https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/25778/archive/files/274f5b23af2d6a8aaaab266a9feb63e1.pdf?Expires=1779321600&Signature=g0k7xj22G4qX8nsYwVIUkxFDWoK7AK9%7EfyIx-ruIIdSQl8Ag8LYnS9L0pzrVKLm28y6klYT4vSHzqT3inwPl8cuBXGhG9P7CoFOV-KyeTMm%7ENe1mzghupewzZwzRgHb9%7EHVWXBg3g8p-ha3jiCUs983tV2ncnLjlMchv7lx1AF5Gp4wBJGwx5xY0cF9gjE9z%7E7A1RKDZ2BkxFNo9-7NmKeLRxklP%7EDpobM1TncvSM9UZxAR3HAhYy7nKqNCR0EUscB6nAHiUtT3YXzHMqsC-%7Ef01ZC18Z6ukSMpDRKNMJK4DGK4m3W9VoEcqEaTSjhRPbLDT3f5APnCD9BJ5K1YNfg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM f71b7ff985122d5288f78d5d30f9dfb3 PDF Text Text To the Young Men’s Literary and Social Union of the City of Indianapolis, this Lecture is most RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR. Gentlemen : Accept the best I know and the best I can give you. Endeavor to hasten the time when there shall be a dominion of reason engender­ ing a just and powerful new public life in the minds and actions of our nation. * ��On the source of all civilization and the means of PRESERVING OUR CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. A survey of the history of nations shows to every clear­ sighted searcher after truth, that mankind is generally pro­ gressing to a better state as to physical, moral and intellect­ ual improvement. Although generations are constantly coming and disappear­ ing, we observe, nevertheless, that all the seeds of culture and enlightenment which have been cast by individuals before hundreds and thousands of years into the wide furrows of time, have, through all change, not been lost, but ripen to charming blossoms and yield finally delicious fruits. As the stars rise and set in the firmament, and even the remotest and smallest one does not appear there in vain, but is shedding its mild and twinkling light, just so is the smallest intellectual power never lost, but has been, and is, ir­ radiating the whole human race by its salutary beams, until the sun of knowledge will rise and shine in full glory to the later generations. Men make not only gigantic progress in arts and sciences, but also in morals, and therefore become generally better, more civilized and judicious. Prejudice, superstition, fanaticism, intolerance and mania of persecution vanish daily more and more, and nearly every­ where speak the laws loudly and energetically of equality, of the civil rights of all men, of people’s sovereignty, and antiquated political principles are changed, altered or abolished by de­ grees according to the spirit of the times. Slavery and vassalage have not only been abolished ne everywhere in civilized Europe, but also in our beloved Union, the model of all republics, they are torn up by the roots by a majority of the people with unprecedented vigor and sacri­ fices. �4 We ask now who and what was it that produced such a high state of human culture in the United States ? Who and what is it, that is yet unremittingly promoting the same? Was and is it the Republican Party, by laborious exertions and continued efforts of its great statesmen and distinguished orators ? Yes. What then is the source of civilization gen­ erally? And we receive upon these questions a double answer. Some maintain, that the practical philosophy, namely: 1. The common ethics as the doctrines of the value, end and aim of human actions generally. 2. As moral philosophy (pre -cepts of virtue and manners) by application of the common ethics to the internal spiritual life of man; and 3. Politics as application of the common ethics to the external social rela tions as well as the theoretical philosophy, namely: 1. The common metaphysics of manners or the common doctrine of the duties of man; 2. The metaphysical doctrine of virtue; and 3. The metaphysical politics or jurisprudence being the sinew of life of all improvements, and ennobling of the nations, and others assert that Christianity is the main-spring of all civilization of mankind. In regard to the public and secret human evils and crimes, •civil and personal miseries, infirmities and failings, and es­ pecially all the hinderances of beneficial progress and im­ provement of culture, there is a conflicting opinion between the panegyrists of Christianity and the admirers and retainers of philosophy. One party is laying them to the charge of the other, and treat its subject disdainfully and contemptuously, ■nay, very often also with violent passion, and both refer us to historical facts. The Christian theologians, the reverend preachers, decry philosophy, or human wisdom, as they please to term it, in their works as well as from their pulpits, and 'proclaim to,all the world, that it is the source where all the errors and faults came from and are still coming, by which the community is and has been always deluged everywhere. It can not be imagined, they say, any frivolity or indiscre­ tion which has not been represented once by a philosopher. The philosophy is, as the French thinker Bayle confessed in the 17th century, an escharotic powder, consuming the putrid flesh as long as there is any of it, but afterwards it cor­ rodes sound flesh, marrow and bones. The philosophers maintain, on the contrary, that as long as there are positive religions, we hear of fanatics, wonders, wars, impostors and deceived people. It is true, that there are also penitents, visionaries and �5 hypocrites in China and Turkey as well as in Europe and America ; but there is no religion in existence upon the whole face of the earth, where such a spirit of intolerance is prevail­ ing as in that religion confessed and taught by Christian priests. Early in the first centuries when the Christians had risen to dominion and power, they refused the Jews and Heathen all kinds of human feelings with an unparalleled hard-heartedness and a shocking ferocity and did not grant them justice or tol­ eration. The severity of the rage of persecution of the Christian Emperors, Lords and Bishops grew fiercer from year to year and from century to century. In all the cities of the great Roman Empire, the heathen temples were closed by force, and all the public property of the heathen was confiscated in order to enrich the Christian churches. They stoned, murdered and plundered a great many nonchristians, and thought to serve God by this crying sin. They did not teach, dispute and fight with words and ex­ pressions, but with Auto Da Fee, poniards, tortures and dun­ geons. A religion that produced such effects, a religion which excited so much hatred and intolerance, and stimulated bloody perse­ cutions against all persons entertaining different opinions or which authorized to rob and plunder property belonging to others has surely not contributed to promote civilization and culture, but to a very great demoralization. And indeed since Christianity has been an established re­ ligion in the Roman Empire, all the beautiful and bright virtues of antiquity, by which it has been victorious in three continents, became weaker and weaker and expired finally al­ together, ;ind degeneracy and immorality were coming on originated by very obliging priests of the alone-saving faith who had always had in store heavenly remissions of Chris­ tian sins and vices and a purification from Christian guilt. If we study history, says the philosopher, with an unbi­ assed mind, and lay aside the Christian spectacles to see the ancient facts, we must confess, that Rome, once crowned with glory and the ruler of the earth, fell dangerously sick during the time of several Christian emperors and died finally of the effects of Christianity. They endeavored to establish christendom by force and by the edge of the sword. Yes, the spirit of Christian intolerance has been growing in such a degree, that it engendered even among the differ­ �6 ent Christian sects the most formidable religious wars with all heinous crimes. From 772-803 the emperor Charles, the Great, persecuted the Saxons furiously. He drove them by thousands' into the rivers in order to be baptized. 4500 prisoners refusing to become Christians, he ordered to be slaughtered at once, and forced their commander, Wittekind, to be baptized and to embrace Christianity. In the 11th century all the Christians who were considered as heretics, were burnt alive as Manichees, and a great many Jews were either converted by force or cruelly murdered. In the 12th century Count Emich, of Lciningen, and Arch­ Bishop Ruthard, of Mainz committed horrible massacres among the Jews on the Rhine ; because some Monks pre­ tended to have found upon the grave of Jesus a letter from heaven in which the conversion of Jews was demanded in de­ finite terms. In the 13th century Pope Inocence the III., and Gregor IX. founded the formidable inquisition, the court of condem­ nation of intellectual freedom, and the Franciscans, Domini­ cans, the hounds of the Lord, or Jacobins and the Carme­ lites became the terror of the free thinking Christians and of the Jews. The great German poet, Haller, remarks with a just indignation : “Cruel tyrant, cursed rage of fanatics, Glowing always wild against heretics, Thou didst not rise out of Cerberus foam "Which vents in hell’s solitary gloom, No ! Thou art born of the sainted breast, And thy parent is priest’s boiling chest. Speaking but of love with pious care, And yet showing fury everywhere. Ere a Pope a sovereign became And a man assumed God’s holy name, All who did not go the priesthood's path, "Were made victims of their fiendish wrath. Who had drowned with blood the ground of Toulouse? " The poet alludes here to the atrocious actions of the inqui­ sition established at Toulouse 1229, which ordered all heretics to be buried alive. 1484 an Inquisition was introduced in Spain which, up to the year 1808, offered up to God 343,000 innocent human creatures as sacrifices, by which this pretended pious institu­ tion tortured and murdered the bravest men. And besides these cruelties generally committed, how �7 shocking was the fatal'destiny of millions of poor Jews in the Christian empires! A lamb among seventy wolves, as Jewish Bards bitterly lament in their elegies. The Jews, who have been commanded in the Pentateuch, (Lev. xix: 34,) to love the stranger like themselves, without any distinction of nation or creed, and have never flinched from their duty; the Jews who watched with scrupulous care and anxiety ovei’ the most holy human records, and their only crime was the belief in a primitive cause, namely in one God, were hated, despised, plundered and murdered cruelly everywhere. Instead of pitying such a noble people, which were spread over the whole world, and having compassion on them, sup­ porting the weak and protecting them against violence, rob­ bery and spoliation, they preferred to treat them with inhu­ man and unjust severity, and to oppress them with heavy, ex­ orbitant taxes. The only relief they offered them was either to take the cross or to die shamefully. And, indeed, there has been no public or natural calamity which has not been attributed to the unfortunate Jews. Thus, for instance, maintained the Pope 1569, that on ac­ count of the Jews an earthquake happened in Ferarra in Ita­ ly, although the Duke well remarked, that he can hardly be­ lieve it; because 12 Christian Churches fell into ruins at that time, and not one Jewish Synagogue. I could speak volumes on this subject, how the Jews have been wilfully misrepresented, nicknamed and disgraced by the clergy, to disseminate and to nourish a hatred against them among their Christian brethren, and to raise persecution against this unhappy but meritorious and innocent people. I will, however, says the philosopher, restrict myself to the only fact how Christians have treated their own brethren in faith. 1572 thirty thousand Protestants, or Hugenots, so called as a nickname, because they were only allowed to hold Divine services at night, like a certain specter Hugo, were cruelly massacred in all the provinces of France, and this action was considered as a work of Christian piety. This terrible slaughter lasted 30 days. It is generally known under the name Bartholomew-massa­ cre, for which the Pope, the Holy Father of the Catholics proclaimed a year of jubilee. 1618-48 raged, in the name of Christianity, the 30 years’ �war, and a fiendish carnage was committed in a great many empires. And if we look into the history of England we find, that even there have been offered up a great many hu­ man sacrifices on the Christian altar. There were either the Catholics or the Roundheads, or the Presbyterians or Puritans, etc., etc., who, as soon as they had the power, persecuted cruelly all who differed with them in religious opinions, treated them with severity and suppressed them. Should or can all this be called Christian civilization? Yes, when the pious Spanish Christians came as strangers hither to America, they murdered forty millions of men, wo­ men and children, who had not given them any offence or harm, drove away the others, and took in possession their land, houses, and all their property. Indeed! not humanity, enlightenment, culture and admin­ istration of justice, but blind fanaticism followed everywhere the footsteps of Christianity. It is impossible, says the philosopher, that Christianity can or could ever favor the progress of mankind ; because it teach­ es explicitly, as the Reverend Theologians maintain, that rea­ son is a weak, blind, corrupted and seducing leader, and that we shall take our understanding into custody of the faith, as it reads in the 1st Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians x: 5, “ Casting down imagination, etc., and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” Hence Christianity teaches, that we shall not inquire about the most important human affairs reasonably, but shall believe without any investigation. It enjoins a passive credulity and puts reason to sleep. Nay! it banishes the spirit out of the province of reality and puts shackles upon good sense, the only leaders of men to reach a higher perfection. It is like a circle which can never progress. It extinguishes the sun in the empire of ideas, and there­ fore it has been and is only the author of spiritual sight. Now it is a decided fact, that our religious, political and iiterary horizon is enlarging more and more, and that our views, experience and knowledge have greatly increased, and grow still to an extent which the illustrious age of the Greeks and Romans could not imagine. The question is obtruding therefore upon the mind of every close observer of humanity—Who and what has effected this gigantic progress ? A great many would certainly exclaim, it is Christianity �§ that produced this progressive state of human affairs, what­ ever the philosophers may gainsay it; because only in such empires, where the majority of the citizens are Christians, civ­ ilization and culture are going onward and upward. But here I have to remark, that it is an erroneous conclu­ sion : hoc propter hoc, namely, if we infer from the acciden­ tal coinciding of two events, that one is the cause of the othei*. I will illustrate and prove this now by the following exam­ ple : Suppose it is raining and my table is standing near the window, and I would draw a conclusion ; as my table is stand­ ing near the window, therefore it is raining out of doors to­ day. Every reasonable man would admit, that this is a false in­ ference, because the two appearances depend on different causes and are not connected at all. It is just the same case with Christianity and civilization. Both met accidentally together; but the origin, growth and? blossom of civilization we do not owe to Christianity, but to* other causes. To convince ourselves from this fact, we shall endeavor to observe closely the course which civilization has taken since the remotest time until now. If we gaze upon the colossal ruins which we find in Theban in Egypt, that has been destroyed 4,000 years ago, we must make the conclusion, that civilization was highly advanced in Egypt at that time. For we perceive, that the use of sculpture, of the art of printing, of the fine enamel works, of glass and precious met­ als which have been made there by the Egyptians, was in such a degree of perfection, that it is proved beyond doubt art and science had then attained a remarkable development. And so it is reported in the ancient literature, that thou­ sands of years ago, before Christianity was thought of, as­ tronomy, physics, hydraulics, chemistry and mathematics flour­ ished in Egypt, and the philosophers studied everything that was useful, considering the study of man and nature as the highest prosperity. We find, furthermore, in the records of the past, that peo­ ple flocked hither from all quarters in order to be instructed in Egyptian schools. Thus Herodotus, the father of history, tells us, that the Greeks borrowed a great portion of their arts and sciences from the Egyptians. Under the expression Egpptians, however, is not only meant the heathen, but is also included the Egypt- ian Jews. �10 Although a great many are inclined to consider now a days the Jewish monuments of knowledge as obsolete, others as containing dangerous errors, shaking the prevailing estab­ lishments in the empire of reason in their very foundations, and finally others as self-complacent pride, they are neverthe­ less such productions which the great philosophers, Pytha­ goras, Plato and Aristotle considered as the most pre­ cious treasures of wisdom and fountain-head of knowledge, and did not hesitate to draw much from their sources. The historical report about the intimate intercourse of the ■Greek sages with the Jewish philosophers is not a fiction of proud Rabbis as some, perhaps, may suppose, but is very old and is stated by heathen and Christian authors. Thus relates Eusebius (praep. Evang, ix : c. 3.) Kleanthus, a disciple of Aristotle informs us, that Aristotle had an ac­ quaintance with a Jew in Palestine -who was educated in the Egyptian school, with whom he conversed about philo­ sophical subjects, and confessed, that he learned more from the Jew than the Jew could have learned from him. Even so remarks the very reliable ancient historian, Philo, that the learned Jews in Alexandria have shown to the hea­ then, without restraint and in a clear manner, the foolishness, groundlessness, perversity and immorality of their heathen rites and doctrines. All those heathen who aspired for truth and morality paid homage to the Jewish religious principles. Aye, even Princes of Greek Macedonian origin, became true adherents of Judaism. Hence, it must be admitted by every lover of truth, that the Egyptian Jews had a great share in promoting the civilization of nations. Thus acknowledges also Numenius of Apamen, that the great philosopher, Plato has been nothing else but an Athe­ nian speaking Moses. It is therefore obviously proved by all this, that the schools of the Alexanderian Jews gained a very great reputation, and that there must have been among them many original think­ ers, so that Pythagoras, Plato and Aristotle were considered as their disciples. Egypt has consequently been the seat of learning and cul­ ture, where all the ancient literati have learned arts and sei­ fences that reached us through the middle ages. Thales who was born at Milet, 640 b. c. e., established first in his fatherland the knowledge which he acquired in the schools of Egyptian priests. Pythagoras who was born 534 b. the c. e., initiated himself like Thales into the mysteries of �II Egypt in order to transplant scientific researches of this coun­ try to his native land, and has given by that means another direction to the studies, having employed their method of ex­ perience. He and his disciples .had already very correct ideas of the parallax, the general arrangements concerning the different parts of our solar system and of the place occupied by the earth. They maintain that the earth revolves around the sun, that the comets have their periodical revolutions, and that the stars are even as many suns around which other stars are moving. A truism which has been attacked until the time of Galileis. A hundred years later, namely, 434 b. the c. e. appeared Plato. He was already a philosopher when twenty years of age and acknowledged after having heard Socrates, a primitive general cause as a supreme being, describing it in Timaeus as the father of the universe, and maintained like his great teacher, Socrates, that the human soul is immortal, and that mankind will merely gain its destiny upon earth by a true philosophy. These heathen philosophers laid down fundamental maxims, as Christianity did, and could not teach them better in later times. I pass now over in silence all other philosophical systems ■of the Greeks and Romans, and will only mention some facts that the heathen made constantly progress in the civilizing arts and sciences. In a memorable poem entitled, “De natura rerum,” com­ posed by Lucretius, a cotemporary of Cicero, (106 b. c. e.) we find the very correct idea that the fall of heavy bodies is not alike respecting all bodies, a minute description of the flash of lightning, etc., etc. In Seneca are observations given about the magnifying which glass globes produce by refraction and concave mir­ rors by reflection and even some other ones about the colors of the rainbow, forming themselves by prisms and about the decrease of heat in the highest regions of atmosphere. Pie speaks of different colors of the stars and maintains, that the comets have a regular course, and that the earth­ quakes are engendered through .the fire in the centre of the terrestial globe. Plinius (23 after the c. e.) gives us some views in his natural �history about the formation of electricity by friction and about different electric appearances. The ancient literati seem, according to Plinius, to have oc­ cupied themselves with conducting the lightning. He says in reference to Tullus Hostilius : (Plin. lib. ii: c. 53.) “ Quod scilicet fulminis evocationem imitatum parum rite Tullum Hostilium ietum fulmine.” That is, in the same moment, when he tried to carry down the lightning in the same manner as Numa, (716 b. the c. e.) but unskillfully was Tullus killed by the lightning. We find also in Lucan, a Roman poet, (38 b. the c. e.) in reference to the same subject a very remarkable passage: “* «- -» ® Aruns dispersos fulminis ignes, Colligit, et terra moesto cum murmure condit.” (Lucan Phans. i, 606.) That is, “It is said of Aruns, who was very experienced in the motions of the flash of lightning, that he collected the fire scattered in the air, and buried it in the earth.” Probably these ideas occasioned Benjamin Franklin to dis­ cover the conduction of lightning. Even so have passed over to the Greeks and Romans the chemical arts which the Egyptians exercised with the most happy results. For the Egyptians were very skillful in the art of dying stuffs, in the manipulation of metals, in the cleaning of soda or natron, and extracting the kali of the ashes. Next to them the Phoenicians have had a very extensive knowledge in the arts which depend on chemistry. They were expert in the use of copper, gold, silver, lead, tin and iron. They understoood how to win these metals of their ore, to alloy them and to produce different metallic mixtures, for in­ stance, litharge, vitriol, etc., etc. Thus was mankind flourishing more and more, and became always richer in spirit, inventions, discoveries and all kinds of human culture. But as soon as Christianity began spreading over the Roman Empire, all knowledge, arts and sciences died away, and the development of civilization was retarded and checked. For all colleges and acadamies, where the sciences were taught by non-christians were closed by force, and instead of studying the subjects, they commenced wrangling and quarrel­ ing about mere expressions and words, and all sunk into bar­ barity and extreme darkness. Such was the state of affairs �13 •until the 8th century, when Leo, the Isaurian, this furious iconoclast threatened with banishment the last remnants of sciences and arts. His cruelty was so great that he let burn at night twelve clergymen, who were his ecclesiastical counsellors, but did not participate in his abhorrence against images. Everything seemed consequently to contribute to the des­ truction of sciences, and all the exertions of human spirit from the whole antiquity in. Egypt, Asia, Greece and Italy would have been lost altogether from civilization if a great many books had not escaped the banishment on account of having been partly preserved in monastries and partly by the Arabians, who by their intercourse with the Jews and Greeks, became acquainted with scientific knowledge, and interested themselves indefatigably for culture, philosophy, medicin and natural history, and preserved thus the original works of the Greeks and Romans. They established universities in Asia, Africa and Europe, especially in Cordova in Spain, where the most eminent Greek works have been translated and studied, and promoted the sciences generally, so that their seats of learning have also been frequented by Christians. During that time when they restricted themselves in the Christian states to the cloisters, where the most renowned Bishops condemned the study of the ancients and did no­ thing else, but compose biographies of saints, collected le­ gends, draw up a register of heretics, wrote excommuni­ cations and anathemas. Yes, during that time it was judged in Christian courts, not according to wise and just laws, but by ordeals or so-called God’s judgments? and, for in­ stance, if the suspected person could plunge the bare arm to the elbow in boiling water without being hurt, or could walk barefoot and blindfolded over nine red hot plowshares laid lengthwise of unequal distances and escaped unhurt, or could conquer in duel, or could swallow the sanctified morsel without bursting, or could stay with stretched arms in the form of a cross the longest time, was argued innocent, be­ cause this was an evidence that God let such persons conquer. During the time, I say, when all the^e went on in the Chris­ tian Empire, the study of sciences, arts and literature, and the endeavors for the civilization of nations were to be found among the Mohammedans. Though Charles, the Great, from 768-814, had established schools which were superintended by men whom he called from England and Ireland, and where the study of rhetoric, �14 dialectis and astronomy were pursuod with great ardor, ail those schools were nearly closed during the reign of his suc­ cessors immediately after him, namely, under Ludwig, the pi­ ous, and Charles, the bald, and Europe was plunged in dark­ ness until the 13th century. In the 13th century appeared Roger Baco, a Franciscan Professor at Oxford, with the surname “ Magnus, ” and who was also called “ Doctor admirabilis, ” the wonderful teacher. It came into his mind, probably occasioned by the study of Pythagoras, to consult nature through experiments, and to shake off the yoke of scholastic authority. This was, However, an unprecedented innovation, and caused him severe persecutions. Iln was sentenced by a Franciscan General to an imprison­ ment for life and to live on bread and water ; because of hav­ ing tried to destroy prejudices with which his age was filled up. He was afterwards released with a proviso, that he should not meddle any more with physics. Hence, it was Christianity which threw all sorts of ob­ stacles in the way of civilization, checked, suppressed and choked it altogether in the 14th century. Only from the time jn the 15th century when a revival of the original class­ ical works took place and the old system of the Greek, Ori­ entals and the so-called Philosophy of Moses were looked for. Especially as the example given by Copernicus, Kepler, Galilei Toricelly and others in natural philosophy was crown­ ed with the most happy results, the minds were stirred up for imitating in philosophy generally, civilization commenced its course with renewed vigor. The positive religion was then from day to day much less considered as a source or standard of philosophical knowledge, and the exclusive right of giving the last decision on all sub­ jects in question was geneially adjudged to reason. Although the inquisition condemned, in the year 1515, the system of Copernicus, who revived the idea of Pythagoras, that the earth revolves on its axis, and declared such an idea as false, philosophic, absurd and heretical, Galilei defended nev­ ertheless the Capernican system in the year 1616. He was forced, indeed, in his 69th year of age, to abjure this system before the Court in Rome in the following man­ ner : I abjure, condemn and curse the error of the motion of the earth, but in spite of that, he taught, that the earth moves on its axis. He was afterwards arrested, as it was expected, and sen­ tenced to an imprisonment for life. �15 A violent struggle of reason with the mechanism of usages took place everywhere, and the opposition to the superior criticism of the positive religion which it arrogated over rea­ son, became stronger more and more. The spirit itself wrestled with old established customs in order to give continually new life and stir in the march of in­ tellect, and to render great services to truth, beauty and jus­ tice. Hail to those unterrified philosophers who were not afraid of suffering persecution, and risked even their lives and liberty in order to build the truth on unshakable pillars, and to trace qut the way to the coming generations which shall be taken to find out new truisms, and to promote civilization. Jf now the Asiatics and a great many other nations are benumbed in the midst of their cultivation, it is not on ac­ count of not having embraced Christianity, but of being un­ der the tyrannical dominion of ancient customs. Thus, for instance, a philosophy was and is prevailing among the Arabs now exactly as it was in vogue among the Christian nations in the middle ages, when positive religion was the center and rule of all reasonings, demanding an un­ conditional blind faith, and checking all progress and devel­ opment. Hence it follows, that only since the revival of the Platonic philosophy in Italy, from whence it spread extensively abroad, out of which came the pure systems of better wisdom, ancient civilization and culture have also been revived, and are con­ stantly promoted and developed. The bold searcher after truth ventured to run the risk of being burned alive or tortured by the so-called holy inquisi­ tion, and threw light with the torch of truth upon the works of darkness in all its relations and bearings. The great salutary principle of religious liberty and free­ dom of conscience which they laid down and pleaded with a convincing force, conquered finally, and a mild, social bond entwines itself by degrees around nations, trying to come always nearer together in order to unite for common purposes. It is true, that the maturity of reason in the present time, is thriving very slowly; but the surer, it seems to me, will the high aim be gained. For it is merely founded on intellectual power, freedom of conscience, natural rights, high talents for the arts, and a true morality. If now this high spiritual position of humanity shall be preserved for the later generations, it is obviously necessary �1« that they do not waste thousands and millions of dollars for Christian Mission and Tract Societies, but rather to establish Universities in this country also, as they are flourishing in Europe, where they proved always as the best center of all scientific knowledge and progressive enlightenment. For Universities, emancipated from hierarchical power and from the influence of every religious party or sect, are, as they were, the locomotives of hiiman spirits, leading them with the rapidity of lightning onward and upward. It is high time to make the public aware of the indispensihle necessity of such institutions; because every close obser­ ver of our public affairs will surely, with great sorrow, ascer­ tain that the priests of different denominations endeavor, like the polypes with their tenticles, to catch every opportunity to meddle with politics, and nestle, wherever it is possible, their illiberal, absurd and antiquated ideas. The Universities would be the most powerful armies to pro­ ject us .against the clerical drawbacks and corruption, and would also be the formidable monitors on the stormy ocean of life to secure us our free institutions. Yes, a free University in every State of the Union, would De like a shining sun enlightening all the classes of people, and promoting the welfare and prosperity of all nations as well as of every individual in particular, without any distinc­ tion. ... Such institutions only will be the means by which a reli­ gion, founded on incontestible reasonable arguments, will be established for all mankind, diffusing brotherly love towards all nations, virtue and justice more -and more, so that every ’barbarity and war and war-hoop will disappear for ever. They will bring on the time which the prophets have fore­ seen, and the poets have dreamed, that nation against nation *will never wage war any more, and nowhere shall force reign -supreme, but only strict justice shall decide all and every­ thing. Ilappy they who can promote such a great work crowned with blessings. But thrice happy will be those who shall live then to see, when the history of all nations will not be filled with bloody military exploits, nor with the victories of diplo­ matic contrivances, but with the general happy achievements of the gigantic progress of civilization and culture of [all mankind. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Victorian Blogging Description An account of the resource A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library &amp; Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Conway Hall Library & Archives Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2018 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Conway Hall Ethical Society Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Pamphlet Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Lecture on the source of all civilization and the means of preserving our civil and religious liberty Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kalisch, Isidor Description An account of the resource Place of publication: [Indianapolis] Collation: 16 p. ; 22 cm. Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Delivered to the Young Men's Literary and Social Union of the City of Indianapolis. Inscription on front page: Presented to Rev. Moncure D. Conway by the author. Author's name and date of publication from KVK. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available [Indianapolis Journal Co. printers] Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource [1864] Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context G5374 Subject The topic of the resource Freedom of religion Human rights Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (Lecture on the source of all civilization and the means of preserving our civil and religious liberty), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Language A language of the resource English Civil Liberties Civilisation Conway Tracts Freedom of Religion