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NATIONALSECULAR SOCIETY,
AJL3DOS WinDtFSTWOTTVM '
[°NE PENNY.
NEW EDITION.]
TAKE A ROAD OF YOUR OWN
Or Individuality and Mental Freedom.
»
By
COLONEL ROBERT G. INGERSOLL.
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•
“ His Soul was like a Star and dwelt apart.”
On every hand are the enemies of individuality and mental freedom.
Custom meets us at the cradle and leaves us only at the tomb.
Our first questions are answered by ignorance, and our last by
superstition.. We are pushed and dragged by countless hands
along the beaten track, and our entire training can be summed up
in the word—suppression. Our desire to have a thing or to do a
thing is considered as conclusive evidence that we ought not to
do it. At every turn we run against cherubim and a flaming
sword guarding some entrance to the Eden of our desire. We are
allowed to investigate all subjects in which we feel no particular
interest, and to express the opinions of the majority with the
utmost freedom. We are taught that liberty of speech should
never be carried to the extent of contradicting the dead witnesses
of a popular superstition. Society offers continual rewards for self
betrayal, and they are nearly all earned and claimed, and some are
paid.
We have all read accounts of Christian gentlemen remarking,
when about to be hanged, how much better it would have been
for them if they had only followed a mother’s advice. But after
all, how fortunate it is for the world that the maternal advice
has not always been followed. How fortunate it is for us all that
| it is somewhat unnatural for a human being to obey. Universal
obedience is universal stagnation ; disobedience is one of the con
ditions of progress. Select any age of the world and tell me
what would have been the effect of implicit obedience. Suppose
the Church had had absolute control of the human mind at any
time, would not the words liberty and progress have been blotted
from human speech ? In defiance of advice, the world has
advanced.
�2
Suppose the astronomers had controlled the science of astro
nomy ; suppose the doctors had controlled the science of medicine ;
suppose kings had been left to fix the forms of government •
suppose our fathers had taken the advice of Paul, who said, “ Be
subject to the powers that be, because they are ordained of God ” ;
suppose the Church could control the world to-day ; we would go
back to chaos and old night. Philosophy would be branded as
infamous ; Science would again press its pale and thoughtful face
against the prison bars, and round the limbs of liberty would climb
the bigot’s flame.
It is a blessed thing that in every age some one has had
individuality enough and courage enough to stand by his own
convictions—some one who had the grandeur to say his say. I
believe it was Magellan who said: “ The Church says the earth
is flat; but I have seen its shadow on the moon, and I have morp.
confidence even in a shadow than the Church.” On the prow of
his ship were disobedience, defiance, scorn, and success.
The trouble with most people is, they bow to what is called
authority ; they have a certain reverence for the old because it is
old. They think a man is better for being dead, especially if he
has been dead a long time. They think the fathers of their nation
were the greatest and best of all mankind. All these things they
implicitly believe because it is popular and patriotic, and because
they were told so when they were very small, and remember
distinctly of hearing mother read it out of a book. It is hard to
over-estimate the influence of early training in the direction of
superstition. You first teach children that a certain book is true—
that it was written by God himself—that to question its truth is a
sin, that to deny it is a crime, and that should they die without
believing that book they will be forever damned without benefit of
clergy. The consequence is, that long before they read that book
they believe it to be true. When they do read it their minds are
wholly unfitted to investigate its claims. They accept it as a
matter of course.
In this way the reason is overcome, the sweet instincts of
humanity are blotted from the heart, and while reading its
infamous pages even justice throws aside her scales, shrieking for
revenge, and charity, with bloody hands, applauds a deed of murder.
In this way we are taught that the revenge of man is the justice
of God ; that mercy is not the same everywhere. In this way the
ideas of our race have been subverted. In this way we have made
tyrants, bigots, and inquisitors. In this way the brain of man has
become a kind of palimpsest upon which, and over the writings of
nature, superstition has scrawled her countless lies. One great
trouble is that most teachers are dishonest.
They teach as
certainties those things concerning which they entertain doubts.
�3
They do not say, “ we think this is so,” but “ we know this is so.”
They do not appeal to the reason of the pupil, but they command
his faith.
They keep all doubts to themselves; they do not
explain, they assert. All this way you make Christians, but you
cannot make men ; you cannot make women.
You can make
followers, but no leaders; disciples,, but no Christs. You may
promise power, honor, and happiness to all those who will blindly
follow, but you cannot keep your promise.
A monarch said to a hermit: “ Come with me and I will give
you power.”
“ I have all the power that I know how to use,” replied the
hermit.
“ Come,” said the king ; “ I will give you wealth.”
“ I have no wants that money can supply,” said the hermit.
“ I will give you honor,” said the monarch.
“ Ah, honor cannot be given; it must be earned,” was the
hermit’s answer.
“ Come,’, said the king, making a last appeal, “ and I will give
you happiness.”
“ No,” said the man of solitude, “ there is no happiness without
liberty, and he who follows cannot be free.”
“ You shall have liberty too,” said the king.
“ Then I will stay where I am,” said the old man.
And all the king’s courtiers thought the hermit a fool.
Now and then somebody examines, and, in spite of all, keeps his
manhood, and has the courage to follow where his reason leads.
Then the pious get together and repeat wise saws, and exchange
knowing nods and most prophetic winks. The stupidly wise sit
owl-like on the dead limbs of the tree of knowledge, and solemnly
hoot. Wealth sneers, and fashion laughs, and respectability passes
by on the other side, and Scorn points with all her skinny fingers,
and all the snakes of superstition writhe and hiss, and slander
lends her tongue, and infamy her brand, and perjury her oath, and
the law its power, and bigotry tortures, and the Church kills.
The Church hates a thinker precisely for the same reason a
robber dislikes a sheriff, or a thief despises the prosecuting witness.
Tyranny likes courtiers, flatterers, followers, fawners, and super
stition wants believers, disciples, zealots, hypocrites, and sub
scribers. The Church demands worship—the very thing that man
should give to no being, human or divine. To worship another is
to degrade yourself. Worship is awe and dread and vague fear and
blind hope. It is the spirit of worship that elevates the one and
■degrades the many; that builds palaces for robbers, erects monu
ments to crime, and forges manacles even for its own hands. The
worshipper always regrets that he is not the worshipped. We
should all remember that the intellect has no kness, and that,
�4
whatever the attitude of the body may be, the brave soul is always
found erect. Whoever worships, abdicates. Whoever believes at
the command of power tramples his own individuality beneath his,
feet, and voluntarily robs himself of all that renders man superiorto the brute.
The despotism of faith is justified upon the ground that Christian
countries are the grandest and most prosperous of the world. At
one time the same thing could have been truly said in India, in
Egypt, in Greece, in Rome, and in every other country that has, in.
the history of the world, swept to empire. This argument provesnot only too much, but the assumption upon which it is based is
utterly false. Numberless circumstances and countless conditionshave produced the prosperity of the Christian world. The truth
is, we have advanced in spite of religious zeal, ignorance, and
opposition.1 The Church has won no victories for the rights of
man. Luther labored to reform the Church, Voltaire to reform
men. Over every fortress of tyranny has waved, and still waves,
the banner of the Church. Wherever brave blood has been shed
the sword of the Church has been wet. On every chain has been
the sign of the cross. The altar and throne have leaned against,
and supported each other.
All that is good in our civilisation is the result of commerce,
climate, soil, geographical position, industry, invention, discovery,
art, and science. The Church has been the enemy of progress, for
the reason that it has endeavored to prevent man thinking for himself. To prevent thought is to prevent all advancement except in
the direction of faith.
Who can imagine the infinite impudence of a Church assuming
to think for the human race ? Who can imagine the infinite
impudence of a Church that pretends to be the mouthpiece of God,
and in his name threatens to inflict eternal punishment upon those
who honestly reject its claims and scorn its pretensions ? By what
right does a man, or an organisation of men, or a God, claim tohold a brain in bondage ? When a fact can be demonstrated force
is unnecessary ; when it cannot be demonstrated, an appeal to force
is infamous. In the presence of the unknown all have an equal
right to think.
Over the vast plain called life we are all travellers, and not one
traveller is perfectly certain that he is going in the right direction.
True it is that no other plain is so well supplied with guide-boards.
At every turn and crossing you will find them, and upon each one
is written the exact direction and distance. One great trouble is,
however, that these boards are all different, and the result is that,
most travellers are confused in proportion to the number they read.
Thousands of people are around each of these signs, and each one
is doing his best to convince the traveller that his particular board.
�5
is the only one upon which the least reliance can be placed, and
that if his road is taken the reward for so doing will be infinite and
•eternal, while all the other roads are said to lead to hell, and all
the makers of the other guide-books are declared to be heretics,
hypocrites, and liars. “ Well,” says a traveller, “ you may be right
in what you say; but allow me at least to read some of the other
■directions, and examine a little into their claims. I wish to rely a
little upon my own judgment in a matter of so great importance.”
“ No, sir,” shouts the zealot, “ that is the very thing you are not
allowed to do. You must go my way without investigation, or you
are as good as damned already.” “ Well,” says a traveller, “ if
ihat is so, I believe I had better go your way.” And so most of
them go along, taking the word of those who know as little as
themselves. Now and then comes one who, in spite of all threats,
■calmly examines the claims of all, and as calmly rejects them all.
These travellers take roads of their own, and are denounced by all
the others as infidels and Atheists.
Around all of these guide-boards, as far as the eye can reach,
the ground is covered with mountains of human bones, crumbling
and bleaching in the rain and sun. They are the bones of
murdered men and women—fathers, mothers, and'babes.
In my judgment, every human being should take a road of his
own. Every mind should be true to itself—should think, investi
gate and conclude for itself. This is a duty, alike incumbent upon
pauper and prince. Every soul should repel dictation and tyranny,
no matter from what source they come—from earth or heaven,
from men or gods. Besides, every traveller upon this vast plain
should give to every other traveller his best idea as to the road that
should be taken. Each is entitled to the honest opinion of all. And
there is but one way to get an honest opinion upon any subject what
ever. The person giving the opinion must be free from fear. The
merchant must not fear to lose his custom, the doctor his practice,
nor the preacher his pulpit. There can be no advance without
liberty. Suppression of honest inquiry is retrogression, and must
end in intelligent night. The tendency of orthodox religion to-day is
toward mental slavery and barbarism. Not one of the orthodox
ministers dare preach what he thinks if he knows a majority of
Ids congregation think otherwise. He knows that every member
■of his church stands guard over his brain with a creed, like a
■club, in his hand. He knows that he is not expected to search
after the ■truth, but that he is employed to defend the creed. Every
pulpit is a pillory, in which stands a hired culprit, defending the
justice of his own imprisonment.
Is it desirable that all should be exactly alike in their religious
convictions ? Is any such thing possible ? Do we not know that
there are not two persons alike in the whole world ? No two trees,
�6
no two leaves, no two anytliings that are alike ? Infinite diversity
is the law.
Religion tries to force all minds into one mould.
Knowing that all cannot believe, the Church endeavors to make
all say they believe. She longs for the unity of hypocrisy, and
detests the splendid diversity of individuality and freedom.
Nearly all people stand in a great horror of annihilation, and yet
to give up your individuality is to annihilate yourself. Mental
slavery is mental death, and every man who has given up his
intellectual freedom is the living coffin of his dead soul. In this t
sense, every church is a cemetery and every creed an epitaph.
We should all remember that to be like other people is to be
unlike ourselves, and that nothing can be more detestable in char
acter than servile imitation. The great trouble with imitation is,
that we are apt to ape those who are in reality far below us.
After all, the poorest bargain that a human being can make, is to
give his individuality for what is called respectability.
There is no saying more degrading than this : “ It is better to
be the tail of a lion than the head of a dog.” It is a responsibility
to think and act for yourself. Most people hate responsibility;
therefore they join something and become the tail of some lion.
They say : “ My party can act for me—my Church can do my
thinking. It is enough for me to pay taxes and obey the lion towhich I belong, without troubling myself about the right, thewrong, or the why or the wherefore of anything whatever.” Thesepeople are respectable. They hate reformers, and dislike to have
their minds disturbed. They regard convictions as very disagreeable
things to have. They love forms, and enjoy, beyond everything
else, telling what a splendid tail their lion has, and what a trouble
some dog their neighbor is. Beside this natural inclination to*
avoid personal responsibility is, and always has been, the fact that
every religionist has warned men against the presumption and
wickedness of thinking for themselves. The reason has been
denounced by all Christendom as the only unsafe guide. The
Church has left nothing undone to prevent man following thelogic of his brain. The plainest facts have been covered with the
mantle of mystery. The grossest absurdities have been declared
to be self-evident facts. The order of nature has been, as it were,,
reversed, and the hypocritical few might govern the honest many.
The man who stood by the conclusion of his reason was denounced
as a scorner and hater of God and his holy Church. From theorganisation of the first Church until this moment, to think your
own thoughts has been inconsistent with membership.
Every
member has borne the marks of collar and chain and whip. No
man ever seriously attempted to reform a Church without being
cast out and hunted down by the hounds of hypocrisy. The
highest crime against a creed is to change it. Reformation is treason.
�7
’
Thousands of young men are being educated at this moment by
the various Churches. What for ? In order that they may be
prepared to investigate the phenomena by which we are sur
rounded ? No ! The object, and the only object, is that they may
be prepared to defend a creed ; that they may learn the arguments
of th^ir respective Churches, and repeat them in the dull ears of a
thoughtless congregation. If one, after being thus trained at the
expense of the Methodists, turns Presbyterian or Baptist, he is
denounced as an ungrateful wretch. Honest investigation is utterly
impossible within the pale of any Church, for the reason that if you
think the Church is right you will not investigate, and if you think
it wrong the Church will investigate you. The consequence of this
is, that most of the theological literature is the result of sup
pression, of fear, tyranny, and hypocrisy.
Every orthodox writer necessarily said to himself : •“ If I write
that, my wife and children may want for bread; I will be covered
with shame and branded with infamy. But if I write this, I will
gain position, power, and honor. My Church rewards defenders,
and burns reformers.”
Under these conditions all your Scotts, Henrys, and McKnights
have written ; and weighed in these scales, what are their com
mentaries worth ? They are not the ideas and decisions of honest
judges, but the sophisms of the paid attorneys of superstition.
Who can tell what the world has lost by this infamous system of
suppression ?
How many grand thinkers have died with the
mailed hand of superstition upon their lips ? How many splendid
ideas have perished in the cradle of the brain, strangled in the
poison-coils of that python, the Church ?
For thousands of years a thinker was hunted down like an
escaped convict. To him who had braved the Church, every door
was shut, every knife was open. To shelter him from the wild
storm, to give him a crust when dying, to put a cup of water to
his cracked and bleeding lips; these were all crimes, not one of
which the Church ever did forgive ; and with the justice taught
of her God, his helpless children were exterminated as scorpions
and vipers.
Who at the present day can imagine the courage, the devotion to
principle, the intellectual and moral grandeur,.it once required to
be an infidel, to brave the Church, her racks, her fagots, her
dungeons, her tongues of fire—to defy and scorn her heaven and
hell—her devil and her Gcd ? They were the real saviors of our
race, the destroyers of superstition, and the creators of Science.
They were the real Titans who bared their grand foreheads to all
the thunderbolts of all the gods.
The Church has been, and still is, the great robber. She has
rifled not only the pockets but the brains of the world. She is the
�8
stone at the sepulchre of liberty; the upas tree, in whose shade
the intellect of man has withered; the Gorgon beneath whose gaze
the human heart has turned to stone. Under her influence even
the Protestant mother expects to be happy in heaven, while
her brave boy, who fell fighting for the rights of man, shall
writhe in hell.
•
It is said that some of the Indian tribes place the heads of their
children between pieces of bark until the form of the skull is per
manently changed. To us this seems a most shocking custom ;
and yet, after all, is it not as bad to put the souls of our children in
the straight-jacket of a creed ? to so utterly deform their minds
that they regard the God of the Bible as a being of infinite mercy,
and really consider it a virtue to believe a thing just because it
seems unreasonable? Every child in the Christian world has
uttered its wondering protest against this outrage. All the
machinery of the Church is constantly employed in corrupting the
reason of children. In every possible way they are robbed of their
own thoughts and 'forced to accept the statements of others.
Every Sunday-school has for its object the crushing out of every
germ of individuality. The poor children are taught that nothing
can be more acceptable to God than unreasoning obedience and
eyeless faith, and that to believe God did an impossible act is far
better than to do a good one yourself. They are told that all
religions have been simply the John-the-Baptists of ours ; that all
the gods of antiquity have withered and shrunken into the Jehovah
of the Jews, and that all the longings and aspirations of the race
are realised in the motto of the Evangelical Alliance, “ Liberty in
non-essentials ; ” that all there is, or ever was, of religion, can be
found in the Apostles’ Creed; that there is nothing left to be dis
covered ; that all the thinkers are dead, and all the living should
simply be believers; that we have only to repeat the epitaph
found on the grave of Iwisdom ; that graveyards are the best
possible universities, and that the children must be for even beaten
with the bones of the fathers.
It has always seemed absurd to suppose that a God would choose
for his companions, during all eternity, the dear souls whose
highest and only ambition is to obey. He certainly would now
and then be tempted to make the same remark made by an English
gentlemen to his poor guests. The gentleman had invited a man
in humble circumstances to dine with him. The man was so
overcome with the honor that to everything the gentleman said he
replied “Yes.” Tired at last with the monotony of acquiescence,
the gentleman cried out, “ For God’s sake, my good man, say ‘ No,’
just once, so there will be two of us.”
Is it possible that an infinite God created this world simply to be
the dwelling place of slaves and serfs ; simply for the purpose of
�9
^raising orthodox Christians ? That he did a few miracles to
;astonish them ; and that all the evils of life are simply his punish
ments ; and that he is finally going to turn heaven into a kind of
religious museum filled with Baptist barnacles, petrified Presby
terians, and Methodist mummies ? I want no heaven for which I
must give my reason, and no happiness in exchange for my liberty,
.and no immortality that demands the surrender of my individuality.
Better rot in the windowless tomb, to which there is no door but
the red mouth of the pallid worm, than wear the jewelled collar
•even of a god.
Religion does not, and cannot, contemplate man as free. She
accepts only the homage of the prostrate, and scorns the offerings
<of those who stand erect. She cannot tolerate the liberty of
thought. The wide and sunny fields belong not to her domain.
The star-lit heights of genius and individuality are above and
beyond her appreciation and power. Her subjects cringe at her
feet, covered with the dust of obedience. They are not athletes
: standing poised by rich life and brave endeavor like antique statues,
ibut shrivelled deformities, studying with furtive glance the cruel
face of power.
No religionist seems capable of comprehending this plain truth.
'There is this difference between thought and action; for our
^actions we are responsible to ourselves and to those injuriously
.affected:; for thoughts there can, in the nature of things, be no
^responsibility to gods or men, here or hereafter. And yet the
iProtestant has vied with the Catholic in denouncing freedom of
^thought:; and, while I was taught to hate Catholicism with every
drop of my blood, it is only justice to say that in all essential par
ticulars it is precisely the same as every other religion. Luther
denounced mental liberty with all the coarse and brutal vigor of
ihis nature ; Calvin despised, from the very bottom of his petrified
■heart, anything that even looked like religious toleration, and
t solemnly declared that to advocate it was to crucify Christ afresh.
All the founders of all the orthodox Churches have advocated the
:same infamous tenet. The truth is that what is called religion is
^necessarily inconsistent with free thought.
A believer is a bird in a cage ; a Freethinker is an eagle parting
.the clouds with tireless wing.
At present, owing to the inroads that have been made by Liberals
and Infidels, most of the Churches pretend to be in favor of
religious liberty. Of these Churches we will ask this question :
How can a man, who conscientiously believes in religious liberty,
worship a God who does not ? They say to us : “ We will not
iimprison you on account of your belief, but our God will.” “ We
will not burn you because you throw away the sacred Scriptures,
ibui their Author will.” “ We think it an infamous crime to per-
�10
secute our brethren for opinion’s sake, but the God whom we
ignorantly worship will on that account damn his own children
forever.”
Why is it that these Christians not only detest the infidels, but.
cordially despise each other ? Why do they refuse to worship in'
the temples of each other ? Why do they care so little for thedamnation of men and so much for the baptism of children 9 Whv
will they adorn their churches with the money of thieves and1
flatter vice for the sake of subscriptions ? Why will they attempt
to bribe Science to certify to the writings of God ? Why do they
torture the words of the great into an acknowledgment of the truth
of Christianity? Why do they stand with hat in hand before
presidents, kings, emperors, and scientists, begging, like Lazarus,
for a few crambs of religious comfort ? Why are they so delighted
to find an allusion to Providence in the message of Lincoln ? Why
are they so afraid that someone will find out that Paley wrote an-,
essay in favor of the Epicurean philosophy, and that Sir IsaacNewton was once an infidel? Why are they so anxious to show
that Voltaire recanted; that Paine died palsied with fear; that;
EmPer°r Juliau cried out “ Galilean, thou hast conquered”;
that Gibbon died a Catholic ; that Agassiz had a little confidence
in i loses; that the old Napoleon was once complimentary enough,
to say that he thought Christ greater than himself or Csesar ; that.
Washington was caught on his knees at Valley Forge; that blunt,
old Ethan Allen told his child to believe the religion of her mother
that Franklin said, “ Don’t unchain the tiger,” and that Volney got
frightened in a storm at sea ?
,
because the foundation of their temple is crumbling, because*
the walls are cracked, the pillars leaning, the great dome swaying"
to its fall, and because Science has written over its high altar its.
menu, mene, tekel, upHARsix—the old words, destined to be the.
epitaph of all religions ?
Every assertion of individual independence has been a step,
towards infidelity. Luther started towards Humboldt; Wesley
toward John Stuart Mill. To really reform the Church is to*
destroy it. Every new religion has a little less superstition than
the old, so that the religion of Science is but a question of time.
I will not say the Church has been an unmitigated evil in all
respects. Its history is infamous and glorious. It has delighted
m the production of extremes. It has furnished murderers for itsown martyrs ; it has sometimes fed the body, but has always starved
the soul. It. has been a charitable highwayman, a profligate beggar,
a generous pirate. It has produced some angels, and a multitude
of devils. It has built more prisons than asylums. It made a.
hundred orphans while it cared for one. In one hand it had.
carried the alms-dish and in the other a sword. It has founded.
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schools and endowed universities for the purpose of destroying true
learning. It filled the world with hypocrites and zealots, and upon
the cross of its own Christ it crucified the individuality of man.
It has sought to destroy the independence of the soul, and put the
world upon its knees. This is its crime. The commission of thiscrime was necessary to its existence. In order to compel obedience
it declared that it had the truth, and all the truth ; that God had
made it the keeper of his secret—his agent and his vicegerent. It
declared that all other religions were false and infamous. It
rendered all compromise impossible, and all thought superfluous^
Thought was its enemy, obedience was its friend. Investigation
was fraught with danger ; therefore investigation was suppressed..
The holy of holies was behind the curtain. All this was upon the
principle that forgers hate to have the signature examined by an
expert, and that imposture detests curiosity.
“ He that hath ears to hear, let him hear,” has always been the
favorite text of the Church.
In short, Christianity has always opposed every forward move
ment of the human race. Across the highway of progress it has
always been building breastworks of Bibles, tracts, commentaries,
prayer-books, creeds, dogmas, and platforms, and at every advance
the Christians have gathered together behind these heaps of
rubbish and shot the poisoned arrows of malice at the soldiers,
of freedom.
And even the liberal Christian of to-day has his holy of holies,
and in the niche of the temple of his heart has his idol. He still
clings to a part of the old superstition, and all the pleasant
memories of the old belief linger in the horizon of his thoughts
like a sunset. We associate the memory of those we love with the
religion of our childhood. It seems almost a sacrilege to rudely
destroy the idols that our fathers worshipped, and turn their sacred
and beautiful truths into the fables of barbarism. Some throw
away the Old Testrment and cling to the New, while others give
up everything except the idea that there is a personal God, and
that in some wonderful way we are the objects of his care.
Even this, in my opinion, as Science, the great iconoclast,
marches onward, will have to be abandoned with the rest. The
great ghost will surely share the fate of the little ones. They fled
at the first appearance of the dawn, and the other will vanish with
the perfect day. Until then the independence of man is little
more than a dream. Overshadowed by an immense personality,
in the presence of the irresponsible and the infinite, the indivi
duality of man is lost, and he falls prostrate in the very dust of
fear. Beneath the frown of the Absolute, man stands a wretched,
trembling slave; beneath his smile he is at best only a fortunate
serf. Governed by a Being whoBe arbitrary will is law, chained to
�12
-the chariot of power, his destiny rests in the pleasure of the
Unknown. Under these circumstances, what wretched object can
he have m lengthening out his aimless life ?
And yet, in most minds, there is a vague fear of the gods—a
shrinking from the malice of the skies. Our fathers were slaves,
■and nearly all their children are mental serfs. The enfranchise
ment of the soul is a slow and painful process. Superstition, the
mother of those hideous twins, Fear and Faith, from her throne of
.skulls still rules the world, and will until the mind of woman ceases
to be the property of priests.
When women reason and babes sit in the lap of philosophy
-the victory of reason over the shadowy host of darkness will be
•complete;
In the minds of many, long after the intellect has thrown aside
as utterly fabulous the legends of the Church, there still remains a
lingering superstition, born of the mental habits contracted in
•childhood, that after all there may be a grain of truth in these
mountains of theological mist, and that possibly the superstitious
side is the side of safety.
A gentleman, walking along the ruins of Athens, came upon a
fallen statue of Jupiter ; making an exceedingly low bow, he said :
.0 Jupiter! I salute thee.” He then added: “ Should you ever
sit upon the throne of heaven again, do not, I pray you, forget that
I treated you politely when you were prostrate.”
We have all been taught by the Church that nothing is so well
calculated to excite the ire of the Deity as to express a doubt as to
his existence, and that to deny it is an unpardonable sin. Numerous
well-attested instances are referred to o^ Atheists being struck
dead, for denying the existence of God. According to these
religious people, God is infinitely above us in every respect, infinitely
merciful, and yet he cannot bear to hear a poor finite man honestly
question his existence. Knowing, as he does, that his children are
groping in darkness and struggling with doubt and fear ; knowing
that he could enlighten them if he would, he still holds the expres
sion of a sincere doubt as to his existence the most infamous of
■crimes. According to orthodox logic, God having furnished us with
imperfect minds, has a right to demand a perfect result.
Suppose Mr. Smith should overhear a couple of small bugs hold
ing a discussion as to the existence of Mr. Smith, and suppose one
should have the temerity to declare, upon the honor of a bug, that
he had examined the whole question to the best of his ability,
including the argument based upon design, and had come to the
conclusion that no man by the name of Smith had ever lived.
Think then of Mr. Smith flying into an ecstacy of rage, crushing
the Atheist bug beneath his iron heel, while he exclaimed: “I will
teach you, you blasphemous wretch, that Smith is a diabolical fact! ”
�13
What then can we think of a God who would open the artillery of
heaven upon one of his own children for simply expressing his,
honest thought? And what man who really thinks can help
repeating the words of Ennius: “ If there are Gods they certainly
pay no attention to the affairs of man.”
Think of the millions of men and women who have been
destroyed simply for loving and worshipping this God. Is it.
possible that this God, having infinite power, saw his loving and.
heroic children languishing in the darkness of dungeons ; heard
the clank of their chains when they lifted their hands to him in
the agony of prayer; saw them stretched on the bigot’s rack,
where death alone had pity; saw the serpents of flame crawl
hissing round their shrinking forms—saw all this for sixteen
hundred years, and sat as silent as a stone ?
From such a God, why should man expect assistance ? Why
should he waste his days in fruitless prayer ? Why should he fall
upon his knees and implore a phantom—a phantom that is deaf,
and dumb, and blind ?
Although we live in what is called a free government—and
politically we are free—there is but little religious liberty in
America. Society demands either that you belong to some church,
or that you suppress your opinions. It is contended by many that
ours is a Christian government, founded upon the Bible, and that
all who look upon that book as false or foolish are destroying the
foundation of our country. The truth is, our government is not
founded upon the rights of gods, but upon the rights of men. Our
Constitution was framed, not to declare and uphold the deity of
Christ, but the sacredness of humanity. Our is the first govern
ment made by the people and for the people. It is the only nation
with which the gods have had nothing to do. And yet there are
some judges dishonest and cowardly enough to solemnly decide
that this is a Christian country, and that our free institutions are
based upon the infamous laws of Jehovah. Such judges are the
Jeffries of the Church. They believe that decisions, made by
hirelings at the bidding of kings, are binding upon man forever.
They regard old law as far superior to modem justice. They are
what might be called orthodox judges. They spend their days in
finding out, not what ought to be, but what has been. With their
backs to the sunrise they worship the night. There is only one
future event with which they concern themselves, and that is their
re-election. No honest court ever did, or ever will, decide that our
Constitution is Christian. The Bible teaches that the powers that
be are ordained of God. The Bible teaches that God is the source
of all authority, and that all kings have obtained their power
from him. Every tyrant has claimed to be the agent of the Most
High. The Inquisition was founded, not in the name of man, but
�14
in the name of God. All the governments of Europe recognise the
the greatness of God, and the littleness of the people. In all ages
hypocrites, called priests, have put crowns upon the heads of
thieves, called kings.
Decoration °f Independence announces the sublime truth
that all power comes from the people. This was a denial and the
hrst denial of a nation, of the infamous dogma that God confers
the right upon one man to govern others. It was the first grand
assertion of the dignity of the human race.
It declared the
governed to be the source of power, and in fact denied the
authority of any and all gods. Through the ages of slaverythrough the weary centuries of the lash and chain, God was
acknowledged ruler of the world.
To enthrone man was to
dethrone Him.
To Paine, Jefferson, and Franklin we are indebted, more than
to all others, for a human government, and for a Constitution in
which no God is recognised as superior to the legally expressed
will of the people.
They knew that to put God in the Constitution was to put
man out. They knew that the recognition of a deity would be
seized upon by fanatics and zealots as a pretext for destroying the
liberty of thought. They knew the terrible history of the Church
too well to place in her keeping, or in the keeping of her God, the
sacred rights of man. They intended that all should have the
right to. worship, or not to worship ; that our laws should make no
distinction on account of creed.
They intended to found and
frame a government for man, and for man alone. They wished to
preserve the individuality and liberty of all; to prevent the few
from governing the many, and the many from persecuting and
'destroying the few.
8
Notwithstanding all this, the spirit of persecution still lingers in
■our laws. In many of the States, only those who believe in the
existence of some kind of God are under the protection of the
law.
The supreme court of Illinois decided, in the year of grace 1856,
that an unbeliever in the existence of an intelligent First Cause
■could not be allowed to testify in any court. His wife and children
might have been murdered before his very face, and yet in the
absence of other witnesses, the murderer could not have even been
indicted. The Atheist was a legal outcast. To him, Justice was
not only blind, but deaf. He was liable, like other men, to support
the government, and was forced to contribute his share towards
paying the salaries of the very judges who decided that under no
■circumstances could his voice be heard in any court. This was the
law of Illinois, and so remained until the adoption of the new Con
stitution. By such infamous means has the Church endeavored to
�15
•chain the human mind, and protect the majesty of her God. The
fact is, we have no national religion, and no national God; but
•every citizen is allowed to have a religion and a God of his own,
■or to reject all religions and deny the existence of all gods. The
Church, however, never has, and never will understand and
.appreciate the genius of government.
Last year, in a convention of Protestant bigots, held in the City
■of New York for the purpose of creating public opinion in favor of
a religious amendment to the Federal Constitution, a reverend
•doctor of divinity, speaking of Atheists, said: “ What are the rights
•of the Atheist ? I would tolerate him as I would tolerate a poor
lunatic. I would tolerate him as I would tolerate a conspirator.
He may live and go free, hold his lands and enjoy his home—he
may even vote; but for any higher or more advanced citizenship,
lie is, as I hold, utterly disqualified.” These are the sentiments of
the Church to-day.
Give the Church a place in the Constitution, let her touch once
more the sword of power, and the priceless fruit of all the ages will
turn to ashes on the lips of men.
In religious ideas and conceptions there has been for ages a slow
a,nd steady development. At the bottom of the ladder (speaking
of modern times) is Catholicism, and at the top is Science. The
intermediate rounds of the ladder are occupied by the various sects,
whose name is legion.
But whatever may be the truth upon any subject, has nothing
to do with our right to investigate that subject, and express any
opinion we may form. And that I ask, is the same right I freely
accord to all others.
A few years ago a Methodist clergyman took it upon himself to
give me a piece of friendly advice. “ Although you may disbelieve
the Bible,” said he, “ you ought not to say so. That you should
keep to yourself.”
“ Do you believe the Bible? ” said I.
He replied, “ Most assuredly.”
To which I retorted: “ Your answer conveys no information
to me. You may be following your own advice. You told me to
suppress my opinions. Of course a man who will advise others
to dissimulate will not always be particular about telling the
truth himself.”
There can be nothing more utterly subversive of all that is really
valuable than the suppression of honest thought. No man, worthy
of the form he bears, will at the command of Church and State
solemnly repeat a creed his reason scorns.
It is the duty of each and every one to maintain his individuality.
“ This above all, to thine own self be true, and it must follow as
the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.” It is
�a magnificent thing to be the sole proprietor of yourself. It is a.
terrible thing to wake uP.a^ night and say: “ There is nobody in
.
this bed.”
,
x 1S humiliating to know that your ideas are all
borrowed; that you are indebted to your memory for your prin
ciples ; that your religion is simply one of your habits, and that
you would have convictions if they were only contagious It is
mortifying to feel that you belong to a mental m?b, and cry
Crucify him, because the others do; that you reap what the
great and brave have sown, and that you can benefit the world onlv
by leaving it.
J
Surely every human being ought to attain to the dignity of the
unit. Surely it is worth something to be one, and to feel that the
census of the universe would be incomplete without counting you.
Surely there is a grandeur in knowing that in the realm of thought
at least, you are without a chain; that you have the right to*
explore all heights and all depths; that there are no walls nor
fences, nor prohibited places, nor sacred corners in all the vast
expanse of thought; that your intellect owes no allegiance to any
being, human or divine; that you hold all in fee and upon no con
dition and by no tenure whatever ; that in the world of mind you
are relieved from all personal dictation, and from the ignorant
tyranny of majorities. Surely it is worth something to feel that
ere are no priests, no popes, no parties, no governments, no*
kings, no gods, to whom your intellect can be compelled to pay a
reluctant homage. Surely it is a joy to know that all the cruel
ingenuity of bigotry can devise no prison, no dungeon, no cell in
which for one instant to confine a thought; that ideas cannot be
dislocated by racks, nor crushed in iron boots, nor burned with fire.
Surely it is sublime to think that the brain is a castle, and that
within its curious bastions and winding-halls the soul, in spite of
all worlds and all beings, is the supreme sovereign of itself.
Reprinted verbatim, from the authorised American Edition.
~ READ*—
THE
FREETHINKER,
Edited by G. W. FOOTE. >.
THE LIVELIEST PAPER IN ENGLAND.
Published Every Thursday.
Price Twopence.
The Fbeethought Publishing Company, Limited, 2 Newcastle St
Farringdon St., London, E.C.
�
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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 Ethical Society
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Take a road of your own, or : Individuality and mental freedom
Description
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Edition: New ed.
Place of publication: [London]
Collation: 16 p. ; 19 cm.
Notes: Reprinted verbatim from the authorised American edition. No. 40d in Stein checklist. Date of publication from KVK. Part of the NSS pamphlet collection.
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Ingersoll, Robert Green [1833-1899]
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[Freethought Publishing Company]
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[1902]
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Individualism
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Individualism
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Text
FBEETIIOUGIIT PUBLISHING CCO/TMATN EDITION.
BY
COL. R. G. INGERSOLL.
Reprinted verbatim from the authorised American Edition.
LONDON.
FREETHOUGHT PUBLISHING COMPANY,
G3, FLEET STREET, E.C.
1883
PRICE ONE PENNY.
�LONDON :
HINTED BY ANNIE BESANT AND CHARLES BRADLAUGII,
63, FLEET,-'STREET, E.C.
�B'X'IS?
1^*4- O \
“Take a Road of Your Own;”
OR,
INDIVIDUALITY AND MENTAL FREEDOM.
His Soul was like a Star and dwelt apart.”
On every hand are the enemies of individuality and mental freedom.
Custom meets us at the cradle and leaves us only at the tomb. Our
first questions are answered by ignorance, and our last by supersti
tion. We are pushed and dragged by countless hands along the
beaten track, and our entire training can be summed up in the word
—suppression. Our desire to have a thing or to do a thing is con
sidered as conclusive evidence that we ought not to have it, and
ought not to do it. At every turn we run against cherubim and a
flaming sword guarding some entrance to the Eden of our desire.
We are allowed to investigate all subjects in which we feel no
particular interest, and to express the opinions of the majority with
the utmost freedom. We are taught that liberty of speech should
never be carried to the extent of contradicting the dead witnesses of
:& popular superstition. Society offers continual rewards for selfbetrayal, and they are nearly all earned and claimed, and some are
paid.
We have all read accounts of Christian gentlemen remarking,
when about to be hanged, how much better it would have been for
them if they had only followed a mother’s advice. But after all,
how fortunate it is for the world that the maternal advice has not
always been followed. How fortunate it is for us all that it is some
what unnatural for a human being to^ obey. Universal obedience
is universal stagnation; disobedience is one of the conditions of
progress. Select -any age of the world and tell me what would have
been the effect of implicit obedience. Suppose the Church had had
absolute control of the human mind at any time, would not the
words liberty and progress have been blotted from human speech ?
In defiance of advice, the world has advanced.
Suppose the astronomers had controlled the science of astronomy;
suppose the doctors had controlled the science of medicine ; suppose
kings had been left to fix the forms of government; suppose our
fathers had taken the advice of Paul, who said, “ be subject to the
powers that be, because they are ordained of Godsuppose the
■Church could control the world to-day ; we would go back to chaos
and old night. Philosophy would be branded as infamous ; Science
would again press its pale and thoughtful face against the prison
bars, and round the limbs of liberty would climb the bigot’s flame.
It is a blessed thing that in every age some one has had indivi
duality enough and courage enough to stand by his own convictions
—some one who had the grandeur to say his say. I believe it was
Magellan who said : “ The Church says the earth is flat; but I have
■seen its shadow on the moon, and I have more confidence even in
�4
a shadow than the Church.” On the prow of his ship were dis
obedience, defiance, scorn, and success.
The trouble with most people is, they bow to what is called au
thority ; they have a certain reverence for the old because it is old.
They think a man is better for being dead, especially if he has been
dead a long time. They think the fathers of their nation were the
greatest and best of all mankind. All these things they implicitly
believe because it is popular and patriotic, and because they were
told so when they were very small, and remember distinctly of hear
ing mother read it out of a book. It is hard to over-estimate the
influence of early training in the direction of superstition. You
first teach children that a certain book is true—that it was written
by God himself—that to question its truth is a sin, that to deny it is
a crime, and that should they die without believing that book they
will be forever damned without benefit of clergy. The consequence
is, that long before they read that book, they believe it to be true.
When they do read it their minds are wholly unfitted to investigate
its claims. They accept it as a matter of course.
In this way the reason is overcome, the sweet instincts of humanity
are blotted from the heart, and while reading its infamous pages
even justice throws aside her scales, shrieking for revenge, and
charity, with bloody hands, applauds a deed of murder. In this
way we are taught that the revenge of man is the justice wGod
that mercy is not the same everywhere. In this way the ideas of our
race have been subverted. In this way we have made tyrants,
bigots, and inquisitors. In this way the brain of man has become akind of palimpsest upon which, and over the writings of nature,
superstition has scrawled her countless lies. One great trouble is
that most teachers are dishonest. They teach as certainties those
things concerning which they entertain doubts. They do not say,
“ we think this is so,” but “ we know this is so.” They do not appeal
to the reason of the pupil, but they command his faith. They keep
all doubts to themselves ; they do not explain, they assert. All this
way you may make Christians, but you cannot make men ■ you can
not make women. You can make followers, but no leaders; dis
ciples, but no Christs. You may promise power, honor, and happi
ness to all those who will blindly follow, but you cannot keep your
promise.
A monarch said to a hermit, “ Come with me and I will give you
Jiower.”
“ I have all the power that I know how to use,” replied the hermit.
“ Come,” said the king, “ I will give you wealth.”
“ I have no wants that money can supply,” said the hermit.
“I will give you honor,” said the monarch.
“ Ah, honor cannot be given, it must be earned,” was the hermit’s
answer.
“ Come,” said the king, making a last appeal, “ and I will give
you happiness.”
“No,” said the man of solitude, “ there is no happiness without
liberty, and he who follows cannot be free.”
�5
“You shall have liberty too,” said the king.
“Then I will stay where I am,” said the old man.
And all the king’s courtiers thought the hermit a fool.
Now and then somebody examines, and in spite of all keeps hi3
manhood, and has the courage to follow where his reason leads.
Then the pious get together and repeat wise saws, and exchange
knowing nods and most prophetic winks. The stupidly wise sit owl
like on the dead limbs of the tree of knowledge, and solemnly hoot.
Wealth sneers, and fashion laughs, and respectability passes by on
the other side, and scorn points with all her skinny fingers, and all
the snakes of superstition writhe and hiss, and slander lends her
tongue, and infamy her brand, and perjury her oath, and the law its
power, and bigotry tortures, and the Church kills.
The Church hates a thinker precisely for the same reason a robber
dislikes a sheriff, or a thief despises the prosecuting witness. Tyranny
likes courtiers, flatterers, followers, fawners, and superstition wants
believers, disciples, zealots, hypocrites, and subscribers. The Church
demands worship—the very thing that man should give to no being,
human or divine. To worship another is to degrade yourself.
Worship is awe and dread and vague fear and blind hope. It is the
spirit of worship that elevates the one and degrades the many ; that
builds palaces for robbers, erects monuments to crime, and forges
manacles even for its own hands. The worshipper always regrets that
he is not the worshipped. We should all remember that the intellect
has no knees, and that whatever the attitude of the body may be,
the brave soul is always found erect. Whoever worships, abdicates.
Whoever believes at the command of power, tramples his own indivi
duality beneath his feet, and voluntarily robs himself of all that
renders man superior to the brute.
The despotism of faith is justified upon the ground that Christian
countries are the grandest and most prosperous of the world. At
one time the same thing could have been truly said in India, in
Egypt, in Greece, in Rome, and in every other country that has, in
the history of the world, swept to empire. This argument proves
too much not only, but the assumption upon which it is based is
utterly false. Numberless circumstances and countless conditions
have produced the prosperity of the Christian world. The truth is,
we have advanced in spite of religious zeal, ignorance, and opposi
tion. The Church has won no victories for the rights of man.
Luther labored to reform the Church—Voltaire, to reform men.
Over every fortress of tyranny has waved, and still waves, the banner
of the Church. Wherever brave blood has been shed, the sword of
the Church has been wet. On every chain has been the sign of the
cross. The altar and throne have leaned against and supported
each other.
All that is good in our civilization is the result of commerce,
climate, soil, geographical position, industry, invention, discovery,
art, and science. The Church has been the enemy of progress, for
the reason that it has endeavored to prevent man thinking for him
self. To prevent thought is to prevent all advancement except in
•the direction of faith.
�6
Who can imagine the infinite impudence of a Church assuming
to think for the human race ? Who can imagine the infinite impu
dence of a Church that pretends to be the mouthpiece of God, and
in his name threatens to inflict eternal punishment upon those who
honestly reject its claims and scorn its pretensions ? By what right
does a man, or an organization of men, or a god, claim to hold a
brain in bondage ? When a fact can be demonstrated, force is un
necessary ; when it cannot be demonstrated, an appeal to force is
infamous. In the presence of the unknown all have an equal right
to think.
Over the vast plain called life we are all travellers, and not one
traveller is perfectly certain that he is going in the right direction.
True it is that no other plain is so well supplied with guide-boards.
At every turn and crossing you will find them, and upon each one
is written the exact direction and distance. One great trouble is,
however, that these boards are all different, and the result is that
most travellers are confused in proportion to the number they read.
Thousands of people are around each of these signs, and each one
is doing his best to convince the traveller that his particular board is
the only one upon which the least reliance can be placed, and that
if his road is taken the reward for so doing will be infinite and
eternal, while all the other roads are said to lead to hell, and all the
makers of the other guide-boards are declared to be heretics, hypo
crites and liars. “Well,” says a traveller, “you maybe right in
what you say, but allow me at least to read some of the other direc
tions and examine a little into their claims. I wish to rely a little
upon my own judgment in a matter of so great importance.” “ No,
sir,” shouts the zealot, “that is the very thing you are not allowed
to do. You must go my way without investigation, or you are as
good as damned already.” “ Well,” says the traveller, “ if that is so,
I believe I had better go your way.” And so most of them go along,
taking the word of those who know as little as themselves. Now
and then comes one who, in spite of all threats, calmly examines theclaims of all, and as calmly rejects them all. These travellers take
roads of their own, and are denounced by all the others, as infidels
and atheists.
Around all of these guide-boards, as far as the eye can reach, the
ground is covered with mountains of human bones, crumbling and
bleaching in the rain and sun. They are the bones of murdered
men and women—fathers, mothers and babes.
In my judgment, every human being should take a road of his
own. Every mind should be true to itself—should think, investi
gate and conclude for itself. This is a duty alike incumbent upon
pauper and prince. Every soul should repel dictation and tyranny,
no matter from what source they come—from earth or heaven, from
men or gods. Besides, every traveller upon this vast plain should
give to every other traveller his best idea as to the road that should
be taken. Each is entitled to the honest opinion of all. And there
is but one way to get an honest opinion upon any subject whatever.
The person giving the opinion must be free from fear. The mer-
�chant must not fear to lose his custom, the doctor his practice, nor
the preacher his pulpit. There can be no advance without liberty.
Suppression of honest inquiry is retrogression, and must end in
intellectual night. The tendency of orthodox religion to-day is
toward mental slavery and barbarism. Not one of the orthodox
ministers dare preach what he thinks if he knows a majority of his
congregation think otherwise. He knows that every member of his
church stands guard over his brain with a creed, like a club, in his
hand. He knows that he is not expected to search after the truth,
but that he is employed to defend the creed. Every pulpit is a
pillory, in which stands a hired culprit, defending the justice of his
own imprisonment.
Is it desirable that all should be exactly alike in their religious
convictions ? Is any such thing possible ? Do we not know that
there are not two persons alike in the whole world ? No two trees,
no two leaves, no two anythings that are alike ? Infinite diversity
is the law. Religion tries to force all minds into one mould. Know
ing that all cannot believe, the Church endeavors to make all say
they believe. She longs for the unity of hypocrisy, and detests the
splendid diversity of individuality and freedom.
Nearly all people stand in great horror of annihilation, and yet to
give up your individuality is to annihilate yourself. Mental slavery
is mental death, and every man who has given up his intellectual
freedom is the living coffin of his dead soul. In this sense, every
church is a cemetery and every creed an epitaph.
We should all remember that to be like other people is to be un
like ourselves, and that nothing can be more detestable in character
than servile imitation. The great trouble with imitation is, that we
are apt to ape those who are in reality far below us. After all, the
poorest bargain that a human being can make, is to give his indivi
duality for what is called respectability.
There is no saying more degrading than this : “It is better to be
the tail of a lion than the head of a dog.” It is a responsibility to
think and act for yourself. Most people hate responsibility; there
fore they join something and become the tail of some lion. They
say: “ My party can act for me—my church can do my thinking. It
is enough for me to pay taxes and obey the lion to which I belong,
without troubling myself about the right, the wrong, or the why ©r
the wherefore of anything whatever.” These people are respectable.
They hate reformers, and dislike exceedingly to have their minds
disturbed. They regard convictions as very disagreeable things to
have. They love forms, and enjoy, beyond everything else, telling
what a splendid tail their lion has, and what a troublesome dog their
neighbor is. Besides this natural inclination to avoid personal re
sponsibility, is and always has been, the fact, that every religionist
has warned men against the presumption and wickedness of thinking
for themselves. The reason has been denounced by all Christendom
as the only unsafe guide. The Church has left nothing undone to
prevent man following the logic of his brain. The plainest facts
have been covered with the mantle of mystery. The grossest
�w
the dwelling-place of slaves and serfs ? simply for the purpose of
raising orthodox Christians ? That he did a few miracles to astonish
them ■ and that all the evils of life are simply his punishments, and
that he is finally going to turn heaven into a kind of religious
museum filled with Baptist barnacles, petrified Presbyterians and
Methodist mummies ? I. want no heaven for which I must give my
reason, and no happiness in exchange for my liberty, and no im
mortality that demands the surrender of my individuality. Better
rot in the windowless tomb, to which there is no door but the red
mouth of the pallid worm, than wear the jewelled collar even of a
god.
Religion does not, and cannot, contemplate man as free. She
accepts only the homage of the prostrate, and scorns the offeringsof those who stand erect. She cannot tolerate the liberty of thought.
The wide and sunny fields belong not to her domain. The star-lit
heights of genius and individuality are above and beyond her appreci
ation and power. Her subjects cringe at her feet, covered with the
dust of obedience. They are not athletes standing posed by rich
life and brave endeavor like antique statues, but shrivelled de
formities, studying with furtive glance the cruel face of power.
No religionist seems capable of comprehending this plain truth.
There is this difference between thought and action : for our actions
we are responsible to ourselves and to those injuriously affected;
for thoughts, there can, in the nature of things, be no responsibility
to gods or men, here or hereafter. And yet the Protestant has vied
with the Catholic in denouncing freedom of thought; and while I
was taught to hate Catholicism with every drop of my blood, it is
only justice to say, that in all essential particulars it is precisely the
same as every other refigion. Luther denounced mental liberty with
all the coarse and brutal vigor of his nature ; Calvin despised, from
the very bottom of his petrified heart, anything that even looked
like religious toleration, and solemnly declared that to advocate it
was to crucify Christ afresh. All the founders of all the orthodox
churches have advocated the same infamous tenet. The truth is,
that what is called religion is necessarily inconsistent with free
thought.
A believer is a bird in a cage, a free-thinker is an eagle parting
the clouds with tireless wing.
At present, owing to the inroads that have been made by liberals
and infidels, most of the churches pretend to be in favor of religious
liberty. Of these churches, we will ask this question : How can a
man, who conscientiously believes in religious liberty, worship a God
who does not? They say to us: “We will not imprison you on
account of your belief, but our God will.” “We will not burn you.
because you throw away the sacred scriptures, but their author will.”
“We think it an infamous crime to persecute our brethren for
opinion’s sake,—but the God, whom we ignorantly worship, will on
that account, damn his own children forever.”
Why is it that these Christians 'not only detest the infidels, but
cordially despise each other ? Why do they refuse to worship in the
�11
temples of each other? Why do they care so little for the damna
tion of men, and so much for the baptism of children ? Why will
they adorn their churches with the money of thieves and flatter vice
for the sake of subscriptions? Why will they attempt to bribe
Science to certify to the writings of God ? Why do they torture
the words of the great into an acknowledgment of the truth of
Christianity? Why do they stand with hat in hand before presidents,,
kings, emperors, and scientists, begging, like Lazarus, for a few
crumbs of religious comfort ? Why are they so delighted to find
an allusion to Providence in the message of Lincoln? Why are
they so afraid that some one will find out that Paley wrote an essay
in favor of the Epicurean philosophy, and that Sir Isaac Newton
was once an infidel ? Why are they so anxious to show that Voltaire
recanted : that Paine died palsied with fear; that the Emperor Julian
cried out “ Galilean, thou hast conquered
Gibbon died a
Catholic; that Agassiz had a little confidence m Moses; that the
old Napoleon was once complimentary enough to say that he thought
Christ greater than himself or Caesar; that Washington was caught
on his knees at Valley Forge ; that blunt old Ethan Allen told ns
child to believe the religion of her mother; that Franklin said,
“Don’t unchain the tiger,” and that Volney got frightened m a
storm at sea?
Is it because the foundation of their temple is crumbling, because
the walls are cracked, the pillars leaning, the great dome swaying toits fall, and because Science has written over the high altar its mene,
mene, tekel, upharsin—the old words, destined to be the epitaph of
all religions ?
Every assertion of individual independence has been a step towards
infidelity. Luther started toward Humboldt—Wesley toward John
Stuart Mill. To really reform the Church is to destroy it. Every
new religion has a little less superstition than the old, so that the
religion of Science is but a question of time.
I will not say the Church has been an unmitigated evil in all
respects. Its history is infamous and glorious. It has delighted in
the production of extremes. It has furnished murderers for its own
martyrs. It has sometimes fed the body, but has always starved the
soul. It has been a charitable highwayman—a profligate beggar—
a generous pirate. It has produced some angels and a multitude of
devils. It has built more prisons than asylums. It made a hundred
orphans while it cared for one. In one hand it had carried the
alms-dish and in the other a sword. It has founded schools and
endowed universities for the purpose of destroying true learning.
It filled the world with hypocrites and zealots, and upon the cross
of its own Christ it crucified the individuality of man. It has sought
to destroy the independence of the soul and put the world upon its
knees. This is its crime. The commission of this crime was
necessary to its existence. In order to compel obedience it declared
that it had the truth, and all the truth ; that God had made it the
keeper of his secrets; his agent and his vicegerent. It declared that
all other religions were false and infamous. It rendered all com-
�12
promise impossible and all thought superfluous. Thought was its
enemy, obedience was its friend. Investigation was fraught with
danger; therefore investigation was suppressed. The holy of
holies was behind the curtain. All this was upon the principle that
forgers hate to have the signature examined by an expert, and that
imposture detests curiosity.
“He that hath ears to hear, let him hear,” has always been the
favorite text of the Church.
In short, Christianity has always opposed every forward movement
of the human race. Across the highway of progress it has always
been building breastworks of bibles, tracts, commentaries, prayer
books,. creeds, dogmas and platforms, and at every advance the
Christians have gathered together behind these heaps of rubbish and
shot the poisoned arrows of malice at the soldiers of freedom.
And even the liberal Christian of to-day has his holy of holies,
and in the niche of the temple of his heart has his idol. He still
clings to a part of the old superstition, and all the pleasant memories
of the old belief linger in the horizon of his thoughts like a sunset.
We associate the memory of those we love with the religion of our
childhood. It seems almost a sacrilege to rudely destroy the idols
that our fathers worshipped, and turn their sacred and beautiful
truths into the fables of barbarism. Some throw away the Old
Testament and cling to the New, while others give up everything
except the idea that there is a personal God, and that in some won
derful way we are the objects of his care.
Even this, in my opinion, as Science, the great iconoclast, marches
onward, will have to be abandoned with the rest. The great ghost
will surely share the fate of the little ones. They fled at the first
appearance of the dawn, and the other will vanish with the perfect
day. Until then the'independence of man is little more than a dream.
Overshadowed by an immense personality, in the presence of the
irresponsible and the infinite, the individuality of man is lost, and he
falls prostrate in the very dust of fear. Beneath the frown of the
absolute, man stands a wretched, trembling slave—beneath his smile
he is at best only a fortunate serf. Governed by a being whose
arbitrary will is law, chained to the chariot of power, his destiny
rests in the pleasure of the unknown. Under these circumstances,
what wretched object can he have in lengthening out his aimless
life?
And yet, in most minds, there is a vague fear of the gods—a
shrinking from the malice of the skies. Our fathers were slaves,
and nearly all their children are mental serfs. The enfranchisement
of the soul is a slow and painful process. Superstition, the mother
of those hideous twins, Fear and Faith, from her throne of skulls
still rules the world, and will until the mind of women ceases to be
the property of priests.
When women reason, and babes sit in the lap of philosophy, the
victory of reason over the shadowy host of darkness will be com
plete.
In the minds of many, long after the intellect has thrown aside as
�13
utterly fabulous the legends of the Church, there still remains a
lingering suspicion, born of the mental habits contracted in child
hood, that after all there may be a grain of truth in these mountains
of theological mist, and that possibly the superstitious side is the
side of safety.
A gentleman, walking along the ruins of Athens, came upon a
fallen statue of Jupiter; making an exceedingly low bow he said:
“O Jupiter! I salute thee.” He then added: “Should you ever
sit upon the throne of heaven again, do not, I pray you, forget that
I treated you politely when you were prostrate.”
We have all been taught by the Church that nothing is so well
calculated to excite the ire of the Deity as to express a doubt as to
his existence, and that to deny it is an unpardonable sin. Numerous
well-attested instances are referred to of atheists being struck dead
for denying the existence of God. According to these religious
people, God is infinitely above us in every respect, infinitely merci
ful, and yet he cannot bear to hear a poor finite man honestly
question his existence. Knowing, as he does, that his children are
groping in darkness and struggling with doubt and fear ; knowing
that he could enlighten them if he would, he still holds the expression
of a sincere doubt as to his existence, the most infamous of crimes.
According to orthodox logic, God having furnished us with imperfect
minds, has a right to demand a perfect result.
Suppose Mr. Smith should overhear a couple of small bugs holding
a discussion as to the existence of Mr. Smith, and suppose one should
have the temerity to declare, upon the honor of a bug, that he had
examined the whole question to the best of his ability, including the
argument based upon design, and had come to the conclusion that
no man by the name of Smith had ever lived. Think then of Mr.
Smith flying into an ecstacy of rage, crushing the atheist bug be
neath his iron heel, while he exclaimed: “I will teach you, blas
phemous wretch, that Smith is a diabolical fact!” What then can we
think of a God who would open the artillery of heaven upon one of
his own children for simply expressing his honest thought ? And
what man who really thinks can help repeating the words of Ennius:
“If there are gods they certainly pay no attention to the affairs of
man.”
Think of the millions of men and women who have been destroyed
simply for loving and worshipping this God. Is it possible that this
God, having infinite power, saw his loving and heroic children lan
guishing in the darkness of dungeons; heard the clank of their
chains when they lifted their hands to him in the agony of prayer ;
saw them stretched on the bigot’s rack, where death alone had pity ;
saw the serpents of flame crawl hissing round their shrinking forms
—saw all this for sixteen hundred years, and sat as silent as a stone ?
From such a God, why should map expect assistance? Why
should he waste his days in fruitless prayer ? Why should he fall
upon his knees and implore a phantom—a phantom that is deaf, and
dumb, and blind ?
Although we live in what is called a free government—and politi-
�14
cally we are free—there is but little religious liberty in America.
Society demands either that you belong to some church, or that you
suppress your opinions. It is contended by many that ours is a
Christian government, founded upon the bible, and that all who look
upon that book as false or foolish are destroying the foundation of
our country. The truth is, our government is not founded upon the
rights of gods, but upon the rights of men. Our Constitution was
framed, not to declare and uphold the deity of Christ, but the
sacredness of humanity. Ours is the first government made by the
people and for the people. It is the only nation with which the
gods have had nothing to do. And yet there are some judges dis
honest and cowardly enough to solemnly decide that this is a
Christian country, and that our free institutions are based upon the
infamous laws of Jehovah. Such judges are the Jeffries of the
Church. They believe that decisions, made by hirelings at the
bidding of kings, are binding upon man forever. They regard old
law as far superior to modern justice. They are what might be
called orthodox judges. They spend their days in finding out, not
what ought to be, but what has been. With their backs to the sun
rise they worship the night. There is only one future event with
which they concern themselves, and that is their re-election. No
honest court ever did, or ever will, decide that our Constitution is
•Christian. The bible teaches that the powers that be are ordained
of God. The bible teaches that God is the source of all authority,
.and that all kings have obtained their power from him. Every
tyrant has claimed to be the agent of the Most High. The Inqui
sition was founded, not in the name of man, but in the name of
God. All the governments of Europe recognize the greatness of
God, and the littleness of the people. In all ages,, hypocrites,
called priests, have put crowns upon the heads of thieves, called
kings.
The Declaration of Independence announces the sublime truth,
that all power comes from the people. This was a denial, and the
first denial of a nation, of the infamous dogma that God confers the
right upon one man to govern others. It was the first grand asser
tion of the dignity of the human race. It declared the .governed
to be the source of power, and in fact denied the authority of any
;and all gods. Through the. ages of slavery—through the weary
centuries of the lash and chain, God was acknowledged ruler of the
world. To enthrone man was to dethrone Him.
To Paine, Jefferson, and Franklin are we indebted, more than, to
.all others, for a human government, and for a Constitution in which
no God is recognized as superior to the legally expressed will of the
people.
They knew that to put God in the Constitution was to put man
• out. They knew that the recognition of a deity would be seized
upon by fanatics and zealots as a pretext for destroying the liberty
•of thought. They knew the terrible history of the Church too well
to place in her keeping, or in the keeping of her God, the sacred
u ’ xlits of ma®. They intended that all should have the right to worship,
�15
■or not to worship; that our laws should make no distinction on
account of creed. They intended to found and frame a government
for man, and for man alone. They wished to preserve the individ
uality and liberty of all; to prevent the few from governing the
many, and the many from persecuting and destroying the few.
Notwithstanding all this, the spirit of persecution still lingers in
our laws. In many of the States, only those who believe in the
existence of some kind of God, are under the protection of the
law.
The supreme court of Illinois decided, in the year of grace 1856,
that an unbeliever in the existence of an intelligent First Cause
•could not be allowed to testify in any court. His wife and children
might have been murdered before his very face, and yet in the
absence of other witnesses, the murderer could not have even been
indicted. The atheist was a legal outcast. To him, Justice was not
only blind, but deaf. He was liable, like other men, to support the
government, and was forced to contribute his share towards paying
the salaries of the very judges who decided that under no circum
stances could his voice be heard in any court. This was the law of
Illinois, and so remained until the adoption of the new Constitution.
By such infamous means has the Church endeavored to chain the
human mind, and protect the majesty of her God. The fact is, we
have no national religion, and no national God; but every citizen is
allowed to have a religion and a God of his own, or to reject all
religions and deny the existence of all gods. The Church, however,
never has, and never will understand and appreciate the genius of
government.
Last year, in a convention of Protestant bigots, held in the city
of New York for the purpose of creating public opinion in favor of
a religious amendment to the federal constitution, a reverend doctor
of divinity, speaking of atheists, said r'“ What are the rights of the
atheist ? I would tolerate him as I would tolerate a poor lunatic.
I would tolerate him as I would tolerate a conspirator. He may
live and go free, hold his lands and enjoy his home—he may even
vote; but for any higher or more advanced citizenship, he is, as I
hold, utterly disqualified.” These are the sentiments of the Church
to-day.
Give the Church a place in the Constitution, let her touch once
more the sword of power, and the priceless fruit of all the ages will
turn to ashes on the lips of men.
In religious ideas and conceptions there has been for ages a slow
and steady development. At the bottom of the ladder (speaking of
modern times) is Catholicism, and at the top is Science. The inter
mediate rounds of this ladder are occupied by the various sects,
whose name is legion.
But whatever may be the truth upon any subject has nothing to
do with our right to investigate that subject, and express any opinion
we may form. And that I ask, is the same right I freely accord to
all others.
�16
A few years ago a Methodist clergyman took it upon himself to
give me a piece of friendly advice. “ Although you may disbelieve
the bible,” said he, “ you ought not to say so. That, you shouldkeep to yourself.”
“ Do you believe the bible,” said I.
He replied, “ Most assuredly.”
To which I retorted : “Your answer conveys no information to
me. You may be following your own advice. You told me to sup
press my opinions. Of course a man who will advise others to dis
simulate will not always be particular about telling the truth
himself.”
There can be nothing more utterly subversive of all that is really
valuable than the suppression of honest thought. No man, worthy
of the form he bears, will at the command of Church or State
solemnly repeat a creed his reason scorns.
It is the duty of each and every one to maintain his individuality.
“ This above all, to thine own self be true, and it must follow as the
night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.” It is a
magnificent thing to be the sole proprietor of yourself. It is a
terrible thing to wake up at night and say: “ There is nobody in this
bed.” It is humiliating to know that your ideas are all borrowed;
that you are indebted to your memory for your principles; that
your religion is simply one of your habits, and that you would have
convictions if they were only contagious. It is mortifying to feel
that you belong to a mental mob and cry “ crucify him,” because the
the others do; that you reap what the great and brave have sown,
and that you can benefit the world only by leaving it.
Surely every human being ought to attain to the dignity of the
unit. Surely it is worth something to be one, and to feel that the census
of the universe would be incomplete without counting you. Surely
there is grandeur in knowing that in the realm of thought, at least,
you are without a chain; that you have the right to explore all
heights and all depths; that there are no walls nor fences, nor pro
hibited places,' nor sacred corners in all the vast expanse of thought;
that your intellect owes no allegiance to any being, human or
divine; that you hold all in fee and upon no condition and by no
tenure whatever ; that in the world of mind you are relieved from
all personal dictation, and from the ignorant tyranny of majorities.
Surely it is worth something to feel that there are no priests, no
popes, no parties, no governments, no kings, no gods, to whom, your
intellect can be compelled to pay a reluctant homage. Surely it is a
joy to know that all the cruel ingenuity of bigotry can devise no
prison, no dungeon, no cell in which for one instant to confine a
thought • that ideas cannot be dislocated by racks, nor crushed in
iron boots, nor burned with fire. Surely it is sublime to think that
the brain is a castle, and that -within its curious bastions and wind
ing halls the soul, in spite of all worlds and all beings, is the
supreme sovereign of itself.
�
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Victorian Blogging
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>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Pamphlet
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Title
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"Take a road of your own", or : individuality and mental freedom
Creator
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Ingersoll, Robert Green [1833-1899]
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: London
Collation: 16 p. ; 19 cm.
Notes: Reprinted verbatim from the authorised American edition. No. 40d in Stein checklist. Part of the NSS pamphlet collection.
Publisher
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Freethought Publishing Company
Date
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1883
Identifier
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N401
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Individualism
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work ("Take a road of your own", or : individuality and mental freedom), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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application/pdf
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Text
Language
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English
Individualism
NSS