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.. 11
NATIONAL SECULAR SOCIETY
!
CIVILIZATION:
A SKETCH OF ITS
RISE AND PROGRESS ;
MODERN SAFEGUARDS & FUTURE PROSPECTS
Jfcrlix«
DELIVERED BEFORE THE
SUNDAY
LECTURE
SOCIETY,
SUNDAY AFTERNOON, 20th FEBRUARY, 1876.
A.
ELLEY
FINCH.
LONDON:
PUBLISHED BY THE SUNDAY LECTURE SOCIETY.
1876.
Price Threepence.
�LONDON :
PRINTED RY C. W. REYNELL, LITTLE PULTENEY STREET
HAYMARKET, W.
�ft 24 £
SYLLABUS.
The Creation from the stand-point of Science.
Autobiography of the Earth, and of Life on its
surface, from its fluid state through intense heat to
its attaining fitness for human habitation.
This knowledge revealed through the sciences of
Astronomy and Geology, which exhibit terrestrial
existence as a progress towards Intelligence under
the dominion of Divine Law.
Civilization explained as Man’s progress, by means
of his reason, towards the gratification of his social
impulse to live peaceably, morally, and happily.
Civilized man first found in Asia—His progress
barred by Superstition retarding the development of
his reason.
Historical illustrations from Oriental civilizations.
Civilized man in Europe. The growth of his
reason enables him to diminish Superstition, to
interpret Nature, and to exchange the theological
doctrine of Arbitrary Will for the scientific principle
of Invariable Law.
Historical illustrations from European civilizations.
The influence of Supernatural Religion.
The extinction of Superstition assured, and modern
Civilization protected from decay, by our possession
. of a criterion of Truth, a standard of Right, and a
reserve of Moral Force chiefly derived from—
�IV
Syllabus.
1. —Our knowledge of the Order and Uniformity
of Nature. The method of the govern
ment of the World. Man’s position in it.
2. —Our means of preserving and diffusing
Truth and Moral Sentiment through the
Printing Press—the Steam Engine—the
Electric Telegraph.
■ B.—International Conscience, created by Com
mercial Intercourse.
4. —Public Opinion based, on Free Discussion.
5. —Political Government through the Represen
tative
Our present Civilization a state of relative Bar
barism, attested by the existence of pauperism, over
work, vice, crime, disease, premature death, &c.
The causes of these calamities.
Prospect of great increase of human happiness and
virtue from the application of knowledge to the
improvement of the breed of Man.
How a City of “ Hygeia ” may become a possible
reality.
�CIVILIZATION:
A SKETCH OF ITS
RISE AND PROGRESS; ITS MODERN SAFEGUARDS
/
AND FUTURE PROSPECTS.
WILL ask you, for our present purpose, to dismiss
from your minds all that you may have heard con
cerning “the Creation,” as a stupendous event, represented'
as occurring, according to the precise arithmetic of our
patristic chronologers, 4,004 years anterior to the birth of
Christ; and, in place of that definite intelligence, of which
I may seem to be about to deprive you, to substitutewhat science tells us in relation to it.
In the vocabulary of science, “ creation ” is a term
simply expressive of our absolute ignorance of the be
ginning of the present order of the Universe. Science
knows nothing of Creation, having discovered only evo
lution. But, whilst it can find no trace of the Creation,
some 6,000 years ago, science can tell us something of
the history of our planet, during those millions of ages
in which it was undergoing a process of gradual cooling,
from a condition molten with intense heat, until it ar
rived at a state of temperature and atmosp here fitted
for the existence of man, and when, accordingly, man
made his appearance on its surface. This knowledge is
essential for any comprehensive understanding of human
civilization.
At the time of man’s first appearance, the Earth, and
everything upon it, appear to have been ruled by those
natural laws, especially of Motion, of Heat, and of Grravi-
I
�6
Civilization.
tation, from the study of which has been built up that
vast body of positive knowledge, termed collectively the
Physical Sciences; for science, however defined, is
strictly the pursuit of law, and, man being born under
a system of law, his intellectual nature is to seek and
discover it. The science of Astronomy, in its calcula
tions of the most ancient events, as well as in its predic
tion of those that are to come, is founded on the axiom
that all its phenomena are subjected to invariable Law,
and that there has not been in the times under conside
ration, and that there never will be in the future, any
exercise of arbitrary or over-riding Will.
The first clear view which we obtain, through science,
of the early condition of the Earth, presents it to us as a
ball of matter, fluid with fervent heat, spinning on its
axis, and revolving round the sun. The science of geo
logy then exhibits to us the remains of a long preorganic
period, termed the Azoic, or that in which life was not;
then the remains of an orderly progression of organic
life whose existence had corresponded with the varying
condition of the earth’s slowly changing atmosphere and
temperature, such series extending backwards over an
incalculable, but undoubtedly enormous, period of time,
termed the Palaeozoic, or that of antique life.
Now, when we transport our minds back to these pri
meval ages, we are enabled, apart from any of the preju
dice with which we approach the consideration of the
subject during the period of human existence, to con
template clearly two very important and distinct things,
each of which is by some minds even yet denied or
doubted. The one is, the divine principle upon which
life on Earth is governed ; the other is, that orderly and
gradual change, towards a determinate end, termed
progress.
At the remote period to which I am referring it can
hardly be doubted by an unprejudiced mind that the
government of our Earth was a dominion of physical
law, for there is no discovered indication whatever, in
�Civilization.
7
deed there then existed no subject whatever, of moral
government. The Earth tells u£ its own history, not
founded on fables but on facts, through the sciences of
astronomy and geology, and the entire range of terres
trial phenomena brought to light by those sciences are
all found to be in harmony with the effects of the ope
ration of the mathematical law which regulates the
gradual cooling of a vast body, such as, in size and
shape, we know our Earth to be.
Now our knowledge of this life of our globe, previously
to man’s appearance is, comparatively speaking, quite
modern. It has been revealed to us through a number
of discoveries, made by a succession of scientific men, all
flourishing within about the last 300 years. I may say
that the very basis of the facts and reasonings upon
which it rests was the geometrical conception of our solar
system by Copernicus, whose book on the revolutions of
the celestial orbs was published in the year 1543. That
conception, as most of you know, was in direct opposi
tion to the prevailing religious views of his time. Those
views, derived from texts of Scripture, and dogmas of the
Fathers, asserted that the Earth was the centre of the
Universe and immovable, and that the sun and stars
moved round it. Copernicus, on the other hand, de
duced from mathematical considerations a theory directly
the reverse of this. He showed reasons for assuming
that the sun was the centre, and relatively immovable,
and that the Earth and other planets moved round the
sun. When Copernicus divined this theory there was
no sufficient astronomical science, or power of penetrat
ing space (for the telescope had not then been invented),
to corroborate or refute him, and, so little did the eccle
siastics of his day appreciate the probable correctness,
or comprehend the vast significance of his theory, that
his great work was published at the solicitation of a
Cardinal, and dedicated to Pope Paul III. Copernicus
died before his work was fully before the world, and,
with the exception of a courageous expression of con
�8
Civilization.
currence by the ill-fated Giordano Bruno, hardly any
serious notice was taken of it. Nearly a century after
wards, indeed, at a time when, through astronomical
observations by means of the telescope, and philosophical
reasonings resulting from the discovery of the laws of
motion by the illustrious Galileo, and by the publication
in 1632 of his remarkable Dialogue respecting the oppo
site systems of Ptolemy and Copernicus, the sublime yet
simple grandeur of the Copernican system began to be
verified as true, then the infallible Church became
roused to resentment, and condemned Galileo to abjure
his views; to solemnly declare that the proposition
maintained in his dialogue, that the sun is the centre of
the world and immovable, was absurd, false, and ex
pressly contrary to Holy Scripture, and that his other
proposition, that the earth is not the centre of the world,
and that it moves, is absurd and false, and erroneous in
faith.
Next in importance to the discovery of the laws of
motion was the grand discovery, by the astronomer
Kepler, of the laws that regulate the planetary motions.
This extraordinary man, one of the last of the old
astrologers, by the help of a mass of observations of the
Heavens, recorded for the most part by his celebrated
precursor Tycho Brahe, discovered the three great laws
which actually regulate all the movements of the
planets, including our Earth, round the sun ; and the
subsequent marvellous discovery by Sir Isaac Newton of
the very cause itself of Kepler’s laws, viz.—the princi
ple of Universal Gravitation, showed, that those laws
might actually have been predicted as well as observed,
Newton proving, by mathematical deductions from his
discovered principle, that all bodies attract each other
with a force directly as their masses and inversely as
the squares of their distances; that the movements of
the celestial bodies, their described areas, their elliptical
orbits, the relation of the squares of their times to the
cubes of their distances, may be mathematically
�Civilization.
9
accounted for, and are indeed mathematically neces
sary !
But the fact which strikes the reason with perhaps
greatest force, as revealing the vast duration of the past
history of our planet, is the Earth’s peculiar form, which
was also discovered, through mathematical calculations,
by Sir Isaac Newton. The history of this discovery is
interesting.
In the year 1691—the astronomer Dominic Cassini,
whom Louis XIV. had placed over the observatory of
Paris, looking through his telescope at the planet Jupi
ter, was struck by observing that the figure of the
planet was not round, as had been supposed, but oblate,
or flattened at the poles. The reason of this peculiar
flattening at the poles, as regards the planet Jupiter,
we are not now concerned to follow, beyond remarking
that, as it evidently had resulted from the planet’s move
ments in obedience to the laws of motion and gravita
tion, it suggested that the Earth must have a similar
shape. That is to say, a body revolving round an axis
gives to those particles the greatest tendency to fly off
which move with the greatest velocity, those, viz., which
are furthest from the centre of rotation and nearest the
equator, whilst those particles near the poles, describing
smaller circles, move slower, and have less tendency to
fly
hence there would be an accumulation of matter
towards the equator, whilst the poles would be depressed
or flattened. Now,-if the body were fluid such ten
dency must have the effect of shaping it accordingly,
causing its equatorial axis to be longer than its polar.
The intellectual consequences of this apparently sim
ple matter have been amazing. It led at once to the
discovery by Newton of the actual form of our Earth,
Newton solving the problem by an application of the
dynamics of his immortal Principia, on the supposition
that the Earth had been originally fluid, and thence cal
culating that its diameter at the equator would be to its
diameter at the poles, as 230 is to 229—and the Earth’s
B
�IO
Civilization.
elliptic figure, which he thus arrived at, was subsquently
verified by actual admeasurement! Now, the consili
ence of these results, the correspondence of the fact
with the theory, is, considered rationally, a resistless
proof of the original high temperature of our globe,
when it must hate been fluid from intense heat; fluid
and solid being the opposite material effects of heat and
cold.
The age then of our planet is no fact of supernatural
revelation, nor is it a question to be decided by autho
rity or tradition. It is simply a mathematical problem,
that is, regard being had to the discovered laws of motion,
of heat, and of gravitation, to determine the time of the
cooling of a rotating globe, of known diameter and conducibility, by the radiation of its heat into space—and
even an approximate solution of such problem must con
vince us, that our Earth has existed for myriads of ages,
and, moreover, that it has been moulded into its pre
sent shape by mechanical means, that is, by secondary
causes.
The discoveries which have been made, through the
investigations of geologists into the Earth’s crust, of the
evidence of the action of heat in remote ages, and of
the countless remains of extinct plants and animals of
different species, all having apparently successively arisen
and died out in close correlation with the changes in
their physical surroundings consequent on the Earth’s
gradual decline of temperature, are not only in harmony
with but, confirmatory of, the discoveries of the astro
nomers, and the two, taken together, form cogent evi
dence of the fact of the state of our planet at the time
of man’s first appearance having been the result of a
process of cooling continued through ’enormously long
periods of time, not without oscillations, sometimes of
the reverse of heat, as shown in the remains of the gla
cial epochs.
They are also evidence of the two important matters
to which I have referred. They show that the divine
�Civilization.
Il
government of the earth had been and was a dominion
of primordial law, and they show that the series of
countless changes, that had occurred throughout the
lapse of those preceding ages, constituted progress, for,
when looked at as a whole, they appear as a continuous,
orderly, and progressive change towards the develop
ment of intelligence. Life and mind gradually becom
ing properties of matter, or matter becoming inhabited
by life and mind. Throughout the entire animal series
there is distinctly seen a progressively ascending nervous
development with its correlated or parallel phenomena,
automatic, instinctive, rational ; this progress amongst
the vertebrates consistingin their increasing resemblance
to man, and, when we take into one view the whole suc
cession of organisms including man, whether we regard
it physiologically or historically, we find the direction
•of evolution is towards the intellectual. Indeed, phy
siologically, there is no apparent provision in the nervous
system for moral improvement save through the intel
lectual, and historically (regarding our race rather than
the individual), we find it is the intellectual that has led
the way in social advancement, the moral being subor
dinate ; even our monitor within, the conscience, being
seen to be an organ of the mind, and to be strengthened
and purified in proportion to the education of the intel
lect.
I should here remark that though, whilst we are
summing up the results of immense periods of geological
time, progress is very clearly visible, yet that when we
attempt to gauge its rate of advance during so compara
tively brief a period of historical time as human civili
zation, it is sometimes scarcely discernible. Now, this
is owing to the rate of change in man’s physical sur
roundings being itself so slow as scarcely to be measur
able by human means, our planet having attained so
nearly a condition of equilibrium that, since the age of
the astronomer Hipparchus, who flourished about a cen
tury and a half before the Christian Era, the length of
�12
Civilization.
our solar day (according to the calculations of Laplace)
has only varied the fraction of a second of time !
Thus have I endeavoured to present to you some idea
of the grand principle or Law of progress, that vast
orderly concourse, which has successively risen in the
past, introduced the present, and is preparing the future,
and of which Human Civilization is the now continuing
phase, or further development, under the divine domi
nion of natural immutable Law.
Wherever we find man, or the traces of his former
existence, there is one fact which invariably meets us,
viz. : That the nature of the human being is social,
that is, he has an instinct which impels him to live in
the society of his fellow-creatures; and, generalising our
knowledge of his history, I may venture to define the
complex term “civilization,” as man’s progress by means
of his reason, acting under the control of natural law,
towards the gratification of his social impulse to live
with his fellow-creatures peaceably, morally, and hap
pily, and in accordance with the ever-increasing know
ledge for accomplishing this object that results from the
gradual improvement of his intelligence, for, another
fact, which history teaches us, seems undeniable, viz.—•
That the intelligence of our species has improved, and
is improving; that the powers of the mind grow with
the possessions of the mind.
The most ancient accounts we have of man show us
that originally, or as near as we can get at his origin,
his condition was barbarous and brutal, his tastes, his
habits, and his understanding apparently only in degree
elevated above those of the animal life below him.
They were such as we see in the savages of the present
day, which have been so closely observed and described
by modern travellers, especially by one whose untimely
end will ever be lamented by this Society, for the first
only lecture which the late Winwood Read lived to
deliver in this Hall gave hopes of future brilliant and
instructive discourses.
�Civilization.
J3
If you have followed my introductory argument, I
need hardly impress upon you that man’s career has been
one of constant progress, however slow and variable, from
the barbarism of the savage to our present comparatively
high condition. There have been and are, however,
writers who think differently, and who have inferred
that man was originally civilized, and afterwards became
degraded to the savage state. In the face of the primor
dial law of progress, which is traceable throughout the
countless ages during which the Earth has been the
abode of organic life, to hold that man was first civi
lized and afterwards retrograded to the savage state, is,
scientifically speaking, the same as it would be to hold,
in the face of the primordial law of gravitation, that the
rivers, which we now find flowing from the valleys of
the hills downwards to the sea, commenced originally
by flowing upwards from the sea towards the hills.
The earliest Civilizations of which we have any
authentic accounts are those of the Assyrians, the
Babylonians, the Phoenicians, and the Egyptians. They
were all located in or near the Torrid Zone of our Earth,
and they were probably the earliest manifestations of
civilized man, since there are strong reasons for con
cluding that man’s birth-place was in the warmer regions
of our globe. When first these ancient communities
became known to us, man had already achieved the
primary step towards his civilization, that which
enables him to advance by means of the experience of his
predecessors—the invention of written characters, or
means of recording past events.
These civilizations were, intellectually and morally,
very far inferior to the civilizations which have subse
quently flourished in the European or Temperate Zone
of the Earth, and they were all characterised more or
less by the fact that the great masses of the people were
uncared for, often treated as slaves, and always more or
less oppressed. The upper ranks of their rude societies
monopolized not only power, but nearly all such enjoy
�14
Civilization.
ments of life as their civilization produced. Their
mental powers were for the most part absorbed in the
cultivation of gross superstitions, or in weaving systems
of philosophy which were not based upon observed facts,
but were the offspring of imagination, clothed in the
allegories and subtleties of Oriental speech, or their
active powers were exhibited in styles of architecture
based upon the employment and display of great physi
cal force. If we attempt any general review of their
intellectual productions, their theology, their law, or their
science, we find that they follow a marked tendency to
fall into system and to stagnate. The mind of the
Asiatic seems essentially synthetic, that is, ideas are
added together rather than separated and analysed, and
such adding together being a process that is sooner
brought to an end, everything becomes invariable; there
ensues what in Europe is called stagnation, though in
the East it is considered repose.
Eastern civilizations appear to have reached a certain
point, and there to have stopped, hindered probably
from advancing by reason of their knowledge being
bound up with theological opinions held to be sacred
and immutable, or by reason of their mental constitu
tion having attained the natural limit imposed by their
climate and surrounding physical circumstances. Those
physical surroundings being such as powerfully to exalt
the imagination, for the sublimity and grandeur of the
aspects of Nature in the Torrid Zone, the suddenness
and violence of her convulsions, engender terror and
depress the reasoning faculty, suggesting the perpetual
interference of a supernatural Will, and so give rise to
those appalling superstitions which have to so great an
extent been inherited by Europeans, and, in their disas
trous influence upon the peace and happiness of life,
have probably done more to hinder the progress of civi
lization than any of the numerous inventions and
luxuries, derived from the East, have done to advance it.
It is not until, following the migrations of man
�Civilization.
15
from his birth-place, we find him in the climate of
Europe we can discover that any considerable progress
has been made towards the social happiness of our race.
Ancient Greece is the country where we first find man
shaping the course of his life by the exercise of his
reasoning faculties, and gradually noting those invari
able sequences in surrounding phenomena that indicate
the settled order of nature, and free the mind from the
bondage of superstition, beginning to observe and in
vestigate nature, and gradually exchanging the theolo
gical doctrine of the government of Life by arbitrary
Supernatural Will, for the scientific doctrine of such
government being regulated by invariable Natural Law.
In ancient Greece this beginning was made. In the
cross-examining elenchus of Socrates, in the logical
organon of Aristotle, in the mathematical science of
Euclid, in the mechanical genius and resources of
Archimedes, we find exhibited in wonderful distinctness
the analytical character of the European intellect, that
quality which gives birth to doubt, impels to inquiry,
and demands a reason, and which, transferred to Alex
andria, flourished there in such remarkable exuberance.
In the lives of the great men of Greece we also find
moral qualities that were unknown in the East. Yet
much of Grecian learning was evidently derived from
Oriental sources, more particularly from Egypt, several
of the Grecian sages having visited that country—
Amongst others, Pythagoras had resided at Thebes,
Solon at Sais, Thales and Democritus at Memphis,
Plato at Heliopolis. But what they derived from the
East the different physiological and intellectual endow
ments of the Greeks materially modified and improved ;
and we, now looking back, can plainly perceive that
many of the ancient Grecians had just, however elemen
tary, notions of the various problems, still under contro
versy, in theology, law, politics, natural science and
philosophy.
With respect to their fascinating philosophy, which,
�i6
Civilization.
from the period of its birth under the shadow of the
Pyramids to its final extinction in the very same place,
extended over a period of twelve hundred years, it can
hardly be affirmed that it has added very much to our
stock of practical wisdom, or that it has greatly assisted
in promoting the happiness of the human race. In the
few words I can now bestow upon it I am constrained to
say rather that the Greek philosophy, on the whole,
affords little else than a picture of the subtlety and
restlessness of the human mind. Its professors, with a
few exceptions, instead of observation and experiment,
satisfied themselves with constructing, by means of
metaphysical verbiage, ideal theories, and these, want
ing the facts of nature for their basis, have chiefly
served to perplex the human understanding and to
retard the advancement of useful knowledge. Greek
Philosophy was a failure, because its method was a false
one.
To her mathematicians, however, great admiration is
due, for, as Condorcet said, the sailor, who now escapes
from shipwreck by an exact observation of the longitude,
owes his safety to the speculations in quest of Truth of
the ancient Greek geometers, since it was their mathe
matical reasonings that brought about the renovation of
the science of astronomy, which has since led to the
present perfection of the art of navigation.
Passing onwards from contemplation of the life of
ancient Greece, the mind is arrested by the civilization
of the ancient Bomans; but, in the slight survey I am
taking of the progress of mankind towards the attain
ment of social and individual happiness, though that illus
trious people aspired to an Imperial sovereignty that event
ually subjugated almost the entire then existing civilized
world, if we inquire what they effected towards man’s
intellectual and moral advancement, the account, with
one exception, is not considerable. In intellectual ac
quirements, as well as in original genius, they were
inferior to the ancient Greeks, from whom indeed they
�Civilization.
acquired the greater part of what real knowledge they
possessed. In their language and literature this con
trast is conspicuous, but in one respect, and that cer
tainly of the highest moment to our argument, they
did make a decided advance.
They showed a re
markable aptitude for the science of Jurisprudence
and for political and municipal government, and the
protection afforded to life and property under Roman
rule was very greatly superior to what the world had
ever previously seen. We perhaps can hardly realize
the proud self-respect with which a Roman citizen
asserted his simple credentials—“ Oivis Romanus sum.”
Still however, if we look to the condition of the
people at large, we find them subjected to great tyranny
and oppression—an absence of anything approaching
our own notions of the dignity and happiness involved
in a life of honest industry. The populace of Rome
itself being encouraged in idleness and sensuality, sup
ported very largely by contributions wrung from the
conquered countries that formed the outlying provinces
of the Empire, and kept amused by the frequency of
brutalizing gladiatorial shows.
The superstitions of the ancient mythologies were,
as superstitions usually are, thoroughly inculcated upon
the credulity of the masses, and, though the educated
class, of necessity a small one, utterly disbelieved and
despised them, there was no possibility of freedom of
discussion respecting such matters. The morals of the
ancient Romans under the Emperors were extremely
impure, especially in everything relating to the true
position of woman, and, although many eminent men
of lofty principles and pure lives are found amongst
their Philosophers, especially of the distinguished sect of
Stoics, such men as Seneca, Epictetus and Marcus
Aurelius, yet such characters were rare, and the general
moral tone of their society, summed up with graphic
force in Mr. Leckie’s instructive volumes, was degrading
and selfish. But the genius or overmastering passion
�Civilization.
of the Roman People was for military conquest and
territorial annexation, and at last their unwieldy
Empire became too extensive to hold together, and was
overwhelmed by the incursions of the barbarian nations
by whom they were surrounded, and whose enmity
they had so often provoked.
If it be asked what then became of the Romans, we
must answer that they were actually obliterated, for the
Roman ethnical element, any more than the Roman proper
names, cannot be said to have survived in the degenerate
half-breeds that resulted from the settlement on their
soil of the hordes of invaders to whose prodigious
numbers the Roman legions had succumbed, and whose,
inferior natures composed the mongrel Italian popula
tion, which throughout the middle or dark ages was
the main support of that monstrous superstition, the
mediaeval Papacy, which then ruled the emasculated
minds of those credulous men who, abdicating their
God-like prerogative of reason, sought refuge in a
fatuous faith that led them to cringe with servility at
the feet of Pontiffs, whose history is indeed imposing,
but whose lives were infamous, and whose object was,
notthe promotion of civilization, but the aggrandize
ment of their Church.
For, throughout the long ages during which the
papal despotism was omnipotent, (from about the 5th
to the 15th centuries,) nothing whatever was done by
that baleful tyranny towards advancing Civilization,
nothing to forward intellectual development. Its policy
was to subjugate the human mind, and to keep men
illiterate and ignorant, well knowing that, whilst ignor
ance is the mother of devotion, knowledge is power.
Century after century passed away without any real
improvement in the condition of the people, and it is a
fact, very shocking to those who comprehend its full
meaning, that at the end of a thousand years of this
government under an ‘ infallible ’ head, the population
of Europe had scarcely doubled !
�Civilization.
J9
After the fall of the ancient Civilizations it is not
until about the end of the 15th century of our era that
we can find much trace of any real improvement in the
social life and happiness of the people at large, but an
impartial study of history from about that time com
pels us to conclude that the progress Europe has made
from barbarism is' really due to its intellectual activity,
and that, though eminent individuals, whose virtuous
lives seemed essential as examples of moral principles,
die, and nations, that had attained the pinnacles of
political power, decay, and superstitions, that once ruled
the mind of the community, become extinct, yet, when
man, in some fresh latitude springs up, forms societies,
and cultivates his reasoning faculties, we observe that
in proportion as he endeavours to guide his life by the
dictates of reason, so does his civilization, that is, all
that tends to make him moral and happy and free,
follow in his wake.
The greatest foe to Civilization has been Super
naturalism, that principle which is the genius of every
religion whose object is to withdraw man from the
study and improvement and regard for this world, to
the contemplation of a future state of existence in a
world that is to come. To depreciate the present life
as fleeting and worthless compared with the life of that
unknown world where happiness and repose are expected
to be everlasting.
To attempt to trace in outline, however vague, the
history of Civilization without some allusion to the part
which religion has played in it, would I have no doubt
strike you as involving an obvious omission, and there
fore I shall venture to refer to the part which Chris
tianity has taken. This indeed is not easy in a sketch,
for to say all I could wish on the subject would be dis
proportionate to the rest of the picture. In regard to
one form of Christianity, that which was represented
by the Romish Church in the Middle Ages, I have
already made some remarks; what I can now say must
�20
Civilization.
have reference to it as it is manifested in the Life and
Sayings of Christ himself, as we find them portrayed
in the New Testament writings.
Now Civilization, as I am viewing it, is the progress
of this world and of this life, through the advance of
human intelligence, and it has for its main object the
getting rid of poverty and misery, and promoting worldly
prosperity, human enterprise, and happiness. Chris
tianity, as exhibited in the life and sayings of its great
founder, was not put forth as a supernatural scheme for
improving the affairs of this world, which indeed was
believed to be then shortly coming to an end, but for
establishing an unworldly kingdom in its stead, or in
opposition to it. Poverty was not to be got rid of, but
to be caressed. The Poor were to be the blest, those
who had riches were to sell their possessions and give
what they had to the poor. No thought was to be
taken for the morrow. Happiness here was not the end
in view at all. A man was to fling all he had at the
foot of the Cross and follow Christ—a man of sorrows.
The maxims of the great modern Science of organised
industry, Political Economy, a main source of our pre
sent prosperity, are set at nought by it. In fine, the
genius of Christianity, as a supernatural religion, like the
genius of nearly every other supernatural religion, is the
very opposite of the genius of Civilization, and, so far as
it has been believed in and followed as such, when we
call to mind the frightful religious wars, crusades, per
secutions, massacres, and atrocities that have followed
its footsteps—the dread Tribunal of the Inquisition,
with its horrible apparatus for the torture and vivisec
tion, not of the lower animals for the ends of science,
but of man himself, for the glory of God and in the
name of Christ, we may be permitted at least to doubt
whether the march of Civilization has been most aided
or most hindered by it.
If indeed Jesus of Nazareth had been always regarded,
in reference to his pure and beneficent life and sublime
�Civilization.
21
precepts, simply as a great moral Teacher, the case
would have been otherwise, for much of that which we
may suppose, and are taught, that Civilization owes to
supernatural Christianity is owing in reality to that
moral and social standard which the advance of human
intelligence and culture, through a succession of great
minds (amongst whom Christ shines conspicuous), has
woven into our course of life, and which is partly de
rived from Greek and Roman exemplars of noble
patriotism and heroic virtues, and is chiefly secular, and
has, in truth, little closer connection with supernatural
Christianity than conventionally going by its name.
Since the 15th century the cultivation of the human
reason, stimulated chiefly by the observation and inter
rogation of nature through the methods of the physical
sciences, and the discoveries which have been thereby
made, has greatly diminished the influence of supersti
tion, and in distinguishing knowledge from emotion has
enabled the highest class of minds to perceive that human
affairs are not regulated by any discoverable influence of
a supernatural arbitrary Will, but that the course of life
proceeds now as it did during those countless ages that
elapsed previously to the birth of man, that is, in
obedience to natural invariable Law. It is also seen
that our civilization is really the result of intellectual
development, keeping pace with the improvement and
exercise of man’s natural intelligence. A philosophical
historian of rare erudition, the late Henry Thomas Buckle,
has shown us that the diminution of the two greatest
evils with which men have yet contrived to afflict their
fellow-creatures, viz., Religious Persecution and the
Practice of War, has been effected solely by the activity
of the human intellect, and the inventions and dis
coveries which, in a long course of ages, man has been
able to make.
Now, glancing backwards over the historical period I
have so slightly sought to traverse, we see indeed that
nations, like individuals, have apparently a physiological
�22
Civilization.
life, that they are born and progress with marked regu
larity through periods of youth, maturity, decline, and
death, but we also see that the ideas and principles, both
intellectual and moral, that have been elicited through
experience in the course of their careers are not wholly
lost to mankind, and that, though for a time they may
remain buried beneath the barbarian wave, they become
resuscitated for the use of succeeding generations. Thus
it was that Greece acquired much of her wisdom from
the Egyptians, then again the Alexandrians were the
pupils of Greece, Rome learnt from both, next the
Arabians held aloft the lamp of knowledge, helping to
rekindle it in Moorish Spain, amongst the descendants
of the Goths and Vandals that had overrun that portion
of the Boman Empire. The great nations of modern
Europe, especially Germany, France, and England, have
imbibed the lore, and garnered the experience, of all
preceding times, and our own mission perhaps may be
to pass on the sacred deposit through those English
speaking races that are now illuminating with their in
telligence the New Worlds of America and Australia.
The progress of Civilization is at present more rapid
and more firmly established than at any prior period of
the world’s history. Are we to believe that it is destined
to become again extinguished or suppressed ? or can we
discover modern elements and safeguards apparently
sufficient to protect our modern civilization from retro
gression or decay ?
If we compare our social life with that of ancient
times we shall observe some very remarkable differences.
We shall find that we are in possession of a Criterion of
Truth, a Standard of Right, and a power of Moral In
fluence that were entirely wanting to the nations of
antiquity.
In the first place I will observe that one of the most
important particulars in which the moderns have ad
vanced beyond the ancients consists in our having
attained to a knowledge of the nature of and right method
�Civilization.
23
of using the reasoning faculty, of discovering truth, and
of acquiring real knowledge. We may assert that man
was never thoroughly taught these until the advent of
the two great thinkers, Bacon and Descartes, now recog
nised as the Fathers of true Philosophy. At the time
when they flourished, the beginning of the 17th cen
tury, the powers and authority of the human reason had
become discredited, partly through the influence of
superstition, and partly from centuries of failure. Taking
all the philosophers together, it was asked, what had
their subtle reasonings done towards promoting the
happiness of mankind? Yet these two illustrious men,
in the face of such discouragement, in Bacon’s case, after
reviewing the deficiencies of all preceding scientific sys
tems, boldly proclaimed that nevertheless the human
reason was the only instrument for acquiring and testing
truth—both pointed out that doubt and inquiry were its
necessary preliminaries, and both inculcated that sound
maxim of wisdom ; to distrust what the Reason cannot
be appealed to to verify. But our great countryman
Bacon went beyond this, and enunciated a fur
ther principle, which collected from his writings, and
compressed into a single aphorism, may be thus stated:
that the Reason, as an instrument for the discovery of
Truth is like the lever; it requires a point of material
support. Hence he called on men to interpret the facts
of nature, to observe her through experience and to in
terrogate her by experiment; and our superiority to the
ancients in real knowledge, and in those correct moral
principles that flow from real knowledge, is greatly the
result of modern scientific men following this the objec
tive method of research. Pursuing this method, Sir
John Herschell made the important intellectual discovery
that the axioms of mathematics are not, as the ancients
and some moderns supposed, intuitive truths, but that
they are inductions from human experience of comparison
and measurement; and thus has been imparted to the
human mind a new tendency withdrawing it from that
�24
Civilization.
delusive, and mentally demoralising doctrine, that deems
intuition to be the voice of God, and to speak with an
authority higher than Reason or Nature.
In the second place, we have become acquainted
through the Physical Sciences, with the order and uni
formity of Nature, the method of the government of the
World, and man’s position in it, and we are thereby
enabled by foresight of the future, that true power of
prevision which science bestows, to regulate life in
accordance with those inexorable conditions or laws of
nature upon which its health, its longevity, and its
happiness, so materially depend.
Thirdly, through the modern inventions of the Print
ing Press, the Steam Engine, and the Electric Tele
graph, and their subsidiary appliances, we possess
means (unknown to the ancients) of both accurately
recording, and speedily and universally diffusing, those
intellectual truths and moral sentiments which the
foremost minds amongst us are ever and anon inspired
with, and flash forth for our benefit and guidance.
Thus, society at large in all the civilized nations is
early and continually being impregnated with the prin
ciples and maxims mental and moral that should regu
late the conduct of civilized men towards one another.
In the fourth place, consequent on the first practical
use of the discovered polarity of the magnet, the
mariner’s compass, that diffusing agency of Civilization,
Commercial Intercourse,
“By which remotest regions are allied,
Which makes one city of the universe,”
has become established amongst the modern nations of
the Earth, and being founded on mutual interest and
reciprocal integrity, unites them into one brotherhood,
enabling the moral force of the whole to be brought to
bear in turn upon each, and creating, so to speak, an
International Conscience, to whose dictates each state
becomes more or less sensitive, and thereby acts of
inhumanity, aggression, and persecution, that were of so
�Civilization.
^5
frequent perpetration in the isolated communities of
antiquity, are shrunk from beneath the reproachful
gaze of surrounding nations.
In the fifth place, that assured Freedom of Speech,
(by virtue of which we are enabled freely to address
you in this Hall), and that full discussion by a Free
press which are now secured in all European countries
to an extent that in ancient times was undreamt of,
have become the true source of an enlightened public
opinion, which the greatest of potentates, be they sove
reigns or statesmen, are powerless to resist; and lastly,
I will mention that great modern discovery in the science
of politics, the Representative Principle, through whose
operation the voice of all finds utterance in the very
making of the laws enacted for the government of all.
This freedom of speech, and discussion, and political
enfranchisement, constitute our great security (wholly
wanting to the peoples of antiquity) that our property,
our lives, and our liberties, shall be, everywhere and at
all times, duly respected.
These are indeed advantages and safeguards that
seem to render our present Civilization impregnable, and
to enable us with confidence to predict a continued
progress that shall bring about a great increase of the
happiness of the human race—or, perhaps I might with
more accuracy say, a great decrease in the unhappiness
of life ; for, though the condition of modern society is,
in this respect, greatly in advance of that of ancient
nations, if we will consider it in relation to what the
life of man is capable probably of being made, we shall
see that our boasted Civilization is in truth a state of
relative barbarism. If we reflect upon the frightful
miseries of pauperism, overwork, drunkenness, vice,
crime, disease, premature death! that are so rife
amongst us, and consider the amount of physical suffer
ing and mental anguish that are essentially bound up
with them, we must conclude that modern Civilization,
comprising as it does all these calamities, falls very far
short of what Civilization should be.
�26
Civilization.
The calamities to which I am referring are so familiar
to us that they can hardly be made more impressive by
any statistical proof, yet it is painfully convincing to
know, on such undoubted authority, that, whilst (ac
cording to the Registrar-General) the normal length of
the life of man is probably now nearly 100 years, the
average length of the actual lives of our industrious
classes is not nearly half that amount, whilst, of the
children that are brought into existence, a fearful
number never live to attain manhood at all!
Now, it is a true, however melancholy, reflection that
there is sufficient knowledge in the world, if it were
only universally diffused and acted upon,—if even it
were preached from the thousand pulpits of our land in
the stead of superstition,—to banish from life nearly all
its miseries, for nearly all are traceable to ignorance,
and we may well ask how it happens that such is still
the shocking condition of our civilization, notwith
standing all our intellectual, scientific and moral pro
gress. The answer is a very simple one. Man has
never yet applied his knowledge to devise the proper
remedies. In the case of premature death, medical
and sanitary science have indeed accomplished much
towards the prevention and cure of fatal diseases,—yet
the plague is not stayed, and why, because diseases are
not the causes of premature deaths, diseases are nature’s
expedients through which such causes operate, and,
though all known diseases were stamped out to-morrow,
the effect upon the Registrar-General’s return of deaths
could be but slight.
Before I refer to the probable reason of this some
what startling proposition let me in some measure pro
ceed to verify it as a fact. I will take as an illustration
the single disease of small-pox. -Previously to the dis
covery by Jenner of a specific means of preventing
small-pox, the deaths that occurred through that loath
some malady were numbered by tens of thousands. At
the present day, death, through the agency of small
�Civilization,
27
pox, is so rare that, except at long intervals, it is
scarcely observable; even in this densely-crowded metro
polis frequently not one death out of its entire popula
tion occurs through small-pox in the course of several
weeks. Yet the average proportion of premature deaths
has been but slightly decreased by the stamping out of
small-pox, that is, nearly the same proportion of deaths
to the whole population has continued to occur, and,
when the small-pox returns and claims its victims, again
the average of total deaths is not appreciably affected
by it. In proof of this I can appeal to facts within
your own knowledge, for doubtless none can have for
gotten the terrible outbreak of small-pox in this metropolls in the year 1870-1. Well, the Registrar-General’s
weekly return of deaths throughout that period showed
that at the very time when the small-pox epidemic was
most fatal, the total number of deaths from all causes
was not only not increased, but was actually below the
usual average. Thus, (to present you with actual
details), in the week ending the 2nd of February,
1871, the deaths from small-pox were 1.87, the total
deaths “ from all causes ” were 1,632, being 163 below
the estimated average. In the week ending the 9th of
February the deaths from small-pox were 196, the
total deaths from all causes 1,683, being 46 below the
estimated average. In the week ending the 27th of
February the deaths from small-pox were 227, the total
deaths from all causes were 1,633, being 13 below the
estimated average.
The explanation of these facts is, that when, in our
present social condition, deaths decrease or increase
through one particular form of fatal disease the number
of deaths through other forms of disease becomes cor
respondingly varied. Thus at the present time we are
apparently enjoying the fruits of a remarkable stimulus
that has within the last few years been given to the
appliances of sanitary science, and there can be no doubt
that diseases and deaths that were occasioned by over
�28
Civilization.
crowded dwellings, putrescent food, polluted water,
defective drainage, and deficient ventilation, have been
very much diminished, for, not only have the medical
faculty exerted all their skilled and benevolent energies
in this direction, but the improved education of the peo
ple has brought them to some knowledge of the laws of
health, and to the regulation of life in accordance with
their teachings ; yet the aggregate gain to life by such
improvement is but slightly felt, and at this moment the
attention of the sanitary authorities, as appears from Dr.
Buchanan’s presidential address to the Medical Officers of
Health in October last, is greatly engrossed in the obser
vation of an insidious and fatal form of diarrhoea, of
recent appearance, that during the summer months
attacks and destroys young children by thousands upon
thousands !
Such is a sample of the evidence that exists in proof
of the proposition that, though all existing diseases
could be at once stamped out, (the ratio between popu
lation and subsistence remaining the same,) the diminu
tion in the aggregate number of deaths would be but
slight. Well, if that be a matter of correct inference
from actual observation, we must conclude that those
diseases, though they were the agencies by which the
deaths occurring took place, yet were not themselves the
causes of such deaths, and that the real causes must be
sought elsewhere. Now there are some interesting con
siderations that should guide us in the search.
What is it, would you suppose, that occasions the
number of people to be so different in different coun
tries, or in the same country at different times ? Why,
for instance, should the population of these Islands, in
the reign of Queen Elizabeth, scarcely number five mil
lions, whilst, in the reign of Queen Victoria, it exceeds
twenty-five millions ? The answer, in a general propo
sition, is this. The means of human subsistence for our
population in Queen Elizabeth’s reign were less than
they are in Queen Victoria’s reign by the proportional
�Civilization.
29
difference between their respective populations—for the
number of the population of any particular country at
any stated time is simply that precise number which the
resources, or means of subsistence of such country, can
then support. If such resources remained stationary
the population would remain stationary, as they increase
so does the amount of the population.
Now if we turn our attention to the lower forms of
life we find that the researches of physiologists have
ascertained as an undoubted fact that all organisms are
■endowed with a physical tendency to multiply beyond
their means of subsistence, that is, by reason of the high
geometrical ratio of their increase more are born than
■can possibly survive, so that there is a surplus that must
perish. The discovered principle of the continuity of
Nature forcibly suggests that man himself can be no
exception to this physical law, that probably more
human beings are born than can possibly survive, and
that the population is constantly being reduced, to that
inexorable limit which the resources of the country can
for the time being sustain, by those various death-deal
ing agencies, “ Nature’s terrible correctives of redun
dancy,” to which I have referred.
Man, however, by the exercise of his intelligence,
controls the operation of this law in all lower forms of
life, whereby not only a limited number of individuals
is produced, but the breed itself is continued under
conditions of permanent health and vigour. The late
Edward Holland of Dumbleton, one of the greatest
breeders of sheep in this country, assured me that the
loss of life amongst his lambs, from those causes that
in a human being would occasion premature death, did
not amount to ten per cent.
Now, can it be supposed by any reflecting mind that,
whilst man, by the use of his intelligence, can so regu
late the multiplication of the lower animals as to pro
duce and rear them in normal health, he is using his
intelligence aright in abandoning the breed of the supe-
�3°
Civilization.
rior animal man to such recklesness, ignorance, and
superstition as combine to produce the diseased, the
physically and mentally stunted, the half-starved and
short-lived individuals that form almost the very staple
of the masses in the cities and towns of our most highly
civilized countries. Of our human lambs it is not ten
per cent, but forty per cent, that perish in agonies
during the period of infancy 1
It was a saying of Descartes that if it be possible to
perfect mankind the means of doing so would be found
in the medical sciences, and it has become a settled
axiom that a sound philosophy of human life must be
based upon the truths of Physiology.
The future prospects of our Civilization, not only the
future happiness, but the future virtue, (if they be
separable,) of the community are probably greatly
dependent upon the discovery of remedial means whereby
this wholesale slaughter of children, and the diseases
and other agencies that bring an untimely end to life,
may be put a stop to, and the ratio of human increase
subordinated to the ratio of the increase of adequate
human subsistence, so that the miseries of the masses,
resulting from the pressure of their numbers, may be
effectually alleviated, and the balance of the population
maintained, not, as now, by premature deaths, but by
fewer births. Such means, whatever they may be, must
approve themselves to our highest moral sense, other
wise they would deservedly remain inoperative.
If, then, instead of resigning ourselves to the despair
ing contemplation of that remote and visionary future,
which Herbert Spencer, in his 'Principles of Biology,’
has shadowed forth as the only human prospect of relief
from these evils, we may sensibly look forward to such
more immediate remedies as I have adverted to, then we
may yet hope to see the lower level of life raised to a
really civilized condition, and the most miserable and
degraded classes or members of our present society
absorbed into a superior type. Then, too, though not,
�Civilization.
31
it is to be feared, until then, the sanguine creation of the
genius of Dr. Richardson, in his captivating address to
the Social Science Congress at Brighton, may be expected
to prove a reality, and the sanitary city of "Hygeia” be
found descending from the realms of the Imagination to
assume a beneficent sway upon Earth.
FEINTED BY C. W. EEYNELL, LITTLE PULTENEY STEEET, HAYMABKET.
�SUNDAY LECTURE SOCIETY,
To provide for the delivery on Sundays in the Metropolis, and
to encourage the delivery elsewhere, of Lectures on Science,
—physical, intellectual, and moral,—History, Literature,
and Art; especially in their bearing upon the improvement
and social well-being of mankind.
THE SOCIETY’S LECTURES
ARE DELIVERED AT
ST GEORGE’S HALL, LANGHAM PLACE,
On SUNDAY Afternoons, at FOUU o'clock precisely.
(Annually—from November to May).
Twenty-Four Lectures (in three series), ending 23rd April,
1876, will be given.
Members’ £1 subscription entitles them to an annual ticket
(transferable and admitting to the reserved seats), and to eight
single reserved-seat tickets available for any lecture.
Tickets for each series (one for each lecture) as below,—
To the Shilling Reserved Seats—5s.
6d.
To the Sixpenny Seats—2s., being at the rate of Threepence
each lecture.
For tickets and the published lectures apply (by letter) to the
Hon. Treasurer, Wm. Henry Domville, Esq., 15 Gloucester
Crescent, Hyde Park, W.
Payment at the door:—One
(Reserved Seats) One Shilling.
Penny ;—Sixpence ;—and
�
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Civilization : a sketch of its rise and progress, its modern safeguards & future prospects; a lecture delivered before the Sunday Lecture Society on Sunday afternoon, 20th February, 1876
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Finch, A. Elley
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Civilization
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national secular society
THE
COMING CIVILISATION
AN ADDRESS
Delivered in the Columbia Theatre, Chicago,
ON
Sunday, Appil 12, 1896
TO
The Members and Friends
OF
“THE CHURCH MILITANT”
BY
COLONEL
R. G.
INGERSOLL
London :
R. FORDER, 28 STONECUTTER STREET, E.C-
Threepence
��THE
COMING CIVILISATION
AN ADDRESS
Delivered in
the
Columbia Theatre, Chicago,
on
Sunday, April 12, 1896
TO
The Members and Friends
OF
“THE CHURCH MILITANT”
BY
COLONEL
R. G.
INGERSOLL
London :
R. FORDER, 28 STONECUTTER STREET, E.C.
1896
��INTRODUCTION.
The address by Colonel Ingersoll, which is here reprinted for
English readers, was delivered in peculiar circumstances.
Dr. Rusk, of Chicago, formerly pastor of Fullarton-avenue
Presbyterian Church, seceded from that body, and formed an
independent organisation of his own called the Church Militant
With the avowed object of giving Christianity a secular character,
and making it influence the affairs of life. Dr. Rusk’s services
were held in the Women’s Christian Temperance Union
Temple. But when it became known that he had invited the
famous Colonel Ingersoll to address the congregation the
Women’s Union refused to let their Temple be used for the pur
pose. Dr. Rusk, however, was determined to carry out his
program, so he engaged the Columbia Theatre, and Colonel
Ingersoll’s address was delivered there on Sunday, April 12.
The building was crowded. “ Three thousand persons were
present” (according to the New York Herald), “and three
times that number endeavored to gain admission.” On the
stage were four hundred or more representative citizens, includ
ing nearly every member of the Appellate and Superior courts,
several county officials, delegations from every law college and
institution of learning in the city, and a number of retired
divines. Speaking of the character of the audience, the Chicago
Times-Herald said : “ It was cosmopolitan in composition, and
always keenly intelligent. Loungers sat beside business men ;
working men touched elbows with doctors and college pro
fessors. Faces everyone knows in Chicago were conspicuous.’
The New York Herald corroborates this. “The audience, or
congregation,” it said, “ was composed of the best element in
�4
INTRODUCTION,
Chicago, men predominating, and these representative of the
business, professional, and literary life of Chicago.”
The same journal described the service as follows : “ The
observable differences between this occasion and the service to1
be seen every Sunday morning in every church in Chicago were
few. The gathering was larger than one sees in a church ; it
assembled in a theatre, and an orchestra instead of an organ
supplied the music. That was all. There was a musical pre
lude, both vocal and instrumental, the usual invocation, and the
Lord’s Prayer. The hymn was ‘America.’ Then the service
proceeded through the usual program of scripture reading,
prayer, offerings, and announcements, to the sermon. But the
sermon was called an address.”
When Colonel Ingersoll made his appearance arm-in-arm
with Mr. Rusk, there was loud applause, mingled with murmurs
from some who seemed to regard such a demonstration as
foreign to a religious service. Dr. Rusk, in his prayer, asked
for a special blessing on their guest of the day, and on his wife
and children. In his introductory remarks, he characterised
Colonel Ingersoll as “the man who is endeavoring to do this
world good, and to make it better.”
Animosities were for once laid aside, and “ Ingersoll, said
the Times-Herald, “was as magnanimous as his audience.
Not once did he utter a word to wound the susceptibilities of
his hearers. Orator and auditors met on the common ground
of considering what can be done and should be done to uplift
humanity. There was no scoffing at religion, no jeering at
simple faith, and when the logic of the speaker’s thought roused
an echo in the hearts of his hearers, they gave him generous
meed of applause. The bursts of approval were anything but
infrequent. The audience of Christians heard from the infidel
thoughts both old and new, but all clothed in beautiful language,
to most of which they could say Amen.”
“ I have followed custom and taken a text,” said Ingersoll on
rising—“It was penned by the greatest of human beings
[Shakespeare]—a line overflowing with philosophy : ‘ There is
�INTRODUCTION.
5
no darkness but ignorance.’ Now don't hold Dr. Rusk respon
sible for my heresies, or my philosophies. I must give you my
honest thought.”
For two hours the great audience listened to “ the eloquent
denier of all that is called supernatural,” and at the close
Ingersoll said : “ I take this occasion to sincerely thank Rev.
Dr. Rusk for generously inviting me to address his congrega
tion. And so I say to him and the Militant Church, success
and long life1”
A great “ infidel ” addressing a Church Militant—or, Ingersoll
in a pulpit, as the papers headed their reports—was calculated
to excite orthodox feeling. Accordingly a number of replies
were forthcoming, including one by Dr. J. P. D. John, ex
President of De Pauw University, who took for his subject,
4<Did Man Make God, or Did God Make Man ?”
It must not be supposed, however, that Colonel Ingersoll’s
audience at the Columbia Theatre was anything exceptional in
point of numbers. He does not depend on Christian invitations
for great meetings. On the evening of the same day he had
an overflowing audience of his own at McVicker’s Theatre,
where he lectured on “ Why I am an Agnostic.”
�h
�THE COMING CIVILISATION.
Every human being is a necessary product of conditions,
and everyone is born with defects for which he cannot be
held responsible. Nature seems to care nothing for the
individual, nothing for the species. Life pursuing life, and
in its turn pursued by death, presses to the snow line of the
possible; and every form of life, of instinct, thought, and
action is fixed and determined by conditions, by countless
antecedent and co-existing facts. The present is the child,
and the necessary child, of all the past, and the mother of
all the future. Every human being longs to be happy, to
satisfy the wants of the body with food, with roof and
raiment, and to feed the hunger of the mind, according to
his capacity, with love, wisdom, philosophy, art, and song.
The wants of the savage are few; but with civilisation the
wants of the body increase, the intellectual horizon widens,
and the brain demands more and more. The savage feels,
but scarcely thinks. The passion of the savage is unin
fluenced by his thought, while the thought of the philosopher
is uninfluenced by passion. Children have wants and
passions before they are capable of reasoning. So, in the
infancy of the race, wants and passions dominate.
The savage was controlled by appearances, by impres
sions ; he was mentally weak, mentally indolent, and his
mind pursued the path of least resistance. Things were to
him as they appeared to be. He was a natural believer in
the supernatural, and, finding himself beset by dangers and
�8
THE COMING CIVILISATION.
evils, he sought in many ways the aid of unseen powers.
His children followed his example, and for many ages, in
many lands, millions and millions of human beings, many
of them the kindest and the best, asked for supernatural
help. Countless altars and temples have been built, and the
supernatural has been worshipped with sacrifice and song,
with self-denial, ceremony, thankfulness, and prayer. During
all these ages the brain of man was being slowly and pain
fully developed. Gradually mind came to the assistance of
muscle, and thought became the friend of labor. Man has
advanced just in the proportion that he has mingled thought
with his work, just in the proportion that he has succeeded
in getting his head and hands into partnership. All this
was the result of experience.
Nature, generous and heartless, extravagant and miserly
as she is, is our mother and our only teacher, and she is
also the deceiver of men. Above her we cannot rise, below
her we cannot fall. In her we find the seed and soil of all
that is good, of all that is evil. Nature originates, nourishes,
preserves, and destroys. Good deeds bear fruit, and in the
fruit are seeds that in their turn bear fruit and seeds. Great
thoughts are never lost, and words of kindness do not
perish from the earth. Every brain is a field where nature
sows the seeds of thought, and the crop depends upon the
soil. Every flower that gives its fragrance to the wandering
air leaves its influence on the soul of man. The wheel and
swoop of the winged creatures of the air suggest the flowing
lines of subtle art. The roar and murmur of the restless
sea, the cataract’s solemn chant, the thunder’s voice, the
happy babble of the brook, the whispering leaves, the thril
ling notes of mating birds, the sighing winds, taught man to
pour his heart in song, and gave a voice to grief and hope,
to love and death. In all that is, in mountain range and
billowed plain, in winding stream and desert sand, in cloud
and star, in snow and rain, in calm and storm, in night and
day, in woods and vales, in all the colors of divided light,
�THE COMING CIVILISATION.
9
in all there is of growth and life, decay and death, in all
that flies and floats and swims, in all that moves, in all the
forms and qualities of things, man found the seeds and
symbols of his thoughts, and all that man has wrought
becomes a part of nature’s self, forming the lives of those to
be. The marbles of the Greeks, like strains of music,
suggest the perfect and teach the melody of life. The great
poems, paintings, inventions, theories, and philosophies
enlarge and mould the mind of man. All that is is natural.
All is naturally produced. Beyond the horizon of the natural
man cannot go.
Yet, for many ages, man in all directions has relied upon,
and sincerely believed in, the existence of the supernatural.
He did not believe in the uniformity of nature. He had
no conception of cause and effect, of the indestructibility
of force. In medicine he believed in charms, magic,
amulets, and incantations. It never occurred to the savage
that diseases were natural. In chemistry he sought for the
elixir of life, for the philosopher’s stone, and for some way
of changing the baser metals into gold. In mechanics he
searched for perpetual motion, believing that he, by some
curious combination of levers, could produce, could create
a force. In government he found the source of authority
in the will of the supernatural. For many centuries his only
conception of morality was the idea of obedience j not to
facts as they exist in nature, but to the supposed command
of some being superior to nature. During all these years
religion consisted in the praise and worship of the invisible
and infinite, of some vast and incomprehensible power;
that is to say, of the supernatural.
By experience, by experiment, possibly by accident, man
found that some diseases could be cured by natural means ;
that he could be relieved in many instances of pain by
certain kinds of leaves or bark. This was the beginning.
Gradually his confidence increased in the direction of the
natural, and began to decrease in charms and amulets.
�IO
THE COMING CIVILISATION.
The war was waged for many centuries, but the natural
gained the victory. Now we know that all diseases are
naturally produced, and that all remedies, all curatives, act
in accordance with the facts in nature. Now we know that
charms, magic, amulets, and incantations are just as useless
in the practice of medicine as they would be in solving a
problem in mathematics. We now know that there are no
supernatural remedies. In chemistry the war was long and
bitter ; but we now no longer seek for the elixir of life, and
no one is trying to find the philosopher’s stone. We are
satisfied that there is nothing supernatural in all the realm
of chemistry. We know that substances are always true to
their natures; we know that just so many atoms of one
substance will unite with just so many of another. The
miraculous has departed from chemistry; in that science
there is no magic, no caprice, and no possible use for the
supernatural. We are satisfied that there can be no changej
that we can absolutely rely on the uniformity of nature;
that the attraction of gravity will always remain the same,
and we feel that we know this as certainly as we know that
the relation between the diameter and circumference of a
circle can never change. We now know that in mechanics
the natural is supreme. We know that man can by no
possibility create a force ; that by no possibility can he
destroy a force. No mechanic dreams of depending upon,
or asking for, any supernatural aid. He knows that he
works in accordance with certain facts that no power can
change.
So we in the United States believe that the authority to
govern, the authority to make and execute laws, comes from
the consent of the governed, and not from any supernatural
source. We do not believe that the king occupied his
throne because of the will of the supernatural. Neither do
we believe that others are subjects or serfs or slaves by
reason of any supernatural will. So our ideas of morality
have changed, and millions now believe that whatever pro
�THE COMING CIVILISATION.
II
duces happiness and well-being is in the highest sense
moral. Unreasoning obedience is not the foundation or the
essence of morality. That is the result of mental slavery.
To act in accordance with obligation perceived is to be free
and noble. To simply obey is to practise what might be
called a slave virtue ; but real morality is the flower and
fruit of liberty and wisdom. There are very many who have
reached the conclusion that the supernatural has nothing to
do with real religion. Religion does not consist in believing
without evidence or against evidence. It does not consist
in worshipping the unknown, or in trying to do something
for the infinite. Ceremonies, prayers, and inspired booksj
miracles, special providence, and divine interference, all
belong to the supernatural, and form no part of real religion.
Every science rests on the natural, on demonstrated facts.
So morality and religion must find their foundations in the
necessary nature of things.
Ignorance being darkness, what we need is intellectual
light. The most important things to teach as the basis of
all progress is that the universe is natural; that man must
be the providence of man ; that by the development of the
brain we can avoid some of the dangers, some of the evilsj
overcome some of the obstructions, and take advantage of
some of the facts and forces of nature; that by invention
and industry we can supply, to a reasonable degree, the
wants of the body; and by thought, study, and effort we
can in part satisfy the hunger of the mind. Man should
cease to expect any aid from any supernatural source. By
this time he should be satisfied that worship has not
created wealth, and that prosperity is not the child of
prayer. He should know that the supernatural has not
succored the oppressed, clothed the naked, fed the hungry,
shielded the innocent, stayed the pestilence, or freed the
slave. Being satisfied that the supernatural does not exist,
man should turn his entire attention to the affairs of this
world, to the facts in nature.
�12
THE COMING CIVILISATION.
And, first of all, he should avoid waste—waste of energy,
waste of wealth. Every good man, every good woman,
should try to do away with war, and stop the appeal to
savage force. Man in a savage state relies upon his strength,
and decides for himself what is right and what is wrong.
Civilised men do not settle their differences by a resort to
arms. They submit the quarrel to arbitrators and courts.
This is the great difference between the savage and the
civilised. Nations, however, sustain the relations of savages
to each other. There is no way of settling their disputes.
Each nation decides for itself, and each nation endeavors
to carry its decision into effect. This produces war.
Thousands of men at this moment are trying to invent more
deadly weapons to destroy their fellow men. For 1,800
years peace has been preached, and yet the civilised nations
are the most warlike of the world. There are in Europe to
day between 11,000,000 and 12,000,000 soldiers ready to
take the field, and the frontiers of every civilised nation are
protected by breastwork and fort. The sea is covered with
steel-clad ships filled with missiles of death. The civilised
world has impoverished itself, and the debt of Christendom,
mostly for war, is now nearly $30,000,000,000. The interest
on this vast sum has to be paid. It has to be paid by labor
—much of it by the poor—by those who are compelled to
deny themselves almost the necessities of life. This debt is
growing year by year. There must come a change, or
Christendom will become bankrupt.
The interest on this debt amounts at least to $900,000,000
a year, and the cost of supporting armies and navies, of
repairing ships, of manufacturing new engines of death, pro
bably amounts, including the interest on the debt, to at
least $6,000,000 a day. Allowing ten hours for a day—that
is, for a working day—the waste of war is at least $600,000
an hour—that is to say, $10,000 a minute. Think of all
this being paid for the purpose of killing and preparing to
kill our fellow men. Think of the good that could be done
�THE COMING CIVILISATION.
13
with this vast sum of money—the schools that could be
built, the wants that could be supplied. Think of the
homes it would build, the children it would clothe. If we
wish to do away with war, we must provide for the settle
ment of national differences by an international court. This
court should be in perpetual session, its members should be
selected by the various governments to be affected by its
decisions ; and, at the command and disposal of this court,
the rest of Christendom being disarmed, there should be a
military force sufficient to carry its judgments into effect.
There should be no other excuse, no other business for an
army or a navy in the civilised world. No man has
imagination enough to paint the agonies, the horrors, and
cruelties of war. Think of sending shot and shell crashing
through the bodies of men ! Think of the widows and
orphans ! Think of the maimed, the mutilated, the mangled!
Let us be perfectly candid with each other. We are
seeking the truth, trying to find what ought to be done to
increase the well-being of man. I must give you my honest
thought. You have the right to demand it, and I must
maintain the integrity of my soul. There is another direc
tion in which the wealth and energies of man are wasted.
From the beginning of history until now man has been
seeking the aid of the supernatural. For many centuries
the wealth of the world was used to propitiate the unseen
powers. In our own country the property dedicated to this
purpose is worth at least $1,000,000,000. The interest on
this sum is $50,000,000 a year, and the cost of employing
persons whose business it is to seek the aid of the super
natural, and to maintain the property, is certainly as much
more. So that the cost in our country is about $2,000,000
a week, and, counting ten hours as a working day, this
amounts to about $500 a minute. For this vast amount of
money the returns are remarkably small. The good accom
plished does not appear to be great. There is no great
diminution in crime. The decrease of immorality and
�14
THE COMING CIVILISATION.
poverty is hardly perceptible. In spite, however, of the
apparent failure here, a vast sum of money is expended
every year to carry our ideas of the supernatural to other
races. Our churches, for the most part, are closed during
the week, being used only a part of one day in seven. No
one wishes to destroy churches or church organisations.
The only desire is that they shall accomplish substantial
good for the world.
In many of our small towns—towns of 3,000 or 4,000
people—will be found four or five churches, sometimes
more. These churches are founded upon immaterial differ
ences, a difference as to the mode of baptism, a difference
as to who shall be entitled to partake of the Lord’s supper,
a difference of ceremony, of government, a difference about
fore-ordination, a difference about fate and freewill. And it
must be admitted that all the arguments on all sides of these
differences have been presented countless millions of times.
Upon these subjects nothing new is produced or anticipated,
and yet the discussion is maintained hy the repetition of the
old arguments. Now it seems to me that it would be far
better for the people of a town, having a population of 4,000
or 5,000, to have one church, and the edifice should be of
use not only on Sunday, but on every day of the week. In
this building should be the library of the town. It should
be the clubhouse of the people, where they could find the
principal newspapers and periodicals of the world. Its
auditorium should be like a theatre. Plays should be pre
sented by home talent, an orchestra formed, music culti
vated. The people should meet there at any time they
desire. The women could carry their knitting and sewing,
and connected with it should be rooms for the playing of
games, billiards, cards, and chess. Everything should be
made as agreeable as possible. The citizens should take
pride in this building. They should adorn its niches with
statues and its walls with pictures. It should be the intel
lectual centre.
�THE COMING CIVILISATION.
15
They could employ a gentleman of ability, possibly of
genius, to address them on Sundays on subjects that would
be of real interest, of real importance. They could say to
this minister: “We are engaged in business during the
week. While we are working at our trades and professions
we want you to study, and on Sunday tell us what you have
found out.” Let such a minister take for a series of sermons
the history, the philosophy of the art and the genius of
the Greeks. Let him tell of the wondrous metaphysics,
myths, and religions of India and Egypt. Let him make his
congregation conversant with the philosophies of the world,
with the great thinkers, the great poets, the great artists,
the great actors, the great orators, the great inventors, the
captains of industry, the soldiers of progress. Let them have
a Sunday school in which the children shall be made
acquainted with the facts of nature, with botany, ento
mology, something of geology and astronomy. Let them be
made familiar with the greatest of poems, the finest para
graphs of literature, with stories of the heroic, the self-deny
ing, and generous. Now, it seems to me that such a con
gregation in a few years would become the most intelligent
people in the United States.
The truth is that people are tired of the old theories.
They have lost confidence in the miraculous, in the super
natural, and they have ceased to take interest in “ facts ”
that they do not quite believe. “ There is no darkness but
ignorance.” There is no light but intelligence. As often
as we can exchange a mistake for a fact, a falsehood for a
truth, we advance, We add to the intellectual wealth of
the world, and in this way, and in this way alone, can be
laid the foundation for the future prosperity and civilisation
of the race. I blame no one. I call in question the motives
of no person ; I admit that the world has acted as it must.
But hope for the future depends upon the intelligence of the
present. Man must husband his resources. He must not
waste his energies in endeavoring to accomplish the impos
�i6
THE COMING CIVILISATION.
sible. He must take advantage of the forces of nature. He
must depend on education, on what-he can ascertain by
the use of his senses, by observation, by experiment and
reason. He must break the chains of prejudice and custom.
He must be free to express his thoughts on all questions.
He must find the conditions of happiness, and become wise
enough to live in accordance with them.
In spite of all that has been done for the reformation of
the world, in spite of all the inventions, in spite of all the
forces of nature that are now the tireless slaves of man, in
spite of all improvements in agriculture, in mechanics, in
every department of human labor, the world is still cursed
with poverty and with crime. The prisons are full, the
courts are crowded, the officers of the law are busy, and
there seems to be no material decrease in crime. For many
thousands of years man has endeavored to reform his
fellow men by imprisonment, torture, mutilation, and death,
and yet the history of the world shows that there has been,
and is, no reforming power in punishment. It is impossible
to make the penalty great enough, horrible enough, to lessen
crime. Only a few years ago, in civilised countries, larceny
and many offences even below larceny were punished by death,
and yet the number of thieves and criminals of all grades
increased. Traitors were hanged and quartered, or drawn
into fragments by horses, and yet treason flourished. Most
of these frightful laws have been repealed, and the repeal
certainly did not increase crime. In our own country we
rely upon the gallows, the penitentiary, and the gaol. When
a murder is committed the man is hanged, shocked to death
by electricity, or lynched, and in a few minutes a new
murderer is ready to suffer a like fate. Men steal. They
are sent to the penitentiary for a certain number of years,
treated like wild beasts, frequently tortured. At the end of
the term they are discharged, having only enough money to
return to the place from which they were sent. They are
thrown upon the world without means, without friends—
�THE COMING CIVILISATION.
17
they are convicts. They are shunned, suspected, and des
pised. If they obtain a place, they are discharged as soon
as it is found that they were in prison. They do the best
they can to retain the respect of their fellow men by deny
ing their imprisonment and their identity. In a little while,
unable to gain a living by honest means, they resort to crime,
they again appear in court, and again are taken within the
dungeon walls. No reformation, no chance to reform,
nothing to give them bread while making new friends.
All this is infamous. Men should not be sent to the
penitentiary as a punishment, because we must remember
that men do as they must. Nature does not frequently
produce the perfect. In the human race there is a large
percentage of failures. Under certain conditions, with
certain appetites and passions, and with certain quality,
quantity, and shape of brain, men will become thieves,
forgers, and counterfeiters. The question is whether re
formation is possible, whether a change can be produced in
the person by producing a change in the conditions. The
criminal is dangerous, and society has the right to protect
itself. The criminal should be confined, and, if possible,
should be reformed. A penitentiary should be a school;
the convicts should be educated. So prisoners should work,
and they should be paid a reasonable sum for their labor.
The best men should have charge of prisons. They should
be philanthropists and philosophers; they should know
something of human nature. The prisoner, having been
taught, we will say, for five years—taught the underlying
principles of conduct, of the naturalness and harmony of
virtue, of the discord of crime ; having been convinced that
society has no hatred, that nobody wishes to punish, to
degrade, or to rob him, and being at the time of his dis
charge paid a reasonable price for his labor; being allowed
by law to change his name so that his identity will not be
preserved, he could go out of the prison a friend of the
government. He would have the feeling that he had been
�THE COMING CIVILISATION.
made a better man ; that he had been treated with justice,
with mercy; and the money he carried with him would be
a. breastwork behind which he could defy temptation—a
breastwork that would support and take care of him until
he could find some means by which to support himself.
And this man, instead of making crime a business, would
become a good, honorable, and useful citizen.
, As it is now, there is but little reform. The same faces
appear again and again at the bar; the same men hear
again and again the verdict of guilty and the sentence of
the court, and the same men return again and again to the
prison cell. Murderers, those belonging to the dangerous
classes, those who are so formed by nature that they rush
to the crimes of desperation, should be imprisoned for life,
or they should be put upon some island, some place where
they can be guarded, where it may be that, by proper effort,
they could support themselves ; the men on one island, the
women on another. And to these islands should be sent
professional criminals—those who have deliberately adopted
a life of crime for the purpose of supporting themselves—
the women upon one island, the men upon another. Such
people should not populate the earth.
Neither the diseases nor the deformities of the mind or
body should be perpetuated ; life at the fountain should
not be polluted..
The home is the unit of the nation. The more homes,
the broader the foundation of the nation and the more
secure. Everything that is possible should be done to keep
this from being a nation of tenants. The men who culti
vate the earth should own it. Something has already been
done in our country in that direction, and probably in
every State there is a homestead exemption. This exemp
tion has thus far done no harm to the creditor class. When
we imprisoned people for debt, debts were as insecure, to
say the least, as now. By the homestead laws a home of
a certain value or of a certain extent is exempt from forced
�THE COMING CIVILISATION.
19
levy or sale, and these laws have done great good. Un
doubtedly they have trebled the homes of the nation. I
wish to go a step farther; I want, if possible, to get the
people out of the tenements, out of the gutters of degrada
tion, to homes where there can be privacy, where these
people can feel that they are in partnership with nature;
that they have an interest in good government. With the
means we now have of transportation there is no necessity
for poor people being huddled in festering masses in the
vile, filthy, and loathsome parts of cities, where poverty
breeds rags and the rags breed diseases. I would exempt
a homestead of a reasonable value, say of the value of
$2,000 or $3,000, not only from sale under execution, but
from sale for taxes of every description. These homes
-should be absolutely exempt. They should belong to the
family, so that every mother should feel that the roof above
her head was hers, that her house was her oastle, and that
in its possession she could not be disturbed, even by the
nation. Under certain conditions I would allow the sale
for a certain time, during which they might be invested in
another home ; and all this could be done to make a nation
of householders, a nation of landowners, a nation of home
builders.
I would invoke the same power to preserve these homes,
and to acquire these homes, that I would invoke for acquir
ing lands for building railways. Every State should fix the
amount of land that could be owned by an individual, not
liable to be taken from him for the purpose of giving a
home to another ; and, when any man owned more acres
than the law allowed, and another should ask to purchase
them, and he should refuse, I would have the law so that
the person wishing to purchase could file his petition in
court. The court would appoint commissioners, or a jury
would be called to determine the value of the land the
petitioner wished for a home ; and, upon the amount being
paid, found by such commission or jury, the land should
�20
THE COMING CIVILISATION.
vest absolutely in the petitioner. This right of eminent
domain should be used not only for the benefit of the
person wishing a home, but for the benefit of all the people.
Nothing is more important to America than that the
babes of America should be born around the firesides of
homes.
There is another question in which I take great interest,
and it ought, in my judgment, to be answered by the
intelligence and kindness of our century. We all know
that for many, many ages men have been slaves, and we all
know that during all these years women have, to some
extent, been the slaves of slaves. It is of the utmost im
portance to the human race that women, that mothers,
should be free. Without doubt the contract of marriage is
the most important and the most sacred that human beings
can make. Marriage is the most important of all institu
tions. Of course the ceremony of marriage is not the real
marriage. It is only evidence of the mutual flames that
burn within. There can be no real marriage without mutual
love. So I believe in the ceremony of marriage; that it
should be public; that records should be kept. Besides,
the ceremony says to all the world that those who marry
are in love with each other. Then arises the question of
divorce. Millions of people imagine that the married are
joined together by some supernatural power, and that they
should remain together, or at least married, during life. If
all who have been married were joined together by the
supernatural, we must admit that the supernatural is not
infinitely wise.
After all, marriage is a contract, and the parties to the
contract are bound to keep its provisions, and neither
should be released from such a contract unless in some
way the interests of society are involved. I would have the
law so that any husband could obtain a divorce when the
wife had persistently and flagrantly violated the contract,
such divorce to be granted on equitable terms. I would
�THE COMING CIVILISATION.
21
■give the wife a divorce if she requested it, if she wanted it.
And I would do this, not only for her sake, but for the sake
of the community, of the nation. All children should be
children of love. All that are born should be sincerely
welcomed. The children of mothers who dislike or hate or
loathe the fathers will fill the world with insanity and crime.
No woman should by law or by public opinion be forced to
live with a man whom she abhors. There is no danger of
demoralising the world through divorce. Neither is there
any danger of destroying in the human heart that divine
thing called love. As long as the human race exists,
men and women will love each other, and just so long
there will be true and perfect marriage. Slavery is not
the soil or rain of virtue.
I make a difference between granting divorce to a man
and to a woman, and for this reason : A woman dowers her
husband with her youth and beauty. He should not be
allowed to desert her because she has grown wrinkled and old.
Her capital is gone, her prospects in life lessened ; while, on
the contrary, he may be far better able to succeed than when
he married her. As a rule, the man can take care of him
self; and, as a rule, the woman needs help. So I would not
allow him to cast her off unless she had flagrantly violated
the contract. But for the sake of the community, and
especially for the sake of the babes, I would give her a
divorce for the asking. There will never be a generation of
great men until there has been a generation of free women—
of free mothers. The tenderest word in our language is
maternity. In that word is the divine mingling of ecstasy
and agony, of love and self sacrifice. This word is holy.
There has been for many years ceaseless discussion upon
what is called the labor question—the conflict between the
working man and the capitalist. Many ways have been
devised, some experiments have been tried, for the purpose of
solving this question. Profit-sharing would not work,
because it is impossible to share profits with those who are
�22
THE COMING CIVILISATION.
incapable of sharing losses. Communities have been
formed, the object being to pay the expenses and share the
profits among all the persons belonging to the society. Forthe
most part these have failed. Others have advocated arbitra
tion, and, while it may be that the employers could be bound
by the decision of the arbitrators, there has been no way dis
covered by which the employees could be held by such
decision. In other words, the question has not been solved.
For my own part, I see no final and satisfactory solution
except through the civilisation of employers and employed.
The question is so complicated, the ramifications are so
countless, that a solution by law or by force seems at least
improbable. Employers are supposed to pay according to
their profits. They may or may not. Profits may be
destroyed by competition. The employer is at the mercy
of other employers, and as much so as his employees are at
his mercy. The employers cannot govern prices, they can
not fix demand, they cannot control supply, and, at present,,
in the world of trade, the laws of supply and demand
except when interfered with by conspiracy, are in absolute
control.
Will the time arrive, and can it arrive, except by deve
loping the brain, except by the aid of intellectual light, when
the purchaser will wish to give what a thing is worth, when
the employer will be satisfied with a reasonable profit, when
the employer will be anxious to give the real value for raw
material, when he will be really anxious to pay the laborer
the full value of his labor ? Will the employer ever become
civilised enough to know that the law of supply and demand
should not absolutely apply in the labor market of the world?'
Will he ever become civilised enough not to take advantage
of the necessities of the poor, of the hunger and rags and
want of poverty ? Will he ever become civilised enough to
say : “ I will pay the man who labors for me enough to give
him a reasonable support, enough for him to assist in taking
care of wife and children, enough for him to do this and lay
�THE COMING CIVILISATION.
23
aside something to feed and clothe him when old age comes,
to lay aside something, enough to give him house and
hearth during the December of his life, so that he can warm
his worn and shrivelled hands at the fire of home ” ? Of
course, capital can do nothing without the assistance of
labor. All there is of value in the world is the product of
labor. The laboring man pays all the expenses. No matter
whether taxes are laid on luxuries or on the necessaries of
life, labor pays every cent.
So we must remember that, day by day, labour is becom
ing intelligent. So I believe the employer is gradually
becoming civilised, gradually becoming kinder, and many
men who have made large fortunes from the labor of their
fellows have given of their millions to what they regarded
as objects of charity, or for the interests of education. This
is a kind of penance, because the men that have made their
money from the brain and muscle of their fellow men have
ever felt that it was not quite their own.
Many of these employers have sought to balance their
accounts by leaving something for universities or the estab
lishment of libraries, drinking fountains, or to build monu
ments to departed greatness. It would have been, I
think, far better had they used this money to better the con
dition of the men who really earned it. So I think that, when
we become civilised, great corporations will make provision
for men who have given their lives to their service. I think
the great railroads should pay pensions to their worn-out
employees. They should take care of them in old age.
They should not maim and wear out their servants} and then
discharge them and allowthem to be supported in poorhouses.
These great companies should take care of the men they
maim ; they should look out for the ones whose lives they
have used, and whose labor has been the foundation of
their prosperity. Upon this question public sentiment
should be aroused to such a degree that these corporations
would be ashamed to use a human life, and then throw
�24
THE COMING CIVILISATION.
away the broken old man as they would cast aside a rotten
tie. It may be that the mechanics, the working men, will
finally become intelligent enough to really unite to act in
absolute concert.
Could this be accomplished, then
a reasonable rate of compensation could be fixed and
enforced. Now such efforts are local, and the result
up to this time has been failure. But, if all could unite,
they could obtain what is reasonable, what is just, and
they would have the sympathy of a very large majority of
their fellow men, provided they were reasonable.
But before they can act in this way they must become
really intelligent, intelligent enough to know what is reason
able, and honest enough to ask for no more. So much has
already been accomplished for the working man that I have
hope, and great hope, for the future. The hours of labor
have been shortened, and materially shortened, in many
countries. There was a time when men worked fifteen and
sixteen hours a day. Now generally a day’s work is not
longer than ten hours, and the tendency is to still further
decrease the hours. By comparing long periods of time we
more clearly perceive the advance that has been made.
In i860 the average amount earned by the labouring men,
workmen, mechanics per year was about $285. It is now
about $500, and $1 to-day will purchase more of the
necessaries of life, more food, clothing, and fuel, than it
would in i860. These facts are full of hope for the future.
All our sympathies should be with the men who work, who
toil, for the women who labor for themselves and children,
because we know that labour is the foundation of all, and
that those who labor are the caryatids that support the
structure and glittering dome of civilisation and progress.
Every child should be taught to be self-supporting, and
every one should be taught to avoid being a burden on
others as it would shun death. Every child should be
taught that the useful are the honorable, and that they
who live on the labor of others are the enemies of society.
�THE COMING CIVILISATION.
25
Every child should be taught that useful work is worship,
and that intelligent labor is the highest form of prayer.
Children should be taught to think, to investigate, to rely
upon the light of reason, of observation, and experience ;
should be taught to use all their senses, and they should be
taught only that which in some sense is really useful.
They should be taught the use of tools, to use their hands
to embody their thoughts in the construction of things.
Their lives should not be wasted in the acquisition of the
useless or of the almost useless. Years should not be
devoted to the acquisition of dead languages, or to the study
of history, which, for the most part, is a detailed account of
things that never occurred. It is useless to fill the mind
with dates of great battles, with the births and deaths of
kings. They should be taught the philosophy of history,
the growth of nations, of philosophies, theories, and, above
all, of the sciences.
So they should be taught the importance, not only of
financial, but of mental honesty ; to be absolutely sincere ;
to utter their real thoughts, and to give their actual opinions
and if parents want honest children, they should be honest
themselves. It may be that hypocrites transmit that failing
to their offspring. Men and women who pretend to agree
with the majority, who think one way and talk another, can
hardly expect their children to be absolutely sincere.
Nothing should be taught in any school that the teacher
does not know. Beliefs, superstitions, theories, should not
be treated like demonstrated facts. The child should be
taught to investigate, not to believe. Too much doubt is
better than too much credulity. So children should be
taught that it is their duty to think for themselves, to under
stand, and, if possible, to know. Real education is the
hope of the future. The development of the brain, the civi
lisation of the heart, will drive want and crime from the
world. The school-house is the. real cathedral, and science
the only possible savior of the human race. Education, real
�2Ô
THE COMING CIVILISATION.
education, is the friend of honesty, of morality, of temper
ance.
We cannot rely upon legislative enactments to make
people wise and good; neither can we expect to make
human beings manly and womanly by keeping them out of
temptation. Temptations are as thick as the leaves of the
forest, and no one can be out of the reach of temptation
unless he is dead. The great thing is to make people
intelligent enough and strong enough not to keep away
from temptation, but to resist it.
All the forces of
civilisation are in favor of morality and temperance. Little
can be accomplished by lawr, because law, for the most
part, about such things is a destruction of personal liberty.
Liberty cannot be sacrificed for the sake of temperance, for
the sake of morality, or for the sake of anything. It is of
more value than everything else. Yet some people would
destroy the sun to prevent the growth of weeds. Liberty
sustains the same relation to all the virtues that the sun
does to life. The world had better go back to barbarism,
to the dens, the caves, and lairs of savagery—-better lose all
art, all inventions, than to lose liberty. Liberty is the
breath of progress ; it is the seed and soil, the heat and rain
of love and joy. So all should be taught that the highest
ambition is to be happy and to add to the well-being of
others; that place and power are not necessary to success ;
that the desire to acquire great wealth is a kind of insanity.
They should be taught that it is a waste of energy, a waste
of thought, a waste of life, to acquire what you do not need,
and what you do not really use, for the benefit of yourself
and others.
Neither mendicants nor millionaires are the happiest of
mankind. The man at the bottom of the ladder hopes to
rise; the man at the top fears to fall. The one asks, the
other refuses, and by frequent refusal the heart becomes
hard enough and the hand greedy enough to clutch and
hold. Few men have intelligence enough, real greatness
�THE COMING CIVILISATION.
27
enough, to own a great fortune. As a rule, the fortune
owns them. Their fortune is their master, for whom they
work and toil like slaves. The man who has a good busi
ness and who can make a reasonable living and lay aside
something for the future, who can educate his children and
can leave enough to keep the wolf of want from the door of
those he loves, ought to be the happiest of men. Now
society bows and kneels at the feet of wealth. Wealth gives
power, wealth commands flattery and adulation, and so
millions of men give all their energies, as well as their very
souls, for the acquisition of gold ; and this will continue as
long as society is ignorant enough and hypocritical enough
to hold in high esteem the man of wealth without the
slightest regard to the character of the man.
In judging of the rich two things should be considered .
How did they get it, and what are they doing with it? Was
it honestly acquired ? Is it being used for the benefit of
mankind ? When people become really intelligent, when the
brain is really developed, no human being will give his life
to the acquisition of what he does not need, or what he can
not intelligently use. The time will come when the truly
intelligent man cannot be happy, cannot be satisfied, when
millions of his fellow men are hungry and naked; the time
will come when in every heart will be the perfume of pity’s
sacred flower; the time will come when the world will be
anxious to ascertain the truth, to find out the conditions of
happiness, and to live in accordance with such conditions ;
and the time will come when in the brain of every human
being will be the climate of intellectual hospitality. Man
will be civilised when the passions are dominated by the
intellectual, when reason occupies the throne, and when the
hot blood of passion no longer rises in successful revolt.
To civilise the world, to hasten the coming of the golden
dawn of the perfect day, we must educate the children ; we
must commence at the cradle, at the lap of the loving
mother.
�28
THE COMING CIVILISATION.
The reforms that I have mentioned cannot be accom
plished in a day, possibly not for many centuries, and
in the meantime there is much crime, much poverty,
much want, and, consequently, something must be done
now.
Let each human being within the limits of the possible
be self-supporting; let every one take intelligent thought
for the morrow, and if a human being supports himself and
acquires a surplus let him use a part of that surplus for the
unfortunate, and let each one to the extent of his ability
help his fellow men. Let him do what he can in the circle
of his own acquaintance to rescue the fallen, to help those
who are trying to help themselves, to give work to the idle.
Let him distribute kind words, words of wisdom, of cheer
fulness, and hope. In other words, let every human being
do all the good he can, and let him bind up the wounds of
his fellow creatures, and at the same time put forth every
effort to hasten the coming of a better day.
This, in my judgment, is real religion. To do all the
good you can is to be a saint in the highest and in the
noblest sense. To do all the good you can—this is to be
really and truly spiritual. To relieve suffering, to put the
star of hope in the midnight of despair—this is true holi*
ness. This is the religion of science. The old creeds are
too narrow; they are not for the world in which we live.
The old dogmas lack breadth and tenderness ; they are too
cruel, too merciless, too savage. We are growing grander
and nobler. The firmament inlaid with suns is the dome
of the real cathedral. The interpreters of nature are the
true and only priests. In the great creed are all the truths
that lips have uttered, and in the real Litany will be found
all the ecstasies and aspirations of the soul, all dreams of
joy, all hopes for nobler, fuller life. The real church, the
real edifice, is adorned and glorified with all that art has
done. In the real choir is all the thrilling music of
the world, and in the starlit aisles have been, and are, the
�THE COMING CIVILISATION.
29
grandest souls of every land and clime. “ There is no dark
ness but ignorance.” Let us flood the world with intel
lectual light.
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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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The coming civilisation : an address delivered in the Columbia Theatre, Chicago, on Sunday, April 12,1896, to the members and friends of "The Church Militant"
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Ingersoll, Robert Green [1833-1896]
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Place of publication: London
Collation: 29, [3] p. ; 18 cm.
Notes: "The Church Militant" was an organisation formed by the former Presbyterian pastor Dr Rusk, "with the avowed object of giving Christianity a secular character, and making it influence the affairs of life."--Introd. No. 36e in Stein checklist. Publisher's list and advertisements on unnumbered pages at the end. Part of the NSS pamphlet collection.
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R. Forder
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1896
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N327
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Free thought
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Civilization
Free Thought
NSS
Religion
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THE
"CIVILIZATION OF THE FUTURE,
NECESSITY OF THE ORGANIZATION OF ^SOCIETY ON
SCIENTIFIC PRINCIPLES.
BY A.
BRISBANE.
HE idea of a Reconstruction of Society, involving an entire
change in the existing order of things, has taken possession
of a large number of minds at the present day. These minds
belong mainly to two extreme classes in society; to the most
advanced thinkers, and to the suffering masses. Profound reflection
and misery are alike leading men to comprehend the necessity of fun* damental social changes, and of a new and higher Order of society on
I the earth;—and this insight is giving rise to a vast under-current of
p agitation^-but little suspected by the conservative classes—which is
becoming powerful, and is destined ere long to change all the issues
that now occupy public attention.
The question of a Social Reconstruction is by far the most im- portant that can engage human thought. It should be a subject of
• the most serious study on the part of progressive and able thinkers,
- for ere long the question will become the order of the day: and when
r
this takes place, and the idea of a better social state penetrates the
minds of the masses, it will<give rise to great convulsions, to Social
Revolutions, unless the leaders of society are prepared with scientific
solutions. The work of real Thinkers at the present day is not with
partial and fragmentary reforms; it is with these solutions,—with the
. means of a fundamental and organic Reconstruction of Society.
We will endeavor to throw some light on this subject by an analysis
of Society—of its nature and constitution. We will examine it in its
relation to Man, who is a system of mental and moral Forces, and
who lives under and acts through its Institutions. Society (by which
we understand a synthesis of customs, laws, and institutions) is the
great external or collective Body of a collective Soul,—of a large
community of beings, co-operating industrially, politically, and socially,
and forming a State or Nation. In studying this Body, we must do
so with constant reference to the living and superior Principle which
acts through it, and to which it should be adapted.
The terms Society, Social System, Social Order, are used in a gen■L
29
T
�226
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OF THE FUTURE.
eral and vague manner to convey the idea of a system of customs, laws,
and institutions, under which a community of human beings liveThey convey the idea of merely an indefinite Whole, which requires
to be decomposed or analyzed and defined, and its different parts shown
and explained, in order that a clear and intelligible conception of its
nature may be formed.
The Social System is then'to be considered as a Whole, composed
of subordinate parts or branches like other Wholes,—like the human’
body, for example, which is composed of subordinate organs, such as
the brain and nervous system, the lungs, heart, stomach, liver, etc., or
like a machine, composed of wheels, springs, and other parts. To
living Wholes, the name Organism is given: to inanimate Wholes,
constructed by man, that of Machine or Mechanism. Thus the
human body is an Organism, while a steam-engine is a Machine. To
the Social Whole, called the Social System or Order, the term Organ
ism may, we think, be justly applied, inasmuch as the living Forces
in man—the Senses, Sentiments, and Intellectual Faculties—act . in
and through it. It is, as stated, the external Body of a collective
Soul,—of a community, nation, or race.
In analyzing the social Organism, and decomposing it into its con
stituent parts, we find that it is composed of the following principal
branches.
TABLE OF THE SOCIAL ORGANISM AND ITS BRANCHES.
Transitional Branch. EDUCATION : Development of the Child or germ.' INDUSTRY : Creation of Wealth.
Three
SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS: Regulation of the Social rePrimary
“
lations of human beings.
Branches.
GOVERNMENT : Regulation of the collective relations
t and interests.
Pivotal Branch.
RELIGION: Regulation of the relations of Man with the
invisible Universe.
J THE FINE ARTS. Harmony.
Accessory Branches.
1 THE SCIENCES. Knowledge.
We will explain briefly the functions of these various branches;
after which we will present a more complete analysis of the social Or
ganism.
Transitional Branch: The System of Education. We designate
this branch as transitional, as its function is to develop and form the
Child, which is the germ of the future Man, and to train and prepare
it for the industrial, social, and civil.pursuits and relations into which
it is later to enter. This branch is composed of three sub-branches :
1st Sub-branch : Industrial Education. The function of this
branch of the general Educational system is to develop the Child
physically, to initiate it into Industry, and thus render it a producer
capable of supporting itself, as it grows to manhood. This branch is
entirely unorganized in the present social Order; in fact, it does not
�THS
CIVILIZATION
Of
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FUTURE.
22?
exist, except in the rude state of the apprenticeship system for the
children of the poor. The upper and middle classes grow up entirely
uneducated industrially, and are, as a consequence, non-producers,
who must appropriate to themselves the wealth created by the poorer
classes,’ which they do through the parasitic operations of commerce
and finance, and the profits of capital.
2d Sub-beanoh: Social or Moral Education. The function
of this branch is to develop the social or moral Sentiments, and pre
pare the Child to become a true member of the body-social. This
branch is unorganized; the germ exists in -the families of the rich,
but in a feeble and artificial state. As a consequence, the honorable
social Sentiments are almost wholly undeveloped in men. The feel
ings of collective justice^honor, fright, and benevolence exist only
exceptionally in a very few individuals.
3d Sub-branch: Intellectual Education. The function of
this branch is to develop and cultivatejkthe Mind, and initiate the
Child into the Sciences. The whole attention of men has hitherto
been directed to this branch, and it has been developed and organized
to some extent. Our schools, colleges, and universities are the results
of the efforts to organize Intellectual Education. Under it, the chil
dren of the rich receive a fair degree of mental training; and are
much more developed intellectually than they are morally or indus
trially.
First Primary Branch of the Social Organism: The System oe
Industry. The function of this branch is the creation of Wealth and
the regulation of the relations of Man with Nature. At present it
is unorganized or falsely organized, and does not second Man in his
industrial labors and operations, especially those of a higher and more
universal character. In the future, when scientifically organized, it will
furnish him the means of executing his industrial function or destiny
on the' earth; namely, that of cultivating and embellishing his globe,
of developing and perfecting the animal and vegetable kingdoms upon
it, of distributing them properly over its surface, and of establishing
order and harmony in Nature. Man, the Overseer of the globe, the
Beason of Nature, requires a scientifically organized system of Indus
try to execute the vast industrial labors that devolve upon him. This
first of the primary branches is composed of three sub-branches, which
are:
.
1. The Production of!Wealth, effected by agriculture, manu
factures, the mechanic* arts, mining, transportation, the fisheries, and
household labor.
2. The Exchange of Wealth, effected by commerce and bank
ing. Commerce buys and sells, that is, effects the exchange of products
already created. Banking gives credit, and credit is equivalent to the
exchange of products, one of which is not as yet created. The first is
synchronous exchange, the second exchange on-time.
�228
THE
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OF THE FUTURE.
3. The Division- oe Wealth, effected or determined by the Laws
and Customs of Society, which regulate the ownership of property,
the system of labor, commerce, banking, the currency, interest, rents,
etc. The custom of Slavery, for example, determines a division of
wealth, based on the will of the master; it is different from that de
termined by the system of Wages or hired-labor, which gives the la
borer the right of refusal. Entailed estates, as the system exists in
England, determines a division of the products of the earth different
from that of the small proprietary system of Erance. The Commer
cial system, as it now prevails in our unorganized and incoherent
Industry, with its speculations, monopolies, and frauds, and its selfish
individual action, determines a division of the wealth created by the
first branch in a way most favorable to the commercial class. It is
these Laws and Customs which regulate the Division or Distribution
of Wealth among the different classes in society, and constitute the
third sub-branch of the Industrial system.
Second Primary Branch of the Social Organism: The System oe’
Social Institutions. The function of this branch is the regulation
of the play and action of the social Sentiments in society, and of the
social relations between human beings to which they give rise. Thesel
Institutions are as yet in an undeveloped, and, consequently, in an un
organized state; they exist in fact only in germ. When fully developed
and organized in the future, forming part of a Scientific Social Or
ganism, they will secure a full and harmonious action of the social
Sentiments,—of those moral Eorces in man, which impel him to form
ties of various kinds with his fellow-creatures—ties of Friendship,
Love, Ambition, and Parentalism—and will lead to the creation of
social order and unity in Society. This branch of the Social Organism
places Man in sympathetic relation with Humanity, as the Industrial
branch places him in relation with Nature. It is composed of four
sub-branches:
1. System oe Rights and Obligations, regulating the social
relations of human beings as members of the body-social, and as
beings of the same species, without regard to sex, age, or capacity.'
2. System oe Marriage, regulating the sympathetic relations of
the Sexes.
3. System oe Hierarchy, (of grades, ranks, honors, and dis
tinctions in industrial, social, and political functions), regulating the
relations of human beings.as functionaries and co-workers, according
to capacity and merit. It is introduced in a more or less imperfect
manner in government, the army, and the catholic church.
4. The Family System, regulating the relations of parents and
children, and generally of the old and young, the strong and the .
weak.
These four Systems, when fully constituted and organized, will
become four Cardinal Institutions, which. will develop fully and
�THE
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OF THE lUTUR'E.
229
normally the four cardinal Social Sentiments in the human soul,
regulate theirmction, and establish order and harmony in the Social
relations to which they give rise. These Sentiments iare—1. Friendship
or the ■■sentiment of humamequality and unity. 2. Love, or the symi - pathy betweeiuthe Jsexes. 3. The corporate and hierarchal Sentiment,
called Ambition. 4. Parentalism, or the family Sentiment. These
four Institutions, when truly and normally organized, will constitute
a general
o/ Laws and Ordinances, and of Rites, Ceremonies,
Usages, and other external forms, which will correspond perfectly to
the social Forces they are to govern; they will become the external
Organism, through which these Forces will manifest themselves and act.
Music furnishes an ^lustration that will render this intelligible. The
r Scien^ of music consists of the laws of the Sense of Hearing; and
the Art, orthe means and aids through which the Sense manifests itself
and acts. The two constitute its external Form and Organism. With
the aid of Music, the Sense is cultivated, and is truly and harmo
niously developed. We may call Music, to render our idea clear, the
Institution of the Sense of Hearing. When Institutions, as perfectly
adapted to the four Social Se'htiments as Music to that Sense, are discovered and established, they will develop them as harmoniously as
Muji^fdevmpps the musical Sense, and will create in the social world
accords as beautiful as Music creates in its sphere. The social Senti
ments, we will add, are in as low a state of development among the
civilized masses as the Sense of Hearing among savages and barbarians.
Third Primary Branch of the Social Organism: The System of
Government. The functions of this branch is .the regulation of the
conduct and action of Man in the extensive relations and combinations
he forms with his fellow-men as a citizen of the body-politic. As men
must form great political Associations or Communities, with complex
and varied interests and relations, there must be Institutions, with
their laws, ordinances and prescriptions, and their external forms, to
In
regulate these interests and Relations. They are the Political InstituMAonaErnd constitu^^ whole! called Government. They regulate the
Political or collective relations of human beings, as the preceding Insti?
tutions Lregulate their social and personal relations. This branch is
composed of three sub-branches.
1. The Legislative Branch,E-the^creation of Laws and Ordinances.
Legislation has been, first, Theocratic, having its source in the Emotions of theocratic rulers and law-givers, who attribute to inspiration
or the Divine will the laws they promulgate; second, Monarchic and
Oligarchic, having its source in the will of one or many Rulers; third,
Democratic, having itsjourcepn the deliberations of legislative Bodies,
Khat min the speculations and theorizing of human reason. The Laws
derived from these three sources are all arbitrary, incomplete, or false,—
those derived ‘from the ^speculations of Reason as well as the others.
The true and scientific Legislation of the future will be based on the
�230
THE CIVILIZATION Of THE FUTURE.
Laws of order and organization in creation, according to which the
government of the universe takes place.. The true function of Reason
is to discover these Laws and employ them in the government of
human relations and interests on the earth.
2. The Judiciary Branch,—the Interpretation of Laws and the
explanation of their intent and purpose. This interpretation has been
exercised; first, by Priests; second, by absolute Rulers; third, by civil
Judges, appointed by the government or the people. In the future,—
in the scientific Organization of Society,—it will be exercised by Men,
who will be guided entirely by science, and who will restrict themselves
to interpreting and explaining the laws of Nature.
3. The Executive Branch,—the enforcement of obedience to
Laws, and their Execution. This function has been exercised in the
past by agents of various kinds,—religious, military and civil, secret and
open,—according as they served priesthoods, monarchies or democracies.
At the present day, it is exercised in our civilized societies by men chosen
for the purpose,—by sheriffs, constables, policemen, executioners, and
others, employing as means the scaffold, prison, fines, exiling and other
penalties. In a true social Organization, with the reign of universal
education and wealth, and the normal development of the social senti
ments, the vices and crimes of our unorganized and incoherent Socie
ties will so far disappear, that the violent and brutal system of repres
sion and constraint, now necessary, will be dispensed with, and replaced
by one of direct incentives to, and of rewards and honors for, just and
honorable conduct.
Pivotal Branch: Religion. The function of this branch is to
develop the Sentiments and the Intellect of Man in their higher
degrees, to elevate them to universality, so as to awaken in him an
interest in the cosmical Whole to which he belongs; that is, in the
Humanities on its planets, its plan and design, and its laws and order,
and thus associate him in feeling and thought with its cosmical life and
destinies. Man, by his Senses and the physical wants they entail upon
him, is drawn down to the material or animal plane of existence, and
his sentiments and reason are subordinated to material and selfish con
siderations. Now as the function of social Institutions, with the influ
ence they exercise upon the social Sentiments, is to develop him
morally,, and attract him to Humanity, thus elevating him in one direc
tion above the animal plane; and the function of Science, with the
influence it exercises upon the Intellect, is to develop him mentally,
and attract hiigrto universal ideas, to laws and principles, thus eleva
ting him in another direction above that lower plane; the function of
Religion is to develop him both in sentiment and thought to the extent
to excite in him an interest in the great Whole, to which he belongs,
and of which he forms a part and is a member; and to seek to asso
ciate himself with its cosmical operations. and destinies, and with the
moral Order that reigns in it, thus raising him to the dignity of a citi
�THE
CIVILIZATION
OF THE FUTURE.
231
zen of the universe. As it is noble in Man to become a truly social
being, associated in hisj sympathies with the whole of the Humanity to
which he belongs, and a scientific thinker, associated in his thought
with the Laws and Order of creation, it is nobler still to become ideally
a universal being, associated with the Cosmos, his finite life linked in
consciously with it, and participating through his aspirations in its
grandeur and harmony, its destinies, and its eternal life.
This pivotal branch is composed of three sub-branches, which, as
they have existed and now exist, are:
1. Worship,—a System of Bites and Ceremonies, through which
Man manifests his aspiration for Unity with Humanity, with the Uni
verse and its spiritual hierarchies, and with God; and a System of
Symbols by which he expresses through material forms, appreciable by
the Senses, invisible and mysterious truths, which the intuitions of the
Soul dimly apprehend.
2. Morality,—a System of Bules and Ordinances of conduct, of
moral life on earth, based on the mind’s conception of the moral attri
butes of the Deity—attributes to which he is stimulated to conform
from desire of unity with God.
3. Theology,^-Theory of the Universe and its general destinies,
of the immortality of the soul, and the Divine nature.
These three elements of Beligion will in the future—in the normal
social Organism of Humanity—be developed in a way widely different
from what they have been and are in the incomplete and outlined
Societies of the past and present.
.
„
, ( The Fine Arts.
iTui, g0IBK0BSH|
This branch accompanies the others, and is common to them all.
The function of the Fine Arts is to embellish the other branches
of the Social Organism, and establish refinement, beauty, and harmony
in the material and the social world. The function of the Sciences is
Organization and the creation of Order in all departments of human
affairs.
The Fine Arts comprise two sub-branches
1. The M atkrt at,. or the Fine Arts of the Senses, of which
music, painting, sculpture, architecture, and tlje dance are the princi
pal now developed. These Arts are external embodiments of the
Senses in their measured or harmonious development and action.
The Laws of the Arts are the modes of action of the Senses in this
development. Music, for example, is the external expression or em
bodiment of the Sense of Hearing,—of its perceptions distributed, co
ordinated, and classified by the Intellect or organizing Faculty. There
will exist, in the future, four Orders of this first Class of Art; namely,
the Arts corresponding to Hearing, to Sight, to Taste, and to Smell.
The Art which corresponds to Hearing—Music—has been fully de
veloped. That which corresponds to Sight—Painting, Sculpture,
�232
THE
CIVILIZATION OF THE
FUTURE.
Architecture, and Decoration—has been developed in outline; some
empirical principles have been discerned by instinct, but the laws of
visual Harmony are as yet unknown. The two Arts, corresponding to
Taste and Smell, are not discovered, or even recognized; they will be
come important Arts in the future, especially the first, and will hayp.
their interpreters, as has Music at the present day. The Sense of
Touch is the pivot or trunk out of which the other Senses spring or
ramify, and has not its Art.
2. Social or Moral Art, or the Fine Arts of the Spot at.
Sentiments. These Sentiments, when they shall receive a refinp.fi
development, will, like the Senses, give rise to a system of harmonious
expressions and forms, which will constitute a Harmony of Manners,
that may appropriately be called the Fine Arts of the Social Senti
ments. Its germs exist and are known under the name of Polite
ness. When a complete system of politeness, with its various elements
fully developed, such as urbanity, suavity, gracefulness, dignity, deli
cacy, and refinement, is established, with a Code of Etiquette—the
Laws or Science of the Art—we shall then see developed the new Art,
and shall understand its vast importance in refining, elevating, and
giving charm to the social intercourse of human beings. There will
be four branches to this second Order of Art, corresponding to the
four Social Sentiments that are to evolve it. Each Sentiment will have
its own special Art, that is, a System of Politeness and Etiquette pe
culiar to it. That .of Ambition will differ quite widely from that of
Friendship. The former will sum up all the forms of - hierarchal
dignity; the latter, those of frank and friendly equality.
The Sciences, classified objectively, or according to the subjects of
which they treat, form the following five sub-branches:
1. The Physical;—Theory of Matter and its Forces.
2. The Psychological;—Theory of Man, or theory of the mental
Forces that impel him, and their social functions.
3. The Sociological;—Theory of Society and its Organization.
4. The Cosmological;—Theory of the Cosmos, of its constitution,
organization, and order.
5. The Ontological;—Theory of pure Being or of primary Existence. (This latter is an illusive Science, which will be replaced by
another.)
A final Synthesis unites all these Sciences in one,—in a Pivotal or
Trunk-science; namely, the Science of the Laws of Order and Har
mony in the universe, according to which its various departments are
governed, and its phenomena regulated. These Laws are the mani
festation of the Supreme Reason, in action in creation—the Thought or
Logic of the universe. The finite Reason of Man, constituted on the
model of the Supreme Reason, (and it can be constituted on no other
for there are no more two kinds of reasoning faculties than there are
two kinds of mathematics), can discover and comprehend these Laws,
�THE
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OF THE FUTURE
233
and in so doing elevate itself to unity with its supreme Prototype, and
obtain the Key to the special Sciences, which key is the Science of
Laws, and underlies them all.
With these brief explanations, we will sum up and present in
tabular form the six branches of the Social Organism, so that it can
be seen both as a whole and in its parts.
SYNOPTICAL TTABLE OF THE SOCIAL ORGANISM, WITH ITS
BRANCHES AND SUB-BRANCHES.
Industrial Education
EDUCATION.
Social Education
Preparation of the Germ.
Scientific Education
( Development of the Body, and Ini| tiation of the Child into Industry.
I Development of the Social Sentij ments, and Initiation.of the Child
) into Social life and true social re( lations.
(Development of the Intellect, and
< Initiation of the Child into the
( Sciences.
Production of Wealth ■
INDUSTRY.
Relation of Man to Nature.
Exchange of Wealth
Division
of
Wealth
I
Institution
of
Rights
SOCIAL**
Institution of Marriage
INSTITUTIONS.
I Hierarchal Institution
Relation of Man to Hu?
manity.
Family Institution
GOVERNMENT.
Relation of Man to the
>
State.
Legislative Branch.
Judiciary Branch.
Executive Branch.
Worship
RELIGION.
Relation of Man to the
Universe.
Morality
Theology
The Fine Arts
ACCESSORY
BRANCH.
The Sciences
Agriculture, Manufactures, Min
ing, Transportation, Fisheries,
Domestic Production.
Commerce.
Banking.
Laws and Customs that regulate
landed property, capital, labor,
commerce, the currency, interest,
rents, etc.
Laws that regulate the relations of
human beings as equals.
Laws that regulate the relations of
the Sexes.
Laws that regulate the relations of
men as co-workers.
Laws that regulate the relations of
Parents and Children, and the
family.
Creation of Lawn.
Interpretation of Laws.
Execution of Laws.
'System bf rites, ceremonies, and
symbolic acts by which Man
manifests his unity with Human
ity and with God. Explanation
of spiritual truths by means of
material emblems.
’Aspiration for unity with God, and
desire for regulating human con
duct in accordance with the Di
vine Will—the true basis of Mo
rality.
Theory of the Divine nature, of
Creation,—its cause and origin,—
of Man’s cosmical destiny and his
I I immortality.
(The Material or Sensuous Arts.
J The Social or Moral Arts.
Science of the Laws of universal
Order,—the Logic of the Uni
verse. Basis of the five special
Sciences.
(
The table exhibits the branches (the special organs) of which the
general social Organism is composed. It exhibits, as a whole and in
its parts, the great external Body which a collective Soul creates for
itself. Without the developing, educating and directing influence of a
Social Organism, Man remains an undeveloped, .ignorant and gross
being, but little raised above the level of the lower animals, as is proved
30
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THE
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ON THE FUTURE.
by the social condition of the Savage. He elevates himself in propor
tion as he improves his Social Organism, and when, in the future, he
shall have discovered the true Laws of organization, and based it on
them, he will attain to a social Destiny, worthy of the cosmical Wis
dom that has planned the Order and Harmony of the universe,—an
Order and Harmony in which Humanity is involved, and is ultimately
to participate.
The different social Organisms which have existed oh the earth
since the beginning of history, are embodiments of the social concep-.
tions, and the experience of the various Races that have established
them, and mark the stages of the great social elaboration in which
Humanity has been, and .still is engaged,—the elaboration being sub
ject to the general Laws of development in creation,—the Laws that
regulate Eyolution in all departments. We will explain briefly the
order which has reigned in th&uccession of the social Organisms that
have been so far elaborated and. established, the true character of these
Organisms, and their place in the social career of Humanity on the
earth. Our views, both of the order of succession and of the character
of the Organisms, are deduced from the above Laws of Evolution, aided
by the study of social phenomena in the past and present.
In the course of the existence or the career of every finite thing,
whether concrete and. tangible, like a. plant or an animal, or abstract
and intangible, like a religion or a science, there exist two fundament
ally distinct states. The one is the Formative or Fm&rgonic phase in
the career,—the process of development from the germ or beginning to
the organized and completed state. It is a preparatory, transitional
and unorganized stage, during which the constituent elements dr parts
of the finite thing are elaborated and prepared, and the process of their
combination and organization takes place. The other is th® Formed,
Organized and Completed state, and the normal and permanent condi
tion of the finite thing,—its destination. In this second stage, the
elements are fully developed and regularly constituted,—forming an
organic Whole, which is the true or natural state. We thus find two
distinct states or conditions of existence in every finite career:—the
formative or embryonic, which is the inorganic state; and the fully
developed and completed, which is the organic state.
A few illustrations will explain this subject, and render clear the
difference between the state of Formative development and of Organic
completeness; between non-organization and organization.
The physical organism of a human being is formed—gradually
organized—in the mother’s womb. The elements of the new organism
are brought together successively in this wonderful workshop, where
the process of formation goes on for a fixed period, until the new being
is organized, when it is ushered into the world by an operation called
Birth. There are marked differences in the life, of a human being,—as
that, for example, between infancy and adult age,—but none so radical
�THE
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OF THE FUTURE.
235
and distinct as that between the formative or inorganic state, preceding
birth, and the formed and organic, following birth.
• In the career of our globe, we find an illustration of these two great
stages on a vast scale. The geological ages which preceded the appearance of the present flora and fauna and of Man, were the formative or
embryonic phase in the career of the globe—a phase of elementary
development and of immaturity, in which, the crust of the earth was
formed. The present state is one of organic completeness, although in
the early (infantile) organic stage, and susceptible of future develop
ments.
In the construction of an Edifice, we find an illustration of this
Law of Evolution, for nothing can escape.it. When an edifice is to be
built, the materials are collected, the foundations laid, the walls raised,
the timbers put in, and the roof puk on. A process of construction
(evolution or elaboration) takes place; and an incomplete and partially
finished (formative and inorganic) stage precedes the completed (or
ganic) state. When thejedific® has left the hands of the masons and
carpenters, it is then painted and cleaned, and enters its true and
organized state, or that designed for it, and becomes fit for habitation.
It (thus passes, like a living organism, through a formative and inorganic stage—in all cases preparatory and transitional—to arrive at"one
of completion and permanence. •
All finite things must go through this process of development or
formation, for nothing can pass at once from the germ to a fully organ
ized and developed state. It is a necessity, inherent in the nature of
things; and to change it, it would be requisite to annihilate time,
space and succession, and the property of matter.
A few examples in the sphere of the abstract and intangible will
show that this Law of Evolution is not limited to material things.
The Formative or Embryonic Stage in the Evolution of Christianity
embraced the period extending from Christ to the Emperor Constan
tine. The latter "in making Christianity the Religion of the State,
gave it its regular constitution, which marked the period of its birth.
During this phase, which lasted about three centuries, the elements of
the Religion—its Worship, Morality and Theology—were elaborated,
and regularly developed and organized. The state of full development
and .<of complete organization, was that of the great Catholic Church,
as inexisted between the 7th and 16th centuries.
The Formative stage in the development of the Greek Civilization
^Comprised the heroic ages prior to Solon. During these ages, the ele
ments of Grecian life were wrought out. The Laws established by that
remarkable man may be said to have brought the fluctuating, and (for
the Greek race) abnormal political state to a close. In the great
Egyptian Civilization, the Formative stage embraced the Theocratic
ages which preceded Menes, who established a Monarchy in the place
of the Theocracies that had previously ruled the country; and brought.
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ON TNE
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Egypt under one government. The social life, industry, art, laws and
religion of that race were developed during the reign of the Theocracies.
The country was divided into nomes or districts with a theocratic ruler
at the head of each. When the elements of society were developed and
prepared, Menes established a unitary power, and organized one great"
State. This event took place not less than 4,000 B. 0. The Formative
phase, directed and controlled by the influence of Religion, must have
reached back at least twenty-five centuries.
The Formative—preparatory and preliminary—stage in the evo
lution of the Science of Astronomy extends from the observations of
the Egyptians and Chaldeans to the time of Copernicus, who, in 1543,
published his discovery of .the true constitution of the Solar system
This important discovery marked, we think, the birth of the science*®that is, placed it on a true or positive basis. From that time, the
Science was rapidly developed by Kepler, Galileo, Newton, and others.
Chemistry had a much shorter Formative phase in Alchemy. The labors
and speculations of the Alchemists created the materials or elementsj
of the science; its birth was determined in the last century by the dis
coveries of Stahl, Priestley, Lavoisier, and others. A great Science is
being developed at the present day—the' most important of all
branches of knowledge—namely, Social Science. Glimpses of it were
caught by Pythagoras and Plato; the latter, in his Republic, presents
a plan of social Organization. The Embryonic preludes, the Transi
tions to this Science, comprise, first, the Political and Economm theories
of the past and present, which are a mass of incoherent and conflict
ing speculations, based on no positive Laws; and, second, the special
theories of social Organization, such as are contained in the Republic
of Plato, the Utopia of Sir Thomas More, the City of the? Sun, and
the Icaria of Cabet, which are equally without any scientific founda
tion. Socialism, with its multiform doctrines, is the immediate pre
cursor of the new Science, that is to be developed; it holds about the
same relation to it that astrology held to astronomy, and alchemy^ to
chemistry. The basis of a positive Social Science has been laid in the
present age by Charles Fourier and Auguste Comte. The Science is
born, that is, is regularly constituted, and awaits its full elaboration.
Fourier has shown the true foundation on which the Organization of
Society must rest, namely, the Laws of Order and Harmony in crea
tion ; the Laws which underlie all Organization in Nature, and which
regulate the distribution, co-ordination, and classification of her
phenomena. Human Reason, he affirms, should not frame social
theories of its own; its true work is to discover these Laws of Organ
ization in Nature, and with their aid deduce the natural or scientific
social Organization destined for Man. In his Organization of Indus-S
try, his system of Education, his brilliant theory of “ Passional Har
mony ” (which implies the possibility of regulating in accord or
harmoniously the action of those mental and moral Forces in Man,
�TEE
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237
called sentiments, passions<etc.) ;• and in the extension of the Law of
Attraction to the moral or passional world—all deduced from and
based upon the general Laws of Order in Nature—he furnishes the
special foundations of the first three branches of the social Organism.
Comte has "shown that a certain ascending Order or Hierarchy
exists in the Sciences, and that the lower sciences in the series point
to, and provAlearly, that at the apex a Science of Society must exist.
He thus demonstrates the possibility and the necessity of a Social
Science, in doing which he has rendered it an immense service.
With these remarks, we can enter upon the examination of the
course which the Evolution of human Society has taken, and the
Order that prevails in the succession of the different Systems of Soci
ety which hatBbeen established on the earth.
The evolution of human Society is subject to the Laws of proJgressiVfadevelopment which we pointed out. It must pass through a
preparatory hnd transitional stage—the Formative or Embryonic—in
order to arrive at a fully developed and organized state. Humanity is
the agenF that? effects this great Evolution. It constructs the social
Organisms und|r which it lives, and does so by successive stages as
Nature constructs a globe? The elaboration is so vast that the individuSts'Bngaged in it cannot oversee the field of operations, and do
not comprehend the work on which tlfoy are employed. This is true
at least of the Formative Societies, when Humanity is without So
cial Science to guide, it. These Societies, we will remark, are devel
oped by theEoUecilm^iinstinctsjioi Humanity without any clear.idea of
the results which are to follow. In the future, when the path shall be
KWmingted by a positive social Science,, it will labor at its great Social
Construction with a clear consciousness of its work.
It isrevident, without recurring £0 general Laws, that Society must
pass through the Formative and Preparatory stage of evolution de
scribed.! Humanit^cannot leap at once from a primitive or Savage
S^SyiiMmhwh it is without the elements of Society and without In
stitutions^ to a state, of perfected Social Organization. It must first
develop or prepare the elements of Society (Industry, the Arts, Sciences,
on others), and discover the Laws by which they should be co-ordinated;
and then mak^axperiments and acquire experience in applying such
‘ Laws^ It is as impossible for Humanity to construct its great Social
Edifice without passing through the preliminary stage of creating and'
putting to^Sher its parts, as for theS individual man to construct’an
■HM® without putting together the materials of which it is composed.
The Social Organisms which have existed and are to exist on the
earth, are to be divided into two great Classes. These Classes are
based on th”two distinct\Stages in Evolution which we have pointed
(mL^-th^Formative^ Preparatory and Inorganic; and the Formed,
Completed and\ Organic. The first division of Societies is, then, deter
mined by these two essential Stages in Evolution. The two Classes
�238
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OE
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EUTUR'E.
differ from each other as much as Embryonic differs from Organic life,
as immature and incomplete organization from complete and mature
organization; or, choosing a concrete illustration, as the globe in its
geological phases of development differed from the globe in its present
condition; as an edifice in process of construction differs from the
edifice finished and fit for habitation.
The first Class of Societies comprises those that have existed from
the beginning of history to the present time,—from the Egyptian
Civilization, which was the earliest, to our modem Civilization. This
first Class (Inorganic and Transitional) still exists, and determines the
character of social phenomena, and the social condition of the races
living under it.
To exhibit clearly the important truth that human Society is still
in the formative and transitional stage, and that our modern Civiliza
tion is one of the inorganic Societies, would require an elaborate anal
ysis. We will content ourselves with a few indications.
1. The first branch of the present social Organism—Education—
is not only unorganized, but two of its sub-branches—the Industrial
and Social—are so rudimentary that they can scarcely be said to have
an existence. These two essential sub-branches must be developed, and
the three scientifically organized,.before the organic statesin this department will be reached.
2. The second branch—Industry—which is the most advanced of
any part of the social Organism, is still in an unorganized and in
coherent state. As proof we find that Labor is prosecuted in a rude
and repulsive manner in dirty workshops and lonely fields; that con- H H
flict and antagonism exist in all interests and operations; that Com- ■
merce is at war with Production, which it spoliates, and Capital with
Labor, which it oppresses; and that there is an entire absence of
method, order and unity in the industrial world. If the Economists
see in this unorganized field of operations justice, and even “ Har
monies,” as does Bastiat, the student of social Science sees in it dis
order, anarchy, strife, and servitude,—characteristics of Non-organization. When this important branch of Society shall be scientifically
organized, it will be prosecuted with all the resources which the genius
of man can invent, as War now is, .on principles of unity and co
operation, and in a thoroughly scientific manner; it will, through such '
organization, be dignified and rendered attractive, and will become the
most honorable, as Well as the most agreeable field for the exercise of
the physical activity of Humanity.
3. Of the’ four Institutions which compose the third branch of the
Social System, one only—that of Marriage—is regularly constituted.
We will not stop to inquire how scientifically, that is, bow fully in
accordance with the Sentiment to which it corresponds, and to which
it should be adapted. The other three exist only in germ; they a.re
wholly undeveloped, not to speak of being unorganized.
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4. The political branch!-Government—is, so far as its elements
are developed, much more regularly constituted,—a consequence of the
necessity of establishing Order in Administrative affairs. But the
element^ of a complete Political system are. only partially developed,
and the conception of a scientific Government does not exist. The
Republican form, which is the least imperfect; is but a fragment of the
< integral and organic Government of the future. Strictly defined, it is
the transition from political despotism to liberty.
5. The fifth or.Religious branch is in a general state of disintegra: -tion and decay,—at least as regards its Theology and Worship. The
great Catholic .Unity jhas been broken into fragments—into sects—
which are in conflict with each other, each denying the other’s dogmas,
while thg progressive and scientific world attaches no importance to
any of their theological systems. The second sub-branch—the Aspira
tion for Unity with the spiritual universe and the desire for the reign of
justi.c"and right on the earth—are as vitally active at the present day,
we think,, as they have been in the past, but they cannot’ assume their
religious form without the aid of a Theology and a Worship,—the first
being the Intellect; the second, th® body of the Aspiration or Senti
ment. Before this fifth branch*can be scientifically organized, the
whole circle of the Sciences must be created, and the true Theory of
the Cosmos discovered and established.
6. The accessory branch, comprising the Fine Arts and the Sci
ences, is, as a whole, in an undeveloped state. There are, however,
two exceptions which are very important. One Aft—Music—and one
Science—Mathematics—are fully developed and organized. It would
Seem as if Nature wished to furnish Man some models of scientific
Organization as guides, and for this reason facilitated the creation of
these two. All the Arts, except music, are still in the formative stage.
Of the Scieiwes, a few of the Physical are placed on a positive basis,
though not fully elaborated and constituted, while the higher branches
of the Physical and the Psychological and Cosmological sciences are
in a speculative and conjectural state,—in the embryonic phase of
their development.
These facts disclose the important truth that the general Evolution
of human Society is still in its formative or embryonic phase, and that
our modern Civilization is one of the imperfect and transitional so
cieties, through which Humanity is passing in its onward march
towards its social Destiny.
The most general division of the great epochs in History shows, we
think, that there are three of these distinctive systems of Society.
They are the three great Civilizations which have been evolved and es
tablished by the progressive and historical Races, by the Egyptian and
the Chaldeo-Assyrian on the' one hand, and the Arian on the other.
The out-lying Societies and races are, in a. primary analysis, to be left
. aside, as they have exercised no direct influence on progressive history.
�240
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FUTURE.
The earliest Civilization—the Egyptian and the Chaldeo-Assyrian—
was the creation of the first two races; its seat was the valleys of the ;
Nile, and the Tigris and Euphrates. In it was begun the regular de
velopment of the elements of society—industry, the arts, sciences, etc.,
—and the work of social construction; it governed the world of its
epoch, and was its active history. The second Civilization was that
developed by the black-eyed Arians—the Greeks and Romans; its seat *
was the shores of the Mediterranean. In it the elaboration, begun in the
first Civilization, was taken up and continued, and vastly extended.
The third was that developed by the blue-eyed Arians, and mainly by
the Germanic races; its seat was the whole continent of Europe. It
inherited of the two preceding all that was essential and valuable, and
continued the work of social evolution and construction, bringing it
down to the present day.
The Medes and Persians (Arians) founded great States, but effected
nothing essentially new in social elaboration. The Hindoo Civilization,
founded by the Brahminical Arians, was a failure, as Castes and other
false institutions were established to hold in subjection the indigenous
races that were conquered.
These three great Civilizations form the three Orders of the first
Class of Societies. We will present them in tabular form, to enable
the reader to embrace them at a glance.
FIRST CLASS OF SOCIETIES.
The Formative and Inorganic.
First Order : the Egyptian and ChaldeoAssyrian Civilization, with its branches—
the Hebrew, Phoenician, etc.
Second Order : the Greek and Roman Civ
ilization, with its branches.
Third Order : the Germanic, or the Catholico-Feudal Civilization, which still con
tinues, but modified, and in process of
dissolution and.transformation.
Whether the classifications we have given, and' the various details
into which we have entered, are strictly correct or not, is a matter of
secondary importance. The great Truth which we have wished to set
forth in a clear and distinct light is, first, that Humanity is still living
in the Formative, Preparatory and Inorganic Societies,—in Socie
ties which are not the true and final ones, are not its normal
social state, its social Destiny; and, second, that a Class of Organic
Societies—as radically different from the first Class as scientific Or
ganization is different from incomplete or false Organization—remains
to be discovered and established on the earth.
If this fundamental truth were clearly comprehended, it would
change entirely the views of Men on social questions,—on the true
character pf the present system of Society, and the social Destiny of
Humanity. It would unite the intellectual leaders of the world in a
general and concerted effort to effect a fundamental social Reconstruc
tion, and to organize Society on scientific principles.
�THIS
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241
In a future article, we will explain the fundamental and distinctive
systems of; Society, which have existed up to the present time, show
the stages through which Humanity has passed to reach its present
F - social state, and indicate the4 nature of the constructive social labors
which lie before it in the immediate future.
In Connection with this subject of the progressive Evolution of
human Society^ and of the distinction between the Inorganic and 'the
' Organiclsocieties, we will present what we believe to be the simple so
lution of a problem that, from the beginning of history, has bewildered
the human mind, and led it to the framing of innumerable false theo
logical and metaphysical theories. The problem is the Cause of Evil.
EhBs a general or synthetic term, which sums up all the effects
resulting from the Non-organization, the incomplete, and the false Or- M
ganization of the six branches of the social Organism. Its reign takes
■ plac^inth^Inorganic Societies. Poverty, for example, which, with its
■' ' privations and sufferings, is the great physical Evil that oppresses man
hook, is caused by the false organization, of Industry; its product is,
in the first pl^^ scanty, and in the second place, this scanty product
Kisi*rvB.nequffably and unequally divided. Social or moral discords,
or the dissensibns, hatreds, antipathies, jealousies, disappointments, and
mental sufferings of human beings are caused by the false Organization
of ^Wal IiRtitutions.,’ These Institutions thwart, violate, and pervert
the social or moral Sentiments, and engender a class of effects which
■BonstitlnBivhat is called Moral Evil.j Political Evils, such- as war, op
pression, and thejreign of monopoly and privilege, are caused by the
false organization of political Institutions.
Thejreign of Evil will come to a close with that of the Inorganic
Br societies: the reign wdG-ood will begin with the inauguration of the
r
Organic, societies. Opposite phases of development produce opposite efS'fepts: this is a universal Law. It applies to all things—to the least as
to the grdjTWEB If a fruit, when ripe or fully organized, is destined to be
■ • ■ agreeablHin flavor and healthy, it must, when green and unripe, be to
a certain extent disagreeable in flavor and unhealthy. If order and
harmony, with the happiness and elevation of mankind, are effects of
Societies, scientifically and normally organized, disorder and dis
harmony! with suffering and degradation, must be effects of Societies
incomplerely and falsely organized^
Evil, as stated, is a general term. To be understood, it must be
analyzed, so that it can be clearly seen in what it consists. In the
analysis, of this general term we find’ three primary Classes of Evils.
1st Class : Evils in Man, comprising three Orders.
’ 2d lClass : Evils in Society,’comprising five Orders.
3dKJl1ss: Evils in Nature, or the material world around man,
comprising six Orders.
The Evils in Man are the result of the perversion of his nature by
•
the influence of incomplete or false social Institutions, causing a fq]se
31
K
�242
*
THE
CIVILISATION
ON THE
FUTURE.
development of the Senses, of the social Sentiments, and of the in
tellectual Faculties. This first Class contains three Orders
Order, comprising the effects of the false development of the
Senses,—which development gives rise to sensual excesses, coarseness,
brutality, selfishness, and vices and crimes of a material character.
2(Z Order, comprising the effects of the misdirection and perversion
of the social Sentiments, giving rise to antipathies, hq^reds, jealousies,
antagonisms and discords, and disorders of a moral character. Each
of the social Sentiments, when violated and outraged, takes a false de
velopment and produces effects exactly the opposite of its true nature.
Friendship and Love, for example, engender hatred, distrust, jealousy,
suspicion, coldness, etc., instead of the sympathy, confidence, devotion,
and other noble feelings which are natural to them. Benevolence
turns to malevolence, and philanthropy to misanthropy, under long
disappointment. These false or inverted developments of the social
Sentiments are the source of what are called, moral Evils.
3d Order, comprising the effects of the misdirection of the Intel
lectual Faculties, and of their ’subordination to the Senses and the
social Sentiments in their inverted development. In this state; they
engender craft, cunning, low intrigue, deception, hypocrisy, duplicity,
deceit, falseness, treachery, perfidy, and o.ther subversive effects- of an
intellectual character.
2d Class,—Social Evils. They include the various effects of an *
incomplete or false Organization of the five branches of the social Or
ganism :—Education, Industry, Social Institutions, Government, and
Religion. A few’ examples will explain this branch of the subject,
without entering into details.
Poverty and disease, the coarseness of the masses, and other Phys
ical Evils are caused by the false Organization of 'Industry, or the
second branch of the social Organism. The product of our ‘false In
dustry is, in the first place—comparatively to the wants ,of man—very
scanty; and in the next place, it is very inequitably divided. Here is
the true Cause of Poverty,—the explanation of the mystery of one. of
the Evils that afflicts man. Debility and disease—other Evils—have
their source, directly, in the prolonged and excessive! toil of our un
organized Industry ? indirectly, in the effect which its repulsiveness
produces of driving the rich from it, and causing them to lead a life
of idleness and inactivity.
The existence of antagonist and antipathetic classes in society, of
social inequality, the pride of caste, the subordination of Woman, the
tyranny of false and capricious customs, and other similar abuses are
caused by the false Organization of Social Institutions, or the third
branch bf the social Organism.
Tyranny, servitude, war, class privileges, monopoly, and abuses of a
political character are caused by the false Organization of Government,
or the fourth branch of the social Organism.
✓
�TSE
CIVILIZATION OF TEE
FUTURE.
243
Superstition,Ifana’ticisnT, intolerance, blind faith, persecution, and
religious abuses generally are engendered under the influence of false
Religious Ins&tutions, and especially of false Theologies.
3dEvils, in Nature. They comprise the disorders that re
sult from a derangement of the climate, the atmospheric system, and
other departments of Nature, and are caused by the neglect of cultiva
tion, falsmcultivation,. and ravage of the surface of the globe by man,
that is, by the false industrial action of Humanity on its planet. These
disorders (Evils in the physical world) consist in—1. The Derangement
ofxbtt^&n^ manifested in violent fluctuations of temperature, excess
of heat and cold, late and early frosts, draughts and prolonged rains,
and the uncertainty of the seasons. 2. The Derangement of the AtmoSfflkeric
manifested in violent storms, hurricanes, tornadoes,
Cyclone" and disturbance in the proportion of the elements of the
atmosphere. 3. Pervert
causing epidemic diseases, such
as the plague, cholera, and yellow and other fevers. 4. "Disorders in the
^egekablf-agx^^i/mal kingdoms, such as the oidium in the vine, potato
rot and onderpest, and the excessive spread of destructive insects and
vermin, and of weeds. 51 Perturbation of the electro-magnetic forces
of t^garth, peiwading the other departments, and giving rise to phenomena, now inexplicable! (possibly to earthquakes.) 6. False state of
the ^^P^ofulfflalobe. exhibited in the great deserts (looked upon as
the! natural and unchangeable condition of the planetary surface); in
theRwamps,.marshes, jungles, and arid steppes; the devastated and
ruined regions (like the Tigro-Euphrates basin); the treeless districts,
and the denuded mountain ranges. These great physical disorders or
evils! whichEn^belieyed to be natural and permanent, are in fact due
to thanon-cultivationf bafllcultivation, ravage and devastation of the
globe by manrj He exercises an immense influence for good or evil on
his planet, He can, for example, destroy the forests on ’the mountains of
a country, dryingmp the Streams, and rendering a region sterile that
beformwas Wtil^. The great'physical disorders that now exist in Na
ture will disappear under a system of universal and scientific cultiva
tion, and such a system will l>fput in execution when Industry shall
be scientifically organized, and dignified and rendered attractive, so as to
induce all mankind to engage voluntarily in it; when the Industrial
policy shall become entirely preponderant, as it will, over the military,
Iconm^^yll^^Mfirmncial policies; when the material resources of
Society shall be devotedgto industrial improvements; and when Humanity shall comprehend its collective function or destiny—that of
Overseer of the globe, and the creations upon it. When the labor,
treasures, and talent that have been devoted in the past to war, shall
be devoted to a systematic (cultivation and embellishment of the globe,
it will become in a few generationsEaBgarden. a scene of material har
mony and unity!
^Themgn of Evil is" o cease with the reign of the Inorganic So-
�244
THE CIVILI ZATIO 2V
OE THE
FUTURE.
cieties, it being the general expression of their disorders and discords.
The reign of Good is to begin with that of the Organic Societies.
Two classes of opposite social effects will be generated by opposite
social states.
Wealth and Health will be secured by a scientific Organization of
Industry. Social Concord and Harmony by a scientific Organization of Institutions, adapted to the social Sentiments. Political Justice, prac
tical Liberty, universal Peace, by the scientific Organization of political
Institutions. The full development of the Child, by the scientific
Organization of the three branches of Education. The real and prac
tical Sentiment of the Unity of the race, and its ideal association with
the cosmos, by a universal Science (a true theology) which will explain
to it its Destiny on the earth, and the plan and order of creation and
its place in it. ‘
The duration of the inorganic and transitional Societies is relatively
short, as is the inorganic (embryonic) phase in the career of the indi
vidual man. That of the organic and normal Societies ?is relatively
long, as is the period of organic development in man when compared
to that of gestation. In this organic and long period which lies before
Humanity in the future, the reign of Good will hold sway; and the
Order and Harmony (the result of Organization) which pervade all
spheres of the Universe where normal .Organization exists, will be
realized on the earth.
The formative and inorganic phase of development can, in no de
partment of creation—no more in the development of a social Organism
than of a human being or a globe—be avoided, unless finite creations
cease, and time and space, and succession and matter, are annihilated.
In this phase, effects are engendered and phenomena take place which
must, from a mathematical necessity, be different’from, and in many
cases exactly the opposite of,those of the1; organic state. It. is these
effects and phenomena—abnormal and transient—that constitute Evil.
From the earliest Civilization of Man—that on the banks of the
Nile—down through the Chaldeo-Assyrian, the Greek and Roman, and
the Oatholico-Feudal of the middle ages to our own, but one great Sys
tem of Society has existed and held its sway. There have been different,
stages in its progressive evolution, giving rise to the different Orders
pointed out, accompanied by different manifestations and phenomena
on the surface, but with Unity of Principles underneath. The ap
parently long duration of this System, with the reproduction of the
same effects—the^ same Evils—under different forms, has misled the
human mind, and caused it to frame the erroneous Induction that it
is the permanent and natural social state of mankind, destined, with
its discords and miseries, to last forever. This erroneous Induction,
this reasoning falsely from the known to the unknown, has -blinded
men on social questions; it has destroyed hope in the future, and faith
in 'human nature, and has paralyzed and still paralyzes all studies on
/
/
�THE
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the part of the thinkers and. intellectual leaders of the world on the
vast problem of a Social Reconstruction, and of happier social destinies
for Man. A new Civilization is to come—the true and normal Civiliza
tion of Humanity, based on the full development of the elements of
the six branches of Society, and their scientific Organization. It will
come, accompanied by the reign of Good; that is, of that Order,
Harmony, and Unity which are the general Law of creation, and
which prevail wherever preparatory Development or Evolution is ac
complished, and scientific Organization has taken place.
�
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Description
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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>
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
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
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The civilization of the future: necessity of the organization of society on scientific principles
Creator
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Brisbane, A.
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: New York
Collation: [225]-245 p. ; 26 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. From Modern Thinker, no. 1, 1870.
Publisher
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[American News Company]
Date
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[1870]
Identifier
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G5425
Rights
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<p class="western"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /><br />This work (The civilization of the future: necessity of the organization of society on scientific principles), identified by <span style="color:#0000ff;"><span lang="zxx"><u>Humanist Library and Archives</u></span></span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</p>
Format
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application/pdf
Type
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Text
Language
A language of the resource
English
Subject
The topic of the resource
Society
Civilization
Conway Tracts
Social Reform
Society