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FREE-THOUGHT.
“A General Conference of Liberal Thinkers was opened yesterday
morning at South Place Chapel, Finsbury. From the circular issued it
appeared that the object of the Conference was to give an opportunity
for the exchange of thought to those persons wiio, though working in
connection with particular organizations, yet, ‘ acknowledged no authority
above truth, and are interested in the tendency to that universal religion
which would break all partition walls raised by dogma and superstition
between race and raice, man and man.’ Dr. Wylde occupied the chair,
and amongst those present were Mr. C. Voysey, Mr. W. Higginson,
Newport, U.S.A. ; Sir G. W. Devys, Mr. E. G, Devys, Mr. H. M. Judge,
Mr. Leslie Stephen, Mr. G. W. Foote, Mr. Conway, Professor Levy,
Professor Garrison, Chicago ; Mr. R. Drummond, Edinburgh, &c.”—
Daily News, June 14th, 1878.
To The Rev.----Dear Sir,—*
Having felt morally constrained some
few years ago to decline Mr. H.’s empressee invitation to
become a member of your Committee, I have the greater
pleasure in hailing’your South Place Chapel programme (as
above,) “ acknowledging no authority above truth,” as a
hopeful stride towards accomplishment 'of Leigh Hunt’s
■prophetic verdict, some 24 years ago, upon a small anony
mous volume, of the period, as exhibiting’ “ gleams of a
dawning faith more expansive and more humane than
Church or Seet had yet conceived.”*
Satiated even to nausea with ponderous tomes on con
ventional and “ supernatural religion ”—puerile apologies
for the honest puerilities of a fettered understanding, and
elaborate essays on the positive disbeliefs of pretentious
orthodoxy, I shall be most happy to devote my intended
small contribution to a “ College- Voltaire,” (had M. Edmd.
About’s suggestion been adopted,) to a similar purpose in
Leader, 19th August, 1854.-
�2
England—that is, to cultivation of “ la Sacrosanta liberta
del pensiero,” in absolute and untrammelled antagonism to
the ubiquitous sacerdotal fraud of all obligatory religions,
under whatever threatening penalties enforced.
At 77 years of age, and after 50 years of conclusions as
definite and as absolute as Rapisardi’s “a I'uom salute
e morte a Dio” you will, I think, be neither surprised, nor,
as I hope, offended at my constrained demur to the possible
computability of sacerdotal religion with sacerdotal integrity .
That Christianity was invented for insidious cultivation
of all the basest instincts of the human animal for priestly
profit, is palpable, even audaciously declared in its own
pages, as its success, especially in England is equally
palpable in our civilized extinction of the ideal gentleman
in every class of English society.
In 1855-6, I received several letters from different
parts of England (some of them still in my possession)
suggesting an Association similar to that which you appear
now to have formed with Mr. Conway, Mr. Leslie Stephen,
and others, and much do I rejoice in the prospective
triumph of human magnanimity so exnltingly anticipated
by the magnanimous Italian.—“ Lucifero,” 2nd Edition,
p. 14.
“ Nume a loro sara l’unico nume
“ Degli onesti, il Dover ; la Ragion, fede,
“ Vessil la Liberta, patria la Terra ;
“ La coscienza del ben premio e salute.”
Breaking down “ all partitions raised by dogma and
superstition between race and race, man and man, as you
now magnanimously propose.’’
• • • •••>•••••••••
Stabiliatur veritas, ruat sacerdos 1
Yours very truly,
G. R.
2 Houles Street,
2-LA June., i878.
�Reply to the
foregoing.
July 1$£, 1878.
Dear Sir,—
I thank yon for your letter and its kind
intention.
If you read the accompanying’ paper and sermon, you
will see the position I hold and which I intend to maintain,
I am, dear Sir,
Very faithfully yours,
C----- V—
♦
LUCIFEBO.
“ . . , . Dio, creatura a nn tempo
“ E tiranno de l’uom, da cui soltanto
“ Ebbe nomi ed aspetti e regno e altari.”
“ Pero quel Dio che fu, quale aneor vive,
“ E quanto ebbe e mantiene a l’uom soltanto
Il deve, a l’uom che d’ogni suo destino,
“ 0 prospero o maligno, arbitro e jiolo.”
“ I/ucifero'' p. 43.
a Chi ha distrutto l’idea di un Dio onnipotente e creatore? La
Scienza."''Adunque la Scienza b Lucifero (the light-bringer). Chi s’b
innalzato al disopra della Fede? La Verita e la Eagione. Dunque la
Verity e la Bagione sono Lucifero.”.........................................................
*******
* “Che cosa b Dio? Un incubo, una fantasima della fede, una
creazione fantastica della paura ; un’ombra vana, una gran larva. Ma
qual b il suo potere? Quello di appresentarsi come un essere esistente
agli occhi dei creduli.”
Rivista Europea,July, 1877
* What verily is God ? An incubus, an imaginary invention of faith ;
a fantastic creation of fear ; an empty shadow ; a mojister phantom.
But what its power ? That of representing itself to the credulous as an
existing entity.
G, R.
“ Strength, however, is often (as here) nothing more than the
reputation of strength.”
�• V*
rr
J
�
Dublin Core
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Title
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Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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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
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Free-thought
Creator
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Drysdale, George R.
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: [London]
Collation: 3 p. ; 20 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. A letter quoting from the writer's leader, Daily Mail, June 14 1878. Letter signed G.R.
Publisher
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[The author]
Date
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[1878]
Identifier
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G5590
Subject
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Free thought
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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 (Free-thought), 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
Conway Tracts
Free Thought