis; qme, si
puella sit, discoopertam habeat manum, si vidua,
tectam : et vir earn recipiat in Dei fide et sua servandam, et tenet earn per manum dexteram in manu sua
dextera; et ad hunc modum, docente sacerdote, dat ei
fidem per verbum de prsesenti, dicens.”
“ Then let the woman be given by her father or by
her friends ; if she be a maiden let her keep her hand
uncovered, if a widow, covered, and let the man receive
her to be preserved in the faith of God and her own
faith; and he holds her with her right hand in his
right hand, and, according to the following form, the
priest dictating the words, he plights his troth to her
by word of mouth, saying.”
And in the Church of England the book of Common
Prayer directs : “ Then shall tlie minister say, ‘ Who
giveth this woman to be married to this man? ’ Then
shall they give their troth to each other in this manner
—the minister, receiving the woman at her father or
friend’s hands, shall cause the man with his right hand
to take the woman by her right hand, and to say after
him as followeth.”
In these formulas “ giving ” is merely a euphemism
for “ selling.” Among civilized nations the pecuniary
arrangements are always agreed on and made before
the marriage ceremony is performed.
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BAPTISM.
While infanticide prevails among the members of any
tribe or nation, a child doomed to destruction would be
killed without being cleansed, or having any other sort
of labour bestowed on it. On the other hand, a child
intended to be preserved would be cleansed. For
cleaning the human body, washing in water is the
method in use even among the most barbarous of the
savage tribes at present known. Hence washing a
child would be associated with the idea of its preserva
tion. Superstition spiritualizes physical acts whenever
an opportunity offers. From this association of ideas
there would naturally arise in the mind of a savage the
doctrine of baptismal regeneration.
DRINKING.
When it was necessary for the preservation of the hu
man race that all men should fight, it so happened
that some men were not able to fight in proportion to
their physical strength. This inability was caused by
want of courage. In process of time it was discovered
that there were certain victuals and drinks which to
some extent would supply this want of courage.
Among these may be enumerated opium, wine, hemp,
tobacco, and coca. When the use of these stimulants
and narcotics was discovered, they were resorted to for
the purpose of allaying fear. At all events, so well as
we know, the allaying of fear was the first use to which
extracts from hemp were applied. See the Spectator
for 5th July 1879.
In the east it is the main cause
for their continued use. And the wine used at the
eucharist is supposed to prepare Christian communi
cants for warfare on behalf of “ the church militant.”
�The Eucharist.
For in the catechism of the English Church we have
the following question and answer :—
“ Question. What are the benefits whereof we are
partakers thereby ?
Answer. The strengthening and refreshing of our
souls by the body and blood of Christ as our bodies
are by the bread and wine.”
Among the Greeks the import of some practices in
which they indulged during the celebration of the
Dionysia, has been well explained by Muller in his
“ History of the Literature of Ancient Greece,” i. 289.
The intense desire felt by every worshipper of Dionysus
to fight, to conquer, to suffer in common with him,
made them regard the subordinate beings (such as the
satyrs, panes, and nymphs by whom the god himself was
surrounded, and through whom life seemed to pass from
him into vegetation, and branch off into a variety of gro
tesque or beautiful forms, and who were ever present
to the fancy of the Greeks), as convenient means by
which they could approach more nearly to the presence
of their deity. Just as the writer of the Epistle to the
Ephesians (ii. 13, 14, 17) tells them, “ Now, in Christ
Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by
the blood of Christ. For he is our peace who hath
made both one ; and came and preached peace to you
which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.” The
customs so prevalent at the festivals of Dionysus,
whereby the worshippers took the disguise of satyrs,
originated in this feeling, and not in the mere desire of
concealing excesses under the disguise of a mask;
otherwise so serious and pathetic a spectacle as tragedy
could never have originated in the choruses of those
satyrs. Drunkenness and the boisterous music of
cymbals, drums and flutes, the colouring of the body,
wearing skins of goats and. deer, and covering the
face with masks and leaves, manifested a desire to
escape from self into something new and strange, and to
live in an imaginary world.
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3l
LAYING ON OF HANDS.
It is observed by the writer of Ecclesiastes, (xi. 5),
that “ thou, knowest not how the bones do grow in the
womb of her that is with child; ” and it may be
sufficient to state generally that because the touch of
natural generation has power to reproduce animal life
and existence, therefore it was supposed almost uni
versally that the touch of any very great man had
power to infuse a portion of his strength, wisdom,
prosperity, good luck, or holiness into any person
whom he touched with the intention of benefiting that
person. This appears to have been the original idea
contained in the ceremony of blessing and ordaining to
office by laying on of hands. In an analogous manner
when kings had reigned for some time, a sovereign, by
virtue of his high office, was supposed to be able to
cure certain diseases by the touch of his royal hand.
That is to say, he was supposed to drive away the
disease in question by infusing a portion of his royal
virtue into the sufferer. Thus (Mark v. 30, Luke
viii. 46) when a woman, suffering from a bodily ail
ment, touched Jesus Christ, even without his being
aware of her intention, he perceived that virtue
went out of him and cured her. Also (Luke vi. 19),
when a whole multitude of disordered persons came to
be cured by Jesus Christ, “ there went virtue out of
him, and healed them all.” Again when Jesus was
newly risen from the dead (John xx. 17) he said to
Mary, “ touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my
Father: ” that is to say he was too weak to permit
virtue to go out of him, as he required to go to
heaven and receive from Jehovah a new infusion of
supernatural power.
This laying on of hands was sometimes performed by
touching the recipient with the fore and middle fingers
of the great man’s right hand. These fingers were
�32
The Eucharist.
used symbolically. Hence a touch of them was in
tended to signify impregnation. So when giving a
blessing—infusing the Holy Ghost into a person—
giving a person “ the gift of tongues ’’—appointing a
person to any high office (Numbers xxvii. 18), as in
the case of Joshua—consecrating a person to any
ecclesiastical office such as deacon, elder, priest, bishop
—the person already holding high ecclesiastical office
touches with his right hand the person intended to be
consecrated. In the Bible, the earliest account of an
instance where the laying on of hands was used,
is in connection (Genesis xlviii. 14, 15), with the
blessing given by the patriarch Jacob to the sons of
Joseph. It was prescribed (Numbers viii. 10) to
Moses as the form for consecrating the Levites.
From these times it was represented as having been
used on such occasions as blessing and appointing to
office, generally among the Jews. In like manner it
was used by the early Christians. See Mark x. 16,
xvi. 18 ; Acts vi. 6, viii. 17, 18, xiii. 3, xix. 16,
xxviii. 8 ; 1 Timothy iv. 14.
At Ephesus, a.d. 56, St Paul (Acts xix. 1-6), found
certain disciples who had been baptized unto John’s
baptism. Paul asked them whether they had received
the Holy Ghost since they believed. They an
swered, ‘‘ We have not so much as heard whether
there be any Holy Ghost.” . Then Paul asked them
unto what were they baptized ? They said unto
John’s baptism. Then Paul said, John baptized with
the baptism of repentance, “ saying unto the people
that they should believe on him who should come
after John, that is on Jesus Christ. When they heard
this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord
Jesus,” with a facility of persuasion which renders the
whole story apocryphal! “ And when Paul had laid
his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them ;
and they spake with tongues and prophesied; ” that is
to say (‘‘Supernatural Religion,” iii. pp. 353-366,
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Acts iv. 36), they spoke in unintelligible sounds, and
they delivered exhortation.
Connected with these ideas regarding the efficacy
supposed to exist in some cases in the laying on of
hands, there is in Greek poetry a remarkable story re
garding the wanderings of Io, daughter of Inachus, king
of Argos. Io was beloved by Jupiter, and therefore
Juno persecuted Io. In Greek the word epaphe means
“a touch.” Io was said to have given birth to Epaphus,
a mythical king of Egypt, of whom she became pregnant
by the mere touch of Jupiter. On this subject JEschylus (“Suppliants,” 312), says, “Jupiter, who touched
her, begot a son by his hand.” Commenting on this
passage, Mr Paley says, “ Throughout there is a play on
the name J/E7rapoj, as derived from Jpa^rscrSaz, ‘ to
touch.’ It was a supernatural birth—an incarnation
of the deity without procreation : an ancient ^Egyptian
doctrine of great moment and interest, especially as
connected with svivvoia [‘inspiration’].” So then
the efficacy of a divine touch was believed in by the
ancient ^Egyptians.
In like manner we have stories regarding the magic
wand of the wizard, the sorcerer, the witch, the thaumaturgus, the enchanter, and so forth. Almost every
reader is familiar with the story (Odyssey x. 238), re
garding the companions of Ulysses, who were turned
into swine by a touch from the magic wand, pa[38o$, of
Circe, “ a she-kite.” Also (John xx. 22), that a touch
from the breath of Jesus Christ infused the Holy
Ghost into his apostles. And a similar idea regarding
impregnation by touching is contained in some of the
ceremonies connected with the Latin lupercalia, which
were festivals in honour of Lupercus, “ the warder off
against wolves,” and the God of fertility. At those
festivals the men ran about naked, and touching or
striking with a leather thong persons whom they met.
Their touching of women was supposed to render the
touched females prolific.
c
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The Eucharist.
Among the ancient Romans, when a master wished
to set free his slave by means of the liberating rod,
vindicta, the ceremony was performed thusThe
master. brought his slave to the magistrate who had
authority for that purpose, and the master stated the
grounds, causa, for the intended manumission. The
lictor of the magistrate laid a ro^festuca, on the head
of the slave, accompanied with certain formal words, in
which the lictor declared that the slave was a free
man, ex jure Quiritium, that is, the lictor placed the
slave in a free condition, vindicavit in libertatem. In
the meantime the master held the slave, and after the
master had pronounced the words hunc hominem
liberum volo, “ I wish this man to be free,” the master
turned the slave round, and emitit e manu, or misit
manu, “he let him go from his hand,” from which
word, “ hand,” the name given to the act of mannmission has been derived. So, in this case, a slave was
made actually free by the hand of his master.
FASTING.
Among the ancient Greeks the iatros, or surgeon,
worked by means of an epode or incantation, carmen.
The hiereus, or sacrificer, acted as a mantis, or prophet,
and he performed this function partly by fasting (see
Lubbock’s “ Origin of Civilization,” p. 153, et seq.),
and afterwards by inspecting the entrails of the victim,
By fasting, the Hesychasts were favoured with a super
natural revelation. See an account of them in Mos
heim’s “ Institutes,” century xiv., ch. v. § 1, 2. When
(Acts x. 10-35) Peter had been fasting, and his nervous
system being thereby disordered, he fell into a trance,
and learned that “ God is no respecter of persons; but
in every nation, he that feareth him, and worketh
righteousness, is accepted with him.”
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35
In our own day the clergyman goes through a pre
paration commonly called “ education.” After learning
how to lay his hand on certain symbols and persons—
bend his knees—read prayers—talk solemn nonsense—
makethe sign of the cross—andturnacrumb of bread and
a drop of port wine into flesh and blood, he becomes a
minister, “ minor,” and afterwards a priest or “ elder,”
and if the first lord commissioner of Her Majesty’s
treasury be favourably disposed towards the priest, he
will become a bishop or “overseer.” If the priest be
a man who has not any friend possessed of political in
fluence, the priest must fast if he desire to be promoted.
Among all clergymen, savage and civilized, the efficacy
of fasting is supposed to be very great. The object of
fasting is to bring on at will certain abnormal nervous
conditions, which cause the brain to be conscious of
certain subjective feelings which have not any objec
tive reality. When in this state, the fasting priest
thinks he sees visions which give him direct access to
the fancied inhabitants of the supposed spiritual world.
See Matt. iv. 2, xvii. 21 ; Mark ix. 29; Luke ii. 37;
Acts x. 30y xiv. 23; xix. 6 ; 1 Cor. vii. 5 ; 2 Cor. vi.
5. We are told (Matt. xvii. 21; Mark ix. 29) that
Jesus Christ thought that fasting would cure epilepsy.
“ Vanity of vanities !”
UNIFORMITY.
Ann the human faculties are developed by man’s de
sire to regulate his actions to advantage. Man has
not the least desire to trace causes, except for the pur
pose of his being able to predict what effects will
follow when certain causes shall have occurred. Cer
tain causes force themselves on man’s observation by
their frequent occurrence, and by the invariable nature
�36
The Eucharist.
of the effects that follow; for instance, the rising and
setting of the sun followed respectively by daylight
and by darkness. But when the phenomena are com
plicated, man must expend time and such skilled
training as he possesses to determine the nature of the
physical causes which combine to produce the compli
cated effects. Tn such cases, primitive man must form
some theory which appears most probable to his very
limited knowledge, for the purpose of arriving at some
determination regarding his course of action. Under
such circumstances, it always happens that one of the
causes which appears to him to be most constant in its
occurrence, and most variable in its effects, is the
human will. By observation on himself and his
friends, primitive man infers that the operations of
the human will are governed by passion or caprice
more than by the laws which regulate the material
world. Therefore, by analogy with what is familiar to
him, when he sees phenomena, the cause of which he
does not know, for instance, rain, wind, frost, and
pestilence, he infers that they are caused by some
capricious will.
When families collect into tribes for the purpose of
self-preservation, it is important that all the members
should act with unanimity. Therefore all those mem
bers should hold, or should act as if they held, the
same opinions regarding the unknown causes of pheno
mena, such, for instance, as luck. Their belief in the
ascertained causes of simple phenomena does not need
to be enforced by public opinion, or law, or even by
custom, as, for instance, if a man doubted whether
drinking the juice of hemlock would kill a man, or the
like, the dissentient can be proved to be wrong by an
easily performed experiment. It is only when the
knowledge possessed by the members of a tribe regard
ing a cause is uncertain, and when the cause can be
only guessed at by analogy, that the authority of public
opinion is required to enforce that uniformity of action
�The Eucharist.
37
which is necessary to insure to most advantage the com
bined action of the whole tribe. At an early period in
the world’s history, the importance of this uniformity
was recognised by the various tribes, and caused their
chiefs or kings (who at first were also their priests) to
claim a special knowledge regarding the will of those
unknown beings who were supposed to be the unseen
causes of rain, wind, frost, pestilence, and other obscure
phenomena, and this also led those chiefs to claim that
they were endowed with knowledge regarding the
means whereby those unseen beings might be pro
pitiated, and also knowledge regarding such human
actions as would bring down the vengeance of those
beings on the tribe. To secure uniformity of action, it
was necessary to enforce uniformity of opinion, or at
least uniformity of assent to the claims made by those
chiefs. It never could serve a good purpose to permit
the knowledge or the authority of the chief to be called
in question when the safety of the tribe required united
and immediate action. Moreover, if a sceptical minority
in a tribe were allowed to do anything which, according
to the chief, would cause bad luck, the doing so by that
minority would discourage the majority, and thereby
weaken their fighting power. Homer perceived this
when (Iliad ii. 204, 205) he said “ the rule of the
many is not good : let there be one ruler, one king to
whom the son of wily Kronos has given rule.”
For these reasons, therefore, intolerance to some
extent was and is necessary; especially when the
independence of a nation or a state is in danger. But
intolerance is useless so far as regards matters of private
agreement or disagreement, such as a game at chess,
the price of a donkey, justification by faith, and the
like. Regarding such matters as these the exercise of
intolerance is cruel and even pernicious.
�The Eucharist.
BURIAL SERVICE.
To the untutored human mind there were not any
powers of evil so much feared as deceased heroes.
The energy which animated them while alive was
supposed to dwell in and about their graves. That
energy was fancied to be something different from
matter and its properties. It was imagined to be
spirit, more ethereal than gas or breath, and yet it
was supposed to be both able and willing to inflict on
living man corporal injury. Hence these fancied
spirits of departed heroes were worshipped and pro
pitiated by the slaughter of living victims, whose
blood those spirits were supposed to consume with
a most exquisite relish. These blood-gluttings were
offered annually at the graves of the heroes, and were
supposed to have a strengthening and propitiating
effect on their spirits. The blood gave the soul both
strength and intelligence. Thus (Odyssey, xi. 152-4)
when Ulysses had offered sacrifices at the en
trance to Hades and evoked the shades, the
soul of his mother did not know Ulysses until she
had partaken of the blood : he says, ££ I remained
there firmly, until my mother came and drank of the
blood : then immediately she knew me, and, lamenting,
addressed to me winged words.” These heroic spirits
or souls were called by the Greeks daimones, a term
of rather obscure origin, but meaning a divine power,.
They were regarded as performing a double part both
infernal and celestial. See Aristotle’s “ Ethics,”
bk. v., ch. 7, and see “ Chthonian Worship ”in “The
Journal of Philology,” Vol. i.,p. 1-14 ; by Mr Frederick
A. Paley. In his “ Suppliants,” 25, 2Eschylus repre
sents the chorus invoking Earth, Jupiter, the gods
supreme, and also, ££ vindictive spirits of heroes laid
in tombs.” So lately as b.c. 422, sacrifices were
�The Eucharist.
39
offered to the departed spirit of the Spartan general
Brasidas as to a hero. In short, burial service is
grounded on the rites whereby primitive man endea
voured to propitiate the malignant spirits of deceased
heroes, who were supposed to live again in a future
life. For heroes of great strength and courage were
supposed to have been directly or mediately the
offspring of the gods, while ordinary mortals were
supposed to have sprung from the earth. The de
scendants of both the heroes and the mortals were
imagined to have degenerated; as Homer says re
garding a large stone hurled by one of the Grecian
worthies,
“Not two strong men the enormous weight could raise ;
Such men as live in these degenerate days.”
This theory of man’s degeneracy was accepted by
the Christians whose supposed Founder is represented
as being wholly destitute of originality and inventive
genius. The primitive Christians fancied that they
had sufficiently accounted for human degeneracy by
the hypothesis of “ original sin ; ” a doctrine concerning
which volumes have been written vilifying human
nature to such an extent that a full grown, rational
man, hearing an orthodox exposition of this doctrine
for the first time, might very reasonably wonder why
among orthodox Christians suicide was not regarded as
one of “ the cardinal virtues.” But concerning original
sin, Darwin’s “ Descent of Man ” has caused a strange
revolution among the orthodox apologists of Chris
tianity.
That all the human races were originally in a state
of utter barbarism,—that man is descended from an
animal considerably inferior to a monkey—that the
main-spring of all human actions is pain—and that
there is not any such thing as positive human pleasure,
are newly discovered but well-ascertained doctrines.
�40
The Eucharist.
Homer (Iliad xiv. 409-418) says that when Ajax
struck down Hector with a blow from a stone that hit
him on the breast, above the orb of his shield, near the
neck, Ajax “ made Hector to spin like a top and he ran
quite round,” and Hector fell in the dust. So, in like
manner, the present apologists of Christianity have
been “ made to spin like a top and run quite round ”
by those new doctrines above referred to. In their
desperate attempt to make out a case for the immor
tality of human existence those apologists have been
obliged to have recourse to a doctrine suggested by Dr
Joseph Butler, more than a hundred years ago, without
attracting more than almost the very slightest atten
tion, namely, the doctrine that an immortal existence
awaits even members of the brute creation. Those
apologists, however, have not yet grappled with the
fact that all animals are more or less in a state of pain
to the utter exclusion of positive pleasure. This fact
is consistent with the suggestion that in a future
life (if there be one) there may exist a place or state
of eternal pain and torment, but not of pleasure.
From a present state of pain a hell of eternal pain is
a logical deduction, but a deduction thence to
a heaven of pleasure is an absurdity. From pain a con
tinuance of pain may be logically inferred, but it is con
trary to all rational deduction to infer that pleasure will
arise from pain. A future life, therefore, can be carried
on only in hell. So, according to the apologists of
Christianity, on this plan of argument, the government
of the world is an immoral government that is posi
tively diabolical. To get out of this difficulty, another
school of apologists takes a very different line of defence
from that adopted by the old apologists. Instead
of vilifying human nature (as all orthodox Christians
did during the last fifteen or sixteen centuries) this
other school advocates the inherent worth of human
nature. The members of this new school with the
Reverend Frederick W. Farrar at its head, assert,
�The Eucharist.
41
now, that human nature is a blessing and so valuable
that the miseries of human life are well worth enduring !
So, from what has been here said, it is, at least,
most probable that all ceremonies, at present connected
with the celebration of the Christian religion and
worship, are grounded on savage ceremonies and super
stitions. This important inference cannot cause much
wonder in the mind of an intelligent and painstaking
Thinker; because he must know that human ignor
ance, error, fancy, prejudice, and indolence, have in
fluenced man’s religious belief to an extent that is
almost incalculable. Moreover, it is to be remembered
that when religious belief regarding anything, no
matter what, has during a considerable time been un
disturbed, prejudice and indolence will cause the
believer to resent the publication of anything that
disturbs his erroneous opinions. So, it comes to pass
that religious belief increases the darkness which is
cast on the human mind by ignorance and error.
Even the most profound and original Thinkers cannot
liberate themselves entirely from the mistakes, fancies,
illusions, and shadows of superstition. In fact, reli
gious belief is the most powerful and efficient assistant
of error. To drive away human error it is necessary
to drive away religious belief. As Virgil says, “ Happy
is he who has been able to trace the causes of things,
and who has cast beneath his feet all fears and inexor
able destiny, and the noise of greedy Acheron.” And
Lucretius says, “ There must be driven away utterly
from our minds that fear of Acheron, which disturbs
human life from its very foundation, suffusing all
things with the blackness of death.” Even in the
present day the most fearless, conscientious, and intelli
gent Thinkers are under the necessity of making their
investigations, prosecuting their researches, and arriv
ing at their conclusions beneath the darkness and ob
�42
The Eucharist,
scuring influence of religious belief, the ghost-haunted
day-dreams of superstition, and the hostility of the
numerous partisans who are ready to shed their blood
to maintain in power erroneous authority. Such
Thinkers are in a condition analogous to that of JEneas
and the Sibyl while travelling through Hades, as de
scribed by the operose Latin imitator of our spurious
Odyssey ” :—
They, wrapped in gloom, their journey made
Through the dim night’s lonely shade,
Where solitary Pluto reigns
O’er ghost-inhabited domains :
So travellers in a forest move,
While gleams the fitful moon above
With weird and scanty light;
When Jove has hid the sky from view,
And objects are deprived of hue
By the obscuring night.
TURNBULL ANI) SPEARS, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH.
�
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Title
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The Eucharist
Description
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Place of publication: London
Collation: 42 p. ; 18 cm.
Notes: Published anonymously. Printed by Turnbull & Spears, Edinburgh. Part of the NSS pamphlet collection.
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[1880]
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N209
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Christianity
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Eucharist
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Text
THE RISING GENERATION
A
DISCOURSE
BEFORE THE
SOUTH PLACE SOCIETY,
JUNE 27TH, 1880,
BY
MONCURE D. CONWAY, M.A.
LONDON :
SOUTH PLACE, FINSBURY.
PRICE TWOPENCE.
�LONDON :
Wateblow & Sons Limited
LONDON WALL.
�THE RISING GENERATION.
<^OME of us can remember the time when the
heart of England was stirred by Elizabeth
Barrett’s poem, “ The Cry of the Children.” A revela
tion had come from the dark mines of the country
telling how little children were held all their lives in
gloomy imprisonment, knowing nothing but work. In
the mines were subterranean villages gloomy as the
chambers of Dante’s Hell; some children were born
there, lived, laboured, and died there, and only
when dead did they come into the upper world—for
burial. Little children were found who did not know
what a flowrer was—they had never seen a flower.
Then the “ Cry of the Children ” was heard. They
uttered none for themselves; down in the pit they
silently worked through their miserable lives, while the
children of the world danced and were gay; yet their
voices were heard in the poet’s lamentation, in the
stateman’s eloquence, in the people’s sympathy, and
the wrong was swept away.
It seems to us now almost incredible that such an
�(
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evil should have existed within our own memories. So
clear to our eyes are the evils of other times than our
own. But, alas, the need is always for eyes that can
see the evils of their own time, and how few are they !
In Dante’s Inferno one of the saddest places was the
abode of those who moved about in a spiritual fog
which obscured everything that was near to them.
They could clearly see events in the far past, they
could see into the future, but they could not see the
present. These, during life, had given no effect to
the experience of the past, exerted no influence on
the future, because they did not study to discern the
facts at hand, the conditions around them. They
could not see time’s flowing stream at the point where
it passed them, where must be dropped what is to
reach the future. It is but a too faithful picture of
multitudes who do not seem to themselves to be
in any Inferno at all. There are many who can hear
the cry of the children in the last generation, but can
hear no cry in the present. Yet there is a cry. It
comes no longer from subterranean mines, but it
comes from unhappy homes; from the gloomy realms
of pauperism, ignorance, and disease; and it comes
from the sunless dungeons of dogma, where millions
of children live and die, never seeing any flower of
life, of beauty, or of joy.
In speaking to you this morning of the rising
�(
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generation I do not propose to enter upon ideal
speculations about the future, nor to propose quixotic
schemes for abolishing all the evils of the world. I
wish rather to limit your attention to facts near at
hand, and conditions more or less within our reach.
And, first of all, to impress upon you, as practical
people, the fact that the visible conditions of the world
have invisible foundations. Things are founded on
thoughts. The world that man has built up,—the
world of society, politics, nationality, religion,—is a
phenomenal world, supported by causes always causing
it; having for its beams and rafters moral and mental
sustainers; and every change of thought or belief in
the human mind is followed by a change in the visible
conditions of the world. For example, were the
Sabbatarian superstition removed from the mind of
this country, the bars and bolts which close the
refining institutions of the country would also be
removed. If the Christian superstition were to die out
of the English mind, the wealth and power it freezes
up in an iceberg would melt, and streams would flow
through the deserts where hearts and brains are
famishing. Beware therefore of undervaluing thought,
knowledge, beliefs, principles, because they are in
visible. There are many thousands of Christian people
who industriously battle with visible sufferings and
vices. They do a little good here and a little good
�(
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there, in particular cases ; but the evils invariably
return. Like the fabled daughters of Danaus they fill
their sieves with water, but it always runs out again,
because they do not stop the holes in the sieve’s
bottom : they do not stop them because they are
invisible; they are the unconscious falsities of their
creeds, diverting, human minds and efforts away from
the work of practically saving themselves from actual
evils, to the fruitless work of saving themselves from
unreal evils.
The only way'to help men permanently is to enable
them to help themselves. To give them resources is
to shield them from want and sorrow; to educate
their mental and physical strength is to make them
rich; to surround them with social interests is to
make them good citizens; and all these, and other
conditions of human welfare, depend upon the pre
vailing doctrine of what is the chief end and aim of
human life. He who lifts that aim even a little, lifts
the lives of millions with it; and a man is never so
charitable, never so practical, as when he is destroying
an error and affirming a truth. If benevolence wishes
to bestow or bequeathe real benefit, let it not give too
largely to the institutions which deal with the annual
crop of evils that ignorance sows, let it attack the
ignorance ; let it not build temperance coffee-houses
to be closed on the only day they are much needed,
�(
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but attack the superstition which locks the people
out of the splendid art-houses already existing, and
leaves them no resource but debauchery. I do not
disparage the disposition to relieve suffering whenever
met with ; but let it not be supposed that such is the
highest or the most practical charity to mankind. A
single pound given for human culture, for spiritual
liberty, for advancement of a high cause or principle,
is worth a thousand bestowed to salve over wounds
which only knowledge and justice can heal. And 1
will add that as the pound given for the transient
mitigation of an evil is but a drop of oil on an ocean
of misery, that which is bestowed in freeing a mind
from error is strictly economised, and has a fair
prospect of being multiplied through generations.
This high charity must not only be thus practical
and economical in its object, but also in its method.
The regeneration of the world must be through its
successive generations. You cannot change the habits
of an old man. What troubles grow from those habits
you may assuage, but they can only be eradicated
with the constitution around which they have formed.
The best thing a matured generation can do is to run
to seed—the seed of experience—to select from these
-seeds those that are largest and soundest, and sow
•them in the quick soil of youth and vigour. It is the
principles so entrusted to the rising generation which
�(
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grow with its growth, transmute decays into life,
failures into success, and transmit an ever-increasing
volume of wisdom and happiness.
What then is the present cry of the children ? their
perhaps inarticulate, but all the profounder cry ? What
are their needs ? How are they being taught ? It is
not our business to boast that much has been done,
that the children have been taken from the streets and
put to school. That was the work of a generation now
closed. What work the next is to add to that, is a
question more inportant than what has been already
done; we can rightly rejoice only if we feel that the
best is now being done.
It is to be feared we have little reason to felicitate
ourselves upon our dealings with the rising generation.
To a large extent the young are being taught over
again what their elders have painfully unlearned ; they
are solemnly and deliberately crammed with that
which the best thought of our time has proved to be
untrue.
A young man recently emancipated from Roman
Catholicism gave me an account of how he wasbrought up. When the poor little papist is born, his
inborn demon is exorcised. Water is thrown on his
head, also salt and oil; the cross signed on its fore
head ; a candle is held beside it, a Latin formula
muttered, and a half-crown demanded. The mother
�(
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is also subjected to an exorcism for having borne a
demon into the world, and another half-crown is'
demanded for the churching. Both of these cere
monies remain in the Church of England. The water
exorcism remains in all denominations. Even some
Unitarians are not ashamed to practice a form which
is either a mockery, or a proclamation of the diabolical
nature of the child.
Fortunately the little papist is unconscious of these
proceedings ; but unfortunately, his training is on the
belief that the exorcised demon is always trying to get
back into the form from which he was expelled. He
is taught to regard this as the chief danger of his life;
he must continually make the sign of the cross, and
pray to Jesus, Joseph, Mary, and other saints. He
must bow to holy pictures and crucifixes, wear holy
medals and charms, and is taught that these are the
things which alone protect him from danger every
moment. When he enters church or school he
sprinkles himself with holy water, bends his knee
before an altar, and understands that he inhales
mysterious good things with incense. At school he
utters “ Hail Mary ” every time the hour strikes. He
is fed on miraculous stories of the marvels wrought
by saints and holy objects. The Catechism is the
. only thing taught him with any real industry : the
■ three principal ideas with which he is impressed are
�(
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his utter depravity, his utter inability to help himself
without the priest, and the diabolical iniquity of
presuming to ask any question about the “sacred
mysteries.’ At the age of seven or nine he is prepared
for confession by what is called ‘ examining the
conscience ’ which consists in making him read over
a list of all the abominations ever committed by man.
The purity of the child’s mind being thus poisoned,
he is made to confess all the evil thoughts so awakened.
He is then taught the sacredness of penance; worship
of the Eucharist as God himself; and so he is given
to society. But if all that should succeed in really
moulding-him he would be hardly better off mentally
than were those children of the mines who never saw
a flower.
This is the pit from which the Christian child of
this country was dug by the Reformation, but was
very soon plunged into others where much of its
little life is still passed. Puritanism was even a
darker pit than Catholicism, and most of the sects
were mere variants of Puritanism.
The English
Church being the church of royalty and wealth, had
to accommodate its dogmas to the indulgencies, tastes
and sports of the upper classes. The aristocracy
preserved many traditions from its barbaric origin,
and has steadily refused to be captured by asceticism,
or tamed by Puritanism. But unfortunately it did
�(
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not refuse to submit to hypocrisy; and it goes on still
with the supplications of terror on its lips and
indifference in its heart.
Its catechism indoctrinates
in asceticism, its life in worldliness. It cries for
mercy on Sunday, and hunts foxes on Monday. It
calls itself a miserable sinner at church, and resents
the slightest aspersion of its character elsewhere. It
were hard to conceive a more continuous drill in
hypocrisy than that child undergoes who is taught the
church catechism in the intervals of a life practically
absorbed in worldly schemes. It is to the credit of
human nature that there are so many g&pdjent
characters which survive the training of Catrmn8fta,
and the repressions of Puritanism; but, still more to
its credit that so many frank and earnest men survive
the teachings of a church which so baldly separates
theory from practice.
But statistics show a vast population never going
to any church at all.
A large number of these are working men, who feel
that the church is their enemy, and to whom the
sects are unattractive. The labouring masses find in
sleep, drink, and public-house gossip, the best
compensation for six days’ toil. And there are many
literary men, men of science, and gentlemen, who
stay away from church and sect out of sheer disbelief
and disgust. Yet the families of these generally go to
�(
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church, their children are baptised, catechised, and
generally taught the dogmas which their parents
despise. With the exception of the comparatively few
Liberals who have formed Societies of their own, the
rising generation is thus instructed in the same
catechisms, creeds, confessions in which their prede
cessors were instructed.
Even the learning of the
country abnegates its paramount duty to see that the
women and children of the nation are taught truth,
and consecrated in every way possible to the diffusion
of truth.
Thus the Catholic procedure, rejected in theory,
characterises the actual treatment of the Protes
tant child, too often of the disbeliever’s child. He
is not dealt with as one possessed, but as a moral
invalid who must go to the holy doctor every week,
and be dosed with piety and texts.
It is a terrible misdirection of that child’s mind,
and many are mentally hunch-backed for life by it.
It is by children being committed to the parsons as
to dress-makers. Through this indifferentism, which
may almost be called hardened, society goes on
repeating the old routine from generation to genera
tion.
Every year rolls up its steady average- of
abuses unreformed, evils unchanged, falsities laughed
at and maintained. Some progress is made but it is
'mainly through the slow working of natural necessity,
�the accompaniment of physical changes incident to the
pursuit of wealth.
It is as nothing compared with the progress that
would be made if all the thinkers and educated people
of the community were to seriously set themselves to
the work of securing to their families, especially their
children, the full benefits of their best knowledge
and experience, treating every attempt to teach them
fashionable falsities as they would attempts to indoct
rinate them in sorcery. It is the abstract verdict of
science that Christian dogmas are false. That is equally
the verdict of moral and mental philosophy. But their
verdict remains unexecuted. Until they feel also that
these dogmas are so many poisons, the Creeds and
Catechisms so many bottles of poison steadily infused
into the springs that feed society; until they besiege
those sects which so poison spiritual springs as they
would water-companies sending corruption through the
community, or adulterators of the public food; until
then, we need not hope that the best knowledge of this
age will enter upon its duty of bringing social institutions
out of their barbarous constitution into conformity
with reason and right.
What is the Creed taught to the millions of children
around us ? That they are born totally depraved; that
they are in danger of eternal damnation; that they
have incurred this danger by no act of their own, and
can be saved by no act of their own; that they were
�(
*4
)
corrupted by a man and woman who lived six thousand
years ago, and must be saved by the murder of a man
who lived over eighteen hundred years ago. This is
what is taught every child, with few exceptions.
What does human culture believe? That such
teaching is utterly preposterous. It believes every
child is born innocent, liable to actual dangers, to be
saved from them by others’ care in early life, ultimately
by its own intelligence and activities, quite irrespective
of any apple eaten in Paradise or murder committed in
Palestine.
The dogmas are just the reverse of the knowledge,
and yet there is no serious combined effort among the
intelligent people to substitute knowledge for proven
falsities in the training of children.
It is too obvious to be insisted on that such a
phenomenon is immoral, not to say criminal. Yet
many who see the evil are unable to see or suggest
the remedy. The impediment that seems to lie in the
way is the principle of patriarchal liberty under which
the various sects have been able to combine in a
political community. We cannot step in between
parent and child and interfere with any teaching which
professes to be religious. Were such a principle
adopted it would be the Liberals who would suffer
most. Liberalism cannot afford to advocate any in
terference by law, not even to protect a child from
�(
i5
)
having its eyes put out—its intellectual eyes—or its
moral back broken by the weight of false dogmas
parentally imposed.
We are not, indeed, responsible for not doing what
we cannot do, but we are responsible for doing our
very best with what ways and means are at our
disposal. There is no call to quarrel with our tools
until we have made the most of them. Have we done
that ? Are we aiming to do that! Consider this, for
instance : suppose it were no longer for the interest
of any social institution, such as a Church, that these
dogmas should be taught to any. Suppose, if your
imagination is equal to it, that the endowments of the
Church were all transferred to institutions which teach
no creeds ; all national property going to endow that
which all agree to be real knowledge; all sectarian
property being taxed because it is private property.
That would be the simplest political justice. Because
that is not the state of the law, you and I are made to
pay every year to support dogmas we abhor. Sadi
said that if there were a tax upon reading the Koran
in public many holy men would be dumb. Though I
would not say that of the Bible, it may safely be
said of the Athanasian Creed : if every time those
anathemas are uttered from the pulpit the curser of
his opponents were taxed instead of bribed, that
solemn blasphemy would cease. And many other
�(
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)
things would cease if law, fashion, and respectability
did not throw around them a glamour which hides
their monstrosity.
Without disestablishment of the Church, the dis
establishment of dogmas generally,—removal of the
immunities of the dissenting sects,—cannot take place ;
and without disendowment, and the taxation of church
property, a vast power would be given up to the
unchecked control of superstition. It is, therefore, a
plain, legitimate, and not intolerant aim for Liberalism
to labour for the total disendowment of all creeds.
Parents would then have no inducement, no bribe to
submit their children to a catechetical tuition which
they did not approve ; and it is very doubtful if
many parents, were the matter thus thrown absolutely
upon themselves, would summon the catechist to their
families. If we could only compel common sense to
act upon what is now left to sacerdotal self-interest,
many a child would be shielded from inoculation in
error.
You may smile at the idea of our succeeding in
disendowing all creeds. But we may succeed in dis
endowing them in many minds. Every clear agitation
for a rational cause is a process of education; it
commands the attention, and if it be right and
reasonable it must make its way with the process of
of the suns.
�(
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)
Besides this political direction of our influence, we
may turn our social advantages, whatever they may
be, to the side of what we believe true. The great
power of error lies in the social advantages it can
bestow upon the young, who can feel such advantages
long before they can realise the falsities gilded by
them. The desire for polite and attractive society is
not only natural but worthy, and liberal thinkers owe
it as a duty both to truth and to society that they
should contribute all they can to associate their views
with the standards of good taste, refinement, beauty,
and innocent gaieties. It must be remembered that
in the world the decorations and enjoyments of life
represent its unorthodoxy. The Church has come to
patronise them through compulsion of long experience.
It began with nunneries and convents, dust and ashes,
cowls and hair-garments; ugly anti-social habits and
habiliments were the natural insignia of creeds that
taught man’s depravity and despair. Every earthly
beauty and joy is a protest against orthodoxy, and
they legitimately belong to the religion of Liberalism
and Humanity. Social enjoyments, mirth and beauty,
are heresies which appeal far more to the young
generation than scientific statements. The liberal
movement in this country was historically evolved out
of the Puritan movement, and some of those sombre
traditions still adhere to it; but these should be
�(
i8
)
outgrown. Carefulness in dress, observance of fashion
■so far as it is healthy, dancing, interchanges of hospi
tality, should not be regarded as frivolous, but as
related to the progressive civility of the world, the
true accompaniments of its liberation from sacrificial
ideas of religion. Liberalism will be largely benefitted
by more generous outlays in this direction, and by
■each thinker taking care to do his and her part that
the tastes shall not be starved while the intellect and
moral nature are fed. It is of the utmost importance
that in the steady effort of the young to improve the
style and position of their families, they should less
and less have to seek their society chiefly outside of
liberal circles at cost of their religious and intellectual
principles.
It is equally incumbent upon all liberal thinkers to
¿o something towards raising the moral tone of society
from its theological depravation into harmony with the
standard of personal veracity and honour. It is not
veracity and it is not honour that men should submit
without an effort to having their children taught pious
falsehoods and placed under the influence of priests
whose creeds they despise. We need a severer
standard of veracity and honesty than that. It is a
poor subterfuge to say that the rising generation should
be left free to form its own opinions. As well say a
garden should be left free to produce what it pleases.
�(
i9
)
It will produce weeds, and so will the mind not
carefully cultured. We owe to all we can influence
our very best thought, our maturest experience, and
we cannot escape that responsibility. We must tell
our children just what we believe true, and let them
know that it is a basis for them to build on. They
are to think for themselves.
Occasions are not wanting to realise for ourselves,
and to impress upon the young, the steadily corrupt
ing influence of proven errors established by law. We
have just witnessed in the legislative assembly of this
great nation how easily, when a constitutional super
stition is touched, men, who in worldly affairs are
gentlemen, relapse into coarseness, calumny, and
lawlessness. In the name of what they call God, but
which is no more a God than Mumbo-Jumbo,—a
fetish made up of the aggregate ignorance of church
men who find it a paying stock, recreant Jews
courting Christian favour, Catholics sniffing again the
burning flesh of Smithfield once mingled with their
incense,—in the name of that God who cursed
nature, kindled Tophet for man, and founded in the
world as under it a government of fire and faggot,
they have not hesitated at any meanness, falsehood,
or injustice to inflict a blow upon intellectual liberty,
and even national liberty which dares disregard
dogma. We have seen one bearing the title of Knight,
�(
20
)
which used to mean defender of woman, dragging up
the name of a lady of spotless character amid brutal
laughter, trying to rob of reputation one whom an
unjust judge had already robbed of her child. All
this we have seen done in the name of an established
phantasm called God. The outbreak of fanaticism in
some deputies from wild districts is far less base than
the partizan fury, which, in its eagerness to strike their
conqueror, led a party to vote like one herd upon a
question of fact and law. By a remarkable coincidence
the law is just what will most annoy their opponentsand
most delay public business, so punishing the country
for taking its business out of their hands. There’s truth
and honour for you! These are the followers of Jesus
and protectors of Omnipotence ! These be thy gods,
O people of England, who demand that woman should
be insulted, law defied, and the sanctuary of law
turned into a bear-garden, rather than that a man
holding the opinions of the majority of scientific men
in Europe shall be admitted to sit beside sanctified
sporting squires, priest-ridden papists, and capacious
city-men, making gold out of his blood who had not
where to lay his head ! The Member for Northampton
no doubt has his faults; but now when he suffers not
for his faults but for his virtues, and when in his person
are assailed the rights of every independent thinker in
this nation, I will undertake to affirm that he is nearer
to that man whom the Sanhedrim scourged than the best
�(
21
)
of his assailants, and that the spirit which pursues him
because of his testimony against priestcraft and his
fidelity to the people, is the self-same spirit that
crowned Christ with thorns and pressed poison to the
lips of Socrates.
We need not much regret this revolutionary out
break of superstition allied with the class-interests pre
served by superstition. A more salient illustration of
the wolfish hunger for power underlying the unholy
alliance of pious and political tyranny was never
given to a people. If the Member for Northampton
had lived to Methuselah’s age, and made a daily
speech in Parliament, he could not have done so much
as his enemies have done in a few days to advance the
cause of atheism, so far as that means disbelief in
the God of his oppressors. The Bishop of Peter
borough says the French Revolutionary Assembly
decreed the suppression of God; but the revolutionary
House of Commons has decreed his disgrace. Their
deity is unmasked and turns out to be only a party
whip. If John Milton were living he might see in
this disgrace of the political deity the hand of the
real God overthrowing the usurper of his place. In
his time also imperialism made God into a prop of its
despotism, and Milton then wrote, “ Sure it was the
hand of God to let them fall, and be taken in such a
foolish trap as hath exposed them to all derision ;
�(
22
)
........................ thereby testifying how little he accepted
(prayers) from those who thought no better of the
living God than of a blind buzzard idol, fit to be so
served and worshipped.”
This nation is more hopelessly sunk in superstition
than I believe it to be, if it be not now awakened to
the politically destructive tendencies of dogmas
imported from barbarous tribes. It is, however, of
importance that we should see to it that the lesson is
not lost upon the rising generation. We have in this
country a great literature in which the highest
principles of morality and honour are reflected. On
the other hand, we have a so-called religion in which
all the massacres of Judaism and Christianity, their
treasons to humanity, are sanctified.
We have
simply to let every unsophisticated mind look
on this picture and on that.
We have only
to point to theological morality in Parliament
putting a premium on hypocrisy, by declaring that
it is ready to receive an atheist if he conceals his
opinions; to theological morality trampling law for
party ends; to theological morality foul-mouthed,
insolent, treating honesty of mind and honesty of
speech as crimes. We have only to ask the con
science of the mother, whether she would be glad
to have her child grow up to so encourage conceal
ment of thought, so brow-beat honesty, so over-ride
�law, slander man and insult woman, all for the sake
of God ? We have only to ask the heart of youth
whether it is prepared to worship a God so upheld,
or for any success or ambition to pretend to believe
in a religion so built on baseness ?
I believe that these questions are stirring millions of
hearts this day, and that the rising generation will
show it when fully risen. I believe that it is largely
because lessons like this have been impressed
upon past generations that the present struggle of
freedom against sacerdotalism has come.
It is also because our wise fathers taught those now
grown gray that their trusty weapons were to be free
and honest thought, fact, argument, lawful, that we
now see Oppression taking to violence, to revolution,
and Progress standing by the law. Let us better their
instruction. Let us impress upon the rising generation
that in calmness and justice is their strength. Let us
teach them the gentle, irresistible force that goes
with intellectual power, with study, mastery of their
cause, and above all the might that ever gathers to
the higher standard of morality and humanity.
�SOUTH PLACE
CHAPEL*
WORKS TO BE OBTAINED IN THE LIBRARY.
BY M. D. CONWAY, M.A.
Prices.
The Sacred Anthology: a Book of Ethnical s. d.
Scriptures......................................................... 10 0
The Earthward Pilgrimage.................................
5 0
Do.
do.......................................... 2 6
Republican Superstitions .................................
2 6
Christianity .....................................................
1 6
Human Sacrifices in England
.......................
1 0
Sterling and Maurice...........................................
0 2
Intellectual Suicide...........................................
0 2
The First Love again...........................................
0 2
Our Cause and its Accusers......................
... 0 1
Alcestis in England...........................................
0 2
Unbelief : its nature, cause, and cure ............. 0 2
Entering Society
...........................................
0 2
The Religion of Children ...
...
...
... 0 2
What is Religion ?—Max Muller's First Hibbert
Lecture ...................................................... 0 2
Atheism: a Spectre...........................................
0 2
The Criminal’s Ascension.................................
0 2
The Religion of Humanity.................................
0 2
A Last Word.....................................................
0 2
NEW WORK BYM.D. CONWAY, M.A.
Idols and Ideals (including the Essay on Chris
tianity ), 350 pages
.............
...
••• 6 0
Jiembers of the Congregation can obtain this Work in the
Library at 5s.
BY MR. J. ALLANSON PICTON.
The Transfiguration of Religion.......................
BY A. J. ELLIS, B.A., F.R.S., &c., &c.
Salvation
.....................................................
Truth
Speculation .....................................................
Duty
...............................................................
The Dyer’s Hand
...........................................
BY REV. P. H. WTCKSTEED, M.A.
Going Through and Getting Over
.............
BY REV. T. W. FRECKELTON.
The Modern Analogue of the Ancient Prophet
BY W. C. COUPLAND, M.A,
The Conduct of Life...........................................
0 2
0
0
0
0
0
2
2
2
2
2
0 2
0 2
0 2
Hymns and Anthems...
...
...
1/-, 2/-, %/■
Report of the Conference of Liberal Thinkers, 1878, 1/-
�
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Victorian Blogging
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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The rising generation: a discourse before the South Place Society, June 27th 1880
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Conway, Moncure Daniel [1832-1907.]
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Place of publication: London
Collation: 23, [1] p. ; 15 cm.
Notes: Part of Morris Miscellaneous Tracts 2. Printed by Waterlow and Sons, London Wall. With list of works to be obtained in the Library of South Place Chapel at end of pamphlet.
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Child rearing
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Child Rearing-Moral and Ethical Aspects
Children
Dogma
Education
Free Thought
Moral Education
Morris Tracts
Rationalism
Youth-Great Britain-Religious Life
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PDF Text
Text
un L i7
What is the Religion of Humanity ?
A DISCOURSE
p
AT
SOUTH PLACE CHAPEL,
MAY i 6th, 1880,
BY
MONCURE D. CONWAY, M.A.
LONDON :
SOUTH PLACE, FINSBURY.
PRICE TWOPENCE,
i
Mcfi
2.9 2.
�LONDON :
Waterlow & Sons Limited,
LONDON
WALL.
�WHAT IS THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY?
^JpHE phrase Religion of Humanity has been
much and vaguely used; and best phrases so
used are liable to degenerate into cant. There is some
thing pleasant to everybody in the word “Humanity”;
no doubt all sects would claim that theirs is the
religion of humanity. Even sects with creeds based
upon a curse on human nature would declare their
religion adapted to, and revealed to save, humanity,
therefore the religion of humanity.
Among more liberal people we sometimes hear the
word ‘ humanitarian ’ used for a believer in the
religion of humanity. ‘ Humanitarian ’ was coined
to represent the doctrine that the nature of Jesus
was human as distinguished from divine or angelic :
it is a good sign when such theological disputes are
so far past that their phrases are put to more
substantial work.
And this other phrase, the
Religion of Humanity, which I believe came from
the mint of Positivism, also shows a tendency to do
various duty. To the majority it probably means a
�(
4
)
religion which believes in the perfectibility of
mankind; it would include the idea of human
progress, also the sentiment of charity, of sympathy
with mankind, and a spirit of benevolent reform.
No doubt underneath the humanitarian hypothesis
of the nature of Jesus there was at work a faith in
human nature; and under any conception of a
religion of humanity there would be found the spirit
of love to man, the feeling of fraternity, and belief in
a happy destiny for all mankind.
These high feelings will, however, be reinforced in
proportion as it can be made clear to our minds
whether there is any sense in which that group of
sentiments in us which relate to humanity can be
defined as a religion; if so, in what sense it is a
religion distinct from other so-called religions; and
whether it is one which is fully credible to us,—
whether, that is, it represents the facts and phenomena
regarded by the religious sentiment.
That which we call ‘ Humanity ’ is the totality of
all that is moral in nature ; all that distinguishes and
chooses, which discriminates right from wrong, good
from evil, where all nature not human is unmoral—
gives equal support to good and bad,
All history is the history of the war of mankind
against external nature ; when we go beyond history
to tradition, and behind tradition to mythology, we
�(
5
)
we find this and only this—man combating Arctic
frost and torrid heat, tempest and flood, the barren
ness, the ferocities of the earth, the pitiless cruelties
of the pestilential and the rainless atmosphere. That
siege of man against nature has never been relaxed ;
it goes on still; and in that time man has learned
that his own nature represents all that is moral in the
universe he can comprehend.
I say represents : for certain animals seem
capable of love and mutual service; but they possess
this in the ratio of their approach to human nature,
and of their association with it. Therefore they
are man’s humble constituency; their feebler
minds and affections are represented by him as
against the inorganic universe, their common
enemy.
Now, this ancient interminable war
between man and inanimate nature has not been
one of sentiment, but of necessity. To wage it
has always been the condition of human existence
on the planet; all the animals that could not
wage it to some extent have become fossil; and
man would have followed them into extinction if
he had not steadily resisted his hostile environment.
But during all this war man’s sentiments were on
the side of his great adversary. He sang hymns
to the sun which consumed him, to the storm
which beat upon him; evoked a vast array of
�(
6
)
deities out of the elements, and prostrating himself
before them in one moment, in the next arose to
fight and conquer their cruelty.
Primitive man ascribed to the gods as their
particular realm all the elements and regions of
nature which he himself could not control.
His
own empire was built up in practical hostility to
this elemental empire of the gods.
It was the
necessity of the humanised world that it should
ever be encroaching on the gods’ world, turning
the chaos they had created to order and use.
Thus there was no love lost between the two.
Man’s attitude towards the gods was fear; and
that of the gods towards man was deemed to be
jealousy, sometimes fear also, lest he might build
a tower high enough to besiege heaven, or seize
on the apples of immortality. There resulted a
divorce between man’s practical life and his theology.
That set of beliefs, and diplomatic ceremonials to
the sky which were called religion, had nothing ,
to do with man’s humanity, which was necessarily
devoted to constant revision and correction of that
nature supposed to be the creation of the gods.
All of which may seem very childish notions.
Yet the so-called religions of the world have been
generally cast in the same mould; and that is the
shape they bear to this day.
�(
7
)'
The wild powers of nature are translated by
theology and catalogued in the creeds. Where do
you find the doctrine of satisfaction or expiation?
Where do you find any basis for the doctrine that
no deity can forgive an offence except the penalty
be suffered and the law satisfied? You find it in
every creed, but you do not find it in the heart
and life of humanity.
People do not so exact
from others rigid legal satisfaction.
The parent
who worships a god demanding satisfaction, forgives
the child daily without any satisfaction. Humanity
could not have survived if it had practised the
theology of invariable expiation. But you will find
that dogma a reflection of the unswerving course
of natural objects, the unvarying sun and seasons,
the ever-recurring remorseless powers that now freeze,
now bring famine, and listen to no entreaties.
Where will you find the doctrine of vicarious
suffering?
Not in the voluntary life of humanity.
The judge or the parent may worship a deity
satisfied by the suffering of the just for the unjust,
but he would be shocked at any suggestion in the
court or the home that the innocent should, be
made to suffer for the guilty. And in the house
hold or in society, who would deliberately visit
the sin of a father upon his children ?
Where
then, do the creeds get these notions ? From the
�(
8
)
hard forces of nature, which punish transgressions
of natural law even though they be virtuous deeds,
secure the good of one by sacrifice of another;
now make the mother victim of the child, next
the child heir of the parent’s infirmities.
We might indeed go through the whole list of
dogmas that make up what is called religion, and
we should find them to be a rough translation of
nature’s roughness; not religion at all, because
confusing good and evil; unrelated to the moral
sentiment; a crude primitive science, or attempt
at a scientific theory of nature. Those which were
anciently deities personifying the inorganic aspects
of nature, are now abstract dogmas reflecting the
same thing; and as when they were deities or
demons, so now when they have become dogmas,
they represent precisely all that part of nature
which it is the business of humanity to resist,
restrain, or even exterminate.
We must, indeed, never forget that human .
beings are much better than their creeds; that
inside their stony dogmatic walls are cultured
spots of humane feeling; that they speak and act
gently while they worship wrath, and deal justly
while worshipping an unjust deity. There is a
blessed necessity which exterminates from the
practical life anti-social principles; and while it
�(
9
)
allows tongues to recite what creeds they please,
holds heart and hand to their need and duty
with an iron grip. Nevertheless mankind are not
passing unharmed through this opposition between
their dogmas and their humanity.
It is a very
serious thing that men should throw the sanctions
of sentiment and piety around deified reflections of
that inorganic world which it were man’s real
religion to master, and make into his own human
image and likeness.
These ancient ‘ religions ’
have adopted many humane sentiments, some of
them even patronise human life and its joys; but
they never make humanity the main thing, the
great religous force and director: all that immense
power of piety, devotion, enthusiasm, which to
gether make religion, are still on the side of the
inorganic universe and its traditional phantasms.
We may then answer our question, ‘ What is
the Religion of Humanity,’ by saying, it is a
religion which transfers to the moral and intellectual
forces which are mastering nature all the piety
that now worships personifications of the ob
structions mastered.
There is need that our
sentiment and our work should be on the same
side in this great struggle of humanity with
mountain and desert, volcano and flood. It is a
grievous anomaly to worship the mountain-god
�(
IO
)
while we tunnel the mountain, and praise the
lightning-god while we raise a rod to divert his
bolt.
That kind of homage and praise are due
to skill and to science, and hard-handed labour;
not to the wild powers they are levelling and
curbing for us.
It may be said that such
adorations of natural forces do no harm; they
are directed to powers that cannot hear or heed
them.
But there is harm done when the finest
seed are sown on clouds, instead of in a soil
where they might bear fruit. We can little dream
what a reinforcement of the human work of the
world it would be if all the devotion and wealth
lavished on deities and dogmas were directed to
aid and animate man in his tremendous task of
humanising his world.
But, it may be asked, and it is the anxious
question of many hearts, is there no God of nature,
no God in nature? Is there no power above our
selves—or power not ourselves—that makes for
righteousness? And, if there be none, are we not
orphans? Are we not robbed of all heart and
hope in our struggle with earthly evil, having no
certainty of ultimate success ?
The Religion of Humanity answers, Yes, there is
a God in nature, a God and ruler of nature; but
that divine parent is nowhere discoverable except in
�(
II
)
the spirit of humanity. You may cry for help to
glowing suns and circling stars, to gravitation and
electricity, to ocean and sky, or to all of them
together; but no help or ray of pity will you get
until you have turned to lean on the heart and arm of
human love and strength. For these are the answers
of the universe to your cry. The proof of love in
nature outside you is a loving heart inside you.
Nature has laboured through untold ages to give you
that heart to rest upon, that hand to clasp yours.
We must credit nature with -what has come out of
it. Wild as are the forces around us, terrible as is
this vast machinery roaring around us,—amid which
we move like wondering children, or at some misstep
of ignorance are caught up and crushed, we may
still say that out of it all was evolved the thinker to
warn us, the man of skill to devise good for us, the
man of science to show us the safe path, the
physician to heal us, the artist to beguile us on the
way, the poet to cheer us; the friend, the lover, the
father, the mother, who try to guard us, or, if we are
wounded, seek to heal our wounds. All these were
evolved out of nature. They show us nature pointing
us to humanity,—to humanity, the crown and hope of
nature’s own self, the power which nature has created
for its own deliverance,—in distrusting which we
distrust the only God in nature, the God manifest
within us, and in the sweet humanities around us.
�(
12
)
Therefore must we love nature. As we go froth to
contend against its inorganic forces, we recognise
that our contest with nature is a friendly contest, for
deliverance of that inanimate world itself which
suffers the pains of labour until now, awaiting its
adoption into the liberty of the sons of God : it is
the steadfast transfiguration of nature in a light
higher than any dawn, a grandeur which its beauties
but faintly hint and symbolize.
In these days when, under the fierce light that
beats upon the throne of superstition, the ancient
images are falling from many household shrines,—
images which, however low their origin, have been
hallowed by the tender pieties and associations
twining around them,—there is a pathetic cry on
the air. The fine gold has waxed dim! the white
statues are crumbling ! ‘ Give us back our gods ! ’
cried the pagans of old when the Christians
shattered the fair idols of Europe; ‘Give us back
our Saints, our Blessed Mother,’ cried the Catholics
when Protestantism broke up the altars; ‘Give us
back our Faith, our divine Lord,’ cry Protestant
hearts in turn.
But know they not why these
perished and can never return? They could not
do the work of humanity; they could not hear,
they could not heed the cry of hearts that needed
something more than statues, pictures, or sentimental
beliefs.
�(
!3
)
The other day we heard of the Holy Virgin
appearing in Ireland. The press even sent reporters
who gathered detailed information about the light
that was seen, and Mary, Joseph and John in the
midst. But in their descent these heavenly beings
did not bring bread to save one starving Irish
family. That was left to Saint America who came
over with a loaded ship, and is now doing for poor
human beings what the Virgin Mary does only for
her own altars and priests.
The heretic is not heartless because he cannot be
silenced by the piteous appeal of piety that its
idols and illusions shall be spared. He is listening
to a more sorrowful cry than that; it comes from
the great deeps of human agony, want, evil, despair;
it is a cry ever burthening the air, but never heeded
by the idols which have neither eye, ear, heart,
nor hand. How sweet those idols seem to those
who decorate them, cover them with devotion,
heap on them their gold, their love, and bathe
them with their tears; even so cruel they seem
to one who knows that it is for want of just
that devotion that millions of human beings find
this world a hell.
Poor Humanity, how is it tortured even by those
abstract dogmas, which inheriting the sway of demons,
have power to pervert the human heart; to make it
�(
i4
)
act cruelly, unrelentingly, like the brutal elements
they embody in words and images !
I picture
Humanity as poor Juliet in her agony. There she is,
the beautiful soul, the perfect heart, the supremest
thing in nature ! Around her an environment of
persons who represent the wild elements. The vin
dictive feud of Montague and Capulet, cruel as
venom of serpents; parents who have taken pea
cock pomp into their breast instead of hearts; a silly
ignorant nurse.
They all represent the inorganic
elements surviving in human nature, pride, ignorance,
vengeance; these not hidden there as shameful things
but consecrated as duty and dignity: this is the lot
with which that heaven, to which Juilet has prayed all
her life, has surrounded her gentle soul in its sore
need 1
Is there no pity sitting in the clouds,
That sees into the Lottom of my grief ?
O, sweet my mother, cast me not away !
But the mother, slave of her lord, has gone. Then
once more to the clouds Juliet cries, ‘ O God ! ’ No
answer. The poor ignorant nurse alone is left her.
O nurse! how shall this be prevented ?
My husband is on earth, my faith in heaven ;
How shall that faith return again to earth,
Unless that husband send it me from heaven
By leaving earth ? —comfort me, counsel me.—
Alack, alack, that Heaven should practice stratagems
Upon so soft a subject as myself!
�(
*5
)
Alas, Juliet finds that heaven is against her. She
thinks how different it would be if Romeo were only
able to leave earth and be god for a time. She meets
religion presently: the sympathetic, helpful friar, is a
disguise for the Religion of Humanity. For this friar
is a true holy father where the lordly father had
failed ; he does not point Juliet or Romeo to heaven
nor bid them pray, sing, or confess. When Romeo
has slain one in his desperation, the friar gets him off
to a safe place. He has drugs, and secret schemes,
by which he tries hard to outwit the inorganic tempers
that are crushing the lovers. He fails in the end ;
but that torch he holds over the dead faces of those
he sought to save, is the torch of the true Religion,
burning through a midnight of tragedies on to the
hour that shall raise its light to be a flaming dawn.
Do you ask what tidings more glad can the Religion
of Humanity bring to hearts in their agony, the agony
caused by the discord, pride, ungentleness of
spirit in men and women ? Why, it brings hope of a
time when hearts will not be proud and harsh,
because religion will have concentrated all its power
of renovation upon them. Religion will recall its
protecting forces from the nature-gods and gather
them all around human beings, to love them, help
them, save them; so that when Juliet cries ‘O God!
her father shall be at hand, her mother shall serve her
�(
16
)
as if Juliet were the one Holy Virgin, so that no
human being shall ever be brought up to fancy that
there is any higher religion than to promote human
happiness, purity, and wisdom.
The religion of humanity thus has its meaning
and promise for the individual heart, for the soul
with its own grief, in that it brings back piety from its
wanderings to seek out and love the divine in every
heart; but it also holds out to the world at large a
hope unknown to any theology, the promise of a
perfectly developed Humanity implying a perfect
world. For this religion shows mankind to be the
creator, and a loving creator ; whose eternal design is
not the salvation of certain elect ones, of those only
after they are dead, and from evils that do not exist,
but the salvation of all, of the living, from actual
evils. It reveals to each generation that it is not only
the heir of all the ages, but the incarnation of their
summed-up powers; that this trust bequeathed from
all preceding generations, represents not only man in
the past, but all that preceded man; every bird that
ever sang to its mate, every tiger that ever defended
its young; nay, every atom that ever clung to its
fellow-atom amid the star-mist, in the first throb of
that spirit of life which has climbed on to the
splendour of reason and glory of a heart, beside
which the sun and moon are mere sparks.
�This is the Holy Mother. This is the ever-blessed
unwearied Madonna bearing the man-child in her
arms. A legend runs that when Mary was travelling
in Egypt, and her arm failed from long bearing her
babe, a third hand grew out to sustain Jesus : even so
is it with the maternal spirit which is caring for the
world, watching over human hearts, bearing it onward.
Does the old support fail ? Io, another ! Already our
dear Mother is many-handed. Wherever are love,
thought, sympathy, and a devotion to truth and right,
there are her sustaining arms. Her unwearied watch
is with the student seeking truth and wisdom, with
the reformer, the philanthropist, the physician, the
man of science, the poet, the artist. Wherever there
is one who is contriving a new benefit for the earth,
some relief from evil, some mitigation of pain, some
beauty which shall soothe and delight earth’s wayworn pilgrims, some sweet song to beguile sorrow and
pain into self-forgetfulness, win hearts from vain
regrets, cast a sunbeam into the darkened breast of
guilt, proffer a draught of Lethe to the lips of Despair
and Death, there is our divine Father, and there our
heavenly Mother, majestic and beautiful: nature is
glorified in them : with them are the sign and seal by
which all nature, however wild, is for ever bound to
follow and obey their eternal attraction.
This Religion of Humanity therefore has not the
�(
i8
)
disadvantages of some new sect or new idea: it
not only exists already, but it has existed for ages.
I believe it to be the only religion that does really
exist, and that alone which the great teachers have
taught.
It is a very common experience with those who
abandon an established church, sect, or creed, that
they never cease to honour the great teacher said
to have founded that church or creed. Most free
thinkers feel that they love Christ much more
genuinely than Christians. The same phenomenon
appears throughout the world. Wherever there is a
protestant movement we hear the cries, ‘Not
Buddhism but Buddha!’ ‘Not Confucianism but
Confucius!’ ‘Not Christianity but Christ!’
It
is not difficult to see why we love the teacher while
opposing the system named after him. The teacher
represented the religion of humanity. No matter
what he taught, he was another step; he sought to
remove some evil or error, and added something to
the growing life of the world.
But the system
which has borrowed his good name is invariably
one based on that which he resisted. Every socalled religion is a new edition of the old nature
worship : it is a system trying to sanction its power
with the prestige of a breaker of systems. But
such power can never be built up except by reversing
�the freedom and humanity of the system-breaker,
because it must rule by bribe and menace. There
never was a prophet who did not teach love,
forgiveness, gentleness; there never was a system
which did not make its prophet teach wrath,
expiation, satisfaction. ‘ Love your 'enemies,’ says
the prophet as he was; £ Depart into fire,’ says the
prophet as the system makes him.
As time goes on this anomaly is seen.
The
human religion is at work; people grow ashamed
of their dogmas; they more and more dwell on the
sweet parables, the kindly deeds, the human side of
their prophet; they try to hide and forget the awful
character which the system assigns him.
But it is
impossible : that awful character is an old role in the
drama of the gods; Jehovah had to play it, and
Jove, and Jesus; every successful name has to be
put to that part if a creed is to survive after it is
unloved and unbelieved. So, steadily, as know
ledge and liberty advance must such systems
crumble and their idols follow them; when their
supernatural terrors have become grotesque and
their celestial promises antiquated, there are left
only the vulgar fears and interests to which an
existing order appeals, and from that moment the
familiar face of selfishness is seen beneath the mask
of piety.
Such is the process now going on;
�(
20
)
by it true and faithul hearts are hourly set
free; and there is fair prospect of seeing a
swiftly-growing and expanding spiritual union among
the really religious, though the discovery that what
each sincerely loves in his prophet his seeming
opponent loves equally; and what he discards is
that which none can love, though it may be
tolerated. No man loves Jesus for his miracles:
no heart responds to his curse on a figtree; none
rejoices in his formula for cursing the goats at the
last day. The Jesus beloved is he who spoke of
the forgiven prodigal, who wept tears over his dead
friend, knew the scripture of the lilies and the
waving corn, promised peace, and gave men rest in
the faith that even as they forgave the trespasses of
men all the more would the divine love forgive
them.
That is the Jesus really beloved by the
sincere and lowly hearts that are not concerned in
Christianity as a politic system; and they do not
love him more than those called ‘infidels.’
There is one belief concerning Christ in which all
sects, churches, Secularists, Theists, Atheists agree:
they all agree that he was a man. Some believe he
was a God-man, others a miraculous man; all agree
that he was a man. That then is the only doctrine
that can be pronounced literally Catholic, that is
universal. And as the definition of a man grows
�(
21
)
truer, and as more and more mankind come to feel
how dependent they are for all advancement upon the
fidelity and wisdom of great and good men, it will
not be thought derogatory to Jesus that he should be
called a man. But it will be found derogatory to
connect him with the thundergods of primitive ages.
It will be resented more and more as a lowering of
his goodness and greatness to call him the incarnation
of Jehovah, whose biblical record is one of wrath,
injustice and cruelty. As Jove and Jehovah have
died of inhumanity, so will the Doomsday Christ pass
out of human love and belief. It will be realised
that the whole thought and work of Jesus was to
abolish that system of belief which Jehovah repre
sented, and all the gods like unto him. Those
personifications of crude, cruel nature, and Jesus
representing the love and morality which soften and
subdue nature, are practically opposite principles, and
their necessary combat makes all the serious contro
versies of our time.
When the orthodox talk of God becoming man, we
have only to say,—Let him be a real man and we can
believe on him. Remove from him the theologic
costume of miracle, of unforgiving last day wrath, of
ceremonial and ritual preserved from' the ancient
worship of the elements by cowed and terrified
barbarians; give us the great heart and brain, the real
�(
22
)
man as he was, ally him with the grand work of
humanity on earth, unite him with his true brothers,
his peers of every age and race, and be sure there
will be no heart on earth which shall fail to surround
him with love and homage !
Already there are signs that this is the way
Christianity is tending. The character of its defence
has completely changed. We no longer hear its
defenders resting it upon miracles or upon Judaic
history, but upon the morality and the humanities
they believe bound up with it. They plead for the
social and domestic virtues, and say that to the
masses these rest upon Christianity. That is a good
sign.
It is necessary to prove to them that
Christianity does not come into this moral tribunal
with clean hands; that it carries into innumerable
homes a book containing cruelties and obscenities,
as God’s word; that it propagates superstition, and
teaches man to rest for safety upon metaphysical
dogmas rather than righteousness : but, while main
taining this, we may gladly recognise the happy
change by which the dogmas are being steadily
overlaid by considerations of practical virtue. This
I believe will go on until out of these transitional
controversies shall emerge the full-formed religion
of Humanity, to be loved and honoured of all,
and to include all races in a fraternal competition
�(
23
)
to promote the health, happiness, and virtue
of the family of man.
Christian apostles felt
and foresaw this.
‘ Be not deceived,’ cried one,
‘ he who doeth righteousness is righteous.’ Said
another, ‘ Pure religion and undefiled is to visit
the widow and the fatherless in their affliction, and
to keep oneself unspotted by the world.’ A third
added, ‘ Love is the fulfilling of the Law.’ Equally
was this the testimony of Zoroaster, of Buddha, of
Confucius. In this religion have the prophets and
sages lived and died ; and this will remain for ever
the religion of the faithful and true, the helpful and
the just, when all our controversies have died away.
When the dogmatic systems have taken their place
among other relics of antiquated philosophy, there
will still be growing and expanding in the earth the
religion of humanity,—the hatred of pain, which
superstition worshipped; hatred of all sacrifice of
human welfare; passionate horror of all evil, and that
which inflicts suffering; passionate love of all that
promotes welfare; concentration of all powers within
and without to the humanisation of man and his
world; and the immortal hope that Humanity will
survive for ever, conquer all evil, attain perfect know
ledge and joy. .This religion will flourish over the
graves of all idols and creeds,—and this is the
Religion of Humanity.
�SOUTH PLACE CHAPEL.
WORKS TO BE OBTAINED IN THE LIBRARY.
BY M. D. CONWAY, M.A.
The Sacred Anthology: a Book of Ethnical s. d.
Scriptures...........................................
.... 10 0
The Earthward Pilgrimage.................................
5 0
Do.
do.......................................... 2 6
Republican Superstitions .................................
2 6
Christianity .......................
.............
... 1 6
Human Sacrifices in England
.......................
1 0
Sterling and Maurice...........................................
0 2
Intellectual Suicide...........................................
0 2
The First Love again...........................................
0 2
Our Cause and its Accusers.................................
0 1
Alcestis in England......................
0 2
Unbelief : its nature, cause, and cure ............. 0 2
Entering Society
...........................................
0 2
The Religion of Children.................................
0 2
What is Religion ?
0 2
Atheism: a Spectre...........................................
0 2
The Criminal’s Ascension.................................
0 2
Idols and Ideals (including the Essay on Chris
tianity ), 350 pages
.................................
6 0
Members of the Congregation can obtain this Work in the
Library at 5s.
BY A. J. ELLIS, B.A., F.R.S., &c., &c.
Salvation
......................................................
Truth ................................................................
Speculation ......................................................
Duty
................................................................
The Dyer’s Hand
...........................................
0
0
0
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2
2
2
2
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New Work by Mr. Conway—“A Necklace of Stories,”
illustrated by W. J. Hennessy, is now ready. Price 6s.
Mr. ALEXANDER J. Ellis’s Discourses:—“ Salvation:”
“Truth:” “Speculation:” “Duty:” and “The Dyer’s
Hand. Bound in 1 Vol., price Is.
Mr. Conway’s “ Demonology and Devil-lore.” Second
edition, revised and enlarged, 2 vols, illustrated. 28 s.
Members of the Congregation may obtain this work in
the Library at 23 s. 4 d.
�
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Victorian Blogging
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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What is the religion of humanity?: a discourse at South Place Chapel, May 16th 1880
Creator
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Conway, Moncure Daniel [1832-1907.]
Description
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Place of publication: [London]
Collation: 23, [1] p. ; 15 cm.
Notes: Part of Morris Miscellaneous Tracts 2. Printed by Waterlow and Sons, London Wall. With a list of works to be obtained in the Library of South Place Chapel at end of pamphlet.
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[South Place Chapel]
Date
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[1880]
Identifier
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G3347
Subject
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Religion
Ethics
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<img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /><br /><span>This work (What is the religion of humanity?: a discourse at South Place Chapel, May 16th 1880), identified by </span><span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk">Humanist Library and Archives</a></span><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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application/pdf
Type
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Text
Language
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English
Free Thought
God-Attributes
Human Nature
Humanism
Moral Theology
Morality
Morris Tracts
Positivism
Religion and Ethics